CHAPTER 14: BOUNTY HUNT.
"Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough." -Martin Amis.
"So...you really don't know what's at the end of the signal?" the Super Mutant known as Wayland asked.
"Pretty much." Louis answered while turning the Pip-Boy off. The group sat on chairs around a large barrel with a fire burning in it and a metal grate over it to cook the canned food. The smoke billowed out from an opening in the ceiling. "So you can see why it's a dangerous task to take on. We have no idea where we're going and the Wasteland is full endless danger."
"I still have second thoughts of joining..." Joe grumbled as he finished his can of chunky meat soup.
Chloe tossed her can to the floor and relaxed in her chair. "After we sell off those weapons, do we still need to leave from that settlement?" the former merc asked the Vault dweller.
Louis raised his Pip-Boy and looked at the signal. "Hmm, not by far. It's more or less on our way." he answered with a smile. "We won't lose any time on backtracking."
Doug stretched his arms and got up. "In that case, I'll turn in for the night." he yawned deeply. "Almost getting killed by Super Mutants and other monsters can be exhausting. Oh, no offense, Wayland."
Wayland chuckled nervously. "Uh, it's okay. I know how horrible Super Mutants can be..." he looked down to the floor in shame.
Doug quickly regretted his poor choice of words. "Right...anyway, goodnight, everyone." he waved before leaving.
"You're a gifted speaker, Doug!" Joe called with a mocking laugh.
"Screw off, Joe!" Doug turned to him menacingly.
Louis laughed and leaned back in his seat. "Oh, this adventure across the Wasteland never has a dull moment!" he snickered as Doug and Joe bickered.
Wayland smiled deeply to himself. For the first time in his Super Mutant life, he felt like he finally found the right brethren to be with.
It was past midnight as the group shacked up in the main lobby of the mayor office. Everyone found a short couch to sleep on, even Cavall laid on a couch. The old furniture were scattered around the place, and even some had bullet holes in them from target practice. At the far end of the room, Louis sat near the window and looked out to the darkness with the moon lighting the ground below. He saw some crows picking at the remains of the Super Mutants they blew up from earlier, the birds ripping of chunks of mutated flesh to eat.
Victoria soon woke up for her shift and started walking towards Louis to relieve him of his shift. But as she got close enough, the redhead saw that his eyes were locked in place to the outside. As if he was expecting them to be attacked at any moment, to which it made her a little uncomfortable. For she knew he was always so cheery and mostly level headed. So she slowly reached out to tap his shoulder. "Louis, you okay?"
The Vault dweller suddenly jerked up in his seat and glanced to her. "Victoria! I...I didn't hear you come up to me!"
Victoria retracted her hand from him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you like that." she apologized. "I saw you looking out the window so intensely, I was beginning to worry.
Louis cursed himself for being caught off-guard like that. "Oh, right. I'm still not used to the Wasteland at night. Despite the few months I've been out here, it still leaves me on edge to the point where I can't sleep." he glanced back out the window.
Victoria pulled up an old nearby chair and sat down with him. "Well, just so you know, a lot of people out here also fear the Wasteland at night." she assured him.
"I know..." Louis turned back to her eyes. "But I worry that this journey might be all for nothing. Or worse..." he paused for a long moment. "Everyone could get killed. You, Doug, Joe, Chloe, Cavall, and now Wayland. I'm not worried about my life, but I can't have someone else's life on my conscience."
"Listen, everyone here is doing this of their own free will." Victoria spoke gently to him. "We know crossing the Wasteland can be treacherous. But at least we have the company of each other to watch our backs."
Louis thought over her kind words, but there was still a deeper reason for undertaking the mission he agreed to. "Thank you Victoria. You're not a bad therapist yourself." he complemented to her and stood up with a stretch. "I'll go to sleep now. Have a nice shift."
The Vault dweller laid down on a free couch and quickly drifted off to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
March 16/2296
Morning came a few hours later, the beams of sunlight poured through the dirty windows and everyone soon awoke to start the day. They gathered as much guns and sellable items they could and went back to Smelter's Grove to sell them off. Wayland decided that it was best to wait near the woods with Cavall to keep him company. The people were most likely still on edge from the Super Mutant attack the other day.
Once they returned, the group was practically given a hero's welcome. Every person that was caught made it back alive and unharmed, the people that ran the town even offered the group jobs to stay as the leader of the guards, but they of course kindly declined and said they needed to keep moving. Thankfully they were able to sell off the weapons and items with ease, if not given a little too much since most of them were in rough condition.
They said their final goodbyes to some of the settlers and left. Soon after that, the group found Wayland and Cavall waiting for them. He sat on a large tree stump and was petting Cavall like a child that got a new puppy. The hybrid canine quickly warmed up to the Super Mutant and loved it when Wayland would toss a stick for him to fetch.
"Guys, did you sell everything?" Wayland asked with a wave.
Louis responded with a wave too. "Yep! All but one thing." he held up a good old fashioned AK-47 that he hid behind his back as a surprise.
Wayland eyed the rifle and stood up. "Why didn't you sell that?"
"I figured you should have a backup weapon like this." Louis answered while handing it to him. "That minigun on your back is powerful, but its charge up could leave you vulnerable during a fight. So I figured it was best you use it as a last resort against large amounts of enemies."
"And minigun ammo is hard to come by anyway..." Joe plainly spoke.
Doug held up an ammo pouch to him. "And here's the ammo for the rifle. I even got a pouch for it."
Wayland looked the new weapon over, it seemed like a child's toy in his massive and rough hands. It was amazing he could even place his index finger inside the loop of the gun where the trigger was. The Super Mutant smiled deeply and loaded a clip into the receiver and gave it a quick lookover.
Chloe was still counting over the caps they brought in to make sure they weren't shortchanged. "Everything seems to be here. All forty five hundred." she smiled proudly and gave the bag a jiggle.
"Then our business is done here." Victoria commented before turning to the Vault dweller. "So Louis, what's our heading now?"
The Vault dweller raised his left arm and checked the signal. "East!..." he pointed towards the road. "We should hit another settlement in a few days if we keep the pace."
The group moved on from Smelter's Grove, the people living there could now rest easy knowing that the Super Mutants will never threaten them again. But even more so, the people will likely never know that it was a kindhearted Super Mutant that fully ended the threat. A Super Mutant that turned on his kind and gained new friends that would always have his back against the threats of the Wasteland.
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More than half the day passed in the old forgotten town. Despite the Super Mutants being long dead, the place still had the eerie air of their presence. And the smell of decay and blood was still thick to anyone passing by. The quiet town was soon met with the sounds of footsteps. Nine people wandered into the old town, wearing old combat armor painted dark green and brown with worn uniforms. There was five men and four women, and five of them were carrying long gun cases on their backs. Most likely some form of rifles.
The one in the lead was a middle age man with buzz cut hair and thick sunglasses over his eyes. He scanned the area to make sure it was clear before signaling his people to follow. The people reached the mayor's office building and saw the remains of a battle. A few Super Mutant bodies were scattered on the ground, they could easily see that explosions made quick work of these ones. The people spotted hundreds of ammo casings laying on the ground near the entrance, along with evidence of bullet holes at the other end of the street. Indicating that the Super Mutants were shooting at people.
"Interesting..." the man with the sunglasses spoke to himself.
They continued their search inside the building, it wasn't long before they found the room where the Super Mutants were slaughtered thanks to the heavy smell of blood lingering in the air. Once inside the room, the people following the man with sunglasses wretched at the sight, flies buzzed around the mangled corpses with only more to come.
"Oh, my fucking god!" the man one wearing a hat gagged and leaned forward to puke.
"There's no way in hell they could have done this..." a woman with short hair declared.
The man with sunglasses kneeled down over the Super Mutant that was once the Overlord and looked at its crushed head. "Maybe not. But looks can be deceiving." he cooly spoke and stood back up. "Whatever is responsible for this horror show is not our concern. The people we're tracking can't be far."
A man with dark skin crossed his arms. "Do you have a plan to take them on?"
The sunglasses man slowly grinned. "Working on it for the most part." he answered. "If there's one thing about people who travel is they must know where the next settlement or town is. And I for one know of a settlement three days from here and the shortcut to it."
"Ah, I see." a crazed looking man with black hair cackled. "We'll get ahead of them and pick them off! I can't wait!"
"Calm down you fucking psycho!" another woman with tanned skin warned.
"Yes. We're on the path to a big payday my friends." he adjusted his sunglasses. "And just remember one thing. The woman with red hair must not be harmed in any way..."
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March 19/2296
Three short days passed as the group of seven ventured on, now in Andes. Nothing much happened since then, not even an animal attack. So the only thing they could do to get rid of the boredom was have some casual conversations to pass the time.
"And that's how I got this burn scar on my left elbow..." Wayland pointed to the faded burn.
"That's very interesting, Wayland." Joe said uninterested. "And so was the last one, and the last one, and the one before..."
Doug turned his head to him with a frown. "Geez, Joe, what's up your ass now?"
"He's just cranky because he hasn't had a smoke in a few days." Chloe informed him.
"Well, I'm proud of him for not smoking as much. It's very bad for your health." Victoria gave him a thumbs up. "Keep it up Joe." the Ghoul turned his head from her with a grumble, too bashful to take the compliment.
Louis didn't pay their conversations much mind. For the past few days, he was deep in thought. From what he remembered of the information from the probes, Super Mutants with yellowish green skin came from Vault 87 in D.C., the Capital Wasteland. And ever since the events of Project Purity, the Super Mutant hordes began to spread out from that location. The data from the probes showed that their numbers seemed to be slowly increasing in various locations in the last two decades or so since that history making event. The Vault dweller glanced to Wayland and thought about what he said. The light green being said he had been a Super Mutant for almost twenty years, yet only slightly resembled the green Super Mutants of Boston. And that didn't include the part where he said he was made in a lab that might have been from before the Great War. In other words, something wasn't adding up with his origins. And the glowing he gave off only added more to the mystery.
"Yo! Louis! You awake in there?!" Doug tapped his shoulder roughly. He had been trying to get his attention for the past minute.
The Vault dweller finally snapped back to reality and turned to him. "Doug? Sorry about that! I was...deep in thought..." he laughed nervously.
Doug gave him a suspicious frown. "Just stay on your toes. Saving your ass is exhausting." he knew something else was going on with the Vault dweller.
Victoria placed her hand above her brow and looked around. Her eyes soon spotted a new settlement just ahead. "Look over there! I see a town!" she alerted them.
The rest turned to her and saw it. "Good eye, Victoria!" Louis praised and pulled out his binoculars to get a better view for a moment. "Let's splurge on some supplies with the caps we got."
Wayland gently tapped Louis on the shoulder to get his attention. "Do you want me to wait outside the town until you guys are done?"
Louis tilted his head in confusion. "What? Of course not! You can come in too."
"I don't mean to be a drag..." Doug began to say.
"That would be a first." Joe snorted.
"Anyway..." Doug gritted his teeth at the Ghoul before continuing. "The town might not welcome a Super Mutant with open arms. We need to be careful."
"As long as we stay close to him it shouldn't be a problem." Chloe looked to the Super Mutant. "Wayland is apart of the group now, we don't leave team members on the sidelines." she smiled up to him.
Wayland would blush if he could from her kind words. The Super Mutant chuckled bashfully with a smile and rubbed the back of his head. Cavall happily barked as if he was agreeing with the Synth woman.
Soon they stood at the entrance of Lockmaw and surrounded the front and sides of Wayland in hopes that it will show people the Super Mutant is with them. The group quickly entered, the place was alive with activity. The amount of residents living in the makeshift town ranged over two hundred with many traders coming in and out. The seven wanderers gently pushed through the crowded street made of dirt and bits of garbage. It didn't take long for people to notice them, although that clearly couldn't be helped. Everyone they passed turned their heads or staggered back from seeing the Super Mutant up close.
Wayland slowly looked around, being surrounded by so many people made him a little nervous. He remembered trying to reach out to people before when he wandered aimlessly, and they always ran away screaming or shot at him, usually both. He looked to a stand selling clothes, the vendor gasped in terror and hid under it. Another woman with her child picked the girl up and quickly dashed off as the child waved to him from her mother's shoulder.
Louis picked up on Wayland's worries and turned around to him. "Hey, don't concern yourself. It will take you time to get used to people." he assured the green mutant. "People look at me too because I'm a Vault dweller."
"Really?" Wayland asked.
"That, and he's just weird in general..." Doug interjected.
"Which reminds me, we need to find a map for the area before we leave this town." Louis raised his finger up as a reminder.
Several meters away from them, the wanderers were being followed by a man with a long gun case strapped to his back. It was one of the people following the man with sunglasses. The bounty hunter had a little sweat on his brow from worry, he didn't expect to see another woman and Super Mutant following them. So he quickly turned and walked off quickly to report to his boss.
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The bounty hunter with sunglasses and the rest of his crew sat at tables in a shaded area near a building that was an open bar. The leader of the group took a long drink of whiskey, the thought of the coming bounty excited him to no end. The bounty hunter that was following the group quickly ran up to his boss hastily, kicking up a dirt cloud in his trail.
"You seem to have something to report..." the man with sunglasses spoke without looking at him.
"Yeah! You're not going to believe it, boss!" the bounty hunter panted a little. "I found the redhead and the three guys traveling with her, but get this! They have another woman with them, a merc from the looks of it! And even worse, a Super Mutant with a goddamn minigun!"
The rest of the bounty hunters looked to each other with concern, dealing with another person is one thing to them, but a Super Mutant never goes down easy.
The bounty hunter with sunglasses frowned deeply, this complicated things. "Hmm. I admit this will make it a tad harder. Is there anything else they said?"
"The Vault dweller said they needed a map of the area if that helps." he answered.
The sunglasses man smiled as a plan started to form. "Excellent! That can work in our favor." he looked to the dark skin bounty hunter. "Come with me. I'll need your assistance..."
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An hour passed in the market area. The group browsed the stands for anything they could use before heading out. Victoria was looking over some arrows while Joe checked a stand selling canned food, Doug was arguing with a merchant selling overpriced shotgun shells, and Chloe treated Wayland to meat on a stick at a stand with a grill. The young mercenary was starting to regret it because he was on his fifteenth skewer and still hungry. Louis searched the stands for ones selling maps of the area with Cavall following him.
He then passed a small building store as a middle age man stepped out from the opening and waved to him. "Excuse me, young man! You wouldn't by chance be looking for maps, would you?"
Louis stopped and turned to the man with a surprised look. "Huh? Yeah, I actually am in need of a map..."
"Good to hear! Come on in, I got maps for everything!" the store owner smiled to him.
Louis and Cavall stepped into the dim room and towards the counter where the owner placed several maps on top. The old maps were faded and crinkled from age since they dated back to before the war. A lot of them had detailed writings that informed of dangerous locations or places that could be looted.
"So...this place is the safest route?" Louis asked the clerk. The map on the counter circled an airport not too far from the town.
"Yes sir, that was a private airport from before the war. So it's easy to pass through." the clerk pointed to the areas surrounding it. "Everything around it is dangerous. So it's the safest route if you're heading in that direction."
Louis folded up the map and placed five caps on the table. "Then I'll take it, thanks. Come on, Cavall." he called to the dog.
The store owner noticed the big dog that was looking up at him. Cavall seemed to sense something was off with the clerk and tiled his head with a small whimper. The Vault dweller gave him another call before he turned around and followed.
The Vault dweller approached his friends with the map held up. "Hey, I'm ready to go when you guys are! I have a map of the area!"
"Thank god, Wayland is on his eighteenth skewer..." Chloe said before looking up to him. "Do you even know what you're eating?"
Wayland looked at the meat for a moment. "I think it's rat meat. Very tender..." he chomped off the last of it.
Doug walked up to them with about ten new shotgun shells. But the price annoyed him to no end. "That damn merchant was trying to rip me off..." he fussed before stuffing them into his pocket.
"Please don't tell me you made a scene?..." Victoria asked with concern.
"If he did, we better move it." Louis placed the map in his inner coat pocket. "Better not lose anymore daylight."
"I'm ready to go..." Wayland said while gathering five more skewers from the grill. Chloe sighed and payed for them too.
A few minutes passed as the clerk sat at his counter and waited until the man with the sunshades stepped in with an arrogant smirk on his face. "I did what you wanted, now give my daughter back!..." he demanded him.
The bounty hunter snapped his fingers. From the back room, the bounty hunter with dark skin stepped out with a young woman in front of him. She had her mouth gagged and her arms tied, the bounty hunter undid her wrists and let her run back to her father's arms.
"Now that this phase is done, all we have to do is wait for them to walk into our trap." the shaded bounty hunter said to his comrade before turning back to the clerk and his daughter. "And I strongly suggest you two stay put until the day is over. We don't let anyone get in the way of our bounty..."
"Just go already! You've threatened us enough!" the clerk slammed his hand on the counter.
The shaded bounty hunter smiled unimpressed. "And you just go back to selling your dusty maps. What happens to those people is none of your concern." the two left the small building to join up with the rest of their team.
The clerk owner hugged his shocked daughter closer to him. "I hope the people they're hunting put them in the ground."
()()()()()()()()()()()()
It took the seven wanderers an hour and a half to reach the airport. The area was dusty with a few patches of grass scattered about, the radio tower building and hangers stood on the right side of the very wide tarmac. Scattered on the runway was about nine small planes meant for a few people each and a larger one that crashed from around the time of the Great War. On the left of the runway stood the ruins of several buildings, most of them collapsed and toppled from age.
"This is a pretty big airport..." Chloe commented, they stood in front of the closed off fence.
"Probably some rich asshole's airport. They always made them big so they could fly in private jets and whatnot..." Joe spoke up, his eyes looking over the area.
The chainlink fence opening was closed by a chain and padlock. Doug started to dig out some of his lock picking gear. "Give me a sec, I'll get this open."
Wayland reached out and grabbed the padlock. "Allow me..." the Super Mutant pulled and broke the chain with ease and pushed the rusty doors open.
"Not bad, big green!" Louis gave him a thumbs up.
The group walked into the private airport, the only sound was their footsteps and the gentle wind blowing. As they approached a downed plane meant to carry more than a dozen people, the wind started to pick up again. Cavall stopped and sniffed the air, the hybrid picked something up an unfamiliar scent and turned his head to where the old buildings stood and started to growl.
Everyone stopped in their tracks from hearing Cavall's growls. "What's wrong boy? Do you smell something?" Victoria asked the dog.
A loud pop rang out in the area along with the sound of a metal ping heard right next to the group. The side of Chloe's temple sprayed a little blood in the air from a hard impact. The Synth girl collapsed to her knees, her onyx black eyes slightly rolled up from the sudden impact of pain with her head tilted to the side. Doug called out her name and caught her before she hit the ground. But another shot was heard, this time his right lower leg was the target. It exploded with pain from the bullet that bore in and out and fell to his knees screaming.
It was clear now that they were under attack, Louis glanced over and saw the glimmer of five scopes in the distance and screamed out. "Snipers!"
Wayland quickly grabbed Doug and Chloe with his big hands and lifted them off the ground like toys. More shots were heard as they started running to the grounded plane, it almost seemed like they were being herded to it because all the bullets were only hitting the ground. They slid behind the vehicle roughly as the shots finally died down.
More than half a mile away, the man with sunglasses and his fellow bounty hunters took position on a small building. The ones that carried the long cases had their military grade sniper rifles set up with the crosshairs focused on the fallen plane.
"And now...we wait for the right opening..." the shaded man spoke with a smile.
