[Soundtrack: Red Dead Redemption OST]
Slab City is revealed to be part post-apocalyptic fortress, complete with anti-Casualty quarantecture and barbed wire, and part enormous terrarium with every cubic meter of the interior ruthlessly leveraged for vertical agriculture. Above it all, a huge crane arm has been tilted towards the sky and holds a one-person observation post.
The enclave's five-story car-pile walls are each two cars layers thick: the outside layer packed with rubble and barbed wire to serve as a wall, and the interior layer converted into small family cubbies of one or two emptied-out cars. Embedded here and there through the interior are larger vehicles whose hollowed-out interiors serve as communal and storage space.
With the enclave's human space thus located entirely within its walls, the interior space inside the walls is all agriculture: trellises and rope platforms bear low scrubs, fruit-bearing vines, and high-density food plants of all kinds. The ground level, which is as dark and humid as the floor of any rainforest, is packed with livestock pens.
The various members of the convoy split up to attend to their own individual concerns. Billy finds himself in the enclave's canteen, where he turns to looking for a job in the area. Also in the cantina is a roving taker called Nitro, with whom Billy joins forces. Billy finds two online jobs before he and Nitro are approached by two of the enclave's Fencemen and taken to a meeting with "La Reina" herself.
La Reina's "court" is located on a tented wooden platform on the top level of the enclave. There, amidst tables loaded with luxurious fresh produce, light musical accompaniment from a guitarist, and her inner circle (an older man referred to as "the General", and a younger man referred to as "Supple") she reveals that she too has a job to offer. Some research and negotiation follows before Billy and Nitro accept her offer to pay them 14 Bounty to transport two pallets of the enclave's produce northeast into the mountains.
The next day, Billy and Nitro set forth carrying a pair of enormous packs. Billy's shoulders and back are soon rubbed bloody from the load, but he refuses to quit, even after a long detour to avoid a washed out road puts them hours behind schedule and walking late into the night. At the rendezvous, they meet Ben, JP, and Hector Turbo - a trio of "pharmers", the self-taught post-crash salvagers and refiners to whom enclaves turn for their chemical compound needs. These pharmers specialize in synthesizing high-explosives from raw materials salvaged from the unexploded ordnance that litters the Chocolate Mountain Impact Area.
The next morning, JP springs some unexpected news on Billy and Nitro: there was an unnegotiated second half to the job, namely taking two backpacks of unstable nitroglycerin back to Slab City. Luckily, the Takers have an ace up their sleeves: a huge hive of wild honey bees in the back seat of a deserted car that they spotted on the previous day, and which they had planned to loot on their return journey. Offering Hector a half share in the honey buys the use of his scooter and JP for the day, and Billy and Nitro are soon headed off down the road while scrolling through online how-to apiculture articles.
Midway through the harvest, there is a moment of terror as a hand reaches from within the hive to grip Nitro by the hand and a casualty fights its way loose from the hive that had been built up around it. Some panicked effort manages to dislodge the Casualty onto the roadside, where Nitro smashes its honey-sodden head in. By nightfall, the Takers are back at Slab City, where they receive a warning from Marisa (a woman from the enclave's Moldovan contingent) and some details about La Reina's ruthless past dealings before packing in for the day. The job has earned them less than they needed to come out even, but the enormous honey haul they have brought in will more than compensate - if they can find someone willing to pay well for a taste of sweetness!
Tune in soon for the next session of RM:W: In the Mountains, There You Feel Free
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