A/N:
Hello to any and all who have decided to read my little story here! First let me just say I've been writing short stories for a while now and this is my first time ever posting them publicly so any and all feedback is appreciated both good and bad and I hope on some level I entertain you all.
Before we get started there's some things I feel you need to know before reading. I plan on posting a collection of short stories from a play through I did of Fallout: A Tale of Two Wastelands.
For those of you who may or may not know it's a mod that combines Fallout 3 and New Vegas into a single game, the Lone Wanderer basically becomes the courier.
Thats what these stories are all based around and why you'll eventually be seeing them take place in New Vegas as well!
For any and all who haven't given the mod a try and love Fallout I highly recommend it.
I should also clarify this is very much an EVIL karma character she is not at all your typical protagonist, so you can expect some violence and some characters you probably like suffering horrible fates, if that's not for you it might not be a good idea to read.
With that out of the way I hope you all enjoy what I happen to post here and if you have any feedback to help me become a better writer please feel free to share more than anything I just want to entertain people and write a fun stories.
She was in Wonderland.
Most others would just call it the wasteland, but to her, it was more a wonder than a waste.
The walls that once enclosed her so tightly underground were now distant. The Vault was her prison, but the overseer's watchful eye no longer cast a shadow over her.
She was free.
She galloped down the cracked, ruined street, spinning, laughing, and smashing a few giant ant heads with her baseball bat along the way.
It didn't take long for the large metal mass in the distance to grab her attention. Hardly anyone but the blind could miss it. It looked almost like a scrapyard—it was more than enough to grab her attention as she began a steady skip towards it.
Before long, the distant metal became less distant. A large gate came into view with a…
Ugh, robot.
She hated the bloody things, more than a few times Dad caught her trying to not so discreetly scrap Andy.
He was always so understanding of her. The only person who had ever loved her unconditionally. The thought of his absence made her once joyful mood sputter and fade. Perhaps she'd find some trace of him here. It was certainly a start.
As she approached a man on the fringes of the gate, he began to wave her over in a lively manner. As she drew nearer to him and the town, a robot standing directly outside spoke up so that everyone could hear.
"WELCOME TO MEGATON. THE BOMB IS PERFECTLY SAFE."
She passed by the man, ready to completely ignore him, until the creature standing beside him caught her eye.
Her face lit up and her eyes sparkled as she saw the mutated creature before her: a large mammal with two heads and udders, and occasionally one of the heads would let out a steady moo.
She'd never seen anything like it. They didn't have creatures like that in the vault. It was one of the most adorable things she'd ever seen, and each time a different head made a sound, it brought a smile to her face.
"What is this thing?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the creature.
"What? You mean my Brahmin?" The man sputtered out, seemingly baffled by the simple question.
"Brahmin?" Her eyes sparkled even more as it let out another steady moo.
"Ya… Brahmin. Traders like myself often use them to help carry our supplies back and forth. You've never seen a Brahmin before? Where have you been?" He gave her an incredulous quirked smile.
"In a hole in the ground."
"Oh," he didn't even want to think about what it could entail.
"So can I have it?" Her face lit up with a smile as she finally looked at the man properly for the first time.
"Can you have what?" He chuckled, his chuckle was more confused than joyful.
"Can. I. Have. Your. Brahmin?" She spoke each word slowly, as though she were speaking to a toddler.
"What? No, I'm sorry, of course not. I need her to help transport my goods…" His smile quivered slightly.
"Oh." Her face dead-panned, all humor and joy that had once been found in her face no longer being present.
"I'm really sorry... look, I'm a merchant. Maybe I could sell you something else. If you need help carrying things, I've got plenty of backpacks in here somewhere..."
He turned around and approached the Brahmin, digging through the various packs and pouches looking for something deep within.
She sighed as she pulled out her baseball bat, still slick with the ant blood.
*
The stranger who walked through Megaton's gate immediately gave the grizzled sheriff a bad vibe. Not only was she wearing one of those blue suits all the other dwellers wore, but her suit in particular wasn't even blue anymore.
The once deep navy blue fabric that covered her was now tinted and stained red from head to toe, except for a few spots here and there where the deep blue color it was supposed to be remained. People rarely, if ever, leave that vault, and now here are two more, both of them strutting out with the bold 101 on their backs.
She slowly wandered into town, locking eyes with him the second she saw him. A lopsided smile formed on her face. He had no doubts about this one being trouble. Clearing his throat, he tipped his trusty hat and approached, ready to end it quickly.
"Well, I'll be damned another newcomer, names Lucas Simms, town sheriff. And mayor too, when the need arises."
She didn't say anything; instead, she just stood there, snickering, trying her hardest to hold back laughter. Laughter, however, he tried his damndest to avoid.
"You've got a weird look about you girl, the kind that means trouble. I give everyone a fair shake but if you do anything remotely stupid you're dead."
"Pfft… nice hat, Calamity Jane." She didn't try to hide her laughter this time, and he wouldn't tolerate it this time either!
"So that's how it's gonna be huh? That's fine, that's fine…"
He moved his overcoat to one side, revealing a large, shiny, well-kept revolver.
"Just so long as we understand each other. This here is my town. These are my people. You so much as breathe wrong, and I'm gonna fuckin' end ya." His voice was a low growl, most people would flinch at the sheer intensity he had most of the time.
Not this girl.
"Is that star on your chest real metal or plastic?"
Her laughter became a little less boisterous, but it didn't stop for a second.
"Do you have something you want to prove, girl?" His eyes narrowed, and his hand instinctively made slow but steady moves toward the big iron on his hip.
"I want that hat. What do you think about that?" Her face got close to his, her smile became thin and wicked as her hazel eyes burned into his.
"I think you're suicidal, try me." His hand now sat mere inches away from his revolver, ready to draw.
The joy and happiness that filled her heart when she first left the vault filled her entire being once more.
This lawman was just like the overseer, a little tiny man who liked to put walls around things to control them. As she walked deeper into megaton with her new and ever-so-slightly bloodied hat proudly adorned over her bright red hair, she made a vow to herself, one that she swore to keep until the end of her days.
Nobody was ever going to cage her again.