As Kyle walked off, the young man from before ran up to Joe with a half torn piece of paper. Taking the note in hand Joe's brow furrowed as he looked to the gate.

"RAID"

He shouted as the gate was quickly shut. It took him a moment to reach the horn in his office, but upon reaching it a loud, low rolling tone echoed through the entire town. A sound that every citizen knew. It meant Marauders were on their way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in Mart's shop, the sound was heard clearly. The old man turned with a snap as he looked at the newcomers.

"Sorry young'ns. Gon' need ye tah helps out."

He said with a smile as he brought three rifles out from under the counter and laid them in view of the strangers.

"Guns is yers is yins stay an' fight."

It took him a moment to gather the ammunition he had. It took him only slightly long to instruct the strangers on how to use the weapons.

]@Anorak@Cpt.Nemo@Elbeck@Fallchild]

Mary had been wanting to leave, realizing how steep this man's prices were. She could find things better than what he was offering. As she was walking from the shop she heard the muffled word 'Raid'. Mary stopped in place, eyes wide.
The shop keeper then laid out guns on the counter and Mary eyeballed them. Why weren't these for sale? She thought bitterly before picking one up. She grabbed a small handful of ammunition. "Sure I'll help." Mary said, only because I'm not going to give the gun back. She walked from the shop, loading the gun like the shop owner showed her.
Once outside, there were already Marauders in the town and a few of them looked her way as she exited. Knowing that ammunition was scarce, she held back on firing at them, deciding to wait until they were closer. What was that phrase from the history book she read? Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes. And at this point Mary was going to follow those simple instructions.

@Atlin

Kyle looked into the shop, the man ordering instructions at him before he even entered. The thought of killing some of those humans which only brought more chaos to his lands made a smile come to his face. He walked hastily into the shop and picked up one of the rifles, grabbing the cartridge box and hand-loading one of the bullets into the neck of the gun. He nodded with confidence before running out of the shop, watching the pandemonium fill the lands from the sound of the horn.

Citizens scuttled off to their respective structures and children who had found them self lost in this sudden craze screamed for their parents. Kyle saw a woman firing at one of the marauders, raising an eyebrow. She was good. Without any further hesitation, he ran toward the entrance of Cleanslate, seeing the grubbily dressed marauders scuttling through like a swarm of ants, firing warning shots into the air with their guns.

Kyle Diaz shot at one of the marauders before evading toward the cover of a house which seemed to be abandoned. He heard a disgruntled cry from the baddie he hit and smiled as he was flushed with accomplishment.

He was having so much fun.

Seemed just as soon that the siren broke the increasingly uneasy silence in the shop that the few of us were press-ganged into the town militia. The others seemed happy enough to oblige. Well, the ice queen seemed happy enough to make off with a gun, as did a disheveled vagrant that swooped out of nowhere to pluck junior's rifle. S'pose I better head out there and make myself useful before the kid tunes in and grabs my share.

Dane took the third rifle and a pocketful of ammo, and ran out to the side of the building where he recalled a small pile of crates against the wall. Looked like it'd work. He climbed as high as he could and shoved the gun over the wall and hopped high enough to get ahold of the roof. He kicked his feet against the side of the building in a walking motion as he strained to pull himself up. After a slip, he managed redouble his efforts to make it to the top. As he stretched his burning arms, he at least found solace in this building being more solid than some. May well have been a proper shop in it's past life, too.

It wouldn't be the first time Dane held a gun, but it would be the first time he used one. From the venerable wizard's instruction, though, it seemed simple enough to operate. Just pull back the doohickey, load in the clip, done. Alrighty then. Dane laid prone on the rooftop in the direction of the gate, adjusting to the iron sights. Seemed the other wingnuts were right at home in the chaos below. "Well.." he paused to take a fluttery breath. "All I gotta do is wait 'til I see the raid leader. Should be simple enough. Prob'ly has a pair of machine guns or a necklace of skulls. Somethin' apparent.

The old man nodded as they took their rifles, and ammo. A newcomer nabbed one of the rifles from under another boys nose, but that was his own fault for not moving.

"Nyep"

The old man said as he turned to the locker behind him, grabbing a large bucket. He promptly took it to the roof and tore the canvas off an Mk.19 mod.3 automatic Grenade Launcher. The bucket placed neatly beside it, he loaded the device and began firing at the Marauders at the gate.

"Yins coulda used the ladder."

He mocked as he looked at Dane.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the fire fight raged on, a large man with horned helmet rode into the center of town on top of an armored buggy.

"THIS TOWN BELONGS TO KILLGORE!"

He shouted as he began firing his over sized machine gun at the buildings around him.


[@Anorak@Elbeck@Fallchild]

As Dane lay in wait of a suitable target, a slow clacking noise seemed to rise up from within the shop. Probably just the old man organizing supplies or setting up defenses. It eventually gave way to the creaking open of a hatch in the roof. Dane scrambled around to face the disturbance to see the shopkeeper climbing up through the opening. Did he have the same idea? Makes enough sense, can't well picture this coot charging into battle with a greatswoOly hell! The old man uncovered a big honking mounted gun of some variety. Good god, does that thing shoot cans of beans? Dane managed to tear his eyes away from the thing as the old man sat down a bucket and began loading the cannon with a chain of huge bullets.

"Alright, just gotta tune that thing out as best-"chum chum chum chum. The old man began firing off his gun. Dane tried to ignore it until he saw a small group of raiders get torn apart by explosions. Explosions! That thing shot bombs!? Dane had to wonder if if was even necessary to arm strangers like himself if this old man had such a beastly gun. For the sake of backup, he had to assume. Well, it wouldn't come to that with any luck. The old man's cannonade ceased for a moment. He yelled something but, Dane's ears still rang from the pounding gunfire. Something about a ladder?

Dane looked back at the old man and yelled to see what he wanted. The shopkeep simply waved him off as he loaded another ammochain into the gun. Evidently it was nothing important. Moments later a vehicle bristling with iron plates and spikes roared into the town square. Onboard, a similarly outfitted manmonster shouted a battlecry and unloaded his hefty machinegun into his surroundings. Dane's eyes went wide. "That's it! That's gotta be the guy! he loudly whispered to himself. He tensed his whole body flat on the roof and lined up a shot at the bandit chief's exposed face, right between the eyes. He focused, unblinking, as he interrupted his heavy breaths with one last gulp of air when he felt the wind die off for a moment. "Hit goddamnit!" he screamed in his head as he pulled the trigger.

@Atlin

Kyle rolled out from his cover and aimed down the weapon, before being interrupted by the low rumbling of a vehicle which had entered the town. He evaded back into his cover, a flurry of shots being sent his way. The battle-cry ringing through the town, Kyle smashed a hole in a nearby window and placed the gun through it, shooting one of the marauders in the leg and another in the arm. His shot was evidently not perfect - after years of rarely using one, he'd rarely forgotten how to reload these machines.

Kyle then pressed a hand against his rusted machete, and kept his hand on the plastic hilt for a short while before removing the hand and placing it back on the trigger of the weapon. Before he could do anything else, the walls around him began to crack, shots being rapidly fired at it before being directed somewhere else. He cursed aloud as he pulled back the neck of his gun, sliding in three new fresh bullets before snapping it back closed. He then kicked the door open and found a marauder standing there, back turned.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Kyle shot at the man and turned, hearing a cluster of footsteps to his left, noticing two of the thugs which were rounding up the townsfolk. He took a shot at one of the men, watching him fall to the ground whilst shooting the other.

Mary saw the other's coming quickly hiding behind the side of the building away from the shooters. She peaked around on occasion, quickly took aim to the closest one, and fired. Before they could get a good shot on her, Mary returned to her position against the edge of the building. The gun fire was like a dance playing out behind her and if you didn't know the dance, you were dead.
Mary turned and shot again, another man going down and when she turned back to the building, hearing shots hit the wood where she had just been, a movement caught her eye. Mary turned, one of the men taking aim at her. Mary dropped into a crouched before the shot rang, narrowly missing her head. Pointing the rifle at the Marauder and shooting. The man fell to the ground, eyes like glass.
Mary reloaded her weapon and walked over to the body, grabbing his weapon and any ammunition she saw. This was her chance, the others were distracted by the Marauders, so she could make a clean getaway.
So Mary turned, running away as fast as she could, looking back to fire a shot or two at anyone who dared look her way. She was nearly out of range when a shot grazed her calf. She cussed, pushing the pain down enough to get away. Mary made it out of range and she slowed down to a hobble, cursing everyone under her breath. She almost got away unscratched.

The old man laughed as Dane fired, knowing what would happen. He happily continued firing his grenade launcher at the brutes entering the front gate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Killgore, master of Marauders, and King of Brutes laughed as his ammo ran dry, a stray bullet cleanly hitting his helmet. Dane's shot had hit, but done no fatal damage. It knocked him unconscious for a brief instant, but the constant gunfire rang him from what could have been a very bad situation.

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT CLEANSLATE!? I WANNA SEE THIS GRIND BURNT TO THE GROUND!"

He mocked as he ordered his men to kill everyone, and burn the town to the ground. A moot point, as the only flammable buildings were near the gate, and presently a blaze thanks in whole to Mart's grenade launcher.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Mary ran, a shell of pellets was loosed near her feet. Joe Plate walking out from a building she had passed in her escape attempt.

"Fight's the other way Ma'am, and I'm afraid that gun is still Cleanslate property until the marauders are either dead or gone. Preferably both."

He said with his smile in place as he reloaded the shotgun.


[@Elbeck@FallChild]

Mary moved behind the building, leaning against the wall. She quickly tore the bottom of her shirt and wrapped the material around her wound. A smooth line of red trailed down her leg to the ground. The gash didn't look too bad, she'll have to make sure to keep it from getting infected though.
That finished, Mary turned to look at the man who called her out. She had to resist the urge to raising her gun and shooting at him, but he had a gun of his own. And despite Mary's attitude, she really didn't like killing a good person.
So instead she just sat on the wall, breathing heavily from running. "Why aren't you fighting? We're well out of the range of shooting them, at least with that." She looked at his shot gun. Mary was aware that he could easily shot her, and she was sure that was what he had in mind if she tried to run again. But Mary did know that most good people didn't like shooting wounded woman who are putting up no fight what-so-ever.