XI

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This is only dirt. This is only crumbling concrete. Nothing to fear. Just things.

One step, then another. Nothing to fear. Just actions.

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They were crouched on the stairwell that led up to the street from the metro. The girl pulled the rifle from her back and clutched it close. Charon had never seen her use the rifle that had always been strapped beneath her pack. She'd said the ammo was rare.

"Where's your ammo?" he whispered.

"The extra? In my bag. Side pocket."

The ghoul shook his head. "You could use an ammo belt or something useful like that. Pistol?" She patted her hip. He knew her magazines were in the side pocket as well. "Count your shots, right?"

She nodded. It did nothing to abate his doubts.

Charon crawled up the stairs using his hands and knees to peek out into the streets. The ghoul's intuition had been more than correct, the streets swarmed with supermutants. The vault girl had mentioned she'd dealt with a single one in the tunnels, but it was nothing like the warzone out in the ruins.

He signaled her forward with a flick of his fingers. Seven, he signaled after counting the mutants. The girl furled her brow at his fingers, making sure she was reading it right. The ghoul pointed to an overhang with decent cover across the way. He placed a finger over his lips.

The girl was shaking visibly, but nodded. She copied Charon's motions, centering her feet under her body for balance before taking the rest of the stairs, rifle in hand.

They crossed the square low to the ground and quiet. The girl's boot caught on a chunk of concrete and she stumbled, but recovered and made it to a pillar.

"What was that?"

Charon cursed. Footsteps echoed up the corridor under the lip of the building. The girl peeked out and saw the mutant coming closer and ducked back, but Charon turned and aimed for the eyes. As the thing's body hit the ground, the rest of the mutants began to shout and loose rounds in their direction. The ghoul rounded his pillar and aimed rounds into the fray, running out into the plaza behind other cover, drawing attention.

"Oh holy hell." The girl peeked quickly again, terrified of catching a bullet. Finally, she raised her gun and aimed for the nearest supermutant.

Charon leveled one with his shotgun only moments before it would have lined its sights up on the girl. She struck them in shoulders and thighs and everything but vital areas for the first few, and soon ran for any bit of cover she could find.

"Get down." Charon pulled her arm to get her head behind the edge of the huge chunk of concrete they were crouched behind. A round hit the edge, sending dust and bits of rock scattering by.

"One more round," she muttered. Her hands were shaking as she lined up another shot and loosed it too soon. The ghoul grabbed the girl by the neck of her vest and pulled her into the relative safety of a nearby preservation shelter so they could reload, laying cover fire as they went.

She grasped him around the waist from behind. "Holy fuck, they're everywhere. I can't... please... no more. We can stay here, right. Just right here?"

"Reload," Charon said.

Her hands gripped him tighter. Her face pressed against his ribcage. "Please."

The ghoul shoved her back, and he looked over his shoulder to see shock on the vault girl's face. "I said reload."

She did as he said, seeming to have come to her senses. She ran a hand over her face, and slapped her cheek a few times. "Yeah, right," she muttered. "Yeah. Okay."

Charon placed his ear against the door, then looked back at the girl. "Ready?"

Two rounds hit the side of the shelter with a deafening sound, denting in the metal.

She pressed her hand to her forehead, then wiped at her cheek. "As much as I'll ever be."