Ch. 24 Bison Steve II

"Ready?" Colton asks.

Cass nods and gets ready to open the door.

"Open it" Colton says.

Once Cass opens it Colton waits a second before sneaking inside. He makes sure they didn't boobytrap the door since they left.

He makes his way inside. He doesn't see anyone and moves into the first hall with the two hall branching off on the right side.

Colton walks past the first hallway after making sure nobody was down it. He then makes it to a room on the left side and carefully opens the door and enters. He doesn't see any convicts inside. Only a dead skeleton on the floor with a chair behind him tipped over. A huge black bloodstain on the carpet coming from its skull.

He looks at the table and finds a random note. Colton decides to just leave it there. Whoever this dead guy was, it's the end of whatever ransom was trying to be collected.

Colton searches the room quickly and freezes when he opens a cabinet in the room. Inside was energy weapons and energy cells. A laser pistol and a plasma pistol. Colton takes everything. Even the boxing tape wrap.

With this room cleared he goes back to Cass. They are on either side of the first hallway. Colton makes sure it's clear and goes to the first room on the right. He carefully opens the door and has his silenced pistol at the ready.

Inside he hears two people sleeping. And one of them was snoring pretty loudly. Colton sneaks in. He sees one on the bed next to a suitcase and the other in the tub.

Colton takes his knife from its sheath and goes to the guy on the bed. He looks at the skinny looking guy peacefully sleeping. Colton brings the knife just above the guys throat and puts his pistol away. His other hand ready to cover the guys mouth to stop the gargled screams.

He digs the knife into the man's throat and drags it through the throat until it reaches the other side.

He covers the man's mouth as he wakes up and struggles for a few seconds before he slips away.

Colton wipes the blood off on the man's clothes and goes to the guy in the tub. He does the same thing he did to the first guy. But this guy apparently had some more strength in him as he kicked the tub. But it wasn't enough to alert anyone and he also died.

Colton made sure nothing else was in the room and exited it. And when he looked back down the hall he sees that the opening doesn't connect the two parallel hallways. It is just an indent with a couch and vending machine.

Colton sees another man sleeping on the couch. He motions for Cass to move forward with him.

And when he gets to the next door on the right he sees that door is open. Inside the ceiling collapsed and made a ramp to move to the next floor. Nobody was inside and when he looked into the room next to it.

Well. He was extremely confused. It was completely collapsed and nobody would be able to get in or out. But Colton swears somebody did earlier. He chalks it up to the smokey air.

Now he has to decide if he wants to clear this floor or the upper floor first.

He looks at Cass. "Top down" He says and moves into the room with the convenient collapsed ceiling. He holds his knife in his right hand and his pistol in his left.

On the next floor he checks the room out. Lots of cigarettes in the room that didn't fall. He walks to the bathroom and looks inside.

Inside is case on the ground labeled 'Armor Case'. Inside is a .22 silenced pistol. .22LR rounds. A hatchet. And clothes. He leaves the clothes but takes the other things. And he also sees a first aid box which he easily lockpicks.

Inside was a? Bobby pin? Psycho, Rad-X, Stimpacks, and purified water. He took all of it and just stowed them away into his pack.

When he poked his head out of the room he looked to his left and saw the hallway blocked off by the ceiling that had fallen completely.

He walked the other direction and he heard slapping sounds. It was like having a 'Nam flashback. Colton unfortunately knew what was going on. And the grunts didn't help either.

Most of the doors on this floor were boarded shut.

And when Colton turned down the hall the noise got worse. Like some people magically appeared and joined the first two.

Colton walks down the hall and the sounds get louder. At the end of the hall the ceiling collapsed and knocked a Nuka-Cola vending machine over.

"Harder!" Some guy shouts.

Colton feels his skin crawl. He just wants to get this over with. He walks into the room with its door open and the moans coming out of it with two silenced pistols in hand.

He sees something that not even bleach could erase.

On a single bed were at least 9 dudes. But Colton really wasn't counting. It just looked like a flesh monster that smelt even worse than you could imagine. Colton just let the bullets fly.

There were some screams. But that could have been misinterpreted a certain way considering what they were doing.

"Guess they were having a fun time" Cass comments as she looks at the pile of clothes, weapons, and chems on the ground. "At least they had the decency to sort these out for us"

Colton chooses not to look at the mess on the bed. There was blood on it before, but now that was just its natural color. "I don't think decency is a word I would use with them" Colton says as he walks towards a destroyed wall that leads to a room without its floor. He opens a cabinet. And guns and ammo fall out of it to the floor.

Colton assumes that nobody was nearby to hear that because nobody wanted to hear what was happening in the room before.

It was a bunch of 9mm and 10mm ammo and a few pistols. There was even a 9mm submachine gun.

Colton throws them in his pack and lets the smg poke out.

In the bathrooms he finds nothing in the first. But when he makes it to the second he finds a skeleton with an empty wine bottle next to it in the tub with Psycho and a whiskey bottle next to it.

He stores the psycho and cleans the whickey bottle.

Cass was taking the things that were sorted and putting them in a hiking backpack that was conveniently there.

Colton walks to her and drinks half of it before handing it to Cass.

"Drinking on the job? How scandalous~" She teases. But she takes it and sips from it. "This is gonna hit you hard you know" She warns and puts the half empty bottle into her inner jacket pocket.

"God I hope it does" Colton prays as he walks out and checks the end of the hall. It's just collapsed and nothing else besides empty bottles.

He comes back and Cass throws the hiking backpack over her shoulder and puts her shotgun over her shoulder like Cass has Purifier.

"Down we go" Colton says as he walks back to the room they entered this floor from and walks back down the makeshift ramp.

Colton looks down the next hallway around the bend and sees two guys at the end of the hallway.

*pew* *pew*

He doesn't waste time. Both bodies hit the floor and he's surprised that no red markers pop up on his compass radar.

He makes his way down the hall and checks the left branching hallway and doesn't see anything so he continues to the end where the bodies are outside a room with its door open.

Colton gets to the bodies but ignores them as he checks the room. It just smells of old alcohol. Inside were just a ton of empty bottles. Whiskey, beer, wine, moonshine jugs. Lots and lots of them.

"Tch. Looks like I missed the party" Cass clicks her tongue as she looks at all the empty bottles.

"We can have a party when the convicts are all dead. How's that?" Colton says as he goes back to their entrance into the building. "Let's loot the bodies. I don't think there are any more people on these upper floors.

"That means that there are around 20 convicts below us" Cass calculates based on their information.

"Yep. That's why I'd like to loot these bodies before something goes terribly wrong" Colton says.

They find a set of keys. Guns, bullets, ammo, good and bad drugs that make Cass's blood boil just looking at them, and melee weapons.

Cass takes periodic swings from the whiskey bottle as she and Colton put their newly aquired loot away. She wonders how many caps she can get for these things if they get out of this.

Colton and Cass go to the last hallway they have to clear on this floor.

Colton leads the way with his pistol and knife combo at the ready. He walks past an elevator that is slightly broken and a locked door. And a little further there is a door that leads to a staircase leading down.

"Let's see what's hiding behind door number one" Colton says as he takes out a bobby pin and gets to work. He gets it in almost record time.

"You're pretty good at that" Cass comments.

Colton pushes the door open. "Dad mostly taught me what I know"

Inside were enough medical supplies to make Cass's eyes turn to caps.

"Bingo" Colton says as he begins checking everything and making sure they aren't expired. A lot were. But they could be recycled to become usable. "Let's bag these and hurry up with clearing this place"

——————

Colton leads the way down the stairs.

At the bottom he slowly opens the door and peeks out. It's even more smokey down here. It looks like this door leads to a vending machine room that doesn't have a door to the lobby.

He sees two men groggily trying to open an Eat 'o' Tronic.

*pew* *pew*

Both men slump to the floor just as they get the machine open to reveal a stack of mentats.

[ [Rambo Style] is now in effect ]

Colton looks at his radar and sees many markers light up. But they don't move towards him and Cass. They're mostly to his right where it looks to open up into a giant room. But he can't see in because there is a wall a person would have to walk around to enter and exit the room. That's also where the smoke seems to be coming from.

He looks back at Cass and points to the left.

He looks into the lobby with lots of chair and small desks around the room. Nobody is inside so he pushes in. He goes across the room to a door that is locked and gets to work. But he stops when he looks to his right and sees 5 markers past the door.

Colton decides to go this way after he clears the front of the building. So he and Cass make their way to the left of the stairs they took.

He finds the elevator he could have fixed but still decides to leave it. To his right is a door that leads to a gift shop. Inside are three markers. And to his left Colton sees 5 markers.

Colton moves right next to Cass. "Three people in the gift shop" he whispers and points to the door on the right. He points to the left. "And 5 people through that door. We will kill the three first and see what happens from there"

Cass nods and follows Colton on either side of the gift shop.

"Just open the damned thing!" A man shouts from inside.

"The boss said no explosives! So just give me a damn minute to think and I'll get it!" A younger voice shouts back.

Colton and Cass nod to eachother and both point their guns into the room.

Both fire three shots. And three bodies hit the floor.

But two head end up exploding onto the walls.

Cass looks at their silenced pistols with an inquisitive gaze. "I've seen shotguns do less than that"

"Really? Who knows, peoples arms and legs get shot off pretty easily from time to time. Guess heads work the same way" Colton shrugs.

Cass wonders if Colton has ever blown a persons head off and had it explode like this.

Little does she know, Colton has shot a head off. It was just below the belt.

Inside the gift shop was a bunch of Bison Hotel toys for kids, books, empty bottles, and other random things.

Colton moves to the bodies behind the registers and sees a safe, and a book.

He grins as he touches the book and it turns to dust.

[ Barter has increased by +3 ]

It was a [Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor] book. Now his Barter is at an all time high of 27 without any bonuses.

He grabs an eye from the floor next to the now pile of ash.

Cass walks behind the counter to get out of sight if anyone walks by. "Can you open the safe she asks while she looks over the countertop"

Colton kneels down and inspects it. "No" He turns around and holds the eye up. "But I've got an eye for you"

Cass glances over at Colton. "That would be kind of sweet if it wasn't so disgusting"

Colton drops the eye. "Can't blame a guy for trying. And give me a sec" He grabs the safe and tries to pry it open with his strength but isn't able to do it on his own. "Help me with this would you?" Colton asks.

Cass puts her pistol on the counter next to some caps and prewar money. She shakes her head as they pry it open. The metal creaks until something loudly snaps and the door opens.

Colton jumps over the counter and dual wields his silenced pistols as he dashed into the other room. He sees the 5 men near a door behind a desk with a terminal. They are scrambling and trying to grab their weapons as Colton rounds the corner and takes aim.

*pew* *pew* *pew* *pew* *pew* *pew* *pew*

Colton killed the first three but only wounded two. They each stumbled backwards. One holding his throat as he choked on his own blood while the other held his shoulder and tried to dive for his gun next to the terminal. Colton put a bullet into each of the initial survivors to be safe and they fell to the ground as well.

Cass was inside the gift shop still but was standing ready at the door with her pistol ready. She glances down the hall but doesn't see anyone coming.

"I've got the five in here" Colton whispers as he hides around the corner. "And it seems there is a locked door in here as well as the entrance to this place"

"Ok. I don't think the others heard us from the other side of the building" Cass whispers back.

"Good. Let's check what we've got in the safe" Colton says as he sneaks back to the gift shop.

They both go behind the counter and look inside the now open floor safe. Inside are caps. A 9mm pistol. 9mm ammo. A beer. Some .357 Magnum rounds that Colton appreciates since they're decently hard to come across.

They take the first layer of goodies and set them aside. There's a dirty water container that they take out. A few stacks of prewar money. Psycho. Stimpacks. Asuper Sim pack. whiskey. And something that makes Colton's heart swoon.

Colton carefully takes out a .357 Magnum revolver that is modified and unique.

Colton looks at his Pipboy and this revolver is named. It's called Lucky.

Cass whistles lightly. "Look at that. Rarely see anything as detailed and in such a good condition"

It's metal is black with gold engravings. It's grip is white with a black Club symbol like on a playing card on each side of the grip.

Colton pulls out his old .357 Magnum. "Oh yeah. Upgrade"

He looks at the increased critical chance and critical damage of Lucky and instantly swaps them out. "I might even be able to use this guy soon"

Cass looks towards the door. "I hope not. Hopefully we can wrap this up stealthily"

Fair enough. Colton puts Lucky in his holster and puts his old revolver in his pack along with the caps and other things they pulled out of the safe and the caps on the counter.

"Let's go deal with the bastards before we see what's behind the other locked door" Colton says as he heads back to the previously locked door.

There are still three red markers behind the door to his right as he lockpicks it. On a closer inspection he notices that it's labeled Maintenance Door. It doesn't change anything, but he finds it interesting he missed it before.

Colton opens the door and looks down the hallway. At the end it's collapsed. Shocker. But halfway down it there is a branching hallway.

He makes his way down the perpendicular hallway and gets to a closed door where the red markers are. He flings the door open and sees 5 men sleeping around a counter and a man that is tied in a kneeling position.

This is the kitchen, and to his right Colton can see a closed set of double doors. Colton assumes they lead to a the big room, or it could lead to a bunch of small rooms. But considering this is the kitchen it's probably a big dining room.

*pew* *pew* *pew* *pew* *pew*

Colton just shoots each person on the ground but leaves the tied up man, who didn't wake up surprisingly. But then again, Colton wasn't that loud in killing them.

In the next room Colton counts 11 red markers. He looks to Cass and sets his silenced pistol to the side and brings out Lucky and some extra rounds for it. "Bet I can kill all the men in this next room on my own" He says cockily.

Cass gives him a strange look. "The fu- you know what. Sure. But if I kill one of them you lose" She brings out her shotgun and hast her 10mm pistol ready if anyone is out of shotgun rang.

"What are the stakes?" Colton asks in a whisper.

Cass brings the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder and gets ready. "I don't know…. how about the we split the caps 60/40"

Colton thinks about it. "Sure, not like I'm hurting for caps at the moment"

Cass knows how many caps they will be getting soon. And it won't be cheap. A simple 10% cut difference could be in the hundreds depending on where she can sell their excess stock. "Easiest caps I'll ever make….. second easiest caps I'll ever make. Outdrinking people might be the easiest"

Colton holds lucky in his right hand and puts his left palm over its hammer. He can't help the grin growing across his face. But the cloth covering his nose down hides it mostly.

"It's High~ Noon~"