The low thud of crank gun fire had told them where the mutant was long before they could hear it hollering.
"I'll come about down this hall. You flank him from the other hall. Stay low, shoot in the reload zone." Charon hissed.
Spoon nodded grimly, and bolted for the hallway. She gritted her teeth against the fear she felt swelling in her chest. She hated super mutants, hated their smell, their yelling, and especially their nasty penchant for making themselves goody bags of human remains for later. Spoon skidded to a stop beside a doorway as the crank gun whirred to a stop.
Shoot in the reload zone.
Spoon whipped her gun around the doorframe, cracking a shot off into the super mutant's neck. Blood spurted as the mutant let out an enraged bellow, fumbling with the crank gun. Spoon managed to get two more shots off, both burying themselves uselessly in the beast's shoulder.
Charon where are you? she thought in a panic, scrambling away from the doorway as the crank gun whirred back to life. Bullets started to rip through the wall over her head, and she fled back down the hall.
"Found you!"
Spoon couldn't suppress the scream that bubbled up in her throat as a massive hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around. She fired point-blank into the mutant's stomach, the panic making her jerk the trigger twice. The rifle jammed. The mutant grinned, exhaling a foul breath into her face.
Spoon flicked the trigger forward and then back. Nothing.
The super mutant picked her up around the neck. Spoon hastily wrapped a hand around it's arm, saving her neck from instantly being snapped. She frantically pumped the trigger of the rifle as the mutant laughed, tears starting to come as she prayed for the damn thing to work work work please!
She pressed the barrel of the gun to the mutant's face as her vision started to gray out. All she could hear was the maniac, discordant laughter of the creature and the useless clicking of her gun.
So this is how I die?
The calm thought surprised her into ceasing to struggle for a minute. Huh. This is definitely looking like how I die. I only wish I could have been stronger. Strong enough to kill this giant, dumb-
The rifle abruptly fired into the mutant's face, neatly shearing through the skull and taking a chunk of miniscule brain with it. The mutant stopped moving, face frozen in shock. The fingers around Spoon's neck tightened into a throat-crushing grip, and then relaxed as the beast slumped to the ground. Spoon rolled away, coughing and sucking air into her lungs. She flung an arm out and scooped up her rifle, standing on shaky legs.
Charon. Where is Charon? she wondered, rummaging through the super mutant's armor for anything useful. She wished she was strong enough to easily use the crank gun, but no such luck. Those things weighed a ton, and no matter how good they were in a pinch there was no way she was lugging one around.
The worry for Charon started to eat away at her, and she cautiously crept further down the hall. She could hear grunts and struggling in a room ahead, but it was too dark to see anything.
"Charon?" she hissed, one hand on the wall and the other on her gun as she carefully felt her way forwards.
"Time to die!" the scream cut through the black, making Spoon blanch from how close it was.
"Charon!" she cried, fumbling in her pockets and coming up with a matchbook.
AN:
Back to our regularly scheduled program, it would seem! We have some new followers, welcome aboard silverdragon0315, Too-fly, Befudle, coduss, and Little Miss Lover! Thanks to all of you for the favorites, and thank you to all of you that reviewed as well! You're all lovely people. Please stay safe!