Chapter 30 – Uncovered Discovery
Having made good time, the team arrived in the grounds of Parsons just after eleven that evening. It was immediately apparent there had been a significant battle recently. Bodies from both sides littered the driveway up to the main building, as well as scattered throughout the gardens.
The first living people the team met was Jack and two of his mercenaries, who Nate assumed were from the Vertibird that had left Boston two days ago.
"You're here, that's excellent," stated Jack. "Two days ago, when we arrived on scene, we could see the main body of raiders hadn't reached the building and were staging up by the creamery." Jack pointed north. "A small number of Edwards men had engaged with them and so we thought we would give them a hand. Yesterday and today we have been chasing them back north, ensuring there are not enough of them to give us any bother. Unfortunately, a small expeditionary unit has already entered the asylum and are giving Edward some trouble."
"Where is the rest of your team?" Cait asked Jack, as she looked around at the carnage that had taken place.
"We are it, for the moment." Jack said in a very matter of fact tone. "I have left a team of six north of here to form a block, and prevent any reinforcements from surprising us, but the rest of the team guarding the asylum are dead."
Piper looked at Nate, she was obviously not a fan of Jacks callous tone.
"Edward's men seem to have given a good account of themselves, but not good enough, sadly." Jack commented as he stepped over a body of one of his mercenary guards.
"Jesus!" Cait said under her breath when she was close to Nate.
"We need to get to my office," Jack instructed, as he headed for the main double doors into the asylum. "From there we can see how bad things really are." Nate and his team closed up and readied their weapons. Jack got to the doors and opened them, "Ok, stick close, follow my orders and I am sure everything will be fine." Before heading in, he turned to the two guards and told them to post watch at the entrance to the building.
The inside of the asylum reception area was a mess. Not only was there the normal bomb damage and centuries of dust and debris, but the guards inside had obviously given a very good account of themselves, given the number of dead raiders that were scattered around.
Jack immediately headed to some double doors that lead off to one wing of the building but swore when he tried to open them.
"Damn, the door's blocked from the other side somehow, we will have to find another way round."
Nate had already spotted another set of doors over on the opposite side of the reception area. He had signalled for Curie to go to the doors and listen to see if she could hear any movement the other side. When she had arrived at the doors, it didn't take long before she held up two fingers on her right hand. Curie was not having to try too hard to listen to what the two raiders were saying, as they were talking at a normal volume. Nate was pleased as this meant they had not heard Jack coming in, which was something of a surprise as Jack wasn't being quiet.
"I can't believe this is going to be worth the trouble." Came a gruff male voice from the other side of the door. "Look at this place, nothing but dust and junk."
Another male voice then spoke. "Oh, it's going to be worth it. If Lefty's right about this being where that new juice is coming from, … hell yeah, it's going to be worth it."
Jack, who had seen Curie listening at the other doors, moved over to her and was about to open them when Nate held him back. Placing a hand firmly on Jack's chest he nodded to Cait. She moved past Nate and Jack and, taking out a grenade, gave a smile to Curie who slowly opened one of the double doors. In one swift motion Cait removed the pin and threw the grenade into the corridor beyond. Curie immediately closed the door and the two of them flattened themselves against a wall section either side of the doors.
There was an explosion and the team were rewarded by two screams. On hearing the shouts, Cait and Curie then kicked in the doors and moved swiftly through.
The team moved methodically through the asylum, meeting some resistance on their way, but the hardest thing for Nate and the girls was trying to keep Jack from recklessly running ahead. Anytime he encountered raiders he would shout loudly at them, stating 'that this was his property' and 'that they were trespassing'.
"What is this complete moron doing?" Piper chuckled when up against a wall next to Nate. They were sheltering from a shotgun wielding raider who was firing down at them from the top of some stairs. Cait took aim from her hiding position in one of the doorways off the main corridor. The raider cried and fell back, her weapon dropping from her hand.
Jack led the team through an accommodation section before entering a staff area and what was obviously some attic storage. Nate could see that Jack was leading them up and over the barred door presumably ending up behind whatever had blocked their path.
Running down what looked like some service stairs, the team and Jack came into an administrative area of the complex. By the faded oak panelling and large leather topped desks, Nate guessed this was the secretary pool, outside the old asylum director's office.
"I hope Edward is alright," Jack said quietly, opening the large double doors into the main office.
"Oh, he cares after all," Piper said a little too loud for Nate's liking and he shot her a disapproving look.
Jack suddenly ran to the front of some wooden filing cabinets.
"Edward, how badly are you hurt?" Jack exclaimed. As the team ran in, they saw a figure sat on the floor, in the corner of the office, hunched over clutching his stomach.
"I'm not dead yet," The ghoul managed to say through gritted teeth, obviously in a lot of pain. "But I don't think I can get up."
"You kept them from using the elevator?" Jack asked.
"Yeah … I … sent … the … elevator down … to the basement," Edward responded, breathing hard. "Like you wanted and shut it down."
"Good" Jack responded.
"I shot quite a few of them before … they … decided to leave me alone." Edward continued to de-brief his boss despite the agony in his voice. "haven't seen anybody for quite a while, I think… it's hard to keep track of time."
"Are you sure you can't get up?" Jack asked, sounding a little exasperated at Edwards predicament.
"He's all heart, that one." Cait remarked, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I thought you said you were going to be good." Nate growled back, under his breath, obviously unhappy at Cait's outburst.
"Are you sure you can't get up? As I could really use your help," Jack continued, ignoring Cait's comment.
"Yeah jack, I'm pretty damn sure!" Edward bit back, showing what he thought of Jack's lack of empathy.
"Go give Edward a hand," Nate ordered Curie, who was already getting a few stimpacks out from her backpack.
"Well then, don't worry about it," Jack huffed, standing up and moving away from Edward. "Me and your friends here will have to take care of things ourselves." He headed over to the main desk in the room and switched on the terminal.
"They've definitely reached the basement," Jack said aloud, obviously gaining some information from whatever he was looking at on the screen. "Although I don't understand how they knew how to get past the …" Jack paused, "It doesn't matter now." He cut himself off. Looking up at Nate he said, "you have to go through the abandoned part of the building." He turned back to the screen. "It looks like the Abremalin Field is still functioning, although several security doors in the basement have already been breached. Better hurry if we want to stop them. They seem determined to reach Lorenzo for some reason." Jack took on a faraway look as he slowly sat down on the chair behind him.
"Come on, let's get on with it." Nate commanded, breaking Jack from his reverie.
"Yes, yes of course," Jack jumped up, "just follow my instructions and everything will be fine."
Nate looked at Curie, "you good?" he asked.
Curie nodded and grabbing her weapon she turned to Edward, "We'll be back in a minute," she smiled at him.
"Be careful, Jack." Edward called out as the team left the ghoul and headed back out into the corridor, "you too," he added, looking at Curie as she stood to join her team.
"Got yourself a boyfriend there, missy," Piper grinned at Curie as she joined the rest of the team.
Jack led Nate and the girls through an indoor garden and up into an obviously long abandoned section of the asylum. The bomb damage in this part of the building was extensive, with floors and roof sections missing in several places. Following Jack, the team made their way down a few floors until they finally arrived at an accommodation area, with a number of bedrooms off to each side. At the far end of the very wide corridor a section of wall was missing. Jack ran straight to it and slipped through the hole. As Nate arrived at the same gap, he looked through and could see an air conditioning duct running down the inside of the wall and into a darkened area directly below where he was currently standing. Jack had already run down most of the duct and had disappeared into the gloom.
"After you, boss," Cait grinned as she caught up and looked through the dark hole in the wall.
Nate stepped through and slowly picked his way down to the floor below, amazed at how swiftly Jack traversed the sloping air ducts. Arriving at the bottom of that particular section, Nate could see there was a similar hole in the wall leading to what looked like a prison cell of some type. Nate jumped into the small room, which had a single bed and a small footlocker, and made his way out through the open door. Nate's hunch was correct as this was some sort of prison complex. Each small concrete cell had white walls and ceiling, and each was secured by a heavy metal door, a small mesh of steel acting as a window.
'So much for treating the patients,' Nate thought as he ran to catch Jack up. A burst of machine gun fire signalling that Jack had just encountered another raider. Nate turned to see the rest of his team catching up and he motioned for them to follow Jack. Nate could see that Jack had headed into a cell and had jumped through a hole in the floor to the level below. He knew the girls would be better at this than he would and so wanted them to be down first, so his less than elegant drop wouldn't be witnessed. Or so he hoped.
As the last of the girls dropped, nimbly through the hole, Nate issued a short prayer that this wouldn't hurt and jumped. Landing on both feet, he wasn't prepared for the impact and not bending his legs properly, he landed on his butt, sprawled out on the concrete. As it was Nate's pride that had taken the largest bump, he quickly looked up to see if anyone had witnessed his landing. Piper grinned back at him.
"That was … erm … something," she smirked.
"I will not spank you for a full year, no matter what you do, if you keep this between just us two," Nate got up and dusted himself off.
"Ha!" Piper laughed, "as tempting as that sounds, that was too funny." Piper turned and called out to Cait and Curie. "You should have seen that," Piper threw a thumb over her shoulder to indicate Nate, "landed flat on his ass as he fell through the hole in the ceiling," Piper continued to laugh. Curie and Cait turned to look at Nate still dusting himself off.
Cait moved over to him and started to brush off the dust from his back and butt, being fairly rough when dusting off his backside. "Look at you, you are a state!" She exclaimed in mock concern. "Maybe we should have got you some steps or lowered you down on a rope." She laughed.
Nate looked over at Curie who was also laughing. "You are meant to be the nice one, you know."
"Oh, but you do look a picture," Curie chuckled, "but are you ok?" she asked.
"Just wounded pride, that's all," Nate sighed, "Although … ow! … I might have bruises on my ass if Cait continues at this strength." He squirmed as Cait continued to 'brush off the dust' from Nate's backside by giving harder and harder whacks.
"Welcome to the club, honey." Cait smiled back at Nate.
The team had come through the ceiling into a boiler room, with light shining through from a hole in the far wall. Moving towards the hole, Nate could see the light was coming from some kind of orderly room, which had a sofa and chair in one corner and a desk in another. Outside, the corridor mirrored the one above, with small cells along each side.
As the team entered the corridor, Jack was waiting. "Have you quite finished?" He asked in an exasperated tone, obviously unhappy at their little pause to laugh at Nate. "I'll head down to the end to see if the old maintenance elevator is working." And with that he ran off into the dark.
Looking around the room, Nate could see a terminal built into the wall and two filing cabinets as the only other pieces of furniture in the room. Cait started to look through the drawers of the desk. Nate gave a little cough.
"Sorry," Cait said, shutting the drawer. "Old habits and all." She smiled.
"I have no problem liberating any loot from abandoned buildings like this one, but not if they are owned by our current boss." Nate gave Cait a stern look.
Whilst Curie, Cait and Nate had stopped and were waiting in the orderly's office, Piper had wandered into the corridor. She came back into the room, a shocked expression on her face.
"Guys, you are going to want to see this." She indicated over her shoulder.