06/24/00 – Saturday
Well last night was a bust. Me and Doc hoofed it up to the bridge on a recce. I also wanted to see if Doc could get up to one of those “bombs” to see if it was real or not but we didn’t make much progress. Turns out the bridge is fully lit up at night and those kids don’t got no bedtime.
Clay and Brook had more luck. Turns out they met some hunters who’d heard all about the troll saying he was working on behalf of a drug gang at a nearby castle keeping a girl captive for them (probably the girl we saw the day before.
When we trudged back in the morning we might as well have stayed for the night. But we stuck around for the morning to let Clay, who had been on guard all night, get some sleep then headed back. After a lot of back and forth we decided to just pay the Trolls toll to get across the bridge then play it by ear whether we reclaimed it or what. I had no compuctions about dealing with the greedy fucker but the kids and the woman were unknown variables.
After we drove up to bridge the fucker insisted we put the stuff down first. I politely informed him what would happen if he tried to screw us over and the coward showed himself for a minute. The kids laid some girders across the gap and Mr Smith drove us over safely. On the other side we stopped and decided whether we’d just storm in and take our stuff back there and then or if we should rive on then come back. While we were there first the lil 16 year old with the rifle (only ranged weapon I clocked apart from the trolls) started shouting over if we wanted to take out the troll he’d help. I think he wanted to be the man of the house. We were thinking whether to lure the troll out and just slot him there and then but before we could decide the trolls “woman” invited us in for dinner to say thank you for the food.
His highness wasn’t happy but seemed to be overuled. We got what can politely be described at “gruel” in the most tense meal going. Not going to lie I very much wanted to pull the trigger on the fucker but I was still torn what to do. He might be a monster but if we kill him what happens to the kids? There were packets around the place of R&R. A new drug I’d heard about that seemed to be infecting both our side and the commies in the madness after the nuke exchange before the fuckup that was Reset.
But the fucker just kept pushing and pushing. The girl was there. Clearly against her will. I tried to engage her in conversation but was shut down. After our “meal” he told us tog o but kept pushing. Pulling the girl into his lap and taunting us to the point Brook snapped and fired. Fortunately just missing the girl. It caught us off guard and everyones aim was off winging him at most until, with a loud bang, the kid outside shot through the window and took him out.
The girl ran over to me saying we needed to protect her and explaining her mom was a chemist being kept at the castle to make the drugs with her being held here by the troll as a hostage to her good intentions. The kid was all billy big bollocks going “I’m the troll now!” and going for the detonator on the old trolls body. I couldn’t give a fuck about that but he insisted the girl needed to stay as well as the gang would be coming from the castle.
We’re now at an impasse deciding what we do next...
