by M. P. Pubs
Marcus didn't respond. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that, and he was starting to think people were right. He had his left arm wrapped around Clover, who was shaking like a leaf and holding onto him for dear life.
"Here, we'd better sit down." Marcus strained. Both he and Clover plopped down on the floor and a sharp pain went through his shoulder. "Oh, Jesus!" he cried.
Clover snapped out of her terror and looked at him. "You're hurt! We're you hit?"
Marcus shook his head. "No, it's my shoulder. Again!"
Reilly, having seen more then her share of dislocated limbs, knew exactly what to do. Putting her rifle down, she carefully pulled Clover away. "We need to snap it back in place. It's going to hurt like hell so lay back. Charon, hold him down."
Marcus laid down on the hard floor, and Charon held onto his left shoulder. Reilly sat down next to Marcus, took hold of his wrist, and placed her foot under his armpit. "Are you ready, kid?"
Marcus took a deep breath. "Ah...no."
Reilly braced herself. "On the count of three. One..."
She yanked his arm with all her might and Marcus let out a scream that echoed through the downtown area. In one violent moment it was over. As Marcus laid there groaning, Reilly injected his shoulder with a med-x to dull the pain. "There. You'll be able to use that arm again in a few minutes." she said.
Marcus thanked her and sat up. "I thought you said on three."
Reilly shrugged. "I lied. Rest for a minute."
Clover practically pushed Charon out of the way and wrapped her arms around Marcus. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you." she kept saying as she covered him in kisses. Clover's affection caused Marcus to wince in pain, but he didn't stop her. He was just glad she was alright. "I guess I only owe you one now." he told her.
Clover only laughed. Marcus looked up at Charon and extended his left hand. "Thank you."
At first Charon just stood there stone faced. Finally he said: "I was doing my job."
Marcus would not leave it at that. "I still want to thank you and shake your hand."
A few more awkward moments past until Charon finally gave Marcus a firm hand shake. Clover stood up, wrapped her arms around Charon's neck and kissed his cheek. "Thank you." she said.
For a moment a hint of surprise could be seen on the ghoul's face. He remained speechless as Clover released him and helped Marcus up.
"Damn it!" Marcus cursed. "My rifle went over the side!"
It was true, both he and Clover's AK-47's were lying in the street below. Marcus pulled his sawed-off shotgun out of his hip holster. "I guess this will have to do for now."
Reilly tapped Clover on the shoulder. "Here, take my laser pistol. It will tide you over until you can get an assault rifle off one of the muties."
Clover thanked her and took the weapon. Reilly addressed the group again. "Okay, I'll take point again. Keep your eyes open. There's going to be lots of rooms so watch your corners."
Marcus was reminded of what Sarah Lyons said during the battle at GNR. 'Clear the corners, rookie!'.
* * *
The team entered the Statesman hotel. The halls were littered with dead Super Mutants, empty shell casings and rubble. Bullet holes, blood and scorch marks covered the walls. It was clear that the Rangers had make the mutants pay for every inch of ground they had gained. All of the hotel rooms had been ransacked long ago, and many of them contained two-hundred year old chared skeletons. Since whole sections of the staircases had been blocked or collapsed, it would take the team longer to reach the roof. They had almost cleared the first hallway when Reilly stopped. A Super Mutant was in a room to their right.
"What was that?" the mutant said.
They could hear him approaching the door, and Reilly raised her rifle. Charon grabbed her shoulder. "Allow me." He said.
Before Reilly could say anything, Charon placed his combat shotgun on the ground and stepped in front of her. He crouched down into a battle stance and waited for the mutant to walk into the hall. Just as the mutant appeared, Charon sprang like a cat and planted both his knees on the mutant's shoulders, grabbed it's head and snapped it's neck. Charon jumped down, landing on his feet, and the Super Mutant's body hit the ground with a thud. Everyone stood there with their mouths open as Charon presented the mutant's assault rifle to Clover. "This, I believe, will suffice."
Clover, her mouth still gapped open, took the rifle. Charon picked up his shotgun and turned to Reilly. "Sometimes stealth is the best approach." He turned and continued walking down the hall.
Reilly and Marcus looked at each other. "Damn!" Reilly said. "Where's you find him?"
"Underworld. Everyone there said he was the toughest sonofabitch in the city."
Reilly looked back at the ghoul. "Guess they were right. He keeps that up and I might just hire him."
They continued down the hallway, and Clover handed Reilly's pistol back to her. The next floor contained two more live mutants which the team took care of with no problems. As they cleared the rooms, Marcus would check for anything of any value: ammunition, first aid, food; he even found a science book he decided to read later. In one of the rooms he noticed a .38 revolver lying on a king sized bed next to a skeleton. After securing the weapon, he noticed the skeleton was clutching a holotape. Curious, he pried it loose and read the title: "My little Moonbeam".
Reilly walked up behind him. "What you got there?"
Marcus placed the holotape into his PIPBOY. "Let's find out."
"My dearest little moonbeam. I know you've been waiting to hear what happened to me. I'm sorry I left you like I did. An important deal came up... one that might have let us get away from that shack we were living in. I came to the Statesman Hotel to meet the buyer and the deal went bad. We shot each other, and now I think I'm dying. I won't make it out of this place... the ruins are crawling with super mutants. All I can do is record this and then hide up in one of the rooms. You're a strong girl and I know you can use everything I taught you to survive alone. Please forgive me, sweetie. I only wanted to make the best for us. Daddy loves you very much. Goodbye."
As he listened, Marcus couldn't help but relate to this story - and it scared him to death. Whoever this 'little moonbeam' was her father had left her behind to do something good, and instead he ended up dying alone in a rundown hotel room. No doubt his daughter to this day has no clue what happened to him. Marcus wondered if he would share little moonbeam's fate...or find his father's skeleton clutching a death message.
"Hey, you okay?" Reilly asked.
Marcus stopped the recording. "We should keep going." He said as he hurried out of the room. As they approached another stairwell, Reilly stopped Marcus from going in. "Hold it!" She pointed to the ground, and that's when Marcus saw the tripwire. Reilly pointed to the ceiling, and the team spotted a bundle of five frag grenades suspended by a wire.
"Not bad." Marcus complemented.
Reilly smiled and showed him how to disarm the trap. When she was done she handed each of them a frag grenade and continued heading up. They had reached the next platform and that's when they came across Theo's body. The headless corpses was lying in a pool of blood, still clutching a tri-beam rifle. Everyone was silent as Reilly kneeled down next to the body. Tears began welling up in her eyes, but the tough merc fought against them. 'Never let them see you cry', she kept telling herself. She managed to find Theo's holotags and she placed them in her pocket. She then removed the tri-beam rifle from his arms. "Till we meet again, my old friend." she whispered. Reilly stood up and handed the laser rifle to Marcus. "Here, you'll need this."
Marcus holstered his shotgun and took the weapon. He had never fired a laser rifle before, and since he loved scifi stories, he was looking forward to it.
"This is the ammo case I told you about." Reilly said as she punched in the code and unlocked the massive crate. "Here, everyone take some. The Rangers will need this when we reach them."
After passing out the ammo, the team continued on and finally re
ached the last floor of the hotel. At the other end of the hall, through a pair of double doors, was the hotel's bar. Behind it was a staircase leading to a catwalk which lead to the roof. And inside this room were no fewer then six Super Mutants, including a Master with a minigun on the catwalk. "They...are coming!" the Master said. "Be...ready."
Out in the hall, the team was crouched down, planning their next move. "I could hear them in there," Reilly began, "but I can't tell how many or where."
"Why don't we just go in there and blast'em?" Clover asked.
Charon shook his head. "They might get us in a crossfire. We need to throw them off balance first."
The rest of the group agreed. Marcus looked around and spotted a storage room to his right with a sign that read "O2". He quietly went inside and found a number of full oxygen tanks lying on a cart. A smile appeared on his face. "I have an idea."
The double doors burst open, and the six Super Mutants took aim with their weapons. A small metal cart carrying green cylinders slowly rolled into the room. The mutants watched until it rolled into the front of the bar. Three of the mutants slowly approached, not sure what to make of it. On top of the cylinders was a piece of wood with the words: "You're Fucked" carved into it.
The 40mm grenade sailed down the hall and hit the cart dead on. The pure oxygen in the cylinders might as well have been gasoline, because the explosion blew the three mutants to pieces. Some of the cylinders that ruptured became projectiles, causing the remaining Super Mutants to run for cover. Marcus, Reilly, Clover and Charon stormed inside, their guns blazing. Reilly and Charon targeted the Master on the catwalk, while Marcus and Clover blasted the remaining two. The surprised mutants didn't have a chance, and the battle was over as quickly as it had begun.
* * *
The roof of the Statesman hotel was unlike any of the roofs in downtown DC. Beautiful Roman style columns lined it's edges. In the center was a large stone staircase which led to an outside lounge, complete with tables, chairs and another bar. It was here that Reilly's Rangers had settle in for what they thought might be their last stand; and the piles of dead Super Mutants were proof of that. Sitting behind their makeshift barricade Butcher, the Ranger's medic and second in command, cleaned his 10mm submachine gun. "I sure hope Reilly made it to Underworld okay." Butcher was the oldest and tallest of the Rangers, and the scares on his face showed he'd seen more then his share of battle. Try as he might he couldn't stop worrying about Reilly. Sure they all were concerned about their leader, but Butcher had other reasons for his worry: he and Reilly were carrying on a secret love affair. When it began Reilly was clear that if got in the way of work she would end it. Up until now they had managed to keep the two separate.
"Don't worry Butcher," their technician Donovan replied, "I'm sure luck will be with her. It always has been." Donovan looked like an average soldier, but he was one of the best techs in the waste. Reilly had compared him to an old world hero called "Macgyver", for his ability to build anything from anything.
"Yeah, but luck wasn't with Theo, was it?" Butcher grimly replied.
Donovan didn't respond. An awkward silence filled the air for a few minutes, until it was shattered by the battle cries of Super Mutants. "Hey guys!" Brick, the Rangers other female and heavy weapons specialist shouted. "Guess who's coming to dinner!"
Butcher cursed under his breath. With Brick's minigun dry and the rest of them low on ammo, he didn't know how much longer they could hold out. He gritted his teeth and took aim with his submachine gun. Donovan was next to him, taking aim with his marksman carbine. The first mutant's head that appeared coming up the steps was blown to pieces. More of the giants appeared and charged head on into the Ranger's fire. Two more died at the top of the steps, but more were coming and getting closer.
"Damn it!" Butcher cursed as his submachine gun went dry. He reached down to draw his side arm when the mutants were suddenly engulfed in flames from an incendiary grenade. The Rangers took advantage of this and managed to finish off the screaming creatures. "Well alright!" Brick shouted with her long southern draw. She took a long whiff of the air. "I love the smell of burning Super Mutant in the morning. It smells like...victory!"
Butcher and Donovan ignored her; they usually did when she talked like that. "I thought you were out of those." Butcher said.
Donovan shook his head. "That wasn't me."
They heard more foot steps coming, only these were not the thunderous steps of Super Mutants. Rather, they sounded like human foot steps. "Who goes there?" Butcher shouted.
"The one who pays you, dumbass!" came the reply.
Butcher's heart nearly leaped in his chest. "Reilly!"
The sight of their leader alive and well caused the Rangers to let out a cheer. Butcher ran up to Reilly, and while he resisted to urge to wrap his arms around her, he couldn't hide the smile on his face. "Well, it's about time you showed up."
Reilly smiled back and jabbed his shoulder. "Hey it's not like I was on R and R." she joked.
Butcher managed to pry his eyes off of her and looked over at the team she had brought. "Reinforcements, hu?"
After Reilly made the introductions, Marcus shook Butcher's hand. "Ah, the Lone Wanderer everyone's been talking about. I guess those stories weren't exaggerations."
Marcus began to blush. "Well...some of it is."
Butcher fixed his eyes on Clover. "You must be the one he escaped with from Paradise Falls."
Clover beamed with pride. "Well, it's nice to know I'm finally being noticed."
Charon stood silent and rolled his eyes. Marcus reached into his back pack. "Here, we have some ammo for all of you." He handed Donovan three magazines of 5.56mm for his rifle, and a rocket for his RPG.
"Oh yeah, that's what I needed!"
Marcus then handed Brick a case of four-hundred rounds of minigun ammo. Brick literly jumped for joy and snatched the case out of his hand. "YESSS!" She began to caress the ammo case. "My precious! My precious!" She hurried over to her minigun. "Oh Eugene! I have something for you!"
Marcus and the others stared at the woman as if she had two heads. "Is she - alright?"
Donovan locked and loaded his carbine. "That fool is batshit crazy, that's what."
Reilly turned to Marcus. "But she's the best there is in a fire fight. She could also operate just about any vehicle you can find in the waste."
"So who's Eugene?" Marcus asked.
As if on cue, Brick spun up her 5mm minigun, startling everyone. "Yeeehaw!" she shouted when her test was finished.
"That's Eugene." Butcher said.
"She loves that gun more then anything in the world." Reilly said. "If she could I think she'd have sex with it."
Brick picked up the massive gun and walked up to the group. "What makes you think I haven't already?"
"Oh God!" Donovan sighed. The rest of the Rangers and Marcus shook their heads. Clover let out a giggle. Charon leaned over to Marcus. "She remind you of anyone?"
At first Marcus didn't understand what he was getting at, but then he looked over at Clover and laughed. "Oh yeah." Marcus regarded Charon with curiosity. "Charon, did you just tell a joke?"
Marcus didn't think it was possible for Charon to look any more serious, but that's exactly what happened. "Relax, I'm not mad. In fact, I think you should do it more often."
Charon watched Marcus walk away. He couldn't remember the last time he'd told a joke, much less when someone actually laughed at one. Marcus approached Reilly. "So do you have a plan off this roof?"
"Well we can't go back the way we came since we kicked the hornets nest. Donovan, what's the statics of the express elevator?"
"Without a fission battery this elevator ain't going nowhere."
It was as if a light bulb went on inside Marcus' head, and he quickly began sifting through his bag. He remembered scavenging a dead Robco robot for energy cells and a fission battery. He pulled it out of his pack and presented it to Donovan. "Will this do?"
Donovan's jaw dr
opped. "Hell yeah it will do! Everyone hold on, I"ll have this working in a minute."
While Donovan made final repairs to the elevator, Marcus turned to the other Rangers. "If we take this elevator down to the main lobby, it's a safe bet the Super Mutants will be waiting for us."
Brick stepped forward. "Don't you worry kid, Eugene and I will clear a path."
Reilly agreed. "As soon as Brick let's loose with Eugene, you and your friends run out the left side of the elevator. We'll head out the right. Shoot anything that moves."
The rest of the group agreed. "Okay it's ready." Donovan said. "Time to get off this roof."
* * *
One by one they all entered the elevator and proceeded down. The elevator stopped at the platform just above the main lobby. The Super Mutant Brute standing in front of it turned just in time to be cut in half by Eugene. As planned, Marcus, Charon and Clover ran out the left side of the elevator. immediately Marcus spotted a Super Mutant armed with a rifle on the other side of the platform. Activating his VATS, he targeted the creature's head and fired the tri-bean rifle, blasting it to pieces. Reilly and the rest of the Rangers ran out the right side, and took out two more mutants and the platform. Brick stepped out of the elevator and targeted two mutants in the lobby below. "Say hello to my little friend!" She pulled the trigger and peppered the creatures with lead.
Just as the last mutant fell, the doors to the lobby burst opened. Four Super Mutants, two of them Masters armed with miniguns, ran inside. Brick greeted them with a blast from Eugene, killing one of the Masters. But four hundred rounds doesn't last long in a minigun, and Brick cursed as she ran out of ammo. The remaining mutants opened fire. Charon was hit in his left shoulder, and Marcus pushed both he and Clover against the wall. On the other side, Donovan was hit in his left leg and went down. Butcher was quickly at his side and dragged Donovan away from the edge. Reilly hit the deck, and managed to pull Donovan's RPG off his back. She pulled the grenades pin and stood up. "Eat this!" She yelled as she fired rocket, which landed in the center of the three mutants. The Master was killed outright, and the other two were severely wounded.