Prologue

The sun began to rise in the Wasteland and it's bright light started to creep through the cracks of decrepit boards on windows accross the land. One shack in particular contained a man who was about to take the first steps to glory. His name was Sefaro Blackthorn. He was a young man, in his late 20's, with an average build and an intelligent mind. He really had no career in the Wasteland, other than scavenging junk and selling it to Trader Caravans. He used to be a Caravan Guard but he decided that he wanted more adventure, more independence. So he built himself a small shack just north of Evergreen Mills, on the top of a cliff, overlooking the Mills. It was a one room shack with a refrigerator, small workbench, bookshelf, weapons locker, wooden desk, and a bed with a footlocker at the end.

The light from the sun crept up onto Sefaro's face, causing him to slowly and slightly open his eyes, so they could adjust to the light of a new day. He blinked a couple times, sat up on the edge of the bed, and stretched. He stood up and went to his desk and pulled out a small mirror. He took a look at his face and realized that it was time for a shave. So he pulled out a combat knife, freshly sharpened, from his desk, poured some water in a bowl, and proceeded to shave his face into a nice, trim beard. He looked once more into the mirror and was reminded of his father. Sefaro looked just like him; dark hair cut into a high-and-tight, and dark, trimmed, and professional looking beard.

The thought of his father brought back the painful memories of his demise. Sefaro remembered it like it was yesterday, even though he lost his father when he was 17. Sefaro and his father were making the long trip from Megaton to Rivet City in order to buy some supplies for the family. Sefaro remembered that his father grabbed a .32 caliber pistol and his sniper rifle. Before they left, his father told him that since he was 17 that he was old enough to begin to protect the family and handed him the .32. Just point, line up the sights, aim for center mass and pull the trigger. Those were the words that his father told him and Sefaro remembered them to this day. Along the way, they were ambushed by a group of Raiders. There was something strange about this particular gang: Their leader looked no older than Sefaro. There were only four Raiders, all dressed in pain-spike armor, but they proved formidable oppenents. They were armed with melee weapons, a sledgehammer, two pool cues, and a wrench, but since they snuk up on Sefaro and his father they had the advantage. Sefaro was grabbed by their leader and Sefaro's father was stripped of his rifle. After taking all the caps from Sefaro's father, one of the Raiders turned towards the leader.

"Koa, what do you want to do with them?"

Their leader, Koa, thought for a minute and pulled out a pair of rusted handcuffs. "Kill the old man, but we're taking this kid here to Paradise Falls. He'll fetch a good price."

One of the Raiders grabbed the .32 off of the ground, pointed it to Sefaro's father's head, and looked right into Sefaro's eyes before pulling the trigger. Anger filled Sefaro to the brim and just as Koa was about to apply the handcuffs, he unleashed his rage. Sefaro spun around and kicked Koa right in the family jewels, grabbed Koa's pool cue and faced the other three Raiders. The Raider with the other pool cue ran at Sefaro and swung. Sefaro ducked, slammed the pool cue on the ground, breaking off the four inches off the top and creating a jagged wooden point, and then proceeded to thrust the cue right into the Raider's throat. Sefaro looked to his left to find another Raider weilding a sledgehammer rapidly approaching, intent on crushing Sefaro's skull. Sefaro retracted the cue and let the Raider fall to the ground, writhing in pain. He then faced the man with the sledgehammer and as the hammer was swung downwards he sidestepped to the left and thrust the cue into the Raider's ribs. He quickly pulled the cue out and faced the final Raider who was holding the wrench. The Raider stood still in his tracks, dropped the wrench and sprinted as fast as he could away from Sefaro.

That was eleven years ago, but to Sefaro it seemed like just the other day. Back then, he vowed revenge on Koa and his group of Raiders. But as he got older, he outgrew his lust for revenge and decided he'd probably never see them again.

Sefaro put the mirror and kinfe back into the desk and closed the drawer. He then walked over to the footlocker and grabbed a white shirt, pair of dark blue jeans, and a brown duster and proceeded to get dressed. He rolled the sleeves up on his duster, grabbed his sherrif's hat (which he stole from his former caravan owner) and walked over to his weapons locker. He opened the door and it made a metallic creak which caused him to contort his face in disgust. I really need to get a new locker, I think this one's run it's course. Inside the locker was his father's sniper rifle, 7 boxes of .308 ammunition, and four magazines. Sefaro grabbed the rifle, slung it on his back, grabbed two boxes of ammunition and grabbed all four magazines.

He then walked over to his workbench, dumped out the ammunition and began to fill the magazines. After all was said and done, Sefaro put three magazines in his duster pockets and put one in his rifle. He made a final visual sweep of his shack to make sure he didn't forget anything and then stepped outside. The Wasteland looked exceptionally barren today and not a sound was heard, which was unusual due to the area that Sefaro called home. The sun was high in the sky which hinted that it was around noon. The sun was beating down and there wasn't a cloud in the sky that could offer any type of shade.

Sefaro unslung his rifle and started walking along the edge of the cliff, heading towards Evergreen Mills. On his short walk he noticed two Supermutants creeping among the rundown trains. Upon further observation, he noticed two others on the opposite end of the Mills. It looked like they were searching for something. Sefaro crept behind a medium-sized boulder, set up his rifle, and looked through his scope.

"Time to do some hunting." Sefaro exclaimed as he turned his safety off.

Sounds pretty good so far, excellent paragraph structure, didn't see any grammar or punctuation errors, and good point ending on a cliff hanger. Am interested to read more.

*Edit
Sorry just noticed that knife was mis typed in 3rd to last paragraph...but just a minor error :thumbsup:

Chapter 1

Click the safety off slowly and deliberately so as to minimize the noise. Lead your target. Control your breathing. Observe the target's surroundings and look for potential threats. Four Supermutants. [censored]. Remember Sefaro, fire and relocate. Fire. Then relocate. You can't get yourself killed. Not today. Today is too hot to die. Whew. Alright. Dammit, control your breathing! You're shaking too damn much! Calm the hell down Sefaro. Just calm down. Everything is going to work out fine. Line up your shot. Okay, good, they've stopped. Check the two furthest Supermutants. Yep, they've stopped as well. They're communicating quietly. Unusual. Wait until they're done Sefaro. Wait. Be patient. Patience is key. Ah, there they go. Alright, furthest pair of Supermutants; the one falling behind. First target. Second target is the next furthest one. By that time the other two Supermutants will be firing blindly in this direction. Low-crawl to their flank and take them out. Too easy. Lining up my shot. Finger is moving towards trigger. Apply slight pressure. Let the firing of your rifle suprise you. Pull the trigger slowly. WAIT! Not yet! They've stopped again. [censored]. They must have found what they were looking for. Hmph. A giant cage it looks like. They just shot the lock. Wait Sefaro. Wait. Huh? They're backing up. Weapons are raised. I don't think this is what they were looking for. Weapons are back down. [censored], maybe it is. Did the gound just shake? No way. No. No no no no no. Another shake. This is NOT good. Run Sefaro. Run! You know what's in there! RUN!

Sefaro got up from his prone position behind a rock, into a crouching position. He put his back to the rock and closed his eyes. Begging desperately for his fears to not be confirmed. Suddenly his concentration was broken like if someone threw a large rock into a calm and rippleless pond. He heard that deafening roar. The sound of the tremendous, lumbering, overpowering steps of the beast. A Behemoth.

[censored]

Sefaro stood up and heard zings and pops. That was the sound of bullets passing his head too close for comfort. He slung his rifle and began to run like there was no tomorrow. He then heard an extremely loud and menacing grunt which preceeded an earth shattering thud. Sefaro was flung off his feet by the quake and landed face-first into the radiated dirt and gravel. He slid on the ground for about three feet and came to an abrupt halt. Pain coursed through his leg as though someone were crushing it with a giant pair of pliers. Eyes still closed from the initial impact, he felt himself being picked up and thrown like a rag doll and opened his eyes in time to see....the side of a cliff rapidly approaching. He hit the wall with such bone-crushing force that he thought, for a split second at least, that he had to have made an indentation. He hit the ground and excruciating pain filled his body down to his soul. Every part of him ached and he knew he had to have a few broken bones at least.

More earth-shaking steps echoed about the area but this time they were faster. The beast was running towards Sefaro, intent on crushing this little bug. Adrenaline coursed through Sefaro's veins, which ulitmately helped him kneel and then stand. The beast was charging at him like a mad bull, fury in it's eyes. Sefaro unlslung his rifle, looked through the scope, put his finger on the trigger and took a shot. Miss. The bullet went far left of the beast. Sefaro dropped the rifle and fell to one knee. Yep, this is it. This is the end. Sorry Pops, I couldn't save you and I can't even save myself . Suddenly a loud, thunderous roar was heard and Sefaro was once again thrown into the wall behind him. Then a brilliant white light engulfed everything. Sefaro felt like he plunged into a pool, a lukewarm one at that. His facial expression was one of suprise when he opened his eyes.

First of all, he noticed that there was a small crater where the Behemoth used to be. Secondly, he noticed he was covered in blood and bits of flesh. That was where the feeling of falling into a pool came from. He further examined his surroundings to also notice that the four Supermutants were no where to be seen. Then, a voice broke him of his wonderous trance.

"Hey kid, you alright?"

Sefaro looked up and saw a man dressed in Combat Armor, carrying a Fat Man on his right shoulder. This man had dark black hair and a dark black goatee. "Not really, no, but I'll be fine in a while."

The man walked over to Sefaro and helped him to his feet. He took out a bottle of water and offered it to Sefaro.

"No thanks" Sefaro said with a slight grimmace of pain "but do you have cigarettes?'

The man chuckled and pulled a pack out of his pocket, gave one to Sefaro, and even lit it as well.

This man is a little too friendly out here in the Wasteland. I wonder what he's up to. What's his angle? "Thanks for the cig. And for saving my life. But in all seriousness, what brings you out here to Evergreen Mills?"

"Well," The man paused and took a drag from his cigarette "just doing a little bit of scavenging. What about you?"

Sefaro took a puff from his cigarette and explained how his shack was on the ridge behind the man and that he was also in the scavenging 'business'. After a short conversation, Sefaro learned that the man's name was Jericho and he hailed from Megaton. They took a seat, amongst the blood and guts from the Behemoth, on the edge of a dropoff leading to Evergreen Mills. It was quite a morbid scene: two scavengers smoking cigarettes, surrounded by blood, guts and bits of bone.

After an hour or so Jericho stood up and helped Sefaro stand up as well. Jericho offered his hand for a gentlemenly hand shake and Sefaro accepted graciously. In one fluid motion, Jericho gripped Sefaro's hand tightly, kicked the back of Sefaro's right knee causing him to fall to one knee, pulled a .44 out of a hip holster and pointed it directly at Sefaro's head.

"Gimme the keys to your shack Sefaro and anything else that might be locked in there. Do that and I'll let you live. Don't do it, and I'll paint the ground with your brains."

Dammit. I should have known . Sefaro slowly reached for his keys and tossed them to Jericho's feet. "You're not a damn scavenger, your a f@#$in' Raider."

"Damn right son." Replied Jericho in laughter. He picked up the keys and put them in his pocket.

At that moment of life or death, Sefaro's lust for revenge for his father was instantaneously reignited. Jericho could be the man to help him do it, Jericho just might be able to lead him to Koa, if Koa was even still alive.

"Jericho. Wait." Said Sefaro

"What the hell do you want? I've already told you, I'm not going to kill you if you give me your keys, and you gave me your keys so you know what that means. I'm not going to kill you."

"Yes I know you said that, which also leads me to believe that you can be bargained with if there is something you want. So, I've got a proposition for you Jericho. You take me with you, not as a prisoner, but as a fellow Raider, and you take all the caps we loot. I can handle my own in combat and I wouldn't slow you down. To tell the truth, I'm kind of looking to get into a different 'job class' so to speak."

Jericho pondered that for a minute and tossed the keys back to Sefaro. "Alright kid, you've got a deal. But don't get stupid. You try to pull any crap and I'll shoot you where you stand. Believe it."

And with that, Sefaro slowly and painfully stood back up and walked with Jericho to the shack and started to pack up all the things he might need. This is it. All the pieces are finally falling into place. Koa is a dead man.