Fawkes

What do they expect her to do? Cut down wanderers? Even though Teresa doubts this is the kind of help they want, she acquiesces with a nod.

"I am Teresa."

As long as no one hugs her, she can probably survive this.

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"Right," says Mayor MacCready. "Okay, Teresa, let's get moving. I've got a lot of kids to push around."

He sets off at a run with Princess in tow. Joseph lags behind, looking up at Teresa. "I know he wants to turn around and come back when the explosion passes," he says, "but... if this gets rid of those green things, it might just be worth finding somewhere else to live. Thank you."

"Now, follow me. I'll show you the way up," he says, and sets off at a run into a cavern easily big enough to house a town. "And if you have any questions, feel free to ask."

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Teresa isn't even surprised at the gratitude! She does smile at it, though. And this one might even be real; stranger things have happened.

"How long have you lived here?" she asks.

He did say she could ask questions!

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"Since I was four years old," says Joseph, "so that's eleven years now. I don't remember my parents much, just hiding when something big and loud came for them. Some of the other kids who used to live here found me and brought me here, so I've lived in Lamplight since then."

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"Is that how all the kids come here?" she asks. "Taken in from outside?"

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"Mostly," says Joseph, as the hue and cry starts to go up and children start pattering through the dark, grabbing whatever they can carry. "Everyone has to leave here when they turn sixteen. Sometimes people who grew up here wind up sending their kids back here. Sometimes kids get busy and have babies before they're sixteen. But there's a lot of orphans that wind up here."

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"Oh."

Teresa was an orphan when she was... she can't remember how old she was nowadays. All of the warriors were. She wonders if these children see in her what Clare saw in her, what she's unable to see in other people since she shut that part of herself down. She wonders if, if she were born in this world, she would have ended up here.

It's the first time she's wondered anything like that.

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A dog rushes past at knee height, yapping and snapping at one of the slower children to chivvy him along through the great chamber.

"It's not the best place in the world to live. But it's safe, and you get a good education here, and you learn to use a weapon," says Joseph. "We take care of each other. I hope we don't have to leave forever."

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"But you'll stay together," Teresa says. "Maybe you can find somewhere new."

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"We might just have to," says Joseph. "From what I understand, Big Town's gone. If there's somewhere else..."

And now there are crowds of children, dozens if not scores, pushing their way upward as the tunnel narrows. MacCready and Princess and a girl a little smaller than either are waving weapons and shouting at the milling, confused crowd. Joseph looks up at Teresa with a sigh and says, ruefully, "You know, some days I hate being the teacher. It means I have to do this."

He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, "Everybody get into neat, straight lines! Boys on the left, girls on the right. We're going up and out, and this nice mungo lady's going to make sure nothing comes after us until it's all over!"

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No one's ever called Teresa nice before! She tries not to let it show too much how pleasant that feels, and just smiles at every child who turns and stares at her.

No one is scared. Not one. Not of her. Not more than she'd been prepared for them to be scared of a normal adult.

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She's tall, yes, and she's strangely colored, and her eyes are weird, but she has this in her favor: she isn't green, and she doesn't smell like death and rot. When you live without any adults at all around, your definition of what a normal adult ought to look like tends to get a good deal fuzzier.

One of the smaller kids, a pajama-wearing little girl of about five, looks up and says, "Hi. My name's Bumble. Can I hold your hand?" In a much smaller voice she adds, "I kinda fall down a lot."

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Teresa doesn't panic. She does look down at the girl in surprise, but smiles quickly.

"OK. I don't mind," she says. "But if I need to fight something, I'll stop holding on to you, so try not to fall down."

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"'kay," says Bumble brightly, and grabs for Teresa's hand.

None too soon, either. The tunnel floor is rough, the ground here uneven, and Fawkes has had all the time he needs...

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Teresa hears it before the kids, right on the edge of her hearing. And she feels the ground behaving in ways ground doesn't usually behave.

Her first instinct would be to draw her sword, but she doesn't need it now. Instead she bends over and scoops Bumble right up into her arms.

"Hold on tightly," she tells her.

If there needs to be running, there will be running.

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Bumble doesn't need to be told twice. And nobody needs to be told to run, once they see the tall mungo scoop her up, either. About the only issue is getting the gate that leads to surface access open fast enough- and once that's done the kids start flowing upward and outward like water under pressure.

(The Brotherhood of Steel builds very good thermobaric devices. In the pre-war world, they called the design used today 'bunker busters' for a reason.)

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Teresa could run faster than any of them. She could leap over the crowd of kids if she wanted, and get herself and Bumble free.

But a crack appears in the ceiling just as the children start to flow, and Teresa stops. Holding Bumble close to her with one hand, she stands in the river of children and watches the roof.

They're going to get out of there. All of them.

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Far away, through cavern and tunnel and sealed door, the explosion can be heard as the rocks and dust start to fall:

BRRRRABOOOOM!

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The floor shakes, and Teresa moves a foot to stable herself, watching the kids run out.

She looks up, still, and sees it - the point of the ceiling that's suddenly become very weak, and starts dropping first dust, then pebbles, on the crowd.

She moves in a blur, knocking kids down in her hurry, and stands right under a slab of rock that was about to fall. Lifting a hand, she holds it in place as casually as someone hanging a picture.

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There is going to be quite a lot of wide-eyed staring at that.

Some of it is even going to be from the big green fellow standing just the other side of the surface exit, flanked on either side by Brotherhood soldiers in power-armor.

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"Hello," Teresa says to Fawkes, pleasantly. "Is everyone out?"

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Fawkes shakes himself off and begins counting the kids over. MacCready, however, has other ideas. "Hey!" he calls out. "Everybody sound off!"

The kids, all of them, start yelling out their names one at a time. MacCready and Joseph listen for a moment, then glance at each other and nod. "Yeah," says the smaller boy. "That's everybody."

"And all the Paladins are here," notes Fawkes. "There will be a sweep somewhat later, to ensure the bombs did their work- but I believe we've seen the deed done."

She doesn't really understand the words, but she gets the general idea; "Hooray!" shouts Bumble.

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Teresa lowers her hand and strolls out of the gate, still with Bumble in hand.

(The slab she was holding up collapses to the ground behind her.)

"That's the job done, then," she says, finally putting the child on the ground.

(She misses Clare. This just reminds her)

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Fawkes nods. "Anything else that remains," he says, "is mere cleanup, and our responsibility."

Bumble takes the opportunity to hug Teresa's leg tightly.

There may be other children attempting the same. Specifically, the ones who had been under that slab before she got there.

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