FO3: Part 2: Guardian Angel

    Dressed in his standard vault utility jumpsuit, Russel Dorf finally awakens after several hours to the sun slowly setting behind the horizon. The cavern that houses his former home, his vault, lay behind him. He is now an outcast to his people, they will not forgive him for what he had done, even though in his mind, he did what was right. What had happened in the vault up to this point no longer mattered. He is on his own, or so he thinks. Not more than 50 meters away from where he awoke lays a large figure, freakishly larger than a human, with green skin, no hair, hands that could easily palm his head, and a hole in its chest the size of a garden gnome. The actual details of what transpired were still a bit fuzzy to him, but from the look of things, that is the creature that so rudely welcomed him to the wasteland, and the fact that there was an actual garden gnome just behind where the body lay makes it all the more curious. Clutched in the creatures' hand is a piece of wood with a bit of blood spattered at the top. That's when it occurs to him that his neck hurts, his jaw is swollen, and he has a severe headache coming on. He can no longer stand, he has to sit down, his world is a spinning blur, it doesn't even register to him that he is in more danger than he realizes.

    Unbearable pain shoots through his leg as something clamps down on it. It is at that moment that his vision clears and he sees the giant ant trying to make a meal of him. He tries to punch it away but only receives bruised knuckles from the thick skull. Like firecrackers, two loud shots pierce through the night and the ants' head bursts in a sickly display of brain and blood. Still trying to recover, the shooter runs up to him, "Get up kid!", comes a females voice as he is lifted to his feet, "Less you want to be ant food, or worse, a super mutants punching bag." Following her orders, he tries to fight off the pain, lucky for him she is strong, she practically carries him most of the time, course it helps that he isn't exactly big. Standing just over 1.60 meters in height, and only weighing about 60kg, he isn't a large person in any sense of the word. In fact his only real strength lay in his ability to fix, build, and talk his way through most situations.

    It isn't long before they arrive in a small semi-intact house. She sits him down in a chair, then proceeds to lock the door and systematically go through every room in the place making sure there are no unwanted visitors. The whole process takes less than two minutes as there aren't that many rooms to go through. Out of the corner of his repeatedly blurring vision he can see his rescuer sifting through a small box. She grabs what looked like a syringe and says, "This will only hurt a little." and with that she jabs it into his leg. The shock lasts longer than the pain as he is surprised at what she has just done, but regardless, the pain does subside and the blur and dizziness fades away. "Just give it a couple seconds to really work, then get up and walk around a bit to get used to walking again, you haven't had the best day so far." He listens as she tells the story from her point of view about how she heard the super mutant yell and she saw, just in time, that it was going to come back to finish the job. She used something called a "Rock-it Launcher" to fire a garden gnome through its chest, and kept watch over his unconscious body. "So, what's your name kid?" She asks him finally, her voice sounding like music compared to the angry voices he had just recently endured.

    He tries to say his name as clear as he can but, from his jaw being fractured and swollen, instead of saying Russel Dorf, it comes out sounding like, "Roosledorf."

    "Well then, Roo," She says reaching into another box, "we can't just let you run around unarmed can we?" she then hands him a duffel bag. "That will hopefully give you a better chance at surviving here in the wastes, there's some food and water, a knife, a .32 pistol, and two boxes of rounds. It's all I could spare, you can spend the night here, but never stay in one place for too long, giant ants and mutants aren't the only dangers out here. Now go on, get some sleep, I have some hunting to do." and with that his angel leaves through the front door locking it before she closes it.

    He is alone again, no telling how long Angel would be gone, or if she will be coming back. Left with his thoughts, he walks the interior of the house, it's pretty standard from what he remembers from the books he read growing up in the safety of the vault. Master bedroom, kids room, kitchen, washroom, and utility closet. If it's just going to be him here, he might as well make the best of it. Gathering up some household items he gets to work making some fortifications. "Funny," He thinks to himself, "This is what got me kicked out of the vault in the first place..."