Fallout Lawndale Part IV
When Daria finally escaped from Ms Barch's examination she caught sight of Jane working on one of her art projects in the courtyard. It was some chimera of broken robot parts. Jack's dog was chasing and in return being chased by a pack of younger children.
On her way she passed Jack and O'Neill discussing the finer points of headshots vs. kneecapping over a bottle of whisky.
"I prefer the head, its quick, clean and no loud screaming." Jack explained.
"No, the kneecaps are better." O'Neill argued. "If you kill them they won't learn anything. A permanent crippling injury can serve as a lesion."
"Kneecapping isn't necessarily permanent." Jack replied.
"It is with the kinda guns we like to use." It was always disturbing to Daria how O'Neill would explain exactly how a weapon could mutilate or kill a human being with the same calm soft voice one would use when teaching a little kid how to tie is shoes.
"Good point." Jack took a swig of whisky before passing the bottle to O'Neill.
Daria continued on, she never got the appeal of adults and drinking. "You survived." Jane quipped as she bolted the robobrain arms to the torso of a Protectron, which already had Sentry Bot legs.
"Better then getting shot again."
"Or Upchuck's poetry."
Daria winced at that memory of talent night a couple years back. She'd have fled the auditorium if her parents hadn't insisted she stay and be polite. That and Quinn had managed to handcuff her to the chair in retaliation for turning her hair lime green.
"Jane could you help me retrieve that case we dropped yesterday?" In all the excitement or more accurately terror Jane had completely forgotten about Daria's project.
"I think we'll need an extra-hand, your still limping and that case was heavy." Truth be told Jane didn't want to go out there. She'd prefer to stay home the next couple day. "Tom will probably be by later we can ask him." Daria agreed so long as Jane didn't disappear again. She liked Tom well enough but getting married to him with her dad's shotgun at his back didn't sound like a healthy step in their relationship.
It wasn't until that afternoon that Tom arrived at the Lawndale High Settlement. He found Jack haggling with unusually nervous Ken Edwards and his son Nathan over the price of an Type 93 assault rifle presumably one of the weapons salvaged from the raiders. His cyberdog was chasing his tail. The Edwards family traded in just about everything. But mostly Edwards plied his mechanical skills to keep food on the table. Quite a few scavengers came and went to the ruins of Baltimore and they all needed gear in good condition.
"Come now I've restored this to near pristine condition you have to be able to offer me more then that."
"One hundred and fifty caps, no more." Edwards argued, eliciting a groan from Jack.
"I can find better offers Mr. Edwards." Jack threatened.
"Then perhaps you should." Nathan answered adjusting the collar on shirt. Since the Edwards family moved to Lawndale a decade back they were famous for two things a huge collection of pre-war clothing, and air of superiority. It was strangely absent in Ken today.
"Hey Nathan still spending all your money on pre-war relics?" Tom rarely missed an opportunity to tease him.
"Well, I've always dug the beauty and elegance of pre-war American design. People had a sense of timeless style and civilized decorum back then."
"The same civilized decorum that led to communist witch hunts, the new plague and who can forget the atomic fire that consumed the planet." Jack quipped.
"I'm not saying it was all steak and onions. But they did know how to dress."
"Can't argue with that." Jack smiled. Tom waited until Jack and Mr. Edwards finalized the deal. Eventually the rifle was traded for a small handful of caps and a package containing a fancy pre-war dress.
"Jack can I talk to you for a minute I need to ask a favor?" Something had been on Tom's mind sense last night. And he hoped Jack would be willing to help him out.
"What's on your mind?"
"Can you teach me how to fight?"
"No" Jack answered plainly. Over the years he'd been asked this question a lot and the answer was always the same. Unfortunately none of them took no for an answer. Tom was no exception.
"Why not?"
"Why should I?" Jack answered. His dog stopped chasing his tail just long enough to bark in agreement.
"I can pay you." Tom just hoped it wouldn't be too expensive. His father had he'd pay for combat lessons so long as the price was reasonable. But Jack simply grunted and started to walk away. "Alright then if its not money then why won't you?"
Jack sighed and turned to face Tom again. "A lot of kids come to me asking that. I won't waste my time teaching kids to get themselves killed by trying to imitate me."
"I'm not planning to run off into the wastes to be a big damn hero." Tom argued. "I just want to be strong."
"Why do you need to be strong?"
"When Daria and I were escaping one of the raiders tried to follow us, when he stuck his head through the hole we used to escape I froze." Tom looked up to see that Jack was still listening. "It couldn't have been more then a few seconds but it felt like an eternity, until Daria grabbed my gun and opened fire driving him back."
"Tom." Jack sighed putting a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You crept into a camp of heavily armed raiders to rescue her. I think your manhood is safe."
"This isn't about looking like a man." Tom angrily brushed the hand aside and looked away. "What if I hesitate the next time and something happens to her."
"Come with me." Jack gestured Tom to follow which he did.
"What's your dogs name?" Tom asked as the cyberhound trotted beside them.
"Dogmeat"
"There's hardly any meat on him." Tom quipped, scratching the pooch behind the ears.
"We'll he was one hundred percent biodegradable when we met, he had an accident back in 2282 involving some mercs." They soon arrived in the parking lot of the old pizza place. After rummaging in a dumpster for a minute Jack pulled out a few old cans of tomato sauce and set them up as targets.
"Alright Tom first things first, your submachine gun is an decent weapon, but widely inaccurate do you have a pistol?"
"Yeah." Tom nodded pulling out a fresh and clean looking 10mm pistol.
"Not bad" Jack carefully examined the weapon. "This isn't prewar is it?"
"My eighth time great grandfather Bruce Sloane made extensive preparations in the event of nuclear war so he built the Sloane bunker which included fabrication machinery for making simple weapons like this." Tom explained the family history with practiced ease. Growing up the family history had been one of the most important lessons.
"All right Tom stand back against that wall and lets see how you handle the gun" Jack watched as Tom aimed and fired six shots hitting two of the targets.
"Believe it or not 33% accuracy isn't bad quite the opposite, if you fired those six shots at a single raider you'd have put at least two in his chest. Your stance was right you didn't jerk the trigger all you need is more practice."
"Practice can get expensive." Tom said noting that ammunition wasn't cheap. "And that doesn't solve my other problem."
"Well when I was ten years old my dad gave me a BB gun for my birthday. He even set up a practice range. I spent thousands of hours playing with that thing. Before ever touching a real gun." Jack looked quite melancholy remembering a life he left behind more then a decade ago.
"But what about…"
"Tom your fifteen, I can't teach you to take a life the wasteland makes enough killers in this world I've no desire to help it along and I don't have the spare time to teach you how to fight."
Tom was disheartened for a moment but realized Jack was right. He didn't want to kill anyone. He wanted to be able protect the people he cared for.
"What I can teach you in the short time I'll be around" Jack smirked putting arm on Tom's shoulder. "I can teach you a few secrets about women."
It was nearly 3:00PM and Daria was getting irritated she figured Tom would be here by now. She had wanted to retrieve her case hours ago and needed the extra muscle. It was at this moment Tom came into view looking sweaty, exhausted and dragging her case behind him.
"Tom." Daria called rushing over as quickly as her injured leg allowed.
"I heard you lost this" Tom smiled.
"Thanks" Daria muttered. "Why'd you bring this here by yourself, I didn't even ask"
"You shouldn't have to." Tom blushed. For a moment they stared into one another's eyes and then.
"You can do it Tom! Kiss her." Kevin cheered. Daria wasn't sure what would have happened if Kevin hadn't killed the moment but she'd find away to make him suffer for it later.
"Think you can help me install these parts?"
"If by help you mean hand you tools I barely know the names of and lift." Tom answered.
"That's kinda what a I meant." Daria smirked. "And lift heavy loads, how'd you drag this all the way back by your self?" Daria was a little surprised Tom could manage it so well.
"To be honest Jack helped most of the way, but said I'd look more heroic if I brought it to by myself." After getting a little help from Jane they carried the case down into the school's basement where Daria was working on her projects. Jane bid them bid them adieu and promised not to let Jake now they were alone together. Tom was in awe of the machine work he wasn't sure what this did but it was impressive.
"It's a generator." Daria explained. "Using these hydrogen cells from the engines I've scavenges and other parts I can power the lights, the water recyclers, maybe even the recharging stations for the schools old robot security force."
"Jake I have to ask WHAT do you have against Tom." DeMartino asked as he looked over the collection of electronic parts and equipment Jake had to sell.
"He's just like any other teenage boy, with only one thing on his mind and I won't let him take advantage of my little girl. He needs to stay away from her."
"If you don't want him seeing her. THEN WHY, after the roof incident did you try and force their marriage with a shotgun."
"To protect her honor!" Jake shouted.
"Jake, I've been here for over two hundred AGONIZING years, and no one has ever CARED if a girl had pre-marital sex. Its ALMOST as if you want them to get married so your daughter can have a cushy life at the Sloane Bunker."
"Hmm, you know I never though about it like that before... maybe if I, nah I'll just stick to the threats."
Daria worked half buried in her machine for the next few hours chatting with Tom about old pre-war literature and other things. On occasion she'd ask for a spesfic tool from Tom who would do his best to pick the right one.
"So Tom what's Jack really doing up here? And don't give me that plotting caravan routes line. I don't buy it."
"Daria I can honestly say he came up here to plot a path for caravans" Tom answered. "It just wasn't the only reason."
Daria slid out from under her machine face covered in engine grease. Tom thought she looked adorable but her glare kept him from voicing it. "What is the other reason?"
"I don't know, I just overheard him and my father discussing a few things." Tom gulped. "He was coming up here anyways and agreed to map the roads for the caravans and sell them to my family."
Daria sat up and wiped some of the grease off with a rag. "Can you remember anything more?"
"He said he needed parts to fix a radio transmitter, a big one, he also wanted any maps of the current layout of Baltimore."
"Baltimore?" Daria questioned, "That place is crawling with feral ghouls and radspiders." Standing up she went the control console on her machine and flipped a few switches the monstrosity hummed to life. "I guess it's his business still I'm curious."
"I have a novel idea, we could just ask him?"
"Nah" Daria sighed, "If he can tell us it can't be that interesting."
"So how to you plan on spying on him?" Tom asked, Daria smiled and gave him a brief kiss. He knew her so well.
"If he's planning on fixing a big radio transmitter the only one in the area I know of is the old Z-93 station."
When Jack left around dinner with a large pack filled with equipment heading in the direction of the old radio station, Jane, Daria and Tom hunkered down in Daria's basement workshop. In preparation Daria had gotten an old radio working and set it to Z-93. Jane toyed with a second radio adjusting the dial constantly incase Jack changed the frequency on the broadcast station.
"He might not even finish tonight?" Jane mused.
"Your parents ok with you staying the night?" Daria asked, knowing the Sloane bunker was a good hour away on foot.
"I told them I was staying the night with the Ruttheimers."
"How much did you have to bribe Upchuck to go along with it?" Jane knew that the boy used any opportunity to gouge people for money.
"Nothing I bribed his dad, much cheaper and far less likely to blow up In my face."
It wasn't until nearly midnight when the static on the radio Daria setup came to a stop. It wasn't that surprising there wasn't a functioning radio station
"Papa Bear to old folks home, come in old folks home." Jacks voice came over the radio.
"Old Folks home here," a young male voice replied. "How goes the mission?"
"Slight delay on account of raiders but Site A will function as intended you can begin sending blades when ready approach from the north."
"That speaking in code is really annoying" Daria muttered.
"Makes it impossible to know what he's talking about Site A? Blades? Why north?" Jane questioned.
"Roger that blades should arrive by midday tomorrow, I'll tell Mama Bear to expect you for brunch tomorrow." The signal went dead.
"Your going to follow him tomorrow aren't you?" Tom asked. Daria smiled Tom knew her so well.