Luther, I have to ask… why are you and your people going hungry?  There are hundreds of miles of forest around you to hunt in.  And there have to be other towns close by.”

Luther shook his head.  “We were doing fine until about two weeks ago.  We foraged here in town, just gathering food as we needed it.  Got the stronghold set up pretty early.  A few of our people already had gardens in their yards, and we used those for fresh vegetables.  After a few monster attacks claimed lives, everybody moved inside the walls.”

He took a deep breath, then let it out.  “Then we got attacked by humans.  They walked up to the gates just like you, asking to be let in.  Talking about how rough it was out in the wild.  I felt sorry for them and opened the gates.   Five of our people died before we chased them off.  They stayed for three days, looting everything of value in town.  We tried going out to stop them – there were ten of them, and we had more fighters than them back then – but we lost two more people in that fight.”

Luther’s shoulders slumped, and he wrung his hands in his lap.  “We decided to just wait.  Let them take what they wanted and go.  The assholes didn’t just take.  They destroyed. Started a couple fires.  Poured bleach in our gardens.  Then their leader said if they caught us outside of town, they’d kill us.”

Allistor could guess the rest.  “And how long did you wait before you sent out a hunting party?”

“Three days.  We were getting low on food.  I sent out three men under cover of darkness.  They went over the back wall and walked into the forest.  About an hour after they left, we heard a bunch of gunshots.  The next morning, their bodies were left in the street outside the gate.  When a few of us went out to retrieve them, we were gunned down as well.”  Luther pulled his shirt aside to show a scar below his collarbone.  “I was lucky and made it back inside.”

Allistor asked, “How many have you lost to these assholes?”

Luther whispered, “Fourteen.  Men, women, and children.  Including my son.”

Allistor was furious.  “And how many of them are left?  It sounds like you got a few of them.”

Luther shrugged.  “We’ve never seen more than ten.  We killed a couple.  But we haven’t seen them in a week.  I just don’t know.”

“Do you know where they’re holed up?  Do they have a stronghold of their own?

Luther nodded.  “We recognized some of them.  From a town to the south.  Their leader is Evan, an asshole sheriff’s deputy.  Or he was before they fired him.  Used to let young girls out of speeding tickets if they… well, you get the idea.  He likes power a little too much.”