aaaaaaaagh_sky

The western sun's rays slanting across the Wasteland cast long shadows, reminding Ellen that as much as she wants to reach DC and find out what the situation is at the Lincoln Memorial, she's going to need to get some rest first. It's a long way from the Temple of the Union to the ruins. She's tired, Dogmeat's tired, and the temperature's dropping fast as it gets darker. Plus, her armor's starting to hum the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which Ellen figures is never what you'd call a good sign. Luckily there's a shack up ahead, one with a door she can open and close. "What do you think, Dogmeat?" she asks. "Does it smell okay to you?"

Dogmeat raises no objections, so she tries the door. It's solid enough. There's a table with a radio on it to one side; the radio's got enough juice left in its fission battery that it picks up the GNR signal when she turns it on. Unfortunately, when she moves to survey the rest of the place, her Geiger counter starts going off as she approaches the far corner of the room.

"Blast. It's not worth the Rad-X we'd both need," Ellen says to Dogmeat. "We'd better find somewhere else."

As they head out of the shack she pulls the door closed behind her, hard. It's not really built for that, so when it hits the doorframe it bounces open again. Pity she didn't turn around at the sound, because she'd've caught sight of the light of Milliways leaking through the inch or so that the door bounces open.

And anyone in Milliways who happens to be looking at the right spot at the right time will notice the door that suddenly opened an inch or so, letting in the cool evening air.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Smart man, Gus. Ellen, herself, is going to join him soon after the explosion- or at least try to. The problem is that she's got Dogmeat with her, and Dogmeat has this thing where he flat-out insists on getting involved in the fight- so Ellen is doing her best to run and keep the dog with her, but it's kind of a losing battle.

Gus may hear the sound of gunfire and zapping in the distance as he runs. It'll die away eventually.

From:

thanksrainman

As he's running, Gus spots a small hidey-hole in the rocks and quickly ducks into it. His eyes closed tightly, he tries to ignore the horrible barrage of sounds coming from behind him.

It would almost be bearable if not for all of the animal sounds mixed in.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Eventually, once the gunfire stops, the only animal noise left is a few barks and a hoarse kind of panting. Somewhat later, trudging, shuffling feet and the clink of metal on metal can be heard.

"Gus? You can come out now. It's over," Ellen says wearily. "They won't be bothering us any more."

From:

thanksrainman

"Prove it," Gus says simply.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Chunk goes the clip of 5.56 millimeter ammo at Gus's feet.

Ka-thunk goes the Chinese assault rifle that matches it.

Thud goes the .32 caliber hunting rifle.

And Whump goes the container of belt-fed five millimeter ammo.

"The minigun's too big to carry, or I'd have brought that, too."

From:

thanksrainman

Gus looks at the cache before him.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" he asks dryly.

He's really hoping she doesn't give the obvious answer.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Nothing. I'm going to turn it all in later at Regulator headquarters, assuming I don't sell it to Harith or Moira," Ellen says. "But you wanted proof. Those were their weapons. If you want more proof the bodies are where they fell."

From:

thanksrainman

He frowns and gets back to his feet. "Can I go home, now?" he asks. "I really didn't ask to be here."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"We're off course," Ellen says. "I'm not sure how far we are from the nearest door now. We're going to have to keep walking south until we hit something else, or double back west until we hit what's left of the Potomac. South's probably better. We can keep on track as long as we've got a line of sight on the Washington Monument."

She gathers up the guns and ammo and starts stashing them awkwardly in or on her pack.

"You weren't hurt, were you?"

From:

thanksrainman

"What? No." He brushes off his trousers. "Just... take us wherever we're going."

He's visibly shaking, and would feel much better in front of the fire place at the bar.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen leans over to lay a hand on Gus' shoulder in a comforting gesture. This would probably work better if she weren't completely swathed in power armor and therefore using a heavily metal-clad hand to do it. "Come on," she says. "I think I saw some buildings south of us. Let's see if we can't reach them and start investigating."

From:

thanksrainman

Gus jumps at the contact. "Yeah," he says after a few moments. "You know where we're going."

He pulls his hood over his head and follows Ellen's lead.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

It's still a fair bit of walking, but it becomes clear very quickly that yes, there are buildings up ahead. Some of them are even fairly impressive, for all that they're blasted-out, half-melted half-burnt hulks. These were big buildings once, and a big place. It's a good sign, right? There's even the remains of one of the old wide roads leading down that way. And there are other people on it, four of them, gathered around a fifty-five gallon drum full of something on fire.

... oh, and every single one of the four looks like something a preschooler put together from raw meat and Elmer's glue.

From:

thanksrainman

Gus notices the group of people, and moves as close to Ellen as the power armour will allow.

"What are those?" he asks, doing a good job at neither pointing nor looking at them.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Ghouls," Ellen says. "People who've been exposed to too much radiation and haven't had the good fortune to die. I don't normally see them out this way very often- we should go see what's got them up here."

From:

thanksrainman

"Do we have to?"

He's making it very clear that he thinks this would be a Very Bad Idea.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I'd rather not walk into those ruins blind," says Ellen. "Don't worry, they're usually pretty civilized. If the were the feral kind they'd've tried to eat us already."

From:

thanksrainman

"Oh, really?" Gus asks scathingly. "That's reassuring. Thanks. You got guys standing around an oil drum like that where I'm from, and it's a sure fire ticket to getting mugged."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Gus," says Ellen, "how many toes do you have?"

From:

thanksrainman

"What?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Toes," repeats Ellen. "How many do you have?"

From:

thanksrainman

"Ten," he says, exasperated. "How many do you fucking have?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I only have ten myself. Some people in Megaton have twelve, it's a radiation thing," Ellen says. "Anyway, the reason I ask is because between your ten, and my ten, and the ten fingers you've got, and the ten fingers I've got... I've killed more people than all of that put together, okay? It's not a figure that I'm proud of, but that's how it is: more people than you and I have fingers and toes. So I'm not really all that scared of people trying to rob me."