AN: Sorry this took forever, been busy, ugh. The next chapter should be quicker than this one, this one is just a tad long for my tastes.
Thanks for the reviews!
Normally they would have taken a detour to avoid raider camps, such as the one thirty feet or so away from them. Charon's eyes wandered to Ace as he peered through the scope on his rifle, then set it aside to take another swig of his whiskey. "Bet they got a shit ton of ammo and loot there," He said with a slight slur. His face was a little flushed from his slight intoxication, Charon had noticed. The sunlight broke through the clouds and the teen's grimey green hair reflected in the light. The stocky ghoul crossed his arms, milky eyes shifting around the camp and he began to contemplate how much ammo and supplies they had. Things didn't look in their favor, and they definetly didn't have the means to take down a camp like this, or atleast it seemed a little irrational.
The raiders had holed up in the side of a rocky cliff near a small collection of mountains. There were a few shoddy shacks, a small lookout tower, and a wooden fence around the edges of the place. There weren't many of them, but their makeshift defences were enough to give them an advantage. Ace steadied the rifle in his hands and silently picked off the raider in the tower. All of the raiders suddenly stirred up like angry ants in a disturbed mound, causing a slight chuckle from Ace. Huffing some Psycho and taking off for the camp, the dog followed briskly at his feet and Charon followed with a set of curses that he mumbled to himself.
Something nagged at the back of Charon's mind, an uneasy feeling lingering in his stomach. There was something odd about this place, a heaviness in the air. He scanned the horizon for something tangible to give substance to the feeling, but found nothing. He tried to shake the feeling as they stormed through the front of the compound, Ace laughing excitedly as a raider bitch gasped in suprise at the trio. Ace took his machete and carved into the side of a raider's neck, who fell gurgling and convulsing on the ground. The sound of gunfire broke through the air, an assault rifle no doubt, and Ace wedged himself inbetween a nook inside two of the shacks. He waited eagerly as the raider crept inbetween the alley, whistling a little. "Come on out, I just want to play!" He taunted, chains jingling on his clothes as he inched through the alleyway.
Ace felt a sneer growing on his face and held back an excited laugh as the raider passed by him, without even detecting the skinny fiend. He silently slipped out of the hiding place and struck the raider on the back of the head, hearing the bone crack, and a little blood squirted onto his face. The raider fell helplessly to the ground, and the blood began to trickle down Ace's face. He slipped his tongue out of his mouth and licked a little of it, the salty taste tingling his tongue. He heard the familiar sound of Charon's gun and Dogmeat's snarls, and deemed the rest of the raiders dead. He was jittery now, his eyes wildly moving about the bloodied compound. He pulled bullets and other trinkets off of the bodies before making his way to the ghoul.
Charon still looked around the compound, breathing a little heavy from the adrenaline rush. "What's wrong?" Ace asked in a sing-song voice. "They're all dead." He stepped forward to the ghoul, eyes dilated as they searched Charon's sunken in face. "I thought I heard something," He spoke up finally, then put his gun away. "I guess I'm just a getting a little jittery." He looked down at the addict, who still stared him in the face. "Yes?" Charon asked, uneasy at the prolonged eye contact. Ace's mouth tugged on the sides into a lopsided smile, the drugs clearly heavily toying with his emotions. "Charon," Ace said drearily, teetering on his unsteady feet. The tall ghoul reached out an arm and steadied the green haired teen, who sank against Charon's chest.
The ghoul cringed, biting his lip. "Get a hold of yourself." He hissed through cracked lips, and Ace slunk back, blue eyes darkly flickering down the ghoul. Dogmeat let out a low growl rise in his throat, and his hair stood up down his back as he started edging around nervously. Ace dizzily watched the dog, and they all froze as an inhuman roar burst through the compound. "A behemoth?" Ace said wide-eyed, recognizing the sound. They looked up at the cliff and his presumption was unfortunately correct as one came tearing down the cliffside, right for the gangly pair of misfits. The earth shook as it tore around insanely and smashed into the little shacks. Spying a missile launched laying next to a dead raider, Ace made a mad dash across the compound. The behemoth roared angrily as the teen dashed by it, and gobs of drool oozed from its' mouth. It raised an arm, getting ready to strike the teen into oblivion, and Ace felt his heart thump madly in his chest.
Am I going to die? The thought unfortunately rang through his head, and he froze in panic. The beast's arm lifting up in the air whipped the wind around for a moment, and he could feel it getting ready to collide with him. All of a sudden he felt something heavy knock him off of his footing and he slammed to the ground. Dirt picked up around him and he shut his eyes in an attempt to block out the horrifying sight before him. He heard the fist collide with something and heard Charon cry out in pain, and his eye flew open as he watched the tall ghoul get tossed like a ragdoll into some rubble by the shacks. Dogmeat was snarling and snapping at the monster's heels and it's attention shifted to the dog rather than the two currently incapacited beings. Ace finally jumped to his feet and practically flew to the missile launcher. He steadied himself and aimed for the behemoth's head, and flicked the trigger. The rocket went sailing into the air and crashed into the mutant's head, causing it to roar out in pain, Ace hoped. It inhaled deeply and turned it's horrifying gaze to the teen as he hurriedly reloaded the launcher. Another rocket went crashing into the monster's skull, and Ace watched in awe as it wobbled and gushed blood like a geyser, then finally fell to the ground with a deafening roar. Ace dropped the launcher and started shuddering, either the drugs or fear finally taking a hold of him.
He started laughing and ran over to the beast, sending his foot into the side of it's stomach. "You're dead!" He screamed, swinging his leg back and kicking it again. "Fucking dead, man!" He rested his hands on his knees, another dizzy spell sweeping over him. "Charon did you see that?" He said excitedly, and turned to see the ghoul on the ground, a peice of one of the shacks inside his belly. He fell silent, and ran over to the pile of rubble where the ghoul was. Realizing he had to get him out of the sun, he started to lift him up. Damn, was he heavy!
Ace gritted his teeth and made way to one of the shacks he hoped the raiders hadn't filled with corpses. There had to be atleast one they slept in, right? He looked around and realized this wasn't the safest place to camp out, but there were no other options at this point. He pulled open a shack door and luckily found a mattress on the floor, in which he as carefully as he could laid down the ghoul.
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and began slowly pulling the peice of wood from the ghoul's belly. Blood trickled and flowed from it, and he realized he had to sew up the wound. He began to pull off the ghoul's leather armour and traced his eyes along the ghoul's abdomen. The thought of Charon actually being dead crossed his mind, and he swallowed hard. How could you even tell if a ghoul was alive? Was there a heartbeat? He didn't really know. Ace pressed his head against the ghoul's soft chest, and the heartbeat was there. Slow, but steadily beating. He pushed a stray bang behind his ear, and pulled a needle and some thread from his bag to mend the wounds.
Charon woke up a few hours later, and tried to remember what had happened. He hissed when he sat up and pulled a blanket off of himself and staring down, noticed the stitches. For a drug addict, he hadn't done a bad job of sewing him up. His eyes searched around the room for the teen, and stopped when he spotted him curled up in the corner, shivering. Charon sighed, muttering under his breath. "Fucking idiot."
He swore common sense was something God opted out on giving the damn kid. "Hey," Charon spoke up, his normally scratchy voice even worse from being thick with sleep. Ace stirred, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Huh?" He said finally, trying to wake up. "How are you feeling?" The teen asked, sitting up and popping his back.
The ghoul felt a little strange, unaccustomed to someone actually interested in his welfare. "I'm..." He cleared his throat, then noticed how pale Ace looked. "You're freezing." He stated, rubbing his temples. Ace didn't reply, merely shrugging. "I was a little busy, and then... Kind of crashed." He twiddled his fingers together and bit his lip, and Charon noticed how much he looked like a little kid. A sigh escaped his cracked lips.
"You can come up here if you want."
Ace looked up, eyes hollow looking. The Psycho had really done a number on him this time, he looked completely drained. Charon's body practically radiated heat, ghouls naturally being a little warmer than humans. Ace swallowed hard as he crept over to the bed and crawled in beside him. Having traveled many a time in the wastes, Charon was used to being forced to huddle for warmth in desperate situations. He thought nothing of this really, but couldn't get over how forlorn Ace looked.
"What's troubling you?" He asked after a long, eerie silence.
"Thank you," Ace said softly, his voice wavering. "For saving me."
Charon thought nothing of it, "I'm your bodygaurd." He said simply, and turned to stare at the decaying shack walls.
"Yeah." Ace said after quite some time, and he cringed a little, ceasing the conversation.
R&R!