Chapter Twenty One: Stranger Things Have Happened

Harley

Protectrons were the least of my worries. Their lasers were not at all accurate and they were very clunky and slow. There were turrets stationed in dark corners, which easily went down as well, if I could stay hidden and stay away, as they blew up when shot at. The real problem was I had no idea where I was going and once I reached level two, my Geiger counter crackled softly. I swore to myself, I didn't bring my duffle bag and of course I had some fucking Rad-X in it.

He said it would be a computer terminal. There were generators in every which direction and I was having trouble getting my bearings. My stomach started doing flip flops and my back burned where I was lashed, which suddenly made me mad. How dare I sit back and let him lash me like a dog? In front of my family. I am weaker than I thought.

My vision started getting blurry, and the more I blinked to get rid of it, the more my head pounded. It felt like my stomach was crawling up through my body to try to get to my throat. Everything was swimming. What the fuck? My Geiger counter made a beeping noise and continued crackling. Under my stats button, it said I had Minor Rad Poisoning. Why not? Why not let rabid dogs attack me down here, too? I finally found the stairs that led to the next level, and I was panting heavily. I felt like my insides were on fire. It seemed like I wasn't getting enough oxygen in my lungs when I breathed, and it felt like inhaling a match. My lungs burned, and I tried to cough it away. I stumbled around, looking for a terminal - which was of course in the last room I looked in.

I slid the chip into the slot. The letters danced around the screen as I tried to steady myself - the Geiger counter beeped again. Shit. I'm gonna die down here, soon. While the securitrons activated, the ground rumbled ferociously. In the room was a large window looking down to the next floor. There had to be upwards of almost a thousand securitrons - or my vision was making me see double. It was a hell of a lot more than I expected, though, and they rumbled as they turned on and were updated. Time for me to go.

By the time I had reached the stairs to get up to Yes Man, I had vomited at least three times - the last one containing blood. I had to crawl up the stairs because my legs were like gel and I was too nauseous to stand anymore. Yes Man's giant smiling face appeared above me as I tried not to throw up again. I laid on my back, taking several deep breaths despite my lungs' burning protests.

"I can see they're all online now! You did an awesome job!"

"At pretty much the extent of my life!" I coughed.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I should've told you about the radiation. I don't worry about it because it doesn't affect me."

"Well, I'm not made of metal. Fuck. My insides are burning."

"Well the good news is, Caesar is too stupid to send someone down there with you, so he'll probably think you did what he asked. Isn't that great!"

"Sure. Got anything to get rid of this poison?"

"Nope. I'm just a computer monitor!"

"Fuck youuuuu," I hissed through my teeth.

"I almost forgot! Connect your Pip-boy to me. I'm gonna upload a program, and if you need the securitrons in the Fort, just go to the miscellaneous option under your items, and send this back to me. I'll send the securitrons out in a jiffy."

I did as he asked and then laid there for what seemed like hours until my breathing steadied. My lungs didn't burn as much, but they felt swollen and irritated. Standing up was a daunting task, and walking was even more difficult. I limped out of the room, where I had to surrender Romulus again. I hated parting with that fucking gun. The guy mentioned that I looked bad and I thought about punching him in the throat.

"Yeah. Bunker is full of rads."

"Well...here's some water, I guess."

"Thanks." It looked clean enough, and it tingled going down. I gulped the whole bottle, and it helped a little bit. My legs weren't as shaky, at least.

"So, from the rumbling under the Fort, I'm going to assume you've destroyed whatever's down there. Did you get a glance at what it was he had in there?" Caesar looked down at me like I was an ant and he had a magnifying glass.

I nodded, and remembered to kneel again before someone forced me to the ground.

"Holy shit you look horrible," he said and now that my vision wasn't swimming as much, I noticed sores all over my arms. I could feel them on my face and neck, too.

"Rad poisoning," I shrugged.

"Well, someone give her some Rad-Away. Can't have her going around trying to convince people to work for me with sores all over her body."

I felt a prick in the vein of my neck, and slowly, my head stopped thumping. My insides didn't feel like they were on fire, and the sores started healing almost like magic. I still felt like shit, though, as my stomach swam inside my throat. Oh, and my throat was still on fire from puking up stomach acid.

"Feel better? You certainly look better. My next task was going to be for you to get House out of the way. But since you already did that, I want you to go to the Boomers. Suck everyone's dick in that camp, if you have to. I don't really have to tell you that, since you probably will. Just make them like you enough that they wanna join me at Hoover Dam. They've got the biggest toys, and I want them pointed at my enemies when the time comes."

"I...I'll do what you ask. I just have one request."

I heard the whip come out of behind me but Caesar held out a hand, "you come here, thinking you can fucking ask me requests? No. I am the one telling you what to do. When you've earned my trust enough, you can ask requests."

"I blew up what House had in that vault! You could've used whatever it was on your side of the Dam, but I blew it up, just like you asked. Not to mention the fact that in order to do it, I had to get enough rad poisoning to almost kill me."

He nodded to the men behind me, and hands slid over my body to remove my clothing again. I locked my jaw and stared at him.

"Why would I want to use anything House had? And why should I believe you? You've killed too many of my men to earn my trust just yet. Before you and I go to the Dam to assassinate Kimball, you'll get your family back. For now, you've got some running around for me to do."

I shook my head, "no deal, boss. I need to know you won't stiff me."

Another sharp pain as I was flogged again. I winced – the lash overlapped one from early.

"If it's anyone who needs to worry, it's me. You were an enemy of the Legion until I gave you that Mark. Even afterwards, you wiped out two raiding parties with that sniper at Bitter Springs. Tell me...how did two of you take on thirty men?"

"I'm just that good," I smiled wickedly, idly wondering if I was fast and agile enough to dodge all of them at once while repeatedly stabbing them. I didn't have a sniper looking after me today, so my guess was probably not.

"Are you mocking my Legion?" Another crack of the whip. I let out a small whine, my back was covered by now and I knew from past experience that I would be sore later.

"If you let my family go, you have my full cooperation," I said as I looked him straight in the eye, "you can even send a Legionnaire with me to make sure I'm doing what I said I would."

I was immediately able to breathe easy as he sat back and closed his eyes. He was thinking. He rubbed his face and rested his head in his hand.

"I have eyes and ears everywhere, Harley Ma'iingan. You disobey me, and I will find you and your entire family and feed them to the dogs. Then, I will personally enslave you. Do you understand?" He sounded tired.

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. I can have my family back? There's no way it was that easy. None. He has something planned. Or he really thinks I'm that afraid of his Legion that I will obey him to the T.

"Thank you, Caesar. I will report back when I have made contact with the Boomers."

"Good. The Cursor will set multiple boats for your trip back to the Cove."

"Ave." The word itself tasted like poison in my mouth, but I held a steady face.

A slave by the name of Siri was summoned to the tent and made to put salve on my back. She complained quietly to me that she didn't have enough broc flower, but had plenty of xander root.

"You're using one broc flower per xander root, right? It won't be as strong, but it will save supplies in the long run."

Her eyes lit up, "oh my goodness, no! I had no idea. Thank you so much for telling me."

The salve stung to the point where I was gritting my teeth and tears stung in my eyes. It was strong with her using the more potent balm. They put a clean rag over my back and I put my tank top back on, staying out of the confines of the leather vest while my back was in so much pain. The cage was unlocked, and my mom ran over and put her hands on my shoulders. Her eyes were puffy from crying and it smelled like they hadn't had a proper shower in weeks.

"Your hair, honey!" She stroked the side of my head, feeling the scar with her long, skinny fingers.

"Got shot in the head," I smiled.

She brought a hand to her mouth as she gasped, "This place is so full of hate...the spirits here are upset."

"Mom, the spirits are always upset. Not a day goes by when something goes right and makes them happy." Spirit Mumbo-Jumbo. My favorite.

"You have one week, Harley. If you do not return, you know what happens," Caesar warned.

I nodded. The girls huddled too close to me for comfort as we moved out. I stopped out front of Kennedy's tent as we moved out, making the group stay further back.

"Kennedy. It's me, Harley," I called in before I pushed the flap aside. She looked at me expectantly, and I was so excited that she was okay. "I got my family, Kennedy. You can come with me. It's a large group, we'll hide you in the middle as we leave!"

"Thank you so much, Harley!" She grabbed my hand as we filed out of the tent. The women in the group looked overjoyed as I brought Kennedy out. We squeezed her into the middle and set off. Someone noticed me killing a guard, but not stealing a future slave?

I was given Romulus back and the Cursor set up the boats to go back to the Cove. Mom jabbed fun at my fear of water, as I clung to the middle of the boat, trying not to focus on the water. Would've been funnier if we weren't currently on a boat in the middle of the water, but whatever. Mom made small talk as Kennedy burrowed into my leg. Anytime mom tried to bring her up, I quieted her. Last thing I needed was for the Cursor to notice her and throw me out of the fucking boat so creepy things could grab at me. Fuuuuckkk that.

Another three hours of a torturous boat ride, and we were back at the Cove. There seemed to be more Legion than I remembered, but I wrote it off. The Cursor helped us get out of the boat, and again the girls huddled close to me. We headed up the hill where Boone, Cass, Veronica and I parted ways.

I could hear the padding of boots on the ground from behind us in the quiet, crisp night. I turned around to see a Legionnaire grab Sandra, the person furthest back and cut her throat open. She slumped to the ground, and a horde of Legion began running towards us.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Caesar is not stupid after all.

I could hear the booming crack of Boone's sniper rifle, and a few fell. Mothers took their daughters and Kennedy and ran to the ridge. Others, like my mom, brandished their fists as weapons. I could see Veronica huddling the girls in between the rocks. Cass was running towards us, her shotgun in hand. Veronica quickly followed, and I saw my mother pick up the machete a dead Legionnaire was armed with.

Time to fuck shit up.

My mother had run out into the crowd with a deafening war cry and decapitated three Legionnaires before they knew what hit them. Other girls were now equipped with weapons like cattle prods, spears and machetes. Spears flew throughout the air, blood spattered the ground and echoing gunshots were heard for probably yards and yards away. Veronica punched Legionnaires' heads in, Cass stood back beside me as we took turns covering each other - I'd reload and she'd shoot, and vice versa. I could hear Boone's earsplitting gunshots from on the ridge. People from both sides were falling, but it seemed like we had the upper hand. More guns when the Legion only used "mortal weapons," as Caesar called them, put them at a large disadvantage. Every time one of them fell, one of us was armed. We were all good at fighting unarmed from all the training we were put through, but a blade killed faster than fists.

I ran out of ammo, so I pulled the knife from my boot and ran at the now poorly sized Legion raiding party. There were a handful left, and I sunk my knife into one's head, spun on my heel and slashed another's throat. My mother snapped a man's neck, and as she turned to smile at me, a machete dug into her arm.

She turned to the man who did it and bared her teeth, sticking her thumbs in his eye sockets. It made me cringe and shiver as his arms flailed around and blood poured down her hands. I sunk my knife in his chest and he dropped. She smeared the blood across our cheeks, and as the last victim fell, mom and I threw our heads back and howled loudly into the sky. The rest of us, even Cass and Veronica howled as well.

Yeah that's right. Fuck you, Caesar.

Boone met us halfway down the hill, and put his hand on my back, smiling the widest smile I'd ever seen on his face. My wincing caused him to raise an eyebrow. His hand softly ran down my back, and he could feel the towel underneath my tank top. Fuck. No one was watching as he rolled my shirt off my body and peeled the towel off.

"What the fuck is this?" He asked.

"Caesar had people whip me any time I got smart with him."

"You...I knew I shouldn't have sent you out there alone. Did he do anything else?"

"No," I shook my head, "He sent me into the vault and asked me to destroy anything down there. I upgraded the securitrons and since he didn't send anyone down there with me, he thought I did what he asked. Told me to make the Boomers loyal to him and I could have my family back. Didn't know we'd be attacked like that."

His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and he was rigid beside me. Shit. He was beating himself up again. Mom saw we were lagging behind, and she met up with us. I tied the towel that was on my back around her arm and nodded at her.

"Momma...this is Craig Boone. I uh...we..." I blushed. How do I explain us to her?

He took off his beret, and before he could open his mouth to say anything, my mother took him into a large hug.

"You are an excellent shot. I thank you for looking after us."

"Thanks. I was a First Recon in the NCR."

The fire in my mother's eyes told him he had done wrong by bringing up the NCR. Our tribe wasn't fans of them after Tyler and I came back. She began to say something with a heavy venom in her voice, but I stopped her, "no momma! Not them. I mean, they're the same NCR, but he had nothing to do with what happened. They were from California, he's from Nevada."

Her eyes softened and she looked back and forth between us. Boone nodded to agree with me, and mom took his hand in between her two small ones.

"Tell me, Craig. Do you love my daughter?"

For the first time since I've met him, his cheeks reddened. He stuttered to find the words. Mom nodded, "I thought so," she smiled. She pulled a chain from around her neck and took the ring off - it was daddy's wedding band. She handed it to him, and gave me her own, which barely fit on her own skinny finger anymore.

"When the time comes, I want grandchildren as well." She let out a hearty chuckle as both of our faces turned a radiant red color.

"Oh…Mom?"

"It's about Kennedy, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I noticed Boone raised his eyebrows, "Could you take care of her for a bit? I'll take her off your hands after Hoover Dam."

"Oh honey, I'd gladly watch after her."

"Thank you," I said as she walked over to Kennedy, whose small face was alight with joy as my mom kneeled down to talk to her.

"Kennedy?"

"I…may have rescued a little slave girl…"

"You adopted a kid, in other words."

"Let's just go home," I said quietly, letting Cass and Veronica lead the way. His hand slipped into mine, and I smiled to myself.

"When Caesar's day comes, I want to be the one to pull the trigger," he whispered to me.

"I have no problem with that," I said.

"I was afraid you wouldn't come back tonight. I kept telling the girls we should go to the Fort ourselves, but they said it was a three hour boat ride there, and we had to give you more than just three hours."

"Well, the bunker was irradiated to hell and back. It felt like my entrails liquefied and I was going to puke them all out. Not to mention the fact that he whipped me until my back was covered. But I'm fine. I'm back."

"I'm so glad you're back. I will never ever agree to that again. Stupidest decision I ever made."

I twirled mom's wedding ring in my hand. It was small and cool to the touch - just a plain silver band. Nothing fancy. I absentmindedly slipped it on and off my finger, surprised it fit.

"Harley, can I tell you something?"

"Sure," I nodded.

"I...think I love you," he said quietly, "and one day, we will get married and have kids and raise them with Kennedy. After all this passes at the Dam," he smiled and blushed again, and I stood there with my mouth agape.

I told myself I wouldn't get too attached...I couldn't. The Mojave is unforgiving, something could happen to either one of us and what would I do then? How would I live with myself? He stared at me expectantly, but the words wouldn't form in my throat.