Craterside Supply

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When Ellen opens the door again, it leads back into Megaton, which is as dusty and cow-smelling as ever. "This way," she says, picking her way first down the stairs cut into the side of the crater, then up a winding walkway that leads over a shack with a two-headed cow out front. "That's the town clinic, by the way. Not that I've been in there yet, but that's where I was headed when I found myself at the Bar."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Twenty caps for the gun, and three caps a shell for the shotgun shells," says Moira. "Just got it off Lucky Harith a few days ago."

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'll take the gun and both boxes of shells, please."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All righty!" chirps Moira. "Anything else I can do for you before you two head out?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm fine, thank you. Do you need anything?" she asks Ellen

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, I'm good," Ellen says. "I didn't use any of my stimpaks out there and I'm carrying more than enough water already, so if you could just mark it out on my Pip-Boy..."

"Sure thing!" Moira says as Ellen extends her arm. "Okey-dokey- good hunting, you two!"

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle gives Moira a small wave. "What's our heading?" she asks Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"North-northeast, once we're out of the Megaton gate," says Ellen as they make their way back down the ramp. "And across the Potomac. I hope there's a bridge somewhere, I don't like to think of all that radioactive water."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Neither do I. Not to mention the possibility of being pulled underwater and drowned. Can you swim?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There was a small pool in the Vault, for rehabilitation after injuries," Ellen says. "Dad made me learn to swim in it just in case I ever managed to hurt myself badly enough to need the pool."

[aeons_crackshot]

"That's one less thing to worry about, then." Annabelle has her pistol in hand and is keeping an eye on Ellen and their surroundings.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

They're approaching the main gates of Megaton. As the gate grinds open to reveal the vast expanse of the Capital Wasteland, a mechanical voice intones:

"Welcome to Megaton. Please stand clear of the gate. Hope you had a nice visit, pardner."

"That," says Ellen, nodding at the two-legged, two-armed robot with the glowing headpiece, "is Deputy Weld."

[aeons_crackshot]

"He looks like he was built for combat," Annabelle remarks as she catches sight of the Wasteland.

She blinks a bit, "That's not what Virginia is supposed to look like."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, the Army commissioned a lot of Protectrons, but they're really not as good at it as things like Mr. Gutsy bots," says Ellen. "We had a few just like him in the Vault, but even Andy could've taken them down if he'd really tried."

Then she looks out over the brown and blasted landscape and shrugs. "I've never seen it any other way?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"No, I don't suppose you would have," Annabelle says, sadly. "It's just...jarring, seeing it like this."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm sorry," Ellen says quietly. "You probably won't like what's coming up, then."

The ruined walls and burned beams that remain after a building proper is long gone are visible up ahead: nearly all that remains of the town of Springvale.

[aeons_crackshot]

"I wonder if it was the War that destroyed this place or the chaos that came after?" Annabelle is still keeping an eye out for trouble.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I don't know," says Ellen, as she picks her way along the path down to the few recognizable bits of street. "I do know you want to avoid there, though."

She nods towards the tallest remaining building- the seemingly mostly intact school, which is only torn apart on its topmost floor.

"That got colonized."

[aeons_crackshot]

"By the giant ants?" Annabelle guesses.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No. Those are underground."

There's a wrecked car up ahead, a great broad finned thing with its chrome rotted away and its wheels long since gone to dust. It's at least half again the size of an early twenty-first century luxury sedan, but the passenger compartment looks like it only held four people.

"That's where those people were. In the school."

[aeons_crackshot]

"I see." There is nothing at all of warmth or kindness in Annabelle's voice or expression.

"Are there likely to be any of them still living in the area?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I don't know," says Ellen. "I think I got them all, though. I wound up in the ant tunnels before I got to Milliways, and when I went back I had to go through the school again to reach the surface... nobody came after me, so I think I got all the ones in the school. Doc Hoff and his guard didn't seem too worried when I ran into them, though."

Beyond the town the towers of what used to be an elevated highway rise, the vast majority of the roadway long since fallen in chunks along the ground. The ground slopes upward to the left; Ellen checks her compass and notes, "We're on the right track, although-"

There's an angry hnf, hnf noise, and the dry yellow grasses that grow from between the local rocks start rustling. Ellen reaches for her shotgun immediately.

[aeons_crackshot]

Demyx gift is with music, Annabelle's is with weapons. Far faster than most people would believe possible, Annabelle has taken aim and fired the shotgun with uncanny precision at the noise.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen would be staring at the explosively decapitated mole rat, if it weren't for the fact that it wasn't alone. The other beagle-sized rodent veers off from the gunshot and lunges at Ellen. Fortunately, while she can't plug it in the head the way Annabelle can, a shotgun blast to the suddenly-bared abdomen is a good deal more than even these mutant creatures have evolved to deal with.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Are you all right?"

"Odd behavior for something that looks like a rat," Annabelle remarks. "I wonder if they were protecting their nest or just very hungry?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen's panting, but she pats herself down. "I think so," she says. "It didn't get close enough to bite... I figured they were territorial when I saw the teeth. I mean, those are incisors, aren't they? Like humans have? Not fangs?"