Melting Steel ➼ Fallout

Three

❝ Rain washed all the love right out of your veins ❞

➸ Rag'n'BoneMan

I was as much surprised as everyone else to hear the thunderous roar of the vertibirds. My sight follows them as they cut through the sky, a trio coming towards the settlement. I lower the rifle, the setting sun bathing the people of the settlement in its last rays of light as they spill into the street to look towards the approaching machines. A heavy sickness settles in my stomach as they advance and I jump down the ladder of the watch tower, my heart in my throat.

I stand amongst the people with a straight back and gaze locked on those vertibirds as they draw closer. They come for me, I know it in my blood. For what reason, I have no idea. Something to do with pride and service, knowing Elder Maxson.

The bastard never could learn to let things go.

I watch the mayor shove his way towards the gates as the vertibirds kick up dust behind the walls. I'm quick to move towards my small caravan, escaping notice.

With practiced ease, I pack my things, zip up my duffel bag and I'm ready to leave within seconds. I leave the caravan, keeping my head low as I move past people, searching for the shorter part of the walls that I can scale.

"There's no Annabel here," comes the loud growl of the mayor, the answering voices too low for me to catch.

There is in fact an Annabel here, but hopefully not for long.

"Blue? You're talking about Blue? The outsider that always wears that stupid hat?"

I frown at that but reach the wall. I look up at it, taking a deep breath.

"What are your soldiers doing?" the mayor cries.

I throw my bag over the fence, wincing at the mess that'll make of the folded clothes within. I grab onto a beam of the wall and begin climbing, cold metal biting into rough flesh. I leap over the top, tumbling to the ground and biting back a yelp as pain flashes through my ankle.

I push myself to my feet, taking a moment to dust myself off before I grab my bag and start limping away from the settlement. Leave the past in the past, never look back, that's not your life anymore—

A blinding light pierces my eyes and I stumble back.

"Don't move," someone says, a female's voice muffled by a helmet and I instantly know that noise comes from power armour. I freeze and squint at the soldier, wondering if it's anyone that I know.

"Please, let me pass." The woman doesn't answer, instead approaching me with thudding footsteps and a raised gun.

"Put the weapon and the bag on the ground, raise your hands and turn around," she commands, her voice set in stone. With a moment of hesitation, I do as she says, recognising that this will never go my way.

"What does he want with me?" I question instead, turning around with raised hands.

"I don't know," she says, taking my revolver from its holster.

She manages to carry my things in one hand, the duffel bag stuffed under her arm, keeping her gun trained on my back as she nudges me between the shoulder blades.

"Walk," she demands. I take a step forward, wincing when I put weight on my injured ankle. I walk to my fate, my doom, walk towards the man that destroyed my life when I already had nothing left. He ruined me, tossed me aside, used me when it was necessary. How I could have ever loved the man is beyond me.

We round the wall to the gate where the mayor continues to argue with the soldiers. I'm deaf to his words as I find the startling view of Elder Maxson amongst his soldiers, standing above the mayor with his hands clasped behind his back. The shock of seeing him nearly sends me reeling back the way I came, not expecting to see him here in the flesh.