Chapter Nineteen
Four men walked down a dusty road, leading them was Jackdaw. They were silent as they stroade and the town came into view. A sign was erected, built from old trash, all it had to say was 'Trade' written in a mix of blood, shit and paint. The random merc gagged at the site but the other three hardened soldiers merely scoffed with disgust and moved along. Others were on this road as well, raiders, mercenaries, even a Gunner squad rolling into town in a hummer, a few of their boys hollering and whooping loudly, even going as far as to throw empty bottles at anyone they could. One found its way smashing into some random slaves face. The man fell to the ground screaming in pain. Therion almost rushed to the man's aid but the old raider Jackdaw grabbed him. "Don't help others unless you're asking to be paid, and don't help the slaves double. Quick way to be found out. Either let him be blind or let his master put him down, nothing else we can do got it."
"Yeah, got it." Therion gritted his teeth, can't say he was mad at the man. At the heart of it he was right, it would be suspicious if some random waster helped a poor slave and with a heavy sigh Therion kept moving. The way to town reminded Therion of the Legion in a way, but not of order but of brutality. Soon at a checkpoint set up by the marauders he saw the hanged corpses of men and women alike, each had a plaque around their necks, marking their crimes. 'Runaway slave, Minuteman, thief, wuldn't put out' crimes that made no sense. The checkpoint was a simple tower made of wrecked cars. Its one noticeable feature being the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on it, maned by an equally impressive creature clad in gutted power armor similar to what the NCR had back home.
Walker kept to himself as he walked, like the raider Jack, Walker was familiar with infiltrating raider encampments. He had done similar missions a dozen times in the past. It wasn't uncommon for the Institute to send people in to eradicate or get information on certain people. The only difference of course was the fact that he wouldn't be able to hide his synth body if they decided to inspect anyone so while he knew it was a gamble he risked it nonetheless. He regretted he had no explosive charges on him; he actually saw his fair share of viable targets he could have blown up to act as a sort of distraction. He pasted something though that made him stop dead in his tracks, ripped in half was a woman impaled on a spike. Her chest was bare but that was not what caught his eye; it was what was written or to be more accurate, carved into the woman's chest. 'Synth'. And indeed she was, ravens perched atop the woman but none ate at her flesh they merely cawwed, wires instead of guts poured from her ripped body and much like Walker a part of her face was missing to expose plastics. He was unsure how they figured how this poor woman met her fate but he looked on sadly then out of nowhere she lifted up her skeleton of a hand. A mix of synthetic flesh and metal wires and weakly begging for help. Asking, begging to be put down but a fear took Walker and he ran a head breathing heavily and fast. His other companions meekly looked at the woman still begging for help but they themselves, unnerved, picked up their pace unaware of the true reason Walker found himself so afraid.
Jackdaw breathed the air, been a while since he'd been to a place like this. He and his buddies used to frequent the Combat zone which was considered neutral ground for all the raider clans to either talk, fuck, or just watch someone get their head smashed in with a crowbar and betting on it. Last he heard of it it was turned into a more official fight club, atleast with official meaning no one gets killed, on purpose atleast. The Irish girl, one of Davison's friends and travel companion rumored to make a comeback fight, only regret Jack would have about leaving Boston. The group soon found themselves at the front gate now, a big super mutant bouncer inspected everyone coming and going, even ordering some to be shaken down and 'talked' to.
"You don't see that everyday." Jackdaw said as they inched forward. He honestly hated Muties with a passion but he was a little surprised to see he joined up with some bandits.
"Honestly I've seen weirder. Back east super's are everywhere in life, some even serve in the NCR but yeah I'm more familiar with them raiding and attacking too. Saddened this one took up with raiders, like they need the muscle."
"Trust me, a raider Super is still a lot better than a wild one. Some of the super mutants hordes I've seen man. Raiders are a lot more disciplined compared to a mutie. Atleast raiders you can bribe or bargain with, supers, only thing you can bribe them with is meat, guns a bullets, and that's only as long as you go it. Still." When their turn came the green creatures sneered at the humans.
"Whaze you humons got to trade?" It spoke, Walker recognized the creature as an institute mutant. He knew little of the projects as a courser but even when he was blindly loyal to the Institute he had a dislike for the FEV projects though these were less out of any moral obligations, as a courser his job was to get it done, if cruelty wasn't necessary then it wasn't used. No he hated the project out of a practical application of it made his job harder. Gunfight weren't hard enough, higher caliber such as a .308 or .50 could easily one shot a beast, save for a behemoth. It was hand to hand to which was tricky. Tactic and discipline a courser had the upper hand with knowledge of many fighting styles it was strength in which the Super mutants had an advantage at as they were either about a strong and in the case of behemoths not even a courser can stand up to one without superior fire power. He saw a courser ripped in half, and literally eaten destroying any chance of being downloaded in a new body. The institute had literal don't fight behemoths alone rule.
"We have bullets, and chems, and caps."
"That it?" The super mutant asked unimpressed.
"Well yeah, I mean we're more interested in buying but didn't figure it mattered." Jackdaw said.
"Haha puny human, there's toll to get in and no one lowwed in unless they got lots of caps, or lots of goods. I see you have neither so eithers get lost hummie or get something worth to trade."
"I'm a doctor or atleast I know medicine."
"Really?" The mutant asked with interest.
"Yeah I know some basic stuff but I can also purge radiation with half the radaway and know how to set broken bones."
"Ok human that's something worth something. I got bad tooth, you get it out no toll and you can pass but you lying I bite your hands off. Lying about serivences is same as stealing, price, loss of your hand."
"I ah..."
"If you want in then either help me or get something worth trade. NOW!" Therion gulped and took a deep breath.
"I need a small mirror, med-x, bottle of hard alcohol, whisky or vodka, stronger the better and pliers."
"You heard him, get him what he needs." The super growled at a few fellow guards who ran off to get the beast's needs. When they came back they had all the items in hand which didn't take longer than a minute which makes sense if you're taking orders from a green giant.
"Open wide and don't bite my hand." Therion said as he grabbed the mirror.
"No promise." The mutant opened his mouth wide, going as far as to slightly unhinged his jaw. Not by much but enough to cause great discomfort to everyone around. The mutant breath stank of rotten meat which made sense as he saw a bit of meat stuck in the creature's teeth. Surprisingly all of them were in good shape. Not a hint of cavities or anything.
"Ok I need you to point where it hurts." The mutant then took his hand and put in his mouth, pointing to a back molar. That's where he saw the problem. The beast had wisdom teeth growing in. An extra tooth was growing at an odd angle which was ramming itself into another tooth. "Alright, I see the problem. You have a wisdom tooth growing in. I'm going to try to pull out both teeth, which will hurt but with the med-x will help numb the pain."
"Hmmmppp." Therion grabbed the syringe and stuck it into the gums to the beast. There was a quick hiss of pain from the mutant but that stopped as soon as the morphine entered the bloodstream. Next he took the pliers and latched onto the first tooth and while it wasn't the wisdom tooth itself it was knocked out of place and setting it back was not in his realm of ability. Not with what raiders had, plus he needed to get to the wisdom tooth or he wouldn't be able to grab it. With a bit of effort he pulled out the first molar. The mutant didn't seem to notice at the moment, moving to the next tooth which would take some more effort as it was deep in the gums. With a quick yank the tooth was out and the mutant was bleeding but already the mutant's healing was working its way to stop the flow of blood from the wound. Nonetheless he took the grain alcohol and poured it on a rag and dapped the wound disinfecting it.
"There, so long as you don't regrow teeth you shouldn't have any more tooth problems. Mouthwash with grain alcohol for a few days and don't eat any rotten meat as well for a week. Plus don't eat until the numbness wears off less you risk biting and tears your checks other than that you'll be ok. No more pain."
"Ok you humans can enter but if you lie to me, I will bite your head off." He then took the rest of the alcohol and swished it around in his mouth before spitting on the ground with a mixture of blood and muscise creating a black goo that smelled horrible. With that the group entered the town, passing the last checkpoint Walker was surprised how lively it, the place was built around a single old Super Duper Mart, and just like the ghoul said in the river docked off to the side were the boats, and between all that was a series of tents and shacks. All vendors selling goods.
"Alright assholes." Jack spoke loudly and even meaner than usual sounding almost like a regular old raider. "You all are all going to look around for some supplies, see something good. Come back to me, understand?"
"Yeah sure?" Therion said unsure of what was happening.
"I don't care if you're our fuckin sawbones boy you'll show me some fuckin respect. Rest of you head out I'm going to the bar." Without warning Jack stormed off, the group was confused and yet making a scene no one pain any more mind to them then anyone else. That was until a blood cover woman with a welding mask approached Therion.
"Oi loud basstard said you saw bones that true?"
"I uh."
"Come on I don't get all day. The rash-gash needs a medic and I'm willing to pay, what's your level of expatriates I'm asking, you a medic, doctor, physician."
"I know some advanced first aid, even a few crafting recipes for medicine, though the ingredients aren't exactly common here."
"Well as long as you understand how to disinfect a wound, amtuate and sew someone up as well as cut them down that's all I need. Are you interested?"
"Sure."
"Follow me." Therion and the woman soon left the group and headed into the bazaar.
"Well that wa-and I'm alone. Great, just like a Missouri family reunion."
Walker slipped away while the Therion spoke to the raider doctor, he wanted to check out the boats themselves. Passing though more and more of the makeshift town proved less results then he could have hoped. All the stalls were like any other regular vendor at Diamond City, weapons, chems, cloths. Nothing that could help him burn this place to the ground. He walked further into a crowd, nervous that someone would try to remove his clothing in an attempt to steal something of perceived value and risked being found out. He didn't regret coming to her quite the opposite; he wanted to be here. The place almost reminded him of his days as a Courser, as horrible as the things he did he couldn't help but find a small satisfaction he was good at what he did. Coming up onto the river dock he caught the first glimpse of the Tugboat and passenger barrage. They were two large boats(Not as large as the North Star), dozens of people were on board and Walker could see there was a party going on as he heard a live band playing their music, a rather well rendition of country music played on a fiddle but he had no time to party. Walker moved over to the larger of the ships, the passenger barrage but found it guarded by two heavily armed and armored raiders. He was tempted to try his luck to see if he could find a way on board. So he hovered by a stall close to the ship and watched. It didn't take long for someone, a regular raider by look of things, to try to make his way onto the ship. He walked as if he was drunk and given the fact that most of the stalls here sold hard alcohols he was surprised there weren't more. "Your names is not on the list."
"Aww come on man I just want to party."
"I said your name's not on the list. Avery made it clear, no one that isn't on the list can come aboard no exceptions."
"Now how's about a little bag of caps just falls your way. You would be so distracted counting you'd just let little old me slip through." With that said the drunen raider put a bag of caps into the guards hand and began to walk up but what happened next caused Walker to raise an eyebrow in surprise. The heavily armed guard grabbed the raider and punched him in the face. Hard, blood sprayed everywhere and adding insult to injury the man handed back the raider his bag of caps, before pushing the dizzied man into the river.
"If your name's not on the list then stay out!"
"Damn idiots never get passed Spike." A vendor said to Walker.
"I can tell, surprised he didn't take the caps. I probably would have."
"Spike is loyal to Avery, he saved his life a few times back in their pirate days. Takes his job very seriously. Man can't be bribed or threatened. Though he has a thing for fire. Terrified of it."
"Why are you telling me this."
"I saw you eying the ship, figure you want on for the party or something to steal. Last I heard Avery keep some nice toys in his cabin. Figure some satisfaction seeing him brought down a peg or two."
"Right. Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
"Welcome stranger." Walker left the man a few baps and bullets for his trouble, as a sort of thank you for the advice.
The vendor took the strange man's caps and bullets left on his stall and watched him take off for somewhere deeper into the markets. When he was out of site the Vendor left his merger stall and walked towards, up to the boat guard. Spike stopped him before he ever had a chance to enter the ship but the man just raised his hands in defense of his actions. "Don't worry Spike, I'm not here to get onto the ship, far from it. I just wanted to let you know I overheard some travelers plan to board the ship. Possible to even kill our 'beloved' mayor. And I can tell you who they are."
"Oh and what possible could you want in return?"
"Well I wasn't going to ask for a reward but since you mentioned it." The Vendor gave a sly smile, to only receive a sly sneer from Spike. "I feel a month free of rent should be fair compensation."
"Oh...and would we do ever without you."
"Well Avery ship would have been stolen a dozen times over course and I a humble merchant always warns the benevolent Captain Avery of such trachorites for only minor rewards."
"Rewards which see you month free of rent just so happening telling us of suspected thieves when you're short afew caps."
"All coincidences I can assure you."
"What did he look like?" Spike asked, sighing from annoyance.
"Couldn't get a look at his face but he wore spiked armor our brethren wear, a standard looking face mask but it's what he carried that set him apart, a Assultron sword and a western looking revolver much like the ones from those old Holo-tape movies. The sword had a humming to it that I could faintly, faintly I could hear. Must meaning it is electrified. He's a tough one, that I could feel in my bones."
"Well thank you for your services, I'll make sure to have my boys keep an eye out for this 'thief' and if we catch him I'll make sure to reward as such."
"Excellent, I hope your men have a good hunt."
Bit of a cliffhanger I know but just know that this won't be the last we see of this sniveling rat, next time we see what Jackdaw and Therion are learning about this town and how to turn it to their favor.