I had just recently turned 18, my mothers still thought I was a child though. I mean, I understand that I am their child, but I don't want to be treated like one. At least Aunt Nat understood that much. Don't get me wrong, I love my moms, but I prefer Nat's playfulness when I'm itching for some fun. Here in the wastes, fun wasn't hard to come by if you had my since of humor, or adventure. Speaking of adventures, today we were heading farther to the southeast than we'd ever gone before. I'd heard of legends of the Sole Survivor, traveling across all of the commonwealth. North, South, East, West; miles, meters, feet, yards, inches. She didn't care at all. They say she lead the minutemen from a castle in the southeast, and today I was going to find it. I'd become great friends with the former general of the current general of the minutemen, Preston Garvey. He always talked of how he was ill suited to lead the minutemen and was better suited for following orders of the sole survivor.
Everyone always called her that, Sole Survivor. I asked for a name but everyone said she'd rather no one knew nowadays. She was awesome, mysterious, and adventurous. I wanted to grow up to be like her, I just wish my Mom would understand that, she's so terrified of me doing things that the sole survivor would have. But thanks to Aunt Nat I usually get what I want.
"You ready to take a rest kiddo?" came the voice of my aunt behind me.
"Nah, I can keep going for a few more miles."
"Well, alright, as long as you're sure."
I was always sure. I usually stopped walking for Nat nowadays. She was getting older, a few years from thirty now. And the commonwealth had taken its toll on her. I could see her aches and pains through her smiles, the small pauses when she'd go to sit down. She seemed to age quickly. I probably shouldn't be pushing her, but I really needed to see this castle.
I was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground before the weight of another human was above me.
I was looking into Nat's face, her finger over her lips. I nodded timidly and listened for whatever had caused such a reaction.
"Oh yeah, you should've seen the look on the kid's face!" came the rough and raw voice of a man, followed by several vollies of laughter.
"Henrick you tell the best stories! Any other ones?" asked a female in the small group, no more than four by the sounds of the laughter.
"Well… There was this one time…"
Snap
My back was on top of a branch, which had just broken from a shift of my weight. I closed my eyes and winced, as did Nat.
"What was that?"
"I don't know. Sounds like dinner." came the voice I'd come to know as Henrick.
Another chuckle from the rest of the group as one of them got up to look around. I felt Nat move her arm down my right side, grabbing the pistol strapped to my thigh. She rolled slowly off of me and carefully cocked the slide on the gun, letting it fall back forward with only a soft click. I too reached over my back to grab a weapon, my fingers brushing the tended leather handle of my mother's old serrated machete. I slid it out of its sheathe slowly and silently, bringing it to my chest and rolling over. The raider was so close now I could hear his breath and smell the stench of old blood on him. If he only looked down into this ditch then this scenic adventure could turn into a firefight. I saw the end of his crudely made pipe rifle peek over the top of the incline and then his grimy, stained hands. I looked right and saw Nat, pistol aimed uphill at the raider before turning back to the man. I saw his head peek over the edge, a small hooded sack covering his face and one eye. I saw the one eye that was open widen in surprise as he brought the gun to aim at me. I winced and heard a gunshot go off. Good, if I heard the shot, I was still alive. I looked up and watched the man fall forward, a fresh, red hole in the sack hood over his head.
"What the fuck?!" was the first thing I heard after the gunshot, followed by a large thump.
I sheathed my machete and reached around my right side, pulling on the laser rifle and its strap, swinging it into my arms. I stood from the ditch and leveled the barrel at one of the raiders.
Alright Quinn, breathe, and… Squeeze
The gun went off in my hands and struck a raider in the chest, sending the man flying back into a nearby trailer before he fell to the ground, motionless.
Nat fired off a few of my 10mm rounds and struck both raiders, one in the gut and the others thigh. I took this opportunity to readjust my aim and fire, striking the raider who'd been gutshotted. She too fell to the ground, lifeless. Nat finished the last one off with a well placed headshot ash he was hobbling away. Now was time for the dirty work. I scrambled out of the ditch and then reached down to help Nat up, she took my hand and I pulled her weight upwards as she hefted herself up the embankment.
I went to the nearest raider, the one collapsed atop the small knoll in which we'd taken cover behind. I went about the process of searching for any ammo, meds, bottlecaps. I came out with three bottlecaps and some .308s. I moved on to the next, rolling the female raider onto her stomach and searching her pockets and bags. I picked up her 10mm pistol that was gripped in her hand and ejected the magazine, tossing it in the pack around my waist. All else I could produce were two bottlecaps and a stimpak. Aunt Nat handed me a small canister of jet. I looked down at her hand and back up to her face, eyeing her curiously.
"Don't tell your mother" she paused, "either of them."
I squinted at her suspiciously and grabbed the red inhaler, slipping it into my pack. She sighed and handed me back my pistol.
"Thanks."
"No problem, seeing as I used it to save your life and all."
I chuckled a bit and shook my head, holstering the refurbished metal gun in my thigh holster before slinging my laser rifle over my shoulder where it was neatly seated moments ago.
"What do you think these guys were doing out here?" I asked my aunt.
"Well sweetie I'm not sure there really is a reason to anything they do."
"I asked you not to call me that."
"Right, right, sorry Quinn." she said mockingly, chuckling at herself and turning to face the way we were walking before.
I rolled my eyes and smiled, walking after her on the cracked pavement scattered with pre war cars and faded yellow paint. They say the sole survivor was alive before the war, before the bombs dropped. Amazing to think of it, I didn't know how long ago exactly the bombs dropped but long enough for the radiation around the area to have...adverse effects. I'd never been to the glowing sea, but Mom says she once went, in full power armor of course. Mother was a collector, a collector of many things, but mostly power armor. She had almost 16 sets now, and I always brought back fusion cores and exos or armor that I found in my adventures. I always carried a few spare fusion cores with me just in case.
Breaking from my thoughts I gazed into the beaming sun of the summer and the grasses that had managed to grow up through the cracks in the road. It was a nice day to go hunting, or Brahmin tipping. Man that's a classic. There are times Mom would show me games I didn't know existed. Some for example like, Truth or Dare, Hide and Seek, Spin the Bottle. All of these were so much fun to learn, but they weren't very active. I liked to run, climb, jump, vault. Thanks to this I was in fairly good shape if I do say so myself.
I was suddenly hit by the distinct smell of tainted water. It was somewhere nearby, a lake or river perhaps. The metallic lilt to the smell of the water was a smell my nose was accustomed to, and by now, after living near a river full of it for so long, I almost enjoyed it. It reminded me of home. I felt the ground below my feet start to incline, my boots gripping the pavement and pushing upwards with every slow step up the hill. I got to the top of the hill and waited for Nat, I pulling ahead of her n out march up the hill. I gave her the onceover before making a decision.
"I think I need a rest Nat."
"You sure Quinn? Not gonna keep going?" she asked with a quick exhale.
"Yeah I'm sure, this is far enough for now, we'll rest up a bit, maybe gain a bit more ground before sunset."
"Well you just have this all figured out don't you?"
"I try."
We both shared a laugh before sitting on the roadside.
"You did good back there, as always." said Aunt Nat with a smirk.
"Well, this isn't my first rodeo."
"I'm very aware of that."
I sighed, leaning until I fell backwards, colliding with the ground. I looked up towards the sun that was just now starting to scrape the treetops. We probably wouldn't be making anymore ground before sunset. There was the one hour it would take to rest, then all we would have was two hours of sunlight left which would give us enough time to set up camp, clear a firepit, secure a perimeter, and cook some dinner. By that time the fire would be the only light to see by.
I stood and brandished the serrated and well worn blade of my machete, moving to a nearby tree. It was less of a tree and more of a scraggly branch planted into the ground. I hacked the small twigs off of the greyed and deadened tree, gathering up the bits for kindling. I then began to hack away at some of the thicker branches, taking them all and setting them to the side to throw on early. Then I began sawing at the base of the tree itself. It couldn't have been wider around than my calves, but it was about 7 foot tall. If I hacked it up it would make some really pretty good firewood for the blaze, a good sized fire would come out of this, though not a long one. I returned and set down my findings before finding a thicker tree, this one would definitely work for some logs, three or four at least.
I went to the tedious work of sawing down a thicker tree. The serrated blade would need to be sharpened when I got back home, but right now, it was the best I had. Back and forth and back and forth I rocked the blade, moving quicker than I'd thought I would through what I'd identified to be a maple tree. Not long and the fairly sized lumber had fallen to the ground to be claimed. I went back to sawing out a nice chunk of wood. I kept up my continuous pattern of sawing, humming the tune of the last song I'd heard on the radio. About half way through chopping my second log I heard a very distinct, shrill, earsplitting sound. A scream.
I snapped up, turning in the direction of the noise. The scream was muffled almost as soon as it began, so I didn't have much time to hear which way it came from. I sheathed my machete and jogged back to the camp, which was obscured by a few branches and trees in between us. Nearing the area where I could see the camp I began to hear muffled sounds of struggling. I stopped dead in my tracks. I'd never really fought anything on my own. I always had a partner of some sorts. Even in training whilst in a 1 on 1 fight I had guidance. Now I was alone. I reached for the laser rifle and slipped it into my grip, flicking the switch on the side. I stalked through the dry grass, avoiding limbs as I snaked towards our makeshift encampment. I peeked around a large oak tree, seeing Nat, a furious look in her eyes and a Raider's hand over her mouth. She was being held from behind, one of her arms shoved up her back to keep her from moving. There were two more around her and some others that I could hear but not see. They must have seen or heard us take out those guys earlier.
I readied my weapon and aimed it at the man holding Nat, the gunner's sights lined up with his helmeted head. I breathed, and breathed, and breathed. I let my heart stop racing to make this shot count. I felt my finger tense on the trigger at the exact moment I too was grabbed from behind. I dropped the gun and reached up to the arm around my mouth, trying to pull it off.
"There you are you little bitch. You two are the ones that killed my brother back there!" he said with his raspy, liquor tainted breath.
I almost gagged at the smell of his breath combined with the smell of his arm. I mustered up the courage, and the stomach, to bite down on his forearm. I felt the flesh in between my teeth but I bit harder still, his cries not deterring me before I felt the meat of his arm tear free from the bone. The blood covered my lips and cheeks as the vessels popped, sending a splatter of blood from the arm. I spit out the chunk and pushed away from him as he writhed in pain. I snathced out my pistol and went to aim but I was again seized by foreign hands.
"Hey there girly, you'll be coming with us." said this man.
He reeked even worse than the other. My eyes stung and I felt dirty just from the proximity to him. My drifters clothes would definitely need a good scrubbing when we got home. I slung the pistol up to bash it into his face but he simply grabbed it and yanked it out of my hands. I was panicking now, and I could hear Nat in the background of all this attempting to break loose. I went into survival instincts and bashed the back of my head into his nose, using the moment of distraction to turn and knee him in the crotch. He fell to the ground too.
"Come on bitches, who's next!" i yelled, trying to encourage myself more than intimidate the others.
I kicked the raider I had recently felled in the gut before spitting on him and firing a round into his head. Fucking hated raiders. I quickly turned to face the other three raiders in sight. I scowled and raised my gun once more. I fired a round at the three. They all rolled out of the way. I felt a sharp prick in my neck and winced, turning and swinging my gun like a club. The man behind me slide-stepped back and dropped the hypodermic needle in his hand.
I sneered at his chuckles before he became two people, splitting into two seperate identical versions of himself. I felt the sweat buildup on my forehead double, my body temperature feeling almost like a furnace. My vision began to swirl and cloud together. I tried to raise the gun to bare but my arms were getting heavier by the second. I let the gun slip from my grip and fell over from the amount of weight my body seemed to hold. The last thing I saw before passing out from the pressure in my skull was one of the raiders standing over me, a frown on his face.
