- "Come on, molerats, I know you're out there"

- "If this scarcity of prey continues we'll have to start hunting radroaches for food."

- "God Shroud, don't even say that." The thought alone made Amy queasy. "Eww. Ant meat would be all right. I tried it once in Brass Lantern, it's OK if you cook it for a really long time. Well, it's edible." She leaned her back against a ruined wall of a building and tried to ignore the rumbling in her stomach. "Look, we just had a few bad days. I'll just have to be more patient."

- "Or, alternatively you could venture further away from Megaton and have an unlimited supply of molerats and other game. Another possibility would be following the river upstream until we run into some mirelurks, you're more than capable of taking one on."

- "Shroud, we've been over this. I'm not looking for adventures. Only for food."

- "It is an extremely ill-conceived decision to take such a cautious approach because of one minor mishap. You were fully justified in defending yourself against these vicious villains. There is a whole wide world out there with so many great things to discover, mysteries to solve ... "

- "Goddammit Shroud! It was not a 'minor mishap'! I did what I had to do, OK? I understand that. I had no choice. It doesn't mean that I want to ever be in a situation like that again. How can you not get that?"

- "You cannot hope to find enough food to hunt so close to Megaton. Even local hunters venture further out. And they don't have your talents."

- "My talents." Amy repeated, her face drawn into a disgusted grimace. "This can't be the only way to live. There's lots of people here that grow crops, tend to brahmin."

- "You lack the caps to buy a brahmin. You've spent them all on a hunting rifle. And you know nothing about farming."

- "I can learn. I'm a fast learner. I should be able to figure it all out."

All the things she read about and worked on back in the Vault, thought Amy, and she never had any interest in the one thing that everyone needs. Growing food. She always took food for granted. Back in the Vault there were rooms filled with huge refrigerators with Salisbury Steaks, Sugar Bombs, all kinds of pre-war food. As far as she was aware, even after two hundred years the supplies were still plentiful. The Vault also grew its own food too of course, there was no way the initial supplies could last for so long without it. Amy remembered how much she enjoyed fresh tomatoes and raddishes they grew in Hydroponics. And yet she never had any interest in working there. She really regretted it now.

- "Wait, I know someone I could ask about farming!" Amy perked up suddenly. "Well, I don't know him really but he seemed nice. What was his name again? Was it Bob?"

- "The old fellow you asked for directions to Megaton? Yes, 'know him' is quite a stretch"

- "Oh shut up already." Amy started walking down the main road. The house she was looking for was the first one she came across when she first came to Springvale, she remembered. It meant that it was right on the outskirts. After walking for a while she finally saw the house. It wasn't just on the outskirts, it was some distance away from the Springvale proper. Amy felt her body get tense. This was further away from the town than the wanted to be. It's OK, she told herself, this could still be considered a part of Springvale, just right on the edge of it. Besides from what she remembered coming back from the Vault, this part of the wasteland was especially desolate, there wasn't anything or anyone she could run into. She swallowed and continued towards the old man's house.

Approaching the house she saw the old man, he was in his garden tending to crops.

- "Hi" Amy called out. The man stopped and then turned to face her. Ben was his name, Amy recalled. "You probably don't remember me. I'm Amy. I asked you for directions to Megaton a while ago."

The man furrowed his brow and paused for a while, trying to remember. Then his expression cleared.

- "Yeah I remember. Hardly nobody comes to my house these days. You got there all right, then?"

- "Yes thank you. I've been living there."

- "They let you stay inside the walls?" the man raised his eyebrows. "Well, good for you." He looked at Amy uncertainly. "If you're looking to get someplace else, I don't know many places outside of Springvale. Grayditch is over there." he lifted his bony arm and pointed it somewhere east. "It's a real long way though."

- "Thank you, but I wasn't looking for directions this time. I was hoping, uhm ..." Amy suddenly realized just how ridiculous her request was. "I was hoping you could teach me about farming."

- "Well now, that could take a while" the old man chuckled and shook his head. "You're a funny one." He stretched his back. "I s'pose what you're really asking is, can I take you in as help? Every now and again someone turns up here to ask me. I'll tell you the same thing I tell all of them. I'm old, I could sure use some help, but I don't have enough food for two people. Hell, there's hardly enough for me."

- "Thank you, but I thought I could try it for myself. I was thinking of moving into one of the empty houses here and start growing some crops myself. Maybe we could help each other out." Amy smiled enthusiastically. "I'm just not sure how to get started."

- "Heh." the old man grinned. "You think you can just pick a house and start growing food just like that? Farming is hard."

- "I'll work hard." said Amy. "I'll do what needs to be done."

- "It's not just about working hard. You've got to know what you're doing. Mostly, you've got to be lucky. " Ben slowly, painfully sat down, cleared his throat, then gestured with his hand for Amy to come closer. "All right then, I'll tell you about farming. I could use a break, anyhow."

- "I grew up right here in this house. There was eight of us there, ma and da, me, Mike, Lucy, Sally, Sarah and ..." Ben scratched his head. "Darn. I'm getting old. Gonna forget my own name soon." He spent some time staring off in the distance, tapping his bony finger against his leg. Then, suddenly, he slapped the ground with his hand, startling Amy. "Kelly. That was her name. Died when she was nine or ten. Anyhow, we grew taters here, razorgrain, mutfruit. Had two brahmin. We even traded some of our food in Megaton. Ma and da were ... not the friendliest of folks. Had all kinds of grudges with other folks in Springvale. So, sisters all got married, couldn't wait to get out the house, most of them. Lucy stayed right here in Springvale, married Three-Nostril Joe. Couple of their kids got three nostrils too." Ben chuckled. "Crazy to look at. Sally got married to this fella, what's his name, had his own house in Megaton. Real pretty, she was. Sarah moved away, not sure where. Me and Mike we were left to run the farm with our old folks. Except Mike had this huge row with Da, moved away with his wife, said he was going to start off on his own. Just like you" Ben motioned with his hand towards Amy. "He got ate by mirelurks a couple months later. His wife married someone else. What was his name...?"

Ben's tale was promising to be a long one so Amy sat down on the dry ground, leaning somewhat nervously on a fence that looked like it was about to fall. Ben waited a while but this time the name of the man his brother's widow remarried escaped him. "Anyhow, " he said finally. "It was just me and Laura, my wife, and my old folks in this house. And Bessie, our brahmin." Ben looked somewhere in the distance, as if seeing his parents and Bessie the brahmin there, then suddenly jerked his head in Amy's direction. "Here's me going on about my folks and you wanted to know about farming, right?"

- "Yes, please" Amy nodded enthusiastically.

- "There's a bunch of stuff you gotta know before you start. Say, you get a patch of land and grow taters there, right?" Ben motioned his hand in the direction of plot of land with several rows of plants sprouting from the ground. "So you just keep growing them taters there and you got yourself lots of food and it's all great, right? " He pointed his index finger up. " 'Cept after a year or so the taters are hardly gonna grow there anymore. And it'll just keep getting worse, after a while you won't have nothing at all growing there. What you've gotta do is, you grow some taters and you leave the soil to rest, you grow your taters someplace else. 'Cos the soil, she needs to rest from time to time. Just like we folks do. You've still got to weed it though."

- "And" Ben continued "You've got to water the plants when they're growing. Taters, they need about this much every week" Ben brought his thumb and index finger together, leaving a little space between them. "Other plants, they need water too, but it's different for all of them. Some need more, some less. 'Course, if it rains, you don't need to water them. 'Cept if it rains too much, that's bad too. That don't happen too often though." Ben, shifted his position, grimacing as he did. "They say before the War it rained a lot in these parts. Least more often than it does now."

- "Why do you think that changed?" asked Amy

- "Who knows these things" Ben shrugged. "I don't even know if that's true, just something folks say."

Ben talked some more about watering crops, planting, setting traps for molerats. Amy tried hard to remember it all.

- "In the end though, a lot of it is down to luck. Like last year with Bessie. One night a 'Guai came in the night. You never see a Guai here, too many people, must have been real hungry. Headed straight for my house. Horrible luck. By the time I woke up, he was already tearing poor Bessie to pieces. I shot the 'Guai but didn't hit him good, couldn't see in the dark. The damned thing came after me, I had to hide in the house. Damn near broke my front door. I snuck out the back door then, shot it a couple more times, chased him off at least. By the time there wasn't much left of Bessie though."

- "Oh I'm sorry."

- "Yup. At least she died quick, I reckon. So you pray to whatever gods you pray to so nothing like that happens"

- "Gods?"

- "Yeah" Ben shrugged. "Folks believe in all kinds of different gods. Many pray to The Jesus. Some folks pray to Santa Clause, some to The Great Eagle, some to Booger King or whatever he's called. Some just pray to spirits of the sky and the earth. There's also them crazy Atom worshippers. Complete whackjobs, but harmless I reckon."

- "There is a Church of Atom in Megaton." Amy said.

- "Yup. They come to Springvale from time to time, preaching about Atom. Best just let them do their thing, then get back to whatever you were doing. That's what most folks here do."

- "So, " Amy asked hesitantly. "You said after your sisters left you were there on the farm with your parents and your wife?"

- "Yup. So couple of years after me and Laura had our first, Da got himself bit by a molerat. Ma told him to go to the doc in Megaton, but he just said he was fine. Short time after that, his arm went black. Then he got a huge fever, couldn't breathe, talked things that didn't make no sense at all. Died two days later. Ma died three years after that. Cancer."

- "I'm sorry." repeated Amy.

- "So anyhow, it was just me and Laura and Ben Junior, our first. We only had the two kids, Ben and Tim. Tim left when he grew up, said he wanted to be a trader. He must be in Canterbury Commons now, that's where he said he was gonna go."

- "And what about Ben?"

- "He was eighteen then, still hasn't married. We were growing mutfruit, and we got this batch that came out all weird. The leaves were the wrong color, fruit had this weird shape, didn't smell right either. So I told him, don't touch it. I should've burned that crop right away but I was still trying to find a way to make some use for it. Anyhow, he didn't listen of course, he never listened. So he ate a bunch of these fruits. He was ill for many days after that, kept puking up anything he ate or drank, wasn't awake most of the time. We hoped he would get better but he didn't make it."

- "I'm s ... and what about your wife?"

- "Laura? We lived here all this time. She died about two years ago. Just old age, she was a bit older than me."

- "So is it just you now?"

- "Yup. It's all right, I'm used to it now. Only trouble is, I'm getting too old to do the work here. I go visit Lucy and her family from time to time. Anyhow, do you want me to tell you more about farming?"

Amy looked at the sky. The sun was already beginning to set. "I've taken too much of your time already, sorry"

- "It's all right, it was good to have a chat. Good luck to you then." Ben was starting to turn around, then abruptly turned back. "Hey, if you see Sally in Megaton, can you say hi to her for me?"

- "I'm sorry, I don't know her"

- " 'Course. Don't worry about it."

- "I'll find out who she is and tell her about our talk" promised Amy.

When Amy set off on the way back to Springvale the sun was already on its way to setting although as usual it was in no hurry. It was still bright - it has been a warm, sunny day - but Amy could see her shadow, distorted by the destroyed road surface, grow long and more washed out. Somehow she felt a little tired and her back felt a little sore. Perhaps it was from sitting on the hard ground in a position that was a bit uncomfortable, perhaps she was simply not used to not moving for such a long time any more. At least the feeling of hunger was less sharp then before. It was as though her stomach finally decided to stop demanding food immediately and start being patient with her current situation.

- "So, you've spent quite some time listening to this man's thoroughly thrilling tale. Do you feel you now have all the knowledge of farming you wanted?"

Amy sighed "It's definitely a lot more complicated than I thought. There is probably lots more he didn't tell me."

- "Since the man spent most of the time talking about the fortunes of his family this seems like a definite possibility."

- "Yes I ..." Amy paused. "I'm not sure I could live like that. Doing this for years and years, living in the same place. I don't know ... " she trailed off and stared into the distance. Then she threw her hands up and continued animatedly "But, then, why not? Look at how many people live like that here. It's a good life. There's nothing wrong with ..."

Amy froze as she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. She pulled out the 10 mm and raised it in front of her in a single motion, then dived for the nearest cover. There was a feeling of tension in her chest and her mouth has gone dry as she peeked from out of her cover at the ruined house in the distance where she saw the movement. For a while everything was still but then she saw movement again. Amy took a deep breath and focused her vision on the distant ruins. After a minute or so of waiting, her heartbeat echoing in her ears, she saw a small shape scurry across the broken remains of the floor. A single radroach.

Amy breathed out but the tension in her chest was still there. Just a few days ago she wouldn't have even noticed a single radroach. Dammit, what was wrong with her? She could just turn around and keep walking back to Megaton but something made her keep walking towards the ruined house in the distance. She needed to know that she wasn't afraid of one radroach. She had to know it, otherwise she would have serious problems surviving in this world.

Amy approached slowly, her gun drawn in case more radroaches showed up. Finally she saw the oversized insect run off from out of the piece of ruined wall and then scurry off somewhere into the distance.

- "Yeah you better run." Amy said. "I win. Yay me." She felt silly but at the same time most of the tension she felt before has now lifted. She was about to turn around but then something else caught her eye. It looked like something was lying amongst the ruins of the house. She kept walking towards it, then started running when she saw what it was. A fission battery.

- "Wow. What are the odds?" said Amy as she picked up the bulky piece of pre-war technology and put it into her backpack.

- "It seems incredible that this wasn't spotted by scavengers."

- "Yeah you're right. It couldn't have been here since the war. Moira told me that merchant caravans go through here on the way to Megaton. It must have fallen off a brahmin and rolled down here. I guess?"

- "Astonishing luck."

- "This should buy me enough food to last a few days."

- "As great as this is, this is not a long term solution. You can't expect to keep finding fission batteries in unexpected places,"

- "I know, OK? I know. I need to start going past my hill and towards the river. Good spot for hunting molerats. Maybe further away. I just want to take it easy for a couple of days. OK?"

Amy was on the way to Craterside Supplies to sell the fission battery when she saw a gathering of the Children of the Atom. Confessor Cromwell, as usual, was standing in the lowest point of the crater, preaching to the Children of the Atom surrounding him. Usually Amy would quickly walk past, trying to avoid eye contact with Cromwell's followers, but this time she felt compelled to step closer and listen for a bit. Ben thought these people were crazy, she heard others in Megaton describe the Atom followers in similar terms, now she wanted to decide for herself.

It rained recently, so Cromwell was standing knee deep in the mud. The followers were standing in mud as well but it didn't seem to bother any of them, they were listening in rapt attention. As far as Amy could tell it was the same, or mostly the same sermon Cromwell delivered every single day, the Children of the Atom must have learned it off by heart by now, yet they were still listening as if they were hearing it for the first time. The sermon seemed to have been nearing the end, Cromwell's voice was rising louder and louder as he kept waving his arms around.

- "... And Atom saw how deeply they were mired in greed and sin, how deep was their despair, how they had no hope and no future. And he took pity on the people. And he said - ' I see your struggling in the mire, close to drowning now, yet every step you make takes you further and further from the solid land. You have lost your way - but do not despair! I will save you all. I shall bring down purifying flame from the sky! It will strip away your sin and your desires and your greed and confusion. It will burn away all that weighs your soul down, so it can soar high into the heavens and join me there!"

Cromwell's voice reached a crescendo. Amy heard what sounded like calls of approval and agreement from the Children but they were all drowned out by Cromwell's booming voice.

- "And so we humbly beg you, great Atom. Take pity on your children. Bring down your sacred flame once more! Burn away all our impurities so our souls can too fly into the sky and join all those you've saved before!"

Cromwell finally fell silent. Some of his followers were standing there with their eyes closed, some were muttering to themselves, some were standing there with their arms raised high.

Eventually the Children of the Atom dispersed but Cromwell was still standing there. Amy came close enough to not step into the mud and called to him.

- "Yes my child?" Cromwell answered eagerly.

- "I'm ni ... never mind. Why are you standing in the mud?"

- "This is the exact place where Atom's purifying flame burst forth. Right here in this spot. I can still feel the remains of that great power."

- "You mean radiation?"

- "No, radiation is just a sad, faint echo of that glorious explosion. You know, before I came to Megaton I've heard there was a still unexploded bomb in the middle of the town."

- "But why would anyone build a town around a still unexploded bomb? That's totally crazy."

- "Yes" said Cromwell wistfully "it was too much to hope for. Still, right in this place a bomb did fall once, so it is holy to us. There are more such places across the river but for now it is too dangerous to go there. Still, one day we hope to be able to visit all the places where this glorious event has taken place."

Amy wanted to be polite but the anger was really starting to rise inside her "Do you realize how many people died when the bombs fell? Men, women, children. How can you talk about how great it was? What's wrong with you?"

Cromwell smiled patiently. It was clearly a conversation he had many times before.

- "I understand why you feel it's a terrible thing to say. But look around you. Look at the lives of the people here in Megaton. Radiation, disease, hunger, fear. Desperately trying to scrape by enough to feed themselves and their family. Those outside the walls dreaming of getting a place within them, those inside scared of losing theirs. But how much do the walls protect you from the cancer and other diseases? In the end all Doc Church will be able to do is ease your pain a little before you die. You will still die suffering, as you've lived. And don't forget the raiders. People here fool themselves thinking the walls will make them safe but when the raiders finally come, the walls won't do a thing."

- "They've protected Megaton so far" said Amy

Cromwell waved his hand dismissively. - "You can beat a hundred attacks back, but the next one will always get through. Not that it matters. When the raiders come to rape and kill, it will be a short intense burst of suffering before the release of death comes. Before that, the suffering is less intense, but only because it's spread over months and years, but in the end it's the same thing. Do you see?"

Amy shook her head - "You talk about all the bad things in life, but what about all the good things? Family, love, friendship. You know, fun? It's a hard life here but there's good things in it too."

"All those things do is give you a false sense of hope. Love will grow stale or bitter. Your family will disappoint and abuse you. Friends will leave and betray you. Any happiness is brief. All it will do is stop you from seeing the truth, that life is miserable and short and full of pain and then you die."

- "It's not like that at all" said Amy ."It's like you're trying as hard as you can to see every single thing as terrible. Then I guess if you try hard enough, then yeah, everything will be miserable." She paused to think for a second "I can see life here is hard, but that's because everything is destroyed. Maybe one day people will rebuild everything." She looked past Cromwell. "Maybe all the things I've read about in the Vault, things that used to be there before the War, maybe they will be there for real. I will probably be as old as Manya then" she smiled. "Or maybe not even alive anymore. But it will happen one day. It's like you're saying, raiders will eventually take Megaton. Well, eventually people will rebuild everything. And it will be like before the war."

- "Ah yes, the wonderful time before the war." A lopsided cheerless smile formed on Cromwell's face. "When everything was so great that people kept using more and more of the world's resources to make more stuff for themselves. Somehow all the stuff they already had didn't make them happy, but maybe just a little more would really make a difference" he looked at Amy sharply "Then when the resources started running out they fought each other for the remaining scraps like dogs fighting over a bone." Seeing Amy's surprised look he said "Yes I know about the war and how it started. I've read old books, seen holotapes. They say very different things of course, but you learn to make your own conclusions"

- "They taught us about the war in the Vault too." said Amy "Our books blamed the Chinese for everything"

- "I imagine their books probably lay all the blame on America" said Cromwell. "If they have any books left"

- "I don't believe what was written there too" said Amy "but I don't think it's like you say either. I think ordinary people didn't want the war. They just wanted to raise their families and live their lives in peace. It was the leaders, the people in charge. I know what some of them can be like, how they think"

- "Who knows. At least we know that the ordinary people as you call them didn't stop their leaders."

- "You say it like it's so simple. I know Simms here is kind of like a leader but it's different. You don't know what it's like. The fear, the feeling of hopelessness ..." Amy stopped when she saw the ironic look on Cromwell's face. Feeling slightly irked, she continued

- "OK then, if you think that everything is so terrible and there's nothing but suffering, then why do you have to ask your Atom to end things for you? Why not end it yourself?" Then a moment later, when she realized what she just said - "I'm just speaking hypothetically, of course. You know, forget what I just said, I was just .. "

Cromwell grinned, for the first time there was some warmth in his smile. - "Don't worry, it's not a new idea." He paused for a moment - "You see, we believe that when you die, it's not the end. The ... essence of who you are doesn't disappear, it goes to another body and then you live out your life all over again. And then again and again, forever. It's an infinite cycle of misery, so trying to rush things along changes nothing."

- "They taught us something like this in the Vault chapel. After your body dies, your 'soul', they called it, leaves to a new place. Except they said it either goes to Heaven, which is really great, or to Hell which is really terrible."

- "Yes, that is what the followers of The Jesus believe. Is that what you believe also?" asked Cromwell

- "No, I don't think I believe that" answered Amy thoughtfully. "My father didn't ... doesn't believe that stuff either"

- "I suppose what we believe is not that different" mused Cromwell. "Except that this Hell as they call it is right here. And no one ever goes to Heaven. Except for that glorious day two hundred years ago when the purifying flame rained from the sky."

Amy sighed. - "So when the bombs killed everyone, which you think was such a wonderful thing, why did some people survive? Why are you and me and everyone else here alive instead of in Atom's heaven?"

Cromwell looked at Amy thoughtfully, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. - "There are different opinions on that among the most knowledgeable of us. Some believe that Atom's power is limited and He wasn't able to uplift everyone. Others believe that some people's souls were so heavy with greed and sin and corruption that they couldn't fly up and are now stuck here in the endless cycle of suffering forever. Unless we can reduce the weight by seeing the truth. And some others believe that there is an evil being that stopped some souls from ascending to spite Atom."

- "Which of these do you believe?"

- "I think I'm leaning towards the explanation that some souls are too corrupted to be uplifted, but I'm not certain. Perhaps Atom will reveal the truth to us one day. Or perhaps we will find something here that will make the truth clear to us. Either way, all I can do is spread the word of Atom and hope that one day he can once more cleanse the world with his holy flame."

- "Aren't you forgetting that hope is terrible and only gives you false hope?" said Amy trying to keep a straight face.

Cromwell sighed - "It's a hope for a real change, the release from the cycle of suffering, not the hope for futile things that keeps you trapped in this cycle".

- "It's been an interesting conversation but I have to go now." Amy paused "I just don't see the world the same way you do. I've had some very bad things happen to me, and there will probably be more but I've also felt happiness. I hope you'll be able to experience that too."

- "OK, it's been nice talking to you too. If you do come round to our way of thinking, you know where to find me"

Amy grinned and nodded then went up the stairs to the Craterside Supplies. The store was already closed for normal trading but Moira let her in as usual. She was tinkering with what looked like some pre-war contraption whose purpose was unknown to Amy.

- "Moira, thank you again for the other day"

- "Don't mention it, it's no problem at all. Are you feeling better now?"

- "Yes thank you, much better." Amy took out the fission battery she found. "I've got this thing here"

- "Ooh that's a one of the big ones. I'll give you ... uhm ... twenty caps."

Amy's eyebrows went up. "Moira!"

Moira rubbed her neck "OK, well, twenty-five will be a more fair price, right?"

- "I've seen you pay thirty for one just like that the other day." said Amy incredulously.

In the end Moira agreed to thirty caps.

- "Actually, there's something you could help me with" said Moira. "Something I've been working on"

- "Of course, anything!"

- "Ooh, love the enthusiasm. So you know the folks who farm taters and mutfruits are having problems with molerats raiding their crops? They've been putting up that wire with barbs on it and even traps and other horrible things. So a lot of molerats get hurt needlessly. They just want to eat like everyone else."

Amy nodded trying hard to keep a straight face. Moira's strange obsession with molerats was well known in Megaton. Amy had to admit that the noises they made were kind of cute but otherwise they were vicious and aggressive creatures and also an important source of food for Megaton's inhabitants. Moira however wouldn't hear any of it. She even talked about keeping one of those things in her house or shop and feeding it, like pre-war people used to keep cats and dogs.

"Besides it's dangerous to have traps just lying there. What if a kid gets caught in one?"

Amy wanted to point out that molerats running around a farm would be a bigger danger to both kids and adults but Moira continued.

- "So I've come up with a molerat repellent. You can smear it on a fence around the crops and it will keep the molerats away. So the molerats don't get hurt and folks' crops aren't ruined and everybody's happy"

- "So what can I help you with" Amy asked.

- "Well, I need to test if it works first. I mean I pretty sure it should, but I need to be really sure to ask the folks here to start using it. So I thought that maybe you could test it. You could go to where there's molerats and smear some of this on your clothes. All the molerats should stay well away from you then."

- "What if this doesn't work?"

- "Well, then you can do what you have to to defend yourself." She paused to think "Actually, that could be dangerous. Sorry, I wasn't thinking, forget I asked"

- "Don't worry, I can handle a couple of molerats" Amy smiled.

- "Are you sure?"

- "Yes, totally. Give me this thing already"

- "OK, but just be careful"

Moira brought out a pre-war glass jar with what looked like yellowish paste inside. On the lid there was a picture of a smiling grey-haired woman and some writing that was no longer legible.

- "It should have no effect on humans but you may be able to smell it a little bit" said Moira.

Amy unscrewed the lid and took a good sniff of Moira's repellent.

A second later she was nearly bent double, coughing and retching, holding her hand in front of her nose and mouth. She took a couple of steps backwards and frantically gestured to Moira with her other hand to close the lid. Moira raised her eyebrows but did close it.

- "Mo ... " Amy paused to take a breath and wipe a tear that came out of a corner of her eye - "Moira, I don't need to test this thing."

- "But how do you know it will work?"

- "It will definitely work. It will absolutely repel molerats. Guaranteed. It will also repel humans, brahmins, deathclaws. Any living creature with a sense of smell. Never mind that, any living creature with a sense of self-preservation. What the hell did you put in that thing?!"

- "Oh come on you big baby, it can't be that bad. Can it?"

Amy watched in horror as Moira took the lid off the jar again and nearly stuck her nose into the noxious mixture.

- "Hmm I can smell it a bit. I must have got the concentration wrong. Oh well"

- "Moira, how..."

Moira smiled. "Oh I forgot, I never told you. I have almost no sense of smell. I can sometimes smell something a little bit if it's really strong but otherwise nothing at all."

- "I'm sorry." said Amy "How did it happen?"

- "I've always been like that, as far as I remember. I was born like that I guess. It doesn't really bother me at all though. I've seen folks who had face that was all scaly or really hairy or only three fingers on both hands. Knew a kid once who was born with only the right eye. It wasn't an empty socket on the left side if that's what you're thinking, it was all even. It's like his left eye wasn't supposed to be there. Tom I think was his name. Really nice kid, but so shy." she paused for a moment. "So anyway, like I was saying, I could've been born with a third arm growing out of my stomach or something like that. So I was very lucky really"

"You can look at it like that I suppose." considered Amy. "Maybe a third arm wouldn't be so bad either. "

"Oh absolutely. There are days when you feel two arms just aren't enough. Things like that do tend to freak some folks out though."