Welcome to chapter 2. This one will involve a lot more action and some graphic descriptions of battle. A lot of this chapter is influenced by my first play through of the game and how I reacted to seeing the bloody carnage raiders enjoy.
Chapter 2
There is blood everywhere! Damnit, why does he always have to make such a mess during a firefight! These thoughts along with countless others race through Luther's mind as he desperately searches for signs of where the vault kid might be. The corpses of the dead raiders lay scattered about. Already some carrion birds are circling overhead. His eyes pass over them without thought, taking in their patchwork armor and moving on. The kid's bright blue jumpsuit and leather jacket should stand out against the rest of the wasteland. That Luther cannot see the boy is troubling. Whats more, it would seem there are even more raiders bunkered down in the ruins of the old school.
Tyler was the one who noticed them first. He scared the shit out of Luther when he fired at them without warning. Now Tyler is keeping watch and waiting for Luther to find the kid, or the kid's corpse.
"Um, hey, Luther, you may want to come look at this." Tyler shouts.
Luther looks up from the raider he is searching for ammo to see Tyler motioning him over. He quickly takes the bag of bullets from the raider's belt and hurries to where his partner is standing with his back towards him. "What, did you find something?" he asks as he draws near. Tyler wordlessly shakes his head and points at something in the dirt. Luther looks down and feels his gut tighten even more than it already was. Lying in the dirt not a few feet away is a busted wooden baseball bat. Not far from it is a 10mm pistol surrounded by a large puddle of blood. There are lots of footprints in the dirt all around the area. There is also a trail of blood, like someone wad dragged away, leading towards the school. "Shit."
"The raiders got him." Tyler says quietly. Luther curses and furiously kicks at a bent tin can. He starts pacing, growling like a caged dog. Tyler watches him silently, knowing it is better to just let him work through it on his own. Finally Luther comes to a stop, staring at the school.
"We have to go get him." he thinks out loud. "We can't just leave him in there. Even if he is dead, we have to get his body, or something. Even if all we get is his..." He trails off as something occurs to him. He turns, looking up at the hill where he knows the entrance of vault 101 is. He looks back at the school, and then at the raiders. "What if the attack wasn't random?"
"What?" Tyler asks, unsure if Luther is speaking to him.
"The attack, what if they attacked us for a reason." He steps over and again looks at the number of raider bodies spread about. "You know as well as I that raiders don't usually move about in numbers like this and there are still all those others in the school. Also, they took him, maybe alive. Since when do raiders take bodies back to their bases. Sure they will string up people who enter on their own, but taking bodies back, they would never put forth the effort." He stops pacing and again looks at the school.
Tyler steps up next to him and stokes the beard growing on his face. "So, what are you thinking? Go in there, figure out what is going down, find the kid, get him out, and it does not matter if he is dead or alive?"
Luther answers slowly, his eyes never leaving the school. "Yes."
Nick slowly starts to wake up. The first thing he is aware of is that he is handing upside down. Next he is hit by a searing pain in his head, and shortly after he realizes that there is blood dripping down his face. He tries to move and finds that his hands are tied to his sides. He strains against the bonds and sends pain shooting through his throbbing head. He gasps in pain and quickly abandons the attempt to wiggle free. A door opens nearby and the sound of boots approach. Someone kicks him, hard. He is sent swinging and he nearly hurls.
"Look at him," a voice sneers above him, the tone nasally and filled with contempt, "we ought to just kill him and take the key off of his arm." Another kick lands on his back and he has to bite his tongue to keep from crying out.
A second voice speaks, this one deeper and more calm. "No, we need him alive for it to work. It is connected to him and will only work for him. If we are to get into the vault, he has to be living."
The fist voice spits, "What if we just cut his arm off? That way we don't have to worry about him trying nothing."
There is a muffled oumf, sound, like someone getting punched, and then a small crash before the second voice speaks again, "I don't want you talking no more. Go tell the others to make sure the path to the tunnel is sealed off all the way. I don't want any more of those ants getting in here and causing any more damage. We are close now, very close, and I won't allow you to fuck it up. Now move!"
One person leaves and slams a door shut. The second voice floats towards Nick again. "As for you," the says, crouching down in front of him, "don't you try nothing either." Nick shutters, the man standing before him is like something straight out of a nightmare. His eyes are red from drugs, his face is covered in a layer of dirt and blood, and his lips are split and chapped. A thick, ragged, black beard encompass his face and a fierce war hawk adorns his head. The raider smiles, revealing a set of crooked yellow and black teeth. At the sight of the smile and the predatory look in the raider's eyes Nick feels a warmth spread out from his crotch. "You won't give me no trouble will ya boy," the raider asks, "no, you won't, because if ya do, my boys and I will eat you." This time Nick does hurl, and it causes the raider to laugh cruelly as he walks out and slams the door, leaving Nick to slip back into darkness.
Luther edges around the corner carefully. He looks around and surveys the area. The old school is mostly intact, but there is a large portion along the side that has crumbled away. He spots three raiders, each patrolling a different level of the ruins. One on what little is left of the top floor, one on the ground level with him, and the final is below in a sublevel. He draws his knife and takes a deep breath to steady himself. Timing his movements in line with the raiders patrols, he moves into cover behind a large metal desk. Crouched down, he waits for the raider on his level to return along his route. He does not have to wait long.
The raider comes around a corner and walks over to the large opening in the wall through witch Luther had entered. The man stands there, stretching his arms out and yawning. Luther quickly moves into position behind the raider. The man has no chance to cry out as Luther stands and clamps a hand over the man's mouth while slicing open his neck and dragging him behind the desk. Once the body is stashed, he looks for a way to ascend to the top level without being noticed. There is none. The raider woman patrolling the top level is wisely choosing to stay along the far side, close to the rest of the still intact school. Luther grinds his teeth, working through possible ways to proceed in his head, when suddenly there is a commotion inside that draws both of the remaining raiders attentions. The one on the upper level immediately charges inside, while the one below hesitates, unsure of what to do.
Luther does not hesitate. Running toward the ledge above the raider he leaps down upon her shoulders, sending her crashing to the ground with a startled yelp and knocking her weapon away. He quickly kills her and moves inside via a nearby set of double doors. The darkness inside the building is a drastic change from the brightness outside and he has to wait a second for his eyes to adjust. Further into the school he can hear the sounds of gunshots and knows that Tyler is doing his part to distract the raiders and give him time to search for the kid.
He decides his eyes are adjusted enough and quickly ascends a nearby set of stairs to the floor above. Before him is a long stretch of classrooms and empty lockers. Moving cautiously, he begins checking each room. Most are empty, but others show the signs of raider occupancy. Decapitated corpses strung up from ceiling fans, limbless torsos chained to walls, words written with blood and random splotches of tribal paint. Then there is the stench. Raiders do not bathe, why should they? All they care about is getting high, killing, and torture. Years of filth, decay, and unattended bodily fluids all combine to create a smell like no other, one that many wastelanders know of and hope they will never have to experience.
After searching for a few minutes a large explosion rocks the school, causing Luther to almost loose his balance and lean against a wall to keep from falling. He hopes that it was caused by Tyler, and that his partner is holding his own against the raiders. As he reaches the last room to search on the hall two raiders come bursting out of the door! They are crazed, with wild looks in their eyes and empty canisters of jet in their hands. They let out bellowing war cries and charge at Luther, waving about lead pipes! He just manages to duck under an attack from one of the raiders, but the other lands a blow on the back of his leg, forcing him to his knees.
Both raiders come at him and he manages to roll away but the pain in his leg keeps him from standing. The raiders come at him again. He reaches for his gun, but the raiders get there first! He trows up his arms to protect his face and cries out in pain as he feels something shatter as the raiders pummel him. He abandons the idea of his gun and instead throws himself up at the raiders. They are caught off guard by the counter attack, allowing him to tackle them both to the ground. He manages to pin one and pry the weapon out of the raiders hands, but before he can finish the man off the other raiders lands a hard blow on his exposed side. The air rushes out of his lungs as he attempts to stand and regain his footing.
The raider who winded him leaps forward, raising the pipe above his head for a killing blow. Instead of stepping away, Luther steps into the attack, taking the brunt of the damage on his padded leather shoulder armor. He grapples with the raider, punching him again and again in the stomach, before the raider finally sinks to the floor in pain. Luther moves to kick the downed raider in the head and hopefully kill him, but something hard slams into the side of his head, nearly knocking him out. the other raider had thrown his weapon at him.
Luther turns to face the raider and whips out his magnum. The raider's eyes bulge as he realizes he is defenseless and makes to run. Luther pulls the trigger, killing the raider with a perfect shot to the heart. He turns quickly and sends a second bullet through the head of the other raider as he tries to stand, sending him back to the ground.
Both raiders now dead, Luther groans and rolls his shoulder, testing if there is any serious damage. His left arm is broken, that much he can tell just by looking at it, and there is blood spilling down over his right eye and down his leg. He can't feel anything, not yet, the adrenaline is still pumping through his veins, and he decides to move before its affect wears off and leaves him crippled. He limps to the room the raiders came from and looks in. Empty.
He curses angrily and heads for the next hallway. This one is littered with the bodies of raiders. They are scattered all around, as if a deathclaw had found its way in and wrecked the place. One or two are still clinging to life and he quickly dispatches them with a shot to the head. There are only three rooms on this hall. One is barricaded from this side, as if the raiders wanted to keep something big from getting out of the room, and the others are locked. Around the makeshift barricade are the bodies of a few of the massive ants usually found around areas of high radiation. He does not dwell on their presence and instead moves on to checking rooms. He kicks in one door and has to jump out of the way as a steel beam falls from the ceiling. Pain flares up his wounded leg as he lands on it. He grits his teeth to keep from crying out and limps back to the room.
Inside there are a few cases of ammunition and some grenades piled haphazardly in a corner. He pockets all the ammo he can and attaches some of the grenades to his bandolier. He limps back out and heads for the last door on the hall. This time he decides to be more cautious and instead of kicking in the door he keels down, cringing in pain as he bends his knee, and attempts to pick the lock. He stops when he realizes that the sound of fighting above has stopped. That means one of two things, all the raiders are dead, or Tyler is. He starts muttering a long string of curses as he resumes trying to pick the lock.
A long bellowing roar causes him to whip around and aim his magnum. Standing at the base of the stairs leading up to the next level is another raider. This one is covered in blood, chunks of flesh, and dirt. His beard is singed and his war hawk looks like it has been cut away in places. The remains of heavy metal armor cover his body, blacked along the left side, as though he were burned. The bellow continues to flow from the raiders mouth as he charges down the hall towards Luther like a raging bull. Luther fires his magnum. The bullet hits its target, slamming into the mans chest and sending blood into the air, but he keeps moving. Luther fires again, and again, and again until his gun gives off a loud click.
The raider stops a few steps from where Luther lies on the floor, his back leaned against the locked door. The raider stares down at the holes in his torso before lifting his head and locking his blood red eyes with Luther's cold blue ones. Again he bellows and takes a step forward. Luther stairs in a horrified fascination as the man who should be dead moves towards him. The raider takes one final step, towering over Luther, and reaches down to throttle him. The raider's head suddenly disappears along with the sound of a shotgun going off. Blood, chunks of skull bone, and bits of brain spray out, splatting the front of Luther's chest and head. The raider's body falls over his legs and his arms twitch, as if still trying to kill him. He looks up and sees Tyler standing there, looking just as bad as the raider had and covered in twice as much blood. "Teach that bastard to think he can kill me."
Tyler stretches out a hand and helps Luther to his feet. They lean against each other and Tyler blows open the lock on the door. They limp in to see the kid strung up by his feet and unconscious. Luther limps over and cuts the rope holding him up. The kid falls to the floor in a heap and groans, but does not wake. "At least he is alive."
"Yep," shouts Tyler as he bends down and tears a chunk of the dead psycho raider's armor off, "and I got a new shoulder plate. Overall not a bad trip." He doubles over a second later and coughs up a wad of blood. "We should get out of here." he mutters darkly as he wipes his mouth off. Luther nods and pulls the kid up, half dragging him as they struggle towards the entrance. They exit the school and drag the kid towards one of the other ruins. The sun has set outside and they decide to bunker down in the ruin instead of returning to Megaton empty handed. They still have a bounty to collect after all.
Luther splints his arm, injecting himself with a stimpack to numb the pain and speed the healing process along. He then tends to his other wounds. His head is fine, just a minor cut, but there is a jagged cut on the inside of is knee and the joint is swollen bad. He considers taking another stimpack, but decides not to use up his supply too quickly. Instead he just wraps it tightly with some gauze he bought from a traveling merchant a while back. Tyler is in a much worse state than he is, however, and quickly sticks himself with three stimpacks. Tyler's injuries include several bad burns, multiple open cuts ranging in length and depth, three broken fingers, a blackened eye, and some internal bleeding. There are more wounds, but Tyler insists that he will live through them.
Luther knows better than to argue with his partner but secretly promises to get the man to a doctor the next time they are in a town. Even if he has to drug him up to do it. He groans as he lowers himself into what remains of a prewar bathtub. He takes his rifle off of his back and curls up with it like he always does. Ever since he was forced out into the wasteland he has slept with his weapons. It wasn't until a few months of survival that he discovered bathtubs to be a relatively more safe place to sleep than say a mattress or bedroll. No one ever thinks to check a tube. Tyler takes first watch after dumping the kid onto a rotting mattress. Luther's eyes are heavy from the meds he took and from the fighting. Almost as soon as his eyes close he is asleep.
What feels like only a few short seconds later Tyler is shaking his shoulder to wake him up. He groans once but then gets up and moves to stand watch. He sits down in the doorway of the ruined house and looks towards the school. Flames are licking up out of some of the windows to the upper floor and a grim satisfaction fills him. That place deserves to burn.
He stays on watch. Periodically sweeping his gaze over the landscape, constantly alert for danger. A sniffling sound comes from behind him and he turns to see that the kid is awake, and crying into his arms. He turns away with a small scoff. It isn't that he does not feel for the kid, he does, but deeper down he is pissed at him for having gotten them into the mess with the raiders. If it hadn't been for that kid ticking off Moriarty and his own damned sense of right and wrong, they would never have had to go through all of that. He sighs inwardly as he realizes he is being an ass. Sure the kid got them here, and sure he is the one who got caught, but those raiders needed to be dealt with. At least it was them who went in there. Who is going to miss any of them? Two mercs who no one cares about and a kid with no place to call home. That realization hits him hard and he finds himself turning back to the kid.
He has stopped crying now but still has his face buried in his arms. He is homeless, Luther thinks, like Tyler and I. He has nowhere to go. Maybe he had already known that. Maybe that is why he stood up for him in the saloon. Maybe that is why he couldn't just leave him to the raiders. The kid's situation is too similar to his own, to Tyler's. All three of them have shady pasts, all three of them have been forced out of their homes. Sure the kid does not know that, but he doesn't have to. The point is, they have something in common.
Luther finds himself standing and walking over to the kid. He sits down heavily and waits for the kid to acknowledge his presence. After a few seconds the kid looks up. His eyes are red from where he has been rubbing them and there is dried blood caked to one side of his face from his earlier wound. Luther suddenly does not know what he is going to say. A long silence drags on between them during which the look of confusion on the kids face only makes things harder for Luther. Finally he settles on reaching forward and just clapping the kid on the shoulder. The confusion lingers on the kids face for a few more seconds, but then he nods, understanding on some level what Luther is trying to convey. Luther nods back and pats the kid's shoulder again before returning to his post.
As he sits he hears the kid sigh and lie down. Soon there is gentle snoring drifting from where the kid has curled himself up. A rare, genuine, smile appears on Luther's lips. Something inside of him tells him that this kid is going to be the source of a great many more pains in the future, but despite that, he is happy he has helped, even in his small way.
And there it is. The second chapter. I originally intended for it to be a bit shorter and include the main section from the next chapter, but things happen and stories change as you write and explore the characters. I hope you enjoyed, leave a comment or a like. Also, totally open to criticism, like it, don't like it, think I need to make some major changes? Let me know.