Fallout: Desolation

Episode Two - Cold as Steel, Part One

The four had walked for miles, with no sign of recent human activity anywhere. As they trekked across the Wasteland, they passed dead trees and remnants of small neighborhoods and towns.

As they entered a small town, the four noticed most of the houses in the neighborhood were still mostly intact.

"Anyone want to check the houses?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, sure." Chris replied.

The four stopped and dispersed to different houses. They picked through the dwellings and found mostly trash, except for Michael.

As Michael entered the house he chose, he heard footsteps upstairs. He looked up to the ceiling, where he saw pieces of it crumbling off.

He then heard a voice say something quietly from above. Michael looked over to the stairs and briefly thought about going up.

But he then turned back to the door to go get the others. As he reached to push open the half-destroyed door, he heard heavy footsteps on the stairs behind him.

"I wouldn't walk outside." A voice said.

As Michael tried to turn to look at the voice, it stopped him.

"Don't move."

Michael heard the hammer of a gun cocking behind him. The person behind him walked down the last few steps. And then he heard another voice.

"What's going on down here?"

"I heard this Vault dweller walk in."

"Let him go. You really think he's a threat?"

"Well… I mean… Come on, Alice."

"Come on, Scorch. Just let him leave."

The man, Scorch, sighed. "Fine." He lowered the gun and uncocked the hammer.

"Can I turn around now?" Michael asked.

"Of course." The woman, Alice, replied.

"Finally." Michael relaxed and turned. "I'm, uh, Mike."

"I'm Alice. And this scoundrel is my compadre, Scorch." Alice said as she extended her hand.

Michael shook it, while Scorch looked unhappy.

"So, Dweller, you just get out of the Vault?" Alice asked.

Michael replied, "Yeah, my partners and I are all out here."

"Hmm. Where are they?" Scorch asked suspiciously.

"They're… around." Michael replied, noticing a hint of something suspicious in Scorch's tone.

"Right. How many of you are there?" Scorch asked again.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm just trying to look out for the safety of Alice and I. Can't have us hanging out with a bunch of maniacs, now can we?"

"I… guess not."

Alice lightly slapped Scorch's arm with the back of her hand. He looked at her, and she gave him a frown.

"Right, uh, how about we head outside." Scorch said, acting less strange.

"Okay." Michael replied.

He backed out the door, not breaking eyesight of the two Wastelanders, seeing how suspicious they were acting.

Alice turned to talk to Scorch before they walked out after Michael. She was quiet, so as not to alert Michael.

"What's wrong with you?"

"What?"

"You're acting all suspicious. He'll think something's up."

"Alice, I'm just being cautious for our safety."

Alice looked at him blankly for a few moments.

"Do you want a repeat of Washington?" He asked.

She kicked around that sentence in her head for a few moments as she looked down.

"No." She finally responded.

"Good." Scorch said as he looked out the door to see Michael standing in the middle of the street.

The two Wastelanders walked outside. As they reached Michael, he called for the rest of his friends.

Jim and Sarah walked outside of the houses they were searching, followed shortly by Chris. The three of them saw Scorch and Alice behind Michael and thought the two of them were raiders.

Chris drew his handgun and held it at them.

"Back up!"

Michael put his hands up to fend off Chris.

"Hold on! They're friendly!" Michael yelled, though he didn't entirely believe that statement himself.

Alice was worried someone would get shot. She didn't know Michael very well, seeing as how her and Scorch had just met him, and she certainly didn't know any of these three.

In a rash decision, Scorch held up his assault rifle.

"Come on, man. Put the gun down, or you won't like how this ends." Scorch said, trying to act intimidating.

"What the fuck, Scorch?" Alice said as she looked at Scorch.

"Are you trying to get us shot?"

"Relax, I'm not gonna shoot anyone—"

Chris fired his gun in a hasty decision.

Michael heard a male scream come from behind him. He knew who is was, seeing as how there was only one man behind him. He turned to see Scorch dropping to the ground. His finger slipped on the trigger and fired several rounds from the assault rifle into the air.

"Fuck!" He screamed.

Scorch clutched his arm in pain as Michael and Alice dropped to the ground to help him.

"Shit, wh-what do we do?" Michael asked worriedly.

"Fuck. Okay, hold on, Scorch. Move."

That move was directed at Michael. He slid out of Alice's path as she stood up and walked to the other side of Scorch. He'd been shot in the left arm.

"Okay, buddy… hold on. I'm gonna have to move you a little." Alice said sweetly as she lightly gripped his arm.

"Fuck. Fuck. Okay." Scorch responded as he breathed sharply through his teeth.

Michael looked back to see the Jim and Sarah running towards them. Shockingly, Chris hung back. Michael waved them off and shook his head with a silent "no." Jim and Sarah slowed to a stop and then watched from a distance.

Alice lifted his arm up a little to look at the other side of it.

"That's good. It was a clean shot through." She said, relieved.

"Fuck. Thank fuck." Scorch said.

Alice untied the flannel from around her waist and ripped a sleeve off.

"Sorry, flannel. You got me through hell, but it's time to help Scorch." She said as she wrapped the sleeve around Scorch's arm. She tied the sleeve off tightly.

"That should help absorb most of the blood, but we need to go back to Hadersville." Alice said.

"What's Hadersville?" Michael asked.

"A town… not too far from here. We've been staying there recently. Go tell your friends what's happening." Alice said.

As Michael went to stand up, Alice grabbed his arm.

"I wouldn't count on your friend with the itchy trigger-finger sticking around for long."

"Yeah. I know." He replied.

Michael walked over to his friends to tell them the plan. It would be good to get to Hadersville. It would be the first pocket of civilization they'd seen yet, at least.

Written by Cherry Coyote

Characters, Locations and many Ideas are original, but inspiration is drawn from the canon Fallout games.