Vault Shadows
Chapter 2: A Bump in the Path
The sun pierces through the window, finding respite upon the scarred face of the young man who has stayed the night at Agatha's house. Kel groans a long and painfully while the sun begins tearing him from his peaceful slumber, which he values near as much as a stimpak or an ice-cold Nuka-Cola Quantum. He pulls himself up from the spare bed and begins to get dressed in his only attire, and before he gets fully dressed in his mind he gets mentally prepared for the journey that, over dinner, he has made his mind up on undertaking. Looking over his detached Pip Boy, Germantown is a no, he thinks to himself recounting on how the town has become a cesspool filled to the brim with Super Mutants. They were only the beginning of his problems with the destination being nearly as revolting as the last, Paradise Falls. A place where slavers have decided to take roots and is the hub of the slave trade in the Capitol Wastes, run by the infamous Eulogy Jones. If there was a chance Alex could be there though, Kel would go, if not for her at the very least maybe some information, raiders have been common patrons to The Falls, whether it be selling or buying slaves and maybe after resurfacing she was taken again and sold to the highest bid.
With a sigh filled with both anticipation and anxiety for the coming venture he turns to the elder, "I need you to hold onto a few things, Agatha. Where I'm going to is full of liars, cheats, and thieves."
"Anything, that locker has more than enough room since…" she holds her words, clearly pained at the loss of her partner, though not fresh memories, still ones that sting.
Kel rubs the old lady's shoulder reassuringly "Thank you, Agatha. I'll return I promise and with more, fresh mirelurk meat for those delicious cakes" he says trying to cheer her up, successfully to his surprise. After giving Agatha a genuine smile and a hug, he organizes his pack, his rifle, and pistol into the locker, the only items other than his stealth suit and cowl that he takes are a few stimpak, a combat knife, and two emergency stealth boys to make a great escape if need be. He turns to Agatha, "I keep my promises, don't I?" he grins
She looks at him, clearly putting his scars across his face on trial, "except when it involves those Devil Lizards that you promised to stay away from!" She scolds the young man, followed by a soft chuckle, "just be sure to actually follow your word and get back here in one piece, I don't need to mourn two people." Her tone a clear guise as to her true feelings of grief and worry.
With those words, Kel makes his way to the door, slipping on his eye visor and mask while lifting his cowl. The door opens, light washing over the black-clad man making his way back across the bridge giving one glance back to the old lady's house with a thought of reassurance that one day he'll be back soon and that she'll be safe until he makes it back. He exhales long and heavy, turning towards his destination on detached Pip Boy, "Paradise Falls" the land of gluttony and filth.
The young man had only dared get near one time prior to his current venture to the well disguised slave pit, back when he still had sight in his left eye. As soon as he got near a group of slaves and slavers walking in a line towards the entrance, a blue circular pulse of energy was shot from an odd-looking weapon that resembled a television rather than a weapon. The burst of energy had been slow, much to Kel's surprise, and he easily ducked behind a rock before making his escape from the area, not wanting to figure out what that pulse of energy would do to him.
Kel continued on his path, drawing his combat knife to the sound of pattering insect feet across the rocks ahead. To small to be a giant radscorpion, but this is still going to suck. He thought to himself as he readied himself to pounce and cut off the poisonous stinger making his fight to be, more in his favor. His quick reflexes after his jump were enough for the one he had been expecting; however, there had been a small bed of scorpions, three, he counted after taking down the closest. Strategically the man steps on the carapace of the irradiated scorpions to keep them down as he swiftly dispatches the dog-sized arachnids' stingers, with all four taken to give him the clear upper hand he. The younger male nearly laughed in amusement as he began to pick up the scorpions by their claws to expose their softer under bellies, making his job nearly too easy. Without a lot of space on his person instead of carrying around the stingers for future use, he spreads the poison across his blade, hopefully this will come in handy.
Scoffing off the slight annoyance with the irradiated pests, Kel reorients himself and reminds himself to make a southward maneuver to stay out of the line of sight of the Super Mutant stronghold of Germantown. Gravel and dirt crunch lightly under his padded feet as he follows a path just under the side of Germantown where the town was separated from the Wastes by a rocky drop off. Kel stopped in his tracks to listen to his surroundings and make sure he was still hidden from anyone, or thing, nearby. Deciding he heard nothing, the naïve man begins to head around a corner of the path and is met with a small group of raiders that, for some reason, were venturing way to close to the Super Mutant run city than Kel has ever known them to. Bumping into one of the raiders Kel, in one seemingly lightning quick motion, draws his blade and slits the raider's throat and pushing him into the other 2 causing them to fall down the side of the hill, allowing him to double back and hide behind the corner just as the now pair of raiders began firing upon the last position he had been standing. Kel listens to the sounds of the ricocheting bullets, noticing one of them stopped firing to try and aid their fallen comrade, to no avail, they aren't going to let up, not with one of theirs dead. He thinks and without hesitation doubles back in a sprint, but instead of heading down the way he came, ventures uphill without concern of what could be beyond the rocks ahead. Greeting the fleeing man's shaky, adrenaline filled vision was a seven-foot-tall mutant wielding nothing but a large plank of wood with nails littering the surface. The hulking mass of radiation and muscle instinctively swings the large plank, placing the thinner side of the board with an astoundingly accurate strike to the man's temple; knocking him straight to the ground with a sickening thud of unconsciousness.
Slowly Kel pulls himself to consciousness, stirring slightly as he is being drug through the dirt. He looks at his captor, the large mutant with a seemingly perfectly proportioned nail board for the man-turned-beast. The barely conscious Kel takes in his surroundings, an overly complicated fenced entrance to a building surrounded by fencing and viscera filled bags, no doubt from prior victims. His mind scrambles as he thinks of the items on his person, caps, roughly three thousand, that the mutant didn't take for they had no use for caps, they just took what they wanted and killed what they didn't. My combat knife, Kel notes as looks his over captor whilst being drug through now blood-soaked earth, trying to spot the poisoned blade. Nothing. The mutant must have missed it when grabbing the man from the ground, leaving it behind in the rocks.
The mutant grunted as he drags the fresh meat into the ground level cells, "We're gonna fatten you up swine!" His words rolling off the tongue as though he had said them hundreds of prior victims claimed by this vile headquarters of Super Mutants. "Then when you fat and slow, we kill and eat you," the mutant finishes expositing information on what they have been up to in their facility of putrid, irradiated beings.
Kel coughs as his back slams into the wall of the tiny cell and has barely enough time to stand as the mutant shuts the cell, knowing it would be a waste of time and energy, Kel refrains from yelling or getting belligerent. The young, scarred man goes over his current belongings, other than his knife, nothing was out of place. After examining himself, he looks around the other cells and finds only one other resident to the small cell block, a short, adolescent male, and a young African-American female sporting red overalls, glasses and an iconic red bandana. "what are your names? How did you guys wind up here?" he asks trying to get his mind away from his natural urge to try and break the door down and run.
"I'm Shorty, and my friend in the cell next to me is Red. Don't ask how we got our names, that much should be obvious just by looing at us," the young boy says with mild irritation as though he had faced years of ridicule and teasing over his name.
Red takes over the conversation "Shorty and I are from a settlement not to far from here, Big Town. Have you heard of it?" she asks rhetorically and not even letting him answer, "We were caught while trying to scavenge for more supplies and got jumped by these mutants..."
The scarred man grins as he thinks to himself of ways he can get out of this situation while the red clad lady continues to ramble on the two's past; from details about Little Lamplight, to how they eventually felt fine with their transition to a Mungo when the were forced to move to Big Town.
…
A week passes like a blur, seemingly exhausted and starved from having done nothing more than reject the strange meat that the mutants tried to force feed them and ready themselves for some sort of escape. While all three lay there feeling near drained just from looking at their captors coming to examine them with a look that the trio had not seen over the span of their seven prior days of captivity, a look of hunger and anticipation. The mutants gather around Shorty's cell door, "You, Puny, coming to basement," they say aggressive and ready to feast on the youngest prisoner's flesh.
Shorty screams "don't let me be eaten by these things, Red!" his voice being muffle as he had been dragged down into the basement.
A few minutes pass and a light bulb goes off in his head, "Hey, Red," he says trying to get her attention, with the only thing he could think to call her being Red.
The girl, even younger than Kel, sniffles and wipes away a fresh tear, "what do you want Mungo?"
Kel shakes off the odd name that he had just been called "what's wrong? And do you know anyway to get out of here?"
"These cells' locks are old and easy to pick, but what's the point? They'll kill you as soon as you get out… that's what they did to shorty," Red says with a choked tone, "I can still hear him in the basement through this vent but it won't be long until they…"
Kel stops her and without thinking of the repercussions "Could you two get out if I provide a distraction?"
A glimmer of hope shines on Red's face "yes probably, but the only way I could think of you causing a good enough distraction is if you went to the second floor and start tripping mines on your way out of one of the side doors that is exposed to the outside," the words seemingly spat out as fast as she could to the stranger.
"Just promise me, that you'll be safe" he chokes on his words almost wishing that he just stayed estrange from the girl and her friend. Kel sighed to himself and began to pick the lock to his cell that was extremely easier than any other lock the man has encountered, he scoffs, the old-world locks really were bad. With a swift click the cell door frees itself from the locking mechanism and without thinking Kel gets to work on Red's door, with Kel being in front of the lock it goes easier. "When you hear the explosions and the Supers running up, save your friend and get out," Kel explains to the woman.
To make his task of getting to the second floor easier, Kel pops on one of the two stealth boys and slips past the two mutants by the stairwell. The young male looks around and disarms a frag mine, quickly rearming it before tossing it at the pair of mutants that inhabited the second floor, taking one of each of their robust legs with the explosion. While still cloaked by the stealth boy, Kel runs and repeats the action with another frag mine, taking out the fallen pair, silencing their screams of agony. He grins, feeling a rush from taking out the mutants, but doesn't dwell on his emotions, proceeding to trigger with pieces of broken tile from the ruined floor.
Loud thumping sounds of Super Mutant feet sound from the stairwell, seemingly ferocious in intent. Kel hears a feint sound, but a sound that could not be misplaced as any other sound, the creak of the cell door that held Red. The signal, for Kel, meant all the mutants they knew that were in the building were on the chase for the cloaked escapist, he gives a winning smile unseen just before the cloaking mechanism fades and they notice him just as he throws himself through the weak, wooden door leading to the outside.
Expecting there to be solid ground for him to land, Kel's expression under his mask and visor turns to that of shock and imminent danger as he makes it through the door and past what would have been a floor if not for that portion of the building had long since collapsed. Oh fuck, he thinks to himself as he crashes into the rubble that lay on the exposed first floor, landing on his spine releasing all the air from his lungs leaving him gasping in pain. The scarred man drags himself to his feet finally catching his breath as the green men break the windows raining lead upon where the man had landed. Bullets litter the ruins as Kel begins to dart from the vicinity, one of the shoddily aimed projectiles met with the man's calf causing him to wince in pain; however, without stopping his momentum towards his point of captivity to reclaim his poison laced combat knife. Reaching the path that he was caught on, Kel looks back to the fortified police headquarters where he was captive for eight days, to ease his conscious two bodies leave the building's makeshift gates, one visibly dressed in red overalls and the other one short even from that distance. Retrieving his knife, Kel replaces the used stealth boy with the fresh one but keeps the old one to repair for future use; before activating the newly equipped stealth boy, the man sets his sights on the fleeing pair, heading to their place the call home, Big Town.
The road to their home was surprisingly short and without interference from the pair of raiders from a week prior, or any of the dangers of the Wastes. As if he had just popped into the duo's existence, Kel's stealth boy fades and he clears his throat letting them know of his presence and startling them right as they reach a bridge, seemingly the only entrance to the settlement known as Big Town. "Have you been following us this entire time?" Red asks in a startled yet relieved tone knowing Kel would have been there if they were in need of his protection on the way to the town. "Wait, you're bleeding! Follow me and I'll get you fixed right up."
Without so much as a warning, Red began dragging Kel to her clinic where she had taken care of the citizens of the rugged settlement, the past year or so since she had been cast out from Little Lamplight. The trio were welcomed by, what Kel could surmise as being everyone who was staying there. Being led to a cot within the house-turned-clinic, taking his mask from his head he notes a man in visible discomfort with some sort of unknown ailment.
"That's Timebomb. We don't know what's wrong with him and we don't know what to do to help. No doubt you've noticed the rest of the settlers; Bittercup, Dusty, Flash, Kimba, and Pappy," after listing their names Red goes on giving descriptions of the inhabitants.
"Get me fixed up, and I'll look at Timebomb, I've learned a few things in my years out here." Kel says, laying on the cot, blood still making its way out of his calf. A shrill squeak of the wooden door to the entrance of the clinic sounds as a strawberry-blonde walks in seemingly to investigate the newcomer being helped by Red.
The lady coughs a fake attention-grabbing cough, "Red I think I might be sick" the gingery blonde-haired woman tries to get the attention of the doctor and the current patients
"Not now, Bittercup. I have to patch this guy up, I owe him, he saved Shorty and me," the lady steers herself to the side of the cot placing her equipment beside the injured Kel, pulling up his trouser leg fully exposing the gunshot wound. Red shoves a cloth into Kel's agape jaw before dousing the wound in the calf with vodka to sterilize the area before the minor operation, "you're a lucky one, the bullet went straight through, no complications," she says with hope in her eyes, as if this was one of the most intense thing she has had to since she became the doctor of Big Town, stitch up a simple gunshot.
The girl who had tried to steal the spotlight in the clinic over a fake cough, "where did you find this white-eyed man out in these parts?" She states with obvious intent to get his attention. "Finally, someone who might not judge me for having a thing for danger."
"He found us actually," Red makes it clear that the scarred man had been the one to save them from their situation with the super mutants in Germantown. "we were trapped there for eight days and when they had taken Shorty, Kel here went out of his way to distract all the Muties, letting us manage our own escape."
"Ooo a hero" her tone oriented more in a compassionate, wanting way. This tone is one Kel has yet to hear from anyone in all the Wastes, disturbing him in a way that he had not even imagined. Someone, that hungry for a relationship, sexual or not, in times like this had been simply foreign to the man, only a visage of disgust could be seen amongst the scarred face; however, the look of disgust seemed to go right over the lady's radar, clearly not caring about anything other than the prospect of 'getting with' the man laying before her on the cot.
"I think I should get to helping, uhhh, Timewarp, Timestamp…. Fuck, Timebomb!" Kel stammers as he hobbles away from the caught and goes to the man in agonizing pain. "I don't have any of my tools to help," Kel states after giving the young male a lengthy examination while trying to avoid any contact with that strange girl, "if you treat him with buffout, psycho and stimpak you might be able to hold out until I get back or someone else rolls along with the capabilities. I should only be about three weeks to a month… I have to find someone," he finally lets Red know anything about him after their eight days of being trapped together with not so much as an ounce of backstory behind the mysterious, scarred and stealthily dressed individual.
"Kel," Red stops the man from getting up and gearing up to restart his stalled journey to Paradise Falls, "you can't just leave us here without so much as some lessons in self-defense, what if the Supers come back for a vengeance and try to kill all of us?"
Kel bites his tongues wishing he could just walk away, just forget about these settlers and not feel this urge to help them, but his internal war subsides, the victor being the inherent good in him. "Fine, but I'm only going to give you the basic run down of how to defend this place, head outside and call everyone out by the bridge," a sigh heaved its weight from his lips as he stood only to get pushed back down by the strange girl, dying for attention.
"I don't want you to leave, ok? Just stay here, be with me and protect us, I know you want to. I can tell by how you have to think about things," she says beginning to straddle the man to keep him from leaving. "You aren't going anywhere until you tell me you are going to stay."
Kel's mind races, thinking of anyway to get out of this situation, Words? No. Kill her? No. Wait! The poison on my knife! Kel finds his answer with as quick as the thought came, the action followed in swift succession, first cupping her mouth, pushing her to the cot and driving the blade into her thin shoulder slipping the poison into her veins, sending the strawberry-blonde lady into a state of temporary paralysis. He looks down on the girl that he had just poisoned with the sting of his blade, heart pounding in excitement, "I could get used to that," the man says aloud to himself as if relishing in the moment. Snapping out of the brief trance of pleasure, he makes his way to the awaiting crowd on their lesson on basic defense.
…
With his deed done and a practice run displayed to his satisfaction the helpful man that had come to the aid of the town when he could have just walked away, said his goodbyes and collected his things for the road ahead. Not a word was spoken to the men and women of Big Town after Kel had slipped his mask and visor on, the way he wished it had been from the start, just a man passing through, as it had been for years. Reaching the entrance of the bridge the all grey suited man pointed himself in his original destination and made is first step towards finding a piece of his past.