Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20181223224329/@comment-25828117-20181231103606

William looked back one last time.

A long drawn out sigh escaped him as he crossed what felt like the almost palpable border of the royal wasteland. He had left the city weeks ago and was now surrounded by naught but the dead evergreens so common in this part of the world.

A cold fog hung over the forest as if it were trying to conceal itself from him. If he had understood Tim correctly the green bridge would be rearing its rusty metalwork any moment now. 'The only way south' he had been told.

Will pulled out what looked like a jagged fold of dry brown meat from his left chest pocket; jerky of some radiated monstrosity from the area. Chewing down on it felt like biting down on tree bark and it tasted like rotten fish despite the fact he was ninety-nine percent sure it was not made of any aquatic creature.

Will could only grumble in between bites. Grimacing as if the stuff would break his teeth.

"You look like you're having a bad time with that, friend." A disembodied voice called out from the fog causing Will to nearly choke on the small chunk of meat he was trying to get down.

With an uncharacteristic sputter he called out:

"Show yourself!" he spat out the piece of jerky.

The voice sounded amused by Van De Poorter's flustered response but there was compliance. A small woman stepped forward. She had unkempt jet black hair and almond eyes like Mother Chao Xing used to have. Yet there was a fierceness to them that Chao Xing's had lacked.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

Will had already unholstered his pistol but was gentlemanly enough not to aim it at her face immediately. Like an animal that felt threatened he merely scowled and showed he could inflict massive damage should she step out of line from this point on.

"Relax! My name's Suzy. I'm just a fellow traveler like you." She said with a friendly smile seemingly unperturbed by the sincerity of Will's threatening presence.

"Isn't that nice. Now get on your way." Will coldly replied. He was not in the mood for trading or sharing stories with some wastrel, even if she was pretty. There was something about her soft features that hid a possible ferocity though.

Suzy didn't see it that way though:

"I'd like nothing better, actually, but I appear to be hopelessly lost. The fog's turned me around see."

Will sighed. Though he had planned to continue his journey with no breaks or stops it appeared there was no escaping it now. Giving directions wouldn't take too long he figured, even if he wanted nothing to do with her. Will had very specific rules for women. He had time for them when he 'made time', never the other way around. That selfish attitude had served him well enough in Second City and it would again in New Vegas. So he figured anyway.

"It's just a straight road, miss... How hard can it be? I mean, you've kept to the road well enough."

There was a hint of shyness to her now. As if he had embarrassed her.

"I know that... It is just that I would like to find the nearest trader before I go to Emerald city."

Will snorted. "Why would you want to go there?" But he caught himself before she could answer. "Never mind, don't answer that, I don't care to know."

Suzy's smile turned into a slight frown now.

"Can you help me or not?"

Will holstered his pistol again and gave a nonchalant nod.

"You got a map of sorts? Crayon drawing of the area, anything?" He himself used to have one but lost it before the whole Kheiro business. He assumed most travelers stupid enough to head to this part of the wastes would at least not be stupid enough to head in blind.

Then again, she could very well be that sort of stupid; asking armed strangers directions like that.

Suzy nodded. "Sure I have." and unfolded an old map of which Will was only slightly jealous. His used to be bigger...

Will approached the woman now to look at the map. Perhaps this could work out in his favor. It could jog his memory as well.

It was an old map of what used to be the nation that came before the wasteland. Most of the names on it were out of date or just flat out wrong and adjustments had been made accordingly with red ink, showing new roads, names and such. It was a work in progress though. All of the east-coast still had the ancient names. Will assumed because Suzy hadn't been there.

Van De Poorter traced the road he had taken from the north, roughly, and then aimed at a place between Seattle, Washington and Astoria, Oregon.

"There. By the mountains." The map revealed it used to be called Twin Peaks. "There's an old diner that's been turned into a trading outpost. Double R sign outside. It's hooked up to a generator so it lights up like a beacon. Can't miss it, even in this fog."

Suzy sounded relieved. "Oh, thank you erm... mister."

Will's cold features thawed only slightly by her warm thank you. The fragments of a smile appeared on his face.

"It's nothing." He stated business-like. "Just don't... Get the jerky."

Suzy gave a hearty chuckle at that... And then stabbed him in the neck with a butterfly knife.

William Van De Poorter's eyes shot open as he felt the steel pierce him and pain shot through his entire body. His first impulse was to deck this harlot hard and a lighting fast chop shot out to deliver Suzy the most amount of possible pain in the shortest amount of time.

The blow landed causing the assailant to stagger and fall back, taking the knife with her which had previously been embedded in the former Thongzi assassin's neck.

"You fucking raider whore!" Will roared while he tried to keep the blood from pouring out of his neck by pressing a hand on it. The cut was deep but at least his throat hadn't been slit. It didn't take a doctor to figure out this was bad though. He could feel it gushing out at an alarming rate, coating his hand, neck and shoulder.

The assassin meanwhile sat up from the dirt feeling at her upper-lip and nose where Will had delivered his blow. She too was bloodied. Both her nose and the front row of teeth, the latter appearing like they had been loosened in their sockets and could fall out with just a tug now.

Like a crazed beast the raider got back up on her feet and leaped at Will with her knife. The agent could only block the knife with his free arm and felt it drive deep into his forearm several times. The painful sensation elected a snarl from Van De Poorter. He needed to get away from this psycho bitch fast and thus kicked her away with a hard stomp of his steel studded jackboot, once she had been pushed away from his person again the former agent turned and fled into the fog.

With every stride he took he felt the hand on his neck slip ever so slightly and reveal the wound to the cold open air, the pain was agonizing. With his cut up free arm he pulled his pistol from its holster again and tried raising it but the cuts in his arm made that difficult.

"Fuck! fuck! fuck!" Was all Will could think or say. His anger at himself for letting his guard down was only a fraction of it. Right now he wished nothing more than to gauge that whore's eyes out. He heard Suzy chasing him into the forest. Angry moans as she no doubt nurtured her own wounds while breaking twigs left and right.

Will turned halfway while running to shoot his pistol but due to the input of so many sensations around him he tripped over his own feet and fell on his back to the ground, landing on a cool forest bed made out of leaves, soft dirt and twigs. It was comforting in a bizarre way. Falling down, lying down. closing his eyes maybe... ''No! ''He wasn't going to die here! He wouldn't give up just like that.

Then he heard her. Suzy was coming. A screaming form in the fog with its arm raised, no doubt holding the knife like a madwoman.

Will felt light-headed, drained, but he knew what to do. Shakily he raised his pistol from his position on the ground, barely able to look through the iron sights now that he felt unable to raise his head. He had to peer down the sights from his current horizontal situation.

Suzy appeared, her screams louder and like a feral animal. She didn't look like a person anymore, there was only death in her eyes, those eyes he once thought pretty. Too bad...

A shot rang out and Suzy's sprint almost came to a deadbeat halt, she stumbled as if a part of her was lagging behind after the she had been shot. A red dot grew from the rags on her belly. The dot grew larger fast and she eventually the shock of the hit took her legs from her and she fell on her back.

Will let his weak arm holding the pistol drop. It felt like he had held the gun up for hours. His whole body felt like it was sinking into the ground now. He could only hear his ragged breathes and the heartbeat in his neck pulsing, there was a worrying irregularity about it. Looking straight up he could see an orange sky piercing through the grey clouds.

"Y-you babo..." Suzy wheezed angrily. "This was supposed to be simple... Shit..."

Will barely heard her, he didn't even look at her, couldn't in fact. His blue eyes were locked to the sky now.

"J-just survival..." He muttered softly. Soft enough for it to be unheard, but that didn't matter.

It was only a matter of time now.

(Will William return?)