Look for something
"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."
― John Holmes
"Alot happened in such a short amount of time, when that tank hit us we tried to find you and Nage... When we got upstairs you were missing and Nage was knocked out."
"What happened to Makos and Nage?"
"Makos carried Nage out of there, but we were met with alot of mercs, we got separated. I last saw him carrying Nage to the subway entrance."
That means Makos and Nage may be hiding out these very tunnels! I patted the Knight's shoulder. "Thanks for the info, It'll help a lot." I said.
I felt good convincing Gerro to give those Knights the UltraStims, they're no longer and pain and seem to be making an acquaintance with the Lingerers.(I had personally nicknamed the little resistance here the "Lingerers".)
Gerro was still in a vexed mood, now I had a promise to keep. I need to help Gerro reclaim his home, but I'm afraid that the Federation has other plans then just liberating this town. The expansionist Federation and their Order will likely annex this town into their society, just like how they have done so to other villages and towns according to Nage.
I walked to Gerro, "They're in these tunnels, I know that they're near the entrance."
"We're waiting here to regroup with others, I can't spare you anyone."
"Yeah.. I kinda expected you saying that..."
"Well, what do you plan on doing, smoothskin?"
"I just need one of your people to direct me to the subway entrance. I can make the trip on my own."
"The tunnels around here are cleared and safe smoothskin, but you'll find trouble in the tunnel near the subway entrance."
"I think I can handle myself, I survived this long..."
"Oh really? The Fangs set up a bunch of traps and my feral brethren roam around that area. I'll tell you right now that they are no where near as domesticated as me."
"I'll be careful."
Gerro took a short pause to process how stupid I was. He let out a sigh, "Alright, get Jol to lead you out, but he won't take you that far."
I nodded. After a moment, Gerro signaled Jol to him and ordered him to lead me out to the tunnels near the Subway entrance. I waved off the Knights and followed Jol out the metallic room. As we went farther up the tunnel, the light from burning barrels grew dimmer and distant, eventually Jol lighted his lantern in order to see.
"I'm gonna have to agree with Gerro, what you're doing is pretty dumb."
Of course, Jol is right. What I'm doing is pretty suicidal.
"I know, but I gotta find and make sure Nage and Makos are ok."
"Those feral ghouls will try to do otherwise, Ken."
"I know. Has anyone ever traveled in that area? Other than the mercs."
"The feral ghouls are the reason why no one goes in that area, also the reason why the Fangs haven't cleared us out the tunnels. So to answer your question, no."
Well, that certainly was encouraging.
...
"This is where I leave you."
He lifted his hand for a handshake and I complied.
"Good luck in there, I would try to sneak through the ghouls rather than just shooting at them."
"Thanks for the advice, Don't worry. You'll see me soon."
He gave a smile, picked up his lantern and turned around. I walked the opposite direction and went toward the subway entrance.
I sticked to walking on one side of the tunnel rather than just walking in the center. Later after walking for a bit I began see another trail from another tunnel conjoin with the one I'm walking on. This must mean that I'm getting close to the subway entrance.
A little further showed another broken down train, wondering if there was any useful things in it, I walked up to the train. I peaked my head over the broken window,
I quickly ducked back down, my heart racing.
There it was, a feral ghoul. Eating a freshly killed Fang merc... It must have heard me, because it made a alerted grunt noise and stopped eating for a moment.
It looked out the broken window, I covered my mouth and held my breath to try to make as little noise as possible. It made another grunt and went back to eating it's victim. I let out a quiet sigh of relief, I could hear footsteps of several ghouls in this very train.
I decide to just sneak my way past the train, hiding underneath the windows. If I just got up and head across the tunnel, it would create too much noise and attract my doom...
A little more than halfway across the chain, I came across a body of another Fang merc. I let out a gasp, realizing that I made a loud noise I quickly covered my mouth. One of the Ghouls inside the train let out a hiss and began to make it's way out of one of the train cart's exit doors.
I had to think of something, I couldn't run because it'd attract more of the Ghouls, and I only have a limited amount of ammo to fight them off. The Ghoul made it's first step out of the cart. I held my breath and embraced the rotting dead body, it smelled worse up close like this.
The Ghoul walked around the side of the train where I was and took a look at me and the body. It gave a sniff and a grunt. The Ghoul became uninterested and went back to whatever it was doing inside the train. I didn't think my one second plan worked! The Ghoul must have thought that I was a dead body along with the Fang corpse.
Although It was a smelly and vomit inducing moment, I was still alive and can continue to move along the train.
As soon as I got passed the train, I stayed close to the left side of the tunnel so that I would be out of the Ghouls' line of sight. Keeping my shotgun ready, I continued walking down the tunnel to finally reach one of the platforms for the subway entrance.
I quickly scanned the area to find that there were no ghouls around. I jumped up to reach for the platform's ledge and pulled myself over it. Again, no ghouls. Right next to me was a directory of some sort, it showed differently colored lines going to different directions. It gave names of towns including Worcester and Boston.
From what I can gather, this place is actually one of several stations that connect cities and towns. The station had two floors, the platform itself and a upper floor. There was an escalator going up to the upper floor, but it has long been shutdown. I began to walk up the escalator when suddenly I jumped at the sound of a gunshot further up.
Followed by the gunshot, was a loud grunt of a Ghoul followed by another gunshot. Both shots had different sounds, meaning there are two differents guns that could have two different owners.
Almost instinctively, I assumed it was Nage and Makos. When I crawled up the escalator it revealed to be two men with dead ghouls around them. These men unlike what I seen before...One of them wore a winter cap and loose leathery pants. The other wearing biker goggles on their head, leather pauldrons and cloth patched skirt-like trousers. These men were definitely not Lingerers... They looked more dirty, under equipped, but most importantly, the strange look of their eyes.
Their eyes practically glowed a dim yellow, I'm not that far from them by the escalator and I can see how bloodshot and dilated their eyes are. One of them spoke in the manner that frightened me.
"Fucking ghouls, of all places to run. Why run to where the fucking ghouls are?"
"To much ofa bother for dis prey, cuz. ah say we should just beat it an' call it ah day."
"You shut the fuck up, the prey is worth it. They're hiding 'round here, I know it! They're outta ammo too... We'll have fun before slitting him."
The second man in the leathery pants began to jump up and down in excitement.
"We gonnz fuck em before we kill'em cuz? we gonnz fuck em?!"
"No, we're gonna let them go."
He slaps the excited man across the face.
"OF COURSE WE'RE GONNA FUCK THEM."
They begin to head towards the escalators. I ducked my head, thankfully they decided to walk down the opposite escalator.
"Now come on! We're gonna meet the others down on the platform."
I waited until they were out of range to hear me. They are meeting other people, meaning there's more of them. There is no doubt about it, these aren't Mercs or Lingerers, they are Raiders.
People so obsessed with killing, drugs, sex and just about anything grotesque. Nage had told me that when they notice you wondering away from the rest of a group, they will put you in a corner, and have all kinds of sickening fun before finally ending your life.
I got up from the escalator and continued moving up to the upper floor. There were benches to the sides of the floor with a ticket booth in the center. Looking inside the booth showed another dead ghoul.
There were two hallways, to the right lead outside. and to the left leading to a circular room with several closets. I could hear the distant gunfire coming from the exit outside. I decided to head left. The circular room had a bar, a few small restaurants and a room for smokers, although rummaging through the ruined area may be futile, I tried looking into every corner to see if anything was useful.
Seeing that the Raiders may have already searched here, I doubt that Nage and Makos took shelter here. A quick search proved that there wasn't anything of use. I looked inside of one of the closets, it showed to be empty janitor closets. Nothing.
One closet was locked, using my bobby pins, and patience I managed to unlock the door on the first try! Inside the room revealed another maintenance room but the room was bigger and walking into the room showed a console built into a large tube of some kind. I looked inside the glass tube, Inside showed..
Wow. I did not know they had one of these in the surface... It was a Robotron! These robots, are used for a number of chores and can even be used for combat. I looked at the Robotron's model, It was a security model, meant for combat. Curious, I turned on the console. Unfortunately the console had some kind of password, by overriding the admin perms of the console it allowed me to guess the password through a series of hints and random serial numbers.
I guessed the password "Safe" in the first try, but it was wrong and the console gave a beeping sound, indicating that was wrong. Next I tried "Security" also wrong. I only had 4 chances to get the right else the console will completely lock itself. The third try I used "Order" but that too failed.
With only one chance left, I turned off the console. That way, it would reset my chances and not shut down after I failed. I would love to keep trying but I needed to look for Nage and Makos.
I left the Circular area, and went back to the booth. I heard thumping noises from the booth itself this time...
I walked to the booth and looked inside, something underneath the dead ghoul was moving. A hatch? I readied my shotgun.
The hatch finally pushed aside the dead ghoul and opened up. What came out was the barrel of an advanced rifle.
"Ken!"
I was both relieved and scared because of the barrel in my face, "Quick get in here!" he said.
I did as he said and entered the hatch. Inside, a room with weaponry and armor. "You've been hiding in here?" I asked.
"Yeah, we were lucky to find this room, we ran out of ammo. But we restocked in here."
In the corner of the room, I saw Nage laying unconscious with a bloody bandage wrapped around his head.
"How is he?"
"He's fine, but we can't move while he's unconscious."
"Can't you give him an UltraStim?"
"Not while he's unconscious, that's too dangerous."
We can both work to lift Nage out of here, but seeing that raiders are around the place searching for us, it doesn't seem like a good idea.
"There's a security Robotron in one of the maintenance rooms, We could use it to fend off the raiders a bit while we take Nage and leave. But I haven't found out what the password is yet."
"Done."
"Huh?"
He lifts his hand to show me a console disk. Very old marker shows it written as "Robotron Pass"
"This was down here along with all the weapons."
"This is good! We can use this to unlock the console and activate that robotron."
I wonder why there was a little armory underneath the ticket booth. In a subway full of people trying to get to work, where they expecting some sort of attack?
Makos gave me the disk. "I'll keep an eye on Nage, activate that Robotron. when the shooting starts we get out of here."
I nodded. I climbed up the ladder and pulled myself out the hatch. I carefully place the dead ghoul over the hatch door. I quickly ran to the maintenance room with the robotron.
After turning on the console, I inserted the disk into it's side. It began it's procedure and revealed to me that the password was "Containment"
The console finished it's procedure and booted up. The main screen gave me several options.
Booting Process complete...
Welcome back, User 35. Date: 4/29/2275
Safety Announcement
Robotron integrity
Activate Robotron
I selected 'Robotron integrity' It showed me a new screen with the status of the robotron inside.
Robotron Current Status:
Energy cells: Full Capacity
Physical hardware: Functional
Combat inhibitor: Set to Security Protocol
Laser cell ammunition: Full
Current Parameters: Armed Communists
All essential components are functioning at 100%
This was perfect! Everything seemed to be in good order. I decided to change the parameters of what "Armed Communists" might be. I set the parameters of "Armed Communists" to the description of the raiders. Dirty, the lack of clothing and psychotic.
I went back to the main menu and opened up "Safety Announcement"
From: Jona Graft
To: The Maintenance Department
Subject: Taking matters.
Date Sent: 9/16/2077
Attention all workers in the Maintenance field, the safety protocol for the subway system between Boston all the way down the NYC will be taking severe changes.
Yes.. I'm sure you all heard of the recent invasion in California, and the Rebellion taking place in Washington. This means we need to spark up in not just safety, but security measures in the stations, for the case of a Insurrectionist or Communist attack.
We contracted a better equipped security force, but for added measure we are also issuing every worker. Including Maintenance, a 10mm Pistol.
Hopefully if there was an insurrectionist attack, you may leave it up to the security force to handle the situation.
HOWEVER. Should there be a COMMUNIST attack, workers must activate any nearby Security Robotrons and report to the armories beneath every ticket booth.
As AMERICANS. It is our duty, not just the government's, to resist the spread of communism. Even if it means risking our very lives.
- Jona Graft. Administrator of Safety
Was this how the world was like before the bombs dropped? War and complete paranoia? I'm not sure what a Communist or Insurrectionist is, but they both sound threatening to the Transit system.
I went back to the main menu, and selected "Activate Robotron" A few seconds later steam started rising from the tube, the Robotron is active.
The glass tube slides open and the Security Robotron stumbled forth and began talking in a robotic voice.
"Protocol initialization..."
"Code Red. Code Red. Communist invasion imminent."
"Stay back, citizen."
The robot then leaves the maintenance room and heads out toward the escalators. I assumed it was in a "Seek and Destroy" setting. While it was going to the escalator, I quickly dashed toward the armory beneath the booth.
I climbed down the ladder and called out to Makos.
"Makos! The Robotron's working, let's g-"
Suddenly, I was struck in the head with some kind of blunt weapon. I fell off the ladder and landed on the ground. I raise my head to see the same Raiders that were talking earlier. The excited one holding onto a gagged Makos who was struggling to escape.
"Well. What do we have here?" said the more smarter raider wearing the biker goggles.
"Ho hoo! We got a nice, fresh, juicy one here! Vault Dweller eh?" The raider kicked me in the side, making me cough violently. I took a glance at Nage who was awake but too weak to move at all, I can tell he was trying to move but it looked like he was paralyzed. The raiders did not bother with him since he seems incapacitated.
In my mind, I was panicking. But I wasn't going to be beaten so easily. I reached for my shotgun, only to realize that it was across the room near the other raider. Swiftly, I stood up on my feet, drew my pistol and took aim at the raider's face.
Before I could pull the trigger, he slapped the gun out of my hand. I quickly charged him and tried to tackle him. But he was bigger than me, he quickly overpowered me and lifted me up and dropped me back down on my back. Out of the rush of adrenaline, I quickly got up again and went for a punch. He dodged my cross hook, grabbed my arm and placed me into a submission hold.
"Woah! Heheh, this one's got a little fight in him!" he yelled out. He kicked one of my legs with his foot, forcing me to fall on my knees.
"And I like that..." He was in complete control now. I can't get out of this position he's gotten me into. From behind, he moved his head near my face and begin to sniff me.
I could hear Makos muffling in his gag and the raider holding him down whooping loudly. At this point I realize what the raider on top of me was going to do next, I struggled to move but it was no use.
"G-Get off of me!" I cried out. He just pushed my head to the concrete floor and began to unbuckle my Pants.
"KENFF" Makos yelled from his gag while the raider holds him still. I could also hear Nage grunt as he tries to get up, he quickly just fell back down in a laying position.
"S-STOP!" I cried out once more, I'm beginning to beg now. tears starting to form in my eyes. He grasps my face, using his nails to dig into my skin. I cried out in pain, still trying to struggle.
"KEEP MOVING BUDDY, IT JUST GETS WORSE FROM HERE." He yells out.
"FUCK 'IM, CUZ. WHENZIT GUNNA BE MINE TURN?!" the other raider yelled.
Again, he moves closer to my face and begins to lick my cheeks. His breath stunk of alcohol and rotten meat. I moved my head away to avert my eyes from his own, but he just pulls me back.
He began to slowly pull down my pants while he begins to unbuckle his own.
"S-stop... please.." I kept begging him, but he continued. I couldn't move, with the position he has me in, he has total control of me. I began to sob, I never felt so violated and disgusted in my life.
RAAAAAAAAAAGH!
A roar from human lungs rose up as Nage suddenly gets up to bash in the head of the raider holding Makos with a hammer that was laying around. The raider dropped to the floor, letting go of Makos.
The raider on top of me saw what happened. He quickly reached for the pistol that was on the floor near us, but Nage swiped it away with his foot. Nage's body looked very weak, but a look in his eyes showed true fury and fire. The raider pulled up his pants and started to panic.
"S-SHIT! ALRIGHT LOOK MAN, JUST-"
Nage let out another roar and swung his hammer straight to the raider's jaw.
The impact didn't kill him or even knock him out cold, he screamed in pain despite having an exposed dislocated jaw. He stumbled a bit, then fell flat on the ground. Nage slouched over to him and fell on him. Letting out yet another roar, Nage unleashed a barrage of hammer strikes on the raider, viciously ripping out his head and chest.
Along with his barrage of strikes, Nage also unleashed long lines of profanity at the already dead raider.
I got up from the floor, after pulling my pants up. I still feel shaken about what just happened, but I was still shocked by the way Nage is right now. He continues to beat the raider corpse with his hammer until it fell apart.
Me and Makos watched as Nage continued to attack the corpse with his fists. After a while, Nage's hands became bloody, and he started panting. Finally, Nage blacked out, and fell to the floor next to the severely beaten corpse.
Makos and I looked at each other, for a moment there we didn't know what to do. "Ken, we gotta get out of here."
We gathered our items and moved to Nage and placed his arms over us. When we got to the ladder, I went up first to see if the coast was clear, then helped Makos lift Nage out of the hatch.
A moment later I heard the sounds of Lasers and a robotic voice. "Looks like it's found them, let's get moving" I said. We carefully move down the steps of the escalator holding Nage, "Ken?" said Makos. I looked at him, "You ok?" He asked me.
Having a non-sensual experience a while ago, I was still shaken up. Makos must have noticed. I'm really thankful to Nage for stopping the raider before he could do his dirty deed.
"Y-Yeah I'm fine. Let' go" I said, and continue we did.
Down the tunnel, we could hear the shooting. This means we have to take the tunnel I came from, the tunnel filled with Ghouls. We had no choice. It sounded like the raiders defeated the robotron, we moved into the dark tunnel.
...
After a moment of walking, we hear the groans and hissing of the ghouls. "We need to take it easy and stay quiet from here on out. We don't want to attract any attention to ourselves." I said, Makos nodded and continued.
Now this is the part where I worry most, the broken down train. There is a hive of ghouls, roaming around in there. There is absolutely no way to sneak past them. I considered putting Nage in a maintenance closet while Makos and I fight them all. But I remembered Jol's words, saying that I should avoid any contact with the ghouls, otherwise they will swarm on us with their superior numbers.
Just then, a figure inside the train stood out from the others. Instead of being slouched, It walked upright and it seemed to have noticed us. We put Nage down and readied our weapons for whatever comes. The figure leaves the shadow of the train and shows itself to be a familiar face.
"Stupid smoothskins, why did you come back this way?" he said, practically yelling. It was certainly Gerro.
For the moment, Makos and I was scared that we may have been compromised. Yet, the ghouls haven't made a move for us, they only stared.
Gerro walked on over to us. "W-Why aren't they going for us?" I asked.
"Two reasons!" said Gerro. "They see me as one of them for obvious reasons, so they don't attack me. The reason they're not attacking you, my guess is that they think you're my prey."
Gerro takes a look at Nage and Makos. "So these were the ones you wanted to save? I'm surprised they're even alive." He took a closer inspection on Makos and noticed his medic armband. "Good! A medic! This rescue was worth it after all."
"Makos, this is Gerro. Leader of the Lingerers." I said.
'Lingerers?" They both said simultaneously.
"I'll tell you later."
"Fine by me. Stick with me, smoothskins. I'll lead us back." said Gerro.
While following Gerro, the ghouls we walk passed only stared.
"Why did you come back for us, Gerro?" I said.
"Because I knew you idiots were gonna die. And I didn't want those UltraStims to be used in vain."
"You really saved us back there, ghoul. Thank you." said Makos.
"Wow, a thanks? Haven't heard of those in a while. Especially from a Knight. It's no problem smoothskins.
...
A little less than an hour of walking we finally see the lights of the base. I was so relieved, finally I can relax for a while. I spoke too soon.
*BANG* BANG*
*THRRHRHRHRHHRH!*
Shooting sudden commenced on the opposite side of the base, it was under attack.
"Shit!" yelled out Gerro, he sprinted ahead of us. I looked to Makos. "Go! I'll keep an eye on him" he said. I nodded, and ran to catch up with Gerro.
From the other side of the tunnel was a Fang assault. Two Knights along with several other Lingerers fought them off. By the time we reached the base, the Fangs were running off.
"After them! They know where we are! We can't let 'em go!"
We ran further down the tunnel, where three Fangs tried to escape. The Knights and Lingerers easily gunned them down.
"What the fuck?! What are Fangs doing down here?" Gerro yelled out.
"They actually came to us, they didn't seem to be scouts." Said a lingerer.
"The hell.. They know where we are?"
"They were testing our strength, They only sent six men to attack us. Now they'll know to send a larger party" said a Knight.
Gerro looked very frustrated, were the Fangs holding back on invading this base for so long?
Makos finally arrived with Nage, a lingerer showed them the way to the medical bay. One of the Knights walked up to Gerro and I. "It's good to see Makos is back and alive." he said. The Knights must have had some sort of rapid healing medicine or something, otherwise they would be completely unable to even walk.
The other two Knights joined in on our little circle, "We won't be a burden on your people, we'll stay with you until your base is secure." said one of the Knights.
"That's kind of you men, all of you. but I have a feeling we won't be staying in this base any longer..."
"There's something you should know, Gerro. While you were gone our radio frequencies picked up an order from high command. They are commencing an Infantry-Vehicle charge into Paxton on the break of dawn."
"What? God damn fools, what are they gonna do when a column of tanks comes in to drive them off? It can't be done."
"Not unless they get people on the inside take out those tanks." I said.
"What?"
"Like you said, a full scale charge will attract their column of tanks to drive them off. While their tanks are moving, we gather our entire force to destroy them."
"That's too much of a risk, even if we tried we can't take out all of them."
"But we would slow them down long enough for the charge to overrun the Fangs!"
Gerro looks anxious, he turned around and paced while balancing his choices.
"Don't you see Gerro? You always said the Order was taking nothing but baby steps, well they granted your wish. They are making their full scale charge here. And you can make sure that the charge will succeed, and liberate your town. This is the key moment to save this town, the only question is are you going to take that opportunity?"
"You're right." said Gerro.
"You Knights. Can you get me to a direct frequency to whoever is in charge of you?"
"We can hook up one of our helmets to your radio."
"Perfect, get one of my people on it."
...
I walked into the room where Nage was being treated. The room was lit only by a lantern, there were bandages on his hands.
I stepped next to him and took a seat on the floor alongside him. "How you feel Nage?"
"Better."
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
We had an awkward pause, I couldn't think of anything to say. I started to reflect on all the things Nage has done for me so far.. The free medical treatment, the free steak at that bar, pushing me out of the way of a Tank's gun... Saving me from a savage raider before he could violate me...
I wonder why he did it all? Surely he has already paid his debt to me since he shot me.
"Why did you do it all?" I asked
He didn't say anything. He stared at the wall across from us.
"You've definitely paid your debt to me. Why did you save me all those times?"
"...You really want to know?"
"I do."
Another pause ensued. Finally, he let out a sigh and began.
"I'm not from around here.."
"What?"
"I'm no local, although many people think I am."
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from a city a ways south. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... I'm from the Federation."
This whole time I did, infact, believe that he was a local. It struck me to find out that he was from the Federation. I stayed silent and let him finish.
"I... Joined the Revos Order... Revos is actually short for Revolutionaries. That's the official name of the military there.. During military, I discovered I was talented in the art of marksmanship, so they put me in a group with others that have this talent. They made us an outfit."
Not only was Nage from the Federation, he was a former Knight?
"You used to be a Knight? What does that have to do with me?"
"We were an outfit of snipers, we all worked in pairs because that's how snipers work, they spot for each other. I was paired with the youngest and greenest kid there, I thought 'oh great, I get paired with the new kid' and all that. Over time we became friends, his skills, improving just as mine did. We were all friends, in the outfit. Our official name was the '3rd Sniper Company' but people nicknamed us the 'Ironbows'."
Nage looked at me, "That new kid looked alot like you. That's why in those times, I saved you. but theres more to that.."
" Years ago, when we were pushing the expansion in New York, the Ironbows were always in the front and beyond any resistance we find. 76 members with hundreds of confirmed kills, very minimum casualties. One time, we were sent on a scouting mission, something like 20 snipers were sent to cover a large area. That's when we all got ambushed at the same time by raiders, instead of killing us in the spot they gathered us up in a building somewhere.
One by one they would slit the head's of our fellow snipers, rape their corpses and play with their blood until they reached me and the new kid. They saw... how young he looked and decided that they have something else in mind. I-I tried stopping them, I swear but they just pulled him away from me and tore off his clothes."
"When that raider was trying to have his way with you, and how you cried and begged him to stop... I couldn't help but have those horrifying memories of that kid... I couldn't do anything, I was too scared. When they were finished with him, they shot him in the head.. moments after that, the rest of the outfit charged into the building and wiped out all the raiders. They knew something was wrong when we didn't report back for a long time.
I was the only survivor of a 20 man scouting mission. The rest of the outfit and I became devastated. We saw our fellow snipers decapitated, raped and mutilated. Everyone in the outfit was like brothers.. and none of us could handle it, this was back when we had our first encounters with these kind of raiders.
Slowly, the Ironbows resigned from the military, and eventually disbanded. Some of them went home south, some stayed in regular army, and some wanted vengeance.
They would find it by heading north, while their army was still in New York they would clear the way to Connecticut.
I did that very thing, until I found myself becoming a guard for a Caravan."
After saying all that, Nage buried his head between his legs, sobbing.
"I don't want to say his name, it hurts too much... He was my friend.."
"Nage." I said.
"Nothing is going to happen to me, alright? What happened at the subway? I wasn't prepared, that will change now." I continued
"You won't have to worry so much about me, because I wont ever be caught in a situation like that again."
"You can't guarantee that."
"If that's what you think, maybe you're right. Don't think of me as a kid despite me being new to this world. I myself was quite horrified by what these raiders can do. But I'm not gonna let that stop me from completing my mission.
My life is not as important as the amount of lives inside my Vault. If it means giving my own life away to save them, then so be it."
"I always thought of Vault dwellers as putrid cowards, ya know. How they get the luxury life in the Vaults, not giving a fuck what goes on here... You're doing more than just saving your Vault, you're saving this town, Ken. That is something no one out here does for free. You are not what I think of as a normal Vault dweller."
He leans in and grabs the side of my head, "And don't ever let that change."
For the first time today, I could see that familiar smile that reminded much of Liam. The door suddenly knocked.
"Ken! Gerro wants to see ya!" said Makos.
"Go on ahead, then. No matter what happens, I'm on your side." said Nage.
I stood back up on my feet and opened the door, "Well then, I hope you're ready for what's to come tomorrow."
...
I followed Makos to a large room with a map pinned on the wall. Many of the Lingerers sat in the room including the Knights. There was no where to sit, so I just stood by the doorway with Makos.
Gerro stood up by the map and started to brief everyone.
"Ok. Let's get started. Thanks to the Knights who let us borrow their helmets to make contact with the Order, I managed to get a good conversation with a Captain Tarrish and his Sergeant Major Ernam."
Ernam is still alive? Well, I can't say that I'm surprised after what Ernam's gone through.
"We're gonna work with the Order to finally take back our home. On the break of dawn they will charge into the city from this point." Gerro uses his finger to point a spot of grass outside the town.
"They will have absolutely no cover, I managed to convince those fools that despite a large charge, they will all be annihilated as soon as a column of tanks gets from one side of town to the other. That's where we come in."
"OUR JOB. Is to pursue such a column of tanks, and put them to a complete stop. After making them stop, we radio the coordinates to their artillery to completely wipe them out.
Now I know we faced tanks before, but we haven't ever faced more than one tank at the same time. This will be tricky for all of us.
The tanks will use the main street here, it is the only clean street in town, the other streets are riddled with cars and debris. This is perfect for us, we'll hide within these buildings and when the time is right, we take out their leading tank and the tank in the back. The street is narrow enough so that they can't drive around any other tank, this will trap them.
There is the worrying obstacle of enemy infantry, however, There will certainly be around a hundred or so Fangs with those tanks."
The Lingerers mumbled among themselves, do they not like the odds?
"Hey! Don't you fucking mumble, I'm not done yet. We all fought the Fangs before, and we were always outnumbered. What difference is there now?
Tomorrow is when it's gonna end people! After tomorrow the fighting stops! Because we will finally retake our home!"
The Lingerers started mumbling in agreement now.
"Don't you want to see the day where we stop living in the fucking tunnels? Don't you want to see your home in it's glory again?"
Gerro was hyping up the Lingerers, they began to chant and hollar.
"IT'S TOMORROW MY PEOPLE, LIVE TOMORROW AND YOU'LL SEE!"
The cheering became louder, the Lingerers stood up and started clapping.
"JOL! Radio everyone we got out there! Tell them to get the fuck down here! We're gonna need everyone we got for this operation."
"Yes sir!"
"I want 10 men on watch right now!
The cheering continued, all the Lingerers were inspired, hyped and ready. With more on the way back here, the sudden spark of hope floods into everyone's hearts.
"GET PSYCHED PEOPLE! BECAUSE TOMORROW...
THIS ENDS."