Leaving the Vault

Billings Farmstead

Reverend Tug

The Grafton Monster

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They say when your dying that your life flashes before your eyes...well, mine didn't.

I can't believe that I thought helping people was a good idea. I can't believe that I could be so stupid to believe that anyone would want my help....I just can't believe any of this anymore...

Since donning the cloth I've tried to help so many people, mainly random survivors I'd encounter in popular scavenge spaces. I would greet them and see what they needed. Some would stay, take the stuff and be ever grateful...most tho, just run off.

"I've got supplies right here man. Where you going?!"

Then there are some that shoot first and ask questions later. I got pretty good at figuring out those types, but the Devil wears many masks....

Beep BEEP BEEP!

A familiar ring on the Pipboy alerts me to a raid on a nearby workshop just outside of Charleston. I make my way there and find Savage dogs overrunning the place. Turrets are singing in every direction and a lone survivor is doing his best...Anywhere help is needed, I'm there. I run in with my sledge...

You are my rock, and my strength.... As the sledge makes contact with the mutt turning it's spine to dust...

...My fortress and my Deliverer.... Contact with the next caves it the side of its head folding the skull in half...

...My light in the darkness. A final swing sends another dog into the mechanics of a resource harvester...the gears slowly eat him up in a display of gore and howling..

A scream from the survivor "Thanks for the help father! But there's more on the ridge!" He points to the hill as a pack of more dogs make their way down. Between their unearthly growls and looks, they truly are Hell Hounds. I scream to my new friend to take cover as I lob two grenades before the sledge I dropped hits the ground. Flying through the air with death in tow, the grenades land and explode in an explosion far bigger than it should have been.

"I did throw the frags, right...?"

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

An Emergency alert starts to broadcast.... "Be on the lookout for Reverend Slaptac. A wanted criminal for the destruction of private property. Wanted..." A few blinks later fro the cursor... "Dead. 20Cap reward." A crude picture of me suddenly flashes on screen.

"Uh oh..."

I glance at my new friend as he looks up from his Pipboy. I give him a "I was helping" look...He gives me a sideways shrug. After a brief staredown, I turn and run. I can hear him in pursuit. POP POP POP! He begins firing at me...I'll tell you now, the whistle of bullets flying by sounds different when it's a real person shooting at you. I duck behind a pile of junk, Arm a frag mine, and drop it down.

I duck behind another out building in the junk yard and wait. I hear his footsteps approaching hard and fast on the bare ground....

Thud Thud Thud Click BOOOOOOM!

"No one ever looks for a mine."

The heat from the explosion triggers an adrenaline spike as Dirt, junk, blood, and guts all begin to rain down, settling after a minute.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! "Reward for Reverend Slaptac now....50 caps. Wanted: Very dead."

"Jesus help me, now more than ever..." I mutter to myself.

I make my way into the Appalachian wilderness and go dark. I find an easily defensible position and wait. The bounty hunters will come...they always do. Days turn to weeks and nothing. Not a soul comes looking for mine. But every night at the same time My name is read on the Emergency broadcast bounty list. Sometimes I wish I could live with out this stupid thing! Eventually I decide to face my fate and come down from my mountain. Days pass and I meet and help may people. After some time I let my guard down...I stop being cautious...I stop thinking that there is a price on my head...

I come across another survivor at the Junkyard where it all began. The usual pleasantries are exchanged, and I let them know I have ammo and supplies if they need it. They acknowledge yes, I drop to a knee and begin digging through my pack....Now I dunno if I was back to being the old Tug...seeing the good in everyone, or this guy popped a Stealthboy and just vanished....but the next thing I knew was a familiar loud crack of a blunt object against a skull...

...This time it was my own.

The world fades, my hearing goes muffled like being under water and I collapse on my side.

...My vision tunnels, like a T.V. turning off, and I see the person I was trying to help digging through my stuff.

...Darkness...I can hear my heart beat ringing in my ears....Then nothing.

Now I dunno if it was a miracle, divine intervention, or I'm just a tough som'bitch, but I wake up with a loud gasp and a banging headache.

beep beep beep.

I reach up and feel my head. Instant pain shoots through my body when I don't feel my hair...but something wet, and hard. My clothes are wet too, and I see I've been laying in a pool of my own blood.

beep beep beep.

I fire a stimpack...a special one I've been saving, one that Someone loaded with chems. In mere seconds The pain fades and I begin to regain a sense of my situation.

Beep Beep Beep.

The messaging system on the Pipboy is blinking. I stumble through a few menus and play the Holo recording.

" Hey Rev. No hard feelings about the robbery. I was just in desperate need for caps...and your materials. I dunno if you remember but, you gave me my first gun a few months back in Flatwoods. You had a carepackage that helped me get going in the right direction...and well...I didn't forget that. I lifted your bounty and reported you dead...so keep up the good work...Again. Sorry."

I look down at the Pastors garments I've been wearing and have a long hard thought about what I've done. The night air is getting cool so I walkover to a burning junk fire to warm up. Staring into the fire is mesmerizing, a man can really sort out a lot of things in his life just staring in the flames....and that night in the junk yard I did. I take off the hat...and drop it into the flames.

"This isn't who I am...nor who I was..."

I take off the Vestments. I take one last look at them...covered in blood, mine and lord knows who else. I finger some of the bullet holes remembering exactly where each one came from. After a moment I drop it in the fire.

"Goodbye Rev. Can't say I'll miss ya."

The final piece of my past I pull from a pocket in some armor. The vault issued Survival guide.

"You Know...On the job Training is always the best...." and I drop it into the fire.

For a moment The fire burns hotter than any explosive I've set off. I soak in the warmth as a baptism of sorts, leaving my past life in the flames. Leaving for one that doesn't operate out of kindness for others, or the greater good. One that gets things done, no matter the cost. My new life Is one of cunning and precision, ruthlessness and dedication. I will get the job done and take those out that stand in the way...from now on I'll be...

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The Black Mask

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- Tug

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Edit: changed the name.