Last chapter for this story. I'll write more with Hits, don't worry. Please review.
Lyrics are Dead Memories by Slipknot, its theirs blah blah blah
Sitting in the dark, I can't forget.
Even now, I realize the time I'll never get
Another story of the bitter pills of fate
I can't go back again
I can't go back again
But you asked me to love you, and I did.
Traded my emotions for a contract to commit
And when I got away, I only got so far
The other me is dead
I hear his voice inside my head
And we were never alive
And we won't be born again
But I'll never survive
With dead memories in my heart You told me to love you, and I did.
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Tied my soul into a knot and got me to submit
So when I got away, I only kept my scars
The other me is gone
Now I don't know where I belong
And we were never alive
And we won't be born again
But I'll never survive
With dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead visions in your name
Dead fingers in my veins
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
Dead memories in my heart
-Vault-Tec Archived music. (Hits favorite song)
"No, no, no, no, no,"Hits whispered between gritted teeth as he ran. He followed the scent of the super mutant. It had taken Serah, the innocent girl he had saved. Probably was going to do horrible things to her. He knew they didn't eat people, but he also knew that the super mutants captured victims were never seen again. He almost quivered in fear of what he might find. Or not find, in that sense. He followed the scent of the mutant.
It had been a while since she was taken apparently. They could have gotten as far as maybe two miles in the time he had taken to talk to the slavers, kill Elytta, and then talk to his new friends. Two miles...a super mutant stronghold could have been anywhere within a half a mile distance. He roared in outrage and sprinted harder. Now his steps seemed to dig into the earth, and leave imprints of cracked ground behind every step.
He followed the scent of that fucking mutant.
The new night sky was thick, and it cast its veil of black over the land. As Hits rushed by he could only make out rough silhouettes of boulders zipping past him. Then he saw movement.
"Die!" he screamed as he leapt upon the back of an unsuspecting mutant guard and rammed his fist into the back of its head, shattering its skull. The back of its damn head caved in. Blood and brains peppered Hits arms and face as the brutes body pitched forward with him on its back but he hardly noticed. He had arrived. He pulled out a small, roundish gun from his pack, pointed it up to the sky and fired. A blinding beam of light shot out and withered away as the very end of it became a bright beacon, littering the landscape in flashing blue luminescence. Surprised mutants blinked and looked up, wondering what the hell that was.
"You. Sons. Of. BITCHES!" Hits roared, drawing their attention from where they were loitering around their outpost of bent, painted steel and wire fences. "How many of you are there?" he asked, more to himself, and he counted. They began their attack with bullets, and the ones without guns began to run towards him, but even through the chaos he could spot them all.
"Twelve." he said as the light above them winked out, blinding the super mutants to the sudden darkness.
"Where he go?" asked one of the chargers, trying to blink the disorientation from his eyes. "Don't talk, you give away position or somethins," said the one next to it, trying to do the same thing.
Then its arm was pulled to the side, and snapped in half at the elbow.
"AAAAARGHGG!!" it screamed in agony.
"Hey, can you give me a hand?" it heard a sinister voice ask politely.
Right before his dangling forearm was twisted where it was broken, its skin twirled around it like a piece of taffy a kid played with. Then it was ripped clean off.
The mutant couldn't even scream, its shock was so great. It writhed on the ground, soon to die from blood loss.
Its partner backed away from where it heard its buddy scream. It tried to make out something besides the other mutant dying on the ground, but it couldn't see.
"Wha?" it asked when it felt a tap on its shoulder. It was struck in the gut with its buddies torn arm and as it doubled over in pain a 10 mm bullet buried itself into the back of its skull with a small bang.
Hits threw the arm over beside the main mutant force where it landed with a thump. A sound large enough to draw the mutants attention away from where he had fired his pistol.
"Ten." he breathed.
The next mutant felt like a sledgehammer hit the small of its back and drilled in. It tried to scream, but it choked on the sound as it felt the invading force grip its spine.
It died horribly. The other mutants heard a snapping, wet sound from right behind them and turned around in time to see their brother fall.
The closest two took three bullets each to the face. The next one raised its rifle to fire where it had seen the flashes of the two pistols, but its rifle barrel was grabbed and shoved into it nose perfectly, breaking the still-human cartilage and sending the bone shard into its brain. Killing it instantly.
"Eight." they heard from behind them. A grenade was rolled into the middle of their group as they spun around again.
Four of them were ripped apart from the shrapnel. The other four survived because their buddies were in the way, but they were still staggered by the explosion. "Kill him!" the leader cried and pointed to where the grenade came from.
Its throat was ripped out. It clutched the hollow where its adams apple used to be. Its blood ran down its oversized arms as it gargled and attempted to ask for help. It slowly looked over to its brothers, its vision fading. But it could see what was happening. So much blood. Not human, it thought as it blacked out, monster.
Hits finished off the last mutant as it pleaded for mercy. Then he walked up to the outpost. He stepped past the bent and broken steel covered in blood and he looked around. And he almost cried.
There Serah was, all tied up and looking alert.
When she saw him, her eyes lit up and she smiled. "Bout time you showed up. Whatcha been-" she gasped as she saw his appearance.
Hits tried to walk forward confidently. He wanted to tell her everything was over. But he could only stagger and grip the steel he was leaning against.
"Hits? Hits? Are you...okay? Are....ou....kay...?" sound dissolved into a dim whistling and his vision swam. He closed his eyes and slid down the steel beam, sitting on the ground. e opened his eyes one last time to see Serah struggling to get out of her bonds. Then he closed his eyes again and knew no more.
Tec-37. 2252
The crowd gasped in shock and fear. The light revealed a pod in it containing...what looked like the things called "ghouls" from scouting reports. But this one was..worse. Horrible radiation burns covered its whole body, and the cords on the outside of the pod connected to it in painful, evil-looking syringes and probes. It looked like hell. The crowd murmured amongst themselves, glancing to the monster now and then. James was confused. Their reaction was negative? Sure it looked bad, but they should be happy. They could soon go to the surface!
"Ladies and gentleman, the H.I.T.S project was not meant to look pretty," he stammered, but coughed and resumed his previous demeanor. "H.I.T.S stands for Hyper Ionized Tesseract Sentient project. This is a being that can use stored radiation as energy, fueling its movement, quickening its thoughts. It can jump higher, run faster, get stronger, even heal itself and others radiation. Instead of succumbing to the radiation above it can use it as a tool to find the G.E.C.K."
He was about to go more into the science behind the project before a girl in her late teens stood on the central table of the auditorium.
"I've got a question for you Mr. Mcarthy!" she screamed. All eyes turned to her. The younger members of Vault-Tec weren't allowed at this convention.
James grimaced. It was her.
Tears ran down her face as she worked up her words. She breathed in deeply, tried to calm herself. "Where," she cried, "is your son, Mr. Mcarthy?"
James froze. The audience froze. Even the cold-hearted board of directors froze. James son hadn't been seen in a while.
James shook off his initial shock and called security to get her down and escort her out of the premises. As they made their way to her, she screamed louder, "Where is Calvin?!"
She was openly crying now but her face was crossed with rage. The crowd eyed her, James, and the pod. Then they drew a horrible conclusion.
"Oh my GOD!" a woman screamed as she pointed to the pod.
The creature inside had opened its eyes. It watched as the security guards arrived at the table.
It watched as the crowd was riled up, some fighting the guards now. And as the board of directors calmly stood up and filed out of the exit in the back of the room, unnoticed by all but it.
It watched as the young woman was grabbed kicking and screaming, still yelling at James for what he had done.
It watched as James, disappointed at the crowds reaction, turned to the science team behind the curtains and told them to discreetly pack up and change location. They needed to launch the project without interference.
James left the area, out a side door on the stage, followed by a mousy man with round glasses. Then it saw something.
Something it didn't understand, but something that made it pissed. A guard had struck the young woman square across the face, to silence her.
"NO!" it screamed in its mind, and it began to shake, and writhe and tear at its bonds. It wrenched one arm away from the evil syringes, and lances of pain shot up its nerves. It didn't care!
It wrenched its head from the device holding it still and felt its collarbone snap at the strain. It didn't fucking care.
It headbutt the glass in front of it sending a spiderweb of cracks running up and down and left and right. It headbutt again, then it punched and clawed, its movements jerky and spasmic. It screamed for real this time, bubbles of air erupting from its mouth as the breathing contraption was spit out.
The science team took notice of its aggravated activity as they were trying to pack up the pod into a temporary portable charger. They were panicked, it wasn't even supposed to be awake. They didn't know what to do.
The creature inside swung its body to one side of the pod, tilting the machine and then slamming it down, tilting it the opposite way. A single large cord was ripped free, air and water spinning out of it as it flew around like an uncontrolled water hose at full power. The crowd noticed this. And they panicked. They fought to get away from the stage, a mass of people pushing past each other to escape.
The cord swung straight up, and hit the ceiling. A dreadful crack was heard, and for a moment there was deathly silence as the crowd stopped and looked up. Then Hell broke loose.
The ceiling shattered above them, so strong was the force of the cord. Thankfully, only the large section of ceiling in front of the stage broke, but it was enough. A cascading waterfall followed the broken glass, and it began to flood the auditorium. The people closest were swept away in a large wave, and they collided with the ones who were further. The guards at this point were ignoring the unconscious girl on the table, and were trying to get away, but they, too, were swept away in the flood. The wooden table floated.
The water pushed the crowd into the walls and the doors, with the doors giving way and allowing the force of the water to pass. Many people were dragged down the hallways, and slammed against corners as the waves made their way as far as they could go.
The creature didn't care. With one final punch, it shattered the glass and it jumped out of the pod as water tried to drag him down with it. It leaped impossibly far, and landed on the wooden table that floated aimlessly, bouncing against the doorway it could not pass through. The current created by the waterfall had emptied the auditorium of people, sweeping them all through the doors and out through to their living corners. Like a free wet ride home. The scientists had panicked and fled, following James out the door. It was alone, with her. It bent close and sniffed, somehow recognizing the smell. It eyed her beautiful face, searching to recognize, it couldn't understand why. She was alive, and not in danger. It slowly moved her hair out of her face with one burned finger, and longed to stay more and watch her. But it had to go.
So it left. Bounding through the flooded hallways, somehow knowing which way to go even though it didn't remember being there before. It broke through a locked door and sprinted on all fours through the facility before remembering something about using two legs. It sprinted normally.
At the exit to the facility, it found one scientist woman sitting on the floor and crying. the wave had hit here, water was dripping from the ceiling, and areas were covered in darkness because of the screwed up electrical lines.
She heard a noise and looked up. She saw a dark figure standing there, watching her.
"Please..p-please don't hurt me, I swear it wasn't my fault!"
"Shut. Up." came the reply from the dark figure. It was drenched, water dripping noisily on the cold cement ground.
The woman looked up at it, fear evident in her eyes.
"Please, I'll tell you whatever you want just don't hurt me..."
"I'm not making promises," it hissed, it's voice sliding through her mind like a blade through a bloody carcass.
She whimpered, and tried to crawl away backwards from it.
Then it stepped into the small hovering light.
"AAAAAAAAAAAEIIIIII!!!" she screamed and then it reached down and grasped her throat, and firmly clenched it, ending the annoying, grating noise.
Her eyes widened. She couldn't tear her sight away from the abomination in front of her.
It slowly lifted her up, her eyes now level with its own.
Then it softened its grip.
"Tell me where he is or I'll kill you."
She told him.
He dropped her and left.
She crawled into a corner and quivered in fear, crying softly.
It ran through the rain until it got tired.
Then it trudged through the rain, it's cold bare feet stamping its dark imprint in the mud. The rain fell in sheets, ice cold and irradiated. It paid the weather no heed and continued its pace. It's mind, twisted and corrupted it was, began to wander. It wondered about the pain it felt. Yes, the pain. Where had that come from? It had come from the room. It hated the room. How did he get to the room? Then it thought of them. It hissed in anger. And then in pain. So many times. So many times it should have seen what they would do. To..to...him. Him, yes. Him, it, her, he, she, them, wire, wire, pain, light, mother, father, red, blue, green, black, father....father..them...they? The pain dulled for a moment and the memories pierced him like lances. He was...a project. That's what they said. A project. Hyper...introspective...project? It...he...did not know. He stumbled and fell crouched on one leg. His hands planted in the wet earth like a brand dug into skin. He lifted one muddy hand up and examined it. Strange. Minutes ago it was burned, irradiated to an extent his...creators would deem dangerous. Now it seemed...fixed. Normal? Where did that word come from? What was normal? He raised his head, and through his healing eyes he could see the giant cement block. A stronghold. Soon to be a mausoleum. He recognized shapes above the door.
"Vault-Tec," he hissed. Then the memories faded. All but the memories of the pain. All but the memories of them. And then all there was the color red. Red.
Blood.
He stood and walked slowly and painfully towards the new steel door ahead of him.
Present
"Ugh," Hits groaned and opened his eyes. He blinked. Then he opened his eyes again. Then he rolled over, grabbed the concerned-looking Serah around the waist and pulled her down to the cot he was laying in.
She yelped in surprise as she plopped down onto the bed, and then laughed as he pulled her close, threw his arms around her (think spooning) and closed his eyes again, nestling his nose in her hair (now very clean).
"We just met and you want to sleep with me already," she giggled and and relaxed.
"Sleeping does not necessarily mean 'screw like bunnies' Serah," he murmured tiredly. "That comes later," he said with a smile and he hugged her tighter.
She rolled her eyes. "So you mean you just want a pillow, huh?"
"Yes," he said, "a yummy girl pillow who's warm and comfy and has boobies."
She giggled and elbowed him.
"How long have I been out?" he asked her.
"A day, give or take. I managed to get out of those ropes and get some help to bring you back here. You're heavy, you know that?"
"Yeah."
"And you were covered in blood. When we got back Bittercup and Red volunteered to give you a bath."
"Lol," Hits said with a grin, confusing Serah. "Nevermind," he sighed.
"Well, they didn't get to. I did," she finished with a sneaky smile.
Hits looked at her as she turned to face him. "That'll be thirty caps," he said.
She elbowed him again.
"Have fun?" he asked her, watching the blush creep across her cheeks. She just smiled sheepishly and buried her face into the crook of his neck.
Finally, "yes."
Hits almost burst out laughing right there. Instead he hugged her and closed his eyes. "Well," he said before falling asleep, "I'm tired but you can definitely look forward to having more fun later."
Serah pressed herself closer to him and fell asleep as well.
* * *
"Alright, who waited up?" Hits called as he crossed the ridge. Serah followed behind him being sure to not stress her crotch to hard. She was a little sore.
Hits smiled and approved of the sight that met him. All the ex-slavers were lounging around, waiting for his arrival. At his call, they all answered with various "mes!" and "heres".
"Alright, I'm glad to say you all passed the test. I trust all of you that much more now."
Andy raised his hand as Hits and Serah took a seat on a boulder and watched them. "Andy, you don't have to freaking raise you hand." Hits scolded.
Andy lowered his hand. "What would've happened if we 'failed' the test?"
"Well," Hits started, "I probably would have had to hunt anyone who left down and killed them. Just be glad you passed, okay?" he said and smiled evilly at the look of fear that shot across Andys features.
"Now, I've got an idea. For all of you." Hits announced, gesturing the ex-slavers group to come closer.
"Firstly, do any of you guys have any cool ideas for names for a team of mercenaries patrolling the wastes? Not the Regulators, we're going to be a little bit more greedy than them. And nothing with bird innuendos, I hate those Talon guys."
As they all started coming up with names, Hits stopped them.
"Wait, wait, one more thing. What do you guys know about the defenses of Paradise Falls?"
Well, that's my first story. Done. Completo. Finishado. Review, review, review. ALL of you. Please.
And to those who have reviewed, I thank you all for the support. All of your comments made me feel are warm and fuzzy inside, and really helped motivate me to write more.
Hits isn't done. What's next? Paradise Falls. I'll make it even better.
-mythicdawn12