» Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:47 am "Hey. Got anything to trade?"
Glances and smiles passed among the hunters. "Just today's catch. You can have some, if you've got the caps." One of them opened his bag, displaying an assortment of bloody chunks.
The girl looked curious. "What kind of meat is that? It doesn't look like rat or guai..."
The hunter who'd spoken first chuckled. "Nope, it's special. Comes from a real dangerous critter, but it's so good. Once you've had a taste, you won't want anything else."
"I don't know," she said, taking a step back. "I've already got enough food to last me a while."
"Maybe some for your dog, then? No?" The hunter shrugged. "More for us." He closed the bag and swung it over his shoulder. "Take care of yourself. Maybe we'll run into you again sometime."
Smiling again at their private joke, the hunters moved on.
ONE WEEK EARLIER
The moon was a thin waning crescent in the star-filled sky, casting just enough light to see by. That made it easier to creep through the yard behind the Wilson house without being spotted. Unlike her first visit to Andale, Jessie was alone; this investigation required stealth, and so she'd left her companion back in Megaton to await her return.
At last she came to the Wilsons' "garden shed," a small building constructed mostly of rusty sheets of corrugated metal. Jessie slid a couple of bobby pins out of her sleeve and, more by feel than sight, began to coax the old padlock on the door into opening. It was surprisingly difficult, and more than once she cursed quietly as the pin she was using snapped, but years of scavenging ruins had made her very good at this. The lock finally popped open, and she hung it on the door before slipping into the shed, wincing at the loud (at least to her ears) creak of the hinges.
Her nose told her what to expect even before she switched on her scavenged flashlight. Bodies hung up to be butchered, some of them little more than skeletons with bits of meat and gristle clinging to the bone... Jessie had seen too much of the wasteland to be truly shocked or nauseated, but she felt a little sick just the same. There were several refrigerators lined up against the wall of the shed; she went to one and peered inside, just to confirm her suspicions.
Perhaps the worst part was that it was all so tidy, considering. Raiders and super mutants tended to leave gore and pieces just lying around, some showing signs of having been gnawed on; here, everything had been neatly cut up and put away in the refrigerators. The bones were piled in a bin, next to a trash can brimming with offal. There was blood all over the floor, but she could tell from her footing that at least some attempt had been made to slope it so that most ran into a gutter along the side. This was the work of someone who knew what he was doing and was good with his hands - perhaps more than one person.
Maybe she lingered too long, or maybe it was the squeaky hinges. In any case, when she finally emerged from the shed, she found them waiting for her. Jack Smith was in front, with the others - his wife Linda and neighbors Bill and Martha Wilson - in a half-circle behind him. They were all armed, the men with guns and the women with knives.
"Looks like you've got a fox in your henhouse, Bill." No one laughed. "Don't you know it's rude to go sneaking around people's backyards in the middle of the night?" Jack tsked, then got serious. "So... did you get a good look?"
Jessie nodded.
"And?"
"And I think you're all worse than ghouls," she gritted.
"Now is that any way to talk to a man who's just trying to feed his family?" Jack asked indignantly. "Young people these days... you won't hear any backtalk like that here in Andale, no ma'am! I don't know what kind of trash they teach in other towns, but here we raise our kids right!" Jack paused a moment to savor that little moral victory, then went on, satisfied his point had been made. "Still... bad manners or not, you're here now. And it would be a shame to waste the good Lord's bounty." He took a step forward, followed by the other parents, their eyes shining hungrily in the faint moonlight.
What none of them had seen in the darkness was the automatic shotgun that Jessie held at her side, tucked behind her leg. Now it swung up, to point right at Jack's face.
Harris paced anxiously in his living room. He'd been woken by the shots - three loud blasts that shattered the peaceful night, a few cracks from a pistol, and a fourth and final explosion that rattled the dishes in his sink. He wrung his hands with worry; even asleep in their beds, the kids must have heard the last one. What would he tell them? What was going on out there? He knew he should do something, at least go see for himself, but the fear paralyzed him like it always did.
The doorknob turned, and so did he, heart leaping into his throat. The figure that stepped into his house was familiar, but not one of his neighbors: a woman in a long coat, black hair held out of her eyes by a bandana. When he'd first seen her, those eyes had been hidden behind dark glasses. Now they seemed to stare right through him to his soul, and he couldn't help but flinch from that gaze. She had a shotgun in one hand, but though her finger twitched on the trigger, she did not raise it.
Harris swallowed. "You did it, then? It's over?"
"That's up to you," she replied flatly. "You tell me. Tell me everything."
So he did, pouring out the whole horrible tale of guilt and fear that he'd kept bottled up inside for years, ever since he'd realized that what went on in this quiet, friendly little town wasn't normal. He confirmed what had happened to other unwary visitors, and how the families of Andale kept themselves "pure," and how he also bore the taint of those sins. He spoke of his helpless regret, too late to change anything. By the end he was on his knees, weeping and empty. He looked up and drew a sobbing breath, waiting for the stranger to pass judgment on him.
"All right," she finally said. "I believe you. You've been straight with me from the start, so I'm going to be straight with you. This is what's going to happen."
"I'm going to put the bodies in the shed and lock it up. Tomorrow night, me and some other Regulators will be back. We'll empty out the shed and give everyone a decent burial somewhere. You tell the kids whatever you like - that their parents were taken by raiders, that they just up and left... anything but the truth. You take care of them and you raise them to know right from wrong. If you need caps or decent food, you let me know and I'll see you get it."
"But you listen. If I hear of more people going 'missing' out this way... if I find out that you've been backsliding, even for a 'snack'..." The gun's barrel came up again, pointing at the kneeling man's chest. "Old man or not, I will put you in the ground with the rest of your kin. Got it?"
Harris nodded, miserably and sincerely, and the shotgun dropped to the Regulator's side.
NOW
One of the hunters had just finished telling his friend with a grin how he "wouldn't mind getting a piece of that" when his head suddenly exploded. The other two turned in shock. The girl in combat armor they'd just passed was now aiming a shotgun at them, and as they went for their own weapons she dropped another with two quick blasts to the chest and face. The dog leapt forward and seized the remaining hunter by the leg, making him yell and throwing off his aim as he tried to draw a bead on the girl with his rifle. Then the shotgun spoke once more.
With the cool efficiency of much practice, Jessie reloaded and slung her weapon before crouching down beside the bodies, searching them for anything useful. Some of the things they had on them were clearly taken from other victims; she left those alone. By the time she finished her search and drew her combat knife to take some proof of her kills, she noticed that her companion was nuzzling the dropped bag full of strange meat.
"No, boy," she told him firmly. "No. That's not for you." The dog whined, but obeyed.
