Jukka

by JJShurte

An unfortunate soul, who has lead nothing short of a Jinxed life, finds himself caught up in the greater events of the Wasteland. As always, if something can go wrong for him then it does so - with gusto.

From the day he was born, Jukka hadn't been much but an unlucky son of a bitch. He always figured he could have been something different in life, something better, if he hadn't been jinxed. So once more that's what he told himself as he looked out across the wasteland on his thirty-fourth birthday, with a noose around his neck.

Jukka was born in New Reno, on December 17th, 2128. Contrary to popular belief his mother wasn't a whore, she'd damn well tried to be one but no one was willing to pay to screw a woman that ugly. She'd tried her best to be a junkie too but she never had enough caps for a second fix, she did manage to have the shakes though. No, Jukka's mother was nothing more than a beggar who'd occasionally find someone drunk enough to throw a shot in her, hoping that afterwards they'd show some pity and give her whatever spare caps they had for services rendered.

She could never tell Jukka who his father was. Whoever it had been beat her so badly afterwards that when she awoke the next afternoon she'd lost a week of memory. Jukka stopped asking about his father when he was six, mainly because he didn't really care anymore but also because that's when his mother died from eating a box of irradiated Cram.

She died the way she'd lived, laying in the gutter covered in her own blood and shit.

Life actually got a little easier for Jukka after his mother passed away, it was still the sort of childhood that would make even a raider wince but at least he didn't have a second mouth to feed. As they were all he knew, the streets of New Reno were his home, it's many abandoned buildings and sewage tunnels his feeding ground.

Despite himself, Jukka smiled when he thought about the tunnels that ran below the streets of New Reno. There were always plenty of rats to eat and if he'd stolen a Nuka Cola he knew that if he made it to the sewers then he was home free, nobody ever followed him down into the sewers. There had been a ghoul that lived under East Side that looked out for him and showed him around the city from time to time. When she'd decided that he was old enough, the ghoul…

"Goodbye, Fucker!" someone behind him spat.

Whoever it was had kicked the upturned lockbox out from under him and he dropped a foot, suspended in the air by the rope around his neck. Shit, Jukka thought, my last thoughts on Earth are about fucking a ghoul…

As usual he hadn't been lucky enough for the drop to snap his neck which meant that he'd have to hang there and wait until he suffocated. He couldn't hear and his vision was blurring but he was able to make out the blotted shape of one of the mercs, only to wonder why he was lying down on the ground. For some reason one of the other mercs was using him as cover, standing in front of him and shooting at something behind him.

Jukka was just about to pass out when something, something big, grabbed him around the waist and lifted him up. He gasped for air as the noose gave way just a little but was choking once more when whatever picked him up, pulled him back and swung him at the last merc. Hard.

All the mercs were down, dead or out cold, Jukka couldn't believe his luck. Hells yeah! He thought to himself. About time I had some good-. He was spun around and faced with a gut wrenching sight.

Two of the biggest, ugliest creatures he had ever seen were standing in front of him, they stood over him even while he was hanging a foot off the ground. They were men in the loosest sense of the word, two arms, two legs and a head. Beyond their abnormal height they had the bulk to match, sickly greenish skin and faces that looked to have been horrifically melted into a permanent scowl.

"Izze'ded?" One said to the other, its voice was deep and coarse.

"Nah, eeztil kikin," the second replied. This one had the same rough voice, but its upper lip was pulled back with leather straps that wrapped around its head. Jukka couldn't decide if this made the monster look angry or absurdly happy.

"Umkae, kut em doun. Ull chek de uvers."

"Dud yoo brung de cudder?"

"Wa?! Yoo weer ment ta brung et!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Wuz too!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Shuddup! Sea uf e az wun on im."

Jukka was suspended in the air, swinging to and fro like a piñata, his life fading away as the two monstrous morons had their conversation. Eventually one of them grabbed him by the waist and pulled him up so they were face to melted face.

"Oi, yu godda cutta?" it asked.

"No?" Jukka managed to splutter as air once more rushed in and out of his lungs.

"Doone usk im! Juz lok!" The one with the leather straps said as it picked up one of the mercs and flopped him around for a bit before dropping him to the ground.

Jukka saw his chance and he took it, he slammed his boot into the monsters face as it was bent over and looking him up and down. Apart from letting Jukka drop once again, the monster hadn't budged at inch from the blow. In fact the only evidence that anything at all had happened was a small trickle of blood that was now leaking from its nose.

"Ow!" The monster blurted.

Choking once more, Jukka barely had time to regret his actions as the monster pulled back a meaty fist before slamming it into his chest. The rope snapped and what little air there was in his lungs was blasted out as he went tumbling back down into the dirt.

Part 2

He was drifting from one place to the one after, watching himself from above. He saw himself as a young man, his pinkie being chopped off by some gangbanger outside of New Reno, he'd been unable to pay his gambling debts. He saw himself as a child, the other street kids picking on him, making jokes about how his mother once fucked a dog. He saw himself close to the man as he was now, stumbling through a mine that'd he'd fallen down into. He watched as a much younger self lowered himself down between the ghouls open legs and began to thrust repeatedly.

That woke him up.

"Shit, I wish I could forget that…" Jukka muttered.

He wasn't even aware of his surroundings but someone was already telling him to shut up, while someone else was begging him to keep it down. He tried to ask what was going on but someone had shoved the heel of their boot into his mouth the second he opened it.

"Jukka, you fucker!" A somewhat familiar voice hissed. "Just lay there and shut the hell up, I'd really rather not piss these things off!"

He took a moment to bring his senses back and to truly appreciate the numerous horrible yet distinct tastes that covered the boot heel in his mouth, before looking around. It was night time, that night or one after he didn't know but there was a fire nearby. The fire was ringed by at least twenty other people all bound by the wrists with anything from string to power cords to barbed wire, Jukka wasn't surprised when he looked down and saw that he was one of the unlucky ones.

He blinked several times before noticing that the owner of the boot in his mouth was one of the mercs that had tried to hang him. He grunted at the merc, who somehow understood Jukka's meaning of 'get this boot the fuck out of my mouth, please!'

"What the hell's happening?!" Jukka whispered.

"They're taking us somewhere, somewhere north I think. Rest of my crew are dead, the ones that got us brought us back to this lot, looks like they were all caught by those other freaks." The merc said.

"There's more?!" Jukka gasped.

"Yeah, looks like at least six of the damn things."

"What the hell are they?"

"How the fuck should I know!?" The merc hissed, he quickly looked around before calming down. "Look, I've been talking to some of the others-"

"What? No!" Jukka spat. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't fucking jumped me outside of Shady Sands this shit never would have happened!"

"And if you hadn't tried to rob Gizmo, we wouldn't of had to fucking jump you and my friends would still be alive." The merc replied. "Dick head…"

Jukka looked at him for a moment as he mulled it over in his brain, finding himself reluctantly nodding. "Fine," he sighed. "What were you saying?"

"I was saying that I was talking to some of the others here, most are just scavengers or wasters, but there's a chick over there who recons she runs with the Khans and those two over there are caravan guards outta the Hub." The merc shrugged. "It ain't much but I recon we could probably make a run for it, least one of us might make it."

"That's your plan?" Jukka balked. "Run off into the night and hope the giant mother fuckers don't catch us? That's the dumbest fucking thing I've heard today, I'm fucking ashamed that I got caught by such an amateur."

"Fuck you!" The merc snarled, "We did catch you, so if we're such fucking amateurs then what does that say about you?"

"Nothing but bad luck…" Jukka mused as he looked out into the night.

The things were close, they were standing just out of the firelight and the merc had been right, unless there were more out on patrol there were only six of them. 'Only' six… Jukka thought to himself, The lot of us would be lucky to take out just one! They were hard to make out, the shadows played across their misshapen faces and Jukka couldn't decide if they were standing guard or just staring at whatever was in front of them.

"Fine then, how about this?" The merc tried again. "We get the others to run off in all different directions and in the confusion we just sneak off. How's that?"

"Huh? I pretty much figured that's what we were gonna do anyways?"

"Oh…"

"Yeah, so it's still a stupid idea!" Jukka spat. "Look at that kid over there, can't even be fifteen and you wanna sacrifice her just so you can save your own ass?! Hell and you're meant to be the good guy…"

"And you call yourself a raider…" the merc shook his head. "Getting all worked up over one little girl."

"Well pardon me for having a conscience!"

"You're a raider, you're not meant to have a conscience you dumb fuck!" The merc shouted. "You rape, kill and torture for the fun of it! At least that's what real raiders do anyways."

Jukka just glared at the merc, a nerve having been hit. Jukka had tried almost every occupation in the wasteland, being a raider was his last shot at an anything that allowed for decent future prospects. In all honesty he was pretty shitty at it, he was ok with the stealing but the killing never sat well with him.

One of the freaks stomped up to the ring of prisoners and bellowed "Ooz tallkin? Wez sed nut ta tulk!"

"It was him!" The merc said quickly, pointing at Jukka.

Ah crap…

"Shuddup!" The freak roared.

Jukka couldn't tell which freak it was, but it curled its fingers into a meaty fist the same way the last one did and then slammed it down onto his face. The last thing Jukka heard was the merc quietly chuckling to himself.

Part 3

He was fourteen again and he was trying to pick the lock on the back door of the small church on New Reno's west side. There was never a lot there but people usually donated a decent amount on Sunday mornings, which meant Sunday evenings were the prime time to break in a snatch the caps.

He found that no matter how much he practiced he could never properly pick a lock, despite the kids before and after him being able to do it without a hitch. He knew he wasn't going to be able to pick the lock, no matter how much he tried. He knew he was going to have to go through the front door and knock out the priest, like last week. At least he'd tried to pick the lock, which had to count for something.

His arms were aching from numbness and his face was pressed against something rubbery and warm.

He was sixteen and had finally gotten his hands on a 10mm pistol, it wasn't much beyond a rusty hunk but it was his, fair and square. Some nameless pimp was coming to try and put him in Golconda, so he'd bought it to defend himself. The pimp had chased him down and alley behind one of the casinos before he pulled out his new weapon. The pimp nearly shit himself when Jukka pointed it at him and pulled the trigger, but only laughed when there was nothing beyond the 'click' 'click' 'click.' The pimp was in such a good mood that he only beat the crap out of Jukka, broke his nose and gave him two black eyes. After that the pimp just strutted away laughing and when he'd turned the corner of the alley, that's when the gun fired.

Every second he was being jerked to the left, then to the right, back to the left and back to the right.

He was nineteen, he'd learnt his lessons by now and tried to avoid anything with moving parts but the other gangers didn't listen to him. They said that if he didn't place the dynamite that he was a coward and out of the gang, it was just one bundle of dynamite to blow up one safe, what was the worst that could happen? He'd placed it at the foot of the safe, that's all he was sure of because after that the whole fucking building came down somehow and everyone else was dead.

His arms were up above his head and they were looped around something from which his entire body hung limply. He managed to open his eyes and saw that he was moving and that on either side of him, strangely lower than him, were others, walking.

"Bwuh?" Was all he could manage.

Something grabbed both his arms, lifted them up and suddenly he dropped to the ground. One of the freaks was rubbing its neck as it towered over him.

"Yoo awayk, yoo worc!" It blurted. Again, Jukka couldn't decide if it was angry or just looked that way for how big and fucking scary it was.

"Fine, whatever."

With his hands still bound, Jukka stumbled after the freak, not wanting to give it a reason to clench those meaty fists it had. Looking around he was pretty sure he saw more people than the last time he was conscious.

"You ok, mister?" A small voice asked.

"Huh?" Jukka looked around. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Walking next to him was a small girl, Jukka remembered talking about her the night before, or whatever night it was that his skull had been pummelled into the dirt.

"I never got a chance to thank you," she said.

"What for?"

"For not getting me killed so you could escape…" The girl said matter-of-factly.

"Uh," Jukka stammered. "Yeah, that was never really my plan to begin with, that was the other guys. So, no need to thank me."

"Oh, well thanks anyways."

"Do you got any idea where they're taking us?" Jukka asked.

"I think one of them said something about a marooned possie of theirs," the girl replied. "Or something, it's hard to tell when they all talk like two year olds."

"Yeah," Jukka laughed. "This guy is one big baby!"

The girl let out a laugh and smiled at Jukka, who suddenly found himself unable to look at her. "So, where did all these other people come from?" He asked.

"We met up with another group like ours, I think they must have lots all looking out through the wasteland," the girl started. "They grabbed me outside of the Boneyard and I was talking to one of the girls from the other group and she said she's come from Redding."

"What?" Jukka gasped. "They're miles apart!"

"Yeah," the girl nodded. "When we met up with this lot they argued for a bit and suddenly decided that we're all headed for the coast or something. Do you think we'll get to see the ocean?"

"Huh?" Jukka asked. "I don't know, depends if we're going 'to' the coast or 'towards' the coast, because all I see at the moment is a lot of mountains. At any rate, I wouldn't get excited, I doubt whatever these things have in mind will be fun."

"Yeah I know," the girl began." They're probably going to eat us or something."

"What?! What makes you say that?"

"Well they already ate that friend of yours, the merc?"

"Holy shit, they ate him? What for?"

"He tried to run," the girl began. "So two chased after him and when he put up a fight they both started tugging on him and pretty soon one of his arms was gone and they were still trying to hold him down. When they finally figured out that he was dead they just started digging in."

"That's horrible," Jukka said.

"Yeah."

"And gross."

"Yup."

"But he wasn't my friend, so don't feel too bad." Jukka said.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't."

Part 4

It was another day of dragging their feet through the sand before they hit the bare rock that made the base of the mountains. They were given plastic bottles of water to share, the freaks didn't seem to mind if the strongest took the lot, a few of the more elderly prisoners hadn't woken up that morning.

It was around lunch time when the little girl, Karol, came back to speak to Jukka once more. "They weren't talking about a 'marooned possie,'" she said. "They were talking about Mariposa, that's the only thing that's up here."

Jukka just shrugged. "What the hell is Mariposa?"

"It's an old pre-war military base," she replied. "Just days before the Great War happened it seceded from the Union, but by then nobody even cared."

"Cool…" Was all Jukka could manage. "So what does that have to do with these things?"

"No idea," Karol laughed without a smile. "Point is, if they get us inside there, we're totally fucked. That place is built within a mountain and designed to take a direct nuclear hit and just keep on smiling." She wasn't laughing anymore, just shaking her head. "It makes the Vaults look like little more than tin sheds…"

"Oh, how do you know all that?"

"Because my order originated from there."

"Your 'order'?" Jukka asked. "What are you, some sort of monk?"

"Not quite," Karol laughed. "I'm in the Brotherhood of Steel."

Jukka stopped in his tracks, he'd heard of the Brotherhood. Everyone had. They were an order that revered technology above all else, they walked the wasteland in suits of mechanised 'power' armour and carried weapons that would make even a Gun Runner cream himself. They were a law unto themselves, and nobody had a hope of standing against them, so everyone stayed out of their way.

"You've got to be kidding me," Jukka laughed. "You're in the Brotherhood? What are you?" He asked. "Fourteen? Fifteen?"

"I'm seventeen-" she began.

Jukka scoffed, "as if. I've heard that one before."

Karol scowled, "I'm short for my age. "She kicked out and clipped Jukka in the knee, sending him to the ground "Alright?"

"Alright, alright." Jukka cried as he climbed back to his feet. "Shit, calm down."

They walked together for a while in silence before Karol decided to continue once again. "I'm only an Initiate, we choose to be a Knight or a Scribe at eighteen."

"Ok, cool?" Jukka asked, taking a guess at her preferred reply.

"The point is, if they get us inside Mariposa we are dead for sure," she said. "And the four foot thick blast door is the least of our worries, the story goes that there were all sorts of experiments going on inside. To make sure nothing escaped they put in force fields on every corridor."

"What's a force field?"

"You've seen a laser weapon, yes?" Karol asked.

"Yeah," Jukka nodded, absentmindedly rubbing his hip. "Some of the families in New Reno use them."

"Well," Karol began. "Imagine a solid wall of laser energy, and it won't disappear unless you have the password. Try to run through it and you can guess what happens."

"Searing fucking pain and a scar for life?"

"Something like that," Karol nodded.

Jukka was shaking his head and looking off into the distance, the endless desert to the South, the mountains to the North with the endless desert beyond that. He'd looked out across the desert for much of his life, wherever he went the ground was cracked and the sky was a ridiculously happy shade of blue.

"I'm actually gonna miss all this…" he mumbled.

"You're giving up already?" Karol laughed. "Hell, I thought you were some badass raider that I could escape with and then have to fight to the death the second we get far enough away due to our organisational rivalry."

"Um, it's not quite like that." Jukka winced.

"Oh? Then what is it like? You a junkie and owe some dealer? You running out on some Brahmin Rancher's daughter that you knocked up? I know you're not a slaver because you don't have that fancy forehead tattoo they're sporting these days." She went on, "so why were the mercs after you?"

"Nope," Jukka was shaking his head. "Nothing like that."

"Then what?"

"I was actually working with the law on this one," Jukka shuddered. "Yep, Jukka the Fucker tried to go straight."

"So what happened?"

"Well the sheriff of Junktown wants Gizmo gone, you know who he is?"

"I know of Killian but don't know about Gizmo," Karol replied.

"Well, they both sort of run the town in their own way. Gizmo brings in all the travellers and has them spending caps while Killian keeps the peace," Jukka said. "Point is but, they both fucking hate each other."

"And?"

"Well, I'd decided to help Killian out and try to take out Gizmo, but Killian wanted it done proper right, not just back of the head quick. So I went and had a chat with the fat fuck and the next thing you know I was getting frisked and his bodyguards found the recorder that Killian had taped to me."

"Ouch"

"Yeah, so I got ran the fuck outta town and he must have hired some goons to come get me."

"Uh huh, nice story." Karol began. "But you left out the part where you owed Gizmo money, or did you just forget?"

Jukka was just shaking his head, "didn't forget. Just didn't feel like mentioning it is all. You gotta be a dumb fuck to try gambling with my luck."

"So why do you do it then?"

"Cos I'm a dumb fuck."

"Well I've got some good news for you Jukka," Karol began. "All your troubles are about to be over."

"Yeah, why's that?"

"See that chain link fence over there?" Karol said. "See the sign on it that says 'Welcome to Mariposa Military Base. Now please turn the fuck around and leave'?"

"Ah crap," Jukka sighed.

Part 5

At least three of the group had passed out and were being carried by the freaks, from those who were still able to walk there were as many gasps of amazement as there were of horror.

Walking down the hallways was like stepping into the past, before the burnt out cities, before the raiders and before the fucking radiation. Halls of solid steel illuminated by lights that worked perfectly, computers hummed softly and showed line upon line of data, all without a key missing.

Then there were the freaks, countless lumbering oafs that carried weapons that should rightly be mounted on some sort of vehicle but fitted perfectly into their hands. Missile Launchers, Browning M2's, Miniguns.

"You see that one over there?" Karol whispered. "That real big one by the door? You see that thing he's carrying?"

Jukka simply nodded.

"That's a Plasma Caster, they used to use them to cut through steel before modifying them for warfare." Karol was shaking her head slowly, "the Brotherhood would throw everything they've got at this place just to get that one weapon."

The prisoners were goaded down the halls, past numerous freaks, some of which pointed and laughed, others barely noticing them at all. Eventually they were taken into a room that was full of desks and chairs, what was once the bases mess hall. Standing at the head of the hall was a gigantic freak that stared at them with eyes that looked nothing alike.

"Greetings humans, I am The Lieutenant," it said in a tone that spoke of education and poise. "Please, be seated."

"Well that's something new," Jukka said.

"Uh huh," Karol replied. She wasn't really paying attention, Jukka noticed that she was scanning the room, eyeing every freak and exit.

The Lieutenant was as much machine as monster. One of its eyes was a great red orb that had some sort of metal housing outside its head, with wires boring directly into the flesh of its skull. The bulk of its form was covered in a series of crude metal plates, Jukka couldn't help but think that it reminded him of the stories of the Brotherhood's power armour.

"I know your journey has been long but I'm here to tell you that they are now at an end, for some of you." The Lieutenant scanned the room as he spoke, "for some of you, the weaker of you, will not survive what is to come."

There we're gasps and renewed sobs at this news.

"For those of you who are strong of mind and body however, you will be lifted to a higher state than you ever thought possible." The Lieutenant lifted his arms, "you will be raised higher than humanly possible. For those of you who survive," he paused for effect, "you will be become servants of The Master."

Jukka wasn't thinking straight. He was exhausted from days of walking with little food and water, delirious from sleep deprivation. So it seemed perfectly fine for him to raise his hand and ask, "Seriously? You're called 'The Lieutenant' and there's some guy called 'The Master'? Really?"

The Lieutenant stopped talking and nodded slightly at one of the freaks standing behind the group, within seconds Jukka was struck in the back of the head.

"Ah!" He cried. Looking down, he saw a bloodied road flare at his feet. "What the fuck? Who throws a flare?!"

"Silence!" The Lieutenant roared, "there will be no more interruptions!" He calmed down immediately and raised his arms out wide, "Unity awaits."

Jukka was rubbing his head when he saw that Karol was glaring at him, "what?"

"Are you really that fucking stupid?" She hissed.

"Shut-" he began. Karol had tripped and fallen to the ground at his feet, he bent to help her up. "You alright?"

"Of course I'm alright," she shushed him.

"Do all members of the Brotherhood fall over on the spot," Jukka laughed. "Or is that just the Initiates?"

"Would you shut up and just move!" Karol said, bug eyed.

She didn't need to however, they both were sharply shoved by one of the freaks, along with the rest of the group. Morale is never very high among prisoners, Jukka knew this as he'd been a prisoner in one way or another on more than one occasion. This was the worst he'd seen however, pretty soon he looked down and saw that he was walking through numerous puddles of piss.

The group was taken through various halls and rooms until they were shoved down some stairs and forced through a pair of doors that look like they really shouldn't have been standing open like they were.

"If you have any ideas Brotherhood girl," Jukka said. "I'd fucking love to hear them right about now." He waited but got no response, so he turned around "Karol?" Nobody was behind him, the group had been split at some point and the back half had been taken somewhere else, Karol with them. "Oh, that's just fucking great."

They front half of the group was taken out onto a gangway that sat suspended over gigantic vats, full of this horrifically green, misting ooze. "What the hell is that shit?" Jukka asked before thinking.

"Your path to transcendence," The Lieutenant replied. "Or death."

"Cut the crap buddy," Jukka laughed. "That's just a big fucking pot and all you're gonna do is turn us all into a tasty stew. Am I right?"

"Do you ever shut up?" The Lieutenant asked, nodding once more to one of the other freaks.

A pair of meaty hands wrapped around Jukka's torso, their owner grinning at him as it lifted him up.

"Ey ope yoo ken swum!"

"Hey buddy," Jukka said. "I'd say I fucked your mum last night but she's so damn ugly you'd know I was lying."

The freak paused for a moment and looked at him stupidly.

"Forget it," Jukka sighed. "Just fucking throw me"

The next thing he knew he was falling.

Ah crap…

Part 6

He was floating, floating in fire, fire that burned his mind more than his body. He screamed, his lungs filled with pain and his teeth ground loose and danced along his tongue in boots made of fucking bear traps. His eyes were awash with green acid that made them clean, so clean and shiny that it hurt just to look. He closed his eyes and nails were hammered into them, hammered in with a Super Sledge, for precision reasons.

His bones were putty, hard putty that was being broken and moulded, snapped and shaped till they became what they once and never were. Was someone licking his toes? He was sure they were, yes someone was fondling his ball sack also, licking his toes and massaging his scrotum.

He was walking down the street when some thugs ran up to him and tried to attack him but he was a bus and he fell on them, crushing them. Then he rolled down the hill to the Cat's Paw Club and chewed glass and shat on the bar.

Wait a minute…

His back was broken and twisted, elongated like someone bending bars like he did when he escaped prison that one time. Jail cell, drunken deputy, fist through wall, throwing Brahmin at a child.

Huh? That's not how it happened!?

He was writhing around, his back felt soft but his front felt cool and he was being born again but why was he standing on his shoulders the right way up? He was smashing cans and bottles, he didn't know why but it was fun. Really fun! He ran around smashing things and it was the funniest thing in the whole wasteland!

Shit, focus!

Walking, sitting, standing and walking. Chewing something bland and… where was he?

FOCUS!

He was staring at the wall and his tongue was hanging out and he was sort of just going "bleeeeaaaaaaah?"

To which the wall replied, "blaaaaaaaaaarb!"

What was he saying?

Fucking focus, stay focused!

Who was he again?

Oh shit, think of something!

Who…?

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit I FUCKED A GHOUL!

Living dead meat, no nose and pasty white eyes very little hair, only one pig tail. No boobs, he didn't mind but she did, skin was gone and she was alive before the great war. Legs apart and welcoming him in, "come on it! It's ok you don't need a Jimmy Hat," she said. "It's not like you can knock me up!"

It was glorious! Best thing he ever felt, in and out in and out of the bag of bones and rotting meat. Rickety, flaky on the outside but warm and wet and smooshy on the inside, nearly, nearly, BAM!

"Oh, that's ok sweetie," she said. "We can try again in a little while."

Someone said he needed a wash, so they took off his skin and took it down to the river and gave it a good scrub, got into all the nitty gritty areas. He stood there without any skin, it was cold but that meant that it was hot and prickly. And as he stood there on the street naked and skinless the wall of the building looked at him and asked. "huuuuud?"

SHIT!

She was holding his head, she was so strong for a rickety old pile of dog food. Her bony fingers were latched into his hair and her legs had him pinned by the shoulders. "Keep going, keep going!"

"Bu mi ung ib num," he spluttered. It tasted so fucking bad, like rotten rat meat covered in dog shit, worse. He knew cos he'd eaten that before too…

"Just keep going," she said. "Just a little more," she moaned. "Ah! Ah! AH! AHHHIIIIEEE!" She screeched, holding his head as she thrashed about.

Nar… Forget it, nothing's worth this…

The man was back with his skin and it felt nice and clean, a little heavier, he'd done some restoration apparently. He was on his back, sweating, panting, why was he panting? He couldn't see properly, the world was blurry, or was it that his eyes were fuzzy and he was in the wrong world?

"You put up quite a fight," someone said. "How do you feel?"

"I just made sweet sweet love to a ghoul," he said. "neither of us had any skin…"

They blurry figure moved away, but Jukka heard it say, "It's no good Sir, he's become like the others. Too much radiation perhaps?"

"Nonsense," a bigger and blurrier blob said. "He's not making any sense but listen to the way he speaks, the sentence structure!"

"Sir?" The tiny blob asked.

"He's just delirious from the dipping process, give him a few days and he will come right," the bigger blob said before vanishing.

It was several moments before the smaller blob engulfed his vision, "did you really sleep with a ghoul?" it asked.

"Every night for a year!" Jukka said. "Ghouls need loving too!"

"Ew," the small blob said. "Just, ew," then it too vanished.

He fell into darkness, swam around in it as he looked for his skull, which he found and the very bottom. He ate his skull and got back his memories, his rich tasty memories!

Jukka awoke, he knew who he was but looking down not what he was. His form was misshapen and green, but he felt powerful. Fucking powerful. He got to his feet and found that despite his size he moved with a grace he'd never known.

"What the-" Jukka began, but stopped when he heard his voice. Deep and booming, like two boulders fucking.

Ah crap…

He heard something at the door to the room he was in, it was a tiny door, a tiny door that was opening.

A man stood at the door, he wore a skin tight blue suit with a yellow stripe down the middle and he was pointing a strange gun at Jukka's face. "Where is The Master?" The strange man yelled, before firing.

Part 7

His skull throbbed and ached with a wet pain that was beyond imagining, his brain must have been rattled because he couldn't get his bearings. Sound washed over him in waves, a high pitch squeal then silence, high pitch squeal, silence, high pitch squeal, gunfire.

Jukka was brought about by the ground shaking violently for a moment, his eyes sprung open but he saw only half of what he was used too. He reached up to feel his face and his fingers slid into a soggy crater where his right eye should have been.

Ah crap…

His world rocked with another explosion and he saw that the lights above him flickered, liking it no less than he did. The gun fire continued and he realised the high pitch squeal was some sort of alarm, he didn't have to guess twice about what sort it might be. He pushed himself up onto his feet and found once more that despite his immense bulk he moved with ease. The room was sparse, just a single bed with no windows or even a desk but more importantly, nothing he could use as a weapon.

He felt a grin spread across his face when he looked down at his meaty hands, thick fingers jointed with bulbous knuckles. Of course he had weapons! He looked at the metal door that sat between himself and the outside world and took a step towards it before slamming his fist into it. The door was ripped off its hinges and blasted back into the darkness beyond, clanging against something just beyond before dropping to the floor.

Jukka stepped out into the darkness and looked around, there was a light far off to his left that was quickly approaching him. He watched and saw that it travelled swiftly towards and over him, then continued onwards, illuminating the hallway that he stood in. As the light travelled down the hall, he saw the carnage unfold a few feet at a time.

Bullet holes, scorch marks and energy burns lined the walls of the hall, bodies of freaks and purple robed humans littering the floor, some in more pieces than others. The light turned a corner but before he had a chance to look around, another passed overhead and showed him the carnage all over again.

I missed one hell of a party…

The sounds of gunfire and explosions continued to ring down the hallway between the screeches of the alarm. Along with the strobing lights and the fact that he was pretty much standing in a mass grave, Jukka deduced that it was probably better if he got the fuck outta there. He had no idea where he was or which way was out but he knew it made sense that if the lights were travelling in a certain direction then that's obviously where he should go.

The halls weren't made for a freak of his size but the tight fit came in handy as between flashes of light he was slipping in blood or tripping on body parts. He continued to run, through doors and down more hallways, up stairs and it was the same all the way, bodies of freaks riddled with bullet holes and humans in purple robes, blasted into pieces.

He rounded a corner and stopped in his tracks when between the screeches of the alarm he heard a low, guttural growl from the darkness. The light passed over Jukka and travelled down the hall, revealing the body of a freak, atop of which stood a large black dog that glared at him.

"Good doggie?" Jukka winced.

It was the cue the dog was waiting for, it launched itself off the body of the freak and rocketed down the hallway, barking and howling like a creature of hell. Jukka barely had time to react, the dog had closed the distance between them in an unbelievable amount of time and was already flying through the air towards his neck.

Jukka managed to get his forearm up in time, just. The dog latched onto it and its teeth sunk into Jukka's flesh right up to the gums, growling as it clamped its jaws tight the dog kicked and scraped Jukka's torso with its paws. Jukka howled and with his free hand he smacked the dog in the ribs repeatedly, to almost no effect.

He grabbed the dog's tail and tried to yank it off him and when that failed he swung his arm out and slammed the dog into the wall. The dog gave a slight yelp and let go of Jukka's arm, but the second it hit the floor it was racing towards Jukka's legs. It didn't latch on this time however, it gave a nip on one leg then raced between them and took a bite out of the other. Jukka continued to howl in pain as every time he tried to reach down and grab the damn mutt it would jump back or bite one of his fingers.

Blood leaked from him in more places that he could count, and as he bent down to try and grab the dog again it ran between his legs and then jumped up onto his back, latching onto the back of his neck. Again, teeth sunk into flesh and Jukka could hear the thing growling into his ears but this time Jukka just growled back. He grabbed a hold of the dogs head and then launched himself backwards against the wall, crushing the dog.

Its grip loosened, Jukka ripped it from his neck and with both hands tossed it down the hall. It slammed onto the ground with a yelp some twenty feet away and was about to charge in once more before it, and Jukka heard a call.

"Here, Dogmeat!" Someone yelled, "Come on, boy!"

Panting, the dog glared at Jukka for a moment before sprinting through a door. Jukka just stood there frozen, his whole body shaking from pain.

"What the hell was that?!" He bellowed.

Part 8

Jukka staggered into a wall when the entire complex shook violently, seconds afterwards strobing lights turned red and the alarm changed its tone. Whereas before it was a high pitch squeal that sounded intermittently, now it blurted with an increased tempo. Blar! Blar! Blar! Blar!

Oh, that can't be good…

Ignoring the pain that raced around his bulky body, Jukka continued onwards in the hope that the now ominously red, strobing lights were going to lead him to some sort of exit and not just deeper into the complex.

"Oh shit, there's another one!" Someone cried as he rounded a corner.

"Don't worry," a familiar voice replied. "I got it!"

There was a crowd of scared looking people and a tiny woman that was running towards him, on her left hand was a giant metal glove, something that Jukka recognised as a Power Fist. He backed up immediately, not wanting to get hit by something he'd seen used to punch open a pre-war safe. The tiny woman followed suit, obviously intent on cracking him with it.

"Karol?" Jukka asked, finally remembering her name.

The woman didn't pause, she continued to run at him and he was forced to duck out of the way as lunged at him, Power Fist leading the way.

"How do you know my name," she cried. "Monster!"

"It's me!" Jukka cried, side stepping another blow before shoving her backwards. "Jukka!"

"Don't fucking lie to me, you freak!" Karol cried, "What did you do? Eat him?!"

"No!" Jukka cried, "Damn it woman, look!" He was backing up and both his hands were out, held up with fingers splayed out, all nine of them.

Karol was still scowling at him but she'd paused momentarily at least, Jukka took the break in her assault to convince her.

"I ran out on Gizmo," he began. "I didn't run off and leave you to die," he paused, thinking of points that might convince her. "You're short for your age, you're in the Brotherhood and, um," he paused again, running out of ideas. "Marooned possie?"

"Holy crap-shit" Karol said. "It really is you, isn't it?" She wasn't scowling anymore and she didn't look like she was going to attack but she still looked at him in awe and more than a little disgust. "What the hell did they do to you?"

"I have no fucking idea," Jukka began. "One minute I was walking in front of you and the next you were gone and I was thrown into this vat of green shit. Then I woke up like this."

"And what happened after that?" She asked, pointing at his face.

"Oh, some guy showed up at my door and shot me in the fucking face," Jukka growled. "After that I had a run in with the meanest motherfucking dog I've ever met."

One of the people from the crowd moved up towards Karol, making sure to keep her between him and Jukka. "Uh," he stammered. "Not meaning to interrupt, but could you two do this later?"

"Right," Karol nodded. "Jukka, you're coming with us." She turned back and faced the group that had been following her, "nobody shoot this one," she said, pointing back at Jukka.

The group looked more than a little nervous but they weren't about to complain at the thought of having a freak fighting on their side. They looked like a sorry bunch, but their rags of clothing were in stark contrast to the high tech weapons they were holding.

"Where'd you get the lasers?" Jukka asked as they set off.

"All the wack jobs here have them," Karol said. "We're looting what we can as we go. Most of this crowd can't shoot for shit but there are enough of them that it doesn't matter much."

"Right," Jukka nodded as he plodded along. "So what happened to you anyways? I looked back and you were just gone!"

"Yeah," Karol said. "They split up the group, only the first half went into the dipping room, they threw the rest of us into some cells one level down. Said we'd get the same as you guys soon enough."

"So how'd you escape?"

"Didn't," Karol laughed. "Some vault dweller came and busted us out, that guy's got a hard on for taking out these freaks. Uh," She paused, "sorry."

"Forget it," Jukka shook his head.

"Anyway, he let us loose and told us to scram," Karol said. "We found the bodies of dozens of freaks, same with these cultist guys." Karol laughed, "That vault dweller guy really knows how to throw one hell of a party!"

"That's what I said," Jukka laughed. "But seriously, he sounds like the guy that capped me in the face. Not fucking happy."

"Oh, don't hold it against him," Karol said. "You weren't that pretty before but now you just downright fucking ugly!"

"Why am I helping you escape again?" Jukka asked.

"Probably because you want to throw a shot in me," Karol laughed.

"Fat chance of that now," Jukka moaned.

"Or before," Karol stuck out her tongue.

"Fuck you."

"Like I said," Karol laughed. "Only in your dreams, big guy!"

Jukka growled as he ran next to Karol, who continued to laugh despite herself. He could feel an anger building up within him, in an instant he felt like slamming her against the wall, ripping her clothes off, fucking the shit out of her and then crushing her head. He wanted to kill the all the little cunts behind him, each of them eyeing him with their trigger fingers ready.

But as quickly as it came the feeling passed, Jukka didn't know where it came from but it was like nothing he'd ever felt before.

"You okay?" Karol asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Just shut up and run," Jukka growled. "That looks like the blast door up ahead."

The entrance hall of the complex was littered with bodies and spent shells, all of which went ignored as the group desperately sprinted for the exit.

Part 9

The ground itself was violently trembling as the group sprinted down the mountain road and past the chain link fence and despite the distance they heard the explosion and subsequent cave in behind the blast door.

"Shit," Karol puffed. "That was a close one."

Looking back at the smoke rising from the mountain that sat atop the Mariposa military complex, Jukka just nodded silently. He noticed that he wasn't exhausted like the others, he felt as though he'd barely exerted himself at all. What he also noticed was that everyone was now looking at him and that they were all armed and he wasn't.

"So, what now?" He asked tentatively.

"Now," Karol paused. "Well, we all go home."

"Easy for you to say," Jukka shook his head. "You're not a walking shit storm magnet."

"Does anyone know where Redding is?" Someone called out.

"Yeah," someone else asked. "Which ways the Hub?"

Jukka rubbed his face, an act of frustration that he regretted for his head was still quite tender from having and eyeball shot out at point blank range. "Someone draw us a map so we can figure out what to do next," he said.

Karol knelt down and began running her fingers through the sand. "Right, if we're here, which is where I think we are," she mumbled. "Then Shady Sands should be somewhere over here," she made a mark to the right of where she marked their current position.

"Right," Jukka nodded, as well did a few others.

"And if that's the case," Karol continued. "Then Junktown should be here," she made another mark, "while the Hub should be here," she made another.

"No," one of the group said. "If that's the distance between Shady Sands and Junktown, then the Hub isn't as far south as that."

"So where's the Boneyard?"

"That's even more south than the Hub."

"What about Redding?" Someone else asked.

"I got no idea, haven't even heard of it."

"Its north west of New Reno," Jukka pointed out. "And Reno is a hell of a ways north of Shady Sands," he made two more marks on the map with his big toe.

"My people live in the mountains, here," one of the group said, pointing to an area north west of Junktown.

"Oh great," someone muttered. "Let's all go live with some fucking Tribals."

Karol was looking down at the map and shaking her head, she looked at Jukka who just shrugged back at her.

"We've got people from all over," he said. "Splitting up would be a death sentence and anyway we don't have any supplies. We'd be lucky if half the group staggered into Shady Sands."

"Yep," Karol nodded. "We're right in the middle of fucking nowhere."

Jukka scanned the horizon and then looked up at the sun before speaking, "you, tribal? What's your name?"

"Hung," the tribal replied with a thick voice.

"'Hung'?" Jukka repeated. "What kind of stupid name is that?"

"The same kind of stupid name as, 'Jukka'," Hung replied flatly.

The tribal and the freak just stared at each other. Hung was tall and well built with dark skin and long matted hair, he didn't look like a push over in any sense of the word. On the other hand, Jukka was an eight foot tall monster of green-grey muscle.

"Whatever," Jukka finally said dismissively. "What did you do for your tribe?"

"Tracker," Hung replied slowly.

"Well, could you track us down some water?"

"Sure," Hung said. "If it grew legs and started walking across the wastes, I could probably track it."

"You're a real smartass for a dirt worshipper," Jukka said.

"Enough!" Karol cut in. "Hung, are you saying you can track down some food?"

"Yes."

"Good," Karol nodded. "Get too it, we'll meet back here."

Hung nodded to Karol, glared at Jukka and then ran off. Jukka noticed that every once in a while he would stop and pick up a rock as he ran into the distance.

"Right," Karol began again. "Who else have we got?"

"Stanton," a man said as he stepped forward. "I was the doc on a caravan run from the Boneyard to Shady Sands when I got nabbed."

"Right," Karol nodded. "Medicine, that's useful."

"Think you could take a look at these wounds of mine?" Jukka asked.

"I don't even know what you are," Stanton replied before stepping away.

"Um," Jukka laughed. "Ouch?"

"Next," Karol said. "You?"

"Lucy," a woman said. "I'm a caravan guard, was going between um," she paused. "The Hub and um, New Reno. Yeah."

"They don't run caravans over the northern mountains," Jukka said. "You're a fucking raider."

"No I'm not!"

"Enough!" Karol cut in. "Fucking hell! Look, I don't care that you're a raider right now. Just find a gun you can use and get ready to kill any damn thing that comes at us."

"Easy enough," Lucy nodded.

"Scooter," a guy cut in before Karol had a chance to ask. "Scavenger."

"Good," Karol nodded. "Go see what you can scavenge from outside Mariposa, I saw a few buildings outside the complex when they brought us in."

"Right," Scooter said.

"But get the fuck outta there if you see anything move," Karol pointed at Scooter. "I don't want you dead, hear?"

"Yep."

"Well, I'm Paul," a man said stepping forward. "I'm a rancher, and this here is my wife, Suzette"

"Great," Jukka moaned. "Both fucking useless."

"Shut up," Karol scolded him. "That's good guys, just try and find something to do, scout around and yell out if you find anything."

Jukka and Karol were the last ones left, Stanton and Lucy had wandered off and we're scouting around also.

"So what's the plan?" Jukka asked.

"You ever heard of San Fran?"

"Course," Jukka nodded. "Some pre-war city on the coast somewhere. Haven't met anyone who's been there but."

"Well its north west of here," Karol said. "It's a long shot but it's the closest town I know of in the area. Gotta be something there, right?"

Part 10

"What the hell is it?" Scooter asked.

"Nothing natural," Hung replied.

"Recon we can eat it? Lucy asked.

"Go ahead," Hung said. "I'll pass but."

The creature had put up one hell of a fight, in the end Jukka had to pin it down while the rest of the group shot at it up close with their laser pistols. After that it had fallen quickly, but not before giving Paul a nasty bite on the leg.

Stanton, the only one with any sort of medical knowledge, was looking over the creature. It had two heads, one humanoid while the other looked canine, it had a squat form with six legs each ending in what looked like a human hand and a mass of slick tentacle like appendages hanging from its underbelly.

"The tribal's right," Stanton said. "Whatever this thing is, there's no way it occurred naturally."

"I have a name," Hung said.

"No one cares," Stanton replied absently. "Look at this, it looks like the damn thing has been fused together somehow."

"What do you mean?" Karol asked.

"Well look at this," Stanton pointed to the humanoid head. "That's clearly the head of a middle aged woman, see under here you can see a breast. But over here," he pointed to the canine side. "This is clearly a dog, well the head of one at least, and I'm hesitant to touch the damn thing but I'm guessing the two spines fuse somewhere down in there," he continued, pointing to the mid section of the creature.

"So someone melded a dog and a woman?" Jukka asked.

"Well I don't know any women with six arms," Stanton said. "So I'm gonna guess that there's at least three people thrown in there, plus a dog, plus whatever else they could find to throw into the mix."

"That's horrendous," Suzette shuddered. "Who would create such a creature?"

"Probably the same people who created that creature," Stanton said, pointing at Jukka.

"This guy's an ass," Jukka said to Hung.

"Yeah," Hung replied. "But so are you."

"True."

"We should keep moving," Karol started. "We don't have much daylight left and I'd like to at least get out of the mountains before then."

"Water will be harder to find down in the flat lands," Hung said. "Probably more food though, and those herbs I was telling you about should be pretty easy to find the further west we go."

"Okay," Karol said. "You heard the man people, drink up next chance you get." She looked over at Jukka, "any of that rat left?"

"Yeah, plenty," Jukka replied. He dug into his pockets and grabbed a chunk of well cooked meat and tossed it to Karol. "Wonder where they go these pants from? They look and feel new."

"They're not," Karol said with a full mouth. "They're just old military cargo pants, a larger size for sure but I doubt anyone could make clothing of that quality these days."

"They're so damn comfy," Jukka said, rubbing his thick hands all over his pants.

"Uh huh, I'm sure," Karol said. "Aren't you getting hungry yet? You haven't eaten anything."

Jukka just shook his head, he honestly wasn't that hungry. He'd taken some water when he got the chance but he looked around and saw that everyone else was in much worse shape than he was, so he passed the food on.

He'd never really liked rat anyway, he'd had enough of it as a child.

They set out again, Jukka walked beside Karol with Paul on his back, the bite he'd received from the creature was looking pretty bad, apart from that everyone else was out of sight but hopefully moving in the right general direction.

They'd found an old high way and were sticking to it, Scooter stayed behind to search through any buildings that they passed with Lucy standing guard. Hung stayed south of the highway looking for food while Suzette and Stanton were far ahead, looking for any signs of water.

"Pretty rag tag bunch for a member of the Brotherhood to be associating with," Jukka said with a smirk.

"Yeah well," Karol began. "I'm not even a full member yet, just because you're born into the Brotherhood doesn't mean you are one. You gotta go through all sorts of trials, initiations and rituals and all that."

"You're parents were Brotherhood too?"

"Yep, we're all descended from those who left Mariposa after the Great War," Karol said. "There's never been a member of the Brotherhood who wasn't born into it."

"So you're pretty much stuck there?"

"No," Karol shook her head. "You don't have to stay, you can leave if you want. A few have done it over the years but you're pretty much putting yourself into exile if you do it."

"Tough choice," Jukka said.

"For some," Karol replied. "Maybe."

"You know we're gonna get through this, right?" Jukka said. "We're finding enough food and there's bound to be water around here somewhere. Besides, once we get to the ocean we'll have an endless supply."

"You can't drink sea water," Karol shook her head.

"What?" Jukka paused. "Why not?"

"It's full of salt," Paul croaked from behind him.

Karol just nodded and they continued walking, as they continued through the day Jukka could feel that Paul was sweating more and more, despite being cold.

"Hey, hold up," Jukka called out to Karol. "We gotta give him a break," he said as he lowered Paul down onto the ground.

Paul was bone white with dark rings around his eyes, no sooner than when he was down on the ground, he vomited. Jukka and Karol just looked at him and then to each other.

"What do you think it is?" Karol asked. "The water or the bite?"

"The bite," Jukka shook his head. "But I don't think it matters much for him, he's a goner for sure."

"No doubt there," Paul said. "Just kill me before my wife gets back, will you?"

"Yeah," Karol said. "Okay."

Part 11

They had no shovels to dig a grave, they best they could do was build a cairn atop his body in the hopes that no creature could find its way in for a meal.

"He just passed out," Karol told Suzette. "After that, he stopped breathing."

That was the story her and Jukka had agreed to tell everyone, in truth Karol held his hands while Jukka smothered him. Despite Suzette buying into their story, Stanton knew that something was up but he made no move to inform her otherwise. He knew that deaths from radiation were rarely quick and never clean.

It was dark but they wanted to move onwards a little bit, mostly out of a want to put some distance between them and the cairn. It was well after dark when they found an old gas station and set in for the night, Suzette sobbed for an hour before she fell asleep.

"Did you enjoy doing that, freak?" Stanton asked Jukka when he thought everyone else was asleep.

"What the shit are you on about?"

"Killing that man," Stanton replied. "I can see it in your eyes, you're a monster."

"Am not," was all Jukka could think to say.

"Oh but you are," Stanton pressed. "I watch you and when you think nobody is looking I can see it build up within you. You can barely contain it, can you? What calls to you? What does your new, mutated nature command you to do?"

"You've got issues," Jukka dismissed him. "Shut up and get some sleep."

"Fine," Stanton said. "But know that you are a monster and whatever disgusting desires are building up within you are gonna keep growing until they explode out of you. Just hope that you're not around anyone you care about when the shit goes down."

"No problem," Jukka laughed. "I'll just wait till I'm alone with you."

The man and the mutant stared at each other from opposite sides of the gas station, neither breaking eye contact.

"I'll be ready," Stanton said, before turning over and laying down to sleep.

Jukka scoffed and turned away, but couldn't avoid the fact that Stanton had a point, he had felt something growing within him ever since he awoke in Mariposa. It was like an ache that got him in the gut and behind the eyes, everything people said pissed him off and he wanted to crush them, stamp on their heads and rip their limbs off, just to shut them up. Deep breaths helped, that's all he'd figured out about his situation, when he felt like giving in and skull fucking Karol or Lucy he looked away and took a few deep breaths.

"Try not to worry, man," Hung said. "You did the right thing."

"Huh?" Jukka asked, not aware that Hung was awake or that he'd guessed the true story.

"People in my tribe get the sickness," Hung ran a thumb over his throat. "Best thing you can do for them."

"You know they have meds for that shit, right?" Jukka asked. "Rad-X? Rad-Away?"

"We're just dirt worshippers, remember?" Hung laughed. "Where would we get such medicines? How many gecko pelts would we have to trade for one dose, let alone enough to fully heal someone?" Hung was shaking his head, "Nah man, quick and painless. There's no shame in that."

Jukka just nodded in silence. "So you're from a tribe out near Junktown?" He asked, looking for a way to change the topic.

"Yeah man," Hung nodded with a grin. "We're the Stone Storm tribe!"

"Why do they call you that?" Jukka asked.

"Because if you ever get in a fight with us," Hung laughed, "you'll swear it's raining rocks!"

Jukka gave a laugh, it was a deep and course chuckle than roused a few of the others, who quickly glared at the mutant before going back to sleep.

"Good life being a tribal?"

"It's never easy," Hung nodded. "But it's always honest and you get to stay away from the cities, dirty places."

"Ah," Jukka said. "Now there's something I know about, I grew up in Reno, long way from here. Didn't have any parents so I had to run around and steal shit to eat, sleeping in sewers." Jukka was shaking his head now, "fucking disgusting."

"Careful man," Hung said with a sly look. "It almost sounds like you're jealous of a tribal."

Jukka just nodded silently before saying, "maybe I am."

"It's not so bad," Hung began. "You learn where they clean water is, which stuff is irradiated and how to tell the difference. You catch Brahmin and Mole-Rats and breed them for food, good fresh air and a lot of sun." Hung was staring off into the distance now, "all you really gotta worry about is slavers and they're easy to spot a mile off."

"Yeah but," Jukka began. "Everyone hates you, thinks you're dirty savages or Brahmin fuckers and all that."

"True," Hung laughed. "And we think city dwellers are perverse drug addicts living off the past, too weak to make it out on their own." Hung was shaking his head now, "whores, rapists and killers."

Jukka knew all too well that Hung was spot on, but hearing it out loud gave him a new perspective on the argument. He'd never had a chance to actually talk to a tribal before, his kind and theirs never really got on.

Well, what 'was' my kind…

"You'll get used to it man," Hung said.

"Get used to what?"

"People hating you," Hung said, with no small amount of venom in his voice. "Being scared of you, thinking you're less than them just because you're different."

"I think are situations are a little different," Jukka laughed without a smile. "You run around the wasteland with a spear catching geckos while I'm the sort of freak that'd make even a ghoul shudder and run."

"Hate is hate, fear is fear and they're both make people stupid." Hung said as he closed his eyes for sleep.

Part 12

Hung was the first to notice and he pointed it out to the others, the landscape was getting greener the closer they got to where they thought San Fran must be. Instead of the endless wastes of sand and rock, there were healthy looking trees and shrubbery, and as Hung pointed out, an unusual amount of wildlife.

"Guess San Fran was spared in the nuclear attacks," Karol wondered. "What's the Geiger counter saying?"

"Dunno," Scooter replied. "Still working on it." He'd found a busted Geiger counter in the back of an old electronics store and had been tinkering with it ever since. It was picking up whatever amounts of radiation were out there, but it wasn't able to display it for some reason.

"Well hurry it up," Lucy snapped. "I want to know if going in there is going to cost me my teeth."

"You'll know if there's radiation in there before your teeth fall out, sweetheart." Stanton replied.

Lucy groaned, "it was a fucking joke."

"Oh," Stanton chuckled. "You know jokes are meant to be funny, right?"

"Fuck you," Lucy shouted. "Asshole!"

"Any time, kid." Stanton smiled. "Any time at all."

"As if you could even-" Lucy began.

"Shut up," Karol butted in. "Both of you!"

Jukka was walking up ahead of the group with Suzette riding on his back, he'd stopped paying attention to the others hours earlier. He was shaking his head, every time he heard one of them snap at each other he felt that thing boil up inside him once again. He was about to turn and do or say something but he felt Suzette pat him on the head.

"Don't bother," She said over his broad shoulder. "Just let them sort it out themselves."

"Yeah, you're right," Jukka nodded. "So what were you saying earlier, about Redding?"

"Oh yes!" Suzette said. "Many ranchers out there, lots of good feeding grounds in the area. Only problem is that most of its all being bought up by mining companies who want to lease it out to us at twice what it's worth!"

"Bastards," Jukka groaned. "Just trying to make an honest buck and someone tries to bend you ov-" Jukka stammered. "Um, sorry."

"Nonsense, my dear boy," Suzette laughed. "I'm not the withering Broc flower you all seem to think I am!"

"Said the woman getting a piggie back," Jukka laughed.

"I may be old," Suzette conceded. "But I've been around the wastes, seen and done my fair share."

"I'll bet," Jukka laughed. "What are you, ninety? A hundred?"

"Young man!" Suzette gasped. "I'll have you know, I'm sixty seven and I don't look a day over fifty!"

"Yes ma'am," Jukka laughed. "Did you ever get to Reno? It's not that far from Redding."

"Oh, I stopped going there when the gangs took over," Suzette sighed. "Most respectable people did actually. It used to be so much fun to go there for a weekend, safe too, if you'll believe it!"

"Reno?" Jukka scoffed. "Safe? Lady, we must be talking about a different Reno here, cos I grew up there and I tell ya it's anything but safe."

"No, not anymore. But it once was."

"Well that's something I would have loved to have seen," Jukka mused. "Who knows how things might have turned out?"

"I've found that it's best not to ponder on 'what if's' boy," Suzette patted him on the shoulder. "Anything could of happened but only one thing did, waste of time to think about the alternatives really."

"No doubt," Jukka sighed.

"Besides," Suzette sat up, shifting her weight on Jukka's back. "Things aren't that bad! We've got food, water and protection, all the essentials. And that Mr. Hung isn't too bad either," she laughed.

"You unbelievable old horn dog," Jukka laughed. "He's half your age and twice your size!"

"I know," she whispered into his ear. "How much fun would that be?"

Jukka gagged and shook his head, "I cannot believe I'm hearing this from you," he laughed. "You've totally ruined my image of you. Where's the nice old lady I was carrying a while back, I want her back!"

"Hush dearie, the less you know the better."

"I'm starting to see that," Jukka laughed. "But what about Paul? That was only days ago," he trailed off.

"Oh that," Suzette sighed. "That was never anything more than a business deal, we both had ranches and wanted to consolidate. There was never anything behind it, we'd been together forty years but led very separate lives."

"Ah," Jukka nodded. "So while he ran out in the wastes and had a little pow wow with the locals, you stayed at home and got looked after by the stable hands?"

"Other way round dearie," she laughed.

"Ah, hence 'Mr.' Hung," Jukka laughed back. "You've gone native, haven't you?"

"Years ago…"

"So," Jukka paused. "What do you think of Stanton?"

"Ass."

Jukka bellowed with laughter, "no question there."

"I've seen his type a hundred times," Suzette began. "All the same. Think that because they know how to clean a wound or set a limb that they're better than all the rest of us. See how he never takes his hand from his gun? He puts on a smug face but that shows he's scared."

"Uh" Jukka coughed. "I think that has more to do with me than anything else, worried that I'm going to go nuts and eat someone."

"Yes, he does seem like the sort who'd think like that too."

"You seem okay with it," Jukka hesitated. "Aren't you?"

"Of course I am dearie, I've worked with ghouls for years! All fine men and women, know more about the world than most others I've met." Suzette laughed. "At the end of the day, it's not what a person is, but what's inside a person that makes them who they are."

"That's some pretty insightful shit right there," Jukka nodded.

"And what's in their pants counts, too" Suzette laughed.

"Oh wow," Jukka groaned. "Way to ruin the moment."

Part 13

"What language are they speaking?" Jukka whispered as best he could. "I can't understand a fucking word any of them are saying.

"Mandarin," Stanton replied, equally soft.

The group had made their way into the ruins of San Fran early that morning, they'd found the outskirts of the city to be abandoned, as expected, but further in they found a thriving settlement.

"Why are they all squinting?" Lucy asked.

"They're not squinting, you idiot," Stanton scolded her. "They're Chinese, they just look like that."

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me," Karol gasped.

"What is it?" Jukka asked.

"You notice how we've been walking through an irradiated desert for the past few days?" Karol said bug eyed as she threw a thumb over her shoulder. "Those guys are the ones that nuked us back in the Great War," she said, pointing over the wall at the settlement.

"They nuked us, we nuked them," Stanton started. "Whole world went to shit, dunno how the hell these guys ended up here but."

"An invasion you think?" Karol asked.

"Nar," Stanton shook his head. "No uniforms, no weapons, these guys just look like civilians."

While the others were talking, Hung came running in from an adjacent building and dropped behind the wall with the others. "Looks like about a mile or two in each direction," he puffed. "They're clearing out the buildings within and rebuilding their own with the parts for some reason."

"How many in there?" Karol asked.

"Four, maybe Five hundred," Hung said as he wiped his brow. "Mostly workers but, there's a few armed guards keeping an eye out, but that's it."

"Definitely not an army then," Karol said.

"So what's the plan?" Jukka asked.

"Well," Karol rubbed her eyes. "Let's leave them alone, we can't understand what they're saying and they probably can't understand us either."

"They might even still think the war's going on," Suzette added.

"I don't even want to think about that part," Karol sighed. "Let's just keep looking around the outskirts of town, we've gotta find something eventually.

"I've been thinking about that," Scooter cut in. "We keep coming up empty, every house we look in has been picked clean."

"And?" Stanton asked. "We just keep looking!"

"No, not this time," Scooter shook his head. "You know all those weird looking symbols that are on all the doors? With a settlement this size, I recon they've systematically looted every single house in the city, and painted the doors to mark their progress."

"Shit," Karol said. "Makes sense."

"But we can't be sure of that," Stanton hissed. "We should keep looking!"

"No, he's right man," Hung added. "These guys are organised. They're not just living in ruins, they're taking apart the ruins and rebuilding. Clearing the city street by street of anything useful fits in."

"Shut your mouth, tribal!" Stanton growled.

"No, you shut up," Jukka added. With everyone kneeling behind the wall, it was easy for him to reach over Suzette and give Stanton a shove, knocking him to the ground.

"What was that for, freak?" Stanton whimpered.

"I like him more than you," Jukka laughed. "So what do you think?"

"Me?" Hung asked. "I'm with Karol on this one man. Our peoples nuked each other, we can't understand them and one of us looks like a walking tank." He paused, "they're more likely to shoot us than help us."

"Fine then," Stanton said as he got to his feet. "If that's what the tribal thinks then our choice is clear!"

"Wait," Karol whispered as loud as she dared. "Where the fuck are you going?"

"I'm going out to talk to them," Stanton replied. "The day I take advice from a tribal is-" his voice trailed off as he walked out of the building and down the street.

"Shit," Karol said. "Shit, fucking shit! Someone go get him."

"Fuck that," Scooter laughed.

"Yeah, pass," Lucy added.

"Jukka? Hung?" Karol asked hopefully.

"Nar, fuck him," Jukka said. "The guy's a dick, if he wants to die, let him."

"And if he lives," Suzette pipped in. "We'll know it's safe to enter."

"You are one scary ass old lady, you know that?" Jukka laughed.

"I'm fine with that," Scooter said.

"Me too," Lucy added quickly.

"Oh, would you two just fuck already?" Karol rolled her eyes.

"We already have," Lucy said, sticking out her tongue.

"Well hooray for you," Karol rolled her eyes. "Hung, get up on the roof and see if you can follow Captain Suicidal out there, but stay outta sight."

"Right," Hung said. He ran into another room and the others all heard him ascend some stairs.

It was barely a minute before the whole group heard what sounded like a hand crank siren blaring somewhere in the settlement. After that they heard a series of heavy thumps in the stairwell behind them, followed by Hung running into the room.

"Run!" Hung bellowed, before sprinting out of the building.

"Move," Karol screamed. "Move!"

"Time to run, Granny!" Jukka said. He grabbed Suzette by the waist and slung her over his back.

The group bolted out of the building and down into the street, each cursed in their own fashion as they turned and saw a mass of people charging towards them, each with a baton in hand.

"I thought you said they weren't armed," Scooter screamed at Hung, being the only one who could keep up with him.

"I meant they weren't armed with guns!" Hung yelled back.

"Oh fuck," Scooter cried. "If we make it out of this I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Anybody see Stanton back there?" Karol called out to no one in particular.

"Fuck him," Jukka yelled. "I aint looking back!"

Unintelligible cries continued to ring out from the mob behind them, from the mob that gave no sign of giving up or slowing down. The group continued to run on as fast as they could, through the ruined streets of San Fran that stretched for miles in front of them.

Part 14

They were hiding in the back of an old dress shop, rusty coat hangers littered the floor, pictures of women in pretty outfits and ridiculous smiles lined the walls. While everyone else had jumped into what were once changing room stalls, Jukka was forced to crouch down behind the counter and even then most of his back would have been visible.

"This is fucking pointless," Jukka mumbled, trying to stay low.

"Just shut up and stay down," Karol whispered out into the shop. "They have to give up eventually."

"That's not what I meant," Jukka shook his head.

"We know what you meant man," Hung called out. "So don't you fucking move."

Jukka just grumbled and slowly lay fully down onto the floor, his feet were now sticking out the end but he figured it was better than his back heavying up and down above the counter.

They'd run for near an hour, weaving in and out of buildings, down side streets and alleyways. Eventually they had to stop, they were exhausted and had little water to share. They had only ducked into the dress shop out of sheer necessity, not by choice.

"They're not gonna stop," Scooter said. "Street by street, remember?"

"I know," Karol said. "Just give me a minute to think."

"Scooter," Jukka called out. "What do you recon about down town? Think they'd look there?"

"Doubt it," Scooter nodded.

"Where's down town?" Lucy asked.

"It's city slang," Scooter said. "For the sewers."

"Oh gross," Lucy scoffed.

"Trust me kid," Jukka laughed. "It's always worse than it sounds."

"Just one big problem in that plan of yours, big guy," Scooter said.

"Yeah I know, just leave it till we get there, alright?" Jukka said. "Let's get moving already."

"You heard him guys," Karol said. "Let's move out."

Hung was first out the door, sprinting across the street to crouch within the doorway of the adjacent building. He looked around before holding up two fingers on one hand while holding the other flat out and raising it up and down, two buildings down and stay low.

They'd gotten used to his hand signals, apparently everyone in his tribe used them so they could hunt more effectively. Karol had a basic understanding due to her Brotherhood combat training and though she didn't admit it, Lucy sort of understood what was going on, her old raiding gang had a similar system. It was a foreign concept to the others however and it took them a while to get the hang of it, but there's no motivation like desperation when you need to learn something.

The group sprinted up the street and ducked into the destroyed building, what looked like a dry cleaners. When they looked back out to the street they just saw Hung sprinting along its opposite side, no doubt trying to reach some other hidden vantage point.

"So what's this problem Scooter was talking about?" Karol asked.

"Nothing," Jukka said, without looking at her. "Just get ready to run again."

Karol moved to the doorway and looked down the street, she was just able to see Hung against a wall, looking around the corner of the intersection. He looked back at her, held two fingers of his left hand to his eyes, held up four fingers on his right hand, then pointed around the corner with his left hand.

"There's four of them down the street," Karol said. "Stay down."

Karol watched as Hung leapt behind the rusted hulk of a car and then saw the group of four pass straight through the intersection. Hung waved at her then pointed to the building opposite to where they had been standing.

"Come on," Karol said. "We're moving."

The group spilled out of the building and then darted down the street, being sure to tread softly and stick to the sidewalk. They saw Hung sprint across the street and into the corner building they were aiming for, seconds later they were following him inside, it was an old café with windows along both street fronts.

"There's another exit at the other end of the shop," Hung said when Karol stared at him. "It's better than being completely out in the open."

Scooter moved into one of the old booths and looked out the window onto the street, making sure he didn't break any of the glass that lay all over. He looked outside for a moment and then scrambled back to the others.

"What can you see?" Karol asked.

"Those four have moved on," Scooter said. "Nobody else is around. But there's a sewer cover just outside." He looked at Hung, "think you can handle it?"

Hung nodded and ducked outside, everyone else winced when they heard a heavy clank and then a long, heavy scraping sound. Moments later Hung came running back into the café.

"It fucking stinks but it's clear man," he said.

"Time to go," Jukka nodded to Scooter.

The group ran outside and one by one they climbed down into the sewer, Hung, Lucy, Karol and Suzette, until it was just Jukka and Scooter on the surface.

"Sewers follow streets," Jukka said. "Just keep going south as far as you can, only come back up when you can't go any further. I'll meet up with you at that gas station where we stayed, don't wait more than three days."

"Got it," Scooter said. "Good luck."

Jukka nodded and motioned for him to get going, he waited for Scooter to descend before calling out. "Hey granny," he yelled. "Look after Mr. Hung, will ya?"

He heard Suzette laugh and Karol begin to protest, but he knew his path was set.

"Hey man," Hung called up. "Four stones, odd one out points the way. You got me?"

"Yeah," Jukka said. "I got you."

He dropped the sewer lid back over the man hole, listening to Karol screaming and cursing at him to come down with them. It was the sweetest thing he'd ever heard in his whole life.

Part 15

Well this was a great idea…

He was standing alone in the middle of the street, staring down at the man hole cover, torn between wanting to run and wanting to try and get down there. But he couldn't, maybe when he was human, like the others, but now he was a freak of nature, a mutant aberration of destructive proportions.

Doesn't mean shit man, don't make anything out of it…

He jogged back to the intersection, with the hope of moving a block further along and then heading south, like he'd told the others to do. He was already missing Hung and his stupid hand signals, he was forced to check corners and make mad dashes without them.

Just focus on getting out of here…

He'd run to the corner and was looking around to check if the coast was clear, when a group coming from the opposite direction spotted him. They looked so tiny, even by human standards they were shorter than average. Their difference in size didn't seem to bother them too much though, as the two men rushed straight towards him, babbling in that bizarre language of theirs.

"Come on then," Jukka roared.

One of them hung back and did something and then Jukka watched as a bright light shot up into the sky. It was hard to follow as it moved upward, but Jukka was amazed when it exploded in a flash of red sparks.

Ah crap…

Knowing that more of the tiny men would be rushing towards their location, Jukka set about dispatching these two as quickly as possible. The first was reckless, charging in and leaping onto Jukka's left arm, it was a simple matter of lifting the man up and smashing him down onto the wreck of a car that sat behind them.

The second had closed in quickly and Jukka felt a numbness form in his back and a jolt of pain shoot through his body. He heard a soft crackling noise now and turned to see the second man holding onto one of the batons he'd seen them all carrying.

The man was terrified, Jukka could see it in his eyes and in his hesitation to move or attack. Jukka moved forward and the man did also, leading in with the baton, cracking Jukka in his outstretched grasping hand.

Pain shot up his arm and he couldn't feel his hand anymore, he thought it'd been blown off for a moment before looking down to see that it was still there. He heard that crackling noise again and looked at the baton the man was holding.

"You cheeky little shit," Jukka spat.

He leapt forward and knowing what to expect, knocked the baton carrying arm aside before slamming the man in the chest. As he watched the man squirm around on the ground, he could feel it building up inside him again, that urge to lash out and crush something, something like that guys tiny skull.

He stood his ground and growled, a futile effort of resistance from a man who didn't even know what he was fighting against. The tiny man was getting up and the urge to kill him was still there but Jukka resisted, so instead he walked over and stamped down onto the man's foot.

Better than being dead…

With one man knocked out cold and the other rolling around on the ground screaming, Jukka was free to make his escape. Standing in the intersection he heard shouts coming from all directions and he even saw others rushing at him from all directions but south, so that's where he ran.

He wasn't getting tired like he used to but he wasn't moving very fast either, endurance at the expense of agility. He could hear them approaching him from behind, as well as strange sound that he'd never heard before, there was something amusing about it even.

As he ran he felt something tap him on the shoulder, and then on the back of the neck and then on the shoulder again, his lower back and then his leg. It felt like getting stung by a Bloatfly, an oversized insect that shot its own eggs into you in the hopes that the larva would have something to eat when they hatched. Jukka always hated having to dig those eggs out, there was nothing worse than being eaten from the inside by a grub.

But there weren't any Bloatflies around, he hadn't seen any for weeks. He felt another tap between his shoulder blades and then down in his left ass cheek, and there was that strange sound again.

He turned a corner and took the moment of reprieve to check his back, when he brought his hand back around he saw that it was covered in off coloured blood.

Oh fucking hell, I'm shot!

He heard that sound again and took off running, he was running in the wrong direction but he didn't care at this point. He heard a low rumbling behind him and before he could turn another corner, something struck him in the back of the legs and knocked him to the ground. Before he even had a chance to get up something had rolled over him, something really fucking heavy that pinned him to the ground.

What the hell?!

"Get the fuck offa-" he tried to scream, but one of those batons cracked him across the head. He wasn't knocked out but he could feel his teeth chattering around inside his head, trying to dance their way out of his gums. That strange sound was coming from right above him now, over and over again.

Oh, it's a car…

Within seconds there were dozens of the tiny men standing around him, each and every one of them smacking him with those stinging batons. As his body went numb and his brain stopped working a little more with each blow, his last thoughts were that he didn't think the car horn was very funny anymore.

Part 16

He couldn't feel the chains but he could see them, wrapped around his neck, his arms, his torso and his legs. He was in what looked like any pre-war prison cell, it would have been tiny even if he wasn't a freak, there was a bed strung from the wall but there was no way it could ever hold him.

He sat there on his knees, his arms pinned behind his back, looking over the length of chain, looking for hooks or padlocks. He was still searching when someone on the other side of his barred door cleared their throat.

"You can speak?" The man asked. He was wearing a grey uniform with a hat, both looked pre-war to him.

"Oh," Jukka laughed to himself. "So now you can talk English."

"Good," the man replied. "I am Colonel Xia, of the Shi."

"Okay…" Jukka shrugged.

"And you are Jukka," Xia added flatly. Before Jukka could respond, he added, "Your friend, William Stanton, has been most forthcoming with information."

"Oh," Jukka rolled his eyes. "He's still alive, huh?"

"Of course," Xia smiled. "Why would we kill him?"

"I don't know," Jukka shrugged. "Aren't we enemies, or something?"

"I am not your enemy," Xia smiled again. "Are you mine?"

"What?" Jukka balked. "How the hell should I know, I don't even know who you are!"

"Fear not, we have no interest in killing you," Xia paused. "But we are very interested in what you are."

"Well, you're shit outta luck," Jukka laughed. "Because I've got no fucking clue."

"You don't know?"

"Nope."

"Were you not born this way?"

"Nope," Jukka laughed. "Been like this for about a week or so now."

"So you were once?" Xia trailed off.

"Human?" Jukka asked. "Yeah, just like you."

"I see," Xia paused. "This is good, because this all confirms what William Stanton said to us. It is good that you are not trying to mislead us."

"Do I get a prize now?" Jukka sneered. He stopped looking at Colonel Xia and started once more inspecting the chains that were wrapped around him.

"There is no need to be like that, Jukka," Xia said. "We wish to learn from you is all, nothing sinister."

"Well how about you tell us a little first," Jukka said without looking away from his chains. "Like how you all got here?"

"We have been here for many years," Xia said happily. "Since the Great War, as a matter of fact. Our submarine, the Shi-huang-ti crashed here when the two hours of nuclear conflict began."

"What?" Jukka yelled out in amazement.

"Yes, it's true," Xia laughed. "We were stuck behind enemy lines and forced to rebuild our society within the ruins of our enemies."

"No not that," Jukka shook his head. "Two hours?" he asked. "That's how long the war lasted?"

"Yes," Xia sighed. "The combined nuclear might of my people and yours ensured that any full blow conflict would be over very quickly."

Jukka just looked at Xia without speaking, he wanted him to continue to talk as he moved his arms and feet behind his back, checking the chains once more.

"Since then," Xia continued momentarily. "Your home has become our home as well, and we hold no grudge against you. We are neighbours."

Jukka didn't want to talk but couldn't help but chuckle at that remark. "Very neighbourly of you," he laughed. "Chasing us down and shooting me like that."

"Would you not do the same if you saw several armed individuals and a strange creature spying on your home?" Xia asked with a rising tone.

"Um," Jukka stammered. "When you put it that way," he trailed off.

"But our encounter has bore some unexpected fruit." Xia regained himself. "For the Emperor has decided that if the process that created you can be replicated, it is in our best interest to gain control of the means to do so."

"What's an Emperor?" Jukka asked.

"Our wise and ever watchful ruler," Xia replied.

"Oh," Jukka sighed. "Well, there was a base a few days east of here but that was destroyed as far as I know."

"We know this!" Xia said excitedly. "What does it feel like? Is it painful? Do you maintain all your previous faculties? Have you developed any new ones? Are there any side effects? How long will it last? These are the things we wish to know."

"And then what?" Jukka asked. "I answer all your stupid questions and you just let me go?"

"Of course," Xia smiled again.

"Uh huh," Jukka laughed. "Hundred caps says the second I finish answering you throw me on a table and cut me open."

"Caps?" Xia asked, obviously confused.

"Caps? Bottle caps," Jukka said. "As in, 'money.'"

Jukka was shaking with laughter now, and while he looked at Xia he began to breath deep and flex.

"Oh," Xia stammered. "Caps are currency? We haven't had any sort of trade with outsiders yet so we are unfamiliar with this."

Jukka just smiled and nodded, he was holding his breath and trying to flex against the chains, testing their strength.

"How can I assure you?" Xia asked. "How can I make you see that we wish you no harm? That we only wish to learn what we can to protect our own people."

Jukka just shrugged. He was sure his face was going red with the strain, or whatever colour his new face went when it was under a lot of strain. Blue, maybe?

"Very well," Xia sighed. "I will leave you too your thoughts and I shall return before sun set with your meal. Hopefully you will have seen reason by then."

Jukka just nodded and watched Xia walk off, he sucked in a quick breath and then with all his aberrant strength, he forced himself outwards. Chain dug into flesh and it was hard to hear past the blood rushing through his ears, but it rang out in the relative silence of the prison cell.

A single, 'clink.'

Part 17

A single length of chain had been used to bind him, and it was now slowly unravelling and falling to the ground around his legs. It took a bit of work at the end to get his legs free within the confined space of the cell, but when he was done he was standing with both hands firmly grasped around the bars of his prison cell door.

Dumbasses did not know what they were fucking with…

He gave the prison door a sharp jolt and it tore from its hinges, allowing Jukka to simply place it on the meagre cot they had given him. "Damn, being like this would have been useful back in the day," he chuckled to himself.

He was about to leave when he looked at the chain lying on the floor and paused, remembering his escape from another prison cell not days before. He flipped the door of the cot and set about tearing strips of cloth from the shitty mattress, wrapping them around his hands. After that he wrapped each length of chain around each of his already imposing hands, one was a little longer than the other but he doubt anyone would notice after the first punch.

"Jukka?" someone called out. "Is that you?"

The voice was coming from the end of the cell block, which wasn't that large so Jukka thought he must have been in an old police station or something similar. He walked to the end of the block and saw Stanton standing in the cell, bloodied and bruised.

"Jukka!" he cried. "You have to help me!"

Jukka just laughed. He could have sworn that Stanton was trying to glare at him but his face was too fucked up to allow it.

"You were right to escape," Stanton pressed on. "They were planning on performing an autopsy after you'd told them everything."

"Bet you would have loved to have seen that," Jukka said.

"Stop that you oaf," Stanton hissed. "Don't you see? We have to get out of here!"

"I am getting out of here," Jukka laughed. "You're the one still trapped in his cell."

"Jukka, you have to help me!"

"I don't have to do shit," Jukka laughed again. "You got yourself into this shit, now get yourself outta it."

"I'm trying to," Stanton pleaded. "By appealing to your sense of decency!"

"Oh," Jukka winced. "That's a pretty bad plan."

"What?"

"Yeah," Jukka nodded gravely. "You might want to think of something else and fast, because I'm about to leave."

"Fine," Stanton stammered. "Okay, I'm a pretty damn good doctor, give me enough time and I could probably reverse what they did to you in that place. You could be human again!"

"What?" Jukka laughed. "What makes you think I want that? Have you seen this chin, I could crush a Brahmin skull with this thing."

"Caps then?"

"How many?"

"Lots."

"Sounds good to me," Jukka said. He stuck his hand through the cage and laughed when Stanton hesitated before shaking it. "Freedom for caps," he said as he ripped the cell door off its hinges.

"Oh shit, you've been shot," Stanton said when Jukka turned to prop the door against the opposite wall.

"Yeah I know," he smirked. "Barely felt it too."

"Just because you can't feel it, doesn't mean you shouldn't try and avoid it like any other sane person," Stanton pressed. "I'm guess a shot to the heart will still take you out, if you even still-"

Jukka turned around, bent down and glared at Stanton.

"-need it. I was going to say 'if you still even need a heart.'" Stanton stammered. "I mean, who knows how this new physiology of yours works. Right?"

"Nice save, jackass," Jukka shook his head. "Now come on, we should probably get out of here."

Though the Shi had been tearing down the old buildings of San Fran to make their own buildings, Jukka and Stanton had been thrown in the pre-war prison cells of what he guessed was once a military base of some kind. Looking at the surrounding buildings outside the base, they hadn't been kept within the limits of the new town either, they were still within the ruins of San Fran, neither of them could know where exactly either.

"Well this is just fucking great," Stanton said. "Where the hell are we and which way do we go to get away from there?"

"We're going south," Jukka said, absently looking around.

"Well which way is that?"

"It's fucking that way," Jukka growled. "Shit, haven't you ever been out in the wastes before?"

"Hell no," Stanton said, straitening his outfit. "I was raised and trained in the Boneyard."

"Well good for you smart ass," Jukka said as he began walking in the direction of what he previously pointed out to be south. "What do they teach you down there, medicine and how to be a cunt?"

"No, they-" Stanton began before Jukka cut him off.

"Is that all they teach down there?" Jukka continued without pause. "Do you think they could teach me to read? Or is that a bit too basic for them, like, do they only deal with the hard stuff? Like being a cunt?"

"You can't read?" Stanton asked.

"That's seriously all you heard out of that?"

"No, I got the 'I'm a cunt' part too," Stanton said. "But can you seriously not read?"

"Nope," Jukka said as he looked around the corner of a building before sprinting across the street. "Kinda hard to learn to read when you're a street kid."

"But that's outrageous," Stanton began, not aware that Jukka wasn't listening.

"Too busy picking scraps out of the gutter and fighting off feral dogs," Jukka continued unabated. The streets were empty and both man and mutant moved at a cautious trot. "Straining sewer water through an old shirt and getting conned into fucking a ghoul. So no, I didn't get a chance to learn how to read."

"You fucked a ghoul?" Stanton asked.

Part 18

Stanton hadn't seen that Jukka had stopped suddenly and walked into the back of him, leaving him somewhat unprepared when Jukka asked, "did we seriously just walk out of a prison?"

"Seems so," Stanton said.

"No guards at the prison," Jukka wondered aloud. "None out in the streets either and we're just walking around out here. Something's up."

"What?" Stanton looked around. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I've been in prisons before," Jukka said, looking over Stanton at the way they'd just come from. "And you don't just walk out, not unless they want you too."

Searching the streets and then the rooftops along them, Jukka spun around when he heard something behind him, but found that nothing was there. Squinting, he moved over and kicked in a door, which had that same symbol as all the others. Moving inside, he pulled Stanton in, closed the door and sat down on a bed in one of the back rooms.

"What were they doing while I was out? Jukka asked.

"Well," Stanton cleared his throat. "They were taking blood samples from you."

"What?" Jukka cried. "How much?"

"A lot," Stanton nodded. "You can do a blood test on a syringe of blood, easy. These guys were walking past my cell with bags of blood."

"Shit, what would they use it for?"

"They were pretty keen to find out what you were, what makes you tick," Stanton said. "You are something of a new category of creature, I'm sure even the Brotherhood would be interested in getting their hands on you."

"Well aren't I just Mr. fucking popular, all of a sudden," Jukka groaned.

"As for what they'd use it for," Stanton paused. "Being able to turn soldiers into ten foot tall brutes, what group wouldn't want that?"

"Yeah," Jukka laughed. "That'd be worth a-" he paused.

He barely heard it, it was the softest of scrapings, but he knew he felt it, in a subtle waft of wind that brushed against his arm. Something within him went into overdrive, some new part of him was screaming at him but he didn't know why.

"Fortune," Jukka finished slowly.

"You alright, big guy?" Stanton asked.

"Yeah," Jukka nodded. "Course I am, we should get moving. No more talking from here on out either, we don't want them hearing us."

"Good idea," Stanton nodded with a toothy smile.

Jukka moved out of the room and stepped out onto the street, making sure he closed the door behind Stanton the second he was out with him. As he walked down the street, he moved into the centre of the street, out into the open, and moved at a cautious pace.

He was concentrating on blocking out any noise that Stanton was making, while trying to make sure he didn't scuffle his own feet. Stanton didn't seem like the sort of guy who'd know how to creep to save his life, but even an idiot would know that if you don't want to be seen, you stay out of the open.

They came up to an intersection and stopped in the very middle, Jukka closed his eyes and listened. Stanton was standing still next to him, not the bag of nerves you'd expect from a man who just escaped prison. Beyond that deafening silence he heard a soft thump on a rooftop behind him.

"Nobody's this lucky," Jukka whispered. "Especially me."

"What was that?" Stanton asked.

"How much did they offer you?" Jukka asked without opening his eyes.

"What?" Stanton laughed.

With his eyes closed and all of his attention focused on listening, it was easy for Jukka to hear the soft thud on the sidewalk behind him.

"The Shi," Jukka said. "What did they offer you to do this? Caps? Meds? A place with them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Stanton stammered.

He couldn't hear every step, whoever it was they moved like a ghost. He could just make out every second or so step however. Then he heard the click and his mind faded to white.

Jukka spun around with a roar and blindly punched out wildly, his chain wrapped fist connecting with someone he only knew was there because his eyes couldn't tell him they weren't.

He opened his eyes with a wicked grin and saw someone on the ground in a skin tight black suit and a mask of smooth orange glass. They flickered in and out of existence, half there one second, half not the next. As they scrambled around on the ground, staggered from his prodigious blow, Jukka moved up to them and stamped his heel down onto their chest.

Bare ankle ploughed through bone like a child stomping on twigs, and as he twisted his foot to and fro he felt the ribs bend and snap under the unstoppable motion. The suit continued to flicker in and out of sight, but the blood that leaked from the person within was spilling down onto the ground and was plain to be seen.

Jukka turned around and saw Stanton shaking on the spot, piss seeping into his pants as Jukka moved closer. "Now that's more like it," he growled.

A part of him was screaming inside, out of sheer pleasure at putting his foot through someone's chest and out of unbridled rage, at hearing the approaching footsteps.

"Please," Stanton cried. "Don't kill me."

Jukka gave a laugh, one that bellowed out of him like a pack of Brahmin escaping a pen at slaughter time. "I'm not going to kill you," he grinned. He hunched down and looked Stanton right in the eye, "but they are."

Shi came at them from every direction but west, and as Jukka grabbed Stanton around the neck, that's the direction he ran. He sprinted for twenty feet before turning and holding Stanton aloft at arm's length.

"Please," Stanton managed.

Grinning, Jukka stared Stanton straight in the eyes as the shit storm of bullets flew down the street and dove into the man's back.

Part 19

The bloody rag doll that was Stanton's body only afforded Jukka's bulk minimum protection, but as he ran towards the squad of Shi that fired at him, he couldn't care less.

Three paces away he launched Stanton's body at their left flank and then launched himself into their right. Those who were caught up in the slick chunks of Stanton could only lay pinned and watch as Jukka engulfed their comrades. He clapped his meaty hands together around the head of his first unfortunate victim, skull crushed, brain oozing between his fingers, blood running down his arms.

He let the first body drop and swung out his left arm, collecting the next solider in the face and chest, sending him stumbling to the ground. A single step forward and his slammed his chain wrapped fist into the next, ribs buckled before inertia took effect and their whole body was blown backwards.

The fourth had time to get a shot off, hitting Jukka in the gut to absolutely no effect other than pissing him off more. Jukka grabbed one of the man's arms in each hand, planted one of his bare feet onto his chest and then pulled. With a soul grinding scream, the man's arms were ripped from his body and he dropped to the ground, howling and writhing around like a worm that had been cut in half.

With a severed arm in each hand, Jukka turned his attention to the men who were just now pulling themselves free of Stanton's corpse. He wailed on both of them with the arms, one, two, one, two, he slammed the arms down onto them over and over until his makeshift weapons couldn't take it anymore and started to disintegrate.

One of the men managed to get his arm free and with his AK, deliver a short burst into Jukka's leg. Jukka howled and snatched the gun from the man, his fingers too big to reach the trigger, he simply grabbed the stock and the drove the barrel of the gun down into the man's chest.

They were dead, all of them. But more were coming. He tore the trigger guard off the AK and held the tiny thing in one hand as he made his move. His insides were screaming in outright ecstasy, at the blood, at the screams, at the lives he was bringing to an end. He ran down the street and he could hear more coming to him, more rushing to die. But more urgently, he could make out the sound of an engine.

He ran through another intersection and cut loose with the AK as he ran past, spraying the Shi that had been lying in wait. He felt more of those annoying little twinges of pain in his body but he didn't stop, he ran right through and kept on running. He heard the engine approaching from behind and as his heart raced everything else began to slow down.

Jukka skidded to a halt, then turned back just in time to grab a hold of the bumper bars of the jeep that had been racing to collect him from behind. He dug his heels into the ground and using the vehicles own momentum, he lifted it up over his head and slammed it down onto the ground in front of him. He could hear the driver screaming under the wreck and it angered Jukka that he had survived, so he pointed the AK at the exposed fuel tank and fired.

Jukka was blasted back in an explosive fireball of his own making, a tiny part of him thought it was stupid to shoot a fuel tank that close, but that tiny voice was drowned out by a much greater, much more primal voice that was laughing manically.

Charred, singed and somehow still holding the AK, Jukka got back to his feet and continued to run. He quickly turned down an alley, at the end of which sat an old dumpster. He ran towards it, leapt atop it and then launched himself upwards, just managing to get a hold of the open window above. He scrambled upwards, window, balcony, window, gutter, and then pulled himself up onto the building's roof top.

He looked around but couldn't see anyone else along the rooftops with him, so he sprinted, leaping from roof top to roof top as the soldiers below fired at him. Bullets hit brickwork or whizzed past him, but he didn't care either way, his mind was laughing and screaming and all he could hear was his heart beating.

He leapt to the next roof and just like before, he couldn't see them but he could just hear where they were and where they were going. He spun on the spot and swung outwards, connecting with something that was in midair, beyond that the only proof that he'd actually hit something was a scream that was falling to the street below.

Jukka saw more trucks, some small with a driver and one shooter, others were larger and carrying several troops in the back. In front of them all however was a low set truck with an open tray and a mounted gun on the back. The had a shield and two ammo drums slung behind that, and Jukka wanted it bad.

He leapt from the roof and landed on the back of the truck, grabbing the weapon and turning it on the driver of the truck. As the truck swerved violently and careered towards a building, Jukka tugged at the weapon and kicked at its mount. He and the mighty weapon flew backwards just as the truck slammed into the wall and exploded.

Burned, blood leaking from numerous holes and carrying the biggest gun he'd ever seen, Jukka stepped into the middle of the street and waited. The personnel carrier screeched to a halt and the twenty soldiers in the back scrambled out and took up a defensive formation.

The voice inside Jukka roared, relieved they weren't giving up.

Part 20

He'd been walking for hours, he was thirsty and his whole body ached. His flesh was already starting to heal but he had no way to get the bullets out, they'd have to stay inside of him. The thought didn't bother him too much, he couldn't feel most of them, the worst was one that had gotten lodged between a pair of ribs in his back. It didn't hurt much but it grinded between the bones whenever he breathed in too deep.

He wasn't even out of the ruins of San Fran yet but he was confident that he wouldn't be pursued any longer. They'd sent wave after wave of soldiers at him, men and women that all ended up dead on the ground or screaming as they crawled away.

He couldn't remember it all, what had happened during the battle. He gave in to some part of himself that he was unfamiliar with and it gladly took the reins. He was alive, whatever had come over him had allowed him to make it out alive, but now he was paying the price.

As he walked through the streets in near silence he found his mind was empty, the anger was sated but there was no traditional mindset to fall back on. He tried to remember, he knew he used to do some little head game to help pass the time on long treks, but he couldn't remember.

He tried to think of how many caps he'd have to fork over to buy a bottle of water, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd bought water. Or booze. Or ammunition. Or…

He remembered that he grew up in New Reno but he couldn't remember what it was like. He remembered skulking through streets and crawling through sewers but he couldn't remember people, but he knew there were people there.

He remembered the fight, the escape, the ruins, the desert, Mariposa, the alarms and strobing lights, getting shot in the face. After that though, it was like there was nothing but what other people had told him, he knew Shady Sands, Junktown and the Hub were roughly south of where he was, but he couldn't remember how he knew.

He rubbed his head, it hurt to think back to before he was who he was now. But how could he have been anything different, how can a person be one thing and then not? His mind went in circles at the impossibility of it all, and as he tried to think of nothing his mind kept returning to the recent battle.

His gun was a thing of beauty, like it was built exactly for him. With one hand on the trigger at the back and the other holding it up between the ammo drums and shield, he could fire it from any position, standing or from the hip, it didn't matter.

He was out of ammunition now, but with the twin ammunition drums slung below the weapon he had an enviable capacity. And the shield, while only designed for someone much smaller than him, it did offer him a modest amount of protection and he noted that more than a few rounds pinged off of it as he charged the Shi.

Yes, he liked his gun, liked it very much. He would have to find more ammunition to ensure that he could properly use and maintain it. He would have to find the others first though, he remembered their plan to meet at the gas station just outside of San Fran.

How had he met them? He remembered meeting them all within Mariposa and he remembered Karol attacking him. But she stopped because they knew each other from before, from before.

It happened again, his mind hit a paradox and couldn't proceed any further, he'd told Karol that he was someone else, someone different and she believed him. They were friends before hand, hands.

He looked at his hand and saw the missing pinkie, he didn't remember losing it in the fight and it was already healed over, unlike the other wounds which were still in the process of doing so. Was he born without it? Was he even born?

Nothing made sense, as he walked along his mind folded in on itself and refused to accept its own truths and even started to accept its own lies. As the ruins of San Fran began to thin out and the sands of the desert took over, he resolved to accept that he was where he was now and that was all he could be certain of.

With his gun slung over his shoulder, he set out down the highway that had led him into the city days earlier. He wasn't sure how much time had passed exactly, he'd been out cold for an unknown length of time but he was sure that if his friends weren't there then they would have left a sign.

It was nearing dark when the gas station came into view, and before he reached it he already knew his friends had moved on. There was no way he could have gotten within a mile of it and not have been spotted by someone keeping an eye out.

He set about looking for the four stones that Hung had told him about, his peoples method of leaving a trail for those left behind to follow. In the growing darkness it was easy to see rocks but much harder to notice any sort of designed patterns in the mess.

As he was about to give up he saw four bottles, the three standing were empty save for a rock in each and the fourth, which was full of water, was pointing roughly south east.

Jukka picked up the bottle and downed its contents as he looked back at the gas station. He was tired and sore but he wanted to gain some ground on his friends, so he left the highway and set off into the desert.

Part 20

He had walked through the night, at several points thinking he should stop but finding that it was only out of some sort of forgotten habit that no longer demanded to be heeded. He had marched on, indomitable, his great strides steadily carrying him across the wastes.

It had been a pleasant night, one he knew to appreciate. The cool air had eased his passage and it wasn't until just before dawn that something caught his eye and gave him pause.

Oh, what the fuck...

A great number of bodies littered the ground, humans & ghouls alike, even a few mutts were scattered between the rest.