A/N: In Fallout 3 the route taken by these characters is not possible, because the mounds of rubble (easily scalable by a character with mid-level stats) have invisible collision walls set up to prevent climbing in over them. I know this is because D.C. is set up as a set of contiguous, separately loading cells, but I still feel this was cheating.

Chapter 41

It seemed years before they saw the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Contrary to Xen's expectations, few enemies materialized. Things that would not give Changeling a second glance apparently were intimidated by Bell. Mole rats and radscorpions ran away at the sight of them. Or possibly, Xen thought, it was only because there were now three bipeds instead of two bipeds and an obvious robot.

And then, one gray evening, they topped a rise and found themselves looking down at a great river. Concrete embankments had been raised on either side of it,and the gray water flowed sluggishly between them, almost opaque even after Project Purity. Its surface reflected the wavering pinpoints of the first few stars. There was no sign of life around them, but Xen saw the broken skyscrapers in the distance. She swallowed a lump in her throat.

The first time I saw them, I was still too afraid of open sky to look at the view.

"There's the Potomac," said Bell unnecessarily.

"Now what?" Xen asked Charon.

"We need t'cut sout'east from t'banks to get to Chevy Chase," said Charon.

"Southeast," Xen said. "Well, we should be able to stay on this bank, then. That's good, because I don't see a way across. What's Chevy Chase?"

"I believe it to be t'nearest subway station," Charon said. He pointed to their left. "Dat way."

The air seemed warm and close as they walked, the day's absorbed heat radiating from the asphalt. After a mile or so, they began to encounter the shells of buildings, mostly just two- or three-story structures with no glass in the windows. As they moved along the banks the buildings seemed to crowd in closer. Eventually, they were left walking a thin strip of concrete along the embankment. The alleys were few and narrow. Xen thought it an excellent area to set up an ambush. Charon evidently agreed. He muttered softly to himself for the next mile and a half. She was not at all surprised when he whirled the shotgun off his back and said,

"Dis place is not safe."

"Not safe how?" Bell asked.

"Super mutants," said Charon.

"Stop for a minute," Xen said, before he could run on ahead. She stopped walking to listen. Sure enough, she could hear the tramp of giant boots in the distance. She was sure there was more than one. Possibly more than two. Involuntarily, she felt her pulse speed up, remembering the first time she had encountered super mutants. There were still too many buildings between them and the enemy for her to see the heat signatures. They were probably inside the gutted hulk of a department store a hundred yards or so down the road. From where Xen stood, it seemed about half-gone, so much of it would be open to the sky.

Meaning the ceiling height isn't a problem for ten-foot creatures any more, and it offers some very nice firing positions.

Bell stood with her head to one side, looking thoughtful. "I make it three," she said. "One's carrying something really heavy."

"Minigun," grunted Charon. His voice shifted in pitch, down to a growl. "And I know just what t'do widdat, too. C'mon, lemme at 'em."

"They have a prisoner," Bell said. "I can hear him breathing."

"Xen," Charon said again.

"Last time there were only two, and no minigun, and you almost died," Xen pointed out ruthlessly. "If we retrace our steps - "

Charon shook his head. "We would have to cross t'river. Dere is no easy way to do dat." He looked at Bell. "Besides, dis time I have grenades."

Bell grinned at him. "Damn straight," she said. She looked back at Xen. "The big mutants are different enough from humans not to cause me any personal problems, if that's what you're worried about."

"That's still only two of you," Xen said.

"One of us is Charon," Bell pointed out.

Xen sighed. "Try not to kill the prisoner."

"Watch the bag," Bell said, and dropped the cargo net. She had to run to catch up to Charon, who had alreaady vanished, rapidly and silently, down an alley. Bell's sneakered feet were quite audible, although it seemed to Xen that she was a little more quiet than before. The sound retreated out of hearing quickly.

Xen dragged the cargo net out of the middle of the road with some difficulty. The sound it made seemed incredibly loud to her, making her pulse hammer in her throat, but the distant mutants seemed not to hear it.

If one of them comes after me, I'm dead, she thought. I've only got a .22 this time, and I don't have Changeling to prime them with the laser for me. I'd have to hit one twice in the eyeball before it got to me. She remembered vividly the sensation of being seized, nearly crushed to death, and bound with wire so tight that her hands bled. Xen was somewhat surprised to discover, as she crouched in the shadow of a doorway, that there were a number of ways she did not want to die.

There were occasional loud voices now, the mutants talking to each other. They didn't seem able to modulate the sound much. Or maybe they were slightly deaf. Who knew?

"...THINK I KNEW A WOMAN ONCE."

"ME TOO. OR MAYBE I WAS A WOMAN. AARGH, MY HEAD HURTS WHEN I TRY TO THINK ABOUT IT."

Xen shuddered. She had heard that super mutants were former humans. She had a good idea how they'd gotten from one state to the other, too.

"HEY! WHAT'S THAT?"

Xen winced at the deafening roar of rage, and then she heard the drawn-out staccato of a very large automatic weapon being fired.

The minigun, she thought. An explosion shook the ground under her, then another.

Grenade. I hope that was Charon. She couldn't picture the mutants handling explosives, but then, she couldn't picture them maintaining projectile weapons for any length of time, either. Maybe they were more intelligent than they seemed.

Xen held very still as a super mutant finally staggered out of the department store and onto the street. Bell seemed to be kneeling on one of its shoulders, pounding away at its skull with something. She looked tiny compared to the enormous biped. It was trying to swat her off, but encountering some trouble because the monstrous corded muscles in its shoulders prevented it from reaching. It turned in angry circles, screaming its frustration.

Whatever Bell was doing, it didn't seem to be working. She finally tossed aside whatever she had been holding, wrapped one arm most of the way around the mutant's head, and plunged the other arm up to the elbow in its eye socket. Its scream rose in pitch. It kept spinning and flailing for almost two minutes before the noise cut off. Bell somersaulted to the ground as the mutant's knees buckled. Xen felt the ground tremble again as it fell on its face.

Bell turned back toward the store. She took a couple of steps forward, then staggered back as the mini gun roared again. Bullets ripped into her body for a full two seconds before the sound cut off. Xen held her breath. The gynoid shook her head once, straightened up, and flung herself forward and out of Xen's view.

There was a pause.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" roared another mutant's voice.

The answering snarl was quite clear:

"Take dat, ya bastard."

The minigun started up again. After a minute or so, it cut off. Xen felt another small earthquake.

"Good riddance," said the Tactician's voice. Charon jogged out to the street, looking back toward Xen's position.

"Clear," he said.

Xen dragged the cargo net laboriously out into the broken road. Bell jogged back toward her. She shed a couple of small things that went plink as they hit the road. Charon turned and moved back out of sight.

"Are you all right?" Xen asked.

"Nothing serious," said Bell. "It'll take me a couple of minutes to push out all the shells. The DCUVRAP has already closed over some of them." Her clothes, not in the best of condition before, now additionally boasted a number of small, scorched holes. There were no apparent matching holes in her body. There was no blood. The effect was a little eerie. She had apparently taken time to wipe off her right arm. Xen chose not to look closely at her fingernails.

"He missed your head?" Xen said.

"Nah," Bell said. "But rounds from a minigun won't pierce coated titanium at that range. Not when they have to get through this stuff first, anyway." She prodded demonstratively at her own forehead. A flattened shell squeezed out of her left cheek, bounced off her breast, and hit the ground with a metallic noise.

"Good," Xen said. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm doing great. You'd better come along and see the prisoner, though," Bell said. "He's alive, but he didn't look too happy to see Charon and me."

"I can't imagine why," Xen said. Bell picked up the cargo net and carried it back down the street. Xen followed her.

The department store was mostly hollow, as Xen had thought. The front half was nearly gone, leaving the back half visible like the pictures of a doll house Xen had once seen. The lower story and part of the upper story were strewn with ammunition boxes, broken furniture, and mesh nets full of horrible things. Xen shook off the image of a great hand reaching for her and walked resolutely past the corpse of the mutant Bell had killed. Two more lay sprawled out on the mixed debris of the ground. One was full of small, bleeding holes. Xen edged over to look at the other one, the one who must have had the minigun before Charon got hold of it. She knew what to look for, so she wasn't surprised to see that the tendon in the back of its right knee had been cut. Its face had been cut several times, presumably culminating in the ugly ruin of its left eye.

So that's what he was trying to do last time, she thought, and looked around for Charon. He was going through the ammo boxes with swift, practiced hands. Xen smiled for the first time in a week. Then she remembered the prisoner.

"Bell, where is he?"

"Over there," Bell said, and pointed to a corner between two segments of broken wall. One of the awful mesh bags hung from a joist there, dripping. Nearby, crouched in its shadow, knelt a man. He was very thin, and bruises covered his naked upper body over his protruding ribs and clavicles. A shadow of black stubble clung to his jaw and his sharp cheekbones, and his hair was a wild, frizzy black cloud around his skull. His skin was almost gray. Xen guessed it had probably been darker before they'd caught him. He wore only a ragged and filthy pair of khaki pants. His hands were bound tightly behind him. Xen winced at a memory.

Xen squatted in front of him. She didn't want to kneel on the sticky ground.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

The man stared at her.

"You human?" he croaked.