A.R.C.

"Hey people of the wasteland. Maxy here, again."

"As the nutjob "pinkos" of the People's Republic of Chinatown are hard at work to enslave us all, I'm here reminding you that 'yes' They are planning to do just that. 'But also' To make you realise there's joy to be had in this world. It's hard to find, but it sure is there, in the little things... Like music"

"I know I've played this song recently, but heck... I have a 'sudden urge' to play it again. The Five Stars present to you Atom Bomb Baby"

"I sure see a bright future ahead... I hope."

Maxwell rubbed the rheum out of his inner-eye corner with the thumb of his hand that also held a cigarette lightely.

He was quite sleepy. Yet, he couldn't sleep. He was thinking...

Should I leg it?

He valued free will above almost everything and he wasn't going to wait for the PRCT to take it from him. On the other hand, this Radio station was his life, and the technology keeping it running was rare... No way he could rebuild it from scratch.

He brought the cigarette back to his mouth.

... I don't know.

"We do not have a choice. The PRCT will soon possess immense psychotronic capabilities. They could hurt you. It is our only option."

"How will we even get there though?"

Rook tapped her pip-boy, remembering what he'd seen when they'd crossed the bridge.

"There is a ferry. It is on the river."

"We have to go through central park though, don't we?"

"Yes. That is another reason I wanted to go alone. It will be dangerous, and I do not know how well I can protect you."

"We're gonna need more ammo and machetes, if we're goin' in there..." Garry uttered, sounding completely wrecked from not sleeping all night. He appeared in the doorway, where he leant on his arm and dragged his hand down his face.

"Heard that the plants are stubborn as shit in that place..."

Morgan flushed red when Garry walked in.

Hope he hasn't been standing there too long...

"Can we not just burn the place?"

"No. All evidence suggests it is like a jungle." He released Morgan and sat up, turning his eyes to Garry. "A fire will not catch."

"S'all trees and you know, wood." Morgan groaned, sitting up herself. "Wood burns..."

"There is too much moisture in the air." Rook explained, leaning over the side of the bed to retrieve his jacket.

"Maybe but that could get out of control, with us at the center of it... It'd be better if me and Rook cut our way through with somethin' sharp, like machetes or axes." Garry suggested, shrugging before glancing away.

"And what? Hannah and I will just sit and watch you work? With no clothes on, under the hot sun..." Morgan got a cloudy look in her eyes and sighed happily.

"Yeah, that sounds good..."

"Heather..." Garry corrected her, rather sternly.

"And no, we'll need you to shoot anythin' that tries to attack us."

"We will require bladed tools first. Perhaps one of these apartments have something? Or perhaps a maintenance closest, like that of a groundskeeper."

"Don't think this shit hole had any 'grounds' to keep but Me and Heather passed an auto repair shop, not too long ago. I dunno, do you need somethin' sharp to fix a car?" Garry asked, not knowing much about the mechanics of devices that went extinct 200 years before he was born.

Morgan was still a million miles away. "Yeah sure...But I'll be watching him through my scope all day..."

"I think it'd be more useful if your eyes were around us and not on us... but whatever..." Garry grumbled, not having a clue what she was talking about.

"Have you seen any hardware stores?" Asked Rook, also a little unsure what Morgan was talking about, and was blankly staring at her face. "That would be the most useful location."

"Nah, don't think so at least... Besides, it's been two hundred years, those stores would've been picked clean by now." The Wastelander pointed out, with a shrug as he stood upright.

"Though... We might be able to clear out a raider camp, if those crazy junked up fiends are good for somethin' it's taping a bunch of sharp shit together and makin' a decent makeshift weapon."

Morgan giggled to herself before snapping out of her daydream and yawning widely. "Urgh I am so sick of sitting in bed."

"Then that will be our destination." Agreed Rook.

Morgan giggled to herself before snapping out of her daydream and yawnig widely. "Urgh I am so sick of sitting in bed."

"Shall I carry you?" He asked.

"Maybe just downstairs." Morgan said quietly.

Rook had just reholstered his guns and now leaned over and scooped Morgan up like she weighed nothing, before stepping off the bed.

"Heather is nearby?" He asked Garry.

"She is, just gettin' some stuff together before we head out..." The Former Slaver replied, with a shrug, falling silent as he did so.

"Alright. I will take Morgan downstairs." With that, the Android began moving towards the door.

Morgan looked embarrassed at having to be carried down the stairs, but she appreciated the sentiment.

"Thank you."

Garry returned to Heather's room, to help her pack her things, the Wastelander wasn't sure about this...

He was starting to wonder if ditching these people was the smarter move but still, wouldn't the be safest in a big group? He really wasn't sure...

Rook just nodded slightly, setting Morgan on her feet once the reached the bottom, and wrapping an arm around the small of her back to steady her.

"Are you alright to walk on your own?"

"Yeah I'll be a little slow, but I sh-should be okay, yeah." Morgan groaned, placing her palm gently on her wound.

"I will go get your rifle. Shall I carry it for you? You can use my 12.7."

"I guess..." Morgan sighed.

I'll get to use it one day...

Rook pulled the heavy pistol from its holster and lay it in Morgan's hand. He lingered, curling his fingers around her's, and then pulled away, heading up the stairs back to the apartment.

Morgan let her eyes trail up the stairs before she sighed heavily and happily.

It's real. S-so real...

Rook soon returned, baring the rifle in one hand.

"Welcome back!" Morgan cheered, holstering the 12.7 in her outfit. "You were not gone long,"

Rook canted his head at her.

"I was not." He found Morgan's behaviour surprising. She seemed to be overly... joyous. "Are you prepared for central park?"

"I'd rather have a flamethrower." Morgan giggled. "But ya, s'ok!"

Rook smiled at her and stepped closer.

"You seem very happy, Morgan."

"Hehe." Morgan laughed, flashing Rook her most cheesy grin. "Because you make me happier than I've ever been, Rook."

"That is good. I want to make you happy."

"Well...just keep doing what you're doing then..." Morgan smiled before inhaling deeply and taking a few unsteady steps forwards.

"Ah...S'great to walk again."

"Do not over do it, Morgan. The wound has just sealed. It will tear open very easily."

"Don't be such a fusspot." Morgan scoffed, keeping her smile. "I will take things slowly. There are no worries of that."

She took a few more steps, bringing hersef closer to her android companion? 'Special Friend?' She wasn't sure what to call the two of them. Whatever they were.

She liked it.

Rook slowly reached out and lay his hand over her's.

"Morgan..."

"Rook?" Morgan asked innocently. "I will take it slow. I'll get you to carry me if it gets too tough, ok?"

"No..." He wrapped his hand around her wrist. "I..." He felt overcome with something, like a wave had hit him and crested into his face. He felt drowned.

But now he knew what to do.

He leaned his head forward and softly kissed her. He felt nothing, it was only pressure to him, but he knew it meant everything to Morgan.

Morgans eyes widened and she pulled away laughing to herself happily. "You do not...have to do that you know?"

"But it brings you happiness."

"Aye..." Morgan agreed. "But you do not have to do that. It's...your choice to make, you know?"

"It makes me happy to make you happy." Said Rook.

"A'ight... We're ready to go." Garry informed them as he stepped out of the apartment doorway, unaware of the fact that they were intruding.

Morgan fell quiet when Garry and Heather arrived, she kept her smile however, even if she looked a little awkward.

"Alrigh'... Heard that the nearest camp to us is near 'Madison avenue.' There's a small camp around those parts." Garry explained, stepping down from the apartment block as he joined Morgan and the group at the bottom.

Rook nodded. "Affirmative. Will annihilate all targets."

God, he's so...strong.

Morgan grinned happily, and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah let's kill 'em all…"

Garry nodded, he guessed that'll do...

The Wastelander began to walk away from the apartment complex, Heather lingered at the back, deciding that Morgan would need more support, now that she's injured.

Rook took point, keeping the M40 out and clutching in both hands, constantly scanning for enemies, prepared to see the camp come up in his sights.

Madison Avenue used to be the biggest hub for advertisement. The thoughts and desires of the whole Western World would be shaped there by the madmen of Madison Avenue.

Now however, it was nothing but a downtown ruin with small pockets of raiders scurrying around. Between the old billboards and office buildings.

Morgan groaned quietly as she started to move. She shuffled slowly at the back of the group and grit her teeth.

Maybe I'll just faint and have Rook carry me all the way…

"Morgan?" Heather asked, sounding somewhat hesitant to do so, considering how short she'd been recently.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Hm?" Morgan asked wistfully, pulling herself from her daydreaming.

"Yeah I am. It just hurts to move too quick. Gotta be careful!"

"Just be glad that I didn't pour that stuff on it... Garry said that it might have killed you." Heather smiled as they left the Arc area.

Morgan gave a weak smile in return. "I am, trust me." She whispered. "I've never been so happy to be alive right now."

"Well... I probably was a close call, either that or the drugs haven't worn off yet." Heather speculated, scratching her head as she thought on it.

Or I'm 'special friends' with a robot...

"The drugs wore off a while ago..." Morgan confirmed.

"Must be the nice weather then..." Heather uttered, oblivious to any change in her or Rook's behaviour.

"Hmm... Were the buildings tall like this where you're from?"

"There were a couple, yeah." Morgan mused, thinking back on the cityscape. "I never went into any however."

"Yeah... I used to be able to see the buildings from really far away. Never thought I'd get this close to them." The Former slave uttered, eyeing them up and down.

"Did people live in them? Before I mean..."

"Yeah. Some were for living; others were for working." Morgan recited, remembering her Pre-War history 'lessons'.

"This place was crowded. Tens of Millions of people walked these streets every day."

"Yeah and they had cars as well, two hundred years ago, we'd be dead if we were walking on this part of the street." Heather noted, examining the road beneath her feet.

"Correct." Morgan said softly. "But we never would have had androids, or...well...that's about it really." She chuckled.

Rook continued to march on, rifle in hand. He wasn't exactly sure what a 'raider' was, only that he was supposed to kill it.

"Well... I hate crowds anyway, so I think I prefer things how they are now." The Wastelander shrugged, the thought that she wouldn't have a phobia of crowds if they didn't live in a post-apocalyptic society hadn't crossed her mind.

"Yeah, I do prefer the crowdless street.." Morgan mused. "But...I dunno, I think we can live better."

If I can keep an eye out for any Solar Panels…

"Yeah... I'd prefer to have some work cut out for me, y'know? I miss having tasks that I needed to do, gave me something to do with myself." The Former Slave replied, with a smile as she looked up, squinting as she saw the bright streets above her.

"What? You haven't found anything for yourself?" Morgan asked, quite curious.

She shook her head, turning her attention back to the road.

"Not since I left DC, I was never really good at anything. I can shoot, sort of but Garry's better at that and I can do what I used to do and that's about it..." Heather mumbled, folding her arms as she fell silent.

"Wh-What about you? Have you ever... Y'know been paid to do stuff?"

"Just once." Morgan shrugged. "I was...a doctor at Sanford for a while..."

"Did you fix machines or people?" Heather asked, she'd met both kinds of Doctors.

"Both." Morgan shrugged. "Well, mostly people when I was at Sanford, but I can repair Rook pretty easily as well."

"I would've thought that fixing Rook was more like fixing a person, though I guess if he's a person who is a machine then..." Heather fell silent, already confused, Jesus help them if they're ever in a position where Heather has to fix the Android up.

"His skeleton is metallic, and there are wires like...everywhere." Morgan nodded, waving her hands in weird directions as if she was explaining it to a child.

"So... He doesn't have like... Machine organs or anything?" Heather asked, thinking that she was getting it... sort of.

"I haven't seen his organs yet." Morgan admitted. "I will have to ask him when I get the chance next."

"That's got to be an awkward question to ask someone... 'Hey, erm... Would you mind if I cut you open and took a look at your organs?'" Heather replied, grinning at the thought of the insanity of that question.

"Oh no I'm not going to cut him up. I couldn't risk losing him." Morgan gasped. "I was just gonna ask if he even has organs, for a start, and whether they were synthetic or not..."

"I... Didn't think that you were going to try cutting him up but it would be a weird question either way." The Former Slave shrugged, turning her attention back to the road ahead of them.

A.R.C.

"And now a song dedicated to the rude dude that stumbled into my studio and used to most of my medication. Wherever you are..."

"I'll Be The Meanest Man In Town by the late Charles Dornberger"

The cheery 50's rhythm and blues song echoed throughout the dark, dank hole where Hamilton slept, wrapped up in a grungy quilt, protected by his insane guardian. The Slaver hadn't woken since he collapsed at her door, due to the blood loss, which was dismissed as mere fatigue by his nostalgia blinded Ghoul carer...

Hamilton was oblivious to it all, drifting back in time and a thousand miles away...

Hamilton found himself jogging through the bare, desert-like landscape of the Capital Wasteland, with the high noon sun beating down on the bright yellow '101' on the back of his leather jumpsuit.

The Vault 101 jumpsuit was like a damn pressure cooker in this heat, no air circulated inside the Blue Suit, much to the young Wastelander's dismay...

He stopped to raise his arm, dragging it across his forehead as he felt a litre full of sweat part with his fringe, doubling over to start panting heavily...

F-Fuck... N-Not much further now...

No, he couldn't stop, he couldn't get complacent, he had to keep going, he had...

It was then that he saw it, a small spark in the area below, just beneath the rock face that he was stood on. Could it be?

Hamilton narrowed his eyes to check but quickly saw the outline of a man in Black Devil Power Armour, marching up and down the encampment, along with another man in pulsating tesla armour, both of which were being lead by an officer in typical Enclave White Robes.

Thank fuck...

The Vault dweller pushed on and jumped down from the rocky surface, his ankle buckled on impact as he swayed from side to side, not stopping to address the slight twinge in it as he was too desperate to reach the camp.

"H-Help me!" He cried, his voice breaking from exhaustion as he wave his hands in the air, still running towards the group of military men.

The Tesla was the first to spot him, instantly turning to his comrade and giving him a nod, to get his attention before gesturing to the idiot boy, who was descending down on their camp. Normally, protocol would dictate that they took turns as to who could hit this clueless fool between the eyes with their rifles but this fool appeared to be a Vault Dweller, which meant that things were a little different...

The two men charged forward, pointing their laser and plasma rifles at the approaching Vault Dweller.

"Stop! Get down on the ground!"

"N-No! You don't understand, someone's after me!" Hamilton gasped as the two Soldiers advanced on him.

"Down on the ground... Now!"

The Young Vault Dweller didn't want to escape a raider ambush, only to be shot by the Enclave. Deciding that they knew best, he came to a standstill, putting up his hands as he slowly got on his knees and curled into a ball on the ground, so that he may be 'arrested.'

As Hamilton got into position, the lesser armoured soldier began to move in, making sure that his gun was locked onto Hamilton at all times.

"You came from a vault?" He asked as he began to circle Hamilton, to read the Vault number on his back.

"Y-Yeah... I-I left some time ago..."

"Where is your Vault located?"

"A-Are you the Government?"

"Where is your Vault!?" The Power Armoured Soldier snapped, pushing the barrel of his rifle towards Hamilton's back as a threat.

"I-I can show you! G-Get me a map! I can even take you there!"

The Soldier paused, given that Hamilton's face was in the dirt and the guy's face was protected by an armoured face plate, he couldn't tell what he was thinking but he must have been smiling as this was way too easy.

A stupid kid, Vault stray, had fallen right into their lap and now they were going to find it. So many fresh, pure humans inside, to liberate and integrate into Enclave society...

"Hitchens! Get the Geomapper Module! We can download the info from his pip boy!" The Officer ordered, getting a nod from the Tesla Enclave Soldier as he began to walk over to a foot locker on the far side of the camp, leaving Hamilton to listen out as he began to rummage around in it...

"NOW!" Hamilton barked, startling the three Enclave soldiers as they immediately looked around and saw that they were completely surrounded by a ring of ten to fifteen men, each one armed with Chinese assault rifles.

Without any warning every man pulled their triggers and emptied an entire magazine on their target, drumming 120 5.56 rounds into each Enclave soldier within the space of ten seconds. Not even power armour could withstand such an onslaught and as a result, the men inside the suits were quickly turned to soup as the armour quickly gave way and they were shot at at all angles until they finally spasmed their way to the floor, landing face down in the dirt, with a loud and heavy 'thud.'

The only member of the camp who hadn't been hit was the Officer, who stood, frozen at the center of the massacre as Hamilton's gang of slavers slowly emerged from the bushes, emptying their empty magazines onto the floor and popping in a fresh clip.

As he observed this, he felt the cold steel of a 10mm pistol press against his temple as their Vault Dweller prisoner had gotten up to his feet. The tables had been quickly turned and now, he was at their mercy.

"You think that you can get anything out of me?" He asked, knowing that he was dead, the second that he reached for his plasma pistol.

"I'm just a soldier; you won't be able to ransom me, if that's what you're thinking..."

"It's not... I need your help." Hamilton explained, glancing down to the nearest power armoured soldier.

"I need someone to instruct me on how to wear power armour..."

"Wh-What and you think that I'm going to play teacher for you?"

"To be honest, I don't know or care what you do... At the end of the day, either you teach me to wear that suit of power armour? Or I'll fuckin' bury you in it..."