Chapter 29: Jacobstown

Chapter 29: Jacobstown

That was Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters, crooning about "Civilization." You know, sometimes the wasteland can get you down. Sometimes it feels like a few days can last several weeks, or even months out here. And that's why I'll always be here for you, bringing you the soothing sounds of the old world... to make life just a little less hectic. A little more bearable. This is Mr. New Vegas. Thanks for listening.

Before we'd even set off for Jacobstown, there were problems. Not because I wasn't sure everyone would fit in the Corvega (though, I admit, that did turn out to be a bit of an issue), but because... well...

"Th' hell, man!" Cass yelled out. "Why's he freakin' th' fuck out on us?" Cass had tried to properly introduce herself to Rex, but the dog just started growling and snarling and barking at her. And then it just got worse when Boone tried to calm him down.

"The King said Rex doesn't like hats, or the people who wear them," I said with a straight face. At least, as much as I could muster. Both Cass and Boone stopped and stared at me.

"What." The two of them practically spoke in unison. I just shrugged.Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

"That's pretty much exactly what I said. Something to do with rhyming with rats or something, I don't know."

"That doesn't make sense," Boone said simply.

"You're right, it doesn't make any sense. But you know what's more important than that?" I paused, waiting to see if they'd figured out what I had. I let the silence hang in the air for a minute. "More important, the dog has stopped barking."

The three of us all turned to look at Rex - and instead saw the unmistakable brown cloak of Veronica. She'd appeared out of nowhere, and was showering Rex with attention, scratching him behind the ears and below the brain case. Rex's tongue lolled out of his mouth lazily, his tail was wagging like mad.

"Well, I suppose that's one problem solved," I said, holding back a chuckle.

And so, off we went to Jacobstown, Cass riding shotgun, Boone behind her, Arcade in the middle with his face buried in another book, and Veronica behind me with Rex sitting on her lap. As big as the dog was outside, he was positively enormous inside the car. Things weren't quite as bad as they could have been, however... mostly because Rex was sticking his head (and a sizable portion of the rest of him besides) out the back window as we drove along. I'm just glad ED-E could fly, because I don't think we could have squeezed anyone else into the damn car.

The trip up the mountain was pretty quiet, surprisingly. I mean, occasionally we made small talk - well, when I say "we" I mean Cass, Veronica, and myself. Arcade was too wrapped up in his book, and Boone was... well, Boone. Just inconsequential bullshit to pass the time. As we got further and further up the road snaking up the mountain, however, we no longer found ourselves in a desert. And the bullshit just sort of... stopped.

"Ok, correct me if I'm wrong..." Veronica said, looking around. "But you guys are seeing this, right? I'm not just going crazy?"

"That all d'pends..." Cass chimed in sticking her head out the window to get a better view of the landscape rushing past. "Are you seein' a whole fuckload'a trees?"

"Ok, I'm not going crazy. Good to know."

If I'm honest, I'm glad they said it first, because I was starting to doubt my own eyes. It began as just a few trees as we made our way up the winding mountain road but by the time Veronica pointed it out, the trees were so thick we could barely see anything else.

I've seen trees before, but it wasn't all that often; there's the park in the center of Shady Sands, Vault City has a garden where they grow crops, and the city of Arroyo has a fair number of trees, too. But those trees were not like these trees. The colors of those trees - the light brown bark, the dull green leaves, the grey apples - all the colors seemed... off somehow. Like the trees weren't real. Like they were manufactured, rather than grown. By contrast, The more I looked, the more I realized that these tall, thick trees with dark, rich browns and deeply vibrant greens... this is what trees are supposed to look like.

"Forget the trees," I finally said. "Is it just me, or it starting to get a bit colder?" Most of the time, traveling in my car was decently cold compared to the blistering heat of the desert sun, but that was usually just because of the wind rushing in through the windows that didn't have glass. But the last few minutes, it really had felt like the temperature had dropped considerably.

"It is getting colder," Arcade said without even looking up from his book. "Air is less dense at higher altitudes, and can't retain as much heat energy from solar radiation as it can at lower altitudes where the air has a higher density per cubic inch. It has to do with the volume of air in a given-" before he could continue, Cass interrupted him.

"Thank ye, profess'r, I think we get th' point." She shifted in her seat, and pulled her jacket closer around her. "An' th' point is, it's gettin' fuckin' cold."

"It's not that bad," Boone spoke up.

Before I knew it, a bend in the road brought us to yet another surprising sight. Still a ways ahead of us and blocking the road was a large wall, made out of giant wood poles. Some of them looked like telephone poles that had been sharpened at the top, but a lot of the others looked to be little more than massive tree trunks that had been simply ripped out of the ground and put in place. And then, behind the wall, we got our first real view of the mountain peak.

It was... white. There were clouds hanging around the peak that almost looked like fog, and the peak itself wasn't green like the rest of the trees around the mountain. Everything was covered in a thin layer of white powder. It was... snow? It took me a minute to think of the word. I'd seen trees in person before, obviously, but the only time I'd ever seen snow was in a holotape about a fat man in a red suit. The closest I'd ever come to seeing snow in real life was the ash storms around the Boise ruins. But I think I'm getting a little off topic.

"D'ya s'pose that's it then?" Cass asked as I pulled the car to a stop several dozen feet away from the wall. I checked my Pip Boy and nodded. But something was bothering me. Jacobstown, just guessing from the name, was (presumably) a town of some sort. So, where was everyone?

"Wait here a sec. I'll check it out," I said, getting out of the car. I don't know how to explain it - everything was calm and seemingly normal, but I couldn't shake a feeling of unease. So I checked to make sure Roscoe's was loaded, but I kept the safety on and the holster unbuttoned when I put it back on my thigh. Probably not the safest thing, but useful for a quick draw... just in case.

Slowly and carefully, I approached the wall of logs. I could hear a faint buzzing as ED-E hovered several dozen feet above me. I looked around, scanning my surroundings, but I was still kind of in awe of all the plant life and the unfamiliar colors. Which I suppose was why I was caught off guard.

"Hold it right there, human!" an incredibly loud and deep voice, like a 300 pound man gargling gravel with a tongue made of sandpaper, came out of nowhere. Instinctively, I reached for Roscoe and looked around for the source of the voice. But I removed my hand a moment later when a second voice shouted out from somewhere else nearby: "Hands where we can see them! Don't make any sudden movements, or you're dead meat, human!"

A second later, a good chunk of what I thought were two large bushes next to the wall stood up. The outline of both figures was positively massive, and I immediately recognized what they had to be: super mutants. They were wearing some kind of outfits covered in branches and leaves and various other bits of plant life. I suddenly became aware of the two very large caliber rifles, wrapped in burlap and even more plant life, pointing directly at my chest.

"Uh... hi." I said, the gears in my brain slowly starting to turn, trying to think. In the meantime, I just kept my hands raised, away from me. "You two are pointing very large guns at me, and I'm not entirely certain why." The mutant on the right stepped closer towards me, and I couldn't help but just keep looking up. The muzzle of his rifle was just a few inches from my chest now.

"What's your business in Jacobstown, human?" one of the massive super mutants covered in leaves asked. I tried to see through the camouflage he was wearing, but his face was completely concealed by mesh.

"I'm here to see Doctor Henry," I said as calmly as I could muster. Part of me tensed up when I heard movement from behind and above me. Without looking away from the mutant, I pointed back towards my Corvega and spoke as quickly as I could before ED-E or anyone else rushed in and got me killed. "I got a sick cyberdog in my car that needs his particular brand of expertise, and I heard Jacobstown is where I could find him. Is he here?"

The super mutant bearing down on me took a few steps back and raised his right hand to the mass of mesh and foliage surrounding his head. When he spoke, it was obvious that he wasn't speaking to me anymore.

"Marcus. Did you get any of that?" He paused. "What's your call, sir?" There was a longer pause this time. "Yes sir. Loud and clear. Over and out." The mutant put his hand back on the rifle, and stepped back towards the wall, taking a large fist and smacking it against the wall twice with a pair of resounding thuds. I looked around, and realized the other mutant had already disappeared.

"Go on in, human. Marcus wants to talk to you." I started to relax. I let my hands fall to my sides, and took a quick glance back at my Corvega. Sure enough, Cass, Boone, Arcade and Veronica (with Rex at her heels) had all exited the car, but hadn't gotten too far. ED-E was by them too, hovering around at eye level.

"Of course... but you should know something, human. I represent the Nightkin. Marcus may lead this town, but the Nightkin listen to Keene - they listen to me." And with that, he disappeared back into the shadows. I took a look around, and realized all the other Nightkin had vanished as well.

"This is getting ridiculous. How are they doing that?" I said, not even trying to hide my exasperation.

"Do what?" Cass asked.

"Just disappear like that! They're like 300 pounds of solid muscle - how can they move that quietly?" I sighed, shook my head, and headed down the hallway. "I swear, this is starting to be the weirdest trip to the vet in history..."

There was a pair of closed double doors at the end of the hall. On one of the smoked glass windows - which looked to have been reinforced with iron mesh - there was a sign which read: "Doctor Adolphus Henry" and below it: "PhD, MD, OD, DVM"

I couldn't help but just... stare at the odd collection of letters. What did it all mean? I was about to ask Arcade, since he'd probably know, when he brushed past me and opened up the door without even knocking. Rex was right behind him. Just as the door opened, there was a sharp crack, like a bolt of lightning, a bright flash, and a loud hum that started to wind itself down to a lower pitch.

The inside of this room was such a highly stark contrast to the rest of the lodge, that I could hardly believe it existed in the same continent, much less the same building. The walls were either torn out to show exposed wiring with hundreds of splices, or were covered in sheets of slightly stained white metal. All around were machines of all various shapes and sizes, mainframe computers with arcane dials and exposed wiring, a corner full of computer terminals, and at least half a dozen operating and examination tables shoved against one wall. There were several tables, all of which were covered in laboratory equipment, beakers, stacks of papers, microscopes, test tubes.

"Sorry boss," I heard a voice that sounded like a woman who'd smoked two packs a day for forty years over the roar of machinery. "Looks like this one's another failure, just like the rest." The owner of the voice was a female ghoul who held a clipboard in her rotten hands, and was wearing a white lab coat. She was monitoring the readout on one of the large mainframes hooked up to the wall. From behind a set of privacy blinds near the operating tables came a very old looking man, also wearing a white lab coat and a pair of enormous glasses. He just grumbled at the ghoul's comment, taking off the coat and placing it on a nearby coat rack. And that was when he noticed us.

"Who are you?" He asked, approaching me with an accusatory glare. The effect seemed amplified, since his enormous spectacles made his eyes appear about four times larger than they should have been. He furrowed his brow at me, causing the massive wrinkles in his face and cheeks to become even more pronounced. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking before barging into a room? I certainly hope this is important, because you're interrupting some very important - and very delicate - research."

"Hello, Henry," Arcade said before I got a chance to respond. The doctor raised an eyebrow at the voice and looked around for the source, adjusting his glasses like he couldn't quite believe his eyes. "It's certainly been a while, hasn't it?"

"Arcade? Arcade Israel Gannon, is that really you? Bloody hell boy, you've grown."

"No, I haven't. You've just gotten shorter." The two of them laughed.

"Yes, well, that's just the osteoporosis for you. Eighty seven years on this mudball spinning through space, and I still can't stop myself from getting old, no matter how hard I try. It has been a while, hasn't it though? Four years, two months and sixteen days since the entirety of the old gang got together last, unless my ailing brain is failing me." I caught a smirk in the corner of Henry's mouth. "I suppose this visit isn't entirely social, however, what with the motley collection of vagabonds you seem to have collected." The elderly doctor cast a glance in our direction.

"Hey!" Cass practically yelled. "Who're ye callin' a vagabond?"

"I'm glad you finally have a decent set up. This looks like a reasonably effective laboratory you've built for yourself," Arcade said, ignoring Cass completely.

"Do you really think so?" Henry sighed, shrugged, and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Personally, I think it's a bit spartan. Everything here is salvaged and scavenged. It's a child's play set compared to the set up I had back in-"

"As much as I'd like to catch up," Arcade cut him off before he could continue, "we're here because of a cyberdog. This cyberdog, specifically." He gestured to Rex, who looked up at the pair of docs expectantly. "According to his owner, The King, there's something wrong with his brain. I know cyberdogs are one of your areas of expertise, so we brought him to you."

"Hmm..." Henry knelt down with a groan and the sound of popping joints to get a closer look at the dog. Amazingly, the dog was incredibly obedient as the old man ran his fingers over the metal plates, the brain case, checking the dog's muzzle. After a minute or two of examining the dog in such a manner, he attempted to get back up... and then held his hand out above his head. Instinctively, I went to help the doctor get up, while Arcade grabbed his hand and helped steady him as well.

"Thank you, boys," he said more to Arcade than me. "Well, if I had to guess, I'd say this dog is suffering from neural degradation. Bio med gel can only preserve a living brain for so long... but in order to be sure, I'll need to examine him more thoroughly for the next several hours."

"How many hours are we talking about?" Veronica asked, placing a hand on Cass' shoulder to get a better look at what was going on. I tried to ignore Cass' blushing from the contact.

"Maybe three... four hours at most. Of course, that's merely the examination and diagnostic scans. That doesn't take into account the time needed to fix any problems that I may discover, of course."

"Does this place have rooms or beds where we can stay the night?" I asked, already knowing exactly where this was going, and dreading the outcome regardless. Henry merely shrugged as he encouraged the cyberdog to follow him and get up on one of the examination tables.

"You'd have to ask Marcus about something like that. However... there is one other thing." He said, putting his lab coat back on. Here it comes...

"Go ahead and say it," I said, fairly certain of what was coming next.

"My work regarding the Nightkin has reached a critical stage and cannot afford any delays. If you help me out with my research, then I'll gladly help your dog."

Yup. It's gonna be another one of those days, isn't it?

"Fine. What exactly are you working on, anyway?"

"A long term project that Marcus gave me. The Nightkin have varying degrees of mental instability due to their addiction to stealth boy usage. Over the last several months, I've been trying to develop a cure, with varying degrees of success. Currently, I'm investigating the local nightstalker population. For some reason, they seem to have developed a stealth field almost identical to the one generated by a stealth boy device. I've also gotten my hands on a working stealth boy Mark II prototype, but any experiments using that carries with it a substantial risk, so I'd rather not pursue that avenue of research just yet."

"Alright. So, what do you need us to do?"

"I'm not convinced that the nightstalker mutation is a natural one. I've compared the brain chemistry of a Nightkin to one of the local nightstalkers we killed," As he spoke, he pulled out a pair of printouts and showed them to us. I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but Arcade seemed like he understood what it meant. "They both exhibit similar neurochemical changes. Now, I'm not claiming that nightstalkers are running around wearing stealth boys, mind you. I just don't think it's all a coincidence. What I need right now is some proof, and I need someone to investigate their lair in the hills above Jacobstown to get it for me. Some of the super mutants have looked around, and can show you where it is, but they've all come back empty handed. Perhaps a pair of fresh eyes will have better luck."

I turned to the rest of the group. "Well? What do you say? Want to go hunting?" If nothing else, it would give us all something to do while the doctor looked Rex over. Before I got an answer from any of them, Henry spoke up one last time.

"Oh, and by the way. Lily might be interested in coming with you."

"Lily?" I asked. Henry nodded.

"Yes. Trust me, you'll know 'her' when you see 'her.' Regardless, she's lost a few of her bighorners to the nightstalkers and would probably enjoy a spot of revenge. Who knows, if you convince her to tag along, she might be useful." I just nodded slowly.

"I'll see what I can do."