Queen's note: Whoo, got this done at last, hope you like it! Next chapters will start to show the Minutemen and Synths.

Welcome to the Wasteland

Chapter Fourteen:

Blackberries and Deathclaws

"What are they?" Mary asked, almost delicately poking the large, thick 'sticks' that Lana had been sorting and spacing out. Lana was setting little twig sticks by each 'house' was a small box representing the cabins and the farm on the large blank lids. She was planning out where there would be a lot of sun most of the day in the Co-op, as well as another half diagram, half diorama for the Farm thanks to Connie earlier. There were still a few remaining in the count that might be planted near the long building...

The sticks Mary was examining were about… two and half to three feet long, one end in canvas bags that had a mix of Lana's moss and damp dirt. There was a hard root ball in there, the stem a good two inches thick, while there were several green nubs of leaves starting to branch off, and patches where thick thorns had been removed.

"Blackberry trees, we found these… I think forty years after the bombs dropped. The Auties that did, only found three that mutated into this tree-like state rather than brambles. All of these are a rapid growth crop like the tatos, and descend from those three plants."

Mary smiled as Lana happily rambled on about more of her plants again. Setting saved, and sprouting Tato and several types of corn seeds on the lid, trying to sort out where she wanted things to be with the sprouting razorgrain. There were a few other distinct seeds or packets of seeds Lana had as well.

"We have some old world blackberries back home, but I like these, they're bigger berries, about...the length of your fingers, or palm, and fat like a peach. Really good in oatmeal or on a pancake!"

"They sound good," Mary hummed, glancing up as Abby walked slowly over, carrying a bag of dried jerky. She had been spending a lot of time with Noel in these last few days, learning about the different generators in the bunker.

Now the girl looked interested in what the older two were doing, daring to get out of her little nest-like spot in one of the 'small' shipping crates. "...do the blackberries grow fast?"

"Yes, and once established they start producing fruit most of the year," Lana smiled at the younger girl to include Abby before she considered the extra twigs representing the real plants again, still thinking of where to put them… there were two set aside for The Farm, maybe the bunker? "And you can pollinate the trees by hand...it's been sort of trained? Evolved in my home bunker with people instead of with bees or flower flies. Big flowers and stems, they're pretty good in tea too."

"Do they taste good?" Mary asked, smiling as she pulled Abby over and down with her to look at the plants. She glanced around and found Lucy was still asleep, or at least content to stay in her bed with two of the rabbits cuddling with her on the pillow. "I wonder if they're like mulberries, or the winter whites."

"The ground white berries that are tangy-sweet?" Abby measured a distance of about three inches between two fingers.

"Yep! They're one of my mom's favorites." Mary nodded, and looked thoughtful. "I think Noel likes them too, we should see if we can find any around in the forests, transplant the ones that survived the storm. Here, for the Co-op and the farm."

"We can grow them up on pots on the walls." Lucy's tired voice spoke up from the side, interrupting herself for a moment as she yawned. "Keep them from the squirrels at least." She was sure it would look pretty too.

"I'm all for more plants," Lana laughed, leaning back as she scanned the plan again, "Good thing we have Fredrick and, um, 'Dude' to help with the watering now. Wonder if we can find any more Mr. Handies to help."

"At least there's enough of us to keep up on things for now, and having left overs in harvest." Lucy hummed happily, grateful the tatos were sprouting and already growing down in the bunker without any issues. "Though I hope Deegan meant it about sending people over. It would be nice to have some more people and families around. Maybe someone will have a heron for night watches!"

"That would be nice." Mary smiled, letting the younger Abby shift closer to lean on her and was watching Lana poke some more seeds into spots or moved others. "We have the fencing now to get turkeys and rock birds now! We should see if Megan will take us out looking for them and eggs."

"Sounds like fun. Though I'm hoping those male turkeys aren't as bad as Jake implied… I wonder how green the cabins are going to be. Or the farm house for you guys, with constant rain and rads." Lana finally shifted to lean back and stretch her legs and lower back. "I've never seen it grow in an active storm like this one… I think the last one in my home area was when I was a baby and living deep in the mountains. But if the radexes is thick enough now, later on in smaller storms it should be fine to stay in the cabins and be insulated from the radiation…. Might still use a Geiger-counter to test first. Huh, I wonder if they have one to do readings."

Mary snorted softly as she watched her friend ramble and slowly sink back until she was laying down. "I think we left a counter at our place on the farm., maybe Megan can take some notes of the levels in and out?"

A loud, relatively speaking, two tone squawk made the girls all jump. Pause and stared at the quail roo that was staring back at them, the little bird fluffed up his feathers and stood tall to yell a protest- triggering a few other quail roos to yell back.

"Oh really young sir?" Mary could not help but laugh.

"The quail sounds so strange," Lucy rolled a bit more to be comfortable on her side. She was not sure how Lana could sleep through most of the night with the sounds the roo made. Then again, Mary and here were used to the sound of Brahmin, maybe it was like that?

"It's a bird yell, but somehow… cute." Abby murmured aloud, watching as Lana got up to check where the birds were in the improvise coops.

"It is, aaand… this is why." The strawberry blond woman carefully extracted two quail that were huddling between the crate coops. The Roo's two females that somehow got out. Lana returned them and checked the crate over. Making sure the opening of the handles were covered she sat back down.

"You think all the tallow dad was working on is done?" Lucy wondered aloud, looking over at her sister.

"I think so, he was finishing the last batch down here." Mary blinked, wondering if that was where their dad was that morning. He had been working on it last night as well, after noticing the count of candles.

"We should save some of the tallow and make some soap." Lana hummed happily, "Not sure how much of the oils here survived the old world preservation process. And that vanilla, down here it's an extract not paste but still. If they did survive, I'd rather use the oil for soup rather than cooking."

"...how do you make soap with oil?" Abby asked, puzzled as she shifted. Leaning against Mary as she puzzled over this new idea. "And…tallow, that's animal fat right? How can you turn that into soap?"

"Of course you can," Mary smiled, "You need lye though, I think we have some still at the Farm. And there might be some in the bunker…mom might know where. Anyways, there's a reaction with the Lye and the fat, and it turns into soap."

"The process, reaction, is called saponification," Lana snorted at the word as Abby and Lucy giggled, "Sounds silly but that's really what it is. We can add in the chamomile flowers, some whole pedals and crushed up, maybe the old vanilla."

"...I wonder if the hubflowers would work too, if the other flower does?" Lucy half asked, shifting and stretching out again, then curling to cuddle the rabbit gently.

"I wonder if mom can take us to the old boston botanical garden again, we might get some fresh vanilla there." Mary absently thought about it as she reached for one of the small buckets not far that had a little bit of water and razorgrain seeds. Mixing the seeds up so they could stay hydrated, and smiling as she found most had curling sprouts. "There's a clan there that has the original pre-war ghoul families that were workers, and their living descendants."

"Ooh, I like gardens and areas like that," Lana smiled, distracted as she stared at the seeds. "Wonder what they saved."

There was a quiet pause for a long minute, not tense but a sort of sleepy contentment.

All at once, Abby watched as the three older girls all sat up suddenly, as if somehow sharing a thought.

Lucy turned, eyes shining, "Lana! Would the botanical garden have the seed vault you're looking for?"

"It's a prewar area and the clan there has been keeping plants alive above ground and underground in those big cave exhibit places." Mary added remembering what she had seen when her mother had brought her there last.

"It might be, or they might know some clues to find it." Lana brightened up as much as the other two, "That's a great idea for a place to start!"

"Hello-hello?" Noel's soft rasp of a voice called as he came from the upper area and main entrance. Hearing voices awake and came down.

"We're down here!" Lucy called, Standing up at last and letting the rabbit cuddle into her warm spot. "Well, most of us."

She was not quite sure where their parents were in the bunker. The youngest two kids were well and truly passed out in their 'room' farther in.

Noel smiled as he walked from the stars to the small barricade, and motioned the group of girls to get up, "Come see? Get a jacket though. The radiation is at normal levels….if not lower than normal. But I think you might like to see what happened."

Lana brightened even more as she climbed up, she looked over at the scarred man as Abby and Mary were carefully extracting themselves from the layouts as well. "Just rain? Did you see that mother deer?"

"Yes, and I did, Valory took it over to the Co-op to get treatment for radiation last night sometime well very early morning. She looked very...bemused." Noel shook his head, looking bemused himself, as he was trying to puzzle out why the older girls looked so excited. Not that it was a bad thing, it was seeing them all happy even before his good news, "She's willing to do a lot for you Lana."

"Valory is amazing, and has been a guardian all my life." Lana managed to stand up at last reaching for her jacket and a long sleeve shirt over her tee-shirt, and under the jacket.

"How old...is the Deathclaw? Valory?" Abby hesitated a moment as she had been hearing about this being over the last few days but not quite sure she believed it.

"She's 87," Lana smiled as she grabbed one of the big military jackets for Abby to put on. "She will be 88 in late summer-early fall."

"Do you do something for her... birthday? Hatch-day?" Lucy asked, tilting her head and looked interested as she started climbing the stairs with her sister first.

Lana smiled, "She likes a kind of pot pie with mixed meats and veg. I was not sure if we could get flour for this trip at first, but thankfully that razorgrain might work out."

Lallna looked back after climbing a few steps, at first going to offer a hand to Abby, as the girl was still thin and did not have much muscles. Noel though beat her to offering help, as the scarred man was just picked Abby up. Using that innate strength of being a 'ghoul' Noel was able to carry the young teen up the stairs, letting her save what strength Abby had for the surface. Lana smiled and turned, reflexively picking up the simple bow and her quiver left up in the main entrance office once there.

There was a slight clinking of small hooves, making Abby look over the place cover shoulder she was leaning on. The girl smiled, lit up at seeing the animal that came after them. "Sunshine! The radiation went down!"

Noel chuckled as he glanced back at the Cap-bear, who was distinctly smaller in mass. Having given birth almost twelve hours ago, and a half day and night since they had done an IV treatment of rad-away. After a bit of being radiation free Sunshine just….popped out a miniature horde of tiny Cap-bears.

Now she seemed ready for her first break, likely needing to graze and just eat. Sunshine gave some chirping sounds in response to Abby, following Noel up to the main entrance.

"You said the rads are back down?" Mary called back as she stopped by the heavy door, needing to stand aside as Lucy and Lana opened it up, pausing to reflexively listen to the geiger counter. But there was little to no difference from what was inside.

There was just something about seeing that sheer relief in people… Noel liked it, liked that people nowadays were grateful of the smaller and big things like being able to survive. The return of healthy green things and trees that were thought to be dead coming out of a near 300 year hibernation.

Noel wondered if that big old walnut tree in the Sanctuary housing place was still alive under the 'armored' bark…. He should take Lana there, or some of the other trees with that kind of bark. The scarred man set Abby down in the topside reception building, and motioned to the half door where there were glimpses of outside.

Abby hesitated, one hand gripping Noel's forearm for balance as the older girls were already heading outside. Lana seemed to perk up at an odd thrumming sound that vibrated as a feeling in the chest and behind the ears, as much as...hearing.

"Look at how far the moss spread!"

"Did Noel and the others clear out the mound?"

"Valory? Oh, there you are!"

"What is that….sound?" Abby asked her free hand pressing behind her ear, looking up at the scared man that reminded her so much of her great grandfather. Not just because they were both ghouls, but how they acted and in temperament.

"It's a subharmonic sound, almost." Noel explained, letting the young teen take her time, "Valory makes a wide range of sounds in such a low pitch we can't fully hear it, but still feel it."

"That's...that is the Deathclaw?" Abby's eyes widened, "She's really real?... And here?"

Noel nodded saying with an odd confidence, "Yes, she won't hurt you Abby. If anything she's been waiting to meet you after hearing what... happened. She's the one that took time to bury your parents in the rad-storm."

"It wasn't you and Deegan?" Abby hesitated, looking out the open door. The non panicking times of Mary, Lucy and Lana talking a bit away from the door. While Sunshine trotted back and forth in the thick green mess of long grass and moss.

Noel shook his head, "We made sure they had dignity, but Valory was the one that dug the grave and buried them."

"Are…did mom and dad get to be buried... together?" Abby asked, remembering half whispered words in the dark before her mother started and could not stop sobbing, then whaling...and then screaming.

What had Lana said?

Abby's mother had become Lost? That made sense to Abby in a way. Lost her mind, and Lost that wonderful soft warm love.

The teen almost wanted to hide back in the bunker, to hide from the truth and pretend her parents were just missing. Abby shivered, reaching to grab the older, scared man's hand and got a reassuring squeeze back.

"You can do it Abby," Noel said, not pushing, yet not quite letting her retreat easily. He did try to offer a plan though, "We can go to the left, and uphill where the graves are first, and when you're ready, we can see Valory from a distance."

"I can… okay. I think I can do that." the girl nodded, it seemed like the deathclaw was to the right, so that should be safe. Abby had to take the first few steps to the half door, peering out and just seeing… "Green?"

Eyes widening, Abby dared to go outside as she saw what should not have been really there. There was no mass smell of plants dying and rotting, or wildlife that died in the rad storm… it was all healthy green shades, and even a few buds of flowers were forming. That big hill Abby half remembered was gone, dug out to where there was a patch of just moss hiding the more clay dirt under in that patch. The chain link panels she had semi distantly seen in the dimly lit dark of that night had been pulled up and set aside. While the big shipping crates and trailer had been pulled into a form of order that made a blockade by the cabin. The sides were facing inside and making a good solid wall on the either side of the entrance of the bunker. The trailer was to one side beyond and trucks dragged away to keep their hazard of exploding away until their engines were fixed or repurposed.

It was like the start of a nice little settlement now that the raiders were gone. Abby would not have seen them, but even the cages and random pikes that were used to hang up gore and old victims were gone. the old bodies and parts buried when the stock pile had been cleared a little over a week ago, before the storm.

Abby paused as she focused on an odd design, clearly it had been painted recently, before the storm as the paint on the side of the trailer was bright against the aged metal. The rain un-affecting the paint so it was long since dry.

In white paint there was what looked like a tree, branches arching and spiraling out of the trunk in a smooth motion, with in wardilyng curving 'roots.'

"What is that?" Abby asked, fascinated enough to start over to the painting and container. Then she was distracted by the cabin that was covered in moss. Not just having moss stuffed in the cracks and seams of wood but it was a thick mat on the roof and only slightly thinner climbing downwards down the outer walls, almost half way. That helped really sink in how much plant life survived that was mixed with the moss, even the roof of another cabin had a small twisting sprig of a fern -growing on one corner. There was a hub flower bush at the corners of one of the other cabins. Though the bushes looked a bit rough, not unlike how Abby's younger siblings had first tried to plant things in their old home farm.

"I think this area can turn around quite nice." Noel hummed, walking over after Abby, though did try not to react to seeing the hub bushes. Pretty sure that was Valory's attempt at helping out other than moving the trailer.

"I like it...but I like how the bunker feels...safe. but I like the nice green." Abby thought out loud, and after a moment she reached out to touch the new buds in the nearest hub bush. She looked up at Noel, listening only partly as the older girls talked with a deep growling voice out of sight. "Where's, um, mom and dad?"

"Over here." Noel took Abby's hand again and led her over beyond the trailer to where there was a semi flat area, a large spot dug and filled in. There were two stones in a semi cone shape on one side.

Only once closer the girl could see that it had been one stone at a point, but had been broken in half, the flat sides tilted partly two each other, mostly to the joint grave. Ready for someone to carve or paint the flat sides with names and dates. There were two more flat, roughly oval shaped, stone slabs to keep smaller predators out.

It was a touching effort that someone put in.

It may have taken Abby a few moments to puzzle out the reason for the slabs, other than representing two in the grave. But once she did, she was grateful. Moving over with Noel's supporting presence nearby, she sat down on the foot end of one slab.

It...was not as bad as Abby thought it might be. Maybe because she never had seen the bodies, not in the storm, not when she was sick in the bunker. Not now as they were buried, resting safe under the stone slab.

"Noel?" Abby asked, the young girl peering up as she caught the ghoul's attention from staring after the pulled away trucks.

The scarred man crouched down to sit on his heels in front of the twelve year old. Smiling as the Cap-Bear trotted over to rub against his left knee for attention and a back scratch as Sunshine reached her head to the girl. "Yes?"

"It... really was quick, right? They didn't suffer?" Abby asked as the others were moving around somewhere out of sight. There must be another path she did not know of. "I don't...I don't remember what happened. Just it being dark, and then yelling once dad sat down…"

Noel took a deep breath as the old man's eyes softened, his voice was calm, but honest. "From what I can tell that night, what Lana said happened….yes. It looks like your dad nodded off and did not wake up. Lana's aim is true and your mother didn't suffer. I think they can rest easy, and once the rain lets up, we'll find some flowers to transplant around their heads stones. Maybe we can find some chizzles too."

"I think I would like that." Abby nodded as she rested her arms on her knees, starting to fidget with her fingernails.

"Awww… ain't this the sweetest shit you've ever seen Chunk?" a new, harsher male voice spoke up, in a mockingly 'sweet' attempt of a voice.

Noel felt a jolt of sudden fear as he looked up, eyes widening as he stared at the man. No, men that were striding over and standing over them.

Oversized trench coats, or cut to fit the seemingly molded armor under. Ammo belts were wrapped around middles or over a shoulder under the jackets and weapons drawn, though held relaxed in their two's direction.

The first speaker was grinning around a cigar, having an surprisingly intact and new looking, wide brim stetson hat. There was no visible hair, no beard or even eyebrows, but brown eyes that were burning bloodshot were almost predator-like in their calculation. Watching as Noel reflexively stood, grasping Abby's hand and pulling the girl to his side and partly behind him as the ghoul man backed up a step.

'Chunk' laughed beside this man, he was grinning a little too wide, eyes a little to glazed, and other heavy cem user signs, "Yeah boss, it's so fucking precious. Good find for new blood in Nuka."

"Too bad they won't have the chance." One of the other men laughed from behind, there was another three behind the three in front. Six raiders in total but there was a cluster of four people being forced to their knees by a tree, some had cleaner pale clothes and lights flickering around necks-

Noel felt a sinking feeling as he recognized a slave collars before seeing the frightened, sick faces. He had taken them safely off the kids in Goodneighbor, and other places. There was a sinking, freezing weight that dropped from under his heart and down into his gut. He was old enough, and lived through enough to know that Abby, the other girls, would be seen as highly 'valuable' on any slave market.

"You need to move on," the old ghoul said, taking another step back with Abby as he saw part of the earth moving behind the group, "It's not safe here for you, we're in grace but you're not."

The leader snorted, focused on Noel, not the two forms making their way over. Maybe he could not hear far past the rain in his hat as it picked up. "I don't care what deal you have with these shitty Commonwealth raiders." He paused and chunked as he saw the girl's eyes widening, not quite looking at him but those behind, likely realizing they were slavers. "I'm-"

"They're coming." The girl said, in such a strange tone, a Matter of fact tinged with shock.

"What?" The leader asked, pausing as he seemed to realize that the look was not directed at him and his crew. A soft creeking sound distracted the man into turning, seeing a young woman, no. Two that were crouched by the trailer frame, he was just recognizing that the one kneeling had a bow that was vibrating and was pulling out another arrow to notch and draw back.

Huh.

Someone else in the Commonwealth that used a bow-?

It was a belated thought and his confusion cost the man his reflexes. The already shot arrow had impaled Chunk, a near perfect shot between the ears. Making the shorter , grasping upwards before falling over.

Then there was an explosive furry of actions as one of those already in the slave collars screamed in horror as the deep snawl overpowered it. The raider leader was swinging around, taking in that the old ghoul grandpa and the kid were still weaponless and scrambling. The ghoul bodily shields the girl as the first rifle was shot from behind.

He had a clear view for a moment before the arrow embedded into his thigh, at the rough artery spot. He saw the two Deathclaws, the 'smaller' one, still around ten feet tall, was just dropping a decapitated body of the rear guard and bounding at the raider now to his left. The other….

The raid leader felt something clench in his chest. A fear he had not felt since really rising in the ranks of Nuka World, it grabbed and twisted in his chest as the massive matriarch rose and stepped over the dead raiders and cowering slav- sla...slab…

The pain flared in his leg as a pistol fired in the rain, spin ing the raid leader around. His hat knocked off, and was only able to see the smaller deathclaw pouncing his last living man. Then he was hit but a large solid hand to go sprawling in the mud, a dozen feet away from where the matriarch stood now. Bleeding out as the arrow was pulled out in the flying lesson.

The last thing the raid leader heard was something deep in his head or body snapping as a hot weight pressed down on the slaver from above.

The dark colored male deathclaw growled in warning at the last three, new humans. A reflex as he stood up from the one he bit the neck of. Spines down his back rattling a bit but a humming from the mottled matriarch had him hesitating. She had not killed them when over them, and the saw one of the soft one females coming over to the three. He snorted and the male tilted his head, cleaning his face for a moment. Watching the soft ones left, trying to sort out why those three were spared, or why The Valor was letting her humans near the others.

The dark could see her favorite human moving to shoot with the silent, arch weapon at the bodies under the matriarch's gaze. The. He started scenting, pausing and chirped for attention.

Valory turned to the male, listening to the rasping, words in deathclaw, she paused to sniff and flick out her forked tongue to check. "He says some of the humans smell strange...and they do."

"Chems?" Lana asked as she glanced back and swung her bow over her right shoulder, taking in the sad group of three. All scared, all wide eyed a bit much, but also what skin was showing was splotchy and red. "Hey, hey, easy, Valory won't hurt you, not after saving you."

"It's okay, we're here to help." Lucy coo-ed as she knelt down, putting her small pistol away in its holster. One man, two women, they looked like Abby and the kids had. Radiation sickness from the storm? Possibly the raiders pulled them out of shelter as they did not have much by way of waterproof clothes, but wet, off white jumpsuits of a sort for two, and hide leggings and a long sleeve for the other woman "I know their deathclaws, just stay calm. The big one is Valory."

The man seemed to be the most coherent of the group, the smaller woman half fainted while the other was trying to not throw up. He looked between the new people, the giant creature- not quite sure about the name but it made sense as Valor was curling her killing claws as she turned, scanning for more threats even as the big head lowered to the young girl with a happy rumble. The heavily scarred man hurrying over, taking tools out of his jacket.

He was so confused staring up at Noel.

"Hang on, let me get that collar off, safely." Noel paused to make sure there would be no reaction to his appearance. But the young man just seemed to be stuck in a state of shock, even as he worked to take off the collar. Noel was deft and flung it off into the distance, away from anyone and the male to crackle and overcharged.

"There, now let's get the other two and these focks inside." Noel said, glancing at the girls around him, they both seemed so young to him but at the same time...the three were not overly surprised by this new situation and new survivors.

The fact the girls, young women were so willing to help others again it seemed. The old ghouls were proud, and very thankful for the mass of deadly, aware beastie that was Valory. The Deathclaw that was holding very still for Abby while the smaller male eased back to scan for more threats.

…ohhh boy, this was going to be a thing to explain to Deegan, and Blake.

Reviews!

Justsomerandombastard:
Thank you!

There really is a lot to play with with zoo animals, I'm working on a new critter for later on, based on different deer and elk that can cross breed from around the world and only way is possible is from a zoo. and I agree, there's a lot of animals in generally, big and little that can be based on [mega turkeys coming soooon XD mostly I want to write them in because I have them here at the ranch. and the little buggers are so smart]

As for as fish, I can see them still in schools and most behaviors not unlike normal. as for them being angered or more aggressive it might depend on the type of fish or other wise. This like Mirelurks and those mega lobster-like Mirelurks make sense their aggressive, as a lot of coruscations can be territorial. Normally its on suck a smaller scale we don't always notice it.