Act Two: Into The Wastes

The blindness cleared from Perry's eyes, his jaw dropped as he surveyed the world sprawled out before. It was more than Perry could ever have imagined. The old photos just couldn't have dreamed of capturing this. Old and broken roads spreading forth like a cobweb. The skeletal town nearby and in the distance broken overpasses and express ways jutting from the wastrel landscape like the bones of a long dead leviathon. All encompassed by a scorched earh valley and a fluidic grey sky with green clouds.
Perry turned to his companions who looked strangely pale in the sunlight "we need to find shelter and supplies, i think that town over here is the best option". Amata simply nodded whilst jonas looked on at the town with his bespectacled eyes. "Right lets find a place to hunker down while you read those notes Perry, come on Amata help me off this rock. Perry took point with Amata and Jonas following behind, his limp slowly fading as the stimpak administered by Perry began to take effect.
The group moved through Springvale slowly as their disappointment rose. All the buildings were ruined and wouldn't do well as a shelter. The group eventually stopped at an old gas station, each looking in a different direction for some sign of shelter from the elements.
"I see a school!", jonas practically screamed. Perry could see it too along with the bodies suspended on meat hooks above the doors. Perry turned cautiously back to Jonas."see those bodies, still fresh spells danger to me". Amata then shouted in amusement. "what the Fuck is a megaton!". she then pointed out a rusty sign with an arrow facing up the road away from the bone-yard township of springvale. perry turned and began scanning the horizon but saw nothing but rocks and dead trees."heck if i know Amata but id rather find out more about this megaton before i go charging into it". "over there!", Jonas shouted and pointed at three dilapidated houses recessed from the curb on what would have at one time been a side street. the closest of which was unboarded. Perry eyed the houses weighing up the dangers. "stay away from the unboarded house, we should open the one on the end".
it didn't take long to gain entry to the derelict. a rusty fire axe allowed Perry to make short work of the boards over the back door which was surprisingly un-locked.
Immediately upon entering Amata began to choke on the dust kicked up by their feet. Perry put his arm upon her shoulder affectionately. "leave the back door open, allow the place to air". Amata moved back to the door and pulled it open, still hacking and caughing as she went. Jonas on the other hand had no trouble breathing and moved straight through to the dank, grimy sitting room and collapsed onto a rickety thread bare sofa. Perry handed his satchel to Jonas with a suggestion that he should take some med-ex. Perry then moved back into the kitchen to talk to Amata who was sat at a table looking grief stricken.
Perry took the chair opposite her and hugged her across the table. the she soberly spoke, "my own father wants me dead, he tried to have me killed" Amata then began to sob quietly. Perry finally spoke quietly "i know darling, me and Jonas i can rationalise, but you. he must be truly insane".
Perry tried to bring reason in his mind, but he couldn't. how could a father, no matter what their child had done, want that child dead?. punish, yes banish into the wastes, possibly. but to want your child dead, to send men with anger in their hearts to end that child and stop them from breathing or thinking and moving. to make that child as silent and still as a placid lake. no there could be no reasoning for this. just sheer madness and evil. pure and unabated evil forged from the fires of darkness itself. Perry left Amata silent contemplation as the room grew dark. Perry stepped through the back door and into the iradiated twilight outside. what he saw brought him to tears, a sky of embers as an iradiated Sun died into the western horizon, as it made way to night Perry was mesmerized by the silhouette of D.C.. Perry stood entranced as the sky became an inky black canvas strewn with stars and glowing green ethereal clouds. the moon lay high in this abyss of sky like a beacon.
his reverie was broken by a coarse female voice. "pretty ain't she?",. "why ye..." Perry cut his response short as he realised the voice wasn't Amata's, he whirled on the spot ready to pull his 10mm. which wasn't there. "hold it right there sunshine!", and there she stood tanned, dirty with gossamer hair and more importantly Perry 10mm in her hands. aimed squarely at Perry's head. Perry glared in surprise before speaking gingerly "who are you?". "i was about to ask you the same question but i know you're some asshole Moriarty sent to kill me, names Silver by the way, try remember it. its a shame its only the second to last thing to go through your head",.
"I DON'T THINK SO BITCH!", Amata stood firm with the spare 10mm squared at silver's head and was backed up by Jonas with perry's baseball bat. "oh hell go an shoot me then", silver sobbed as she realised she was outnumbered and out gunned. Jonas was first to begin negotiations "stop threatening our friend and give him his gun back, we can talk without any violence". silver lowered the gun with a sigh before holding it out to Perry who took it quickly before bolstering it. Amata and Jonas followed suit as Perry sighed with relief. "im Perry Hammond, this is Amata and Jonas. we don't know who or what this Moriarty is but we are just here to rest and take shelter". if silver didn't believe them then she didn't show it, she silently turned and entered the trio's abode. "by all means come in and make yourself at home, would you like some lemonade", Amata sarcastically added once silver had gone inside.
Perry and Jonas followed the women inside. Perry took a rather worn old armchair whilst everybody else squeezed onto the grungey sofa. "so first up how about an explanation as to why i almost ended up dead, if that's not too much trouble?", Perry was speaking in a rather aloof manner and his voice and personality had once again reverted to the one encountered in the vault security office. silver looked over apologetically " i used to work in a bar, in the town of megaton for a guy called Moriarty, but id eventually had enough and decided to move on. but i was so good at earnings the caps that Moriarty tried to stop me leaving. first he accused me of stealing but it soon escalated. now he's put a bounty on my head an i can't start fresh with caps on my head".
"so you thought we'd come to kill you, what if i tell Moriarty that you died?".
"and why the hell would you do that?".
"well for one he'll give me the bounty even though i haven't lifted a finger so that's free money, plus i can't allow you to keep blowing people away as you will attract attention to yourself and a majority of those people will be innocent", Perry added non-chalantly. with the plan to fool Moriarty agreed upon silver returned to her hideout, leaving Perry and his companions in a pip-boy lit sitting room. Jonas turned to Perry "this is gonna be one hell of a cup of sugar". Perry looked to Jonas still in his nonchalant demeanor "love thy neighbour".
morning couldn't come quick enough as far as Perry was concerned, he'd spent the whole night on watch, mainly because he couldn't sleep. after a rather disappointing meal where himself Amata and Jonas had to share a bottle of water and some salisbury steak perry's companions sloped off to bed leaving him sat in his armchair looking over Anne palmers notes.
so far Perry had discovered that caps were used as currency and worked the same way as his vault work credits which now lay useless in his bag.
Perry had also learned that radroaches weren't the only insects that had grown to crazy proportions. and apparently megaton was a fortified, ramshackle town built around an atomic bomb. as Perry had suspected his D.C , most likely used by his pip-boys original owner 200 years ago was useless for the most part. Perry had deleted all the markers on the map bar one which was simply labeled "home" and sat the northeast area of the map. then he added new markers ; springvale, the school, megaton, vault 101 and the current hideout which had earned vault base as a nickname. perry's mind was made up, in the morning they would head to megaton. Perry would go talk to Moriarty while Amata and Jonas would find out as much information as they could. also Perry wanted to know what the five hundred caps in his bag would get him.
when Perry asked about his fathers motives for leaving the vault Jonas had simply handed over a holo-tape. Perry had spent hours listening to the tapes from the safe and from Jonas. hours in the darkness listening to his fathers voice. one tape was filled with loving and reassuring words from his father but the other was his father speaking in a way Perry had heard before, almost like a stranger.
were both his and Amata's fathers lying twin-headed snakes.