Sunset
The next morning, after a quick shower and breakfast together, the two of them set out east across the Zia Desert to the production station. The building would've been conspicuous enough in the sprawling wastes of the desert, but the giant radio antenna out back certainly helped in identifying it. AJ pulled the bike up to the side of the building and he and Penny disembarked. The employee side entrance they'd stopped near was unlocked and slightly ajar. AJ took a moment to make sure he had pulse slugs loaded and then eased the door open, weapon at the ready.
The hall inside was clear of any surprises, mechanical or otherwise, and the duo entered the building. The floor was a very dingy and dirty white linoleum, the walls a muted blue. The hall was T-shaped, the employee door dead center at the bottom. The two of them moved up to the junction and peeked the corners, AJ to the right and Penny to the left. AJ heard clanking to his left but trusted his daughter to watch his back. When she didn't fire, he knew they were safe for the time being.
"Protectron," she whispered. "It walked around the corner."
"OK," AJ said. A quick check of the right-side of the hall revealed only a bathroom and breakroom, both devoid of interest. The two of them doubled back, following the robot. AJ glanced around the corner and saw the robot standing by an open pair of double doors, just minding its business. He decided that they just couldn't have that and put a pulse slug in the automatron's body, and it collapsed to the floor in a heap of burned-out trash.
When there was no response from the building's other mechanical inhabitants the two of them proceeded up to the double doors. The station's main lobby was beyond them, a large desk to the left and the main entrance opposite. Behind the desk was a spiral staircase of all things, going up. AJ and Penny approached and ascended the steps, going slow and steady. At the top of the stairs was a long hallway, another spiral staircase at the end. Lining the hall were doors; offices, if AJ had to guess. For writers and artists. Again they split, AJ going left and Penny going right. The first door on the left was closed, so he waited for Penny to check the other room. She crouched by the open door and leaned around it, carbine at her shoulder. AJ's gaze wandered up and down her lithe backside, appreciating the chance to appreciate her figure. The previous night had been gratifying, but hardly enough. For the both of them.
The room was apparently clear as Penny pulled back after a moment and nodded at him. AJ nodded back and turned the knob for the door he was beside, holding the trench gun against his shoulder with one hand. The room inside was basic, as expected, and clear.
AJ pulled back from the threshold just in time to catch sight of a Protectron coming out of one of the offices down the hall, its hull a dented and scratched olive green, a faded white star on its body. It noticed them and turned, its arms rising. Its claws opened and the diodes in its palm began to glow a brilliant red. "Trespassers. Trespassers. Submit to the authority of the United States Military." It fired both guns at once, bright laser beams flashing down the hall and hitting the floor by AJ's feet. He fell back on his ass and scrambled towards his daughter.
"DADDY!" Penny screamed and returned fire on the robot. The .30 Carbine rounds hit the machine's armored hull and punched through, but failed to disrupt it any meaningful way. The Protectron turned in place, the diodes in its translucent plexiglass dome head glowing red. The claws on its hands began to spin; slowly at first, then faster.
AJ grabbed Penny by the collar of her shirt and yanked her into the office just as the Protectron opened up on them with a storm of full-auto lasers, the beams scorching the carpet and leaving glowing gouges in their wake. Embers floated up and the air stank with the heavy odor of ozone as the Protectron clanked down the hall in pursuit. "Kill. Kill. Kill."
Father and daughter had ended up on the floor, one on top of the other. AJ was still holding her when he scrambled into a crouch, keeping the Winchester braced. He pulled Penny back until she was behind him and took aim down the shotgun's sights. The robot stepped into view, the sensors in its dome spinning rapidly. Its manipulators began to spin again, the laser diode's glowing bright enough to bathe the walls in their light.
AJ didn't hesitate. He pulled the trench gun's trigger and it thundered in the enclosed space, the sound slamming the walls as hard as the slug that slammed into the robot's chassis. It punched straight through its hull, shorting out every system and frying most of them. Every light in and on the machine shut off and it dropped straight to the floor with a heavy thump. AJ stood and kept the gun trained on the robot for a moment, wanting to make sure it was out and that there were no more coming behind it.
"Daddy!" Penny yelled, and he looked down at her. She was unharmed, her gun and wide eyes fixed on the automatron. She ran up to it and kicked it, an angry look on her face. "Stupid robot!"
AJ stepped over it and checked to make sure the hall was clear before crouching beside his daughter, setting the shotgun on the floor next to her. "Are you OK?" he asked, and she nodded. She swallowed, blinked, and seemed to calm down. His heart broke to see her scared like that, but he quickly brushed it aside. He wouldn't leave Penny alone with anyone; if they hurt her, tried to take her from him...
No. She would always be with him. Always. He'd never let her go. She was far too precious to him to be let out of his sight.
AJ rubbed her back and smiled, and she hesitantly smiled back. "Come on, let's keep going," he said to her, and she nodded. They checked the other offices, searched them for any valuables, and then moved on to the next staircase. They took it one step at a time, AJ in the lead with his gun trained up. At the top of the stairs was a single, large open room, filled with all sorts of props and junk. A dressing screen, a few tables, lights, a bank of lockers, etc. To the left was an open door, with what looked like a recording booth within. The room was clear as far as AJ could tell. There was an empty aluminum can on the floor by the stairs, which he picked up and threw at the open door. There was no response.
The two of them stepped out into the large open room and relaxed, spreading out slightly as they took it all in. A lot of what was in the room was valuable, AJ was sure, but he had no way to carry it all. He was no superhuman, capable of carrying hundreds of pounds of scrap, ammo, and weapons. The bike didn't have much in the way of storage space, either.
There was a desk vaguely near the center of the room, a number of knick-knacks and personal effects on it. AJ approached, the shotgun on his shoulder as he sifted through it all. Some papers, a silver pocket watch (which he took), a few holotapes, and so on.
AJ looked up from the desk and looked around. There was no branding, no posters, nothing of that sort around. It was as if the recording company had just moved into the building when the bombs dropped. He looked back down at the papers and picked a few up; financial reports, market studies, boring crap. He was pushing some of the papers aside when his hand bumped against something hard, concealed under a sheet of paper. He pushed the paper aside and looked at what was beneath, thoroughly amazed. "No shit..." he breathed. He picked it up and, to his continued amazement, it turned on, completely functional and powered even after all these years. He looked at Penny, who had her back to him. She was standing by an open steamer trunk, looking at some article of clothing she'd picked up. "Penny," he called out to her, and she looked over her shoulder at him. "Come look at this."
His daughter draped the shirt she'd been holding over her shoulder and came over to the desk, looking at what he was holding in his hand. "What is it, daddy?" she asked. He handed it to her and she stared at it, curious.
"Nothing less than a genuine, fully functioning, Pip-Boy 2000."
Penny turned it over and cocked an eyebrow. "What's a Pip-Boy?" she asked.
"A personal information processor," he said. "I had one when I was your age, before the war. You can write things in it, like a diary, and it can keep track of your height and weight, the date and time, that sort of thing. It even has maps, if I remember right. It can also play holotapes, like recordings and even games."
Penny looked up at him. "Like Blast Radius?" she asked, and he shook his head, a good-natured smile on his face.
"The games I played were a bit more...animated than Blast Radius," he said. He picked up one of the holotapes; it had a label, but the text had faded over the years. "Here, put this one in and see what's on it." Penny took the tape and, after a minute to figure it out, popped open the Pip-Boy's tape deck and slotted it in. She found the relevant screen on the tape and pressed play, and after a few seconds music began to come out of the device's little speaker. A kind of mysterious and foreboding tone, followed by a moment of silence.
"Hubris Comics presents, in partnership with RobCo Industries, the Silver Shroud Holo-Mysteries! Episode 43: The Mistress' Mystery."
Penny's eyes widened and she looked up at him, an amazed smile on her pretty face.
"So Mistress," a gruff male's voice said. "You dragged me all the way out here to Warwick's shores for what? Not to admire the moonlight over Spectacle Island, I assume."
"Oh, Shroud," a woman's coquettish voice replied, "you're all business and no pleasure. I just thought you might appreciate the chance to get away from Scollay Square's humdrum."
Penny paused the radio drama. "This is so cool..." she said, and looked at the other tapes on the table. "You had one of these, daddy?"
"A long time ago, yeah. A long time indeed..." AJ trailed off.
"Daddy, what was it like before all the bombs fell?"
AJ rubbed his chin. "Different. Safer, but not easy. I was 11 when the bombers came, living with my mom in California. The nuke that hit that Bakersfield landed just miles away from me. We fled California in a hurry, heading for the safety of the desert," he said. He scoffed. "Some safety. The things that live way out in the wastes are things that no man should ever face. When I got to Arizona, to Tucks, and met your mother, though..." he smiled. "Well, we do the best with the cards that life deals us."
Penny smiled back at him and looked down at the PipBoy. "Can I keep it?"
AJ shrugged. "Don't see why not. It's not like the owner's gonna come back for it. Go ahead and take the other tapes, too. You can listen to them when we're on the road." Penny grinned and scooped up all the holotapes on the table, shoveling them into her pack. The Pip-Boy, big as it was, still fit into the left pocket of her pants. "What'd you find in the trunk?" he asked her. She'd clearly forgotten all about the trunk, as it took her a few moments to realize what he'd meant.
"Oh!" she said, pulled off the shirt draped over her shoulder, and presented it to him. It was black and dusty, and its logo was a bit cracked and faded, but he suspected she'd say it only made the design look cooler. "It's the Silver Shroud!" she exclaimed, the comic character's noir-themed visage printed across the shirt's front, his hat down over his face and his Tommy gun pointed up at the ceiling, smoke trailing from its barrel. "I like the Mistress of Mystery more, but her comics are really hard to find. The Shroud's like you though, daddy! He's a badass who shoots down evildoers in the dead of night, leaving behind only his calling card!"
AJ smiled. "Oh? And what is my calling card?" he asked. Before Penny could answer, though, he spotted movement behind her. He looked up, his smile fading, as he watched an Eyebot float out of the room they hadn't checked yet. It hovered by the door and rotated to face them, just bobbing in place. AJ pushed his daughter behind him and crouched by the desk, watching the robot. It hadn't opened fire on them yet, which was a good sign.
"Interlopers, you are trespassing on land that has been claimed under the authority of the United States Government. You are ordered to leave this area at once," a woman's voice said from the Eyebot's speaker.
"Get lost," AJ said. "Who the Hell are you?"
"I am General Zoe DeWitt of the United States Military. Your government has claimed the land of the Zia Desert between White Sands Missile Range and the North Peak Intelligence Facility for the purposes of continuing the war against the People's Republic of China."
"Oh give me a break. The war ended over twenty years ago."
"Not so," the woman said. "Agents and saboteurs of the Chinese government continue to operate on U.S soil, indicating that they are still in the service of their government. Your government has need of the land in the Zia Desert to construct new facilities and installations so that we might bring this war back to the enemy's shores."
"And where are we supposed to go? Mexico?" AJ asked.
"Heavens, of course not. You are to remain on U.S soil so that your government can call upon you in the future to finally put an end to Chinese communism and restore peace and democracy to the world."
AJ rolled his eyes and shouldered the Winchester. "Here, let me put an end to this." He pulled the trigger and the pulse slug blasted the little robot apart, its fried electronic guts spilling all over the floor. The chassis dropped like a rock, the metal cracked and splintered.
"What was that robot talking about, daddy?" Penny asked, and AJ looked down at her.
"Stupid pre-War nonsense. You'll understand better when you're older, but our country's government before the war was full of paranoid psychos. It's their fault our world is nothing but a radioactive hellhole now."
Penny was about to say something when there was a sudden soft whooshing sound from the recording booth. AJ turned to his head to look, wondering why the sound was continuing. It sounded like a softly roaring blowtorch, but louder. Curiosity turned to horror as another robot hovered out of the recording booth. A much larger robot. The three cameras attached to its bulbous chassis turned to look at them while one of its three arms rotated in tandem, the nozzle at the end glowing bright green.
"Time to die, you worthless commie trash."
AJ flipped the desk over just as the robot fired, the sound of clattering junk lost to the high-pitched whine of the plasma gun. The searing orb flashed over them as they crouched, hot enough even with a near miss to make AJ break out in sweat. The roar of the Gutsy's thruster intensified and it began to approach them, and AJ peeked over the desk.
"Hot enough for you, pinko?! Try this one on for size."
The arms rotated once more, bringing another weapon to bear. AJ ducked and the Gutsy ignited its flamethrower, the roaring inferno blasting the surface of the overturned desk and instantly igniting it. AJ peeked up and fired, the pulse slug slamming into the robot's hull. Electricity arced between its arms and eyes but it continued on, arms rotating back to bring the plasma gun to bear.
"STAY HERE!" AJ shouted, and scrambled away from the desk. His daughter called after him but he ignored her, sprinting across the floor to a bank of metal filing cabinets. The cabinets hadn't been put up against the wall, making them perfect. With its targets in two separate locations AJ hoped to draw it away from Penny.
It worked. The Gutsy rotated away from the burning desk, its sensors looking for AJ behind the cabinets. It finished bringing its plasma gun around and fired again and again, the steel cabinets quickly sagging as their metal softened. He checked the load on the trench gun; just three pulse slugs left. After that he'd have to switch back to buckshot, which would have no effect on the machine's armor.
Think, damn it.
His daughter opened fire, her bullets audibly shattering against the Gutsy's hull. "You can run but you'll only DIE TIRED, COMMIE!" the robot yelled. He was about to peek around the cabinets when the robot fired again, the lance of plasma screaming by close enough to cook off every hair on his right arm. AJ swore and went back to the other side of the cabinets. He leaned out and fired, the slug hitting the robot in the lower part of its hull. It stopped in place for a second and then continued advancing on him, close enough now that he could see the plasma arcing inside the emitter.
As it neared the left side of the cabinets AJ tensed. He waited until it was almost on top of him and then he sprinted around to the other side of the cabinets and out onto the floor, running for the steamer trunk his daughter had found the shirt in. To his surprise the Gutsy leapt back from the cabinets and quickly spun around, bringing its flamethrower around. AJ turned, stopped, and fired. His shot went wild, the pulse slug hitting the Gutsy in its left eye and tearing the whole strut off. The robot whirled from the hit, bits of metal falling to the floor.
"Lucky shot, commie!" the machine taunted. He was about to book it when the Gutsy charged him, its thruster roaring hot enough to leave a blackened trail in the carpet. It actually rammed him, knocking him straight to the floor. The Gutsy brought its third arm around, a circular buzzsaw coming to life. The arm extended, attempting to saw AJ's face off. He scrambled back, the thruster scorching the denim of his jeans. The arm came at him again and he juked to the right, trying to find an opening to get back on his feet. With the Winchester at his hip he aimed up and fired the last two pulse slugs, hitting the machine in the ring bearing its weapons. The second slug blasted off the arm bearing the plasma gun, leaving it with just the saw and flamer.
AJ hit the wall, leaving him pinned between it and the Mister Gutsy, and he knew he was dead. The buzzsaw came at him again, tearing into the wall at his left shoulder and shredding the drywall. Desperate and out of options he grabbed the arm to keep it in place and drew the Model 39, knowing the 9mm rounds would hardly be enough. He fired until the pistol was empty, leaving the machine only with dents.
The Gutsy yanked its buzzsaw arm back, taking AJ with it. It slipped from his grasp and the ring spun, bringing the flamer back to bear. "Burn in Hell, commie scum!"
With no other option AJ brought his boot up and kicked the underside of the Gutsy's chassis, forcing it back and knocking its gyroscopes out of place for a second. Before he could take advantage of the opening, however, the Gutsy recovered. He was about to scramble under it, willing to brave the fire of the thruster over the fire of the flamer, when Penny opened fire on it again. She aimed low, her rounds striking the robot in its thruster. The .30 Carbine bullets effortlessly punched through the thin nozzle and tore it off, shutting it down. The Gutsy dropped to the floor like a rock and rolled to the side, unable to turn its arms or sensors. AJ jumped to his feet and backed off from the robot, quickly feeding shells into the Winchester's tube.
His gaze snapped to his daughter, crouched behind a cardboard cutout of the Silver Shroud. He was about to thank her when a deep, intense hum began to emanate from the Gutsy. AJ turned to look and saw that the robot was beginning to glow; first red, then orange. Its remaining sensors shut down, its arms went slack, and the casing began to crack. He turned and tackled his daughter to the floor, covering her with his body as the Mister Gutsy went critical. There was a rending, roaring, crushing *BOOOMMM!* as it self-destructed, the blast wave sending debris flying across the room. The heat wave followed after it, smothering AJ in an invisible inferno that made him swelter under the desert cloak. It passed a second later, the room falling silent save for the sounds of the debris falling to the floor all around them.
AJ waited until the last of it had fallen before he tentatively raised his hands from the top of Penny's head and slowly rose onto his knees, unable to believe they'd survived. He got off his daughter and helped her to her feet, looking over his shoulder at the ashen remains of the Mister Gutsy. He picked up the Winchester from the floor and finished reloading it along with the Model 39.
"Jesus Christ..." was all he had to say. He looked down at Penny, who just looked back up at him. He dropped to his knees and hugged and kissed her, a gesture she eagerly returned. AJ broke the kiss and put a hand on his daughter's head. "Thank you," he said. "You saved my ass again."
Penny smiled. "Well I wasn't gonna let it kill you."
AJ stood, his hand still on her head, stroking her hair. "C'mon. Let's go back and let Brooke know we were successful." The two of them left the studio and began making their way back outside to the bike, eager to return home.