Part 2

Chapter 23: Without a Torch

Joe sat down in my house with his crutches slouched against the table with Victoria. They didn't speak for a few seconds, they just found a spot to stare at and not make eye contact.

"Did you say goodbye to him?" Victoria asked Joe.

He looked up at her. "No."

"Why…" Joe's hands shook.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" He asked her.

Victoria looked up at him. "Because you're just as much a kid as my daughter. You live in a fantasy land where we all end up as heroes no matter what. It's like-it's one big show for you, you don't care about us, you only care about whether you look good in the end. You're not a man; you're an ego-maniac, Joe. And you can't be troubled with a commoner's affairs."

Natalie opened the front door and Sarah walked in, her hands at her sides.

"You left your daughter." Natalie told Victoria.

"Oh… I'm sorry." Victoria told her daughter in her forgetfulness.

Sarah looked up at her mother.

"It's nap time Sarah." Victoria told her as she sent her upstairs.

"Okay." She responded as she went up the stairs.

Natalie looked at the two adults sitting at the table, looking down at their feet. "He's your best friend and you didn't even say goodbye to him?" She asked them with irritation.

Victoria looked up in anger. "Excuse m—"

"He's your best friend, and he's about to go an attempt and assassination against the most dangerous raider in D.C. without either one of you at his side. Do you guys even realize how he must be feeling after you shove an engagement ring in his face and act like he's already dead? Did you even hear what he had to say to Sarah?" Natalie asked the two.

"You don't understand." Joe tried to argue.

"Joe, I married you because you care. You cared about these people to the point where you would die for them. What the hell happened to you guys?"

Joe blinked and inhaled a response. "I… I—"

Gunshots rang out and screams soon followed. Victoria got up and sprang to action as Natalie turned around. "Get Sarah." Joe told her. She rushed over to her daughter as Natalie rushed outside.

A gust of warm wind blew past her as she pulled her brown hair back, exposing her eyes to flames. The buildings that were once crafted by men were blown apart by firebombs as raiders flooded the city. They grabbed as many people they could and dragged them away; anyone who fought back was shot by their perfectly maintained firearms. Natalie ran back inside as the town shook with the man-made earth quakes crashing into the town.

"We need to go." Natalie told them frantically.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked as he got up quickly, and felt his wounds in pain as he grab hold of his crutch.

"Get out of the city now. All of us have to go." Natalie said quickly as she tied up her hair and jogged over to Victoria and Sarah.

"Come on, honey." Victoria told her daughter quickly as she picked her up.

"Natalie, answer me! What's wrong?!" Joe yelled at her.

The door crashed open with a raider and his shotgun. Joe flipped his crutch to one arm and lobbed it at the raider's temple. He fell back and fired a shell into the air as he fell to the ground. Sarah screamed.

"Go! NOW!" Natalie yelled as Victoria held her daughter tightly and ran out the front door.

Joe limped back over to his crutch as Natalie held him up. The gunshots and explosives along with the shouts and screams of terror blanketed their ear drums. The raider that was hit by the crutch grabbed Joe as he moved by him and Natalie slammed his head against the scrap metal door and knocked him out in response.

"Come on, Joe. You have to move faster." His wife pressured him as he crutched quickly out the door.

"You… you've got to go without me." Joe wheezed at her.

"Shut up and move." She told him.

Joe spotted Vee moving back to them as she held her daughter's face away from the carnage. The raiders ran at her with knives and batons at her. Victoria pulled out her rifle with one hand and looked over to Natalie. There was no way she could shoot them with Sarah in her hands.

"Natalie!" Victoria begged to her as she tossed the lever-action rifle to her.

Natalie let go of Joe and let him catch his breath against the wall as she caught the rifle and popped off rounds at them. They caught the bullets that hit their chests with their Kevlar armor, but few fell to the rare neck shot that she dished out.

"Go!" Natalie pointed to a hole in the wall caused by a grenade blast.

Joe coughed and felt his re-opened wounds against the wall as his wife covered Victoria and Sarah. Victoria sprinted to the hole in the wall. A raider emerged from the very same exit and slapped Victoria in her head with his crafted weapon. He huffed out and his knuckles cracked as Victoria's face did the same. Sarah rolled out from her mother's arms and landed next to Natalie, who aimed the rifle directly at the leader. Joe inhaled quickly and tried to regain his composure before he fought the leader again.

Chain looked at Natalie as she aimed the rifle at him.

"I'm sorry doll-face." He told her as a raider came up behind her and bashed the back of her head in.

Joe wheezed and got up from the wall and crutched over to the raider with his fury overflowing.

"Really?" Chain sighed as Joe moved closer to him.

The leader sweep kicked the man's crutches from him and sent him into the ground with a thud and groan. He picked up one crutch and snapped it against his knee. He walked around Joe as he balled his fists up in retaliation. Chain went and snapped another crutch, and threw the useless pieces at the downed celebrity.

"I warned ya', Joey." Chain said in pity as the raiders dragged Victoria and Natalie out of the city. Chain bent down and grabbed Sarah as she struggled to get free. Joe inhaled sharply as he tried to grab Sarah and get her away from him.

"And now you lose." He said to Joe as he walked out of the city with Sarah in his arms and the raiders as the rest of the town burned and the citizens were rallied up or killed on the spot. Joe crawled to his knees to chase after him, but without his crutches he couldn't get far before his legs gave out. Now five inches away from his starting point, he dragged his hands against the terrain after the bandits.

"Come back!" Joe commanded over his pain.

"Bring her back!" He yelled at them in defeat.

"You… can't do this!" Joe yelled at him with no air in his lungs as he crawled forward and gave up, falling over to his back, red and out of energy to continue. He slipped into an unconscious state after this, his body needed rest and now it forced it at the most inopportune time. He was soon alone, in a dead town with smoke all around.

"C'mon, up this hill." Manny said in a high-pitched voice as we followed the path. Dimitri grunted we he heard it. Manny pointed to the city on the horizon. The city looked big, even all the way out here. It looked like it was going to be a while until we got there, maybe a few days. We went down the hill and continued walking.

"So Manny, how do you know where this place was?" I asked, trying to make small talk that no one wanted as we made it over to the D.C. ruins.

"I found the place when I went scavenging. Didn't find much there, had to be pulled out of the city because of radiation. I almost died." Manny said rather quickly.

"How'd you survive?" I asked.

"He probably had to run away like a little girl." Dimitri grunted.

"Hey, easy there, big guy! Anyway, I took some medicine that some people gave me, but I passed out. Woke up outside the city, so I went back to town." Manny explained.

"Did you know who those people were?" I asked.

"Nope, but they seemed friendly." Manny said.

"Wow, you're luck-" I was interrupted by Tai.

"Quiet, there's something nearby." Tai said in a professional tone.

We all squatted down and waited for Tai to go forward. She pointed out radscorpions, which are irradiated scorpions that grew due to the large amounts of radiation in the puddles around here. I saw one when I went patrolling one day, and I stayed away from it. Tai aimed through the scope and looked at them.

"There's three. We can't let them get close, if they swarm us, we'll be overrun if they get at least one of us with its poison." She told us.

"Alright, we should-" I was caught off by Tai firing her rifle. She reloaded the bolt-action and took another shot, and then another.

"Got them." Tai said.

"Wow, nice shot, how'd you learn all this stuff?" Manny asked.

"Experience." Tai replied.

"I can already tell this is going to be one cliché adventure." I sighed.

"If clichés are all you're worried about, you need to get your priorities fixed." Tai responded.

"My priorities are just fine." I retorted.

We kept walking towards the town, the sun started to set behind us.

"So... Dimitri, is it? Why'd you volunteer for this job?" I asked.

"Why are you asking questions?" Dimitri asked, his tone was serious.

"Good response." I muttered.

"Hey, big guy, lighten up, we'll be heroes after this!" Manny squeaked.

"You shouldn't care about titles, kid. Especially if we're going to die in that city." Tai said to him.

"That's why you guys are so serious? You all think you're going to die?" I asked.

"We all accepted this job because we didn't care about what would happen to us, well... all except the little baby over there." Dimitri said as he looked at Manny.

"Yeah, you probably'll die. Feel heroic yet?" I asked them coldly, not caring about making friends, ever again.

"I heard stories that the radiation gets so bad out there that you mutate into something worse than a ghoul. You become bigger and more clouded. You can't think straight, and all you want to do is kill. They're called Super-Mutants." Dimitri told us.

"They can't be that bad and besides, if we get hurt we have the doctor over here, right doctor...uh." Manny tried to think of a name to call him.

"I don't not care of the names sie call me." He said.

"All right, Doc. That's a good enough name, right?" Manny asked. Doc sighed and ignored him.

His name was Doc now.

"C'mon guys, we'll probably be fine." I told them tiredly.

"If that is true, then why did you give away your badge, then?" Dimitri asked me.

I had no response. I didn't want to explain it to them.

"My point exactly." Dimitri mumbled.

"It's getting late. We should set up camp here. We can see a few meters on all sides and can set up a defense if we need it." Tai informed us.

"Here?" I asked.

"Here. It's open and we can hear things easily." Tai responded.

"Alright." I said.

Tai took out three foldable tents and gave them to us to put up. We put them all up, sticking the forks in the dirt. Tai then took out sleeping bags and handed them to us. Manny went to go find fire wood. He returned quickly and dumped the sticks in front of the tents. Manny pulled out a lighter and lit them. They burned brightly as he put in more sticks. He then set up a pan over the fire and took out some canned beans from his pack. Manny poured them in the pan and began to cook them. The sun set and we gathered around the fire as we waited for the food to cook. From the looks of it, we didn't make any progress towards the town. The beans finally cooked and we began to eat them in plate that Manny carried.

"How'd you find wood so fast?" I asked him.

"Just seems natural. The wilderness seems...predictable. I can always find what I'm looking for if I try." Manny said. He actually talked slowly for once.

"So, Dimitri, where'd you get that gun from?" Manny asked.

"Sasha was not found. She came to me like one comes to a destination. She is my best freind and is forever my companion." Dimitri answered angrily.

"You do know that's a gun, right?" Manny asked. Dimitri grunted back.

"So, Doc, where'd you train to get that medical experience?" I asked him, still not caring about the answer I get.

"Meine town was known for many doctors, it had a hospital for many people. Ich was the best of them all. Ich know everything there is to know about medicine so you are lucky to have me." Doc said happily.

"You must of had access to a lot of medicines, then." Manny nodded.

"Ja, not like this place... so little medicines. Meine expertise was using medicine to their full potential. Ich can treat a man with a gunshot to the head with an injector, if I had it available." Doc said arrogantly.

"Great, let's hope that happens so you can show off." I grunted.

We finished our food and went back to our tents. I shared a tent with Manny. Tai was with Doc, and Dimitri with his own tent, due to his size. I fell asleep easily, from being tired of all the walking. I woke up to Manny poking me in the face. I opened my eyes and glared at him.

"You're lucky that punching you in the face would make me feel like hurting a little girl." I warned him.

"C'mon time to wake up, we have a lot of ground to cover!" Manny exclaimed to the camp.

I got up and folded the tent and gave it to Tai, who was already awake. Manny woke everyone else up, except Dimitri, who got me to do it for him. We all continued walking towards the town. It looked like we just got started walking there. We were walking on a dirt path when Manny stopped us.

"What is the problem, molisch?" Dimitri asked the child.

"I forgot. Big raider camp up ahead. Almost shot me once, about 20 guys there." Manny warned us.

I sighed. "Great, what are we-"

Dimitri ran up ahead, taking out Sasha and letting out a ferocious battle-cry. We all chased him.

"Are you kidding me with this shit?!" I yelled at their unprofessionalism.

The camp was positioned in a small crater. The main focus of it was that the raiders used a small building and put tents around it. Dimitri ran inside the building, leaving the outside raiders to us. Tai pulled out her rifle and started firing. Manny ran around and flanked them from behind. He fired at them with a pistol, taking cover and pulling the trigger rapidly, making the pistol recoil and miss. I ran in and started shooting with my shotgun as the raiders were preoccupied with Tai and Manny. Doc stayed behind and did not fight, only looking at the spectacle, and brushing his coat off. We finished off most of the raiders, when Tai turned around to Doc.

"What's the matter with you, why didn't you fight?" Tai asked.

"Ich do not kill, a true doctor only heals." Doc responded proudly.

I ran inside to the building as I heard Dimitri laughing and firing inside. I opened the door and saw blood all over the room, dead bodies everywhere. Dimitri was in the middle, holding Sasha and panting, crouched down in the epicenter of the bodies.

"What the hell, dude?! These guys are supposed to be the psychopaths, not us!" I yelled.

"I...I'm sorry. I-I don't know what happened to me." Dimitri responded.

"Why did you run off like that?" I asked.

"That, my friend, is a story for another time." Dimitri said as he got up.

"Oh, cool, I get to learn backstory soon, that was my end goal for this trip, you know." I told him sarcastically as I left the building.

"Doc and Tai were yelling at each other, their faces angered and their arms outstretched with balled up fists at the end.

"Ich do not tell you what to do! Do not order me around, soldier-girl!" Doc shouted.

"Well you should have some common sense and attack the people that are shooting at us!" Tai yelled.

"Ich have common sense! I—am—not—an-idiot!" Doc shouted.

"Both of you shut up before we enter the city with two less people!" I shouted.

The group looked at me.

"Listen to me. You people have an important job to do here, and if I see you guys go off on pointless babble-shit again, I'll go into that city without you and finish this myself, I promise you." I warned.

"I'm not playing daddy to you people; I'm telling you the truth because you're adults now, even if you're kids. What you agreed to do now makes you an adult, and all the privileges you think it comes with." I added as I looked at all their faces. "You people are now expendable. Your lives mean nothing to me. They only matter to you. So get your shit together and play house later, because now, your life is on the line. This is not the time to argue or worry about your past, it's about making sure people don't go out here and do what we're doing ever again. And if you think your differences are more important you need to leave this group or shut the fuck up."

"Hypocrite." Dimitri muttered.

I lifted my shotgun and aimed it at him.

The camp was silent and the towering man stared down the barrel.

"Would you even care if I pulled the trigger?" I asked him.

"No."

"Good." I spat out.

"Keep that in mind the next time a raider does this to you." I added.

They looked at me and then somewhere else and reflected. I glared at them and packed my shotgun up and walked away. They listened and we went back on track. We kept moving until sunset, and then we set up camp again. Manny got a fire started and food set up. The tents were set up by Tai once again. We sat around the campfire and ate. I stood up and stared away from the camp. These people may be emotional idiots, but at least they'll follow me into a battle.

"What was that rage all about, big guy?" Manny asked.

"None of your buisness, molisch." Dimitri said.

"Just leave him alone, Manny." I said as I ate my bag of chips.

"I'm sorry that I did that at the raider encampment, everybody, it's a problem that I have." Dimitri explained.

"It's all right, besides I got revenge on those raiders who almost killed me." Manny said as he looked down.

"No good, lousy bandits." Manny mumbled angrily.

"You hate raiders? These hope for you yet, molisch!" Dimitri laughed. After a while, Manny did too.

"So… who trained you, Tai?" I asked, swallowing the silence in my throat. "I don't remember training you myself, I'm sure I would have with your experience."

"You guys didn't train me. I transferred from Springvale recently. The pay's better in your town." Tai said as she sat down on a log and kept her head down.

"Springvale? How has that town been doing?" I asked her.

"It's horrible, on the verge of collapse... that's why I left, and went to your town. It's... more stable there." Tai said, carefully picking her words as she carefully picks her shots.

"Thanks I guess."

"So what's up with you, big J? Something tells me you aren't always this cheery." Manny asked me.

"I don't think that matters now. You saw the end of it." I told him as I threw the empty bag on the ground and walked away.

Dimitri grunted at me as I walked past him.

"Get some rest, guys. We've probably got some raiders to kill tomorrow." I said. The men agreed and we headed to our tents.