Chapter 13 — The Escape
"What d'you mean she's gone?" Synth Nate snarled.
"Be calm. Anger only leads people to make rash actions." Carrington said.
Deacon scowled at the scientist. "Thanks for the philosophical words but we don't have time to 'find our zen' and chill out. Nora is in danger."
Synth Nate shrugged on his brown leather jacket and eyed Deacon's duffle bag. "You got one of them Brotherhood suits for me?"
"Sorry, no." He replied. "But I have a plan. Tom will pilot the vertibird and I'll bring you into the Prydwen at gunpoint and say 'Hey look everyone! I've caught an Institute synth in disguise. And wouldn't you know it but he was a Courser.' I'll earn major brownie points with the tin soldiers and you'll be brought directly to a holding cell which is probably where Nora is at. Then we come through and bust her out, fly out of there on a vertibird, and call it a day. After that, celebratory drinks are on me."
Hancock's expression darkened. "What if they just shoot him on sight? The Brotherhood have the attitude of shooting first and asking questions later, at least with us ghouls."
Deacon smirked, "They won't shoot Nate if they think he has crucial intel about the Institute which can help them in their big bad plans of world domination."
Dr. Amari eyed Nate. "Are you sure you want to go there as you are? I have the memory wipe loaded in a lounger and a new identity already fabricated. At least this way we can be sure they don't stumble across information that might actually be relevant to their war. The Brotherhood isn't above torture, especially not when they see you as a non-human."
"Sunshine would be pissed if she found out you wiped your memories without at least talking with her." Hancock growled. "If you're gonna go get her, you should go as you are. You owe her that."
"Nora's not my wife." Nate stated quietly. The bitterness in his tone was palpable. "After this last mission is over, I don't owe her anything."
"Listen brother. That line you're walkin' is fuzzy but I know that Nora cares about you, maybe not in the way you want her to, but doin' this without givin' her a heads up …"
"If I wanted your advice Mayor, I would've asked for it." Nate snipped.
Sure. His response was a little rude, but he was done pretending that he could be Sergeant Nate Pendleton. It hurt too much to be him. It hurt too much to know that Nora wasn't going to be his. And he was tired of hurting.
Hancock sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I'm dropping the subject. But Nora's behind enemy lines and without our help she doesn't have a prayer or a hope to escape. So let's stop talking about what we're gonna do and get her the fuck outta there."
Tom and Deacon nodded. They dressed in the Brotherhood jumpsuits while Synth Nate put on combat armor and adjusted the sights on his improved laser rifle. Hancock handed Deacon a small cylindrical canister.
"That's a signal grenade. A soldier was short on caps in the Third Rail and sold it to KL-E-0. Throw this into an open area and it will send out a signal to have a vertibird come by and pick you up. After that…" Hancock pantomimed shooting a gun and aimed his mottled, thin index finger at Deacon's forehead.
Deacon nodded. The next step in that process would be grisly but he didn't want to think about that until the time came. This mission had to be executed perfectly and he had to be methodical. Committing murder and Grand Theft Aircraft was just the unfortunate part of the whole situation.
"You ready to—for Christ sakes!" He cried in exasperation when he turned to the smaller man, "Why are you wearing your headgear? Our cover will be blown before we get onto the Prydwen."
Tom scowled, "This ain't just headgear, man! This is a bonafide piece of nanobot repelling technology. We can't just jump in a vertibird without protection!"
Deacon rubbed a palm over his eyes. He gave his sunglasses to Carrington to hold and it felt unnatural without them. He felt … vulnerable.
"Well kids, let's get this show on the road. If we do this right, people will sing songs about our awesomeness." He said wryly.
Tom, Nate, and Deacon filtered out of Amari's lab. They walked through the marketplace trying to not draw attention to themselves but the glaring orange of their jumpsuits acted like a beacon for dirty looks and thinly veiled threats.
They walked back to Postal Square just as the sun was setting. The Brotherhood's massive airship loomed on the horizon. Vertibirds docked and launched like bees coming and going from a beehive.
"Go ahead Tom." Deacon said once they made it to the same place where Nora was abducted. A clear circle could be seen from where the vertibird kicked up the dirt and debris as it took off and landed.
Tom threw the grenade into the bare circle. The metal canister bounced twice and then a purple smoke cloud erupted from the device.
"How long does this take?" Synth Nate asked.
Almost immediately, they heard a low hum come out of the west. The vertibird's shiny metal hull looked black in the moonless sky.
"Jesus." Synth Nate murmured. "This is surreal."
"What is?" Deacon asked.
"I'm … remembering. The vertibird flying in, us soldiers waiting for transport, the anxiety of a battle…"
"Oh man…think of all the nanobots in there." Tom whimpered. "I don't think I can handle this…"
"We gotta focus." Deacon reminded him. "Remember the plan Tom. I take out the pilot and Nate will take out any additional soldiers who might be aboard. As soon as I dump the body, you will take us up in the air."
Deacon's face paled as he said that last bit. "Up in the air safely Tom. Like safe and quick and not having us crash to our fiery deaths."
Tom nodded. "As long as the nanobots don't mess with my juicy cranial matter too much, I should be able to do it."
Deacon rolled his eyes, unholstered his pistol, and aimed it at Synth Nate's head. He masked his face into a bigoted, disgusted snarl while Nate held his hands behind his back like he had been handcuffed. The vertibird's humming got louder and the dust swirled around their feet as the giant metal beast landed twenty away.
The trio moved to the vertibird and Deacon hauled Nate into it first which was quite the feat as Deacon was a head shorter than the synth.
"Get in there you synth freak." He growled. "Don't make me put a bullet in your head."
Thankfully there was nobody in the aircraft besides the pilot but Deacon's order made the man turn around in concern.
"I-is that one of them Gen-3 synths?" He asked.
"Yep." Deacon spat. "And I know for a fact that he use to be an Institute Courser. I'm bringing him back so we can extract information from him."
The pilot frowned and glanced up at Deacon's face. "Wait…you don't look familiar. Has Paladin Danse authorized the ground patrols to deviate from the established routes? What's your platoon designation?"
Deacon's face didn't betray fear. He scowled at Nate but then whirled on his heel and aimed Deliverer at the pilot. The silenced pistol made a muffled sound and the inside windshield spattered with the man's brains and parts of his skull.
"Tom, get in." Deacon snapped as he hauled the pilot out of the seat and threw him to the ground.
"Awww man. Now the seat's all bloody." Tom complained.
Deacon rolled his eyes. He opened an overhead container and found a dirty washrag and a can of WD-40. He took the rag and wiped the blood off the windshield as best as he could. There was nothing he could do about the seat or the pilot's console.
"Suck it up Tom and get us in the sky."
Tom grimaced but set to work flipping levers and switches. Deacon sat in the seat next to Nate and grabbed ahold of the mesh that was attached to the interior wall. He'd like to meet whatever idiot decided that an aircraft didn't need doors and kick them squarely in the balls … or lady balls.
The vertibird rose into the air much too fast and Deacon felt his butt fly off the seat a few inches.
"TOM!" Deacon yelled.
"Sorry! Sorry, man. I — I got it."
Tom pulled back on the wheel which sent the aircraft's nose pitching towards the sky.
"TOOOM! I swear to God if you kill us, I'll come back from beyond the grave and haunt your dead ass for all eternity."
Tom gritted his teeth, pushed the wheel down which leveled the aircraft off, and carefully pushed the throttle forward. The vertibird flew through the sky at a slow but steady pace while Deacon rested his head against the mesh, his stomach twisting into knots and doing flip flops on itself.
"Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth." Nate suggested. "That will help with the nausea."
"Cool…thanks man." He said weakly. "And I'm sorry about the whole 'freak' shit. I — I've had experience being a bigot."
"Don't worry about it." Nate replied.
The cold air whipped through the cabin as Tom guided the vertibird towards the Prydwen.
"We're coming Nora." Deacon murmured. "Just hang on."
Nora tucked the piece of paper that Dr. Li had given her into her shoe. The paper held neatly printed information and diagrams discussing the various ways Dr. Li had sabotaged Liberty Prime. The information would be invaluable to pass along so the synth troops knew what parts to target, but she couldn't exactly keep it in someplace that was easy to search. Hell…even if she lost the document, she had read it at least a dozen times and knew it by heart.
Time seemed to crawl on, and that left Nora with a lot of time to sit and think, two things that never contributed well to her mental health. She didn't dare entertain the various dark thoughts and doubt that still swirled in her mind, so she tried to distract herself. After counting backwards from 1,000 and doing pushups until her shoulders ached, Nora filtered her pent up energy into pacing back and forth in the small 8 foot by 8 foot cage.
She estimated that 12 hours had passed since she had been abducted although she couldn't be exactly sure. She knew it was night as she had overheard soldiers complaining about being put on the graveyard shift. Furthermore, the lights in Neriah's lab were turned off and the scientist had turned in a couple hours ago.
Part way through the night, Nora had to pee. Of course the Brotherhood didn't provide her with a rudimentary lavatory — or at least a bucket — so she had to relieve herself in the corner like an animal.
Her throat felt like sandpaper yet none of the soldiers paid her any attention, nor did they heed her requests for food and water. As she was in the middle of her second round of counting backwards from 1,000 she saw a shadow move outside her cage.
"Nora." Dr. Li's voice hissed.
"What?"
"I don't have long to talk. I've found some information on Quinlan's terminal that — well — it changes the game for us."
"What are you talking about?" She asked.
Dr. Li slipped her another piece of paper. This one was smaller and had a recall code written on it.
"What's this for?" Nora asked.
"Paladin Danse is a synth."
"You're kidding?! He's a spy?"
"No." Dr. Li said. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't know. Some things weren't adding up about him, especially when he talked about the Capital Wasteland, so I did a bit of digging. Quinlan still had the connection to my Institute terminal open and so I hacked into the SRB's database and got my answer. His designation is M7-97."
Nora's head swam as she processed this information. "So what am I suppose to do with this?"
"I am going to tell him that you're trying to escape. When he comes over to check on you, I want you to issue the recall code. When he deactivates, I will open the cage while you remove him from his Power Armor and drag him into the cage in your place. Then you will hijack his suit and escape. Assuming you don't draw attention to yourself, you should be able to make it out if people think you're the Paladin."
"What if someone tries to talk to me? Or what if Elder Maxson sees me and gives me an order in which I have to respond?"
"That's why we're doing this now. The Brotherhood's 3rd shift crew is full of loafers, newbies, and people who are being punished. If you project confidence and don't open your mouth, you should be able to fool them."
Nora's stomach clenched. "God this better work."
"Be right back." Dr. Li said.
Nora waited for a few minutes and then she heard the telltale whooshing of Power Armor hydraulics. She ducked below the small window and she saw Paladin Danse's shadow block out what little light there was.
He made a sound of disgust in his throat. But before he could call for anyone else's aid, Nora said in a loud voice "Cirrus-5-2-Typhoon initiate factory reset."
Danse made no sound but his head bowed to his chest. Just then the large cage door rose and Nora scampered out. Neriah's green terminal illuminated Dr. Li's face. She looked about as tired as Nora felt.
"Quick." She hissed. "Twist the wheel on the suit in the back and drag him into the cage. I'll close it behind him."
Nora did so. The Power Armor frame opened and she caught Danse's dead weight while nearly sinking to the ground. Her back screamed and her shoulders protested as she dragged the man just far enough into the cage so the door would close. His eyes stared open and empty; it was eerie. He looked as though he was dead.
"Get in." Dr. Li hissed.
Nora climbed into Danse's Power Armor and the suit closed in behind her. The last time she had been inside of a Power Armor suit was when she was almost eviscerated by a blind deathclaw outside Virgil's cave, and the darker, self-flagellating part of her mind took great pleasure in reminding her of that moment.
The door to the cage closed and Nora looked expectantly at Dr. Li.
"Go." She hissed. "Get out to the deck. Once there, you'll be able to jump off the deck to the ground. Run a safe distance away and have the Institute relay you back. The EMP field ends about fifty feet from the Airport's entrance."
"What about you? I can't leave you."
"You have to." She replied. "The work on Liberty Prime is almost done, but if I leave now, Maxson will hunt me down and he'll suspect that Prime's been tampered with. Besides James needs me here."
Nora shuddered. A lump stuck in her throat. "Thank you."
"Go." Dr. Li hissed.
Nora walked through the main hull and kept her head up high. Just as Dr. Li predicted, the crew on this 3rd shift barely looked at her, and if they did, they often jolted out of their seats and grabbed the nearest rag or wrench and pretended to work.
Nora's heart pounded in her chest as she climbed the stairs which led to the outside deck. The last thing she needed was for Elder Maxson to walk down the stairs. But who she encountered instead was far, far worse.
"Danse?" A female voice asked. She didn't sound suspicious yet. In fact, she sounded tired. "Did you get put on 3rd shift because of me."
Nora shook her head. Oh God, she thought. What am I going to do?
"Well there's small favors at least." The woman replied. She was short. Incredibly short even when compared against the 7 foot tall Power Armor. Her brown hair was pulled up in a military bun and her cap was perched squarely on her head.
"I heard about the Vault Dweller's argument with the Elder. I can't believe he ordered us all to not talk to the prisoner, or at least allow her something to eat and drink —"
The woman stopped herself and blushed. "Not that I was criticizing his decisions! I understand why Elder Maxson made that choice, but it just seems…cruel."
Nora looked around. She still had one more flight of stairs before she made it to the main deck. She could run for it, or maybe she could knock the Scribe unconscious. Dammit, Nora thought. How do I get out of this.
As though it was through divine intervention, the siren near the stairwell blared an ungodly loud noise and began shining red.
SECURITY BREACH IN THE MAIN HULL. THE VAULT DWELLER HAS ESCAPED.
Nora mimicked the salute she saw other soldiers doing when they either greeted or parted company and the woman before her did the same thing.
"I'll go search the lower hull." The Scribe said. "Be safe Danse."
Nora took off and went up down the stairs which led to the landing platforms and the main deck. Soldiers ran past her grabbing laser rifles, pistols, and heavy weaponry. Despite the underlying current of chaos, the Brotherhood operated efficiently and swiftly, almost like a well-oiled machine.
As she descended the first staircase, she saw a vertibird off to her left with a Brotherhood soldier wearing a remarkably odd helmet. Then she spied Nate and Deacon behind him.
"Deacon!" She yelled
Deacon couldn't hide the jubilant smile on his face. Holy shit! Wanderer managed to give them the slip and dressed as the Brotherhood's right-hand man, no less.
Nora approached him in a dozen large steps.
Still wearing his lopsided grin, he appraised the Power Armor. "Nice suit."
"Thanks, but we don't have time to talk." Nora said. "We need to get out of here."
"There she is!" Someone yelled. "She's wearing Paladin Danse's armor. Search for Danse! He could be injured!"
"Oh oh." Deacon said. "Alright! Time to go!"
Red laser beams flew past them as a dozen soldiers began opening fire. Nora felt the blasts hit the suit. She felt the heat from the bullets on her own back but the steel and aluminum held well enough that her body didn't take any damage.
"Let's go. Let's go. Let's go!" Deacon urged Tinker Tom.
"Just a minute, man. She's gotta disconnect from the landing platform. It's a whole ordeal." He snapped back.
Volleys of red laser bolts crackled so closely over their shoulders that she could smell the ozone they gave off. One managed to hit Nate's chest piece — a blow that would've killed him had he been without it — and he shucked the burned plastic off with a pained grimace.
"Deactivate the launch pads!" Someone yelled. "Don't let them take off!"
Nate ran across the thin metal walkway first, followed by Deacon, but the platform retracted before Nora could make it across.
"JUMP!" Nate yelled.
Nora jumped from the Prydwen's deck and landed like a sack of tatos into the vertibird but Nora's additional weight on account of the suit pitched the aircraft to the left side.
Tom growled and tried to compensate but the aircraft began rocking. "That's not good." He muttered.
"Go. Go. Go!" Deacon snarled to Tinker Tom. "Gun it!"
The vertibird banked sharply to the right as Tom overcompensated for Nora's added weight. A terrible metal snapping sound echoed like a cannon blast and the thin arms of the docking mechanism broke in half which put them into a free fall. Tom yanked hard on the throttle and on the wheel just as the vertibird's engine kicked on. They rocketed up just as the ground was about to smack them in the face and took off to the north west. Nora's stomach had simultaneously plummeted and then rose up to her throat once Tom had activated the upward thrust which sent them flying two hundred feet into the air in a three seconds.
"TOOOM" Deacon roared for a second time that night. "I FUCKING HATE THIS."
"Woo HOO! We're flying! We are flying!" Tom crowed like an excited child on a rollercoaster. "This is awesome!"
But before they could breathe easier, a four vertibirds launched from the Prydwen's hull and chased after them and several soldiers were jumping into others and preparing to launch.
"Tom we gotta get rid of our guests!" Deacon yelled.
When Tom looked behind him, Nora expected the normally nervous and odd man to freak out even more, but his dark face solidified into rigid determination and he hunched over the controls.
"Hold on to your butts. We're gonna do some evasive maneuvers." Tom announced.
"Hold on to this." Nate called out to Nora as he gestured at an army green netting that was attached to the inside of the aircraft.
Nora wrapped both of her armored hands in the netting and held tightly like Nate had done and braced herself for the worst. At least if she fell out of a vertibird in Power Armor, the chance of survival was better than 'definitely dead.'
The aircraft pitched from left to right, and at one point, Tom nearly did a full barrel roll. His dark eyes blazed with mania and adrenaline while Deacon's eyes were filled with complete, utter terror.
"T-Tom. TOM! THERE ARE FUCKING BUILDINGS THERE TOM!" Deacon's panicked babbling fell on deaf ears as the vertibird pitched violently to the left and right again as Tom weaved in between the Boston skyscrapers and slipped beneath a semi-collapsed overpass.
Explosions and fireballs illuminated the sky behind them but Nora didn't dare look out the window to see just how many of their pursuers they had lost to the Boston skyline.
As they flew, the Mass Fusion building rose up through the fog. Tom banked to the right to avoid the building and then they heard the telltale humming of another vertibird cutting though the fog.
"Those bastards are trying to cut us off." Tom yelled. "Hold on!"
Tom banked the aircraft to the right narrowly avoiding Trinity Tower but their pursuers were hot on their tail.
"Remember Tom? Sanctuary Hills!" Deacon yelled over the motor. "But we gotta lose them first. We can't lead them there."
"We need to go on the offensive." Nate yelled back. "Tom, bank hard to the right on my command. I'm gonna try and shoot them out of the sky."
"Jesus Christ, you're gonna do what?!" Deacon half-squealed, but Nora saw his resolve. Nate's chin was set in a hard line. His eyes blazed in determination and Nora had an uncanny feeling that this was what her husband looked like on the battlefields at Anchorage.
"Trust him, Dee." Nora yelled out. "He knows what he's doing."
Nate nodded his thanks and then peered out the open hanger door for his opening. They flew over Diamond City and its bright food lights. The slate grey river snaked below them beneath the thick clouds. Cambridge sat to the north while thick radiation-scarred forest awaited them to the west.
One vertibird cut through the dense clouds and flew towards them at top speed. The Lancer in the front gestured wildly at them while another Brotherhood Knight stepped up to man the mini gun.
"Here we go!" Nate yelled. "Now Tom! Bank to the right!"
Tom did as he was ordered just as the Knight let loose several dozen rounds. The gunfire missed them by mere feet.
"Now to the left!" Nate yelled.
He grabbed both of the minigun's handles and started firing as Tom maneuvered the aircraft. It was like an invisible hand cut through their pursuer with a line of bullets. Nate yelled a beastly roar as the minigun barrel glowed red hot in the darkness. The vertibird exploded and a rush of super heated wind and gas knocked into their aircraft. The other aircrafts were too far off to be within firing range.
"Cut to the North!" Nate yelled. "We gotta lose them in the cloud cover before we get to Sanctuary."
Tom nodded and they banked right past the Corvega Assembly Plant and made their way towards Malden.
"Oh oh." Nate said.
A vertibird came out of the clouds on their left. It was much too close to be part of the response from the Prydwen which meant it was a patrol aircraft that recieved orders to search and destroy.
The National Guard Depot flew by them and Nora saw the large spires of the Parsons State Insane Asylum ahead. Beyond that was wilderness.
"GO FASTER TOM!" Deacon snarled.
"I'm at maximum thrust. Her engine will burn out if I push her too hard."
"Then push her!" He yelled. "We need to get to cover!"
Tom looked anguished and he hit a few buttons as the hull's sirens went off warning that engine failure was imminent. As they approached Lynn Woods and Lake Quannapowitt, Nora heard the woosh of a missile and the entire aircraft jostled violently as a huge explosion in their rear pushed flames and smoke into the cabin.
"We've been hit!" Nate yelled. We gotta jump!"
"If we jump, we die." Deacon said.
"If we stay, we die!" Nate snapped. "Jump on my command!".
The vertibird's dials and monitors were going wild as the air roared around them. Black earth and trees gave way to the steel grey water and Nora untangled herself from the netting. She grabbed onto Nate's hand. If they timed their jump right, they'd be able to land in the reservoir.
The icy water flew up to meet them and she braced herself. The survival instincts in her brain screamed at her to land feet first into the water. She gritted her teeth and prayed to anyone listening for them to survive.
"Jump NOW!" Nate ordered.
Nora and Nate jumped out one side of the vertibird while Tom and Deacon jumped out of the other. Everything happened in a split second. Nora entered the cold water feet first and felt an icy punch to her chest. She saw a golden hue above her and heard the muffled sounds of an explosion. She sank to the bottom like an anchor. Her suit squealed warnings at her and she pressed the eject button but the water must've shorted the suit's controls. Cold water came in through the suit like water coming into a sinking car. Once it got to her stomach she couldn't stop her muscles from clenching rendering her helpless and unable to do anything.
Then a grating metal on metal sound met her ears and she was enveloped by the cold water and pulled backwards out of the suit. Once her head broke the surface, she inhaled a huge gulp of cold air and saw figures splashing nearby.
"I gotcha Wanderer." Deacon wheezed. "Swim to shore."
The attacking vertibird flew to the wreckage which was 800 yards away in the forest completely overlooking them in the darkness. It flew as low as possible without hitting the treetops, circled the wreckage, and flew back towards the Prydwen.
Deacon let out a low sigh and they swam to shore as silently as they could. Nora climbed onto the bank. Her chest pounded and her ears were ringing from the explosion and the impact of hitting the water. Then unbridled laughter tore from her chest. It was the kind of laughter that only happened when surviving a near-death experience.
"Nora." Deacon said sharply. "Something's wrong."
Nora's laughter died and she rolled onto her hands and knees. Thirty feet down the bank was Tom kneeling next to Nate who was prone on his back.
"Nate?!" She ran to him and collapsed onto her knees at his right side.
In the darkness, his pale face was almost luminescent. Nora saw a line of dark liquid drip from his hairline. His jaw clenched in pain and his lower lip quivered. Although Nora couldn't see how badly he was bleeding, she could smell the copper tang anyway.
"Shit! Nate, what's wrong? Where are you hurt?"
Tom pulled out a small flashlight that was attached to his uniform with a metal carabiner. He turned it on and held it above Nate's body.
With a pale, shaking hand Nate gestured at his chest and Nora gasped. Three large dark red spots bloomed out on his white shirt; the largest one was just below his right pectoral muscle.
"I — I — I" Nate shuddered. "The explosion. Shrapnel…from the minigun…clip exploded…"
"Shhh…Don't talk Nate. We'll get you help. I'll just relay us back to the Institute. You'll be fine hon." Nora's voice was too cheery but her false bravado was all she had.
"DEACON!" Nora yelled. "HELP ME!"
The spy kneeled next to Nora. He was favoring his left leg and had a gash across his lip, but otherwise he looked no worse for wear.
"Wanderer, we are sitting ducks out here. We gotta keep moving. If they send more vertibirds for us…"
But Nora tuned him out. She smoothed Nate's hair down while she pressed down on the worse wound with a handkerchief. Deacon saw how Nora's hands, pale from the cold, were tinged pink from Nate's blood and for the first time, his reaction was guileless.
"Nora, oh shit!" He whispered.
Nate coughed. It was a sick, wet sound that brought blood to his lips. His hands trembled and his adam's apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed a whimper.
"Directorate. This is the Institute. Do you copy?" Nora half-yelled into her communication device. "There was nothing but silence."
"God damnit," Nora cursed. "Deacon, we need some stimpaks or Med-X. Hell, anything would do by now."
"I'm sorry Wanderer, there's no —"
"BRING ME A FUCKING STIMPAK NOW." Nora roared. Her voice echoed in the night.
Deacon and Tom didn't move from their spots. They couldn't. How could they tell her that it wouldn't make a difference, at least not with the rate he was bleeding out?
Nora turned her attention back to Nate. She applied pressure to the main wound and the one at his hip, but the third one at his shoulder couldn't be dealt with until Deacon or Tom could find a stimpak or even some bandages to stop the bleeding.
"Directorate…this is Mother. I am requesting relay transport. Nate is injured and —"
Nate coughed again. His teeth chattering from the cold. "N-N-No-Nora. I'm t-t-tired. God I'm s-so tired."
"Shhhhh. Don't talk right now. Just focus on my voice. Don't fall asleep. Just keep listening to me." Nora soothed.
His eyes locked with hers and she saw the abject horror in his eyes.
"Talk to me." He grunted through clenched teeth. "Keep me awake. T-tell me a s-story."
Nora grasped at the first story that came into her mind. She spoke quickly.
"How about the time we first met, huh? I saw you serving sandwiches to an elderly man at the counter. You were wearing that ridiculous paper hat that the diner made all of their cooks wear, but I saw your blue eyes look out at me and I couldn't focus on what I was reading. I could've held your gaze for the rest of the night but you had to get back to work. I didn't even know your name yet, but I desperately wanted to talk to you. So when I ordered my second sandwich to-go, I was overjoyed to see that you had written your phone number on the back of the receipt."
Nate winced and the muscles in his neck tightened in pain. Nora saw the veins bulge out against his alabaster skin.
"I'm not him Nora." He said and shuddered. "Amari — I — was gonna —"
"Shhh. It's okay. There's nothing to apologize about." Nora croaked. Tears fell freely down her face and dripped on their clasped hands. "Don't ever apologize to me Nathan. Never."
"N—Nora." Nate chocked out. "I — l-love you."
"I love you too." Nora whispered.
"No!" He urged and his body jostled against the pain. "I love you Nora. Me. Not Him."
Nora nodded. She completely understood and she smiled. "I know Nate. And I love you too."
And in truth, Nora did. Not in the same way that she loved Nick or John, but she loved Synth Nate for what he brought into her life. She loved him for the tenderness and loyalty that he showed her son during his final moments. She loved him for his courage and bravery in all manner of things. And she loved him for his honor. Although she had broken his heart by rejecting him, he never pushed the issue once she said 'no.' Although he could never be her husband, she loved him anyway. She loved him like a fellow solider, like a best friend, and like a brother.
Another shudder tore through Nate and his eyes rolled back into his head. He let out an unintelligible groan and then was still. The handkerchief beneath Nora's hand was soaking wet with blood and an anguished sob tore from her throat.
"NATE!?"
She sat back on her haunches only to find Deacon's arms pulling her up away from Nate's cold body.
"NO! LET ME GO!" She roared and thrashed against him, but Deacon forcibly spun her around and hugged her.
"He's gone Nora." Deacon choked out.
"DAMMIT! YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO SAVE HIM!" Nora half roared and half sobbed into Deacon's shoulder. She pounded on his back with her fists not caring if she hurt the man. After all, he deserved to hurt as much as she did.
"Nora. Stop. Dammit Nora, STOP!" He pinned her wrists to her chest and backed her into a small tree. For a man of his slight stature, he was quite strong.
"He's gone Nora." Deacon said. "There's nothing we can do for him now."
"Fuck you!" Nora spat. She felt as strong as a three year old child and her upper lip trembled. "Why didn't you get him any medicine? Why didn't anyone come to help us? You just fucking let him die! I hate you! I fucking hate you!"
Tears dripped down Tom's face as he took the scene in. The sounds that erupted from Nora's chest were sounds that he didn't know humans could make. Nora groaned and screamed. She would've collapsed onto the ground if Deacon hadn't caught her.
Deacon pulled Nora into a hug, and his time she didn't retaliate with aggressive blows. He just held her as Nora sobbed into his soaking wet Brotherhood uniform. And try as he might to keep his damn composure, a few tears of his own trickled down his cheeks too.
Nora's pain evoked something that Deacon had thought he had buried long ago. As Nora mourned for her lost synth husband, he too mourned for a woman with white-blond hair and a smile as bright as an atomic blast.
"I'm sorry Wanderer. He's gone."
"No. No. No. No." Nora moaned and she collapsed to the ground with Deacon still holding her. He held her until her sobs turned to faint hiccups and shudders. Then all at once, her cries stopped and she looked down at her blood-soaked hands.
"Nora?" Deacon asked tentatively.
"We can't leave him here." Nora croaked.
"We're sitting ducks out here." Deacon admonished.
"We. Need. To. Bury. Him." Nora hissed. She grabbed Nate's cold hand and held it to her chest rocking back and forth on her knees.
Deacon rose to his feet, "Tom, give me the flashlight. Stay with Nora. I'll be right back."
Tom handed the light over to Deacon and watched Nora shudder and sob. He bowed his head and placed his dark hand on Synth Nate's shoulder.
After five minutes, Deacon came back with two shovels. He tossed one in front of Tom and began digging a hole up on the bank where the water wouldn't wash out the grave.
"Tom, help me dig." Deacon ordered. But before he could grab the shovel, Nora snatched it from him and rose to her feet.
"Nora—" Deacon protested but Tom shook his head. "Let her grieve how she needs to grieve, man."
The digging was harder work on account of the cold ground, but she barely felt the cold chill despite being soaking wet. Nora set to work digging with single-minded intensity. The sound of metal on rock, the sound of her heavy breathing was meditative. She didn't have to think. She didn't have to feel.
They worked together in silence. Deacon's grim face looked at her but he said nothing. There was nothing he could say that would make any of this okay. So together they dug a single grave and together they they cried.