[color=fff200][b]Rick Noel - Salem - Afternoon 
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"Pleased to meet you, Rick...i'm Mary Hawthorne", Mary replied with a eerie calm as she reached into her pocket. "Don't act alarmed, but we're about to be attacked. Be a dear and get that rifle unslung, if you please."

Rick unslung his rifle from his shoulder, the bushes in front of the ruined house less than fifty feet to Mary's right rustled and two forms hurtled out, rushing straight for them. "PH´NGLUI SOTH!", one of them screamed as he raised up a old Chinese officer's sword and charged straight for Mary. Before Rick could react, the other raider made his way towards Rick and slung his arm and sword. *These surface dwellers still use swords? What is wrong with these freaks.*

Rick used his rifle to block the blow from the sword, and as soon as he blocked him, Rick kicked the raider in the gut as hard as he could pushing him back. He was almost frothing at the mouth, and looked at Rick with such a rage he had never seen before, he almost looked possessed. Rick aimed his gun at the raider and shouted, "STAND DOWN! I WILL SHOOT YOU IF I HAVE TO! STAND DOWN!"

The man disregarded his warning and came charging at him. Rick held his breath, and controlled the tremble from his arms. He let out a single shot striking the man's forehead. The recoild wasn't anything he couldn't handle, but this was the first time he saw it strike a human being. It went in clean through the front. The back of the head was fully blown, as brain matter and blood scattered on the ground. 

Rick felt queasy and had forgotten about Mary and her Raider. Sure he had killed before, when they journeyed to Vault 88, but he had never seen the corpses upfront. This seemed so real to him, far more  than shooting some target from far away. His stomach turned at the sight of the body. He looked over and Mary had killed her attacker.

She then walked up to the attacker on the ground and put a round into his temple , probably to make sure he was dead. She looked over at Rick, her arm, still holding the smoking revolver hanging limp by her side, "We need to get out of here, Rick", Mary said. "there may be more of them".       

Rick nodded in agreement to getting out of there. She brought back the horse from where it had run off to. "Get up behind me", Mary said, reaching out her hand for him to take. "just stay still, and hold on to me and we'll get back to town alright."

Rick looked at her and the creature, and shook his head, "That's alright. I can walk, you know we are so close to tow..." She gave him a look and insisted. After a couple attempts, she was able to get Rick onboard, and they rode back into town, heading for her house. Rick hung on for dear life, he was both excited and scared shitless being atop the creature.

"Well, Rick", she said, "I must say that meeting you has been....interesting. If you'd like, I can put out a extra plate for you...and perhaps you could tell me more about what you saw in that Quarry." She led him inside, passing through the living room and some piled up robots.

"Amazing what folks throw out, isn't it?", Mary said, "Found them while looking for bottles. I hope to find someone able to get at least one of them working again...don't know the first thing about fixing them myself." She then took Rick into the kitchen, inviting him to take a seat at the kitchen table. She offered him some brahmin milk from the refrigerator,and he accepted, even though his stomach was all turned from the sight of the bodies. 

"Only meat I have is venison", Mary said as she moved about the kitchen, "but I've got some pretty good recipes for it."

*Venison, hmmm she must mean Radstag. I've never had it wonder how it is?* He nodded, "That sounds good...Do you mind if I take a look at those Mr. Handy's for you? I know a thing or two about robots" He walked back to the living room and started inspecting the units. THey were crude robots, pre-war. The institute had surpassed such simple designs, these Mr. Handy's are what Rick used to pull apart and put together as kid in grade school. 

Two of the units were salvageable, the third would be canabilized for some parts for the other two. However, no vital part needed to be taked out, which meant if he could get his hands on some scraps he could get it working as well. He went through his pack and pulled some tools and microfusion cells for the pistol he carried. 

He worked for a bit and lost track of time unti Mary cam over to tell him lunch was ready. "Be right there, need to charge em up," he replied as he took the cells and connected them to the robots. He got up and headed for the kitchen. He sat down at the table and looked at the prepared food. This was going to be new for him, he was used to just eating nutrient pills and bars. He never had a real meal before.

"So tell me, Rick", Mary said in a friendly manner, "What brings you to Salem?"  

Rick looked up at her, "Oh well im doing some travelling and I was just curious about the north. You know away from the minutemen, and battle for Boston. Figured I'd visit the old town of Salem and see some witches. Bunch of nonsense if you ask me, if someone doesn understand something they call it magic."  

"take a look at those robots. For someone not versed in robotics or science, they'd consider that magic. For me childs play... sorry I've had so many debates on this issues back home at..." He caught himself as he might be saying things that would be sensitive. "Sorry...two of the robots are charging right now. It'll be a basic charge, maybe last a few day. I see town has no electricity, so if you have a generator, I'd recommend you hook them up over night every few days. the third one just needs some parts and i could get it to work"

Rick cut up some of the meat before him, and brought it up to his lips. It was a peculiar and odd taste. It was definetly different from food he had before. He ate some more and quite enjoyed the taste after a few bites, even that of the milk. "I wonder what those raiders were shouting when they charged at us. Sounded like latin, but im not so familiar with dead languages..." he stopped himself again. He was saying more then he should.