Chapter Four

Partners in Crime?

~ August 17, 2277 ~

I sat next to Josef as I waited for my meal to arrive and told him about my life up to that point. I was under the impression that he may have been expecting a different story than a vault dweller who crawled out of his hole in the ground, but he seemed fascinated anyway.

"Damn. This morning?" he breathed out heavily and widened his eyes a bit while he leaned back onto the bar. "Must've been hard to do it," Josef said losing his upbeat attitude that he had for the short time we sat there. He looked expectedly when I didn't respond. "Y'know, your first kill? It's never...something that you do willingly," he said to me to help me understood what he meant.

"Yeah," I said dumbly. I wasn't going to lie, the Overseer had been on my mind the entire day, and it was only about three o'clock. I had been in countless fights with other kids in the vault growing up, some even turned nasty, but I had never even come close to killing someone. I never imagined that I would do so in such a brutal manner, either. What kind of insane bastard bashes a man's brains out with a tool? Was I really any better than he was? Sure, he gave the order that killed Jonas, tried to kill me, and probably would do the same to my father if he had the chance, but he didn't actually do the deed. His security guards did. They were the ones who enjoyed it.

"Hey, I get it," Josef spoke up and brought me back down to earth. "It was like someone else had taken over, just for a second, right?" He turned his head back and took a swig of whatever he had been drinking. "It's not pleasant, probably the farthest thing from it, and you hate yourself for it, even if you were protecting yourself. You will never feel good about it, no matter what the situation, but it's a necessary evil."

I slouched a bit as Jenny stumbled through the doorway with my food. Thinking back had taken its toll on my appetite. I decided to eat anyway though and let Josef talk for a while.

"It's just something you get used to out here. We've all done things we're not proud of, myself included." He continued. His tone dropped solemnly as he included himself, almost as if he were saying, "me especially."

We sat in silence for a while, until Josef tried to make conversation with the man at the other end of the bar. He was a terrible conversationalist, though. The man only responded with a series of grunts and one-word answers. Josef fired off multiple conversation starters, maybe thinking he could rope the guy into our conversation, but he wouldn't have any of it.

This man had something a little strange about him. He had a look on his face that betrayed his attempt to appear innocent. He was eerily clean for a wastelander, especially one from Megaton. His clothes didn't have a speck of dirt or grime. His hair was shaved on the side in a striped pattern that left it longer on the top. It was a burning red, with a touch blonde and his beard continued the color, though it had a trace of brown in it. His hazel eyes were always observing, always taking in, but never letting anything out. I wondered what he was looking for.

The more I looked him over, the more unsettled I felt. I couldn't shake this weird vibe I had gotten from him. You can call it instinct if you like, or you can chalk it up to my early wasteland paranoia, but something was simply wrong about him.

"Hey, Jen, bring his bill, too," Josef said with a finger pointed at me. "It's on me," he said as Jenny wrote up both of the prices. I tried to protest, explaining that I had enough to pay, but Josef nodded and handed Jenny a handful of caps. She grinned and winked.

"Always on your best behavior ain't ya, Joe?" she said playfully.

"I try to be," he said in the same playful way. He got up from the stool and patted me on the back. "C'mon, let's get out of here," he said as he walked away.

I got up, gathered my belongings and followed him like a lost puppy while that red-haired man at the other end of the bar eyed us suspiciously. Apparently, we were of some interest to him, but I wouldn't find that out until much later.

"So," he said awkwardly as we walked around town. "What do you want to do?" he asked as if we were a couple of bored teenagers enjoying a lazy afternoon even though I'm pretty sure he was at least six or seven years older than I.

"Hell if I know," I said, exasperated. "I'm new here, remember? Town cowboy is probably waiting for me to screw up so I figure I don't have many options of what I can do without him breathing down my neck." I kicked a stone and sent it bouncing along the dirt path. "Or at least, not anything interesting."

"Right, right," he repeated. "Y'know, I've been thinking. You need to get your mind off of all this vault shit." Josef explained as we started walking up the stairs towards the town exit. "I know a place, it's pretty crazy."

I almost immediately agreed that we should go, but then I remembered that I hardly know this guy. Here I was in a completely unfamiliar place, hanging out with some random fellow, and he was telling me we needed to do something crazy. If it were the vault, then I would've led the charge to start a bit trouble, but out here I needed to be more careful if I didn't want to wind up face down in a down shallow grave. I didn't even know what qualified as crazy on the surface world.

"Listen, we hit it off pretty well, but let's take things slow. How about a nice picnic instead?" I said sarcastically.

"If you bring the food I'll get the table cloth. Good luck with the food, by the way. Watch out for the ants, too." he retorted. "No, I was thinking something a little more dangerous."

If he hadn't caught my attention before, he definitely did then. "What kind of danger?" I inquired as he began opening the town gate.

"I'm thinking a few Molotov's, maybe a few explosions, some pointy things, and definitely some strong drinks." he said, already lusting over the thought of alcohol.

"Shit. Count me in." I said as we exited Megaton.

Josef and I walked to an area nearby that had much more burned out buildings than even Springvale. We chatted incessantly along the way, though I still didn't learn that much about the man. I learned that he was born somewhere in what used to be South Carolina. He apparently had lived near the coast when he was a child and had an older brother, whom he hadn't seen since he left home years ago. His parents were pretty rough people because they were part of some group of raiders before his brother was born, but they moved on and settled down. They weren't mean by any stretch of the word. They took care of their own, and even gave things up for Josef and his sibling, but weren't the best at showing their affection in simple ways, and were terrible at being gentle.

I guess even crazy marauders can change and become parents, despite the odds being against them.

We came to the top off a hill, just as the sun had begun to lower itself in the sky when he stopped me.

"Shh...Look over there." he pointed over to a sizable crowd of people on the road below us.

They were standing around a fenced in area of some kind that was divided up the middle with two cages at the end of it. They were all shouting and jumping around, glass bottles and other trash flying about as they did. Everyone seemed to be dressed in various junk pieces that were held together in a desperate attempt to clothe themselves.

"What is this?" I asked nervously. The crowd was a bit larger than anything I was comfortable with. They looked a hell of a lot meaner as well. We were vastly outnumbered. There had to be maybe eleven or twelve of them and only the two of us.

"Raider gathering. Tough sons-of-bitches. Lot's of fun to mess with, too, since most are either too drunk or high to think that someone could..." he pulled out a filled bottle with a fuse on it and lit it. "Well..." he said as he stood up. He grinned and shrugged as he readied himself. "Ruin their fun?"

Josef, who I was convinced was half mad by that point, lobbed the burning bottle at the edge of the crowd and watched the fiery explosion from afar. The crowd screamed and was thrown into utter chaos in just an instant as a few stomped on one poor guy in a pathetic attempt to put him out. They began to tumble over each other, some even got into fights, and all of them far too drunk or high to think clearly.

Bottles were broken to make impromptu shivs, and a few bullets were fired off as the raiders tore each other apart, believing that one of them had set off the explosion. Josef was laughing all the while like some mad child while I still had no idea why we were doing this.

"Oh shit! They never go this crazy!" he said between laughs. "Must be some strong stuff they're on tonight!"

It was pretty entertaining to watch, I must admit. Most of them stumbled around and swung their fists like they were unfamiliar with the idea of fighting, or standing straight for that matter. The herd was being thinned and I hadn't even lifted a finger and we could loot the ones who weren't in any shape to fight, to boot. Josef was very comfortable with the wasteland and was a force to be reckoned with if you weren't in control of all your faculties.

Josef cracked open a bottle of whiskey and took a quick sip of it while never taking his eyes off the action. "Havin' fun yet?" he said shaking the bottle. "I'm doing this for a reason, know."

"And what would that be?" I said as a stray bullet sailed past my head, nearly making me jump out of my skin.

"I want to show you that it doesn't have to be all gloom and doom out here. We can find our own entertainment." he sipped once more. "And when we need to take a preemptive strike, we take it," he said as he closed the bottle and tucked it inside his jacket, then fumbled around inside of it for something else: a rather bulky looking, weathered pistol of the same make that I remembered Vault Security being fond of.

"Shit, you're going to kill them?" I asked since I was content with leaving people alone so long as they did the same to me.

Josef stood up carefully as the chaos below continued underneath the flickering streetlights. "No, I'm not," he said as he pointed the pistol down at the poor schmuck closest to us and fired off one shot directly at his ass. "You are."

The raider whipped his head around to look for us, and then alerted his few remaining friends that were able to fight. All three of them.

"Fucking kill 'em!" he snarled viscously as he began to climb the steep hill we sat atop. The others whooped and howled as they tore the ground in their furious wake.

Suddenly, Josef turned around and ran away, leaving me standing to defend myself against the oncoming raiders.

"What the hell, man?" I shouted as I readied my bat. One of my foes reached the top of the hill and began charging at me with saliva dripping from his drugged, gnashing mouth. "Stay with me!" I shouted and the fleeing Josef.

"See you back in town, babe!" he shouted without even looking back.

I grunted in disbelief as I swung The Ass-Beater at the first raider's head. He spun around, lost a few teeth, and collapsed with a groan as the next guy was met with a jab in the chest from yours truly and a baseball bat. I followed up with a kick to the knee which sent him to the ground in pain. I grabbed his head and slammed my wooden weapon into his face with all my strength as blood spewed from his nose and sent him rolling backward down the hill.

There were only two raiders left and they both planned to run me through with their knives. Just as the two reached the top, one slashed at me, and only slightly caught me on my left arm. The other missed completely and tumbled back down.

"Stand still, dammit!" he shouted at me as he swung again, missing this time.

I punched the man who cut me directly in the jaw, dropped my bat, and then twisted his wrist to make him drop the knife. He screamed in pain as his wrist made an audible crack, then doubled over as I quickly punched him multiple times in the stomach. His drink from earlier decided to return while he lied on the ground and I turned to the last man who had pulled himself back up. He was almost nervous looking, or maybe angry, as I grabbed The Ass-Beater and swung at him.

He dodged under it and prepared to stab me in the gut, but I slid to the right, spun around, and then put his outstretched limb under my arm. I dropped my bat again as I wrested the knife from his grasp and then threw an elbow at me and slammed it right into his face. This raider was a bit more resilient than the others as that only seemed to make him angrier. He roared as his bloodshot eyes burned wildly and his yellow, rotten teeth showed themselves as he pushed me away and flailed his arms at me.

One punch hit me square in the side of the head, and another in the ribs. I grimaced as he wound up for another shot, but I dodged to the left as he thrust his fist directly in front of him. I went in for another blow but he kicked me down to the ground. I rolled in the dirt and tried to get up but my enemy was quick enough to plant his foot firmly on my side before I could. He pulled his leg back to try again when he saw that I was still moving, but I wasn't about to just let him. I rolled away and then leaped to my feet as his leg flew harmlessly past me, then threw my hand towards his chest with my whole body weight behind it. I collided with his sternum and then slung my other hand around to the side of his head and sent him reeling.

I brought my leg up and pushed him on his ass, then ran forward and brought my foot down on his face, putting him out for good. Behind me, one raider, the one who had vomited, had begun to stir again in an attempt to reach his feet. I got a running start and then kicked him in the face as he was still hunched over on the ground. He fell on his side, unconscious.

"Son of a bitch..." I said between deep breaths to myself while I wiped a bit of blood from my arm. The four raiders were all on the ground, unconscious, dead, or afraid to get up, and I was okay for the most part. I leaned over and placed my hands on my knees as I could feel myself slowly coming down from my adrenaline rush. I was exhausted, and I still had to make the trek back to Megaton so I could find Josef. Why had he abandoned me? I thought that he may have been working for them, but if he were, then he would've stuck around and fought alongside them. He would've easily killed me if that was his intention. I was completely off-guard on many occasions, and it would be ridiculous to bring me way out there just for simple murder. There was something else going on, but I really wasn't in the mood to ask questions.

I decided that it would be best to look around and see if the mass of bodies had anything good for me, whether in terms of weaponry or medical. I pulled one pistol made of old junk, a few bullets for it, a hand grenade, and a half functioning pocket watch. I just tossed watch, since it wasn't going to do me any good, and didn't bother with the nail boards and knives that were common in the group. I tore a piece of cloth from one of their outfits and wrapped it around the cut on my arm. One fellow was wearing a navy blue vest that had quite a few pockets on it, so I decided to take that off him as well. It wasn't terribly smelly and wasn't blood stained, so it would be fine after a quick wash.

Those people were hardly professional, but I still considered myself lucky that all I ended up with were a few bruises and a cut on the arm as I walked back to town through the dimly lit ruins.

I entered the gates of Megaton under the cover of night with only the lights in the windows and the ones hanging on cables above me to guide my way. My anger hadn't simmered down during the walk home, and I was pretty thankful that no one tried to stop me. I walked down to the bottom of the crater where the lights in front of the Brass Lantern were still on. I half expected to see Josef sitting where we had met earlier that day, but he wasn't. I sighed and decided that I was too tired to spend all night looking for that mad bastard, so I passed by and headed up the hill to the bar at the top.

The name of the bar was Moriarty's Saloon, though I learned that it was little more than a crappy shack with drunken good for nothings outside and inside of it when I approached it and opened the door. The room was dimly lit in red and purple lights in an attempt to feign class, but it was impossible with the terrible smell in there. There was a scantily clad woman in the corner smoking a cigar, a loud man shouting unintelligibly at another behind the bar and a few customers littered around. The only sounds were the static of the radio, and the owner, Moriarty, shouting at his employees. He had a foreign accent, probably Irish or Scottish I imagine. I've never been able to hear both side by side, and have only known two people who had such a heavy accent so I honestly don't know which it was. Gob, the man he was shouting at, had a scratchy voice that I could hardly hear between Moriarty's impressive vocal projections. I didn't get a good look at him since it was dark where he was standing, but I would later learn that he was the town ghoul.

If you live under or a rock somewhere, or in a hole, then I'll explain to you what a ghoul is. First think of any person, anyone at all, that you know. Once you have them in your mind, imagine them as bacon, and then imagine that bacon being burnt to a crusty crisp. There you go. That's a ghoul described in a nutshell, and you're welcome.

"Hey!" I shouted to the loudmouthed owner. "I need a room. You have any open?" I asked as Moriarty held his hand out to Gob and came to the counter. He put on his best smile, which was still godawful and conniving, and clasped his hands together.

"Aye, that we do," he said with his thickly accented voice. "Cost is forty caps, up front, and another fifteen fer every night extra ye stay." He looked me over once or twice, as if he was trying to figure something out, or decide if I would even be welcome there, then held out his hand.

I took the bag Gomez had given me, and opened it up. There had to be at least fifty or so caps in there, so I counted them out to forty, and handed them over the smiling owner.

"Thank ye for your patronage." he said as his mouth practically watered over the pile of money and handed me the key to the room upstairs.

That was my first night in the wasteland, in a bed that wasn't Vault-Tec standard. It was uncomfortable, it was dusty and smelled awful, but it was like everything else out here, so I guess I had no choice. I spent a while thinking back over my busy first day, wondering where my dad had run off to in such a hurry. Did he even leave in a hurry, or had he been planning his escape for a while?

My father wasn't the type of man to act without a plan, and definitely, not one who would leave for selfish reasons, not when the whole vault could go to hell without anyone to patch them up. I thought about Amata, and how she must have been feeling right then, and how much she must hate me for killing her only family. She was alone now, and the entire vault had no one to lead them or reorganize them after one bad morning.

My train of thought was derailed when the scantily clad woman who was standing downstairs opened my door and aligned herself in the doorway.

"The fuck?" I said as I looked up at her. "What do you want?" I asked her as she stood there eyeing me seductively.

"You got a room a Moriarty's, babe," she said as smoothly as she could muster. "You get me with the room."

"Get the hell out of here," I said as I rolled over and tried to go to sleep. "I don't want you in here," I said coldly as she slipped out of the room, a bit flustered. I hadn't even thought that Moriarty's Saloon was that kind of place, especially not one that sends you a hooker without asking first. "Weird-ass town, but I guess it's not all bad." I thought as I drifted off to sleep.

~ August 18, 2277 ~

On the morning of my second day in the Capital Wasteland, as it was called, I had found myself in a precarious situation. Downstairs, there was a loud argument going on, despite it being only around nine or ten in the morning. Most regulars were not even present in the bar at that hour, except for the few who had rented a room, like me. I had walked downstairs and prepared to leave when the owner shouted that he was done with the "fecking zombie." He raised his fist above his head and struck the cowering ghoul, Gob, in the face. Gob cowered against the wall and begged for Moriarty to stop, but the owner was not in a good mood.

"Shut yer mouth!" Moriarty yelled as loud as he could and then brought his other fist to Gob's bruised body. The woman, Nova, stood fearfully in the corner away from the rampaging man. By the look on her face, that hadn't been the first time she was placed in the situation and by the bruises Gob received, he had always been on the receiving end.

My first instinct was to walk away and let the usual occurrence happen. The sight of Gob was very unnerving, and I almost gagged when I got a good look at him, but that wasn't any reason to let him get beat. He may have looked different, but he seemed kind enough.

I sighed, knowing I was going to regret my next action.

I stepped quickly over to Moriarty and grimaced as his fist collided with Gob once again. "Lay off," I said plainly.

He turned around, eyes burning with fury. "Feck you!" he shouted, paying me no mind. He swung again.

"I said stop!" I shouted at him, probably waking anyone still sleeping.

"Are you deaf?!" he shouted as spit flew from his mouth, his breath quite rancid.

"Listen. To. ME." I said through gritted teeth, my face hot with fury, my heart beating rapidly, hyped on a surge of adrenaline. "You will not hit him one more time. You will not hurt ANYONE. People are not your property, scum, they are human beings, even if they look different, and you will treat them as such, or you will answer to me." I growled at him, almost angry enough to lash out and bash his head. "Understand?"

Moriarty only nodded, still thoroughly pissed that a stranger had stepped in to disrupt his usual pastime, and probably embarrassed to have his authority challenged by some random kid. He stepped back and straightened his collar, then let out a puff of air through his nose.

"You let me know if he gives you any more trouble, okay?" I called out to Gob who was flabbergasted from the entire ordeal. I smiled slightly, choking back small chunks of vomit, then left the building. That wouldn't be my last confrontation with Moriarty. People like him need a little more force to change, or maybe a little more fear.

Once outside, I took a deep breath and tried to calm my churning stomach. My first up-close look at a ghoul wasn't a pleasing experience, but I would become more accustomed to the sight later on.

I knew that I wouldn't have to go very far to find Josef since the first person I met outside said that he was waiting for me at the Brass Lantern. I thanked them and ran down the walkways filled with bustling Megatonites (as I once called them) already angry that he was brazen enough to sit in town after the stunt he pulled the night before. The people in town probably had no idea why he was looking for me, but at least they were kind enough to relay the message to me.

I could see his tied-up hair already as I rounded the corner. He was sitting in his usual spot at the Brass Lantern where he was slurping down some kind of stew. Josef apparently didn't hear me approach, most likely because of the incredible noises he was making with his meal because I could've taken him out right there. He wouldn't have seen it coming.

I didn't, though.

"Josef," I said as I folded my arms across my chest with the intent to look as if I were a credible threat.

He spun around in his chair after slurping down one last gulp and grinned toothily. "Well damn!" he exclaimed and clapped a few times. "Remind me not to piss you off!" he chuckled.

I punched him right in the mouth and sent him onto the ground. "Too late."

He held his hand over his mouth, face twitching slightly before removing it to check if he were bleeding. He wasn't since I did more pushing than striking with that punch. "Okay. I deserved that," he said before gently touching his lip and wincing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I shouted. "You left me there with all of those raiders!" I continued to refresh his memory as well as let everyone else in, just in case I needed backup.

"I did not!" Josef said as he pulled himself up to the counter. "I was right there the whole time, you just couldn't see me."

I was about to let him have an earful, and a fistful, but stopped. I wanted to hear his explanation.

"I see that you aren't following, so let me lay it out for you. I was just around the corner the whole time, watching, waiting, observing..."

"Get to the damn point." I spat out to cut him off.

"I had my gun pointed and ready the whole time," he said with a point to his hip where the pistol was hanging in its holster. "If things went south, then I would've popped one in their heads before they even knew what hit 'em. Boom, easy as pie." he made an explosion motion with his hands then snapped and leaned back into his chair. "You weren't in any real danger, except for maybe that last guy. He had to be on some Psycho." he laughed again. "Of course, you handled him pretty well, too."

I thought that it must all have been some sort of sick joke that he had played. He seemed to be telling the truth, though, so I cooled off a little bit. "Why, then?" I asked with the expectation for him to say "for shits and giggles", but he didn't.

He looked directly at me and put on the most serious face I had seen him with since I had met him. "I wanted you to learn. You are new to all this, the wasteland, that is, so I figured that you had no idea how to fight." he turned around and slipped a few caps into a bag, then left it on the table. "I was half right."

I took offense to that, obviously, but he did have a point. I had no idea what I was doing out there and probably got lucky. The most experience I had with multiple combatants was from the morning before, and a few fights I had with the Tunnel Snakes years before. They were not quite as dangerous, though.

"Now, before you get cocky, let me remind you: those guys were drunk and had probably done more drugs last night than you have in your entire life, so they weren't at the top of their game. If they had been, then they could've fucked you up. Bad." Josef patted the seat next to him, motioning for me to take it. "The only way to learn out here is through experience, and you can tuck last night's scuffle under your belt. Call it 'Intro to the Wasteland,' taught by Professor Wasteland himself."

I sat down and hunched over, still suspicious of him and his intentions but thoroughly intrigued. He had offered to teach me a few things about the Capital Wasteland, and I took it that it wasn't something to take lightly since everyone had to worry about themselves. I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't want to pretend that I did. Josef, on the other hand, was accustomed to the horrors of the wasteland. "So, if I agree to this, you're not going to bury me in a shallow grave?"

Josef pushed my shoulder. "C'mon, use your head. If I had planned that, I would've blasted you last night," He extended his hand outwards and balled up his fist. "So we doing this or what? Partners?"

I sighed, "Partners," and bumped my fist into his.