The Minutemen: United We Stand

Chapter 14

Strong's reception was hostile, and that's putting it mildly. It took every cap Nora had left to book him a room. He had to sleep on the floor, the bed unable to accommodate his over eight-feet of height.

Nora tried to leave without notice the next morning, but with Strong beside her, she would have had better luck sneaking out if she were glowing.

"Where're you off to?" Hancock called from the doorway of the statehouse.

"I'm expected at a meeting today, remember?" Nora answered, straining to keep any signs of pain or fatigue off her face.

"Better be the kind that's just talkin'," he growled back, walking up to her and eyeing the hole in her armour.

"Yeah, it's no big deal," Nora lied, smiling at him as best she could before turning to the door. "If Preston gets in touch, let me know."

"Hey, big, green, and ugly," Hancock called after them, catching Strong's attention. "You better keep her from gettin' killed."

"Strong kill any who fight us." The super mutant lifted the sniper rifle in his possession up for emphasis.

"Maybe you need a real gun to do that," Hancock sneered, waving them to follow him to KL-E-0's weapon store. "Pick one gun," Hancock said, watching Strong eye the weapons with a critical eye. The ghoul shrugged, then nodded toward the melee weapons. "Maybe put those muscles to use too."

Strong picked up a crowbar with a massive blade welded to it, like a mighty battle axe, a missile launcher, and a combat shotgun. "These," he said, already fastening them to the ample space on his bareback.

"Missile launcher?" Hancock eyed Nora with worry.

"Mightiest weapon. Kill all," Strong assured him, towering over them.

"If we had one of those with us, then that behemoth wouldn't have been so bad," Nora agreed, surprised she wasn't terrified to have Strong wield such a deadly item.

"All right," Hancock mumbled, then turned to the assaultron behind the counter. "KL-E-0 put it on my tab."

"A fine selection of murder and mayhem," she answered.

Nora led them out of the store, resisting the urge to hold her side. "I'll see you soon," she called to Hancock over her shoulder. Upon looking back before opening the door to downtown Boston, she spotted Fahrenheit staring down at her from the top-floor window of the statehouse, her face blank. Nora left before giving herself time to think about the hot-headed bodyguard and focused on her task for the day.

"Where we find milk?" Strong asked, startling Nora out of her thoughts.

"To find the milk of human kindness, you first have to prove yourself worthy." Nora tried to work through how she would get Strong to understand the Shakespearean metaphor.

"Strong kill anything. Strong not scared. Strong not weak."

They walked through the streets of Boston, heading North. They wouldn't get to the overpass north of Cambridge until the afternoon. Nora realized that Strong had a one-track-mind, and the next six hours would be no exception. Nora had to figure out a way to make Strong understand and remain an ally... and navigating that line wasn't easy.

"Do you know what poems are?" she asked.

"What Poe Em?" he asked, scratching his head.

"It's a way to say things so that when people hear them, they feel what you're saying. They're meant to be beautiful and inspiring."

"Bah!" Strong scoffed, spittle spraying on the back of Nora's head. "Those weak."

"Actually," Nora said, biting down her frustration as she wiped the back of her head. "There's more than one kind of strong. Fighting and muscle are one kind. The milk of human kindness is from a different kind of strength."