Now, just in one of my other Drabbles "The Bird Of Paradise", this female lone wanderer wasn't given a name or physical description since I want readers to be allowed to imagine what she looks like. I know everyone is not too keen on that kinda thing but it works for me when writing drabbles and one-shots
I warn you now, this drabble thing contains very, very slight Lone Wanderer/Autumn. If this offends you in any way then I don't to hear about it.
Anyways, enjoy.
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Seasons of Change.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”
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Seasons of Change.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”
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Mister President, are you sure about this?
Absolutely Colonel. We need that code to start the purifier.
It is not likely she will surrender the code so easily.
You may use whatever means you see fit. But please, exercise some restraint Colonel. I want her alive.
Yes sir. I will have the code before the end of the day.
Excellent.
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Fresh, crisp hydraulics slid open with a deep wheeze and the Vault Dweller jerked awake as the sound of heavy boots flumped against the cold metal of the cell. The woman rubbed her eyes and squinted up at the figure that had just entered her holding cell. The figure dragged a chair behind him; one of those horrible, straight back things with very little padding. If she had been an Interrogator, she would have chosen a more comfortable chair. But then again, she was a woman who valued her creature comforts.
With bright silver hair and narrowed green eyes, the infamous Colonel Autumn stared down at the young woman from Vault 101; lips curved into a distasteful sneer as he analysed the girl to high heaven. He traced her feature intently; picking up stray characteristics here and there that made her resemble her sire, James. The Vault Dweller was not looking directly at him, rather looking through him as if she were pretending he did not exist. She was pretty, that much was clear to him. However, Augustus Autumn was not a man who could be swayed easily by a pretty face. Especially one who would most likely shoot him once his back was turned.
The woman was like the murky, grotty Potomac River; something hidden lurked beneath her surface that he could not quite place. Colonel Autumn knew of the teenager well as she was a living legend for all the wrong reasons. The woman who sat staring blankly at him was responsible for the destruction of Megaton; one of the few bastion of civilisation left in the Capital Wasteland. Wherever the young woman went, destruction was sure to be following a little lost puppy. She was cunning, clever and had erased the extremely fine line between right and wrong long ago. She was the type of woman who could make the most out of any situation and could adapt quickly to change.
In short, she was woman after his own heart.
Autumn cleared his throat; demanding her full and complete attention. “The president – god bless his sunny, optimistic soul – has decided that perhaps you would be inclined to help us. So I am here to pop the question and listen to your lies. So, tell me the code for the Purifier.”
The young woman clicked her tongue, the stud gleaming in the lighting of the holding cell.
“And I refuse to share that little tit-bit of information.”
Colonel Autumn smirked that self-satisfied little grin when he knew things were to go his way. A gloved hand lingered against his prized 10mm pistol; his trigger finger itchy.
“Then I will kill you right here, right now.”
The woman shrugged her shoulders in a very lackadaisical manner; as if she cared very for the entire situation.
“If I die, Project Purity dies with me. You won’t kill me,” she stated, so completely and utterly sure of herself.
The smirk morphed into a snarl in less than three seconds flat. “How much blood are you willing to bet on that?”
A full and heavy minute passed before the young woman eventually made any indication she had actually acknowledged him – or at the very least, his threat. She raised her head and looked straight at him properly for the first time; eyes like the beams of his Laser pistol. “Say I decide to help you Colonel Autumn, what is in it for me?”
Autumn’s jaw tightened. The woman was trying to play him. Was she not aware that she had no bargaining chips? “Besides from your life?” he responded as if the answer was obvious.
The teenager leaned forward slightly in her cross-legged position; hands braced against her thighs. “You disappoint me Colonel. You’re supposed to make me some kind of offer; a deal or something. Sweeten things up a little bit.”
She was playing a dangerous game; a game that Colonel Autumn always won even if he had to cheat.
So he decided to humour her just for good measure. “Perhaps if you assist us, we can work out some kind of deal for you,” he retorted.
The young woman didn’t falter for a second. “How do I know you won’t just shoot me once I give you the code?”
“You don’t. You just have to trust me is all,” was the Colonel’s reply.
“Ha, the word of an Enclave commander, It’s not worth much if I do say so myself,” the woman remarked, examining her short nails idly; so spiteful and blatantly disrespectful of his authority. Colonel Autumn had court-marshalled officers for less. It could have been so very easy to simply raise his pistol and end the silliness once and for all. But his dignity would not allow such weakness. His composure rippled slightly and the question that skimmed the surface of Autumn’s mind was thus: Why was he letting her get away with it? It could not have been pride alone so what was it? He had little time to wrestle with the question for the young woman broke his chain of thoughts. “What’s this deal you speak of?”
Autumn squashed his misgivings before they took root. “Simple. The code for your life.”
The Vault Dweller cocked her head to the side, lips pursed in a sort of pout. “That is a bit uncreative don’t you think?”
Colonel Autumn twitched. “Alright then, I’ll bite this one time. What do you want in exchange for the code?”
The woman looked around the sparse cell with a mild distaste before landing her stony stare back on the good Colonel, her lips tipped into a smile. “This Enclave of yours, I want in,” she stated as if she had choice in the matter.
“Why?” came the question from the Southern Colonel.
The Vault Dweller suddenly lowered her gaze; determined to look anywhere except at the silver haired Colonel Autumn. “Because I have grown tired of this ‘Lone Wanderer’ business. I would just like to finally have something solid to hold on to. Even if that is the Enclave.”
Colonel Autumn quirked an eyebrow in scepticism but still abnormally curious to know more. “Why not just join that ‘Brotherhood of Steel’?”
The woman jerked her head to the side, revealing a perfect arch of smooth milky skin. “Because they did not take kindly to me once they had found I was the one who had blown up Megaton,” she replied candidly before continuing: “Though they are one to talk. They’re not a knightly and saintly as they like to believe.”
Autumn chanced a whisper of a smile.
“Well isn’t that the truth. Alright then kid, give us the code and we maybe we can get you a place here with us.”
“Fine. But give me my stuff back first. It’s a bit cold in here.” It was the first and only indication the girl made her partial nakedness.
The man dropped his gaze ever so slightly. “Yes, It is,” he remarked before getting up out of the stiff chair. The Colonel felt her gaze on him the entire time; watching him a demented bird of prey as he opened the steel locker to the left. Weapons and armour lined every shelf, all confiscated from the Lone Wanderer after she was knocked out. “You can have your clothes back. Not your weapons just yet,” he said before he deactivated the force field surrounding her small bed (completely confident that she would not attempt escape) and tossed her a small bundle of cloth and buckles.
For a few moments, only the sound of mating zippers and the rustle of clothing could be heard in that small and cold room. “Now, the code if you please?” the Colonel tried again once the girl was dressed.
“Got a smoke first?”
Autumn stared, quite flabbergasted at her complete ignorance of the situation.
She smiled and held up a one finger innocuously though Autumn doubted there was any innocence left in the girl.
“Just one Colonel?”
The silver haired man released a sigh before reaching into the pocket of his tan overcoat; withdrawing a half empty carton of Army Club cigarettes.
“I did not expect a Doctors Daughter to smoke,” he commented, tossing the packet to the Vault Dweller. The girl fished out a small and battered lighter prior to answering.
“My father was too busy worry about his precious Project Purity to bother preaching the dangers of nicotine,” she remarked, holding the cigarette between her gloved fingertips and lighting one end. Oddly enough, there was no venom or hate directed towards James or Colonel Autumn. Saying nothing, the man withdrew another and flicked out his own shiny, engraved lighter – a gift from his father before he had passed on. The woman slumped back onto the floor and inhaled deeply as if it were her last breath. “Ah, for the simpler things in life Colonel” she remarked through a gasp of smoke. Autumn looked up and watched the puff of grey smoke seep upwards into the ventilation shafts.
“I wouldn’t call sitting in a cell with a prisoner smoking ‘the simpler things in life’”
The Vault Dweller smirked slightly and tapped her cigarette against the banister of her cold, steel bed. “You don’t care for my company Colonel?”
Colonel Autumn felt his mouth twitch slightly as if he were about to smile again; an act he very rarely displayed in front of others. “I wouldn’t say that exactly,” he responded, shifting in the straight back chair and taking a small puff himself. “You going to share that code with me now girl?”
“Yes, but can I ask you something Colonel?”
“As if you haven’t asked enough of me already today,” the old Colonel grunted.
The young woman ignored him. “Why did you take the Purifier by force?”
“The president felt that the issue of the Purifier was too important for us to ignore any longer,” the colonel replied through narrowed green eyes.
“So you took for yourself?” the girl remarked, her tone like ice from the mountains of Alaska.
“You make me sound so negative. Your father had the option to join us and help the project along. But he refused. And he paid for it.” Autumn looked to the girl, expecting some sort of reaction and surprised to find none. It was as if they were talking about someone else; like an acquaintance or some sort. She did not seem to care for her decreased father, but certainly at no stretch of the imagination did she hate seem to hate him.
“He was always tried to do the right thing but didn’t always do the smart thing. And it got him killed in the end,” she said finally, stubbing out the end of her smoke. Colonel Autumn followed the suit.
“We require that code now. The longer the Purifier remains inactive, the longer people suffer.”
The girl nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It’s 2-1-6.”
“How can I be sure you are telling the truth?”
“Project Purity was based off my mother’s favourite bible passage. Revelations 21:6. It would only make sense to one of two people.”
Autumn shot the woman a sideways glance; searching her face for any inkling of deceit. “And you would just hand it over simply for a place within the Enclave?”
The young woman rolled her shoulders in a shrug. “Project Purity is bigger than me. Always has been. I could never quite grasp the implications of what fresh water really meant to the Wasteland,” she responded simply. The man thought about it for a moment, yes it made enough sense. She was from a Vault so the fresh water had never been a question.
But then again, it had never been an issue to him either.
Colonel Autumn rose fluidly from the chair. “Well, I must depart and pass this information along. I’m sure our scientists will be very pleased now.” He paused to reactivate the force field around her bunker bed.
“Do drop by again soon Colonel.” Her tone was charming enough to coax a sly smile on Colonel Autumn’s face.
“Maybe I will,” was his reply before the cell door slid shut with a hiss, leaving the Lone Wanderer to quell her hammering heart.