They say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes
And some have said that life is nasty, brutish and short
That was before the bombs fell
You have to wonder what they would say now
Deep beneath the city, a new animal was forming within the metro tunnels. A virus furiously was working within the tissues and corpses it was given, restlessly trying to stop the former, natural reaction of the different genomes to reject each other and trying to seam them together. Some parts of the DNA were not so successful, hence the bleeding and lack of form but overall the experiment of the deadly new FEV strain was a success. Throwing together the biological material of mole rats, radroaches, radscorpions, dogs and the simple, primitive part of the brains of feral ghouls, the only thing they had left, the virus still had plenty to work with. Muscles, tissue, toxins, claws, bones, exoskeletons, simple immune systems, it was enough to build a strong creature. The former brains gave a collective instinct to survive, drive to aggression and the knowledge of a general area of New York with the gathered information of the reanimated minds that were being molded into one.
However, something else was added with the brains of the mercenaries, super mutants, raiders, Enclave and the occasional wastelander that was unfortunate enough to land within the mire.
Things called "emotions" and "passions" were being added to the collected information. It added a new drive to the creature. Hate, anger, violence, spite, greed, avarice, lust and pride, the repeated patterns of behavior of the majority of the humans that were assimilated in far outweighed the few if any good souls that had learned differently and were unfortunate enough to get caught in this biological stew.
Growing with each passing day, the former human agendas were slowly starting to change the drives of the creature. No longer did it need to survive. It needed to do more than just that. It just had to wait just a while more...
--
Adam and James stared at each other for just a split moment but it took an agonizing eternity. Carl and Sven could only watch, still not believing what they were seeing. How in the world could Adam had given them up for a few caps and was Adam seriously going to butcher each one of them before their eyes? Could Adam do it?
James felt rather than saw Adam's fist clench around the dagger that was painfully burning in his shoulder. Adam meanwhile steeled himself for what he was about to do. The Talons all watched smugly on. James meanwhile felt a cold, lead ball form in his stomach. It was his belief that no one should die slowly and here he was staring down that very possibility happening to him.
Adam wrenched the knife out of Jame's flesh and the man screamed with the agony that burned through him. The blade flashed through the air and again they heard the sound of steel slamming into flesh.
Everyone was surprised to see that the blade was actually between the eyes of one of the Talon men. Still yelling, James' voice echoed through the walls as Adam moved faster than most could follow. Two throwing knives left his coat and lodged in the throats of two Talon men. The last one moved to react only to have his neck snapped. James finally stopped yelling as the last body fell.
"Okay. I'm royally confused." Carl announced. Adam retrieved his blades from the bodies.
"Sorry I had to do that to you guys but I had to keep the act up." Adam apologized, quickly starting to pick the locks on their shackles.
"Sorry?! You stabbed my shoulder!" James complained.
"At least it wasn't your lung, and thanks for covering for me with all that screaming to mask the noise." Adam retorted.
"You stabbed my shoulder!" James reiterated.
"So why did you do this?" Carl inquired. Adam looked at him.
"Don't you get it? By doing this I put us right in the center of their base of operations and if you had not noticed, their armory is right behind the door next to us. Your stuff is in there. You guys get your stuff back, we take some of their weapons and we destroy the Talons right here, tonight. They even let us in willingly through the door too." Adam explained.
"That's...brilliant." Carl replied, the light coming on.
"Other than the hitting part." Sven grumbled.
"Oh, you'll live. Now get your incinerator." Adam ordered, unshackling the pyro.
"Well, could we agree on a signal in case you decide to go playing on us again in the future? Or did you really sell us out and change your mind?" Carl asked. Adam glared at him again.
"They killed Leslie. No amount of caps can pay for that." Adam stated darkly.
"Right. So how about a signal?" Carl inquired.
"Hmmm...how about I stab James in the shoulder?" Adam offered sarcastically
"That works." Carl and Sven said in unison.
"I'm going to make it very clear to you that I hate you right now." James growled.
"Seriously, I'm sorry, James." Adam apologized. Free of his shackles, James pumped a syringe of med-x into his otherwise benign wound. He was going to need stitches but that was all part of the job. He popped a mentat to clear his mind as well.
"So we cool? I'm really sorry I had to rough you guys up a bit, but at least now we can remove the Talons." Adam explained. He was met with the noise of the men raiding the armory.
"We'll be cool when we turn every single Talon in here to ash." Sven replied with a chuckle.
"You're saying that the temperature will cool down by first turning it up?" James restated, pointing to the failed logic.
"Don't question the system, that's just how it works." Sven replied, lighting up the incinerator.
--
A Talon soldier reported to his commanding officer on the main floor of their headquarters. His commander gave him a suspicious eye as the black armored combatant gave his report.
"Sir, we have an attack outside the compound."
"Who is it?" the commander asked.
"Don't know and for now it seems like it's only one person but we can't be sure. How shall we proceed?" the soldier asked. The commander rolled his eyes.
"Just kill them." the commander grumbled.
"Understood, sir."
Before the soldier could turn, they heard a tremendous boom as the sound of two doors flying off their hinges hit their ears. The men stared in horror as the last sight they ever wanted to see greet them. Storming from the room, the regulators emerged, their guns blazing. A storm of belching fire, flying 5mm rounds and railroad spikes swept the Talon headquarters. The Talon soldier simply flew flat on his back, a railroad spike through his head. Before the commander could react, a terrible force took him off his feet. He found himself staring into Adam's angry eyes.
"Trust me, you're a dead man, just not yet." Adam growled.
Meanwhile, Carl and Sven swept through the building, the bewildered Talons completely taken off guard. Carl had raided every stitch of minigun rounds in the armory and were putting them to good use. While droves of the Talons were simply being shredded by Carl's minigun, Sven was able to send fire at promising targets, effectively creating their impromptu funeral pyres.
James went to clear the soldiers outside who were apparently already in the middle of a fight. Nailed, literally, from behind, the soldiers collapsed with railroad spikes sticking out from their heads or chest. James rarely, if ever, missed. He kept his rifle ready just in case this enemy of his enemy was not necessarily his friend. He glanced at a lone figure with two pistols approaching him. He could scarcely believe his eyes.
"Kai-, er, Julia!?" James blathered. One could hardly blame the regulator for barely recognizing Julia Kail. She had shed her Brotherhood scholarly robes for the functionality of her combat armor. She holstered two plasma pistols at her hips.
"What are you doing here?" James inquired.
"I'd ask the same of you, are you all right? Is that blood on your coat?" Kail asked in concern.
"Uh, yeah, long story. Basically, Adam hatched a plan to get rid of the Talons tonight. Don't worry about my shoulder, I patched it up. How did you know to look here?" James asked. This time it was Kail's turn to get flustered.
"Um...well, let's just say Evelyn knew where to look for you guys and she knew you were all in trouble so I figured I'd find a way to rescue you guys." Kail admitted.
"Wait, how did Evelyn even talk to you? She can talk now? And how did she know where we were? And you actually thought about taking all the Talons on by yourself?" James interrogated in clear disbelief. Kail shrugged.
"I'll admit it wasn't my most thought out plan and the thing with Evelyn...that's a little complicated to explain." Kail sighed. James looked in the distance to see Evelyn and the rat peeking their heads around the corner of a building.
"Well, judging by the lack of gunfire coming from the building, I think you can start explaining." James stated.
Suddenly, Sven, Carl and Adam arrived at the entrance. Sven was grinning ear to ear while Carl's minigun was slowly billowing smoke from each of its barrels. No one asked about why Adam was grotesquely covered in blood. He tossed each of the regulators a rather large sack of caps.
"Here, the price that was on your heads." Adam replied.
"Man, someone is going to be pissed when they find out the money they paid to kill us was taken by us and all the Talons were killed." Carl stated.
"Well, they might just try to restart their operations here." James suggested, resting his rifle on his shoulder.
"Well...I left them a little warning." Adam muttered.
Back inside the building, the commander's heavily punctured body lay underneath a large message scrawled on the walls. Written in the Talon Commander's own blood, the warning left little to the imagination.
"This place has been Liberated. Talon Company: Leave New York City."
Back on the streets, the four regulators joined Kail, Evelyn and the rat. The seven seemed to walk solemnly, Kail taking Evelyn's hand to keep her close. It was awhile before anyone said anything.
"So we're heading back to the House?" Sven asked.
"No. We're going back to the Vault." Adam replied.
"The Vault?" Carl asked.
"Yes. We're going to hang low for awhile. We need to re-supply, perhaps figure a few things out. I'm getting tired of this city." Adam grumbled.
--
There were a good many things that were overwhelming her. It is hard to go through life normally when you can hear, you can feel, the heartbeat, pulse, life, of a good many things around you for miles. Sure, she could shut out a few of them but still, you might as well try to shut out the individual instruments of an orchestra playing a smattering of symphonies. You could not stop the overall noise.
To the side of her, she could hear and feel the lives of the few good people she had ever met. It was an interesting melody, one that she could rarely hear. Yes, they had their sour notes of pain, and the minor discord of broken emotions, negative feelings and unwanted memories and yet their souls shone different among the others she could hear. The creature beside her? Well, it was just friendly.
But under her feet she could hear a sea of terror, a thing that should not be. A horrific melding of tormented living and twisted goals, she could hear it and its evil designs. They had little time left and she was certain of its wicked intents. Could something stop it? Well, yes, but that would be difficult.
Could she live a normal life, having been thrust in these circumstances? Her life was never normal to begin with, stolen from her parents, living as an experiment, existing as something to be abused and exploited by the roving barbarians that found her and took advantage of her exterior helplessness.
What can be said, what can be done, when you hear the echoes of destiny beckoning to you?
--
It was just a short time after dusk when the regulators made it back to the long awaited sight of home. However, before they made it to the mouth of the cave, Carl announced that he felt like taking a walk along the Hudson first. He claimed he would only be gone a short while.
Adam, Sven, James, Kail, Evelyn and the rat continued on towards the cave but Adam stopped short when he noticed something off to the side of the entrance. Looking over, he saw the small white cross stuck in the ground, marking a not so fresh grave. His shoulders noticeably slumped just a little. The others decided to go on without him.
Adam ignored the sound of the Vault door opening as he found himself kneeling right in front of the white cross. He did not know why but he suddenly if lightly placed his hands on each of the arms of the white marker. No longer able to fight the storm of emotions, he realized he could feel some water starting to form at the bottom of his eyes. His voice was weak.
"Sweetie, I...they're dead now...they can't hurt you anymore. Well, they couldn't hurt you for awhile...but now...wow, they're dead, sort of like you but, no, I still carry your memory...no one does for them. Sweetheart I- I'm sorry...I'm sorry I was too late...I'm sorry you died like this...I-"
It had been several long months and Adam wept for every day that had past since that terrible night.
--
Sven tirelessly started looking for materials to build a new fuel tank with. He had a few things laying around his small workshop. Truth be told, he had little motivation to go building another fuel tank at the moment. Looking around him, he became acutely aware of all the explosives he had accumulated. Most days it would cause him to cackle but today, right now, no, it just didn't. Sitting back dejectedly in his chair, he pulled out his old zippo lighter and hit the switch.
The large flame it produced did not bring any feelings of glee to him. Perhaps it was one of those day. It had been a long time since one of these had happened. He wasn't always like this. There were some days when he was his normal self. Truth be told, he wasn't sure what normal was anymore. What is "normal" now out here in the irradiated waste of the post-apocalypse?
--
James and Kail had put Evelyn to bed in one of the many spare bed rooms the Vault had. The guys had never figured out just how many occupants the Vault was made for but it certainly could hold more than seven lives. The rat had found a section of floor that must have appeared more comfortable than the others, at least to its eyes, because it chose that area to curl up into a fuzzy ball and sleep.
Kail helped James stumble back to his lab where he placed his weapons in their proper place and unloaded his equipment. He immediately started to boil the proper chemicals to produce the medicines they needed before making sure the water purifier was working properly. Everything seemed to be in place.
Kail excused herself for a moment to get out of the slightly uncomfortable combat armor and get back into her more familiar scribe's robes. Meanwhile, James rubbed some exhaustion out of his eyes before making sure both of his rifles were in good order. The sawed off shotgun could take a beating and wouldn't care. He raised his eyes to check on all the chemicals again.
"Hi." Kail announced, returning back to the room. James glanced at her for a moment before continuing to his work.
"Hello." James replied before pulling out a large tin can and popping it open. Julia Kail was a bit surprised to see a large pile of mentats in it.
"Is that your stash?" Kail asked curiously.
"Yeah, the whole thing. Ran out on the journey back." James explained.
"I see." Kail replied.
Jame's hand lowered to pluck one only to land into the solid counter top. He watched in mild bewilderment as the scribe simply tossed all of the pills down the garbage chute to go straight to the incinerator. She returned her gaze back at a very horrified looking James, too shocked to move from his position.
"I know you must think I'm a horrible person right now...but, I'm doing this because I care. You don't need those to function or make you think better. You don't need to be chained to those, using them as a crutch. I don't want to see you in withdrawal again, so I'm going to be here with you to go through one last one." Kail explained carefully. James raised a hand, still too baffled to speak. The scribe flinched, fearing to get hit again. James squinted at her.
"Why...why did you just do that?" James asked.
"I just told you." Kail replied.
"No, you flinched, why did you do that?"
"I...thought you were going to hit me." Kail admitted. She noticeably saw James relax his body.
"No, I was going to motion to you to get me a detox compound, in that syringe right there." James pointed. Kail sheepishly noticed the clear, fluid filled syringe. She quickly got it and handed it to James.
"So, you understand?" Kail asked. James continued to stare at her, though he appeared very tired.
"I understand your intentions. I do not understand why you thought I would hit you." James replied. Kail looked away.
"Well, it's happened a few times." she whispered. It was her turn to be surprised when she found James holding her, gently but firm. She carefully wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Don't ever mistake me to do that to you again, Kail." James told her quietly.
"Call me, Julia." Kail chided.
"Right, sorry, old habits." James muttered, sitting back down and taking the syringe.
"So you're going to do this? You're going to go clean this time?" Kail asked.
"I'm going to be a whole world of pain for the next couple days, but I don't think you left me much of a choice now, did you?" James replied before plunging the detox syringe into his thigh.
--
Carl was returning from his walk. A deeply spiritual man, Carl often had no problem having casual discussions with the God he believed in. That also meant he had little problem having discussions with his late mother. However, they were one sided. The answers he got was anyone's guess on how they came to him but considering Sven and James were from similar backgrounds and Adam didn't dare piss off a deity, there was no one around to question him. Besides, you kind of let a giant believe what he wants to believe.
"I tell you, mama, I don't know what's going to happen with that creature down there in the tunnels"
...
"Now mama, you know I believe that God can do anything but I'm not sure where I fit into this whole monster killing thing."
...
"Mama, that isn't fair and you know it."
The big man got to the vault and punched in the proper password. He muttered the end of the conversation darkly, scarcely above a whisper, almost inaudible.
"Mama, I'm sorry that happen, I really am. I didn't mean to. I didn't...I am not a monster..."
--
James sat on the floor, his back leaning against the cold wall of the Vault. He took deep, deliberate breaths. A detox compound did not immediately take away all of the pain of getting off a drug, especially the ones that were not made before the War. Furthermore, considering the amount of time he had been on mentats, there was no way he was going to avoid a painful rehabilitation. The detox compound would just make sure the withdrawal wasn't mind blowingly painful or out right fatal.
The pain he was starting to feel now was going to be a far cry from the real misery that awaited him. He was only a few hours into it. The headache was already starting to build and he was beginning to feel the tremors coming. A few beads of sweat were starting to form on his forehead and his stomach wasn't feeling right. He took off his duster and laid it on top of himself as a blanket, preparing for the chills.
Sitting beside him, Kail rubbed his shoulder gently and offered him a cup of purified water. James took it carefully, trying to figure out where the cup was at first before downing the water slowly. He carelessly placed the cup down next to him on the floor.
"You'll make it." Kail told him.
"I only just started." James mumbled.
"Yes, but you'll make it. I know you will."
"I wish I had as much confidence in that as you do."
"Why do you think you won't make it? Are you hiding any other stashes that I should know about? There's not a single metat here in the Vault and you are in no condition to go hunting outside." Kail explained.
"It's not that. It's the withdrawal that might kill me." James muttered, his jaw suddenly clenching as he felt a spasm of pain go through his head.
"No it won't. Don't tell yourself that. It can only hurt you for awhile. It can't kill you." Kail stated firmly. James did not answer.
A few hours later, practically in the early hours of the morning, James shivered and trembled as the pain hit a crescendo. He practically looked delirious but he refused the comfort a bed. He was in too much pain to sleep, the cold of the Vault wall gave him some sort of determination to hold onto. The flashes of hot, cold, agony, delirium and migraine was enough to tear him apart. Julia Kail simply held onto him as if trying to keep him together or give him some sort of anchor.
"Talk to me." Kail suddenly said, a bit tired herself.
"What? Why? I can barely focus as it is." James moaned.
"It'll give you something to focus on other than the pain." Kail explained.
"Julia, I don't know what to talk about. All I can think about is how much pain I'm in and how bloody easy it would be just to take a mentat and yet I'm in too far to go back, yet not across the line yet...too far from the line." James groaned. Kail sighed.
"Tell me about how you guys got to work together. What stories do you have?" Kail suggested.
"You...you don't want to know. We've seen things no one should have seen or gone through." James stated.
"I doubt that. You are all good men. There must be a reason you all do what is right." Kail said. James cast a wild, delirious eye at her.
"You...you think we're good? There- there is no good left here in the wastes. There is only suffering...and men trying to- to live in redemption...we are...we are not good men, only fallen saints, angels with broken wings." James ranted, clenching his inflamed eyes shut.
"What are you talking about?" Kail asked, thinking it was more the withdrawal than anything. James struggled to focus his thoughts.
"Well...Sven...let's start with Sven. Sven- he...he wasn't always insane you know..."
James struggled to tell the story.