The Wastelander

Chapter Six - Bonney and Sandy

  I leave the cinema, the intel saved to my watch and wondering where I'm going to go first.

  Megaton, a city to the east of Old Neighbour is full of religious nut jobs who pray to a nuclear bomb that landed there when the nukes dropped, but it never exploded, so it is probably going to go off at any moment.

  Or, Charles Michaelson, I've never heard of him but he's the one that put the job to Henry, but according to the intel he is to the west of Old Neighbour, in the old city district which I know is overrun with cannibals and bandits.

  So the choice I have is to either be eaten alive or religious crazy people.

  I think I'll take the cannibals.

  I entered Anne's Bar once again and now it is busy, other Wastelanders are talking loudly  amongst themselves about the latest mission that they were on, all the tables are packed out and there wasn't a seat anywhere.

  The bar was practically empty other than Anne talking to someone who was sat on a bar stool.

  I walk closer and see that it is Bonney taking and laughing with Anne.

  Bonney has been with the Wastelanders for as long as I have, but her story is a little bit different.

  I was left on the doorstep, a screaming baby in a blue blanket and no more than six months old at most, Bonney was born here though, her parents were Wastelanders as well and while I was being trained when we were both ten years old, they decided to take her on mission.

  The mission was meant to be simple, a cannibal leader was eating people in settlement not too far away from us, probably only twenty miles to the north, in a small settlement called Harbor Town.

  They did their investigation and realised he came into the town at night, so they waited for him to appear under the cover of darkness.

  And, sure enough, he appeared, kidnapping a small young boy, the same age as Bonney.

  They rushed him, instructing Bonney to stay behind and watch what they were doing, Sadly, the people who lived in the town were also cannibals, the small child was a trap to lure them out into the open.

  Bonney's parents did their best, but it was two hundred people against two trained and seasoned Wastelanders, even those odds aren't good and eventually, her parents fell, but the small child informed the group that there was a little girl with them.

  Bonney couldn't move, the tears streaming out of eyes like waterfalls, but still silent.

  Eventually three days past and they gave up looking, Bonney still in her hiding spot, decided to make a bolt for the exit and escape, but one cannibal never gave up the hunt, a local chemist, and he hit her with a nerve gas, nearly paralyzing her, but she got back to her feet and ran back to Old Neighbor.

  Merle found her while he was on patrol, took her to the doctor we had at the time who examined her, then informed Henry and some others what happened.

  They all went out within ten minutes, armed to the teeth and anger written all over their faces.

  I stayed with Bonney who was crying but smiling wide, so I asked the doctor why is she smiling and the doctor informed me that the nerve gas that the chemist gave her went out of date, possibly used before the nukes fell, so instead of paralyzing her, it contracted her muscles in her jaw, locking them in a permanent smile.

  It was horrifying to look at, my friend, smiling that her parents are dead, through no fault of her own but because some sick bastard did this to her.