Squire Lost

The Slog

Of all the things the Commonwealth had thrown at Declan in the twenty four hours since his vertibird went down, this was both the craziest, and the cutest.

"So, you wanna make a deal, or what?" the little brown-haired girl asked him for a second time.

Declan managed a nod and spared one last glance at the Sentry-Bot that loomed over her.

Gripping the guardrail with his good hand, he pushed himself up to a standing position and dusted the dirt off of his pants. The dirt stuck to dried blood didn't dust off. He made a face and ignored it. His legs felt weak and wobbly but he wasn't going to miss an opportunity to make friends with someone that had a sentry-bot protecting them. "Are you out here all alone?"

"Hardly, Gus looks out for me, so don't get any ideas." She poked her finger into his chest for emphasis and he tried not to grin at how cute she was. "Now are you buyin' or not?"

Declan made a show of going through his empty pockets with his good hand. "What kind of stuff do you buy and sell?"

"All sorts of stuff," she smiled proudly.

He paused his digging, only able to produce the bag of jerky.

"What's that?" she asked as she unfolded a tattered tablecloth and began placing her goods on it for display.

"It's radstag jerky," he answered. "A friend of my Uncle's made it at one of the settlements. It's real good. It doesn't have any rads," told her.

She looked up at him from her seat on the tablecloth. Taking the parcel, she sniffed it before counting the pieces inside. "Rad-free food will fetch quite a few caps. Rad-free food from a reputable provider like the Minutemen will fetch even more," she told him.

"The Minutemen?"

"I recognize the smell," she told him. "This stuff is made back at the Abernathy Settlement. Radstag are all over the place there." She sat the parcel of jerky on the tablecloth beside her. "What kind of gun do you have? I have some ammunition."

"You want to trade my jerky for bullets?"

"That's how these sorts of things work. Come on, sit down."

Declan glanced around, checking for any sign of Karma's band of raiders before doing as he was told. He sat down carefully, keeping pressure off of his injured leg. He cradled his right hand close to his body as she sorted all of her bullets by size. "I need 10mm," he said as he pointed one out. Her tablecloth shop was a mess, but she was adorable in her flower dress. Already she seemed significantly sweeter and safer than the last girl he'd met in the Commonwealth. While she dug out all of her 10mm bullets, he sifted through her wares. She had a bobby pin, a rusted lighter, some Insta Mash, duct tape, an oven mitt, a wool cap, a carrot, and a wrench of some kind. He picked up the cap and inspected it.

"Okay," she lined up 5 bullets in front of him. "I'll give you 24 caps for the jerky, and then I'll sell you these at 2 caps each. The wool cap is worth 15." She paused and counted everything up on her fingers.

Declan studied her as she figured everything up. How had she ended up out here all alone, and with a Sentry-Bot of all things protecting her? He stared at her freckles as she scrunched her nose. Some of them were partially obscured by the dirt and grease on her face. Her hair was a dark brown, and the more she talked, the more it bounced around. She had a piece of dry grass in her hair and he resisted the urge to reach over and remove it.

"You're a cap short," she told him.

"What?" he asked.

"You need one more cap."

He looked down at the bullets, and then over at the wool cap. One would keep him warm and the other would keep him safe. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened this morning. He looked down at his injured hand, unable to shake the mental image of the ghoul and then Karma's kitchen. Blood had soaked through most of the bandana, obscuring the blue color that it was supposed to be.

"How about this," she leaned forward, her fingers brushing the leather of his coat.

"What?" he frowned and pulled back. "This coat was a gift."

She rolled her eyes before pulling a pencil out of his chest pocket. She held it up for him to see it. "There, now it's an even trade."

"Oh," he smiled sheepishly. He hadn't realized that was there. He pulled out his gun and loaded it like he'd seen his Uncle do hundreds of times before. Tucking it away, he grabbed the wool cap and put it on. He grimaced. The simple movement hurt both his hand and his head. When she started putting her things away, he stood up.

"So, are you all alone out here?" she asked him.

"I am," he answered. There was no point in lying to her; she had a functional set of eyes.

She nodded. "Well you can travel with me and Gus if you want."

He smiled. After the day he'd had, she had no idea how much her offer meant to him. "So how do I go about getting one of these things?" he asked as he reached out and touched the Sentry-Bot. The metal was warm and rough under his fingertips. The simple motion was exhilarating like he was tempting fate.

"Do not interfere with security operations," Gus fussed and moved away.

He pulled his hand back quickly. "I think I made him mad," he laughed.

"Trust me, if you made Gus mad, you'd have a hundred holes in you right now," she assured him.

He smiled but he was a little disturbed by her statement.

"My Pa programmed him. He's real good at that sort of stuff."

"With skills like that, he could have a place with the Brotherhood," he told her.

She chuckled and gave him a wry smile. "No, he couldn't."

He didn't know how to take that response, so he didn't push it. "You never told me your name."

"It's Kat," she told him. "What's yours soldier boy?"

"Soldier boy?"

"Look me in the eye and tell me you aren't a Brotherhood soldier."

"Did my recruitment speech give it away?"

"Yeah. But it was also your clothes," she told him. "The material of your pants and the fact that it doesn't have any patches. That fancy coat of yours. I don't know if you know it, but that is some very expensive leather. And your boots. Those are really nice boots. If your feet were a little bit bigger I'd tell you to watch out for the raiders. They'd kill for boots like that. They kill for less than that actually," she shrugged it off as she walked.

"Yeah, I know. I ran into some raiders this morning," he admitted quietly. He spared a glance over his shoulder, still afraid Karma or one of her friends might be following him. He moved a little closer to Gus.

"Well that explains your injuries."

He looked down at his bandaged hand and his filthy pants. "My name's Declan," he told her.

"Nice to meet you Declan," she smiled at him. "So what's your rank?"

"I'm a Brotherhood Squire," he told her. "It's the title given to children born into the Brotherhood. Soon I'll graduate to Knight though."

"Will they give you one of those armored suits?"

"Yeah," he smiled excitedly.

"Good. You look like you could use all the armor you can find."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he frowned.

"Shh," she held out her arm to stop him.

On the road in front of them, an emaciated, leathery mongrel stood in a clearing. It bared it's teeth and snarled as it stalked closer. It was followed by a second mongrel that slowly came into focus as it stepped out of the fog. Kat dropped to the ground as Gus's guns whirled to life. Declan barely had time to drop down behind her. He covered his ears as the Sentry-Bot's gatling guns began firing just inches above his head. The sound of each shot rattled around in his skull as Kat's personal protector demolished the creatures that had been threatening her. By the time Gus stopped shooting, the mongrels were destroyed, their carcasses scattered across the road in bloody heaps. Kat went to one of the larger piles of tissue and opened a cavity so she could look inside.

"What are you doing?" Declan made a face. He moved his hand to keep Gus from running over his fingers as he watched Kat.

"Gettin' loot out of his gut," she told him. "There ain't a creature in the Commonwealth that isn't going to have something worth selling. Go ahead," she gestured to the scattered remains of the second mongrel.

Doing as he was told, he slowly stood up and pushed past the dizziness and pounding in his head. He walked over to where she'd gestured and knelt down on weak and shaky legs. The last thing he wanted was to pass out or topple over in front of her. It was important that he looked strong in front of her, he was representing the Brotherhood of Steel. He also didn't want her to think he was a wimp. Fighting a grimace, he stuck his left hand into the mongrel's gut. He was not prepared for the texture that he encountered as he moved the tattered slivers of flesh with his fingers. Immediately he was overcome with flashbacks to the storage room in the raider house. He closed his eyes and tried not to recall the things that he had seen. Would the flesh of the raider gang's victims have felt like the remains of the mongrel did? He imagined that they probably did.

Declan took a calming breath, trying to keep himself from looking visibly distressed. The Brotherhood had certainly never taught him how to do this on a field mission, although now that he thought about it, he had seen Knight Miller examining the corpses of creatures he'd killed on training missions. He adjusted himself on his knees, still keeping his right hand close to his body. He could do this. His hand bumped up against something that didn't feel like flesh or bone. He quickly grabbed onto it and pulled out a fork and a single cap. His 'loot' was a bit disappointing.

"I'll trade you that cap and fork for a carrot," Kat told him.

He looked up quickly, not realizing she was standing close enough to see over his shoulder. "What? This thing is bent and covered in blood and …stuff," he grimaced as he held the fork up.

"It'll wipe off," she assured him. "Next customer will never know."

He let out a strained laugh and made a mental note not to buy dishes from her. Commonwealth people were crazy and gross. "Fine. I'll give you this nice, warm, bloody fork, and one bent and bloody bottle cap, for one hopefully not bloodied, carrot."

Kat smiled. "Deal!"

He made a face as he held the items out to her and she enthusiastically took them from him. She wiped the blood off with a tattered cloth from her pocket as he slowly stood up. Oblivious to his impatience, Kat carefully placed the items in her bag before she dug around for his payment. Declan waited quietly, looking forward to that carrot more than he'd ever wanted to eat anything in his entire life.

Knelt on the edge of the Malden River, Teagan examined the crash site. Stone retaining walls lined both sides of the river's banks, and it was fairly obvious that the vertibird had hit the wall closest to the Super Mutant compound before most of it ended up in the river. The tail still laid in a crumpled heap up on the hill.

There were a half dozen soldiers with him, combing the area between the compound and the riverbank, and a handful of them were preparing to go into the water. He stared out over the water towards the Minuteman settlement on the other side. He couldn't see all the way across, thanks to the obnoxious fog that he was told was normal for this time of year, but he could hear the voices of the settlers. While most of the river was shallow, it was the deepest between the settlement and the crash site. He knew there was a dock across the water, and the thought that the settlers were trying to watch the Brotherhood's attempts to search the river frustrated him. He stood and walked along the water's edge to try and clear his mind.

He kept his weapon ready. With water on one side, and a stone wall on the other, Teagan felt vulnerable. The entire river was a death trap. Swarms of bugs bred and reproduced in the shallows, mirelurks loved the mud at the water's edge, and the damn super mutants had compounds all over. Upon landing he'd been told that the Minutemen had fought all through the night and had taken the Super Mutant fortress at around dawn. Kells and Quinlan weren't going to believe it. From what he'd heard, the Minutemen had made certain that the Super Mutant named Hammer was the first to die.

Teagan was a bit bitter he didn't get to kill every one of the abominations himself for what they'd done, but the Minutemen's initiative had saved at least one Brotherhood life. While his nephew was still unaccounted for, Knight Sloan had been found inside a fallout shelter under the compound. She'd sustained injuries but was given medical assistance by the Minutemen at the settlement across the river. It gave Teagan a shred of hope to cling to, that if Sloan could survive falling into the Super Mutant nest, Declan could've too if he'd ended up anywhere outside of it. Shortly after landing Teagan had learned that all of the dogs at the Brotherhood's disposal were attack dogs and not a damn one of them could track. It was a frustrating development to say the very least, and it dashed his greatest chance at finding Declan. He needed Dogmeat. He knew Dogmeat was a great tracker.

Leaving the rest of the Brotherhood soldiers behind, his boots shifted and sank in the gravel and mud as he walked along the water's edge. His eyes scanned both the shoreline and the clear, shallow water beside him. He was thankful the water was clear, it was a small break considering he couldn't see a damn thing on land. A few feet out, something under the water caught his attention. Keeping a firm hold on his laser rifle, he stepped shin deep into the water and reached down and picked up a Squire's glove. He turned it over in his left hand as water ran off of it. It didn't appear to be singed or damaged in any way. He waded further out into the water with a renewed sense of purpose. He wanted desperately to find more clues and hoped he didn't find a body with them.

"Proctor! You'll take on rads!" an initiate called from behind him. While he appreciated their concern, he ignored them, willing to chance it. If Declan had ended up in this river, he would've taken on many more rads than what Teagan was exposing himself to. He continued scanning the water, unable to find anything else. He looked toward the opposite shore but couldn't see anything. He returned to the water's edge and leaned against the support of a fallen tower. His nephew was gone and all he had of him was a standard issue Brotherhood glove.

It was then that it dawned on him that Declan had been wearing a not so standard liner under his uniform, a secondary protective coat. Modeled after Maxson's battlecoat, it was something Teagan had created specifically for him, to give him an increased level of protection in the field. It was by no means as heavy as the battlecoat, but for a child, it still had a considerable weight. He'd never imagined that Declan would have to swim in it. What if he hadn't been able to?

The realization dropped Teagan to a knee and he leaned against the old tower as his laser rifle fell to the mud. With all of its buttons, the coat would've been difficult to remove under the water. He brought a hand to his mouth as he weighed the likelihood that he'd contributed to his nephew's drowning while trying to protect him. He clutched Declan's glove tightly as he fought back tears. If they found his body at the bottom of the river, he would personally hunt down every Super Mutant in the Commonwealth and slaughter them and then drink himself into oblivion. He gritted his teeth and looked down at the glove. And that's when he saw it.

Something metallic jutted up from the mud at the water's edge. It was small, not much larger than a cap, and it was familiar. Still kneeling, he moved closer to the object and pulled it from the mud. Laying Declan's glove over his leg, he wiped the mud off the small object and smiled. It was his brother's compass. He held it tightly and closed his eyes. It had been pressed into a smooth area of mud. Something had been laying there. If his assumptions were right, that something had been a small body. Shoving back some of the brush, his eyes darted around the gravel and mud. Beyond the flat, smooth area were a few deeper indentations in the mud, some tracks that could've been made by crawling, a partial boot print, and a hand print. Getting down on both knees, Teagan crawled up the bank a bit and placed his gloved hand over the much smaller hand print in the wet earth. There was no question that it belonged to a child.

He stared at the small hand print, excitement building in his chest. If the Minutemen had found any other bodies after they took the Super Mutant compound, they would've said so. The mutants hadn't gotten Declan, and neither had the river. "There are tracks," he said, gesturing to the mud but nobody heard him. "There are tracks!" he shouted to the nearest Knight. "We've got a Squire out there! Inform the others!" Quickly gathering the glove and his laser rifle, Teagan sprinted up the steep hill and desperately looked for Declan's trail.

Declan continued to follow Kat and Gus as they traveled. Thankfully she walked slow because going up and down so many hills was taking a toll on his leg. He still couldn't see much thanks to the poor weather conditions, and he couldn't hear too much over the sound of Gus's rumbling either. At some point after the mongrels but before they passed their third vehicle, he'd developed a limp. Despite it, he was determined to keep up with them. He pushed the pain aside and spared a glance over at Kat. He liked her.

For the most part they'd walked in silence. He strayed to the side of the road when he caught sight of a blue flower growing on a bush. He used his mother's knife to cleanly cut the flower from the plant and then lamely trotted to catch up with Kat and Gus.

"Do not interfere with security operations," Gus warned.

"Yeah yeah, I'm not," Declan replied, no longer intimidated by the sentry-bot. He caught up to Kat and thrust the blue flower towards her. "Here," he managed, mortified that he'd offered her something without accounting for the fact that she might not like him back.

Kat took the flower and looked it over. "A hubflower," she smiled.

Declan smiled in return. "I saw it on the side of the road back there and thought you might like it." He brought his good hand up to his throat and swallowed a few times. His throat felt scratchy and irritated, he'd just add that to his growing list of ailments. He was already wounded, bleeding, had a limp, had a headache, was still dizzy, why not have a cold too? If he ever made it back to the Prydwen Captain Cade was going to keep him on bed rest for a week, maybe longer.

Kat continued to smile as she knelt down on the road and very carefully packed the flower away. He watched. He really liked her smile. She then dug through her bag and pulled out some caps. "That's worth two caps," she told him. "If you can find a double petal variety, it'll be worth three."

It took a moment for him to realize she was placing caps in his hand and not trying to hold it. When she stood back up and started walking again, Declan followed her, embarrassed that the Sentry-Bot had been a witness to that pathetic moment in his life. "Thanks," he said awkwardly. If he ever made it back to the Prydwen he might be able to buy some 200 year old bubble gum with his failed attempt at romance.

She smiled at him over her shoulder. "I'll make a trader out of you yet."

Was that what was happening? Was she teaching him a trade so he would survive in the Commonwealth? They passed some old military vehicles along a busted up section of road. They had to go out of their way to walk around some of them. There were a few crates stacked off to the side, and a Minuteman flag draped over the front of one of the trucks. Kat glanced around but didn't stop moving.

"Usually I can make sales at these checkpoints but it looks like the guys are busy right now."

He looked around and pulled his pistol out. They were casually walking through a prime ghoul ambush point and he didn't trust that one of the abominations wouldn't crawl out from under one of the vehicles. After his last encounter with a feral, he wasn't about to let his guard down.

In the distance he could hear gunfire and laser muskets. The Minutemen were nearby. He couldn't see the dispute, but he hoped the Minutemen were victorious. After they'd taken down the Institute, Declan couldn't imagine that there was a threat that the Minutemen couldn't handle.

Up ahead of them, something tall and dark loomed in the fog. He could see a faint blue glow but couldn't quite make out what it was until they were closer. Kat stopped walking and held out her hand to stop him. "The Slog?" he read aloud. "What's the –" He stopped talking and watched as a large gate slowly opened, it's hinges popping and groaning in protest. He'd seen gates like these before. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"It's a Minuteman settlement," Kat informed him. "Prior to that, it was a farm run exclusively by ghouls. It's the only place in the whole Commonwealth that grows tarberries."
Declan was interested in the tarberries –the carrot had done little to fill his empty stomach – but he wasn't comfortable in a place where he'd be surrounded by ghouls. He stopped just inside the gate unable to force himself to go any farther. His legs felt weak and heavy, as if they were made of lead.

The visibility wasn't much better inside, but he could make out a Brahmin trough over by a tree, and a few chairs over by one of the perimeter walls. A ghoul sat in one of those chairs. He watched as she quickly reassembled her pipe pistol and grabbed a handful of ammo. He fixated on her face, unable to tear his eyes away from the layers of scarring the radiation burns had left in their wake. Despite knowing that she wasn't feral, all he could see were flashes of the ghoul that had attacked him that morning. They had very similar skin tones and he couldn't stop thinking about the deranged way the feral had run and the way it's lifeless eyes had rolled back into it's head. He crossed his arms and
tucked his hands under them protectively.

"I'm gettin' real tired of this shit," a male ghoul complained in a deep scratchy voice. "I'd be all for wipin' them off the face of the Commonwealth if the General would just give the damn order." The ghoul burst through the fog as he rushed towards the gate. Declan moved out of the way, but the ghoul ran into Kat. Clad in head-to-toe combat armor, he grabbed Kat's arm to steady her so she didn't fall down. "Stay inside little sister, it's gonna get real ugly before we're through with them."

"Look out kids," another ghoul called out from behind them. Declan stumbled to the side as one of the guards quickly descended his post and followed the other ghoul outside the gate. Given they weren't as grotesque as the feral ghouls, they still looked enough like them to give him chills. He was having a difficult time being in the settlement. In fact, he was starting to feel panicked. His chest tightened and his breathing became a bit labored. He needed to leave. He needed to flee. The female ghoul ran past them as well, rushing off to battle in little more than a tattered old dress.

"They're all ghouls?" he managed..

"Is that a problem?" Kat asked.

"They're all ghouls," Declan whispered to himself. He couldn't do this. What was keeping them from going feral? If the Brotherhood found him here, what would they say? What would the ghouls say if they found out he was Brotherhood? He wasn't safe there, he had to leave immediately. "We have to go," he told her.

"No we don't," Kat told him. "Besides, the road down below isn't safe to travel. The Forged like to attack traveling traders. It sounds like they finally got caught by the Minutemen."

"Then we take a different road."

"I do business here. I'm not leaving," she informed him.

He frowned. "Kat I can't stay here with all these ghouls."

"Then leave," she said simply as she sat on the ground and began going through her inventory.

Leaving meant being on his own again. He'd grown quite comfortable with Gus as his backup. It was also abundantly clear that Kat was nowhere near as impressed with him as he was with her. "Thank you for everything..." he said quietly.

Kat looked up at him through her bangs but she said nothing to stop him from leaving.

Going back outside the gate, Declan crossed the grassy expanse and stopped in the road to try and get a clearer view of the battle. All he could really see were eruptions of yellow and orange in the fog. The smoke from the fires and fighting hung low. Now he really couldn't breathe. He coughed and covered his mouth before going back the way they'd come from.

Reaching the empty checkpoint, he placed a hand on one of the vehicles to steady himself. The smoke from the battle was growing surprisingly thick given his distance from it and it did nothing to soothe his growing anxiety. He needed to rest but first he had to find some place safe to rest. He coughed again as he continued on tired legs.

It occurred to him that by going out alone, he was chancing running into the raiders again. He managed to slip away the first time, but he was fairly certain he wouldn't get away with it a second time. He leaned against a different vehicle and closed his eyes. What was he supposed to do? Maybe, if he just stayed there long enough, the Minutemen would eventually return and they could get him home. He spared a glance towards the blue glow of the Slog's neon lights. Knowing his luck, they'd drag him back to that settlement – it was the nearest settlement. He couldn't handle going back. He could barely handle where he was.

"Do you need help kid?" the scratchy voice of yet another ghoul startled him. His eyes snapped open to see a ghoul in road leathers and a fedora staring back at him. What was with this place and it's absurdly high ghoul population? Were there no human settlers? How had a ghoul, and a pack brahmin of all things, managed to get so close to him without him realizing they were there. He had no business out in the Commonwealth. He was an awful representative of the Brotherhood.

"I'm fine," he told the provisioner. The less time he spent in the ghoul's company, the better.

"Are you sure? You're injured and you look a little shaken up," the ghoul reached out for his arm but Declan wretched away and pulled out his pistol. The ghoul held up his hands and stepped back. "Clearly I was mistaken."

"Stay away from me!" Declan held him at gunpoint for a long moment before he lowered the weapon and sidestepped to get away from him. He spared a quick glance back towards The Slog before he cautiously walked around the ghoul and continued on his way. He was torn, this one didn't seem like an abomination. Sure he looked hideous and he smelled awful, but he seemed sincere. Still, he couldn't hardly stand to look at his face. The worst part was, Declan wanted to go with the ghoul provisioner because he really didn't want to be alone, he just couldn't bring himself to accept his help.

"There's a new settlement down the road on the right," the ghoul told him. "It's at a place called Breakheart Banks. You're going to see a lot of super mutant handy work. Just go on past that."

"I'll be alright," Declan said, unable to bring himself to let the ghoul know that he was scared and needed help.

"It's your funeral kid, there's a storm moving in."

Declan left the provisioner and his pack brahmin behind as the wind picked up. He wasn't afraid of a storm. Storms brought wind and the wind would help clear up the fog. He looked forward to being able to see long distances again. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Declan looked up at the darkening sky and pulled his cap down lower on his head.