Dusty Old Stories

Finding a Dead Man

Andale, the place looked like hell. It was the mass of birds circling overhead that brought him here, so Tyler had been expecting to find death, but he was sorely under prepared for the carnage that lay in wait for him. The bodies were piled up in the road. Like some sort of sick ritual. The stench of rotting and burned flesh still lingers in the air, and some of them are even still smoldering, sending small clouds of smoke up into the air. All around he can see signs of the fight that took place. Bloodstains against walls, bullet holes, scorch marks where something exploded. Looking at the pile of bodies, he can make out at least four people, two males and two females.

Nearby an open door catches his attention. Stepping into the building, he instantly notices the signs of a quick pack up. Someone left here in a hurry, taking all of the food and just about everything else with them. Stepping back outside he spots the footprints of at least three people, maybe four, clustered around the entrance of the building. He rubs his head, wishing he knew more about tracking. He stands up and rolls his shoulders. He comes to the conclusion that a normal raider wouldn't have bothered to burnt he bodies in such a spectacular fashion. This was done by someone who wanted to send a message, someone who was also out for revenge. He understands revenge, and the burning desire it leaves inside of a person. Deciding that there is nothing of any value to be found here, he sets off in the same general direction of the tracks he found earlier.

He follows the tracks to the best of his abilities, often times having to go backwards and find the trail again after having wandered off in the wrong direction. Eventually he comes to a spot where the tracks split. There is evidence of a campfire. The group must have stopped here. The tracks diverge, with a set of three heading one direction and a single set moving off on its own. The group seems to contain children, but the tracks left by the loner strike him as strange. he crouches down and examines them closer. The faint footprints are not following a straight line. Instead they list off in either direction, as if the person was struggling to say on their feet. It is also fairly clear that this person is hurt and limping badly.

Tyler decides to go after the loner. Maybe he will get lucky and stumble across the assholes body. He follows the tracks for the better half of the day, mildly impressed that whoever this person is managed to make it this far. He has already decided that if he finds whoever this is alive then he will kill the person to put them out of their misery and then loot them. If the person is already dead, he can save the ammo.

Just after midday the tracks lead him into a metro entrance. Slouched in the shadow cast by the large archway is the body of a man clad in blood soaked clothes. Tyler pulls his shotgun off of his back and approaches closely. The man on the ground makes no movements, seemingly dead. Crouching down in front of him Tyler sets his shotgun down and starts to search the man's pockets. He becomes so preoccupied with his looting that he fails to hear the sound of gravel crunching beneath heavy feet behind him. Suddenly the man he is searching jerks forward and has scooped his shotgun off the ground. Before Tyler can react the man has pulled the trigger and there is a pained roar behind him!

Whirling around, Tyler is shocked to see a deathclaw behind him. The left side of the monsters face is gone, blasted away by the man Tyler had been looting. He turns back to the man to see him slowly lowering the shotgun, "Eat me will you you ugly bastard, not today." Now Tyler is really impressed, and then right away concerned as the man coughs and blood leaks out of the side of his mouth. Tyler makes a snap decision and pulls out one of his stimpacks. He jabs the medicine into the stranger and then hoists the man onto his shoulders. Megaton is nearby, and there is a Doctor there. Normally, he wouldn't bother himself with random people from the wasteland, but if this bastard can survive whatever he has been through and still have the strength of will to save him from a deathclaw, then he deserves to live just a little longer.

The trip to Megaton is uneventful, no more people who should be dead but somehow aren't. Doc Church is his usual testy self, and Tyler again has to remind himself not to be an ass, though it would be so fucking worth it to put a few shotgun shells in that pompous bastards face. As for the dead guy, he recovers remarkably quickly. Tyler is there when he first wakes up. Not because he was waiting by the man's side, but instead because he was high off Med-x and couldn't move. That aside, the man didn't stay awake. He just opened his eyes for a few minutes, groaned something, and then passed back out.

Afterwards the guy didn't hardly say a word. In fact, the most he said was a simple yes, no, fuck you, and sometimes food or water. The rest of the time he guy just grunted, or growled, or just stared at you with this look that made you feel as if he were looking into your soul and judging you for breathing his air or something. At first Tyler was pissed that he has rescued a high and might, everyone is below me, type of person. The he realized that they guy was just sultry and preferred not to talk. What was a real surprise was finding the guy waiting for him at the city's gates the day he left. The guy didn't say anything, he just followed him.

At first, Tyler was nervous around him and always kept a close eye on the man who should be dead. Soon enough though the bastard proved himself and Tyler relaxed a little. Eventually the man started talking. Tyler found out that his name was Luther and that he was a former member of some sort of privileged group. The guy never said witch group, but that he was from one as obvious from the way he referred to some people as, 'degenerates,' or the way he could stare people down. He was a man who used to have power, lost it, and now only looks after himself. he reminds him a whole lot of himself.