Disclaimer: I don't own fallout 3
1-8 Ferals
Tommy's point of view
I sat bolt upright. I was covered in sweat. The nightmares just kept getting worse. This one ended with Quail saying he was sorry and then turning into one of those demons and tearing into me. I looked round it was still dark as hell, but I saw Butch's pipboy light just a little bit away from me. I walked over to it. Butch's eyes had dark circles in them, and he kept looking back and forth at the shadows that the light cast.
"You all right Butch?" I asked concerned.
"Yeah… just… a little tired…" he said softly.
"Didn't you sleep?" I asked.
"No… noises… in the dark…" he whispered terrified.
"Where's Quail?" I asked.
"He told me he was going to go scout ahead." Butch said scared, "That was an hour ago Tommy! What if he left us here?!"
"Calm down." I said shakily. What if Quail did leave us here? I guess we could find our way out, but there was no way we could get to GNR.
"What are we gonna do man? What are we gonna do?" Butch said panicking, "What if those zombie ghouls got him?! I heard them last night man!"
"I'll tell you what we're not gonna do." I replied shakily, "We're not gonna leave Quail down here."
"What you mean go after him!" Butch hissed, "What if he's already dead?!"
"If you want to go back that's fine." I said, "But I gotta do this."
"You just met him last night!" Butch cried, "Why are you risking your life for someone you just met?!"
"I'm not doing this for Quail!" I said as loudly as I dared, "I have too much blood on my hands. It's time I actually helped someone."
"Okay man… okay… I'll help you… but if we see anything that looks dangerous we bolt alright." Butch said. I nodded. Truthfully I thought Quail was a dead man. But I couldn't turn back. Not after I had come this far. Behind me I heard Butch muttering to himself. He was saying things like "it's okay" or "it'll be fine". I never should have let him come. He was my best friend, and I knew that I would the same thing for him. I could see it though, Butch was cracking. These tunnels especially, seemed to wear away at his mind. I was worried. If Quail truly did leave us behind, and since I was stupid enough to go after him, then we were dead. We'd never find our way back. Well we would eventually, but there was the very real chance that we could starve, get shot, or get decapitated by a zombie ghoul. I kept my flashlight in front of me in the dim light.
Think good thoughts I kept telling myself think good thoughts. I thought about Amata. She was the love of my life. I wondered if I'd ever see her again. I had silently wished ever since I had gotten out here that she was with me. But I knew that if she had come with me it would have been her death. And then I would be alone. I didn't even know if my dad was alive. For all I knew I was living on one thing: hope. Hope that Butch and I would come out of all this in one piece. Hope that dad was alive, so that I could get some answers. And especially, hope that I would see Amata again. We had been going out since after the G.O.A.T. test. I was thinking about perhaps proposing to her soon. But that was not to be. Fate it seemed had a cruel way of telling you that something was not meant to be. I wondered if she was okay. I prayed that she was okay, that she had convinced the overseer to stand down. If she asked for my help than I would give it.
I began to remember the death that I had caused in the last few weeks. The officer in the Atrium, I hadn't even known the man's name and I had killed him. I had done it to avenge the two civilians I had killed. That was what I told myself at least. I knew in my heart though that I had done it out of anger. None of my murders, in my eyes had been for a noble cause. I had killed Mack in cold blood out of defense of Amata. I knew I didn't need to kill him. He was guilty of the same crimes of the overseer in that situation, yet I had not killed the overseer. Why, I wondered. Because he was Amata's father and I knew she would hate me if I killed him. I had killed the raider out of anger of the animals they were. They had a euphoric high look in their eyes and had dried blood on their lips. Who knew of the unspeakable crimes they committed? I knew that this was not the last time I would have to kill.
"How long have we been walking man?" Butch asked constantly looking around. I checked my pipboy. 2:30.
"An hour." I said. I knew Quail was probably dead at that point, but I didn't know how to get out of there. The only way to go was forward.
"An hour?!" Butch whispered, "He's dead man we gotta get out of here."
"Do you know the way out?" I asked. I had never been this afraid in my entire life.
"We're not gonna last out here man." Butch said seriously, "We lost track of time and slept the day away. Even if we get out of here it'll be dark and who knows what goes bump in the night out here."
"Well what are we gonna do then?" I asked stopping.
"We could try yelling for him." Butch suggested.
"It could attract attention." I cautioned.
"Well seeing as we're probably gonna die down here anyways, what have we got to lose." Butch said grimly.
"Well if some monster comes out of the dark then we bolt alright." I said. Butch nodded.
"QUAIL!" I shouted. The noise reverberated around the dark tunnel.
"Quail where are you?!" Butch yelled. Again it echoed. We called over and over as we advanced forward, not getting any response.
"QUAIL ARE YOU HERE?!" Butch shouted again. Then suddenly he stopped. There out of the dimness stepped a figure. But it wasn't Quail, and definitely wasn't human. It looked like Gob, but it wore no clothes. Its skin was virtually burned off and it was so radiated that its flesh popped and burned with painful blisters. Its teeth were sharp as fang and most of them were rotten. It hissed. I raised my rifle and fired a shot into it's chest. It didn't even appear phased.
"RUN!" I shouted and took off. But then I was tackled from behind. Even though the creature was emaciated beyond belief, it was very strong. I felt a stinging pain down my back as the creature attacked me with claw-like fingernails. I kicked back ward and felt my foot connect with flesh. I was momentarily released and I saw Butch struggling with another ghoul as well as more of the creatures stampeding out of the darkness. I tried to get up to help my friend, but suddenly my legs were pulled out from under me. I landed on my back and briefly saw the creature with one eye swollen shut bite into my leg. I screamed in pain and drew my 10mm. I unloaded the entire clip into the top of the creature's head. It stopped moving. I unlatched its teeth from my leg, and fired another three shots into the one Butch was trying to fight off.
"Tunnel snakes rule!" I shouted gaining confidence. These things weren't so tough, but they were plentiful. There must have been at least ten in the area we stood in. Butch pulled out his assault rifle and fired into the ghouls. Several of them fell but more just seemed to come. Soon we were backed up against a train hitting off the ghouls with a baseball bat. Suddenly a ghoul that was actually glowing from radiation raised its arms and the all too familiar burn filled my body. I collapsed to my knees coughing. I tasted blood. Then another ghoul threw something which hit Butch in the shoulder. He started to scream. I saw in the light a bloody burnt wound on his shoulder. Whatever the substance was I did not want to be hit by it.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this Butch." I said scared.
"Don't be man I would have come anyway." He smiled. He knew this was probably the end. The same ghoul that had thrown the substance at Butch grabbed legs and dragged me into the crowd. I heard Butch cry my name in anguish as he fired into the mass of ghouls. I noticed that the ghouls weren't organized and were actually fighting amongst themselves. I tried my best to fight them off and I managed to kill some of the weaker ones, but there were still about fifteen left and I knew it was futile when one tackled me to the ground and prepared to burn my face off with that substance it had hit Butch with. I shut my eyes. Then suddenly I heard the noise of a laser pistol being fired and felt the ghoul collapse. Its head was missing. I turned and saw Quail with a laser pistol in each hand taking down more and more of the creatures and with some help from Butch and I the battle was soon over. Quail wiped sweat from his brow and turned to face us.
"Shit, I leave you two alone for five minutes, and you nearly get yourselves killed by a bunch of feral ghouls!" he laughed. Then he stopped and his face grew more serious, "Well as soon as we get your boo-boos patched up then we're moving on." As we sat down for some doctor work, all I could think was that I was glad Quail was on our side.
Author's note: Well there you go. I tried to show you guys some of Tommy's inner thoughts in this chapter. I didn't think I was delving deep enough considering he is the main character. To anyone who celebrates it (like me) I hope you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving! Unfortunately I will be unable to update for most likely this weekend. Blame my biology techer not me. Sorry.
