Slowly, Drew regained
consciousness. It wasn’t a pleasant return to the world as he was
greeted by a pounding migraine and a stiff, aching back. Something
was propping up his head and it took a moment for him to realize it
was his backpack.
As to what had happened, he
had absolutely no idea. His memories were hazy, though from what
little that he could actually remember, he had a terrible feeling
that it might have included the Greenclaws.
“Wha…”
he stammered as his eyes
drifted open.
His vision was blurry, so he couldn’t quite make out the figure
that loomed over him. It was more of a shadow than a person,
illuminated by light shining on the side of its body. He was inside
and at a guess, he was at the Red Rocket Mega Stop.
Slowly, he began to piece together the events. He remembered the
footsteps, going outside, hiding behind the dumpster, and then the
colossal Greenclaw as it had peered at him over the side of the roof
like a predator hunting for its prey.
Drew rubbed his eyes as he tried to focus on the figure. Had Jack or
Amy found him unconscious? Was it a scavenger? He had no idea who it
was that was standing over him, though that soon changed as his
vision began to clear.
It was a Greenclaw and it was staring right at him.
“Shit!” he uttered in fright as his heart nearly leaped out of
his chest.
It,
no
she,
blinked, then
glanced outside before
focusing back on him.
“Uh,
hello,” he said, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.
It
then spoke. “You
took a nasty fall,” she
said.
“I do not
think you broke anything.”
She was talking to him, and there was something eerily familiar about
her voice.
“Wh-what
happened?” he asked, his
voice shaky and uneven.
“Kiki terrified you so much that you tried to leap to your death.”
Just at the mention of the gargantuan Greenclaw, his heart rate
spiked and his chest started to feel tight. The Greenclaw looming
over him was right, Kiki terrified him. He had never seen something
so horrifying in his life. The closest that he’d seen was a
mirelurk queen, yet somehow, it didn’t feel nearly as terrifying.
“You’re scared of her,” the Greenclaw observed. “Are you
scared of me?”
Even though he knew he should be cautious of what he said, he decided
to tell her the truth. “Yeah, I am.”
He had been lying far too much recently and he didn’t want to get
off on a bad footing, though he feared he’d already done that.
“Not scared enough apparently,” she said as she stopped leaning
over him and stood up. She paused and looked back down at him. “I’m
Ayma. The other one is Kiki like I said.”
“What are you gonna do to me?” he asked, his voice hitching in
his throat.
“Nothing,” she said as she turned away and began to stomp off.
“Where are you going?”
“What we came here to do,” she said as she disappeared down an
aisle.
Briefly, Drew considered getting up and getting the hell out of
there, but he realized that the ginormous Kiki was probably waiting
outside. That was easily enough to keep him exactly where he was.
Besides, his back still hurt and his head was still pounding like a
tiny man was inside his skull sledgehammering his brain.
Not a minute after disappearing, he heard Ayma’s stomping feet get
closer as she returned. She emerged from behind an aisle with a crate
in hand and placed it down on the floor next to another by the front
doors. She then turned around and headed back towards the warehouse
before returning a minute later with another crate. She then stacked
them atop one another.
“You taking everything?” he asked.
“Eventually,” she answered. “Do you want some of this stuff?”
“I want stuff for cleaning, mostly,” he said. “I’m fixing up
the old Robco plant.”
The moment he told her he realized he probably shouldn’t have.
“I know you are,” she said. “I have seen you there. You waved
at me by the gate. Neka and Axa mentioned some people had set up
residence there. I figured it was you because that was the direction
you went the last time we met.”
Two more names meant there were at least four of them. He figured it
was either Neka or Axa that had been the one that had wanted to tear
out his intestines before Ayma had thankfully stopped her.
She walked over to him. “What do you plan on doing with the
robots.”
Again,
he was a little too honest. “Since I arrived in Colville and
discovered the plant, I wanted to fix it up. The plan was to secure
the
region with the robots and
make
the place safe. It was a dream, but I just wasn’t getting around to
it. Then there were reports of green deathclaws
in the area, which kicked my ass into gear.”
“So you want to use the
robots to hunt us?”
“That was the plan, I guess.”
“Was?”
“Yeah. I’m still trying to
figure out if you’re a threat or a potential ally.”
“Ally?”
She
slowly shook her head. “The towns and settlements would never
accept us. They will hunt us down given the chance.”
“You’re
probably right,” he accepted glumly.
“Still,
it would be nice to have you around. You’d be able to keep the
region safe.”
“What if we don’t want to?”
“It’s up to you,” Drew
said. “But I can tell how strong you are and you’re intimidating
as all hell. You could really do a lot to help folk around these
parts.”
Ayma held out a clawed hand.
“Are you okay to stand?”
“Uh, I think so.”
Nervously,
he reached out, his hand looking tiny inside her claw. She gripped
him and pulled him up with enough power to
almost
lift
him clean off his feet. He
stumbled forward, pain shooting through his back before his free hand
made contact with something warm and hard.
It
took him a moment to realize that his hand was on her strangely
human-like stomach.
Unthinking,
he ran his fingers
down her
strong abs,
feeling
every contour. The
muscles
underneath
felt incredible, like rock, but the thick skin also
gave
her
stomach
a peculiar
softness.
That
was when he realized what he was doing. “Shit,”
he uttered
snatching
his hand away. He felt embarrassed and mortified over what had just
happened.
“Enjoying
yourself?” Ayma asked. She didn’t sound angry, more amused, but
that didn’t mean he hadn’t overstepped a boundary.
“Uh, sorry,” he uttered
quickly.
“No,
I am the
one who is sorry,”
Ayma said.
“I
pulled you way too hard.”
He turned around and picked up his backpack with a pained groan. He
hoped his stunt hadn’t permanently messed up his back.
“I’m gonna grab some cleaning fluids and some fuses and stuff,”
he said.
“Go ahead. I will be fetching two more crates, then we will be
heading back.”
“Back where?”
She tapped her nose, or in this case her snout, an action that
reminded him of Gemma when she had known something she didn’t want
him to know.
Drew decided not to press her on the issue. If she didn’t want him
to know where they had made their nest then it was fair.
He walked off; or rather he limped off, and checked the shelves,
finding a few items that he needed. He placed them in his backpack
then made his way back to the entrance and waited for Ayma.
Honestly, he was too scared to step foot outside alone. Not with the
colossus out there.
“So,” the Greenclaw began as she placed the crate down. “What
is your name?”
“Drew,” he told her.
She paused for a moment, a frown crossing her features.
“I know that name.”
Drew stared at her in disbelief, his heart once more starting to race
in his chest. “You know my name?”
She nodded. “It sounds very familiar.”
He glanced through the doors. The other Greenclaw wasn’t currently
visible, but he knew she was still out there.
“I used to know a Kiki,” he said. “Nice girl. I could tell she
had a thing for me, but I was already dating someone.”
“What was her name?” Ayma asked.
“Gemma.”
The Greenclaw’s entire body flinched. “Gemma,” she repeated.
“Yeah, Gemma,” he confirmed, not wanting to even consider the
implications. It was too horrifying to even think about.
He
was starting to feel
sick.
He
had searched for Gemma and
had
tried
to find out where they had taken her and the others, but he had never
been able to find them.
“I know you,” Ayma said
pointing as she stepped closer. “I’ve felt that way since I first
met you. It was why I let you go.”
“So your friend was actually
going to kill me?”
“Depends,” she said.
“Usually we scare people away.”
“Usually?”
She
looked away before focusing back on him. “Sometimes people attack.
They shoot at us, try and kill us.”
“I wasn’t going to shoot
you.”
“No, maybe not, but we are
also told to kill those that may have discovered our intelligence.
She sees them as a threat. She would see you as a threat.”
“You
were told to kill people?
By who?”
“Our matriarch.”
Drew thought for a moment. The
Greenclaws weren’t inherently hostile, clearly, and if he wanted a
truce he needed to speak to their matriarch, or at least get a
message to her.
Honestly, he would prefer the
latter as he didn’t fancy facing their leader. If Kiki was anything
to go by, then their matriarch might be absolutely colossal and there
was no guarantee that she was as friendly as Ayma.
“Kiki and I agreed to walk
you home to the factory to make sure you make it back safely.”
“Uh, you did?” he said,
surprised. “You don’t have to do that. It might be better if you
don’t. The turrets will shoot you.”
“We won’t get that close.”
He didn’t know if it was
possible to talk her out of it and decided not to bother. If they
wanted to go with him, he wouldn’t stop them. His only fear was
that someone saw them. In all honesty, not many people used the
northern side of the highway as the majority of the settlements and
towns were all to the south.
Ayma gestured to the crates.
“Do you want to help me move them outside?”
Drew looked at them then shook
his head. “I’d love to, but I don’t think I can carry them. Too
heavy.”
She made a sound that almost
sounded like a snort. “I forgot how weak humans are.”
Drew
tried to think of a clever
rebuke,
but nothing came to his
still fogged-up brain.
Thankfully,
his migraine was starting to ease off, but it was still there
pestering him as a dull ache that seemed to pulsate in tandem with
his heart.
“I
guess we are,” he said instead
as
he watched Ayma walk over to two
sets
of stacked
crates and gawked as she lifted them together.
“Show-off,” he muttered as
she carried them outside.
As he stepped towards the exit,
he realized he didn’t have his laser rifle on him.
Ayma took notice as she
re-entered. “Looking for something?”
“My rifle.”
The Greenclaw walked towards a
checkout and reached behind it, pulling his weapon out before she
handed it over. It honestly looked like a tiny toy in her massive
hand.
“Thanks,” he said taking
it, holstering it on his back.
She quickly explained. “I hid
it because I didn’t know how you’d react when you awoke.”
“Good thinking, I guess,”
he said.
“I thought so,” she said,
her mouth forming into a smile, which looked more than a little odd,
perhaps even sinister, on her reptilian face
“I’ve got two more crates
to take to the van. Then we’ll be taking them with us.”
“Sure,” Drew said with a
nod.
She picked up the last two
crates and he followed her towards the doors, gritting his teeth as a
pain shot down his back and through his left knee, likely a result of
the fall.
As he stepped through the
doors, he looked around, his eyes falling on Kiki’s gargantuan form
as she sat on the dirt hill across the far side of the parking lot.
Fear
rose up from his gut and he found himself gripping hold of Ayma’s
taught forearm,
his eyes locked on the behemoth.
“You
seem
to
like touching me, don’t you?”
The
question from Ayma
forced him to let go. He stepped away from her, still unable to take
his eyes off of the behemoth. In
fact, he was so preoccupied that he slammed into the side of the old
van.
He heard snickering from Ayma
as she placed the crates into the back and pushed the doors shut.
“Did that hurt?” she asked.
It was odd to see a deathclaw
smile, let alone laugh.
His fear was rekindled as his
focus fell back on Kiki as she stood up. She began to walk their way
and even as Amya moved clear of the van, he found himself frozen to
the spot, unable to move.
Finally,
Ayma
grabbed him and yanked him away, almost pulling him off his feet.
“You can pick up the van,
now,” Ayma said before she stood in front of Drew, blocking his
view of the behemoth. “She is not going to hurt you.”
He wrapped his arms around her
forearm, unable to keep his eyes off of Kiki. His fear wasn’t
helped when she lifted up the van with ease and rested it on her
shoulder like a barrel.
She looked down at them. “I
am not scaring you, am I?”
He couldn’t even answer.
“I think you are,” Ayma
answered for him. “He is shaking like a leaf.”
Abject terror wasn’t
something that Drew felt very often, but a twenty-foot-tall deathclaw
had revealed phobias that he didn’t know existed.
Actually,
that was a lie.
Memories
flashed through his head, ones from long, long ago, back from when he
had been a kid.
At the time, he had been living
in a settlement far to the east with his parents. It was the only
place he had ever known having spent his entire life there.
Every now and then, the
town was attacked by super mutants, the big green monsters that no
one knew the origin of. They had no idea where they came from or why
they attacked.
One
day, though, the super
mutants
had come with a friend. It was a lumbering behemoth, perhaps twenty
feet
tall, the
same as Kiki.
It had torn through their
defenses and pulverized those that tried to defend the settlement.
Drew had never felt such terror before, watching as it killed
everyone.
The cries of his mom still
haunted him to this day.
His father had died a few years
later.
They had been living further
east on the coast. His dad had joined a group called the Minutemen
and they had both lived in a place called ‘The Castle’ which had
been the group’s central headquarters.
Like the behemoth, the monster
that had risen from the sea was crisp in his mind as were the
mirelurks that came with it.
The wall of the castle had been
pulverized and everyone was in a panic. While they had the means,
they hadn’t had the time to take it out. Though they had certainly
tried.
His father hadn’t been so
lucky, crushed under falling debris in the initial attack before
anyone knew what was happening.
Those
final moments with his father was
something he still dreamed about on occasion. Holding his hand, his
father pleading for him to flee.
As
a final gift, as his organs had shut down, his father had given him
his Pipboy. A second parent lost to a towering monster.
There
was this fear there, a
phobia, one
that Kiki provoked by her mere existence.
“I’m
not going
to
hurt you,” Kiki said, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I
promise.”
Drew
un-holstered his rifle, forcing
his attention away from the colossus.
“Let’s just get out of here.”
“Are
you sure you are
okay?” Ayma
asked.
He nodded, though it came off
more as a jerk considering how much he was shaking.
“I can carry you?” Ayma
offered.
“No, I’m fine,” he said.
Ayma stepped beside him. “Your
reaction is why we have to remain hidden. Even though Kiki has
assured you she means you no harm, you’re still terrified.”
“Let’s go,” he said,
ignoring her. “You wanna walk me home, then walk me home.”
Ayma looked up at Kiki. “Stay
behind us at a distance.”
“I understand. I feel so
bad.”
Drew could have laughed at
that. Kiki could swallow him whole and yet she sounded saddened that
he found her so terrifying. It was strangely comical and if it wasn’t
for her sheer scale he might have even called it cute.
“It’s
not your fault,” he said loudly. “Just some things that happened
in the past. Bad memories.”
Not
much else was said as they
left the parking lot and made their way down the off-ramp onto the
highway. The
deep pounding of Kiki’s footsteps made him feel skittish, like prey
that was being pursued by the predator.
As
strange as it was, Ayma made him feel safer despite the fact that she
was
a nine or ten-foot wall of death.
Drew
glanced back and saw Kiki looking down at him. She smiled, showing
off her teeth, which didn’t help his fear.
Knowing he had to get his mind
off the behemoth behind them, he focused on Ayma.
“Where did you come from?”
he asked.
“I
can’t tell you that.”
“I don’t mean where you’re
living right now. I mean before that? Do you remember?”
“Who says we lived anywhere
else,” she said before looking down at him. “To answer your
question, I think we are from further north. I can’t really
remember. Everything from before…” she trailed off. “I do not
want to talk about it.”
“Ever hear of a place called
Paulson?”
Ayma stopped dead in her
tracks, a heavy look of confusion on her face.
The heavy footfalls of Kiki
then stopped a few moments later. “Something wrong?” she asked.
Ayma focused on him. “It
sounds familiar.”
There were a few more heavy
footfalls and before Drew knew it, Kiki was looming over them.
“What are you two talking
about?” she asked, leaning in. “Something important?”
Drew held back his urge to run.
He kept his eyes forwards, ignoring the rhythmic blasts of her warm
breath. Once again he felt like he was the prey at the mercy of the
giant predator. If she was so inclined, Kiki could eat him whole and
probably without even chewing.
“Paulson,” he repeated
loudly. “Have you heard of Paulson?”
“I
don’t…” Kiki stopped speaking
as Drew
found himself trembling uncontrollably
in
fear.
She took a few steps back. “Oh, sorry, I got a little close. Didn’t
mean to scare you.”
Ayma rested a clawed hand on
his back. “He just wanted to know if you remembered a place called
Paulson.”
“I don’t think I have,”
Kiki answered. “I’m not sure. Maybe?”
Ayma looked back down at Drew.
“We’ve lost most of our memories from before,” she said,
speaking loudly. “Kiki has more than most of us, but we’ve still
got gaps.”
“Gaps?” Kiki asked, barely
able to hear them. “Yeah, lots of gaps in our memories. I remember
things from my childhood, but everything after about eight or nine
gets really hazy.”
“I
don’t even remember that,” Ayma said. “All of it’s a fog for
me.”
“I
remember a bit about our captives, actually,” Kiki said. “They
were big and green. We killed them.”
Drew swallowed hard. “Super
mutants?”
Kiki leaned down towards them.
“What was that?”
“Super mutants!” Drew
shouted.
“Yeah,
I think that’s what they were,” Kiki said. “There was this
scientist, too. I think he was helping them.”
Ayma stared down at the road.
“I don’t remember much. Just pain. It lasted for weeks.”
“I remember that.” Kiki
shuddered. “My pain was worse than yours and Lotte’s was the
worst of anyone. We were growing a foot a day and we were ravenous. I
recall hunting down, killing, and devouring every last… What was it
our new friend called them?”
“Super mutants,” Drew said
loudly, his voice quivering.
“Yeah, super mutants. We even
headed out into the wilds finding food where we could. Memory of that
is foggy though.”
Drew
didn’t want to hear any more of
it in
fear that they had been behind the disappearance of a small
settlement fifty miles to the west. One day, a caravan had shown up
there and the place was deserted.
Most
of the small wood huts they had built as homes had been pulverized
and there had been a staining of blood covering
nearly
every surface.
The
caravaneers
hadn’t stayed long and had promptly spread the word to all other
traders in the region.
As
to what had happened to them, no one knew, but now he had an idea
what might have happened and he didn’t like it. Then
again, it could be a coincidence. He hoped so because the alternative
didn’t even
bear thinking about.
Drew
looked at Ayma. He
wanted
to put that thought out of his mind.
He
felt like he had to show them that he wasn’t scared.
“You
know,” he
began,
“I don’t think I’ve been escorted by a deathclaw
before, let alone spoken to one.”
“We are not really
deathclaws, we are abominations.”
Drew
fell silent. He could hear the hurt in her voice and decided that it
was probably best to leave it there. Again, his thoughts fell on that
settlement that had been wiped out and he had to wonder if
her answer was an admission of guilt?
“Sorry,” he apologized.
“It’s just that there’s a lot of questions in my head. I guess
I can save them until next time.”
“You probably shouldn’t
seek us out again,” Ayma said firmly. “We cannot be friends.”
“Why not?”
He had felt like they had been
getting on rather well. Apart from Kiki stomping several paces behind
them, that was. She was still terrifying and he couldn’t see
himself getting over that anytime soon.
“It
would not work out,” Ayma
said.
“Why? I think we’re getting
on okay.”
Ayma stopped and held up a
clawed hand.
“What is it?” he asked,
looking around for any sign of danger.
“This is where we will part
ways,” she said. “Goodbye, Drew.”
Kiki spoke, echoing what Drew
was thinking. “We’re still over an hour away from the robot
factory.”
“I know, but this is a
mistake. Someone might see us. We should head back home as quickly as
possible.”
“The
journey only
takes
a
few
hours,”
Kiki said. “We have the
time.”
“No, we do not.”
Ayma rested her clawed hand on
Drew’s back once more. She looked almost sad.
Drew swallowed hard. “Is this
goodbye, then?”
“Probably, yes. We might not
be coming out this way again. It is becoming too dangerous.”
He let out a sad sigh. “It
was nice to meet you.” He turned around and forced himself to look
up at Kiki. “It was nice to meet you, too!” he shouted, trying
hard to keep his composure. The urge to run was almost overwhelming.
“Same,”
she said in
return
as
she turned to leave, her
massive feet causing the ground to tremble.
“Goodbye,” he said
sullenly.
She
paused and glanced back at him.
“We
might be back at the Red Rocket stop in three days,” she said
before walking away, Kiki waiting until she had passed before
following behind.
In silence, Drew watched as
they both headed back up the highway. Without him slowing them down,
they moved a lot faster, with Ayma running, while Kiki appeared to be
walking at a slow pace with the van still on her shoulder.
“Goodbye,” he said
solemnly.
He didn’t know if it truly
would be the last time he saw them, but he hoped not. There were too
many questions that still needed answering.
He just hoped he got the
opportunity to ask them.