Matt sighed as he reached into his dusters inside pocket for his pack of cigarettes and lighter. His other hand taking the strap of his scoped assault rife. Slipping it onto his shoulder.
Taking one of the cigarettes out of the pack he lowered his bandanna. He raised the cigarette to his lips, resting it between his lips. He cupped his hands around the lighter.
CLICK
CLICK
CLICK
"It never lights first time" he muttered to himself. Shaking the lighter, in an effort to get some of the 200-year-old fuel to soak into the wick.
CLICK
The orange flames of the flight moved slightly with the breeze as he took one of his hands away. He pulled the flame to his cigarette, the old paper lighting quickly.
Looking though the smoke that now surrounded himhe looked across the vast expanse in front of him and taking in his surroundings, he took the first long drag.
As he looked south he could see across the capital wasteland, the sun was glaring close to the middle of the day.
He looked to see what makes up this area of the wasteland. Rock and dust mostly, but as well as these landmarks that were in any area of the wasteland, there stood a pre-war military instillation to his left, with several satellite dishes on the hills to the right.
Brining his arm up and checking his Pip-Boy to make sure they were both marked. Behind him lay the tunnel to the Pitt the place he had called home for the last year, taken as slave and now returning as a new man, with a new mission. He was lord Asher's favourite, truly trusted to give sage advice and to plan. It is one of his plans that had brought him back to this slice of post- apocalyptica.
He looked attentively at his Pip-Boy, planning how to get make his way back south, back to the life that he had been taken from. He though back to when he was taken by the slavers, the memory of what a streak of weak piss he was back then. Vault suit and a rusty pistol were all he had to his name. The Pitt had made him, forged him into the man he was now. He knew now that he could do what he couldn't then, he had the will and the skills that he needed to not just survive but thrive in the wasteland.
After a while of looking at his Pip-Boy he had decided the best route that he could take to get back south. By the time he had decided his route the cigarette had burnt down to its filter, taking a final drag and dropping it to the floor he lifted his boot and crushed the embers of the flame. Reminded of the hundreds of times he had done that, he couldn't help but think of his old smoking and drinking buddy Everett, the foreman of the Pitt. Matt smiled, a sad smile thinking it was unlikely that he would see Everett or of the people he had come to know so well again. Life was short and harsh in the Pitt. The people that mad up that, well kingdom is a strong world but that's what it is were strange breed. Mad, often deranged but they made a brotherhood of sorts tied to one another through mutual need.
Looking up from his Pip-Boy he saw the small party making their way up towards the tunnel, around half a mile away he reckoned. Seven people in total, well three people and four ramshackle malnourished slaves.
They wouldn't last long he thought, I'm glad I don't have to present these to Asher. Those clowns at the Falls are pushing their luck, with this crap merchandise. He thought.
Turning round he started back to the shacks next to the train tunnel. Inside the first of the shacks lay two figures, he quickly kicked them both. Earning a couple of grunts and a couple of colourful works from the smaller of the two figures as she stood to get ready.
"Hey get up you lazy shits, the Paradise Falls boys are here" he said as he picked up one of the nuka cola's they had brought with them out of the supplies backpack. As much as he liked the ritual of cigarettes, he hated the taste. Taking in a mouthful of the liquid and spitting on the still non-moving larger figure.
Earning a laugh from the smaller figure.
"See I'm goanna miss this shit" she laughed as she gathered her rife from where she left it resting.
"Awwww, I'm goanna miss you too Mona" replied Matt with a wide smile.
Mona missed his smile as she tuned to ready the equipment that they would need to get the slaves back to Pitt. She was going through the collars that would be used to keep the salves inline.
With Mona turned Matt, couldn't help but look at her bare skin, covered in sores and dropping off in some places.
Some ghouls had better skin then her Matt reflected.
"Hey Mona, he really is going to miss you with the look in those eyes. He can't keep them off you" chuckled Phantom pulling on sat on his boots on his makeshift bed roll.
"Leave the poor boy alone, you know he's not enough man to deal with me" she shot back looking over her shoulder with a grin.
"Only in your dream Mona" replied Matt. Finishing his nuka cola and throwing in onto the tunnel wall. Smashing as if to drive the point home.
Mona turned round now holding four slave collars rolling her eyes,
"No need to be so dramatic"
He just smiled at her comment flashing his white teeth that he knew were her weak spot.
"Come on we best go meet these fucks" Phantom said standing up and picking up his rifle, which had been leaning on the wall of the shack.
By the time the three of them had walked back to the hill that Matt had been stood on. The arriving party were only fifty meters away. Mona and Phantom, carried on down the slight incline to meet their guests.
"STOP THERE" yelled Matt. "WEPONS IN THE AIR, YOU KNOW THE DEAL"
The slavers raised their weapons into the air, and walked towards the Pitt raiders.
"What you don't trust us?" asked one of the slavers in a mocking tone as they came closer. He looked to be in his thirties which in his line of work made him a veteran.
"So much for hospitality" cracked a younger looking slaver, around sixteen. Matt gave this one a longer look then the rest, the boy was twitchy, looking to the older one.
Trying to win approval from the older one thought Matt. Shame he's doing it with shit jokes. The young ones are always too eager and he looks high as a fucking kite. Matt sighed as the slavers closed the gap between the two groups.
The other two slavers held their tongues, either because they didn't find their friends funny or had to deal with them since they left Paradise Falls. Either way Matt didn't care. These slavers looked to be around mid-twenties. All of them were wearing a number of different materials as armour, with metal and leather fusing together. The standard fair of the Paradise Falls mob.
Not sure how much protection that would give you in a firefight, Matt thought. He trusted in his own combination of a leather duster with light weight combat armour sown throughout it and a pre-war ballistic vest. He'd found it within an old police station while raiding to the north of the Pitt.
By now the slavers had come to a stop in front of Phantom and Mona.
"Alright get them in the pens" said Phantom after giving the slaves a quick once over and waving over Matt. "Then let's drink and toast to another painless and bloodless transition" Phantom said grinning showing his rotten teeth.
Phantom engaged the older of the slavers in conversation and walked towards a number of upturned crates around the burnt out campfire from the previous night. Two of the slavers followed while one of the previously quiet slavers pushed the first of the slaves towards the pen on the far side of the small camp site.
Mona and Matt followed from behind and the slaver walked ahead of the group towards the slave pen on the far side of the camp, taking a sip from a bottle of whiskey as he went.
When the slaves were safely in the pen, the slaver un did the claps on each's collar. When he had finished this he turned to Matt and Mona who were waiting at the door to the pen, taking their weapons from their shoulders and leaving them outside the pen.
"They're all yours"
"How kind" Matt grumbled in response
Mona shot him a dirty look. Matt knew he shouldn't be snappy with the slaver, one wrong word and this was a fight to the death rather than a sale.
The slaver simply grunted in response and pushed his way past them and towards his friends who were now toasting to the Pitt and to Paradise Falls.
"You need to be careful, as pretty as that mouth is, it'll get you into trouble. And what you goanna do when we ain't around to help your sorry ass?" Mona said as she clipped the first of the slaves with their new Pitt collar.
Matt just shrugged and looked towards Phantom just as he was taking a hit from a jet inhaler. Matt shuddered at the sight.
"Hey golden boy it's your turn" Mona said as she walked away from the last slave who now had their collar firmly in place.
"What? Oh yeah." Matt said trying to regain his thoughts from where they had wandered.
"Idiot" Mona laughed as she walked out the pen towards the alcohol and drugs.
Matt turned to face the slaves in the pen, taking his eyes off Mona as she pick up a bottle of beer and sat down with the group.
He remembered what it was like being them, terrified and alone unsure if you were going to live or die. But he had become more then those fears; he was a solider of the Pitt the favourite of Lord Asher. He had bested the arena, raided a hundred towns, crushed a slave revolt and inspired hope where there was non. He looked at the slaves with new eyes, these didn't understand the gifts that the Pitt could bestow, it forged people into what they were meant to be to what they truly are if they are given freedom. Freedom to prove yourself not some abstract notion like pre-war America had.
Turning round he picked up the clipboard that was resting on a barrel behind. He flicked through the sheets on the clipboard to ensure they were all there. He hated doing interviews with the slaves but it was the best to find out what their skills were and ensured accurate records. One of things he had advised Asher to start doing. The only problem was Harley any of the Pitt raiders could read.
The noise from the small gathering rose as they told more and more outlandish stories.
Jesus, I wish someone else here could read or write, save me from doing this. He thought.
Turning back to the slaves, who had all backed into the far side of the pen, as if that would save them if he meant any ill towards them.
"YOU" he barked pointing at a young male. "Come here"
The slave looked to the others with pleading eyes.
"COME HERE" he repeated harsher.
The slave shuffled across the pen towards Matt his eyes downcast.
"Name?" Matt asked.
"Daviddddd" the slave said with a stutter of fear.
Matt wrote it down.
"Age?"
"Twenty-" he paused "I think"
Matt sighed, then shrugged and wrote it down.
"What did you do before you were a slave?"
"I lived at home"
Matt didn't write, he looked at the man waiting.
The slave looked panicked
"we, we, grew stuff" he managed to stutter out.
"Farmer" Matt made a note. "Right get back to the wall"
"What's going to happen to us? Where are we going? Who are you?" David fired all at once suddenly finding courage.
"Back to the Wall" Matt repeated with indifference without looking up from his clipboard.
"Buttututut we need to know, what do you want from us?" he said taking a step forward.
Matt quickly snapped his clipboard back with his left hand and grabbed David with his right.
"You won't know a fucking thing till we tell you, don't piss, don't cry don't shit without our say so. God help me if you ever don't follow my instructions again I'll break your fucking legs and leave you in the sun for the Yao guai." he spat mere inches from the man's face.
Matt drew his head back, head-butted the man so his legs gave out under him, splitting his nose and leaving a smear of blood down Matt's face.
"NOW GET BACK TO THE FUCKING WALL" he shouted as he wiped the man's blood from his face with the back of his hand. The other slaves winced trying harder to not look at Matt or the man on the floor.
David shuffled back while still on the floor, still not fully recovered from the blow he received.
Matt brought the clipboard back up and checked all of the information was correct. Before finally writing Grunt in the final recommendations box, sealing the fate of the young man, he would work till he died and was fed to the Troggs.
Looking up from his clip board he yelled "YOU" point towards a middle aged woman, who was trying to comfort the younger women who was crying.
And so it went till the final slave had their information recorded and the recommendations were made. Walking out of the pen, picking up his rife, he had one last look at the slaves, before locking the pen. The man had stopped looking so scared and he could now only see hate between the eyes, while the two women simply sat in silence and started at the ground. Too dehydrated to cry, he thought, that or his speech had got to them and they were waiting for permission. The fourth slave, a younger man, eighteen if Matt remembered right, simply stared into the distance. He's slow, must have been kicked or dropped, those fuckers have sold us an idiot.
As Matt walked over to the small gathering he could see that the slavers had drank most of the supplies that the Pitt group had brought with them.
"All done?" asked the older slaver, looking up at the approaching man.
"Yeah all done. We ain't paying the full rate for this lot" Matt said as he turned towards Phantom. Ignoring the slaver
"Why something wrong?" asked the younger slaver, his tone dripping in sarcasm.
"Phantom, they sold us an idiot, he can carry but anything more, he's useless." Matt said ignoring the slaver.
Out the corner of his eye he saw the younger man's hand twitch towards his hip, where a rusty 32 sat in a holster. But fell back to his lap just as fast. His face betraying that he wasn't getting the attention he wanted.
Jumpy
Phantom turned towards the older of the slavers "you know we ani't goanna pay full rate"
"Hey their top quality!" the young man stood up knocking over one of the other slavers drink breaking the conversation he was having with Mona.
"Calm down" retorted the older slaver, not taking his eyes from Phantom.
"No their trying to screw us, I ain't goanna have it" turning towards Matt "it's him he's just trya nock the price down, you robbing fuck"
The slaver reached for his pistol "I'll teach you, you fu-"
BANG
The young slaver dropped to the floor clutching at his hand now missing most of his fingers. Parts of which fell to the floor along with his pistol.
All faces turned towards Matt who was holding his now smoking pistol. For two heartbeats the site was silent, until a piecing scream cut the air.
"ARRRRRRRR, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR KILL THEM, LOOK WHAT THEY DID" the young man screamed.
Matt placed his pistol back in his thigh holster, while the older slaver turned back to Phantom to discuss a new price for the slaves. The other two slavers simply shrugged restarted their conversation with Mona who was trying not the laugh at the man now crying on the floor clutching his hand.
"What the fuck are you doing, they shot me" the young slaver pleaded at the older man.
The older spoke first "Their house their rules, no guns, but I told you that, dint I. Business first kid." Still not dropping his gaze from Matt who had now holstered his gun. Showing he didn't want any more bloodshed.
"You need him?" asked Matt nodding at the young man who was mouthing words with no sound coming out.
"Narr, with that hand he's fucked" replied the older man waving towards the downed slaver
"Looks like he's all yours" Phantom said looking at Matt. Matt took a step "Wait, any other issue with the merchandise?" Phantom asked.
"Non" Matt said as he walked toward the young man, the man's eyes went wide with fear.
The young man went for his pistol with his left hand, but Mona had moved round and placed her foot on top of it.
"Why?" he pleaded, looking up at Mona and the two other slavers who were still sat down behind her.
Mona laughed.
The man eyes now darting between everyone, backed up until he sat with his back to one of the shacks. Matt soon closed the distance between them. Pulling his 9mm pistol's hammer back he looked at the young man.
"Any interesting last words kid?"
"Fuck y-"
BANG
"Didn't think you would." Matt grumbled as he returned the pistol to his side and turned back to the group who merely glanced round when the shot rang out.
Walking towards where Mona had retaken her seat with the other two raiders, Matt grabbed one of the few beers left and sat in the kids now empty spot.
"See that why I call him golden boy" Matt heard Mona saying to the two raiders.
"What you saying now Mona?" Matt asked as he took a long swig of his beer.
"Just saying how you finished off that cunt Wernher, you know singing your praises, you cold blooded fuck." Mona giggled clearly high, from either the jet or the sight and thought of violence.
"Mona you couldn't sing to save your fucking life" Phantom shouted, over hearing the conversation.
Matt laughed, the joke diffusing the tension that had built inside him. Mona tuned, feigning offence and threw one of the empty bottles lying at her feet towards Phantom. The bottle sailed over the raiders head smashing on the ground behind.
"Fuck you" Mona laughed.
Matt laughed again, looking round at the group; to his left were Mona and two of the slavers talking, laughing, and drinking. While to his right sat Phantom with the slavers leader, now toasting to their successful deal. Matt held rank on Phantom, but Phantom had been doing this all his life and could charm a deathclaw.
Matt would miss them and this life. He knew when he came back things would be different, he would have real responsibilities, not just, kill them, raid this town, pick up some slaves. But worse was that he knew, as he looked at the drink in his hand, the people in the south wanted him to be something different to what he was. He couldn't go back to the brotherhood as the man he was; they wanted a man of principles, their principles. They were a relic holding principles that just get you killed he thought, smiling a sad smile. But he needed their help to finish his mission. In the morning he would say goodbye to his friends and goodbye to the life he loved. Did he agree with every part of life in the Pitt? No, he hated the drugs the torture that some took pleasure in. But he loved the freedom the ability to what you wished when he wished. The life that had changed him from the scared vault boy who knew nothing of the world, into a man who could defeat anything put against him.
"Hey get out your own head. I know you're gone tomorrow, so now we get fucked up and celebrate" Mona shouted snapping Matt out of his thoughts.
"Your right" Matt said downing the rest of his beer and reaching for another. Looking over at Mona he could see a small smile on her lips as he took the bottle cap off the next beer.
As went the rest of the night, drink after drink. If the scene had been viewed from a distance it would just look like a small number of raiders partying until the early hours. With only the buzzing of fly's around the corpse of a young man distracting from the festivities. Little would they realise that they were viewing a turning point in the fate of not just the Capital wasteland but also the Commonwealth.