Thumper's description
Height: 5'10
Fur color: Grey with dark yellow hands and left ear.
Scars: His whole left arm is nearly hairless and is severly burnt due to a short-fused grenade.
Eye color: Yellow
Clothes: Black shirt and dark blue jeans, also has a tan trench coat and black gloves and boots. Has multiple pouches along his belt to hold shotgun shells and 40mm grenades.
Armor: Flak vest with riot arm and leg guards, he wheres the arm guards over top of the trench coat sleeves. Also has riot helmet.
Weapon: Pump action 40mm grenade launcher or "Thumper"
Secondary: Sawed off double barrel shotgun
Melee: Fire axe
Thumper's P.O.V
"Fire!" The squads sargeant screamed as a row of recruits shot at a mutant sized target down range almost simotainiously.
"Again!" The sargeant screamed again, and more rounds went towards the target...some missing.
The targets where around fifty yards or so away from where the soldiers where shooting, I wasn't exactly sure how some missed as they all had standard issue Red Fang scorpion evo rifles with a long barrel, but I guess there was a reason that I wasn't in that firing excersise. One, I was a demolition expert, so I didn't even carry a gun, just a pump action 40mm grenade launcher...That's actually how I got the nick name of Thumper in the first place. And two, I was just a hired mercanary for this squad of Red Fang. They told me they where down a demoman and the pay would be heavy, and it was. They hired me for 1,000 dollars, and in the wasteland, 1,000 dollars can really get you places if you know what to do with it. I usually wouldn't work with Red Fang, but the usual payment for a mercanary was around 200 hundred...and business has been pretty slow lately, so working with Red Fang for a while wasn't that bad. I usually worked with raiders or was just hired as a body guard until that person was able to defend themselves, so I guess it was a good change of pace as well from the normal line of work.
"Fire!" The sargeant screamed once more, again only about half of the rounds hit the target. I wanted to say something.
"Hey sarge, your guys usually shoot like this?" I asked.
"There shooting's just fine private, now leave us be until your needed." He said, turning back to his squad. I walked over and tapped his shoulder.
"I told you to scram private." The sargeant said.
"Ok, two things. One, I'm not even in your little army so I don't expect to be called by a damn rank, you will call be by name or I'm just going to take the money and leave. And two, it seems like half of your guys can't shoot for shit. If you expect to make it close to anything you guys try to attack, your going to need to get your men up to qualifications." I said, attempting to keep cool.
"Well...okay than Mr. Thumper." He said sarcastically. "If you think there shooting's so bad, why don't you show them how it's done." He said as he stepped aside and dramatically pointed towards the target...wrong choice.
I stepped forward and took my grenade launcher off my back, then took aim. All the soldiers jumped out of the way.
"What are you doing!" The sargeant screamed.
"What I was told." I sarcastically responded as I let off a round towards the target. Once my round hit it went up in a ball of fire, completely destroying it.
"Hit." I said as I walked passed the sargeant and went into my tent that was set up along with everyone elses.
The tents wern't exactly comfy, but they worked. My tent was just a standard one that had a built in air matress that had to be manually blown up and deflated, half the time they leaked in the middle of the night and you just wound up sleeping on the ground anyway. That was literally all that was in them, a crappy bed and your own belongings. My belongings where all on me though, except for a small journal journal that a wrote in when I was bored, it was laying on the bed. I usually just wrote in it as a memory book, like when something big or exciting happened, I would write it down in that book. I walked over and picked it up and opened it to the first page.
Log number 1:
Some of my mercanary buddies told me to get a memory book, I guess this will have to do. Nothing really exciting happened today, took a nice stroll through that nearly destroyed city a few miles west of here. I've never seen buildings that tall in my life! It was liked they nearly touched the sky, even when they where destroyed. I don't think I'll be going back though, it was nearly infested with mutants and raiders.
I remember writing that like it was yesterday...even though it was a year or so ago. I flipped through a few of the pages to a random one.
Log number 14
Made a friend today, his name is Thomas. He is also in the mercenary business. He used to be a Red Fang soldier but ran off one day because he disagreed with a lot of there points. He's a good guy though, he knows what side to fight for.
I remember Thomas, he was a good friend of mine...but I wasn't able to know him for very long.
Log number 36:
Thomas got picked up today by a group of raiders as just an extra gun, I told him not to take the contract, but he did anyway. The leader was some sort of crazed character who just had a chainsaw, the others where on all sorts of drugs. I hope he makes it back safe, he only got 100 dollars, so he only has to be there for a week. He's one of my only friends out here.
I remember writing that one to, that was only a few weeks ago. I just got picked up by this squad yesterday, Thomas never came back. I don't think he made it. The next page almost made me cry as the memory's started to come back.
Log number 37:
It's been a week and a half now and Thomas hasn't came back, I'm starting to get worried. He was only suppost to be there for a week, he even told me that he would be back right after that week ended. I don't think that it was a legit contract. I think that they just hired him, took him to there base, and killed him. If I only knew where they took him, I would go looking for him and at least find out what actually happened.
I almost wanted to shut the book now, but I flipped the page and continued.
Log number 38:
Got picked up by a group of Red Fang today, I wanted to turn them down...but the check was fat. I guess I'm going to have to lay off of trying to find Thomas for a while. Hopefully he's back at the mercanary hideout when I get back. I didn't want to work for them if they where attacking anyhing other than a large raider base north of here.
Yep, That was written yesterday. I guess I might as well go ahead and wright the next log. I reached over and picked up a pencil that was on the floor and started writing.
Log number 39:
The squads sargeant is an asshole, but I think I made him understand why I'm here. He kept calling me private to, I put him in his place on that though. The other soldiers think he's awful to. I may have gained a reputation with them. Not sure if it's a good one though. We're still prepairing for the attack on the raider base, but I still haven't really been told why they need me, I guess I'll find out tommorow.
I closed the book and laid the book on the floor of the tent and looked outside, it was starting to get late. I decided to go ahead and get laid down for the night as the sun was almost completely down. I was with soldiers as well, so I was probably going to have to wake up early anyway.
I laid down on the blown up, to short, extremely uncomfy bed and rolled over on my side, facing the wall of the tent. I then dosed off into a deep sleep.
The next day:
I woke up frrom my sleep and emediatly got a strong smell of radiation through my nose, and a sudden severe stomach ache. I just assumed I may have ate some expired food recently and that is was starting to catch up with me, but the sudden smell of radiation was what threw me off, it wasn't your usual wasteland radiation smell, it was more like someone came by and dropped a barrel of the stuff right infront of the freaking camp. I needed to investigate this, something wasn't right.
I stood up and noticed that my stomach suddenly felt like it flipped over, this cuased me to kneel down and hold my stomach. Now I really hope that I just ate something bad. I stood back up and neerly felt like I was going to throw up, but held it in as I walked outside...what I saw neerly scared me back into the tent. I noticed that there where large, three toed footprints all around the camp. I also noticed that none of the soldiers where outside investigating. I was starting to worry about what was going on, so I went back in my tent and grabbed my gear to be safe.
I walked over to the first set of tents and grabbed my sawed off shotgun from my side, and walked over to the first tent, and opened the flap to the inside. There where two soldiers simply laying there...dead and quickly decaying. It was definatly radiation that killed these two as there bodies where deterierating so quickly, that doesn't meen it was any less horrifying to see it. I stepped back and walked to the next tent...the same thing happened to the two soldiers in there, killed by raidiation. The next set of tents where still the same, two soldiers in each that where killed be radiation in there sleep. I finally aproached the sargeant's tent, which was slightly larger than all the others and marked with the Red Fang emblem on each side, I thought that I knew what to exspect...but I was wrong.
Inside the sargeant's tent was indeed the sargeant, but he suffered a different fate than the rest of the soldiers. He was bassically butchered, it was brutal, the walls of the tent where neerly painted in blood. His armor was in shreds and scatterred throughout the tent. I was starting to get curious of how no one was woken up by this, it didn't appear to be like something that could be done silently. The rest could have been silently killed before whatever did this got the sargeant, but that doesn't explain why the death symptoms of the other soldiers led to severe and sudden radiation poisoning...but that doesn't explain why I was left alive either. I needed to find some sort of clues to what was going on...but honestly, I was scared to figure it out. Either way, and as much as I hated to say it, I needed to figure out why I was still alive. I walked out of the tent and started following the large foot prints of whatever killed all of these soldiers.
I reholstered my sawed off shotgun and walked into the woods behind the camp that the footprints led to. The woods had a large path of trees that where down and broken at the trunk, in the middle of the path where the exact footprints that I was following. I atleast knew about how big whatever I was tracking was. The downed trees, from one side to the other, made a pathway that was atleast ten feet in length. I got the sudden hunch that I was probably following some sort of mutant, but again, it really didn't answer why I was alive. Mutants never really had the insticts to spare something...or be stealthy for the matter. The thoughts in my head started giving me a headache, and that would have been fine if the constant aching in my stomach wasn't making it worse. I was now starting to worry if I had radiation poisoning as well. If I did, then I would at least know why. A mutant of this size can't just walk by without you breathing in some radiation. Again though...why was I still alive. My head started pounding again, my stomach soon joining in. It almost felt like it was moving up. It was to. I collapsed on the ground and threw up all over the shield of my riot helmet.
"That's just freaking awesome." I quietly muttered to myself as I took off my mask and cleaned it off with an old rag that I had in my back pack, then put the helmet back on. I was never really a clean freak so this didn't bother me. It was still useable and functional in my eyes, a little puke wasn't going to stop me from wareing it.
I stood back up thinking that I just ate something bad and I would now feel better, but I was wrong. I quickly took off my helmet and threw it on the ground, then I puked again...and again...and once more. I was sure that I had some sort of radiation poisoning now, and the thought of that just made my stomach feel even worse. I started tearing up now, not because my stomach was hurting, but instead because of the fact that once someone got radiation poisoning...they where practically doomed. I knew the five stages of radiation poisoning to, and I didn't like what I was faceing.
Stage 1- Lack of appetite, minor stomach ache, and fever. Can be cured with heavy anti-biotics. Last about three to four hours.
Stage 2- No appetite, major stomach ache and frequent vomiting, headaches, fever from stage one seems to just vanish. Slight possibility of curing. Last about two days.
Stage 3- Constant passing out, blurry vision, dehidration, and halusinations. Can't be cured. Last about a day.
Stage 4- Death. Starts turning into mutant. Takes about three days to be fully transformed and mutated.
Stage 5- Transformation into mutant complete.
I was definatly going into stage two, I pretty much slept through stage one. And I knew that if I didn't get some immediete treatment, I wasn't going to make it much longer. I knew that finding treatment wasn't an option as I had the rest of today and a bit of tommorow before I hit stage three. I also knew that I didn't want to reach stage three, I've seen it happen to someone. There wasn't any settlements that I could reach in about a day and a half. I had one option at this point...give up. The third stage was absolutely brutal, and I didn't want to stick around when it hit or turn into one of those things. So I excepted my fate and sat down against a tree, unholstered my sawed off, pointed it at my head, and started to pull the trigger...started to. As soon as I started putting pressure on the trigger I realized something. That creature was still out there, and it definatly wasn't going to stop at that squad of Red Fang. It was going to continue on and slaughter everything in its path...and I wasn't going to let that happen. This was a type of mutant that I have never heard of or seen before in my travels, and that meant that there was very few of them and that they where extremely dangerous. If I kill it than I make a differance, and If it kills me...than at least I didn't go out like this.
I stood back up and put my sawed off back in its holster. I noticed one thing...I wasn't scared about what I was doing anymore. This made me smile. I picked up my helmet and put it back on my head, lifting up the shield so I wouldn't have to worry about getting killed by a lack of vision from my own puke, and grabbed my grenade launcher off of my back, then I started following the tracks again, ignoring the constant pain in my stomach and head.
Seven hours later
I continued following the tracks until I came up on a small ware house that had a large door in the front that the giant footprints led to. This was definatly the place I needed to be. I took cover on a large tree and pulled out a pair of binoculours so I could inspect the area before I went charging in the building. When I lifted up the binoculours I noticed that my vision was starting to get slightly blurry and that I was having trouble keeping the binoculours still. I have been trying to ignore the pain and symptoms for a while, but it was starting to begin to be to much. If I was going to do this, then I needed to get it done quick. I quickly looked around and noticed that there where absolutely no guards and that the large door had no lock on the outside...but that means that it was probably locked from the inside instead. I quickly came up with a plan of attack, Charge towards the door and blow it open with my grenade launcher. It's a warehouse so that means that its bassically just one giant room, so the mutant should be just inside. I will run in and shoot it until I run out of ammo or until I get killed. It sounded like a good plan to me...so I stood up and launched a grenade towards the door, blowing a large, man-sized hole in it...then I ran in.
Upon running in I noticed that I was right about a few things, that is was just a large room, and that it was a rare breed of mutant that was huge, but it stood on its back legs instead of all fours like I thought, but there was one thing that I didn't expect. The mutant wasn't ferel and savage like most, it was being controled...by a raider! He had a large, crown like mask on and was sitting on what I thought was the perfect throne for a crazy person that was made of an...odd, redish materiel wrapped around a wooden chair that was on the opposite side of the warehouse.
"WELL!" The raider psycotically screamed across the warehouse "LOOK WHO FINALLY MADE IT FIDO. OUR GOOD...FRIEND...THUMPER!"
"How the hell do you know my name...and who the hell is Fido?" I asked out of seriousness and curiousity, I had a feeling I knew who Fido was though.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Uhhhhh...YOU'LL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH...on that last part that is." He said, suddenly getting quiter as he talked. "But before you die...LET ME TELL YOU HOW I KNOW YOU!" He again screemed as he stepped down from his thrown and started walking towards me.
"Back up!" I yelled as I pointed the launcher at him. "Tell me what you know, and you won't get splattered all over this damn place! Now, tell me how you know my name!"
"Fine...fine. Just tell me, Thumper, does this face look familiar to you?" He calmly said as he took off his mask.
I couldn't believe what I saw...it was...Thomas!
"No...Thomas...Is that you?" I said, tearing up...my launcher started shaking in my hands.
"So I see your not halusinating yet...good for YOU!" He screamed.
"But...but why, You promissed me you would come back...What the hell happened to you?" I sadly questioned.
"I was tired of having to choose a side. I discovered that the only way to be free from commands...was to command those who cannot be tamed!" He screamed as he turned and walked back to his makeshift throne. "GET HIM JACK!"
FOR ADDED EFFECT, GO TO YOUTUBE AND TYPE IN INSTRUMENTAL CORE- BECOME A LEGEND AND CLICK ON THE FIRST RESULT AND CONTINUE READING UNTIL THE FIGHT SEEN IS OVER. THIS IS JUST A SUGGESTION. THANK YOU.
The mutant came charging at me in a fit of rage and anger. For its size it was incredibly fast, and I barely had enough time to jump out of the way...but I still managed. I quickly turned and fired a round at its head, but even though the explosive engullfed his face, all it really did was stagger the beast as it was heavily armored from all of the built up dead skin and heavy radiation absorbtion. It looked at me and screemed as it went in for another charge. I did the same thing and jumped out of the way again, this time noticing a small spot on the back of its hind legs that had little to no armor, that was my new target.
Before it turned I luanched a round into the back of the mutants leg, sending it falling to the ground.
"Clever...BUT IT WON'T MATTER!" I heard the crazed Thomas scream from his throne.
I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but it didn't take long to figure it out. The ginormous mutant stood back up, but instead went on all fours instead of standing on its hind legs, that was when I noticed a large spike on the top if its head that looked to be sharper than a brand new sword. Then it just charged again, but this time it was faster than before. I was barely able to react this time as it hit my leg when I jumped away. An awful pain shot through my leg, it was definatly broken. All this aside, I was still able to roll over and put another grenade into the back of the mutants other hind leg. It fell to the ground again, but emediatly turned at me and started making a foul sound with its throat as a thick, heavy, yellowish smoke started spewing out of its mouth and filling the room. It was more radiation. That really didn't matter though, I was already highly irradiated and was going to go into stage three within the next couple hours anyway, so I really didn't care about this. I was lying on the floor thinking about what to do next, and I needed to think fast as the mutant was crawling towards me...and fast. It was neerly ontop of me when it opened its mouth to, what I was assuming, eat me. But then I noticed that nothing in its mouth was armored...so I reacted fast. I jammed the barrel of my grenade launcher as deep into its throat as I could...and pulled the trigger.
The explosion completely obliterated the mutant and flung it off of me...but it also obliterated my already broken leg. It completely severed it, the blood pooring out onto the warehouse floor. Pain shot through all of me as the rest of me was highly injured do to the explosion...but at least I wasn't going to get eaten alive. I was barrily able to roll over as I started throwing up again, I at least was able to flick up the shield on my helmet before I did. I put the shield back down, but noticed that it was neerl shattered, so I just took th helmet off. I noticed the crazed Thomas walking towards me with zero expression on his face. I started to look around for my grenade launcher, but it was destroyed in the explosion. I looked back at Thomas and saw that he was holding a sledge hammer the was modded with large spikes welded to the end of it, his signature melee weapon when he was a mercanary. Then he ran at me and hit my stomach with the blunt end, causing me to caugh up blood. Then he put the hammer on my throat and started pushing down.
"It was good meeting you Thu *BANG*" I cut him off by shooting his stomach with my sawed off, then I raised the gun to his head.
IF THE SONG IS TILL GOING, STOP IT HERE.
"You to..." I said as I started to choke on blood as the second shot blew off his face. Then I completely collapsed. I knew that I was dying, but I died making a difference. And a good one at that. So I looked up at the cealing...and took my last breath as I smiled for the last time.
END.
