chap 2 : The Rangers
song: citizen soilder by "three doors down."
Al's POV
"Three more days," I stated gruffly.
As I got out of bed, I checked the time. 9:28. Just great now I gotta rush to get to three dog's place, I suddenly remembered as I reluctantly got out of bed, stripped my naughty nightwear off, placed it in my filing cabinet, and pulled out my Ranger combat armor. My face darkened as I memories flooded into my train of thought about how I obtained my favorite suit. About a year ago, I decided to loot the Statesman Hotel for fun. Probably some good stuff in there, may as well check it out while i'm here. As I got on the roof, I heard more gunshots. That, and some uglies scream. Okay, they're either turning on each other, or someone had the same idea as me. I'm going with the latter. As I approached the stairway I instictively crouched down. The first thing I once I noticed reaching the top was the hundred of bodies piled around each other. Damn, someone is very good at killing uglies, and last i checked, Sarah was at the Citadel, so she's out. As I checked the bodies for ammo, I heard a man shout,
"Hey you! Get your ass over here before more muties come!"
Startled, I looked up to see a man in what seemed to be green combat armor apparently waving an SMG in the air. I got up, holstered my plasma rifle, and jogged over to the make-shift cover the three people had raised. Once I reached it, I vaulted over the cover, landed, and lowered myself facing the man who shouted at me.
" 'Bout damn time someone showed up. Did Reily send you?" He inquired.
"No I just decided to look around, and by the looks of things, I was late for one hell of a party." I answered with a smirk, but hidden due to my Tesla helmet.
"Yeah, you were," said someone, who, by the voice, I could tell was a woman, "and it used up all our ammo, and by looks of it, you're not carrying anything we can use," noticing the plasma weapon slung along my armored back.
"No I did have to kill a few uglies along the way, so I have a few ARs, hunting rifles, and one chinese AR, a minigun, and some ammo for all of them,"
I replied sharply, and looked over my shoulder to see said woman loading the the last of her 5mm rounds into the massive weapon.
"Shut the hell up Brick, and be glad that someone came up here."
My eyes widend at the black man's voice. Lucas simms...poor man. I felt a wave of sorrow at this thought. The fith day in my journey I was just about to disarm megaton's massive nuke, so I went up to see my second freind in the wasteland, Gob. Good man that ghoul. I noticed a man in a white suit and brown hat beckon to me. Interested, I walked over. He introduced himself as Mr. Burke, a name I now associate with greed, evil, and the worst traits of humanity. He told me I could have a nice warm bed inside a heavily guarded place, almost as safe as in the vault. I speculated about how nice it would be to be able to live in a vault-like place, but then my moral compass reactivated and I knew I had to tell Lucas about him. But I knew I would need proof. So i lied about agreeing to his conditions and he gave me exactly what I wanted. I told lucas on how I would disarm the bomb for free, knowing that I would never sleep if I didn't, and then mentioned on Burke. He told me that I was about to get a lesson in Wasteland Justice, and I followed him to the saloon. I listened to Lucas arresting the rat bastard, and once his back was turned, he was shot and killed. I flew into a blinding fury, and beat him down, first with my bat, and then with my fists. As I got up from the bloodied corpse, I took his suit, silenced pistol and most everything else. then I walked to Lucas's still warm corpse, and cried. He was my first freind, and really a mentor to me on my first few days. I took his hat, and left to disarm the bomb. After I was done with it, I walked back to the saloon. I bought some whiskey, and drunk myself into a stupor. When I awoke, I was in a bed. As I opened the door, I remembered what had happened the previous night. I was disgusted with myself for taking the hat, and tried to return it to his son. He refused said I could keep the hat, and informed me of his father's plan on whoever disarmed it would be allowed to live here for free. As my memory ended, I asked what their names were.
"That's Brick, the woman with the minigun,"
yeah I sorta figured that out I thought
"I'm Butcher, a medic, and that's Donovan, our engineer."
They needed a fission battery and I gave them one I found earlier in the day. We got out of the tower easily, but Brick died, and I could only grab her minigun, which she called eugene. Once we got back the their compound Reily rewarded me with a spot on the group, and their armor.
This memory lasted five minutes, and I cursed myself for losing focus.
goddamn it Al, focus. No more daydreaming.
As I left on my was to GNR studios for my interview with Three Dog, my Pip-boy beebed, and when I looked at it, it said nothing.
This fucking thing better not break. Only someone at a vault can fix one of these oversized wristwatches.
Okay, i know long ass chapter, but it sorta got your attention, right?
Oh, and for the record, anything in italics is a thought.