Welcome to Chapter 24 everybody!
Chapter 24
The sound of the splash fills Tyler's thoughts as he works. It isn't a loud sound, or even all that noticeable when the waves are crashing against the shore, yet still it can be heard. It was so quick, so very quick. One second there, the next, splash. A shot fall, but long enough to do what it was intended to do. He wonders, what will happen now? Will anyone miss that old man? Hell, he didn't even get the guys name. He also can't shake the suspicion that he is responsible. What would that be called? Survivors guilt? He doesn't know, he isn't good with words like Luther or Nick.
Speaking of, what was he doing down here anyway? Nick's daddy asked him to go down here and get, something. He reaches up and scratches his head without thinking and curses immediately after as he feels a clump of his hair give way and fall out. The ghoulification has been getting worse. Patches of his skin have started peeling up and getting calloused. The worst part is the itching. It is as if is flesh is crawling with thousands of insects that are biting and gnawing at him all the time. He has been trying not to scratch at the spots, as his condition is something of a secret from everyone Nick's dad brought in to work on this fucking project.
Damn, he got distracted again, now what the fucking hell is he supposed to be getting. He noses around in the Jefferson Memorials sub levels for a little longer before giving up and searching out an intercom. He presses the button and speaks into the square box set into the wall, "Um, hey Doc?"
There is a slight pause and some static before Nick's dad's voice comes through, "Tyler? Have any trouble finding those fuses?"
Fuses, right, that is what he was looking for. "Um, no, no. Just checking to make sure this intercom works properly is all. Got to make sure we can communicate if there is a problem or something."
"I understand. Thank you. Let me know if you have any problems with those fuses."
"Got it." What a fucking idiot. Sure, James is an egghead like all the others he brought in from Rivet City a few days ago when the started work on Project Purity, but the guy seems to take everything at its base level. Tyler shakes his head and resumes his search for the fuses. Project Purity, what a fucking joke. Sure, the idea is nice, but there is no way in hell it will actually ever work properly. Even if it does, there will be so much competition for the clean water that the Capital Wasteland will find itself engaged in yet another war.
Tyler isn't even sure why he, and Luther have stuck around. Clover opted to stay in Rivet City with Bryan after they rescued the Doc, and Nick supposedly sent Charon back to Underworld with some scrap metal he collected for Winthrop. They did what they set out to do. They got Nick reunited with is dear daddy, even though that ended up not being what Nick wanted. Ever since they unfroze James he and Nick have been at each others throats. The one time Tyler witnessed them having a civil conversation that wasn't laced with underlying malice was when James congratulated Nick on disarming the atomic bomb in Megaton. At least now after working together for a few days they have gotten to where they can be in the same room for a few hours without shouting. Maybe that means they are warming to each other. Good for them, but Tyler still needs to find those fucking fuses.
He turns a corner and steps over the corpse of a supermutant. When they first arrived back at the memorial, they found the place overrun by the big bastards. Nick and Luther went in without him and managed to take down all the muties without a full out firefight that could have damaged the equipment in the building. Tyler is still sore about the fact that he wasn't allowed to blow some shit up. Sure, it might have been bad if he accidentally destroyed something important, but the eggheads could have fixed it.
Somehow he manages to find the fuses. He stuffs them into a bag and heads back up to the main level. On his way he passes Luther, who for some reason has been avoiding contact with everyone and has been snooping around the same area for a while now. "Hey," Tyler calls as he approaches, "what are you doing?"
Luther looks up at him from where he is kneeling down next to what appears to be a sewage grate. "Does this make any sense to you?" he asks, pointing at the grate.
"What," Tyler asks with a shrug, "it is a sewer, not exactly surprising seeing how close to the water we are. Isn't that closeness the whole reason Project Purity is set up here instead of someplace more convenient?"
Luther shakes his head, "I know what it is, I mean, why the hell is there a sewage hatch inside the building and on the main floor instead of in the sub levels where it should be. Something doesn't add up. I also noticed Doctor Li hanging around here, like she was looking for something."
Tyler rolls his eyes, "Li is weird, okay. She was probably doped up on some weird chemical concoction she accidentally mixed together."
Luther again shakes his head, "You are the junkie of the bunch, speaking of which, why haven't you been taking your normal fixes lately?"
Huh, it hadn't even occurred to Tyler. Usually he needs a fix of some sort to make it through a day, yet he hasn't been taking anything for a good long while now. He wonders when exactly he stopped. He still has all his chems, psycho, jet, med-x, he just hasn't had a hit. "I don't really know actually. Maybe when Doc Barrows fixed me up he cured my addictions as well and just forgot to tell me? Or maybe he did tell me and I wasn't paying attention." He looks down and realizes Luther has stopped listening to him. "Oh I get it, you ask but you don't really care." Luther just nods his head. "I am also planning on killing everyone in this building." Again Luther just nods. Tyler is about to kick him in the back, when the man reaches down and presses some hidden panel and the sewer grate opens up, revealing a laddered tunnel down into the earth. "Well, shit."
"Now," Luther stands up and rubs his chin, "what other types of secrets are being kept from us here in this Project Purity? For this place to house such a well hidden escape route, there must be more to it than just cleaning up the water."
Tyler shrugs his shoulders. It isn't that he ins't interested, he just doesn't give a flying fuck anymore. "Let the eggheads figure it out. Not like they are the only ones keeping secrets around here." He turns and continues on his way before Luther can respond. He guessed days ago what was troubling his partner. Ever since James mentioned the GECK, Luther had been acting all suspicious and kept snooping around. Tyler attempted to confront him about it, but all he got was an angry, 'its my business not yours!' Fucking asshole.
He puts it out of his thoughts, he seems to be doing a lot of that today, and enters the rotunda where the eggheads have set up the base of the project. Ascending the stairs to the main control room he catches the tail end of a conversation between James and Nick. "I realize that this is hard for you to hear, and I am sorry for all the deceptions. I only wanted you to be safe." James's voice is full of sincerity, but Nick does not seem to be buying it.
"Just, stop." Nick speaks with a heavy sigh. "I am tired of you attempting to fix something that was never there. You and I were not close, maybe once, but not for a long time, even before being ejected from 101. You were scared of me, scared that I would be too much like someone from the surface, from the world that killed your wife, my Mother. You were right, I always was too much of a waster, I just never knew it." Tyler steps into the control room as Nick walks out with an odd expression on his face. He could be wrong, but it looks like Nick is almost sad.
"Hey Doc," Tyler says as he walks in, pretending that he didn't overhear anything, "got those bloody fuses for you. Took forever. Also, one of the intercoms at the back of room C5 is busted and won't work, going to go down there and see if I can fix it for you."
James nods and rubs his head. "Thank you, Tyler, just leave them over there on the table please." Tyler does as asked and makes to leave. As he reaches the door, the urge to say something suddenly seizes him. "You know, treating him like a child is useless."
"Excuse me?"
Tyler turns around and looks James in the eye. "He has been through a literal hell to find you, something he never would have had to experience if it wasn't for you. I don't know all the details he went into with you, but he is not a child anymore."
James's face darkens with slight anger. "I know that. He told me he was made a slave, Tyler, but you rescued him so all is well."
Tyler shakes his head. "For a Doctor, you are not that smart. You don't just, walk away unscathed from something like that. He may have told you he was a slave, but did he mention that he was tortured to the point where he could no longer feel pain? Did he tell you that he was forced to fight to the death against other slaves in an irradiated arena? Did he even tell you that he has become so adept at killing that he can no longer sleep at night without having a gun nearby?"
James takes a few steps back with an expression like he has been stuck with a bat. Tyler doesn't give him the chance to respond and instead turns his back. "For a man who is supposed to be trying to save the entire wasteland, you sure have done a piss poor job protecting your only child. What you fail to see, is that he does not need you, he never has."
Nick makes his way through the cramped pipe towards the valve. His thoughts are so hectic that he really isn't pay attention to where he is going and slips more than once. He is conflicted with way to many emotions all at once. On some level, he is happy that they finally found his Father and that he has finally done what he set out to do from the start. On a totally different level, he wishes they left the arrogant bastard as a pop sickle. Day one of his release from that fucking vault and all his Father had done was hang over him. Always trying to get the both of them in the same room so he could lecture or send him on a project that requires communicating with him. Like this one, got some blockage in the pipes and need someone to open a specific valve? Send Nick.
Then there is the judgments. His Father does not like the way he, 'conducts himself,' around the other scientists. Well forgive him for not trusting the fucking people in white lab coats who are always looking down their noses at him like he is some little insect that needs to be crushed. Father also does not seem to approve of how violent Nick's recent past is. Nick only gave him scare details, knowing he would be upset about it, and still the man manages to make Nick seem like some horrible person. Fuck you old man!
He stops moving as he comes to what he thinks is the valve. He has to shades his eyes as there is a large tear in the pipe through which the sun is shinning. Great, yet another block in the road to getting this fucking project over with. As if his Father's patronizing wasn't enough, Nick has to deal with the man ranting on and on about his precious Project Purity. After they got Madison Li and her team to help them here at the memorial, Nick had hoped that his Father's fanaticism would die down at least a little, but it only grew worse, fueled by the obvious puppy love Doctor Li held towards him.
With a sigh he looks around for an intercom and eventually spots one under the tear in the pipes. Hopefully it still works. He depresses the button and speaks, "Hey, I am at the valve, but we have a bigger problem. This pipeline has a massive tear in the side. If we try and run anything through here it we will loose most of it before it reaches us."
There is a crackle of static before his Father's voice comes through. "All right then. Leave the valve and head back this way. We can take a look at the damage and asses what it will take to repair it." Nick rolls his eyes, by we he surely means just Nick. Muttering a few curses he turns to head back into the memorial, but stops when he hears an odd sound. He looks up and down the pipe, not sure which direction it is coming from. His hand goes down to his pistol, the only weapon small enough to bring with him through such a cramped space. He flips off the safety and gets ready for a fight out of instinct.
The sound gets louder and louder. It is as if something is beating the air with a blunt weapon. Beneath the sound he can also hear what reminds him of a generator. He has been inching backwards along the pipe, sure that the sound is coming from forward, when movement through the tear catches his eye. He looks out and squints, straining to see through the glare of the sun. When the shape of a large metal flying machine shows up, he has to do a double take to make sure he isn't seeing things. What ever that contraption is, it is large, and more than likely dangerous.
The machine lands and out of it jump several people in heavy power armor the likes of which he has never seen before. Another man, not in power armor, steps from the flying machine and points towards the memorial. The soldiers, because they have to be soldiers, all move out, drawing plasma weapons. Nick watches with a strange fascination as a second flying machine lands and even more soldiers start towards the memorial. He snaps out of it and presses the button on the intercom, "Dad, we have company, and they do not look friendly!"
He looks back the way he came, the drop from that direction is almost straight down, it would take him way to long to climb out. He turns and moves deeper into the pipeline. He stops and listens for a moment, echoing through the pipes, he can hear gunfire! Fuck! He rushes forward and tumbles downward as the pipe takes a sudden dip. He rolls to a stop and crawls towards an exit. He knocks it open and looks through. Before him is the sub level of the memorial. Below is one of the treatment pools. Without thinking about how shallow the water may be, he jumps. He splashes down and the color red explodes in his eyes as his head is bashed against something.
The air rushes out of his lungs and he struggles to determine which way is up! he realizes with a sickening sensation that he is drowning while the others are being butchered! NO! He fights, kicking his legs and struggling to make sense of the haze through which he is looking. Just when his limbs give out, a hand latches on to his back and hauls him out of the water! He coughs, ejecting the liquid from his lungs as the air rushes back into him. "What the hell were you thinking!" He looks up to see Tyler, soaked, and furious holding on to him. "Now is not the time for killing yourself!"
A green bolt of light streaks through the dark interior of the sub level and slams into Tyler's chest! The merc is thrown backwards and Nick rolls to the side just as a second bolt hits the floor where he was lying. He draws his pistol and leans out of cover to return fire. All he can see in the darkness is a set of ominously glowing yellow eyes. He opens fire, but all he sees are sparks fly off of the soldiers power armor. "Shit! Tyler, you all right?" there is no response. "Shit!" The soldier advances forward, and Nick slips to the side. Maybe he can flank the bastard. He goes to a crawl and makes his way across the room. The soldier reaches the area where he was and lights it up with plasma fire. Nick steps up behind him and is about to make a shot to the head, when he notices a slight glow in the soldier's back and what looks to be a fusion core.
He fires off two quick rounds and jumps behind cover as the soldier whips around and sprays plasma bolts. A smile grows on Nick's face as he hears the power armor eject the damaged fusion core and the soldier begin to panic as his armor shuts down with him still inside. Nick steps out of cover and approaches the soldier, who can now barely move in the powerless suit of heavy metal. Nick takes the plasma rifle from the mans hands and shoots six to five rounds at the bastard. He watches in satisfaction as the liquid energy eats through the metal. As the plasma finally reaches the man he lets out a scream of pain that causes Nick's hair to stand on end.
Nick turns away from the disintegrating soldier and looks for Tyler. He spots the old merc on the ground and not moving. Nick pulls one of his last stimpacks from his pack and jabs it into him. Tyler lets out a groan that tells Nick he is still alive. Nick pulls him to his feet and drapes his arm around his own shoulders. He half carries Tyler the rest of the way up through the sub level. Above them the memorial has become eerily quiet and Nick begins to panic. He increases his pace and eventually burst from the basement. Two soldiers jump at his sudden appearance and scramble for their weapons. Nick tosses aside Tyler and lifts the plasma rifle again. He manages to get in three shots on one of the soldiers before he has to find cover to avoid their attacks. He can hear the plasma eating away at one of the soldier's armor and hopes that he will be out of the fight here soon.
The second soldier does not wait for Nick to attack and instead jumps over Nick's cover and slams a fist into the wall behind him. Nick narrowly avoids the attack and attempts to swipe the man's feet out from under them, but only ends up twisting his ankle. The soldier reaches down and grabs Nick's head and starts to squeeze. Nick struggles, but cannot break the man's grip. He kicks out, and miraculously he finds a weak point at the man's armpit. The soldier grunts in pain and drops Nick who quickly grabs his discarded plasma rifle and blasts three solid rounds into the soldier's helmet, which starts to melt almost immediately. Behind him there is a loud thud and he whips around to see Tyler standing over the body of a dead soldier and holding a fusion core in his hand. Nick nods at him and sucks air into his burning lungs.
A rumbling shakes the entire compound and Nick nearly falls to the floor. He leaps up and scrambles towards the control room. He bursts in with Tyler hot on his heels. The control room is sealed and there are two soldiers flanking the officer he saw before. His father and one of the other scientists are locked in with them. Doctor Li is frantically banding on the bulkhead and screaming for them to let James go. Nick ascends the the viewing platform and stands next to Madison. His Father catches his eyes and all Nick can see is the regret filling them. "I've told you Colonel, This facility is not operational, it never was. We are just here to retrieve some old equipment and transport it back to Rivet City."
The colonel moves so quickly that Nick barely had time to register that the man drew a weapon before the other scientists is lying on the ground dead. "I shan't say it again. You will activate this facility and transfer all relevant data to the Enclave immediately."
Nick's eyes are glued to his Father's as he growls, "Very well, colonel." From the fire in his eyes, Nick knows what he is about to do. He grabs Madison by the shoulders and starts pulling her away from the viewing platform.
"What are you doing?" she screams at him, "We have to help them!" She breaks away from his grasp and he grabs her as the facility rocks violently and radiation starts flooding into the control room. "No!" She screams!
James manages to limp to the bulkhead separating them and stares Nick in the eye. The intercom is malfunctioning, but Nick can tell what his Father said, "Run my son! RUN!" James slips down to the floor and is still. No. no. no, no, no, no, no, NO!
Tyler grabs Nick and shakes him, "We have to get out of here before more of those bastards show up! I know an escape route! come on damn it!" Through the raging sea of thoughts in his mind Nick manages to grab a hysterical Madison and drag her out of the memorial and back to the basement entrance. Tyler somehow opens up a panel in the floor and directs them down. Nick hadn't noticed that the other members of the science team had joined them. He all but has to push Madison down the ladder to get her to move. Nick is the last down and he closes the hatch just as he hears a door crack open and the sound of armored boots storm in.
Once down he turns and starts walking, not sure where he is going. A hand grabs his shoulder and he reacts by spinning and raising the plasma rifle he still has in his hands. He stops just short of disintegrating Madison's head. Her once perfect hair is now disheavled and her eyes are wild. "You have to get us out of here."
"What?" Nick asks in confusion, his mind still trying to make sense of what is going on, of what he just witnessed.
"You brought us down here, and you are the only one of us who can still fight. You have to get us out of here!" Nick looks over the woman's shoulder at Tyler and realizes that the man is barely standing. He lowers his head and nods silently. He again turns on his heal and walks three short paces before something occurs to him. Turning around he looks over the group behind him.
A sick sensation takes over him as he realizes what is wrong. "Where is Luther?"