HAS ANYONE SEEN THE FALLOUT LORE SERIES ON YOUTUBE? WHEN I SAW THE REAL LIFE-LIKE MISTER HANDY IN THE PROLOGUE, LET ME TELL YOU, I WAS EXCITED
Anyways...
Warning: Point Lookout & Mothership Zeta DLC spoilers
Just as they promised, they went to Point Lookout the first weekend of summer vacation. The ferry ride took a few hours, so it was a good time to relax. Charlie and Jade, who were both now eleven, were reading their new copies of Grognak the Barbarian. Jade wasn't able to concentrate too well since there were a lot of people on the ferry making crowd noise.
Charlie however, was able to block out everyone and listen to the sound of the water as the ferry cruised along the ocean, and read her comic.
Jade's brother Anthony was in the lower deck of the ferry, no doubt lurking around the restrooms. "He gets sea sick," Jade remarked, setting Anthony's glasses next to her on the bench they sat on. He'd given them to her before he went to empty his stomach.
"Will he be okay?" Charlie wondered.
"Yeah, when we get off the ferry at Point Lookout, he'll feel better." Jade answered, squinting her caramel eyes at her comic as she turned a page.
Bria was fast asleep on the bench next to theirs. For some reason, Charlie kept checking on her with protective eyes. "She's not going anywhere." Jade promised.
"I know, but I can't help it," Charlie frowned. "I keep looking at her, you, Juliet, and my brother." she admitted.
Speaking of, Juliet and Charon were at the edge of the ferry, leaning against the rails and looking out at the water. Juliet was leaning her head against Charon's shoulder lovingly as she said, "I have a bad feeling about this trip."
"You said your mother was okay with you going," Charon reminded,
"No, she is okay with it. I'm talking about...what if...?" Juliet shuddered.
Charon faced her and wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Nothing will happen, Juliet. But if anything does happen...I will take care of you."
God, she still loved how he said her name.
When the ferry came to a complete stop at the Point Lookout Pier, Anthony was one of the first ones off. Jade and Charlie woke up Bria, and they all followed Juliet and Charon off the ferry. As they walked down the pier to join Anthony, Jade widened her eyes and exclaimed, "Anthony, I want ice-cream!"
Charlie was in awe at all of the food stands. There was ice-cream, funnel cakes, corn dogs, hot dogs, cold drinks, and...
"They have cotton candy!" she screamed. "I've always wanted to try it!"
"You've never had cotton candy?!" Jade screeched.
"Neither have I," Charon admitted.
"That's it," Bria snapped. "As soon as we get our motel rooms, we're coming back here." she decided.
"Where is the motel?" Charlie wondered.
"This way!" Jade urged. The pair took off running through the mass crowd of pedestrians.
"Charlie!" Charon yelled. He glared at Anthony and asked, "Where is the motel?!"
Charlie ran with Jade through the Pilgrim's Landing Boardwalk all the way through to the street. Across the street, Charlie saw the Homestead Motel. She looked both ways before following Jade over when something grabbed her arm from behind. She squealed and turned around to see her big brother glaring down at her.
"What is wrong with you?" he scolded. "You know NEVER to leave my sight!"
Charlie frowned. "Sorry..."
Juliet looked at the building left of them. "They have A Cuppa Joe here!" she recognized with a laugh. Bria chuckled as they crossed the street, where Jade was waving at them from the parking lot.
"How many rooms are we getting?" Juliet questioned.
"Each room only has one bed," Anthony remembered. "So..."
Charlie looked up at Charon with innocent blue eyes. "Can Juliet be in our room?"
"There's only one bed," Charon reminded blankly.
"So?" Charlie remarked. She looked at her brother hard in the eyes until he gave up and said yes, causing her to cheer and the others to laugh.
"Downtime has a soft side," Bria teased.
"Let's go get our rooms, then," Anthony suggested. Juliet, Charlie and Jade remained outside with everyone's suitcases while Anthony, Charon and Bria went into the motel office. Charlie once again blocked out all noise and listened to the beach that wasn't too far away. She really wanted to go swimming.
Then, as promised (again) they returned to the Boardwalk to get cotton candy, but first - dinner. There was a diner right next to A Cuppa Joe that deemed fit. They chalked down a meal full of artificial preservatives before they were back to the Boardwalk and found the nearest cotton candy before everything was closed for the night.
"I'll pay for Charlie's," Anthony offered. "What color do you girls want?" he asked.
"Pink!" Jade yelped.
"Blue!" Charlie answered politely. She put her hands behind her back and appeared eager, but patient.
I wish Jade was as good a kid as Charlie, Anthony thought to himself before paying for the cotton candy. Now the girls watched it be made, starting out by being spun over and over until it was thick enough to be on the stick, and they were given their requested colors. Jade was scarfing hers down with no regrets while Charlie said, "Thank you," to Anthony, before she plucked some of her treat off and handing it to her big brother.
Charon accepted it and plopped it into his mouth. Everyone was laughing at the face he made when he actually tasted it.
Jade was difficult to convince to go to bed. She wanted to stay awake and watch TV all night. Anthony didn't have the patience to put up with her, so he let her win and told her to keep the TV volume down, and eventually fell asleep.
There wasn't much on TV at night, Jade noticed, as she went through the channels. It was either news, stupid movies, or Vault-Tec commercials. There were lots of those.
Meanwhile, Bria was sleeping in her room, and in the other room, so was Charlie. On the promise she would get to go swimming and go on the ferris wheel tomorrow. Charon had to etch her smaller body on the bed in between Juliet and himself, so they all had room. Juliet was sat up in the bed, moving strands of Charlie's red hair out of her face while she slept.
"You better watch out, Charon. Jade will make a rebel out of Charlie yet." Juliet giggled.
"Not on my watch," he scoffed, openly rubbing his tired blue eyes. he rubbed them too much because now his eyes were all red.
"You raised her right, Charon. She's a good kid." Juliet praised. "And she's lucky to have you."
"And I'm lucky to have you," Charon remarked, leaning over to kiss her. She kissed him back before she snuggled under the covers all three of them had to share. It really was a good thing Charlie was smaller than them.
"And I'm lucky to have you," Juliet concluded. "Come on, we need to sleep. We're gonna have a long day tomorrow."
"Indeed." Charon agreed, waiting until Juliet was long gone asleep before he closed his eyes. As soon as he did, there was a bright flash from outside. His dark blue eyes jolted open in alarm, with the thought that the nuclear bombs were finally dropping.
He jumped out of bed and raced over to the window, bravely splitting the blinds open so he could peek through, feeling only a little nervous as he looked for any mushroom clouds or fire.
Nothing.
Maybe a storm was coming. That had to be it. Charon stepped away from the blinds and returned to bed, gently climbing back in so he didn't wake the other two next to him up.
Yeah, a storm had to be coming. Nothing else. Right?
Charon was afraid his sister was going to drown in the water, since she didn't know how to swim, but she seemed to only go as far as she could touch. She and Jade were taking turns playing lifeguard. One would pretend she was being chased by a shark, and the other would rush out into the water and jump on the "shark" and bring the victim back to shore safely.
Anthony was drinking some lemonade while Bria was eating a hot dog, and Juliet was sun tanning. Charon was quietly keeping an eye on Charlie. She was having a lot of fun and that wasn't something Charon was used to. Growing up in an orphanage, Charlie always had this sad demeanor. She rarely smiled and being bullied by the other orphans for her name didn't help.
But she was away from that now. She went to school, had friends, and there was hardly a moment when she wasn't smiling. Charon wasn't going to let anything ruin that again.
"Hey, Downtime," Bria alerted him, throwing him out of his thoughts. "I'm going to get something to drink. Want anything?"
"No thank you," he answered. Bria nodded and walked off the beach and onto Pilgrim's Landing. Charon now looked for Juliet, who was currently talking to a couple of strange teenage boys. She was oblivious to the fact that they were checking her out in her bright yellow bikini.
"Yeah, yeah," he heard her say. "No, I don't like heights, sorry..."
Charon was over there in an instant. "If I wasn't afraid, then I would go on the Ferris wheel with my boyfriend." Juliet finished, and noticed who was behind. "Oh, this is him. His name's Charon."
The boys were clearly intimidated that Charon was taller than them. They looked nervous and found an excuse to tell Juliet good bye, and started walking away. She didn't notice, of course. Typical Jules.
"Charon," she continued. "Why do you still have your clothes on? Didn't you put your swim shorts on?"
"...yes..." he answered slowly.
Juliet flipped back her hair that had fallen in her face. "I'm gonna get in the water and you're coming with me." she decided,
"No." Charon denied.
"Yes," she argued. "If you don't, them I'm going after those boys and go on the Ferris wheel with them."
"Like hell you are!" Charon growled, quickly grabbing Juliet and tossing her over his shoulder. "You're mine." he hissed as he started for the water. Juliet was beside herself with laughter as he launched her into the ocean. When she surfaced, he had taken his shirt and shorts off, now only wearing the trunks he swore he had on. He had that look in his eye that said he was going after her again, so she screeched and went further into the water to get away, but he caught her. He would always catch her.
The day ended with everyone burying Anthony in the sand, and simply walked away laughing. Charlie was the only one who felt guilty enough to come back and dig him out.
Charon wasn't the one who saw the bright light again tonight. This time it was Anthony. He reached for his big, thick glasses and looked out the window just as the light faded. He shrugged and turned around, when the light came back. He glared out the window again, but the light was too bright to see anything except that.
Damn it. Now he has to go outside to check it out.
Anthony took an instinctive look at his sleeping sister Jade in bed before he quietly went outside to investigate the light. He shut his door firmly and stared directly up, and this is when he suddenly couldn't move. He was frozen, but it wasn't from fear. He was no longer in control of himself.
Even though he was immobile, he was screaming in his head when he realized he slowly started floating upwards towards the light. WHAT THE HELL?! He thought to himself.
He whited out for a while. When he could move again, he found himself in what must have been a cell. Kind of like...a jail cell.
WHAT?!
Anthony looked at himself, holding out his tanned palms. He was able to move his fingers like normal, and he still had his pajamas on. His thoughts fled him when he heard some squealing voices - inhuman squabbling he might add.
His steel blue eyes came across a holotape that looked like it was meant for him. Was there something on it he should listen to?
Or maybe...
"Hey now. No reason to get yourselves worked up. Whatever you need, I'm going to tell it to you." Anthony heard a human male voice in the cell next to him. The inhuman voices spoke again, and the human man continued. "Well, I'm pretty sure you want me to talk into this thing, so here goes."
Anthony looked at the holotape in front of him.
"My name is Giles Wolstencroft...I'm the current Assistant Chief Executive Officer of the Vault-Tec Corporation. I was inspecting the construction site of Vault 76 when I was captured by what I can only assume are alien beings from another world."
Did he just say aliens?
ALIENS ARE REAL?!
HE GOT ABDUCTED BY FREAKING ALIENS?!
"Instead of talking to this damn machine, I'm going to attempt to address them directly. On behalf of the Vault-Tec Corporation, I'd like to extend a heartfelt welcome to you. Wait...you don't need that...wait! WAIT!"
Anthony heard a loud zapping noise, and a painful grunt from Mr. Wolstencroft. He covered his mouth so the aliens wouldn't hear him crying, but it was useless. They were now looking at him in his cell.
"Oh, no..." he whimpered. "I'm going to die too."
The aliens...the green headed aliens in white suits were babbling angrily and pointing at the holotape.
"Yes, I'll talk into it," Anthony promised, clearing his throat and moving his head down to speak directly into the device. "Hi...the aliens want me to talk. My name is Anthony. Anthony John Munoz. I'm seventeen years old and I was born on December 17, 2059. I have been taken by aliens for unknown reasons. If they're gonna kill me, then I have a confession to make. I've made everyone believe that I, uh...preferably like boys. Well, I don't. It's only a cover up. The truth is, I am completely in love with a girl...her name is Juliet. I'll never be able to tell her now."
He bravely looked at the aliens. They were simply staring. Might as well keep talking.
"By the time I realized my feelings for her, she was already dealing with this jerk named Matt, and I didn't want to pressure her. But now she has Charon, and she's happy. If she's happy, then I'm happy." he finished, pulling away from the holotape.
He gulped as the aliens entered his room with what looked like zappers.
Jade woke up and half expected to see her brother still asleep, but he wasn't there. She searched the motel room but he wasn't here. Now she went outside and looked around the parking lot. He wasn't here.
She knocked on Bria's door and asked if he was in there. He wasn't.
She knocked on Charlie's door and asked them if he was in there. He wasn't.
He wasn't here.
The others were concerned now as they began to help Jade search for Anthony. They checked the diner, the beach, and Pilgrim's Landing.
He wasn't anywhere.
"Where would he have gone?" Juliet asked worriedly. Jade was on the verge of tears as they returned to the hotel parking lot.
"I'll go ask the motel receptionist if she saw him at all this morning," Bria suggested, and walked over to the motel office.
"We'll find him," Charlie promised her best friend. "He's your big brother. He wouldn't just leave you."
A really bad feeling now came over Charon, as he suspected Anthony wasn't going to be found.