Okay guys, so I had this chapter all done along with the rest of last chapter. But through an unfortunate accident, I managed to erase all of the next part. _ So, I'll work really hard to get this to you as soon as I can! Just sit tight, you'll have your next chapter very soon! Now, BACK TO WORK!
But first, some responses to some awesome bros who decided to comment on my work!
Skribbz1990: Thanks for the review! Yeah, I've been feeling very prideful about Cincinnati recently, and thought she deserved some time in the radioactive limelight =) And yes, the Brotherhood in Union Terminal seemed to make sense =D
Lost Cauze: Holy fuck, some actual critiques! Well, I understand exactly what you're saying. In fact, there are many ways to introduce the setting of a story. I enjoy books that ease you into the setting, at least the ones that do it well enough to have everything eventually make sense. I can't tell you how many times I've been reading something, then having to stop, backtrack to make sure I wasn't forgetting something vital, then move forward again. And I don't want my readers to become frustrated by my lack of an expanded environment early on, so I decided "the heck with it, let's explain everything!" because I don't know if I can do the 'ease in' thing well enough. Maybe with time. And yes, the mirror was a bit weak =( I thought no one would notice because I made him use the toilet right after =)
Jdboss1: It's not actually this interesting =) But thanks, I appreciate your awesome reviews!
Remember to PM me with questions! I can't fix broken things I don't know exist!
STOP!CALL OFF YOUR MONSTER! I SURRENDER! Screamed a terrified Talon who was about to be minced by Panama's powerful jaws. Cursing, Derek rushed forward and smashed his arm into the Yao-Guai's teeth. Even through the gauntlet, Derek's arm was being crushed by the force of Panama's powerful jaws.
"Agh! Panama! Get OFF me!" He yelled, heaving himself against the hulking animal. Several men were dragging at her as well, trying to get her off of the one who had to pay them. Somehow, they managed to get her to back up. Seeing that she was harming the wrong person, the Yao-Guai loosened her jaw enough for Derek to remove his aching arm. Rolling up his duster sleeve, Derek saw that his gauntlet wasn't damaged. Stripping that off, he saw large bruises forming across his arm. Large, aching, painful bruises. "Goddammit," he cursed, massaging the area to get more blood flowing
Turning to Panama, he pointed to the still-cowering Talon. "You do not attack people who don't fight back! Understand?" he demanded. Panama's ears were back, and her teeth were bared, but she stayed where she was. Sighing, he patted her head with his good arm. "You'll get your food later, I promise," he said in a soothing tone, trying to stop her from munching on someone else.
Remembering why he had thrust his arm into a dangerous place, Derek turned and extended his good, right arm to the Talon on the ground. The person he helped to her feet was possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She stood a bit taller than he was, and had a very athletic body that was most likely accustomed to the hardships of living in this day and age. Her skin was tan, and her eyes were glittering silver. Her dirty blond hair was not tied back, instead falling past her shoulders like a golden fountain. The one thing to mar her beauty was the hint of arrogance to her features: she knew very well she was desirable. She reminded Derek of those books he and Olivia used to read, with the warrior princesses in them. Amazons they had been called. Proud, beautiful, and fierce. "Thank you for saving me," she began, before moving a tad closer. "I'd like to repay you, if that's all right…" and of course, she left the offer as open ended as possible.
Derek held up a hand to stop her, and gave her a disarming smile. "Don't worry about it. You'll be our prisoner for quite awhile, so I'm sure we can come to some agreement," he told the woman, who was startled that this young man was telling her that she would be a prisoner. "If you would be so kind as to slip this on," he continued, passing her some shackles, "we could be on our merry way." The woman looked around to the other, not-so-friendly faces, then sighed and tied her hands. Several grinning men stepped forward to stand behind their new prisoner. "No touching," Derek warned them.
By now, everyone had formed up, more or less, at the front entrance to the theater. "Let's get in there," Derek commanded, and lots of weapons were leveled at the door in preparation for the next battle. However, the door seemed to have plans of its own, and proceeded to open of its own accord. Out stepped Gerard, his hands raised to show the itchy trigger fingers that he was a friendly.
"There's no need for that," Gerard said pleasantly, in spite of the guns still pointing at him.
"Lower your weapons, he's with us," Derek ordered. The scavengers lowered their guns dutifully. "Anything to report Gerard?" the young man went on, stepping forward to clap his comrade on the shoulder.
"Well, we've taken the building. A few of the high-ranking Talons surrendered without a fight, and we've come across a pretty sum of caps and pre-war money. The Talons won't say a word about what it's for. Interesting to note, however, is a special note that came with the funds, detailing a partnership with some raiders to the east. Something about special cargo being exchanged for the money and weapons."
"I see. Any thoughts about what this cargo could be?" Derek inquired, a little intrigued, despite his distaste for underhanded plots of all sorts.
"Before we attacked, I overheard some of the commanders discussing some valuable goods being stored in the parking garage. But I was more worried about winning the fight, so I stopped their conversation before I discovered what it was we were dealing with," Gerard confessed.
"Stored in the parking garage… that would explain why we've failed to get support from Justice and Olivia," Derek mused.
"No support from them? Well, that's problematic," Gerard declared. "We should go have a look-see."
"Uhm… I know what the special cargo is," piped the prisoner.
"Oh my, what have we here?" Gerard inquired, giving the striking woman an earnest once over.
"She surrendered," Derek explained. Turning to the woman, he asked "Well? What can you tell us about the stuff in the garage?"
"I want my freedom first, then I will tell you whatever you want to know," she demanded, straining for a way out of the fix she was in.
Derek and Gerard looked at each other. Gerard shrugged. Derek burst out laughing. Struggling to control his shaking sides, he wheezed out "y-you think you can bargain with this? Ha-Ha, I've never met someone more desperate, or stupid." The look on the woman's face told him she wasn't disagreeing. "Woman, you seem to be under a misconception. Nothing is stopping me from heading over to the garage and seeing this whateveritis for myself. The fact that you know anything is an unforeseen bonus. I don't need your information at all, really," he admitted, waving a hand to stop her protests. "That being said, you will tell us. Or Gerard will remove your left thumb with a pair of rusty nails."
The woman looked at Gerard for a few moments, who looked back with a scary grin on his features. She remained silent until he began digging in his pockets, then threw up her shackled hands in defeat. "Slaves!" she yelled, before her thumbs were attacked. "They've been storing slaves up there!"
"Slaves?" Gerard and Derek demanded in unison. Slaves were a very touchy subject here in Sin'Nati: no one was permitted to keep them in either settlement, and that ideal had taken root in the general population as well. Those who kept slaves around here died. So the fact that the Talons were doing it made the young man lower his estimate of their intelligence even further. "Where were they getting these slaves, woman? What was their purpose?"
"Well, I know they bought some from a group of raiders to the east. Others were hermits they nabbed from up north," she explained. "I don't know much more… they didn't exactly tell us that they were keeping the slaves."
"Why should I believe that?" Derek asked.
"Because it is true," Gerard spoke up, defending her. "The commanders spoke of keeping the existence of this side business a secret from their rank and file. They weren't sure they could be trusted."
Derek mulled this over, then asked another question. "So how did you come to know about the slaves?"
"W-well," she stammered. "I… I wanted to know what they were hiding from us. So I snuck into the garage once after everyone was asleep, and I saw them chaining up some people. I didn't know what was going on, until I overheard the word 'slave' being tossed around," she explained, trying to absolve herself of the deed.
"Do you know what they were planning on doing, at least?" Derek demanded, looking to make some sense of this development.
"I've hear some rumors about an expedition down the Ohio, maybe even as far as the Pitt…"
Derek and Gerard exchanged worried glances. If The Pitt was getting involved up here in Sin'Nati, things were about to get very complicated. "Well, at least we have a bit of sense about this whole mess. Now then, I think everyone else should stay here, to clean up after ourselves. Tend to wounded, collect swag, dispose of the bodies, and so on. Gerard, if you would be so kind as to make sure everything goes smoothly, I'll take this very cooperative woman with me and figure out why we're missing half our party." Derek finished his orders, and after a nod of acceptance from Gerard, pushed the prisoner ahead of him and started walking. "Remember to pipe up if we're about to hit any booby-traps."
Justice was still behind his piece of sheet-metal cover, his gun still leveled at the threat ahead of their group. Behind him, he heard footsteps. A lack of reaction from his party told him that they were friendlies. A clap on his shoulder loosened his tight nerves a bit, and a familiar voice whispered to him, saying "I'll handle this. Tell everyone to get back."
Derek stepped out onto the roof of the parking garage and surveyed the scene before him. In the center was a parked car, with an intact nuclear fission engine. Strapped to the engine were twenty-seven chains, which were attached to twenty-seven different necks, each of which belonged to a 'slave'. Derek assumed that if one of them tried to make a break for it, everyone would die. A rather crude, though effective, form of capture.
What was most troublesome, however, was the Talon standing amongst the slaves, grasping a young girl close to his chest, and holding a sawed-off shotgun to her head. The remaining slaves had slunk away from the man, and were cowering at the extreme other end of their chains. If Justice shot the Talon, he would drag that girl down with him and detonate the car, killing all of the slaves. A cold pit formed in Derek's gut for this man: he would pay for doing this.
Derek continued to walk towards this man, pretending to be distracted with his left gauntlet, flashing the purpling limb to the Talon. At about ten yards out, the Talon spoke: "S-stop right there! Don't come any closer, or the girl dies!"
"Tch! You think I care if a slave dies?" Derek demanded, putting real hatred into the word. "We're just common scavengers! We have more than enough money! We don't need any fucking slaves!"
"B-but your… your buddies stopped when they saw…" the Talon was scrambling, trying to be confident that his shield was still working.
While he deliberated, Derek made eye-contact with the young girl he was holding. She was obviously scared, and her eyes were pleading. He winked confidently at her, then turned back to the distracted Talon. "They're scared shitless by that nuclear bomb you're sitting on," Derek said, striding even closer.
"S-stop! I'll kill us both!" the Talon cried, shaking the whimpering girl's chain for emphasis.
"You don't have the guts to do that," Derek told him flatly, picking up speed. The Talon agonized over what to do for a few precious moments, then practically screamed in frustration and pointed his gun at Derek. Too close to dodge, he lunged forward, seeing too-late that he wouldn't reach the gun before it hit him point-blank. Suddenly, the girl in the Talon's arms lashed out, smashing his arm with her head and jerking the gun upwards as it went off. Buckshot sprayed into Derek's right shoulder, and he cried out at the pain as he knocked into the Talon and throwing the girl to safety.
With both arms effectively shot, the young man was no match for the Talon in hand-to-hand fighting. Derek struggled to remain on top of the superior fighter as blows rained down onto his face and ribs. Suddenly, Derek was hauled off of the Talon, and supporting arms helped him stand over his opponent, who was now surrounded by the slaves he had recently been tormenting. "The only thing I hate worse than a slave-holder," Derek confessed, spitting a bit of blood onto the Talon's armor, "is a coward who keeps hostages." With that, the Talon was dragged off, and began screaming as the servant turned on their master. A few strong arms supported Derek as he returned to his men. The young slave girl had her arms securely around his waist. Justice was not hiding his impressed state. The prisoner was staring at the young man like he was some sort of rare piece of swag. "Who is that," she asked to no-one in particular.
And, Olivia, who was giggling, responded. "That's our leader."
After the excitement, things were a bit of a pain to sort out. First came the former slaves. Most wanted nothing more to do with their past lives, and were happy to accompany the party back to Raw Border. Several expressed interest in heading further, to Passtime, and a few even spoke of securing passage on a boat to head south. Others, mostly the hermits, wanted to return to their homes to the north. One or two even left immediately after being freed and offering their sincerest thanks to the young man who had saved them. The young girl Derek had saved was not a talker, and she did not want to leave his side, much to the chagrin of both him, and the field doctor who wanted to examine him.
Derek's left arm would be fine. Panama had bruised him right down to the bone, but there were no fractures, and he was already healing. That happened a lot, actually. The medic told him that he would be swinging crowbars again in under a week. His right shoulder was a bit worse off. At that close range, the buckshot had really torn up the muscle. The medic had plucked a few pieces that hadn't gone straight through, then stitched him shut. "We'll need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected. But the muscle will heal in a few weeks," was the medic's final diagnosis, as he checked the other scrapes and bruises on Derek's body.
Next came the swag. A huge pile had accumulated in front of the theater, and people were anxious to stake their claims. "Come on, come on!" Derek ordered the people massed around the pile. "Into your lines so we can get started!" Almost immediately, the men began to line up in order of their importance, with group leaders above a lone scavenger, and grunts behind them. Derek went first. He claimed a wad of the pre-war money, some fission batteries for Mato, and a box of shotgun shells for himself. At his side, the slave girl shook his duster, then pointed at a glinting bit of something further in the pile. Derek shrugged, then reached in and pulled out a flawless bronze crescent necklace. His eyes widened as he handed it to her, that thing probably had to be worth a ton of caps! With the way she cradled it in her hands he guessed that it must've been hers' before she had been taken prisoner. He was glad she had it back, and would have to be sure no one else had an idea to take it.
After the swag was distributed, the prisoners had to be dealt with. The high-rankers would be accompanying Gerard back to Passtime, along with Justice, who had to send word to the remainder of his group, based across the river in what had once been Covington. That left the pretty woman, who was being eyed by more than one lonely scavver. A few were going as far as to demand her as a "proper reward." It got to the point where Derek had to assert his authority, again. Stepping up to stand next to the worried-looking woman, he secretly patted her back, and then glared at his men. "I will take responsibility for the prisoner. Do not try and tell me how to deal with her, since we all know perfectly well how prisoners are dealt with in Raw Border. I will take her, as the leader always has!" This forced into line more than one resident of Raw Border, though there were still some ungrateful rumblings here and there.
Sighing, Derek grasped the woman's arm and led her off, to where Olivia, Panama, and the little slave girl were sitting. The little one didn't seem to mind that a Yao-Guai was very close to her, and was watching him move the woman over to their group. Derek supposed she was around 8-9 years old. She had long brown hair and big, chocolate eyes. Her skin was a healthy peach color, though she had purpling bruises where her clothing was torn. Derek's eye twitched, and he was happy that the Talon's shrieks of pain had been suitably agonizing before he had died.
"I never told you my name, did I?" the woman asked, sitting down next to a startled Olivia. "It's Charlotte."
"That's a lovely name for a lovely girl," Derek complemented, getting a giggle from her and a bewildered glare from Olivia. Derek leaned down to pat the young girl on the shoulder. "What is your name?" he asked kindly. He had a bit of a soft spot for kids.
"S-sl…. Slave!" She squeaked, using her voice for the first time he had heard it. It was high and musical, though it failed to alleviate the horror Derek felt.
"That's not your name," he told her fealing sick. "Is it?" The girl nodded eagerly, sure that she was right. Derek looked at Olivia, who looked just as upset as he felt. He sighed, then stood and took the girl's hand in his. "Well, let's go home now."
Sorry guys! I was up at two this morning trying hard to finish, but it just wouldn't come! I have failed my awesome bro readers =( Hope this chapter redeems me.