Lines of Operation (A Fallout 4 Spanking Story)

Chapter 22 - Lost Caravan

Nate watched as his two stubborn and strong-willed companions walked ahead of him sharing in a joke together. He smiled, that's better he thought to himself.

"Are they getting on now?" Curie asked as she closed the gap between her and Nate. The boathouse was just up ahead, and so they would soon be getting into a much closer formation to clear the building.

"Yes, they are Curie. It is amazing how persuasive I can be when I have an ebony hairbrush packed away in my gear." Nate signalled to his backpack.

"Oh," Curie exclaimed, "you have brought it with you?" she sounded surprised.

"I always do," responded Nate, "for occasions just like this. I have no intention of actually taking it out of my bag, but the fact that it is there seems to have done the job, don't you think." He signalled to the girls up ahead.

The team quickly cleared the boat house, exterminating a few blood bugs that had taken up residence there, and began setting up their makeshift camp on the first floor of the building. Blood bugs were giant sized mutated mosquitoes, large enough to kill humans and yet another side effect of generations of radiation effecting every part of the Commonwealth.

Taffington Boat house was a two storey colonial house set on the side of the Malden River, which had direct access to the sea and a location where the team could leave the Red Wave. On the opposite banks of the river sat the Everett housing estate. Just north of the boathouse the river disappeared into a series of sewage tunnels, something that may be worth a look, thought Nate.

The team had found the body of a settler, who according to the note on her, was Mary Sutton, the owner of the boathouse. It seems that her and her brother had discovered the boathouse and the abandoned sewers, but on exploring the underground tunnels had released a hatch of the blood bugs. The team buried her over the other side of the road to the house.

It was dusk by the time the team were back upstairs in the boathouse and Curie had already begun to make the evening meal.

"I want a sweep of the area and we should have two of us on sentry tonight, just in case the light of our fire attracts the wrong type of attention." Nate ordered, "Cait, you up for a stroll?"

Cait nodded, "I thought Lucas comes this way?" She asked.

"Yes, he does," Nate responded, "but Malden is the wild west and we are only half a mile away." Nate signalled to the North.

"We will take a quick look and we will be back in no time," Nate smiled at Cait as he could see she was less than enthusiastic to have to leave the warmth of the fire.

The pair left the house and began by moving slowly back down the road they had come up earlier. Nate intended on sweeping west a little before heading north, in a great loop around the left side of the house. The right side being covered by the river.

"Thanks for making up with Piper," Nate said quietly as they began their patrol.

"We weren't fighting anyway," Cait responded, "well not much."

"I know, I just didn't want it to become a bigger thing, that's all." Nate looked at Cait, "but you are ok, aren't you?" He asked. Nate had noticed that Cait seemed a little pre-occupied recently, not her usual self and much less fiery, a little more muted. To Nate, one of the things he loved about Cait was her passion for things, sometime pig headed, sometime argumentative, but most subjects got a real reaction from her. Over the last few days she had just been a little less... well... Cait.

Cait was staring ahead, "Yeah, I'm peachy," she responded, sounding genuine.

"Oh, ok," Nate answered back, happy that she was either ok or didn't want to talk about it.