Chapter 2: The Battle of Concord
"Mommy, why do we have to stay in this room surrounded bars?"
"It's to keep us safe honey, we've been... purchased so our owners gave us this room,"
"Is it normal to be owned by people? It sounds weird to me,"
"No sweetheart, it's not normal, but as long as we're together we'll get by,"
"I'm scared mommy, I don't living behind bars,"
"I know dear, I know. Just let me hold onto you, maybe you can get some sleep,"
"Thank you mommy, I love you,"
"I love you too, my little Maxine,"
KABOOM! A sudden explosion caused Max to burst awake, her hair a mess from sleeping after a rain fall. She was fortunate to find a shack to sleep in for night. With a yawn and a stretch, she casually stepped back outside, the soft ground that once was home to a landmine was now a smoldering crater, bits and pieces of whoever stepped on it thrown about, not bothering Max even in the slightest.
"Nice, gotta love home security," she chuckled to herself as she began doing stretches, limbering up for the day ahead. According to her pip-boy's map she wasn't far from the town of Concord, making it the next logical location in which to travel. Gathering up all her weapons and gear, she was finally ready to leg it.
The weather was clear and sunny, not a cloud in the sky as she began traversing the new wasteland she found herself in. It almost felt like a home away from home as she observed the collapsed highway roads, buildings in severe disrepair, and the various mutated creatures that skittered along the ground around her. The sounds of scratching beneath broke the tranquility of the area, Max immediately drawing a 10mm pistol as a series of mole rats emerged from the Earth.
"Alright, breakfast!" she lightly chuckled, taking quick careful note of all 5 surrounding her As if target practicing, she casually took shots at each one that made a jump at her, hitting each one with 2 round bursts. As she went to reload, a sixth charged her from behind. As it leaped for her arm, Max twirled around, smacking the side of her pistol into its skull with lethal force.
"These suckers are a lot bigger than the ones back home,"
Taking a breath to ease her nerves she went ahead and started building a small campfire to cook up some food to feast on and take on the go. After skinning them carefully, she began cooking, taking a long whiff of the familiar food with a smile. Suddenly, her ears heard the sound of foot steps behind, space out enough to determine they were human. Closer and closer, Max waited until the optimal distance before whirling around with her 10mm, aiming it at her stalker.
"Whoa! Easy!"
The voice came from a tall, rugged man, his body clad in a vibrant azure vault suit, something that Max hadn't seen in a very long time. He was clearly some form of ex military based on his physique and careful footsteps, a new 10mm pistol on the belt at his waist. He quickly raised his hands up to prove he wasn't a threat, Max looking him over carefully.
"Mind telling me what your doing trying to sneak up on me?"
"I didn't mean to sneak up, I just wanted to approach and ask if you wouldn't mind sharing food, I'm short on supplies right now,"
"And you thought it was safe with all these guns sitting around me? Not too bright are you..."
"It was your pip boy actually, I figured you were in the same spot of me or something being a fellow vault dweller,"
"I was never a vault dweller, but I was saved by one once upon a time,"
Letting out a sigh, she lowered her gun, patting the ground next to her.
"Alright, have a seat, I have more than I can eat right now anyways,"
"Thank you, just a sec,"
Turning to his rear, he raised his fingers to lips and let out a loud whistle. Turning to look for herself, out from behind a tree a dog began running towards them, a German Shepard mix of some kind. Curious, the dog sniffed at Max, who simply smiled.
"Can...can I pet him?"
"Of course, if he'll let you anyway,"
A look of innocence flashed on Max's face as she began petting and rubbing all over his face.
"He's so cute! I bet he's good boy isn't he?"
"Yeah, he's saved me more than a few times already,"
"I knew it! You're such a good boy, it is a boy right? Does it have a name?"
The man laughed at the cute interaction, removing the meat that was cooking before working on setting up another one.
"Yeah it's a boy, but he doesn't have a name as far as I know,"
"He could be called something stupid like dog meat and he'd still be a good boy," she chuckled, patting it's back before turning back to the fire. They sat in silence as they shared the camp fire, cooking up all of the mole rats into savory chunks for consumption.
"So what's with the vault suit? Is it like your thing or do you not have other clothes?"
"It's the latter, I actually only left the vault a few days ago,"
"Really now...that's suspicious. Back home vaults were horrifying time capsules just waiting to be explored and you're telling me you just left one?"
"It's not really a long story. In the vault I was in, we were cryogenically frozen 200 years ago and for some reason my pod opened up. Everyone else frozen was dead, including my wife who was shot and killed by some men. She was holding my son, Shaun and when she refused to let them have him...well...it was gruesome. Honestly I'm still in a bit of shock,"
"Not going to lie, that's pretty fucked up, but honestly it's par for the course for Vault-Tec. I am sorry to hear that though, I've lost everything to this twisted world in so I can relate. I'm sure the dog is helping a lot,"
"More than you know, I'm lucky I found him roaming around. Judging from your face you probably have novels of stories to tell, but enough about that. Let's eat,"
As the three of them began chewing on the stringy morsels, Max tried to remember the last time she shared a meal with someone. Looking over at him, she felt something in her heart that hadn't felt in some time: warmth.
"I guess there are still some good people out there...so, what's your name? I'm Max,"
"It's Nate, nice to meet you Max,"
"Back at you," Max mumbled as she continued to chew, the faint sounds of growls and aimless footsteps being caught by her trained ears. She quickly snagged her 10mm from her holster, checking her hollow sights towards the origin of the sounds.
"It looks like we may have company if we don't move, I see a murder of feral ghouls nearby,"
"Did you just compare them to a group of crows?"
"Well I mean, they murder people when they get close don't they?"
"Fair point. I'll kill the fire while you get your things off the ground,"
Max quickly slid the straps of her rifles over her head, the straps forming an x across her chest. She then snagged her .44 off the ground, dusting it off before slipping it into it's holster.
"So what's with the revolver? You already have 2 rifles and a handgun so why carry that heavy thing around?"
"What's it to you...?"
"Curious is all, it can't be easy finding ammo for it from what I've experienced so far having run into traders,"
"It's a keepsake and it's really powerful when it comes to being confronted by things like
yao guai up close,"
"Understandable, sorry being invasive,"
"Honestly this is the most I've been spoken to in awhile so it's fine"
The two of them continued various bits of small talk as they approached Concord, weapons drawn in case of an ambush or a hoard of anything attacking them. Fortunately, it was barely an hour until they arrived to the welcoming sounds of gun fire and energy blasts, a feeling that put a smile on Max's face.
"It sounds like home,"
"Why are you smiling?! There's a gun fight going on!"
She shot a mischievous smirk, sliding her bolt-action hunting rifle into her hands. Shutting an eye to gave down the scope, a big toothy smile crept upon her face. with a loud blast, he immediately caught sight of a raider facing the museum, his head exploding like a fleshy pinata. Looking back at Max, her eyes were hard focused on his, giving him a small wink before moving in.
"Exactly!"
Drawing his 10mm he began tailing behind her, watching her back as she kept blasting at the raiders from a far, each one dropping like a ton of bricks with each well placed shot.
"Jesus...I know I was military but how many people has this woman killed before...?" Nate thought, during off a few rounds into a raider trying to flank the two. Once they were in the thicket of combat, half of the raiders turned to face them, forcing them into cover as a barrage of pipe gun rounds barraged their location. Looking around, Nate spotted a pipe rifle on the ground from the headless raider from earlier, grabbing it and immediately firing off round after round now that he had a range advantage.
She swapped out her sniper rifle for her assault rifle, looking over a Nate, her grin ceasing to drop.
"I'll give you some cover fire so you can move in!" Max shouted above the deafening gunfight, Nate giving her a nod as she peeked out from behind the run down vehicle she used for cover. Gunfire roared from her automatic assault rifle, focusing on their cover spots as Nate took flight on his feet, Dog Meat charging with him into the frey.
Nate showed his past experiences with combat as Max dropped her drum magazine, letting loose shot after shot, each round finding it's way into their chests and guts. Dog Meat charged behind a pile of sand bags, viciously snarling as his jaw snapped onto the raiders leg, yanking the raider out of cover to make him easier to dispose.
"Such a good boy!" Max chuckled, grabbing her sniper again and easily popping his head into a mist, Dog Meat retreating into cover with Nate. Max finally moved out of cover, pulling her 10mm to finish off what remaining raiders were left.
Shouts came from over head from a tall, stout man, dressed in colonial style clothes with a laser musket in hand.
"Help us, please!" was all Max could make out as she joined Nate at the front door.
"I can take care of this, you don't need to risk you're life any further," Nate's words made Max smirk and put her hands on her hips.
"And here I thought chivalry was dead,"
"I just don't like needlessly putting others in harm's way,"
"You're preaching to the choir Nate, seriously. Tell you what, I'll wait out here to keep any further raiders from making their way in, deal?"
"Deal, good luck,"
"Back at you,"
Nate swiftly moved in, the doors slamming behind him.
"Mmf, damn he's hot," Max chuckled to herself, immediately scrounging up ammunition from the wake of bodies they left behind. She began whistling a tune as she casually looted, making her way back to her drum magazine to retrieve it, finding cover before removing a large, heavy pouch off her belt, revealing rounds for the large magazine. She kept her ears open as she thumbed round after round into the drum, she felt shiver of dread course through her veins, memories of the past flashing before her eyes.
"Not again..." Max sighed, her arms beginning to tremble as for each round thumbed in, screams, death, and horrific, savage displays of sadism flooded her mind. Tear drops edged out the edges of her eye over the entire course of refilling the drum, immediately being shook off as she slammed the drum magazine back into the assault rifle with a satisfying click. She suddenly heard shouting orders from around the corner, peeking out to see a group of 10 raiders with a clear leader standing amongst them.
"Damn boss, they really did a number on our guys,"
"Heh...they were new recruits, so I'm not completely surprised. However..." Gristle trailed off as he casually picked up one of the heads cleanly blown off their shoulders from one of his men.
"They were clearly in over their head. You see this blast wound here? That's from a .50 calibur round, so the enemy is packing some serious firepower," the blunt revelation was quickly halted as the head in his hand suddenly covered those close to it like a shotgun shell of visceral meat. They immediately looked towards the sound, the sight of Max waving at them causing them all to take aim and rain bullets upon her hesitation. Immediately, Max slipped into the building right next to her, taking several pot shots at them with her 10mm to get their attention.
"That's it, come to mama," Max snickered, the footsteps stomping towards her before she moved up the stairs, ready to bottle neck them. As she reached the top of the stairs, a window shattered to her left, a blazing inferno blasting towards her with the shattering of a bottle.
"Shit!" Max immediately moved back down, frustrated as she was forced to equip her freshly reloaded assault rifle, knowing that it'd be permanently without ammo after the magazine was done. Four raiders stormed the building, Max immediately letting loose a barrage to drop them all into a bloody mess. Immediately she finished hopping down the stairs as they caught fire, quickly cornering the far end of the building, adrenaline surging through her as she quickly swung into an alley, echoing screams of bullets bouncing off the walls as she riddled another few raiders with countless holes before quickly moving on.
What Max thought was going to be an easy showdown soon turned into a ferocious blood bath, her bullets running low as she came out from the back of the building, another squad of raiders coming in from the distance. Whipping around the corner she emptied the rest of the large, assault rifle rounds, easy turning three more raiders into a blood mess before the empty clicking from the trigger. Yanking the strap to pull it to her back, she quickly pulled the sniper rifle up, dropping two raiders off I. the distance before another empty click occured.
"Jeeze, they're giving me zero room here..." Max groaned, drawing her 10mm, taking a few breaths to regain her composure and unable to stay in cover to fight, she quickly dashed out behind the main squad, squeezing the trigger feverishly to try and get a few more bodies on the ground, dropping the empty mag before quickly reaching in her pocket and slamming the next one end, cutting down the reinforcements coming in to assist the main group.
Pop! Pop! Several rounds rung out from a pipe rifle from above her head, soon realizing the enemy had finally taken a high ground. She let out a shout as she felt 4 rounds strike her, one of them being blocked by a plate but the others planting themselves into her side and shoulder. She tried to remove a stimpak from her other pocket, but it was immediately blasted from her hand.
"Damn it! This is getting ridiculous!" Max growled through clenched teeth, observing blood lightly stream down from the edge of her coat sleeve.
"It's always with high numbers...gee we're getting out gunned but a girl, send more guys in! Freakin' raiders," Max groaned as she tried to scurry out of their sights only to be met with several more, her superior aim planting multiple rounds into their heads and necks, dropping them. She rummaged through the bodies, cursing to herself as she came up empty with potential stimpack finds. Returning back to keep her word to Nate, she pressed her back to the wall, breathing heavily as she dropped another empty mag from the 10mm, reaching into her mag bag to find nothing but mags for her sniper rifle.
"Well shit...I guess I gotta use this awful thing..."
Max picked up one of the pipe pistols off of one of the dead raiders, rummaging their pockets to find an extra mag, slipping it into her now empty coat pocket. Ready to turn the corner, she felt the ground suddenly shake from the main buildings direction, peeking the corner to see a massive, full set of power armor carrying a massive minigun. She let out a playful whistle as she watched it clear cut through the remaining raiders like butter, moving in on the boss as he found his back moving to the wall.
"What the hell was that...?" Max heard a loud, burly roar coming from beneath some metal grates at the backside of Gristle. Max immediately bolted out into the open waving her hands at the power armor as it rev'd up the minigun at her, signalling she wasn't a threat before spinning around and seeing a metal gate being flung off into the distance, a massive monster claw clutching the ground, the terrifying sight of a deathclaw peeking up from the sewer.
"Haven't seen one of those fuckers in awhile,"
"What the hell is that?!" Nate's voice came out from the helmets speaker, terrified from the monster that had finally reached the surface, Gristle now screaming as the deathclaw clasped him tight, tearing him in half with ease.
"That...is a deathclaw. I pretty sure you can figure out how it got it's name," Max looked down to see Dog Meat hiding behind Nate, barking at it loudly. It's terrifying, hellish gaze turned towards them, causing them to freeze with fear for a moment.
"It's looking at us,"
"I'm low on ammo Nate, it's all yours,"
"Thanks for keeping the raiders out by the way,"
"No problem but THAT IS a problem. I'll back you up from here, go get em' tiger!" Max laughed hysterically from fear as she knocked the bottom of her fight on his massive metal arm, removing the .44 with her good arm. It was reptilian in its approach, weaving side to side as Nate stepped forward and spooled up the minigun, shells immediately flooding the ground as he rained hell upon the deathclaw.
"I'm out! I gotta refeed!"
"On it!"
Max stepped away from Nate, doing her damnedest to handle the massive kick from her magnum with every shot, splats of blood vainly splatting from the deathclaw. Roaring loud enough to lightly shake the ground, it began chasing after Max, who ran like hell as Nate finally rethreaded the minigun.
"Firing!" Nate yelled, the mesmerizing, terrifying churn of the barrel immediately caught the deathclaw's attention, blood now seeping heavily from its wounds as the seemingly endless stream of bullets continued to pelt it. The deathclaw's movements were heavily strained as it moved up on Nate, yanking the minigun from his hands and slow crushing the barrel with its inhuman crushing strength. As I overshadowed Nate, a stronger beam of energy shot down from the top balcony, Preston Garvy joining the fight.
"Come on! Stupid arm! Move!"
Max growl loudly as she used her injured arm to empty out the revolver, using a quick loader to ready it and using her hand to whip the loader back into the frame, immediately firing into the devilish fiend's back to get it's attention. Clearly frustrated, it roared again, pushing its own body to the limit to try and catch her, Nate looking at the minigun with an idea.
"Come on you ugly bastard! Try and catch me!" Max cried out before turning tail and running, holstering her empty revolver to dash at full speed. Another shot from Garvy pelted the head of the deathclaw, staggering it as Nate charged it, using the barrel of the minigun as a handle, yelling out loudly as he wild swung the massive gun like a hammer, smashing into it's leg. The deathclaw wailed out as it fell to one leg, crippling it for Nate to bring up the gun one last time, smashing it over the deathclaw's head to finally silence the hellish beast. Even with the power armor, he felt his arms go numb, strained to their limit before spotting Max leaning back against a building wall clearly in pain.
"Max! Are you alright?!" Nate ran as fast as he could, Max's breathing heavy as she gripped her arm, the pain truly setting in after the adrenaline wore off.
"That was BADASS, I've never seen such an epic way to finish off a deathclaw like that," Max chuckled through the pain, a small pool of blood slowly forming from the injuries of her arm and side.
"Damn you got hit pretty bad, hold on," Nate immediately disengaged from the power armor, quickly pulling out a stimpak and carefully planting it in her arm, she immediately latched her teeth onto her coat as the injection finally hit, letting out a muffled, excruciating shriek of pain before quickly feeling the pain fade away.
"Thanks Nate, I tried to find one on the bodies but none of these morons care about their life apparently,"
"We'll we made it through regardless. So...what are your plans after this?"
"I'm headed to Covenant, I heard they're good strangers and God knows I'd kill for a warm bed and a Nuka-Cola,"
"I could come with you to make sure you'd make it safely,"
Max put on a warm smile before standing and planting a small kiss on Nate's cheek before letting out a soft giggle.
"No offense, but I'm pretty sure I'd be the one protecting you, thanks though,"
Max gave him a firm pat on his shoulder, turning away, trying to hide her rosey cheeks as she walked away.
"Even with my face all messed up I still got it," she chuckled to herself, walking past the museum and pulling out her rifle and gazing down her scope to see if she could spot any kind of trader in the area, spotting a few potential leads. Walking on, she turned back one last time, grinning as she saw Nate enter the museum, feeling better about the potential people she'll find in this new hellscape.