Okay, it was a floating orb that said 'Hello'. But still, I don't think I'm to blame for hitting it with a bat. I mean, it was whirring and beeping and displaying messages on my Pipboy! That's scary!
Amber smacked me over the head for what must have been the hundredth time. "You! Smashed! A friendly! What the hell does 'Green, keep it clean; Red, it's dead' mean to you anyways!"
I flinched repeatedly as she hit me over the head with the sweet Heavy Weapons magazine I'd found, using force to emphasize each word. It was like being back in kindergarten again. I snatched my magazine away from her avenging hands. "Okay! I get it! It was dumb! I'm sorry!"
She glared at me. "Oh, you will be if Sierra can't get that thing up and running." She frowned and glanced over to the corner of the tent where Sierra was tinkering with the bot on a table, tools laying all about her in disarray. Then she said in a hushed tone, "Did you see her reaction when she saw what you'd done to it? I could have sworn she was going to cry!"
I looked at Sierra. Her white undershirt and sweatpants were covered in oil stains, and her hair was mussed from both being inside of a helmet all day and the fact that she had a habit of rubbing her head when she was confused, even when her hands were covered in mechanical oil and grease. I felt like an idiot for hitting it and making her so... sad like that. There wasn't a proper word to describe how bad I felt, or how much I hoped she wouldn't stay like that. "Yeah. I hope it's all right. If you'd both just let me take a look at it-" Amber snatched the magazine back from me and swatted me with it again.
"No! We're not letting you touch it! Last time you touched it you crushed half it's internal components!"
"That was an accident!"
"You hit it with a bat!"
I rubbed my temples with my hands. This was a fight I couldn't win. I sat down at the 2nd Lieutenant's desk. Amber took a seat in a metal chair against one of the walls and started reading my magazine; Heavy weapons or not, she still liked guns. I looked to Sierra again. She worked without pause, hands constantly working and twisting parts together. Her black Power armor sat next to her, shining in the dim light of a small floodlight powered by a fission battery. With nothing to do, I flipped to the notes section of my Pipboy and began going over the Lieutenants journals.
-12:43PM;3/5/2267- First day on the job today. I knew they'd be field promoting somebody today, but me? I'm nothing special! Sure I've my kill count could climb to the moon if each kill was an ant, but hell! I'm a soldier, not a leader! I guess I'm lucky though, since I'm still not really making any decisions. Head gave me some pretty specific orders: Search the town. Didn't even tell me what I'm looking for. Still, easy orders.
-3:21PM;4/7/2267- Two days later and I've nearly gotten Court Marshaled twice. What the hell? This isn't what I signed up for- Oh wait, I didn't sign up for this at all. Some of the boys found a pre-war liquor store, so guess what they did? That's right, they donated it all to medical for anesthetics. And by that I mean they got drunk and raped a fellow soldier (Female). Naturally. And who get's blamed for this? Me. Cause you know, fuck me.
-2:11AM;4/14/2267- Whoo hoo. Another week of this and I'll be raping chicks too. I'm mot sur if I'm clear to be writiing this, buf uck it. i barely can type anymore... here's my report: being an officer sucks asss. we havn't found shit, and headquarters has started demanding results. results from NOTHING. they want me to start shitting gold bricks from the crap they've been feeding me. All i know is that there's NOTHING HERE. some boys fround a tunnel under the city, so well check that out later today. or tommorow. i have no Idea. hurray for whiskey though, it's the only reason i can fall asleep now.
-9:33AM;4/16/2267- Fuck. I really hope there's a way to delete that previous entry. I'm not good with computers. I'll ask Private Santos tomorrow. Good news though, the tunnel under the city was full of good stuff, old computers, mainframes, unused bots, the works. All we have to do is decrypt one little computer, then we're in. With Benign here, we'll have it done in no time.
My eyes flickered to the top right corner of my Pipboy. 5:45PM;5/2/2267. There was only one entry left.
-9:45PM;4/27/2267- Day have turned into weeks. Benign was only a few bytes from decrypting it when he went into lock-down mode. His sensors read some sort of danger in the ventilation system while his guards went to go grab a Nuka and locked him up tight. He's already started broadcasting an emergency signal, even though he's not damaged. Some of the men saw ticks on their EFS too, but they say it'd been flitting back and forth for a couple days, probably radroaches. I don't think so though... Must have been one hell of a monster to scare him to this. I'm going to have the boys try to flush out the vents tomorrow, try to get whatever's in there out. Geez, I don't remember any of my COs having problems like this, so why me?
Oh god. They must have flushed the wasps right out of the tunnels where they were feeding on some innocent source of electricity and accidentally made themselves out to be targets. I saw the battered hunk of metal Sierra was still fiddling with in a new light. He'd woken up for the first time in at least half a week, finally free of hostiles and danger, and I'd smashed him with a bat. Man did I feel like a dick. Suddenly there was a rush of mechanical whirrs and clicks, and the fwoosh of an air regulation system, and the rusted orb slowly ascended into the air, much steadier than he'd been before.
"I got it!" Sierra shouted, kissing her wrench and plasma cutter.
My Pipboy beeped shrilly as a message popped up on the blue luminescent screen.
Are you going to hit me with a bat again?
I could feel my face go red. Even machines were making fun of me now. Great. "No, I'm not going to hit you again." I grinned at the Orb. "Sorry about that." I wonder if it could understand emotions?
The Orb beeped again affirmatively. Good. That wasn't... fun. The letters appeared on my Pipboy's screen.
Sierra ran over to me and wrenched my arm towards her so that she could see the screen. She smiled back up at me and snatched her helmet of the desk and donned it, fingers tapping at its side.
"Eyebot, report code and objective." She said, voice issuing forth from both the helmet and where the rubber neck piece ended.
The Eyebot- Why would it be called that? It didn't look like an eye, and even if it was used for spying, why not call it a Spybot or something?- clicked and beeped some more, and my Pipboy dinged again.
As I said before you... Interrupted, I am Enclave Sandstorm Eyebot number B9-A113. Objective: ERROR. OBJECTIVE NOT FOUND. The Eyebot gave a worried beep, then dejectedly looked towards the ground. How the hell did it have emotions? Better question, how the hell was it showing them without a face!
Sierra pulled off her helmet, then turned to me. "We need to take this back to the Enclave."
I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, okay, why are you telling me this?"
She looked at me like I was an idiot, hands on her hips. If she didn't look so... appealing like that I might have subconsciously started being smarter. Her small hands were smooth and pale beneath her armor, her short hair shone with grease and natural color, her skin was stained with oil from the Eyebot, but somehow was all the more enticing. Her waist was so perfect, her figure was like a slightly ganglier and taller Amber, and her chest was- Okay, back on topic. Seeing that I really didn't have any idea what she meant by it, she explained.
"I'm bringing it along." She said. I kept staring like a cow met with a train. She facepalmed. "I'm asking for permission." Now that caught me off balance.
"Wait, what? Why?" I looked to Amber who just mimicked Sierra's dissapointed look.
"Because you're the leader." Sierra calmley explained. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
I took a few steps back. Sometimes it would really pay to be able to pick up on things like this before I looked like a total retard. "Since when?" My gaze switched rapidly between Amber and Sierra. Amber laughed.
Her eyes sparkled with mirth as she giggled like a schoolgirl at my frustration. And not the good schoolgirl giggle! The 'I just punked you and now you're going to have to live with the results of my actions forever' giggle! I'm a teacher, trust me, I know my schoolgirl giggles! "Since forever, oh great and glorious leader." She mock curtsied. GAH!
My head was a pool of confusion and misguided fantasies, and hurt like hell. "I can't be the leader," I said, "I don't make decisions."
By this time Sierra was smiling too. Why the hell had I gotten into an adventuring party with two beautiful sadistic women! "You sure didn't hesitate to run into that room with a robotic monster before us."
"That was, I mean... You two were going up there without knowing what you were up against! I couldn't just let you go in there with something that dangerous!" I stuttered. Somehow I felt I was just digging myself deeper.
Amber whistled in false awe. "Pretty heroic, oh Great and Wonderful Leader." She'd capitalized it this time, I could feel it in my blood. "And don't forget when you charged the Spoon King. Who knows what he'd have done to me if you hadn't been there."
"Spoon King?" Sierra gave a wry inquiring grin to Amber.
Amber's smile just widened. "Just before we met up with you, we found a woman who'd been kidnapped by an insane raider who called himself, 'The Spoon King'. When he saw me, he tried to shoot me, failed, then charged. I could barely react, but before he could take two steps, Grey had gotten past his defenses and struck him down with his Magical Bat of Justice!" She acted it out as she told the story, using the rolled up magazine as a bat, and striking out against an imaginary enemy.
"Hey, wait, that wasn't how it-" My Pipboy beeped again. Under the weapons tab, my bat had been replaced by Justice. "Not you too!" I shouted at my Pipboy. Freaking traitor!
Amber and Sierra broke down in laughter. I couldn't help myself from smiling too. It was good to see them happy, even if it was at my expense. The Eyebot floated over to me and whirred curiously (What does that even mean!) as my Pipboy beeped again.
If you are the leader, why are these two making fun of you? Do they not understand the chain of command? I have an educational slideshow if you wish me to educate them on the subject.
That was when I laughed. I patted the bot on the head and said, "Not necessary Benign." I looked back to the pair, still laughing, seeming only a step from crying from laughter. "It's better this way. Everyone's happy." The Eyebot beeped happily at being called it's old nickname.
And for just a moment, they were all happy, and so was I.
It took the rest of the night to bury the Enclave troops. I collected every single one of their name tags. We decided to spend the night in the camp, and we all took shifts watching guard, but nothing happened. It was peaceful.
The morning was more of the same. Grey dawn sprung from blackest night, starting with a light rain shower, which made the air perfectly miserable for us to continue our march in. We set out early, leaving Hero's Hill behind, walking again towards New Houston. I tried reading my heavy weapons magazine while walking, but I just ended up tripping over a malevolent rock and getting a massive headache. Luckily, my conversations with my companions were much more fruitful than yesterday's.
"So what do you know about New Houston?" I asked Sierra. We passed by more grass. A common theme in the Texan Savanna.
Her gaze rose to the sky, pondering. "Not much, really," She began, "I know that it was pretty advanced before the war, and even around it there's still a ton of valuable tech to be salvaged." Well, we already knew that from Scrappington. Her tone grew dark. "I hear it's haunted though. I told you before, I'm not one to believe in ghosts, but when everybody whose gone within five miles of the City Core has gone missing, you know somethings up."
"Missing?" Amber Chimed in, slowing her pace to fall back from the front of our column.
Sierra shrugged. "I know that generally in the wastes, people die, not go missing, but whenever somebody tells me stories about New Houston it's 'Missing' not dead or lost. I've heard some pretty crazy theories on it too." She chuckled in her armor, voice regulator churning out electronic babble. "The dumbest I've heard involved New Houston being inhabited by Mountain Lion People, who hunt down anyone who enters their domain, then sacrifice them to their gods. The most likely though is that it's full of Taurens, and they pick off anyone who gets too close to their tribes. It's still probably radioactive, so it'd make sense."
Taurens. There was that word again. "What are Taurens?" I asked her.
Her mask turned to me for a second, then she hit her forehead with a metal glove. "Sorry... How do I keep forgetting you're fresh out of a vault? Taurens are... Cow people, I guess." I nearly tripped, then looked back up her, confusion evident on my face. "Well, when the bombs hit, apparently a lot of the herds were far enough away to not be vaped or killed, but close enough to mutate heavily. Some of the Longhorns of old mutated into the Taurens, which are, like I said, Cow people. They stand about seven feet tall, faster than any man or woman, stronger by two. Horns could spear you through like a knife through hot cram, and that's assuming you got anywhere close. Most Taurens are weapons experts. They could pick you off at a thousand yards, and with their freakish strength, I've heard they can use machine guns with one hand, and Anti-materiel rifles without a stock."
Wow. Perfect, another thing to look forward to in the wastes, cows that could waste me at any time from half a mile away.
"They're mostly peaceful though," She continued, "I've never heard of one attacking unprovoked, and I've seen a caravan of merchants with Taurens for guards, as well as Taurens trading with merchants. They live in small tribes, and don't fight except for dominance. I've been told that they fight all their infights with their fists and horns, no weapons allowed." She turned to me and smiled. "Pretty badarse, no?"
"Yeah, I guess," I answered weakly, "Ever done business with them yourself?"
She looked at the ground and tried to scratch her head (Failing miserably because of her helmet.). "No, the Enclave... doesn't look kindly at mutants and Ghouls, or Taurens either. I don't have anything against them personally, but the Enclave teaches that we're the only true humans left, and we need to vaporize the rest. Some of us are bigoted arse wipes who deserve to get a plasma grenade slipped into their pants, and for some reason their in charge." She looked back to me. "Not all of us are like that though." She said softly.
I gave her a small grin. I knew she wasn't like that... I hoped she wasn't like that. No, she couldn't be like that, she was way to nice, and to passionate about the people who weren't. Still, there was a bit of doubt wedged in my mind, which I ignored. She was one of my only friends in the wasteland. She couldn't be like that.
We kept walking, silent except for the occasional cough. A bit after that, I started up a conversation with Benign. "So what's the difference between a Sandstorm Eyebot and a normal one?" Benign clicked and whirred as an answer appeared on my Pipboy.
A standard Eyebot is made of steel and aluminum, equipped with a small standard laser module, and a large array of broadcasting equipment, for relaying data. Huh. So they were spybots. Sandstorm Eyebots are... Different. We are made of Carbon meshing, made to be invulnerable to the hostile weathers of the Texas Territory. We also lack most of the broadcasting equipment that standard Eyebots possess, the space is instead filled with a Regentec Mechanism, and we have a opportunistically ballistic magma cannon.
Yup, that made about no sense. "Tell me about those last two features."
More beeps. A Regentec Mechanism allows for small nanobots to repair me given enough time, and proper resources. Total healing should take only a few hours, given enough scrap metal and spare electronics nearby.
I raised a brow, then began in a hushed tone, "So, when Sierra... Fixed you, was that her, or the nanobots?"
The Eyebot gave an appreciative whistle. Okay, I really have no idea what that means, but not my problem. Given enough, time, I would have been able to repair myself, but without her help, I wouldn't have been able to find some of the more important parts and would have had to fabricate them, which would have taken several weeks if not months.
I nodded. "And the lava cannon thingie?"
Without proper ballistic materials in stock, I will fire a beam that is near the strength of AER9 Laser Rifle, but when proper ballistics are to be found, I launch a near liquid hot projectile at the enemy. This projectile can reach up to 2000 Degrees, hence, Magma Cannon.
Now I whistled appreciatively. That's pretty bad ass, especially for a robot who'd gotten trashed by a vault dweller with a bat. Then I bit my lip. There's no way he'd have... But maybe...
"Hey, Benign, do you have any games?"
Benign let out a few serious beeps then a... Whimsical whistle? Seriously? How? Then a another message appeared on my screen.
Though designed for very serious military operations, my team mates were often... less serious. I have been programmed with basic gaming programs, such as PADDLEBALL, C4 DETECTOR, and 20 QUESTIONS. A few more games are on my hard drive, but without a terminal up-link, they would be impossible to play.
I'm pretty sure my grin could have encompassed the globe twice after I read C4 DETECTOR off of my small blue screen. That's all we'd had at the Vault, and I'd only had part of the code that I'd been able to pull off of the Vault's mainframe. I'd tried to patch it but the results had been way to easy to beat. "Can you transfer C4 DETECTOR to my Pipboy?" I said, already pulling out my transfer cable.
Benign gave an affirmative beep, and I plugged the cable into a protected slot that slid open. Another message popped up on my screen.
They're all very small files, compared to the 82 Terabytes on your Pipboy, would you like to transfer them all?
I nodded, but then said yes when I realized that Benign needed a vocal confirmation. For a robot who could beep and whistle emotions, he sure didn't understand facial expressions. My Pipboy took all of the data in greedily, the transfer taking only a few seconds. I was just about to activate C4 DETECTOR when a message box popped up.
Can we play 20 QUESTIONS?
I was confused for just a second, but then it hit me. This robot had been alone for more than a week, locked in his own mind, and he misses his friends. This wasn't just another computer, and it wasn't a monster like what we'd seen in Scrappington. This was a Sentient being, a living thing in it's own right. Hell, it had a personality I'd seen with my own eye's in it's writing and beeps. And he was my friend. Or at least my companion, if only for now.
I nodded again. I am not a smart person. It took me even longer to realize he was waiting for vocal confirmation this time. "Sure, do you want to go first?"
He beeped happily then began to send messages to my Pipboy, asking what animal he'd thought of.
Two hours of being trashed later, I brought Amber and Sierra in on the game. Turns out when He'd said he'd been 'Programmed' to play this game, he meant he'd had an entire animal encyclopedia dropped into his brain, which he reported had a total of 17,931 species, and every time he saw a new one in the wastes he recorded an entry on it. With the three together, we were finally able to guess his animal (The Gola Malibme) with Amber's random knowledge of obscure birds, and it was her turn to think of an animal. Benign guessed it in three turns. It was 'Cat'. I facepalmed. How could somebody so well versed in pre-war birds choose 'Cat'?
And so the game continued as we walked the long stretch of road between Hero's Hill and New Houston. Only 15 Miles to the 5 mile mark where people started disappearing. Naturally my friends started disappearing well before that.
Three hours later I awoke in a dark room, cold metal shackling my arms to the wall I'd been pinned against. My chains clinked as I tried to bring my Pipboy into my field of vision, but I was forced to wrench my head to the side to check the Chronometer. My head pounded like nothing I'd ever felt before, a sharp pain going through it like a bullet. That thought pulled me to another. Oh right, I thought, I got shot in the head.
"Great. You're awake." A raspy male voice came from opposite me. I heard chains rattle as he gave a racking cough. I slammed my head back as I jumped when I saw two small green lights peering out of the darkness. The voice laughed. "Welcome to Hell, baby."
I tried to turn on my EFS, and did so, however the effort redoubled the pain of my headache to the point where I doubled over in pain (To the best of my shackled abilities.). When I regained control, I looked down to see one green tick mark directly in front of me, where the green lights sat in the darkness, and another sat somewhere off to my right, and red ticks surrounded me. They were all moving rapidly, back and forth over and over again. Radroaches, I guessed. "Where am I?" I asked the lights who'd welcomed me.
There was a raspy snicker. "I told you, hell." Another crackle. I was already starting to hate this thing. "Sorry. I've been in here to long. I think I'm starting to go insane. Or just coming back from already being insane. Anyways, you're in the Maudeville Asylum. They used to keep crazies here before the war, but ever since those damned raiders got their hands on it, they've been using it as a base of operations." I checked my EFS again, a Green tick appeared, then passed directly through me. Multiple floors. An Asylum? Raiders? I tried to think about it, but all I could remember was something small and hard smashing through my head, then the sound of a rifle going off. After that it all turned to black, and pain. I tried to remember more, but I was nearly immobilized by pain. Instead of that I decided to question the voice.
"Don't worry about it. Do you know how I got here?" I asked.
"You got here..." The voice paused thoughtfully,"About, maybe two hours ago? I didn't think you'd wake up, so I didn't really pay attention. The raiders brought you in, said something about a blond and an enclave they'd caught, and they were going too-" Amber and Sierra! Shit!
"Where are they now! I need to get out of here now!" I struggled against my bonds. "I need to save them!" I accidentally hit my head against the wall, jarring pain shooting through my body again. Damn it I was getting tired of that!
"The raiders probably put 'em upstairs with the rest of them girls they get. Least that's what I hear they do with them. Probably taking their time getting to know them if you know what I mean." I didn't. I tried to shake my head to throw off the pain, but it just intensified. I bit down on my collar, trying to ignore the pain, to discover a stimpack I'd hidden there for emergencies. Score! I pulled it out and injected myself, using only my teeth, and suddenly clarity began rushing back to me. Oh he had meant rape. That made sense. Thinking about it, it was actually a pretty clever innuendo and usually I wouldn't have even needed the 'if you know what I mean' thing but- Shit! He meant RAPE!
"Magical talking voice man! I need your help! I need to get out of here and save my friends!" I shouted at the green lights. A metal bar rang out as someone hit it, accompanied by a gruff voice shouting at me to shut the *Ducks* up or else he was going to make me his little *beach*, then footsteps echoed as he walked off. The green lights twinkled in the dark. I got the feeling Magical voice man was smiling.
"I've been in here for far to long," He whispered, "And I think you're right. I was saving this for an opportune moment, but I'm tired of being patent." There was a quiet metallic scrape, and the faintest clink of metal, and suddenly the green lights were right next to my face. "You're a good guy, right?" He said.
"No, I'm no hero." I responded. It was the truth.
"I didn't ask that. Are you a good person?" He reiterated.
I thought about it. For some reason I didn't feel like lying to this guy. I wasn't really a good person. I'd just as soon lie as tell the truth, I would run from a honest fight... but I hadn't. I'd fought monsters, saved people, and kicked ass! I'd killed one of the most badarse monsters in the wastes with a spoon for god's sake! "I'm pretty awesome, yeah." I let out a small laugh. He chuckled with me.
There was a click at my left, then my right as the pressure the cuffs had been applying was lifted. I rubbed my wrists, then looked to my Pipboy. I was relieved to see it wasn't damaged, but then again, the thing could probably take a nuke itself and be perfectly fine. Without notice, the lights blinked out and I was left alone in the dark. There was another click a few moments later, and a heavily muffled scream seconds after that. The voice returned. "You have a light on that thing, right?"
I nodded. It was still pitch black. I am really starting to feel dumb. "Yeah, why?" I asked.
"You can turn it on. The guard won't be causing us any trouble any time soon."
I flicked on my Pipboy light, and was rather surprised by what I saw. First: The cell we'd been sitting in was actually in pretty good repair, despite the smell. Two: Outside in the hall was the body of a raider wearing yellowed goggles, laying in a still growing puddle of his own blood. Third: Standing up at the door of the cage was a man of medium height and a light build, wearing a old but clean suit and fedora, and also a spandex mask with glowing green goggles. Magical voice man was very well dressed. And carrying a bloody combat knife. I rose from where I'd been crouching, and walked over to the door. "Nice to meet you. What's your name?" He asked, reaching out to shake my hand.
"Grey. Doctor Grey. And you?" I grasped his hand and shaking it.
"Bass Dorinshi my good doctor." Once again I got the feeling he was smiling even through his mask.
I walked over to the dead raider and searched his body. "You don't mind, do you?" I asked Dorinshi, who shook his head. I found a Sweet looking trench knife, a poorly repaired and partially jury-rigged chinese pistol, and two Professor Jalapenos. I tossed one to my new friend. I mentally face palmed. I needed to start making friends less easily. Checking my own pockets I found they'd taken everything on me, from Terror and Justice to my last bobbypin. I stood up and looked back to Bass, just in time to catch a glint of my Pipboy's light flicker off a small metal object in the ribbon of his fedora. So that's how he did it.
He started walking towards a metal door, and signaled me to follow. He crouched and tapped to his goggles, then turned to me. "Turn off your light now. It's best we get the drop on guys like this." I nodded then flicked off my light, room falling back into darkness. A crevasse of light appeared as he opened the door and began to sneak out. I dropped down to a crouch and followed him as he snuck through the door, Stabbing his knife into the back of a raider standing outside the hall with all the cells, covering his mouth with a spandex gloved hand. Nice kill. So neat too, very professional, like his clothing. I wonder who he was? A professional killer out here in the wastes? It didn't seem likely, but heck, who knew what happened out here. I was shaken out of my thoughts by a fist passing just by my head, then the force of a raider slamming into me. I threw the raider to the side and drew my knife out to bear, but the raider didn't get back up, and I saw a small stab wound in the back of his neck, spouting blood like a geyser. I need to start paying attention. I turned back to Bass, who'd already started moving down the hall -Looking pretty damned nonchalant for a guy who just stabbed two people to death-, following the signs that said, 'Stairs -' to -Wait for it- a stairwell. I took just long enough to pick a couple of clips off of the newly departed and then ran after him.
We silently ascended the stairs, finding no resistance. On the second floor, we found one raider sleeping, and I watched as Bass slit her throat. Now, I was a bit shocked by this. Killing women wasn't something I'd do, except under the worst of circumstances, let alone while she was sleeping. But then again, she was a raider, made obvious by her clothes and the dismembered arm she was using as a pillow, and I guess it was better to take her out than leave her to terrorize the wastes. It still didn't sit right with me. I searched her body like the rest and had the awesome fortune to be reacquainted with my pistol, Terror, as well as twelve stimpacks, also probably mine. She only had a few clips of ammo though. Still, I scrounged it all and followed Bass as he searched the rest of the floor. As we walked through a doorway, a shot rang out on the floor above, and we froze. Seconds passed. Minutes. No second shot. Shit. I turned to Bass who calmly continued searching the room. I could only hope that that was friendly fire and not one of my friends being shot. I had to hurry. Just as we were leaving the floor, we heard a sob, a quick, half suffocated thing, from a cupboard just adjacent to the dead raider. I held my knife in front of me as I opened the cupboard, rusted hinges letting out a small squeak as it resisted, but complied.
Inside was a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen, covered in both chains and injuries, a gag in his mouth and tears streaming down his face. It only took a moment for my knife to slash through his gag, and barely longer to use the spiked guard to break through the rusted chains. He whispered a quick thank you, more whimper than words, then ran through the door to the stairs, no footsteps echoed to reveal his presence. I never heard any shots, so I assumed he got out all right. Me and Bass sped up the steps, this time Bass was following me as I charged up the steps, slowing down only enough so that I didn't make any noise. As I opened the door to the third and final floor (at least there were no more stairs leading upwards) and found a raider, pointing a sub machinegun at the head of a captive, cooing horrible words with a voice sweeter than it had a right to be. The door scrapped as I opened it, a small sound, but enough for her to turn to the door and see my eye peaking through. She spun towards us, ignoring the moaning wastelander, bringing her gun to bear at the door. Or at least she would have. As soon as we made eye contact, I burst through the door, spinning my knife around in my hand so that the blade pointed towards the ground and bringing it against her neck, crimson splattering the floor, my knife, and me, as I caught her body with my other hand, slowly lowering it to the floor. She hadn't even had any time to shout out, and her death had been entirely silent. Man, maybe I was cut out for the assassin business too.
When the captive looked up again, his eyes brightened as they fell across the corpse of his tormentor. He began to say a prayer to... whatever god this wasteland believed in, but I brought a finger to my lips and he got the meaning. I cut the ropes that bound his wrists, but instead of running off like the other captive we found, he picked up the gun of his captor and checked the mag. He nodded to me and I nodded back. He wanted to help! Kickarse! He pointed to the door at the end of the room, decorated with a human skull and entrails, and whispered to us. "Those are your friends in their right? They were shouting about you as they dragged them in there. Assuming your their moron friend with the funky hairdo, which, judging by your doo, I'd say that's you. I'm no hero, but I'll be damned if I'll let women die if I can help it." Finally, another chivalrous soul like me in the wastes... and did they really think my hair was stupid? Bah! pushing it out of my mind, we've got people to save! I nodded to him again. We surrounded the door, and I tried the door. It was unlocked, but I felt the need for a surprise. I'd be willing to bet that these were the last few in the building, so might as well use all the surprise we had left. I was crouched just to the right of the door, ready to kick it in, when it swung out suddenly and a raider stuck his head out.
"Hey Nalla! You want a piece of... What in th-" He cut off as I kicked the door, slamming it right into his raider face. I looked to Bass, then to the wastelander, both of which looked back to me, not knowing how to react. Suddenly, the door swung open again and another raider walked out.
"Nalla, did you just kick the door in, and..." A Bass's World War I combat knife slammed into his heart. "that's not a... good... thing..." He fell to the ground and the three of us dashed through the door. There were four raiders in the room over all, one on the ground, bleeding at the nose from where the door had crushed it, two more were looking at the door from where they were... enjoying, a pair of corpses, and the last was whipping out his junk and approaching a pantless Sierra, who was tied up just next to Amber. Every face in the room turned towards me.
"I present you, your doom!" I said as I stepped out of the doorway into the room, leaving the way open for Submachinegun Wastelander. So hip. I don't know why I ever said anything, let alone that. Even just a second after I said it all I hoped was that Amber and Sierra were too out of it to have heard what I said. Meanwhile mister Wastelander opened fire on the two who were getting it on with colder counterparts. Another second went by and they were more full of holes than the cold ones they'd been enjoying. I put on a burst of speed and ran at the raider who was planning on dancing the non-consensual mammalian tango with Sierra, and opened his abdomen with a slash from my trench knife, then pulled Terror from its holster and opened fire on the raider with a broken nose. In two seconds, every red tick on my Pipboy had vanished, and we'd saved my friends. Bass's goggles just stared at me.
"Did you really just say that?" He said, still standing at the doorway.
I'm pretty sure I blushed, which is just as embarrassing as what I'd said. "Let's never speak of it again." I mumbled as I started toward Amber and Sierra.
Another slash from my knife (Man, I really loved this sweet knife) and their wrists were unbound. One more and their ankles were free too. Amber Immediately scrambled to her feet and hugged me, thanking me and even giving me a small kiss on the cheek! Score. Meanwhile Sierra stayed motionless. Oh god, I thought, please don't let them have gotten to her! I put a hand on her shoulder, and whispered her name, only too have her slap my hand away. I glimpsed her face. It was cherry red. "TURN AROUND AND TELL AMBER TO GET ME SOME PANTS!" She shouted. Oh. OH. I spun around, my own face going red again. Amber just giggled as she grabbed Sierras pants off the floor and left my field of vision. I could hear Bass's raspy laughter back near the doorway. Freaking Bass. Freaking Amber. Freaking Raiders. Freaking Texas.
Freaking Awkwardness.
Footnote: Level 3 Reached. Melee Weapons 45. Guns 45. New Perk; Swift learner- gain an additional ten percent experience wherever experience is earned.
Quest Perk; Semi-Mysterious stranger- People tend to share your goals, and as such, your enemies. Humanoid Friendlies are much more likely to help you out in a battle than before.