(Fallout Novel) Ch 10: Out of the Park

Ch 9: The Man Behind the Mask

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Chaos.

Pure, unadulterated chaos.

People screamed as a flood of refugees came pouring into the plaza, desperate hands snatching up anything and everything in sight. Fights broke out all over the city as the residents ran terrified into their homes, leaving the poor traders to fend for themselves among the hungry masses. The guards struggled to contain the bedlam, overwhelmed by sheer numbers alone, but I saw more coming their way fully decked with riot gear and heavy artillery.

"W-what is happening?! My city! It's ruined!"

The Director stared aghast at the madness outside, watching his precious experiment crumble to the ground. I knew an opportunity when I saw one, and this was my chance.

"What have you d-!"

I turned and slugged the Director as hard as I could, knocking McDonough's fat body to the ground. I grabbed his gun and raced back through the door to find Ilya alone and looking confused.

"Jacob? What's going on?"

"No time to explain, kid. We're getting out of here," I replied as I ran to the lift, only to find three massive security guards already on their way up. To make matters worse, they all had a cold look in their eyes that told me they just might not be human. I ran to the elevator in the corner, but it was completely shut down. I scrambled around the room, desperately searching for a way out; stairs, a ladder, a pipe to climb down for Christ's sake, but there was nothing. Nothing except…

Well shit.

I grabbed a hold of the girl's shoulders and held them tight.

"Do you trust me?" I said.

"What?" She started, until she looked out the window and her eyes went wide.

"Oh no. No no no no no no no!" She cried as realization dawned on her, but it was too late. I threw both our weight against the window and we fell through the air amid a shower of broken glass.

WHAM

I landed with a hard thud twenty feet below, the girl lying on top of me. I rolled her off and got to my feet just in time for a bullet to whiz past my head. I looked up and saw the guards in the window, ready to fire. I grabbed the girl and we tore off just as a barrage of bullets rained down upon us.

"STOP! You'll hit the girl!" I heard the Director shout from above. I looked back just in time to see the guards jumping down after us, and before we knew it, they were on our tails and gaining fast.

My heart pounded in my chest as we jumped from roof to roof, racing over apartments, narrow walkways, and tiny tin shacks, the city a labyrinth of pipe and steel. We ducked behind a large air vent just as one of the guards whipped around a corner, opening fire precisely at me. I held the pistol tight as I dashed out of cover, firing wildly until the lasers hit their mark. Ilya screamed as the man crumpled to the ground in a heap of circuits and smoke, but I wasted no time. I grabbed her by the hand and we flew into the first house we could find.

Down, down, down, we raced through the empty apartments until at last we were back on the field and able to slip into the clamoring crowd. We moved along with a pack of looters as they dashed for the exit, the guards too preoccupied to stop us. The gate was just up ahead now, Outfield Plaza coming into view. If we hurried, we just might make it after all!

Just then, however, the mayor's voice blared out over the speaker system.

"Attention Diamond City! We are under attack! The notorious synth, Jacob Burns, has been spotted within the Walls and has taken a hostage. You must not let him escape! Shut the gates, SHUT THE GATES!"

At the order, the stadium began to shake once more. Ancient gears hitched and ground against the bare metal as it struggled to comply. I couldn't believe it. Something was jamming the system! I thanked God, or Atom or whoever was up there, but perhaps a little too soon. A terrible groan echoed throughout the stadium as the gate strained against itself, until finally, something snapped. The gates slammed shut.

Ilya and I doubled back as quickly as we could, but there was nowhere to go. All around me, I could hear a fearful murmur traveling through the already agitated crowd, all huddled together and whispering to one another. It seemed the threat of a synth was enough to subdue the savages within them, a few were even talking to the guards now as suspicious glares were being cast in our direction. I kept my head down as we waded through the waves of refugees, mentally kicking myself for wearing such a brightly colored disguise. We ducked down an alley as soon as we had the chance.

"What do we do now?" Ilya whispered. "We're surrounded, everyone's looking for you, and now we'll never make it out of that gate! There's got to be another way out…"

"Afraid not, this place hasn't survived this long in the middle of Boston by having holes in the walls," I said as I paced up and down the street. This was bad. This was really really bad. I peeked around the corner and saw it was packed with refugees, the guards questioning each with the promise of residency for information, a tantalizing offer for any Outfielder. I dashed down the alley only to find a patrol coming up that way, leaving us with only one other choice.

"Up! We have to go back up!" I yelled as one of the guards finally spotted us. We quickly found a ladder and raced across the rooftops once more, only this time, the guards were coming at us from all sides. I fired my gun, nailing one in the chest and another in the face, breaking the mask hiding the synth beneath. I could barely breathe as we climbed higher and higher, until at last, we found ourselves standing on the Wall itself, staring over a fifty-foot drop into a writhing sea of panic and confusion.

"Now what?!" Ilya cried as she looked back at the guards, gaining on us with every passing second. For a brief moment, I thought we were goners, until I spotted something tied to the highest point of the wall. An old power cable that connected to an apartment building across the way. If we timed it just right, we might be able to land on one of the balconies… I whipped off the orange suit jacket I'd been wearing and swung it over the cable, and hollered at Ilya.

"Grab on!"

"Are you serious?!"

"It's either this or get turned into a synth, your call sweetheart." She gave one last look at the men coming after her and grabbed on.

"Hold on tight," I said, and with that, I kicked off the wall sending us flying through the air. We whizzed above the mad scene below, the entirety of Outfield clamoring to get inside the Wall. People looked up and pointed at us, their mouths open wide in surprise and fear as they all started to yell.

We were about halfway down the line when I finally understood why they were yelling.

Rrrrrrrppp

The fabric suddenly gave way and we were falling once more, Ilya screaming at the top of her lungs as we tumbled through the air. Luckily, we landed in a cart full of razograin and, quickly ignoring the irate shopkeeper, we got to our feet and ran down the first alley we saw. Soon the chaos was behind us, but it wouldn't take long for the synths to figure out where we'd gone.

It was then I'd realized exactly where we were. We had landed right next to an old passage of mine, one I'd used on those nights when I would come to the city in secret, and though she wouldn't much care for the smell, I knew it would be a safe way out.

"I know a way," I hollered back at Ilya, "But you're not going to like it," I said as I lifted up the vine-covered manhole. Ilya looked as if she wanted to protest, but we could hear the dogs barking as security was catching up. She pinched her nose and climbed down gingerly before I jumped down after her and closed the cover behind us.

We were immersed in complete darkness, the cold, stone walls slick with moisture and mold. Two hundred years had done nothing to dampen the smell of the sewers, only now there was a fishier twinge to the air thanks to the occasional mirelurk finding their way in from the river, which is exactly where we were headed. The bank would be dry this time of year, making for an easy escape back over to Cambridge.

That didn't make the trip any less unpleasant.

Nobody ever came down here, and for good reason too. Most of the locals called it haunted, bunch of primitive superstition if you asked me, though it wasn't without some merit. This wasn't just any sewer, after all, it was the Fens Street sewer, site of some pretty vicious murders back in the day. Of course, they were nothing compared to what a raider or Super Mutant would do if given half the chance, but still, it had been enough to scare off any Outfielders from holing up down here.

Ilya turned on the flashlight function of her Pip-Boy, casting an eerie glow all around us as we walked slowly forward, our dampened footsteps the only sound to permeate the quiet stillness. We carefully maneuvered around a trickling stream, Ilya's Geiger counter warning us that it was surprisingly irradiated. I handed Ilya a rad-x just to be safe as I took one my self.

"Never thought I'd have to use one of these," she said, finally breaking the silence. "Bad enough this place gives me the creeps, it feels like a tomb down here."

Not anymore, I thought to myself. Not since I cleared out the corpses anyway, but I figured I'd leave out the mutilated skeletons and bizarre messages I'd found when I'd first started using the tunnel. She had enough to worry about, after all.

We walked in silence for several minutes, my heart slowing down for the first time since I had heard the Director's horrible voice. I had to keep an eye out for the exit, a small hole in the wall that was just big enough to squeeze through, but it was easy to miss. If I wasn't careful we'd end up going in circles for hours.

"So, are you going to explain what happened or are you going to keep me in the dark?" She said after a while.

"Oh, that" I laughed nervously, "that was just your average android death squad masquerading as the friendly local police force, ya know?" I said with a large smile, but Ilya wasn't buying it.

"Jacob, this is serious," she said, a frown firmly on her face, "I need to know what's going on, and now." I sighed as I dropped the act.

"It's the Institute, Ilya. The ones who created the synths. They're coming for you."

"What?! But I don't even know what this "Institute" is!"

"Yeah, well, they know about you and your old man well enough…"

"But who are they? I've never heard of anyone able to do what they do. How can they create something so advanced when they're living in a place like this?"

It was a good question, but the truth is no one knew. The Institute was shrouded in secrecy, the only clue anyone had to go on was the old CIT building. The Commonwealth Institute of Technology had been one of the most prestigious scientific schools in the country before the bombs fell, but the ruins had sat completely empty for centuries, with no trace of human life left behind.

"No idea," I said as we carefully stepped over a small clutch of mirelurk eggs, "I just know that they kidnap people and turn them into synths. But it would seem the Director thinks you can lead him to the Conduit."

She was silent for a long time before she spoke again.

"I wish my father were here. He'd know what to do."

I sighed again, I very much doubted that. He might've known where to go, but he'd probably have been just as helpless as Ilya was, if not more so. We walked for several more minutes, until at last, I spotted the opening. It was a tight fit for the both of us, but once we were through we found ourselves standing in a large drainage pipe, a pinprick of light shining in the distance.

"This must be the work of the Order, my father warned me about them, but I didn't listen." She said, chastising herself. "I should have known better. But what I don't understand is how we got out of there in the first place."

She was right. There I was, seconds away from death when a miracle falls out of the sky, or rather, slammed open the gates… It was like something was jamming the system from the inside, so either someone up there like me (fat chance on that), or it was sabotage. But who? Who inside Diamond City would do that to themselves? Who would even have access to the gates to begin with?

"We may never know," I said as we climbed out of the pipe and into the afternoon sun. "Chalk that one up as another mystery, I guess."

"Mystery? Oh you know how I hate to leave one unsolved," a voice said suddenly and we both looked up.

Sitting on top of an old restored motorcycle with her hair whipping in the wind, was none other than Piper Wright. A pack was slung over her shoulder and a smile on her face as she let out a delighted laugh.

"It's funny," she said, looking at me, "I remember you taking me on the exact same date…"

"Piper! I… you did this? But, how?"

"Let's just say I know a guy in the security office who got a different kind of surprise then he was looking for," she said with a wink.

"You… sabotaged the gate, for me? Why?" I couldn't help myself. The way we'd left it, you'd have thought she'd sooner feed me to ravenous night-stalkers than save my sorry ass, and yet there she was, right when I really needed her. She smirked at my bewildered expression. 

"Oh, call it nostalgia, call it guilt, but I couldn't sit back and watch you get sent off to die. You're an asshole Jacob, but you're not a monster. And everybody deserves a second chance, even you. Besides, I never liked that mayor in the first place. Doesn't surprise me in the least that he's a synth."


"You knew?! But how?"

"I… might have bugged the mayor's office the last time I was in there," she said a tad sheepishly. "Not the most ethical thing I've ever done, but it did the job."

"So what are you going to do now?" I asked.

"I'm going after Natalie, anyway I can. Even if that means shaking down the mayor himself, or personally knocking down each door in the CIT, I'm going to find her and bring her home." I smiled, looks like we both had our own paths to follow. She revved up her motorcycle.

"Good luck, Jacob Burns. I hope you find what you're looking for." And with that, she drove off into the ruins of Boston, straight back to Diamond City I presumed. She was fearless, I'd always give her that, if maybe a little bit crazy.

Ilya stood speechless beside me, apparently just as stunned as I was, but with one look at the sinking sun, I knew our time was running short.

"Well, we better get going too," I said as I started moving towards the bridge.

"What?"

"You heard me. We better get going if we're going to make it to your father's house before sundown."

"Wait… are you saying what I think you're saying?" She said with a sparkle of hope in her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, you win. I'll take you to find the vault. Just don't get all sappy on me. Once we find this thing, I'm taking what I can and getting out of here, got that?" But before I knew it, the girl had me wrapped in a warm hug as she whispered a gentle "thank you" in my ear.

I sighed again as I hugged her back.