A New Leader

Part Eight : The Man

I had traveled through the bandit camp all day, trying my best to ignore the hunger growing in my stomach and the idiotic laughing coming from the psychos. They were usually the first ones to get picked off by the vault hunters so I guess that was a "win" for me, they were annoying and only here as a stopping device for the vault hunters.

I crawled my way back up to the hunters nest and pulled my sniper out, setting it up and getting comfortable as I was going to be out here all night. I kicked my feet up and stared out at the camp, bandits hiding in their huts and others coming out for their shifts. It had been days since Bone Head and I had actually talked, he guarded the front gates and has killed at least two vault hunters. There weren't as many since the first vault opened a few years ago, plus there were at least eight vault hunters that Jack wanted dead because they were the ones who wanted to take him down. None of the ones he was looking for had arrived, making us grow impatient, they must be planing something.

I knew all of their faces, two of them were sirens and that was actually terrifying because one of them feeds off eridum to make her a god basically. I was hoping she wouldn't notice me if she would ever make it to the camp in time, the other siren was new to Pandora but people still feared her and her powers that grew stronger day after day.

The other vault hunters were crazy soldiers and assassins, even the leader of the resistance who Jack was waiting for patiently. He almost had him a few months back but was stopped by the other vault hunters, I was worried about him too. He'd probably think of me as another bandit and kill me right then and there, people call us savages but look at who else is killing people without any mercy.

The thoughts of them was always at the back of my head trying to bite at my conscious, but I tried my best to suppress them and think about what's going to happen when Jack finally opens the vault.

I leaned back further in my chair and listened in on the other bandits conversations, my stomach dropped when I realized they were talking a suspected women in the camp.

"The psychos have been smelling her all day, her pheromones or something is making them go crazy." One of them stated.

"They have any idea on who it is or are they just calling bull shit?" The other asked.

"They say that she's one of the shorter ones, but there are plenty of short ones around here."

"What do ya' think Jack will do if he ever figures out?"

"Either she'll figure it out and run for her life or he'll kill her."

Their words made my stomach drop... he'd actually kill me? I sat forward in my seat and looked across the plain trying to to gather my thoughts and what exactly I should do, I brought my forehead into my hands and felt hot tears enter my eyes.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" I whispered before wiping my tears away.

I took in a deep breath before taking off my mask and pulling out my knife, I took my hair out of its tight bun and let it fall. I grabbed it at neck length and slowly sliced it away from the rest, I knew this wouldn't get rid of my pheromones but it would throw them off for a bit. I stuffed the long hair into my pocket to throw it off the cliff once my shift was over, for now I just put my mask back on and looked for any vault hunters.

----------------------------------------------

I watched my old brown hair slowly make its way down the long trek of the ascending cliff, it soon disappeared from my field of vision before I walked away. I sighed, making my way back into the bandit camp as we were called for a meeting by Jack, this was apparently a rarity since there was only a meeting at least every two months and it had only been two weeks since we got here.

I went and saw Bone Head leaning up against the wall of a hut, waiting for me. I walked over and stood next to him as other bandits gathered in the same area as they buzzed about the women that was supposedly hiding in the camp, they had an idea that the meeting was about that situation. I hoped it wasn't because it seemed as if Jack would do a check, I still had very feminine features with or without my long hair.

Jack phased in and everything became instantly quite as people geared their attention towards the man standing in the center, I felt my stomach turn but in a light and good way. I was confused at the feeling building up in my stomach, my chest even felt heavy as I stared a little longer at the man.

"Hey... bandits," he acknowledged the crowd, "so the vault hunters are a bit over due so you all need to watch carefully, I need my snipers keeping a close eye on all entrances." He pointed directly at me with a smile on his face.

People nodded, I stood there looking at him and waiting for him to say something else, still keeping his eye on me. I shifted a bit uncomfortably before he curled his finger towards himself, I pushed myself off of the wall and walked over to him. His smiled growing wider.

"This man is my best sniper, listen to what he says and take commands." He shook my shoulders, I felt my cheeks turn red. "Now get a move on, we shouldn't even be having this meeting knowing that they could attack at any moment."

He phased out only moments later and left us almost in the dust, the other snipers looked up at me waiting for my instructions.

"I'll have you two man the main gate, you four can get each side, I'll stay here in the center of the camp with you." I pointed at a random sniper with a good Hyperion issued gun.

The others nodded before taking their positions, the rest of the bandits walked back to their positions as my right hand man followed me.

"So just stand up in that hunters nest and keep your eyes pealed."

"Yes sir."