Disclaimer: Bethesda owns Fallout!
Sorry this update took soooo loong :( And it is short compared to the others. Sorry T_T
Enjoy!
Chapter 2 - How about a new house?
'Note to self: mysterious men have odd propositions.' She thought as she stood, staring up at the bomb in front of her, a detonator in her right hand, and tools in the other. While she had the detonator, the intention of implanting it, getting to a safe destination, and blowing the town sky high eluded her mind altogether. She was not one for instigating mass murder her first day out of the Vault. Karma and what not, which Chrys was a firm believer in. She, however, couldn't just say "no" to Mr. Burke's request, and her efforts to let him down easy and saying she'll think about it, probably looked a lot like flirtatious teasing. Which was horrible because she hated flirting (it made her uncomfortable), and Burke seemed to take a liking to it. He gave her the detonator anyway and left the town afterwards, promising that she'll be rightfully compensated for her services.
So now she stood there in front of a giant undetonated atomic bomb. Confessor Cromwell, the leader of The Children of Atom, had left a couple of minutes ago. He let her stay because she said she was "basking in the tangible glory that is Atom" which brought a smile to his face. She felt bad, knowing she was going to deactivate it for Simms, but it would make the town safer for everyone, and what Cromwell didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
She popped off a covering on the bomb, revealing a bunch of multicolored wires and tubes. She cracked her fingers and knuckles and got to work on the bomb. Fifteen minutes later left her with popping the cover back on. The bomb deactivated, which oddly wasn't that hard. It was just like rewiring the speakers in the Vault. Well to her it was, to anyone else it would probably be like playing checkers with a baby compared to playing it with a super computer. Shrugging, she stuck the detonator in her pack, eventually she'd probably scrap it or take it apart in order to study it. She smiled, now Simms could sleep soundly at night. Speaking of which, she had to inform the bomb was deactivated, and she needed to find a place to sleep.
It was late, and she knew Simms would be asleep with his family by now. So, she had to focus on finding a place to sleep for now. She looked around and saw nothing resembling a hotel. She shivered, the only other thing was Moriarty's. Sleeping on some scaffolding sounded more appealing. 'Maybe I could crash at Moira's?' That seemed to be the best bet. She hurried up one of the ramps, heading to Craterside Supply, but she hit someone.
"Sorry. I'm so sorry." she apologized as she dusted herself off. The person she hit just chuckled and she recognized who it was: Simms. She thought he would be asleep by now!
"Hard to adjust to low light huh?" Simms asked.
"Yeah. Oh! I deactivated the bomb!" Chrys said, deciding to omit the fact that Burke wanted her to blow it up. He had mentioned he had an employer with much power, which in other words she guessed meant not to mention it to anyone else. Simms smiled and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand in relief.
"Thank God. I thought you were kiddin' about disarming that thing." he said and patted her on the back. She smiled, a yawn following shortly afterward. God, she was tired. Simms seemed to notice pretty easily and patted her on the back again. "How about this: since you disarmed that thing, you can have that vacant house over there." He pointed to a large house (in Megaton standards) that was located pretty close to the front gate and sat on another platform of scaffolding. Chrys couldn't quite believe she heard him right. Her own house? She didn't even have one of those at the Vault. She almost did, but never actually got to it.
"I can have it? All to myself?" She asked.
"Well that robot butler that the last owner had is still in there, but you might be able to make some use of him." Simms said, fishing through his duster pocket and pulling out a slip of paper. "Here. The deed." She accepted it, nervously, but with a smile. She pushed her glasses back up on her nose and read the deed real quick. Short and simple.
"Okay. That solves my 'finding a place to sleep' problem." She said happily and gave the sheriff, mayor, whatever political figure Simms was, a hug. He simply patted her on the back again, handed her the key, and shooed her off so she could go get some rest in her new home. It took her a couple minutes to get to her house and she had to figure out how a key actually worked. After a little fumbling, she got the door open.
"Hello Madame!" An accented mechanical voice greeted her. She saw a hovering robot that was mainly comprised of a circular head with three "arms" and a large sensor on its front. Wadsworth was cheaply written on his hull.
"Hello... Wadsworth. I'm Chrys." She held out a hand in greeting, but remembered the robot had no actual hand to return the gesture.
"I hope this place is to your liking Madame Chrys." Wadsworth responded. The robotic servant then floated off to attend to other things in the house… whatever those were. Chrys took a tour of her own home. There was: a room for her, a spare room, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a loft. Also she found she could make a quick door in the ceiling to lead up to the roof if she wanted, which she definitely would to watch the sky be set on fire again.
She stepped into her room. There was a desk and filing cabinet as well as a bed. She set down her pack on the desk and went and sat down on the bed. She hung her head in her hands with her elbows on her knees. She had to push her glasses back up her nose to keep them on. So many thoughts were stampeding through her mind. She had to find her dad, and from Moriarty, she knew he was at GNR. But where was GNR? How would she find it? She definitely did not want to get information from Moriarty again. He had said it was in the DC ruins. But what the heck is a DC?
She sighed again. There was so much to do. Honestly, sleeping sounded real nice right now. After all it was one of the ways the brain used to combat pain. She turned and looked at the simple window that was above her bed. On her knees, she went to the side of the bed pressed against the wall and looked out the window. It was dirty, but she could see outside, she could see the wall, she could see the white glowing dots in the sky. It took a moment for her to realize it, but this was the first window she had ever looked out of. She had a feeling there would be more. She pressed her palms against the cool glass. It felt weird, it wasn't like metal. It had scrapes and jagged scratches on it, making it feel rugged and imperfect.
It was still see through though, and she guessed that was what mattered. She finally pulled away from the window and stripped down her vault jumpsuit, she looked around and saw that there were no sheets on the bed. She got up, wearing only her underclothes. "Wadsworth?" she called.
"Yes Madame?" The robotic butler asked.
"Are there any sheets for the bed?" she asked quietly.
"No Madame. I apologize." Wadsworth stated.
"Oh no, it's fine. I can use… uh." She looked around the house for a moment. "You know what? I'll just sleep in my jumpsuit. Goodnight Wadsworth."
"Goodnight Madame." The robot said as it went off to wherever he sleeps. 'Wait… do robots even sleep?'
She plopped down on the mattress. She was so tired and she hadn't even realized it. Sleep though, gave chance of dreaming, which in this case, might not turn out so well for her. Finally, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
When she awoke, it was morning and golden light from the light bulb in the sky poured through the dingy window. It was warm and it made her want to stay curled up in bed, but she had a job to do. She had to find her dad, and she had to start soon before he got too far ahead of her. Granted, other than a couple locations, she was at a loss. Groggy, and still trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes, she got up and practically tripped over her own feet.
From the eyes of an expert of the Wasteland, she was doomed.
She could definitely use some water; luckily Wadsworth was still hovering around. He greeted her and gave her some fresh water. She drank some of what was in the bottle. From what she learned from Gob yesterday, there was not a lot of purified water in the Wasteland, a lot of the water was radiated. The fact that Wadsworth could make fresh water every now and then, she guessed was a heaven-sent. She capped the bottle and set it in her pack.
"Wadsworth?"
"Yes Madame?"
"Where are the DC ruins exactly?"
"Why they are east of the Potomac River and south a bit. Here let me program it into your Pipboy." Chrys held out her left arm for Wadsworth to inspect. When the robot finished, she looked down at her map and found an outlined marker at the bottom corner of what her map displayed.
"Do you know specifically where GNR is?" Chrys asked, hopeful.
"I'm afraid not Madame."
"Okay… well, I'm going to be going soon. Probably tomorrow and that's where I'm going." Chrys explained, granted she was pretty sure the robot didn't care. She felt like she had to tell somebody. She walked over to the bathroom and looked in a broken mirror and brushed her hair with her fingers. She already was dressed since she had slept in her jumpsuit. She made a mental reminder to find some sheets somewhere for her bed.
Gathering all of her stuff, well her useful stuff for traveling the Wasteland, she stuff it all into her pack and puffed her cheeks. 'Time to go. '
"Wadsworth, I'm leaving! Keep a good eye on the place!" She called back to the robot as she opened the door to her home.
"Indeed Madame. And good luck!" the robot responded.
30 minutes later
"Good lord Madame! What happened to you!?" the robot exclaimed in preprogrammed shock as the blonde practically fell through the front door. Simms stood not too far behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder to keep her steady. She looked covered in dirt, and there was a gash on the side of her head dripping blood that had also been smeared across the right side of her face.
"She ran into some Raiders at that abandoned schoolhouse." Simms explained, "She was limping back here with eyes as wide as dinner plates, clutching her pistol for dear life." Simms had followed the girl back to her home to make sure she got there in one piece, and confiscated her gun for good measure. Paranoia after one's first Raider experience was not uncommon. Simms and the robot slowly guided her to her room and let her lay down on her bed. The sheriff took off his hat and fanned her a bit as he shook his head. Chrys looked up at him, she could tell that he knew she wouldn't get far when she had left Megaton barely a half an hour ago. And he couldn't be more right.
The crazy people, Raiders were what Simms called them, had sprung out of nowhere and started shooting at her. She didn't do anything to them! She just walked by their little (well big) building ruins and the bullets started flying. To be honest, she still had no idea how she actually got out of there. The gash and dirt resulted from her mad dash to get away and falling down a hill that conveniently had a rock at the bottom, and a sharp rock at that. One thing she knew for sure now, was that she needed a weapon better than her pistol and the baseball bat. But she was in no condition to get one now.
After a couple minutes, Simms left, knowing she was safe and stable back in her house. He left her pistol on her desk as he excused himself. Chrys finally sat up and accepted the wet rag Wadsworth handed her to clean her face. When she finished, she slapped a bandage over her wound. Barely a day out of the Vault and she was already a bleeding mess. At least it wasn't coming out her nose.
If there were worse things out there than Raiders in the Wasteland, then she'd either need a better weapon, better training, or better yet, some help. Simms had told her she could ask Jericho to accompany her, but when he described him to her, she realized he was the man she ran into and thought she was crazy for thinking the sky was on fire. Nope, Jericho was out of the question, plus he scared her in the same way Mr. Burke kind of scared her. Maybe it was because they were just men that could easily overpower her and have their way with her. Granted any man could probably overpower her, but those two seemed they would be easily opted to do so.
She ran a hand through her hair in frustration and fixed her glasses. It was a good thing she didn't lose those, they were her only pair. How could she get to the DC ruins by herself? Granted, Simms did say she was going the wrong way. But that was where the marker led her. After some prodding, she realized it was pointing in the direction of one of the places Moira wanted her to go to in order to collect landmines.
After some time, she looked up at the window and sighed. "Daddy, I don't know what to do… I'm not strong enough to go out there. How am I supposed to find you?" Never did she think she'd be talking to a window, but she really had few options left. She had no money to buy a gun, she couldn't hire someone to help her, she had no idea how to use anything other than a BB gun, and she got lost so easily.
Exhausted, she lied down to rest. She knew she looked rather pitiful as tears began to collect at her eyes. Nevertheless, she slowly drifted off to sleep, after having only woken up from it an hour ago.
2 hours later
She awoke. Dry tear tracks lined her face. She wiped them away and sat up. A lot less spirited and a lot more discouraged to try and leave her home and Megaton. So far, this Wasteland did suck and she did miss the Vault.
She looked down at her Pipboy and made sure the marker was actually placed on the DC ruins. She traced the dotted line between it and her marker with her eyes many times. It looked like such a short distance on the map, but it would probably take her a week to get there in her condition of chronic inexperience.
After a long sigh, she got up and got dressed. Deciding that visiting Gob and Nova would probably be the best way for her to cheer up, she fixed her hair in a ponytail and adjusted her glasses. Wadsworth wouldn't let her go until she assured him that she was only going to the saloon. The warmth of the light bulb in the sky helped a bit, but she still made her way to the saloon. When she made her way in, the ghoul bartender gave her a welcoming smile.
"Chrys!" Gob waved, "I heard what happen to ya. I didn't expect to see you up and walking so soon."
Chrys sat down at a barstool and smiled, "Yeah… I'd probably be thinking the same thing if I were you." She dished out a bit of her caps for a Nuka. Gob happily gave her one, as well as a couple of her caps back. "So where's Nova?"
Gob sighed and began to wipe the counter off, as if trying to avoid the subject, "She's resting… Moriarty… he worked her hard last night."
"I'm sorry. Is it always like that?"
"No. Sometimes it's just a bunch of freeloaders get a bit of time with her."
"I still don't quite understand it though. What does she do exactly?"
Gob looked at Chrys with a rather stumped look, "She… Do I really have to tell ya?"
Chrys cocked her head to the side, "Well what does she do? Massage them?"
Gob let out a small chuckle while shaking his head back and forth, "I wish Smoothskin, I wish." He rubbed his face with his hand and then went back to cleaning the imaginary mess on the counter, "She has sex with men who pay for it. They give Moriarty the caps, and he gives them Nova."
This bit of knowledge made the imaginary mess become a reality. Nuka-Cola spat all over the counter. "WHAT!?" Chrys asked in shock as she wipes some of the drink off of her chin. Gob calmly cleaned up Chrys' spit-take. "H-how can Moriarty make her do that?"
"Moriarty can make us do anything. We're in debt to him. Not much we, or anyone else for that matter, can do about it." Gob explained.
Chrys hated it. All her life she had learned that slavery or any ownership of another human being was bad, courtesy of her father. How could anyone morally live knowing they partake in slavery? She shook her head. One day she swore she would help Gob and Nova. She couldn't- wouldn't- let Moriarty get away with treating them like this. But the same obstacle faced her: What could she do? She was just a girl fresh out of the vault with no idea how this world worked.
"You okay kid? You look like someone just kneed ya in the gut." Gob asked with worry.
"I'm hopeless Gob… I want to do things, that anyone like me is incapable of doing." She looked up at the ceiling, "How can I do anything that I promised to do, if I'm unable?" She looked back at Gob, "My dad is out there somewhere, and I can't even last ten minutes outside of Megaton. I want to help you and Nova, but there's nothing I can do against Moriarty." She hung her head, "Maybe I should just give up."
A sigh escaped Gob's lips, "You aren't a failure Chrys. You've just got to take a different approach."
"How?"
"Well, you can try going the right way this time."
Chrys laughed at that and looked up at the ghoul. "Yeah… that would help wouldn't it?"
Gob beckoned her closer and spoke quietly, "Where are you going again?"
"GNR. It's in the DC ruins somewhere. At least that's what I know."
"I've been there."
"You have?" The ghoul nodded.
"Listen, you're going to want to get across the Potomac river, and once you get to the ruins, it's best to travel through the metro tunnels that are underground. There are some… creatures in those tunnels that you'll have to fight, but they beat what's on the surface."
"What's on the surface?"
"Kid, you don't want to know. But you can use those tunnels to get just about anywhere in DC. And if you ever need to find a place to rest, go to Underworld."
"Underworld?"
"The city of ghouls. It's in one of the old pre-war museums on the Mall. A lot of the tunnels lead to that area, it's hard to miss. Talk to Carol, she'll help ya."
"There's really a city of ghouls?"
"Yep, that's where I used to live. Carol was kind of like my mother. I miss it there, but I had left to find my own way in life. Of course, I ended up here."
"Do the other ghouls know you're here?"
"Doubt it. I know where you're going with it. If they knew I was here, there's nothing they could do. I'm on my own."
Chrys sighed. "You and me both." The ghoul sighed and looked at the dismayed girl.
"You're free. You can do something about it Chrys." Gob explained.
The blonde girl looked back at the ghoul and smiled. "One day you'll be free too Gob. I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep kid." Gob said as he cleaned another glass.
"I always keep my promises." Chrys swore and crossed her heart. The bartender looked at her with a questioning and smug look. He smirked.
"A minute ago you were asking how you could keep a promise when you are incapable." Gob remarked.
The vault girl blinked, "You… you got a point."
"So what are you still doing here? Or are you just gonna contradict yourself?"