Chapter Three
The Chopper and the Puppy Perk
Radar and her Uncle sat in the lab of their Vault in London, staring at a map of the area. They used toy cars to represent garages they knew of,
"So what's the plan here?" Radar asked, "Find any kind of fuel and make it work for the non-existant chopper we have waiting for us outside?"
"They're littered all over, whatever's missing from one can be taken from another. As for the fuel..." Her Uncle began, then he stopped, Radar' mother came into the room, "He's alive...or at least he was" He said passing her the note, then looking back at Radar he added, "I'll change what I need to change to get a chopper up in the air"
"It's more the landing I'm concerned about" Radar said
"Do you think I came down in the last shower?" Her Uncle quipped, "I was a mechanic for the Marines, the whole, if you can fix a bike you can fix a...bla, bla. From there I transitioned to terrotorial, I know what I'm doing"
"How do you test for fuel at a petrol station?" Radar' mother asked
"Make a phone call?" Radar said
"Wow" Her Uncle said, "You better have my back girl"
Radar positioned herself on the roof of parliament and took aim for raders and animals in her Uncle' path, three petrol stations and no luck, not one drop of fuel to be had.
As she met her defeated looking Uncle at the bottom of the clock tower a thought came to her mind, she slapped her Uncle on the arm,
"The cars!"
"Talk sense, they're nothing but rusted shells" He said
"Underground car parks, cars that haven't been exposed to the elements, the temperature is at a constant, it can't vaporise the fuel within the tanks" She said
He grinned and slapped her on the arm, she yelped,
"Don't do that to me then" She slapped him back and this went on for a while until they found themselves surrounded by rabid dogs. They were backed up to the door of parliament, "We need a distraction"
Radar dragged her Uncle inside and grabbed a fire axe off the wall, her Uncle then watched, half stunned, half proud as she chopped off the hand of a guard' corpse and wrapped its hand around a frag granade, she then took the pin out and threw it outside, she and her Uncle then ran towards the stairs as the granade went off and the dogs yelped before they died,
"That sorted you out" Radar said
2277
"Marry me" The Vault Dweller said
"Shut up" Radar replied
2275
Radar and her Uncle found an underground carpark full of expensive cars, they were covered in dust but otherwise appeared to be in a fantastic condition...until she opened the door to one and it came away in her hand,
Radar proceeded to laugh about this for a solid minute before she'd let her uncle test for fuel,
"Oh God it stinks" She exclaimed, "I'll wait for you upstairs"
"This might just work" Her Uncle said getting half a tank full,
"How many do we need for that non-existant chopper?" She asked
Her Uncle just laughed,
Radar left him too it and went out into the stairwell where she heard a dog in distress and wood hitting wood, Radar took her rifle, loaded it and sneaked upstairs.
A group of raders were tormenting a dog,
"You'll do for a sandwich or four" The rader said
Radar took him out first and a fight ensued. Radar was lucky with the first few, they didn't have weapons. The next two did though.
She didn't want to use her granades because she didn't want to kill the dog and there was ammo everywhere She shot the first out of the hand of one and ducked out of sight when the second aimed for her head. The bullet went into the fire alarm, which still worked.
The sound distracted her attacker and got her Uncle' attention, he arrived on the landing the fight was taking place on now as Radar was breaking her still living attacker' arm. She took his gun but then disguarded it,
"Usless...where are the others?" She asked
"Go to hell bitch!"
He went to reach for his friend' weapon and her Uncle shot him dead,
"We need to get out of here, it's too dangerous" Her Uncle said before shooting the alarm, "That noise!"
"We're taking the dog with us"
"We...what?" Her Uncle said
"The dog, pick him up and let's go" She said, then as they creeped down the stairs she added, "I'll carry the fuel tanks"
"That's a lot of ammo right there though" He said,
"It is a lot of ammo" She agreed, as they got outside with the dog they were shot at by raders from two floors up, "Cover me and get ready to run" She said before throwing two grandades, one over the wall to the floor the raders were shooting from and another through the window on the stairwell below it, "Boom, boom baby"
"Oh sh..."
Before either the raders or her Uncle could swear the granades went off and the ammo on two floors of the carpark went up
The noise could be heard from the Vault and it scared the living daylights out of Radar' mother,
"All that ammo!" Her Uncle shouted, upset as they got to safety, he was temporarily deafened,
"You don't have to shout" She said
"What?! Move your lips in an orderly fashion so I can assertain what you're trying to say!"
Radar ignored him and checked out the dog, it had a beautiful coat and had a Battersy collar on it with a computurised button that revealed a message when pressed,
"Puppy Perk" She said
Her Uncle' ears popped and he could hear again,
"What's that?" Her Uncle asked with a shake of the head,
"If this dog dies in battle he'll reappear as a puppy at the entrance to the next nearest dwelling, so we live in a Vault, if he dies he'll appear outside the nearest Vault to his corpse" Radar said
"When did that become a thing?" Her Uncle asked
"A puppy is for life, it's owners life" She said
"What was that noise!?" Radar' mother demanded as Radar and her Uncle returned to the vault that night, then she noticed the dog and backed into the wall, "That thing safe? Who...?"
"The noise...her, she blew up a multistorey car park full of ammo...and admittedly, raders, so it wasn't entirely a bad decsion" Her Uncle replied with a point, "The dog, also her"
"It's a rescue from Battersy by all accounts but it has a Puppy Perk battle dog button, it must have been a mine detection dog in it's previous life, he could be useful" Radar said
"What're we going to call him?" Radar' mother asked
"Dogmeat for all I care" Her Uncle said, then to Radar he added, "Tomorrow we're looking for a chopper"
"OK" She said with a nod and with that she left them to it to show "Dogmeat" around his new dwelling, where he was fawned over by her cousins.
Radar' mother looked at Radar' Uncle,
"How is she doing out there?" She asked
"Her sarcasm knows no bounds...but neither does her skill, she thinks fast and responds to her surroundings quickly and effeciently but then look at her dad" Her Uncle said
The next day Radar, her Uncle and Dogmeat set out at first light to search for a chopper they could work on. It wasn't until 1 in the afternoon they finally found what they were looking for.
There in the playground of a prep school within an overgrown woodland was a black ops chopper,
"Littered all over the place these things you said" Radar commented as they walked towards it with caution,
"Shut up" Her Uncle said
"We live on the Southbank"
"Shut up"
"This is Dulwich Prep"
"Shut up"
Radar pretended to try and lift the chopper and then looked at her Uncle,
"I need help, there's just no way I can carry this thing on my own"
"You're exhausting" Her Uncle said, Dogmeat put his paws on his legs and barked, "Oh who asked you?"
Dogmeat jumped down and peed on his shoe before padding over to Radar for appoval,
"Good Dogmeat" She grinned before giving him a treat
Her Uncle shook his head,
"I was being sarcastic about the name" He said, making his way over to the chopper to inspect it,
"The tag has registered it now" Radar replied, "How's the chopper looking?"
"Do you know it's not in bad nick actually, I could get this to work in a few days tops" He said
"There aren't any bodies around" Radar noticed, Dogmeat started pawing the ground and barked, "There are vaults in the area?" Dogmeat barked, "Think we should get word out about it being safe outside now?" Radar asked
"It's not though is it? Not while those bombs and smashers and power stations are exposed" Her Uncle said, "Trust me, they're safer underground for now"
A week later the chopper was ready, Radar was nervous though. Up until now, in her mind this was all make-believe, she didn't actually think her Uncle would come good on his word about them going to america and helping her dad to nutralise a world scale warzone.
She remembered everything she ever saw as a child of a special ops officer and sniper, every game she'd played, that actually turned out to be a practice run for attacks, his approach to problem solving and technology, their benefits and hinderences,
With Dogmeat and their supplies in the back of the chopper Radar and her Uncle climbed into the front and for a minute they just sat and looked at the controls before them,
"You know how to fly one of these things right?" Radar asked
"Uh..." He said
"Nope!" Radar responded, making to climb out but her Uncle grabbed her back in,
"Come on, it goes up it comes down, how hard can it be really?" He said
It was Dogmeat' turn to try and bolt but Radar looked at him,
"I don't think so Mr, I'm going to hell and you're going with me" She told him
Dogmeat whined and pretended to hide as Radar' Uncle got them up in the air.
Were anyone below and had looked up they would have run for their lives but by the time they reached the Atlantic he seemed to have the hang of it,
"Where are we heading?" Radar asked, clinging to everything, "Like, where?"
"The Capital Wasteland, Megaton is the nearest settlement to loners Vault" Her Uncle said, "From there we'll head over to Vault Tech and follow your father' trail"
"If we haven't run out of fuel before then" Radar said
They seemed to be making progress until a missile came their way,
They were being shot at by two Mutants patrolling the wasteland. They lost a propeller and spiralled, at one point Radar' Uncle was knocked out, forcing Radar to grab the stick and manipulate a safe landing.
She checked her Uncle over and then looked at Dogmeat, she unclipped herself and got out, then called Dogmeat to her,
She then took out the two Mutants with frag granades before pulling her Uncle out of the chopper, she scanned him with her Pitboy, something her father had left for her at number 10, and then gave him a stimpack,
"You'll have to sort yourself out now" She told him with a kiss on the forehead. She gathered supplies and used the wheels of a busted car and a broken fence and rope to fashion a trolly, she then pulled in the direction she hoped was the right one going by the map on her pitboy, "Come on Dogmeat, let's go, he'll be fine but we can't wait around for him"
Dogmeat barked and followed obediently.