Disclaimer: This story is written using the setting and the characters of Bethesada's Fallout franchise, and as such, they all belong to Bethesada. Original characters, fictional locations, and such are all entirely made up and any resemblance to other people/places is purely coincidental. If you find a reason to sue me, proceed. Just be warned, I'm virtually penniless and have a cute little puppy that relies on me for food and a warm place to sleep. A puppy, people. Don't be cruel.

Chapter Three - Lost and Found

A Story set in Fallout 76

"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if sand were stone."

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine Writer

"The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood."

Otto von Bismarck, Prussian Statesman

Sighing as he ran a hand through his dark brown hair, Harry went over the reports in his other hand and considered what to do with the situation.

It had been a month since the meeting with Captain Barrett, the department heads, and the squad leaders. Many things had happened since then, and not all of it was entirely bad. At the very least, the hydroponic farms were beginning to produce the fruits of their labors, and it wouldn't be much longer before they could switch over to eating fresh food instead of continuing to deplete their rations. Though, it was becoming clear that they would have to set up more hydroponic farms soon or later...

With their situation stabilized over the last few weeks, they had managed to put in some legwork and scout the surrounding areas, along with two of the Fire Breathers squads making trips into the Ash Heap to keep an eye on Scorched movements. Their scouts, or at least those who had volunteered to make trips and check out other locations, returned with some good news of their own.

A bunch of survivors had moved into the AVR Medical Center nearby, along with another group setting up camp at the Poseidon Energy Plant, and there was supposed to be yet another band of survivors holed up at Camp McClintock.

For the time being, the survivors at Poseidon and McClintock would have to take care of themselves, but judging from the scouts' reports, it looked as if they weren't in too much trouble.

The people over at AVR Medical Center, though... Echo Squad and Foxtrot Squad had been deployed there to assist in the defense once the Scorched tried swarming the facility. Once the small horde of the Scorched had been put down and the facility made secure again, Dr. Nassar had been sent along to check in with the survivors while Echo Squad set up an outpost nearby in order to establish a defensive perimeter and secure the road back to the Charleston Fire Department. Hopefully, Dr. Nassar would be able to convince them the necessity of joining up with the Fire Breathers.

Foxtrot Squad, on the other hand, had been redeployed back to the Rusty Pick, the site of their new physical course, with orders to maintain the outpost there and remain vigilant against any Scorched from the south.

A necessity, Harry knew, given that Bravo Squad would be in Welch by now and Charlie Squad in Lewisburg, both teams with orders to remap the Ash Heap and gather intelligence on the Scorched as well as keep an eye out for what the Captain had referred to as the 'three S's'; that is, survivors, supplies, and science. Survivors and supplies, they understood intuitively. Science, on the other hand, Barrett had to explain that bit. The Captain, clearly on advice from Dr. Foster, had made it an imperative to recover any scientific equipment or knowledge that would benefit them in the long run.

"Science is what's gonna give us an edge against these Scorched bastards," or so Captain Barrett had summed up.

Meanwhile, Delta Squad had just secured the Riverside Manor a week ago, formerly the headquarters of the Order of Mysteries. The squad was currently fortifying their defenses there while some of Harry's own people from the Department of Engineering had gone over there to look into the computer mainframe they had found there. Science, after all.

Alpha Squad, under Captain Barrett's command, was still operating in Charleston. The last report he had gotten from them, the Captain had cleaned out the Capitol Building of the Scorched and Alpha Squad had set up base in the courthouse there with the intent to combat the Super Mutants up near Wade Airport.

All things considered, their current situation wasn't too bad.

Their food stockpiles, given their present state of consumption, would last them another three months. The water supply was still holding up well enough, even better now that a second purifier had been established to help in the production of more purified water. They were beginning to run short on ammunition but they had managed to stave off the dangers of running out of bullets and shells by recovering some of their caches.

The only real problem right now was, to put it as simply as possible, the lack of manpower. While half of the survivors under Captain Barrett's command were now Fire Breathers, the remainder had been assigned to the four departments that had been established to help the Fire Breathers operate. At the present, the Department of Medical Services operated with seven people, the Department of Technology with six people, the Department of Requisitions with seven people as well, while the Department of Research and Development only had three people.

The chief engineer jumped as he heard the crackle of the ham radio. Quickly, Harry got up from his seat and dashed over to the desk, sitting down and pulling up the transreceiver. He tuned through the frequencies until he found the one he was looking for, the frequency assigned to Echo Squad.

"-spond. This is Echo Squad, calling HQ. Please respond," came the voice over the amateur radio. Harry grinned then, knowing that would be William Bryant, Echo Squad's commanding officer.

"Echo Squad, this is HQ. We are receiving you. Go ahead, over." answered the Lieutenant.

"Roger, HQ. I've got Dr. Nassar here with a message. Over."

Harry opened a drawer then, pulling out a notepad and a pencil, in case he would have to scribble down information. "Roger that, Echo."

It was a moment before Dr. Nassar answered. "HQ, Nassar here."

"Receiving you, Nassar. What's the situation over there at AVR Medical?"

"Precarious, to say in the least. We've got nine survivors over here. But I got some good news... It's Frank, Harry. Frank Harper." There was an audible chuckle and Harry grinned as well. Thank God for that, at least. Frank was by far one of the finest mechanics Harry had ever met. A genius, really. The man had a gift for making anything work again, especially if it involved improvising and jury-rigging something.

"Roger that. Glad to hear it, doc. Who has he got with him? Over."

Dr. Nassar went on. "His wife, Mary Harper, though she's injured, and their daughter. The Millers, plus Mark Sanders, Evelyn Turner, Peter Perez, and Dave Suderman. They had three more but they died not too long ago. There's something else, though."

After a pause, the chief engineer answered. "What's that? Over."

"It's about Dr. Price. Cameron Price, I mean. Kathryn's husband." The voice continued, coming in clear over the ham radio. "He was with them up until a week ago, until they got split up by those big mutant bastards, the green ones."

"Was he caught by them?" Harry asked then, dreading the answer.

"That's a negative. The bastards chased Frank and his group clear through Charleston but they got ambushed by those feral ghouls. Dr. Price got cornered and had to split. He was last seen heading for th-" The radio suddenly crackled then, with only static coming through."

"Nassar? Say again. I repeat, say again. Nassar? Echo?" Harry swore then, slamming his fist on the desk then. "Goddamn it."

Dr. Nassar sighed. "I'm just getting static now." The Israeli doctor looked up at William then. "I'm going to have to get Frank to take another look at the antenna."

William nodded. "Good idea. In the meantime, we'll go check out the Trainyard, see if we can pick up Dr. Price's trail."

The doctor smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. I know Kathryn has been worried sick for her husband... And to be honest, we could really use his skills. He's one of the best surgeon I've ever worked with. If we're going to have a future here, we need his capable hands."

Sergeant Bryant chuckled as he hefted up his automatic combat rifle, moving away from the small space where they had set up the radio. "I'll make sure you get his hands back then."

"I'd like the REST of him back too!" Dr. Nassar shouted after him.

Will grinned in response. "Not a problem. Now get your ass back to AVR Medical. This place won't be safe once we're gone." He stepped through the broken wall, into the beauty salon where they had established their camp for the time being. The rest of his squad was already gathered. "We've got a job to do, boys and girls."

James Bianchi stood up then, picking up his pump shotgun from a nearby counter. Amy Thompson, the squad's medic and their best marksman by far, got off the chair she had been sitting in. And Jack Sullivan, the man he trusted more than anyone else, the man who had his back since they left Vault 76, stepped into the beauty salon from outside, finishing up what was left of his cigar.

"We got a lead on Doctor Cameron Price, who happens to be Kathryn's husband AND a real fucking good surgeon, so we're going to see if we can track him down and bring him back." He gestured to the west then, "He was last seen heading for the Trainyard, so we'll start there."

Within twenty minutes, Echo Squad got their gear together, restocked on clips and rounds, packed enough food for a day and three liters of water. Then they left the salon.

The squad worked its way down, Bianchi taking up point and Sullivan as rear guard, with Bryant and Thompson in between. Only two feral ghouls reared their ugly heads before the Trainyard came into view. Bryant called for his squad to halt then, before gesturing toward a metal tower about forty feet tall. "Thompson, climb that thing. You'll be providing support."

"Yes sir!" Thompson ran off then, scaling the railing in one deft jump before dropping her backpack at the base of the tower. She strapped her rifle onto her shoulder before beginning the climb up, stopping at about thirty feet up. They watched as she pulled out some harnesses and began clipping herself to the tower, the better to secure herself.

Once he saw her give him the thumb up, Bryant motioned for Bianchi and Sullivan to follow along.

The three of them made their way down the stairs then onto the muck and trash that literally covered the entire ground before them, the residual aftermath of the Christmas Flood that had wrecked Charleston. Bianchi grunted in disgust as he stepped into the filth. Two minutes later, they were moving along the side of the building, listening carefully as they went.

All they could hear was the distinct clinking of robots... and Chinese.

"Liberators." Bianchi looked back at his superior then.

William nodded in response. "Sullivan, head down that way, see if there's a way you can flank them. "

The surly man nodded once and took off then, carrying a riot shield and a heavy sledgehammer he had modified himself, moving as quietly as possible. He stopped on the corner then, peered around said corner, then looked back at them, signaling in return. Bryant turned to Bianchi then. "We'll go in hard and fast, get them to focus on us. Once they're distracted, they'll get flanked. Don't get your ass shot up, Bianchi."

"Yes sir." The man grinned. "Ain't planning on it."

The two of them pushed in then, opening fire on the Liberators who quickly swarmed on them once they absorbed the shock. In an instant, the nearest Liberator was blasted once it got in front of Bianchi, while Bryant rained down a hail of bullets on the rest of them, sending the little bots scrambling for cover. They were certainly smart little bastards but they were still predictable and much too vulnerable from behind. A fact Jack Sullivan was all too happy to demonstrate, his heavy sledgehammer slamming down on them one after the other. Between the man's incredible physical strength and his forte in melee combat, he wouldn't have been out of place in another time long ago, storming a medieval castle or clashing with another knight.

Within minutes, the last of the Liberators were wrecked. James Bianchi was holding up one of them, poking through the wrecked shell. Jack quickly bandaged up his arm, where he had taken a laser burn. Bryant looked around then, moving through the room as he replaced the clip to his combat rifle.

No signs of the doctor.

They heard a whistle then. "Sullivan, once you get that squared away, I want you to close that damn thing." He pointed toward the open entrance Sullivan had come in through, where a rolling door was just waiting to be brought down. "Bianchi, secure the stairs." The sergeant went outside then, catching sight of Thompson waving at him. She gestured toward the roof, signaling that she had spotted something. Bryant gave her an affirmative and went back inside, hearing the loud grinding of the rolling door moving down. He looked around the large room then. A smaller room tucked in the back with a weapon workbench in it. And up on the second floor, an armor workbench.

Bryant moved up the stairs then, taking a different one than Bianchi had, with Sullivan behind him. They found a small kitchen, some lockers, filing cabinets. Nothing major. He signaled Bianchi to continue to the roof from across the room.

From the roof, Bryant could see Bianchi coming into view again from the other side, and noticed Thompson still perched from her position on the tower. He gave her the all clear, knowing she would join them shortly. "Split up. Start looking for clues."

Sullivan and Bianchi began sweeping the area, searching for something, anything, that would give them a hint to the doctor's position.

Bryant climbed the nearest truck he could see, pulling himself onto the roof and looked around. It was actually a hell of a defensive position, he had to admit. With the giant doors down below sealed off, it wouldn't take much to chain up the rest of the doors, and then the only place they would really have to worry about was the small bridge that led from the roof to the street. There was even a radio dish tucked away in the corner.

Best part was, it was still close enough to AVR Medical that they could still provide support if needed, and there was very little they couldn't see. North and south, west and east, you could literally see anything coming from any direction, no obstructions at all. Hell, he could see Poseidon Energy Plant to the north.

Yeah. He could see it now...

A tent on one corner of the roof, to serve as their comm station. If Frank Harper could get that Mega Loader working again, they'd be able to clear the containers off the roof, set up some defensive barricades, maybe even establish a watchtower for a sharpshooter to man... And below, the building would house everything else they needed. Sleeping areas, the kitchen, a decent workshop. And they'd still have a great deal of space left over. Knowing the Captain, he knew Barrett would want to establish another supply depot here.

"Bryant!" Bianchi called out, gesturing for him to come.

The sergeant made his way off the truck and joined up with Bianchi and Sullivan. "What is it?"

"I heard something in there." He gestured toward the door, one that led to what looked like the Trainyard's lounge plus some offices. He could hear it then, a faint scuffle.

"Yeah. I hear it too..." He looked over then, saw Thompson coming over the bridge. Once she had joined up with them, the sergeant got onto a knee then. "All right, listen up. Bianchi, you're gonna cover the east stairway. Sullivan, you got the west stairway. Thompson, the bridge's yours." He placed his rifle onto the floor and pulled out a .44 revolver, checked whenever it was loaded or not. It was. "I'm going to clear out whatever in there."

They left to carry out their roles as Bryant held the revolver with both his hands. He stepped into the lounge, checked one side then the other. Nothing so far. There was a huge hole in the wall, though. 'Nothing a good tarp can't handle,' he decided.

With the lounge secure, Bryant moved into the hallway, noting there were three doors. The first one, he pushed open and checked out quickly. Nothing as well, just some file cabinets. The next room, though. He found a computer in there, along with a damn bicycle. "Health nut." Bryant scoffed as he read the note on the desk.

That left one more room. Probably just a radroach the Liberators missed.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, then kicked the door open. Moving inside, Bryant brought a flashlight up to combat the darkness, shining it straight into the back.

A face stared back at him. "You're late."

The sergeant screamed out in unholy terror. "Judas Priest! Judas fucking Priest!"

"I see we've got ourselves a good Catholic," Dr. Price snorted, lighting up a lantern on the desk beside him, brightening the room up considerably. It didn't take long for Sullivan and Bianchi to scramble into the room. "If you fine gentlemen were any later, I would have had contaminated my thus far pristine lungs with this." He held up a cigarette. "Thankfully, things didn't get quite that desperate."

Once Will calmed down his racing heart enough, he growled out of annoyance. "Dr. Price... You're a real bastard, as usual."

The doctor merely smiled. "Doubtful. My parentage isn't in doubt, unlike yours." He flicked the cigarette aside before standing up. "Trivialities aside, I'll need an escort to AVR Medical. I believe my group is already there and I should like to brighten up their day. No doubt they think I've given up the ghost."

"C'mon. Let's get you out of here." Bryant gestured for the doctor to come along. He introduced each member of Echo Squad to Dr. Price, then the five of them made their way back to AVR Medical.

The first floor of AVR Medical was more or less cleaned up, with the upper floors sealed off for now, by Frank and Peter Perez who happened to be a talented electrician.

The survivors had managed to hold on despite their numbers, mostly thanks to Mark Sanders and Evelyn Turner, both of whom had served as Security Guards in the Vault, though Dave Suderman did most of the heavy lifting. Mary made sure to keep their morale up, despite her injury, by keeping busy in the cafeteria.

And so, it was a momentous occasion when Dr. Price had walked through the facility's front doors, everyone catching sight of him and rushing over to celebrate his return.

Frank and Dr. Nassar approached Bryant and the rest of Echo Squad. "You did a fantastic job, Will." Dr. Nassar grinned as he shook the sergeant's hand.

Frank couldn't disagree and he made it clear. "Yup. I sure thought the fat lady was belting out a hell of a tune for the good doctor there, but... Y'all proved me wrong. Listen... Dr. Nassar here's been talking up this thing you and your people have got going, the Fire Breathers and all."

Bryant nodded. "Uh huh? Can we do something else for you?"

Frank chuckled. "I was thinking other way around, actually. This place's too big to hold, with how few people we've got here. And from what Dr. Nassar says, you have plenty of people, but too many things that needs doing."

"That's true, yeah." Bryant smiled, that was a nice way of putting it. He glanced at Dr. Nassar, then back to Frank. "If you and your people want to join, we'd love to bring you guys in. There's plenty of room back at the Fire Department, and like you said, there's plenty of things to do."

"Yeah," the older man nodded, "sounds good to me, friend. God knows there's too much to do and not enough time to do it all, but while I'm alive, I'm sure as hell going to make sure there's a whole less left to do."

Dr. Nassar smiled at the sentiment and Bryant chuckled. "Sounds good, Mr. Harper."

"Frank, please. Mr. Harper was what people called my father." He grinned at the two of them.

Will raised an eyebrow at the old man before looking around. Once he saw who he was looking for, he called out for her. "Hey, Alice! Come here, if you wouldn't mind?"

A young girl, looking to be either sixteen or seventeen, came up to them. "What's up?" Frank, on the other hand, was curious as to why the sergeant had called his daughter over.

"Just out of curiosity, what do people call your father?" The sergeant asked.

She gave the man a look that clearly said she thought he was being shady as hell now. "Uh, Mr. Harper, usually."

Will turned to Frank then, a huge grin on his face.

Frank groaned, though he couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Listen, why don't we let Dr. Price rest up for a bit, I'm sure he's had a rough time lately and the man looks like he's ready to sleep off the next ten years. Then we'll talk about relocating, yeah?"

Bryant grunted at that. "As far as I'm concerned, he can damn well sleep through the next few centuries... All right, I'm going to leave Bianchi here to help keep things stable here. Until then, we're going to be busy relocating our base to the Trainyard. If there's trouble, Bianchi will set off a flare, and we'll come running."

"Sounds good," Frank clapped the sergeant on the shoulder.

Dr. Nassar looked at the Fire Breather then. "Shouldn't we be trying to get in touch with Lieutenant Reinhardt?"

"No worries," Bryant smiled. "I'll get in touch with him myself. Found a radio dish over at the Trainyard, that'll boost the signal for our ham radio."

"Ah!" The doctor nodded. "You have things under control then."

Will chuckled. "Always."

Harry sighed, giving up on trying to fix the signal for the time being. It was clear that the problem wasn't on his end, so there wasn't much he could do about it other than hope that Echo Squad would be able to handle it.

If there wasn't any change soon, he felt tempted to order Foxtrot Squad to redeploy back to the area and check things out. It was likely completely unnecessary but given the overall situation between their own problems and the growing threat of the Scorched, losing some of their firepower right now would have been extremely bad.

The ham radio crackled then and Harry jumped at it, grabbing the receiver. "Come in! This is HQ. Do you receive, Echo Squad? Over."

"We are receiving you, but I hate to tell you this... This ain't Echo Squad, Lieutenant," came the response. "Over."

Harry knew that attitude, he knew it well. "Caruso. What's the situation on your end, Bravo Squad? Over."

"We're in a bit of a tight situation here, actually. Looks more like a clusterfuck, actually. There's a goddamn heavy Scorched presence here, over."

He silently cursed then. Of course there would be plenty of them, especially that far south. "Your location? Over."

"Welch. Southwestern end. We tried retreating back the way we came but Scorched have got that route tightly shut down. Looking over the map I've got, I'm thinking about heading a bit further south, follow the road east until it converges back onto the original route, see if we can get behind them before they figure out what we're up to. Over."

Harry nodded. It was a sensible plan. "Acknowledged. Charlie and Delta will be standing by, in case you need assistance, Bravo." He would have to get in touch with Alpha as well, make sure the Captain didn't extend too far north now that any potential support he might have would be vastly reduced. "Report in when you can, over."

"Roger that, HQ. Bravo out." The ham radio went silent then, but Harry was already tuning in to another frequency.

"Charlie Squad, do you receive. This is HQ. Over." He could only hope someone on Sorrentino's squad would get back to him quickly. If there wasn't any response within a minute, he'd check in on Delta next. They would be answering him quickly, he knew. The problem was trying to get ahold of a squad that was already putting in field work.

Hell, if it came down to it, he'd send in Foxtrot Squad if Charlie didn't get back to him.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard the radio crackle with a response in turn. "This is Charlie Squad, HQ. We are receiving, over." Harry gave a huge sigh of relief before composing himself.

"You've got new orders."

Current Population - 56 Survivors

Author's Note: Yeah, it's been a while. Life got busy and all that. A lot of things happened and my writing had to be suspended for a while so I could deal with everything that was happening. I haven't even had a chance to play Fallout 76 either... Which is probably a blessing in disguise because I hear it's a lot better now, so I'm looking forward to checking that out. Anyhow, I apologize for the long wait, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, it's been waiting on my Google Drive for a while now, just dying to get uploaded.

Anyway, no definite plans or scheduling for the time being. I'm gonna try to be as regular as I can, post when I have something finished, and we'll see where we go from there.

I'm already working on the next chapter for THIN RED LINE, where things should be getting pretty exciting for Bravo Squad, especially toward the end where there's going to be a major development for the story, then one more chapter after that to introduce the new Brotherhood of Steel based in Appalachia, so there'll be... plenty of friction between the two factions and their leaders.

After that, I'm going to try and tackle the next chapter for

BRAVE NEW WORLD, which probably will entail yet another rewrite because I'm just still not satisfied with it. If that fails, I'm just gonna go at it from another perspective instead. I'm also considering recruiting someone among you fine folk to... help me by letting me bounce ideas off you, be my sounding board or something like that. There's a lot of crap going on in my head and I probably could use someone's help to me shift through it.

Hmm. It's probably more of an editor job than anything, maybe? I dunno. Doesn't really matter. If this is something that may interest you, just let me know in a review and if I do end up needing someone to fill the position, I'll get in touch. :) Two things to keep in mind, this kind of job will be for both

THIN RED LINE and BRAVE NEW WORLD, possibly as well as any one-shots I do for these two stories in the future, and we'll probably be chatting through Discord so if you don't have that, you may want to either pass or get Discord, I dunno. Whichever you prefer.

As always, my eternal gratitude for reading my humble works and yet another apology for taking so goddamn long. I'm kicking myself here, honestly.