Lingering
"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."
- Oscar Wilde
I really wanted to focus on what's going on right now, I really do. But I just... couldn't wipe away the memory of what I saw looking into Nage's eyes...
It was just...
pure fear.
I closed my eyes, when the main gun raised. Just seconds before it had fired, Nage lifted me by my leg and practically threw me out the open window.
I began to drift back in and out of consciousness. The only thing I felt was the ground, everything else was numb. I raised my head from the pavement, debris was everywhere, I'm lucky none of it crushed me.
The Talon mercs slowly made their way to the bank, I could hear the gunfire from the Knights' weapons in a distance. Just as I was drifting out of consciousness again I felt something pick me up. I was in no condition to walk. I turned my head to see who was pulling me up from the ground, I saw a mouth move but made no sound.
I turned my head toward the Talons, they were slowly moving closer to the bank using the tank as cover, I saw the muzzle flashes but there was still no sound. I closed my eyes, and now there is no sight.
...
What's important now is that we have the package Tryios wanted...
...
..Head to Jento's Rock
...
My eyes slowly opened, revealing a concrete ceiling. I was in a room, laying on a bed with a wall beside me. I still had my jumpsuit on, and my gear was placed on a table across from me. I carefully pulled myself up to sit on the side of the bed.
I was getting some serious deja vu here... I stood up and walked to the table. Nothing was lost, my shotgun, vest, food and ammo is still here. The room was small, I'd say it'd be a little bigger than a closet... Just, where exactly am I?
Suddenly, the door across the room slid open, I quickly pulled out my beretta expecting there to be a Fang merc. .Instead I was greeted by a man not wearing the Fang's insignia. "Woah woah woah! Easy, man! I'm no enemy of yours!" he said.
The man looked to be middle aged, somewhat tall and long black hair. He wore a winter cap with a trenchcoat that looked to be worn out. he seemed to be wearing no armor at all. He held his hands up, "It's good to know that you're awake and all, but can you please stop aiming that gun at me?"
The man seemed innocent enough, I lowered the beretta and holstered it. "Where am I?" I asked.
"Underground." He said.
"You're in a utility closet of the metro that runs underneath Paxton, come along I'm sure you want to know what happened to your Revos friends." He gestured me to follow him out the room, I shouldered my shotgun, picked the the rest of my gear and followed him out.
Outside the room was a large tunnel, that looked like it goes on for miles. A layer of metal framing mimicked the tunnel to look like the hallways of the Vault, only it isn't as pitch black and rusty.
The tunnel was really dark, the only light source was the lantern the man was carrying. "Where are we going exactly?" I asked him.
"We're heading to our camp down here, won't be much longer until we can see it."
"What happened to me? Did you saved me back there?"
"Me? Nah, I'm just told to keep an eye on you. Gerro was the guy who saved your ass."
Gerro? That name sounded familiar.
"Who's Gerro?"
"Who's Gerro?!" yelled the man, he stopped his tracks.
"Do you know who we even are?" he asked.
I nodded my head no. He started to walk again.
"We live in Paxton, man." My eyes widened when he said that, there's no way...
"We're the ones who stayed."
Well, that's now confirmed. "So... you're one of the people that stayed to fight the fangs?"
That must mean...
"I am Gerro from the Village that first fell to the Fangs, reporting in on the community radio"
"Gerro is that guy from the radio right?"
"Bingo, that's him. Or... what was him at least..." We approached a chain link fence fortified with scrap metal and car parts. The man banged on what appeared to be a gate three times.
"What do you mean by that?"
He didn't answer my question, the gate raised and revealed two guards.
"I'm taking him to see Gerro." the guards nodded and stepped aside for us to enter. There was more light in this section of the tunnel, fire in barrels light up the place enough to see without a lantern. A few yards down the tunnel I see what remained of a old train.
"This is it, our camp. We live inside the train."
"Different from where I saw people sleep in before..."
"People would sleep anywhere in the wasteland, man. Follow me, we're gonna find Gerro."
We entered the train and walked passed the few who were living there, several other men and women with guns, I figured there were more people outside.
As we reached the conductor's section of the train, the man stopped and turned to me.
"When you're talking to him, try not to associate yourself with the Revos Order too much. Despite all they done, Gerro hates them with his gut. I'm surprised to see that he is helping the ones we found with you instead of leaving them out there to die. Anyways, be careful what you say."
I nodded, he turned and knocked the door to the cockpit of the train. "Sir, he's here."
He turned around, gave me a quick nod, and walked back down the train. I sat myself down at a seat nearby. The door opened and revealed a shady figure. Tthe cockpit doesn't seem to be lit enough, I could only see his figure but not his face.
"So you're that crazy-son-of-a-bitch Vault Dweller eh?"
His voice took me by surprise, it sounded very raspy and old. Like the Larynx and Vocal cords in his throat were severely damaged. He sounded nothing like the Gerro I heard on the radio distress call.
"Heh, what's wrong? You got spooked out there for a second."
"N-Nothing! I just got surprised by...b-by your-"
"Voice?"
"Y-Yeah..."
The shady figure suddenly gave out a burst of raspy laughter, after a moment he calmed down.
"Hahaha..oh boy. You think the voice is bad?"
The figure stepped out from the cockpit and stepped into the light given from the fires in the barrels.
The figure revealed itself to be normal so far, leather boots... long coat... gloves...
When my eyes reached his face I flinched and covered my mouth as I gasped.
"Take a good long look at my fucking face, kid."
His face looked like it was decomposed for years, literally just rotted skin and bone. His nerves are easily seen throughout his face, his left jaw bone was exposed. The skin on his face and neck were discolored and decayed with the nose completely gone.
He gave out another burst of raspy laughter.
"Oh man... you shoulda seen the look on ya face!"
"Wha..What...Wh-"
"Never seen a Ghoul before kid?"
"A G-Ghoul?!" I began to panic, at this point I was at the ground.
The ghoul stretched his gloved hand out to me, and offered to pick me up. I skeptically accepted it and he pulled me up so I can reseat myself.
"I'm just messing with ya, smoothskin. What's your name?"
"K-Ken"
"Ken huh? Would that be short for Kenith?"
"I-It's just Ken..."
He sat on a seat across from me, pulled out a cigarette and lighted it with a nearby candle.
"Funny, if I was still human then it'd be this stuff that'd make my voice so fucked up. Heheh, it ain't that bad. Ghouls got some perks too."
I didn't exactly know what he meant by perks, I was still too scared to ask. We had a short silence for a while before I summed up the courage to ask a different question.
"W-What's a smoothskin?"
"Haha! I really am the first ghoul you ever seen! Shit, man."
He made himself more comfortable in his seat, crossing his legs and taking a whiff of his cigarette.
"A 'smoothskin' is just a nickname we ghouls use to call you humans. We ain't born like this, we turn into it, making us mutants."
"People who turn into... this have different endings, ya know? Sometimes people can't cope with this new look, or maybe the radiation has gotten into their minds... makin 'em go mad. Feral... Turned to something like animals, where they just kill any creature in sight.."
Gerro's drifting smile suddenly came back as his tone of voice changed to a more happier mood. "Buuut of course I ain't one of them, so I should consider myself lucky eh?" He chuckled.
"Like I said before, Ghoul's got some perks. We don't need to sleep as much, anything radiated hardly touches us, can't get addicted to anything, we don't drink or eat as much...we don't even bleed as much."
He said that last part with more emphasis than the rest.
"If you ask me, I think that's a good deal in exchange for looking like a zombie, am I right?"
After letting off another chuckle, he took a whiff of his cigarette.
"So, you heard my radio distress call am I right?"
"Y-Yes, Sir."
"Wanna know how long ago I made that signal?"
"..."
"10 Months."
Ten months?! I wonder how long the Order has been in Paxton...
"A lot happens in 10 months, Ken. A good example is myself."
"Enough about me now, Let's talk about something else."
He got up from his seat and walked to me, he squadded down bringing his face much closer to mine. This close to a Ghoul wasn't exactly a pleasant sight, I could see the wrinkles on his rotted skin coated in dried blood. I wondered if a Ghoul like him could even Bleed.
He lifted his hand and reached for my Jumpsuit's collar, he pulled the collar to his eyes, practically pulling my neck. He read the Letter and Numbers that were bright yellow on the collar that read: 'O-26'
"Heh."
I gulped, I was wondering why he was so intrigued with my Vault's serial number. (While in the back of my head was also hoping that this Ghoul wouldn't eat my brains.)
He released me, and walked back to his seat.
"Tell me, Ken. What's a vault dweller with absolutely no experience with the wasteland doing in Paxton?"
I considered not answering the question, but given the situation, I'm not exactly in a good spot to lie. They may be my only help.
"I'm... Looking for another Vault."
"Another Vault huh? I'd figure there'd be one in Worcester then. That's where you're heading I'm guessing."
I nodded my head.
"You came along at a pretty bad time as you can already tell. You didn't came here alone did you?"
Oh god, I had completely forgotten. Where's Nage?! I remember him throwing me out the window right before the tank fired it's main cannon. I didn't want to think the worst, knowing Nage, I'm sure that he's still alive somewhere.
"A man, his name is Nage. Have you seen him?"
"A Nage huh? No, we don't have someone named Nage here."
"What about the Knights? Do you have them around here?"
Gerro's lips pouted and gave me an angered expression.
"You mean those shitheads in shining armor? Yeah... We got 'em held up here."
"Please, I need to go see them, they might know where Nage is."
"We're not exactly done with our talk, smoothskin."
"I know, but don't you agree that more important things should be done?"
He leaned back in his seat, I looked up at the ceiling for a moment and stretched his arms out. After letting out a sigh he chuckled a bit.
"You got a point there, I guess I just let my curiosity get the hold of me, you are a dweller afterall.
He got up from the seat and started to walk out the door to the next room. "Well then, comon. Let's check on those shitheads, smoothskin"
I sighed in relief, got up from my seat and followed him out.
We walked a little ways down the train until we reached one of the side exit doors. One of them looked to be ripped off, we stepped out to see another janitorial door. There was a keypad at one side of the door, after typing the correct sequence, Gerro unlocks it. The door slides open revealing a room, much larger than the room I woke up in.
The room looked metallic with consoles and machines placed all about the walls. As we walked in, I saw three Knights on the ground with their armor taken off. They were moaning in pain but looked to be safe from death, with two medics watching over them.
"Report, Jol." said Gerro.
A man stood up from one of the Knights and walked up to Gerro.
"We managed to stop the bleeding and successfully removed the bullets fixed into them. They'll be healed in a few weeks. Maybe if we gave them some UltraStims they cou-"
"That'll be a No, Jol." Said Gerro
"Gerro.. they're suffering pretty bad, I really think we sho-"
"Listen Jol, we need to conserve our medical supply for ourselves here. We're low on Stims as it is, and I'm not intending to waste them on these men."
"Yes.. But Gerro-"
"They're soldiers aren't they? They signed up for this. You're dismissed."
Jol gave a worried look to me, and returned back to the Knights. Gerro turned to me and said "Well, they're yours to talk to, take whatever time you need."
I nodded, and walked up to the Knights and the medics. I crouched next to Jol. "Can any of them talk?" I asked.
"They're in a lot of pain, we got them thick leather straps to bite down on because of that. I'm afraid they won't be able to talk for quite a while."
"Can't you give them something to help?"
"I can heal the wound but not the pain, medicine like UltraStims can help with that but Gerro doesn't want to waste it on them."
With the Knights in this condition I can't get anything out of them on the whereabouts of Nage or Makos. I need to convince Gerro to give at least one of them the UltraStims so they could talk.
I stood up and walked to Gerro who was talking to another armed person. "Pull them back, we're gonna regroup." was what I heard him say before interrupting him. "That'll be all." he said, then turned his attention to me.
"Gerro, these men can't talk under their conditions. Can you please just spare the UltraStims so I can get some info from them?"
"We went over this, I'm not wastin' any stims for em. Those 'Knights' will live, and that should be enough."
"But you would give your men UltraStims if they needed it."
"Of course I would! Just not for these Knights."
"Gerro... why do you have such a grudge against the Order?"
"BECAUSE THEY DON'T NEED IT!"
Gerro's raspy voice roared throughout the metallic room. I flinched because of this but stood my ground, he continued.
"Do you know what happens to these knights if they are injured?"
I kept my face as straight as possible and allowed him to continue.
"After they healed up. They go to their base camp, and relax for a week or two!... Hell! I heard they even get sent back to their fucking federation! They get to go HOME! This? This place that those very Knights call a shithole and a waste of space is OUR HOME. When we get hurt, we don't relax, we don't leave, we don't take a fucking break, we STAY and we FIGHT."
Gerro's voice sounded furious but his body looked calm, he sounded like what he said on his distress call
"Those who stayed...stayed to fight back."
"Home is all we have left... we all grew up here. Our villages may not have been so kind to each other, but we were always brothers and sisters."
Some of the men and women around us stopped what they were doing to listen to Gerro. Clearly it looked like he was gonna win this argument about sparing UltraStims. It isn't about the medication itself, there is a strong grudge between these... lingerers and the Order.
"How many?" I asked.
"How many what?!"
"How many people did you lost since you stayed?
I looked into his eyes to try pry my message in, I needed to dig further into his mind to reveal something more.
"Better question... How many people are left?"
"...40."
Only 40 men and women fighting for this town? How long has it been that way?
"I've seen more mercs in a single street, imagine the whole town, Gerro."
"What are you sayin? That we stand no chance?! We did so much more damage to the mercs than the Order! And we're only 40 strong! Going against hundreds! While those Knights are taking baby steps in Paxton, we run, jump, crawl from rooftop to the streets to the fucking sewers to fight them head on!"
"For how long can you keep that up though? You're right Gerro, the Order is taking baby steps while your resistance carries the heavy weight of the fangs. But you made that distress call for a reason... "
I looked around, some of the lingerers actually walked in to listen to our not so quiet conversation.
"You've lost so much, have you? Not just your people but much of yourself. And I'm not talking about you physically... Your distress call asked for help, and when help finally came you criticized them for being too weak or too slow. They are your ONLY help, Gerro. Returning the favor will make them recognize you, and maybe they'll step things up... After all, don't you want to save what's left of your people?"
I can see that all these men and women used to be part of warring villages, but when the fangs attacked it forced them to unite. Through that unification, I can tell they have a strong bond that still drives them to free their home, or die trying.
"They're... more than just medics and guerrillas. They're my family, all of them... I'd do anything to protect them...but I'd also do anything to reclaim our home."
"Help is just outside your door, Gerro... all you have to do is welcome it."
Gerro looked away from me and to his people, he stared into each and everyone's eyes, young and old.
"Jol."
Jol walked up to Gerro, "Yes, Sir?"
"Get those Knights what they need."
"Yes sir." Jol ran off to what I assumed a supply room.
The men and women that stood around us began to disperse, Gerro turned around to walk away, but I grabbed him on the shoulder. "Gerro" I called.
He turned his head to look at me, "You have my word. I'll help you reclaim this town. I'll stay until those Fang Mercenaries are wiped out or driven out."
"What about your mission? Ain't ya gonna look for a Vault?"
He was right about that, I smiled. You know what?
"It can wait."