Hiding In The Green: A Fallout 4 Story

Being a Good Neighbor

Today Raina planned to accompany Nick back to Diamond City, to have a look at the file he had on her family. At the moment, he was visiting some people he knew in the neighborhood, having mentioned a Doctor Amari and a man named Kent who ran the Silver Shroud radio broadcast. Raina had written a note to Preston to tell him she would be gone a little longer, and a letter of introduction for Murray, so he wouldn't just be a random settler showing up on their doorstep. Then she had gone down to the street to look around the community.

Almost as soon as she stepped out of the hotel, Hancock emerged from the State House onto a balcony to deliver a speech to his constituents. She stopped to listen.

"Hey, everyone! Gather round. Let's kick the breeze back, shoot the fat... Now I know you all are doing your own thing, but I don't want anyone here to forget what really matters." He stopped for a moment to speak more personally to a couple of those gathered around, then went on.

"All right, all right. We're getting off track. What was I saying? Oh, that's right. What matters. We freaks gotta stick together, and the best way to stick together is to keep an eye out for what drives us apart, you feel me?"

The crowd nodded and made noises of agreement, one or two calling out encouragement. "You tell it like it is!"

He nodded in acknowledgment. "Now what out there in our big friendly Commonwealth would want to drive us apart? What kind of twisted, un-neighborly boogeyman would want to hurt our peaceful community?"

"The Institute and their synths!" a woman cried out.

"That's right! Who said that? Come on up to my office later. You've earned yourself some Jet. The Institute! They're the real enemy! Not the raiders, not the Supermutants, not even those tools over in Diamond City."

While he spoke, Raina watched him and considered. In the last twenty-four or so hours, she had met three people who stood out among the other citizens of the Commonwealth, Piper, Nick, and now Hancock. Preston was like them, too. Lights in the darkness, glowing like candles in a window to show the way to home and safety. If she were to name their defining attributes, Piper's would be... truth. Nick's would be justice, Preston's would be helping, and Hancock's would be...what? As yet she didn't know, but she liked him instinctively. She liked the way the corners of his eyes crinkled up when he smiled, too.

He bantered with another member of the crowd before he returned to his theme.

"I want you all to keep the Institute in mind. When someone starts acting funny, when people are doing things they don't normally do, when family starts pushing you away for no reason... We all know who's behind that kind of shit. And the only way to stop it is to stick together. They can't control us if we're not afraid! Now, who's scared of the Institute?"

"Not us!" the crowd shouted.

"And which town in the Commonwealth should the Institute not fuck with?"

"Goodneighbor!" came the reply.

"And who's in charge of Goodneighbor?"

"Hancock! Of the people, for the people!"

The mayor raised a hand, smiled, nodded, and went back in.

Raina went to shop while she waited for Nick and put away her thoughts about the mayor of Goodneighbor. Kl-E-O, proprietor of the shop Kill or Be Killed, had several fusion cores for sale and according to her, almost always had them in stock, but the bad news was, Raina couldn't afford even one of them. Having paid Piper two hundred caps the day before, she was over a hundred caps short, even though she'd cleared out everything she could barter with. Next time I leave home, she thought, I'll bring a pound of marijuana so I'll have something better to trade than another shoddy little pipe pistol. All she had with her was a couple of joints, not enough for a fusion core.