Chapter 31: Far Too Stupid, Far Too Young
"Tie them up! All of them!" Chain ordered his men.
"I hear ferals!" A raider shouted.
"Bar the front door! DO IT NOW." Chain separated his troops as they rope tied everyone including Sarah and her mother. They all returned back to the front door and shot through the windows at the ferals clawing inside. Chain exhaled and turned around to make eye contact with Victoria. He snorted and turned back to the front door.
I checked my ammo in my weapons. I had three shots in one pistol and one in my other. I walked through a side window while the raiders argued with each other. The sounds of ghouls got closer to them, the beasts were drawn to the noise I made and began to claw at the door of the building I was now in. Joe stopped breathing for a second as he saw me go in. He rasped out a cry, but I couldn't hear him. I was coming into the room of death and he knew it. I crouched down and looked to my right. All the raiders were occupied in fighting for their lives as Chain stood in the middle of the room, waiting for me. I jumped out of cover and aimed my weapons at him.
"Not going to happen." Chain said with an angry smile as he aimed a high powered revolver at me. He recognized me. He had no intention of letting me live for what I've done. I was his target and I had delivered myself right to him. I read his eyes and turned my pistol in my right hand towards the door and fired at two loyal raiders who tried to protect their leader. The rest decided that their lives were more important than their leader's and guarded the door from ferals who were slipping inside.
"Put the gun down." I said to him, thinking in an adrenaline-fueled thought that this man could be reasoned with.
Victoria's heart stopped beating as she saw me standing in the middle of the room as sun poked through the wooden barricades on the windows. She stayed quiet as Sarah did as well. She learned to be quiet.
"No." He spoke. His voice was gruff and a strand of gray long hair ran down in between his eyes and rested on the bridge of his nose. His eyes were squinted, deep crow's feet sprouted out the sides of them like creases in his skin.
"Do you know what you've done to me? W-What you've done to all of us?" I asked him, my voice changing in pitch and my eyes burning up.
"You… you ruined my life…"
The silent room soaked up the words.
"YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" I boomed in the echoing empty museum as Chain waited there for me to move. The ghouls clawed and feasted down on one poor raider that managed to get caught and grabbed into the horde.
"That's cute, honey. But here's what I'm gonna do-"
He aimed his revolver at Victoria with one hand and continued to look at me.
"I'm going to shoot her unless you kill yourself right now with that gun you have aimed at me."
"Jace, don't!" Victoria screamed.
"Only if you promise to let them go." I told him.
"JACE!" She screamed.
"Ha-ha! You think I'm going to promise that shit? You don't get to negotiate-because you lost, kid! You're going to kill yourself and then I'm going to wait for those vault dipshits to come here and kill them too! You know, for young people, you guys are pretty fucking predictable."
"Jace, shoot him!" My wife shouted.
"Come on Jace… I may be old but I still have my reflexes. You're not saving her." He warned me. He shook his head, and for a second, he seemed humane in his warning not to try anything.
I waited in silence as I stared into his eyes and made the decision of my lifetime. After all that's happened, I don't regret what I did. I wanted this, after all.
"Do it! Now!" He shouted. I picked my gun up and held it to my head. I looked down at the floor.
"Sarah." I called to her.
She looked up at me. I stared directly into her eyes and squinted.
"I want you to watch this. Remember this." I told her. "Remember that no one deserves the mercy that I'm showing this man now."
"But Daddy-"
"Listen to me, please…" I began to cry. Chain smiled.
"I love you…" I told her in what felt like the first time I ever got to.
I closed my eyes and sighed. I took in a deep breath and began to squeeze the trigger. The ceiling then blew open and dust flew everywhere. I looked at the person who saved me.
It was Joe.
Chain's eyes stared only at me as everything moved in slow motion. I aimed my pistol towards him, and in his anger, he turned and fired a bullet into me. It pierced through my body as Joe looked through the smoking hole he just created. I dropped my weapons and fell back to the ground as Joe's mouth dropped open.
"NO!" Joe shouted at the top of his lungs as he jumped into the building and fell onto Chain in a high-momentum tackle. The two men barreled over and coughed.
I looked up at the ceiling through the hole Joe made and up towards the high sun as blood exited my body. I breathed through my mouth, my eyes wincing with every second. My wife looked to see me in this state, and my daughter did as well. Their hearts broke. They knew they had to watch this.
With a fury like no other, Joe punched down at Chain's head with an echoing shout. He flipped Joe over his back and slammed him into the ground, his high powered revolver sliding off to the side as Joe took him away from it. Chain got up and walked over to his gun as Joe got up and jumped on his back with a shout. Chain stumbled forward, gained his balance, and slammed Joe's head into the cinder block wall, taking Joe down to the ground. Chain grabbed Joe by the neck and lifted him above the tall bandit's head, choking him against the wall. Joe kicked the man in the head and took Chain away from him. Joe landed on his feet and ran at the man, pouncing on him with a bellowing roar as all his life he wished for this moment to happen. Joe landed on Chain and took him by the neck, slamming the back of his head against the ground as the two men's faced burned red with anger. Chain's large hands cupped around Joe's smaller throat as the raiders at the door began to fight other people at the front entrance, keeping the two sides from gaining any ground.
The raiders knew this battle was waging, and some came to help their leader, but were picked off by a guardian angel that was soon to join them.
It was hard to breathe from my state, and I knew this was a serious wound. I couldn't feel how bad the wound was in the puddle that surrounded me, but I knew Joe needed me. I rolled over to my stomach and crawled painfully over to one of my pistols as my hands became cold and shook. Chain threw the man off of him effortlessly and into a construction bench with nails and wood on it. Joe landed on it and fell to the ground limp, his back arched as something had stabbed it. I fumbled at the gun with my weak and dripping hands and held it tightly as I turned over to Chain's direction. I received a kick to my head as I fired a loose shot. Chain smacked the empty gun from my hands and into a dark corner. The bandit punched down at my head again and again, shouting as the first punch had already sent me into unconsciousness. Joe jump tackled the man away from me with a grunt and sent him into the ground. Joe lifted a nail hammer and bashed at the man's head with it. Chain swatted it away and kicked Joe off of him. Chain looked over to me as I lay still on the ground, blood slowly seeping through a fatal wound and now through my nose. Joe got up and launched the nail hammer at Chain as he ran over to finish him off. The blunt of it hit the bandit leader's head and staggered him as Joe searched for another weapon to defeat the raider: the baby killer and life stealer.
Chain's armored toe reached Joe's forehead and Joe sprawled back from the blow. Chain huffed and walked away as Joe felt his ringing head to try to soothe his blurry vision. Chain grabbed loose wire that was coiled around a lever, connected to a pulley. This pulley lifted a large box of bricks above the heads of everyone, and was suspended in air for what seemed like an eternity until Chain grabbed the wire and looped it around Joe's neck. Chain tightened the wire and Joe let out a dry choke and fell backwards at the mercy of the spool that was connected to him. Joe gasped for breath and tried to rip the wire from his neck before Chain could finish his plan. But it was too late: Chain pulled the lever and released the box of bricks into the ground. Joe's eye's widened on Natalie, he let out a sharp choke and was dragged dozens of feet into the air, kicking and choking as dust kicked off the old contraption. Joe's body had a spasm and swung in the air, trying at the rusted old bolts holding the wire up in the air. Joe kicked his legs around and held at his neck until his face turned white. He dropped his arms and they went limp. His face mellowed from fear, and his eyes flickered. His arm lifted itself into the air and yanked on the wire above him that held his neck so and yanked it from the foundation. Joe fell from the ceiling and back onto the ground with a sharp crack, pop, and snap. He let out a scream so loud it overshadowed the fight around us. He fell back and coughed, screamed and moaned in pain next to Chain. I opened my eyes and lay on my stomach, with my head facing my second gun. I slowly moved my hand and tried my hardest to reach for it, but I just couldn't. One eye was barely open and I could see Joe lying on the floor near me atop a pile of old bricks and dust.
Chain searched for his signature weapon to finish us off, but when he couldn't find it, he took out a back-up knife from his boot and limped slowly over to Joe as Victoria watched in horror, and she wasn't the only one. Natalie's eyes were fixated only on Joe as his eyes were closed.
"Game over, Joey." He sent the knife plunging down into him. Joe awoke instantly and grabbed the knife with one hand as he swung a loose brick into Chain's head with a defensive scream. The knife slipped out into Joe's hand as he weakly tried to crawl on the bricks as Chain rushed back from the stumbling blow he received. Joe made an agonizing sound as he spotted white formations coming from his leg wound. Joe turned onto his back and looked to his sides for an aid, but he was all alone this time. His eyes then met with Victoria, as she was the closest to him.
With all his energy Joe sent the knife flying into the drywall next to Victoria's tied up arms. Chain backhanded the weakened Joe and stood atop of him, beating him senselessly. Natalie looked with her mouth open, but not in shock or horror. After a while Joe couldn't fight back any longer and began to take the beating. Victoria slid the rope over the knife and cut herself free. As the rope was cut off she wretched the knife from the wall and threw it into Chain's chest as he held Joe by the neck. The knife slid through the cracks in his armor and separated the stop sign from his body, exposing his chest to us. Victoria rammed her shoulder into his bare skin and he flew off of Joe.
"Joe!" Victoria yelled at him. She turned over to me. "Oh God… Oh God!" She got down to Joe and tried to help him as Chain stepped over my body and started to walk towards Victoria. She looked at Joe: he was unrecognizable from the beatings. She hadn't realized he was coming and neither Joe or I could communicate the danger. My finger's brushed the barrel of the gun and gripped it as I tried my hardest to use it. I did what my body allowed me to do; I pushed it to Joe's capable hands. Joe grabbed the grip of the gun and pushed Victoria off of him and pulled the trigger, firing the final bullet in the chamber. Chain stepped back and felt himself. Blood spurt from his shoulder and he clenched his fists and moved towards Joe. Victoria sent a punch from his side and it smacked against his right cheek. He turned to his right and slapped her with the back of his hand. The light woman fell to the ground by the force. Chain grabbed Joe by the shirt and dragged him by his back across the ground with splintered pieces of wood and jagged pieces of stone broken away by the explosive. Chain groaned out a loud grunt as he threw Joe into a pile of rubble and tools. Joe shouted out in pain as Victoria threw an empty gun at Chain's body to get his attention and he turned to her. She breathed heavily, with a red hand mark on her face. He walked over to her and she threw a hard hook to his head. He turned to the side from the blow and she struck him with her other hand to spin him back around to the other side. She grabbed his head and punched into his stomach again and again and hooked his chin to finish her combination. He did a 180 and landed dizzily over a table, where Victoria jumped up and slammed his head forward into the bench, cracking the wood. Chain fell to the ground, his eyes closed. They then snapped open and grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the ground. Chain put his massive hand over her head and smacked it into the ground. He lifted her up and smashed her against a wooden wall and cracked it. He then grabbed her torso and threw her straight through the wall that was halted in its construction long ago. She broke through and landed on the other side with her body in too much pain to move any more. Joe groaned and got up from the broken tools. He rolled out of it, wincing and holding his body as it burned from this fight. Chain was on a war path to Victoria as Joe grabbed a saw blade and tossed it at him, choosing to make a sacrifice. He wasn't ready to fight, he was done with that, he had lost a long time ago. Chain turned angrily and moved towards him as Joe closed his eyes and prepared for another beating.
My senses were fading, and the fight was the only thing there I could see. I crawled on the ground, my teeth grinding and my arms fighting their hardest to keep me up. All I knew was that he needed me, that Joe wasn't going to fight any more of my battles. I pushed from the ground with a painful moan and got to my feet and limped over to Chain's back as he beat down on him. Joe gripped the loose blade that took off his armor and grabbed it quickly as Chain put his hand in defense of the quick stab. Joe had cut his hand and Chain gripped the pointed blade as it cut him and tore it away from Joe. He picked Joe's head up and he punched down again and again at Joe's eyes. Joe clenched Chain's fist angrily, trying his best to fight back. My footing was lost and I fell back to the ground with a harsh thud as Chain threw Joe to the center of the room. All eyes were on him, especially his friends and wife. She stared at the man with watery eyes as Joe moaned on the ground in pain, coughing in a fit and his lungs needing a break. I looked down at my wounds; liquid dripped out everywhere, leaving trails where I walked. Something else I noticed on the ground was a loose wire. I extended my hand towards it and hoarsely wheezed forward, running at Chain as he kicked Joe's face again and again, making Joe scream out in pain.
I screamed out in rage as I tied the wire around his neck , crossed it, and held it tightly in my hands. My knuckles turned white as my palms desperately tried to keep hold of the wire long enough. Chain's oxygen-deprived shouts came out as I used everything inside of me to choke this man to death. With his blade still in his hand he stabbed it down into my thigh. I cried out, but that only tightened my grip as Chain choked and quickly ran out of breath. In his panic he pulled the blade out and stabbed my leg again and again from behind him. I let out horrifying and painful cries that took the attention of some of the raiders that were fighting at the front. They turned to us. Chain stabbed harder and harder, and then lighter and softer as I gripped the wire behind his neck as tight as I could allow myself to. His arm slowed to a stop, with the blade stuck inside my leg. I dropped Chain and he fell to the ground with a thud. I stumbled back, my leg was mutilated. Victoria left from the hole in the wall and saw me standing up with a knife in me. She gasped and sprinted towards me as a raider ran over to the center of the room. I spotted him running towards her with a shotgun and she did as well. And with my last ditch effort to save the woman I love, I gave her a weapon. I weakly pulled the knife from me and sent blood popping out through the multiple stab wounds in my leg. I tried my best to turn to her and help her, but I stumbled back and collapsed, sending the bleeding knife sliding on the ground in her direction. The raider ran to Chain and aimed his gun at Joe, and then me. When he finally turned to Victoria, the knife was already picked up and ran into his body as she stabbed into him. She lifted up the knife and took it to his neck and killed him on the spot as she grabbed the shotgun from him. Joe coughed "behind…" and Victoria rolled away as a raider fired at her. She fired the shotgun from the ground as her roll ended and killed another raider. She pumped the shotgun and got up to her feet as the raiders at the front all fell and Underworld troops accompanied by special forces entered the building and saw as a woman stood still, looking down at two wounded men, both who needed her.
She turned to her left and saw Joe: her best friend and longest known person. His face was swollen 3x its regular size in little, fist-shaped spots on his face from the punches and wounds he received. His nose and leg was broken, splintered and bleeding, and his right eye was swollen completely shut from inflamed skin. His neck was red and bleeding from being choked almost to death and his chest rose and fell quickly with clogged breaths. What she didn't see were the rusted old nails stabbed through his back from being thrown around. With his neck closing, he would choke to death soon.
And to her right was her husband and the love of her life: father of her daughter. He took a high caliber magnum round through his stomach, but it was luckily slowed down due to his armor, but "luck" sadly didn't describe the injuries her husband sustained. Other than the internal injury from a gunshot, his nose was broken and his skull had a bleeding bruise. His lower body had 14 stabs wounds from a knife in his thigh and hip and was bleeding out for minutes now and will die without treatment.
She stared at the two and wanted to help both, but couldn't. She had to decide quickly which one to help as the medic arrived. She looked at the men as they looked up at the sky and then each other.
"I'm sorry—." I told him through broken speech. And I was, truly. I was sorry I had to put Joe through this familiar situation again, I was sorry that I pushed him to become something he's not. I was sorry I left that vault. I fell back, something snapped off inside me and that was it.
Joe looked at me. He couldn't say anything, unfortunately that was the one thing he wanted to do.
Victoria bent down and decided.
"SOMEONE HELP ME!" She screamed as she bent over Joe as his breath was cut off and he slowly choked. She lifted up two fingers and opened his throat to let in air as Joe clenched his fists and gagged and coughed.
"Joe you gotta breathe, just breathe, please!" Victoria begged with red eyes and wet cheeks as the uncomfortable pain were unbearable on top of all his injuries.
I awoke again. I rasped out a few slow breaths and held my wounds, or in my case, just covered them with my numb arms. I began to lose feeling everywhere and I became cold. As the ghouls and Special Forces rushed in, the medics answered Victoria's screams and sent Doc and a few capable ghoul medics to us. Doc lifted up my limp head and looked into my still eyes. I looked dead to him, but I somehow was still breathing.
"Why'd you run off without us, you idiot?" Doc asked me quietly as he helped me. The ghouls untied the Megaton captives as a little girl ran towards her father crying.
"DADDY!" She sobbed as she ran over to me and hugged my body. I tried to lift my hand to at least lift my arm to stroke her beautiful hair, but I couldn't bring my arm up. I was limp, lifeless, useless except for a few breaths. Maybe that's all I was to her the entire time. Doc looked at the resemblance as she sobbed and cried over me. He didn't know; he didn't realize why I was there.
"WHAT DID HE DO TO MY DADDY?!" Sarah cried as she grabbed at my cold face, my eyes unable to move anywhere other than up.
"I-Ich need to help him, sweetie, please…don't touch him." Doc told her.
Joe was injected with fluids, and his swelling in his throat calmed down enough to breathe normally again. He grunted loudly and rolled to his side and crawled towards me.
"He's lost a lot of blood, does anyone have blood packs?!" Doc shouted to the other medics.
"Joe, sit still, you need help!" Victoria shouted through tears. She had been in this situation before.
"Me…" Joe told Doc. "We're the same blood type."
"Are you sure?" Doc asked him. Joe was sure. He had given me blood a few years ago in my youth when I foolishly tried to fight a bandit leader and lost-tragically.
"Yes, please do it, quick!" Joe begged as my jaw was open and my face was ice white.
They hooked him up to me and the blood came from his arm and into the place where I needed it.
Joe looked over to the choked out raider. "Give him CPR." Joe told the medics.
"What?" They asked him.
"You heard me. Do it." Joe told them.
"He's got stab wounds, get those clothes off!" A different medic yelled to Doc.
Doc found the stab wounds on my legs and ripped my pants off my body. The tear in my pants ruptured my pockets and the insides exploded outwards. A ring rolled from it and rested in front of Victoria's feet. She bent down and grabbed it. She recognized it, and the moment when it was given originally.
"Give me a gun." Joe told them as another medic gave the raider chest compressions and took breaths for him. Someone handed Joe a gun as he sat on the ground next to Sarah. He held her head with his free arm and held her tightly, more than he ever did before, because I could never be there to do it myself. He held his hand around her left ear as he brought her into his chest, where he covered her right ear. As soon as he heard Chain cough and regain breaths the doctors backed away in fear from him.
"Sit him up." Joe commanded them as he lifted his right hand up and aimed the pistol at Chain. The bandit leader's eyes opened to two doctors holding him up as Joe aimed a pistol at him.
Chain coughed as he looked at Joe. "I wasn't always seen as the bad guy..."
He looked tiredly up at Joe's swollen face. "Joe, listen to me, I—"
Joe held Sarah as tight as he could as he fired into Chain's stomach, then in his shoulder again, then his stomach. Chain stared into Joe's eye as Joe, without any expression, executed him. The doctors held Chain still as he breathed his final breaths. Joe fired every bullet in the magazine into the raider's stomach so he could feel every single one.
His gun clicked. "Drop him."
Chain was dropped to the floor, he was already dead. Joe dropped the gun and released Sarah from her earmuffs. She looked at her father as Joe stared down at him. Victoria stood up next to them and looked down at me.
"I thought you guys were dead, you know."
Joe was quiet in response, as things can go either way. He looked at my face as Doc healed me to the best of his abilities. Joe looked down at me, repaying a favor I paid him a long time ago.
"I know… this doesn't change anything." He told me as he looked at my lifeless face.
"DOC!" Dimitri ran into the room looking for him.
"What is it?"
"Come quickly, I need you!"
"Stay with him, okay?" Doc asked them as he ran outside to the front of the museum.
The two men looked down at a wounded boy on the ground. The man's face was young, and dirty from battle. He held his oozing wound and cried. His face was sad, and confused. He looked up at them with apologetic eyes as tears ran from his face.
This boy was Manny.
The small framed boy lay against a bloody rifle with no bullets inside of it. He was next to a window leading into the building, and he was surrounded by dead ferals. They tore him apart, his leg had been severed from the small bones that connected them to the rest of his body. Manny's eyes were half open, and they looked around, trying to find something. His eyes met Dimitri as he bent down to him and they stopped moving. He looked at him as Doc helped his wounds. "What happened?" Doc asked.
"I don't know it happened during the fight; just help the boy, doctor!"
I small smile spread on his face, but was unclear due to the amount of blood. Manny moved his lips, but no words came from him. Manny coughed and smiled more at them as he said, "Thanks for letting me do this. I feel like a badass."
"You always were, molisch." Dimitri told him.
Manny's head fell back as his clothes dripped with his blood. Doc's hands fell from Manny and he looked sullenly at Dimitri. Dimitri closed Manny's eyes with his fingers and got up from him as he drifted away. Dimitri held Manny's hand and shook it somehow gently and hard at the same time. Manny's hand dropped soon after, and Dimitri fell to Manny's corpse, saying goodbye.
Doc and Dimitri walked back into the building and stood around me as Joe transferred his blood to my body. Doc continued to administer medicine to me.
"Are you his family?" Dimitri asked them.
"Yes." Joe answered him.
"That man on the ground there loves you immensely; he's done things you thought were never possible. You should probably let him know what you think now, before..."
Joe told him, "He hates us."
"Only because you never saw the world through his eyes. That's a problem we all have, and he may also have that problem as well." Dimitri walked away as the captives were fed and given water.
"I don't know why you came back for us, both of you… but thank you." Victoria told them.
"I only did it for her." Joe answered as he looked at Sarah.
"That's all of our reasons." Victoria told him.
I lifted up my hand towards Sarah's hair and stopped it from touching her. It was covered in blood: I didn't want to ruin something so perfect with the violence of the world, so I dropped it and looked at her. I looked at Joe and Victoria and remained quiet.
"Welcome back."
"Did you kill him?" I asked Joe, looking dead into his eyes.
"Did you kill him?" I asked again, because he didn't answer quickly enough.
"Shot him until I ran out of bullets." He nodded at me.
I sighed and dropped my head as I took in deep breaths and felt at my leg wounds as Doc wrapped them in a bandage.
I wheezed. "What…the hell are you doing here? I told you guys not to come; you could've gotten yourselves killed." I stared at Doc, I still couldn't move my body, my lips barely moved and so my words were slurred.
Doc's eyes looked back at me and told me something I didn't know.
I sat back and shook my head. "It was Manny, wasn't it?"
"It happened fast." Doc answered.
I laid there for hours until I had enough strength again. They all sat with me.
I shook my head. I turned over to my arm that was losing its numbness and saw the transfusion.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked Joe bitterly when I had more control.
"You would have done it for me."
"No." I told him with the most sincere response I've ever given him. It was time I spoke my mind.
"I'm sorry you feel that way." Joe felt in his pocket for something.
"I brought you something." Joe held up a Megaton Deputy badge and showed it to me.
"No…" I spoke through deep, pained breaths.
"I'm done being the Deputy. I'm done doing this for people who hate me and apologize only because I've been shot. You're not my friend… you're just in it for yourself." I told Joe.
"That's not true."
"That's the closest thing I've ever been to it. Why else would you take me back to Megaton after I first left the vault? And why would you take me back after… I was done being a bullet shield for you? You just used me."
I inhaled. I exhaled, "I don't know what made you to come now, but I know things haven't changed." In a way, Joe thought I was right. He kept that thought to himself.
I looked over to Victoria. "You're a mother to our daughter and that's it. I tried my best to be a good husband to you but that wasn't enough, maybe it's because you never wanted me as your husband, you just wanted someone to take care of you."
I laid back and stared up at the ceiling. I soon regained enough strength to speak to them.
"Being friends to you drained me until I was no longer a person, so I couldn't have time to love my daughter and be a human being. With Chain dead, there's a new slate for us. I'm not fighting people with you anymore, Joe and I'm not trying to raise my daughter with you anymore, Victoria. You wanted to leave me when the times got tough, fine, so I'm leaving you when things are supposed to be good again, because I'll at least grant you that much. Just because the bad guy is gone doesn't mean everything's forgiven."
The two sat there silently. They looked at the ground and let me say what I needed to.
"Sarah…" I told her.
"You're going to have to decide who you're going to trust eventually, every single person, even me. People will betray you no matter what you do. Judge however you feel, because it won't matter." Sarah didn't understand why I was so mad, so she just nodded.
This adventure was over for me, I quit.