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A Long Road	By : TehFuryMan Category: +A through F > Fallout (Series) > Fallout (Series) Views: 5873 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on the Fallout video game series. I own no characters from the games that may appear in this story. I only own the MC, Judith. No money or profit is being made from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prologue
- 2-Chapter 1 - Welcome Home
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- 2
Author's Note: This story is a WIP (Work In Progress) and tagged content will appear throughout but not in every chapter. With that being said, this is a project that I have been wanting to do, for some time, and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it! Feel free to leave a review with your thoughts, as well as any advice and/or constructive criticism.
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Fallout
A Long Road
Prologue
     Judith felt the wave of heat rush across her face from the distant fireball that consumed the Enclave's Mobile Platform at the old Air Force base. She knew little about the area as far as it's pre-war history. Her familiarity was limited to the few hours she spent infiltrating it through the underground metro station. An extensive few hours spent making her way in and engaging Enclave forces in an outnumbered conflict that, honestly, she knew she wouldn't have made it out of had she attempted it on her own. Judith had a handful of companions - perhaps she could call them "friends" - to thank for her success.
   There was Elder Lyons; leader of the Capital Wasteland's Brotherhood of Steel that provided her with the tools and intel on the mission that, frankly, she never had to accept, but did so as a way of showing her own thanks for their help in everything she'd been involved in up to that point. Truth be told, she knew she'd be lying underneath a pile of dirt if not for them. The entire Brotherhood deserved her thanks, to be honest, but they weren't the only ones. There were the two individuals that flanked her at either side, watching the mobile platform go up in a plume of fire and smoke as a result of her directing the satellite laser right on top of the Enclave like a merciless hand of God.
   To her left, Faux let out a low gutteral grunt as the wave of heat washed over them. Whether it was in amusement or a way of the walking giant showing his discomfort at the sensation, Judith wasn't sure. Faux had been the most unlikeliest of allies she thought she would ever find herself traveling with in this wretched world that so many had called home. A super mutant whom had been betrayed and imprisoned by his own kind, simply because of his display of higher intelligence and moral compass. She hadn't expected to run into him again after Vault 86 when she retrieved the G.E.C.K. in order to help activate Project Purity. She never made it out of Vault 86 of her own volition anyway, no thanks to the Enclave getting the jump on her and holding her prisoner. She didn't quite owe her full escape to the super mutant. No, she'd been able to handle most of that on her own when the Enclave's own president triggered Raven Rock's self destruct sequence. Things only looked like they might have proven difficult when she hurried out the exit and into the open again to find ground troops fleeing for their lives. Surely, they would have identified her as the escaped prisoner had Faux, himself, not arrived moments before and proceeded to clear a path for her with a hail of gunfire. From there, she began to look at the green skinned creature as less of an abominable threat and more as useful ally. Now, even more so, a friend.
   Silent as ever, to her right, stood Charon. Judith glimpsed the ghoul's empty expression as the flames caused a reflection in his black eyes that was almost captivating. It seemed to give much more life where there appeared to be so little. Charon was...well, he was Charon. There wasn't much Judith even knew about him, other than that he had stayed in the ghoul sanctuary known as The Underworld for an extended time. Judith never took kindly to bullies, growing up. That's exactly how she had viewed Charon's previous "owner." A piece of shit by the name of Ahzrukhal who used him as a bouncer for the Ninth Circle. He certainly didn't treat Charon or mostly anyone else with any sense of decency. Charon, bound by his contract, was but a tool that would obey the word of whoever was in possession of it. Only when Judith had managed to bargain the contract out of Ahzrukhal's hands and into her own, was she able to finally offer the ghoul mercenary...no...slave...a sense of freedom. She didn't like the idea that he looked at her as his new master and owner, but the least she could do was treat him with the respect that any decent human being deserved. Her only gripe about him was that he never talked much. He would answer questions of hers in the shortest, most simple answers that he could come up with, but having an interesting lengthy conversation with him was like pulling whatever teeth he had left. He was definitely someone she appreciated having at her side as an extra gun.
   Judith closed her eyes and let a sigh escape her lips. Normally, she would have had something witty to remark on in an instance like this. But she was tired. Exhausted, even. She felt about as talkative as Faux and Charon, at that moment. She stayed silent as the three joined Sarah Lyons on the vertibird back to the Citadel where the Brotherhood of Steel, surely, awaited a detailed report on the mission. Judith would let Sarah handle that mess. She, herself, was no soldier. Just an unfortunate youth, at nineteen years old, who got dragged into one big mess that ended up costing her everything. Her home in Vault 101, her relationship with her best friend, Amata; a relationship that neither of their father's were privvy to, nor was anyone in the vault. Most of all, it cost her her father. The only parental figure she'd ever known growing up. A decision to set out and search for her father, when he up and left the vault in the middle of the night, turned her life upside down on it's head and changed her way of looking at things forever. Reality was not growing up inside an underground shelter where armed guards protected you or daily meals were served up in a cafeteria and everybody could sit and enjoy supper over peaceful conversation. Reality was a wasteland. A barren, treacherous place where you had to look out for yourself because most people didn't care. They either tried to rob you, shoot you, or worse. Reality was loss. It was coming to terms with the fact that the people you cared about...the people you loved...weren't always going to be there. They would be gone, sooner or later. They would die. Like her father. Her father that she braved this dark, dangerous reality to find after he had left without so much as a word. Judith never got to really vent her frustrations to him over what he did. She never got the chance to.
   "We'll talk about all of it later, sweetie." Her father had told her, promising he would listen and explain once his project had been completed. It had been shortly after, that the Enclave appeared and deprived her of it all. Deprived her of answers. Deprived her of an outlet. Given her that harsh wake up call that life wasn't all birthday parties and ditching class at the vault. That had been when Judith knew she needed to grow up. Being that naive teenage girl in glasses and a pressed Vault 101 jumpsuit would only land her dead in a ditch. She needed to harden up if she was going to survive in the Capital Wasteland. She needed to become a fighter. She already knew how to shoot. Sure, real guns kicked a lot harder than her bb gun she'd gotten at her tenth birthday, but she got used to that, rather quickly. Her time hanging around the Citadel had offered her a few pointers on other means of defense. Star Paladin Cross had served well as an instructor in hand to hand combat. Judith was no expert, sure, but she knew enough tricks to get her out of a hairy situation. Even Charon had valuable knowledge. Of course, she expected as much from someone who made a living out of killing or beating people to a pulp when he was commanded to. He'd been teaching her to use a knife, as well.
   On the ride back to the Citadel, Judith pulled out a folded up picture of herself and her father and just stared at the face of the man who had raised her from birth on his own as he held her younger self in his lap. She had been happy then. Happy and ignorant to the cruelty of life outside the vault. She had been innocent. What would her father have thought of her, now? Seeing his baby girl pull the trigger on an approaching raider so easily. She'd never forget the first life she'd taken. It had been shortly after she left Vault 101. Hell, it had been mere hours. Judith had found her way into the ruins of an old elementary school, trying to find a place to sleep as the scorching sun began setting behind the horizon. She'd gone in, only expecting a few radroaches; maybe some mole rats that she'd run into before on the outside after first leaving the safety of her subterraneal home. She never expected to find other people inside. People that, for all intents and purposes, weren't friendly in the least. Sure, they claimed to be when they found her. But something about them just rubbed her wrong and she was thankful, then, that she had managed to acquire one of the vault security guard's handguns during her escape from the vault. It had been only the one, at first. The one that grabbed her with the intent to do, who knew what, when he wrestled her to the dirty floor of the school. She didn't even realize she had reacted. Everything had happened so fast and he was on top of her, pulling and tugging at her vault suit. The next thing Judith remembered was hearing the shot echoe in her ears and the man's eyes widen in surprise. After that, she remembered clutching the sidearm in her hand and having the barrel pointed up at the man as a red liquid dripped from a hole in his midsection. It seemed like it took her forever to shove his limp body off of her when she heard the voices and footsteps of his comrades come running. By the time she had gotten herself free and up to her feet, three more had come rushing in with their own weapons drawn. Something else Judith had been thankful for: they were lousy shots. Their bullets pinged off of trhe floor and walls as she hurried out of the school and back into the darkening wasteland. They gave chase for a short while, with the terrified teenager not even looking back as she pointed the gun and shot back repeatedly. She was pretty sure she'd hit another one of them, out of pure luck, due to the way one of them cursed. The realization hadn't even hit her until she'd gotten tired of running and the adrenaline of the incident had worn off. Then she felt the nauseousness in her stomach. She had taken a life. A human life. She had killed someone. But it was the right thing to do, right? Otherwise, she might have ended up dead. Right? It was a doubt that Judith carried for days on forward until she realized that this world outside was kill or be killed with a few exceptions.
   Thankfully, there were still good people around that were willing to lend a helping hand. People like the ones who lived inside the walls of Megaton. Not everyone was the nicest there. Colin Moriarty; he was a prick. Jericho; that man made her skin crawl. The way he constantly looked her and kept wanting her to have a drink with him. Judith did her damndest to keep her distance from both men, even with Moriarty constantly mentioning of how he knew her father from when she was still an infant. Sherriff Simms was one of the helpful ones. He and Moira, the lady who owned the supply shop. Moira had even offered her the modified vaultsuit that, which Judith found odd at the time, had her same vault number on it. The modifications weren't much: a few pieces of thick, leather padding sewn in here and there to offer some protection from whatever one might run into out in the wasteland. It did it's job, though. It got her through a lot of situations that might have otherwise gotten her killed. Yet, here she was now, sitting in that vertibird after causing an entire Enclave stronghold to be obliterated. How far she had come, she realized, as she stared down at the photograph in her hand. But that question still burned in her mind. What would her father think of her now? Would he still see her as his little girl, were he still here? Or would he view her as an entirely different person? She supposed it didn't matter now. After all, he was gone. Taken from her by the cruelty this world above ground wrought. She'd spent days, weeks even, vowing to get back at the Enclave for taking everything away from her. Now, that she had fulfilled her goal, though, Judith found herself wondering. What was left for her, here, now? Her father was dead. She was banished from the vault by the only other person she actually cared for. The only other person she actually loved, aside from her father. Banished because it was "for the better of the vault." She wasn't suited for vault life anymore, apparently. Even as much as she wanted to go back and try to return to the life she knew, she was denied that choice. What was she to do, then? What was left for her, here in the Capital Wasteland? Judith folded up the picture and tucked it away beneath the chest piece of her leather armor and gazed outside of the open gunner's hatch of the vertibird as the wastland below. What was left for her? The answer, she supposed, was "nothing."
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A Long Road