Note from the Author: I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas ever since I first got it, so as it's been a while since I've played Fallout 3, I'm basically going by memory here, which is less than perfect by normal people's standards. I will update this chapter with proper NPC names when I can get my TV to work.
~Chapter Two: Megaton's Grand Tour~
The trip back to Megaton seemed to take a bit longer than the trip to those fateful ruins.
The Lone Wanderer recovered from her situation quickly, to her merit. A couple of Stimpaks and a bottle of purified water later, and she was more than happy to follow me out of the ruins. Once we were on open field and away from the ruin complex, she opened up to me a bit more.
"Thanks again for getting me out of there," she said with a smile. "I can't believe it went sour that quickly."
"How did that happen, anyway?" I asked foolishly.
"They caught me off guard," she confessed. "I tried to talk my way out of it, but they… they were horrible."
"Never fought raiders before?" I asked. I had no idea what her situation was, but I assumed she had grown up in the wasteland, just like everyone else I knew, including myself.
"No… I had no idea how bad things were out here," she sighed.
"Out here…" That's not what I was going to say, but those two words stuck with me. "What was that supposed to mean?"
"I…" she started to say. "I lived all my life in Vault 101… Today is my first day out here."
I didn't know what to say. I had no idea any of the old vaults even worked, let alone had people living in them.
"What happened?" I had to ask. By now, she had shattered my preconceptions of her so much that I just had to know what the deal was.
"I don't want to talk about it," she muttered. "Bad things happened… I just couldn't live there anymore."
I quelled my confusion for her sake… most of it, anyway. After what happened to her out here, she still managed to keep her cheeriness until that was brought up. I didn't want to imagine how much worse it could have been for her down there than nearly being raped.
"You said you were looking for someone," I mentioned, my curiosity fighting my disciplined mind. "Who?"
She was silent for a moment. "My father," she said finally.
A million possibilities raced through my mind. "What happened to him?"
"He… he's the reason I had to…" is all she could say. 'Ouch' is the only word that came to mind. I couldn't begin to imagine what kind of man her father was at that moment.
"Any idea where to look?" I asked.
"The sheriff said he thought he saw someone like that head for the saloon," she said.
"Moriarty's," I sighed. I knew who Colin was, and essentially put two and two together. "Let me guess, he charged you a few hundred caps for the info, and you came here to make it."
"No… he only asked for a hundred, but that's basically it…" she replied.
I started to say something before it hit me. "What about the money you made from defusing the bomb?"
The look on her face said she knew I would ask that. "I told him… Well, I couldn't sleep at night knowing the people of Megaton might…"
I couldn't help but facepalm. She refused payment for that task, she was trying to say. That's all she could be trying to say.
"I know it was stupid now, but I couldn't know I would need it…" she tried to explain. I looked over at her and instantly felt bad for facepalming.
"I'll talk to Colin for you," I said without thinking.
"You don't mind?" she asked.
"He owes me a favor or two," I said with a smirk. It was a lie, but I was confident I'd be able to work something out with him.
"Thank you," she blushed a bit. "I owe you a lot, now."
I couldn't decide on how to respond to that, so I stayed quiet for the rest of the trip. Megaton came into view shortly after that.
Once we stepped into town, Lucas Simms confronted us. "There's our town's heroine," he says to the Lone Wanderer. She blushed a bit at the praise. "It felt bad letting you do that without some kind of payment, so I got you this."
"Thank you," she said as she pocketed the key. I found that a bit odd, since Simms is usually wary of letting people in.
"The house is down at the center of town," Simms said, leading us to the defused bomb. "It's right next to the Brass Lantern."
I knew well enough who owned that house. "Isn't that Burke's place?"
"It was," Simms sighed, "until he moved out today. He said something about things not going according to plan. Oh, that reminds me, he asked me to give this to you."
I didn't have to guess what the letter from Burke said, given the conversation I had with the man earlier this morning. Still, I took the letter anyway. "Thanks," I said.
Simms nodded and went about his business. I started to head toward Moriarty's, but it didn't take me long to notice that she wasn't following me. "What?"
"Um…" she shook, like she was trying to build up her courage. "Why don't you… give me a tour of your town?" she managed finally. "I've seen a little of it, but I really don't…"
I chuckled a bit, but I was holding back a hard laugh. After what went down, I wasn't worried about her having any kind of interest in me, but here she was trying to come up with an excuse to spend more time with me. The rational half of my brain warned me that she probably wasn't my type, what with the naiveté, but one look at her face made me shut that voice out. How could I say no to that face? "…Sure," I said calmly.
"To the left of us now is what's referred to as the 'Luxury Apartments,' according to the road sign right next to me," I said with an even tone. "My house is closest to the front gate, just over there. The one behind it belongs to a man named Jericho, and the one behind that belongs to a woman named Lucy West. Lucy's alright, but I'd leave Jericho alone. Local gossip places him at a disbanded raider gang before moving in here."
The Lone Wanderer shivered understandably at that bit of intel. "To the right of us stands a single home; one belonging to our sheriff, Lucas Simms, and his son." I started down the hill toward the crater, and she followed me. "As we head toward the crater, we see the Brass Lantern on our left, which is run by the Stahl family. Jenny Stahl runs the outside bar while her older brother Leo mans the inside 'café'. To our right is Doc Church's hospital. He's the best surgeon this side of the Potomac, save maybe the bigots in Tenpenny Tower. Don't expect anything in the form of a bedside manner, though. Jericho aside, Doc Church is the most unsociable prick in town."
I stopped just short of the glow-in-the-dark pool keeping the defused bomb upright. "To our far left is Mr. Bur- I mean your home." I nearly stuttered.
"It's not as big as yours is," The Lone Wanderer chimed in, with maybe just a hint of jealousy wrapped inside that sweet voice of hers.
"Well, I know Mr. Burke bought it as a formality, seeing as how he was here on business. Given the premium on space in this town, his hut is better than living in the commons."
"Where are the commons?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Up that hill," I pointed out at the one right next to her new pad. "And just in front of us is the-"
"So I gotta live in front of the poor people?" she asked with a bit of a huff that instantly changed my opinion of her.
"Space is a premium-" I reiterated.
"Yeah, I got that, but I'll feel bad with they're heading up to the Commons and see me in my own place," she pouted. "I don't want anybody thinking that I think I'm better than them. Or worse, that I think I'm better than them." Nice save, I thought to myself.
"Well, you could always stage a sleepover," I joked. She didn't take it as a joke, however, and the smile on her face as she decided she liked that idea threw out any thoughts of bigotry I had toward her. "As I was saying, just in front of us is the Church of the Children of Atom." I got closer to her so I could whisper into her ear. "Don't let them know you disarmed the bomb in the center of town," I warned her quietly. "You don't want to start that riot."
"Thanks for the warning," she whispered back.
I started heading up the ramp attached to Doc Church's place, followed by the Lone Wanderer. Once we got to Moira Brown's store, I proceeded with the tour. "This is the Craterside Supply, home of Megaton's junk and weapons' trade. The proprietor, Moira Brown, is a little… different, but nobody in town is better at weapons repair."
"Nothing wrong with being a little different," she smiled.
"Up the ramp to our right is the Water Processing Plant," I continued, "as run by old man Walter. The plant is a little deteriorated, but as old Walter is taking care of the place by himself, most people don't mind."
I started heading toward the Saloon to continue the tour, but my tour group had other ideas. "Hold on, let me see if I can give the old guy a hand."
I shrugged off a chuckle and followed her inside, just to make sure she didn't get herself in trouble again. It took us a minute to track old Walter down, but the lack of decent lighting in the plant can attribute to that. It's not like the plant was a maze or anything.
"Mornin'," Walter mumbled as rose from his seat in front of the desk in the back room. "How can I help ya?"
"I'm kinda new in town," my companion confessed. "I was wondering… is there anything I could do to help out around here?"
"Nope, I've got everything handled in here," Walter said proudly. "I don't know what you heard from the other people in town, stranger, but old Walter's got this bucket of bolts under control. Of course, I don't got much time to check the pipes outside. The machinery in here would fall apart if I didn't give it constant attention."
"So the pipes outside need fixing?" she said with a spring in her step. "I could help you with that."
"I dunno…" the old man trailed off. "I wouldn't want you to mess up the pipes worse if you don't know what you're doin'…"
"Nothin' to it," she hummed. "A few twists of the wrench, and the leak goes away. Righty, tighty!"
"Hah. I like your enthusiasm, young lady," old Walter chuckled. "All right. Here, take this wrench and these few scraps of metal and get to work. Judging by the pressure in the plant, I'd say there are no more than three leaks in the pipes outside."
"Thanks," she smiled, taking the scrap," but I don't need the wrench. Got my own. Never leave home without it!"
Walter laughed as she pulled the wrench out of her right-front pocket and held it up triumphantly, leaving me curious as to where she hid that when the raiders were having their 'good time' with her. Of course, the part of me that didn't want to know, tempered by common sense, kept me from asking. As she ducked out, I followed suit and started to worry if her sugary disposition was going to be giving me diabetes any time soon.
"Come on," she called out to me, breaking me out of my contemplation. "Finish the tour while I look for leaks."
"No problem," I smirked, dashing in front of her on the way back down to the front of Craterside Supply. "The other ramp up leads toward the Saloon. On either side of the saloon are public bathrooms, one for each gender, and don't worry, they're more than just outhouses. They're decently equipped. Most houses in town have bathrooms of their own, so except for the occasional late-night boozer who can't be bothered or is too drunk to make it to their homes, the main customers – so to speak – are the residents of the Common Area, since that building is devoid of plumbing.
"They really charge to use the bathroom!" she huffed.
"No, they don't," I explained. "So to speak means it was just a figure of speech."
"Ah," she hummed, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "I should have known that."
"We'll reach the Men's room, first," I continued. "The Women's room is on the far side of the saloon, and is surrounded by two other houses. The house between the saloon and the ladies' room belongs to Billy Creel and his adopted daughter, Maggie. The house beside Lucy's belongs to an elderly couple, Nathan and Manya."
As we neared the Saloon, the Lone Wanderer jumped ahead of me and hopped the railing over to the roof of the local church. She slid toward the pipes hanging off the roof and almost slid off herself. The leak on the pipe left the puddle she slipped on. Once she regained her balance, she used her legs to keep hold of the pipe, leaving her upper body to the task of repairing the leak. I have to say, I was impressed by how quickly she got the job done.
"Sorry about that," she shivered when she jumped back to my side of the railing, which I assumed came from coming down off the adrenaline rush of almost falling off a building. "One down, two to go."
"That was quite a feat right there," the familiar voice of Colin Moriarty chimed almost immediately. Colin was relaxing outside of his saloon, leaning against the railing and watching the hustle of the town's citizens as he liked to do, when my companion got to work so swiftly. "Your girl's got talent."
Moriarty had an eye for seeing relationships in others, so I knew arguing the fact that we just met was futile. I left that to the Lone Wanderer.
"Thanks," she smiled, as if focusing on the compliment and not the implication.
"I saw how quickly you headed off a while ago," he said to her, getting to the point as quickly as one could expect from someone like Colin. "I trust your search for caps was fruitful."
"It's kinda hard to survive out there when one isn't used to violent situations," I pointed out, my chivalrous nature shining through my Combat Armor. "Sending her to Fairfax was your idea of a joke, I take it."
"I beg your fucking pardon," Colin said matter-of-factly in a tone that suggested that I struck a nerve, "but I did no such thing. It's not my fault your little friend is poorer than the commonfolk around here. Maybe if you took a little more care of your bitch-"
Despite the lie in his implication, I pulled out my Scoped .44 and almost had it out in the open when the Lone Wanderer stopped me in my tracks. "Stop," she said weakly, as if almost to tears. "Fairfax was my idea."
I reluctantly holstered my magnum and shot Colin a dirty look. He smirked smugly despite almost losing most of his brain matter to a bullet wound. I guess the fact that Simms would have given me shit had he seen that little display was what gave him his courage.
"Whatever," I growled before turning away from him.
"Hey, wait-!" my companion called out to me.
"Get what you need out of him," I called back. I didn't tell her that I needed a minute to calm down because saying that would just add to his smugness, but thankfully she took the hint.
As I was calming down behind the saloon, I stared at the back entrance for a minute. Once I was calm enough for my brain to work, something clicked. Moriarty doesn't let ANYBODY into his back room, so if the Lone Wanderer is distracting him up front, then his terminal, his sanctuary of information, is unguarded. Granted, doing what I was thinking was against the law, but I'd love to see Simms try and see past a Stealth Boy at his age.
I activated the device as I calmly walked toward the back room. Picking the lock on the door was nothing. Guess Colin wasn't interested in shelling out the caps for a decent lock. Ever the cheap bastard. Once inside, I took a crack at the terminal. Terminals, however, weren't as easy as locks for me.
"Come on, work!" the gravelly voice of the local Ghoul rumbled in the room, giving me a bit of a start at first. The sound of banging against the hollow container of his radio made a bit more sense after the fact. Confirming that I was alone, I looked around for something to help with the terminal. All I saw, though, as a bunch of closets, and rooting through the lot would just be asking for trouble. Fortunately, I found what I was looking for in the closest one, which had a lock just as weak as the one I popped to get in here.
Lotsacaps, I mused, staring at the single slip of paper in the closet. Typical. Typing the password into the terminal did the trick nicely. Most of the garbage Moriarty typed into the terminal was old news, Jericho raping Jenny Stahl, Leo's nightly rituals, stupid shit like that. I have to say though, the passage about Doc Church's previous employment with the community of Paradise Falls was both surprising, albeit slightly, and revealing.
Finally, placed right beside a passage of Mr. Burke's discomforting arrival, was a passage labeled James. I never heard of anyone with that name in Megaton, but the parenthesized label of Vault 101 was a dead giveaway. Colin even had the heart to disrespect James's baby daughter in the anecdote. That's when it hit me; if this James was indeed my new friend's father, his passing took place before my arrival. That's when I read the part about James coming back 'out of the blue', and I realized that this info wasn't as old as I first assumed.
I hightailed it out of there before my Stealth Boy wore off, jammed a Bobby Pin in the back door's lock, and broke it off, hoping that Colin would assume that one of the local drunks was responsible for the break-in and would be inspired to get off his lazy ass and improve his security. Once visible, I strode out toward the front of the saloon and was almost run over by the leathered redhead.
"Iknowwhereheis!" she blurted out in one sentence, practically shaking in her boots from what I assumed was excitement.
"Mind obeying the speed limit?" I grumbled sarcastically as I rose to my feet. "I don't think I quite caught the license plate number on that one."
"I-know-where-he-is!" she reiterated, forcing her voice out as slow as she seemed capable of in her state of mind. "I know where to find my dad!"