Walking Through These Barren Wastes

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout or any of the companies that are responsible for it's creation. I'd like to thank the good people at Bethesda Studios for making such an iconic and wonderful game.

Lucas's hands tightened on the gun and he pulled the trigger, firing the weapon and changing everything. The Council member had a shocked look on his face, why shouldn't he? A sixteen-year old boy had just shot him with a .44 caliber Magnum, leaving a ragged and bloody hole in his chest. The fat and aging man stumbled backwards and slumped against the wall, leaving a trail of blood on the wall. Jon's breath came out in ragged grasps as tears welled up in his eyes and he saw what he'd done, really SAW it. He'd been so scared, so vulnerable, and the Council member had said some things that he hoped to never hear again. Now, he never would.

It took Vault security two minutes and thirty-four seconds to reach the room and override the locked door, which the Councilman had locked for his "convenience and privacy". Upon entering the room and seeing both the boy and the bloody corpse, they wasted no time in securing the young male and hauling him off to the Vault jail. It took the Council members two days, two agonizing days of questioning and measly meals, for them to come up with a decision for what to do with him…

"Lucas Fields, you are hereby sentenced to EXILE from Vault 92 for the rest of your life. Any attempt to re-enter the Vault will be met with lethal force. Do you understand?" The young man took the longest time to answer the "court", if you could call it that. The Council members had splashed this trial together to show that they were "fair and just". It was a sham, all a sham. Lucas could see it in their eyes, each one of these bastards was as sick as the Council member he'd killed. Jon was happy to leave this place behind, even if it meant he'd have to brave the Wasteland….

Two years later:

A lone figure, wrapped in a cloak, walked into the town of Megaton, newcomers to the town or people just passing through had their hands on their weapons, leery of this outsider, little did they know that he was more apart of the town than they were. But they quickly learned, as the townsfolk who knew who he was quickly informed the others who the cloaked figure was. A few children ran up to the man, tugging at his cloak and asking him about his travels. With a weary gesture, the man pulled down his hood and revealed the face of an older, more mature Lucas. He smiled down at the children "I'll tell you a new story when I tuck you guys in tonight, but first, I need to talk to the Sheriff." He pointed at a young African boy "Harden, you happen to know where your dad's at?"

The boy thought for a moment before shaking his head up and down "Yeah, daddy's over at Mr. Moriarty's house, he's on patrol right now." Lucas thanked the youth and walked towards Moriarty's Saloon. Lucas didn't enjoy the company of the bar owner, or Nova, the resident prostitute, but there wasn't anything he could do about it, and hell, everyone had to make a living somehow in these wastes.

Lucas entered the bar and immediately caught sight of the town's sheriff, Lucas Simms, chatting with Moriarty. Lucas stood off to the side, not wanting to be rude and interrupt their conversation, the information he had could wait, and in the meantime, Lucas busied himself with looking over the other inhabitants of the bar. There was Nova, as usual, selling out her "services" to anyone willing to pay for them. Gob was at the bar, washing a few used glass mugs between serving customers. Besides them, there were a few familiar faces from around town, just people who happened to live in the same town as him. The only new person in the bar was the strange man in a white tuxedo sitting off to the side, who, oddly enough, was waving for Lucas to join him. Lucas walked over to the room the man was sitting in and took a seat across from the stranger. "You seem like the sort who, gets around," said the man in an almost complementary manner "Would you think of doing a job for me?" Lucas looked the man over, although he was impeccably dressed, something wasn't quite right with him. Lucas nodded his head for the man to continue, he wanted to know what this job was. "Well, I have a small piece of the bomb sitting in the middle of this… mud hole. If you would be so kind as to implant the piece into the bomb and meet me at Tennpenny tower when you're done, I'll make sure you are WELL rewarded." Lucas thought about what the man was asking him, was this idiot really asking him to, to blow up Megaton? Lucas stood and looked the gentleman in the eyes "I would never dream of destroying this beautiful town or harming the inhabitants. You will turn yourself in immediately to the town sheriff or I will." The man seemed to smirk as he stood; he was just barely taller than Lucas, but he was definitely a lot leaner. The man reached for something in his coat, and as Lucas grabbed the man's arm and yanked it out, he caught sight of a pistol with a long silencer, and then the shooting started.

The man's first shot only grazed his leg, but the second one found purchase in his calf. Lucas dropped to the ground, bringing up a long black magnum, and fired into the man's sternum as the rest of the bar fell into chaos. People were shoving their way out the door and Sheriff Simms looked with wide eyed amazement at the man in the suit, who was trying to get a better shot at Lucas, despite the bleeding hole in his gut. Lucas rolled to the side and got behind a table that had been turned over in the confusion as two more rounds hit the ground where his head had been a few seconds earlier. Simms came to his senses and leveled his Chinese Assault rifle at the man in white "You have two seconds to drop that weapon before I drop you." The man just smiled some more and started to raise his pistol. The Sheriff didn't hesitate; he simply squeezed the trigger and peppered the man in a hail of gunfire. The impact tossed the man back and he slammed back down into the very chair he'd been sitting before, only this time he wouldn't be standing up.

Lucas tried to stand up from behind the table, but collapsed as the pain from his wounded calf brought him to his knees. Simms ran over to him and slowly helped Lucas to his feet "Now, what the hell was that all about?" Lucas just shook his head, a chuckle escaping his lips "The crazy bastard, tried to hire me to blow up the city, said he had a component and everything." Simms looked at Lucas in abject horror, the thought that someone wanted to blow Megaton up was, well, unthinkable. Moriarty charged into the bar, anger apparent on his face. "What the hell have you done to my bar?" He roared, indicating the shot up floor and wall. "Who the hell do you think you are that you can just waltz in here and start a blood bath? You're going to pay for this you little piece of shit! I swear." The Sheriff glared at the bar owner and replied in a steely tone "Before you start yelling at this boy here, you should make sure that the people coming in and out of your bar aren't fucking psychopaths bent on blowing the city up! Did you even bother asking this clown what he was doing in Megaton? Well, did you?" Moriarty was too stunned for words, which was pretty rare, and Lucas just smiled, but the smile quickly faded as another wave of pain washed over him and his head started getting dizzy. He could barely stand and the room started to spin, putting him even more off balance. Before he knew what was happening, he'd slipped out of Sheriff Simms arms and had felt his body collide with the floor. He didn't feel the pain that should be there, in fact, all of the pain had faded, and the room was starting to fade. Shit thought Lucas, his consciousness almost gone, What a shitty way to die.

Author's Notes: SHIT, did I really kill off my OC in the first chapter? Oops. I guess you guys are wondering where the hell I'm going to go from here huh? Well you'll just have to wait and see...