Around sundown in the bombed out ruins of what was once known as Springvale Elementary school, two Raiders celebrated their recent "victory" over another group of helpless survivors.

"Goddam did that little bitch squeal or what?", a raider who called himself Ab asked. He got the name off the base of a statue in the ruins of D.C. and, unable to read English very well, could not recognize the other words. He was sitting on a half-burned couch he had dragged in, in order to make the hideout more liveable.

"YEAH, haha. Is she still alive? We'll need to ditch the body if she ain't.", replied another raider by the name of Gitsy, who was sitting in an adjacent chair. He was drinking out of an unmarked bottle that clearly contained alcohol.

Ab snorted, "Yeah I can hear her breathin'."

The person the were referencing, is a young girl in the corner, maybe 17 years of age or so. Brown, stringy hair framed her shock ridden face. Her green eyes were completely dilated from fear. She was wearing a cloak made from the hide of a brahmin that had been unceremoniously torn by the two men. All of this was surpassed, however, by the blood that was slowly dripping from a hole in her lower abdomen. She was unnaturally quiet, all of her will to scream having left her during the two men's revelry.

All of this was seen by a young man on an outcropping of rock roughly 30 feet away. He was lying on his stomach and viewed the two Raiders through a pair of binoculars. The man had short dirty blonde hair, with a light dusting of facial hair. He wore a long brown duster that, when he stood, reached just above his ankles. He wore a pair of brown combat boots, that were coated in a various combination of dirt, blood, and general muck picked up from the wasteland. Upon his left wrist was a handheld computer, a Pip-Boy, with a currently blank screen. The man viewed the scene before him with cautious curiosity, normally he would avoid such a small pointless fight, but something told him he needed to go into the reached for his sidearm, a 10mm pistol with the standard 12 round magazine, checked to make sure it was loaded and that the safety was off.

The man slowly stood from his prone position and lowered himself off the rocks. The area between him and the school was clear, but there was a house ahead to his left. The wall of the school had been destroyed long ago, leaving the two raiders visible. He slowly made his way to the house, making sure to keep his body low and his eyes on the Raiders. He reached the house and had halved the distance between him and the two men. Going along the backside of the house he continued along to the left of the school. During this time he remained completely undetected to two marauders. He reached the north side of the school where the wall remained intact. He carefully leaned his head around the corner to see his two targets. The one on the couch was facing the other direction where he would not notice the stranger. The man in the chair quietly slumped over, with an inhaler of Jet in his left hand.

This is when the man spotted the young girl in the corner. By this time she was lying in a steadily growing pool of her own blood but was kept immobile from pain and fear. The young man ignored her for now, he couldn't be distracted. Though he had done things similar to this easily hundred of times, he knew to never drop his guard. He had seen the most experienced soldiers go down from hubris. He would not become like them.

He lifted his pistol upon the jet addict in the chair. He knew jet could make the man much more dangerous at close quarters and decided he was a greater threat. He put the center of the man's chest in his crosshairs. The stranger closed his eyes, reached into himself, and switched off everything that made him human.

The first bullet entered his chest just right of center, the second sent the left half of his throat on the floor. The man on the couch raised in surprise at the feeling of his friend's blood covering his face. He turned to see where the attacker was, but by then it was too late. Two bullets pierced his stomach in rapid succession, sending him to the floor screaming, any idea of reprisal forgotten. Blood poured from him like a faucet, but he continued to draw breath.

The blonde man entered the room and took in the chaos. The living Raider was gasping for breath while trying to hold in his entrails. Blood splattered the walls near where the addict had been sitting. The young girl had stayed quiet during the entire scene, but her breathing was hurried and she struggled to bury herself further into the corner. She had not been immune to the spray of blood either, and her face and hair had been splattered with it.

The man first went to the dying Raider on the ground. He took a knee near the man and looked in his eyes. Among the anger and hate he saw fear, but with that switch off he didn't care. He simply lowered his gun to the man's head and fired. Despite attempting to angle the shot so as to minimize blood spatter, his face still had become showered in the vile substance.

He wiped his face and went over to the girl. He took in her appearance, age, and injuries. The girl trembled away from the man, but still did not scream.

"What's your name?", the man asked, his voice scratchy and unused.

"M-maria, sir.", she struggled to get out.

"Hi, Maria my name is George, I'm here to help you. Can you tell me what happened?",he asked attempting to sound as comforting as possible.

She relayed to him the story of how her family owned a farm and that they had been attempting to sell some crops at the nearby town of Megaton, but were attacked before they made it. Maria was the only survivor of the attack. She explained how they dragged her into the school, but she was too distraught to continue after that.

"Shh, it's all going to be okay Maria, you don't have to keep going, I understand.", he said this as he cradled the girl in his arms while she cried. "Now Maria, I need to take a look at these injuries okay? What I need to do is lift up your shirt so I can see them better is that okay?"

She nodded her consent and George gently lifted her shirt to reveal the extent of her problems. The situation was bleak. She had been shot at least twice from what appeared to be .32 rounds. There was no way she would make it to a nearby town, and he had little medical experience.

Dammit

"Maria you're gonna be okay, I promise. Now I'm gonna move you onto that couch over there so I can have more room to work."

With that, he gently lifted the girl in his arms. Maria screamed from pain at the jostle. George gently walked the few steps between the corner of the room and the couch, and slowly placed her upon it.

"There we go, you're doing great." George ripped a piece of the cover off of the couch and instructed her to hold it over the wound. "Now Maria, it looks like you've got an injury on the back of your head that I need to look at, okay?"

"Really? I didn't feel it.",she responded through the pain.

"Yeah it's just a scratch though, I'm sure it'll be fine", his tone of reassurance replaced by a strained one.

He walked around the back of the couch and stood over the girl.

God help me

"Now Maria, I promise you this next part won't hurt at all okay?",he said through gritted teeth.

Maria replied, "Okay, I trust you."

With those words reverberating in his head George retrieved his sidearm from its place.

I'm sorry

He held out the gun towards the back of her neck.

There's no other way

He aimed the gun at the back of the neck, where the spine meets the brain.

It won't hurt at least

He pulled the trigger.

George holstered the pistol and walked to the hole in the wall where he had entered. Before leaving he turned and surveyed the wreckage of the incident. The whole thing took close to five minutes, but it would weigh on the man for the rest of his life. His eyes lingered on the girl for a moment.

There was no other way

George left the building and headed out on the road. As he passed the other houses in the decrepit neighborhood, he decided it was best if he kept that switch off a little longer than usual.

This is my first work, so comment if you would be so kind. Roast me, tell jokes, idc just say something.