บท 226: Nanja...

"I'm Anja... Just Anja." she replies sheepishly. Afton could tell there was a story behind it but decides to let it go for now.

"Thanks for your help back there, Cook-Cook was a fucking menace with that flamethrower of his." Karl says.

Afton interjects before Anja can reply, "What are you plans after this?" he asks.

Anja tilts her head to the sid , "I'm not sure, even before I was locked up by Cook-Cook I didn't really have anything going on..." she says, not letting them know that she'd literally just escaped some exiled followers of the apocalypse before being captured by Cook-Cook...

"Then, won't you come with us? If anything you deserve a cut of Cook-Cook's bounty. Plus I think you'd be a good fit for our team." Afton prods, jumping on any opportunity that presented itself.

Karl raises a brow at his sudden insistence on Anja joining them but just shrugs it off... Afton hadn't been wrong about Boone so he probably knew what he was doing... Right?

"I don't know... I'm not much of a fighter..." Anja says, honestly not knowing if she wanted to join them or not. They did save her, but becoming a bounty hunter? She'd lived this long up until no avoiding jobs like that.

Afton can see her hesitation and nods, "Well, you can think it over. You'll get your cut of Cook-Cook's bounty and we can part ways if you want afterwards. Until then, would you mind helping me with collecting the ears of these guys?" He knew that ghouls found it hard to make enough caps to live properly, so once she saw the 5000 cap bounty on Cook-Cook it'd probably be enough to get her to join them.

Anja seemed confused at why he'd need to cut their ears off but shook her head and agreed anyway. "Okay."

Karl lent her his knife as he made sure there weren't anymore Fiends sneaking around. While this was happening Afton decided to check Anja's status with his [Living Anatomy] Perk.

[Anja]

Health : 65%

Stamina : 50%

DT : 0

Strength : 4

Perception : 9

Endurance : 6

Charisma : 2

Intelligence : 5

Agility : 8

Luck : 6

Ailments :

[Ghoul] : Halves charisma, causes necrosis to occur across entire body, cancer cells infesting body in a controlled manner, raises endurance by 2, grants biological immortality, grants immunity to radiation and the ability to absorb it, grants immunity to most diseases, viruses, parasites, etc.

[Ghoulification] : Depending on the will of the person afflicted they will slowly become more feral as time continues, eventually rendering them a mindless creature that only acts on instinct. Ghoulification at 2%

Afton raises a brow at this, to be honest, he didn't know all that much about Ghouls before this, but now he had an almost encyclopedic list of ailments, abilities, and boons. Were it not for the rotting flesh, charisma loss, and eventually ghoulification, he'd want to become a ghoul himself.

Obviously that wasn't really possible anymore though due to his [Rad Absorbtion] Perk. Shaking his head, Afton got back to cutting the ears off of the dead Fiends.

The group followed the bodies back to where Boone currently was, the sniper was standing over the corpse of Cook-Cook whose body was so mangled it didn't seem humanoid... The collar apparently wasn't the only thing that exploded, the gas-tank fueling his flamethrower had almost gone off, almost liquefying the man's internal organs under his metal armour.

Afton considered themselves lucky that Cook-Cook wore so much armour, otherwise they'd not have anything to bring back to Major Dhatri... Atleast the welding mask preserved the integrity of the man's head.

Anja spat on his corpse as she stood over it, no one questioned her on it either since it was rather obvious what a female would have against the man, especially with what they already knew about him... If teenage boys and young children were in his strike zone then it wouldn't take much fora ghoul to tick the box.

Afton removed the mask and looks down at the dirty, lifeless face of the man, Cook-Cook looked like a 'quintessential' criminal. Someone you'd avoid if you saw walking to the super-market. He shakes his head and begins the morbid work of cutting the head off, this time doing so more quickly than he had with Violet due to the practice he'd had.

Afterwards he drops the bloody thing in bag and lets it hang next to the moist bag full of ears... Yeah, it's just as disgusting as it sounds.

Boone looks confused at the new addition to the team but doesn't say anything for now. Before they head back Afton takes the chance to loot Cook-Cook's base, stealing the many, many chems that had stashed there. He also looked around for any more slaves but didn't find any... He asked Anja if she knew if there was anyone else but she just sadly replied in the negative.

The only real thing of note that Afton had found was a pile of scrap-paper detailing various recipes Cook-Cook had personally created... Or, to be more accurate recreated. Most of the stews, and other food were just pre-war dishes that used brahmin meat and other mutated plants as opposed to the usual ones.

Regardless, he might try cooking some of them when he got the chance. He must've been called Cook-Cook for a reason right? Aside from his tendency to burn people alive... But even then why not call him 'Fire-Fire' or 'Burn-Master' or something.

The group made light conversation with one another as they made their way back through the sewers. They had looted some 'relatively' clean clothes from some Fiends to give to Anja. The outfit she'd been forced to wear as a slave definitely wasn't suitable to be walking around Camp McCarren... Or anywhere else for that matter.