Chapter 13 Guns and Roses
Not only was I interested in the Big Iron Bird, but the ghouls that surrounded the police station were obviously more interested than I was. Seeing that the delicious flesh and blood climbed on the Big Iron Bird, the ghouls all raised their hands to the air and scratched it meaninglessly. When the Big Iron Bird left to the north, the ghouls turned their direction and chased it even though they would never be able to catch it.

I was relieved to see the ghouls downstairs faded away. I didn’t determine to go downstairs immediately. It was still raining. At this time, the sky was getting cloudy and it was late. It was obviously unwise to travel at night in this strange city. Of course, the main reason was that I was not sure whether all the ghouls had left and decided to wait for a while.

I stood in front of the window and looked at the night scene of City St. John. The night made the dilapidated house more gloomy and terrible. But you could still see the stars in the distance, which was the lights of the gathering places of human beings. And the refraction of rain made it more brilliant.

It was not peaceful at night. Sounds of gunshots, whistles, and the roars of mutant beasts which arose from time to time indicated that dangers were everywhere. That was why a lonely scavenger like me didn’t want to go out at night. Night made your actions more secret, but it also made it hard for you to perceive the dangers that were close at hand.

From a distance, I saw a dazzling white signal bomb burst out of the buildings in the northwest and shoot into the sky, followed by faint intensive sounds of gunfire. The battle was obviously fierce. And with the continually rising of the signal bombs, there was no sign that the gunfire was going to stop at all.

The nightlife here was so rich and colorful…

…

St. John’s morning seemed brighter than Dick Town’s, perhaps because yesterday’s heavy rain washed away the accumulated dirt.

I didn’t go downstairs immediately after having some bread, but I spent about two hours searching the building carefully. Except for finding a roll of strong tape in the corner of a broom closet, nothing of value was found. It was obvious that looters had thoroughly searched here.

I walked out of the building and then hid in the abandoned post near the entrance, being alert to the ghouls that might hide around. The fact proved that I worried too much. Besides a few worms-covered remained near the building, there was only rubbish all over the floor, which had been here yesterday.

I decided to go to the Gun Team.

When I came to the city, the attitudes of the two looters showed a situation that the Gun Team was strong enough to make them afraid. In the Gun Team, I might be able to exchange for something useful to me, or maybe found something to do in exchange for considerable rewards. I thought they may not reject a fully armed assistant.

I didn’t know the exact location of the Gun Team and the members of the merchant caravan just said it was in the northwest of City St. John, so I was walking along the street leading to the northwest blankly.

Along the way, besides a large number of abandoned vehicles, ghouls which totally had died lying on the ground could be seen from time to time. As I went deeper into the Northwest, more bodies appeared on the ground, which reminded me of the shooting last night. What had happened in the northwest last night?

I passed an urban square and a dilapidated truck pulled up to the side of the road, beside which stood two men wearing black gloves. Were they gang members? They were cramming a corpse into the carriage which was going to be full. The densely laid corpses looked very horrible.

“Hey! Young man, how was last night?” Seeing me approaching, they were not on any alert, and the man with a beard asked me.

“I heard that you sent out mechanical guards last night. Is that real? That’s a crazy slaughter! Haha!” another lame little man said with a little excitement.

I thought they were talking about the Gun Team. But I didn’t know. Mechanical guard? Slaughter? What had happened?

“What… do you mean?” I asked the man with the beard, feeling somewhat guilty, as if I had been identified, although I was not a member of the Gun Team.

“Aren’t you from the Gun Team?” The man with the beard looked at me curiously.

“It’s my first time in City St. John. I’m looking for the Gun Team. I’m not the member.” I told the truth.

“Well, if you’re looking for the Gun Team, just go along the northern street of the square and follow the sign. We’re busy dealing with these corpses, so we can’t talk any longer.” The man with the beard looked friendly.

“Thanks.” I also didn’t want to talk too much.

Following the road the man with the beard told me and passing the street at the north of the square, I saw a board nailed to the wall near the intersection.

“This way for Gun Team.”

The contents on the board were simple and clear, and the direction was indicated by arrows. Every time you walked for a distance, you would see an identical board. Following the indicated direction, I passed several streets and came to an alley.

“Here’s the Gun Team? Seriously?” I whispered

At the end of the long lane was an iron door, on which words “Gun Team” was wrote with black paint. Looking at this absurd scene, I couldn’t help laughing.

“Bang-bang-bang~” I came to the iron door and knocked hard on it.

“What’s up?” The small window on the iron door opened, and a man’s face appeared. There were moustaches and unconcealed fatigue on his face.

“I want to do some trades with the Gun Team and exchange things.” I explained my intention.

“Exchange? What do you have for an exchange? We don’t need ordinary things here.” Man seemed a little impatient at this time. Such an attitude I met many times when I took out my “treasures” which they thought were rubbish only.

“Medical supplies, all-purpose blood bags, morphine, therapeutic drugs and so on, how about?” I was not in a hurry this time, because the value of these things was really unusual.

Suddenly the iron door was opened and the man gave me a deep look as if he wanted to see me through.

The man in front of me wore a combat armor similar to mine. The color was exactly the same, but there was no alloying baffle inlaid in the surface. He had a standard assault rifle in his hand, and two grenades hung on his chest hanger. No wonder looters and the man with the beard mistook me for the member of Gun Team. We looked alike in costume.

“Come in. Go to the logistics office on the ground floor of the hotel to trade. And don’t wander around.”

The man let me pass, then I went through a closed narrow passage, the end of which was an alloying gate. Two inverted guard gun towers were on the ceiling in front of the door. When I stood in front of the gate, the two guard gun towers pointed directly at me, as if they would instantly shoot me if I did something dangerous.

It was impossible not to be nervous. Fortunately, the alloying door opened quickly and the guard behind the door waved to me to let me in quickly.

“Come in! Don’t wander around!” It was the same warning.

…

The headquarters of the Gun Team was surrounded by large concrete slabs. The main building was a fifteen-storey hotel with some subsidiary buildings. Because of frequent use and maintenance, the hotel building was much better than the surrounding buildings. The aired clothes almost could be seen in each balcony of the room above the fifth floor of the building, so the size of the Gun Team was not small.

A large area of open space in front of the main entrance of the hotel had been transformed into plowland which was surrounded by simple wooden fences. Some residents wearing simple clothes were working in it. Was that… mutant double-headed cattle? It was really strange. I wondered whether its meat tasted better.

Uhm… What was the smell? Mutant fruit wine? It smelled more mellow than those the grocery stores in Dick Town made and sold.

I seldom saw children playing among the ruins. Looking at their smiling faces, I felt that this was the childhood I had never felt before.

I had never seen a child living outside the enclosure since I was alone in the Wasteland. Although I used to be one, I would have died many times if I hadn’t been lucky enough. It was hard to imagine how they would look at this world when they grew up, how they would face the killing outside the fence. Would their original longing of a wonderful world collapse in an instant?

Who knows?

I arrived at the entrance of the hotel. Fortifications were made by sandbags near the entrance. Two guards in combat armor, operating two heavy machine guns, sat inside and looked around from time to time.

I raised my head and looked at the words made of neon lights on the door, “Guns and Roses.”

It was suitable for the Gun Team.