Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 5 – Message In A Bullet Part I.
Falcon walked in to the infirmary seeing a tired May sitting down at Sawbones' medical terminal, effortlessly writing up her report on her serum into the Citadel's mainframe while Sawbones was in a corner of the room sorting medical supplies. He noticed that Tyler was asleep on the gurney but this time unstrapped, although he did have several abrasions on his wrists and arms from when he struggled against the restraints.
"Morning May," Falcon greeted her, she stopped typing and looked at him, "Oh morning Con. If you just give me a minute to finish this I'll be able to talk at will with you," she smiled than resumed typing at the terminal.
Falcon walked up to the side of the gurney, looking at a monitor displaying Tyler's vital signs. Blood pressure and heart rate were all normal but it was a display of his brain which caught his interest. It showed a layout of Tyler's brain highlighted in blue with a small red cloud in the centre and outer edges of his brain, slowly being replaced by the blue.
"The blue colour is the serum at work. It's altering his brain remember, so the red colours are parts of his brain the serum hasn't touched yet," May said when she noticed he was looking at the display.
"I'm all done with the report now so if you want to ask me something please be quick about it. I took an all-nighter so I want to go get some sleep now."
Falcon turned to face her and said, "I didn't really want to ask anything. I was just checking up on Tyler here. Seeing if your serum is working."
May smiled, letting out a loud chuckle, "You're afraid he's insides are going to liquefy aren't you? Don't worry, that was a one off."
Falcon frowned at her just causing her to chuckle further.
"Okay I'm sleeping now. Sawbones please keep one of your eyes on him at all times and call me if his condition changes, for the better or worse, or if he wakes up."
Sawbones' arm moved to his eyepiece in salute again as he replied to the order in his usual programmed way, "Sir, yes, Sir!" adding, "I'll watch this commie bastard with a careful eye!"
'What were they thinking when they programmed the Gutsy models vocal features' May thought as she walked out of the room while Falcon just stood there looking at Tyler. He had this feeling about him, like there was something about him. He just couldn't think what.
Con was back in his room, or rather Sarah's. Since their morning confession that they had feelings for each other, Con started sleeping with her every night, practically moving into the room with her.
He pulled his green pants up his legs, put on his boots and protective shin and knee caps, his green undershirt and raised the Ranger armour's torso piece over his head and put it on.
After securing the torso piece he picked up one of his favourite weapons he received as a gift from Agatha. A .44 magnum Con named Blackhawk because of its black colour as opposed to the usual silver of a magnum.
He put it in its leather holster he had found when scouring through a weapons store once and tied it to his right leg.
He picked up his Lincolns Repeater and secured it on his back with a bandolier full of .44 rounds and microfusion cells for his plasma rifle. He put on his long brown overcoat, letting the length of it run down his legs stopping short above his ankles as he got comfortable in it and holstered his plasma rifle outside his overcoat on his back. Before exiting the room he placed a few frag and pulse grenades on his belt. Who knows if he would need to use them?
Now he was ready to leave.
Con walked outside the Citadel witnessing the sun starting to rise over the horizon.
He noticed Sarah and Vargas were waiting for him on the landing pier, or Vertipad as he liked to joke; on the shore of the Citadel. After the fight at Adams Air Force Base they acquired a few Vertibirds so they needed a secure place to land it. The easiest way was to construct a pier which was now being extended considering they now had four more Vertibirds since their recent attack at Raven Rock.
"About time you got here. The birds all ready to take us to the entrance of the mill where there's a railway track." Sarah stated while she followed Vargas, stepping inside the Vertibird, followed by Falcon. Vargas and Sarah sat down while Falcon closed the door to the Vertibird and stood behind the pilots as they began flying the aircraft over the Citadel towards the mill.
Only a few minutes later they had arrived and the pilots set the aircraft down about one hundred metres away from the railway track as they noticed three raiders standing guard. One had a missile launcher which wouldn't bode well for them if they got too close.
Falcon and Vargas stepped outside the aircraft as one of the pilots said to Sarah, "We have orders to head east and drop a supply of water to Arefu. We should be back in time to pick you up. If you need our help sooner, just contact us on the radio and we'll head straight back."
"Alright then. Try not to take too long in case we need a pick up sooner."
"Yes ma'am."
Sarah exited the aircraft and joined Falcon and Vargas who were already walking to the mill. Sarah started to catch up to them as the Vertibird lifted off and headed in the direction they came from.
When the three of them approached the raiders, they were surprised when one of the ugliest and smelliest of them moved to the side pointing down the tack saying in a gruff voice, "Tha' boss is t'rew d'ere. He don' like to be waitin' so 'urry tha fuck up." The raider spat on the ground in front of Sarah with an evil looking smile you would see on the most crazed rapist.
Vargas aimed his minigun at the raider, watching him back off in fright. He was tempted to start beating the living hell out of him to teach him some respect, but knowing what he was thinking and feeling, Sarah looked at him and shook her head so he lowered his gun and continued walking with the two of them as they started down the track.
The track was through a narrow corridor of a small cliff where they saw a few more raiders standing on top of the rocks, looking down at them with a look of pure hatred.
When the three of them got to the end of the corridor and found it opened up into a larger area they saw a large bulky raider wearing what looked like a battered and old Power Armour with the Outcast colours painted on it. There was also about twenty raiders around him. The three of them presumed he was the one they were here to meet.
They walked up to him and stopped when he started talking.
"I'm glad you have finally arrived. I am Ral'ee, leader of the Raiders of this fine Wasteland."
"Well you obviously know who I am so I don't see a need to introduce myself," Falcon stated bluntly.
The raider laughed in a vicious manner, "Yes you're right I do know you!"
He moved up close to him leaving only a metres gap between them and said quietly, "You're Connor 'Falcon' Zachary, born July thirteenth, twenty-two fifty-eight, to James and Catherine Zachary in the Jefferson Memorial, until taken to Vault 101 by your father after your mother's death. Nineteen years later your father left the Vault and you went in search of him. From there you became the biggest pain in the fucking arse for every raider in the Wasteland with your 'goodey two shoes' attitude in life. Eurgh, it's sickening," Ral'ee and almost every raider that had begun to surround them spat on the ground.
Connor moved even closer to Ral'ee, causing all thirty odd raiders to raise their weapons at him.
He was unphased by this as opposed to Sarah and Vargas who raised their own weapons at the raiders.
"How do you know all of that? There is no one in this wasteland that knows any of that but me!"
Ral'ee just continued to laugh more until a murderous look came across his face.
"Because my dear boy. The Enclave knows everything." Ra'lee stepped back a few metres, raising his right hand and then dropped it when he felt he was far enough away.
Seconds later the sound of a high powered sniper rifle echoed throughout the area and Sarah fell to the ground.
Con turned around to see her fall, running to her and holding her as he looked at the hole in her Power Armour's chest plate, a small amount of blood starting to pour out of it.
Without a seconds thought Vargas started to spray every raider full of lead from his minigun, cutting all of them down while Ral'ee ran to the Mill's factory. Connor picked Sarah up and yelled to Vargas over the sounds of his gun, "We need to get out of here! Call the Bird back and let's go!"
Vargas turned with Con who was carrying Sarah as they ran down the track through the corridor where dozens more raiders were standing just waiting as they began shooting at the three of them.
Considering Con was holding Sarah and couldn't fire any of his weapons Vargas ran in front of him and mowed all the raiders down with his spray of 5mm bullets.
Using the radio inside of his helmet, Vargas called the Vertibird back while the three of them were running to the landing zone, dozens more raiders in pursuit of them.
When they got the landing zone the Vertibird was yet to be seen so Connor put a now unconscious Sarah carefully on the ground and drew his plasma rifle, aiming at every single raider he saw and firing at them. Some of them turned into green gloop while others lost limbs and cried and screamed on the ground. Connor took a grenade off his belt and threw it towards a small group of four raiders which sent them and all their limbs flying in every direction.
"Die you godamn, motherfucking arseholes! I will come back and slaughter all of you pathetic excuse for human beings! DIE!" Connor yelled at all of them, throwing the rest off his grenades then shooting them again with his plasma rifle. The veins in his necks were protruding strongly like Vargas had never seen before. He was sure if he looked in Connor's eyes he would only see blood red.
Vargas had been in more fights then he could count with him but had never seen him so angry and bloodthirsty. In all honesty, Vargas was scared of him. He knew if Sarah died anytime soon, every raider in the Wasteland better run and hide because there was no way any of them would survive the hell he would bring upon them.
Very few raiders remained and those that did started to retreat back to the Mill.
The Vertibird was now in sight and coming down for a landing next to the three of them.
When it landed Connor picked Sarah up and put her inside, resting her across the seats and sitting down on the floor, putting his head in the crook between her head and shoulder, a few tears managing to escape his eyes and fall down his cheek.
Vargas got in the aircraft and it took off as fast as it could for the Citadel.
'They'll pay for this. I swear I will come back and slaughter them all. There will be no more raiders in this shithole of a world when I'm done with them!'
Thoughts of anger and murder swelled in his mind as he sat there.
Vargas had never seen such a sight in his entire life. He knew Falcon was going to make sure that whoever was responsible for this was going to suffer. Even if it killed him in the process.