A Raiders Life For Me

When I woke the next morning, the first thing I did was check my stitches. Surprisingly Tophat was able to do a decent job. Maybe she has a talent for something other than bending over after all. I looked down at my shorts and saw they were buttoned. A small "Hmp.", echoed in my mouth as I pondered how they got buttoned.

I got up from the cot in the pharmacy and headed towards the common area. To my right, the radio was still crackling with a broken sound of pre-war music come from it's speaker. To my left was Luce sleeping on his cot, with Tophat snuggled up against him.

Once I exited the pharmacy I went strait to see if Milk was still unconscious. He wasn't, or at least somebody moved him if he was. I assumed Jax was sleeping by now, so that left Soapbox to be watching the entrance.

I figured now would be a good time to organize our loot from the night prior so I grabbed the duffel bag with the weapons in it and lugged it over to our weapons and ammo stache, which was in the back, near the pharmacy.

Several hours later and a fresh meal of Lad Cakes, the store intercom turned on. Soapbox's voice was heard around the store.

"Hey.. uhh.. there's some guys out here.... Everybody... come to the front... uhh.... bring guns and... stuff..." He rarely spoke and when he did he sounded like a toddler. Nonetheless though, somebody was here and was lookin' for a fight. I grabbed two chinese assault rifles and slid a couple clips of ammo into my pockets and bandoiler. I lept over the counter and began a fast jog towards the front. To my right, I could see Luce readying his weapon while rushing up as well.

Halfway up the aisles and the sound of a couple gunshots could be heard. I slowed my pace down to a slow step by step advance after the two gunshots were fired. I could hear unfamiliar voices talking near the entrance, so I crouched down. I slung one chinese assault rifle onto my back and readied the other for combat. I raised the weapon and crept around to the front. I could see three men with dusters standing at the front entrance. From the looks of things they haven't spotted anybody but Soapbox yet, who was on the floor with his back leaning against a wall. It looks like they shot him, but he wasn't dead.

One of them walked over to the front service area door and put his hand on the door handle. The other two were still standing next to Soapbox. One of them was asking him questions while the other kept a look out for the rest of us.

I raised my weapon at the one talking to Soapbox and got a bead on him. I waited for the fool at the service area door to open it. The son of a bitch just stood there with his hand on the handle! I wanted to yell at him to open the door but I had to keep my mouth shut. A moment passed and the entrance door opened up. Beams of light spread throughout the building while the doors were open. In came four more Regulators.

"Gimme' your other gun." I heard whisper behind me. The voice startled me for a moment as I recognized who it was. I didn't turn around or respond verbally.

"Aw, c'mon Candy. This is serious. Give me the fucking gun..." The whisper said again in my ear. I knew I should give the rifle to him, for he was probably unarmed.

"Okay, Milk, take it." I back out of sight of Regulators and unslinged one of the assault rifles and handed it to him.

He smiled at me and readied the weapon. As my eyes were on his a large blast erupted from the service area. The fucker opened the door! Just then gun shots from all around the store began to fly. The Regulators were caught off guard and three of them went down right off the start.

They returned fire with precision accuracy and got behind cover themselves. One of the regulators was sitting on the floor with his legs straight out in front of him. His screams were muffled by the gunshots. His hands put pressure on the bullet wounds in his legs.

"You fuckers picked the wrong bastards to mess with!" Milk shouted as he stood from his hiding spot and shot at the Regulators hiding behind the cash register stands.

I tried to stay as low as I could as I maneuver from cover to cover. I had to get Soapbox out of there. I ran for a pillar while the Regulators were pinned.

Bullets continued to whiz past the pillar, some crashing into it, chipping off pieces of the pillar itself.

I peaked my head around the left side of the pillar to see if it was safe to advance towards Soapbox. I could see two of the Regulators taking cover, while shooting towards Milk.

"You low life scum bags killed the wrong guy!" One of the Regulators shouted. "We tracked you all night! One of those men you killed that night? He was pretty damn important. And now, you're all gonna' get some first hand experience on wasteland justice! Hahaha!"

The silence in the air made it a pretty bad time to move towards Soapbox. As I was sitting there I could hear Luce shout his retaliation. "How's this for wasteland justice, fuck sticks!" My eyebrows narrowed as I tried to understand what he meant by that. A moment later I heard a loud metal klink on the floor and the sound of a metallic item rolling.

"Ohhh shit! Grenade, get back, get back!" One of the regulators screamed out in fear and desperation. The sound of clammering weapons hitting counter tops and boots scrambling on the floor spread throughout the store. Seconds later the ringing boom of a grenade explosion echoed through the building. My ears began to ring and I lost my hearing.

My hands covered my ears in an soiled attempt to release some of the pressure in my ears. I couldn't tell if I was screaming or not. I couldn't hear. I saw out of the corner of my eyes someone standing to my right. As I looked over I saw the butt end of assault rifle coming down onto me.

The smack from the rifle hitting my forehead knocked me flat onto the floor, a second a blow came quickly after into my gut. The regulator was relentless and placed a third and final blow into my skull.

The pain was overwhelming. My forehead smashed twice, my gut slammed into and my ears deafened from the blast of the grenade. I was in shit-shape. When I opened my eyes I could see the sky above. The yellow clouds along the blue sky, drifting slowly across the sky. I could hear the crunch of foot steps on gravel. I attempted to lift my head but it felt like a thousand pounds were holding it down. I rolled my eyes until I could see something - anything. No one to my left. I look to my right and see Tophat walking.

"Top...Tophat..." I say out loud trying to get her attention. She immediately looks over to me and smiles.

"Candy! You're awake! You got really fucked up back there girl!" Tophat grabbed my right hand which I just now noticed was hanging.

"About fucking time." I hear come from ahead of me.

"Luce?" I ask, trying to identify who said it.

Jax spoke to me, "Candy, you got hurt pretty bad back there. Those Regulators are all dead now though. Don't worry." I was just about to ask what happened before she continued on. "One of the Northern D.C. Raider gangs showed up during the fight. Those Regulators didn't know what hit them."

She smiled at me as she continued walking. "You're heading back to Evergreen Mills hun. You, Luce and Jax are going to carry you back on this stretcher. I'll see you when you get better. Milk, myself and Soapbox are going to stay behind with the rest of the Northern D.C. guys and protect the Super Duper Mart."

When Tophat told me I had to go back to Evergreen Mills my heart sunk. My grip on her hand fell loose. I would have to go back to that place. I would have to... See HIM."

I frowned as I watched Tophat walking back towards the Super Duper Mart. I closed my eyes in the hope of falling back asleep. So I didn't have to think about who I had to face when I got back to Evergreen Mills....