' Der we are ' Cooper grunted as he crested the hill, pack slung over his shoulder as his faded skin stretched with each movement of his jaw.
He wasn't quite decayed just yet, rather halfway between man and something else as fragments of pinkish flesh and matted hair cascaded down his head.
He stared across the waste at the bunker housed in the mountain, where the recipient for his delivery was holed up with their settlement.
'Better be worth my time ' He grunted and adjusted his pack, stepping down across the gravel over the nuclear wastes towards his destination.
....
They were moving like a busy hive when he arrived, what passed for construction workers in these days were moving barricades into place behind the rolling door of the bunker, where he was allowed past after proving he was merely the delivery man for the job he had taken.
" Through there ... fourth room to the right " A guard holding a bolt rifle said, as his eyes scoured the wastes with careful searching eyes.
He wasn't the only one, every person working seemed to be doing so, almost paranoid in their watch as Cooper slowly sunk into the shadows of the bunker.
Without giving too much thought to it, he moved along the path he was guider along, moving past security barracks and monitoring stations, past a narrow corridor that lead deeper into the bunker and past a munitions supply station.
' Ah there ... ' Cooper strolled into an office where the leader of these raiders turned settlers sat, studying a sort of almost core like metal that seemed to warp the air around it.
When he noticed Cooper the man seemed startled, ducking the piece of technology away and shoving it in a bag under the table.
" There you are, we were beginning to think you wouldn't make it" He offered uneasy greetings, whilst Cooper raised his eyebrow slightly.
" Well yea, when ya hide in a bunker in the hills it gets" Cooper wheezed through what little remained of his nose. " Alittle difficult to track ya "
The leader nodded somewhat, shrugging before reaching forward and making a give me gesture.
" But I got what ya wanted, dunno what ya want with em but " The leader accepted the bag and looked inside, smiling and visibly relaxing.
" Very good ... here's your pay " The leader reached down and grabbed another sack he readily handed to Cooper.
" My thanks, now if you don't mind ... I don't..." Cooper tensed on instinct as two guards rushed in, running around Cooper and leaning down into the leaders ear, who's eyes opened wide, lips thinned and began to visibly panic. Leaning forward and interlacing his hands.
" We ah...we could use your help again " The buyer nervously fidgeted as the settlement guards rushed about.
' Okay ... what the fuck is this about '"
Cooper shrugged as the leader offered him another bag of caps as pay.
" And what'll this all be about ... " Cooper asker, corridor g his arms as he studied the guards.
" Just a guard Job, shouldn't be too long, just need you to help our guys defend while we deal with an approaching party. Shouldn't be much but you know how these things are " There was more, Cooper could see it in the way the leader seemed little beyond begging for his help.
" I'll take payment up front ..." That was what gave it away, as the leader readily handed over the extra bag without argument, simply giving a wavering smile and a nod. ' Shit ... '
' Better keep an eye out for a quick escape '
....
Another hint that something was wrong and he had been lied to was the front door of the bunker rolling shut in a similar fashion to how one of those vaults did.
The lights fading away to barely working flurescent lights that bled palid light into the tomb.
" Here ya go ... " One of the raiders turned settlers motioned to a concrete barrier they had managed to move into position, as the whole settlement seemed to mobilise and aim their guns at the front door.
' Okay ... this is odd ' If he had hair on his arms, it would have stood on end the way these raiders were acting like alarmed cats, with the leader standing behind the group near the only way deeper into the bunker as if to flee at a moments notice.
" This is fucked, was sure we lost em at the dead sea " One grunt hissed behind cover, checking and rechecking his weapons ammo nervously.
Whatever was about to he said by his mate died as a jump echoed through the bunker, a single loud whack on the other side of the thick door, what alarmed Cooper was how the door seemed to shutter, dust jumping visibly around the door.
' What the ... '
The front door of the bunker turned tomb blew open with a thunderous blast that knocked back several individuals and incinerated several others.
Cooper himself winced at the heat that threatened to blister his already burnt flesh.
He prepared for much, from the brotherhood of steel committing a raid, or an entire group of raiders blowing the bunker door open. What he hadn't expected was a single individual to step through the smoken whisps that billowed from the burnt grounds.
Garbed in black shredded robes, the armour that peaked through the gaps in the robes was a pitch black so dark it ate the light around it.
" I think you have something that belongs to me " The man was unremarkable in any means being related to the world of death and decay, if anything he was too prettyish, with unmarred skin and a strong jawline, a button nose with a head framed by a mess of black hair. Though there were strange things about his face, from the almost seam like divets that ran down his face and his glowing blue eyes. He was both normal and not all at once. And his demeanour, with a slowly spreading smile despite the amount of weapons aimed directly at him, he spoke comfortably, and Cooper could see the quaking in the arms of the men aiming their weapons at this single man.
" Now friend why don't you just... " The leader of these shut ins spoke, standing behind a barricade and several men who made an eclipse shape all pointed at the door.
" Nooo... " The man waved their hand, head tilting to the side as a mocking voice ripped from his mouth. " I don't think so ... you stole something from me and fled with your tails between your legs... "
Cooper watched, adjusting the grip on his rifle as he hid behind another barricade, eyes analysing the man, analysing the behaviour of the men who seemed to be quaking in their boots.
" And when I hunted your group across the lands you treated me as a pest for wanting what belongs to me... now " A black blade thinner than anything Cooper had ever seen lowered from within the hands robes. " Tell me ... where are my things "
" GET HIM " The leader cried, and Cooper and along with everyone opened fire apon the man without so much as a thought of hesitation.
' Bad luck friend ' Cooper winced, as he fired the first shot from his gun, and felt every instinct in his body scream the very next moment before he managed to duck back behind cover the same moment.
CLINK CLINK CLINK
The man moved, sworded hand a blur that doubled over several times as each amd every bullet was intercepted and reflected back the way they came. With a swing to the left, he sent a bullet crashing into the head of the man standing at Cooper's side. A swing to the right caused the man's sword to sing as another slew of bullets rebound and struck three more.
' WHAT THE FUCK ' Cooper wound around the cover with his rifle raised only to watch the man step forward, and simply become a blur as he leapt a single step at the leader and his formation.
" I'll just take search when you're all dead " The barricade met the man's blade, and like a hot knife through butter, the blade carved concrete apart like strips if sinew, and carved apart the men hiding behind the cover in one single swing.
" Ah ah ah " The man would and defelcted fire back, turning round and round in a spin as one by one the men around simply fell, victims of their own actions.
A stray bullet struck Cooper's right pectoral, sending him crashing to the ground as the last of their futile defence fell to the ground, blood and brains splattered around whilst Cooper groaned.
And froze, as the second living thing remaining in this corridor, he was keenly aware of just whose foot stepped down directly next to where he lay, as cold dark steel flashed in a wiz of light that flicked in his direction.
He ducked back on instinct, having his head saved barely by the lazy movement of the mans sword, now standing over him, sword tip pointed directly down at his forehead.
" Hm ... no " The man shifted, pulled his sword back and simply walked past the frozen Cooper and deeper into the bowels of the bunker.
Cooper simply lay there, the understanding that he could have very well died and everything he would have been working for whould have just been a pipe dream at best, frozen on instinct. He didn't realise he had been laying there for several minutes, through gunshots in the distance to the silence that swallowed the bunker.
Until the man stepped back through the path that lead into the bunker.
" I'll see you later ... " The man seemed to have a pack slung over their shoulder now, hands raising to the shredded hood of the robes he wore.
What spilled from the man's mouth made Cooper freeze once more as he partially rose, as the man's head turned to him ever so slightly, not once breaking his stride towards the blown open bunker door. " Mr Howard... "
" Wh..." Cooper simply stared as the man stepped into the white light ripping through the door, his shadow stretching with the light until he vanished before Cooper's eyes.