The Survivor’s Guide to the Wasteland

When the girl confirmed that she was willing to accept the raider's peace offer, I sighed in relief. I knew these were raiders, but killing people is still killing people, and I would prefer to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. That being said, I can't trust these lawless marauders, so I called out for them to surrender properly.

"We're willing to hear you out. Put your hands above your head and stand up. Don't try anything funny. If you fuck with me, I will put a bullet in your face."

The two men raised their hands as if reaching for the sky and slowly stood up. Both had black paint smeared on their faces and a strange assortment of armor. Old leather armor was wrapped in barbed wire or had rail road spikes sticking out. I'm sure they were attempting to seem intimidating, but all I could see was a tetanus risk.

Keeping my combat rifle pointed at the raiders, I slowly approached my new robot commanding ally. Once I got within speaking distance, I voiced my plan.

"Hey. I want to frisk them and make sure that if we let them go, they can't just turn around and start blasting at us again. Can you keep your gun and robots ready? I don't want to get that close without someone keeping an eye on them."

She seemed to hesitate for a second but quickly responded.

"Sure, but try to make it quick. We don't know what they might try. They are raider scum, after all. Do you want to let them go?"

My immediate thought was to live and let live, but ultimately it shouldn't be my decision. She was the one who lost the most. And being a native of the wasteland made her more qualified to make the decision anyway.

"It's not about what I want. You got ambushed, not me."

Not hearing a response, I looked over and saw that she was staring at me. Her eyes bore into me, and I just held her gaze. After a few seconds, she turned to look at the raiders. Her gaze was tense, and the raiders looked away, fearing what decision she might make. Just when I was starting to feel awkward, she sighed and made her decision.

"Let them go. Everybody deserves a second chance. Hopefully, this is the wake-up call they needed."

Internally I was glad that there would be no more bloodshed. My adrenaline levels were now crashing down. Now that I was no longer in active combat and defending someone, I was much wearier of killing someone.

"Sounds good. I'll go and take any weapons from them so they can't just turn around and shoot us in the back the first chance they get".

Nodding at her, I circled around to the back of the raiders and started to pat them down. I quickly patted down the jackets of the two raiders and found nothing. Crouching down, I started looking through the pants of the two. While I was still rummaging through the pocket of one of the raiders, the other piped up and whispered to me.

"Hey, man. We're all business people here. Let's cut a deal."

I kept silent, not looking to converse with a criminal trying to murder someone. First impressions are essential, and these two didn't exactly leave the best one. After waiting and realizing I wasn't talking, the raider took my silence as interest and continued.

"Look, we got a slave contract lined up, and we just needed this last bitch to fill our quota. You get rid of her robots and help us catch her, and we'll split the entire contract with you half and half. We already did the heavy lifting. You get 500 caps for just one broad! How bout it?"

I couldn't help but think about all the depictions of cruelty you see across the wasteland, and a wave of rage rolled over my mind. The inhumane treatment in places like Nuka World, Paradise Falls, The Pitt, and Caesar's Legion is disgusting, and these raiders support their growth. In the face of death, they would instead bargain with others' lives than use this as an opportunity to start anew.

"*Sigh* I really wished you hadn't said that. Now I'm going to break a promise."

Something deep inside me knew the truth. If I let these raiders go today, they will only wreak havoc on some poor innocent wastelander struggling to make ends meet later. Standing up, I pointed my combat rifle at the back of the head of the raider who offered me to sell out my companion. Confused by what I said, the raider that propositioned me turned around and saw the wrong end of my gun's barrel.

"Wha- Whoa! WAI-"

*BANG*

Before the piece of shit could finish his sentence, I pulled the trigger and put a tidy hole right between the slave runner's eyes. I thought about whether or not I should kill his buddy. Maybe he's innocent. But then again, the dead raider did say: 'WE already did the heavy lifting'. Also, he was part of the attack, so it's obvious he had the same goal. Deciding on the same punishment, I turned and pointed my gun toward the other raider.

The remaining bandit seemed to have noticed my intention. Before I could put my sights on him, he ducked down and pulled something out of his boots. Immediately after, I saw two small flashes and felt two impacts on my torso. The smell of gunpowder and a searing pain quickly followed. Not planning to let the raider do any further harm, I shot him in the same spot as I did his buddy. His head flung back, and his body collapsed to the ground.

My adrenaline production was going into overdrive now, and I looked down to see the extent of the damage. What shocked me was that I couldn't see any blood, almost like I wasn't shot. What is going on? The pain was real. I felt the bullets impact me. I saw the muzzle flash. I pulled up my Pip-Boy to check my HP and see if there was any change.

Sure enough, the text beside my health bar read 232/260. Did this mean my health was also operating as if it were in a game? If so, this makes gunfights a lot more stomachable. Not needing to worry about stopping bleeding or disinfecting wounds will make life much easier. I could do without the pain, but beggars can't be choosers. Putting my Pip-Boy back down, I looked back up and saw the woman run over.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't expect him to have a gun hidden away. I can't believe I dragged you into this mess."

It was nice to see that she was worried about me. My first interaction with people being a gunfight followed by an offer to become a slaver wasn't the best start, but she seemed nice. Once she got close to me, she dumped out her pack and started to look for first aid. I could see random tools and mechanical parts, probably to maintain her robots. But then I saw something completely unexpected.