Amy’s loud voice echoed
through Drew’s head, rousing him from his sleep. At first, he
thought she was standing over him calling his name, but her voice
sounded muffled.
He
opened his eyes and tried
to sit up only to realize that he was
being held in place by
Gemma’s huge arms. It wasn’t the worst place to be in
the world as
his head was nestled
rather comfortably
between Gemma’s huge breasts which
explained why Amy’s voice hadn’t
been clear.
She
wasn’t there, though,
meaning he had either dreamed it or she was trying to talk to him
using the intercom system. Then
again she could be standing
right next to Gemma and he’d never be able to see her due to the
massive breasts blocking most of his vision.
A few moments later, as he heard her muffled voice again, he realized
it was the latter.
“Gemma!” he shouted loudly as he tried to squirm free of her
grip. “Wake up, I think something’s wrong!”
Her
response was to squeeze him
tighter, but thankfully not uncomfortably so.
“Drew,
where are you?”
Amy’s
voice echoed.
“You
need to get up to the office now!”
“Gemma!”
he yelled out. “Something’s wrong, Gem! Let me go!”
He
squirmed some more and
managed to get an arm free. As he tried to pull himself out of her
grip, he unintentionally placed
her hand on her breast and he felt her large hard nipple poke his
palm.
“Hmmmmnn,”
Gemma hummed quietly.
“Gem!” Drew shouted again. “Something’s wrong!”
“What’s that?” Gemma asked sleepily. “What’s up?”
Amy’s
voice echoed over the intercom again. “Drew,
they can’t get close because of the turrets and you’re the only
one that can disable them!”
Gemma’s
grip on him eased
and he wasted no time
sliding down her chest, out
of her grip and landed
on her tail between her legs.
“Sorry,” he said as he quickly climbed off.
“What’s
happening?” Gemma asked as she rolled
onto her side.
“I
don’t know,” Drew answered as
he glanced back at her.
“Something’s wrong.”
He
hurried out of the
basement and made
his way up to the manager’s office where
he found Amy
and Veronica. Amy was behind
the desk while Veronica was standing
on the near side. Neither
of them looked
particularly
happy.
Veronica
scowled. “There
you are,” she said angrily.
Amy
peered over the computer
“Where the fuck were you? How
do we turn off the fucking turrets?”
“What’s
going on?” he asked as he
rushed over to the desk.
Amy gestured out of the window and he went to look. To his surprise
and fear, he saw Lotte along with Kiki and the others standing by the
main gates. His heart rate immediately jumped, especially when he
noticed they looked injured.
“Did our turrets do that?” he asked.
“No,
they were attacked,” Veronica
answered.
“Who was attacked?” Gemma’s voice asked from behind.
They looked behind to see her step into the room.
“Your friends,” Drew told her as he stepped behind the terminal
and quickly disabled the turrets.
He
looked up at Gemma. “Tell them the turrets are off. They’re
at the main gate. They
should be able to approach now.
Also, tell them to go around
back. I’ll open the dispatch warehouse door
and they should be able to get in that way. It
might be a squeeze for
Lotte, though.”
“I’ll
join you,” Veronica said as she followed Gemma out the door,
their
feet thumping along the concrete. With her gone, Amy scowled at him
as she rested her hands on her hips. She didn’t look happy.
“I can explain,” he said. “I was down in the basement with
Gem.”
Her look of anger turned to one of confusion. “I sent Jack down
there. He told me he didn’t see you.”
“Maybe he didn’t,” Drew said with a shrug as he looked back out
of the window.
He
saw Gemma run across the parking lot with
Veronica past the old
armored tank towards the
gates. Lotte ducked down and
the two spoke before the group began their approach.
“I’ll head down and open the dispatch warehouse door,” he said.
“I’ll come with you.”
They
both left the office and
made their way down the stairs to the warehouse where
he made his way quickly to the shutter control. He slammed his hand
down on the button and the door slid open with a shower of sparks and
an ear-piercing screech.
“Oh,
shit!” he heard Amy utter from the far side of the warehouse as a
large shadow moved in front of the door.
Drew
gulped as he moved away, keeping his gaze on the open door as Lotte
moved into view. The warehouse
door itself was maybe
sixteen or seventeen feet in height, meaning that they saw her
from her belly downwards.
Drew
stepped beside Amy on the
far side of the warehouse by the interior doors and
watched as Lotte got down onto her hands and knees, the
ground quaking under the pressure. She
peered inside, her eyes
locking onto them.
“Nice
of you to drop by,” Drew said loudly, thankful that his voice
didn’t betray his fear.
She
crawled inside, the others following behind. Then, without saying a
word, or even asking permission, she grabbed one
of the
racks along the walls and
ripped them out of the ground, causing highly
stacked boxes of
pre-assembled robots to come crashing down to the ground. She
then shoved it towards Kiki who was still standing
outside.
“Dispose of this.”
“Uh, sure,” Kiki said, taking the large rack from her.
Lotte was far from done. She grabbed the rack nearest and an
Assaultron tumbled free and fell nearly twenty feet, striking the
ground only a few feet in front of them.
Amy let out a cry of shock as the two retreated through the doors and
into the hallway.
“She’s smashing the place up,” Amy said unnecessarily.
“Yeah, I can tell,” Drew grumbled. “I was hoping to grab those
robots eventually once I had fixed the crane.”
“What’s
that noise?”
The both of them looked around to see Jack approaching with Sarah and
Suzy, the Nanny robot.
“Charlotte is making herself at home,” Drew answered.
“So
they’re all here?” Sarah asked, looking genuinely terrified.
“Jack said something about
them showing up.”
“Yeah,
it looks that way.”
Amy chimed in. “They were apparently attacked. I don’t know much
of the details.”
“Which
means,” Drew began with a
sigh, “that this isn’t a
fleeting visit.”
Sarah
looked stricken. “Back
to sleepless nights, then.”
More
crashes echoed from the warehouse making
Drew wince and Sarah whimper
in fright. He hoped that
Charlotte wasn’t going to completely wreck the warehouse, but he
knew that no amount of hoping would change the reality.
Thankfully,
the sounds of crashing and smashing eventually stopped. As Drew took
a step towards the double doors that led into the warehouse he heard
Charlotte’s voice boom. “I wish to speak with all the humans that
are staying here!”
The voice was so loud that it made the walls and floor rumble. Sarah
hid behind Suzy, gripping onto her white shell tightly.
“I
guess that’s our cue,” Drew muttered.
He
could already tell that this wasn’t going to go well. Charlotte
undoubtedly believed that the old Robco plant was now hers and he
anticipated her telling him and the others to; and
in no uncertain terms, to
‘fuck off’ as the old saying went.
“Come
on, then,” Drew said as he rested his hands on the doors. “Let’s
get this over with.”
“Do
we have to?” Sarah asked. “Maybe I should head back to the
nurse’s office?”
Drew
shook his head. “I think it’s best we get this whole thing done
with. She’s asked for all of us and unless you want to piss her
off, you have to go into the warehouse with us.”
“Shit!” she uttered as she gripped Suzy’s shell even harder.
He
pushed the doors open and heard a whimper from Sarah before he heard
Jack utter. “Oh, shit, they’re huge. They
didn’t look that big from the gate.”
Drew stepped inside the warehouse, followed by Amy. Jack was more
reticent and Sarah allowed Suzy to guide her inside while she
continued to hide behind her.
Charlotte’s
gaze was on Drew and she didn’t look very happy. All
he knew was that they had been attacked but he didn’t know by whom,
at least not yet. He was certain that she was going to tell them.
Not
a second later, she did. “We were attacked by people in power
armor. They had missile launchers, laser and plasma weapons, and
mini-nukes.
I want to know how they knew
we were there?”
Drew glanced at the others before responding. “How or why would I
know that?”
Gemma came to his defense immediately. “He wouldn’t do that.”
Veronica then added, “None of them would.”
Charlotte looked at the two of them. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes,” Gemma said firmly. “We are.”
Sekka added her voice. “I agree.”
“So do I,” Kiki said.
“Same,” Axa agreed.
Charlotte’s
gaze fell onto Suzy and
Sarah. “Who is that hiding
behind the robot!? I want to see your face.”
Drew
stepped over to Sarah
and rested his hands on her trembling
shoulders. “It’s okay,
Sarah. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Slowly,
Drew helped her step out from behind Suzy, where
she promptly stared at the floor.
“Look up, I want to see your face.”
Sarah turned her face upwards but didn’t make eye contact.
“You are the only one I don’t recognize,” Charlotte said.
Sekka answered. “She’s the doctor we told you about.
“I don’t know her. She could be the one that told.”
“No,” Veronica said firmly. “Sarah wouldn’t do that. She has
a kind soul.”
“We’ve dealt with kind souls before,” Charlotte said. “They
turned out not to be as kind as they pretended to be. She could have
talked.”
“She hasn’t had the chance even if she wanted to talk,” Drew
said. “No one here is to blame.”
Charlotte rested her hand on her stomach. “You know, all these lies
are making me feel a little peckish.”
Kiki stepped in front of her, the ground quaking under her heavy
footfalls. “You are not eating anyone!” she shouted.
Sarah began to shake so much that Drew thought she was going to
collapse.
Charlotte glared down at them past Kiki. “All they have to do is
tell me the truth, then I won’t have to.”
Drew found himself growing angry. He stepped in front of Sarah,
shielding her as he confronted her. “The only one here who knows
where that facility you lived at was me!”
“So, you want me to eat you, then?”
Drew pushed down the rising fear in his gut. Memories of her holding
him above her gaping maw filled his head. He looked down at the
ground, averting his gaze.
“Scared little man?” she mocked.
“Leave him alone!” Gemma shouted as she moved over, placing
herself between him and Charlotte. “If you must know, I have an
idea of who it might be. Drew found out a few days ago.”
“You have my ear,” Charlotte said.
“You mentioned people in power armor,” Gemma said. “Well, some
matching that description were spotted on the southern east-west
highway. A caravan went missing down there and they had robots that
the caravan was using with them.”
Plucking up some courage, Drew stepped beside Gemma. “There are
three groups that have been known to use power armor, though not all
three use the same power armor.”
“Explain,” Charlotte said.
“What color was their armor?”
“Metal gray.”
“Which means it probably wasn’t the Enclave. Their armor was
rumored to be black. That leaves Brotherhood of Steel and NCR, though
NCR power armor is heavily modified and they usually just use bits
and pieces to cobble together something of their own.”
One of the other Greenclaws which Drew didn’t know the name of
spoke up. “They had gears on their armor and a sword. A sort of
emblem painted onto their armor.”
“That sounds like Brotherhood,” Drew said, not liking the
implications. “If they’re up here then that’s bad news. This
region has been cut off from the wastes in its own little bubble. It
looks like that is about to end.”
Charlotte slowly shook her head. She didn’t appear convinced. “Am
I supposed to believe that he has nothing to do with it? Not a week
later after we show him our home a small army shows up and he’s
somehow not involved? I do not like coincidences.”
Gemma stood firm. “He’s not lying. He wouldn’t lie to me and he
wouldn’t put my life at risk.”
“It wasn’t your life at risk, though, was it?” Charlotte asked,
peering down at them from up high. “He sent them after us!”
“I didn’t send them anywhere!” Drew shouted. “And if you
thought I had, then why come here? Why not go elsewhere? Why even
have this conversation in the first place?”
“Then explain how they knew where we were?”
“I don’t know,” Drew said, looking down at the floor. “But if
they’re Brotherhood, then it’s possible they knew the place
existed. It’s also possible they sent out a scout.”
The large Greenclaw Drew still didn’t know the name of nodded
eagerly. “Bek did kill a man the other day who was snooping around.
He had a radio on him.”
Drew nodded to himself. She had probably killed a scout.. “No
matter what you think, Charlotte,” he said, looking up at her,
“it’s clear that we have to prepare. First of all, what happened
to those that attacked you?”
It was Kiki who answered. “We killed most of them. But we were
forced to flee.”
“So they’ve taken the facility?”
Axa shook her head. “Unlikely. They mini-nuked the fuck out of it.
The place was half collapsed when we left.”
Drew rubbed his chin in thought. “Which means their primary goal
was to kill all of you.”
“They managed to kill some of us,” Kiki said sadly.
“Varan and Darla gave their lives bravely,” Charlotte said
sounding almost proud.
It was clear to Drew that his slacking was going to bite them in the
ass. He shouldn’t have made the excursions to the hospital or lazed
around as he had been doing. Instead, he should have been working on
bringing the factory back online.
He took in a deep breath. “We have to prepare,” he said. “There’s
no doubt in my mind that they will eventually show up here and when
we do we need to be ready.” He looked back up at Charlotte. “Were
you followed?”
“No, we were not,” Charlotte answered.
Despite her apparent certainty, Drew decided it was best to err on
the side of caution. If they saw the Greenclaws head in the direction
of the factory, then there was absolutely zero doubt in his mind that
they would send a scouting party to investigate and it would happen
sooner rather than later. When it did, it was likely they would be
non-the-wiser and an army could be descending down on them before
they knew it.
Drew ran his hand through his hair. “Things have become extremely
complicated very, very quickly.”
Gemma agreed. “Yes, they have.”
“The question,” Sekka spoke, “is what do we do? We can’t hide
here forever.”
“No,” Drew said loudly. “We need to find out where they are
hiding out. We need to build an army of robots and we strike first.”
Charlotte frowned down at him. She didn’t look impressed. “And
how do you suppose we find out where their base is?”
“I could go into town and ask around. Jarik already knows about
them so I might ask him if he has any more insight.”
“No,” Charlotte said. “I do not trust that you won’t tell
someone we’re here. For all we know, you’re the one that sent
that army after us in the first place.”
“You know I wasn’t,” Drew said, unable to believe the
accusation. “We need to do something. Those power-armored goons
haven’t just attacked you. They’ve attacked a caravan as well.
Possibly more.”
“If you are speaking the truth.”
“He is,” Veronica said, backing him up.
Charlotte wasn’t impressed. “Oh, so you were there when he was
informed of this?”
“I don’t need to have been there to trust him, Lotte. You
shouldn’t either. This is Drew we’re talking about.”
Charlotte visibly clenched her jaw before she looked away, something
which took the others by surprise. It seemed that she was actually
relenting on something, or at the very least admitting to herself
that he wasn’t the type to betray his friends.
Kiki then spoke up. “Actually, we might know where they’re coming
from.”
All eyes fell on her and Charlotte’s gaze was intense.
Kiki explained. “We know of an old military base down south. It was
marked on a map, remember?”
Axa spoke up. “I do. The map is probably gone now, obliterated with
most of our home.”
“It’s also not guaranteed they’re there,” Sekka said.
Drew disagreed. “Oh, they’ll be there. They didn’t lug all that
firepower across the country. The military base is the type of place
they like to occupy. That also means that they are well-equipped and
have likely sent scouting parties all over. One might have even been
here.”
Charlotte peered down her snout at him. “If they try anything, then
we’ll be ready.”
Kiki wasn’t so sure. “That didn’t go well back at the facility.
The place was almost flattened and we’re all suffering from burns
from missiles, laser fire, and even more burns from being too close
to a mini nuke blast.”
Charlotte growled with displeasure. “I am getting tired of you
constantly testing my authority. I am in charge here.”
Drew raised a finger. “Actually, you’re not. You are a guest
here.”
Charlotte’s head snapped to him as another growl escaped her
throat. He took a few steps back in fear before he was able to
compose himself.
“This place belongs to me now,” Charlotte said firmly. “I am
the one that will make the decisions around here. You humans
are lucky that I’m allowing you to stay!”
Kiki shook her head. “No, you’re not in charge here. Drew is, and
I trust him to make the right decisions.”
“I don’t care what you think, Kiki. I am the matriarch. You
follow me or you can leave!”
Drew had long since grown tired of Charlotte’s power trip, though
there wasn’t much he could really do about it. Not when she could
crush him to death with a single slap of her hand or poke of her
clawed finger.
Kiki, on the other hand, was more than happy to keep on challenging
her. “We’re family,” she told Charlotte. “This includes Drew,
Amy, and Jack…”
“And Sarah,” Veronica interrupted.
“…And her,” Kiki accepted. “We might no longer be humans, but
that doesn’t mean we have to distrust our friends just because they
still are.”
Drew latched on to what she was saying. “You are all from Paulson,”
he said loudly. “We lived together in a tight-knit community for
years. Charlotte, you were the newcomer, hell, most in Paulson saw
me, Jack, Amy, and Gemma as newcomers too, even after we’d been
there for five years. It didn’t matter how new you were, though, as
you were a valued member of the community.”
Charlotte’s gaze on him was harsh. He half expected her to either
squash him flat or pick him up and eat him whole. Thankfully, she did
neither.
Drew continued, despite not at all feeling safe. “We mourned you
all. What happened broke us, made us feel worthless. We made our way
to Colville to try and reconnect, but even there none of us were
really happy. I saw bringing this plant online as a challenge, as a
means to take my mind off how I have lost nearly everyone I have ever
cared about.”
Drew looked at Amy and Jack. “That’s the reason I didn’t want
you going out there with me on scavenger hunts. It was because I
feared something would happen to you.”
He focused back on Charlotte. “I’m not gonna let anything like
that happen again. Not while there’s something I can do about it.
This place is almost operational, we just need a few more days, maybe
less and we’ll be able to start producing Sentry bots. There’s
also a few more turrets that need to be repaired and brought back
online. When they find us here, I will do my very best to ensure that
all of you remain safe. That is my promise.”
Axa stepped over to him and turned to face Charlotte. “I trust
him.”
Sekka was the next to show her support. “I agree. Drew, Jack, Amy,
they are our friends.”
“Yeah, they are,” Veronica agreed.
Gemma was the last one to speak. “And you know where Kiki and I
stand.”
Charlotte growled. “Fine, I will trust you. For now. But if you
betray us, then you will find a place in my stomach.”
Something in Drew broke. “Would you stop threatening people with
that!” he shouted.
He didn’t know if it was the deep-seated fear from being held above
her gaping maw a week earlier, but his fight and flight response had
been triggered and he had decided to fight.
“You have to stop eating people. If you eat a single person while
here, then you’re out!”
The Greenclaw that was Charlotte’s right-hand spoke. “You cannot
do that! She is the matriarch. She decides where she can and cannot
stay and who she can and cannot eat!”
Drew didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and left, followed closely
by Sarah and Suzy then by Jack, Amy, and finally Gemma.
As the doors closed behind them, he heard Gemma speak. “You know
he’s right, Lotte,” she said. “We’re in this together.”
Drew hoped that Charlotte could see that. Unlike the others, it
seemed that the thirty-foot Greenclaw enjoyed being a monster and he
feared that sooner or later she was going to have to be dealt with.
Thankfully, he had plenty on his side. There was the one called Bek,
the one he didn’t know the name of, one that had yet to show her
allegiance; which he assumed was the one the others called Glower,
and there was the other one that had glared through the whole
encounter, and then there was Charlotte herself. That meant it was
five claws potentially against five and with Charlotte’s size that
meant the opposing team had the edge. At least until he built his
robots.
Still, he hoped that he could appeal to what humanity she had left.
He didn’t want to have to destroy her, but at the moment he felt
that Charlotte might not give him any other option.
He hoped he was wrong. At that moment, though, it didn’t matter. He
had to get to work. He had to bring the old Robco plant back online.
There was no other choice.