An idea that occurred to me during one of my other stories that mentioned an encounter with a deathclaw in the Glowing Sea.
Enjoy.
The deathclaw came from out of nowhere.
The Glowing Sea was dangerous, that much was obvious from the radiation alone. But that could be fought, as could most of the beasts that called the region home. Unless one got the drop on you like right now.
How the hell Nathaniel had missed it was anyone's guess. Piper had followed him around a boulder and the enormous claw came swinging at her. Even in power armor, Piper was able to duck under the attack before it took her head off.
Piper's reflexes had her raising the rifle in her hands before thinking twice about it. She fired multiple rounds at the horned head but the deathclaw seemed to shrug them off like she was throwing rocks instead of bullets.
The beast let loose a thunderous roar before charging at her. Piper avoided being ploughed over by diving off to the side. The deathclaw crashed into the same boulder it had been hiding behind. The thing seemed dazed by the self-inflicted blow to the head so Piper took her chance to get some distance.
"Blue shoot now!" Piper yelled but there was no response. "Blue?"
Piper's former vault-dwelling friend was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even a sign of him in any direction, his black power armor suit should have been easy to see. To make matters worse, he was carrying their missile launcher just for occasions like this one.
Before the reporter could shout for him again, another yell reached her ears. The deathclaw had recovered.
"Shit!" Piper hissed as she opened fire again on the monster coming for her again. This time she aimed for its legs hoping to cripple it. She might stand a chance if she could slow the thing down. But her attempts were for naught, the deathclaw dashed back and forth actually dodging most of Piper's shots.
Piper was so distracted trying to hit it, she didn't see how close the deathclaw was until it was too late. The spiked tail whipped forth and clocked her right in the torso section of her armor. The blow would have been fatal if not for the thick steel plating. But she had another problem in the form of being knocked back, where a giant claw scored another hit to her arm.
There was no containing the scream of pain from Piper lips. The hit had severed most of the arm section of her armor but the claws only grazed her flesh. The impact however, might have dislocated the limb. It was hard to tell but what she did know was that it hurt like hell.
If Piper thought it could get worse, she was right. The display on her visor was flashing red with where her armor had been damaged. Most of it around her chest, but the arm on her HUD showed it was gone. The seals keeping out the radiation had been breached flooding her suit within moments.
The only saving grace was that her dislocated arm was her left. Being right handed, she could still shoot one handed by using the strength of the armor with her functional arm. Which she did, pointblank into the deathclaws face. The creature howled in agony as one of her bullets struck its eye making the beast retreat back.
There was no winning here, Piper figured that much out quickly. While the deathclaw was reeling in pain, Piper made a break for it in the last direction she'd seen Nathaniel go.
Where had Nathaniel gone? It wasn't like him to just leave her like this. The only reason Piper could dream of was something attacked him too at the same time and he was physically incapable of helping her while he fended off his own threat. But wouldn't she have heard the sound of the missile launcher?
The possibility that Nathaniel was taken out before he could fire a shot entered Piper's mind, but she was too terrified of the thought to want to imagine it.
Piper didn't make it far before a claw swipe caught her going up her back all the way to her neck. Her visor flashed again as Piper felt pieces of her armor being torn away. Thank god it somehow missed her fusion core, otherwise the armor would have crapped out within a second. The shock of the hit made Piper drop her rifle without realizing it.
In a last act of desperation, Piper wheeled around and swung a right hook to the deathclaw into its snarling face. But the punch did next to nothing, it responded by driving its claws straight through the damaged portion of Piper's front armor. She was only able to push her body partially to the side, the sharpened points tore through the meat of her side like it was paper. In the process it broke loose another large chunk of her metal protection.
The pain was instant, but the severity of the wound was missed by Piper until she saw the sheer amount of blood coating her attackers claws and arm. That was before another swing of those monstrous weapons tore through her chest armor, and by extension more of her flesh.
Another scream was let loose by Piper as she felt the blades ripping into her. The last hit was the one that knocked her down flat on her back. Unable to rise from a horrible combination of pain and damage to her power armor.
By now the radiation had begun to soak into her badly wounded body. Breathing had become difficult as her body soaked up the radiation. The blood she was starting to cough up was either from exposure, or the grievous injuries she suffered.
The deathclaw was ripping open her armor now. As if Piper was some canned meat the animal hungered for. Her vision for some reason was going blurry, once her armor was pried open did Piper find out why. The entire inside of the suit was flooded with fresh blood, it stained her clothes, her skin. There was so much of it, Piper didn't know how she was still conscious. For that matter, she didn't think a person could have this much in their body.
If only she'd passed out already, because she would have been happy with never having to see a deathclaw this close. It was already salivating at the chance for a meal, the foul liquid dripping onto Piper. She could smell its rotted breath blowing over her face.
"Blue... where are you..." Piper whimpered, her voice barely a whisper. It was all the strength she could manage.
Where was Nathaniel? He had to of known Piper was in danger, if her screams didn't alert him her gunshots had to. He always came running when she was in danger, it was something Piper had come to rely on since they started traveling together. The fact that she felt so safe in his presence was one of the main reasons she had ever entertained the idea of a journey into the Glowing Sea.
As Piper's body began to give out, her head lolled to the side where she received the shock of her life. A familiar suit of black power armor was sitting on a nearby rock. A missile launcher draped across its lap. The helmet was expressionless, but the armored person gave her a little wave.
That was the last sight Piper ever had, her last feeling was that of the deathclaw's yellowed fangs biting into the meat of her neck...
Shooting up to a sitting position, Piper let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Her eyes frantically scanned the area around her for any signs of a deathclaw but she found none.
Piper wasn't even in the Glowing Sea, she was laying in a bed with a thin sheet wrapped around her scantily clad body. Her skin covered in a thin sheen of icy sweat. No power armor, no deathclaws. Piper couldn't find any bleeding wounds on her body, save a split lip that felt recent.
Air was coming in ragged gasps as Piper struggled to get her breathing even remotely under control. It wasn't until she felt a pair of thin but strong arms wrap around her middle did Piper even manage to start calming down.
"Shh, you're okay. I gotcha." Hearing that familiar voice whispering in her ear allowed Piper to relax a little. "Just a bad dream, you're okay."
"Blue..." Piper sniffled and turned so she could press herself into Nathaniel's chest. Her breathing began to even out while his fingertips slowly ran along her spine, his others tracing small circles into the bare skin of her lower back.
A nightmare, that was all it was. Piper will always remember the deathclaw that nearly ended her life months ago in the Glowing Sea. But she hadn't been alone that day. Nathaniel didn't leave her to die, he fought to protect her.
Didn't help matters that the dream was so vivid. From the smell of rotten meat on the deathclaw's breath to the feel of its razors slicing into her body.
"Do you want to try and go back to sleep?" Nathaniel's voice was a gentle sound that washed over Piper like a breath of cold air on a hot day.
The only answer Piper gave was a near wild shake of her head.
"Okay." Nathaniel shifted so that his back was to the headboard with Piper using his lap for a pillow. She closed her eyes at the feel of his fingers sliding through her brunette tresses. It took some time but eventually Piper was able to relax enough to get her mind off the dream.
Terrifying nightmares were nothing new for either of them. More than a few times their positions had been reversed, with Piper being the one to offer comfort when needed. It was an unspoken agreement they'd had after the first couple nightmares.
The Commonwealth was not the nicest of places, more than enough things happened daily to make a person lose sleep. Especially if a man was forced to indirectly murder their own son like Nathaniel had done. Piper would have been more concerned if her boyfriend didn't have bad dreams.
Moving so that she lay on her back, Piper looked up at Nathaniel. The images from her dream were still vivid but with Nathaniel so close they were nothing Piper couldn't endure.
"Yes dear?" Nathaniel never ceased playing with Piper's hair, something she was grateful for. The feel helped ground her in reality.
"You'd never leave me, right Blue?" Piper knew the answer, but she badly needed to hear it.
Nathaniel slid an arm beneath her and lifted her up so he could press his lips to hers in a kiss that was gentle, but still managed to take Piper's breath away. With lips still brushing against hers, he whispered a single word. "Never."
Piper's face lip up with a grin as she brought a hand up to tangle in Nathaniel's hair. "I love you Blue."
Nathaniel had opened his mouth to respond but Piper gripped his hair and pulled him down into another passionate kiss.
"Love you too Piper." Nathaniel whispered against the reporter's lips before claiming her lips once more.
Let me know how I did.