Edited: 10/1/2015, 1:58 a.m.
ALEX
"Where we goin today Lass," I asked Nevaeh, peering over her shoulder at the map on her Pip-Boy.
She looked up at me with suspicion in her eyes and sighed, turning off her Pip-Boy and looking towards the city with a strange longing in her eye. I leaned back against the concrete beside Charon, pressing the mouth of my flask against my own and letting the burn tingle against my lips. I knew she was still pretty shakin up about that place she went into. All she would say about it was that it was horrible, too horrible for Raiders even. When Charon or I said we would go check it out she refused to let us go, told us she would never go near it again. Hell, even Rex seemed a little bothered after following her out there.
"I wanna go check out the memorial," she looked back at us. "What do you guys think?"
I shrugged and looked over at Charon. "What you think?"
He looked over at me, that suspicion gone from his eyes and then sighed. "I do not care either way, I am bound to follow you. If you wish to go, we go, if you don't we don't."
Nevaeh groaned. "I hate you Charon, come on."
I chuckled and capped my flask, sticking it back into my pocket and followed behind her and her bodyguard. Rex whined at my side but followed, and I looked down at him with concern. He was probably hungry, neither one of us had ate since the night before last. I was actually hungry, for the first time in a long time I was hungry. I looked forward at Nevaeh and rose what would be an eyebrow at the way she swayed and swiveled her hips to an unheard beat. She was a bag of interesting that one, and for some reason it bothered me. I mean I liked Nevaeh, didn't think she was a human when we first met since that time in Megaton. I thought she was a demon and honestly I wondered if I was correct. I mean. . .there was something about this woman that put me off a little but I now wanted to stay at her side. I owed her for keeping my large family safe all this time. If I didn't pay her back somehow I would feel like a total fucking bum.
"Alex why are you staring at me so hard?"
I blinked and noticed Nevaeh looking over her shoulder at me, her footsteps leaving no print in the sand the way Charon's and mine did. I shook my head a little. "Sorry lass, just got lost in my train of thought."
She nodded and looked forward again. Charon looked over his shoulder at me and moved to walk between Nevaeh and I, successfully blocking my view of her. What did he think I was going to do? I was far from that kind of man, he should know that already. Well, I guess he wouldn't seeing as we didn't really know each other. I looked to the West, feeling the need to return home. I wanted to be home, I really do. I miss the desert and the sun and the familiar faces. Some were probably gone by now, some probably older and unlike the people I knew before. I was probably a long forgotten shadow over there. I looked back down, reaching into my pocket and grabbing my flask again. I lifted it up but didn't open it, just ran my thumb over that infinity symbol like always. Two hundred years and I've almost forgotten what this symbol means, even though I have tried my damdest to keep the memory there.
I just wanted to go home.
NEVAEH
Through the scope of my sniper rifle, I watched Ted Strayer wandering around on the flight deck of the giant ship that was Rivet City. He was flying high on Jet, looking all happy and twitching constantly. I swallowed and smirked, pulling the trigger. I rocked back slightly from the recoil and watched the bullet snap through Ted's skull. He slumped against the chain link fence beside him and slid down limply to the ground while I raised my rifle and fist in the air, looking over at Charon and Alex. Alex was facing the metro station, leaning against the rock and had a cigarette clamped between his ghoulish lips. Charon was crouched beside me, eyes locked on the body I had made across the water.
"C'mon buddy, Ted's wanted to die ever since I met him. I just helped him," I said, shimmying down from the boulder we were on.
Charon sighed as he slid to the ground beside me, his eyes making a quick sweep of the area before they landed on me. Always vigilant. That's what Charon was, he never let anything get past him and that was great since I never watched my own back. Alex seemed to be the same way, seeing as when he heard my feet hit the ground he started looking around but he didn't look at me. Maybe he was just looking out for himself. I looked back over at Charon as we walked and noticed how tense he was.
"Nevaeh may I say something?"
I tensed up, looking over into his blue eyes. "Uh sure. You know you can Charon."
Honestly? I didn't want him to say anything to me. It was probably about me and I didn't want to hear it. I just wanted to ignore the problems right now. I didn't want to hear his opinions of me, I didn't even want to hear my opinion of me.
"I think we should g to the memorial to look for your father now."
I sighed, more annoyed with this sentence than any opinion he had of me. I know I had been avoiding it ever since we left the tower, I didn't want to go no matter what I said but really I didn't want to go. I stared over at the memorial, a strange twinge in my belly making me choke on the spit I was swallowing. I pat my chest and led Alex, Rex and Charon towards the gate to Rivet City. The guards nodded their greetings, not even noticing the way Charon tensed up I guess. Harkness smiled at me, a smile I returned, but neither one of us made a move to approach each other. Charon and I entered the stairwell, climbing up to the flight deck.
Ted's body was there, the rusty smell of blood lingering around him. I put an arm over my nose and bent down to dig through his pockets. I stuffed anything of value into my pack and I smiled in triumph when I found the key I was looking for, clicking it onto my keychain with a whole other mess of keys. I started heading back towards the door, pilfering a cigarette from my pocket. Charon and Alex's heavy footsteps kept a steady rhythm behind me until we hit the dirt on the outside. They turned into another set of shuffles in the sand as we started towards the memorial.
I didn't want to do this. I wanted to go to Underworld and deliver my keys so I could go and relax with my friends back home. But no, here I was taking care of my old man again, like always. I hated being his fucking babysitter, but how did Charon feel about having the same role thrust upon him? I sneak a peek at him and notice his gun is out. I wonder if he hears anything or if he's just being his normal paranoid self. Probably the latter.
"There's a mutant camp ahead," Charon's voice forced its way into my ears.
I looked up to where he was pointing and took my sniper rifle from my back, looking through the scope to a Brute with a mini-gun. I noticed the captive at his feet and grinned sadistically, pulling the trigger. I could hear the captive scream as skull and blood rained down on him. Well, that seemed to catch the attention of the other muties. I could hear war cries and that made Charon glare at me and Alex chuckled, patting me on the back.
"Finally, some real action," he grinned his way past me and pulled out his pistol.
I grinned and leaned my sniper rifle against a boulder, dropping my pack beside it. Three of the five muties left stormed out of the camp, looking around wildly in their search for the killer of their partner and probably leader. Charon and Alex began firing, taking out two of the muties and going for the next, which was a brute and would obviously take two of them. I pulled my laser rifle off of my back and lined the sights up the head of a Super Mutant Overlord. I pulled the trigger and a laser went through its neck but all it did was burn the molted skin. The Overlord screamed and swung around, a weird looking gun in its hand. It started firing and I ducked and rolled towards a boulder, seeing to laser shoot over my head and heard one hit the boulder. What kind of gun is that? How the hell would a Super Mutant anything get a hold of a laser weapon like that and know how to use it? Holy shit. I took in a deep breath and pulled my gun against my chest, jumping up and firing as fast as I could. I cheered when I got a lucky shot in and it hit him in his eyes, blinding him. He stumbled back and held onto his face, screaming and started firing off in every direction.
Charon and Alex cursed and ducked behind their own boulders and I scrambled towards them, pressing my thin frame between them. "Nevaeh what the fuck," Alex hissed, reloading his pistol.
"What?! I didn't think he would start doing this shit. I figured he'd go down or something like that," I growled, getting close to his face then I sighed and settled back into place. "Fuck, what do we do?"
"We do nothing," Charon growled, pushing himself up into a crouch. "You two stay your asses right here and I am going to take care of this."
Alex and I grumbled, placing our weapons in our lap while Charon jumped up and went to do whatever. I listened to him and the Overlord fighting. I pursed my lips in the corner and looked over at Alex. He looked over at me and nodded, pulling his flask out. We passed it between each other for a few moments, taking sip after sip, listening to the blasts of a shotgun and the hiss of a laser rifle. I wonder when this is gonna be over. I shook the flask a little. We were running out of booze. I sighed and knocked my head back.
"Soooo are you just gonna follow Charon and I around forever or what?"
Alex shrugged. "I'll go if you want me to, lass. I owe ya for keepin my family safe."
I smiled a little. "Their all my family too, they're the only people that accepted me right from the get-go when I came out of the Vault. Everyone else either wanted to kill me or catch me and sell me, like a dog. If I would have killed all of them. . .well I would have killed myself. There would have been no getting around that I love those people like they were blood, and now you and Charon are in that pool."
Alex grinned. "I feel special."
I chuckled and stood, hearing the Overlord hit the ground nearby. "You should, I don't give love out very easily," I looked over my shoulder. "Hey Charon you ready to keep going?"
He looked up, strapping his shotgun to his back. "Yes I am ready."
I nodded and jogged over to my stuff, throwing both sniper rifle and pack over my shoulder. "Alright then, lets grow."
"Grow," Alex chuckled, catching up to me.
I watched Charon walk up to my side before I grinned up at Alex and started towards the memorial. "Yeah, my Dad would say that sometimes, when he was in a good mood or something."
Alex chuckled and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. "If I didn't know any better by now I would say your Dad was a great guy."
I flinched a little. "Yeah, if you didn't know any better. . ." I mumbled, starting up the ramp to the memorial.
I cursed lowly when I saw the other mutants on the platform but Alex just grinned like before and started firing at a Brute that was nearby. It roared and started at him with a nail board, completely bypassing me. I raised my gun like it was a chore to keep myself alive, and fired at one mutant charging at me. It was a lucky shot and the mutant fell to the ground, his face slowly turning to ash. I cursed when I saw a grenade thump to a stop beside me, diving towards Charon so we could both fall against the floor of the opposite side of the platform. The grenade pumped fire into the air and I choked on the smoke, my eyes widening when I saw the mutant charging at me. Like an idiot I dropped my gun and watched it slide off of the platform with hopeless eyes, watching Alex immediately dive over the edge after it, his boots leaving bloody prints behind.
Charon's shotgun made my head ring as it pumped a spray into the muties head and took him down. I watched the mutie bounce against the platform, eyes wide open and leaking blood. I rubbed my temples for a moment, trying to stand up and clear my head of the ringing at the same time. I grit my teeth when I saw the mutant on the ground, struggling to get up with a grenade in his hand. Charon growled and stomped over to it, pressing his boot against the back of the mutant's neck, forcing it back down so he could shoot it in the back of the head.
And that's how Charon made it onto my list of official badasses, ahead of Roy Phillips, Alex and some old guy named John Wayne. I watched some of his old movies on the holotapes in the Vault and thought no one was cooler. He is number three behind Alex and Charon.
I hobbled to him, holding onto one of his thick arms. He stared down at my wound and motioned for me to sit on the muties back, which I did, and watched him open the first aid kit from my pack. He pulled out a half empty syringe of Med-X, tweezers and gauze. Fuck me running at this point; I flinched while he worked on my leg. The bullet he pulled out turned into my worst enemy and I snatched it from him, tossing it over the edge of the platform.
Charon raised an eyebrow, sort of, at me. "And. . .why did you do that?"
I crossed my arms ad huffed like a little kid. "Because it shot me."
"No, the mutant shot you."
"Whatever," I mumbled under my breath, hissing when he tightened the bandages around my leg. "Do you mind?"
He glared up at me. "Shut up."
"You two sound like an old married couple."
I looked to my left and grinned widely at Alex. He was sopping wet, smacking his hat against his leg. He raised up my rifle for a second before he tossed it to me. I caught it with an oomph, cradling it against my chest.
"Thank Alex," I grinned wider, running my fingers down the barrel of my rifle.
"No problem, it's a nice gun."
I opened my mouth to speak, looked up and my mouth went dry. Now. . .I'm not a hypocrite or anything ya know? I mean I am traveling with two ghouls, but I hadn't ever thought of a ghoul with those kind of thoughts. But I think Alex is probably the hottest guy/ghoul I have ever seen. I looked him up and down as he draped his shirt over the railing, his coat beside it and silently wished he would take off his pants. Damn, I am such a fucking perv.
He looked up at me and grinned lopsidedly. "Like what ya see?"
I smirked. "Hell yeah I do but we have company," I gestured at Charon.
He glared up at me and I glared back, using his shoulder as a support when I tried to stand. He continued to stare at me but I didn't return it this time, just pulled a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it. I offered the pack around and lit two extra cigarettes, looking at Alex's wet clothes.
"How long you think that'll take?"
He looked over at his clothes and shrugged. He took a drag off of his cigarette. "Not too long with this wind and the sun. You two can go on inside if you want to. I think you two can handle yaselves."
Charon and I nodded, walking across the platform. We eased into the door we found, leaving my Pip-Boy light off when we heard the cries of muties. I watched one down the platform run towards an opening, but stop, turning to face us. He couldn't see us, but I know he heard the thump the door gave when it closed. I raised my gun slowly, pulling the trigger. He vaporized before he could alert the others and we jogged down the slope to the crossway. In the room to our right was a turret on the ceiling and I blasted that away after it took care of all the muties in the room.
Charon slinked ahead of me, his shotgun raised to his eyes as he scanned the area. My Pip-Boy beeped and I looked down at the inside map of the place. There were three hostiles left. Two on either side of the door and one in the far back. I snapped my fingers, making Charon snap his head back to look at me. I motioned for him to come closer and he did, staring down at my map then me.
"You go right, I go left and we ambush the one in the back," I told him.
He looked into my eyes and nodded. We pulled our weapons back up to our eyes, literally slinking in our respective directions. Lucky me, I got a fucking Centaur. I cursed to myself and leveled my sights with the things head, vaporizing the foul body part in a lucky shot. Its tongues waved wildly, fading to the tips into ash. I could hear a mutant thump against the ground as Charon's shotgun unloaded a bullet. I grinned and charged down the hallway in front of me, my eyes connecting with Charon's before he blasted the mutant away, sending a spray of blood across me.
I licked my lips clean, my face grimacing when the rusty taste of mutie blood coated my tongue. Charon jogged to my side, reloading his shotgun as he stared at the door labeled Rotunda. I gave a heavy sigh and smiled at Charon before we pushed through the dreaded door into the hollow room. I could hear muties stomping through the room and fear dropped into my stomach.
Dad. . .
"Come out, come out wherever you are," a gravelly voice came from behind me.
I turned around and smiled at Alex, who was still a little wet. He grinned and went ahead of me with Charon. I listened too. They both yelled Brute at the same time and sighed, starting up the stairs into the glass sealed room. I screamed and aimed up when a Super Mutant came around the corner. I ran into the circular room, stopping halfway through.
"Dad," I screamed, but nothing answered back to me.
I didn't see a body, so one fear was put to rest, but then I heard his voice coming from somewhere in the room. I raced towards it, literally skidding to a stop when I saw the holotapes running in Charon's hand. The source of my father's voice.
"I'm off to Vault 112. . ."
"Fuck," Alex muttered, walking back down the steps.
I snatched the holotapes from Charon's hand and dropped it on the ground, smashing it to bits with the heel of my boot as I screamed my voice hoarse. Fucking God! Why can't he just fucking sit still for once, why can't he just follow rules? Why can't he just be an adult?!
"Nevaeh, stomping it into dust will do nothing."
I glared at Charon. "You don't understand this, I didn't want to follow my father. I wanted to live a carefree life of a Wasteland Explorer or a Scavenger. But no, I'm stuck babysitting him again. I am the fucking parent in this relationship. I've always had to take care of him. Get him to bed on time, make him eat the right amount of food, ever since I was a little kid. I am so fucking sick of it."
My rant echoed back to me, making me feel so small. Charon's steady gaze did nothing to help that either, he looked down at me like the babysitter he was and is made me just want to smash his face in. So what I didn't want to babysit my father, what right did he have to stare at me like that?
"What," I hissed.
"You are acting like a child."
My eyes went wide, my breathing stopped and for once in my life I felt like a fucking idiot.
"Ch-Child," I gasped out.
Charon sighed in annoyance. "Yes, a child. So what you have to take care of your father? Most people in the Wasteland do not have parents. I never had any parents, I wish I had the opportunity to go back and be with them, take care of them when they could not take care of themselves. I wish I had the opportunities you did right now, and I am sure I am not alone in that."
His confession, his begging, stung my chest and I flinched away from him. He didn't know his parents? He was an orphan?
I looked down, suddenly ashamed of all my something's, and started down the steps out of the rotunda. It was so quiet in the building now, so hollow. I suddenly felt bad for more than myself. I felt bad for Charon, for all of the orphans I forgot about. I wasn't alone in this. I wonder how many children searched for their parents and never found them. I wonder how many children never knew their parents, like Charon.
And then I realize something.
I am a total fucking bitch.
They never made it to Tenpenny Tower, having to shove themselves away from the sandstorm that had settled around the area in an old garage. While Wolfgang tinkered away on an old motorbike, Carly and Lilith sat with their backs against the wall, at posts on both sides of the front door. Carly kept her plasma rifle in her arm and Lilith had her hunting rifle in her lap; Bartram was lying sprawled out near the small fire they had made in the building. There was a small port with a filter beside an inoperable Nuka dispenser that the smoke was being sucked out of.
Carly sighed and scrubbed a hand over her face, rocking her head towards Lilith. "How long do these things usually last?"
The guard shrugged. "Two. . .three hours, maybe?"
Carly groaned and flopped her feet out, which startled Bartram a little. He lifted his head I a jerky manner and then grunted, lying back down like he had done so much work. He didn't even have to walk that morning, what could he possibly be tired for?
"You were hopin' to see that friend of your, hmm," Lilith questioned, staring at the aide of Carly's face.
The young woman looked over briefly and then closed her eyes, nodding. "Yeah. . .yeah, Nevaeh was one of my best friends in the Vault and Three Dog said she was shaking up there. . ." Carly shrugged and opened her eyes, staring at the opposite wall. "Just hopin. . ."
