After Afton's shift was done he left and headed to the armoury, he was planning to escape at night when most people were resting. Though, this brought a few problems. The armoury was locked tighter than a nun's chastity belt, so he wouldn't be able to grab a suit of Power armour on his way out. Not to mention he'd almost immediately be hunted down by the NCR if he wore something like that.

The best he could do was to try and steal a weapon and some ammo, unfortunately, the person currently manning the armoury was Sandra Torres. Someone who he'd formed a relatively close friendship with through the years. ​​

If he stole something, she'd undoubtedly be punished for it, maybe even exiled depending on what he stole. The Brotherhoods "duty" was to keep all harmful technology out of regular peoples hands, so losing advanced weaponry would top the list of things not to do.

Of course, if he were to request a weapon and leave before handing it back in, it wouldn't be her fault. The only problem with that was, only those on the security detail were allowed to carry large weapons out of the armoury, as there was no need for a regular Knight or Scribe to have something like that aside form target practise.

He walked into the shooting range where a Knight was sat behind a terminal, logging who'd come in, their ammo reserves, and other boring stuff. He ignored them and headed straight for the armoury window where Torres was standing with a fed up look on her face. "Something wrong Sandra?" he asks.

[Speech Check: Succeeded!]

His brow twitches a the notification but she doesn't seem to notice, he swears he'll find a way to turn this damn thing off once he retrieves the Pipboy... Hopefully there is an "offswitch".

Sandra jumps slightly in surprise, having been lost in her thoughts and not noticed someone approach, "Er-oh! Afton?... No, nothing wrong... Well, by nothing I actually mean everything in this Maxon-forsaken bunker." she mutters.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asks, ignoring the 'failed Speech Check'

She shakes her head, "No... but..." she glances at the Knight sitting in the corner and starts speaking in a low tone, "I can see you've finally decided to move."

...

"Huh?" he asks, hoping she wasn't referring to what he thought she was.

Sandra crosses her arms and gives him a dirty look, "You're leaving right? It's pretty obvious for those close to you youknow?"

Afton gets closer and quickly whispers to her, "How do you know about that?"

Sandra shrugs, "The way you talk and act nowadays, seems like everything you do is halfhearted... Plus the way you occasionally glance at the door no-matter where you are is kind of a give away." she explains.

...

He sighs, "Who else knows about this?" he asks.

"Hm, maybe Miles? I doubt he'd say anything though, If Veronica were here she'd be able to tell too." she says while tapping her chin with an index finger.

"Well... Are you going to try and stop me?"

She shakes her head, "No, why would I? Every day I dream of leaving this place, I've never been that keen on the Codex, especially after seeing what'd happened to Christine, aswell as at Helios One. I just can't bring myself to leave, you're a lot braver than I am Afton."

"Would you be willing to... Give me a gun and some ammo? I'll probably need it for whatever is outside." he asks, eyeing the huge amount of weaponry behind the girl.

She slowly nods, "I can but... I'm not able to give you anything substantial... Hmm, maybe..." she mutters to herself as she thinks. "I've got an idea." she says with a sly smirk.

Sandra walks into the back and disappears behind some shelves for a couple minutes before coming back and handing him a Gauss Rifle.

"This..." he mutters, having no idea why she'd give him this, he'd be immediately stopped by the Knight at the desk.

Sandra ignores his doubtful expression and explains her plan, "That, is your 'mothers' weapon, it's was heavily damaged and you wanted to repair it yourself... Or at least, that's what you'll tell Jeffrey over there. He lost his family in Helios One too, I doubt he'll stop you."

Afton slowly nods at her, this was rather... Brilliant, as the both Torres and the Knight would see him walk out with it, neither would be blamed for him stealing it, they'd assume he repaired it and never returned it, allowing both to remain unpunished... Still, it was quite the risk Sandra was taking for him.

She then hands him a small box filled to the brim with Microfusion Cells, ammunition for the Gauss rifle. No one would notice its absence as they had a ridiculous amount of ammo stored up. This was mainly due to the fact that they recycle every single cell that's used.

Afton slings the Gauss rifle over his shoulder and takes the box while nodding at Torres, "Thanks... I'm going to miss you guys..." he admits.

Sandra smiles at him, "We'll miss you too Afton, you've done a lot for us... Melissa might be a bit angry that you left her behind though," she leans in, "She's got a crush on you."

...

"Huh." Afton murmurs, he hadn't noticed. Well, she was beautiful but he didn't think they'd suit each other, it was annoying enough to be her friend, let alone her lover. It didn't matter anymore though, he'd be gone by tomorrow. "See you later Sandra, maybe we'll see each other again someday." he says as he turns and heads for the door, immediately getting stopped by Knight Jeffrey. He gave the explanation Sandra had given and he was immediately let past.

[Speech Check: Succeeded]

Damn it.