Queen's note: …dundunDUN I'm so happy to be at this point. Someone else hug Preston! Also messing with the timeline again in that cascade effect, also Deegan decided this must be done differently and annoy Fate for the hell of it.

Welcome to the Wasteland

Chapter Sixteen:

Minutemen

Deegan saw both of the groups that day long before anyone saw him.

The first time he met a group, Deegan thought it was some surviving raiders from the group he, Blake and Lana cleared out of the federal stockpile that were coming back, or the ones that were bothering the Abernathy family originally.

He might have been debating on cutting around Concord to get to where those raiders were hiding in their hole up north to have a...chat before going home. Really, he should take the time to clear them out here before anyone he left behind came to town to use the semi hidden washing machines any time soon.

Deegan paused at hearing voices and listened for a moment at what this group were actually saying. He caught a few scouts, making quick work of them and hiding the bodies just behind walls. Listening to the men still talking.

The scared man blinked, there were some Minutemen alive?

Deegan frowned, hesitating a slight moment, long enough for someone to come up beside him around a corner. A swift move to clock her in the head with his elbow and having to catch the slumping body. Still thinking, the lucid ghoul set the raider down beside the body he just hid. He was just distracted that Deegan did not finish her off.

He moved, backtracking and then around Concord to the east, half a day was what Deegan heard and he stayed just off to the side of the main road. Long legs helped as he found that distance eating pace that was not walking but more a light jog.

Deegan almost missed the group. Huddled under a bare old tree that had only just started to send out new shoots of leaves, at the bases of large flower buds. There were Minutemen, but not just them, he spotted the exhausted settlers. Earthy and bark colored tones in the middle of dirty blues. Deegan could spot the early signs of starvation, nor did he miss a man and woman huddled together slightly apart by another tree in shared trauma.

"Well… shit." Deegan muttered under his breath, took a few moments to watch his backtrail. Keeping an eye on the group that was just trying to rest, to recover some.

The standing Minutemen were trying to get the settlers to at least drink water even if there was no food.

Well, what was another day to his trip?

"Hail the fire." Deegan lifted his voice, staying beside a tree himself if he needed to duck back. The softest murmur of voices he could almost hear stopped and at least three people lifted weapons. They did not fire though, so Deegan continued, his voice still gravel but able to project the distance. "I'm friendly, can I come up?"

"We don't have much of anything," A dark skinned young man called back, getting up belatedly from where… it looked like a basic water filter with a hose to a pool of water in the rocks and bricks of...something.

"Like I said, I'm friendly, not looking for trouble." Deegan took a careful step forward, carefully showing he was putting his rifle on his back. Even if it was not fully the truth, considering the raiders he was half hunting. When the young man motioned to the other guards, and their own weapons were lowered, Deegaon started walking up.

"That's good, we really can't handle much more trouble." The younger man looked like he was the highest ranked of the Minutemen. Though it had been a while since the ghoul had interacted with them even before the roomers.

"Then you need to change your path," Deegan said bluntly, coming into the group's space. He scanned around the survivors with a critical eye, noting the elder woman that was squinting at him, mostly in confusion rather than offended at him. Deegan did not miss slight twitches, and the yet to be bandaged marks of fingernails and broken teeth.

They just had a brush with ferals. Possibly a few times as some bites looked...older. they were all red and angry with different stages of infection. There were also some signs of radiation burns, spotting splotches of the rain, likely before they had found shelter from that last big storm.

He turned blue and red eyes to meet worried brown.

Deegan mostioned behind him and in the direction of the small town. While at the same time he was swinging his pack off, "There's an ambush waiting in Concord. I was skirting the place when I heard them mentioning waiting for the Minuteman. Good to see some of you are still around, and trying."

The man winced at the warning, taking his hat off to rub a hand over black hair. So short he must have shaved it all not long ago. "I… thank you, friend. We haven't been having a good time as you can see. Not just Quintcy, we just came from Lexington."

"Hmm, explains the marks, its overrun with ferals that way." Deegan frowned a moment before he reached into his bag and pulled out three of the smaller canvas packs. Tossed one to the woman to his left, and then to the speaker before crouching down in front of the older woman, offering the pack. His voice going a bit softer as he placed who the woman was, "Hey pretty lady, didn't expect to see you here. Chew this slowly Marrow."

"I see you haven't changed much Edward." The elder smiled, hands not really frail but not as strong as they once were, grasping at scarred hands as much as the bag of jerky. "I go by Momma Murphy now… how did you get here?"

"I walked mostly, and jogged sometimes." Deegan smiled, aware that the other packs were being dug into and already started being chewed on. Three of the twelve here we're insisting the others eat slowly and only eat one strip at a time. "You got silver."

Marrow, no Murphy made a face, "Don't remind me."

"Murphy then? So you ended up marrying that punk?"

Her gaze was slightly cloudy but none the less soft, "Yes, yes I did marry that fool. And as you can see I came back to the Commonwealth."

"How long have you known each other?" The dark skinned young man asked coming back. Not having anything in his hands except the empty bags to give back. At least until Mama Murphy got into her bag, poking him with a strip of jerky until he took it to start slowly chewing on a corner with a sigh.

"I first met this mad brat when she was younger than you, barely 14 and trying to boss me into hiring her." Deegan chuckled as he stood back up, while the elder woman beamed in old pride and mischief, aware of all the others eyeing him with keen interest.

"It worked! Even if it was helping those immortal folks at first. We're looking for Sanctuary Edward… have you seen it?" Murphy peered up at the ghoul, ignoring a huff from a dark haired woman that was beside her own husband. Though she was almost desperately chewing on her own chuck of meat.

"Not in a couple years," Deegan shook his head, "I might be up there in a few weeks, but last I heard its empty, the families that were there have moved."

"Its the best place we can think of to go." The leader said, paused and winced before shifting the laser rifle on his back. He offered his hand after the slightest hesitation, "Preston Garvey, by the way."

Deegan clasped the hand in a shake, "I've heard your name, you have a good reputation despite it all with the former Minutemen leadership. After the Castle fall that is."

"Thanks." A slightly watery smile was given, but Deegan could see some dullness in his eyes. Depression or trauma, not fear of him as a ghoul.

"I wouldn't recommend you going to Sanctuary." Deegan said after another good look at the group. Holding up a hand once it was free, his voice still softer, but had a natural tone of authority that came with over two centuries of being in charge of others. "None of you are in a condition to set up a new settlement while the weather is still turning bad at night. I know of a group that will help at least until you've gotten your strength back."

"I...can't disagree with you much, but we can't go that much farther."

"There is hope in Sanctuary, where help and hope will come..." Momma Murphy started but hesitated, and then lowered the piece of jerky to squint, "What do you know Edward?"

"Want to try seeing it?" Deegan gave a slow smile. One that might almost be called devilish.

"No chems," Preston and three others started to say, including the man sitting at the filter.

"There's more to Sight then Chems despite what she might try and tell you." Deegan said stepping back to the elder, who puffed her cheeks at him. The scarred man reached out with his right hand, putting it over the woman's head. Very careful as his thumb pressed to her forehead and tapped with his middle finger.

"It's been years since this worked, you can't possibly remember how-" The fortune teller cut off as she felt something shift, her eyes glazed in a way the others only seen here and there when the woman had her hands on the harder chems.

Momma Murphy, once Marrow the Madwoman, saw the world fade away to darkness. Flashes of scenes, first of memories from her and Deegan's views, the same memory and moment of time but from different views.

The past that the two shared, from the start where Deegan had carried a drugged girl over his shoulders into the old mansion that was a step from the prewar past for help. Seeing the immortal family that helped the scared child understand what The Sight was.

Rapid flashs, of seeing Deegan several times through her life before leaving to the south for almost ten years.

Then…

Then she saw that thread in the times that could be. Threads that were in the here and now. Not just blue and copper but a glitter of gold and shine of healthy green, like a thick old ribbon of sunlight wrapping around a sprouting vine. Like a sharp edge blade bending and flexing around the new life, protecting the vine as it grew.

Leaves spreading out with no fear of those edges, weaving through it all and spreading through the dark. Each cluster of leaves showing a hazy outline behind it. Like looking through curtains to the brighter outside world. People working, protecting one another, hunting and farming.

Murphy sucked in a breath, smelling the sweet nectar of flowers and tasting something earthy on the air instead of the hot ancient pavement. The smell of cropped grass and richer earth.

She could feel soft fur under the fingers of her right hand and feathers under her left instead of the rough canvas bag. Distantly something smelled like stew, and she turned to look through the darkness-

And saw the outlines. Not just of that from her visions before this last year. Visions that drew her to Presten to help Guild the young man through this hard time.

It was like seeing the rest of a picture that had been folded in half or thirds to fit in a frame.

That part she knew so well, outlines that were almost stepping out of the darkness of the Vision World. Or maybe… no not stepping out of the dark but seeing for the first time that they were back lit.

That almost impossibly tall man, with broad shoulders and a will stronger than the fates was still in the middle. He had a jacket that had ice flaking off it and a hat not unlike the one on his right.

That one Murphy could still see with more clarity. Preston's warm eyes, warmer smiles as he reached out to help those up out of the muck of the Commonwealth she could not see somewhere behind her.

The outline of the man to the left of the one was shameless leaning against that hope. Smoke trailing around his own tricorn hat and the glips of scarred hands. One holding a cigarette and the other holding something silver and hiding behind him. Murphy was able to catch a glimpse of red but was caught by a gaze that was blacker than the Vision World's darkness, reflecting a little silver instead of any light.

This she knew, had been seeing this 'picture' most of her life, though only really solidifying over this last year. A timer Murphy knew as clarity instead of a count down.

She turned to the other side, still aware of the feeling of fur and smell of plants as she saw the rest of the outline, to the right past Preston. Three young women sitting on cement, two she knew were sisters, the other from a place beyond the Commonwealth.

Murphy caught glimpses of blond, brown and rosy hair. One sister on the left holding a thick round Mirelurk egg. The other sister in the middle of the three had a rich green mellon in her lap, holding out something out to Murphy, who tried to reach out for the offering. It was the size of a marble, purple and red in color and full of flavor when bitten into.

That third girl, woman, was smiling up at Murphy from where she sat, narrower eggs resting in her own lap as she held her hands cupped together, full of dirt, moss and...something like a vine growing out.

"Everything starts with a seed, did you know that? Plants, animals, even us." A voice said from the darkness, not from any one figure. Indistinct and wavering in and out of her hearing as a deep humming started. "It'll start again with seeds "

Someone was stepping up, out of the darkness and barely visible, Someone that was that same impossible height like the Hope was, like Deegan. Murphy only getting the impression of leather and a shotgun held over the shoulder.

And then it happened, before she could try to see that last third of the picture, of the vision.

The massive form dwarfing all others, making Murphy feel her heart clench as the Matriarch's outline did step out of the shadows. Eyes glowing bright gold like that ribbon of liquid sunlight, horned head resting down beside the girls while curling around the three. The oddly long tail stretching out behind Preston and the other three.

Deegan lifted his hand as he finished counting to ten and Marrow, Murphy gasped in a fresh breath of air. She could still hear a low humming in her ears, as she looked around, would still have that humming in her mind for a few days. Taking another deeper breath as the woman rooted herself in her own present with the feel of canvas instead of fur or feathers. The taste of spiced dried meat in her mouth instead of the odd berry. The faces looking at her with confusion, worried and puzzled expressions.

The scared man hummed, a deeper counterpoint to what was still in Momma Murphy's inner ears. "Still good with grounding?"

The elder, but not eldest here nodded, looking up to find Preston offering some filtered water. She took the cup and sipped, "I remember how to do this."

"That's good," Deegan nodded, and then snorted softly, not unlike a father or guardian… which was true enough. "Took you a few years."

Preston smiled as he made sure his campaign was alright, "What did you see?"

Mamma Murphy looked up at him, her exposition fading from annoyed to something… oddly fond. "The path that's another way to the same place. To the Hope that we need. Your path, is past this… but there is still a ways to walk… we should go with Edward."

"If someone is willing to take us in," The settler with the mechanic's overalls spoke up from where he sat by the filter. The man had dark hair, and would have a decent enough build once he regained a few pounds and muscle. Also just looking ready to fall asleep where he was sitting up. Sturges, his name would turn out to be, "I'll take what I can right now. Even if it's just a bed roll, or grass."

Deegan nodded, though thinking of the full crop of tatos right now, even if smaller. Blake had been willing to share with Lana, the carpenter brothers and the kids. Even spare some plants in an exchange that was half for the very real protection that was Valory before, some radexes and some seeds. His family and Lana's new group had been properly talking again about how to help each other days before when Deegan left. Even little things like animal care and what they both could salvage from the shipping lock up beside the Abernathy farm….that was today. He left them working.

Deegan motioned to the still standing Minuteman, "Take a rest, hydrate and fill your canteens. It's still early in the day, we'll be there before dark even with rest."

There was a hesitation from the standing guards, more from sheer habit right now to be hyper aware. But slowly, one at a time the ran ragged Minutemen found a spot to sink down to the ground as the Ghoul took up the roll of guard and watchman. Walking around a little out from the group, being quiet.

One well rested, very alert watcher was at this moment far more effective than several half asleep men and women.

Reviews!

Justsomerandombastard:

Thank you again! I'm glad you like the details, hopefully this chapter made sense. Also, yes there'll be some flirts popping up here and there XD As for synth dogs... its possible, though not sure how well someone not with a lot of experience of animals can train them. It would be funny that a lot of the batches, if there are some, would just...go trotting off to find a better person. Or become some of the ghoulifed feral dogs running after being exposed to too much radiation.

The same training and time needed for Coursers to bond to dogs I can see being looked down on. Aren't the independence needed for Coursers both needed/wanted and looked down on/disapproved of at the same time...?