I groan and slowly open my eyes, before gasping and sitting bolt upright. Something pins my wrists down and cuts into my skin. I'm lying on a set of rags and my eyes immediately go out of focus. The room around me is on fire, with flames licking the walls and pooling around the ceiling like a gathering spiral of heat. My throat dries up and my eyes water. Smoke immediately floods my lungs and I start to cough. I roll onto my side and suck in air that isn't as badly covered in flame. I sit up and look around and search desperately for an exit. The door, untouched by flame, stands open and around two metres from me. I look back and struggle with the rope around my wrist. It won't budge. I instantly clamp my teeth down onto the rope around my left wrist and tug. I gnaw hard and manage to finally get it loose, stopping every few seconds to break into a coughing fit and suck in clear air. I rip my left wrist out of the rope and tie my right wrist free. My right leg is still attached and I spring to my feet and sprint out of the room.
"What the fuck?!" I shout when I burst out of the flaming room and slam the door behind me. What the hell happened?! Did Li move me? I was just asleep in my room; did the Enclave capture me during the night? Did I get kidnapped?
I clutch my aching head and suck in air and try to regain my breath. The hallway I'm standing in is filthy, and when I look down I see that I'm only dressed in a pair of rags, with no weapons.
Okay, step one, find a weapon.
The hallway is covered in papers and office furniture clumsily thrown about. The wallpaper has since peeled off the walls and broken computers still sit on desks around me. As I take a few ginger steps forward, my feet crunch against the debris around me and I stop dead. I hear a few faint thuds in the distance and I dart behind a filing cabinet.
"Shit shit shit shit," I whisper and peer around the corner.
A raider stumbles down the hallway, rubbing his face and muttering to himself. I quickly get out of sight and he grunts as he walks down the hallway, "Johnny? You down here buddy? Where's that BoS dick head we found under that bridge? Boss says we have to give him some food."
He walks ahead of me and I spot his knife against his belt. I swiftly come up behind him, shove a hand over his mouth and rip the knife out of his belt and drive it against the back of his head. He screams and coughs up blood against my hand, before going limp in my arms. I lie him down against the filing cabinet and pat him down.
"Thank, you…" I whisper and take out a small 9mm pistol and a few clips of ammo. I grab his holster and wrap it around my waist, although it's a little big on me, even on the longest hole I can get to. I crouch down again and creep further down the hallway.
My head throbs and my eyes ache, like I'm on a bad Jet high. It comes in waves, with piercing, deep stabs into my brain every few minutes. I shrug off the pain and stumble further down the building. I've got to find my way out of here, but I can't rush around, it would be easy to get shot that way. I move down a set of stairs with my ears straining to listen. There's a group of raiders moving around me, some conversing, others crashing around the hallways. I take a peek through the hallway and see two raiders talking. Behind them is a door, with the word "prison" spray painted onto it.
I remember them saying that they kept a BoS soldier locked up in there. That poor bastard… god knows what's happened to him. What happened to me? Why am I here? How did I get kidnapped from a hospital room in a heavily guarded military base and taken to a raider camp? Maybe the BoS knows what happened. I only have to pass through these guards and open the door to go and get him and make sure he's safe. I owe it to him anyway; I'm not the type to leave a fellow soldier behind.
I stick my head around the corner. Both of the raiders there are leaning against the wall carelessly and I ready myself to charge for them, before something turns around the corner. "Holy… shit…" I gasp.
A fucking tiger! How did they get a tiger?! The tiger prowls around the hallway and the walls start to lick with flame again. Shit! The fire must have gone down from the room. The raiders start to melt a little bit from the flames, like wax on a candle. Their heads melt onto their shoulders and their fingers drip onto the floor. They don't scream in agony, in fact, they just relax. The tiger watches them burn, with his golden, sleek, shiny fur glimmering against the flames. He turns to me, with big, golden eyes that bore into mine. His tail starts to slowly wag back and forth, making a whooshing noise as he licks his chops with his big pink tongue.
"Shit!" I gasp and spring onto my feet. I grab the gun I stole and point and fire at the giant beast. The bullets jam in the chamber.
"Fuck! Are you serious?!" I yell. I rip out my knife and spot the raiders turn to me. Their melting corpses slowly start to slop towards me, they look like soup; a rich yellow liquid with chunks of brown skulk that towards me. I panic and charge toward them, raising my knife. I dodge the tiger and grab the first one, my hand slides into the thick, warm goo and I almost throw up. I drive my knife into the melted head of the raider, and he goes limp and his body disintegrates to the floor and pools around my feet.
"Die!" the other melted being moans out, his voice booming into my ears. I run forward and he grabs me and throws me to the ground. My head bangs against the floor boards and I look around at the flaming walls around me. One wall is close to a metre from me I lift up my leg and slam it hard against the mid-section and my eyes blurring from the goo that he expels from his head and lands on my face. The heat pounds and bakes whatever is on my face and I hurl the melting raider against the flaming wall and drive my knife into his stomach to keep him there. He screams and his body erupts into flame and I scurry away from him. He charges towards me, screaming and flaming with my knife embedded in the goo where his stomach should be.
In a moment of panic, I grab the gun that jammed and frantically slap the side of it in an attempt to unjam the gun. I pull the trigger, but it doesn't fire. I groan and turn the gun so it points at me and grab the barrel while holding the goo back with my leg, with my leg sinking further and further into the gunk. I smash the butt of the gun into the melted head; making parts of it splash out and hit me. I push him off of me and hit him in the head again and again, more of the goo covering me as the roaring of the flames dominated my hearing.
When the melted man finally stops moving, I freeze in shock when I realise I've forgotten someone. I turn around and see the tiger watching me patiently, his tail wagging slowly, with that whooshing sound still there. The flames roar, and I back away slowly from the tiger, but with every step I take away from him, he takes a step towards me. He looks entertained with his golden eyes gleaming up at me like a child. He lies down on his belly, like he's going to pounce, and all I can do is hold out my knife.
But he doesn't pounce; he just lies in the middle of the hallway with flames gleaming against the walls like a literal red sea. I turn around and look at the door, before slowly backing toward it and open it.
Inside is a man tied up in BoS uniform and only lit by a single light bulb. He's on his knees, tied up and looking down at the floor and making a panting noise.
"Hey…" I trail off and walk toward him. "Easy… I'm BoS, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a friendly."
When I get within two steps of him, he looks sharply up at me. I yell out and stumble back and land flat on my ass. A fucking clown mask! Why?! Big black eyes and a permanent grin on his face with bright orange hair! His screams fill my ears and I struggle to not erupt into a fit of panic. I scrunch my eyes tight and reach forward for him as his screams grow louder. It's only a mask, it's only a mask. My fingers brush against the worn leather and I grip it. I rip the mask off the throw it away and open my eyes. His blonde hair is matted and he's covered in sweat, his bright blue eyes wide in horror as he screams into a gag.
"Shut up!" I whisper loudly and rip the gag out of him. "Calm the fuck down! People will hear us!"
He nods rapidly, "Okay. Do you have a weapon?"
"Nuh uh," I shake my head and hold up the jammed gun, "this is the only one I have. I had a knife but I have no clue where it's gone."
"Can you untie me?"
"I don't have a knife. Just stay behind me and we'll find the exit, I promise."
…
I stick my head out into the hallway and look around. The tiger is gone, probably took his chance to run while he still could. The two melted corpses are still there though, though I can't see my knife.
"Be careful of the fires," I look over my shoulder at him as we creep down the hallway. He doesn't say anything and I slip through an open doorway. A raider is asleep on a worn out green leather couch and I usher the BoS guy in and shut the door behind him. I sneak up to the sleeping raider and slowly slide out his knife. I cover his mouth and plunge the knife into his throat. He instantly wakes up and screams into my hand, though the screams slowly soften into desperate gurgles. Eventually, he goes limp and I slide the knife out of his throat and look over at the BoS, who watches calmly.
"What's your name?" I frown as I reach around and cut the ropes around his wrists.
"Greg," he acts anxious and I look up at him.
"You need to relax a bit. I can't get out of here if you're stumbling around here having a panic attack. Greg, I need you to think, do you know where the exit is?"
"It's right past the cafeteria. They dragged me through there when they brought me here." He says and points me to the room, "but I know there's always someone in there to guard the door."
"Alright," I hand him the knife. "You good with this?"
"Yeah," he nods and takes the knife from me, "what will you use, though? A gun butt isn't the greatest of weapons."
I ignore Greg and crouch down and make my way to the cafeteria on his instructions.
Inside are three raiders, none of whom are facing us. I quickly duck away from the door and look at Greg, who's looking a little less freaked out and more like he's gotten his shit together.
"Okay, this is how it's going to work," I whisper, "I'm going to make some noise, and they're going to chase me. I'm relying on you to dispatch them for me. Can you do that?"
He nods and I smile at him, "Wish me luck."
"Good-"
"Hey, you fucking bastards!" I shout, jumping into the doorway of the cafeteria and spreading my arms wide.
"What the fuck?!" one of the raiders yells. "Who the fuck are you?!"
"BoS motherfuckers! Hands up!" I shout and raise my jammed gun.
"Fuck! Quick Harry!" one raider shouts at another, "kill her!"
"Shit!" I yell and dive out of the way of a hail of bullets. I sprint down the hallway and past Greg, who's hidden himself behind a table and chairs. My feet pound against the cold tiles and I run up a set of stairs as the three raiders pursue me and shoot a few bullets.
"Oh shit!" I yell as the walls suddenly burst into flames again. I launch myself onto the ground to avoid the flames and scramble up when they're subsided after a few seconds. The tiles start to get hot and I quickly duck around a corner and enter an old office. I hear them run past me and soon I hear two screams of agony.
"Shit! How the fuck did she get past us?! Get up Harry you stupid bastard I- argh!"
I stay completely still for a few seconds, before the door slowly opens and Greg walks out holding an assault rifle.
"Hey, you made it," I laugh. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. You did good Daniels."
"Daniels? I didn't- hey!"
The last thing I see before everything goes black is Greg turning the gun and smashing it against my forehead.
…
"Gah!" I shout and jolt bolt upright on the bed. I breathe heavily and look around. I'm safe, in the Citadel, I'm fine. But damn my head hurts. My eyes are foggy, but I'm still dressed in the clothes I went to bed in.
"Good morning," Li smiles and walks in with a glass of water. "Bad dream?"
"I guess… my head kills though…"
"Yeah that would be the drugs I put you on. You went on a little wander last night, I had to give you some drugs to calm you down a bit."
"No shit. Where did I go?"
She shrugs, "I don't know. Some MPs dragged you in here at 4AM this morning. Oh, Sarah Lyons got a hold of those 'improvements' to the armour that you wrote while you were asleep, said she wanted to talk to you."
I feel like absolute shit as I try to walk straight through the halls of the citadel. My head throbs and my throat is sore. What the hell did I do last night? I knock on the door to Sentinel Lyons' office and she opens it.
"Ah, look who finally woke up," Lyons smiles. "Come in, Corporal. Sit."
I walk in and sit down at the chair as instructed.
"Do you know why you're here?"
I scratch my hair and shrug pathetically, "To be fair Sentinel, I'm just waking up. I have no fucking clue."
"Hey kiddo," a voice laughs.
"Shit! What the fuck?!" I yell as Greg walks up from behind me. I start to sit up but he comes up from behind and grabs my throat. I frantically kick the chair away and push myself against him to try and hit his stomach.
"This one has some fight in her," Greg laughs as I struggle to break free and jab my elbows against his stomach and face.
"I know," Lyons smirks. "Okay Kodiak, that's enough. Let her go before she starts to bite."
He releases me and I instantly spring around and swing my fist at his face, "Asshole!"
"Whoa there!" he laughs and grabs my fist and twists my arm so it's behind my back. "Settle down!"
"Settle down Corporal," Lyons says firmly, "before I have you discharged."
"He smacked me in the face with a rifle butt!" I shout defensively as he lets me go.
"I'm also twice your weight, close to double your height and with years of training under my belt. Try and hit me again and I'll hang you upside down on the citadel courtyard wall until you pass out." Greg sneers.
"Sit down," Lyons barks firmly.
"Yes ma'am," I mutter and kick my chair up with my shoe and sit down with a sour look on my face.
"I bet you're wondering what happened to you last night."
"Yeah, I kinda am," I snap.
She tuts and shakes her head, "How would you like to have a shot at being in the Lyons' Pride?"
"Lyons' Pride? Aren't you guys the elite?"
"Yes ma'am," he grins. "You'd be among the elite, trained to deal with any threat that gets in your-"
"She doesn't need the advertisement, Kodiak," she sighs and looks at me. "When we pick a candidate for the Pride, we put them to the test. We drugged you and placed you in a raider compound. We drugged the raiders beforehand and gave them jammed weapons. Then, we drop a Pride member in and let them be taken prisoner."
"What?! That's bullshit! What if they killed you?!" I point at Kodiak. "And why is she calling you Kodiak?"
"Because that's my real name. Trust me kid, I can handle a bunch of stoned out raiders with jammed guns."
I frown, "So the flaming walls…?"
"We put you under a hallucinogenic drug. It was pretty funny, I saw you dive onto the ground for no reason when they were chasing you."
"What if I died?"
"Nobody has ever died," Lyons says firmly. "We don't nominate hysterical people to undergo these tests. We always put in a candidate's worst fear. Sometimes it's something complicated; like a mutant or a ghoul, but yours was easy to handle. What we were making you on, Daniels, was how you handled yourself. You stayed calm and level headed, even when you were scared, and managed to 'settle' Kodiak down. What do you say, Daniels? You wanna join us as an Initiate? Help some people out?"
"I married an impulsive soldier who runs into the battlefield to help the wounded; I did not marry a coward… It isn't just me you're fighting for anymore... I don't want you to run and save a soldier you know isn't going to make it and then get shot. Am I clear with that?"
I cross my arm and glance down at the wedding ring on my finger. Being in the Pride will solve all of my financial problems. I'll be paid a shit load of money and we will never need to worry about food, ever. But what would Amata think?
Joining the Lyon's Pride means a full time career, same thing when I was an MP; just more… intense. I'll be gone a few days every month or so and get paid more, win-win. That's all I'll need to tell Amata, I got promoted and therefore a pay raise. "I don't see why not. There's good money."
She chuckles and nods, "You get paid for doing the dirty work, yeah. You're not technically in the Pride yet."
"Alright. What's the plan now then?"
"We get you fitted out with power armour."
"Um…"
"What?"
"I… don't really work well with any kind of armour on. I feel restricted with it."
"It'll keep you alive."
"I'll be fine. I'll move faster around the battlefield, considering the armour is almost half my weight."
Sarah leans against her desk and scratches her chin in thought, before she looks up at Kodiak, "What do you think?"
He shrugs at her then looks at me, "It's her choice."
"So, when do I start?"
"Myself or Kodiak will contact you. Kodiak's going to be your handler, you have any questions, you ask him. Sound okay?"
"Unless he plans to choke me again, I think we'll be fine." I frown as I get up.
He smiles and holds out his hand, "You have to understand, the only reason I had to knock you out was because we need to keep this discrete. Don't tell anyone about our little talk, okay?"
I shake his hand and nod, before leaving.
…
"Dogmeat!" I laugh when I walk into the hospital room. His tail wags and he runs up to me. I crouch down and ruffle his fur. His tail wags and he runs circles around me.
"Amata is going to kill me," I grin at him and sit down on the chair beside my bed.
…
Two days later
"Get up."
"Huh?" I yawn and groggily open my eyes. I'm tangled in a heap of blankets and struggle to escape them when I see the large looming figure over me.
"It's 5AM. Time for training."
"What the- hey!"
Kodiak flings the blankets off of me and tosses my leg at me, "Get dressed. Meet me in the courtyard in five minutes."
"What the hell are you-" I groan as I strap on my leg.
"Now!" he barks.
…
I walk out onto the courtyard and make my way towards Kodiak, who's holding a rifle and has a stack of red circles beside him.
"What's up?" I yawn and scratch the back of my head.
"Marksman training," he shoves the rifle into my hands. "I know that you work better with a scope, but you need to put this into practical use. Your targets will not always be far away, you need to be able to shoot quick and accurately. Got that?"
"Yeah," I nod and load the rifle, "what's the orange stuff?"
"Clay targets. You shoot them; they break apart into a reddish mist. It's pretty cool, like a reward for hitting your target."
"O…kay…" I frown, "So you throw them into the air?"
"Nope. You do. You're going to throw three in air and shoot all three."
He dumps three orange disks into my hand and I look down at them. Kodiak steps behind me and I hurl them into the air. I grab the rifle and line up my first shot. The first clay target turns into a red mist when I shoot it as the two other targets clump onto the ground, "Ah shit…"
"You take too long to shoot a single target. Try again."
2 hours later
"Fuck!" I swear and shove the gun onto the ground as one target lands on the ground. "Fucking shit!"
Kodiak chuckles and walks out into the firing range and into a sea of missed orange targets, "Well, I have to admit, at least you didn't give up so easily. You lasted more than most did."
"Was this another bullshit test?" I fume and rub my aching shoulder from where the rifle kicked against it. "Did the rifle have a crooked sight or something?"
"Nope, you just can't shoot fast moving targets for shit."
"Bullshit, I'm a good shot with a revolver." I slide out my Smith & Wesson. "Give me another chance."
"Hey, you haven't been kicked out of the Pride, kid." He laughs and steps behind me again and hands me three targets, "but if you want a chance at healing your bruised ego, be my guest."
I take a few deep breaths and close my eyes to calm myself down. I relax myself and concentrate, before hurling the targets in the air. Within half a second my revolver is pointing up. All three targets go up into a mist and slowly trickle down after four shots.
"Fuck yeah!" I laugh and shove my revolver into the holster and look back at Kodiak. "Did you see that?!"
Kodiak sarcastically applauds and nods at the ocean of targets, "Alright smartass. I want it perfect. You still have two little friends in that barrel of yours? I want you hitting two targets."
"Don't bother," Lyons says firmly. "Daniels, you up to shoot some mutants?"
"Mutants? I thought our main problem was the Enclave?" I frown and drop the targets in my hand.
"They are, but there's a little activity lurking around near Rivet City that we need to go take care of."
"Sure. I can handle that," I shrug. "Can I bring my dog?"
Kodiak bursts out laughing and I turn to him, "He's good at sniffing out muties."
"You can bring your dog, Daniels," Lyons says in a patronising tone.
…
"I really don't think you should be doing this right now," Ali mutters as I zip up a bag full of ammo rounds and water and sling it over my shoulder. "Your arm is still healing and Amata is about to-"
I won't even be gone a day." I hand her a radio and show her the Vault's radio frequency. "If someone starts a message, run to my father and tell him. It won't happen, and I'll be back by dinner."
"Does James even know you're going?"
"No," I smile and squeeze her arm. "I'll be back soon. Make up an excuse for me, alright?"
"Amata isn't going to like this," she sighs and crosses her arms.
I reach the door and shrug at her, "Amata doesn't need to know."
Thanks to TrueNeutral for being the beta and I'll see you guys later :-)
