Chapter Eight
A close call for Dogmeat
"What are you doing with these people?" James asked
"They're going to help us to purify the water in other countries if I help them bury anything to do with Nuclear power sourses and weapons. We can't do it o our own. The process alone is too dangerous we need to use robots that can't feel to do the task we set for them" Matt replied
"We need that program complete" Radar said, "We do't even know if it'll work now it's been halved"
"It should do" Craig said, "Providing I can find a singe"
"Who owns this program?" James asked
"The loner vault dweller but he's trapped beneath the Lincon memorial, if he's even still alive that is" Radar said
"We need to test this program out first" Matt said
"We need a spare synth, but where do we get one of those?" Podray asked
"I did come across one I an old shopping mall in Springfield" James told them, "It was in a shop of the future"
"This mean you're coming with us?" Matt asked
"No, I'm done with fighting, the water has been purified, that was my job, it's time for us to start over" James said
"Then we do so alone because I'm going with them" Matt said and he took the circuit
Radar was worried for Matt as they left the vault,
"Yo! Did you get rid of the Mirelurk's?" The teen called
"I forgot about you" Radar said, "Yes, they're gone"
"How can we repay you?" The teen asked
"You can't unless you have a singe on your person...or you could just try beig nicer people overall, we have choices in life, we can be arses and blame it on our past or be good and honest and survive the past, accept things we had no control over" Radar said
With that and one last growl from Dogmeat they left, following James' directions to the mall in Springfield.
What James hadn't told them was just how many obsticles stood in their path, between molerats and mutants and raiders,
Radar realised they were all fighting for whatever was in the centre of a pit. A space craft and an alien.
"Oh give me a break" Radar exclaimed
"You do't believe in aliens?" Matt asked
"Oh I believe in aliens, I just don't believe they'd be dumb enough to come here of all places"
Craig clocked something odd about the alien' kneck, took a pen knife and cut into it. It didn't go in far because beneath the green skin was a metal shell,
"He'll do" Craig grinned, "This is an experiment by the government"
"I'm not flying a UFO around the Capital Wasteland" Podray said
"We can take the parts to fix our chopper though and then rescuing the lone vault dweller will be a piece of piss" Craig responded
"We still need a singe for the program" Radar said
"You and Matt go on to the mall, we'll stay here and harvest parts" Craig said
For the rest of the journey to the mall Radar and Matt used their sniper rifles and covered each other, shooting anything that appeared to hostile as it moved towards them.
"You OK?" Radar asked
"You care?" Matt asked
"Define care" Radar said
"You don't want me losing sight of the goal, you don't want me feeling rejected" Matt said
"More of the second than the first" Radar said, "I can see the finish line now, we can relax a little, we get the spare synth working for us and then we can help the lone vault dweller...if we're too late we can still reclaim the synths stolen from him, guarantee there were more than the ones we saw in the first vault, and we can do what we came here to. After that we hold up our end of the bargin while continuing our campaign in other countries out there" Radar said
"Dad and mum had a little fun, I found these notes...I got in the way of his fun, she died after I was born and he took me to Vault 101, where I grew up surrounded by people, who couldn't stand me because of dad, because the overseer had aloud us in from the outside world. There was one girl but I saw her more as a sister and to be honest my feelings changed when I realised her dad wanted me dead, dad caused all that hatred and left me there, he said he thought I'd be safer where I was. When I caught up with him, I thought he'd changed his mind and this was a project we could do together but in reality I was just another hand he could use, all the while patronising me with lines like "I've heard great things about you, I'm proud""
"I'm sorry" Radar said with feeling
"Had anymore thoughts about saving Megaton?" He asked
"Use the synths to move the residents to a clean replica and then blow it to hell where it belongs" Radar told him
Podray and Craig had to take it in turns harvesting bits from the fake UFO because they were attacked by all sorts. They realised each group had to have had a base and a lookout nearby so they used their sharp eyes to locate them and went for the raiders and mutants atop of these instead.
"Where's the chopper?" Podray asked
"About ten miles south of where we are now, we've pretty much managed to do a full circle. The damage to the chopper is minimal, these things will definitely help" Craig said
Radar and Matt found their way into the old shopping mall and for a minute or too they forgot about everything they'd seen so far or why they were there. They past unspoiled but dusty toy shops and clothing stores, a cinema even,
"I never knew any of this stuff" Matt sighed, full of ligit wonder
"I took it for granted" She said then she smiled at a blowse in the window, "That's nice" Then she copped the price, "Not that nice"
"Take it, not like money exists anymore is it?" Matt said
"And lose karma? Not worth it, this place is like a museum" Radar replied
"Hang on you'll take the singe from the hardware store but you won't take the blowse?" Matt asked confused
"I don't need the blowse" Radar replied
Being shot at by raiders brought them back round to why they were there and once they'd been dealt with they found the hardware store,
Most of the shelves had been looted but the item they needed was behind a glass cabinet. Radar used a screwdriver to prize it open then took the circuits over to the counter on the other side of the store. It took some time to get it to work but she did eventually and after a careful hour or two she had the circuit in one piece.
"What do we do with this now?" Matt asked, "Put it straight into the synth?"
"No, we need to sync up the circuits of each synth to this one once we've added it to our nearest available terminal, if it's successful then we just need to make sure we take this circuit with us wherever we go, so that when the time comes we can control all the other synths we need" Radar told him
"Cleaver" Matt said with a nod
"It's bloody complicated and long winded is what it is" Radar remarked
With darkness fast approaching Radar and Matt descided it was probably safer to stay where they were so after making their way up onto the roof and doing a full sweep, using a torch as code to let Craig and Radar know they were OK they found a department store with beds in them to sleep in. They raided the store room for blankets and duvets that were still wrapped up in plastic.
They then built a forte for themselves out of sofas and torches and duvets and blankets. It made Radar feel like a kid again and miss her cousins back in the vault in London.
"This is cosy" Matt grinned
It really was,
"I used to do this all the time with my cousins, you really were born at the wrong time. There's a beach in London, not that people realise. It only appears for about four hours each day, people go down there and sculpt for pennies. In the summer months we'd go to this little village in Kent that had a river in sections, we'd have a picnic...dinner in a basket, and then play in the water all afteroon or we'd go to the beach" Radar told him, "I always felt safer in a homemade forte, don't know why"
"You sleep first, I'll guard" He said
"No need, we've got Dogmeat, the king of the castle, trust me he'll tug and bark if something' up" Radar said
The night passed by peacefully,
Radar woke up to find Matt close and a protective arm across her,
"Excuse me?" She said as he opened his eyes, "Comfy there?"
He sat up,
"I was worried about you in the night so I thought I should...get a little closer" Then responding to the look on her face he added, "Shut up"
"You got scared didn't you?" She teased
"Shut up"
"I don't want to leave this forte" She said
Dogmeat whined,
They exited the forte and found the poor dog struggling to breathe, a needle in his side and a very pleased raider across the room. Before he could react to Radar, she shot him in the neck and proceeded to tend to Dogmeat while Matt did a sweep of the store,
"What was he injected with?" Matt asked
"Blood thinners" Radar said
She wasn't calm this time, she was upset,
"Come on, focus, what can we do for him? Think like a soldier" Matt said
Dogmeat looked Radar in the eyes and a blood drop ran out of his nose,
"Blood transfusion!" Radar snapped, "I need to give him a blood pack!" Then as she raided her backpack she said, "Matt, I need tubing, go to the drinks section of the cafe on the next floor up and get me the tubing from the fizzy drinks, hurry!" Matt ran as fast as he could, up to the next floor as Radar comforted her now stricken pet. Dogmeat whined again as blood dripped out of his nose again, "You're a soldier Dogmeat, we've got this"
Matt arrived back with the tubing and Radar got to work on saving her beloved dog,
"Wait, this is human blood" Matt said as Radar hooked the dog up and hug the blood bag off the hook of a coat rack,
"It's all I have" Radar said, "Law of the battlefield, use what you have to hand and make it work for you, he has a cut on his paw and he's bleeding from the nose, which means he impacted with something as he was injected with the blood thinners, he needs red blood cells. Once I've stopped the bleeding then I can scan him for internal injuries and use a stempack on him or opperate if I have to"
The wait was a long one. Once the bleeding had stopped they carried him into the forte and watched him like hawks.
Dogmeat was truly the most beautiful dog Matt had ever come across, like a wolf almost, white, grey and black, alsation/husky cross with piercing green eyes.
"Come on soldier" Matt said stroking Dogmeat' ears
His heart beat faster as Dogmeat fell asleep,
Radar and Matt succame to tiredness in the end and fell asleep where they sat and when they woke up in the morning they found what they thought was Dogmeat raiding Radar' backback for treats, full of life, like a little puppy but adult sized.
Then they realised there were two of them,
Dogmeat' eyes snapped open and he eyeballed the dog raiding the treats,
He limped a little and greeted the other dog,
"Uh oh" Matt said, "No girls Dogmeat"
Dogmeat looked at Matt with a wounded expression,
"Want her to come with us?" Radar asked
Dogmeat barked happily