Chapter Three

"Please" she repeated "you have to help me"

I stopped shaving and to look at her, she was on the verge of tears but she looked determine to find them. "I don't have to do shit" I told her.

"They are good honest people sent out to by the overseer to help protect me, they don't deserve to die" Madison said. She had a guilty look on her face like it was her fault they had been caught by the raiders. It may have been but ultimately it was the overseer to blame, why would he risk the lives of his people, something was up. I had the leverage I needed for some real answers.

"Why did the overseer even want you to scout the area?" I asked

"We don't have time for this they could be being tortured right now." She paused thinking. "If I tell you will you help?"

"Maybe" I said, trying not to sound like I cared that much.

"Fine, he was hoping we could find a place that had more water chips or at least a G.E.C.K, now lets go" she made for the door but I did not follow. She turned and looked at me and said "You said...

"I said maybe." Cutting her off mid-sentence. "They are dead already, no point wasting my life for theirs and you shouldn't either."

"I need your help." She looked at a lost for what to do, then she took off a bag she was wearing a upturned it and dumped its entire contents on the floor. "Go ahead take whatever you want but help me find them." I picked through the pile looking for anything particularly useful. There was a map of D.C and a compass, both of which could be found on my pipboy as well as hers but it couldn't hurt to have a backup. She also had a Leatherman but so did I and some bandages which would be useful but not all that rare. Then I found the Diamond hiding among the coal, Iodine pills. Those could purify water and reduce its ration levels as well. I picked up the bottle and before I could say I wanted them she said "Half" and then she snatched them from my grasp and said "only after we found them."

I smiled at that, she knew they were valuable and to not let me have them before the job was done she learned fast. "You know I could just shoot you take all of them" I said making a gun with my hand and miming pulling the trigger.

Her reply was to give a one fingered hand gesture of her own and say, "You would not have gone through the trouble of trying to save me just to shoot me now." She turned and walked out the door.

I hurried to follow her and we set out together. It was still dark outside but for how much longer?

"Hey does that thing on your arm tell time" I asked pretending I did not know what it was and that I had one. I wore a baggy jacket that helped hide it.

"Oh yeah it's a pipboy, does a lot of useful things like monitoring my vitals and inventory. We get them in the vault when are old enough and they are tied to our DNA so no one else can us them." She said

That was total bullshit anybody can use them but she did not know I knew that. She was making sure I wouldn't kill her for it clever, but why did she still trust me so little I did save her like she said but I did hit her I wondered if she remembered that. I decided to play stupid and said "I do not know or care what 'DNA' is just tell me the time."

Madison looked at her pipboy "It is four am."

"Damn not a lot of night left lets hurry." I said quickening my pace

"Isn't it a good thing it might be light soon. No monster hunting or lurking in the shadows." She asked

"The big ugly monsters do not seem to care what time it is when they are try and eat you. For the most part they are just as active at night and day except for maybe a deathclaw." I said

"Deathclaw, what is that some kind of Mutate badger or something?" she asked.

"I don't know what it is never seen one, personally I think it is just a fairy tale. People get bored in the wastes, tell stories and sometimes details get exaggerated for flare. No I like the dark because it will make it harder for the raiders to see us just watch your step don't need a twisted ankle or broken bone those are just as bad as gunshot wound out here" I said "Moon light and stairs only illuminate so much."

"Isn't it a two why street? Can't they sneak up on us?" she asked

"True but raiders are not exactly too worried about people looking for them, most people are not that stupid to look for trouble. So hopefully most of them will be asleep and any that are awake are to stoned or drunk or simply do not care enough to keep watch."

We reached the gate of megaton I nodded to stolkom who opened the gate, did that guy ever sleep? Out into the Waste again, nothing good ever comes of this. "There is an old grocery store of shorts not too far from here that the raiders like to hang out that is probably our best bet. That or an old school building, but if they are not there than there is not any real way to find them." I told Madison.

"What is the game plan once we find them? Can you take on that many raiders? You already killed three by yourself." She said hopefully.

"I just got lucky they had no weapons and I got the drop on two of them. Simply shooting it out is not going to be an option. I have got an idea but I do not think you are going to like it much, hell I do not like it much."

"Can't be any worse than no plan right let's hear it" she said.

"Well I'm thinking that if I shoot at them from a pretty good distance some will come after me giving you a chance to find your friends. I'll try and lose them and met you back at megaton." I said shrugging. I did not tell her that her friends were already dead and if they weren't the only thing we could realistically do is put them out their misery. Even if they were fine I would consider shooting them just so I can say they are dead not have to risk my life trying to free them for some Iodine pills.

"Your right I do not like it much but I can't think of much better." Madison said.

"Should have tried to get you a gun" I said. I stopped and pulled out a knife from the sheath on my waist. It was a good knife, the blade was six inches sharp and serrated I handed it to her hilt first.

She looked at it uneasily and said "I have never killed anyone before"

I pointed to the sharp edge and said "That is the sharp end you stick that into them." I was going to leave it there but decided to say "With raiders it's kill first and fuck asking questions. Kill them or run do not just sit there or try to reason them, fight or flight. You can be worried about killing but odds are you will out of instinct which is good. Feel bad about later, feeling means you are still alive."

"Yeah I got it" she said with a determined look on her face. "We should keep it quiet, sounds travels far out here, learned that the hard way." She said bitterly

I nodded and kept my mouth shut. The darkness and silence of the waste surrounded us from then on. Nothing, nothing for as far as the eye could see, sure you would occasionally find out a burned out building or car, a dead drying tree here but that was it. The silence of the waste was disturbed only by our rustling as me moved through the desert. No animals made any noises, any which howled too much ended up in the stomach of other animals. Survival of the fittest was what the capital wastes was all about. The strongest fastest and smartest survived or the very brutal, luck would only get you so far eventual it would run out and you'd find yourself run through by a machete .

Despite the harshness of the waste I had managed to survive six months in land totally foreign to me. Growing up in a vault afforded me many advantages that people growing up in the waist did not have. The first of which was three square meals a day and a gym. Even after six months of a substantially smaller diet with less nutritional value I still outweighed most people I've met and anybody bigger than me I was not dumb enough to fight. The second advantage was the piece of metal I was trying to hide on arm. The pipboy had a plethora of features that helped keep me alive especially its ability to interact with prewar technology. Many of the best areas of loot were locked because no one who knew how to open them were alive and there was not enough fire power to blow the door open. That's how I found my M16, it was behind a locked door in a building that people simply could not get through and a good gun was the most valuable thing a person in the waste could have. This shit hole of land would not kill me nor would the asshole inhabitants without a good fight. I knew one day I would be to slow or outmatched and loss but I don't think it will be any time soon but that could all be from the arrogance of only being twenty

I looked at Madison and wondered how long she would make it out here. She was tougher than she looked that was for sure, I was setting a good pace and she was keeping up without complaint despite passing out only hours ago. Also seemed pretty clever but still far too idealistic but I'd bet once she finds her friends dead she will scurry back into the vault, back into the safe hole in the ground. Still I admired her drive to find her friends, whether it was because she cared about them or simply felt responsible it was not a common trait to find in the wastes.

My thoughts were broken when I noticed we were nearing the store maybe two hundred yards away or so "Alright lets hold up her for a second and check it out, see what we are dealing with." I told Madison and I dropped down into the prone position and she dropped down next to me. I looked through the scope on the rifle, there was only one raider outside the building holding a hunting rifle that probably meant that the rest were inside which could either be problematic for us or a blessing. I panned left and right looking for anything but saw nothing but dead and desecrated bodies, raiders did not bury their victims in fact they liked to display them. Two of the victims on display seemed fresher than the others, and they were wearing blue jumpsuits. Well my job just got much easier and I let out a sigh of relief. The raiders had stabbed a large spike through each of their chest propping them up like some kind of macabre scarecrow. There pants were removed, apparently these raiders were not that picky and did not care where they put it, male or female. Every inch of exposed skin was either burned or cut and some had been completely flayed away exposing the muscle underneath the skin.

"Well what do you see" Madison said sounding both impatient and scared of what I might say. Instead of telling her I just handed her the rifle so she could see for yourself. She looked through the scope for a couple of seconds before she admitted "I can't see anything but one raider this should be easy right"

"Look all the way to the left of the building and then slowly pan right slowly you will know when you see it." I told her.

"I still don't see anyth…. Oh god no no no please it can't be. It's too far away to be sure and they are too mangled to be sure if it is them I have to get a close look." Madison said. I could tell she did not believe it and was grasping at any hope to delay the fact that she would have to come to grip with the horrible death her friends suffered.

"They are wearing blue jumpsuits no one wears those except people from the vaults." I told her

"They could be from other vaults or or or something" she said

"Its them, there is only one other person from a vault running around out here and from what I hear it would take an act of god to kill that guy. We are done here lets go." I said

"Go? What do you mean go we have to get them down we have to bury them." She went to stand up and I put a hand on her back and held her down.

"We can't it is too risky, we would have to kill that raider silently so he can't raise the alarm and then there is always the chance that anyone inside the building comes out and spots us and we are dead. We are outnumbered here." I told her

"They were good people they deserve better than to be displayed like that, they deserve a proper burial." She said determined to do something

"They are gone, dead, do not waste your life on something that no longer matters, you can't save a dead person it is not worth it. If you want to throw your life away for something noble, fine that's your business but make it count. Let this go" I looked her in the eyes and said "Let it go."

"I can't it's my fault they are dead." She said tears rolling down her face. She pushed my hand holding her down off and went to stand up again. She was going to get both of us killed but I was not about to allow that to happen. I grabbed her ankle and yanked her down as hard as I could. She gave a yelp of surprise as she came crashing back down to the earth. I covered her mouth quickly and she looked at me with eyes wide with terror. I grabbed the rifle back and looked back at the lone raider praying he had not heard. I saw him looking in our direction however than he opened the door to store and yelled something I could not make out.

"Shit" I swore. "We have to move now, back to megaton as quick as we can and prey they do not catch up. If they do I swear ill shot you myself."

She looked a little surprised by the statement but without a word she ran off in the direction of megaton and I followed hot on her heels.