Drew
sat on the hood of an old pre-war car as he stared out towards the
highway that ran past the Robco plant. Amy,
Sarah, Veronica, and Suzy had headed out with
three Gutsies
to the hospital in the town to the north. Sarah had wanted to grab a
few more things from there and while at first, he had intended on
going with them, he had ultimately decided to stay at the factory and
get to work with clearing out and
cleaning up more
of the production
floor with
the help of Jack and Gemma.
It
had taken most of the day and there was still more to do, but
he was happy with the progress. A
few more days and he believed he’d have a
line fully working.
Though since the Greenclaws
weren’t as hostile as he’d once believed, the sense of urgency
had
gone. It
was nice to know that he could take it easy and go at his own pace.
Drew glanced back as he heard
steady thumping from behind him. It was Gemma.
“Still not back?” she asked
as she stood next to him.
“No, not yet,” he said as
he checked the time on his Pipboy. “Another hour and it’ll start
getting dark.”
“Worried?”
“A little. I always worry
when either Amy or Jack are out. You know that.”
“I’m
sure they’re fine.”
He
hoped so. His only fear was that they had run
into trouble. He
would never forgive himself if anything happened to any of them.
“Have
you thought of fixing that up?” Gemma asked suddenly.
“What?” he asked, confused
as to what she was talking about.
“That pre-war military
vehicle.”
He
followed her gaze to see that she was looking at the old pre-war
tank. “That?
Yeah, I have. But it’ll be a project for
the future
once I’ve finished bringing the factory back online.”
“How
long do you think it will take?”
“Honestly? I’m hoping
sometime in the next few months, but there’s likely unforeseen
issues that will delay that.”
“I’ll
help as best I can.”
He
smiled at her. “Thanks.”
Drew’s attention turned back
to the highway as he heard something on the wind. It sounded like
Greenclaw footsteps, but there seemed to be two sets of them. Unless
it was an echo?
“You hear that?” he asked.
“What?”
He waited a moment, looking
down the highway as far as he could. The trees blocked most of his
view, but he caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a Greenclaw
through the trees.
“I think some of your friends
have come for a visit.”
“Huh?”
A moment later the two
Greenclaws emerged from behind the foliage, fully visible on the far
side of the steel fence that surrounded the factory. They were
carrying some stacked crates which appeared to be from the Red Rocket
Mega Stop. One of them was bigger than the other by quite a bit and
judging how she appeared when compared to the fence, she had to be
over ten feet tall. Maybe even over eleven. Also, her breasts were so
big that the crates were partially between them, pushing them apart,
a sight that Drew found uncomfortably arousing
“What are they doing here?”
Gemma asked.
“I have no idea,” Drew
answered, despite knowing the question was rhetorical. “They’re
your friends.”
“Has Lotte decided to cut our
stay short?”
Drew jumped off the car’s
hood. “Let’s find out.”
The two of them walked to the
security gate to meet the two Greenclaws. Drew thought he recognized
one, the shorter one, but he couldn’t recall her name. Though it
was one of those that had defended him against Charlotte when she had
wanted to eat him.
“Afternoon,” he called over
to them.
The shorter one responded.
“Wait, did you know we were coming?”
“No,” he answered.
The much taller one, who was
bigger than even Gemma in every way, put down the three crates she
was carrying as they reached the gate.
“We figured you’d want
these,” she said.
“Thanks,” Drew said, before
asking, “Remind me. What are your names?”
The bigger one answered first.
“Sekka.”
“Axa,” the smaller one
said. “But you knew me as Lexa. I’ve been thinking of changing it
back to my old name. From before. Thanks to you, I’ve been
remembering things.”
Drew felt happy knowing that he
was having a positive effect. “Glad I could be of help.”
“So am I.”
He
looked at the crates. “And
what’s in those?”
Sekka answered. “Tools, some
grease fluid, and other stuff.”
Axa added, “Lotte sent us out
to see if there were any last supplies we might need. She wants to
stop sending us out this way. Too many settlements and people.”
“Find anything you want?”
“Not that we needed,” Sekka
said. “But thought that you might, so we brought them here.”
“Thanks,” Drew said again,
before glancing back at the turrets on the roof of the factory.
“Something wrong?” Axa
asked.
Drew looked back at them. “I’ve
put the Greenclaw profile into the turret’s green list so they
don’t open fire, but that’s based on Gemma and Veronica. Not sure
how they’ll react to you two.”
Sekka frowned. “Gemma and
Veronica?”
“Gemma is what Drew called
Ayma back when… Well, you know,” Axa said. “I guess Veronica is
Neka’s real name.”
Gemma nodded. “Yeah, we’ve
been remembering more about our pasts.”
Axa looked up towards the roof.
“So the turrets might shoot us?”
“They shouldn’t, but I
should probably switch them off to be sure.”
Sekka stepped forward into the
parking lot. “I’ll test them out. How close do I need to be
before they shoot at me?”
“A few more steps should do
it,” Drew said.
Sekka ran forward, the ground
trembling with every step. Though the ground wasn’t the only thing
that responded to her heavy footfalls, her huge breasts did too,
which bounced, swayed, and swung. Drew couldn’t help but ogle,
something that he felt embarrassed about but he honestly couldn’t
help it. They were a sight to behold, one that he couldn’t pull his
eyes away from.
Thankfully, the turrets ignored
her which either meant he had profiled them correctly into the green
list, or he had accidentally disabled them.
“Seems fine,” Sekka said as
she stomped back over to the three stacked crates and picked them up.
“Yeah, it does,” Drew
agreed, feeling a little flush from seeing her bouncing bare chest.
“Uh-come on, I’ll show you inside.”
He
took the lead, forcing his fear down as he felt three sets of heavy
footsteps shake the ground behind him. There
was something deep down, something
primal
within him that still feared them, particularly
the
two newcomers who he hadn’t had much experience with. There
was nothing to fear, he knew that, but his body reacted the way it
did because of the innate built-in sense of self-preservation. There
were large creatures near him that could tear him apart and devour
him with ease and he had absolutely no recourse against it.
“Through here,” Drew said
as they reached the front doors.
“Seriously? Through there?”
Sekka asked in disbelief. “I don’t know if I can fit through
them.”
“The rooms and hallways
inside are bigger,” Gemma told her. “You’ll just have to
squeeze through the doors.”
Drew opened them and used the
small hooks to hold them open. Axa stepped inside the foyer area and
placed the two crates she was holding down in the far corner before
returning to the entrance, but not before Gemma had squeezed herself
through on her hands and knees.
“Put the crates down, Sekka,”
Axa said. “I’ll bring them in one by one, then you can squeeze
yourself through.”
Sekka placed the three crates
she was carrying down in front of the door. One by one, Axa carried
them inside, placing them down by the others.
“Is
it alright to leave the crates here?” Axa asked.
“Of
course,” Drew answered. “They
can always be moved later. Come on, I’ll show you the cafeteria.”
Sekka rested a clawed hand on
her stomach. “We’ve already eaten.”
“That’s
fine,” Drew said. “It’s just that it’s one of the larger
rooms. It’s sort of become a common room where
we hang out.
There is an actual common room upstairs,
but it’s a mess right now. We
might
clean it up eventually.”
Drew
and Gemma led the way to the cafeteria with Sekka and Axa stomping
along behind them. They
were
much
louder than Gemma and
he
wasn’t sure if it was because Gemma was more light-footed, or if it
was because she
had learned to walk lighter as
to
not unsettle him or the others. One
thing was for certain, there was a lot
of dust that was now falling from the ceiling.
He
pushed the doors to the cafeteria open and they
all entered, with both Gemma and Sekka having the most difficulties,
though Axa who was only slightly shorter than Gemma, still had to
practically crawl through due
to being over nine-foot tall.
Gemma immediately went and sat
on the corner on the same wall as the door, while both Axa and Sekka
took a look around.
“Bigger than I expected,”
Axa commented, referring to the large cafeteria.
“Sorry,
there’s no chairs you can sit on,” Drew said.
Sekka walked over to Gemma and
sat down next to her. “Don’t worry, we’re used to not having
anything to sit on. Just the other day I tried sitting on a bed back
at our place and I broke it in two.”
Drew snickered at the thought.
“Well, I’m gonna go fetch Jack. Tell him we have guests.”
“I look forward to meeting
him,” Axa said.
“Same,” Sekka agreed.
Drew wondered where Jack could
be as he stepped out of the cafeteria. His first thought was the main
factory floor, but stepping inside he found it empty. Well, not
completely as there was a Gutsy standing guard by the door.
“Evening, Commander!” the
Gutsy barked. “Nothing to report!”
“Excellent,” Drew said. “We
have two new Greenclaw guests, so don’t shoot at them.”
“Understood, Sir!”
He stepped back out and decided
that it would probably be easier to find Jack if he knew he was
looking for him. He made his way upstairs to the office and decided
it was time to see if the old intercom system still worked.
With the press of the button,
he spoke. “Jack, if you hear this, head to the cafeteria, thanks.”
As he headed back out of the
room and made his way down the stairs, he saw Jack walking past in
the direction of the cafeteria.
“Hey, Jack!” Drew called to
him as he quickly made his way down to the bottom of the stairs.
Jack stopped and turned to him.
“Are they back?”
“Not, yet,” Drew said.
“What have you been up to?”
“I
was
clearing up one of the back rooms.”
“That’s great.”
“Why did you want me to go to
the cafeteria?”
“We have some visitors,”
Drew told him.
Jack frowned. “Visitors? Who?
Has Gemma hidden herself so she’s not seen?”
“She doesn’t need to. The
visitors are Greenclaws. They’re friends of Gemma and Veronica.”
Jack
didn’t look happy. In fact, he suddenly looked nervous. “More of
them? Here?”
He sounded nervous, too.
“Yeah,
I was wondering if you wanted to say hello?”
“I
guess,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “How
big are they?”
“One is smaller than Gemma
and the other is bigger. By maybe a foot or two.”
“Shit.
Well,
I hope they’re as friendly as Gem and Veronica.”
“Don’t worry, they are.”
As
Drew turned to head back to the cafeteria, Jack stopped him.
“Hey, one more question
before we go.”
“Yeah?”
He held out his hands in front
of his chest. “Do they have? You know?”
Drew knew what Jack was talking
about but decided to play dumb. “Have what?”
“You know what I mean. Both
Gemma and Veronica have big you-knows.”
“Tits?”
Jack’s face went flush.
“Yeah.”
Drew
snickered. “Yeah, they do. I try not to pay too much attention.
Kinda
distracting, especially Sekka the big one. Her boobs are fucking
gigantic.”
“Wow,”
Jack muttered.
“Yeah,
wow.” Drew
waved forward. “Now, come on.”
The two of them headed to the
cafeteria. Drew headed straight in, while Jack hung back, probably to
psyche himself up.
Drew was sitting down when Jack
finally stepped inside. He turned his head and gasped at the sight of
them.
Axa waved. “Hello.”
“Uh, hello.”
Sekka didn’t say anything.
Instead, she stared at him as he sat himself down next to Drew.
Axa nudged Sekka on the arm.
“See, I told you Lotte was wrong.”
“Wrong?” Drew asked.
“She thought that Ayma and
Neka would be forced to kill you all.”
Jack frowned. “Why would they
kill us?”
Sekka answered. “Because she
thinks you’ll be so scared and intimidated by our kind that you’ll
turn on us. But I know you won’t, Jack.”
Jack glanced at Drew nervously.
“Did you tell them my name?”
“I think I mentioned it when
I said I was gonna go and look for you,” Drew said with a shrug.
“Yeah, he did,” Sekka said,
continuing to stare at Jack which was clearly making him uneasy. “You
also mentioned Jack and Amy to Lotte.”
Drew decided to quickly change
the subject. “I know this place isn’t much to look at right now,
but that’s gonna change. By the time we’re done, this place is
going to be producing robots like it used to before the Great War.”
All the focus fell onto him.
“What kind of robots will you make?” Sekka asked.
“Gutsies, some Assaultrons,
some Sentry bots, and Protectrons. Those are the lines and parts we
have available. Will probably drop making Protectrons for now,
though. The others are more useful.”
Sekka thought for a moment.
“Will a Sentry fit through the front doors?”
“There’s big shutters to
the warehouses,” Drew told her. “There’s one that is a sort of
a stock warehouse that is towards the front of the factory and
another for dispatch at the back.”
“Why didn’t we come in that
way?” Sekka asked. “It would have been easier.”
“I don’t know if the
shutters work,” Drew explained. “I’ve yet to test them, They’re
big thick things designed to take a blast I think. Besides, you’d
still have to crawl through all the internal doors.”
“I suppose,” Sekka
accepted. “Pity they didn’t have the forethought to make them
bigger.”
“I doubt they expected people
to be turned into giants,” Drew said.
“Yeah, they probably didn’t,”
Sekka accepted as her gaze once more fell onto Jack.
With
the way Sekka kept staring, Drew was starting to suspect that he knew
who she was. Or rather who she had been before the change. He
knew he could be wrong, but if Sekka was Grace, the girl Jack had
been in love with, then it made sense that she couldn’t take her
eyes off him. She hadn’t been able to back then, either. Regardless
of who she was, it was clear that all
the attention
was making Jack uncomfortable.
Thankfully, Gemma noticed.
“Sekka, you’re staring.”
Sekka glanced at her before she
turned her gaze downwards. “Sorry,” she apologized.
For
a moment, Drew thought he felt a thump. His ears strained and sure
enough, he heard heavy footfalls growing louder from outside in the
hallway. Not
ten seconds after that the doors swung open and Amy and Sarah entered
followed by Suzy and Veronica, who ducked below the door.
“Got
some stuff,” Sarah said, before letting out a yelp as she saw Sekka
and Axa sitting in the corner with Gemma. Without missing a beat,
Sarah moved behind Veronica, something that didn’t get past Drew’s
notice.
“We
have
some guests,” Drew said unnecessarily.
Veronica
frowned.
“Has Lotte called us home?”
Axa shook her head. “No,
Neka. We were in the area and thought we’d come for a visit.”
Gemma decided to introduce them
to Amy and Sarah. “This is Sekka and Axa. The humans and the robot
are Amy, Sarah, and Suzy.”
Amy offered a shy wave as her
gaze fell on Sekka’s bountiful bosom. “Hello.”
Sarah patted Suzy’s outer
shell. “Yes, nice to meet you. Suzy and I should really go through
the equipment we brought back. See you later.”
Sarah quickly rushed out,
dragging Suzy along with her by her pincer arm.
Veronica
chuckled. “She’s a shy but sweet little thing. Don’t mind her.”
Amy moved over to the table
Jack and Drew were sitting at and perched herself on a chair.
“Did
you get everything?” Drew asked.
“Not
quite,” Amy
answered.
“She wanted some things that were too big for us to carry.”
Drew
thought for a moment. “If
she wants them we should probably go get them. I’ll take Sarah,
Suzy, and a few Gutsies
with me into town tomorrow and see if Leanne is available to rent.
She can drive us there and we can grab those things.”
“They’re
pretty heavy,” Amy said. “I don’t know if we can move them.”
“None
of them?”
“Well, some of them.”
“Can they be taken apart?”
“I think so,” Amy said.
“But that would take all day.”
“It
might. I guess it depends on how beneficial they are. I’ll talk
with Sarah about it later.”
“From
what Sarah said, she’d like to have them but it’s
not
necessary.”
“Then
we’ll leave it,” Drew said. “I have been thinking of heading
into town at some point, regardless. I
want to grab
some supplies and maybe sell a
Gutsy or two
to Devon’s
Caravan Company.
I
also want to sell some of that wine we grabbed the other day. Should
get a nice price for them.”
“Sounds
like a plan,” Amy said.
Drew
couldn’t help but notice that Sekka was once more staring at Jack.
It
was clear that he was going to have to get the two to talk to each
other, preferably alone, but at
that moment he knew it was unlikely if not impossible. There was no
way Jack would even entertain the idea of having a private
conversation with Sekka, even if Drew suspected that she was Grace.
After all, his assumption was based
solely
on the fact that she wouldn’t stop staring at him.
Though
perhaps there was even more evidence. While Drew would never say it
out loud, Grace had always had big tits and Sekka’s were
considerably bigger than the other Greenclaws
he’d seen, to
the point where they had to be a hindrance.
Drew
cleared his throat before speaking. “How long will you be here?”
Axa was the one that answered.
“We were thinking of staying the night if that’s okay?”
It was perfect. “Yeah, sure.
Sounds good.”
Gemma slapped Sekka on the arm.
“Why are you staring at Jack again?”
Sekka’s cheeks went flush.
“I-uh… I’m not sure.”
Drew saw an opportunity and
took it. “Sekka, what do you remember from before?”
“Before I was this?” she
asked, gesturing to herself.
Drew’s
eyes unintentionally flicked down to her enormous chest, but he
forced himself to look back up at her face as
he nodded.
“Not
much. Kiki is the one that remembers the most.”
“I
want to know what you remember?” Drew said, glancing at Jack. “Do
you remember him?”
Sekka
looked at him but
didn’t answer. At least she didn’t immediately. She
took a good look, almost as though she was studying his face. Jack
meanwhile struggled to maintain eye contact and kept looking away.
Sekka
shook her head as she looked away. “I’m sorry, Jack.”
“You
don’t remember him?” Drew asked, feeling sure that she did.
“That’s not what I meant,”
Sekka said, tears forming in her eyes. “I do remember him. I-I… I
think I was in love with him.”
Jack clenched his jaw as well
as his fists as he stared at her.
She
stood up. “I was in love with you. I
remember. We were staring up at the stars. You kissed me.”
Jack
slammed his fist on the table as he jumped up on his feet. “You are
not
Grace!” he yelled as he stormed out of the room.
Sekka started after him, but
Gemma grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.
“He needs me!” Sekka said,
pulling her arm free.
Gemma disagreed. “He needs
time to process what he just learned. I think we all do.”
Sekka glanced towards the door
before she sat back down on the floor with a slump, tears glistening
in her eyes.
Drew
looked away. He felt guilty for what had just happened. It
was his fault. He was the one that had pushed due to his suspicions.
While it appeared he had been proven right, he had hurt those he
cared about in the process.
Slowly,
he
pushed himself onto his feet. “I’ll talk to him,” he said as he
turned his gaze onto Gemma. “I know what he’s going through.”
“Thank you,” Sekka said.
Drew headed out of the
cafeteria and looked both ways down the hallway. There was no
immediate indication of which way Jack had gone, but then he noticed
the door across the way was ajar.
He stepped over and gently
pushed it open to see Jack sitting there, his head in his hands.
“Are you okay?” Drew asked,
before realizing it was a stupid question.
Jack wiped his eyes as he
looked up at him. “I don’t know what’s worse. Grace being dead,
or her being one of those creatures.”
“It’s not pretty,” Drew
accepted. “Not many people have to deal with what we’re dealing
with. I never expected Gemma to be alive, let alone be a ten-foot
green deathclaw. It’s been really difficult.”
“I want to remember her as
that beautiful sweet girl. Not some horned giant lizard monster.”
Drew
rested a hand on the
younger man’s
shoulder. “I
know it hurts, but just think what she’s going through. If you had
been mutated into a deathclaw, would you want Grace to despise and
hate you or would you still want her to love you?”
“I’d
want her to be happy,” Jack said. “I
wouldn’t want her to feel like she had to love some monster.”
“Is
that how you really
see
her?”
Jack
shook his head. “I
don’t know. I love her, but I can’t love what she’s become.”
Drew
gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I
think the two of you need to have a long talk.”
“I
don’t know what I would say.”
“Maybe not, but I think you’d
regret it if you don’t. Grace is alive and she’s in the cafeteria
right now. Do you really want to alienate her simply because she
doesn’t look the same?”
“It’s not the same, you
know that. She didn’t find some hair dye in some store and give
herself green hair. She’s an eleven-foot monster with horns, sharp
teeth, and claws.”
Drew
slowly nodded. “Which
is why you need to talk to her. See past that frightening exterior.”
“Can you see past Gemma’s
exterior?”
“It’s
tough, but yeah, I can. Inside
she’s the person I fell in love with. Does her new look bother me?
Sure, I’d be crazy if it didn’t, but it’s
only skin deep.”
“It’s more than skin deep,”
Jack said. “They’re deathclaws.”
“Not quite.”
“So they have tits, so what?
It doesn’t make them human.”
“You seemed pretty excited
before when I told you one of them had giant knockers. Turns out
she’s Grace.”
Jack clenched his jaw. “I was
trying to cut the tension. I was being dumb.”
Drew wasn’t convinced. “Were
you?”
“Listen,
Drew. Their tits are really distracting. They’re these lizards
apart from their chest
down to their crotch and
ass where for some reason it’s smooth like skin. I’m
a guy, they look good. Their
tits I mean.
But no
matter how good their tits look, I
don’t think I can
love
one. Even if it is Grace.”
“You need to talk with her.”
“Why?”
“Because I think she deserves
it, don’t you?”
Jack took in a deep breath
before letting out a long sigh.
Drew patted his shoulder. “You
know I’m right.”
“Yeah,
you’re
right,”
Jack agreed hesitantly, “she does. But
I don’t know if I can face her. How
can I look her in the eyes and tell her that I can’t love her?”
“You don’t,” Drew said.
“All you have to do is talk. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll find a way
to look past what she’s become.”
“Like you and Gemma,” Jack
said before he took a deep breath.
Drew wished that he could say
that he had looked past what Gemma had become. In reality, he
couldn’t. It was getting easier, but he knew deep down that if his
love for Gemma hadn’t been as strong as it was, then he would have
discarded her like an old busted robot. Loving a lizard lady was not
something he felt he could do, yet he also couldn’t not help but
love her.
It was complicated.
Jack rubbed his eyes. “I’ll
talk to her.”
“I’ll make sure no one
bothers you.”
Jack
hesitated. “Could you… You know…”
“I can be there for emotional
support if you want me to.”
“I’d like that.”
The two of them left the small
room and made their way back to the cafeteria.