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Cort let everyone sleep until just before the sun came up, judging that the shape of the office building would hide them for a small distance and the rising sun would blind anyone trying to take a shot at them from the west. Waking James up first to give him time to loosen up, she handed him something to eat. After feeding Dogmeat, she went back to the window, having promised Charon to keep watching through it.
"Is there something wrong honey?" James took in the grim lines in his daughter's face and frowned, slowly working his way through his food and stretching out stiffened muscles.
"No Dad. It was just a long night. Think maybe the next one you can handle a watch?" Cort reached down and gently started patting Charon on the arm as she spoke, rousing him within a few seconds. The ghoul wordlessly rose and carefully made his way over to his own pack to dig out something to eat. James watched him retrieve two boxes of Mac N' Cheese, silently handing one to Cort after he had opened it for her, nudging the corner into her arm until she took it.
"I'm old sweetheart, but I'm not that old. Of course I can. Just wake me up earlier next time."
"Thanks Daddy. We can go once everybody's finished."
Except for Dogmeat, everyone was poorly rested for various reasons, and their second day heading back towards Rivet City was more difficult than the first. Part of it was due to fatigue, and the rest because there were a larger amount of raiders around than there had been the first time James had moved through. They were bogged down for hours in standoffs at both a cave and an old drive in theater, the former made worse by the sudden eruption of a group of Yao Guai and the latter after one of the raiders had inadvertently turned into a suicide bomber by holding onto a frag grenade for too long next to one of the abandoned cars. All of them had ended up with shrapnel buried in various parts of them from that encounter, and Cort and James had run through a substantial amount of their medical supplies by the time they were ready to move on.
Trudging down one of the old abandoned highways, they came around a rise next to a small cluster of houses and finally caught view of the shattered remains of DC in the fading light. Cort wearily raised her Pip-Boy. "Finally. We should be able to get to Rivet City sometime tomorrow evening."
James came up beside her a moment later and gave her a one-armed hug. "No arguments from me, sweetheart. I think we've had a long enough day."
Cort leaned against her father, stifling a yawn. "Long enough day with more than enough crazy fuuhh-buggers trying to cut us into bits. I hate raiders. Hate." Watching Dogmeat meander around sniffing for a place to go, she turned to look at the houses. "Maybe we can sleep in one of them. Once we get closer to the city there'll probably be too much of a mess to clean out of any of the good places to stay."
Pushing herself forward, she made her way down the hill, James and Charon close behind. Cort froze when one of the doors opened, warily raising her repeater and then dropping it down again when an unarmed woman in dirty pre-war clothing came out and waved to them cheerily.
"Well hey there! Welcome to Andale, the best little place on earth. Would you folks like to stay for our supper?"
Cort was tired of hanging around. I'm fucking literally tired of hanging around, oh God. Oh God, help us. And if you won't, the hell with you, I'll do it myself...somehow. Staring at Charon and her father tethered against the wall, she thought back to how she had ended up here.
Both James and his daughter had stupidly walked up to greet the woman, politely placing their weapons away to do so, disarmed in more ways than one by her attitude. Charon had retained his and hung back, not liking the look of the place whatsoever. His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when an older man ran out of a dilapidated ranch house, yelling at them to run. The cheery woman had spun in place, hands on her hips and scolding.
"Oh, Mister Harris, there you go being difficult again and ruining any social time we could've had with our guests." Distracted by the yelling senior, Cort had time to see a blur of red plaid erupt out from behind the woman before one of her arms was painfully twisted behind her and a scoped .44 magnum was rammed viciously up under her jaw.
"Oh now Linda honey, I know it's a disappointment, but at least he made a good distraction. And no you don't, naughty naughty! You just keep your hands away from those rifles on your back, and you, big tall and ugly, you can put yours down." James looking positively murderous, he dropped his hands down as another man in a sweater vest appeared out of nowhere to place a sawed off shotgun against the back of his head.
"No fucking way. You let them both the fuck go, before I take your motherfucking bald head off, sunshine." Charon had started sprinting towards them the instant the old man had come out kicking up a fuss, skidding to a halt and cursing violently when Cort had been grabbed. "You can let my girl go now or I'll blow the chipper bitch to pieces." The ghoul trained his combat shotgun towards the blonde woman in the pink dress who had drawn the two smoothskins in. He snarled as the man holding Cort cocked the pistol.
"Now you don't talk about my wife like that, it's not gentlemanly! You fire on the little woman and the top of this one's head will come off. And there's no way you're going to get me without turning the little Miss into a paste. Honey, go on over and take that scattergun away from him, I'm sure he'll cooperate in a second." Brutally ramming the barrel harder up under her jaw, Cort screamed in response, then shrieked when the man in the vest cracked the butt of his gun against James' skull when he started to lunge for his daughter, crumpling into a pile at her feet.
"Daddy!" She was cut off by another vicious thrust of the .44.
The man in the vest grinned up past her, wiping the blood off the butt of the gun back onto James before pointing it towards Charon. "Well looky Jack, aren't we lucky! Family for dinner!" He paused and moved his aim towards the left. "Even got an appetizer!" Firing, Cort heard an anguished yelp and then screamed for her dog.
"Dogmeat RUN!" This time her arm was nearly wrenched out of the socket in addition to the gun's jab, the sight now causing a runnel of blood to pour down her neck where it had torn into the skin.
"Don't worry Bill, we'll get him later. For now, we've got these folks, and it's been forever since we've had company. Now, down to business. Linda honey, if you wouldn't mind?"
The woman sauntered over to Charon, pink skirt swaying, holding one hand out for his gun. He gave it to her after a moment, not taking his glassy eyes off of his employer. "I'm going to fucking slaughter every last one of you."
Charon's words were the last thing Cort heard before something hard struck the back of her head and sent her into the black.
She woke up dizzy as hell in a charnel house, hanging from the ceiling by her wrists and stripped to her skivvies. "Oh, what the fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh fuck oh fuckohfuck." Blinking to adjust her eyes in the dim light cast by a battered lantern, Cort saw gore everywhere. The entire interior of the metal shed she was in was painted in splotches of red and older brown, pieces of what she could unfortunately correctly identify as people spread out in various butchered states on the equally stained counters. A second later she realized the reason for her vertigo as Jack jabbed her side, making her spin around again. Crazy shadows danced around the walls as she moved.
"See Bill, told you she'd wake up eventually!" the bald man in the red plaid was pushing at her with the handle of a butcher knife, smiling over at the blonde man in the vest.
"You fucking dickless sacks of shit, let me the FUCK DOWN FROM HERE! I'm going to peel your fucking testicles open like fucking grapes a-" Cort nearly threw up when Jack's fist rammed into her stomach, then did retch when a filthy wad of cloth was shoved into her gasping mouth. From somewhere nearby there was a violent set of thumps sounding in counterpoint to her gagging.
"Now now, we left your mouth loose so we could have some fun with the screaming, but no more if you're going to be rude. Young women today, no respect for the men folk, am I right Bill?"
"That's right Jack. But don't worry, I think those two will still be able to hear her well enough."
Trying to blink her tearing eyes clear as she snorted bile out of her nose, Cort looked down against the far wall where Charon and her father were trussed and gagged, each tied to a different post set into the packed earth. The thumping noise was coming from the ghoul, who was still thrashing around violently, a stream of what could only be threats and profanity issuing out of him. James was sitting calmly and observing each man in turn, both of them unable to look at his empty eyes for long as he etched every detail of their faces into his mind. He looked reassuringly at Cort for a moment before returning his homicidal stare back to Jack and Bill.
"Sure thing Bill, and they'll definitely be able to see. Gee, Miss, and I'm glad you folks stopped by. You're in fine young condition, and with dear old Dad there, we'll get one hell of a show out of carving you up." Jack looked over to James, unconsciously moving his eyes again to get away from what he saw there.
"Oh, I don't know Jack, the ghoul seems to be kicking up more of a fuss than he is. Think the shuffler's sweet on the girl?" Charon positively raged against his restraints, bellowing through the rag stuffed into his face.
"Well even better if he is Bill, he was awfully rude to Linda. No manners in today's world, shame, isn't it? Let's just see how much water your little theory holds." Jack stopped Cort from her lazy spinning and started slicing.
Dogmeat crept out of the ditch he had been hiding in, impatiently waiting while the men pulled his world and the other moons away into a reeking shed. The shotgun blast had caught him up one side and half of his head was stinging from where the spray had struck him, small beads of it in his chest stoking the rage fueling his temper up even higher. Having to find somewhere to relieve himself, he had left his world with the other moons in the belief that they could handle her care for the moment, and the dog couldn't decide if he was more furious with them or himself.
Skating through the dark he came to the shed, snuffling quietly around the edges and pushing experimentally against the door. It was tight. Jamming his nose down to the crack at the bottom he carefully inhaled, swiveling both his ears to the front as he did so. All of them were in there, and as far as he could tell the rest of his odd little pack was intact, if restrained. The big moon was going completely berserk, making the ground vibrate under his paws. Dogmeat sat back again and stared at the door, suppressing a rumble rising up in his chest. The others still had weapons, and were behind a door. Doors were usually dangerous, something always snatching out when you couldn't see. Looking up at the handle, he dismissed it almost immediately. If the bad ones heard him and opened it, his neck would be spread out for them to rip into. Just barking at it would let them know it was him after his world. Digging his claws into the earth, the animal let the simple but exceedingly fine wheels turn over in his head. They clicked into place when Dogmeat remembered the other woman.
That was good then, very good. If he couldn't get to his world, he would take the others' moons. That would get their attention, especially with the noises he was going to get them to make. Dogmeat kicked up and broke into a run as he heard Cort start to yell.
"Well Bill, she's surprised me. Little lady isn't making nearly as much noise as I had hoped for, but you were right about the ghoul."
Cort was missing a few thin strips out of one thigh, her legs tied down with a heavy rock after solidly landing a kick into Jack when he had started cutting. She stared down at him murderously, high on pain she found no worse than what Barrows had done to her a few weeks before. What was worse was the fact that she wasn't regenerating it, although she supposed not growing endless flesh in front of the cannibals was a good thing, no matter how much was currently missing. Worse than that was the disgusting, horrifying fact that they were eating what they were cutting out as soon as it was loose. Yeah them knowing I can grow it back would be fucking fantastic. Hey folks! A perpetual smorgasbord of Cort! Maybe they could eat more of me and then get radiation sickness off it and die. Slowest murder ever, mine and theirs. She brayed wildly through her gag at the thought, snorting on the inhales.
"Well Jack, looks like she's having a laugh at our expense over something. Let's see if we can't find out what's so funny."
Fat fucking chance with a gag in me, asshole. Cort squinted and laughed even harder as Bill took the knife and sliced down her other leg, the chimes in her head starting to fill up her ears, clearing out again when he stopped.
"Don't think we can, Bill, and I'm not going to loose that trap of hers to find out. What's say we see how amusing she finds it when we take some pieces out of her fellas, there?" Jack smiled as she sobered immediately, flicking her eyes back and forth. "Yessiree, there's the ticket. Now we can either start with dear Dad, or the walking jerky. I ever tell you how great ghoul flesh is, Bill? Already preserved practically, and once you get some radiation around, why, it's just an endless supply until you just get plumb sick of it. Why, we can eat off one that size for months!"
"I think I do recall, Jack. And look! That got her motor revving." Both of them turned around and started towards Charon, who had backed up against the wall, letting out a rippling, guttural snarl as they approached. James rotated slowly in place to keep facing the two as they went after the ghoul.
Cort had been flailing wildly since Jack's last words, straining to pull herself up against the dragging weight of the rock and making the blood on her thighs pour out in new freshets. Fuck no, fuck I was right, God no, please God, don't let that happen to him, answer me you FUCKING BASTARD! She broke out into a crazy grin when she heard another, wonderfully familiar snarl from somewhere outside, overridden by a woman shrieking.
"Jaaaack!" Both Jack and Bill's heads whipped around towards the door, Jack nodding to Bill as he grabbed up his .44 pistol and left.
"Linda? Linda, where are you?"
Dogmeat tore out the woman's throat as he heard one of the others coming towards him, leaving her gurgling on the dirt. It had been fantastically easy to get her out, whining on the doorstep and acting crippled. He had snapped his mouth around her wrist the instant she opened the door, pulling her out and crushing it to make her scream. Licking the hot blood off his muzzle, he silently peeled off around the edge of the house, loping through the darkness to approach his next target from behind. These others were foolish. They wore nothing to protect themselves as his world and her moons did -including him, and he took a split second to feel proud of his own odd covering- and were easy enough to pull down as a result. The weapons were inconsequential as long as he never gave them the chance to use them, and he wasn't planning on allowing it this time.
"Linda!" Dogmeat hit him from behind without giving warning as he kneeled over the woman's bubbling corpse. He laid the back of the man's neck open before he could be thrown off, who screeched even higher than the woman had. The dog snapped his teeth together again to cut it off, easy as catching radroaches for his world. A boy came out of the house yelling, and Dogmeat bellowed into the child's face, bloody saliva flicking out of his mouth and splashing against his striped shirt. Snorting dismissively as the kid shrieked and ran, he trotted on to the building that smelled like the one who had shot him. His element of surprise most likely blown, this time he had a different plan of attack.
Cort laughed and attempted to clap her hands together from where they were strung up, staring at Bill.
"'Ack's EAD, 'ill. My 'aby'th 'inging th'm all 'own, oo 'ucking 'athole."
"Now, you shut your whore mouth right now, missy. We'll be done with you soon enough after Jack gets back from putting down that mongrel of yours." A second later, Jack screamed and Cort laughed even harder, starting to choke on the gag again as a roaring bellow sounded from somewhere outside.
James stared at Charon to get his attention, then started mimicking his daughter, the sounds he was making eerily similar, if of a different pitch. Bill spun towards him, brandishing Jack's discarded knife and losing his temper.
"You damn well better quit it, you piece of meat. You quit it right NOW or-" Charon snapped his long legs out and landed a solid kick with both feet against one of Bill's ankles as he advanced, the joint making a crunching noise before it gave out. James instantly wrapped his own legs around the man's neck as he crashed to the ground, squeezing as the ghoul pummeled the heels of his boots into Bill's chest over and over, starting to produce wet breaking sounds. Bill had time to hear his own wife Martha shriek right after glass had shattered somewhere, before James finally snapped his neck.
Ignoring the last house since the occupant hiding there had correctly tried to warn his world, Dogmeat sprinted back to the shed, ready to tear into the one who had shot him and rip him apart. The woman at his place had been similarly easy to eliminate, a combat knife she had had time to grab skittering off his plating without leaving a scratch. The dog had nearly gnawed her head clean off before jumping back out through the window he had exploded through, ignoring a screaming girl on the stairs.
Riding on a vicious high the dog accelerated even further, crashing his shoulder directly into the door to the shed. Battering it partway open after another assault, he sprang back off the ground and forced his way through the bent metal sheeting in time to see the other moons finishing the last one off. Snarling, he stalked over and pulled the body away as they released it, then proceeded to savage the corpse apart as his world whooped and cheered from her odd location above him. Dogmeat grinned up at her with loose strips of flesh dangling from his teeth as bloody froth dripped from his face, then returned to his work as she smiled down at him, making muffled but familiar sounds. He was still best.
