Fallout Lawndale Part III
Sleep didn't come easily to Daria that night, everything she was trying to hold back while the raiders held her captive was coming to the surface. Half of her wanted to break down and cry over what happened or what nearly happened. She could have been raped, killed, hung from a meat hook or suffered any number of the god-awful things raiders have a reputation for.
The other half said suck it up you wimp, you got grazed by a bullet, tied to a post for six hours and you kicked a raider in the balls. You've had family outings that were more irritating.
The following morning she headed straight for breakfast after changing into a fresh pair of clothes. For the settlement of Lawndale High mealtime was a communal time. Before the war the school housed somewhere around a thousand students so the kitchen had plenty of room for the families to prepare meals, when the equipment was working which was about nine months out of the year.
From the smell it was some mixture of punga fruit, molerat and ant fricassee. So long as it wasn't radroach Daria was happy or at least less irritated. She spotted Jane and made a beeline towards her.
"How's the head." She asked sitting down across from her.
"Better, still a little sore." Jane replied scratching at the bandages wrapped around her head. "Saw Doc, Barch this morning." Both teens grimaced at the news. No man liked seeing her, she was rough, cold, had no bedside manner and was perpetually angry. And it wasn't much of an improvement for the girls either.
"I thought she wasn't due back for another couple days." Her stomach grumbled and she considered poking her head in the kitchen but quickly squashed the idea. Every time she tried that her parents or someone else's parents' would draft her into helping.
"She got back early last night after most everyone went to bed" Jane explained her own stomach starting to grumble.
"Did she see our hero yet?"
"Yeah and Barch really doesn't like him" Jane snickered.
"He's a man of course she doesn't like him." Daria noticed they seemed to be the center of attention among their peers. She had a sinking feeling they wanted to hear about what happened, share time just what I need she thought.
"Well its more then that, he said a few sarcastic things to her." Jane laughed at the memory. "Such as, you're a sadist not doctor, I'm not supposed to leave with more bruises then I came in with. Its like the icy fingers of death if death were a Yao-Guai."
Daria couldn't help but laugh; aside from DeMartino no man dared talked back to that woman, anyone who did quickly regretted it.
"Daria, Quinn come get your breakfast" Helen's voice called, just as Daria was getting up Trent's voice followed with a similar message for Jane.
When they arrived they found there meal was quite different then what was cooking for most everyone else. Brahmin sausages with a side scrambled mirelurk eggs and punga fruit.
"What's the occasion?" Daria asked her mother, she was naturally suspicious when her parents did something special. It usually meant relatives were visiting.
"Well, after what you both went through your father, and I thought it help you feel better, Trent agreed so we went a little extra on today's meal."
"Here you go Janey" Trent said as he handed a similar plate to a grinning Jane.
"Cool spill over perks." Quinn grinned taking her own meal.
"Now after breakfast I want you to go up to the workshop and give Jack a hand." Helen said hand on her hip. "And no arguments." Helen couldn't remember a time her girls didn't gripe when additional chores were added to their regular list.
"You too Jane." Trent added. Daria and Jane offered no arguments as they went to sit down with their meals. After all he did save both their lives yesterday they were lazy not ungrateful bitches. They did not get to enjoy their meal long however as they were soon accosted with questions about what happened the previous day by Kevin, Upchuck and the three J's. They wanted descriptions of the fighting, which of course neither girl could give, yet it didn't deter them from asking. They ignored them as best they could until Upchuck reaffirmed his nickname by saying.
"Did you go down on Tom as thanks for sneaking out of the camp?"
Daria and Jane turned quite pale but before they could muster a proper response.
"Kevin, kick his ass!" Tiffany's bubbly but commanding voice yelled. Upchuck took that cue to runway followed close behind by Kevin and the Three J's who wanted to watch. An irate looking Tiffany and Jodie strode up to their table.
"Thanks." Daria mumbled, as Upchucks cries of pain signaled Kevin had already caught up with him.
"Are you alright?" Jodie asked placing a hand on Daria's shoulder.
"I'm fine, Upchuck being disgusting is nothing new." So far as Daria was concerned getting beaten by someone twice his size was sufficient punishment for Upchuck.
"No, I mean after what happened." Jodie corrected. Daria idly wondered how long until people let her try and put the whole incident behind her.
"I'm fine Jodie, really" she sighed. "A bullet grazed in my leg, I was tied to a pole for eight hours, and I got to kick one of them in the balls." She deliberately left out the part where she overhead them discussing what they might or would like to do with her. Not only so Jodie would or to keep from being coddled with sympathy but because what might have happened still weighted heavily on her mind.
"So Is Tom like your boyfriend now?" Tiffany asked changing the subject. Daria might have been thankful if it had been any other subject.
"What do you mean?"
"Well?" Tiffany paused while she twirled her hair. "Didn't your parents like catch you making out just after your escape."
Daria slinked down in her seat, turning red as a tomato. Jane's face looked like the Cheshire Cat's her grin was so big. "You made out with Tom! Do you want to borrow my lipstick?"
"Oh god!" Daria groaned lowering her wishing she could just hide.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of." Jodie soothed. "Tom's a nice guy"
"And he's quite" Tiffany added.
Daria wished she could crawl into a vault and die to escape this.
"Hey Jodie, I have some mirelurk cakes if your interested!" Mack's voice called.
"See you Daria." Jodie quickly left to join Mack for breakfast. Scylla serrata horrendus or Mirelurks as they were commonly known had the best meat In the wastes but they were also among the most dangerous creatures to hunt due to there crushing pincers and armored carapace. Tiffany then left to find Kevin leaving Daria and Jane to eat their meal in peace. If only Jane would drop the subject.
"So is Tom a good kisser." Jane teased.
"Oh God" Daria groaned, Jane put an arm around her and squealed.
"Oh my little Daria is growing up and discovering boys, so when's the wedding?" Jane's grin only grew as Daria's face retreated into her hands.
"He's a great kisser can we please drop it!" she pleaded.
"Alright" Jane said with a sigh she could continue teasing her later. Instead they talked about the movie showing last Saturday. Well it wasn't so much a movie that week as DeMartino stressing out for two hours trying to get the projector to work.
After finishing breakfast they headed strait for the workshop. They could hear the sounds of his work echoing through the halls from the moment they left the cafeteria.
The schools old shop classroom now functioned as the community workshop for whatever equipment maintenance was required. They found Jack hammering and clamping the dents out. Daria could see the vest was hard body armor made from ballistic steel, which is why those rifle shots didn't penetrate. His duster coat currently hanging on a hook beside him was lined with some soft ballistic material Kevlar or Twaron, his pants appeared to be made from the same material.
Well Daria mulled over the how Jack balanced mobility and protection, Jane's mind was elsewhere.
Underneath the armored vest and the duster coat Jack wore sleeveless muscle shirt showing his well-toned muscles and numerous scars from god only knows how many battles. Jane could swear she saw what looked like deathclaw. He was sweaty and his muscles flexed from his work.
"Jane!" A sharp elbow to the gut snapped her back to reality. "You were ogling him like a horny… Quinn." Daria couldn't believe it Jane was acting just like a member of Quinn's little gang drooling over guys. At least he wasn't that greaser Butch who passed through a few weeks ago.
"Daria, there isn't anything wrong with enjoying the view." Jane argued, Daria had no response she didn't like it but clearly arguing was futile so she dropped it. As they entered the room Jack turned to greet them.
"Good morning if you girls are done chatting about fashion, boys or whatever you can help me by clearing and taking those weapons apart." Jack gestured to a pile of various guns Daria recognized as having belonged to the raiders.
"Then put them back together?" Daria questioned. On one hand she was offended by Jacks presumption and she wanted to correct him that she wasn't like that. On the other hand it was less embarrassing then the truth.
"No, a lot of those weapons are in piss poor condition. I'm going to take the best parts for reassembly and junk the rest." He explained before turning back to his work. They started with the more numerous R91 assault rifles, before moving on to the 10mm pistols and a few shotguns.
"What happened to the minigun and missile launcher?" Jane questioned noticing their abstinence.
"They kinda melted." Jack answered. "Plasma tends to do that." It was a couple hours before Jane and Daria managed to disassemble and clean all the parts. By that time Jack had already finished repairing his armor and was currently eating his own breakfast prepared on a nearby hotplate.
"What's in the omelet?" Jane questioned.
"Some, Yao-Guai, some mirelurk, mutfruit and the egg its self is from a deathclaw."
"Breakfast of badassery?" Daria commented on his eating the three most dangerous creatures on the east coast. She recalled O'Neil's lesions about how to deal with the creatures. Yao-Gaui were just big really tough animals, Mirelurks were slow and armored but would expose their vulnerable face just before they struck. As for deathclaws O'Neil advised there was no such thing as overkill.
"Breakfast of badassery?" Jack laughed. "I'll have to remember that one, I'll reassemble…"
"Daria!" the shrill voice of Ms. Barch echoed down the hall. "Damn I hoped she'd forgotten about me" The young Morgendorffer figured the doctor wanted to check on her wound. When she and Jane turned back towards Jack he was gone.
"Where'd he go?" Jane questioned.
"Daria what do you think your doing walking around!" Her voice made the duo recoil. She marched right over to Daria and grabbed her arm. "Come with me young lady so I can get a look at that leg, I can't imagine those raider butchers had an ounce of medical expertise."
"Really its fine, just a graze." Daria struggled in vein against her iron grip but it was no use.
"See you later Daria." Jane waved, once Barch and Daria disappeared down the hallway Jane turned around to see Jack fall down from the ceiling landing on his feet.
"I've spent twenty minutes with that woman and it was more then enough."
"Most people would say ten." Jane snickered.
"Ms. Barch can't live with her can't killer her." Jack smirked.
Daria was roughly manhandled into Barch's office and onto the bed. Where she proceeded to remove the bandages on her leg. "Stupid war-mongering men, your lucky you weren't flayed alive or brutally violated."
"Thanks, I really needed a reminder of what almost happened to me." And really she didn't want to be reminded of what almost happened if she wanted to sleep again. "And it was also men who rescued me." Daria figured mentioning that would tick the old doc off and it did.
"Bah, just more war-mongering sex machines." When Barch stopped to but a hand on her hip Daria knew she was in for a rant. But Barch was always gentler after getting her anger out bitching. "Jack didn't have to provide the distraction alone he could have waited to contact the others. He certainly didn't need to stay and kill them all, he could have kept them off guard while you and Tom escaped. Instead he nearly got himself killed. And from his scars I can tell his stupid heroics are a regular thing for him."
"So what he saves people isn't that a good thing." Daria shot back. She didn't see the problem with taking down a whole gang of raiders alone.
"He's a glory seeking warmongering male. He could have worked with Timothy and DeMartino and others to take out those raiders after Tom got you to safety. But no he has to do it all himself, one day he'll get himself killed and leave his family in darkness and in doubt." By this point Barch was winding down. But Daria wanted to be sure she got all her aggression out before the examination continued.
"And what about Tom?"
"Hmph" she grunted. "Sure it was REAL heroic of him to sneak in and get you out but he'll just use it to lay you on your back and spread your legs. " Daria rolled her eyes for Ms Barch almost any act by a man was an effort to get in her pants. "Just make sure he takes some cassil root you don't need to be squeezing out his little…."
"Can we please chance the subject." Daria squealed. The last thing she wanted to talk about with Ms Barch was childbirth. It was in fact the last thing she wanted to discuss with anyone.