บท 103: Scaring a Cripple

Once Afton had bought him and Karl enough ammo to go another round with a Giant Ant colony, they bid farewell to the acquaintances they'd made during their stay in the outpost and left.

Tamia was with them of course, a hunting knife strapped to her hip next to a 9mm, as well as a god-damned axe! It didn't look like it was modified, as if she'd just torn it out of a tree a woodsman had forgotten it in...

"So... I don't suppose you use that for its intended purpose?" Karl mutters just as they reach the bottom of the hill the Outpost was on.

"Why would I miss use it? It splits heads just fine." she shrugs, and neither of the duo can tell if she's joking or not.

"The pistol on your hip then, I'd like to know if we can count on you in a fight." he continues, not wishing to press further at whether or not the axe would be effective in combat.

"It's not for show, if that's what you mean... I'm not a sniper but I generally hit my target. Probably better than the kid anyway." she says, sending a smirk at Afton.

He just shakes his head, "Yeah, yeah... I'd rather not waste ammo to find out." he says, ending the conversation and the upcoming shooting contest.

The group walks past the hundreds of Giant Ant corpses now collecting dust and Tamia questions them on whether or not they'd actually done this. She was impressed to hear that they had, and asked if they wanted to tag along to try and find the guy who'd shot her.

The duo declined, having their own problems to deal with, but said they'd gladly help if they were free and she hadn't done the deed yet.

Eventually they reached Nipton, it still smelt like death and the various articles of clothing and other supplies were still burning amongst the pile of tires... Fortunately Afton and Karl had taken the time to burn some of the corpses left strewn about, otherwise this place'd be covered in whatever horrifying creatures of the waste came along.

"Shit... You guys weren't kidding when you called it a massacre." Tamia mutters as she spots the corpses still hanging from the crosses... The duo hadn't bothered pulling them down and getting rid of their bodies as it'd take too much time.

Afton nods, "Yeah, I doubt anyone's still ali-"

"HEEeee-lllp!" a pained voice shouts from a nearby building.

"Huh.."

"Seems like someone's still kicking." Karl says as he and the rest of them head towards the General store where the sound originated.

They enter the store and are greeted by the trashed interior, clearly the Legion hadn't bothered delicately stealing everything, instead just grabbing everything and burning it...

"Heeeeeelp! Please, someone!" the voice shouts, giving a pained groan as they seem to try and move... The group walk over to the stores counter and see a black man wearing Powder Ganger armour sat against the wall. Afton squinted slightly at seeing the man's legs, they were bent in the wrong direction they should be, clearly unusable.

The man looks up and his grateful expression quickly turns into a horrified one, "H-Holy fuck! Fuck! I know I'm a bad fuckin' guy but what did I do to deserve this? Get my fucking legs broken before coming face to face with the Powder Ganger's fuckin' grim reapers!" he exclaims, slumping against the wall in despair.

"If you're gonna kill me just fucking do it, I'm ready!... DO IT FUCKERS!"

...

Tamia sends a wary glance at the duo and Afton just shrugs, "We aren't going to kill you so shut the hell up." This gets the desired affect and the group quiten down for a moment.

Afton didn't really know how to deal with this guy, clearly he didn't like them and his presence in the town meant he was probably a terrible person... Tamia could probably get some answers from him but it looked like Karl also had something to say.

Karl drops down into a squat, sitting on his heels as he addresses the man, "Son, me and my friends here need some questions answered. You tell us what we want to know and maybe we could provide some help, might not look it, but kid here's a doctor." he says gesturing towards Afton.

...

The man seems to ponder what he wanted to do and tries to adjust from the uncomfortable position he was sitting in, squinting and grunting in pain at the minute movement of his legs. "F-fuck, fine! Whaddya wanna know? Quick, I'm fuckin' dyin' here." he urges in immense pain.

"I'm looking for a man, he wore a white checkered suit and has damn greasy hair... Was travelling with some Great Khans last I heard." she says with crossed arms.

"Nah, I ain't seen anyone like that. Was kinda planning an attack on the NCR before the Legion came and fucked shit up..." he admits.

Tamia sighs, "Next stop, Novac." she huffs after quickly giving up this avenue.

Karl gives the Powder Ganger a look, "So, a town like this would know to keep its valuables somewhere safe. Be bad if the NCR got wise and decided to 'fix' the place wouldn't you say?"

...

The man's eye twitches but doesn't give any other indication that he knows anything.

Afton figures that Karl's probably on the right track and decides to make use of the Perk he'd gained by maxing his Speech, [Spies Guise]. "Now that I think about it, I haven't gotten a chance to test out my new methods of torture... Pulling teeth is one thing, but I think skinning a man's genitals and pouring salt on it would be-"

"WHAT! N-NO MAN! I'LL TELL YOU, JUST. NO!" he suddenly shouts before Afton can continue describing the rather creative torture technique he'd just come up with. "Northeast of here, there's a cave that the Mayor was using to store shit, that's all I know... Please!"

[Scare a humanoid shitless. 1/50]