Author's Note:
Hello! It has been a long, long, time since I last updated this story.
For those who enjoyed this story and wanted more, I apologise that I never finished it.
I was 20/21 years old when I began writing this and life got extreme and full on for me at the time.
Then I lost the computer that held this story on it to the blue screen of death.
Because of that, I never picked this story up again as it had all of my notes and all the pre-work I had for the next chapters.
That was until yesterday when I found an old USB that held a copy of every story I ever wrote or was in the middle of writing, including this one.
So nostalgia and my passion for writing hit me again and I punched out this chapter tonight.
I'm not going to promise anything, but I am keen to finish this story so let us all see how things go.
Anyway, please enjoy!
Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 9 - If I Had A Cap For Every Time...
It took them a day and a half of travelling by foot until they were only a couple of kilometres South East of Fort Bannister, having being forced to make a detour several times on the way to avoid either a group of Super Mutants or a horde of migrating feral Ghouls.
Hordes of Feral Ghouls had become a commonplace sight in the Wasteland in recent months ever since the Brotherhood and other small militia's from all the local towns started hunting and clearing out nearby locations infested with them so they could expand, or just for their own safety and peace of mind. With no safe place for the Feral Ghouls they all started wandering the Wasteland in groups, mindlessly searching for a new home.
"So according to this map I got from Rothchild before we left the Citadel, we shouldn't be too far away from Fort Bannister," Tyler said in between breaths while they climbed a rocky outcropping.
"You're right. We're not that far away. At this rate, we'll be there in the next hour but considering it's the middle of the day, we may have to find some shelter until nightfall so we can sneak up to the Fort, otherwise they'll see us coming," Con replied as he reached the peak of the outcrop, turning around to help Tyler up the ledge of the top rock.
When they both got to the top and looked down on the small valley beneath them that would lead to the Fort over the next few rocky hills, they both slouched a little at what they saw. Ghouls. What looked like more than one hundred of them.
"Well… Fuck… Look's like we're going to have to make another detour," Con declared quietly but with a strong sense of annoyance in his voice.
Tyler looked down at the map in his hand, "Well there's a Vault a little to the northeast of the Fort, or there's this place Rothchild marked as 'Don't go there under any circumstances' a little south of the Fort."
Con glanced at the map to see what Rothchild had written. He had drawn a big red cross over the location, as well as several dramatic-looking drawings of skulls around it. It was Evergreen Mills.
Con took a few seconds to bury all the anger that was starting to rise to the surface before he spoke as calmly as he could.
"Well, we aren't going there unless you're ready to watch me spend all our ammunition and supplies committing genocide. So we'll detour towards the Vault. I was there a year ago and cleared out its original inhabitants. I helped set up a small outpost there of local traders somewhat recently so they should be amenable to us staying until night time to get some rest and maybe even resupply some of the ammunition we spent taking out those Muties we couldn't avoid yesterday afternoon."
Tyler looked at Con and was going to ask what he meant by committing genocide but decided against it. It wasn't too hard to work out. That must've been where Sentinel Lyons was injured.
"Okay, well you know the area best then. Lead the way," Tyler said with a smile.
He noticed Con's face had turned sour as he looked southwest towards where Evergreen Mills is. He saw something in his eyes, something that sent shivers running down his spine. He was looking at a darkness that made Tyler feel like he was looking at pure hatred and evil. It was possibly the most unnerving thing Tyler had seen and felt.
Falcon turned his gaze down to the horde of Ghouls before turning and walking away in the direction of the vault, Tyler now in tow but a few more meters behind him than he had been since they started their journey.
After a nearly fifty-minute detour avoiding the Ghouls, they finally arrived outside Vault 106 where a small de facto encampment and trading post had been established, which was essentially several small shacks with a few rickety-looking wood and scrap watchtowers dotted between them.
A person was atop each watchtower armed with high-powered sniper rifles or energy weapons. Not quite how Falcon had remembered leaving it the last time he was here a few months ago.
They approached what you could call the entrance of the trading post where they were met by two gruff-looking guards and an older meek-looking man that Falcon recognised as one of the settlers who first helped establish this new outpost.
"It's Gavin, right? Or was it Gary?" Con asked, a smile on his face and his hand outstretched for a handshake as he approached the man.
"Y-yes, it's Gavin. It's wonderful to… to see you here sir. Why are… I mean, to w-what do we owe the pleasure of your v-visit?" Gavin asked, stuttering over some of his words. It felt highly unusual to Falcon. An alarm bell inside his head was telling him that something wasn't quite right. He doesn't remember Gavin being so awkward or nervous before. Not that he really had too much to do with him. And the last time he saw him he was sporting a decent hangover and depression so he wasn't really paying too much attention to his surroundings and the people in them at the time.
Falcon took a second to choose his words carefully while using his peripheral vision to look around the outpost, "My squire and I are travelling around. I haven't been around recently and thought I'd check in to see how the outpost is going and if you had any trouble that you needed help with," Falcon turned and gestured towards Tyler, glancing quickly at the two guards who had quietly flanked them. He turned his head back towards Gavin and said, "We've also been travelling for a few days so we are hoping to stay for the night and freshen up with a shower in the Vault. I know that a few Brotherhood engineers were helping to restore running water in the Vault when I was last here."
He noticed the guards in front of him flick the safety switch on their weapons causing Falcon to place his hands on his hip, his right hand casually resting atop of Blackhawk while it was still holstered. "And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dying to feel the pressure of running water on my face once more," Falcon chuckled out loud while looking a little more to his right where he noticed several more guards now walking towards them. Guards who weren't exactly lightly armoured. He was right, something is going on here and he and Tyler were about to get into a fight they may not get out of so easily. Especially given what he'd seen of Tyler's combat experience, he was still pretty green.
Gavin nodded his head, "Y-y-yes, we do have running water. It has b-been d-difficult but we've restored a l-lot of this old V-Vault. By all means, c-come, come…" Gavin turned and gestured for them to follow him. Tyler started to move but Falcon stood in his place still, doing the strategic math in his head of who to take down first and how if the guards suddenly jumped them.
When Tyler was a few meters in front of Con he stopped and turned, "Everything alright, sir?"
The four guards at the entrance, two in front of Con where Gavin had been and the two that had quietly flanked them from the sides who were now right behind Con had their hands on their weapons in a way that screamed to Falcon they were ready for action.
"Now you boys aren't getting ready for a fight are you?" Con asked them calmly with not even a whisper of fear in his voice. "Cause the way you're standing and holding your weapons is telling quite the story."
The guards looked at each other quickly, eyeing each other in rapid succession until one of them said one word, "Now."
Before the two guards in front of Con could even raise their weapons Blackhawk was already in his hand firing one shot each into their heads while Con kicked his right leg out, knocking the assault rifle out of the hands of one of the guards behind him before he quickly dropped to the ground to avoid being hit from the one remaining guard who was firing off a few shots of his small laser pistol.
Once he had dropped to the ground Falcon aimed Blackhawk up and fired, the bullet blowing the literal brains out of the final guard.
Even with the quick disposal of the four guards taking only seconds, it was enough for the other heavily armoured guards to pull out a weapon that was unfortunately all to well known to Falcon, it was a Mesmetron. While Tyler was watching Falcon take out the first four guards, the guard holding the Mesmetron aimed at Tyler while his back was turned to them and pulled the trigger before Falcon could even start saying, "Tyler get down!"
The wave of the weapon hit Tyler in the head and stunned him. It was a surreal feeling for him. It was as if he was a mix of drunk and high but in such an intense way like he had never felt before.
While in his stunned state, two of the guards grabbed him and forced him down onto his knees, pressing a sawed-off shotgun to his head.
"If you want him to live, you'll disarm yourself of all your weapons right now and surrender to us, or your squire here won't have a head anymore," the Mesmetron guard said with such venom in his voice it made Falcon wonder why he had so much hatred towards him. Apart from the fact he just took out four of them in only seconds with relative ease.
Though this time he didn't see a way to end things in a way that meant Tyler would survive. Sure Con is a great shot with Blackhawk but he only had two bullets left. He'd be able to take out the two guards holding on to Tyler easily enough, but by the time he shoots those last two bullets, he wouldn't be able to equip one of his other weapons fast enough to take out the other guards before they blew Tyler's head off. Not to mention the guards that were atop the watchtowers who were aiming at both of them, "Fuckkkkkk" Falcon thought. There was no safe way out of it this time.
"Fine. You win, I surrender. But I'm telling you now that if you kill him, there won't be a place in this Wasteland for you to hide from me. I will find you, blow off your feet and then gut you in front of some Mirelurks and let them feast on you. I'm sure you've heard the stories about me so you'd know that I'm serious," Con threatened them, showing them the darkness in his eyes that Tyler had seen earlier that day. It was enough to make two of the guards flinch and look at each other with pale faces of fear.
"He's worth more to us alive than dead. Just like you are. Get him," the Mesmetron guard signalled to the others, three of them moving towards Con to disarm him. "Now, because I have heard all the stories about you, I know how dangerous you are. In fact, we've seen it first-hand. So I'm not taking any chances," the guard stated once Con was completely disarmed. He aimed the Mesmetron at Con and fired. Once he was subdued he commanded one of the other guards to knock him out. He truly didn't want to risk transporting him while awake. He wouldn't admit it to his fellow guards but he was scared shitless of this living legend. The man he is sure he has heard being called the Harbinger of War.
"Tie him up and ready him and this kid for transport. The boss is going to cream his pants when we deliver him. Let's hurry up and get back to the Fort."