Crawled Out Through The Fallout

Chapter 8

"Piper, come with us. We have a machine to get. And I need as much help as I can get for this."

She smiled. 

"Right. I bet it'll make a good story too. Let me get my stuff, and we can hit the road."

I waited outside the newly built house with Deacon while Piper got ready.

"A reporter? Really?"

I nodded, checking my gun.

"She's good in a fight."

I replied simply.

"Whatever you say."

He didn't look too stoked about my choice of companions, but I didn't really care. I trusted my gut.

Piper walked back out, carrying a small bag.

"Ready, Blue. Got some food and water for the trip."

I nodded, and glanced at Deacon, who rolled his shoulders and looked at me.

"Following your lead."

I opened the map on my Pip-Boy, and looked for the closest place to the Slocum Joe's. I set the building next door as the destination, and fast travelled there.

...

As soon as we got there, I immediately crouched and held up my gun. Piper and Deacon did the same. I made my way up the stairs to the top of the building and used V.A.T.S. to find any synths that were guarding the safehouse. I aimed at three of them, and shot them down. They didn't even know what hit them. Another synth rounded the corner with a pistol up, looking for me. I shot the machine several times in the chest, killing it. I jumped off the building, falling three stories to the ground. I leaned down to pick up items off the synths, and Deacon crouched nearby.

"That was a pretty big fall. Are you big on adrenaline rushes?"

I snickered at his comment.

"Considering I spend my time getting shot at for a few caps, I think it's fairly obvious."

I stuffed the other pistols in my bag and stood up. I searched the ground for mines, and found some. I quickly deactivated them and picked them up.

Deacon pushed through some boxes, and found a hole in the wall.

"Found the back door. That sounded dirtier than I meant."

I rolled my eyes and walked into the tunnel.

Deacon chuckled, and Piper followed right behind me.

Soon we walked into a room with metal walkways, and lots of tools laying around. I started picking up all the tools I could find, which caused my companions to complain.

"You're gonna break your back carrying all that worthless scrap."

"Thanks for your input, Deacon."

I replied to him as I kept putting duct tape and tools in my bag.

"You sure you need all that?"

I sighed, and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm gonna sell it. Get more ammo or something."

Piper frowned but agreed to my plan.

I finished putting things in my bag, and continued on with the plan to get the device back. I checked corners, holding my gun steady. Deacon decided I was going too slow, so he went ahead of me and killed synths that appeared. He got hit with some lasers and complained.

"Ow. Ow!"

I shot the synth that got him, and rolled my eyes.

"And that is why we stick together. To keep from getting shot."

He rubbed his arm and pouted.

"Will do."

I kept walking through the tunnel, and came to a room with a computer and other machinery.

"Piper, check out the computer. See what's on it."

I opened a trunk that caught my eye, and found the drive that I was sent to find. I picked it up.

"See? No problem. We could have handled that ourselves."

I put the drive in my pocket, and shrugged.

"And we could have been caught off guard by a small army of synths. Better to be prepared."

We started making our way back to the hole in the wall.