Author's Note: Well, here it is, Part 5 :) I believe this is the longest chapter yet! It is 10 pages! Wow. I would like to thank beastlynerd and The Konfessionist for adding me as a favorite author and author alerts and this story to favorites and alerts. I would also like to thank Andrew. was .here for adding this to story alerts. Also props to The Konfessionist, Shadow knight1121, and Andrew. was .here for the wonderful reviews. You guys are amazing and I would like to thank all of you for being so great!
Wasteland Survival Part 5
The Brotherhood Of Steel rushed Ray up the stairs and into Three Dog's studio. As the DJ, or Disc Jockey as he called himself, of Galaxy News Radio, he had turned the larger and mostly intact part of GNR into the studio. He was just turning off the mic and turning on "Easy Living" by Billie Holiday when four Brotherhood troops, including Sarah Lyons burst in, carrying a Wastelander.
"Who the hell is that? And why are you bringing him up here? You know my studio is off limits to everyone except me and you guys!" Three Dog shouted, standing up so fast he nearly knocked his chair over.
"If you didn't hear all the commotion outside, this Wastelander just saved all our asses and your precious radio station from a behemoth!" Sarah snapped back.
"Whoa, whoa, smoke a peace pipe!" Three Dog responded, raising his hands in defeat.
"Yeah, now if you didn't notice, he's bleeding to death!" Sarah responded urgently.
Three Dog turned his attention back to the Wastelander that they were carrying. He had a massive gash at his hairline and it spilled an endless amount of blood into his hair, eyes, and face. Another gash went diagonally across his torso, spilling blood onto the floor and his shirt that looked like it used to be white, well as white as it could be in the Wastes. His arm hung lower than it should, indicating that it had been ripped out of socket. The knees of his pants were ripped and stained with blood, exposing twin slashes and knees that had been brutally scraped against the ground when he had landed from his flight. His eyes were closed, but his face was twisted up in an expression of agony.
"God damn. Get him in my room," Three Dog said.
The Brotherhood quickly hurried Ray into the room and laid him on the bed. The medic hurried in behind them, carrying a bulging bag filled with medical supplies.
"Okay, now leave. I need to do immediate work on him and you people breathing down my neck doesn't help," the medic hurriedly said as he tore open the bag he carried.
"Thanks guys," Sarah said to her fellow members of The Brotherhood. They nodded and a few saluted before they turned to leave the studio.
...
Ray laid on the bed, fading in and out from what was going on. His head felt like someone had smashed it with a sledgehammer. He could hardly remember what happened. He remembered coming out of the metro tunnels, being chased into the Pulowski Preservation System, meeting the Brotherhood, killing Super Mutants, Reddin was killed at a plaza by a Behemoth... and that was it. What plaza were they going to again? And what became of the Behemoth? Thinking about it made his head hurt even more. There was someone screaming about a fat man, he remembered. Why the hell were the Brotherhood screaming about fat people? No wait...there was a weapon. Yes, that's it. The Fat Man was a weapon. Some kind of huge rocket launcher. He tried to think further but his mind was growing dreary. Before he knew it, the waves of blackness pulled him back down before he could attempt to tread the rough waters of his memory.
...
"So, you're telling me that this guy, this Wastelander, just waltzed into the plaza with you guys, but before you could eat your victory cake, a Behemoth joins the party, so he grabs the Fat Man, gets thrown like a baseball, then blows that thing to hell?" Three Dog said in his rich voice.
"Yes, that's what I told you, isn't it?" Sarah responded matter-of-factly.
Three Dog pinched the bridge of his nose, his sunglasses lifting up slightly as he did so. "Well, its kind of hard to believe, but I'm sure you wouldn't lie to me Sentinel," Three Dog said.
...
Ray woke up again. Where was he? He was still laying in the bed, but he still had no idea what was going on. There was a strange man sitting near his left arm. "What's going on?" Ray slurred.
"Sarah should explain that to you. I'm just here to patch you up. I have to pop your arm back in place. You ready for that?" He asked.
Ray definitely wasn't ready for that, but he hardly had time to respond before the man seized Ray's arm and shoved it into the socket with a grunt. Ray heard a pop and sharp pain shot through the arm. He grit his teeth and grabbed at the sheet on the bed, tensing up and writhing with the sudden pain. The muscles in his stomach tightened and as they did so, he was immediately aware of a new pain blanching itself in his rib cage.
He let out a gasp of pain, his eyes screwing shut and his hand reflexively grabbing at his ribs.
"Oh God, you probably got some broken ribs," the medic said in a panicked voice.
Ray sighed in defeat as the blackness overtook him again.
...
Sarah hesitantly knocked on the door to Three Dog's room where the medic was working on Ray.
The medic opened the door, his face looking worried.
"Is he doing okay?" Sarah asked, her perfectly arched eyebrows knitting together in worry.
"As good as someone who got chucked by a giant mutie can be doing. He's lost a lot of blood so I got him on a transfusion, trying to sew up all these gashes, broken ribs, and I think he has a concussion, but he keeps passing out. I can't keep him awake so there's a chance that he could go into a coma every time he passes out," he said in a stressed tone.
Sarah gave a solemn nod and turned to leave the room.
...
A few hours later, Ray woke up again although this time the room was empty and his mind was clearer. His body hurt pretty much everywhere. He was still unsure where he was or what had happened, but he was positive that he wasn't going to pass out again. The room was unfamiliar, but it looked like someone lived here. There were voices outside, both of them familiar. The first was female, it was Sarah Lyons. The second was male, a rich voice he would recognize anywhere. The voice of Three Dog, the DJ of GNR. Ray thought they had the radio on at first, but his voice was loud and clear and it sounded like Sarah was talking to him. That's right, they were in the GNR plaza when the Behemoth attacked. He must be at GNR.
"Hello?" Ray called hoarsely. The door opened and in walked Sarah, followed by a dark skinned man with sunglasses, a bandana, and a mustache with hair on his chin.
"Glad to see your alive," Sarah said, sighing in relief like she had been holding her breath. She gave a smile.
"I'm surprised your alive. From what I've been told, you took a hell of a hit," The man said.
"Holy shit! Are you Three Dog?" Ray asked in disbelief.
"Yes. It is I, the all mighty Three Dog! Bow wow wow," Three Dog said with a grin.
Ray didn't know what to say. He was somewhat starstruck. Three Dog was the closest thing to a celebrity that they had in the Wastes. Sarah awkwardly cleared her throat.
"Okay, anyways, aren't you curious as to how you got all busted up?" She asked Ray.
"Yes, of course," Ray responded.
Ray listened intently as Sarah explained the events that had landed him in the bed.
Ray's memory was flooding back to him as she explained and he was speechless when she finished.
"That's just... wow," He slowly drawled as his words failed him. He couldn't believe that he had survived such a feat, but his refreshed memory told him that it was true.
"So, how long am I trapped in this bed?" Ray asked.
"Well you do have to rest. The medic said you could leave in two days though. I would stay and talk to you, but I've got things to attend to, sorry," Sarah said with a genuinely sad look.
Ray sighed, he definitely wasn't looking forward to all that spare time. He supposed he could try to sleep or read.
...
*Two days later...
Ray walked through the open area that was The Mall. He had left GNR this morning although Three Dog and Sarah said he should stay a little longer, but he was anxious to get his tasks over with. He needed to scavenge to make some caps. And maybe Gob or Carol would pay him for delivering the letter. He was saving up his caps for a special weapon in Craterside Supply. It was a sniper rifle, but not just any sniper rifle. This one was very special. It had an extended night vision scope with extended magazines and a silencer. It was also quite expensive. She had wanted 3,000 caps, but Ray managed to talk her down to 2, wasn't the best shot with a rifle, but he figured he could try to learn.
He continued to walk across The Mall, his mind had spent the last two days resting and listening to Three Dog. When the DJ wasn't on the air, he would talk to Ray. The mind was certainly eccentric, and he had told Ray some very interesting stories.
His thoughts of his new-found friend quickly dissipated with the sight he had just been greeted with. There was a massive bunker dug through the center of The Mall, a few Super Mutants wandering through, hefting their massive weapons. Ray stuck to the edge of The Mall, near the ruins of crumbling buildings and rubble. He snuck along making his way to the opposite side of The Mall. He could see The Museum Of History, he was almost there. Suddenly one of the Super Mutants turned and saw his shape walking along.
"HUMAN!" The mutant yelled, alerting the other mutants to Ray's presence. The mutant trained his mini-gun at Ray and pulled the trigger. The barrel began to lazily turn, spitting dozens of bullets toward Ray. The other mutants raised their assault rifles and hunting rifles and began firing wildly at him. The mutants wielding super sledges and nail boards began to charge towards him. The few super mutants that wielded grenades began to chuck them. The mutants hadn't seen any action for a while, and they were excited to finally kill someone.
Ray walked along when a loud shout rang out and bullets began to plunge into the walls and ground. He let out a gasp and looked in the direction they were coming from. An army of Super Mutants had opened fire, and they were giving him all they had. He saw that a few had their arms pulled back, ready to throw.
"Grenades," He whispered to himself his eyes growing wide. Suddenly, he wished that he had stayed at GNR. There were at least twelve of them, one was holding a mini-gun, six were holding assault rifles and hunting rifles, three were running at him holding nail boards and super sledges, the last two ready to throw grenades. Ray turned and dashed wildly for The Museum Of History. Bullets bit into the walls and ground, spraying broken concrete and puffs of dust everywhere. The three running at him practically flew across the ruined ground at him, their long thick legs quickly closing in for the kill. Ray's long legs carried him quickly towards The Museum Of History, but the mutants were faster. One with a nail board was right behind him. It swung widely and clumsily with the nail board. Ray heard it come whistling through the air, right for his head. He dove forward, head first, arms outstretched. He hit the ground and rolled agilely, easily landing back on his feet. He was surprised that he pulled that off successfully, but he didn't hesitate to think about it.
The mutants seemed surprised that he had evaded them and gotten ahead; they were stunned for a second, but did not slow their pursuit. The bullets continued to spray wildly, several striking the mutant closest to Ray. The mutant hardly flinched as the bullets bit into its thick skin, but when a bullet moved gracefully through the air and buried itself in the side of the mutants skull the mutant dropped dead, falling through the air like a tree being cut down. The mutant's momentum carried it forward a bit before slamming it harshly onto the ground. This happened too quickly for the other mutants to react. They hit their fallen comrade and tumbled over his body.
Ray continued to sprint across The Mall, bullets and shouts flying everywhere. One of the Super Mutants let a grenade fly. It sailed through the air, landing in a small pothole behind Ray. He let out a startled cry and jumped clumsily forward. He tried to roll as he did last time, but he just slammed onto his stomach. The grenade exploded, showering the ruined pavement and open air with shrapnel. He hit the ground hard, pain shooting through his broken ribs. A small strangled cry of pain escaped his lips, he had managed to avoid the blast of the grenade, but his ribs felt like they'd just been stomped on by a Super Mutant. He bit back the harsh pain that was blossoming in his torso and hauled himself to his feet. He launched himself forward, nearly slamming into a ghoulette when he reached The Museum Of History.
"Hey! Watch it you damn tourist!" She spat in a ruined tone.
Ray ignored the insult and grabbed her arm, hauling her roughly into the museum. He slammed the door behind them, bracing himself against it, his eyes closed and struggling for breath.
She rubbed her arm, glaring daggers at him. "What the hell was that about?" She snarled.
"The muties would've killed you if I left you out there!" Ray responded, still gasping for breath, his left arm cradling his ribs.
"They would've killed you. Not me. Why would a stupid smoothskin tourist care about a ghoul anyway?" She hissed.
"I don't hate ghouls! And why wouldn't they kill you?" Ray panted in response.
The ghoulette seemed shocked by his words. "Well, thank you for not being a bigot like most smoothsk- humans. I don't know why the Mutants don't bother us. Maybe they see us as kin? I don't know, I don't care. As long as they don't bother us, I don't care what they do. Name's Willow, by the way," She said.
"Ray. What was that comment about tourists by the way?" Ray asked with a small grin as he remembered what she had called him.
"Well, face it. You're a tourist. Come to DC, see the sights, meet the friendly locals, maybe take a tour while you're at it?" Willow said with a joking smirk.
"Yeah right," Ray laughed, "I'm looking for Carol. I've got a letter for her," he said, taking the letter from his bag.
"Go straight through the double doors, then go up the stairs to the right and Carol's Place is through the door on the right. She's got a hotel/restaurant so you can rest up if you want."
Ray thanked her and turned to the entrance of Underworld. He pulled open one of the doors and slowly stepped inside. The heavy door slammed loudly behind him, causing dozens of ruined and milky eyes to focus on him. Some looked angry, some looked scared, and some looked like they just didn't care anymore. The phrase 'If looks could kill' suddenly went through his mind. Some of the ghouls that looked at him went back to what they were doing, but many were still staring at him.
Ray awkwardly swallowed the lump that had wedged itself in his throat. He turned and walked up the stairs to the right. He looked at the massive sculpture that was in the center of the room. It was a dark brown color, and it was showing many people crawling over each other to reach up at the sky. Ray slightly raised an eyebrow; the statue was certainly strange. He continued making his way to Carol's Place. A passing ghoul roughly slammed his broad shoulder into Ray's as he passed.
"Damn smoothskin," the ghoul rasped. Ray clenched his jaw and said nothing. And they assume that I'm bigoted, Ray thought to himself. He didn't say anything, he wanted to give Carol the letter and get the hell out of there as fast as possible. He honestly didn't have a problem with the ghouls, but apparently they had a problem with him. He quickly walked the rest of the way with his head down and his mind on his task.
Ray reached the door to Carol's and he carefully pulled it shut behind him. He got a similar response from the ghouls inside Carol's, but he ignored them, trying to focus on the task at hand.
A ghoulette stood behind the counter in front of him. "I'm looking for Carol," He said slowly, wondering what kind of response she would have.
She gave a small smile. "I'm Carol," She said in a raspy, radiation destroyed voice.
Ray gave a small sigh of relief. "I have a letter for you, from Gob," Ray said, producing the letter from a small pocket in his bag.
"Oh! Gob? I haven't heard from him in forever! How is he doing? Is everyone treating him okay?" Carol said excitedly, her milky eyes lighting up.
Ray panicked. He knew Gob didn't want Carol to worry about him, but he couldn't lie to her. "Umm, well. I've only talked to him a few times. The letter should explain everything," Ray sputtered.
Carol nearly tore the letter in half in her haste to unfold it. Her milky eyes flew across the paper.
"Oh, how nice! He's got a good job as a bartender in a nice town under a wonderful employer! He's doing so well!" Carol said in a contented tone.
Ray was surprised that Gob had lied to her, but he understood; it's not like it would be easy to tell your loving, adoptive mother that you were enslaved to a sadistic creep like Colin Moriarty.
"Are you headed back to his town anytime soon?" Carol asked, snapping Ray out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, headed back there as soon as I can."
"If I write him back, would you give it to him when you get there," She asked, hope steadily rising in her tone.
"Sure, why not?" Ray said with a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Oh thank you so much! You're nothing like the other humans who have come here," Carol said, a smile breaking across her ruined face, "Just give me a few minutes to write it."
Ray nodded. He turned away from the counter and walked past several glaring ghouls and sat down at a table in the restaurant area. He reached into his pack, pulling out a box of potato crisps. He ripped open the box and began eating the stale chips. Passing ghouls stared and glared. Ray ignored them, looking down at the table, slowly crunching on the chips. He heard them muttering things like, "Damn smoothskins, this is our town!" and "Oh God, I hope he doesn't pull a stunt like the last smoothskin."
A ghoul sitting at a table across the room continuously glared at Ray. He sighed dropping the empty potato crisp box. Please Carol, hurry up. He was pretty sure someone was going to start a fight if he didn't get out of here soon.
...
Finally, after what felt like centuries, Carol walked over, holding a folded paper and a small bag that Ray guessed was full of caps.
"Thank you for waiting so patiently. I realize that I took a while, but I'm terribly sorry. My old joints have been aching all day, so it wasn't exactly easy to write," Carol rasped.
"No problem," Ray said, standing up. All he could think about was escaping the glares of the ghouls around him.
"Here's some caps for all your trouble. I hope you have a safe travel," Carol said warmly, gently handing him the bag of caps.
"Thank you," Ray said, returning the smile. He put the letter and caps in his bag. He walked quickly through Underworld, eager to be away from the stares and glares. As the massive door shut behind him, putting him back in the quiet entrance rotunda, he remembered the massive bunker outside. There was no way he could fight the Super Mutants outside. He had stupidly left the combat shotgun that Chuck had given him at home, and his hunting rifle didn't have that much ammo. He wished he had the Fat Man. He grinned as he thought about blasting the muties all the way to China.
"You won't be smiling for much longer, smoothskin," A ragged voice snarled behind him. Ray felt the hard muzzle of a gun kissing the back of his head.
He slowly raised his hands. "Look guy, I'm leaving. I'm not a problem. You don't have to do this," Ray slowly drawled.
The ghoul laughed, sounding more like someone choking. "I don't care! I've had it with you smoothskins, coming down here and wandering around like you belong here! We came down here to get away from you stupid humans, and yet you just can't leave us alone!"
"I came here for a friend, who is a ghoul, Carol is basically his mother and I was just being nice!" Ray said, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.
"Ooo! Well, aren't you just the little white knight? I don't care if you came down here to kiss my chapped ass! I hate you smoothskins and I'm tired of you!" The ghoul spat.
Ray felt the gun barrel push harder into his scalp. In the blink of an eye, his arm flew up smacking the gun from the ghoul's hand. The gun clattered to the floor. Ray spun around, his fist smashing into the ghouls non-existent nose. Ray wasn't surprised to see that it was the ghoul that had been constantly glaring at him in Carol's. The ghoul recoiled, holding his face. He recovered surprisingly quickly, rushing forward and kicking Ray in the stomach. Ray stumbled backwards, pain exploding very close to his ribs. The ghoul let out a mocking laugh. "You can't take me smoothskin, I used to be a Raider!"
Ray was now sure that this fight wasn't going to end anytime soon. Experienced Raiders could fight for hours and not get tired, even most inexperienced Raiders could fight for a long time just because it was so fun for them. Ray released his stomach and drew his 10mm. "Walk away. Now. I do not want to kill you, but I will if I have to," Ray said calmly in a dangerous tone.
The ghoul slightly raised his arms. "Ooo, look out! This smoothskin is so scary!" He said in a high pitched, mocking tone. He then burst out laughing and rushed Ray again. Ray pulled the trigger and embedded a bullet in the ghoul's kneecap. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground. The ghoul writhed on the ground, sneakily picking up his dropped gun. He suddenly held up the gun, focusing the sights on Ray's face.
"Time to die smo-" He began, his finger tightening on the trigger. Ray's 10mm exploded, sending a bullet cutting through the air and into the ghoul's skull. His now limp body dropped back to the ground, his gun clattering loudly.
Ray holstered his weapon. "You gave me no choice," He said to the corpse.
"He didn't," A voice rasped. Ray's eyes shot open wide and he spun around to face the source of the voice.
"Willow! How long have you been standing there?" Ray said, panic leaking into his tone. The last thing he needed was for her to get the wrong idea, then set a city full of pissed off ghouls after him.
"Long enough to see that Crowley's hatred finally got him killed," She replied
"So you know that it was in self defense?" Ray slowly asked.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I knew someone was going to plug him sooner or later. He was an ass to everyone. Didn't help that he was drunk a lot of the time too, let's just say he won't be missed," she said, glancing at Crowley's body.
Ray breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay good. I better get out of here now."
"See you around, tourist."
Author's Note: When I wrote the part where Ray jumped and rolled away from the Super Mutant, I couldn't resist yelling "DO A BARREL ROLL!" I'm such a dork lol. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!