The Drifter

Chapter One: Through My Eyes

Micheal's POV

I tossed and turned on the hard wooden floor, I was feeling uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep tonight but why? I pulled my trench coat off me and sat up, running a hand through my long scruffy hair. Something was really wrong and it had me on edge, so I just stood up and walked out of the room I am sleeping in, leaving my bag and my coat behind. My black combat boots made a loud booming sound as I walked along the hallway towards a door that would take me into a bathroom, or what was left of it. On opening the door to the bathroom I could see a big gaping hall in the ceiling, the bathtub was filled with a pile of broken wood that had came from the ceiling, the toilet was cracked and sitting on it would have broken it in half, the only thing that seemed to be still intact was the sink and the mirror above it which was the only things I needed at this time.

Now my pip-boy had already confirmed for me that the water in the house was poisoned with radiation, so I just used the bottle of water I keep tied to my belt around my desert camo army trousers. I unscrewed the lid of the bottle and leaned over the sink so that my head was almost inside it, then I poured the water over my hair. I let it run through my hair and over my face, with each bead drop of water falling from my face into the sink I could see how dirty I have gotten, I should really have a proper wash up sometime but when your gunning down people who are trying to gun you down, you don't really have enough time to wash.

As I was letting my face air dry, I look up into the mirror and take a good long look at the man starring back. Dark hair that went down to the bottom of his neck, a dark rough beard that looked dirtier than the hair, and ice cold blue eyes that had a lot more to say than the mouth. Looking deep into the eyes they would tell a story of a man who has lost too much and seen too much, a man who would rather be alone than make friends and companions, a man tired of the world he lives in but still fights to survive each and everyday cause he refuses to quit. And that is who I am, I try to help as many people as I can when I can but in the end I want to get away from those people as quickly as possible and continue with my lonely life.

I continued looking at myself in the mirror for a while just to gather my thoughts, that's when I realized why I couldn't sleep. I have very strong senses and right now I could sense someone was heading towards the house. I ran out of the bathroom, heading back to the empty room I was sleeping in, but half way there I could hear the front door down stairs being opened.

"Damn it!" I thought to myself as I ducked down behind a wall by the stairs.

I took a sneaky peek around the corner and I saw at the door was five men. It was hard to tell who they were in the dark but I could hear there voices, they were trying to talk silently but they were still loud enough to wake the dead.

"Ok, Fish and Chip? You two go look upstairs, me, Wiggle and Toot Toot will look around down here" A loud deep voice spoke out.

"Hang on, who put you in charge?" a second voice asked but this one sounded more like a troll who should be under a bridge.

"This!" A clicking sound that only a gun could make was heard.

Down stairs all five men started arguing and shoving each other around, but all I could think was what kind of names did these guys have. Fish? Chip? Wiggle? Toot Toot? Who in the hell came up with these? But it was obvious now that these guys were Raiders, these were the scum bags I enjoyed killing the most, If I could get to my gun in the other room I would shoot them all dead right now, but with my loud boots these guys would hear me walk across the hall. I just had no choice but to sit back and wait.

"Just get up those fucking stairs before I throw you up them!" The one who seemed to be in charge barked over the others.

With no more words the small group separated into there teams, which meant the ones known as Fish and Chip were on there way up to where I was hiding, I needed to think of something fast. There foot steps were getting closer and closer, so I ducked into what was a small closet and left the door open just a crack so I could see into the hallway, it may have been dark but the light from the moon shining in through the back windows was very helpful on my vision. I could now see the two men standing at the top of the stairs, they both agreed to go different ways down the hallway, the first one went left towards the room I was in and the other went right towards the bathroom. Right there and then I crouched down and pulled out my hunting knife that was secretly and carefully stashed away into the hidden holster of my boot, that is when I proceeded to follow the guy who was walking towards the bathroom. We were both wearing heavy boots so I no longer had to worry of making a noise just as long as I don't make any other noises that would give me away, but it wouldn't matter cause I was nice and close to the bastard and I was ready to strike, his only weapon was what looked like a lead pipe so instead of my plan to use my knife to slit his throat I had something better in mind.

I waited for him to reach the door and touch the handle, that very moment I reached around him with both hands and grabbed the pipe, I pulled the long cold piece of metal up to his neck and started squeezing down on his wind pipe. I pulled him back away from the door and watched as he kicked his legs out and tried using his hands to try and pry the pipe off his neck, I could hear he was trying to call for help but his throat was being crushed that much that no sound came out.

"Just close your eyes and go to sleep" I whispered into his ear as I can feel his body thrashing about for freedom "It will all be over before you know it".

It took a while but more and more slowly he starting to give in, he stopped kicking and he starting trying to take last gasps for breath, but I doubt he could even get one ounce of oxygen into his lungs due to the amount of force I used to choke him off. Soon his eyelids closed and his body was lifeless, I just gently put him down on the floor along with the pipe and pulled out my knife, it was one down and four to go.

As quickly as possible but also trying to not make a single noise I hurried across the hallway and headed straight to the room I was trying to sleep in. I stopped by the door and peeked inside, I could see the other guy crouched down in the middle of the room looking through my bag, he would pull out different items that I kept stored away, Items like bottles of water, cans of baked beans, rolls of stale bread, ammunition for both my guns, the M4A1 carbine assault rifle and a chrome revolver. He was laughing and saying to himself that he hit the jackpot, I was clutching onto my knife and slowly moving closer to him. I suddenly stopped in place as I saw him rise up to his feet and put on my trench coat, he was holding my black book in his hands and was flicking through the pages, my hand started to tremble due to how hard I was clutching the knife.

"Damn it no pictures" His troll like voice croaked out as he flicked through to the last page of the book "But its gonna burn up into a nice little fire haha".

With one quick clean motion he dropped my book to the floor and his lifeless body followed with it. Blood poured out onto the floor from his neck, blood was dripping from the tip of my knife, I had slit his throat so fast and so quick that he never had a chance to reacted. At least this would teach the bastard to never go through another mans belongings next time, not that there will be a next time. I pulled the dark brown trench coat off him and patted it down, I may of needed a wash up but my coat now needed disinfecting, but with him out of the way I shove everything back in my bag and on doing so I figured out why they called him Fish.

"Damn smell" I said as I left the room with my belongings.

I placed my bag and coat at the top of the stairs, I pulled on my black short sleeved T-shirt and pulled out my revolver. Crouched down slightly and with my back against the wall, I slowly go down the stairs making sure each step I took was silent. As I reached to the bottom one of the raiders walked by holding a hunting rifle, so without hesitation and without thinking I just held up my gun and fired a bullet straight through his head, he dropped like a sack of potatoes and lay there on the floor with no signs of life left. A grin crossed over my lips in satisfaction but that quickly vanished as I heard footsteps coming my way.

"Toot Toot!" A voice called out "What the hell are you doing?!"

I didn't bother to hide this time, I just waited for him to walk around the corner. I had my gun already loaded and aimed when he walked around, he only had an ax that he was never going to use, It was amusing to see the look of shock on his face as he saw me. I noticed him about to open his mouth to call for help, so I just pulled the trigger and watched as he back up into the wall and slide down it, leaving his blood on the wall.

Now that was all four, Chip, Fish, Toot Toot and now Wiggle, now all that was left was there boss with the very deep voice. I waited in the dark for a few minutes, waiting for him to come walking out and join the same fate as his friends, but I couldn't hear his footsteps or anything, I couldn't even sense anything. Did I miss count or did this guy run away as soon as he heard the gun shots, it would be the first time that a raider ran from a gun fight and I was certain I counted five, so where was he? I couldn't just grab my stuff and run or this guy would come after me and that is the last thing I need right now, so I loaded my gun and played the cat and mouse game.

I jumped off the stairs and walked towards the kitchen, I kept my ears open just in case he came from behind. I stepped into the kitchen and looked around, my revolver ready and aimed, there was no sign of him but just as I expected a noise came from behind me. I spin around, gun aimed, no one was there but my senses was now sky high. I spin back around but before I could do anything I felt a huge pair of tree trunk like arms wrap around my waist, my feet were lifted off the ground and I could feel my whole body flying backwards, my back came into contacted with the front door of the house and the next thing I knew I was tumbling and rolling across the ground of the front garden. I stopped rolling and was flat on my front, I pushed up off the ground with my hands and turned my head towards the house, standing there at the front door was this huge guy with big muscles and a military buzz cut hair style, he only wore similar trousers to mine along with boots, he also had something tied onto his back but I couldn't see it.

"Now before I break every damn bone in your body!" He roared out over the very top of his lungs "Do you have any last words!?"

I slowly stood up onto my feet, I checked for my gun but I must of dropped it by the door when he tackled me through it. I looked back to him and saw he was waiting for a reply, he also looked like he was getting more angry as I kept him waiting, so I just spoke up.

"Yeah I got a few" I say with a grin growing over my face "Have you always enjoyed taking guys from behind?"

His face was turning red with anger, I was waiting for him to charge at me but he didn't, Instead his giant arm reached behind his back and he pulled out a long blood stained machete, now I was in for a fight. He ran right at me and brought the blade down towards my head, I manged to pull out my hunting knife from my boot and block his attack, I nearly dropped my knife due to how much force he used. His attack did not end there, he took a swipe for me but I jumped back in time to avoid it, that's when I ran up and kicked him straight in the chest, he stumbled back but regained his balance and came at me again. With each slash and swipe I avoided and dodged it all, but he got more and more aggressive as he got closer towards me. I had to slow him down so I threw a kick to his left leg sending him down on one knee, then I gave a high kick to his jaw which stunned him, but he shook his head and took another slash at me, I used my knife to block the attack again but this time he knocked it clean out of my hand.

"Uh oh" I thought to myself as I am now defenseless against this guy.

He saw the opportunity to take advantage and he took it. He leaped at me and tackled me to the ground, I could feel the wind being knocked right out of my body as his entire weight came crashing down on me, damn this guy was big. I just lied back on the grass coughing up what felt like my lungs, I open my eyes to see he is now standing over me with the machete held high above his head. He was about to bring the blade down right until I kicked my boot up and got him right between the legs, his eyes almost popped out of his head. He lowered the machete and leaned over in pain, I took the chance to knock the weapon out of his hands and kick him straight in the face with both of my combat boots, he just fell back and hit the ground hard.

"You son of a bitch" He cussed out in a painful groan.

I rolled up to my feet and so did he once we both got our breath back, I wasted no time by throwing a few good punches at him, he had his arms covering over his face to block my punches but I got him a few good times in the face. I could see he was letting his defenses down so I started throwing my kicks too, I would kick him across the rib cage then as he lowered his arms to protect those ribs I would then throw a punch into his face. If I could keep this up long enough maybe I'll wear him down enough to snap his neck. I throw another punch in his direction but this time he grabs my wrist, now I'm in for it. He now grabs my neck with his other hand and squeezes it tight, not only I could feel my oxygen being cut off but now I can no long feel my feet touching the ground, he had lifted me up into the air and now had both hands wrapped around my neck.

I kicked and squirmed around but he had a tight grip on me, he laughed with an evil grin then slammed me down hard on the ground, I felt jolts of pains shooting through my back, he would slightly lift my body off the ground and slam me down over and over and over again non stop. This is gonna be hard to get out of, I need to think fast or he's going to kill me.

"Nobody messes with me, Nancy, and my gang of raiders. I'm going to kill you for what you done" He yelled at me as he slammed me down again.

And as he slammed me down I could no longer think of how unbearable the pain was, I can now only think what kind of bloody name for a man like this was Nancy, damn now I heard everything, Fish, Chip, Toot Toot, Wiggle and now bloody Nancy, really who came up with the names for these guys cause this was getting more ridiculous. The worst thing about all this was that I'm now going to die at the hands of a big strong man named Nancy, oh lord what has my life come to.

"You want one last thing to say before I finish you off little man?" He asked as he held me up over his shoulders.

"Yeah as a matter of fact Nancy boy, I do" I managed to get out while being chocked "Who the hell came up with your name?"

"I was named after my mother who was the strongest female raider who ever lived" He told me with a sense of pride in his voice.

"Sounds like another dumb bitch to me" I spat out.

He did not take my comment too kindly and growled at me in anger, he then threw me across the garden and I rolled across the grass, I stopped halfway back to the front door and was lying face down on the ground again, I groaned in pain and tried to stand up. As I go to push myself up off the ground I felt something cold and sharp underneath my hand, I look down and see it was the machete I knocked away earlier. I slipped the handle into my hand and waited for Nancy to walk up, as I sensed his hand reaching down for me I quickly turned over onto my back and swung the blade at him, I caught him right in the shoulder and watched as he stumbled back and cried out in pain, I trickle of blood was now running down his left arm and was dripping off his finger tips. I now had to take my chance, so I pushed myself off the ground and tackled him down on the ground, pinning his arms down with my knees I placed each of my hands on the sides of his face and then I started pushing down on his eyeballs with my thumbs.

He started struggling and screaming in pain, I was sure at one point he called for him mummy, but despite how much pain he was in I wasn't going to stop. I pushed harder down on his eyes, his screams were not so loud anymore now that his voice was giving out, I just kept pushing down until I heard and felt two popping sounds beneath my thumbs, I could feel blood and sort of a jelly kind of liquid on my thumbs now, Nancy had stopped screaming and he had stopped moving. I had killed the last raider and managed to live for another day, am I proud of myself for this ... yes I am.

I stood up off his body and walked away, leaving him there to now rot away or get eaten by some wandering mutated wild animal. I entered the house and made my way upstairs, I stopped by my bag pack and put on my trench coat that went down to my ankles, I put on my black finger-less gloves and wrapped this long black balaclava scarf around the bottom half of my face just so it was covering my mouth and nose, then I slipped on my dark sunglasses and pulled up my coats hood so that I am compleatly covered up. I fling my bag onto my back and hang the M4A1 assault rifle over my left shoulder, ready to go.

I go back down stairs to the front door and pick up my revolver, where I must of dropped it, then stick it in the holster on my right hip. I walk outside and pick up my hunting knife that is just laying in the grass, I wipe both sides of its sharp blade across my trousers to give it a quick clean then back into the hidden holster of my boot it goes. I walk away from the house and make my way up the cracked, rocky, dusty road to find somewhere new to sleep tonight.

Jessica's POV

Lying under the covers of my bed with a smile on my face, feeling all nice and warm with my eyes closed, everything was so peaceful and quiet as I slept, just having my usual dreams of what the outside world is like. I could stay like this forever but something or should I say someone, always wakes you up. I was just lying there and all of a sudden a bright light shines in my face, I give a groan and hide my head under my pillow, that's when a sound of a hair dryer blowing out wind filled the room. I give out a longer louder groan, throwing my pillow to the side I look up and with a hand over my eyes, I look towards where the light is coming from. It was coming from the open door of the bathroom and standing there with a towel wrapped around her body and a hair dryer in one hand, it turned out to be my best friend Rachel Jones.

The fairly tanned skinned and bouncy haired blonde girl just had to get ready for work now. So I send a pillow flying towards Rachel's head.

"You had to get ready this early?" I yell at her.

Rachel just laughs and says back. "Yes its nearly seven am sleepy head."

I groan more as I get up and head for the shower, as I get into the bathroom Rachel whistles at my naked ass, making me blush, so I decide to playfully flirt back with her.

"Mmmmm you can get a better view in the shower baby" I say with a wink and a grin.

"Oooh I would love that but I'm just about to put on my make up" She responds with a tiny giggle.

I place my hands on my hips and raise an eyebrow towards her, she immediately copies my actions, we both stare at one another with serious looks on our faces then burst out into a fit of giggles. We wasn't really like that, we're both one hundred percent into guys, but its always fun to joke around with your best friend. Once are insane giggling died down I hopped into the shower to wash my hair and Rachel went back to drying hers along with applying make up to her face. With both of us washed and clean, we put on our blue vault jump suits that had the number 7 on the back of it just so everyone would know what vault we live in, which felt silly cause we live under ground in one vault and never traveled outside to anywhere else, not even to another vault to get a cup of sugar, so why do we need jump suits to say we're from vault 7.

"Damn it!" I hear Rachel blurt out from behind in frustration as she was lacing up her work boots "We should start a campaign to allow us to wear whatever we want, I hate these stupid uniforms they make us all wear. I want to be my own person, and looking like everyone else down here does not help me in anyway".

"I agree. And we should also make a campaign to allow us to go outside" I say as I'm kneeling down to lace up my boots.

"Jess?" She asks me in a voice that would sound like she was saying, not this again "Why can't you let this dream of going outside, go? Even though we're not in school anymore, everyone is still teasing you about this, and the overseer will just keep lecturing and yelling at you until you get it in your head that its never going to happen"

With out looking up at her I explain my part "Rachel, you want to wear your own clothes to be your own person. I want to go outside and explore the world to become my own person. I feel so trapped in here its like I can't even breath sometimes" After lacing up my boots I stand up and tie my hair back into a pony tail while still explaining "I wouldn't care if they didn't let everyone out, as long as they let me out then I'll feel like I'm ... ... free"

Things went silent between us for a while, Rachel was just looking down at her feet taking in everything I just said, I knew she would still find it confusing so I just held out my hand to her and smiled. She took my hand and smiled back and we walked out of the bedroom together, we had to sneak through the living room so we wouldn't wake up Rachel's parents who were still sleeping in the room across form ours. I was forever grateful and thankful to Rachel's parents, after mine had died when I was only a baby, Mr&Mrs Jones took me in and raised me as there own while raising Rachel up at the same time. It wasn't easy but they managed and even though I wasn't there real daughter it still felt like we were one big happy family.

Once me and Rachel made it out into the main hallways of the vault, we wandered down towards the canteen to get some food to eat. Along the way we were giggling and laughing like two school girls as we talked about all kinds of things, some people say we're always have fun together but it wasn't until we bumped into my second best friend, Anthony Cooper, that the REAL fun was about to begin. Now Cooper, as I like to call him, was a cool sweet guy who has had a huge crush on Rachel for years, its hilarious to watch him squirm when Rachel flirts with him or better yet flirts with me right in front of him, and by the grin on Rachel's face we already knew what was in store.

"Good morning Mr. Cooper" Both me and Rachel say in union with huge smiles.

"Good morning ladies" He greeted us back with a smile of his own "How are you both feeling today?"

"We're fine today" Again in union followed by a school girl giggle.

I took a look up and down at the five foot nine, twenty year old, he was wearing the same vault suit and work boots as me and Rachel, his light brown hair was combed back, his work goggles sat above his light brown eyes, in his right hand he was holding a red metal tool box with most of the tools sticking out, in his other hand he was holding a dark metal lunchbox, I knew it was a lunchbox cause someone had written LUNCHBOX in big white letters across it.

"So will you be joining us at lunch today, Cooper?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope I won't be joining you, but you will be joining me today, will be working down in the lower levels today" He told me cheerfully.

"Ooohhh do we have to today" I stomped my foot and whined like a seven year who just got asked to pick up her toys.

"I'm afraid so my blonde bubble butt friend" He laughed and joked.

"Bubble butt" I shouted into his ear, ready to pop him one for that comment.

Cooper was now standing there laughing, I just glared up at him growling in anger, that's when I looked over to Rachel and gave her the wink and she would wink back, knowing what I wanted her to do now. She took a step in front of me and look directly into the line of sight with his eyes, the moment Cooper's eyes locked onto hers he stopped laughing and took a huge gulp, I could see his knees slightly shaking and his cheeks slowly turning red. Rachel saw this too and just evilly grinned, I just kicked back and got ready for the show.

"Do I have a bubble butt too Cooper" She asked him as she would turn her back to him and run her hands over her very perfect round butt.

"I ... I ... ummm" He was lost for words as he stared at Rachel.

"Well am I" She bent over slightly and gave her butt a little wiggle. Then to really mess him up, she said his first name in a soft seductive whisper "Anthony".

And right on cue Cooper covered the area between his legs up with his lunch box and his face turned bright red. I never seen anyone run away so fast from two hot blondes before, but Cooper had bolted down the hallway away from us, leaving me and Rachel in a fit of giggles. After we both stopped giggling we took each others hand again and continued on towards the canteen for breakfast. I smiled up at Rachel, me and her may not be related by blood but we're were just like sisters, maybe even twins. Then again being twins we would need to look similar to one another, she has golden blonde bouncy hair, I have dirty blonde hair tied back into a pony tail. She has green eyes I have blue. She has tanned skin, I have fair skin colour. And to top it all off both her ass and busty chest were a little bigger than my own, but still we were like sisters deep down.

As we reached the doors of the vaults canteen, I stepped inside ahead of Rachel, I suddenly tripped and fell flat on my face of the hard cold ground. I give a painful groan as I pinch my nose slightly and turn over onto my back, only to then have someones lunch dumped all over me. Now I was lying there with a possible broken nose while picking bits of toast and cornflakes out of my hair, and above me I could hear the sounds of laughter, it was Roxy and her gang who have been bulling me since the day we met.

"You bitch" I snarled at her.

"Oh relax princess, your just lucky I didn't decide to put my boot up that ugly ass of yours" She grinned down to me.

"What the hell?!" Rachel said as she stood by the door way "Get out of here Roxy or else".

Rachel glared at the dark hair girl who looked like some goth chick with a leather jacket over her vault suite. Roxy just clicked her fingers and she along with her gang left the canteen. Rachel quickly took her place by my side and helped me up, she then helped clean me off but I still was going to need another shower. But Roxy just made me want to leave this place more, I am now sick of being down here I want to be free, and its gonna happen tonight and I was gonna need the help of my friends.

"Rachel?" I gave her my puppy dog face, knowing full well she wouldn't resist "Can you join me at lunch today with Cooper, please?".

"Sure hunny" She smiled and gave me a small hug "We can mess with Cooper again"

With a little laugh we went to the counter and got our meal, while I was already thinking of some plan to escape into the outside world.

AN: Damn this was hard to write but I got there in the end. I hope you enjoy the read so please make sure to leave a review to let me know what you think so far. Stay tuned my friends ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the game FallOut it self, if I did I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it I would be out there making a movie ;)