Around mid-afternoon they finally reached the other side of the valley. All that remained was one last incline, over the top of which Seatac and the Sound would spread out below. Here the trees were thick, but Justin knew about halfway up the hill they would finally start to thin as they approached the edge of what used to be the city proper. The old buildings out here were rotting and dangerous, and packs of feral ghouls stalked the haunted streets. Most folks avoided places where the ghost of civilization and wilderness met, and Justin aimed to move them through it as quickly as possible. There was a road he knew that had survived the years surprisingly intact, and it garnered enough traffic that it had been flushed clear of most dangers a long time ago. If he was lucky there'd be a trade caravan moving down it that they could join up with. That would certainly put a damper on the raiders' plans to rob him at the end of this endeavor.
"Lock," He called. The eyebot puttered down to him. He plugged the Pip-Boy into her and pulled up her code.
"What're you doing?" Silverado asked.
"We're gonna be leaving the tree cover soon, I'm sending her ahead to scout out the way. Might be some caravans we can join with. At the very least she'll be able to see if there's any packs of feral ghouls we need to avoid."
Silverado did not look excited at the prospect of caravans, but the threat of ghouls stayed her tongue.
Justin edited Lock's parameters to hopefully keep her from flying directly up into the clouds. What he really needed was some time to sit down and go through her code, but right now the best he could do was throw some patch code in and hope it didn't cascade and break something further down the line. It probably would. He unplugged her.
"Alright, hop to it." He said.
She beeped, her lights blinking, and then flew off.
They continued moving. Justin watched his Pip-Boy, waiting anxiously to see if Lock picked up signs of anyone else out there in the wilderness. Behind, the raiders were murmuring amongst themselves. To his left, Stock beeped pleasantly. Justin gave her a sidelong glance.
"You're right. This was a mistake." He mumbled.
They reached the bottom of the incline. Loose rocks were strewn among the underbrush, making the footing somewhat treacherous. Justin didn't stop, plowing easily up the hill. He heard the raiders climbing behind him, but couldn't be bothered to check if they were making it alright. He'd hear if someone fell.
After a few meters of climbing, the hill evened out into a more gradual slope. To the right, Justin could see buildings through the trees, the very outskirts of the subdivision that used to cover the area. He'd always meant to pop by sometime to take a look through them. What he was really looking for was tech, and more often that meant diving into old industrial buildings, manufacturing plants, and mechanic shops. Houses weren't the best place for specialty scrap, but they often had food, clothes and, with luck, water. He was running low on all three.
As they moved through the trees, Silverado pointed ahead. "What's that?" She asked. She didn't sound concerned so much as confused.
Justin looked ahead. Through breaks in the trees he saw a long, low shape, stretching past his line of vision in either direction. He stopped walking.
"That's a palisade."
"A palla-what?" Gus asked.
"A pali- Christ, a wall. Obviously." Justin pointed. He ground his teeth together as he looked at it. "This wasn't here a couple months ago. This is bad." He said.
Gunfire cracked. They immediately took shelter behind various trees, but as another shot rang out it became quite clear the fire was not in their direction. On his wrist, Justin's Pip-Boy beeped. He held it up and read the words flashing on the screen.
"Ah god dammit no, they're shooting at Lock!" He typed furiously and brought up her video feed. The view was bobbing a few feet above the treeline. Ahead he could see where the forest ended. Haphazard buildings stood there, all scavenged metal sheets and wood. Nearest the trees stood a low watchtower of sorts, and on it he could see two figures. One was taking aim at Lock with a long rifle. He saw light reflect off the glass of a scope.
"Shit, nope, I just rebuilt you." Justin opened her command prompt. "Ain't doing that again, dodge you little bastard."
run/evasive_maneuver4
He hit 'enter', and Lock abruptly fell out of the sky.
Ahead through the trees he heard the sound of branches breaking and banging metal, followed by a 'thud' of impact. On his Pip-Boy, the screen was black for a moment, before the words 'Signal Lost' appeared.
"That… was not evasive maneuver four." Justin said, too shocked to form any ideas beyond that.
"The fuck do we do now?" Silverado hissed.
Justin looked up from his Pip-Boy. "I…" He hesitated, mulling it over. "...really wanna go get my eyebot back, honestly."
"That's a sniper rifle they got." She said.
"Yeah, and they didn't hit her with it. She's probably only a bit banged up, maybe some parts jostled, nothing I can't fix. Hell of a lot easier than a bullet hole."
"I'm not talking about the robot, YOU are going to get a bullet hole if you go out there!"
"Oh… I guess, maybe…" Justin peeked out from behind the tree, eyeing the palisade only a few yards away. He looked up, finding the break in the forest beyond the wall. She couldn't have been that far ahead of them. If he ran, he'd probably be able to grab her before they came looking. "How sturdy does that look to you? I mean it looks sturdy but like… power-armor-kick sturdy?"
She shook her head. "Scav, don't you dare."
"You… are not my boss." Justin said, only half paying attention to her. "Besides, what else are we gonna do, walk around it?"
"Yes!"
"Eh, that's a whole thing. I'd rather not do it without our scout." Justin waved her off. "The longer we talk the less time we have. I'll be right back." He knelt, setting the Supercomputer on the ground, and shrugged out of its harness. Ignoring her continued protests, he darted out from behind the tree, trying to be as stealthy as possible while wearing 200 pounds of metal.
He approached the palisade, searching it for weak points. Along the top ran a line of spikes, sharpened wooden stakes wrapped with wire. The wall itself was made of intersecting panels of wood and metal, layered on top of each other. If whoever built this was smart, the layers would stagger the entire length, leaving no real seams.
In Justin's experience, intelligence was hard to come by in the wasteland.
Justin ran a hand along the wall, testing the give. He found a panel of wood that bent as he pushed. He stopped there, eyed the panel, adjusted, and then kicked. The armor frame on his legs whirred and punched a hole straight through. He pulled his leg out and kicked again, widening the break, and then started pulling bits of splintered wood off, tossing them to the side. He ducked, looking through the hole he'd made, and stopped. It was dark on the other side.
"Shit… what the hell?" He blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. Dimly he saw what might have been the outline of a door, a few feet away. Long shapes stood in the gloom, light reflecting off coils of wire sitting in the corner. He'd apparently kicked his way into some sort of storage room. He squeezed through, trying to pick his way through the clutter to the door.
Outside, he heard shouting. No gunshots - yet. He froze, debating where to go, and then he heard the distinct sound of metal sliding on metal. The door in front of him unlocked, and pulled open. Justin put up ha hand, blinking against the sudden light and trying to discern anything at all about the figure in the doorway besides that it was pointing a rifle at him.
"God dammit," He heard the figure say, and the voice registered in Justin's mind as one he'd heard before. "I knew I recognized that eyebot." The gun lowered. "The fuck you doing knocking holes in my wall, Black Cat?"
Justin's eyes adjusted to the light enough for him to recognize the face of the person in front of him. Dark skin, and a scar running through one eye that left it milky white. "Vienna? The fuck you doing in the middle of nowhere with a palisade?" Justin responded. "Last I checked your lot was in Renton."
"Choke moved in, pushed us south." Vienna said. He set his gun on his shoulder and pointed behind Justin. "You're fixing my wall."
Justin looked at the hole he'd smashed through and shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. Look, I came in looking for Lock, y'all were shooting at her."
"Only a few times before I recognized that metalwork. I have no idea why it dropped, we didn't hit it."
"Yeah, that was on me." Justin said. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the hole. "Look I got some folks I'm leading into Seatac, you got a gate or something we can go through?"
A strange look passed over Vienna's face. "You leadin' people into Seatac? Where?"
"They're heading to Columbia I think. I'm just heading in to restock."
"Columbia? Who the fuck you got with you?"
"Who the fuck you think?" Justin responded, voice low. "And what're you gettin' on about with that judgemental look? You forgotten how we met?"
"That," Vienna countered, "was a long time ago-"
"Two years-"
"-AND I've grown a lot since then. And frankly, I've learned to pick my battles." Vienna shook his head, then backed out of the doorway, gesturing for Justin to follow. "These people gonna rob you when you're all done?"
"Hopefully not?" Justin ducked out of the small doorway. The inside of the wall was more complex than it looked from the other side - it was less of a palisade and more of a true wall, five or six feet thick, with a walkway atop and stairs that ran along the side of the storage room Justin had broken into. Further in past the treeline Justin saw a couple buildings constructed around the shells of pre-existing houses.
"Damn, you got a whole little compound here." Justin commented. "Y'all got this up quick."
Vienna shrugged. "Drastic times, all that." He eyed Justin with what might have been concern. "You really heading into Seatac?"
Now it was Justin's turn to eye Vienna. "Should I not?" Part of him was hoping Vienna needed something - he'd sold his services to the man before, keeping his guns and tech running. It was a straight enough shot to Seatac from here, the others could make it without him if he had an excuse to stay.
Vienna mulled it over for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah it's fine. Just surprised is all. Look-" He sighed and put a hand on his hip, looking back at the storage room. "Far as I'm concerned, quicker you get your rain cloud away from my home, the better. Let's call it square on the wall, my men did try to shoot your robot down. I'll open the gate. Go get your friends and I'll let you guys through."
Justin tried his best not to look disappointed. "Thanks." He said, though he couldn't force a whole lot of sincerity into his voice.
Vienna whistled. Further back toward the buildings, Justin saw a couple people sitting near a burning trash can look up. Vienna waved them over. Both had long, mean-looking rifles, and both looked Justin up and down, sizing him up in the way only raiders could. "Dianne, go get that eyebot, and be careful with it. Keith, hop up top and open the gate. We're letting these folks go through."
It looked like both of them had some opinions about their orders, but they kept it to themselves. As Justin and Vienna stood in front of the gate, Justin gave Vienna a sidelong glance. "Back in Renton you woulda killed a rival gang as soon as look at 'em." He said, and then smirked. "I'm rubbing off on you, aren't I?"
"Nah," Vienna turned as the gate began to swing open and clapped a hand on Justin's shoulder. "Just be a waste of bullets. They'll be dead enough before long - they're with you."
The humor left Justin's face. "Hey fuck you." He snapped.
Vienna grinned, tipping his hat and walking away. He pointed across the way, to the gate on the other side of the compound, which stood open. "Get the fuck outta my home, Black Cat." He called as he left.
Justin watched him miserably as the gate squeaked open. "It wasn't my fault." He muttered, swallowing hard as his throat got tight around the words. He sighed and looked at the ground, fighting off the wave of loneliness and bitter resentment that Vienna's words had shot through him.
"Hey!"
Justin started and looked up at the voice. Atop the wall, the man who'd opened the gate pointed. "Gate's open, you getting your friends or what?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Justin muttered. He walked out of the gate, eyes still on the ground a few feet in front of him. "Ain't my friends, though…"
Justin returned to the little glade where he'd left the others. It wasn't until he actually saw them, still sitting there waiting, that he realized he'd half expected them to leave without him.
"Holy shit he's alive." Gus said. "Y'all owe me ten caps."
"What's the story, Scav?" Silverado asked.
"They're gonna let us through." Justin said.
"Just… like that?"
"Yeah. I uh, actually know the guy in charge, so it's whatever." Justin sighed. He whistled, and Barrel and Stock descended from the tree cover he'd ordered them to hide in. He went back to the Supercomputer and looked at it for a moment, briefly considering whether he should go through his bags to see if they'd stolen anything. "Fuck it, does it really matter?" He asked himself.
"What?" Apparently he hadn't been quiet, judging from the look Matt was giving him.
Justin waved a hand. "Nothing." He slipped back into the power armor torso and hoisted the Supercomputer up. "Let's get moving, we've lost enough time as it is."
He led them back through the gate. On the other side, a woman was waiting for them, holding Lock. She held her out. "This yours?"
Justin took Lock from her. "Thanks." He muttered.
"What model is that?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious. "I've never seen one with that kind of lens."
"I uh… I built her." Justin said. "Just used a regular chassis as a base, put in a camera I found in an old film studio a few years ago."
"Oh, it looks like it was built like that." She smiled. "You're pretty good, aren't you?"
"I guess."
Her face fell, but then she shook her head and stepped back. "Vienna said he didn't want you all hanging around too long. Other gate is just over there." She pointed.
Justin nodded, tucking Lock under his arm. "Thanks." He said. He stomped off, and the others fell into step behind him.