Nate watched as his two stubborn and strong-willed companions walked ahead of him sharing in a joke together. He smiled, that's better he thought to himself.
"Are they getting on now?" Curie asked as she closed the gap between her and Nate. The boathouse was just up ahead, and so they would soon be getting into a much closer formation to clear the building.
"Yes, they are Curie. It is amazing how persuasive I can be when I have an ebony hairbrush packed away in my gear." Nate signalled to his backpack.
"Oh," Curie exclaimed, "you have brought it with you?" she sounded surprised.
"I always do," responded Nate, "for occasions just like this. I have no intention of actually taking it out of my bag, but the fact that it is there seems to have done the job, don't you think." He signalled to the girls up ahead.
The team quickly cleared the boat house, exterminating a few blood bugs that had taken up residence there, and began setting up their makeshift camp on the first floor of the building. Blood bugs were giant sized mutated mosquitoes, large enough to kill humans and yet another side effect of generations of radiation effecting every part of the Commonwealth.
Taffington Boat house was a two storey colonial house set on the side of the Malden River, which had direct access to the sea and a location where the team could leave the Red Wave. On the opposite banks of the river sat the Everett housing estate. Just north of the boathouse the river disappeared into a series of sewage tunnels, something that may be worth a look, thought Nate.
The team had found the body of a settler, who according to the note on her, was Mary Sutton, the owner of the boathouse. It seems that her and her brother had discovered the boathouse and the abandoned sewers, but on exploring the underground tunnels had released a hatch of the blood bugs. The team buried her over the other side of the road to the house.
It was dusk by the time the team were back upstairs in the boathouse and Curie had already begun to make the evening meal.
"I want a sweep of the area and we should have two of us on sentry tonight, just in case the light of our fire attracts the wrong type of attention." Nate ordered, "Cait, you up for a stroll?"
Cait nodded, "I thought Lucas comes this way?" She asked.
"Yes, he does," Nate responded, "but Malden is the wild west and we are only half a mile away." Nate signalled to the North.
"We will take a quick look and we will be back in no time," Nate smiled at Cait as he could see she was less than enthusiastic to have to leave the warmth of the fire.
The pair left the house and began by moving slowly back down the road they had come up earlier. Nate intended on sweeping west a little before heading north, in a great loop around the left side of the house. The right side being covered by the river.
"Thanks for making up with Piper," Nate said quietly as they began their patrol.
"We weren't fighting anyway," Cait responded, "well not much."
"I know, I just didn't want it to become a bigger thing, that's all." Nate looked at Cait, "but you are ok, aren't you?" He asked. Nate had noticed that Cait seemed a little pre-occupied recently, not her usual self and much less fiery, a little more muted. To Nate, one of the things he loved about Cait was her passion for things, sometime pig headed, sometime argumentative, but most subjects got a real reaction from her. Over the last few days she had just been a little less... well... Cait.
Cait was staring ahead, "Yeah, I'm peachy," she responded, sounding genuine.
"Oh, ok," Nate answered back, happy that she was either ok or didn't want to talk about it.
They walked the rest of the patrol in silence, working their way in a large sweep around the boathouse. When they got to a road just North of their camp, they spotted a Brahmin lying in the middle of the road and as they got closer they spotted bodies as well. It was now fully dark, but the sky was clear and the moon bright. From where Nate and Cait had stopped, they could see two bodies lying one side of the Brahmin and one the other. The beast had a large steamer trunk still roped to its back so was obviously part of a Caravan. The pair crept up to the first body and on inspection could see that it was a caravan guard, not anyone Nate knew. Cait went to inspect the body the other side of the animal.
"It's a trader," Cait whispered, "but not one I recognise." She started looking through his pockets.
Nate examined the other bodies, who were both caravan guards by their apparel and then he moved up to the trunk. The lid was open and the contents strewn about all over the road.
"This blood is fresh, this could have been earlier today," Cait held up her hand, blood on her finger tips.
"Let's have a look through these contents, looks like they have been thrown about but not much has been taken." Nate held up a small box of 5mm ammunition. Certainly not something that would have been left by any raiders he knew.
"Over here," motioned Cait, who was standing by the side of the road and looking into the long grass. Nate went over to where Cait was stood and saw the body of a ghoul, all but hidden by the greenery. It had a large hole in its chest, which Nate assumed was from one of the guards who had a shotgun lying beside him. Cait then noticed something, a little deeper in the foliage.
"Isn't this what you are looking for?" Cait held up a small shoe box sized container with the Institute's logo printed on the lid.
"Yes, maybe," answered Nate, "But there is another one here," he held up one that was still in the trunk. "Have a quick scout around to see if there are any others and then we will head home. We can come back at first light and see what else we can find. I don't like banging around in the dark, you never know what's lurking about looking for dinner."
Cait nodded and after another twenty minutes they had recovered four boxes in total and taken them back to the boathouse. When they arrived back Piper was sleeping and Curie was standing guard.
"I told Piper to get some rest as I knew you were only over there," She pointed to where Nate and Cait had just found the caravan.
"That's ok," Nate reassured her, "I'll stay up with you now and take first watch."
Cait looked grateful as she too was tired. It didn't take long for Cait to shed the chest armour and her boots, and leaving her rifle next to her sleeping bag she slid in and rolled over to face the fire. Nate followed Curie as they headed downstairs, to stand on the front porch of the house.
The next morning and Nate woke to the smell of frying beef steak. "Ah, a breakfast fit for a king," He stretched.
"Or one to clog your arteries," responded Piper who handed Nate a coffee.
"Rubbish, its fuel for the road and you will soon burn off the extra calories lugging the stuff we are about to scavenge from that caravan up there." Nate began chewing on his steak.
Piper looked puzzled and as she handed a waking Cait her tea, she asked, "Caravan?"
"Mmm," nodded Cait as she took a sip of her tea, pulling a face as she burned her tongue, "An out of state caravan must have been making its way to bunker Hill when it was attacked by Ghouls. It looks like it happened yesterday, and their stuff is still all over the road. We wait too long and we may miss out."
By the light outside the house it was around five in the morning and it didn't take long for the team to assemble their weapons and kit for their expedition. They wolfed down their breakfast and by six they were ready. They opted for leaving their camp kit set up as they were hoping to only be away for a few hours.
Cait and Nate moved ahead, Nate taking point. Piper was next and Curie bringing up the rear. As they were only moving a short distance of around eight hundred meters, the team stayed relatively close to each other, on the look out for any suspicious movement. Arriving at the bodies, Nate set Piper and Cait on watch as he and Curie began to sort through the items carried by the caravan. Nate had concluded that this must have been the caravan Doc McClintock mentioned as a few of the items carried in the steamer trunk, were obviously from Washington. There were two Chinese made Xuanlong assault rifles as well as two ranger armour breast plates. The haul was impressive and should net the group a decent amount of caps as soon as they were able to sell them on. The only problem was storage, as they were due to travel further north and didn't want to lug this amount of extra kit with them. They knew Lucas brought his caravan this way, but Nate didn't know him well enough to trust him like he did Cricket.
"What about the abandoned house we passed last night on our clearance patrol?" asked Cait.
Nate looked puzzled and then remembered, "Oh the other colonial style house, yes, that may well be worth a quick look. Let's get this lot back to the boathouse and we can have a snoop around."
Cait and Piper moved in to help Nate and Curie with the haul and then set off back to their camp. Looking at the items they had recovered, Nate was doing a little math in his head when he realised, he didn't need to. "Curie, how much do you think we have here?" he asked.
"Well, monsieur," Curie shifted the weapons she was carrying to get a little more comfortable, "We have seventeen weapons in total, as well as nine different types of ammunition. We also have the food stuffs, the funny looking wine bottles, and the duffle bag of raw materials. Given the average price we have previously seen for these items and guessing a standard price for the Chinese weapons, we have approximately five thousand, seven hundred and eleven caps in value here." She stated.
"Approximately," chuckled Piper. "I feel sorry for those poor bastards over there. Maybe I'll be nicer the next time a caravan guard complains to me about their lot in life." She mused.
"Wouldn't catch me doing that job," exclaimed Cait. "Risking your life for peanuts, not for me. Not anymore."
"We are lucky, you know," Curie stated, "that we are out here, like them but we collect so much more than them in treasure at the end of each trip."
"Yeah, being on the road and not being paid very well for it, sucks, but you have to make ends meet where you can." Responded Nate as he set his collection of ammunition down in front of the boarded-up house. "Cait, you and Piper go that way," he signalled off to the left, "and Curie and I will head this way."
The team met behind the house and seeing no signs of entry in any of the boarded up doorways or windows, they returned to the front porch. The probable reason for the lack of interest in this house was the fact that it had been boarded up using metal sheets. Whoever had installed these screens had done a very thorough job and it took a while for the team to see their best way in.
"Why don't I get up there," Cait pointed to a small screen on the first floor that was open a jar.
Nate looked around, and then smiled, "Well as long as you are careful, you can stand on my shoulders." Nate went down on one knee to allow Cait to sit on his shoulders.
"Never thought it would be this easy to get my legs wrapped around your head," Cait smirked as she slid a leg onto wither shoulder.
Nate stood slowly with Curie's help. "You behave young lady or I'll tip you into those bushes," Nate laughed back, not wanting to admit that he was enjoying the closeness of Cait's body with his. As he turned to face the building, he reached out his right-hand which Cait took to steady herself as she lifted her right foot to place it on Nate's shoulder. She repeated the process with the other foot so she ended up squatting on his shoulders. Nate took a firm grip of both Cait's ankles and she stood, ever so slowly until she was upright next to the window.
"It's not been opened, just a screw has come loose but I think I can get the others off easy enough." Cait reached into her webbing and took out a small multi tool and began to get to work. Soon the sheet of metal clanged to the ground a little way off from where the team were stood.
"I am glad that missed me." Nate stated, looking up to Cait.
"Afraid it may have knocked some sense into you?" Cait sassed back.
"You know, Curie, how I said I would never take that hairbrush out of my pack," Nate smiled as he looked at Curie. "I think I am beginning to change my mind, you know."
Suddenly all the weight came off his shoulders as Cait had pulled herself up through the window. "You would have to be able to reach me first, handsome," Cait smiled back, leaning out of the window.
"I'll be down and see if I can't get anything open downstairs."
"Hang on, Cait." Nate ordered as he reached out a hand to Curie. "Think you can follow that?" Nate asked.
"Oui monsieur, pas de problem," Curie took his hand and deftly sat on Nate's shoulders. She was up and through the window in no time, Nate and Piper handing them up their weapons. "See you downstairs in a jiffy." Curie waved.
Piper and Nate waited as they strained to hear the girls making their way down through the house. Thankfully there were obviously no occupants as it wasn't long before they heard Cait's voice the other side. "This place is amazing," she exclaimed, "Totally untouched from before the war by the looks of it, dusty but untouched." She sounded amazed by what she was looking at.
"Any sign of us getting in?" Asked Piper.
"Hang on," came the Irish voice from the other side of the door. "I don't think the main door is going to be able to be moved without real violence," she sounded impressed.
"I have something here," Curie was obviously calling from another room.
"Go to the side door, to your right," Cait called through to Nate and Piper.
They headed to the side of the building and Curie talked them through unscrewing a few fasteners to the top of one of the sheets, which in turn allowed the others to be slid out. This was solid work by someone looking to protect their property.
The side door was now open, and the team entered. Cait had lit her lamp and the flickering light cast eerie shadows on the wall. Nate looked around in what was obviously the kitchen. It was as if the place had been taken directly from a museum, most of the kitchen items pre-electric, with only the fridge giving the house a modern touch. The walls were dark, probably due to the damp but the furniture was immaculate, with dust covers shielding most from any atmospheric damage. Nate moved through to the hall way.
"What is this place," Piper asked in wonder as she followed him.
"Whoever lived here liked things more traditional." Nate was viewing the huge paintings hanging in the hall. By the looks of the artwork these were members of the family who owned the property, or at least previous generations. By the large front door there was an umbrella stand with a few coats hung on the hooks above. There was a small table up against the wall with an old style telephone on it and a small pad and pencil beside it. Hearing Curie and Cait begin to bring all the looted items from the caravan into the house, Nate and Piper continued their searching. Moving through a door on the opposite wall to the kitchen entrance the pair found themselves in what was obviously the study. Bookshelves lined the walls and a huge captains desk and chair occupied a large part of the room. The chair with its back to the bay window. A large fireplace had been built against the far wall.
Nate sat at the desk and pulling open the drawers, sifted through the paperwork. It seemed that the house was owned by a Professor Warren, Piper commenting on the role a Dr Warren played in the battle for Bunker Hill.
"Maybe this professor was a descendant?" wondered Nate.
"Would you look at this place!" Cait exclaimed as she walked into the study. Running her hand over the side of the desk. "Straight out of the colonial history books."
"Well, according to these," Piper called over from one of the bookshelves, "our professor here may well have been a teacher in colonial history. With Fire and Sword, The Battle for Bunker Hill and the Beginning of the American Revolution, and this one, Bunker Hill, a City, a siege, a Revolution." Piper was pulling a few of the books down from the shelves.
"Well, a nice place to keep very secret indeed," Nate took one last look around, "Come on, we have a walk up to Parsons by the days end." Nate grabbed his weapon and headed for the door.
The team took around twenty minutes securing the entrance to the house and then, placing a piece of brush over the base of the doorway, they headed north and off up to Malden.