Fallout 3: Pittfall
Chapter 7.
She was standing in a field, its waves of grain as amber as the song described. All around her, the golden wheat seemed to stretch on forever as if on an eternal plane. The sky was blue with a few wispy clouds drifting lazily overhead, and the sun was warm and comforting. Audrey started to wonder how she had come to be here in this vastness of grain, but she dismissed this as a trifling thought. Who was she to question a place of such beauty? She moved further into the field, letting her fingertips stray across the tops of the stalks as she passed. Their thin bristles tickled her skin and she giggled gaily. She had neither direction nor purpose for being here, and yet she couldn't have felt happier. The field was just like those her father had read to her about in stories as a child. A place of such wonder and bliss seemed like a utopia compared to the cold metal confines of Vault 101.
She picked up her pace, accelerating into a gleeful bound. A light breeze began to grace the air, and as she ran, it felt like gentle fingers stroking through her hair. It was a sensation she imagined she would have received from her mother, had she not passed during childbirth. The woman Audrey had never known seemed closer than ever now. Her exhilaration heightened.
Abruptly, the landscape changed. The wheat stopped moving in the breeze and quickly receded into the soil. For a split second, she was standing in the middle of an endless expanse of red earth with the blue sky contrasting mightily above. The next instant, giant plants shot up from the ground and turned her world into a jungle. But this jungle was not one of vines and hanging moss, she saw. The plants that made up this spontaneous greenhouse were all flowers but with their leaves and petals folded in on themselves. Tentatively, she reached out and touched the flower closest to her. It flinched as though startled by her presence. Then it shuddered and its vegetal cocoon suddenly parted, revealing a shaft of light which emanated from the center of the flower. Having stepped back to avoid a petal flopping on her, Audrey now could see the outline of a human figure emerging from the light. She moved closer, and then fell to the ground in shock. The figure was one she knew very well.
"Daddy?" she whispered, the word barely forming in her mouth.
She couldn't believe it. It was truly him. Her father! The same man who had helped to bring her into the world and had then raised her on his own until she was nineteen. The same man who had loved her more than life itself. The same man who had died while she watched helplessly from the outside of the Project Purity control room. Now here he stood before her, looking as alive and beaming with as much pride as the day she had passed the G.O.A.T. He knelt down beside her and took her hand in his.
"Hello, sweetheart," he said, his voice as warm and as loving as she remembered it. Before she knew what she was doing, Audrey had enveloped him in a tight embrace and was sobbing with a mixture of grief and happiness into his chest, her tears leaving moist tracks down the front of his lab coat. After a moment, he lifted her face and dried her cheeks with thumb.
"Shhh," he whispered. "You're a grown woman now. Remember, grown women don't cry," he jokingly admonished.
At this remark, Audrey's sobs morphed into a halting laugh. "Yeah, right," she managed between breaths. "You're the one who told me that it takes a real person to cry."
Her father laughed in return. "Ha! Of course I did, because it's true. But now is not the time for tears, honey."
"Dad, I – I can't believe you're here! I watched you d–," she stopped herself short. "I lost you at Project Purity," she continued, reaching out to touch his face. His scruffy beard seemed impossibly real. "How can this be?"
James Epson smiled broadly. "I'm as real as you make me, Audrey. I've been right beside you all along, in life, and beyond. Though the good times and bad, I've watched you grow from a bright little girl into a strong and confident woman. A woman who saved the Capital Wasteland no less."
Audrey felt her ears redden. "Come on, Dad. It's thanks to you that D.C. now has clean water. I just flipped a switch."
"And I suppose that's why you bear the title of 'The Lone Switch-Flipper'?"
"Funny."
"And how is it that you're The Lone Wanderer, yet you are constantly shadowed by a faithful dog and of all things, a super mutant? That doesn't seem very lone to me."
Audrey shrugged innocently as she got to her feet. "What can you do? They didn't shoot me on site so I figured, what the hey, let's hang out."
Her father chuckled. "Come, we can 'hang out' as you walk with me."
He led her through the flowers along a path which seemed to form where he stepped, the foliage parting as he moved.
"Where are we going, Dad?"
"To the reason why I brought you here, honey."
"Aw, I'm hurt," Audrey teased. "You're telling me you didn't do this just to see me?"
Her father smiled and shook his head. "I can claim to have instilled that wit of yours myself, but I'd be lying if I told you it didn't come from your mother. Which brings me to why you're here; I'm just your guide for today. I'm doing this on behalf of someone else."
"Who?"
"We're here. Why don't you ask her yourself?"
They were standing before a flower far larger than the others that made up the oversized garden. It was a brilliant blue and seemed to sit apart from the other flowers. Clearly it was of some importance.
"Her? Her who?"
"Your mother, darling."
The word sent a tingle through Audrey's body. Her legs turned to jelly and she stumbled forward in a daze to the large flower. She put her hand up to it just as she had done with her father's and the plant's petals spread open. There was a light inside and again, a figure stood within. She couldn't wait this time and rushed onto the carpet of petals, suddenly finding a renewed energy. The excitement at meeting a mother whom she had never seen was practically pulsing through her.
She reached the pillar of light and stopped short. There was something wrong in the way her mother seemed to be moving. It was like she was…shambling?
Before she could react, the feral ghoul reaver sprang upon her and sank its teeth into her neck.
Audrey screamed and sat bolt upright, a cold sweat clinging to her skin. Her eyes flicked wildly about as she tried to reorient herself. Enveloping darkness and the sound of dripping water echoing from a distant hollow chamber were the only clues she had. Where was her father? Her mother? The reaver?
The reaver!
Her left hand flew to her neck, searching desperately for the ragged wound in her flesh she knew would be there. But it wasn't. Her fingers found nothing but cool, clammy skin and the heightened pulse that raced beneath. It had all been a dream. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. She was back in the dark train tunnels with Wernher, on her way to the last place on earth she wanted to go. A part of her felt heartache that the vision of her father had not been real. It had been so wonderful to see him again, if only in the dark recesses of her mind. The other part felt relief that she had been released from the nightmare back into the clutches of reality. At least reality was a nightmare she knew how to handle.
Beside her, Wernher cleared his throat.
"Hero, you awake?"
"Yeah. Sorry my screaming woke you," she yawned. "Bad dream."
"I got that. Now can you get your gun out of my face?"
When Wernher said this, Audrey realized for the first time that her right arm hadn't moved since she'd woken up. She pulled it towards her, turned on her Pip-Boy light, and found she was clutching her silenced 10mm pistol. Her grip was so tight her knuckles were pale. She turned to Wernher and saw he had a faint red impression in the center of his forehead, no doubt from when she had been reflexively cramming the barrel of the suppressor into his skin.
"Oh, um…sorry Wernher, I…" she stalled, unsure of what to say to placate someone she had been holding unconsciously at gunpoint.
"You always sleep with a gun?"
"What? You're telling me you don't?"
Wernher looked at her. "Of course I do. Except I keep mine in my holster, not in my hand."
"I walk around with a flashing neon target on my head every day, Wernher. Some girls sleep with teddy bears; I sleep with a semiautomatic."
"I see. Still, I'm never waking you up again, so I hope that computer thing on your wrist has an alarm."
"It does. It's called a Geiger counter."
They packed up their encampment on the tracks and continued down the line, heading northwest. Conversation was all but nonexistent, the events of the previous day still weighing heavily on their minds. They had not stayed the night at Station Three. Despite being utterly exhausted from their battle with the feral ghoul colony, Audrey and Wernher had wanted to put as much distance between them and the complex as they possibly could. They had rolled on through the night until their bodies were near breaking, finally stopping to rest at a nondescript spot on the rail line. On the evening of the seventh day of their journey, they arrived at Station Four.
Like Station Three, this too was made from the remains of a pre-war Metro Station. It had roughly the same layout as Three, only as they passed under the overhead platform, Audrey could now see that the escalators weren't barricaded. She hoped that was a good sign.
Wernher applied the brake and let out the same series of whistles he had before. Audrey held her breath, anticipating another deathly silence. Her fears were not warranted however, as the sounds of cocking guns filled her ears instead. In the grand scheme of things, this could be considered an improvement. A series of floodlights suddenly were cast onto the handcar and its occupants.
"Alright, n-nobody move. W-Who goes there?" a cautious stuttering voice said from above. The people surrounding them seemingly materialized on the upper platform and the escalators.
Wernher sighed. "The whistles didn't tell you enough?"
"Anyone can m-make whistles," the man retorted.
"You idiot, it's Wernher. He gave the freakin' signal," a woman to the left of them hissed.
"S-So? He could be held under d-d-duress!"
"Yeah?" the woman shot back. "You really think Wernher can get held up by some hooker?" Audrey flinched at this snap assessment. "He whistled. He's back. Now step off."
"Nice to see that someone remembers the protocol," Wernher growled. "Now can I move already? My arms are getting stiff here." In response, floodlights dimmed and weapons lowered.
He and Audrey grabbed their gear and headed up the escalators to the upper mezzanine where the people whom Audrey took to be his associates were gathered around a lit fire barrel. Four in all, they took turns exchanging handshakes or hugs with Wernher while Audrey stood back and took it all in. This was a side of him she had never seen before. In his interactions with the freed slaves, she saw the true leader in him emerge from beneath the gruff and weathered exterior. His men respected and trusted him, feelings she was slowly learning to form. He looked over at her after a minute and motioned for her to join them.
"Hero, I'd like you to meet my guys."
From left to right, they were introduced. Bronson, tall, dark skinned, muscular, and soft-spoken, reminded her of a less green version of Fawkes. Nix, a scrawny, disheveled man with a speech impediment, was the one who had stopped them earlier. He looked to Audrey like a jet addict trying to quit cold turkey. Next was Joker, who did not earn his nickname for his humor, but rather from the duel scars that curved up from either corner of his mangled smile. He told her they were a gift from a sadistic slaver named Card Shark who thought it would be fun to try and anatomically alter his work crew to represent certain playing cards. He also told her never to ask about "the poor bastard named Queen". Finally, there was Kiarné. The only other woman in the bunch, she sported a longish mohawk haircut dyed a gray-blue and swept to one side. She would have been very pretty had she not had the look of one who had suffered more abuses than there were names for. She was also staring at Audrey with enough contempt to make a radscorpion molt prematurely from embarrassment.
"Thought you were supposed to bring back an army, Wernher, not some railside tramp." She spat, her saliva projectile landing next to Audrey's boot, an action that clearly wasn't coincidental. Audrey chose to say nothing, hoping ignoring her would help.
"Watch your mouth Ki," Wernher warned. "Audrey here's the one who's gonna' save your ass."
Audrey looked up in surprise. That was the first time Wernher had called her by her real name. Maybe he was finally starting to respect her feelings.
"But she prefers to go by Hero."
And there went that thought.
"I don't give a shit what she's called. You're the one who got our asses out of the Pitt, Wernher. You expect me to believe she's our only hope?"
"You will if you know what's good for you," Wernher said threateningly.
Kiarné wasn't through though. "Bullshit," she hissed. She circled around behind Audrey and bapped the back of her head. "I'll bet this pretty little thing hasn't even fired a gun let alone held one before." She continued to circle Audrey, mocking her as she did.
"I'm telling you, back off Kiarné, or you're going to be in world of hurt," said Wernher.
Kiarné shoved Audrey again then turned to face Wernher. "Oh yeah, from who? You? Why, you two sack buddies now?"
Audrey reached out and spun the other woman back around to face her. "No. From me." Having endured all the verbal abuse she was going to take, she grabbed Kiarné's arm and twisted it painfully behind her back, taking her to the ground in the process. Once she had rolled her onto her back, Audrey jammed a knee into Kiarné's gut, then drew her silenced pistol, cocked it, and placed the barrel right on the tip of her nose. She held it there, looking into Kiarné's eyes that were now as big as saucers. "Hi, I'm Audrey, the Lone Wanderer. Nice to meet you. Now, are you done?"
Kiarné nodded dumbly. During the short scuffle, Bronson, Nix, and Joker had stepped back in surprise, clearly not expecting such a display of force. Wernher on the other hand stood with his arms folded across his chest, wearing a confident smirk. Bronson started to fumble for his pistol but Wernher stayed his hand.
"Easy, Bronson. If she was gonna' kill Ki, she would have done it by now," he reassured. "Just proving a point, aren't you, Hero?"
"A point's only a proven if the other party concedes defeat," Audrey answered evenly, holstering her weapon. "So, Kiarné, is my point proven?" She slowly twisted her knee further into the woman's abdomen for emphasis.
"Yes," Kiarné grunted. "Now please…get…the fuck…off me."
"With pleasure." Audrey abruptly stood and hauled Kiarné to her feet. "No hard feelings here," she said dusting her off. "I'm just full of surprises most people aren't used to." Kiarné looked over her shoulder as she walked away but didn't say anything in reply. The conversation and confrontation were over.
"You won't get any trouble from us, Miss," added Bronson hurriedly. He held up his open hands.
Audrey smiled disarmingly at him. "Thanks, but I didn't expect any. In truth, I'm glad to see some other faces besides Wernher's. There's only so much asshole a girl can take, you know." That comment seemed to break the ice and lighten the mood even with Wernher scowling merely for effect.
After a meal of Salisbury steak on rebar kabobs – lightly rusted of course – Nix showed Audrey to her quarters, a space which in years past had been a boiler room. The accommodations were sparse; besides the old steam works, a moldy looking mattress and a rickety table were the only pieces of furniture in the room. A small lantern crudely wired to a portable fission battery provided the only light. Nix apologized that they couldn't offer her more and was surprised when she thanked him graciously. He had no way of knowing that after sleeping with her body crammed between two rails and spending some nights stretched out on cold hard concrete, Audrey viewed the very presence of a mattress as a gift from God.
After Nix had left, Audrey stripped out of her combat armor and changed into more comfortable attire consisting of a sleeveless shirt and raggedy jean shorts. Since the boiler room offered more in the way of space then she had been used to on this trip, it gave her the perfect opportunity to get in some exercise. Her routine began with fifty pushups followed by twenty-five more apiece on each arm. When she had finished, her arm and upper torso muscles had the familiar healthy burn to them, a sensation which she enjoyed. She wasn't through however. Putting the boiler room's layout to good use, she hoisted herself onto one of the overhead pipes and swung her legs over it, allowing the rest of her body to hang freely upside down. Priming her abdominal muscles, she proceeded to do a series of inverted sit-ups. She put her arms behind her head and took turns thrusting with her left and right elbows up to the pipe. To pace herself, every time she would return to the at-rest position, she would recall the face of someone dear to her heart or with whom she had a good relationship. Up one; down Fawkes. Up two; down Dogmeat. Up three; down Dad. For Audrey, sit-ups – whether on the ground or in the air – were a calming physical and mental exercise. Even though her body would ache at the end of it all, she would finish feeling completely relaxed. The whole think-and-move routine she had developed for this regimen did not always result in her conjuring up friendly faces though. In her more brooding moments, she could remember the face of every enemy she had ever struck down. Other times, she would recite aloud medical terminology from her father's old D.C. Journal of Medicine. Up twenty-one; down Bryan Wilks. Up twenty-two; down Agatha Egglebrecht. Up twenty-three, down Kiarné.
Kiarné!
The woman's face was staring into hers when she came down from the twenty-third repetition. She hadn't heard her come in. Audrey cried out in alarm, nearly losing her grip on the pipe and Kiarné recoiled when she did this, apparently afraid of another outburst from her. There was none to be had however, as Audrey remained hanging upside down catching her breath.
"Hi," she panted. "There something…I can help you with?" She couldn't help but wonder if Kiarné realized just on how many levels this situation was awkward.
At first, Kiarné remained silent, looking as anxious as a mole rat that had just poked a sleeping deathclaw with a stick. When she finally did speak, her works came out almost as a squeak. "I…I'm sorry."
"Beg your pardon? What did you say?" Audrey posed the question not as a threat but because she simply hadn't been able to hear what Kiarné had said. Nevertheless, the other woman looked ready to bolt from the room.
"I'm…sorry?" Kiarné repeated, cringing on each word.
Trying to ease the tension and because the blood was beginning to rush to her head, Audrey lowered herself to the floor. "Kiarné please, I'm not going to bite you. Why don't you sit down?" she offered genially, propping herself against the cool metal of the boiler. She motioned to a spot next to her. "Here, pull up a wall."
Kiarné blinked a few times and then hesitantly sat down. Then her nerves got the best of her and started to rise. "I-I should go."
Audrey put out a reassuring hand. "No, please stay. What's on your mind?"
"I just wanted…to come and apologize. Those things I said to you before, I was a real bitch back there." Once she had gotten this off her chest, Kiarné's demeanor went from guarded to quite candid. "This plan of Wernher's, I don't know all the details, but it's really important to me. All of us left friends and loved ones back in the Pitt and," her voice faltered momentarily. "We really need the right person for this."
"And you were expecting Wernher to bring back something akin to the former United States Army?" Kiarné nodded. "But instead you get me, the Railroad Wench." Audrey got her to laugh slightly at this and pressed on, knowing she was cracking the woman's shell. "And let me see…you were…" she paused for overly dramatic effect. "Kinda' sorta' maybe really pissed, right?"
"Yeah," Kiarné snickered. "So I'm sorry for the way I acted before. I lost my cool back there and well, you know the rest. After seeing how fast you took me down, I don't think I've ever deserved an ass kicking more in my life."
"No harm, no foul," Audrey assured her. "So, um, what all has Wernher told you about the mission?" she asked, hoping Kiarné might let slip a tidbit of information Wernher had not been so forthcoming with.
"He told us you saved his life, back at Station Three, and about…" her voice trailed off.
"Your friends?" Audrey finished for her.
"Yeah." This came out as more of a mumble than an actual word.
"I'm so sorry, Kiarné. I wish there was more we could have done. It was just…just a…"
"I know. You at least made the effort to go after them. Most people wouldn't even do that."
"Did he share anything else with you?" asked Audrey, not wanting to dwell any longer on Station Three's black halls.
"Is it true then?" Kiarné responded with a question of her own.
"Is what true?"
"You're really going to sneak in as a slave? I couldn't wait to get my ass out of the Pitt and you're going in in the worst way possible. All for us?"
Audrey started to answer then stopped just short. She was debating about whether or not to lie about this part of the plan. She was already leading Wernher to believe she was in lockstep with him on this operation. Why shouldn't she keep up the ruse to the nth degree? Then again, she mused, it might be better to have one person closer to the action in the know. "About that…" She got up and closed the door to ensure them some privacy. Her soon-to-be confidant looked more than a little perplexed. She looked squarely upon her. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure…?"
"Good. Because the whole slave thing, yeah, not gonna' happen."
"What? I don't understand."
"You'll see what I mean." As Kiarné watched her uncertainly, Audrey started unpacking her duffle bag, laying out all her tools of the trade on the mattress. When the frag grenades made their appearance, her new friend's eyes widened.
"My God," she breathed. "You're not sneaking in; you're blowing down the freaking doors!"
"No, I left the door buster at home. He had to house-sit."
"Huh?"
"Oh, forgive me," Audrey chuckled. "Friend of mine from back home. You'd like him actually."
"I would?"
"Absolutely! He's tall, green, and handsome. He can bench-press a house and, oh he's also scarier than me when he gets angry."
Kiarné looked at her for a long moment then, "He's green?"
"Of course. Haven't you ever seen a super mutant?"
"No," said Kiarné. "Do I even want to know what one is?"
Audrey's mouth fell open. Who in their right mind hadn't heard of super mutant? Until now, she'd thought she'd been the only sheltered one in the Wasteland. "You're kid – Actually, forget about it. It's a story for another time. To go back to your original comment, I'm not exactly going in their guns blazing. That's not what this situation calls for."
"I beg to differ," came the icy reply.
"I'll bet you do," Audrey eyed her empathetically. "Still, since this is Wernher's gig, if I'm going to bend the rules then I have to bend them accordingly." She held up her suit of Chinese stealth armor.
"So…you're going to fight them…with clothes?"
"Not just any clothes." Audrey activated the armor's cloak and Kiarné nearly had a coronary.
"Holy shit!" she squealed, trying in vain to stifle her voice. Audrey quickly clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Hush," Audrey whispered emphatically. "I can't have Wernher knowing about this stuff, or he'd freak. Just know that while wearing this suit, I can't be seen. Period. And cowards like your former bosses can't fight what they can't see. They can't even run. All they can do, is die." She released her grip and returned the armor to visibility.
"Look," said Kiarné. "I don't know where you got that tech, but I'm telling you right now to keep to your plan. Your method sounds much better than what Wernher had in mind, much safer too."
"Thank you, that's the hope anyway."
"Well it's damn fine one. And don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Audrey felt relief upon hearing this statement. "Though, knowing what I know now, I'd like to ask you a favor."
"Name it."
Kiarné swallowed hard and Audrey could see that whatever she was about to dredge up was indeed painful. "When you get to the Pitt, there'll be a man there, name's Reddup. I was…his. He did terrible things to me. I don't think I…work right…anymore, because of him. C-Could you…?"
Audrey took the broken woman's hands and looked into her eyes, her blood quietly coming to boil. There could be no better reminder of how vital her role in this operation was. Now the victims had a face. "I promise you, Ki, he'll pay and it'll be slow and agonizing. You can be sure that he'll get every last one of your regards."
A tear rolled down Kiarné's cheek. "I was so wrong about you. Thank you so much, Hero."
"Call me Audrey. All my friends do."
