Mark said, "It appears that when you shot the Radscorpion with your pistol, your bullets impacting with the inner side of the exoskeleton sliced up its innards like an internal shotgun blast."

"Well, that's nice to know, it got a bit blurry for me in that fight." Nathan kicked the scorpion, it twitched "Saint said we had to give back the weapons we got if we did not win, he said nothing about weapons we gain here." Nathan looked at Mark and then over to Ren "Want a weapon you can keep?"

Mark said, "Sure, why not?"

Nathan walked over to the dead scorpion and gripped one of the broken legs, one hand on either side of the joint, and began snapping it back and forth until with a squelch the limb tore off trailing several ligaments "Can't say it will help much but it is sharper then that bat at least." looking back at the thing Nathan noticed something " Do you think the bottom half of that scorpion looks like a shield?" Nathan asked while flipping the creature over.

Saracen Saul watched Tom's expert knifework and then followed him out of the lift. Soon they would be battling more ghouls. He glanced over to Eddie.

"Save your ammo for the Radscorpions. If your a good a shot as I hope you can disable their stingers so Tom and I can fight them safely." He said plainly.

Saracen Saul seemed unafraid of the ghouls who where noticing Team Three one by one and heading toward them. He hefted a rock onto the shovel and then lobbed it in an arc at the nearest ghoul like a catapult. The decent sized rock sailed higher than he could have thrown it and then rained back down toward the ghoul.

"Heahaha" The ghoul swore as it ducked the falling stone. The rock struck a boulder and shattered, one fragment sticking into the ghoul's leg harmlessly.

"It was worth a shot." Saracen Saul muttered. He stood his ground as the ghoul neared him. He swung the shovel and it dodged. Saracen Saul followed up his attack with a kick and as the ghoul pounced he drove his bare foot into its chest and knocked it backwards onto its rear.

As soon as it was down he brought the shovel down into its neck severing flesh. A second strike broke its spine and a third decapitated it.

"Alright one down." He looked up. "A dozen to go."

Mark said, "I wouln't recommend using the underbelly, it's normally the weakest part of an animal. I just wish we had something sharp enough to do this properly." Det then pushed over a sharp rock to Mark, who then threw it to Nathan.

Ren hadn't been much help during the fight with the radscorpion. Her mind had been focused on the flags. She noticed one that had been staked on a tall rock, with a few smaller rocks surrounding it.

"I think I see a flag further into the canyon, guys," Ren said as she pointed in the direction of the flag, "It doesn't look like its a nest for any creatures either."

Ren began walking towards the flag on the rock, trying to picture the best way to approach the rock.

Nathan looked over to Ren then back to the scorpion "Lets get this done with quickly then" Nathan took the stone Mark had tossed him and used it as an improvised wedge to widen the hole he had made already in the shell levering a larger chunk of shell out of place on the scorpions underbelly "I ruined the tail in the fight and the back of this thing is already nearly shattered, lets just grab a few legs to make into spears or knives" Nathan looked at mark "I know you have a great deal of knowledge about insects and such so if you have any other ideas tell me."

Mark said, "Just try to cut apart the legs so we can make arm, shoulder, and knee guards."

Nathan nodded, using the wedge shaped rock he pulled the rest of underbelly removing more legs after having one this Nathan took the stone and set it against one edge of the armored legs hammering a split into it and continuing it untill gripping the split sides with a hand and wedging the rock further down before with a snap the entire limb hinged open torn muscle falling out in a large chunk. Nathan took the hinged limb and slid it onto his forearm "Looks like this will work" Nathan said in a surprised tone. He set to work doing the same with the rest of the scorpions limbs at the rate he was going it would take a little under a half an hour to split all the limbs

Mark took the rock from Nathan and cut apart one of the legs to serve as arm guards. He said, "We should hurry up and get that other flag before another team takes it."

Heading away from the area of the canyon populated by Radscorpions, Team Three headed to the next flag. "I think I see it!" Alice called over her shoulder to her teammates. Hmm? What's that? Alice spotted one of the other teams. Lovely, a fight.
"Hold up a sec." she whispered. "One of the other teams is up ahead. Don't attack them right away, we need manpower to escape from here. Killing potential allies won't help. We'll try reason with them first, but if that doesn't work then we're taking them out."

Suddenly, Alice heard the last sound she would have wanted to hear. They turned to see a group of Feral Ghouls behind them. "Ahh, [censored]!" Alice shouted shouted, firing off a shot from her Plasma Rifle, turning one of the Ghoul's head into a pile of goo. They scurried back to get a bit of distance from the Ghouls, Alice's injured leg paining her all the way.

Mark heard the familiar whine of a Plasma Rifle and turned to see Team Two being chased by Feral Ghouls. From Mark's position, he could also see that the woman who positioned herself as leader was running with a limp. He said to Nathan, "I know they're the enemy team, but shouldn't we help them?"

Nathan finished shelling a second leg, completing his upper body armor. Looking to the team in peril of becoming ghoul chow Nathan chuckled "Well if they don't want help we can at least get your gun back after the brawl." looking over his new armored sleeves Nathan added "This will do, should we flag Ren down to help us?"

Mark said, "Yeah, we need all the help we can get."

Tom brought the knife quickly across the ghouls throat, and he fell gurgling to the ground. Tom stepped over him and grabbed a flag that was sticking out from a crevice. As soon as he ripped it from the flag pole, which shook heavily after he yanked off the flag, a radscorpian appeared from the crevice and brought his tail forward. Tom threw himself to the side, landing hard on the canyon floor. He quickly stood and brought the knife down on the giant arachnid's tail which had embedded itself into a rock. The thing pulled its tail away with the stinger still in the rock. Before it could attack him with its pincers Tom stretched his arm down before bringing it up into the radscorpians face. It was pushed backwards from the force of the blow, but the knife, still held by Tom, stopped the scorpian from going. He yanked it out and flicked the knife to clear most of the blood.

Tom glanced over to Eddie who had yet to leave the elevator. "If your not going to do anything, give me the rifle." he said before turning away from him. He didn't have anything against the guy, but if he was going to stay glued to the lift, he might as well give Tom his weapon.

Miller watched Saracen closely as he looked around for more flags. He tried to keep him in front of him at all times. It was one thing when they were unarmed. Tom could deal with the slaver easily when neither of them had a weapon. But now, Saracen Saul had a shovel which could easily snap Tom's spinal cord with one blow from behind. He had to be careful when they were fighting the radscorpions and the ghouls. Tom doubted Saracen would risk their survival in this game by offing either of his teamates, but he couldn't be so sure. He set his sights on a flag ahead of them and pushed toward it.

Saracen Saul kept fighting ghouls. Several lay strewn around him, killed one by one. He looked up and saw that Tom had collected a flag and defeated a small radscorpion.

"Good job!" He called to him. Ghouls climbing towards Tom turned and looked back a Saracen Saul and he started fighting them.

The shade was gone by now and the heat was rising. Saracen's teddy bear tshirt was soaked in sweat and ghoul gore. He finished off the last ghoul and realized as radscorpions were closing in on the scattered team that he hadn't heard any rifle shots.

"Hey I said conserve ammo, not cease fire!" Saracen Saul hoped Eddie would take a few shots.

Two medium sized scorpions were closing in on Saracen Saul from either side.

"A little help Eddie!" He had no escape.

The radscorpions clicked their pincers menacingly and waved their tails ready to inject their venom.

Actions happened in a matter of seconds. Everything was in a blur as Eddie stood with the rifle inside the cage. So much carnage in so little time. What had the world come to? He zoned out for a couple seconds, dazed and confused. With that he remembered his family...'Now son, you got to know how to fire a weapon. You never know what you'll encounter out there until...

"A little help Eddie!!"

It was Saul, trapped by large scorpions of sorts. He took the rifle and aimed it at the one closest to his comrade. 'Now you just look down this barrel here and aim at what you plan on shooting at. Then just click...you did your work. It's the gun's turn to do it's share.' Eddie buckled as he fired the rifle, backfire surprising him a bit. The bullet crushed the one scorpions skull as it dropped to the murky ground, seemingly paralyzed by the blast. He motioned to Saul to move as he was no longer cornered. He ran quickly as the other scorpion soon followed.

The first shot was a lucky one. He couldn't make the same one on this other bug...conservation was the key. Eddie pulled the lever on the hunting rifle and took sights at the creature's legs. With a pull of the trigger the scorpion staggered and fell with pain as it's left legs were decimated. Eddie let a sigh of relief as he pulled the lever on the bolt action again. He gave a thumbs up to Saul as he stepped out of the cage. This was the real deal...

"Alright we got ourselves one flag and a good shooter." Saracen Saul spoke after catching his breath.

They regrouped after the skirmish and set out with Tom in the lead as he kept his eyes peeled for more flags. This didn't last long since the man kept slowing down and 'repositioning' himself to where Saracen Saul wasn't behind him. Saracen eventually noticed this behaviour but did little in response. He considered Tom's paranoia to be key in getting a victory out of this team.

Always just a stone's throw away were ghouls roaming around suprisingly disoriented in the bright heat. In the shade radscorpions waited in ambush ignoring the transplanted ghouls.

I wonder how the other teams are doing.

"If all of the flags have been collected the losing teams might just get gunned down. I have seen Saint cash in on spent slaves. He will have us hacked up and the nice parts sold as souveniers." Saracen Saul started talking quietly to his teammates. "We might need to get flags from them if they are all found."

Ren was already at the rock formation when her two partners began flagging her down, she dropped the baseball bat she had been given. She pushed them out for a moment, she need to concentrate. Her legs began peddling faster over the sun baked ground. Soon the formation was a few feet in front of her, she jumped at it, kicking away from it the instant her toes connected with it. Her hands grasped the edge of the shorter rock, and she began to pull herself up.

"That was the tough part," she said to herself aloud.

She looked at the rock the flag was positioned on. It was within her reach, but she felt something was wrong. Ignoring the feeling she jumped up to the taller rock with ease, and plucked the flag from were it stood. Moments later a low hum came from the rock, and it began to crack. Ren quickly leaped to the lower rock, and then off that rock, rolling on her shoulder as she connected with the earth. As she looked back the rock shattered, spraying fragments across the canyon corridor. Ren instinctively covered her eyes, what she saw next surprised her. It was a radscorpion like she had never seen before, its carapace was white and its eyes were pink, it was also much larger than most others. The flag must have set off a trigger opening a cage it was locked in.

Ren didn't have much more time to think, as it smashed the few remaining rocks around it. She took off at a fast pace towards her teammates, the flag clutched tightly in her hand. Ren gave one last glance at the Albino Radscorpion, her bat lay behind it. She cursed, but knew she couldn't do anything as the beast began pursuing her.

"We got big trouble guys!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

Mark took one look at the Albino Radscorpion chasing Ren and said, "The others will have to wait, this thing's our main priority."

Nathan made a non-commital grunt then placed the scorpion in his sight and began lining up shots on joints and unguarded areas. He was admittedly far away from the creature though so the five shots he had fired in succession pinged off the albinos shell with only two dealing minor damage. What the shots did do though was bring the scorpions attention away from Ren.

Tom looked up to view the position of the sun, but his eyes passed over a flag embedded in the rock face. He pointed at it. "Saul, I'll give you a boost to grab the flag" he said, a bit encouraged by the idea of Saint shooting them once the flags were all gone "Eddie, cover us with the rifle just in case." Tom walked over and put his back to the wall, holding out his cupped hands, ready to boost him up. The people looking down were cheering, but at the other teams. Tom assumed that meant they were fighting something.

Saracen Saul cooperated and took the boost. Survival required teamwork. Hopefully the other teams were being taken out by oversized radscorpions or each other, although he doubted that.

He found another foothold slightly higher up and continued climbing. He could almost reach the flag. Suddenly a small reddish radscorpion popped out from a hidden ledge just above him.

"[censored] father of all flamingos!" Saracen Saul shared some of his colorful slaver profanity with his team.

With matching clicks the red radscorpion attacked with its pincers. The ex slaver couldn't move but tossed his head from side to side trying to dodge the slicing attacks. Then the tail swung over but failed to stick him. Rather it hooked his teddy bear t shirt and tore it free waving it around like a stripper tossing garments to a cheering crowd.

"Shoot the bloody monster!" Saracen Saul urged Eddie.

The red radscorpion responded to his voice with more pincer attacks. One got him on top of his left shoulder and held on. The second pincer fumbled for a grip also but instead snipped Saracen Saul's right ear.

Saracen Saul screamed bloody murder after that, held in the small scorpion's grip. He let out a long string of swear words and oaths that would have made even a raider blush. Mixed in his painful noises were more commands to shoot the scorpion. It didn't occur to him in his peril that Eddie might not have a clear shot.

A second sting hit the flag in it's deadly arc and dislodged it. Frustrated the red radscorpion caught Saracen Saul's right shoulder and raised it's venom dripping tail for the kill...

Aerts saw that Saul was in trouble. He cursed to himself as he realized that he couldn't get the shot. The screams of agony from atop only agitated Eddie as he attempted to get a better aim. Soon he was able to see the scorpion as it raised it's tail to strike Saracen. Eddie knew that merely shooting the bug wouldn't halt it from piercing his comrade's flesh. It was now or never...the tail.

Eddie took aim through the rustic metal sight at the stinger. With a pull of the trigger Aerts saw a gushing fountain of some sort of green liquid, perhaps poison, as the stinger disconnected from the scorpion. An unearthly screech resonated through the canyon crevice with the scorpion finally scuttling back to lick its wounds.