Fallout: Born Unto Trouble

5. Not Now, Not Ever

Things usually got better with time. Unfortunately for Gloria, this was something that needed to get better now.

It was Moira who gave Gloria her first mission: find food and medicine in a Super Duper Mart. She took the job because, honestly, Moira was cute and she needed the caps.

And now here she is, hiding behind a counter, clutching her electricity rifle for dear life and hoping that the raiders on the other side would just leave. Leave and never come back.

She was on the verge of tears, confusion and fear filling her mind while she tried her best to keep her breathing under control.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" The raider sang, too close for comfort. Gloria gulped, and took a deep breath and held it.

Option one was to fight with the limited ranged skills she had. Option two was to beat every raider in this God forsaken store to a bloody pulp and emerge victorious and alive. Option three was to make a run for it.

It wasn't like her to run away from a fight. Retreat meant weakness, and she couldn't be weak. Not now, not ever.

She heard footsteps over the pounding in her chest resonating in her ears. They were close - too close.

"Time's up, princess," A low voice sounded, and she felt something metal press against the back of her head.

She froze. Disregarding her previous morals, her first instinct was to run—but retreat was unheard of. So the next instinct was to fight.

She whipped around, and the raider pulled the trigger, hitting Gloria in the arm. In an adrenaline-filled rage, she kicked the gun out of his hands and punching him in the jaw and slammed his head into the counter as hard as she could.

There were more raiders closing in, so with her unharmed arm, Gloria picked up her electricity rifle and shot blindly all around her.

When it beeped, indicating that there wasn't any ammo left, she ducked behind the counter again and reloaded with a shaky hand, and stood up again, ready to shoot anything that moved.

And there was nothing.

With a sigh of relief, she slid back onto the floor, pressing her hand against the wound on her arm.

Even under the instruction of her father, the only doctor she's ever known, she never learned how to treat bullet wounds. There was no need. The worst wound she's ever had to fix was when Wally made her fix his broken nose after a particularly nasty fight they got into; granted it was her who broke his nose, so she tried to make him even uglier.

She was starting to doubt herself now. She thought she'd make it out here with her skill in beating up security guards only armed with batons and, but these people had guns. And bullets fucking hurt.

Still, this was nothing compared to what she had done to herself.

Sighing out of annoyance more than anything, Gloria stood up and searched through every safe and cabinet in the entire store and found everything Moira wanted, and finally left this hellhole.

Moira was happy to know that there was food and medicine in the store, and even let Gloria keep it as payment, along with some caps. It wasn't enough compensation for what she had to go through, but it was as good as she was going to get.

After a trip to the clinic, Gloria felt as good as new... well, not new, but kind of worn out and really pissed off.

She was wasting time going off and fighting raiders and getting things for people. She needed to find her dad.