Stealth

All characters are mine, all the rest belong to the people at Fallout

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Chapter One: Ashina

They descended from the mountains much like the White Death had descended from the sky. She'd never seen the white death personally but she'd heard the stories past on generation by generation. Stories of how the land first turned to wasteland and the horrors that followed. 

They shot pistols and threw spears, injuring the townsfolk on horses that were riding out to stop them.

        "Ashina! Come here, quickly!" She could hear her mother calling to her desperately but she couldn't take her eyes of the advancing men. She felt her mother lift her off the ground and run with her into the small stone building where her family slept night after night. She was then put down and her mother removed the cover to the small storage hole in the floor. She lowered her stunned child into the hole.

        "It's important to be as quiet as possible, and it's even more important that you try to be very brave. I'll be back for you, I promise." She said, tears running freely down her cheeks. The girl couldn't comprehend why her mother was crying so much. She did say she was coming back.

        "I love you." Her mother said, replacing the grate and covering it up with the thin blankets they used to sleep on. It was damp and dark, the girl was afraid, but she was determined to be strong for her mother. It was silent for a short while; it wasn't long before she could here the sounds of heavy footsteps and unfamiliar voices.

        "This entire village smells like sewerage." Footsteps approached the clutter of blankets, and their owner picked them up.

        "Rancid! Even their beds smell. It's like they never heard of bathing before." The man dropped the blankets back down almost instantly, the girl's hiding place remaining undiscovered. During the brief moments she had been exposed, the girl had seen the face of the man who would haunt her dreams for decades. He had dark eyes, dark hair and a large scar that ran from under his right eye down over his cheek bone to just over his mouth. He was tall, dressed in black leather and had a large knife fastened to his belt.

        They left soon after and once again the girl was met with silence. She was cold and alone, and even though her mother had told her to stay quiet, she couldn't stop herself. The little girl cried.