Matthew spotted what he assumed to be Silver's house ahead. He made the assumption based on the fact that it was one of the only houses in the town which wasn't a complete wreck. It was only a single story building, but it did not look out of place in the town, being just as dilapidated as the rest, with paint peeling off the walls and tiles falling off the roof. Slowly, he strolled over towards it, considering his options.
He wasn't quite sure how he was going to get the money from Silver, simply asking politely probably wasn't going to do it. He decided that he'd make it up as he went along when he finally reached the front door. Rather than knock, he simply tried the handle. It was open. He pushed inwards, slowly, the door squealing all the while.
It was dark inside, but he could still see. The room he found himself in was rectangular, with a filthy looking bed in the corner. The floor was some sort of linoleum, though it was cracked and covered in stains. Cautiously, Matthew entered the house, fingering his pistol. Ahead of him was another door which seemed to lead into a kitchen, if the shadowy refrigerator was anything to go by.
He froze as a woman stepped out from the kitchen. Matthew could tell that, at one point, she had been very pretty, her hair was very light blonde, almost like silver, which is where he assumed she got her name. Her face was nicely shaped. Indeed, if it had been darker, she could probably have been mistaken as beautiful. Alas, Matthew could quite clearly see all of her features.
The woman had a haggard face, with bags beneath her eyes and wrinkles well ahead of her natural time. Her silver hair was thick with grease and dirt, all matted and twisted. Her bare arms were skinny, unhealthily so, and they were covered in red markings and splotches.
Even her voice was uglier than it should have been. "Whaddaya want?" She demanded, the sound was coarse, like she hadn't drank anything in days. Her words were slurred too. Clearly, she had been taking something.
"Moriarty sent me." Matthew said, simply. "He wants the caps you owe him."
A look of fear crossed her ugly face. "Get out!" She screamed, startling Matthew. "I said get out!" A glass bottle flew at him, he ducked and it shattered somewhere behind him. Silver retreated into the kitchen. Matthew followed, hoping to calm her down.
As he entered the kitchen, he saw Silver, standing there, lit up by the sunlight streaming through the boarded up windows, dust swirling around her. She had a gun in her hands, a revolver, and it was pointed at Matthew.
"I'm sorry." She said. Matthew ducked to the right as she pulled the trigger, a hole appeared in the wall behind where his head had been. He quickly pulled out his own gun.
"Silver, I don't want to hurt you," he poked his head back into the kitchen, quickly retreating again as she fired another shot. Matthew got the feeling she wasn't going to negotiate as she started screaming at him, shouting obscenities, and firing more bullets.
He found himself growing angry. "You better calm down before I put you down you dumb, stupid, junkie-" he was interrupted as Silver came running through the doorway, knife in hand, curses in mouth. She slashed down at him at him, narrowly missing his chest, Matthew stumbled backwards, falling onto the floor.
Silver flipped the knife around in her hand, preparing to stab him again. He quickly raised his gun, supporting himself on his left elbow, and fired two rapid shots in succession. One of them struck her in the chest and she fell backwards, knife skidding across the floor.
Matthew simply lay on the dirty, cold, hard flooring for a few moments, thinking about what he had just done, he quickly pushed those thoughts aside and picked himself up, holstering his pistol.
He looked around the room, ignoring Silver for now, and began searching for bottle caps. He found a bottle of Rad-X, which he stuffed into his pocket, but not much else. He slowly entered the kitchen, still not looking at the body, unwilling to see what he had done just yet. He began rooting through the drawers and cabinets. He found a wicked looking knife with a serrated edge which he stuffed inside his belt as well as a medical kit, which he looted thoroughly for Stimpacks and bandages, and a box of ammunition, presumably for Silver's pistol. But he couldn't find any caps.
As he searched a cabinet, looking at the small amount of food stored within, he heard a scream of rage. Quickly turning in the sound's direction, he saw Silver jumping at him. She wrapped her legs around his torso and began scratching and punching at his face. He screamed in pain as he tried to throw her off. After only a few seconds, he threw himself against the refrigerator, toppling it and sending both he and Silver tumbling to the ground.
He reached for his pistol, but in his dazed, confused state of mind found the handle of the baton instead. Seeing that Silver was getting ready to pounce again, he made the best of it and drew the weapon. As she lunged at him once more and straddled his body, he swung the baton upwards at her head, it impacted against her jaw, sending her sprawling, face down, to the floor, blood everywhere. Matthew stood up quickly and moved over to her, he hit her again on the back of the head. He hit her again. And again. And again. And again.
She stopped moving, a large pool of blood forming around her shattered skull. He dropped the baton and turned to look at himself in a cracked, dusty mirror. He looked... Monstrous. His face, his hair, his clothes were coated in blood, not just Silver's. His face was covered in scratches. He threw up, small chunks of food seemed to be part of the vile mixture. Quickly, he searched Silver's body, resisting the urge to retch, rifling through her pockets and finding a small felt bag which chinked as he moved it. There was a sizeable number of caps within.
He exited the kitchen and entered the front room, whereupon he fell to his knees and retched. "I had to." He said to himself. "I had to do it." He grabbed the bottle of purified water hung had on his belt and fumbled with the cap, trying to wash the blood from his hands and face. He wasted an entire bottle of tporcelain water, but his face was still bloody.
He forced himself to his feet, leaving the bottle on the floor, and stumbled towards the door. He leaned against it for a few moments, focusing on his breathing, trying to calm himself, before opening the door and stepping out into the sunlight.
As he exited the building, his heart jumped. Two people, a man and a woman, were standing just beyond the exterior fence, one held a baseball bat, the other, a rifle. They were clothed in what could only be described as scrap, hastily assembled into armour. The man wore part of a tire across his chest, going from his left shoulder to his waist. The woman, only identifiable as such due to her bosom, wore what looked like a mask used by welders, only now it served as some sort of helmet.
"Well lookit we got here!" The woman shrilled. "Somebody have a little accident?" She laughed, the man joined her.
"He's mine now." Said the man as he raised the rifle lazily.
Thinking quickly, Matthew raised the pistol and pulled the trigger, he kept doing so until the man was dead, at least four bullets having embedded themselves in his chest, neck, and stomach.
The woman screamed, seemingly more out of rage than grief, and charged at Matthew. Realising his gun was now empty and having no time to reload, he threw it at the woman. It struck her helmet, knocking her off balance, allowing Matthew to dodge her attack and pull out the knife he had found.
Not letting her resume her attack, Matthew plunged the knife into the woman's back, tearing through a thin sheet of metal and ripping her flesh. He pulled the blade out and heard as the serrated edge did its job: more flesh was torn. The woman unleashed a scream of pain as she fell to the ground. Stepping back from the scene, horrified, Matthew picked up his gun, grabbed the dead man's rifle, and ran, leaving the woman to die alone.
He kept running until he was in sight of Megaton, the sniper watched him approach and raised his rifle when he saw him, wary of pursuers. Matthew merely waved him off as he slowed and approached the gates.
Luke stepped out of the water plant, bag of tools in hand. He had already spotted one of the leaks earlier, he decided to leave that one 'till last.
He wandered around town, walking up and down the rusted ramps, scanning for any leaks he could find. As he passed by Craterside Supply for the third time, he spotted one. It was down one level. The pipe ran across the roof of a building, and then ran across to another building. The leak was in between the buildings, with a fall of several meters below.
Luke sighed and considered his options. On the one hand, he could wait for Matthew to return, together they could lower one of them down, fix the pipe, and then pull them back up. Matthew also had a better idea of how to actually fix pipes.
On the other hand, Luke could simply jump down, work his magic on the pipe, and clamber back up. There was no telling how long Matthew was going to be anyway. And he'd like to be able to assert his independence from his brother. Then again, he had no idea how to go about plugging the leak. It was an easy decision.
Leaving the duffle bag on the floor at his feet, Luke climbed over the short barrier fence and allowd himself to fall onto the roof below. He landed in a heap. 'That could have gone better,' he thought as he dragged himself towards the leaking pipe. The pipe in question was constructed of scrap, just like the rest of the town. He mounted the pipe, throwing his legs across either side, and began shuffling along the metal, out into the open air.
The leak seemed to have sprung from where two scraps of metal had been torn apart. Fumbling with the tool bag, Luke rooted around for something which might be useful. His hand found a hammer.
Not knowing what else to do, Luke whacked the pip, creating a deep, clang and causing the pipe to vibrate. The leek stubbornly refused to subside. He raised the hammer again in preparation to strike once more, but the hammer slipped from his grasp, tumbling towards the ground below. Luke saw it impact with a thud, creating a small cloud of dust.
"Watch it, kid!" One of the settlers who had narrowly avoided being brained by the tool called out to him.
Luke blushed and looked away, searching for another tool. He found a strip of scrap metal, which he placed over the leak, it seemed to do the job okay. To fix it in place, he wrapped half a roll of duct tape around the pipe, securing it firmly. Proud of his work, Luke shuffled back along the pipe to the building. He climbed back up to Craterside Supply and retrieved his duffle bag.
He found another pipe by the common house. Using the same technique, he affixed a piece of scrap metal to the pipe and used the remainder of the duct tape to secure it in place. Further pleased, he set off in the direction of Megaton's entrance to deal with the first leak he had spotted. He noticed that the sky was changing colour, turning to an orange-pink, it looked very beautiful and exotic. He admired it as he made his way along.
Matthew slowly dabbed his face with the alcohol, it stung, but it was probably better to be safe than sorry. He had cleaned himself up a little, sitting by a bar called the Brass Lantern. The owner, Jenny Stahl, had only charged him a couple of caps for a small basin, but many more for the vodka.
Just as he was finished and tracing his fingers along the grooves which Silver had left in his face, he saw his brother pass by, a stupid grin on his face. He was heading towards the entrance of the town, tool bag in hand.
'This ought to be good,' he thought as he began to follow him.
He trailed his brother until he came close to the entrance of the town, whereupon Luke came to a stop and crouched by a scrap metal pipe which had sprung a leak. Matthew watched, bemused, as his brother set about trying to fix it. Luke affixed a piece of metal over the leak and rooted around in the tool bag for a while, before growling in frustration. He took out a wrench and began beating the metal, causing a ruckus which attracted attention.
Matthew walked over to him and snatched the wrench from his hands. "You'll make it worse, you idiot." He said as look turned to face him, startled.
"You're back!" He said, seemingly surprised. "You look, uh..." He trailed off, motioning towards his face.
"Don't want to talk about it," he snatched the tool bag from his brother's hands and began working on the pipe. Luke watched in silence as Matthew began affixing the scrap in a more professional way. By the time he was finished, one could hardly tell that the pipe had ever needed repairs at all.
Matthew stood up. "So, while you've been playing plumber, I've been... Doing a job for Moriarty. Now he'll tell us what he knows about dad."
Luke threw the duffle bag over his shoulder and took the tool bag from Matthew. "Okay. You go see Morairty, I'll tell Walter that I'm finished."
"Walter?"
"The water guy." He shrugged.
The two went either separate ways again, one to the water plant, one to the saloon.
Matthew saw Moriarty out in front of the saloon, leaning on the railing. He approached him.
"Well, it appears yer back." He said, without looking. "Got my money, kid?"
Matthew took out the leather bag and tossed it to Moriarty, who snatched it from the air and weighed it in his hands. "Feels about right." He muttered.
"Now, tell me what you know, Colin." Matthew spat.
"Alright, kid, alright." He paused and took a deep breath. "Yer dad came to me, wanted to know about the Wasteland, who all the movers and shakers were. I admit, I don't know much on the topic, so I pointed him in the direction of Galaxy News Radio, in the DC ruins."
"Galaxy News?" Matthew asked.
"It's run by a man named Three Dog, pretty entertainin' actually, signal's been shit lately though..." He scratched his beard thoughtfully. "He broadcasts outa the ruins, holed up against the super mutants."
"Okay. So how do I reach Galaxy News?"
"Beats me, kid." He said as he returned his gaze to the town.
Matthew was frustrated, he had expected more information, a couple of questions came to mind.
"What's a... Supermutant?" He quizzed. Moriarty looked at him, and smiled.
"You got a lot to learn, kid. It's a big, bad Wasteland out there. So listen up." He spat over the edge and turned to face Matthew again. "Okay, so, basically, they're big, green monsters who kill and kidnap people. They tend to lurk around the ruins, but we had a few of them out this way once, a couple years back; ugly bastards." Matthew stared at him, taking all the information in. "Brotherhood o' Steel keeps them in check, tryin' ta clear the ruins y'see."
"What's the Brotherhood of Steel?"
He sighed. "It's a group of people in the ruins. They wear power armour, and stalk around the place, operating outta their citadel, by the river. They try to keep the ruins clear of mutants. Not doing a good job of it, if I'm honest."
Matthew nodded. He had more questions, but suspected that the novelty of answering them had worn off for Moriarty. He left to find his brother.
He found him coming along the walkway, sans toolbag.
He smiled. "I got us a hundred caps. Now what? Where's dad gone to?"
Matthew rubbed the back of his neck as he came to a stop. "In the ruins. He's gone to find some radio station or something."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Wanted to know about the wasteland."
Luke thought for a moment. "If Moriarty had just told us, we could have caught up to him by now. He was only a couple of hours ahead of us anyway." He said bitterly.
"But we don't know where Galaxy News is located - that's the name of the radio station, by the way."
Luke nodded, reluctantly. "So how do we find the station?"
"We'll probably need a guide. Maybe somebody in Megaton can help. In the meantime," he looked at his pip-boy, it read 21:36, "it's dark already, we need to find somewhere to sleep. Any ideas?"
"Well, Moriarty's place rents out beds. But there's only one bed and you need to... rent Nova... at the same time." He looked disgusted. Matthew was too, he didn't want to give any more money to that man. "But I hear there's a common house. People just, fall into bed there. People who aren't permanent residents."
"Okay, we'll go there." Matthew stepped aside, motioning for Luke to lead the way.
Luke kept his eyes closed, not wanting to face the day ahead. He was in a strange state of sleep; he was dreaming, but he was aware of the fact, and he was aware of other people in the waking world near to him, moving around and talking. He stubbornly refused to rise, trying to keep his dream close.
Wake up! You've got to wake up!
"Amata? What's going on?" He mumbled to himself
It's your dad. He left the vault. I've got to wake your brother.
"Brother..." He muttered.
He jerked awake as something slapped him on the cheek, hard. "Rise and shine, Luke. It's nine o'clock. I would have woken you earlier, but I felt you maybe deserved a rest. That stops from now on, though; early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
Luke looked up and saw Matthew staring over him, grinning - he always had been a morning person. Luke lifted his head up from the pillow and wiped his face with the back of his hand. He had been drooling again.
"Christ, that's disgusting." Matthew commented, seeing the drool. "Anyway, we've got some work to do today."
"Work?" He asked groggily.
"I've been to speak with Moira, she's got out vault suits ready, but she wants a little something done in return."
"What is it? What kind of work?" He fell back onto the pillow, closing his eyes.
Matthew grabbed his tee and pulled him up again. "She's writing a book, wants us to do a little research, we're going to a place called the 'Super Duper Mart' for some food."
Luke allowd himself to be pulled up, before steadying himself on his feet. He began looking for his jumpsuit, struggling to pull it on. "Grocery shopping? And where is my armour?" Noticing that the security vest was missing.
"Moira has it. She's got mine too." He shrugged, "Now come on, lets go." He sauntered off in the direction of the door. Luke stumbled after him, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
It was a nice day, or so Luke assumed, he had only seen one other day, after all. The sky was less grey, there was some blue visible, and the sun was warm on his skin. As they walked through the town, Luke looked at the other Caucasian inhabitants of Megaton, their skin was not like his. It ranged from olive to brown to a burnt red, while he was pale. He assumed that would change over time as he spent time in the sun. But at the moment, he felt conspicuous.
When they entered Craterside Supply, Moira squealed in delight. "You're back! Fantastic! We can get to work on the foreword right away!"
She grabbed a notepad and pen and began staring intently at the brothers.
Matthew cleared his throat. "Wow! This 'outside' place is amazing! In the main room, I can't even see the ceiling!" Luke looked at his brother in surprise, shaking his head in disapproval. Matthew looked to him and winked.
"Yeah, you can't imagine how hard it is to change that big lightbulb up there!" She trilled happily. "Now, when you get to the Super Duper Mart, remember, people need food and medicine, bring a little of it back to me as proof."
Matthew nodded. "Alright, Moira, we'll bring back the stuff."
"Great!" She said. "Now, I've got presents for you two!" She retreated behind the counter and opened up a locker.
She withdrew what Luke could identify as a vault suit, but it had a lot of modifications. There were leather straps crossing the torso in an X shape, with holsters attached. There was a metal plate on the left shoulder, with some old sports equipment down the arms for protection. There were brown and black leather holsters for pistols and knives down the legs, and metal knee caps which looked to have been created from tin cans. The belt was black polyester, it was the one which had been on the vault security armour, but it had had a couple of pouches and pockets added to store things made of brown leather, which made the suit look like it had been cobbled together from whatever was available, which was appropriate, as that was what had happened. It had also had a canvas backpack hung from the shoulders and hips.
"This one is yours, Luke." She said as she placed it on the counter. Luke approached it and picked it up, it looked sturdy, he had to admit.
She took out another suit from the locker. "And this is yours." Matthew took it from her. It was different from Luke's, featuring more leather protection on both arms, though less for the legs, with only a single leather kneecap for the right leg. It only had a single strap across the torso, and a single holster for a pistol.
Both of the suits looked a little bulkier than originally, and they discovered why when they opened it up. Moira had cut up their security armour and stitched some squares of the kevlar to the inside of the suit, around vital areas, such as the chest and back. Luke admired her ingenuity.
Luke smiled at Moira. "Thanks. Is there anywhere we could get changed?" He asked her, glancing towards the security guard in the corner, he hadn't seemed to have moved at all since the previous day.
"Sure! There are a couple of booths in the back. I let customers use them to try before they buy." She grinned, pointing towards the booths in question. They both walked over to and entered the booths.
Luke found the suit to be quite comfortable once he was wearing it, though a little tighter than he was used too, he certainly felt safer for wearing it.
After a few minutes, he tentatively drew back the stained red curtain of the booth sand stepped outside, Matthew was already wearing his and standing next to Moira, eating some kind of fruit.
"I got us breakfast." He said as Luke approached. "Crunchy Mutfruit."
Moira offered him a piece of the fruit. Luke eyed it suspiciously, before taking it in his hand. It looked kind of like an apple, except it was purple and wrinkled, with orange splotches in places. Luke had never eaten an apple before, he had only seen pictures in the vault, but he knew that this was not what an apple was supposed to look like.
He took a bite. It was sweet and sour at the same time.
"The orange is sweet, the purple is sour." Moira chirped. Luke nodded grimly and took another bite.
As they left the store, Moira called out, "Try not to die!" It was unsettling, her happy-go-lucky attitude, though Luke assumed she meant well.
"Why did you say that?" He asked Matthew as they approached the entrance to the town.
"Say what? The foreword thing? It was just a bit of fun." He laughed.
"It's cruel. She's clearly..."
"Insane?" He asked as they began their descent down a ramp.
"Confused." He corrected.
"Maybe, but she's happy, and she seems to believe that the sun is a lightbulb. So what's the harm?"
"You're making her seem like an idiot."
"I think she is an idiot. But she's a smart idiot. She's writing a book, after all: the Wasteland Survival Guide." He said it in a slightly mocking tone.
Luke was about to respond when the gates of Megaton began to screech open, preventing him from speaking. As they left the town, Matthew opened the duffle bag and pulled out a rifle.
"Where'd you get that?" Luke asked, all thoughts of Moira having left his mind.
"Springvale." He said, simply. "I got it yesterday. Got a little ammo too." He shouldered the bag again, pulling it tightly across his chest and continued walking. He stopped after a few steps.
"No." He said. "What am I doing?" He dropped the duffle bag and opened it up. "You can help carry this crap." He grabbed the spare jumpsuits and threw them at Luke, who failed to catch them.
Luke kneeled down and began picking them up out of the dirt. He opened up his back pack and began neatly folding them and placing them inside. A red baseball cap landed by the backpack, Luke wiped the dirt off and threw it on his head, closing the pack and throwing it over his shoulders once more.
"So what are you carrying now?" Luke asked, suspiciously.
"Nothing." He said, without looking, comtinuing along the path towards Springvale. "Just my clean underwear."
"So why am I carrying all this? And where is my underwear?"
Matthew looked back. "I'm carrying those too, we'll have to sort it all later: I don't want to wear your clothes. And I'm going to carry the food and medicine we bring back from the Super Duper Mart."
When they reached Springvale, they started heading east, towards their destination. Matthew looked jumpy, he held his rifle at the ready. It made Luke nervous, so he drew his pistol, preparing to fire.
They continued along the road, saying nothing. However, it was not silent, the sound of the wind rustling the brown grass was prevalent. Luke enjoyed the feeling of the wind, it felt nice on his skin and helped him to keep cool in the warm sun. As he walked along the road, by his brother's side, he felt a strange feeling: he was content, almost happy.
Matthew was troubled. He had started to think about Silver and that couple who he had killed yesterday. He wondered what had happened to the woman he stabbed, whether anybody had found her, whether anybody had helped her. He briefly considered turning back and investigating, but decided against it; even if she wasn't dead (and she probably was) then she almost certainly wouldn't have remained at the house. Besides, going to Silver's house meant that Luke would find out what had happened, and he'd likely find out about them not having been born in the Vault. Matthew didnt know why he hadn't told his brother - maybe he didn't fully believe it himself, that wasn't unlikely. Maybe he was protecting him? He wasn't sure.
It wasn't long until the Super Duper Mart came into view, it was a single building with a parking lot out in front. It stood alone in a sea of grey and brown. As they approached, the brothers could see a blonde haired man wearing a white shirt with a black leather jacket standing by the building, facing away from them. They readied their guns as he spotted them when they were only a few feet away.
"G-give m-me all your c-c-caps! Now!" His voice cracked at the last syllable.
The brothers looked at each other, not sure how to respond. The man walked closer and pointed a sawn-off shotgun at Luke. "I d-don't have all d-d-d-day!" He said, once again, his voice faltered.
Matthew raised his rifle towards the man. "Drop the gun."
The man looked concerned, but maintained his composure. "Give me the caps!"
The three remained still for several tense moments. It looked as if the impasse would continue indefinitely when the trio heard shouts coming from the front of the building.
Matthew looked past the would-be highwayman and spotted a group of people, six of them, running out of the building, brandishing various weapons and wearing metal made of scrap. They shouted threats and obscenities and began charging at them when they saw the stand off.
For a moment, the blonde man was distracted, he turned his head and shouted, "Raiders!" Luke grabbed the man's gun and shoved him to the ground, he fell onto his back with a grunt.
Luke aimed the shotgun at the approaching people and fired. He released a sound which, to Matthew, sounded like both a sigh of relief and a growl of frustration when the gun released nothing but an impotent click. Luke dropped the gun and drew his pistol, firing three shots at the raiders. One of them fell to the ground.
Matthew aimed for the group and fired, achieving nothing. He struggled to pull back the bolt, unfamiliar with the mechanism, before firing again. The third shot came more quickly than the second; another raider collapsed.
Matthew and Luke turned and ran away a few meters, before turning and firing again. Both of their bullets struck a woman in the chest, killing her. The raiders continued charging, heedless of their fallen comrades, they completely ignored the blonde man, who still lay in the dirt.
Matthew flinched as he felt a bullet whiz by his head, he leapt to the side as more shots landed at his feet. One of the raiders had pulled out a pistol, just like the one Silver had used, and was firing it wildly, with little concern for accuracy.
A man with a purple mohawk wielding a rusty kitchen knife approached Matthew. "I'm gonna fuck you up, kid!"
Matthew raised his rifle as the knife swung down at him, it bit into and embedded itself within the wood. Matthew drew back and tried to shoot the man, but he missed, the bullet thudding into the dirt behind him.
"Hahaha!" Mohawk cackled as he swung his fist at Matthew, it connected and he was sent staggering backwards.
He came at him again, Matthew wasn't willing to take another punch, he simply drew his knife, featuring dried blood from the day before, and allowed the man to impale himself as he came close. Blood spurted out of the wound in his stomach, covering Matthew' hand in the hot liquid. Mohawk looked into his eyes as he died, a look of pain and fear within them. Matthew lowered the man to the ground and pulled out the knife. He saw Luke standing nearby, having just emptied a magazine into the fifth raider.
They both froze as they saw the one remaining raider, pistol in her hands, wicked smile on her face. "You're gonna die now, kids." Her laugh was cut short by the rock impacting against the back of her head. She fell forwards, revealing the blonde man, bloody rock in hand, standing behind her.
Luke quickly reloaded his pistol and aimed at the man, Matthew followed suit, knife still embedded in the rifle.
The man looked scared. "Look, I... I'm sorry for threatening you, alright?"
"It wasn't very threatening, your gun wasn't even loaded." Luke said.
"I- I know, okay? Give me a break, I haven't eaten in days." He said, dropping the rock at his feet.
"Who are you?" Matthew asked.
"M-my name's Mel. Used to be a m-m-mercenary, but they k-k-k-kicked me out."
"C-c-can't imagine why." Matthew said, chuckling to himself. Luke cast him a disapproving glare, Matthew shrugged in response.
"Look, Mel..." Luke said, lowering the pistol. "We... We're going into the Super Duper Mart, there should be some food in there. So... If you want... You could tag along, I guess."
Matthew shot his brother an angry look and marched over to him, speaking in a hushed tone. "Did you forget that he just tried to rob and kill us?"
"He tried, Matthew. But he couldn't have succeeded, not without bullets." He looked at Mel, who was simply standing there, staring at them. He turned his attention back to Matthew, looking him in the eyes. "Come on. Show some compassion."
"For god's sake..." Matthew said. "Alright," he looked at Mel, "come along with us."
Mel smiled, "Thanks!"
"First though," Matthew said, pulling the knife out of his rifle and throwing it to the ground, "pick up her gun, take her ammo and reload it." Mel complied with the order, it took him a few seconds, but he was clearly quite competent with firearms. "Alright then, you go on first." He pointed to the building. Reluctantly, Mel ambled towards the building, the brothers following closely.
They stopped when they reached the front of the building, Matthew averted his eyes. There were dead, mutilated bodies lining the front of the building, hanging from hooks and chains, displayed in horrific poses for the world to see.
"What's wrong with these people?" Luke asked, Matthew couldn't provide an answer.
"They're raiders." Mel said simply, seemingly not phased by the bodies. "Savages." He added.
Matthew nodded and followed Mel I into the building, avoiding looking at the corpses.
It was dark inside the building, with only limited lighting: flickering and dim. The store was mostly a single, large room, filled with shelves, all of which were picked clean and decrepit.
The trio shuffled forwards, weapons readied, and ducked behind a checkout station and surveyed the room.
"Can't see anything in this dark." Luke whispered.
"I can se r-raiders." Mel said, peeking out over a cash register. "They're walking around on top of the shelves.
"How many?" Matthew asked, preparing the rifle.
"At least four of them on the walkways." He said, his voice was firm and more confident in here. "P-probably more deeper in."
Matthew nodded and aimed down his sights.
"Wait!" Mel said in a loud whisper. "We should spread out, hit them from m-m-multiple directions. It'll confuse 'em, keep 'em wondering." He directed his gaze to the floor when he stopped speaking, refusing eyes contact.
"Good idea, Mel." Luke said, tapping him on the shoulder before he dashed to the right, towards a counter which he vaulted over and disappeared behind.
Matthew moved to the left down the aisle of checkout points and crouched behind a cash register, rifle resting in the top. He looked down the sights and took aim at a figure in the darkness. It was walking, slowly, along the shelf. Matthew waited until he began walking towards him before he fired.
The shot rang out throughout the massive room, echoing across the walls. The raider fell, his armour clanging as he fell from the shelf into the hard floor. For a few precious moments, all was silent. Then, screams and shouts of primal fury rang out from the other side of the building. Curses and maniacal laughter followed shortly afterwards.
Matthew watched the raiders run down the aisle towards him, there were four of them. 'Fuck,' he thought to himself as he fired a shot at them, seemingly not hitting anything. He knew he only had three shots left. But had four enemies coming at him. 'Thank god for sidearms,' he smirked.
Luke popped his head up over the counter as he saw two raiders thundering across the room, towards him. He fired three shots in their direction, putting one of them down and forcing the other to take cover. Just as Luke was about to take another shot at him, several bullets impacted against the counter, making him drop down again. He remained behind the counter, waiting for the bullets to stop coming.
"I've got you now!" One of the raiders leapt over Luke's cover, golf club in hand. He faced Luke, a furious grin etched upon his face. The expression was wiped away as bullets impacted into the man's face and neck. Mel leapt over the counter, his shoulder ramming the already dead-on-his-feet raider, sending him to the floor. Mel spun on his heel and fired twice more to where he had just came from, before ducking behind the counter and fumbling with his ammunition. Luke quickly stood and fired at where Mel had, dropping a raider with a rifle.
"That was amazing, Mel." He said as he ducked back down. Mel merely smiled and continued reloading his .32 pistol.
Luke heard feet slamming upon the floor behind him, he stood up and fired, bullets impacting the approaching raider in the torso. He kept coming for a few feet before collapsing and sliding across the smooth floor.
The vault dweller began to reload his pistol from the safety of cover, while Mel began firing at any enemies in sight. "This damn peashooter," he cursed as he ran out of ammo again, "it doesn't have enough range or stopping power." Luke ignored him and began firing again, hitting nothing.
They took it in turns, one of them firing while the other reloaded, and eventually the raiders stopped coming. Luke guessed that he had expended about twenty rounds during the firefight, which made him dangerously low on ammo.
"I really can't imagine why those mercenaries kicked you out, Mel." Luke said, breathing heavily.
Mel simply smiled.
The building was silent except for the occasional groan emanating from the shelves and aisles. Matthew had just killed the last of the raiders coming at him with three 10mm rounds to the chest. He waited for a few moments before reloading his rifle and moving towards the counter where he knew Luke was located.
As he approached, Luke and Mel popped up and trained their pistols on him, he raised his hands and they relaxed.
"I think that's all of them." Matthew said as he approached the counter, still slouching slightly.
"Probably." Mel said. "I-I mean, if it wasn't, we'd know it."
Luke stood up straight. "We should look for the food and medicine now."
"D-d-don't forget to loot the bodies and search for ammo." Mel said as he pulled up a box from behind the counter, it was metal and rusted, green paint coming off in flecks. He opened it up amd looked inside. "Take this box, p-put any ammo you find inside. A lot of people just take the ammo and leave the box, but the boxes save space and keep it organised." He shifted his eyes away from them as they listened, his confidence fading again. Luke took the ammo box from him.
"Okay, let's get to work." Matthew said, wandering off into the aisles, rifle at the ready.
Luke decided to follow him and leave Mel to deal with that corner of the store. Matthew checked all the bodies along the way, tossing their guns and anything else which looked useful into the duffle bag, while handing the ammo to Luke.
Luke avoided touching the corpses, pretending to search the shelves for food instead. This irritated Matthew, but he didn't bring it up. The shelves were all empty, seemingly having been long cleared out, there was nothing but empty glass bottles and tin cans left.
However, at the opposite end of the store from where they entered, they found a refrigerator, which Luke pried open. Inside was a lot of food; sealed tin cans and boxes of dehydrated foodstuff. Luke called Matthew over and shoved some of the food into the bag, though he left most of it where it was.
"Why leave it here?" Matthew asked.
"We don't really need it all, someone else could stumble upon it, and they may need it more."
"Or they could be raiders, who'll just hang their victims from hooks on the walls and stuff their faces with..." He grabbed a box from the duffle bag, reading the label, "sugar bombs." He tossed the box back into the bag.
"Maybe, but we can't carry it all anyway, this way leaves more room for guns and medicine."
Matthew grunted and walked away, leaving Luke visibly pleased with himself for winning the brief argument.
Matthew continued gathering the ammunition and weapons while Luke hovered over him, pretending to search for medicine. Matthew suspected that the raiders wouldn't leave their medicine lying around on the shelves, if they had any at all, and that Luke just didnt want to go through a dead person's possessions. He couldn't blame him.
Eventually, they came across a section of the store which was the pharmacy. They hopped over the waist high counter which enclosed it and investigated the area. In the back was a door which had a computer next to it, along the counter were a few metal crates and ammo boxes. Luke set about looting them while Matthew tried the door. It was locked, so he investigated the terminal.
After a few minutes, Luke had cleared the section of all useful items, including two strange pistols, which he pondered for a few moments before gently placing into the bag. The guns were very square as all of their bends were at right angles, they looked a little worse for wear too, with wires sticking out from beneath duct tape. Still, they looked like they may have been valuable. Luke guessed they were some sort of energy weapons, perhaps meant to deliver an electric shock. He didn't try the weapons out, however.
When he was done, he wandered over to stand behind Matthew, who had just finished hacking the computer.
"What was the password?" He asked him.
"Password." He replied, chuckling. "It was surprisingly difficult to crack."
He tapped a few keys, navigating through the terminal before standing up and switching the machine off. "Done." He said as he walked over to the door, it opened with a small squeak.
Inside, there were a lot of shelves, loaded with empty boxes and bottles. Matthew walked over to a medical cabinet hanging on the wall, he opened it and emptied the contents into the duffle bag, not paying much attention to what was in it.
Meanwhile, Luke meandered over towards a large cylindrical canister with a glass front. Inside was a robot, it resembled the one which stood outside Megaton. He admired the metal man for a few moments, wondering if he still functioned, and was startled when the canister opened up with a hiss. He reached for his gun, only to see Matthew standing over a terminal to the left of the machine, typing something.
"You could have warned me..." Luke grumbled. The robot stumbled out of its pot, rambling about its protocols. It eventually left the room, going out into the rest of the store.
Then, another thing caught Luke's eye. It was a small object which looked rather like the bomb in the centre of Megaton. It was green and yellow, with radiation warning signs painted on the sides. He picked it up, it was pretty heavy. He placed it into his back pack, not wanting to overly weigh his brother down.
"Catch!" Said brother called out. Luke turned and saw something flying towards him, he jumped out of the way. The object landed on the floor and shattered, spilling its liquid across the floor.
"I said 'catch,' Luke, not dodge." He held a bottle of Nuka Cola in one hand, a bottle opener in the other. He sipped the drink. "It's warm, but not too bad."
"It's two hundred years old!" Luke cried.
"So? The vault's stuff is just as old. You think they make it down there? Anyway, this stuff doesn't go bad. The radioactive isotopes kill most microbes and stuff which find their way inside, I think." He picked up another bottle from the shelf and tossed it at Luke, who caught it this time. "Found a weird bottle - it glows." He showed it to Luke, who shrugged in response. He took the bottle and slid it into his back pack amongst the jumpsuits, hooping it would be cushioned by them.
Luke opened his bottle of Nuka-Cola, hoping to refresh himself and enjoy the fruity taste. He never got the chance. He dropped the bottle, shattering it, as he heard the sound of gunfire coming from the main room.
