Joshua Graham's Trip to the City of Sin

Part 9: Presidential Protocols

The elevator went down several floors, the whirs of the centuries old mechanism filling the whole space with a soft, metallic, droning sound. It was somewhat soothing but also terrifying, like the groan of an ancient being. Joshua could feel the descent down the cavernous shaft in his stomach. Wherever they were going, it wasn't good.

The elevator suddenly jolted to a halt, slightly bringing him off his feet before he caught himself on the handlebar. Carrie seemed unfazed, like she was used to the unpredictable movements of the climb down.

The doors opened, revealing a hub filled with bright blue and green lights, all flashing and pinging. Multiple people, some wearing Brotherhood Scribe uniforms, typing away on terminals. At the center, a man in his 30's or so with short, blonde hair and wearing a Follower's lab coat.

Before Carrie could say anything, a dog sporting a few cybernetic limbs and, most notably, a blue container on its head with, what Joshua assumed to be, its brain, jumped onto Carrie excitedly and barked multiple times. Carrie fell onto the floor as she embraced the weight of the dog.

Carrie seemed to giggle and started stroking the few spots of fur on the dog and gave it compliments in a baby voice.

"Awwww Rexie! Who's a good little boy? Yes, you are! Yes, you are!"

Rex eventually got off her and barked again. He then circled around and rested his head on the cold, metallic floor.

The blonde man, upon hearing the commotion, turned around and spotted Carrie.

"Ah! Miss Blake, the search for the-"

Carrie interrupted him.

"It's Carrie, Arcade. C'mon! Pffft, 'Miss Blake'. We've known each other way too long for you to call me Miss. Anyway...what've you got?"

"Sorry...Carrie. As I was saying, the search for the remaining vaults have turned up some interesting results. Seems our friends at Vault-Tec were pretty thorough in their placement of vaults. Scans have shown well over a hundred and ten vaults across the country, a few seem to still even be working! I took the liberty of sending out a few scribes to investigate vaults up North."

"That's great! And uh...the other thing?"

"Hm?"

"You know, the-the thing..."

Arcade seemed confused for a second but then seemed to catch on.

"Oh! Right. We checked those rumours of that tribal up North and uh, we had a LOT of info about them. An Enclave oil rig was destroyed about 40 years back, same one my father worked in. There were also reports of some kid making moves in D.C. From what we've found, they provided fresh water to the entire area and beat back the Enclave."

"Nice work, Arcade! Oh, uh by the way, got someone for ya to meet."

Carrie pushed Joshua Graham in front of her and upon seeing him, Arcade's eyes widened in surprise as he surveyed the fiber-wrapped man.

"Oh...um...wow...you're uh..."

"It is fine, I was...severely burned due to an...accident."

"Well...if by accident, you mean doused in pitch, set ablaze and thrown into the Grand Canyon by Caesar. You're the Burned Man...aren't you?"

"Ah...I see you've heard of me."

That nickname...

Joshua, ever since the defeat of the White Legs, had realised just how destructive his legend was and vowed to never again use the moniker of 'The Burned Man' to rectify this and, to be honest, because it was a stupid name, something he'd use in his teenage years to seem cool.