FFF - Ch76

“Your powers of observation have recovered as nicely as the rest of you.” Curio calmly takes Shell by the hand and leads her back to the table. “Sit. Let’s have a look at you. No, not at that. Follow my fingers.”

Curio has no difficulty de-escalating Shell, who quickly gets past her initial shock. She has enough sense to know that this is a small price to pay for recovering from such devastating wounds. Her internal organs are intact; her bones are no longer broken. Her skull is no longer cracked. She’s not even concussed.

Indeed, she quickly comes around to looking at it another way. She’s almost forgotten about the penis as she tucks it into a clean pair of underwear and dresses.

“What did she give me? And how can I get more? This needs to come back with me to the Sisterhood,” she’s saying to Curio, who is examining her blood under the microscope.

“I’ll happily provide some,” Annette says. “But I’ll need more time to perfect the formula.”

“Don’t engage with her right now. We’ve over things to worry about,” Curio tells her.

“Like what?” Shell buckles her pants and reaches for a shirt.

“Does the Enclave have the means to control a Deathclaw?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. There are rumors from the Capital Chapter of something like that. I’ve never seen it.”

“There’s a dead one in the sublevel now, remember? The device is sophisticated and bolted to the creature’s skull. We’ll have to take a closer look.”

“No,” Annette cuts in, “We have to fortify the laboratory.”

“No,” Curio fires back. “We don’t. There’s nothing we can do to keep something like that out. Unless we can control it ourselves. Ergo, the way to proceed is to examine the device. Have you ever been to the surface, Annette?”

There’s a long silence.

“I have,” Annette says, sounding almost hesitant. It’s not very convincing, yet it also doesn’t sound like a lie. Jane frowns, puzzled.

“Don’t argue with me,” Curio says.

“I’m still in charge here.”

“You’ll be in charge of three corpses if you don’t listen. I’m finished for today. You look to be all right,” Curio adds to Shell, patting her shoulder.

“If we get that domestication unit off that thing, that’ll have to go home with me too,” Shell says to Curio’s back as the redhead makes for the door. She gets to her feet and starts to follow but stops, looking down at herself. “God, this is so weird. How do you two even move with these things?”

“It never bothered me,” Jane replies.

“You’ll get used to it,” Curio adds.

“You might even like it,” Annette suggests innocently.

“Shut up!” Shell snaps. “OK, I’m hungry.”