Fallen Angels
Unexpected Angles
"Madison, I'm not taking her.""Why not? She's just a scribe." "She's with the Brotherhood." "She's a girl." "I don't give a fuck what her ethnicity is. I'm not fucking taking her." "Ezeqeel, gender is not an ethnicity." "I don't give a fuck! I'm not taking a Brotherhood broad to the Yankee graveyard."
Alice Christenson sat glumly at a small, metallic table in one of Rivet City's many cramped, dimly lit rooms. Despite the heavy steel door between them, she could clearly hear the hushed but heated conversation taking place in the room next door, and she didn't like the way it was going at all. She appreciated all that Doctor Li, her benefactor, was doing on her behalf, but after hearing the adamant tone of the mercenary captain, Ezeqeel, she was starting to wonder if it was really worth it, or if she was just wasting time and caps.
Silence reigned in the room next door and Alice strained her ears in an effort to listen, even going so far as to pull her shoulder length brown hair back into a short, stubby ponytail. "Not at all." "Where you headed?" "The Commonwealth." "You had enough of the Brotherhood too then?" "That's not the point. All I am asking is that you take Alice up to New York, let her poke around for whatever it is she's looking for, and then bring her back in one piece. She's not a bad girl and she means well."
"You owe me Ezeqeel."
That would be Li, concluded the young scribe, holding her breath to listen.
"You yes, her…no"
The quieter, deeper voice of the merc captain echoed softly.
"Same thing."
A painful silence fell over the room, punctuated by Alice's shaky exhale and sharp intake of breath.
"Ezeqeel, I'm leaving soon; heading north. This will be your last chance to repay me."
Alice felt a slight surge of affection course through her as she heard Madison stand up for her. Though the older scientist had been furious with Elder Lyons about the Brotherhood's involvement in Project Purity, she had harbored no animosity towards the young scribe whom she had shared a room with while taking her brief refuge from the Enclave.
In fact, Alice had developed quite a friendship with the older woman during their time together; so when Elder Lyons had refused to provide the young scribe with an escort to New York, saying that it was too dangerous and held too little to gain, Alice had immediately come to Li for help.
Now however, after being firmly turned down by three different mercenary groups, Alice was starting to lose hope. She couldn't understand why all these mercs were so hesitant to make the trip to Manhattan, or the Yankee Graveyard as they all seemed to call it.
Alice had read several books and manuscripts regarding the post-war condition of New York. Of course, being America's shining figurehead of a city, it had been the first place to get nuked. The anti-missile systems active at the time had been woefully insufficient, and most of the island had been reduced to little more than massive piles of rubble and skeletal, burnt out buildings. Still, much of the underground metro had survived as had many of the basements and underground labs making it a popular and profitable place for scavengers willing to brave the uncontrolled ruins. "It aint a fucking nice place." "I never thought it would be." "I mean what's she looking for? Cause there aint shit there, and what is there shoots at you." "Why don't you ask her that." "So are Shamsiel and Armarus but you still let them come with you, besides, she's twenty." "That's different" "How so?" "They can shoot for starters and have combat experience." "I'm sure she has talents too." "Probably, but I doubt they are applicable in the Graveyard." "Look, just go talk to her,"
"You're going to get me fucking killed Madison."
Came the barely audible response from the room over, snapping the young girl's attention back to the present. Thank god for metallic walls, she silently thought. Echo's traveled so easily on the ship that a private conversation was practically unheard of.
"I don't think so."
Came Li's calm reply.
"You ever been to New York?"
There was a short moment of silence before the older scientist responded.
"No."
There was another pause and Alice could almost hear the sigh coming from the other room.
"Madison, she's just a kid."
This time the moment of silence stretched on for much longer. Alice sat tense as a board, her breath coming in short bursts as she waited for the answer. Finally, it came. "Alright?" "Alright I'll talk to the fucking kid!" "Really?" "Yeah really." "Thank you Ezeqeel, I…we really appreciate this." "Yeah, yeah. Is she in the other room?" "Yes." "Perfect."
"Alright."
The ship creaked as the two speakers in the next room stood up followed quickly by the sound of walking feet reverberating off the metal floor. Quickly trying to hide her excitement, Alice slumped back in her chair and threw up what she hoped would pass for a nervously eager expression. Inside her chest however, her heart was pumping so fast and loud that she was positive it would give her away to all but the least observant of people. There was a creaking sound as the locking wheel at on the door rotated two full circles, then the door swung open.
In through the open portal stepped a man in his early or mid thirties, it was hard to tell. He had short black hair that stuck up every which way and a well trimmed goatee that contrasted so strikingly with the unkemptness of his hair it made her double take. He wore baggy combat pants and what looked like military grade boots, though where he had found military grade boots in a wearable condition was beyond her. A black vest with several pockets that looked as though they had been hand sewn on hung loosely on his shoulders, revealing a wrinkled, white, button up shirt that was missing the top three buttons beneath it. Also under the vest Alice could just make out the handles of two pistols that seemed to be hanging from a makeshift set of shoulder holsters.
Yes, he would do nicely, she thought to herself as she surveyed the merc captain. In fact, so far he had lived up to everything she had expected when Li had described him except for one thing. Alice had been expecting some big, broad chested, and heavy jawed ex-Brotherhood soldier. Instead, the man standing before her had a strong but slight build, probably no taller than five eight or nine but with the lean muscle of an athlete and shaded eyes that seemed to look at her from a long way away.
She visibly gulped as those shaded eyes raked across her. They felt probing in a way, like they were invading the most private and intimate corners of her mind and she dropped her own eyes to the table in discomfort.
"You heard us talking." It wasn't a question.
Shakily, Alice nodded.
Ezeqeel sighed, pulling out the chair opposite the girl and sitting down. A long, awkward silence stretched between them. Finally looking up to see what was wrong Alice found herself staring straight into those shaded eyes again. She gulped again and started to look away but stopped herself; she needed to appear strong for this. Slowly, she looked back at the man, willing herself not to look away.
"Why do you want to go to the Graveyard?" Ezeqeel said finally, breaking the ever stretching awkward silence.
"I need to get to the Sinai Hospital in central New York," Alice burst out, grateful at finally being allowed to explain herself. "Before the war started a team of medical scientists were working on a project for Med-tek. They were working on a highly potent radiation removal product, one so strong that it was supposed to make RadAway look like…"
She was cut off midway however by Ezeqeel's upraised hand. "Spare me the history lesson kid; I never liked that shit much. Baseline, you need to get to Sinai Hospital to get some shit. But let me ask you this: What makes you so sure it's still there?"
"Well," started Alice, a little put out at having been cut off, "about a month ago another scribe talked to two scavs in Megaton and they said they were poking around up in New Yor…" She paused and rolled her eyes, "in the Graveyard and had found a sealed vault underneath the Sinai Hospital. Even if it's not the lab the manuscripts talk about, which I highly doubt, it's bound to have something useful in it. Why else would it have been sealed away?"
Ezeqeel sighed and pulled out a cigarette as he watched the unbridled eagerness on the girls face. "Look," he said, clamping the cigarette between his lips and fishing in his pockets for matches, "if we go, and if we actually make it to Sinai Hospital, the chances of your vault being untouched and unopened are next to none, if it is in fact, even real and not just some bullshit those scavs were pulling out of their asses for the sake of a good story." He pulled out his matches and struck one, taking several drags on the cigarette to get it properly lit.
"Now," he continued, french inhaling his smoke, "are you sure you want to go to the Graveyard, because once you're on that island, all filters are off. Aint nobody out there trying to do the least bit of good, and there are a lot of people out there. Are you sure that's the situation you want to be in for three or four days?"
Alice's mouth was dry but she nodded fervently, she did want this, even if she hadn't fully explained her reasoning to the merc. Ezeqeel eyed her with those calculatingly cold eyes for a moment longer as the smoke drifted in between them then nodded approvingly.
"Do you have a gun?" he queried, returning the cigarette to the corner of his mouth (she hadn't even noticed him take it out).
Alice shrugged and reached into her rucksack beside the table, pulling out a small .32 magnum and setting it on the table. "I have this."
Ezeqeel looked sourly down at the gun, "Yeah, that's not gunna cut it. I'll see if I can't scrape you up something better."
Alice looked up at him in surprise, "Wait, you mean you really will help me?"
Ezeqeel, who had just rose to his feet, looked down at her in mild confusion. "No shit, I told Madison I would didn't I? Or have you just been busting my balls for the past twenty minutes." When he received only a blank stare he spread his arms and cocked his head to the side, "What? Is your shit ready?"
When he nodded he rolled his eyes, though in mock exasperation or real she couldn't tell, "Well then lets go honey, grab your shit."
"Wait, what?" Alice was so confused, everything was happening way too fast for her to comprehend. "Well, almost. I still have to grab one or two things. And, and, and…" There were so many questions racing through her head at that moment. What should she bring to eat? How were they getting there? Should she buy a pack brahmin?
So many things, but her window of opportunity for a Q&A passed as quickly as it came when Ezeqeel walked past her and into the cramped hall of the ship that made up Rivet City. Alice, with no alternative options, cast one final, grateful glance towards the room where Li was, snatched up her rucksack, and hurried after the mercenary captain.
Contrary to his abrupt words and tone, Ezeqeel didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to get off the ship. Rather than leading her upward, towards the ships entrance or the Weatherly Hotel, the merc captain led her down several flights of stairs and out into the large room that made up the Rivet City Marketplace.
"Excuse me," said Alice, raising her voice to be heard above the busy chatter of voices that filled the room, "but where are we going?"
"To meet the angles," replied Ezeqeel, not looking back as he cut a bee line across the room for the Muddy Rudder.
"Who are the angles?" Alice looked around Ezeqeel trying to see the angles for herself.
"Hey Eazy…who's the chink?"
The call came from a slender blond woman sitting on the back of one of the Muddy Rudders many chairs. She had short, dirty blond hair and long bangs that covered the left side of her face. The woman had several piercings in both her nose and her one visible ear, as well as several loose rings of metal in her lip. Despite the excess piercings, Alice had to admit that the woman was stunningly beautiful. She had a slender, compact body that seemed to scream athletic superiority and sensuality at the same time. She wore a tight, brown, long sleeve shirt and light colored khaki pants that had several patches of an obviously different material. Alice was surprised to see the tight clothing, most people in the wastes wore whatever was at hand, and rarely did you see close fitting clothing on anyone but raiders. Actually, had the girl been wearing the dark leathers so common to raiders, Alice probably would have mistaken her for one, what with all the piercings and the tattoos she could see creeping out from beneath the tight shirt.
"She's our new contractor Sariel," replied Ezeqeel, pulling two more chairs over from another table and sitting down, gesturing for Alice to do the same, "so shape the fuck up."
"Great," grumbled the woman, sliding from the back of her chair down into the seat proper.
"Angles," said Ezeqeel, ignoring Sariel's grumbling, "this is our newest client, Alice Christenson."
"Kid," he said, looking down at Alice, "these are the angles"
The angles or "Fallen Angles" as the group called themselves, were about as far away from Alice's expectations as their leader had been. The group was comprised of six individuals, four men and two women, including both Ezeqeel and Sariel.
Bezaliel, an enormous, dark skinned man with a series of long ropey dreadlocks that hung midway down his back and were tied back with a strip of white cloth, probably fit closest to the young scribe's preconceived expectations of a merc. He wore a loose cloth vest that looked like at some point had been an actual shirt and carried a large magnum in a holster at his waist.
The man sitting between Bezaliel and Sariel was a short man named Arakiel with short, spiky, black hair. In their brief introductory conversation Alice couldn't help but notice that he spoke barely at all, only responding politely when asked a direct question.
In stark contrast with Arakiel's silence was Shamsiel, a young bubbly girl with a long, messy braid of auburn hair that hung to her low back. The girls bubbly attitude was infectious, and Alice couldn't help but feel more comfortable around her. They were about the same age, and Alice found herself instantly taking a liking to her. While she didn't have the obvious womanly attributes as Sariel, the young merc could easily have been described as cute.
The last member of the group was also young, probably in his early twenties or late teens. He had shaggy brown hair that hung loosely to his shoulders and a small, immature beard that was little more than loose scruff. When he introduced himself to her as Armarus though, the smile he gave her sent a wave of tingles through her body and made her legs feel week beneath her. She couldn't tell if it was his charming smile or just general aura he gave off, but whatever it was, it made her whole body burn pleasantly.
Bezaliel, who had sat back and pulled out his cigarettes after introducing himself to Alice, sat forward again as the introductions finished and fixed Ezeqeel with an intense stare. "All introductions aside mon, weh ih lilly miss Alice wanting fram wi?"
Alice struggled to understand the man's heavy accent but Ezeqeel seemed to have no problem with it.
"Well that's where it gets more interesting," he said, lighting his own cigarette. "Miss Christenson needs to go to the Graveyard; Sinai Hospital, midway down central park to be exact."
Alice could feel the mood of the entire group change as the Graveyard was mentioned. Bezaliel sat up straighter, Sariel's lips tightened into rigid lines, Shamsiel squeaked in surprise and Armarus coughed out a huge cloud of smoke, sending him into a coughing fit. The only person other than Ezeqeel who seemed unaffected by it was Arakiel, who didn't even seem to bat an eyelid.
"We can't go back there," said Sariel, her earlier scornful sarcasm having vanished from her voice, "remember what happened last time?"
Bezaliel shot a series of small smoke rings out of his mouth, "Dat be risky mon; were gween fee waan way more ammo dan laas time."
"Well," said the merc captain, rubbing his forehead tiredly and exhaling a cloud of smoke, "that's where were going. Arakiel, I want you to go get the Ammo. Get all of Flak's 5.56, his .32, his 50, and his ten mill. Other than that just load up on any specialty ammo we need."
The short man nodded and slid his chair back, standing up.
"Meet us in the rooms when you're done, and be quick about it, I want to make it to Riley's compound tonight."
Again the man nodded and walked off in the direction of Flak & Shrapnel's weapons and ammo.
"Right," continued Ezeqeel, turning back to the rest of the group, "Bezaliel, see if you can't get us a brahmin cart or something a little faster for the trip. Shamsiel, you help Alice get anything she needs before we head out, but I want to see you both in the rooms in thirty minutes so make it fast. Sariel, Armarus you two come with me."
As everyone stood in preparation to do their assigned tasks, Alice turned to Shamsiel. "I couldn't help but notice that all of your names are the names of fallen angles from the Book of Enoch. I was just curious, are those your real names or just what you call yourselves?"
The bubbly young merc smiled and started to respond but Sariel cut her off from across the table. "Look at this Eazy, little miss scribe knows her shit." She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward, fixing Alice with an icy stare. "As far as your concerned honey, those are our real names."
"But," said Alice with a confused expression, looking over at Ezeqeel, "how do you know about the Book of Enoch? I don't mean that offensively but not many people in the wastes are familiar with religious texts, especially not pre-war ones, and I thought you had said you hated history?"
The only response she got was a sly smile as the merc captain walked away.
Sariel's scathing look and Amarus's apologetic one passed over her as they both turned and followed Ezeqeel. Alice felt hurt and frustrated at being ignored and treated like a child but held it in as she watched the three mercenaries walk away.
"Don't worry about here," said Shamsiel from behind her, "she's a bitch to everyone."
"But why are you all named after people from the Book of Enoch?" asked Alice, turning around to look at the young merc.
Shamsiel shrugged, "After you have been with the Angles for long enough, Eazy gives you your name. We're all named after one of the twenty leaders of those fallen from heaven."
"But why?"
"Ask Ezeqeel," said the young merc, turning around and skipping off through the tables, "but come on, let's go get your shit."
Authors note: Well…here goes, my first stab at writing fallout fanfiction. It will have references, and even brief cameos from cannon characters, but will not focus on them and will mostly be set outside of the DC wastes. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, as are any reviews so don't feel bad about leaving a big fat review after this. Any questions feel free to message me or leave it in a review.
Thanks-Valas169