Chapter 1
Chandra headed for the swinging doors of the saloon. On her way out she spared a half-second glance for the whore who was gazing at her with open invitation. She maintained a perfect poker face, but inside she felt the usual mixture of disgust and pity.
Chandra had nothing against women taking each other as lovers, but since people had started emerging from the vaults, it seemed that an increasing number of women went the easy road. Of course, the pity she felt was due to knowing that many women in this Neanderthal-laden new world lacked the courage to fight for a better life. Most who tried ended up rotting amongst the rubble.
Having gotten the information she needed, Chandra walked directly to the closest trader. Several men on the street looked her up and down, as usual, but none made a move. She nearly always dressed to avoid accentuating her curves, but it was still obvious that she was well-endowed in the areas that most men found appealing. More than physical appearance, though, it was her on-a-mission, no-nonsense gait that generally caused men to believe she wasn't worth the trouble. They were right.
Inside the trader's building she was quickly greeted by a man with a bald, muscly head. The rest of his body seemed just as burly.
"Greetings, traveller," he said with a ready smile. "I'm Tristan. What do you need today?"
"Twin shoulder-mounted flashlights and a shock lance," she replied with a smile that was friendly but not inviting. Her standard smile. "I've got my own battery."
Tristan chuckled once knowingly. "Ah, heading out to the Fungus Cave?" he asked. When she nodded curtly, he continued. "Someone comes around looking for a shock lance every few months, so I always keep one on hand when I can. The flashlights, though… those are an ingenious idea for that place." He gave her an appraising look that she knew had nothing to do with ulterior motives. "I don't have any ready-made, but I can rig up some in about ten minutes. What do you have for trade?"
Chandra took off her pack and opened it. Reaching inside, she brought out an unopened pack of cigarettes and a half-used tube of antibiotic ointment. Tristan's eyebrows went up slightly and the corners of his mouth went down, forming an appreciative grimace. Chandra set the items on the counter so he could inspect them.
Once satisfied, Tristan looked up at her. "Deal. Feel free to browse while I work."
Tristan worked fast; Chandra was out the door in eight minutes. The flashlights were in her pack and the shock lance was in hand. She headed southeast out of town, toward the Fungus Cave. Soon she would have what she desired; Chandra had no doubt.
Soon the town was far behind. The wind played with her hair, but beyond that, the only sign of it was the occasional dust devil.
As she walked, her mind wandered back to the vault where she had spent almost half her life. Despite the captivity, she had enjoyed those years, for in them she had grown very close to the other vault dwellers. Especially her parents.
She loved her dad and had the special bond to him that most daughters share with their fathers, but it was her mother who had inspired her to become so strong and independent. Her mother had taught her never to let anyone treat her differently because she was a woman.
When her mother had died of cancer, less than a year before the vault opened, Chandra was devastated. Her mother's last words to her were, "Always be strong."
Chandra was lost in thought when she finally heard the stealthy footsteps gaining on her. Fool, she thought to herself. Five years you've survived in this desolation and you almost lose it all on nostalgia.
She kept her walk the same but strained to decipher any audial clue about the oncoming presence. She judged it to be about thirty yards behind her, and human, but couldn't tell much more.
Ahead was a large rock. Not large enough to cover her completely, but it was the best thing available. By the time she got close to it, the footsteps were only twenty yards away.
Darting to the side behind the rock and throwing the shock lance to the ground, she rolled and pulled out her magnum. Just as she started moving, a loud report signaled that her follower had taken a shot at her. 9mm, Chandra thought. Let me show you what a real gun can do.
A second shot from the stranger created a small fountain of ashy dirt mere inches from her foot. But by then she had already taken aim. She gently squeezed off a round from the magnum, creating a kickback that was anything but gentle. Anticipating it, she let her arms fly above her head, and then brought the gun back down.
The moment spent to aim properly had been worth it; the uninvited guest began screaming and looking down in disbelief at what remained of his right leg. Chandra's mid-leg shot had splattered the kneecap of the filthy raider. The lower part of his leg had flown back some fifteen feet. She could have aimed for the largest target – his torso – but hadn't wanted to risk the bullet damaging any goods in the raider's pack.
The raider screamed again and fell over, trying feebly to stop the bleeding but only succeeding in turning his hands red. Chandra picked up the shock lance and dashed over to the man. She planted the tip of it in his eye and triggered the current, which surged into his brain and killed him in seconds. Faint smoke rose from his nose and ears. His mouth was frozen open.
She took what few valuables he had: ammo and rope. She left the shitty gun behind. She also broke open the narcotics she found and stamped them into the dirt. The world needed those like it needed another barrage of nukes.
Chandra checked to make sure she hadn't lost any valuables in the hectic fight and then continued toward the Fungus Cave. She could just make it out in the distance. I am strong, Mother, she thought. Let luck be on my side in this quest. And let it be over soon.
Chapter 2
Chandra was drawing closer to the Fungus Cave. The sun was hovering mid-level in the sky. 3:00, she thought. I'd better get this done quickly so I can be back amongst civilization by nightfall.
She quickly went over all her belongings in her head, down to the count of different ammo types and estimated charges remaining on all batteries. This was something she did once an hour. Keeping the list fresh in her mind allowed her to think faster on the fly. When life and death can be decided in a split-second, you need every advantage you can get, her mother had told her. Of all the advice her mother had given, those words were the ones Chandra remembered most often.
Finally she was within stone-throwing distance of the cave. A rough path lead up to the entrance. Rock formations decorated the immediate landscape.
Chandra knelt amid the rocks and surveyed everything she could see outside the cave. Then she stood atop one of the higher formations and repeated her survey. The last thing she needed was another raider following her into the cave. Or something worse than a raider.
Convinced she was not being followed, Chandra turned and walked up to the entrance. At this range, faint bluish-green light could be seen to paint the walls. Standing on the lip of the cave and peering further inside, she could see that the light got stronger deeper within. As expected.
Chandra took her large hunting knife in hand, then set down the shock lance and her pack. Looking around again, both inside and outside the cave, she opened the pack and took out the flashlights and appropriate battery. She looked around yet again and secured the flashlights to her shoulders, then hooked up the battery. Holding the pack close in front of her to block the flare of light, she briefly tested the connection. Good to go.
She put the pack on her back, sheathed the knife, and picked up the shock lance. Then Chandra made one final inspection of her surroundings. Satisfied, she plunged into the cave.
The cave lead Chandra steadily downward, though at a gentle grade. The path had a fair share of turns, but no additional corridors branched off.
The fungi had been sparse at first, only dotting the ground. Now they were numerous underfoot and nearly painted the walls, as though someone had applied them with a shotgun. Most gave off blue or green light, but occasionally they emanated purple or orange.
Ahead, Chandra could see that the walls of the tunnel widened out. The passage became twice as wide as before, though the ceiling height was roughly unchanged.
The walls were now pocked here and there by holes that were a foot or two in diameter. Tensing slightly, Chandra shifted her gaze left and right as she moved along. She tried to move even more quietly than she had been.
She failed.
A terrible burbling, twittering sound filled the cave behind her, as though dozens of birds were being drowned. Unable to look over her shoulder due to the flashlights, Chandra did a quick full-circle spin. The glimpse she got in that moment was sufficient.
Out of the holes had started to emerge… things. Things with gray, wet bodies and eyes that glowed in the same luminescent colors as the walls. They were basically fungoid in shape, though terribly mutated. Some looked like masses of tumors; others had gaping wounds that seemed to have healed while open; still others were so misshapen that they shouldn't have been able to move at all, yet they did. They all did. They shuffled and slithered and creeped forward. With gaping maws full of broken, glowing teeth.
Chandra hastened, but did not run full-out. The creatures were slower than her and were, so far, only pouring forth from the holes she had passed. But their numbers steadily increased.
The cavern made a turn ahead, though not too sharply. She was able to maintain the same speed as she followed the curve.
As soon as she could see around the bend, she came to an abrupt halt. Not more than twenty feet in front of her was one of the creatures. It sat dead-still in the center of the tunnel. It had the same deformities, the same eyes, the same open mouth, the same teeth. But it was almost as tall as Chandra.
Instantly she saw that these creatures were part of a colony. She also saw the brilliance of the hive-mind: most prey that came through the tunnel probably ran at full speed, directly into this mammoth horror.
Chandra did not hesitate. She dropped one hand from the shock lance to the mechanism on her belt. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pressed the button on the mechanism, triggering her flashlights. Even behind her eyelids, the intensity of the light caused her to wince. She released the button and opened her eyes, resuming a two-handed grip on her weapon.
The beast's eyes were closed. Chandra pounced forward, sinking the tip of the shock lance into its wet flesh. Its eyes flew open. Chandra activated the weapon's special mechanism.
The brute roared in a twisted, bone-jarring scream of pain and rage as electricity surged through its body. It failed, limbs nearly hitting Chandra, but she held her weapon in a death-grip and stood her ground.
Eventually the monster ceased struggling and fell over, dead. Chandra withdrew the shock lance and turned around.
The hive's smaller drones had followed her around the passageway's curve, but stood silent and motionless. She closed her eyes and triggered another burst of light. They turned and fled.
Chandra walked past the gelatinous mess of the large fiend's body and continued further into the cave.
A few minutes and several bends later, the tunnel blew wide open into an enormous chamber. Here the glowing fungi covered every available inch of the walls and ceiling. They suffocated the dozens of stalactites on the ceiling, making them look like luminous fangs.
The floor, however, was almost completely empty of fungi. Stalagmites, as bare as most of the post-nuclear landscape in the world above, pointed up at their corresponding stalactites. There was one exception to floor's barrenness.
In the middle of the chamber stood a massive mushroom. It was forty feet high and sixty wide. It glowed like its smaller counterparts, but its brightness waxed and waned. Its light was deep red.
The legend is true, Mother, Chandra thought. Soon my mission will be complete.
With equal parts anxiety and resolve, Chandra began to move toward the vast mushroom.
Chapter 3
Chandra inched her way toward the gargantuan fungus. It was obvious that the entire hive hadn't sprung into action after she killed the guardian, but she did assume that tension was high. Somewhere water ran with a faint giggling whisper. That meant her sneaking would be easier, but it also meant that something else could sneak up on her more easily.
As she got closer, she could see large lumps between the deep gills on the underside of the mushroom's cap. The lumps did not glow like the rest of the mushroom; they stayed the same dark, grayish color.
One of the lumps was hanging down a good ten feet from the gills, suspended by a mass of strands that looked like drab snot. When the reddish glow of the mushroom reached its peak, she could see a human arm sticking out of the lump.
Even as Chandra watched, the lump was pulled up into the gills with a wet, squishy sound. She paused and looked around, but saw no other sign of movement. The hidden water whispered a little more feverishly.
Drawing to the base, Chandra kept looking up. She did not want a surprise visit from those snot-looking strands.
The stalk was twenty, maybe twenty-five feet in diameter. At this close range, Chandra's entire world turned crimson with each up-glow of the fungus. But whenever the red light faded to black, Chandra was thrown into deep darkness by contrast, one that was only partially relieved by the countless smaller fungi on the ceiling and walls.
Her mind reacted in the same manner as her eyes: it was slow to recover from the brightness. Just as her eyes knew a moment of utter blindness when the redness was gone, her mind knew a moment of gripping panic. Every time.
Fighting to reforge her will, Chandra thought again of her mom. Lend me strength, she thought. This is nearly done.
Slowly rounding the base, still looking up every few seconds, Chandra eventually saw the object of her quest.
A large irregularity marred the side of the stalk. It was a ghastly growth, like a great tumor. It was slimy and discolored, with dozens of puckered holes. It had probably twice Chandra's own weight.
Directly beneath the tumor was a wide opening in the ground. Though she couldn't see anything from her vantage point, Chandra could hear the water well enough to assume that the river she had heard before was accessed via the opening.
From the holes on the tumor oozed a syrupy discharge that fell directly into the opening.
So it was true. All of it. The deformed creatures that had been ravaging her hometown, ones that looked very similar to the hive drones she had scared off and the large beast she had killed, had been created by this massive mushroom and its radioactive, fungi-laden secretions. The discharge tainted the water supply and perverted any creatures that ingested it. It twisted flesh and minds alike, causing deformity and insanity.
No more.
Chandra knelt and took off her pack, still glancing up and around furtively. She worked quickly, removing the timer, detonator, and explosive device. A tactical nuke. She set it up with practiced efficiency, placing the ready bomb near the stalk but well away from the opening to the river. She set the timer for twenty minutes and activated the countdown.
For a moment Chandra was transfixed by the oven-timer dial that was ticking down. A nuke was going to explode and it was her doing. A smaller nuke, but still one of the same bombs that had purged the land above. One of the same bombs that had produced massive amounts of radiation. Radiation that had most likely caused her mother's cancer.
After a few seconds, though, the terrible dread was pushed aside by an overwhelming feeling of self-preservation. Chandra began to haul ass back toward the tunnel.
She knew that the small nuke itself would spike the radiation levels in the river, but the spike would subside. The radiation levels would soon become tolerable, no worse than most other water. It would be worth the spike to get rid of the mushroom's endless stream of poison.
Reaching the opening of the passageway, Chandra paused to look back. The fungi, its vastness still shocking to her, glowed red again. It almost seemed to plead with her. Fat chance, you son of a bitch, she thought. You and your whole perverted hive will soon be ashes.
Chandra reached the body of the guardian-type hive creature. It swarmed with tiny versions of itself, each the size of Chandra's palm. They were stripping off the reusable parts of its body, no doubt taking them to feed some grotesque larvae. She stayed well away from the stinking mess as she passed.
When she reached the bend that would take her to the corridor with all the hive-worker holes, she slowed. Peeking around the corner, none were visible. She could almost feel them waiting, though. Anticipating any intruder.
Chandra double-checked the position of the flashlights' trigger switch on her belt and then tightened her grip on the shock lance. She took off sprinting.
She made it about half-way through the hole-filled passage before they started to emerge. Barely slowing, she momentarily close her eyes and activated the flashlights. The fiends that had already come into view stopped, but more poured forth.
She was almost to the last of the holes. A half-dozen of the abominations stood in her way. Pushing her legs even harder for speed, she vaulted over the creatures. The eye-stalk of one of them brushed her boot as she passed overhead. Yet she cleared them.
A collective twittering cry of rage followed her as she slowed to a jogging pace. She did not look back.
Her sense of time having been sharpened by years spent in a wasteland of madness, she was almost dead-on in guessing that she had eight minutes before the nuke detonated. She was also correct in believing that she would emerge from the cave in two minutes.
The bright light of the day became visible against the wall ahead. Chandra turned the corner to see glorious daylight and her freedom.
Still having several minutes to spare, Chandra slowed and stopped well short of the exit. She took the flashlights off and stored them, constantly checking behind to make sure none of the slimy abominations had followed. Then she crawled up to the cave exit to see if she was clear to leave.
Rarely had Chandra been so thankful for the caution her mother had instilled in her. Outside waited two raiders that she could see, which probably meant a few more she couldn't see. The raider she killed on her way to the cave was probably part of a gang; she would bet nearly all she owned that some members of the gang had found his body and tracked her here.
Heart pounding, the tactical nuke set to detonate in about four minutes, her mind raced over different scenarios for dealing with the raiders. Most options seemed unfavorable, but she had little time to deliberate.
Chandra made her choice.
Chapter 4
Chandra crawled back a dozen feet. She removed her pack, then her jacket. Stowing the jacket, she donned the pack again. Now the top of her body was clad only in her bra and tank-top, revealing far more curves than previously.
Chandra moved her hunting knife's sheath around her belt so that its hilt barely stuck out from under her pack. It would not be easily noticeable, especially not with the distraction her body would provide.
She left the shock lance in the cave. She wanted to appear as non-threatening as possible.
Chandra started running for the exit. Her eyes met those of one of the raiders as soon as he was in sight. As expected, his gaze quickly dropped to her bouncing chest. Looking to the second raider, she saw that his eyes were focused on the same spot.
"Run!" she said. "They're coming!" Her face was a perfect mask of terror.
Also as expected, this confused the raiders. They were probably anticipating that she would be frightened of them and would turn back for the cave, not that she would be running to them in distress and with apparent concern for their safety.
Chandra had suspected that they would be rooted to the spot, despite her warning. She was right, so she ran toward the closest one.
"Help! Help me!" she screamed. "They'll kill us all!"
As she drew near to the raider, her apparent fear finally seeped into the raider's mind. His eyes went to the cave entrance. Confused, he uttered, "What in the hell…"
Just then, Chandra reached behind her, drew the wicked hunting knife, and slashed the raider through the throat. Gurgling, the looter fell to the ground, holding his ruined throat as his frontside turned entirely red.
The second raider, having also looked at the cave, turned back. Shocked by her actions, all he said was, "Hey!" before Chandra had closed the distance and planted the knife in his heart. She twisted the blade hard, pulled it free, and jumped aside to avoid the stream of blood that gushed from his chest. He screamed and fell.
Chandra ducked behind the nearest rock formation just as a bullet sped through the space she had been occupying. The report told her that it was from a rifle. She desperately hoped that the wielder of it didn't have a scope.
Chandra quickly surveyed the rest of the immediate landscape and saw no indication that there was another raider besides the one with the rifle. She assumed that he was on top of the cave entrance, a vantage point that would allow him to have the whole entrance area covered.
Two minutes left, Chandra estimated in her mind. I need to get the fuck out of here now.
Drawing her magnum, she quickly raised and lowered her head, looking where she thought the shooter would be. She saw him. A brief moment after her head dropped back down, a shot hit the rocks, sending stone chips falling on her. The bastard did have a scope and was pretty fast.
Fortunately, now she knew right where he was. She moved as far from her prior spot as possible while still staying hidden, which was about ten feet. Closing her eyes and breathing slowly, she visualized her shot hitting the raider. Exhaling, she opened her eyes, stood, and aimed.
The wasteland thug was moving the rifle from side to side and had it pointed maybe five feet from Chandra. He whipped it toward her, but too late.
Her shot took him in the cheek, blowing the top half of his head clean off. Blood instantly painted the remaining part of his head and his neck.
As with the raider she had killed on the way to the cave, Chandra let the kick from the magnum bring her arms above her head. She spun as they did, brought them back down, and ran harder than she had ever believed she could.
One minute, she thought.
Adrenaline staved off all exhaustion. She was running just as hard when the nuke exploded as when she first started. She had covered an impressive amount of ground in the roughly sixty seconds she had been moving. Yet still she fell when the earth shook.
Not stopping to look behind, she rushed back to her feet and kept running.
Several minutes later, the adrenaline wore off enough that she collapsed. Her legs felt like they had turned to stone.
Looking back, she saw a great column of smoke rising from the fungus cave. Unsteadily gaining her feet, Chandra could see that there was a large depression several hundred yards to the right of the entrance, which was no doubt directly above the chamber where the gigantic mushroom was. Or had been.
Chandra thought about the underground river. Undoubtedly it had been dammed up, but hopefully it would eventually find its way back to where it used to flow. Back to her hometown. If not, they would find its new course and then landscape until it joined them once more.
Dropping to her knees, Chandra smiled widely and laughed the weary laugh of one who has greatly triumphed but who is still too tired to celebrate fully.
Chandra removed her pack and rested. I did it, Mom, she thought. The town is safe. Thinking of the horrors of the wasteland, she corrected herself: At least, a little safer.
After a time, when she no longer sweated, Chandra retrieved her jacket and put it back on.
With a final look at the entrance to the cave that probably now contained very little fungus, Chandra began the long walk home.
The End
To see this story on my blog with illustrations, visit (.com/2010/10/10/fallout-fan-fiction-the-fungus-cave-part-1/).