Mei opened her eyes tiredly only to see Raycomb standing over her in full armor. "C'mon, get up." He ordered.
She yawned and looked around. "What time is it?" She groaned.
"6:00 Am. Now, get up. Oh, and don't complain when you come into the kitchen. The Colonel hates whiners." And with that said Raycomb left.
Mei entered the kitchen and was greeted by everyone.
The Colonel was sitting at the table reading a book. "Coffee, Ms. Cho?" He asked without looking up.
"Coffee? You mean actual coffee! I've only heard about it, I've never seen it before." Mei exclaimed.
Tinker looked up from the gun he was fixing, "You've never heard of coffee, ma'am?"
Before Mei could answer the Colonel replied, "Well if you'd like some we have a large supply, so help yourself, but then we got to get to work."
"What are we doing today, sir?" Raycomb asked.
"We've got a drug delivery. Wilkins has gone to pick it up right now. I believe we're sending it to a place called the Temple of the Union."
"You mean the refugee camp for slaves?" Mei cut in.
"I guess so. I've never heard of it to tell you the truth." The Colonel admitted.
"If it's a refugee camp for slaves, then why would they want a delivery? Wouldn't it just draw attention to their hideaway?" Raycomb pondered.
The Colonel looked up from his book to face Raycomb, "Everyone runs out of supplies eventually."
"Yes, but..."
"Raycomb! This is our business, we need this to survive. If we asked questions about every single contract we got then we'd be dead by now. Your all professionals, if they attack you then kill them. Understood?"
There was a tense silence in the room. The Colonel stared down Raycomb forcing him into submission. The silence was broken by Wilkins who marched right into the room. Under one are he had a large crate and he was dragging a creature by the neck with the other hand. He dropped the crate with a thud and then threw the creature at the table.
"This feller here was snoopin' around our delivery. I suggest we feed it to the guais." He announced.
The creature rolled over and looked up at Raycomb. It was a dog and not some radioactive ghoulish dog either, just a regular dog.
"We can't feed a dog to the yao guais!" Mei protested.
"Why not? Your kind eats dogs all the time." Wilkins said with a chuckle.
Mei snarled, "I'm getting sick of your racist bullshit."
"Alright, alright, I'll stop it lil missy. Any who, what we gonna do with the fleabag?"
The dog sat next to Raycomb and licked his hands. "Can we keep him?" Raycomb asked
The Colonel looked at the dog, "You can keep him Raycomb. You can use your share of food and supplies to look after him. He's your responsibility. But now for the delivery. I suggest using Beef to transport the drugs."
Confusingly, Mei asked, "Beef?"
Tinker replied, "It's our brahmin, ma'am."
Mei looked at all of them, "Pork? Beef? Do you guys name everything after meat? Let me guess you're going to name your mutt Dogmeat, aren't you Raycomb?"
"Dogmeat? No, that's such a stupid name. I'm naming him Dogg."
The Colonel stood up, "Enough!" He yelled, "Wilkins, Ms. Cho and Raycomb! Take Beef and your stray canine friend and go deliver the drugs.
"Yes Sir!"
***
The five black silhouettes moved across the horizon as the sun dawned on the wasteland. They moved at a steady speed and were approaching their destination quickly.
"Temple of the Union my ass." Wilkins snorted, "We should bag these 'refugees' and sell 'em to the slavers."
"And what if the slavers come after you?" Mei asked. She newly discovered the fun in poking holes into Wilkins' ideas. It made him angry and confused him.
"Well, I'd put a hole in his head."
"And what if there were more then one?"
"I guess I'd drop a 'nade." He replied while scratching his head under his hat.
"So you would die too?" Mei was enjoying this.
"Aw hell! I don't know! What would you do then lil miss smart ass?"
"Well I'd start by not selling out the slaves to slavers." She said with a wide grin.
"Oh, well, uh..." Wilkins began but was cut off by Raycomb.
"Here it is... Well I at least think this is it."
They all stared at the destroyed building. It looked like it once stood several stories tall, but now was just three levels. It had no roof and the walls were crumbling.
"This is the Temple of the Union?" Wilkins asked. You could hear the disgusted tone in his voice.
"I guess." Mei said, hoping that she was wrong.
They drew closer to the building and an Oriental woman appeared in a second floor window with an assault rifle. "Hold it. Who the hell are you?" She ordered.
"We're here about the delivery." Raycomb said wearily.
"One sec." The women disappeared then returned with and African American man who had full grown black beard. "I'm Hannibal Hamlin, leader of the Temple of the Union. What is your business here?"
Raycomb stuttered, "We're here about the drugs. You know the delivery."
"I'm not aware of said 'delivery'."
Wilkins intervened, "Well, we got a contract here, that says you guys wanted this shipment of drugs. We got jet, phsyco, mentats, buffout, rad-x, radaway, med-x and I think I even saw some stimpaks and water in there too. So if you could just let us in and give us our payment we'd much appreciate it."
Hannibal grinned and signaled someone inside the building. "Oh, I'm sure you have a contract, but not a delivery contract. You see, we've received information that there was a group of 'deliverers' coming here, to give us some medical supplies."
"Well that'd be us!" Wilkins said with a smile.
"Yes, it would seem so. Unfortunately for you, they also told us your true identity as slavers."
Raycomb stepped towards the building to talk, "Slavers! We're not slavers, sir. We're just task men that want to survive."
Hannibal pulled out a pistol and shot at Raycomb's feet. This startled Raycomb and Beef, who charged into the wasteland. "I suggest you leave."
"Well, either way we're keepin' your drugs, mister, 'cause I don't think our brahmin's comin' back." Wilkins said with a hardy laugh.
Hannibal smiled, "So be it." Then shot at the ground again. This time Dogg ran up in front of Raycomb and began to bark. "So you have a little friend? Well so do I!" Hannibal laughed as a dog jumped down from the window. It was quite a bit larger then Dogg. It stood in front of Dogg growling until Hannibal gave the order, "Get him, Four Score."
The dog raced towards Raycomb, but was tackled by Dogg. The two dogs rolled on the ground until Four Score got his footing and pinned Dogg to the ground. Hannibal laughed as his dog dominated over the stray mutt, but then with a bang, Hannibal fell over holding his shoulder in pain.
Mei looked at Wilkins who loaded another bullet into his sniper rifle. He looked back and said, "The mutts a part of the Arachnid family and if you mess with the family you get shot! Now get shootin'!" Mei then nodded and loaded her sub-machine gun.
Four Score had Dogg by the neck. The jaws of his opponent were crushing Dogg's windpipe, but just when Four Score was about t deliver the final bite, Raycomb kicked him off of Dogg and pumped him full off lead with his shotgun. Raycomb then picked Dogg up and joined Mei and Wilkins who were taking cover behind a rock.
"What do you see Wilkins?" Raycomb asked.
"Well we got an old white guy snipin' on the top floor, a black man with an assault rifle in the top left window of the second floor, the bitch we met before is coverin' their leader in the center window and the dead dog on the ground."
"OK, Wilkins, try to take out that sniper on..." Raycomb began but the sound of Wilkins' sniper firing cut him off.
"Done!" Wilkins said cheerfully. He laughed as the body fell off the top floor and landed next to Four Score's corpse. He then screamed, "Jesus shit!" Mei and Raycomb turned to see Wilkins covering his shoulder. Blood was running through his fingers and down his arm.
Mei turned back to the Temple and saw Hannibal lying in the window with a smile on his face and a pistol in his hand, "Just returning the favor!" He yelled.
She then pulled a pin from a grenade and threw it into the window, sending Hannibal's corpse flying upon explosion. She smiled and turned to Raycomb who had a horror stricken look on his face. He was looking at the door of the temple, where a woman had just walked out with a missile launcher. "Incoming!" He screamed. There was a sucking sound and then an eruption of rock and dirt.
"Retreat! Fuckin' retreat!" Wilkins yelled. Raycomb picked Dogg up and, with the help of Mei, dragged Wilkins to his feet. They covered their heads and then ran into the wasteland.
Author's Note
I thought I'd put some action in this chapter since the first one was a bit boring. Depending on what may come I might change the rating. If anyone has any tips or suggestions that you think might help then feel free to post a comment or review about it. Also what do you guys think of the language? Too much? I was planning to up the action and swearing a bit as the stroy progresses. Anyways Enjoy and review.
- Infstoj