Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 11 Part 2

"Hoo-hoo-boy! Do I have some fresh, fresh news, children! Straight from the horse's mouth.

Earlier today, four people, captured by Super Mutants, were saved by a 'mysterious woman'. Yes, brothers and sisters, one of those prisoners stopped long enough from running away to tell old Three Dog the incredible story.

This 'mysterious woman' walked in to the Super Mutant camp, cut the captives free, then decided to take on two Super Mutants. Alone. I know! Crazy, right?

And the craziest thing? She won! That's right. Two yellow freaks versus one itty-bitty lady and the lady came out on top.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Is this our new Avenging Angel? The Beautiful Stranger from Vault I-Don't-Know-What?

Well, dear listeners, how many of these female killing machines can there be?

Instead of making assumptions, Three Dog will simply doff a knowing hat, with a wink, thankful for any help the Wasteland gets. If I had a hat.

This newly, newsy, bulletin came to you from Three Dog! Ahwooo! Holding it together in hope."

-+-

"I didn't tell him!" Valrie threw up her hands in her defence. "I was here the whole fucking time."

Patience stared, open-mouthed, at the Pip-Boy on her arm. For a post-apocalyptic world, with no working telephones, few radios and almost as few people, news got around pretty fast. She brushed an incredulous hand through her steel grey hair and looked into the hazy sky. So much for keeping a low profile.

"Wait. So, you're this 'Beautiful Stranger' he's been talking about?" Vincent kicked the young male raider back onto his backside. The boy had regained consciousness and tried to get up. "You're not that beautiful."

"I didn't call myself that." Patience turned away, looking over the parapet towards the gates of the Friendship Heights Metro station.

"Yeah. That was me." Shrugging, Valrie looked over the parapet too. "I thought it would give the news a bit of pizazz. Besides, she's kind of beautiful."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, she's pretty, but beautiful?" Vincent stared at the raider boy, daring him to move again. "Not that there's that many beautiful women around to compare to."

"I thought you'd be ... bigger. Taller." Now the young raider girl, cradling her arm, sat on the ground, joined in. "You got muscles, but you're pretty short."

Patience stared at them all, unable to articulate what she was thinking into words. Shaking her head, she moved away, setting off towards the escalators. Before entering underground, she wanted to get a good look at what might lay ahead. As she set off down the seized, unmoving stairs, she caught a glimpse of Valrie lighting a cigarette and offering one to Vincent. Relations thawing for the moment.

"Now look what you fucking did! Asshole." Valrie's words drifted away as Patience descended.

The gates on the station, rusted and bent, had a sign declaring "No Dead Bodies Dumped In Metro" hung limp and off-kilter, hanging by a thin strand of decaying wire. The concertina gates were closed firm, a thick chain wrapped around the handles, held together by a large padlock.

Patience grabbed the padlock, hoping age had loosened it, or forced it into uselessness, but even a vigorous shake and tug couldn't dislodge it. Covering her eyes with a hand, she tried looking through the gates into the station, but a thick mist, or smoke, blanketed everywhere in sight. A last tug on the padlock proved as useless as the last and she turned back towards the escalators.

"I swear to Jebus! They just fucking walked away. Walked. Away!" Valrie was making a dramatic sweeping gesture with her hand as regaled her tale to Vincent and the two rapt raiders. "I won't lie, I almost needed new underwear. I never seen anything fucking like it."

Patience crouched down in front of the young girl, who now appeared to have an undisguised look of admiration on her face. She gritted her teeth and tried to smile at the young raider.

"Hey. What's your name?" She crossed her arms over her new assault rifle, hoping it would make the girl feel at ease.

"Don't you fucking tell her, Gia!" The young man received a back-handed slap from Vincent and he yelped, rubbing his head.

"Gia. Is that your name?" The girl made furious nodding gestures, her wide, bright eyes staring at Patience with glee. "Well, Gia, we're just passing through. We don't want to hurt anybody. We don't want to fight. We just want to get into the Metro station. There's a padlock, though. Do you know where the padlock key is, Gia?"

"Uh-huh. Darrin has it." She hooked a thumb at the young man beside her, making a show of rolling her eyes and pretending to be sick. "It made him feel important in the gang."

"Shut the fuck up, Gia! Geez." The young man couldn't believe Gia had given up the information so fast. "I am important in the gang! And no fucking old whore is taking my key!"

Darrin's defiance didn't last long. Vincent grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up until his feet almost left the ground. With his other hand, Vincent searched through the boy's pockets, soon finding the key and tossing it to Patience. Turning the dangling boy, Vincent glared into the boy's eyes before half-dropping, half-throwing him back to the ground.

Patience nodded at Gia and stood up. Without saying a word, she urged Valrie and Vincent to follow her and she, once again, made for Friendship station's escalators to descend down into whatever hell the underground had waiting for them. She didn't relish the idea.

"Miss Stranger?" The girl, Gia, braver than her companion, ignored the muzzle of Vincent's rifle, arced around, swift and precise, to point at her. "Can I come? There's no-one else left but Darrin and he's an asshole. I mean, you can say 'no', but I'm gonna follow you anyway. I just thought it'd be polite to ask."

"We're not going on a trip to the fucking park, kid." Valrie still held the dead cigarette between her lips. "You said yourself, these tunnels are filled with fucking ghouls. And we don't have any weapons for you."

Gia held up a finger, urging them to wait and disappeared from sight. Patience looked at Valrie, silent communication wondering what the hell she was doing. Valrie, as she did often, merely shrugged, adjusting her football helmet. Seconds later, Gia came skipping down the staircase, wearing a new top, a padded, leather and cloth bra-type thing, and carrying a baseball bat and, what looked like, a World War II flying helmet.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she pulled the flying helmet on to her head and draped the baseball bat over her shoulder, grinning at Patience, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Vincent, as expected, seemed less than convinced, turning away from the girl, waiting for Patience to open the gate.

She shook her head, herself. Looking back up at the parapet she could see Darrin, leaning over, thrusting out an arm, leading to a fist with the middle finger raised. At least he wasn't joining the group. Taking the key, she unlocked the padlock, untwisted the heavy chain and passed that back to Gia. Maybe she could wrap it around her as a kind of armour.

Vincent grabbed one handle, Patience the other and they pulled the gates apart. An ominous, screeching howl erupted from the gates as they collapsed aside, revealing a space to climb through. She pulled the butt of her new, Chinese, rifle into her shoulder. The weight of the new rifle felt comforting and solid and she wondered how long it would be before she found out how well it fired.

As they all made careful steps into the gloom of the murky, smoke-filled station, she considered it wouldn't be that long at all.