16
The two lovers knelt, still naked, before Patience and her companions, heads down, hands behind their heads. They both seemed malnourished, almost to the point of being dangerously thin. The girl, her hair cut into a dual mohawk style and the boy with a single, complimentary mohawk, appeared non-plussed by the situation.
"Still shy in front of others, Bradley?" Gia crouched before the boy and poked his flaccid penis with the barrel of her laser pistol.
"You know these fuckers?" Valrie had already searched the area for anything she could collect, coming up empty handed.
"Oh, yeah. We were lovers." Gia stood up, looking at Valrie. "Back when we were in the same gang."
"Which one? The boy or the girl?" Vincent didn't cover the two naked lovers, but still held his rifle ready to aim at the first provocation.
"Both." Gia crouched again, cocking her head to the side. "They were never this thin before. So, where's the rest of them, Lyla? Otis? Brindy? Lark?"
"Gone." The girl, Lyla, looked up at Gia, her face blank. Drawn and almost half-asleep. Gia rolled the barrel of her pistol, urging the girl for more information. "They left when the Super Mutants started hauling off people. They left while we were stoned on Jet. We woke up, they were gone."
Patience put her hand on Gia's shoulder, then crouched beside her, resting her rifle on her thighs. She lifted Lyla's chin and saw the discolouration around the girl's mouth, the brown, chipped teeth. The girl looked at Patience as if she weren't really there. Her eyes focussing on a point beyond the back of Patience's head.
Beside the filthy mattress, that the two had used to have sex upon, Patience could see several inhalers littering the floor. She couldn't remember hearing about this 'Jet' before, but she knew drug use when she saw it.
"Where did the Super Mutants take your friends?" She cupped the girl's face. She was pretty, once. Now, the drugs had ruined her. "Do you know where? Are there many Super Mutants around here?"
"The Mall. They took them to the Mall." The boy, Bradley, lifted his head for the first time. "Almost got me once. Dragged me all the way to the Mall and I got away. Played dead. I can play dead real good."
"They come and go. Come and go." The girl began swaying from side to side. "Sometimes they're all out there. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes I think they're there, but they're in my head. Screaming purple bubbles."
Patience shook her head, standing up and pulling Gia with her. The ex-raider didn't seem too upset at the state of her old lovers. In fact, she seemed to find it funny. Valrie looked at the two young adults, with their emaciated bodies and seemed to feel a genuine sadness for them. Vincent didn't appear to have any feelings, either way.
"Seems the Super Mutants are everywhere." She gathered them all into a circle, keeping their eyes on the two naked raiders. "Are we going to have trouble getting to Vault-Tec HQ?"
"I don't know. It's a long time since I patrolled that area and, somehow, the Super Mutants seem to be growing in numbers." Vincent hooked a thumb towards Bradley and Lyla. "I don't think we can take anything the Jet-heads say seriously. They could be right, could be wrong, could be thinking this is all a dream."
"Valrie, you looked around. Have these two got any food? Water?" Patience could see nothing except the Jet inhalers and Bradley and Lyla reaching out to grope each other.
"Nothing. And I know what you're thinking, but it's a fucking waste." Valrie turned Patience to look at her. "These fuckers are gone. They're done. It's sad, yes, but you leave food and water for them and they won't fucking use it."
"Hey, have you got Jet?" The boy reached behind, grabbing a Jet inhaler. He took a hit and passed it to Lyla. "You can fuck us if you got Jet. How about you, big man? You can fuck me, man, or I can fuck you. I'm a good fuck, either way. Yours if you got Jet. Or you can have her, she's good. She likes it. You can have us both for Jet."
Patience took off her backpack, removed some of her food and water rations, and left them in front of Bradley and Lyla. They didn't notice. They were too busy groping each other and kissing, no longer aware of anyone else as the Jet burned into their brains. They fell to the mattress and were soon having sex once more.
"Come on. There's nothing more to be gained here." Vincent put his hand on Patience's elbow, leading her back towards the stairs down to the concourse.
Patience didn't see Valrie pick up the supplies she had left for the two drug-addled lovers. Gia moved in front of Patience and Vincent, walking backwards, spinning her laser pistol in her hand and ramming it into her holster, showing off, but Patience couldn't find the energy to smile. The state of Bradley and Lyla had disturbed her and she wished there was more she could do for them.
"I can't believe I used to sleep with those two. They didn't even recognise me!" Gia spun around upon reaching the stairs and, placing a hand on each rail, slid down a few feet before breaking the slide with a tight grip.
"Did you used to do Jet, too?" Patience couldn't help but look back towards the two lovers. "When you were with them?"
"Yeah. Everybody did. Not like that, though." Gia changed tack and sat on one of the rails to slide down a little. "Only losers get that bad. No wonder the gang just left them."
Patience couldn't understand how little Gia cared. She did understand that this was a different world, with different values, different priorities, but to dismiss former lovers as if they meant nothing to you was a way of thinking foreign to her. She couldn't imagine it. But, then again, she couldn't imagine having a lover. Nothing in her Swiss cheese memory gave her any indication of whether she'd ever had a lover.
She didn't even know what kind of person she felt attracted to. She thought Gia was pretty, Vincent rugged and handsome, Valrie had a certain attractiveness to her and Three Dog was, without a doubt, a good looking, magnetic man, but she didn't have any sexual feelings towards any of them. She felt like a robot.
Seeing Bradley and Lyla together didn't turn her on, not least of which because of their malnourished and drug ravaged bodies and faces, but it did stir a feeling in her. The need to feel loved. She doubted, however, that she would ever find anyone to love in this dark and lonely land. And, after a fashion, she hoped that she never would.
A short maintenance area led to the outside and a large open area that appeared to be an overground junction area for the Metro. Two lanes of rails criss-crossed each other before heading towards two more sets of large doors, now closed and blocked by rubble. A large, high canopy, overhead, allowed twinkles of murky light through the many shattered and broken panes of glass and, across from them, the ruins of the Statesman Hotel reared up behind a concrete walkway between two ravaged buildings.
"Keep your eyes open here. A lot of Super Mutant activity in these areas, usually." Vincent hugged the wall of a building, training his rifle across the area. "Months ago, we could have just gone out the exit where the two lovebirds were, but that's blocked now."
"Cave-in?" Valrie looked over Vincent's shoulder towards the hotel.
"No. One of the Brotherhood." He glanced over his shoulder at Valrie, but looked away, a sad look in his eye. "She was being overrun by feral ghouls. Blew her fusion core to take them out. Saved all our lives."
Patience could tell there was more to that story. The way he spoke. She wasn't certain what it was, but that incident, for certain, had affected the undercover Knight. She filed it away. Something to ask him about later if they all survived. In the meantime, she scanned the open space before them with her rifle. Something caught her eye.
"Movement. One o'clock, high." Not for the first time, Patience wished her rifle had an optical sight. Instead, she held out her hand to Valrie, knowing by instinct that the older woman would know what she wanted.
Indeed, Valrie placed the broken binoculars into her hand without a word. Placing the eyepiece to her eye, she traced the footbridge a hundred feet or so in front of them. Her fear became realised when she saw the unmistakable bulk of a Super Mutant patrolling the bridge, modified rifle in hand, looking at the ground below. She passed the binoculars to Vincent.
"Way I see it, we have two options." She pointed towards two points. One with a Pulowski Preservation Shelter, a light blinking above its door, and the other, a concentration of broken, rusted vehicles, mounds of rubble and small structures. "We take up separate positions, draw its attention and I take it out. But, with this rifle, I'm not sure I can do it in one shot."
"That's a fucking stupid idea!" Valrie scowled at Patience.
"I'll get its attention!" Gia began to jump up, but Valrie grabbed her, pulling her down to land on her backside.
"Sit the fuck down!" Keeping a firm grip on the struggling Gia, Valrie looked at Patience again. "What's the second option?"
"We sneak by." She looked up towards the Super Mutant, taking a slow, lazy turn at one end of the bridge. "Vincent? Thoughts?"
Vincent, his back to them all, continued looking through the binoculars. He shifted position to look around the corner, getting a better look at the terrain they needed to cross. Patience knew he had heard everything she had said and she waited for his response. Vincent clicked his tongue and held the binoculars out for Valrie.
"Both are difficult. You could make the shot, but that rifle wasn't made for sniping and we don't know how many others might be skulking around." He used his hand to point to several places across the open space. "Stealth will take longer, but there's several good pieces of cover. We go one-by-one. Once we reach the radiation crater, there's enough cover for everybody, but that's a whole different problem waiting for us."
"Radiation crater?" Gia, still held by Valrie, attempted to stand up again. She didn't get any further than last time. "Radiation turns you into a ghoul. I don't want to become a ghoul!"
"Does this hurt?" Valrie took a grip of a piece of skin on Gia's arm, pinched and twisted.
"Ow! Yes!" Swatting away Valrie's hand, Gia rubbed her arm where a red welt already started showing.
"Then you're not even fucking close to becoming a ghoul." Ignoring Gia's venomous look, Valrie turned her attention back to Patience and Vincent. "Go on. If she doesn't want to come, she can go back to the fuckbunnies down in the Metro."
All eyes fell back to Patience. Even Vincent appeared to defer to her judgement on the issue. She looked at the Pip-Boy on her arm. With that function she used before, the 'VATS', she felt almost certain she could target the best place to hit the Super Mutant with a kill-shot. The problem would be the relative inaccuracy of the rifle and the possibility of other Super Mutants being around to hear the shot.
The stealth option seemed the best option. If it were only she and Vincent attempting it. Valrie and Gia were non-combatants that she had, like a fool, allowed to accompany them. Patience knew they could be quiet, she'd seen it, but this was an entire other thing. They would need to be precise, co-ordinated, exact and silent. They weren't trained for this. Then again, Patience wasn't even sure she was, either.
She took another look at her companions before deciding. Vincent, stoic and resolute, ready whenever she was. Valrie, calm and loyal, but older and not built for this. Gia, eager and excitable, far too unpredictable for her own good. Patience chewed her lip, glanced at the Super Mutant patrolling above on the bridge and then looked at the course they would have to take across the open area.
"Alright. Stealth, then." She grabbed Gia and Valrie's hands. "Listen, neither of you have to do this. You can go back to your own lives. I won't think any less of you. But, I can't stress this enough, if you do this, you have to do exactly what Vincent and I say. Exactly! Go where you're told to go. Stop when you're told to stop. This isn't just about keeping quiet. You have to become invisible. Do you understand?"
"I'm sticking with you. If almost being eaten by fucking ghouls didn't stop me, you think this will?" Valrie patted Patience's hand then set her face in an expression of grim determination, adjusting her scratched football helmet. It looked comical.
"I'm good." Gia's wide-eyed, grinning face didn't foster any confidence in Patience, but she couldn't fault the girl's enthusiasm.
"You should send them back. They're liabilities." Vincent didn't bother looking over his shoulder and he missed the vicious scowl Valrie bored into his back.
"Fuck you, Brother Vacant. If you think I'm leaving my girl alone with you, then you're sorely fucking mistaken!" Giving Vincent the finger to his back, Valrie furrowed her brow, determined even more, and nodded to Patience.
She knew it wasn't a good idea, but she had no right to tell anyone where they could or couldn't go. She had given them the option. They weren't stupid, not even Gia. They knew this was going to be dangerous. It was their choice. But, in the back of her mind, Patience still wanted to order them to go back. To return to their lives or, in Gia's case, start a new, better one. She didn't want to be responsible for them and she didn't want to be responsible for their deaths, that was certain.
Tapping Vincent on the shoulder, she made her decision. Whatever happened, happened. Vincent, quiet as a breath, slipped out into the open area, heading towards the first piece of cover.
Vincent reached his second stop point, taking his time to relax himself before popping his head above the rubble to view a full circle. With the Super Mutant above walking the other way, Vincent signalled the way clear. It was time for Valrie to move towards the first stop, a thicket of dead bushes at the edge of the open area.
Satisfied that Valrie had hidden well enough, he scanned the way ahead again. The next piece of cover, an overturned car, its underside brown with rust, was another ten feet ahead. After that, the next place to hide would be another thirty feet away. The traffic barriers and security booth would be able to hold all of them, lessening the stretching of the party, but a long distance for Valrie and Gia to sneak towards.
As Vincent moved, Valrie waited and then moved to fill his place. Then it came to Gia's turn and then Patience bringing up the rear. All four of them separated, now, and the Super Mutant on the walkway bridge above had turned to saunter back their way.
At this point, the rubble Gia hid behind offered the least amount of cover. Patience could see, even from a distance, that Gia breathed too hard after expending little effort so far. The girl, as brash and forward as she was, appeared to be on the verge of panic. Patience wished she could run across to the young woman, to comfort her and ease her worry, but the Super Mutant took that moment to glance over the wall of the walkway, through the broken chainlink fencing, down at the wide open square.
Patience raised her rifle. If the creature saw Gia, she would loose every bullet in her magazine at the brute and hope and pray that no others came running at the noise. Long, painful seconds passed before the Super Mutant ducked its head back from the wall and continued its patrol. Patience looked over at Gia, pressing herself against the mound of rubble, eyes closed, her face flat against the broken concrete.
Then Gia's eyes flashed open, looking everywhere. She gripped the concrete slab she hid behind and looked as if she were about to run. That would be a disaster, for Gia if no-one else. By now, Valrie had joined Vincent within the security booth at the traffic barriers. Gia should be moving on to the upturned car. That didn't look likely to happen. Patience had to do something and she had to do it soon, before Gia exposed herself to any more danger.
Patience took the chance, now, while the Super Mutant almost reached the point where it would turn around again. She dashed from the brittle, dead bushes, keeping low. She needed to be quick. Gia was about to move, her eyes locked upon the Pulowski shelter Patience had pointed to earlier. Gia would never make it. It was too far with nowhere to hide along the way.
She grabbed the young ex-raider in time, pulling her back down behind the rubble, her hand over Gia's mouth as the girl struggled against Patience's strong grip.
"It's okay! It's okay. I'm here." She whispered in Gia's ear and Gia gripped Patience's arm. Gently, Patience turned Gia's head to look into her eyes, locking on to them with her own. "I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth. Don't make a noise, okay?"
Slow and careful, she took her hand from the girl's mouth. Gia's fingernails still dug deep into Patience's arm, but she remained silent, her eyes never leaving Patience's. Patience looked up towards the walkway. The rubble couldn't cover both of them, Patience only hoped the creature didn't look down at that moment. She raised a hushing finger to her mouth and Gia nodded, breathing short, quick breaths.
Patience glanced towards the security booth to see Vincent desperate to catch her attention. He made hand signs, giving her a message. Two more Super Mutants sighted, ground level, to her right, hold position. Patience squeezed Gia's hand, waiting as Vincent looked through Valrie's broken binoculars, away to her left. Then he passed them back to Valrie and signalled another message. Building to her left, use the window, meet other side. She gave him the thumbs up and looked towards the building.
"Gia, Sweetie, change of plan. Okay?" She glanced, again, up to the Super Mutant on the walkway bridge. They'd been lucky so far, but it wouldn't miss them forever. She pointed to the building and the frameless window. "We need to go into that building. Do you think you can do that?"
"I'm not scared." The tremble in Gia's whispered voice said otherwise. "I'm not."
"I know. I know you're not, Sweetie. And I need you to keep being brave, okay?" Patience rubbed Gia's shoulders and squeezed them, then gripped Gia's hand ready to pull her towards the building. "Ready?"
Gia, wide-eyed, never looked away from Patience, her breaths still too fast and short. Patience counted down with her fingers. Three. Two. One. Then she moved, keeping a tight grip on Gia's hand. It seemed to take an age to get to the building. As soon as the wall came within her reach, she spun around, flopped her back against the wall and stirruped her fingers. Gia didn't even pause, she thrust her boot into Patience's hand and launched herself through the hole in the wall that once held a window.
The hole was too high for a standing jump. Patience had to back up a couple of steps before taking a running jump, catching the edge where the frame once sat. The concrete crumbled beneath her gripping fingers, but held as she hauled herself upwards and slid through the hole. Where her hand once was, the concrete broke and tumbled to the ground outside.
Patience dropped beneath the hole, her back against the wall, holding out her hand for Gia's and making the hushing sign again. Gia, her back bent almost double, came and sat beside Patience, holding onto her arm with both of hers. After a few seconds, Patience chanced a look over the edge of the hole. The Super Mutant still pointed its weapon down towards the ground, its eyes making a sweep of the area. Seeing nothing, it scratched its head and continued its patrol.