The card killer Options

[Lopov]

Inspired by TheChesireKhajiit, who created a separate thread for raider Victoria, I decided to post my latest tale in a separate thread as well. There'll be one story per week and if all goes according to plans, I should post them every Friday. Matching screenshots will be posted after each text, most of them but not all will be taken through the eyes of the main proantagonist.. Some stories will be long, some short, and sometimes you may recognize references of your own characters.

The stories ahead are dark though I'll try to make them humorous at times but most of all I hope you'll like them.

Enjoy.

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I

For the past two hours Lina has been spying on the pretty young guy sitting alone by the burning barrel – not because she’d be after him but because she wanted to be sure that he wasn’t some weirdo. She might have been a rookie in the bounty hunting profession, but she was very good at sneaking and thanks to her PipBoy who showed the [HIDDEN] icon on the top of the screen at all times, she knew that the young guy didn’t spot her.

Not seeing anything that’d make her suspicious, Lina joined him, and the stranger who introduced himself as Clive, gladly offered her some cram and a bottle of Nuka-Cola. Nobody could resist Nuka-Cola except undead and since Lina was very much alive, she gladly accepted the drink. It turned out that Clive wasn’t just pretty, he was also funny – so the more the Sun was setting, the better feeling Lina had about the coming night.

After Clive told her a little bit about himself, Lina revealed him that for the past few months she’s been on the track of the so called ‘card killer’. “In the wasteland it’s easy to get away with almost any crime but this guy or girl, I don’t know, but I think he’s a guy, always cuts throats of his victims, who are always women, then leaves behind a card depicting death. Like he wants to be recognized, you know? After one of my friends got killed, I decided to go after him. Or her, but I think he’s a guy. I pursued dangerous raiders before so I have some experience in tracking people down. Anyway, sometimes the trail would go cold for weeks but then rumors about a new murder and a new card would reach me, and the trail eventually led me here. The Capital Wasteland is just a few miles north of here and I’m sure I’ll catch up with him. Make him pay for his crimes. Sooner or later.”

Lina got a feeling that Clive wasn’t particularly interested in her story, either he didn’t take her bounty hunting profession seriously either he was hoping there’ll be some action between them this night. Well, Lina couldn’t blame him, after all she was also hoping for some action and it wasn’t long before Clive held her firmly in his arms.

***

Pleasantly tired, Lina was getting dressed as she saw Clive throwing her shotgun in the burning barrel. As he was pulling a blood-stained knife from behind his leather pants, his face didn’t seem nice anymore. Frightened Lina realized that she just had sex with the man she was after.

One slash at Lina’s neck was enough to end the aspiring career of a bounty hunter. She died not knowing that the stranger, whose name wasn’t Clive, had intentionally placed a camp in this location, waiting for her. Already down south he put a tracking device in her satchel and thanks to his own PipBoy he knew of Lina’s movement. He also knew that she liked men a lot, and hoped that she’ll stop by.

As ‘Clive’ was walking north towards the Capital Wasteland, he thought of Lina’s words, realizing she was right about many things – he was a guy, he cut throats of his victims, he preyed on women and he always left a card depicting death behind. However, she missed one vital information. Before killing his victims, ‘Clive’ had sex with them.

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Lina talks

Lina has some Nuka

Lina talks again

Lina on top

Lina frightened

Lina is gone

The killer's signature

Leaving

[Lopov]

@Renee - don't bet too much on Sonora's not getting hurt.

@TheCheshireKhajiit - he did indeed.

@SubRosa - maybe neither.

@Acadian - Sonora's words definitely changed a lot of what the card killer had in plan. For better or for worse, that yet remains to be seen.

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XII

As Crow, one of the four wandering merchants in the Capital Wasteland, and his loyal bodyguard Natasha were approaching the Temple of the Union, a safe haven for runaway slaves, they immediately noticed that something was terribly wrong. Outside there was a dead brahmin and next to it lay the corpse of their friend Crazy Wolfgang, another wandering merchant.

“Ready your weapons,” Crow ordered his bodyguard as he checked his late friend’s corpse. “He’s still warm so whoever did this left recently…or is still here.”

They slowly approached the ruined three-story building called the Temple of the Union and found the main door surprisingly unlocked. At all times escaped slaves kept the door tightly locked and only when trading, the merchants were let in, so Crow was positive that escaped slaves faced the same fate as his poor friend Crazy Wolfgang.

“I bet slavers sniffed the place out,” he told Natasha.

Crow first found Caleb Smith’s corpse in his bed, his throat cut. The next one found was Simone Cameron, her throat cut as she was sitting at a table. In a common room were corpses of Hannibal Hamlin and Bill Seward. And when he was more and more convinced that it was slavers who slaughtered their former “property”, he found the corpse of the youngest escaped slave – Alejandra Torres. Next to her corpse was a card depicting death.

“[censored]! It wasn’t the slavers, Natasha. It was the card killer!”

Not far from the Temple of the Union the killer was hiding behind some tree, inspecting Crow’s actions from a safe distance thanks to his scoped .44 Magnum. It wasn’t in his habit to kill as massively, he only wanted Alejandra but after Sonora Cruz pissed him off with her questioning, he needed to unleash his wrath on someone. Besides, if he had killed only Alejandra, it wouldn’t be difficult for other escaped slaves to put two and two together about the card killer’s identity – the seemingly friendly Regulator called Cory Costner who came to their temple this very day, pretending to be on a lookout for slaves. So unfortunately for Alejandra’s friends, they had to be removed too. And when he was done with them, Crazy Wolfgang and his stupid bodyguard came to the Temple to trade, in other words they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. A shame, he didn’t have anything against them, but he couldn’t afford to leave witnesses behind.

Despite mass murdering the card killer didn’t feel much better. Sonora Cruz ruined some of his plans and he had no doubt that regulators will spy on him as he’ll be performing his duty in or around Megaton. So maybe it was time to “die”. He “died” a few times before to elude those that found him suspicious. And then when he “dies”, Sonora would get what she deserves.

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The Temple of the Union

Of course he is on their side

Dining with former slaves

Action

Another card victim

Unlucky merchant and his bodyguard

Crow's caravan approaches