Chapter 106: Chapter 102

Thanks to the slower pace of the Nexus’ expansion, our basic infrastructure managed to finally catch up and cover every nook and cranny within our borders. Subway stations linked remote settlements and farmlands to Station 81, a new road network replaced the eroded pre-war ones, and even the rivers got cleaned up to allow for a picturesque ferry service.

 

As we crept outwards and claimed new land, the road and subway networks caught up quickly in pre-planned routes, to the point where fresh asphalt was connecting ramshackle outposts in under twenty hours.

 

The underground water and electric lines were spread out just as fast, providing a basic tap water service at the very least to underdeveloped areas, or a thorough plumbing system to our newly built residential and commercial zones while power was freely available to anyone who wanted to be hooked up. 

 

Because I was not constrained by funding or redtape, power plants and pumping stations were mostly underground affairs, out of easy reach from sabotage and bombardments. Basically anything I could get the bots to put under the basic protection of dirt, I ordered so. Water, power, communication lines, even the secret military teleport zones, all shoved a few feet underground to either run alongside the roads or subway.

 

This whole thing left the surface devoid of telephone or electrical poles, leaving reserved and undeveloped lands looking rather barren. Eh, we’re looking to the long term here, and I’m told that driving through the swathes of grasslands and forests was a must-do for many of our citizens. 

 

So to that end, camping sites were set up, and a growing camping industry sprouted to accommodate people trying to fathom the notion of sleeping in tents on their own volition. Forests and fields had to be zoned for the activity, along with a bit of etiquette training for prospective campers, but it was worth the minor hassle to know that our outdoors was harmless enough to be able to allow such activities.

 

Not everyone appreciated the outdoors, so applications for constructing small hotels followed soon after, and we were soon looking at the birth of the Nexus’ tourist industry. Maybe once enough people could appreciate history, the old historic landmarks would see visitors. Shame it’s mostly the pre-War ghouls that don’t see such sites as a curious waste of space.

 

As it was, the hotels were a means for people from the outskirts to enjoy a day or two in the new Boston city limits. Who knew that the tech we had was so interesting that wasteland settlers could spend a whole day wandering half-empty shopping malls, or just wandering around the parks?

 

Eventually, once the other towns and villages develop, we’ll hopefully have the hotels spread out throughout the Nexus. It’d need some investing in marketing and a cultural overhaul to get people to wander beyond the comfort and security of their own settlements, but for a return to the modern life I knew, it’d be worth it.

 

Well, a modern life without the heavy traffic, if I could help it. Screw the slow crawl of cars across highways, moar efficient public transport for the win.

 

*****

 

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The lone deathclaw pack within the Nexus was thriving under the green canopy provided to it. The hard-shelled people had slowly stopped providing it with food, forcing the pack members to range out through the forest to hunt, though there was little reason to complain about that.

 

They were careful not to cross the forest’s edge, and the hunters were careful to avoid slaughtering infants and their mothers for food. The little intelligence within them understood that extinction was a bad thing, that it was better to let their prey grow to a healthy size and number for both long and short term. The hard-shelled ones might eventually not return anymore, so the pack had to adapt to survive this un-radiated forest.

 

It was also taught throughout the deathclaw pack that humans were not prey, not unless they came covered in a bright mark on their naked chests and their arms tangled in metal behind their backs. These made for easy prey but decent practice, so the elders often encouraged the hatchlings to bring these humans down.

 

Other humans were avoided easily enough, though the hard-shelled ones would occasionally visit the den or call out in noises that were attached to certain members of the pack. The interaction with these humans were eagerly welcomed, as they provided a different socializing that gave an unknown satisfaction to the deathclaws.

 

It was understood that these hard-shelled humans served to protect the deathclaws from the other humans, and vice versa, minimizing the stresses and dangers of foreign interaction. Their presence as they patrolled the forest was comforting, and they were careful about drawing or chasing away the prey in the forest, keeping to a soft stalking pace and never being louder than an alpha’s snort.

 

As careful as these hard-shelled humans were though, the normal humans were often the opposite. The noise they made made it easy for the pack to avoid them, though sometimes the opportunity of an elk fleeing the humans made the hunt easy.

 

There was an incident which truly puzzled the Nexus deathclaws though, one which troubled the pack when they discovered it. A human infant had decided to hunt on its own, unaided by its parents. The deathclaw hunters at the time stalked the youngling, and watched as it ran into a bear. Its shriek did little to intimidate the bigger animal, and the hunters took down the beast both as prey, as well as to stop its claws from swiping apart the human infant.

 

None of the deathclaws cared that the human infant tried to assert its dominance by releasing its scent when it met them. While one dragged the ursine carcass back to the den, the others slowly guarded the human and nudged its stiff limbs out the forest.

 

The rushing hard-shelled humans were intercepted, and the infant was passed to their care. As the sun set that day, the hard-shelled humans returned to the den along with the infant and its parents, and a generous haul of butchered prey as thanks for the infant’s safety. The deathclaws tolerated the humans’ presence, nodding at the words they’d learned to nod to, and allowing the infant to make friendly pats with its pudgy limbs on some of the pack members.

 

Less humans appeared in the forest after that incident, though the hard-shelled ones still kept their patrol. The deathclaws didn’t really mind, finding the reduced human presence to be more conducive for hunting.

 

Besides, the special prey-humans were still being offered up every now and then.

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