Isaac and Knight Rollins had managed to run up the hill to where Hannah had been covering them. The Knight takes time to catch his breath as Isaac approaches Hannah still exhausted
"You came back? What happened?"
Hannah puts her rifle on her back
"I've been out here a long damn time dweller. Over those years maybe I lost some of my morality, who knows maybe having you around might change that."
Hannah gives Isaac a sarcastic smile with Isaac giving a half chuckle. The two turn to the Knight who walk up to them
"Thank you two for the rescue, I already mentioned it to your associate, but I am Knight Lloyd Rollins of the Appalachian chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel."
He extends his arm out and Hannah takes it to shake
"My name is Hannah and we were tasked with helping your squad with the super mutants but we were shot down a ways a way so we couldn't make it on time."
"My squad...."
Knight Rollins walks past the two to the cliffs edge where they see the remnants of the battle.
"We didn't have enough men to over take them. The mutants that were here and the ones back at the warehouse had trapped us on the road. I was the head officer and I couldn't protect my subordinates."
Isaac walks up to Lloyd and puts a hand on his shoulder
"It wasn't your fault, with the terrain and the outnumbering you guys had no where to go."
"That doesn't excuse my failure, I'll report what happened to Paladin Rahmani back at headquarters and face whatever punishment I get."
Isaac looks back at Hannah and they both exchange a worried look. Lloyd turns around to face the two.
"You've already done so much for me and it's feels wrong of me to ask for more, but can we go down there and retrieve their dog tags? The least I can do to make up for this is get their names back to headquarters to let their families know what happened."
Isaac gives him a nod
"Yeah we can, there is another way down on the opposite side of the cliff that we can take to avoid the super mutants from the road. We have to be quick though cause they might start sending search parties after us."
The Knight gives a understanding nod back and the trio begins walking. Heading back to where Isaac and Hannah first arrived they go down the other side of the cliff passing the smaller radio tower and heading down to the battlegrounds. They each find a body to go up to and take the dog tags from their necks. Isaac found only the bottom half of someone and followed a blood trail to where the other half had crawled to. He comes across it resting against a tree with his dog tags in his hands. Isaac kneels down and sees the soldiers eyes open and cloudy showing he had been dead for some time. Taking two fingers he closes the soldiers eyes and takes the dog tags from his hand. Knight Rollins picks up a standard issue laser rifle. Its block like form and fusion cell powered ammunition can put a hole through flesh like a knife through butter. Everyone rejoins in the middle and hands their dog tags to Lloyd as he holds them all up in one hand
"5 of my brothers and sisters. Gone just like that in one battle."
Lloyd stashes the tags away and looks down in shame. Hannah tries to change the topic to ease his mind
"It will be nightfall soon, we should find a place to rest before heading back to Atlas."
Isaac looks at the two of them
"Wait don't either of you have the signal flares for passing veritbirds?"
The Knight speaks up
"Mine were taken with my things back at the warehouse."
"I was only given one before the raider job."
Looking disappointed Isaac sighs and looks to Hannah
"So then where should we head?"
Lloyd steps in to interject
"I might have a place, it might have a few ghouls to clear out but it is secure."
Hannah gave a little bit of a glare for getting cut off which takes back the Knight but she calms down a bit and responds
"Where is that?"
"Its an old West Tek facility. My troops and I were tasked to clear that building out next after we restocked back home. It's not too far south of here and last scouting party said it would be a cake walk for a Knight."
Isaac and Hannah exchange a look as they both look back to the Knight and agree with his plan.
"Alright, I'll take point, we can walk around the road by the mutants and get back on it once we are far enough and it'll take us there."
Lloyd turns around and starts walking off the site with Hannah and Isaac following behind him. They venture around the road by the mutants hiding in the trees and moving before rejoining once they can no longer see the ware house in sight. The sun continues to set as the trio walk down the road. They only had a couple hours before nightfall to reach West Tek and find shelter from the night.
************************************************************************************************************
After an hour of walking the pair behind the Knight feel exhausted as he presses on down the street. Hannah elbows Isaac to get his attention
"We've been walking for over an hour and he still looks like he can go another no problem. How do they train these soldier types?"
"Beats me, I had a gym in my vault but no one in there could match his dexterity."
"Speaking of your vault, you wanna tell me how you managed to blow up that mine? Cause seeing that looked like something out of a god damn movie."
Isaac points to his pip-boy
"There is this program on my pip-boy called V.A.T.S.. It was built to help vault dwellers aim better in combat. I haven't looked too deep into it yet but it has something to do with scanners and electric shocks to my arm. It also takes my chances of hitting the shots based on distance and stamina."
"Dang maybe I should have kept that thing."
Hannah makes a laugh as Isaac gives her a light shove.
"You know you've asked me a lot about my past, what about yours huh? How did the great Hannah come to be the survivalist she is today?"
Hannah half drops her smile and puts more of a serious expression on her face. She looks forward and starts to speak again
"Truth is I'm not from around here, I grew up West of here near California. It was just me, my parents, and my sister Rachel. Grew up in a settlement with a bunch of other families."
"Sounds like you had a happy life, what made you wanna move all the way out here?"
Hannah pushes her hair out of her eyes and continues looking forward.
"My parents passed a couple years ago cause of radiation damage to their organs. Barely made it to 50. Rachel and I both took their deaths differently, I wanted to leave but she wanted to stay with the rest of the settlers. Said we had made a home here and she didn't wanna abandon that. I felt like there was too many memories there for me to stay. So one day I decided to just leave. Simple as that."
Isaac looks at her through the side of his eye and sees she still has a focused expression on.
"Right, well I hope you found what your looking for out here."
Hannah doesn't even respond to his comment, she just nods in agreement. Taking the hint that she doesn't wanna talk about this anymore Isaac starts to make conversation with the Knight.
"So Lloyd was it?"
The Knight looks behind for a sec to see Isaac and then resumes facing forward
"I'd prefer you refer to me as Knight or Knight Rollins."
Isaac gets taken a back for a second by the sudden authoritative sound in his voice but recovers to continue to speak
"Right, Knight sorry. I was going to ask how far out are we?"
"We are approximately 7 minutes out from the building. Are arrival there should be just in time before sunset."
Isaac trying to further move the conversation speaks more
"Cool, cool. By the way I noticed your wearing some fancy clothes, is that like a standard issue attire for your rank or what?"
Isaac notes how the Knight dawns a pitch black tight under armor with steel grey armor covering most of his body. Rollins doesn't even bat an eye in Isaac's direction this time. He answers him in a simple to the point answer
"I'm wearing standard issue officer under armor with recon armor on top of it."
"Well looks good but hey anything looks good today if it can dodge a bullet right?"
Isaac lets out a chuckle, but no one else laughs with him. He slowly dies down his own laughter as he realizes he hasn't broken any of the tension. Eventually it is broken when they reach the front of the West Tek Facility. Wooden barricades with spikes poking out from the walls can be seen sprawled across the front as the trio takes defensive positions by the front door. The Knight speaks up
"On me."
He moves forwards towards the opening in the front with Hannah and Isaac following him on either side. Walking in the place is deserted, there is no sign of life slacking around the area outside the facility. They take a right towards the building and reach the front door. Rollins attempts to open it but it remains jammed shut. He grabs one side and commands Isaac
"Grab the other side and pull."
Isaac tucks his gun away and grabs the other side of the door as they both pull in opposite directions making the sliding door open up. Hannah enters and observes that the room is pitch dark. Looking to her right she heads towards a light switch and gives it a couple flicks with no success. Isaac steps up after seeing the present issue
"I got it."
He presses a button on his pip-boy and the entire screen of it illuminates a eerie lime green lighting up in front of them like a flashlight. Walking down the steps Isaac sees two doors, one going straight and one going right. He turns back to the two
"Take your pick"
Hannah suggests the right and Rollins suggested forward. Sighing Isaac decides on right stepping up the steps and having the sliding doors open as they approach. Immediately in front of them lies another door yet this one is locked with a terminal. Isaac approaches it to turn on and sees that they require a West Tek Research Lab Key. Hannah comes up next to him
"Don't suppose that pip-boy can hack terminals?"
Isaac gives a disappointing no and Hannah gently pushes him aside
"That's what I thought, give me 5 minutes."
Hannah begins work on the computer as Isaac and Rollins guard her back. Isaac once again tries to make conversation with the Knight
"So how long you been in the Brotherhood?"
"This would be my third year of service. How long have you been out of your vault?"
"This would be my third day."
Isaac gave a chuckle as the Knight gave him a blank look at the coincidence. He dies down his chuckle and asks another question
"So what made you join?"
The knight scans the room as he responds to Isaac.
"I used to live in Appalachia before the Scorched Plague tore through the lands, I was only an infant back then but my parents got me out safely and we had a place up north. When I heard the Scorched were cleared out I came back to resettle on our old lands but then I came across the Brotherhood around that same time. I heard they were part of the reason the Scorched don't exist anymore so I wanted to join them as thanks for saving my families old home. And here we are now."
Isaac gives a confused look at Rollins
"I'm sorry but I have no clue what this Scorched Plague or Scorched......people are? I only just got out remember?"
The Knight dips his head a bit
"Apologies, that had went over my head. The Scorched are--"
The two get cut off when the locked doors open and they turn to see Hannah leaning on the terminal. With a satisfied grin on her face
"You boys done playing share and tell? The entry way is clear now."
Isaac walks past Hannah to lead with the light and they see multiple different paths of office halls to take along with an entire floor above them. Rollins comments on the paths
"It'll take hours to clear this whole place out of whatever can kill us in our sleep."
"Maybe we don't need to clear the building, look at this."
Hannah and Rollins turn around to see Isaac standing in front of what looks like an elevator. The lights of the buttons are still shining showing it might still be functional. Flashing his pip-boy to the wall next to it, the sign "FEV Production" lay plastered right by the door. Hannah comes to stand opposite of Isaac and points to the sign
"Yeah, I'm going no where near there."
Rollins weighs in to agree
"She's right, there is a high likelihood of running into more super mutants down there if that's the case"
Isaac gives a puzzled look at the two and asks
"What do you mean? What do super mutants have to do with FEV?"
Rollins takes a step closer to explain
"FEV or to make it simpler the Forced Evolutionary Virus, is the concoction that makes ordinary people like you and me into those god awful creatures you saw before. So walking into a lab where they make the stuff doesn't sound like a smart idea."
Isaac looks to Hannah and she nods confirming what the Knight claims about the mutants. Taking a second to think Isaac speaks once more about traveling to the FEV Production floor
"Look I won't deny that what you guys said does sound fair and maybe we shouldn't go there, but from the looks of the elevator buttons, it would most likely be in the basement of this facility. That means that instead of having to clear two or possibly more floors of offices with multiple rooms and levels to worry about, we could travel downstairs and clear out anything there and only have to worry about this elevator as an entry way which maybe we can board up with traps or at least make it difficult to get through."
Hannah's look changes as she considers the offer, but Rollins stays firm on his stance
"You want to risk running into more of those, abominations? I'm sorry, but I need more than just a time saver reason to go down there and possibly confront more of them."
Isaac looks for another probable reason to search the basement, but Hannah speaks up to help
"You know, there maybe some research down there to bring back to your people. I'm sure that sifting through some documents about the mutants would make your paladin and the rest of the brotherhood very content."
Rollins glares at Hannah and the offer she has placed down. Taking one more look at the two of them and taking a heavy sigh
"Alright, call the elevator and get ready for combat as soon as the door opens if anything."
Isaac's face lights up with glee as he presses the button and the elevator doors swing open. The trio enter the small compartment as Rollins hits the button to head to the basement. Isaac can't help but talk about what to come
"If there really is some research there I would love to take a look at it first before handing it over. The amount of data and records kept about these mutants seems so exciting to learn about."
Hannah gives a half smirk
"Wow dweller, been a long time since last I saw someone be excited to actually read. The population's IQ hasn't really gone up since the nukes."
"Like I mentioned before, I was a great student in the vault but it was more out of entertainment then requirement. I love learning about how things work and how to build all these cool different machines."
Rollins quickly shuts the two's small talk down
"Save the chit chat for when we know the area is clear, we shouldn't be distracted from the task at hand."
As Rollins finishes that statement the elevator stops and everyone ready's their weapons the doors open and Isaac takes a step out to scan the room with his light. The elevator had opened into a narrow hall with cages on either side holding equipment and machinery. They proceed forward cautiously keeping their senses sharpened. Reaching the end of the caged hall they see an open door way to the left that looks to be a small office and a door to the right leading to the main lab. Rollins gives hand signals to the two to check out the lab as he inspects the office. Following his lead the two proceed forward into the lab as he enters the small office. Once they entered the lab space Isaac almost lost all focus as he looked around. Many terminals and massive computer structures as tall as him line the walls of the lab along with a center pillar lined with the same machinery. Behind those terminals lies super mutant bodies in tubes full of green liquid suspending them in a floating state. Hannah elbows Isaac to keep his act together and the two proceed down the stairs and inspect the lab before them. Traveling deeper in Hannah finds a section with a super mutant body lying on a table looking to be prepped for surgery. She does not hesitate to stick a knife through the dead mutants head to make sure it is actually a corpse. The two meet up once again at a sliding door way. It is jammed like the previous one so Hannah and Isaac attempt to force it open to no avail. Hannah makes a comment
"If we can't force it open on this side, chances are if anything is on the other side it can't open it either. Otherwise it wouldn't be jammed shut like this."
Isaac agrees with her statement, but still doesn't wanna risk anything. He looks over and sees a table with empty cans on it and some wiring on the floor. Grabbing all the objects, he asks Hannah for her knife. Isaac stabs holes in the cans and intertwines the wire through them. Tying the wires to nearby wall lights he covers the doorway with a noise mechanism to alarm them if anything comes through. Hannah slaps the back of his head with a grin
"Now your learning how to live around here dweller. Come on, let's regroup with that stick up his ass soldier."
The two turn back around and walk back to the beginning of the lab to see Rollins staring at one of the tubes. Snapping back to reality after the pair reach him he asks of their findings to which Isaac replies
"There is a jammed door back there but there is noise device in place if anything walks through, other than that this place is clear. What did you find?"
"Office was empty, there is a couch and cushioned chairs we can sleep in though so I suggest we hold up in that room after scouring the place for the research."
Isaac's face lights up more as Hannah yawns
"Well if that's the case I'm taking the couch while you two stay up looking at screens all night. Night nerds."
Hannah walks past Rollins and heads to the office leaving him and Isaac in the lab. The two men begin to walk to different sides of the lab to sift through what is left of the research. Rollins opens up a filing cabinet and many roaches and insects poor out. Looking inside he sees pieces of folders and papers ripped and soiled beyond reading comprehension. He closes the cabinet and moves to look more around the machinery. Isaac goes to where the dead super mutant lies on the table and walks around the corpse inspecting the body. The creature truly had a muscular look to it through the gaps in the armor. Turning around Isaac faced a massive black screen with a small terminal beside it. He wastes no time to start searching and explores what the terminal has to offer. Pulling up its main interface it only had two options displayed, "Journals" and "Inject Subject." Scanning over Isaac clicked on the journals to find months of journal entries recorded by the previous owners. Seeing how long it would take to read, Isaac skims to the bottom and sees one journal entry titled differently then the rest. Instead of a date, the entry read "SUCCESS." Clicking it open the characters on the screen started flashing in one by one as Isaac read it
"WE'VE FINALLY DONE IT! A completely new strain of both viruses were formed! We had the plan to breakdown the viruses into their core compounds first then synthesize them together, but it turned out that once we started breaking down one of the rejected batches from previous failures the virus started to blend as we hoped. With FEV morphing the physiological way the muscle tissue grows to make it stronger than the average human and the Scorched Plague's psychological breakdown and hivemind like state, we can finally start taking the next steps of this virus potential. What makes this even better is the fact that FEV's proteins will strengthen the Scorched Plague's main cellular resistance, in short making the inoculations that almost killed off the plague the first time completely ineffective. Once we inform the boss we can finally take the next phase in the plans."
Isaac takes a step back from the terminal taking in what he just read. A new virus that combines FEV and something Isaac keeps hearing about called the Scorched Plague. He recalls when Hannah first mentioned the Scorched back in Morgantown and said how they weren't around anymore. The same went for Rollins when he asked about his past saying how his family just got him out in time before it hit. Looking at the screen once more Isaac sees the "Inject Subject" option. He turns back around and sees the mutant on the table and looks up above it to see a mechanical arm with a syringe attached to it. There was no label nor any form of identification on the serum. Narrowing his eyes on the fluid it looked to be this yellow thin liquid sitting still in the tube. Looking around Isaac cannot find anything to climb to reach the serum, but then he sees the table with the mutant on it. Giving one heavy sigh Isaac climbs on top of the table making an effort to avoid stepping on the mutant to keep balance. At this point Knight Rollins comes over to see what Isaac is doing as he just started climbing over a dead corpse
"What are you doing?"
Isaac not taking his eyes off the mechanical arm grabs it to pull down
"The research done here seems to have lead to this new combination of the FEV and Scorched virus you guys keep mentioning. The serum in this machine might be the final product from their efforts."
Rollins face drops as he hears Isaac words, he begins to command Isaac
"Isaac don't touch that serum. You don't know what else they could have done to make that virus."
Isaac manages to pull out the serum from the hand and holds it in his own. He examines the bottle for a second before Rollins starts to get more frustrated
"Isaac that's enough. Give me the bottle right now. You don't know what your holding."
Isaac takes his eyes off the bottle to look at Rollins once more
"Would you calm down, it's sealed in the bottle and nothing's getting out unless we screw with it. Just let me have a bit with it to see if I can learn anything from the viruses and----"
Isaac gets surprised when a fist slams on the table and Rollins talks in a more demanding tone then before
"Isaac don't open that bottle!"
With the loud noise and vibration catching him off guard Isaac moves his foot making him trip on the dead super mutant's hand and fall backward. For a brief moment time seemed to stop for the Knight and Isaac as he falls off the table and the bottle goes flying in the air. Isaac looks up and realizes what happened as he reaches his outstretched hand towards the bottle that looked as if it were flying away from him. Rollins dives over the table and attempts to catch the bottle to no avail as his finger tips graze its surface simply making it spin before gravity pulls the bottle back down making it smash on the floor. Sounds of gears and electricity can be heard booming throughout the lab as it starts to come back to life after its long slumber. Isaac looks around in confusion as he looks at the terminal and realizes that he hit the "Inject Subject" option when his elbow collided with the keyboard. The mechanical arm comes down and injects the dead mutant with an empty syringe container as they took out the serum. Rollins and Isaac wait a moment to see if anything happens, but nothing occurs so they let out a sigh of relief. However, more noise can be heard towards the back of the lab by the capsules that hold the super mutants in the green liquid. Rollins sees what is going to happen and begins to rise pulling Isaac up and making them rush towards the lab's front. More mechanical hands come down inside the tubes themselves with batches of the same yellow liquid present in their syringes. They each inject three super mutants floating in the fluid as the serum gets jetted into their bodies. Isaac and Rollins are about to reach the entrance to the lab when thick steel doors slam right in front of them. Rollins goes to the keypad to try and open the doors
"Come on, come on, COME ON!"
All the noise happening wakes Hannah up from the couch in the office. She begins to rush to the door as sirens start going off. She gives a couple quick bangs
"What the hell is going on?!?! There are alarms sounding all over the place?!?!"
Rollins yells back at her through the door
"Find a way to get us out now!!!! The doors are locked but get onto the terminal from the other side!!!"
Hannah looks around frantically spotting the terminal the Knight was talking about. She runs to it and sees its locked with a harder encryption then before. She yells back to them
"It's locked, I need some time to get in!!!"
Rollins starts pounding on the door more furiously
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME!!!! GET THESE DOORS OPEN NOW!!!"
Rollins continues pounding on the door yelling, but Isaac hears something over his yelling and the alarms. He can barely make it out but it sounds like something thudding against glass. He slowly walks back over to look at the tubes and sees the super mutants inside shaking viscously like they are having a seizure. Their pale green bodies start to change shade into a bloody red as their skin starts to look like they were severely burned. From within the mutants bodies little green crystals start poking out all over them. Suddenly one of them opens their eyes to reveal just white cloudiness and no pupils. They stop shaking and regain their composure. The mutants stay calm for a few seconds before they start yelling painful moans. There arms and legs start moving once more to bang on the glass with the intent to be let out. After a few punches the glass starts to crack and Isaac starts to panic running back to Rollins
"They are starting to crack the glass we need to get out of here now!!!"
Before Rollins can respond a massive crash can be heard with splashes of liquid hitting the ground. Both Rollins and Isaac turn and draw their guns. They wait with their muscles tightened and focus drawn towards the lab. The liquid from the tubes can be seen pouring from around the corner as splashy steps can be heard coming closer. From the inner parts of the lab a mutated super mutant stumbles forward looking at the normal super mutant on the table. He continues to approach it as Isaac and Rollins keep their weapons fixed on it. The creature reaches the mutant and views its corpse lying lifeless on the table. It cranes its head looking at the mutants face almost confused by it. This attitude quickly changes as it starts hitting the body almost like a gorilla dropping its fists on it and ripping the mutant's body apart. The other two scorched mutants run in and jump onto the creature almost like a dog pile ripping and beating the dead mutant's body apart. Rollins and Isaac look with horror at the atrocity the Scorched mutants are making. All of a sudden the alarms shut off and the doors start to slowly open behind them. Isaac and Rollins here this and look back to see the entrance open again, but when they look back forward they see one of the scorched mutants looking at them. Their faces drop and the creature lets out another painful moan alerting the other two of their presence. Isaac aims his 10mm and Rollins his laser rifle at the three running mutants. Before any shot is fired, Isaac's pip-boy lights up saying V.A.T.S once more. Isaac lands two shots on the far left mutant's head making it drop to the floor and only lands one on the far right's head which doesn't kill it until Rollins puts a laser shot through and finishes the job. Unfortunately, the middle mutant that alerted the others manages to reach and lunge at the two grabbing them both by the throat and lifting them off the ground. The sudden impact of the mutant grabbing them had made them both lose their weapons so they stay tightly held in the super mutant's grip as they both grab and pound at it's arm. The mutant looks at them with a rotting face and death filled in its eyes as it's grotesque jaw opens to speak in a raspy chilling voice
"WE HAVE FINALLY RETURNED!"
The two start to lose consciousness, but a gun barrel can be seen pointed at the mutants head as Hannah responds to the mutant
"Return from this."
She then pulls the trigger and a sniper round goes right through the scorched mutant's head. The creature drops Isaac and Rollins to the floor as it's knees hit the ground itself and falls face forward in front of them. Hannah looks inside the lab making sure they are clear and walks over to help the guys back up
"Ok what the fuck was that and why the fuck did all this shit get triggered?!"
Rollins stands gripping his throat
"They were super mutants, but somehow the Scorched virus had found a way to infect them and turn them into scorched."
Hannah looks in awe at what Rollins says
"What the fuck do you mean they turned into Scorched? Super mutants can't turn even when they were exposed to the virus."
Rollins regains his composure and faces Hannah as she helps Isaac back to his feet
"Well someone found a way, and now there might be a greater threat out there worse than the Scorched plague ever was."
Hannah looks down in shock ready for more questions, but Isaac shouts through coughs
"Enough!!!"
The two turn to face him in his aggressive state
"Look, I've seen some crazy, fucked up shit in these past couple days outside the vault but that?! That was completely different from everything else I've seen so far and whatever the fuck it was just rushed me and choked me half to death spouting about how "they have finally returned". Now I want some damn answers on who the hell these Scorched are and what this "plague" you guys keep referencing is cause I'm tired of being so much in the dark at this shit."
Isaac takes heavy breathes after his rant. Hannah and Rollins look at him then look at each other. Hannah gives Rollins the floor to start to explain to Isaac the dark past of Appalachia.
"Alright Isaac, it's only fair you know. Let me tell you a story of how for almost two decades things like this roamed about the wasteland and made it impossible for life to come back to Appalachia."