» Fri May 13, 2011 7:47 pm
Chapter 4 And I thought MY day svcked...
We kept walking south, the girl was a friggin’ boyscout, somehow. She had a map, compass, and a bunch of medical supplies gathered up in that purse of hers. It was grey now, but looked to have been made of leather, with a gold clip to keep it closed. Someone must’ve really cared about her…
This time I started the conversation: “What’s your name?”
“Wha...who, me?”
“No one else to talk to, you never told me your name.”
“It doesn’t really matter, now, does it? I mean nothing but survival matters now.”
“Being remembered matters, being known, truste-”
“It’s Sarah. Sarah Moraine.”
Moraine hit me. I recognized Moraine. I don’t know why, but Sarah looked away now and didn’t seem to want to talk. I honored it, for now.
We walked on until we came to a white sign, the paint peeling of the letters themselves, which were of lead-based paint. It read “Welcome to Ill~nois” with an E painted at the end. [~ = words/letters scratched out]
“Ill Noise, eh?”
“Now it is…” Her voice trailed off as bloodcurdling screams pierced the air…And twenty men came from a dead-looking bunker, all dressed in makeshift leather armor, wielding a strange assortment of weapons. Purposefully they turned from us, and looked toward an area of still-standing buildings. One young-looking boy came toward us.
“My name’s Larry- that’s the most I’m trusting y’all to help us, you look better armed and we’re in trouble ammo-wise.”
I got closer to the frail thing “Why would we help you?”
“Because we OWN the metro, which is the safest way to wherever you’re headed.”
Sarah piped up “How do we know you’re not gonna’ just kill us after?”
“Because we’re a cleanup unit from the Enclave.”
Me: rather confused: “Enclave?”
“We’re what’s left of the U.S. Army. We haven’t had our power armor sufficiently sent out to us- it’s on a vertibird brought down by a large hostile force of raiders who have gained the ghouls as allies”
“Ya lost me at raiders- please explain”
“Shut up; put your sights on target.” He said and began to take position behind a convenient burnt-out car. I took point in front of him, and looked over the edge, then handed my pistol to Sarah, who sat next to me looking dumb. “They’re coming!” The kid yelled, and then I saw the enemy. About thirty people in wicked-looking armor making them look bigger than life. Armed, rifles, no way to tell how much ammo they have. Some with wicked looking spears, others with Rippers…
Four of our ranks ran out and charged –no one’s telling us the plan! - and were each ripped apart by laser rifles. A test. Someone to the right of us fired a single bullet from a sniper rifle; it ricocheted off his chest plate into his helmet, dispatching one of the bastards. “Flamer!” a guy yelled, and then he ran from his cover, and was shot down. The sniper looked hopeful. He mouthed “Last two” to the guy behind cover to his left, who had a commander’s hat on. He fired a bullet perfectly into the flamer-wielding raider’s napalm canister. He exploded, causing about five losses on their’ part, and sixth guy was on fire, but ignored it. Shrapnel from the explosion killed a guy near him, who was on our side, trying to ambush them. His yell got his two helpers mercilessly killed by the next one nearest them, who fired most of a cell into the guys.
The raider group was past us, and none of us got noticed. Larry whispered “now” I got up, and creep-ran toward the last guy, put my AR an inch or so from his back near a patch of over-heated armor. I fired, and as I did, I shoved my rifle into the guy’s back and waited for the Ringing to stop, meaning bullets were flying through the guys’ armor. When that happened, I pivoted the rifle back and forth, alternating which second I pulled the trigger, hoping to increase my accuracy and waste as few bullets as possible. My rifle jammed at 15 rounds, and I quickly leaned the guy’s body against mine, checked my gun, and a piece of his spine had fell into the chamber.
I tried to fire to dislodge it, but the piece allowed no air pressure to build up. I threw the gun in disgust, and it went off, the bullet hit a guy in the back of the left shin, crippling him, and the bone hit his shoulder, causing the pain to at least knock him out. I dragged the rifle with my foot, and looked at the laser rifle my cover was holding. I grabbed it, leaned down and grabbed my 10 bullet AR, threw the body away and hoped for the best.
No one was standing in front of me. One guy was running away, seeming to have ditched the armor. I decided to let him live, as did everyone else. There were spears in armor; we took another six casualties, two of them my blind firing. Eight guys, and Sarah trembling next to the car, were looking at me.
“Nice job.”, “Smart move”, and “What the hell happened” came from the guys there. We all started looting, I grabbed a bunch of AR ammo, and loaded it into clips, next body I grabbed a frag, and a plasma grenade, but passed it to the guy looting the corpse to my left, plasma weapons are too unstable. I got up and looked around, and said “Where to?”
Sarah came closely behind me; the men were giving her dangerous looks.