Chapter 5: Natural

I ran into the circle of people and pulled the man off of Jab and punched him in the face. He was clearly stunned and he stumbled back. I picked up Jab and sat him in the chair quickly as he fell over himself, panting. I yelled at the man.

"What's the matter with you? Leave him alone!" I shouted.

"That damn ghoul messed up my drink and that ugly piece of trash has the audacity to talk back to me!" The man shouted.

"Holy shit, I had no idea you could contemplate words like 'audacity'. Congrats." I tested him.

"Contemplate this!" He yelled.

The man regained his balance and ran at me. I moved to my side, held out my arm to the side, and in front of him, and kicked his back legs. He dropped to the floor and got up quickly in a huff, and started at me.

"Really? 'Contemplate this'? Work on your fighting lines, dude, that was just sad." I insulted.

He punched me in the face and I drew blood from my nose. I felt the blow in the back of my head. The man then turned his attention to Jab, who is spitting blood onto his counter. The man grabbed Jab's neck and threw him over the counter. I ran to them man, kicked him in the back of the knee, making him stumble, and threw his face backwards into the floor. The man smacked his head into the metal floor and I got on top of him, the burning feelings in my body raging as I kept seeing Chip's face. I kept punching him in the face until I couldn't see the white of his teeth anymore. I grabbed him by the shirt and brought him close to my face.

"You listen to me and you listen good, because I am not repeating myself. You leave him alone, and you leave all ghouls alone. Tell your friends this, because I'm not doing this again." I told him.

I punched him as hard as I could in the face and he fell back on to the floor. He grabbed at his face and moaned while I got up off of him. I turned to see Victoria and Joe staring at me. This Deja Vu turned out to be different, because Joe was laughing hysterically, while Victoria was smiling and clapping. I helped Jab from the floor and sat him down at a stool.

"You all right Jab?" I asked, sniffing and wiping the sweat off of my brow with my sleeve.

"Nothing that won't heal, or fall off the bone that is." He giggled for a moment, and then broke out into a cough.

"I don't even know what the cuts are and what your normal face is, Jab."

"Pfft. Funny." He sighed with a semi smile.

I grabbed a cloth and ran it in the water. I told him to leave it on his face and put pressure on it until the bleeding stops. Joe and Victoria came up to me.

"That was great, kid! I've never seen anything like it!" Joe said, still laughing.

"What was that all about anyway, why all the anger?" Victoria asked.

"I don't know. I'm just tired." I shook my head.

"Whatever it is, it's great! You'll have the raiders shaking in their boots with that stuff!" Joe exclaimed.

"So what are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you be patrolling?" I asked.

"We kind of had a problem, we'll tell you about it later." Joe shook his head.

"Did you fix the water problem?" Victoria asked.

"Yep, it was a simple problem; the guy there just needed another person."

"Good, the mayor will pay nicely for that." Joe said.

"Actually, the guy there already paid me." I showed them my money.

"Nice, now you get a bonus." Joe hushed with his finger, as he tried to take my money. Once again, elbowed by Victoria.

"Now that you have some money, we're going to have to teach you how to use it." Victoria said. We went upstairs to Victoria's room and we sat down in her chairs. Her room was bigger than mine, with a bigger bed. She noticed me admiring her room.

"Once you get some more money, you can pay for a better one." Victoria ensured.

She asked me for my money and I gave her it. She showed me how the numbers on the money show how many I have, they're called 'bills' and the more I have of a high number bill, the more money I have. It's similar to ration coupons, except one bill isn't worth one unit of money, or 'dollar'. After my lesson and some thought, I found out that Walter gave me 35 dollars. Joe then taught me some Wasteland 'slang' as he called it, and identified all the popular foods that we have along with words and several weapons that the town has available for purchase. He told me about 'shotguns' that shoot several projectiles at close range, also 'rifles' which is what he uses. They are usually long ranged and slow, although some are automatic, which shoot fast, along with other weapons that are frequently used. I pointed to Victoria's gauntlet and asked what it was. It had black metal with scratches on it and a yellow cloth draped around it. Joe said that Victoria found it on a raider and he called it a 'Power Fist' and that the name just stuck afterwards. Victoria then said that after inspection, she found out that it is a pneumatic gauntlet, which meant that it was air powered. The weapon must be pumped with compressed air before a battle, when she punches somebody with it; all of the compressed air is released, adding to the force of the impact. After a basic lesson in what Joe called 'Joe's Guide to Wasteland Knowledge', I went downstairs to eat some food. Jab gave me some mole rat stew for free for what I did. I ate it up and then went to bed and meditated on the things I have learned today.

I woke up fairly easy that day, and went downstairs to have some mole rat stew. This morning, Joe and Victoria weren't down here, so I ate anyway. Jab was antisocial when I greeted him, so I just ordered my food. Jab's cuts stopped bleeding, but were still noticeable on his face… I think. I quickly finished my meal and walked to the mayor's office to collect my award. I walked into his office and he was sitting at his desk, speaking to some guards. When he saw me walk in, he sent them away.

"Hello, Jace. Fix that water problem yet?" Larry asked.

"Yep, it was a simple fix and the water tested out perfectly clean."

"Good. At least something in this town went right. Here's your pay." Larry said as he handed me 50 dollars.

"Thanks!" I said with a smile.

"Now that you solved one problem, I was hoping that you could help with another." Larry said, itching his beard.

"Sure, what's the problem?"

"Joe and Victoria came to me last night with some news. The raiders are planning to launch an attack on the town. I've sent my security out instead of them to foil the attack, but they haven't come back, so I'm sending the three of you and the rest of my security force to protect the town in case the raiders stopped them. Your pay will be triple the normal wage of patrolling the town and we will see about establishing a partnership with your vault. Can you do it?" The mayor pleaded.

Thoughts ran through my head after this. If the security force can't stop them, how can I? I've already seen and heard what raiders are capable of; do I even stand a chance? I need to save the vault, if I die, what would make the mayor want to help everyone in there? If I say no, the vault won't get its food. I had no choice.

"Okay." I said with a nervous tone.

"Great. Meet the security force outside the main gates at sunset." Larry said.

"Sure." I said, I grateful that I knew when that time was.

I said goodbye to the mayor and walked to the store to spend my money. I walked inside where Moira was sitting at the counter. I said hello and saw what she had to offer for my money. Being paranoid and afraid for my safety, I purchased some medical supplies which included hydrogen peroxide, bandages, painkillers and an AED. The purchase cleaned out my newly made money, so I walked back to the bar, where I saw Victoria and Joe eating at the counter. I overheard their conversation.

"C'mon Vee, we got this! We have enough firepower! Plus, Simms said he'd get Jace to help out." Joe slapped her shoulder.

"That's what I'm afraid of; I don't think he's ready for this kind of stuff. He hasn't seen a fight like this before. You remember how he handled himself." Victoria said back.

"You saw the kid fight! He's a natural fighter! Think of this as some practice." Joe said.

I walked towards them.

"And there he is! So kid, did the mayor talk to you about our problem?" Joe asked.

"Yeah he did." I said.

"So what did you say?" Joe asked with anticipation.

"I'm in." I nodded.

"Alright! Let's show those raiders a thing or two!" Joe shouted, raising his beer up.

"You've been drinking?" I asked him.

He looked at me for a moment, confused. "…yeah?"