All was right in the Wasteland. For three years, Zora and her gang controlled the Combat Zone and the caps the fighting brought in. They upgraded their weapons and armor, and even began to building up an inventory of booze and chems. All was perfect.
Until it wasn't.
Zora laid across Walt's lap while another raider, Bear, sat near her feet on the plush red couch. She counted bags of caps and sipped on a Gwinnett Stout, yet her fingers couldn't stop twitching, discontent. It wasn't enough.
The other raiders were fine controlling the Zone and the surrounding Fens, but Walt and her closest comrades noticed the look in Zora's eyes whenever she counted the caps and ammo inventory. It was the same look in her ghoul-black eyes that she had when she looked to the glow of the lights of Diamond City, knowing there was always more that they could have. More she could control.
She tied up the bag and closed her eyes, letting her head rest against the arm of the couch.
The doors of the combat zone opened, the guard letting in a small group of raiders in to trade. They purchased a few drinks from the bar then sat on the couch closest to Zora and Walt, murmuring together.
"-I've told you, this place is legit. It's like a raider oasis there. I heard about it from one of my friends who joined one of the gangs a while ago."
Zora opened one eye and looked over, her interest piqued.
"All you have to do is walk in and join. I heard they're always lookin' for traders or new raiders to join. I'm saying we should go. It's deal of a lifetime, I tell ya."
She sat up and turned to them.
"What is this place called?" She asked them, staring at them intently.
"What's it to you? It ain't none of your business bi-"
Bear shot up from his seat, his fist clenched and ready to pound the raider who disrespected their leader, but Zora held her hand up, stopping him.
"Wait, let him finish," she sat up and turned towards the small group, "go on, right where you left off."
He looked at her like she was missing a part of her brain and laughed.
"I was just sayin' it ain't none of your business bitch," He and his friends chuckled and drank their beer.
"Well, I'm the main business bitch here, and your 'raider oasis' sounds rather fascinating," she stood and approached him slowly, oozing charm.
"I think I want to take a trip there with some of my gang."
"Shit," he leaned back in his seat, sweat gleaming off of his balding head, as his friends snickered, waiting to see what happened to him next.
She leaned forward and rested her hand on his shoulder, her fingers digging into him. She pulled out her pistol and let his eyes roam over every groove on the barrel.
"You're going to take me to it."
She turned to Bear and Walt.
"Start packing my stuff and supplies. We're going on a vacation."
For the next three hours, Zora and her most trusted members of her circle packed cans of food and ammo, preparing for the trip. Zora's curiosity and boredom over the stagnant business of the Combat Zone had gotten the best of her, and now she couldn't stop thinking of what a "raider oasis" meant for her. She loaded her combat rifle and secured it to her side. She swung her packed bag over her shoulder and approached the bar where her company waited.
Bear straightened up, "We're ready, boss."
He held a large bag of food and other supplies they would need on the journey. Their foulmouthed guide, Rex, stood next to him, his hands tied together with a rough cord, like a pack brahmin.
Bear chuckled at her gaze and hit their guide's back.
"Tied him myself."
"Don't worry Rex," she grinned, "you'll return to the Zone if you want to, once we reach our destination-" she turned to her companions, "-everyone ready?"
The others nodded or cried out, ready to taste blood in the Commonwealth again.
Walt approached the bar, setting his small bag onto the counter. He always preferred to travel light.
Zora pulled him aside, out of earshot of the others, and kissed him, both of their hands roaming in sinful ways.
She pushed him away, holding him back.
"Walt," she smiled and stared into his bloodshot hungry eyes, "I can't have you come with us."
He scowled and his grip hardened over her arms.
"Why not? You don't trust me? You're gonna leave me for Bear?"
She rolled her eyes and hit him playfully.
"No dummy, You-"
"I have been with you since the beginning Zora. And you just want to drop me like that?"
"Stop interrupting me, God you were always so dense. You're the only one I trust to handle the Zone when I'm gone. I can't leave it to my Uncle when I'm gone, can I?"
She turned him around to look at the zone, their eyes roaming over the seating areas and the bars, the shacks built up to the second level, and finally the hot lights shining onto the bloodstained stage, the crown-jewel of the Combat Zone.
"I'm no businessman boss," he glanced at her warily.
"I know. That's why Uncle Tommy can help you count the bets and supplies. But don't let him take advantage of you. He's smarter than you honey," she patted his cheek.
"Alright Zora," he leaned in and kissed her again, complimenting himself on how he now had a woman and power.
She let go and walked back to the group and they all started out towards the door.
She looked back once more at the Combat Zone, feeling the same sense of excitement from when she had left it the first time, before she had tasted the power and thrill of raiding.
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They traveled in silence as they left the Combat Zone, each raider on high alert as they turned down the streets of the Fens, following Rex's directions to head west.
The Fens were quiet as the early night approached, besides the occasional distant gunshot or two. A heavy fog rolled throughout the streets and the back alley ways that they travelled.
"Hopefully this fog will stay, it's good cover," Whiplash said as her eyes darted back and forth between the dark empty windows and silhouettes of debris on the street.
"I suggest you all take a bit of rad-x," Zora turned to her gang, feeling the familiar tinge of radiation slightly warming the exposed ghoulish scars on her skin.
They continued to walk silently down the streets, until they turned sharply north. They didn't want to run into any Diamond City security that lined the streets if they continued west. They reached the waterfront and walked along buildings next to the river. Her eyes scanned the muddy splotches of ground near the water, carefully keeping watched for any mudcrab that could emerge. A mound or two moved slightly, but the mirelurks slept soundly underneath the cool moist dirt the fog had granted them.
They kept walking on the outskirts of the city, darkness enveloping their company. Nothing moved in the streets they passed and they finally reached a point in which the main city had fallen away and now residential houses or apartment ruins provided cover.
She noticed the drooping eyes of her gang and scanned the ruins until she found a boarded up house that they could camp in. She signalled to her gang and they all walked over.
"Bear, you do the honors?" She smiled at him and he pulled a rusted crowbar from his bag.
He pried open the boards that covered the door and was about to walk in but she held out her hand, holding him back.
"Ready your melee weapons. I don't want to waste any ammo on the rodents or insects we might find in here, and I don't want to wake up anything else that might be worse."
They knew she referred to ferals, but they all obeyed and pulled out their knifes or pipe bars.
She entered the one-story house, the air rancid and stiff. A skeleton laid on the couch. They all slowly entered, each going there separate way to clear the home. Luckily, nothing stirred in the skeleton of a home and they all set their bags down and Bear sat onto the couch.
"Who wants to take the first shift?"
Whiplash volunteered and set up her watch by moving a dresser in front of the open door way, since the door had rotted to nothing over the years.
Zora moved to one of the bedrooms and pushed the dirty mattress off of the splintered and uneven bed-frame. The silence of the musty room lulled her to sleep, her knife by her side.
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She woke up with a shock, the darkness of the night surrounding the room.
Two hands tightly wrapped around her throat, closing off air form her lungs. Her body convulsed as she tried to struggle away. Her eyes watered and her chest burned as she tried clawing away the hands and arms of her attacker, but they were unrelenting.
Remembering her knife, she reached over for it, flailing in the dark to find the blade.
The cold metal pierced her thumb and just before she was about to succumb to the burning in her chest, she whipped the knife into the arms in front of her.
They cried out and jumped off of her, holding their arm in pain as blood started flowing down the gash.
Zora shot up as quickly as her dizzied state would allow her, and she ran out of the room, and the man followed her, stumbling against the walls.
Yelling rang throughout the house as her gang woke up to the cries and commotion. As soon as she could see from the dim light of the oil lanterns, she swiveled around to face her attacker.
Rex panted, gripping his arm.
"You bitch!" He lunged again but Bear tackled him to the ground, pounding his heavy fists into the small man's skull.
"Bear, don't kill him!" Zora ran to his side and stopped his fist in the air, stopping it from falling once more onto the near-unconscious man below him.
"Why not Zora?" Whiplash croaked, her pipe pistol in her hand as she snarled down at Rex.
"Don't question me," Zora glared at the woman.
Rex started laughing on the floor before propping himself up.
"You... all need... me."
Zora rubbed her sore neck, her muscles sore from his attempt to kill her.
"Sadly at the moment, we do need this rat alive. He knows how to get to the so called 'oasis."
Bear slowly stood from over Rex, still scowling and imagining beating the small man to a bloody pulp, but the boss had given her orders.
He grabbed Rex by the collar of his shirt before throwing him across the room to wear he would tie him up, only this time with stronger knots.
"Bear, it's your turn to keep watch. Don't kill him ok? You did such a good job tonight," Zora cupped his face and ran her thumb down his jawline.
Sucking the blood off of her thumb, she turned around and returned to her temporary bedroom, staring out into the darkness, her mind once again returning to the anticipation over her new raider endeavors.
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