In reply to Rowan Dawson (msg # 182):

Rowan went to the rear of the trailer and climbed inside. Walking past Trejo's bodybag, she reached the inside to the roof.

Schaeffer, his hood thrown back to expose his face, grinned down at her through the hatch. "Of course, please allow me to assist you, my lady."

He reached down the ladder. "Take my hand."

Kira sat in the back, fidgeting. It was hard for her to calm down after the fight. She looked towards her fellow travelers, "Either of you ever run into something like that before?"

Peter tried very hard to not growl or glare at Rowan. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh instead. His vehicle was one of the vehicles that needed replacing, but nothing could really replace the truck lost. The technical had been his home for so many years. Sometimes, rarely, he wished he wasn't so good at not getting killed.

Roadkill started the rig moving again, "double clutching" to put it (slowly) in gear.

"Nothin' like that, naw. We did run into a passel of "walking dead" after we fought Modeen."

In reply to Kira 'Valkyrie' Herja (msg # 184):

Fred, the Librarian, thought for a moment, consulting his datapad.

"You think he was already dead? He could be what's called a "harrowed". Harrowed were not just Walking Dead, they had supernatural abilities. Jane said there was some kind of "infitrator" cyborg, a Top Secret military program, both in the US and CS military. Rumour had it that the cyborgs were all Harrowed or other undead, who were cybernetically enhanced. Living bodies would reject the cyberwear, otherwise. Yes, some Harrowed possessed the ability to change their appearance, courtesy of the Manitous (demons) that possessed them. It seems fantastic that the military would try to control evil spirits and turn them into weapons, but that's the essential nature of the Ghost Rock bombs, after all."

In reply to Fred Biletnikoff (msg # 187):

Jane leaned against Peter when she could and shuddered at Fred's description.  "I haven't seen anything like that before or at least not that I remember.  Harrowed sounds as close to a description to that thing that we've come up with so far."

He thought a little as they proceeded.

"An undead creature, serving Throckmorton, perhaps with some kind of stealth ability... it's possible that he (or she, we never checked!) was behind the "Boise Horror" slayings? Some of the details match, but no, seems too pat. For one thing, how did it get from Boise to the Sky Raider 1 airship?"

Dakota smiled at the newcomers. They were old friends.

"So Smoker, Rowan, you miss me?

Dakota was a genial gunfighter. He'd been in jail with Smoker in Truth-of-Consequences Nevada, then worked as a caravan guard on Roadkill's rig, when he met Rowan and the others in the posse. Some time later he split off to help Brother Edgar, a Doomsayer, free some town in Oklahoma from occupation by Black Hats.

"Rowan, did I ever mention what happened with that weed you sold those Black Hats? Turns out it was tainted. Turned those jerkoffs into zombies! Not Walkin' Dead, but the toxix shambling cannibal kind. All the Black Hats started killin' each other, and that's when we moved in with the townsfolk.

"And Rowan, my darling, Roadkill says you and the Colonel are an item now? Congrats!"

Rowan grins, "Long time no see Dakota, I am glad to see you alive and healthy."
"How s Brother Edgar?"
When Dakota mentions the weed she chuckles, <Blue>"you will have to tell Jane that one Dakota."

"Good to see ya again, Dakota, at least under better circumstances," said Smoker.

"What have you been up to lately?"

In reply to Smoker Nix (msg # 192):

Dakota smiled up at the sun, then over at Smoker.

"Ah, this and that. Spent some time out west in the Maze. Some crazy things there, let me tell you! How about yourself? I hear you guys took out Modeen, the Anti-Templar dude? I shore woulda' loved to be there."

"Brother Edgar, man. I heard he went east. Into the heart of the Combine. Denver."

Peter shook his head. Harrowed? That was a very unpleasant thought. A cybernetically-enhanced Harrowed? That was downright disturbing!!

"Who knows how long ago Winnie was....replaced, Librarian. Sh...It could have been with us for some time without us knowing. Or it might have replaced her on the airship. I'm also concerned that there might be others among us, or more coming. We will have to be vigilant to make certain no one else gets replaced. It sounds tiring."

Smoker shuddered.

"I would rather have not been there when Modeen was killed. An out-and-out brawl with no finesse is not to my liking. Still, the world is better off without him and his antics."

In reply to Smoker Nix (msg # 195):

Dakota nodded. He pulled up his bandanna to shield his face from the wind as the truck gathered speed. "Well, I'm all for a good stand-up fight, but dealing with the likes of him is a little much, I reckon."

He still wore the matched pair of Colt Dragoons they'd taken off the Doomsayers they took down just outside Shalam Colony near the ruins of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was also armed with a lever-action Winchester that looked familiar.

"Hate to ask, but what happened to that purty Japanese girl, Michaela? Still got her rifle, here. Been meaning to give it back when I seen her next."

That would never happen. As Smoker, Rowan and Schaeffer knew, she'd been killed in a Black Hat ambush just north of the ruins of Cheyenne in Wyoming, after Jack split from the Posse.

Finished helping Rowan up, Schaeffer spoke up about the final fight. He knelt down and offered his hand to Trickster.

"Oh... we avoided charging in the front. We went in the back, which shows some finesse, and I was able to take care of many of the bikers with my rifle as they tried to react. But ya, at the end there we had a hard fight on our hands. Modeen and his anti-Templar Posse did not go easy, nor did his gang, the Destroyers. But they surely went to hell."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:17, Sat 22 Mar 2014.

In reply to COL Kurt L. Schaeffer (msg # 197):

In his shy way, Trickster gingerly sniffed his hand, then acquiesced to being skritched by his mistress's mate.

Smoker shook his head.

"Sorry to bear bad tidings. Michaela was killed in a Black Hat ambush just north of the ruins of Cheyenne, nothing any of us could do. Bear the rifle proudly in her memory."

 Rowan relaxes slightly seeing her friend is willing to let her man touch him and settles beside Schaeffer, "love do not ride away from me like that again".
"If we are a partnership then we support one another"

Listening to the conversation, Kira speaks quietly, "Modeen? You killed Modeen?"

In reply to Kira 'Valkyrie' Herja (msg # 201):

Inside the cab, Simon coughed, then began to speak.

"It happened the day before we left Boise. Modeen's the one that was decoying our Templars and ambushing them outside of the city. He tried to draw me out of Boise so he could kill me with half his gang. But I was too weak to move. Roadkill, Peter, Jane and their Posse were able to defeat Modeen where he laid his trap. Trejo's Squire, Jason, struck the killing blow. He's been knighted now, so you know.

"At the same time, the other half of Modeen's posse of Anti-Templars, the rest of his gang, the Destroyers, and their allied bike gangs had been split off to raze Boise as they assumed I wouldn't be there and few if any Templars remained in the city. It would have worked, too, as I was... too unwell to lead. But a Junker Companion helped organise the supplicants, Squires and other Companions who remained but they were outnumbered five to one. It was a hard fight and they were about to overrun the Temple, but Goose and a Convoy strike force hit the attackers from behind.

"And here we are. What Modeen didn't know was that there was a secret meeting coming up in Junkyard. That's why so few Templars were available and there wasn't time to bring you and the others in. And here we are, having survived a Combine infiltration attempt."

Simon passed along another bit of trivia. Chance, a Templar that had gone missing in the ruins of Wichita months before, had been found. He'd been captured and ritually sacrificed by a Servitor (demon), the Anti-Bishop, in his Cathedral of Bone in the Wichita Maelstrom. The Anti-Bishop had actually been the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita before despair and lust for power had corrupted him beyond redemption. Arthur, another Templar travelling with this Posse, had been killed by the Anti-Bishop in the subsequent fight.

"Arthur's and Chance's swords were recovered when the Anti-Bishop was killed. This Posse also recovered a Pagan tome, a powerful spell book. The Anti-Bishop was going to use this tome, along with Chance's relic sword, to open a portal into the Hunting Grounds. When Jason was knighted, he was awarded Chance's sword. Whew! I think you're up to date. Except for the current assignment, of course. But all we have to do is get to Junkyard."

"I promise to always be faithful and support you, if not physically. I can't promise we will never be apart." He didn't look happy but he was trying to be honest.

Peter let Simon tell Kira what she wanted to know. He just looked out the window, watching for threats.

Everyone else had been willing to let the matter with Winnie drop, but not he hadn't. He wondered why that was. He wondered why he had pushed so hard. Granted, he had been right to do so, but was it stubbornness? Belligerence? Was he just angry over losing his truck and then being mostly ignored and/or placated by most everyone when he forced the imposter issue? He wasn't sure and so he was thinking things out a bit while Simon talked.

In reply to Peter Firecrow (msg # 204):

Jane had been quiet and listening to what was being said.  She was glad that she was by Peter and knew that he was brooding but then that wasn't anything unusual.  She knew to just let him figure things out in his head and be there to support him when she could.

There was one question that she hoped somebody could answer.  "Those hallowed that you were talking about.  How do you tell if somebody is one?  I mean unless you trip them up in a conversation like this time when they should have known something, is there a physical way to figure it out?  And how come they knew so much but didn't know some things.  Intel lacking on the other end or if they do the Hallowed do they inherit some memories?  If we're going to run into more of them we need to know this stuff."

Simon smiled, although he was noticeably tired and worn-out.

"Harrowed. Pretty much the opposite of "hallowed".

"I think the ability to change shape is thankfully very rare. My understanding is that all Harrowed keep their own personal memories. That Infiltrator cyborg (and let's not keep calling it the name of my dear departed friend, Winnie) probably didn't take any of Winnie's memories, it was relying on skill and bluff to maintain the illusion. You didn't know Winnie enough to tell she'd changed, I wasn't well enough to pay attention. Fortunately, Peter called that bluff.

"Otherwise, it's very tough to tell that the Harrowed are dead but they seem to have a smell of corruption on them. Otherwise... skin temperature? Other physiological evidence. A Harrowed rises up days after being buried, except now a Manitou is in control. They can heal after a fashion, but they can never heal the wound that killed them completely.

"If the Infitrator cyborg was part of a pre-war Black Ops program, it would have had a lot of skill and practice in assuming an identity and covering up its "death wound". Let's be careful but that unit might have been the last of its kind. Harrowed are rare, Harrowed cyborgs that work for Throckmorton are probably as common as a Junktown virgin.

"Peter... thank you. You were right to suspect Winnie. You have my thanks."

After several hours of uneventful travel, the rig pulled up at a Junkyard militia checkpoint. Three Humvees (one armed with an M2HB, another with a TOL missile and the third with a SAM launcher) picked them up for escort duty the rest of the way on I84.

Interstate-84 had improved greatly since the end of the war. Junkyard work crews had performed regular maintenance and they increased speed to almost prewar levels.

Finally, as evening neared, they approached Junkyard. The Wasatch Mountains were on the left, the Great Salt Lake on the right. Further beyond Junktown were the ruins of Salt Lake City, blasted by city-busters courtesy of one (or perhaps both) of the Final War's belligerents. The leaders of Deseret had vainly hoped that neutrality would ensure their survival but it had not. However, the super-science iron geodesic-lattice dome of Dr. Hellstromme had protected the polluted and shunned industrial area of Junktown.

Since the war, the dome had been mostly taken down (leaving a 20-foot wall) to let in light and air, and provide building materials for the surrounding shanty-town and an outer wall/defensive perimeter.