The Girl out of Time

I Thought This was the Future not the Past

Ember walked down the road killing bugs that attacked her with the help of the dog before long they had made it to Concord. The buildings were all boarded up and everything seemed dead apart from the birds in the sky. As she made her way through the streets, she could hear shots firing to the southeast of her.

"Mabey we can go around and stay out of sight," she said to herself not wanting to take on a gunfight with only a pistol. She needed to get to the small station Concord had to see if her things were still there. She doubted it but it didn't hurt to look. She made her way to the back streets of the town and all too soon the gunshots got louder. She could hear people shouting close by. Ember held her gun ready to fight if she had to. She thanked Gavin her gun instructor silently in her head they had spent hours working on how to handle a gun in a fight vs how to handle it while running. After finding out her father was a vet he insisted on working with other guns as well so she would know how to use any gun that was handed to her.Ember heard the people shouting to take cover and suddenly a man with leather and mettle came around the corner.

"Fuck there trying to flank us" he shouted raising his gun to shoot her. Ember raised her gun and fired a shot into the man's head, instantly dropping him. She turned the corner to have three other people pointing their guns at her. Two of them figured at her and missed she ran to a nearby car for cover. Ember shot one dropping them when a laser dropped the other two.The dog ran ahead of her grabbing the arm of the final guy at the end of the street Ember took off after the dog steadied her shot and pulled the trigger just as the man went to swing at the dog. When she was checking up on the dog Ember heard yelling. She looked up to see a man on the balcony.

"Hay we could really use help in here, I have some settlers and the Raiders are almost through the door. Grab that gun over there and come help" Then he ran back inside. Ember could easily pinpoint the gun he was talking about, but it was one she never enjoyed using. It used too much time to load than other guns, but she picked it up any way she could give it to the man once she got to him.

Ember walked in to see several of the "Raiders" firing at a door 'I have to be smart about this. I can easily be overrun if they see me'. Ember was able to get off a few shots at one of the readers and moved to the right walking through manikins. The museum that she was in had motion sincerity that was going off telling them about history as she moved through the room as she was crossing the second room a reader came through the door and shot at her due to them both moving it missed just barely. The dog ran up grabbing the lady as Ember put a bullet in her head. She continued forward to a room with a set of stares that were broken along with the floor. There was a shuffle behind her, and she turned around to see a raider aiming their gun into the room she had gone into. She was able to get a shot of before they turned around. Ember slowly made their way through the building until she came to a door. She could hear whispering.

"Hello." She said knocking on the door "You can come out now all the people... Raiders you called them there dead". The door swung open and she could see the man that was on the balcony and another man leaning over a computer. As Ember walked in she could see three more people. A man and two ladies.

The man from the Balcony began to speak. "Man I don't know who you are but your timing is impeccable, Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen at your service."

"The Minutemen like from 1774? So now I'm traveling backward in time"

"Protect the people at a minute's notice, That was the idea. So I joined up, wanted to make a difference. And I did, but... things fell apart. Now it looks like I'm the last Minuteman left standing." Preston said

"Who are you, people?" Ember asked looking around the room.

"Just folks lookin' for a new home. A fresh start. I've been with 'em since Quincy. Lexington looked good for a while, but the Ghouls drove us outta there. A month ago, there were 20 of us. Yesterday there were 8. Now, we're 5. It's just me, the Longs - Marcy, and Jun - that's old Mama Murphy on the couch. And this here's Sturges.

"Ghouls, what are Ghouls? I haven't heard of that one before." Ember said looking confused.

Both Sturges and Preston looked shocked before Preston started to speak "Wow, you really aren't from around here, are you? Ghouls are... irradiated people. Most are just like you and me. They look pretty messed up and live a long time, but they're still just... people. The ones I'm talking about are different. The radiation's rotted their brains. Made them feral. They'll rip you apart, just as soon as look at you. Anyway, we figured Concord would be a safe place to settle. Those Raiders proved us wrong. But... well, we do have one idea."

"If you think it will work tell me and I'll see if I can help"

Sturges leans against the desk and starts to speak "There's a crashed vertibird up on the roof. Old school. Pre-war. You might've seen it. Well, looks like one of its passengers left behind a seriously sweet goody. We're talking a full suit of cherry T-45 Power Armor. Military issue."

Ember nodded her head "I have some training with Power Armer not a lot though what we had as cops was a lot different than Military armor. I like it."

Sturges gave a laugh "Yeah, I thought you might. Protection, with an added bonus. Get the suit, you can rip the minigun right off the vertibird. Do that, and those Raiders get an express ticket to Hell. You dig?"

"It's a good idea as long as the gun has enough bullets last thing we need is to be mid-fight and run out"

"Its got the Amo we just can't get it off, Only there's one hitch. The suit's out of juice. Probably been dry for a hundred years. It can be powered up again, but we're a bit stuck..."

"I'll help if I can, though I would appreciate some help back with some information if you could."

Preston nodded his head "We will help if we can. Now What you'll need is an old pre-war F.C., a standardized Fusion Core. Your high-grade, long-term nuclear battery. Used by the military and some companies, way back when. And we know right where to find one" Sturges cuts him off"But we can't get to the damn thing. It's down in the basement, locked behind a security gate. I'm a fixer a tinker of sorts I'm not good with breaking into terminals your free to give it a shot though."

"So I get the Fusion core and we are good to go?" The men gave her a nod and she headed down to the basement. After backtracking she finally made it to the basement "well let's get to work."