Steel Waste

The convoy started moving, with the men and women in Power armour on the outskirts to act like human shields to protect the more vulnerable members and pack animals.

It was difficult for Afton to get a glimpse of anything as they started moving, his vision obscured by the many heavily armoured people... Occasionally you'd hear the discharging of their weaponry, probably against hostile creature too stupid to retreat against such a force.​​

Christine and her mother kept Verna company, the former constantly trying to play and interact with Afton. He placated her by giving a smile every once in a while, but quickly got bored of the journey and fell asleep. There wasn't really anything he could do, he couldn't work his muscles or voice as he was being carried 24/7. He could only hope they'd arrive at their destination in a timely manner.

The convoy continued walking, eventually reaching a cracked but still somewhat usable highway and heading down it. Their base had been situation nearby the highway but still out of view, allowing them easy access to the resources in the region.

The journey took around four weeks, people were getting fed up of walking after the second but there wasn't really all that much they could do about it. It was their Elder's command so they had to obey.

Another thing that Afton noticed was the fact that campfires had to be snuffed out immediately after they were done using them. He caught whispers that the smoke would attract "attention", from whom he had no idea.

Fortunately, the new Brotherhood of Steel base seemed to be relatively well built, they'd begun staying inside the basements of houses that'd now been reduced to rubble. It'd taken a while for them to connect them together via underground passages, but they managed fairly well, this procedure was apparently part of their training.

The location of the basements themselves were atop a large hill that had various places for patrols to keep out of sight when they leave. Security was massively increased from usual as well, almost constant patrols to keep watch of their surroundings.

Afton noticed that many people weren't happy with their new home though, thinking that the relocation was unnecessary and foolish. Of course, they would never air those sentiments in public, luckily no one thought Afton capable of understanding them, allowing him to slowly and sneakily build a picture of how everything was going.

A year had passed since Afton had been born into this world, his birthday had been celebrated by his parents and their friends but he himself was not interested in it at all. He'd ended up losing his temper at the monotonous boredom that being a baby provided and started speaking single words when he reached eight months old...

This had a few unexpected results, one of which was everyone calling him gifted as he was the youngest they'd ever recorded being able to speak, even in a limited capacity at eight months. Afton made sure to only say single words as speaking full sentences would definitely get him in trouble.

He only realised his mistake when he was placed with other children at a similar age to himself... They were able to walk for a couple seconds but were only capable of saying "Bye", or "Mama" and other similar things. Compared to him who was easily able to walk around, show proper understanding and complex thought? They were like literal potato's...

His parents had been incredibly proud of him due to this, and he found it amusing when the other parents gave subdued congratulations to them. If he were in their position he'd be disappointed too, their child was obviously outclassed by another's, still, trying to compete with your children was selfish and stupid.

Now that he was able to question things he'd been able to gather specific information, though, the answers he received were always given in a way a child would understand, making it incredibly annoying to talk to anyone...

His father continued reading the Codex to him, allowing him to understand more about it than before... The Brotherhood of Steel had one singular purpose, the collection, understanding, and protection of technology, keeping it out of the hands of savages who'd use it to destroy and commit atrocities.

Afton agreed with this, for the most part, power needed to be regulated to stop tyrants from rising up and laying waste to everything in their paths... The only problem was, what would happen if the Brotherhood became the tyrants?

He quickly learned not to question the Codex or the Brotherhood's integrity... His father had been shocked that he would question the Codex, and he could sense that if he were a few years older he'd have been heavily punished.

The Codex was akin to a sacred text to the Brotherhood and questioning it was heresy. His father told a few stories about what happened to deserters, always making them seem evil and unjust for going against hem. Clearly, they were meant to indoctrinate the younger generations to their way of thinking. Had Afton not been a reincarnated person he most likely would be completely dedicated to the Codex like everyone else.

After his birthday he'd been given an opportunity to start expanding his knowledge, while he couldn't let anyone know he was able to read at only a yearold, his new mobility allowed him to sneak around and gain access to some of the terminals nearby his room.

Terminals themselves were just boxes with screens that functioned as the first computers did in his original world, it annoyed him that these things were so slow and limited, but he'd have to make due. They were usually only used to keep sensitive data stored, sometimes being used to locked and open doors and other things.

He was now usually kept in a place with some of the other younger children, but he wasn't worried about them ratting him out as all of them weren't even able to walk properly yet. Still, he had to be incredibly careful, especially since security was so heavy now.