Kirk kept his eye on Buck as Sally led them into a small metal box. "This should lead us to a junk room, further in we can turn on a door that will take us back to the big room." she said, pressing some buttons. The box started moving and stopping on different levels, opening briefly to show a room.
They saw a car, and then some cows which Sally got excited about. "Is this some kind of elevator?" Kirk asked, looking at all the trash in the corners of the box. "I think they throw garbage in here." she answered, continuing to press buttons. "You put us in a garbage chute?" Kirk sighed. 'Well at least it's just the smell, we have to worry about.' he thought.
After a few random levels, the door opened to a bunch of aliens sitting around eating strange looking food. Both parties stared at each other, food falling out of the alien's mouths, shocked at the sudden intrusion. "Sally!" Kirk yelled as he and Buck opened fire on the aliens. The aliens scrambled for their guns, as some were killed in the gunfire. As Sally got the chute to move again, just as the aliens started opening fire on them, they all sighed in relief. Until the box shook violently and opened partially to another room.
"Uh, I think they broke something!" Sally yelled. Kirk quickly grabbed Sally and threw her through the small opening, before the box went into free fall. Kirk and Buck tried to hold onto something. The box stopped abruptly and Kirk started to fall through the opening, but Buck caught his arm. "I got you!" he yelled holding onto the edge of the opening.
Kirk looked down seeing a room filled with garbage and junk. They were about thirty feet above the ground. "I can't hold on much longer Kirk!" Buck yelled, his hand slipping. Kirk quickly reached up as Buck pulled him up to the box. He grabbed his shoulder and lunged up grabbing the edge and pulled himself up barely into the box. Kirk turned to Buck still holding on, and reaching up to Kirk. "Help me!" he said, holding up his hand.
Kirk hesitated for a moment but realized he saved him first. He grabbed Buck's hand and pulled him into the box. "Wooo, that was a close one." Buck said, catching his breath. "Yeah, uh, thanks for the save." Kirk said.
"Of course, we're in this together right?" he said, patting his shoulder. Kirk nodded, feeling uncomfortable but grateful to Buck. He was starting to think he might not be so bad after all. Maybe he really was just doing a job for his family, no matter how terrible it was.
"You think Sally is okay?" Kirk asked, assessing their situation. "Yeah, that girl is tough, we will find her. Question is, how do we get down from here?" Buck asked, looking down.
"Maybe we cou-" a loud creaked came from above them and the box dropped abruptly. The drop forced them out of the box falling into the garbage below. Kirk felt immediate pain in his right leg upon landing. After a few moments of collecting himself, he tried to stand up but collapsed from the pain. He sat up and examined the leg. No protruding skin or bones. Must be a fracture. He heard groaning and saw Buck stand up, holding his back. "Well that fuckin sucked!" he yelled, turning to Kirk, noticing him caressing his leg.
"You good?" he asked, walking over to him. Kirk got nervous and put his hand near his pistol. If he was gonna kill him, now would be the time to do it. No one would find him and he could make up whatever story he wanted. "I think I fractured my leg." Kirk said, slowly grabbing his pistol. Buck walked up to him and held his hand out, "Come on, I will help you walk."
Stunned for a moment at the kind gesture, Kirk grabbed his hand, pulling himself up. Buck wrapped Kirk's arm around his shoulders and supported him. "Alright vaultie, let's go find Sally." Buck said, walking Kirk to a nearby door.
Jericho was asleep, drenched in sweat, as Lucy did her best to wipe it off his forehead. They would make it back to the site where Kirk disappeared tomorrow morning. They decided to rest early that night for Jericho, despite his protests that he was fine. Arkansas kept watch laying on top of a nearby boulder with his rifle. Vance was cooking mole rat meat for everyone.
"Thank you for coming for us Vance." Lucy said, sitting down next to him. "Of course my dear, I cherish the friendship I have with you two, regardless on how new it is." he said, handing her some meat. She looked at him puzzled, and then glance at Jericho. Vance chuckled, "I meant you and Kirk of course, but Jericho has grown on me recently."
"How so?"
"Well given how injured he is, once he saw the note, I could tell nothing was gonna keep him in that clinic. It is admirable. He may act like an ass, but I could tell he cares."
"I agree, he tries to hide it, but I have seen past the bullshit."
"I believe he is trying to be a different person, a better person."
"I think he used to be a raider, but I could be wrong."
"It would make sense on why he was captured at Arefu. Maybe he was, and now is trying to redeem himself."
Lucy finished eating her food and got up, looking out toward the quiet wasteland. "I hope Kirk is okay."
Vance took a bite of his food, looking out into the wasteland as well. "Kirk has good instincts, I'm sure he will be okay. We will find him." Lucy started tearing up and shaking.
"I-I think he was... raped by raiders when he...first came out of his vault." she said, choking on tears. Vance began cooking another piece of mole rat. Lucy told Vance what happened with the slaver woman who tried to rape him, and what happened the night prior between them. Vance listened to the story handing Arkansas his dinner on top of the boulder and came back down.
"I...I just feel... so awful for...holding that against him. Even if I never told him that I was... angry about it. He deserves to feel safe with...someone!" she cried, wiping her eyes.
"I had a feeling Kirk was damaged when I first met him. That was what drew me to him from your group. Despite what he has gone through, he tries to be a good person. What those raiders did to him, would break any normal man. Yet he resisted them and came out alive. He is going to have traits of that hurt he went through live with him. Do not blame yourself Lucy West for not knowing. Just be there for him when he returns."
Vance gave Lucy a hug, calming her tears. Arkansas and Jericho had been listening to the conversation and kept their thoughts to themselves.
"Hit that button!" Kirk yelled, firing the alien rifle at incoming aliens. He was braced against the wall, holding them off as they came from above them, dropping in. Buck firing at them, hit the button, causing giant tubes to come smashing down on the aliens, crushing them to bits. Kirk fueled with adrenaline, ignore the green goo and body parts flying everywhere, and focused on the aliens above. It was difficult to aim this rifle with no sight but still found it extremely accurate. He was landing his shots most of the time, vaporizing or punching a hole in the aliens.
Kirk and Buck had been fighting through the area the entire time, with Sally above them leading them to where they needed to go. If Buck wasn't with Kirk, he would've been dead long ago. They worked very well together, and had each others backs.
They found themselves in a room filled with various items and beautiful looking gems. They decided to pocket some of them. Kirk found a strange looking sword with a familiar symbol on it. 'I feel like I just saw this symbol somewhere...' he thought, looking at the flowery symbol. He decided to take it with him.
"Stay away you big meanie! I don't want to be put to sleep again!" a voice yelled out. Buck turned to Kirk and put his finger to his lips. He helped Kirk as quitely as he could up the stairs. They reached the door and could hear Sally berate what they assume was an alien. Kirk pulled out his pistol and nodded to Buck as he opened the door.
The alien had Sally in a corner at gunpoint and tried to turn to Buck and Kirk. But Kirk was quicker and shot it dead. "You guys made it! Quite the team you two are! Oh no! Are you hurt?" Kirk waved her off and assured her he was fine.
"Is this the button for the door?" Kirk asked walking up to a pedestal with a strange three pronged button. "Yep, just hold it down for a bit, and it should turn on!" Sally said, hopping up and down. Once he pushed it the circular floor door whirled to life and lit up. "Now we just step into it." Sally said, skipping over to it. She jumped on to it and in a flash disappeared.
"Get your gun ready, Kirk. Who knows where this thing will take us." Buck said, readying his alien pistol. Kirk did the same and they both stepped onto the circle and in a flash they found themselves back in the big room with everyone.
"See! Super easy right?" Sally said, swinging her arms. Somah came over noticing Kirk holding on to Buck. "What happened to you?" she asked, eyeing Buck suspiciously.
"Hurt my leg, probably fractured. Buck helped me out of there."
"That's right Somah! I'm a stand up guy, you see." Buck said, with smirk.
"Uh-huh. Sure you are. Hey army guy! Come here!" Somah yelled out.
The Private walked over noticing Kirk. "Did you hurt your leg?" he asked, offering to grab Kirk from Buck.
As he carried Kirk away, with him explaining the injury, Somah walked up to Buck. "I don't know what game you are playing here Buck, but you better keep your word to him."
"Somah, do you detest me that much? All I want is to get out of here, and go back home." he said, innocently.
"I know you Buck, you are the best slaver Jones has. You are always on the job. You best not be doing that here, where we all need to work together to survive."
Buck just smiled, "I'm with you guys, no slave work up here. I just want to survive."
Somah walked away, with Buck glaring daggers into the back of her head. The cowboy leaning behind a corner walked away as well.
"Alright, that's should help you walk." Private Tercorien said. He had fitted Kirk with a medical brace and gave him a Stimpack he had from his military med kit. "Thanks- er, what was your name again?" Kirk asked. "Priva- uh... well I guess it's just Elliot now." he said, sadly. "Is there really nothing left of the old world down there?"
Kirk nodded, "Yeah, but I was in a Vault until recently. I am still learning the wasteland. If you want more details I would ask any of the other survivors."
Elliot glanced around, "I'm picking up a strange feeling with some of them. You called some of them slavers earlier?"
Kirk lowered his voice, "Yeah, the one called Buck and those three, captured me and my friends recently. We got... well captured... together."
"Do you trust them?"
"No...and yes. Buck saved my life and helped me out of that place we just came from. He seems to only be a slaver to feed his family. Or so he says."
Elliot thought for a moment, "I'll keep an eye on them."
During their time away the group had defended the big room and scavenged more resources around the ship. They also made defenses at chokepoints, thanks to Elliots military training.
Kirk was looking around for supplies they found, and came across the strange armored man, sitting on his knees with his head lowered. He noticed the symbol on his chest matched the sword he found. 'That's why it was familiar.'
"Uh, excuse me, is this yours?" Kirk asked, holding out the sword. The man looked up and gasped. He started talking, but made no sense to Kirk. He took the sword and bowed extremely low to Kirk. He said some other stuff and place the sword across his lap and lowered his head again.
"Uh, your welcome?" Kirk said, leaving the man to his meditations, he assumed. After he left, the cowboy approached the armored man and gestured him to follow. They left together in another room.
"Alright, everyone listen up! Kirk and I now know how to turn the door on, so one of us will put the space suit on and go turn on the door. While we do that, we need to split up into teams and cause mayhem on other parts of this place! So divide up, lets go!" Buck ordered from atop a box. The group dispersed into four groups of five.
As the groups went off to the areas Sally told them earlier, Buck and Kirk discussed who would put on the suit. "Your leg is fucked man, let me do it." Buck offered. "Fine by me, I'll stay here and defend this place." Kirk responded.
Buck walked away with Sally to the space man and Kirk found a good defensive spot. His mind started racing from the past events, which trying to line them up were a bit out of this world, so to speak. Fighting a sniper in a minefield, barely surviving because he apparently found the smartest dog in the wasteland. Getting captured by slavers and almost...used again. Following a strange signal, to a now obvious alien crash site, and being abducted by aliens. Now working with the same slaver who captured him and now seeing him as an ally. All together it's absolutely ridiculous.
In his thoughts he heard Buck and Sally approaching from behind. He turned around to see Buck carrying the suit. Kirk looked at him with a confused expression. "It seems I'm too fuckin big for the suit. The guy was skinny as hell and it was fitted to him. You are on the skinny side, so you try it on." Buck said, tossing the suit to him annoyed.
Kirk sighed and thought, 'Of course, watch it fit me.' He put it on easily, almost too perfectly. "Good luck." Buck said, and took the defensive position Kirk was at.
Kirk followed Sally to another room, "Okay, you just gotta walk across the ship to the other side and find the same button as before. Easy right?" she asked, with a smile.
Kirk feeling anxiety, "Sure." The door closed behind him and he walked through an room which started hissing loudly. Once the hissing stopped the door ahead of him opened and he walk through.
As he stepped outside, he froze with his jaw dropping. He could see Earth in front of him, and it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He slowly walked toward an edge and stopped. He had seen images of Earth and maps of the continents in the Vault, but this was something else. His eyes were glued to the planet, and he stood there realizing he could hear nothing, but his breathing.
It was the most peaceful feeling he had ever felt in his life. He found himself sitting down and just embracing the peace and beautiful sight. He didn't know how long he sat there, but he didn't want to leave. However, he had a job to do, and lives depended on him, which filled him with a sense of dread. He didn't want to fail these people, especially Sally. He got up and walked on.
The groups had slowly started to return with lesser people than before. They had succeeded in causing some problems for the aliens, but lost a few in the effort. Somah noticed Buck looting some dead aliens and reloading the alien pistol. "You sent the kid? Not surprised..." she said, with sass. Buck whirled onto her with anger, "Shut it! I tried, but couldn't fit in the damn suit, so yeah the kid went. He is probably dead, its been over an hour. So now we are fucked!"
Sally came running into the room, "It's on, he turned it on!" Somah, Elliot and the cowboy rushed over with Buck and the other survivors to the room. Buck adjusted his demeanor and turned to everyone. "Alright, we don't know if it's a trap so let's be prepared." The group readied their weapons and they all starting walking into the circle a few at a time.
Buck, Somah, Elliot, and Sally were the first to come through. They found Kirk killing a giant creature with a shotgun to its face. He fell to his knees and turned to the group. His helmet was broken and suit was torn and covered in green blood. The group ran toward and scan the room. It was filled with corpses of aliens and giant ugly creatures.
Elliot went to Kirk and started to examine him. "...sorry it...took so...long." Kirk said weakly. "Quiet, you did good man. Here let's get this suit off. You okay? Any injuries?" Elliot asked, taking the helmet off. Kirk had some blood on his face and he shook his head. "No, just some... bruises from these monsters,... I think. I'm just exhausted."
Elliot gave him some water they found, and started to remove his suit. Buck stood there in shock at all the corpses. 'No way. No way that kid killed all these things by himself.' he thought. He looked around and saw no one else around while it filled up with the rest of the survivors. He then remembered Kirk murdering his slaver earlier. He just chocked it up to it being a surprise attack. Now he wasn't so sure. He then thought what would have happened if he was the one that came over. Would he have been able to take all this on? He looked over at his other slavers who all survived their distraction efforts and shared the same look as him.
Once Kirk rested a bit they all moved on. They found more aliens and monsters, quickly dispatching them, losing a few more people along the way. "What are these freaks?" a slaver asked. They look like the aliens but bigger and dumber. "I found a room with them on tables, they look like experiments." Kirk said. "Who cares what they are, kill them all." Buck said, leading the way.
"A few of the aliens wear a red suit, I don't think they mean any harm." Kirk said to the group as they moved room to room. "What makes you say that?" Buck asked.
"They never attacked me and they pointed the way for me to find the circle door. I think they even locked some doors around me to block out some of these monsters."
Buck mused over what he said. The monsters look terrifying but one bullet put them down. It's almost like they are incomplete and not ready to move, since they lumber around like idiots. It made a bit more sense why Kirk was able to kill so many of them. Maybe not though.
They came across a big room with a glass floor, looking down on the planet. The entire group stood in awe at the sight, just like Kirk did during his space walk. Elliot teared up, "The green...its all gone..." Sally walked over and held his hand as he fell to his knees. "How could they do this... to our world..." They all stood in silence looking down at the planet, when a giant beam shot out from a device below the glass. "What the fuck was that!?" Somah yelled.
A floating head of an alien appeared before them, talking at them angrily and then disappeared. "I think that was a warning to us." Kirk said. "The hell with them, we are close, right Sally?" Buck asked. "Yeah, just down that hallway should be another light door, straight to the captain."
"Hold on! Shouldn't we turn this big death ray off first?" Elliot suggested. "No one knows how, the faster we kill the captain, the less chance he has to use it. Now, let's go!" Buck ordered.
Soon a bunch of red suited aliens came running in. The group raised their guns, but Kirk yelled, "No don't! They don't have weapons!"
Buck held his hand up to his other slavers as they lowered their weapons. He had an annoyed look on his face. The aliens went to a bunch of consoles and started tapping away.
"The fuck are they doing? Are they gonna shoot the laser?" Buck asked. "No, I think the captain did that." Kirk said.
Soon the aliens stopped typing and they saw the death ray power down and droop. "They turned it off, are they helping us?" Kirk wondered. The aliens waved and then pointed toward a door and ran away. The group set off in the direction they pointed at.
They all found the light door and ready their weapons. Buck turned to the group, "Alright everyone, this is it. We killed these aliens and we are free. Then we find a way back down to our home." Everyone nodded and slowly all started walking on the circle, a few at a time.
The group found themselves behind the aliens, who are all chattering at each other aggressively. They quickly turned on the group firing their weapons at them. Kirk barely dodged a blast, and spotted who he assumed was the captain. Kirk fired some rounds at it, but it took cover behind it's chair. As the other survivors found cover and shot at the aliens, Kirk took his shotgun out and aimed toward the bottom of the chair. He had an idea where the pellets would bounce off the floor and hit the captain. He fired and saw the captains leg get blown off, falling to the ground screaming. Kirk surprise his idea worked, he took aim and shot again, blowing off it's head. The fight was quick and decisive. A few of the survivors were killed in the skirmish, but they cleared the room.
Everyone started cheering at their victory. Sally came into the room and hugged Kirk. "We did it! I knew you could do it!" Kirk chuckled, "We couldn't have done it without you Sally."
"Alright everyone quiet down! Let's look around and see what we can find. Be on your guard, their may be more of them!" Buck ordered. He then looked at his slavers and nodded, which they nodded in return. "Kirk, let's go see if we can find a way back down to our home." Buck said, patting him on the shoulder. Kirk agreed and followed him.
"We work well together Kirk. We never would have made it without your help." Buck said with a smile. "Well if you hadn't helped me out of that dump, then we would've really been screwed. You led us this far too. I still don't like your ways as a slaver, but I think I understand you now. The wasteland is harsh and you have to what it takes to survive. Especially if you have a family." Kirk said, smiling back.
"It's good to hear you say that. It's hard to keep them fed, but I do what I have to do. After you." Buck said, gesturing toward a door.
Kirk walked into a small room ahead of him and found another light circle door along with a strange bed. "Only thing in here is a-" his breath left him as he felt a sharp pain erupted in his back and a hand clasp over his mouth. He was then thrown onto the ground. He turned to see Buck standing over him, holding a bloodied knife and an evil smile on his face.
Kirk stunned at the sudden betrayal, felt fury rising in him. "You...bastard!" Kirk yelled, and tried to charge up off the ground, but Buck kicked him down and stabbed him again. Kirk grabbed his knife and tried to keep it away, but he was much stronger and plunged the knife into his chest again. 'I'm gonna die. He is too strong.' He looked at Buck's face, and was terrified at how happy he looked. A large smile stretched across his face as he pulled the knife out. Kirk tried to grab his pistol but Buck stomped on it breaking his already hurt fingers even more. Kirk tried to yell out for help but Buck slashed his throat only making him gargle blood. He saw blood spilling out of his chest and blood flowing from his neck. 'Father...please...help.' Kirk thought holding his neck. Buck knelt down to his face.
"This is the moment I cherish most. The look of shock and despair I give my victims before I hand them in as slaves or kill them. I never had a family you idiot. I just used you to get what I want. I decided to make you think we were buddies and when we got back home, would lead you to my slavers and still keep you as a slave. Just so I can see this look. But when I saw what you were capable of, I knew I had to kill you. You were too dangerous. Bye bye vaultie."
Kirk vision started to fade, as he felt the warmth leave his body. Before everything went black, he heard a gunshot.