First, let me say how freaking sorry I am on how late I am on uploading this chapter. Motivation and I weren't speaking for a while. It took my friends and family to keep nagging at me to continue. So here's chapter 2.
Chapter 2: Goodsprings
Damian Winchester walked out of the house and shielded his eyes for a moment since the sun was so damn bright. When his vision cleared up, he saw the town called Goodsprings laid out before him. A large road ran right down the middle of it. Left of the road were a few houses, a general store (presumably owned by Chet), and the Prospector Saloon. Right of the road, there was a house that was still intact surrounded by a shit-ton of houses that were nearly burnt to the ground, and a schoolhouse that was a little far off.
Damian decided to go to the saloon to see if there was any way of getting a free drink to make the throbbing in his head go away or at least make some caps to be able to afford one. He trudged off towards the saloon and, when he reached the front porch of it, he saw an elderly black man with white hair and a beard sitting in a chair next to the door. "Good day, sir." Damian said with a smile.
"Howdy," the old man had a deep rugged voice, "you that one the metal feller found in the graveyard?"
"Uhh... Yeah. The name's Damian Winchester. Who's the 'metal feller'?" Damian inquired.
"My name's Easy Pete and the metal man who found you's name is Victor. You'd probably find him somewhere 'round here. He just rolls around town aimlessly all day." Easy Pete seemed to be a nice enough man.
"Hmm. Say, do you know where I could make a few caps? I'm awfully thirsty."
"Hmm..." Easy Pete contemplated this for a moment, "Well, Sunny might be needin' your help gecko-huntin'. She's inside."
"Okay, thanks." and Damian walked inside but not before he heard a "G'bye" from Easy Pete. He had to chuckle, Easy Pete was very easy-going.
As Damian turned to shut the door behind him, he heard a menacing growl of a dog behind him. He spun around and almost drew his revolver, if it weren't for a woman who called out "Cheyenne stay!" He looked up at the woman, she was young, mid-twenties probably, a little over 5 feet tall with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was decked out with leather armor and, when she looked up at him, had a bright smile on her face.
"You don't have to worry," the woman reassured, "she won't bite unless I tell her to. You're the guy Doc was taking care of, right? My name's Sunny Smiles."
"Yeah," Damian's face brightened at her smile, "The name's Damian Winchester. Nice to meet ya. I'm looking for a way to make a few caps and heard you might need help gecko-hunting."
"Let me guess, Easy Pete? Yeah, I could use some help. You any good with a gun?"
"I promise you, I'm damn good with a gun." Damian confidently said without a hint of doubt in his voice.
"Oh yeah?" Sunny challenged, "We'll see about that. Come with me out back, we have a target range where you can show me"
With that, Sunny picked up two varmint rifles that were leaning up against the wall and the two marched through the bar (which, for some reason, didn't have a bartender) with Cheyenne tailing behind them and went out the back to the 'target range'.
As they were walking out back, Damian noticed that the targets were a bunch of empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles sitting along a fence. They walked to a spot about thirty feet away from the fence and then turned to face the bottles on it.
"Here," Sunny tossed a varmint rifle with a full clip to Damian, "let's see if you can actually hit something, take a shot at those Sunset bottles."
Damian looked at the rifle, then at the bottles, then at Sunny... and smirks. Faster than lightning, Damian whips up the rifle to his shoulder, took less than a split second to aim down the sights, and fired five shots, one right after another, without hesitation, save for cocking back the bolt to load another shot into the barrel, and five bottles went flying off the fence, each shattered by a 5.56mm round. Damian lowered the rifle and turned to give a look at Sunny as if to say 'Told ya so.' to see Sunny's wide eyes with shock and awe.
The only thing she was able to hold her mind together long enough to say is, "Damn."
Putting his facial expression into words, Damian said, "Told ya so."
"Yeah, remind me not to tick you off. Now, let's go hunt some geckos." As Sunny turned to go, she tossed Damian a few clips of ammo to use on the hunt, which Damian reloaded his rifle with, putting the spent clip in his satchel.
Damian quickly followed Sunny and Cheyenne south to a water pump nearby the town and, as they reached the area, they hid behind a large rock-face in order to sneak up on the offending creatures.
Sunny looked around the corner, "There they are!" Damian looked around to see two toddler-size lizards wandering around the pump. Damian whispered a plan in Sunny's ear and she motioned for Cheyenne to stay. The two humans crept out, varmint rifles aimed at a different gecko, and fired simultaneously. The geckos drop dead without even knowing what hit them.
"That all?" Damian seemed disappointed.
"Nope, there are two more pumps that need to be taken care of."
"Oh, good more fun for me then."
The trio jogged further south to the next pump to find three geckos had moved in. Before they could get to a hiding spot, the geckos spotted them and sprintted at the three with their mouths full of sharp teeth wide open, tongues waggling, and clawed-arms flailing.
Wasting no time, Sunny and Damian readied their rifles and opened fire while Cheyenne charged ahead. Two of the geckos were being peppered by bullets while Cheyenne pounced on and ripped the throat out of the third.
When all three geckos lay dead, Damian exclaimed, "Well that got int-"
He was cut off by a voice off in the distance that cried out "Help!" Before Sunny could register what was just heard, Damian sped off like a rocket down a dirt trail in the direction of the source of the cry. As Damian rounded a corner, he saw the third and final pump... as well as three geckos that had cornered a young blonde woman. Her settlers' clothes were shredded and bloodied and she was swinging a meat cleaver in an attempt to ward off the vicious creatures and was failing miserably. Damian stopped running at about 100 feet from the geckos and, while holding his rifle in his left hand, drew his revolver in a flash and fired, faster than the bottles on account of there being no bolt-action to fiddle with, he obliterated each gecko's head with a round in each.
Seeing all the unmoving, headless geckos lying on the ground, the woman collapsed, exhausted and wounded. Sunny finally caught up and rushed over with Damian to the young woman, seeing the large gashes left by the geckos' claws and teeth, Damian said, "Crap! We need to get you to Doc Mitchell. Can you stand, miss?"
"I think so, yes." the woman groaned in pain as they helped her up. With Damian basically carrying her, the group of four headed for Goodsprings.
When they reached town, Damian handed the woman over to Sunny to shoulder her the rest of the way. Before she left though, Sunny handed a small bag that metallically jingled when it shook, "Here, this is your pay for helping me out. Thanks a ton!" Then Sunny turned toward Doc Mitchell's house and helped the woman limp over to it.
Damian looked at the bag and then looked up, "Yeah, you're welcome!" Content that he now could afford to get some liquor in his system, he headed toward the Prospector Saloon.
When Damian got inside, he could feel the tension in the air as well as hear raised voices over by the bar. Damian walked in the bar to find a middle-aged red-head and a black fellow wearing guard attire and a bulletproof vest that said 'NCRCF' on the back. Damian decided to go sit down at the bar and listen in on the argument to find out what was going on.
"I've had enough screwin' around! If you don't hand over Ringo, I'm gonna come back with my friends and we're burning this place to the ground!" The black man was obviously furious about this 'Ringo' person for some reason.
"We'll keep that in mind. Now, if you're not gonna buy something, get out!" The red-head didn't have a single nervous vibration in her voice.
"You think I'm playin' Trudy? I've got enough dynamite myself to blow this place to kingdom come!" This man wasn't giving up. Then a honey-haired man in a merc adventurer outfit, sitting in a stool at the bar behind this arrogant bastard, proceeds to calmly set his bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla down, stand up, and tap the guy on the shoulder. When the black man turned around to see who the hell was touching him, the blonde man promptly clocked him in the jaw and he fell to the floor.
"Cobb, I've heard enough of your shit to last me three lifetimes and, since I don't plan on living that long, I suggest you get the hell out before I throw you out!" This was a guy Damian could get along quite well with.
With that, the one referred to as 'Cobb' got up and ran out the front door with his tail between his legs. As Cobb ran out, the man turned around to watch him allowing Damian to see his face. He was Caucasian with his hair in a rough settler style, had a rough beard, hazel eyes, and a scar on his left cheek. Sure that Cobb wasn't coming back for more, the man sat back down, finished his Sunset and said, "Trudy, another Sarsaparilla please."
"Of course, Vlad," Trudy went behind the counter and sat a golden bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla in front of him, "and, for gettin' that jackass outta here, this one's on the house."
"Why thank you Trudy." 'Vlad' said.
Moving closer to Trudy, Damian sat in a stool a couple feet away from Vlad's.
Setting his bag down next to him, Damian ordered, "Trudy, I'd like a bottle of whiskey if you don't mind."
"Comin' right up," Trudy replied, "that'll be 10 caps." She sat the bottle of whiskey on the bar in front of Damian.
As Damian gave the caps to Trudy and took a large swig from the bottle, Vlad looked over and remarked, "Whiskey? This early? It's not even eleven."
Damian stopped drinking and turned to him, "Man, I just woke up from a 2-day long dirt nap, my head is still throbbing from being shot, I'm half blind, and I've already got too much Med-X in my system... I need a drink."
"So you're that courier the old bucket of bolts found in the graveyard." Vlad pauses for a moment, "Lucky bastard..." he said quietly to himself.
'I hardly call going half blind lucky...' Damian thought to himself. "So, what was that all about?" he asked.
"Cobb's been looking for a guy named Ringo. Ringo was part of a caravan that was passing by, turns out that the Powder Gangers killed his entire caravan and he was the only survivor." Trudy spoke up, "We let him hide out in town until things cool down."
"We should at least take care of that asshole Cobb." Vlad said before drinking more Sunset.
"And that's when I say this again; I don't want the Powder Gangers killing everyone in the entire town because of this. Besides, even with you, Vlad, we just don't have enough firepower." Trudy replied.
"And that's when I say that if we just sit around with our thumbs up our asses, there won't be a town to defend anyway!" Vlad shot back at Trudy.
"Hmm..." Damian mulled this over in his mind while he took another swig of whiskey, "And if I help?"
Trudy was caught off guard by this, "We don't even know your name. However your help is appreciated."
"Damian Winchester. My name is Damian Winchester." Damian said with a mock-serious look that no one else seemed to catch. Vlad mumbled something but Damian dismissed it as nothing.
"Whoa there, I never voted to take on the Powder Gangers. That's a thousand cap investment you're talking about!" Chet exclaimed.
'Ugh... This guy is giving me a headache...' Damian thought to himself while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Fine, let them take over the town. I'm sure your business will be much better off." Damian said as he started towards the front door.
"Fine," Chet sighed, "wait there. I've got some armor and ammo in the back." Chet walked into the back room of the store. When he came back out, Chet was carrying a bag and a crate. "There are two more crates of leather armor back there if you'll carry them out for me."
"Alright fine." Damian said, a bit miffed that he had to carry the heavy stuff.
When they headed outside, Damian noticed the town had gathered in front of the saloon mentally preparing themselves for the fight ahead. He also spotted Vlad who looked over at him and Chet.
Damian saw a note of surprise in Vlad's face when he said, "Chet, I thought you were untouchable when it came to bartering!"
Chet, who was starting to set down his crate and bag, becomes distracted with glaring at Vlad and drops his crate on Damian's toe. 'Ack! Goddamnit that hurts!' Damian mentally cursed Chet.
"Fuck off..." Chet retorted, "I hope a storm from the Divide turns you to dust."
Vlad, seeing Damian's pain, visibly flinched, "That's just cruel..." Vlad joked, "Come on, you love me too much to say such a thing!"
Damian looked up at the two after he finished cringing in pain and elbows Chet in the ribs. "Come on and finish helping me unpack this crap." Damian said exasperatedly.
"No, I'm done helping, you have the armor and ammo. I'm done here." Chet snapped and stormed off into his store.
Vlad laughed, "He gets so pissey when I'm around. It's probably because I've screwed him out of his money a few times."
Damian gave Vlad a questioning look, "What do you mean?"
"Chet will try to squeeze as much money as he can out of you. I was able to reverse that. Quite a few times too."
"Uh-huh..." Damian was still thinking about his throbbing toe when it reminded him of Doc. "Hey, let's go see if Doc will help us out."
"Good idea." Vlad stated and they headed off towards the good doctor's house while the townspeople outfitted themselves with the leather armor and ammo.
When they reached the front gate of the house, Damian barely caught a flicker of light out of the left corner of his right eye, surprisingly. Damian looked over to see Victor just sitting in front of shack, doing nothing... "Hey Vlad, how about you go talk to Doc and I'll go see if Victor will help us out too?"
"That... is actually a good idea. That tin can has got to have some kind of firepower." Vlad replied as he headed inside.
Damian strapped his personal duffel bag to his back and jogged off in the direction of Victor. When Damian reached him, he said, "Victor! You're a securitron; you think you could help us with some Powder Gangers trying to take over the town?"
"Trouble with rustlers, huh? Count me in pardner. Those thugs will be headin' home with their tails between their legs soon enough." Victor replied.
'Well that was easy...' Damian thought, "That's great! Just head on over to the saloon, everyone's waiting outside there."
"Alrighty pardner, see ya on the battlefield." Victor confirmed and started rolling on over to the 'battlefield'.
Damian headed back to the house and, when he reached it, Vlad was walking back out with a small bag of what seemed to be stimpacks and two doctor's bags. "Doc can't fight because of his leg but he gave us a bunch of medical supplies." Vlad said when he saw Damian, "I'll bring these to the saloon, you go get Ringo." With that, Vlad hurried off to the Prospector Saloon.
Damian turned toward the old gas station at the back of town and ran off. When he got inside, he noticed Ringo aiming his 9mm pistol at the door from behind the cashiers' counter but put it away when he recognized the one-eyed cowboy. "Is everything ready?" Ringo inquired.
"Yep. The town's all geared up for a fight." Damian confided, "But I think we should haul ass back to the saloon, I'm startin' to get an eerie feeling."
As they both turned towards the door, the door swung open to reveal a nervous-looking Sunny. "They're here."
As I said before, sorry for the lateness and you should only expect one or two chapters a month. Also, if anyone is interested, I'm going to be posting the song I listened to for inspiration/to set the mood so that you, the readers, could look it up and listen to it and perhaps see what was going through my mind as I was writing. For this chapter I listened to 'Walk Away From The Sun' by Seether.
**Update**
As I said in the last chapter, I've changed the story's tense from present to past because it didn't sound right and I fixed a few errors.