Chapter Five
Burning man.
The two men that escorted Victoria away from the dark parking lot were very energetic. The man who had placed his helmet upon her head was named Randall Frese, and his cohort, a rather jovial scratchy voiced middle aged man who would only give out his name as 'Pipes,' both escorted her into the great walls of the stadium, with the gates shutting firmly behind them. Victoria let her back pack drag behind her, using her free arm to carry the football helmet in the crook of her elbow, and dragging her stash of goodies by one strap with the other.
"What about a mom or a dad?" Asked Randall, as he turned back around to face Victoria. He had been jabbering with Pipes about the third man in the football gear, a younger boy named Josiah. Josiah had broken rank and fled with the found girl's body back into the heavily secured stadium. It was possible that he would face some kind of corrective action. Victoria looked back up at Randall and shook her head.
"They both died a long time ago." She said, with a slight frown. "I've been on my own for a while now." She added. Pipes turned around too, his glorious mustache bristled against the face guard of the black and gold helmet that he wore.
"Damn kid, you must be one tough cookie." He said. Victoria nodded and gave him an awkward looking wink.
"As tough as Oreos." She said. Pipes looked to Randall with a look of confusion on his face. Victoria spoke up, having realized her mistake. "I meant to say Hydrox." She said, with her odd monotone voice. Pipes nodded back to her and made a sort of acknowledgement with his mustache.
"I haven't seen a bag of Hydrox since I was a kid." Said Pipes. "I remember when the last bag here got auctioned off for over five hundred caps!" He added.
"I would have loved to have tasted just one." Said Randall, turning back to Pipes. "Hungry lads taste just like brahmin milk." He said with disgust in his voice. The three continued onward into the stadium, and Victoria marveled at the scene before her as they entered the stands of the large playing field.
"Well, here it is. Home sweet apocalypse." Said Pipes, as he placed his arm out for Victoria to see. Victoria continued to walk up to Pipes and looked around at the new world. The stands of the old Kinnick stadium were now leveled homes of the survivors of the nuclear war. Shanty yet somehow also sturdy looking shacks were arranged in descending order down the bleachers and stands that surrounded the old field. Rusted out hovels were lit up in the night, with small beams of light poking out of bits of metal that had rivets and patches in it. Some little shacks had lively noise coming out of them, laughter even. Puffs of smoke escaped some of the shacks, and the smell of cooked meat wafted up into the sky. Christmas lights lit the way between the some 50 to 60 houses and shacks, glittering with joyous colors and twinkling displays.
"I'll bet Cedar Rapids doesn't look like this." Said Randall, as he placed a palm on Victoria's back to move her along. They slowly made their way down the main steps of the stands, passing a few residents here and there, some crossing the steps and others climbing up to other levels of housing. Victoria noted all of the different races that had come together in the stadium. She looked up into the helmet of Pipes and ascertained that he was African-american in origin, at least in facial structure, whereas Randall was most likely Caucasian. The lines between the races had begun to fade in the new world, and Victoria found it a consolation, albeit a very small one, that the bickering over skin tone and cultural assimilation had seemingly ceased. Perhaps nuclear holocausts had a way of doing that.
"It really doesn't..." Began Victoria, as she turned her eyes away from the men. Her eyes came to rest on the field. The faint lines of yardage were still visible on the extremely dulled with age AstroTurf, but any reminder of the game was now replaced with a makeshift metropolis of shipping containers and scrapped together buildings. From the home team entrance, to the visitors entrance, the tall metal structures stood, rising up to the height of the stadium walls. A network of trellises and walkways connected the buildings, lit up by more Christmas lights and hanging bulbs. The walkways were teaming with life, drunken wastelanders passed each other by with greetings or the clinking of beer bottles.
The inner field town was mostly business oriented, and Victoria found comfort in the knowledge that the survivors had recommenced free enterprise and capitalism so soon after the devastating blasts of nuclear warfare. Soon, she along with Randall and Pipes all came to the metropolis and made there way up a hanging metallic ramp, made of chain-linked fencing. The three of them passed by a clothing shop that was just closing up for the night, and two women looked out at them as they went up the noisy ramp. A makeshift deli was even near the top of the buildings, with hungry patrons hurriedly eating their nightly meals of mole rat meat and wild dog legs. Everything was very much in line with the Enclave's initial database, except for one thing.
Victoria came to a stop outside of the makeshift deli and watched as an old man drank down a bottle of water. Randall stopped with her, and motioned for Pipes to continue onward. The two stood there, with Randall watching Victoria as she inspected the thirsty man's actions. The old man noticed the young girl in front of him and then smiled. He held out the bottle towards her.
"You thirsty young'un?" He asked, water dripping down his chin. "There's plenty more where this came from." He said. Victoria shook her head, and instead scanned it's contents from a distance. Then she looked up to the old man. The water was devoid of harmful radiation, and the old man was well into his 60's. She smiled back to the man and then turned to look up at Randall.
"The water is clean?" She asked. Randall smiled and urged her onward again. The two walked up the rest of the way on the ramp as Randall spoke.
"Aqua Pura. Straight from the Capital Wasteland." He said, as they both walked up. Victoria looked up at the man who was likely in his thirties. His clean shaven face and healthy looking skin spoke much to his access of radiation free supplies. He turned his eyes towards Victoria and raised an eyebrow. "Tell me you've at least heard of the Capital Wasteland?" Asked Randall. Victoria shook her head.
"I don't know too much about it. I know it's where the president used to live." She said. Randall smirked and the two came to a stop at the front of the top most building, lit up from the inside with many people milling around in it's noisy room. Randall turned and leaned forward on the railing of the building, looking out over the darkness past the stadium walls. Victoria joined him, standing beside him and looking out over the dark city ruins. She switched her vision to low light, and saw many destroyed buildings and homes. A few of the 'ghouls' also wandered the broken sky scrapers and college dorms.
"There was a hero born to that place. A great man. They call him the Lone Wanderer." Said Randall. Victoria nodded and listened intently to him, staring up at him as he spoke. "About six months ago, a line of merchants came through here, escorted by members of the Brotherhood of Steel. They brought medics with them, a few scientists... and he was here too." He said.
"Why did they all come here?" Asked Victoria as she handed Randall's football helmet back to him. Randall took it back and held it in his hands, looking down at the old scratched up paint job on it's surface.
"Well, the Brotherhood was looking for any tech that might be in the old city. We already had plenty of medical supplies from the old university to trade with them, but they were on some kind of errand in particular. They cleaned it out of most of the ghouls and just about all of the hostile gear heads in hospital." Said Randall. Victoria nodded.
"Bad robots." She said. Randall smiled and looked back over the darkness of the world outside.
"As bad as they can get. The scientists wanted to get access to a place called Rockwell, or Rock town? They said it was somewhere here in Iowa. They never did find it. The wanderer though, he just came along to help. Folks said that his father was a scientist that led a team in the Capital Wasteland- he was able to clean the waters of the Potomac river before he passed on." Said Randall. He stared down at his helmet once more, and then turned to look down at Victoria. "The Lone Wanderer he's the one that adjusted our water purifier, not for caps, not for information or anything. He just fixed it, like some kind of wasteland Jesus. I wish he were still around." Said Randall.
"He turned your radioactive water into wine." Stated Victoria. Randall gave her a nod and then put his head to the side. He looked down at her, taking her in some strange fashion.
"You have a kind of weird accent. I don't want to be rude, but is that how everyone in Cedar Rapids talks?" Asked Randall, as he went to put his helmet back on top of his head. Victoria shook her head.
"It's a speech impediment." She said, rather abruptly. Randall slapped his helmet into place and then patted her on the head.
"It was just a question, sorry." Said Randall. "Let's go meet the coach." He told her, as he motioned for her to follow him. He left towards the curtained entrance of the topmost building of the field metropolis, and Victoria followed him in. The small crowd of people in the building turned at once when Victoria entered the room, as two very large German shepherd dogs began to bark and snarl at her.
"Hey! Stop it!" Yelled a man in a football helmet, as he jerked on one of the dog's leashes. The dogs both stood in a ready position, following Victoria's movement through the room. Still snarling and snapping, they were led out of the building by the enraged handlers. "What the hell is the matter with you!..." Began one of the handlers as they led their dogs outside.
"Goddamned dogs are probably just brain fried." Said Pipes to Randall, as he and Victoria came to his side. "Barking to warn us about a four foot tall child, whoopty doo." He added, motioning with his finger in the air, making a little circle. The small crowd of about sixteen people opened up to show two people kneeling over the body of the girl. A man sat in a great chair also, behind the body, wearing an old black polyester jacket and big round black sunglasses. The jacket had the old team logo on it's chest. The man in the chair motioned for two football guards to move the two grief stricken people along. They were taken to the corner of the room where yet one more person stood, a woman adorned in white.
"Come forth, child of Cedar Rapids. I am Fry, coach of the Hawks." Said the man in the sunglasses. His voice was gruff and serious in tone. Randall nudged Victoria to go forward, and she did so. She came to a stop in front of the body and looked down at it. Many trinkets had been laid upon the blanket, ranging from toys to bottle caps and paper flowers. Victoria looked up to the serious looking older man in the chair. "You've done us a great favor by bringing her back to us. Please sit and talk with me." Said the coach, as he beckoned for a seat. Another football guard came running out from behind the small group of people in the room, and sat an old folding chair down behind Victoria before promptly leaving back into the crowd.
"Thank you." Said Victoria, as she sat in the old metal chair. The coach leaned forward in his chair and inspected Victoria with a scrutinizing look. His sunglasses reflected her face, and she looked back at him. Victoria also returned a scrutinizing look, scanning the Coach's body language and level of physical fitness. He, like most of the people she had seen in the stadium, were in basically good levels of fitness, but just slightly malnourished. The coach sat back and put his hands on his knees, obviously deep in thought. Finally he spoke again.
"You are not a child. Forgive me for calling you that. What is your name, traveler?" Said the coach. A small murmur went through the crowd and the coach raised his hand to shush them all.
"My name is Victoria." Said Victoria, as she tilted her head to the side. "That's okay, I'm not offended." She added, looking again at the steel like body language of the coach. He gave a singular nod and then motioned to the girl's body.
"Victoria, this girl, her name was Noel. She was a child, not so much older than you, one that ventured out into the wastes to try to find help for our community." Said the Coach. "She snuck out three nights ago, looking for the Brotherhood of Steel. We couldn't find her in time to stop her." He said.
"Why did she leave?" Asked Victoria. "Why does your community need help?" She asked. The Coach sat back again.
"Because not long after the Brotherhood of Steel came to us, half a year ago, an army of raiders quickly followed upon their departure. They are the worst roving gang of cannibals and senseless murderers that we have ever seen, and they have attacked us at least twice a week ever since they came." Said the Coach. "They take the youngest women for their own, and they eat the men that fight back. It looks like they take the children too..." He said, lowering his head on the last words.
"You have weapons, you can defend yourselves." Said Victoria. The Coach took an audible breath and looked back up.
"We are not a town of warriors, Victoria. We are hunters and scavengers, but no match for those fiends." He said. Then he leaned forward. "Noel was nearly captured by the raider leader once, a man they simply call Burner. He has a gun of flames set upon his back, and a helmet of antlers atop his head. He is the most brutal man you could ever meet in this world, and I'm sure that this was his doing." Said the Coach. Victoria looked back down at the girl, and then over to the grieving man and woman in the corner.
"I'm sorry that she died." She said, turning back to look at the Coach.
"As am I." Said the Coach. "She did a very brave thing, she'll be honored in the halls of the Hawks. Please Victoria, I must ask you, how did you get past the ghouls of the dead street?" He said. Victoria tilted her head to the side and looked at the Coach.
"I out ran them, until they stopped chasing me." She said. The Coach looked back at her, and then gave her a single nod.
"Victoria, we would all welcome you into this community of ours. You can stay here with us so long as the walls allow..." Said the Coach. "We won't make you stay here against your will, but I have to tell you that venturing outside of our walls is no longer a safe course of action." He added.
"I was only planning on passing through, until tomorrow. I want to see the wasteland." Said Victoria, as she went to stand up from the seat. Another murmur went through the crowd, and the boisterous laugh of Pipes filled the room. The Coach raised his hand again.
"You want to see the wasteland?!" He asked, in disbelief. Victoria nodded quite happily. "There is nothing out there for you! What reason could you possibly have to want to see the wastelands?" The Coach regarded Victoria with a look of concern.
"I've been stuck in Cedar Rapids for a very long time." She said in her monotone voice. "I kind of want to stretch my legs." She added, getting up out of her chair. The Coach stood up too.
"Victoria, racer of ghouls and traveler of the blasted plains, you are a braver soul than I." Said the Coach, as he stepped forward. "My heart is heavy to even ask you this question, but in what direction do you plan to travel to?" He asked. Victoria shrugged.
"I'll go back north for a just a mile or so, then I'll try to reach Chicago." She said. More murmurs arose in the small crowd of people and the Coach motioned for one of the men in the football armor to join him. They chatted with each other quickly and then the armored man went to go speak with Pipes. Victoria looked around at the sudden conversations happening between all the people in the room and then turned back to the coach. "Why do you ask?" She asked back to him. The Coach looked very grim, and then adjusted his sunglasses.
"I'm not going to lie to you, if you try to leave tomorrow, we won't try to stop you. I'll encourage you to stay here until help arrives, but if you are truly set on leaving this place... we are going to use that to our advantage." Said the Coach. Victoria furrowed her brow.
"I don't understand what you mean by that." She said. "What kind of advantage would my leaving of the stadium present to you?" She asked. Pipes stepped forward and put a hand on Victoria's shoulder.
"Put me in Coach." Said Pipes. "I'll go north with Vicki, until I either find the Brotherhood of Steel, or the halls of the hawks." He said, somewhat dramatically. Victoria looked up to his full mustachioed face, that was beaming with pride.
"Put me in Coach!" Said another man in armor, as he stepped forward from one of the walls of the room. "I'll run to the south!" He exclaimed as he pounded a fist against his shoulder pads. Others stepped forward, proclaiming cardinal directions and victory for the hawks, until at last Randall came to Victoria's side.
"I'll run with you, Vicki." He said. Victoria huffed out ever so slightly. The rest of the guards hailed her name with some bravado, cheering for Vicki.
"No one really calls me that." She said. The Coach raised his hand up to the guards and the rest of the people in the room.
"Victoria, this is our final play. We have few left that are willing to leave the stadium, fewer still that will venture out into the wastes. These men, and you, are the last hope we have of salvation." He said. "Tomorrow when you choose to leave, we will send out our fastest men alongside you, in all directions. The raiders are strong in numbers, but they can't catch every man. They'll focus on one or two groups, but some of us will break through the line of scrimmage. Some of us can live to bring back help." Said the Coach. Pipes nudged Victoria on the shoulder.
"Here's the sick truth of it kid." He began. Victoria looked up to him as he spoke. "We're pretty sure that Burner would go after you the most. He's got worlds of problems up in that melon of his." Said Pipes.
"It's true. The raider leader would most definitely give chase to you, given the choice. He has taken many of our girls, a few around your age. We have yet to find their bodies, Noel is the first." Said the Coach. "The men that they take are always found. Chewed upon. Dried out. Burnt." He added.
"So while the raiders are chasing me, you'll use it as an opportunity to run for help? From the Brotherhood of Steel?" Asked Victoria, as she turned her attention back to the Coach.
"Yes. This is our last bid for survival. It won't be long until our numbers grow smaller and smaller, and they get brave enough to storm the gates. They'll get in eventually." Said the Coach. "We won't let you go alone." He said, motioning to the men beside her.
"We'll provide some cover fire for you." Said Pipes. "If you're really fast enough to out run those godforsaken ghouls, then you just might stand a chance against the raiders too." He said.
"If you stand your ground against the raiders, you might not live through it." Said Victoria as she looked back and forth between Randall and Pipes. Pipes hit his shoulder pad armor again.
"I've had plenty of days. I want my daughter to have many more too." He said with a nod.
"Hawks live on." Said Randall, as he also pounded his shoulder pad.
Victoria quickly calculated the odds of the settlement's survival against the odds of the settlement's destruction. The unfortunate variable of the settlement's now clean water supply was a deciding factor, and it was likely the main reason why the raiders that they spoke of harassed them so often. Clean water source, and a renewable source of human meat via the survivors that lived in the stadium, had made these people an everlasting target that was too enticing to ignore. The numbers finalized, and it was decidedly bad for the residents of Nicksta.
"I'll help you." Said Victoria. The small crowd of people and all of the football guards let out a small cheer. "Do you know how many raiders there are in total?" She asked. The Coach sat back down in his chair, resting his aching old legs.
"They are at least forty strong, but the Brotherhood of Steel can drive them away." Said the Coach. "We know that they went east of here, looking for another settlement on the Mississippi river. The raiders have set up camp directly in the path." He added. Victoria nodded.
"That's why Noel was trying to sneak around to the west." She stated. The Coach nodded. Victoria looked around as the rest of the room stared back at her.
"We have sent many couriers and hunters out to their deaths, just to try to go get help, but the raiders are always there the next morning... outside. Eating..." Said the Coach, trailing off with a face full of disgust. "But if you can out run ghouls and cross the wastes... you can out run the raiders as well, or even go unnoticed!" He said.
"I'm hoping for unnoticed." Whispered Randall, as he winked down at her. Victoria nodded.
"I'll try my best." She said. The Coach smiled and then turned to one of the men in the football helmets, speaking to him briefly, before turning back to Victoria.
"Thank you Vicki." Said the Coach. Victoria put her hands on her hips and furrowed her brow again. "Please let Nicksta show you some hospitality."
The room that had been provided to Victoria was actually quite luxurious. It had a very nice comfortable looking bed (of which she wasn't going to get any use out of) a personal bathroom, and even an antique radio. A boombox to be precise. She had been escorted to her room in the makeshift metropolis's hotel by Randall, whom had told her of a late midnight dinner that would be served at the bottom of the metropolis before leaving. Now standing alone in the room, Victoria took real stock of the situation regarding not just the people of Nicksta, but of the wasteland in general.
Her assertion that life in the wasteland was difficult had been an understatement to say the least. These people were continuously tortured by the spoils of the great war. Victoria, or Vicki, as everyone was calling her, much to her distaste, laid her back pack on the bed and opened it up. She counted out her remaining bullets for her prize colt, and found that she only had 36 bullets left. Her plan had been to exchange the gun for some currency, but it now looked as though she may have need for the gun.
She put her 36 bullets back and then pulled out a simple nightgown and a spray bottle of cleanser. The personal shower was dinky, but so was she, and as Victoria stripped down from her slightly gore covered jacket she was able to see just how bad her feet looked. They were caked in the green and brown hues of the ghoul goo. She stuck her tongue out in a learned expression of disgust and climbed into the shower to get to work in cleaning herself off. She spritzed herself with the foaming chemicals in the bottle and waited for them to eat away at the grit and grime on her 'skin.'
The skin that didn't age, or sweat, or tan, or even ever scar over, was one of the many differences that she had to deal with. Although she understood that it felt mostly real to the average person, she knew otherwise. It was a synthetic mess that covered her alloy and plastic insides, of which she had often thought about removing if not just for a short while. Just to see how fast it could grow back. She'd leave that curiosity for another time, perhaps.
Victoria scraped her legs and arms with a steel brush and continued to stand in the shower, until it was finally time to turn on the water. The goo of the undead humanoids washed down the drain of the shower, to join the rest of the filth in the sewers of the old world. Everything now was pure mimicry, from the use of normal bar soap to the washing of her unreal hair. Why she continued on with the sham, Victoria could never quite pinpoint. Maybe it did bring some form of comfort... the action of it- normal human life. Or maybe it was just habit. Like the ghouls that still roamed the university hospital, looking for treatment, or the ones that had been waiting for their burnt out bus to depart. She scrubbed the last bits of ghoul from between her toes and stopped the water.
She stepped out of the shower and inspected her reflection in the mirror of the tiny bathroom. Her face looked too clean again. Nothing like the people of the wasteland. Nothing like a person that might have ended the lives of fourteen people earlier that day. Victoria left the bathroom, with a dirty towel on her head and an old raggedy bath robe wrapped around her body, and headed for the door of the hotel room. She heard Randall's voice along with Pipes, and the voice of a third person all conversing about the boy named Josiah. She waited until the stopped talking and then opened the door a sliver to see the three going their separate ways. Randall walked towards her door while Pipes and a woman in a black and yellow outfit left down the stairs at the end of the short hallway.
"Randall!" She whispered out of the door. Randall turned to see her and then walked up to the door.
"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked. Victoria opened the door and shook her head.
"Nothing's wrong, but I hoped you would talk to me." She said. "In private." She added. Randall shifted uncomfortably and then gritted his teeth.
"You can talk to me out here-" He began to say. Victoria put a hand on her hip and tilted her head to the side with a furrowed brow.
"Well, okay." Said Victoria. "I want to talk with you about the Brotherhood of Steel." She said. Randall raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Alright. What about them?" He asked, looking a little less tense.
"Why do you think that the Brotherhood of Steel will help Nicksta with the raiders?" Asked Victoria. "If you don't have anything left to trade with them, and don't have any pre-war technology that they would want, why would they come to your aid?" She asked. Randall became even more uncomfortable looking than he had been and put a finger over his mouth to shush Victoria. He entered her room and quietly shut the door behind him.
"What do you mean?" Asked Randall at an almost whispered tone. "Of course they'll come help, they're the Brotherhood of Steel!" He said. Victoria looked up at him and crossed her arms. His voice stress patterns and his body language, coupled further with the microexpressions that he made upon speaking told her that he didn't believe that they would come.
"You don't believe that." Victoria stated simply. "I can tell." She said. Randall huffed out and made his way to the center of the room.
"It's all we have left." He said, as he looked out of the window of the hotel room. One by one, lights were extinguished in the shanty shacks of the stadium stands, and the makeshift field metropolis creaked and groaned in the warm quiet night air. Randall focused on a single light, up near the top of the stadium wall. One last homemade candle that still remained as a vigil for the recently lost Noel. "There's no one else that we could turn to." He said as he plopped down on the bed, looking down at the floor.
"What do you mean? Aren't there any other settlements near here?" Asked Victoria. "You could ban together and form a militia." She added. Randall looked over to her.
"Apart from this Cedar Rapids place that you've been talking about? No." He said. Then his eyes lit up. "Do you think that you could talk anyone from there into coming down to help us?" He asked. Victoria gave him a tiny frown.
"I don't know if you'd like any of my friends." She said. By tomorrow morning, there would over three hundred of her machines busy with the work of gathering resources from the ruins of Cedar Rapids, in order to replicate more machines. Victoria thought about the prospect of ordering five of the machines to her, to simply remove the raiders, but she wondered about the reaction from the people of Nicksta. "I could ask them though." Victoria said, as she sat down next to Randall.
"Well, it's a thought at least." He said. His spirit had turned glum, and he stared at the metal flooring, apparently looking for an answer in the raised pattern of the steel sheets. "Someone has to be out there." Said Randall. Victoria nodded.
"The Lone Wanderer." She said. Randall huffed out and continued to stare at the ground. "Maybe he would help?" She asked.
"Sometimes I think that those damned raiders followed him here." Said Randall. "We never had trouble like this until the Brotherhood showed up. It's like they're vultures or something. Picking up the scraps left behind." He said. Victoria remained silent for a while and then removed the dirty towel from her hair.
"That sounds like a reasonable observation." She said at last, as she laid the towel down on her knees. "What does Pipes think?" She asked, as she turned to look at Randall. Randall kept his head down, but his eyes had shifted to the window again.
"Pipes believes in the halls of the hawks. He'll do anything that the Coach says to do." He answered. Victoria nodded.
"Are the halls of the hawks like heaven?" She asked. Randall turned his attention back to Victoria.
"Heaven? Yep. I guess so." He said, thinking on it for a while. "I don't know what I believe... I just don't want everyone to get shot up by a bunch of wasteland assholes." He added, as he got back up to his feet. Victoria stayed on the bed.
"That's a good goal to have." She said, with a nod. Randall smiled at her for a brief second and then scratched the back of his head, feeling at a scar that had been there since his childhood days. A small lump where a steel ball bearing had hit him, as he had tried to get away from some bullies in the stadium locker rooms. Victoria looked at the expression on his face and stored it to her memory, and then began to run a search on similar facial expressions. She failed to find a correlation and then turned her body towards him, fully focused on his face. "Why do you look like that?" She asked. Randall snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at her.
"What?" He asked. "What do you mean? What do I look like?" He asked back to her.
"You were looking at me, but looking far away too." Said Victoria. "You looked like you were bored." She said. Randall scoffed and shook his head dismissively.
"Ah, I just do that sometimes. Forget about it. Forget about what I said about the Brotherhood too, they'll come alright." He said, sounding renewed in his conviction. "There's still good people out there, it's just hard to remember that every now and then." Said Randall, as he went to leave. Victoria followed him to the door and smiled as he opened it.
"Maybe I'll see you down at the dinner." She said to him as he exited the door. He gave her one last silent nod and then left. Victoria closed the door behind him and turned back towards the window. She didn't have any reason to believe that the Brotherhood of Steel was any different than the Enclave. Their actions in Nicksta could have easily been construed as a false show of compassion and unity, in order to find the quarry that they searched for. Rockwell aerospace was now heavily guarded, and anyone that would try to gain access to the under building would not have a good chance of surviving long enough to escape.
The four legged multi tentacled spider-like faceless androids that now roamed the increasingly flat and clean ruins of Cedar Rapids would usher in a new age of control in the chaos of the wasteland, someday soon enough. How the survivors of the wasteland would receive their new mechanized life preservers would ultimately be affected by their first encounter with them, and she knew it. Diplomacy would have to be number one priority when it came to the wastelanders.
Victoria weighed the option of reorganizing her workforce south, into the city ruins of the old college town after the resources of old Cedar Rapids had been depleted. Such an action would double her android's numbers, and provide protection for the survivors in Nicksta. It did seem to be a tactically sound decision, to bring a regiment in. On the other hand, Randall did seem to hint that the robots of the old world were not looked upon with too much tolerance. Maybe a small group of ten androids, stationed at the city limits wouldn't be a terrible idea, just as a very last resort should the raiders attack her.
Victoria opened her back pack again and took from it a tablet device, much different from anything else to be found in the wasteland. She pointed the device out towards the window and waited for it to link up with one of the old battered satellites of the old world. Victoria had found very few still in orbit, most troubling was the fact that two of them still contained active nuclear war heads. Humanity really had been set on self destruction, from sea, by land, and above. She searched the night sky and finally bounced a signal off of one still barely orbiting television satellite, non-functional in it's original intent, but still usable for her needs.
She uploaded instructions to the far off android production facility and was met with an instant affirmation. Ten androids would immediately set out and await further orders. Victoria was pleased by the efficiency of the facility. Improvements had been made, now that human safety was no longer an issue on the factory floor. There were now, just two hours after the initial start up, 73 androids working at full capacity. She replaced the tablet into her back pack and then dressed herself in some provided clothes. There was an odd moment when Victoria looked at herself in the mirror on the wall, and saw that her old dingy pre-war dress was one that she had been considering to purchase just before the United States had annexed Canada. She decided that she didn't much care for it after all. It clung too much to her waistline.
Victoria left the room and made her way out of the creaking hotel and out into the night. She walked down the chain link ramps to the restaurant at the bottom of the metropolis and entered into it's amber lit opened room. Pipes sat at the table with the woman that Victoria had spotted him with earlier, and she quickly ascertained that the woman was his daughter. She strolled up to the two of them and smiled.
"Hello!" Said Victoria, in as cheerful of a tone as she could manage. Pipes gently smacked his daughter on the shoulder and pointed to Victoria.
"There she is. Vicki the Burner bait." Said Pipes, in a slightly slurred way of speaking. His daughter grimaced and smiled down at Victoria. Pipes was teary eyed and focused on his tall glass of brown fluid.
"Hello Vicki!" Said the daughter. "I'm Alicia." She said with a wave. Victoria took a seat next to Alicia and then rested her hands on the long bar table in front of them.
"Hello Alicia." She said. Then she turned her face towards Pipes and his daughter. "No one has really called me that for a long time." Said Victoria. A sloppy looking man in an old paper hat walked out from behind a wall in the back of the restaurant with nasty looking roasted carcass on a tray. He set it down in front of Pipes and then leaned on the table.
"You better not puke this time, I ain't giving you no more refunds!" Said the man in the paper hat. Then the man turned towards Victoria. "What the hell do you want?" He asked, in a very impatient tone. Victoria shrugged.
"I don't even know what you're offering." She said. Alicia gestured to Victoria with her thumb.
"You better play nice cookie, this is the girl that's gonna run defense for the Coach tomorrow!" She said in a scolding manner. The man in the paper hat fumed and then settled his gaze on Pipes, who was beginning to pick at the roasted mole rat in front of him.
"Shit." He said, shaking his head. "She's just a kid." Said the man, looking more disheartened than angry. Alicia scowled at the man.
"She's just a kid that crossed dead street. I'd like to see one of you miserable old bastards even try it!" She said. Alicia turned to Victoria. "Don't listen to him, you're gonna make it." She said in a very definitive voice. Victoria nodded.
"I'll make it." She repeated back to Alicia. Alicia smiled back and then gulped down some of her own refreshment, probably alcoholic in nature. She put the empty glass down on the table and pushed her father's ribs with her elbow.
"You'll probably even get this old buzzard back in one piece." She said. Victoria looked at Pipes, who had made himself quite intoxicated. Then she looked back at Alicia, who was served another round of liquid by the begrudging man in the white paper hat.
"Why are you both drinking so much? Is it because you're scared of tomorrow?" Asked Victoria. Alicia laughed out.
"Girl, ain't you never eaten mole rat before?" She asked, staring wide eyed at Victoria. Victoria shook her head. "Well dig in, see how long you last without taking a drink." Said Alicia, as she broke off a strip of meat from the large rodent, and held it out to Victoria.
"Okay." Said Victoria, as she took the greasy flesh into her hand and inspected it. She was fully capable of ingesting just about any source of food, breaking it down into supplemental energy usage, but even her alloy 'stomach' turned as she looked at the meat with a closer eye. It was no wonder that these people looked slightly malnourished. Even the flies kept their distance from the local cuisine.
Victoria had not went into a sleep mode that night. She was very busy canvassing the area, collecting data on the residents and refugees of Nicksta. She had interviewed the late night wall guardians after midnight, gained access to the small treasure that was the closest thing to a library that the metropolis could offer, and in the morning she was able to observe the new morning rituals of the wastelanders. Nicksta was likely unique in comparison to most every other settlement, but Victoria wouldn't be sure until she visited more across the wide wasteland.
In the morning, almost every citizen left for the locker rooms of the stadium, with the men going to the home team room and the women to the visitor's room. There they had a communal shower, like a bath house of sorts, and general beautification for the day ahead. The women powdered their faces and underarms with an anti-fungal mixture, but she wasn't sure what the men did. It was a curious thing to watch, and Victoria made several corellations between the tribal lifestyles of the residents of Nicksta, and the lifestyles of the native Americans from many centuries before even her time.
The breakfasts were shared without question or greed, and great buckets of clean water were passed around as a sort of unification of the settlement, wherein all the attendees of the community breakfast would drink from the buckets. Victoria found herself quite at home with the survivors of Nicksta, and for a brief moment the whole ordeal had reminded her of her father. There was little time for remembrance however. Soon the meal, devoid of nasty mole rat meat, had ended. Men in football regalia took to the stands and did some new world praying, speaking to their resolve.
"It's time?" Asked Randall, as Victoria climbed the stairs towards the entrance of the stadium. Many other football armored men stood to their feet and turned to her. The residents of Nicksta stopped to look up at the brave men and the one defiant child at the doors to the wasteland. Word had traveled quickly that morning at breakfast, and the families of the men that had chosen to run for help that day, stood by- offering prayers up to grant protection to their sons.
"We should tell the Coach." Said Victoria, as she reached the final steps of the stands. She wore her back pack across her back, and the old world dress that had been provided to her by the grateful parents of the girl, Noel.
"He already knows." Said a gruff voice from behind her. Victoria turned to see the Coach climbing the stairs, accompanied by Josiah, the boy who had snatched up Noel's body from her arms the night before. The Coach adjusted his sunglasses and huffed out at the top of the steps. "Boys, form a circle." Commanded the Coach. The football armored runners all huddled together and joined arms around the Coach.
"What are we doing?" Asked Victoria, finally breaking an awkward silence that had fallen over the men. The Coach lifted his head to sky.
"This is our big ten boys. This is our rush into the end zone. Any man who needs to take to the bench needs to do it now!" Said the Coach. The footballers all grunted. "Mighty Hawkeyed, watch over us- witness our plays and cheer us on into your famed hall of glory. Strip from us our fear and guide us to the goals that you have set us upon. Set your wings upon the back of Victoria, that she may be beyond the blitz of the raiders. Bring us one last victory on this day." Said the Coach, as he pumped his fist into the sky. The other men grunted again and then began pounding on each other's helmets.
"To the end zone!" Screamed one of the men. The gates of the stadium started to open. Victoria looked to the Coach, who smiled back at her, kissing his finger and motioning it to her as if he were some kind of Pope.
"Godspeed, Vicki." He said to her, taking off his sunglasses. His eyes were teary, and his face was a little sullen. "Take my boys all the way home." He said. The gates clanked open and the men all began piling out of the stadium. Randall and Pipes ran up to Victoria.
"We'll be with you the entire way, Vicki!" Said Randall, as he strapped his helmet on tight. Victoria breathed in and decided to let the name go. "Just don't leave us in the dust unless those bastards attack! Then you give it everything you got!" He said, as he started to run sideways out the door.
"Come on, we've got you!" Said Pipes as he started to take off. Victoria nodded and she took off like a bolt, whipping past Randall as she went. The men cheered as they all ran in groups, in separate directions away from the stadium. The Coach lifted his arms in the air and gave out a cheer too, before the gates closed back up.
"Ha ha!" He laughed out. "Just like the wind!" He shouted. The doors slammed closed, and Pipes looked over to Randall with a surprised look.
"Damn! Didn't think I was getting that old, but you might have to leave me to the dogs!" He said as they both took to a full sprint. Victoria kept her speed in tandem with the two men behind her, not wanting to leave them too far behind. The three of them made their way past a few broken streets and then headed north, on a different path than what Victoria had come from. The run was without any incident from the old city all the way out to the ruined highway out of town. Randall smiled under his helmet. Maybe the raiders had pissed off on the wrong day? The trio ran at least a mile and half before trouble presented itself. They crossed over an old crumbling overpass, and heard gun shots towards the southeast. Pipes huffed out as he ran. "Keep going! Don't slow down!" He said, pained from the exertion.
Victoria looked off into the distance and zoomed in on the wastes to the southeast, where she saw a band of ten raiders firing upon some of the football armored men. They took cover behind some old buildings, while the raiders closed in. She turned her attention back to the road ahead and cranked her sensors up to their highest settings. She heard the rattling of guns and the heavy footfalls of men off to the distant northwest and motioned for the two men behind her to follow her down a steep slope. Randall and Pipes struggled to keep up with her, but obediently slid down the slope alongside Victoria. They all reached the bottom and Victoria turned around while still running north.
"They're trying to ambush us, we have to cut across to the old mall!" She told them. Pipes wheezed and nodded, and Randall looked around quickly, wondering how she could possibly know where they were coming from. A few more minutes of jogging, and the raiders made themselves known. They crashed out of some dense housing rubble, and began to fire on the three of them. Victoria turned and looked at Randall, who was bringing his gun up to his shoulder. Pipes had already brought his up too.
"Go on kid! Get out of here! You did your part!" Shouted Pipes, as he turned around and opened fire. Randall winked at Victoria readied his old used up assault rifle.
"There's still good people out there. Remember." He told her, just before turning around and joining Pipes in the fire fight. Victoria frowned. She had a strong urge to stay and protect the two men, but she had a prime directive. The other footballers were still in the 'game', and Victoria could still help them achieve their goal.
"I will!" Said Victoria, as she turned and continued onward. She blasted off towards the north east, and heard multiple shots zing past her. She turned her attention just briefly to the raiders, and saw the unmistakable figure of the man called Burner.
"Come on girlie! I got a present for ya!" Screamed out a mo-hawked dirty man. Burner slammed the man's gun down to the ground, and then pointed to Victoria.
"Bring that one to me!" He yelled out from underneath his gruesome mask. "Alive!" The fifteen raiders that had ambused the trio now split up, and while five of the raiders continued to fire on Randall and Pipes, the other ten including Burner now came after Victoria. Randall and Pipes were pinned down by the fire of the other five, laying low in a small rocky shallow. Randall lifted his gun up and randomly fired at the ten other raiders. He caught one and she fell to the ground in a heap. Another of the raiders spun around and aimed his hunting rifle at Randall and shot him in the side.
Victoria heard him scream out and she turned just in time to see him roll over into the shallow, bleeding but still alive. The raiders stood no chance of catching her, and they knew it.
"Shoot her knees out! I want her for my collection of little wastelander whores!" Screamed out Burner. At this, Victoria came to a dead stop. She turned abruptly and faced the gang of raiders dead on. Burner smiled at her through broken and rotten teeth. "I don't need her legs to work!" He shouted, sounding very pleased with himself.
This had complicated Victoria's choices. She had understood his words as a possible admission that the women and children that he had taken were still alive. If they were alive, then they could be rescued. Victoria weighed her options and very quickly formulated the best course of action to take in order to rescue any survivors of the raider gang. She put her hands up. One of the raiders laughed out.
"What happened? You run out of steam?" He asked in a mocking tone. Burner lit his horrid looking flamer. It sparked to life and it shot a flame high into the air above Victoria. He smiled at her again, with his green gum line and yellowed slimy teeth.
"Lookie lookie, we caught us a cookie." He said, as the raiders closed in around her. Victoria remained still as a female raider with a bald head wrapped her arms up in old telephone wire. Burner stepped forward after she had been secured, and pressed his flamer's muzzle close to her arm. "You should of kept runnin' shorty." He said, with a deep and disgusting laugh. The other raiders joined in and began to shove her forward, much to Randall's and Pipes's dismay.
"Damn it." Said Randall, as the five other raiders trained their hunting rifles and machine guns on them.