New Vegas: Sheason's Story

Chapter 40: Crazy, Crazy, Crazy

Breaking news this hour on Radio New Vegas. Last night, Freeside was rocked by a massive explosion which destroyed the Silver Rush. It's unclear at this time how or why the Silver Rush exploded. An anonymous eyewitness reported seeing shadowy figures wearing advanced armor and utilizing military tactics entering the building before the explosion, but this is still unconfirmed. It's unknown if any Freeside locals were injured in the blast, and as of now, no one has claimed responsibility.

I needed to clear my head.

I'd been up for a few hours, trying to get rid of this damn hangover, and piece together what - if anything - happened last night. It really didn't help that Cass had made herself completely scarce. In fact, the only one I knew for sure was even around was ED-E, and that's because he was buzzing around in the main hallway of the suite, humming a toneless, synthesized tune.

That didn't help the pounding in my skull. Not at all.

At any rate, something did eventually work it's way through the fog: an idea. If I wanted to clear my head - I mean, really clear my head - I'd need to do something. Preferably, something that took all day... Should I go through the massive pile of weapons we'd stolen from the Silver Rush, and just take stock of everything we had? That's something I certainly was going to have to do eventually, and it would probably take all day. Maybe I should turn one of the spare rooms in the suite into an armory? I certainly needed a place to put the anti-material rifle... and the Sprtel-Wood 9700... and the mountain of ammunition...

No... staying in the 38 all day wasn't going to help. What I needed was something that got me out of Vegas for a while. That's when I remembered Marcus, back in Jacobstown - and how he'd told me about Neil, and Tabitha, and Black Mountain. Maybe now would be a good time to check on that. I did tell him I'd see what I could do, right?

"Hey, ED-E?" I walked out of my room with a duffle bag slung over my shoulder, and called for the robot who hovered to a halt a few feet from me. "Meet me down by my car. We're gonna get out of Vegas for a couple hours." ED-E let loose a burst of triumphant sounding marching music, and rushed through the common room and out the window. I hit the button to call the elevator, and as I was waiting, I heard a click to my right: Veronica was walking right towards me.

A sudden wave of guilt washed over me like a bucket of ice water.

"Hey, Shea!" She said with a smile and a wave. I returned the gesture, and tried not to look suspicious. Damnit, man! Don't look suspicious! "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I was gonna... you know, get out of Vegas for a few hours. Clear my head, and just do something."

"Neat! Want me to come with?" She beamed from beneath her hood.

Just say 'no,' Sheason. It's easy. One syllable: 'no!' That's all you have to do, and then you'll have the whole day to yourself, able to think things through and work things out all by yourself just like you used to. Just. Say. No.

"Sure," I smiled back.

Damnit!

The elevator doors slid open, and the two of us entered into the most uncomfortable silence I've ever experienced. At least, it was uncomfortable for me. And can you blame me? Veronica is a girl who could quite easily kill me with her pinky finger if she so chose, and I'm willing to bet that she'd be the jealous type.

Okay, calm down. You're not even certain anything happened with Cass last night. You just need to stay calm, and not panic. Don't panic. Don't panic. Do. Not. Panic.

"So," Veronica leaned up against the back wall of the elevator. "How'd things go last night?"

TOO LATE ALREADY PANICKING.

"What do you mean, 'last night?'" I asked, trying my best to hide the fact that inside, I was sweating bullets.

"That plan you and Cass spent yesterday working on. I mean, you commandeered the kitchen all day!" She said simply. I breathed a sigh of relief. Silently, of course.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I thought everything went pretty smooth. Probably could've used more C4 when we blew up the Silver Rush, though."

"Wait, what?" She asked, suddenly. "You guys did what?"

"Blew it up, yeah. Wasn't that big of a fireball, if I'm honest. Don't worry, it's not like we killed anyone who wasn't already dead. But we needed a way to get rid of the place, and let people know that the Silver Rush is closed - permanently."

"That..." she paused, as if trying to process the information. "That's a statement." I shrugged.

"Yeah, I suppose that was the idea."

"So, where are we going again?" Veronica asked as the elevator doors opened.

"I was thinking of heading to Black Mountain, check out things for Marcus. Remember him?"

"Oh yeah, the super mutant at Jacobstown, right?" I nodded. "Is that why you have the duffel bag full of weapons and armor?" I looked over my shoulder, and hiked up the strap further.

"No more than being prepared, you know?"

Black Mountain loomed ahead of us like a giant obelisk rising out of the ground, only wider. It's funny, when I first heard the name 'Black Mountain,' I assumed that it was just somebody being poetical, trying to give it a menacing name, and that the mountain would really be grey, or brown, or even green like Mount Charleston. But the closer we got, the more I realized the rocks that made up the mountain were actually... black.

"So... is that it?" Veronica asked, looking up.

"I guess so," I said, driving us through a series of broken and dilapidated pre-war neighborhoods. For the most part, the drive was uneventful. Occasionally, ED-E would peel away from us to shoot at a stray radscorpion, or a giant mutated ant, but other than that, we didn't see anything living. I was relieved - if the map on my Pip-Boy was anything to go by, we were getting perilously close to Sloan and Quarry Junction... and as far as I knew, that particular patch of nowhere was still overrun with deathclaws.

"I think this is as far as we go," I said, slowing the car to a stop. Veronica had been snoozing in the passenger seat for the last ten minutes, and perked her head up when I spoke.

"Really? Why?" she asked, adjusting in her seat. I pointed out in front of me, and turned off the car.

"Because that's a roadblock if I ever saw one."

Stretched from one end of the road to the other was a whole mess of rusted scrap metal, blocks of concrete, a couple of stacked tires, and nearly rotten wood. I couldn't really go around, because on the left side of the road was a small cliff that my car couldn't ever hope to get up, and on the right was a sheer drop that would just make my Corvega flip over.

Of course, I was a bit wrong when I said it was a roadblock; maybe that was one of its purposes, but after getting out of the car and walking towards it to get a better look, I could see that it was also a shack that someone had built. There wasn't much of a roof, but under the corrugated metal acting as a roof was a large mattress, a series of large chairs, a salvaged and rusted metal table, some metal shelves, and a small radio sitting on the table, It wasn't making any noise, but the light on the dial indicated it was on.

"Home sweet home, for somebody," Veronica said, sidling up next to me. I nodded, and just as I was about to respond, I heard the sound of displaced rocks and immediately tensed up.

"This is a dangerous place, humans - especially for your kind." a booming, authoritative voice sounded to my left. I looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, and was greeted with the image of a super mutant. He was bare-chested, unlike most of the super muants living in Jacobstown who wore armor. On the top of his forehead was a pair of goggles, and like almost every other mutant I'd seen, had a leather face harness keeping the sides of his mouth up. Strapped to his back was a club that looked like it had been fashioned out of a chunk of concrete and steel rebar. What stood out most of all was the sheer number of scars this mutant sported - the most distinctive of which were three very large, and very deep, scars just above his right eye.

"Uh... hello?" Veronica said with a feeble wave. I didn't say anything because this mutant - whoever he was - caught me a bit off guard. He dropped off the small cliff with a thud and slowly walked toward me. He hadn't drawn the club, and he was still talking to me, so that was a good sign.

"I suggest you both turn back. There's nothing good waiting for either of you further on." Suddenly, my mind made the connection: this mutant, the roadblock on the way up to Black Mountain... I felt like a fool for not realizing it earlier.

"Are you Neil?" I asked. The mutant took a step back and regarded at me very carefully from beneath his heavy brows. It didn't look like he was going to answer, so I continued. "My name is Sheason Fisher. Marcus up at Jacobstown sent me here to look for a Neil."

"You found him," Neil said, crossing his arms but never taking his eyes off me. I looked up at the mountain peak. From where I was standing, I could see three large satellite dishes mounted at the top of the mountain. And these looked large enough to send signals into space.

"So what makes this a dangerous place?" Neil scoffed, and leaned over one of the rusted metal sheets, and picked up the radio, turning the dial until the radio made noise.

"And you're the leader of all the Nightkin, correct?" A scratchy voice sounded over the radio.

"Yes!" Another, louder, more shouty voice came over the radio; this sounded more like a super mutant yelling into a microphone. "As the highest ranking Nightkin alive, my voice speaks for all Nightkin everywhere, EVER! My position of supreme authority MUST NEVER BE QUESTIONED!"

"One last thing," the first voice spoke up again. "Is there any truth to the rumor that all Nightkin are slightly crazy from their overuse of psychologically damaging pre-war technology?"

"None at all, Rhonda!" The super mutant yelled.

"There you have it, Utobitha!" The first voice sounded once again, and that's when I realized: both voices were coming from the same person. "Nightkin, your benevolent overlords, who are most certainly... NOT crazy! We'll be back after this!" Neil turned the dial, and set the radio down again.

"The voice on the radio belongs to Tabitha, the 'supreme commander' of Black Mountain - or, as she calls it, the 'State of Utobitha'." Neil said to us. "She took control of this place almost two years ago. The super mutants here do whatever she says - and she says humans are to be killed on sight. So forgive me if I think it's a bit odd Marcus would send humans here."

"I helped him out with a couple of things at Jacobstown," I said with a shrug "so he sent me to check on you. Apparently, he hasn't gotten any reports in a while, and he didn't want to risk any more mutants coming down here. Of course, that's just what he's told me." I looked around at the roadblock-shack. "So, why are you here instead of at Jacobstown? He just said you were down here, but didn't exactly say why."

"I have my reasons for staying away from Jacobstown for a while - reason's we won't be discussing," He ran his tongue along his teeth and spat off to the side. "I guess you could say I came here as a spy. But with no signs of Tabitha's weakening, and none of the second-gens ready to revolt or to come to Jacobstown, there wasn't much I could do. Down here, on the other hand, I've saved dozens of mutants from heading up the mountain. It's not much. But it's something."

"Sounds like you've had enough of Tabitha," I said, regarding the mutant carefully. I don't know why, but for some reason, I decided that I needed a... 'workout.' And this would be as good a cause as any. Nothing like violence to clear your head... or perhaps I was just being stupid. Whatever the reasons, I just kept talking. "Maybe if you had some help getting rid of her, things around here might get better." For a minute or so, he didn't say or do anything except just stare at me. But eventually, he started slowly nodding.

"Help would improve the odds. Help might just make the difference..." Neil finally uncrossed his arms. "All right. If Marcus trusts you, and if you're good enough at what you do, we can talk further at the peak." As if to illustrate, he pointed up towards the peak of the mountain. "The road from here is a series of switchbacks up the mountain. There are at least three blockades, plus patrols. Just before the peak is a kind of shanty village. More second-gens there. And then there's Tabitha's compound - heavily guarded by her Nightkin. I'll have a plan by the time I see you. If I see you." He started to leave, leaping up the small cliff with an agility you wouldn't expect from someone that size, and turned back to face me. "Good luck. It's going to be a lot harder for you to get up there than it will be for me." He started to leave, but then stopped himself. "Oh, and before I forget - bring Rad-X. You squishy humans will need it."

And with that, he ran off at what must've been 40 miles an hour. I stood there, smiling... and then I realized what I'd just agreed to. My smile faded, and I turned back to Veronica - who was, surprisingly, still smiling. ED-E floated down from his vantage point in the sky above us, beeping cheerfully.

"So, killing a super mutant tyrant and her army for Marcus? Sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon! Guess it's a good thing I brought Oh, Baby with me," Veronica pulled out the super sledge I'd last seen in the cave at the peak of Mount Charleston, and rested it on her shoulder. Well, that was good. At least I wouldn't have to convince her to help me on this likely suicidal fools errand. There was something else that was bothering me, though.

"Where did you pull that from?" I asked, pointing at it. That's when I noticed that she must have cleaned it since I saw it last, as it didn't look quite as rusted. "Have you been carrying that thing the whole time?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded quickly, beaming. "So, what've you brought then?" I held up a finger, walked back to my car, and reached into the duffel bag full of weapons and armor resting in the backseat.

"Just a few things..." I said, pulling out the anti-materiel rifle.

After surprisingly few preparations, Veronica and I carefully started making our way up the mountain pass. There wasn't much that she grabbed - apart from a bottle of Rad-X - but me... well...

I was almost as well armored as I had been last night during the Silver Rush assault, but nowI was carrying a lot more firepower. On the one hand, I was wearing the riot armor, but I wasn't wearing the helmet. Despite all the benefits, like a heads-up display, a friend/foe identifier, gas mask and respirator and all that, it was uncomfortable as hell, and restricted my field of vision massively. On the other hand, I had the anti-materiel rifle strapped to my back, I was carrying a marksman carbine in my hands, Roscoe was on my hip, That Gun was strapped into a new custom holster on the back of my belt, slung under my left arm was a 12.7mm smg, and fastened wherever I had space was as much spare ammo and as many grenades as I could carry. No tear gas this time, though. That didn't seem smart without a gas mask - and who knows if tear gas even affected super mutants, anyway?

"Are you really going to need all that?" Veronica asked, shaking her head at the massive collection of weapons and ammo I was carrying. I shrugged, and the two of us made our way up the road towards the peak, with ED-E flying above us.

"Call me paranoid, but I just have this nasty feeling that halfway up this mountain, I'm going to regret not bringing more." Veronica just laughed

"Yeah... you and I have differing opinions on that. That giant rifle you have on your back? That can fire 8 shots. This, on the other hand," She held up her super sledge. "This will never run out of ammo."

"We'll see. Now c'mon, get military - I think I see some movement up ahead."

We'd just rounded the first hairpin corner, and roughly 300 yards ahead of us was the first blockade. Like Neil's shack down the road, it was made out of scrap metal, but this time the super mutants surrounding it weren't being subtle about their presence. I peered through the scope on the carbine, and tried to see how many there were - about three, all standing around close to each other, like they were talking.

"Alright, I see a several super mutants at the blockade up ahead. I don't think they've spotted us. Do you want to try and sneak around them, or do you think we should just throw caution to the wind and go loud?" I took my eye away from the carbine's scope to look around to my right - where I thought Veronica was - and was rather surprised to discover that she wasn't there anymore. "Veronica?"

Veronica had apparently rushed off down the road, with ED-E flying right behind, because by the time I saw her, she was already breaking through the roadblock. And when I say breaking through, that wasn't hyperbole: she'd already smashed a massive hole in the metal wall, and she was busy destroying the face of the closest super mutant with her enormous hammer. ED-E, meanwhile, was buzzing around overhead and shooting the mutants with his laser.

"It's gonna be one of those days then, is it?" I sighed, took aim down the rifle scope, and fired.

Despite the initial... let's say, problems we had with communication, Veronica, ED-E and I made a surprisingly good team. At least, once I'd caught up with her after we'd annihilated the first roadblock. I would pick the mutants off from a distance with armor piercing ammunition (taking several shots to bring one down), she'd cause havoc and utter chaos by getting up close and personal, and ED-E would outflank them from a completely unexpected direction and start disintegrating mutants left and right.

The only thing that really worried me was that all the mutants we were cutting through had green skin. Tabitha was a Nightkin, which meant that there should've been some Nightkin under her command patrolling the roads, like Neil had warned us about. We weren't exactly being subtle on the way up, so I can only assume that if there were cloaked Nightkin patrolling the roads, they would've attacked us by now. And since they hadn't... where were they?

"So, what's your count up to?" Veronica asked shortly after we finished off the third roadblock. I tried to guess what she was talking about.

"Uh..." I had to think for a minute. "Well, the SMG is dry, I still have 8 rounds for the anti-materiel rifle, two magazines worth of armor piercing rounds for the carbine..."

"No, not that," she waved me off. "Your figures, man, what are you numbers?"

"Say what? You're gonna have to explain that."

"Your kill count," she said, casual as you please. "I'm just wondering if you've been keeping score."

"... nnno. I haven't." I deadpanned. She shrugged.

"Shame. I was hoping we could have a bit of a friendly competition. I'm up to eight kills so far today."

Damn. I was only at six.

ED-E beeped, which sounded a little like an electronic laugh. Our small talk was cut short when I heard something else coming from my wrist that was almost lost in ED-E's laugh: a soft click-clicking sound. I looked at my Pip-Boy, and realized that the Geiger counter was ticking, ever so softly.

"Veronica, I think it's time to break out the Rad-X." I said, my eyes never leaving the slowly bobbing needle. Veronica nodded her head, a surprisingly neutral expression on her face, and pulled out one of the orange bottles from a fold in her brown cloak. She popped one of the pills in her mouth, and tossed me the orange bottle. It might not look professional, given that the original label on the medicine bottle had been worn away by time long ago, and the only indication of what was inside was a crude "RAD-X" written on the label in permanent marker, but the orange capsules inside should be enough to keep our internal organs from melting if the radiation got really bad.

If only I'd brought some Rad-X with me to the Fort. Ah well. Live and learn, right?

The three of us made our way up the road, and it soon became obvious what was the source of the radiation: the road up the mountain came to an abrupt halt at the lip of a huge, blackened crater. The Geiger counter spiked the closer we got. I crept forward, hoping the Rad-X was doing its job, and peered inside the crater. What greeted my eyes gave me a shock.

The inner edge of the crater was lined with crude buildings. There were shacks built out of scrap metal, wires that must have been power lines connecting buildings to one another, and other signs of habitation. On the far end of the crater, the buildings looked like they were growing out of the ground itself, and beyond that, the road continued up the mountain. There was a little motion deeper into the crater, indicating the presence of more super mutants.

"This must be the shanty town Neil mentioned." Veronica whispered next to me. I nodded, and for some reason, looking at this massive crater reminded me of something Mr. House had said at our first meeting.

"On the day of the Great War, 77 atomic warheads targeted Las Vegas...The networked mainframes in the Lucky 38 were able to intercept and force-transmit disarm codes to 59 warheads, neutralizing them before impact. The laser cannons mounted on the roof of this very hotel destroyed another 9 warheads. The rest got through, though none hit the city itself..."

"I think this must've been where one of the nukes targeting Vegas hit..." I whispered to Veronica. She nodded, and I continued. "We better back off, and sneak around the outside. Who knows what the radiation is like in the crater itself."

The Geiger counter on my Pip Boy kept clicking as we cautiously made our way around the outside of the crater, and I couldn't help but worry. Rad-X is able to keep your organs from absorbing too much radiation, but it doesn't make you completely immune. I just knew that when I got back to the 38, I'd have to take some RadAway to flush my system of whatever radiation I'd soaked up, and Veronica probably would too.

I hated taking RadAway. Granted, the alternative of having your organs catch fire wasn't good, but constantly pissing orange for a straight two hours after taking it wasn't really appealing, either.

There was a large scrap metal dome at the point where there crater shanty-town ended and the road continued further up the mountain. Thankfully, we didn't run into super mutants... until we almost passed the domed building.

"A pleasant surprise to see you made it," I heard from behind us. I leveled my carbine instinctively at the noise, but lowered it as Neil stepped out of the shadows and towards us.

"Sneaky fuck, aren't ya?" I said with a smirk. Neil inclined his head slightly.

"I am a spy," He said simply. "I'm ready to get started if you are."

"Sure, let's do it. What's the plan?" I asked. Neil pointed up the road, toward the buildings far off in the distance at the peak of the mountain.

"The gate to Tabitha's compound is guarded by several Nightkin, all of them using stealth boys. I'm going to draw them away from the gate by telling them I spotted an intruder in the village. That's when you slip in." My brain came to a halt, attempting to process this information. And my left eye twitched when I realized what his 'big plan' consisted of.

"Hang on a second, THAT'S your fuckin' plan? I am an intruder in the village!" I almost yelled, very nearly forgetting the shanty town in the crater that was still relatively close by. Neil just nodded.

"Exactly. So try to stay out of sight, because they'll be coming this way." And with that, Neil ran off... yet again. I looked to Veronica and to ED-E, who looked back at me, and even the floating robot - who did not actually have a face - looked astonished at how stupid that plan was.

"I can't really do subtle," Veronica said, hefting up her massive super sledge. "I hope you know that."

"Yeah, I know. You know what, fuck it." I pulled the anti-materiel rifle from my back, and chambered one of the .50 BMG rounds. "I'll just kill them as they come down."

"Hang on, didn't Neil just say that they'd be using Stealth Boys?" Veronica asked. "So, how are we going to see them if they're invisible?"

"I didn't say we'd kill them." I blinked, and the world became awash with blue and black, with ED-E and Veronica turning into orange and red blotches of heat in front of me. I pointed at my eyes. "I said I would kill them. Trust me." With my eyes seeing the world in infrared, I should be able to see the Nightkin even with their stealth fields activated.

I knelt down, hefted the massive rifle up, and peered through the scope. Sure enough, about 500 yards distant, the first heat signatures started coming down the road. I cycled my eyes back and forth between thermal and normal, to make sure what I was aiming at - or, rather, what I wasn't aiming at.

I exhaled, took aim at the head of the closest Nightkin, slipped into V.A.T.S., and squeezed the trigger.

There was a massive explosion out of the muzzle brake on the end of the barrel, and a cloud of dust got blasted in my face. I'd almost forgotten how much kick this thing had; the last time I used it, it was to kill a Legion soldier at point blank range, and I didn't have to bring it to bear on another target that time. I braced myself better, chambered another round, and looked down the scope again. The first Nightkin's head didn't exist anymore, despite the body still standing upright... well... more swaying headless in the breeze, really.

In any event, that's good. At least now I know the anti-materiel rifle lives up to it's name. Seven rounds left, and if my thermal vision V.A.T.S. was accurate, there were four more Nightkin on their way down the road towards us.

I liked those odds.

Boom. Another headshot. Boom. A round caught one of the Nightkin in the middle of his chest, knocking him backwards in a heap. Boom. A third headshot. The last Nightkin was still rushing towards us, heedless of his allies that had fallen - he was maybe less than 200 yards away now. I took aim at his chest... and lowered the barrel ever so slightly. I squeezed the trigger, and the next thing I knew the mutant was doubled over, clutching at his crotch. I chambered another round, and fired again. The back of his head, and a good chunk of his upper back was ripped apart in an explosion of gore.

"I think that's all of them. For now, at least." I switched my eyes back to normal and smirked at Veronica, who was just staring slack-jawed out at the road full of Nightkin corpses that I'm sure just appeared from nowhere. "And if I'm not mistaken, V, I believe that makes 11. I guess gun beats fist."

It took Veronica a minute to register what I'd said.

"Hang on a minute! You said you weren't counting, you cheating fuck!" Veronica gave me a gentle sock on the shoulder - though, when I say gentle, I mean gentle for Veronica. Why do all the women I know like to punch me so hard?

"Well, look on the bright side," I pointed up at ED-E floating between us. "The smugbot over here is doing better than both of us. Last I checked, his kill count is up to 12. So laser beats gun?" Veronica turned to ED-E, who beeped in the affirmative. Veronica narrowed her eyes and pointed an angry finger at the eyebot.

"I'm on to you. Those puppy dog eyes won't work on me."

"C'mon, we gotta keep moving." I shouldered the anti-materiel rifle and picked up the carbine again. Veronica and I started to run up the road towards the compound with the satellite dishes, ED-E flying ahead of us at a brisk pace. Before I knew it, we were inside the confines of the fence, near one of the nearby radio towers.

Suddenly, I heard a shrill beeping: a new contact had just registered within the Pip Boy's radar range. I looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from, and looked up and to my right, towards the radio tower, just in time. There was a green skinned super mutant standing on a metal platform about halfway up the tower, with a missile launcher hefted on his shoulder. In the half second I had to really look, I could tell it was aimed directly at us.

"Contact right! Scatter!" I yelled, and bolted. I ran for the nearest cover I could see: one of the nearby concrete buildings. As I ran, I switched the carbine to full auto, and shot it in the general direction of the mutant. I wasn't even really looking where I was shooting; I just wanted to lay down some suppressing fire, so hopefully his aim would be thrown off, or he wouldn't bother to fire at all.

There was a fiery whooshing sound from behind me, and I kept running, hoping I could brace for the inevitable. I didn't. Not really. I felt the ground buckle behind me before I heard anything, and a shockwave knocked me off balance. A wave of heat washed over me, along with a shower of dirt and rocks. The world went sideways and all I could hear out of my ears was a loud ringing drowning out everything else.

I couldn't really see because I was still holding my eyes shut, but I felt myself go head over heels, and I lost grip on the carbine. I did my best to tuck and roll, grabbing the barrel of the anti-material rifle off my back as I went. I opened my eyes when I felt myself go upright... sort of. I was on one hand and my knees. A cloud of dust and smoke surrounded me, and I looked up, and saw - just barely - the radio tower with the missile launcher mutant. He was still in the process of reloading it.

Time seemed to slow down. I slid the anti-materiel rifle forward and dropped prone. The super mutant dropped the missile into the tube. I took aim through the scope. The missile launcher was locked in place. I prayed that V.A.T.S. was still with me. The launcher was lifted up, the mutant aiming at me...

A shock went up my arm, and the mutant doubled over, a burst of blood erupting from the middle of his chest. The mutant, and the missile launcher he was carrying, collapsed in a heap on the radio tower's platform. I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the ground. The only thing in my world was that all consuming ringing in my ears.

Eventually though, I picked myself up and looked around. Veronica was making her way towards me - she must have run in the opposite direction - and ED-E was buzzing up towards the super mutant's corpse. The dust and smoke was starting to clear, and the ringing in my ears was starting to fade, but still there. I shook my head, trying to get my ears back to normal.

Veronica stopped in front of me, and I saw her mouth move, but I still didn't hear any sound except ringing.

"WHAT?" I asked, shaking my head again.

"... I said, that was awesome! Are you deaf?" Veronica's voice eventually faded back.

"Not anymore, I don't think," At least, not much, I said to myself; I could still hear the ringing in my ears, but it was faint enough now I could at least hear other sounds. I shook my head one last time, and hefted up the anti-materiel rifle, ejecting the magazine. Damn. Just like I thought - only one shot left. I shouldered the massive weapon, and looked around for wherever the carbine had flown. When I found it, I headed straight for the door of the nearby concrete building.

"Alright, you ready?" I asked Veronica and ED-E behind me. She gave me a slight nod, and the eyebot beeped in agreement. "Okay. Let's see what's behind door number one." I tightened my hold on the rifle's grip, ready to fire, and flung open the door, fully expecting more mutants inside.

"What the hell?" Veronica asked as she got a look at the interior of the room. My own thoughts mirrored her sentiments rather well. The inside of the room was the largest collection of junk and clutter I'd ever seen; nearly every available inch of space was taken up by rows of shelves, and various bits of detritus and clutter jam-packed as tight as possible. As the three of us entered, closing the door behind us, I started taking stock of everything on those close, cluttered shelves around us. Bicycle parts, scrap electronics, rusted fire extinguishers, sports equipment, garden gnomes, mannequins, traffic cones... and a large training dummy in the center of the room with a note attached to it.

Veronica went off to one side, and I decided to examine the piece of paper. It read:

To Who It May Concern (YOU!)

We got some pretty good stuff from the last raid, and unlike last time, I don't want any incidents. The only logical conclusion was to hide everything throughout this room. If you can read this, you have my permission to use any items you can find.

Stuff I hid:

-1 Missile launcher

-3 Missiles

-3 Bricks of C4

-5 Frag Grenades

-1 Super Stimpack

-Various Ammo

Your Benevolent Supreme Overlord,

Tabitha

"Hey Sheason!" Veronica's voice snapped me away from the note. "You might want to come and take a look at this."

"What is it?" I rounded a corner, past another set of shelves, to where Veronica was standing. She pointed at a large collection of greenish-grey metal sitting on a workbench. It took me a minute to realize what it was: it was a shutdown Mr. Handy, a type of robot. When one of those was activated, it was a floating metal ball, similar to ED-E, but with three mechanical eyes on metal stalks on top, and three triple-jointed mechanical limbs underneath. It was interesting, sure, but...

"I don't get it," I said with a shrug. "What's so important about a Mr. Handy?"

"It's not the robot," Veronica shook her head, and pointed at a very specific part of the robot's chassis. "It's the name." I leaned in for a closer look. The nameplate on the surface was scratched and mostly faded, but I was still able to make out a single faint word: "Rhonda."

"Okay, yeah... so what?" I didn't really understand what she was trying to get at. Veronica rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Don't you remember the radio? The two names Tabitha was using? The other one was Rhonda. I think this robot - named Rhonda - might be important somehow." She turned the robot over, opening a small panel in the side. "I've looked it over, and I can tell that someone obviously repaired this robot after it suffered some kind of catastrophic damage. If I remember right, Mr. Handy and Mr. Gutsy robots set their AI state to hibernate, as a self defense mechanism if they're heavily damaged. I'll bet that whoever repaired this didn't know about that, and that all it takes to turn it on..." I heard a soft click, and Veronica shut the panel. "... is to flip the right switch."

The machine started humming, softly at first, and then very loud. The limbs started twitching, and the machine righted itself, the three anti-gravity jets in the bottom of the sphere coming alight with blue fire. It started beeping, and the mechanical eyes at the end of each eye-stalk lit up, the lenses inside opening and closing rapidly as it looked at each of us in turn.

"Hello!" The robot spoke up in a distinctly mechanical, but oddly erudite (and male) sounding voice. "Could you please direct me to Mistress Tabitha?"

"Uh..." My brain was still trying to catch up, but my mouth got there first. "Sure, I guess so. She should be around here somewhere."

"Thank you very much!" The robot started hovering around towards the door, past Veronica and ED-E, who got of the robot's way. "My internal clock says it's been 6 years, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds since I last spoke to her. I hope she hasn't gotten lonely."

Veronica and I looked at each other - and we followed the robot as quickly as we could. The robot was already outside by the time we caught up, however. And I heard a voice - a super mutant voice.

"R-Rhonda? Is that you?" The mutant voice bellowed. When Veronica and I exited the building, I saw probably the strangest thing I'd seen... well, in the last hour, at least. The first thing I noticed was that the blue-skinned Nightkin was wearing a bright blonde bouffant wig - complete with a faded pink bow on top of the bangs - and a pair of heart shaped, red-rimmed glasses. The mutant was holding one of the robot's metal arms in both ham-sized hands in what I thought was supposed to be a tender gesture. The robot was staring intently at the mutant with one of its three eyes.

"It is, Mistress Tabitha!" It exclaimed. "How I've missed you so! This stranger here fixed me up right as rain. Is he a friend of yours?" I realized one of the other eyes was looking right at me.

"Uh, hey, I wasn't -" I started to say, pointing at Veronica. The next thing I knew, the mutant was on me, holding me in a vice-like hug. I felt my feet leave the ground and all the air was forced out of my lungs.

"I... I don't know how to thank you for brining Rhonda back to me, stranger!" The mutant shouted in my ear, eventually setting me down. "Here, take this. I won't be needing it anymore." Tabitha grabbed hold of my right wrist, and placed something small and metal in my palm: it was a key. And I was still confused.

"Uh... what? What are you talking about?" I looked over to Veronica, who looked just as confused. She shrugged.

"I don't know!" The mutant shouted, and went back to the robot. "It's just been so long since I lost Rhonda..." Tabitha held out a massive hand, and Rhonda set the end of one of its mechanical arms in Tabitha's palm.

"Mistress Tabitha, we should be heading off." The robot spoke up. "Our journey has been much delayed - but we can catch up if we hurry! Come along now!" Tabitha let out an uncharacteristically high-pitched squeak for a super mutant, and the two of them started walking down the road, hand-in-mechanical-hand away from the compound.

"Oh, yes Rhonda! I don't even remember where we were going, but it'll be good to travel around with you again!" That was the last thing I heard before the two of them disappeared down the hill before the crater. Veronica, ED-E and I were left standing there after they left, and an eerie silence hung in the air.

"When the fuck did my life get so weird?"

"Good work, human," Neil said when he finally found us... well, when he found ED-E and myself, at least. "I didn't think you'd get Tabitha to leave without killing her, like the zealots you killed on the way up. And with Tabitha gone, I'll be able to convince the rest of the mutants living in the village to head to Jacobstown. Maybe now this place will rest in peace." Neil looked around, over my head. "Where is your confederate? The woman in the hooded cloak?"

"Veronica? She's poking around the storage room, scrounging around for anything that might be useful," I said with a smile and a shrug. "So, with Tabitha gone, what do you think will happen to this place?"

"Who knows?" Neil said simply. "It might stay abandoned, get used as a base for raiders, or even become another colony for mutants. The future is not written, human. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves, and it is foolish to squint at what cannot be seen."

"Fair enough," I said, mulling over what he'd said. Sound advice. "So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to head back to Jacobstown?"

"No," Neil shook his head. "I still have a job to do here. Some mutants may have heard Tabitha's broadcasts and are headed here even as we speak. I'll remain and direct any who show up toward Jacobstown, where they'll be much better off."

"Well hell, glad I could help. Before we part ways though, I wanted to ask you something." I stuck a hand in my pocket and pulled out the key Tabitha handed to me. "Do you know what this is?" Neil bent over, and examined the key carefully.

"It looks like the key to Raul's cell, in the radio studio."

"Raul? Who's Raul?" I asked. Neil straightened out to his full height, and let out a guttural, grim chuckle.

"There's a sad story about that. When Marcus left to found Jacobstown, he smashed the radio here, but while we were gone, some ghoul named Raul came along. Tabitha turned him into her personal mechanic. A slave, really. I don't know if he's still alive - she kept threatening to execute him over the radio, but if he is, he should be in the building at the far north of the compound." I nodded in understanding.

"Guess I have one last thing to do before I leave. I'll see you around then." I held out my hand to Neil. He didn't shake it.

"You probably won't. But thank you for the help, all the same." And with that, he turned and walked away. I shook my head as he walked away.

"Right, where's Veronica?" I said to myself, ED-E humming and buzzing noncommittally next to me.

"You called for me?" I heard from behind me. I wheeled around to see Veronica... who, not only had a large bag slung over one shoulder, but had a giant missile launcher hefted on her other. I pointed at the missile launcher.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked. Veronica smiled at me and nodded.

"I thought you'd want a souvenir of the thing that almost killed you. Say hello to Annabelle." She shifted it around on her shoulder, letting me see that there was some red lettering on the side of the barrel, that indeed said "Annabelle." On the front end of the barrel, I saw a painting of a red maple leaf, and next to it five gold stars on a rough red field.

"I'll put it in the armory with the rest of the weapons." I said with a smirk. Veronica tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow, confused.

"We have an armory?"

"Not yet. But we will. Now, c'mon," I started making my way towards the radio building. "We got one last thing to do before we leave."

Next thing I knew, we were inside the building at the far north end of the compound, beneath one of the massive satellite dishes. The first room was rather spartan - it just had a couple of tables, some chairs, two RobCo terminals, and some jury-rigged radio equipment. The door at the far end of the room had a note pasted on it which said, in roughly scrawled script, "RAULS ROOM! DO NOT ENTER! THIS MEANS YOU!" I tore off the note and tossed it aside, putting the key in the lock to open the door.

Inside, I saw a ghoul in mechanics overalls, sitting hunched over in a chair over a bowl of soup. When the door opened, he looked up, and almost went back to his soup - before he looked up again, evident on his face, even despite the lack of traditional facial features distinctive of all ghouls.

"Well, it took you long enough," Raul said with a thick Mexican accent. He got up out of the chair and started walking towards me; I noticed that he was the first ghoul I'd ever seen with a mustache. Part of me wanted to ask how his mustache survived ghoulification... but that probably would've been inappropriate. "So, can I go now?"

"It's okay by me," I said with a smile, getting out of his way. "Enjoy your freedom."

"Alrighty then," Raul said with a sigh, slowly nodding. "I'll just head out. Alone. By myself. Into the dangerous wastes." I wasn't expecting that. I looked over to Veronica, who was looking at Raul with sad, wide, pitiful puppy dog eyes. I sighed, sensing already where this was going.

"Actually," I said, stopping the ghoul in his tracks. "Do you want to tag along with us?" At that, Raul smiled at me.

"Anything's better than staying here, boss. Let's go." The ghoul left the building quickly, with ED-E bobbing in the air at his heels, but before Veronica could follow, I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"So, what was that about?" I asked. At first Veronica looked confused, but then her expression shifted to understanding.

"Well, you know. He's been locked up here for who knows how long. The least we could do is give him a lift." I began to very slowly shake my head.

"There was just something in the way he called me 'boss' that tells me... it's not gonna end with us just 'giving him a lift.' At least there's plenty of spare room in the 38..."I sighed, and walked out of the building. "I just wonder what everyone else will think to a ghoul joining our motley crew of misfits."

"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that!" Veronica said following me. "I love meeting new people, they've all got stories..."

"V, can you stop being cheerful for two seconds?" I asked. She shook her head in response.

"Nothing in the world can stop me from being cheerful." In that instant, my mind flashed to the secret in my brain that I was refusing to tell her... and I sincerely hoped that she was right.