"Fuck no, I'm not letting you in. You better just turn around and go back the way you came." the little kid in the helmet says from his spot up on the barricade. At any other time, this whole situation would be laughable. Her and Charon, stopped in their tracks by a kid that looks all of eleven.
If only there weren't two more kids with rifles pointed at their heads at nearly point-blank range. If only Little Lamplight wasn't built in a cave with only one entrance, and that one entrance wasn't guarded by a pig-headed 'mayor' who kept calling them weird names and telling them to fuck off. Then it might have been hilarious.
Right now, it was frustrating.
Mayor MacCready still has his two guards aiming their rifles at her and Charon and is waiting patiently. He doesn't seem like he'll change his mind anytime soon. Charon is silent, probably near as frustrated as she is.
Gal sighs and resists the urge to rub at her temples or throw something. There's got to be something she can say to convince MacCready, she just has to figure out what it is.
"Look, we just need to pass through into Vault 87. We're not sticking around. How can I get you to trust me?" she asks desperately.
MacCready crosses his arms and frowns.
"Why should I trust you? I got no reason to. You mungos are nothing but trouble, and I ain't gonna let what happened to Sammy and Squirrel happen to anyone else." he says with finality. Gal, though, stops and considers that statement. Sammy and Squirrel? It sounds like there's a story there that may help them out.
"Why? What happened to Sammy and Squirrel?" she asks innocently.
"Them and Penny got themselves caught….by mungos, just like you. Slavers, from Paradise Falls. I told them to watch out, but the stupid kids didn't listen."
Paradise Falls. Of course it would be Paradise Falls. What the hell is she supposed to do in Paradise Falls?
Well. It's not like she has much of a choice.
"What if I go and help Sammy and the others?" She asks. "Then will you trust me?"
The mayor gives her a look of surprise. She guesses that parental instinct isn't very big in the Capital Wasteland anymore.
"You'd do that?" he asks hesitantly. Then he schools his face back to a scowl. "Maybe… if you bring them back, I might let you in." he finishes.
Gal nods, tries not to seem unsure.
"I will. Count on it."
She turns and heads for the entrance to the cave, Charon following faithfully. But as soon as they're out of ear- and eye-shot, he stops her with a hand on her shoulder.
"This is a stupid idea. You're going to get killed. Do you know how big Paradise Falls is?" he says quietly. His palm is warm, even through her shoulder pad.
Gal shrugs. She's aware it's a dumb idea, but it's the only one they have. She isn't giving up on her father's project, and if this is the only way to carry it out… well, she'll just have to figure something out.
"I have to try. And it's the right thing to do anyway. They're kids. I don't even want to know what a slaver would want with a bunch of children."
Before she can starting walking, Charon catches her by the arm and stops her again. That's twice in the last ten minutes that he's touched her, and it's making her a little nervous. If he's willing to touch her over it, it must be a really bad idea.
"If this is about what I said before-" he starts.
"Wha- no. Charon, this has nothing to do with that. Well, I mean, it sort of does, because you were right, but I also have no choice. To get to the GECK, I have to get into Vault 87, and to do that I have to go through Little Lamplight. And to do that, I have to rescue these kids from Paradise Falls."
"You've never been to Paradise Falls, Gal, you -" he stops and blinks, then continues on hesitantly. "You don't stand a chance. What happened near Evergreen Mills - it'll happen again. And you won't be able to save yourself this time."
Obviously, the thought of a repeat of Evergreen Mills is terrifying, but the way her name rolls off Charon's tongue is more distracting. She realizes that she's never heard it directed at her before. Charon calls her Gal when he's talking to other people (which isn't often to begin with) but he never addresses her as Gal.
It makes her feel a little warm inside.
"I...I have to take that chance. You're right, I've never been there. But… you have. We can come up with a plan. I know it."
Charon growls in frustration, low in his throat, and clenches one fist next to his thigh.
"What the fuck do you expect me to do? March you in and sell you?"
Gal thinks that over, and then smiles.
"If you don't fucking start walking faster, you're not going to be able to walk at all." Charon growls at her, prodding her in the back with his shotgun to get her to pick up the pace. Gal stumbles, and nearly falls on her face, but she manages to catch herself so she doesn't end up in the dirt.
They've passed two groups of slavers on the way to Paradise Falls already, so she's glad they decided to start the act early. Walking with her hands tied behind her back is more difficult than she'd thought, and it makes her nervous not to have a rifle at the ready. They're almost to Paradise Falls though, so she's feeling relatively safe.
"Yeah, try me, you ugly son of a bitch." she mutters, only half-acting. Charon had shoved her so hard earlier in front of a group of slavers that she banged up her knee while falling, and it stills throbs a little. He'd told her straight out that he didn't want to do it, and they'd nearly had a full-fledged fight about it(okay, it was pretty much a full-fledged fight), but finally he'd relented and told her what he knew about the Falls. It was enough to hatch a decent plan, but it's starting to sound less and less great the closer they get to the front of the settlement. It doesn't help that Charon's refusing to talk to her.
She tries to wipe the sweat and dirt off her face with her shoulder, but she can't reach. Her wrists are aching from the restraints. Dogmeat noses her arm and whines a little bit, but she just knocks him out of the way and ignores him. He's supposed to be Charon's guard dog for this little scenario and the tension between Charon and Gal is really confusing him today.
"Last chance to change your mind." Charon says lowly from behind her, once they spot the sandbags that mark the entrance to Paradise Falls. Gal nearly stops in place, but forces herself to keep going. They have a good plan, and there's nothing to worry about.
There's a drainage gate in the bathroom in Paradise Falls that drops into a sewer. Charon isn't exactly sure what's down there, but he knows that it has an exit outside the borders of Paradise Falls, and the bathrooms are close enough to the slave pens that they can sneak into them fairly easily, once they get the gate open. All she has to do is pick the lock with one of the bobby pins in her hair, and get the kids to the grate without being seen. She's got a knife in her boot in case of emergency, and she'll have Charon watching out for her on the outside, making sure the guards are incapacitated or away for their escape.
It's not foolproof, but it's good.
He sighs behind her and grumbles under his breath, but one hand snakes around her bicep so he can steer her towards the gate guard, a man with close-cropped hair and worn armour. The man eyes them with a look of disinterest but Gal can see the gun in his hands, waiting to come up.
Charon stops her about ten feet away and lowers his shotgun.
"I'm here on slaver business." he says shortly, as if the sight of him dragging her around, wrists bound, needs any explanation. Still, it makes the guard wave them forward so he doesn't have to yell.
"Yeah, I remember you. Been a while though." the guard says gruffly. Then he swings his head to Gal and looks at her dirty face appraisingly. "Prime merchandise right here. Better than that ugly bitch you brought in last time."
Gal has to duck her head to hide her anger. She knows that Charon, behind her, is as stone-faced as ever. He won't give them away, but she doesn't have as much experience acting, so she needs to be careful. She guesses that mauling the gate guard would blow their cover.
"The last one still brought in 500 caps. I'm expecting at least a thousand for this one." Charon replies, shaking her by the arm. The guard nods and smiles slightly, eyeing her in a way she doesn't like.
"Easy. If you plan on renting her out, let me know." he offers, one eyebrow raised. The words make her stomach turn. She has to dig her fingernails into her palm to keep her breathing steady. Still, she doesn't want to seem weak either, so she glares at the guard and lurches forward, which earns her another rough shake from Charon.
"I wouldn't try it. I'm only her selling her because she bit the dick off the last one that tried. She's a fucking hellcat." Charon says nonchalantly. It sounds very real, his feigned disinterest in her well-being, and she doesn't like it. This whole conversation is making her regret this plan and they're not even through the front gate yet.
The guard looks at her again and seems somewhat impressed. "Well, someone out there will be willing to fix her attitude problem. They usually change their tune once you knock a few teeth out. I'd get your money out of her first though."
Charon shoves her into movement and starts past the guard, causing her dirty hair to fall over her face in one big tangle. "Yeah. Thanks for the advice."
To her, he says in a low voice, "Are you convinced this was a stupid idea yet?"
Gal is very, very convinced, but she doesn't answer.
There's a maze of metal barriers and cars leading to the entrance of Paradise Falls, what looks like a set of bus doors or something. They head towards that, Gal shuffling brokenly and Charon pushing her along. Halfway there, the doors open and a man comes stumbling out, nearly crashing into a sandbag wall. He looks around frantically and darts towards Gal and Charon.
He makes it almost all the way to them when something goes wrong. There's a flash of red light, and some beeping, and then his head explodes and the body flops to the ground, spraying blood and bits of brain everywhere. A spatter of blood catches Gal on the cheek and makes her wince.
They're still standing there in shock, looking at the corpse, when another man coming striding up and kicks it over, grimacing. It's easy to identify which is the slaver and which is the slave; the corpse on the ground is wearing more dirt than cloth, and the man standing in front of them is decked out in full body armour and carrying a rifle.
"Stupid shit." he grumbles, wiping the blood off his boot on the corpse's shirt. "He knew the damn collar would blow. Now someone's going to have to clean this shit up."
He looks up and eyes Gal. "You bringing this one in for sale? Follow me, I'll get you a collar and show you where the pens are."
"Collar?" Charon questions. It sounds casual, but a sweat is breaking out on Gal's forehead. This wasn't part of the plan. They were supposed to be able to pick the lock and head straight for the exit. How are they supposed to escape with a bombstrapped around their necks?
"We started using them a couple years ago. Too many smart ones slipping out while we weren't looking. They go off at a certain distance from the Falls. And they're tamper proof too, so don't try anything, bitch." he directs to Gal, shoving her in the side with the butt of his rifle. She staggers, but Charon catches her gently by the neck and pulls her upright again.
They're trapped. It's too late to turn around now; if they do, they'll never be able to rescue Sammy and Squirrel. Evidently, Charon knows it too, because he follows the slaver reluctantly through the door to Paradise Falls, hand still wrapped around her neck.
It looks exactly like she'd expect it to. Dirty, worn down, and covered in trash. The whole place gives off a bad vibe, as if you could tell exactly what they do here just by the atmosphere. If the atmosphere isn't enough, the skulls mounted on posts and fences help.
People are milling out, most in armour and armed to the teeth. Gal looks around discreetly, trying to memorize the place in case she needs that information later. There's a building down to the left, just after the entrance, but she can't tell what it is. To the right, there's a clinic. They stride past both and through another gate, passing a group of people on the left roasting a brahmin. People pay no attention to the dirty blonde-haired waif, but they watch Charon carefully, hands never far away from their weapons.
Ahead and a little to the right, she spots a fenced-in area, which seems to be what they're heading for. Charon taps her on the side of the neck and she looks to her right, spotting a doorway further down from the fence. It must be the bathrooms that they're going to use to escape; he was right, they're not far. That's a relief.
"So, you looking to sell her to Eulogy or what?" the slaver asks, stopping them in front of a locked cabinet. He pulls a set of keys from his belt to unlock it and swings the door open, revealing a pile of collars, some of them still bloody. The smell nearly gags her.
"No. My employer sent me to do an exchange. He needs a male to help him around the bar. This one's useless for hard labour. So I'll be sticking around a day or two, finding one to take back." Charon answers steadily. This is part of the plan too; he needed a reason to hang out for a while and be seen at the slave pens in case he needed to coordinate with her. Otherwise they'd look damn suspicious.
The slaver pulls a collar from the pile - free of blood, thankfully - and hands it to Charon. Just for show, when he goes to snap it around her neck, she struggles and tries to pull away, but even if she were really trying it would only take him a minute to wrap one muscular arm around her torso and hold her still. The collar goes on and then he lets go. And just like that, she's trapped here. With no backup plan.
"Hold her here for a few minutes, I'll get someone to arm that collar and then you can throw her in with the others."
As soon as he's out of sight, Charon wraps his arm around her again and drags her back up against his chest. She's having a hard time remembering this whole scenario is fake, and it's all she can do to keep from flinching when his hot breath brushes her ear. She supposes that the way she's leaning out of his presence makes it only look more realistic.
"I didn't know about the collars." He whispers. "I'll have to do some digging and see if I can find a way to disarm them. I'll come back later tonight and let you know."
"Okay. That will give me time to talk to Sammy and Squirrel." she feels the tenseness in his arm and takes a chance to squeeze his gloved hand, wrapped firmly around her bicep. "It's okay, Charon, there's no way you could have known. We'll figure this out, no problem."
She catches sight of the guard and doubles her fake attempts to get free, going so far as to viciously punch him in the shoulder and attempt a kick at his knee. Charon growls and wraps her even more securely and she is going to have to find a way to make up for all this touching that she knows he doesn't like doing. Probably some pretty bad memories too. She's a horrible person.
"I think she likes you." the slaver says nastily as she struggles. "Her collar's armed, you can dump her in the pen. Eulogy wants to talk to you about the exchange."
Charon nods, picks her up off her feet, and carries her after the slaver. Once he's done unlocking the gate to one of the fences, Charon tosses her in like a sack of potatoes and then they're gone.
Then she's alone in the middle of a slaving encampment with a bomb strapped around her neck and nothing but a combat knife.
Gal has to take a moment to breath, and keep herself from freaking out. Their plan is totally bust if they can't find a way to get these collars off. At that point, the best she can hope for is that Charon says none of the others will do as an exchange and manages to get her back out again, but even if he does, they lose any chance of rescuing Sammy and Squirrel. Gal needs them to get to Vault 87, it's true, but also, the idea of kids being sold into slavery for who knows what purpose is horrifying. Maybe it's par for the course out here, but she's not going to let that happen.
When she's calm again, she gets up and starts looking around the area. She's alone in this pen. There's another to her right, also empty, and one to her left. All three are basically large rectangles with dirt floors; there's a door at the other end, but she doesn't head for it just yet.
There are three small figures to her left, in the first pen. Two are watching her with curiousity, and the last is curled up in the corner, head resting on her knees. Once she's sure no one is near enough to eavesdrop, Gal makes her way over to the divider and waves at them.
"Hey! Come here." she says softly. One of the boys walks over cautiously. He's got sandy blonde hair and a deep tan, and he's not wearing any shoes. He stops just shy of the fence, well away from her, and gives her a suspicious look.
"What do you want?" he asks, crossing his arms.
"Are you Sammy? Or Squirrel?" she asks. The look of surprise on his face tells her she's found them.
"How'd you know our names?" he asks harshly.
"Mayor MacCready sent me." she explains quickly. "We're here to rescue you - me and the guy that's with me."
The kid blinks, and then turns to the other boy and motions him over.
"Squirrel! Come here! This mungo says she's here to bust us out."
The other boy walks over just as cautiously. He looks a little older, with a buzzed head and a bad sunburn on the tip of his nose. Both are wearing dirty outfits, ripped and torn in several places, but they don't look too bad off.
" You're busting us out? Well, what's your plan then?" he asks, clearly not believing her.
Is everyone in Little Lamplight this jaded? She's met Super Mutants that were friendlier than these kids. Well, maybe not Super Mutants, but it would be nice for one of them to stop treating her like the enemy.
Then again, considering their plan is all shot to hell now, maybe they're right to be suspicious.
"The guy that tossed me in here is on our side. Our plan was to have him distract the guards, I'd pick the lock to the pens, and then we'd escape out a drainage gate in the bathrooms. But we didn't know about the collars so that threw a kink in our plans. Any ideas?" she asks.
Squirrel gets a thoughtful look on his face and nods.
"Not a bad plan for a mungo. I've got the collars figured out - they're turned on and off by a terminal network, and there happens to be a terminal in our pen. Only thing is, it's not attached to the network. If your friend can get on the terminal in the boss-man's quarters and update the network settings, we can turn the collars off from in here and get the fuck out."
Gal considers that. She's never seen Charon touch a computer, but it's not a hard task. All he would have to do is open a couple menus. This could work.
"Okay," she says back lowly, "when he comes back I'll tell him to do that. Are there only two of you?"
Squirrel and Sammy start to shake their heads, but something spooks them and they jump back from the fence and dart away. Gal does the same instinctively, and when she turns, she sees that another slaver is hauling someone up to the pens.
Just as they did with Gal, he unlocks the gate and throws the slave into Gal's area, leaving her heaving in the dirt without a backwards glance. The woman doesn't even try to get up, just lays there as Gal watches the slaver's retreating back. Once he's gone, Gal makes her way cautiously over to the other woman and crouches down next to her.
"Hey, are you okay? Hello?" Gal asks carefully. The woman is thin, with tangled black hair, and she's wearing only a white shift and a pair of tattered sandals. When she looks up, Gal sees that one of her eyes is blackened. She looks like she'd be pretty, if her cheekbones weren't jutting out so harshly and she didn't have such dark circles under her one good eye. Gal thinks she could probably wrap her whole hand around her wrist, with inches to spare.
The girl doesn't say anything, just looks at her dumbly, and then tears start sliding down her face. She doesn't make a sound, just sits there and cries silently, her shoulders shaking a little.
"Uh… okay, well, let's get you up and comfortable somewhere, okay? I'm going to pick you up now." Gal says awkwardly. Slowly, trying not to spook her, Gal hooks her under the arms and lifts her to her feet. It's like picking up a small child; she weighs almost nothing, and she barely reacts to Gal's touch, allowing Gal to wrap her arm around her torso and walk her towards the closed door. Gal pulls it open and shuffles her charge inside.
The inner room isn't much - just bare concrete with some dirty mats laying around, but it's out of sight of the rest of the slaver camp and Gal figures that would make her feel better. She leads the woman to one of the mats and helps her sit down on it, back against the wall. The woman is looking down at her knees now, tears still trickling down her face. Gal thinks about trying to comfort her, but it's strange when it's a stranger, so instead she just settles down a few feet away and leaves her be.
It's 45 minutes before she says anything. Gal's got her hands wrapped around her knees, reviewing the plan, when she hears a soft sound.
"Thank you." the girl whispers. Gal looks up to find the girl wiping at her eyes with one thin wrist.
"Hey, no problem." Gal replies softly, smiling. "I'm Gal, what's your name?"
The girl gives her a faint smile back; it's not even really a smile, but she tries.
"Sophia." she says, rubbing at her cheek. "How long have you been here?"
"Not long. Just earlier today."
"Oh." Sophia says, and something about that wipes the smile off her face again. "This is my fourth time here."
Gal tries to keep the shock off her face but she's not sure she's successful. The girl probably doesn't even notice; she's looking down at her knees again.
"Four times? How?" Gal asks quietly.
Sophia shrugs. "Dunno. Someone buys you, keeps you around for a while, and then trades you in for the next best thing."
An awkward silence follows. Gal has no idea what to say to that. Sorry? It'll get better? She feels almost guilty that she's here on a lie, living the life for a day and then disappearing back to her life of freedom. She can't even imagine what this girl has been through, a delicate flower with a black eye and a thousand-yard stare. She's only probably Gal's age, maybe a little younger.
She can't leave her here. She's not going to leave her here.
They sit in silence for a little while, and then start talking again, a little bit. Gal avoids any and all questions of how she ended up in Paradise Falls, other than to say she was captured and brought straight here. She tells Sophia that she's been working on a project, looking for a part, but that's it.
"What about you?" she asks hesitantly.
The black-haired girl frowns, and looks away, staring out at the empty room.
"My family was killed by Super Mutants a few years ago. They caught us by surprise at dinner time; I was in the basement, looking for something, so I heard them… killing my family. I hid until the Super Mutants were gone and then left. A settlement took me in, and I thought I was safe… until I woke up bound and gagged. That's how I ended up in Paradise Falls the first time."
Sophia doesn't talk much about her time after that, and Gal doesn't push.
"If I ever see that man's face again, I'm going to kill him." the black-haired girl says, with a note of anger. It's the first emotion she's shown for the whole talk. The rest of her sentences had been delivered in monotone, as if she were retelling a story that she wasn't particularly interested in.
It sounds like a coping mechanism. Gal knows all about those.
Something rattles outside, and Gal remembers with a start that she's supposed to be waiting for Charon to come back, to talk about the plan. She climbs to her feet and heads for the door, grateful that Sophia doesn't make any move to follow her.
The sun is low in the sky when she emerges. Gal guesses they've been in Paradise Falls for five or six hours now; her stomach grumbles pitifully and she wonders when the next time she'll get to eat is. Even Cram is sounding good right now.
Charon looks up at her from right outside the gate, Dogmeat at his feet. Dogmeat gives her a short bark in greeting when he sees her, but Charon has his head turned in conversation, so Gal clamps down on her unconscious smile and backs up against the wall as if she wants nothing to do with them.
"You don't have any males here at all?" Charon is asking the man behind him. When the other steps up, Gal sees that it's the slaver from before who had helped fit her collar.
"Got one. He's in the Box right now though. Only Eulogy has the keys so you'll have to talk to him if you want to see the bastard." the slaver replies. Charon grunts in response.
"I'll look at the kids. Maybe one will be big enough for what I need."
The words send shivers down Gal's spine; she knows Charon is acting, but he's doing it so damn well it's unnerving. The slaver certainly buys it; he lets out a snort and leaves. Gal waits until he's far away before she approaches the front of the pen.
"Find anything out?" she asks lowly.
Charon shakes his head. "No. Nobody knows a damn thing about how the collars work except Eulogy Jones, the head of Paradise Falls. But I checked the drain in the bathrooms and it will still work."
Gal nods and motions him over to the corner of the pen where it meets Sammy and Squirrel's pen. Only Squirrel is still outside, eyeing Charon suspiciously from a distance.
"Squirrel! Come here!" Gal calls, waving him over. He does, but stops well out of reach of Charon.
"Squirrel, this is Charon. He's helping from the outside. Charon, Squirrel told me that they have a terminal inside their living area, but it's not connected to the network. If you can get on Eulogy's terminal and update the network settings, they can turn off the collars from there and we'll be free to escape. Can you do that?"
Charon thinks it over, and then nods.
"Computers aren't my strong suit, but I can figure it out. Can you walk me through it?"
Squirrel starts talking before she can, running through the steps he'll have to take at the speed of light. He lives up to his name well. Still, Charon nods like he understands, and asks a few questions, so Gal's pretty sure he'll be fine.
"-so once you're done, come back here and let me know, and we'll disable all the collars. Then we'll get the hell out of here." Squirrel finishes.
"It shouldn't be hard, with only three of you." Charon replies, nodding thoughtfully.
"Four." Gal blurts out without thinking about it. Squirrel and Charon turn to her, and Charon raises an eyebrow.
Gal flushes.
"Look, they brought another girl in, and - I can't just leave her, okay? She's been through here four times. "
Squirrel rolls his eyes. "If we take too many people, we're gonna get caught, you stupid mungo."
Gal opens her mouth to reply, but she's cut off by a new face. A dark-skinned girl appears behind Squirrel and interjects as if she'd been there all along. She has jagged bangs and a stubborn set to her mouth.
"Well, if you're going to help her, you have to help Rory too. He's locked up in the Box."
Charon huffs in annoyance.
"Look, we're not here to free all of goddamn Paradise Falls. The more people that get in on this, the more likely someone gets caught and we're all fucked."
The girl glares at him, not at all cowed by the six foot plus armoured ghoul standing in front of her.
" I'm not leaving without Rory, and that's that." she says stubbornly.
"You're so stupid, Penny, just leave the stupid Mungo-" Squirrel interjects, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up, Squirrel, I'm not leaving him -"
Then Gal figures it out.
"Wait. Listen." she says. All three of them turn to look at her expectantly.
"Charon, they already know you're looking for a replacement. Tell them you're picking what's his name- sorry, Rory-" she corrects when Penny glares at her, "and then while you're walking out the front gate, we'll get to the bathrooms. It'll all work."
"Forty has a key to the Box, and so does Eulogy Jones." Penny adds.
Charon's brow creases, and he starts to say something, but before he does a sound behind him catches his attention. Without turning back around, he waves them off with one hand and casually backs away from the pens.
They scatter, and Gal sees that a man in a red suit is strolling past the area, casually glancing over at the pens. She doesn't know who he is, but Charon nods respectfully to him so she figures she doesn't want to catch his attention. Instead, she slips back to the side of the building to curl up and waits. The man's eyes light on her for a minute, but then he's gone.
Someone comes by around dusk and throws trays of food at all of them - three for the Lamplighters, two for her and Sophia. She examines it closely, but can't figure out what the glop is supposed to be, so she turns her nose up and gives it to Sophia. Sophia eats both portions without comment. Then she wanders back inside; when Gal checks on her later, she's sleeping on one of the straw mattresses, curled up like a kitten in as tight a ball as she can manage. Gal can see the individual bumps of her spine.
About an hour later, Sammy slinks up next to her and shoots her a grin.
"Your zombie got into the terminal. The collars are disarmed." he tells her, before slinking away again.
"He's not a zombie!" Gal shoots back, but Sammy is already inside again. Her hand unconsciously flies to the collar; it feels a little looser, she thinks, though she knows that's ridiculous.
It's full dark when she sees Charon again. She can just make his silhouette out in the moonlight. He glances over at her, makes eye contact, and gives her a sweeping motion, in the direction of the bathrooms. Then he's gone, into the night like a ghost.
Gal glances over to the Lamplighter's pen. Sammy is sitting watch just like she is, though he's dozing up against the fence.
"Sammy. Sammy." she hisses, nearly causing him to fall over when he jolts awake, "Go get the others, it's time to go."
"Okay. I'll get Squirrel to unlock the gates." he whispers back, before disappearing into their side of the building.
Gal turns back to her little room and darts in quickly. She crosses to kneel next to Sophia and shakes her shoulder lightly. The way Sophia flinches and pulls away instinctively makes her jerk her hand back.
"Sophia, wake up, come on, we're leaving." Gal says urgently. Sophia sits up and rubs at her good eye sleepily.
"Leaving? What?" she asks, her voice drowsy. Gal grabs her under the arm and pulls her to her feet; Sophia stands without protest but still gives Gal a strange look.
"Come on, we don't have much time. We're escaping. We have to go, now. "
Sophia doesn't ask any more questions, just follows Gal quietly out the door and to the front of the pen.
Penny is up against the front fence, peering out into the gloom. She turns back and gives Sammy a thumbs up; all three of them head for the gate. Gal does the same with Sophia. When she pushes it experimentally, it swings open with no trouble.
Sophia grabs at her arm and shakes her head frantically when Gal looks back, pointing to the collar around her neck.
"Don't, the collar - we can't -"
"Don't worry about the collar. They're disarmed. Now follow me." Gal murmurs back.
The Lamplighters are already a few yards out towards the bathrooms, so Gal races up to catch them, keeping an eye out for any slavers. The area is silent as a ghost town. Sophia follows silently, though she still seems unsure.
They catch sight of Charon in front of a radiation shelter halfway to the bathrooms. He's only recognizable by his height; the gloom makes it difficult to see anything, both a help and a hindrance to their escape effort. He fiddles with something on the side of the shelter, and the door opens up with a whoosh. A figure stumbles out and crashes to the ground. Gal sees Penny lunge for the pair, but Sammy catches her and pulls her back before she can take more than a few steps. Charon helps the figure to his feet, and is talking lowly into his ear and guiding him back towards Paradise Falls' entrance when he fades from sight.
Her heart thunders with each step, so loud she doesn't know how no one else can hear it. Sophia clings to her left arm but keeps silent as they move, so Gal doesn't mind too much. Their little group makes it to the door of the bathrooms, and then Gal pries Sophia's fingers from her arm, draws her combat knife, and pushes the door open.
The slaver inside has a shotgun in one hand, but Gal is on top of her before she can even come close to using it. Gal slashes at her throat, but the raider growls and grabs her wrist. They wrestle for a minute, the slaver scrabbling for something at her side, but then she suddenly has a Lamplighter dangling from each arm and jerking at her hair, and Sophia is prying her grip from Gal's wrist. The slaver is no match for the five of them together; Gal slits her throat and ducks the blood spray, and together the five of them let the gurgling corpse slump to the ground. She has a moment to worry about killing someone in front of three kids - but all of them are already looting the corpse for anything useful, so Gal forgets about feeling bad and picks up the shotgun. Then they shove the corpse up onto the toilet and lock the door, so it hopefully won't be found any time soon. The blood isn't much of a giveaway, considering half the bathroom is already covered in rust red.
Quickly, they drag the lid off the drain and peer down into the darkness. Gal can just see the bottom of the sewer; it's a short drop, not even five feet. She motions the other four over and moves so Sammy can drop down.
He hits the bottom with a yelp, then crawls out of the way so Penny can go next. Squirrel follows, and then Sophia swings her legs over and prepares to drop down. Before she does, she looks up at Gal and grabs her hand, cradling it between both palms. Her eyes are full of tears.
Gal gives her a reassuring smile and sandwiches one thin hand between her own.
"It's okay. Go ahead. You're not ever coming back to this fucking place."
Sophia nods, takes a deep breath, and drops down into the sewer. Then it's only Gal left in the bathroom.
She hasn't heard any signs of life outside the bathrooms, but still, she scoots over to the drainage gate and throws her legs down, pulling the top over as close as possible so she can try to slide it on behind them.
She gets up to her hips before she catches. The hole hadn't looked small with the Lamplighters and Sophia slipping through, but she's a different story. A wiggle gets her a few more inches, but then she's stuck again.
Hands grab her calves and yank, and Gal twists as much as she can to help. Two yanks, three, and then her hips are through the opening. The rest of her makes it through easily and then she's crouching in a cold, wet tunnel with the others, though she thinks her pants have ripped. Gal reaches up and slides the cover back into place, then tentatively starts forward after the others.
It's as quiet as death in the tunnel. It seems that all of them are afraid to speak; the rustle of their clothes and the occasional clank when someone runs into something already feels too loud, as if it will alert the slavers just above their heads. It's too small to stand up, and narrows so much that they eventually have to crawl; Gal wonders in a flash of horror if it will become too small for them to get through, but it never shrinks that much. Still, the cold atmosphere and the hard metal of the pipe leave her aching and bruised. She keeps bumping into Sophia, in front of her, but the other girl never says a word.
It feels like ages before the journey ends. Then, suddenly, the little convoy stops, and Gal can hear Sammy struggling with something up ahead. He grunts a few times, and then suddenly there's cool, fresh air flowing into the tunnel, and she hears the sounds of someone banging around, as if they're levering themselves out of an opening.
One by one, they climb out of the exit. Gal jerks when she hears Penny's soft exclamation, but then she hears a soft, unfamiliar male voice, and realizes it must be the other slave - Rory, who had been with Charon. A tightness in her chest eases, realizing that means her companion is most likely safe.
When it comes to her turn to exit, she crawls out slowly, trying not to bang up her bruised body any more than it already is. Sophia helps her out onto flat ground, where Penny is embracing a dark-haired man and Sammy and Squirrel are rocking back and forth on their heels, clearly eager to escape out into the wasteland. Charon and Dogmeat are nowhere in sight.
"Rory? Where are the others?" she asks. The dark-haired man peeks up at her and then looks over his shoulder.
"The guard to the entrance didn't believe about the trade. Your man had to stash the body, but he told me to come wait for you guys so you wouldn't get worried."
Gal finds herself nearly knocked over by a small body, and looks down to find Sammy attached to her hip, arms thrown around her waist. Penny joins him almost immediately; Squirrel doesn't hug her, but he does give her a big, honest smile.
"Thanks for getting us out of there, mungo." Sammy says, giving her waist one last squeeze. She wraps one arm around him and Penny each and squeezes back before they let go. That's the first moment that they really look like children again, instead of tiny, swearing adults. Every bruise, every unsure moment is worth watching them claw at their collars and tear them off. When everyone has removed the bomb from their necks, Gal takes them and tosses them behind a bush.
"We've got to get out of here." Squirrel says, already over the touching moment. Penny and Sammy nod, and Rory goes to join them, but not before giving Gal's hand a warm squeeze.
"I'll go with them and make sure they make it there okay. Thanks for your help, stranger. I'll never forget your kindness."
Gal smiles, and offers him the shotgun. Rory takes it with a grateful look.
"Stay safe. You'll need this, we've got plenty of weapons and ammo stashed away not far from here. You three, I'll see you soon at Little Lamplight."
All of them nod, and then they're slinking away into the darkness, leaving her and Sophia alone by the grate to wait for Dogmeat and Charon.
Not a second goes by before Sophia takes Penny and Sammy's place, clutching at Gal's front and burying her face into Gal's collar, sobs wracking her thin shoulders. Gal starts, but wraps her arms around Sophia and lets her cry. She remembers doing this not long ago to another person, and how good it felt to simply be held and comforted, allowed to bask in the knowledge that things would be okay.
"You're safe now. No more slavery, no more collars, no more dirty straw mattresses." she soothes, smoothing Sophia's tangled hair and trying not to wince at her iron grip. No more anything else , either, she thinks grimly.
A rustle behind her makes her start, and she's turned with her combat knife at the ready almost instantaneously, before a black-and-grey blur launches itself at her. Dogmeat slams right into her legs and nearly bowls her over. Gal lets out a breath and leans over to scratch his back, noting his bloody muzzle, which he rubs all over her trousers in happiness. Another sound, and Charon appears behind the dog, looking unharmed except for a gash across his jaw. He looks wary but his shotgun is strapped across his back.
"Hey. The others already left for Little Lamplight, it's just me and - "
" You. "
Gal turns.
Sophia backs away from Gal and raises a pistol up to point at Charon, her face twisted and hateful.
The barrel of the gun settles right between his eyes.