Vicious World

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I wake up, yawn and stretch, and look out into the kitchen per usual. Only this time, Mollie is awake before me. I usually always wake up before Mollie... Must be crazy hungry, "What are you doing up so early?" I say groggily, rubbing my eyes and running my fingers through my long brown hair.

"I should ask you the same every morning." she said with a smirk.

"Well, I don't know, just weird waking up to, you know?" I say. I look at the table and notice that there are a variety of foods, "Where did these come from?"

She looked up from the table, "This morning, right before the sun came up, about twenty minutes ago, those Sons of Night guys came to the door with food." she eyed the food, "It's not much, but we didn't pay for it."

"Food is food, don't care how weird it is that they gave such a thoughtful gift..." I pick up a hot plate of buttered macaroni and begin scarfing it down like a mad man. 

Mollie looks at me with concern, "You need to eat way more than you do, Doug." she said, looking at me with a sad expression, "Here, have another plate of macaroni." she hands me a plate and I scarf that down, too.

"I'm fine, Molls. I work enough to not need as much nutrition as most lazy wastelanders do." I reassure her. "So what do you wanna do today?"

"I'm thinking we should take a day off and head on into York City for a nice, long walk." she said with a smile.

"That's a good idea. Let's go!"

"Already...? I haven't had much to eat yet."

"We'll grab something there, c'mon!"

"We aren't wastin' any precious Lums, Doug..."

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Fine, take a bagel with you, but I wanna go now."

She grabs a stale bagel off the table as I walk toward the door, "Not bringing a weapon?" she asks, and I hold up my hands. "Oh, SO deadly." she sarcastically says as we walk out the door.

I look at her, "Leisurely stroll there? Or you wanna take the Harley?" she gives me a sideways glance. "Harley it is." and we get on, I start the engine and speed off. 

We speed past the rubble at a good speed and are to the front gates in no time. "Hey, Owyn!" shouts Mollie, "Can you open the gate?"

Owyn looks down, "Alright, Mollie! No bar fights today, Doug..."

I look up, holding my hand over my eyes so the sun doesn't hurt them, "Owyn, what are you even talking about?" we laugh and the huge steel gates open up. The streets are bustling, busier than usual. U.S.S.R. insurgents are posted at almost every corner, steel armor glistening in the sunlight. "Jesum, look at this place go!" I say, throwing my hands up.

"I know!" Mollie replies, "Let's park the bike over there." she insisted, pointing at a vacant motorcycle parking space. I park the bike and we hop off. "Where to first, bro?"

"Let's just walk." I reply, and we start walking down the street. I look at all the buildings towering above us and remember I have aviators and slip them on. "You wanna go for a good Broadway show?"

She shakes her head, "Nope. I just wanna walk, maybe we'll find something interesting."

I huff, "Fine..." and we keep walking. I look around, even more closely inspecting my surroundings, I see a kid on the side of the street, kneeling in a little puddle. He looks up with a sullen look, dirt accenting his pained expression. I resist the urge to stop and help, and keep moving.

"Aww..." says Mollie, frowning at the boy, "Poor kid..."

I give her a quick glance, "Should we stop and help?"

"We can't do anything. We live off of basically nothing ourselves. Plus, who knows? Maybe he's got a mama."

I pause, thinking of what to say, "You're right, let's go." I come up with. We keep a good, brisk pace, rounding a street here and there. We turn onto Broadway, the cracked street was alive with a flood of people: Vendors, street performers, all that good street stuff. Three rich looking men in suits, guarded by five U.S.S- Screw it, I think I'll call them Yoosser. The Yoossers were all armed to the teeth. These were some important people.

"Who do you think they are?" says Mollie, eying the group I was also observing.

"Obviously some Russian hotshots. Perhaps some Yoosser, oh, I'm calling them that, it's easier to talk about 'em that way, Yoosser high-ranks."

"Yoosser? You're so lame, Dougie!" Mollie says, punching me in the arm, "But yeah... Looks like some pretty high-up people." I look at the group and the member in the middle catches my eye. A face I could never forget, a face that has haunted my dreams since that fateful day... 24 years ago. He spits on the ground as he did to our father and walks into a nearby building, leaving two guards at the door. "Dougie? What's wrong?"

I shake my head, "Nothing, nothing." I say, trying to formulate how I will find this man again. It's quite obvious that this is a place of interest to him. Perhaps when I'm by myself I will take my revenge, but for now, I'll let it rest. "It's really nothing. Shall we continue?"

Mollie smiles, "We shall, good sir." and we continue our walk at the same pace we had been keeping before we stopped to look at the Yoosser hot-shots.

We turn the next corner and hear ranting, "Come one, come all! Learn of the creator! Learn of your savior!" a man is standing on the porch of what seems to be a makeshift church, shouting into a megaphone. "Let Kinnah in your heart! Let his Holy Son, Frond, into your hearts, as well!"

"Jeez, what a nut." I whisper into Mollie's ear.

She looks at me with an odd expression, "Who is Kinnah? Who is Frond? What did they do?"

I roll my eyes, "It's obviously a religion. We said we would have a nice walk, now let's go! I'm starving!"

She snaps out of her thoughts about the church and nods, "Yeah, how about Chuck's?"

"Sounds good to me, sis." I say with a smile. We start walking back and we are there in about a minute. "Ahh, good old Chuck's!"

Mollie breaks into a broad grin, "Minus O'Mally." she said, happiness fully showing, "You showed that bastard!" and we walk in. It's really calm inside, everybody there ate in silence, well, the very few that were there. We walk to our usual booth and sit, Chuck comes over in an instant.

"Gator and grilled cheese?" he asks, pointing to me then Mollie.

We both smile and simultaneously nod. He goes back and gets our meal started. I look at Mollie, "So you honestly think that church thing is interestin'?"

"Of course. It gives you something to believe in when there is nothing." she replies as Chuck returns with our food.

"Here ya go! Have a nice meal." Chuck says with a smile.

Mollie picks her grilled cheese up and bites into it, "You know what I mean?" she says, mouth full.

"Sure, but there are bigger matters." I say, taking a bite of my gator.

"I guess you're right... But we should look into it sometime." I nod and continue wolfing down my food. We are done in minutes and we get up. 

I stretch, "I wanna get some sleep. Let's ask Chuck if we can rent a room for the night." I walk over to Chuck, "Can we get a room for the night?"

Chuck nods, "Only ten Lums." I fish around in my pocket and reveal ten Lums. "You two sleep good." he says with a warm smile, and we head up the stairs. As I lay in bed I think about all the things that happened today, and eventually start to fall asleep.

"Goodnight, Molls."

"Goodnight, Dougie." and I pass out.