Radiance Ch 05

Chapter 5: Little Shack on the Prairie.

The walk through the desert at night was both eerie but also beautiful in an odd way, with light pollution being absent in the vast majority of it they had an utterly clear view of the brilliant night sky and the trillions of stars twinkling away above them.

The huge moon above them lit the desert sands in a beautiful silver which actually made the landscape look like it belonged up there on the moon itself, as Seven trudged along he felt surprisingly exposed and vulnerable, all the life he could actually remember had been spent in a cage and in the labs, so now being out here in all of this felt odd to him, he kept looking up half expecting to see a ceiling above his head.

Visa seemed to notice his discomfort as he kept falling behind before having to hurry to catch up with them, "Keep up human you do not want to get left behind out here, it might look peaceful and silent but there are a great many dangers out here at night, the predators come out at night in places like this and a lost and alone human would make a perfect target for them" she said huffily.

Seven shot her an annoyed look, "Will you please stop calling me 'human' I do you the honour of calling you by your name or would you like me to start calling you girl Deathclaw?" Seven said huffily and Visa growled deeply sounding annoyed.

"Don't you dare I despise that name, very well my apologies Seven I will refer to you as such from now on but I must say it isn't much of a name it's just a number" Visa said looking over her shoulder at him.

Seven simply huffed, "I know but it's all I've got that's mine, I don't have any memories of who I was before, I get brief flashes every so often but they aren't even enough to be considered dreams let alone memories so honestly, I couldn't tell you who or what I was before, so yeah it's not much but its mine," Seven said sounding as depressed as he felt.

Visa's face softened and she slowed to let him catch up with her so she could walk alongside him, "I sympathise with you for what it's worth, if I didn't have my brother I would have gone crazy from loneliness, as much as me and him lock horns over just about everything he has been my rock and my strength, I cannot imagine what it feels like to have nothing and no-one to call your own or to ground you, but at least you now have us and that's a start right?" she said in a surprisingly soft voice that was obviously trying to sound both sympathetic and understanding.

Seven mulled it over in his head and nodded, "Yeah I suppose if anyone can understand what it's like to be treated like your nothing better than a science experiment and an animal it would be your guys" Seven said and Visa snarled at the animal part of the comment but she obviously realised he wasn't actually calling her an animal simply stating that she knew what it felt like to be treated like one.

She nodded her large horned head, "Indeed, very few people can look past our exterior and realise that we are not mindless killing machines that exist simply to murder everything we happen to stumble across, even before the Enclave humans never treated us well and were forever shooting at us and then wondering to themselves why we retaliate, I mean honestly how would they react if someone simply wandered into their home and for no other reason than they didn't like the way someone looked just up and shot one of their family?" Visa snarled angrily.

To more his own surprise than hers Seven reached out and patted her large arm gently feeling the hard scales and even harder muscle underneath, "Well hopefully we can find a place without that shit, honestly while the actions of some give me hope for my species like Wisp for example, the vast majority of what I've seen and experienced even from the limited view of my little cage hasn't exactly endeared me to my own kind" Seven said sadly.

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Visa couldn't help but feel both strange and even a little sad at the strange human's words, honestly, he was a very pleasant person to deal with from what she'd seen so far, he wasn't needlessly aggressive like the vast majority of the males of his kind seemed to be, from the limited interactions she'd had with humans that didn't end up in shooting or clawing it was like they seemed to have something to prove, but Seven was different.

He was pleasant to talk to, now that he knew she was as sentient and intelligent as he was he didn't talk to her any differently to how he'd talk to Wisp which she found both curious and oddly endearing, she knew that obviously, he saw her exterior and when her temper flared a little she even smelt his fear pheromones which made her both happy and sad at the same time.

Happy because it meant that he respected her and her strength, he recognised her as a powerful prime claw who was fearsome and strong in her own right, a creature to be respected and treated properly.

But also sad because oddly enough a part of her didn't want him to be scared of her, she didn't want him to feel obliged to interact with her because he felt she'd take his head off his shoulders if he didn't, she wanted to talk with him and be treated like she was just a normal person because it made her feel less like a monster in her eyes, these feelings were strange to say the least and she was having difficulty understanding them, but she figured if she kept interacting with the curious and softly spoke human then maybe she could go some way to understanding herself, plus maybe she could help him understand himself as well.

Plus he owed her a debt and she sure as hell wasn't going to let that go, claws never let another claw forget their debts untill they were paid in full, he owed her a freely offered service in payment of an offence against her and she intended to collect upon it just as she would have with another claw, but while with them it would have been something simple like go out and hunt for her that day, or take her turn on sentry duty watching for invaders into their pack's territory, what kind of service she could have this odd little human perform for her was a bit of a mystery.

As they walked side by side in silence for a few moment's seven undid his new helmet and shook out his long white fur, he grumbled something about the inside of the helmet pulling on his fur which he called hair and he hung the helmet from his belt while he set about fixing it.

Suddenly Visa felt her breath catch in her chest as she looked at him, he'd raised his head up so that his face was pointed upwards so he could pull his fur back to weave it but once he did the moonlight hit him and what she saw took Visa's breath away.

Most of their interactions had been either in the dark tunnel where he'd been lit by Wisp's headlamp or in the dark basement where only her night vision framed him, but now in the natural light of the moon he actually seemed to sparkle, his fur was like liquid silver running down off the top of his head and onto his shoulders, his eyes seemed to light up like with were made of quicksilver and his sun-kissed skin seemed to utterly glow looking tantalizingly soft like it was begging her to reach up a claw to stroke it.

Visa caught herself halfway to doing nearly that and her internal voice went off like a feeding time klaxon alarm in her head, what in the name of hell was she thinking and doing?

He was a human! Human's can't be beautiful, they were ugly little squishy things with bad tempers and big egos to go with their big guns.

But even as she tried to tear her eyes away from him something kept dragging them back, but this wasn't ugly, he hadn't tried to hurt them, he'd spoken with respect and reverence, he'd even offered service to make up for an insult, just like an honourable claw, plus to her eyes, he was nowhere near what one might call ugly, sure he was fragile and so incredibly frail that he needed to strap plates of metal and ceramic to himself to attempt to achieve what she was born with naturally, but somehow that simply made it even better, because under those plates there was all that softness just waiting to........

She mentally slapped herself and shook her head forcing her eyes away from the pretty human and to the floor before he feet, "You ok Visa?" Seven asked suddenly placing a hand on her arm, her instincts screamed at her to wrench her arm from his gentle touch and to berate him for touching a mighty and proud female claw without permission, but instead she did not, she simply looked at the hand.

"I'm err fine, the dust, yes the dust is irritating to me, it's getting under my scales!" she said quickly dodging she hoped gracefully but feeling a rippling heat warming her face scales.

"Ahh don't worry about that dear sister, when we find a decent body f water you can take a nice bath and I'm sure if you ask him nicely Seven will scrub your dorsal spines for you, hell if you ask nicely enough I'm sure he'll even clean your tail for you since as you said he has a good eye for them so I'm sure he's fine giving yours a nice through scrub, especially under it and hell you might not even have to call in your boon to get him to do it either, just think of those nimble little human hands getting into all the hard to reach places and giving them a very slow and thoroughly clean," Ven said suddenly, popping her thought bubble like a pin.

Visa snarled at her brother and kicked a rocked at his head making him duck and laugh as a smaller one pinged off his horns, she bloody hated it when he teased her like that, it had always been the same since they were hatchings, but what was worse this time was his words had struck a bloody nerve that she didn't even know existed, as the words had left his maw images had flashed into Visa's mind that sent a shiver down her tail like a bolt of lightning leaving tingles in its wake like she'd dipped it into water that was exposed to a live electrical main.

When she glanced back at Seven his face had gone that dark colour again that seemed to happen when he got embarrassed, thanks to both the moonlight and her night vision she couldn't really see the true colour of it but what was worse was she found herself longing to know what it really was, what the hell was happening to her?

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"Well err that's going to be a bit of a tight fit," Seven said looking at the surprisingly sturdy-looking ramshackle shack that was tucked under the old overpass from before the war.

It was a wooden structure with corrugated metal bolted to it in places tucked right up against a stone wall to keep it out of sight, sure it looked big enough for them all to fit inside of it but it wasn't going to be spacious and luxurious that was for sure.

"Well, it's the best we're gonna get I'm afraid, we forgot to account for how early the sun rises in the desert and that glow over there means we're pretty much fresh out of time and shit out of luck, so its this place or out in the open" Wisp said pointing at it.

"Shouldn't we see if anyone's home first? I mean I really don't feel right just barging into someones home and then turfing them out, that to me sounds like something the people we're running from would do" Seven said

Wisp scratched her metal chin and then nodded, "Yeah you're right survival or not I'm not about to start hurting innocent people, alright Seven you win, go knock on the door and see if anyone's home" she said and his head snapped around so fast his neck popped loudly.

What!? Why me?" he exclaimed.

"Err unless you've noticed you're the least threatening looking of us, I really can't imagine smiles and gift baskets if either myself or one of these two go up to the door, no matter how big the smiles on our faces, which given I don't have a mouth ain't going to be big" Wisp said ans Seven sighed and sagged.

"Fine alright" he grumbled and began wearily creeping up to the door of the shack, he listed hard holding his breath as he took slow careful steps.

There was no sign that anyone had been anywhere near this place in a very long time, no tracks and the place was covered in a layer of dust that would make it impossible for someone to come and go without leaving some kind of sign, but still Seven was careful.

He gently knocked his knuckles against the wooden door and sent a shower of dust flying into the air that made him quickly cover his mouth and nose in his shirt to avoid inhaling it, there was no response from inside, so slowly Seven pushed the door open with the barrel of his now unslung laser rifle.

Not exactly a friendly and warm gesture but he'd rather have it ready and not need it than try and scramble for it when he really did, but as it turned out it was not needed as the door creaked open slowly and incredibly loudly making him wince, he instantly saw that not even bugs had been into this place.

He turned and waved his arm in the air, "All clear!!" he yelled and the other all came out from behind a comically small scrub bush that somehow they'd all managed to hide behind and made their way over to him, first in through the door was Visa as she seemed to want to inspect the place, probably to check it was up to royal standard or something given her regal snootiness at times.

She was swiftly followed by her brother and Wisp before Seven took a quick look around the outside, to his delight he found what appeared to be a water pump around the right side of the shack and he gave the rusty looking handle a crank, it didn't budge due to the layers of rust caking it.

Swearing at it in frustration Seven reached out with his mind and the invisible tentacles gripped the handle and with easily far more force than his flesh muscles could generate cranked the handle shattering the rust coating and sending needles of pain slithering through his brain like slivers of glass.

But it was worth it, after only three cranks water poured out of the old faucet and spilled onto the dusty ground where it sat for a moment before being absorbed into the porous rock leaving a dark stain where the dust had drunk some of it, but the major problem was that as the water passed by it his Pipboy began to click and looking down Seven saw a small needle marked 'Geiger Counter' jumping up and down.

Granted it wasn't a great deal but it was enough to make him worry a bit, "We're going to have to filter it if you're going to drink it, we could probably boil most of it out there's actually a still in here in a small add on they built into the side of the shack, if we wash it out there's no reason we can't use it to still the water and clean it up" Wisp said suddenly appearing to his side.

"It won't affect us as we're pretty much immune to the effects of radiation," Ven said appearing on his other side before reaching out and giving the handle a crank, a sudden crash from inside the hut sent them all running and instantly they found Visa standing up and dusting herself off while swearing venomously at a now very broken makeshift chair.

"Bloody useless human furniture! Fucking bigots not making these blasted contraptions either big enough or strong enough for anyone other than themselves to sit upon, not even a bloody tail slat, expecting a proud claw to sit on the floor like an animal!" she curses and spat at the now basically firewood chair.

Before he could say a word a long claw pointed right at her brother's face, "Not one word, if I hear so much as a peep about how my tail has gained a few kilos I swear you won't have a tail so you won't have to worry about how fat it is" she snarled menacingly as Ven tried to swallow his laughter making him actually vibrate on the spot.

It didn't help that while they were arguing Seven tried to sit on the rickety-looking bed only to have that collapse under him as well, Visa made a triumphant noise and pointed at him, "Hah! See? Humans can't even make furniture that can support their own kind and it's not like Seven is a lard tail, he's all slender and lithe, infact if there was less of him I'd begin to worry about his nourishment levels!" she said triumphantly.

Wisp helped him up and Seven dusted himself down, "We weren't exactly well fed up there you know, hell they fed me with a fucking drip, hell for what they gave us Seven is in excellent shape," Wisp said huffily which surprised him.

Visa's face softened and she looked him up and down, "I meant no offence, I did not mean to incur that Seven is not a fine specimen of your species, I simply meant to convey that he is hardly overweight or fat, while I do personally believe he could do with a little more meat upon his bones it is had for me to tell as I do not really know what is considered healthy for your species, to me while he has fine muscle tone from what I have seen he could just do with a little more of it," she said both apologetically but still quite huffily.

There wasn't exactly much furniture in this place to begin with and now that both the bed and one of the two chairs had bit the dust Seven simply didn't trust the other one or the small table, so rather than use them he decided to clear up some space to make it easier for the two stooping deathclaws to manoeuvre around without destroying everything, he stretched out his hands one towards the chair and the other towards the table and focused some of the anger he felt at being called skinny towards them, adding in a bit of the humiliation of collapsing the bed for good measure and as the glass needles began slithering around in his brain again both things splintered into firewood.

Everyone stared in surprise before turning to look at him, "You know it just doesn't get any less disconcerting every time I see you do stuff like that" Ven said switching his vision to the now neatly stacked pile of firewood that had floated over to the side of the metal pipe stove and stacked itself.

"Well if I'm stuck with it I may as well use it and besides, the more I work it the less it will hurt or maybe the more I'll be able to ignore that it hurts," Seven said shrugging off the pins and needles in his head.

"How powerful is this ability of yours exactly?" Visa asked curiously and Seven shrugged.

"Don't know, never really maxed it out" he said flatly.

"I saw a security video of him crushing a super mutant down to the size of a basketball made of meat," Wisp said but her voice was not joyful.

Both deathclaws looked at him in shock and he noted a bit of disgust flickering through their bright expressive eyes, "Didn't want to, they made me, released the super mutant into a cell with me and told him that if he killed me he'd get fresh meat rations and to be able to watch the sports vids, so naturally he tried his hardest to do just that, it was either him or me, they told me that if I didn't defend myself then they'd let him tear me apart and eat me alive, given they'd chained me to the floor so I couldn't run what choice did I have?" Seven said sadly.

The disgust turned instantly into burning anger and hate, "And they had the gall to call us animals!" Visa spat glancing at her brother who nodded darkly.

"We have never killed other than to defend either ourselves our pack or to eat and that last part has never been a sentient being, those of them that have fallen to us we left where they fell, their bodies were never defiled" Ven snarled darkly.

Seven took off his pack and unslung his weapon before deciding to sit down next to the mattress that had been left on the floor after he destroyed the makeshift bed, Visa eyed him curiously, "Are you not going to use that?" she asked and he looked at it as he took off his helmet.

"Nah I'm fine, that since you guys were made to sleep on the floor all the time on the airship one of you could have it, you know have some comfort for a change, well what little of it there is," Seven said and the look on Visa's face told him that she was incredibly taken aback by this, as was her brother.