POV Rio
After my talks with Hancock and Deacon, we headed back to the Castle to catch a ride. My next plan was to head North to the lab hidden beneath Camp Evergreen. I needed the tech there for my plans, and then there was a library hidden inside it that might have some valuable information. It wasn't necessarily too far to walk, but it was unnecessary to walk it when we had a ship that could get us most of the way.
I would be taking a ship to the Nakano Residence, as it is the closest safe port we could use near our destination. I would pay them to keep our boat safe.
The boat ride up North past Salem was fine. The Nakano's were at first a little hesitant to accept the proposal, but I managed to convince Kenji Nakano. From their residence, it would be a 4-hour walk, give or take. From previous scouting, I knew that the area was mostly empty. There were only a few sparsely populated tribes spread North of the Commonwealth. In fact, there were only two major settlements North of us. The first and supposedly largest was Far Harbor on Mt. Desert Island, and the other was a medium trading settlement called Seaward Shoals in the former area of Ocean Point in Boothbay, Maine.
The tribes, on the other hand, all live inland, and there are only 3 or 4 of them. The largest tribe, known as the Wolf Tribe, lives near Lake Winnipesaukee. The next tribe, known as the Suna Tribe, lives near Lake Sunapee. The last confirmed tribe, known as the Goose Tribe, lives near Goose Pond. There are rumors of another tribe, but they are unconfirmed. This supposed 4th tribe is said to reside in the White Mountain National Forest. No confirmed contact has ever been established, so the locals call them the White Tail Tribe. Of the mentioned tribes, the only one known to be friendly is the Wolf Tribe. The others are known to attack outsiders and are even possibly cannibals. It's hard to confirm, as no one has survived captivity with them.
Thankfully, we wouldn't be getting anywhere near any other groups. The most we ran into was the rare Raider or some mutated wildlife. We killed any Raiders we came across and dealt with any hostile wildlife as well. The most unique encounter we had was with a Mr. Gutsy, who told us that a mandatory curfew was in place.
"Halt! Civilian! A mandatory curfew is in effect. Return to your home immediately. Will you comply?" Mr. Gutsy asks.
"Under what authority?" I ask.
"Under the terms of the Martial Law Act, Section 12.J, those refusing to comply with a curfew order are to be pacified. Repeat, will you comply?" Mr. Gutsy asks.
"Will you comply?" I repeat.
"Repeat, will you comply?" Mr. Gutsy asks.
"Will you comply?" I repeat in a different voice.
I hear everyone trying to stifle their laughter.
"Repeat, will you comply?" Mr. Gutsy asks.
"Will you comply?" I repeat in yet another different voice.
"Loop detected. Error. Err-" Mr. Gutsy says before exploding.
Cait laughs, and we all join in. It was nice to do that in person for once. Once we are done having our fun, we continue on our journey. A large chunk of the area was devoid of any life. It seemed like plenty of people moved out of this area even before the war, so when the world ended, most of the areas North of the Commonwealth didn't last more than a few generations. That also meant that most people had looted these areas long ago due to a lack of defenders. But we still found the occasional loot. Mostly old food and the occasional weapon. Like an old Winchester 1873 and the coolest find, an M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun. Other than those two, there wasn't much else of note.
When we got to Camp Evergreen, it was... beautiful. It seemed like it had never been touched by the war. There were no signs of fighting or that anyone had ever come here. But we couldn't stick around staring all day; we had places to be. The entrance to the lab was not the usual metal hatch. Instead, it was a door hidden by a movable rock built into a hill. The hill might have been artificial or maybe not, but it was an impressive design. I put in the clearance codes giving us access to the facility and made sure everyone had their badges clearly visible. It could save their lives.
From the door, there was a set of stairs leading deeper below ground. The stairs didn't go too far before we got to a pair of elevators. The elevators had 4 options. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Basement Floors, or Ground Level. We started with the 1st Floor. It was home to mostly offices and living quarters. The base was built to support up to 50 personnel. We gathered what we could from the 1st floor, but it wasn't much. Mostly terminals, bedding, and some food.
We moved to the second floor. This floor contained the laboratories. The main project this base was in charge of was the DeRadifier Project. It was a device that was meant to rid areas of radiation. They had worked on the project for nearly 30 years and only managed to make some decent models. They started by trying to get rid of the radiation completely, but that was stupid, as that material has to go somewhere. So then they tried storing the materials, but that didn't work, as it meant they now had lots of nuclear waste and nothing to do with it. Which meant it did nothing more than gather the radioactive material. Not very useful.
They worked for several decades afterwards to try and create a model that could remove radiation from items or materials and store just the radioactive particles and not the materials. It seemed the last prototype they designed was on September 30th of 2077. They named it the DeRadifier Ver. 137. Which just goes to show how many versions they went through. However, their design was truly impressive. It could do as they originally hoped. It could take the radioactivity out of radioactive materials. The only issue is that the storage wasn't that large, and all that radioactive waste still had to be carefully maintained. But it was a fantastic device and one of the main reasons I came here.
'This device can help us truly retake the wasteland.'
I would have to improve the device, but I wouldn't have to worry about storage, as my Inventory solved that problem completely. The only other issue I foresaw was that it was expensive to make, and I would have to give this job to someone immune to radiation.
'Which means I need to finish learning Similo Duplexis.'
Similo Duplexis was basically Shadow Clone Jutsu, but far weaker and stronger. On one hand, it could only create up to a maximum of 3 copies, and that was if I really pushed the spell to the extreme. On the other hand, I created a perfect copy of myself. Flesh and everything, so it couldn't be killed easily. And like the Shadow Clone Jutsu, it was a body made of pure energy, in this case, Mana, so it was no risk to me. I also wouldn't have to worry about memories coming in one large wave; instead, it was more accurate to say I was a puppetmaster controlling 4 bodies. I could set them to be autonomous, but I would always know what they were doing in the back of my mind. Which was part of the reason doing four was my limit. I could modify the spell to create more, but I had already done that since the original spell was only meant to make one copy.
Back to the DeRadifier, I took it and all the research they did on it and all their equipment before I sent it to the Castle. But before we went to the Third Floor, there was one last thing to check out. They were working on a small side project, as the scientists working here were the pinnacles in Nuclear Science. The other device they worked on was much simpler. It was a device that could detect radiation from much farther away. The accuracy, from what I could tell, was fairly good. It had its problems, but overall, it was able to give estimates on where radiation was stronger from several miles away. It was an impressive invention.
We left the second floor and took the elevator to the third. The third floor was the storage floor. It contained many of the previous prototypes as well as materials, food, water, living supplies, and even weapons and ammo. Heck, they even had a suit of X-01 Power Armor issued to them. It was done for both safety and to see if they could create a suit that was truly immune to radiation. Besides that, there were several deactivated robots. An alarming amount. 12 Sentry Bots, 24 Assualtrons, 18 Mr. Gutsys, 30 Protectrons, 16 Mr. Handys, and 8 Eyebots.
"Now why the hell would a lab like this need so many bots?" Cait asks.
"That is a great question. One I don't fully know. My best guess would be they are here for either defense or to be later equipped with DeRadifiers to clean up the wasteland," I say with an uncertain tone.
We take everything of value, including the deactivated robots, but not before I ensure everything is safe to be taken out in the Castle. The last thing I wanted to come back to was a robot-controlled Castle. Once everything was looted, it was time to head to the secret bunker beneath this facility. I was strangely unable to see it. I knew Mama Murphy wrote that it was hidden from reality, but I didn't expect it to be seemingly literal. Or at least stupidly well hidden.
We walk down the hallway and stop at a corner. Most people will think it's at the end of the hallway at the dead-end, but I know that's another red herring. I look at the wall and chant the passphrase.
"Destitite spem, omnes qui hic intratis."
The walls meld together and then fade away, and a door is revealed. I punch in the code on the keypad next to it. 845271.
The door opens with a hiss as air leaves the long sealed chamber. Behind the door lies another hallway with an old wooden double door at the end of the chamber. The door has the letters BPRD on it in silver. I open the door and see a small library. It has wooden bookshelves lining every wall. By my estimates, the room is only 15x15 feet. The room also has a few magical artifacts, but one item draws my attention the most as it is in the center of the room.
In the center is a lectern with a single book upon it. The book was a brown book with gold accents, but the most interesting thing was the purple light emitting from it. I approach the lectern to inspect the book. As I get within a foot of the book, I hear a voice.
"You are not what I expected," says a male voice.
A ghostly visage appears behind the lectern. The figure looks like a man with blond hair and a morning aftershave. He was wearing black pants, a white button-up shirt with a red tie, and a brown trench coat over all of it.
"Who were you expecting?" I ask.
"Well, a human, I would assume. Or at least a demon. But not... whatever you are. No offense," the man says.
"None taken. I am Rio, may I know your name?" I ask.
"Ah, yeah, the name's John Constantine. I am the guardian of this last bastion of occult knowledge," John says.
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Author's Note:
A bit of a cliffhanger, but it happens. Until next time, Ciao.