Scene VII: The Scorned Path (Scum on the Trail)

[Wrathbone]

Now we've got the search for water sorted out, let's see what random event this day brings...

Someone roll me a d100!

39

[Stormbringer]

Once Doc's tied Rose Michen's head to his saddle, and made a new medicine from her vomit and some of the poisoned water he found, the Bean Bunch disassemble their balloon-tent, mount their new horses (all except for Cadaver Kid, who keeps up with his bicycle) and set off south-east along the trail to Hopeful Creek, leaving behind them the remains of a butchered horse, the decapitated body of Rose — now food for the vultures — and three dusty bicycles.

After some miles, they spy an old man sitting by the side of the trail, completely naked, with grimy skin and a long matted beard. He looks up and smiles as you approach.

[Wrathbone]

"Howdy there, pops. Everything all right with you?"

[Stormbringer]

"Why yes, son, all is well! For while this world in which we live slides ever deeper into ruin, I patiently await the day when a better one rises out of the ashes of this trash-heap! Tell me, have you considered the nature of decay, and its implications for what the future holds?"

[Wrathbone]

I chew on a cigarette.

"...Yup."

[Stormbringer]

"And tell me, what deep truths have you discovered from your contemplations on this matter, good sir?"

[Animalmother]

"Sir, you are talking to the four utmost experts on death and decay. I dare say the Horsemen of the Apocalypse could takes notes from us"

[Wrathbone]

"And tell me, what deep truths have you discovered from your contemplations on this matter, good sir?"

"Welp," I say as I light the cigarette, "seems to me that the entropic nature of this increasingly industrialised world in which we scrape a livin' has resulted in an unnatural influx of violence, raging against the inevitable failings of our society, such that one man must prepare himself to defend what he values until the world and the body in which he inhabits can sustain him no longer."

"In t'other words, if some bastard shoots at ya, shoot him back harder until you ain't got no more shots to shoot."

"Oh, and by the by, the inevitability of decay ain't no excuse for wanderin' about with yer dingle-dangles swingin' loose in the wind, pops."

[Stormbringer]

"And what then, son? What happens when you ain't got no more shots to shoot? Do you just let yerself go...slide down into the dirt, 'long with everythin' else? If that's the inevitable direction everythin's headin' to...and it sure-as-hell is...is there any point fightin' back? Why bother? Why resist the way all things are goin'? If the wind blows north...why head south? As for my nakedness...well...this is the way I was born! Why try to resist the pattern, I say?"

He turns to Cumflutter.

"Is that so? And what lessons would you teach to the Four Horsemen, son?"

[Wrathbone]

"And what then, son? What happens when you ain't got no more shots to shoot? Do you just let yerself go...slide down into the dirt, 'long with everythin' else? If that's the inevitable direction everythin's headin' to...and it sure-as-hell is...is there any point fightin' back? Why bother? Why resist the way all things are goin'? If the wind blows north...why head south? As for my nakedness...well...this is the way I was born! Why try to resist the pattern, I say?"

"All time is fleetin', pops. We still got a duty to make use of it, though."

[Stormbringer]

"And how've you been usin' that time, mister? You gonna save the world? Turn it all 'round?"

He cackles, showing rotten teeth.

[Wrathbone]

"Just tryin' to leave it better than I found it. It's a work in progress."

[Stormbringer]

"And how's that workin' out for ya, son? Is the world better now than when you found it?"

He chuckles again.

[Wrathbone]

"Like I said, it's a work in progress. You need some water out in this heat?"

I offer him whatever dregs of the poison water I have left.

[Animalmother]

"We are bad men, we've done terrible things and our souls are lost. We're angels compared to some of the evil bastards we've thus far encountered. My advise to The Horsemen? Stay at home boys, ain't no one go'n even notice Judgement Day in this place."