Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 10 Part 1

Vincent left Wilhelm's Wharf with a package filled with food, a pair of gloves (because he looked cold), a loving peck on the cheek and ruffled hair. Patience and Valrie left the Wharf under the cold eyes of Grandma Sparkles with the shotgun pointed in their rough direction.

As soon as they left sight of Grandma Sparkles' hut, Vincent's dogged and gruff demeanour returned. But he wore the gloves.

"We cross at the Anchorage Memorial then turn back north, up the river." He pointed to the structure settled in the centre of the river, not a hundred yards away. "Watch out for Mire Lurks."

"Mire Lurks?" Patience raised an eyebrow towards Valrie.

"Big fucking crab things. Hard as hell to kill, unless you hit them in the eye." Valrie pressed a finger at the point between her eyes. "Never seen one myself. Don't fucking want to either."

Vincent approached the memorial with his assault rifle at the ready, using it to search the way ahead.

Patience recognised the Anchorage Memorial, erected in honour of those fallen in battle against the Red Chinese in the icy wastes of Alaska, though she didn't know how she recognised it. Like many things in her fractured memory, it was there, but felt like something remembered by someone else.

The memorial itself, a high plinth carrying three triumphant, brave soldiers, sat in the centre of the island, surrounded by dead, barren trees, trash cans and dilapidated seats. It was different from the bubbling memory she had, smaller, somehow. And also more decorated. Grisly, foul decorations.

Each of the statues of the soldiers had bodies dangling from them. Parts of bodies, at least. Some without arms, or legs, others without heads. Trussed up by chains and hooks and hung in stomach churning fashion and, upon the base of the plinth, the words "Kinndum of Supper Muttants" were written. Large letters written in blood. Patience edged towards the plinth, touching the bloody words. Congealed, almost dry. Only a few hours old.

"Patience!" Valrie had wandered to the northern side of the island, away from carnage on display at the monument. She leaned against the parapet, staring down. "Something you should see."

Patience, followed by Vincent, crept towards the edge of the island, weapons at the ready, making slow, careful steps. What they saw appeared to be the sight of a battle. Bodies littered the ground. Some, hulking things with what appeared to be hard carapaces on their backs, she assumed were Mire Lurks. Others appeared robot-like. If she couldn't see the blood pooling around those bodies, she would have sworn they were robots. And the rest she knew well. Super Mutants.

"Looks like a three-way and no-one came out on top." Vincent hopped over the parapet, sliding down the side of the island. Coming to a halt, he raised his rifle again and edged toward the bodies.

Following Vincent, Patience scrambled down the side of the island onto the dried out section of the river bed, moving her weapon from one body to the other, making sure all were dead. When she was certain, she began searching the bodies. Several Super Mutants had assault rifles, but none were in better condition than the one she had. She took the ammunition though, bolstering her supplies. She picked up one rifle and shook it in Valrie's direction.

"Nope. Still don't want no fucking gun, thank you very much." Valrie had joined them, putting her hands deep in her pockets, hammering home her refusal of the gun. "And I don't want to get no closer to them, neither."

Exhausting the Super Mutants, she moved on to the robot-like bodies. Vincent had already found some .45 clips, which he duly liberated and Patience found a strange looking shotgun. It looked like a semi-automatic with a large, barrel-like magazine attached. She took out the magazine and checked the contents. Still plenty of shells within and, in a utility belt around the body's waist, she found a pouch filled with more shells. She transferred those to her pack and slip tied the shotgun to the pack.

"What are these things?" Patience turned one of the robot-like bodies over, with some effort, saw a symbol painted on the chest plate and the bloodied face of a young woman through the cracked and broken helmet. "They're humans?"

"Brotherhood of Steel. Self-righteous cock suckers." Vincent didn't sound impressed, kicking over the body nearest to him, bullet holes puckering the chest plate. "Looks like they got their asses handed to them."

"What is this? Armour?" Patience checked the joints but couldn't see how each piece attached to the other. Not that she wanted to take any of it. It looked bulky and she knew, only by instinct, not memory, that agility was one of her strengths. "How did they get in and out of it? Is it permanently attached to them?"

"You never seen power armour before?" Vincent reached down to the body nearest to him, searching for something. They heard a click, a hiss and the body armour broke apart at invisible seams, flowering outwards to reveal the body within. "Useful stuff, but you need training to use it. Try putting some on without training first and you'll end up breaking your back, or dying."

Patience looked at the partial face of the woman in the power armour near her. So young, yet already dead in some pointless battle. For what? Territory? Water? Patience couldn't tell, there was nothing in sight to show what they had been fighting about.

"God damn! I wish I had my pack brahmins!" Valrie had forgotten her earlier distaste and had rushed over to the opened power armour. "I could make enough caps to retire on with these power suits. Help me hide them somewhere."

"No! We move on." Vincent had already begun walking northwards. "Scavenge on your own time. We have a job to do."

"Fuck you, Vacant! This is my fucking job!" Valrie squared up to Vincent, even though the bodyguard towered above by almost two feet. "My job ain't fucking killing people for ass-licking bastards like Moriarty!"

Patience closed the gap, dragging Valrie away from Vincent before things became ugly. Vincent, for his part, remained more calm than she expected, setting his jaw and gripping his assault rifle tight, but nothing more.

"We don't have time, Valrie." Patience turned Valrie around to look at her. "If these power suits are as expensive as you say, this Brotherhood of Steel won't want them going to waste out here and I'm sure more Super Mutants will be on the way, too. We don't want to get caught between that."

Valrie shrugged Patience's hands away, adjusted her football helmet and spat in the direction of Vincent. She said nothing more, though, and Patience was glad of that. They needed to keep moving. To head further into the city ruins and find the Vault-Tec headquarters. Tussling between themselves would help nothing.

With one last glare at Vincent and a long, mournful look at the power armour, Valrie began to move northwards in the direction Vincent had started heading. Patience gave Vincent a questioning look, but he turned away, raising his rifle and tracking the area ahead.

Patience sighed. The last thing she needed was two bickering children. Especially not when one of them carried deadly weapons. She didn't want to kill Vincent unless she had to and, especially not before reaching their destination.

-+-

"Good news coming in from the Republic of Dave, uh, I mean the Republic of Shawna!

Apparently, good sense was found by someone, whose name I will not mention, and the planned annexation of Old Olney has been put on permanent hiatus.

Word is that the 'General' in charge of the expedition saw a huge gathering of Deathclaws as soon as they entered the ruins and said, and this is not a direct quote, "Screw that!".

It's good to see that common sense won out over dumbassery.

Stay in the Republic, Shawna. Build on your own community before casting your eye on areas you simply cannot capture, for little gain. Your citizens will appreciate it.

Three Dog has all the best advice. Listen to Three Dog!"