There was no question about it: she would die here. The Deathclaw was charging straight at her. She was reminded of her Jet-sucking days. Time seemed to slow, each of the Deathclaw's earth-shaking steps amplified like a thousand supermutants roaring as one. She closed her eyes and waited to die. There was nothing else for it, anyway. There was no family, no love, no solidarity: just the mud from which she came and to which she would return. They said my life would flash before my eyes, she thought detachedly. They said I would see my life. But I don't see my lover or my parents or even Marcy. I just see blackness and I just hear the ground and the breathing—
"Down!" a voice called.
Stacie had been in enough gun fights to obey; it wasn't even conscious, her body slumping to the dusty, rocky earth before she made any kind of decision. She peeked through her fingers, like a little girl watching something she shouldn't be, and saw a tall, dark figure stride into the Deathclaw's path.
"Back, beastie!" he screamed, waving some sort of electrified staff. "Back, beastie! Back with thee! Back, I tell thee! I command thee, with the power of Atom, the Glow strong within my heart, to step back and leave this ghouless be!"
Stacie watched in a sort of fascinated horror as the Deathclaw barreled into the man. She saw it: the man's torso ripped asunder by the horns, the blood showering around her like tiny specks of red dust, the ragdoll corpse flung to the dirt. She saw it but it didn't happen.
Instead, the man jumped to the side and struck out with his staff. There was an almighty zzzzzzzzTAH! as the staff smashed into the Deathclaw's leg. The beast roared. Stacie's ears popped, numbed. The man charged at the beast, staff lashing here and there, a blur of blue, crackling light.
"Back with thee!" he screamed, his voice gravelly and high-pitched. Stacie noticed he was wearing nothing more than a sack of a robe and sandals. "Back!" he screamed again, and struck the Deathclaw across the head.
To Stacie's disbelief, the Deathclaw took a step back. Just one. But that was all that was needed. The Deathclaw ceased to be something beyond comprehension. All her life, the Deathclaws had been feared. She had seen a Deathclaw only twice in her life, and both times she and Marcy had left the Brahmin and fled for cover. They returned to a dead Brahmin and ruined gear, but with their lives. Never would she have thought of fighting one, even with a .50 caliber, let alone a staff.
The man stepped forward again, and again; and it was like the Deathclaw was under some kind of spell. He let out an almost childlike sob-cough and then turned and bounded into the Glowing Sea.
Stacie was too stunned to move as she watched the Deathclaw's bobbing, receding horns. And then the man was standing over her. He pressed a button on his staff and it stopped crackling. Not it was a cool and calm blue, like a summer's sky. His hands were worn flesh like hers, and his face was ruined skin. He was a ghoul.
She climbed to her feet and wiped herself down. "Thank you," she said. "You just saved my life."
"Do not thank me," the man said, and smiled at her with yellow, crooked, ghoulish teeth. "Thank Atom, for He has sent me to thee for a reason, and thee has much to learn." The man held out his hand. "I am Confessor Maxim, child."
Stacie took the hand and told him her name.
"And what is thine purpose in this place?"
"Food," Stacie said, finally relenting to the all-encompassing, ever-present hunger. "If you've got some food'n'water, I'll take it'n gladly tell you why I'm here."
The man nodded slowly. "Yes, of course," he said. "A Child of Atom must not be allowed to starve. Follow me, Glowing One, and we shall have our palaver."
He walked into a nameless chunk of Waste.
"Can I ask you something 'fore we go?" Stacie called after him.
Confessor Maxin stopped and turned. "Hmm?"
"Do you always talk so fancy-like?"
Confessor Maxim grinned. "I am afraid so, child. Now, follow me."
"Aye, I'm coming," Stacie said, and followed at his feet.
Just then, the radiation storm began to clear from the Glowing Sea. Stacie knew from experience that it would push northward, into Diamond City. "Good," she growled. "I hope the bastards choke to death."