Deuces Are Wild

12

"Hey."

MacCready squeezed his eyes shut then opened one. Lucy stood with her bag over one shoulder and Duncan on her hip. "Victoria and I are going to Megaton. Gotta get stuff to patch her roof, you okay to watch Duncan today?"

MacCready wiped his face. "Was gonna start plowing today but yeah."

Turning to smile at Duncan, Lucy bounced him a little. "You gonna be good for Daddy while Mommy's gone? We won't be gone long."

Setting the boy down Lucy bent to kiss MacCready. She smiled at him and her face was covered in blue boils. "Won't be long."

MacCready stared at her. Hands reached from under the bed and held him down, slimy grey hands. They grabbed Lucy too even as she was smiling at him, blissfully unaware she was being taken to be eaten by ghouls.

"Everything's going to be okay."

Duncan was gone. MacCready was held fast and couldn't look, but he tried to call 'Duncan!' but no sound came out. Lucy let herself be dragged across the floor under the bed.

"Everything's going to be okay."

The fingers pressed into her flesh, digging. Into her face, into the boils. "Everything's going to be okay."

"Everything's going to be okay."

The Pip-Boy cast its eerie green glow across Kallie's face. MacCready stared up at her. She'd pillowed his head in her lap and he tried to lift his left arm to touch his face but couldn't. His arm felt numb. He must have fallen with all his weight on it when the elevator car hit bottom.

With his right hand MacCready covered his mouth briefly. "The Brotherhood knows you're here, right?"

"Yes," she said. "But they're not going to come, they couldn't even bother going after Davenport. Rhys just took it upon himself to arrest me when he happened to be in town when we were."

MacCready thought a moment. "Did you try the hatch?"

"Yeah but it's bent. Best case scenario is we climb out but I'm not sure how we're going to do that." Kallie took a deep breath. "The doors could be pried open but again, not sure how."

He was proud of her for not dissolving into tears at their predicament, quite forgetting his semi breakdown earlier. He wasn't sure if he could handle her crying at this of all times. She saw him struggling with his arm and testing it for breaks concluded it might just be a fracture and splinted it accordingly. His ribs hurt too but it seemed to be minor bruising. After a moment Kallie sighed.

"Well this bites a big dick, doesn't it."

MacCready laughed in spite of himself. Kallie never used such language even under extreme provocation. "Yes it does."

They were both silent for a long time.

"I did say I'd get a cure or die trying." MacCready said quietly.

"Are you dead yet?" Zelling asked.

"Not yet but give it time."

"Well that won't do."

He laughed, a mirthless sound. "You're not afraid of anything are you?"

The Pip-Boy light turned off. Saving power was probably a good idea. "I don't like dogs."

That was true. Zelling was terrified of the vicious wild dogs that roamed the wasteland, or the attack dogs trained by raiders. But she endured all of that. She hated raiders most of all. Raiders had taken the last person who cared for her since her mother died, gunned him down in cold blood. Ferals were one thing, but a sentient human killing another for no reason except the pleasure of it was beyond MacCready's comprehension. Sure, he'd killed for caps but that was different. Raiders killed for fun, for the pleasure of it, the power they could hold over another. Senseless taking of a life just to get at their belongings or simply because they could.