Bullet

John awoke with nostril's full of smoke, leaping from the flea ridden stack of cardboard he grabbed the baseball bat he kept in the dilapidated wardrobe. As he bent down a flurry of bullets penetrated the wall and tore his room apart, two scraped across his arch back sending a hot pain shooting down his spine.

The door was reduced to splinters as a Raider kicked it open, his inquiring stare was met quickly by John's baseball bat, as it arced through the room the Raider thought briefly about the life of crime he'd led, the families he'd destroyed, the lives he'd ruined and the communities he'd burned. All of this flashed quickly before him as his life was removed from him with each vengeful strike.

The 19 year old had spent a lot of his time working the brahmin that provided for his family and the others that lived in the small community, as such his impressive height was matched by a more than capable build. He opened his parents room and shot the stolen .32 pistol at the Raider, 4 rounds missed the psychopath completely before the final penetrated his lung. The attacker collapsed, his heavy breathing forcing blood into his lungs and slowly drowning him. Taking the rounds from the fallen hunting rifle he reloaded the pistol and looked to help his parents, there was no saving them. He heard a scream from across the hall. "ANNIE!" he was barely aware that he'd said it but he heard his voice ring out over the gunfire and crackle of burning wood. He threw himself through the door across from him, incapacitating another Raider in the process. Jumping to his feet he snapped the leg of another before firing his last 6 rounds into the last of his would be executors. He looked into the open footlocker serving as his two month old sisters cot.

Her laughter as she looked up at him brought the rest of the spectrum back into the world. He picked her up and began going through the packs of the Raiders, he found a few caps, a shot of jet and a few bottles of water and an assault rifle under the door. Leaving the jet he rounded up a few more provisions and left. He knew of a citadel directly west, northwest of the city. He would have to take a slight detour north to avoid any super mutants but figured he could make the trip in a couple of hours.

By sunset he was knocking on the door of The Brotherhood Sanctuary. He pleaded his case to a comms device against the wall. "Sir you gotta believe me, my name's John Knox. Raiders just attacked my house and killed my parents!"

"I'm sorry, sir. We need positive identification, you could be a raider, a mercenary, hell you might from Enclave sent to sabotage us. How can we take the risk" through his comms panel he heard the sound of a baby crying "what was that?"

"Look man, I've had a hard day and I'm all out of supplies, all I'm asking is that you feed us, and take care of my sister, she's two months old and hasn't eaten all day. You can hold a gun to my head from the second I enter I don't care just keep an eye on my sister man, she's all I got left"

John heard some muffled talking from beyond the gate then the screeching of the gate sliding open. Before he could utter so much as a thank-you a strike team of 20 men brushed passed him and secured the area. A final pair walked towards him, guns raised, both over his heart. He raised his free hand "I got nothing, search me" they motioned him inside. The team came back in, scopes locked on the gates as they closed.

One of the pair removed his helmet "I'm Porter, you spoke to me on the comm, look we got some supper left, and a spare set of quarters, we can keep an eye on you for the night, and you can speak to Lyons in the morning, is that okay?" He saw the kids face light up "How far have you come?"

"A good 15 miles, you mentioned some supper. I could only get some food for Annie, I haven't eaten all day"

John awoke at 7am the next morning to the sound of his sister crying. He bolted straight up and reached across for his bat in the wardrobe. He nearly fell through a hole in the wall leading to a two story drop – enough to hurt and not enough to kill. He was caught by Porter who helped him up. "Sorry, I thought it was the Raiders again" John murmured, almost to himself. He picked up the baby Annie and held her to him, jumping her until her tears turned to laughter. The Acolyte dragged him back to reality.

"Lyons is free to see you, He's upstairs I'll take you to him" he went to leave and looked back at the kid "You can bring your sister, he's an understanding guy, he just wants to help"

2 miles and 15 years later he woke up, one hand still gripping his Chinese Assault Rifle, his left held the bullet on the chain around his neck. His bulk more impressive than in his glory days, a decade and a half in the wasteland had left him with over 4000 days of experience, strength and scars. He struck a match on a nearby rock and, resting his rifle on his shoulder, lit a cigar. "Today's gonna be a good day" he took another deep draw, blowing out a smoke ring "See boy, no wind, good day" there was a muffled voice from the region of his knees "Oh I'm sorry, are you hungry?" There was another murmur. A bound Raider with tape over his mouth struggled to get free "You know it was scum like you who killed my father? Raped my mother?" He pressed the barrel of his gun against the man's crotch and applied just enough pressure to get his attention "It was fuckers like you who made me leave my home. And even in this shitheap, we were happy. The last fucking happy family on this god for-fucking-saken earth and arseholes like you, who love to fuck shit up, fucked it over. Well now you're fucked..." the burst passed through his captives crotch, intestines, stomach and a final bullet passed through his skull as the gun moved with the kick-back. "You don't mess with Bullets"

It was less than an hour before he was at the gates of the citadel again "What up Porter it's me, it's Bullet"

"One minute man I'll get Annie"

"Dude just let me-" the line went dead "-in" he sighed to himself, after a couple of minutes the comm came back to life "Hey sis, why don't you open this door and get your big brother a beer?"

"No way, you owe me big. I make you that locket so you can have a picture of me like you want, so I'm with you everywhere, and what do you bring me? Last time I got a teddy bear, I'm not 6 anymore 'big brother" He felt the sarcasm through 200m of electrics

"Come on, it's been 6 weeks of course it's good. Open the door and you'll see" The door opened and his sister came running up to him. She was only 5'7 against his 6'5 and she jumped in his arms and gave him a hug "See, here you go" he pulled a teddy out of his pack.

"See, I told you it'd be rubbish, you're a crap brother" She poked her tongue at him in fun.

"Okay, okay I'm kidding. You wanted to learn to shoot so you could come roaming with me next year right?" She nodded enthusiastically "Well I found you a shooter, and Porter's gonna teach ya when he gets time off hey?" She gave him another hug "Easy, easy, I need a beer and one of Mac's fry-ups before anything else" Her face screwed up into a pout "Then I'll teach you the basics myself alright. In 6 months when you turn 16 you can come chill with me alright? I'll show you the vaults and everything"

She took the 10mm pistol and began aiming at things and making shooting noises. Bullet smiled to himself as Porters hand came to rest on his shoulder "You know she's like a daughter to me John"

"Yeah I know, and no-one calls me John"

"Just take care of her Bullet, she's all both of us have"

"You've got 'er for 6 more months. You know me Grant, this fry-up, a couple cold ones and another night on a bed and I'm back out of here, you know how Lyons feels, he thinks I'm nothing better than a Raider." His old friend nodded "She's safe as long as I draw breath I promise you that."