Fallout of the Heart

Chapter Nine

I sat there, crouched outside of the National Guard Training Facility, face turned to the sky as I let the gentle rain wash over me for a moment. The slightly cool drops of water slid over my skin, washing away some of the accumulated dirt, grime, and mental fatigue that had been building up ever since I'd found out that Shaun was being held by the Institute. Part of me was frothing at the mouth to get going after him immediately, but the rest of me knew we weren't ready for that at all.

So, right now, I was leaning hard into helping local settlements for Preston as I worked on getting myself back into the shape I had been when I left my service – I would need to be in top shape when I finally made it inside that technological hellscape. My original idea of making a safe little nest for my baby seemed to be a moot point now, if that ten year old I saw really was my son and not some trap. However, I still wanted a safer wasteland for him to finish growing up in. It may not have been the pre-war world I had originally imagined, but I'd do my best to make sure it was as safe as I could make it. Everyone else would benefit as a bonus.

I suppressed a sigh and brought my face back down to the present, feeling Hancock's eyes on me. I gave him just the barest turn of my head, telling him that I knew he was staring at me without saying a thing. I heard the faintest chuckle from him, then the answering sound of metal clearing a holster as he drew his weapon in response to me preparing to clear the place of ghouls as we'd been asked. Hopefully I'd find some useful information while I was here – the fatalistic part of my brain had already given up on the idea of the hidden pre-war caches.

Most of the information had been stripped from the place, and most of the ghouls were easy to dispatch, though there were three incredibly strong ones that made me grateful I'd given Hancock much better weaponry. I really, really didn't like the glowing ones – especially after dealing with the first one while helping No-Nose with her stupid bullshit. Despite the fact that I was stronger now, they were still a massive pain in my ass.

In one of the side rooms, Hancock made a comment about someone trying to barricade themselves up in the corner not ending well, and I followed him in to find a woman, dead, leaning against the wall, a distress beacon like one that I had seen in the Cambridge police station sitting on a dresser nearby, ticking. Eyes narrowing, I searched her over, taking in the uniform, dog tag, holotape, and weapon. She was Brotherhood of Steel, but judging by the state of her, she didn't look fresh. Was she part of the patrol Danse had been sent to look for?

I shook my head, and turned out of the room to finish the job we'd been sent here for. Not my circus, not my monkeys – and I wasn't ready to deal with the Brotherhood just yet. I had the feeling that messing with them would kick off a cascade of events none of us were ready for, so time to move the hell on and get this shit done. After a few more ghouls and one massive sentry bot that was guarding the mostly empty armory, we finally made our way back to Greentop to update them on the job.

Once we were done, I looked at the map, and realized that there was another settlement close to the training yard that Preston had mentioned in passing before that I had somewhat ignored. Annoyed, I turned and made my way back to the yard, stopping just outside it as that stupid distress beacon's pulses kept pinging my pip-boy. I closed my eyes as I stood there, breathing deeply as I wrestled with myself.

"Fuck!" I muttered grumpily, then turned and banged my way back through the front doors as I stalked straight back to the room where the girl was resting. I crouched down and took the holotape and the tags, shutting off the beacon as I listened to the tape. I stared at her silently for several heartbeats, then with a growl I turned and stalked back to the entrance. I was slightly sad that the rain had stopped before we made it back here, but it was what it was.

The skies had been clearing, though night was falling, as we had entered. The ominous green glow I saw when I came back through the doors made me stop short – the sickly green cast that had settled over everything felt very, very wrong. I frowned and looked around, wondering if I'd suddenly started suffering weird side effects from being frozen for so long, when a streak of brilliant radioactive green lightning arced across the sky just a little to the right, followed by a crack of thunder.