Chapter 12

Remember My Family

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

-Nathan Hale

Kastine was right. I had no right to blame Milly for my condition. I sold her out, and now it was my job to help her in any way that I can.

I told myself that I'd be on the road to redemption if I could stop the Enclave from activating Project Purity. For a brief moment, when I saw Autumn walk down the stairs from the control room, I thought I failed...

"You... activated Project Purity?" asked Milly, a hint of sadness in her voice. He put his hand on his holster and shook his head.

"Of course not. It would be unwise to activate your device while you were simply being held, judging by how effective we've been so far at holding you. Turning my back on the doorway and leaving myself open after you freed yourself would be very stupid."

"You should've done it. You already made one stupid mistake- you killed my Dad. It doesn't matter what you do here. You're not leaving this room alive," said Milly. Autumn ignored what she said and looked up at me.

"Have you not been taking your medication?"

"It was a mistake to do what I did. I can live with this form... but not with myself..."

Before Milly even said a word, I muttered "I'll explain later" to her, and she nodded.

Autumn turned away from Milly. "I'm not trying to be the bad guy here, you know. I'm simply trying to do what's best for America."

"Have you ever heard of that magical land called 'Russia'? They've done very well at rebuilding without falling back to negative eugenics," I said.

"Be that as it may-"

"Autumn... face me."

I looked down at Milly and she handed me her weapon.

"You want a real American gunfight? Why don't we try the good old fashioned duel?"

(I thought that was a pretty stupid idea, but... you ever try to tell Miss 101 that she's wrong?)

Autumn turned his head partially, but otherwise did not move.

"Go back to your home in Megaton, girl. I'm warning you."

"Face me... or are you afraid to shoot at someone that will shoot back?"

"You're trying my patience, miss 101..." said Autumn through clenched teeth.

Milly responded with two bullets to either side of the man.

"You killed my father!" she screamed. This time, Autumn whirled around to face her.

"And I will kill you, too, you squirming little parasite!"

I really wish I could say that the fight between Autumn and Milly was a long, drawn out fight that Milly escaped unharmed... I wish I could say that she kept it going on intentionally... but that's not how this sort of thing worked.

Autumn whirled around to shoot her, and Milly pulled her secondary weapon from its holster. Both humans fired their weapons, and both hit their targets- more or less. Both fired several times, but only one shot each landed.

Milly's bullet caught Autumn in the upper left portion of his torso, and if I were a betting deathclaw, I'd say that the bullet ripped through a few important blood vessels. Had what happened next not occurred, he would have still died...

...Autumn got the luckiest shot I have ever seen. Milly was wearing very strong armor called "Dragon Skin", and most of the time it laughs off laser shots. Milly took a few actual bullets on the fight to Project Purity, though (I saw the corpses outside), and Autumn managed a one in a million shot:

The laser beam hit a spot on the armor that was already weakened by a bullet. Normally, that still wouldn't be a problem- but this beam must've caught it dead center. It tore through the weakened armor and into Milly's left breast. I inwardly died when I saw her fall backwards to the ground, blood running from the wound. If left untreated, the wound would kill her. Even if it was treated, I wasn't sure if she would survive.

She coughed and gasped for air a few times before slowly righting herself. She put a shaky hand to her breast and paled, but calmed herself as best as she could. I looked over at Dogmeat and saw the pained look in his eyes. He limped over to her side and licked her face. She smiled weakly, and slowly made her way to her weapon.

She managed to stand up (I helped her), but Autumn couldn't do much more than roll around on the ground. I helped her over to the man that killed her father, and she glared at him.

The look on his face was devoid of emotion. That man was heartless, and though he would say that he did regret his actions that day, anyone that saw the look on his face in his final moments would know that he was not sincere.

This man wasn't misguided, this man wasn't insane.

He was evil. He took pleasure in killing the innocent, and he wanted to make Project Purity his. It was for these reasons that Milly did the world another favor, and put one between his eyes.

Before she pulled the trigger, she muttered final words to him:

"For my Mother and Father."

Then, she executed him, and kicked his weapon away just in case he was (for some otherworldly reason) still alive.

She groaned, and I set her down. It was then that Doctor Li walked into the room. Milly weakly smiled at her (Dogmeat wouldn't leave her side).

Before anyone could say a word, a loud explosion reached our ears, and an alarm started blaring. I looked around frantically (as did everyone else save for Milly and Dogmeat).

"Darn it!" shouted Doctor Li. She ran to Milly's side and knelt to make eye contact. "Milly, listen to me: Whatever happened in here... one of you shot part of Project Purity. That alarm is a signal that a nuclear reaction is imminent. Hey, keep listening: The only way to keep it from exploding is to activate it- that will drain the radiation leak causing this reaction."

Milly stared for a few seconds. "I can do that," she said weakly. Doctor Li looked at me and then at Dogmeat.

"Milly, you must understand: In order to activate it, you have to go into the control room and punch in the code."

Milly nodded slowly. Her skin was starting to lose color.

"...the control room is absolutely flooded with radiation. Whoever does it will not be coming out."

She didn't even flinch, but Dogmeat did.

"No! You can't, Mil!"

"Milly, don't do this!" I said. "I can do it! I can activate it..."

She slowly got to her feet and leaned towards me, gesturing for me to lower my head to her.

"...M-make sure that Dogmeat doesn't f-f-follow me... It's my job, not yours..."

I looked at her in utter shock, but I saw the determination on her face.

"Milly..."

"...Take c-care of... of Dogmeat for me."

"You don't have to..."

She looked at her wound, at the bulkhead, and then back at me. "Yes... I do."

I saw her smile at Dogmeat mournfully. She slowly reached a hand out to him, but she couldn't pet him without falling to the floor. She sighed, her legs still shaking as she grew ever weaker.

"...St...stay here, Dogmeat! Don't m-move until... until... Cord says."

He whined lowly, and tears started leaking from his eyes.

"Please... don't leave me..."

She shivered. "I love you, boy..."

With that, she turned to the stairway and started walking up it. I put my paw on Dogmeat to help calm him, but he shouted at me to "get off".

I watched as Milly made her way up the stairs to make the ultimate sacrifice. I never saw anyone that brave before. Not even death itself scared her.

She fell to a knee for a moment in the control area, but managed to stand and trudge to a small keyboard. The bulkhead the seperated her from her father now seperated Dogmeat and I from her.

Even I cried during those moments. I wanted to redeem myself. I wanted to prove that I could help her...

Instead, I watched as she activated Project Purity. She watched as some machines whirred to life for a few moments, and slowly sunk to her knees. Then, she fell to one side.

We thought she was dead. If not, we thought she would become a ghoul...

The scariest part was not knowing if she was alive or dead. I know Dogmeat wouldn't mind if she became a ghoul, and I wouldn't, either... we just wanted her alive.

Even the Brotherhood of Steel watched in sad silence as Milly lay motionless. I found myself reciting one of my favorite biblical passages, now:

"Revelation 21:6- I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto those who are athirst of the fountain of the waters of life, freely.'"

A miracle occurred, and from it, I found a stronger belief in the existence of God:

When the bulkhead opened, the radiation was no longer harmful. She showed no outward signs of ghoulification, and though it was fading, her heart was beating.

With treatment, she might still have a chance to live. Even if she didn't, the wasteland would never be able to forget her family.

End of Chapter

1,590 words.

Though it is shorter, I feel better about this chapter than last. I wrote it with more passion, though I couldn't make it too long or it'd get boring.

One of you assumed that I let Milly off the hook, but you shouldn't have. Don't jump to a conclusion when reading one of mine, because I might be a sneaky bastard and do something else.

Negative Eugenics is the belief that only those with satisfactory genes should mate and reproduce- those that have unsatisfactory genes are eliminated. There's a story of a woman that got pregnant, but a Eugenics society wanted her to abort and be sterilized. She didn't agree, so she took the group to the SUPREME COURT- guess who the Supreme Court ruled in favor of. Is it:

A) The sweet woman that wanted to be a mother.

B) The Hitler-like bastards that celebrate Eugenics.

C) None of the above.

If you answered "B", you're right! The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Eugenics group, and it gave them the right to have her abort and sterilize. I love my country and all, but... what the hell kind of call is that?

Because this is my own take on the Fallout 3 timeline, I'm twisting the Broken Steel add-on a little. You'll see what I mean next chapter.

Oh, and spoiler alert: Counting next chapter, there's actually only 4 chapters left (not including trivia). My mistake.

Next chapter covers what happens next (I.E I can't say or it'll get spoiled).