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Bill led Damian inside Jack's house. The house was a carbon copy of Tranquility Lane's, both inside and out, and Damian was expecting to see Braun jumping out from behind a piece of furniture and yell at him in German.

He found the owner and his father in the kitchen, along with the two children and two women. Damian noted that there was a family resemblance between them. He also noticed that Jack and Bill also had similar traits. He didn't have time to think about it as Jack's voice rang out.

"So, James, are you involved in the politics of our great country?"

James took a brief look at Damian before answering.

"Not really. We're often on the road and we don't really have time to think about it."

"I see," replied Jack. "You should take the time to do it. Here in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, we have just elected a new governor."

With these words, Damian thought back to the message he had heard when he was heading to Evergreen Mills, the one about a President Eden. Damian wanted to smile, thinking about the fact that Jack was certainly believing that the American Government still existed somewhere.

"My advice to you and your friend, James," Jack continued. "It is the civic duty of every American citizen to vote for his or her favorite Republican candidate."

James nodded slowly. Politics. Among the topics of conversation Damian had thought of, this one was way behind the Raiders, food, Super Mutants or anything else.

"Come on, darling, why don't you give our guests a little break and go with Bill to get us some meat for the pie?"

"Great idea, honey!"

Jack and Bill got up from their chairs. Damian noticed that Jack grabbed a small key around his neck and unlocked a door that led to a basement. Damian approached his father. When the two women turned to him.

"My name is Linda," said the one who seemed to be the youngest.

She had short blond hair and was wearing a nice pink dress with heels.

"I'm Jack's wife", she said with a broad smile. "And this is Martha, my best friend and Bill's wife. Welcome to Andale. Sit down, as soon as the boys are up and about, I'll make you my specialty, you won't be disappointed.

Martha was looking very similar to Linda, except she was wearing glasses. She turned to the little girl and the boy and ordered them to set the table. Damian sat down next to his father and leaned over to talk to him, so that only he could hear him.

"Something's not right here, Dad," Damian whispered. "These people are far too friendly to us and the town has no fortifications and doesn't seem to be suffering from raids or attacks. I saw the old man who lives in the other house. He looked terrified that we were here and he said some things quite… Disturbing."

"I know, son... I think this place is weird, too."

"Let's go... We should never have stopped here."

They got up when Jack and Bill came up from the basement of the house. Jack noticed that Damian and his father were standing and looked at both of them.

"You're not going to leave now. We haven't had dinner yet."

The tone in which Jack had spoken made a bad impression on Damian. He saw Bill walk around the table and stand between them and the door as the two women slowly slid their hands towards knives on the countertop.

"Kids, why don't you go outside and play," Jack said.

The two children put down the plates they were carrying and left the room.

"Why do you want to leave right now? It's very rude, you know," said Bill.

Damian couldn't draw his gun or grab his assault rifle. By the time he drew his weapon, one of the women was about to grab a knife and attack him. He could probably take a hit with his armor, but his father only wore his vault suit. He stood still and looked for a solution or an opportunity to escape.

"Bill, what do you say we show our guests the secret ingredient in Linda's pie?"

"I say that's a good idea, Jack."

Bill approached Damian and put his hand on the strap of his rifle. Damian swiveled and punched Bill in the face and he fell on the ground.

Damian faced Linda who had just grabbed a kitchen knife and was running at him. He felt the blade of the knife hit the breastplate of his armor and break in two. He grabbed his rifle and punched the woman with the butt of the stock. Damian heard something crack and Linda fell down in a squeak.

"Enough of this!"

Damian turned around and saw Jack and Martha pinning James against the wall. Jack held a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun in his hands and pointed it at James' temple, while his free hand was closed around James' throat.

"You will kindly put your weapons on the floor and slide them towards us."

"Jack... Linda, she..."

Martha drew Jack's attention to the woman lying on the floor.

"Go and see what's wrong with her!"

Martha put her knife on the table and knelt beside Linda and began to inspect her wound. Her lower jaw was in a strange position, and Damian was sure that she was not going to eat anything solid before a long time.

Damian looked at his father. James was moving his eyes back and forth between his son, a chair, and Jack, who kept turning his head towards the two women. Damian kicked the chair that slid into Jack's legs and he lost his balance. James grabbed the rifle he was holding and raised it in the air just before a loud bang resounded through the room. Damian raised his rifle towards Jack. He and his father were too close together for Damian to fire. He heard someone running to his right and saw Bill, who had gotten up, jump on him, pushing Damian against the wall.

Bill tried to take the gun out of his hands and Damian fought to stop him. Bill leaned on him even more. He pressed the rifle against Damian's throat and tried to choke him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damian saw Martha rush towards them with a knife. He managed to kick her in the stomach. Martha swung back and impaled herself on the second knife that Linda had grabbed. The woman screamed as the blade pierced her belly. Bill turned his head and saw his wife with the handle of the knife sticking out of her body, loosened his grip a little. Damian took the opportunity to free himself. He pushed Bill with his shoulder and smashed his skull with the butt of his rifle.

Damian saw a figure throwing itself at him and heard a groan. He saw Linda's blond hair rushing towards him. She was waving her hands and arms in all directions in an attempt to scratch and hit him. Damian managed to push her away with a knee in her stomach and she stumbled over Bill's body and swung backwards, her neck hitting the corner of the table in the fall.

Damian turned to his father. He was still wrestling with Jack in hand-to-hand combat. James managed to push him away. Jack Smith raised his gun to him. Damian dove over the table and tackled Jack. They hit the basement door and it opened on the fly. They tumbled down the stairs until they hit the floor.

The basement was lit by a small light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Damian had finished his fall against a counter. He got up by leaning on the ledge. He was startled and hiccupped with surprise and terror. The body of a man, limbless, was lying on the counter. Just behind it, on a second counter, two more bodies, those of a man and a woman, equally mutilated.

In the corners of the room were cages with skeletons huddled inside. On the walls, hooks were fixed and some had a corpse hanging by its legs, over a bucket. Small drops of blood slowly flowed from the open belly of the corpse into the container.

Damian noticed a freezer in which he could see human remains, including legs and arms.

He turned around and saw Jack rushing on him. Jack pinned Damian on the counter. He grabbed a large electric knife and activated it. The blade began to rotate with a shrill metallic sound as small wisps of grey smoke came out of the motor, and Jack tried to cut Damian's face with it. Damian grabbed Jack's wrist with his hands and tried to push him away.

Damian smacked his knee into Jack's crotch, and he retreated. Damian saw his father come down the stairs and raise a gun to Jack. Damian stooped down and heard the detonation followed by a tearing sound and a body falling to the ground.

Damian got up and saw Jack's body bathed in a pool of blood, his back torn by the shot he had just received.

James rushed to his son and made sure that he was not wounded. Damian had only a few bruises on his arms and on his face, but nothing serious.

"Are you all right?" James asked.

Damian didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the cages and the pieces of corpses that piled up in the basement.

"Let's get out of here," James said, pulling his son by the arm.

They walked up the stairs and fell on the two young children standing in the kitchen, their heads bent over the dead bodies of their parents.

"Damn it...," James whispered in a breath.

He was about to address them when he heard footsteps in the hallway and saw an old man coming in. Damian recognized old man Harris with whom he had been talking. The old man contemplated the scene, an expression of horror on his face, mixed with resignation. He turned to the two children.

"Junior, Jenny, go wait for me at home."

The two young children cast incomprehensible glances between the old man, Damian and his father, and the bodies of their parents on the ground. Eventually they left the room without saying a word and Damian heard the door of the house close behind them.

Old man Harris knelt with difficulty and bent over to the body of Linda Smith. He contemplated the woman's face for a few seconds and rearranged her hair in a gentle gesture. Old Harris sighed and ran his hand over Linda's face, closing her eyes.

"It had to be done," he said, nodding his head and looking at the other dead bodies in the kitchen. "It had to be done."

Damian and James looked at each other, surprised.

"I... Uh...," James began to say.

"Who knows how much longer it would have gone on if you hadn't put an end to it," said the old man, raising his head to Damian and his father.

Harris struggled to get on his feet and looked at the bodies of Linda, Martha and Bill again.

"You saw the basement. You know who they were," he said sadly.

Damian, who still hadn't said a word, was beginning to understand. He felt his stomach turn. Who knows how long these people had lived here and who knows how long they'd had this butcher shop under their house and cut up humans to eat them.

James and Harris kept talking, but Damian was not paying attention. He had just taken another blow of the horror of the Wasteland right in the face. He had already faced Raiders and Super Mutants and had seen their macabre trophies up close, whether they were nets filled with bones, organs or flesh, or decapitated corpses hung from stakes as a warning or decoration. He had already come close to death several times, but he had never imagined what might happen to him if he was killed.

Vault 101 would cremate the bodies of the deceased residents in a crematory oven in a grim ceremony in which the presence of all residents was always obligatory, and it was likely that Megaton and Rivet City would operate in the same way, or so Damian hoped.

In the Capital Wasteland, outside the protective walls of Megaton or the hull of Rivet City's stranded ship, Damian had could end up being eaten by a wild beast, or cut to pieces by a cannibal, leaving nothing but a pile of bones that would later adorn the armor of a Super Mutant or slowly rot in the sun, joining the long list of anonymous corpses that littered the streets of D.C. or ended up rotting under a thin layer of dust in the Wasteland.

Damian felt his father's hand on his shoulder and was pulled off from his thoughts. Harris had left, probably to try to explain to the two children what had happened to their parents and what would become of them.

He followed James outside. The depressing gray and brown of the landscape accentuated even more the unease he felt at that moment.

"We should be able to reach Rivet City before dark," James said.

He turned to his son who was looking at his hands. He had just realized they were covered in blood.

"You all right, son?"

"How can people be reduced to eating each other? Fuck, I've seen some horrible and disgusting things since I started looking for you, I've started to get used to killing, whether it's Raiders or those Super Mutants, but I can't understand how humans can be reduced to eating each other."

James sighed and approached his son.

"The people who fled to the Vaults two centuries ago are not the only ones who survived the Great War. Others were turned into ghouls, and it is likely that some parts of the world were entirely spared of radiations. But when the Vaults opened and their inhabitants faced the harsh reality of the outside world, seeing that all means of producing food went up in smoke like the big cities, some unfortunately had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

"These people... They seemed to like it. It's not like they just kill and cook a leg or whatever, so they don't starve to death. They had a recipe for cooking with human flesh... I don't call it survival. I call it insanity."

"Now I hope you understand why I didn't want you to follow me," sighed James.

James and Damian arrived in the ruins of D.C. They were on the western bank of the Potomac River and still had to walk a little to reach a bridge that was still intact to cross and reach the other bank.

The encounter with the cannibals, along with all the other things Damian had seen since leaving the Vault, began to convince him that this world was not worth saving. Instead, he was convinced that Man and all traces of his passage on Earth should have disappeared in the ashes of the atomic war, yet he refrained from telling his father, not wanting to show him that he was becoming increasingly skeptical about Project Purity and saving the Capital Wasteland.

They followed the highway into the city. The road was lined with parking lots and two- or three-story buildings, all more or less damaged, with architecture ranging from a more classical, old-fashioned style, such as the museums in the Mall, to the modern style of most office buildings in downtown D.C.

Behind the roofs of the buildings, Damian could see the tip of the Washington Monument sinking into the slowly descending clouds. The air was heavy and there was a good chance that a thunderstorm would hit the area by nightfall.

They hadn't seen anything since leaving Andale, and they just followed the endless lines of cars, always full of their occupants with their bones frozen in strange positions, which had been rusting on the asphalt of the road for two centuries. From time to time Damian would hear a ribcage or a skull cracking under his boots, reducing to dust the remains of a poor wretch who had probably tried to run for cover when he saw the huge mushroom cloud on the horizon.

A quick reading of the large road signs above the lanes indicated to Damian that they were not far from a place called "Arlington". When he was still in the Vault, he remembered reading about a large cemetery where the remains of great American war heroes laid. As he looked around and saw the countless skeletons and bones that littered the streets, piled up in front of the doors of buildings or clung to the steering wheels or seats of cars, Damian sadly realized that the Earth had simply become an open-air mass grave in which a few chosen few still clung to life before adding their remains to the others.

As he looked up at the road signs, Damian thought back to one of his History classes in the Vault, where Mr. Brotch had tried to explain to them the technological, scientific or social advances that war can bring to humanity.

The V2 rockets and the German jet fighters at the end of the Second World War had given birth to jet engines for airliners or space rockets, which had enabled mankind to cross continents and oceans in a few hours or had given Man the opportunity to go to the Moon and into space.

The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had precipitated the civil use of nuclear energy, giving birth to an almost unlimited source of energy, with vehicles running on uranium to replace oil, whose reserves were dwindling year by year. Around this, various technologies had developed which were then only represented in comic books or science-fiction films. 60 million dead for a legacy capable of simplifying and improving the lives of billions of others.

If every major conflict had left a legacy for mankind, then the Great War was left two things. Ruins and graveyards.

Damian was startled when he saw movement on his right. He stepped over the concrete block that separated the lanes and prepared his rifle. Seeing that his father had not moved, he straightened up to pull him towards him when he noticed that what he had seen was a small group of Brotherhood soldiers. They were at the entrance of a building with a facade decorated with columns and seemed to be guarding the place. The grey color of their imposing armor meant that Damian would never have seen them if one of them had not opened the door of the building.

"It looks like the Brotherhood is always trying to get their hands on as much knowledge as possible," James said, waving his hand to the soldiers. "But I doubt if the Arlington library contains anything useful to them."

Damian stood up and put his gun back on his back before he, in turn, saluted the soldiers who waved back after a brief hesitation.

"What do you know about the Brotherhood?" Damian asked, who had started marching with his father again.

"I guess you must have seen them if you've been to Galaxy News Radio," James answered.

"One hell of a meeting, yeah." Damian thought as he recalled his encounter with the soldiers at the metro exit.

"They are... Undoubtedly one of the last hopes of mankind."

"Well, good luck to them," said Damian sarcastically.

"As far as I know, they came from West for one reason, to get all forms of technology and preserve it to prevent a second cataclysm from wiping out the world for good, but the man who commanded them, a man called Lyons, decided that helping the people of the Capital Wasteland was more important than collecting laser guns or old computers."

Hearing this name, Damian thought of Sarah and her impressive fighting skills.

"Have you thought about asking them about the G.E.C.K.?" he asked. "If they're as technophiles as you say they are, they must surely know what it is and where to find one."

James shook his head.

"The Brotherhood isn't the sharing type. Between you to me, this whole grand quest of getting pre-war technology back, including that belonging to people living in the Wasteland and using it to defend themselves against Raiders or Super Mutants, doesn't really distinguish the Brotherhood from the Raiders. If they see you with a laser gun, they will try to take it away from you. But Lyons is different from the other members of the Brotherhood back West, as far as I'm aware, but I can't imagine him lending us technology of this magnitude, if he knows where to get one."

They had walked several meters and had just passed the library when Damian noticed that the large building to their left seemed to have been renovated and reinforced with steel plates. He also noted fortifications at some of the windows, as well as platforms where there were automatic turrets.

"What's that?" Damian asked as he looked out over the long façade that stretched for more than a hundred meters.

James turned his head and looked up at the building before answering.

"It's the Citadel, the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Steel. It is probably the safest place in the Capital Wasteland, apart Vault 101.

Damian and James walked along the façade of the Citadel until they came to a parking lot, transformed into a stronghold by the Brotherhood. After being observed from a distance by a small group of soldiers, they were able to cross the parking lot and continue their way.

On their right, the ruins of D.C. stretched across the bank of the Potomac. From here they had a great view of the Jefferson Memorial and could also see Rivet City. They walked through the parking lot and past a large steel gate, connected to a crane and heavily guarded.

The bridge they had to cross was in front of them. One of the sections had collapsed and would allow them to go up and across the river. Damian and James advanced towards the ruins. The bridge was almost completely free of vehicles, probably turned into sheet metal and fortifications on the walls of the Citadel. The Potomac was slowly flowing beneath their feet and Damian could smell the sour smell coming from it.

On the other side of the bridge, the path was blocked by rubble and the only way to continue was to go down to the right towards the Jefferson Memorial. This was the same path Damian had taken when he went up to Megaton. The street they took was lined with office buildings, connected by a concrete glass walkway that ran over the road. It was at this point that Damian had to walk along the river to avoid a confrontation between a Brotherhood patrol and a small group of Super Mutants. He could see the stigmata of the shooting on the walls and floor and what looked like pieces of flesh on the bridge.

The rest of the trip took them through the scaffolding outside the Jefferson Memorial. Damian felt that his father was stepping up the pace. He, too, was in a hurry to get to Rivet City for a rest, but he was beginning to think that his father would start moving again right after talking with Dr. Li.

The aircraft carrier's steel frame was finally in sight. A crowd just as big as the one present when Damian first came was near the metal structure to get to the ship and the boarding pontoon was crowded. Damian wondered where all these people could have come from when he noticed the small, wealthy boats crossing the river to go a little further South or East.

They made their way to the entrance of the ship, where two guards greeted them with a gloomy look. As James explained the reason for their visit to one of them, Damian noticed that the second guard seemed to be bored stiffly and regularly looked at the sun, probably waiting for it to disappear completely behind the horizon before being relieved of his post and returning home.

"All right, all right, you can pass" said the guard in a yawn.

The guards let Damian and James in before questioning the next person about why he was in Rivet City. Damian suspected that the answers the security guards might have to their questions were probably all the same; business, a visit from a family member, or travelers looking for a place to stay overnight. He could hardly imagine anyone stupid enough to say that he wanted to get on the ship to kill someone, and the entry of individuals alone should only be based on the mood of the guard or the effect the visitor had on him.

In the passageways, Damian walked with great strides so as not to lose sight of his father. The latter seemed to know the ship like the back of his hand and advanced without hesitation. If Damian was separated from him, he was going to wander for hours before finding him or Doctor Li's lab.

James pushed open the lab door and walked down the stairs. The lab was virtually empty and there was no trace of Madison Li or her colleagues. James approached a Hispanic man in his early thirties who was lifting and moving crates and computer monitors. He put down the crate he was carrying and turned around to see who had just entered.

"Professor Franklin!" smiled the man. It's you! But what the hell are you doing here? I thought you had left the Capital Wasteland a long time ago.

"Good evening Garza," James answered. "I have to talk to Madison. Do you know where I can find her?"

"Doctor Li? She's probably at the Weatherly Hotel eating with the team right now. Why?"

"Thank you, Garza," replied James, turning and walking up the stairs to the hatch.

Garza stammered an answer and watched them walk away before resuming his work.

James walked down the passageways without taking the time to check whether his son was following him or not. He stopped at the hotel entrance and looked inside. Damian arrived in turn and looked for Doctor Li. He saw her sitting at a table with other people, all dressed in lab coat and in the middle of a lively discussion. James stepped forward and stood in front of their table, while Damian stayed slightly back.

"James!"

The Doctor Li had almost jumped out of her chair and a broad smile lit up her face. Her tone and expression didn't escape Damian's attention and he raised an eyebrow. The other scientists stood up and greeted James with more or less friendly smiles and handshakes.

"You're back!" smiled Madison Li.

"Yes, and with good news!"


Hope you enjoyed and thank you again to those who are reading/following/putting to favorite this story. Until next time.