John was perfectly still where he sat, huddled in the cover a cluster of boulders and the darkness night brought. The safety of the assault rifle in his hands was off, but was lowered, forgotten. Not that he couldn't bring up the rifle, draw a grenade and make all hell break lose upon the unsuspecting ones before him...
He stayed his hand however.
The raider camp was caught in the orange light of four burning steel barrels, the light of the flickering fires was amplified rather then concealed by the few wooden barricades they had erected...the stupidity of raiders never ceased to amaze him. John used the illumination to count heads, and over the dark night he could easily hear them as well.
"Let's just kill them and be done with it, I want to sleep."
"You always want to sleep after a damn buffout."
"Fine, what do you want to do?"
The two clearly dominant males of the group were hefting a shotgun and an assault rifle between themselves. One could always tell who's the leaders of looking at their equipment...and with the females... "You know what I want!" A woman in pink pigtails exclaimed with a toothy grin, always the God damn crazy ones...John almost snorted, he was studying their behaviour like he would animals..which they were after all.
"Oh God not again..." Another woman muttered, looking away with an almost human grimace.
"Shut up bitch." The first one growled, then leered at the subject of their conversation. "Seed and eggs is the beginning of life...the fountain of youth!"
The man and woman on their knees in the middle of the group had their hands tied in front of them, not that it seemed that necessary since both were shaking with so much fear that they wouldn't be able to run anywhere. The woman's dirty brown hair hid her face, but the man was bald, revealing a surprisingly kind-looking face. Both were lean and skinny...maybe siblings? At the words of the woman they both shuddered.
"Fine, you get to eat those things...later." One of the leaders grinned, hefting his shotgun while looking at the other assembled raiders. "Now, spiking them to the ground or hooking them into the air?"
The assembled raiders, nine in total, hollered various answers, rough laughter following. John frowned, two heavily armed ones, three with pistols and four ones with various close combat weapons...he could take them, easily even.
John snorted, glancing down at the corpse laying below him, the raider woman had been out taking a smoke and gotten a little too close...
Of course nothing was sure, he might just take a random bullet in the face...he grimaced a little...but the risk was small. Besides, he could always use a little extra ammunition, though only the one with the assault rifle would have any worthwhile. In fact he would probably lose out on it since he didn't really need any more food and didn't really want to fight over some drugs to sell to Moira or something.
He mused at his analysis. Where was the emotions? Once he would have charged in there guns blazing, killing the raiders simply because they were there, now he wasn't even upset at seeing them, they were as common as mole rats, and as interesting. Was that all there was too it now? The raiders were not an evil to eradicate, nor something to sate his lust for blood...they were just walking dispensers of supplies?
How curious...
Shrugging he watched the raider scuffle with one another, violently arguing of what they were going to do. Was he going to do something? Sure he had killed one of them, which might lead to them trying to track him later...which they would fail at most likely. So either attacking or leaving came with a low risk.
Still, that wasn't really what was bothering him...what was?
He watched the alpha female kick the captured man in the head, knocking the man over, nothing but a whimper escaped him. Another raider laughed and spat at the prone man while another reached down to tear at the woman's shirt, switchblade cutting off the right strap. "Can't we have some fun with them first!?"
"Last time you did that the woman almost gutted you." Guttural laughter. "But fine, spike her to the ground and then have your fun."
He was close to his father, he could feel it...mere miles from the entrance to the vault. He needed to hurry, that he felt at least. Yet he stayed, his legs refusing to move yet, perhaps sensing his inner conflict. There was something he should do...save the prisoners? He had done it before after all, but as of late he knew better, it wasn't really worth the risk to expose yourself to danger just to save people stupid enough not to protect themselves well enough.
That line of thought disturbed him, or rather, it bothered him that he wasn't disturbed by it. Yet something in the back of his mind kept poking for attention, trying to remind him of...something.
Nova's question was still echoing within him...who was he? To find that out...what had she meant by that? It bothered him, intellectually he could understand the question, and what she was trying to do...but it didn't sit right with him. Perhaps it was the guilt stopping him? Or rather...the lack of guilt? He had done such a filthy thing...and back there he had honestly felt guilt...but it had faded away the moment he had left Megaton, he had brushed the event off like an old coat...uncaring.
Everything was full of contradictions.
Again, no emotions, it annoyed him a little...he seemed to have been dulled since he'd left the vault. Even the thought of almost having violated Nova...one of his only friends...didn't stir much but a bitter taste in his mouth anymore. She had been right...it was normal, if anything the sight of the pair of prisoners in front of him confirmed this.
The woman had been pushed unto her back and her limbs were being pushed out wide while someone went to get the hammer and spikes. Though they held her down she wasn't really struggling, no doubt too shocked to attempt anything. The man was no better off, a large hook being sharpened while two raiders held him up and leaning forward, no doubt intent on shoving the thing right up his ass. He didn't struggle either, shaking with fear as he was.
Still, why had she forgiven him? So easily even? The answer was easy...hero worship, or maybe the need for hero worship... That confused him, was he really the best one she could find? The only one she could call a hero? He, the filthy man who shot anything trying to keep him from finding his father out of a want for purpose? He who slaughtered so many that he by right should be branded a monster?
It was laughable.
In a way it was sweet he guessed...him the great hero to look up to. A knight in shining armour like the ones he'd read about in old stories in the vault...her the lady giving him moral support and keeping him from losing what little sanity he had left. Now that was a thought, Nova...a princess. John chuckled.
Instantly two of the raiders froze. "Hey...did you hear something? And where's Snit?"
John smiled grimly, casually putting a hand to his mouth while glancing at the dead woman by his feet. Guess the choice had been made for him...
"Check it out." One of the leaders muttered, gesturing for the four close combat weapon armed ones to move out, as they moved towards the darkness outside the camp the man raised his voice: "Hey Snit you useless cunt! Better shout back or I'm going to beat the shit out of you!"
John checked his assault rifle again, making sure that the new trigger and mechanism hadn't moved out of place. He trusted his and Moira's workmanship...but to have a malfunction mid-fight would be bad. Pulling a grenade for his belt he tensed, listening intently for the movement of the four while keeping behind the rocks. They didn't know he was there...spread out slightly, not too wary...
"Snit you useless pile of-" John tossed the grenade over the rocks even as he stood up. His first burst struck the one with the shotgun across the abdomen, dropping him to the ground.
The next one hit the grenade mid-air.
The raiders out front screamed as the grenade exploded in the air above them, tearing apart the face of the woman that had grimaced before and shearing the arm off another raider. The third fell to the ground, knocked prone by the shock wave while the fourth simply begun to run towards John, metal pipe leading the way.
Switching to single shot John turned to the more pressing manner of the alpha female and the remaining alpha male firing in his direction with the two other ones with pistols...seven shots later and only the alpha male and female, the only ones clever to take cover, remained. The others falling to the ground with their torsos torn apart.
The man with the pipe jumped across a rock, weapon swinging at him...
Parrying the blow with his rifle John took a step forward, placed his foot behind that of his foe...and pushed. With a yelp the man tripped unto his back...the yelp quickly turned into a gurgle as John stomped down on his throat, crushing his windpipe. Still keeping his foot on the jerking body beneath him he took aim on the raider knocked over from the explosion, the man shook his head in confusion...before it exploded from three quick rounds to the forehead.
With a sigh John turned to his last foes, better finish this quickly, even at night time he could make a few miles more...just a little more and he could...move on?
The last two had made a surprising move, the alpha female had the woman in front of her, the alpha male having done the same to the man, both pointed their guns against the trembling prisoner's temples. Hostages? Clever raiders...maybe their brains hadn't fully dribbled out their ears yet? Stepping forward John took aim. "Ha! I knew it!" The man grinned from his cover. "I told you! It's that fucking vault hero! I'm going to send you to hell asshole!"
John didn't answer. They were moving too much...hugging their prisoners too well... Wait...why was he caring? Damn Nova influencing him...
"God damn it! You're going to die pretty boy!" The woman jeered, she didn't move out of her living cover though, inching away. They were...afraid? Yes...they covered it well...but he could smell it, pathetic creatures. "I'll fuck you up good!"
Still covering too well...oh well.
He made the decisions and squeezed off three shots.
The first took the male hostage right in the chest, the bullet piercing white shirt, chest and heart...
The dead man quietly slipped to his knees, exposing the raider behind him, who instantly had his jaw blown off by the second bullet.
The woman turned to look at her 'friend'...which exposed enough of her head to let John put the last shot into her temple.
With three dull thuds the bodies hit the ground.
The woman was still standing still, shaking with her arms stiffly to her side while she looked down at her feet. Probably expecting a fourth shot to end her life...John shrugged and begun to march up towards her, quickly rifling the pockets of the corpses between them while speaking: "Are you unharmed?" Meh, what did he care? "Sorry about your friend." Not really, but it couldn't hurt to be polite...
The woman blinked, looked down on her dead co-hostage, then screamed.
Ignoring her screaming John moved within the camp. Ignoring the grisly remains of some old prisoner he moved for the normal shelves of steel where the raiders stored whatever trash and drugs they had. How many times had he done this by now? Experienced eyes separated the junk from the useful stuff, soon he had a small pile of stuff that he pushed into the duffel bag, it bulged dangerously...meh.
Scavenging the last of the bodies John turned in time to see the woman stop screaming and instead fall on her knees next to the dead man. "James!"
John grimaced, watching silently as the woman cradled the head of the man. "No! No...James! Come brother...please...I can't go on without you. Please..." John took a step forward, wondering if she remembered him being there. Great...maybe he should just put a bullet into her and get walking? Would be a waste of ammunition... "Get up!" That was familiar...
Shaking his head John pushed aside the memory and squared his shoulders. "I left the ammunition in the raiders guns, I have no need for their weapons either...I even left some food and drink, can't carry that much without being slowed down."
The woman rocked back and forth where she sat, still cradling her dead brother. Had she heard him?
Suddenly she cleared her throat, her voice was pitiful, full of pain. "Th...thank you." A sob escaped her. "Y...you saved me."
John decided not to tell her it was his shot that had killed her brother, he didn't need some crazed person chasing him...instead he merely nodded. "Nothing to it. Megaton lies east, I assume you know of it?"
"Y...yes."
"Good." John shouldered his pack and his weapons. "Then I'll bid you goodbye." He marched off, frowning as he heard the woman continue her sobbing...
Why didn't he care anymore?