This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, Kunihiku Ikuhara, Naoko Takeuchi and the creative teams of Interplay, Obsidian and Bethesda.
(シーンブレイク)
Annulled Destiny II:
Wild Wasteland
(シーンブレイク)
From now on, the Japanese speech is shown using 『Japanese double quotation marks』 (the heroes switch often as speaking English is hard for most of them)
(シーンブレイク)
Chapter 2,Broforce Duo
(シーンブレイク)
Narf's Third Law: A sufficiently motivated barbarian is indistinguishable from a siege engine.
(a Spacebattles forum wisdom)·
(シーンブレイク)
"You saw that?" exclaimed the dark-haired Indian. "She disappeared! Simply vanished into the thin air! Are we seeing things?"
"We be see that too,(note 1)" disagreed the painted one with a bone in his nose. "Two cannot see things at once."
"Maybe we are high on the weeds you used yesterday to season the iguana?" the dark-haired one said in accusing voice. "It felt suspicious at the time."
"Datura not grow in these places," the painted one replied, offended. "We be wandering longer than you. You not know half the weeds."
"Touche," the dark-haired one relented. "But, shouldn't we offer our names?" He turned to face the three sailor-suited girls. "I am Narg." He hit his muscled chest with his fist.
"We be Sulik," the painted one offered, squinting his milky eyes.
"Ten— Akane Tendo," she was first offer, making a polite bow. Glad to meet you."
"Ami Mizuno."
"Tsukino Usagi," the goth one offered backwards after a small pause.
"But what three such beauties do in such place with no weapons?" Sulik inquired. "Or four?" Akane noticed him cast a surreptitious glance along the buildings surrounding the square.
"We..." Akane hesitated. Why is Ranma never there when you need him. "We hoped to learn more about this world."
"About this world...?" Narg was taken aback. Then he figured it out: "So you are aliens! What planet are you from? Not here to conquer Earth, I hope?"
"We be thinking, aliens must be small and green?" Sulik asked doubtfully.
"We are from Earth," Ami hurried to reassure them. "Just... Not from this one. From a parallel universe."
"We are not going to conquer," Akane added. "We—"
"Are just traveling," Ranma's voice interrupted her.
Everyone turned around to find the redhead standing in an empty second-story window, against the backdrop of sky, dressed in a minimalistic blue bikini of tied together strips.
"Glad to meet you." She jumped down to the ground, her entire body flexing so that her bare feet did not make a sound. "Ranma saotome."
"Just traveling?" Sulik stared at her, his face unreadable.
"From a parallel universe?" Narg asked, agitated. "Like captain Flash and Dimension Hoppers?"
"Erm, Captain Flash?" Akane asked. "Never heard of him."
"Old world make many comic books," Sulik said wisely. "So many that not all are used for wiping asses yet."
"Something like that," Narg agreed. "We are traveling too." He exchanged glances with his comrade. "On a pilgrimage."
Ranma smiled barely perceptibly: a pilgrimage, yeah. With such guns and cool ride.
A tense silence followed. The contact wasn't going well. Sulik was squinting suspiciously, from time to time sweeping the surroundings with his eyes for the second half of the ambush. He was hiding it skilfully but Ranma noticed anyway that he didn't like Usagi for some reason. Ami got flustered, then obviously dove into some calculations like an ostrich into sand. Akane kept glancing back at her comrades, unsure how to continue. Only Narg was grinning widely, friendly at the first glance but still cagey. Ranma was beginning to contemplate if they should back away to search other, more accomodating locals they could pump for information.
Usagi was keeping silent after she noticed the increased attention to her persona. It was her clever plan to conceal her rotten skill with English. Additionally, she was making a grim face so that no one figures it out.
Finally Sulik had enough and asked bluntly: "We be not understand. Your friend look like raider, but eyes are different."
Usagi tensed. They found her out!
"Excuse me?" Akane asked, confused, as she racked rer brain for the meaning of the word 'raider'.
Ranma lifted a brow. Could it be that simple?
Usagi was straining and groaning until she managed to squeeze out a bit of English: "Me not a rider. No horse."
This made even Sulik blink, despite his extensive knowledge of many tribal dialects.
"I am sorry," Akane apologized. "Our friend... has some difficulties with her English."
"Twenty points out of the hundred," Ranma explained.
Usagi laughed sheepishly scratching the back of her head: "I learn... Will learn now."
Narg snorted trying to hold the laughter back. He failed, laughing loudly and nudging Sulik with his elbow.
"This is what the spirits mean when talk about a hole in the head," the other Indian uttered wisely.
Usagi was giggling sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. Ami was silently suffering embarrassment for her.
The tension was just gone. Which proved Ranma's hunch: it was Usagi's dress that set them on edge. She cast a side glance at the girl as she remembered who·was sporting mohawks in 'Fist of the Northern Star' and 'Mad Max'... She made a note to herself, to talk to the neo-Goth about changing her image.
"We must warn you," Akane piped in hurriedly, "that there are mutants living in this city. Most of them under the ground."
"Mutants?" Narg said, disappointed. "A pithy. We hoped there are ghouls still living here."
"Ghouls?" Ami asked with alarm, only vaguely familiar with this English word. "As in undead?"
"So there are undead living here?" the redhead asked.
"You mean, ghosts?" Narg was suddenly worried.
"Ghouls are name for folks changed by radiation," Sulik explained. "Not ghosts."
"Oh, right." Narg laughed with relief. "They only look like zombies from horror stories. They are pretty alive, just ugly. Their skin is green and a mess, all covered with ties like an old scar... But you can't mistake them for mutants."
"I see," Ami replied with relief. "It seems these are synonyms."
"Synonyms?" Narg did not understand.
"Two similar words," Sulik suggested. "Like zombies and ghouls."
"How do mutants look?" Ranma injected trying to keep them from slipping into lexical depths. "Are they green too? Or blue?"
"Blue?" Sulik replied. "No, mutants be only green, like a mutfruit. Big, lumpy."
"Believe it or not, there are blue ones," Narg corrected him. "Or were, in the Great-granny's times. They are called Nightkins, were the meaniest of the Master's army. And worse, invisible."
"Invi-i-isible?" Sulik drawled. "Your esteemed ancestor probably tell you bedtime tales."
"Not tales," Narg rebuked indignantly. "But rather a pre-war tech. It's called Stealth-Boy! Turn it on and you are invisible."
"Guys," Ranma injected. "This all is interesting, but how to tell apart a mutant? We are only one hour in this world, so far we met only rats and... those who live here. But as you describe them, they look like ghouls."
"Really?" Narg perked up. "Well, mutants are like... Nine or ten feet tall, all solid muscle. Their biceps is like a Brahmin hind. In short, you can't mistake them for ghouls. Ghouls are lean, skin and bones."
"About three meters," Ranma converted to familiar units. "Some hulks they are."
"So there are ghouls living here," Ami summed up. "The one we saw was as tall as the average man. And he had... a very unhealthy skin condition."
"Excellent!" Narg rejoiced. "We were afraid someone had slaughtered them since the Great-granny's times. She herself did not know if they survived. After Master was dead his army dispersed, its remains migrating to the East, right through these parts. There was no one to check, this city is a middle of nowhere."
"Now talk them to let two outsiders to their computers," Sulik reminded him the next hurdle to overcome.
"We'd better ask them to search the coordinates of the Thirteen for us," Narg corrected. "You know that me 'n computers don't mix." He made a face. "I hope they won't send us on a wild goose chase across the wasteland in search of an electronic thingamaboobie with unpronounceable name."
"Excuse me," Ami piped in nervously. "You said computers? Maybe I can help."
"In return you will tell us about this world," Ranma was quick to inject. "Who is who, what people live where and where are doom places."
"Ranma!" Akane exclaimed reproachfully.
"Barter?" Sulik asked. "Your tek.. ni-cal expertise for ours knowledge of the Wasteland? All right."
"I don't know what kind of computers they have in this world," Ami warned with embarrassment, "but I can try. I have experience of... working with two different technological bases. And a tool that can help." She made a point of touching her visor.
"Then your services first," Narg said. "If it works... If you can do it then we will tell you about the Wasteland. Deal?"
"Deal," Ranma agreed.
"Now we only have to find the Vault entrance," Narg concluded glancing around. "This Necropolis is so huge. In Great-granny's stories it was so easy. She came, she found the water shed, she slit the mutants' throats and saved the ghouls."
Akane shivered. It was obvious this world was far from herbivorous, but still...
"Water shed?" asked Ranma.
"Vault?" Ami asked at the same time. "As in bank vault?"
"The water shed," Narg explained, "is where they have their water pump. The way down to the Vault must be not far from it."
"Vaults," Sulik explained, "are big underground towns. People of the old world build them to survive the war. Stupid, easier not start it."
"Of course!" Narg agreed as he finally realized that there could be someone that doesn't know these commonplace basics. "Vaults are underground habitats for a thousand people, built to hold for a hundred years. My ancestors came from the Vault Thirteen." He puffed up his chest. "My great-grandmother is known as Vault Dweller!"
"Oh, I see," Ami said. "Shelters. But why are these called vaults?"
"Why are these vaults?" Narg did not understand. "These... were always called that? Hmm. Yes, 'Vaults of the Future' if one can believe the surviving roadside boards."
"Vaults are shelters," Sulik agreed. "We be never thinking why. It just is."
『Etooooo...』 Usagi drawled forlornly, feeling completely lost. What were they talking about?
『Don't worry,』 Akane reassured her. 『We will definitely tell you everything.』
"So, find the shed where the pump is?" Ranma clarified.
"Yes," Narg affirmed. "There was an another landmark, a building with a large hall where Seth lurked in the past. But there are so many of them! What if it had collapsed since? You can't tell if ruins had a large hall or not."
『Ami-chan,』 Akane asked in her native tongue. 『Isn't the water shed that building over there, in which, you said, a water pump is working?』
『Why do I have an impression that that should have been a single word, 'watershed',』 Ami mumbled. 『Huh...? Yes, of course!』 She switched to English addressing two Indians: "Excuse me. You don't have to search for the water shed, it's right behind me."
Both were overjoyed, immediately they began to argue how to easier find the way down to the sewers.
Ami glanced across the square as she peered under the ground: "There's one tunnel going... Aha, a hidden manhole!" She walked up to an unassuming pile of asphalt pebbles and stirred it up it with her foot uncovering rusty iron.
"Just as great-granny said!" exclaimed Narg. "One crawl-hole right in the square!" He hurried to clean it. Together the Indians soon cleared a rusty cover.
"What should we expect?" Ranma asked. "These ghouls, which are they?" She winced involuntarily as she racked her brain for a suitable English word. "Their attitude?"
"People like any other." Narg shrugged. "There are all sorts of the. Often sharp-tongued and recalcitrant, but that's not what you are asking about, I think?"
"Old," Sulik added. "Living from before the war. In time so long one either grow wise or go to the ancestors."
"From before the war?" Ami was amazed. "But that's... Almost a century!"
"One hundred and sixty," Narg corrected. "The old world burned up in two thousand seventy seven, while now is... Twenty two hundred forty eight... I think."
"Forty two," Sulik corrected him. "Learn counting better—"
"Or merchants scam me just because," Narg finished with a sigh. "I know, I know." He looked at Ami's befuddled face. "I don't know how comes, but the ghouls live since almost two centuries ago and show no signs of going to die."
"One hundred sixty..." Ami recovered from stupefaction. "Two hundred... I don't understand. My model needs correcting. I have to... Learn more."
『Don't worry,』 the redhead consoled her switching the talk to their native tongue. 『Time's what you'll have in spades.』
『So are they all like granny Cologne?』 Akane suggested, trying to find familiar analogies to comfort herself with wishful thinking.
『Or like grandpa Happousai,』 Ranma snarked ominously.
『Banish the thought!』 Akane hit her playfully upside the head. 『Don't go tempting fate.』
Narg heaved and threw the rusty manhole cover aside. The darkness smelt with stale air and fungal mold. Making sure there was no one down there, Ami began climbing down, impatiently but still testing each bracket of the rusty ladder. Her visor was glowing faintly in the dark.
『Well, what's down there?』 Akane hurried her worriedly.
"There is no animal life," the other girl called back switching back to English. "The tunnel is dry, two meters wide. Toward the south it's blocked with rubble, the pile seems artificial. Towards the north it's free. Turns towards north-west in twenty seven meters from the manhole."
"It is where we came from, right?" Akane asked. "Where there were ghouls under the ground?"
"Yes, although it passes under a different street," Ami confirmed.
"Good!" Narg said as he began climbing down. With a grunt of effort he squeezed his mighty shoulders through the opening barely wide enough for him. The rusty brackets were groaning under his weight. Then there was a dull sound of boots landing on rubble. "Hey, it's dark down here like in devil's asshole! Drats, I have to climb back out to get atorch."
"You always do first, think after," Sulik said wisely. "Wait, we be bringing."
"Grab the vault suit too!" Narg shouted from the darkness.
"Volutosyutto?" Akane echoed the unfamiliar word.
"Sure thing!" Sulik called back as he headed towards the car. After digging through the trunk he returned with some sort of red cardboard sticks and a small bundle. "You coming?" he asked the three girls huddled around the manhole. He began climbing down, then paused, looked over Usagi's haircut with a critical eye and added: "We be advising: you go last." Then he squeezed his shoulders through the hole and was gone.
『He meant,』 Ranma translated for Usagi, 『that you can be mistaken for a bandit with such a haircut.』
『She wasn't watching movies of that sort,』 Akane added hypocritically: she herself was a closet fan of the after midnight channel, having used each occasion of staying home alone to watch all·sorts of movies.
『I misaimed, then,』 Usagi drawled fingering her Mohawk. 『It's a villainous style here, eh?』 She smiled lopsidedly. 『Fate's humor is as always pitch-black. All right, I'll hang back.』
Ranma glanced around, then slid down the manhole barely touching the brackets. Akane followed her. Usagi was the last to go, grunting and huffing. Halfway down he lost her grip and smacked down onto concrete rubble.
『Great,』 the redhead sniped. 『Now every creature for a kilometer ahead knows that someone is coming.』
『It was an accident,』 Usagi made an excuse in a loud whisper. 『Ow, ow, ow.』
『Ranma,』 Akane voiced her disapproval.
『How could one lose one's grip when possessing tenfold strength,』 Ranma grumbled.
There was a crunch and a flare flared up in Sulik's hand. "We be going first?" he proposed.
"Better me," Ranma disagreed. "And Me— Ami. I will sense enemies by their... spirit," she stuttered trying to translate the untranslatable concept of ki. "She will find all traps."
The dry concrete tunnel had an oval cross-section, only a couple meters wide. The floor along the left side was raised forming a shelf about thirty centimeters high. Standing on it, the girls were almost level with the Indians, the latter being a head taller.
"Good," Sulik agreed. "Interesting."
The redhead and Ami moved to the frond and the group started prowling down the tunnel. Before reaching the building with the pump in it, the tunnel curved softly to the right, going under the ruins at an angle to the streets above. A faint, flickering fire light could be seen far ahead. Ranma and Ami moved even further forward checking carefully for traps. All was clean. In this order they reached a T-intersection with a wider tunnel, this one lit from somewhere beyond their line of sight.
The two forward scouts slowed and the others caught up to them. Ranma gestured that there was a trap in the opening and that she sensed someone to the right. The Indians obviously did not understand her hand signs, so she gestured them to stop with a deliberately obvious palm held out.
Sulik hid the flare behind his back to lessen the light falling onto the far wall of the wide tunnel.
"Careful, there is a trap in the opening," Ami whispered. "There are two ghouls to the right, thirty meters... sorry, a hundred feet beyond the corner. Standing still in a small expansion at a T-intersection. I think they are armed. om there, straight on and to the left, but it's too far to tell what is in there."
The flickering light was coming from the right. It looked like there was a torch on the near wall in a couple meters from the opening, invisible beyond the corner. Its reddish light allowed to see two shelves running along both tunnel sides: this one was about four meters wide, almost more rectangular in cross-section, with rounded ceiling edges.
"Very good ambush," Sulik approved. "The torch make the enemy bright and blind him."
"And here's the rope," Ranma added cheerfully as she pointed at an almost invisible wire strung across the opening on the ankle height. She peered cautiously over the corner. Hmphed, then pulled back. "Goes to a big-ass shotgun with some kind of drum."
"It's au-to-matic shotgun," Narg explained in a hushed voice. "A crappy gun, wears out too fast. Nowadays you only see them in traps. Now, Pankor Jackhammer on the other hand..."
"Jekku..hammer?" Ranma echoed, confused.
『What's with the stench?』 Akane voiced her concern with a whisper. 『There is no decomposing body over there, I hope?』
Ranma peered beyond the corner again. 『Nah. There are spots of old blood all over, and little bones, probably·from rats. It's these that got spoiled.』
"There are no dead bodies nearby," affirmed Ami. "But these ghouls... I can't figure them out. If we just could move closer..."
"If we all move closer, we could startle them," Ranma reasoned "And they shoot us down." She glanced back at the locals. "The Indians are hulking, one is enough for a panic."
"We are not Indians, we are tribals," Narg corrected. "Indians died out in these parts."
"Huh?" Ranma frowned at the unfamiliar word.
『They meant 'ones living in a tribe-based society',』 Ami explained in her native tongue. 『Or I think so. Usually this word means 'savages', but I don't think they referred to themselves using such meaning.』
『Aha, people of tribes,』 Ranma said. 『Got it.』
"However they are called, what do we do?" Akane reminded them trying to switch the conversation back to English.
『Well, a harmless girlie goes first,』 the redhead explained the obvious, continuing in Japanese as she dod not notice Akane's attempt. 『Burly men enter later, after she succeeds in distracting attention... Why are you looking at me like that? It's classics!』
『Insidious,』 agreed Usagi. 『But a harmless girlie emerging amidst this city from a passage that had been carefully hidden... Suspicious.』
『Well,』 Ranma found a counter, 『then ya'd have to ramp up the charm.』 She blossomed with a sickeningly sweet smile and batted her eyelashes.
『Gah!』 Akane face-palmed. 『You are overdoing it so much it's painful to watch! Let's delegate this to...』 She turned around.
Ami started, making an involuntary step back. Usagi shrugged and smoothed her Mohawk.
『..let me do this,』 Akane finished with a sigh.
Ranma 'hmmph'-ed. Then she addressed everybody, switching back to English: "How do you think, how long ago did they last see a real girl?"
"Very long ago," agreed Sulik.
"Maybe not since the great-granny was here," added Narg.
"See!" Ranma lifted her index finger imperiously as as she addressed Akane. "Who said we need a real·girl?"
Akane just sighed heavily.
"Well, I am going," Ranma said over her shoulder. "Stay sharp."
"I'm watching," Ami affirmed. "No changes so far."
The redhead concentrated, flexed her shoulders taking a relaxed stance, then she strutted out stepping over the trap-wire smoothly.
When the obscuring torch was behind her, she could finally see that the vaguely visible ghouls were suitably stupefied. Her own shadow was an obstacle, cast forward all over the tunnel. The redhead was moving smoothly, holding back the instinctive urge to speed up, sauntering along the right shelf. The ghouls were staring, rubbing their eyes - in short, behaving completely human-like. Both dressed in ragged pants and sturdy boots, with bare torsos if you can call these things that. They were standing in a cylindrical room at the far opening where the straight tunnel continued, at different sides of in, on the shelves that curved along the room walls. Were they standing at the near opening, they'd be virtually invisible, but then they'd be unable to see the torch-lit tunnel either. One had a shotgun over his shoulder, the other one had a spear.
The ghouls began exchanging words, obviously asking each other if they were seeing things. Ranma decided to make the sight more interesting, so she jumped down into the ditch, making a point of flexing her entire body as she landed. Aha, they froze again. Niiiice.
The redhead strutted through the T-section like it was the natural thing to do. A brief glance to the left revealed a throat of the tunnel where the torch light did not reach. It was dark, silent and with no traces of any ki. Which wasn't saying much: she could barely feel animals and untrained humans unless they attacked.
Her hips swaying, she passed between the two ghouls who were staring, entranced, down her cleavage. If you can call it that: the strips making up her improvised bikini were narrow to begin with, and the very design was trying to make them narrower by wringing them.
Barely holding back the urge to shudder, Ranma fixed the ghouls up close from the corner of her eye. Their smell wasn't strong, but it was of a mix of urine and an old, rotting wound. The right one, with a shotgun over his shoulder, was more pink, glossy-smooth but all covered in ties. His weapon was a worn, double-barreled shotgun. The left one had a crude spear in his hands, a sharpened triangle of scrap metal on a fragile handle of a battered aluminum pipe — a purely stabbing weapon. His skin was greenish, flaking, dry as parchment. He looked about to shake off his stupor.
"How do you do, boys?" Ranma twirled around in a pirouette to make two naturally looking steps back, to distract them even further from the lit tunnel. "I am Ranko! Glad to meet you!" She smiled disarmingly, cursing inwardly: the damn English was wrecking her performance. How could you smooth-talk when your vocabulary is barely above that of the school course?
"Name's Mike," the one with the shotgun puffed up. One tie was going across the left side of his face forming a fold from the eye socket to the jaw. His teeth were sticking out of red, inflamed-looking gums.
"Erm, why such... err... beauty suddenly in our rotten dungeons?" the right one, with the spear, inquired. His head was cowered with something that was probably·a buzz-cut, unless he was growing literal spines like a hedgehog. His parchment-dry wrinkled face even had lips, but when he talked it was noticeable that there were more gaps in his mouth than teeth, with rough steel dentures on the left side.
Ranma grinned widely. Gotcha, pals.
"It's a trap!" the green one realized too late.
Mike grabbed at his shotgun but froze as he heard something from behind him. Slowly, already afraid of what he'd see there, he turned around. Two tribals were looming at an arm's length, their muscles bulging ominously. "Uh-oh!"
"Gack!" The green one jumped away holding his spear in front of him protectively. Unfortunately for him, there was a wall there. He bent down in a coughing fit using the spear as a crutch.
"It is all right, they are friends," Ranma tried to reassure him as she flowed backwards into the dark tunnel.
"Hello!" Narg grinned from ear to ear. "We are, uh, pilgrims, that's who we are. Searching for the Holy Thirteen to visit the home of the ancestors.
"As he say," Sulik added. "The spirits bring us here."
"Uhh, ehh, the spirits, of course," Mike croaked glancing nervously at his shotgun then at the crowd of outsiders. The tribals were grinning in a friendly manner, Akane too. Ami was holding her hand on the earring, graphs and formulas dancing across her visor making the girl look decidedly alien.
The ghoul slowly replaced the weapon on his shoulder. He obviously decided that his boomstick would be as effective against this wandering circus as kicking an elephant in the nuts.
Seeing that they weren't going to be killed right now, the second one unstuck himself from the wall with a groan, then asked cautiously: "Mind if I ask where did you learn about this passage from?"
"Great-granny told me," Narg explained proudly, "how she snuck through this very passage to the rear of the mutants who were guarding the water shed. Just as she said: in the middle of the square, near the shed."
"But it was hidden," Mike drawled with disappointment. "Or did I screw up again while refreshing it?"
"The Vault Dweller herself?" his partner was quick to grasp the important part. "So are you her son?"
"Great-grandson," Narg corrected proudly.
"How does the unforgettable Nataly do?" Mike perked up.
"Well, err..." Narg was taken aback. "It's twenty years since she died."
"Ya tactless knucklehead," The second ghoul smacked Mike upside the head with the blunt end of his spear.
"Eeeh, I keep forgetting how short-lived the smoothskins are," he mumbled guiltily.
Ami was scanning the ghouls discretely, there was a growing frustration visible in her features.
"How did you get to our parts?" the spear-toting ghoul asked cautiously.
"A pilgrimage through the places of ancestor's glory," Narg explained. "To be honest, we didn't think someone is still living here. Not after the master's army."
"Yeah, the Master's army was—"
The fact that Usagi had wandered off was made known, loudly, as she rocketed out of the dark side tunnel with a shriek, stumbling and crashing into the opposite wall.
"Careful!" the green one warned as he changed the grip on his spear to point-down. "It's like a breeding ground of them rats down there! Miss them and they'd lop your foot off."
"Why do not you block the tunnel," Akane asked as she helped the Goth one onto her feet, "if it is that bad?"
"And lose the freebies?" the spear-toting ghoul asked, inscomprehending.
"It's like a resort here," Mike added with a scratchy laugh. "You stand here doing nothing and the chowder comes by itself."
Akane didn't understand the word 'chowder' but she figured the meaning because he licked his gums dreamily. She shuddered.
Must repeat her survival training, Ranma noted. Such big, juicy rats, and such inappropriate reaction to them.
Usagi was babbling barely audibly about 'a horse-sized mole with teeth thiiis big'. The other girls dismissed this as a nervous rant while the locals couldn't understand the language.
"Would you lead us to the Vault?" Narg asked the ghouls. "Great-granny told me everything, but compared to her stories the tunnels are somewhat longer and... branchier."
"Here, he will," The spear-toting ghoul pushed Mike forward. "There's not much use of him anyway."
"So I will!" Mike said indignantly. "Follow me."
"Gimme the boomstick," the partner stopped him.
Mike sighed as he handed the shotgun over. Then he held a hand out as if expecting something.
"The spear stays with me," was a harsh reply. "Or should I waste a shell on a rat?"
Grumbling discontentedly, Mike led the guests.
Led by the ghoul, they stretched in a line. Usagi carefully maneuvered to the rear, as further away from their smelly guide as possible. Ami, on the other hand, mover forward as she kept scanning him.
Ranma, Akane and the tribals were alert, but the tunnel was stretching on uninterrupted, without a sign of any traps, hidden passages or other surprises.
『This cannot be,』 Ami moaned quietly, unable to hold back her emotions anymore.
『Something doesn't add up?』 the redhead sympathized in a whisper.
『Such organisms simply cannot exist!』 Ami hissed. 『Both have a cancer in a... it's not just a terminal stage, it's something indescribable! It seems their bodies are made up of metastases only!』
『Well, looks like it,』 Ranma agreed. 『With their hides—』
『You do not understand!』 Ami fumed. 『Such things simply cannot be stable! Their bodies should have destroyed themselves in a week tops!』 She deflated with a sigh of pure frustration. 『But they live their second century now.』
『Don't worry yourself like that,』 Akane consoled her. 『You will figure it out, I know. You will take a blood sample and find this mysterious factor that is confusing everything.』
"We are there," Ranma interrupted them.
The tunnel connected to an even wider one where the dry ditch was completely covered with a floor of rusty grate. To the right, this wide tunnel was disappearing in darkness, crisscrossed with barely visible rows of barricades of concrete chunks and rusty rebar. To the left, the ceiling was rising, then floor was rising over the grate in a half-meter high concrete ramp, then the tunnel was ending in a steel wall with a quite unusual opening shaped like a cogwheel. The gate of the same shape was visible beyond it, partly rolled to the side. A dim light of a faraway light bulb was reaching from between the rusty teeth.
"The Twelfth," Mike proclaimed proudly.
(シーンブレイク)
July 24, 2015. Corrected October 16, 2015. Translated October 27, 2015.
Author's notes:
1
I'm not sure if I got the Sulik-speech right: I last played FO2 long ago, and I almost exclusively played the Russian fan-translations, long before I learned English. So all I know about his speech is that it is very peculiar. I hope the fan translators at least got the general style right as I try to recreate the original by extrapolating several sample phrases from the wiki.
Thanks for C&C to:
— Crystal
— Нуммминорих Кута