Dakota Michelson

A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction

Chapter 4: Training

"Pathetic," Rhys scoffs. "You're not going to survive for long if that's how you think a gun is held."

"Enough!" yells Danse. "Knight, why don't you make yourself useful and patrol the area." "Yes, sir." Rhys says obediently.

I thought I did decent yesterday when the feral ghouls attacked. I guess my definition of "decent" is equivalent to "horrendous" to Rhys, and probably the others. But they have the decency to sugar-coat it.

Danse continues to train me on the basics of holding, firing, and reloading the rifle for the next few days. He then tells me that it's time to practice on real targets. Rhys reported ghouls in College Square station and left them "just for me".

Danse and I head out in the morning. It's very cold and snow covers the ground. The sun is out and when it isn't behind a cloud, the temperature is just right. Danse looks over at me as we approach the station. "Are you ready, Michelson?" "Yes, Paladin." I say. The lie comes out so easily, but I have no choice. I'm afraid saying "no" will lead to my banishment from the police station.

I open the door and we walk inside. It's dark and there are only a few working lights. Rubble, skeletons, and a few dead ghouls litter the room. The stench is overpowering. I hold my breath until we get past the corpses. We start walking down the stairs and I am startled when the intercom system plays a loud tone. It is followed by some garbled verbiage about what I assume to be safety and security information. We proceed down the stairs and I hear something. I freeze. "What now?" I think to myself, as if I don't know what comes next. I imagine Danse giving me some judging look at me from behind me. I crouch down and take slow, light steps. I see a ghoul from behind the corner up ahead. I aim… and… FIRE. I hit the ghoul's arm and it falls off. But that doesn't faze it. It growls and runs towards me. I shoot it in the face and it falls.

I feel proud that I've accomplished killing this one ghoul for just a split second when I see two more ghouls coming from that same corner. I aim carefully but quickly and shoot one in the head and it falls. I move the gun very quickly and shoot the other ghoul's leg. It breaks off and the ghoul falls, but it is slowly crawling towards me. I shoot once more and it is dead.

I look back at Danse to gauge his thoughts, but he is not an easy man to read. We move forward and see that there are two sets of stairs on either side. I decide to go down the right-hand side. I see a ghoul walking, but it hasn't seen me yet. I aim and fire, but I miss. Just like that, it and four other ghouls are alerted to my presence and they start running up the stairs towards me. I shoot at them and kill one of them but the others catch up to me. Danse helps and takes another one down. One hits and scratches my chest, but in the midst of the sudden chaos, I didn't even feel any pain. I just focus and shoot it right in the head. Pieces of its body splatter everywhere, even on me. Danse takes the last one down and when things start to calm down, the pain of the ghoul's scratch and the realization that I am covered in brain kick in. I quickly brush off pieces of the ghoul and resist the urge to vomit. Then the pain started to kick in. "Move forward," I think to myself. I have to convince Danse that I can handle this type of stuff if I have any hope of joining the Brotherhood.

We head through an old subway and in the only exit that was accessible was a corpse that looked fairly recent. I see a note sticking out of his pocket and my nosiness gets the best of me. I grab it and read out loud, "Ricca's dead. Only a couple of us made it inside. We couldn't hold the entrance – there were just too many. Only way we could go was down. We'll hole up for a few days, wait for the ghouls to move on, then get outta here."

"Terrible," I say to Danse. He says, "This is why we need to exterminate these abominations." I nod and we continue walking deeper into the station. We walk past a corner into what looks like an old storage room and there's a ghoul crouched down. This one looks a bit bigger than the others. It turns its head and spots me and it begins to run towards me. I aim and shoot it in the chest. It didn't seem to notice at all. I runs up and hits me so hard in the head that I fall down. Danse shoots it and it runs towards him instead.

While I was on the ground, I notice some strange colored liquid on the ground. Oil. My mind begins to work very quickly and I formulate a plan to use it to kill this ghoul. I tell Danse to get back. He listens and I stand up, get back, and fire at the oil. Just like I expected, it lights on fire. The burning ghoul growls but falls down rather quickly and dies.

I exhale a sigh of relief that my plan worked, but right then, there is an explosion and something hard punches me right in the gut and I fall down back down to the ground. I open my eyes to see a half of a fire extinguisher in front of me. I have a hard time catching my breath after the blow. Danse asks, "Are you alright?" I'm not sure how to respond at first. I know there's probably something wrong that Haylen should look at, but I don't want to admit that I'm hurt. Danse extends his hand to me for support and I grab it. He helps me up very easily and quickly, almost too quickly. His armor must grant him a tremendous amount of strength. "Let's head back to the station to have you looked at," he says. I am silent, but very grateful that he said that.

I'm glad that it's such a short walk to the police station. Danse has Haylen check out the damage and she says, "Well your prognosis is grim. It might be more humane to just take you out back and shoot you." Rhys chuckles. I do too because I understand her sense of humor, but I'm sure Rhys would genuinely like that scenario to play out. He'd even be the one to do it. "On a serious note, it's very minor. Probably just a little bit of bruising. You'll be okay." "Glad to hear it," I say.

Later that night, Haylen and I were sitting and talking on the roof of the police station. "-Guess I should have known better. All Rhys cares about is the Brotherhood. There's no room for me." "Maybe he will come around eventually. You never know." I tell her in an attempt to cheer her up. She chuckles skeptically and there's a long silence.

"You know, I joined the Brotherhood under circumstances that were not too different from yours. Well… not saying I was frozen for two centuries, but I signed up seeking protection. While I agree with the Brotherhood's message and vision for the future, their methods leave a lot to be desired. Instead of diplomacy, the leadership wields violent confrontation to exert control. I became a field scribe so I could try to avoid the violence. I'm not trying to convince you to leave by any means, but I thought you should know what you're getting yourself into.

I nod and we just sit there in silence for a few minutes. It's so peaceful. There are no clouds in the sky and no light pollution, so I can see hundreds of stars. I think to myself that this is an unexpected benefit. There are no distractions and so enjoying a nice night like this is possible. I don't miss all the late nights of work and cramming for tests. This is nice.

For the first time since I left Vault 111, I have hope that I can make this new life work for me and I can survive out in the Commonwealth.