Aftermath

Half a day? That was an optimistic estimation. The uneven ground made it difficult to keep a steady pace. It was made worse by the need to keep an eye open for mines. They'll probably stumble into Central City at the dead of night.
Unless they stumbled into a minefield instead.

The doctor, Sam was his name, caught up to him
"Should we make camp for the night and continue in the morning?"

"Yes that's a good idea. I don't want to stumble into a minefield at dark."

Looking around (there really wasn't much for landmarks), Ely spotted a patch of open ground surrounded by tall rocks.
"That place looks good. Let's unpack the camping equipment and set up a fire. I think we'll be okay if we had a cooked meal this close to the city"

At least he hoped so

 

"God it's hot today." Victor said to himself, wiping the sweat from his brow. His water canteen was empty and his food supply was running low. His group had ordered him to look for supplies as they escorted a woman they took captive to sell to a local slave trader. He didn't want to go out too far from the rest of the group. After searching nearby for most of the day, he decided to head back when he heard the sound of a railgun going off. "Shit that can't be good." He said, running and taking cover behind an area of broken wall. Looking over the top of he he was able to see the blood bath and what looked like a man trying to rescue they're prisoner. Well fuck. At least I don't have to worry about coming back empty handed. I don't think the boss will be too happy about losing the prisoner though. Seeing that the mans back was turned to him, he began to slowly approach with his gun drawn.

 

"Sounds good to me."
Kai took a quick look around and spotted a particularly large rock in the formation that Ely pointed out that could give him a good view of the area. When he found it, he turned to the others.
"I'll be back. I'm gonna climb that thing and see if I can scout out the area a little. If there's anyone creepin' around, I'll find 'em. It's what I do."
He walked over and immediately started to climb. The rock face was steep and it looked more than a little dangerous, but he was used to this sort of situation by now.

 

Sam started a small fire by the rocks using some wood he found then using some small canned goods he had brought with them cooked up some stew
"Foods ready."
He was after all a really good cook.
"So Ely tomorrow we reach the city whats our first objective?"

 

"We'll enter the medical district and start asking questions on Stacy's whereabouts. I'll focus on this objective. You two will investigate the district for possible strike areas and escape routes. Once your done wait for me to finish my investigation and meet me outside the district. Things you should keep an eye out for are guard towers, sewer systems, and anything else that may help or hinder our escape route."

Ely tasted the stew, it was surprisignly good. He must have been more hungry then he thought.

"If Stacy is in the area then I'll escort her out of there personally. That was the mission given to me by the commander. I'll trust your judgement on the best way to break into and then out of the medical supplies. Rely on the Sargent for information he can gather on that. He's recon, it's his job."

Gulping down the stew Ely turned over towards rock where the Sargent was overlooking the wasteland
"Give me a bowl so I can give it to the Sargent. Looked like he volunteered for first watch."

 

Logan tensed as he heard the crunch of gravel.
"Shit" he heard Stacy mumble as she looked past him.
Scooping up his gun, he turned.

 

"Shit! Fuck!" Victor said as he took aim and shot Logan in his shoulder with his revolver twice. I've got 4 shots left. Make them count, asshole. You don't want to get hit by that gun of his. Taking the opening that this gave him, Victor ran up to Logan and wrestled him to the ground. Logan punched Victor in the face a couple times. Feeling weak from the hits to his face, Victor pushed on the gunshot wound in Logan's shoulder, making him gasp and scream. Taking this moment, Victor put the nozzle of his gun into Logan's mouth. "Now here is how this is going to go, asshole." He said, kicking Logan's gun away. "We're going to play a game." Victor pulled the gun out of Logan's mouth and spun the barrel. "The rules are simple. I'm going to fire my gun at your pretty little face and if the gun doesn't fire, I'm going to take everything of value that you have, including the girl and any food. I don't think you need me to tell you what'll happen if it does fire. Ready?" Aiming the gun at Logan's face he fired. Click. "God damn it." Victor said, hitting Logan in the side of the head with his gun, knocking him out. "I really wanted to kill someone today. Oh well I guess." Victor got off of him and picked him free of any food that he might of had on him and took the gun he kicked to the side. He also began to loot the bodies of his fallen comrades. "Let's see here... wait a minute." He said, pulling out a bottle of booze from the guys jacket. "You were holding out on me, asshole!" After searching the other bodies, Victor walked up to the girl and re-did her bindings and pulled her up. "Come on. We have places we need to get you to." He said, smiling though no one could see it through the gas mask he always wore. Pulling her along, the two were off.

 

After everyone had ate and took their turns at watch it was finally morning
"Its time to head to the city."
Then we walked for another hour and finally the city could be seen in the distance
"There it is ready guys?"

 

It was full dark when Logan came within sight of the Central City lights. His head felt like it was in a vice from where that damned raider smashed his gun against it & his shoulder was on fire.
"If I ever see that son of a bitch again" he mumbled. "You'll what? " he thought. "You don't even know what he looks like". Goddamn raiders. Was it too much to ask for them to wipe themselves out?
Logan couldn't help but think of that poor woman, Stacy, being back in captivity. "With any luck, she's dead" Logan thought. God only knew she would be dammed lucky if that were the case.
Heading towards the "city", Logan knew he needed to hit up the medical dispensary & find a bottle or two of whiskey. The only question was which he would do first.

 

Kai nodded and turned to Sam.
"Always. So, what do you think? Should we stick together or split up and search the city on our own while the Lieutenant does his thing?"
He then looked over to Ely.
"And while I'm thinking of it, how long do you think it'll take on your end? We'll probably be scouting around for an hour at least, depending on how smoothly things go. I'd like to get an idea of when we need to get back to the meeting place.

 

"I think me and you should stick together in case things go badly for any reason."
Sam looked at Ely "I agree we should meet up someplace at a certain time."

 

The daunting task of finding a missing person here hit Ely like a ton of bricks.
This is going to be impossible.

"Meet me here in three hours, that should give you plenty of time to come up with an attack plan. If I don't come back in time then I give you full control of the operation. Don't wait for me, don't go looking for me. Assume the worst and finish the mission. That's a direct order."

Ely looked back to the others and gave them a nod. No point saluting here, they were in enemy territory.

 

"God damn it, stop dragging your fucking feet!" Victor shouted at Stacy before he hit her. "We're almost there and I want to make it there tonight! Or would you rather we wait and play a little game?" He laughed as he took a sip from the bottle booze he took from his fallen comrade, his gas mask now off and hanging from his belt. It was slim pickings, but he managed to score a tiny bit of food and a couple bullets, not to mention Logan's gun to boot. That was going to fetch a nice price. There was a black market on the outskirts of the city where he was going to sell Stacy and the gun he stole.

It was late when Victor made it to the market and the guy he was to meet had yet to show up. "Fuck! It was because of your heel dragging that we made it too late!" He shouted, hitting her again and setting up a make shift camp. "Inside the tent. I don't want anyone to see you." He told her, pointing his gun at her. She fearfully did as he ordered and went into the make shift tent. "First that asshole and now this bitch. Today just isn't my day." Victor grumbled to himself as he took another swig from his bottle of booze, which turned out to be scotch. Victor closed the tent and warned her that if she tried to leave it was not going to be pleasant for her, and proceeded to walk around the market.

While walking around Victor over heard two people talking about a potential raid in Central City's medical district. Apparently there were quite a bit of drugs and medicine there that were fetching a high price. Listening in he found out that the best time to strike would be tomorrow. Smiling, Victor took another swig and headed back to the tent for some 'fun'.

 

They reached the city entrance without to much trouble. Sam looked at Kai "Lets go then."

As they walked around the city Sam couldn't believe how many people were lurking about then whispering to Kai "This may not have been the best idea escaping will be difficult without drawing to much attention. I see the medical building over there."

Pointing to the tall building on the far right side of the street with some people standing outside the back with medical outfitting on

"The supply's we need will most likely be on the bottom floor, I brought along these bags so we can carry what we need. Getting in wont be easy but I think I have a plan for that. Now its up to you to come up with an escape plan any ideas?"

 

As they walked around the city, Kai studied his surroundings very carefully, down to the last detail. Possible vantage points, places where he could take cover, alleyways and corridors that he could use to evade pursuit, anything that could give him an edge. Despite his seemingly carefree attitude, he was actually very meticulous when it came to planning out and executing a mission. He looked back at Sam when asked about an escape route.
"Well, I don't think we can take any of the exits on the bottom floor. That's the first place they'll go once they find out that something's up. Far as I can tell, our best chance of getting out of the building is to make our way to the second floor and from there, get to the staircase outside. When we do, I'll give you some covering fire while you climb down the stairs and head to the back alleys. Then you cover me while I catch up. From there, we should be able to lose them without too much trouble, I took a good look around so I have an idea of where we need to go. What do you think, sound like a plan?"

 

"Sounds good to me. So when do we do this?"
If it wasn't bad enough suddenly it started to rain

 

"Running first, answers later."
Kai quickly found a roof to duck under and started running towards it. When they were out of the rain, he wiped his face off with his sleeve and turned to Sam.
"If I was picking the time I'd say tonight, but first I want to see what Longfield is up to. If we can start our missions at around the same time, we might just make the locals divide their forces between the three of us, which means we'll all have a better chance of getting back alive."

 

"I'm sorry but we have a policy of keeping our clients anonymous. I'm sure you understand, with the amount of suffering in the world the lucky few who could afford our care need to be protected"
"You're dodging the question! I have to find Stacy, it's important that I do."
"And who exactly are you to this... Stacy person?"
Of course Ely couldn't tell the doctor he was an officer at the base she stayed at
"That's not important!"
"I'm sorry I can't help you"


Ely left the office in a fit. Every doctor here gave him a different bullshit excuse. Something was strange here, none of the doctors flatout told him that they haven't seen her. Instead it was either "we have to protect our customer's privacy" or "I'll like to help you but you haven't given enough information"

Bullshit. Stacy Rodriguez. Late 20's, early 30's. Blond hair with a bitchy attitude. Most people would say she was gorgeous. They would be right. She would have looked completely out of place in this wasteland, her entire wardrobe would put a supermodel to shame. Ely's description of her should have had the doctors worried about his mental state. Instead they averted their eyes and fed him non answers.

Maybe they really don't know? I must make sure first. Those doctors probably keep records of all their patients. When the others break in I'll investigate it.

It started to rain then.
Better meet with the others at the meeting place.

 

Sam returned with Kai to the meeting place surprised to see Ely already there
"Hey how did the search go?"

 

"These doctors like to keep their secrets. I think the only way I could determine who has been visiting them is to gain access to their medical records. How it go on your end? Do you think we can make it inside?"