They'd been lost for days and Jericho was beginning to wonder whether or not Cassie knew what the hell she was doing let alone where the fuck they were. He should have known better than to agree on going on a road trip with some inexperienced, trusting goody two-shoes with a daddy complex.
They had tired themselves out killing loud mouthed raiders and feral zombie assholes and trying to navigate the old collapsed subway systems. It seemed that the best course of action would be to set up camp and rest until what they hoped would be morning. They chose a simple corner of one of those metro intersections and put their backs to one of the abandoned trains to prevent anyone from sneaking up on them.
"Have you ever been to the DC ruins before?" She asked, plopping her ass down and pulling out a few bottles of irradiated water and a box of detergent from her pack.
Jericho shrugged his shoulders and kicked at one of the charred skeletons that littered the station floors, "A couple times… back when I was a… when I was younger." He almost said raider… almost.
The girl had about six bottles of irradiated water out now and rose to her feet, "Um…" She asked nervously, "Do you mind turning around?"
"What the fuck would I turn around for?" He snapped clenching his hands tighter around his assault rifle that he had not yet holstered.
"Well, I haven't had a bath in five days," Her eyes dropped to the bottles of water as she sheepishly tugged at the sleeve of her charmer outfit, "I was kind of hoping I could wash up."
"Look princess, the wasteland's a dirty place. Get used to it," Jericho glared at her through the blue glow of her pip-boy but his mouth went dry as she reached into her pocket and produced a small shabby looking box, "Where did you find those?"
"Oh these?" She waved the box of cigarettes and grinned, "I pulled them off of that raider we popped yesterday… You're out of cigarettes aren't you? Hmm…" Fuck the sweet and innocent act, this girl was pure evil.
"You bitch, that's a low blow," He let go of his assault rifle and held it with one hand as he swiped the pack of cigarettes and checked inside to make sure she wasn't cheating him with some empty thing she'd found on the ground somewhere, there were eleven cigarettes inside, "Whatever, wash what you want," he muttered popping one into his mouth and turning around, "It's a waste of water though."
"No peeking," The girl said in a mocking tone as she loosened the straps on her gear and began shedding her armor. He listened to the sound of her clothes hitting the floor with a soft plunk.
He kept his eyes fixed forward on the faintly illuminated ruins of the metro and tried not to think of the scene unfolding behind him, but that almost never works. By now she had pulled off her underclothes and was probably completely naked, illuminated in that pale blue light. He could hear water trickling to the floor and had to bite down on his unlit cigarette to keep from exhaling an excessively loud sigh.
Jericho chanced a glance back over his shoulder, the kid had her back to him. With one hand she was pouring soapy water over her head and with the other she was trying to wipe away the dirt and grime of the wasteland. He stood there, fully turned now, watching her as she carefully returned her skin to the condition it had been in when he'd first saw her, realizing just how beautiful fresh and clean flesh could look.
There was a loud clatter sound followed by a surge of bullets that seriously fucked up the abandoned train, busted a couple bottles of water, and caused the young naked vault dweller to jump about five feet into the air, "SHIT!"
At some point, while watching the girl, his fingers had relaxed and allowed the Chinese assault rifle to fall from Jericho's grip. Without hesitation, the girl spun around and marched up to the older man, delivering a loud smack to the left side of his head and forcing the cigarette to fly away into the darkness.
"WHAT THE FUCK PRINCESS?!" he shouted rubbing the spot where she had struck him.
"DON'T YOU WHAT THE FUCK ME YOU DIRTY OLD BASTARD!" She shouted landing a hit on his arm in accompaniment with the last three words, "YOU SHOT AT ME! AND YOU WERE PEEKING! I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK!" At that moment, it seemed she had noticed that she was still quite naked and vulnerable. She made a noise like an annoyed mole rat and turned to snatch up her underclothes. However, the girl could have used a better method for collecting her clothes because when she had turned, she had turned… and bent over.
Unable to resist the urge, Jericho raised up a hand and brought it down with enough force to make the sound of flesh hitting flesh echo through the metro station. The girl snapped up, her face as red as the hand shaped mark on her ass, and looked at him with eyes that said, 'You did not just fucking do that'.
He just laughed and returned it with a, 'Yes I did and there's not a god damn thing you're gonna do about it is there?', look. She huffed and pulled on her under garments. Her ass was sore where he'd slapped it but it melted into a comfortable heat soon enough. Which is more than could be said for the air between them as the night dragged on.
The vaultie had made sure to be at least twenty feet from her assailant at all times and every time he had tried to make eye contact she'd shoot him a pissed off and pretentious look and vigorously begin cleaning her weaponry.
Stupid kid, It had been a couple hours since the incident and the kid was still being bitchy. If she didn't want to fall asleep around him, fine. That didn't mean he had to stay awake and be miserable. He stretched out on the cold, hard, cracked metro floor and stared up into the dark abyss of a ceiling, pretending he could see stars on it and vaguely wondering if it had decayed to the point where it would fall down and crush him while he slept.
Jericho couldn't tell you when he'd fallen asleep. He wasn't even sure of it himself. There he was, twenty-five years old again. He was on his way to a place where his friend Slader had said he'd seen some people hiding out. Said it was some sort of school near Megaton.
His friends had left three days before him while he stayed behind to set up traps in case anyone walked into their camp while they were gone. When he had arrived he was greeted by Slader and some newbie named Tiff.
"Hope you saved me a bit of fun," Jericho had said slinging his brand new Chinese assault rifle over his back as he approached a large building with a sign that had the name SPRINGVALE printed across it.
"Where the fuck were you Jerri?" Slader barked with a wicked grin spread across his fat grubby little face, "You missed all the action!"
"Fuck you too Slader," He laughed slapping his friend on the back, "Come on you had to leave me something to play with!"
"Well…" He looked from left to right, and leaned in, "Yeeeeeah…" The fat bastard nudged him in the ribs, "A real fuckin' pretty one too," He let out a sharp cackle, "But I hope you don't mind sloppy seconds… or fourths… or tenths…"
"Yeah, yeah… shut it…" Jericho snapped, "Pussy's still pussy. She just better not be some ugly pig like that chick from Canterberry Commons. I'll skip fucking her and just end her if it's another one like that."
"Whatever man, this one's sweet," Slader gestured emphatically with his hands, "The real school girl type, if you know what I mean," The girl Tiff shot him a twisted grin and Slader waved at the door, "She's in a room on the second floor, man."
As Jericho headed inside he heard the woman say something like, "You men and your fantasies…"
He got to the second floor where he saw another raider guarding a door, "Hey Jerri, what the fuck took ya, get your dick caught in a bear trap?"
He just flipped the guard off and laughed, "Not a bear trap, but it's about to be caught in something, I'll tell ya that."
The guard laughed and walked off to give Jericho some privacy while he had his fun.
He kicked open the door and reached around the wall until he found a light switch. The young raider flipped it on with a wide grin and looked around the room for his victim.
He found her.
She was naked, crying in a corner next to a couple freshly killed bodies, clutching onto her teddy bear for dear life. Jericho's face fell like an atomic bomb. This kid couldn't have been more than six years old. Slader had said she was the school girl type. He thought the fat fucking bastard had meant it as a joke because she was holed up in a school.
He couldn't bare to look at this child. She was sitting there, hiding her body with the teddy bear. She was covered in blood and bruised in all the wrong places. But what killed him most of all were her eyes, those broken crystal blue eyes. They were empty. Slader and those other sick raider fucks had raped the humanity out of her.
Jericho walked over to her slowly and knelt down. The little girl pulled the teddy bear closer to her body and backed up further into the bodies, shaking her head and whimpering like a wounded animal, "I'm not going to hurt you," He said softly pulling his handgun out of it's holster and checked the cartridge. Three bullets left.
The girl stopped making those little whimpering noises and sniffled, "In fact I'm going to get you out of this place." He offered her a shaky smile, "If you hold that teddy you got there over your eyes and wish really hard," He choked as he said the words, "You'll wake up in a beautiful place," The little girl nodded and put the teddy bear over her face, "There are trees… and clean water," He raise the 10mm pistol, "there are rivers of Nuka Cola," He cocked it, "…and no more monsters."
Two shots rang out causing Slader, Tiff, and the other raider to run up to the second floor. When they got there Jericho was exiting holstering his 10mm and holding a teddy bear, crying.
"Dude, what the fuck happened?!" Slader shouted, "You fuckin' retarded or something? What you kill the kid for we could've gotten a ton of caps for her from the slavers!"
Jericho didn't answer, he reached over his shoulder with his free right hand and pulled out his Chinese assault rifle. Then with that one hand, unloaded every last bullet he had on the three raiders in front of him. He put the gun away and wiped the tears from his eyes.
He still had one bullet left in that 10mm pistol of his and the newly retired raider seriously considered using it, "I promised you no more monsters," he muttered to himself, walking over the obliterated bodies of his former comrades, "Maybe I'll keep it someday."
Jericho woke with a start, feeling a hand on his leg, "You okay?" He sat up groggily gazing into the crystal blue eyes of the little vault kid, "You looked like you were having a nightmare."
He put a hand on Cassie's and gave a weak grin, "Nah, it wasn't no nightmare. I was just dreaming of that sweet ass of yours." He waited for her to shove him, to call him an asshole or a sick fuck, but she just sat there looking at him with those damn eyes.
"It's not hard to see you aren't being sincere Jericho…" She said quietly before standing up, "What were you dreaming about… really?"
He shrugged his shoulders and grunted as he climbed to his feet, "Nothing…"
"Just monsters."
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Authors note:
Started out without the seriousness then took a dark ass turn wouldn't ya say?
Um... wow...
I'll update A.S.A.P.