The Dust Market

Neutral trade zone. All trades observed. Nobody left to observe them.

Recorded history

For as long as the region had a neutral ground, this was it.

The Dust Market was the one place where the factions' quarrel was suspended by agreement: a hard no-fire zone around the Banker's desk, Knacker's standing rates chalked up where anyone could read them, and a rule that trades were observed and therefore enforceable. Scrap bought ammunition, intelligence, field medicine, and the hire of someone willing to carry a rifle on your behalf.

It was also the only place in the region where ammunition could reliably be had. That single fact made it the busiest ground in the Wasteland regardless of what anyone thought of the people running it.

Why the record is closed

The market did not fall. It emptied.

When Iron Haven passed to the Remnants and trade began running through checkpoints under a single authority, neutral ground stopped being either neutral or ground worth holding. There was no longer a second buyer to walk to, and a market whose entire product is competition cannot operate in the absence of any.

The Banker left with the trade rather than after it, and his book is still open somewhere the archive has not established. Knacker, who was never a location, simply carried on being a man who knows where things are.

What remains

The stalls are still standing. The sign still reads neutral trade zone, all trades observed.

Dr. Borschtovsky's caravan has not moved. He is the sole remaining occupant of the site, continues to mark contaminated ground for later remediation, and has offered no view on the departure of everyone else.

Archive notes

• Abandoned. Record retained; entry closed.
• Formerly the region’s only reliable source of ammunition.
• No-fire zone around the Banker's desk was observed even by parties actively at war.
• One occupant remains. The caravan is exactly where it was.