Fallout of the Heart

Chapter Twenty One

Sturges didn't need anymore of my data, but he was literally putting the last touches on the machine so I decided to just wait around and watch him work, instead of walking away and having to come back. Before, I would have taken a few moments to get myself together, have a few last words with Hancock, amp myself up for the mission before I went through. Now, I honestly just didn't fucking care and wanted this shit fucking over with.

It didn't help that once people saw me waiting at the machine, they had to join the proceedings. Preston, Des, and Deacon were all reiterating the data points they'd mentioned they wanted me to check out previously, with Sturges piping in and adding his two caps worth to the conversation. "Data, data, data, I fucking got it! If someone fucking says data one more fucking time, I'm going to give them some new data about some extra-curricular uses for wrenches! I'll get your fucking data!" I snapped, feeling like I was frothing at the mouth as I did. Everyone backed away, before Sturges timidly asked me if I was ready to go.

I nodded, without apologizing. "Yes, I'm ready to go, and yes, I'll get the fucking data, okay? Let's just get this fucking shitshow on the road – the faster I get in, the faster I get back out with what everyone wants." I retorted, fighting the tears. "It's all you bastards care about anyway." I muttered softly to myself, so softly that I knew no one else caught it. The only person who would have heard me hadn't bothered to come down from the hill, and that was just one more stab in the back as I stood there feeling the machine power up.

The way the machine was shaking just before the blue beam caught me, I honestly thought I really was going to end up liquified when I came out the other side. I found myself surprisingly disappointed to still be in one piece when my vision cleared, however. I crept forward out of the chamber I'd landed in, taking stock of my surroundings as I moved slowly. As soon as I found a viable terminal – just on the other side of the teleporter chamber, I might add – I slapped the holotape in I'd been given, allowing it to do its thing as I searched the terminal itself for entry and exit information. Once the holotape was done I yanked it out, making sure I made a copy of it in my own pip-boy before moving on again. That wasn't the only data I was here for.

Just a few feet from that terminal a voice spoke to me over the intercom, calling itself Father and inviting me to come speak with it, saying it knew why I was here and it wanted to meet me face to face, since I'd been resourceful enough to make it here. That shitty feeling that I was going to absolutely hate what I was about to find started up in the pit of my stomach as I stepped onto that elevator, but I went down anyway because what the fuck else could I do?

He spoke again as the elevator descended, giving me the indoctrination grand tour as the scope of what they'd built underground was unveiled to me. Listening to his words, he was no fucking better than Maxson – just a gentler tone of voice and slightly kinder words, but I already knew that anyway from everything I'd seen. I didn't need this shit to tell me just how bad things actually were. If they were so great, synths wouldn't be escaping, the Railroad wouldn't exist, and Virgil wouldn't be a fucking super mutant, for starters.

Yeah, you son of a bitch, I am here for my fucking son – so kind of you to fucking point that out. My mood was black as I stepped off of that second elevator, and as the door opened before me it only got worse. I saw that child trapped behind glass, the one I had seen in Kellogg's vision, and that feeling in the pit of my stomach tripled. I knew right then and there that thing wasn't my son, that it was a fucking trap, but I had to pretend or I wouldn't know what the hell was actually going on.

Like any good, concerned parent I made my way forward, trying to speak to the boy, putting on the confused and grieving act as he acted scared and started calling for 'Father'. I saw the door open to my right, and the man that stepped through cemented all my worst fears in one single breath – he was the spitting image of Richard's father. HE was Shaun, not this thing trapped behind glass. This was confirmed when I heard him say some strange code, causing the boy to slump over like a deactivated assaultron.