I had walked for several minutes when I began to near a red rocket gas station, I fanned myself and looked up at the sky, the sun glared at me, I guess it was the summer. I removed my bladed metal helmet and brushed my hands through my sweaty jet black hair. It was a pain wearing it all the time but it helps protect my head and makes me look intimidating which was always handy considering I was the Raider Queen.
I headed inside the gas station in hopes to find some water, purified or dirty whatever it worked just fine for me.
As I entered the deserted building I heard a sad whimper, I neared the garage, the whimper got louder, I raised my machete, dinner time? I thought licking my lips.
"Rwarrhh..." a baby deathclaw cried.
I paused for a moment and lowered my weapon, there in front of me was a baby deathclaw mourning its deceased mother, I crouched down and stroked it, it shivered under my touch, it probably only hatched this morning. I turned to its mother, she was a chameleon deathclaw she had a lot bullet wounds and from the smell of things she'd been dead a while, I looked around, most of her eggs were destroyed "poor thing" I poked its head, it toppled over slightly, "I guess I have no choice but to keep you" I smirked and gently stroked it "but try to eat me and I will eat you".
I began to search the gas station, there wasn't a whole lot, just a bottle of dirty water, and some useless pre war shit, I did though find some chain which I used to make a collar and leash for my new pet.
I put my helmet back on and we set off for concord which thankfully wasn't far away at all I guzzled down the disgusting water. I needed some food I thought.
As we neared the town I heard a loud gunshot I quickly got to the ground and hid behind a rusted bin and motioned to my pet to be quiet, I carefully pulled out my .50 caliber sniper rifle, I looked around through the scope, there were a lot of raiders shooting at some guy in a building, he was dressed as a minutemen. I smiled to myself, minutemen always helped those in need, I could probably get some information from him.
I began to effortlessly shoot the raiders in the head, before they realized what was going on they were all dead, I holstered my gun onto my back and began to walk towards the man my hands in the air "don't worry I'm on your side".
"what the hell!?" he questioned probably seeing my new pet.
"don't worry he doesn't bite" I looked down at the my feet briefly and whispered to myself "I think..."
"anyway, please help us, raiders have us trapped inside, we're dying you gotta help" he pleaded.
I sighed and equipped my gun again "guess I have no choice do I? come on boy" I pulled my deathclaw inside the building with me.
Once we were inside the building it took me only a second to locate several raiders and only another second to take them down with my gun, I proceeded to get out my machete and began to explore the building, from what I could gather, this used to be a museum or something, the mannequins were dressed in odd frilly clothes.
I soon spotted another raider, he was off his face on some chems, as I neared him I asked him a question raising my machete in the air "do you know who i am?".
He just stared at me and laughed "what?" he giggled, I then slashed my blade down his head cutting it in half almost.
I began to hack at his body breaking the flesh into small bits "here you go buddy, enjoy" I released my pet briefly while he ate, I sat down on a nearby bench and examined my bloodied blade, beautiful I thought as the blood dripped down onto my hand.
I grabbed the chain leash and gently yanked my deathclaw back he yelped a little. "Don't worry there's still more food for you, but I need to help these idiots before these dickheads kill them.
I began my original mission stalking the blood thirsty raiders, there wasn't that many left and the ones left were too high to even stand, i don't know why the minutemen didn't just deal with them themselves? It was childs play practically.
As I moved up the building I could hear crying and arguing coming from a room across the hall. I came to the door and knocked twice "I dealt with the raiders" the door suddenly swung open revealing 5 people all of who looked very on edge.
"Man, I don't know who you are, but your timing is impeccable, Preston Garvey, commonwealth minutemen" he suddenly jumped back and everyone in else in the room stood back in horror at my new pet.
"I really don't care who you are" I said bluntly "I helped you so you owe me" I stroked the deathclaw happily "he's a good boy don't worry".
"Yeah, sure thing. I'll give you my chest full of emeralds just as soon as we're out of this mess" he said sarcastically relaxing a little.
"I have my own problems Garvey" I growled.
"Yeah? Like what? You help us, maybe we can help you" he replied coolly.
I clenched my jaw shut, I didn't want to get emotional in front of anyone, it was ridiculous too, but when it came to Shaun I couldn't help but feel emotional and hopeless "my son got kidnapped, he wasn't even a year old" I replied almost emotionless.
"That's messed up, I'm sorry. I know how this world can be" he looked at me sadly "a month ago there were 20 of us. Yesterday there were 8, now we're 5. first it was the ghouls in Lexington, now this mess".
"It's a cruel world".
"You think I don't know that? The things I've seen... The things I've done... Anyway we figure Concord would be a safe place to settle. Those raiders proved us wrong. But well... we do have one idea".
I rolled my eyes "better be a good one".
"Sturges tell her" Preston turned to a man working on a terminal, he was wear utility coveralls.
"There's a crashed vertibird up on the roof, old school, pre war you might have seen it? Well looks like one of its passengers left behind a seriously sweet goodie, we're talking a full suit of cherry T-45 power Armour military issue" He explained almost excitedly.
"That's some serious protection" I replied.
"Oh it gets better" he continued "get the suit you can rip the mini gun right of the vertibird, do that and those raiders get an express ticket straight to hell, you dig?".
I looked at my nails uninterested "that sounds good and all but I can probably deal with all those raiders without all that useless shit" I got my gun out again.
Preston looked at me worriedly "well alright." he tried to smile a little "maybe our lucks finally turning around, with you out there maybe those raiders'll know they picked the wrong fight, good luck".
"Yeah, yeah" I replied walking away from the two men, heading to the roof when suddenly an old woman spoke to me.
"Careful kid. Theres somethin comin, and it is... Angry" she said slowly "but that deathclaw you got there is loyal, he'll stick by ya, i saw it".
I raised my brow "you saw it?".
"Its the chems, kid. They give Ole Mama Murphy the sight, been that way for as long as i can remember".
"Right? well i'm listening" I thought it would be slightly entertaining to humor her a little.
"I can see a bit of what was, and what will be, and even what is right now." She paused and closed her eyes briefly "and right now i can see there's something coming. Drawn by the noise and chaos. And it is... Angry" she warned.
I nodded "okay then, i got it angry, I pointed to the door, "well i'm going to go and kill things now and I'll just leave you and your chems be?".
"Good luck kid" she called as i left.
What a fucking nutcase I thought climbing the stairs to the roof. When I reached the top and felt the hot air touch my skin, I heard a lot of shouting from down bellow, the raiders must have called for back up. I crouched down onto the floor and motioned for my pet to do the same. I carefully crawled to the edge of the roof careful not to be caught and pulled out my gun and aimed it at all the raiders. my recon scope picked up at least 12 raiders, i began to hum a song i once heard to on the radio when i was a kid, it always soothed me and Shaun loved it too.
Bang! my gun shot, hitting the raiders in the head one by one. "there's a sniper on the roof!" one called out, suddenly several more appeared out of nowhere and began to aimlessly shoot at the roof, I rolled around and hid behind the power Armour that stood on the old vertibird.
Silence. The loud war zone became dead silent, I decided to take a peak. All the raiders stood together staring at the floor, the floor was shaking "what the hell..." I asked myself. Suddenly there was an explosion which threw all the surrounding raiders. An albino deathclaw rose from the ground and roared fiercely, half the raiders quickly tried to make a run for it, the other half decided to fight back, both failed miserably, the deathclaw tore them all to shreds with its swift swipes.
After the quick bloodbath it just caused, it charged at the museum. "Fuck" I swore, I began to shoot at its head, but the bullets bounced off, the damn skin was way too tough, I should have remembered that from my last battle with one. I glanced at my machete that was strapped to my thigh, it was sharp enough to pierce the skin and if I managed to get to its stomach I could rip it open. I looked around my surroundings, I couldn't get to it by the entrance, it would just kill me instantly, no I needed to catch it by surprise, but I was trapped on a roof the only way was down.
The deathclaw was already at the entrance clawing at the ruined building, it would break in soon if I didn't act quick enough, I looked over the edge, if I dropped I would die, if I went down stairs I'd die, I took in a deep breath. "I'm an idiot" I quickly turned to my pet dropping his chain onto the floor "stay" I commanded.
I leaped off of the building with my machete drawn downwards, the wind blew hard on my face, I closed my eyes as I neared the ground, suddenly the wind stopped as did I, I opened my eyes "shit" I mouthed, my plan had worked, my machete was drawn into the beast's left shoulder, I dangled behind it, I tried to pull my self up but that proved to be difficult as the deathclaw thrashed about, throwing me back and forth, I held on for dear life avoiding its monstrous claws, some how I managed to pull myself up onto its back and I grabbed hold of one of its horns with my left hand, with my right I ripped my blade out and sliced its throat open, blood spewed out everywhere, it then fell to the ground with a crash, I still held onto its horn with my hand gasping for air, that had to be the stupidest idea I'd ever had in my entire life. Preston open the door his eyes wide "that was... A pretty amazing display, i'm glad you're on our side".
I rolled my eyes friends? Ugh what an ugly word "stop kidding yourself, you're nothing to me" I spat.
"Hmph. You know, you talk like a jerk, but you still helped us out. Whether you wanted to or not." He shrugged "here" he handed me 100 bottle caps and 50 fusion cells.
"I didn't do it for the money" I said putting the caps in my pocket as well as the cells.
He raised a brow at me "Hey, sorry. I'm used to everyone being in it only for themselves." He straightened himself up a little "You know, you remind me of my friends. The other Minutemen, the ones who gave their lives for something bigger than themselves. You should come with us to Sanctuary. We could use the help." He asked with pleading eyes.
"No" I said bluntly entering the museum, joining Preston's group , I just needed information on the things that took my son.
"You need to stay strong. Like you been. Cause there's more to your destiny. I've seen it. And I know your pain" Mama Murphy said slowly.
"Don't give me that destiny crap" I said with a hint of annoyance in my voice.
Preston cut in "I just saw you go toe-to-toe with a twenty-foot tall irradiated lizard. You telling me you can't keep an open mind after that?".
Mama Murphy stood up from the bench she was sitting on and gently put a hand on Preston's shoulder "It's all right, Preston. Not everyone understands the Sight. But I don't need you to believe, I just need you to listen..." she looked me dead in the eye "You're a woman out of time. Out of hope. But all's not lost. I can feel... your son's energy. He's alive."
"Bullshit! You're trying to play me for a fool." i snapped.
"Aw. No, kid. No. The Sight's sometimes foggy, but it ain't ever a liar. Your son's out there. And even I don't need the Sight to tell you where you should start lookin."
"Yeah, yeah i don't need your damn chem sight to know that diamond city is where i should head next" i turned to Preston "have you ever come across some weird freaky humanoid robots with a man who has a giant scar on his face?" I asked.
"I've seen those robots before, synths they call them, apparently they all come from a place called the Institute, but I haven't seen a man with them ever" he shrugged.
"Institute?" I questioned.
"Yeah they are the boogeyman of the commonwealth, they apparently steal normal folk and replace them with a synth that looks just like them, its pretty messed up".
"Any chance you know where i can find this Institute?".
"No idea, no one knows where it is or if its even real, but I'd ask around diamond city, maybe you can get some info there" He began to walk off with his group before turning to me " best of luck to you, I hope you find your son, also your deathclaw is still on the roof". With that he and his group left the museum.
"Shit" I muttered to myself remembering my pet