Chapter Twenty
Jackdaw sat at the bar drinking Wasteland tequila, a bloat fly worm at the bottom of the glass. The taste was pretty good all things considered. A ghoul tended the bar, he was cleaning a glass cup and as he did Jackdaw ordered another drink. "Hey ghoul, another drink for me."
"Coming right up." The ghoul then began to make the tequila in front of him and as he did Jackdaw looked around him and turned back to the ghoul.
"So what's the skinny around here any work? Wars going on a merc like me could get some caps."
"Hmmm, none of the tribes and gangs are at war with one another if you're looking for some bloodlust scaber then you're shit out of luck, I'd go up North to the Commonwealth. Gunners are always looking for cannon fodder. If that's not your thing, then start looking for something to do at a bounty board in front of town. Here your drink." Jackdaw kept looking around the bar, various gangs sat with one another and he watched each of their movements to see which gangs reacted. None of these gangs were familiar to Jackdaw, most of the ones he and his crew ran with and dealt with were wiped out, or absorbed by other gangs a long time ago anyways. After his crew was wiped by feral ghouls he lost contact with most of the old gangs to boot. Only hearing whispers and rumors about them at bar stools. There was one thing that ended up catching his eye, a pair of people ended up walking with one another talking while holding their drinks when suddenly one of the gangs at a booth stuck out their legs and tripped the woman. Causing her to spill her drink just about everywhere.
"Careful there, you gotta watch where you're going. Rust Spike " He said, venom pouring out of his mouth with each word, essically as he said the last two words, a special kind of hate emulating those words.
"Fuck you."
"What the fuck did you say to me." The man stood up and pulled out a revolver, putting it to the woman's head. "Say that again whore."
"Both of you either get the fuck out of the bar or stop trying to kill each." The ghoul pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at the man and woman. The tip was sawed off, meant to cause a great deal of spread, increasing the likelihood a piece of buckshot would hit something worth a damn. This caused the man to holster his revolver and go back to his seat. For the woman her companion helped her up to her feet, glaring at the man but the Ghoul kept his gun fixed on her. "You could probably kill, maybe him but I'll still drop you. And your friend too." She reared her teeth but ultimately backed down. The ghoul put away his weapon as a sign of good faith.
"What was that about?" Jackjaw asked, unfazed by what had transpired.
"Oh just one of a hundred different rivilories, Rust Spikes and Devil Riders. A biker gang and a bunch of tribals. I don't remember why they hate each other, just do. Fuck me they cause the most trouble out of all the gangs here. Even worse then the Mole Ratters and Burned Martyrs."
"Fuckin poltics."
"Amen, these gangs are worse than the old world."
"You pre-war?"
"Nah, but I'm old. Got turned hundred years back. Just read some old world books, and watched 'Game of Empires' well mostly for the tits but you know-"
"Thanks for the drink." Jackdaw exited the conversation when he noticed the woman exited the bar, seeing a good way to stir up some trouble, Jack followed the small group out. He played it off that he didn't notice the group left but more he was just done, it wouldn't be hard to believe a raider would leave mid sentience from a ghoul just because they're bored or done. As he exited he pretended to notice it was the girl from earlier. "Hey I remember you, you ok?"
"I'm fine." The woman said.
"Hey I got to ask. What was that all about earlier between you and that guy?"
"You must not know of our tribe, nor the conflict we engage in with the Devil Riders." the woman said.
"No, I'm from up North, near Boston."
"My people avoid that accursed city, great fear of the plastic men, last we heard a new governing body is being erected, and the makers of the plastic men were slaughtered." she said.
"Yeah, the Minutemen, took care of the Institute. Good riddance if you ask me, now though they hold a pretty good area of Boston propper and the city outskirts, last I heard they were in a cold war with the Gunners."
"My tribe has had dealings with the Gunners, we sold them our crops and medicines but we do not care for them. Our tribe lived good lives in the surrounding countryside for nearly a century. We would farm in the summer and fall but come of winter and early spring our tribe would attack other settlements for loot and plunder. The strong would dominate the weak and yet five years ago a new gang came into the area, they rode on their 'hogs' and bikes and raided the towns we raided, striking the weak we would have struck. Soon came the attack. They thought us weak for our tribe favored machetes, spears and rarely guns. For where we saw honor in severing the head of your foe face to face, they saw primitive tribals. They attacked our tribe but we repealed them easily enough for we thought of their attack and dug our signature rusty spike pits." Here Jack daw could see herself becoming pleased with her words. "That was the night the Devils learned the name Rust Spike clan, in our arrogance we celebrated, thinking our enemy was weak we sent our soldiers to strike the Devil Riders encampment. But when we got to their camp we discovered they were already gone, we had left our own camp mostly unguarded, leaving only the young and old, they ravaged and defiled our clan's daughter, killed our elders, we ended up calling that night 'Three daughter defile'."
"Sounds like a bunch of sick fucks."
"Yes." She hissed. "We dare not strike them here, this place is neutral ground and is enforced heavily, if we dare attack we will casted out, and our clan marked for execution from Captain Avery himself."
"Alexa speaks the truth." Her male companion said. "The riders parked their infernal machines just outside of town, those machines destroyed could be a great boon for our clan, we could raid the other clans and tribes again with much greater ease." All of the clan seemed to have a great nostalgia for the old times. A great sadness for what was done, and for what was lost. But Jackdaw had to admit he could understand where they were coming from.
"I can help you...for a price."
"Oh and what is your price? Stranger."
"A few hundred caps should do."
"Sounds like a good deal, but there is a problem with this. How do you know you won't sell us out to the Devil Riders, or Avery."
"Honestly I'm just a traveler heading south, in all honesty I was leaving town soon anyways why not just get paid for something. You think they'll give me a bigger reward? The Devils don't look like the types to pay people for helping them, and as for Avery I'm not a fan of the whole raider town with rules, you guys should have fought it out in some arena."
"Fine." The woman relented. "We will pay you to mess with the Riders bikes. If you're caught we will deny everything. And let you fend for yourself."
"Wouldn't have it any other way. Now where do I find the motorcycles?"
Therion sewed up a raider woman, she had gotten into a bad scuffle with some mole rats, from the story she told she and her friends were attacked while walking around the town but Therion could tell by the marks on her arms and redness in her eyes and shakiness she was going through med-x withdrawals, and the fact she got attacked in the first place was sign was she was shooting up. Explained why she did not scream or complain about the pain though she did ask for med-x which Therion denied. Last thing he wanted was her passing out, a coma or even death. 'Thanks Doc."
"Yeah, keep your stitches clean, dry and avoid-"
"Don't say it doc." The raider growled at the hint of telling her not to shoot up chems into her system. A sense of nostalgia hit Therion back in his days in Vegas, telling the locals of Freeside and West to hold off from buying from the atomic wrangler. Even remembering the time from time Fiends would sneak in to get free, or cheap medical care, he tried his hand at helping them. Trying to get them to stop using chems but each time they would ignore his words. He always wondered how many fiends he'd slain that days prior he helped save from gunshot wounds or overdoses. How many of those fiends killed the people he helped. How many people would this woman kill, how many settlements would she help destroy.
"It was merely a suggestion," Therion said in his defense at the woman. The woman ended up paying her debt. Leaving the med tent. Soon the saw bones from earlier walked up to Therion. Her clothes were bloody, the wasteland surgeon outfit fit her oddly well as she held a saw bone in hand. She lifted up her welding mask showing her face to Therion.
"Oi you're pretty good sawbones lad. Stitching people up but I'd recommend you stop trying to get people off of chems though. You're preaching to the wrong crowd. Take it you were a city doctor. Like me."
"You were a doctor?" Therion asked with interest, didn't figure many raiders were once doctors.
"Pretty good one actually, till I slipped up and got run out of town." She spat on the ground. "The mayor's wife was going into labor see, must have nicked an artery and lost both mother and baby. Bastard put a bounty on my head, claiming I killed them on purpose."
"What ended up happening?"
"Ran, killed a few who tried to kill me. Ran into a raider nest by mistake, oh the usual bullshit. Tried to scare me, claim they'd rape me but when they learned I was sawbones they treated me like a motherfuckin goddess, what about you lad. What's your story? Killed someone? Raped an unconscious girl? If you joined your lot with raiders with your skill then you did something evil." Therion thought for a moment on what his story could be, what evil would cause a man to join the raiders if they had a skill every settlement wanted.
"I was a part of the Followers back west."
"Never heard of them, how far west are we talking about?"
"Far, farther than most people could walk in a life."
"Oi you one those vague types." The woman asked, an annoyed tinge in her voice.
"Not really, just don't want to get into it." Therion sighed. "Used my own stash, med-x and buffout, used fixer, ah it's like adictiol. Help me with withdrawals until after work. You see a lot of shit and just want to feel numb, make it go away a time. Got caught and just ended up black listed from all settlements with Followers association. Just walked east and ended up here."
"Explains the goody two shoe act, trying to repent your crimes? Trust me, they always follow. That's why I like raiders, they just don't care what you did or done because at some point they done worse."
"Followers always taught about redemption. Claimed anyone was capable of it." That caused a laugh from her.
"Fuck that, you're little cult forgot one thing."
"Let me guess, human nature?"
"Part lad, people. You do anything against a person and they and their own will always hate and fear you. Even if you change, others won't believe you. They'll see a monster. Your followers can claim all they want that, that people can change, in a way they're right. It's easy for men to become monsters. Harder for monsters to become men, but people always remember the evil more often than the good. You march back to your Followers and they'll see a chem fiend, I march home and they'll see a baby killer." The angered show in her face now, a few tears in her eyes. There was pain behind it all. Therion felt for the girl, she suffered more than what was fair or should have been expected of her and what was unfair to the man and he knew that infant mortality in this shitty world was high. But he disagreed with what she said wholeheartedly, people can change for the better, they can be redeemed. They just have to try, they just have to want it.
"I feel like this is a discussion we can have all day but I feel like there are more issues we could focus on. Like for example something for me to do and get paid."
"Haven't been by Rash-gash for quite some time, and no offense but I don't want you to be left alone with my stash just yet. We'll head over to the slave pens."
"Slaves?" Therion gritted his teeth in rage at the mere mention of the word. He nearly bit off his tongue from trying to keep himself from going on a verbal tirade but held himself back for now.
"Yeah one of the flesh merchants pays me to check up on his slaves from time to time. Make sure they're disease free, in good...enough health. I'll add some more pay if you help out."
"Sure." The raider Saw-bones motioned then for Therion to exit the shed, she didn't grab much in the way of medical supplies but he did. Some of his own, and some of hers. The group then left and headed for the pens. Like any other slaver camp right off to the side, out site but not out of mind. The large bidding stage made sure people knew what was for sale. There were several armed guards. Saw-bones didn't say a single word , they opened the first gate. Nearly closed it on Therion but not even a word but a nod let him him, and that's when he saw the various pens holding all sorts of people. "Where did they get all these people?"
"Same place as anywhere else. Settlements, caravan, other raiders, people who couldn't pay their tab. Focus on the woman, and children. Ignore all of the ghouls, old, and crippled."
"Understood." Therion nodded his head, he went to a cage off to the left, had one of the guards open up the pens. It was filled up with women of various ages. They all backed away in fear of him, even the more wounded and sickly were too scared to even ask for help. "I'm not going to hurt any of you, I promise. I'm just here to check up and make sure everything is ok. Clean any wounds and set any broken bones." A younger woman stepped forward, a light gash on her forearm, left hand side. It was bandaged already but the blood coloring it was a dark black. He knew he had to change the bandage or risk letting her get an infection. The possibility of amputation was great. He took the bandage off, the gash was light. Almost healed but still had some time to go. It just needed to be clean, a new bandage placed. "How did this happen?"
"Raiders attacked our caravan, took everyone. Got cut up in the fighting, kind enough to bandage my wound. Only kindness I got from any of them."
"Well I can add to that kindness. Help clean your wounds, new bandage." The woman nodded. He began to unwound the woman's bandages, revealing the scabbed over cut. Taking a clean rag, Therion poured clean water over the wound and wiped off all the blood. Once it was dry he began to use bits of rubbing alcohol, lightly poured it over the wound and wrapped a new bandage. The woman said nothing but nodded her head, he moved onto a child now. Inspecting every inch of her for what seemed wrong. She appeared even more afraid than most of the women in the cage but even with his efforts to come off as non threatening did little to help her. Regardless he did his job. Luckily for her she was healthy. He inspected each and every person, while the Saw-bones told him to ignore those that would be sold cheap. Therion did the opposite, it was something that he couldn't bring himself to do. Ignore someone who needs help. And so on and so forth he checked each person, bring whatever aid he could. For some he was literally life saving, others there was not much he could do but offer a few days of comfort. They were luckier than most slaves, the man had a good deal of sense to have a form of plumbing installed. There was a single toilet and stack of burnt books to use as toilet paper, even a small water pump to act as a drinking and hand washing, this did explain these people weren't as sick, but there still those diesed that rose a concern for Therion. They risked causing a small outbreak of whatever they had. And since antibiotics and viral meds weren't going to be used on them Therion knew they would have to be quarantined, though those deemed cheap would more than likely be killed. A dilemma that Therion knew he'd have to report is finding for the greater good, whatever that may be. After a little bit the Saw bones came into the cage herself.
"So checking in, what do you have to report. A bunch of cuts and bruising, a few possible pregnancies-"
"Mark those. The raider who brought them in might want to know who, might want to bolster their ranks."
"As I was saying, a few possible pregnancies, atleast one leg needs to be amputated, adn a few need quarantine, sooner the better." Therion handed her a clipboard with the note on them. Standard item he always carried with him. She looked at the paper nodding her head, seeming to agree with his notes.
"I'm going to go show this to Mel, he's going to want to know about this. I recommend you go with me."
"I think I'll stay here, I want to finish everything up first."
"Why in hell would you do that lad?"
"I want to keep up my medical skill," Therion lied. "Figure slaves make good test dummies."
"I can see the logic there then. Oi guard I need you to take me to Mel now."
"What about the man in the cage."
"Leave him, besides what are a bunch of scared women going to do nag him to death, worse comes to it he's still helping them all out."
"Fine, not like I haven't left you alone before." As she and the other guard left, Therion kept helping atleast until no other guards would be able to hear him speak, and he needed to say something right away.
Walker kept running around the market searching for something to cause a great fire. If what that merchant said was true all he had to do was set something ablaze, It would be enough to scare off the guard and would allow him to get the passenger barge without issue. He thought about setting a stall on fire with a molotov cocktail but figured he'd have too many raiders attacking him right away. He thought about using some C4 charges as well but knew that they wouldn't cause a big enough fire in the short amount of time he needed. He noticed something actually, the sounds of machines. It called to him. The machine was again off to the side of the settlement, not many guards were around it, fewer raiders were here as well. Anyone who did happen to walk by seemed to have a disgusted look on their face, opting to cover their noses. Walker couldn't exactly smell any more after his run in with the Deathclaw but the limited scans his body was capable of suggested that there was some fecal matter in the air. More than likely saturating it with a horrid smell of shit. That's when he saw strange creatures he'd never seen before. They were short beasts with snouts and tusks, four tusks to be exact. They were squealing loudly. An older man poured a bucket into a bramia trauffer and the beast swarmed it, eating all of the gunk and slime. Walker ended up being so curious he went up to the man feeding the strange beasts. "What are those things?"
"Oh they're Rad-Tusk, hunting body brought up these bad boys from the Georgia muck lands." The man said with a southern draw, making Walker think this man was from these lands himself. "They're hunted by the local tribes for food, trusts too make good spear points, tough critters to bring down but make no mistake they're on the bottom. They eat just about anything and everything they can get their tusks on, long as it's organic. These babies are just likely to be devoured by a Deathjaw or them Gatorclaw as they're likely to eat the dead one. And now as I said since they eat pretty much anything long as it's organic they're the perfect shittin' machines. Their crap powers just about everything here through our methane power plant. That and they're mighty tasty to eat too. Bet you never had bacon before. Fair warning its not kosher." Last bit caused the man to laugh a little bit.
"They really power this place?
"Pretty much. We get slaves to shovel the shit into the tanks. Let the methane burn and then we get power. Whatever left we use as fertilizer, or we sell it to a few merchants. It's a win for all of us to be frank. Shit is the one thing we all make, these assholes though just happen to shit a lot more than an average human. Even eat their own shit too if they smell something that hadn't been digested the first time."
"I'm impressed, renewable fuel sources. Figure the central plumbing set up to this thing too?"
"Somewhat. We figured it would be alot easier to just deal with the boars directly but when we clean out the septic tank we pour the sludge into the power tank regardless. No point wasting it if we can burn it."
"You know I'm a bit of a wiz with machines." A half truth by walker. "Mind if I take a look, I'm curious about how this thing works, might be able to see if anything can be done to improve it too." The man sat and thought for a moment before shrugging.
"You can look but I atleast have to be over your shoulder, make sure you're not messing with anything." That would complicate things, but push came to shove Walker could easily kill the man if he proved to be any trouble but for now Walker decided to do as he said and follow his instructions. Machine wizzed and bussed along, pillars of smoke, pillowed out of pipes. Waste products of said waste. Workers were currently shoveling shit into the tank, and it was huge. Had to be made from an old semi gas tank. Half buried too. What interested him were the pipes that lead everywhere.
"Where do the rest of these pipes go?"
"Central heating. The main plant uses the largest pipe, from there is where we get electric but it's the small pipes that keep the whole thing running." The man smirked. "Designed it myself. Many of the big buildin use the methane as a heat source."
"Isn't that a bit dangerous?"
"Nah nah nah. It's a one way system, pipes automatically close at various points at the slightest hint of blow back, and have secret designated vents we got. Biggest risk from them are a spark igniting foutions of flame but only last long as the gas is pouring out. I designed so that the whole town won't blow if the plant does, granted it'd be a big ass explosion but not enough and that's the point." Walker went up to the dispurdution valves, each of them had metters running on them with two digital sets of numbers running, each pipe was a little different."
"Now that's my pride and joy."
"What is it?"
"It's a gas meter, read back old pre war times you got charged on by how much gas you use, figured why not restart an old tradition, people here get charged on how much gas they use, that matter tells us the amount used and how much they owe. End of each month, you're presented with a gas bill atop of your rent."
"And if people fail to pay their gas bill."
"We take the amount they owe from whatever we can, and stop gas from flowing to them, it's rent you don't want to flake on with Avery. He's much more lenient on the gas." The man shrugged his shoulders. "Figure we don't use that much to begin with and the amount we do use is replaced within a day of shit. So gas is cheap, but there's a hell of a bill if you want it turned on again." Walker pondered the words, realising something, if he was able to cause some build up of pressure, specifically flooding the gas line with methane he might be able to cause a backflow as a home methane built up too much pressure causing it to push in whatever direction had the least amount of space, specifically the way it came. All he needed to know was where each line of gas went.
"Are any of them late on their payments right now?"
"Two or three, they still got a day though, takes that long to slow production so we don't hit any critical mass build up."
"Maybe but it's sometimes good to do things suddenly, make people realise that a hammer can strike down at any moment. Makes people less...lazy, more proactive."
"Hmm I agree with you but Avery does have some concern with hitting critical mass, he wants the tank as full as possible, but with in safety limits at all times and we have quota on how much shit we shovel base on gas usage, it takes a full day to estimate how much we need to cut down and and another to enact those same changes. For a raider he likes his paperwork."
"Simple turn off the most unlikely to pay and uses the least gas, it gives you a hammer and think of it as a field test in case you need to ever turn the whole system off on a moment's notice."
"One thing Avery does like is being prepared for anything, yeah ok, let me get to master control, you stay here I'll have one of the guards watch you. Don't touch anything."
"Sure." With that said the foreman called out to a raider, she barely heard him with all the machinery going around them but came up anyways.
"Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't mess with anything while I'm gone. Is that understood?"
"Yes." As he left Walker rolled his eyes and went to inspect more of the valves, few dozen were present as well as pressure gauges. It was all new to him but not anything he couldn't figure out. Close one the methane would have to go down another pipe, increasing pressure or so he hoped. Waiting for an opportunity at a quick window as the raider turned her head Walker simply took one of the valths and clodrf off the pipe. Sure enough as pressure dropped from one the meter slowed down, not totally but others sped up, not by much though. Only thing he needed to figure out was where each pipe went, that was until he heard someone call out to him.
"You, put away your weapons and come with us, or don't, we get to take your head one way or another. Attached or not, Spike wants to have a chat."
"Fuck."