Chapter 27: Out of Body Experience
Raiders in bulletproof vests over their scrap metal army led a caravan of slaves down the cracked roads of D.C. a mother walked with her hands bound in front of her as her four year old did the same next to her. Her tiny, stubby legs struggled to move at the adult pace of the rest.
"Please… let me carry her." Victoria asked the raider calmly.
"If you move out of the line I'll kill you. We know who you are and we're not about to let you try to get out of this." The raider warned her.
"There's an army of you. What do you think I'm going to do? Throw my daughter at you?"
"I wouldn't be surprised. Your kind are the type to be desperate." The raider shrugged.
And that daughter soon toppled over either from the burning heat of the sun or just exhaustion. Victoria rushed over to her and stopped the entire line of people as she tried her best to get her up. The raiders aimed their weapons at them as she looked at her sweating daughter.
"DON'T TOUCH US!" She screamed hysterically at them as the bandits crept closer with their weapons. She took a breath and looked at her daughter. The town looked at her sudden outburst. She composed herself and pushed a piece of her away from her eyes.
"You two seem like the dramatic type." A raider told her.
The leader called off his dogs. Victoria looked up at the man with the road sign armor and tried to force a brave face at him.
"Do you know who I am?" The leader asked.
"I can't believe you asked that question." She shook her head in disgust at him.
"I take that as a yes." He sighed.
She stroked back her daughter's beautiful, shining hair and swallowed hard.
"Don't make that face. You people did this to yourselves." Chain glared.
"You kidnapped me and my daughter and almost killed everyone in this town. What did we do to you to deserve this?"
"Jesus…" Chain scoffed.
"You women are delusional." He stared at her.
"Get moving." He told her as he walked away. The line of beaten and weary people slugged along down the line to the fortified and dangerous city of D.C.
Joe tripped walking out of the tunnel from 101 and fell roughly on his shoulder, shouting in pain. For some reason he couldn't feel his right arm after that but that didn't matter, he had a mission. He moaned on the ground and crawled up to his feet, jogging away past an old sign with the words "Scenic Overlook" on it. He had minimal control of his feet, and he tumbled onto the ground, rolling down the hill from the vault. He fell onto his back and coughed roughly, gasping for air after the hacking was done. He pulled out his map from the ground, remembering what Rachel told him. He stared at the corner of it and shook his head. A tear rolled down his swollen cheek as he stared at a red circle of the D.C. ruins. I'm not sure whether he cried from all the wounds, or that he was the only person who knew their fate-and his own. But a fight was promised, and Joe wasn't one to abandon one of those. He lifted himself up and continued forward with a limp, little did he know he will find this situation giving him déjà vu in the future. He stared towards the horizon as the sun set. He looked miles away to a large pointed building: The Washington Monument. He breathed heavily and felt his newly cared for wounds. To his left were the remainders of Megaton, his home, the place that gave him everything and helped take it away. But Joe was used to having nothing; he was used to being alone. It made him stronger; it gave him a will to fight because, secretly, he didn't want to be alone. He needed his friends and family because without them there wouldn't be Joe. These people gave him life and now he was going to save theirs, even with the wounds that plagued his body. This heroic outburst was ended abruptly when Joe fell out of consciousness whilst standing up.
Eventually Manny calmed down and bandaged his nose while he reluctantly cooked us food from his pack. Tonight he cooked us noodles with mutfruit.
"I had no idea you were actually soldiers." Dimitri told us.
"I'm glad this guy shot that raider, otherwise you wouldn't be saying that." Tai said, looking at Doc.
"Change the subject." Doc said as he ate.
"Who gave you these rations, Manny?" Tai asked.
"No one did, I found this when scavenging." Manny said with his nose closed.
"Impressive, molisch. You seem to have a true talent." Dimitri said.
"Thanks, big guy." Manny said. Dimitri smiled.
"I haven't seen a good a shot as you, Tai, especially for a guard. Why did you stay a guard, and not go onto some mercenary work? I'm pretty sure Springvale needs someone dead every day." Manny asked Tai.
"I learned to shoot on my own, not in training in Springvale. Something happened, and now I'm like this. I just wanted to help people, so I became a guard. It's the best thing I could do, since being a mercenary means I'll have to kill anyone, regardless of what they did or didn't do." Tai said.
"What happened to you?" Manny asked.
Tai blinked for a split second and heard a scream. She opened her eyes and turned to see a woman get pushed to the ground. She was hungry and her face was grey and sick. A raider lifted her up to her feet as Tai stood still, her arms bound by rope. They were being brought along with several other people to a podium. Someone pushed Tai forward and she stumbled forward. She couldn't bring her tied hands forward, so she fell face first into the ground. She heard a gasp to her side as Tai got to her feet. The man grabbing her pulled her arm to the stage as many men and women walked alongside them. Rope was tied to her neck but it was left loose. She looked down to her chest and saw a sign hanging from her. "200 dollars", it said in scribbled pencil. The sun was high and beating down on their faces. Tai's long hair was stuck to her face in strands.
"Don't worry… I've got a plan." The girl next to her muttered in a broken voice. Her sign was for a higher price.
Now shoulder to shoulder with each other, the auction began as the men around them held rifles in their hands.
"What's your plan?" Tai asked her.
Tai noticed she was crying. Her face was red and her short hair was mangled like she had just gotten out of bed. She sniffled and held her head down.
"C-Can you do me a favor?" She asked Tai.
"What's the matter?" Tai asked.
"Can you just listen…?" She asked her quietly.
"What's wrong?"
"There's a hole in the fence behind you, turn around and it's at your three." She told Tai. "Make sure that guy on your left isn't looking at you when you run." Tai glanced over to him as he looked to the crowd of auctioneers.
"The five-hundred!" A man shouted to the stage.
Tai looked down. A sign hung around her partner's chest, "Five hundred dollars."
She stepped down the stage slowly as she looked over to Tai.
"Make sure you focus on your core. Your stomach's soft." She told Tai as she hopped off the stage.
"Lin, wait, WAIT!" Tai begged as she stepped out of line to keep her from leaving.
"Please don't' do this!" Tai sobbed.
"Uh, fine. I'll take the two hundred, too." The auctioneer sighed.
Lin looked over her shoulder as if she was betrayed. The raiders grabbed Tai's shoulders and helped her off the stage. Tai ran to her and held her head on Lin's shoulder.
"Remember that fence." Lin whispered as she back away and elbowed the auctioneer in the head and looped her arms around his neck. The raiders jumped alive and aimed at Lin and her body shield. A panic was ignited and people began to run and give the firefight some room. Tai backed away with the crowd and turned to the fence to escape. She ducked through it and sprinted away. She remembered how easy it was to leave her, and how little it mattered that the next few gunshots were fired. But then, it was as if her whole world was over. But now, she accepted that it was completely and utterly, over. She had a crush on her, but she kept that a secret. She was gathering the courage to tell her, but she never got that chance. She was her best friend, and that was the bottom line. She never would know if Lin felt anything other than that. I wouldn't have mattered, nothing would have come from it, Tai thought. She wouldn't have been able to take care of her; after all, they were almost sold to other humans. That's not what a strong person can do. But now she was stronger, she kept her hair short so the sweat wouldn't blind her with sticky pieces of hair, her arms loaded for a fight and her eyes ready for anything to try and take her again. She pushed herself to the limit, as if that would make up for her cowardice in Lin's time of need. Tai made sure that if she could go back in time to when she left Lin, that she would get them both out of there so she can finally tell her she loved her. So she can make her mind up and do things the right way, because, in her mind, what she did that day was wrong.
"I'm sorry for prying, Tai." Manny kept his head down low.
"Don't worry about it." Tai told him.
The camp looked at me for a moment, waiting for something. I got up and walked to my tent.
"Go to bed." I told them.
"You're an asshole." Tai told me.
I stopped walking and turned back to her. She looked up at me defiantly.
"You're supposed to be the professional one." I reminded her.
"Something tells me I'm not going to have the chance to tell you this after we're in that city wall, so I'm letting you know now. I hate you."
"You sound like a child, you realize that, right?"
"Do I sound like your child? I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't sound like everyone in your life."
"Fine. Fine. You know what, you're right. You're not going to have the chance to tell me what you want when we're in there, because you're on a suicide mission, all of you are going to die and I'm going to survive, because I'm more important than you are and I always have been. So say what you guys want to say now, go on, get it off your chests, some of you may die tomorrow and no one's going to bat an eyelash because you're supposed to be grown-ups in a grown-up world. So let's hear it!"
Tai got up and looked at me.
"You're not grown-up, Jace. You just think you have something better to do with your life because this is your story. As long as you think that, you're going to be as alone as you are now. But you're right about one thing; we all may die tomorrow, and I'm hoping you remember this conversation when we do."
"Anything else?" I asked the camp.
They were silent.
"Good, because that two minute conversation just kept me from doing my job."
I walked away into my tent and fell asleep easily. On that note, they all went to bed.
I had a flash of a memory that was new to me. I remember leaving my home with a bloody nose and exiting the town, my wife's angered shouts echoing in my head as my ears felt like I was in a wind tunnel. My body drew me closer to Vault 101 for some reason, and then my brain changed inside. I had flashbacks to my younger years in there. For some reason they felt like someone else's memories, like I had a dream from someone else's point of view. My legs propelled me forward as the blood dried on my upper lip. I tried forward and fell down on the ground. I lifted myself up and looked to see lit torches of a nightly caravan of people moving like fireflies. I got up and followed them for some reason. Then, I remembered that reason. I recognized the face of a man who was prevalent to my life since my birth, and even before that. I walked slowly towards him and grabbed him from the night like death does the young out here. I kept his mouth from screaming as all my thoughts revolved around him at once. I was angry, but not in the right frame of mind to express that to him. I somehow had overpowered him in my blind haze and threw him to the ground. He tried to let out a scream to his men as I muffled his screams with my hand. I grinded my teeth as he moaned. I took his ripper and used the powered off blade to slowly slash against his skin, ripping it open slightly. I took my shirt off and tied it around his mouth tightly, leaving my torso exposed. I then took my pants to bind his hands. Then I used my socks to tie up his feet. With all my might, I dug my hands into the earth and tore away at it like a feral dog. I dug a hole, muttering to myself and leaving the raider confused. I grabbed him by a stop sign attached to his chest and rolled him into the hole. He began to scream muffled begs for mercy as my nose bled more.
"My baby girl… deserves more..." I muttered to him as I looked down at him.
I held my dirt-covered finger to my mouth and looked at him.
Now naked except for my underwear, I packed dirt over his body until the sun began to rise. I walked away, the job half-finished, until I fell to the ground and passed out. Little did I know this would have started a war.
I woke up without Manny's annoying poking the next day and packed up the tents. We continued walking towards the city, silent for the first few minutes of walking.
"So, what's it like in the city, Manny?" Tai asked finally, breaking the silence.
"The buildings in the center of the city are completely demolished. Buildings farther away are intact, somewhat." Manny said.
"So that's where the raiders are, then?" Tai asked.
"Yep. Have to make sure we stay away from the center of town, there's too much radiation." Manny said.
"There might be some feral ghouls there, too." Tai added.
"Feral ghouls?" Manny asked confused by how Tai knew more than him.
"Normal ghouls are only so because they're subject to a steady amount of radiation for a short time. Feral ghouls are when they've stayed in a small amount of radiation and never left it. I've seen a few of them around my old town. I've never seen a person sit in a huge amount of radiation for a long time, and I don't ever want to." Tai said to him.
"Let's hope we don't see those." Dimitri said.
Manny gathered some lunch for us by shaving away some bark from a plant in the ground. The bark was black, but the inside of the plant was bright orange and leaked juices. Manny ate from the plant.
"How long have you been doing this, molisch?" Dimitri asked.
"I've always liked the outdoors since I was a kid; there wasn't much to do in Megaton so I just spent my time out here. I kinda took this job because of Jace. I used to hear stories about you when I was little. I heard you took on raiders every day and survived by using the wilderness." Manny said.
"No, I didn't. I just spent my time being sucked into things that I have no control of and now I helped someone else get sucked into this, too. You should have just opened up a restaurant instead of wasting your time here."
Tai snapped her head over to me, wanting to argue.
"This food is good, I'm impressed that a boy can find food and make it so taste good." Doc said, trying to prevent another shouting match.
"Thanks, Doc. It was an idea that I made when we were traveling. I'm glad it tastes good, because we're out of meat." Manny said.
"Great. I love bad news." I nodded.
"I'm sure you're used to it." Tai mumbled.