Another great chapter!

Chapter 9

The sky was clear, radiated mole rats fought in the distance, and the wasteland was looking better every day. I continued on my way, ducking into empty houses and alcoves to catch a few minutes of sleep while I made my way to Megaton. Everything was going good, I was making some minor progress with finding Emily, and I was rich again, or at least fairly rich. I had enough caps in my pocket to serve me almost a months supply of booze. Once I found Emily, I would drink myself silly in her bloody remains. I pondered on what I would do to her when I found her, maybe I would cut her open and quickly pull her organs out one by one. Maybe I would cut her slow, and make her eat one or two of her organs, she was the one I truly wanted after, Eulogy was just a distraction. If he hadn't made a deal with Emily, he probably wouldn't be hanging in his house with hooks pierced through his shoulders and his stomach spilled onto the bloody floor below him.

I continued down the road, following it behind some hills that lead right to Megaton. I was still a ways off, but this was the quickest way to Megaton. Surely Emily used this route. I continued to think on what I would make her do. The thoughts gave me little emotion, just satisfaction in knowing that she would suffer when we next met.

As I walked down the road, a sudden boom echoed through the air, and hit my ears with a piercing thundering noise. I fell to the ground covering my ears tight, and wishing the noise would stop. The noise was so ear splitting. It felt as if my ear drums would explode and my brain would be turned into a strange liquid form. The noise seemed to go on for hours, but really it was only a matter of minutes. My ears rang a bit, and I tried to make them stop. The wind was blowing through the hills furiously, and I felt a sudden rush of heat roll over me. I looked around, and the blowing wind had knocked over some planks of wood and some sheets of metal. My ears still rang, I pulled on my ear lobes to try and stop the incessant ringing, it didn't do much.

I hurried through the hills, the air began to get very dingy and cloudy. I looked up, and saw a large Mushroom shaped cloud hanging in the sky. I had never seen anything like it before, and was rather excited by what I had seen. I felt like I had just discovered something so new, like when a astronomer discovers a new star or some other type of space anomaly. I hurried through the hills, and could not spot Megaton. All that stood was a large crater, and the stem of the mushroom shaped cloud looming over head. I suddenly began to feel very sick. I could not understand it, what was happening. Did I have something that wasn't sitting well with my stomach or was I coming down with something. Whatever it was, I was not liking it at all. I walked a bit farther, but was stopped when a woman ran over to me screaming and in a frantic state.

"HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!" The woman yelled to me as I was still trying to get the ringing out of my ears. She looked horrible. Large hunks of her hair were in her hand, and more of it was falling off her head. I quickly realized her as one of Megaton's shop owners, Moria Brown, or something like that. It seemed like everyone hated her in Megaton, but she was always so high on Jet or Phsyco, she didn't care. Or at least thats what it seemed like.

"What the hell happened here? Where the hell is Megaton?" I asked shocked.

"Its gone! Someone detonated the bomb in the center of town, and now its all gone. Everyone is gone: Moriarty, Nova. everyone is gone. I was lucky, and was out in the wasteland doing some research for my new book. But now all my notes I had taken are gone. Now I'll never finish my book." She looked down at her hair, she began to cry. I did little to comfort her emotionally.

"Its alright, Megaton was a [censored] hole anyway, and it was bound that sometime someone would destroy it. Thats what you get when you make a whole town around a damn live nuclear bomb." She looked up, giving in that I wasn't going to consul her. "But I have one question for you, did you see a woman in Megaton a few days ago. Her name is Emily, and I've been looking for her for some time now?"

"Yeah I did, she was always hanging out in Moriarty's saloon. I don't know if she got out of town, but I did see her a few hours before the bomb went off. She probably didn't make it. She was always keeping with Moriarty, and well you get the picture." She went quiet, and looked around wondering what she would do next. And I wondered what I was going to do, Emily was dead, and I was feeling terribly sick.

"You wouldn't happen to have some stomach med's or something to help with nausea would you? I'm not feeling so good. I think I might have eaten something that's just not sitting well." I said holding my stomach, and making sure I didn't vomit right there.

"Um, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have radiation poisoning. And I've got it as well. I'm not sure how much time we have, but if we're lucky, we'll start to ghoulify and not suffer so much-" I suddenly stomped my feet, and quickly raised my voice at her.

"WHAT! Ghoulify, I'm not on good terms with ghouls. They've done nothing but cause me trouble. I might as well kill myself if thats going to happen. If the ghouls in Underworld found out I was a ghoul, they would hunt me down, along with the Brotherhood and whatever other group dislikes ghouls."

"Your probably right, but that's not all you have to worry about. The first few years won't be easy." Moria said looking around then walking off towards the D.C. ruins. I walked my own direction, away from the D.C. ruins, and moved deep into the ruined wasteland. I fell to the ground holding my stomach, and vomiting up what felt like my whole stomach. I cringed and ached, whaled and moaned as the on set of my ghoulification began its process.

I made my way to a deserted radio tower station in the middle of wasteland, and took shelter there. I tried eating something, but my body wouldn't process any of it or keep it down. I felt like I was going to die, and in a way I was. My life was changing in all aspects, and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. I cried out in pain everyday, and was vomiting every other hour. I couldn't understand how my stomach was processing all this bile and other junk, and where it was all coming from. After a few weeks, my life had totally changed, I was a ghoul. My skin was flaking off and was almost completely dry. It was also discolored, my eyes were milked over and hallow, I could still see, but it was odd.

It seemed as my revenge on Emily would never happen, she had been killed in a sudden wave of heat, and was a lot better than what I would have done to her. I was saddened that she had gotten off better than I, but was glad she was gone from the face of the earth. All there was left to do was live, and survive. I was new, my life was still the same but was totally different. I still had the same feelings I had before, but now it was different in some ways. I stepped out of my small secluded radio tower station, and into the hot unforgiving wasteland. I would have to begin anew.
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And so ends the journey of Ben The Butcher. A man who had evolved so much from being just a man looking for work and getting drunk, to a man becoming almost like a wild beast, and falling into dissolution about becoming a ghoul. Is this the end of Ben The Butcher? Only time can tell.

I hope you all enjoyed it, and maybe I'll bring him back sometime?

Oh. Ehm. Gee.

Now -THAT- was a good story! Very few could pull off a story about a serial-killing, slaving, monsterous, sadistic physcopath! And in first person, even! This story is probably top ten on the forums. :foodndrink:

Thanks Skippy, glad you enjoyed it. Maybe at the end of the year, when someone posts Best Forum Game/Stories, Ben The Butcher will be put up as a nomination? I hope it does

I'd vote for it!

One story at a time posted please.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1001389