Chapter Three: Roots

Porter Gage knew from experience that revenge could be a powerful motivator. He`d been running with raiders since he was sixteen years old. At first they frightened him for the ways they victimized his family. Fear had not ruled him, however. There was also anger. An anger that intensified every time the outpost he grew up in was hit, and everyone just rolled over. No one had bothered to fight back. Disgusted, he`d left as a preteen and never regretted it.

Gage went from settlement to settlement, working odd jobs for the caravans and whoever would pay him enough that he could eat. Everywhere he went it was the same, until one day it wasn`t. The first time he'd seen the caravan mercenaries stand up and fight for themselves, they were butchered. That was the moment Porter felt he truly understood the way this world worked. He knew which side of the guns he wanted to be on from that point forward.

Joining the raiders had not been easy. He`d had a hell of an initiation; started out at the very bottom and had to fight his way up. If there was anything he was willing to do, it was fight. He didn't care how many times he had to prove himself. What pissed him off was starting over every few months as the gangs destroyed themselves from within. Without strong leadership, or a goal to work towards, or something to keep them occupied, they all fell. He began to notice things, to learn things about how a successful raider gang operated. Being young and overconfident he hadn`t known when to keep his mouth shut.

Then Connor`s gang had come along. Harvester, he`d called himself. He`d taken some of Gage`s advice, gained his trust, and made the younger man feel important. Almost like a teacher. What Connor had taught him in the end was a lesson that stuck with him for life; to never trust anyone. The Harvester`s treachery had utterly blindsided Gage. The thought of getting even still crossed his mind once in a while, years later. If that asshole were alive today and by some twist of fate he walked through the gates of Nuka World, Porter knew that his better judgment might not be able to win out over his hatred.

Yes, his desire for retribution had been a powerful motivator indeed. But Gage was smarter than that. He knew that revenge could only drive a person for so long; there had to be something after. The new Overboss, who`s name he had yet to learn, had made it clear she was looking for revenge against the Institute. She planned to use the raiders to help her achieve this goal. If she could clear Nuka World, gain their loyalty, and convince them to undertake such an impossible task, what would come after? She`d spoken of putting the whole Commonwealth under raider control. Were those merely pretty words? Could they make something like that actually happen? He had his doubts, and his head buzzed from the questions.

She had given him a lot to think about. As was Gage`s habit, he`d risen early and was out walking the open areas of Nuka Town, USA. Not many others were awake yet aside from the mandatory patrols and a few slaves setting up shop in the market. Most of the raiders were probably too hungover from partying late in to the night. They`d celebrated Colter`s death. Gage still felt he had the most to lose if everything here went sideways, but despite his misgivings about the boss, he was hopeful for the first time in a long time. It was a curious feeling, because nothing had really changed yet. Being free of Colter came as a huge relief, and the new Overboss had potential. He'd seen it in the spark of her eyes as she took down her predecessor, disciplined the raiders in the streets yesterday evening, and when she spoke of her desire to put the entire Commonwealth under her heel. He didn`t know what to make of her motivations other than that. At least she clearly had some, and unlike Colter she had been approachable enough to sit down with, talk to, and openly divulge them. She`d answered every question he`d asked her so far. Given, he hadn't inquired about her life`s story. Where she came from and what the Institute had to do with her past did not concern him at present, because he was more focused on the future. Did his dream of restoring Nuka World stand a chance? Was the new Overboss truly capable of making it a real home for the gangs to operate out of?

She woke in a strange bed, in an unfamiliar place. She came to suddenly, as if from a nightmare. The serrated combat knife hidden under her pillow while she slept was already in her hand when she bolted upright. She peered around, her eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light of early morning. No glow flashed within the heart of the lift`s call button. She had raised it and disabled the mechanism before going to sleep last night. The door leading in to the restaurant remained chained shut. Her tripwire traps remained untriggered. No one was hiding behind the creepy ass mannequins to ambush her, or under the desk that had seen better days. Both the central bar and the area behind the far counter were clear. Only after checking all of these things, handgun at the ready, could Frost breathe easy.

She`d slept in her armor and fully dressed last night, so she woke up sore. It wasn`t an unfamiliar ache. She stretched, and frowned in distaste. The battered armor had to go, along with the clothes; she wanted a shower. Frost removed the traps she`d set on this side of the door, disarmed the grenade bouquets she'd left hanging in the narrow hall on the other side, but left the frag mines she`d planted in front of the internal elevator. She had cut the power to that too, just in case. The only person she gave permission to come up here was Gage, out of necessity, and she`d strictly told him to use the outside elevator only. He had offered to tag along when she expressed a desire to start clearing out the parks today, and they would meet this morning to begin. By the end of the day she intended to have at least one of the parks cleared out, make arrangements for all of Colter's ugly ass decor to be gone from her new apartment, and some turrets installed on the lower floor.

The idea of the Disciples living in Fizztop Mountain made her damn uncomfortable. Out of all the gang leaders she`d met with yesterday, Nisha had been the toughest. Frost knew that keeping her in line wasn't going to be an easy task. Their brief meeting had begun with an introduction and nearly ended in bloodshed after Nisha had threatened the new Overboss. The exchange had felt more like pissing contest than the beginnings of a progressive alliance. The sooner Frost could get the Disciples their own space elsewhere, the easier she would breathe.

Thinking of the faction leaders helped focus her mind while she heated some water in the kitchen`s cooking station to wash up with. She almost preferred to repeat all of the Gauntlet than having to speak with Nisha again. It crossed her mind that she could just have her killed and replaced with someone a bit more...cooperative. Savoy and Dixie would make that nearly impossible though, unless she killed them too. Frost had noticed the way Savoy looked at Nisha. If Nisha went, Savoy would have to go as well. Mags and William Black were much easier to deal with in her opinion. The Operators were more akin to mercenaries than raiders, motivated by caps above all else. "Spoiled rich kids" Gage had called them. Frost smiled slightly at the thought as the water warmed enough to use and she stripped down. Meeting Mason had actually been kind of amusing, although she couldn't say she cared at all for the smell of the Pack members. Putting on a tough act was something Frost had learned to do early in life, and it had gotten her a free gun from the Pack`s Alpha.

Frost examined her various injuries from the previous day as she bathed in front of the bathroom`s mirror. There were a few bruises and shallow scrapes, but not nearly as many of those as there were scars. It was people just like Mason and Nisha and Mags that had given the woman most of those. Some were small, others large, each had a story behind it. Raiders had turned her body in to a canvas for the marks left by stray bullets, shrapnel grenades, and torture. But it was the Institute that had broken her heart. Not all wounds could be seen on the outside, and those were sometimes more painful than the ones that were visible. Frost carried each of those injuries with her, as lessons in the chapters of her obscured history.

The Overboss looked forward to beginning a new part of her life in Nuka World as she finished cleaning herself up. The single technology from the old world that she missed the most was indoor plumbing, accompanied by the ability to take a hot shower every day. She walked bare assed from what passed for the bathroom to where she'd left some of her things thrown on the spare indoor bed. A military duffel bag containing an organized mess of guns and ammunition lay next to the large backpack she`d scavenged off a dead Brotherhood of Steel Scribe. From it she removed a clean set of clothes and spare armor. She would need to have her old armor repaired before she considered it functional again. For now she'd make do with a pair of black denim shorts and a rust colored halter top Cait had given her. She didn`t bother with too much armor since it would only slow her down. The boots from the previous day stayed, although they too would need to be replaced soon. A pair of comfortable fingerless gloves paired with a matching duster jacket finished up most of her preparations. When she was fully clothed the woman returned outside to the patio area, only to spot the power light for the lift blinking weakly. Without hesitation she grabbed her favorite gun; a modified gauss rifle, and stared down it's scope at who was bold enough to fuck with the lift. The person she saw standing at the lower call panel making a bewildered, annoyed face was none other than Gage.

At least he`s an early riser, she thought, and raised her voice to yell at him. "Quit pushing the button before you break the damn thing, I`ll let you up in a minute!" The raider below looked up at his Overboss in confusion, but raised his hands in a gesture of acknowledgement.

The ride up seemed smoother than he recalled, Gage thought, as the makeshift platform rose to the Boss`s quarters with him on it. He wondered what she`d done to it. When he reached the top he found her sitting cross legged on the bar as she munched through a box of Dandy Boy apples. Her rifle was leaning against the counter, along with a smaller backpack that had seen better days. The revolver he`d seen her use the day before rested next to one knee as the woman ate. She wore clean clothes, different from the ones he`d saw on her before, and her shoulder length hair was damp and curling on the side where it wasn`t cropped close to her scalp. Gage almost didn't recognize her.

"Something wrong with the lift...Boss?"

"Nope. I disabled it after you left last night so no one could get the drop on me in my sleep." She explained, as she pitched the empty box in a nearby waste basket. She gulped down a third of a bottle of water and wiped her mouth. He stared at her, still a bit caught off guard. She hadn`t been bad-looking covered in dirt and blood, but now she was downright pretty. Even the long scar on her jaw or the faint ones on her legs didn`t diminish her looks. He was distracted by how long her legs actually were for a moment. Gage knew she was shorter than him by almost half a foot, but the shorts made her slender limbs seem to go on forever. The raider shook himself mentally and managed to muster words.

"I see." He looked around, just to look at something else, and noticed the chains laying discarded next to the door leading inside. A gun brace mounted on the counter in front of it was currently empty, but the fact that it was present let him know she was more than a little paranoid. He approved, if only because he felt paranoia kept one alive longer. Gage gestured to the trap."Feeling insecure?"

"I prefer the term cautious. I wasn`t expecting to see you quite this early. Barely anyone else seems to be awake yet." She told him as she slid off the bar and tucked her handgun in to a shoulder holster. From the way the equipment hung Gage realized that she was left handed.

"I`m an early riser, and we have a lot to do. That ain`t gonna be a problem, is it? Or am I about to be disappointed?"

"Not likely, I`ve been awake for a while. I`m ready to head out whenever you are."

"Good, I`ll follow your lead. Where do you want to start?" Gage was pleasantly surprised when they set out quickly; trying to persuade Colter had been like pulling teeth. The more he was around her, the more Gage was learning that the new Overboss had very little in common with her forerunner. Their conversation continued as they reached the plaza and hiked northwest over the river.

"I've decided we should hit Dry Rock Gulch first."

"I`m on board. Any reason why that one in particular?"

"From what you`ve told me, the ghouls don`t leave Kiddie Kingdom, so they`re more or less contained. Nothing has come past the gates of the Bottling Plant or the Safari Zone so far, and I want to get my hands on some more pulse grenades before we try to deal with the robots in the Galactic Zone. Dry Rock Gulch is full of Bloodworms, you said?" She was asking more as a confirmation than out of ignorance; she hadn`t forgotten overnight.

"Yeah. They`re uglier than a Mirelurk`s backside and fast as hell. Been spreading throughout that area since we got here and noticed them. None of the parties we tried to send made it back."

"Then we need to wipe those Bloodworms out before they spread to the rest of the park, don`t you think? I`ve never seen one before, and I`d like to keep it that way after today. That means finding wherever they`re coming from and taking out the source."

"The Queen and her hive."

"Exactly. So are you ready to get this done?" She asked as they stood outside the entrance to the Old West themed park. Gage smirked at her and drew his gun.

"Sounds like it's time to put bullets in faces."

'Danger! Bloodworms!' A makeshift sign greeted the pair underneath a large metal archway. The Overboss purposely ignored it as she walked by, her pistol already drawn. She had no idea what exactly the bloodworms looked like, but she was certain she would find out soon. Gage stayed a few steps behind her and off to one side so they didn`t accidentally shoot each other. They passed a line of battered wooden buildings which formerly sold souvenirs, when Gage paused.

"Do you feel that?"

"What? Oh, shi-" The Overboss`s eyes widened as something large came tunneling under the earth towards her. It broke the surface, leaping at her. All she saw was a grotesque teeth-lined mouth that split in to four parts before it was landing on her. Her finger squeezed the trigger purely on instinct and the creature dropped in a fleshy, spiny heap at her feet. Before she had time to step back or sigh in relief four more of the monsters appeared. Three of them fell under fire from Gage`s assault rifle, shrieking as they died. He was smiling until his gun clicked empty as the last bloodworm burst from the earth right in front of him.

"Shit, gotta reload!"

"Gage, move!"

The man didn`t need telling twice as he dove to his left to take cover behind a wooden barrel. Crack! A bullet sunk deep in to the worm`s tough hide and it died hungry. The Overboss investigated it`s corpse, making sure it was truly dead before turning to her companion.

"You still in one piece, Gage?"

"All good. Nice shot boss." That was as close to a thank you as he was going to give.

"No problem." That was as close to a welcome as he was going to get from her.

They continued on, taking down more minor enemies along the way. Their first glimpse of the main street was not encouraging. The place was a complete wreck, choked with weeds and debris. A skeleton wearing scraps of trademark Operator armor lay to one side of the dusty path. The bones were long since picked clean by some animal or hungry beast. It was not the first of its kind that Gage and Frost had spotted as they made their way towards Mad Mulligan's Minecart Ride, where they suspected the nest would be located. While exploring they crossed paths with a robot wearing a sheriff's badge. It encouraged them to go along with some hairbrained role playing mission, which Frost decided they didn't have time for. Her voice was honey sweet as she mocked it in an approximation of a southern drawl and convinced it to give up the full code to a safe they were supposed to find. Gage smirked at her impression as he listened and kept watch for more enemies. They looted the key from the safe and ventured to the mine. When they passed Ol` Sugartop a pair of stingwings challenged them. Frost had dealt with these overgrown bugs and their poisonous attacks before. She targeted their tails and shot off the stingers of both before they could stab her and Gage to inject their venom

Once inside the mine the explorers were almost blind. The dim blue light given off by Frost`s Pip-Boy screen was just enough to see by, but the edges of the room remained in shadow. She switched to a shotgun she`d had slung over her back. It would be harder to make precise shots in this low visibility, and she felt more comfortable with the twelve gauge than her pistol.

"That's fine, I didn't want to sleep tonight anyways." Gage muttered, staring at something on the ground with an expression of disgust. It was the corpse of a trader, rotting and bloated. The facial features were nearly indistinguishable. His partner made a noise of agreement. They began to move on, deeper in to the mine, when the body twitched. Gage pointed; "The fuck was that?"

"Hell if I know. Some kind of bugs inside maybe?" Frost shrugged as she racked a shell in the chamber of her gun. Gage likewise had already checked his rifle and reloaded it once more. They each took a few steps towards the passage leading down, and the body moved again. This time the motion was pronounced; the stomach distending sickeningly and desiccated skin splitting. The Overboss gagged from both the sight and stench as what appeared to be bloodworm larvae tore through the remains and attacked them. She couldn't help it, and her breakfast came back up...right on the attacking bloodworm. The creature seemed as stunned as she was, rolling away and squealing as the acidic vomit burned it`s flesh. A few shots later from both of the raiders and the floor was littered with worm guts. Gage looked over at the woman who`d promised to help him clear out Nuka World. She was gargling a bottle of water and spitting it out to wash away the bad taste. He busted out laughing, unable to contain himself.

"Holy crap, I`ve never seen projectile vomit used as a weapon before! Hahaha!"

"I have a sensitive nose. You just don't notice the smell `cause you live with a pack of animals." Frost remarked sharply. Great, I`m such an impressive Overboss. Her thoughts were sarcastic, but she took the job seriously and prepared to finish what they`d started. She tied a rag over her nose and the two of them continued. The mine was riddled with the bodies of raiders and the traders who had come here trying to escape them. There was little loot to be discovered, and the woman was getting tired of the smell of putrefying meat. By the time they reached the large main chamber of the mine, she was ready to be done. She warned Gage before tossing a grenade in to the middle of the room. This caused all of the larva infested bodies in the immediate area to expel their inhabitants, and the Queen emerged. She was more hideous than imagined, and harder to kill. While most of the smaller beasts either died or took heavy damage from the grenade, the Queen was barely harmed. Eventually she was dispatched as well, allowing the raiders to leave the mine to go raise a flag for one of the gangs to take over.

"One down, four to go." Gage commented with a grin as he stood next to the Overboss. "That's more you`ve done in a day than Colter managed to in nearly a year. Who are you thinking of giving this place to?"

"I don't make promises lightly. I gave you my word, Gage. I intend to keep it." The other said mildly. "I`m thinking...the Disciples."

"Yeah? Good. Nisha will be pleased."

"Tch, I just don't want her and her merry band of psychopaths hanging around Fizztop. I sleep there now, and setting up traps every night before I go to bed is kind of a pain in the ass."

"Pfft. That's your reasoning? You must really dislike her."

"'Like' isn't a word I use very often pertaining to people. I expect Nisha would be quite willing to stab me in the back, or the front, anywhere really. It isn't that I 'dislike' her per se, but she's not as cooperative as the other leaders. I can bully or bribe my way on to the others` good sides. But Nisha is the kind of person who doesn't respect anyone. She`s used to being her own top dog and in her eyes that isn't going to change any time soon. Its best if I simply keep my word to give her gang some space to roam, and for us to stay far out of each other's` way."

"Sounds like you`ve taken my advice on each of the gangs to heart." Gage commented with approval. She seemed to have a solid handle on the situation. Maybe she would be the one to deliver Nuka World to the gangs after all.

"You know them better than I do. I may be in charge around here now, but if I want it to stay that way, and I do, I`ll take the advice of an expert. I told you I was trusting you to help me out. This is a partnership after all."

"I may have a few useful skills, but I'm no expert." A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as they headed back towards Nuka Town and continued their discussion.

"Oh? And what would you say your talents are then?"

"Aside from being a good shot and having a foul mouth?" He chuckled and adjusted his eye patch. "I`m a hell of a cook."

"Haha, yeah, right."

"Seriously. You don`t live as long as I have and not learn how to feed yourself properly."

"You`ve lived all of what, like 20 years? I've met hundred year old ghouls that don't know a cooking pot from a helmet."

"Their loss. And I'm twenty seven, little lady."

"You don't have enough scars to be that old." She laughed, sounding pleased. They had just gotten one step closer to taking back Nuka World, and she was in a good mood because of it. Gage shared the sentiment.

"I have more than you."

"That you can see. I`m over two hundred years old, whippersnapper." She adopted an over the top voice of a crotchety old woman and mimed walking with a cane.

"Bullshit. You`d have to be a ghoul to live that long." Porter called what he was sure was a bluff and frowned. He was met with an earnest shake of the head by Colter`s killer. She replied;

"Or a Vault dweller."