I sat at a burnt table, in a mouldy chair, in a crumbling house. I sat and stared, stared deeply into a cracked wall. It was a large crack, going all down the wall next to a set of collapsed stairs with a snapped banister. I wondered… "When did that get there?" In my mind that insignificant crack told many stories, you just need to stop and listen. Maybe it had it been there since before the bombs fell, much to the annoyance of the long dead owner of this house, which now acted as my shelter. That made me think; "This crack could be hundreds of years older than me!" That was only one possibility, maybe it happened after the bombs fell but that still left the question of when.
Perhaps soon after or maybe long after, for all I know it happened hours before I slinked into this deserted house to protect myself from the harsh wasteland night. As soon as these thoughts entered my mind, they left, useless and unneeded thoughts. This was a habit of mine, finding interest in the useless and pointless. My father always chastised me for it, he often said; "If you keep your head in the clouds you'll soon come back down to find its no longer on your shoulders."
I understood his annoyance, his only son to be a scatter brained thinker. Very much the opposite of my old man I was, he was a single minded, focused, a survivor. He is or rather was the kind of man you'd expect to find in this wasteland. He taught me everything I know, how to clean and use a gun, how to kill and cook my food, but mostly he taught me the best way to keep the horror of the wastelands and its inhabitants out of my mind.
I swigged the near empty bottle of whiskey, the taste burned my throat in a way I learned to love. That was another problem of mine, the drink. "What a man drinks tells you a lot about them if you've drunk as much as I have." As my dad said. My favorite however had to be whiskey, strong enough to dull the pain and plentiful enough to keep a habit.
But back to the crack, it let in a slight breeze of dusty air. But before the crack could engulf my mind anymore, I heard a crunch outside the the window behind me.
My years of self training kicked in, I quickly moved from the burnt table to the back room of the house. The backroom was what I believed to be a pre-war kitchen, the windows were boarded up with boards of decayed wood. There was a large metal box my dad called a "ice box" but I learned most people called it a "fridge". It was on its side and its door had broken off which was next it.
My intuition was correct, the front door swung open. I heard at least two voices as they came in.
"Shit, do you think they saw us come in?" I heard one voice, possibly female from what I could tell
Then another one, definitely female. "No I told you, it's too dark for them to see us from that far away."
I heard them rasping and panting from what i could only assume was a long run for cover, that and what they said suggested they were being chased. Which was bad for all of us if what they say was as it seemed.
Before I could try to piece anymore together, they spoke again; "I'm going to search around for supplies, you just rest."
I had little time to act, I dashed as quietly as my leather armour would allow towards the fallen "ice box", I pulled my knife and my .44 revolver from my belt. I climbed into the fridge which thankfully had nothing in it, I pulled the door towards the fridge and covered it as well as I could.
"It seems the stairs are out, I'm not even going to think about climbing those." Said the more feminine voice.
"Just search the backroom, if there's nothing at least we're under a roof," Said the slightly hoarse voice.
I knew what that meant, I slowed my breathing to a steady pace. There was no way I could hide here all night but I felt that this was the best way to deal with these unknowns. My Dad always told me to only make yourself known if you know they're good people or if they're bad enough to kill.
The patter of footsteps on tile echoed in my ears, they were in the doorway from what I could tell. They crept further in, she came to the fridge. I stopped breathing, the later I'm noticed the better I thought. She kneeled down and looked at it, from the gap between the fridge and the door I saw a pair of shining green eyes. They seemed oddly hopeful but that may have just been the drink bringing my wasteful thoughts to the forefront, they also looked quite sad but that was hardly unique out in the wastes.
"Less thinking, more strategizing." I mentally chided myself.
She couldn't see me through the darkness of the inside of the "ice box", but I could see her plain as day. Her clothes looked ragged, which is to be expected of any wastelander whose been out and lived long enough to understand that presentation of oneself is often seen as a waste of time. She had a knife hitched in her belt, not a hunter's knife but more a kitchen knife. Before I could note anything she stood up.
"Theres nothing back here but a fridge that looks looted!" She yelled back at her companion.
"Alright" I heard from the main room. The women turned to leave the kitchen, I let myself breathe again. But as I let it out I heard the voice from the main room again.
"Hey, theres some whiskey on the table… it looks fresh" As she said this her voice became questioning as if to help her think of why a recently opened bottle of whiskey was on a burnt table in a run down house that seemed empty.
I knew what this meant, soon they would realise that someone else was here recently and then they would search again but harder. I only got away that time because the girl was a amatur at scavaging. I needed to act quickly and take the upper hand while they were getting their bearings.
I threw the fridge door open and scurried out, the girl's back was turned to me so I charged and grabbed her. I put my arm around her shoulder and put my knife to her throat with my left hand, with my right I quickly pulled her knife from her belt and threw it to the ground. I put my hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming.
"Great now I've got both of my hands full, if the other one has a gun this could prove problematic" I thought to myself.
I steadily shuffled into the other room hostage in tow, thankfully the other one seemed to be unarmed.
"Oh God, Alma are you okay?" She all but balled out, tears were beginning to pool up in her eyes.
My hostage, whose name was apparently Alma nodded her head furiously as she could with my hand firmly on her mouth. She seemed to beginning to tear up as well, these were not dangerous would have been my first instinct but I've seen tricks like this before, they might just be waiting for me to drop my guard before trying to rob me or kill me.
I wasn't taking the risk.
"What do you want? Are you part of Grim's gang?" She cried, tears openly falling now.
"Ugh..." My throat was hoarse from disuse, how long had it been since I last spoke aloud and not in my head.
"No, I'm not." Is all I could say, Grim was not a name I was familiar with but if I had to guess he didn't get that name for all the good deeds he's done.
"Then what do you want, we don't have anything of worth." At this point I could barely understand what she was saying through the tears.
"I want to know who you are and what you're doing here, who are you running from, who's this Grim character is." I demanded
The girl in my arms hadn't let her tears flow as freely as her companion, I feel as though taking her hostage would have been a smart move if they two were in any way threatening. She may have been inexperienced but she was smart enough to at least try and hide her fear, I respected that I guess.
"Umm… I'm Emi, and the girl you're holding is my sister Alma." She said in a shaky voice.
"Yeah, I get that but why are you here, who is Grim?" I again demanded an answer.
"Ugh… Grim is a raider leader that kidnapped us from our home, we managed to escape before they could do anything to us though." She steadily got more calm as she spoke.
"Are they still after you?" I said bluntly
"Hm… I don't know we ran in the dark, we thought that since most were asleep we'd be fine to just run out of site." She babbled clearly getting more distressed.
I stared at her, hard. She looked back at me for a bit before forcing herself to face away out of fear. Then I looked to the other one in my arms, her eyes were firmly fixated on her sister. From what I could tell this didn't seem like a raider trap, it went on for too long, usually at this point the others that were hiding would have gotten bored by now and attacked.
"I'm going to let you go now, If I hear any kind of screaming or if you try to jump me, I'm putting a bullet in you. Understand?" I calmly informed her
She nodded again, this time less viciously and more cautiously. I pulled the knife from her throat and lifted my arm. She dashed for her sister, they grabbed a hold of each other and went into a tight hug.
"I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?" The one called Emi said to her sister
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for worrying you" Alma sang into Emi's ear.
Whilst this moment of sisterly love was happening, I approached the table. They both were drawn from their moment and stared at me with fear in their eyes.
"W-what are you going to do to us?" Emi squeaked.
"We're not going back to Grim, you can't make us" Alma accused.
"I don't care what you do, I just want my whiskey back" I groaned.
Indeed that was true, whilst whiskey is common enough, that was the last bottle of it I had until I could restock at the next settlement. "Wasting drink in like wasting bullets." something else my Dad always told me.
I took the bottle from the table, it was nearly gone and some of it had spilled in the comotion, so I figured I'd save it until I was closer to a settlement or trading caravan. I stashed in my satchel that hung around my chest, when I looked up from that I noticed the two girls staring at me seemingly bewildered. Only then did it hit me, these girls look really young, like teenager young. They looked healthy as far as I could tell, they had the kind of weight you'd expect of a well of settler, rather than the typical wasteland just underweight type of builds. Their faces beside the puffy eyes showed no real signs of wear, in fact their skin looked quite healthy.
They mentioned being kidnapped but they never mentioned where from, but it didn't take a genius to figure out they didn't come from some rathole like big town. This meant they were taken for ransom, most likely a big one too. Which meant they were definitely being tracked and I have to get out of here.
Quick.
"Well, I'm gone, good luck with your ransom or whatever." As I said this I made a brisk walk for the door.
"W-wait how did you know?" Alma questioned.
"It's really not that hard to tell, you look nothing like the type to wander or to work the wastes. So you must be from somewhere like tenpenny tower or rivet city." Whilst explaining this I kept walking.
"You're right were from Rivet city, and you can't just leave, we're all alone out here" Emi admitted as she ran after me and grabbed my arm.
"Watch me" I ripped my arm from her grasp and reached for the door handle.
I opened to door and I immediately regretted it, just a few metres away from the door was a yao guai. It turned its head towards me and growled, baring its maw. I slammed the door shut and turned around, the girls looked at me like a wild animal.
"Yao Guai, big one" I blurted out.
"A what " They both said in unison.
"Oh Jesus christ just end me now" I said to myself.
A/N: First chapter done I guess, First fanfic i've ever wrote, so the usual criticism is appreciated. Sorry for any and all errors, I've not got anyone to proof read. Thanks.
P.S.: Finally got back round to this after like two years, went back and rewrote some bits and pieces and edited a little but if I missed anything, sorry.