The Streets of Boston - Prologue: A glowing opportunity

• Posted by Teineeva March 2, 2016 - 3,466 views

  DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TEXT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS PERTAINING TO THE QUESTS AND CHARACTERS OF FALLOUT 4. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

  

  October 22, 2077
  

  It was a warm autumn afternoon, of the kind you would only expect in september, but you wouldn’t hear me complaining. I’ve always supposed it’s due to my french heritage but I rarely pass on an opportunity to appreciate the sun. I pushed my chair away from the mahogany desk I was working at and walked to the window. A fresh box of cigars waiting for me at it’s sill. Where was my lighter, I thought as I rummaged through my pockets until I felt a familiar shape. I pulled it out and lit my cigar, and without any further delay enjoyed a long and well deserved smoke. The roads of Boston’s financial district were bustling with activity. Corvega’s finest cruised up and down the street, as the men and misses walked by hastily in well pressed suits and denim dresses, like ants afraid of being trampled. I looked away from the streets and gazed at the skyline, the sun had only recently initiated it’s descent but that didn’t stop the bigger powers from proudly showcasing their sophisticated fusion-driven lighting. I grinned at the sight of the Mass fusion building, and it’s disgusting phallic design. I would have to convince someone of taking that disgusting thing down. Anyway, I finished my cigar and turned towards my desk again, extinguishing it in the conveniently position ashtray on my desk. When someone knocked on my door.

   

  What fool decided it was a good idea to disturb me? Better yet, what reason did this fool have? I crushed the cigar butt in frustration and answered. This better be the news I was hoping for.
  

  “Who is it?” I asked calmly.
  

  “It’s me, Grady, Mr Lafoy, I’ve got news about the Winter situation,” A resolute voice replied from the other end of the door.
  

  Asher “Molotov” Grady, was a nasty fellow, got his surname from, you guessed it, throwing molotovs during his first armed robbery. He got a bit smarter and cleaner since, learned to create some more potent explosives, only adding to his nastiness in all honesty. However he was also a very loyal man, and in my world that’s the kind of thing that keeps people alive, at least if they’re loyal to me.
  

  “Well come in then and stop wasting my time,” I roared at the door.
  

  The door opened and Grady slipped in without any further noise. If he didn’t work for me, he would’ve scared me but the news he brought was going to be important. He was a disgusting man, sunken eyes, blistered lips and a sickening composure made him what he was, I often wondered if I would have done better offing him instead of offering him a job. I sat down at my desk and lit another cigar, signaling grady to speak.
  

  “Sir, we’ve gotten the results from Winter’s experiment. It’s not good,” Grady stated.
  

  “I take it he was successful, the bastard will outlive me. Well played Eddy, well played,” I replied, sipping at my cigar.
  

  “Well Mr Lafoy, Yes and No. The experiment’s main goal was a success, but there were complications. I’ll let you see for yourself,” Grady interjected, producing an unsealed medical profile from his suitcase.
  

  I read through it quickly, skimming over most of the details. Eddy Winter, my only rival in the city had injected himself with an experimental drug. A so-called immortality serum of some description, this I knew. What I didn’t know or expected for that matter were the side-effects of said serum. The pictures of his gruesomely disfigured skin and face were even more sickening than Grady’s distinctive aroma, a disgusting blend of petrol and fertiliser. However they made me smile.
  

  Winter had thought he would outlive me, but looking at these photos, there was no doubt that he would probably not survive the next day. Those burns would get infected no matter how many stimpaks, Buffout and Med-x doses you pumped into his system.
  

  “Sir, I can’t imagine how you can smile at that sight, I was told I am cold, but I lost my lunch seeing those,” Grady uttered in surprise.
  
  

  “That’s why you work for me and not the other way around. Spread the word, we are having a party tonight, in honour of Eddy’s death,” I smiled. Tonight it was going to be official.
  

  With Eddy out of the way and my deal with the Cabbots, there were no obstacles left to my rule. From tomorrow onwards Boston would be mine.
  

  I rushed Grady out the door and slammed it shut. It was time for my first dose. I looked at the great portrait of Napoleon hanging behind my desk and took it off the wall. The safe behind it was rather small but it didn’t need to be any bigger. I entered the combination and opened it. It was filled with stacks of money and the diamond necklace I had bought for my wife, an early anniversary gift. But the most important part was of course the hidden switch installed behind the backpanel, no one looked for a hidden switch in a safe, especially not the kind that opened another safe. I pushed it and watched as one of the walls of my office began to shift and opened into a large walk-in vault.

   

  The place was bullet, explosion, laser and radiation proof and stocked with enough supplies to get me through at least twenty years of isolation, mostly books of course. It was an ingenious thing this serum the Cabbots had so gently “provided”. It would keep me alive for all eternity and that without the pains of having to eat or drink for survival. I walked into the vault and picked up a small steel crate and opened it. It was filled with Cabbot serum, no clue where they got it, but I had seen the proof. Although it was quite the surprise waking up next to an elderly Imogen.
  

  I grabbed one of the seringues and pushed it into my heart. Well that was off to a good start, I hated the feeling already. Tomorrow I would go home to sanctuary and give Mrs Lafoy her gift, before I officially terminate our relationship.
  

  October 23, 2077
  

   

  I don't want to set the world on fire

  I just want to start a flame in your heart

  In my heart I have but one desire

  And that one is you no other will do

   

  I've lost all ambition for wordly acclaim

  I just want to be the one you love

  And with your admission that you feel the same

  I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of believe me

  I don't want to set the world on fire

  I just want to start a flame in your heart

   

  I love the inkspots, a great band, a classic maybe but very insightful. Most of all I loved listening to them, lying on my favourite sofa as my holoplayer crackles away. I didn’t want to start reading yet, after all my stay in here would probably be longer than I initially believed.

   

  This morning I prepared to go and kill my wife, and now not only I won’t have to, but I would be mad to even try and go outside. I looked at the diamonds displayed on the coffee table next to me. Mrs Lafoy would have to wait for her parting gift. I laughed, if there would be anything more than a charred carcass left behind I would eat my hat, not that I planned to. I would need to have a hat to begin with.

   

  Armageddon had this particular characteristic of wiping the slates clean. I was close enough to my personal vault when the bombs hit to escape the blast, but I was pretty sure the building it used to be in wasn’t in as good a state as I. And well, except maybe for those pour souls in the Vaults and those idiots on their oil rig, nothing was.

   

  When I planned on outliving Eddy and my crew, I didn’t plan on outliving mankind, the apocalypse turned out to be a curious twist. I had seen it coming, the big powers were getting anxious. Hell even I possess a nuclear arsenal, but it’s far from what the Chinese and the good old patriots of our beautifully ruined US of A have been building up over the last few decades. I just never expected them to be stupid enough to use it. What were they thinking? That they would just survive Armageddon, that the target wouldn’t try and defend itself, even if it was only a very pathetic and desperate effort of mutual self-destruction?

   

  I shouldn’t be complaining. This might be the golden opportunity I was waiting for. I would just have to wait and see.

   

  After all, how did that saying go: “A gentlemen is only a patient wolf”. I already was a gentlemen, now all I would have to do was to become a very patient wolf.

   

  Boston would soon be mine for the taking.