Chapter Text
Chapter 2...
Lincoln and Rusty enter the cave were the Radscorpions reside, Lincoln takes out a flare and lights it up as the two men advanced eventually stopping at a cross path, one path left and the other right, they decided to go right and stopped after walking a mile or two to view what it appears to be a dead end, it was not empty though as they spot two radscorpions, the boys quickly hugged the wall to avoid detection, Rusty gets Lincoln's attention and gestures him to throw his flare to get one of the insect's attention, in which the white haired man threw the flare at a mid-distance, then he and his friend back up a bit as one of the radscorpions spots the light and move toward it, both men take out their pistols and once it got close enough to the light, they opened fire at it, which angered it and charged toward them. It took a couple of shots to take it down before it reached them, but they were not done yet, the other radscorpion heard the noise and paced toward them, causing the duo to shoot at the mutated creature until it was dead. Afterward, Lincoln goes to pick up his flare and he and Rusty continued on until they reached another cross path, this time they turned left and detect one radscorpion at the end of the tunnel, unfortunately for them, the big scorpion saw the light and moved towards them aggressively, Lincoln drops his flare and quickly takes out his gun and fires at it, Rusty joins in too. The radscorpion got close to Lincoln and attacks him with its stinger but Lincoln dodges it and kept firing as he keeps backing up and avoiding it tail attack, they managed to kill it, and Lincoln picks up his flare again and joins Rusty as they traveled further into the cave until they reach the end and the home stretch. They agreed to the tactic of picking the radscorpions off one by one, but it wasn't easy, Lincoln and Rusty kept dodging their stingers while shooting at them, they were a couple of close calls but one of the tails struck Lincoln, luckily, he didn't feel any poison as the battle raged on but after taking a few hits from the stingers Lincoln was poisoned, but he kept fighting until finally, every one of the Radscorpions is dead.
"Man, i'm beat, but i don't feel good." Lincoln said frustated.
"They must have poisoned you." Rusty told the white-haired man. "Let's get all the tails we can and get back to Lazlo."
Lincoln and Rusty went to work ripping the tails off the dead radscorpions until they can't carry anymore and make a beeline back to Shady Sands and to Doctor Razlo's clinic, where the doctor sarcastically greeted...
"Well, you boys made it back in one piece." Razlo chuckled, then saw they were carrying radscorpion tails and said... "Well, what do you know, you brought plenty of tails for my research."
Razlo pointed his finger to a table and said... "Bring 'em over there and i'll get to work on a cure for the poison."
Lincoln and Rusty unloaded the radscoprion tails in which Lincoln said afterwards as he went to the back room of the clinic...
"Wake me up when you're done, doc. I'm hurt and poisoned."
Lincoln lies down on a floor next to a man lying on a futon who has been poisoned too and takes himself a nap. After a few hours, he began to feel stinging as he woke up to see Razlo treating him and once's he done he gives Lincoln a bottle of liquid saying...
"Here, this will get the poison out of your system."
Lincoln opens the bottle lid and drinks it, after a few moments he can feel his strength returning and stands up and follows the doctor out of the room.
"Thanks for the help, doctor." Lincoln thanked Razlo.
"Don't mention it, young man." Razlo replied as he goes back to work on making antidotes from the radscorpion tails. "Listen, i got my hands full on these tails, when you're done talking to Aradesh, come back here, i got a favor for you."
"Okay i will, thanks again." Lincoln agrees as he follows Rusty back to the town hall to speak to Aradesh. Lincoln notices Aradesh feels much calmer now as he said...
"Ah, things are much more settled now. Razlo has been working on a cure for Rad Scorpion poison, and with that, we should be able to fight what's left of them."
"You don't need to worry about them anymore, we destroyed the Radscorpion nest." Lincoln told the leader as Rusty nodded.
"Gentlemen, you are truly heroes! Know that the people of Shady Sands are most grateful." Aradesh thanked them.
"Glad to be of assistance." said Lincoln. "Well, i better continue on my quest, so i bid you farewell."
"Of course, wanderer. Goodbye." Aradesh bid Lincoln farewell as the white-haired man left the town hall and returned to Razlo as the doc said handing him a bottle of antivenom...
"Ah good, you're back. Here, give this to Jarvis."
Lincoln takes the bottle and goes to the back and administered the antidote on the man known as Jarvis. The man said...
"Thank you so much for helping me. My name is Jarvis, and I'm Seth's younger brother. Please, if there's anything you need to know, just ask."
"Tell me about your brother." Lincoln asked.
"Seth's a very good fighter. He's very determined." Jarvis answered. "A little too much, sometimes. Still, he's devoted to the welfare of our village."
"Thanks, well, i better be going now." said Lincoln as he left the clinic and head towards the gate to see Rusty waiting for him as he finished talking to Seth and Tandi. Tandi said...
"Lincoln, good to see you again. Rusty told me you and him whomped those Radscorpions. Gee, i wished i could have seen it."
"Tandi, you know your father always tells you not to wander far from the village." Seth reminded Tandi.
"I know, he always cares about me, but he always worries too much." said Tandi.
"My dad will be more than worried if i don't find that water chip soon, i better get back to the search." Lincoln said bitterly as he left Shady Sands.
"Sorry about him, the radscorpion poison really cramped his mood." Rusty apologized for Lincoln. "I gotta go."
Rusty catched up with Lincoln and asked him...
"So, where we are going?"
"Vault 15." Lincoln answered.
Lincoln and Rusty traveled east from Shady Sands, using the map on Lincoln's Pip Boy 2000, they reached Vault 15's location after a few days. However, what they found at the location is a shack. Rusty said...
"Is this it? Where's the entrance?"
Lincoln scanned the screen on his Pip Boy and replied...
"According to the records, a secondary entrance should be inside of that building."
Lincoln and Rusty entered the shack and found a ladder attached to a hole, they climbed down the ladder that leads them into a cave almost similar to the one from vault 13, however it was crawling with rats. They decided to do a little pest extermination, once they cleared the cave of rats, they approached the entrance to Vault 15, the giant metal door was ripped apart and the entrance was left open, looking at the state of the fallout shelter, Lincoln began to realize it was attacked, ransacked and left to rot for years, but nonetheless, he came here to see if there's a water purification chip inside, he cautiously stepped inside the vault hall with Rusty in tow, he sees a wall locker nearby and opens it and found flares inside which he takes and lights up one of them, but it proved to be a mistake as he hears scuffling inside, he quickly takes out his pistol and aims at the open door, Rusty did the same as a giant hairy mole rat coming out and advanced toward them, the two men fire their guns at it, thankfully it took a few bullets to kill the big mole rat, they breathed a sigh of relief and entered the vault and goes to what's left of the clinic, killing rats and picking up medical supplies that was inside a wall locker before heading towards the broken elevator. Good thing they brought ropes as Lincoln takes out a length of rope and found something on the ground to tie it to before dropping the rest into the hole, Lincoln and Rusty climbed down the rope to the second-floor basement that is home to the vault's living quarters and it was crawling with rats, but they ain't the only ones, there were medium sized rats called pig rats. The men went to work clearing out the rats before searching for anything left of use, they found a hunting rifle, some bullets another length of rope and a leather jacket which Lincoln put it on for himself. Lincoln ties a rope on the broken elevator and he and Rusty climbed down to the third basement floor that should house the vault's storage, library and command center. Like the rest of the vault, it was swarming with rats and among them was another mole rat and several pig rats, Lincoln and Rusty spent the next several minutes purging the abandoned vault of all rats, once the rats are all dead, they search the whole floor, they find bullets, a book on first aid, a few grenades, a bundle of dynamite on one locker, and a 10mm SMG and bullets on another one. Afterward, Lincoln, after scanning his Pip Boy walked to a path where the command center used to be, but a cave in has blocked the way leaving him to realize that a water chip is not in this vault, he spots a crowbar and picks it up before he and Rusty climbed back up and out of the Vault, once back on the surface, the gentlemen exited the shack and made the trip back to Shady Sands. Upon arriving, they saw Seth scanning outside, he was concerned about something.
"Something's wrong." said Rusty.
"I feel it too, i better go see Aradesh." said Lincoln as he runs to the town hall and saw Aradesh praying to Dharma, he interrupted him saying... "Sir, what's wrong?"
Aradesh stood up, turned around and said...
"Thank goodness you came, i'm in desperate need of assistance. My daughter Tandi is missing. I do not know what to do!"
"What?!" Lincoln exclaimed in shock and asked. "Have you tried to save her?"
"My people are not skilled in this." Aradesh answered. "Already three patrols have gone out to look, but none returned. Will you help me?"
"Yes, i'll help." Lincoln agreed. "Who could have taken her?"
"Seth and I believe one of the raider clans is responsible, retribution for our resistance to them." Aradesh told Lincoln as he gives him a spear. "Take this spear. It was found where my daughter was last seen."
"Don't worry, i'll bring her back safely." Lincoln promised as he takes the spear.
"Please, talk to Seth. He knows much about these raiders. And God speed, wanderer." said Aradesh, he saw Lincoln quickly leaves the building.
Lincoln raced back outside of town and regrouped with Rusty who said...
"Seth told me their camp is southeast of here, come on."
The two heroes' races toward the camp of the raider clan known as the Khans, from the distance they saw that their hideout rest in a brick house surrounded by tents outside. Lincoln said as the men continued walking...
"Let me do the talking, i got an idea."
"I hope you know what you're doing." said Rusty feeling concerned.
They reached the house, ignoring the raiders and went inside, finding themselves in a room and surrounded by raiders, and a man in metal armor that appears to be a leader who then asked Lincoln rashly...
"I can see you standing before me, but I don't believe it. What do you want?"
"I demand you set the girl free." Lincoln barked his demand to the khan leader, Garl Death-hand.
"You are barely tolerated by us. Why should we give one of our most prized possessions to you?" Garl snarled.
"I represent a higher power you never seen before." Lincoln attempted to intimidate, keeping his cool. "If you don't comply, you will face our wrath."
"Hmm..." Garl pondered for a moment before saying... "For some reason, I believe you. You may take the girl, but do not return unless you seek OUR wrath."
"Agreed." said Lincoln.
One of the raiders left the room, a few seconds later he returned with Tandi who ran toward Lincoln and Rusty.
"C'mon, let's get out of here." Rusty said quickly.
The three ran away from the Khan stronghold as quickly as they can, once they reached a safe distance, they stopped to catch their breath.
"Whoa, i can't believe my bluff worked." Lincoln said ecstatically.
"Believe me, i'm surprised too." said Rusty. "How did you do that?"
"I had a lot of practice pretending to be my character Suave Star." Lincoln explained.
"Suave Star? Who's that?" asked Rusty.
"He's a character from my comic book series i worked on, it's called "Suave Star, Galactic Detective"." Lincoln answered.
"Comic books?" asked Tandi.
"They're like books, but with a lot of pictures on it." Lincoln told Tandi what comic books are. "Probably should have brought some to show you."
"Yeah, i doubt Aradesh would tolerate that kind of reading material." Rusty scoffed.
"Hey, anything to kill the boredom." said an interested Tandi.
"Anyway, we should get back to Shady Sands before those raiders realized your lie and come looking for us." Rusty told Lincoln.
"Good idea." Lincoln agreed as the three of them traveled back to Shady Sands.
Upon arriving back to Shady Sands, Seth ran to Tandi and hugged her feeling relief to see her safely returned. Lincoln and Rusty ignored them and walked past them as they go to the town hall to inform Aradesh.
"We brought Tandi back safely, sir." Lincoln informed Aradesh.
Aradesh sighed in relief and replied to Aradesh with a smile.
"I will be forever in your debt for your courage and bravery, wanderer, you as well Rusty." Aradesh takes out a pouch of bottlecaps and hands it to Lincoln and Rusty. "Here is your reward, gentlemen."
"Thank you, sir." said Rusty as he takes the pouch.
"Thank you, sir." Lincoln thanked Aradesh as well. "Now i must depart and continue on my mission."
"I'm going with him sir, i'll show him the way to Junktown." Rusty told Aradesh.
"Until we meet again, my friends. May the water you find in the desert not shine at you in the dark." Aradesh bid the men farewell.
Lincoln and Rusty return to the gate just in time for Tandi to stop them and said...
"Lincoln! Hi, I was afraid that you were gone, and I wasn't going to get a chance to thank you for rescuing me. Aw! That was great! Action, adventure...Anyway, if there's anything that I can do for you, you just ask."
"No, that's okay, i'm just glad you're safe." Lincoln kindly rejected. "I'll be leaving now, so goodbye."
"Alright, no problem." said Tandi. "Hope you come back again soon, maybe with one of those comic books you were talking about."
"No problem." said Lincoln giving her a wink as he and Rusty leaves Shady Sands and travels south to Junktown.
"To Be Continued...
Author's note: Well, that was a helluva adventure, Lincoln and Rusty defeated the Radscorpions, explored Vault 15 and rescued Tandi from the raiders thanks to Lincoln's speech skill (His tag skill is Speech, you know.) Next time on Fall-Loud: Lincoln and Rusty explore Junktown and finds new friends and new enemies.