» Fri Apr 08, 2011 6:08 am Part I: The Wasteland
Chapter 1: The Demon
Dust caked on Dameon's forehead. A layer of black, sooty grime. He coughed into the thick, still air. A bead of sweat dripped down, a gray streak on his forehead. It fell onto the briast plate of the dead Outcast below him with a drip, and then ran down onto the dim concrete floor. Dameon positioned the body slightly upright against the wall and sunk a long knife into its side. He waited for the click as the armor unfastened and mechanically popped away from the chest. He then peeled it off. Underneath, the dead man's undershirt was a deep red. Black blood solidified alongside two bullet holes near his heart. Dameon put the briast plate aside and lifted off his helmet. The dead man was young, in his twenties with wild, wiry blond hair. He stared at Dameon with empty black eyes, doll eyes. Dameon stared back for a moment and then tossed the armor onto a pile of bloody armor he had stacked at the end of the corridor.
Twelve dead Outcast soldiers lay across the corridor and in the three adjoining rooms. Dameon had stripped half of them nearly naked and their weapons leaned against each other forming a teepee on the floor. Blood oozed down the walls and dust slowly fell from the ceiling. The lights buzzed off for a second before flickering back on.
Perhaps struck a generator in the chaos?
Dameon wiped his dirty forehead again. Instead of cleaning his brow he smeared blood onto it. The blood ran into his eyes, stinging them.
"Meh," Dameon rubbed his eyes on his coat collar and walked over silently to one of the adjacent rooms.
The room was full of office cubicles, each with its own desktop terminal. Dameon went up to one of the terminals and inserted a blank holotape into the drive. The fan kicked in and with a whirring purr the holotape began to upload and copy the all of the terminal's data. Dameon peered at the screen as the data flashed by as it was copied.
Detailed instructions on the use, maintenance, and operation of various Outcast weaponry. A tactical assessment of Fort Bannister. Operational strength of the DC Outcasts. New order to recover 'H2' from Fairfax.
The holotape quickened speed and the words turned into a blur. Dameon looked to his right and noticed a locked steel door he had missed in the corner. Next to it was a wall terminal. He walked up to the terminal, pressed a clear, sticky microchip against its screen and began to manually hack it. Once granted system access, he selected the door. It creaked open.
Dameon peered into the new room. A single bulb illuminated it from above. The armory. Assault rifles, RPGs, laser rifles, grenades, and boxes upon boxes of ammo had been placed in neat angels all over the room, meticulously setup by the Outcasts. Dameon picked up one of the rifles and peered down the barrel. He then heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs at the end of the hallway
Chapter 2: Gold Ribbon Grocer
Chloe pushed a sugary Twinkie into her mouth. She felt the warm burn of the sugar's glazing intermix with the slow burn of minor radiation. She then wiped her mouth clean as her mother, Amanda, watched her with a look of amusemant and disgust.
Chloe laughed, "Sorry mom, can Emily and I quit early tonight?"
"Sure, it's been very slow today. Just straighten out all of our inventory and you and your sister can go relax," Amanda wiped down the front counter of the Gold Ribbon Grocer.
Emily began to straighten up boxes with a smile. She and her sister could get off early and listen to Three Dog before going to bed.
The Gold Ribbon was one of the few vendors left in the desert. It sold whatever Amanda and the girls could find. Boxed and canned food made before the war, an occasion gun, various mechanical parts, assorted odds and ends. It was one of four shattered structures left on the road to Jury Street, and the only one that still had a roof. A lone beacon in an empty, churning desert.
Emily and Chloe continued fixing up the shop. Chloe bent down to clean a wad of gum off the floor.
There was a loud blast outside.
The women froze. Chloe ran over to Emily. Amanda motioned for the girls to hide. She then crept over to the window.
"What was that?" Emily whispered.
Amanda could sense her daughters' fear. She peered out of the store window, into the darkness.
Raiders.
Amanda watched as they quickly walked towards her store. Most were half dressed in crude plates of metal armor, leather, or whatever else they could scavenge, woven into an ugly mix of gladiator and junkyard bum. One wore a copper fireman's hat with a welding helmet, another had on a spiked cuirass. A raider in the rear gestured for the others to spread out. He wore a green combat helmet on top his bald head.
He must be the leader. . .They're too close now.
Amanda was alone out here tonight. She leaned back and tried to scout out a place for her daughters to hide.
The raiders began to bang on the door.
Chloe screamed.
BOOM!
The door shattered apart and came down in a cloud of dust. The raiders jumped inside and the women could hear the shouts of more than a dozen men, followed by howls of laughter. The raider in the green helmet walked over to Amanda cautiously. He readied his hand on his submachine gun.
"Please, please," Amanda tried to put on a smile, "Just take anything you need and leave us alone."
"Don't worry," the raider in the green helmet smiled.
The room was silent and still for a second. Chloe couldn't catch her breath, her lungs could have burst. The other raiders froze without orders. Chloe watched as the lead raider broke the stalemate.
"Anything we need!. . . you heard the woman," he let out a laugh. The other raiders began to chuckle and fan out across the store. They shoved anything of value into large canvas sacks. Tins of Spam, Twinkies, potato crisps, pep, dirty water, and nuka-cola. Everything Emily and Chloe has so painstakingly set up over the past hour. They worked with a greedy efficiency in a careless and loud rush.
Chloe grabbed Emily's hand. A female raider with a dented steel helmet walked in front of them, and pointed a handgun straight at their heads. She had a broad beaming smile on her face. She was enjoying this. Chloe glared at her, her cheeks burning with rage.
"Hey, there's nothing here but junk and [censored] beer!" a short raider called out to the one in the green helmet. He took a large swig from a beer bottle.
"Please," Amanda saw the fear on her daughters' faces. She stepped towards the female raider with an outstretched hand.
"Get the [censored] back from her!" the man in the green helmet shouted to Amanda.
Amanda stopped for a moment and tried to calm her daughters with her face. She then took one step towards them, trying to touch Chloe's hand.
The raider with the green element raised his submachine gun and fired once. He hit Amanda in the chest and she collapsed. Blood began to seep onto the floor. Chloe screamed. A few of the raiders in the store paused while the rest mindlessly continued to loot.
"Stupid [censored] couldn't listen to [censored]," the female raider laughed, her gun still trained on Chloe and Emily.
The short raider raised a heavy, cumbersome bag. He walked over to Amanda's body.
"A shame, Dom," the short raider looked to the raider in the green helmet, "could have gotten a good price."
"Yeah," Dom holstered his submachine gun, "but that carton of cigarettes in your sac is worth more than she could ever fetch. Good enough haul for the night."
The raiders were nearly done looting. Emily was shaking and was as white as the moon. She sat in the corner behind the counter, looking down at the floor. Chloe had crawled over to her mother. Amanda was still breathing shallowly, her breath gurgled.
"Chloe," she whispered.
"Please mom, please don't die," Chloe cried over the laughter of some of the raiders, "Please"
"Listen," her mother said softly.
"Please" Chloe couldn't talk.
"Listen..." her mother continued, "Try to stay alive...stay alive for me," she said before her eyes closed. Chloe began to sob.
"Shut that [censored] up," the short raider spat. He walked over to Emily and grabbed a fistful of her blond hair. She was awoken from her shock and screamed out in pain. Chloe went to stand up and the female raider slapped her hard in the face, stunning her.
"I'll take the girls with me. . .to the market in Paradise Falls. What are they worth to you?" the short raider asked Dom.
Dom watched as Emily struggled in the little raider's iron grip. He was pulling her hair out as she struggled. He then looked to his rear where the female raider had just slapped Chloe. Chloe was now motionless on the floor, breathing rapidly, and staring up at Dom with glassed, red eyes.
"You take the one you've got. Mina and I will take the other one," Dom said coolly.
"You sure?" the short raider let go of Emily and she dropped to the floor, "Quite a bit of trouble dragging her along."
"Don't separate us please," Chloe pleaded as the raider in the spiked cuirass grabbed Emily, and pushed her outside.
Chloe felt a woman's hand go around her throat. The female raider, Mina, began to choke her until she fell back to the floor.
"Don't worry about us," Dom said, looking down at Chloe, ". . . this should be fun."
Half of the raiders left with Emily, while Dom and the rest made sure they had stolen every last scrap of salvage or 'cargo' from the store. Chloe had crawled back to her mother's body. She crossed her mother's arms and then put her head down on her mother's chest.
"Why do you even want her?" Mina said, glancing down at Chloe. She smiled to Dom, and tried to look sweet, "you could always just [censored] me."
"I have [censored] you," Dom took a step away and loomed over Chloe, "Come on then. Stand up. Up."
Chloe slowly rose to her feet. She brushed her hair out of her eyes.
"You going to be trouble girl?"
Chloe stood silent. She sniffed and stared daggers into his eyes.
"Well now you know that she's bound to be," Mina leaned back into a table, grinning, eager to see what Dom would do next.
"I think she will be a good girl," Dom said, smiling, "Packed up?"
"Yeah," the other raiders shouldered their bags.
"Let's go."
They all exited the shop and began to hike into the dark night.
Chapter 3: Survival
The raiders set up camp a few miles away, near a small, narrow cave. Chloe had been here before. It was called, Callingman's Cave. The raiders lit a small fire near the cave mouth where it would be hard to spot from a distance. They were all drinking and laughing. They showed no sign of remorse. Happy as clams, greedily eating tins of Spam.
Chloe struggled to free her hands. Mina had tightly cuffed them behind her back to the point where it was painful. Mina had practically been giggling, laughing at her as she did this, which filled Chloe with rage. She tried to pull the cuffs off but they wouldn't flinch.
Dom noticed Chloe struggling out of the corner of his eye. He walked over to her and grabbed her left arm. Pain shot up through her body making her stand up. She struggled as Dom dragged her by her arm into the cave. Once deep enough inside, he unlocked the hand cuffs, and they fell with a thud to the dirt cave floor.
Chloe stepped backward and began to rub her raw wrists. They ached from where the tight handcuffs had pinched them together.
"Sorry. . .Mina can get a little. . .jealous," Dom smiled to Chloe. He paused "What about you?"
Chloe remained silent. She could have said anything at that moment but she was worried that if she did open her mouth, she would involuntarily scream. It wouldn't be an ordinary scream, but the kind of ear-piercing torrent of obscenities and curses shouted by a crazed girl who would claw her captors to pieces. . .unless they shot her to death first.
"Silent type? Just scared?" Dom shrugged and began to take off his belt, "I don't need you to talk."
Chloe was awakened from her thoughts.
"No," she said sternly as Dom threw his belt to the side. "I won't let you," she stared at Dom and put on her toughest face.
This made Dom pause for a moment. Then he smiled, a compulsion, "If you say no that's one thing. . . It doesn't matter to me what you say or how you feel about it. But, if you try something on me... well that's different. If you try something I'm going to let Mina do all the horrible things to you that you know she wants to."
"I won't-" Chloe tried to sound forceful but her voice cracked. She closed her eyes for a second.
Dom svcked on his tongue.
Chloe opened her eyes stared him down.
Is he really going to do it in the middle of this cave?
Dom smiled. He put his hands on Chloe's arms and pulled her into him.
He spoke right into her ear, "Come on now. What did your mom tell you?"
Chloe winced and clenched her teeth. She was a moment away from biting his ear off.
"You aren't going to stay alive unless you're obedient, okay?" He looked deeply into Chloe's eyes, "you don't know how many of you I've been through," he whispered.
Dom let go of Chloe. She staggered a few feet away and then sat down. She looked up and fingered the button of her jeans.
"I hate you," she muttered.
"I care," Dom laughed. He reached for her.
(**********************************************************************)
Amanda's smile beamed in the dawn light, "You look so wonderful."
Chloe rolled her eyes. She had seen this so many times before. She cocked her head and watched as Emily admired herself in the dented mirror. The girl's yellow dress flowed about her body.
"I do feel pretty it in," Emily chimed.
"Your gorgeous," Chloe smiled to her.
Amanda hugged Emily, "wear it today."
(**********************************************************************)
Chloe gasped. She felt the hot sting of irradiated water in her eyes. There was a small puddle nearby and Mina had thrown a cupful of the dirty water into her face as she slept.
"Get up [censored], it's time to go," Mina laughed and looked back to the other raiders.
It was morning. Chloe was slow to stand. Her body ached and she was miserable. She didn't feel that she could live for another day like this.
"I said get up," Mina threw dirt at her.
"Chloe, I'm Chloe!" she stood and scowled at Mina.
Mina grabbed Chloe by the hair, "I don't care what your [censored] name is!"
Chloe grabbed a fistful of Mina's hair and they struggled to the hoots of the other raiders. Mina was much stronger. She overpowered Chloe and forced her onto her stomach, pushing Chloe's face into the dirt. Chloe tried to move but couldn't breathe. She went limp.
"Enough Mina," Dom waived for Mina to get off of her.
Mina loosened her grip enough for Chloe to get a brief gulp of air. She then shoved Chloe's head back into the dirt around the cave, "You've [censored] her, now we can get rid of her."
"She is still worth something. We can sell her," Dom picked up his rifle and prepared to move out. He looked out into the desert.
Mina's blood boiled. "How much is she worth to you? Fifty caps? A hundred caps? Take it out of my share of the Gold Ribbon," Mina smiled. She pulled a knife out of the back of her belt, "I want to do this, Dom."
Dom stood still for a minute. The other raiders looked at him inquisitively.
"A hundred caps," Dom thought about it, "why do you hate that girl so much? What has she done to you?"
Chloe began to struggle. Mina was kneeling over her; she put her knife up to Chloe's neck. Chloe went still. She glanced at Dom, who looked away from her burning gaze.
"Because" Mina pulled on Chloe's hair, pulling her head back and exposing all of her neck to the blade, "She's too pretty."
Chloe could feel Mina's hot breath on her cheek. Awful breath. She struggled against the pain from being pulled by the hair.
"Let her go," Dom said casually.
"Why?"
"BECAUSE I [censored] TOLD YOU TO!" Dom shouted.
Mina let go of Chloe. She went limp on the ground, determined not to get up. She didn't move for a minute. The raiders began walk away.
"Get up," Dom grabbed Chloe by the arm and pulled her over the bare, rocky ground.
Chloe lay limp.
"She's not dead," one of raiders volunteered, "I can see her breathing"
Dom let go of her and sighed. He cocked his pistol.
Chloe rose to her feet.
(**********************************************************************)
The raiders traveled lightly through the desert. Each only had as much as they could comfortably strap to themselves. They had little water; instead they had been drinking from the small pools of green, irradiated water that dotted the desert landscape. Radiation was a constant annoyance. The irradiated water tasted more metallic than purified, radiation free water. Not too bad on the taste buds, but it went down with a slight tingle – a slow burn that would make you spit blood if you drank more than a few swallows at a time. Nearly everyone had had to drink too much of it, the desert was as hot as the Sahara
The DC desert was like a moonscape covered with twisted metal, piles of rock and steel rubble, and the occasional free standing structure. Every building seemed to be leaning to the side in a state of disrepair. Nothing looked new. The contours and grooves of the horizon could be seen unobstructed; most of the ground was a desiccated flatness of sand and brown soil that only supported a few species of hardy, but inedible yellow scrub.
However, there were some pockets of immense beauty.
Dust swirled in the air.
"[censored]!" the raider in point yelled back. The procession behind him abruptly stopped next to a large rubble pile. Chloe, who was near the back, was pushed down by one of the raiders. They all kneeled low to the ground and froze.
"What is it?" Dom called to the point man, "Mutant?"
"Dogs! Two of them," the man called back.
A rifle shot followed.
"Watch the left side!"
The raiders peered over the rocks. The point man had already shot one of the dogs. It collapsed in a heap against the rocks. Its companion had disappeared for the moment, while all of the raiders stared around the perimeter. They were poorly positioned inside a narrow canyon. The dog could pounce on them at any moment, from any direction. Starving feral dogs were always vicious and deadly.
"There it is!" a raider screamed as the dog leapt over the rocks and pounced right on him. He let out a yell as the animal began to maul him with blunt teeth. As he screamed, the other raiders began to beat the dog with bats and stab it with knives.
Within twenty seconds the dog and the raider were dead.
Chloe looked into the dead raider's eyes before they walked on. A young man with a green snake tattooed on his cheek.
"See," one of the raiders whispered to Chloe as he walked by, "you're lucky you have us to protect you."
The others laughed.
Chapter 4: The Sign Post
It was midday now. The sun was brutal on the raider gang. All of them were filthy and covered in mildly irradiated dust. The radiation burned like hot ash on the skin. It could cause boils within hours or poison your blood slowly over days.
The rads from the blowing sand were not a serious danger by themselves, but with enough radiation, the skin would begin to cook – killing you long before you could save yourself by flushing your system with an injection of radiation xenephenedrine.
The raiders made their way along a large sand dune. The skyline of the crumbling town of Fairfax lay on the horizon. It looked like a giant gray skeleton off in the distance.
"What is this?" a raider stopped and glanced at a large white rock on top of the dune.
"Huh," Dom walked over to him, "What's the [censored] hold up?" he looked at the rock.
The rock had blue graffiti spray-painted on its face. It was an image. A circle with two triangles coming out of the top like horns. Inside of the circle was the letter D.
"Another faction?" the raider asked Dom.
"No," a shirtless raider spoke up, "It's the Demon."
"The Demon?" Mina stopped and whole procession glanced at the image.
"The Demon," one of the other raiders nodded.
"Whose he?"
"Some [censored]," Dom lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, "killed a lot of us so he needs a fancy name. That's his tag. . .on our territory. [censored]. . .pretentious if you ask me."
A raider began to fiddle with his assault rifle, "maybe we should turn back. He could be in Fairfax already and ambush us as we arrive. We are carrying a lot of loot to get into a fight."
There were a few murmurs of agreement.
"No," Dom flicked his cigarette, "we're between MegaTon and TenPenny. He must have to take this route all the time. That mark could be weeks, even months old. I'm tired of being in the [censored] sun. Besides, he wouldn't attack Fairfax. Too many of us, even for him."
The raiders continued on. Chloe paused by the rock and looked at the Demon's mark.
Chapter 5: Fairfax
"Hal? Rico? Sherry?" a gritty voice called down the dark corridor. The Outcast peered out into the darkness. His blood turned cold as he saw the bodies slumped against the wall.
"They're dead," he whispered to the other two Outcasts at his side.
Inside the armory, Dameon peered out from behind the door. He trained his assault rifle at the offices. He could hear the clicking footsteps of the Outcasts' power armored boots in the hallway getting louder. He paused, gingerly picked up a grenade from his side, and gently rolled it towards the door. It hit the doorframe and spun around in a circle, making a metallic clank.
"What was that?" the Outcasts froze. Hearing no explosion, they shuffled over towards the armory. Their rifles swept the offices for any sign of the intruder. Their blood was hot as they frantically panted; sweeping left and right, weighed down by heavy armor.
Dameon lay completely still in the back corner of the armory. The armory door was open slightly more than a crack, barely noticeable, just enough of a gap for him to see the grenade down his rifle scope. He closed his left eye and looked down the barrel. The footsteps drew nearer. One Outcast peered in, another was just behind him. They were bunched up around the doorway.
Now, now is the moment.
Dameon squeezed his trigger finger. A shot rang out and the grenade filled the office with hot shrapnel and smoke.
(**********************************************************************)
It was nearly dusk by the time the raiders arrived in Fairfax. Chloe saw their relief when they realized that other raiders were still camping there. The old town only had six buildings standing, mainly around the main square. There was a tall church to the west. Raiders were perched in and atop these buildings, scanning the horizon down Highway 6 to Fort Independence.
Dom laughed and ran up to greet one of the raiders, who was warming by a bonfire.
"Haha, Dom!" the raider hugged him, "How have your travels been?"
"Better than you could imagine, Falcone. We just came from an amazing haul. The Gold Ribbon."
"What have you got?" Falcone scanned the new arrivals, "a bunch of cumbersome sacks and a doe-eyed desert girl?"
"The Gold Ribbon. A wasteland shop, we got everything," Dom beamed.
"Lots of caps?" Falcone asked in odd tone.
Dom paused. He looked at the local Fairfax raiders.
Are they readying their weapons?
Dom glanced back to his crew. He was not about to be cheated. Even by an old friend.
"Alcohol, friend?" Falcone smiled at Dom, "you owe me a bottle of scotch from ages ago."
"Yeah, I owe you A bottle of scotch."
(***********************************)
Dom's gang was separate from Falcone's, but Chloe deduced they were from the same faction. They had snakes carved into their armor or tattooed onto their skin. They had also spray-painted green pythons on the sides of Fairfax's crumbling buildings.
One of the raiders led Chloe alongside the bonfire at the center of Fairfax. To her right was a large animal cage, away from the fire, but shadowed from the slowly setting sun.
Chloe was lucky. The cage was empty. The raider locked her in it.
The raiders milled about and drank for a while. Chloe tried to keep sane in her position. She could not, absolutely could not, die like this, in this way. . .
Mina waived at Chloe while inhaling a capsule of jet. She smiled at Chloe, glassy-eyed from the high.
Inside the cage, Chloe closed her eyes and thought about anything and everything she knew other than this place. Her father, her sister, foreign country names she had been taught, what the surface of mars must look like, the taste of a desert pear, how Fairfax must have looked before the bombs fell.
The loud, drunken speech of the raiders intruded on her thoughts.
"How did you guys make out against the boys from the fort?" Dom asked Falcone.
"Not well, but after we bloodied them up enough they crawled back to Independence. Bunch of [censored] [censored]." Falcone boomed.
"Why'd they attack here anyway? They know we'll whoop em."
"Something Lux found in the church basemant I think. Some kind of prewar cargo they wanted."
"Greedy Outcast bastards. Showed them. . . .But you know, could be a lot of loot in there. It's a damn fort – military stuff. If they're weak from the attack we could take em now."
There was a long pause.
Chloe was exhausted. She felt she might fall asleep.
"No," Falcone mused, "We're too low on men. Wait till Lux gets back here from Evergreen. . .Plus, those Outcasts aren't defenseless shopkeeper [censored]. Hahaha. No, they have heavy weaponry, robotic guards, and a good position. . .although we didn't see any Outcasts posted out on guard this morning."
Chapter 6: Siege
Dameon balanced another rifle onto the teepee. Fifteen dead Outcasts, a dozen or so rifles, several RPGs, a minigun, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. He looked at the piles of cargo he had amassed.
Too much to carry. Not even any point in stripping the last three.
He shrugged slightly and pulled out a cigarette. His blood stained hands bathed the cigarette in deep red. In disgust he threw it away and pulled out his last bottle of water. He washed off his hands and sipped on the irradiated drink. It burned his gums. He wrapped up as much of the cargo as he could lift and walked towards the bunker door.
Dameon then slowly emerged from the bunker of Fort Independence out into the dimly lit capital desert. It was dusk, and the sun was slowly drifting beyond the vast sandy plains to the west. He stayed low to prevent being sighted by Outcast, raider, or otherwise. He then drew a sniper rifle and scanned the area. There were three raiders perched atop one of the crumbling buildings of Fairfax less than a mile east. They were at the top of what appeared to be old church spire. He fiddled with the scope to get a better look at them. Two men and one woman, dressed in their rag-tag armor. Too far to attempt a shot. He lowered the gun and heard a rustling behind him.
The rustling was coming from Tai, his companion. Tai was a big, fearsome looking German shepherd Dameon had found two years ago. The dog was chewing on the remnants of a football sized cockroach. Dameon looked away from him, over to where he had seen the raiders.
"Tai, here boy," Dameon put his left hand straight back behind him. This was a signal for Tai to follow. He had taught the dog to recognize five hand signals: stay, follow, attack, encircle, and home.
Tai cocked his head to the right while munching on a roach leg. He then let it fall from his jaws and fell back behind Dameon. Dameon heard a laugh echo down the road from Fairfax.
"[censored] raiders," Dameon pulled out the water bottle and slowly poured the liquid out of it, letting Tai lap it up as it fell. He pet the dog and then slowly began creeping up Highway 6 towards Fairfax.
Dameon paused. He and Tai ducked behind a dumpster on the approach to the main square of the town. Fairfax was on a slight hill, a hike up from the fort, so Dameon had been unable to see how many raiders were camping there. All he could make out were the three raiders perched in the church spire, and two others holed up around a small fire on the third story of a ruined apartment house. He counted them again. There were other voices up the hill; he could hear the dull murmurs of raiders unseen.
Dameon motioned for Tai to run around and flank the raiders from behind. Tai whined and then walked off into the darkness. The dog would know when the time was right. Dameon watched as the raider lookouts joked around with each other and took turns peering into the darkness. The sun disappeared over the horizon. Dameon held still until two of the lookouts stood directly in front of one another, perfectly in his line of sight. He then raised his weapon and squeezed the trigger.
(**********************************************************************)
Chloe opened her eyes, dazed. Nothing had changed; she was still locked in the cage. Well, the sun had gone down, that was different. Her face ached from an irradiated sunburn, the dust, and overexertion. The cage was too small for her stand. She could only stretch her legs by pushing them through the bars, and one of the local raiders had swiped at her toes with a knife the last time she tried. She was deathly thirsty, her lips were cracked and her tongue was like sandpaper.
She looked at the raider camp. Many of the raiders were now sleeping off their reunion party. Dom was sitting on a folding chair about fifty feet away, to the left of the bond fire. Mina was asleep with her head at his feet. Dom stared right past her for a moment and then stood up, looking for somewhere to relieve himself. Chloe watched as he walked off.
What if I have to pee. . . No water anyway. . .
Chloe leaned her head back against the rear bars of the cage. She saw the twinkle from a fire the raiders had lit on the top floor of one of the nearby buildings. As it came into focus, she noticed there was no one huddled around it, only darkness.
Chloe then cringed as she heard a burst of gunfire tear apart a raider standing on the road.
(**********************************************************************)
Dameon took down the first raider with a burst from his assault rifle. He then threw a belt of grenades as far as he could into the main square. It was instant chaos, the sleeping and intoxicated raiders began to stammer to their feet. Those already awake were trying to scatter across Fairfax. Before most could move three steps, the grenades detonated in a bright flash.
Most of the grenades were smoke grenades. The two fragmentation grenades in the belt burst into a shower of shrapnel. In the chaos, the raiders couldn't tell what was happening; they panicked. Dameon was able pick off all of the raiders who ran out of the smoke.
Until they began to return fire. . .
Dameon ran in a crouch over to the nearest building and fired out of a window frame. He could see the camp clearly again. His initial charge had cut down maybe half of the raider inhabitants. The rest had retreated north behind some buildings. They had piled up their cargo near the bonfire. There was a cage to the right with a young girl inside, maybe sixteen. He made brief eye contact with her before running around the back of the building and shooting at the raiders from their right flank.
Chloe watched the chaos unfurl. After the deafening bang from the grenade belt she was convinced that she had been killed. She lay motionless on the cage floor for a moment while her ears rang. When she opened her eyes and looked outside, all she could see was smoke. The noise and chaos from the explosion hadn't yet penetrated her ringing ears.
The smoke began to dissipate. There was gunfire everywhere. Chloe could see the tracers arc across the main square. Some crashed into the bonfire with a puff. There was movement in the building to her left. The black blur of an unseen attacker disappeared into the blinding flash of an assault rifle blast.
"Retreat!" a raider screamed. Chloe saw four raiders including Dom run behind one of the nearby buildings.
Escape?
Chloe tried the bars on her cage, but the grenade hadn't affected them.
About a hundred feet away from Chloe, Mina tried to rise to her feet. She was bloody and wobbly. She had been hit with shrapnel and struggled to stand. Before she rose up completely, the unseen stranger casually walked up past Chloe and behind Mina.
The stranger stared at Mina with cold, blue eyes. She never saw him. As she began to turn towards him, he fired. Mina hit the ground with a thud.
Dom now rounded the building he and the others had used for cover.
"Eat this you [censored] bastard!" Dom screamed and the raiders began to pour down fire.
Dameon ducked behind a crumbling wall, out of their line of sight. Bullets whizzed by. He rounded the back of what was left of the building and picked off a few of the men. He then stood up and faced Dom, with rifle ready. Dom was turned slightly to the left. He glanced at Dameon and then looked down his weapon. He considered doing a quick turn and bringing down the Demon. Before Dom could put his plan into motion, an unseen Tai pounced on him from his right.
"Ahhh!" Dom screamed as the dog's canines ripped into his hands. He dropped his gun. The dog snapped at his face. He punched the dog and kicked it in the teeth while screaming. The dog was unforgiving and continued to savagely bite him. He stood and turned to run, but Dameon appeared in front of him, rifle ready.
Dameon kissed the air with his lips and fired a shot right through Dom's neck. Dom fell to the ground. He made a wheezing noise as the air bubbled up through the blood in his trachea. He suffocated on the asphalt.
Chloe cringed for a second in her cage. She saw the stranger look right at her. She felt the burn of his gaze and wanted to hide. She couldn't move. She feared him, even though he was her only hope to get out.
"Help," she squeaked.
Dameon aimed his rifle at Chloe. She went wide eyed. He took a step forward, lowered it, and then lifted it around his back.
"Help me. Let me out!" Chloe pleaded.
Dameon remained silent. He scanned the street for more raiders. All was quiet. He looked up at the buildings. Empty. He lowered his guard and then walked towards her.
Chloe backed up in the cage. She felt a mix of terror and relief, an odd combination. The stranger was tall, maybe six six with an olive complexion, completely caked in the yellow and brown dust of the desert. He had on a thick, black overcoat and military camo jeans. He kneeled down by the front of the cage.
"Who are you?"
"Let me out, please. . . help me," Chloe cried. She heard the savage dog bark behind the stranger.
"Who are you?" Dameon repeated.
"Chloe, my name is Chloe," she wiped her face, "Let me out now! Please!"
Dameon pulled gently on the cage door. It was locked, "Which one has the key? Do you know?"
Chloe pointed to Dom's crumpled body. Dameon nodded and walked over to him. He pulled out a large knife and cut off Dom's clothes and armor as if he were filleting a fish. He reached into Dom's pocket and pulled out the key. Dameon then reached into his own pocket and pulled out a can of blue spray paint. He shook it and painted his special mark on Dom's mutilated body before unlocking Chloe's cage.
Chloe shuffled out immediately and tried to stand. Her legs were in too much pain so she squatted for a moment on the ground.
"There," Dameon said softly, staring at Chloe, "Good as new."
Chloe's stomach sank; she felt she was being taunted. Dameon turned away from her, oblivious, and then walked over toward the bodies of the other raiders. He began to cut off their armor and pile it up by type. He did the same with their weapons and gear, silently.
Chloe stood up and looked around. It was too dark to see anything beyond the square. Her captors were dead; she recognized all of their twisted faces.
So many. So young. Such a waste.
Chloe remembered her mother's face. As she did, thirst pangs came back to her. She knew there must be water in the Gold Ribbon's inventory. The raiders had been drinking it earlier. She walked up behind Dameon who was fiddling with one of the raider's bags.
Dameon looked over at her with an angry gaze, "What are you doing?"
"Water, I need water, I haven't had any," Chloe said, her throat as dry as sand.
Dameon pulled a bottle of dirty water from the sack and tossed it to her, "Last one."
Chloe immediately gulped down what was in it.
The anger still had not left Dameon's face, "Now get the [censored] out of here," he said menacingly. Chloe looked at him and could see he was serious. She then darted away behind one of the buildings.
Tai let out a vicious bark. Dameon smiled then caught himself.
"She can take care of herself," he mused while continuing to gather up the raiders' cargo.
Chapter 7: Grave Robbers
Dameon struggled with all of the weight of the cargo on his back. He felt that he might topple over any second. There was no way he could carry so much. It had been foolish to attack Fairfax, there was too much to haul from Fort Independence already. If he tried to hide it around here, another Outcast or raider patrol would be sure to find it.
An appetite greater than the size of my stomach. . .
He groaned and began to slowly walk down the road towards the fort. Tai fell in behind him, eagerly picking up the pace.
"You could [censored] help you know," Dameon mumbled to the dog.
(**********************************************************************)
Chloe's ecstasy had only lasted a few moments. She was free, free from the torment of the raiders. Free from the cage. Free from all fetters. She leaned back against a building in exhaustion. Free to. . .she looked out at the desert wasteland. Its vast, dark emptiness was intimidating. She heard the howl of a feral dog off in the distance and remembered the raider that had been mauled to death the day before. The desert would be full of dogs, and giant rats, and god knows what else, and she didn't have any sort of weapon.
Chloe paused. She didn't have any water, or any food. She was wearing the same jeans and Tee-shirt she had been wearing in the Gold Ribbon, now tattered and dirty. She wouldn't last a night out in the wilderness all alone. It would be suicide out there.
Chloe crept back to the raider camp. The stranger had stripped all the raiders naked regardless of six. Their dead bodies were in contorted positions from having him pull off their clothing. She scoured the area for something useful. The man had left her with nothing. He had taken all of the weapons, all of. . . everything. She looked around; he had taken everything from Gold Ribbon too. She wanted to cry, robbed again.
"I'm [censored]," she said to herself. She then heard a bark off in the distance. It was the stranger's wild dog. She considered following the noise. Perhaps if she followed in his wake, he would clear out any danger, or would at least alert her to its presence. She began to follow the stranger from a distance to Fort Independence.
(**********************************************************************)
"Ah," Dameon let the load fall from his back. He then rubbed a sore spot on his lower back with the butt of his rifle. He stopped for a moment to take in his dark surroundings. He then leaned against the facade of a building. There were footsteps somewhere. He saw Tai's hair bristle and the dog's ears pivoted wildly.
"She followed us," he whispered in a barely audible voice. Tai began to growl.
Dameon pivoted around the corner of the building, drew his pistol and trained it on Chloe. She turned white, stunned. She went to run and Dameon grabbed her by her grubby shirt and pushed her to the ground.
"Why are you following me! I told you to go the [censored] away," he spat.
Chloe was crying, "I have nowhere to go."
Dameon laughed. The girl stopped crying and looked up at him. He could feel her anger. He thought for a second, unsure why he had laughed.
"No one has anywhere to go," Dameon said, holstering his pistol, "why should you be any different?" he spat on the ground.
"I. . . I won't make it out there," Chloe continued, "I don't have any water, any food, any decent clothes."
"You look fine," Dameon smiled. He then looked up to the fort less than a mile away.
Chloe closed her eyes and began to ready herself to leave the bastard, "I'm going to die."
Dameon nodded.
Probably true.
He felt the pain in his back.
"Nowhere to go. . . " Dameon mused, "Well. . . here," he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He motioned for Chloe to take a puff but she just stared at him blankly. He paused.
"A lot of cargo from those raiders. More in the fort up there. It's too much for me to carry. I'm going to TenPenny Tower. You can come along if you help me haul all of this gear. Might be too much for even the two of us," Dameon shrugged.
Chloe remembered stories of TenPenny her mother had told her. It was one of the largest buildings left outside of DC. It was a huge, recently refurbished condo building, inhabited by the few remaining, wealthy inhabitants of the desert. They were those people lucky enough to have scavenged a mound of caps in the first two generations after the war. A few times as a little girl, Chloe was just able to make out the tower's profile in the southern sky.
"You won't be able to come along," Dameon leaned over and pet Tai for a moment. He then bent his right arm down in a signal, "Go home boy. Go home."
The dog whined for a minute. Dameon did the signal a few more times. Finally, Tai barked and ran off. Chloe watched the dog disappear into the darkness.
"Don't worry about Tai, he always makes it home. Better sense of direction then me," Dameon took a drag on his cigarette, "[censored] pricks at TenPenny won't let me bring him in," he spat onto the road. A bad habit. Too much tobacco.
"Will I be safe there? Can you take me somewhere safe?" Chloe asked solemnly.
Dameon nodded and picked up his bags, "Come on, there is a lot more cargo in the fort."
(**********************************************************************)
Chloe's eyes tried to adjust to the dim darkness of Fort Independence. The walls were smeared with blood and grime. She could smell the decomposition hanging in the air. It was cloying and choked her. A vile place. She watched for a few minutes as Dameon dug around the corpses for anything of value. He began stripping more bodies. He cut an earring off of one of the dead women.
Chloe was disgusted. She looked away from Dameon.
He hasn't even bothered to say his name. . .
Dameon stopped and wiped his bloody hands. He then stood up and walked over to her, dropping a few items at her feet.
"Wrap those in something," he said before returning to stripping the Outcasts.
Chloe looked at the mess at her feet.
What a horrible person. So cold, so empty.
He would have left her to die if he hadn't been so greedy. She hadn't seen so much cargo before. It was more than would have fit in the Gold Ribbon. She looked at all of the cargo and all of the death.
"Why did you kill them all?" Chloe said, transfixed by the scene.
"Huh?" Dameon was taken aback. He stood up from a slumped over body, "I was outside Fairfax when the Outcasts sent out a patrol to the town. I heard them fighting the raiders and figured I would swing by the base before they returned. Maybe it would be lightly guarded – and it was. Outcasts must have lost a lot of men against those raiders," he went back to scavenging.
"But why?" Chloe began to sort through the bloody pile, "What gives you the right to kill all of these people like animals," she looked at the body of a young Outcast.
Dameon realized he hadn't considered the question. He never had, law of the desert, "same right I had to kill those raiders that locked you in a cage."
"They were bastards," Chloe said softly, "but these men didn't attack you."
"Neither did those raiders. What are you standing up for the Outcasts for anyway? They don't give a [censored] about you. All they want is to grab up any piece of technology more advanced than sharpened sticks. They don't care about anything else," Dameon threw a hunting rifle onto the pile.
Chloe thought about her mother and sister. They must be the only two decent people left. She had more disdain for the stranger than the raiders. He knew, he must know better. He wasn't some mindless enslaver or killer. He chose what he was doing.
Dameon began to spray-paint his distinctive mark on the fort's inner wall.
He enjoyed this Chloe thought. She remembered Mina's cruel smile.
Dameon finished and laid out a large sheet of canvas, "Throw anything worthwhile onto this," he said to Chloe.
After they piled items on top of it he rolled it up, tied it and handed it to Chloe. She could barley lift the bundle. He had to tie it around her back for it to stay there.
"Ready?" he asked her.
Chloe nodded. It felt like the bag was tearing her in half.
Chapter 8: The Southlands
By noon, Chloe gathered it would be a long walk to TenPenny Tower. They had begun late in the night and she still couldn't see the tower poke above the hills. She squinted into the daylight and coughed. The air was dry and smelled of sand. It was the same dreary landscape she had crossed on the journey to Fairfax.
"You never told me your name," she looked at Dameon and adjusted the bundle strapped to her.
"I didn't," Dameon turned to look at her, "Its Dameon. My name is Dameon Rayes. . . as if it matters," he continued to walk.
"Why? Am I just a mule to you?" Chloe didn't look at him.
"Jesus Christ." Dameon looked off into the distance.
Chloe shook her head and continued to walk. Her body hadn't recovered from the prior ordeal. She could feel her legs shake. She was trying as hard as possible to keep pace with Dameon.
Will he just leave me if I fall behind?
"They killed my mother," Chloe said dumbly.
Dameon turned around and stared at Chloe. He could see her wobbling.
"Why don't we sit down on those rocks over there for a minute," he suggested.
Chloe collapsed onto a rock, "Do you have water?"
Dameon shook his head, "Raiders drank the rest of it. No water until TenPenny."
Chloe nodded disappointedly.
The two sat in silence for a moment. Dameon felt agitated by the heat.
"So those raiders killed your mother?" he asked.
Chloe nodded. "We lived in a store. It was called Gold Ribbon Grocer. Had you ever heard of it"
"By reputation. Northeast of here I think," Dameon mused.
Chloe nodded.
"Silly location. Word was bound to get out. So exposed. You should have at least had a mercenary around or something. . .stupid to have all that cargo sitting out in the open. . .Amanda I think, Amanda McGinty."
"That was my mother," Chloe coughed.
"Shame."
"They took my sister away with them. Her name is Emily," Chloe didn't want to think about this anymore.
Dameon nodded. They sat in silence for a few more moments. Then Dameon motioned for her to stand up. She fiddled with the straps of the sac that Dameon had tied to her. Dameon began to walk away. Chloe lifted up the sac and exhaled. She heard rustling behind her.
Dameon heard it too now. He turned around. A giant scorpion the size of a small car crawled over the rock behind Chloe. She turned around, screamed, and then ran towards Dameon. She was awkward with all the weight and couldn't run.
The giant black scorpion darted towards the pair. It had a jointly, glistening body, covered in large, bristly hairs. As it approached, Dameon opened fire. It didn't slow the insect down.
"Run. Run up the road to that car! I will try to slow it down!" Dameon yelled.
"I can't run!" Chloe struggled with the weight.
Neither of them could run. Dameon cut the straps on their bags and the cargo spilled out on the desert sand. Chloe ran towards a broken road to an old burned out car. Dameon reached down into the mess on the sand to grab two mines. He then ran after Chloe with the scorpion close behind.
The scorpion tried to impale Dameon with its stinger. He was just out of its reach, and was able to drop a mine in its path.
BOOM!
The mine exploded in a huge cloud of dust but the scorpion kept charging, unfazed. Some fluid leaked out from the cracks in its exoskeleton. Dameon and Chloe were at the car now. Dameon stuck a mine to the wreck's fusion engine.
"Run!" he yelled to Chloe. She ran up the road. The scorpion charged Dameon. He jumped over the car and ran at full speed for about a second before blowing the mine. It detonated the old mini reactor in inside the car. There was a blinding flash.
Chloe turned to see a huge fireball rise up into the sky were the car had been. This was followed by a shower of metal and scorpion segments.
"Dameon!" she called.
He emerged from the smoke, "Get back here. We gotta pick all this [censored] up. . .again!"
