Chapter 74: Enemy Within.
Fuller followed Mouse all the way back to the church where he'd first started this merry little jaunt into the world of the railroad, as they walked Mouse had chatted to him constantly and he had to admit he really did kinda like the crazy happy-go-lucky little woman.
Sure she talked almost constantly but when it really counted she was a complete professional and it really showed, her Ranger training was blatant and in the few little scuffles with the local wildlife and the odd roaming raider band that they crossed paths with along their route her skills really shone, he actually found himself rather apprehensive and even guilty that in the coming days he was going to have to betray her trust to accomplish his mission, to his surprise it really was staring to eat him up inside.
As they entered the tunnels Mouse opened the door which would take them through into the hidden passages that Desdemona and the others had blatantly used to ambush him the last time he came through here and this time he noticed the very cleverly hidden sensors and camera and afforded himself a little wry smile as he figured out how they managed to know he was coming.
To his surprise, the entrance to the Railroad HQ was not far from that point, only a short walk down some rather dark tunnels until finally Mouse popped a door lock and they entered the HQ itself which looked like a converted underground pumping station possibly to keep water out of either the subway tunnels that surrounded the place or even the catacombs themselves.
"Ahh you made it, I heard back from our contacts up North that you two did a fine job getting our two clients to them, apparently the two of them didn't shut up raving about the two of you the entire way so you must have made quite the impression," Desdemona said detaching herself from a console in the centre of the room.
Fuller glanced around the place and found himself surprised at how well organised everything seemed to be, they certainly had made use of what little they'd had available here, they had an armoury complete with a miniature firing range, sleeping quarters, workbenches for modifying gear and hell even what appeared to be a computer lab complete with someone right out of the tinfoil hat brigade who looked to be covered in magnifying glasses and torches not to mention tool belts.
"All in another day's work on the Railroad boss," Mouse said with a grin.
"Glad to hear it Mouse so how did our prospect handle himself any complaints?" Desdemona asked eyeing Fuller curiously, out of the corner of his eye Fuller noticed the large black woman who had been wearing a trench coat and supporting a minigun the last time he'd seen her, now she was dressed in a tight black tank top that showed off her incredibly well-muscled arms.
She was drying her face with a towel after working out on what looked to be a makeshift weight lifting bench they'd obviously lifted from somewhere and now employed to keep their heavies in tip-top shape along with a few other makeshift exercise machines, like a set up on breezeblocks and hooked up to what looked to be a battery bank, free power and exercise all in one he guessed.
"He did great boss, he's a hell of a shot with that rifle of his that's for damn sure, popped those talking toasters like a battery in a microwave that's for sure," Mouse said slapping him on the arm and grinning at him.
"Anything else other than his shooting skills?" Desdemona asked and Mouse nodded.
"Yup he certainly has the aptitude and the attitude for this, didn't see him once look at our new friends like anything other than people the entire time and trust me those two stuck to him like glue, right pair of nervy ones those two, but he just reassured them and even helped them along, it was good to see boss it really was, think we got ourselves a keeper right here, well as long as the institute doesn't snatch him or blow him up that is, but other than that all good hell I'd say his tradecraft is already on par with ours those Enclave lot sure know how to train their special forces it's like he's already out the box bedded in and ready to go," she said aiming a sly grin at him.
"Well alright then that's what I like to hear, that's certainly useful for us because the less time we spend having to train you the better for us, what about the Rail sign etc?" Desdemona asked.
"Oh I gave him a brief run down but you know how it is with that stuff takes a while to get it down to pat," Mouse said and Desdemona nodded.
"Fair enough well then mister Fuller let me be the first to say welcome to the Railroad," she said offering him her hand which Fuller took and shook.
"Glad to be here," he said.
"Us too if I'm honest we could always use skilled people around here, that having been said and I hate to do this to you considering you just got in but we just got a fastball come in and we could use you and that rifle of yours, I'm pairing you up with Glory over there she'll give you the mission details en route she'll also take you through the joys of Rail sign and a few other things as she would have had to be the one to train you anyway, so grab yourself something to eat and drink check your gear and report to her, alright dismissed," Desdemona said with a smile.
"Err he's gonna need a named boss," Mouse said and Desdemona got halfway to turning back around before stopping and turning back to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"You were using his real name out there!?" she exclaimed and Mouse looked at her like she'd gone insane.
"No of course not, I gave him a temporary call sign, I was calling him Clawbait but I think something a little more appropriate might be in order now that he's officially one of us," she said.
Desdemona nodded, "Any suggestions?" she asked and Mouse scratched her chin thoughtfully but before she could come up with something which Fuller had no doubt would be equally as flattering as 'Clawbait' another voice chimed in.
"I think Owl would be a good one," a deep feminine voice said from directly behind Fuller nearly making him jump out of his skin as he hadn't sensed anyone approaching him which was seriously odd as his spacial awareness was top-tier.
"I was gonna say Eagle Eye but I think I like your's better plus when he's not scowling he does have that kinda wide-eyed thing going on which is cute though it is a pity he scowls so much because he really does have pretty blue eyes," Mouse said with a grin and Fuller felt a flush pass through him but he just chuckled it off and shot her a dark grin.
"Well if we're naming on body parts then how about we change your name from Mouse to Rumpsteak?" he said and both Mouse and Glory who were now standing right next to him roared with laughter.
"Oh I like this one, think me and him gonna get along just fine, he's got fire and I like that," Glory said nodding approvingly.
"So then Owl I guess?" Desdemona asked looking at Fuller and he nodded.
"Well I do always have my eyes open and my head on the swivel so yeah that works," he said and she nodded.
"Well alright then, Tom add him into the database under Owl, looks like we got ourselves a new heavy," she said to the small tin foil hat brigade black man at the compute station who simply gave her a thumbs up and never broke his keystrokes despite only typing with one hand now.
A heavy and strong hand clapped down on his shoulder and patted him hard enough to shake his bones, "Well then welcome to family Owl, grab yourself a bite to eat over there grab some ammo for your rifle I'm pretty sure we got some two millimetres around here somewhere and then meet me up top, we got work to do," Glory said and Fuller nodded.
"Roger that boss," he said and she shook her head.
"I ain't boss just Glory we only got one Boss around here and that's her, all the rest of us are equals," Glory said jerking her thumb at the now engrossed Desdemona who was back at the map table going over some paperwork.
"Got it," Fuller said and with that, he turned and headed over to the small kitchen where a few of the others greeted him like he'd always been among them, he really couldn't get over the sense of family this place had, it was both unusual and yet familiar to him.
After a quick pit stop for food and raiding the armoury for a few boxes of 2mm slugs which he jammed into his pack, so the first proper stage of the operation was complete and now he was on the inside, now Fuller was under no illusions that they were going to trust him yet and he knew they would be watching him closely, so trying to inject the date and the rumours of Number Seven and his people yet would be met without right scepticism and suspicion if he tried it at this point, no he was going to have to play the long game here and he knew that the only way to do that would be to keep on earning their trust and working with them and the only way to do that was to keep on handling the jobs they gave him.
So once he'd eaten his rations and got himself kitted out he headed back upstairs though the others gave him a way to open the secret tunnel that led directly there without having to go through all the mystery BS in the catacombs and now let him out into the graveyard behind the church, which incidentally was where he found Glory waiting for him sitting cross-legged up on top of one of the old sarcophagi looking almost like a statue herself.
When she saw him emerge she jumped down and walked up to him with a wry smile on her face and he saw her sharp eyes sizing him up as she looked him up and down, "Alright now you're fed time to get underway," she said.
"Gonna give me a hint as to the job or are we just gonna play charades until I manage to guess it?" Fuller said with a grin and she laughed.
"Me and you gonna get on just fine I think kid and not yet, too many eyes and ears in this place if you know what I mean, we'll wait until we're out of the city and on the road, don't worry your cute little white head, I got all your details right here," she said tapping her temple and making him sigh, he really wasn't one to enjoy heading out blind with no idea of his intentions or what was expected of him but this was Glory's op and therefore her rules, so he was gonna have to play ball, he just hoped his team had the good sense to keep a close eye on him or they'd wind up having to use their trackers.
"Gotta say I did not ever expect one of your lot to roll up through our door," Glory said as they walked together.
"Not exactly the sort of thing I expected to hear about going one after I got out of the ESF either if I'm honest, wasn't exactly my plan when I left but when I heard about it I decided hell they gave me all these skills and training so I might as well use them otherwise all I'm gonna wind up doing is either vanishing into the wilderness like a mad hermit or working as a bouncer or a merc somewhere, didn't like the thought of that especially as the ESF tends to keep tabs on the merc companies so this seemed like the best choice also figured here I could do some real good for a change," Fuller said and Glory nodded approvingly.
"I think so too, not many can make Mouse sing their praises like that, she might look like a fuzzy bundle of fun but that girl is vicious trust me on that one, so if she liked you then I know I'm gonna like you and what's more your words got me hopeful too, if only more people like you thought this way then my people would have an easier time of it, hell we wouldn't even need the Railroad we could just up and leave the institute of our own free will," Glory said making Fuller shoot her a surprised glance.
"So you're a synth huh?" he said and she nodded.
"Yeah and the fact that you didn't notice or suspect it shows you just how well those fuckers down there did their job, now before you start the usually barrage of questions like how do we find them, how do we get in, why don't we take the fight right to their door all I got for you is I don't know, i used to be an Enforcer which is a synth that hunts down and recaptures runaway synths and i only know that because Desdemona showed me the vid of me being taken down, team of heavies managed to hit me with a stun lance that had been seriously up rated, well it fried whatever control matrix they had that stopped my emotions and independent thought from speaking to one another, overloaded me badly but to their credit rather than leave me out there to die they took me to one of the doctors we got on staff, she fixed me up and dug out all the control chips and shit they had hooked into me to prevent me from not only realizing what I am but caring about it too, but it took out my memories in the process, when I came too I had fuck all idea who or what I was, but they told me straight, they didn't hide anything from me and they even let me choose what I wanted to do, well Icouldn't help but feel fucking guilty for all those souls I sent right back into the hands of those fuckers, so I signed up and they took me in, so there you have it, that's how an institute synth and an Enforcer no less became a Railroad heavy, pretty fucked up right?" Glory said.
Fuller couldn't help but hear the pain in her voice and he felt compelled to offer a shoulder here he placed a hand on her incredibly powerful feeling arm and ran it up onto her shoulder despite their height difference making it a little odd.
"We all got pasts, difference is whether you accept it move on and learn from it or run from it and pretend it didn't make you who you are, right now those skills they gave you to hunt people down are now being used to hunt them down, gotta love irony when it hits you," he said and she laughed a little bitterly and nodded before patting his hand.
"Yeah ain't that the truth and I get the feeling by those words it's the same for you?" she said and he laughed and nodded.
"Without the synth part yeah something like that," she said and she smiled at him.
"Thanks for not freaking out Owl that means something to me," she said and he nodded.
"No probs just don't go all red eyes and start yelling monotone phrases at me yeah?" he said which made Glory roar with laughter.
"Promise," she said as she dried her eyes and he let his hand slip from her strong shoulder.
As soon as they were far enough away and out into the open space where they could see all around them Glory was true to her word, "Alright here's the deal, one of our safe houses got hit by some raiders, now chances are they didn't have a fucking clue what it is they have but they managed to grab six freed synths that were being watched over by one of our caretakers, they killed the guy as he tried to defend them, he did manage to send out an SOS but by the time we got there it was just too little too late they'd already legged it with our people, we've had a tracker on them hunting them down and it looks like they have headed back to their camp either to turn the synths they snatched into slaves for them or to get ready to sell them off to other people, so that's where I and you come in, we are going to meet up with the trackers and then we are going to hit these fuckers, now our orders on these slaves taking cunts are clears crystal, no-one left alive you think you can handle that?" Glory said and Fuller gave her a dark smile.
"Got zero problems with turning slavers inside out quickly or slowly," he said patting his rifle and then his combat knife and now it was Glory's turn to smile.
"I knew I was gonna like you and I'm liking you more and more by the minute, we think alike me and you, well we gotta lotta ground to cover as it at least a three day walk to where we are meeting up with our tracker team but they have HQ on the radio if they move them in that time so they can redirect us, hope you still got your bed roll and camping gear in that pack of yours otherwise you might have to do some sweet talking to convince me to share mine with you," she said shooting him a sly smile.
"The camping gear or the bed roll specifically just need to know how much game I'd have to put up if I didn't remember to bring my gear?' he shot back playfully making her grin widen and a surprised laugh burst out of her.
"Keep that fire up white boy and I might just tell you but something tells me you're the kinda guy who'd like to find out for himself the hard way," she said.
"Seems you're good at reading people and besides I thought the hard way was not only the only way but also the best way," Fuller said to a chorus of gagging noises from his team through his subdermal.
Glory on the other hand laughed like a drain and clapped him on the shoulder but much to his surprise she didn't pull her hand back Immediately she simply lingered it in a tight grip on his shoulder top and fixed him with a rather warm but also somewhat salacious smile, "You got that right, oh boy do you got that right," she said.
The route they were taking kept them well away from any major population hubs as well as majorly used caravan routes and roads so the going was good and quiet, they didn't see a single raider which wasn't all that surprising given there wasn't a lot of point setting up an ambush where there were no people to rob.
As it began to get dark the pair found a smashed-up semi-truck that had long since been emptied of all of its contents but thankfully its trailer doors still opened and closed so with a little creative work of Glory's suppressed 10mm pistol they punched some air holes into the sides and hopped on up into the trailer to turn it into a camp for the night, after making absolutely sure that they hadn't just set up camp in the middle of a Yao guai nest or something though the plasma mines that Glory set up outside the door would probably make short work of them if they had, he'd just have to make sure to remember to shut them off it he got up in the night to take a piss.
Once they'd secured the perimeter the pair closed up the trailer and laid out their ramshackle camp and as they were laying out their bedrolls Fuller noticed that Glory had laid hers down next to his when she could have just as easily laid it on the other side of the makeshift small fireplace they'd made in the centre.
After they were set up Glory pulled out some small-scale cooking equipment including a little collapsable metal stove which she set on an upturned breeze block so it was in direct contact with the floor, after that was done she set a small pan atop of it and started putting in some cured meat and vegetables that they seemed to have been carrying.
"What are you making?" Fuller asked curiously as he sat cleaning his weapon on his bedroll.
Glory glanced up at him through the small fire she'd made in the camping stove which to be fair was a very useful little bit of kit, it was shaped like a rectangular claw that folded away for easy storage but when opened up allowed the user to set a fire going within its metal walls which then channelled all of the heat upwards towards whatever was set atop of it, this meant that you could cook on even the smallest of fires as it did not waste energy or heat to do the work, a very nice find indeed.
"Thought a nice stew would be a welcome respite after the hard day's march that we have had today, soldiers march on their stomach whether they be a human or human-like synth," she said with a grin which thanks to the golden glow that the fire was casting on her ebony face took on a rather eerie quality but also made her eyes sparkle rather warmly.
"No arguments here, so you can shoot and you can cook, there anything you can't do?' Fuller said playfully and she laughed.
"Yeah have kids," she said with a sad note in her voice as she looked down into the pot and the flames beneath it and began to feed it small wood chips
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Fuller said looking back down at his weapon.
"Irony is that synths of my generation can have kids apparently, but it requires them to fill our ovaries with eggs which apparently mine are, but there's a trigger missing which would allow them to be released, hell they even went to the trouble of designing the eggs to have my genetic code written into them so that they could combine with synth or human alike, but then because I was designated as an Enforcer they decided it would be a waste of time and resources to trigger the program, it's maddening," she said bitterly and Fuller really didn't know how to feel about that.
Of course, he felt sorry for her because in his travels with her so far he'd become rather attached to the synthetic woman, she was strong, highly opinionated and strong-willed, she was funny and charismatic but also rather softly spoken when need be and to be fair he liked women with a bit of muscle to them so, in essence, she ticked all the right boxes for the masculine part of his brain.
But he wondered how he was supposed to feel about the idea of synths being able to reproduce at all, he knew he was supposed to be disgusted by it and shocked by it, but more shockingly to him was that a fairly sizeable part of him just wasn't, it was like it simply didn't matter given the state of the world as it is, there were already god only know how many new species running around out there, so what's one more and that thought scared him because as a soldier of the ESF he was supposed to be fully against it.
So Fuller decided to find out some more info about it, "So what would the deal be with synthetic children then? I mean would they grow like human kids?" he asked and Glory glanced up at him and read his curiosity as innocent in his expression before looking back down into her pot.
"Yeah, from what info I've heard come through the Railroad and Dr Amari when she's been working with the memories extracted from my brothers and sisters who went to her for new identities, it took them quite a while to perfect the system but these are supposed to be Gen 4, the final step, while the rest of us came off an assembly line or well you know a lot more complex than that but you get the idea these would be the new generation, the ones that would finally allow the synths to self populate, from what I've heard they went to great lengths to try and make it so only synth genetics would be compatible with other synths but apparently human DNA is little more robust than they imagined as little do they know there are already human synth hybrids out there I've seen them with my own eyes, little miracles who have the best of both worlds within them," she said with a soft but somewhat sad smile.
Fuller felt himself baulk but then he really began to think about it, it wasn't these innocent children's fault that they were what they were and at the end of the day did it really matter?
There would be enough human in them for them to believe that they are human, it would be no different from when the Neanderthals went extinct but they didn't fully die off as their DNA was still present in the species today which meant they'd taken the best of them and put it to use, hell who knows maybe this was the kick that humanity needed to actually evolve some more, whatever the outcome that was a problem for another time and for people a lot smarter than him to riddle out, he was a soldier and his job was to shoot who and what he was told to shoot, simple as that.
But as he looked up at Glory he could feel her sadness radiating off her and he decided that a little comfort went a long way and she was obviously in need of some, so he put down his now fully cleaned rifle and moved around to sit next to Glory on her bag and she glanced up at him in surprise as he put his arm around her broad shoulders.
"Chin up big girl you said it yourself, they gave you the ability and even the means, all you need is the trigger, so who knows maybe one of the synths that we pull out of there one day will have that or maybe this DR Amari you spoke of will be able to figure out what it is from one of the other girl synths that comes to us for help, there is always hope and possibility, your not out of the fight yet, so chin up and chest out soldier and have faith in yourself as well as the cause," he said giving her incredibly powerful shoulders a squeeze.
Glory smiled softly and nodded before turning and giving Fuller a full-on hug, "Thanks Owl I needed that, its right what they say you know, sometimes a kind word said in sincerity is worth its weight in gold, or well in this world caps," she said with a chuckle as she dried her eyes.
"You're most welcome big girl and for what it's worth from getting to know you a bit today I think you'd make a pretty good mom," he said and she looked at him in surprise.
"Really? You seriously think so?" she asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, you're strong-willed, determined, smart and you got a protective streak a mile wide, hell you gotta momma bear written all over your big black ass," he said and she roared with laughter and then shot him a sly grin.
"You been looking my arse much then Owl? Must be pretty close if you found words written on it," she said and he returned the laugh.
"If I'm honest I was looking for a bar code or an instruction manual but when I didn't find one well you know what they say about us special forces boys, we're nothing if not stubborn we're not known for giving up," he said and she roared with laughter before drying her eyes and nodding.
"You seriously are one of the good ones Owl, I can see why Mouse thinks so highly of you, ain't laughed this hard in a long time, most people in the Railroad just tiptoe around the whole synth thing like they are terrified of offending us if they so much as cough wrong around us, but you just don't care and that's fucking refreshing, to say the least, because if you cannot laugh at yourself then what can you laugh at because you sure don't have the right to laugh at others if that's the case," she said and he nodded in agreement.
"Soldiers are known for our blunt and kinda dark sense of humour call it a coping mechanism for all the shit we've seen but in this world that's basically every day for everybody you know?' he said and she nodded.
"Yeah, I hear that," she said stirring her stew before grabbing her bowl and then holding out her hand towards him indicating that he should hand her his, so he did and it was promptly handed back full and steaming.
"Thanks so about that manual, was I just looking in the wrong place or what?' he said making her laugh again.
"Don't know about a manual but if you push the right buttons I'm known to make some rather strange noises," she said making Fuller nearly spit out a mouthful of stew as he choked down the laugh.
The pair ate the rest of their meal in peace just making idle chat about the things they'd seen out there in the wastes and Glory began to teach him some of the Rail sign and codes that he'd seen some of while out with Mouse but the more of it she showed him the more he realised he'd actually seen this stuff in other places too, so to his mind this meant that the Railroad was operating in at least two other states of the US.
Then the more he thought about it the more that made sense as their whole thing was to ship the synths out of the institute's grasp, so to do that they would need to be out of state, so they must have cells elsewhere to receive the incoming caravans and synths so they could set them up with new lives elsewhere.
As he thought about this he picked up his and Glory's finished mess tins and washed them out at the door of the trailer before returning and while handing hers back to her he sat back down on her bedroll next to her again though why he'd done so he didn't quite realise, well not at first anyway.
"Hey Owl tell me something, do you ever just ache to feel human?" she asked glancing at him and he met her glance and he saw something in her eyes something that resembled hope but that he couldn't just put his finger on.
"I think I know what you mean and yeah I guess, sometimes the shit just gets to you and it makes you just numb to it all, it's like your mind is trying to push away and block out the world around you while at the same time the inner you is screaming to be free and to feel something, fucking anything just to remind you that you are alive and not a rock," he said and she went wide-eyed and nodded.
"Yeah! That's it exactly, for ages I didn't know what it meant I just felt numb by all the shit and all the time there was this little voice that was screaming in the back of my head begging e to feel something fucking anything to prove to myself that I wasn't just this fucking mindless automaton, I didn't know if it wanted me to prove to myself that I'm human but I'm not human and I understand that now and it doesn't matter because I am alive, I am a sentient, thinking, feeling living being and I am alive!" she said with such passion in her voice that it surprised him but he couldn't help but nod in agreement.
Then Glory turned and gave him a warm but also hopeful smile and that was exactly one second before she shot forwards grabbed him and jammed her mouth to his.
Fuller's brain just overloaded as the kiss hit him, Glory's mouth was warm, soft and her tongue was strong and excited as it invaded his mouth seeking his out to dance with it, when they broke Fuller felt like someone had just rammed a cotton ball into his skull where his brain used to be, "I want to feel alive tonight Owl and before you go panicking don't worry I'm not looking for commitment or anything serious, I just want to feel something other than numbness tonight and given you been pushing my buttons all day you've certainly earned the right to be the one to try, so what do you say Owl, wanna lose your synth virginity tonight and instead of being a synth and a human we can be just two sentient beings enjoying the simple and purest joy of being alive?" she said in a breathless voice peppering his face and neck with a whole bunch of sucking kisses as she did.
Fuller's mind was whirling a million miles a minute as he was still completely aware that his team were listening in through his sub-dermals and would hear every word of this, but at the same time he didn't fucking care anymore, his senses were lost in a burning swirl of passion that had begun to roar within him the second that her plump soft lips had met his, this had been just all so confusing, before all this his duties and his loyalties had been as clear as day but the more time he spent with these people and they were just that to him now, people, the waters were becoming muddier and muddier.
Then something inside Fuller broke and to his surprise, it was not a loud thing either, it was a very quiet thing, it was accepted as what was left of his brain that hadn't been turned into fluffy candyfloss said fuck it why not, at the end of the day it wasn't like she was asking him to marry her, she was just looking for a little fun and couldn't lie to himself and pretend he didn't find her attractive because he was a man of honour and he did not lie to his own heart, hell if he needed to he could call this an experiment in determining just how human these synths truly were if his superiors asked.
"You had me at the kiss," he said softly and Glory beamed at him broadly as he pushed back against her and with a little bit of strength he pushed her down onto her back and kissed her back now.
"That's what I hoped you'd say and hey if you do find a barcode on my ass you'd better let me know got it?" she said and Fuller grinned down at her.
"You kidding if I find a barcode anywhere down there I'm gonna check to see if I got a reader mounted in my tongue but you know how those things are they never read it first time, takes a few scans to work," he growled and he actually felt the shiver of want pass through her large body.
"You had me at tongue," she purred and with that, the pair smashed into another deep kiss, but little did Fuller know that this night his entire life was going to change, but only time would tell if it was for the better or not.