Justice Served... Sorta

Two people entered the house quietly and I heard the woman whisper, "Where's Sean?"

I whispered, "Over here" and gave a little wave to the shadows.

The other shadow gave the outline of a man, they whispered something to each other, and the man sat down on the couch. The woman sat across from me in the small living room and asked, "Get here alright?"

I said, "Yeah, this is, Robert, I take it?"

The man on the couch whispered in a gruff tone, "Yep, I never thanked you for that drink last week."

I smiled at the thought of buying a drink for another person I was too drunk to remember, "No problem man, I probably bought the whole town a drink or two."

The man said, "Whole town wondered where you got all those caps, but I was in the silo right next to yours, kinda makes sense now after hearing all those beatings."

The man let out a small chuckle, and so did I. I asked the woman, "What made you spring me from jail?"

She said, "Nothing, you just got insanely lucky."

I figured that was the case, so I said, "Thanks anyway."

She brushed it off, but I asked, "How did you know Robert was captured by Fat Jimbo?"

There was a pause in the dark living room, and she said, "After your first show of wealth in the Golden Gecko last week, Robert and I headed out to the hunting grounds. We left early in the morning and Robert headed back to town around noon. I was on the trail of a big'un, so I let Robert go alone. When I got back, none of the Trappers said they seen him."

I said, "Fat Jimbo? Why do you Trappers let slavers have an operation in town?"

She said, "Trappers get killed or go missing on the hunt all the time and when Fat Jimbo rolled into town a few months back, he said they were a mercenary company working with the local tribals…"

I stupidly laughed, "I bet he 'rolled' into town, Haha."

The two briefly snorted in laughter and she continued, "Something never seemed quite right about them, and ever since they set up shop, more and more trappers would go missing. When that flying machine crashed in the canyon, last night, me and some of my boys made a plan to explore the crash site… However, yesterday morning, my boys and I were getting ready to head out when we saw two of Fat Jimbo's guys dragging you through the street. Suddenly things started making more sense and I put off our exploration plans to trail his guys. Something tells me, they didn't necessarily intend for everyone to see you… Or they figured no one would care that it was 'Sean' getting hauled away."

Intrigued, I said, "Please, go on."

She continued, "When I saw them drag you out of the place, I trailed them until one of their guys was on to me. I had to turn back, but I figured that they were taking you to the silos in the abandoned part of town… I knew Robert could handle a walk back to town on his own, so I figured that if Fat Jimbo's men were behind the recent missing people, they were probably being kept in those silos."

I said, "Very smart, just so you know, Fat Jimbo is planning to kidnap Vic sometime soon. He said that the crash last night will provide the perfect distraction."

Robert said, "Vic the Trader?"

I said, "Yeah…"

The woman whispered in frustration, "Shit… I'll see about sending someone over to his place after we take care of business."

I asked, "What do you mean?"

She answered seriously, "After I sprung Robert, we made the rounds to my boys. In a few hours, just as the sun rises, Me, Robert, Larry, Steve, Jensen, and Elliot are gonna get rid of Fat Jimbo once and for all… Smiley is 'too busy' making a run into the gecko fields north though… Typical."

I said enthusiastically, "Count me in. I wanna give that Fat Fuck a piece of my mind… The bitch too."

Robert interjected, "I don't think that's a good idea, Sean. I heard those beatings they gave you, wouldn't be too smart."

I asked, "Well what about you? Didn't they beat you?"

He responded, "Yeah, a little at first. But Fat Jimbo must've had a big problem with you. They threw food into my silo as often as they beat you."

I said, "Ok, I guess. But it's good she sprung us when she did, Fat Jimbo said a team of slavers from The Den was gonna be here in a day or two."

She said standing up, "Good to know, well, rest up you two. Things are going to get really exciting in a few hours, and don't worry, we'll check up on Vic after we rid this town of those slavers."

Just before leaving, she added, "Name's Maddy by the way."

I said, "Thanks for saving me, Maddy." I saw the shadow of Maddy nod and leave the living room.

Robert said, "Good night" and dozed off on the couch.

I took off my dirt covered jacket, balled it up, and rested my head on it. Wincing at the pain from torture as I got comfortable, I too drifted off to sleep with many new thoughts in my mind. I woke up to the sound of the door shutting and locking. I looked around the room as the light from the rising sun illuminated the living room. I stumbled to my feet feeling the pain and looked out the window to see Robert and Maddy walking away from me straight towards Fat Jimbo's place. The sun was peaking right over the trees and straight at me. As my eyes adjusted, I took in the scene.

Fat Jimbo's place was a battered down brick building with a makeshift sign above the doorway that said, "Fat Jimbo's Mercenary Co." I had never been on this side of Klamath during my vacation week, so I never saw the façade the slavers were using in town. In front of the door and under two windows were two slavers. One of the bald male thugs, and the witch who beat me mercilessly stood there chatting and smoking cigarettes. I studied my saviors as they walked. Both of them had hoods on and leather armor pieces patched together with trinkets from their hunts. Both of them held shotguns at the ready as they got closer and closer to their target.

Maddy raised her left arm in the air showing three fingers. Suddenly, I saw a trapper step around the corner of the slaver headquarters, pistol in hand. He held it to the back of the witch's head and as soon as the bald slaver saw what was happening, the trapper blasted my torturer. She fell to the ground as Maddy and Robert fired at the building with their shotguns. Three more trappers pulled out their guns and the whole town rocked with gunshots.

Slavers in the building fired out the windows and a stray bullet flew right past my head bursting the window in front of me. A few more bullets hit the house and the shots briefly stopped. I took the moment to look out the window again. I saw the trappers kick the bodies aside and one of them blasted the lock off the door. Moments later, they filed in and the muffled sound of gunfire ensued. Again, there was a pause. The whole town was silent. A few seconds later, the silence was interrupted by a loud explosion. Then, I heard the sound of a roof collapsing and watched some of the walls of the slaver compound collapse. Everything was quiet. Almost three minutes of pure silence after the explosion, and then the trappers emerged.

I couldn't believe it, all six of the trappers exited the building without a scratch. I ran outside, throwing on my jacket and disregarding the pain as the whole town came forward to see what happened. I joined the crowd of townsfolk and trappers to see what was going on. The gang of six dispersed into the crowd as everyone asked anyone they could questions. Once word spread that Fat Jimbo was a slaver, and now a corpse, people began to go on about their business. Maddy approached me in the crowd still hooded, with a black bandana covering her face.

She said, "Follow me."

As the crowd thinned, she led me into the former slaver headquarters. Two of her trapper friends stood guarding the door but parted for us.

Inside, the smoke of battle still lingered in the air. In an open room were five corpses, each man was bald like all the others and had black tattoos on their faces. Maddy led me down a hall, and opened a door to a room I was familiar with. Inside was what remained of Fat Jimbo. The desk was pulverized, and his mangled body was blasted to bits against the wall. I thought the guy was ugly before, now he was just a twisted and mutilated mess of flesh that continuously poured blood onto the floorboards. Before vomiting at the display, I noticed the giant hole in the roof and blast markings in the center of the room.

Maddy took off the hood exposing long brown hair tied up in a bun and lowered the bandana to expose a gunpowder marked face. Wrinkles of stress were shown on her fairly young and actually pretty complexion.

She smiled, "We hit the bastard with a grenade. Found it a few years ago, surprised it still worked Haha!"

She led the way back to the main room after closing the office door. The main room was littered with all of the slaver's former possessions.

She held out her arms and said, "Take your pick."

I asked, "What do you mean?"

She responded cheerfully, "To the victor go the spoils. I'm sure they took all your stuff before throwing you in that silo. Take whatever you want, we sure as shit will."

I said, "Don't mind if I do" as I began picking pockets and rummaging through their tables cluttered with supplies.

She began doing some of the same and said, "My boys took them down, we get their stuff. I'm gonna be rich for pulling this off… Might even leave Klamath, especially after this mess."

I found my old pack under a table. Picking it up and stuffing it with goods, I asked, "Then why let me in on this?"

She said, "If it weren't for your reckless spending sprees, we would still be under the thumb of that piece of shit. After taking all we can from this place, the building's gonna be near useless, and we'll leave it for the rats."

I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Stuffing her pockets with ammunition, she said, "That grenade screwed up the whole foundation. Bunch of the walls on the far end collapsed after the explosion. Before leaving, we surveyed the damage and found an entrance to the rat tunnels at the back of this place."

I asked confused, "Rat tunnels?"

She answered dryly, "Yeah, the abandoned part of Klamath has a giant network of rats under it, so it won't be long before this building becomes another part of abandoned Klamath… Either that or some squatters will move in and seal off the rat mess. Good news is that we won't have to go too far from Trapper Town for some easy rat meat."

Our rummaging got interrupted by someone bursting open the door, we turned to look and Maddy said, "What's wrong, Elliot?"

"Elliot" stood there with a look of despair and said, "They got Vic the Trader. I went to his place and there is no sign of him. I ran to the Bathhouse and Golden Gecko; nobody's seen him there. Some say he could have left for Arroyo again, and there's rumors of him heading to The Den. The silos didn't have anyone in them either."

She stomped her foot, "Dammit! I was hoping to avoid this…"

She sighed, "We aint no detectives though, we did what we could and that is all we can."

I asked, "What does that mean?"

She turned to me, "It means that I can't have my guys running into the wastes after Vic, especially after what we just did here, and even more so if he left voluntarily in the night. He could even be half way to The Den by now. Not even mentioning that we might have to fight a bunch of slavers from there in the near future."

I'm not sure why, but I blurted out saying, "Fat Jimbo told Metzger from The Den about me, so he'll definitely blame me for this mess."

I sighed, realizing what I just said, and continued, "I'm gonna have to skip town... Any slavers show up, just say I did it… Just tell them I paid a passing mercenary group to kill Fat Jimbo with the cash I stole."

She gave me a surprised look, "That's what you and Robert were talking about? You stole all those caps from Fat Jimbo? I guess that explains a lot."

I said, "A little over 600, and sold a couple of their things for over 300 more."

Elliot and Maddy had looks of shock. I guess people assumed I stole my way into town, but apparently nobody really knew how much it was. Maddy said, "Wow… I see why Fat Jimbo didn't like you too much."

Then Elliot thought out loud by saying, "I wonder why these slavers don't use those gold coins from down south?..."

I disregarded that statement and said, "In my defense, I found a couple slavers dead in the woods. I didn't know who Fat Jimbo was, or even that there were slavers in The Den. I just thought I hit a jackpot off some dead guys."

She said, "It's pretty hard to find a gold mine that isn't stained in blood."

She looked somewhat sad and said, "Your gonna have to get out of here... If what you said is true, Metzger will want you dead; he will send more of his guys here if he suspects you're still in the area. Slaver business is increasing out here and we don't want any more involvement with them in Klamath."

I nodded in unfortunate agreement but asked, "Think I can stay at your place another night? I swear I'll leave town in the morning, I just gotta sleep off some of this pain."

She gave a nod and said, "Sure."

She then tossed me a little plastic box with a red cross on it, saying "There should be some stuff in there to help aid your recovery."

*The Trappers seemed really pathetic in Fallout 2, so I beefed them up a bit for more realism with my personal additions to the trapper community*