AN: This chapter fixes all the inconsistencies in the story so far, trust me. Hopefully it won't cause any new ones, but the Fallout World is so large that what is and what isn't canon is very hard to discern.

Chapter 3

You Lied

Nick shook Alexa awake. "Hey, time to get up."

She groaned and loooked out the cave, "It's not even light out yet."

"Yeah, but if we want to get anywhere before it gets to hot to travel, we need to leave now." Nick truend away and began to clean up the campsite

She groaned again and stood up, "What time is it?"

"Three A.M." He said, not pausing what he was doing

Alexa got angry very quickly, "What?! I've only been asleep for two hours, why are we leaving now."

Nick turned on her abruptly, "I already told you why were leaving now, we're in the middle of a fucking wasteland, and there's no major civilization for at least a hundred miles in any direction. So we're leaving now, because it just so happens that there is a very small town called Caldera that is only 50 miles away and we might be able to make it there in the next two days, if we haul ass. But, if you want to stay behind, fine by me."

Alexa did not reply and simply went about packing her things. 20 minutes later they were on their way.

Three Hours Later
Former Campsite

The small team of armored warriors abruptly stopped. They had been tracking a very dangerous person for two weeks. This person had stolen a Vertibird and flown it east until it had broken down and the person had crashed. The Team knew for a fact that this person was unarmed though the Deathclaw body that they found not far from the campsite seemed to say otherwise. The person had left a very easy to follow trail and the team had thought for sure that today they would finally hit pay dirt. But no luck. They'd left at least three hours ago and with no clue as to which direction they were heading the team was lost. One member of the team, a young boy who had only been part of the elite tracking squad for a short time, motioned the captain over and pointed to the ground. There written in the dirt carelessly was the word "Chicago". Now they knew.

Three hours North-North-West

Alexa was still not fully awake but it seemed that Nick really didn't give a shit. They had walked in almost absolute silence for the past three hours. Alexa was confused as to why they were walking so early since it was a cold climate and it wasn't a desert and everyone knew that the Mid-West had been less afected by the falling bombs than most of the former U.S.A. Why is he doing this? He must know that this is stupid, he has to know that this isn't a desert. But, nonetheless she was grateful for his help, because she would have almost certainly not made it this far without him. They were climbing a large hill now. Nick reached the top of the hill first and stopped there. Alexa hurried to catch up to him because she thought that they were going to take a break. But, when she reached the top, she saw what made him stop. There spread out in front of them, was the former city of Indianapolis. In 2015, the CIA had moved their headquarters to Indianapolis, which had then been the largest city in the Mid-West. Unfortuanately, this had made it one of the top priority targets. As such, the city was riddled with craters, two nuclear powerplants that had run the massive city had been destroyed leaking radiation all over the city. The bombs theselves had destoryed the city to such an extent that yuo could very literally see the radiation that came baking off the buildings and the ground, and it all spelled one word, death. Nick knew that Mid-West towns and cities and never been particularly found of subway systems, preferring overpriced and under-used streetcar systems.

(AN: If you live in Columbus you know this is exactly the kind of bureaucratic bullshit they would pull.)

To Nick this only meant that there was no safe way to travel through the city. They would have to go around, and thanks to the size of the city it would take at least twelve hours, meaning that they probably wouldn't reach Caldera this night or the next.

Nick sighed an finally broke the three hour silence. "We're going to have to go around," Alexa thankfully, did not protest and simply nodded. "But, we should probably take a quick break here, also I have some questions I want to ask you."

Alexa again nodded and replied innocently, "What kind of questions?"

"Hmm, here's one. Why did you lie to me?"

Alexa looked surprised, though Nick wasn't buying it, "I didn't lie about my story." She got defensive very quickly.

"I never said anything about your story, but hey, thanks for hanging yourself. Anyway I know you lied because I know that Columbus is ruined. Yes there are some people living there, but the University you mentioned is pretty much gone. And, I know that the Brotherhood does not go out of its way to help people, at least not the California Brotherhood. Columbus was the home of a U.S. Air Force Refueling wing, which made it a prime target because it's a lot harder to fly a plane with no fuel. The Brotherhood would never setup an outpost in a city if there was chance for any technological gain from it. I don't think you've ever even been to Columbus. You seem to know a lot about the Enclave though. So, let's try this again." They began walking again. "And the short version this time."

"Fine. I'm from the Brotherhoo-"

"Wow, are you like a pathological liar? Try again."

"Okay. I'm really from a vault near Denver."

Nick stopped and pulled out a .44 Magnum and aimed it at her head. He sighed and said, "Look, either tell me the truth now, or I kill you."

Alexa was caught. "I'm really from the Enclave." She stopped and waited. With his free hand Nick motioned her to continue. "I stole this vault jumpsuit three days ago from some Vault near Springfield. I'm on the run from the Cailfornia Brotherhood of Steel."

"Now, see that I believe. But, where's your power armor?"

"It broke. I didn't want to be carrying around armor that didn't work so I ditched it, but then I had to find new clothes."

"And are you from Denver?"

"Yes. From nearby anyway."

"Why are you on the run?"

"I have something they want."

"Which is?"

"And why would I tell you?"

"Because you have a gun in your face."

"If I tell you, you'll kill me."

"Really? How do you know?"

"I just do."

Nick really didn't want to kill her, but if the Brotherhood had been following her since she left Denver, then whatever she had must be impotant. "You know what, you need me, I don't need you, and unlike you, I can actually resist some radiation and I would be okay with leaving you in that hellhole over there, so unless you want to die in the worst way possible, I suggest you tell me what you have."

Alexa pulled out a small piece of paper with a bunch of numbers written on it. "This."

Nick studied it for a moment before replying, "These look like orbital launch codes."

"They are." Nick studied them for a moment longer. Then he pulled out a lighter and set the paper on fire. Alexa grabbed for it and Nick shoved her away. "What the hell are you doing you bastard?"

Nick waited a moment longer until the paper was completely burned away, "There, now no one has them."

"But, I still do."

"You know at first I thought you were naive, then I thought you were a liar, now I think you're just stupid. I'm trying to give me a reason to not kill you and your making it much much worse."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I."

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bullet ricocheted off of his armor. "Shit! They must've followed us, we wasted too much time standing here. Move, Move! MOVE!" Alexa and Nick sprinted down the hill and out of the range of the Brotherhood sniper.

A mile South-South-East

"You get him Rawley?" The captain asked the sniper.

"Negative, sir. He's wearing power armor, the bullet ricocheted off, and now they know we're here."

"Damn. Alright men let's get our asses after them, and don't shoot the girl, she's far too valuble to lose."

"Yes sir!" The team answered in unison.

Just outside Indianapolis

Alexa and Nick were both breathing hard, they'd sprinted about half a mile without stopping. Nick was the first to catch his breath, "I think we should go through the city."

"What?! You said it yourself, the radiation is deadly!" She was nearly hysterical after the Brotherhood's attack.

"I said it, yes. It will kill us given enough and without treatment, but I've got RadAway and Rad-X. Trust me, it'll kill us a lot slower than a bullet to the head."

Nick's line of reasoning got through to Alexa. "So if we go through, will they?"

"Probably. They're after you and they know that it would take far too long to detour around the city when we could make much better time going straight through. We might be able to find a streetcar that still works, they were supposed to be solar powered. If it really came down to it, we would have a better shot fighting them off in the city than we would out in the open where they could take advantage of their greater numbers."

"Ok. Let's go."

"Ok." And with that they forged a temporary truce.

Indianapolis

The once properous city of Indianapolis was now a shattered wreck of its former self. The once magnificent skycrapers that had made it the jewel of the Mid-West were now skeletons with only their steels frames left behind. Feral Ghouls and Deathclaws owned the city, though they were in constant warfare with each other. The Deathclaws here were hairy Mid-Western Deathclaws and though they were sentient, they were not particualarly friendly to any outsiders, however few dared to venture through the radiated city. Super Mutants too were rampant in the inner city, though they had arrived much later than the Deathclaws and ghouls and thus had been unable to get much of a foothold. The Deathclaw nest was probably the biggest one ever found, as it was the Indianapolis International Speedway. Over 400 Deathclwas lived inside this raceway which had been filled to the brink during almost every Indianapolis 500. On the other side of town there was a large, though not the largest, feral ghoul nest in side one of the skyscrapers that had only been partially destroyed in the Great War. Some where between these two a group of Super Mutants had taken up residence though they were constantly having to move to avoid the Deathclaws strikes. The streets were still littered with cars that had yet to be destroyed and their still highly radioactive nuclear cores. A hellhole of the watseland, this was the place that Nick and Alexa now traveled through.

"Hey, what's that up there?" Alexa pointed skyward at a large rail that crossed most of the city. They had missed it because it tightly hugged the buildings that held it up. It seemed to be welded directly to the steel frame of skyscrapes, which would explain why it hadn't fallen.

"I'm not sure, I think it may be a monorail." As if in confirmation to this a train ran across the single rail and towards the other side of the city, "How can it still run? It's ancient."

Alexa was able to answer that question, "Monorails were designed to be almost indestructible, becasue they were generally up high and had to face the high winds that also plague skyscrapers. They run on what was known as an uberbattery, which consisted of a large ball of anti-matter that had very minute particles extracted out of it to provide power. One particle could power a monorail for a year. It was a genius of engineering, but it was extremely expensive. At least in the short term. Uber-batterys were very nearly matinence free. The cost of repairing and replaceing nuclear batterys would outpace the cost of an uber-battery after about 200 years."

"Wow. Why do you know that?" Nick was impressed.

"I'm an engineer for the Enclave, I have to know about these things." Alexa was annoyed at his ignorance.

"Fine. Can we use it?" The monorail was looking more and more like a safe way to get through the city.

"I suppose so. It might be dangerous."

"More dangerous than traveling through a highly radiated city?"

"I suppose not."

"Then let's go."