When Amy opened her eyes, she felt much better. She got out of bed slowly. It felt like every muscle in her body was sore but still she felt so much better than yesterday. The arm and hip still hurt but it was a dull manageable pain, nothing like right after the fight with the ants. She squinted and stretched her back, then got up and looked out of the small bedroom window.
At first it didn't register, but now she could see it. It was light outside. Amy heard noises that interrupted the near-complete silence of last night. They sounded like skittering.
Thoughts rushed through her head like an avalanche. She's fallen asleep and slept for hours and now the ants were back, maybe as many as yesterday or maybe more and they were coming for her and she was trapped here and she spent most of her ammo but anyway she couldn't have another battle with them like yesterday, she just couldn't, and there was nowhere to run, but maybe she could hide, but they were going to find her anyway oh shit oh shit ...
She took a deep breath and waited some time for the panic to retreat. The ants didn't find her while she was sleeping, so obviously they couldn't magically sense if she was there. She remembered that yesterday the ants didn't notice her until she knocked that damn bit of concrete off the ruined building. For now she was safe up here as long as she stayed quiet. She didn't know for how long, however, it was possible that eventually a stray ant would randomly wonder inside the house. And then it would bring the whole horde down here just like yesterday.
Still fighting the urge to rush downstairs and try and sprint away from this place she tried to come up with a plan. The safest way would be to hide inside the house until dark and then try to sneak away. She had enough food and water and Amy was sure she could get away undetected when it got dark. Well, reasonably sure. The problem was finding a good place to hide for the whole day.
Amy crept towards the window and looked out, trying to make sure her head couldn't be seen from outside. The glass was so dirty it was almost opaque but she could still make out the moving shapes out on the street. Just as she thought, there were many ants outside, although fewer than there were yesterday. Most of them seemed to be heading towards the ruined building where she battled their kin yesterday. Amy wasn't sure why but at least it made it less likely one of them decided to get into the house.
She crept downstairs carefully, wincing every time the stairs creaked. She tried to stay out of the line of sight of the windows downstairs, fortunately for her they were even dirtier than the one in the upstairs bedroom. She began to look for a good place to hide.
There weren't many good hiding spots downstairs. Amy could hide behind the pre-war sofa or what used to be a pre-war fridge. Both of these spots looked very uncomfortable to be for any length of time and yet too exposed. The upstairs bedroom seemed like the best place, there was a big old cupboard there she could get into and hide. It was then that she saw a rectangular pattern on the floor and a big metallic handle in the middle of it. Could there be a whole other floor in this house? This could be the perfect spot. There would be no way the ants could get into that space, at least not through the hatch. How much noise would opening it make, though?
Amy crept towards the hatch and pulled the lever. At first there was a creaking sound and Amy's heart stood still for a moment but then the hatch opened at an angle, surprisingly easily and quietly. Below it was dark but Amy could make out a ladder. She slowly climbed down the ladder and then closed the hatch behind her as silently as possible.
A memory came from somewhere that this was called 'a cellar'. It was a lot smaller than the house but still there was a lot of room here. It was completely dark inside. After taking a couple of steps she painfully hit her leg against something. She then reluctantly turned on her pipboy light.
Around her were shelves, wooden and metal. There were things lying on them and all over the floor, looked like mostly pre-war electronic devices but all kinds of other stuff as well. In Megaton most of it would be used for scrap metal. The air was very stale here, it smelled musty and there was another smell too, sharp and very unpleasant. Still better than hiding in a cupboard all day long, thought Amy.
She started looking through the stuff in the cellar. There were mechanic's tools there, an old radio, other devices she didn't recognize with numbers and dials on them. Moira would pay quite a few caps for all of this, she thought.
She was examining one of those things when she heard a noise. In one movement she turned around holding out the assault rifle she took from one of the other houses. If the ants could get in here she was trapped, Amy realized. Her heart pounding, she walked in the direction of the noise. The noise repeated - Amy could now hear it was coming from behind a large metal shelf. Amy pointed her gun at that spot and prepared to fire, ready to take down as many creatures as she could.
The noise repeated and now Amy realized that this wasn't the skittering of the ants. Something else was moving down there. Then she heard what sounded like loud breathing. Human breathing.
As the relief washed over her, Amy's legs nearly gave way and she had to lean on a nearby shelf to steady herself. She stood there for a moment and then slowly walked closer to where the sounds were coming from. The noise stopped.
- "Hello? Is anyone there?" asked Amy.
It was still quiet but Amy could now clearly hear a faint but unmistakable sound of breathing.
- "I don't mean you any harm. My name is Amy. I came here to hide from the ants."
- "Shhhhhhhhhhh" furious hissing came from behind the metal shelf. "They'll hear you." It was a child's voice.
- "Sorry." Amy whispered. "I'll be very quiet now. Can you come out from in there? It's easier to talk that way."
A small figure emerged slowly from behind the shelf. It was a boy, perhaps about seven or eight. His clothes were covered in dust and grime and he reeked of urine. Amy now realized what the earlier smell was. He sat on his haunches, clearly ready to dart back to his hiding spot at a moment's notice.
- "My name is Amy" she repeated. "What's your name?"
- "Bryan." the boy answered. Then, after a brief pause "Bryan Wilks. Do you have any water?"
Amy shared the water and food she had in her backpack, the boy wolfed it all down. Amy then started asking him questions but getting anything out of Bryan was like pulling teeth. Partly it was just that he talked so quietly Amy was barely able to make anything out even when she strained her hearing, but also there were things Bryan just didn't seem to want to talk about. What Amy was able to piece together was this:
Bryan's family used to lived in this house. Like most people in Grayditch they made their living from hunting ants and trading the meat to passing caravans. They also did some small scale farming - "Just normal stuff, you know". Then people started noticing a change in ants' behavior. They became much more aggressive, started attacking people on sight. Hunting ants became a lot more dangerous than it used to be and the settlement struggled. According to Bryan one family even moved to Megaton, Amy hoped she could later find them and talk to them.
The big ant attack happened about two weeks ago. All Amy was able to get out of Bryan was that they attacked just before dawn, when most settlers were still asleep. "Then a whole bunch of ants broke a hole in the wall and came through and mum told me to go hide in the cellar". When Amy tried asking more questions about the attack Bryan stopped talking and looked like he was ready to move back to his hiding spot behind he shelf, so Amy didn't push any further. Since the attack Bryan lived down in the cellar, sleeping during the day and creeping out at night to get food and water. Recently both started running out.
When Amy asked about Lesko, young Bryan was a little more talkative. Lesko moved into Grayditch about a year ago. "He was kinda weird but he could be OK too. He told us all kinds of interesting stuff." It sounded like Lesko was trying to set up a school for the children of Grayditch. Among other things he was teaching the kids how to read. "Some of the stuff he told us was weird and I didn't really get it. But some of it was real interesting. Like what it was like before the War".
This apparently caused tensions with some of the parents in the settlement. They wanted the children helping out on the farms or generally objected to Lesko filling the kids' heads with nonsense. "Lesko would get real angry when they complained. It was funny." In recent weeks Lesko's teaching sessions grew less and less frequent. "He was going down to Marigold Station a lot. He said he was trying to figure out why the ants were attacking everyone. He was saying something about bad people or something."
- "What's Marigold Station?" Amy asked.
- "It's this big hole in the ground they made before the war. It has a big sign next to it saying 'Marigold Station'. I could read it myself." Bryan sounded proud of himself.
- "And where is it exactly?"
- "You'd go out of here and towards the old diner. Then go right. No, sorry, left. There's like a main street that goes on for a while, there's also some big old houses there. Then you'll see it. It's real close."
Later when Bryan fell asleep Amy quietly climbed out of the cellar. She crept upstairs to get the rest of the food and water she left behind. She also got some clean clothes for Bryan from the upstairs cupboard. When looking through the cupboard she found a large cardboard box. Faded letters spelled 'Blast Radius' and Amy could just about make out the pictures of what must have been two young children sitting together, a boy of about ten in shorts and slightly younger girl in knee high dress and with two blonde pigtails. The children on the drawing seemed engrossed in some kind of activity, perhaps a game. The wear on the box made it hard to see what it was but it looked like they were having fun. After a moment's hesitation Amy put it in her backpack, anything that could help taking Bryan Wilks' mind off his situation could be good. With her backpack now a lot fuller, Amy snuck back in the cellar.
Bryan woke up after a couple of hours. Before he's eaten most of what Amy had on her so she thought he wouldn't be hungry but he still ate everything just as quickly as before. Amy even worried he would be sick but Bryan seemed fine. Afterwards he abandoned his previous almost animal-like posture squatting with his palms on the floor, and was now sitting down leaning his back against the metal shelf.
- "So, um, how come you're here."
- "I've come from Megaton. I have a friend there, her name is Moira. Lesko is like a father to her. She heard something bad happened to Grayditch so she was worried about him. It was difficult for her to go so I came to check it out instead of her."
She couldn't quite read Brian's expression. He looked like he wanted to say something but then just nodded. "So, what's Megaton like? I've heard loads about it but I've never been there. My ... we've always been too busy here so we've never gone there."
Amy told Bryan about Megaton, the walls, the crater and all the building around it made of metal, a little about Moriatry's saloon, farms, Springvale. Bryan looked like he was listening in rapt attention so she continued, She talked about the people she knew, Moira, Simms, Gob and Nova, the Creels, Manya and Nathan.
- "Wow that sounds so cool. I wish I could go there one day."
- "Well, actually, you'll be seeing it really soon. I'll be taking you there ... " Amy paused, considering for a moment. "Today or tomorrow."
Bryan stared at her, looking confused. "How though? We can't get out of here."
- "When it gets dark we can sneak out and go through the rui ... " Amy stopped abruptly seeing the look of utter panic on Bryan's face. He seemed to press his little body into the metal shelf looking at Amy as though she was a horde of ants bearing down on him. "You know what, let's talk about this later, OK?"
Amy took the cardboard box out of her backpack. "Hey, I've found this upstairs, do you know what this is?"
- "Yeah, that's Blast Radius. It's a game. We used to play it sometimes." Bryan still looked uneasy.
- "Oh OK. Well, do you want a game? I don't know how to play, can you teach me?"
- "You want to play a game now?"
- "Why not? What else are we going to do while we down here?" Amy smiled.
- "Well, yeah, I guess. But you have to stay really quiet." Bryan looked at Amy sternly.
Bryan explained the rules to her. Each player had a number of ICBMs as well as tactical nukes launched from submarines and a number of bases. Bases were of different types, military installations, infrastructure, military and civilian industry and cities. You targeted the other player's bases with your nukes and rolled the dice to determine how much damage you've done - ranging from 'limited damage' to 'complete annihilation'. You could also do defensive actions like sending some population from your cities into a Vault or trying to destroy other player's submarines with your destroyers, or try to sabotage their ICBMs. The goal was to destroy all your opponent's bases or do as much damage as you could before you've spent all your nukes.
Amy could see a look of enthusiasm start to form on Bryan's face. When they played she didn't try very hard and got some unlucky dice rolls, so in the end of a close game Bryan won. He pumped his fist and opened his mouth, then checked himself and ended with a whispered but still emphatic 'Yes!". He looked at Amy
- "That was really good for your first time. Why didn't you nuke my cities though? They can't make new ICBMs if you destroy them."
- "That's the strategy I went with" Amy shrugged her shoulders. "I'm still learning. I'll get you next time."
- "We'll see, we'll see." Amy thought Bryan's answer sounded a bit smug and for the first time she could see something that looked a bit like a smile.
Some time later Amy looked up at the closed cellar door. A little light used to be coming through the edges but now it was dark. She had to turn on her pipboy light, otherwise they would be in complete darkness. It must be nighttime now, Amy thought. That meant that she had a decision to make.
She could try and take the young Bryan with her back to Megaton. Judging by his reaction earlier he would take a whole lot of persuading, cajoling and reassuring but Amy was sure she would be able to talk him into it in the end. Getting past the ants wouldn't be simple either, she was quite sure she would be able to sneak past them herself but having a terrified young child with her was a whole other matter. Somehow she would have to keep Bryan from panicking or making noise. At least he seemed to be rather good at staying quiet. Still, there was no choice there - leaving the boy in the cellar wasn't an option. She considered leaving herself and getting help from Megaton. That would mean having to convince Simms to send a large force to save one young boy. As much as she would like to believe that Simms would agree to it she had to admit to herself that she wasn't sure about that. In the meantime Bryan would be left here in danger. No, she wasn't leaving here without him.
Leaving with Bryan tonight would however mean giving up on Lesko. According to Bryan he was spending a lot of time in that Marigold Station place so this would be the place to go looking for him. From Moira's and Bryan's description Lesko was an aging and rather eccentric man. The chances of him surviving when everyone else in Grayditch was massacred didn't seem high. Even if he was still alive Amy wasn't sure she'd find him. The only thing she had to go on was this Marigold Station place. She'd never even seen it and Lesko may not have been there at all. Finding him didn't seem likely and she would be putting herself into a considerable danger. But having gone to Grayditch, would she be able to look Moira in the eye without at least trying?
- "What do you think Shroud? Should I try to find Lesko?"
- "To try to save an innocent or not? There is no choice here."
- "Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. Never read a single Silver Shroud comic where you've run away leaving others to die."
- "Huh?" Brian scooted closer to her and whispered.
- "Oh I'm just thinking out loud." She turned to Brian and sighed. "Brian I'm going to need to leave now. I may be gone for some time."
- "You don't have to get food and water, we've got loads here." She heard a sudden sharp intake of breath. "Or ... are you gonna go back to Megaton now?"
Amy put her hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm not leaving this place without you. I promise. But my friend Moira is worried about Lesko. I've got to try and find him."
- "But the ants!" she felt Bryan's hand grip her arm with surprising strength. "They're gonna get ya!"
- "I'm really good at sneaking. I'll be fine don't worry." Amy slowly and gently took the boy's hand from her forearm. It was the arm which was injured in the battle with the ants and it still hurt a little, thought it was surprising how well it's healed. "How do you think I got here from Megaton? I had to sneak past the ants to get here, right? So I can do that again."
Brian wasn't at all convinced. "Please don't go out there. Please. You're gonna get killed. And I'll be left here all alone" He sounded on the verge of tears.
Amy put both her hands on Brian's shoulders. "I'll be fine. I promise. I'll be really careful."
- "OK. But .. " Brian sniffled. "Can you leave the food and water you don't need here? You know, if ..."
Amy sighed. "Yes of course. It would only slow me down."
- "Thanks. Just be real, real careful out there, OK?"
- "Definitely. I promise. I'll see you in a while."
Outside it was pitch black. Lucky for her, thought Amy, and she needed every bit of luck right now. She had to extend her arms to feel what was around her, trying to be careful not to knock anything over and make noise. At first she couldn't hear anything but the wind outside, so she stopped, closed her eyes and focused her hearing.
She heard skittering noises. There were ants running around the settlement but none close to her position. She readied the assault rifle and moved forward silently.
Moving forward was slow going. It was still very dark, at times the clouds parted and the waning moon poked out but otherwise Amy couldn't see anything. She had to walk close to the walls of the building, feeling the rough texture of the walls with her hand. She had to find her way purely from memory. The skittering of the ants grew closer now, it was coming from all directions but still Amy could be reasonably sure she wouldn't run into any of them. Amy tried to track in her head where the ants were and in which direction they were moving from the sounds they were making. She found she could do it for a while but it was difficult. There were multiple sources of noises to track and the ants' movements seemed erratic. The wind picked up made it harder to tell the sound of ants feet from its whistling. Soon Amy felt a dull pulsing ache in her head. 'Damn it not now, any time but now.' She had to stop tracking sounds, listening only for those that were dangerously close.
Amy's eyes were now adjusting to the dark. She could make out the outlines of the destroyed houses. She was heading towards the ruined playground and the diner. The ant noises were getting louder now, there seemed to be more of them crawling about in that direction. Walking on the main street would be dangerous. She would have to take smaller sidewalks running parallel to the main street and hope she didn't get lost.
Walking on the balls of her feet and trying to keep her breathing steady and low Amy continued moving forward. So far luck seemed to be on her side, she managed to give any stray ants a wide berth. 'Why don't the damn things sleep at night?' Amy thought. 'Do they ever sleep?'
Just as she was starting to feel more confident she heard loud skittering right ahead of her, at the other end of the narrow passageway between houses she was sneaking down. It was so close there was no time to go back the way she came without risking her back being exposed. Amy pressed her body into the wall of the house next to her and aimed the rifle in the direction of the sound. In her mind she was frantically working out what she'd have to do if the ant found her. After she killed it she couldn't stay in the same place, or the horde would come at her from all directions. She would have to run somewhere else. Where? Running would make so much noise. Could she run back to the house and hide in the cellar? No, Bryan was there, couldn't risk bringing the horde into the house. All the options were bad, shit shit shit.
She waited, listening to the crawling noises in the dark, holding her breath and trying to ignore the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. The noises in front stopped - the ant seemed to be deciding where to go. Then the skittering noise moved in the other direction. Amy slowly let the air out of her lungs. Even with the ant now gone she waited there for a minute or two and then carried on moving forward.
It was now harder to sneak with her muscles so tense. She tried to relax but her body wouldn't obey. She could still hear skittering all around her, even if none of it was close.
Finally she could see another narrow passageway in front that led to the main street. She moved to the corner, pressed her back into the wall and poked her head out. She could immediately see Marigold Station. It was on the other side of the street, standing alone in the middle of a small plaza. This was bad, she wouldn't have any cover approaching it. Even worse, she could see a six-legged dark shape in front of it. It was one of the bigger ones, almost the same size as her were she to walk on all fours. She called these ants 'soldiers'. She could see two smaller ants in the distance.
There was something about the way the smaller ants followed the larger one, almost like trains running on the same set of tracks. There was definitely a pattern to how these creatures followed one another. Yesterday she alerted a single ant and then a whole horde of them followed it in their attack on her position. Perhaps there was a way she could use this to her advantage?
She tried waiting it out but the oversized insect for whatever reason wouldn't move from its spot in front of the station, as if patrolling it. Amy thought she could hear an ant in an alley just behind her moving in her direction. She couldn't wait here. In her head she went through her options and found only one, as much as she hated it. If she was right about the way these creatures moved as a group, maybe this crazy plan could just work.
Amy went through the uncomplicated layout of the streets of Grayditch and the direction of the noises in her mind. Pulsing pain was growing in the left side of her head but she had to ignore it. She had to get this right. The crawling noise behind her was now definitely getting louder. She had no more time. Amy took a deep breath, then fired a shot at the large ant in front of the Marigold Station entrance.
The single shot didn't take it down, but that wasn't the plan. It started crawling towards Amy. Two smaller ants appeared to be following it and Amy could hear more skittering noises from different directions converge on her position. She turned left into an alley and backed up a short distance all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the entrance to the alley. Several seconds and an eternity later she could see the dark shape of the soldier ant she shot in front of her. She squeezed the trigger and killed it with a single burst.
Amy could feel the time start to slow down but a furious shake of her head stopped the feeling. She didn't want another battle. Following a planned route she started sneaking away.
She could hear the ants moving closer from all directions. It took all of her willpower to not break into a panicked blind run, as the noise of the ants seemed to grow closer and closer. She continued quickly but silently sneaking away.
For a while she wasn't certain if her plan has worked, but soon the sounds of movement around her have become quieter. She could hear what seemed like an army of them ahead of her, close to the place where she killed the soldier ant earlier but very little movement from elsewhere. It sounded like more ants were converging on the spot where she killed one of their brethren. Her gamble has paid off.
For a couple of minutes Amy waited in place, listening. Every one of her heartbeats was like a mini detonation inside her chest. "I don't think I can take much more of this." she whispered.
- "We must be quiet as a mouse now." came Shroud's reply. Even the disembodied voice inside her head was whispering.
Slowly and carefully she made her way towards the station. The street in front of it was now empty. She quickly crossed the street and came closer. Just then the clouds have parted and moonlight lit up the plaza. Amy could clearly see the sign with the station name, two large ornate concrete pillars with a metal 'M' letter on top of each of them and below a massive set of stairs leading underground into darkness. Amy headed down the stairs into Marigold Station.
She wasn't sure what to expect. She wasn't really even sure what a 'station' was. Many of pre-war things made little sense. She was expecting something like an underground chamber, perhaps a storage facility, maybe a larger version of the cellar in the Bryants' house. What was Lesko doing there? Hiding from the ants probably.
Inside it was dark. Her eyes have already used to the darkness but here it was much darker than above ground. She could make out concrete walls, pillars. She tried to measure the distance between the walls - it seemed the chamber was quite narrow, definitely more narrow than she expected but she wasn't sure how long it was.
Wherever Lesko was hiding, it would have to be hard for the ants to find his hiding spot, so it wouldn't be very easy for her either. She'd have to look carefully. Amy waited a little while for her eyes to adjust to the new level of darkness until she could make out the outlines of the walls clearly.
She then started to slowly sneak further into the chamber.
It was mostly empty, just crumbling concrete walls. She walked past a very large plastic structure - after feeling it with her hands she recognized it for one of the Nuka-Cola dispensers you could sometimes find in pre-war ruins. Of course the glass was broken, probably a long time ago, and all the contents taken out. Just ahead she could see what looked like barriers of some sort, and just past them on the left, a door.
Maybe Lesko was there, she thought. Why couldn't it be that simple, for once? She carefully climbed over the barriers, making sure she didn't put a foot out of place lest it make a sound, and approached the door. Just as she reached for the handle she heard a noise. A very familiar noise of insect legs scraping against the concrete floor.
Dammit. Of course these things were here too. Amy suddenly realized just how thoroughly sick and tired she was of this place. After she found Lesko and collected Bryan she was not going to spend a second more in this cursed settlement. Home to Megaton.
If there were ants on the other side of that door, Lesko couldn't possibly be in there, so she could leave it well alone. Amy continued creeping further. She could now see an opening, seemingly into a larger chamber.
She reached the opening - it was huge - stepped through it and gasped. The second chamber was larger all right. It was easily bigger than even the Vault atrium. In spite of how huge it was the chamber looked mostly empty apart from what looked like some benches and a booth in the middle. In the darkness Amy could just about see what she guessed were stairs going down on either side of the platform. On the far side of it she saw two moving six-legged shapes.
Sneaking carefully Amy approached one of the sets of stairs on the left and crept down. As huge as the top floor was the lower one was even bigger. What could be the purpose of this underground labyrinth?
A short while later Amy found the answer to that question. In the middle of the floor she saw what she recognized as railway tracks. The chamber ended in four tunnels, the railway tracks ran through them. So this was an underground railway? Pre war people sure came up with many ways to travel. Cars, buses, airplanes, trains, and now this. Why couldn't they just stay in one place?
Amy checked for any doors but there were none on the lower level. A thought came to her - if these tracks were leading to far-away places then perhaps Lesko simply followed one of them to safety - at least as much as safety was possible in the Wasteland. Then there was no hope of ever finding him - best Amy could do was go back for Brian and hope that Lesko would make his way to Megaton eventually. She was ready to turn back but then she thought about it some more. Bryan said that Lesko was spending a lot of time underground before the ants struck. Whatever it was he was doing here, it was possible he was still engaged in the same activity. Or perhaps these underground passages were overrun with ants and Lesko was trapped here. Either way she had to check. With a quiet sigh, Amy turned around and crept down one of the tunnels.
In the first tunnel she was soon stopped by an obstacle - a section of the tunnel collapsed, blocking the passage completely. She had to turn back and then continue down the second tunnel.
Part of the wall in the second tunnel has collapsed as well but she could go past the blockage and continue forward. It was even darker here then in the main chamber. Amy could just about make out the walls and the tracks but little else. She didn't want to turn on her pipboy light for fear of being seen by the ants. The air felt stale. It was totally quiet down here - Amy couldn't hear a single sound except for the skittering of ants in the distance and the sound of her own breathing. Sometimes the sound of water dripping would punctuate the complete silence.
A while later Amy spotted a change in the pattern of the wall. Coming closer and feeling the texture of the concrete with the palms of her hands she found an indentation in the wall and behind it, metal. A door. She put her ear to the door to check for skittering sounds but couldn't hear anything. She felt for the handle and found a lock just below it. It didn't feel too rusted, she could try to pick it. She didn't hear any sounds behind the door that would point to Lesko being there, but perhaps it could lead to other passages.
Amy took out her lockpicks and started picking the lock. It was definitely harder in the total darkness. At first she was finding it hard to keep her hands steady but she soon got it under control. A short while later, after a final deft motion of her hand, the door opened with a screech that felt deafening in the silence of the tunnel. Amy froze, but the skittering sounds in the distance didn't seem to be getting any closer. After waiting for some time, she quietly stepped into the room.
Inside, everything was coated by a thick layer of dust. It covered the floor like a carpet. In the darkness Amy could see pipes and what looked like a control panel of some kind on the far wall. She may have been the first person to step foot in here for two hundred years, thought Amy. She checked for any passages or doors but there were none. The room was a dead end.
This may have been the first place in the Wasteland she's been to which has not been thoroughly looted of anything that had any value, Amy thought. Even the most desperate scavengers didn't dare to go into these dark tunnels.
Amy continued creeping forward, checking all the doors and side passages she came across, but found nothing. The only living things down here were her and the ants. The sounds of their movement were clearer now, there were more of them down here. If the horde fell upon her in these narrow tunnels she would have nowhere to run.
Creeping down the tunnel, she suddenly heard skittering get louder. One of the creatures was definitely moving in her direction. She retreated a few steps to the door she opened a short while ago and pressed her back into the wall next to it. If she had to shoot the ant and the horde started converging on her location she could at least lock herself in the room behind the door. The doors here seemed sturdy, ants wouldn't be able to break them down, she could wait them out. These were the thoughts running through her mind as she listened to the ant get closer. She could now clearly hear the scraping sounds its legs made rubbing up against the metal parts of the tracks. After a short while, the ants movement started to get quieter. It didn't notice her and moved past. Amy waited until the giant insect was well clear of her and breathed out. She really wanted out of this place.
Creeping further, Amy saw the tunnel branch off into a side passage to the left. The tracks didn't seem to go there. Creeping down the passage, she suddenly heard a loud crunching sound under her foot. She froze, her heart pounding, looking around, but there was nothing. Finally, when she looked down she discovered what made that noise. There was a skeleton lying there, scraps of clothing still clinging to its bones. Amy stepped on its arm.
Skeletal remains of the victims of the Great War were everywhere in the Wasteland - by now Amy probably saw hundreds of human skeletons of all shapes and sizes. Yet somehow seeing this one really shook her senses. Amy tried to focus her mind on the task but it refused to obey. Her thoughts were racing out of control.
Back in the Vault she read that before the war people didn't incinerate their dead, but buried them in the ground. Sometimes, for important people, large structures were constructed, to house their remains. These were called 'tombs', Amy remembered. There was a Grognak comic she read as a kid about a tomb of an ancient king. This is what this place is, she thought. A tomb. Everyone and everything here was dead, except for the ants. This was a place for the dead and the ants were its guardians. The living didn't belong here. She wasn't supposed to be here. She had to get out of here now. Right now.
Amy started running, no longer caring about the noise she was making. Shroud was saying something but the words didn't register. She stumbled and fell onto the tracks, got up and continued running in blind panic.
Somehow Amy had the sense to run into a room she opened earlier and close the door. She run to the far wall and sat down on the floow, her back against the wall. She hit her head on something hard but she could hardly feel it. She was breathing harder and harder, it felt like her lungs suddenly stopped working. Every breath was a desperate gasp for air but it felt like it wasn't enough. She was going to suffocate, a panicked thought run through her mind.
Shroud was still speaking and Amy focused on his voice
- "...You're fine, you're completely safe here. Just breathe. In, out. In, out."
Amy did what Shroud's voice told her. After a while, the panic started to retreat.
- "Good. You're OK."
- "I hate this place." Amy whispered.
- "Yes, an utterly unpleasant place for certain. But you got here completely unscathed, so you can get out the same way."
- "Yes. OK." Amy nodded. After some time, she got up and continued walking.
Amy was so focused on keeping her breathing under control that she nearly missed the door. Her hearing registered the noises behind it and she silently moved to the other side of the tracks, as she had with every door and passage that's been infested with oversized insects. Her gun trained at the door, she walked past it carefully and kept on creeping down the tunnel. She was some distance past the door when her mind registered the fact that the noises coming from behind it were different from the usual scraping of insect legs against concrete. She listened closely. The sound behind the door was definitely different. It sounded more like somebody walking back and forth.
Amy's first thought was that it was some kind of trick. It took her mind some time to accept that maybe finally the universe was giving her a break. She crept back towards the door, then tried to open the handle. It was locked. Of course, she thought, how could Lesko, or whoever else it was behind that door survive if it was open. The sound of footsteps behind the door stopped and she heard something like an "Ugh" sound. It was definitely a human in there!
Whoever it was, calling to them seemed far too risky. Feeling a little surreal Amy quietly knocked on the door several times. There was no response. There was only one thing she could do now, thought Amy as she started picking the lock.
Behind the door she heard more sounds, something like a "Huh?!" and then clicking of the gun safety, but she was too focused on the lock. Left a bit .. then down ... finally a minute, precise movement of her index finger and the door opened with a screech of metal.
Amy was looking at a tall man perhaps in his early fifties. The top of his head was crowned with a huge bald spot, below that a mass of unkempt thin grey hair hung down to his shoulders. Above his huge fleshy beak-like nose, the small eyes looked at the world sharply and with curiosity. He was pointing a 10 mm gun at Amy.
- "Close the door!" he whispered angrily. After Amy did that, the man demanded "Who are you?".
- "I'm Amy. Are you ... Lesko?"
- "How do you know my name?" he lowered his gun.
Amy breathed out, feeling like all the tension left her body with the exhaled air. "I was looking for you ... down here in this place. For so long. I'm so so happy to see you."
- "Now that's something I don't hear every day." Lesko eyed Amy with interest. "When I've heard the lock opening for a second I thought these things figured out how to pick locked doors. That would be quite unexpected. So " he continued "did you get here from the other side of the tunnel? I was always curious where it leads."
- "No, I got here from Megaton ... "
- "Nonsense." Lesko cut her off. "You would have to go through Grayditch. The place must be crawling with ants, it's impossible."
- "I did here through Grayditch." Amy nodded. "I'm good at sneaking. But these things did spot me once."
Lesko's eyes run over the bloodstains and tears on Amy's armored Vault suit. "Interesting. Very interesting."
- "I had to stop and wait out the ants in the Wilks' house. I met Bryan Wilks there."
- "Bryan? Yes, Fred Wilks' son. He's alive?"
- "Yes, he was hiding in the cellar."
- "Good." Lesko nodded. "So, why were you looking for me?"
- "Someone told Moira the news that Grayditch was destroyed. She didn't believe it at first, nodoby in Megaton did, really. But she was really worried. So, I went to check. I didn't believe it myself."
- "You know Moira? How is she? Everything well with her?"
- "Yes we're friends. But, soon you'll be able to see for yourself." Amy smiled. "I just need a rest, just a short rest, and then we can leave for Megaton right away. But, we'll have to take Bryan Wilks with us. Sorry, I know it's dangerous but I can't just leave him there."
- "Leave? What are you talking about? I can't leave"
Amy stared at Lesko incomprehendingly ."Why not?"
- "Because it's laying eggs! I don't know how long it takes, exactly. But there will be more and more of them. You understand?" Lesko looked at Amy sternly.
- "Uhm..."
Lesko let out a frustrated sigh. "These ants are different, you understand? They are tougher, far more aggressive, really focused on humans, completely different behavior. They can spit some kind of liquid, quite a long distance."
- "Yes, I'm .. well aware." nodded Amy.
- "I'm certain it's all coming from a single queen. And it's breeding ... I don't know exactly, I can only estimate, but it has to be much faster than regular ants. Just a couple of months ago there were only a few of these ants among the normal ones, now they've completely taken over the nest." Lesko got closer to Amy. "These people did it. It had to have been them."
- "These people?" Amy blinked.
- "The people in the radiation suits! They weren't exactly radiation suits, there were some differences. But they were new! I don't know what it means or how it's possible, but they were new!" so far Lesko has been keeping his voice down but it was now getting louder. Amy threw a worried glance at the door. "They really didn't want anyone to know they were there. But I saw them!" Lesko was steadily getting closer to Amy and he now hissed in her face "I saw them!"
- "Uhm, OK." Amy said carefully, trying to sound as calming as possible. "You think these ... people you saw ... somehow changed the ants? How would they go about doing that? That seems a bit unlikely to me. Do you think that maybe it could have been just a mutation among the ants?"
- "You know what a mutation is?" Lesko raised his eyebrows.
- "I grew up in a Vault." Amy explained. "I went to school there and we had other books."
- "Really?" Lesko's eyes lit up with interest. "You'll have to tell me more about it. Anyway, I had that thought, but so many mutations all with a single purpose? No." Lesko gave an annoyed shake of the head. "Look, whatever it was, if these ants keep breeding they'll spread further and further, probably form new nests. Yes? The way they go after humans they'll soon start attacking caravans, Springvale, eventually Megaton."
- "You think so? Then we really have to get to Megaton as soon as we can, warn Simms..."
- "Simms?" Lesko scoffed. "If he even believes you, all he'll do is maybe send some people scouting every now and again. No, I have to stop the ants myself."
- "But how?" Amy asked incredulously.
- "By killing the queen, how else? Down there " Lesko pointed somewhere beyond the door "are ant tunnels leading to the nest. Somewhere closer to the middle is where the ant queen is. I have some explosives I've been saving. I have to blow it up."
- "Are you insane?"
- "Why do people keep saying that?" Lesko cleared his throat. "Look, what other choices are there? I'd love to hear better ideas." Lesko grimaced irritatedly. "And before you say anything, yes, obviously I would have blown up the whole station if I had enough explosives."
- "Uhm ... that was not what I was going to say. You say the ants have tunnels there? If you have explosives, why can't you just collapse all the tunnels?"
- "No, no, there's too many tunnels. It won't do anything."
- "Then why can't you just shoot it?"
- "Are you serious? We have to make absolutely sure.I tried to sneak up there and plant the explosives a couple of days ago but it didn't quite go to plan." Lesko showed Amy his left arm. Just now she noticed that it was crudely bandaged with what must have been someone's shirt.
- "Looks like you bandaged it yourself." she took Lesko's arm and started removing the bandages.
- "What are you doing?"
- "I'm doing it properly. Hold still" said Amy sternly. The arm underneath looked red and inflamed, but at least she could not see any sign of infection.
"Does it hurt?"
- "There is some pain, yes."
Amy took out a stimpak from her bag. "This will hurt a bit at first but then you feel better. " She jabbed the stimpak into the center of the swelling, then took out some bandages from her backpack and re-bound Lesko's injured arm.
- "What do you know, this is actually better." Lesko moved his arm about. "So, you're a healer? A doctor?"
- "Oh no, I just studied a bit back in the Vault. I just know how to do a couple of simple things."
- "A person should be good at more than one thing." Lesko nodded approvingly. "Medicine is one of the few things I'm not that good at. Speaking of your other talent, you've got here through Grayditch and the Marigold Station entrance?"
Amy nodded.
- "Then you might be better at sneaking the explosives into the lair than I was."
Amy looked at Lesko in disbelief "Wait, you want me to .. go deep into these things' layer carrying explosives?"
- "Yes. Now, you need to listen carefully. There is a fuse. To light it, you need to..."
- "Wait! No. You can't just ask me to go in there. This is insane! Do you know what I had to do to get here? No. No no no no ..."
- "OK" Lesko shrugged. "I'll need to try again myself. I don't know exactly how their senses work, that's the trouble. Can you at least go hunt some of these things for meat? I'm starting to run a bit low on food here."
- "Wait. wait." Amy run her hand over her face, "Fuck! OK ... how many of these things are down there? There has to be a lot, right?"
- "I'd say there are no more ants down in the tunnels then there are anywhere else in this station, actually. That was still more than I could deal with in my first attempt."
- "How did you even get here in the first place?"
- "Well, there used to be a lot fewer of them before. And I've used the tunnel."
- "What tunnel?"
- "The one from the shack of course. Do you know any other tunnel?" then after seeing a confused look on Amy's face "Ah yes, I guess you don't know. Did you see a small shack by the Wilks' house?"
Amy nodded. "Yes, I remember."
"There is a big ... metal lid on the floor. It leads to an underground tunnel. My guess is it was used for processing waste water from the town before the war, it's empty now. It branches off a number of times, one of these leads right here. I built a shack around the entrance."
Amy stared at Lesko "Are you saying that to get here I could've just got gone through the tunnel and ... shit! Son of a ..." She took a deep breath. "Well, at least it'll come in handy when we go back."
- "First we need to deal with the source of the infestation. The ant queen."
- "Yes. Yes I know. I just need a little break, OK? Just a little rest ... and then I'll go."
Finding the ant tunnels did not turn out to be difficult. Walking along the tunnel, Amy found a large pile of rubble. There was so much of it that she had to watch her step in order not to trip over a piece of concrete or not to puncture her ankle with one of the pieces of metal sticking out from the larger broken off concrete slabs. Eventually she found a breach in the wall. Beyond that the ant tunnels began.
Instead of diving in immediately she kept on searching and found several more entrances. Amy planned to make a map of all the tunnels and passages in her head, the last thing she wanted was to get lost.
This proved to be difficult. The skittering was all around her, several times she had to hide and stay still as one of the creatures crawled by her. This was too dangerous. She had to repeat the trick she used to get to the station.
Amy spent a long time searching until she found the perfect place. Just opposite one of the ant tunnel entrances there was a door. Amy picked the lock and found a small room, a utility closet by the look of it. There was barely enough room in there for two shelves and a large metal cupboard. There were fission batteries and more electronics inside. All the loot in here would be worth a lot of caps but that was the last thing on Amy's mind right now. She left the door open, then headed for the tunnels.
It didn't take her long to her skittering noises somewhere in the darkness ahead. She shot in that direction several times. She waited until the ants got closer - there were two of them, they weren't soldiers thankfully, just regular large dog-sized creatures, then killed them. Immediately she hurried back out of the tunnels towards the utility closet, breaking into a spring as she got near it. She closed the door behind her.
Amy had a wait a long time as the ants started converging on the tunnel where she shot two of them. From time to time she heard them scraping against the door she was hiding behind. Some time later the noises died down. Amy carefully opened the door, then sneaked away to find another ant tunnel entrance, far away from this one.
The trick worked again, the tunnels were mostly clear now. Amy could hear noises in the distance but none to close to her. The passages were surprisingly tall, some of them narrow enough that she had to crawl through but most high enough for her to be able to walk. Sometimes having small stature had its advantages. She tried hard to keep the route in her mind.
It was strange that she was so calm, considering the fact that she was nearing the center of the ant layer and that she had a whole bag of explosives on her back. Well, calm was not the right word, Amy just felt like she completely depleted her capacity for panic, there was nothing left anymore. Besides, what she was doing was just too insane to feel real. She felt like the real her was watching from somewhere above while the Other Amy crept closer to the heart of the layer. 'Come on, Other Amy' she thought. 'You can do it.'
The passages were getting wider now, they were almost as big as a standard Vault corridor. She must have been going in the right direction. An odd sound was coming from that direction, not the now familiar scraping of insect feet but more like rumbling. They were getting louder.
She saw something different up ahead. It was not a branching passage but more like an opening to a very large chamber. The noise was coming from inside the chamber. Amy craned her neck, than looked inside. It was dark but what she saw ... the creature she was looking at was huge. It was much bigger than a brahmin, bigger than any living thing she ever saw. She caught a glimpse of what looked like wings. She could also faintly see rows upon rows of light-colored, moist round shapes. Eggs, so so many of them. This had to be the queen.
It's OK, Amy thought, this completely insane thing she was doing just got a little more insane, didn't make that much difference in the end. Trying extra hard to make no noise at all she carefully put the bag she was carrying on the ground, took a small metal can and a rope out of the bag and started retreating, unwinding the rope as she went and pouring the contents of the can over it. The liquid inside smelled like moonshine, perhaps that was all it was. The huge creature must not have noticed her, she was fairly certain that if it did, she would know.
She kept walking backwards, unwinding the rope as she went and trying to listen to any ants approaching at the same time. It didn't sound like there were any, her luck was holding so far.
She did hear the ant queen stirring loudly. It must have smelt the stuff she was pouring over the rope. Amy quickened her step.
The rope finally ended. Amy took out a lighter and prepared to light the rope - 'fuse', Lesko called it. What if it didn't work, she thought, what if the flame would go out on the way to the bag? All this, for nothing. Or, what it it worked too well and collapsed the ant tunnels with her still inside? No, she thought, Lesko told her it wouldn't happen. There was just enough explosives to kill the ant queen, most of the stuff in the bag were sharp pieces of metal. She lit the fuse and watched the flame run along the rope. It looked like it was working, so far at least, which meant it was time to move.
Amy crept back quickly. Suddenly, she heard a deafening blast. What felt like a massive blow from behind knocked her down on her face, earth pouring over her. Amy had to lay on the ground for some time, the wind knocked out of her and her ears ringing. When her hearing returned, she heard skittering noises all around her. She scrambled to her feet and started running.
Turning a corner in the tunnel she saw a six-legged shape in front of her. She dodged it, its jaws snapping just left of her elbow and kept on running. A horde was now forming behind her, she could hear the sound of the ants' projectiles landing behind her, but she was now close to the exit. Finally Amy saw the faint gleam of the metal door ahead of her.
- "Lesko, open the door!" she yelled, not caring about how loud the sound was. Lesko did so and she dashed into the opening, nearly knocking him over, then collapsed on the floor. A few seconds after Lesko closed the door she could hear the wet 'thwack' sounds of the ant projectiles hitting against metal.
- "Did the explosives go off?"
Amy nodded.
- "Excellent. Good work." Lesko turned towards the sounds of the ants bashing against the other side of the door. "We should probably leave soon."
- "'... We've got more important things to worry about than this nonsense of yours.' That's what he said. 'More important things'! What could be more important than this?! Huh?"
The three of them, Amy, Lesko and Bryan Wilks were close to halfway back to Megaton. They spent the way talking. Well, in truth Lesko did by far most of the talking. Bryan was quiet as a mouse ever since they left the remains of Grayditch, only breaking his silence to say that he was thirsty. Amy suspected that he didn't believe that they were safe from the ant horde. He would probably only believe it once they were inside Megaton's gates, perhaps not even then. As for Amy herself, she felt completely mentally spent. At this point all she could do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Lesko on the other hand started talking once they got clear of Grayditch and never stopped. Amy was worried at first that the sound of his voice would attract dangerous wildlife but it never did. A couple of times Amy saw dogs in the distance but they went their separate way. Perhaps, Amy thought, after Grayditch the Wasteland decided to give her a short break. She certainly appreciated it.
The rest of their escape from Marigold station was relatively uneventful. They climbed into the tunnel, and just a short walk later they were near the Wilks' house. The two of them got Bryan and snuck out of the Wilks' old house. Given how terrified Bryan was earlier when she suggested that they could sneak out of the house Amy was very surprised how easily he agreed when Lesko suggested it to him. She was worried that the ants would hear them but it turned out she didn't need to. Bryan was even more quiet than she was and Lesko turned out to be surprisingly nimble.
At times Amy almost tuned Lesko out or only listened to his voice without bothering to understand the words. But now Lesko was talking about why he left Megaton and Amy was curious.
- "So, Simms didn't let you set up a school in Megaton?"
- "Well, he didn't exactly forbid me from setting it up. " Lesko raised an eyebrow "That wouldn't make any sense, even by his low standards. But he wasn't going to lift a finger to help me! I would happily spend all of my time finding books, restoring the most damaged ones as best I'm able, anything that would help me teach. Moira had some audio recordings, she insisted that she was going to sell them" he shook his head disapprovingly "but she was going to let me use them for a while. I've rearranged my house completely to fit a large number of children inside. I talked to the kids, they were interested of course. But I still had to talk to persuade the parents to let the kids study." He turned towards Amy "Can you believe it?! These tater heads should be lining up to thank me for doing something so important. But no, I have to go all over Megaton and Springvale and actually persuade people to let their kids come to my school. Moira is very good at talking people into it. But somehow I can never find the right words to make these complete morons understand just how vital this is."
- "You know, maybe if you didn't ... " started Amy, but then decided against it. "So you've gone to Grayditch instead. From what Bryan told me it sounded like you had similar problems there."
- "Yes" Lesko shook his head. "At least Fred Wilkes helped more than that fool Simms ever did." he turned to Amy "he was the closest thing that place had to a leader. Not in the same way that Simms is, but people listened to him."
- "So why did you want to run a school so much? I mean, I understand why it's important"
- "Important!" scoffed Lesko "It's the most important thing." he looked off into the distance. "You saw how people live in Megaton. So a few years back I decided I was going to restore the place to its pre-war state." Lesko twitched his mouth. "Of course Megaton didn't exist before the War, but you understand what I'm saying, yes? I wanted to turn the place into a little slice of civilization in the middle of the Wasteland."
- "Do you think it's possible?" asked Amy. "To rebuild everything the way it was before the war?"
- "Of course. People built these things before, they can do it again. So I set about rebuilding everything. I started with water of course. The most essential thing. Did you know a man can last three weeks without food but only three days without water?"
- "Yes" Amy nodded.
- "So, I started building a network of pipes to bring water to where it was needed. The farms, then the settlement itself. Me and Walter." he turned to Amy "Do you know him?"
- "We've talked a little once." she answered.
- "He didn't have the same knowledge of or interest in the life before the war as I do. But he had this intuitive grasp of technology and construction. He just understood how things fit together. Quite brilliant. Much like myself. So, anyway " he continued "me and Walter built a network of pipes to bring water from the river to the farms and to Megaton itself. At one point we had pipes bringing water into people's houses. I believe before the war it was called 'indoor plumbing'" Lesko sounded a little uncertain.
- "Yes. At least that's what they called it in my Vault"
- "Good" nodded Lesko enthusiastically. "So, we've set up all the piping, found the pumps. That was not easy, let me tell you. Most pieces of machinery like that have long been stripped for parts. It took so long to find some reasonably intact ones. Moira helped a lot. Even then so much repair was needed."
Amy nodded. "I used to do a lot of engineering and repairs in the Vault. But here, everything is so broken. You're repairing something that's falling apart with another thing that's falling apart. It's hard"
- "Exactly" said Lesko. "But in the end we got it working. Ah, I could talk about it for days."
Amy did her best to hide a smirk. She had no doubt whatsoever that Lesko could indeed talk for days, about the water pipe network or anything else.
- "It felt like a start of something great. Like we were finally putting things back the way they used to be. But the damn thing kept breaking down. Animals chewed through pipes and they kept springing leaks. Fission batteries, even the biggest ones, never provided enough power. In the end the two of us couldn't keep it running. So" Lesko narrowed his eyes contemplatively "I've spent some time thinking about it. And in the end, I got this insight" he looked at Amy. "Not even I can do everything myself. Let's say your house has a hole in the roof. Easy to imagine here in the Wasteland, right?" Lesko pointed at a ruined building they were walking past. "Well, the hole isn't the problem. The real problem is, nobody knows how to fix that hole. And nobody knows how to make materials and parts you need to fix it. And that is the main thing you need to start rebuilding. You understand?"
- "I think so" Amy nodded thoughtfully. "But fixing a hole in the roof is just one thing. There are so many pre-war things that nobody knows anything about."
- "Exactly! Most people can't even read and write." Lesko shook his head. "So I decided that this is going to be my life's work. I'd start with the children of course, most of the adults here are a lost cause. I'd be teaching these children to read, to start with, but the main thing is, to teach them to be curious, to want to know how the pre-war used to work."
- "That's difficult. I the Vault we've had school, and I've read a lot by myself too. But here, almost every day I feel like there are so many things I don't know."
- "You probably have no idea just how lucky you were." Lesko looked at Amy with a mixture of curiosity and envy. "Here I've had to find scraps of knowledge wherever I could. So few books survived the war reasonably intact." he looked at Amy "Can you smuggle some books out of your Vault? Or trade them, or whatever."
- "I don't think so." smiled Amy sadly. "I left the Vault because they were trying to kill me. I barely escaped with my life. I can't go back there."
- "Hmph. Oh well. When the school in Megaton is up and running, can you at least come and teach there?"
Amy smiled. "Yes, I'd like to. I mean, I spend most of my time hunting, you know, to get food. But I'll find time to spare. I think I'd enjoy it."
Lesko looked off into the distance. "Did you know they had places before the war where people spent their life learning about the world and then researching new knowledge? They were called 'universities' or 'laboratories'" Lesko pronounced the words carefully." I'm not sure what the difference between the two is. Imagine what it would be like to spend your life working in one of those places? Finding out how the world works?"
Lesko was now swinging his arms around enthusiastically so Amy had to move to a safe distance away.
- "I learned a little about a few of those places. MIT, Stanford, West-Tek. But there is so much more I would like to know about them." Lesko said wistfully. He then perked up "Did you know I have clothes that someone in MIT used to wear? Moira traded them from a man from the Boston Commonwealth. I want to show it to you." Lesko stopped, opened his backpack and started fumbling inside.
- "Thanks, I can look at it once we're back in Megaton."
- "But I want to show it to you now." insisted Lesko. "There it is. It's called a 'lab-coat'. See how white it is?" he proudly held a piece of clothing in front of Amy.
Amy smiled politely. She could imagine that the garment Lesko was showing to her has been white at one point in time. Now however it's been covered by layers of stains of all shapes and sizes, to the point where Amy would really struggle to say which color it was. It definitely wasn't white though.
- "You know, when I have to figure out something really tricky, I take it out and put it on. And I think of the people that used to wear this. Of all their knowledge, all the insights they had, everything they've discovered. And I get better ideas. I can figure anything out when I'm wearing this!"
Amy smiled. She was beginning to understand how Lesko got his eccentric reputation. Then she thought about her repair jumpsuit. She traded this old jumpsuit from Moira, it looked a lot like something the Maintenance back in the Vault used to wear. When she wanted to repair something she usually put it on. She wasn't inspired by generations of repair workers wearing this before her, it was just a very comfortable jumpsuit with lots of pockets to put tools in.
It took them longer than a day to get back to Megaton. Lesko could keep up with the pace surprisingly well but they could only go so fast with Bryan. Amy didn't mind, all she wanted was to get back to the Common House and sleep for a whole day. Or maybe a week. They went straight to Craterside Supplies.
Inside, Moira was hovering over a crate, it looked like she was counting something inside it. Amy walked in first, Moira looked up and saw her.
- "Amy! Where've you been? I was worried"
Moira looked at Bryan curiously when he came inside, then turned back to Amy to continue scolding her, but then Lesko walked in and her expression changed. She run to Lesko, knocking over the crate, its contents scattering all over the floor. It looked like pre-war electronics. Moira and Lesko started talking at the same time, then stopped, then once again started talking over each other, then finally just stood there looking at each other.
Amy looked at the two of them, feeling her eyes sting a little. Soon this was going to be her and her Dad, and they were going to be just like that, she told herself. Soon. She silently waved Bryan goodbye and quietly walked out. Moira and Lesko had a lot of catching up to do and she just wanted to sleep.
To her surprise, Amy couldn't get to sleep. It felt like too many thoughts were running through her mind. In the end she decided to go back to Craterside Supplies. For one thing, they needed to decide what to do with Bryan.
When she was already on the steps to Craterside Supplies Amy looked at her pipboy. It was already very late, everyone was probably asleep by now. She was about to turn back when she saw light coming from the gap between the door and the frame. At least someone in there was still up. She knocked quietly.
Moira opened the door.
- "Sorry I couldn't sleep and just wanted ... where are Lesko and Bryan?"
- "They're both already asleep."
- "I'll be quiet." Amy whispered. "I wanted to talk about Bryan. Would you be OK with him staying with you for a while? Then we'll need to find someone to take him in."
- "Yes of course. Lesko will have to stay with me as well, they've given his house to someone else."
- "Oh I didn't know."
- "It's fine. If I know Simms he'll have his own house again real soon. About Bryan, I think Manya and Nathan may want to look after him. I'll go talk to them tomorrow. If not, I'm sure we'll find someone in no time."
- "That's good. And another thing ..." Amy paused "uhm ... why are you looking at me like that?"
- "Lesko told me about what you did in Grayditch. How you found him and what you did in that underground place and everything else." Moira paused, looking at Amy intently. "Amy I ... I don't even know how ... "
Amy blinked. She's never seen her friend lost for words before.
- "What you've done ... I have no idea how I could repay you. Maybe ... I could give you a store discount?" said Moira uncertainly.
Amy cringed a little. "Moira, I didn't do it for the store discount. It's fine, I'm just glad everyone is OK."
- "Oh god I'm sorry. What was I thinking? Moira wrung her hands. She paused, then looked at Amy "You could stay in my house. It'll be a bit crowded, sorry, Lesko and Bryan will be here too at first. But it's still better than Common House, right? Other than that, I think there is only one thing I could do. You know I told you I would ask the traders that came to Megaton about the caravan your dad left with? I've been asking them all, honestly! But now ... I'll pull every favour I have. I'll bug every one of the merchants until they all hate me. I'll have every trader from here to The Pitt and the Commonwealth looking for Old Luke and your dad." she put her hand on her chin. "Maybe I'll go to Canterbury Commons myself? I haven't been there in a while. It's been so long since I left Megaton. I'll just need to find someone to look after the store" she looked up, thinking. "Maybe Lesko ... or maybe not."
- "Moira, it's OK." said Amy, feeling a little embarrassed. "You don't need to go to Canterbury Commons."
- "Are you sure? Because I absolutely could. Ooh, I know! Wolfie is coming here in a few days and he'll be heading back to Canterbury Commons afterwards. I'll have him turn that whole town upside down. Old Luke couldn't have just disappeared. We'll find him, I promise."