"Let me lead." He strode ahead, mindful of the sound his feet made in the rocky terrain, she fell in step behind him. The trail seemed to circle wide around the base of the mountain, the walls rose up around them as they continued, until the sky was only a slender ribbon above their heads. They finally reached a gate that seemed to signify the end of the trail, it was covered in green leaves, tendrils that crawled across the naked posts. He lost himself for a brief second before he noticed the man leaning up against the gate, his snores interrupting the silence. The shock of seeing something alive and growing would have to wait.
The gate was wide open and it seemed that they had only left the two men to cover it, one was already dead, and the other asleep at his post. They were clearly expecting no visitors. He wasn't too surprised though, sheer dumb luck had led him here, and that wasn't something that there was an abundance of out in the wastes. He held his hand for the woman to wait while he crossed the last few strides between them and the man, making no sound as he moved. He brought his hand to the mans face and slit his throat methodically. He stopped mid snore and his eyes fluttered open, his gaze darted about in a panicked way until they drifted closed again. Gabriel released his head and it slumped to the side, his life spilling down his chest. He motioned the woman forward and she approached, her gaze a little uneasy. Killing had come easy for him, something that was becoming apparent to her. She caught him watching her and her concern passed, replaced by hardened determination. She didn't think these pigs deserved any more mercy than he did. The crossed the gate leaving the guard where he lay, looking as though he was still asleep, except for the massive blot that now stained his shirt.
He paused once to look back the greenery, it crawled up the gate and toward the light above them.
"It's ivy." The woman offered, he nodded his thanks. It looked untarnished by the wastes, healthy, it was like he was imagining it, and yet here it was, growing despite the radiation that must have blasted these hills. They continued on and he noticed his footing became quieter still, he looked down to see that the worn rock path had been replaced by something else, dirt it looked to be, and yet it was different from what he was used to. And long green blades sprouted up from it in disorganized patches, his pace slowed while he couldn't help but inspect it.
"Never seen grass before either?" The woman asked. He had certainly heard of it, it seemed to be the one thing that was managing to grow in some places this long after the war, but it was very different seeing it. Knowing that it was alive, he knelt to touch it, an unusual texture, and yet very much alive.
"Keep your wits about you, it's going to get more impressive further in." She piped up.
He shook his head, mindful that this complete stranger was the one to remind him that he should focus on the task at hand, he nodded his understanding and released the grass. He stood once more and strode forward. Her seeming indifference to the whole thing was impressive to him, he could live his whole life near this stuff and he wasn't sure that the novelty would wear off, certainly not after all his years in the wastes.
He had heard rumors of places like these, places where plants still grew, but they had always been rumors, nothing more. Everyone knew nothing but mutated weeds grew out in the wastes. He had heard more recently that the scientists in Rivet City were working toward growing healthy fruits, trying to feed the world. He seriously doubted they were making any kind of progress, the war had poisoned everything, and it was going to stay that way for a very long while. He steeled himself against what surprises might come later, he would not be caught with his jaw on the floor again.
They didn't have to go much further for the end of the trail to become apparent, one more corner and suddenly it opened up completely. The light returned to full blast and he had not realized how dim the trail had been until he found himself blinking in the harsh daylight. Once his eyes adjusted he was briefly lost in the beauty. The whole place was green and lush, it was like some other world. He felt his breath catch in his chest as he admired it for a moment. The air seemed fresh up here, clean, there were trees, real living trees, not dried and burnt husks. A woman's cry in the distance brought him back to reality in a heartbeat, along with the woman's hand on his shoulder, forcing him down to the ground. The trail ended where a tree stump fell across the path. He couldn't help but be a little distracted by the small bits of life that were growing across the dead tree. But he tore his gaze away and looked on, they both took cover behind the stump and waited.
A cluster of people appeared to be tied together around one of the larger trees, they all looked just as starved and abused as the woman at his side. The men seemed to be strapped up against the tree itself while the woman were only tied by a long rope attached around their wrists. A tall gangly man looked down on the woman with a grin, he chanted "eenie, meenie, miney-" As he tapped the heads of the women in turn. They each cringed at his touch.
A powerful crack of gunfire echoed through the grove and interrupted the silence of the place. The man brought his hand to his side slowly, and turned in the direction he had been shot. He looked up and found the woman still staring at him through her site. Gabe had not even noticed that she had stood up. His face turned ugly but then he cried out, the full extent of the pain finally reaching his senses. He fell to his knees, the hand clutched at his side tried to stem the flow of blood that seeped between his fingers. Coughing and gasping he reached toward the prisoners, they kicked out with their feet, shoving his hands away and watched as he bled out on the ground
"Good shot." Gabe said with surprise. The prisoners looked around fearfully in their direction, unsure of what to expect from newcomers who came in shooting. The shot had been loud, and the captives voices were getting louder, he hopped over the log and surveyed the area quickly, a fallen pile of boulders supplied ample cover to his left, a large cluster of trees would serve as well to the right. He nodded the woman over to the opposite side where the trees were, branches intertwined together providing a camouflaged shield.
"Head over there, we can cover from both sides when they come." He made his way over to the boulders, hoping to draw them all out and not have to go hunting for anyone. She nodded and sprinted across the open area, the people cried out to her, recognizing the woman as one of their own, begging for her help. She determinedly ignored them and disappeared behind the trees.
Four men appeared from the trees further north and the captives had the sense to stop calling for the woman then, carefully avoiding their eyes. The men looked confused, and then angry when they saw their comrade fallen in the dirt, dying, if not dead already.
"What did you bloody do?" One of the men shouted down at the prisoners, pressing his pistol into their faces, threatening each of them, spittle flying from his angry lips. His partners started to pull their weapons, suspiciously scanning the trees around them. Gabe didn't wait for them to try and sort it out, he dropped two of them in as many bullets. The leader spun around, firing in random directions, the woman dropped the man who stood next to him and he screamed. He turned to their general direction and started to fire, Gabe ducked behind the rocks and waited for him to stop. When he emerged again the man was running for the trees, he opened fire then, a spray of bullets catching him in the legs and causing him to tumble to the ground with a cry.
He waited another moment when movement caught the corner of his eye, the woman was already running toward the tree where the people were still tied down. Her face covered in tears but smiling, the people reached out to her, laughing and crying at the same time. He popped up from behind the rock and followed her path, slower, trying to keep an eye out still.
The terrain was unfamiliar and he wasn't looking for any surprises, he couldn't really see where the trees ended. He knew from the echoes that the rest of the mountain had to be out there somewhere, but he couldn't see it behind the trees that soared into the sky. It could only be a couple miles wide, it would be impossible to keep something so large hidden for so long.
The crack of gunfire caught him off guard. His eyes went to where the woman was stooped, she had just finished untying her friends and family. She stood and reached for her rifle, he tried to shout for her to stay low, but it was too late. The next couple shots took her in the chest, he saw when they impacted her, her body jerking violently. Her hands went limp and dropped the weapon to the ground. She followed shortly after, falling face first into the dirt, unable to slow her collapse.
Gabe swore loudly and opened fire, spraying shots along the tree line, uncaring of the waste of bullets. He saw one of the attackers fall from behind the trees. He paused his fire long enough for the second man to pop out and opened fire once more. He crossed the open area and added two bullets to each of the men they had shot earlier, ensuring their deaths. He stomped across to the others hidden in the tree and finished the one. His blood pounded in his ears as he searched for the second man, he had crawled a little ways further and spun around, firing a shot wide of Gabriel. He brought his boot down on his arm hard and pressed the barrel of his rifle against the man's skull before it exploded in a mess. He felt the sharp burning in his arm, but upon inspection it wasn't much more than a graze. Though he could feel the warm blood trickling down his arm.
He ignored the pain and surveyed the trees, his senses were heightened now, every shivering branch, every creaking tree, he took it all in. They were alone again. No one was coming through the trees. He turned back and headed toward the captives, they were all clustered around where the woman fell, she was spun onto her back, her face covered in dirt from where she fell.
"Is she alright?" He asked hoarsely. A woman clutched her hand and sobbed inconsoulably. He knelt nearby and felt for a pulse, there was none. Her face was pale as snow and her eyes stared out into nothing, already starting to cloud over. He sighed in frustration, he should have seen them coming. Shaking his head he was furious with himself. "I'm sorry." He offered quietly, knowing it couldn't possibly help these people now. They hardly bothered to look at him, some stranger from the wastes, their concern was with the woman they had known and loved, who now lay dead at their feet.
He stood to go, intent on exploring the area further, to make sure it was free from these monsters.
"There are more of them." One of the woman offered, clutching at his sleeve. "In the trees, there is a hut." She pointed the way with a thin finger and her eyes glittered sadly, but there was a fury deeper in there, she wanted them all dead. He clenched his teeth, resolute in finishing the job.
"Thank you." He spoke to the woman and took the rifle into his hands, heading into the trees. He had not noticed before but the quiet was unsettling under the cover of the trees, everything was dampened and felt closed in. Like the trees were absorbing the sound, it was still bright enough to see, but the light was muted by the leaves. It was still beautiful, but in a haunted way, perhaps so much death in one day caused him to see only the oppressive side of the forest instead of the bustling life. It was still unsettling to walk through the trees and he absently wondered if the trees could think. It was something a child would have said, but he felt his pace quicken anyway as he tried to eat up the distance under the branches.
The trees thinned slightly after a few minutes of hiking and the pressure started to release. He came to a clearing that had been made in the center of it all, no trees came into the circle that had been cut away for a meeting place of some sort. An elevated bowl stood in the center, some thick substance sat drying in the vessel. A large wooden frame towered over the seats that were arranged surrounding the bowl and from it hung an elderly man. He looked to have been dead for a long while, and at his feet, an equally old woman lay with a curious dent in her skull, old blood stained the ground beneath her. He shuddered and continued on, more light beckoning him further into the forest.
Voices started to drift toward him then, he made his way more carefully then, ducking behind a tree now an again.
"Been awfully quiet, think they've got it sorted?" The man sounded nervous but Gabe couldn't quite see them yet. Slowing his pace he started to see a figure of a shack through the trees, rusted metal hastily thrown together to keep out the worst of the weather.
"Of course they have." The second man sounded smug, confident, and oddly familiar. "Just a bunch of farmers, not like they can cause that much of a ruckus. I doubt they've even seen a gun before."
"We shoulda got rid of the lot. Heap of trouble and more mouths to feed." The man still sounded unsure, like he had been afraid of them. "Well, the men anyway." His voice turned vulgar and Gabe could hear the sneer on his face. He could see him clearly then, between two trees, his head was shaved down to stubble and he looked well armed. He raised his gun and stepped forward, still trying to sneak up on them when he heard a fallen branch snap beneath his foot.
"Georgie? That you?" The man snapped his head around and his eyes opened wider when he saw the weapon pointed at him.
"No." Gabe said quietly and squeezed the trigger slowly, there was a pop and the man flew back, half his face missing. He crossed the remaining distance to the shack, there wasn't even a door on the thing, just three large walls and a roof, a man lay on a makeshift bed, a beer balanced on his abnormally large stomach. No one lived that well out in the wastes. His mouth dropped open and his spilled the beer, causing it to shatter on the floor.
"Who the fuck-" He started to search for his weapon that he had left casually somewhere. Gabe wasn't watching him anymore, his eyes were on the girl curled up and leaning against the bed frame. She looked emaciated and bruised, though she looked cleaner than the rest of the captives he had seen. One of her arms was wrapped in gauze and a splint and lay useless on the floor. Her eyes stared vacantly where the dead man lay and then dragged to where the beer had splashed up against her. She was hardly a wraith, half starved as she was. And yet something in his stomach tugged urgently, he knew her, knew her face. He opened his mouth several times to speak before anything came out.
"Anya?" He whispered, his gun slowly drifting further from the mark. Her eyes lolled around in her skull as though it took great effort to do so, they finally focused on him briefly. No emotion registered on her face and she said nothing. The man caught his attention again, he stooped low and went for his hand gun that had fallen beneath the bed. He tried to focus and brought his rifle up.
"Leave it, face me like a man." He barked at him. The man turned with a smile and the gun held up in his hand, though not pointed at Gabe.
"I'm sure we can work something out. This an old girlfriend of yours? Maybe I can get you two reintroduced, she's pretty…cooperative these days." He grinned in a way that suggested he had taken full advantage of that. He almost fired then but Anya came flying up at him, her hands fell around his throat, punching wildly. It wasn't until the first wounds started bleeding that he noticed she had picked up the broken shards of glass from the bottle and were plunging them into the man. He fell under her onslaught and she carved a piece of his face down to the bone. He screamed while trying to push her away but she fell on top of him, finally dragging the glass across his throat, blood sprayed out wildly. He brought his hand up and closed around her throat, squeezing with all his strength but he had lost too much blood already and after only a moment his grip loosened and fell to his side.
Gabe stood there shaking, unable to move. Anya crawled off the man, gasping to regain her breath and covered in blood. She dropped the glass pieces to the ground and he noticed her hands and wrists were cut badly, bleeding profusely. He dropped the gun and knelt next to her, trying to staunch the blood that pulsed out of her so quickly.
"Gabe," She said, a small smile stretched across her gaunt face. "Though you were dead."