Crawled Out Through The Fallout

Chapter 43

Doctor Li was grateful for the new supplies. I had asked her what they were for, and she told me I was disturbing her train of thought, then kicked me out of her lab. I pouted and left her lab. I looked down at my Pip-Boy and decided to go to Sanctuary since I had nothing else to do for the Institute. 

I walked up to the big house but got stopped by Sturges. 

"Hey there, General. I thought you might want to go over the data you pulled from the Institute. I got what I needed from it, but there's a few things you might be interested in on there."

He handed me the plastic device and walked away.

"Thanks, Sturges."

I called after him before going to my terminal. I took a seat and inserted the holotape. The menu loaded, and I read through the options that were displayed. Resource Management, Synth Retention, Project Files, Synth Index, and Layout. I clicked through and read each one, until I got to Synth Index. It was a different format than the others, showing as a data table rather than paragraphs. I read the first few lines. The information included the name, identification number, recall code, SSE, and Location. The first line read Jenny, K1-98, gamma-charlie-ninety-eight, a checkmark, and unknown. I recognized the name from the synth girl I met while chasing down the Courser. 

All the information I understood, except for the SSE column. I looked through that column alone, and saw it had checkmarks, x's,  strikethroughs, and blanks. I read a few names that had checkmarks next to them. Sturges, McDonough, Nick Valentine. I knew them. I had no idea Sturges was a synth. Either way, he was my friend. Valentine I knew was a synth, but everyone does.  I looked through for ones with the x's. I found Gabriel, the synth I sent back. I noticed all the ones blank were ones I didn't know. 

My mind flicked to Deacon, and I wondered if I would find his name on the list. It would do me no good to know for sure. I was curious but I didn't want to risk seeing something out that I would regret finding out.

I stopped reading the list, not wanting to know more about the synths I know. I knew I had lots of questions for Father about the synths, and why there were so many names with checkmarks in the SSE column. 

I ejected the holotape and put it in my pocket for safe keeping. I couldn't let this fall into the wrong hands. 

...

"Father has requested for you to join him in his quarters. He has an urgent matter to discuss with you."

A worker synth told me before resuming his sweeping. I have something urgent too. I ran upstairs to where Father was waiting for me.

"Mother, good. You're here. I would like you to come with me."

He stood up and teleported us above ground. When I looked around, I realized we were on the roof of the CIT ruins. I stood in the middle of the roof, avoiding being with in falling range of the edge.

"You defied death and danger to get to where you are today. I knew you would come to the Institute one day. But you got here faster than I estimated. Which is of course, a very good thing."

I listened to his obviously prepared speech and looked out over the wastes.

"You had the motivation and willpower to survive the harshest conditions to make it to where you are. And I couldn't be prouder of the results."

Results. He talked as though I was a lab rat in a maze.

"Even with the obstacles I had in place, the different paths lined up for you, you chose the one that brought you here."

I processed what he told me and looked at him.

"What do you mean different paths?"

He chuckled in an empty and cheerless way.

"I mean I set up your path to cross with those of the other factions. I wanted you to have your choice of alliances. But you chose wisely."

Anger started to well up inside me.

"You are telling me that all my chance encounters were actually set ups by you? That the whole time I have been out here, I 've just been following your breadcrumbs?"

"That was more harshly put than my intentions were, but yes. You were an experiment."

My fists balled up and my knuckles began to turn white.

"And what about the Railroad? I suppose you made it so that they would find me, and ask me to join them? Was anything I did out here actually have any meaning? Other than to become your results."

I felt tears roll down my burning face. All this time, I was just a pawn on a chessboard. Everyone I knew were simply planted there for my benefit. My life was turned upside down for at least the second time in my life.

"The Railroad found you? Now that I was not expecting. Cheer up, Mother. You are proof of humanity's ability to adapt and survive."

"Do not call me mother. If I was your mother, I wouldn't have raised you to be a monster."

I grabbed his collar and gritted my teeth. My voice had changed to a deeper, more tense growl. I swung him around so he was teetering on the edge of the building. The only thing keeping him from falling was my hands holding his jacket. His eyes were wide with fear, but he tried to hide it. 

"Please, let's talk about this rationally. We can go back to the Institute, and I can show you all the things we have accomplished by studying your behavior."

His voice had a tremor to it as he pleaded with me.

"Next time you see me at the Institute, it'll be because I'm there to kill you, and destroy your life's work."

I hissed at him and threw him back on to the roof. He lay on the ground looking up at me as I was surrounded in pale blue light. Then, I was gone.