Chapter III: MacAfee the Vindicator 


Roland Darkwater listened intently as bursts of machinegun fire and explosions boomed outside his cell. A few strange echoing noises that sounded like an electronic door being closed (Gauss gunfire) reverberated down the hallway, and the machinegun fire ended. An extremely loud explosion shook the Prison Block, and nearly threw Roland (and his chair) over. 
"What the hell is going on out there?" 
"Echo 4-1, I repeat, Echo 4-1, we need assistance in the Prison Block, ASAP!" came a gruff voice from just outside his door. Suddenly his door, an unnoticeable white square the same shade as his wall, caved into the room. A man in combat armor lay atop the splintered wood, groaning in pain and clutching his bloody stomach. 
On the other side of the door was a scantily-clothed man with broken shackles around his wrists and a smoking 12 gauge shotgun in hand. Before the escapee could help Roland, or flee for his own life, there was a dull thud, and a 2mm EC Gauss projectile ricocheted twenty times in his shattered skull before he hit the ground. The killer, a man in army fatigues, wielding a PPK12 Gauss Pistol, stepped over the limp body below him, and aimed the gun at Roland. 
"Major MacAfee has ordered us to eliminate all prisoners on sight," he said, pressing a green button on the side of the magnetically-powered pistol. It made a beeping noise, and then clicked ominously. 
Roland immediately leapt forward, landing in a roll. As he spun over, the chair lifted above his body, and took the full blast of the Gauss Pistol. The chair shattered, and the magnetic force of the blow destroyed his shackles. 
"Damn it," remarked the soldier, backing up against the wall. He aimed again, but by then Roland was upon him. The hardened warrior already had his hands about the man's neck. With a sickening crack, he was dead. Roland took off for the exit, the corpse sliding over onto the dead escapee. 

* * *

"Whoa girl, you don't wanna do�"
"Shut up!" shouted Sylvia, cocking back the hammer on the .44. "Where are my people?!" 
"I don't know anything about your people, girlie," said Grendel cautiously, slowly but stealthily beginning to raise the Uzi. 
"Drop the gun!" said the girl hastily, rattling the weapon as she did. "Now!"
Grendel displayed a rugged grin. 
"Hey," he said, outstretching his arms (and the gun) and smiling. "I'm a prisoner here too. Was, anyway. So why dontcha just lemme past, and you can go find your people. That sound okay?" 
Sylvia held back the words in her throat, and shook noticeably. She didn't intend to hurt the man anyway, but maybe he was just a prisoner� 
"Behind you!" she screamed suddenly. Grendel spun around, firing off a burst of rounds from the Uzi as he did. But it was of no use, as his intended target wore a massive suit of power armor, the breast emblazoned with the American Flag. 
Grendel's jaw dropped as he gazed at the towering figure, easily nine feet tall. He wore no helmet, and had a shaven head and rough beard. One eye was closed due to a scar that stretched from his brow to his chin. 
"Supreme Power Armor Mk II," said the man in a deep voice, finishing with a throaty laugh. Then he raised his own weapon, a Vindicator Minigun that had recently been attached to the gauntlet of the armor. Grendel's eyes widened and his stomach dropped as the massive Gatling gun began to rotate. 
Intuitive as always, the ex-soldier leapt into a room beside him. Meanwhile, the Minigun had begun to fire, slowly ripping apart the walls in the hallway, and everything between them. Sylvia had ducked under an office desk next to the exit, and sat there shaking as the loud gun continued firing. 
Grendel, having dealt with weapons of such power before, sat beyond a large stainless-steel cabinet, so even the bullets that tore through the wall only made it halfway to him. Once he got over the intimidating sound of heavy gunfire, he began to examine his surroundings. It was a large containment lab of some kind. Apparently it had been opened when Grendel shut down the electronic locks. Enormous tanks lined the walls, and Grendel was sure he saw something stirring inside of them. Just what the in the hell were they experimenting with here? Grendel was abruptly brought back to his senses when a bullet zipped through the cabinet and clipped his shoulder.

* * *

Roland slipped into a room down the hall from the Prison Block, where a small gunfight was still raging on, and looked around. It seemed to be a storage room. Roland searched the cabinets, lockers, crates, everything. Soon he found what he was looking for. Inside a large locker on the floor were his belongings. A Colt M1911 .45ACP handgun, four clips of ammunition, a combat knife, a suit of army fatigues (still bearing his name) and most importantly, a shiny (even after all these years) golden coin. Roland changed into his old snow-camouflaged fatigues, holstered his pistol, and slung the coin around his neck using a silver chain he found in the box as well. After slipping the combat knife into a strap on his hip, Roland took off into the hall, heading for the Entrance Block. Strangely enough, he didn't find any gunfights or Enclave soldiers along the way. In fact, he didn't see anybody at all. Soon he found the reason for this. As Darkwater ran and ran, he began to hear an ominous rattling noise, almost like a typewriter (Did they still have those anymore?)
He came to a corner and nearly gasped in amazement. Twenty or thirty Enclave soldiers crowded the hall in a semi-circle, a massive man in their midst. He had a Gatling gun of some kind strapped to his arm. The man was blasting holes through the wall in front of him. Roland ducked back behind the wall. 
This� is not good. How am I supposed to get past these guys?
Roland peeked around the corner. A glowing red sign displayed the words 'Entrance Block' on the far end of the hallway. Roland knew it was the only way out. He had to get past them, somehow, someway. 

* * *

Sylvia cautiously peeked around the edge of the desk, whimpering as she saw a large crowd of armored men surrounding the man with the Minigun. With a deep intake of breath, she swung open the chamber on her .44. Full. She already knew. She only had one shot to get this right. Sylvia sighed, and finally stood, drawing the attention of several soldiers. Then she aimed at the man with the Minigun� and fired. A .44 round clanked against the metal, three-foot shoulder of the man, and ricocheted around the group of armored men. For a moment, they checked the dent in their armor, worrying if they had been injured. Then they laughed. That was before they opened fire. 

* * *

Grendel heard the multiple bursts of gunfire, and knew they were shooting at the girl. She was innocent� Grendel couldn't let her die� not like this. Pushing aside the pain in his shoulder, he stood up, knocking over the metal cabinet (that was littered with bullet holes). He strode out of the room and into the wide hallway, and began firing erratic bursts from his Uzi at the crowd. Out of pure luck, some were hit in slits in the armor; others got nailed in the head, knocking them over. They were the lucky ones. The unarmored men were littered with machinegun fire, and their blood soon splattered the walls; and anyone close by. The nine-foot man, Major MacAfee, just stood there and laughed as his men died. They were useless to him. The Major lifted up his helmet with his free hand, and slid it over his vulnerable head. Then he stepped forward, his massive Vindicator Minigun leading the way.

* * *

Roland heard lower-caliber gunfire, and knew it wasn't an Enclave soldier. Peeking around again, he saw countless men drop to the floor, dead or seriously injured. The rest fled. Unfortunately, it was in Roland's direction. As they passed, the skilled marksman dotted their backs with bullet holes from his 1911 handgun. This time, Darkwater stepped out into the hallway without fear. Not a single Enclave soldier except for that one, enormous man remained. But that was more than enough to make Roland stop in his tracks.