Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 17 Part 1

Vincent watched as Patience tumbled into the building. He didn't like splitting up the group. Not least, because if he lost the vault dweller, he wouldn't be able to access the information he needed from the Vault-Tec HQ computers. Without that information, the whole enterprise, going undercover, having to work for that son of a bitch, Moriarty, everything would be for nothing.

It was lucky that he found himself paired with the old scavenger. He felt certain the young girl, Gia, would still be making a fuss, even now, that Patience had to take the detour through that building. Valrie, at least, remained calm. He didn't like it, no, but the alternative could be far worse.

"So, what now, 'Brother' Vacant?" Valrie stayed hunkered down against the door they had closed after Patience and Gia had made it to the building.

"I don't know." Staying low, he glanced outside.

The two Super Mutants seemed to be wandering around with no clear destination in mind. Walking from one side of the open area to the other. He had allowed himself to become distracted by the drama of Gia almost panicking and giving them all away. He knew it was a mistake to allow the raider to join them. Whether she followed them, or not, she was a liability, but the vault dweller couldn't help herself.

That helpful nature of hers was going to get someone killed before too long. The Capital Wasteland didn't suffer good people well. Good people often found themselves dead, while the bad ones thrived. Like him.

He knew he wasn't a good person. Even found as a child and indoctrinated in the ideals of Elder Lyons' brave new way never stopped him from being a bad person. He always retained that anger bred from seeing his parents killed and from learning to survive in a wasteland that wanted him dead. He wasn't unique in that respect. The Wasteland wanted everything dead. The Wasteland epitomised death. Joining the Brotherhood of Steel never changed that.

But the Brotherhood gave him purpose and an outlet for his anger. At first fighting raiders, then fighting a losing, ongoing war with the Super Mutants and then being part of the historic destruction of the Enclave. He never did it for the same reasons his fellow Knights did. He did it for the rush of it. For the way it made him forget, for scant moments, how much he hated the world and everything, and everyone, in it. It gave him a release.

And after the Enclave? Nothing. Nothing sated his anger the same way. He needed a new release valve and the chance of going undercover, doing the dirty work that most of the Brotherhood balked at, was that valve. He volunteered. He found a way into Moriarty's confidence. He did what he had to do to complete the mission. No matter what that entailed. And he enjoyed it.

Then this woman came along. Righteous, indignant, uncompromising, intelligent, taking on Moriarty at his own game and stopping him dead. Formidable. She was like a force of nature. A wind of change blowing through a half-closed door to the past. She had all the qualities, and more, that the Brotherhood prized. And, if he was honest with himself, the qualities he wished he had.

"We can't just sit here, Vacant!" Valrie fished out a pack of cigarettes from that ridiculous coat, thought better of it and stuffed the pack away again. "We have to do something. Fucking anything!"

"I'm thinking." He flipped to looking out of the other side of the booth. The radiation crater and the alleyway beyond were so close, he felt he could reach out and touch them.

"First time for everything." Valrie stretched out her leg, rubbing her knee.

"Really? Now? You want to push my buttons right now?" There goes that anger again. "You know you're protector isn't here to save you from that big mouth of yours getting you killed? You know that, right?"