[IC] Fallout: The Northern Wastelands [Jakeozzy & Grey]

[Jakeozzy]

And so it continues!



"Well, it sure wasn't easy. But here we are in what's left of Richmond. ...And it's absolutely packed with mean-looking people in armour." Sarah thought out loud, sticking close to Levi as their Englishman guide went off to do his own things. So maybe he wasn't THAT bad - he was working out a discount for the two young Vault Dwellers, as well as getting them some beds or something for the night. They certainly needed all the help they could get, especially after seeing how quickly things could go to hell out here, which got 100x worse at night. There wasn't a whole lot of daylight left so sticking around sounded alright to Sarah. No, it didn't sound particularly nice to camp out here with the Merc spam, but it would just have to do.

It was kinda unnerving when those armored fellows started looking at Levi and his modified Vault jumpsuit. David was hunting a Vault Dweller, damn it. How many of the Mercs were thinking the obvious right now? If Dave didn't get it straight with them that "this ain't the guy", things might go wrong. Dave said he was looking for a Vault Engineer, and that's exactly what Sarah was. Hunter told him that they weren't anything to do with any bounties, but now that the Brit was on his home turf, he didn't have to give a fuck about these two being under Ranger protection... Was he really like that, though? Levi seemed to get on with him, and he seemed like a nice guy in general, but still - he might value caps more than his two new pals. ...Damn this is tense. Just stay calm, what's the worst that could happen? Stop assuming the worst and just chill!

"Oi, guys! When you feel like it, make yourselves at home in that little corrugated iron shack there," David called over, pointing at what he meant. "Don't worry, it's much cozier on the inside!" He added with a calm grin, before continuing his chat with the merchants.

[Grey]

"Hey, don't you remember what I said? All you gotta do around these types is keep your chin up and get the most hardass look you can make," Levi said, demonstrating by puffing out his chest, holding his head high, sauntering up to the nearest tough guy, and walking directly in his path, glaring at the guy in the process. The 17 year old Vault Dweller's body was subsequently roughly pushed aside and onto his ass by the burly mercenary in question who paid no heed to the Levi.

"Goddammit," he muttered once the merc got out of earshot as he pushed himself off of the ground, "guess I didn't pass THAT bluff check." The Vault Dweller was busy brushing the dirt off his armored suit when David called out to them about their supposedly cozy metal shack where they'd be staying until they were supposed to set off to complete their scouting mission up in Toronto, Canada. Apparently there was some robotic threat looming on the horizon, but even in this base he had yet to hear of anybody speak of any sort of robot uprising. Hopefully it would just be some over-hyped hoax. If they were barely able to survive against mutant fucking bats or just barely survive getting the shit scared out of themselves by weird, irradiated monkey-looking things, Levi surely doubted their ability to stand up to a rumored army of robots without any substantial help... Or enough heavy artillery. Or both. Both would be better, definitely.

"Kay Dave, thanks for that," Levi called back before grabbing his bag and sifting through all the junk he wanted to sell off later to these merchants. After setting aside the stuff he wanted to ditch, the young man repacked his bag and hoisted it back over his shoulder. "Well, time to check out what that whole shack's all about," he said to his travelling companion before heading to it.

[Jakeozzy]

Sarah nearly broke into giggling like a schoolgirl when Levi got knocked on his ass by one of the towering Mercs. The guy didn't even look at Levi after that little shove! After Sarah calmed down and Levi was back on his feet, the redheaded techie followed him about twenty meters to the small metal hut.

"A corrugated iron shack," She said boredly before pushing the sliding door into the wall. Well, that meant it definitely had two layers. Outside it was just the corrugated iron, and on the inside it looked like the thick wooden walls were built before the iron got thrown on top. There was a tightly fitted bed taking up a quarter of the hut, a comfy looking leather chair in one corner, and a table in another corner with a radio on it. Well, freezing to death was no longer a concern - huddling up to Levi to not freeze was kinda awkward, even if it did work out well. "And as it goes, I underestimated these people. Maybe they go scavenging for neat old world stuff like this half the time, and murder people for money the other half." Sarah wondered as she entered and fell back onto the leather chair, smiling as she sank further into it. "Ah, that's great on the back..."

[Grey]

"Or, y'know, they could just kill real scavengers for their old world junk," Levi remarked casually as jumped back onto the bed. The mattress felt like heaven on his back, which was logical, given that lying on the cold hard ground definitely got his back stiff as hell. The differences between the two sleeping surfaces was massive. And Levi loved it. The room was warm and insulated, there was a semblance of civilization nearby, AND it was close to their scouting mission objective. Truly this was a convenient place to be. The vendor discount from David helped too. Speaking of which....

"I'm gonna see 'bout sellin' off some of the shit I picked up," Levi declared before exiting the corrugated iron shack.

[Jakeozzy]

"You have fun with that, Levi... I'm not moving." Sarah chuckled before shutting her eyes, kicking back and relaxing in her happy place. Despite thinking about it earlier, she couldn't bring herself to care where this neat furniture came from.

The merchant stools outside weren't occupied all that much. There was David, but he was probably waiting around for the reason of talking to Levi. Any Mercs around the stools were stocking up on ammunition, of which.. there seemed to be varying types, according to the way the Mercs spoke. 'Hollow Point', 'Armor Piercing', 'Incendiary'.

[Grey]

The selection of snazzy objects for sale was rather enticing, but Levi knew that first things came first. He'd have to sell his extra shit to get caps interesting junk he saw, like those 'incendiary ammo' and 'explosive ammo', among other things that sounded pretty freakin' awesome yet were currently out of his bartering budget. Hopefully with his vendor trash he'd be able to gather enough caps to pay for at least one thing.

And so Levi waited in the line of mercs buying merc objects for their merc business, and then there was David waiting around, probably looking for him or Sarah. The male Vault Dweller waved over his ex-guide to his spot in the line-up.

[Jakeozzy]

"Ey', Levi!" David greeted his Vault Dweller comrade, whom a lot of the mercs were still watching like he was a walking stack of caps. "I sorted that out for you, 10% off anything you want at any of the stools ain't bad, is it?" The less-intimidating mercenary chattered happily along, now standing with his pal in the line. "I figure you need all the help you can get after all... I was actually thinkin', too. If you need an extra hand out there I might come with you. No charge of course mate!"

[Grey]

"Heh, thanks man. Really needed that," Levi nodded at David's statement about getting him a discount to buy tools for the road. The next statement started off rather expectedly, and then he dropped the bomb on him. "Awesome!" Levi cheered, grinning like a madman, "we could use still use another gun on the road, what with all the random ass creatures waltzing 'round." Eventually Levi got his turn in line, sold all his shit, and then got caps and a grenade launcher with ammo for profit. All in all, it was a good deal.

"So, I figure we'll stay the night and head out tomorrow?"

[Jakeozzy]

"Mhm. We'll get up early, make our way to Toronto. To be honest I wanna see what all this roboticky bullshit is about with my own eyes." David replied, trading in a bunch of dirty ammunition in exchange for those sharp-tipped rounds, Armor Piercing type. Then he looked at Levi almost defensively, "I'm just makin' sure that if it ain't BS, I have what I need to put bigger holes in bots. That 'nade launcher should do wonders too..."

Dave turned to leave, but span on his heel and pushed back into the front of the line, apparently not giving a fuck about the angry-looking mercs. "Ah. One more thing mate, you got any .308 APs?"

The store owner nodded and brought up an ammo crate from under the table, opening it to reveal the bullets Sarah used. But these ones were shiny-tipped, sharp like the ones Dave bought earlier, only his own were smaller. "I'll take.. hm.. Twenty." David said, passing over a bunch of caps with one hand and taking the satchel of bullets with his other. After the transaction, he turned away and walked with Levi back toward the little shack the two vault dwellers would crash in for the night.

"I think Red deserves these for putting up with me all this time." Dave chuckled. "Beats me why she don't like me being around though..."

[Grey]

Levi was still quite engrossed with the thing of beauty in front of him. A decent four shots, pump action, and it looked fucking awesome. AND it was pump action. There was definitely nothing like pumping a weapon threateningly like in those holos back in the Vault. Sure the Grenade APW thing had 6 shots and fired semi-auto, but there was no way it could match the sheer style the China Lake had over it. Plus, he had fun pumping the pump-action. He was in a trance, like a child playing with a favorite toy.

"Hm?" Levi asked, having been broken out of his pump-action trance by David's wonder as to why Sarah seemed to dislike him, "Oh! Oh right. She did seem a little peeved." The Vaultee put his hand to his chin in thought, "...Hmm... I wouldn't think anything of it. She's probably paranoid everyone in these Wastes are out to kill 'er, what with out midnight encounter with raiders on day one and all. Just give 'er a while, she's sure to warm up to ya eventually!" He patted the older, more experienced wastelander reassuringly on the shoulder.

[Jakeozzy]

"Eh, suppose so. I've had people shooting at me my whole life, so I wouldn't know." Dave shrugged innocently, pushing the door to the shack open to find.. no one! He was going to give Sarah the .308s as a peace offering of sorts, but.. apparently not. "...Y'know, I thought Red was the nervous type who never left your side for too long, yet..." The English merc said, slowly piecing together what was going on. The desk was knocked over, and Sarah's M1911 lying on the floor. That only spelled 'oh shit' - it was pretty obvious she didn't just go for a stroll around the camp. "That's not good..."

Two armoured men could be heard marching toward Levi & David from behind, causing the latter to turn and tilt his head with a confused look. "What gives? Boss?"

The hairy-looking, muscly figure Dave called his boss threw a single heavy punch at Levi, aiming to knock him out whether he was facing his direction or not. 

[Grey]

"Huh, wonder where she went," Levi mused as he wandered around the room, looking for clues. The only thing out of the ordinary was the turned over desk, but he could probably ascribe that to faulty building or maybe Sarah just bumping into it on her way out the door to go explore around the compound. After all, what other reason was there really for her to leave the room? David said the mercs weren't gonna mess with them, after all. "Probably just went out for a stroll, no need to have me foll-"

Then he saw the dropped gun, and he had a minor metaphorical heart attack. Sarah leaving and accidentally knocking over the table, he could buy. But there was no chance in hell she'd leave without her sidearm. It was then Levi heard the sound of boots. David's words were exactly Levi's thoughts on the matter. The Vault Dweller spun around to see a muscly looking bloke. It was cool, it was cool... David said the mercs weren't gonna mess with them.

Suddenly, a massive pain in his eye. The hard strike made contact after all, and while it didn't completely knock Levi unconscious, it would definitely leave a shiny black eye for his trouble. It was okay though, he could salvage this situation. He picked up Sarah's 1911 off the ground and attempted to fire a few shots off, only to get a single shot-off-and-miss and a good kick to the solar plexus. He still wasn't unconscious, but he was definitely out of the count, if his ragged breath and the pain he obviously felt meant anything.

'DAMMIT DAVID, YOU SAID THE MERCS WEREN'T GONNA MESS WITH US!'

[Jakeozzy]

"The fuck are you doing?!" David argued, "I told you! They ain't a week outta the fucking vault yet! They CAN'T be the bloke we're looking for!"

"Get outta my face if you're gonna go against me! They know something, they're from 122 as well, don't you tell me these two being out here is just a coincidence! You need to pry information out of people's minds to get results." The 'Boss' responded angrily, his henchman kicking the gun out of Levi's hand so he could throw the vault dweller over his shoulder. "Put him with the girl - and for cryin' out fuck - do not mess this up, lose them, or kill them. The Major won't tolerate failure." Boss-man told his subordinate. And with that, Levi was hauled off to some kind of interrogation/prison building.

"And you David, I need to talk to you. Forget about those two for a minute..."

---

As Levi was dragged into the dark, dungeon-y interrogation room, there was a familiar but much weaker female voice chanting along stubbornly to a song she loved. There was a bit of spitting and coughing between the lyrics, but it was all pretty much understandable. As Levi got tied to the chair behind Sarah's, she started again with another, the henchman and interrogator both shaking their heads with pissed-off expressions.

"Life could be a dream~,
if I could take you up in paradise up above...
If you would tell me,
I'm the only one that you love...

Life could be a dream, sweethear- ARGH!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH! GOD DAMN IT!" The interrogator growled.

Being silenced by an echoing slap, Sarah moaned like a bored kid in their least favourite class, or that very same kid protesting about being disciplined, "I already told you, my name is Sarah Turner, yes, I AM a Vault Technician-slash-Engineer, yes! What do you morons want from me?!" She snapped. For the girl that nervously followed behind Levi all the time, letting him do all the talking.. it was pretty different! The next thing the interrogator did was punch her in the nose for answering back, making a horrible cracking sound while her head recoiled into Levi's.

"...What, you done running your mouth now?" The man asked, Sarah could be heard coughing, her voice shaking while she said nothing, and something like a slow dripping tap began to pierce through the silent room. "...Good. Now I'll see to your pal here - if you start running your mouth like that again, I'm going to hook your eye out with my fucking knife. Understood? ...Okay, now we're getting places." He said in a lighter tone, but you could so easily tell he was ready to 'correct' Levi too. He marched slowly around Sarah, and grinned at her male companion in the same fashion a cat would upon finding an unsuspecting bird.

"You. Your name, and your occupation in Vault 122. Answer my questions in a calm, collected manner, or I'll be giving you the same treatment as I did Ms. Turner."

[Grey]

Levi, having been writhing on the floor, had Sarah's pistol kicked from his hand, and his body roughly thrown over the shoulder of some mercenary asshole. He heard bits and pieces of the conversation through the lack of sound due to his fading consciousness, just barely enough to figure that they were just gonna torture him for information he didn't know and not end up putting a bullet in his skull. Or maybe they would after they got whatever information he and Sarah obviously didn't know.

Soon enough, they got to a dark place. "So... is this your rape dunge- OOF!" He got a good slam against the wall for that comment, but damn, was it well worth it. Not even a minute after that, he was trussed up and put in a chair... right behind Sarah, who was singing showtunes before quickly being shut up with a punch to the head. A punch, which caused Sarah to inadvertently headbutt Levi. Ouch. Painful, but it was still bearable.

A threat or two later to Sarah, and the merc came over to ask Levi some fun little questions. Fuck that guy. Time to have some fun.

"Ah, I'm Commander Pissoff, Official Vault Lollygagger, you son of a bitch."

[Jakeozzy]

"I'm trying to be nice here," The interrogator said, nodding to his subordinate and pulling out a cigar, lighting it with his gaze fixed on Levi's eyes. His torture assistant punched the 'Vault Lollygagger' in the side of the head to make it even more clear that they were serious. Obviously, Levi just wasn't all that serious - in fact he was playing with them, and it pissed both of the interrogators off! "Name. Occupation. And tell me everything you know about Samuel Weaver, Vault 122's Chief Engineer. Where is he?"

At this point, Sarah didn't know if they wanted to find 'Chief' to kill him, capture him, or escort him or what! Dave seemed like he needed the guy alive, so.. was this just a really violent way of trying to get information on the guy? The only reason Sarah hadn't said a word yet was because she didn't know what they wanted with him, and they wouldn't say anything. Weaver was her mentor, she didn't want to hand him over to some jerk Mercenaries for bad treatment. Hell, why the hell would Levi or Sarah know where he was? He disappeared about a day before the Vault turned into a microwave!

[Grey]

The thug thunked Levi over the side of the head, as if to prove that they were 'super serious guys'. Didn't these people know something about asking politely? They didn't even say please. Maybe if they had, he would've told them. Or not. Either way, they didn't say please. Levi shook his head exaggeratedly, as if expressing his distaste to the group. "Tisk, tisk, tisk," he began, a tisk for every revolution of his head and a rather equally exaggerated 'high class' voice, "It's exactly these kinds of actions by knuckle-draggers that I find so very tasteless. No sense of dramatics or pride. They can't even entertain their guests! They might even be as tactless as to threaten to execute us! For shame. I believe these barbarians would even do so anyway, attempting to execute us should we give them our valuable, much needed information about Monsieur Samuel Weaver."

Oh, he would pay for that, but Levi felt so, so good about himself at the moment. Truly there was nothing better than irritating these folk. Though he probably shouldn't go too far. Probably. It was pretty funny.

[Jakeozzy]

Sarah could be heard trying to not burst into laughter throughout Levi's posh guy speech. It was just perfect, even if there was a chance he would suffer for it. By the end, she couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing like an idiot while the two mercs seemed quite pissed off at both Levi and his friend. "Oh my god! I wish I could high five you right now!" Sarah kept laughing, despite the piercing look she was getting.

The leader here calmly pushed his cigar into Levi's cheek, while the other went around to Sarah's side and smacked her across the face. That triggered something. With Levi being defiant, Sarah felt so much more confident. "Agh! Oooh, you just wait until I get free! I'll slap the bitch outta you!"

"Shut it, I wasn't bluffing when I said I'd hook your eye out - so cool off and just answer the questions! Spill everything you know about Weaver..." The main interrogator asked, again, not so kindly. He drew his knife from a belt sheath and looked at Levi first, then he went around to the redheaded vault dweller. "No more screwing around. Tell me what I need to know, or I'm gonna take her eye out." The interrogator said, running the edge of the cold steel blade along Sarah's cheek, slowly inching towards her left eye.

"W.. Wait.. We have no idea.. I wasn't even aware Chief left the Vault until today! Don't..." Sarah whispered but loud enough to hear, her voice shaking too much to not be pure fear, "Levi, t-tell him!"

[Grey]

"Gah!" Levi seethed as the searing hot cigar end was jabbed into his cheek. It definitely hurt and would totally leave a mark, right beside the black eye from earlier. As Levi sort of squirmed in his seat, aching to scratch or rub at the irritation on his face, the merc guy continued on with his minion speak, still doing his best to interrogate him. What a joOH SHIT HE HAS A KNIFE. Levi gulped, he could take a few slashes or stabs at the cost of making these guys seem like idiots, right?

But then the man walked past him, right over to Sarah.

'Shit.' Levi thought as the man made his threat, most likely with some actions like making a little cut or just running it along her cheek. He could deal with the pain himself, probably, but could he just be careless at the expense of his companion? ...Well, the answer was 'No', but it didn't matter anyway. Sarah decided to spill the beans, which was both natural, and probably the smartest course of action. Oh well, had had one card left to play...

"Okay! Okay! I give! Just- Just wait!" Levi began, mentally weighing the risks of what he was going to do, "..."

"..."
"..."

The silence was deafening.

"..."
"..."
"Are you wasting time!?"

"No! No!" Levi belted out, "I-I'm Levi Weaver... I'm in charge of supervising peoples' shifts... and Sam's my dad. Me and Sarah left the Vault to find him after the reactor melted down!" It was all mostly lies, he kept his first name the same, since Sarah already gave it away, and he didn't say his job was 'Loyalty Inspector' since that sounded pretty made up, even he had to admit. But that didn't matter.

Time to hope his little act worked.

[Jakeozzy]

"...He has a kid?" The assistant asked with a bewildered look on his mug. "How's that a thing? Didn't Weaver move INTO 122?"

The interrogator tilted his head, the knife slowly being turned in front of Sarah's eye, as if he were wondering where to start. "You talk too much, Marcus. Now, hold the girl's head in place." He said casually, his torture assistant muttering quietly to himself as he stepped over and held Sarah still. "...Now, what to do? We have a Vault Techie, and 'Weaver's kid'. Maybe we could draw the bastard out. Or maybe he's too much of a coward. I mean, he left the Vault and let all of you melt when faced with threats - somehow you two runts escaped the sabotage - but whatever."

Sarah was struggling now, but she had a few interesting things on mind now! "What? Why is he so important? Why do you need him?"

"Oh, we don't. The military does. The real military, way up North. Should roll past here in a few weeks time actually." Mr Interrogator replied as calmly as he thought about his next twisted move.

"The.. robots?" Sarah mouthed, "What?"

"Long story short, Sam Weaver is a very important man to those cyborg-y army types. An inventor, a brilliant engineer apparently. Don't know much else. But yeah, Levi. Your daddy's a bounty hunter's dream come fucking true. They really really want to find him, alive, safe and whatnot. But all the caps we've been promised to find him make it hard not to pry information out of people like this." The man continued, taking a long sigh. "So! Levi Weaver. Surely dad told you where he was going when he left the Vault... Red hair here doesn't know anything, apparently, so she's a waste of time. Expendable, hm? Tell me where dad is and I won't carve her eye out."

Sarah's breathing was very rapid now, as soon as he said she was 'expendable'. Her life had no value, she believed she was going to suffer... It was all on Levi now. Hell, he could tell them any random fricking place if he was convincing enough!

[Grey]

Levi had to think fast and think properly, or his companion behind him probably would end up without an eye. Which was bad, obviously. Personally, he probably should've thought better on his little 'disappeared dad' gambit, since apparently 'Daddy' Weaver wasn't even raised in the fucking Vault. But this wasn't time for that, no, he had to think of somewhere where they could make a swift escape and reach safety before the mercs could reorient themselves. Up North would be... stupid, obviously. Just more enemies. He had no idea what was to the West, but he'd rather not risk it, and to the East there was, if his history lessons were correct, the Atlantic Ocean.

But South... South would be good. He knew South.

"...New York," Levi answered, "New York City, the tower near Central Park." It was a lie, obviously, but it would be absolutely perfect. He'd just lead these mercs to the Rangers and then fuck their shit [/i]up[/i]! And Sarah would even get to keep her eye! "Why do you think we told that David idiot to bring us up here? To get you guys away from dad."