Modus Operandi 14

The slave named Midea sat at her desk in her cramped room, sipping a cup of hot water. Tea and coffee were not available in the God-King's city, but she made the best of what she had.

On the desk in front of here was a list of names. Ashur had allowed her to take on her role as de facto head of the slaves. Everything including health issues, food, and steelyard duty all fell to her. The God-King said it was for their own good, that a proper command structure would give them back a sense of control and assure them that their lives would not always be this way, but Midea knew better. She saw it for what it was: a feeble attempt to keep the slaves docile.

Behind her, the door opened, ushering in a blast of hot, dry air.

It closed again.

"Hello Midea," said a familiar voice.

"Get. Out." She snarled, refusing to even turn around.

"I know you're angry-" the voice began.

"Get out."

"I need your help."

Midea's mouth open and shut wildly, "The nerve to come and ask me-"

"How would you like to put Werhner's plan into action?"

She shut her mouth and stared fixedly at the wall in front of her, "Why should I trust you a second time?"

"I am the Lone Wanderer," the voice explained, "My loyalties are not to Ashur, but to the Capital wasteland. I take care of it, but I cannot afford to take care of the rest of the world as well. I am sorry that I left you in this place…in this position. I am sorry that I betrayed you and everyone else who was relying on me…"

"Then why did you do it?" she demanded angrily, still facing the wall.

"I refused to take a child from her father. My mother died giving birth to me, so I know what it feels like to grow up missing a parent. And just days before I met Werhner, I'd lost my own father as well. I just couldn't do it to someone else, no matter the cost."

"So what's changed?" she asked.

"I'm trying to fix the Wasteland. Ashur's plans are getting in the way. He is an obstacle which must be removed, regardless of my own personal feelings."

"And he wasn't a threat before because…?"

"He was." The Wanderer sighed. "I was just too distraught to see it. I did not have the same perspective. But the way is clear now. Will you help me?"

"Will you kill Ashur?"

"Yes."

"Will you save his child?"

There was a pause, "If I can. If I cannot, then you and the slaves are more than welcome to come back to the capital wasteland with me."

"Our place is here."

"Why? You can start fresh in a world free of radiation, with people who aren't dying of it. You can drink fresh water with every meal, and sleep in a proper bed, instead of on the ground. Or you can stay here and rot with the Slavers and trogs. Either way it's not my problem. But if you want what's best for you, help me."

"But I've been here so long…" she said.

"Is this all you want your remaining years to be?"

She thought for a long time, "What do you need me to do?"

"Get Sarah Lyons to Werhner's hideout. She can handle herself. I will meet her there, and we can speak to each other further and plan this out properly."

Midea made her decision, "I'll do it."

If he had said anything at all, 'thankyou' or 'you're making the right choice' or 'this is for the best', she would have dropped it all entirely and sent him on his way but he didn't. She merely felt another blast of hot, dry air as the door opened…and closed

Sarah stared down at the child. It was lying in its crib, dozing peacefully amidst a dozen teddy bears, unperturbed by the beeping of the electronics which surrounded it.

"She's called Marie," the brunette woman said, "She's my daughter."

"She's beautiful," said Sarah, patting the young child gently.

"She's hope," the woman said. Her name was Sandra Kundanika and as far as Sarah could figure, she was Ashur's mistress. She was also a scientist, though Sarah had yet to figure out what she was studying.

"Hope?"

"For the future," the woman said, making herself busy at a console.

"Of the Pitt?"

Sandra laughed, "I know what you're thinking: how could one exist? But it does. Marie is rad-resistant. Unlike everyone else around her, large doses of radiation don't change her, or kill her. She's completely immune to the TDC."

She glanced at Sarah's questioning look and said, "Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion. You've seen the trogs?"

"Is that some kind of Supermutant?" Sarah asked.

The woman gave her an odd look, "You aren't the first to draw the parallel. No, Trogs are not like Supermutants, thank god, though they could be just as deadly. We devolve. A collection of factors including the radiation and a contagion which runs rampant here, about half the population devolves into feral beasts who slaughter without mercy."

"Sounds horrible…" Sarah commented.

"It is," the woman finished whatever it was she was doing on the computer, and turned around, planting her hands on the desk behind her, and leaning against it to talk. "Did you know that three years back, the slaves had a plan on let the trogs into the city? Thankfully my husband and a slaver managed to stop them."

"I heard he betrayed the slaves…"

"He did," the woman nodded, "They'd told him he had to steal a cure. What they didn't say was that my little darling is the cure. As soon as he found out he would have to break up our family, he told both myself, and my husband, and taught the slaves a lesson."

There's the missing link…Sarah thought. The Lone Wanderer's tragic story was common knowledge in the wastes, and the stuff of legend. He lost his mother in child-birth, and his father to the Enclave.

Sarah remembered the expression on the man's face when he'd first walked into the citadel three years ago and less than twenty minutes after his father had died, most of that time had been spent fighting to get away from the purifier and the Enclave forces holding it. His hair was short, face clean-shaven, and his clothes consisted of a baseball cap and an armored vault suit. His weapons consisted of a hunting rifle and a single assault rifle.

The Wanderer had stayed in the citadel for three days, spoke to no one, just sat on a chair and stared at the wall. Then he'd walked out and vanished.

…And returned, six months later reborn as the silent, scarred, stoic symbol of hope, bearing the red bandana, blonde hair done up in the blast back style, and the brown duster.

Something happened to him in the intervening months, something extreme. Some of it, at least, must have happened here…

Sarah wondered what it was that had turned him from that teary-eyed child into the steel-eyed killing machine. More importantly, she wondered when he was going to get around to breaking her out.

She didn't have to wonder for long; when Sarah arrived back in the small, defunct washroom which served as her quarters in the Haven, she found a switchblade in the sink with a note attached to it in neat female handwriting saying: For when you need it.

She picked up the knife and waved it around a little, trying to work out the kinks. The seven, was it seven days now? That she had been in captivity made her rusty, but not so much so that she didn't remember how to use it. She had once taught Squire Maxson how to kill a man by stabbing him in the kidneys. The child had been very impressed by that.

Sarah found a second note left on her bed:

Escape. Come to me. Our mutual "friend" has a plan.

-Midea

She immediately tore up the note. She soaked it in irradiated water until the ink had run out, then she stuffed the remainder in her mouth and ate it. It was marginally better than the food the Raiders served her.

She had been extremely docile over the last week. It wasn't that Sarah hadn't wanted to escape, but she had been stuck for all that time with no weapons, and under close guard. Unlike the Supermutants, whose power vanished the moment someone refused to give in to fear, the raiders knew how to keep someone prisoner: close supervision, tight restrictions, and keep armed guards watching her from a short distance away. Plus, up until yesterday, the Wanderer was dead, and that left her without any allies willing to stick their necks out for her. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to her escape was distance itself. The wasteland was now a three day cart ride away, if she were able to make it that far, fighting through the raider's city. Even if she reached the other end of the tunnel, either on foot or by cart, she would still have to make it down through the hostile northern mountains of the capital wasteland, all the way back to the citadel. It was a daunting task, far too problematic for her to handle unprepared, and the raiders were good at making sure she was unprepared.

The footsteps of her escort echoed down the hall. They were coming for her. She felt the edge of the razor sharp switchblade… Unprepared until now. She sheathed the blade and put it down the front of her shirt, figuring that if any raider decided to search her that thoroughly, she'd need it anyway.

Gallows sat behind a rock near the entrance to the tunnel. His sniper rifle was out and scanning the treeline continuously. He was waiting for the orange flash. It was out there, he knew it. Watching…waiting…and he was not going to let it go.

"Still out here?" a voice asked. Paladin Kodiak sat down beside him, removed his helmet and pulled out a candy bar.

"Shh…" Gallows hissed, staring at a rock some distance away. If he squinted at the right angle, it looked like a Supermutant. He tried to remember if it had been there the previous night.

"Man, Dusk was right; you are obsessed." Kodiak said, taking a bite out of his candy bar.

"I'm a brotherhood soldier. We must kill Supermutants. That thing is a Supermutant, therefore I must kill it." Gallows said mechanically.

"Well yeah, but it's just one Supermutant."

"No, this one's different. It can think, plan, and talk. It's a smart Supermutant, and I cannot continue to allow it to exist. What if it takes command?"

"You're just a little paranoid," Kodiak said, patting him on the shoulder, "…Irving."

Gallows didn't answer.

"There it is!" Kodiak shouted suddenly, pointing to Gallows' side.

The Black Ops specialist twisted instantly and searched the trees for his prey. Then he heard Kodiak's laughter and realized what had happened.

"Go away." He told the paladin.

"Roger roger." Kodiak replied, grinning, "You keep watching those trees. Make sure they don't sneak up on us. Turns out Colvin brought a radio along. I'm going to go listen to Three-Dog."

He left Gallows in peace. The spec. ops. Soldier resumed his watch. He tried to find the supermutant-shaped rock, but couldn't. It was gone.