Chapter 8 Visions

Douglas Awoke as the first sliver of daylight was just making its presence known upon the wastes its heat already making the cool morning air rise in temperature. After making sure that the camp really was clear after the night's events he had secured the door to the shack to the best of his ability in effort to keep the wastes at bay till he awoke. Not the best night's sleep but I'm not complaining, just glad to have had a roof over my head and walls around me. Douglas got up from his bed roll stretching his muscles as he went while rubbing the sleep from his eyes before gathering his things and heading out the door. Minefields northeast of here should get there before midday, if I skip breakfast that is. Douglas thought to himself considering his course of action. Yeah I want to get a start on the day before the heat creeps in. Resuming his trek across the dead and dry sands of the land before him Douglas marched only stopping to search an old train yard along his path in which he had to fight several creature that resembled large dog sized mole rats before resuming his trek. A few hours of marching and Douglas was now in sight of his first destination just down the hill from his position. "So that's Minefield? Looks like an old suburban neighborhood, a few standing homes as well. Other than the mines I can't see why people would be so terrified of this place?" Douglas said to himself as he surveyed the neighborhood unaware of the fellow that had come up behind him. "There are tales of a phantom haunting those ruins that kills any who get past the mines. Whether or not these tales are true or not, I can't say." Douglas bolted upright from his kneeling position spinning around as he grabbed for his rifle leveling it at the gruff yet raspy voice behind him. What Douglas saw behind him was not what he had expected, a creature that looked remotely human but every inch of its body clad in muscle with a sickly greenish yellow skin covering it towering above him standing at around 7'6 feet tall in height. "What in the world are you?" Douglas said a bit ruder than he was hoping for. "A human that doesn't know what a super mutant is? This is something I never thought ide come across. I thank you for not firing the minute you turned around like most would have, and I must apologize I should not have snuck up on you like I did. I am Uncle Leo." Super Mutant that's a fitting title this guy's massive I doubt ide even scratch him with my rifle, unless I aimed for the head. "Yeah it's alright my names Douglas. Sorry about being so rude before you just startled the shit out of me." Douglas replied letting out a sigh as he lowered his weapon. "I took no offence my, current state does tend to invoke that kind of response from people I'm used to it." Douglas immediately felt sorry for the individual before him at his reply mutant implies that there was a state being before the current one that stood before him. Leo must have been human before becoming… this, this creature I can't imagine how painful a process that must have been poor guy. "Hey Leo, would you care to share a late breakfast? I killed some giant mole rat like creatures on my way here took some meat off of them. We could eat and you could tell me about some of the dangers of the area. What do you say?" Douglas could swear he saw happiness beam out of Leo's eyes at his suggestion. "I would enjoy that."

A few hours later and it was just turning 11am. Douglas had been speaking to Uncle Leo about many dangers of the wastes most importantly Leo's brothers the other Super Mutants. Not all were as sane and intelligent as Leo in fact most were unable to form proper sentences or do the simplest of tasks other than killing. "Thank you for telling me so much about the dangers out here Leo I enjoyed our conversation." Douglas said as he gathered his things and kicked dirt onto the fire they had started to cook the mole rat on. "As did I my friend I wish you luck on your endeavors wherever they may take you." Parting ways with his new found friend Uncle Leo, Douglas began his descent toward Minefield gaining a feeling of anxious dread the closer he got to the neighborhood. I don't like this. This place feels wrong like the walls have eyes wrong. Could those stories about phantoms not just be stories… Deep in his thoughts while watching his footing as he passed over many mines on his way into the neighborhood, Douglas didn't realize he really was being watched. A shot rang out after a bullet hit the car beside him catching the aged fusion powered car alight. "SHIT! Fucking snipers now damn it Moira I'm giving you a piece of my mind when I get ba….. Wait, Car, fusion powered. HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIT! Douglas ran tripping motion sensors on mines as he went bashing down the door of the nearest house to him down as he dove in, the car exploded in massive blast behind him shaking the decrepit house and sending a hail storm of small bits of metal, concrete chunks, and dust flying in after him. "Cough…. Cough, Uhhhhh fuck you Moira." Douglas swore as he pushed himself up off the ground dusting himself off as he checked for any injury. No New holes that a plus… Ok sniper asshole how do I deal with him? If I leave out the front door I'm a dead man, maybe if I find a window on the second floor I can locate the bastard. Deciding on his course of action Douglas ran up the stairs of the house to the master bedroom of the home which had a window facing the direction he hoped hit would. Crouching down and peering around the corner of the window frame. Now where are you, you son of a bitch? Douglas spotted the culprit a man lying prone on the second floor of a destroyed building just beyond the playground he needed to reach. I got you now. Douglas took out his R91 rifle switching it to single fire as he aimed down the sights. Don't miss. Douglas breathed in deeply firing as he exhaled firing three separate rounds toward the Phantom of Minefield, two hitting the column behind him but one striking the man in the head killing him. "Sorry Phantom but I intend on living."

With the sniper dead Douglas proceeded to loot the home he was in finding a few books in good condition and some ammunition in a safe before carefully covering the remaining distance between him and the playground successfully. Proceeding from there Douglas made his was up into the ruined building the sniper had been in coming upon the body of an old man on the sniper perch. "Aw shit sorry old man it was you or me and I sure as hell wasn't letting it be me." Douglas then noticed a set of marks running around the old man's neckline, his mood changing from passive to sadness in an instant. "Oh god I killed a runaway slave, poor bastard must have been so afraid of slavers he placed all these mines and killed anyone that got through. Shit!" Leo had told him about slavers running their trade out of a settlement to the north called Paradise Falls and how they used explosive collars to control their slaves this one had escaped and he killed him. Douglas paid his respects to the man he had killed guilt motivating him to clean up the man's face of blood and prop him up at the column behind him rifle cradled in his arms. "Keep watch for me, will you Old Man?" Douglas left the perch after searching the ammo boxes lying around pocketing what ammo he found as well as several mines away to sort through later before searching the two of the three remaining homes in the neighborhood finding more books, food, water, and some meds and various ammunition types. It was when he approached the final home his feelings of utter dread returned causing his hair to stand on end and his hands to become sweaty. As Douglas's hand reached the door handle he felt as if his hand was being dipped in acid. "RAAAWHHHHHH! What the hell is this? Douglas clutched his hand in agony as images flashed through his mind. Images of the day the bombs fell on the capital the fires blazing the heat rending flesh from bone and the cries of millions being extinguished in an instant. It all felt to real like the pain of millions radiated from the handle into his very soul. "WHAT! What the hell was that? Fuck this, I'm out Moira isn't paying me enough to deal with…. With whatever the hell that was."

The more distance Douglas put between himself and Minefield the better he started to feel as he traveled back toward the Potomac River. Seriously what the hell was that ghosts aren't real? But if they aren't real what on earth explains what just happened? Shaking his head of his thoughts Douglas continued to walk the same trail he had walked to get to Minefield in the first place. The trip was uneventful as he crossed the Potomac finding his way to the half-buried road of the old world leading to Arefu which he could see in the distance. Just like Lucy said a town built upon an old freeway overpass. It's defendable at least only one way in… and out. The time was getting later and later in the day the sun just beginning to turn the sky orange as it began its descent behind the horizon to make room for the night sky that chased it in an endless dance. Despite the devastation and constant threat of death there is beauty in the world to go along with all the ugly. Douglas sighed at his thought his vision filled with the sights of the horizon, it's how he noticed the raider encampment in an old motel off the road a ways near a ruined bridge directly on his path. "Great more raiders right in my way too, I think it's time for the Dark Angel of the Wastes to strike more fear into the raider tribes of the Capital Wasteland." Douglas let a smirk play across his face as he waited for the sun to set and the night sky to greet the wastes with its twinkling lights and no moon shining, it would be a dark night, a shroud to conceal his movements as he preyed upon the unsuspecting raiders. "Five in the house two trolling under the bridge, let's get this night started." Douglas let mind go blank as a grin spread across his face while he wrapped his head with the scarf he had gotten to protect him from sand and secured the goggles to his eyes, he made an intimidating sight to say the least. All five of the raiders in the motel were huddled around a fire in the bottom floor of the wrecked two story building conversing about the day's events, from ambushing a caravan to killing some wanderers Douglas would have no sympathy for any of them as they expressed pride in their horrible deeds. "Did you hear what that nut Ky said before running off today." Here we go. "Yeah talking about some Dark Angel come to kill us all for our wrong doings, bunch of bullshit if you ask me guys a total nut case." Douglas pulled the pin on his final grenade his smirk hidden by his shroud, tossing it into the middle of the group as they all glanced down at it. "OHHHH SHIT!" One of the raiders yelled as they all scrambled to their feet. The raiders were too late to get away however from the ensuing blast that killed and dismembered those closest, while striking a single lucky raider several times with shrapnel as she leapt over the old bath tub near to her. She was writhing on the ground trying her best to clutch the holes in her back to no avail, before staring up into the goggles of the man who had attacked them the light of the fire flickering in the reflection the steel colored eyes behind boring straight into her soul. She cried out in terror at the demon before her as he pulled the trigger of his 10mm ending her life. Douglas slinked back into the shadows as the remaining raiders ran up the hill from under the bridge up toward the motel weapons raised and calling out to only the dead that inhabited the building now. "Holy shit its bad in there man blood and body parts everywhere. Who the hell did this?" One of the raiders asked the other as he was visibly sickened by all the gore inside even though they themselves had decorated the motel with the bodies of their victims. "You… You don't think Ky wasn't full of shit do you?" Play time. Douglas let out an unsettling laugh as he dashed around them in the dark, causing the raiders to jump their heads shooting back and forth wondering where the laugh was coming from. "Fuck this man I'm so out of here I didn't sign up to deal with lunatics." The raider ran out into the dark leaving behind his compatriot standing in the flickering light near the motel. "Get back here you coward! Don't leave me hear like this you jackass." The answer he got back from the darkness that surrounded him was the blood curdling scream of his cowardly compatriot as Douglas tore his throat out with his knife. "Jacks…? Please tell me your playing a prank on me right now you asshole." Douglas watched as the raider shook where he stood grasping his rifle in his hands aiming it toward where he stood in the darkness. "Your friend can't hear you he's gone and drowned in his own blood, and your next." The raider yelped in fear at Douglas's terrifying voice coming from the dark firing his weapon blindly into his direction until it clicked empty, none of his rounds connecting with anything but the suffocating darkness that was encroaching upon him as the scattered campfire was dying off behind him. "You missed, my turn. Douglas leveled his pistol at the raider firing a round into one of his legs. "Raawaahah! What the hell are you?" The raider swore in agony clutching his bleeding leg while reaching for his side arm that had fallen from his pants when he fell to the ground. Only to have Douglas step on his fingers as they reached the pistol. Looking up at the demon in man's clothing in terror the raider knew that the Dark Angel of the Wastes was real. He was staring into the goggle covered steel eyes of darkness itself and the barrel of his own demise. "I'm the Dark Angel of these Wastes and your pathetic lives are forfeit." Douglas pulled the trigger punctuating his statement and bringing an end to his game of terrorizing the raiders of the wastes for the night. "Huh? What the hell just happened?" Douglas stared down into the lifeless terrified eyes of the raider beneath him fear seeping into his own heart. "What did I just do?"

Those visions in Minefield terrified me I've never been the spiritual type of person or believed in superstitions like Demons and Angels despite my father's best efforts to get me to believe. But that day I came to question that disbelief and to question whether there really were things that lurked beyond our ability to perceive. The answer to those questions…. Well let's just say there are some places in the wastes I will never go back to again as long as I live.

Authors note: Ooooooow foreboding ha ha ha. If you haven't guessed yet something is a bit off about Douglas his loss of memory when he conducts acts of brutality and his ability to pick up on the emotional state of an area such as the home in Minefield to name a few. I'm having fun writing this I think I'm a bit of a sadist myself guess it justifies the M rating. Anyway thanks for reading.

Sincerely Bradknight