Chapter 2

Panting, Aud flung her hand up against his jaw, slamming his face backwards and into the wall behind him. A loud crack filled the air at the force of the impact, and the thug slumped against the wall, sliding to the ground. No blood. Still breathing. Still alive.

But Aud was in too much of a hurry to worry about killing him. So she took a moment to breathe, then started down another hall.

Time to recap: Aud got ambushed by some nice-smelling thugs right inside DC. They knocked her out cold. She woke up here, and immediately started bashing heads together. So... you haven't missed much.

Just who were these sons-of-bitches anyway? She'd already ruled out raiders, because, well... they smelled too nice. So what were they? They couldn't be just and ol' Wastelanders - they were way too tough, and there were too many of them. This seemed to be their hideout, or their base... it was almost like a Vault. Long, metal corridors, completely empty. An alarm was going off, though it sounded wrong, like a record player when someone's purposely slowing it down. The lights would flicker once in a while, but that seemed almost normal. Like they had always been faulty.

Another thug came around a corner and managed to catch her off guard, grabbing her quickly and pulling her against him. She struggled against him with all her strength - which, frankly, wasn't much - but he obviously was stronger than her and managed to keep her there. She stopped thrashing around at the sound of his voice in her ear. "Don't worry, honey. The boss just wants to talk with ya, that's all. That's all," he spoke with a tone most used for babies or small children.

She grunted with another attempt to free herself, to no avail. Sneering, she rasped out, "Who the hell are you people?"

The thug flung her over his shoulder with one smooth motion, and started walking the opposite way she came. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, honey. No questions. We're just going to talk to the boss, that's all. That's all."

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It was a vault. First thing she noticed: The place the thug took her was a vault cafeteria. She knew the look of the place - that's where the Snakes usually hung out. Vault cafeterias were all the same. This one looked quite a bit bigger - probably for a larger population - but that's about it.

The next thing she noticed was who inhabited the cafeteria. A bunch of things were huddling in a corner, playing something that looked similar to poker. Though with what, she didn't know. She had never seen a deck of cards in her life except in old posters. She'd heard there were some in Vegas, but she couldn't imagine people being from anywhere other than DC, let along across the country.

The last thing she noticed was a woman, dressed in a large black leather jacket, a dirty white shirt that showed off her quite prominent abs, and some really rough jeans. She had a large ammo belt strapped over her shoulder and weapons seemed to just pack into her skin there were so many. For the first moment in a long time, Audrey Lone felt a spark of fear, but soon pushed it away and instead picked up her badassery. I'm gonna need it, she thought and straightened her shoulders, then crossed her arms sternly. She tried to think of something incredibly witty and awesome, but she couldn't. So she stayed silent.

The woman, who seemed to be the boss, stood up slowly, grinning. He faced her with a smirk that would kill a slaver dead, but barely fazed the Lone Wanderer. She was used to that look. Being faced with bloodthirsty mongrels on an everyday basis seemed to toughen you up for the really stupid ones. And yet even though she was used to it, the only thing it purposed in her was a strong hatred, and a heated anger that almost never surfaced - and when it did, you better be in a 100-mile radius. 'Cause she's gonna blow you up. Literally.

The boss ignored her angered glare. "I suppose you've figured out why your here by now."

No, she hadn't actually. Why hadn't she even thought about it? Surely she's got a fairly good idea of who it could be, didn't she? No... no, she didn't. She suddenly felt very stupid. Grunting, she shook her head quickly. "You're not raiders, that's for sure. And you're no random Wastelander. But no, I have no fucking clue who you are," she spat.

"Oh-ho-ho! So the brilliant Lone Wanderer doesn't know her own enemies, hmm? I wonder if we should tell her, boys?" A rumble from the group of thugs to her right and behind her spread throughout the room. "No? Really, boys, we should be nice. She's a guest after all, right?"

"Stop bloody toying with me," Aud seethed. "Just tell me who the hell you are."

The boss made what looked like a thoughtful expression. "Oh, alright, if you must know," she said in a very heavy, very fake English accent. Mocking her. Bitch. "But only because you can't seem to figure out for yourself, you stupid Tunnel Snake."

What. First thing that came crashing down on her was how she knew about her past affiliations. Then came a wave of anger, and then just dumbfound disbelief. "What," she deadpanned.

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about, you little garden snake. Your gang! They've been threatening us for weeks now, and we've been nice. We let them toy with us, but now more," she pulled a knife out of one of her many pockets and brought it up to Aud's jaw, tilting her head back. She must know how cliché she's being, right? she thought.

She sighed, not threatened by the knife at all. This girl wasn't nearly as threatening as when she first saw her. She was like a child playing a little rough. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, bitch. I was a Tunnel Snake back when I was, like, 15. Besides, they are far from here. I don't know who you were talking to."

She really looked angry now. "I know you're their leader! I could just kill you now and watch them scatter. Do you want me to do that?! Do you?!" She was screaming at her not, pressing the knife harder and harder into her neck.

Alright, stop playing with her, Aud. "No," she rasped, not being able to get much sound out with the knife at her throat.

She seemed to cool down considerable and stopped pressing so hard. "That's what I thought."

That brief moment when she let her guard down, lowering the knife slightly, moving her left foot back a little to readjust... That's when Aud struck. Her foot flung up in front of her, kicking the boss' arm and letting the knife soar through the air to land on the counter. She staggered back in sunrise at the blow, and subconsciously grabbed awhile of her arm, and the pain starting there. Before she had time to look up, or even react much, Aud had grabbed ahold of her shoulders and flung her backwards, knocking into two more goons. They all staggered back and she took the opportunity to turn her back to them, starting an immediate sprint through the still baffled crowd and into the corridors once again.

I'm not a sissy, she reassured herself. I'm just lazy and took the easy way out.

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