The first thing Logan felt was a wet tongue licking his face. The second was the sound of people talking around him. Opening his eyes and reaching up to rub Dogmeat's ears, Logan saw that he had been moved off the street outside and into the museum again.
"Do either of you have a better idea? Anyone? Then that settles it."
"When Logan wakes up we should head out before it gets too late in the day, the sooner we make it to Sanctuary the better." Preston remarked.
"Sanctuary?" Logan asked, catching the preoccupied group by surprise.
"You've heard of it?" Sturges asked.
"I've heard of Sanctuary Hills, are you talking about that?"
"Sanctuary Hills? There's no way that's a coincidence. Mama Murphy?" Preston turned to see the older woman snoozing on a bench.
Gently shaking the woman awake Preston asked his question again to the still half asleep woman.
"Yeah, kid, it's the same place. Safest place in the Commonwealth, well besides Diamond city of course." Mama Murphy answered.
"So, how do you know this place?" Preston asked, facing Logan again.
"Well... I use to live there... Before all of this," Logan gestured to the rundown building," happened."
"You mean...before the war?" Preston asked.
"What war?"
"The one that gave us this beautiful scenery." Sturges joked.
The answer had been apparent, but Logan hadn't given it a second thought. They were referring to the day that the bombs fell.
"Then yes, before the war." Logan replied.
"You must be one of the most preserved ghouls I've ever seen." Preston remarked, wanting to believe Logan.
"Ghoul? What's a ghoul?"
"You...don't... Know what a ghoul is?" Preston asked in apparent disbelief.
Logan shook his head, appearance still questioning.
"Ghouls are... Irradiated people. Most are like you and I, they just look different, and live a lot longer." Preston fumbled.
"They look like walking corpses." Sturges interjected, "But don't tell them that, they hate it, and most of them are pretty good people too."
"Yeah, Sturges is right. There are the normal ones that can talk and interact with people, then there are the ferals." Preston shivered at the thought of a feral ghoul, "ferals are ferocious, and mindless. They mostly hunt in packs, but there is no reasoning with them. Most people believe that ferals are the ones who's brains are damaged by the radiation."
Preston looked over the group before hanging his head in shame.
"Ferals are one of the reasons we don't have a lot of our group remaining." Preston whispered.
"What happened?" Logan asked.
"I'll tell you on the way, we need to get moving before the sun goes down. I don't want to be here just in case something else had been attracted to the noise, and I definitely don't want to be caught outside after dark.
Logan nodded his head before walking over to where he saw his gear laying on the floor. Preston turned to everyone and started helping them prepare for the walk to Sanctuary. A few minutes later everyone had their gear and began filing out of the museum, Logan leading.
"Now that I think about it, were you able to salvage the rifle that took down that big beast?" Logan asked.
Preston looked back at him and shook his head.
"No we grabbed you and went back into the museum. We didn't know if there were anything else left. That beast is called a Deathclaw, just for future reference."
"Makes sense, it has massive deadly claws."
Both men exited the museum and looked upon the carnage that had been wrought by Logan's efforts. It looked like Logan had repainted the town red, and in a grim sense he did. Body parts lay all over the place, blood had been sprayed over the road and all over the walls of buildings. The Deathclaw still lay on the ground, head split in half, it's blood pooling around it.
Finally, Logan caught sight of the power armor, in its hand it still held the massive rifle. Taking a closer look at the Deathclaw slayer, Logan gasped. This rifle, the one that had easily defeated a Deathclaw was a Chinese made rifle. These rifles were used at the end of the Chinese invasion of Alaska, to take down power armor. It shot .50 cal rounds with ease and were usually used by two man teams. The fact that Logan had encountered one was unbelievable, to be standing after being fired at by this monstrosity was even more so.
No wonder it took out my armor so easily, Logan thought.
"What's wrong?" Preston asked.
"Rifles like this one were used by the Chinese to destroy Power Armor when they invaded Alsaska." Logan responded.
"Well seeing how easily it tore off your armor I'm not surprised." Preston commented.
"I agree, but it seems crazy that this rifle would be this far east, let alone being used by a raider. We only ever were able to get a few of them, the Chinese would blow up the ones they couldn't get away with. Most were taken back to be studied, but we were able to hold on to a few and use them against the Chinese."
Rounds, explosions, and cries of pain were all that Logan heard as his focus wondered to a past battlefield.
"You okay, Logan?" Preston asked.
Logan shook his head, dispelling the unpleasant thoughts.
"Yeah, just some memories." Logan responded.
Logan struggled to pull the rifle from the hands of the power armor. Slowly, and with the help of any body that could get a grasp, the rifle began shifting. With one united tug the power armor released the rifle and everyone who had helped fell to the cement. Logan was surprised at how light the rifle was compared to what he thought it would be, that being said the rifle was still heavier than the one he carried and it was almost twice as long.
"I plan to leave this at Sanctuary, if anyone wants to learn to use it we have five rounds that can be used for practice, all the others will need to be saved in case of emergency." Logan announced.
"Alright everyone lets go, we need to get to Sanctuary before dark!" Preston said.
"You heard the man!" Sturges smiled as everyone began falling in line for the walk to Sanctuary.
"Roy, will you take up the back?" Preston asked the other dark skinned man.
Roy nodded without a word and fell back behind everyone, scanning their surroundings for any hostiles. Logan took the lead, knowing where they were going, and Preston fell in a a step or two behind.
They had only been on their journey a few minutes when Preston spoke up to Logan.
"If you want to listen now, I did promise to tell you why we're stuck in the museum."
"Okay, Preston, what happened?" Logan asked.
"Sturges, the Longs, Mama Murphy, and Rachel are all from Quincy. Well the Gunners, high end mecenaries, were trying to take Quincy, when Sturges sent out a call requesting help from the Minutemen."
Logan gave a puzzled look, "So I'm going back in time? THe minute men were used during the American Revolution, correct? Citizen soldiers?"
Preson was shocked at the knowledge Logan had on the history of the Minutemen.
"Yes, 'to be ready at a minutes notice,' I'm impressed you knew that. Anyway, Roy and myself were under the command of Colonel Hollis, who answered the call. We were able to hold them off for awhile, but in the end we were betrayed by one of our own." Preston hung his head in shame, "We sent out a call for any other Minutemen but, they turned their back on us. Quincy fell, and most of the remaining Minutemen with it. Roy and I were tasked with getting as many people to safety as we could."
Preson paused, shame and sadness seemed to ooze off of him.
"At first their had been twenty of us, we made our way to Jamica Plain, were we thought we could hold up for a little while, the Gunners attacked us again and sent us retreating, we lost five people their. Next we made it to Lexington. Remember when I said that Ferals are one of the reasons that we have so few today? Lexington was crawling with them, by the time we knew what was going on we lost six more people. Finally, we made it to Concord, and hoped to finally have some peace. Well, as you have seen we were attacked by raiders, we lost one more to them, you saw. And that's how we came to be here."
"That's rough, civilian casualties are always the hardest to take." Logan placed a hand on Preston's shoulder, "but you at least didn't freeze and get your whole group killed. These people today are alive because of your drive."
"They're alive because you were good enough to fight off the raiders, and a Deathclaw." Preston corrected.
"You don't give yourself enough credit." Preston whispered.
The rest of the journey to Sanctuary had been filled with silence as everyone expected to be attacked again. Dogmea, who had remained quiet during Logan and Preston's conversation, began scouting ahead. Periodically sticking his head up to sniff the air, before continuing his patrol.
By the time the group arrived at the wooden bridge the sun had started to set. Logan directed the group to his old home.
"This place is amazing, I should've listened to Mama Murphy all along. I think we can settle down here, make a place to call home." Preston announced.
"I've been meaning to ask you, what were you doing in Concord? I don't mean to pry but there isn't a lot of settlements in this area." Preston asked.
"Well, you've been pretty honest with me so I don't see the harm in telling you. I'm looking for my son. My family and I were frozen inside a vault, Vault 111." Logan pointed up at the cliff that held the vault, "Well the vault was a cryogenics facility that had been tasked with testing on 'unaware' participants the effects of long term suspended animation. Well the personnel had everyone get into pods to decontaminate them from any radiation they had. After everyone had been secured inside the pods we were frozen. I was brought out of stasis long enough to see a scarred man and a few people dressed in Hazmat suits take my son and... Kill my wife, Nora"
Logan voice broke as he relived the memories that only seemed to of happened yesterday.
"I... I'm sorry, that is terrible. Let me know what I can do to help. We can still find him?" Preston offered.
"Thanks, Preston. Let's get some sleep, I need to figure out what my next move is. That can wait till tomorrow though."
Mama Murphy, who had stayed with the two men as everyone else began entering the building gave an piped up, "Kid, I can't tell you where but I can tell you now that you're son is alive. I feel his energy. I would say the best bet is to go to Diamond City."
"My son is alive!? Mama Murphy where is Diamond City?" Logan asked, his emotions were skyrocketing.
"I'll mark it on your Pipboy's map, but you need to realize that you can't go to Diamond City right now, you need to rest." Mama Murphy stated.
Logan nodded, taking the reigning in his emotions.
"Master Logan, sir." Codsworth appeared. "Who are these people, sir?"
"Codsworth these people are friends, will you help them get settled inside the house please?" Logan asked the robot.
"Yes, sir. I wish I would have known we were having guests, I would have made something for everyone." Codsworth responded.
"It's ok Codsworth, it wasn't really planned." Logan smirked at the bot.
Everyone in the group entered the old house and began laying out sleeping bags. Logan walked to the spare closet and grabbed some dust old blankets and offered them to the group of people. With two remaining Logan laid out one on the ground before plopping down on the fabric, his gear assembled neatly next to him. The final blanket he pulled over himself, once situated Dogmeat made his way to Logan, spinning a few times the dog laid down against Logan's leg. Logan drifted to sleep quickly.
Logan awoke to sun beams creeping onto his face. Sitting up he noticed that only to the Minutemen were not present. Dogmeat looked up at Logan waiting for him to do something. Standing Logan donned his gear and made his way outside, spotting the two men further down the road.
"We can't just leave the people here to fend for themselves." Roy stated.
"I know that, but we can't just ignore a call for help, we are Minutemen." Preston retorted.
"Is there something going on gentlemen?" Logan asked, making the two conversing men flinch at his sudden appearance.
"We got a call for help over the radio, a settlement is being harassed by some raiders and they know where the raider's base is." Preston stated.
"Preston wants to go after the raiders, but we have these people to take care of, we can't just leave them here. None of them are fighters." Roy pointed out.
"I'd... Be willing to help." Logan offered reluctantly.
"You don't need to, we realize you need to find your son." Preston answered.
"Well, Mama Murphy says he's still alive, and I feel like she would have said something if he were in danger." Logan answered a little unsure.
"If it helps the raiders are holed up in a Corvega Assembly Plant, in Lexington..." Preston shivered at the towns name.
Dogmeat whined at this.
"Lexington? That's the place with the Feral Ghouls? Wouldn't that mean the raiders are probably having to deal with the Fearls?" Logan asked.
"It would seem that the raiders have decided to try and exterminate the ghouls and set up shop." Roy said.
"If you did help the Lexington is on its way to Diamond City." Preston informed Logan.
"Well even better for me then, you ready to go now?" Logan asked Preston.
Preston looked over at Roy with a questioning gaze, Roy subtly nodded before walking back to the hous.
"What was that look for?" Logan asked as both men began walking towards the bridge.
"If we survive this I will tell you, deal?" Preston answered.
"Okay?" Logan questioned, before turning to Dogmeat, "Ok boy, I have to go will you stay here and keep these people safe?"
Dogmeat tilted his head, before barking.
"I'll take that as a yes?"
Another bark from Dogmeat before the dog turned around and walked back to the house, following Roy.
The journey hadn't took an hour and a half, but both men arrived at the outskirts of Lexington without any hassle. Logan noticed the old buildings standing defiantly against time. Progressing through the town Logan and Preston were surprised at the quietness of their surroundings. Something was wrong.
"It didn't take this long before we were attacked by ferals the last time." Preston whispered to Logan.
"Maybe the raiders are doing a good job of taking them out." Logan thought aloud.
The two men continued to scan their surroundings as they passed underneath an arch, when a sudden gasping scream erupted from above them. Looking up Logan saw figured begin falling out of the window towards them. Grabbing Preston, Logan sprinted out of the way as the first body hit the ground. Looking back Logan was shocked as the bodies began standing and looking at Logan.
"Ferals!" Preston exclaimed, grabbing his laser musket and firing a bolt at the closest feral.
Logan winced as he finally saw what they looked like. Patches of skin were gone along with any hair they had. The clothes, or at least on the ones who had clothing, was tattered and shredded. Sturges had been correct, these things looked like corpses. Logan raised his rifle and shot a round right into the chest of the next oncoming feral, the thing fell to the ground and writhed. Logan and Preston started walking backwards and firing as the horde began to grow in numbers, more ferals appearing from old stores, and apartments.
"We need to push into the plant, I'd rather deal with the raiders, than be stuck out here with these things." Logan announced, firing another few rounds into the amassing onslaught of near undead. Running up the small incline Logan and Preston were met with a hail of bullets whizzing over their heads, and taking out the first layer of the advancing ferals. Diving to their immediate left Logan and Preston found cover behind a stone wall.
"We need to keep moving the ferals are coming fast!" Preston stated.
"We can't compete with all that fire power, attacking the front door would be suicide." Logan added as he scanned for any way out.
Logan's eyes fell on a broken pipe that led underneath the plant. Pulling Preston towards it, both men entered the pipe expecting the worst. Logan took lead as they followed the pipe, Preston keeping an eye on the read just in case any ferals follow. The pipe continued for a little while before a whole appeared that passed through the pipe and the wall, and lead into the facility itself. Before Logan could stop him, Preston stepped through the hole and stepped on a tin can. The sound echoed in the small room, and two sets of eyes landed on them. The ferals screeched and attacked both men, Preston stabbed forward with his musket and pushed a feral back before firing into it's stomach, downing the creature. Logan moved to fire his rifle but the feral had closed in too fast for him, so he ducked down and stuck out his foot, tripping the thing. A simple trick to get out of the way and give him an advantage had worked wonders, as the creatures momentum carried it forward into the pipe and smashing it's face into the hard surface. A loud crack greeted the two men as the creature lay still.
"That was lucky." Preston observed.
"Yeah, well let's hope that wasn't all the luck we had." Logan responded before looking through the room.
The two men found the wreckage of a turret, and a body of a raider. The raider was male, from what the men could tell from the mangled remains. Not finding anything useful the men began advancing down a hallway, trying to finish the raiders up before the ghouls made their way inside the building.
The building was close to empty, except for a raider here and there. This observation lead Logan to believe that the feral problem outside was worse than he had previously thought. The two men made their way through the the plant until they arrived at a massive room where the cars were assmebled.
"What do you mean you can't hold them off?" A raider yelled.
"Boss, there are too many of them, way more than before." Another responded, "if we take any more losses we aren't going to be able to come back from this."
"Fine! Get your shit, grab whoever you think is loyal, then meet me in the back. Leave everyone else to their fate." The first raider commanded.
The screeching of ferals started growing louder, as the horde began making their way through the building.
"Fuck, they got in. Fuck everything we are leaving, no time to grab shit, let's go before it's too late." The commanding raider said.
"Preston there is a door here that leads outside," Logan observed, "I'm thinking we hold them from leaving here and when the horde arrives we shoot the engine block of those cars."
Logan pointed to some of the complete cars that were stationed in the room.
"Their batteries are still explosive so we should be able to take out the raiders, and some of the horde." Logan announced.
"That idea is suicidal, but it would make sure the raiders are at least taken care of."
"Hey, you! Who the fuck are you." The leader roared, finding Preston and Logan.
Preston and Logan fired at the group of raiders, trying to the keep them away from the exit. The sound of the horde was growing louder, as the firefight continued. A round whizzed passed Logan's head, causing him to duck back out the door. Preston fired again striking a raider in the chest.
"These ghouls need to hurry up!" Preston shouted over the incoming fire.
As if summoned by his command a loud screeching from multiple ferals. The time had come.
"Preston fire at the engines, the explosion should take out the whole room!" Logan commanded.
Both men opened fired on the closest car destroying the once beautiful car. Once the vehicle started on fire both men closed the exit and jammed some debris to keep the door shut, turned and sprinted away from the building. An explosion rocked both men, causing them to stumble slightly. Another explosion shook the two men, then another. The explosions came one after another in quick succession before finally a huge explosion, which threw the two men off a ten foot drop, sent debris crashing down on the surrounding area. The two men stunned by the explosion and the resulting fall could only watch as the remaining parts of the building began falling in on itself.
"Do you think they are dead yet?" Logan asked, still watching as the Plant crumbled.
"Well I really wouldn't want to meet anyone who could survive that." Preston replied.
"Come on, we should probably get out of here in case this brings any unwanted visitors.
Both men began walking away from the burning building, it's smoke blacking out part of the sun.
Both men were unaware of a set of glasses watched them walk, the pair of eyes behind the glasses taking in every single detail.