The bar had closed for the night, and the boys were sleeping soundly when Miranda awoke to a banging on the door. "Miranda, Sally, Wake up, quickly!" came the voice of Ted Harris, the elected Mayor of their settlement. The two women got up from their beds, Miranda held the 9mm pistol that they had for protection. "What is it Ted?" Sally called from the bolted door.
"Come out, we're having an emergency town meeting in the schoolhouse." Ted called, and his footsteps were heard receding into the night. Sally and Miranda emerged from the bar to find that there were armed men from the settlement standing on the wrecked cars that served as a protective wall, Sally looked at Miranda worriedly, and they hurried on to the schoolhouse.
There was much talking and speculation going on in the schoolhouse's single classroom, as most of the settlement's adult populace packed into the room. Ted stood atop Miranda's desk and held his hands up for quiet and attention. Miranda looked around, there was a man standing in the shadows, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about him
"All right everyone; I've called you all here from your beds, as there's a gentleman here who wants to put forward something to you all. Let's hear what he has to say." Ted stepped down and the stranger came into the light.
Upon his head, he wore a coyote's skin, its head sat atop his, and the body draped across his shoulders. He wore the crimson armour of a Frumentarii of Caesar's Legion. A collective gasp was heard from some of the people of the Settlement
"Ave!" the man spoke into the palpable silence. Miranda recognised the man's voice; he was the one who had paid her in Legion coin for the water that day. She nudged Sally, "that's the same guy from this morning, with the denarius!" she whispered.
"Shit." Sally muttered, "And we served him."
"I bring to you a Message from the most Exalted Leader, Caesar! He has extended an invitation to you to join our Legion to you, with Caesar; you will achieve enlightenment through dedicated service, leaving behind your profligate lives of decadence." Doc Whittaker spoke up, "Do we have a choice in this matter?"
The Frumentarii turned his cold gaze to doc Whittaker, "Yes, you can join freely, or die." His gaze turned to each man and woman in the schoolhouse, "You have until Sunrise to decide." He stepped down from the school desk and strode through the throng of people. The folk of the settlement parted to let him through, as if he were a Deathclaw on the prowl, or highly radioactive.
As soon as he had left, everyone started speaking at once, Ted stepped up onto the desk again and whistled shrilly for attention, "Council will decide what to do next, Obviously we're not going to take their offer, but nor are we going to lay down and die! We've worked too hard and through too many generations to let them take our homes and freedom. If everyone except council members could please leave the schoolhouse and remain nearby, we'll let you know what we're going to do."
Everyone except Miranda, Doc Whitaker, Ted and Harry, who was in charge of the security of their settlement, left the schoolhouse.
Ted turned to the Doc.
"Barry, what have you got left in the way of medical supplies?" he asked the doc.
"I have a good supply of Stimpacks, a few psycho and jet, bandages, medicinal alcohol, thanks to Sally and Miranda's still, but that's only if we have a short fight, we don't know how many men Caesar's Legion has out there, for all we know they could just be playing with us, trying to get us with subterfuge and fear." Ted nodded and turned to Harry, "How much ammo have we got Harry?"
Harry looked thoughtful, "If we're careful, we might last the day, maybe longer, but there wasn't much that the trading caravan had in stock this time." Ten frowned, "Right," he said, before turning to Miranda
"Miranda, I want you to take the children and non-combatant women to safety, get to the old campground south of here, and wait for one of us to come back to tell you it's safe." Miranda nodded Ted looked around at the council, "Let's hope we see tomorrow though."
The people within the settlement moved quietly, Miranda had gathered up the twenty-five non-combatants of their settlement, the children were quiet, but the fear was obvious on their faces. Miranda watched her two nephews as they took up a pack of supplies each. Sally hefted her own pack. Miranda looked to Harry, up on the car wall, he nodded and they slipped out through a small opening between two wrecked Chrysalises.
They travelled for a couple of hours before their first rest break, behind them a red glow had begun to suffuse the darkness, Sally looked back to the glow, "Dawn is breaking, and we're nowhere near the old campground."
Miranda shook her head, "Sally, that's not the east," she looked to her sister in the darkness, "That's…"
"That is your town's response to Caesar's Kind offer." Called a voice in the dark, the same voice who had ordered water and paid for it in Legion coin, the same voice who had brought the offer from Caesar. All the women came on alert, they surrounded the children, and those who had weapons raised them to the dark.
"Lay down your weapons, and you will not be harmed." Spoke the Frumentarii, "I have fifty men here surrounding you, and there's another two Centuries taking your filthy town and whoever is left. You are now Slaves of Caesar's Legion." As he spoke, his men lit torches and he was bathed in firelight.
Cora, one of Miranda's friends came up behind her, "Miranda, What do we do?" Knowing the futility of their situation, Miranda turned to her friend, "It's over, Cora, lay down your weapons." She said, speaking the last to the armed women in her group. She removed the clip from her weapon, and took the round from its chamber. It dropped to the dusty grass below with a dull thud.
Josephine pushed through the group, "You can't be serious? Those monsters will rape us, they'll steal our children, I'm not going to surrender to them, you can't do this!" she was beginning to get hysterical with fear. She grabbed Miranda by the shoulders, "You will kill us all by giving us to them!"
Miranda held Josephine in her arms, "I'm sorry, Josie, but there's no choice here, at least the kids will be safe." Josephine pulled away, "The boys perhaps, but what about the girls? Trained to be a legion whore, that's what will happen to them!" she pulled away from Miranda and broke free of the circle.
"Josie! Stop!" Miranda shouted to her, there was a single gunshot and Josie fell to the ground, dead.
"Surrender now or you'll share her fate." The Frumentarii called to her. Miranda turned to him, but not before catching the eye of her sister. Fear played plainly in Sally's eyes, they boys were all she had left of her husband and she was about to lose them and her freedom.
Feeling the weight of the decision, Miranda's shoulders slumped in defeat; she took a deep breath and moved out of the circle of women and children.
She approached the Frumentarii and offered him her gun.
"We surrender to you." She said with her heart heavy with defeat. The Frumentarii smiled from within his coyote headgear. "It was over before it even began." He said, as he took her weapon and placed a heavy leather slave collar around her neck.
