Chapter 9
Long Road Out of Eden
"It's stopped."
-Joseph Henry Green's last words, upon taking his own pulse.
Ever since the bombs dropped, there has been a dispute as to whether or not God exists.
I shouldn't say that. Ever since man's origins, there has been a dispute as to whether or not God exists. Some people became deeply religious after the bombs, others became athiests. Some became consumed by greed, others became sources of benevolance. Some worship animals as some sort of diety and consider it a great privilege to be killed by the animal in question, because it means that the creature took an interest in you.
Some people come across atomic bombs that did not detonate (turns out there are quite a few that were duds) and worship them; the very tools that caused the end of an era of fear and the start of an endless era of survival.
It felt like God was proving that He exists to me, because Milly should not have been able to evade us on the way to Vault 87. She should have been seen walking in the wastes with her dog... we should have caught up to her. Instead, we saw a few wild dogs here and there, a brahmin... hell, I think I saw a Super Mutant wandering around, only rather than shoot at us, it stared. How do I know what was on the ground if my window was dirty? I had a front row seat this time. I sat next to the pilot and stared out the windshield at the ground... but I saw no sign of her.
I felt Autumn standing over me as we made another pass over Lamplight Caverns.
"Tell me... was 101 invisible when you parted ways? Or... did you just think that misleading me would benefit you somehow?"
"Dude, I'm not misleading you. The Brotherhood guy said she was heading for Vault 87 through Little Lamplight. Maybe we didn't see her."
"No, if we didn't see her, our radar would've picked her up. I saw a few dogs and a deathclaw, but no sign of 101."
Colonel Autumn sighed in annoyance.
"Very well, we will... we will allow her to get whatever she is going to Vault 87 for, and then we will ambush her."
The pilot kept us moving, and I felt Autumn staring down at me.
"For your sake, I hope you did not try to cover for her. We will find her sooner or later."
"We will find her sooner or later," I mocked. Autumn ignored me.
"What if she went to Megaton?" I asked. Autumn didn't seem too concerned.
"Then she's probably re-supplying or re-arming. Let her do as she pleases. By the time she finds whatever she's looking for, she'll likely be low on ammo and supplies. Besides, whatever she's looking for may be of some use to the Enclave."
"It makes me proud to be serving such a wise and respectable government."
"Keep talking like that and this wise and respectable government will give you a lesson about gravity," said one of the Enclave soldiers.
"Yeah? Well, in the words of Woodrow Wilson... up yours too, buddy!"
Nobody even bothered pointing out the obvious flaws in my logic (I just sort of throw things together once in a while).
Now the flight was quiet, and I was bored.
"We're nearly at bingo fuel, Colonel. We'll be stopping at a camp to refuel within the hour."
The Colonel made no movement to show that he heard the pilot, but nobody said anything. It was silent again, and I needed to do something.
"I spy with my little eye something that is whirring."
There was silence for a few moments, then one soldier muttered "Is it the vertibird?"
I nodded. "Yes. Now, I spy with my little eye... something that is bright."
"Is it the sun?"
I turned to the soldier. "You're good at this game. Now, I spy with my little eye... an uptight asshole in a trenchcoat."
This time, every soldier was silent. Colonel Autumn either didn't hear or didn't give a rat's ass what I said.
"Is it Autumn?" I muttered in a higher pitch. Then, I threw my arms out in surprise.
"Yes, it is! Damn you guys are good!"
"Colonel," interrupted the Pilot. "I'd like to voice a concern."
"Go on, Corporal."
"The kids of Little Lamplight aren't keen on letting just anyone walk into their home, and if we go in and gun them down, 101 will know something is wrong and will be ready for us. I need to know if I'm heading for Vault 87 or Little Lamplight once we refuel."
"Your concerns are noted, Corporal, but are entirely misplaced. I am well aware of the consequences to reap should we extinguish Little Lamplight. We will enter through another passage to the Vault."
"There's another passage?" I asked. "How many entrances are there to this Vault?"
"You call it an entrance, I call it a ventilation shaft that very few are willing to go near.
I blinked. "Care to elaborate?"
The Colonel looked at me. "Turns out you have another use. You're a deathclaw. The ventilation shaft is located in a den of deathclaws. If I'm right, and I am 84.3% of the time, the deathclaws will not attack you. You go in, make sure the shaft is open, and convince the deathclaws that we're not there to harm them."
"You want me to risk my neck on an assumption?"
"If you would be so kind."
"Sounds like a bad investment on my part. What will you give me in return?"
"Another few days of your humanity."
I stood up.
"So, am I asking them to leave for a few minutes or asking them to not attack you?"
"I knew you'd see things my way. As long as they stay out of the way, I don't care. I can't waste ammunition on those pests if we're going into Vault 87. The best we can figure, it's a hostile vault."
I didn't say anything. The pilot was eyeing me.
"What part of "We'll be stopping at a camp to refuel" did you not understand? Sit down."
I didn't respond; just chose to sit like he asked. Since we had some time, I had nothing to do but look out the window.
The primitive part of my mind told me I was a dead man one more time, though I didn't know if it meant by the deathclaws or the Enclave.
-Revolution! Revolution!-
When we were in her home, she walked right to the locker she kept her M4A1 in and took it along with another rifle like Bolt. She sat down to a bench and started taking Bolt apart along with the other rifle, replacing old parts of the former with those of the latter. She sighed.
"When I was in the Vault, we never learned how boring this was, Dogmeat."
I sat down a few feet from her, watching as she slid bits and bobs back into Bolt.
"All I learned was how to shoot a BB Gun. I always thought I'd be "Milly, m.d." We don't have a last name, you see... but I'm out here looking for a way to make clean water."
She started wiping some grime off one more piece of Bolt. We didn't have to worry about the other gun; it was recently worked on. The only problem I saw with it was how dirty the sights were. They were so scratched and matted with dirt that there was nothing to do to clean them. Milly didn't actually need them, though. For her, it was a fairly simple concept: point and shoot. Her guns had a delightful way of making problems die.
She finished putting Bolt back together about 2 hours after she started.
"There... Now we have dinner, and first thing tomorrow we leave."
I blinked. With that, she patted my head.
"You hungry, boy?"
My stomach growled. She giggled.
"Of course you're hungry; you're always hungry. Might as well enjoy a meal today, because I have a feeling you'll be testing some less-than-tasty foes tomorrow."
I obviously didn't say anything (all she'd get from me would be a bark). She smiled at me and started towards a pantry.
"...I think this meat is still good."
She smelled it. "Might as well cook it first, though."
That night, I remember dinner being silent. It was a "calm before the storm" sort of thing. While she didn't say a word, I knew that her thoughts were with the future. Every day feels like your last; like living another day is a rebellious act on its own. Tomorrow we'd be finding this device Milly needed so badly. The metal man that kept the house clean gave us both clean water, but he wasn't very good company.
I don't think we've ever had a meal together that felt so awkward and uneasy. It also didn't help that I really didn't want to walk all the way to... wherever we had to get. I know Milly would let me stay here with the metal man if I didn't want to go somewhere, but then I'd be violating my resolve. I can't let her go off on such a potentially risky journey on her own. Besides, the metal man doesn't scratch behind my ears like she does. He just tells me to "shoo", and that he's "allergic to dogs". How a metal man could have allergies is beyond me, though.
Once we finished eating the metal man took away our dishes and Milly filled a tub with hot water and got undressed. I kept my distance from her because the last time she did that and I got close, she splashed me with the water. I'm okay with water, I just don't like what Milly tries to do to me with it.
She got into the tub of water and lay back in it, taking a bar of something that smelled like stawberries and wrapping it in a rag. She glanced over at me as if to splash, but I was far enough away to not get wet.
"It feels like forever since my last bath, Dogmeat," she said. I decided to lay down by her lockers while she washed her body. Once she was done, she took another bar that smelled a little different and started cleaning her hair with it.
"Ugh, I wish I had some shampoo. This soap knots my hair," she said. Then, she looked at me again with a smile.
"...Which reminds me: once I'm done helping the Brotherhood, you need another bath, Dogmeat. You reek."
My ears perked up and I stared. On one of the first days she met me, she tricked me into getting into that tub and started pouring water on me. It got in my ears and nose, and the thing she was using to wash her hair now was used on me. It made bubbles that got in my eyes and burned them, and I shook my fur, getting her wet in the process.
I also recall jumping out of the tub, making a big mess for the metal man to clean up. Again, it wasn't that I hated water. The water just hurt my eyes, ears, and nose when she gave me one of those "baths". How she stayed so calm in that deathtrap remains to be seen. I was not getting in that thing again willingly, and I made a mental note to keep myself from falling for the trick she used on me last time- a delicious piece of steak inside the tub.
That was back when I was skin and bone, though. She'd have to try harder to get me into that thing this time. She must have seen the look on my face, because she frowned as she got out of the tub.
"You're not going to make it easy, are you?"
I barked. She sighed as she dried herself with a towel she had nearby.
"Let's worry about that some other time. Come on, buddy. It's time for bed."
...Yeah, like I'm going to be sleeping tonight. For all I know, she'll drag me into that tub while I'm out. I wish I was as big as that deathclaw; he wouldn't be able to fit in the thing.
We walked into the room and she let me on her bed again (she never did before). When she lay down to rest, I was next to her. She rested her head near my chest and shut her eyes.
"At least you're still here, Dogmeat. Promise to be careful when we leave tomorrow... okay?"
I licked the top of her head in response. We both got comfortable, and fell asleep.
-Revolutions do not last.-
My heart was pounding, and I was soaked with sweat. The deathclaws spotted me and were running towards me.
"Yeah, uhh... I have a team of humans that needs to get through that pipe over there. Either you let us through or we plow through you," I thought to myself.
...Nah, too aggressive.
"We're not here to harm you or anything, we just need to get to that pipe. Can you let us through?"
...Too passive.
"Dude, if you let us through, you'll see us one more time on the way out and that's it."
...That'll do.
I never actually saw a deathclaw this closely as a human. Come to think of it, anyone who has is probably dead save for those that ran into me. The one that stood before me now had bigger horns, muscles, and claws. He could kill me by just giving me the evil eye.
My heart literally skipped a few beats and I felt myself die a little when the deathclaw raised a paw above his head. However, he paused and snorted in the air, and slowly lowered it.
I tensed up when his snout got to my neck. I didn't do this to Milly when I was one of them... Then again, I wasn't always a deathclaw.
"...You... You're a human. Why do you smell of the herd from the Sanctuary?"
"Because I'm part deathclaw, I guess. LIsten, can you let me and a few friends through to that vent over there?"
The deathclaw stared at me.
"You know I can kill you with the swipe of one claw, right?"
"I don't like where this is going," I said, taking a step back. The deathclaw lunged and I shrunk back a little, but he didn't hurt me. He snorted.
"...You humans are the best food out here... You're funny when you're about to die."
"If you kill me, my squad will kill your herd."
"What squad? I see no other humans."
"Exactly. They're the last thing you never see," I said. I heard that somewhere before.
As if to prove my point, there was a gunshot and a bullet hit the ground just by the deathclaw's feet. He jolted and looked around, but even I didn't know where they were.
"Let us through, and you'll be spared. I've never had the chance to try deathclaw meat."
There was a long pause, and we both stared each other down. Inwardly, I panicked. If he didn't like what I said, he could kill me right here, right now. If he considered us a big threat, he might call for his herd to kill us. The Enclave is notorious for slaughtering deathclaws... when they have big guns. The weapons they carried now would not be enough. We wouldn't stand a chance.
However... the deathclaw turned away.
"Let your squad through. We won't harm you. Once you're done in there and you leave, however, we don't want to see you again."
I nodded. "The feeling's mutual."
When the deathclaw walked back to his herd, I signaled for the Enclave. Almost immediately, they were on me. Two carried rippers and jogged right up to the vent. They started cutting.
I kept eyeing the deathclaws to make sure they were good with their word to me, though I'm not sure what I would've done if they weren't.
Keep in mind that when I was a deathclaw, I wasn't able to take down my own kind. Now I'm human again. There would be nothing I could do except pray that the Enclave could kill an entire herd of them. I know for sure that they can kill one or two deathclaws easily. It's three to five and beyond that causes a problem. Even a shotgun at close range to the torso won't stop a deathclaw. It might just snort as if to say "That tickles".
It would take a high-powered bullet to the head to take down a deathclaw immediately. It would take many more to the torso to bring one down. When I say 'high-power' I'm talking .50 caliber rounds.
They finally got through the vent and we all walked inside. Inside the vent, we saw nobody. I tapped Autumn's shoulder.
"What do we do if we come across anything that isn't Milly?"
"We kill it. Don't forget; we didn't enter the vault in the same place as Miss 101 will. She won't know we're here until it's too late."
"What do we do while we wait for her?"
"We're combing the area for anything we might be able to use. Now, be quiet."
While we walked, I stumbled past a poster with a man in Power Armor on it. The caption read "We see all. We know all. Say NO to espionage."
I felt a pang of guilt.
-Revolutions do not last.-
She was pumped.
Milly wasn't walking, wasn't trudging along. We weren't stopping for more than two seconds at a time. Those pauses were only because she thought she heard something.
She wasn't walking. She was running. We were running.
Humans say that there's something called the "grieving" process. My old human always talked about it. It went something like denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. A normal human would go through it in order, but Milly is not a normal human.
She was sort of... hopping around. Upon her father's death, she was depressed. Now... now she was angry.
She was very angry.
...No, she was furious! We ran into three bad metal men just sort of... wandering along. Not by the time she was done.
"You killed my father!"
Her attack was fueled by her anger, but she wasn't blinded. She didn't make a stupid error. She caught the three by surprise and already ended one before the others could raise their weapons.
Milly killed all three before they managed to fire five shots. Once they were dead, she took their dogtags and we continued.
That brief confrontation was the longest interruption our walk had. By mid-day, we closed half the distance between us and this 'Little Lamplight'. I remember worrying abour her changing for a few moments...
...but she didn't change. We ran into one of the good metal men. He told her that he was sorry for her loss; that the Enclave killed his father, too...
She was sweet as could be, and they exchanged words for just a minute or two before we continued on.
She did not give up the hunt for Cord. Every so often she would shout his name, but he would not respond. She stopped shouting for him when we got into more dangerous areas, such as Yao Guai territory. While they wouldn't harm her on sight, she knew better than to startle a Yao Guai.
We didn't even stop as night fell. She just kept up her pace, and I followed. In the past, if we ever had to travel at night, Milly would always turn the light off on her wrist-machine. Tonight, she turned it up... almost daring anyone who saw it to come and get her.
The trip was silent, and when I say that, I don't mean just between her and I. The wasteland was fickle. You were as likely to be attacked and killed as you were to be left alone. It was quiet that night. Not one soul, friendly or hostile approached or was even anywhere nearby.
After about an hour of silence, she finally looked over at me wearily.
"It's best to get this walk out of the way now, huh Dogmeat?"
I didn't make a peep in response, but I eyed her so she knew I was listening.
"I mean, it's safe to sleep because nobody is around, but... Then we'd have to wake up and keep going... and that's assuming it stays safe."
She let out a sigh and a rare curse (she almost never curses). "I just want this all to be over with... I want to finish my Dad's dream and spend the rest of my life knowing that I finished his dream."
She eyed me. "I'll sacrifice life itself if I have to, you know."
I gave a stern look right back at her. It was a look that got what I wanted to say across: "Don't say that!"
She stopped talking for a second, and sneezed. "Sorry, Dogmeat. I shouldn't say that... targets, 12 o'clock high!"
Almost immediately, two Super Mutants started shooting at her from atop a hill. A third was more interested in a Brahmin than her, and that Brahmin was putting up a fight.
I weaved in and out of bullets coming from the mutants and Milly. The mutants firing at both of us were using bolt-action rifles, and Milly was using her automatic M4A1.
"Get the dog... agh!"
One of the Super Mutants attacking us lurched backwards as one bullet caught it between the eyes (it was sheer luck). I tackled the other and sunk my teeth into its throat. As strong as a Super Mutant is, if you can get your teeth into its throat, it dies pretty quickly. Plus, its hands are always clumsy; it can never grab a dog's neck and snap it. I hate going for the neck on raiders. I almost bought it a few times.
Once the Super Mutant under my paws stopped moving, Milly and I turned our heads to the one busy with the Brahmin, only to find it dead on the ground under the cow's hooves. It was an amusing sight. The brahmin was eyeing us, but it wouldn't attack us since we took the other two out. Milly and I chose not to say anything. Instead, she crouched by one of the Super Mutants.
"The big green man better have some copper-coated ammo," she said. She pocketed a few rounds for Bolt from the two Super Mutants, and we continued on. The third was using a piece of wood to attack the Brahmin, and from the looks of things, the Brahmin won.
From that point on, Milly kept her gun in her hands for the rest of the trip. Every so often she would fire upon a few enemies. The M4A1 was what humans called an "assault rifle", and in the hands of someone as good with guns as Milly, it was accurate.
Deadly accurate.
After a while, whenever she killed an Enclave soldier, she'd mutter "Tango down" just to spite them, because that's what they would say whenever they killed an innocent.
I digress. By the time Milly had used one "clip" of ammo, we'd reached our destination. Now, it was a little past 4 in the morning. She read a sign near the cave we needed to enter aloud.
"NO TRESSPASSING. Violaters will be shot. Survivors will be shot again."
Needless to say, Milly hesitated before proceeding down the path. There was even a Super Mutant that was about to attack, but it took one look at the cave and backed away.
These kids must've been pretty good shots.
We walked down the path into the dark for a while before torches started to light the way. The sound of our feet on the rocky floor echoed through the cavern, and the torches flickering and the sound of water dripping were the only other sights and sounds that accompanied us for a time.
A gun cocked and we froze. "Hands up, mungo! Hands up, or I'll blow your fucking head off!"
Slowly, Milly held her hands in the air (one held the M4A1). The voice was high, like a child... but it was a little bit ahead of us and we couldn't see the source. We both knew that multiple guns were trained on us, though.
"You've got exactly 5 seconds to turn around and start walking back the way you came! 5!"
"Wait, please listen to me..."
"4!"
"I'm not here to hurt anyone, honest!"
"3!"
"Can't I please just come in?"
"2!"
Milly groaned. "Step into the light! I bet your face looks just like my butt!"
"1... huh? Well, you must like having such a good looking butt!"
"You smell like a butt, too!" she said. The threatening voice chuckled a little.
"Hey, you're pretty funny for a mungo... but you're still not coming in."
Milly smiled down at me. We were making a little progress.
"Please let us in. We just want to get to Vault 87. Do you know where it is?"
"Of course I do... except it's in Little Lamplight, and you're not getting into Little Lamplight."
"Can you see me?" asked Milly.
The voice sighed. "Of course I can, mungo. Don't think that you can sneak around, either."
"I don't want to sneak around. I just want to come in to see the Vault. I promise not to hurt anyone."
"I dunno..."
Milly slowly knelt to one side and put her assault rifle on the ground, and stood up again with her hands still in the air.
"My weapons will be holstered the whole time I'm in here. I promise that I won't cause trouble."
I had an idea. Most little kids have a soft spot for dogs, and it didn't seem like this kid was able to see me, so I tried to help get Milly inside. I barked. Sure enough:
"Is that a dog? Do you have a dog?"
Milly smiled down at me. "Sure do. His name is Dogmeat. You guys can pet him if you let us in."
There was a pause. Milly's eyes shot down at me, and then back at the source of the voice a few times. Finally, the kid relented.
"...Well, alright. I'll let you in, mungo... but I've got my eye on you, so no bull crap, or I'll put a bullet in you."
Milly slowly picked up her gun and strapped it over her shoulder, and we slowly walked forward to see what we were up against.
Blocking the entry to this cave-town was a huge wall made out of random debris with a door in it. The wall actually reached up and touched the top of the cave. There was just a small space for guns to poke through as well as eyes. Even if we wanted to, there wouldn't be any shooting our way in. Milly wouldn't shoot a kid, though.
We walked through the now open door and a child slammed it shut behind us. Afterwards, he actually had to spend 30 seconds or so fully locking it. There were so many locks on that door that it made me wonder why it would even need a guard.
"Sheesh, you look worse up close!" said the voice we pleaded entry with. Many people disagreed. Milly was one of the better-looking humans... when her face wasn't totally caked with dirt and other people's blood.
I took a good, long look at the child guarding this cave. He was a young boy, maybe 9 or 10 years old, and he wore a green helmet and clothes that looked about 3 sizes too big. He was carrying a rifle like Bolt, and though it was big in his small hands, I could sense confidence about him. I had a feeling he knew how to use that gun, and after seeing a Super Mutant turn tail and run, I'd say that I was right. He was pouting up at Milly, almost wondering why he even let a grown-up in to begin with.
Still, she smiled. "I'm Milly. And you are?"
"I didn't ask for your name, mungo... but if you must know, I'm Mayor MacCreedy... and as long as you're in my town, you behave."
"...mungo?"
"Yeah, that's what you are. We call all grown-ups mungos. Now, why'd you come here again-"
"Puppy!"
I looked towards the source of the voice and saw three small children, the oldest no more than 7. I turned towards them and slowly trotted over while Milly spoke with green-boy.
I was known by the people of the bomb-town as deadly to raiders/slavers, yet kind and gentle with innocents and especially children. I believed that a little kindness could keep them from becoming raiders/slavers, and what better way to defeat a problem than by stopping it before it starts?
I gladly played with these kids. They had a ball. A ball. As if that wasn't enough, they'd throw it for me. I didn't listen to what Milly and green-boy said. Instead, I played with the children like Milly promised. Every so often I'd see another dog nearby, but most kids like dogs. Who could blame them for having a few?
One even wanted me to stay with them, but I couldn't do that. I'd be leaving Milly all alone, and... that wasn't going to happen shy of a barrier seperating us. Besides, I don't like cold, wet caves.
After a few more minutes, I started listening to Milly and the green-boy talk. The boy was talking about something called "Murder Pass". He said it was the only way to get into the Vault. He also spoke very fearfully of it, saying the big green monsters lived in it, and though they didn't even bother trying to attack the cave-civilization anymore, he feared the numbers there were.
Milly wasn't intimidated, but she wanted to preserve her ammo for any troubles that might be ahead. She asked if there was any other way.
"There's the front door, but it's irradiated. Bobby says that you can get through radiation if you hold your breath, but... he also says that dogs can't look up."
Just to prove the kid wrong, I looked up. Nobody noticed.
"I'd really rather not test the former theory. Is there any other way in?"
"Well, there used to be a passage here in Lamplight. It was a big metal door that only opened if you put the pass-code into a number pad. We forgot the code, so we shut off the door. No sense in wasting energy on it."
"Would you turn it back on for me?"
"No. I won't, at least. Try asking Joey. He's in town square, and he's the best with all the high-tech stuff. He'll get it up and running for you, mungo... but it's up to you to figure out the code."
She smiled. "I can do that. Dogmeat, come on!"
At the protest of the smallest kids, I trotted over to Milly and she smiled back at them. "Don't worry, I'll bring him back to see you again sometime soon."
With that, green-boy directed Millly to this "Joey". We had to walk deeper into the caves to find him.
I was always easily impressed by the shelters humans could make out of a few scraps. They could make incredible homes. Before I got a human, I could make shelters out of a few old branches, or I could use a rocky outcrop to sleep under. Humans could make shelters that have more than one floor. The human children that lived in these caverns created an ingenious bridge out of random debris left over from old times. This bridge was suspended in the air by cables, and it was capable of holding Milly, her guns, me, several other dogs, and many children without even swaying.
They even built homes here and there for the bridge to help get to. We had to enter one to find "Joey".
Joey could not have been more than 12 years old (young for a human). He had to look up to see Milly's face like all the kids here, but there was an aura of confidence about him... confidence and intelligence. Milly asked him politely about the door, and he told her all about it.
"Yeah, that old thing still works. I just have to turn it back on, and if you can figure out the code, by all means. The mutants stopped banging on it a while ago... but that's because MacCreedy riddled the door with bullets. It'll still work, don't worry. Any Mutants just beyond it would turn tail and run when the door opens. Trust me."
"That's great, thanks so much."
"Sure. Come on, I'll show you where the door is."
While Joey walked and Milly followed, the two started a smart discussion that I didn't understand, and went into the topic of Super Mutants. Milly was talking about the most effective weapons in stopping a Super Mutant, and Joey was talking about the weakest points on a Super Mutant's body.
Obviously the head and neck are weak, but Joey even told Milly about a spot they found that stops a Super Mutant cold, and it's in the center of the torso. Not the center of the ribcage, but the center of the torso where the ribs don't cover. Joey swore that one bullet from a decent gun to that spot was enough to drop a Super Mutant. Weapons such as Milly's MP5 (at home) may require a few more shots.
Milly thought about it for a while, and she admitted that the few times she managed a shot to that area (out of coincidence), the Super Mutant would just... drop. It happened every time.
"We don't know why it's like that, but... it's much better to take down ten Mutants with ten bullets than it is to take down one with thirty. If you run into any in there, try that."
"I will."
Joey fumbled with a box near the door for a few moments, and another box with pretty-colored buttons on it lit up.
"Go for it."
The next several minutes were spent with Milly pressing different buttons on the pad. Whenever she got a number wrong, it would flash red a few times.
"There's 5,040 possible codes on this thing... but if I stick with the numbers that are right..."
A few seconds after she said that, the pad flashed green and the door opened. She smiled, and drew her M4A1.
"Come on, Dogmeat. Thanks, Joey."
"Be careful in there. Nobody's going to come in and save you if you get hurt."
Neither of us responded. The door shut behind us, and we were enveloped by darkness for a few moments.
"Hang on..."
Milly turned on the light on her wrist machine and faintly illuminated the corridor we were in. Papers littered the floor and debris blocked some pathways. It reeked of death and dust. Our footsteps echoed through the corridor, but our movement forward was slow. Milly was holding her weapon up in front of her at all times.
Even so, there was no contact in that corridor. Joey was right. No Mutants waited beyond the door. The corridor was kind of a safe haven... but anything beyond it was unknown and potentially hostile.
Milly opened another door slowly and peeked inside... and froze. Directly in front of the door was a Super Mutant... and though it wasn't facing us... Milly raised her weapon and fired.
The bullets tore through the mutant's skull and it dropped to the floor very quickly. Almost immediately, we were being fired upon.
"Contacts, 2 o'clock!"
A boom-ball thrown by a Super Mutant landed by my feet, and Milly scrambled for it. She picked it up and threw it back out before it blew up. The explosion didn't harm any of the Super Mutants, but it stopped them for a moment.
"Go get 'em, Dogmeat!"
Immediately after she said that, I was bounding out of the little corridor at our enemies. There were three of them in the room, and I was doing my best to avoid being shot. Milly started shooting into the room randomly to distract them.
Milly's random shooting managed to injure one of the Super Mutants and force the other two to take cover. I caught one of them by the neck and squeezed. The other tried to shoot me, but the moment it broke cover a little to start shooting, it lurched forward with a bullet through it's torso.
The other Super Mutant threw another boom-ball (different from the Special Ball) at Milly, but she threw it right back again. This time, the big green monster wasn't so lucky. The ball exploded and sent pieces of it everywhere.
Around that time, the one I bit stopped moving, and I got off of its body. Milly reloaded her weapon, checked me for injuries, and we continued.
Milly started with 5 or 6 clips of ammo for her M4A1, and another 5 or 6 for Bolt, and one she found for a gun she wasn't carrying. She also had a few new balls that she found in the Vault. She called them "flashbangs", but I liked "bang-ball" better.
She was down to 1 (discluding the one she was using) magazine for her M4A1, and still all those she had for Bolt, and of course... the one she wasn't using.
That technique Joey told her about made things easy. We had to enter more than one room crawling with Super Mutants. Sometimes Milly would throw a bang-ball (a ball that made a loud noise and a flash, but didn't hurt anyone), into a room full of them, and then she'd open fire.
It was with these techniques that we stayed alive long enough to meet Fawkes. By that time, we were in the vault for three hours or so, and a trail of bodies was behind us.
Fawkes was a Super Mutant, but he was a little different. We encountered him when we were passing through a "containment area". How was he different? For one thing, he was a prisoner in this containment area, and for another... he could string together sentences that were more than 5 words long.
"You... over there... Come here! Come to my cell... it's the one on your right..."
The moment Milly noted that the voice was not hostile, she lowered her weapon a little and slowly approached after checking the corners.
We could hardly see through the dirty glass that seperated us, but the body beyond it was indeed a Super Mutant.
"...Agh! Either... you are quite real, or I am going quite mad... could it be that you're a pure human?"
Milly blinked. "I guess I am... I'm not mutated, and as you can see, I'm not a Super Mutant."
"Clearly! Wow... what a... glorious turn of events! I am Fawkes. And you are?"
"I'm Milly, and I have to say... it's interesting to be speaking to a Super Mutant that doesn't want to kill me- excuse me."
Milly whirled to one side, and shot a round from Bolt into a Super Mutant readying to attack. The bullet hit the weak spot, and the green man dropped. Afterwards, Milly turned back to Fawkes. He didn't seem too concerned with what she just did.
"No, please don't call me that! I am not a Super-Mutant... I'm... I'm more of a meta-human. I retain my mind in this form, but rotting in this cell causes me to slowly lose it anyway!"
"You're a mutant of your own kind, eh?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Now, listen... you're looking for the G.E.C.K, right?"
Milly blinked. "How did you know that?"
"This is Vault 87! The only humans that come here willingly either want that G.E.C.K, or are absolutely insane. I just so happen to know where to find it, and you won't be getting to it."
She stared. "Why won't I be getting to it?"
Fawkes took a few steps back for a moment, and then returned to the intercom he was using.
"The corridor that houses the G.E.C.K is absolutely flooded with radiation. It is unlikely that you would survive very long. I, however, possess a useful trait thanks to my half-witted brothers. I am surprisingly resistant to radiation. If you can free me from this cell, I will get you the G.E.C.K."
"How do I know I can trust you?" she asked. Fawkes sighed.
"You can't. You can only hope what I say is true. Even if it isn't... I saw what you just did to that Super Mutant. You dropped it with one bullet. I know what I'm risking should I lie to you."
Milly stared at the Super Mutant for a few moments, and I did the same. She was making sure she could let him out without danger, and I was trying to convey my thoughts to the green man:
Hurt Milly, and I will rip you to shreds.
Slowly, Milly started pushing buttons on a key pad not unlike the one that got us into this Vault. She kept at it for several minutes before the door to the cell finally opened. The Super Mutant walked out, and though it isn't possible for a Super Mutant to "grin", I could tell Fawkes was trying to.
"Finally... freedom! Now come along. I must fulfill my end of the bargain."
We didn't let our guard down at all. We needed to make sure he didn't turn on us. We wanted to be certain that he wasn't secretly serving the Super Mutants.
After he removed the head of one and threw it at another, we started trusting him more.
I'll never admit this again, but the big green man showed fury and power the likes of which I have never seen. It actually intimidated me a little. Milly's eyes were about as wide as they could safely be, and we were just watching as Fawkes cut down the Super Mutants coming to attack. The first few fell to a hammer, and the rest were cut down by an assault rifle he picked up.
Not one Super Mutant paid any attention to us. Milly didn't have to fire another shot, and I didn't have to lunge at anyone. We just silently followed.
Fawkes insisted on killing them all himself. Whenever we tried to help, he'd tell us to wait back a little. It got so out of hand that the other Super Mutants started going from shouting "TIME TO DIE!" to "WE CAN WORK THIS OUT!"
Super Mutants (with the exception of Fawkes) are, by definition, very stupid creatures. They take up predictable positions and will on occasion forget to reload weapons. With my old human, I've seen Super Mutants shooting at a target for upwards of five minutes before realizing they were out of ammo. By then, the target usually got away.
Going back to the "predictable positions" thing, not one Super Mutant tried to attack us from behind. Milly and I would've made short work of any, sure, but... it's the principle of the thing.
At one point, Fawkes killed one particular Super Mutant and Milly shot it while it was laying dead on the floor. I later foudn out it was because she thought she saw it move, but at the time it was a lot like slamming the barn door after the horses ran out.
His rage is not to say that he escaped injury. Fawkes took many bullets as we fought our way to... wherever we were going. Some exited through his back, but Fawkes wasn't an average Super Mutant. He was very smart. After sustaining enough injury to irritate him, he broke down the door to a weapons cache and took some sort of see-through shield. He held it in front of his torso with one arm and held his weapon up with the other.
He was too big to fit completely behind the shield, but he wasn't trying to completely escape injury.
He was protecting that weak spot in the middle of his torso. After he was situated, he looked over his shoulder at Milly and gestured at the weapons cache.
"See anything you like?"
Milly walked into the little storage space and I followed. There were so many guns, pieces of armor, see-through shields, boom-balls, bang-balls, special-balls... it was almost awe-inspiring. Milly took a few moments to look around. She must've sensed my curiosity, because she would say the names of each weapon she looked at out loud.
By the time she was done looking, she picked up a "Kris" (some kind of curvy knife), another Beretta Tomcat (that small gun the scientist died using), and what looked like a better version of her M4A1 she called "Stay-ir AUG". She took as many magazines as she could hold for it and left her M4A1 behind.
"Okay, let's go."
Milly gestured for me to follow, and spared one last look at the M4A1. Though it was only a weapon, it saved her life on more than a few occasions. Leaving it was sort of like leaving a companion.
The moment we entered the next door, the gunfire started again. The see-through shield made a lot of noise when it blocked bullets, but it was working.
There were more Super Mutants in the last room, and they were even more aggressive. They really didn't want us going wherever we were going. Fawkes finally let Milly help out, but she wouldn't let me run in to fight, too. There was too much gunfire.
Milly took a bullet to the chest with a sickening "SMACK", and she fell onto her back with a groan. I was on her in a second, but she smiled at me. No blood came from the wound.
"I'm wearing armor, boy. I'm crazy, not stupid."
She took a deep breath and touched the spot. She cringed. "That's still going to bruise up."
There was a loud groan as the last of the Super Mutants in the room fell. Milly slowly got to her feet and picked up her weapon.
"I am glad to see you're alright, my friend. Now, wait here. The G.E.C.K will be in the corridor to your right. I'll be back shortly. In the meantime, you should wait here in case any more of my half-witted brothers decide to show up."
"Alright, we'll wait. Be quick, though."
Fawkes walked through a door (it slammed shut behind him). We could see him walking through the irradiated corridor through a window. Milly kept eyes on the other doorway, though. It was a good thing she did, too... because after a few moments passed, a Super Mutant walked through the doorway. She opened fire on it immediately.
It didn't stand a chance.
Another few seconds pass, and two more run into the room... but there was no place for them to take cover save for the doorway, and they already ran through it.
Milly took one out, and I bounded to the other. I crushed its throat and returned to her side.
Now, four ran through the doorway and started firing on us. I ran to one of the three, and Milly started firing on the others. They didn't have anyplace to take cover, but... neither did she. It was a matter of who could become the smaller target, and Milly won.
A bullet came close to her head, though. Very close... to the point where she actually shouted "That one nearly gave me a haircut!"
By then, the Super Mutant I was attacking was dead and I was working on a second while Milly used their weakness to her advantage. The two she engaged slumped to the floor, and the next one I attacked followed shortly after.
I returned to her side again, but I kept my eyes on the door.
"Fawkes, where are you?" she muttered. The doorway opened again and she held her gun up, but this time... something rolled into the room. Her eyes widened.
"Flashbang!"
To be on the receiving end of a bang-ball is sheer hell, especially if you're a dog. The ball (it's not really a ball; more of a can) explodes in bright light and lets out an ear-piercing BANG!
The overwhelming sight and sound knocked me onto my side. I was blinded by the bright light for a few moments and my ears were ringing loudly. I could just barely make out the gunfire and I felt myself being dragged somewhere.
Slowly my eyes returned to me and I was able to see who was dragging me- Milly. Having covered her eyes from the blast beforehand, she was able to drag me to a nearby desk and knock it over. We didn't use it for cover in the first place because it was not in sight of the door.
My ears were still ringing, though. I could see her weapon firing, but the sound was greatly dulled. I saw the door Fawkes walked into open, and I saw him unload the rest of his ammo on the Super Mutants, too. They all fell down, and Milly slowly lowered her weapon.
My hearing gradually returned to me. I could make out Milly and Fawkes' conversation, though it was still greatly distorted and muffled.
"Has promised, here's the deck. I hope it's girth hit."
(...I said I heard the conversation. I never said I could comprehend it.)
"Thanks. I initiate hats," said Milly. (I wasn't sure what she meant.)
"What fill you do now?" asked Fawkes.
(Around here, I was regaining my hearing some more.)
"I've got to take it somemace. And you?"
"Ah. I believe I will search this Vault for anything of use and then head for Underworld. Do not worry about me. I can find my own way."
Milly smiled at the Super Mutant. "You take care of yourself. I'll come visit you one day."
"And I await that day!"
Milly and Fawkes gingerly shook hands, and we were off.
T.T
Maybe if we had been paying more attention, we could have foreseen the ambush. Maybe then, Milly could have been prepared and taken down the man that her Dad tried to kill. Maybe I could have driven my teeth into his throat.
Maybe I could have been prepared for that familiar scent...
...but Milly and I had one concern after we got that "G.E.C.K" thing and one concern only:
Get the hell out of there!
We were sprinting down the halls, but we encountered no other Super Mutants. It was... strange, to say the least. I thought we'd encounter at least a few on the way out.
However, we ran into none. The bodies of those we fought to get the "G.E.C.K" were the only forms of Super Mutants we came across.
We entered one room, and something dropped from above. It looked like some type of container with several glowing holes in it. Milly had to stop so she didn't trip on it.
"What on earth is that..."
It started beeping rapidly, and I was tossed backward by the force of the explosion. My back connected with a wall and I sunk to the ground, stunned and losing my grip on reality. Milly too was thrown a distance away from the initial blast, and she lost her grip on the G.E.C.K, her Stay-ir AUG, and her knife.
The only weapon that landed even remotely close to her was her Beretta Tomcat. I could just barely move, my head was ringing, and my vision was blurry, but... I could still hear and see.
I was able to make out four humans (two metal men, the man Milly's Dad almost killed in the water cleaner, and someone I didn't recognize right away). Milly saw them, too, because she started dragging herself towards her Beretta Tomcat. I still was hardly able to move. She got her hand onto the small weapon, but one of the tin men kicked it out of her grasp.
"Secure the G.E.C.K, and get it onto my Vertibird," said the man that was supposed to be dead. The two bad tin men responded with "Yes, sir" and made a move for the G.E.C.K.
"You're certain she's unharmed?" asked the undead man.
"Yes, sir. She'll pass out shortly, but we can revive her."
"Good."
A familiar scent came to me around then, and it was from that unknown human. My eyes blinked a few times, trying to register who it was, and it dawned on me.
"...Cord."
He turned his head to acknowledge me. I let out a weak snarl.
"Keep that mutt away from us, boy."
He ignored the undead man and slowly approached me.
"...Uh, hi."
"...You... you're... but..."
"I'm not proud of this," he said. "They gave me my humanity back in exchange to get Milly to answer some questions. I'm sorry."
I kept weakly snarling at him while my consciousness faded further.
"You son of a bitch..."
He frowned. "Sorry..."
"Boy! We have what we need. Let's go."
The last thing I saw before passing out was the tin men carrying away the G.E.C.K and Milly.
Cord left with them.
End of Chapter
8,924 words.
Needed a break from this story. Got bored. Feel better.
I'm done with sentence fragments now.
Anyway, next chapter covers Milly's interrogation/exiting stage left, Cord's reaction to the loss of his treatment, and a T-Rex comes from a time machine and eats everyone.
I'm weighing whether or not to omit that last part.
