Chapter 1
Part 3
It was quiet, very quiet, D.W. James and Emily were crowded together, Mei-Lin sticking to Sue-Ellen and Marina's side. They were hiding in Marina's house again, not that far from school, but not close enough to be in any danger. Arthur's plan had worked, and the raiders took the bait.
Marina sighed, she hoped Arthur's group was successful, and also, to her shame, that the school finished off all of the raiders. She was sensitive about human life, but if any survived and were to find her and the children… she didn't think Sue-Ellen's gun would be any good in such a case. Not that she really thought Sue-Ellen should have been given a gun in her state anyway.
James spoke quietly, "Do you think the others are okay?" He asked.
"I hope so," Emily said, D.W. was smiling contently.
"They're alright, Arthur's with them." She said, "Arthur still has to comeback and show me my hair-band, he won't let himself die, he won't break his promise." Emily smiled weakly; glad D.W. was finally a bit cheerful, if a bit insane, but frankly, what was sane out here? Emily herself was dealing with the crisis within herself. But she realized that letting what happened take over her would not be what her family would want for her. She had to be reliable, in case D.W. or James would be having serious issues, and she knew they did.
She wanted to be there for them, they were her best friends, and she couldn't let herself down from the high standard they expected of her.
She took a deep breath, before forcing a smile and saying, "You're probably right, D.W."
"Obviously I am." D.W. retorted, highly reminiscent of her behavior before the vault. James breathed easier, he nodded vigorously.
"There's no way that those numb-skulled raiders are going to out think Arthur and Molly, they're too smart." The teen rabbit tapped his head to emphasize the point.
"Let's make a pact," the aardvark of the three suddenly said, "We'll be like them, like Arthur, Buster, Brain and Molly; we'll watch each others' backs, be the future heroes that everyone will look up to." The others nodded in agreement, even though in truth none of them could see the day coming. Mei-Lin joined them, "Me too." She said, "I want to join too!"
"Sorry Mei-Lin, no Chinese allowed, your people are to blame for all of this." James said, shaking his head.
"James!" Marina gasped, "I'll not have you talk like that!" But even her tone sensitive ears could not hear past James' acting.
"Haha," He laughed, "I'm kidding, of course she can join!" He said warmly, scooping her into a hug. "I'm not prejudiced against Chinese, only against monsters. And raiders too, yeah." Mei-Lin smiled widely, content at being hugged close. She has lost her best friend in Kate Read, and her brother as well as her parents to the monsters in the Vault. A fuzzy orange feeling started blooming inside of her.
Yes, Mei Lin didn't use names for emotions, but color. Often reddish-brown would be anger or hate, yellow contentment, pink was safety and comfort, dark grey was sadness, and most mysterious of all was the illusive bluish-purple, which would pop in now and then, leaving Mei-Lin thoroughly confused.
"I feel orange." She whispered, unfortunately for her, none of the group knew her well enough to understand what it meant. A cyan feeling rushed into her as she felt an urge to see Kate again. Kate would understand.
Sue-Ellen stood up and began pacing, "I'm thinking of a lesson plan, Marina." She said, "I was wondering, you think high kicks are good for the first lesson?"
Marina, unaware of Arthur's talk with Sue-Ellen suspected the cat girl was imagining she was back in the Vault, so to diffuse a potentially explosive situation, she said, "I think you should start with what is easiest. From my Yoga with…" she hesitated, "With Prunella, I know that starting with the hard stuff is bad for your development, it might cause your students to give up early."
"You're right, well, I'll have to think it over, Ugh, when are they coming back? If they don't hurry back we'll get hungry … might hear our stomachs rumbling." Marina was going to ask who, but decided against it, mainly because she thought she probably didn't want to hear the answer. Fern, Fern was good friends with Sue, maybe even best friends? Marina wasn't really that socially connected in the Vault.
She didn't know who died in the monster attack, no one did, only bits and pieces, she knew that Binky was the first to go, probably the rest of the security team next. Arthur's mom, dad and sister were killed too. She remembered tripping on a body; she shivered as she remembered the slimy, fleshy feeling, the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. She stuck out her tongue and licked the back of her hand to wipe the taste off; she preferred the taste of dirt.
It would be hours before Slink would finally show up to escort them to the mall, saying the operation was a great success, and that there was only one person seriously injured. As before, Arthur made sure to strip and throw out the bodies to burn before sending Slink to bring the kids. He was rather saddened by the presence of a female body this time, a young female, probably a year or two younger than him. He had Molly strip and dispose of it out of respect to her privacy, to his girlfriend's dismay.
The mall was now locked down, steel gates dropping down on the main entrance to block out any intruder. The only way left for anyone to infiltrate was through the roof skylight, but climbing there was hard, and their base was positioned on the second floor anyway, so it was deemed a point of interest, and nothing more.
"These look horrible." Molly complained, "You look like a dork."
"Gee, thanks." Arthur snapped back, then trying another pair he found in an optics shop, luckily there was an entire store room in the back, filled with glasses, most useless, but he managed to find a small box with plenty of glasses in his size.
"Those look nice, smooth like." She commented, rectangular glasses, steel wire-frame, nothing too elaborate. Arthur decided on them.
"Now let's go, we should probably wake up our prisoner." As he began to walk out, he heard Brain call out, "Hey Arthur! They have people in here!" Arthur's eyes widened and he quickly descended the stairs, Molly in tow, to watch Brain leading a row of people out to the center, decently dressed and clean, but otherwise shaken.
The group was comprised of two young male dogs, a young female rabbit, a young female cat and lamb, the oldest of the group seemed only a year or two older than Arthur himself.
The female rabbit spoke first, "Look, please don't hurt us, we'll leave and never bother you again." The rabbit said quickly, she was obviously uncomfortable with the change of power; preferring to deal with Rex, whom she already knew than this new, potentially dangerous person.
Arthur examined her before speaking, she had platinum blonde hair, a long fringe on one side of her face, the rest of the hair was gathered in a high ponytail, her bluish-grey eyes were slightly dull, but still had much sparkle and fight in them, he also noticed the distinct black rings around them.
"We're not going to hurt you." Arthur said, "We're going to free you. If you want to leave, you may. But know that you are welcome to stay with us, as equals."
The captured prisoners looked at him skeptically, as Brain began unlocking their cuffs slowly with a key he found on Rex. Still disbelieving, the blonde rabbit girl stepped forwards.
"Thank you for your kindness." She said, "My name is Angelique, these are Jack, Horace," She gestured at the two dogs, both sporting dull brown fur, and of the same breed, brothers, probably, "And these are Helen and Elsa." She gestured at the lamb and cat. "We'd love for a safe place to stay, if you'd accept us."
"We've been wondering the wastes for a while with a caravan. These guys ambushed us, and we were captured, the others didn't make it." She explained.
"Okay, Brain will check you out, I want to know their full medical state Brain, blood type, everything." Brain nodded, "Then I want you to get them something to eat and drink." He then turned to Molly, "Molly, later I want you to get them some clothes, I'm assigning the dogs as Tough Customers, so make sure they're up to your standards."
"Wait," Angelique said, "What's your name?" she asked, the aardvark looked back at her.
"Arthur." He said, she seemed curious for a moment, be he had walked away already with Molly; they still needed to interrogate their newly captured prisoner.
Molly fiddled with her bandages, "Ugh, I don't get why I need these, Brain got me a stimpack, and it's probably almost healed by now." Arthur shook his head.
"Don't play around with those," He said off-handedly as they climbed up the stairs, Molly felt the urge to kiss him again, luckily, this time his face was clean of any raider remains, though his clothes were now uncomfortable with dried blood.
She leaned forwards and he placed his finger on her lips, "Smooches later." She seemed disappointed, and scowled at him. "I want to go in clear headed to interrogate Rex." He said, pecking her on the cheek instead. "Kay?"
She shook her head, and flicked his nose painfully, to which he protested heartily. A few moments later, they were in the security office, where Buster was watching the now tied and cuffed yet still unconscious raider leader, Rex.
Arthur leaned forwards, slowly removing the ski mask, tossing it aside, and revealing him to be a young, handsome canine.
"Whoa," Molly exclaimed, "He's cute." Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"No way, this guy looks no older than twenty five!" Buster said.
"I joined the Remnant Army at seventeen." Rex replied, causing the people in the room to jump.
"So what're you going to do with me? Kill me? Sell me?" He asked.
"You almost killed our friend; you should feel lucky we haven't killed you already." Molly stated coldly.
"As I recall it was you who killed off all of my people." The calm retort came, "You attacked the school and killed my friend Jeff."
"You attacked us first!" Arthur accused, pointing at him with his left hand, "We were only looking for a place to rest, we walked all the way from…"
"A vault," The canine said, staring at Arthur's Pip Boy.
"You know about the Vault?" Arthur asked, the canine nodded, sighing.
"When you see armed people these days, you shoot, and you pray they you get them before they get you. They mistook you for another group of raiders." He explained.
"Your raiders had slaves, they've killed people, I've seen the bodies at the school." Arthur said.
"They just wanted to survive, to live and perhaps not have to worry about others raiding and killing them. We were trying to get this town to be safe; obviously we did not do a good job."
"What? You call slavery safe? We met your prisoners!" Molly threw the allegation in his face, but the raider leader did not as much as flinch.
"I didn't let them touch those people. Never abuse them; I kept them in a better condition than my own men. Yes, we were going to sell them to slavery, but for them, slavery means they'll be protected and safe, while we had nowhere near enough resources to ensure their safety. I could sell a slave for four times as much as I can sell my weapon." Molly was about to argue back, but Arthur held up his hand for silence.
"You said Remnant Army, you were a soldier?" He asked.
"I was a captain, still am, probably." Rex answered sharply.
"You have military training then?" Buster didn't like where Arthur was going with this.
"Yes, training which I was trying to use to keep my people alive. They'd have mellowed out eventually. They were just people, forced to leave everything behind, they'd have settled down." He insisted.
Arthur was silent for several long moments; all were staring at him quietly.
"Can you pass on your training to us?" He asked at last, "Help us prepare better defenses? Give us the knowledge we need to survive out here? I'm willing to trade your freedom for it."
"Arthur no!" Both Molly and Buster said at once, Arthur shushed them.
"If you have something to say to me, wait until we're done here, and talk to me alone." Arthur snapped at them, looking at the canine again, "So what do you say Rex? Help us in exchange for your freedom?"
"There's no point in staying a prisoner," Rex started, pausing, "And if you are Vault dwellers, well, I guess I can probably trust you more than those wastelanders I've been trying to lead so far." He looked down, he obviously was aware of who he was commanding, but he was deluding himself with hope he could help them change.
"If you liked them as much as you say, jackal boy." Buster said quietly, through clenched teeth, "Then why did you plant an explosive device on one of them?" An interesting point Arthur didn't think about, he looked at the coyote for a response.
"I'm a coyote," He corrected the rabbit, "and I did not expect your attack to be that well organized, we expected you to stay in the elevator, the bomb was supposed to be thrown inside, in case you survived the initial ambush." He answered, then sighing. "I have to admit, you surprised me. We never expected you to blow up the school, much less use that as a cover for your attack. We thought we were dealing with simple raiders." He scowled at that, "No, I thought I was dealing with simple raiders."
"So you'll help us then?" Arthur said, "I can trust you?"
"You're an intelligent leader, sir, and you bested me." Rex answered, "I won't forget that." Oddly enough, that last bit sounded nothing like a threat, but rather a courteous display of respect.
"If your friend is badly injured, there's a secret cache of Stimpacks inside one of the mannequins in the Mademoiselle clothing store, the one leaning against the back wall." The coyote pointed out.
"He'll be fine, but we could use that, thank you. I hope you understand if I do not release you for now." Arthur said, getting a chair for him, "I need to run this by my people first, I need them to agree." The coyote nodded respectfully.
"Arthur," Molly whispered, but the aardvark simply gestured outside. Buster joined them outside of the office.
"I hate to agree with her, Arthur, but there's no way you're letting that freak out." He said matter-of-factly, Arthur didn't like his tone.
Molly rolled her eyes, "I'm down with Overbite, Arthur, that guy nearly killed us."
"Nearly," the aardvark answered, "I think we need him more than we need to get rid of him. He's ex-military, he kicked Buster's ass! I mean, seriously."
"I could kick Buster's ass any day!" Molly declared harshly.
"I don't doubt that, actually." Buster agreed, "She's one macho gorilla."
"He single handedly handed our asses to us, unaware of our number, positions, disposition and armaments. We need better training if we want to survive, you're still my security chief, Molly, just let him be your advisor, okay? Here, you know what, he won't ever be allowed out of your sight, and if you see him do anything suspicious, you're welcome to cripple, kill, or incapacitate him." Arthur offered.
Both of his rabbit companions were unsure, so Arthur called up his third limb, Brain.
"How's Rattles?" He asked, as the bear approached.
"Much better." Alan replied, "The stimpack did its work marvelously, if he rests for a bit, he'll be fine." Molly let out a sigh of relief.
"Look, we're trying to decide what to do with old Rex there…"
"Arthur wants to let him join us; he wants him to train us with weapons." Buster explained angrily, "I think that idea is a major mistake."
"Well Baxter, I'm sadly going to have to agree with Arthur on this. Regardless of whether or not we trust him, without proper survival training, we won't last long. We don't know how to scavenge, or where, nor do we know how to maintain our weapons. Besides, safety in numbers is our best shot at survival." Brain countered simply.
"What? He was trying to kill us!" Buster argued, "He beat the living heck out of me, and shot Rattles!"
Brain shook his head, "From his point of view, we were the attackers. As far as he was concerned, he was just defending himself."
"Ugh! Brain why do you always have to be right? Why can't you… ugh!" Buster exclaimed his frustration.
"I'm not always right, Baxter." Brain responded with just as much frustration, "You're just always wrong."
"Stop calling me Baxter! My name is Buster! B, U, S, T, E, R!" Buster yelled, taking a threatening step forwards.
"I'm surprised you actually managed to spell it out!" Brain responded, not backing down. Molly hurried to step between them.
"Come on guys, cut the crap." She said, to no avail, the situation seemed about to explode, when the sound of laughter erupted suddenly, causing all to look towards their esteemed leader.
"What're you laughing at?" Buster asked.
"You two are such goofballs, you expect me to take both of your opinions seriously and then you bicker like little children?" He asked, still smiling.
Buster's mouth shut quickly, and he shifted uncomfortably, ears drooping. "Sorry Arthur, I guess I really was out of hand…" Brain nodded, silent after having been put in place.
Arthur approached the both of them and put his hands on their shoulder, "Come on guys, you're my top guns, I know it's hard, but we can't let this get to us, we've got to look out for the kids, for each other. We're the ones everyone looks up to, let's try and set an example." Both smiled and nodded, mumbling their consensus.
Molly smirked at her boyfriend; he defused the situation easily and with almost unthinkable simplicity. "Alright, Arthur," She said, "I'll trust you on this one, I'll give Rex a chance."
The aardvark looked to Buster; he wanted his approval as well. The rabbit sighed, "You're the man, Arthur, if you think it's the way to go, I'm with you."
Arthur slapped his back playfully, causing him to wince. "Thanks bro, right, Molly, go check on the new guys, Buster, get to the roof; see if Slink and the others are close. Brain, there's a cache of Stimpacks in a mannequin leaning on the far wall in Mademoiselle, make sure they're up to spec and keep them with you. I'll have another word or two with Rex back there." The group nodded, mumbling their acknowledgements before walking off.
Arthur sighed, returning inside the security office, pulling out a key. "Rex, I think we have a deal."