Chapter 5 Have a Super-Duper Day
Douglas awoke from his dream hoping to see the florescent lighting of the vault glowing down on him, only to have his hopes crushed by the sight of the room's dreary setting. The only light coming from the early morning sun leaking in through the many holes in the rusted metal walls. "Why can't this just be a bad dream? Why can't I just be home?" Glancing at his pipboy he checked the time. 5:45 am, damn I really was exhausted. The mattresses old and rusting springs groaned as if in displeasure as he rose from it, he shared their sentiment feeling worse than he had the previous day. This really isn't a dream I'm really here stuck in this hell. Shaking the thoughts from his head and rubbing the sleep from his eyes he rose grabbing his pack from the foot of the bed, and grabbed his rifle from the dresser near the door before proceeding out onto the landing above the bar. "Morning sunshine." Gob called up to him when he noticed Douglas descending the stairs to the bar. "Well hello tall and gloomy, didn't notice you come in yesterday." Douglas turned his head to the voices direction. It was a woman with red hair and an alluring gaze, wearing what can only be described as very revealing and not modest in anyway. A prostitute? That isn't surprising in the slightest. "Yeah morning Gob and morning to you as well, Miss?" He said sleepily. "Ha! My names Nova sweetie if you want to rent a bed with some company later let me know." No thank you. Douglas noticed a man in the corner of the room wearing a business suit with fedora and sun glasses. The man had something off about him something that just rubbed him the wrong way. "Excuse me sir I was hoping to speak to you if you wouldn't mind coming over." Douglas approached the man cautiously unable to shake the feeling in his gut about the man. "Alright, Speak to me about what exactly?" This man has all kind of wrong surrounding him I don't like it. "My dear boy, I am very happy to make your acquaintance. I am Mr. Burke and I have an offer for you one that will most certainly benefit the both of us." Walk away, walk away now. "Alright shoot." He asked ignoring his thoughts. "Excellent I knew you were just the sort for this. I represent certain… interests who view this town, as a blight upon the burgeoning urban landscape. If this settlement were to… go away. Why, who would really care?" This man is talking about destroying the town, I knew I should have listened to my gut. "What would you have me do then and get to the point Mr. Burke." He stated becoming very wary of the man. "Blunt I like that, very well you will take this fusion pulse charge and attach it to the bomb in town. Then you will come to Tenpenny Tower for payment." This man is sick there's no way in hell I'm doing this, but if I take the charge I can take It to the sheriff and implicate him. "Alright Mr. Burke you have a deal."
"Sheriff, Sheriff wake up and open the damn door." Douglas yelled as he pounded on the door to Lucas Simms home. "Alright Jesus kid! Take it easy kid. Why you pounding on my door at this hour?" Lucas said more than a little annoyed as he opened the door. "We have a very big problem." Lucas Simms was not pleased when he heard what Douglas had to say, as they were now both running to the saloon to confront the man who intended to destroy the town. Upon entering the saloon Lucas and Douglas approached the shifty man cornering him in the side of the room where he sat. "Mr. Burke you're coming with me right now for conspiracy to detonate the bomb." The man stared at him with an annoyed expression like he was wasting his time. Why Sheriff I do believe I have no idea as to what you are referring to. Someone is obviously trying to misguide you." He calmly stated as Douglas could swear he was glaring at him through his glasses the entire time. "Shove it Burke I have evidence so you are coming with me now alive, or leaving here in a sack." The Sheriff punctuating his words by chambering a round into his Type 93 rifle. "Very well Sheriff as you wish I will humor you." I don't like this that was way too easy. As Lucas began leading Burke toward the door Douglas noticed Burke reaching for a concealed weapon. "Sheriff watch out!" Douglas yelled as he lunged at the man from behind grabbing onto his right arm as the man was pulling the weapon out. Shots fired out pinging against the floor and walls of the saloon while Douglas was wrestling the gun from the man. He elbowed the man in the face gaining control of the gun and firing three rounds into the man's chest killing him, the whole debacle lasting less than 15 seconds stunning the sheriff and those few who had come to Moriarty's for breakfast. Wow kids fast, how in the hell did I not see that? I'm damn lucky this kid was here. "I must be getting slow in my old age you just saved my life kid." The Sheriff exclaimed patting him on the back as others went about their business. Buying him a drink before heading back out on patrol of the town. As Douglas drank his beer at the bar he thought of what he should do now. As much as I want to even if I found information on where dad had gone right this second I don't have the resources to go and follow the leads. I need to get my feet wet first and do some odd jobs first earn some caps, and I still need tools to go and disarm that bomb so no one else can try anything hmmm. Alone in his thoughts Douglas didn't notice a woman had entered the saloon and sat next to him. "Hey there I don't recognize you, new in town or something". The woman asked as Douglas turned to see who was talking to him. The girl was young with blond hair a pale but tanned complexion, and green eyes, wearing a black vest like overcoat with a white revealing shirt underneath and black pants. Wow quite the looker kind of reminds of Amata in a lot of ways. Yeah you could say that came into town looking for something to do. He said smiling at her. I hope by something to do you mean work. Otherwise you want to talk with Nova. "I'm actually looking for someone to make a delivery. You wouldn't happen to be interested would you?" A delivery that sounds like it could be fairly easy to do, and it would give me an opportunity to get my feet wet out here. "Sure why not, should be an easy job." He said taking another swig from his drink. "Great! I'm Lucy by the way Lucy West, I'd like you to deliver this letter to my family in the settlement of Arefu. I haven't heard from them in a few months so I'm worried about them. And as soon as you get there talk to my father he'll be sure to pay you for the trouble." Douglas finished his drink and left after Lucy gave him the letter and directions to Arefu heading to Moira's shop. "Hey there again so decide on what you wanted to do first for the book?" Moira asked as he walked in. "Umm yeah pretty sure tell me about this Super-Duper Mart." He asked as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Ohh good so this first part is about food and where to get it, an old market like that must have some food still there. If you can find food or even meds in there it will make for great information in the book." Sounds easy enough get in get food and leave. "Alright I can do that. Ohh hey before I forget I was wondering if you had any tools I want to try and disarm that bomb down there." Moira smiled at him when he said that. "Ohhh that's so thoughtful of you, Ide have to look around for a few things but I should be able to come up with what you may need to disarm it by the time you get back from Super-Duper Mart. Ohh and be careful there are people out there called raiders, they want nothing more than to rape, kill, and enslave people. Not nice folks." She said warningly. "Ok, thanks for the warning Moira."
After a short hike from town later Douglas could see the building down the hill. I wonder who in their right mind names a store Super-Duper Mart anyway that's so cheesy it's ridiculous. Walking down the side of the building he froze when he heard a fire fight in the parking lot around the corner of the building. Resting his rifle in his hands he crept up to the corner while taking it off safety, peering around what he saw shocked him gigantic ants were attacking several people who were firing wildly at them. They wore outfits that looked like they were patchworks of leather and metal, with dirt covering them. "Giant ants!? What in the world? That's actually pretty awesome now that I think about it. Awesome but terrifying." His first thought was to help them but then he remembered what Moira had told him. "Not everyone is as nice as we are." I have to be careful how I play this they could shoot me on sight for all I know. With that in mind he moved forward taking cover behind an old wrecked car in the lot and began firing at the nearest Giant ant. "Who the hell is that asshat?" One of the people shouted as they fell back toward the store. "Don't know Shoot him and these fucking ants." Several shots pinged against the car causing Douglas to duck behind it fully. "Mother fuckers! A guy tries to help and this is the thanks you give." He cursed to himself. Alright that's how they want to play it I'm game. Douglas rose from his position emptying his clip into the raiders who were fleeing toward the store cutting 3 of the five down in the process before cooking off a grenade and tossing it at the two ants who were fairly close to one another. The blast killed one of them while blowing the legs of the other it screaming in agony at the loss of its appendages slowly bleeding to death. "Kill that bastard already!" One of the surviving raiders yelled firing franticly at Douglas who had changed to his pistol firing three shots into the raider's chest. Ok one more where the hell is he? "Right here you bastard!" As if reading his mind the raider answered him, he had snuck around him flanking him. He fired a single shot into Douglas's left shoulder but not another as his clip had run dry "ARGHHH! Mother fucker Douglas swore as he turned falling onto his back emptying the rest of his clip into the raider's chest before clutching his shoulder. "Arghh fuck that hurts." Douglas dug through his pack finding the stimpaks and injecting one into the wound. That should stop the bleeding and fight off the pain till I can get back to town and get the doc to remove the bullet. Reloading his weapons and grabbing his pack Douglas looted the bodies of the raiders pocketing more 10mm ammo and a few stimpaks and made his way into the store cautiously knowing there could be more of them if they were defending the store. Should be an easy job I thought, I'm sure not to run into any trouble I thought I'm a fucking idiot. He looted the Nuka Cola machine in the entry way grabbing 2 colas and a drink that shined with a tantalizing blue glow. Nuka Cola Quantum? Huh that's an interesting glow. He stuffed them into his pack and made his way around the right side of the store until he was at the end of the shelves. Peering around Douglas saw 3 more raiders gathered around a fire and a forth on a makeshift catwalk on the shelving. Great more of them, my day just keeps getting better and better. Douglas crept his way forward until he was close but out of sight. Ok vats let's see what you can do. Douglas manipulated his pipboy's Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System to iron out the best plan of attack on the four oblivious raiders, he chose to use the large hanging light above the fire to kill the three there and a 3 round burst to finish off the one on the platform.
"Ok let's do this." Douglas sprang into action firing at the old lighting fixture which broke off from the ceiling plummeting down and crushing the raiders before they could react to the gun shots, then firing at the one on the platform two of his rounds hitting her in the chest the other in the head. "What the hell was that?" He heard a woman yell out from the door to his right. He rushed to the wall near the door and waited for it to open. "Turn around and don't move." He told the woman as she walked out the door his rifle pointed straight at her head. "Oh shit, ok ok just don't shoot." She said doing as he had said. She was cleaner than the others he had seen and looked to be around his age with almost bleached blond hair with a green stripe down her left bang that matched her eyes and looked to be of some Asian descent, wearing less revealing cloths as well still patch work but more modest. "I just killed 5 outside and 4 in here how many of you are left?" When she didn't answer he fired a shot past her head. "HOW MANY!?" Holy shit if I don't answer him I'm dead. And if I help him maybe he'll even take me with him, fuck those assholes. The woman flinched at the threat the thundering crack of his rifle echoing in the store. "Ffff-four more not including me they went out on a raid an hour ago they should be back any minute now. Great more of them maybe I could set a trap for them, but first what to do with her. "Please I don't want anything to do with these scumbags anymore, they do such horrible things I can't stomach it. Please." Am I going to regret trusting her, she could be playing me for a fool. "Hey were back, where the hell are you bastards 5 of ours are dead out there." A voiced played over the store's intercom. Shit not good not good, all she has to do is yell out and I'm getting cornered by 4 more of these guys. "Let me help you I can draw them into a trap and you can kill them." Can I trust her? "Why should I trust you? You can easily tip them off ide be better of shooting you and taking my chances." Douglas was tense time was running out he had to make a decision fast or he could end up dead, and he couldn't let that happen. Fuck it! "Fine! Lead them back here I'll set up an ambush, and if you betray my trust there will not be a second chance." He had made his decision lowering his weapon. "You won't regret this I promise." She said running toward the main entrance. I better not. He ran over to the stores pharmacy and vaulted over the counter, setting his pack onto the floor next to him and getting ready to release hell on the raiders. Time seemed to slow for him as he waited hoping his faith in the raider girl wasn't misplaced. "Come on he's somewhere back here I know it." They were coming five pairs of boots hitting the ground getting louder every second that ticked by. "Alright split up and find him. And I want him alive he's gona pay for this." A raider with a gruff voice ordered from just a few yards away. Meanwhile the raider girl was backing away toward some restrooms on the left side of the building. "Hey boys, Surprise!" Taking that as his cue Douglas rose from his position behind the counter leveling his weapon on the raiders firing round after round into them as they were distracted by the raider girl that had betrayed them, all four being ripped apart by the rounds slicing through them. Blood spattered across the floor below them until his magazine ran dry the raiders falling to the ground beneath. None of them moved lying on the floor of the market blood pooling around them, he had killed them all. "Hey raider girl you still alive?" He shouted out as he reloaded his weapon." The girl peeked her head around the corner of the hall leading to the bathrooms looking upon the carnage he had wrought her stomach churning at the sight. "Yeah I'm good, just kind of sickened by the sight. My name is Sage by the way." Douglas vaulted back over the counter approaching her. "Douglas Myers." He said outstretching his hand for her to shake.
An hour later and Sage had helped Douglas loot the entirety of the raider's supplies in the pharmacy storage room, gaining him various types of ammunition including a mininuke for a fatman launcher, food, various, drugs, and several more bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum. "So why were you with those assholes anyway? "If you don't mind me asking Sage." He asked as they moved toward the entrance of the store. "That's a long story. You see these people were just like other wasters out there, in a settlement that was overrun by raiders called Bethesda. My parents and several other families had to raid other settlements and rob wanderers just to survive, I was only 15 at the time and my parents just wanted to protect me and keep me fed." Douglas listened but couldn't help but ask. "So where did it go wrong? When did it turn into this?" She took in a quick breath. "When my parents died, they were the voice of reason here without them the others just got more and more brutal. I was afraid to leave on my own." Sadness fell upon him as she told him her story he knew the feeling the loss, he didn't know if he'd find his dad. "Sorry. Hey ummm I'm heading back to Megaton why don't you come with I can put in a good word for you, you could probably even get work in town too." She lit up upon his words embracing him in a hug which unfortunately hit Douglas's wounded shoulder. "Ow ow ow ow please let go" He yelped. "Ohhhh oh my god I'm so sorry I just can't thank you enough sorry sorry sorry." With that Douglas and Sage made their way back across the sand blasted wastes carrying his well-earned loot back to Megaton.
I learned a lesson that day, I learned if a job seems too easy something bad is going to happen to you at some point during it. I also made a good friend for my troubles so I guess that evens things out more or less.