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As Knight Davis climbed to the top of the ridge, the view of what lay beyond left her gasping for air. The Glowing Sea as so many people referred to it was not a sea so much as a barren wasteland. “This was where the bomb fell,” she asked but already knew the answer. She clearly remembered the blinding flash of light, the horrifying cloud and the heat on her skin. That damn bomb… the end of everything had started here.
Danse could hear the pain in her voice as it crackled over his helmet comm. “According to the local civilians, yes.” He gripped his rifle tighter, due to the danger of the area and in empathy for his fellow soldier. “Radiation levels here are dangerously high. Make sure to keep an ear to your Geiger counter and watch your seals- Knight!”
Davis slid down the embankment and let the inertia carry her a few steps forward, just taking in the environment around her. What trees left were nothing but jagged logs pointing out of the rubble at absurd angles from the force of the blast. The ground was glassed and cracked from the heat of the reaction and nothing dared to grow from it. She could see what looked like a church spire in the distance as well as the frames of a few automobiles half buried. How many people had died from the impact alone? Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. “This… this is…”
The Paladin followed her down, ready to scold her for going ahead but refrained when he heard her speak again. It was easy to forget she was alive before the war since she fit in so well. He stood next to her, glancing around to make sure there were no surprises waiting for them. “A gruesome example of humanity taking technology too far,” he murmured with a scowl. “It’s bad enough this had to happen at all, but our work will ensure something of this magnitude never happens again.”
“Yes,” she said quietly, the angle of her helmet tilting downward. So much death and destruction, and for what; dwindling resources and paranoia. The overindulgence of the Prewar world astounded her now that she had time to reflect in a much different setting. Bigger homes, fancier cars, dinner parties… all while food riots and rationing affected those less fortunate. She and Nate had been lucky they had well paying positions; her with her law degree and he with his position in the military. They’d bought a home straight out of Picket Fences and could still afford Codsworth afterward.
Then the guilt set in; she’d been a part of the problem. Oblivious to it all as they went through the motions as the average American family. Davis fought the lump in her throat. Raising her arm, a metallic finger pointed to the structure ahead. “With your permission sir, we might as well start there.” Focus on the mission. At least that way her painful thoughts could be kept at bay.
“I agree. Proceed Knight, I’ve got your six.” A church was an odd place to begin, but they had no idea where the rogue Institute scientist may have been hiding. All they knew for sure was the Glowing Sea, which meant they would have to scour the hell-scape until they found anything that might hint to his true whereabouts. At least by checking one location at a time they could possibly discover a safe place to camp or a spot for a future staging area. Exploring the Sea could take a long time.
Knight Davis held her plasma thrower at the ready; her finger close to the trigger as she carried herself forward. The weapon was certainly overkill, but who knew what kind of irradiated monsters they’d encounter here. Off in the distance were radioactive ponds and streams no doubt teeming with insects and other nightmares. Deathclaws were rumored to patrol the area as well. Still Davis worried more about what reflections of the past they would find; old offices with paperwork still in the bins, houses with tables set for a family meal, or even old nurseries with toys still on the floor. Those probably hurt the worst.
How the church had survived was a feat in itself. The apex of the roof jutted out of the ground; a few holes but still standing. The spire was still in one piece as well with the siding in amazing condition. A few telephone poles and tree trunks remained as well, but Davis didn’t have much hope that other structures would be like this closer to ground zero.
“Amazing,” Danse spoke up. “For the architecture to hold up from a nuclear blast… Incredible engineering or sheer luck.” As his hand moved to touch one of the walls he gripped his rifle again just as fast. “Hostiles.” The HUD inside his helmet lit up with red pips and he turned to scan their surroundings hurriedly. Due to the sheer number Danse easily whittled down the identity of their enemy to ghouls… but he couldn’t see any. None were swarming he or Knight Davis and he couldn’t hear their feral snarls. It was too quiet and it made him immensely uncomfortable. “What on Earth…”
Davis swung around the spire and trudged along the other roof, her thrower aimed and ready to fire. Passing the exposed rafters made her ears perk.…Footsteps? Planting a foot on the shingles and glancing down made her heart stop. “Oh my God.”
“Davis? What’s wrong?” Danse jogged to her side and aimed down the opening where she was looking. His eyebrows furrowed and his nose wrinkled in disgust. Illuminated below were the sickly yellow eyes of over a dozen feral ghouls, trapped in the buried wreckage. None of them had any armor pieces to speak of so they weren’t Reavers, but victims of the bomb. Their tattered prewar clothing hung in shambles around their sickly leathery frames, stained with things Danse didn’t care to think too hard about.
“They’ve been down there… for over two hundred years.” Davis couldn’t breathe. What kinds of suffering had those people been exposed to before they lost themselves to the radiation? Trapped in a place they’d once thought safe after the cataclysmic explosion; no supplies to hold out on or ways to escape the rads. Like rats in a cage they’d been left there by some cruel twist of fate. At least if the building had been completely destroyed their deaths would have been quick. Her heart hurt for those people.
With the possibility of fresh meat before them the ghouls began to frenzy, growling and screeching as they tried to find a way out of their prison. Some tried to climb the walls only to flop back down; others ran incessantly back and forth with no other logic behind the action. Maybe he’d spent too much time with Knight Davis, because for the first time in a long while Danse didn’t feel angry to see those ghouls. He pitied them. For lucid people to turn into such abominations; no one deserved that. “…We should put them out of their misery,” he said softly.
“Yes sir,” was all Davis could muster. She couldn’t see a way out of the church, so jumping right in and setting everything aflame wasn’t a good idea. Luckily Proctor Teagan had given her some goodies before they shipped out; plasma grenades. Knight Davis pulled one from her pack, looking it over for the ignition switch. To prevent such atrocities from happening again… that’s what the Brotherhood said they wanted. They confiscated and hoarded tech in order to keep it out of the wrong hands… but what then? What did they plan to do once they amassed such stockpiles of dangerous items? Would they use them?
“Knight, we shouldn’t linger.”
Danse was waiting on her. They had a mission to accomplish. Hitting the switch and tossing the grenade inside it detonated the moment it hit the floor, the green haze engulfing the ghouls below. The wooden floor and pews caught alight and soon the whole structure had gone up in a blaze. As they walked away Knight Davis had an even worse feeling in the pit of her stomach, worried that history might repeat itself. So far the old saying had a tendency to be true.