A handmade recurve bow assembled from salvaged composite materials — typically automotive leaf springs, industrial cable for the string, and scrap polymer for the riser. The Gallows represents the lowest-tech weapon in GLMZ that remains genuinely lethal at range. With no electromagnetic components, no battery, no firmware, and no acoustic signature, it is invisible to every detection system in the city. It is a stick that throws smaller sticks, and in a world of networked surveillance, that simplicity is a superpower.

Gallows bows are built by hand in the Shelf, each one unique, each one reflecting the builder's available materials and skill level. Draw weights range from 20 to 60 kilograms depending on the spring steel used, and accuracy depends entirely on the archer's practice. The arrows are similarly improvised — metal rod shafts with filed points, stabilized with whatever passes for fletching. Despite the crude construction, a Gallows arrow through the throat kills as effectively as any precision-manufactured projectile.

The bow has become a symbol of Shelf resistance culture — a weapon that the surveillance state literally cannot see. No electronics to detect, no chemical propellant to sniff, no electromagnetic signature to track. A person with a Gallows bow and sufficient skill can kill from rooftop distance and leave no forensic trace that any automated system can process. The kill has to be investigated by humans, and there aren't enough investigators to cover the Shelf.