Fallout: New Order

I still don't own Fallout 3 (which is for the best). It belongs to Bethesda games studio.

Behold the next chapter.

That's all I can say right now. Just another chapter, really. Maybe It'll be relevant in the future, I don't know.

Chapter 3: Regret

Three and a half days later. Time: 8:13

The rusted metal lid went up with a flick of a finger, the spark hit the gas and ignited it, and the thin flame burst from the cylindrical opening. Liam lit his cigarette and replaced the aged Zippo in one of his jacket pockets. With a slight rub of his eyes, he looked towards the rising sun (or at least, what he could see of it through the dense clouds), before checking the time on his pip-boy.

Times almost up, Christine, and time is of the essence.

Uhh… fuck, this hurts.

Christine had just woken up, and her limbs were pissing her off… again. They were still heavily bandaged, and apart from a couple of cuts healing up, she felt as shitty as ever (her left leg however, was feeling a lot less itchy, and the continual throbbing had gone). The bed she lay in was as cheap as anything, and the frame the mattress rested on was starting to dig into her from below. And to cap it all off, the thought and proposition Liam (that asshole) was constantly floating in her mind.

Little prick. Why can't he just wait for me to completely heal? Does he have a booked lunch appointment or something? I mean… oh, fuck him, fuck him to hell. Like I need that little asshole. I'll just have to find my way around. It can't be THAT hard…

If she had been paying attention to herself and realised what she was doing in conjunction with these thoughts, she would have noticed that she was sitting up, that her left arms was raised and her left hand was curled into a fist. After a few seconds as she calmed herself down she blinked and looked at herself, and stared. Carefully and very slowly, she took hold of the bandage that was wound around her left arm, and pulled away the end of it. It came loose; the throbbing was still there, but it came loose.

What the-

'-fuck's wrong with you? Keep up, for Christ's sake. I know you're injured, but it's only a flesh wound in the arm.'

'Go easy, Rose, she's had it a lot rougher than you have. And any baggage is gonna put some strain on the wound, ain't it?'

'It's okay Ad, Megaton's in sight now. Go ahead, I'll be right behind you,' said the third person. Herself (Lii) and Adam (Ad) were the two bodyguards for a loudmouth bitch trader who called herself Rose. They had been in her services for two months now and their patience was running out. But work for two bodyguards like themselves, despite being well-trained and well-experienced, was very hard to come by. So they had decided, being two rather long-term friends (since the two had found their way out of Vault 119), that they would grin and bear it. The wound was caused by a stray bullet a couple of hour's prior hand when they had blundered through the outskirts of Minefield (the name steering them clear from going too deep inside). They had been spotted by a semi-insane sniper who had without provocation opened fire on them: the second bullet piercing Lii's shoulder. It was lucky they had a packed Brahmin with them; otherwise their progress would have been even slower. The bleeding hadn't stopped; it had begun to slow down, but was still leaking, and Lii was really feeling the sharp pain the metal slug had given her. Her pack was feeling heavier by the minute. 'Just a little further Lii… a little further… were her constant thoughts.

Eventually, after another ten minutes of slow painful walking, they reached the gates. 'Go on, get that arm looked at. I have trading to do. But Adam, stay here,' said Rose the moment the two guards sat down to rest. Adam made some incoherent mumbling sounds, before helping Lii with her pack. Rose fumbled for a cigarette, stuck one between her dry lips and searched for a lighter. A sudden voice made her jump.

'Here, use mine.' Liam shuffled out of the shadows to the right of the door. His Zippo glinted slightly in his outstretched right hand. Rose's left hand had moved to the holster on her leg, but on seeing what he held, she relaxed.

'Thanks,' she said, taking it and lighting up her cigarette. 'Shit, where are my manners? I'm R. Rose, and welcome to my caravan. Are you looking for a gun or armour replacement? Maybe a few medicinal supplies? Or you could just want a meal to go. Whatever it is, I've got it. Take a look if you don't believe me.' She finished with a long drag on her smoke.

'I'm guessing the R stands for 'rambling'. And I believe you, so don't worry,' growled Liam, 'You have any .44 rounds?'

'-to the right as you hit the bottom of the hill. You can't miss it.'

'Okay. Thank you.'

'You need a hand down?'

'No, it's okay. It's only a flesh wound, but I need it cleaned up by someone who knows what they're doing.'

'Fair 'nough. Remember, I'm here to help, if you need it.' With that, Simms walked up to the entrance and stood watch over his town. Lii watched him for a moment, before walking carefully (to avoid jarring her shoulder) down to the clinic. She reached the door, avoiding the Brahmin grazing outside, and knocked. A rather annoyed voice called 'Just come in already!' and Lii entered.

For a doctor's clinic, it looked like shit. Lii knew that everywhere was dilapidated as fuck, but most health services tried their best to clean up the place. Also, it was tiny. A desk squeezed in next to the door with very little room behind it. There were a couple of chairs in the far corner, a door opposite the entrance, and another one next to the desk. Lii walked to the second one; it was open, and two elderly men were talking quite loudly. One was obviously the doctor, and he didn't seem very friendly. On seeing her, the doctor impatiently said 'Look, can you just wait in that room for a moment, I'm busy right now.' Without waiting for her opinion, he continued to rant at the man. Lii raised her eyebrows, before opening the door she'd see moments ago.

She was slightly disturbed to see someone else lying on the rusty bed that sat in the corner. A woman, who Lii guessed mid-twenties, naked apart from some bandages wrapped around parts of her body and a small blanket stretch across her, lay there, with a small table of medical instruments next to the bed. 'And the problem with waiting outside on those chairs is…?' she said to herself, sitting down on the one chair in this room. Her shoulder nagged with pain and she tightened the hurriedly made bandage around it. Looking at the woman again, she couldn't help but think that serious injuries were not taken seriously in Megaton. 'Were they operating on her and just stopped halfway through or something?' came a rather scathing thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by the operation failure suddenly speaking. 'Excuse me…'

Lii double took without realizing, jarring her shoulder. She winced and pressed down on the bandage. 'Yeah?' she said with a pained expression on her face.

'Could you… pass me that water?' croaked the woman, indicating slightly with her left hand. The bottle stood on a table in the other corner of the room.

'Yeah, sure.' Lii got up and picked up the water (which was anything but purified), before giving it to her. 'Can I ask what happened to you?' she added suddenly, 'If it's not… embarrassing… or anything…'

'Raiders.'

'Oh right.' Unbeknownst to Lii, Christine's right fist clenched and her arm tensed itself. 'So how did you get

'-so many rounds? I rarely find someone with any magnum rounds, but you've got fucking hundreds.'

'Exploration,' growled Liam, 'I've been all over the Capital wasteland, and the places you find .44 caches are commoner than you think. Anyway,' he dropped his cigarette and paused for around a minute in thought, 'I'll take all eight.'

'That's 32 caps.' Liam handed over a small bag of caps. Rose counted them, before pocketing them. 'Another satisfied customer,' she said with a smile, 'You waiting for someone?'

'Yeah. Should be here in a couple of minutes. We're heading North-west for a delivery.'

'North-west? You better watch out, I heard there's a load of Deathclaws nesting up in some cave over that way.'

'I've heard. We'll steer clear of that area,' he muttered, brushing back his hair with one hand. There were a few moments pause as Liam put the bullets in his pack. He then turned his attention to the trader again. 'What happened to your body guard?' There was a lack of interest in his guttural voice. Adam, who had been standing by idly, opened his mouth to speak, but Rose never let him start.

'Oh yes. We were passing by this place called Minefield – I think you know why we didn't go through – when-

The front gate of Megaton slowly creaked open. Rose stopped to see if it was Lii. A woman stepped out, shadowed slightly by the archway in front of the metal gates. However, her Mercenary wear was an indication to her identity.

'Geez Lii, that was fast,' Adam said with a smile, relaxing his arms slightly. 'The bleeding's stopped, yeah?'

'Yeah,' came the response, and Adam stared slightly in surprise. Lii gestured at him with her right arm – and Adam saw the .32 pistol. He aimed his rifle but it was too late. Lii fired three rounds; they struck him in the chest, burying through his leather armour and penetrating his flesh. A small shower of blood emerged as he fell. The assault rifle clattered to the ground, knocking off its cartridge and sending the rounds flying.

'Lii, what the fuck are you doing?' yelled Rose. She pulled out her 10mm sub-machine gun, but Liam grabbed her arm. 'What the-'she began, before Liam plunged his hand-welded knife into her throat. Her gun dropped too. Liam stabbed twice more in the same place. There was a disturbing gurgling sound as the blood flooded into her lungs and fountained out over Liam's arm and most of his face. He let go of her and her limp body dropped to the floor.

'-just take these pills and rest, Nathan. You're not dying and you haven't been for years. Now get out and stop wasting my time.'

Nathan left with much reluctance, and Doctor Church swore at him under his breath. Nathan was nothing but a burden for him. Church hated hypochondria, and the wrinkled shit that called himself Nathan _ was the biggest hypochondriac he'd ever met. He cleared off the papers on his desk, before walking to Christine's room.

He opened the door, expecting to see a slightly irritated bodyguard and the unconscious form of Christine. Instead, he saw the figure of the bodyguard stretched across the bed, stripped down to her vest and shorts. Her throat was slashed open; the cut was so deep her torn oesophagus was visible through the dark red interior. The blood was splattered all over the bed, and had spread across the floor. Something glinted in the crimson puddle; it was one of Church's scalpels, which he'd left by her bed the night before. There was no sign of Christine.

Doc Church stared for several seconds, before he rushed outside and threw up over the ramp that led to his front door.

'I was lucky they moved to his office, otherwise they would've spotted me,' Christine said. 'But – Jesus, I didn't want to do that, she seemed real friendly.'

'However, you gave in to your inner humanity and killed her, because you knew I was leaving and you wanted to tag along.'

' I like 'team-up'. It makes you sound less like an egocentrically-set asshole.'

'I prefer tag-along,' because that is exactly what you are doing. We are not teaming up. Working alone suits me best,' said Liam, who was dragging Rose's body along to the side of the Megaton gate. Christine was keeping the packed Brahmin that the trader had owned under control – although it wasn't trying in any way to get away.

'And what is your problem with me?' she asked once he'd returned. 'I don't remember this hostility when we were in the vault.'

'Ask me again in a week. You'll see why. Here.' He gestured to the Brahmin, 'Help me unpack this.'

'Ask in a week? How does that make sense? I'll know by then how irritating I am, is that it?'

'No,' Liam said, almost snarling now, 'I have no personal problem with you. However, a week living in this wasteland will show you why I work alone. There's no-one to trust out there. That's it.'

'That's it?'

'That's it.'

There was a pause as Liam undid some of the bags that were tied to the mutant livestock, before Christine started yelling; 'Then don't be so fucking mysterious about it! Just say 'Because there's no trust in the wasteland.' Don't act like a higher power, just tell me! Jesus, no wonder the rest of us didn't talk to you in the vault, if you acted like a fucking eccentric all the time! Why do you think-'

'If you're coming with me, help me unpack this Brahmin. If not, get the fuck out of my face and don't bother me again. If you have a problem with how I act or how I talk, live with it or don't live with it, because I am not going to change for some whiny bitch who can't cope with the fact that the Wasteland isn't as safe and sound as the vault she crawled out of.' Liam paused to let his words have some effect. 'Now then, what is it to be, Christine?'

It was taking Christine an awful lot of force not to kick the living shit out of Liam. After several seconds as she forced herself to calm down, she muttered 'Give me a knife for these ropes.' Liam took one out of his pocket and handed it to her.

'Just cut the ends,' he growled, 'I'm going to use this mutant myself.'

North of Evergreen Mills. Time: 13:18.

By the time the two wanderers had passed the large raider encampment inside Evergreen mills (the entrance of which they had steered clear of) Christine was thinking she really should've stayed in Megaton. The heated weather and constant movement across the uneven and rock-spattered ground of the Capital wasteland was really taking its toll on her. Her injuries seemed to vanish that morning, but on walking non-stop for over four hours made her realize she was still far from fully recovered.

'But how did I get up earlier and kill two people? I can only just stand,' She looked over at Liam, who hadn't said anything since they had departed. 'He probably knows… but he'll make a fucking drama out of it, no doubt.' She sighed, and pushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear, before speaking. 'Liam?'

Liam grunted in response. Christine took it as a 'yes', and asked.

'You said back in… Megaton that you weren't sure how I survived that raider attack, but you had an idea. What was it?'

'Special.'

There was a peculiar silence, before Christine asked (the curtness already returning to her voice) 'Special?'

'S.P.E.C.I.A.L. It's the physical and mental attributes of a person. The fact that you survived probably has something to do with that.'

'Okay, but what's with the insignia?'

'I'll explain when we get to our destination,' he said. There was a few moments silence, before he added 'Take some Purified water.'

'What?'

'In the metal case on the left, there's some bottles of water. Take one, your voice has gone to shit.'

'Oh. Right.' She found the box and opened it. Inside were a dozen or so bottles. She took one and drank from it. It felt incredibly refreshing on her throat. She was about to say 'Thanks', when she decided against it. 'Where did you get all that?'

'Traders. They all have a couple on them.'

'Right.'

The two of them walked along the cliff strewn, burnt-tree-abundant area for around another half an hour, before Christine decided to speak up again. Before she could get the words out, however, Liam stopped moving and looked to his right slightly.

'What's wrong?' Christine asked. In response, Liam pointed where he stared. A large rock formation stood up around two hundred metres away, with several rough paths trailing around it. It looked very uninteresting, and Christine saw no difference between it and the other billion rock piles they had walked past, apart from the fact it was a lot taller.

'We're here,' Liam growled, and he walked the Brahmin over to a nearby tree (or what were considered trees), tying the rope around its neck to the thin trunk. He then reached for one of the boxes on the two-headed cow and put it on the ground.

'Why aren't we going in?'

'Because there are a couple of things inside we need to clear out before we unpack the gear.' He took the lid off the box and started rummaging inside

'Things? These things are…?' Christine asked without much interest.

Liam looked up at her with a deep seriousness in his eyes. He said one word:

'Deathclaws.'

And there is Chapter 3. Very simple, no?

Chapter 4? It'll take a while (all things come to those who wait).

Until then.