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"We're heading back South?"
"For a time, yes, General." The Wolf answered, walking beside her in the lead with Blank silent on her other side. Behind them, Danse and Preston walked side by side, the other silent Foremen surrounding them protectively. "The Forged have stepped up their activities North and East of the Assembly, Factory Fortress and Old City alike. Taking you that way would risk you."
"Ah." She blinked, "Are you at war, then?"
"They are the Forged." They answered simply, like that was all that Wolf thought she needed to know. Which, given her limited understanding, might just be the case in their perspective. "We are always at war with them."
"But you'd normally take us North?"
"We would." They answered, nodding slightly as they turned their head, silently surveying everything around them as they made their way "We could have passed through the northern gate, straight into the Factory Fortress. Instead, we must head South, and pass through the settlements surrounding the Factory Fortress."
"And that's bad." She guessed, "Right?"
"It is what it is." Wolf answered simply, shrugging their shoulders, "I would rather have taken you through the proper entrance, but safeguarding our guests comes paramount. Far before pride, in any event."
"A pretty wise way to look at it." Nora murmured, wincing as her shoulder throbbed, the way it had been all morning. She ignored it, though, as always. "But you're not particularly happy about it. Are you?"
"How I feel isn't all that relevant." They answered quietly, "Especially so to a stranger, here for diplomacy with my betters. Not with me."
"I'm just making small talk." She said simply, shrugging her good shoulder and grimacing as it twinged in the most mild pain. Regardless, she went on, "I'm hoping for good relations with your people, after all. And if the Foremen are half as important as you made them out to be…"
"Then knowing us, you think, is useful." They surmised, Nora nodding when they turned to look at her. Sighing a ragged, grainy sigh, they turned back to their silent surveying and said, "I suppose that makes sense. Very well, then, no. I am not particularly thrilled to have an important dignitary brought in through our slums and slave quarters."
"Not having a slave quarters would probably help…" She turned to give Danse a somewhat surprised look and he shrugged, great armored shoulders shifting quietly as he did, "Just a bit of a joke, General."
"And a poor one." Harlequin snarked from his side, asking coyly, in their raspy voice, "Or does the Brotherhood not have their prison farms and labor taxes on their water?"
"Those are different." The Paladin argued quietly, though with no less heat for it. "Prisoners accept work contracts for shorter sentences for their crimes. And the labor tax is mainly just to provide the labor needed to get the water to the farms and settlements. Comparing it to slavery is like comparing Mutfruit to Spider-Roses."
"Spider Roses?" She asked, if only to pre-empt the argument, and the subsequent problems it would cause.
"You haven't seen them…?"
"She doesn't do a lot of traveling, or at least, she didn't before joining the Minutemen with me." Preston stepped in to explain, turning to her with a grimace, "Spider Roses are… Well, it looks like a rose bush or three, depending on the size. The flowers even smell right, I've been told by a handful of Pre-War Ghouls."
"But when you go to sniff them..." Harlequin leaned in to rasp, clapping a hand against her shield, "Boom! A spider bigger than you pops out of the ground, ready for your last dinner date."
"It's… A giant spider?"
"It is." Wolf nodded, almost sounding… Amused at her unconcealed disgust and fear. Nora couldn't tell, really, from their rasping voice, unfortunately. "They are predominantly a swamp adjacent species, though. You'll find many further south, and even in the Glowing Sea if you ever visit it."
"I think I'll pass…" Though she was sure she wouldn't be able to forever, General or not. "Are they hard to kill?"
"Not for me they aren't." Danse answered quietly, adding when he felt eyes on him, "We have them South of the Sea too. I've seen Scribes and light infantry run across them. Nasty pieces of work, those monsters. Against a Knight or Paladin and they're just a particularly large bug under our boots."
"Well, we'll let ya know if we need any pest control, Danse." Preston said, "I'm sure the Brotherhood does fine work, stomping out 'roaches and Bloatflys."
"Gatling lasers do tend to make a fine mess of Radroaches." The Paladin mused quietly, tapping an armored finger to his equally armored chin as if in thought and earning quiet chuckles from her men.
And, interestingly, from Harlequin, who was the only one in the masked group to laugh.
Which, if the names were tied into their personalities, would make sense. And filled her with questions of why the others had chosen theirs...
"General." Wolf said before she could dwell on the ideas, though, dragging her gaze back to them as they rounded a corner. "We're nearing the gate into the slave quarter. You'll need to stay close, and inside our circle. Slaves are as desperate as they are honorless, and if they see your weapons or cargo, they might think to try something."
"Well maybe if you didn't-"
"We'll stick close." She said, cutting Preston's grumbling off and smiling politely. Preston didn't press the issue and, after a moment, she gave the Foreman a nod. "Please, lead the way."
Wolf nodded, seemingly unconcerned with her companion's grumbling, and stepped forward slightly to do just that. They didn't seem to mind, but the barest risk of confrontation still killed the more jovial mood Nora had managed to foster. For a moment, she considered trying again. Pushing to foster a bright, jovial mood again. A mood that would lead, naturally, into friendly negotiations with apparently important people to vouch for her.
But she knew when a moment was lost, so even as much as she knew how useful it could have been, she let it go.
They continued on through the picked over, barren stretches of broken outer city in silence. The awkward kind too, unfortunately, but there wasn't much that could be done about it now. She tried to remind herself how much Preston was bending over backwards for her as is, though. And that she shouldn't, couldn't, really, get too angry at him for slipping up just the one time.
As long as it stayed the one time, she'd let it go.
They walked for a while in silence, through winding streets she barely recognized, cracked and broken as they were. Still she managed to pick out a few familiar patterns. Not all streets were square, and not all buildings were the same. Few of either had signs, but she'd been to some of them often enough before moving to Sanctuary Hills to recognize them.
Mama Gorschen's Wash House, where she'd done her laundry during the water rationing through a drought. She'd died the year Nora got married, but the laundry kept running and she brought her business to it every time. A dozen feet away and across was the half-collapsed skeleton of Mister Burke's, an old antique weapons trader. And, so the rumor went, a hitman for the mob. He'd had a couple sons, she heard amid all the rumors.
But she'd never heard of any real proof about the hitman part.
More shops and businesses like that came and went, and she couldn't help but stare at each as they passed. And ache, deep in her chest and for once not because of Nate or her damn arm.
Then, they reached Mister Frenetti's Pizza Parlor.
Or, what was left of Frenetti's, at the very least.
It was a large building, three floored and triangular, with a few apartments at the top for Frenetti's family to stay in. And stay in it they had, up until a year before the Great War. Shortages came and went, but Mister Frenetti's family kept cooking and serving. Always with a smile, too. Meatless, sometimes cheeseless even during the worst days of the rationing.
But still the best damn pizzas in Boston, from what Nate had told her each and every time they came to it.
"General…?"
"What?" She blinked, standing in the road and staring at the half-collapsed building. Each of the Foremen watched her impassively as she turned, looking at each of them and then, at Preston beside her. Blinking, she asked, anxiously, "W-What's wrong, Preston?"
"You… Blanked out for a minute there, General." He explained, paying a glance to the Foremen watching them silently. Looking back to her he laid a hand on her good shoulder and met her eye. Seriously and sternly, he asked, "Are you alright, Nora?"
"Y-Yeah…" She nodded, letting out a shaky breath and then shaking her head, averting her eyes from the building. From the memories - 'Open wide, honey' - inside it, seeped into its collapsed walls. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just… Lost my head for a moment. I'm sorry."
"General, are you sure-" Preston stopped, suddenly, as the Foremen began to pace around them. He pulled her behind him and Danse stepped to her other side, shield in front of him and one hand on the grip of his massive sword. Quietly, he demanded, "What are you doing?"
"That wasn't just Old World Blues." Wolf murmured as he passed by her side. "You know Frenetti's, enough for it to hurt."
"Oh yes, that was pain…" Harlequin laughed, sound low and throaty, "Real pain, not fake. "I'd know."
"Memories." Ape grunted quietly as he passed her, "She knows this place…"
"Why?" Wolf said as they stepped back in front of her, and then stepped closer, stopped only by the great sword Danse drew and put in their path. Ignoring it and the silent threat behind it, they asked, almost gently, "You aren't a Ghoul. But you know this place, don't you, General?"
"I-I…"
"I know her." Blank murmured, the first words they'd ever said that she'd heard. They stepped around, past the Wolf, and pressed against the great sword until Danse let them squeeze closer, "From before."
"Are you certain, Blank?"
"Before what?" Danse rumbled, pushing the armored person back a step along with Wolf.
"Before the snow." Blank answered, stepping back and staring at the ground. Wolf laid a hand on their shoulder and pushed them back, into Ape's open arms. Being guided away, Blank murmured quietly, "Before the snow… Before the snow…"
"You're Pre-War." Wolf said it simply, but that was what robbed her of her breath. They said it, like they'd said the Forged were raiding their Northern borders, or that their name was Wolf.
Like a fact.
"You're Pre-War, but not a Ghoul." They rasped quietly, stepping back and looking her up and down. "How?"
"I-I'm not-"
"The Foremen have the Right of Administration, General." They cut her off, turning a look on Harlequin off to their side. At the look she heard armor shift as hands found pommels and the Wolf went on, "Harlequin, Administrator of the Paths, if I elect to bar this general, will you support my decision?"
"Of course, Wolf."
"I want to know the truth, General." Wolf said simply, turning their gaze back on her, "Your words die in our hearts and fall on deaf stone. But if you really are from the Old World, then the Assembly requires knowing it."
"General…"
"They can't beat us all." Preston assured her, Laser Rifle humming in his hands. He leveled it on Wolf but they didn't flinch, only watching her. Waiting. "Danse alone could probably handle them, and they're under the robot's guns."
"No." She said simply, laying her good hand on the weapon sword in front of her. She came here for trade, not a fight… "I lived in Sanctuary Hills, before the war."
"General!"
"It's fine, Preston." She assured him, the Foremen relaxing as Preston and Danse did. Taking a breath, and letting it out shakier than she'd taken it in, she began, "I'm going to keep some secrets to myself. Private matters. Understood?"
"Understandable." Wolf nodded, "Say what you're willing to. I will press where I feel I need to for whatever I need to."
"Fine." She sighed, ignoring the throb in her arm and the steady, building ache in her head. They wanted information and, from what she could tell, information only someone from before the war would know…
"My husband was military, he fought in Alaska back around Anchorage. I got preg-" She choked on the word, took a breath, sighed, and pressed on, "We had a kid, and the military agreed to transfer him to domestic duties. Handling the riots, ration distribution, those… Those sorts of things."
"I remember them." Wolf murmured, "Where did you live?"
"Sanctuary Hills."
"Where did you wash your laundry?"
"Depended on the week." She answered, shrugging and wincing as she forgot herself and moved her bad shoulder. Ignoring it, though, she went on, "Good weeks, at the laundromat we passed a ways back. Bad? I filled a tub with water I heated on the stove, or over a fire, and did them by hand. Sometimes, the neighbors would get together and we'd… Make a day of it, I suppose."
"Hm." Wolf hummed, "Who was president?"
"President…?" She scoffed, shaking her head, "I don't know. I stopped paying attention after they suspended the vote for the first time. I know they had a couple, but…"
"You didn't trust it anymore." Ape chuckled, "Wise woman. I always thought it kind of funny, how the bastard kept winning."
"Yeah…" She nodded, ignoring the pain in her neck, "Nate said the same thing, once or twice."
"Sanctuary Hills had a Vault." Skull offered quietly from behind her, "But Vaults don't leave you looking like that."
"Ours was… Strange." She answered, shaking her head, "We were let in, processed, and then… And then sealed into pods and frozen."
"That's far fetched," Harlequin laughed, the sound rough, hoarse and broken, "don't you think?"
"No more than any of you implying you're two centuries old." She snapped agitatedly, in pain and irritated for it. Sighing when they didn't respond, she went on, "I… Woke up, and the first time, my pod didn't open. I could see Nate and Shaun in the other pod and these… people came, and they… They…"
"They murdered her husband and stole their infant." Preston offered hotly, stepping between her and the Wolf, behind Danse's heavy sword. She choked and wheezed at his words and Danse turned to look down on her, surprised by what she'd said, she suspected, but more worried for her than anything else.
For the moment, though who knew how long that would last...
"What did they look like?" Wolf asked quietly, "Raider Tribes? Brotherhood? The Enclave?"
"I don't even-"
"Black Power Armor." Danse informed her quietly, turning back to the Raiders around them while the Sentry Bot watched on silently. He explained more for her, sounding ever more tense as he did. Like someone recalling something… Painful. "Black Power Armor, and heavy, energy weapons. Plasma, not Laser, typically."
"It wasn't them." She said quickly, as much to assure him of it as to move on. To be done with this, finally. "They wore… Some kind of hazmat, or environment, suit. Something I'd never seen before. The other was a mercenary, with a large revolver of some kind. Heavy caliber, from the sound and the… Kick when he- When he-"
"You have said enough." Wolf said quickly, turning to their fellows and asking, "Institute?"
"It sounds like them, yeah." Harlequin answered quietly, for once sounding… Distinctly less than amused. "Getting into a Vault sounds right up their alley, too. Them and the Enclave, but the General didn't describe them."
"You've seen the bodies?" Skull asked Preston.
"And the data logs in the Vault, courtesy of our Tinker, Sturges." The man nodded, giving Nora a look and then hitting the safety of his rifle, letting it cool. "No sign of tampering we could see, the bodies were there, huge round in…" he gave her a look and sighed, "Yeah. I saw it all."
"We have to tell the Council…"
"It could mean war." Wolf warned quietly, shaking their armored head, "The Council and the Chief won't tolerate the Forged if there's a chance the Institute is making a play again. We all remember last time. The chaos…"
"It was almost as bad as the Winter." Harlequin nodded as they slowly came together, those behind her and her men moving around them so the Foremen could speak to each other. "It can't happen again. We won't survive it..."
"Not without help." Nora offered, pushing her feelings, and the pain in her shoulder, down. "We can be that help, if… If we're done here. If we can go, and we can get this… Get this…"
"General?" She felt a hand on her good shoulder and hissed at the touch, for once, yanking it away. When she looked, he was worried and pained, watching her with his mouth slightly agape, "Nora…?"
"I-I'm sorry." She sighed, "Headache."
"Are you ill?" Wolf asked, suddenly filling her vision when she turned to him. She backed away on instinct and Preston got between them, but they were undeterred. "What is wrong? A flu? You spaced out over the pizza parlor, too, and I assumed that was just remembrance. But…"
"Radiation sickness." She explained quietly, nodding to her arm, "Ghoul got me, and it's… Set in. I need to get to Diamond City for surgery, and proper treatment."
"...Skull?"
"She needs tending, and soon." The Foreman said quietly, pacing, now, behind her. Like they were anxious, "The pain is in her other arm, and I've seen her wince just turning her head. I'd say she has a couple days before its too far gone, and her with it."
"A couple days?" She blinked, "Haylen said I had time to get to Diamond City!"
"Harlequin?"
"Trip's at least a week if she goes right now." Harlequin answered, "Probably a week and change. Assuming all goes well."
"It won't." Wolf murmured, knowingly, turning and trotting away, "In the carriage, General. The meeting is postponed until you've been tended to properly."
"But…" She blinked, shaking her head and wincing. The pain at least cleared her head up a bit, if only for very bad reasons. "But I felt fine this morning."
"Look, General." Skull started, pointing to their throat when she turned to him, "If it gets in here, you start to have to worry about dying. But you don't have to worry about feeling it. If you're feeling fine unless you move, then you're as far from fine as can be."
"But-"
"General." Preston murmured, "They might be right."
"Preston-"
"And even if they aren't," he cut her off, "rest will do you good."
"I suppose…" And maybe time resting would ease her headache either way. Nodding and wincing for it, she turned and made her way towards the carriage, to ride instead of walk.
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The Foremen are supposed to be strange.
They are very, very old.
And old people get weird enough at sixty, nevermind nigh two hundred and a half centuries.
It's also a K under norm, but that's because a lot of this is dialogue to progress the plot.
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Dark Paladin 89 :
Yeah. Making sure that the Post-War world feels unique and fits the theme is one bit of this fic's puzzle, but making the world feel real is another. As such, I wanted the Post-War peoples to have cultures and countercultures. Movements and politics. I wanted it to feel real.
As odd as that is when giant lizards are roaming around…
Flintlock :
I'm feeling much better. As for resting, I did, but writing is enjoyable to me. So, while resting, I keep writing.
Blaze1992 :
Yeah, I'll have PA Raiders, don't worry. And non-Raiders, too. Just wait and see~!