Chapter Text
Didn't chat much on the short walk to town, besides an amusing comment from the vault kid about how they couldn't even see the ceiling. Didn't bother to correct them yet, gonna let someone else have a laugh first. In town the sheriff met us at the gate and I left it to him to show the kid around. He seemed more interested in the vault stuff than me anyway, and I had business to take care of.
Megaton was a shantytown, built in layers inside a crater. All the houses were made out of scrap metal sheets, old cars and whatever else they had managed to scrounge up, surrounded with a mighty impressive wall and walkways and staircases connecting different parts, all looking like they were about to fall in on themselves at any moment, but somehow managing to stay up. It was safe, compared to the outside at least.
In the middle of town there was an atomic bomb, the namesake of the settlement and
next to the puddle it sat in was The Brass Lantern, my first destination.
"Afternoon, Jenny"
"Matty, just when we start to miss you - right, Jericho?" The young woman behind the counter grinned at me, while the bald old man on the other side, sitting on a stool picking at some sort of ambiguous stew, grunted in his hoarse voice: "Just when I thought I could have some quiet, this wasteland asshole shows up again."
Jericho was mean. Mean, old and bitter, but within the town walls, harmless. I guess he had better things to do than ruin his retirement by getting someone killed. Outside the town walls, it's a different deal. I had seen him help out during a raider attack once, just shredding the crazed junkies who thought they could break in. In any case, I had no plans on getting on his bad side.
Jenny, however, was a breath of fresh air most days. Direct but familiar and won't try to bullshit you unlike her brothers. I wasn't surprised that Billy has a thing for the blonde, if only the two would stop hovering around eachother and actually make a move. I guess it's none of my business.
I put my bindle down on the counter and unwrapped the skin, revealing the meat.
"It's just mole rat, can't seem to catch much else out there recently."
Jenny set it on her scale and weighed it: "twenty two pounds... I'll give you twenty two for it, one cap per pound."
"An actual price, Jen," I rolled my eyes. She was just fucking with me. I wasn't just some scavenger bringing random cuts, and she knew it meant I wanted a decent pay. Even if it's just mole rat.
"Alright, alright," she again grinned from ear to ear, but started to count out the caps: "let's do sixty, alright?"
Outside of Moriarty's I ran into Billy Creel, obviously drunk beyond his means and stumbling while holding onto the railing.
"Matty, you old cat! Me and Lucy, we was just talking about you!"
I went over to help him when he suddenly smooched me on the cheek, before I shoved him off: "Dumbass, your beard pricked me!"
"Sorry! Sorry, don't ape on me! I was just so glad to see you!" Billy was quite loud and by now I had managed to get his arm over my shoulders to support him, so he was shouting in my ear.
"You don't need to yell, I can hear you..."
Luckily Billy's house wasn't far from the saloon. Probably also the reason he gets drunk so often. In front of his house endured a poor bench, which now had to withstand me sitting Creel's ass down on it.
Despite his current appearence as the town drunk, Billy Creel was a good guy. Friendly to all who deserved it and enough experience out in the wastes to know it's not a place you want to be. A lesson I've yet to learn. Sure he enjoyed strong drinks a bit too much, but he took care of young Maggie and his boozing never seemed to bother her too much. If anything he could lose a little of his blind optimism, before it fucks him over.
Speaking of blind, he scratched something underneath his eyepatch, then stared at me, as I took a pack of cigarettes out of my pocket, stuck one between my lips and offered the pack another to Billy. He paused for a beat before taking his due. I lit mine, then his, and took a toke in before finally returning to the conversation:
"Still trying to quit?"
"I don't want Maggie to pick up any more bad habits from me. Plus she always complains the house smells after I smoke."
Nevertheless, he took toke after toke. Trying to quit my ass.
"So, you staying the night at mine?"
"Maybe," I tilted my head like I was pondering, before pointing my cigarette in the direction we came from: "You said Lucy was at the saloon?"
"Oh, Lucy, of course, I see how it is," Billy tried teasing me, but I didn't bite, "Yea daddy-o, she's at Moriarty's." On that note he squashed his cigarette butt on a dusty ashtray and tried standing up, the smoke giving him some false impression that he had sobered up, but he started to lean to one side immediately and I barely managed to grab him before he would've fallen over.
"Alright, let's get you inside."
It took me a while to get to Moriarty's after that. First I had to get Creel into his bed. Who knows why he thought it was a good idea to have his bedroom on the second floor, as he was almost asleep halfway up the stairs.
After I got him to lay down, I left my own things downstairs, in the corner I usually occupy whenever I stay over. I didn't have my own place in town, and the general house was only good for getting your shit stolen while you slept, so I had to rely on the generosity of good people like Billy. Well, pretty much only Billy.
Before setting off I also took the opportunity to wash my face with some graywater and brush the worst of the wasteland dust out of my clothes and hair.
When I finally got to the saloon, it was crappy as usual. Gob, Moriarty's ghoul "employee", was banging on their radio, which was only giving out static. I gave a quick nod to Nova, Moriarty's other employee, and she gave a stealthy nod back. You see, Nova was the saloon whore, which meant that any affection that wasn't paid for could piss Moriarty off. The bastard acted a nice smile, but you could never predict his temper.
Though he did seem to be in a good mood today - the vault kid was there, talking something with him, while occasionally leering at Gob. I got it, it took me a while to get used to the melted faces and burned off features. But eventually I realized they are as human as the rest of us. As likely to fuck me over as anyone else, as likely to get fucked over by pricks like Moriarty.
I turned to what, who I came here for. Lucy was sitting in the corner, sipping on a beer, and when she noticed me she smiled. She had a warm smile that made me feel like I'm at home. Made me forget I wasn't home.
"Hey there, you're back," she spoke calmly, unlike most around here, it slowed everything down, like I was back in the wastes, just safer. A false sense of security. I sat down next to her table and signaled Gob, and she continued: "I was hoping you'd be back soon."
"Well I need to come back sooner or later, other places don't pay as well," like usual, I avoided eye contact, but right now I was painfully aware of it. Gob came over with a shot glass of whiskey, the saloon's speciality, and I passed a few caps in return.
"Oh, will you be going out there again soon?"
"Probably tomorrow, like usual."
"Oh... would you like to stay the night at mine?" I knew her well enough to see she was a bit nervous asking this.
"If you'll have me," I was also a bit nervous, not sure why, so I took a sip of my whiskey to dull it.
"Of course," she paused for a while and we sat a few moments in silence. I was about to start eavesdropping on Moriarty and the vault kid's conversation, before she started up again: "But if you're going out there again, can you help me out a bit?"
I turned my attention and faced her, finally making eye contact, but she looked elsewhere as she continued: "I haven't heard from my family in a while, you know, in Arefu. I was hoping I could send a letter with you, if you're willing to head that way."
I had been to Arefu before, done some trading, though I hadn't met Lucy's folks. The settlement wasn't too far, though any distance in the wasteland was dangerous. Nevertheless, between here and there were good hunting grounds and I felt I owed it to Lucy. I've taken advantage of her enough to do this, it's the least I could do.
"Sure, you have it now?" And she passed me a nice envelope, closed with an old sticker. I think I was about to say something, when Moriarty raising his voice distracted me:
"You seem like a nice kid, so I'll be straight with you, as a favor, for old times sake," the Irish bastard started. It was obviously some bullshit, Moriarty never did anything without something to gain.
"Your dad came through here, all right, just a bit ago. Didn't stay long, said he had important business to attend to, something to do with Galaxy News Radio."
"Galaxy News Radio, what's that?" The kid responded.
"It's some loudmouth radio station. The host, Three Dog keeps yapping about fighting some Good Fight. It's located somewhere in the ruins of D.C. I'm guessing you'll head that way then?"
"Umm... I guess"
"Yes, now, get the fuck out of my face," Moriarty grinned. How he managed to be sarcastic and express his true feelings at the same time was beyond me.
The kid turned to leave, but I quickly stood up and stopped him: "You're not planning to head to D.C. right now, are you?"