Those We Lose

...mankind will never see its like again.

Within a week Agatha was given the green light by Elder Lyons and they were off. He allowed her one Senior Scribe to guide her, three knights, one Knight-Sergeant, and the Initiates she'd invited along.

They traveled to the old Arlington library. It was a location the Brotherhood had been wanting to take control of. It was currently controlled by Raiders. If they could get in and quietly take them all out, the Brotherhood would not only gain a huge cache of history and technology, but would also be strategically set up across from the Jefferson Memorial, which had been taken by the Enclave.

They gathered just outside of the library to stake the place out. The building was huge and still stood tall. Grime and vines clung to its walls, but it had managed to survive the nuclear blasts mostly untouched. Agatha's mother had once spent a lot of time there. She could remember her pear-shaped figure, with a black skirt hugging her hips, and lab coat swinging back as she crossed through the huge doors. Her blonde hair would be tied back in a messy bun held together by a slim pencil and she'd wear reading glasses on the days when she came in to organize all of her and her husband's research.

"We go in quickly and quietly. We keep a tight formation. They outnumber us, but we have the advantage as long as they don't see us coming." The Knight-Sergeant advised.

The Senior-Scribe leaned into Agatha. "Safety off on your gun. Be ready to shoot and watch your back. Many scribes have bad battle tactics and that's their end. Trust and be like the knights right now."

Agatha's eyes fell on Danny. He was still only an Aspirant, yet he looked more like a Knight than all the rest of them. His eyes were already calculating the building and all its weak points. He was already targeting the Raiders he couldn't even see and was prepared to shoot.

"Let's move out." The Knight-Sergeant waved his hand and they began marching shoulder to shoulder in a spear formation to the door.

The lobby of the library still looked grand. Only now it was much darker, dust clung to the air, and spikes with heads on them decorated the walls of the building. Beautiful, detailed paintings now had blood spatters on them. They split into two groups, one to clear the ground floor, the other would start working it's way up.

Agatha's group spread across the lobby and made it's way through the rooms. Each time a Raider was seen, the trigger would be pressed once--twice. A body would fall and they'd continue past it.

The last room they arrived at had two turrets in it. The automatic guns targeted them as soon as the door opened and began shooting them. The bullets grazed the Knight-Sergeant when he jumped out of the doorway and he shouted in pain.

"Get cover." The Knight-Sergeant advised, looking over the wound in his arm. "Then, rain the bullets on those sons of bitches."

Anytime a shadow so much as moved across the door the turrets targeted with devastating accuracy and began shooting 5.56 caliber bullets.

"We have a window of 1 and a half seconds each time it targets one of us to shoot at it." Danse noticed. "We take them down one bullet at a time by shooting before they can."

Agatha found a terminal behind a desk while they started taking turns flipping around the doorframe to shoot before twisting behind the cover of the wall. Her fingers clacked against the keys, hacking into its files so she could access it. It had a personal journal for one of the raiders, as well as the control system for the turrets. With another click she deactivated them.

"Did we kill them?" One of the Knights asked.

The Senior Scribe turned to Agatha with delight. "Excellent work, you've not only preserved our own ammo, but you've made it possible for us to salvage these weapons for our own use."