Chapter 3
As Nora rounded the last bend in the road into Concord she could hear gunshots and the dog she had met at the red rocket station whimpered and hunkered down ready for a fight. "Sounds like trouble alright boy" Nora whispered, but Codsworth said i might find some people here that can help me so come hell or high water i have to try she thought to herself, looking down the main street of concord she saw the old museum at the far end and people shooting up at the balcony the lone person up top fired back with some sort of energy weapon she didn't recognize at this great distance. she unshouldered her rifle and moved into one of the outlying buildings to the second floor then steadied her rifle, looking through the scope, she was about to take a shot at one of the scantily clad men in the street when she felt the gun barrel press against her head. "What have we here" said a cold and calculating voice "another little wasteland hero trying to be all noble you make me sick." Nora's mind raced as she tried to figure out how to get out of this situation and cursed herself for not being more aware of her surroundings, "UP" the voice commanded and she slowly got to her feet. "Damn look at that fine ass," she heard the rough voiced man say and then felt as he smacked her across it rather hard. Nora's temper flared and she spun around to face her captor only to see the barrel of a .44 magnum pointed directly at her face, any angry retort she had died in her throat and was replaced by cold gut wrenching fear.
"Ha, that's what I thought Vault bitch" the man sneered as he stared at her body in a lustful manner. "tell you what, you make nice with my cock and i might just let you live." "I'd rather die" Nora stated defiantly, The man with the gun cocked the hammer back and glared at her and she could see he was deciding whether to kill then rape her or rape her then kill her and Nora took his distraction to her advantage, quickly she slammed one of her hands down on his wrist as she brought her other hand up at his elbow and with a sickening crunch broke the man's arm, "You fucking bitch! you broke my arm!" Nora didn't hesitate and instead slammed her fist into his throat "There are 206 bones in the human body, That's one!" Nora retorted vehemently "now don't move," she stated as she bent down and retrieved the now gurgling man's gun from the ground. the man on the ground was about 6 foot ish and probably weighed around 220 lbs and inwardly Nora thanked Nate for all those days he spent teaching her how to fight just in case she ever needed to defend herself. as she hefted the .44 in her hand the man on the ground looked up at her fear now tracing his once hard features as Nora leaned down and started to talk.
"What the hell are you all doing here in concord anyway?" Nora asked. the man lay there for a moment and then realized that the more he talked the more time he would get to breathe, "We're here cause we claimed the town." Nora nodded and smiled "there has to be more to it than that otherwise you wouldn't have been skulking about in this building while your comrades are having a shooting match with whoever is in that building at the end of the street." "Like I'd tell you anything anyway you fucking bitch," the man sneered some newfound toughness in his voice. Nora chuckled softly and stood then without hesitation brought her foot into the man's crotch as hard as she could. His scream was high pitched and therefore went unnoticed on the street below due the gunfire that still continued. "Oh you'll tell me everything I want or I will rip those useless balls off and feed them to my dog" It was her turn to be tough and almost as if on command Dogmeat came out of the shadows and raised his hackles baring teeth to growl at the injured man. "alright, alright just call your dog off," the man stammered as fear trickled in to his sweaty pain filled features. "the guy in the museum is the last of the Minutemen and we figured we could kill him and rid this world of them finally" the man explained. "So murder torture rape are all in your repertoire then" Nora stated, "don't you have any remorse in this world?" "remorse? lady we're raiders we do what we want when we want to whomever the fuck we want." his response was met with a snarl from Dogmeat and a pistol whip from Nora. "you disgust me you sick bastard." Nora made up her mind then forced the man to open his mouth when at first he refused she grabbed his balls and twisted while squeezing as hard as she could. "open your mouth asshole, don't make me have my dog bite down on those tiny balls of yours" Nora stated.
The man reluctantly opened his mouth and Nora placed the barrel of the .44 inside then looking away pulled the trigger a bit of the man's blood splashed up on Nora's face and she shuddered then fought the urge to vomit as she realized that even though it had been him or her she had still killed a man in cold blood. Nora decided to move back to the balcony and picked up her rifle "watch my back boy" she whispered at the dog who barked playfully and went to the stairs as she steadied the rifle and took aim down the scope. "C'mon you fucking pansy just give it up already" she heard the men on the street below yell up to the man on the balcony. "go to hell" the man yelled back at his assailants. The gun fire erupted again and Nora took her moment to strike lining up one of the raiders on the street with the cross hairs she pulled the trigger and watched his head simply disappear in a spurt of red mist. Quickly she lifted the bolt pulling it back to expel the spent cartridge and load a new one, then took aim at the next clear target she could line up. the man's head exploding had cause some definite chaos and now they were scrambling for cover while trying to find her.
Nora chuckled to herself "you'll never find me here fuckers" then lined up another raider and watched him fall as part of his skull came clean off. The man up on the balcony took advantage of the raiders confusion and between him and Nora they cleanly took out the rest of the raiders in the street. Nora stood up on the balcony and waved to get the man's attention trying to show she was friendly, then walked down into the street and moved towards the museum. as she got closer the man yelled down to her "Please I have innocent people here with me and the raiders inside are almost through the door help us!" Nora didn't hesitate she went up the stairs and into the museum, upon entering a gunshot rang out and she felt a burning sensation in her left thigh and instinctively dove for cover. Nora looked at her leg and saw that the bullet had only grazed her leg and wasn't too bad of an injury but it still hurt like hell. She placed her rifle down and drew out the .44 then peaking around the corner tried to find her assailant, within moments of looking she spotted him and another person on the second floor, steeling herself against the pain in her leg she exhaled slowly and fired at the raider on the balcony seeing the round thud painfully into his chest the now deceased raider fell to floor.
"Come on out bitch," the other raider sneered "I'll make it nice and quick, you can trust me." Nora didn't come out of her hiding spot however a slug from the .44 did and caught the man in the jugular, he slid down a post as he bled out and Nora sighed in relief. Dogmeat came over to her and whimpered as he licked her bleeding leg "It's okay boy" Nora said as she ruffled the fur on his head "It's just a flesh wound." She stood up and walked over to the raider that had fallen to the ground from the balcony and began to search the body looking for bandages or anything else useful, then remembered the Stim packs in her bag, and fishing one out used it watching it quickly knit up her grazed flesh and she could feel the pain subside. "See what did i tell you boy just a flesh wound," she smiled and the dog barked playfully then spun around as he chased his tail. Nora moved deeper into the museum and came across a locked gate then checked the .44 to see how many rounds she had left, "hmm 2 left in the gun and another 6 on me" Nora removed the four empty casings from the gun and put four fresh rounds in and closed the breach spinning the cylinder, "Always wanted to do that" she chuckled.
Movement brought her out of her thoughts and she quickly used the door way as cover, "Where the fuck did those two go" she heard a woman growl as she came up to the metal gate and looked out at the lobby, Nora seized the moment and stepped out from her hiding spot raised the weapon in her hand and pulled the trigger. The dirty woman on the other side of the gate didn't have time to react as the bullet ripped through her right breast and tore out of her back and she fell to the floor with that same surprised look on her face that she had when Nora revealed herself.
"Lots of them, but not a brain amongst them" Nora thought to herself as she searched through her pack and found her bobby pins and screw driver. She managed to unlock this gate without breaking a single pin and quickly moved forward and up the stairs to the and proceeded to the left. as she made her way through she heard two more voices talking in hushed tones "What the hell are we waiting around here for any way i say we just leave." "Fuck that man there's someone out there shooting the place up which means whoever it is has the drop on us" "I don't care I'm getting out while the getting is good" "You move towards that door and I'll shoot you myself, we stay here and wait for the boss to get here with backup, then we kill whoever is out there." Nora crept around the corner and leveled the barrel at the closest man's head and pulled the trigger as the other man opened fire on her. She grabbed the now deceased man and used him as a shield to absorb her attacker's bullets as Dogmeat jumped up and grabbed the raider by the throat and with a vicious growl and a quick twist of his head he ripped the raiders throat out. "Good boy!" Nora yelled as the dog barked happily at having gotten praised. Nora eased her way into the room and saw an open door that lead to a stair well and heard two more voices "Open this door now and make it easy on yourself" "Take it easy man they aren't going anywhere let's go and find our would be hero and put a stop to this shit." the first raider kicked the door hard "You hear that? were going to take a little walk and when we get back you're all dead meat." Nora had managed to position herself in a darkened corner of the large room that lead out onto the second floor balcony and steadied her aim with the rifle as the two raiders rounded the corner into the room she pulled the trigger and watched with a satisfied smirk as they both dropped where they stood.