Fallout of the Heart

Chapter Twenty Four

As dawn stained the sky, we were making our way out of the gates of Bunker Hill, heading north to finish the second leg of our journey here in the Commonwealth. Our route was winding and circuitous, slowly leading us to the northwest corner of the map. The settlements were random but bustling, and some of them waved to us as we went by. Apparently, we only stopped at the major hub settlements, who then handled shipping supplies out and bringing supplies in from the smaller groups, to make things more efficient.

At the apex of our northern trek, we stopped at a Red Rocket, where I could see that they had turned the station into the perfect storage place to keep goods safe. As the people there worked on rearranging our load, I walked around a bit, taking in the scenery. To the north, across a bridge, I could see a settlement surrounded by a wall, with turrets lining the front of the gate and people standing up in guard towers up above the sides of the gate. While most of the settlements did have some kind of fencing, not all of them did, and I don't know what it was about this one but it just felt more final, more isolated. I shook my head and went back to the group, and a few minutes later we were ready to go. The people here really had worked incredibly fast.

From there, we worked our way down through Concord proper, since we had skirted the outside of it on the way to the Red Rocket. I could see some signs of where people were trying to make it into a settlement as well, though it seemed the attempts were hesitant and fleeting so far. The thing that really struck me was all the effort I had seen to clean up debris, do something with the rubble and ancient cars and make them into something useful, instead of just letting it lie about the place like in some of the other places I'd been. Granted, some of it was fused to the ground or whatever and couldn't be moved, but a lot of it could.

A lot of holes in walls could be patched, a lot of falling down floors could be shored up and patched, and attempts were being made to patch holes in roofs so that when the bed was inside, it actually did some good. Little kids were smiling, people were resting and talking and enjoying food. Overall, life was hard, but people seemed happy. I didn't see scraps just sitting around, barely surviving, eyes glassy with despair or chems just trying to ignore or escape from their reality. I'm not saying that it was all smiles, or that no one used chems, but it definitely felt a lot different to me than some of the places I had seen – especially out west. Despite the work that had been done out there, there was still so much to do, and doing it in the desert was a lot harder since it was a lot more spread out and the fauna was a bit more prolific and angry. The lack of water kind of hindered things as well.

After Concord we stopped at a small diner, then made our way winding down through Lexington. Bryson's commentary on the names of places for the three of us that had never been here proved to be enlightening for me, and possibly for Avery for his meticulous notes, but I wasn't sure if Lynn cared. If she did, she never showed it. As we stood still for a few minutes taking in the Corvega car factory while Bryson checked that same strap again, Jackson moved to my side and gave me a sly smile.

"Should we sign you up for waterfront property?" He asked, with a devious wink. I frowned and shook my head in confusion, wondering what the hell he was talking about. "I've been watching your expressions as we've been traveling – you look like you've fallen in love with the place. It happens sometimes." He said, with a shrug. I smiled a little, then shook my head.

"Nah, it's just... I can see the work that's gone on here. Hell, down in New Vegas? Despite the work that's been put in down there – it's been 15 years or better since the Courier wiped out the Legion and yanked the NCR's chain up short, making it a better place for everyone to live, yet they've done so little work to clean places up like they have here. Hell, Freeside is still half-rubble, and a lot of it could be shifted and moved to open up buildings or free up space to build new ones. Yet, a lot of them still just lounge around, doing the bare minimum to keep themselves fed while looking fed up with life. I dunno, it just..." I trailed off, shrugging. I couldn't really put it into words, though I could envision in my head perfectly.