Vault Shadows
Chapter 5: How to Catch a Shadow
Where does he think he's going now? Helena thinks to herself after watching the grey clad figure disappear into thin air as if he never existed. Squinting, she can make out a subtle cloud of dust that emits from each step the invisible man makes, too heavy to sneak around without a tell. Not as sneaky as you seem, huh?
…
From dawn till about four in the afternoon the west drifting footsteps remain invisible. Why does he stay cloaked for so long? She asks herself while going from cover to cover just to be sure that she isn't found by the ghost she's trying to follow. Looking down at a makeshift map of the wasteland she's explored Helena's eyes widen. This far west? This is yao guai territory, is he suicidal?!
As if he knew she lost him while she was looking at her map, Kel's stealth boy fades out and he is seen climbing up on a rock wall and seemingly swallowed by the rocks.
Oh no you don't! she starts running towards the rocks but doesn't pay attention to the noise she's making and she hears a low growl coming from a trench to her left. She stops herself, rocks and dirt flying around due to her immediate halt. She sighs, thinking she's in the clear before a light shake is felt in the earth below her feet as a large beast makes its way out of the trench. Large yellow teeth bared from the jaws of the irradiated descendant of a bear, the muscles on display due to the lack of fur to cover the beast like its ancestors, and paws that could take off someone's head with a mere swipe.
…
Sun pierced through her eyelids, the weather had been nice enough so the lady slept outside under the comfort of the night sky, the sun gave her a welcome awakening from a dreamless sleep. Amber eyes look around trying to find the weapon she had grown accustomed to, a short hunting rifle with her name engraved on the grip and it had a shoddy recreation of a reflex sight and a silencer that she didn't like to use because she preferred people know when she's out for the kill.
She stretches, her arms swinging out to her sides and her bust pushing forward tightening her white tee. A long sigh follows her stretch as she gazes her personal combat armor that was identical to her Talon Company counterparts minus the symbol on the chest before heaving the armor around her body that fit seamlessly into the worn leather.
"Helena. Get the fuck up, what are doing sleeping outside anyway, do you want to die?" the voice emanating from her commander, Jabsco.
"What got you out of the bunker today Jetty?" Helena pokes fun at her commander as she makes her way to the position of attention.
Jabsco scowls but doesn't address the comment, "Rider, yourself and two others are going to go try and track down an unknown vaultie." He says looking fiercely into the woman's eyes, trying to display dominance.
"No offense Jab, but how do you expect three idiots and myself to find someone that not even you know? And are you talking about that vaultie that Three Dog keeps mentioning on the radio?" she asks in a near defiant tone due to the absurdity of the request.
"Not that vaultie, all I know is the person we are looking for is a man with a white eye from some sort of accident and a black eye. We don't know where he came from, he doesn't have any markings my intel was able to discern and he for sure does not have a wrist thingy like that vault chick," Jabsco spits out the briefing to Helena.
"So, what you are telling me, sir, is that we are ghost hunting?" She asks in disbelief that Jabsco would send her on a mission that sounds made-up.
"No, Captain Everette, we have lost a couple of scouting parties in a specific region and I want you to snuff him out and bring him back to me alive, he has a lot to answer for," he says seemingly betrayed by the unknown man.
"What if this is that bitch from the vault or even worse a covert Enclave set up that our guys keep stumbling on? We don't have the power to take on either of those forces." Helena's tone clearly displeased with the idea of hunting someone they know nothing about.
"Captain, enough, this is an order. Rider is going to make sure he gets back alive and you are the best tracker that we have here at Fort Bannister. I will not take no for an answer on this one." The commander states in all seriousness to his subordinate.
Jabsco's words seemingly activate a militaristic mindset in Helena and she just simply nods before preparing herself for the mission she believed would not end in anything good for herself or the others. I need for than four of us for this, I guess I'm glad these guys will listen to me. She says to herself as she starts walking to the barracks with her short hunting rifle hanging from her right hand.
"Listen up men, I was told that were about to embark on a mission to track down and find an unknown male with a scar on the right side of his face, one white eye and one black eye." Helena's words accompanied with a sense of disbelief that she was trying to tell her men they were embarking on a ghost hunt.
Rider runs his scarred left hand over his short mohawk and looks up from the Chinese assault rifle he was cleaning, "anything else or is that it? Is that all we have to go o-"
"How about you shut the fuck up and let me finish telling you about the fucking mission?" Helena snaps, "We know he is somewhere between that shithole Megaton and that old bitch Agatha's place. Or at least we THINK he's there because that's where our scout parties keep disappearing."
A younger male in disbelief puts in his two sense, "Boss, I don't think that is a good idea, who is putting us on thi-"
Helena, getting tired of questions, throws an American assault rifle to the young adult, "Look, Jennings, you know I get my missions directly from ol' Jetty and what he says goes, he's the General. I'm having Cole and Augustine as the vanguard on this expedition and Jennings as our tail end, in case anything goes sour we will know when Cole and Augustine run into anything and if we have something go wrong, you, Jennings are to report straight back to here. If we all start dropping." Her confidence coming back to her as she explains to her team.
An older male, even older than Rider who was well into his thirty's chimes in, "Jennings, don't worry I practically spent my entire time here at Talon Company with Helena and I know she will take great care of us," a reassuring hand meets the shoulder of the female Captain, "isn't that right Hela?"
Only a nod is needed before she saddles her men up and gets everyone ready for the ghost hunt.
…
Running from the wild beast Helena finds short cuts through the hilly terrain and passes under a decrepit Captain Cosmos billboard trying to make her way towards the tower in the distance. Earth trembles below her feet as the heavy weight of the yao guai finds a way through the rocky terrain and eventually b-lines straight for the black-haired woman, as the surface flattens.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! She thinks to herself before she feels the heat of lasers zipping past her and hitting the blood-thirsty bear that is closing the distance between the two.
An old man and three robot henchmen shoot an assortment of energy weapons at the best, the two gutsies shooting a low powered plasma blast, the protectron utilizing its laser and the old man, the merchant Tinker Joe, making what effort he can with his laser pistol.
Once Helena thinks she's in a safe distance where the old man wouldn't easily accidentally shoot her, she turns behind a rock where she brandishes her shortened hunting rifle and unloads into the head of the rampaging beast. It lunges its body at her as in attempt at one last offensive, only to take a .308 through the mouth and out the back of its skull, dropping it to the dirt with a thick thud. The eyes slip to the back of their sockets leaving a lifeless white exposed to the former prey.
The old man's voice breaks the brief cloud of silence, "you shoulda climbed a tree, little lady."
"What the hell would that have done? Let me starve instead of get mauled and then my dead body be a decoration for the tree like a morbid holiday?! Can it, old man." Helena's tone attacking Tinker Joe's words as if he was an ignorant child trying to state a false fact.
"Well excuse me for trying to give friendly advi-," his words cut off by a middle finger as the Captain starts to walk away and reload her rifle.
Fuck that was too much for one day. Maybe Tenpenny will let me stay at that hotel, I'm not tempting fate tonight. Her adrenaline starts to die down as she makes her way to the nearby tower and neglecting to thank the man on purpose. I can't believe I'm going back into this sleaze pit.
…
"Hela," the nickname that Cole called her back at the camp before they left. Last time he explained it, it had something to do with the way she fought, he said something about Hela being the name of a goddess of the underworld. Kind of fitting.
BIZZIIIIIINNNNNNG!
A seemingly stray bullet takes Helena out of her train of thought and she turns to the right trying to tracking the origin of the bullet that ricocheted off a nearby boulder.
From the front of the group a female's voice breaks the silence. Augustine screams for her fellow vanguard member, Cole, "NO! No, no, no, no!" She initially screams, turning to muttering as she reaches his side and tries to get Cole to a safe position.
The older male in his late thirties shoves her off of him and demands her to get herself to safety before dragging himself behind a nearby cement pillar from the collapsed highway. He assesses his knee that had been shot just as he was taking a step and had caused him to tear several tendons and rendered his right leg effectively useless. "FUCK! Nice shot, asshole! But you gotta do better to put down this goat!" he yells before readying himself to retaliate with his own flurry of gunshots.
Helena breaks composure seeing Cole start to aim. "Stand down you fucking idiot! He wants to kill you!"
Her words not reaching his ears in time until he lets loose a volley of automatic fire. As he begins firing wildly due to the pain and the adrenaline, Augustine tries to run to his side and stop the older man from killing himself and with her efforts a bullet not matching the wild nature of the machine gun fire zips past the three soldiers behind the vanguard and meets Augustine's skull.
Rider, Jennings, and Helena all stare in slow motion at the scene. A flash of silver breaking past them, blood projecting from the helmet of the young female, and then silence.
Cole fell back to the ground, the real world hitting him like he hit the Earth when his knee was blown out from under him. What have I done? The thought haunts him as he lay paralyzed in regret and blood slowly fills his pant leg. The visage of the young girl turned cyclops burning him unlike anything else he had seen under the Talon Co. since this was directly HIS fault in his eyes.
Jennings, disobeying his original orders to turn and run when shit hit the fan, came running from the back and limited the exposure to the right side of the remnants of the fallen highway, unknowing of the whereabouts from the second sniper shot and how it was just behind him when the bullet was fired. The youngest of the group making it to the Captain from the back stumbles trying to catch his breath. Rider, having gone to try to aid Cole is not there when Helena meets up with Jennings.
"What the fuck did I tell you Je-!" She is unable to finish before the rooky interrupts.
"I needed to ma-," only gurgling and blood follow his words.
Slowly unveiling from invisibility, a serrated trench knife takes form in the mouth of the young soldier who had been followed from the rear flank by the cloaked target. Effortlessly, the blade is unsheathed from the back of the boy's skull as if being drawn from the hip it belonged to.
A scream of fear erupted from the ruby lips of the Captain as the ghost they had been hunting flickered in and out of existence behind the dead rooky. This distracts Rider, causing him to neglect his duties to aid Cole, and instead he tries to run to Helena's side only for two strategically placed 10mm rounds to incapacitate him by hitting metallic points in the armor he was wearing and knocking his wind out.
"If you know what is good for you and your men, you will stop chasing me. And while you're at it tell Jabsco to get off my case. He will never win this game of cat and mouse when he doesn't even realize that he is the mouse." The grey clad figure says before recloaking and disappearing into the environment.
…
Smoke slips up to the ceiling and escapes through the vents as Helena lays in the same bed she rented from Tenpenny a year ago with Rider after the rest were lost in that ambush. The butte of the cigarette betwixt her lips getting clenched with her teeth cause it to fall out her mouth. Goddamn it! I cannot believe that he of all people saved me! And I cannot believe I was hit with feelings for him doing so!
"Why is this happening!" Hela scream out in her room, throwing an antique alarm clock across the room, her amber eyes seemingly burning. "He killed them a year ago, I lost my sanity, and almost left on the sketchy boat just to get away from my failures! And my failure saves me!" Her breathing not deepening nor slowing, matches her passion and confusion. What would I even do if I tracked him down and confronted him anyway? Kill him? Thank him? Demand for my life in the Talon Co. back? He can't give me anything I need! Whatever, I need answers… I just hope he has some or at least he doesn't remember me.
Stepping into the shower, Hela begins to rinse her stiches that had partially ripped after the bear chase. The water slipping down her shoulders slowing gains a rust color once they pass her slightly wide hips and by the time the water reaches the drain it has fully took a red tint from her reopened wounds.
Whenever I get healed up enough, I'm coming for you Kel. Now that I have a name, maybe, just maybe I will have a better chance at hunting you down.