Hello again! I don't own anything of the Fallout series. Happy reading! Warning: Mentions of rape.
*** Nivloc
Normal text = present
Italics = past
I'm awakened by the sound of a woman screaming. My mouth feels like I swallowed dirt the entire night, but I ignore it as the woman screams get closer. I peak out from behind the small amount of cover the skeleton of the house provides me to watch the road. I catch sight of a blonde woman running towards the town. I cower behind my cover.
"Someone! Please, help me," she yells continuously. From the same direction she came, three intimidating looking men appear on the road. They stand and survey the land. The woman is running away as fast as she can, yet they leisurely make their way over to her once she's fallen over. I can see the guns they are holding. Semi-automatic rifles… I don't stand a chance if they see me, and they don't look like the type that wanted new friends.
"Don't run now, Maisy. We wouldn't want to blow your pretty little head off," one of them says darkly. Their voice is low and rough. Maisy stopped running once she hid behind the blue object I past on my way into town. I flinch when I watch one of them backhand her in the face. The blow sends her to the ground. I hear the distinct sound of metal hitting concrete, and that's when I see the metal necklace Maisy is wearing. I duck lower behind the damaged wall protecting me from their line of sight, careful not to make any noise.
"Get away from me! Let me go! Please, someone! Help!" Maisy yells, but the echo of their hoarse laughter tells me that they aren't letting her go. I can't look away. Even though I watch a knife be drawn. Even though I hear Maisy scream and struggle against them. I can't bring myself to do anything except watch. Maisy keeps screaming, and I watch them hit her a few times, but she won't settle down. I look away to make sure that I have all of my belongings so that if they notice me I can make a run for it. I hear the sound of fabric rubbing together and sneak a glance around the side of the wall.
"Fuck," the man with red hair whispers loudly as he thrust into Maisy. I freeze. Tears were streaming down her face as they handled her roughly. The only thing coming out of Maisy's mouth now is whimpers and harsh breaths of pain. Bruises were already forming on her dirt stained skin. She didn't put up any resistance, but that was probably because of the knife one of them was pressing into her arm. I watch them use her until the very end. When each of them has finished, the one with black hair pulls the knife from her arm and tosses a roll of bandages to her. She doesn't catch them. The men all stand and joke with one another as they waited for her to finish pulling herself together. Only then was the trance broken, and I slid back into my corner.
"Putain," I whisper so quietly that I barely hear myself. I'm shaking. My throat feels impossibly drier than before. I hear them leave. They don't try to be quiet. I wait until I can't hear them to check my Pip-Boy. It was almost 14:00. I wait a little longer before moving though. The first thing I do is retrieve a water bottle from my backpack and drink the entire thing eagerly. I try to eat some food but end up abandoning the task when images of Maisy won't leave my mind. I sit on the mattress until the warm light disappears and the cool blue light of the moon replaces it. I grab another water bottle from my backpack and drink half of it. I ready myself to move. I can't stay here forever, but my legs are weak. I get onto the road and see a house that appears to be completely intact. There are cracks in the walls which allow for yellow light to leak through. I don't know how I didn't notice the house before, but it might contain those three men and Maisy. My fear prevents me from approaching the building. I quietly sneak past it and find myself in front of a larger, half destroyed building. The sign read "Springvale Middle School." I walk up to the double doors and press my face up against the glass. I can't see into the building well, so I decide to open the door. God was that a mistake if I ever made one.
"You hear that?" I hear a man whisper darkly. The entrance had been decorated with a hastily made cell and a dismembered corpse dangled above it. Its blood had stopped dripping onto the floor a long time ago, because the blood is dry and cracked. The air smelled of dust, rust and sweat.
"You go check it out. I swore I heard the front door open." Two voices argued with one another while I observed the first room. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything valuable to take.
"When I find you, I'm going to either fuck you or gut you," I hear the first man that spoke yell loudly. He sounded close, so I quickly exit the way I came in and sprint to the mattress I left back in town. Images of Maisy enter my mind, and I run even faster.
"No," I gasp out as I run, "Not me. Please, no." I make it back to the dirty mattress safely, but now I'm trembling horribly.
"Où… où?" I cry into my knees as I curl into a ball.
"Papa, où es-tu?" I whisper. Eventually, I fall asleep for the second time since I left the Vault.
When I awaken the next morning, there is no screaming or Maisy. There's nothing, but the sound of air moving around me and dragging whatever it can across the ground. The warm light isn't strong enough to burn my skin yet, so I grab my things and decide to take the second road leading out of town. I follow it for about 15 minutes before seeing a sign with yellow paint. I approach it cautiously.
"Megaton," I pronounce the weird name easily once I am close enough and make my way down the beaten path. The large metal structure is hard to miss, but I don't see a door to get inside. There is a man smoking a cigarette outside with the same rifle as those three men who took Maisy. I duck behind the nearest boulder and clutch my bat to my chest.
"Hey, lady!" The man yells. I don't move. Maybe he'll think I ran away.
"Bonne idée, Reign," I scold myself. I hear footsteps approach me slowly. I hold my breath and send a silent prayer to the Gods.
"Hey, what are you doing?" I hear a voice right above my head. I let out a weak scream and swing my bat to hit the man in the face, but he dodges the blow effortlessly. I stare at him with wide eyes, expecting to feel the pain of being shot erupt somewhere on my body, but it never comes. He holds both of his hands up as a sign of peace. I don't lower my bat though.
"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. The name is Crazy Wolfgang. What about you, dollface? What do they call you?" He says with a friendly tone. He keeps his hands up, so I slowly lower my bat and respond.
"I am Reigna Calavon," I state. He lets his blue eyes roam over me, and I fidget under his gaze.
"Well, nice to meet you. Fancy name you got there," he says with an easy smile as he drops his hands to his sides. His relaxed demeanor helps me relax, but I know better than to let my guard down completely.
"Crazy is a unique name as well," I respond. He lets out a loud laugh, and it reminds me of the three men with Maisy. It's effortless and wholehearted. It seems to shake the air around me. I flinch at the noise. He catches it and stops laughing.
"What's got you so spooked? You see a deathclaw?" He asks as his eyes scan the horizon. I raise my bat in response to his actions.
"What's that?" I whisper. One of his eyebrows raise in question. He turns his back to me and starts to walk towards the giant metal mass known as Megaton.
"Look, let's talk inside the walls. It seems to me like you don't know too much about the glorious Capital Wasteland, dollface," he says over his shoulder. I keep my bat close and follow him deciding that at the first sound of trouble to run back to the mattress in town. There is an older robot standing close to the metal mass and a sniper on a small balcony above us. Crazy greets him with a wave and a warm smile. The man disappears from our line of sight, and this awfully loud sound starts to come from above us. I squat down in panic and clutch my bat to my stomach until I feel a hand on my shoulder. My wide eyes lock with Crazy's calm ones. He holds out his other hand as a gesture to help me stand. I don't know why I trust him, but I do and stand slowly taking his hand. He points at a large turbine located just below the man that he had waved to earlier. It was spinning so quickly that I couldn't keep up with it.
"It opens the gates. Don't worry, dollface," Crazy yells over the noise. I just nod my head in disbelief. When the gates have opened enough, we enter a large room with what appears to be no way into Megaton.
"This is Megaton?" I ask in disbelief as I eye the random furniture shoved to the sides of the walls. It didn't look like much and no one was here. Crazy lets out another unrestrained laugh, and I flinch in response. He quietly apologizes for startling me.
"No. No. This is just the grand entrance. Come on, follow me. You'll see," he speaks easily. He pushes on the metal wall in front of us which turns out to be a large door. He makes enough room for us to walk through and then closes it behind us. I couldn't have been more wrong. Megaton is huge! There are metal houses and people everywhere. I hear the sounds of people talking, laughing and children playing. If it wasn't for the fact that everything was rather colorless, I would've called the town beautiful.
"This is Megaton," Crazy announces proudly. I turn to look at him with wide eyes and a smile.
"Do you live here?" I demand. He lets out a weak laugh and shakes his head.
"No, I just trade here. I'm a travelling merchant, you see," he tells me. I nod my head. It's my first time hearing the job but from the title it sounds like he travels and sells things, so I don't ask him about it. I didn't want to appear any more clueless than he already thinks I am. A man in a hat and trenchcoat ensemble is walking towards us with a smile on his face, but his dark eyes tell me that he's all business.
"Crazy! You found us another newcomer?" He asks as soon as he's close enough. I eye him nervously. One wrong move and you run, I think to myself. Crazy puts up his hands like he did before and shrugs.
"Luckily, I caught this one before someone else did," he says jokingly, but I knew what he was referring to already. An image of Maisy and the three men pop into my head. The man in the hat approaches me and sticks out a hand. I hold my bat in my left hand and grab his hand in my own smaller one to shake.
"Names Lucas Simms, town sheriff. And mayor too, when the need arises. What do they call you, girl?" He asks warmly when he realizes I'm not a danger to the town.
"I am Reigna Calavon, Mr. Simms," I state. Lucas gives me a smile.
"Well, I don't know why, but I like you, Miss Calavon. Something tells me you're all right. So welcome to Megaton! Let me know if you need something," he drawls. The words feel rehearsed, but I don't mention it. I just nod my head in agreement.
"I'm going to show her around, sheriff. Looks like she needs some help with something," Crazy says casually. Mr. Simms raises an eyebrow in question, but Crazy waves him off.
"Nah, don't worry about it. Dollface, here, just needs some supplies. I'm going to show her to Moira's," Crazy says. Mr. Simms nods his head.
"Alright, see you two around," he says before walking away. Crazy offers me his hand once he is gone.
"Milady," he says in a weird accent. I give him a questioning look but take his hand anyway. He leads me around town and tells me what every house is. Apparently, not all of the structures are homes, some of them are stores or facilities. We pass by a few leaking pipes, and I stop Crazy by tugging on his hand. He stops and turns around to ask me, but I just jerk a thumb at the leaking pipes.
"I can fix this," I state casually. He lets out another carefree laugh, but this time I am expecting it and don't flinch. He nods his head in approval, so I get to work on fixing all the leaking pipes that we pass. By the time we end up in front of Craterside Supply the warm light is almost blinding me even with my sunglasses on.
"This light is too bright and too hot," I tell Crazy. He chuckles and pats my head softly.
"You'll get used to the sun, dollface. But until then I suggest that you don't stay in it too long," he says with humor in his voice. I give him a confused look and then remember my readings about the infamous sun. I mentally go through everything that I know about the sun and am about to look up at it, but Crazy puts a hand on my head to stop me.
"Never look at the sun, kid," he scolds me. I give him an impish smile and shrug.
"Curious," I whisper to him. He laughs and opens the door to Craterside Supply.
"After you, milady," he says in that weird accent again. I enter the store and am immediately engulfed in the scent of burning plastic and hot metal. The air is thicker inside than outside, and I find myself disliking it… a lot. The first thing that I see is a man about a foot taller than me leaning against the side of the wall by a doorway, then I notice a woman with red hair and skin paler than my own at a workbench on the opposite side of him. She hears the door close behind Crazy and drops whatever she is doing to greet us.
"Hey! I hear you're that stray from Vault 101. I haven't seen one of you for years!" She says while wiping her hands on her overalls. She shakes my hand and pulls Crazy in for a hug. I'm silently glad she didn't hug me. The man doesn't move, and the semi-automatic weapon and hard stare tells me that he's not going to unless he has to.
"Wolfgang! Lovely surprise. Although, I swear you were just here," she says loudly. Well, actually, the woman just seemed to like to say everything loudly. She barely lets us get in a word. Chatterbox. That's what Amata would call her. A loud chatterbox. She turns back to me abruptly after finishing her rather one-sided conversation with Crazy. The smile on her face widens.
"Where are my manners! Good to meet you, dearie. I'm Moira Brown, and this is Craterside Supply," she states while gesturing to the space around us. I nod my head to show her that I understand. She doesn't seem to mind my lack of words though and keeps on talking.
"I mostly tinker and do research, but every once in awhile people like Wolfgang come in to trade with me," she says happily. She pauses, and Crazy is about to speak, but she beats him to it. She quickly grabs me by my shoulders, and I go to push her away, but now her face is directly in front of mine. She's overwhelming to say the least.
"Say, I'm working on a book. About the Capital Wasteland. Well, it's more like a guide to surviving here. It'd be great to have the foreword by a former vault dweller. What do you say?" She speaks quickly like she can't get the words out fast enough. I smell something oddly sweet on her breath and just nod my head in agreement.
"Alright," I say timidly. Crazy gives me a sympathetic smile and goes to check out her merchandise on the counter. Moira steps back out of my personal space and smiles so wide that I think her face will crack.
"Great! Just tell me what it's like to live underground all your life, or to come outside for the first time, or whatever strikes your fancy! All of the above maybe?" She says. I take a deep breath before speaking, and I'm surprised that she doesn't interrupt me.
"Well, I read a lot, so I know about a lot of the new things that I am seeing, but these books were written before the Great War. A lot of things have changed since then obviously. My body is also very sensitive to the sun and pain that I don't believe others who have grown up Outside would worry about," I tell her. Her face never loses its childlike fascination, but this close I can see the wrinkles on her face.
"That's so interesting," she drawls. She moves behind the counter, mumbling to herself and comes back with a vault 101 suit with some pieces of leather well sewn on.
"Maybe this Armored Vault Suit will help you out there, huh?" She says while holding it up to my shoulders. When I try it on though, it's too big. Moira frowns and snaps her fingers with a smile. She approaches me and pushes me into the back room of the store.
"Take this suit off, and I'll improve upon it while you explore the rest of town," she says happily. I give her a disbelieving look, but she ignores it and continues humming happily. Once I'm standing in only my undergarments she takes my vault suit to the main room and comes back with a pair of gray cargo pants and faded red tank top. I put Butch's Tunnel Snake jacket over it and feel a little better to be wearing something not so skintight. Especially, since everyone wasn't wearing vault suits Outside. Moira looks me over and nods her head satisfied with my appearance.
"Parfait!" She yells. I'm startled not by her volume but by the word. She continues to smile at me until she decides to turn around and go work on my vault suit. I shake off the feeling as me hearing her wrong. I walk back into the main room and Crazy walks over to me with a smile on his face.
"I like the new look, dollface," he tells me. I can't help the small blush that appears on my cheeks at his words. I mumble a thanks as I turn to leave. Crazy and I are just about to exit the store when I hear her shout:
"A bientôt!" My head whips around to look at her, and Crazy is giving me a questioning gaze as is Moira's bodyguard.
"A plus tard," I eventually say back. Moira slowly turns her head to make eye contact. I see the surprise and acknowledgement in her gaze. It feels like minutes, but it was probably only mere seconds before Crazy's hand come down on my shoulder to gently shake me out of the trance. We leave without another word, but I catch the wink Moira throws my way at the last second.
"Is Moira from a vault?" I ask without meaning to once the door is shut. The sun is still too bright for my eyes, so I put my sunglasses back on. Crazy shakes his head.
"No, she grew up at Little Lamplight, but instead of making it to Big Town she ended up in Megaton. I'm sure she'll tell you about it if you ask her," Crazy says.
"Oh. Thank you," I tell him. He just nods his head and gives me a crooked smile. Crazy leads us to probably the largest building in town. A sign above the door reads, "Moriarty's Saloon." Looks friendly enough. Crazy opens the door and follows in after me. The place smells of bodily fluids, heat and spilled alcohol. I hated it already. The scent makes me want to gag, but Crazy doesn't seem to even notice. He sits down at the bar and pats the seat next to him when he realizes that I'm still at the door staring at a man stumbling out of what appears to be the bathroom. I robotically do as he asks of me and try not to touch anything. I'm looking down at the counter until I hear someone talking to me. Their voice is rough like sandpaper and distinctly male. I look up to tell them that I really don't want anything, but the words get stuck in my mouth. My mouth hangs open slightly and my fingers grab tightly onto the stool I'm sitting on. I freeze. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life, and I can't seem to make myself move. Then he speaks again.
"Hey smoothskin, do you need something? A drink, maybe?" The horribly injured man asks me. His brow muscles are drawn together in worry, and he shoots a glance at Crazy. Crazy just holds up his hand as a sign for him to wait, so he does. I stare at him until I hear the door open behind me. It makes me jump in my seat and nearly fall over if not for Crazy's arm shooting out to catch me.
"Play it cool, dollface. Be cool," he whispers close to my ear. I nod my head and lick my lips to try and dissolve the look off my face, but I know it's too late to take back my response to the man's appearance.
"I'm Reigna Calavon, and you are?" I ask weakly to the man behind the counter. His brow muscles raise in question. He gives Crazy a strange look, but Crazy shrugs his shoulders and nurses his beer.
"It's Gobtholemew, smoothskin. But, just call me Gob," he says quickly. I nod my head in acknowledgement.
"I apologize about before. I didn't mean to offend you, Gob," I say hoping that he didn't take offense to my initial reaction. I've never seen such extensive wounds before. I half wish I still had my vault suit on… like it could easily explain my ignorance, but perhaps I am better off without it. If this is the world that I am to come to live in, then I should get used to addressing my actions as they are and not making lame excuses.
"Not a problem, smoothskin. Hospitality here towards ghouls isn't really common, so don't worry about it. Where you from anyway? You never seen a ghoul before?" He asks amiably although I can hear the nervousness in his voice. Scared to cross the line. Scared that I'll change my mind, but Gob doesn't seem like a bad guy, so I don't hold his appearance against him.
"A vault, unfortunately," I say lamely. As if that'll explain everything to him. He gives me a knowing smile.
"Switching out your vault suit is a smart move, smoothskin. My advice is you get a good gun, too. If you plan on quitting town that is…" he says carefully. I nod my head to acknowledge his words. Gob leaves me to get back to work but not before setting down a glass of vodka.
"Welcome to Megaton, Reigna," he says. I give him a genuine smile before turning my gaze down to the beverage. I wasn't a big fan of drinking ever since the time Amata and I got so drunk we threw up in the hallway. The Overseer had been so upset.
"Riri, stop it," Amata giggles and pushes me away. I bring the water bottle half full of vodka to my lips. I grin and wink at her in response. She scoffs.
"I don't like Freddie. Stop saying that," she whispers the last part. I wiggle my eyebrows at her expertly. She laughs loudly, and I clap a hand over her mouth and shush her.
"Shhh, someone will hear us," I whisper. She gives me a weak glare.
"Yeah, right. Like who? My dad?" She asks me with sarcasm dripping from her lips. I give her a "yeah-exactly" look, but she waves it away with one hand and take a long sip from the water bottle.
"Yeah. Sure," she says but bites her tongue.
"Aïe," she screams. I can't help it when both of my eyebrows rise to mock her.
"Come on. Let's go to the bathroom and clean this up," I say to her. She nods her head and follows me into the hallway. I didn't see her take the water bottle. I didn't see her take a long sip. It must have burned her tongue pretty bad, because I hear her spit the vodka out and turn around to see her dry heaving. I carefully move to be behind her so that I can hold her hair back. She throws up twice on the way to the bathroom. We manage to clean up her wound, but on the way back to her room I take a swig of the vodka and feel a chunk of her throw up in my mouth. I gag three times before throwing up right next to where she had thrown up. She laughs at me weakly and doesn't hold my hair. When I'm done I glare at her.
"That was so gross," I whisper to her. She starts laughing weakly and eventually we are both laughing so hard that we don't notice the Overseer come around the corner.
"Amata… What is this?" He yells at us. We both look at each other and shrug and laugh harder.
"We'll take care of it," we tell him simultaneously.
He didn't get over it for months. Amata and I could only hang out in the common spaces from that point on. We also were assigned more chore duties around the vault. My father was mad too, but luckily he didn't punish me on top of that.
Eventually, Gob returns to talk to me and Crazy. Between the both of them, I think that I understand ghouls a lot better now. I feel more confident with this newfound information. Gob looks appreciative that I hear him out and promise to deliver a letter to his adoptive mother in Underworld. I'm upfront and tell him that I don't know for sure when I'll get to that part of the Capital Wasteland, but Gob assures me that I'll get it to Underworld sooner than he ever could.
"Hey, dollface. I'm going to grab some dinner. Do you want to join me?" I look up at Crazy and smile. He has a calloused hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I nod my head and move to get off the stool when the sound of a door opening makes Gob quickly move into the saloon's storage room. I watch him, but he won't make eye contact. I feel Crazy try to get me to leave the saloon before I can see why, but I refuse to move. I stand by the stool that I was sitting on only seconds before and wait for whatever or whoever it was to appear. Crazy moves close to my ear.
"Moriarty," is the only word that he whispers and then I remember the name of the saloon. A middle-aged man makes his way down the stairs. He's got long gray hair, a beard and blue eyes. I'm starting to wonder if everyone has blue eyes in the Capital Wasteland. He walks with confidence that I have only ever seen on the Overseer. Thinks he owns everyone in here, I sneer in my head. My fists clench at my sides and I feel Crazy take one of my hands in his and pull me out the front door.
"What are you doing, corpse?" I see Moriarty yell at Gob before the door shuts behind Crazy. Once we are Outside. I turn to Crazy.
"Is that how people normally treat ghouls?" I ask him hoping to hear a negative response. He just shrugs his shoulder and avoids looking into my eyes. He leads me down to the Brass Lantern while listening to me rant about how Moriarty's behavior was unacceptable. Before we enter the Brass Lantern, Crazy pulls me to the side of the door so others can pass us.
"Listen, dollface. It sounds like you got a reasonable head on your shoulders, so listen to me when I say: let it go. Okay?" He whispers low, but the words aren't a treat. His eyes are full of worry. Nobody seems to pay us any mind. Like secret discussions in public were a common occurrence. The frown on my face is so deeply set that it almost hurts.
"No," I whisper right in his face before walking around him and into the Brass Lantern.
French - English
Putain = Fuck
Où = where
papa = Dad
où es-tu = where are you
Bonne idée = good idea
parfait = perfect
à bientôt = see you soon
à plus tard = see you later