The Clergy’s Escort

Two figures charted a path through the blistering land. They couldn't have been more different if they'd come from separate planets. One was a rotund jovial fellow in the stereotypical trappings of a minister. Was he protestant or Catholic? It no longer mattered; things had ceased to matter decades ago.

The other figure was dour and brooding. He wore a sand crusted leather jacket and matching pants and boots. The outfit was adorned with studded spikes and on the toes of his boots and tips of his gloves were spiked plates.

A sword,a homemade rapier with a spiked handguard rested on his left hip. Slung across his back was an old sawed off shotgun. One arm of the jacket was torn off revealing an arm marked with dueling scars. A similar X shaped scar was on his forehead and if his gater had been pulled down another would have been revealed on his lips. He looked out at the windswept path ahead through green, round goggles.

His brown hair was covered in sand and dust. This mysterious figure was the Sandslayer. For years he had been the scourge of the bandits and mutant creatures that roamed the post nuclear hellscape. He made his main living as an armed escort.

The two men had been discussing religion in which they had different opinions.

"I admire your ability to hold on to your faith,Padre but I just can't. I'm not saying I don't believe in God, but look around you! Nothing went down the way Revelations said it was supposed to!"

It was perhaps a valid argument but the minister gave the Sandslayer his perspective. "That book is cryptic. It's that way for a reason. Maybe this is indeed part of the events it foretold, maybe they still have yet to transpire."

His escort grunted. Then said, "I'll tell you this: the people who live in that giant domed city I'm taking you to, those sorry bottom feeders who prosper in their high-tech decadence while we try not drink water tainted by decades old fallout, they're enough antichrist for me!"

"On that, Sandslayer, we can both agree."

By the time night had fallen the duo had rendezvoused with a quartet of soldiers from the domed city. Imposing figures were these in their tan body armor and red tactical goggles covering their eyes. The six of them were gathered around a fire. In this post nuclear desolation no night animals were to be heard. If they were your life expectancy was now zero. The soldiers set up a parameter for a patrol while the minister and his escort sat at the fire talking as it was dying down to so many orange embers.

"Tell me something about yourself, Sandslayer." asked the clergyman.

So the leather clad bane of mutants and desperados launched into his tale. "I was born after the Reaper’s Fire had devastated everything. Life was hard in the wastes but we did okay. Then one day I became a man at the age of only six. My father took up arms and went to one of the supply drops. He was torn to shreds and never came home.

"In the wake of his passing I busted my balls trying to protect and provide for my mother and I. You ain't going to like what comes next, Padre. I eventually learned the identity of the aftermather who slew my father. I journeyed to his home on the outskirts of a mud hole of a town. I took my father's shotgun, the one I still carry and used it to blow that monster's head off.

"I grabbed whatever supplies I could from his shack and brought them back home. As the years went on and I saw more crap I decided to do something about it. I trained my butt off in various arts of combat. I vowed if there was a hell and your God wasn't doing anything to protect us from it's denizens then I would. I've been sending mutant creatures and crazed cultists there for years since."

Neither of them said anything after that for a long time. Then a lusty oath and the staccato of a blaster rifle brought an end to the quiet. Three of the four soldiers came sprinting over to the bivouac and surrounded the duo. Then a green scaly hand plunged up from the ground, grabbed one of the soldiers by his ankle and dragged him screaming into the sands. The remaining two pepperd the ground with blaster fire until they too were snatched.

The Sandslayer already knew who the unseen enemy was and drew his sawed off and fired into the sand just a reptilian appendage made itself visible. Green blood splattered everywhere and a horrible scream filled the night air.

The minister yelled,"Have the demons of hell come up to drag us to the throne of their infernal master?"

"You're not far off, " replied the escort, keeping the firearm at the ready, "They're reptoids. It's hard to say if they were once lizards or humans but now they're just a lotta ugly!"

One sprang up in all of its terrible glory and was blown in half by the warrior. Two others soon followed. Not wanting to waste precious ammo he drew his rapier and sliced the razor tooth head of one of the others and ran another through.

Two more grabbed him from behind and he judo flipped them over his shoulder and pulverized them with his spiked gauntlets! In the aftermath he stood over the butchered corpses of the lesser creatures,covered in green blood and fresh sand. The minister looked like he'd woken up from a nightmare.

"This is terrible. These foul creatures…"

"You don't get out much do you, Padre."

"No. The only reason I'm even headed to the dome is because I'm kin to an official whose daughter is sick."

"I have been wondering about that. You're probably better off. This place ain't fit for softer people like you."

The next day the duo made it to the walled entrance of the domed utopia. Two guards eyed the Sandslayer and held their guns in a manner to tell him he wasn't welcome inside. No one from the wasteland was except by invitation and that was only extended to medics & clergymen such as the fellow he'd been traveling with.

"What happened to the others?" asked one of the sentries.

The Sandslayer responded,"They couldn't handle the excitement."

The minister explained further. Then the brooding wanderer of the desert accepted his pay and turned his back to the edifice he despised. He didn't expect to see the clergyman again. Most stayed behind in the city. Then again life especially in this wasteland was full of surprises.