Chapter 3: The Rebuild
Author's Notes:
I think it's fair to say every author likes reviews, but when said reviews contain nothing but complaints, that's a little annoying.
Time to address some comments.
I wrote Fray as being still alive after getting shot for several reasons.
-I am operating on the assumption that when a person goes into the cryo chambers in Vault 111, everything stops, including the stages of dying and death.
-Based on the amount of time it takes a human to die from a shot to the chest, Fray could have still been alive for several minutes, maybe even longer than an hour.
-Look it up. It happens.
-I wanted to give Nate some closure. I don't think that's too unreasonable.
THIS IS NOT A WALKTHROUGH OF FALLOUT 4!
There will be original story events in boatloads the size of the U.S.S. Constitution, so untwist your collective pants. Before I get into the nitty-gritty-titties, there needs to be some exposition. Some explanation to lay a solid foundation for this nuclear nation. Word up.
There will be some of the same characters and events that take place in official canon, but there will be more than enough original shit to satisfy everyone.
Now, let's get back into it.
Soundtrack: Tiki Taane – "King of the Dubs"
Nate's red Corvega tore down the street, engine growling proudly. Mama Murphy sat in the passenger seat next to Nate, while Preston and the others clung onto a scavenged trailer that bounced along behind the Corvega. The T-45 power armor lay in the trailer too. Dogmeat had run off to Sanctuary alone.
Nate changed gear and the Bad Dawg V6 growled appreciatively. Mama Murphy nodded, impressed. "My husband used to drive a Corvega like this one back in Quincy," she sighed.
"Is he still around?" Nate asked carefully.
Mama Murphy shook her head. "He's been dead for years."
"Sorry for your loss," Nate replied quickly.
"Don't be," Mama Murphy said with a wicked grin. "He used to hit me, so I killed the bastard myself."
Nate was forced to swerve around the rusted corpse of another Corvega. As the others shouted indignantly from the trailer, Nate stared at Mama Murphy in shock. Mama started humming as she stared out the window. Nate shook his head and returned his attention to the road.
Soon, the Corvega cruised over the bridge to Sanctuary Hills. In the trailer, Preston winced as he heard the bridge creak and groan under the Corvega's weight. "Add that to the list," he muttered to himself.
A minute later, Nate stopped the Corvega outside his house, and everyone dismounted the trailer. Nate and Preston helped Mama Murphy out of her seat.
"All right," Nate began. "You're welcome to whatever houses you like, except mine. There's a digistruct workshop in the yellow house, so you can make whatever you like, as long as you have the materials."
"All right," Preston stepped forward. "Me and Mama Murphy will take the house with the workshop. The rest of you, get to scavenging. Scrap all the collapsed houses, and put all the materials you find in the workshop. We need defenses, and that's going to take resources."
The settlers each grabbed a constructor tool from the red workshop table and split off. Mama Murphy followed Preston to an old armchair in the yellow house, sinking down into the soft leather with a satisfied groan.
Meanwhile, Nate found himself face to face with the Longs.
"We haven't been properly introduced," the man began. "I'm Jun, and my sourpuss of a wife is Marcy."
"Hi," Marcy grunted, arms crossed.
"What can I do for you?" Nate asked.
Jun gestured around. "Me and Marcy were pretty good at farming back home. If you want, we can start a garden and find a couple animals; get everyone here eating right."
"Nice idea," Nate nodded. A second later, Preston tapped him on the shoulder.
"We'll get set up here," Preston said. "In the meantime, there's a group of raiders in an abandoned Corvega factory. They attacked us before we reached Concord; killed most of us and took everything they could get their filthy hands on."
"And let me guess," Nate asked sarcastically, "You want me to go ask them nicely if they'll give everything back?"
Preston grunted. "Not quite the way I'd put it, but yes. Besides, if we capture the factory and put some trusted folks in there, we could start building cars."
"I can do that," Nate nodded. "I'll be back when I'm done."
Nate walked over to the digistruct workbench and checked the levels of supplies stored inside. With a satisfied grin, Nate selected his minigun, short laser musket, and double-barrel shotgun, storing the weapons in his Pip-Boy's data banks.
The red Corvega came to life and Nate shut the door as he settled into the driver's seat. Dogmeat panted happily in the shotgun seat. On the trailer, Nate's new power armor knelt on one leg, its mechanical hands gripping the trailer's edge. Nate scanned the road ahead and hit the gas. The Corvega started off down the street, quickly vanishing into the distance.
Preston turned back to the others. "You heard the man. Let's get rebuilding."
Song: Disturbed – "Inside the Fire"
The highway stretched on as far as Nate could see. The Corvega's engine rumbled, carrying the red car farther away from home. A short while later, Nate passed through Lexington. Taking in the scale of the destruction caused by his first battle with the raiders, Nate whistled softly. Dogmeat barked in agreement. Nate changed gear down and sped up, approaching the edge of town when a roar caught his ear. In the rearview mirror, at least a dozen crudely modified Corvegas emerged from alleyways and from around corners. Nate pulled out his shotgun and turned up the radio, bracing himself.
The first of the fleet of Corvegas drew closer on Nate's left side, its engine making a deafening racket. The body panels shone chrome, and a wicked-looking ram bar was mounted on the front. On top, an armored raider blasted a flamethrower at Nate's Corvega. Nate waited until the Corvega was almost upon him, and slammed on the brakes. Nate's Corvega slowed dramatically, and he stuck his arm out the driver side window, holding the shotgun. As the raider's Corvega sped past, Nate fired both barrels through its window. A split second later, an explosion of red splattered the Corvega's windshield as the raider's head disintegrated. The raider car peeled off to the left, before smashing into a building.
Nate changed gear down and stomped on the gas. As the Corvega surged forward, Dogmeat howled, as if letting loose a war cry. Behind Nate, the rest of the raiders closed in, shouting and firing their weapons. Nate swerved to the left, knocking another raider car off the highway into the ditch. A second later, the rusty Corvega smashed into a sewer pipe and crumpled like a soda can. Nate hissed as bullets ricocheted off the red Corvega's door panel, dangerously close to his head.
Suddenly, the Corvega bounced. A raider had thrown himself onto Nate's hood and was clinging to the red Corvega. The raider screamed at Nate, hacking at the hood with a crude axe. Nate slammed on the brakes and hit the gas in quick succession. The raider was thrown off the hood, and promptly went under the Corvega's wheels. Nate grimaced at the grisly death, but a bullet whizzing past his head cleared his thoughts instantly.
The Corvega shook as three harpoons impaled the body panels, and the car began to slow. Behind Nate, two other vehicles were connected to the red Corvega by heavy steel cables on their harpoons. Nate swore and grabbed a length of rope, tying the steering wheel into place, before jamming a crowbar onto the gas pedal. The Corvega's engine roared and Nate unbuckled himself from the seat, climbing out the shattered back window. Nate clung to the trunk lid with one hand and pressed his shotgun's barrels against one harpoon's cable.
The shotgun roared and one harpoon's cable disintegrated, metal flying everywhere. The Corvega lurched and powered ahead, the crowbar still wedged on the gas. Nate hauled himself across to another harpoon on the trailer, and fired. One harpoon vehicle shuddered to a stop, losing the pulling power of the red Corvega, as the harpoon shattered. The other car, a large tow truck covered in spikes, fired another harpoon, which whistled menacingly over Nate's head. On the trailer, Nate hurriedly jammed fresh shells into his shotgun and pressed it against the harpoon's hook.
The cable snapped back as the harpoon's hook came undone, smashing through the tow truck's windshield in a flash of glass and a splash of red. The tow truck veered to the left and flipped over, rolling to a crunching stop against a lamppost. Freed from the harpoons, Nate's red Corvega surged ahead, towards the large factory building looming in the distance. Nate leaped onto the Corvega's trunk lid and hauled himself through the back window into the driver's seat. Dogmeat barked in greeting, and Nate pulled the crowbar away from the accelerator pedal, taking control of the car back from Fate before roaring through a gap just barely wide enough to fit the trailer. Behind Nate, another raider vehicle flipped end over end as it plowed into the concrete barrier Nate had just squeezed through. The vehicles behind it shuddered to a halt at the crude new roadblock. Nate breathed out in relief as the Corvega carried on.
Half an hour later, Nate pulled up to a ramshackle building beside the Greater Boston Corvega Assembly Plant, and cut the engine of the red Corvega. Dogmeat hopped out the passenger window and began sniffing around the building. Nate popped the hood and yanked out the Corvega's distributor cap, rendering it immobile. After he shut the hood again, Nate climbed into the trailer and stepped into his T-45 power armor. The suit powered up with an electric hum and a hiss of hydraulics as Nate stood up to his full height. Dogmeat ran to Nate's side, and the two crept closer to the forbidding factory, and the unknown danger inside.
Author's Notes:
I think that answers the question of when this story gets into the Mad Max universe. I hope I wrote a good action sequence. If so, let me know by writing a review in that little box down there. I'll have another chapter ready soon.
-the Seacopath