The chill dampness in the air kissed her cheeks with cold teeth and a seeking hunger for warmth. She hid her face as far away as she could, running from that rude awakening of the breeze slipping through the crack in the door until she could only smell that tang of a man's sweat and the stale stench of cigarettes. She opened her eyes to the defined, worn-out creases of Charon's leather pant leg. She rolled over, finding him still seated on the floor beside her, his arms crossed and legs spread wide, a surly look on his face as he stared down at her.
The walk of her palm brushed up, around, and down towards his inner thigh, releasing a grunt from his mouth that she was sure he hadn't meant to give. It pooled a craving on her tongue as she squeezed the meaty muscle trapped away under his zipper, and his fingers were already stroking through her hair, now pulling at it in the best possible way as he slowly tilted her head back with her throat exposed.
He closed his eyes. She didn't. She made the climb into his lap, holding on to the straps of his armor over the front of his chest for balance as she swung a leg over and tipped her mouth to his for a kiss. The collide of tongues went well with the bulge of his cock against her cunt as she grinded their hips together to rub her clit. Charon growled and grabbed a fistful of her jacket, and she panicked.
He can't see her, not like this.
"Hold on," she breathed, and he at once released her. She adjusted her top and subtly made sure the sleeves were down before she climbed off. "Sorry. It's just a little cold."
"We have not been having sex," he bluntly observed, and she awkwardly sat on the floor beside him as he sourly grumbled and crossed his arms. He wasn't wrong. It had been a stalemate ever since Grayditch. "Is there something wrong?"
She pondered for a moment. Does she try and explain this newfound fear? Would he ridicule her? Mock her for such a thing?
Everyone else had, back in the Vault.
Check out the nosebleed! Hey, nosebleed! What's that all over your face?! Gross! Maybe we should call you roadbump from now on!
No. Anything from Charon was a death sentence. She instead looked around the room to avoid his questioning, now noticing the absence of their furry canine.
"Where's Dogmeat?" she asked.
He was still grumpy as he growled, "Outside."
"In this weather?"
He shrugged, giving his attention to the storm that was beginning to batter at the frame. "He will come back."
Her eyes then slowly journeyed back to him, and he returned her stare with a slow raise of his brow to the sky.
"Is it..." He hesitantly waved a hand before his face. "This?"
"No!" she gasped. "It's...it's just-"
Two great, powerful paws burst the door wide open from the outside (that clonked the ghoul right in the skull). Evelyn went to reach a hand up to check for injury when he only grabbed the frame and threw enough force behind it to slam it back shut against the howling wind, nearly crumbling the entire shack like a house made of cards.
"Are you okay?!"
"I am fine," he scowled, rubbing at the site with a turn of his head. "Please do not touch me."
She withdrew her fingers promptly to her lap. "Sorry."
"We should go," he said glumly, going to stand and grimacing as the dog shook wet, stinky fur over them both. "It will get worse."
"Another radstorm? Shouldn't we stay here?"
"It is not, but it will be unpleasant."
Together, they ate a breakfast of Dandy Boy Apples in stifled silence before packing up and hitting the off-beaten path. Evelyn kept in close step beside the ghoul as he aggressively took the lead and never lowered his guard for even a moment. She would turn her head to stare at him, and he would catch her looking and suddenly turn his head away as though he were hiding something. The clouds darkened and the wind became frigid. Her skull chattered as her teeth tickled, and she cursed herself for not having that damn Tunnel Snakes jacket like she had said she would have.
She attempted to try and smooth over her feelings from that morning with a hold of his hand just as Charon threw her into the dirt, knocking the breath out of her lungs and filling her lower lip with graveled sand. Dogmeat hackled and stood over her protectively, baring his large teeth in a snarl as gunshots began to pepper the air. Evelyn raised her eyes to see silhouettes of people jumping and sprinting amidst the ever-growing darkness- raiders.
"Do not move!" Charon instructed, and then she was left to her own devices as he dashed away, the blast of his shotgun echoing throughout the vastness of the ruins.
Not even a minute had passed before he yanked her to her feet and shoved her in another direction, urging her onward like a steed in battle.
"Go!" he barked, panicked and looking back over his shoulder. "Go!"
She caught a glimpse of it as a bolt of lightning pierced the blackened sky.
A tall, scaled creature- a horned dragon with no wings. It was as towering as a super mutant, but nowhere near as sluggish and slow. The creature rushed the first raider closest, extending long limbs with sharp talons and slicing the man into fleshy ribbons all before she could blink. A powerful tail folded another raider in half with a snap of their spine and a crunch of their bones. A third was caught between its giant claws, and as it lifted the shrieking, struggling woman in the air, it slowly opened its maw wide, wide, wide, as wide as it could go, nearly unhinging its jaw like a snake feasting on an egg. There were strings of decayed ligaments and long ropes of saliva swinging from its rows of teeth in the wind, and suddenly the raider was being shoved inside, her screams muffled and legs furiously kicking. It crunched down with a single bite, ripping flesh, bone, and muscle, all away. The legs ceased, her boots erratically twitching against its hide as blood cascaded down its chin.
It then turned to look at them.
Evelyn never felt her feet leave the ground so quickly. Dogmeat was a blur at her side, his ears flattened and nose pointed to the west as Charon kept just a few paces behind to ensure their cover. They had to forego their usual route and were left running into God's breath of the storm- the cold wind whipped her face and the rain began to hail, but she didn't dare look back until Charon told her it was safe to do so.
And he didn't.
The soles of their boots hit pavement, indicating they had come to some sort of Pre-War road that would lead them who knew where, but it was their safest bet as the ghoul continuously kept a look over one shoulder before he finally eased his stride and pulled her along at the elbow. He gave her a look and nodded.
"What the fuck was that thing?!" she shouted, panting hard over the cry of the gale singing in their ears.
He didn't answer as he took in their surroundings, the frown on his face telling her that they were plenty far from their route back home. Dogmeat shook himself repeatedly as she struggled to see through the downpour and haze.
Charon tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to a hill. "There."
In the distance, she could make out the outline of houses. Shelter. It would do until the weather lightened. With what little breath still left in her lungs, she forced herself through the burning in her muscles up the rest of the way to the house, opening the door to allow themselves sanctuary inside. Charon closed it behind them, and they all stood in the empty foyer, the deafening sounds of thunder and hail suddenly muffled.
The lights were on. Somebody was home.
A man loaded with a pistol rounded the entryway from the kitchen, his face met with just as much surprise as theirs was.
"Oh," he said politely. "Well now, you damn near gave my wife a heart attack! We aren't used to people inviting themselves inside, no sir, but with the storm going on, well, I can't just about blame you!"
Evelyn licked the water that pooled at the corner of her lips, her leathers soaked and boots squishing. "Um, I'm- we're so sorry, we didn't think anyone actually lived here, and-"
"Where, here in Andale?" he laughed, shaking his head and lowering his gun. "Why, this is the number one voted town in all of Virginia, you best believe it! Of course we live here! Great place to raise the family!"
"Jack, honey, who is it?" A woman rounded from inside the next room, wearing an apron over a tattered dress with her hair swept into a tight up-do. She smiled at their company. "It's not very often we get guests, and in such miserable conditions! Here! Why don't you take a seat, and I'll bring some refreshments along." She beamed them a warm smile. "It's going to be a long night!"
"Good idea, dear," Jack mused. "Something strong to stave off the chill. I might just go next door and see if the Wilson's would be fancied for joining us for dinner with our new guests." He held up a hand as Evelyn opened her mouth to speak. "Now, now, we wouldn't have been voted as best HOA in the neighboring tri-county area if we were rude to visitors, would we? Please, sit down and have my wife Linda take care of things…she makes a damn fine roast."
Big guy and herself were soon seated on the couch in the living room, each with a drink in their hands while Dogmeat lay at her feet, the entire air smelling of wet fur and…something she couldn't quite put her nose to. Their sodden clothes soaked the fabric of their seats, and she could hear a faint drip drip of water bead down from the tip of Charon's shotgun.
Evelyn stared at the beverage, whispering to Charon seated close beside her, "What the fuck just happened?"
He said just as lowly in return, "I do not know."
"What was that thing we saw out there?"
His eyes glowed as he turned his head to look at her. "Deathclaw."
"Deathclaw…" She looked down at the cocktail she had been served. "Fitting."
The glass was raised to her lips, but he stopped her before she could take a swig. The woman, Linda, bustled out from the kitchen where they had heard the clinking of knives and the soft play of the radio.
"How are we doing on those drinks?" she asked with a jovial smile, but then it tightened when she noticed they hadn't been touched. "Oh. Is there something wrong?"
"Uh," Evelyn started, looking down at her cup and then stammering out, "I-It's just, Charon doesn't drink, it's a ghoul thing, and, uh…" Her mind pinged around for some sort of logical reasoning as the immense pressure began to build. "I get gas."
Charon turned his head to raise his brow at her while the woman held a hand to her mouth.
"Really bad," Evelyn squeaked. Somehow, the deathclaw suddenly sounded much more preferable.
"Oh, well, I'm so sorry, I had no idea. How rude of me!" Linda reached down to take their glasses away. "I don't want to spoil your appetites, or anything else, for that matter! Here, I'll just go ahead and take these away then, shall I? The Wilson's should be over soon, and dinner will follow shortly!"
They relinquished their cups to be taken back to the kitchen and heard a pounding of feet come down the stairs. A boy, perhaps near the age of Bryan, stood still and grew wide-eyed at their presence.
"Whoa, people!" he exclaimed. "Mom, we have people in the house!"
"Don't be a pest, Junior!" Linda called from around the corner. "Be a dear and a good boy and come help me set the table for dinner. We're having the Wilson's over tonight!"
"Aw man," he muttered under his breath, his excitement at once turning sour. "Then I'll have to talk to stupid Jenny." He gave them a shy nod of his head as he passed. "Hopefully we can play before you go."
He did as he was told, and Evelyn leaned closer to the ghoul, her voice a mere ghost. "This is so fucking weird."
Charon looked at the door. "Shall we leave?"
A blast of thunder nearly shook the very foundations of the house down, and Dogmeat whined. She reached down to calm him with a scratch behind the ears. "No. Hopefully the storm will pass soon. I just didn't know there were friendly wastelanders like these out here…"
Charon grunted, "There isn't."
The door then opened, inviting Jack and the only neighbors (and a bit of the storm) along behind it. Another child, a little girl, stared around the safety of her mother's skirt as the adults took to the kitchen.
"Mommy, there's a monster over there!" she loudly whispered.
Linda's heels clacked the floor as she came out to smile at them. "Dinner is ready!"
"Um, we didn't want to really intrude," Evelyn began, but she was hushed before they could excuse themselves.
"What sort of neighbors would we be if we didn't have you for dinner, now? Certainly not worthy of Best Town in America!" Linda beamed her a smile. "Come and sit while it's still fresh!"
The chairs were scooted. The table slightly wobbled. The sound of plates and forks and glasses clinking made the tiny dining area that much smaller. Evelyn was seated between Charon and the boy, with the little girl gawking at the ghoul from across and the adults chattering amongst themselves.
"Certainly nice weather we're having."
"Oh, stop it Bill! You're such a ham!"
"I wonder if I'd taste as good as the one on my plate!"
They all laughed, utterly jovial. Evelyn stared at them as they all seemed to look at her at the same time, and she couldn't help but notice the finer points to their teeth as they smiled. It was unsettling, to say the least.
Jack clapped his hands together, and they all swiveled to him. "Let's not let everything go cold! Everyone dig in!"
Evelyn looked down at their plates. Meat. Boiled, roasted, fried, and…raw. She picked up her fork, watching with unease brewing in her gut as the two families ravenously began to chew, tear, and slurp their servings down. A splatter of blood trickled down Linda's chin, and she bashfully dabbed it away with a tea towel.
"Careful honey, don't want to scare away our guests," Jack chided with a wink.
"Sorry, I do apologize for my lack of manners," she said with a duck of her head.
"So," Bill interceded as he crunched down on a piece of…something. "Where you coming from, stranger?"
Evelyn played with her food, noticing how the children somewhat did the same. Jenny caught her eyes and hid behind her mother.
"Rivet City," Evelyn replied. "Have you…ever been?"
"Nope! You two live there? Any family?"
"Uh, no. We were actually going to find my father, James, but we got caught in the storm."
"Find your father, oh my, is he lost?" Linda asked, sympathetic.
"You could call it that," Evelyn said rather stiffly, plunking her chin in her hand as she very quickly became disinterested with the rest of the conversation.
"What a swell daughter you are," Jack said, either not noticing her glare or ignoring it. "Family is everything, and I do mean, everything. We do what we can for each other out here, just as every red-blooded American should."
Evelyn prodded her portion...Charon hadn't started eating yet, either. She looked down. Dogmeat left his completely untouched.
"Um," she piped up, and she internally flinched at how they snapped their heads around to her, their pupils strangely large in the dim lighting. They seemed to swallow her whole. "What sort of game is this, anyway…?"
"The good kind," Bill said. "Go on, give it a try. It's an acquired taste."
She held up her fork with a slab dangling off the tines. Well, she's had worse…
Charon stopped her before she could bring the piece to her mouth, growling, "Do not eat that."
The room at once became quiet. The adults still chewed, eyeing him shrewdly as they wiped their lips and set down their forks and knives.
"Is there something wrong?" Linda asked sweetly, but her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
Charon stood from his chair. "We are leaving."
"No!" Jack jumped, startling Evelyn with how panicked he became. He only kept his eyes on her. "Stay. Stay. We really enjoy your company-"
Charon unholstered his side pistol and aimed the muzzle directly over Evelyn's head at the little boy's face. Junior blanched, and his mother swore while Evelyn dropped her fork and Dogmeat snapped at Bill who went for his gun.
The little girl began to cry.
"M-Mom?" Junior sobbed quietly, his eyes glassy with tears. "Mommy?"
"If you move, I will kill him," Charon said, clear and cold. The dead serious expression on his face didn't waver the slightest as the child trembled in his chair. "Evelyn. Get up."
She shakily stood, careful not to move too quickly to set the big guy off. "Charon-"
"They are cannibals," he said bluntly.
The room began to swim. A tidal wave swirled her vision as she looked around the room, gripping the backside of her chair for balance as she mentally took pictures of blood in the sink, hacked bones in a pot, holy fuck was that a finger-?
"Oh my God." She clamped a hand to her mouth. She didn't know if she wasn't going to hurl.
"Mommy!" the little girl wailed. "What is happening?!"
Jack slowly held his hands up. "Look, we'll let you go, okay? Don't hurt my son-"
"How many?" Evelyn whirled on him, and when he refused to answer, she slammed a fist on the table, clattering the dinner spread everywhere. "How fucking many?!"
Linda went for a butcher knife, and Charon redirected his aim for the side of her skull. It blew her brains out and flooded blood straight out of her nose, drenching the front of her dress as she slumped to the floor.
"MOM!"
Charon pinned the boy by the neck to the table and calmly placed his gun back on him.
Jack screamed, his panic filling the room and their ears. "They're in the basement and the shed outside, okay?! Jesus Christ, don't shoot my son!"
Evelyn turned for the door.
The basement.
"…open it."
Carefully, slowly, Jack rose from his chair with his hands held high above him, producing a key that he inserted in the slot and turned. The door opened to a set of stairs disappearing into a wall of black. Evelyn stood at the top, her hand on the railing and her Pip-Boy light flicked on. She gave Charon a single look, and he nodded.
It was damp. There was that smell again…that rot. She tried to breathe through her mouth, tried to settle the erratic shaking of her hands as she roved the light around, the greenish hue washing over the outlines of…so many bodies.
Naked. Headless. Some big. Some small. Limbs missing. A few hanging from meat hooks.
…one too tiny to be held.
She turned to the side, and threw up.
Charon callled from above, "Are you alright?"
Evelyn came back up the stairs, heaving, sick…angry. They stared at her, pleading, silently begging for their lives to be spared. Don't kill us. We're just trying to survive. It's the wasteland.
It's the wasteland.
It's the wasteland.
Evelyn, it's the wasteland.
"Charon," she said. He stiffened. She didn't recognize her own voice, that couldn't be her, could it? So cold. Indifferent. "Give me the kids, and take care of the rest."
Their eyes met, and he understood.
Do what you do best.
Charon picked up the boy from his seat and shoved him toward her, the child's chair and pants wet from fright.
"M-Mommy?" The little girl held on as Evelyn pulled her away. "No, Mom-!"
"Go, Jenny, it's okay!" Mary tried to soothe her, but Evelyn was already dragging them along behind. "Listen to the lady-!"
"Get out of here Junior," Jack garbled. "Go take care of Jenny, you hear me?"
Evelyn closed the door.
The two children stared up at her, so terribly scared, and she softened and gently brought them over to the couch and sat them down. There was a snarl from Dogmeat inside the kitchen, and then there was a scream.
Evelyn grabbed their faces and forced them forward. "Put your hands over your ears."
Jenny sniffled as she started to weep all over again, but Junior guided her hands up to her face.
"Come on," he said thickly. "Put your hands over them."
She did, mimicking the boy, and Evelyn sat between them and held them close to her sides, her hands cupped over their own as the screaming began to grow, began to beg, began to plead and promise and please no more just kill me already just kill me-
The door opened. It was eerily silent.
Dogmeat was the first to come out, his once beautiful ebony and ivory coat stained a dark ruby red. He licked his chops, scratched his ear. The eyes of a complete killer were trained on his master, waiting for the order, ready for the execution.
"Good boy," she whispered, and his eyes became unfocused and grew lazy.
Heavy boots came to the front. The children stiffened and clung to her as the ghoul appeared from the shadows, his knife in hand and being wiped down with a clean tea towel, the amount of sprayed blood on his blackened leather glistening like drops of rain.
He sheathed his weapon and nodded. "It is done."
She went to untangle the children and go to stand, but he halted her with a raise of his hand.
"It is not something you wish to see," he said gravely.
The weight of her insides iced over. Violence was to be expected, gore and slaughter were something she'd already witnessed, countless times, enough that it almost didn't seem real anymore, just props on a stage, something to look over and have the tiny voice in her mind go wow, sucks to be that guy.
But if Charon were telling her so, then she would take his word for it.
"Is Mommy okay?" Jenny asked in a small voice.
Evelyn didn't answer. She didn't know what to say.
"They're dead, Jenny," Junior beside her said with a stony face.
"I'm sorry," Evelyn managed to get out, but the boy then stood and whirled on her, his tears fat and dripping off his chin.
"I was going to work with my dad!" he sobbed. "You killed our parents! Are you going to kill us too?!"
Jenny gasped, "Please don't kill us!"
Before Evelyn could attempt to calm them down, the boy grabbed Jenny's hand and dashed out into the storm.
"Hey, hold on-!" Evelyn called out, but her voice was drowned in the swirling rain and howling wind. She squinted to watch them disappear into a smaller house across the street, the glowing windows telling her someone else also resided here.
Charon grabbed her before she could give chase. "No! We do not know who else may be here. We should leave, now."
"We can't just leave them here! They didn't know!"
He searched her face and decided to not argue his case, but rather gathered their things to prepare for their next house visit. Charon took the first step, shielding the rain from his eyes with his gun as she took cover behind his bulk, when a pant-shitting roar sounded off just to their right.
The deathclaw had strode into town.