-Three-Card Bounty Pt. 3-

"Shit, why do I have to open my damn mouth!" I yelled as I strike one of the Fiend's heads with my switchblade that was trying to hit me with a baseball bat. Along with Veronica, Natalie, and our new traveler, a bounty hunter going by the name Duster, are now feet within the compounds of a Fiend named Cook-cook's refuge as what Duster led us into. After my assumption with Duster frisking my behind, he and I ended up arguing to the point where I bellowed out names while the four of us were in stealth mode.

Veronica is fighting off two Fiends at one time, one unarmed and one with a board filled with nails. "Darn it," Veronica hopped backward, trying to dodge from the sharp, nail board as much as she can. "can't seem to hit one while the other its trying to put holes on me!"

Natalie has her shotgun pointed at a Fiend with a gun that shoots off red lasers continuously at her. A few beams shot through the right sleeve of her uniform, making Natalie clenching the minor burn area with her left hand. "Man, these Fiends know how to use a gun too well!" She fired off three shots at the Fiend. Two only landed on the right leg, making the Fiend fall down to the ground. "Yes! Enemy crippled!" She cheered.

Me and Duster are trying to gun down the leader of the little group, Cook-Cook, for his head as what Major Dhatri instructed us to obtain. But with a hoard of fireballs being chucked towards us, we can't get close to him without being burned to a crisp. I happened to bump into Duster, whom I 1 shoved away due to his inappropriate gesture. "If you haven't touched me, Duster, we couldn't have got into this mess!" I growled, taking my laser rifle out and started shooting at Cook-Cook.

"I didn' do it!" Duster yelled, quick shooting two times at one of the oncoming Fiend with a long, wooden stick. "I told ya I tripped over a pesky crack an' accidently tou- LOOK OUT!" Duster lunged forward and tackled me down, noticing a fireball flying over us. "Dang nabbit, Cook-Cook! Ya tryin' t' turn us into a barbecue!?"

The metal armor wearing Fiend, Cook-Cook, chuckled while holding onto the Incinerator with the barrel part pointing at us. "Who fucking cares, Dust rag! You think that you have become one of them bounty hunters after I took your spot so you can get my head!? Well, my other head is itching and twitching for a little play date!"

Annoyed, I shoved Duster off of me and fired off a few more rounds, only to hit his metallic shoulder plate. "As fucking if, Cook-Cook!" I yelled while I got back onto my feet. "We will obtain your head for their bounty, you deserve to be sent to hell!" One Fiend came out of nowhere with a bat and swung at me. Luckily, I ducked down at the knick of time before thrusting my switchblade in his stomach, bringing it in horizontally making all of his organs and blood pour our before he fell face first. With all the Fiends down, it is just only Cook-Cook left standing.

"We all got you surrounded, Cook-Cook." Natalie walked along with me and Duster with her shotgun pointed at the enemy. "Surrender while you can and we won't use deadly force."

Cook-Cook kept a hold of his Incinerator as he began to laugh. "You think I would take orders with a stupid pipsqueak soldier!? We Fiends don't take orders from anyone! Now, be good targets and let me burn your asses! Maybe I'll have fun with a burning corpse." He shot a few fireballs at our direction.

The three of us hopped in different directions to avoid the fireballs, but one of them happened to fly through my right forearm. "AURGH!" I yelped, clasping the burning sensation with my left hand. "Damn it! I've been burned!" I began blowing on the seared skin to cool down the burning sensation. "Fuck...I think I might have a permanent mark on my arm.*

"Don't worry about that, Crimson!" Natalie yelled, reloading her shotgun as fast as she can. "We need t-" she stopped mid sentence, scanning the area while jumping to the right to avoid another flurry of fireballs. "Hey, where's Brotherhood?"

Duster happened to leap in between me and Natalie. "Hmm, that Brotherhood gal somehow vanished. Wonder why she slither on without tellin' a hint for us?"

Cook-Cook proceeded to walk towards us, aiming the Incinerator at us with a wicked smirk. "A few more launches should take you three out. Now, stay still a-" a pair of hands grasp onto the front and back of Cook-Cook's head and twist it to the right in a flash, creating a snapping sound before falling onto the ground, face first.

"Well, that takes care of that." Veronica revealed herself after Cook-Cook's downfall, dusting away the particles off of her hands. The three of us eyed our Brotherhood friend with apprehension as to how she got right behind Cook-Cook without being detected. "What? The Brotherhood of Steel didn't teach me how to sneak and kill someone without being noticed for nothing. We have to keep ourselves educated if we are going to survive in the wastes."

"Shoo-whee!" Duster whistle. "I heard o' twistin' necks, but just seein' that spine chillin' scene, nuh-uh! I'd rather pistol whip my way through 'em rascals. An' speakin' of rascals, that head of Cook-Cook's. We should pop it off his shoulders." Duster eyed the lifeless Cook-Cook on the Incinerator barrel part. "But, how?"

Veronica walked towards me and took my switchblade from my hand. "Slice the neck in half, horizontally." She walked back over to the dead Cook-Cook and held up his head. "If any you three have a very we ask stomach, I suggest you turn around and look the other way." Without the three of us moving an inch, she swiftly sliced the neck of Cook-Cook's in half. She raised he decapitated head up in the air with blood dripping out of the neck as a dreadful glare from the dead Fiend was shown.

"O-Oh god-!" Natalie stammered just before she puked up in front of her, making me take a step away from her. She stopped and gulped. "V-Veronica..." Natalie spoke weakly, along with another waterfall of the lightish brown liquid gushing out of her mouth. "n...next time, let...let us turn before you do that."

Veronica walked up to us, holding out the head in arms length. "Well, I have to make a quick, clean cut if we need to detach the head from the rest of the body. Takes a long time just by slicing it inch by inch." She turned to Natalie. "And I warned you about it, Natalie. Believe me, I've seen the Legion slice off the heads of innocent lives just by using a machete. But, enough about that." She handed me the intact head.

"Th-Thanks..." I felt myself shaken up just by placing my palms on the cold skin of an actual head of a dead Fiend. "But, how am I going to carry this without a bag!?" I noticed the corner of my a large sack slumping near a metal shelf. "There! A sack over by the compound."

Duster was already two seconds ahead of me. He ran over to the compounds of the small Fiend refuge and obtained the sack, dumping out the little contents it was in. "Got ya covered!" He yelled, holding up the empty sack while walking back to the group. "Figure a lil' sack shall carry those heads 'til we give 'em to your collector." He opened the top part of the sack wide for me to put the head inside. "Now, Violet's refuge is not far from here. Better watch fer her hounds. Bugger's got teeth tha'll rip yer skin to the' bone. I know, I wrestled one o' her dog's where she only scrape a chunk o' skin off my knee. Follow me." Duster went out running to the left of us.

We kept our pace behind Duster when we reached a road not too far from us. Ahead was another gas station with some brownish-green fumes wafting up in the middle of it. "Say, what's up with the fumes near that gas station?" As soon as we got near it, I heard some ticking noises coming from my Pip Boy. I eyed it, noticing a small circle with a little arrow wiggling a bit. "And why is my Pip Boy ticking?"

"Ah, that Geiger counter." Veronica spoke. "It tells you about the radiation you are exposing to. Too much radiation exposure will kill you instantly. And those fumes there near the gas station are the radiation. I noticed a few barrels in some little puddles of that substance."

"Righty-o!" Duster replied. "And there is Violet's refuge up ahead. An' I hear hounds barkin' towards us!" Duster pulled out his brass knuckles out of his trench coat pocket and slide them through his fingers. A pack of dogs came out through the entrance of the small Fiend area surrounded by long, cylindrical looking homes. Duster pulled one arm back and strikes his spiked hand weapon at the dog just as soon as it lunged forward with its jaw opened. "Take that, y'all varmint!"

More dogs swarmed on out of the refuge, barking with their paws pushing through the dirt. I kept a hold of my switchblade in my hand and set the sack down behind me. I charged in, shoving the end of the blade in the dog's eye with another dog tackling me down to the ground. "Damn it, damn it!" I grasped the dog's neck while it pushed its head at my face, snapping its drooly, sharp teeth at me. With so much strength from its neck, my arms started giving out bit by bit as they started bending slowly to have the jaws just inches from my nose. What really disgust me is the never ending waterfall of drool dripping down to my face from the stinking mouth of the dog.

"Hang on, Crimson!" Natalie called out, shoving the barrel of her shotgun on the dog's temple and launched one bullet in the cranium. "We got about eight more coming our way!" Natalie kicked the dead dog off of me and pulled me up before giving me the switchblade that is covered with some blood on the blade. "Come on, we need to- YEEEOW! ONE OF THEM GOT MY LEG!" She fell down on the ground as she screamed and jerked around. One of the dogs, actually two of them, had a hold of Natalie's uniform pants with their teeth and tugged her back.

"For the Brotherhood!" Veronica slammed her fist down the caps of the dog's skulls that with so much force it made the heads flat as a pancake. "Two more behind you, Crimson!" Veronica tossed me my switchblade

I nodded and grabbed it, twisting myself with my laser rifle drawn out of the holster. "Leave those to me!" I spoke. One dog leaped forward at me, and with one pull of the trigger the red beam hit the torso with only the body from the neck down disintegrated into ash. "One down, one to go!" I holster my laser rifle, spinned the switchblade to where the blade is facing left on my left hand and stabbed the right jugular vein. The infliction made the dog yelped.

"HURRAHH!" Duster cried, punching a trio of dogs that were gnawing on his upper arm and trenchcoat tail with one he just killed by separating the jaw away from the hinges of the head. "What in tarnation are ya waitin' fer, gals!? Git these confounded hounds off me before I am their next meal!"

"Alright!" I yanked my switchblade out of the dog's throat and shoot it dead before pointing it at Duster and the two latching dogs. Because of the bounty hunter twisting and turning, not to mention staggering to and fro, it it making it hard for me to shoot at the dogs. "C-C-C-C-C-Crap...!" I stammered, feeling my hands shaking the weapon before me.

Duster continued to move, trying to find a way to unhinge the dog's clamping teeth, even with one of them tugging on his coat. "Hurry it up! Canine behind me is usin' me as an ol' tug rope!"

I felt sweat pouring down my face. "I'm trying, but with you moving around so frantically it is hard for me to get a fucking clear shot!"

"Ah, for the' love o' twisting decisions!" Duster brought out his pistol and shot the one on the arm two times on both eyes, and one tugging in the trench coat in between the eyes. He slammed both of them down with the spiked brass knuckles on the head to the ground, making sure they are completely dead. "Good, now that's done, all there's left is Violet."

"Hold it right there!" We turn around to a female Fiend with a shotgun pointed at all of us. "My, my. If it isn't my old partner-in-crime Duster! Still fucking ever women you see? And I thought you are not into foursomes."

Duster lit off another cigarette and puff put a huge smoke. "Naw, Violet. This here 're m' new traveling buddies. No ounce of want'n any bull riding' on any saddle. Just doin' the bounty business as usual." He quickly brought out his pistol, aimed it at Violet. "But I'm afraid I'm gon' have that head of yers, Violet. No sense in a bounty huntin' without m' trophies."

Violet growled. "Trophies!? I am a fucking metal cup on a plaque in your eyes!?" She yelled. "I loved you while you were with us! But after that damn Cook-Cook decided to take your spot, I had to let you go without murdering you. And ever since you've sobered up with those NCR scumbags, you've made a name for yourself and became an enemy of the Fiends."

"Bah..." Duster blew another puff of smoke into the air. "Ev'rybody tried killin' me. Y'all Fiends 're nothin' but a chem junkie, killjoy, murderous assholes. I tried relievin' th' pain from severe case o' loneliness. I'd figure havin' caps in hand after a good huntin' and celebrate by sleepin' with a random mistress would be some remedy. But, that don' fill the' void within me."

"I'll give you a fucking void!" Violet aimed her gun at Duster's head. "I'll fill that void with my vengeance full of lead in y-" Duster shot one bullet right at her trachea, causing her to gasp for air. "Y-You...bastard..." She wheezed before Duster took another shot at her trachea, killing her on the spot. He then walked over to the corpse, while holstering his pistol, and punched Violet's neck for her head to pop off.

"Violet was a deceptive kind o' Fiend." Duster announced, placing Violet's severed head in the sack. "She tried ev'ry way t' make me stay with her, no matter how much I tried t' sneak away. She'd tried t' act all depressive one day, then next dominant, and then possessive. Just when I got captured by 'em NCR folk, I was driven mad due to mass addiction."

Natalie walked up to Duster and placed her hand on his shoulder. "What happened next, Duster?"

Duster slung the sack over his right shoulder and sighed. "NCR gave me nothin' but food and purified water while holdin' me in an isolated room. They ev'n had me on chains so I won't try t' escape. Fer the past half year, I detoxed my way through, the addiction slowly fadin' away. I felt myself anew, figure I change m' ways. So, they released me and I veered m'self to a lil' ranch occupied by bounty hunters. Here I am now, twenty years later.

"And the void Violet mentioned," Veronica spoke. "what does she mean by that?"

Duster took another puff from his cigarette. "Loneliness, m' parents were never around nor takin' care o' me in the younger years. I'd figure overdosin' m'self would rid me from it, but none worked. But since I've been in the business, I learned to love life ev'n better, with some smokin', slight binge drinkin' an' hooker hoppin'. Well, now we got two Fiend heads, we better search fer Nephi. An' he is just footsteps from Vault 3."

"Or maybe he's behind you!" Our attention got averted to a hoard of Fiends behind us with their guns pointed at us. One of them, in the middle, stood out, carrying some metal rod with some ovalish shape thing with lines on the front. That must be the driver iron Dhatri talked about. "Hmph, such a shame your four somehow got caught in a mess we Fiends have to clean up, and we are definitely going to need those heads back."

I was about to blurt a threat at the Fiends, but Natalie already intercepted with her weapon already in hand. "No way, Fiends!" She held her shotgun at her foes. "We will not easily hand the heads over to your grimey hands. Now move over so we can obtain Nephi's head!"

The Fiend in front of us laugh, causing a wave of confusion on our side. "You are really dumb as shit! I am Nephi, Driver Nephi." The Fiend in the middle stepped forward, having the iron on his shoulders with his hands grasping it on each end. "Look, you four are never going to get my head. If I were to be pissed off, I'd actually swing my golf club on your heads and detach them out of your necks. But since I am in a good mood, I can let you off on a warning. Now, kindly hand over the heads and you four can mosey on elsewhere."

I mashed my teeth together and growled. "Yeah, like we would ever trust as calm Fiend like you." But then I noticed the bag flinged forward to Nephi's hands, most possibly thrown by Duster. Duster came to my side and huffed a puff of smoke. "Why did you do that for!?"

"Crimson..." Duster spoke. "there has come a time where we can trust even the psychopathic ones of the wastes. Besides, the bounty doesn't mean anything to me right about now."

"Good," Driver Nephi picked up the sack from the ground and gave it to the Fiend to his right. "now that an agreement has been settled," just then, something hit everyone that made them fall face first. I was also hit on the back of the head with a blunt object. "I'm afraid we can't let you go freely." His words echoed into my ears. The vision of mine became blurry for I blacked out.

Damn it! I thought.

"-er Runner would want them?" the sound of a male voice in the background sort of snapped me out of my 'sleep'. "I swear, we should kill them. They might be a nuisance."

"Let 'em stay there." A female voice was heard as well. I slowly opened my eyes, feeling myself being slumped against some bars on my back. "They can rot in here for all I fucking care. And it looks like they are waking up. Been like three hours since they were knocked out."

Three hours!? My eyes widen as I groaned, lifting myself off of the bars before I made my way on my feet, noticing a large, dimly lit area. I noticed Duster, Veronica and Natalie stranding up as well, their face perplexed at the unknown setting we are in. "Where are we?"

"Vault 3, dumbass! Your in our cell we made for people like you!" The female Fiend yelled, holding some rod with electricity sparking at the top end. "Hmm, seems like Nephi is correct. These fucking dumbasses don't know their ass from the hole in the ground. We should let them rot and die. Be better for us if we are going wipe out the NCR soldiers in the camp.

Natalie went to the cell door as quick as possible, grasping on two of the bars. "Dare step one damn foot in the camp or I'll use my shotgun and blow your face off!"

"Umm, I believe they took your weapons while we blacked out." Veronica pointed out. "You know how the villain is, they always take the weapons away from their prisoners so they won't try any way to escape their lair. I read it in a comic book once."

"What's a comic book?" I asked, having my companion's eyed shift towards me.

The Fiend woman grumbled, thrusting the rod at Natalie's torso. The electrical surge from the end of the rod shocked her, thus making her fall down away from the door. "You guys are brahmin shit stupid. If I have the chance, I would use this brahmin prod on your pea brains of yours and fry them into charcoal!" The Fiend brought out her weapon out, almost like my weapon except a little broken n the front, but stopped as several gunshots were heard from the doorway to the left. "Come on, we don't want anyone getting any further in!" The two Fiends ran away from the gate and vanished out of sight through the doorway.

"Sorry, fellers." Duster spoke, sitting on a small chair against the wall. "I fucked up like a guard dog bein' killed by a raider. I shouldn't've trust 'em..."

Veronica placed a hand on her hip. "Well, it is technically your fault for doing so." She seemed so calm unlike me being completely pissed at him for pulling that kind of stunt. "But, here's one thing. At least we are going to rot in this cell together."

"I'm not sure that is a good thing, Veronica." Natalie grunted, holding the inflicted area with her arm. "Who knows when they are going to kill u-"

"GET BACK!" The female Fiend's voice echoed from the doorway, which made all four of us ran to the left part of the cell we are in. Multiple gunshots were heard, along with flashing lights continuously going off for five seconds. Everything went quiet afterwards until we heard the sound of footsteps echoing.

Natalie went right behind me, her shaking vibrated through my shoulder. "W-Who can that be!? One of the Legion!?" She whimpered.

I lowered my eyebrows as I clenched the bars tightly. Because we don't have out weapons, we can't arm ourselves if the stranger turns out to be an enemy. "Just keep your guard up guys. Even if we use our fists, we will defend ourselves to the end!" Everyone, including me, braced themselves as the footsteps grew louder and closer. I noticed the shadow casting off on the wall near the doorway, and the barrel of a gun appearing.

"I'd like to have my beret back." A familiar voice made me froze in place. My breathing increased at a tenfold as the person walked through the doorway with the sniper rifle in his hands. My eyes widen, my hands shake uncontrollably. I don't know if this is a dream or a figment of my imagination. His cold, hard eyes glare right at us, silencing us on the spot.

C...Craig!? I thought to myself before I fainted.

((DEEPEST apologies everyone for my delayed update. Apparently a bunch of things like chores, work, and taking care of a little one had me put to a halt on this chapter. But I will make sure to keep going with story.

Also, FALLOUT 4 FALLOUT 4 FALLOUT 4 FALLOUT 4! THE HYPE IS REAL! Sorry, had to do that. But I am trying my best to save up for an XBox One and Fallout 4 once it released on whatever date Bethesda announces in E3. Can't wait for it, and see you on the next chapter! -CS))