Uncle Leo

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen's arms and legs were aching in places she hadn't imagined were even possible. She sat down on an upthrust cluster of rocks, wincing. Andale had been... oh, she didn't know, hours ago? Something like that? She'd been in and out of that wretched cluster of buildings too many times to want to think about it much, looking first for other victims and then for other survivors. There hadn't been many- Johnny, Jenny, and their mutual grandfather. She'd left them with some of her own supplies before heading north, both to turn in the weapons (oh, God, the chain-edged saw things in the root cellar!) at Regulator headquarters and to contact the Family. If everyone in Andale had been ... ah ... living the same way, then the Family might be their only chance of getting used to other food- and of protection, given how old Grandpa Harris was. Then she'd returned, slogging her way south until she'd led Justin to Mr. Harris and the children. What would happen now, she didn't know, but it had to be better than what had gone before.

She still had the smell of that cellar in her nostrils. Even throwing everything flammable from the Smith home in there and setting the whole pit aflame, the only funeral she could give those nameless people, hadn't chased the stink fully away.

Well, that was behind her and she was going to try not to think about it. Right now, she was slugging her way through the rock formation the 2077 map had said was about as far south of Megaton as Olney had been north. Climbing in the armor was painful and difficult in all kinds of new and exciting ways. Climbing in the Regulator duster wasn't going to happen, though- the armor had already protected her from several falls and a couple of yao guai, not to mention warning her of a couple of wandering scavengers who'd taken a few potshots at her and then moved on. Besides, if she took the armor off, she'd have to navigate the rocks and carry the armor. Not going to happen. She just had to put up with the awkwardness as she looked for a Vault entrance if she wanted to get out of this with all her limbs intact, that was all.

It occurred to her that she probably ought to eat, no matter how much the memory of Andale turned her stomach. The prospect of opening a can of Cram or one of the ready-meals with meat in it made her shudder, so she dug out a noodle pack and a box of Fancy Lads snack cakes. She'd just gotten the noodles open when Dogmeat barked, hopping to his feet.

"Where? I don't-"

"Incoming hostile! Six o'clock!" her suit announced; Ellen set the noodles aside and stood up. As she reached for her pistol she saw it- a green form, picking its way along the rocks not far off. Her breath hissed between her teeth, and she looked around frantically for cover. She'd have to climb further to hide behind anything even a little protective-

"You haven't shot at me yet," called the mutant from down the slope. "That's different."

Ellen blinked, and then blinked again. She'd heard the greenskins talk before- threats during battle, and conversing among themselves back at Germantown, when she was rescuing Red and Shorty. Speech wasn't their strong point. They usually sounded like the act was physically painful. This one sounded a little strained, like the rest, but there was no hostility at all in its tone. "Um," she said. With a shock, she realized that the mutant wasn't wearing armor- every other mutant she had ever seen had worn whatever metal and leather protection their thick fingers could cobble together- and didn't appear to be armed. "No?"

The mutant grimaced, its green, over-bulky face contorting. Ellen realized a moment later that it was trying to smile. "Thank you," it said. "I appreciate that."

Gratitude. And manners. From a supermutant. Trying not to goggle too much, Ellen said, "You're... welcome, I guess. Um. Who are you?"

"Call me Uncle Leo," the mutant said, resting its fingers for a moment on its over-muscled chest. "I was driven out by my brothers. I tried to get them to understand that there was more to life than fighting and killing, but they wouldn't listen. Now I wander the Wasteland, hoping to find some meaning to life before I die."

Leo's speech was as laborious and slow as Ellen remembered from Germantown, but there was an odd sort of wistfulness to its- his-tone. A memory sparked in the back of her brain- Knight-Captain Colvin saying Five mutants, released from their torment. She shook her head a little and said, somewhat more gently, "How did you get that name?"

Leo shrugged his massive shoulders. "I don't know," he said. "I've always called myself that. Maybe it was my name before I became... this. Maybe I read it in a book a long time ago."

"Became...?"

"Maybe you don't know where we come from- super mutants, I mean," Leo said. His face contorted, and a note of anger crept into his tone. "We aren't born this way. We are created. In the cold, dark, metal place, where my brothers bring their captives, endlessly trying to make more of us."

The mutants in Germantown had mentioned trying to find more 'green stuff', and capturing strong people for it. Ellen suddenly wished that she didn't have a good enough imagination to picture what Leo was talking about, and shuddered.

"It was something I could not do," Leo continued. "I tried to get them to stop. But they wouldn't listen. They would have killed me if I had not run away."

Ellen gulped, nodded. "I can ... thank you," she managed. "For not being part of that."

Leo's face twisted in a different grimace suddenly. "I'm sorry, I've been a poor host. Here, take this," he said, and reached into a cluster of rocks to pull out a bundle. He thrust it at Ellen. "I know it isn't much, but it's all I have."

"Clothing?" Ellen said, blinking. It was a rather nice pre-war men's suit- dirty, sure, but most everything was dirty these days.

"Yes. Have you ever watched the moon rise over the Wasteland? I wish I could have given you something as wonderful as that."

Ellen glanced from the clothing to Leo and back again. Fingering the cloth, she found herself reminded of poor Gob, and wondering just how lonely it must have been for Leo. At least Gob had a few people in Megaton who were kind to him, and a place to stay where he wouldn't be shot at. "Are you hungry?" she said.

"Perhaps a little," Leo admitted. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Ellen said, "I've got a couple of packets of noodles here. If you're interested."

"You're... serious? About that?"

Ellen held up the packet from her pack and gestured to the nearest flat rock that looked big enough for Leo to sit on.

"Little sister," Leo said, "I would be honored."