Romero 77 Talon

Romero 77 TALON. (See also, Romero 77, FIELD MODIFICATIONS) The Romero 77 was predominantly a sportsman's gun. As such, a key quality was its lightweight barrel. While suited to shooting game, where quick reflexes and deft accuracy are required, when adapted for use as a melee weapon, the barrel was ill-suited to the task. Modifications made to such weapons would often reinforce the butt of the shotgun, that being the most robust part. Moreover, some examples show that in addition to structural reinforcement, additional blades were also added to the rear of the weapon. This would make it a particularly lethal and vicious club.

Journal of Daniel Glanton
Severely deteriorated, bound in unidentified leather, 8 x 8 in.
4/5

June first

I keep having dreams of back when I first met the man. They always begin with him asking you know what you're out here hunting, prying open a tin of beans with a large knife, the remains of a war bayonet.

I'm hungry though and looking at the beans and so don't hear him so he has to repeat himself which makes him mad. Then the dream carries on.

I told him I didn't know what we were hunting. He said that would be better but I should know one thing and that's how to fight. I told him back I used to tumble with my older brothers and they was stronger but I fought dirty and he laughed and said this was no tumble in the yard and your mam wouldn't grab you both by the ear and break it up when you got beaten.

That got me riled up and I ended up telling him about the boy last summer, why I couldn't go home. I hadn't meant to tell no one ever.

Then it's later and we're paused by a gurgling creek which reminded me of the boy and the sweet streams we used to drink from when ranging away from the farm.

The man, who still ain't told me his name, took my Romero and swung it like a bat, then said there would be times when I wouldn't have no time to reload and I'd have to use it as a club. I practiced and he told me how to do it better. Then the man noticed the water in the creek had stopped gurgling

We went up the bed 'til we came to the source of the blockage, a corpse. The water behind him had made a pool. He was freshly dead.

The man checked the body and told me to get a hold of myself so I went some ways away and waited. When he called me back he handed me a rusted old blade. The man's, we'll put it in your gun's stock, give your swing some more bite, he said.

He went off again, and I couldn't help but look again at the body. Its heart was cut out. Then I wake up.