Shadows Of The Great War, Part 3: Not The Hero They Wanted
By C. Mage
.
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Yeah, I know what you're thinking. If this was really a comicbook, I'd be welcomed into town, people cheering, attractive women throwing themselves at me, presenting me with the key to the city, all that drek.
This was no comicbook.
As soon as I walked into the town proper, I had so many dirty looks aimed in my direction, I felt like the guy who introduced the Black Plague to the Dark Ages. The woman and the little girl were pulled away and replaced by a crowd of people yelling at me….cautiously, of course, I was still 7'2" of war machine and enough people had seen the fight to know not to try and lynch me.
From the yelling, I got the general gist of the reason why. The guys I'd taken out were part of a much larger gang, and they pretty much owned every small settlement in Acadiana, except for Red Stick and Nawlins, and not for lack of trying. Every other gang that tried to move in either got killed off or were absorbed into this gang, led by a real piece of work known as "Sledge". I would've commented on how dumb that name sounded, except my handle's "Sleeper", so it's not like I got room to talk. They were afraid of retribution by this gang, and they didn't have the kind of firepower to defend themselves from Sledge.
Instead of making things better….I made them worse.
The crowd dispersed, leaving me there at the gates, all their thoughts turned to what they were going to do next. I walked over to a pile of rubble and sat down. Dammit, Sleeper, this is what you get for jumping in without knowing the score. You could've just waited for them to get a fair distance away. At least with that, there was a chance of deniability. Now these people are in it.
So much for being the Good Guy. This was all my fault.
I stopped and sat up slightly. "This is my fault," I considered aloud, "so that makes it my FIGHT." I plugged myself into the cyberdeck, finding myself in the castle dining room once again. "Olly olly oxen free," I called out, and the next thing I knew, the gang was back in town, all looking at me expectantly. "Okay, boys and girls, I know you've made contact with other satellites. I need intel, unless you've got a satellite up there capable of orbital bombardment."
"Sorry. There's a Helios One Satellite up there, but the control center is in the Mojave Desert."
"Can you hack it?"
Sleeper-12 shook his head. "Running diagnostics right now to see if the satellite can even be made operational first."
"What can you give me on live feeds from the ground?"
Ariel cocked her head slightly, then said, "Two hours. Tasking a Chinese spy satellite or two."
I nodded. Let me know when you get any people's voices from the bug I put on our messenger's neck. I want to know where he is...before I deliver my message. I gotta go….I got a mess to clean up."
I jacked out to see three men dressed in armored clothing, but nothing as subtle as mine. "The Mayor wants to see you. Now."
"Got it." I stood up. "Let's get this over with."
As we got closer to the Mayor's office, I had the chance to look around at the settlement. Cajuntown was made up of three areas, the Cajundome itself, the convention center next door, and the sports fields, baseball and football. The Cajundome was the marketplace. Everything that could be bought was sold and stored there; food, supplies, guns, armor, medicine, you name it. The Convention Center was the residential district, mostly, with some areas for bars and the "red-light district", where the joygirls and joyboys plied their trades. The sports fields were where the farming and livestock were kept, and all the space that could be used was used for growing food. Didn't recognize some of the food there, but the livestock were mostly cows with two heads.
I was getting hungry just looking at them.
We walked past others, giving me equal measures of fear and anger in their facial expressions. I tried not to let it show, but I was angry, too. Angry at myself, at those raiders, angry at the people who hated me for doing the right thing. I had to fix this...and I knew there was only one way how.
The doors opened to the conference room, where three people sat at one end of a long table, the wood faded and cracked in some places. Everything here looked its age; there was nothing I'd seen so far that was brand-new under any circumstances. The clothes, too, were patched, faded, sewn together roughly.
Everything except me.
"I am Mayor LaChance. These are my aides. Have a seat, Mister…." The woman at the far end of the table asked. She was in her forties, I figured, but the eyes told me clearly that it wasn't the years that made her old, bust what happened during those years.
"Just call me, 'Stephen'." I sat down, the chair creaking under my weight.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? You have likely killed us all."
"Funny. I thought I was rescuing children from a fate worse than death."
"It's not that simple, Stephen." Mayor LaChance sighed. "I'm sure you believed you were doing the right thing, but I have my people to think about. I can't afford to have the Gators come in and destroy this town and do God-knows-what to them."
"So you're just going to send out your children as sacrificial lambs instead? Have any of those children ever returned?" CALM, Sleeper, calm down…!
"That's not the point. The point is, this town lives on for another month, giving us time. Time we need to look for better alternatives." She looked at me. "I can tell how badly you want revenge, Stephen, and it's clear that this troubles you. But if you can't accept this, then I don't want you here. I want you gone. If you want the gear and belongings of the Gators you killed, then they're yours, but you can't trade them for caps here."
"And if I have caps to spend already?"
"Then I'll give you two hours to spend them. After that, I want you gone. I don't think you're the kind of man who'd take retribution on us for this decision...are you?"
I gave her a hard look. "No. I'm not." I got to my feet. "Anything else you have to say?"
"I didn't come by this decision lightly, Stephen. I hope you can understand why I made it. After all, Stephen, what can you possibly do against the Gators? You're only one man."
"That's all right." I stood up and picked up my pack. "There's only one GANG." I turned and left the room. She was right; I did understand her position. I understood why she made it. But what I am going to do next, I'm not doing it for her. I'm doing it for that mother and child.
The rest of them can all just frag themselves.
I got more than a few looks as I walked into the marketplace. I needed only two things..
Guns. Lots of ammunition.
The first stall I went to was run by a young Korean man, and there were plenty of arms behind him, but most of them were too small. He looked up at me as I towered over him. "You him? You the 'Sleeper' I been hearing about?"
"Yeah," I said cautiously, wondering if he was going to close up his shop to me.
He nodded. "They took my little girl last month. If I sell to you, what are you going to do about the Gators."
The answer came easy. "I'm going to make sure they never do that to anyone else ever again."
He smiled. "I'm Kim. Anything that shoots, I have or can get."
"What can I get for about four hundred caps?" I put the bag on the counter.
Kim looked them over. "You the long-range type, the close-quarters silent type, or the spray-and-pray type?"
"Close quarters and silent."
He took out a gun, a Walther P99. "Ten-mil rounds. Most common type of ammo. Comes with a silencer. Nice and precise. Got some spare parts for it and plenty of ammunition."
"Give me the gun, the spare parts and all the bullets the caps I got will buy."
Kim nodded. "You going after the Gators?"
"And THEN some."
"With a pistol? You're crazier than I thought. But what the hell, after what I saw you do outside the gate, you might be able to take a lot of them down before they tear you apart."
I checked over the pistol. Not smartlinked, but I could work with it. I just had to be smart. "They're that scary, huh?"
"They're devils from the pits of Hell. Their leader calls himself 'Sledge' but he'd be better off calling himself 'Satan'." He looked up at me as I handed him the caps. "You're going to die out there, you know that?"
I smiled down at him, my eyes glowing red faintly. "Didn't work the first few times." I turned and walked towards the gates while Kim's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. Alright. I had a halfway decent pistol and a hundred rounds of ammo. "Ariel, has the messenger arrived yet?"
"*Not yet, but he will be arriving soon. Unless the LSU campus has a geothermal tap, I've located the gang's hideout. I'm reading...at least three hundred people at that location.*"
I couldn't help but smile. "Sounds like a party to me. Okay. Once the message gets delivered, they're likely going to go through the same route our messenger did to get back here. They got any vehicles?"
"*Not even a motorized scooter.*"
"Good." I reached the gate by that point, and the guards were looking at me expectantly. Probably waiting for me to chicken out at the last second. I resisted the urge to laugh or smile as they opened the gates slowly. They were taking this seriously, and it wasn't right to make fun of that, even though they probably thought I was going to snap and take over the place myself. Who could blame them? They let fear get the better of them.
Not me. Not today.
Those fraggers were never going to know what hit them.
I looted the bodies on my way out, taking everything that wasn't nailed down or on fire. I took the bodies, too, dragging them to the hills overlooking the Cajundome, then went back and got rid of the drag marks and bloodstains by kicking dirt over them. By the time I was done, the place looked pristine once more. It was starting to get dark and I had just enough time to deal with the bodies and start field-stripping the P99 before I needed vision enhancement to see what I was doing.
It was nearly seven at night when Sleeper-12 nudged me. "*Showtime, sailor,*" he said dryly. I tuned my commlink to the frequency for the bandaid on our messenger's neck.
He was being taken to the big guy. Sledge. I started recording as the flunky was brought in front of his lord and master. I couldn't help but feel gratified as he proved me right about how my use of theatrics made me sound like something supernatural. I waited for a three-count after he finished telling Sledge what I told him to say...and then I activated the explosive on his neck, making it look like I just reached out and snatched the life right out of him.
Message delivered.
I stopped the countdown. Just over thirteen hours. I know he did a lot of running, and Sledge won't want his people tired by the time he brought them to the city. Figure he'll plan on the way, start off first thing in the morning, and be at the Cajundome a day later.
I finished cleaning and fixing the P99, loading up the clips and testing a few shots. Recoil was negligible. I figured I'd carry the SCK as backup, at least until I'd confiscated better weapons. Then the real work began.
I checked the map of the area between here and LSU. I found three locations I could get to before the raiders could...which meant that I could start my psychwar early.
Which meant that I could finally do something with all these body parts in these plastic bags…
SLEDGE
We started out in the morning, the toughest and meanest members walking with me. My soldiers. My ARMY. As I was carried on my litter, a fresh Fusion Core in my armor and my minigun and ammunition at my side, I looked proudly over the men and women that would kill and die for me.
Almost made me wish those people might manage to kill one or two of them, for the glory of dying in my name.
But this Dark Man Ripper told me about...who was he? Refugee from the NCR? Security officer from some Vault I haven't plundered yet? It didn't matter. This Dark Man will be so much less impressive when his head is adorning a spike in my palace.
And then EVERYONE will know who owns this land. Hope cannot be allowed to FESTER in my kingdom. People will start thinking that disobedience is permitted here.
The army moves slow, but I am patient. Let the insects at the Cajundome spend that time being afraid of what I will do to them, steep in their fear...like gumbo cooking. The feast will be so much more satisfying the longer it takes to simmer.
We stop for the night at the halfway mark, at the Super Duper Mart. I have people stationed her to keep the place free of ghouls and radroaches. They've been given orders not to reveal themselves openly, so any scavengers or other desperate people will be able to walk in, expecting leftovers...and find themselves providing some entertainment for my men. "Go in there and tell them to get water for us," I tell Toady. The little lickspittle is good for running errands and chores, and I trust him well, because I know how broken he is.
"Yes, my lord!" He runs off and goes inside as we set up camp. As I settle in, I watch him come out of the Super Duper Mart.
Backing out slowly.
I frown. "TOADY! What are you doing?"
At the sound of my voice, he runs back almost twice as fast as he left. "M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m…!" he stuttered, but couldn't say more than that. I stood up and walked over to the Super Duper Mart, shoving the door open and going inside.
Twenty pairs of eyes looked back at me.
The heads of the people I sent with Ripper and the heads of the men I stationed here were looking back at me, each one stuck on a pole. Their bodies were nowhere to be seen, but everywhere I looked, I saw the words, "DARK MAN" painted on the walls, the floor and the ceiling, in large letters. Dark red letters.
As I looked up, I felt a drop hit my face. I wiped it off with a finger and tasted it.
Blood.
Fresh blood.
I gazed up at the horror of this and I was forced to admit...this was certainly impressive. For a lesser mind, this would certainly inspire dread, fear and terror. But gods do not yield to such base emotions. Still, it would not do to allow the others to see this. They would be distracted, to say the least.
There's only one being here allowed to cause them fear.
I doused the remains with turpentine and set it ablaze to erase the evidence. I would have to kill Toady, of course. His life is not worth the blow to morale, and I do not trust him to keep his mouth shut.
I sighed. Good help is so hard to find.
As I walked outside, it appeared to me that Toady's fear of what he saw was stronger than his fear of me. I felt insulted. He would have to die painfully, now, but that might prove difficult. Word was out about the carnage inside, fueled even more by Toady's imagination as he said the Dark Man spoke to him, telling him that everyone who moved against the town would die. I wanted to flay him for that, but he had run off into the night, screaming. Now my men were looking to me.
"Pay no mind to him," I said confidently. "The guards were visited by Super-Mutants, and though your brothers and sisters prevailed, it was not without great sacrifice. They gave their lives so we would not be waylaid by those green-skinned monsters. Don't be afraid...be proud of their willingness to stay at their posts against incredible odds!" I raised my fist high. "For the glory of the Gators! For the glory of Sledge!"
As the cheer went up, I added, "Let this place be their funeral pyre, to commemorate their victory!" I smiled as they lapped it up like thirsty dogs. I remember reading a book, the memoirs of someone important, who said, "A death in the right place is all it takes."
So true.
Unfortunately, this only solves the most immediate concern. Who is this "Dark Man"? How was he able to kill those men so efficiently, without being killed himself? Was he a monster? A Super-Mutant? Something else?
It won't matter. I've killed deathclaws, gatorclaws, feral ghouls and Super-Mutants. I'll find him, tear his heart out of his chest and eat it in front of him...RAW.
SLEEPER
I guess people brought up in this place don't scare so easy. That's all right Time to go to Phase 2.
I waited until the bulk of the raiders went to sleep, then I went to work, moving in silent and invisible. With the tracheal mods, it was easy to "throw my voice" at them, using the voice modulator to send sounds of creepy whispers, fake sounds of cries and moans, words warning them not to go to the Cajundome or they would all die. I spent almost all night doing that, and it was worth every second. I did take some time out to take in one of the sights: their improvised "armory", currently attended to by four women, cleaning and maintaining the weapons kept there, including what appeared to be a minigun. Not exactly the Vindicator, but that one could be trouble. I waited until they took a break, then moved in and looked over the minigun. Nasty piece of hardware, with spikes and barbed wire strategically placed to make this monster as fearsome as possible.
I grinned. Monsters can be de-fanged. I did some work on that weapon, as well as some of the heavier weapons in their arsenal, then went to work on more nightmare fuel.
As a last piece of mind-fragging, I let everything go quiet...and then I cycled the tracheal mods all the way up and cut loose with a recording of a roar from a Godzilla movie from 2038 AD, played at decibel-levels reserved for panzer engines at full throttle.
THAT'LL wake the neighbors.
The massive sound reverberated through the camp like an audio avalanche, making everyone jump or fall out of bed in varying degrees of shock and terror. I didn't wait around to see the effects, I had work to do.
Phase 3.
SLEDGE
(THE MONSTER IS COMING THE MONSTER IS COMING THE MONSTER IS HERE)
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I sit up, then stand up and look around quickly. as the sound that woke me out of a sound sleep echoed briefly, then was gone. I hated myself for showing such weakness at first, then I was calmed and angry at the same time to find out I wouldn't need to worry.
Everyone else was too startled to have noticed.
I composed myself and strode about, kicking people aside. "CALM YOURSELVES, YOU ANIMALS! WHAT ARE YOU, CHILDREN, ONE STUPID SOUND REDUCING YOU TO QUIVERING LUMPS OF JELLY?! ON YOUR FEET, YOU SLUGS! SEND THE WORD OUT! WE MARCH ON THE CAJUNDOME NOW!" The more I bellowed, the better I felt.
I went back to the tent to get ready. Doubt and fear was in the camp, like a festering disease, transmitted by word-of-mouth. This sickness would have to be cut out of them all,, and there was only one way to do that.
It would need to be burned out of them...starting with the carrier of this disease.
The Dark Man.
SLEEPER.
Things weren't exactly going according to plan.
This Sledge fragger wasn't a pushover and he didn't scare easily. What's more, he was a whole lot smarter than expected. I underestimated his intelligence, thought he was just another thug with power and charisma. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he either possessed of a greater animal cunning...or he was educated.
That meant he knew what he was doing was wrong and did it anyways. Now I hated the motherfragger even more.
Fear wasn't doing enough of a job. It was clear that I was going to have to try the direct approach. I'd feel bad about doing that if I was the type who didn't like the direct approach.
All right, drekhead. High noon it is.
SLEDGE
We walked out onto the plain from the treeline. The city was in sight, and I advised my lieutenants to march out at half-speed. Onlookers from the city would see us emerging, more and more coming forth. This "Dark Man" wasn't the only person who knew how to cultivate fear.
I called for my weapon and took hold of it, feeling the comfortable weight, easily supported by my powered armor. I waited for the full assembly to move in behind me, let the sheep inside the town know what they were in for...then I called for the megaphone so I could address them properly, as a deity should, with thunder and fire.
Before I had the chance, there was that sound again. that monster's roar from my nightmare...and I turned to my left to see a lone figure, standing less than a hundred yards away. Even though I had never seen him before, I recognized him from the blackness of his clothing, his height...and his eyes.
His glowing red eyes.
Somehow, it seemed only fitting. Every god has a devil. This one was mine. I turned to the figure and called out, "WELL, WELL...SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE APPEARS. ARE YOU DONE SKULKING ABOUT IN THE DARKNESS?"
The voice that came back to me was equally loud...but more like a deep growl than an actual voice. He didn't even sound human. I found myself smiling in anticipation as he replied, "I'M NOT THE DEVIL AREN'T HERE, FRAGGER. YOU KNOW, FOR A WHILE, I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE AN ATTACK OF COMMON SENSE AND NOT SHOW UP. BUT I GUESS IT'S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY, THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS INFINITE IN THE UNIVERSE...THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE STUPIDITY OF MAN."
"YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A BRASH, RECKLESS FOOL YOU NOW FACE A GOD, AND HERE I HAVE THREE HUNDRED MEN THAT WORSHIP ME. THEIR ONLY DESIRE, THEIR ONLY PURPOSE, IS TO DIE FOR ME."
"THEY'RE ABOUT TO GET THEIR WISH...BUT THEN, YOU ALWAYS HAVE YOUR DEVOTED FOLLOWERS DO YOUR DIRTY WORK, DON'T YOU? ALWAYS HAVING THEM TRY TO DO WHAT YOU CAN'T."
I'd had enough of this wretched creature. In less than a week, this one worm has made my life difficult. No more. I brought up my weapon and aimed it at him. "ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME, MORTAL? DO YOU HAVE ANY COMPREHENSION OF WHAT I AM?"
"YEAH. WHAT YOU ARE IS BORING ME TO TEARS. TIME TO FISH OR CUT BAIT, SLEDGE. FACE ME...IF YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT THE STONES."
I immediately turned to my seconds. "Stay back...this one is MINE! If I find out anyone else has shot at him, I'll make what I'm about to do to this Dark Man seem like a lazy Sunday afternoon." I checked the power level on my armor. The charge on the fusion core was at 73%. I had over two hundred rounds of ammunition. And I had the drop on him.
Here I come, Mr. Dead Man.
I ran at him as fast as I could go.
SLEEPER
Here he comes...running forward and carrying that minigun like there's nothing in the world that can stop him.. I can see the barrels spinning and I couldn't help but think how much trouble that minigun would be...if I hadn't removed the firing pin earlier this morning.
I move in on him and get close enough to see the frustration on his face. I haven't drawn my guns yet, want to see if he'll…
Yep, coming at me and dumping the useless weapon. I can hear his footfalls in that suit of armor he's wearing. Pretty heavy-duty stuff. Probably increases strength and stamina, and protects him from serious damage.
I can't WAIT.
SLEDGE
USELESS WEAPON! Of all the times for it to fail...no matter. It'll be much more satisfying to tear his limbs off. All I need to do is get my hands on him, and he's coming straight at me with no weapons. Is he simply insane, or is he just simple?
Doesn't matter. In seconds, he'll be neither.
I reach for him as he gets close enough for me to grab, but I miss at first. He makes no effort to dodge away, so I grab for him again….and again….and again! This is infuriating, it's like trying to grab smoke! I see him off to a side and grab once more but he's to my left! "HOLD….STILL…!"
"TELL ME, UGLY, HAS THAT REQUEST EVER WORKED?" His voice is still that unearthly growl, but I refuse to allow myself to be unsettled. "ONE LAST WARNING, LAUGHING BOY: ANYTHING YOU THROW AT ME, YOU'RE GONNA LOSE."
"DO YOU THINK I AM AFRAID OF YOU?!" I tire of this game and decide it's time to go back to basics, turning and throwing a power-armored punch straight at him. I felt the impact and smiled. I'd finally managed to hit…
My eyes betrayed me. They're making sport of me. A mistake. A fluke. This CAN'T be!
I stopped as I realized that this Dark Man had….CAUGHT my punch. He had both hands around my fist. It tried to draw my fist back and met resistance. I pulled back again, but the arm wouldn't move!
"I WARNED YOU.. YOU'RE NOT GETTING THIS BACK."
I fell back as he heaved and twisted, and the armored hand came cleanly off, the gauntlet's interior nearly shredding my hand in the process! I moved two steps back as he looked at the piece of armor, then dropped it to the ground. "Who….who ARE you?" I demanded, giving myself time to go for my backup weapon, a fragmentation grenade. The armor will protect me, but it'll rip HIM apart.
"I'VE DONE ALL THE TALKING I WANT TO DO WITH YOU. THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT FOR YOU...ALL I HAVE LEFT FOR YOU IS A PROMISE THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN PAIN FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. BUT DON'T WORRY…" He looked into my eyes, his eyes glowing blood red. "...I'LL MAKE THE PAIN LAST ONLY A FEW MOMENTS."
"What a terrible set of last words." I pull the pin and throw it at him, then turn to let my armor take the brunt of the explosion. I can always fix it later, and he won't be...wait. Why wasn't there an explosion?
I turned back to see HIM holding the grenade...but the igniter is in the other hand, a trail of smoke coming from it. But that...that would mean he broke the igniter off in less than the second it would've taken to set the grenade off! The sweat on my flesh is cold and I feel a strange sensation at the base of my spine as he drops the two pieces of the grenade. His face is no longer calm and composed. There is a look of such anger and hatred growing on his face that, for one brief second, I am overcome with a strong urge to surrender, and then the chance is lost as he comes at me fast, so FAST, and he's grabbed the metal grating over my head and ripped it off as if it was nothing at all...I grab for him but he has me by the throat, and I feel him crush something in my neck, pain, the PAIN, and my lungs becoming think and I try to cough through the pain and I can't breathe and the Dark Man has pulled something from my neck, and I feel heat then cold more cold…
SLEEPER
I drop what's left of Sledge's throat and look up at the rest of the raiders, shaking the blood from my glove and letting them see what happened to their fearless leader...now their lifeless leader. I turned to face them directly, popping both cyberspurs and letting them have it with the Godzilla-roar again.
That got their attention. They watched me as I went to the side and picked up Amanda, bringing it up , the ammunition already fed from the ammo bag I slung over my shoulder.
"ALL RIGHT," I bellowed, "WHO'S NEXT?"
And just my luck, they decided to take me up on the offer. I wasn't really surprised; their leader just became a martyr for them, so they felt honor-bound to avenge him. I understood the control he had over them, and they prospered and survived based on his actions.
Didn't change the fact that they were a group of bloodthirsty, rampaging, murdering drekheads.
At the rate of speed they were going, it would take them just over a minute to get to me. But when you're charging a man with a gun that fires twenty rounds a second, using high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, a minute can be an ETERNITY.. The plain barely had any cover, except for some derelict cars, and they figured the rusted-out vehicles would provide SOME protection. Nope. The HEAP rounds with through those cars like they were made of cardboard, I was smartlinked into the weapon, and it had been enhanced with gyro-stabilization and gas-venting mods. And I wasn't emptying the weapon; I was using short, controlled bursts.
It was about the point that they realized that more than two-thirds of their number were fish-bait did they realize that coming after me was a losing proposition at best, but they kept on coming like angry animals, still devoted to their scumbag leader.
I was doing the world a favor, really.
Finally, when there were no more than three dozen of them left, they realized how this was going to end and started screaming, begging for mercy. I felt righteous, unstoppable.
Which was why it took longer than it should have for me to realize that I was now doing to them what they were doing to the people in the Cajundome.
For drek's SAKE, Sleeper, is this what you're trying to be? The self-proclaimed Scourge of the South? Remember, chummer, it's okay for them to THINK you're a monster as long as you don't actually BECOME one. And don't use what happened to Icer, Stone and Heloquin as an excuse! SNAP OUT OF IT!
I stopped firing, feeling the shame well up in my gut, turning my stomach. "THE REST OF YOU GET TO LIVE...BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO GET BACK TO YOUR BASE AND TELL EVERYONE THERE WHAT HAPPENED HERE TODAY! THE DARK MAN HAS COME! IF I SEE ANY OF YOU DOING SO MUCH AS GIVING THIS PLACE A DIRTY LOOK, I'M GOING TO FIND YOU...AND IF I FIND YOU, NO ONE ELSE WILL EVER FIND YOU AGAIN! GOT IT?"
A cacophony of nods, mutters and enthusiastic agreement came from the ones that were left, and they took off for the treeline, back the way they came. I had a feeling they won't be giving the people here any more trouble, not for a good long time.
I lowered my weapon and watched them go. The shadowrunner in me was already thinking about what was going to happen next. With Sledge gone, word was going to get out. Not just about me, but there was now a power vacuum in this part of the country. The remaining raiders were going to be a lot more careful now. They were weakened, but that affected the people here and now. What was going to happen when the NEXT group of fraggers come along?
I sighed. That was going to have to wait. I needed to take care of the immediate concerns first.
When I knocked on the doors this time, they were only too happy to open the doors and quick. However, there weren't too many smiles. Seems I was a little too good at what I did, and a lot of these people were scared of me, too.
Great. The whole "dark anti-hero" shtick was not working out the way I thought it would.
I could hear the whispers, even though they thought I couldn't, wondering what would happen if I decided to pick up where Sledge left off. They speculated that I'd try to browbeat people into giving me discounts for all the loot I took from the bodies of the raiders. It was sickening...and I couldn't help but second-guess myself a little. Yes, I was outgunned and outmanned at the time. Yes, I had access to hardware that would more than even the odds. And yes, I enjoyed being the Dark Man to those thugs.
All it cost me was a couple hundred rounds of ammunition and the fear of an entire settlement. Not what I'd call a bargain. I was going to have to seriously reconsider how I did things here.
I unloaded what I looted for a good price, even though I had to insist that I get the same amount as another citizen here. I used my new wealth to invest in supplies, native guns and weaponry, information and medicine. Sledge was nice enough to die so I could take his minigun, but I knew the town would need it more, so I left it at the door of the mayor...after putting the firing pin back in. Ammunition, too. I just hoped they didn't decide to use it to shoot me in the back as soon as the gates closed behind me.
I was cap-wealthy, more or less, so I decided to spend some of it getting some food, leaving a healthy tip considering I was voracious by that point, and I went to get a place to sleep under a roof of some sort. I found a place called, "Dice's", where the proprietor was happy to see me, or at least my caps.
As I was listening to the motormouth tell me about all the great benefits that came with the room, I noticed there was a woman with dark brown hair checking me out, and with the way she was dressed, it didn't take much to figure out why. Looks like this world has prostitution, too, and she was definitely built for it. She was muscular enough to be strong while still being feminine, and she had the breasts for it, too. Figured she'd have to be muscular just to avoid back strain. She wore a top and a skirt that looked older than she was, in bright, garish colors, with worn high-heels and mesh pantyhose that couldn't decide whether to be trashy or just trashed.
Only one problem. Paying for sex kills any interest I might have in it. If someone wants to be with me just for the money, then I might as well date my hand. Besides, that part of me is one of the few things I didn't get enhanced. Not that I needed to; I was proportionate to a guy my size, and I had no desire to buy a cyber-dick that could also play tri-dee movies and double as a third leg.
So when she came over to me, I could see she was putting a sway in her hips. She might as well have been plunging a toilet for all that did for me. "You're the Dark Man I been hearing about."
"News travels fast," I said noncommittally.
"Want company for the night?"
"Look, I'm sure you're good at what you do, lady, but under the circumstances, all I want to do is get some sleep and leave in the morning before people start thinking about getting torches and pitchforks."
She smiled at me and said in a low, husky voice, "I promise you won't regret it, Dark Man…" She reached up to pull my head down lovingly, whispering into my ear, "I'll do ANYTHING you want. Come on. I need the caps, I'm STARVING here. Just take me up to your room, and...I'll do whatever you want."
I looked down at her, then said, "How much?"
"Hundred-fifty caps for the whole night. Anything goes."
I nodded, then turned to the concierge. "Her too."
"You sure, pal? She's just…"
"DO I LOOK LIKE THE KIND OF PERSON WHO ENJOYS REPEATING HIMSELF?" I growled.
"R-R-R-R-Room for t-t-t-t-t-two, coming r-r-r-right up!" he stammered.
We got to the room and I unlocked the door, walking in without checking to see if she walked in behind me. I put everything except for the minigun in the dresser and noted a couch, dining table with two chairs, a bed with one sheet covering it, no pillow. A weird-looking tube TV that probably hasn't shown a decent signal for two centuries.
Not the best place I've slept in, but nowhere near the worst.
I'd taken off my hat when I saw the girl looking over at me from the door like I was one of those gator-things. I sighed. "What's your name, lady?"
"Jessica."
"Jessica, sit on the couch over there. I suppose you want the caps first, right?"
"That's how it works...listen," she said as she walked over to the couch and sat down, crossing her legs, "I've got a proposition for you."
"Before you say anything more, this is how the night's going to go. I'm going to lie down on this bed and go to sleep. You're going to lie down on that couch and go to sleep." I took off my long coat and draped it over the dining table, then took off my boots. "In the morning, you can tell whoever you like whatever you like, and I'm going to go someplace where I haven't worn out my welcome." I lay back on the bed, then sighed as my feet rested on the foot of the bed. "We got a deal?"
"Wait...you mean we're not going to have...are you not into women or something?" Jessica stared at me in a way I found distinctly uncomfortable.
"No, I'm not into women who I have to pay to tolerate having sex with me. There's a difference." I lay back on the bed. "Good night." I turned out the light and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep's warm and dark embra…
"I heard around that you also go by 'Sleeper'."
Great. "I do, by my friends. When I used to have friends. Good night." Okay. closing my eyes again, wait for…
"Sleeper?"
I couldn't help but think how completely and unamusingly ironic this is. "Not at the moment…!"
"Listen, I want to make a deal with you."
Oddly enough, I couldn't honestly claim that I didn't make deals at this late hour. Most of my deals were made around this time back home. "What is it?"
"I want you to take me with you when you leave."
"You want to leave this place….with me." That was it. I sat up in bed and looked her in the eyes. "This had better be one smoking drekhot deal."
"Look...I want to leave here with you because you're the only person here who hasn't treated me like a piece of meat since I got here."
I'm not going to ask. I'm not going to ask because if I do I'm going to be awake half the night and aw frag it all. "Got here from where?"
Jessica sighed. "Vault 278. It's located north of here, near Sheafport. I escaped there and came here two years ago."
Now she had my attention. Dammit. "What do you mean, escaped?"
She sighed. "The Vault was supposed to be a safe place, but soon after everyone got in, it was clear something was off. All the staff were men and women, but all the regular dwellers were women, all hand picked for their...physical attributes. Winners of beauty pageants, all in one place. Didn't take long for the women there to figure out why they were there. Vault-Tec was running some kind of learning center where the women there learned how to become…'Idealized'. It resulted in the women there being turned into experiments and conditioned to become the perfect ideals of a housewife...and more. A breeding program was started, with the women impregnated and brainwashed into being docile, submissive slaves, bred to be as physically appealing as possible. I mean, look at me...shaped like some adolescent fantasy!"
"Yeah...I've heard about some of the Vault-Tec experiments...wait, you said you escaped. How?"
"Turns out there was a slight genetic aberration in my birth. Namely, I was smarter than I was supposed to be. It didn't take me long to figure out what the game was at an early age, and I just played dumb and went along with it. At least, long enough to figure out how to use it to my advantage. Wasn't easy. I was programmed from an early age to really enjoy sex. And I mean, REALLY enjoy it. Can't remember all the times I played along because I had to, and played along because I wanted to...and that stuff didn't go away when I escaped the Vault. So I made myself a promise. One day, I'd meet a guy who was capable of having his way with me, but wouldn't for moral or honorable reasons. When that day came, I'd leave this place behind. I'm not just a pretty face, you know; I can hunt, track and I can help you out with knowledge about the area, help you avoid getting yourself into the same kinda trouble you got into with the Gators."
"That wasn't 'trouble'. That was pest control." I couldn't help but think that having someone around that was as close to being a guide as possible would be a hell of an advantage. And I needed all the advantages I could get. "You sure you want to be with me? I'm not exactly...normal."
"I think when the bombs dropped, the first casualty of the War was 'normal'."
"And you're not scared of me?"
"Compared to my previous experiences, you're the LEAST scary thing I've had to deal with. And I don't want to be a mattress for anyone with caps anymore." She sat back on the couch.
"I have a few questions for you. What's the situation with the Vault you left? Are they still…?"
"Yeah. They're still there and, as far as I know, they're still continuing on with the Vault-Tec experiments. Doesn't do any good. We can't get back in. I was never issued a Pip-Boy and even if I had, I don't know the codes. There's no way to get in, and even if we did, they're all meat puppets now. It's take a lot of intensive mental therapy to get them de-programmed."
I smiled. "Maybe the situation's not as hopeless as you might think, but we'll get back to that later. Next question: how well do you know this area?"
"You'd be surprised what you can learn from pillow talk. I know pretty much everything there is TO know...but people doesn't exactly go out of their way to talk to whores." Jessica shrugged, passing off the idea of being considered a whore as inconsequential. "Not exactly being paid to talk, unless you count talking dirty." She smiled. "What else do you want to know?"
"Just one more thing. You got anyone after you?"
Jessica smiled. FRAG, but she had a nice smile. "Not unless you count half the men at the Cajundome who want me to be their personal property. And between you and me, as tempting as that thought is, I think I'll pass. Not a one of them worth a damn in the sack anyways. What do you say, Sleeper?"
Maybe I was tired, or desperate for someone to talk to, so I nodded my head. "On one condition."
"Name it."
"...let me get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep?"
"Oh, right. Sure."
"Thank you." I laid back down and closed my eyes, wondering, and not for the first time today, what the frag I was getting myself into…
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TO BE CONTINUED...
