Gordon took a deep breath as he got on his hands and knees and began to crawl to the other side of the wall where his equipment was. His left arm was in serious pain due to the bullet wound in his left shoulder. He began to crawl over to the gun, the pain was excruciating but nothing Gordon hadn't experienced before. As soon as the pistol was within reach a sharp and extreme pain hit the side of his head as he saw a short orange flash. One of the mercenaries had kicked him the side of the head. Gordon lay there half conscious as the two mercenaries dragged Gordon down the stairs and on to the ground where two other Mercenaries were waiting. One of them was smoking a cigarette. The two mercenaries who had dragged Gordon threw him on to the ground. The mercenary who was smoking took the cigarette out of his mouth and approached Gordon, he blew the smoke in Gordon's face.
"We see you have quite the eye for a bounty…" He said as he looked at Gordon with a smirk on his face. He took another draw of his cigarette and blew the smoke in Gordon's face again. "Earlier this evening you killed a raider, he had a very large bounty on his head…we went to collect it, just to find that you had already gotten there before us."
"Jealous that I stole your kill?" Gordon said with a smile on his face, blood was dripping from his mouth. The mercenary punched Gordon in the face, his head went swinging to the side and damaged his neck.
"If you give us the head of the raider with no fighting back then we will kill you quickly and somewhat painlessly." The mercenary pointed towards two of the other mercenaries. "Go get his bag." The two mercenaries hastily moved up to the upper platform as another merc restrained Gordon from behind.
"You're willing to kill me over the head of some low life raider? Talon Mercs are more low than I thought." Gordon said, trying to piss off the Mercenaries.
"If you keep talking like that I'm gonna gut you like a fucking.." The mercenary screamed in Gordon's face.
"It ain't up here!" One of the two mercenaries yelled from the upper platform. Gordon could see a tag dangling from the mercenary's neck, it read "Stark" which Gordon assumed was his nickname. Stark stood up.
"What do you mean it's not up there? Look in the bag you morons!" Stark yelled in anger. A look of confusion and fear came across Gordon's face. He was one hundred percent sure that he put the Raider's head in the bag. He was scared because he knew what Talon Co did to get their information from people, usually leaving them limbless, blind and begging for death. Gordon did not let the fear show in his face as he looked up at Stark. Stark looked down at Gordon with a furious look on his face,. He grabbed Gordon by the throat and squeezed his throat. "Where is it…?" He asked, the cigarette dropped from his mouth.
Gordon was in a lot of pain but he realised that his arms were now free. He made his right hand in to a fist.
"Up your ass, sideways for comfort." He smirked. He swung at Stark with his right hand, hitting him in the side of the face with so much force that 2 of Stark's teeth flew out. Stark fell to the ground as Gordon turned around and elbowed the other Merc in the face, grabbed him by the throat and punched him in the stomach twice, harder each time. He grabbed the Merc's head and smashed it in to a pillar that was supporting the ruins. Gordon could hear the two Merc from the top start to move down the stairs.
All of a sudden a bullet flew past Gordon's head. Stark had grabbed his pistol and was now blindly firing in a rage. Gordon quickly dragged the unconscious Merc and pulled him around the pillar and he took cover, he took the Merc's assault rifle and loaded it. He turned around, using the pillar to cover his torso and took a few shots at the Mercs coming down the stairs. He hit one of the Mercs in the leg and the other in the stomach, both of them fell down the stairs, one of them snapped their neck and the other was quickly picked off by Gordon. He could still hear Stark firing in the background, then he heard a few clicks of the gun, showing that it was out of ammo.
Gordon walked up to Stark who was still pulling the trigger of the empty gun. Gordon grabbed Stark by his torso armour. He pinned him up against one of the pillars.
"How did you know where I was?" Gordon yelled at his face. The Merc did nothing but cough up blood on Gordon's jacket. "Tell me" Tell me or I'll kill you!" Gordon yelled at his face again.
"We've been tracking you…And someone put… a price… on your head…" Stark said, still coughing up blood.
"Who was it that put the price on my head?" Gordon yelled violently in Stark's face.
"Fuck…you…" Stark said as he coughed up more blood on to Gordon. Gordon grabbed Stark's shoulders and pushed them downwards as the Merc fell to his knees. Stark yelled in pain.
"I'm gonna ask you one more time, if you don't give me some answers I'm going to beat you to death, deal?" Gordon said with his face up against Stark's.
"Fine…for fuck's sake. You've been stealing our bounty's for a while now, Gordon. A very wealthy man came to us and put a price on your head of 50,000 caps. That's a lot of caps, Gordon." Stark said, the coughing had stopped. Stark looked at Gordon in fear.
"Motherfucker, who was it?" Gordon asked.
"I don't know, I take the orders, I don't deal with anyone unless they come to me in particular." Stark said, he was terrified.
"Son of a bitch." Gordon let go of Stark. He turned round and punched Stark in the side of the head again. He went falling to the ground.
"Gah! What the fuck was that for?" Stark yelled.
"Fun." Gordon replied.
Gordon started to walk up the stairs towards his bag. He opened it, the Raider's head was gone. He grunted and he got some Med X out and injected it in to his wound. The pain subsided. He packed his pistol, machete and newly acquired Assault Rifle in to his bag and carried his Sniper Rifle in his hands. He searched the bags of the Mercenaries. He found what looked to be a stash of Brotherhood of Steel holotags in one of the Merc's bags. He turned to Stark.
"Holotags? Why the hell have you got these?" Gordon yelled angrily.
"We went hunting." Stark smiled. "We were gonna sell them along the way. They go for a lot of caps." Gordon was furious.
Gordon approached Stark and shot both of his knee caps with his pistol. Stark yelled in pain as Gordon walked away from the ruins.
"What about me?" Stark yelled.
"You can rot, the Super Mutants or slavers will have some use for you." Gordon said.
"Fuck you. You mother fucker! You'll pay for this! I'll make you wish you'd never been born…Fuck…Fuck…" Stark yelled at Gordon. Stark's words got more faint as Gordon moved away until all he could hear was the word "Fuck"
Gordon was walking along the waterfront with his rifle and he began to think.
"Carl should be around here somewhere" Gordon realised.
He turned around and walked past the ruins where Stark was lying half dead. As he was walking by he saw the ruins of a skyscraper. Gordon wondered what it could have been hundreds of years ago before the Great War. He didn't tend to linger on such things but he, like many others, was always curious as to what life was like back then, all he had heard was rumours from the townspeople of Megaton and travellers looking for a chat. A few History books remained from the bombing, not many though. They only listed events before the 1980s, nothing on life just before the Great War. He continued walking towards Rivet City as he saw a few merchants sitting by a fire having a laugh. He approached them and he saw one of them stand up and wave at him.
"Hey! Gordon! Over here buddy!" Carl shouted . A smile came across Gordon's face. It was the first time somebody referred to him as a friend or buddy. Gordon walked up to them and sat down by the fire.
"Hey man. I thought you said you were going out towards Megaton? John this is Gordon, the guy who saved my life earlier!" Carl said excitedly.
"What's up?" John said.
"Hey. I was going towards there but I got ambushed, gonna head towards there tomorrow. Do any of you guys know how to treat a bullet wound?" Gordon asked.
"I do. I've taken fifty bullets out of this guy's body once." John said. Gordon looked impressed. "He died shortly afterwards but that's hardly the point. Now lie down and try not to watch." John said with a slight giggle in his voice.
Gordon lay down and closed his eyes, he felt very sleepy and eventually fell asleep.