Farragut West
As Ellen picked her way carefully along the fringes of the radioactive mud that had once been part of the Potomac, she wished- not for the first time- that she'd just waited for a caravan to arrive at Megaton. Darn it, even Crazy Wolfgang the junk seller would've been a better choice than trying to find Rivet City by herself- but he wasn't due in Megaton for days, and Ellen was starting to get antsy about the delay in setting out to find her father. So she'd gotten Moira to mark Rivet City's approximate location on her Pip-Boy, extracted a general description of the area from the tinkerer, and set out on foot herself.
Now the mud sucking at her boots kept setting off her Geiger counter. Off in the distance she was sure she could hear the clicking trills of mirelurks. And there were raiders about, she'd seen their footprints-
Zang! went a bullet past her ear. She flinched sideways hard, grabbing for her laser pistol as blood started to flow from the graze. The not-quite-sane raucous cackle that followed was much too close for her liking. Her finger was already tensing on the trigger as she spun around to meet the source, a half-naked man clad in ragged leather and spikes. "Call the doctor," he said, his voice muffled by the gas mask fused to his helmet. "We've got a bleeder!"
Ellen thought that was rather unfair, as he'd only grazed her, but there was really no reasoning with the man.
When it was all over there were three more corpses in the stinking mud alongside the first. The mad laugher had been the best armed of the lot; his female companion had wielded a vicious-looking knife, and the other two had only small-caliber pistols to show for their pains. None of them had much armor on, either- had much of anything on, if she was being honest. Spiked leather and vinyl over the thighs, support cups at the groin and chest, a few straps, but no real armor that Ellen could see. She herself was wearing the dead mercenary's armor, carrying her shotgun openly across her back and the laser pistol at her hip; was that why they'd all come at her at once? Strength in numbers, to compensate?
She'd never know. It probably didn't matter. Ellen bit her lip a moment before bending down to lay them all straight. For all that they'd been trying to kill her, she still didn't feel right just leaving corpses the way they fell. As she closed the woman's eyes, she caught sight of a couple of stimpaks shoved syringe-first into a wide band of leather on her side, and took them. The dead needed no medicines.
Ellen straightened up at the last and bowed her head briefly to pray.
"Game's over, human!" thundered a deep, strained voice; her head jerked up, eyes wide. The figure loping towards her was human-shaped, mostly, but its skin was a sick yellow-green. It moved more swiftly than a human, too, and it bulged all over with muscles nothing natural could have produced. It hefted a gigantic hammer-like weapon with alarming ease. "I'll eat your brain!"
Ellen leapt backwards, the war-sledge missing her by inches. Laser pistol forgotten, she ran, fumbling for her shotgun and wondering if it even stood a chance of working. That creature ("Hurry up and die!" it howled, and the hammer swung again. "I'm hungry!") could only be one thing: a true mutant, a child of the apocalypse. The shotgun might not be enough. Damn it, she hadn't brought grenades- well, no help for that now-
Ah. It might be green, but its blood was as red as any human's. It screamed and swung the sledge again, ignoring the blood pouring down the front of its hairless, gnarled torso. Ellen shuddered and fired again, and again, and a third time. Something made a wet, nasty plap sound. For a brief, irrational instant she thought a hammer blow had landed- but the sound had come from behind her- and was that her Geiger counter ticking?
There was another plap!. Ellen fired again on the mutant and spun to face the source of the noise as the thing collapsed.... and very nearly dropped her gun in shock at the sight.
Now the mud sucking at her boots kept setting off her Geiger counter. Off in the distance she was sure she could hear the clicking trills of mirelurks. And there were raiders about, she'd seen their footprints-
Zang! went a bullet past her ear. She flinched sideways hard, grabbing for her laser pistol as blood started to flow from the graze. The not-quite-sane raucous cackle that followed was much too close for her liking. Her finger was already tensing on the trigger as she spun around to meet the source, a half-naked man clad in ragged leather and spikes. "Call the doctor," he said, his voice muffled by the gas mask fused to his helmet. "We've got a bleeder!"
Ellen thought that was rather unfair, as he'd only grazed her, but there was really no reasoning with the man.
When it was all over there were three more corpses in the stinking mud alongside the first. The mad laugher had been the best armed of the lot; his female companion had wielded a vicious-looking knife, and the other two had only small-caliber pistols to show for their pains. None of them had much armor on, either- had much of anything on, if she was being honest. Spiked leather and vinyl over the thighs, support cups at the groin and chest, a few straps, but no real armor that Ellen could see. She herself was wearing the dead mercenary's armor, carrying her shotgun openly across her back and the laser pistol at her hip; was that why they'd all come at her at once? Strength in numbers, to compensate?
She'd never know. It probably didn't matter. Ellen bit her lip a moment before bending down to lay them all straight. For all that they'd been trying to kill her, she still didn't feel right just leaving corpses the way they fell. As she closed the woman's eyes, she caught sight of a couple of stimpaks shoved syringe-first into a wide band of leather on her side, and took them. The dead needed no medicines.
Ellen straightened up at the last and bowed her head briefly to pray.
"Game's over, human!" thundered a deep, strained voice; her head jerked up, eyes wide. The figure loping towards her was human-shaped, mostly, but its skin was a sick yellow-green. It moved more swiftly than a human, too, and it bulged all over with muscles nothing natural could have produced. It hefted a gigantic hammer-like weapon with alarming ease. "I'll eat your brain!"
Ellen leapt backwards, the war-sledge missing her by inches. Laser pistol forgotten, she ran, fumbling for her shotgun and wondering if it even stood a chance of working. That creature ("Hurry up and die!" it howled, and the hammer swung again. "I'm hungry!") could only be one thing: a true mutant, a child of the apocalypse. The shotgun might not be enough. Damn it, she hadn't brought grenades- well, no help for that now-
Ah. It might be green, but its blood was as red as any human's. It screamed and swung the sledge again, ignoring the blood pouring down the front of its hairless, gnarled torso. Ellen shuddered and fired again, and again, and a third time. Something made a wet, nasty plap sound. For a brief, irrational instant she thought a hammer blow had landed- but the sound had come from behind her- and was that her Geiger counter ticking?
There was another plap!. Ellen fired again on the mutant and spun to face the source of the noise as the thing collapsed.... and very nearly dropped her gun in shock at the sight.