You know, I felt a thought nagging at me, and then at the end of this chapter I discovered what it was.

It is a rare writer who can make the reader feel pity for a yellow skinned eight foot monster.

I will post more later, but for now, thanks for populating the universe of my imagination with some more memorable characters! Be assured, Kikai-cutey, they have a special niche there.

That's actually a really nice compliment Thank you.

Working on the next chapter now which will probably bring me over the halfway mark! I want to make it a longer chapter, so here's to hoping I can do that.

Chapter 8: Travel Around

As it turned out, Uncle Leo was the perfect person to give the task of spreading word around to. The nomadic super mutant traveled everywhere, from one end of the wasteland to the next. If anyone were to come across those who hadn't lost their minds completely, it would most likely be him.

He traveled light, without supplies. The world was his home and the world provided. He had no earthly possessions to worry about. With Uncle Leo, it really was just him and the open road, the endless travel and adventure. He wasn't one to come up with grand schemes or make far-reaching plans. Leo led a simple, peaceful life. He didn't even carry any weapons and if he did find something of value, he would give it away to those who needed it far more than he.

He did remain at Sanctuary for a while, though. Not to settle down there, but to lend a hand and help those already there with building the place up, doing repairs, and welcoming the ever increasing amount of mutants that found there way there. Word was already spreading around. They needed every extra pair of hands they could get while the place was in such early stages and so he stayed and helped where he could.

Eventually, things were settling into place and the others were getting a good, solid hold into the earth, building a few shacks and finishing repairs on the buildings already there. That's when he left, off again to wander the world and spread the news to all those he came across.

Dianella went with him when he finally left and he traveled with her all the way to right outside the D.C. ruins, opting to not enter the city itself. Leo was more comfortable with wide open spaces and seeing the expanse of sky overhead. If she had asked, he most likely would have traveled with her the entire way, but she didn't because she knew he'd feel as if he should do so. She didn't want to impose upon him any more than she already had even though he had been more than willing to help out the entire time.

They said their goodbyes and the nomadic mutant took off in what seemed, to Dianella, as a completely random direction. Nothing was ever completely random with Uncle Leo, though. Every action he took, no matter how unusual or random appearing was done so with specific purpose. Something seemed to drive him ever onward, like a calling, that he readily obeyed.

Dianella stayed a moment to watch him walk off into the distance, curious about him, bot not enough so to ever actually question him about it. She had known him for many years now, coming across him at the most unusual of times and yet, sometimes it seems he showed up when he was needed most, as if he simply had a knack for knowing when and where he was supposed to go. No, she couldn't have made any better choice of someone to ask to spread the word to others. If anyone in the entire Wasteland could do it and do it well, be capable of finding those who needed found, then it was certainly Uncle Leo.

For days, he simply traveled as he normally would, moving from place to place with seemingly no destination or plan to his travel. He truly was a nomadic person and simply went where his feet took him. Whim and fancy were his only guides. Sometimes, he let the stars guide him, while others it was the sun and the moon that told him where to go. Sometimes it was simply a hunch.

After a little over a week, he finally felt the desire to head North towards the Germantown area. Something told him that there he might find what it was he was looking for. He was no stranger to the others but for reasons that were unknown to even Uncle Leo himself, they tended to ignore him, as if he was just supposed to be there.

Two super mutants joined him from the force that had holed up in the old police station. No questions were asked, no plans were made, they simply came to him and the trio set off without a word. It was as if they simply knew that he was there for them and that they should follow him.

In this way, he gathered up more mutants. Most of those that began following him were of the more common variety. These had mostly lost their minds though the change and somehow remained somewhat sane and nonviolent. They could blend in with their fellows for short lengths of time, but would eventually need to move on. Seeing Uncle Leo walking past seemed to be the cue for them to move on and follow him without a word.

It might have been because most of the non-violent mutants knew who Uncle Leo was. At one time or another, they had all either met him, or at the very least heard of him. He wasn't exactly special or important in and of himself, but it seemed to be common knowledge that following him was a good idea if you had nowhere else to go.

That isn't to say Leo was a leader. He wasn't really one to put himself in charge of others. Those that followed him he considered welcomed friends who needed guidance and drive, not underlings for him to command despite the fact that any one of them would have done anything he said. They respected him very much.

About the only time he said anything to them that could be considered an order was asking them to wait at the Jury Street Metro Station and nearby buildings. There they would gather a larger group to head towards their final destination. It also gave them safety in numbers, especially as the amount of them waiting there grew.

All throughout the Wasteland, Uncle Leo traveled, even into the downtown area which he usually shied away from. Everywhere, he picked up others, one here, a couple more there, and their force at Jury Street steadily grew in size. Sometimes those he met knew their way there and he would tell them that's where they were ultimately were heading if they wanted to go ahead and help out there. The place was starting to become a small fortification in its own right.

Nearly everyone in this entire group was those less smart mutants, however. These were more like the normal super mutants that populated large portions of the D.C. area. The only thing that set them apart from their brothers was their aptitude towards violent behavior. Unless outright provoked, they were peaceful, especially among others of their own. They were wary of outsiders, but they got along well enough with the few Ghouls that helped them out and with the trade caravans that they sometimes dealt with.

If a human came across either the larger and ever-growing group, they were allowed to pass without incident as long as they didn't try to harm anyone. Those that came across Uncle Leo and those following him were met with the same peaceful behavior. They confused more than a few humans throughout this entire process.

When Uncle Leo finally felt as if they had a large enough group to while not attract too much attention, at least be capable of defending themselves. His small following was ten mutants strong by the time they set out on their main voyage, leaving Jury Street behind.

Unlike Leo, these all carried weaponry, everything from nailbats to miniguns and even a few more rare gatling lasers. Most carried hunting rifles and assault rifles and there was more than enough ammunition spread among them to ensure not only their own safety, but the safety of those who they were now heading towards.

They traveled with absolutely no incident. Even Raiders weren't stupid enough to attack a group of super mutants this large and it only took them a few days with no stops other than to hunt for food and water to reach Sanctuary.

Once that group was more or less accepted and put to work in the ever growing settlement, Uncle Leo went back out again. He never did stay for very long after bringing a group in. He would only wait until the current group was installed and then set out to find others who needed their help.

A few times during this entire process he would come across Dianella more often than he had in the past. She was doing the same thing almost, except her small organization had grown some and they were becoming more aggressive in their efforts. She had more of those she helped to show the way.

In a way, the two of them were shepards, tending to their flocks. They both protected those that they found and gave them guidance, took them to a place where they would, ultimately, be safe. With the population steadily growing over the months as it had been, the small town was becoming better able to defend itself. Those who followed Uncle Leo to Sanctuary were perfectly happy with doing guard work and protecting their home, while others did work inside the settlement.

Over time, the numbers began to dwindle. Less and less joined Uncle Leo in his travels and Dianella gathered fewer and fewer rescues. They were finally getting to the end of things, where they had caught up most of the slack and now only needed to focus on the new mutants who needed either of their help.

It was both a happy thing and a sad thing. Working together over the long months, Dianella had grown somewhat attached to her nomadic companion. They usually met at that same old Metro station that they'd always used as a forward base. She was happy that the numbers were dwindling, that they were getting closer to their ultimate goal of helping all those who needed it and there were still some who didn't want to live in Sanctuary, which was perfectly fine by them.

After nearly a year, they stopped finding others so much. Trips out to Sanctuary were becoming more and more infrequent and sometimes, Dianella just went out to Jury Street hoping to catch a glimpse of Uncle Leo who she was starting to consider a good, trusted friend. Sometimes, he was even there, as if he knew she was looking for him and so he'd wait for her.

She knew it was useless to try and convince him to settle down. Dianella had known the nomadic super mutant long enough to know that settling down was something he was simply incapable of doing. It was starting to influence her, however.

Dianella was becoming more and more aware that she liked it in Sanctuary, that it was a place she herself wouldn't mind living. Sure, most of the population was super mutant, but they weren't against allowing Ghouls to live there. After all, it was founded by both a mutant and a Ghoul, both of which had been living there the entire time and, much to their irritation, voted as the leaders of the settlement.

Still, she couldn't deny her dream and like her friend, she had to be out there. Not being nomadic, but out there helping where she could. Her group got so few jobs as of late that they didn't really require her presence all that much and she'd become better at stealth, better able to sneak around and get her own reconnaissance of local conditions. It let her do her job in a whole new way. Still, she wouldn't object to perhaps visiting Sanctuary on a semi-regular basis, just to see how things were going.

Between herself and her group, and Uncle Leo, they had the Wasteland as covered as they could possibly get it. Sure, it wasn't much, only two people in the expanse of the D.C. Wasteland, but between them, they had the know-how to make it work out.

Eventually, they'd go there separate ways, Uncle Leo back to his open road and Dianella back to her cramped office and endless searches. Leo was the hope of those outside, and she was the hope of those inside, who needed her help the most. Without her, some of them would simply be lost and she could never let that happen. Not on her watch.

And so things went on as they did. Uncle Leo would find the occasional mutant out in the wild who needed guidance. Dianella and her team would find the occasional mutant who needed a rescue, or needed direct help. There were still those left to save.

(2144 words)

Chapter 9: Some Change

It was cramped and stuffy and generally too small for the three living there. The little shack was simply far too little for two human women plus a super mutant who had a liking for large guns. Added to the fact was that the front half had to double as a storefront and it was easily obvious as to why two of the three were nearly always constantly grumpy about something or other.

They had to share absolutely everything, which at times, could become more than a little trying. There was only one sink. There was only one place to use the bathroom and that was in a little outhouse outside the shack because there certainly wasn't enough room for it inside.

They even had to share the same bed, though luckily, mostly for Dhev's sanity, it was at the very least a large bed and, being a mutant, he didn't require all that much sleep, though it was almost inevitable that if he wanted to sleep, one of the humans did too. He was starting to consider that they did it absolutely on purpose just to mess with him. Especially that Rachael.. she was entirely too cheery all things considered.

In fact while he and Zoe were busy being annoyed at the living arrangements, Rachael was as happy as could be. But then, the cheerful, red-headed woman dealt in the junk business. Anyone who dealt in the junk business was, to some degree, completely off their nut. Crazy Wolfgang was a great example of this phenomenon.

Now one would think, given this climate, that Zoe or Dhev would simply just leave, but that wasn't the case at all. For as much as they got on each other's nerves and annoyed the Hell out of each other on a near-daily basis, they were damn near inseparable.

Dhev had been wandering the wastes, utterly alone and confused after escaping those that had tried to imprison him when they'd found him. The two women had been surveying the land around the settlement of Megaton when they'd come across the dazed and obviously lost super mutant. When they'd realized he wasn't going to attack them, they latched onto him like a couple of magnets and convinced him to stay with them.

It had been that way ever sense. They'd eventually found a spot of land that would do well for building a nice little shack upon and with Dhev's help, they had the building erected in a minimal amount of time. Sure, it was small, but at the time he'd been happy that they were being friendly to him.

Rachael and Zoe, as it turned out, were wanting to start a small business. They were in the clothing and accessories business and wanted to build their own shop. The plans had been drawn up ages ago and so had not accounted for the space needed for the two of them plus a super mutant. Needless to say, things were slightly cramped.

That had been fine for a while. They'd even talked Dhev into helping out with the shop. (The hilarity of customers coming in only to turn around and see a super mutant toting a minigun and nearly crapping themselves would never ever get old). He sold the vast amounts of jewelry the two women made from scrap and materials they traded for nearby in Megaton or with the caravans. Zoe sold her clothing and armor creations along with a dizzying amount of headgear and Rachael.. well, she was in the junk business. She sold junk.

There was plenty of good sense of having him with Rachael in the right side of the shop so he wasn't the first thing customers saw when they walked in. It was just, standing beside the overly cheerful woman for long periods of time tended to try his patience after a while. It wasn't that he was mad at her, far from it, he got along with both of the women just fine, but he sure wasn't anything more than surly when dealing with customers.

When the shop was closed for the night and it was just the three of them, despite the cramped space, he was fine. He was, as Zoe liked to say, as harmless as a kitten. At least, he was harmless to the two of them. Not so much to anyone entering the shop, especially if they looked shady or like they were looking to steal something.

Still, he was generally a bad-tempered sort. It was genetic. The two women had found ways of cheering him up for a time and there were spans of time when he was less grumpy, but most of the time he hovered around surly. Of course, for some reason, this attracted Rachael to him like a Bloatfly to a dead Raider. She saw him as a challenge that she was bound and determined to overcome. She made it her life's mission to cheer him up.

This usually ended up with her pvssyring at him happily as he sent plaintive looks towards Zoe, asking for help with his eyes. It was one of the few times he saw the woman smile, like she thought Rachael's attempts at making him happy and his attempts at soliciting her for aid were funny. He always wondered if Zoe had a sadistic streak in her.

Despite it all, they somehow got along well with each other. When things needed to be taken seriously, then they were serious and the teasing and humor would cease. Dhev was thankful for that--that at least when he simply needed things to be taken seriously, they simply were. Both women were good at gauging his mood and if they'd ever taken it too far. For the most part, though, they all got along just fine with very little need for such breaks.

Still, the place was cramped, and Dhev wouldn't have objected to not needing to share a bed with two very nice looking women. Hell if he'd ever say that to them, though. Things were bad enough with Rachael and her love of innuendo, threatening Dhev that the two of them were simply going to catch him unawares some night and ravish him. It was one of the things she said to tease him and she had no clue whatsoever as to the actual effect it had on him.

Plus, some privacy would be nice for a change. There was absolutely not one drop of modesty, nor tact, in the little shack. There just wasn't the room for either to be a concern. After a while, he'd grown accustomed to it--the two women had been living and working together for far longer than they'd known him and didn't even think of it anymore--but it sure as Hell hadn't been easy.

Maybe it wouldn't have been nearly so bad if the two didn't have the horrific urge to run about the place in their underwear, shrieking in the grips of an impromptu pillow fight. As he learned more about humans, he could have sworn that every night was a pajama party with a couple of teenage girls because that's certainly what they acted like at times.

Granted he did take some smug satisfaction from ending these spectacles by grabbing either one of them, throwing them over his shoulder and hauling them to the bed where he'd toss them down haphazardly. That usually ended the pillow fight dead in its tracks, mostly because they had the deer in headlights reaction to it. He never did understand that, but it worked to his advantage, so who was he to question it?

Still, life went on and the three of them managed to keep tolerating each other. They kept talking about expanding the little shack or possibly building another, just to have more space. None of these plans or ideas came to fruition, though, almost like the three of them were just too complacent to really do anything about it.

That is until the day when they got a very unusual visitor.

It was certainly the kind of place Uncle Leo would have never entered on his own, but he somehow knew he needed to talk to these people. He didn't even know about Dhev, really. It was simply another case of him being in the right place at the right time.

The prospect of actually moving had never really occurred to any of the three. They just assumed they'd be living just outside of Megaton for the far-reaching foreseeable future. There just weren't any settlements the trio could move into, not with Dhev with them and the two women weren't going to toss him out just for that.

Uncle Leo had told them that there was at least one storefront that would be more than adequate for their use and that there was a shack along the main road that would work as well. Sanctuary was definitely lacking in goods for sale, for a way to earn caps. There was simply no goods nor services that they had to make caps with, at least not at the moment. They were starting to want visitors to come and they'd need places for those visitors to spend their caps, to give the town an income.

Zoe, Rachael, and Dhev decided that this was the perfect opportunity for them. Instead of asking them to meet at Jury Street, Uncle Leo simply explained to them how to reach Sanctuary. It was easier that way and they would need to move a lot of stuff. The shack was small and cramped for sure, but it still had a lot of things they wanted to bring with them.

Actually preparing for the trip took far longer than was really necessary, but they weren't in that big of a hurry. There was all the time in the world. While Dhev went off to round up some Brahmin to help carry everything, the two women started boxing up what they could, packing some things in burlap sacks.

When they were pretty much ready to go, they dismantled the wooden shack that had been their home for the past few years. Despite how much of an annoyance the place had been, it was still hard to see it go for the three of them. They then used the materials to build two carts to carry everything, two Brahmin to a cart and still another for carrying other things. Having so much material left over, they made the carts into wagons of a sort so they were more protected.

Such a convoy with only three people to guard it, even when one of those was a super mutant, was taking a huge risk on their part. It took them a couple weeks to make the entire journey. They could have went faster, but to do so would have been much more dangerous. They'd taken it slow and cautious.

There had been a few hairy moments when a band of Raiders would attack, but these were usually small groups, easily taken down by Dhev alone. The most dangerous encounter they'd come across had been a Brotherhood Outcast patrol which had been composed of two power armored men and a Robobrain, repainted and reprogrammed. They'd lost one of their Brahmin in that fight before they'd managed to get behind cover and then it had been somewhat of a standoff between the two forces as they took pot shots at each other.

What the Outcasts hadn't been ready for was Rachael and her suddenly useful pile of junk. She had enough things and the right tools to put a Nuka Grenade together. That had taken care of the problem in fairly short order. Only one of the men had been alive after that and was easily dealt with by Zoe's Immolator, which happened to be another item that Rachael had come up with the idea for.

Between the redistribution of weight among the four surviving Brahmin and the addition of what they could scavenge off the dead Outcast patrol, their progress had been further slowed after that, but luckily for them, they were fairly close to their destination at that point. Also lucky for them, they'd thought to pack enough water, Rad-X, and RadAway to last them at least three weeks which was a load in and of itself.

Another thing that really slowed them down was the fact that Zoe and Rachael simply weren't used to the travel and frequent stops had to be made. Dhev was patient with them, though, despite appearing grumpy about the whole ordeal. In his own way, he cared about the two, it's just an outside observer would have a lot of trouble seeing it.

And then there was Rachael's endless, excited pvssyr the entire trip. "I'm going to have my own junk store! It'll be great, you'll see!" The woman had already convinced herself that she would be able to get a shack for herself and her.. junk. There was certainly enough of it to make an entire shop dedicated to it. She failed to notice the other two huddling together and giving her odd glances when she'd go off on one of these tangents. At least, they never thought she noticed.

"So Dhev," Rachael was saying as they traversed the last leg of their journey. "You're going to stay with Zoe, aren't you?" It sounded like a casual enough question and when he said he wasn't sure, she laughed. "Nah, don't give me that. You and Zoe are like this," she said, crossing two fingers and holding her hand up to show him. Throughout this entire exchange, Zoe remained diplomatically silent. That and she didn't want Rachael's attention on her in the first place, not if she was going to have this kind of conversation.

"You two don't think I notice, but I do," she continued on as Dhev just gave her a look. She playfully swatted his arm, saying, "Oh now I'm not upset or anything. Quit giving me that look and stop being so surly." Over her shoulder, she added, "And I know you're staying out of this conversation on purpose, Zoe!"

"That's because I don't want any part of it," Zoe readily answered back.

Stopping to turn and face her friend, making the whole convoy need to pause, Rachael crossed her arms. "But you're already part of it," she said, reasonably enough. "And I just wanted to know for sure anyway. I'm not trying to tease anyone."

At this point, Dhev was heard to mutter under his breath, My ass she isn't. She stuck her tongue out at him to which he responded by flipping her off. She laughed, then started walking again, seeming to drop the subject entirely and go on about her junk shop plans as if the entire conversation simply hadn't taken place.

This could have gone on indefinitely if they hadn't crested the rise they'd been steadily climbing this entire time to look down at the small settlement before them at that moment. Zoe let out an appreciative whistle. "Let's find out where we can set up and what help we can lend, then," she said to her companions and they silently made their way down the slope into town.

Some time later, Zoe had installed herself and her goods in the very nice storefront that had been available. Razor had taken one look at the things she and Dhev would be selling and had immediately shown them the spacious building. The kinds of things they would be selling would definitely attract visitors.. and caps.

He'd also let Rachael have the small wooden shack along the main road. There was always a use for scraps and.. well.. junk. Salvage was an important industry in and of itself. The woman had tried, and failed miserably, to not look smug as she and her companions set about dividing their stuff out to move into their new homes. Rachael had been proven right on two fronts and was absolutely beaming for being right.

Oddly enough, the two women were the first humans to move into the small town. They didn't seem to mind, or really notice, that they were the only normal humans around. They treated everyone same as they'd treat regular humans, so they got along great with the other residents of Sanctuary. That alone would have made it unnecessary for Dhev to vouch for them.

True to Rachael's suspicions, Dhev and Zoe took up residence in the upper level of the shop they'd been given (and the amount of smug satisfaction she'd radiated after that had been decided had gotten on her friends' nerves). At least the accommodations were exceptionally roomy. It was luxurious compared to what they'd become accustomed to. Why they'd given the two free run of the entire building was still a mystery to the both of them, but the truth of the matter was both Razor and Dante agreed that theirs was likely the place to do the most business other than Zaine's workshop and he already had his own building.

While Zoe and Dhev were living it up, Rachael decided to try and make her new shack as much like their old one as possible. They'd brought nearly all of the furnishings and what she didn't have, she could get from others in town if they weren't using them. The three still got together, for old time's sake, in Rachael's "Junk Shop" after it had been completed since it had that feeling of home to it.

Some time after moving in, Zoe, after finding a nice big pile of plywood in the third floor of her and Dhev's building, had decided to start painting signs for everyone in town. She made a sign for every shop in town and made sure she still had plywood leftover for when more shops opened up. It made her feel a little better about being given an entire building for herself and her friend (though if you asked Rachael, "friend" was not the word she used for Dhev in reference to Zoe).

She even made a sign to put at the entrance to town with the town's name and some rules visitors should follow. Nobody had complained when she started putting her signs up, more than likely because nobody else really had the desire to make signs. Even while her painting was a little awful, the signs worked well enough. Of course, for her own shop, she had opted to use the handmade metal sign that she'd been using for her shop since the shack outside of Megaton.

With two new shops and some good sources of income ready to go, things were looking even better for the little settlement. Those that currently lived there were optimistic about the small town's future, but there was still so much left to do.

(3178 words)

I like it.

The trouble is, it's too much like Eden.

When can we expect the Snake to make its appearance?

Oh, don't worry

I'm not sure how fast the next bits will be posted. I smashed my finger in a car door and so typing is a bit difficult and slow at the moment.

First, my commiserations

However...

Be a dictator at home!

Dictate to your husband, and he will type...

Sorry about the lack of updates. Looks like I just didn't get healed up in time to finish for NaNo. I might still keep working on this but at a slower pace now that there's no deadline. Well, Slof wanted me to keep working on it, so I probably should I also need to start getting the NPCs implimented in the GECK. Fun times. Zaine is in there, but is using Dhev's dialogue at the moment, which needs to be fixed. I need to fix Zoe and Rachael's dialogue too. So many things to do At least I have a place to start now, where as before I didn't really have anything for the other NPCs.