The Vault of the Rising Sun Chapter 5

	Hanako bent over, panting. The heat of the setting sun baked the nearby desert, and the winds blew dust around. She coughed as a gasp of hot air and dust flew up and into her throat. She looked back to see how far from the vault she’d come, and saw the little crest to the slope which she and Kenji had climbed down earlier. She couldn’t be more than a few hundred yards away from there, but already she was tired.

	Looking forward, she searched the wastes to try and find a hint of the bastard. She headed west, though, and the sun was lowering itself right where she was trying to look. The intensity of the heat stung her eyes and made her break her gaze.

	She cursed Kenji. If he hadn’t stolen her bag as well, she could get her mask.

	She took solace in the fact that the sun would be fully down in a little bit, and marched on.

	She wondered, as she walked, what she’d tell her parents. “Oh, hey dad, how was work? Me? Just locked in a secret hidden vault with a corpse whose arm I cut off with your old combat knife by the only person my age I thought of like a friend, and he also stole your shotgun and my hunting rifle.” It sounded as stupid in her head as she was sure that it would to her parents. Her father would tell her that she needed to be more observant, to see that Kenji was acting odd and to act on that. And he had been acting odd. Every time money was brought up, Kenji acted downcast or weird. She thought she’d been un-awaringly teasing him, but now she knew that he’d planned this from the start.

	‘But then why had he wanted to leave so badly?’ Hanako wondered to herself.

	… No, she decided. She couldn’t simply invoke some wasteland justice against Kenji, no matter how satisfying that’d be. There were questions he needed to answer for, and worse crimes that demanded attention. He’d blasted Avery in the chest, and kidnapped that white haired girl… why would he go to such lengths?

	Hanako kept wondering as she walked. She was good at it, and it helped past the time. She tried to imagine Kenji’s motive, if not to sell the vault to the followers, why would he kidnap the girl? Did he understand the password and what it meant? Was this because he desired the girl or was there something else?

	She walked on, and looked down at her pipboy. It’d been only a few hours since she’d left home. She began fiddling with the device, checking out the local map. She marked the position of the vault, and was placing another marker where her house would be when finally the sunset beneath the horizon, and darkness overtook her.

	She looked up and felt her feet freeze. She stopped and stared into the distance. Whilst the sun had set, there was still a point blazing off into the horizon. She was only about fifteen minutes walk from her destination… which had black smoke curling into the air.

	The flamer.

	Hanako felt her feet fly, running so fast forward that it was amazing that she hadn’t tripped. She passed the fences of her neighbors’ ranch. Her pipboy was flashing her pulse at her, but she didn’t even notice it as she stared on in horror as she ran forwards. Every moment she drew closer, and could see that the blazing inferno was without a doubt her house. She could see figures standing outside it now, little black shadows standing against the flames, and one spraying bright fire upon the building with the flamer. Hanako desperately wished for her rifle, her instincts screamed at her to grab it off of her shoulder, but she knew that it wasn’t there.

	As she ran, the shadowy figures began to move away from the house. One of them leaned over and picked up a person, one much smaller and slender, and pulled her onto their back. Hanako’s first thought was that it was her mom, but it might be that girl. Kenji! Kenji was here, and he was torching her fucking house! He was the one with the flamer, she was sure of it.

	Slowly, the figures moved off, and into the darkness. Hanako ignored her instincts to give chase, to fling herself at them with only her knife, but she knew that if they were attacking the house of a known ranger, they’d have more than just the flamer. Then that girl wouldn’t be their only captive, or she’d end up dead.

	She had to find her parents. She had to help them. She ran, and felt herself cross the threshold of darkness into the light of the flames as her house burned. She was about to sprint into the home when she stopped, a sob catching in her throat from the sight of two corpses lying next to the front door.

	She rushed over and fell beside them, tears streaming freely from her eyes as she looked into the dead faces of her parents. They were both killed by a single shot to the head.

	Her father, a man that had fought and killed legionnaires for years, who’d taken on gangs of slavers and raiders, who seemed almost larger than life, lay dead. And it was her fault. Hanako felt the overwhelming guilt wash over her. It was her fault that he’d been caught unprepared, for what was the first and last time in his life. Her friend had done this. Her friend had slaughtered her family. Her friend. Her Friend. Her FRIEND!

	Hanako screamed, rage and fear and pain ripping through her like claws, throwing her head back and howling. She sprinted towards the burning house. She threw her right shoulder into the front door, launching herself through it and crashing to the floor. She screamed at the pain, and felt her dry leather armor sear her flesh, but it didn’t catch. She charged forwards, black smoke billowing through the house towards the fresh oxygen.

	She ran forwards, nearly tripping over what had been a table holding a scented wax by the front door, but was now smashed timber that was burned through. She turned, running through the flaming remnants of her kitchen, chocking on smoke and gasping for breath. She fell to her knees and gasped, breathing in hot air. She felt a pinch in her left arm, and time seemed to slow around her. The pipboy must have injected her with something, her eyes flickered around the burning room to get her bearings. She crawled forwards and found the closed door she sought. She forced herself into a crouch, and sprang at the door, slamming her right side against it, and again when it didn’t give. She was sent crashing to the floor as the door splintered and gave, but she found herself much less lucky this time. Her leather armor had caught fire, and Hanako swatted at the flames screaming in pain. She rolled on the floor, and felt her vision go tight from the pain. She fought it, and rage won out against the need to black-out. She forced herself to her knees, the flames extinguished. She had something to do. Something that needed to be done.

	There, she found what she was looking for. Her father’s dresser was burning on the left, the glass of it smashed. She reached inside it and pulled free his flame retardant duster, and threw it over her shoulders. She felt an instant change in her side. The right side of her body no longer screamed as harshly.

	She fumbled in the cabinet, pulling from it her father’s ranger mask. She dropped it, shouting in pain, as the right side of the mask singed her left hand. She scooped in up with her right, already burned hand, and saw the ugly red of the burn.

	‘No time. There’s no time.’ Hanako thought to herself, forcing her body to move. In the back of the dresser, she reached, and pulled forth a giant rifle. It was her father’s sniper rifle, the one he’d used time and again to deal out justice.

	Hanako hefted the rifle and ran from the room.

	She would make sure the rifle tasted the blood of the wicked.

	One last time.

	Hanako ran from the room and swung up and sprinted up the nearby staircase. As she pounded up, she felt the weakened wood strain to carry her weight, but they held. They wouldn’t on the way down, but Hanako did not intend to return. She knew she was on a one way trip, and she would die here, with her family. But she would sure as hell make sure that the bastard who did this to them would be coming with.

	The second floor was filled with smoke, but there was less fire up here. She coughed, feeling the black air filling her, but the adrenaline being injected from the pipboy pushed her body past its physical limits. She sprinted up a short stair case, and banged on the cover of her roof. Her grandfather had built this house, had made easy access to the roof. A small part of Hanako felt gratitude towards him now, as she pulled herself out of the billowing smoke filled level, and stood on the sheet metal of her roof.

	She stared off into the dark, but the whole house was sending up a thick layer of black smoke. She could breathe here, as the smoke only surrounded her and didn’t infiltrate her, but she could see nothing. She placed the rifle on the ground, leaning it against her, as she raised her other hand and stared at the ranger helmet.

	Tears threatening to overflow her eyes, she spoke. “I’m sorry, Dad.” She coughed, her voice coming out as a whisper, and then set her jaw. She pulled the helmet onto her face, and could instantly feel the pain of the heated metal scorching her face. She screamed as she activated the smoke filter as well as the night vision, the pipboy injecting her with the calming agent yet again but to what felt like no avail. She forced the rifle up, and looked out towards where the figures had walked. Clear as day, through the red tinge, she could see the group through her left eye, as she held her right one shut with pain.

	Yelling as loud as she could, she felt the rage and anger exploding inside her as she leveled the rifle and took aim at the man carrying the large weapon in his hands, the gas filled tanks still on his back. She forced her right eye, her dominant eye, open.

	“Burn in hell!”

	She fired, the rifle sending an explosive force against her shoulder. A second later, a new flash of light ignited, the explosion from the tanks lighting up the area. The whiteness of the close-up explosion blinded Hanako, who was reeling from the rifle. She still clung to it as she stepped sideways, and felt the sheet metal buckle beneath her as he house wall caved inwards.

	She fell, rolling along the hot metal, and off of the roof. She landed heavily on the desert ground that had been her yard.

	The pain from her landing finally overwhelmed her, and darkness took the broken girl.