Sorry this has taken so long to update. I didn't have any idea on what to do with this chapter for a while, then I just got lazy and kept putting it off. In the end, I just started typing and made it up as I went. But you don't care about delays because the chapter is finally here. On with the story!
The radio personality led his guests over to a small table so they could sit down while they talked.
"I don't get many visitors out here," Three Dog said as they took their seats. "Except for the Brotherhood, of course, but they're not much for conversation. So tell me, why is it that you would drag yourself through all the crap out there to get here?"
Carmen explained, "We're looking for my dad, and I heard he might have come here at some point."
"Your dad? Oh, you must mean James. He did mention having a kid while he was here. I probably should have put two and two together when I found out about another Vault dweller making their way outside, but I guess I wasn't expecting a pretty young lady like yourself out here in the wastes."
"Stay on topic," Grey growled.
"Whoa! Smoke a peace pipe, man. I don't intend to step on any toes if you already called dibs."
Carmen shot an angry look at her partner. "It's not like that. Please, can you just tell me where Dad went?"
Three Dog shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm afraid not. You probably already know this, but out here in the Capital Wasteland, there's a rule. You gotta give in order to recieve."
"I knew it," Grey muttered.
The disk jockey stood up and walked a few paces across the room. "I started up Galaxy News Radio in order to give people hope and to tell them that there are others out here working to make things better. The only problem is no one outside of D.C. can hear the broadcasts after the Super Mutants shot down the relay dish on top of the Washington Monument."
"Yeah, it's a shame about your ratings, but what does that have to do with us?" Grey asked coldly.
"You're just a beam of sunshine, aren't you? I need you two to find a replacement dish and switch it out with the broken one."
"Why not get the Brotherhood of Steel to help you?" Carmen suggested.
"They've got their hands full as it is. Besides, they don't care about some radio show, they just need a base. The only reason I'm still here is because they don't have anything to gain by kicking me out. That's why I'm asking you to do it."
Grey scoffed. "Sorry to dash your hopes, but we're Wastelanders not electricians. How do you know we could even hook it up right?"
Three Dog turned to him with a smug grin. "You have a point there. However, I seem to recall one of my sources mentioning a cat with shades and a snazzy hat disarming the bomb in Megaton. If I'm not mistaken, that description fits you pretty well, tough guy. I'd think anyone that could do that should have no problem hooking up a satellite dish."
The younger man was silent for several seconds before finally hissing, "Fine. What do you need?"
"Geez, try not to sound so eager. Down the street from the monument is the Museum of Technology. Inside, you will find the Virgo II lunar lander. You need to take the dish from it and get it to the transmitter on the Washington Monument." A few more moments passed in silence as Three Dog stared at Grey with a raised eyebrow. "What? No cynical comeback?"
"I'm waiting to hear the details you're leaving out. There must be some other reason no one else has done it."
Three Dog sighed. "Ever the professional. The museum is pretty deep in Super Mutant turf, and that scares off most people right away. But if you use the metro tunnels, they'll take you straight to the front door."
"We'll get that dish fixed, Three Dog," Carmen said. "If it'll help me find my dad, I'll do anything."
"Then I wish you two the best of luck." As the Wastelanders walked back downstairs, he added, "And you might want to watch your friend. That mouth of his will probably get you in trouble one of these days."
Carmen was wondering about that. Grey usually acted pretty casual, maybe even relaxed, but he had regarded Three Dog almost with hostility. Then, after they had left the building, his good mood seemed to return and he acted like nothing had happened. She wanted to ask him about his change in behavior, but decided to wait until later.
Our heroes descended back into the Ghoul-infested tunnels and began their trek to the Museum of Technology. After almost an hour's worth of walking they found what they believed to be right exit.
"Finally," Carmen sighed as Grey wrenched the gate open. "I'm probably going to be hearing Ghoul howls in my nightmares for the rest of life."
"Look on the bright side. According to that map we saw earlier, the museum should be right up...here?"
At the top of the stairs, the travelers found themselves in the middle of a circle of apartment buildings.
"None of these look like any museum I've ever seen," Grey remarked.
"On the other hand, I can see the Washington Monument from here," Carmen said behind him.
"Where?"
He followed Carmen's finger to a gaping hole in the upper floors of one of the buildings. Through it, the top of the structure was clearly visible. On the other side of town.
"You've gotta be kidding!"
Drawn by Grey's shout of dismay, the head of a large creature with curved horns and fangs too big for its mouth poked out from around a corner. Grey swore and pulled Carmen back down the steps as the monster roared and started charging towards them. Grey slid the gate shut behind them and insisted that they keep running.
"What is that thing?" Carmen asked, hearing the animal slam against the barrier behind them.
"Deathclaw. Explain later. That gate's not nearly strong enough to keep it out."
A few minutes after deciding they had retreated a sufficient distance, Grey found another map and found the spot where they had taken a wrong turn. The wanderers backtracked and made their way down the correct tunnel. As they approached the gate that would take them outside the museum, they started hearing sounds from above them. Carmen and Grey slowly climbed the stairs and peeked out to check their surroundings. The road had been dug up into a network of trenches with several "islands" where Super Mutants stood with rocket launchers and miniguns. The sidewalk, however, was relatively clear.
Just as Three Dog had said, the metro station had opened up right in front of the museum's doors. Taking care not to call attention to themselves, the Wastelanders crept up the front steps and inside the building. Two Super Mutants patrolled the entrance hall, but they were quickly disposed of. Carmen searched the reception desk and found a guide map of the museum. Grey was excited when he saw a flyer advertising a weapons exhibit. That excitement was crushed however by the fact that the wing it was in had been destroyed.
Due to the crumbling state of the museum, the way to proceed was through a hallway made to look like a Vault showcasing all of the features the people inside would have access to.
"Feels just like home, doesn't it?" Grey said, pushing a button that started a recording about the self-cleaning kitchen appliances.
Carmen stared through a window into a recreation of a classroom imagining herself and her classmates sitting at the desks. "Yeah. I even feel the same depressing atmosphere and desire to leave."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean I never really felt attached to the place. Even though I'd lived there my entire life, it never felt like home. I was just another resident going through the paces: going to school, getting a job, eventually being forced to have kids in order to keep the population stable. Out here, I feel so much more like I belong.
"Didn't you have any friends?"
"One. The Overseer's daughter, Amata. After Dad left and the security officers were looking for me, she helped me escape. I asked her to come with me, but she refused. She had she had to stay behind and calm down her father. When the Vault door finally closed between us, I lost my best friend forever. But I didn't feel sad, just this incredible relief to be outside and away from everything I hated on the inside. Does that make me a bad person, Grey?"
Carmen felt a hand being placed on her shoulder. "No. I think it just shows you have what it takes to survive out here. You've got the Wastelander's need to be free. And in a world where death is an everyday thing, being able to move on after losing someone is a gift." The pressure left her shoulder as Grey continued down the hall. "Now come on, this is no place for idle chitchat."
Wondering when her partner became so philisophical, Carmen followed.
Their journey took them through several more exhibits, one of which took them down a winding staircase around a full-size rocket. In the next room, among several other aircraft, lay the Virgo II lunar lander. After killing the patrolling Mutants, Grey removed the satellite dish using tools swiped from a nearby supply closet.
"How are we going to get this to the monument safely?" Carmen asked as they hefted the heavy dish. "Should we use the tunnels again?"
"Nah, that would take too long. Besides, maybe we'll get lucky and none of the Super Muties will even see us."
The focus of our story now shifts down the street to the Washington Monument where two knights from the Brotherhood of Steel stand guard in front of a tall metal fence around the structure.
"The freaks sure are quiet today," one of the knights says to his companion. "What do you think is going on over there?"
"I don't know," the other knight replies. "Maybe they finally ran out of ammo. Or maybe they-"
Several explosions ring out and the knights duck behind walls of sandbags.
"Wait a minute." The first knight stands back up. "Those weren't fired at us, those explosions came from somewhere in their territory. Who are they shooting at?"
The other man removes his helmet and takes a pair of binoculars from a nearby table and describes what he sees.
"There seem to be two civilians, a man and a woman, running this way holding a... My god, I think Three Dog actually found someone to get that dish from the museum."
Grey's arms ached under the weight of the device over his head. "Status report," he called back to Carmen.
"I think we're out of range of the rocket launchers." A stream of bullets bit into the buildings to their left. "Not so much for the minigunners."
"Well, we're almost there. Just hang on until then."
A bullet grazed Carmen's leg, causing her to stumble for a second. She regained her balance, and soon, they were running through the gate the Brotherhood knights opened for them. Laser rifles joined the chorus of weapon fire as the Wastelanders loaded into an elevator to the top of the monument. Once there, they set the dish on top of the radio transmitter and Grey went to work hooking it up.
"For the record, I have no idea what I'm doing, so this may take a little while."
Carmen decided that now was the perfect time to discuss something that had been on her mind all day.
"Grey, can I ask you something?"
"You probably would anyway if I said no."
"It's just something I've been thinking about. What was that all about at Three Dog's place?"
"What was what all about?"
"You know, how you were so rude and irritable with him."
Grey chuckled. "Ah yes, I suppose that did seem out of character. To you, anyway. To tell the truth, that's how I am with most people. Can't explain why, people just annoy me for some reason."
"But what about Moira? Or the guy who guards her store? Or me, for that matter?"
"When you get almost all of your supplies from one person, it usually pays off in the long run to make nice with them. Discounts, special deals, stuff like that. As for her mercenary friend, he drops his guard once in a while when I'm around, meaning I can get away with pinching a bit of merchandise here and there. Just don't tell anyone I said that, I'd never be allowed in Craterside Supply again."
"So you only make friends when it suits you, and everyone else in the world can piss off?"
"Pretty much."
She should have known. From the moment they had met, Grey had made it quite clear that he looked out for himself and no one else. He was probably expecting to get some huge reward after they found her father. That was the only reason he had helped her out this long.
At least, that's what she would be thinking if Grey hadn't added, "That's why I can't figure out why I made an exception for you."
Carmen did a double-take at this. "What!"
"You were fresh out of the Vault, you didn't seem to have any fighting experience, you'd only drag me down. And yet, I still decided to help you out. I showed you the way to Megaton, paid out of my own pocket to get your new clothes, incurred the wrath of the Colin Moriarty, and I let you sleep in my bed." He paused in his task and turned to the young woman. "I wouldn't do even one of those things for anyone else, so what makes you so special, Carmen?"
She was stunned. "I-I don't know."
"Neither do I. I guess my isolated existence has finally driven me mad."
"Just as long as you're sane enough to fix this transmitter."
"Well, a light came on when I flipped this switch, so that's always a good sign. Time to go visit Three Dog again."
He started making his way back to the elevator when Carmen stopped him.
"Grey, maybe I should do the talking this time."
He smiled. "Point taken."
A lot of character development in this chapter. I almost forgot this was supposed to be a comedy. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get more of that later.