On Sand Swept Roads

Chapter 1

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rachel whispered, slipping her left hand into Charon's. "We can leave." He ran a rough thumb over his wife's wedding ring, letting out a long breath.

"No, we came all this way. Charon kept his eyes on the ramshackle door. "I need to do this." It was set into a rock face, hidden enough that if you didn't know where it was you probably would walk right past it.

That door hid the entrance to the bunker of General Green. It was the last place Charon had seen the devil himself. Charon wanted to walk in there and find that man's body. Seeing Green's corpse would go a long way towards banishing his own latent fears.

They were just outside of D.C. It had taken a little over a week of travel to find the bunker but neither of them had felt the need to move quickly.

This adventure had started a few weeks ago when Charon had asked Rachel if going to New Vegas had really helped her put her past to bed. He'd known that it had but he was leading up to asking her about this trip.

She'd told him it had and asked why. That's when he'd asked her if she'd come to this place with him. Of course she hadn't hesitated to agree and now here they were. Hand in hand and ready to face down whatever horrors the bunker held.

Charon kissed Rachel's fingers, taking another settling breath. Rachel didn't push him to go in and she didn't suggest they leave again. The girl just held his hand patiently until he took a tentative step forward.

"Wait here a minute." He told her. "I want to make sure the old security system is down."

Rachel waited a few minutes outside, listening hard for any signal that there was trouble. Charon reappeared soon enough, beckoning her with a finger.

"I didn't go past the keypad by the main entry. It says the system is disarmed but be on guard." Charon scanned the entryway like ghosts wielding weaponry were going to jump out of the walls at any moment. "This place is not safe."

It looked like the entry to any other vault. Rusted, filthy and with the promise of something worse inside. In Charon's opinion it was a vast improvement to the scrubbed sterile structure it had been years ago. Charon punch in a code and the door hissed. Apparently nobody ever bothered to change the password. This vault didn't have the alarm bells other vaults used to signal the door was moving. Rachel thought the absence odd but maybe it was so things on the surface nearby wouldn't hear the noise and come to investigate.

As the door rolled out of the way they found themselves in an eight by ten metal room. A security camera with a red light was on the ceiling. The only other thing in the room was a plain wooden door directly in front of them.

Charon reached out for Rachel's hand. She took it without hesitation, surprised to feel his fingers twitching with nerves. It sent a cold wave down her back. Nothing would ever scare her like Charon being scared himself.

Charon put his fingers on the brass doorknob, squeezing Rachel's hand before turning the knob.

Charon didn't let go of her as they stepped into a living room. It looked like they'd stepped into a large pre-war house. It was stale, the scent of old cigarettes still clinging to the dust coated furniture.

There was a staircase leading to a second level and a hall that led to what looked like a kitchen. The TV was cracked but the overhead lights were on and somewhere the air processors hummed quietly.

Charon hefted his shotgun, doing a sweep of the downstairs. When he muttered it was all clear they went upstairs together. At the top of the stairs was a hallway that stretched way too far to be a normal house.

It reminded Rachel they were underground.

Four doors lined the walls. Two on each side. Charon pointed to the one on the right closest to them.

"That was Hank's families' apartment." Charon pushed open the door. There was a common room and a kitchenette. Two bedroom doors were on the back wall and a bathroom was between them.

Charon slowly moved around the room, looking at two skeletons in the Master Bedroom. It seemed unlikely that both of Hank's parents would have died at the same time but there were two skeletons still snuggled together in bed.

Hank's room was clean and neat. It seemed his folks hadn't used it for anything else after their son had left.

Rachel looked around with her husband but she didn't take anything. Usually they'd be looting places like this but it didn't seem right to her. This vault was a very dark part of Charon's past, definitely not someplace to take souvenirs from.

Charon moved across the hall to the next room. He told her that this had been a Captain's Apartment. It had the same set up as the last. All the room were the same, they were stocked with different foods, books, things for entertainment but the layout was all the same.

Finally Charon stopped in front of the last door. "This was Green's. He didn't have a family; the old bastard was too much of a prick for any woman to put up with even in those days."

"Do you want me to go first?" Rachel asked as Charon stood there. Charon shook his head, reaching for the knob.

He paused again but he turned the doorknob, stepping into the familiar apartment. It hadn't changed in two hundred years. Pictures hung on the walls of a pudgy man with black eyes. In every one of them he was shaking the hand of some important looking official.

Charon swept the room while Rachel inspected the awards and framed documents that were on the walls along with the pictures. It looked like Green had liked to remind himself of how important he was before the bombs dropped.

"He's not here." Charon growled.

"Maybe he's in another part of the house?" Rachel soothed, not liking the alarm in her ghouls voice.

"Yeah," he ran a nervous hand over his head. "Storage and the control room for the vault are in the basement. There's a door going down there in the community kitchen." He grumbled, his eyes still searching the room for the missing corpse.

Rachel took his hand, leading him back down to the kitchen area on the lower lever. She reached for the basement door but Charon stopped her. "Wait, let me take the lead. The security system down there is on a separate circuit. If it's on we'll have to get to the control room to shut it down."

Rachel nodded, moving aside so Charon could go first. When the door swung open the first thing that hit them was the smell. Rachel grimaced, swearing under her breath. She'd dealt with bad smells before but this was both rancid and unexpected.

"How many people lived here? It smells like an army died down there."

"After Hank and I left there were seven." Charon commented, glaring down into the black stairwell. Charon cocked what was left of his ear towards the darkness; he thought he'd heard something down there.

A whisper?

A whimper?

"Charon?" Rachel whispered, the warning in her voice making him look at her. She was looking at the kitchen table, one hand on a porcelain coffee mug. "This is warm…"

"What?" Charon's eyes locked on the cup like it held nuclear war inside. He put his hand over the top, needing to feel the heat for himself. Behind them there was a creek on the stairs. They both whirled around, guns up. Rachel had gone to one knee so Charon could fire over the top over her head.

Rachel glared at the smiling ghoul in the doorframe. He was holding a nine millimeter pistol in his grizzled hand and he was dressed in an ancient military uniform that looked like it hadn't been washed in over a hundred years.

There was something about the way the man smiled at them that was sending chills running up and down her spine.

No, she realized, not smiling at them. He was smiling directly at Charon. It was a crazed, cold look. One very similar to Ahzrukhal's.

The stranger's grin widened. "Charon, you're still alive?"

Charon didn't make a sound but the other ghoul kept talking. "Isn't this my lucky day. What? Not even a salute for your general?"

Rachel's eyes widened. She'd had the sneaking suspicion that this ghoul was General Green but she hadn't wanted to believe it. She chanced a look up over her shoulder, paling when she found Charon frozen in place.

His gun was shaking in his hands.

Green looked down at her, that oily grin still on his face. "You are a pretty little thing. Tell me, how'd a little girl like you end up with Charon's contract?"

This time he paused, waiting for an answer. She humored him. "Just got lucky I guess."

"I would be willing to double your luck. Whatever you want for it I'd pay. I imagine you know how much something like Charon is worth." He kept his eyes on her and Rachel grit her teeth. He was talking about Charon like a thing, not a person. Not a man.

"I absolutely do." She hissed. "He's not for sale."

"You had your chance girl, you should have taken my offer." Green shrugged. "I suppose it's a good thing we had those failsafe codes put into place. Subject A0963, As your commanding officer I order you to subdue your current employer and retrieve your contract. I will be taking it back now."

Rachel jumped to her feet, furious beyond anything she'd felt before. Behind her Charon's eyes were blank. His eyebrow was twitching as his brain tried to work out the orders he'd been given.

Orders he couldn't follow.

"You son of a bitch!" Rachel snarled, planting herself firmly between Charon and his tormentor.

Green ignored her. Instead he scowled at Charon. "I gave you an order. Obey me!"

Charon felt like he was falling.

He couldn't breathe and his throat was too tight. His muscles twitched, begging to obey but his brain kept going blank.

He couldn't obey.

The contract no longer existed and when Green found that out he'd torture Charon until he was dead.

Charon's mind reeled until Rachel stepped back, pressing her back against his chest. Her warmth anchored him back into reality. She was what was real. Rachel was his angel of salvation.

"No." Charon finally choked.

General Green turned his head slowly. "What did you just say to me?"

Charon shifted forward, pressing back against his wife. "I said you can take your gods all damned orders and shove 'em right up your ass. I'm not your slave anymore."

"Subject A-"

"Shutup," Rachel snapped, pulling her trigger. Her hunting rifle made quick carnage of the old general's knee. She could have killed him but it was something Rachel though Charon should do. She wouldn't steal the satisfaction from him.

Green started to fall back down the dark stairwell but Charon grabbed a fist full of the man's shirt. He tossed Green to the floor after Rachel took the man's pistol.

Charon crouched over the cursing ghoul, Rachel standing right beside him. "You have haunted the worst of my nightmares. Killing you this easily is almost a disappointment."

Green stared up into Charon clouded cold blue eyes. "I don't understand. The failsafe…"

"Might have worked a couple years ago." Charon hissed. "But Rachel, she's not my employer. Not anymore. She's my wife."

"Impossible. You can't have emotions. Your contract-"

"I burned it," Rachel announced coolly. "Charon's a free man."

Charon leveled his combat shotgun at Greens forehead as the other ghoul opened his mouth. "Wait! We cou-"

Whatever he'd been about to say was lost in the thunderous boom from Charon's combat shotgun.

Charon stood there for a long minute looking at the place where Green's head had been. He felt lighter. Like a ten ton weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The encounter did seem a little anti-climatic but Green had been overconfident. He'd never imagined that Charon would ever find a person to help rid himself of his contract.

"Charon?" Rachel asked softly, taking his hand. "Are you alright?"

"I am now." He squeezed her fingers. "I'm glad you were here although we might have gotten lucky. I don't think the failsafe would have worked without my contract but the orders he gave are what really saved us."

Rachel nodded, she'd wondered about that. "Good thing you don't have an employer to subdue."

Charon nodded. "Or a contract to retrieve."

Rachel knelt, picking through Green's pockets. She came up with a handful of bullets and a tarnished key.

"I wonder what this goes to."

Charon turned towards the dark basement with a growl. "Let's find out. Whatever he's been doing down there won't be a benefit to society."

Charon flicked the light switch. At the bottom of the old concrete stairs was a dark stain that looked a lot like blood. The stairs turned down another hallway at the bottom so they couldn't see anything beyond the stain to tell them what might be waiting down there. Charon put a heavy boot on the first step, pausing again to listen.

"Did you hear that?" He asked. Beside him Rachel nodded.

"I sounds like…" Rachel paused, searching for the right words. "Like someone trying not to cry."

Charon had a bad feeling as they descended the steps. On the landing he turned towards the first long, wide storage room. He stopped dead in his track, spinning to stop his wife from seeing into the room.

"Rachel. Go upstairs." He ordered.

"What?" She squeaked surprised.

"I mean it. I'll explain, I promise. Just." He locked eyes with her. "Just wait for me upstairs."

Rachel hesitated but she obeyed. Between the smell of death and Charon's face she decided to let him protect her. "Alright," She handed over the key she'd found. "But if I hear gun shots I'm going to come running."

"Fair enough." Charon told her, turning her back in the direction of the kitchen.

When Rachel was safely up the steps Charon turned back into the storage room. It wasn't storage anymore, it was a cell block. Cages lined the walls. Most of them were caked with blood, vomit and other substances. There were bodies in almost all of them ranging in different degrees of decomposition.

That bothered Charon a little bit but he'd seen plenty of gore in his long life and he'd grown a high tolerance. What had bile rising in his throat was the fact that none of the bodies looked to be over the age of twelve.

There were plenty under that age though.

Children.

That bastard had been experimenting on children.

Charon inspected every cage. The sound they'd heard before was gone but he found the source. A little boy covered in filth was curled in a terrified little ball in one of the last cages.

"Jesus," Charon cursed softly. The child kept wide, tear filled eyes on him. Charon unlocked the iron door and the boy whimpered, trying to press further back. He couldn't have been more than three and the cage still wasn't big enough for him to stand up in.

"It's alright," Charon did his best to sooth. "My name is Charon Boone. I'm going to get you out of here."

The little boy looked him over before he uncertainly reached for Charon's outstretched hand. Charon took his little hand gently, helping him out of the cramp cage. Charon picked the child up, searching the rest of the cages for any other survivors.

There weren't any.

He found the control room, quickly punching in the password. According to the journal he found Green had been trying to make new "employees" for over sixty years. Adults hadn't worked out so he'd switched to more suggestible minds. Charon shook his head, he found files with ID numbers but no names. The ID that matched the number tattooed on the boy's wrist just said he was taken from a caravan six months ago.

Charon shifted thought the computer files until he found what he was looking for. He punched in the authorization code and set the timer for fifteen minutes.

Charon held the boy close, leaving the basement quickly. Rachel was waiting at the top of the stairs. She opened her mouth, eyes on the boy but Charon shook his head. "Place is gonna blow, let's get the hell out of here.

She nodded, hefting her gun. They were a good distance away when the ground shook under their boots, announcing the bunkers detonation. Charon watched the smoke billow in the distance with a grunt of satisfaction.

Rachel dropped her pack, fists on her hips. "Well, that's that."

Charon nodded, shifting the child in his arms so he could get a look at him in the daylight. He was dirty, bruised and too skinny. Sandy blonde hair caked with blood barely hid scars from poorly performed surgery. He did have brilliant emerald green eyes. Eyes that were locked on Charon.

The boy whimpered softly. Charon took a seat on a nearby rock, placing the child on his knee.

"You found him down there?" Rachel asked, looking him over with pity filled eyes.

"Yeah, There were over two dozen cages…he was the only one still alive."

"That's awful."

The boy had a death grip on Charon's arm. The ghoul let him cling, talking softly. "Do you know what your name is?"

He nodded but didn't volunteer the information.

Charon tried again. "What's your name?"

"B8934." he whispered. Charon cursed under his breath.

"What was your name before?"

The boy thought for a long minute but in the end he just shook his head. Charon hugged the little guy. "I'm sorry. They did it to me too."

"Charon?" Rachel put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's take him down to the river. We can get him cleaned up and figure out where to go from there."

Charon nodded. He tried to put the child down but he clung to the ghoul. Wordlessly Charon settled him against his chest plate. Rachel took the lead, gun up in case of trouble. She didn't call for Claws just yet, she didn't want to scare the boy in Charon's arms.

She glanced over at the two several times. Charon was incredibly gentle with the child. She caught herself thinking that he'd make a good dad. Rachel knew it was impossible to have a baby fathered by Charon but still… Charon would make a very good dad.

It was still before noon when they hit the river but they decided to make camp under an overpass. Charon gently set the boy on a rock, kneeling in front of him.

"Hey, I'm going to give you a name. A real one, ok?"

The boy sat up a little straighter, looking at Charon. "What about Bobby? Do you like that?"

Bobby nodded vigorously.

"Good. Now I want you to meet my wife." Charon shifted so Bobby could see past him. "That's Rachel. She's going to take you down to the water and give you a bath okay?"

Bobby thought that over before leaning forward to whisper one word in Charon's ear. Charon chuckled, nodding. "Yes, very pretty. I promise she's very nice too. Will you go with her?"

Bobby looked Rachel over again before nodding his agreement. Charon put him on the ground, noting the boy's limp as he crossed the hard parked dirt.

"Ray, look him over when he's clean ok. He's had a rough few months."

Rachel used most of their soap but an hour's worth of work later Bobby was standing on shore with clean skin. Rachel had ended up tossing his cloths into the river, letting the current take those filthy rags away.

She'd given Bobby one of her clean white T-shirts to wear instead. It hung past his knees but it was better than nothing.

The poor boy was bruised and she'd seen evidence that he'd been beaten several times. The scars under his hairline were choppy. Whoever had worked on him really hadn't know what they'd been doing.

The boy also had a fever. It wasn't bad yet but it was cause to be concerned.

Rachel picked him up, carrying Bobby back to Charon.

The ghoul had gotten a fire going while she'd been with Bobby at the river. Meat sizzled on sticks over the flames. Charon picked a stick up, blowing on the meat before handing it to the boy. Bobby took it carefully, looking at it.

Charon wordlessly took his knife from his boot, slicing off a bit of the meat in Bobby's hands. Charon popped the morsel into his mouth while the child watched. As soon as Charon swallowed Bobby descended on the food like a starving deathclaw.

"He's a smart kid." Rachel commented softly.

Charon nodded. "How's his health?"

"He has a fever we'll have to watch. If it gets much worse we'll need to make a run for Underworld. That's the closest doctor I know of that knows what he's doing. Honestly we should probably take him to Barrows anyway. Those scars are only a couple weeks old and whoever did it didn't know what they were doing."

Charon watched as the kid tossed aside the empty stick, looking up at the adults.

"Go ahead, that's all for you." Charon told him.

Bobby's eyes went wide but he wasted no time grabbing another stick of meat.

"You're right. Should we take the deathclaw?" Charon asked.

"It would be the safest way. He could ride with me. It would give him some time to sleep."

Charon nodded, moving to sit next to the boy. "Bobby, I don't want you to be afraid. Rachel and I have a pet. It's friendly like a dog. But it's not a dog, it's a deathclaw."

Bobby went a little pale, looking from Charon's to Rachel's face. Rachel whistled and within a minute Claws appeared around the edge of the overpass. Bobby grabbed onto Charon's leg so the ghoul lifted him up. "It's okay. This is Claws. He's going to help us get you to see a doctor."

Rachel petted Claws' nose while Charon talked. When the ghoul was done he brought Bobby over to Claws. Claws sniffed the kid from his bare feet to the top his hair before he flick out his tongue, licking the end of his nose.

Charon scowled. "Hey. Asshole. How come you lick me and Rachel's whole faces but you're nice to the boy?"

Claws made a playful gurgling sound in the back of his throat, licking the entire side of Charon's face. Charon swore, annoyed but Bobby started giggling. The sound doused Charon's irritation.

Rachel climbed onto Claws' back. When she was settled she reached for Bobby. Much to her pleasure he reached for her too. Bobby settled in front of her, his little hands planted on the top of Claws' head.

Rachel nudged Claws into motion, Charon walking along beside them. Charon could have ridden too. Over the years the animal had grown to rival the size of any Alpha deathclaw and they'd ridden together before.

They weren't in a huge hurry though and Charon didn't like riding unless he had too. He felt better able to deal with danger when his boots were planted firmly on the ground.