The Cure For Curie (Complete!)

A Tomb of Metal

"We found someone!" Ronnie yelled out. She was standing stoically a top a huge pile of crumpled metal. A group of Minutemen soldiers had volunteered to help dig through what was left of Diamond City to recover the bodies and hopefully answers.

It had been days since 'Rocket's Red Glare's' big finale. Curie couldn't be sure how many though. The days had been a blur. She needed his body found. John deserved to be buried under something more than a pile of rubble.

She had all but shut down her emotions these last few days, slowly becoming the numb synth everyone had feared. She felt nothing. She knew she would continue to feel nothing until she was reunited with John. She would not stop searching.

"Is it him?" Curie asked as she joined Ronnie at the top of the pile.

"Not sure yet, ma'am. The boys saw a hand down there. They have to get some more of the debris out of the way."

Curie nodded as she watched the old woman light a cigarette. Curie was sick of waiting. She had waited to end the war with the Institute, waited to defeat the Brotherhood of Steel, waited for him to come back to her, and now she waited to find his cold dead body. She was sick of all of it.

As she watched those men dig through the broken metal, her stomach turned. She hated herself for feeling hope at a moment like this. She had nothing left to hope for, but to find him and put his body to rest. Finally they began to pull a body up out of the wreckage.

"Shit." Ronnie spat out as she flicked her cigarette off in the distance. "It's Maxon."

Curie's shoulders slumped. Not today she thought as she walked away. She made a slow trail back to her place against the wall. When will this end? Will she ever feel whole again? She almost couldn't take it anymore. Part of her wanted to lay down right there and sleep for an eternity. Another part wanted to scream as she peeled every inch of her skin off. Both thoughts warred each other in her mind.

"What do you want us to do with him, ma'am?" Ronnie shouted across the way. Curie's face darkened before she replied.

"Toss him in the river with the other junk."

Ronnie nodded and turned to relay orders to the men in the pit. Three of the soldiers pulled the body of Elder Maxon up and out. They tossed it over the pile before returning to their search. They had precious little day light to keep looking. More of the Minutemen appeared from the shadows to whisk the body away and do as they were instructed.

It took a full week more to clear the remains of the Prydwen out of Diamond City's old market district. The Minutemen spent a good amount of their time salvaging the precious resources left behind. They could use a lot of the debris in the other settlements to rebuild what they could. Pack brahmin left almost every hour full of the stuff.

Curie had begun to worry. They had almost completely removed the remainder of the Prydwen and had not yet found John or Haylen. They should have been in the wreckage somewhere. She hoped they would know more as they managed to get down to the wrecked vertibird.

"There is a storage container here, ma'am. Could get lucky and find food or weapons inside." One of the Minutemen said.

Curie nodded to pry it open. The container wasn't huge but it was big enough to have held something useful. It was opened already, it's door bent and twisted from the explosion or fall to the ground. There was an even bigger chance it's contents had been scattered throughout the junk they pulled up already. It was worth a shot though.

The scrapping of metal screamed into Curie's ears as the men worked to get the door open. One of the men scooped up a lantern, lighting it before squeezing inside. She could hear the sounds of him shuffling about, echoing to the outside. It was quiet for a moment before she heard the sound of him rushing out.

"This was all that was inside." He said as he put something heavy in her hands. He wouldn't make eye contact with her, keeping his head down. He apologized before rushing off.

Curie couldn't believe what she was seeing. There in her hands, she held the Sole Survivor's PipBoy. It was dirty from the crash, but otherwise in good condition. She wiped off the screen with her sleeve to find out it was still on. There was a message blinking on the screen before her.

Play Holotape: To Curie?

She stared at the message blinking over and over again. She did not want to hear it. She knew what it was. It was his goodbye to her. At some point he had given up, had decided to stop trying. She couldn't bear to hear him say the words out loud.

What concerned her the most now though, was John was still missing. If he had some how survived the crash and escaped the container, where was he? Where was his body? Why leave the PipBoy but not try to get help? Curie needed answers now more than ever.

"We need to keep digging. The General's body has to be here somewhere. Haylen is still down there somewhere. They deserve rest." Curie spoke to the men.

"You heard her! Get your asses back in that hole." Ronnie shouted when the soldiers had not begun to move.

They were afraid, Curie knew. The PipBoy was a big deal to them. The General had been alive under this mess for who knew how long. No one wanted to find his body now, for fear their speed to clear the area was what killed their leader.

"We will get you your answers, Commander." Ronnie spoke to Curie before giving her a strong salute.