Fallout: The Divide

[AGhostdogg10]

The year is 2279. It's two hundred two years after a nuclear war between the United States of America and China. No one knows who fired the first shots of the war but at this point it does not matter.

It has been two years since Caesar's Legion was defeated at the first battle of Hoover Dam by the New California Republic. Logan Carter, a twenty year old, Caucasian corporal in the NCR military was one of the many who fought in that battle. However at the same time as victory was won his mother was giving birth to his sister in Shady Sands. Once the battle was over he bribed his squad leader and best friend, Staff Sergeant Lucia 'Lucy' DeSousa, with some 'alone time' for an immediate leave to Shady Sands, the NCR Capitol. Once there he ran into his father, the father that he had never gotten along with.

"Out of my damn way boy!" he yelled.

"Damn it dad... Where's mom?"

"Boy you are a f***ing disgrace to our family for joining the military, and that's why you won't be seeing your sister. Not now, not ever."

"Your speaking for mom now? I think she's more than capable to either tell me herself or write me a memo."

Logan's father at his wits end of patience pulled out a 5.56 millimeter pistol and then attempted to shoot his son only to be upper-cutted then have his head smashed into the hospital wall resulting in his blood going all over the newly painted wall.

As if on Que several NCR MP's came out and attempted to arrest Logan with charges of assaulting a civilian.

"Corporal Carter, come with me please." the Hispanic officer said.

"f*** you. I'm going to see my sister" Logan said as walking away and flipping off the MP's.

"Corporal!" a voice shouted.

He turned to see Colonel John Larkin, his commanding officer and long time friend.

"Larkin... You f***ing prick... You were a good kid until you got your ass mixed up with these military assholes." Logan's father grunted.

"Good to see you too Mr. Carter."

"Burn in hell..." he never finished his sentence because Logan punched his father and knocked him out in the process.

"Well I'll be damned! Larkin!" Logan moves to give his long time best friend a hand-shake.

They both shake hands and go to the bar across the street for some drinks.

"I see that you're six foot tall ass is doing well. How's Alex and Tj?"

"Alex is dead... Some mother-f***ing legionary slit his neck before I could get to him... And Tj? I don't even know. Last I heard he was here teaching."

"Damn. I'm really sorry about Alex, but Tj teaching? Those kids better be ready to lose their sanity!" Larkin half laughed.

"Yea."

"But you do know that you could be court marshaled for assaulting your father? Right?"

"f*** him. He was trying to keep my away from my sister."

"That's not the f***ing point Logan! You assaulted a civilian!"

"Alright. You've known me for how long Larks? You should know I could care less about what the brass, no offense, or the MP's say."

"For f*#@s sake Logan! You can't keep getting into trouble with the MP's. I can't keep covering for you dammit!"

Logan just laughs.

"You think this is funny?"

"Yea I do! You think I joined the military for a carrier? I joined for training. I plan on taking my sister, maybe Lucy and Tj if I can find them and getting the f*** out of here."

"And where would you go?"

"Maybe The Mojave. If not we can head to the Capitol Wasteland." Logan said with enthusiasm. He then took a sip of his beer.

"Alright. What about weapons?"

This gave Logan a really good laugh.

"Have you ever wondered where that shipment of Colt and Browning weapons went?"

"What did you d-" Larkin never finished his sentence because at that very moment Lucia stormed into the bar.

"Carter!" she screamed.

"Oh s***... Well better now than later." Logan sighed as he got out of his chair.

"You promised her some 'alone time'? Didn't you?"

"Maybe..." Logan smiled as he walked away to greet Lucia.

 

 

FIVE HOURS LATER

 

"You ready for this?" Logan asked as he was putting on his Dragonskin Tactical Vest.

"Yes. Yes I am." Lucy replied.

Logan finished equipping his tactical vest and handed Lucia her signature R91 Assault Rifle. Logan then picked up his pride and joy: The M4A1 Assault Carbine. He had spent hundreds of thousands of bottle caps upgrading and replacing parts. With it's Extended Barrel, Forward Grip, K-Bar Bayonet, Extended Magazine and ACOG Scope it was an all around killing machine.

"Same here." a familiar voice said.

Logan and Lucia both turned around to see Doctor Tj McGinn, a professor at the Tandi University. He was wearing a suit of Enclave Power Armor, that of which signified his former allegiance to last remnants of the American government and had a Enclave Plasma Rifle .

"Tj! You son-of-a-*censored*! You got my call?"

"Yes. You did however interrupt me from teaching the youth. And I see you grew that beard you used to talk about growing."

Logan stroked his beard and said "Yep. But anyway, you know the plan right?"

"Yes. We go in, kill the guards, take your sister and get to the medical Vertibird on the roof and fly to the Mojave."

Logan nodded his head, loaded a magazine into his weapon and breached the door. He was almost immediately met by seven patrolling guards. Logan fired off five shots and killed four guards. One had fled. Logan then took cover and let Lucia take down the remaining two.

They moved down the hall until a security guard armed with a bolt action rifle with a bayonet attached came out from a corner and right into Logan's face.

Logan thrusted the bayonet of his rifle only to have it blocked away, and be slashed in the upper right-leg.

The guard attempted a thrust towards Logan's stomach while he was dazed from his earlier inflicted wound, only for Logan to block the attack and knock the rifle out of the guards hands. Logan then proceeded to thrust his bayonet into the guard's stomach and fire off his remaining bullets in the magazine to finish him off.

"f***ing a**hole." Logan spat as the guards corpse fell to the ground.

Logan clutched his leg in pain. He took a bandage roll out of his back-pack and began to treat his leg wound.

"f***ing piece of s***, cock-sucking bastard." Logan mumbled to himself as he finished wrapping his leg wound.

Several minutes passed until they got the hospital room where Logan's sister was. Logan ran over to the window to look at her. He examined the medical bracelet that read: Emerson Carter.

"Lucy, Tj, get to the roof. I'll be there in a minute."

Logan went through the side door and picked up his baby sister. After spending about a minute or two looking at her, he heads for the roof. Before so however he scavenged as much ammo and medicine he could carry from the corpses and medical cabinets.

On his way up to the roof Logan passed by the hospital day-care center. He went inside, laid Emerson on a changing table and grabbed a pacifier, some baby clothes and a holotape with several lullabies stored on it. He proceeded to stick them in his back-pack. He picked Emerson back up and carefully carried her up the stairs to the roof.

When Logan got to the roof the Vertibird was online and ready to go.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

TWO YEARS LATER

 

 

"Tj! Have you seen Logan?" Lucia asked.

"Hmm? Oh! Logan? No I can't say I have. Why?" Tj responded only half paying attention as he was in the middle of reading a story about "The Vault Dweller" to Emerson, as it was currently her favorite story.

Emerson was wearing just a pink T-Shirt and a white disposable diaper with sunshine decals and she was sitting intently, listening to every word of the story, as if her life depended on it.

"He was supposed to be back by now." Lucia said, "And besides don't you think that story is a little gruesome for a Two year-old?"

"Thwee! I Thwee Wucy!" Emerson exclaimed while holding up three fingers, but paused to look at them as if she had done it wrong.

"Well... Uh... You will be in eleven months..." Lucia stammered, surprised at the toddler's protest. Her second birthday was only one month ago and she already wanted to be three! She expected any child raised by Logan, Herself and Tj to protest but not at this young of an age, hell she hadn't even started toilet training!

Then they all heard the distinctive thump of a body dropping to the ground. Tj ran over to see who it was, but was surprised when he found Logan laying in a pool of his own blood, with a machete lodged into his chest.

"Oh f***! Oh f***! Logan?!" Tj ran over to Logan and frantically tried to wake his friend up.

Lucia came running over with two medical kits, one standard and one large, and got to work.

Emerson soiled herself and trotted as fast as her chubby legs would allow her, inside her tent, crying, unable to look at her brother in the position he was in.

Logan's eyes shot open, he was gasping for breath and was going into shock. His long, straight, dark hair was drenched in sweat, blood was coming out of his mouth and onto his beard.

Lucia took off Logan's Jet Black T-Shirt and began to carefully remove the machete that was lodged deep into his chest.

"f***! Hang in there Carter! You hear me trooper? Don't die on me now!" Lucia yelled as Logan was rambling on about... something.

 

FIVE DAYS LATER

 

Logan was situated in his bed with Lucia and Emerson sitting at his bedside in silence. Lucia was checking Logan's vitals and heart rate while Emerson was looking through the pages of her story book on the Vault Dweller and looking at the pictures.

"Hey. Emerson?" Lucia asked, trying to break the awful silence.

"Hmmm?" Emerson inquired.

"Want to hear the story of how I met your brother?"

Emerson's eyes lit up like a torch, "Yes, yes, yes!" she pleaded as she forgot all about her story book and ran to sit on Lucia's lap.

"Well... Huh... Where to start? Well at the time your brother was running away from home. From what he had always told me, it was right after a fight with your father. Your father was a mean, mean man and he had just got done bea- I mean hurting your brother. Well your brother just went to his room, grabbed his knife, bag, and a change of clothes. He broke his window and left. He then went to the woods and then he bumped into me and my friend Natalia." Lucia paused for a minute.

"Who Natawia?" Emerson asked with her toddler lisp.

"She... She was my best friend. And a good friend of your brother." She paused.

Then she sighed. But she was surprised to hear "You forgot that she was my girlfriend." It was Logan. They both looked at him, shocked.

"Wogan! Wogan!" Emerson yelled as she tried to climb up to Logan.

"Hey kiddo!" Logan coughed out. "Was Lucy telling you a story?" he asked while giving Lucia the 'What the hell did you tell her?' look.

Lucia shot back with the 'Innocent' look.

Logan quickly flipped her off and got back to hugging Emerson.

Knowing that she had won, Lucia blew him a kiss which made Logan throw up the middle finger once again, while blowing a kiss back.

"Hey, Emerson. Why don't you go tell Tj I'm awake?"

She shook her head and toddled out of the room. Logan looked at Lucia and she went to close the door.

"I was so damn close Lucy. So f***ing close." Logan told her. "I found something that would be good for all of us. A settlement. One that is independent from the NCR and the Legion. The Divide. Founded by some Courier."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

"Let's go kiddo! We have a lot of ground to cover today!" Logan called as he was packing his things. Lucia was helping a sobbing Emerson pack her bags and Tj was polishing his Power Armor, just waiting for everyone else to be ready to leave.

"Give Emerson some time Logan. This place is the only place she knows." Lucia told him.

Tj intervened with "That's not true, she's been in the hospital in Shady Sands, she's been in The Hub, New Reno and..."

Lucia cut him off and said "She wasn't even a month old when we went to all those places Tj!"

"No she remembers. All memories a human has are just stored. Some you can access others you can't. It's been proven Lucy."

"By who? One of your Enclave science buddies?" Lucia asked, clearly annoyed.

"Why yes, but that's besides the point. Technically speaking she has retained every single moment of her life, but the human mind is not a box that can just be opened whenever you want." Tj counters.

While the two were arguing Logan called Emerson over and told her to sit down.

"Hey look, I know you don't want to leave this place but we're going to a place where there are other kids, more food, maybe even a house for us." Logan told Emerson.

"But Wogan! I don't wanna weave!" Emerson whined, tears begging to form in her eyes. Logan pulled her close and hugged her and began running his fingers through her long dark hair. She was now crying.

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. Ok? Shhhhh... It's alright. Hey, maybe we will come down here again someday. And maybe I'll teach you how to fish." Logan told her quietly.

Emerson, with tears still in her eyes, looked up and tried to smile. Logan ruffled up her hair and stood up. He called Tj over. "Tj, here's my bag. Someone's getting a ride." he said as he handed Tj his bag and turned to wink at Emerson.

Minutes later they were off. Logan in front with Emerson on his back, Lucia in the middle and Tj watching the rear. A day and a half passed until they decided to set up camp for the night. Logan sat down next to Lucia and they began talking.

"Remember that night in Vegas? You and Natalia ran up a bill at the Tops that went through the roof!" Logan laughed.

Lucia was laughing too and replied "Yea, and then you got kicked out because you won more money than anyone had ever won in the history of that casino!"

"Damn. We couldn't of been more than thirteen at the most and we were already gambling and drinking and all this s***." Logan paused and looked at Lucia who was fiddling with her vault-boy necklace. "I remember that. I bought that for you on your birthday. Spent almost all our caps."

Lucia smiled and took her hair out of a ponytail. "I found this by the way." she said as she put a picture down on Logan's rifle. Logan picked it up.

"Yea, what about it? All it is is a picture of a couple of kids at the zoo in Shady Sands." Logan paused and looked at the picture closely and said while pointing at two kids "Is that a sister of yours? She looks like you. And that kid looks a bit like me."

Lucia laughed and said "That is you stupid and that's me! We were in the same pre-school class. Look on the back, it has all our names and what place in the picture we're in."

Logan was shocked. He and Lucy had known each other for almost all their lives. He remembered now, the two of them were in the same pre-school class at one of the just built NCR schools, not only that but they would both nap together, and share secrets about their 'mean mommies and daddies'. In the picture she was wearing a purple heavy jacket with her hair in a ponytail and he was wearing a grey and green heavy jacket with a black NCR Patrol Rangers ushanka. The two of them were hugging with another girl hugging him.

"Who's that?" Logan asked while pointing to the girl.

Lucia didn't even look and said "Look on the back of the picture."

"Natalia... Huh... Her hair was lighter back then..." Logan trailed off.

He looked down at the ground deep in thought. He was interrupted by Tj minutes later.

"Logan? We're low on food, and water. We're going to need to scavenge soon. And sadly there aren't that many places to do so." Tj informed him.

"Well... what are our options?" Logan asked while still looking at the picture.

"Theres an old super-duper-mart nearby. There's also an old general store as well. There is a small school too." Tj said, scratching his head.

"We'll head to the School. Se what we can find. Hopefully something good." Logan said as he tucked the picture in his jeans pocket. Logan stood up and grabbed his M4. He turned to Lucia and asked "You up for some scavenging?"

She smiled and replied "Damn right I am!" while picking up her R91. The two of them started walking to the school.

 

 

 

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER

 

 

"f***, f***, f***!" Lucia yelled as she and Logan were sprinting through the hallways of the school. A Deathclaw came around the corner and quickly pursued them.

Logan stopped and fired off several rounds. Each hit their mark on the Deathclaw's torso but it kept coming and it appeared to only be angrier. Logan started running again and caught up with Lucia.

"Well? Is it dead?!" Lucia asked quickly. But as soon as she said that the Deathclaw came through a weak point in the wall.

"Does that answer your question? Move!" Logan yelled as he pushed Lucia out of the way. The Deathclaw roared and back-handed Logan through a door and into a Nuka-Cola machine. Lucia fired an entire magazine into the Deathclaw and it appeared to only get more angry. She quickly performed a tactical reload and then began to run.

The Deathclaw was about to pursue her when it heard this: "Hey, a**hole! Yea over here you son-of-a-*censored*!" It was Logan, he had his K-Bar combat knife in one hand and a switchblade in another. He threw the switchblade and it hit the Deathclaw in the thigh. It roared and came charging at Logan. Logan jumped out of the way at the last second and climbed onto its back and began to ram his knife into the Deathclaw's spinal region. He stabbed it about six times before it shook him off. Logan landed on the ground, face first, weapon less, as his K-Bar was lodged into the Deathclaw's back.

"Come on... Do it!" Logan grunted at the creature, while blood was streaming out of his nose. The Deathclaw however stalked off. Logan sat against the wall stunned. Lucia came around the corner, rifle raised, checking the room for the Deathclaw. She ran over to Logan and helped him up.

"Where the hell is it?" Lucia quietly asked.

"Does it look like I know?" Logan coughed out. He opened a pouch in his Tactical Vest and took out a stimpack and injected himself with it.

"Here." Lucia handed him his M4 and said "I think you'll need this." while smiling. Logan took his Carbine and smiled back as he 'Locked and Loaded'.

The two crept throughout the hallway until they came at an impasse in the hallway. The left side led to the cafeteria and resource officer's station and the other led to the Special Education classrooms, nurses station and administration offices.

"We need to split up. We can get this done quicker that way." Logan suggested. Lucia seemed hesitant but eventually nodded and headed to the right while Logan headed to the left.

Lucia walked down the hallway with her R91 raised the entire time. She kicked in the door to the nurses station and found three skeletons; one in a chair behind a desk, one sitting in a waiting chair and one on the ground. Lucia shook her head in disgust and moved to the back of the room, towards storage. She attempted to open the door but found it was locked.

"Well f***." Lucia thought aloud.

On the other side of the school Logan was rummaging through the resource officers safe. He found a Colt M1911 pistol, two boxes of ammunition and a extended magazine. He then heard a door slam shut. He raised his M4 and moved out of the room and headed to investigate. He went down the hallway and turned a corner and saw what appeared to be a little girl huddled against the wall. She couldn't have been anymore than seven or eight. She appeared to be crying.

"Little girl? Are you ok? I'm not going to hurt you." Logan said softly. She turned and looked at Logan and she started to back up. In response to this Logan holstered his weapon.

"See? I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?" Logan quietly asked.

The little girl was hesitant at first but finally said "Paige. My name is Paige DeCosta."

Edited July 15, 2012 by AGhostdogg10