After the Vault: Chapter 07 Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Fallout or anything that comprises it. This is a non-profit story written solely for my own enjoyment and that of anyone who wishes to read it. The story and all original characters are mine. Please don't use them without permission. *** After the Vault -A Fallout Fan-Fiction by Nutzoide- Chapter 07 Brute "Those are the bastards that murdered my vault!" Silence filled the hall for a moment, but reactions to her outburst were more than mixed. An impressed whistle broke through, but that was followed by a dismissive laugh from Jassic on the other side of the hall. "Hahaha! If *she* can deal with 'em we'll get this mutie, no problem." Having travelled with Abigail already his words held some weight among those who had not, but just as many again were worried by the obvious scale of what Abigail had said, Kirren, Lyster and even Bason included. These monsters had penetrated a still sealed and operational *vault*, and left only one survivor. For his part, Mayor Golway looked to be in the latter camp as he eyed Abigail. "Be quiet people! If you have anything to add, girl, then now is the time." Lilis agreed, much more sympathetically. "We have been working on what the Diamond King told us, which as you heard isn't much. Anything you can tell us would be of use." Abigail felt her rage fall out of the bottom of her stomach, only to be replaced by butterflies. "They... they just broke into our vault, and killed everyone." Silence fell again, and Abigail knew that her answer had been inadequate, but before Golway or Lilis could prompt her Rathley spoke up from his corner seat. "Come on, Sugar. Details again, huh?" "Their numbers? Strategy? Armament?" asked the heavily armed man, standing beside Golway and Lilis. His voice was pleasantly soft and concerned, in contrast to his bull-headed appearance. "Any *why* would they attack a vault? That was evidently suicide." Abigail shook her head, trying to calm her sudden case of nerves as she spoke to the men and woman at the front. And she shook her head in vehement denial at the armed man's assumption. "They did enough, they killed everyone! I thought they were raiders, because I heard them say they wanted what we had inside. I survived because I got lucky, and because they were... they were dumb." "How do you mean?" Lilis asked, looking genuinely curious, while the men wore blank and serious faces. "I killed the last one because it let me sneak up behind it. Another sounded hurt, and killed itself. And their boss was mad, and wasted all its bullets, so I guess the rest of us just overwhelmed it." "And how big was their squad?" the well armed man asked. "Squad?" Abigail echoed. She hadn't even thought of them like that. "It was just four. Our security team killed the other one, before they died." All three of the apparent officials were caught off guard by such a small number, and Golway's eyes bugged out slightly. "God." That ripple of worry spread across the rest of the audience as well, quelling Jassic's optimism, and a few of the faces began to regard Abigail with something akin to awe. "They also had to cross the Cobalt Line, if they found the girl's vault," Old Bert added darkly. "So these 'Super Mutants' must be hardy buggers. Kinda like ghouls pumped up on buffout, eh?" The pitch black humour sank in quickly. The unknown heckler had said it in jest last time, but ghouls were well known for their toughness and their resistance to anything the wasteland could throw at them, be it starvation, radiation, or just hails of gunfire. "And they just attacked your vault unprovoked?" Golway asked. Abigail nodded. "Yes." "Then we *do* have to eliminate it," the armed man said, and Golway slowly nodded, before he turned to the crowd. "This was going to be a mission to persuade the Hearts that it was in their best interests to rein in their new member's camp, but given this new information we will have to deal with them more directly. We will have to discuss the details further, but in the mean time think about what you've heard today. While diplomacy would be preferred, you may have to shoot first and deal with unanswered question later, and needless to say, the risk may be very high." "For those of you who don't do maths," Lilis added, "Abigail, how many were in you vault?" "People? About six hundred and fifty?" "That's about a hundred and sixty people killed for every super mutant taken down." Mayor Golway let that sink in for a moment, before making his final announcement. "Also, given the level of threat that Diamond Jack implied, I took the liberty of asking for some assistance while we were contacting the Diamonds. This," he said, finally introducing the green armoured man at his side, "is Initiate Harris, from the Brotherhood of Steel. Given the severe nature of the warning Diamond Jack gave us, he was sent here to assess the situation on behalf of the Brotherhood." Several whispers of "Holy shit!" and "Man, you're kidding," started circulating the room, while beside Abigail Chopper just closed her eyes and grimaced. "Chopper?" Abigail asked, but the woman just shook her head. Harris stepped forward, and gave a short bow. "After hearing of their recent increased danger to the region as a whole, I have been given full authority to uncover what level of threat the raiders known as the Hearts possess. I will be the eyes of the Brotherhood on this mission, so that we can see first hand what must be done about these so called 'Super Mutants'." He looked to Abigail. "Especially now that we know there may be more than one of them, and that they passed right through the Cobalt Line to get here." Within their little group, Sharn looked distinctly worried. "This... this is going to be bad, isn't it?" Beside her, Chopper nodded. "Oh yes, it's *always* bad when *they* show up." Abigail had the same unspoken answer, but for a very different reason. She needed to go now. The desire to confront this monstrous raider was overwhelming. She wanted revenge, no matter how emotionally pointless she knew it would be, and she wanted to make sure that those creatures could never do to Corva what they did to Vault 42. But if she went, she wouldn't be coming back. She had been lucky once, and her record with lady luck would not allow her to escape again. *** Sharn knocked on the door again. "Abby-girl? You're not still in bed are you? We're going to buy some lunch. Do you want to come? Abby- girl?" Silence. Sharn knew she was in there, probably. Chopper had been playing doctor again in the street outside, so Sharn had been learning some first aid with her and she hadn't seen Abigail emerge all morning. "I can pick you up something to eat? Iguana on a stick?" She was only concerned - okay, not just concerned, she was worried - because Abigail had been so quiet and angry the evening before. She had not talked to any of them much, and had stormed off after yet another poorly advised joke from Rathley. In fact, Sharn had laughed along with him, as they all had, because the unpleasant old wastelander had been the only one of them who had managed to lighten the mood. Abigail just hadn't seen the encouragement in it. Maybe the fact that her vault's combat abilities had been at the butt of it hadn't helped, but even so the mercenaries that would be going on this mission couldn't really be compared to a vault full of hydro farmers and scientists. They had a member of the *Brotherhood of Steel* going with them; they were bound to win, whether it came down to a fight or not. And it wasn't like they weren't all nervous. Maybe some of them would die. Sharn and Abigail and Kyle would just have to make sure it wasn't them. Finally Sharn heard the belated reply through the door. "Sorry Sharn. I'm not hungry." Sharn frowned. Since Abigail had eaten almost nothing in those first days after being found, that wouldn't do at all. Sharn had been more willing than Chopper to respect Abigail's need for privacy, but right then the only thing that stopped her entering was that nagging in the back of her head about Abigail's discomforting feelings towards her. Knowing that Abigail was attracted to her meant that Sharn didn't want to appear too familiar with her. The trouble was, where was the boundary? Before, either Sharn had liked someone, or she hadn't, and that had been it. She made sure she was close to those she liked, such and Kyle and Abigail, and made sure there was always a safe distance from those she didn't, like Rathley. Now Abigail occupied that safe but uncertain ground that Chopper did. Sharn did not like Chopper, as a person. But she trusted her both as a doctor and fellow Scav. As such, Sharn had learned to allow Chopper into her personal space, both physically and emotionally, even if it made her wary and tense. And now Sharn was trying to learn to keep Abigail out of it. Sharn did not want to imply that she might feel the same attraction that Abigail felt towards her, and yet the girl drew out a very strong sisterly and maternal instinct in her. She wanted to coddle and protect the girl, and she couldn't do that from a distance. It was difficult. It was much the same charm that had first drawn Chopper's interest to her, Sharn guessed. Abigail was a very distracting person, so when she hadn't appeared all morning, none of them could simply leave her to it. Chopper had been all for dragging her out, but Rathley and Kyle had instead pulled the doctor away for a lunchtime drink while Sharn took the more sensitive approach. "I'm coming in, okay?" She took the silence that followed as acceptance. Contrary to Chopper's disapproving expectations, Abigail was not still curled up beneath the sheets, but instead sitting cross legged atop them. She had, once again, spread her worldly wealth out on the bed, and only briefly looked up to Sharn before looking back down to her possessions, both her latest loot and what she had reclaimed from Sharn's locker at the town's three-man exploration company. Compared to the normal townsfolk, Sharn guessed, it probably wasn't a bad haul. "Hey Abby-girl," Sharn greeted, hopefully, "come on. If you don't eat you're going to waste away, and there's not much left of you as it is!" Abigail gave her a weak smile, but that was it. It wasn't enough by a long shot, and it only made Sharn worry more for the frail athlete. "You can't afford to go hungry around here, Abby. If this is about Rathley's joke, I'm sorry, okay? We didn't want to make you angry." Abigail shook her head. "No. I'm alright now." That was something. Sharn sat down at the other end of the bed. "So what's wrong?" Abigail shrugged. "I just... can't believe it's going to happen again. It's sort of like a bad dream. You know, those ones where you can see what's coming, but you still walk right into it? Just the way you always do?" Actually, Sharn didn't. "Umm, I don't really have nightmares like that. Do you think you're being given a prophecy?" Abigail smiled again, her melancholy broken briefly by the moment of amusement. "No, not like that. Just an inevitability. Actually, when I do see that monster again, I think I'm going to wet myself." Now it was Sharn's turn to be amused, if only by the inappropriate image, given what Abigail wore. "Hey, we'll all be scared. Even if those tough guys look like they're enjoying it, they only get that thrill because they might die because of the next stray bullet. That's why Rathley makes all those nasty jokes, right? If we were always serious about going up against raiders like this, we'd all be depressed all the time." "No you wouldn't. I saw you fighting. As soon as those raiders started shooting, you were all business. You just, I don't know, dealt with it." "Yeah, I ran under the cart and prayed to my grandparents that those bastards wouldn't be able to hit me behind the wheels! I haven't had to fight raiders without being safely hidden before. Molerats and radscorpions I'll fight in the open, but people with guns?" Sharn shook her head, smiling sympathetically. "I don't know how Kyle fights like that any more than you do. He just says you have to think fast and have confidence." "Confidence? What if you die out there, Sharn? It took so many bullets to kill just one of those monsters." Sharn was just as concerned, but shrugged off Abigail's worry for the girl's own sake. "Then if we have to, we sneak up on it and blow its head off. That's how you did it, right?" Abigail nodded, looking uncertain or ill - Sharn couldn't tell which - and she picked up one of her knives in her hands. "Maybe I'll have to get a gun after all." "Well, you can afford one," Sharn encouraged, motioning to Abigail's possessions. "But knives and spears, if you're throwing them, are just as useful as distractions and cover fire, even if you can't rely on them for a kill." Abigail gave her a questioning look, to which Sharn grinned. "I'm a traditional girl, remember? I like spears and things too. Nothing scares a guy more than seeing a spear flying in out of nowhere when he thinks he's got himself covered!" Abigail didn't seem to have an answer to that. "Yeah, maybe. But I don't want you to come this time Sharn." Sharn was surprised by the sudden request, and more so by the tone in Abigail's voice. She leaned across the bed to look Abigail in the eyes. "You can't say that when you sound like you've made up your mind to go, Abby-girl. I'm not letting you go without me, and anyway, I think Kyle wants to see this super mutant for himself." "And what if you die?!" Sharn shrugged, "Then I die, and I hope my mother and father will be proud of me when I see them. But if we have to fight I'll be shooting from behind a rock or something. I'll be safer than you will, Abby- girl. Why do you look like you're already resigned to the worst?" Abigail shrugged, looking lost, and Sharn had to try very hard to resist the impulse to hug her. "I don't know what I can do against those things," Abigail said, "but I have to give myself the opportunity to do *something*. I guess if I die, I die, like you said." Hearing that sad acceptance Sharn's resolve finally did break, and she crawled onto the bed to take the girl into her arms. "Yeah, if you die then that's that, but that never means you should let it happen, Abby-girl. You've got to want to come back here so you can spend all that loot!" Abigail clutched at Sharn in return and buried her face into her shoulder. "I don't care about loot," Abigail whispered. "I just don't want you to die!" She wheezed out a breath, almost laughing at herself, before that dark humour vanished again. "I don't even want Rathley to die. Not because of this." Sharn accepted the embrace, conceding with her own inhibitions that it was what they both needed right then. A strengthening of weakened bridges. "Well, you know, we might not have to fight at all. I've only done a few Merc jobs for this town, but they usually have some kind of negotiation option. Who knows what the Hearts might say?" Abigail nodded, but as they parted, something on her face told Sharn that the girl didn't believe it for a second. Sharn was not going to try and argue the point though. Abigail needed something else to think about. "Come on," she said with a smile. "Let's get some meat in your stomach!" *** "So, you *are* heading out again, huh?" Abigail nodded, looking down from the vast auditorium stage. "I have to." Her words bounced around the wide, empty room, reverberating from the walls and between each and every one of the seven hundred empty chairs. Hearing herself sound so certain made her feel naked and exposed up there. She *was* naked and exposed, almost. Standing there in her underwear would do that to her, but at least the mass of her vault family was not there to see her wardrobe blunder. She didn't feel embarrassed, only foolish. And Abigail knew that Alice didn't care as the girl sat by herself in the blue plastic chair, the sole member of the audience. "You would do the same, wouldn't you?" "Who knows?" Alice replied. Hers was a friendly voice, but utterly non-committal. "You're the adventurous one, not me." Alice was one of Abigail's better friends - one who, like Abigail herself, abstained from the scheming that went on between many of the other girls. They both knew, and Gillian as well, that the others would say thing about them behind their backs, and the three of them just didn't care. They were one part of their social network, the tomboys as they were often called, and the others slotted themselves into other places in the group. But while Abigail and Gillian were bold and charismatic, being unremarkable was Alice's greatest asset. She had said as much herself, and more than once. She was a model student, but never exceptional enough to be singled out as such. She was pretty, but never received any attention that wasn't wanted. She was multi-talented, and yet never tried to take credit for her assistance with so many different and varied work projects. She was the girl who everyone liked, because she gave you no reason to dislike her. The girl who everyone had seen as capable, or worth owing favours to. There was no doubt in Abigail's mind. Alice was the girl who would be an Overseer one day. Just as Abigail stood awkwardly on stage, Alice sat stiffly in her seat as well, her hands flat on her lap. "It'd only be an adventure if I lived to tell about it," Abigail said. Alice's bland reply had taken some of the fire out of her uneasy conviction. "This won't be an adventure." Alice replied with a questioning look. "Really? You're fascinated by the new and exotic people, thrilled by the danger of the fighting..." Abigail wanted to object, but her body wouldn't let her. "That's... not..." Alice didn't let her respond further. "It is all so new, isn't it? So hard to deal with, but simply by dealing with it, it has become your victory. You know what this world is capable of now. You know what *we* are capable of. And if it comes down to it, you won't hesitate. You will cry and scream and tremble, but you will do what you have to. You were always about action, Abigail." "I won't be very active when I'm dead." "And you won't accept death that easily." Alice smiled finally. "None of us would. Do you know how hard we would fight?" Abigail shut her eyes and turned her head away. "I don't want to know." "If resigning yourself to your fate is the only way you can convince yourself to face your fears then I'll accept that, but you will need to be careful when you reach them, Abby. All that frustration of yours won't help you, and you won't be so eager to take Death's hand when he offers it." Then Alice shrugged. "*If* he even offers it. Are you sure you're not just being a pessimist? Or do you know something that you don't want to admit to?" Abigail couldn't answer that. "Alight, I won't push. You know, you're not very chatty tonight. We always spend so much time talking, and listen to you now. I've almost forgotten what you sound like!" Abigail smiled, growing misty eyed for her poor lost friend. "I haven't forgotten you. I miss talking too, you know? Even if what we talked about never mattered." Alice nodded and finally broke her stiff pose, getting to her feet and wandering up to sit on the edge of the stage. Abigail did the same. "Talking about nothing is the best way to start making something new, isn't it?" Abigail had to agree. *** When morning came, signalling their departure, Abigail found that she could put a much better face on the situation. Though she remembered little of what she had dreamt, the memory of Alice had instilled in her a calm confidence about the upcoming battle. And it *would* be a battle, even if there might be no fire fight. This was, Abigail had realised, her chance to face the memory of her vault, still so recent and so painfully fresh. Whether or not a single shot was fired, Abigail would end up wrestling with herself over what she must do, what she would crave to do, and with the fear of simply seeing one of those hulking green monstrosities again. It would be the test that proved to herself, once and for all, whether she could live on the surface. Would she be able to put aside her anger and her terror and live as objectively as people like Chopper and Lilis did? Those were the sort of people who made something of themselves: the doctor reviled by the self same people who would seek her out for her brutal and audacious skill, and the prostitute called upon to make the choices that lesser men and women would never be able to. Could Abigail do that? If she did not find out, she would never forgive herself. And if she died, then she would be re-united with her vault, wherever they were now. "Nice to see you looking better," Kyle said as they headed for the main street, and the caravan that would be waiting for them there. "I thought you might not be up to it yesterday." "Kyle, be nice!" Sharn admonished. "You know you don't have to come if you don't want to, Abby-girl." Abigail appreciated the sentiment that Sharn obviously intended, but she didn't want to be pushed away either. "No, I just needed to sort my head out. I figure that maybe I can be more use this time. I've been trying to remember everything I can about the monsters." In front of them Rathley looked back to her and grinned, pulling his shades down his nose a little way. "Like the soft spot on the back of the skull, eh Sugar? There ain't nothin' a point blank shotgun shell can't handle!" "Maybe," Sharn said, sounding entirely doubtful, "but you've got to get that close first, old man. You're not so fast on your feet, especially when you've got that metal shell over you." Abigail looked to Rathley's pack, and saw that his metal armour still made up most of its shape. "Why didn't you wear that when the Diamonds were shooting at us?" Rathley laughed. "I'm not sittin' in the sun with that thing on! It'll cook a man if you're not careful. Didn't get a chance to grab my pack before they started shootin', and believe me, at the time I wished I had." "Not that it would stop a rifle round if you were hit full in the chest," Chopper said, wearing a black smile. "Though I guess it might help enough against a glancing shot to let you keep a kidney." "But it doesn't cover that far down," Abigail said, remembering what the armour looked like from her first encounter with the raiders. Chopper just smiled back. That had been her point. "Armour like that comes in separate pieces around the stomach," Sharn told Abigail. "If it was all one piece like the chest you wouldn't be able to bend down, so the rest hooks on and swings out when you move. It's heavy as hell with all that extra metal though, and it gapes open if you're not careful." "Eh, maybe I'll buy the lower bit when I find one," Rathley said, not caring. "It's typical: now I've got the caps spare, this place doesn't have a single metal suit for sale! Not even parts." "What, really?" Kyle asked. That was a surprise, considering how often the town hired in Scavs to explore up by the Cobalt Line. "Yup, not a fucking one. Still don't think it's really worth it though. People don't go for the gut on reflex, only when they want you to die slow. If I've got time for that, darlin' 'Marie' here'll have time to sort me out!" Chopper gave him a questioning look. "Assuming she's in the mood to keep you around, 'old timer'." They reached the caravan with plenty of time to spare. The brahmin had yet to be brought up, so the five of them simply climbed into the back of their cart to wait while the water was loaded on. A few of the other Mercs were there, but they were more interested in discussing what they mayor would finally say about the specifics of the mission, and about their as yet unmentioned pay. It gave Abigail the chance to voice a question that had bothered her since she had been invited to lunch with the mayor's daughter. "Chopper? If Erin is a lesbian, why was that Diamond so insistent on her being 'his girl' when he was trying to kidnap her?" Chopper gave a sudden chuckle at the question, blowing her breath out of her nose. "Jack? Because he was a moron? I don't know. The Diamond King brought him to Corva when he was a kid, before I arrived here. He fell in love with little Erin, though according to her they never even talked. Every now and then he'd try to come on raiding trips here to take her away and make her realise that she was supposed to be his." She had a laugh at the memory of it. "He nearly shot me because of that. He didn't like the idea that I'd got her first." "How did you get out of that?" Chopper shrugged. "Erin screamed to high heaven, so all I could do was threaten him a bit. What would it have looked like if he'd been found over my dead body, with the mayor's daughter screaming and half naked at the scene?" "And just why was she half naked at the scene?" Sharn asked, with a bit of bite in her voice. Chopper just leered. "The same reason I was. Anyway, he didn't know her too well if he thought he could bring her round. She's not just gay, she's a real bitch about it if anyone questions her. Especially the men. She gives her dad such a headache sometimes! Or at least she used to." The time for their departure came soon enough, but surprisingly the Mayor himself didn't. Instead Lilis came to join them. If possible, she would talk to either the Heart in charge, or to the super mutant itself. If that was not possible, she would just be there to evaluate the situation with Brotherhood Initiate Harris. As for the pay, Lilis handed each of them a sum of one hundred caps. She said that the rest would come after the job was done, once they had decided what it was actually worth to meet, and possibly fight, the Hearts and their super mutant. Several of the Mercs who had turned up balked at the offer, but the majority took it, making their caravan fifteen strong. Abigail was surprised that there were fewer of them than on the Diamond Ring caravan, but at the same time the Mayor was not providing spotters or guards this time. It was an entirely independent job, financed by the mayor. Rathley expected that if they were successful Mayor Golway would recoup the caps by selling the information to the neighbouring towns. Abigail was glad to see several of the faces that returned. Kirren sat with them again, as did Jassic and Bason, despite their best interests. Jassic said something about curiosity and the feline mortality rate that came with it, but for Bason seeing a new threat up close was worth the risk. Especially if first hand experience meant that they could be a part of whatever large scale operations or information trading might follow. Seb was again sitting quietly apart from them, cleaning the inside of his gun, while old Bert talked with Lilis about the specifics of the mission. Lyster was conspicuously absent, but none complained about that, and Stephanie had chosen to stay behind as well. She had all the money she needed for now, and she had succeeded in selling her obscene automatic shotgun, the 'Shotheart Double Driver', to none other than Jassic himself. He had bought the thing in trade for both his old pump action weapon and almost everything he had been paid in for the last job, except his share of the shotgun ammunition. There were four new faces as well, but Abigail didn't get a chance to meet them before Jassic swore loudly at the sight of the crowd that had come to see them off. "Fuck me! Look at that!" The expletive surprised everyone, not for being coarse - that was expected - but because the crowd at first sight was once again made up with a few well wishers and rubber-neckers, and made for a very low key send off. That was until they also saw who joined them from the side streets. Filtering from the alleyways, slowly but with an obvious shared purpose, came a crowd of ghouls larger than most had ever seen in the town outside the ghoul quarter itself. The small crowd doubled in size as the ghouls shuffled and staggered their way to the carts, and the human half seemed to recoil instinctively at the unprecedented display of activity from them. "What the hell got into them?" Kirren whispered, evidently not having heard the rumours, but the reason made itself clear instantly. "What are you guys doing here?" Abigail asked, rather astonished, but Christian and his friends all smiled and grinned at her. "What d'ya think we're doin'? Ain't gonna let ya go without a decent send off! Wouldn't be right!" Beside him another ghoul, Albert if Abigail remembered correctly, offered up a battered looking pistol to her. "Here. You're goin' to go fightin' for us, right? Take it. It don't look so pretty, but it still shoots straight." Abigail was flustered by the offer. "What? I can't..." "I don't got any use for it no more," Albert insisted, almost lamenting the fact. "So you go use it for me." Christian agreed. "Us ghouls gotta do somethin' when we get a smooth-skin fight for us, and it ain't much, but this's all we can do for ya right now, Abby." "Take it," Chopper said quietly, out of the corner of her mouth. "Don't offend your ghoul friends." So Abigail did, handling it carefully, both because it was a gift and because she didn't want it to go off accidentally. In return, Albert smiled broadly. "Good. Now you go kick ass for me, Abby." From behind them Lilis called that they were leaving, but Abigail's attention wasn't broken as Celia limped closer. "Be cahreful, Habee- gale. Hy whould like to plhay dohminoes with hyou hagain, when hyou come home." Abigail nodded, suddenly feeling deeply appreciated. With that welling in her heart, she could be assured that she was not ready to die yet. Not in the least. "I will. I promise." *** With fewer people taking on the job there were only ever one or two people walking beside the caravan at any time, and while a little cramped it gave the carts a more sociable atmosphere than she remembered going to and from the Diamond Ring. Most of them who had come back from that job had chosen to ride together again in the second cart, despite the bloodstains that lingered, but since Chopper showed no concerns over its hygiene neither did the rest of them. It helped that both Rathley and Lilis were riding in the forward cart again, with Bert, Seb and the newcomers. It meant that they could speak more openly, considering that neither Rathley nor Lilis was overly liked by most of them. "What's Rathley gettin' out of this anyway?" Jassic asked. He wasn't bothering to hide his suspicion or his jealousy. "Okay, you get to work," he said to Chopper, "big whoop-de-doo, but raiders aren't *his* normal brew either. I know he cut a deal, so what does he get out of this raider run that we don't?" "You mean besides a better chance of getting his head blown off?" Kyle smirked. "He's too well known now, so he makes one hell of a target. Like Lilis said, he's lucky he didn't make himself an easy target last time, or it might've been him and not our driver who got his brains blown out." Then, as an apologetic afterthought, he looked over the water barrels behind him and up to their new driver. "No offence, man. You might want to duck when we get to the Hearts though." The brahmin driver smirked. "No kidding. It won't stop me taking a few pot shots at them though!" he said, patting the rifle at his side. This time Bason was on the same page as his co-Merc though and wasn't going to be dissuaded by Kyle's cheerful misdirection. "No, I'd like to know too. He didn't get more pay - we all shafted each other over those damn shotgun shells - so what *is* he getting? I don't know him, but I'm told that charity isn't his style. He always has an angle." The stocky man looked to Abigail for a plain answer. "Like betting on your rat fight. Maybe it did your rep good, but still, that was low." Abigail agreed, but wasn't going to dwell on it. Rathley had, in his own twisted way, helped her understand what surface life was about. "Maybe. But I don't know what the Mayor offered him. It was long enough before Chopper told me what *she* was getting." Abigail gave a pointed look to the woman beside her, but Chopper just shrugged. "And you still came along, after all that fuss. Anyway, Rathley's getting the same as me." Kirren smirked from her seat at the back, opposite Jassic. "Wow, I never pictured him as the healing type." Chopper laughed with her. "Heh, I let him handle the euthanasia." Abigail grimaced, and to her relief Sharn shared her distaste, sitting with Kyle at the front end. "Nice, Chopper. Really compassionate of you." Chopper just smiled, considering it harmless. "It happens. Work, Bason. Rathley isn't so good at making friends, so he has to be carefully where he goes unless he's ready to get lynched." Abigail blinked in surprise. "Really?" Kyle, Sharn and Chopper all nodded. "Really." Chopper explained. "Out of every five towns in the Mid Waste, one would drive him out on sight and another two would get him shot as soon as the wrong people heard he had come back." "Bloody hell," Jassic swore, impressed. "No wonder he stays out in the desert." Bason had a more constructive observation to make. "So what can Golway do to fix that? Rathley hasn't made any real enemies in Corva yet, but we're just one town." This time it was their cheerful driver who answered correctly. "Mayor Golway is a diplomat, and real persuasive to boot. He never leaves Corva but any time he gets people in from other towns he's there to share information and make new contacts. And he makes us do the same when we head out. Hell, he managed to contact the Brotherhood of Steel for help! And they listened!" Chopper nodded. "He's an ass, but he's Mayor for a reason. And apparently he has a list of people who, for the right price or with the right leverage, could make this part of the Waste safer for Rathley to travel." "A list of targets?" Kirren asked. It was an obvious omission on Chopper's part, but Abigail hadn't thought of that. "You mean, people he can kill? To get them off his back?" "Just a couple," Sharn assured her. "You know, so he can top the ones who are gunning for him before they find him first." Chopper gave Abigail a sly look. "And apparently the township of Borgin might be more forgiving if he just married the poor girl he knocked up. I knew he was promiscuous, so I guess it makes sense if he has a few bastards running around out there!" *** Abigail knew it was properly late the next day when she realised not how dark it was getting, but how difficult it was becoming to keep her eyes open. She refocused them and double checked the screen on the PipBoy on her wrist. They had been stopping on and off all day, but with no reason that she could see other than to check the lie of the land; which was uniformly flat and dry. Enormously so. Animals seemed few and far between on their route this time, which could probably be explained by the similar lack of even the most brittle and parched vegetation. Maybe it would all have made more sense if she had known the first thing about tracking raiders, but she did not. She was merely a passenger. "How are we going to find the Hearts? We've been zigzagging all day, and if we keep bending south each time we'll end up going back to Corva." Then, as if to punctuate her question, she let out a very large yawn. The sun would be setting soon, and they would have to make camp, but sitting in the cart all day had drained the energy from her without the slightest effort on her part. Kirren smiled at her lethargic display. "The same way you track an animal: look for its tracks, and follow them. Raider camps are usually pretty conspicuous, but they move around so much you need to make sure you're following a fresh trail and not the tracks they left out here a year ago." "That's what all the zigzagging is about," Bason illuminated. "If you know where they've been recently it's easy, but we're after a specific camp of Hearts, who we heard were here about a week ago. Zigzagging gives us the best view of everything that's been around here recently, and we then work out which routes match what we're after best. We found them about three o'clock, when we started heading south like you said. Now we're just being cautious, so we don't lose them." Abigail didn't really understand how that was possible, but just accepted it on faith. "I would have though that the wind would have covered all the tracks, with all this sand everywhere." Chopper took Abigail's hand and held it up into the air. "You feel any wind?" To her surprise, Abigail didn't. "Oh." "In some places the wind makes tracking impossible," Chopper said casually, "but the only real winds we get here are when the currents change and it comes off the Cobalt Line. When that happens raider tracks are the least of our worries." "And when we say tracks we don't just mean footprints," Bason added. "Brahmin pats, dead campfires, used up stim needles, even bullet casings. Raiders leave more crap in the desert than any trading caravan. Like I said, they're conspicuous." At that point Kirren looked over the back of the cart, and pointed to one of the partially filled footprints in the dust. "But that's what we've been after." Abigail, sitting between her and Chopper, leaned over to see the print as it disappeared behind them. It was huge. "The super mutant monster..." "Yup," Kirren said. "Hard to spot, but pretty obviously what we're after. We're heading south since this is the freshest of the three sets it made, but we only found it by crossing off their old route. Otherwise we'd still be heading up towards where the Diamonds said they were last." That made more sense, or at least Abigail thought so, but she had had enough talk for one day. She turned off the screen of her PipBoy, since their crazy route wasn't worth saving to its memory. "Good. I guess it's one of those things you just learn naturally up here." "Something like that," Bason said. "I bet we're going to be riding for another hour, 'til sundown at least, so get yourself some shuteye before dinner. You look knackered, girl." Abigail gave him a wry smile, but rested her head against the low side of the cart and closed her eyes. She really did need a nap. "Eh, thanks." Despite how uncomfortable the wooden cart was, and the fact that she had to sit up straight if everyone was to have room, she was out like a light in no time at all. Kyle and Sharn watched with great amusement as she keeled gently over, coming to rest her head on Chopper's shoulder instead of the hard lip of the cart's side. "She really *was* knackered out, wasn't she?" Bason said, surprised at how accurate he had been. "Weird girl." "Well, she has got a lot on her mind, I bet," Sharn said in her defence. Chopper remained quiet as Abigail dozed against her side, and allowed herself a lop-sided smile. She pulled the girl's exhaustive medical textbook out of her bag and began to read again. *** The first Abigail knew of the morning was Rathley's boot poking into her side, bringing her from a very deep sleep. "Huh? What?" She blinked once before being struck by the light that shone in through the open tent flap, and then cursed as she scrabbled around for her shades. "Ow, god damn it, Rathley! Close the curtain!" Her annoyance was soon joined by Chopper's early morning rasp. "Ehhgh, you could just ask us to get up, you know." "Fuck the pleasantries," Rathley whispered, sounding eager but without any smile of expectation on his face. "We're going in." Now that Abigail had her shades she could see Chopper no longer cloaked with the fuzz of the morning, but hurriedly dressing herself in what clothes she hadn't yet again slept in. Rathley proceeded to kick Sharn and Kyle awake as well beneath their shared blanket, even though they were both already stirring. "Alright already!" Kyle whispered, "We're up. Where're my pants?" Chopper flung him his discarded clothes, since they had strayed over to her cramped portion of the tent. "Who's got the coffee? We remembered the coffee, right? Fuck, it's too early for this mission crap." "Bason and Lilis might have some left outside if you're lucky," Rathley said, grabbing his pack from the corner of the tent. Upending it revealed his armour, and he pulled the heavy metal shell over his head. Kyle barely paid any attention to him, instead passing Sharn her clothes until he saw Abigail looking at them without much comprehension. "Better get your leathers on, Abby. The Hearts might have spotted us already." Only then did Abigail's waking brain choose to fill in the gaps. She did not remember much of the previous night, except that for the first time since she had come above ground these surface people had eaten their evening meal entirely by moonlight. The food had been dry and unpleasantly cold, desert temperature Kirren had called it, and Abigail had been woken from her snoozing in the cart simply to eat before she and her companions, sans Rathley as ever, had staggered into their tent for the night. There had been good reason for the lack of campfire or torchlight though. Lilis had pushed their brahmin past sundown and into the night out of a clever necessity. It left them camped up within striking distance of the Hearts, now that they had plonked themselves down again. The Hearts' camp was small, only four tents and no animals, but they had holed themselves up in some old brushwood, and looking into the red morning air a fire could already be seen in their camp. Fully dressed and quickly put into their right minds, the five of them joined the rest of the camp as they all prepared themselves. As Abigail might have expected, while most of them were checking their weapons or clutching at tin cups of bitter, luke-warm coffee in the cold morning air, Lilis and the Brotherhood of Steel man, Harris, both stood awake and commanding. They were already organising their approach. "Jassic, stop playing with that monstrosity and answer the question," Lilis repeated. While fully awake and in control, her patience was obviously suffering since the sun was still only struggling to rise. Jassic did look up from his automatic shotgun. He looked anxious, but put on a very confident front. "Will you guys have my back? That's my question. I know I'm good, and I know he's good, or he wouldn't be Brotherhood," he said, pointing to Initiate Harris, "but a two man assault? That's mad." From the other side of their camp one of the newcomers spoke up. "Just why is it the prostitute deciding tactics here anyway?" Lilis gave the man a venomous look. "Because I'm better at it than you, Merc." Harris stepped in to put the discussion back on track. "Mr Jassic, between us we will have more firepower than most of the others here combined. It makes sense to have us working together, to make best use of that advantage. Assuming that... contraption, does work as advertised." "Seb and Chopper will be your cover. I trust both of you can at least lay down some suppressing fire when needed?" Chopper snorted in distaste. "If I have to." Seb seemed similarly dissatisfied, but was more professional about the idea. "I would be better put on a striking position, but if no-one else carries a sub-machine gun..." Humouring him, Lilis looked around with a questioning eye. "... Nobody? That's decided then. The four of you will be the attack force, should it be required. Take the right flank of the Hearts' camp and hide in the brush. The moment you hear a shot fired, you come out and do your thing. Don't worry about your targets, just destroy everything and everyone from right flank to left, and don't stray off your line or you'll be shooting us as well." Next she turned to the newcomers. "Merc, you just voted yourself as my support. We go in from the front and make contact. You keep your guns at your sides until either they start shooting or I give the word. How are you three armed?" One man held up a sizable pistol, while the other two carried unnecessarily sawn shotguns. "Right. You'll be covering our retreat then. You want to drive them behind cover, and take out anyone stupid enough to stay standing." "Hey, are you armed?" one of the men asked. Lilis shook her head before moving on. "Not for a firefight. You," she said pointing to Kyle and Sharn, "You two can go with Kirren and take up covered positions to the rear of the camp. After we and Harris' team pin them down, you pinpoint and take out anyone who took cover in the open. If it goes well most of them should have their backs to you." She paused and took a look around the camp. "Okay, Vault Girl, Bert, Rathley... who else is left?" Bason put up his hand. Lilis looked him over, as if wondering about the stout man. "I'm guessing you're not one for infiltration?" "Never tried." "Then stick with Initiate Harris and go all out. Go for tent supports if you can. You three," he said to Abigail, Rathley and Old Bert, "get the infiltration between you." "Infiltrate an open camp?" Kirren asked. "I assume they're just going to sneak into the tents." "That's the idea," Lilis confirmed, "While I talk with them, you three pick a tent each and go in under the tarps from the rear, or hide behind them and be ready to go under if we haven't given them sufficient distraction. You take out anyone inside who our three sharpshooters can't see. " At that point Sharn interrupted. "But that'll put them in the line of fire from the Initiate's group!" To Sharn's horror Lilis nodded. "The three of them are to stay low, so when the first lot of shooting stops, they ambush anyone trapped in the collapsed tents." "Despite being trapped themselves," Chopper noted. Abigail just listened to this in shock, and found herself trembling. Beside her both Sharn and Chopper took her hands, and she squeezed them anxiously, hoping to draw strength from them. Jassic had another more amused concern about the idea. "Are you sure those two old wrecks can handle something like that?" Old Bert simple raised an eyebrow at Jassic's attitude, while Rathley cracked his knuckles. "This should be interesting. Would you mind if I did my thing before you open fire?" Lilis stared at him hard. "As long as it's quiet, and you hide the body well." Sharn wasn't having it though. "No way, we can't just..." Lilis cut her off. "Their objective," she said loudly, over Sharn's irate voice, "is to see if anyone is even in them. If not, they retreat. If so, they deal with them, if we do have to fight. They can wait outside until the tents are down and then shoot the lumps underneath for all it matters. The point is that we shouldn't be wasting our shotgun ammunition shooting blindly into the ground." Of course Abigail wanted to speak out, but then the scenario actually made sense. She was an acrobat, and a knife thrower. Even with Albert's beaten up pistol at her hip, she would be best used up close, and silent. It terrified her that she would be put into that kind of situation, but this was her role. She had to do her part. And it broke her heart when Sharn's ire had subsided and her self- consciousness returned, making her let go of Abigail's hand for the sake of their imagined propriety. Abigail did not say anything though. She just balled her fist, and forced herself to let go of Chopper's hand as well. She was not a child any more. At the centre of the camp Initiate Harris set the mood, pulling his unusually clean and chunky shotgun out of the holster against his thigh. "Okay, let's go." *** Getting so close to the Hearts, and getting into their required positions, was far easier than most of them had expected. It was early still, and while they could not catch the raiders sleeping as they had hoped, the Hearts were caught unawares. Given that they had so little cover with which to make an approach Abigail was amazed that no signal was raised in the wandering raider camp, but as Rathley had pointed out, why would they expect anything out in the middle of nowhere? And why would they notice anyone approaching from outside the lines of half dead trees they had taken as their cover? And, unlike Abigail, the raiders were still half asleep. That much was clear as she listened from the back of one of the tents. A brief, coarse bout of lazy sex was interrupted as the woman inside went into a phlegmy coughing fit, and her partner was disgusted enough to break off in favour of what sounded like a gulp from a bottle of sipping liquor. They both soon started bitching to each other about why they did not need the other for physical gratification, and in rather graphic detail. The whole exchange made Abigail feel nauseous - quite unlike the sex she had heard in the past. Thankfully she did not have long to wait before Lilis and her guards made their move, and while Abigail could not hear what they were saying, it did draw the attention of the two inside the tent. Carefully, Abigail flattened herself to the ground, hoping very hard that nobody would open fire, and she peeked under the cloth. Inside the man was hurriedly pulling on his faded and threadbare jeans, while the woman wore a long, luridly dyed skirt, slit up the middle into two halves, and she was watching the exchange outside through the open tent front. "Man, they're talkin' out there," the woman said, sounding mildly impressed. "Think they're lookin' to trade or somethin'?" "Doubt it," her partner replied, zipping his flies and being careful not to catch himself in the process. "Where's the goods? I guess our super mutant has someone spooked. Maybe try and talk us outta taking him to the boss." "Heh, fat chance. Hey, look at that bitch go white! Man, I always love it when they see our brute for the first time!" And, as the monster passed that way, Abigail saw it through the tent flap too. Eleven feet tall and clad in belt-straps and old scrap metal, the green skinned thing lumbered across her field of view briefly, bringing with it nightmares that Abigail was still putting behind her. She gasped into the dirt and had to stifle a cough, but thankfully the pair of Hearts hadn't heard her. They were too engrossed in watching the show. "Hey Tass," the man said, "I think that guy just pissed himself!" He pulled a couple of small green things from the pocket in his jeans, and offered them to his partner. "Haha! What a schmuck!" The girl took one of the tablets and popped it into her mouth, crunching down on it. "Heh. At least he'll be dead soon, so he won't care for long! Fuck, I am so pumped for his!" Abigail froze, still trying to control herself. Were the Hearts intent on a fight? Of course, they would be confident since they didn't know how many guns were ready to take them on, but then Abigail would be caught in the thick of it! "Whoa, grab your spears, Tass. Pit's gonna make his shot." The raider pointed to the tent on the other side of the camp, and Abigail could see it as well. The barrel of a rifle was poised at the entrance. And the camp leader was still talking calmly with Lilis! They were going start shooting with an assassination shot! Abigail began to sweat, trying to think fast. She had to stay on the ground, or risk getting caught in the crossfire from Chopper, Jassic and Bason, but she also had to warn the others. She reached for Albert's old gun at her hip. If she could make the first shot then Lilis might be able to get to safety when the raiders all scattered. But then would the sniping raider just make his shot and then hide? Abigail couldn't hope to hit him from there - she had never fired a gun that wasn't at point blank range - and either way, then these two raiders would know where she was. What if they weren't killed soon enough by Chopper and her team? The woman was already giggling and bouncing on her feet, itching for the fight. Whatever she had taken, it was obviously making her more confident about facing down two shotguns with only a pair of spears in her hands. Then the choice was taken out of her hands. Right in front of Abigail's eyes a flash lit up the sniper's tent, and the report of the shot made her jump. But the flash didn't come from the muzzle of his gun, and the sniper was hurled out of the tent, a cloud of blood in his wake. That was the tent Old Bert had taken to hide behind, and his shot unleashed hell on that camp. Abigail lay on her front and screamed as the air above her was filled with lead. She did not need to see them to know that the two raiders were cut to ribbons by the hail of bullets and buckshot. They screamed like animals before being silenced just as quickly, and the right side of the tent collapsed on top of them all soon afterwards. Then, after a moment, the gunfire ceased. The assault team had expended their ammunition, and now it was up to the rest of them to clean up. Hopefully that terrible noise would have been enough to kill the murderous mutant with his huge gun. Abigail broke out of her shivering with a start, and opened her eyes. She needed to be acting now. If she hesitated she might end up in the crossfire again, and she didn't want to die. Not now. The left half of the tent was still standing, so Abigail scrambled up into it. She tried to ignore the torn body of the raider man that lay sprawled in the shade of the tent, but it was hard to take her eyes off him. He still had his drugs in his hand. But when she did look up and out of the gap in the Swiss cheese that was left of the tent wall, the sight that met her was even worse. Alone in the centre of the camp stood the super mutant, and from his two enormous hands hung the bodies of two of the raiders, bloodied and broken beyond all recognition, literally falling into pieces. Though the hulking mutant was hurt, those two bodies had shielded him from the worst of the gunfire, both from the front and the flank. "That not nice," he droned in that hideous, guttural voice, like those that Abigail remembered so well. "All Hearts probably dead now. Hearts break easily, and Brute liked Hearts." The eleven foot monster dropped his two 'friends', and reached behind him for the weapon slung over his back. "Brute have some fun now too." Abigail screamed for Lilis and her guardian Mercs to run, but none of them did. Lilis, rational and unarmed, flung herself to the ground in an instant. The Mercs, rooted to the spot in both bravado and fear, opened fire on the super mutant. Each got only a single shot, and their shells and bullet either struck the mutant's tough hide or ricocheted off its makeshift armour, but the mutant only winced and pulled the trigger on its minigun. Except this minigun took almost no time at all to wind up, and from its six white barrels leapt beams of bright red light. Abigail watched in horror as the lasers lanced out and slaughtered all three of them in as many seconds. Two were filled with a neat line of glowing red holes, while the third man did not even scream as he was sliced clean in half across the stomach. Abigail could not move. This was how her friends and her family... whatever the weapon, this was how her entire vault had died. The others were not so idle though, and two rifle rounds slammed into the back of the mutant's head. Unlike Abigail's monster though, this one wore a crude and dented metal helmet, and between that and the creature's thick skull the rifle rounds could not break through. Blood began to pour down the mutant's neck, but it turned with a lumbering roar and fired again, dragging the searing beams of the gatling laser gun across the sharpshooters' cover. Though Abigail could not see it, from behind that now burning wood a woman screamed. "Sharn!" Abigail gasped. And then, from behind Abigail, another spray of bullets flew out, burying themselves in the mutant's right arm. They did damage, and the monster had to grab the gun with its other hand to stop it tilting to the ground, but then it hauled the weapon towards them, still firing. Abigail dropped into the dust again, just in time for the bright red gunfire to pass over her. Behind her, from the dry vegetation, she heard a thump, and a headless body fell forwards out of the scrub. Seb's head had been sliced clean away, and the stump of his neck sizzled, cooked by the heat of the super mutant's weapon. The mutant was pushed forward roughly, and behind it she could see Rathley striding out into the open. His shotgun was levelled at the monster, and he cocked it again, unloading another shell into its leathery hide. "Tough fucker aren't you!!" he shouted, taunting the super mutant. "How much of *this* do you think you can take!?" In return the mutant, knowing it would be too slow in turning around, bent down and grabbed one of the destroyed raiders' bodies at its feet, and tossed backwards it at Rathley. The wasteland Scav had to leap out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the gory mess, and his third shot went massively wide. "Oh dammit!" That *was* enough time for the super mutant to turn, and Abigail gasped. Rathley was going to be slaughtered, and no matter how she hated him at times, she did not want him to die. But she couldn't move. All she had were knives and a pistol that she couldn't use. What could she do? Then, as the monster took its second step, it struck her. She could live like the wastelanders did. If she did not have the courage herself, she would take the courage the raiders had. She glanced down to the dead raider beside her, and snatched up one of the pills in his hand. If that could make a woman with a spear want to face down a shotgun, it could make her face that monster's lasers. The pill tasted of nothing, bland and chalky on her tongue, but the second she crushed it between her teeth she found that she could move. Whether it was a placebo effect or something in the strange synthetic taste that suddenly flooded her nose and throat, it did it job. She ran from her cover, and towards the exposed back that the super mutant turned to show her. It was peppered with Rathley's buckshot, and blood seeped down it from the wounds beneath its helmet, and with adrenaline filling her Abigail reached into her pocket and pulled out two of her knives. One slipped easily into her right hand, while the fingers of her left found their way into the holes in the knife's hilt, pointing down from her fist and with blade facing forwards, like a climber's pick. But it wasn't just adrenaline filling her. Something in that chemically aromatic pill was affecting her, because she ran flat out and it felt like no effort at all. She crossed the distance to the monster in seconds, and though she had planned simply to hurl her knife at it and turn its attention away from Rathley, she realised that she could close the gap completely. Her fear had become a thrill, and she leaped bodily at the super mutant, using every ounce of strength in her legs as easily as if she had been dancing. She landed on the super mutant just as it opened fire, and she dug her left knife into its mangled back to give her purchase, slashing at its gun arm with the right. The mutant's burst of shots careered away, but with so many lasers firing so fast Rathley did not escape unscathed. One of the beams caught the side of his armour, and while the metal could reflect away some of the energy, the rest was absorbed to make the impact glow red hot, and that outer edge began to melt away. Rathley cried out in shock, dancing around as his side was burned by the heat, and he tried to pull the armour off without burning himself more. And, without the monster's left arm to support it, the barrels of its gun fell to the floor and ground themselves to a halt. The creature roared again and swung around. "Get off me, human!" Abigail did so, leaping away before the monster could swing its injured arm around and club her with the now inactive weapon. She knew that she couldn't miss a step and she raced around the beast, drawing it in a circle and allowing someone from the sharpshooters' cover to put two more bullets into its torso. The mutant would surely have to fall soon, and it could no longer hold its gun up one handed in order to start it again, but Abigail didn't care. She felt oh so alive, and she was grinning as she dodged effortlessly away from another crippling swing of the mutant's weapon. Her newfound synthetic confidence spread out from her stomach to guide her steps, but it also caught her up in her own personal battle. When she threw her knife, aiming for the creature's neck, she did not think that she could miss, and never considered what would happen if she did. The monster saw her throw coming, and slumped out of the way just in time to let the knife pass by, only to embed itself in Rathley's arm as he finally slung his glowing armour to the ground. "Gahh! Fucking..! Watch where the fuck you throw those things!!!" Now, all of a sudden, Abigail's confidence was tainted with guilt, and the blood pumping in her ears seemed to whisper over and over to her, "Jinx, jinx, jinx!" "It's not my fault!" Abigail cried, but the tainted confidence would not let go. She knew she was better than that. This was *her* battle now. *Her* revenge. In one sudden dash she released all the incredible energy that flooded her, jumping inwards and catching the super mutant off guard as he stamped after her for another swing. This time the knife that slipped into her right hand would strike true, and with one deft throw it sliced into the air before sinking into the super mutant's eye. Half blinded and already riddled with painful bullet holes the monster screamed the lowest and loudest scream Abigail had ever heard, before falling to its knees and pulling the knife painfully from its useless socket. "Arrgh! Stop, Brute not want to die for dead Hearts, Brute..." And then it was silenced. Abigail looked down to see her fingers wrapped around her third knife, the blade embedded in the mutant's throat. She had not even realised that the gap had been closed so fast, let alone what she had just done. The creature coughed and spasmed, but Abigail could feel that it was more out of physical reflex than any desire to breathe. She could feel the grinding of blade against bone with every jerk, the point of the knife neatly slipping through the monster's airway and between two of its oversized vertebrae. It was already very dead. She had done it. The beast was dead. She ripped her knife from its neck as hard as she could. "Take that you murdering bastard!" she screamed, but that scream did not seem enough. The fire still burned energetically in her muscles. She wanted a better fight out of such a disgusting monster. Then the slap hit her, and her limbs grew taut, ready to strike. Except that, again, she did not remember Lilis having got up yet, or Chopper already restraining her in preparation for the hit that Abigail would otherwise have made. Then again, a rational part of her mind said to her that Lilis had only returned a favour. And that rational part seemed scarily small. "It had surrendered," Lilis said, frowning. "Can you imagine what we could have learned from it?!" "You can't trust those monsters!!" Abigail screamed back, straining against Chopper's arms, and the medic had to work hard to keep her under control. The righteous energy in her was far from extinguished. "It's over," Chopper said. Given how Abigail refused to stop struggling, she made it a command. "Settle down Abby! It's over already!" Then, behind Lilis, Initiate Harris spoke. He was covered in blood, but he himself seemed unharmed. "She's right, we couldn't have trusted it. Weapons like that could only come from the Brotherhood of Steel, or the gun runners from the west. Either way, this mutant should not have had it. That would have made it a big threat, and a bigger liability. It needed to be exterminated." The Brotherhood man's defence filled Abigail with a sense of justification, but she did not need it now. Chopper's arms were gone, replaced instead with Sharn's voice in her ears. "Quickly Chopper, she's bleeding out!" Abigail looked over to see Sharn and Kyle carrying Kirren over and laying her down next to Rathley. Her left arm was missing, cut clean through the bicep. "Damn," Chopper swore with good humour, though whether out of callousness or an attempt to amuse her patient Abigail couldn't tell. "If it was going to cook you like that it could have cauterised the arteries for you, eh?" Abigail felt her excited limbs trembling. Sharn was alive. But Kirren might be dying. And then she remembered Seb, lying beheaded by the tent. And the men with Lilis, they were torn apart, their blood splashed across the dry ground along with the blood of so many raiders. Next to Jassic, Bason was clutching his right arm again, just as he had at the Diamond Ring. One of the lasers must have grazed him. It looked like it hurt. And Rathley looked up from where he lay beside Chopper as she tried to keep Kirren alive. He gave her a smirk, made more unpleasant by that old, deep scar across his lower lip. Her knife was still embedded in his upper arm. "Sugar, I don't know whether to kiss you or blow your goddam head off. Guess you wouldn't be up for either one though, hehe." Somehow he sounded tired. Then Abigail realised that someone was missing. "Wait," she said to Lilis, trying to calm herself, "where's Old Bert? He saved your life." In response Lilis just pointed to the collapsed tent on the other side of the camp. "He didn't make it. Stray fire. Or one of the raiders got him before they went down." Even filled with that boundless vigour, Abigail felt her legs go weak. "W-what? But he was... he was good at this... like Rathley... Right?" "Eh," Rathley quipped, "I'm not so good at this. Raiders aren't so much my style. Old Bert had a good run. I'll miss the bastard." Hearing Rathley call someone by name like that, even in affectionate mockery after his death, was the straw that broke the camel's back. Surrounded by the slaughter, Abigail finally threw up. Lilis, for all her composure, followed suit shortly after. Afterwards, and after a good cry alone while her friends tended to each other, Abigail felt a little better. But only a little. *** Contrary to popular belief, looting the dead was a difficult task for most people. Different people drew the lines in all sorts of places. Jassic and Bason, for example, were happy to take the raiders' bloody boots, at least from those who had worn usable ones. Kyle and Sharn were far more choosy, taking a few high cost weapons and pocketfuls of ammunition, rather than weighing themselves down with mundane sundries. For her own part, Marie Butcher - she was still Marie in her own mind, if in no-body else's - was more concerned with consumables than equipment. She had less problem rooting around the mangled bodies than most of the others, so would have ransacked their pockets and their packs for dry food, stimpaks, the odd cap here and there, and any drugs that could go into her medical serums and salves. After her part in the firefight she was also a full clip down on ammunition, so would barter with Kyle for a few nine mil rounds as well. But all that took time and energy, both physical and emotional. It had been midday by the time they had claimed everything, and Chopper had been saddled with the additional problem of caring for Kirren while the others scrounged for their profits. Sharn had made sure the both of them would be taking home a decent share, but there were no town laws out there to govern who could take what. That was one of the reasons that Chopper not only tolerated Sharn, but appreciated her outlook. Without someone like that around, Chopper would have come out of the fight with nothing to show for it, all because her job did not finish after the guns had gone silent. Kirren was a wreck, but thanks to the clean wound and Chopper's skill there was no doubt that she would survive. There was still a good six inches of stump beyond her shoulder, so tying off, sewing up and wrapping it thoroughly left the woman pale and anaemic, but stable. All without painkillers too. There hadn't been time, so Kirren had screamed most satisfyingly as Chopper had done her work. Screamers were the ones with the will to survive. The afternoon had been more sedate, but they had not left their own camp. Shakey legs needed time to be calmed, as did disturbed stomachs. Even in her line of work Chopper had not often seen people so thoroughly torn apart by machinegun and shotgun fire. In comparison the holes and slicing of the super mutant's repeating laser gun had been nice and clean. Clinical even. Sharn, assisted by Kyle, had felt the need to bury the bodies, and though only using a single shallow pit that spiritual indulgence had taken them most of the afternoon. Rathley, once his burn had been salved and his stab wound bandaged and stimmed, had decided to scout around the brushwood thickets for dinner and for anything the raiders might have squirreled away. Jassic and Bason spent their time with Lilis and Initiate Harris, marvelling at the dead super mutant, and occasionally attempting to count how many bullets the thing had actually taken before Abigail had managed to cut it down. The two officials were performing a more serious study of the creature though, and one that Chopper sorely wished she had been privy to instead of pumping meds and painkillers into Kirren. She did notice that the Brotherhood agent, in his arrogance, had confiscated the laser weapon, but since that was more than his share the rest of them were happy to let him have it as long as he took nothing else. The real unknown though was Abigail. She had not stayed around the bloody camp, and only Rathley had seen her briefly claiming some spoils of her own before she had left the scene, visibly upset. That wasn't how Rathley had put it, but then he had been more concerned about Chopper neglecting his wounds at the time. She was overly concerned, but at the same time Chopper did not like the idea that Abigail was unaccounted for. She did stupid things when not supervised, and like it or not Chopper felt that Abigail's fate was hers to supervise more than it was Sharn's, or anyone else's. That was part of the attraction. Abigail was needy, and yet had grown independent and wilful with the same speed that she had recovered from her brush with radioactive death. She had Sharn's kindness mixed with Erin's innocent demeanour, and yet she did what neither girl had managed to do... She made Chopper worry for her, and Chopper both loathed that fact... and liked it. She made Chopper guess at every turn. Her sensibilities were skewed in every direction, so she could come out with the strangest things to say or do, from breaking down and crying for defending herself to lashing out at Lilis with no provocation whatsoever. None that was personal anyway. To everyone else it was clear that Abigail was running to catch up with the way of life for a Scav-turned-Merc on the surface. But to a few perceptive folk, like Chopper, it was also clear that they were running to catch up to her, and the chaos she caused. Everything that had happened since they had found her had been on her terms. Her attitudes and actions had helped to lead their group into taking on proper mercenary work for the first time since Chopper had signed on, and her combinations of ignorance and action had shaped many of the choices made from then on. There was also the fact that she had made it very hard for anyone to ignore her. She was beautiful in a youthful way, with only the radiation scars on her back to show that she had ever been at the world's mercy. Only pampered girls like Erin were ever as lucky as that, but Abigail had a great deal more backbone than they did, whether she aspired to it or not. Similarly, she had made a striking image out of her day-blindness, taking the raider styling of the Diamonds and making it both sleek and gritty. Her leathers no long had any pretension about them, and her sun glasses hid her naivete from the world. She might not have noticed, but people stared. And when they made their snap judgements, either at a bar or in the heat of battle, that small but intense presence of hers was there nagging in the back of their minds. If she could harness that, learn to live their way and replace her fear and uncertainty with confidence, she could become a personality to be reckoned with. But of course, that understanding of her had come with time. At first Chopper had only seen a cute dying girl, who might have been fun to have around, and would be a challenge to keep alive. After that Chopper had been everything from impressed to deeply disappointed with the girl, but it had taken her all that time to realised just who and what Abigail was. She was a sheltered weakling who had never had to hide, and had never been protected. Just as it was not in her nature to kill, so it was not in her nature to cower either. She aspired to be a survivor, without having the courage to exert the power required. And yet Chopper had to admit that Abigail had already passed that phase as well, and succeeded. She had killed today, and been swept away by that power she had needed. When word got out in Corva that she had slain the super mutant in hand to hand combat after the Mercs' guns had failed, she would be a legend. The only question remaining was whether she was ready to deal with that. Well, that and the matter of her disappearance. She had not eaten dinner with them, and Sharn and Kyle had gone out looking for her now that the light had faded. Unlike them Chopper thought better of the girl and had decided to leave her to it, whatever it was she was doing, but there was the annoying worry in the back of her mind that Abigail would be finding new and interesting was of making life difficult for them both. And, a little while later, Chopper found Abigail deciding to do just that. Sharn and Kyle had still not returned, but Abigail pulled aside the tent curtain and plodded in as though she had been wandering with no idea of where she was going or where she had been. She was much easier to read now that her shades rested in her jacket pocket and not on her nose. Chopper sat up from beneath her coat blanket, still far from finding sleep, and was instantly curious. "Ah, there she is. From that look on your face I'll assume that Sharn and Kyle are still out there looking for you." Abigail's expression didn't change. "Oh, they were looking for me?" "Still are, for all I know," Chopper said. "Have you been having fun out in the wilds of the waste?" Abigail shook her head. "Not really." She was silent a moment, and Chopper didn't break that silence. She wanted to hear what Abigail would have to say next. She was not the reticent type. "I'm sorry I killed it. But it deserved to die." Chopper chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't make any odds to me. As long as I get to study it one way or the other..." Abigail clenched her fists. "It makes odds to me!!" So, she was still upset. That was understandable, and she still had time to sort herself out. "Just lie down and get some sleep," Chopper advised. "Have you eaten yet?" Abigail lost the frown she had been wearing and pulled off her jacket. "Yes. Whatever it was in that packet, it was too dry." Chopper let herself laugh again. "That'll teach you to buy that crap. It's no good for anyone, especially a scrawny thing like you." In response to that, Abigail swallowed hard, and clenched her fists again, which caused Chopper to take note. "You... you like mind games, don't you Chopper?" This was interesting. Chopper grinned. "Depends on the mind." Abigail let her jacket drop, heedless of the shades inside it, and stepped out of the matching trousers. Then, to Chopper's surprise, she pulled off the upper part of her jumpsuit as well. "Then you can pretend, right? Just for tonight, I want to pretend." Chopper stared, her smile broadening, but the corners of her mouth lost their sharp edge. It was one hell of a sight to behold, Abigail standing there bare-chested and awkwardly awaiting her reply, after so many denials that the girl had any interest. Abigail swallowed again, but didn't shift her feet or try to cover herself. She simply waited. Rather than replying, Chopper got to her feet, and closed the distance between them. "Pretend?" she asked, taking Abigail's unhappy chin and raising her head. That showed the dampness in Abigail's eyes. "I want to pretend that you love me," she said, sounding so bleak and at the same time so hopeful. "I want to pretend that I can love you. I just want to be with someone tonight." Chopper's smile could only grow. Abigail could not have looked more adorable or desirable to Chopper than she did right then. Chopper leaned down and kissed her. Not fully, but enough not to tease the poor girl. "Who has to pretend?" That was all the confirmation that Abigail needed, and she pressed her half-naked body against Chopper's clothes, standing on her toes to kiss her again. Chopper felt the heat rise in her body as she allowed Abigail's tongue to meet her own, and her hands wandered freely down Abigail's scarred back to grope at her slender behind underneath the tight jumpsuit. Abigail did not do the same, for which Chopper was a little sorry, but she let Abigail clutch her just long enough to finish their kiss. As they parted, Chopper's hands pulled the half-jumpsuit further down, barely leaving Abigail modest at all. Abigail did not seem to want to let go, and instead her hands slipped around to Chopper's sides, and when Chopper began to unbutton her shirt Abigail helped. Seeing that lost look still on Abigail's face Chopper was tempted to stop and question her again, but she knew that if she did that it would only put more doubt into the girl's mind. Chopper wanted her, and if Abigail wanted the same, even if only 'pretending', then that was more than alright. Their hands met at the last button, and Chopper played her part, taking Abigail's fingers beneath her own and pressing them against her ample chest. There they stayed on her heavy duty brassiere as Chopper removed the shirt, and once free of it Chopper held her close again, pulling them together with her left hand while her right came to rest over Abigail's own petit left breast. As they kissed again, more forceful with their lips this time, it seemed to give Abigail confidence. She slipped her hands beneath Chopper's brassiere and pushed it up the woman's chest to let her breasts sit heavily against her hands. Chopper once again let her left hand wander down to caress Abigail's rear. As she did so, Abigail broke that third kiss suddenly, looking down at her hands pushing against Chopper's body. Her breath was shaky, and threatening to break the illusion that they had so easily crafted. "I can't believe I'm..." Chopper cut her off by pulling her jumpsuit legs further down, almost unbalancing them both, and she pressed her right hand more firmly against Abigail's breast. "Believe it." Then, more gently and with pleasure in her voice. "Just let yourself do it, Abby." Chopper was glad when Abigail did so, and after she had pulled the rest of the girl's clothing from her she leaned down to place a kiss against Abigail's neck. Abigail finally smiled, water still shining in her eyes, and she unpinned Chopper's bra, simply wanting to touch her now, and hold her warm body close. Chopper's hand slipped downwards across Abigail's clean stomach, and she returned Abigail's smile with absolute confidence. "I can love you all you want." *** To be continued... *** Please send any comments and constructive criticism to: nutzoide@nutzoide.net They are always greatly appreciated, and there is no better reward for a writer than to hear back from the readers. Many thanks to Richard King for his proofreading assistance. (c) Nutzoide 2008 http://www.nutzoide.net