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Draconias Galactica
Guest
First off, is this board still alive? I know we've been in a slump for the past...year or so, but man. It's like I'm back on my webpage, ranting to imaginary people and thin air. Anyways, here's part seven. May its probable errors not cause within you the need to impregnate a llama.
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"You know what I hate about this place?" Hawks asked, nudging his slow
horse in the side with his foot.
"Everything," Jake and Canine said in unision.
"There's not enough rats. Everywhere I went in CA was crawling with
rats. Cave rats, pig rats, mole rats, _talking_ rats - "
"Talking rats?" Canine asked. "Rats can talk?"
"Not very well. But that's not the point! I was sick and tired of being
an expert rat killer, and now...man I miss those rats."
"You poor thing," muttered Jake. "You need a hug?"
"Why do I even bother talking to you guys?"
"I've been wondering that myself."
"Are you sure that it talked?" asked Canine. "It wasn't somebody else
you couldn't see? Was it talking with its mouth?"
"That's not the point!!" Hawks shouted, throwing his arms up. He looked
over at Jake. "How much longer?"
"We should be almost there. The west side of the city isn't well lit,
but it's over there." Jake pointed forward and to the right a bit.
Hawks squinted, trying to see what Jake was pointing to. All he could
see was dirt and more dirt.
"...there's nothing there."
"The buildings are camoflauged."
"Bullshit."
"Just in case Crater Town attacks. If they can't see the city, they
can't attack it. By the way - " Jake's voice took on a very serious
tone - "we're not from Crater Town. You're not from Crater Town, I'm
not from Crater Town, the dog's not from Crater Town, no one's from
Crater Town. In fact, we hate that town who's name we will not be
mentioning from now on. Got that?"
"What's going on between them?"
"Border disputes on their outer settlements. Also, they're the only
ones who can threaten each other besides Lake Side, and that's pretty
far away from here."
"It's actually a bit more complicated," Canine noted. "There were some
resource battles, several assasinations, each side belives the other is
controling the Shadow Raiders, the - "
"That's nice," interupted Hawks. "So why don't they just beat the hell
out of each other?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Jake asked, rhetorically. "C'mon, let's pick
up the pace." Jake and Hawks kicked their horses in the side, and spead
up towards DRR. Like Crater Town, DRR had started in a hole in the
ground and spread out from there. In DRR's case, the ditch was their
namesake - a dried out river bed.
Dry Run River was founded by an exploration party from the young Crater
Town over a hundred years ago. The party headed northwest from Crater
Town until they hit the barrier. Unfortunatly, the barrier hit back,
killing half the original group. Dejected, part of the party hiked back
to a river bed they had passed by along the way and settled down. The
rest of the party continued on, marching along the perimiter, trying to
find a gap. DRR grew as others who were walking along the barrier
eventually reached the town. The city grew steadily for ten years. At
that point, the founders realized just how large their city was likely
to grow, and set up a council government. Naturally, the founders made
up the council.
To enforce their rule, they set up a force of dragoon. At first,
anybody the council trusted that had a weapon & horse could get in. But
that wasn't enough to keep the rowdier residents in line for long. So
the council started hiring mercinaries to train their dragoon army in
riding, fighting, and enforcement. The mercinaries did their job very
well. DRR became a major power in the area, and the dragoon army became
the toughest group of fighters in the Shadowlands (besides the Archive
security robots, which never left the Archives).
Over the years, DRR annexed several smaller towns that had sprung up
nearby. Sometimes it was peacefully, like when a town asked for
anexation. Other times it wasn't, such as when DRR wanted something
from a town that the town didn't want to give. It was DRR's expansion
that brought it into conflict with Crater Town. The older city already
resented DRR due to the fact that it was founded by Crater Town
'deserters'. That outer colonies of the two cities were close enough
for border disputes didn't help relations much.
Neither side was willing to start a full-out war, though. Their forces
were very eavenly matched. Discounting the Order of the Cloud - which
was rumored to be a splinter group from the dragoons - and the
Archives, DRR had the toughest army the Shadowlands had ever seen.
Despite not having a true army, Crater Town had the largest fighting
force. Every man, woman, and child in the city was willing to fight
against DRR if need be. So both sides kept waiting for either relations
to improve, or a good opertunity to attack. Both sides are still
waiting.
Hawks was also waiting, though not as patiently. "How long is this
going to take?" Jake was flipping through sheets of paper nailed on a
bulletin board labled 'anouncments'. He claimed he was looking for a
job. Hawks claimed he was looking for a hooker ad.
"Not much longer."
"Actually," Canine anounced, "he's already found a job. He's just
wasting time right now to annoy you."
"Damn psychic mutt," Jake muttered.
"Screw the job anyways!" Hawks shouted, pulling Jake away from the
board. "We're here to find a way out, not some job!"
"And how do you plan to do that?" Hawks thought for a momment and then
turned to face Canine.
"You're on your own," the dog 'muttered'.
"Here's _my_ plan. We get some more cash, and then bribe the right
people. That should get us talking to a council member or two. If
anyone knows anything about getting out, it's probably them."
"Oh goody. Now I can get my ass nearly killed _again_! No way, I'm
through with your jobs!"
"Fine by me. I can handle these on my own anyways. See that hotel?" He
pointed to a building about fifty feet away. Hawks nodded. "I'll meet
up with you there later." With that, Jake walked off.
"So how do you plan to find an exit?" Canine asked, looking up at
Hawks. He shrugged, and started walking. Canine followed after him.
"I haven't figured that part out yet," Hawks admited. "I don't know,
maybe I'll ask around at a bar or someplace. That's a good a place as
any to pick up info I guess. You know where one is?"
"I used to play some poker at a bar in this town, but I haven't been in
DRR for a while. I think it was...somewhere."
"Wonderful. So we go this way," Hawks said, pointing to his right.
"There's bound to be a bar someplace around here." They continued on in
that direction. The west side of town seemed pretty deserted. There
were a few scatered buildings, but most looked very old and very
primitive. The few people Hawks saw were standard outsider trash -
druggies, whores, and the regular band of idiots. It probably wasn't
the best area to ask for info in, so the two kept walking.
"Hey, I just got an idea," Hawks said a bit later. "Why don't you read
my mind and tell me how I got in here?"
"If you can't remember, I can't find out."
"Hell, it's always something." After about ten minutes of wandering
around, they stumbled onto a small bar. There were five patrons inside,
and two people behind the bar. "You think any of them know something?"
Hawks asked Canine.
"Like how to pour a bowel of water? I'm thirsty."
"You're a world of help mutt," Hawks muttered, walking up to the bar.
"Hey, can I get some water in a bowel?"
"A bowel?" asked one of the customers, who looked half-drunk. "Who the
hell drinks water froma bowel?"
"Someone too stupid to figure out how to use a glass, like you." The
man looked ready to start something after that remark. Hawks yawned,
moving his arm towards the assault riffle tied to his back. The man
quickly got out of his seat and backed up towards the door. "Can I get
some water or what?"
"15 coins," said the nearer of the two bartenders.
"You have to be kidding me! _15_ coins for some water?"
"Take it or leave it." Hawks shook his head, muttering unpleasentries
under his breath, and glared down at Canine. The dog stared back with
very authentic puppy-dog eyes.
"Fine, fine!" Hawks took out 15 coins from the pouch on his belt and
dropped them on the counter. "Just make sure it's in a bowel!" The
bartender took the coins and walked away.
"Testy today, aren't we?" Canine asked.
"I'm a few hundred miles from my dying home, and I'm stuck under this
damn cloud. I have to get out, hike back to CA, find Vault 13, then
somehow, someway get the GECK from them, and make it back to my tribe,
all before they start taking dirt naps." He shook his head, and then
shouted, "I think I'm allowed to be a bit upset about things!!"
"You know, your voice is going to die if you keep yelling like that."
The bartender walked back with a smallish bowel, filled with water.
Hawks took it and put it down in front of Canine, who began licking it
up rapidly.
"Hey," Hawks began, looking at the bartender. "You know a way out of
this place?" In the bartender's mind, this was as stupid a question as
'Do bullets in the balls hurt?'. He pointed to the door, to Hawks's
disapointment. "No, I ment out of this whole place, past the barrier!"
"Boy, that's imposible."
"That's nice. You know how, or know anyone that might?" The bartender
thought for a minute.
"Well, um...I did hear something once. You might want to ask around for
a guy named...uh, something 'dur'."
"Something-'dur'?"
"Yeah. I don't remember the guy's name exactally, but he was supposed
to have gotten out. It's a load of crap, though. There's nothing past
the barrier, just the end of the world."
"Heh, no kidding," chuckled Hawks, for reasons beyond the bartender.
Hawks stood up and walked towards the door. "Thanks for the tip. C'mon
Canine." The dog followed after him.
"Something-'dur'," 'said' Canine. "As far as tips go, that one was
pretty lousy."
"Better than nothing, I guess. Can you find me another bar?"
"I'll try." Canine stood still and closed his eyes. In Hawks's ears,
there was a strange noise, like a quiet and slow 'wub, wub, wub'. He
guessed it was from Canine. The dog remained motionless for about
thirty seconds.
Finally, he looked back up. "This way," ordered Canine, rushing off.
Hawks followed after.
***
After traveling from bar to bar for two hours, Hawks and Canine
collected a semi-full story about something-'dur'. His name was Tydur.
He was supposed to have either flown over, dug under, jumped over, ran
past, or teleported past the barrier, depending on the story. He came
back for some reason, though nobody knew why. Supposedly, his mind was
a bit loose after he returned. As for where he was, all Hawks and
Canine had heard was that he was in an abandoned part of DRR raiders
had hit recently.
Like the rest of DRR, the buildings in that area weren't much to look
at. There didn't seem to be anyone living in them, possibly due to the
raider attack.
"Do you see anyone?" Hawks asked Canine.
"I can smell something, a particuarly nasty scent. Most of it's coming
from _you_, but there's definatly some coming from up ahead. Follow
me." Canine walked on, with Hawks following behind him. The dog
eventually stopped in front of a very tall building (by post-war
standards), a full five floors high.
"There's somebody in there?"
"There's a smell in there, mostly human. You can go first."
"Gee, thanks." Hawks pulled out a knife he had 'borrowed' from Jake's
collection, and walked in. There wasn't any door. Inside was a broken
table, and a broken chair. Hawks headed up the decaying stairs,
followed not-too-closely behind by Canine.
"SQUEEEK!" The momment Hawks walked upstairs, five rats ran at him.
Hawks acted fast, slicing at the rats almost by instinct. In less than
five seconds, the rats were all dead. He stared down at the rat corpses
for a while.
"Do you want me to say a few words?" Canine asked as he finished
walking up the stairs.
"You know what?" Hawks looked over from the rats to Canine. "I am
_sick_ and _tired_ of _always_ running into _rats_!! Every Goddamn
place I go is crawling with rats!!" He kicked the rat corpses across
the room. "Do you know how many rats I've killed?"
"If _you_ do, I'm going to - "
"68 now!" Hawks yelled, interupting the dog. "68 miserable, bad-
tasting, Goddamn rats!!" Hawks let out a yell, the type one would make
if a boulder fell on one's foot.
The two were silent for a momment. Canine looked over at the rats, then
back at Hawks. "Are you done now?"
"Great, now my throat's sore."
"Well maybe now you'll learn to stop jinxing things. Can we get back to
buisness now?" Canine walked towards the next flight of stairs.
"The next rat I see, I'm tearing apart with my bare hands," Hawks
muttered before following after Canine. On the third floor, there was a
man enveloped in battered robes, sitting in a corner. His eyes were
closed, and his hair was in tatered clumps. He looked up at the two
without opening his eyes.
"What do you want?!" he shouted.
"Are you Tydur?" Hawks asked.
"I don't have anything! Go away!" Hawks walked up to the man.
"Are you Tydur?!" he repeated, annoyed. The man didn't respond.
Hawks heard Canine's voice, except with an echo. It sounded like it was
more inside his head than usuall. "Tell him we'll give him a rat."
"What?" asked Hawks, turning around to look at Canine.
"His breath reeks of them. Just do it."
"Fine, fine." Hawks looked back over at the man. "Hey, if you tell me
who you are, I'll give you a rat." The man opened his 'eyes', revealing
empty sockets, to Hawks's disgusted surprise. He nodded his head
rapidly with a crazy grin on his face.
"Mmm, rat good! Tasty crunchy rat!!"
"Yeah, crunchy rat. Go fetch mutt." Canine shook his head, a human
habit which looked strange on a dog, and walked back downstairs. The
man danced around in glee where he sat while they waited. Not long
after, Canine returned with a rat in his mout. Hawks took it from the
dog's mouth and tossed it over to the man.
"RAT!" he shouted happily. He tore into the rat fevorishly.
"Yeah, rat," muttered Hawks. "Now are you Tydur?"
"Mm, yeah, Tydur. Sure. Whata you want?" Hawks looked over at Canine,
who had laid down.
"Is this guy bullshitting me?"
"Dunno. His brain isn't projecting like normal people's. I can't pick
anything up."
"Great. Hey Tydur!" Tydur looked up from his feast, rat bits still
hanging from his mouth. "How did you get past the barrier?" Tydur's
mouth fell open, the bits dropping into his lap.
"T-t-the barrier?"
"Yeah. The death laser thing. You got past it. How?" Tydur threw his
hands over his ears and shook his head.
"No, no, no, no, _no, no NO!_" It wasn't the response Hawks had
expected.
"Okay, that didn't go too well," Hawks said to Canine. "Any
suggestions?"
"Let me try," the dog 'said', getting up and walking over to Tydur. "Do
you know what the barrier is?" Tydur stopped shaking his head and
looked at Canine, unfazed by a talking dog.
"Bad, bad thing. Can't go past it."
"Why not?"
"Bad things happen. Bzet, zap, ow, die, dead, dead, DEAD!" Hawks
quickly grew impatiant with Canine's method and Tydur's rantings.
"Shove over dog. Tydur, tell me how you got past the barrier and I'll
give you _two_ rats!" Tydur nodded his head rapidly, aparently
forgetting what he was doing a second ago.
"Yeah, rats good! Tydur like rats!"
"I'm sure you do. Canine - "
"Get your own rat corpses. I need to wash my mouth out." Hawks sighed
and headed down to the second floor. He returned with a rat dangling by
its tail in each hand.
"Here," Hawks said. He threw the rats over to Tydur, very glad to stop
holding them. Tydur caught one in each hand and chowed down. "Now how
did you get out?"
"The people told me not to tell anyone what ahppened. THey said they'd
force-feed me my face if I told anyone."
"People? What peo - "
"Anyways, I got out. And then these big metal guys walked up to me and
knocked me out. They woke me up with some really bright lights. They
kept telling me I never got out. Then they...they...THEY BROKE MY DAMN
BODY!"
"Huh? How did you get out?"
"They ripped out my eyes, ruined my legs, and crushed
my...my...AIGHHH!"
"Yeah, that's nice. How did you get _out_?!"
"My fucking dick! They crushed it!! They told me to shut up about what
happened or they'd crush it again!!" Tydur thought about that for a
momment in silence. "Hey, they already did that!"
"That does it, I'm leaving," muttered Hawks. "There's no way in hell
this idiot got past the barrier."
"I dug a big hole!"
"...what?" Tydur put his hand behind his back and pulled out a worn
shovel.
"I dug a _really_ big hole!!" Hawks shook his head and walked over to
the stairs.
"C'mon dog. I _really_ need to get drunk."
***
"Something's been bugging me," Canine 'said', walking beside Hawks.
"Who were those metal men?"
"Men made out of metal," Hawks muttered, not carring. "Probably robots.
Where was that bar we were at last?"
"I've never heard of robots attacking humans like that. The robots at
the Archives always attacked quickly and efficiantly. What they did to
Tydur seemed more like torture than execution. That, or making an
example of him."
"Well nuts for rat brains. Where was that bar?"
"You're not listining to me, are you?"
"Hell, it was only 30 minutes ago! I should remember where it was!"
"Nevermind." The two continued walking in the possible direction of a
bar.
***
"Ugh." Hawks didn't know what time it was, let alone _where_ he was. He
vaugly remembered something about going into a bar. He
ordered...something, and everything after that was a blank. He must
have ordered one hell of a drink.
"Wake up Chosen One!" a voice said. His eyes were blurry and his ears
felt like they were underwater. Wait...'Chosen One'? "Wake up! Wake up
Chosen One! Welcome back to Arroyo!" He was...back? Arroyo!
Hawks sat up and rubbed his eyes. His vision started to clear. In front
of him was...
...Jake with his hands over his mouth saying 'Chosen One'. "Jake? What
are you doing here?" He looked around - they were in a hotel room.
"Wait, is this Arroyo?" asked Jake. Hawks shook his head no. "Oh well.
Never mind then. My mistake." It suddenly occured to Hawks what was
going on.
"You asshole. If I wasn't about to explode, you'd be dead right now."
"Don't blame me, blame your dog. This was his idea." Hawks didn't move
his head to look at Canine for feat of combustion. Instead, he gave the
unseen dog the finger, and remained perfectly still otherwise.
"Maybe next time you won't pass out and make me drag you back," Canine
anounced. "Consider this payback."
"Both of you are assholes." Slowly, carefully, Hawks stood up. He felt
like he was either going to die or give birth. Either way, he felt like
crap. "That does it, no more beer for me. Ever."
"Whisky it is then," Jake declared.
"Hell no. No more alcohol, period. Every time I get drunk, I wake up
somewhere I don't want to be. I'll drink water or something from now
on."
"Well good for you. Let's go get wasted and celibrate your decision."
"No way, my head's killing me. We'll get drunk in a week, my head
should stop melting by then." He looked around, trying to determine the
time by the darkness level. It didn't work. "What time is it?"
"Check your PipBoy you lazy ass." Hawks did - it was 1158. "You gonna
be good to head out soon?"
"Hell, where we going now? I thought you were gonna bribe somebody or
something."
"Didn't need to - I got a job from one of the council members. All we
need to do is head down to Brons and find a guy for him. Then we get
all the info we need."
"That works, I guess. So where's Brons?"
Jake brought up his PipBoy map and pointed to the circle representing
Brons. "It's a cattle town way southeast of here. I was born there."
"I thought you were from Crater Town?" Jake put his finger in front of
his mouth and waved his free hand for Hawks to stop.
"None of us are from there, we all hate there. Anyways, I moved there
when I was four or so. My dad didn't want to raise a family in Brons.
It's not exactally a safe place to be."
"Joy. So who are we looking for and does he bleed green?"
"C'mon, that happened _once_."
"Yeah, the same number of times I've gone out on one of your jobs.
Kinda makes you wonder."
"Well, this guy we're after is some harmless pencil-pusher named Mell
Blank. He went out on his own for Brons all of a sudden, and DRR wants
to know why."
"That sounds relativly safe." Jake chuckled softly under his breath,
but not softly enough for Hawks not to hear. "Hell, there's a 'but',
isn't there?"
"Brons is a very, um, 'lively' town. Plenty of rowdy guys."
"Goddamnit! Why can't we ever go somewhere without rats or people
trying to kill us?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"The fact that we _live_ to the end of the day. I have a nice plan for
my life - get out of this damn place, do the 'save Arroyo' thing, kill
off all the rats in CA so I can relax for once, and kick back for the
next 30 years. Note the lack of dying under this damn cloud."
"Sorry to cut into your perfectly planned life, but you still have no
clue how to get task #1 done yet. So sober up and let's get going."
"This is just a suggestion," anounced Canine, "but why don't we show
him the barrier while we're here? It might jog his memory."
Jake shrugged. "Why not, tt's gonna take about a week to reach Brons
anyways." He walked out and headed for the horses. Hawks, through some
miracle, managed to walk to the door without colapsing or spontaniously
combusting. Canine followed a ways behind Hawks, making sure he
wouldn't be crushed by the staggering Chosen One.
***
There was nothing but flat, featureless land all around them. Far ahead
in the distance there were rows of blue and red lights, presumably the
turrets. Jake stopped his horse and dismounted. Hawks followed suit,
and lifted Canine out of the cart.
"Listen very carefully," Jake said with a serious tone in his voice.
"You do not go further than I tell you to. Those turrets are deadly.
They _will_ kill you, easily."
"Right," nodded Hawks.
"See where we are now? This is about how far away my dad was when he
got - " Jake poked his forehead with his right pointer finger and made
a 'woosh' sound.
"He hit one of those lights all the way from here?"
"Like I said, he had one hell of a throwing arm. And those things have
unbelivable aim." The three walked forward slowly, with Jake up front.
After a minute of carefull, paced walking Jake held up his hand. "Wait
here. Don't. Move." Hawks nodded, and Jake ran back to the cart. He
returned with a battered old pair of binaculars, which he tossed over
to Hawks.
The Chosen One held the binoculars to his eyes and looked forward at
the distant turrets. They were large cylinders with two barrles hanging
off bars extending from the cylinders' sides. A red light was on the
top right part of the cylinder, a blue light on the top left. Each
turret stood two feet apart, all pointing forward.
As Hawks looked, he felt as if he had seen these before. It might have
been because they were similar to the turrets on top of the Archives
domes. But...he felt he had seen these turrets before...only from
above.
"You done?" Jake asked, not wanting to be this close to the turrets for
long.
"...yeah," Hawks replied, turning back around.
"All right then. Let's get moving." The three re-mounted, and then rode
off.
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[P ALIGN=right]-Draconias Galactica
-http://upperpage.tripod.com
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"You know what I hate about this place?" Hawks asked, nudging his slow
horse in the side with his foot.
"Everything," Jake and Canine said in unision.
"There's not enough rats. Everywhere I went in CA was crawling with
rats. Cave rats, pig rats, mole rats, _talking_ rats - "
"Talking rats?" Canine asked. "Rats can talk?"
"Not very well. But that's not the point! I was sick and tired of being
an expert rat killer, and now...man I miss those rats."
"You poor thing," muttered Jake. "You need a hug?"
"Why do I even bother talking to you guys?"
"I've been wondering that myself."
"Are you sure that it talked?" asked Canine. "It wasn't somebody else
you couldn't see? Was it talking with its mouth?"
"That's not the point!!" Hawks shouted, throwing his arms up. He looked
over at Jake. "How much longer?"
"We should be almost there. The west side of the city isn't well lit,
but it's over there." Jake pointed forward and to the right a bit.
Hawks squinted, trying to see what Jake was pointing to. All he could
see was dirt and more dirt.
"...there's nothing there."
"The buildings are camoflauged."
"Bullshit."
"Just in case Crater Town attacks. If they can't see the city, they
can't attack it. By the way - " Jake's voice took on a very serious
tone - "we're not from Crater Town. You're not from Crater Town, I'm
not from Crater Town, the dog's not from Crater Town, no one's from
Crater Town. In fact, we hate that town who's name we will not be
mentioning from now on. Got that?"
"What's going on between them?"
"Border disputes on their outer settlements. Also, they're the only
ones who can threaten each other besides Lake Side, and that's pretty
far away from here."
"It's actually a bit more complicated," Canine noted. "There were some
resource battles, several assasinations, each side belives the other is
controling the Shadow Raiders, the - "
"That's nice," interupted Hawks. "So why don't they just beat the hell
out of each other?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Jake asked, rhetorically. "C'mon, let's pick
up the pace." Jake and Hawks kicked their horses in the side, and spead
up towards DRR. Like Crater Town, DRR had started in a hole in the
ground and spread out from there. In DRR's case, the ditch was their
namesake - a dried out river bed.
Dry Run River was founded by an exploration party from the young Crater
Town over a hundred years ago. The party headed northwest from Crater
Town until they hit the barrier. Unfortunatly, the barrier hit back,
killing half the original group. Dejected, part of the party hiked back
to a river bed they had passed by along the way and settled down. The
rest of the party continued on, marching along the perimiter, trying to
find a gap. DRR grew as others who were walking along the barrier
eventually reached the town. The city grew steadily for ten years. At
that point, the founders realized just how large their city was likely
to grow, and set up a council government. Naturally, the founders made
up the council.
To enforce their rule, they set up a force of dragoon. At first,
anybody the council trusted that had a weapon & horse could get in. But
that wasn't enough to keep the rowdier residents in line for long. So
the council started hiring mercinaries to train their dragoon army in
riding, fighting, and enforcement. The mercinaries did their job very
well. DRR became a major power in the area, and the dragoon army became
the toughest group of fighters in the Shadowlands (besides the Archive
security robots, which never left the Archives).
Over the years, DRR annexed several smaller towns that had sprung up
nearby. Sometimes it was peacefully, like when a town asked for
anexation. Other times it wasn't, such as when DRR wanted something
from a town that the town didn't want to give. It was DRR's expansion
that brought it into conflict with Crater Town. The older city already
resented DRR due to the fact that it was founded by Crater Town
'deserters'. That outer colonies of the two cities were close enough
for border disputes didn't help relations much.
Neither side was willing to start a full-out war, though. Their forces
were very eavenly matched. Discounting the Order of the Cloud - which
was rumored to be a splinter group from the dragoons - and the
Archives, DRR had the toughest army the Shadowlands had ever seen.
Despite not having a true army, Crater Town had the largest fighting
force. Every man, woman, and child in the city was willing to fight
against DRR if need be. So both sides kept waiting for either relations
to improve, or a good opertunity to attack. Both sides are still
waiting.
Hawks was also waiting, though not as patiently. "How long is this
going to take?" Jake was flipping through sheets of paper nailed on a
bulletin board labled 'anouncments'. He claimed he was looking for a
job. Hawks claimed he was looking for a hooker ad.
"Not much longer."
"Actually," Canine anounced, "he's already found a job. He's just
wasting time right now to annoy you."
"Damn psychic mutt," Jake muttered.
"Screw the job anyways!" Hawks shouted, pulling Jake away from the
board. "We're here to find a way out, not some job!"
"And how do you plan to do that?" Hawks thought for a momment and then
turned to face Canine.
"You're on your own," the dog 'muttered'.
"Here's _my_ plan. We get some more cash, and then bribe the right
people. That should get us talking to a council member or two. If
anyone knows anything about getting out, it's probably them."
"Oh goody. Now I can get my ass nearly killed _again_! No way, I'm
through with your jobs!"
"Fine by me. I can handle these on my own anyways. See that hotel?" He
pointed to a building about fifty feet away. Hawks nodded. "I'll meet
up with you there later." With that, Jake walked off.
"So how do you plan to find an exit?" Canine asked, looking up at
Hawks. He shrugged, and started walking. Canine followed after him.
"I haven't figured that part out yet," Hawks admited. "I don't know,
maybe I'll ask around at a bar or someplace. That's a good a place as
any to pick up info I guess. You know where one is?"
"I used to play some poker at a bar in this town, but I haven't been in
DRR for a while. I think it was...somewhere."
"Wonderful. So we go this way," Hawks said, pointing to his right.
"There's bound to be a bar someplace around here." They continued on in
that direction. The west side of town seemed pretty deserted. There
were a few scatered buildings, but most looked very old and very
primitive. The few people Hawks saw were standard outsider trash -
druggies, whores, and the regular band of idiots. It probably wasn't
the best area to ask for info in, so the two kept walking.
"Hey, I just got an idea," Hawks said a bit later. "Why don't you read
my mind and tell me how I got in here?"
"If you can't remember, I can't find out."
"Hell, it's always something." After about ten minutes of wandering
around, they stumbled onto a small bar. There were five patrons inside,
and two people behind the bar. "You think any of them know something?"
Hawks asked Canine.
"Like how to pour a bowel of water? I'm thirsty."
"You're a world of help mutt," Hawks muttered, walking up to the bar.
"Hey, can I get some water in a bowel?"
"A bowel?" asked one of the customers, who looked half-drunk. "Who the
hell drinks water froma bowel?"
"Someone too stupid to figure out how to use a glass, like you." The
man looked ready to start something after that remark. Hawks yawned,
moving his arm towards the assault riffle tied to his back. The man
quickly got out of his seat and backed up towards the door. "Can I get
some water or what?"
"15 coins," said the nearer of the two bartenders.
"You have to be kidding me! _15_ coins for some water?"
"Take it or leave it." Hawks shook his head, muttering unpleasentries
under his breath, and glared down at Canine. The dog stared back with
very authentic puppy-dog eyes.
"Fine, fine!" Hawks took out 15 coins from the pouch on his belt and
dropped them on the counter. "Just make sure it's in a bowel!" The
bartender took the coins and walked away.
"Testy today, aren't we?" Canine asked.
"I'm a few hundred miles from my dying home, and I'm stuck under this
damn cloud. I have to get out, hike back to CA, find Vault 13, then
somehow, someway get the GECK from them, and make it back to my tribe,
all before they start taking dirt naps." He shook his head, and then
shouted, "I think I'm allowed to be a bit upset about things!!"
"You know, your voice is going to die if you keep yelling like that."
The bartender walked back with a smallish bowel, filled with water.
Hawks took it and put it down in front of Canine, who began licking it
up rapidly.
"Hey," Hawks began, looking at the bartender. "You know a way out of
this place?" In the bartender's mind, this was as stupid a question as
'Do bullets in the balls hurt?'. He pointed to the door, to Hawks's
disapointment. "No, I ment out of this whole place, past the barrier!"
"Boy, that's imposible."
"That's nice. You know how, or know anyone that might?" The bartender
thought for a minute.
"Well, um...I did hear something once. You might want to ask around for
a guy named...uh, something 'dur'."
"Something-'dur'?"
"Yeah. I don't remember the guy's name exactally, but he was supposed
to have gotten out. It's a load of crap, though. There's nothing past
the barrier, just the end of the world."
"Heh, no kidding," chuckled Hawks, for reasons beyond the bartender.
Hawks stood up and walked towards the door. "Thanks for the tip. C'mon
Canine." The dog followed after him.
"Something-'dur'," 'said' Canine. "As far as tips go, that one was
pretty lousy."
"Better than nothing, I guess. Can you find me another bar?"
"I'll try." Canine stood still and closed his eyes. In Hawks's ears,
there was a strange noise, like a quiet and slow 'wub, wub, wub'. He
guessed it was from Canine. The dog remained motionless for about
thirty seconds.
Finally, he looked back up. "This way," ordered Canine, rushing off.
Hawks followed after.
***
After traveling from bar to bar for two hours, Hawks and Canine
collected a semi-full story about something-'dur'. His name was Tydur.
He was supposed to have either flown over, dug under, jumped over, ran
past, or teleported past the barrier, depending on the story. He came
back for some reason, though nobody knew why. Supposedly, his mind was
a bit loose after he returned. As for where he was, all Hawks and
Canine had heard was that he was in an abandoned part of DRR raiders
had hit recently.
Like the rest of DRR, the buildings in that area weren't much to look
at. There didn't seem to be anyone living in them, possibly due to the
raider attack.
"Do you see anyone?" Hawks asked Canine.
"I can smell something, a particuarly nasty scent. Most of it's coming
from _you_, but there's definatly some coming from up ahead. Follow
me." Canine walked on, with Hawks following behind him. The dog
eventually stopped in front of a very tall building (by post-war
standards), a full five floors high.
"There's somebody in there?"
"There's a smell in there, mostly human. You can go first."
"Gee, thanks." Hawks pulled out a knife he had 'borrowed' from Jake's
collection, and walked in. There wasn't any door. Inside was a broken
table, and a broken chair. Hawks headed up the decaying stairs,
followed not-too-closely behind by Canine.
"SQUEEEK!" The momment Hawks walked upstairs, five rats ran at him.
Hawks acted fast, slicing at the rats almost by instinct. In less than
five seconds, the rats were all dead. He stared down at the rat corpses
for a while.
"Do you want me to say a few words?" Canine asked as he finished
walking up the stairs.
"You know what?" Hawks looked over from the rats to Canine. "I am
_sick_ and _tired_ of _always_ running into _rats_!! Every Goddamn
place I go is crawling with rats!!" He kicked the rat corpses across
the room. "Do you know how many rats I've killed?"
"If _you_ do, I'm going to - "
"68 now!" Hawks yelled, interupting the dog. "68 miserable, bad-
tasting, Goddamn rats!!" Hawks let out a yell, the type one would make
if a boulder fell on one's foot.
The two were silent for a momment. Canine looked over at the rats, then
back at Hawks. "Are you done now?"
"Great, now my throat's sore."
"Well maybe now you'll learn to stop jinxing things. Can we get back to
buisness now?" Canine walked towards the next flight of stairs.
"The next rat I see, I'm tearing apart with my bare hands," Hawks
muttered before following after Canine. On the third floor, there was a
man enveloped in battered robes, sitting in a corner. His eyes were
closed, and his hair was in tatered clumps. He looked up at the two
without opening his eyes.
"What do you want?!" he shouted.
"Are you Tydur?" Hawks asked.
"I don't have anything! Go away!" Hawks walked up to the man.
"Are you Tydur?!" he repeated, annoyed. The man didn't respond.
Hawks heard Canine's voice, except with an echo. It sounded like it was
more inside his head than usuall. "Tell him we'll give him a rat."
"What?" asked Hawks, turning around to look at Canine.
"His breath reeks of them. Just do it."
"Fine, fine." Hawks looked back over at the man. "Hey, if you tell me
who you are, I'll give you a rat." The man opened his 'eyes', revealing
empty sockets, to Hawks's disgusted surprise. He nodded his head
rapidly with a crazy grin on his face.
"Mmm, rat good! Tasty crunchy rat!!"
"Yeah, crunchy rat. Go fetch mutt." Canine shook his head, a human
habit which looked strange on a dog, and walked back downstairs. The
man danced around in glee where he sat while they waited. Not long
after, Canine returned with a rat in his mout. Hawks took it from the
dog's mouth and tossed it over to the man.
"RAT!" he shouted happily. He tore into the rat fevorishly.
"Yeah, rat," muttered Hawks. "Now are you Tydur?"
"Mm, yeah, Tydur. Sure. Whata you want?" Hawks looked over at Canine,
who had laid down.
"Is this guy bullshitting me?"
"Dunno. His brain isn't projecting like normal people's. I can't pick
anything up."
"Great. Hey Tydur!" Tydur looked up from his feast, rat bits still
hanging from his mouth. "How did you get past the barrier?" Tydur's
mouth fell open, the bits dropping into his lap.
"T-t-the barrier?"
"Yeah. The death laser thing. You got past it. How?" Tydur threw his
hands over his ears and shook his head.
"No, no, no, no, _no, no NO!_" It wasn't the response Hawks had
expected.
"Okay, that didn't go too well," Hawks said to Canine. "Any
suggestions?"
"Let me try," the dog 'said', getting up and walking over to Tydur. "Do
you know what the barrier is?" Tydur stopped shaking his head and
looked at Canine, unfazed by a talking dog.
"Bad, bad thing. Can't go past it."
"Why not?"
"Bad things happen. Bzet, zap, ow, die, dead, dead, DEAD!" Hawks
quickly grew impatiant with Canine's method and Tydur's rantings.
"Shove over dog. Tydur, tell me how you got past the barrier and I'll
give you _two_ rats!" Tydur nodded his head rapidly, aparently
forgetting what he was doing a second ago.
"Yeah, rats good! Tydur like rats!"
"I'm sure you do. Canine - "
"Get your own rat corpses. I need to wash my mouth out." Hawks sighed
and headed down to the second floor. He returned with a rat dangling by
its tail in each hand.
"Here," Hawks said. He threw the rats over to Tydur, very glad to stop
holding them. Tydur caught one in each hand and chowed down. "Now how
did you get out?"
"The people told me not to tell anyone what ahppened. THey said they'd
force-feed me my face if I told anyone."
"People? What peo - "
"Anyways, I got out. And then these big metal guys walked up to me and
knocked me out. They woke me up with some really bright lights. They
kept telling me I never got out. Then they...they...THEY BROKE MY DAMN
BODY!"
"Huh? How did you get out?"
"They ripped out my eyes, ruined my legs, and crushed
my...my...AIGHHH!"
"Yeah, that's nice. How did you get _out_?!"
"My fucking dick! They crushed it!! They told me to shut up about what
happened or they'd crush it again!!" Tydur thought about that for a
momment in silence. "Hey, they already did that!"
"That does it, I'm leaving," muttered Hawks. "There's no way in hell
this idiot got past the barrier."
"I dug a big hole!"
"...what?" Tydur put his hand behind his back and pulled out a worn
shovel.
"I dug a _really_ big hole!!" Hawks shook his head and walked over to
the stairs.
"C'mon dog. I _really_ need to get drunk."
***
"Something's been bugging me," Canine 'said', walking beside Hawks.
"Who were those metal men?"
"Men made out of metal," Hawks muttered, not carring. "Probably robots.
Where was that bar we were at last?"
"I've never heard of robots attacking humans like that. The robots at
the Archives always attacked quickly and efficiantly. What they did to
Tydur seemed more like torture than execution. That, or making an
example of him."
"Well nuts for rat brains. Where was that bar?"
"You're not listining to me, are you?"
"Hell, it was only 30 minutes ago! I should remember where it was!"
"Nevermind." The two continued walking in the possible direction of a
bar.
***
"Ugh." Hawks didn't know what time it was, let alone _where_ he was. He
vaugly remembered something about going into a bar. He
ordered...something, and everything after that was a blank. He must
have ordered one hell of a drink.
"Wake up Chosen One!" a voice said. His eyes were blurry and his ears
felt like they were underwater. Wait...'Chosen One'? "Wake up! Wake up
Chosen One! Welcome back to Arroyo!" He was...back? Arroyo!
Hawks sat up and rubbed his eyes. His vision started to clear. In front
of him was...
...Jake with his hands over his mouth saying 'Chosen One'. "Jake? What
are you doing here?" He looked around - they were in a hotel room.
"Wait, is this Arroyo?" asked Jake. Hawks shook his head no. "Oh well.
Never mind then. My mistake." It suddenly occured to Hawks what was
going on.
"You asshole. If I wasn't about to explode, you'd be dead right now."
"Don't blame me, blame your dog. This was his idea." Hawks didn't move
his head to look at Canine for feat of combustion. Instead, he gave the
unseen dog the finger, and remained perfectly still otherwise.
"Maybe next time you won't pass out and make me drag you back," Canine
anounced. "Consider this payback."
"Both of you are assholes." Slowly, carefully, Hawks stood up. He felt
like he was either going to die or give birth. Either way, he felt like
crap. "That does it, no more beer for me. Ever."
"Whisky it is then," Jake declared.
"Hell no. No more alcohol, period. Every time I get drunk, I wake up
somewhere I don't want to be. I'll drink water or something from now
on."
"Well good for you. Let's go get wasted and celibrate your decision."
"No way, my head's killing me. We'll get drunk in a week, my head
should stop melting by then." He looked around, trying to determine the
time by the darkness level. It didn't work. "What time is it?"
"Check your PipBoy you lazy ass." Hawks did - it was 1158. "You gonna
be good to head out soon?"
"Hell, where we going now? I thought you were gonna bribe somebody or
something."
"Didn't need to - I got a job from one of the council members. All we
need to do is head down to Brons and find a guy for him. Then we get
all the info we need."
"That works, I guess. So where's Brons?"
Jake brought up his PipBoy map and pointed to the circle representing
Brons. "It's a cattle town way southeast of here. I was born there."
"I thought you were from Crater Town?" Jake put his finger in front of
his mouth and waved his free hand for Hawks to stop.
"None of us are from there, we all hate there. Anyways, I moved there
when I was four or so. My dad didn't want to raise a family in Brons.
It's not exactally a safe place to be."
"Joy. So who are we looking for and does he bleed green?"
"C'mon, that happened _once_."
"Yeah, the same number of times I've gone out on one of your jobs.
Kinda makes you wonder."
"Well, this guy we're after is some harmless pencil-pusher named Mell
Blank. He went out on his own for Brons all of a sudden, and DRR wants
to know why."
"That sounds relativly safe." Jake chuckled softly under his breath,
but not softly enough for Hawks not to hear. "Hell, there's a 'but',
isn't there?"
"Brons is a very, um, 'lively' town. Plenty of rowdy guys."
"Goddamnit! Why can't we ever go somewhere without rats or people
trying to kill us?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"The fact that we _live_ to the end of the day. I have a nice plan for
my life - get out of this damn place, do the 'save Arroyo' thing, kill
off all the rats in CA so I can relax for once, and kick back for the
next 30 years. Note the lack of dying under this damn cloud."
"Sorry to cut into your perfectly planned life, but you still have no
clue how to get task #1 done yet. So sober up and let's get going."
"This is just a suggestion," anounced Canine, "but why don't we show
him the barrier while we're here? It might jog his memory."
Jake shrugged. "Why not, tt's gonna take about a week to reach Brons
anyways." He walked out and headed for the horses. Hawks, through some
miracle, managed to walk to the door without colapsing or spontaniously
combusting. Canine followed a ways behind Hawks, making sure he
wouldn't be crushed by the staggering Chosen One.
***
There was nothing but flat, featureless land all around them. Far ahead
in the distance there were rows of blue and red lights, presumably the
turrets. Jake stopped his horse and dismounted. Hawks followed suit,
and lifted Canine out of the cart.
"Listen very carefully," Jake said with a serious tone in his voice.
"You do not go further than I tell you to. Those turrets are deadly.
They _will_ kill you, easily."
"Right," nodded Hawks.
"See where we are now? This is about how far away my dad was when he
got - " Jake poked his forehead with his right pointer finger and made
a 'woosh' sound.
"He hit one of those lights all the way from here?"
"Like I said, he had one hell of a throwing arm. And those things have
unbelivable aim." The three walked forward slowly, with Jake up front.
After a minute of carefull, paced walking Jake held up his hand. "Wait
here. Don't. Move." Hawks nodded, and Jake ran back to the cart. He
returned with a battered old pair of binaculars, which he tossed over
to Hawks.
The Chosen One held the binoculars to his eyes and looked forward at
the distant turrets. They were large cylinders with two barrles hanging
off bars extending from the cylinders' sides. A red light was on the
top right part of the cylinder, a blue light on the top left. Each
turret stood two feet apart, all pointing forward.
As Hawks looked, he felt as if he had seen these before. It might have
been because they were similar to the turrets on top of the Archives
domes. But...he felt he had seen these turrets before...only from
above.
"You done?" Jake asked, not wanting to be this close to the turrets for
long.
"...yeah," Hawks replied, turning back around.
"All right then. Let's get moving." The three re-mounted, and then rode
off.
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
[P ALIGN=right]-Draconias Galactica
-http://upperpage.tripod.com
, now this place is in a silent coma, but still every week or so someone shows up and reads the stories, so it`s o.k.