Chapter 5

as predicted, Skinny and his boys were standing on the other end of the door, A woman in a sequin dress standing next to him.

"Nicky, what are ya doin? You come to my house! shoot up, my guys! you have any idea how much this is gonna set me back?."

Valentine held up his hand as the girls and General Haldis raised their weapons, "I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for yer two-timing dame, Skinny, you ought to tell her to write home more often."

Blake chuckled, this was sounding more and more like a Silver Shroud comic.

Blake's thoughts were cut off by the shrill annoying voice of the woman in the sequin dress, "Aw...poor little valentine, ashamed you got beat up by a girl? I'll just run on home to daddy shall I?"

Skinny spoke up as he scanned the group that was in front of him, "Should have left it alone, Nicky, This ain't the old neighborhood, here in this vault I'm king of the castle, you hear me? And I ain't lettin some private Dick and his crazy friends shut us down now that I got a good thing goin!"

General Haldis bends down to whisper to Nick, "Let me just..."

Nick looks up at Haldis with an annoyed expression, "Will you cool it, I'm workin here."

The woman began to shriek, "I told you we should have just killed him! but then you had to get all sentimental! all that crap about Old times..."

Skinny shouted back, "Darla I'm handling this! Skinny Malone's always got things under control!"

Darla looks at the rest of the group, "OH really? then who're they? Valentine must've brought them in to rub us out!"

General Haldis beat his chest plate with one of his fists, "I'm not here to rub anyone out, I'm just here for nick, anyone that gets in our way is who gets rubbed out, understand me?"

General Haldis takes a step forward and the mob guys back up a bit, Tightening their grip on their guns, Ellie, Britannia, and Isabel laugh audibly as the men with the guns in this situation obviously had no idea who they were dealing with.

"You bastards are a bunch of yellow cowards!" Darla steps forward and snaps her bat by hitting General Haldis across the face, Haldis was unfazed and picked her up by her arm and growled at Skinny, "I'm taking this."

Skinny nods and drops his gun, letting the group pass.

"Holy hell, General!" Laughed Nick

The General looked around once they were out of the vault, "I...forgot how we got down here."

Nick pats the General on the back as Darla continues to struggle against General Haldis's grip, "I got it from here, big guy, you just don't let that dame loose."

Darla ineffectively kicked General Haldis, "I swear when you put me down I'm gonna guy fuck you up 6 ways from Sunday!"

Haldis chuckles darkly, "If you try, my wives will be on you before you have the chance, know when you're beaten and just stand down."

Darla spit in The General's eye as the group followed nick towards the exit ladder, he growled at her and squeezed her arm, she felt the bone start to bend, she screamed, "yea, not a good idea, now shut up and stay still."

Darla went limp and The General threw the woman over his shoulder.

Finally, they came to the exit and all began to climb out

Once they reached the top, Nick looked skyward at the dark clouds, "ah the commonwealth sky, never thought anything so naturally ominous could be so inviting."

General Haldis grunted noncommittally and began to walk, only to be stopped by Nick, "I didn't tell anyone where I was going, how did you know where I was?"

The General smirked, "it was that cute secretary of yours...do you need her badly? She'd make me a good wife."

Nick sighed, "you stay away from her...I need to give her a raise...now, Blake, was it? You were talking about your son? I want you to come by my office in Diamond City...we'll go over the details there."

The group offered Nick a ride home, but he said something about "appreciating freedom" so they just hopped in the APC and rode all the way back to Diamond City with no trouble from anybody, not even the super mutants.

The General and his trio of wives went off with Darla to home plate whilst Blake went to pay that reporter a visit.

The way blake figured, the more people that knew about his story, the more help he might get, depending on who he was talking about.

Blake walked up to the building labeled Publick occurrences, "its spelled wrong." He chuckles to himself.

"It IS NOT!" A little girl shouts at him, making him jump, "Hwa?" He looked to the left and saw a little girl standing on a cinderblock, "what did you say?"

The little girl turns to him, "during the American great depression, news printers were charged for every letter they printed...so words like Color lost that in...innoc...stupid U in the center and Publick with a K got turned into Public with a C, and that's why we spell things differently from the UK...and why my sister named it Publick occurrences...with a CK."

Blake smirked a bit as he listened to the schpeal, "I see...and do you know what the UK is?"

The little girl shrugged, "I ain't an encyclopedia Mr, Just kinda knowledgeable on account of my sister being a reporter."

She salutes him, "Name's Nattalie Wright! Nice ta finally meet you!"

Blake exaggeratedly salutes her back with a smile on his face, "your sister in? She asked to interview me."

Nat nodded and pointed to the door, which Blake took and entered into the surprisingly dingy newsroom piper called home. She was bent over the old-timey printing press, "hello?"

Piper looks up and her face brightens, "HEY! how are ya holdin up, Blue?"

Blake blinks, "why do you keep calling me that?"

Piper giggles, "because you're a vault dweller? You're wearing the jumpsuit and everything, that and the Pip-boy, the fish out of water look...dead giveaways."

"Oh...I see...well I'm here about that interview." Blake responded

Piper grabbed her pen and paper, "It'll be good to give folks an outside perspective on the commonwealth for once... let's begin." Piper sat down and offered Blake a seat too, which he gladly took.

Piper began with, "So I know you're from a vault...how would you describe your time...on the inside."

Blake sighed, "there's not much to tell...my family and I were frozen, we didn't spend much time in the actual vault..."

Piper let out a nervous laugh, "wait...they boxed you up in a fridge? Are you saying you were alive before the war?"

Blake nodded grimly, "yes, I'm over 200 years old."

Piper's eyes widened, "oh my god...the man out of time...so you've seen the commonwealth, how does it compare to your old life?"

Blake smiled a bit, really having to think about this one, he remembered how his wife Monica would come back from her job at a local law firm and complain about how her unruly hair was trying to get her fired, if he had known how they would end up, he wouldn't have even listened, he'd have held her and never let go, so many afternoons wasted just...doing nothing...now she was dead, the world was dead and people were ignorantly shuffling about the ruins with little to no idea what they once were.

but then he remembered, he was sitting in a city that was made out of a baseball field, a reinforced concrete edifice, walls for human beings to hide behind, for them to love, to do business, to govern and be governed, to live, to create. he thought about General Haldis and the Minutemen doing what they could for anyone who needed help, even a complete stranger from a time long ago.

He had his answer, "It gives me hope...seeing how everyone is doing more than survive out here, rebuilding the world...It makes me glad that I'm here to see it."

Piper scribbles the words down, "That's...surprisingly inspired, Blue, we're definitely quoting that...now for the last part of our interview I want you to make a statement to Diamond city directly, the threat of kidnapping is all but ignored in the commonwealth, everyone wants to pretend it just doesn't happen...what would you say to someone who's lost a loved one but might be too scared or too numb to the world to start looking for them?"

Blake's eyes widen, "wait...people just ignore kidnappings!?"

Piper nods sadly, "well, Blue, people are just...numb...they always say it could have been worse, I'm not always sure it can be worse...so that's why I want to show my readers what keeps you going, so...what do you want to say?"

Blake thinks for a bit, then responds, "no matter how much you want to give up...dont...you have to have hope that you'll see them again, or...at least that you'll know the truth."

Piper nodded, "a strong note to end on for sure, Blue, well that's everything, this is gonna take a while to put together but I think your story is going to give Diamond City plenty to talk about...catch you later." She winked at him as she stood up, then she noticed he hadn't gotten up at all, "you need help up, Blue?"

Blake was indeed unable to leverage himself out of the horrid divet in the old ass couch, "how long have you owned this couch!?"

Piper laughed, "Its a family heirloom..." she extended a hand and Blake took it, pulling himself free and dusting himself off, "that explains a lot...anyway, I gotta go see a gumshoe about my missing kid, I'll see you around."

Piper nodded, nonchalantly watching his butt as he exited the building, "hopefully under less morbid circumstances..." she giggled to herself as the door closed.

Blake's eyes were lambasted by sunlight as he stepped into Diamond city once more, Nat giving him a nod as he walked down to Home plate where General Haldis and his wives were handing Darla off to a man in a gas mask, "come along sweetie, we're gonna get you home." The man said as he began marching her out the front door.

"Ah! Blake! How did the interview go?" Asks Haldis as Blake walks up, "it went..." he sighed, "would you mind showing me to Nick's place?"

The General looked at Britania and she stood, "Alright, come along." She began to strut towards the front door, the eyes of every man in the bar following her as she passed by, until she got to the front and a man in raider leathers dropped to his knees in front of her, "Are you an angel?"

Everyone else in the bar began cheering as the man clutched at Britania's tight pants, "Please...please..." General Haldis let out another roar, one he'd only ever heard before the General mulched and ate a group of fully armed raiders, it shut everyone up and instead put all eyes of the General, fear permeated the bar as Britania kneed the man now fondling her ass in the face, breaking his nose and making him fall backward.

before his body even hit the floor, she was out the door with Blake in tow, "How many times a day does that happen?" Blake asks as she guides him past the noodle stand, "Inside enclosed spaces, too many times to count."

As they reached the end of the market street, Blake pulled his hand out of Britania's gloved one, "so wait, I know I asked this once before, but what IS General Haldis? Is he human? Is he some sort of mutant?"

Britania sighed as she turned back to Blake, "why now?"

Blake shivvered, "I saw him getting dressed, saw his carapace, gills and his rough skin, I saw him taking bullets like it was no big thing, then EATING those raiders...I feel like i need to know going forward.'

Britania sighed, "My Husband is a good man...he just so happens to have spent most of his life in irradiated areas, before he met any of us he was like this."

Blake sighed, "and he's still a good guy? Thats nuts..."

The doe eyed hispanic beauty rolled her eyes, "some of us dont have to dig too deep for good like that." With that, she hooked a gloved finger around his collar and dragged him through the back alley like a mother dragging her child all the way to the Valentine Detective Agency.

"He's in there." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and he felt himself stand at attention as her breath tickled his ear, as she whispered, "Come find us when gou and Nick find anything out." And like that she strutted away again, rounding the corner and vanishing.

Blake really wished she would stop doing that.