Chapter 4 - Ajax
Ajax held his breath. His eyes darted around the cave, it was narrow but extended far into the earth. The Deathclaw was not alone, two other hulking shapes slept behind it. Ajax, painfully slowly, took a step back. He slowly applied weight to the foot, making sure that the ground was firm and silent, then took another step back. After taking several steps the Deathclaw yawned. Ajax leaped back twisted and pressed his back against the rock. He heard the beast rise, Ajax peered to his right, at the cave entrance, the Deathclaw was crawling out of it. It stood and stretched. It tuned its head to the right. Ajax slowly raised his rifle. The Deathclaw looked to its left, it starred directly at Ajax. He stood completely still, hopping his desert camo and the Deathclaws bad eyesight would hide him.
He swore he saw the beast smile, then it leaped at him. He fired the rife from his hip. The round punched straight through the charging Deathclaw's face. The beast howled in agony adding its voice to the roar of Ajax gun. The gun shot seemed to only anger the beast. Its flailing arms bashed Ajax rife out of his hands. The man turned and sprinted for the end of the cliff. He could hear the Deathclaw behind him. Ajax scrambled up the hill, a blow, from the beast pursuing him, sent him spinning. Luckily his backpack shield him from the attack. Ajax scrambled to his feet, the rocks were the only cover, he ran for them. The Deathclaw swung again, this time the claws connected with flesh. Ajax felt the razor like claws slice into the back of his leg. He fell sliding forward in a cloud of dust. The rocks were directly in front of him. He crawled for them, arm over arm, pulling himself under them as the beast swiped at his legs.
Ajax scrambled forward, pulling himself deeper into the crevice. Clawed hands grasped at his legs trying to pull him out. He twisted in the tight space and kicked the hand giving himself the moment necessary to draw his pistol. A hand reappeared, searching the small space for him. Ajax braced his back against the rock and kicked with both legs. He pinned the beast hand against the ground, and fired three times. The noise was deafening in the confined space. The rounds impacted the Deathclaw's wrist in a tight grouping. The monster roared and pulled back wrenching its arm from its mangled hand. The disembodied hand twitched, Ajax had a moment to recover before the beasts renewed their assault.
The Deathclaws concentrated on moving rocks out of the way. Ajax looked up, he could see more and more sky as the beasts flung the boulders aside. A hand shot down from above scraping at the stone above his face. Ajax squirmed away and fired repeatedly.
The hand was withdrawn with a howl, spraying Ajax with blood. Another hand reached for him. He fired twice. Again a howl and the hand was removed. The slide on Ajax's 1911 was back. He pressed the release and the magazine fell to the sand. He reached into his belt fumbled a new magazine into the handle and thumbed the slide forward. In his attempt to get away from the Deathcaws that had dug through the ceiling Ajax had positioned his back against the entrance. A set of razors ripped across his lower back. He roared, spun around and shoved his head and shoulders out from under the rocks. The Deathclaw standing there stared at him, seemingly surprised at the sudden assault. Ajax fired empting all seven rounds into the beasts face.
Ajax shimmied under the rocks again. He dropped the empty pistol, shrugged off his pack and dug around for the revolver. His hand felt nothing, his pack was empty. The bottom had been sliced open. Ajax glanced out over the ground. The Deathclaw he had shot was holding its face and there on the ground was a trail of supplies leading up to the rocks. About ten yards away lay the revolver. The Deathclaws above him had realized that he was out of their reach and had gone back to throwing rocks off the pile. The beast in front of him lowered its claws. Ajax saw that one of those hands was a bloody stump. The beast looked at him, its face was possible uglier than before. The right eye was missing, the right horn had been shot off and it cheek was in tatters.
The beast screamed and leapt forward. Its progress was stopped by a bullet going through it head, ear to ear. The Deathclaw fell and slid up against the rocks. Ajax poked his head out and peeked in the direction that the shot had come. Forty yards off Gus kneeled, rife leveled at the two remaining Deathclaws. The two beasts noticed their dead companion. A second shot hit one of the beasts in the neck and they both jumped off the rocks. Sprinting for the shooter. Ajax crawled from under the rocks and limped forward. He glanced to his left. Gus had stood up and was stepping backwards as he fired. The Deathclaws were approaching him, fast, seemingly unharmed by the wave of .308s. Ajax reached the revolver and fell to his knees.
He did not waste time checking if it was loaded, he had to trust memory. Ajax cocked back the hammer and aimed down the iron sights. The Deathclaws had almost reached Gus. The old ranger had emptied his rifle had was busy reloading. The Deathclaws were within ten yards of him. Ajax breathed, steadied his hand and fired. The Deathclaw's hunched back protected its head but its knee was open for attack. The bullet ripped through the beast's leg and it collapsed in a cloud of dust, claws and blood. After taking the shot Ajax started to limp forward, as fast as his wounded leg would allow. Gus finished reloading and, with the Deathclaw on top of him, he put two rounds, point blank, into the beast skull.
The Deathclaw that Ajax had downed was crawling slowly toward Gus. Ajax limped up behind the beast. The creature turned and roared at the man. Ajax placed his gun against the beast forehead. It was too weak to even attack. Its face had been ravaged by Ajax's original rifle shot, its chest was pockmarked with holes and its hands were misshapen by bullets. Ajax fired, spraying the beast brain across the ground.
It was then, when the adrenalin started to wane, that Ajax realized the full extent of his wounds. His legs gave way under him. He lay in the dirt staring at the sky, a buzzard circled overhead. He closed his eyes.
He heard footsteps beside him "Get up" Gus commanded.
Ajax tried to respond, to move or say something but his body refused to respond. The old Ranger spotted the wounds on Ajax.
"Fuck" whispered the man. "Okay listen to me I'm going to…." The Rangers words faded slurring into a white noise that covered the world. Ajax felt himself slip and fall. And keep falling, into nothing.
When he finally awoke it was night. Ajax was lying on his back next to the pile of boulders. Fire light was dancing across the stones. A man laughed. Ajax turned his head.
"Be careful" somebody commanded. A man was sitting next to him. "You lost a lot of blood, you will be weak for a while."
Ajax recognized the man now, it was Max, the squads medic.
"You're lucky to be alive" Max continued "If those cuts on your leg were a quarter inch longer they would have clipped the artery, you would have bleed out in seconds."
Ajax looked at the fire. The entire squad was here along with the children and the surviving Brahmin.
"Thanks for fixing me up Max" Ajax croaked.
Max shrugged and responded "No problem, all I did was clean the wounds and stich you up. You are going to need more when we get home. You sound thirsty, are you hungry?"
Ajax opened his mouth to say that he was thirsty but Max was already speaking.
"Hey girl" he shouted at the fire. "Bring food and water" he turned to Ajax "If it gets to painful tell me, I can give you a little shot of Med-X" Max patted his shoulder, stood and walked away.
The little girl that he had carried earlier approached with a plate and canteen. The girl sat down next to him and lifted the canteen to his lips.
After he finished drinking Ajax spoke. "I thought you hated me?"
"I don't hate you" the girl said as she cut a piece of meat from the slab on the plate. "I said I would never be thankful."
She stabbed the piece and lifted it to Ajax mouth. He bit it off the knife and she started cutting again.
"You are my tribe now and we take care of each other. You killed the bad things so we could sleep here, you carried me and now I am helping you."
She stabbed a slice of meat and raised it to his mouth again. Ajax shook his head. The girl set the knife down and waited.
"What's your name?" asked Ajax the girl looked at him.
"Holly, what's yours?"
"My name is Ajax" he responded.
"Ajix, Ajee Alli," Holly stumbled over the word.
"Most people call me AJ" he said with a smile.
Holly smiled back "Would you like some more food AJ?" she raised the plate as she spoke.
"Could I have some more water?" Holly nodded, set the plate down and grabbed the canteen. "Thanks Holly."
Ajax was unable to walk the next morning. Captain Miller ordered that the Brahma be unloaded so that he could ride it. Max helped him limp over the animal and climb onto its back. Gus walked up beside him as they set off.
"Here" he said blankly as he handed Ajax's rife to him.
He took the weapon and examined it. The glass and steel were undamaged. He ran his hand over the shattered stock. The Deathclaw had split the wood in half.
"Give that to the armory when we get back they'll have it fixed in a day or two" and with that the Ranger walked away.
Ajax went to sling the rife over his shoulder as was his habit but then realized that the straps lower connection had been ripped from the stock. He sighed and laid the gun on his lap. Out of routine he opened the bolt, placed the casing in his pocket and closed the action. Not that he could use the rife. If he shot it the recoil would drive splinters into his shoulder.
After a few minutes of riding the pain was starting to become unbearable. No matter how he shifted his position it seemed that there was a vertebra rubbing his wounds. He was about to ask Max for a shot of Med-X when Holly appeared beside him. The girl pulled the pack from her back and handed it up to him. Ajax took it and examined the neat stiches that pulled shut the hole from the Deathclaw.
"I fixed it last night when you slept" explained Holly.
Ajax opened the pack and looked inside. All of his stuff was there including his 1911.
"Thank you Holly, this is really nice work" his word made her blush.
"It was nothing" she said humbly.
Ajax removed the revolver from his pack. The weapon looked as new as when he had found it. He opened it, the spent cartridges were still inside. He removed them and reloaded the gun before placing it back in the pack. He did the same for the 1911. He felt a lot better with the gun on his thigh. Next his hand fell upon the gold coin he had found. It was heavy in his hand, probably made from solid gold. He examined it closer. On one side there was a man with a branch across his head the words above and below the man were strange to Ajax. "Aeternit Imperi" Mouthed Ajax. He shrugged and flipped the coin over. This side had a bull with "Pax Per Bellvm" surrounding it. Ajax placed the coin back in his pack. He would turn it in with the rest of the loot when they got back to the Colony. He had no use for money. Food, Medical care and housing were supplied. His salary was enough to pay for anything else he wanted.
The rest of the ride was uneventful. By noon they had crossed into the city's lands. The earth was scattered with small farms and pastures. Soon after that they reached the wall. The wall was twenty-feet tall and made from reinforced concrete. At least in this part. When the project was started the Colony scavenged the concrete, rebar and the like from a factory nearby. But after the south portion of the wall was finished. The factory was out of recourses. The rest of the wall was made from cars, brick, rock, and scrap concrete chunks. The wall was almost finished. The northern section had only a hundred more feet to go.
The squad entered through the south gate and continued to their barracks. Holly stood in awe, staring at the buildings, the people, the wall. Ajax would have bet that the most humans that she had seen at once would have been the thirty in her tribe. A woman came over, she was holding the infant and had the toddler by the hand.
"Come with me dear" she said to Holly.
The girl looked up at Ajax "Go with her, I'll come and visit once I am better" he told Holly.
The girl looked doubtful but walked over to the woman.
Ajax slid of the Brahma's back. He balanced on his right leg, Max came over grabbed Ajax's arm and put it over his shoulder.
"Let's get you to the clinic" he said as they started for the vault entrance.