Chapter 2: Tenpenny Tower
The girl and I headed over to Lucas Simms house and knocked on the door. It was about 11 p.m. outside and I wasn't sure what to expect this late at night.
"Who's there?" We heard Simms yell from inside the house.
"It's Vincent! I need your help with something!" I shouted back to him.
The door soon opened and Simms let the two of us inside.
"What's going on Vince? It's pretty late to have something you need help with." Lucas said while rubbing his eyes.
The next hour or so was spent telling Simms about what was going on with the girl from the vault, Burk, and Tenpenny Tower. Lucas Simms was the one man I knew I could trust in Megaton and would be the only one to hear about these plans.
"…And so we are going to head out at dawn and were hoping we could get some help from you." I finally finished with my story.
"Well I'd love to come and help you, you know defeat the bad guy and save the town and what not, but I need to stay here incase anything happens in town…I can bring you to the armory in town and let you stock up before you go though." Lucas told the two of us.
"Any help would be great at this point." I said.
The three of us went outside and saw that the sun was beginning to rise and made our way over to the armory. Lucas opened the door with his key and entered with us so that Deputy Steel, the Mister Gutsy robot protecting the armory, wouldn't attack us. The girl and I each took a 10mm pistol and a Chinese Assault Rifle, these guns were in rough condition but it was all we had. I walked over to the back of the room and also found a Combat Shotgun that I grabbed, just in case.
"Well, we're heading out. Thanks for the help Lucas; you've always been a good friend to me, hehe." I said, the two of us shaking hands.
We proceeded to the front gate of the city, it had been almost a year since I've ventured out into the wasteland, and I wonder how much it had changed…
3 hours later…
Over the course of the past few hours I learned the girls' full story and even her name, Samantha. We encountered only a few bloatflies along the way, it seemed that we were going to make it to Tenpenny Tower unscathed when we heard gunfire going on in the distance. At the top of a nearby hill we crouched down and I pulled out my binoculars to look into the distance. Near an old abandoned factory we saw a couple of Raiders in a firefight with two people dressed in scavengers' clothes and a Mister Gutsy robot. The Raiders didn't seem to be fairing well and started to retreat, and then I realized they were running towards us.
"There are three of them left, they are headed towards us, get your pistol ready and don't shoot until I do." I whispered to Sam.
She looked like she knew what she was doing so I proceeded to get my rifle ready and aimed at the Raider leading the retreat. They were just at the base of the hill when I opened fire on them with Sam following my lead; they looked surprised and were shot down before they even had time to realize what had just happened. We walked down the blood covered hill to the bodies to see if there was anything of interest on them. I ended up with a few more bullets for my shotgun and a Combat knife while Sam got some ammo for her pistol.
"Alright let's keep going, I can see the tower from here." I said to Sam and we continued our journey towards the great tower, the scavengers were already long gone by the time the Raiders were dead.
We had made it to the base of the tower and were looking for the main entrance when I heard talking, I told Sam to stay low and to get her pistol ready. We rounded the corner to see a ghoul talking into an intercom.
After a short yelling match between the ghoul and the intercom the ghoul stormed off in the other direction and we approached the now empty intercom.
"Hello?" I said into the intercom.
"I've already told you we're not going to let you in!" The man yelled through the speaker.
"We're not ghouls; we're just looking for a man named Burke." I calmly told the man.
"Oh, you know Mr. Burke? Hmmmm, well, if you know him then I guess you can come inside. Just don't go around starting trouble everywhere!" The man told us as he opened the front gate.
We walked through the gate and saw the man who was harassing the ghoul; he was wearing some armor that I thought I've seen before and an assault rifle.
"I'm the head of security around here, people call me Chief Gustavo. Mr. Burke is located on the top floor, probably with Mr. Tenpenny, carry on and don't cause any trouble!" Gustavo told the both of us.
Sam and I walked in through the front entrance into the lobby and proceeded to walk towards the elevator in the back of the room. I hit the button to summon the elevator and while we stood there I saw a familiar face.
"Herbert?" I half exclaimed half questioned.
"Hrmmm?...Vincent!" The man said back to me.
"It's been some time Herbert." I said to the man while shaking his hand.
Herbert, commonly called Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, was an adventurer who I met nearly ten years ago in the wastes. Herbert was traveling with a ghoul at the time and helped me reach Rivet City.
"Only a couple of years now, what are you doing here?" Herbert asked me, "And who's this charming young lady?"
Samantha blushed, "This is Samantha, and I was escorting her here to make sure she arrived safely." I told Herbert, "Enough about the two of us though, what are you doing here and where's Argyle?"
"Well, about that…Argyle went missing some time ago on my last adventure, I know he's still out in the wastes somewhere but I'm too old now to find him." Herbert said while the elevator doors opened.
"Well Herbert, it was nice to see you again but I have to see Mr. Tenpenny about Samantha here." I told him.
"Well it was nice seeing you to Vince, and it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Samantha" Herbert commented before walking off towards the lounge.
The elevator ride was a quick and silent one because the two of us were getting ready for what was going to happen next. Samantha was mentally preparing to discover the location of her father while I was checking my guns to make sure everything went smoothly for us when it was time for action. The doors opened and we were confronted by a security guard who was just finishing up on the intercom.
"You two are here for Mr. Burke and Mr. Tenpenny, right?" The guard asked.
"Yah, which room are they in?" I asked back.
"Follow me." The guard responded.
I motioned Sam to follow and we proceeded to the door and waited for the guard to unlock it. Once the door was opened we were instructed to go through the door in the back out to the balcony. We walked through the door and found ourselves on the highest floor balcony looking over the wasteland. Burke was talking to Tenpenny when we opened the door and quickly stopped when he saw the two of us.
"Samantha, we meet again. And Vincent? What a surprise." Burke said to the two of us.
"I'm here to find out where my dad went!" Samantha exclaimed.
"I trust you held up your part of the bargain?" Burke asked Sam.
"Fortunately, she didn't. I snuck up on her and she wasn't able too." I told Burke.
"Then what are you doing here Samantha? You know I won't tell you anything. Why come at all?" Burke asked Sam.
"It was my idea to come," I informed him, "She doesn't need to destroy a whole town to figure out where her father is. We're here to make sure that you don't threaten anyone ever again."
Sam looked surprised and was hesitant in what she was to do next. I quickly pulled up my rifle and pointed it at Burkes' head; she pulled out her pistol and pointed it at Tenpenny before he could do anything to help his right hand man.
"Now don't I get a say in any of this?" Tenpenny asked, "Look out into the horizon and tell me that that "town" is not an eyesore. It's a disgrace to this tower and needs to be dealt with!"
"Enough!" I yelled, "Sam, we don't need these two, I know where your dad is. I just needed a reason to deal with Burke, after this we can head out towards your dad."
"…Alright, I trust you Vince." She replied back to me.
I was ready to end Burkes' life right there and then but the guard from earlier came rushing in.
"Mr. Tenpenny the tower is under attack from ghouls!" The guard shouted not even paying attention to Sam and me.
"Well Vincent, Samantha, seems like we'll need to settle this later." Tenpenny said calmly.
Tenpenny left the room with Burke closely behind after giving us a strange look. This wasn't what I planned, I thought to myself, but if the ghouls don't kill them, I will. Sam and I went back to the elevator but waited there debating our next move because of the ghouls.
"We'll have to fight our way out, I know where your father is and I won't abandon you because of this mess I've got you into." I told Sam.
"You think we'll get out of this?" Sam asked me.
"We will…trust me." I replied, and with that we entered the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor.