Queen's note: working through some groundwork for the plot!

Welcome to the Wasteland

Chapter Eight:

Bunker

"What did you find?"

Lana tensed at first at the voice but relaxed as she recognized the low gravel. Looking up at Deegan from where she sat at the table that acted like a desk. "Surprisingly there's a lot here. This...Red? She was pretty well organized, though not as well without a sister it seems. Don't think we'll find her here though."

Deegan pulled over a chair and settled down, finally relaxing after the last of the clean up and locking up. Making sure no one was getting into that main entrance while they were taking stock. "Possibly an issue with a rival gang? They seemed pretty stretched thin here."

"I think so… it seems like one of the sisters was kidnapped and ransomed for food." Lana tapped a small stack of paper, "Looks like 'Red' left yesterday with some of her crew to try and sneak into... a place called 'Beantown Brewery' to save her sister."

"Rivel raider gang bull crap." Deegan snorted, but nodded, looking over to the door as Blake entered, carrying a crate that clinked slightly. The younger man passed out some purified water that he found.

"Yeah… from her notes she's not fully expecting her crew to all be here if she gets back." Lana sat back in her seat, stretching her legs beside the table as she sniffed the bottle, but the water seemed alright to start sipping.

"Oh?" Blake tilted his head, sinking into another chair and leaning on the table. The physical and mental stress of the raid... on the raiders finally showing. With everything locked up he could take a mental break with his guard down, his borrowed bow resting on the table like Lana.

"Yeah, she saw that wild male more than a few times snooping super close to the guards walking a patrol." Lana snorted and sank in her chair, "Apparently he's been around since Valory and I got in the area. Impressive that he was staying some distance from the Co-Op."

Though that male deathclaw seemed to be content to hover near by the stock pile entrance now. More so after they had locked it and pulled the dead bodies out into range for Valory to grab. The male deathclaw had been all sorts of confused that the bigger Valory buried the dead bodies rather then let him chew on them. Confused that she refused to see the raiders, humans as food, even snapping at him for trying to horde a body.

Lana was thankfully the wild male was smart enough not to push it.

Lana still wanted those shade triangles and tarps….just not right now. Let the wild deathclaw settle and calm down from all the excitement, as he nearly got too close to their group before Valory stepped in. There had been a quick fight, a salt like argument that had the male skittering back once he realized these were off limit humans and he was making the new matriarch angry.

"He's... not going to come around the farm you think?" Blake frowned a bit, sipping his own water.

"He shouldn't go near it." Lana reassured, smiling over at him, "Valory has made a point to include your family and farm in her territory patrol. She's marked an inner Pack area between our places… its a no-hunting zone other than what she, as a Matriarch, deems a threat to pack. In Deathclaw terms you and I are lesser...claws? Worker class or symbiotic packmates I guess. And that wild male isn't invited into the inner territory."

"I have noticed the yao guai aren't getting as close." Blake hummed thoughtfully, but looked up at the chuckle from Deegan.

"Yao guai is the latest kill Valory brought back last night," Deegan grinned, "At least what's left of it, we have a hind quarter to share with you."

"Bear, Yao guai, is one of Val's favorite meats." Lana mused, "She really shouldn't have eaten so much yesterday before running around today… I hope she's not going to be sick."

"The young lady is eighty years old, I'm sure she's capable of living with her choices." Deegan pointed out, finally opening his can of water. Still keeping an ear out, and staring at the papers. He reached out over the table, tapping it to get Lana's attention and pointed to some of the blank papers. She passed one and a pencil.

The scarred man started to write down names and the last place he knew them to be, finally getting the chance to do so undisturbed. There was always something to do.

Jake, and Jacky - carpenters brothers, were heading to the slog last fall.

Airetta, and her grandfather- Aaron? Masons, at the asylum, need to move them out.

1st guard shift at asylum, need to rotate them out and away from him. Good for guards, and physical help, half of the six are former Watchmen.

"I have some people I can send over here to help." Deegan spoke up, tapping his paper. "They'll work for their keep and to have a safe place. Some I need moved so they can have a mental break from the Asylum."

Blake looked up, startled a bit at the mention of the place, having heard stories from Connie in her youth. His wife was the connection to Deegan, why the man came by almost once, sometimes twice a month regularly over the years to buy a full crop.

"Asylum?" Lana tilted her head, puzzled at Deegan, not seeing Blake's look. "You have a place there? I think you mentioned a place before..."

"It's a kind of settlement, now, its where I said we grow some things." Deegan chuckled, "The old Parson's asylum, but my home and family are at the Cabot Manor. That's where you can always send someone to get me. At least get a message to me."

"Huh..." Lana filed that away mentally. "Just don't forget those seeds yea?"

"I won't if you won't," Deegan laughed, stretching in the chair as best he could. "Think you'll like having the bunker Lana?"

"Having?" Lana tilted her head, bemused while Blake brightened up. "It's nice to be cleared. And to get to plant things later… I bet the radexes moss will grow great undisturbed down here in thick mats… ooh that would work for the roofing..."

"I think she would love to have the bunker," Blake snorted, watching Lana blink at him, "My family will help if we can get some of the pre-war crops too. I won't contest."

Deegan nodded, pulling out the keys to the bunker and sliding them over to Lana. "I think you'll be the best one to hold onto these for now. I'll be sending people over for you to help, some might feel better down here to start with."

"Anyone that is willing to do honest work in this world is worth having around." Blake admitted, "There used to be one or two other families living with us, one moved to the creamery… that's where they wanted to go. Another couple lost their son to a bear, and wanted to just be anywhere else."

Blake looked down, thinking and then added, admitted, "Having help would be nice, if you really want to send people our way Deegan. As fit as I am… and as much as it was worth it joining in on this...it's a lot harder than it used to be."

"Not everyone has ghoul strength." Deegan nodded, "A good half would be ghouls I send over."

"I never really minded them." Blake shook his head, "some, a lot that are older have good knowledge. It was a ghoul woman that taught me how to hunt spiders long ago."

"Scarred ones, more the pre-war have lost skills too." Lana put in, though they knew she didn't mind. The woman shifted to point at her boots, "Vital lost skills."

Deegan laughed, glancing at his own boots, hand made, hand cobbled? "Yes… there's a small, mostly ghoul community that almost just make shoes and boots. The normal humans are still living descendants and spouses of them. One of the lucky groups to have that, more so after Diamond City."

"I never did approve of what they did. And not just saying that because you're here." Blake snorted and huffed, crossing his arms for a moment, he smiled, "Our tatos are better than the sad things they grow. Plus most of what we grow, if it's not going to your orders Deegan, it ends up at Goodneighbor. The Mayor there has been paying good caps for them and the sweeter melons when they were in season. It's just the winter ones right now."

"Hancock is a good man." Deegan agreed, and then snorted himself, glancing at Lana as she listened intently to this half gossip, "Don't get me wrong, he is still dangerous, and smarter than he lets on. I would have loved to get my hands in him when he was younger…but Hancock is a not so subtle power house in the Commonwealth now." One would be surprised how many would come running when he called for it, more so after the Cult Incident.

"How so?" Lana asked, admittedly fascinated by what was suddenly talked about.

"He's the Mayor of Goodnaighboor." Blake started to explain, "It's one of the rougher city settlements in the area. In Boston, when there's nowhere else to go, most end up there. Drifters, unsavory and just honest desperate sort of end up there. It's not nearly as bad or corrupt as it used to be,"

"Hancock my not have been elected, but he hasn't been demanded to step down." Deegan snorted, "He's been smart enough to separate what Goodneighbor owns and what he owns. But I don't know any other settlement leadership right now that adopts orphans of the wasteland just for the sake of keeping them safe until they know how to look after themselves or pick where they go."

"Or feed at least one meal a day to the drifters and junkies that are homeless. Even if it's just a mashed tatos with gravy." Blake looked bemused as he realized what was bought from his farm was likely for that.

"Once you're established, it might be with bringing some plant starts in that detection, the tabaco ones. I think I saw those seeds."

Lana arched an eyebrow, but smiled, "Both packs?"

Edward pointed at Lana, "Yes young lady. And when you get those plants, both the hemp and tobacco growing. You save some for me, I know I want good tabaco that's not gone through questionable travels, or almost as old as I am. And some of my family would be highly interested in the other."

"Other?" Blake wondered, what was hemp and why did it sound like something else?

"I brought a certain type of hemp plant, it's like a chem but… lighter?" Lana explained, and grinned at Deegan, "Cannabis, it's not as extinct as some think along the coasts. Mostly up north it's not uncommon to trade."

"I've never heard of either names," Blake admitted, "what kind of chem is it? What does it do?"

"It's a psychoactive drug, plant based," Lana sat up and flipped a page over to draw the plant, what it looked like, "It's used primarily for medical and recreational, helping with pain and calming down. It help some with sleep, you feel heady and calm on it, relaxed. You might need to drink more water like a lot of chems and get munchies-"

"We used it at one point to get sick people to want to eat when the sickness wasn't letting them eat." Deegan added, "For a chem, Cannabis isn't bad, not as addictive if I remember right."

"Compared to some chems maybe, but there's always a chance at addition no matter the vice." Lana pointed out, "Alcohol, gambling, chems. Buy for the most part this isn't a really harmful chem." Lana snorted, "Not that it's illegal anyone. But the whole of the plant is useful too, making butter, mixed in salads and the fibers of the stem. I have other hemp seeds that are a different strain, long term they're good for making cloth and fabrics for clothes, blankets and so on."

"Sometimes the way you talk Lana," Blake said, bemused, "You're clearly living in the wasteland like the rest of us, but others you go off on a tangent and I feel like you're much smarter than us."

"I had to go through a lot of work and classes before I could leave home with full support. I have to know all about the plants I took with me." Lana shook her head, "I'm not smarter than others-"

"Well," Deegan lifted a hand flat and tilted it back and forth, "I would argue you are, both of you have far more sense than a lot of people. Case in point…."

He motioned around at the old Federal Stockpile Bunker and the former Raiders that had lived there.

Blake laughed, "Education then? How long were you studying?"

"...well most all my life. We all had basic then advanced survival lessons throughout our lives, and basic education for reading, writing and math, all that good stuff." Lana doodled a bit more on her plant, "I sort of...fit into practical? Farming and animal husbandry with the moose. Luna is a good example, she'll listen to me and try to bite the others that are as if not more experienced...but that's a moose for you.

"When I wanted to go out exploring and trading, and...well see where seeds could survive. I got further training on how to survive on my own with and without Valory around. Hunting, skinning, getting a water purifier or generator going, how to make rad-away. How to make a bow and arrows from scratch and so on. I'm not the best at bullet making but I can roughly make some."

There was a moment of silence, the other two men thinking about what was said.

Finally Blake spoke up, "I can appreciate that Lana. Your family and community care deeply about you and the others of your generation to invest all that. I wish I had more of that when Lucy and Mary were growing up."

"My mom, and her dads, came from somewhere southwest of the Commonwealth, she's...still not good with the wilds but was always encouraging me, and my younger siblings. To learn from anyone and everyone offering a class. I don't think she'll ever want to go farther than down into the valley's village from the seed vault. That's where grandpas live now, they make really good dishes, clay and wood."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Deegan hummed, "I've had more than a few people, men and women that never wanted to leave the manor once they realized they were safe there."

"I can't blame that," Blake hummed, "If you're place is half as protected like Connie mentioned."

"If may ask," Lana lifted a hand, "How did you all meet? No one explained."

"As you know I'm very old at this point," Edward laughed, a low gravelly sound that was not unpleasant. "My family is... different, older than even me. But they don't always know how to practically survive, good honest help around is needed. I try to make sure pay is fair, providing room and board. One of the girls is a rip old age now… we take care of her more than anything but she still tries to set out tea."

There was no hiding the fondness and pride in his family, and the 'kids' over the years.

"Connie, her grandmother and mother worked for us at the manor, and her when she was younger...until a young trapper came to take care of a bug issue at one of our farms she was at." Deegan looked pointedly at Blake, who flustered and turned red. "Who kept coming by for any kind of job to get a chance at talking to her. It was young dumb love struck if I ever saw it. Still sure Connie is the brains of the relationship."

"She really is," Blake smiled at the table, thinking of the first time he met his now wife, "She's called me stupid and oblivious before asking me to marry her. Now Mary and Lucy are just as smart, it scared me for a while, still does in a way."

"You can't keep the next generations sheltered forever," Deegan noted, sounding much like a father or grandfather himself. And looked pointedly at Lana, who blinked back. "It'll do more harm than good."

"True…" Blake was going thoughtful before sitting back. "If no one protests I think I'd like to go through the stores a bit more? Maybe get some treats for my girls and lady."

Lana gave a thumbs up, "let me know if you find any oils that are still good? Sometimes how they used to sealed oil, some sort of black magic that made it kept and didn't go rancid...as long as it's not jarred around."

Lana leaned back and made gimme hands, "I want the oil and make fresh soap!"

"Gods I need to make a list of other traders for you." Edward snorted and shook his head.

"Oooiil…!"

"You're as bad as Mary, Lana." Blake huffed and laughed as he got up, "There might have been something. The raiders only got so far into the supplies."

"Yay!" Lana leaned back, holding up her arms, after Blake left she relaxed, "...so some traders have oil?"

Deegan chuckled, "Yes, from the west. Some trader caravans travel from a few weeks to a month out and swing back. We have the razorgrain after all. You can get oil, crop plants, critters. For some reason they love the squirrels and are always looking for breeding stock. Sometimes tech if they're from the Capital Wastes."

"That's the old DC area right?" Lana frowned, "I don't want to go that way from what Uncle Ricky mentioned and from word on the roads."

"Avoid it." Edward growled the warning. The response not at Lana but for memories. "The bigoted asses over there are worse than Diamond City, and it's a resource dessert that the shifting powers keep hurting.

"Keep focused here Lana," the scarred man leveled his voice, "Get a good fountain going before you start your search."