Chapter 3: Onward

Holodisk log. Resident 53-10385. January 24th 2285. Rep reporting.

I will never know if someone I know will ever get out of that Vault and find my Pip-Boy. I hope so. There's nothing worse than being stuck in that isolated shithole and never knowing it is all a sham.

After nearly freezing to death, me and a wastelander named Cheryl had become friends... Okay, so the term, "friends," is circumstantial considering she tried to shoot me with my own hardware. Luckily I had looted enough canned goods and Nukas from the local prison where the Vault was located to get her on my side for the moment. I had a slight hiccup this morning, though.

The fire was smoldering in the fireplace. Rep had his grave-robbed jacket draped over him as he laid on the floor. There was a semi-soft "THUD" on the floor, causing him to stir and lazily open his eyes. There was another sudden, "THUD" as he opened his eyes fully. It took a second to focus until he realized he took his glasses off. After quickly putting them on and focusing on the two black devices with glowing green lights on them, his eyes opened as wide as they could...

"Oh, shit! Plasma grenades!"

Rep whacked both of them away from him into the dining room of the old house as a waking Cheryl quickly sat up and groaned loudly, "What in the blue fuck are you..." She didn't have enough time to finish her sentence. Rep jumped up and grabbed her to throw her to the ground just as the wall exploded behind her. The both of them were showered with lath and plaster chunks as they heard a gravelly voice scream at them through the front windows, "Cheryl!"

Even with the explosions of the Plasma grenades ringing in her ears, she knew that rough, cat-piss-n-acid voice anywhere, "Cheryl, we need to have a conversation about your friend!" Cheryl pushed Rep off the top of her and stood up, walking to the broken window annoyed. "What the fuck, Wade!" she screamed, "I fucking told you never to use plasma on my place!" She paused as she stood in plain view of the window looking down on the one deteriorated individual standing outside in the snow along with at least four others who looked exactly like him.

"I would usually ring the bell, my dear," the one rotted man said as eloquently as he could, "But you see, the Ghoul Kids suffered a loss last night and it's because of the fat motherfucker we tracked to your place!"

Cheryl looked at Rep, turning very slowly. So slowly in fact, it left a disturbing air of fright that put Rep in a state of fear of what she said next...

"What. The Fuck. Did. You. Do?!"

Rep shrugged sheepishly, "It was self defense?"

BOOM! One of the other rotting people – Known now as the "Ghoul Kids" – took out a rocket launcher, and launched a rocket right at the front of the house. As the wall blew inward on Rep and Cheryl, the both of them were thrown to the ground as the wall's remains covered them, leaving a cloud of dust in the rocket's wake. Before the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Rep and Cheryl jumped to their feet and started to run to the back door only to have a barrage of gunfire and laser fire open up on them. Rep dove to the ground when a laser bolt whizzed past his head and struck the wall before him. Cheryl turned around to find the Vault Dweller on the floor, arms over his head keeping his hat in place.

Irritated, the leather-clad wastelander ran back and grabbed him by the collar of his Vault Suit dragging him to his feet. "Come on, you idiot!" she yelled over the gunfire reports.

"Wait!" Rep yelled, "My bag!" He pivoted on his heels and ran back into the living room. "What are you doing?! Are you stupid?!" From behind her the doorway that led to the kitchen rocked a sudden explosion, dust and debris following the explosive concussion. She went down like a sack of wheat.

Rep turned to find Cheryl face down on the floor, "Cheryl! Shit!" He turned back to the messenger bag, threw it on his shoulder, grabbed the grave-robbed jacket, and hastily picked the now unconscious woman off the floor. Just as he hefted her off the floor, the gunfire stopped. "Hey, Vault Boy!" That same rough scratchy voice spoke again, obviously addressing him, "Nothing would thrill us more than to see your pudgy ass hang from a radio tower, but seeing you're in there with our only lifeline to Brahmin Wood, we're willing to make a deal." From the sound of it, Rep already didn't want to reply, but what was said next confirmed it, "Come on out, give us everything you got, and allow us to hack off your arms and legs, we'll let you live." Rep was struck with terror, "We'll give you 90 seconds to make up your mind."

"Yeah," another ghoul shouted, "we even picked out a cute name for you; Torso Boy!" As the ghouls had a good laugh at the very twisted joke, Rep carefully put Cheryl down and quickly ran into the kitchen to start digging for anything that would help them get away.

"80 seconds," the new lead Ghoul Kid yelled. Rep opened the cabinets and found Abraxo Cleaner and Wonderglue.

"70 seconds," Rep opened the fridge and found, oddly, Microfusion Cells and scrap electronics.

"60 seconds, smoothie! Time's runnin' out!" Rep went into his bag and pulled out a roll of duct tape and a conductor. He took all the items and placed them on the counter in the kitchen.

"50. Come on, man, do you really wanna have that nice piece of ass die because of you? Haven't you read, 'Tales of Chivalry'?" Rep pulled a pad of paper and a pencil out of his bag and started scribbling calculations as fast as he could.

"40. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock!" The ghouls laughed as Rep started mixing the cleaner with the glue in discarded tin cans found on the floor..

"30!" Rep placed the Microfusion Cells into the two cans filled with the cleaner/glue mixture.

"20!" Rep hooked the electronics into the cells and the conductor, duct taping it all together.

"10 seconds!" Rep ran back into the living room and grabbed the school bag.

"5..."

He put the device into the bag.

"4..."

He put the bag over his jacket.

"3..."

He picked up Cheryl.

"2... 1. Time's up, fleshy!" A red sneaker-boot kicked the half-destroyed door out as the Vault Dweller walked out with the unconscious woman in his arms. "Glad to see you came to your senses," the sentient beef jerky scoffed, "we were beginning to think you weren't comin' out."

"You caught me with my shorts down," Rep said cryptically, "Had to get dressed."

"I can see why," the ghoul said as he chuckled, "fine lookin' floozy that rare, I'd have my drawers down, too." Rep rolled his eyes in disgust, the image becoming all too clear in his mind. Now he regrets his choice of words.

"Alright," the lead ghoul, Wade, raised his hand signaling the others in the pack to raise their weapons, "like we agreed. First, the gun you used." Rep slowly put the woman in his arms down and went for the plasma pistol. He realized he moved too fast when he heard multiple weapons cock and charge up. "Slowly, smoothie," Wade stated, "We don't want any accidents."

More slowly, Rep grabbed the butt of the gun with two fingers and threw it into the snow in front of Wade, "Very good, Stupid. Now, the bag," Rep sighed as he threw the bag at the rotted man's feet. One of the others came from behind and picked up the bag, taking it back to the others.

"Good! Good boy! Why couldn't you be this obedient yesterday? Now..." The ghoul licked his lips, "Gimmie that mini computer on your arm."
"What?" Rep said in confusion, "I can't take it off. It'll only come off if I die." He suddenly winced realizing what words just spilled out of his big dumb mouth. "Is that so?" Wade took a very sudden interest in not just the device, but in how to obtain it. This was unexpected.

Rep had to think, and think quickly, "Well, that's what they told us. B-but, I might be able to get it off. Give me a second." This was REALLY unexpected. His plan was not going perfect, but he did have an advantage.

"Hey, Wade," another ghoul yelled, "Why don't we just take it when we chop him?" "Because the fucking thing will lock out if it just senses the arm being removed. Can't use it without reprogramming it, and we don't get as much for it if it's locked."

Rep saw an opportunity.

"You calling your guy stupid back there?" The ghouls looked at the Vault Dweller in surprise. The other ghoul who spoke up before did so again, "What?"

"Well, it's just that..." Rep's charisma started to shine through, "I'm a Vault Engineer and I've never heard of that. Kinda insulting to think someone stupid for making a suggestion like that."

"Is that right, Wade?" another in the pack asked, "You think I'm stupid, too?"

"Personally," Rep continued like a Chryslus Highwayman dealer, "I thought it was an astute observation. It would have been easier, but he figured you would rather waste your time on stupid ideas because he thinks of you as such."

"It's because Hudson always thought you were stupid," another ghoul added, "that you're taking it out on us, isn't it?" Wade was standing in panic listening to the descent of the other ghouls in his pack. That was when Rep went in for the kill...

"He was probably waiting for him to get killed."

Wade snapped, pulled out his laser pistol, and pointed it in the Vault Dweller's face screaming in that gravelly voice of his as he did, "Shut the fuck up! Get that fucking thing off your arm now!"

"You mean THIS thing?" Rep raised his arm and activated the remote trigger on his Pip-Boy. Inside the backpack the group of ghouls were holding ruptured; a massive explosion engulfed all but Wade into the ball of flames. The blast knocked Wade and Rep off their feet and blew out the windows of the house Cheryl and himself stayed the night before.

Rep flipped over and quickly crawled to his pistol just as Wade was raising his head up. Seeing what the smoothskin was crawling for, he pushed himself up quickly and tackled the man to the blood-splattered snow below them in the vain hope of stopping him. The Vault Dweller and the ghoul rolled on the ground. Rep managed to push the corpse off him while he was on his back, getting his feet under Wade's chest. It was a semi-failed effort as Wade managed to also grab the man's ankle lessening the shove simply knocking him to the ground. Rep rolled back over and grabbed the pistol turning to find Wade already getting back up. In almost perfect timing, Rep cocked out the arm he was holding his weapon and swung his arm using the butt of the gun to pistol whip the ghoul in the temple.

Wade fell back into the red snow, unconscious.

Stunned at the mess he just made, Rep scrambled to his feet, scooped up Cheryl, and headed as fast as he could away from this house. After getting away he stopped and looked back where he came, fresh footprints laid in the snow on the busted asphalt road. As he looked south, he hoped he'd find a much safer place to go.

Yeah, he thought to himself, that's been working out really well so far. He sighed a mental sigh, "Oh, well," he said aloud to nobody, "Onward."