Props to Alec McDowell for pointing out an error: Chapter 4 was showing up as Chapter 1, probably sue to my inability to work the (relatively) simple publishing system here. I updated it so it should be properly fixed now. You go guy!
As always, I do not own Teen Wolf or Fallout, so tell Jeff Davis and Chris Avellone to go back to sleep and stop planning on murdering me.
Read and review boys and girls! ;)
So, time travel it was. Derek had seen some completely different things in his lifetime. He was born a werewolf. He had witnessed the death of his whole family. He had witnessed a strawberry blonde girl bring his uncle back from the dead using nothing more than mirrors, flowers, and the full moon, and later turn a murderous lizard man from a monster to a boy with little more than affection and a house key. Throughout all of his travels and encounters with the supernatural, he had encountered many things that defied reason. Now, it had taken all of his experiences with the unknowable, impossible truths of his world to mentally brace the prospect that he had traveled into the future, into a world that was less than perfect, if not a complete shithole.
He decided that after he was done sitting with Stiles he would go get a drink. Or several perhaps. Hopefully this hell he had landed himself in served beer. Otherwise it was going to be a long journey back home.
Derek lowered Church to the ground and moved back towards the operating table. The operating table was empty.
Derek whipped around to see Church pointing towards a small room behind himself. Derek merely grunted and shoved past Church into the room.
Inside were three of the filthiest beds he had ever seen in his life, arranged against the three other walls facing away from the door. Stiles was on the right most bed, sleeping almost peacefully. Derek pulled an equally dirty chair away from the wall and sat next to Stiles' bed. As he looked on his serene face he was surprised to see splashes on red in his cheeks.
As if he possessed telepathy (Rule nothing out, Derek thought almost instantly afterwards) Church appeared at the doorway and said "Your… friend has a remarkable immune system. Most irradiated waste landers would have died within minutes of that kind of exposure, yet your friend here survived long enough to get treatment. If he continues to heal at the rate he has been, he should be able to leave in a few days."
Derek heard every word, but all he could think about was how close he came to losing Stiles. He took the teen's hand in his own and began rubbing it tenderly.
The doctor began to turn away from the rather intimate scene when he heard the young man murmur to him "Thank you, Doctor."
He paused for a beat and moved to the back of the clinic.
"Gone?"
Tears were streaming down Allison's face. Lydia had gone quiet and was fidgeting with an outfit displayed on Moira's counter. Even the typically unflappable Jackson had gone pale when Moira had begun to talk about the Great War.
"Well, not all of it. But most of it is just gone. The bombs were pretty efficient at wiping out most of humanity. But like everything in life they just weren't 100% perfect." Moira had lost some of the cheeriness that had radiated from her earlier, but she was still maintaining a relatively sweet expression despite the present topic.
"There are pockets of civilization scattered all over the wasteland though, so don't be too down about it! I've heard some wonderful things about the technology of the Commonwealth."
Allison was still processing the news Moira had presented her. Jackson was looking around the store, trying to focus on anything that wasn't Moira while Lydia began intently looking at something by the register.
"Moira?" Allison asked, not sure she wanted an answer to what she was about to ask.
"Yes sweetheart?" Moira cooed working on unpackaging the various weapons from their shipments.
"Where exactly is Megaton? Are we near Redding? Or Reno? Or…?"
Where indeed, wondered Lydia. She may not have werewolf senses, but she knew that this terrain and weather did not at all match the southwestern United States. She was now completely backing Danny's teleportation theory, and with the dates Moira had provided something as insane as Time-Travel did not even seem out of the question.
She was pawing through a box of knick-knacks when something caught the corner of her eye:
It was an old, heavily rusted sign. Its' make and build were not unlike that of a road sign. It had a square face, and while the picture had been faded by time and the elements, the writing was still legible.
"Alexandria imports: Freshest catch in Maryland!"
Lydia turned to Moira just as she was replying to Allison. "Oh, well this area is known as the Capital Wasteland. See, that's because we're near-"
With the final piece of the puzzle landing neatly in its' place, Lydia cut her off. "Washington, DC."
Moira turned to her and smiled "Very good cutie-pie!"
Ick. The sooner Lydia left the infantile Moira and her seriously outdated store, the better.
Several muffled bangs sounded from outside. Jackson's ears perked up and he moved towards the door.
Moira also looked towards the door and sighed. "Along with the pockets of civilization I was mentioning? There are also pockets of chaos tucked in with them as well."
Moira returned to unpacking the boxes and thinking of things other than the waste landers being murdered and desecrated right outside the walls of her town.
Boyd shifted uncomfortably where he stood. The zombie was staring right at him. It looked like a half melted candle, with the way its skin was hanging in places. No ears or nose were visible, and it reeked of rotting meat.
He knew Erica was staring at the creature as well. Danny only noticed it after he was done mentally examining every other patron in the bar. For as smart as Danny was, Boyd wondered how Danny could often act so incredibly thick.
The ghoul had just addressed one (or perhaps all) of them by some kind of defamatory word.
Boyd watched as Danny strolled up to the counter and outstretched his hand to the rotting bartender.
Erica looked up in surprise, while Boyd felt his jaw detach and fall to the floor with a clatter.
The creature looked equally shocked, and acted as though Danny had given him a hundred dollar bill.
"What?! You aren't going to comment on the way I look?!" The creature asked
"Well of course not. I mean, sure I don't know what you are, but that doesn't mean I have a right to judge you." Danny replied earnestly.
"Well you sir just earned yourself a discount! What are you drinking?"
Danny considered the possibility of this being a trick question and decided to play it safe. Besides, Derek couldn't possibly want any of them drinking if they were in this strange other place.
"I'll have a Coke." Danny replied.
"You mean Nuka-Cola?" Replied the barkeep.
"Uh, yeah that works." Danny replied nervously.
The barkeep just nodded and went to the fridge located near the back of the store.
Danny spun around and gave his two companions a "play along with me" wink. Boyd and Erica sat on either side of him at the bar. The barkeep returned with Danny's Nuka-Cola.
It was similar to the older bottles of Coke that Danny had seen displayed in the fifties, the ones made out of glass and featuring a bottle cap on top of them. But instead of the Coca-Cola, the label on this drink said "Nuka-Cola" in the same white cursive script. Danny twisted the cap off and pocketed it, and took a sip.
It was flat and warm, despite being kept in the fridge. Danny knew that the fridge had to have had power, because there were lights in in the whole building. Unless the fridge was broken perhaps? That couldn't possibly be healthy for anyone eating out of it.
Danny took another swig. It had a unique flavor, combining the sugary sweet taste of normal sodas he was used to with several different fruit flavors. But as a whole this drink wasn't even remotely fizzy. He checked the side of the label for ingriedients. As he spun the bottle his eyes landed on a small strip of script underneath the main label:
Expires 08/15/2077.
'Huh. Wait, what?!'
08/15/2077.
"Danny, what's wrong?" Erica asked inquisitively.
"I think Derek may have been spot on with his earlier comments. You know, those comments." Danny didn't know how to feel about the prospect of time travel, but regardless of how he felt at that moment, he knew he still had a mission to uphold for Derek.
"So, barkeep. What can I call you?"
The barkeep grunted before speaking. "Anything but 'Late for dinner' is good, I 'spose."
It was corny and ridiculous, but nonetheless Danny couldn't help but smile.
"No seriously, what is your name?"
The bartender looked at him for a few seconds warily, as if trying to judge his intentions. "Its' Gob."
Odd name. Yet again, this fellow looks like he walked out of a coffin, so may as well reserve any judgment.
"Okay. You from around here then?"
Gob began to reply when an older, vicious looking man stormed through a door next to the bar and began searching around the room wildly. His eyes fell on the rough spoken raider who was smoking and sipping a beer towards the other end of the saloon.
"Jericho ye rotten bastard! You still haven't paid up yer caps since the last time ye were here. Get out of me bar before I decide to throw you out you deadbeat raider piece of shit!" foam was practically frothing at his mouth while he was screaming at the rough man.
"You? Trow me out? Hah, what a laugh! Okay Moriarty. I'll go on out, but only if you can move me." The rough man looked unfazed by the wild irishman's coarse act.
"Don't be pushin' me ye stupid lummox! You have until the count of five before I retrieve Simms. Either pay up or get yer ass outta here!"
Jericho didn't move. Moirarty moved closer to the man and said something that Danny couldn't hear. Jericho's face showed a sign of comprehension for a moment, and something that looked like fear. His face returned to its usual scowl and he told Moriarty to go fuck himself. As he passed the trio of teenagers a wicked grin spread across his face.
As he reached the saloon door he called back to Moriarty. "Hey asshole!"
"What fresh hell is this? Get the fuck outta me bar!" Moriarty was fuming.
Jericho jerked his thumb towards Danny and his friends. "These kids are flat broke. Maybe you should settle their accounts." He smiled smugly before slamming the door behind him.
Moriarty turned to Danny, a wild look in his eyes.
'Oh god damn it.' Danny took another swig of his drink. Moriarty began storming over to them.
This was going to be a particularly long evening.
Scott and Isaac excused themselves from the table and ran towards the front gate. Passing the porch where they had met less than an hour earlier, they made their way to the front gate. Simms was there with his scary giant machine gun looking slightly grim.
"We got us some Raiders boys. Ever encountered such scum? I'm sure you have if you've been out traipsing in the wastes. Mean punks who prey on the innocent. Right now they're squaring off with some caravan traders out front. You up for some justice dealing, boys?"
Scott nodded to the Sheriff. "Anything to help the people of the Megaton out sir!"
Isaac was more hesitant. "Derek wouldn't want us to get involved."
"Yeah? And Derek isn't 100% right about everything Isaac! Now come on, we need to help those people!"
The sounds of fighting intensified outside, with several screams filling the air. Simms strode through the gate, with Scott on his heels.
"Scott! Wait!" Isaac had grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. Scott turned to Isaac and shouted
"WHAT ISAAC!"
"Scott. No. Claws." Isaac whispered. He extended his then retracted them as if to display his point.
Scott picked up rather quickly. "Oh right, got it. Let's go!"
Isaac nodded and the two strode out the door.
Derek was still sitting with Stiles when he heard the gunshots go off. He could also hear his betas running towards the sound of gunfire. Derek was willing to bet it was the bleeding hearts of his group, Isaac and Scott who were running into the shit-storm happening outside. Derek merely sighed and whispered to the still unconscious Stiles.
"I have to go save your friend from getting himself killed. I'll be back in a little bit."
Derek kissed the top of his hand and proceeded to leave the clinic, nodding to Church as he left.
All around him the townsfolk were heading indoors and vacating the streets. The two headed cow mooed mournfully at the quiet crater.
Derek strode purposefully towards the front gate, catching a glimpse of the door closing behind Isaacs brown curls.
'I'm going to kill those two when I catch them… assuming my job isn't done for me.' Derek added darkly.
He reached the door and began to open it to the chaos outside…
Oooooh FIGHT SCENE COMING UP! I should be posting it relatively soon, so for those of you online, expect it anywhere from the next twenty minutes to the next three hours. Sooner rather than later though :D
Thanks for reading, and please continue to review! Every little bit helps!