~*Leader of the Highway Kings*~
~Anna Fallen Angel Valek~
Your. Worst. Nightmare.
"You've lost too much blood. You won't heal..." a cold, feminine voice said in the grip of the chilly air that swirled within the city. A man lay beneath her, on a small makeshift bed set up in a garage, his body incredibly pale. "P-please!" he cried out pitifully. She sneered, one corner of her lip pulling up. "Pathetic. Weak." she cursed, placing a heavy boot down on the man's stomach as she crouched to get closer to his face. "You made the agreement when I first saved your worthless self, that if you ever became a liability you wouldn't complain if I...Disposed of you." she said. The man stared up at her, gaping. "But, I'm not a lame horse!" he shouted. She drew a small handgun. "...Yet, what use are you?" she inquired. A shot split the calmness in the air, birds nearby taking off in fear of the concussive noise.
Gun smoking, Anna Valek adjusted her red tinted glasses as she looked up from the motionless body beneath her feet. A tight black miniskirt hugged her rear, the waistline of it covered by a form fitting spandex T-shirt. Over top of that was a waistcoat, and yet even more, a floor length trench coat, was on top of that. She had on black leggings to protect her legs somewhat, without having to don pants, and a pair of heavy duty, steel toed boots adorned her feet. The gun disappeared into a holster at her side and she exhaled heavily. She wished that she smoked. It'd give her something to do in all of this boredom. You could only stand so much of shooting things. It became dull after a while. She didn't have a challenge anymore. She stripped the dead boy of his clothes and supplies pack, walking away while exhaling up into the air.
Arriving back at her home base, she dropped the things in the foyer, to be picked through and sorted by some other subordinate. Making her way to the 'lounge', she passed many gruff individuals, many giving her a nod of respect or fear. The difference mattered not to her. In the end, they followed her orders. And in return, they prospered. Food was available, but it was on a rationing system. They had to be prepared for anything. When not being accessed or used, spare supplies were being stored in a closely guarded, locked room hidden beneath the complex in the system of underground parking structures. Anna's group had manipulated the structures of the parking system, creating walls along the usually open pillars with cement and bricks to create apartment like complexes. Each person in the Highway Kings has their own little space. It usually held a bed, some kind of shelves, and a few trunks to keep other scavenged paraphernalia in. Anna didn't care whether or not her group members kept the things they found in scavenging the city, so long as it wasn't food, water, or other such supplies. Clothes could be kept for oneself, same as jewelry and furniture. There was to be no stealing among the group, unless you wanted to end up with a bullet in your skull.
Anna had strict rules, but the rules allowed for comfortable living. She had no idea what the building above the parking complex used to be, but guessed that it had been some kind of an office building. Many offices had been merged together with the destruction of walls to create lounges and bigger storage facilities. Not that they were at a lack for storage space. Out back of the building was a small row of about five storage compartments, each rather large in size. The building and above ground parking complex/lots took up most of the block in which the building was built, so the Highway King's had taken over that space as their home. Everything else in that sector of the city was merely their territory. All around the block, small guard stations had been created. Men walked about, carrying rifles to defend against rogues, daemons, and the like. Certain defenses had been made as well. Tall wire fences had been put in place around the buildings, thick locks placed on the storage lockers. Being small in group numbers, the Highway Kings took solace in that they were well established in their living quarters.
Anna liked it that way. Neat, comfortable, and defendable. That's what she sought in a home, and it was what she'd spent so long in helping to create. Just a month or so ago she'd overtaken the group. It had made drastic organizational changes and had, at the same time, made considerable steps forward in the idea of survival.
One level of the underground parking structure, the topmost level, was used only for engineering and mechanics. Several vehicles sat in the garage, waiting to be fixed up or repaired. Anna wanted to get parts for the cars ASAP, but the auto supplies stores were in other districts of the city. She would either have to negotiate or steal. She didn't like stealing when she could help it, but hey. A girl's gotta eat.
A short kid, maybe fifteen, ran up to her. "Anna." he said, giving a quite, two fingered salute in a show of respect. "I have the supplies report." he announced, presenting her with a piece of paper, neatly charted with information. She scanned over it with analytic eyes. "...Low on water supplies, getting there on food, and we're depleted on certain medicines. Wonderful." she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue as she spoke. "Get two recruits together. I want one to go to the Pheonix's territory with a negotiation request and I suppose we can suck it up and head to the Black Stones territory as well for trading. Each messenger must have two escorts with them. Have them ask the other leaders to contact me via radio." she said. She scratched her neck. "...They all have working comm systems, right?" she inquired, not quite knowing. Her team was adept at that kind of thing, in fact, they were adept at a lot of things. But, repairing equipment and technology was sort of a requirement to be in Anna's club. You had to know how to fix something, since everything eventually broke down. "No hostility." she warned. "We need s**t." she added, chuckling to herself. "I'm sure that some of the Black Stones group would like to get their hands on a few of our 'medicines'." she laughed then, knowing full well that there were at least two drug addicts in every other group, whether they were open about it or not.
She did some quick math in her head. "Let's see, if you need about a half ounce of water per pound of body weight, and our boys weigh an average of one-hundred and seventy pounds, then we'll need about seventeen gallons of water per day for all of us. And that's just to drink. It takes a good twenty gallons of water for every shower we take, so multiple that by the men... Add ten gallons of water for cooking and other purposes... We'll need about five hundred and fifty gallons of water per day to live as we used to. But, we can cut that down..." she continued to do math until she came up with around two hundred gallons per day. They could reuse a lot of it by filtering and cleaning the bathwater. If they could get some stills going on the roof of the building they'd be able to get even more water. She frowned, writing down on the piece of paper. "We'll need about seven hundred gallons of water for this week alone, but if we can get our equipment running before two days pass then we'll be set for a while. Hm. See what the Rolling Stones need. We can give them ammunition and heavy duty drugs.
We have the kick-a** pain killers, which would help their dying. Don't tell them what we need yet." she said. "Then, have someone go to the Phoenixes and see what they need and what food they want to trade. We need antibiotics and etc. So I'm trusting you to make up a list." she said, grabbing him by the collar. "Do not mess up the negotiations. Get a list made of what we need and what we can trade, then get it to me. I changed my mind about sending others out. Too risky. Don't wanna lose anybody." she said, letting the boy go. He, having only half absorbed her little conversation, scurried off to get things taken care of. Anna would conduct the trading herself.
She sighed, giving a wave to a few 'troops' as she departed the building again. It was getting colder. She ventured out in search of clothing and material supplies. They would need it for the upcoming winter.
Gun smoking, Anna Valek adjusted her red tinted glasses as she looked up from the motionless body beneath her feet. A tight black miniskirt hugged her rear, the waistline of it covered by a form fitting spandex T-shirt. Over top of that was a waistcoat, and yet even more, a floor length trench coat, was on top of that. She had on black leggings to protect her legs somewhat, without having to don pants, and a pair of heavy duty, steel toed boots adorned her feet. The gun disappeared into a holster at her side and she exhaled heavily. She wished that she smoked. It'd give her something to do in all of this boredom. You could only stand so much of shooting things. It became dull after a while. She didn't have a challenge anymore. She stripped the dead boy of his clothes and supplies pack, walking away while exhaling up into the air.
Arriving back at her home base, she dropped the things in the foyer, to be picked through and sorted by some other subordinate. Making her way to the 'lounge', she passed many gruff individuals, many giving her a nod of respect or fear. The difference mattered not to her. In the end, they followed her orders. And in return, they prospered. Food was available, but it was on a rationing system. They had to be prepared for anything. When not being accessed or used, spare supplies were being stored in a closely guarded, locked room hidden beneath the complex in the system of underground parking structures. Anna's group had manipulated the structures of the parking system, creating walls along the usually open pillars with cement and bricks to create apartment like complexes. Each person in the Highway Kings has their own little space. It usually held a bed, some kind of shelves, and a few trunks to keep other scavenged paraphernalia in. Anna didn't care whether or not her group members kept the things they found in scavenging the city, so long as it wasn't food, water, or other such supplies. Clothes could be kept for oneself, same as jewelry and furniture. There was to be no stealing among the group, unless you wanted to end up with a bullet in your skull.
Anna had strict rules, but the rules allowed for comfortable living. She had no idea what the building above the parking complex used to be, but guessed that it had been some kind of an office building. Many offices had been merged together with the destruction of walls to create lounges and bigger storage facilities. Not that they were at a lack for storage space. Out back of the building was a small row of about five storage compartments, each rather large in size. The building and above ground parking complex/lots took up most of the block in which the building was built, so the Highway King's had taken over that space as their home. Everything else in that sector of the city was merely their territory. All around the block, small guard stations had been created. Men walked about, carrying rifles to defend against rogues, daemons, and the like. Certain defenses had been made as well. Tall wire fences had been put in place around the buildings, thick locks placed on the storage lockers. Being small in group numbers, the Highway Kings took solace in that they were well established in their living quarters.
Anna liked it that way. Neat, comfortable, and defendable. That's what she sought in a home, and it was what she'd spent so long in helping to create. Just a month or so ago she'd overtaken the group. It had made drastic organizational changes and had, at the same time, made considerable steps forward in the idea of survival.
One level of the underground parking structure, the topmost level, was used only for engineering and mechanics. Several vehicles sat in the garage, waiting to be fixed up or repaired. Anna wanted to get parts for the cars ASAP, but the auto supplies stores were in other districts of the city. She would either have to negotiate or steal. She didn't like stealing when she could help it, but hey. A girl's gotta eat.
A short kid, maybe fifteen, ran up to her. "Anna." he said, giving a quite, two fingered salute in a show of respect. "I have the supplies report." he announced, presenting her with a piece of paper, neatly charted with information. She scanned over it with analytic eyes. "...Low on water supplies, getting there on food, and we're depleted on certain medicines. Wonderful." she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue as she spoke. "Get two recruits together. I want one to go to the Pheonix's territory with a negotiation request and I suppose we can suck it up and head to the Black Stones territory as well for trading. Each messenger must have two escorts with them. Have them ask the other leaders to contact me via radio." she said. She scratched her neck. "...They all have working comm systems, right?" she inquired, not quite knowing. Her team was adept at that kind of thing, in fact, they were adept at a lot of things. But, repairing equipment and technology was sort of a requirement to be in Anna's club. You had to know how to fix something, since everything eventually broke down. "No hostility." she warned. "We need s**t." she added, chuckling to herself. "I'm sure that some of the Black Stones group would like to get their hands on a few of our 'medicines'." she laughed then, knowing full well that there were at least two drug addicts in every other group, whether they were open about it or not.
She did some quick math in her head. "Let's see, if you need about a half ounce of water per pound of body weight, and our boys weigh an average of one-hundred and seventy pounds, then we'll need about seventeen gallons of water per day for all of us. And that's just to drink. It takes a good twenty gallons of water for every shower we take, so multiple that by the men... Add ten gallons of water for cooking and other purposes... We'll need about five hundred and fifty gallons of water per day to live as we used to. But, we can cut that down..." she continued to do math until she came up with around two hundred gallons per day. They could reuse a lot of it by filtering and cleaning the bathwater. If they could get some stills going on the roof of the building they'd be able to get even more water. She frowned, writing down on the piece of paper. "We'll need about seven hundred gallons of water for this week alone, but if we can get our equipment running before two days pass then we'll be set for a while. Hm. See what the Rolling Stones need. We can give them ammunition and heavy duty drugs.
We have the kick-a** pain killers, which would help their dying. Don't tell them what we need yet." she said. "Then, have someone go to the Phoenixes and see what they need and what food they want to trade. We need antibiotics and etc. So I'm trusting you to make up a list." she said, grabbing him by the collar. "Do not mess up the negotiations. Get a list made of what we need and what we can trade, then get it to me. I changed my mind about sending others out. Too risky. Don't wanna lose anybody." she said, letting the boy go. He, having only half absorbed her little conversation, scurried off to get things taken care of. Anna would conduct the trading herself.
She sighed, giving a wave to a few 'troops' as she departed the building again. It was getting colder. She ventured out in search of clothing and material supplies. They would need it for the upcoming winter.
