That night they were camped in the shell of a burnt out house, a small fire built in one of the rooms that still had walls, but no ceiling. One of the few things left in it was a tub that looked to be in good enough shape that Chloe wondered why someone hadn't scavenged it. The metal of it alone might have value. As it was Chloe was eyeing it as though she might try to move it herself. Right now she was circling around it, inspecting it in an attempt to ignore the men.
"Michael if we try to go into that territory, chances are we wouldn't come out of it." Greg said reasonably. Since the darkness of night had finally fallen he had removed both his robe and his gloves. His almost translucent seeming hair hung in a straight sheet to his chin, his light purple eyes staring first intently at Michael then out into the darkness, never at the fire. Bright lights hurt his eyes and since he saw better at night than any of them, it was best that he kept his night vision.
"I know a guy," Michael began, "that went looking for that same vault almost twenty years ago. Our first stop is to talk to him, find out where he went and what he did find. See if we can get more details of the trip up there. Tony there couldn't actually remember much."
Chloe stopped her exploring to come back to the fire. Michael had never been so set on doing something and while she wouldn't mind having her own place she also wasn't sure why he was pushing for it now.
"Michael what's up? Why are you so set on doing this? It's dangerous and there is a reason no one else has found it." She sat down next to him, letting both the warmth of him and the fire chase away the chill of the wasteland's night.
Michael lay an arm around her shoulders and with a look called Greg over sit on her opposite side.
Sandwiched between them she felt very warm and wanted. Not just in the sexual manner that she always seemed to crave them, but in the family kind of way that was only gotten when people cared for you just for who you were and not for what you could give them. This was one of those rare moments that she would always treasure.
Michael didn't start speaking for a good long while. He just let them enjoy each other's company. When Greg's arm snaked out to lay across his own, Michael smiled in near contentment. "For the same reason so many others have tried and for the same reason so many other towns have been started up. I feel that we can do better than what is currently available."
Suddenly Greg slid his arm off of them and pulled out his laser pistol. In a near whisper he said a single dreaded word that explained everything to them. "Raiders." It was at night that Greg was in his element.
Michael stood in one smooth and fluid motion of muscle and training that at other times would nearly take her breath away in awe and lust. Now it was just business. Chloe pulled her own laser rifle up from the ground that she had rested it on, this was her business. People expected Greg to be the hand to hand fighter because of how lithe he was, but Michael was the one to be careful of in a hands-on fight. The broader shoulders and heavier muscle was not to be mistaken for any kind of slowness. He had gotten that from the constant work he did to stay in shape and remain fast enough to survive out in the Capital Wasteland.
Chloe pulled her rifle up and started scanning the area through the night vision scope. The remaining walls of the house they were staying in should have been enough to hide the fire, but they had been spotted somehow anyway. This was still hill country, so the raiders might have spotted the fire an hour ago from a taller hill and just have managed to reach them now. She crouched down and slowly moved to peer out from behind one of the walls, looking for a target. There they were.
Four of them, three males, one female and all looking half starved. For them to be even this close to Megaton meant that they were desperate and they certainly looked it. They all seemed to be wearing piecemeal leather armor and the best weapon between them looked like one of the common 10mm. The rest had a baseball bat, a crowbar and an empty bottle. Nothing that she was too worried about, mostly just annoyed. This constantly being attacked was exactly why she wanted a place of her own.
Chloe watched them approach for a few seconds before letting the man with the 10mm line up in the crosshairs. Raiding was a bad bit of work to get into and in some ways it was easier to get out of than it was to get into. She pulled the trigger and her target spun to the side, holding his suddenly bleeding chest. She felt bad that it wasn't a clean kill, but the second bullet cleared her of that guilt. He was now out of the business.
The woman screeched and ran at their small encampment. She ran smack into Michael and was flipped over one of his arms only to land on her back before she could complete the attack that she had been trying for. Michael made better work of her than Chloe had hers. With one of his solid leather boots he stamped down on her throat, twisting and in a move beyond Chloe's knowledge, snapped the woman neck.
One of the raider men turned to run, while the other swung his bat at Michael. None of them seemed to notice Chloe in her little crouched down hiding spot. The familiar zapping sound shot out and Greg took the fleeing one in the center of the back. There was a difference between cold blooded and stupidly leaving an enemy to come back for you later. Greg knew the difference.
Michael calmly caught the bat, using its momentum to increase the curve of the swing until it went full circle and smacked the raider in the stomach. Michaels hand slipped down the bat and twisted to break the raider's wrist. The raider howled for a few seconds before Michael brought the man's head down to meet his knee and then suddenly there were no more raiders to deal with.
No real fight for any of them, but the less fighting the longer the life and any fight brought out the adrenaline.
"I am sick of getting attacked out here. This is another reason we need our own place." He said, wiping his hands on his pants. "And an untouched vault would have everything we need to attract a community and defend against raiders. And we would be able to supplement what it can't do without own skills."
Chloe realized that Michael was actually very angry, there was a tone in his voice that she wasn't sure she had ever heard before. "Micha-"
"The raiders are getting more vicious as they lose ground to the growing communities around here and we are left with two choices. Either we join one of the communities that don't want us or make our own. To do anything else is to just ask for a messy death because no one can watch their backs all the time. Sooner or later we would slip up and that would be the end of it."
Greg clenched his jaw and stared at the stars as he moved closer to Michael. "All or nothing?" He asked when he was nearly side by side with the other man.
"It's looking more and more like that. We are some of the few outcasts that are neither raiders or criminals." Criminal being a very loosely bound label anymore. "We will not have slaves, and we will not turn away mutants or ghouls. Hell some ghouls are old enough to know things that could be useful to know about the vaults."
"Some of them might have even built the vaults." Chloe muttered as she picked her way over to the two men. "So where do we head first? You said you know a man…"