And we're back for Chapter 2, folks! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, follows and helpful criticism so far! And to answer "collegegirl", you're just gonna have to stick around and find out. ;) And, on to the show!
Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fallout, it is the property of Bethesda Softworks. But if I did, we'd have a damn sprint button.
The brightness of the sunlight hit him like a punch in the face. Isaac threw up his hands to shield his eyes, the harsh glare of natural light sending his retinas screaming. He slowly cracked his eyes further open, wincing as the light stung them. He stayed like that for a few moments, until his eyes finally adjusted to the light of the Sun.
The land before him was a wasteland. Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but desolate land and destruction. Walking to the edge of the small cliff that concealed the door leading to Vault 101, he peered out further over the destroyed land. He could see the remnants of a town off in the distance, buildings broken and skeletal after the nuclear onslaught. Beyond that he saw a line of glimmering metal on the horizon, partially concealed as it sat behind what was probably another cliff. He had a choice to make: The remnants of the town, or the strange metal structure.
"Guess I'll see if anyone's living in what's left of that place," Isaac muttered to himself, before a series of beeps came from his Pip-Boy. He looked at the screen on the device, seeing that a pair of radio stations had appeared. New Radio Stations Cataloged: Enclave Radio, Galaxy News Radio. Isaac viewed the two stations, and absently selected Galaxy News Radio.
However, instead of the music or news that Isaac had been expecting, he only got static. Words could almost be made out under the white noise, but Isaac couldn't understand any of it. With a sigh he turned off the radio station and crouched on the hard stone beneath him. He swung his satchel around him and began digging inside it. After a moment he found what he was looking for: the Kevlar 101 Security vest he'd taken back in the Vault.
"If a shot to the leg hurt that bad, I'd hate to find out what one to the chest feels like," Isaac told himself as he took off the satchel and began strapping on the vest. It took him a bit of adjusting to get the protective clothing to rest comfortably on him. He fiddled with a few more straps, making sure he could move well in the new clothing without it moving around, and smiled when he had it settled.
After he'd gotten himself properly outfitted, he began walking down the worn dirt trail that led down the cliff that concealed the Vault. He stopped as he reached the bottom of the cliff, and took in the area around him. He was standing at the edge of an ancient road. Burnt out and rusted cars were scattered here and there on the road, along with the occasional deep pot hole filled with brownish gray water. He approached one of the puddles in curiosity, kneeling down and dipping his hand into it. Immediately he jumped back from the puddle as the Geiger-counter on his Pip-Boy began ticking off the radiation entering his system.
"Great," Isaac sighed to himself, shaking his hand to fling off the remaining water. Sparing the puddle one last glance, he began walking down the ruined road. The remains of the town loomed ahead of him, and he kept his wits about him as he began passing the burned out husks of a few houses. He wasn't overly worried about running into anything right down the road from the Vault, but better safe than sorry.
Isaac came up on what had once been a quick gas station for the many cars of the Pre-War world, sitting at a three way intersection in the road. It was a square structure, with an almost cartoon like rocket sitting on top of it. A crude, weathered sign was stuck into the ground near the base of the thing, reading "Megaton" in sloppy yellow paint. An arrow was painted below "Megaton", pointing to the path to Isaac's right. He remembered reading the name before in the Overseer's files back in the Vault. Supposedly, Megaton was a fairly friendly settlement that had built up in the crater of a defective nuke.
"I bet Dad would've gone there first," Isaac told himself. He was about to begin heading down the right-hand path, when a giggling sound came from behind him. He whirled quickly, seeing two men standing there looking at him. The two were giggling, hence the sound Isaac had heard, and wore strange clothing. It was a awkward mix of pre-war clothes and car parts. The man on the left had an ugly face, a long scar across the width of his face marring his features. The man next to him had a spiked Mohawk haircut, his hair dyed an unnatural green-ish brown. Both were filthy, and Isaac could smell them even from the twenty feet that separated them.
"Lookie who we got here," the man with the scar said, grinning to himself as he brandished a length of lead pipe, "a little kiddie fresh out of a Vault."
"Yup, and look at that bag of his," Mohawk said, giggling as Isaac pushed the bulk of his satched up onto his back again. "Must have a lot of goodies in there. Prob'ly even got some Jet," he grinned, pulling an old meat cleaver.
"Look, I don't know what 'Jet' is, but I don't want any trouble," Isaac said, getting an idea of where this was going. His pistol was at his hip, and he'd have little problem using it if they attacked him.
"Ya hear 'dat? He doesn't want trouble!" Scar guffawed, the two busting up laughing at Isaac's words. As soon as the two composed themselves, then grinned and ran at Isaac. Isaac pulled his pistol and took aim, but the two raiders weren't complete idiots. Both took off in different directions, Scar moving further out to the left as Mohawk ran to the right. Isaac would have to turn away from one to attack the other.
More worried about the knife, as Mohawk was running faster than Scar, Isaac turned to his right as squeezed off two rounds. Both rounds missed Mohawk completely, and the raider cackled at him as he sprinted straight for him. Isaac took a step back, aimed again and squeezed off the trigger two more times. The first round caught Mohawk in his shoulder, making him drop the knife. The second got him in the chest, stopping him in his tracks as he fell to the ground with a groan.
Isaac spun around to try and get Scar as well, but was too slow. Scar's led pipe smacked the gun clean out of Isaac's hands, sending the weapon flying over to the old gas station. Isaac managed to bring his arms up to protect himself a bit from the next swing, grunting as the pipe smacked the same spot Officer Kendall's police baton had hit a few hours prior.
"I'm gonna break you nice and slow, kid," Scar grinned as he pulled back to swing again. Isaac jumped back out of Scar's reach and began circling around the raider. The disfigured man grinned as he turned to keep his eyes on Isaac, feeling invincible. Isaac didn't have time to reach into his bag for the police baton, and Scar was now moving to keep him from getting back to his pistol.
"Oh no ya don't," Scar yelled, lunging at Isaac with the pipe again, a hard downward swing. Isaac dodged to the side, barely avoiding the attack, and swung a strong right hook. The move connected with Scar's jaw, and made him stumble back a few steps. Isaac took the brief chance and ran back towards where Mohawk had fell to the ground. Scar recovered quickly, whatever drugs he'd been taking significantly lessening the effects of Isaac's punch.
"Come on, come on," Isaac whispered to himself as he spotted Mohawk's discarded knife. He could hear Scar's heavy footfalls behind him, and dove to get the blade. Scar jumped after him, not seeing what Isaac was going for. Isaac grabbed the knife as he hit the ground and rolled to the side, the lead pipe thumping into the dirt where his head had just been. He kicked out at Scar's left leg with his own, and managed to trip the raider. Scrambling to his feet, Isaac backed away before Scar could swing at him again.
"Okay, got a weapon, now what?" Isaac thought out loud as Scar got back to his feet. The meat cleaver felt clumsy in Isaac's right hand, and the kitchen knife's size kept him from holding his right arm up in his boxing stance. Scar lunged at him with the pipe yet again, a swiping backhanded swing. Isaac back stepped, years of footwork practice helping him, and then rushed forward before Scar could recover. He stabbed at the raider, plunging the knife into the man's stomach. Isaac's face distorted into a feral snarl as Scar screamed, and he pushed the blade further in, twisting it.
Blood coated his hands and soaked the knife as Isaac pulled back from the dying man, Scar's eyes already going dim as his life blood poured onto the parched earth. Isaac crouched down and checked Scar's pulse to make sure he was dead, then went over to Mohawk. Somehow, the man was still alive, coughing blood as his wounds took their toll.
"Please, help me..." Mohawk gurgled, as he began choking on his own blood. Isaac said nothing, but reached down and pulled Mohawk's head back, stabbing up through the underside of Mohawk's mouth, past the soft palate of the roof of his mouth and drove the blade all the way into the man's brain. Life drained from Mohawk's eyes instantly, and Isaac left the knife in the man's head. He walked wearily over to where his pistol lay on the dirt, and picked it up. He inspected it for damage, and saw that while it had been smacked from his hand, it had not been broken.
"Phew," Isaac sighed as he looked at the two corpses. That's seven men I've killed now, Isaac thought to himself as he returned his handgun to its holster. He saw the ruined sign not far from the gas station, the aged words reading "Welcome to Springvale!". Bringing up his Pip-Boy's world map feature, Isaac added Vault 101 and Springvale markers, so as to remember the locations later. Then he turned down the road and began walking towards Megaton.
It took him about fifteen minutes to walk the half mile from the gas station to the settlement, and he stared in shocked awe at the construct. The whole outer wall of the town was built from welded together scrap, from what had once been air planes by the look of it. A huge jet engine was nestled into the frame, almost directly above where an old Protectron robot stood. It wore a weathered cowboy hat, and had a small star welded to its chest that read "Deputy".
"Greetings, traveler! Welcome to Megaton, friendliest town around," the robot said, in a broken yet cheerful monotone. Near the front of the building a man sat, looking dejected and sick. He stared at the ground, his eyes seeming to have trouble focusing.
"Are you okay?" Isaac asked, walking closer to the man but keep his right hand on the grip of his gun. The two before had taught him a lesson about strangers.
The man stared at him for a moment before recognition showed in his eyes, and he shook his head, "No. I need water. Clean water. Not this horrible irradiated shit."
"Have you actually been drinking that?" Isaac asked, flabbergasted by the idea that anyone would willingly drink the dirty, radioactive water in the area.
"I haven't had much choice, alright!" the man snapped, glaring at Isaac before his expression softened again.
"I didn't mean to offend," Isaac said, crouching next to the man. "The name's Isaac, Isaac Stark," he said, offering his right hand to shake.
The man stared at Isaac's extended hand for a moment, before cautiously shaking it in return, "Micky. Just Micky."
"Alright, Micky," Isaac said, standing back up and swinging his satchel around, "I've got something to help." He produced a bottle of purified water from the Vault. He extended it to Micky, who looked at the bottle like it was a gift from God.
"Y-You're sure? I don't have anything to give you in return," Micky said, thinking Isaac was just taunting him.
"I'm sure. You need it more than I do," Isaac smiled. Micky gratefully took the bottle and opened it, taking a slow, careful sip. The water beggar's face lit up as he tasted the clean H2O, and he smiled at Isaac.
"Thanks. You saved my life," the man said, smiling as he held his bottle of water.
"Not a problem," Isaac smiled back, "If I have any extra later, I'll be sure to swing back by," he told Micky, before walking up to the imposing front of Megaton.
"State your business!" a voice called from above Isaac. He looked up, trying to see the owner of the voice, but couldn't see anyone past the old metals of the walls.
"I'm looking for my father! I think he might be in the town," Isaac called up, feeling anxious. 'Not as friendly as the old files claim, eh, Isaac?' the little survivalist voice in his brain taunted.
"You don't look like a raider, but watch it. Everyone inside is packing, so don't start trouble," the voice warned, followed by a loud clank. The big engine began spinning and whirring, and two huge sheets of metal slowly pulled up and back to reveal a large door.
"Head on in, partner," the Protectron told him. Isaac looked at the robot for a moment, then proceeded to the door. Isaac pushed the door inward, and though it was large and metal, it must have been supported by many hinges, for it swung open with ease. He passed through the doorway, and into the town of Megaton.
The first thing Isaac noticed inside the town was the steep slope leading down into the crater. The megaton class nuclear bomb, the town namesake, sat in a pool of green-tinted water in the center of the town. Around the bomb the town had been constructed, out of what appeared to be whatever random scrap people had been able to get their hands on. Isaac gave a small smile as he watched people going about their lives.
Even with the world broken, humanity abides, Isaac thought as he walked down the path that led straight down to the bomb. Not ten steps from the door, a large black man wearing a leather duster and a cowboy hat intercepted him. His face was covered in a thick beard, and his eyes appraised Isaac coldly. He saw the bloodstains on Isaac's jumpsuit, the dried blood still on Isaac's hands from the dead raider, and the tired, almost hollow look in Isaac's eyes of someone filled with regret.
"Who's blood, stranger?" the man asked, Isaac spotting the stock of a rifle of some sort peeking over his shoulder.
"Two creeps out there," Isaac said, jerking his left thumb back towards the door.
"Hopefully no one I know," the man said, towering over Isaac. Though Isaac had grown to 5' 7", this man was easily six feet tall.
"Not unless you know two dirty druggies, one with a weird mohawk and the other with a nasty scar across his face," Isaac responded, tensing up in case he need run. To his great relief, the man smiled and laughed when he heard that.
"Raiders. Good to hear you put 'em down," the large man said, extending his hand to shake. Isaac saw light glare off something on the man's chest, and noticed a gold star that read "Sheriff".
"Lucas Simms, town sheriff and occasionally mayor. Mind if I get your name?" Lucas asked, his hand still extended.
"Isaac Stark," Isaac replied, shaking the sheriff's hand. Lucas had a strong grip, almost painfully so, but Isaac returned as good as he could.
"Nice name," Lucas said, getting an awkward nod from Isaac. "Look, boy, I've seen the look on your face before. You've done some stuff you aren't proud of," Lucas said, getting Isaac's attention. Instantly his anxiety was back, and his fight or flight instinct was kicking in.
"Y-yeah..." Isaac said, tensing to run. A gentle hand on his shoulder form Lucas calmed him.
"You seem a little stressed and confused, so I'll be straight with you," Lucas said, forcing Isaac to keep eye contact, "I'm the law in this town, fuck up and answer to me. But, you don't look like a bad kid, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about," he smiled. Isaac almost deflated on his feet, and smiled back
"Thanks, Sheriff," he nodded. "This is a nice town," he added, looking at the buildings around them.
"We try to keep it that way," Lucas nods, before looking back to Isaac. "Now what brings you to town? That jumpsuit's in too good a condition to have been out of its Vault long."
"I'm looking for my dad," Isaac said. "Maybe you've seen him? Middle-aged, short gray hair. Might've been wearing a lab coat over a jumpsuit like mine?"
"Sorry, son, can't say I have," Lucas shook his head. "But, Colin Moriarty might have seen him. That snake keeps tabs on everything in this town. Seen the saloon across the crater up top?" he said, pointing at a building on the opposite edge of the crater.
"Yeah, I see it," Isaac nodded, a small glimmer of hope rising up.
"That's Moriarty's place. If anyone in town has an idea of where your dad is, it's him," Lucas told him.
"Thanks," Isaac said, before his eyes drifted back down to the bomb at the heart of the crater again.
"Aren't you worried about that thing?" he asked, pointed at the bomb with his gloved left hand.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," Lucas nodded. "But the majority of the town doesn't even know it's still kicking, and the folks down at the Church of Atom worship the damn thing."
"People actually worship an atomic bomb!?" Isaac exclaimed, finding absolutely no logic in what was just said.
"I know, I know, it's crazy. But they help out around town and don't hurt anyone, so who am I to judge," Lucas shrugged. "Why ask, anyhow?"
"Well, sir," Isaac said, feeling uncertain now that he actually thought about what he was proposing, "I could disarm it for you."
"I don't know..." Lucas began, only to have Isaac cut him off.
"Sir, with all due respect you are literally sitting on a time bomb," he said. He had to admit to himself, even though he'd only met Lucas just now, and hadn't even been in the town an hour, he liked the place.
"Weapons-grade nuclear matter is dangerous and unstable. All it would take is the proper push, a jolt of sufficient electricity, for example, and the town would be a smoldering ruin," Isaac told the sheriff.
"So you want to disarm it? Just like that?" the sheriff asked skeptically.
"Well, if you wanted to pay me for it, I wouldn't mind," Isaac grinned sheepishly. Money makes the world go round, as someone once said. If he was going to get by in the outside world, he'd have to get some sooner or later.
"I can give you one hundred caps," Lucas said, the idea finally appealing to him.
"Caps? As in like bottle caps?" Isaac asked, confused.
"The very ones. We use it as money out here because there are plenty around, and they're pretty hard to fabricate," Lucas explained. One hundred doesn't sound too bad... but maybe you should try for more...
"Five hundred," Isaac countered, locking eyes with the sheriff.
"That's ridiculous! I can give you one-hundred," Lucas said, looking sternly at Isaac. However, the young engineer was not going to be deterred. He was going to need plenty of money to find his dad.
"Two-fifty."
"Boy... you are really trying my patience," Lucas warned him. "I'll give you one final offer, seeing as how you are guaranteeing the bomb will never be a problem again if you actually do accomplish this. I'll give you one hundred caps, and the deed to one of the houses here in town," he offered.
"A house?" Isaac said, surprised by the offer. "You're sure?"
"Kid, if you can guarantee this town'll be safe from that bomb, you'll have earned it," Simms told him with a smile.
"Sheriff, you've got yourself a deal," Isaac grinned, "I'll be back in just a few minutes," he told Lucas, proceeding to jog down the path leading to the bomb.
"Kid, I hope you know what you're doing," Lucas muttered to himself. He liked the kid, though he didn't know why, so hopefully his instincts about people hadn't gone to shit in the last few years.
Isaac took off his satchel as he reached the edge of the radioactive pool of water that held the bomb, sitting it on the dry dirt. Since the satchel had basically been his tool bag before he was forced to flee the Vault, it still had a fair number of his old tools inside it. He extracted a small adjustable wrench, a pair of wire cutters, and his trusty flat-head screwdriver. Along with the tools he pulled out a small bowl to hold all the little pieces he'd be taking off and putting back, a trick he'd picked up from Stanley. With his tools in hand, he proceeded into the pool.
The Pip-Boy's Geiger-counter immediately began ticking as Isaac waded through the shallow pool, but he did his best to ignore it. He traced his fingers along the paneling of the bomb, looking for the little differences that would reveal the access panel. Finding it a moment later, he went to work. First he used his screwdriver and wrench to remove all the screws, nuts, and washers for the outer panel, depositing them in his parts bowl. Next he stuffed his tools in his pockets for a second, pulling off the outer panel and setting it in the dirty water around his feet.
By now a small throng of people had gathered around the bomb, murmuring to themselves as they watched Isaac begin removing the pieces holding the secondary panel in place. A woman with striking red hair tied in a bun watched the scene from the balcony above the clinic, while a man dressed in a white suit watched from outside of Moriarty's bar. Once Isaac had the second panel off, he peered in at the guts of the weapon.
In the Vault, there had not been any teachers for how to maintain the nuclear reactor that powered the shelter. So, when Isaac had been given assignment to the engineering track, his only teachers had been the myriad amount of textbooks Vault had kept on everything nuclear. He'd studied reactors, bombs, the process of preparing uranium for use in nuclear weapons, all of it. It seemed every ounce of knowledge on the subject that had been printed had been in the Vault, and over the course of three years Isaac had read it all.
That being said, he was fairly confident when he pulled several wires away from the others and neatly snipped them with the wire cutters. For a moment, nothing happened, and then Isaac smiled as a small display on the inner circuit-board changed from "armed" to "unarmed". Now that the bomb was disarmed, Isaac proceeded to snip several more wires, all key to sending any sort of electrical pulse to the warhead, rendering it totally inert. Once he was finished he calmly replaced both in secondary and outer panels, putting all the little securing parts back in place.
He exited the pool with a grin, only to be tackled by a man with balding silver hair and a scraggly beard, wearing gray clothing, "YOU HAVE DEFILED THE ALTAR OF ATOM!" Isaac dropped his tools in shock as the man took him off his feet, back into the murky water. There, the man tried to push Isaac's head under the polluted pool. Isaac fought back, kicking his feet and trying to push the man off him. His efforts were in vain, however, as the man was sitting on his chest and bearing the brunt of his weight on Isaac.
"Enough!" came the voice of Lucas Simms, booming over the shocked muttering of the crowd, accompanied by the sharp report of a gunshot. The man on top of Isaac looked at Lucas, seeing the larger man holding a smoking .44 magnum in his hand. He slowly rose from the boy, exiting the pool and walking towards Lucas. Isaac pulled himself out of the water, spluttering and coughing as he tried to get the water out of his lungs and replace it with sweet oxygen.
"Sheriff, he desecrated the sacred avatar of Atom!" the man yelled, pointing accusingly at Isaac.
"Cromwell, you need to calm down," Simms told him coolly. "The boy acted on my request."
"YOU RECRUITED HIM TO DEFILE OUR SACRED RELIC!?" Cromwell howled, barely holding himself back from launching at Simms as well.
"Confessor, that bomb was a threat to my town. I have no problem with you worshiping it or following your religion, however, it needed to be dealt with," Lucas told the livid priest calmly, though his voice carried the weight of control and authority. "No matter what you believe, that thing was made as a weapon to kill, and I won't have my town destroyed just for the sake of some old wires."
"Um, sir," Isaac said as he crawled out of the water, finally finishing collecting his tools out of the murky pool. Confessor Cromwell spun on his feet and glared at the young man, hatred in his eyes.
"What could you possibly want to say, defiler! You, who has spat in the face of our great lord Atom," Cromwell seethed.
"Well, sir," Isaac said, trying to remain diplomatic and set aside the fact this man had just tried to drown him, "I just made it so the bomb wouldn't ever explode. It's still radioactive, and from what I understand, isn't that radioactivity the sign of your god?"
Cromwell stared at Isaac in mute shock, surprised that this boy who had just reached into the heart of his holy relic and twisted it, was actually trying to make amends in a way. True, Atom's glory was in the radioactivity and the division it caused. True, the bomb still existed, so maybe there was a chance of Division in the time to come. Reluctantly, Confessor Cromwell nodded.
"That is true, boy," he admitted. "Atom's glory is not in the physical, but in the division of each and every one of us to the core. I will forgive this transgression, so long as you do not tamper with our precious relic again," he relented.
"And?" Lucas said, looming behind Cromwell with a stern look on his face.
"And I am sorry for attempting to kill you," Cromwell said, reaching into his clothes. "It is not the way of our faith to revel in the materials of this world, when the coming Division will give birth to trillions of worlds, but please take this as an apology," the priest said, extending a bag of fifty bottle-caps to Isaac.
"Thank you, Confessor," Isaac said, taking the bag from him. The priest of the Church of Atom nodded tiredly, then walked back towards his precious bomb, stooping in the water and weeping at the loss it meant for his church. Isaac looked at Simms for a bit of guidance, and the sheriff watched the Confessor for a moment before returning his gaze to Isaac.
"I'm sorry about that, boy," Simms apologized. "I hadn't thought Cromwell would react so violently," he admitted.
"It's alright, sir," Isaac said as he turned and retrieved his satchel, putting it across his back again. "Just glad to be of service."
"And a damned good service it was. It's a big relief not to have to worry about that thing anymore," Lucas said with a sigh of relief. He pulled back his duster and holstered his handgun, then produced a bag of one hundred bottle caps and small plastic tube.
"This is the promised payment and the deed to the house up there above the Brass Lantern," Lucas explained, indicating the bar directly to his left, and the house up above on the edge of the crater.
"Thank you," Isaac said, as he took the items. "Thank you for giving me a place to call home."
"We're happy to have you," Simms assured him, clapping him on the shoulder. "Now, why do you go and get settled in, hmm?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Isaac agreed. "Thanks again, Sheriff," he added, beginning to head up the path next to the Brass Lantern that led to his home.
"No, son, thank you," Simms said to himself as he watched the boy walk away.
Isaac found the place easily enough, and wearily withdrew the key to his new home. He unlocked the door, and proceeded inside. The building was roughly furnished, he saw. A set of lockers was placed directly to the left of the door, with a second set mirroring it across the room. Against the left-hand wall was something that delighted Isaac: A collection stand for Vault-Tec Bobble-heads. He smiled and walked over to it, reaching into his satchel and removing the small Medicine Bobble-head he'd picked up leaving the Vault. He looked at the inscription on the bottom of it, reading "The smart man knows a bandage only hides his wounds." Isaac contemplated that for a moment, then set the Bobble-head on one of the small platforms of the collector's stand.
The familiar sound of several small jets reached Isaac's ears, and he turned to see a Mr. Handy robot floating down the stairs from the second floor of the house. Isaac couldn't help but smile when he saw the robot, memories of talking with Stanley and Andy coming back to him. The machine floated over to him, centering its middle "eye" on Isaac.
"Delighted to meet you, sir," it said, speaking with a slight British accent, "I am Wadsworth, your new personal robo-butler."
"A pleasure to meet you, Wadsworth," Isaac replied, smiling at the pleasantness of Wadsworth's pre-programmed voice. "Could you give me the layout of my home please?"
"Certainly, sir," Wadsworth replied eagerly. "We are on the first floor. It contains the two sets of lockers to your left and right, and the Vault-Tec Bobble-head Collector's Stand, which you have already located. At the back of this main room is a series of shelves, with a refrigerator unit and sink in the back corner. Upstairs there is the central catwalk, which serves as the ceiling above us now, along with two rooms. The first is somewhat small and currently rather bare, containing only a set of shelves and my charging apparatus. The second is your bedroom, sir, containing a desk and office chair, a stack of filing cabinets, and your bed," the mechanical servant reported.
"Very good," Isaac nodded, noting the layout in his mind. "Wadsworth, are you the docking charged variant of Mr. Handy, or do you also run off of batteries?"
"I am a prototype model built shortly before the devastation your people refer to as the 'Great War', sir. I am capable of running on fission batteries which compliment my core battery, charging myself at my docking station, and also capable of replenishing the charge of my central battery with a solar panel concealed in the roof of my main chassis, if given access to sufficient sunlight," Wadsworth explained.
"Excellent," Isaac said, pleased to know that he wouldn't be constantly drawing from the town's power to keep his butler going, but neither would he have to scavenge for fission batteries incessantly.
"One more thing..." Isaac said, trailing off as he began storing the various items in his satchel in the two sets of lockers. He kept his weapons, ammo, and spare magazines for his pistol in the locker directly next to the door, while he stored his extra Vault jumpsuits in the other locker. Before putting the last of the suits away, he stripped off the Kevlar vest and placed it in the locker, changing into a clean jumpsuit and set the dirty one aside to wash later.
"Could I please have something to drink?" he asked Wadsworth, finding himself rather parched.
"Certainly, sir," the robot replied courteously. He drifted to the kitchen and picked up a clean glass with his claw-tipped appendage, then a small hose extended from under a panel in his main chassis, filling the glass with clean, clear water.
"Thank you," Isaac said, taking the glass and sipping it. Though not cold as he had been used to in the Vault, the water was slightly cool, and felt wonderful on his parched throat. "Wadsworth, I think I shall be taking a nap," he informed the servant, checking his Pip-boy to see the time was currently only 1:00pm in the afternoon, "Please wake me at 4 o' clock," he told the robot.
"As you wish, sir," Wadsworth replied, the central eye descending and raising again in an imitation of bowing. Isaac smiled at the machine's attempts at human behavior, and went upstairs. He had taken his 10mm pistol with him, not wanting to leave all his weapons downstairs in case someone tried to break in. Setting the pistol on the desk, he laid down on the bare mattress of his bed. It was old, and somewhat lumpy, but with as tired as Isaac was it felt like heaven.
When I wake up... I'll go find Dad... were Isaac's last thoughts before he faded into an exhausted sleep.
And there's chapter 2! Not quite as long as the pilot, but I also didn't have to paint the picture of him fighting a platoon of security guards this time. I decided to take up on the advice from your reviews, and tried to change up the dialogue a bit and throw in a few new twists.
As for the disarming of the bomb, I actually do not know how the mechanisms work(for obvious reasons as I'm not a nuclear engineer and Homeland Security would be up my ass if I looked up the detonation mechanism of a nuke) so I just kind of winged it. Hope I didn't make it seem too easy.
And with Wadsworth's whole power-supply thing, I figured that he probably had to charge somehow, and there are a bit of electronics scattered about when you first enter the house in Megaton, so I went with him having an apparatus in the spare room. The solar power thing came from the similar idea that we never actually seem him charging, so I figured he just caught some sun with the little holes in the walls.
Well, that's it for now. As always, please leave a review.
Your host, Relks The Disturbed.