The
cold
that had permeated the air when they had left the Robco plant
that
morning
had not only persisted, but it had gotten even colder as the wind
picked up.
The
two
Gutsies,
and the
Miss Nanny, Suzy,
were mostly unaffected other than the
occasional
gust which
caused
them to rock and sway.
Drew
had been worried about Jack noticing the damage to his leather
armor,
but
he hadn’t commented on it. Drew was certainly glad since it had
been damaged by the smaller of the two Greenclaws back at the Mega
Stop. He
honestly didn’t have an excuse prepared and
had no idea what he’d say if Jack did ask. He’d probably have to
make something up on the spot.
Eventually,
he knew that he would have to
tell
them,
and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Secrets never stayed secrets
forever
and he would rather tell them before they found out.
He
just hoped they took it well.
They had been on the road for
three hours when the town north of the border came into view. It
seemed quiet, but Drew knew that it was anything but. Roving ferals
and predators had been mainstays of the town for as long as people
could remember, though thankfully, the hospital was on the outskirts
and not in the more dangerous center.
As
they approached the hospital, Drew noticed something imprinted
in the
dirt that was covering the road. It
was a footprint
and
it clearly belonged to a large lizard.
“Hold up,” Drew said as he
walked over and squatted down, running his fingers across it.
“One of those green
deathclaws?” Jack asked.
“Maybe.
It’s
either that, a regular deathclaw
or some other giant reptile.”
“How
long has it been there
do
you think?”
Drew sighed as he stood up and
dusted off his hands on his pants. “Within the last few hours.”
“Shit.”
“Shit
is
right,”
Drew said
glumly.
“We should probably get inside the hospital as soon as possible.”
“Yeah.”
Moving quickly, they made their
way to the front doors only for Jack to reach out, placing his hand
on Drew’s chest, stopping him.
“What is it?” Drew asked
before seeing them himself.
“Claw marks,” Jack said.
Drew stepped over to the gouges
in the wall near the doors. He couldn’t remember them being there
when they had last been there which meant that like the footprint it
was fresh. It was likely that the Greenclaws had either gone past the
hospital or they were inside. As to why they had clawed the wall Drew
didn’t know. The only explanation that made sense was that it was a
warning to any would-be scavengers or anyone else.
“Not good,” Jack said.
“Yeah,
not good,” Drew agreed.
For a moment, he considered
calling the whole thing off but decided not to. It was a three-hour
walk back making a total of six hours and he didn’t want it to have
been a wasted effort.
“We
do what we came here to do and leave,” Drew said. “If we find
supplies, we grab them, but I don’t think it’s wise to go
out of our way.”
“Right,” Jack said, looking
at Suzy. “Once we’re in, you’ll take us straight to the server
room, right?”
“Oui.
Zhat
is right.”
Drew
pushed the front doors open. “Everyone inside,” he said as he
held the one on the left.
Quickly, Jack held open the one
on the right and the two Gutsies and Suzy quickly moved past them
into the building.
“Listen
for any signs
of
deathclaws,”
Drew said as
he let go of the door, letting
it swing shut, Jack,
doing the same.
“This
includes claw marks, footprints, and deep
or heavy thumps or
growls. Could
be a sign of an unwelcome visitor.”
“Right,”
Jack said, a small quiver in his voice. “But,
uh… Why would they be in the hospital in the first place?”
“I don’t know if they are,
but we still have to be…”
Drew
stopped talking as he saw a footprint in the dust. It
was
large and
reptilian
and
it wasn’t the only one. There were
several prints from a single creature leading away from the entrance.
They were in the hospital, or
at least one was.
“Shit,” he hissed,
clutching his laser rifle tightly.
“What
the fuck do we do?” Jack asked, having also seen the clawed
footprints.
“We
should probably go,
but I don’t want to leave empty-handed. We go to the server room as
quietly as we can, get the data, and get out.”
He wouldn’t tell Jack, but
deep down, Drew almost felt excited. It wasn’t that he wanted to
come face to face with a Greenclaw again, more that he wanted to come
face to face with a specific
Greenclaw; the larger, browner green-tone claw that had
let him go to be exact. There
had been something about her that felt familiar, something he
couldn’t put his finger on.
Drew
focused back on the here and now.
He couldn’t risk Jack, not
for his own curiosity. They were here for data, and
perhaps a few supplies, nothing
more.
Drew looked at Suzy. “Which
way is the server room?”
She
raised a pincer arm and thankfully
pointed in
the opposite direction to where
the footprints went.
“Zhis
way.”
She took the lead and everyone
else followed. Before long, after descending down a flight of stairs,
they found themselves among the hum and blinking lights of a very
old, very worn, and dirty set of servers.
After
closing the door behind them, Drew and Jack took the memory cores out
of the storage units on the Gutsies
and plugged the
first two in. With the help
of his Pipboy, he
began the transfer, though it would be
far from quick. The estimate
was thirty minutes per core which meant they would be here for the
rest of the day.
With little else to do, Drew
and Jack sat down on some old creaky chairs and began the long wait.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. Finally, after fifteen minutes of them
sitting in silence, Drew decided to strike up conversation.
“So,” Drew began, looking
at Suzy, “it must be a little strange to see the world in such a
terrible state.”
“I
did not see much of ze outside world,” the
Miss Nanny
answered. “Only through ze windows and
most of zhem became so dirty I could no longer see through zhem.”
One
of the Gutsy’s spoke up. “This place is filthy! Slacking in
maintenance like a Commie would!”
Jack
laughed while Drew smirked. That
was probably a little of that base ‘Handy’ programming coming
through. Though it also showed that the robot didn’t really
comprehend what had happened. Given enough time and world experience,
Drew was certain that the
newly activated Gutsies
would start to grasp the basics. Though he still wasn’t certain of
their actual intelligence.
There
was a sudden deep thump from upstairs which caused dust to fall from
the ceiling. Jack gasped as he clutched Amy’s shotgun which she had
let him borrow.
“Stay quiet,” Drew said.
“You think it’s a
deathclaw?” Jack asked in a low voice.
“Could be something falling,”
Drew whispered.
“How long till we’re done?”
Drew checked his Pipboy. “First
cores should have finished the transfer in another fifteen minutes.”
Jack didn’t look happy.
“If
it was something walking about, it would have been more than one loud
thump,” Drew reassured him, but still kept his voice low just in
case.
Regardless,
he was still on edge, they both were. Giant
reptilian footprints
inside the hospital were
far from
a good sign, and from what he had seen at
the Mega Stop,
it was likely they were here for the
medical
supplies.
Jack
leaned
towards Drew. “I don’t hear anything else. I think you’re
right, it was something falling over or
collapsing or
something.”
“Yeah,
but we should still stay quiet, just in case.”
Jack nodded but didn’t say
anything.
After a few minutes of silence,
Suzy spoke up. “By ze way. Before you leave with ze data, I shall
need to see your requisition forms.”
Both Drew and Jack stared at
her.
Then came a strangely cute
chuckle. “Only joking.”
Neither
of them knew what to make of that. The
last time a robot had made actual jokes that weren’t pre-programmed
was Izzy, their Assaultron companion. Thinking
back, he wished he had never agreed to hand her over to
Colville
in exchange for being able to live there.
Not only had they neglected her maintenance, but
they
had also
thrown her at the raiders
with little concern. Her death still haunted him, like so many
others, though
it didn’t haunt him nearly as much as Gemma’s death did. The
worst part was that he didn’t even know how she had died. He hoped
it had been quick, but he doubted the super mutants were that
merciful.
There
was a loud thump
outside the door which made both Drew and Jack jump. For
several minutes, they both pointed their
weapons towards
the door, waiting for anyone or anything to burst through.
Five
minutes passed without further sound, other than the odd creak,
though they had been hearing those since they had first arrived.
“Jeez,”
Jack muttered. “This place is
putting
me on edge.”
Drew
stood up. “The first cores must almost be at capacity by
now.”
He plugged in his Pipboy. “Yep,
another two minutes and we’ll be swapping them.”
“How many cores do we need to
fill?”
“About seven,” Drew told
him.
“So
five left,” Jack
groaned.
“It’s
an entire database,” Drew pointed out. “There’ll be a lot that
Sarah and Suzy will have to sift through and
organize.”
Suzy
sounded excited by the prospect. “It will be fun, no?”
“Whatever
gets your jets firing,” Drew said as he prepared to pause the
transfer and swap data devices.
There was a deep muffled
rumbling roar that had Drew instantly raise his rifle. It sounded
like it had come from outside the hospital, probably from out on the
street.
Jack’s eyes were wide with
fear. “Did you hear that!?”
“Yeah, I did,” Drew said as
he lowered his weapon and paused the transfer to the cores.
“I don’t think we should be
here,” Jack said.
“Just a few more hours. I
doubt they’ll come in here, there’s no reason to.”
“And what if they do?” Jack
asked.
Drew didn’t want to think
about that. He just hoped that he could talk to them like he had back
at the Mega Stop.
Drew
cleared his throat. “We
have two
Gutsies
ready and
willing to
fight.”
“You
think they’ll be able to stand up to a deathclaw?” Jack asked
incredulously.
Drew
didn’t answer as he
unplugged the memory cores and
placed them into Suzy’s storage before plugging in the next two. He
re-engaged
the transfer before
sitting down next to Jack.
“I
hate this.”
Drew
understood what
he meant,
but he also felt that they couldn’t leave before getting all the
data. It would feel like a
wasted effort.
“We came here for a reason,”
Drew said. “Once we have what we need, we leave.”
“Fuck the data, Drew. I don’t
want to be ripped apart by some deathclaw.”
“Neither do I.” He rubbed
his eyes. “If you want to go, then take the two Gutsies with you.
I’m staying here, though.”
Jack glowered at him. “I’m
not gonna leave you here on your own.”
“Then be quiet. The more
noise we make, the more likely it is something will hear us.”
Jack
fell silent as he focused on the door. Drew
had to admit, he was on edge too. Every creak or
settling of the building seemed
amplified and
he honestly expected something to burst through the door at any
moment.
Today
was supposed to have been an easy day. He had expected a few
Orderlies to come at them and maybe a feral or two, but between the
five of them, any hostile should have been easily dispatched.
A deathclaw, green, or
otherwise, made it anything but easy.
Then
they heard it. It started off quiet, but the thumping of heavy
footsteps above
them grew
louder and louder, dust
falling
from the ceiling. Eventually,
it grew quiet as whatever it was moved on to a different part of the
hospital.
“They’re
here,” Jack
hissed.
“We
should get out of here before they find us.”
He was right, but Drew wasn’t
ready to throw in the towel just yet.
One of the Gutsies decided to
give their two cents. “Sounds to me that someone needs to lay off
the pies.”
Drew
smirked before he brought his finger to his lips. “We’re
in hostile territory on a mission to gather needed information. Try
to keep it down.”
“Understood!”
the
two
Gutsies
barked together.
It
was irritating that they
didn’t understand what keeping quiet meant. Though
he couldn’t exactly blame them. They had been designed to be loud,
derogatory, and aggressive in order to draw enemy attention and fire
away
from the allied soldiers.
They weren’t for infiltration missions or anything that required
subtlety. No, like all military robots they were there to suppress
and drive the enemy back.
“Fuck,”
Jack hissed as the thumping upstairs returned, causing more dust to
fall.
“Sounds like the Commies
brought their wives along,” one of the Gutsies uttered rather
loudly.
The
footsteps stopped and Drew held his breath, hoping desperately that
the Gutsies
didn’t say anything else. The last thing they
needed was for anything to come investigate the sound.
Suzy
spoke in barely a whisper, her three
eyes focused on the offending Gutsy. “I do not zhink
you should be speaking so loudly.”
She
understood
the situation,
so why couldn’t they? He knew enough about their programming to
know that they had the same base subroutines
and
their internal hardware was pretty much identical.
He wondered if it had something to do with their
personality? One
was
programmed
to be brash
and
confident, and the other was
programmed
to be more
reserved and caring.
In
a lot of ways, the Gutsy robot was all the worst qualities of a macho
man distilled into a metal box.
The thumping returned as the
footsteps moved the other way, growing fainter before they once more
disappeared.
Jack stood up. “It might be
finding a set of stairs to come investigate.”
“It might,” Drew agreed.
“Hopefully not.” He checked the time on his Pipboy. “We have
another twenty minutes before the next memory cores are full.”
“Do
we really need all of it?”
“Probably
not,” Drew agreed. “But if you want to sift through all the data
to find what’s useful and what isn’t, go right ahead. Might take
a few weeks, though.”
Jack
sat back down. “This is really stupid, Drew. Why the fuck are we
here?”
“To gather data and some
supplies,” Drew said even though he knew Jack was well aware.
“There’s
one door. If it bursts in here then we don’t have an escape.”
“With
at least one wandering about, it might be best to stay put,” Drew
pointed out. “I’m not leaving until we’ve got what we came
for.”
Jack
didn’t
look happy
but said nothing else. Drew
was grateful as he really couldn’t deal with him complaining. Sure,
the situation wasn’t ideal, but apart from running away, there was
little they could do about it. Besides,
running might be the very thing that brought
danger
their
way. If anything, it was best to stay put. It was how he had survived
in the past when it came to deathclaws.
Then
again,
Drew knew that these weren’t regular deathclaws, so
any previous experience was rendered
moot.
The
next hour and a half dragged on, though there were no more signs of
movement. Which
both of them were definitely thankful for.
With
all the data transferred, Drew unplugged the final two drives and
told a relieved Jack that it was time to go. After
gathering a few supplies, they headed out where they found, much to
their surprise, a few dead feral ghouls which hadn’t been there
when they had arrived a
few hours earlier.
While all of them had deep cuts
and gouges in their flesh from claw marks, one appeared to have been
completely eviscerated.
“That
could have been us,” Jack muttered.
“Still
can if we don’t get a move on,” Drew told
him as he took the lead. “Come on, let’s get back to the plant.”
“Right behind you,” Jack
said eagerly.
As they walked down the old
pitted road, Drew glanced back and froze as he saw a Greenclaw
peering out of one of the upstairs windows.
Their eyes locked for a moment
before it moved out of sight.
“What is it?” Jack asked
glancing back towards the hospital.
“I
thought I saw something,” Drew said.
It
was a lie. He
didn’t
think
he saw something, he knew
he saw something.
“Let’s
get the fuck out of here before
we have an unfortunate encounter.”
“Agreed.”
* * *
“There
was a deathclaw
in the hospital with us,” Jack told Amy and Sarah. “I thought we
were gonna die! Especially
because those two Gutsies wouldn’t shut the fuck up.”
After
a grueling hurried two-hour and forty-minute stride, they had finally
got back to
the plant.
After taking the memory cores to the nurse’s office and placing the
two
Gutsies
on patrol, Drew, Jack and Suzy had headed for the cafeteria where
they were now eating
dinner.
Neither Amy nor Sarah could
believe what Jack had told them. They looked at Drew, shock etched on
their faces.
“A
deathclaw?”
Amy asked.
“And you stayed?”
Drew
dismissed Jack’s exaggeration. “It
was
thumping around upstairs.
When we arrived we
saw some footprints outside and some inside. But we avoided it, so it
turned out alright.”
Jack gestured at the door with
his thumb. “Almost didn’t, though. Like I said, the Gutsies
wouldn’t shut up and I think the deathclaw might have heard them.”
“Debatable,” Drew said. “It
never came to investigate.”
“Doesn’t
mean it didn’t hear it,” Jack argued.
“No.
But we got the data. That’s
all that matters.”
“Next
time,” Jack said as he scooped up some mashed tato with his fork,
“you
can go on your own. I ain’t gonna sit there
waiting to be made
a
deathclaw’s
dinner.
Especially
not with some robots that won’t stop making stupid comments.”
Drew
smirked. “This is why I try and talk you out of going places with
me. Because you always complain afterwards about how dangerous it
was. No-shit. It’s
dangerous everywhere.”
“It
was only dangerous because we didn’t leave,” Jack pointed out.
“The data wasn’t worth the stress.”
“I
think it was,” Drew said before looking over at Sarah. “There’s
a lot of data there. Tons of it.”
Sarah smiled. “That just
means that me and Suzy will have a lot of work compiling and
re-organizing it.”
“Sounds
like fun,” Amy said sarcastically.
“In
a strange sort of way, it will be,” Sarah said
with a shrug. “Well, not ‘fun’ per se, but rewarding.”
Amy rolled her eyes as she
shook her head. “You vault dwellers are weird.”
“Oh, I was weird, even in the
vault,” Sarah joked.
Drew
was glad that she had become a part of the group so quickly. At
first, he had been weary, but now he was certain that she not only
had no ill intent but that she was actually a benefit.
The
same
could be said of
Suzy. As
for whether the Gutsies
would evolve past mere
automatons,
he
would have to wait and see.
Amy looked at Drew. “So,
anywhere else you planning on going?”
“Not at the moment,” he
said. “Might head out to check the Red Rocket Mega Stop.”
He decided not to tell them
that he had already been there.
“Why would you want to check
it out?” Amy asked.
Sarah shook her head. “I
wouldn’t.”
“I just want to make sure
there’s no nest there.”
Amy shook her head vehemently.
“And if there is, you’ll be killed.”
“I’ll scout the area out,
Ame. I won’t head in, not unless I’m certain it’s clear.”
Drew had a feeling that Amy
wasn’t going to let him go. He briefly considered telling them he
had already been, but quickly realized that telling them that would
make going back pointless. The truth was that he wanted to see a
particular Greenclaw again, and while he’d potentially had the
chance at the hospital, he hadn’t wanted to put Jack in harm’s
way.
Jack clenched his jaw. “If he
wants to go, he’ll go. Can’t change his mind once it’s made
up.”
“I’m not saying that I’m
going for certain,” Drew defended. “Just that I’m thinking
about it. If I do, I’ll head into town and get Jarik to come with
me.”
Amy looked relieved. “I’d
feel better if you did.”
It was a lie, he had no
intention of taking Jarik anywhere, and especially not to introduce
him to the Greenclaws.
“I’d feel better if you
didn’t go at all,” Jack said. “But I know what you’re like.”
“Just thinking out loud,”
Drew said. “I’ll probably take it easy tomorrow. Put my feet up
and relax.”
“We still have some turrets
we need to bring online,” Jack said. “As well as the water
filtration system.”
Drew nodded. “We’ll work on
the water tomorrow. Get that finished. The water coolers having clean
purified water is fine, but we wanna be able to take a shower or bath
in clean water too.”
“Definitely,” Sarah agreed
wholeheartedly. “I used to shower daily in the vault. Since
leaving, I’m lucky if I get to wash myself once a week.”
“Then that’s what we’ll
do,” Drew confirmed.
Finished with their food, Drew
stood up. “Feeling a little tired. Gonna go upstairs and go relax.”
“See you tomorrow,” Amy
said.
Drew waved as he headed out of
the room and made his way upstairs to the office. He sat down in the
chair and stared out into the darkening wilderness.
His eyes fell on the old
military tank. He would love to fix it up one day, but it was
something that would be more of a hobby fix than anything else. It
would also have to wait until after he had brought the plant back
online.
One day, perhaps.
Movement by the security gate
caught his eye. He stood up and made his way to the window and stared
out. At first, he saw nothing, but from behind the security booth, he
saw a Greenclaw emerge.
“What the…” he muttered
as he leaned against the glass.
The Greenclaw paused and looked
up at him, its gaze piercing.
Nervously, he raised his hand
and offered a wave, and much to his surprise it returned it before it
turned and left, stomping off onto the highway and out of sight.
Despite
not being able to see her all that well, he had a feeling that it was
the same Greenclaw
that had released
him.
It
seemed, even though it felt absolutely crazy, that he had made a
friend. Then again, she could be scoping the place out in
preparation
for her friends to come and kill them. He
didn’t believe that, though. No,
there was something about them, something unusual.
He
wanted to know more about them, but
there was a very old saying, one that predated the great war about
curiosity killing the cat.
He
didn’t plan
on being
the cat.