A/N: I've been having state testing for two weeks straight, so I apologize for the late update. I already had this chapter typed out but I can't find much time to even upload anymore. That and the fact that I'm working on an original story that I'm hoping to actually turn to into a book.
Jack was about to open his mouth for yet another snarky comment when the sound of bullets ricocheting off his shack's roof was heard, and he sighed while he stood up, grabbing his sniper rifle in the meantime.
"The hell...?" Saige muttered, readying her own Assault Rifle in the meantime as Jack was already pushing open his door.
"Bet you all my rum its the same damn teenage raiders... They think they're so tough messing with an old 'zombie', I'll show them the pussies they are. Let them get near me, I'll introduce them to my Fat Man..." Jack growled, as Saige became cautious at the threat of a Fat Man.
"Yeah..." she muttered along, scared and following Jack with curiosity.
Saige ducked into the high pen where Jelly Bean the brahmin was kept, and pet her for close to ten minutes before she ran off to find and join Jack.
She was quite affectionate, surprisingly, and Saige was scared of a two-headed cow-like creature. Understandable, as it looked like the stuff nightmares are made of.
When she found him, Jack was found by Charon and they saw the addict hidden behind a large rock with his sniper rifle in his hands, a finger to his lips to signal silence.
Jack had found the raiders responsible for their disruption earlier and sighed, shuffling around his duster pockets for a frag grenade and biting off the pin with his teeth, throwing it right into the pocket of one of the raider's uniforms and killing the two instantly.
"I swear, everything's cool now except for having common sense. If kids took that instead of Jet, there would be no Wasteland..." Jack complained, giving a sigh as he put his rifle back up.
"No kidding." Saige agreed, knowing full well she was included in the group of 'kids' he was talking about, causing Jack to stare at her with a weird look.
The three continued their short walk back to Jack's Shack, as they saw a small mushroom cloud in the distance, in the direction they were walking in fact.
Jack looked distressed, as he ran in the direction with his arms open, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Saige and Charon looked at each other with strange expressions and proceeded in following him at his heels, before they came over the hill before they arrived at Jack's Shack, or what was left of it.
Some raiders had blown it up with a mini nuke, hence the mushroom cloud earlier.
Jack was weeping at the wreckage of his home, all his rum was now gone.
Saige glanced to the side, to see that Jelly Bean's pen was bent and open now, and that the brahmin was gone.
Jack walked over to the wreckage of the pen, a depressed look on his face.
"Jelly Bean, no..." he muttered, putting a flaccid hand on the pen, looking into the empty space where she once was.
"I think she's fine." Saige grinned, as Jack looked back to her with a depressed, lifeless expression, making Saige feel bad for even feeling happy.
"What I meant was-er... I forgot to lock her cage before I found you, I didn't know it locked until I saw the padlock just now... She probably got out before everything was blown up." Saige looked to her feet, as she suddenly felt herself being squeezed.
She looked up to see Jack hugging her tightly, a grin on his face in absent-mindedness of his rum being gone.
"That's great! She has more of my rum! I thought it was all gone, thank you!" Jack let go of the violet-haired girl when he noticed she was going the same color of her hair from lack of oxygen.
"Sorry 'bout that." Jack chuckled, grabbing both Saige's and Charon's hand and dragging them across the Wasteland. "Jelly Bean couldn't have gone far," said an enthusiastic Jack.
Jack was groaning from the heat, as Saige realized how annoying she must've been to Charon, as she acted the same way when they had to travel long distances.
In this case, they hadn't travel very far whatsoever, the wreckage of the shack was still a dot on the horizon.
"Are we almost there?" Jack asked for the thousandth time within three minutes, as Saige tried to restrain herself from killing the ghoul.
"Are we there ye-" Jack asked again, as Saige suddenly turned around and hit Jack over the head with the butt of her Assault Rifle, yelling at him.
"We are nearly there, calm your fucking tits already!" Saige growled, turning around and drinking a rum she had pick-pocketed off him in the process.
They hadn't traveled very far at all when they saw a small brown speck in the distance, and Jack looked like he just taken some Jet himself, running faster than life itself.
"Baby, you're back! You scared me to death! Don't ever leave me again! Where did I put the rum..." Jack yelled in happiness, searching the packs on the brahmin's back for rum, finding some eventually and sitting down near his prized pet.
Saige gave a laugh, she liked how goofy Jack was.
"Everything in the Wasteland isn't sunshine and rainbows." Charon muttered in annoyance, just under Saige's range of hearing.
"What'd you say?" asked a curious Saige, as Charon shook his head.
"Saige is going to get herself killed this way, one of these days," Charon thought, wanting to just shake some sense into the young girl.
"But that's exactly what she is. Young. Can't exactly have much sense at her age..." Charon looked at his fellow ghoul, narrowing his eyes to get a good look at him.
He had changed a lot since Charon last saw him, but then again, last time the two had spoke, it wasn't on good terms.
And the fact that Charon hadn't been able to have the power to talk to him freely.
"C'mon now, Jack. You just need to pay up the caps on your tab and you can walk out of those doors freely." Ahzrukhal leaned on the counter, his hand out and waiting for his promised caps. "I don't think so, Ahzzie. I told you I'd pay up someday, but today is not that day. I believe it's Tuesday, actually." Jack smirked, his ego and smartass attitude at a all-time high while he was under the roof of the bar. "Oh really? I don't think Charon will agree with you." Ahzrukhal nodded in Charon's direction, as Charon came out from his usual spot of the bar, loading up his combat shotgun and holding it to Jack's back, as Jack had turned around to see Charon there. "I can see he doesn't share my views. I, however, would appreciate it if you would let me pass, dear Charon." Jack smiled, his hand up over his head as Charon gave a grunt, to say no. Charon was wanting to let him go through, anything for Ahzrukhal to lose a few goddamn caps. "I suppose that's a no. Fine, here's your caps. Hope you choke on them, asshat." Jack threw his caps down on the counter, storming out the door with a sour look on his face.
Charon had regretted acting in such a way towards Jack, even if he hadn't liked him personally.
Those were in the days right before Saige was brought into the Underworld, dipping slightly into the days where Saige was asleep in the office of The Chop Shop.
Charon always held a grudge against him, as Jack knew Charon hated Ahzrukhal and his slavery to him, and he had never freed him.
He was rich enough, he had the caps, but yet he spent all his earnings on rum, the selfish prick.
Charon was burst out of his thoughts as Saige stumbled into him, obviously she had dipped into his rum stash and an oblivious Jack hadn't noticed that one of his rum bottles was gone, which you would think he would notice immediately.