Chapter Text
(mentions of blood and death)
It felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I felt drops of sweat mixed with blood fall onto my boots. My body felt so tired, my eyelids were heavy, but I couldn’t let my guard down not now. Blood ran down my nose. It wasn’t broken but it hurt like a bitch. I looked down at the man in power armor. He was dead and I won. I felt a rush of the greatest feeling ever, better than any chem you could ever take.
I heard people cheer. I heard shocked gasps. Then the man who was narrating everything spoke up.
“Holy shit! I don’t… I don’t even know what this means! Colter, man he’s out!” he spoke, his voice was amplified by the speakers. “Gage, what the hell just happened?” The man sounded so confused, it would be comical if it weren’t for the current situation.
“You saw it. We all saw it! Colters dead. We got ourselves a new Overboss.” Another voice was amplified by the speakers, but I recognize this voice, it was the man who helped me win.
“This kid? Are you sure Gage?” a man said but I couldn’t see him. His voice was a little gruff, and he had a bit of a Boston accent.
“You better know what the hell you’re doing.” A woman said. Her voice was melodic with hints of poison behind it, she also had an accent, but I couldn’t place from where. she sounded pissed.
“Hey, we talked about this!” I looked at the glass separating this room from the exit and saw a man in ridiculous yellow armor wearing a metal eyepatch, he had brown hair that was shaved on one side. “She survived the gauntlet. She was smart enough to take my advice, and strong enough to kill colter. She’s what we need” the man in yellow said into the mic.
“So how about we show some respect for our new leader, eh?” suddenly I was wide awake, what was I the leader of? What the fuck did I get myself into?!
“she’ll get respect when she earns respect” another woman spoke up, her voice was smooth, low, and had a hint of sweetness to it. The people in the crowd started with hesitant cheers but as the seconds passed, they turned into roars, people started to shake on the gates that separated the arena from the crowd.
“All right all right now, get the hell out of here. I’ll show the boss around” the man behind the glass said as he looked over to me and motioned me to him, I started walking to the glass, that feeling was still there, was it pride? Was it leftover adrenaline? Was it the sick sense of wanting more blood? Eh doesn’t matter, this is the best I’ve felt in months. I approach the glass and look at the man in yellow whose name I can safely assume is Gage. “what’d I tell you? Worked like a charm” he said as a smile formed on his face.
“Death by squirt gun, I’d love to see that on his tombstone,” I said, starting to chuckle at the thought. “Heh like we’d give him a tombstone,” Gage said, his smile fell from his face as he changed to a serious tone.
“I get that you have no idea what’s going on, and everything is coming at you real fast, but you need to listen ” I nodded.
”taking out colter wasn’t just a last-minute decision… it was something a few of us here have been working on for a while, now that he’s actually gone, we’ve got ourselves a vacancy In the Overboss department. And guess what… you just got the job.” My face twisted to a smile, me the boss of all these people? Sounds like fun! But just like that my smile faded into a confused look, what if this is a trap?
Just as I was about to say something he spoke again “all I’m asking is that you trust me on this and give it a shot. I swear it’ll be worth it.” Maybe he saw my doubt. I think for a moment. I can’t trust this guy, he's a raider and I just met him.
But something about him seems familiar. and I’ve always wanted to be the boss of something. I look back at him “let’s just say you’ve got my attention.” He seems to let out a sigh of relief.
“Good, then listen up, because I’ve got a lot to say. There are three raider gangs that run the show at Nuka-world, the disciples, the operators, and the pack.” Wow, what ‘creative’ names.
“And yeah, if the names didn’t give it away, these ain’t your typical raiders. These morons don’t exactly play nice with each other.” I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Thanks to Colter, this place is a powder keg just waiting to blow sky high. One wrong move, and we’re going to have a bloodbath on our hands.”
“yeah sounds like it, but do you think I can do anything about it? You don’t even know who I am.” I stated, “yeah that’s true but I have a good feeling about you, I think you have what it takes to turn things around and keep these gangs from tearing each other apart.” He says. this opportunity is one I ain’t gonna pass up.
I look at him and nod “Sounds like fun, count me in” I smiled. He chuckled and stood a little taller “that’s the spirit. Now I’m sure you got a lot of questions, but this ain’t the place, meet me at the Overboss’s, your new quarters, the restaurant on top of good old fizztop mountain. We can talk there, just let me get that door for you…”.
He stepped back from the glass and walked to the terminal next to the door. I heard the tapping of keys and then the click of the door. “There” he said, shutting off the terminal and starting to walk to the exit doors. I looked around as I heard the exit door shut, I was alone now.
I put away my shotgun and grabbed my pistol just in case. I look at my pip-boy and check my ammo and stimpacks, I’ll need to stop by a trading center whenever I can. it was so quiet, I had just gone through the loudest fight of my life, I can still hear a loud ringing in my ears. This stupid ‘gauntlet’ gave me tinnitus.
What did that guy call me again? Vic? That’s a cool name, maybe that could be my new name. Overboss Vic has a nice ring to it. I start to walk to the counters covered with trash and maps.
I grab one of the maps and look over it. Safari adventure, galactic zone, kiddie kingdom, dry rock gulch, World of refreshment, and Nuka town U.S.A. six parks, I get to rule over this whole place?
I stuff the map in my backpack and walk to the exit door, I push it open and walk outside, the sunlight hurts my eyes after being in the dark for so long. I rub my eyes and wait for them to adjust.
I see a couple of raiders, a few trash cans shaped like Nuka cola bottles, a couple of workers, and a big building in front of me. The building had the words ‘Market’ written in white paint. Good, a place to get supplies.
I follow the road passing more workers, raiders, and a robot that looks like a bottle. I see ahead of me a doorway made of scrap metal and wood, walking through the door I see some neon signs. None of them are working, one says ‘Nuka-cade’ another says, ‘Cappy’s café’ and one says, ‘the parlor’.
In front of the parlor, there are mannequins with duct tape on their eyes and symbols on their chests. Creepy. There’s a statue in the middle of all this area, with the two Nuka cola characters Cappy and Bottle.
I walk past the Cappy and Bottle statue that some raider is using as target practice. I look ahead and see my destination, a big building in the shape of a mountain with a giant-sized Nuka cola bottle leaning on it. There’s another scrap gate built into the old arches of the theme park. I walk through the gate and see a pond just in front of the mountain. In the water, there is a gondola with Bottle and Cappy on it.
I walk around the pond and reach a set of doors, I open the door and step into the room. There's a receptionist’s desk to the right, and two elevator doors to the left. But one of them has an out-of-order sign and a bunch of rubble in front of it.
I walk to the second elevator and push the flashing button, I start to tap my foot feeling the adrenaline start to wear off, fuck im tired. 10 seconds passed then the ding of the elevator.
Stepping inside I push the only other working button to the top floor. I felt the rumbling as it started to move, I’m not used to being in any kind of elevator. There used to be one back in my town but- the ding of the elevator makes me lose my train of thought. As soon as the doors open, I step out and look around.
In front of me, there is what looks like a big pantry/kitchen area. As I keep walking, I see a room with a power armor stand, a weapons workbench, a terminal, and a bed. I turn my attention to the double doors at the end of the hallway. I stop for a second, there’s no turning back now. I put my hand on the handle and hesitated but only for a moment.
I push the door open and see Gage at the bar in the middle of the room. I look left and see a platform in the corner that has a bed, a dresser, a safe, and a red trunk. Beneath that is a desk and a power armor stand. Then looking to the right, a big kitchen, some shelves are holding various old-world snacks and many flavors of Nuka cola. And the best part of this place, the huge windows on every wall.
The sunlight gives the room a beautiful golden glow. Near the kitchen, two chairs are facing the windows, and a small table is between the two.
I walk to the bar, Gage is behind it. he turns to me and smiles “welcome home boss” he says grabbing a cola. “don’t mind the mannequins, Colter had some peculiar tastes.” I look around, how did I not notice them before? Mannequins in strange poses, some losing their arms, others stuck on spikes and wrapped up in barbed wire, they look creepier than the ones outside the parlor, I love it.
He walks out from behind the bar to stand next to me. “Everything you see here is under your control, now that you’re in charge,” he says, I look out the windows into the park, this view is incredible “I sure do like the sound of that” I hear gage chuckle a bit.
“I thought you might,” he says, taking a seat on one of the stools, I take a seat a stool away from him, gotta put some distance. I turn to face him “look, I’ll be honest with you this operation needs someone to step in and take the reins. It sure as hell ain’t gonna be me, leading outright ain’t my style, and there’s already some blamin’ me for supporting Colter all this time.” he says.
He takes a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and begins to light it. “My talents are best put to use by helping a new Overboss get all this shit under control. You get me?” he takes a drag of his cig and blows out a big cloud of smoke.
I start to cough, my uncle used to smoke but I never… I should let that thought pass. “Yeah, I hear you” I cleared my throat one last time. He looks at me, obviously trying to contain a chuckle, but he continues with his speech.
“Good. I know I’m throwing a lot at you all at once here. Let’s take a step back, and talk big picture, okay?” I start to swivel on the stool a bit, nodding.
“Nuka-world… shit, this was the dream” he leaned his back on the counter. “Huge, built like a goddamn fortress. You run this, the world is yours. We had a good start on it. Hell of a lot of work went into getting the Disciples, the Operators, and the Pack to work together. But we got here” he motions to the park just outside the big windows.
He took another puff of his cig and continued “bout a year ago, we push through the front gate, take over Nuka-town, get these traders under our thumb…” he pops the cap off his cola and takes a drink. “And then, well, Colter got lazy. He was content to sit on his ass, never bothered putting in the effort to finish taking over the park.” He seemed to get agitated when he talked about Colter.
“The gangs got restless, started pissing each other off. It was… is… a real mess.” He said. I started to swivel faster and push random buttons on my pip-boy, I get fidgety when I’m nervous, or need to think.
Seconds had passed and I finally spoke up. “Okay I can fix this, I can make this work” he smiled a bit. “Yeah? Man, I sure hope so” I started to pay more attention to my thoughts than him, I’m sure this will be fun but if I fuck anything up then they’ll kill me. I wouldn’t be able to take a whole park filled with raiders, I barely survived the fight with that Colter guy!
I felt a hand grab my shoulder, snapping me out of thought’s, “Hey, I’m still talkin to you” he said, Now he's pissed off with me, great. “I know it’s a lot but pull yourself together, you’re a raider now”
I take a deep breath and nod at Gage. He lets go of my shoulder, putting on a very serious face “ready to talk about business or not?” he asked, I look at him and put on my serious face “yes, i'm ready.” usually if an adult talked to me like that there’d be a bullet in their stomach, what’s so different about this guy?
“Okay good.” He gets up out of his seat, throwing his cigarette on the ground and stepping on it. “Look, I know these gangs. Been workin with them or against them for years now. I’ll help you, okay? Walk you through everything” at least he’s nice enough to not feed me to the wolves immediately.
“The first thing you gotta do is get the gangs behind you. Without them supporting you, you’re not getting shit done. You don’t have to trust ‘em. Hell, you don’t even have to like ‘em. But you need them to respect you enough to follow you.” I nod, maybe I can get a bit more info from this guy.
“Any advice you might have for me?” I ask “yeah, alright… the disciples like violence. The bloodier, the better. Tell ‘em they’ll get plenty of it.” he says.
“The operators are in it mostly for the money. They get promised Caps, they’ll listen to you.” He says.
“the pack… hell, I don’t know. They follow whoever they think is the strongest. Show some teeth I guess.” He shrugs. “Here let me see that pip boy of yours” I cautiously extend my arm, he starts to tap away at the buttons. “there i've marked on your map where all the gangs bases are.” I pull my arm back and look at the screen. “thanks” I say, he just nods.
I take another deep breath to calm my nerves. “Okay, let’s do this.” I say looking up at him and smiling “all right! That’s what I’m talkin about” he says with a newfound smile on his face “you just need to show ‘em you’re the right person for the job. I’ll be here if you need me. You are the Overboss after all. Just… don’t screw this up.”
The last few words made my nerves spike up again. I just smile wider “don’t worry gage I won’t.” I say with the same venom he used. I turn around and look out the windows, seeing all the park and land all around. One last thought passes through my mind before I throw myself to the wolves.
This is gonna be fun.