Chapter 2

Those!

In the days to follow the visit to Galaxy News Radio—the two of them completed the task with little issue.

Sandra and Charon eventually arrived at the memorial with the satellite dish, installing it there for Three Dog, and he, in turn, informed them of James's alleged whereabouts—the ship town of Rivet City, which apparently resided somewhere down south.

So, off they went, resuming their journey through the Capital Wasteland and routinely getting lost as usual.

"Mistress," Charon growled as he marched behind her, arms crossed and eyes scanning the area. "We installed the satellite at the memorial days ago."

"Yeah. I know. I was there," Sandra uttered vacantly.

"My point is… we should have… gotten somewhere by now." Charon gave their environment a more thorough once-over. "I don't think we're on the right track anymore. No... we've trailed off completely. Where did that river come from?"

He motioned to the side. Indeed, they were both strolling along a crackled road beside a rather large river that Sandra didn't remember passing by earlier.

"We'll find our way eventually." Sandra muttered carelessly as she continued onward.

Charon grumbled to himself. "Fuckin'… idiot…"

"Hey!"

Something tackled Sandra so hard it nearly knocked the wind out of her.

Charon halted mid-step and reached for his pistol, but he didn't draw it.

It was a child; he looked like he was maybe ten or eleven years old, his dirt-covered face painted a rather frantic expression. He'd clasped onto Sandra with a viselike grip, his small hands curled tightly around her shirt as he gaped at her in horror.

"Please! Please... those... I can't...!" he sputtered.

"Calm down. What's wrong?" Sandra said kindly.

"Those... THINGS!" the child breathed. "They attacked the town... lit everything on fire... and I... I can't find my papa... I can't..."

"What things?"

"They... y-you haven't seen them? Really?!"

"Nope. I just blew into town."

"But then... you... please... you guys are big and strong. Can you go see if they're still alive?" he pleaded. "M-my family. I can't go back into town, I... they're everywhere. They're setting everything on fire!"

Sandra narrowed her eyes at him. It certainly wasn't raiders, not if this boy thought of them as things rather than people. She knew there were mutant animals in the wasteland, as she'd seen molerats and radroaches all over the place, though she'd never seen or heard of any of them lighting anything on fire.

"Yeah... all right. Let's go," Sandra agreed. "What's your name?"

"Bryan," the kid answered, wiping his face with his wrist. "Bryan Wilks."

"Alrighty then. Lead me to your town," Sandra instructed.

Bryan gulped and straightened out, gathering some composure. Then, he led them both up the road and deeper into the rubble buildings that were the remains of DC's outskirts.

After they got within a rock's throw of the town, Bryan stopped abruptly and turned to them.

"I can't... they're everywhere," he said shakily. "I'll... I'll hide in one of those fallout shelters. There's one by the diner. C-come get me later when you find my dad. Please?"

"I will. I promise," Sandra told him.

Bryan stared at her for a moment, looking conflicted.

"Grown-ups always say that," he said quietly. "And they... never come back."

Sandra gave him a whimsical childlike smirk, then knelt and met his level.

"Do I look like a grown-up?" she replied genuinely, slapping her hand onto his shoulder. "I'll be back, dude. Promise."

Bryan flashed a faint smile.

He then concealed himself inside the metal pod-like shelter along the side of the street, leaving Sandra and Charon alone to explore the town.

The two marched on, surveying everything in sight; the place was still smoldering; some of the buildings contained small chunks of still burning fire, and the area smelled of BBQ on a grill, but apart from that, nothing stirred.

After looking around for a silent five minutes, Charon finally spoke.

"Mistress. Permission to speak fr—"

"Granted. Stop asking."

"We're supposed to be pursuing your father."

"Kid's looking for his father, too. I can relate," Sandra replied simply. "We're not side-tracking. We're helping."

Charon gave her an odd look from behind.

Sandra, sensing the glare, turned to him and met his eyes.

"Helping. You understand what helping is, right?" Sandra clarified. "Heeeelping."

"Don't mock me," Charon sighed. "It just seems like you're constantly getting side-tracked… and that's when the insanity happens. You could avoid a lot of trouble if you just… stopped getting involved with everyone else."

"Tch. In that case, I never would've bought your contract," Sandra retorted, continuing her pace without slowing or stopping.

"So it was pity," Charon concluded while he followed, as if confirming certain suspicions that he'd been carrying around for weeks. "Well... Mistress... I don't need your pity."

"It wasn't pity, you dumb shit!" Sandra spun around and faced him yet again, now glaring daggers into him. "I just wanted a friend! And you needed one!"

They stopped and stared heatedly at one another for a few long seconds.

Charon's crinkled, ghoulish face maintained its grumpy and unwavering expression as he glared down at her.

Sandra's much smoother face was fading scarlet over her pale cheeks, her shining blue eyes flaring and her crimson-colored hair shifting gently in the wind's breeze.

As the staring contest continued, Sandra's mind began to race furiously.

She didn't notice that Charon's attention was elsewhere now. He spotted a hint of movement down the street, far behind her—and he was now staring over her shoulder, his expression beginning to change.

"Mistress—"

"No—shut up! I'm fucking tired of you acting like the world's just out to get you!"

"Mistress—"

"No—you don't get to act like that anymore! Good things happen too! I actually do give a damn—whether you think that's fucking possible or not!"

"Mistress—!"

"We're just friends, and fuck the stupid contract! You understand me?! Do you—?!"

"Mistress!"

"WHAT?!"

"TURN AROUND!"

Charon's hands clamped onto her shoulders and whipped her around—forcing her to face the encroaching threat.

Three massive insects were scurrying down the road, all of them focused intently on Sandra and Charon. They were gigantic ants, all bearing a shining amber exoskeleton and six elongated legs that carried them at a brisk pace.

Sandra pulled out her 44—

FWOOOOOOOOOOO!

"HOLY—HELL!"

Sandra hit the ground on her back—the first instinct to come to her.

An enormous wave of fire erupted from the mouth of the nearest fire ant, and the flames were licking the air above her now.

Sandra rolled onto her side and opened fire, instantly killing the first ant.

The echoing ring of Charon's shotgun was like music to her ears; the other two ants exploded into mush and shards of hard skin, exoskeleton caving in as mushy white innards gushed out of them.

When Sandra staggered to her feet, she and Charon both returned to one another's sides, and they spotted more ants further down the road. At least ten of them, all rushing towards them—and all, presumably, with the ability to exhale streams of fire.

"Holy God," Sandra groaned. "Nope. That's a whole fuck-ton of nope—come on!"

She grabbed Charon by the wrist and sprinted away.

Sandra headed for the first house to come into sight, but the door was locked. Frustrated and anxious, she reared back planted a solid kick into the door, and it opened so hard the doorknob bashed a hole in the wooden wall inside. They rushed into the house and slammed the door behind them.

They both remained entirely still and silent, panting and hovering by the door, waiting to hear the ants scuttle past the house.

After a few tense moments, the faint scuttling of the ants echoed past, and a calm silence fell thereafter. They released a relieved cloud of breath in unison.

Charon was the first to turn around, facing the inside of the house, and he spotted a rather grim sight behind him. He patted Sandra's shoulder with the back of his hand, capturing her attention and motioning loosely to the middle of the living room.

Sandra followed his trail of vision, her eyes landing on the grave scene as well.

In the living room of the old building was a fresh corpse lying lopsided on the floor, only feet away from them. The man's body was scorched and covered with burns, and many chunks of his skin had melted onto his clothing, but the face was intact—and he looked almost identical to the child, Bryan Wilks.

Sandra covered her mouth, stifling the building urge to vomit.

Charon didn't react. He simply folded his arms, grimacing and glimpsing over at her.

"Oh… this is bullshit," Sandra croaked sickeningly. "Those damn things couldn't have mutated like that on their own. And this town... all these people... everyone's dead. I'm gonna find whoever did this… and I... am seriously… gonna kill them!"

At once—she stormed outside without another word.

Charon followed her as always, and—a long while later, after scouring the neighborhood and finding no clues—he slowed to a stop in the middle of the desolate street, his milky blue eyes narrowing at the end of the road afar.

"What?" Sandra stopped beside him, following his eyes down the road.

"They're coming from there," Charon murmured thoughtfully, nodding at the end of the metro tunnel in the distance. "Every ant that came at us was coming up from this road. They're in the goddamn tunnels."

"Well'p—then that's where we go," Sandra stated, taking a bracing breath and marching down the road with a brisk stride. "I want these things dead before I go anywhere."

"Well… given that they could spread and populate… then yeah," Charon mumbled as he trailed after her. "That actually makes some sense. Whaddoya know…"

Sandra missed the sarcasm.

The two headed into the darkened metro tunnels, navigating the enclosures and moving past long-abandoned trains until they found themselves in the underground hallways.

"Die!"

Sandra rounded a corner and hammered the trigger twice. The ant crumbled and stopped moving.

"So… I have a question," Charon muttered, strolling up to her side and sparing the dead ant a glance. "How will you know when they're all actually dead?"

Sandra paused and glanced around, feeling more at ease than she had outside. There weren't many ants in the sewers, and the few that were present were scattered and separate from one another. Not at all like the infestation topside—no, this was manageable.

"I don't know… just gonna kill everything I find and hope for the best. You know what an anthill is?" Sandra answered as she led him through another dingy tunnel. "Anthills are the things ants build for themselves to live in. They live in an underground maze, basically. And this sewer system... it's basically an anthill for gigantic ants. We'll find the source in here somewhere."

"I see. And… us looking for the source alone is a good thing," Charon chided caustically.

"I want these things dead. Who the hell's letting a swarm of fire-breathing monsters loose outside? That shit doesn't happen naturally. Somebody did this. No. Screw that. Not havin' it," Sandra ranted. "This is ridiculous. If somebody doesn't stop it now, they're just gonna spread out and burn a bunch of other towns, and... and mate, and stuff. Gross."

"Mistress... I believe you've overlooked something. Ants tend to have a qu—"

"AAUGH!"

A new voice on the scene suddenly let out a scream.

The metal door on the right wall had opened itself, and the man inside the room jumped with fear when he spotted two armed strangers standing yards away from him.

Sandra smirked in amusement at the look of shock strewn across the stranger's face.

"Oh... didn't mean to startle you. Haha. Don't get many visitors down here, you know..." the mysterious scientist uttered with a nervous little chuckle, straightening his glasses.

"Startle me?" Sandra giggled, scoffing out a laugh. "Oh, don't even do that. You're the one who jumped outta your skin right when we…"

She suddenly trailed off, her smile fading, her eyes venturing past the stranger in the white overcoat, narrowing intently at the room just behind him.

The room contained shelves filled with scientific equipment of many varieties—as well as ant glands, removed ant antennas, and bowls of nectar.

She immediately pieced everything together and shot the man a nasty scowl.

"You—ASSHOLE!" Sandra grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him around, making him yelp with fear. "You careless—retarded—stupid—dumb—idiot! You realize what you're doing?! These fucking things breathe fire—!"

"It wasn't my intention!" the scientist cried. "Please don't hurt me—it was all an accident! I'm working on reversing it all!"

"Too late. They're running freaking wild now," Sandra snarled. "They burned everyone in the town topside, and they killed that kid's family, too."

"K-kid? You mean Bryan?" the scientist said, his eyes widening. "Bryan's still alive?"

"Yeah, no thanks to you," Sandra snapped. "Tell me how to stop it."

"S-stop it?!"

"Yeah, stop it. So nobody else dies."

"W-well... it's just... I can't… I can't exactly stop it, or else my research will be stunted. I must finish my experiments—"

"Like—HELL!" Sandra delivered a one-armed shove, knocking the scientist to the ground. "Your stupid experiments made giant fire-breathing monsters. Screw you and your damn experiments! This needs to stop!"

"Listen! Just… look, all you have to do is go to the terminal in the hatchery down below. There are next guardians down there, but if you fight past them, you'll be able to get to my terminal... and..."

"And stop this whole thing?"

"Yes. I just need the data from my terminal, and I can reverse the process of their mutation. I can send off a pulse that will frenzy them, too. It will end everything. I assure you."

Sandra gave him a long, angry glare, sighing and making a reluctant little nod. "Fine…"

The scientist reached his feet and dusted himself off. "My name is Dr. Lesko, by the way, since you didn't ask."

"I don't care," Sandra said bluntly. "Data from the terminal. That's all I need to do, and you can stop it all. Right?"

"Right," Lesko agreed.

Sandra headed down the tunnel. She stopped for a moment, then turned to Lesko again.

"You could've told Bryan you were still alive," she griped. "Everyone else up there is dead because of your ants. You basically ruined his life."

"I couldn't risk leaving this place. My research is very important, and this is the only safe place left in Grayditch," Lesko explained. "Trust the science, child. This research is important… and science takes priority above all else."

Sandra gave him a condescending nod, thinking of her father. James was an avid man of science himself, but she knew for certain that he would never adhere to such a belief, especially when it threatened human life.

"Whatever, you soulless shit."

At that—she and Charon marched off.

Sandra found the door leading to the hatchery, placed a hand on the lever, then hesitated. She looked up at Charon with an exhausted visage, releasing a long cloud of breath.

"That guy... was a jackass," she uttered. "His experiments are more important than the kid's life... that's some ass-backwards science. My dad was into science, too… but he only ever used it for people. That's what you're supposed to do…"

Sandra sighed again, then opened the door.

Charon spared her a thoughtful glance before following her inside.

They entered the hatchery and shut the door behind them.

The metallic tunnels soon faded into a burrowed ant's nest all around them, separating from the original sewer system and branching into the earth and soil. Sandra and Charon made quick work of the nest guardians, popping a few rounds into them before marching onward; they weren't any tougher than any of the other ants they'd run across in the tunnels.

Once they were about halfway through the burrow, Sandra turned to Charon.

"What were you gonna say earlier?" she asked. "Before we ran into Lesko."

"Hmn?" Charon rasped as he peered around. "Oh… I don't remember."

"You said I overlooked something," Sandra reminded him, marching on.

"Overlooked..."

Charon pondered—and then, his gaze drifted off to the right, where a wide gaping opening stood like a gigantic doorway made of dirt nearby, though what lie beyond it was a thousand times more astounding.

"... something."

"Come on."

Sandra waved for him to catch up as she continued into the burrow, but Charon's eyes were locked on the monstrous creature in the opening.

When he didn't follow her, she whirled around to see what was keeping him.

"Mistress... I think… I was gonna say..." Charon murmured with an odd sense of dread, slowly reaching for his pistol as the great, bloated monster honed in on him. "That... ants tend to have... a queen."

There it sat—snug and menacing within the center of the nest, its overweight body undulating disgustingly and its shining black eyes focused on the ghoulified man and the pale young girl standing in its home.

Sandra's pistol was held at the ready, but Charon very cautiously raised a hand, gesturing for her to stay back. His eyes locked onto the ant queen, his own pistol grasped tightly in the palm of his right hand, though he suspected it may not be enough to hold off this beast.

What he really needed was his shotgun, but if he went to reach for it, the monster might get startled too soon...

"Charon," Sandra whispered, silently pleading for him to move, as he was standing directly in the line of fire.

After the tense seconds of anxiousness passed—the ant queen let out a sudden shrill howl and expulsed a stream from its mouth, but it wasn't fire.

The beast was spitting a strange glob of greenish acid—and the putrid liquid hit Charon squarely in the torso.

He staggered back and hit the rocky wall.

"Oh no—" Sandra fired off three shots without forethought. "You fucking—DON'T!"

Two of the bullets whizzed into the queen's face, penetrating her exoskeletion with a couple of crackling pops.

The enormous ant suddenly stopped crawling toward Charon and rounded on her instead.

Sandra froze for a moment.

When the second wad of acid flew at her, she remembered how to move and swiftly maneuvered behind the side of the dirt hill.

The acid clumped onto the earth—then Sandra poked out and shot off her last two rounds.

With four bullets lodged into her brain now and with one of her antennas severed, the queen began to frenzy. It looked as if it was still trying to pursue them, but it couldn't know how to pull off such a thing anymore, twitching and screeching madly.

Primed with adrenaline—Sandra stormed forward and planted her foot into the queen's skull.

It caved in—shattering and coating her foot in goo.

Everything fell still and silent.

Her breath began to catch up with her, chest rising and falling as the panic seemed to pass, slowly processing everything that had transpired.

Then, Sandra whipped around and darted over to Charon's side, hitting her knees beside him.

He was slumped against the cave wall, nodding in and out of consciousness, and the acid was beginning to eat away at his armor, as well as small portions of his skin.

She tried to dab it away—but one of Charon's large hands smacked at her.

"Geddoffame," he grumbled in a half-daze. "Don't touch..."

"Shut up," Sandra said as a panic began to brew in her. "Lemme figure it out. I gotta do something here. Uhm..."

Unknowing what else to do, she wiped away all of the acid from the exposed bits of Charon's skin using her arm. There wasn't anything covering her arms or protecting her skin at all, but she didn't have time to care right now. Sandra used her fingers to remove any leftover dots of acid on him, then went to work on his armor.

Charon sat upright, only just realizing that he'd hit his head, the back of his skull throbbing.

Sandra's skin began to tingle, but she hardly noticed, her focus entirely on him.

"Y'okay?" she breathed worriedly.

Charon glared at her, his milky eyes gazing into her crystalline ones, spotting the concern amidst her visage.

"Fine," he exhaled hoarsely. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."

"Yeah I do, you reckless shit," Sandra retorted. "Are you really okay?"

"Reckless... you're calling me reckless? Look at your damn arm," Charon told her.

Though they were both sitting in a dark burrow, Sandra was just able to make out that her skin was turning a deep red in some places.

"Well—what was I supposed to do? I didn't come down here with a fresh clean towel."

"You're not supposed to do anything. My skin's not all that sensitive, if you haven't noticed. Can't say that about you smoothskins, though."

"Yeah, that's what you need—more of your freaking skin peeling off."

"Just stop. I'm fine."

Sandra sighed and stood, then yanked Charon to his feet.

They headed out of the cave with little more than minor burns, though mostly, they were no worse for wear.

So, they made their way out of the burrow and returned to Dr. Lesko in his tiny makeshift lab.

"Oh my heavens… you're covered in goo! Tell me you didn't kill the ant queen!" Lesko exclaimed the moment he laid eyes on the two of them. "I needed her alive for my research!"

Sandra smirked coldly. "I don't give a good goddamn about your research."

"I... well... that is..." Lesko stammered. "I just—"

"And—one more thing," Sandra stated, her voice rising as she rounded on him, raising a finger as her eyes burned into his. "Real science—actual science—it has a rule. The most likely outcome is usually the one that's true. That's a basic rule of thumb that all scientists know. So—you take this, this wild crazy bullshit you're doing—and you weigh all the outcomes it could possibly have. All the possible outcomes of this had to look pretty fucking bad, didn't they? There's no way a seasoned scientist could've thought that this could come to anything good. Knowing it endangers people—knowing it kills people—and still pushing it out into the world—that really paints a clear picture of what kind of person you are. So get fucked. And seeya later."

At that—she spun on her heel and marched off without another word.

She and Charon didn't speak for a while after leaving the lab, simply walking in silence.

"You know more about science than I thought you would," Charon mumbled, giving her an interested squint.

"Not really," Sandra uttered. "My dad knew."

They marched on, and eventually, they made their way out of the sewers and entered the town of Grayditch again, careful to avoid the areas infested with the few remaining fire ants.

Sandra knocked on the outside of the metal pod, and seconds later, the door slid open and Bryan Wilks was staring up at her expectantly.

"Did you find him? Did you find my papa?" he asked.

Sandra stared down at the child sadly.

Bryan read the answer off of her face.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

Bryan fell expressionless, hanging his head in silence.

"Come with me," Sandra said without thinking.

Charon shot her a look from behind.

"Come with us," she corrected. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry your dad's gone, but I don't wanna leave you here alone. I'll find you a home."

"Really?" Bryan sighed breathlessly. "I... thanks. I just... I dunno. I wanna cry, but... I can't. I'm tired of crying."

"I know how you feel," Sandra replied honestly.

The day she left Vault 101, she could barely make it down the hill and head for Megaton due to her vision being blurred by tears. Thoughts of her father and flashbacks of her own vault community betraying her kept her crying for days before she finally began to adjust to the hostilities of the wasteland, and it was only thanks to Charon that she was able to do so.

"We can stick together out here, and I'll teach you whatever I can," Sandra promised with a smirk. "All right?"

"Cool…" Bryan attempted a smile. "You're pretty cool for a grown-up."

"I'm not a grown-up," Sandra said, smacking the kid's shoulder. "Come on. I think the road beside that river leads back toward Megaton. We'll go there and take it easy for a few days."

"Mistress," Charon interjected. "You're following your father's trail. If we side-track now, we're gonna lose him."

"Wherever he's going, it's not like he's gonna keep moving forever. He obviously has a destination, and once he reaches it, he's not going anywhere," Sandra replied. "He has some home base out here, and we'll find it eventually. But we have a kid with us... and frankly, I'd like to sleep in a friggin' bed. So, for now, let's just get the hell out of goddamn Grayditch."

The three of them came together, and they marched out of the burnt and desolate town at last.