2289, a new age…

The Commonwealth, once one of many lost causes, like the Capital Wasteland or Atlanta was once a never ending warzone. The Raiders, Supermutants and the occasional Brotherhood of Steel soldier would battle it out in the streets, firing round after round for hours until it finally came to a stop.

Settlements were few and far between, the few that existed were constantly threatened by invaders, using them to supply their gangs or orders for profit. Life became much harder for the folks in the commonwealth… Until the minutemen came.

Lead by Naomi Eastwood and Preston Garvey, the Minutemen appeared out of nowhere and took the Commonwealth by storm. Within a year, Sanctuary hills to the Starlight drive in became so safe that one could walk there without weapons. Now, the entire Commonwealth is a haven for traders and farmers, to the point that Diamond City is no longer over subscribed.

The natural order has been turned around, with the last bastion of hope, Nuka World, falling to the Minutemen, the Raiders of the Commonwealth are being hunted to extinction. The Gunners, Disciples, Operatives, Pack, Rust Devils, forgers and the free lance raiders have been forced to abandon their identities, banding together.

Numbers are dwindling and though many hard core survivors have banded together, they know that they are facing a losing battle and the only way to win a losing battle?

Look at your odds, your resources, your assets and liabilities and do what you have to do to utilise everything possible.

That is exactly what the leaders of these new splinter groups are planning…

First day on the job…

It was Greg's first day on the job and what a day it was. Here he was, stood in his bosses' inner circle as he watched her relentlessly beat some guy to death. He wasn't exactly informed of what he had done to deserve this bludgeoning but, then again, it wasn't healthy to ask questions.

The Boss wanted him dead? Then he was dead…

Honestly, he found it difficult to believe that he was working for Barney. She was, what, twenty? She was probably the youngest person in the room, she didn't even wear any armour or anything as it seemingly just slowed her down.

She had her blonde hair tied up on the side, to create two pigtails and wore a small t-shirt that showed off her entire midriff and incredibly short denim pants that were more or less glorified underwear.

The clothes she wore stuck to a pink and black colour scheme, it was difficult to tell if this was by choice but somehow Greg figured that it was 50/50 as far as possibilities went and it didn't matter either way.

She had the most hypnotising form, just… perfect in every way. She could've been anything in Diamond City, a singer or a dancer… before the war she probably would've been homecoming queen and yet, here she was, beating some poor asshole to death for seemingly no reason.

Greg flinched as a big spot of blood flew across the room, hitting him in the eye and causing him to wince as he reached up for it. He scrubbed, furiously, in an effort to clear his vision up again.

He didn't think it would be like this… He expected violence, sure but outside, like in settlements and stuff, not in this old powerstation on the outskirts of the Commonwealth. Still, he wasn't going to question it, that's probably what this poor bastard did.

His Brother was a Raider, Pack, wore a pig mask with pride as he butchered people, not worrying at all that he looked ridiculous. He was loved so much that he was assigned to the safari park, down at Nuka World and was sadly, never seen again…

His Dad was a Gunner but Rick, his Big Bro, didn't like it. The Gunners were some mean sons of bitches and Zachariah was too mean, even for them.

Oh no, not mean as in harsh or cruel, mean as in tight fisted. Yeah, they had the best gear in the wastes but what did they do with it? Pose as a mercenary company, like dumb assholes!

Barney was smarter than them, at least he hoped so. She was a bitch with her baseball bat and nuttier than squirrel shit. They also say that she's brilliant, like, Porter Gauge brilliant. Just think of the possibilities if that's true. How far could she take this little outfit of her's?

"Whew! Right! I need a new messenger!" She gasped, dropping her baseball bat to the floor as she spun around on her heals, pacing back over to her throne and gently lowering herself onto it, propping her head up with her right hand.

"Someone go down to Concord with my reply please, tell 'em I'm sorry but they need to send a mailman who's gay next time, so he doesn't stare at my tits."

"I'll do it." The nearest guard informed her, he was a bald, heavily burned man with a permanent scowl.

"Thanks darl!" Barney cheered as she swivelled her bum around on the chair and threw her legs over the left arm as she leant back on the right.

"I'm gonna need you to split into two teams. Team A's gonna need to get the gear together, since we ain't coming back to this place. It's shit. We need to find somewhere better, somewhere… much better!"

"Alright, we've had a few ideas actually." The Burned Man said, taking the folded reply from the dead messenger's corpse.

"What's team B gonna do?"

"Team B? Well, team B will be one guy really, I need someone to eat me out… erm…" She peered around, quickly poking her finger at Greg.

"Him, I'll give the new boy a spin!"

"Wait… What?" Greg couldn't help but splutter as his words escaped him.

"You want me to…"

"Give me head, yeah, I'm stressed and I need to unwind." She insisted, throwing her legs back over to the floor.

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh? N-No! No problem at all, it's just… I wasn't expecting it."

"Neither was I, just stop expecting things kid, you'll do well around here."

'Kid,' Greg was older than her but somehow, he didn't feel it. The girl had old eyes, to the point that one would think she was thirty if they looked into them. She was tired and war torn and hid it all behind a manic grin…

"Right, chop chop! Newboy, come with me, the rest of you, make sure that you don't leave anything behind. Chinese Assault Rifles are in their own compartment nowadays, so don't forget 'em."

"Yes Ma'am."

As Greg stepped forward, he felt the Burned Man grab him by the arm, prompting him to look him straight in his jerky-like face.

"Don't get her too excited, she'll kill you if you do…"

Greg couldn't help but let his concern show as his eyes widened a little.

"Wh-What?"

"She'll strangle the life out of you, trust me, just do what you need to but don't go too far, yeah?"

Greg nodded quickly before running off after her.

"Thank you." He Mumbled, hurriedly after he went after her, prompting the older man to shake his head as he watched them both leave. It was odd, though nobody seemed particularly envious of Greg, they should be but they weren't, which had him worried.

Given how lethal a good job was, how well received would a terrible job be? This was a first time for Greg and he barely had a grasp of the concept.

He just needed to not screw it up… That was the best he could hope for.

Barney lay in her bed, now completely undressed. She'd received quite the ravishing from the new guy… poor guy must be, what, 23? He'd completely fucked the blowjob up but he tried his best and in the end, that's all that mattered, right?

She'd had a bit of fun with him and now it was time to go back to work. In all honesty, this was what she was looking forward to the most, simply lying, propped up in her bed and examining the strange component that she'd pulled from the corpse of the messenger.

There was no doubt about it… This was a synth component.

If anyone were to ask if she knew that he was a synth, she would've said 'of course I knew!' but in all honesty, this was just an added bonus. She began to wonder if this was an Institute trap, why would a Raider Gang send a suit to represent them? It made no damn sense…

Well, actually, it made sense, if you thought along the lines of 'this is them fucking with us' but somehow she doubted that it was that simple.

There was something else going on, that guy was too well dressed for a raider but too grubby for institute. Sure, Institute could be anyone but he looked like he was from Diamond City…

Barney rolled out of bed and threw her legs over the side, quickly slipping her legs into some underwear to make herself decent.

She never got that expression, 'decent' as Barney was fabulous when naked, maybe that's what it meant. Didn't want all the men hypnotised by her knockers that even robots found themselves drawn to them.

It felt odd, even now, wearing so little on a daily basis… She liked it, quite a bit. So many years of oppression left a lot of time to make up for, all those wasted years in bald of the knee skirts and blouses.

Fucking YUCK!

The first thing she did, after escaping that shit hole was burn her clothes. Grey and white, the visual representation of boredom and lifelessness…

She quickly pulled her shirt over her head as she heard Greg begin to stir and wanted to be there to see him stiffen in horror as he realised that he fell asleep.

Predictably, he did so and his eyes quickly fell on her with a void look as he lay waiting for her reaction. It looked like he was waiting for her to bash his skull in, which was a little insulting. A cutey like him would be wasted if he was killed in such an impersonal way, if she wanted to kill him, he'd have to go the way of a sensual strangling.

"Rise and shine." She said, cheerfully as she pulled her pants up her legs, trying not to stumble about.

"We got to move, remember?"

"Y-Yes." Greg grumbled as he rolled out of bed.

"S-Sorry Boss!"

Barney scrunched up her nose, staring at him suspiciously.

"Hey, I'm not that scary, right?" She asked as if probing him to say 'yes' or something to that effect, Greg quickly looked around.

"I just… Didn't want to keep you waiting."

"How considerate." She grinned, resting her baseball bat on her shoulders.

"Seriously, you should lighten up kiddo! I don't kill my own people y'know… Not often anyway, I am trying to be good."

"Trying?" Greg asked, meekly as he buttoned his pants up, trying to keep his attention fixed on her, mostly for his own safety.

"Well, you know how it is. Some people push me a little too far, like new guys who won't fess up!" She growled, thrusting her bat at him and making him flinch before bursting into a brief giggling fit.

"Kid-ding!" She called out, stumbling backward.

"I'd never kill a guy on his first day! Okay… Maybe I would but I don't want to kill a guy on his first day. Besides, you have a nice face, don't want to go, fucking it up."

Greg did the only thing anyone could do in his situation, he nodded, like he understood what she was wittering on about but in all honesty was considering whether or not he had made a mistake, right up until his eyes fell onto the synth component and her bedside.

"What's that, Boss?" He asked, finding himself curious and prompting the Raider Boss to look back over her shoulder.

"Oh... I got it off that dead guy, out there. Some sort of gizmo... Dunno what it does." She shrugged and rested her baseball bat on her shoulder.

"I think it could be worth something."

"It looks... very high tech." The Raider observed as he picked it up, Barney didn't say that he could but A. First day and B. He's cute.

"Hey, you don't think it's Institute, do ya?"

Barney simply scoffed at the notion, shaking her head with a light smirk.

"C'mon now, institute comin' after us? What the hell would be the point?"

"Hell if I know, what's the point in half of the shit that they do?"

"To infiltrate and undermine society, silly and we ain't society!" Barney pointed out, getting a confused look from Greg as she gently lifted it out of his hands, that was a few more syllables than he was expecting...

"Leave the thinkin' to me, Hon, don't want you gettin' wrinkles now. Then I'll truly have no use for you." Barney grinned as she pocketed the Component.

Greg nodded, quickly sliding out of bed as he threw some clothes on. He seemed quite unnerved about this whole situation, something that Barney was fully aware of, if anything it just made him even cuter. There was a certain adorable asset to a frightened face, especially if it was you doing the frightening.

"Can I ask you somethin' Boss?"

"You just did." She pointed out, with a shrug.

"Alright, can I ask you somethin'... Personal?"

Barney couldn't help but grin, quickly leaning over and taking a seat on his lap with her arms wrapped around his neck, staring into his eyes with a manic grin.

"Oooh, can't wait to hear what. Go on..."

"Where are you from?"

Barney paused, almost flinching as the grin faded, she seemed almost... shocked to be asked that.

"Why?"

"Everythin' about you, doesn't really add up, it's like you're..."

"I'm...?"

"Like you weren't always this way."

Barney flinched again, damn, this kid was observant. A lot more than the other knuckleheads that she hung out with.

"I think we gotta go, don't you?"

"Y-Yeah... I guess..." Greg agreed, sheepishly as he looked away and nodded, though his eyes quickly fell back on her.

"Though you didn't answer my question."

"Nope. I guess you'll have to not die to hear the answer." She shrugged, hopping off of his lap and marching towards the door, picking up her baseball bat up off of the floor.

"I'm ready!" She sang, stepping over to front door and kicking it open, she took a deep breath and stepped outside.

"Annabelle!? Honey?"

Mrgh...

"Annabelle!"

"Right!"

Urgh, do they ever ever ever give it a rest? This mundane world, how do they cope?

She quickly sat up, rolling over to look over the bed and burying her head in her hands. How was she to cope? How was she going to achieve anything with these constant interruptions!?

"Annabelle!"

Since when did 'right I'm coming!" translate to 'no, I refuse!'?

"RIGHT!"

She just needed a few hours to think, to get her thoughts down but how was one supposed to record their true feelings if they can't even stop to think for thirty seconds?

She huffed, grabbing hold of the door with her woolen gloves. It confused people that they were falling apart and fingerless, despite the fact that they were supposed to look like that.

The trimmed miniskirt, the tights with a hole in the knee, the colour of her outfit. These things were so oddly confusing to other people. Was looking different such a crime? Was being different such a crime?

It was 2286, surely it was time to change our look. The photographs from 2077 look like they were taken yesterday. This town, it was the town that stood still, the town that never moved or changed...

It was purgatory...

In fact, no, it was hell...

Annabelle stepped down the stairs, ensuring that her battered old boots hit every step on the way down with a huge thud and alerted her near deaf/senseless parents that she had indeed remembered that the stale food was waiting for her on the table.

"Annabelle, your dinner is going cold!"

"Fuck, Mom it's not going to exactly freeze over, is it? It's a Salsbury steak for fuck's sake!"

"Language!"

"Urgh, fine... Whatever." Annabelle scoffed, taking a seat at the table.

Both of her parents just went straight back to eating, why bother with something as fun and abnormal as conflict, when mundane food called. Cut all phone calls short, never finish that last note, never say that last good bye or steal a kiss.

If the mundane calls, you must come a running. Run like pigeons running towards bread... at least, she thought that's what pigeons did, personally she'd never seen one but she did see one in a book once.

"So, how was school?" Annabelle's Mother asked, finding herself suddenly curious as her daughter shoved a mouthful of pees in, without any pause to consider how they tasted.

They just tasted like old feet anyway...

"Shit."

"You can't just say that, there has to be a reason."

"Okay, it was about the same as any other school day."

"Did you... Learn anything?"

"I learned where Mr Galloway keeps his whiskey." She shrugged, shovelling in a mouthful of pees.

"Keeps it under lock and key in his drawer."

"How do you know this?" Her Mother asked, looking to her Father for some re-assurance.

"Been looking into it, wanted to win the pool. Decided to set the fire alarm off and see where he looked, you always look at what you value most, in which case it was the sweet nectar that helped him dull the pain of having to deal with us shits."

"You... Set the fire alarm off?"

"Oh, no, I wouldn't ever. I got Billy to do it."

"Billy Landford?"

"That's the one."

Annabelle's Mother scowled, leaning back in her chair and bringing her hand to her face.

"I can't believe you! Do you have any idea what would happen if you were caught?"

"I can't be caught if I'm not the one doing it. Billy doesn't care and he got ten percent of my winnings, so it was all good."

"Setting off the fire alarm is serious Annabelle, it's a very serious crime." Her Father interrupted, putting his fork down.

"I thought we raised you better than this! You're too old for this shit!"

"Language Henry..." Her Mother interjected.

"I made $30, through that stupid stunt. I wouldn't just push the button Dad, I just wanted to win the money."

"By putting lives at risk? Didn't the whole building have to be evacuated? The Fire Department get called out again?"

"Yep... Gave those boys something to do, when was the last time we had a fire here? Even the volunteer service sees no action."

"Annabelle, we only need one fire to lose everybody in that school!"

"Pfft, there's a million exits, it'd be fine." Annabelle sighed, taking another bite of her food.

"I would've thought you'd be impressed... Given that I solved a mystery and won all of that money, money we can spend on a vacation."

Her Father sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"Annabelle, nobody goes on Vacation. Nobody has ever been in our lifetimes."

"Steph went..."

"Yes, though she needed it, she wasn't well." Her Mother pointed out, with a rather irritable sigh as they went back to eating.

"So? We just need to babble about the sky falling and we can go on Vacation as well."

"Annabelle, that isn't funny. She suffered from paranoid delusions, it's not her fault." Her Mother said, not wanting to hear anymore mockery, that was directed at that poor girl.

"Pfft, I'm sure the Mayor put it just as delicately." Anabelle sighed, noticing that she was almost done.

"Hey, I heard something today. Something about there being an... Event at the park, in town?"

"Yeah, music, fun... that kind of thing." Anabelle explained, with a shrug.

"I'm providing music, Billy is coordinating the sports, Eric the Weather, etcetera..."

"Weather?" Anabelle's Mother asked, curiously.

"I didn't think you kids could care less about the Weather."

"Heh, we don't but nobody really cares about anything there. It's just that none of us have the same talents. So, we just do our best to appreciate eachother's. Nobody likes my music but they listen, because I don't like their sports and I play it.

It's... Just nice, seeing eachother at our best, y'know?"

Anabelle's Mother nodded in slight agreement, with a faint smile.

"You should give that Eric boy a chance, you know." Her Mother began, prompting Anabelle to choke on whatever it was she downed last.

"What the... Mom!? Where the shit did that come from?"

"He likes you, I can tell."

"You think everyone likes me! I'm pretty sure that Eric isn't interested and even if he was, two people aren't going to suddenly want to bang eachother, because one of their Mother's thinks that it's a good idea."

"W-What!?" Anabelle's Mother asked, somewhat shocked to hear her say that.

"Where do you even... Hear this sort of language?"

"I leave the house, listen to other people." She shrugged.

"It's not hard."

"Still, that's not what I meant, I meant that you and him could grow close... get married and have a family or... something a little more pure than what you think I meant at the very least."

"Mrgh, I'm not sure I see that happening with any of the guys in my town. They're all... All of them feel like they were manufactured by this town, none of them feel like me. Even Billy is an idiot jock, straight from the 1950s, it's like they're all actors, with a part to play.

I just don't know mine..."

As she finished speaking, she pulled herself away from the dinner table and began her ascent. She had been preparing herself all week and now, it was coming to a close, the final curtain.

She stepped into her room and threw herself onto her bed, taking a deep breath before rolling over, looking a stuffed bear in the face. It didn't seem to respond, given that it was an inanimate object.

"Not long off now, Barnes…"

"Why do you keep talking to me about it, you know I don't approve."

"What's your alternative? Hmm? Live here? Clean pots? Have babies and die? That's what they want! It's the only way that you can get out of this shit hole town!"

"So, what? You and your friends are going to find your own means of escape? Seems a little… It doesn't seem right is all. There has to be a better way."

"I'm all ears, if you can think of one."

"I can't think, I'm a bear."

"That's your excuse for everything Barney!" Anabelle sighed as she rolled onto her back, staring up to the ceiling with a faint smile, gently rubbing her stomach as she slowly exposed it to the world.

"We'll drink, dance, sing, play… Make love…

We'll have one last perfect night together, one last moment that will be perfect!"

"Then…"

"And then, we'll end it!"