5. Eighty-Seven Stories
MacCready POV
In Repair by John Mayer
We walked by a vault on the way to Beth's house in Diamond City. Vault 81. She wondered if it had been exed like 111 had been, and we almost checked it out. But I convinced her she needed a break, like she'd said on the interchange. I was actually trying my best to keep her out of the vault, afraid she'd go ballistic or something. I didn't want her to relive her vault moments when she had said she wanted a break. I don't know why she didn't think of that herself.
Walking into Diamond City—I'd forgotten how rude the guards were. One said to Beth, I'm keeping my eye on your merc friend. How was that going to keep either of us from taking his sorry excuse of a life down? If he's wary of me, he should keep his mouth shut, I'd thought. Isn't that pretty much a rule? She just kept walking toward the noodle stand, ignoring the guard completely, although I know she must have heard him.
As we walk through a blue door, she announces, "Well, this is it." Looking up at the ceiling, the place seems pretty big. "Sorry there's next to nothing in it," she continues, grabbing my attention once again. "When I bought it, there was a ton of junk over here." She walks to the middle of the open space. "I had it scrapped—bought some furniture with the caps. So, I guess it's a good thing all that junk was in here."
As I look around the room more, I notice the room is completely bare. "You bought furniture?" I ask. "Is it invisible or something?" I grin sarcastically.
"Oh, hush you," she replies. "There's more house this way." She walks to the right of the room, where I see a red workstation. "Since I'm hardly here, I haven't done anything with the big room. When I am here, I usually stay upstairs. So, why bother?"
Following her lead, I see a decent sized living room. It's fitted with a blue armchair, a tan couch, and a black loveseat. There's a painting on the wall, a light above the table in the middle of the seating. All sitting atop a worn out rug.
"I thought you said you hung out upstairs," I say.
"I do," she responds.
"Then why so fancy down here?"
"Is it?" She looks at her furnishings, as if she doesn't already know what it looks like.
"For me—for the wasteland—yes. Most places only look lived in if they are. Upstairs must be nirvana, then," I say with a chuckle.
"Well, go have a look and you tell me," she replies as she heads toward the couch. Sitting down, she says, "Mi casa, tu casa."
Instead of heading up the small flight of wooden stairs—as I was about to—I look at her with my face scrunched up in confusion. "Sounds like you're speaking in another language."
"Because I am." The look on her face says she's surprised I didn't already know this. "Spanish?" she finishes, noticing my puzzled look.
"Never heard of it," I say.
"Wow. A lot has been lost, huh?" she asks herself more than me. "It means 'my house, your house.' So, have a walkabout. Do whatever."
"Last time I was this welcome was in my own home," I say as I head up the steps. "Goodneighbor is not all that welcoming as they like to make people think."
Even though everything is nestled in the small space upstairs, it's cozy. A bed sits in the corner with a dresser at its foot. A cabinet hangs on the wall, a bookshelf with what seems like mostly intact books sits where railing really should be. If the shelf wasn't there, it'd be easy to fall into the living room. A small nightstand sits by the bed, holding a couple books itself—pieces of paper hanging out of them, acting as bookmarks.
"I see why you stay up here now," I call to Beth as I descend from her oasis. "You like to read, don't you?"
"No," she says. "What could possibly make you think that?" A sly smile appears. "Always have. My mom used to take my books away when I went to bed. She said beds were for sleeping, not reading on top of under the sheets. Now, I can read in bed anytime I want and she can't stop me." Her smile disappears. "I guess she can't now anyway."
I try my best for a distraction. "So, you like stories? Or those educational kind of books?"
My plan works, as I see her sad expression turn into one of thought. "Uh, both. Depends if the story is good or if I'm interested in the textbook."
"Ugh, I don't know how you can read that kind of stuff." I sit on the black loveseat across from her. "I'm not really into the whole 'textbook' thing myself," I respond. "Joseph, a guy I grew up with in Lamplight, tried his best to teach us kids. Since I was mayor, I got out of it most of the time."
"Okay, a few things," she says as soon as my mouth is shut. "One, textbooks are great to learn from. Two, how were you mayor of a cave? And three, where did he get those books from?"
"Okay," I say, laughing a little. "One, I know textbooks are great to learn from. It's just not everybody is book smart, and I definitely was not as a kid. It was a learned behaviour for me. Two, Little Lamplight—the cave—was actually a small underground town for children—no mungos!" I add at the end, making her laugh. Guess she remembered me saying what that meant a little while back. "So, yeah. I was mayor of that town for a few years. And three, Joseph got his teaching stuff from Vault 87." Sore spot bringing up a vault? Way to go, Robert.
"A vault?" she asks. "How'd a kid from a cave manage to get into a vault?"
"Well, it was kind of in the caverns. There were a couple entrances we could use to get in. He used the closest one to the main part of Lamplight. Good thing the classroom was close. We all thought he broke the door on the way out." I chuckle, "He didn't, but anyway. Good job, Joseph."
"Why'd you say that it was a good thing the classroom was close?" she asks, her brows furrowed.
"Because of the mutants."
"You're joking with me."
"Nope."
"Super mutants?" Her face starts looking more worried.
"Yeah," I respond.
"How did he manage to make it out alive?" Her voice is now high-pitched in disbelief.
"Miraculously, all the mutants were upstairs. They never saw him go in or come out. According to him anyway. He made it back with some material, but not as much as he wanted. Of course, the nerd." I roll my eyes. "He didn't risk making a second trip that day. He liked learning, but it wasn't to die for."
"So… let me get this straight. You lived in a cave. With a vault inside it. That super mutants lived in?"
"That super mutants were created in," I correct. "At least that's what my friend said."
She must be baffled, because she just sits on the couch, staring into space. Finally, she asks, "How did you kids stay alive the whole time you lived there?"
"We had guns and we weren't afraid to use them. They never bothered us anyway. Probably because we were kids. Too small for their liking."
She shakes her head, bewildered. "Wow," is all she says.
After a minute of thought, I ask, "Got time for a story?"
"About the vault?" She looks up at me.
"Yeah," I reply. "There's a good ending. So, you don't need to worry."
"If you say so, then sure." She settles back into the couch, expecting a whopper from the looks of it.
Leaning forward on the loveseat I start:
"When I was thirteen, I thought it was smart to escort another Lamplighter to Vault 87. Joseph was the one with me. It was almost time for him to leave Lamplight, as he was almost sixteen. He wanted to make sure the younger kids had more school material. We'd only been above ground a couple times—that was the scav team's job—and we didn't know where any schools were.
"And since we though Joseph had broken the door, we took Murder Pass—the other entrance to the vault. Being something neither of us had ever done before, we didn't know what to expect. I could have asked a friend of mine—she was adventurous and liked exploring dangerous places—but I didn't know where she was at the time. Joseph's birthday was coming up soon, and I didn't know how to find her. I'd spent little time topside—finding her in the Capital Wasteland outside Lamplight seemed impossible.
"So, into the vault we went. We knew damn well there were mutants living in it still. We could hear them from Murder Pass. We had it under full detail, not wanting the littler ones wandering off and getting themselves killed.
"When we got the guard to raise the gate, we proceeded toward the mutants, on high alert and with our guns raised. Within a minute of passing the gate, we had dropped at least half a dozen between the two of us. We didn't know where we were or where the classroom was, but we kept going.
"We had just gotten to the vault when a Brute comes around the corner, swinging his board at me. Joseph saw him and rammed me out of the way, taking the blow himself. I shot the Brute dead and turned to my friend. I asked him why he did it. 'Because you're more capable of making it to the classroom. The future kids need those holotapes. Go get them,' he said as he shoved my assault rifle back into my hands. 'I can handle myself.' He raised his own rifle as I marched on. He had a broken leg because he took the hit that was meant for me.
"Something I never fully understood: he saved me from getting struck with the board. I don't know why. I was mean to everyone. I was the neighbourhood bully. Being older than most kids wasn't the only thing that gave Joseph his teaching title. Everybody loved him. I don't even know why I was voted to become mayor in the first place. Just because I punched Princess in the nose?"
"You punched Princess in the nose? Who and why?" Beth asks me.
"Princess was her name—well, nickname. We all had nicknames in Lamplight. Her name was Angela. She wanted to be ruler in the cavern, and that upset me. So, I punched her, saying that the kids needed a leader, not a princess. The kids made me mayor after that. Guess they liked my way of doing things." I shake my head. "Stupid—kids voting for a violent person."
"Kids usually like violence. So, no surprise there. Okay, continue," she says, giving me the floor.
"So, yeah. I left Joseph there. Made my way to the classroom and got the holotapes he was wanting. I put them in a bag I borrowed from—" Lucy. "…a friend." I decide to pause for a bit, not trusting my voice. I forgot all about this. Beth interrupts my thoughts.
"Was there any resistance in the vault? And what about Joseph?" she asks, curious and slightly worried, from the look in her features.
I realized I'd looked away from her, toward the wall to her left. Looking back at her, I try to continue. "There were some. I killed them on the way in." I clear my throat, feeling a lump starting to rise in it. "I went back for him. He had killed a couple while I was gone. I put his arm around my shoulder and helped him back… to the doctor. …She patched him up. Besides that, we were fine. Lucky, really. A couple of kids, walking into a den of super mutants. One coming out with only a broken leg, the other, fine. We were lucky."
Out of all that, Beth comments on the only part I'd prefer she not. "You had a doctor in Little Lamplight?"
"Yes," I curtly say.
She can read my subtle hostility, because she asks, "Sore spot?"
I sigh, thinking. Finally, I respond, "Yeah…"
With an understanding smile, "Okay." She shifts her weight from her left to her right side. "Tell me more about the vault. You said they made mutants there?"
I appreciate her attempt at changing subjects. "Yeah, they did. Apparently, they took humans there and injected something called the Forced Evolutionary Virus into them. It would either change the humans into one of them, or it would go wrong and kill them altogether. According to that one friend, anyway."
"Boy, your friend got around, huh?"
"You can say that," I chuckle a little, still trying to shake her from my mind. "Her name's Kate. She's from a vault, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I kinda freaked out when I saw you the first time. I hadn't seen a vaultsuit or Pip-Boy since I saw her last. But, yeah. Vault 101. Born and raised right there in the Capital Wasteland. Her husband, Butch, is also from 101. They live in a town called Megaton now, not too far from the vault."
"They must visit often, then," Beth remarks.
"Nah," I reply. "They got kicked out. Something to do with her dad and a revolt or something. Never got the full story. I should ask her sometime."
"So, you still talk with her?"
"…Yeah, sometimes. When I get the chance to." I think about the few times she wrote me, asking questions about Duncan: what he likes to eat, if it's normal for him to sleep a long time… how she's going to explain why I've been gone so long. Beth once again interrupts my thoughts.
"Is she the friend you talked about earlier? The adventurous one?"
"Yeah, that's her alright. Sometimes, she and Butch would just visit because they were bored. They'd come all the way to Lamplight from Megaton or Rivet City—that's really far to walk just because you're bored." I laugh a bit.
"I wouldn't know. I mean, I've been to DC before, but not recently, so Megacity and Rivet Town are new to me."
"Megaton and Rivet City," I correct.
Laughing, "Same thing!" She says, "Well, I'm sure there's more than just that one story." She looks ready for another one, but I've had enough.
"There are, but I'm getting kinda tired. I think I wanna try to get some sleep," I say. I'm pretty much just wanting to stop with the Lamplight stories, afraid she'll get brought up again.
"Oh. Okay," Beth says, seeming shocked at my sudden fatigue. "I'm going to go read, then." She stands up, looking back at me as she nears the stairs. "I just have the one bed." She looks apologetic.
"No big deal," I say. "I can kick it here." I try stretching out on the black loveseat, finding it is way too short. Moving to the tan couch, I add, "Or here. It's longer." She laughs at that.
"Okay, then." She walks up the stairs. I hear a bit of clanking coming from her room, and a few seconds later she comes back down the stairs. Walking over to me, she hands me a pillow and a blanket. "Those are the best I have," she says. "I think that blanket is long enough." I unfold it to show its length of about six feet. "Yeah, that should do it." As I put the blanket over my arm, she smiles and says, "Well, goodnight, Robert." She again turns to go to her room.
"Goodnight," I reply as she's already halfway up the steps.
A few minutes later, after I'd taken off my cap and duster and laid down on the couch, Beth speaks again. Faintly, "Hey, Robert?"
"Yeah?" I respond.
"Remember that thing I said in Spanish earlier? 'My house, your house?'"
"Yeah."
"Well… welcome home."
With it feeling like home, and memories of Lucy in the back of my mind, I fall asleep.
A/N: Home Plate really never felt like home to me, so I don't know what they're on about.
Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it so far. There's just a few more chapters, I swear. *giggles maliciously*