Thomas Rush

     There was a wise look and air about him, something that made him very aware of the situation. It piqued her curiosity as he didn’t offer any type of reward for his help yet. So far, in her experience there was a price for everything and normally people didn’t just help out of the kindness of their heart. She remained skeptical but also remained open to the possibility of being surprised. 

     Her breaths were deep as she fully inflated her lungs, hoping the extra oxygen would ease the pain in some magical way as she listened to him. The corners of her lips twitched slightly as he inquired about her being alone. It was all she had really known. Anyone she did hook up with either joined up with a faction she couldn’t get behind or lost their life.

          “Typically, not really my choice. Well, I mean not all the time,” she fumbled over her words, hand resting on her abdomen. The pain was throbbing but the intensity was fading to something manageable. 

           “Y’all must be pretty well protected if you’re doing it around here. Highwaymen are crawling all over the place,” she moved her head in a circular motion. “With other settlements…are they smaller ones or part of some kind of group or faction?”

Thomas still wasn't at all certain she would be okay. It was a lottery of survival every day here. But at least she seemed clear in the head. That was worth a lot. Looking through whatever these Highwaymen had had on them - nothing should go to waste - Rush grinned a little at her conclusions, though.

"Well protected and well prepared."

Really, after a while the Highwaymen were just the same idiots over and over again. Sometimes a chapter was more brutal than the others... but overall, they already disqualified themselves by always using that godforsaken loud music to announce themselves.

Getting up again and walking over to her, he shrugged vaguely.

"We connect settlements that want our help. They make up a network. So I guess you could say they all belong to that large fraction... yeah. But it's not like we swear any oath - besides from not being backstabbing assholes and helping each other."

Trust was expensive these days. But it paid off in the end.Nodding his head behind himself, Rush clicked his tongue.

That was a rare look on Miller's face.

So even as chaos persisted around them, Thomas noticed it and it had him caught off guard for a moment. He had tried to catch Mila, who had decided now was the best time to try and kick around three balloons - which made little Nathan squeal in utter fascination. No one would've even guessed the little man could make that high pitched noises. And Mila was just riled up by that, to wreck even more chaos.

He looked at Miller, a lopsided grin on his face - before Mila crashed into his side and demanded his attention again. Patting her hair, Thomas finally managed to send her off to go brush her teeth. The little girl ran to the stairs and Thomas scooped Nathan up from the pillows, carrying him over to Miller.

Tapping two fingers just beneath the puke-spot on Miller's shirt, Thomas raised his eyebrows at him.

"Only if you get rid of the whole shirt beforehand."

A wink and he was past Miller - well, almost. Because how could he not use that opportunity to land a smack on Miller's behind, though? All just to stroll off innocently with Nathan babbling over his shoulder.

“Just take some time to recon the animals first, some are far stronger than before the bombs.” Legendary creatures that took an entire team to down even a weak one. It was all well and good expanding the farming lands, but not if they couldn’t harvest a crop.

Task Force 141. The name didn’t ring any bells with Eli, though he figured task force knowledge was a bit too high-browed and brass-tax for what his rank had been. Need to know basis, and Eli had not needed to know.

“Military engineer - constructed ammo bunkers and bomb shelters.” How ironic a thing to say now. Especially given that it was those same set of skills that had got him employment here back home in Hope County - new family blew in and wanted bunkers made. Where his friends and neighbours had been strapped for cash, the Seeds had been flaunting it. Scratching the back of his neck, Eli looked back down at the map and ran a hand over it again.

“Which is why your folks are probably gonna run into all sorts and classes of bunkers across this county. Lots of folks here were preppers before the bombs, and the Seeds who run New Eden, they had three massive bunkers that could still hours supplies … though they’re pretty much inaccessible these days.”

John’s bunker was all but flooded, Jacob’s was up in the northernmost reaches of the Whitetail Mountains and Faith, well with all the Bliss that was stored there, Eli wasn’t gonna be first in line to go exploring. “The bombs did a number on the county, but there are still some assets dotted around if we can haul ‘em back from the Highwaymen - a jail in the east, remnants of a town not too far from here, radio station further north in this region … we just don’t have the man-power no more. The Highwaymen outnumber us and so do the Edeners.”

Military engineer - that explained why he was the leader and the small settlement was build with an obvious plan as its core.  So Eli definitely was a specialist in more ways than one. He would make a perfect addition to the Crew... but first they had to help prosperity.

Eli had a lot of intel and ideas. He just lacked the manpower, it was obvious.

Thomas listened intently to each word, sorting his thoughts on how to proceed from here, as his fingers scratched along the stubble on his chin.

"A radio station and a jail?", he repeated, looking to Eli, "Those sound like the most interesting places yet. If we plan to take over these locations, we should start with the radio station. If we control this, we control all the frequencies and the Highwaymen's talk is ours. What is with the jail? They don't really still... use it as that, or?"

His eyes narrowed a little. A jail was useless in these times. And the whole bunch of Highwaymen would've been locked up in former times. So mostly a jail nowadays was a fortress.

Thomas had thought he could find a deal with this settlement. He had trusted that girl - Carmina. That had been his first mistake. He had tried to talk to that woman. Faith. That had been strike two. And it should've been warning enough. They didn't want to cooperate.

But he hadn't thought he would get to meet the brothers leading this settlement at all. One more cruel than the other. They had the looks of wolves. But while one was sly and knew how to twist words... the other was a brute and striking fear into everyone else.

And Jacob Seed wanted to get a message across to Prosperity.

Thomas' throat escaped a pained grunt as he was thrown back onto the ground. He could taste blood in his mouth. One eye was swollen shut from the fists Jacob had used to bring his point across. But Thomas could still see from the other. Vague. But he could recognize one of the people standing at the side of the longhouse's wall. That girl that had brought him into all of this, she who had drugged him.

There was ringing in his ears - but he could also still recognize the subtle click of a gun's safety being taken off. And he felt the barrel pressing into the back of his head, keeping him down. Letting Rush hold his breath and lie perfectly still.

Jacob Seed had made his point more than clear. And yet he chuckled deeply, wolfish grin as he gestured for the girl to come closer.

"Carmina... you brought this one to us, after all... what do you say? Will Prosperity understand, that we neither need nor want their alliance... when we send him back in one piece and talking or with his skull in several smaller pieces? I reckon Eli might be too thick to get it... much like this guy."