Chapter 8- Cut Down In Its Prime

Thank you to anyone who still reads this shitty story. I don't really put too much effort in to it (if you haven't noticed), but if you all keep reading it then I'll happily keep writing it :) Sorry it takes so long for me to update


Charon awoke at the crack of dawn as he was used to doing under Ahzrukhal's control despite the bar not opening till much later and the owner not awakening till about that same time. As different as it was, the mattress was good and he felt he actually got a decent amount of rest compared to just sleeping on a floor or bedroll. He glanced to the doorway warily, remembering the unexpected view of Chrys in her sleep attire the night before. A tank top and black underwear were the only things that covered her pearly white skin and showed off the length of her legs. He shook his head at the thought and got about to going through his morning routine. He had advised the small vault girl to wake up in about an hour so they could make it to the Jury street junction and back to Megaton in a decent time.

He swiftly buckled his armor on and laced his boots and made a quick check of his pack. He didn't bother going through to making sure he had everything necessary packed as he had done it three times to keep himself from looking at Chrys yesterday. 'What if she took offense to that?' He shook his head again and huffed. All his life under the contract's grasp he had great personal apathy for his employers and he felt no need to lose that state with this one. She was going to die quickly no matter how intelligent with a computer or repairs as she may be. No skill counted for shit if you couldn't shoot and aim a gun and this girl could barely see if it weren't for her glasses. He had the contract obligation to protect her so that bought her some time, but no matter what he couldn't save her from herself and her own ignorance.

Sighing, he went to the fridge and collected some of the food to store in their packs for travel rations and set a few items for breakfast when Chrys awakens. He went to her room to grab her pack and set about to packing it for the trip, finding his contract at the bottom of her pack. Knowing he couldn't touch due to his conditioning, he proceeded to pack stuff on top of it and closed up her pack when everything was in order.

"You're up… early" a groggy voice sounded, interjected with a small yawn. He turned to see his employer, thankfully dressed in her vault suit and cap, rubbing her eyes and walking down the stairs to where he sat on the couch with the packs at his feet.

"Conditioning. It's what I'm used to."

"Sleep well?" she asked as she plopped down in one of the other available seats and proceeded to clean her glasses.

"Yes."

"Great!" she perked up a bit, but sleep was still prevalent in her tired eyes. "So are you already all set to go?"

"Yes. I've packed our things already. May I suggest something?"

"Of course. Free speech, remember?"

"It may be better to find a more secure and hidden place for you to keep my contract than the bottom of your pack."

She eyed her pack and clicked her tongue. "Umm okay. When I find a better place for it I'll put it there, but really my pack is the only good place I've got to put it."

"Very well."

"Breakfast time I guess." She said and set about to preparing the food he had set aside earlier. He tried finding any reason to not watch her work and eventually found himself eyeing a book that sat on the small table in the center of the room. He recognized it as the book that Tulip had numerous copies of in her shop. Paradise Lost. She had tried offering him a copy one day, of course he had to deny it with the only words he was able to say at the time. But he had heard her say it was about hell and such and he wondered if the hell this writer described was much better than the hell the world was in now.

"If you're interested, you can read it." His employer's voice piped up as she returned with a plate of food for him. He accepted the plate with a nod and quickly set to eating his meal. "Come on, I saw you looking at it."

"Tulip talked about it often. No one really cared except Carol and even then there was no true interest." He finally responded. "No one before this time knew about hell and fantasizing it now is only pointless."

"Well it's more of a biblical epic thing than a fantasy." Chrys said as she poked at her food. "Maybe we can both read it."

"Not necessary."

"Well aren't you at least a bit curious?"

"Whatever it was it's gone now. Why would I read about a paradise that doesn't exist anymore?" He expected her to look dejected, but she held her impartial demeanor. She did turn her attention to her plate and ate some more of her food. The slow rate at which she chewed gave away the fact that she was in deep thought. Charon held his now empty plate and eyed the book again, knowing that it was a pointless piece to have survived over the centuries.

"Did you ever believe in it?"

"What?"

"Paradise. Heaven. You know."

"No." He promptly stood and took his empty plate to the kitchen. It was getting close to when they should set out and he didn't want her to get wrapped up in conversation or questions this whole trek. Silence is golden after all.

They dealt with their dishes and set out for Jury street metro station. Charon knew it was west of Megaton and that there was a good chance of there being raiders in the area due to the remains of a convenience store being there that could hold supplies or people to mug for supplies. He could only hope they'd be lucky and find a small band they could pick off, but a part of him highly doubted that would be the case. The sun hadn't reached its peak so the wasteland was cool as it generally was in the morning this time of the year, and the vault girl he trailed behind wasn't asking him questions or insisting she play a song or something from that damned radio station. It was a good walk and it was easy for him to survey their surroundings.

"Charon?"

'Just my fucking luck.'

"Yes?"

"You said you didn't believe in heaven earlier."

"Yeah. And?"

"Why? Was that a common thing in pre-war times?"

Charon lightly groaned but decided to give appeasement a try, "No belief and religion were very common back then. I just never could believe it knowing how bad humanity could be."

"You couldn't have always believed that."

"Well I did."

He could tell she didn't believe him. Whatever religious hogwash her dad had stuffed in her head wouldn't do her any good now anyway. 'Lot of good it did the people when the bombs dropped.' If she couldn't handle his nonbelieving ways well she could always command him to agree with her, however it still wouldn't change how he really felt.

"Well it's good to have something to believe in. You'll see." She said looking up at him with a smile.

"There's nothing here worth believing in other than that you've got good aim."

She laughed a bit at that, to him it was an odd reaction given her stance on having belief. "Well there is that but I mean hope, Charon. Hope for something… greater."

"When you stand in a corner for fifty years let me tell you lose that ability to hope for something greater." His words came out in a sneer which succeeded in focusing her attention elsewhere, even if it was with a downtrodden look. They continued west until the sure sign of a metro station came into view. Before they got close he signaled for her to crouch and let him take the lead. As they neared the first building, an abandoned diner, he could pick out the sounds of scavenging raiders down the street checking out the grocers. Quickly he pointed the diner and the two of them hid inside the abandoned diner's counter. With the windows and door completely gone there was no hiding any loud sounds they might make, but they did have some cover for the time being- provided the raiders had no explosive weapons.

"How many raiders did you see?" Chrys whispered as she crouched next to him, making a move to peer over the counter.

Yanking her back down, he held up four fingers and signaled for her to stay put.

"But…" she began but was silenced by a stern look and a hand clamped over her mouth. One of the raiders he could tell was heading there way.

"I'll see if there's anything in the diner!"

"Remember I have dibs on Jet!"

"Fuck you! If I find it it's mine!"

'Typical raiders.' He rolled his eyes and ushered Chrys back toward the closed off end of the counter so he could be closer to the open end. If he did this right he could eliminate this one without attracting the attention of the other three. Lazily the raider checked the area on the other side of the counter and didn't bother to look over it to find a ghoul and vault girl hiding. 'Perfect.'

Once the raider neared the open end of the counter, Charon sprang up, grabbing the raider and snapping his twig of a neck and grabbing his gun and body before they could crumble to the floor and make noise. 'One down.' He turned back to Chrys to find her wide-eyed with her hands covering her mouth and gaze fixed on the dead body in front of them.

"Get used to it." Charon whispered and quickly got started on looting any possible useful items on the raider. Other than the bastard's gun, there was little of use to them. Turning back to Chrys, her face not having changed, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. "Listen, there are three more of them out there. I'm going to take them out, while you stay put here. Don't. Move." He didn't want risk her do anything stupid with the state she was in after seeing him kill that raider and he saw very little harm she could do from here.

"Can't we-?"

"What? Reason with them? No. They'd rather shoot us. Stay here. Don't move." He quickly reiterated and turned to sneak out of the diner to a better vantage point of the other three raiders. The trio was huddled in front of the grocery store entrance with their focus mainly on the door except for one whose focus was on scanning the area opposite of where Charon was sneaking from. Once he found a point behind an adjacent building he took aim and fired off into the group. One crumpled to the ground and the other two quickly sprang to action.

"The fuck!?" the both of them screamed as the bolted in different directions. Charon aimed for idiot who decided to run towards him and took him down with a well-placed shot to the head. Quickly he pivoted and took down the other who had run in the direction of the diner. Not detecting anymore movement, Charon walked back to the diner, gun at the ready and scanning for any possible raiders that may have hidden on the rooftops.

"Chrys. It's clear." He called when he got to the entrance of the diner. There was no answer. 'Fuck.'

"Chrys!" he called again before walking in to check the other side of the counter. Sure enough the girl was gone. 'FUCK!' Fuming, he rushed out of the diner and checked around it to find her but it was to no avail.

"Chrys!" he called out and was still met with no answer.

Click!

'You've got to be kidding me.'


Chrys huffed and sat propped against the counter as Charon disappeared from view to take out the other three raiders. As much as she didn't want to, she found herself looking at the dead body of the raider not even four feet away from her. She couldn't help but shutter out how deftly and nonchalantly Charon had killed the raider. She had yet to see him kill an actual person and she had even yet to actually kill someone herself. She usually just snuck around people who looked threatening and kept her gun somewhat at the ready. Charon, he just killed without question, then again he knew the wasteland while she did not.

She sighed and waited for signs of struggle or gunfire signaling, hopefully, that Charon took out the other three raiders. She was confident in his abilities, but three against one was still rather hefty odds. Suddenly, footsteps sounded nearby that she could tell were from outside the diner. Despite what Charon said, she peered quickly over the counter to see a fifth raider checking the outside of the diner. He looked young and rather scrawny for a raider but he had an assault rifle in his hands and a crazed look in his eyes as he scanned the diner. Her breath hitched and she quickly ducked behind the counter again, waiting for the raider to hopefully rejoin the others.

His footsteps slowly made their way towards the window that would make her visible as the open end of the counter was in view of it. Shaking, she slowly ebbed her way down the counter and up to the wall under the window before the raider could peer in.

"H-Holy shit!" the raider whispered when he saw his fallen comrade, who was still in plain sight. "Who the fuck got Fitz?"

Fighting to keep her breathing silent, Chrys listened as the footsteps quickly made their way to the entrance, no matter what she would be seen. Bracing herself, she darted to the entrance and grabbed an nearby piece of metal right at the moment the raider entered the diner.

"Who-!?"

WHAM!

Before the raider could finish or pull a trigger, Chrys hurled her arm up and bashed the raider with hefty piece of metal she grabbed. He stumbled but caught himself and looked at her in disbelief as she darted out of the diner and away from the direction of the other buildings. Behind her she heard gunfire and cussing followed by more gunfire as she sprinted to some rocks and hurled herself over them to gain some cover. She peered back to see the disoriented raider come looking for her and quickly ducked back down to keep herself hidden. Sure enough the metal she was holding gave a small click. She looked down to see the hefty metal piece she had used to club a raider was in fact an assault rifle in fairly decent condition. However, this rifle had a different design from what she remembered assault rifles looking like and had different colors compared to regular assault rifles. She looked at etching on it and found one in particular that read "Xuanlong."

Distracted by her find, she peered over the rock and found the scrawny raider had gone to find out where the gunfire had come from. 'Charon! He doesn't know there's a fifth!' Taking a deep breath, she hurried out from behind the rock and back toward the diner. Crouching, she edged around the outside of the diner and looked to see the raider holding his rifle pointed at Charon's back.

"D-Don't move." The raider said as he took a small step closer towards the massive ghoul. Charon eyed the raider but made no other movements. "I don't know how you took all the others out. But y-you ain't gonna get me. Your tricks won't work on me."

Charon said nothing.

"I-I've always wondered what would happen if I shot someone in the head with this. I h-hope your head blows up like Fitz said it would."

Without thinking, Chrys quickly rose and pulled the trigger on the rifle, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the raider, one of which managed to graze his outstretched arm and caused him to flinch in agony and drop his gun. The next moment there was a click and the scrawny raider's head was gone. Chrys huffed and turned her attention to Charon, who had a mixture of anger and surprise on his face as he lowered his shotgun and looked at her. Chrys could only give a wry smile as she walked over to the now headless raider body and stare at it. Before she knew it she was keeled over puking her guts out.

When her bout of expulsion ceased, an uncapped bottle of purified water appeared in her peripheral vision. She accepted it and took a long gulp, capping it when done knowing she had to conserve it.

"Bleh!" she exclaimed and turned towards the stoic ghoul on her right, "I know what you're gonna say. 'I told you to stay put. Don't move.' Well that guy came out of nowhere once you left and I had to do what I could and that involved bashing his head with this thing before I ran and hid." She stuck her tongue out at the foul taste of bile that still lingered in her mouth, "And you know what they're all taken care of, and I found this gun so I say I didn't totally screw up."

Charon stood looking at her with a blank expression before turning his attention to the gun in her hand. "You found that?"

"I thought it was just a piece of metal. It was by the diner entrance."

"And you beat him with it?"

"Once yeah, then I ran while he was disoriented."

"And then you shot him with it and actually hit him."

"Well… yeah."

"Hmm. Good to know you knew to check for ammo in the gun and that it was in good condition to fire."

Chrys looked down at the gun in her hand, "Oh… I uh actually didn't do that."

"You… didn't?" an incredulous look appeared on his face.

She could feel her face turn red as she rubbed the back of her neck, avoiding eye contact with the ghoul. "Well… we're alive aren't we?" Charon simply turned as he breathed various obscenities under his breath and began looting the fallen raiders. "Hey. We are!"

"Go look around where you found that thing, there might be more supplies." Charon ordered and pointed sternly at the diner. With a huff Chrys headed back to the entrance of the diner knowing very well he was directing her so she would stay out of the way rather than actually find notable supplies. As she approached she noticed the dead body of a man lying near the entrance of the diner. "I guess we rushed past you going in and out." She bent down and cautiously poked the body and checked its pulse to see if the man was in fact dead. Confirmed, Chrys looked wearily at the body then steeled her resolve and started looting through his pockets finding some ammo for the gun as well as other various things. Eventually she found a paper indicating that this was Prime. "Hmm. Well what do you know?" After checking through his pockets once more she reached into the bag near him and fished out a hefty black leather duster with no sleeves. She looked in the rest of the bag to find some jeans and armored strappings that could be added as well. She rubbed the leather duster and found it was rather thick and offered a little more wear and tear resistance than her vault suit. Snatching up all the clothing pieces she rushed inside the diner and quickly changed. Luckily the pieces were for a feminine fit and only need a little adjusting with the belts to fit better. With that she stuffed her vault suit into her pack and reached down and fished Charon's contract out before stuffing it in one of the inside duster pockets.

When she exited the diner she found Charon walking back from scavenging from the other raiders. He was perplexed when he saw her unexpected attire change. She smirked and gave a little twirl. "What do you think? Do I look the part of a rugged wastelander?"

His eyes scanned her up and down before he shook his head. "No." She dropped her arms and head and gave an exasperated sigh 'There's just no winning with this guy is there?'

"Well do I at least look more it?"

"You look like a freaking Brahmin in a yao guai pelt. You ain't fooling anyone."

"Well I'm trying aren't I?"

He huffed, "And are you expecting a medal or something? Gold star, you tried? No one cares. There's no trying, just doing and not doing."

Chrys looked up at him, his expression looking annoyed and tinged with a bit of anger. She sighed and shook her head. "No. I wasn't expecting anything."

"About time." Charon said and hefted his pack on his shoulder and gestured for her to follow him to the grocer.

She followed with low spirits as they entered. Since she was looking down, she happened to notice the pressure pad Charon was about to step on. "Charon!" She lunged forward and grabbed the massive ghoul, yanking back with all her petite might. This however, ended up in them falling back and getting tangled up in a mess of limbs and supplies.

"What the-!?" Charon began.

"Ok! Before you say anything!" Chrys broke in and pointed forcefully at the pressure plate not far from his feet. Charon's demeanor changed to shocked and then he nodded not giving her any eye contact. He grunted as he detached himself from her and crouched forward to disarm the pressure plate while she brought herself to her feet. She inched past Charon and dusted herself off as she scanned the shelves for anything particularly interesting.

"Don't wander off. There'll probably be more traps." Charon said as he rose to his feet and picked up his shotgun. Chrys turned to him and pressed and hand on her hip.

"Hey I'm not that ignorant! I helped kill that raider and I spotted that trap on the way in. Without me what would you be right now? Dead?"

"No, I'd be alive back in Underworld throwing drunks out of a bar. Not on a hair-brained goose chase to find your father." He retorted as he inspected his shotgun for any damage.

"And what you really think that's better?"

"I'd be alive. Sadly that disgusting bastard would be too."

"So is everything I've done so far just… I don't know… pointless to you? Superfluous? Naïve? Stupid?" Chrys ranted as she threw her hands in the air trying to draw the ghoul's attention from his gun. Charon finished checking his gun and turned his attention to scanning the room around them.

"In some cases, yes." He said bluntly and made his way over to a tripwire to disarm it. Chrys dropped her arms to her sides and stared after the ghoul.

"Well…"

"Well what?" Charon asked as he disarmed the tripwire.

Chrys wanted to explode at him. Call him selfish and insufferable and ungrateful, but she didn't have the heart or the guts despite the fact that he really could do nothing in retaliation to her. "One day I'll prove to you I'm not. And for what it's worth… you might not appreciate me and my hopeful, naïve self being around, but…"

Charon kept his focus on disarming the trap.

"… I appreciate that you're with me. And you're right, I can't do this on my own."

She had looked away and didn't notice that he had stopped working on disarming the trap.

"You're right about me being a naïve and clumsy vault girl who doesn't know the wasteland and would be dead because she wants to reason with raiders and doesn't check her gun for ammo and stuff. I'm not strong, I'm not combat inclined, I don't know how to survive, and I don't know the way life works up here." She let out a heavy sigh, "So yeah, I might not think the same way you do, but you know what?"

There was no response.

"I believe in you. That you'll help me; that you'll teach me how to survive out here; and that you'll help me find my dad. You can tell me how wrong I am, that it's just the contract, I don't care. I'm gonna believe. I'm gonna believe my dad is alive, that I'll find him, and that you'll help me, maybe not every step of the way… but most of them." She looked over at him. She couldn't tell if he was working on the trap or not so she only sighed and stepped outside to let him loot the store for supplies.

She sat down on the steps leading up to the diner entrance and watched the road and the grocer entrance for any activity. It wasn't until about fifteen minutes later when the massive ghoul came out of the grocer and walked up to her. He hefted the pack on his shoulder signaling he picked up a good amount of supplies and nodded in the direction of Megaton. Chrys sighed and rose to her feet and headed to the east where the large metal wall loomed in the distance. The sun was starting to lower in the sky but sunset was still a few hours away.

When night fell Chrys sat curled up in her seat reading through Paradise Lost by herself as the occasional tinker sounded from upstairs as Charon had set to inspecting the new assault rifle she had stumbled upon. He hadn't said anything to her, only pointed to the gun and motioned for her to give it to him. She had complied knowing well what he was going to do with it.

As she read through the book she found herself thinking more about what had happened earlier more than paying attention to the book. She was startled when a clink sound and she looked at the table to see the newly repaired assault rifle sitting on the table.

"Xuanlong Chinese assault rifle." Charon said, "They were the best of the best and how one came to be here, I have no clue." Chrys looked up at the ghoul, but his focus was down at the gun not on her. "More damage, bigger magazine, and surprisingly lighter."

Chrys swallowed, "Do you want to use it?"

"No. You found it, you use it."

The ghoul turned to head back up the stairs. Anxious over what she had said earlier and the fact that other than in this last moment he had not said a word to her, she couldn't help but call out to him, "Charon!"

The ghoul stopped, but he did not look at her.

"I'm… what I said earlier. I'm sorry if I said anything that made you… uncomfortable."

Charon only stood there, one foot one the ground, one foot on the first stair. Chrys watched him for a moment and finally hung her head and looked away.

"Don't apologize."

Chrys shot her attention to the ghoul and found him looking at her. His face was stoic as ever.

"But… you haven't said-"

"You were mad. I could tell. You wanted to say something, but you didn't."

Chrys gave a soft laugh, "Yeah I did, but I mean it would've just been me being angry not how I truly felt." At that the ghoul stepped back from the stairs, a small twitch of his brow gave away a bit of confusion.

"You have every right to be mad. I stepped out of line and should have received repercussions."

"For being honest? You tell it like it is, Charon. Yeah my wild goose chase to find my dad is crazy and I'm probably the least capable person to do it, but there's nothing I can do to change the fact that I need to find him. I need answers, and most of all I want to know he's safe."

"And you really put that much trust and belief in me when you know all I'm doing for you is solely because of the contract?"

She felt herself smile, "Yes and I know it's not just because of the contract. You have some sort of belief, not necessarily in some greater power, but in how people should act. You have… morals. That's why you killed Ahzrukhal, and that's why you were gentle with me when he ordered you to 'imprison' me. I know you're good, even if it is only for ignorant, down-on-their-luck smoothskins." Charon only looked at her with a stoic face. Time seemed to pass slowly as the two just looked at each other. Finally the massive ghoul eyed the book in the vault girl's hands.

"Very far in it?"

"Truthfully I haven't really been paying attention to it."

Charon sighed and went over to sit down in the other available seat. He looked at her expectantly after she simply sat there looking at him with a surprised look. He nodded to the book after a little while. "You said we could read it together earlier."

She could feel one of the biggest smiles adorn her face. "I knew you were curious!"

He waved her off, "Just sparing myself from you ranting about it later."

She stuck her tongue out at him in response, "Liar, I know you're curious."

Charon rolled his eyes and shook his head. While she wanted him to admit it, she decided to just start on the book. They took turns reading pages out loud to the other and surprisingly they made it halfway through the book before the vault girl dozed off while Charon was reading. He noticed fairly quickly and marked their page in the book before setting it down on the table. Quietly, and fairly uncertain if it was in bounds, he lifted up the sleeping vault girl and carried her to bed. As always, she was light and she had a quiet snore that he found rhythmic rather than annoying or obscene. When she was settled he headed off to his room and sat for a moment on the edge of his bed staring off in the distance that was his shoes. The vault girl believed he was good, that he would help her even out of contract bounds. She was naïve beyond belief, but there were things she was right about. But why she would put her faith in him after just a few small instances he could never understand. Faith was a tricky thing, and after what he'd been through he doubted he'd ever put his in someone or something again.