Chapter Twenty-Four: Blades, Claws, and Guns

For the first hour, they walked in silence in the dark. Albert knew Natalia was grappling with the recently brought up memory of the deathclaw cave. If she needed to, he was sure she would talk to him about it. But she had come a long way since Stone's death and Albert suspected all she needed was a bit of time to herself. She was, after all, the most resilient person he had ever met.

In the meantime, Albert found himself marveling at how easy it had been to agree to the Regulators' demands. He and Natalia had essentially agreed to assassinate someone protected by a gang of cutthroat marauders. This time, they hadn't even needed an emotional impetus to agree to the task (at least he hadn't), unlike with the Khans. Worse still, Albert didn't even know how they were going to kill one person and then make it back to Adytum alive, yet the notion of the task barely worried him. He knew that between himself and Natalia, they could get the job done. A very small part of him remained alarmed at just how easily he had slipped back into this cold, rational frame of mind. But it was just a small part. After all, wasn't that what he had signed up for the last time he had left the Vault on this mission?

Eventually when Natalia did speak, it was about the Blades and the Regulators.

'You don't think they're being on the level with us,' he observed in response to her words.

'Something's not right about it,' she said. 'If the Blades are really such a terrible and dangerous gang, why resort to suicide bombing? Suicidal terrorism is a weapon of the weak – those who don't know of a more plausible alternative to getting what they want. You'd have to be pretty darn desperate and idealistic to resort to ending your life that way. It's one thing to go into a situation knowing you might die. It's a whole other thing to know that you will die.'

'Maybe he was suicidal to begin with,' Albert suggested.

'Maybe,' Natalia said doubtfully. 'Something just doesn't sit right with me on this. I don't trust them, Albert. Zimmerman or his lackeys.'

'And why didn't you mention it before I signed us up to take on a gang?'

'The last thing I would have wanted was for any of them to overhear my suspicions.'

'And speaking of your suspicions, what makes you so sure they're not trustworthy?'

'I spoke to Sammael again before we left,' she said. 'Those Regulators don't just handle security. They take a percentage off the top of whatever the scavs bring in. In addition to that, they also charge each resident of Adytum protection money… or protection caps, or whatever it is they call it these days… They're thugs, Albert, and they've got something to gain here.'

'So you think Zimmerman's in on this extortion?'

'Can't see why not. He's the mayor isn't he? It's pretty clear he wants the Blades leader dead, and in a rather gruesome manner too, if you recall.'

'You think all those histrionics were just for show to get us to take the job?'

'I don't know what I think. But I suspect Zimmerman and his Regulators are playing up the threat of the Blades: to us, to the people of Adytum… anything to justify their extortion racket.'

'You may be right, Natalia, but even if that's true… what are we going to do about it? We kill a gang leader and we get access to the Library. The only other alternative seems to be to take the Regulators head on. And honestly, while taking on a gang with just the three of us…' he paused to ruffle the fur on Dogmeat's head. 'While that sounds like the craziest thing we may have tried yet, going up against well-armed guards behind a double chain-link fence is even crazier.'

'What do you propose then?'

'I want to be sure that we're not making matters worse by interfering. Let's say you're right and Zimmerman and the Regulators are feeding the people of Adytum lies or at least exaggerations so they can continue running their protection racket. Yes, they're corrupt and they're living it large while everyone else has to scrounge around to make a living, but in the end they are keeping the people safe, aren't they? They are fulfilling a need, especially with gangs and deathclaws out there.'

'Albert, where's this… coming from?' Natalia fixed him with a quizzical stare.

'Sometimes doing the right thing means being a very bad person,' he recited from memory. They had been Ian's words. They had been Tycho's words. Now they had become his words. He truly had become a resident of the wasteland. Doc Morbid could have his human meat trade with Iguana Bob and the Regulators could have their little racket. Albert sighed. 'Never mind taking on the Regulators; I don't even know how we're going to take down one person in the middle of all her gang members. I don't even know what I was thinking except that there didn't seem to be any other option.' He groaned. 'I used to be good at this kind of thing. What happened to me? Can't even negotiate a simple deal!'

'You've changed,' Natalia offered as an explanation. 'We all have. We've gone through so much and come so far since we first set foot outside the Vault.'

'But did we go in the right direction?'

'We went in the only way that was possible. It's all for the sake of our Vault.'

Albert smiled. 'Thanks. Now we just have to figure out how to get into the Blades encampment without getting blown to smithereens.'

'That may not be as difficult as we thought.' Natalia stopped walking.

'Getting blown up?'

'No, making it in.'

Albert followed suit. 'Why so?'

'Because it appears we've reached the front door of their camp without crossing so much as a single patrol.'

Albert looked up at their surroundings and realized that she was right. They were already at the nightclub. An old sign for "Blades"-brand razors that hung from the outer walls of the nightclub gave a clear indication as to how the gang had gotten its name. As with all the other buildings, the nightclub had suffered significant damage, yet evidence of partial rebuilding was clear. By the looks of it, the repairs must have been going on for a long period of time already. A tiny outpost made of wood had been constructed next to the entrance. A strong, stout looking man with a bushy beard stood inside it, gazing out into the darkness of the night.

'Notice anything?' Natalia asked Albert.

'Only one guard?' Albert offered.

'Keep watching him. I'll scout the perimeter and be back in ten.'

'Wait, take this.' Albert took off the motion sensor that he had attached to his PIPBoy back when he and Alex were still in the Glow. He showed her how to operate it and then watched as she skulked off silently into the gloom.

In less than ten minutes she was back.

'Nothing,' she told him. 'Either they're exceptionally good at hiding, or they're the worst gang I've ever seen. Something's really not right about this.'

'So the Regulators are probably scapegoating the Blades.'

'Certainly looks that way.'

'Well, if they aren't enough of a gang to defend themselves properly, that just makes our job easier, then.'

'You still want to go through with this?'

'The Regulators may be bad guys, but if these Blades' people did kill Zimmerman's son, then they're no better. I have no qualms with killing a murderer.'

Natalia stared at him for longer than a casual moment. 'That's still a big "if".'

'Only one way to find out for sure, I guess.'

Natalia quickened her pace to catch up with Albert's purposeful stride. Dogmeat trotted along beside them. 'This Brotherhood armor better be as strong as they say it is,' Natalia muttered as they walked towards the lone sentry.

The man waited patiently for them to approach. 'Well, ye don' look like those bloody Regulatorrs now do ye?' he said in a thick Scottish accent.

'We're from out of town,' said Albert. 'Zimmerman wanted us to give your leader a message.'

'Ah, ye be wantin' to talk to Razor, then. A good lass if there ever was one. I'll have to take those rifles 'fore I let ye in, though.'

'Fine,' said Albert. They still had their plasma pistols. The guard didn't seem like he was planning on disarming them completely. He simply didn't want them to walk into a crowd of people with loaded automatic weapons.

'I hope Zimmerman's finally seen some sense,' the man commented as he led them into the old nightclub. They passed through the largest part of the dance floor where dozens of people were scattered all around, sitting or standing wherever there was space. Their various conversations ceased and all their eyes fell onto the two newcomers. Dressed as they were in their green combat armor, the two vault dwellers definitely stood out.

'What do you mean?' Albert asked to break the silence. 'About Zimmerman?'

'That Regulatorr bunch… a real gang of nasties is what they are. This group 'ere needs better 'an what's been handed 'em and Zimmerman's been blind to their plight.'

'Meaning?'

'Are y' serious?' The man looked genuinely surprised. 'I was thinkin' the deathclaws were the spawn of an unnatural act, but 'em Regulatorrs are pure evil. Come once a month or so and they show their ugly faces and drag a father away from 'is wee ones.'

'Why would they do that?' asked Natalia.

'That's what bastarrds do.'

They crossed the dance floor and turned into a back corridor that ended at an office. Inside, they found themselves in a room with over a dozen people. It seemed like this nightclub of the Blades was somewhat lacking in space. A quick cursory look showed that most of these people weren't armed, at least not with guns. Still, it would be hard to take out the leader without then getting mobbed by everyone else.

The focus of their attention stood in the center of the room, arms leaning heavily on the desk before her. She was dressed in a black blouse and jeans, although they suspected it was more due to a limited wardrobe than a fashion statement. Upon their entrance, she glanced up from the half dozen maps strewn across the desk.

As their escort informed her of their purpose, Natalia couldn't help but be struck by her incredible beauty. Comparing Albert and this woman, Natalia came to the conclusion that it appeared that good looks did in fact play an important role in charismatic leadership. Perhaps the only thing that was marring the woman's looks in this case was the immense sadness Natalia saw behind her eyes.

And while Natalia was struck most by the woman's photogenic appearance, to Albert it was the look in her eyes that caught his attention; it was a look before he had seen before, back in the Vault. It was the look of someone who had once thought she had everything only to have it ripped from her in an instant. He had witnessed it in the eyes of a vault dweller who had come to him for marriage counseling but, shortly after the marriage, had seen it fall to pieces when her newly wedded husband suffered a stroke and passed away. This woman who now stood before them had not yet come to terms with whatever loss she had experienced. Albert glanced down at the maps and realized they were maps of Adytum. He recognized the outline of the fence, the location of some of the tents, the mayor's building, and the Regulators' barracks near the entrance of the town.

'Are you the leader of this gang?' Albert asked. 'The one they call Razor?'

'Gang?' She sounded as if the word were foreign to her. 'We're hardly a gang. But I am the one they all come to for direction. Did you come here to kill us?'

'If that's what you think, why did you let us in, and armed no less?'

'It's better to have an enemy, even a dangerous one, hemmed in on all sides than free to pick you off one at a time. If your intentions were hostile, how else would we have gotten you to step into enemy territory? There's only so many people you can kill with single-shot weapons before you get overwhelmed by sheer numbers. And then we'll have your weapons. So I ask again, and believe me when I say I can tell if you're lying: are you here to kills us?'

Natalia was right, Albert found himself thinking. This "gang", if that was what it was, was nothing like the Khans. They were weak, beaten, and desperate. Zimmerman and the Regulators had most definitely exaggerated when they had spoken of the threat the Blades posed. That only left one little question unanswered. Albert decided to cut to the chase.

He looked directly into Blades' eyes. 'You're not the only one who can tell when someone's lying. So before I answer your question, answer mine: did you kill Zimmerman's son?'

The look Blade gave him said it all. Her eyes darkened. Her voice was quiet but filled with smoldering vehemence when she spoke. 'What?' Albert could quickly see the anger bubbling up within her, much like it had with Zimmerman. 'Is that what the Regulators are saying about us now?' Razor turned away, not sure how to process this new information. 'Everyone else, leave now! Please.' Her voice was soft but urgent.

'But what if…' one of the others asked, clearly worried about the potentially threat the two visitors posed.

'Just do it,' Blade said in a tone that brooked no further disagreement. 'I'm in no danger.' No one else argued as they shuffled out the doorway, leaving the two vault dwellers, Dogmeat, and Razor to themselves.

At first Razor merely stood still, her eyes cast on the ground, arms crossed, teeth biting onto her lower lip as her mind raced. But it soon became evident that her breathing was also growing more rapid. Now that her followers were out of the room, she didn't need… couldn't… hold her composure anymore. Her eyes darted around, unfocused, as she struggled to process what she had just heard. Albert suspected she was on the verge of some kind of panic attack.

'Are you alright?' Natalia asked.

'Those… Those fucking cocksuckers!' Razor blurted, surprising Albert and Natalia by the sudden outburst. Razor struggled free from their grasp, then started pacing around the floor, her fists clenching and unclenching, as if she wasn't quite sure what to do with her body. She found her way back to the maps on her desk. 'I'll kill them!' she growled. 'I'll send them all to hell!'

'We're here,' Albert reassured her, forcing her to look up at him. 'We're here to set things right. Just tell us what's wrong.'

Slowly, her eyes came to focus on his. She took a deliberate deep breath and reached for a canteen of water on her desk. She downed a few mouthfuls, then took a few more breaths. She looked like she was about to apologize but Albert stopped her, leading her over to her desk chair instead. She took a seat.

'The Regulators,' she said, and for the longest moment, that was all that came from her lips. Albert and Natalia waited patiently for her to gather her thoughts and put them into words. 'They were the ones who killed Josh.'

'The Regulators?' Natalia expressed her surprise. Even with all her misgivings, she hadn't though the Regulators capable of such dastardly treachery.

'I would never do anything to hurt Josh!' Razor nearly shouted her innocence.

'Why would Zimmerman have his own son killed?' Natalia couldn't believe her ears.

'The Regulators are running Adytum. Not Zimmmerman!'

'Why would they want to kill Zimmerman's boy?' asked Albert.

'Josh lived here with me—' Razor stopped abruptly. 'a… I… I mean us.' She frowned at her own slip. To Albert and Natalia, her inadvertent admission was a full explanation for her earlier outburst to news of the Regulators' accusations. 'He knew the truth behind what was going on,' she said. 'The Regulators told him if he ever tried to contact his father or return to Adytum they would kill him.' Albert and Natalia traded uncomfortable glances at this new revelation. 'They laughed at him… they were so sure he couldn't get to his father…'

'He tried to get back into Adytum?' asked Natalia.

'Late one night he tried to sneak into town to tell his father what was really going on. I was monitoring the Regulators radio transmissions the night they… he got… caught.' She looked down and shook her head slowly. She reached for her desk drawer and pulled it open, producing from inside a holodisk that she passed to Albert. 'It's all there.'

She inserted the disk into a small compact holodisk player with speakers and hit the replay button.

Voice 1: Regulator Patrol to Regulator Base. Do you copy? Over.

Voice 2: This is Regulator Base, Principle Regulator Caleb responding. Report. Over.

Voice 1: Regulator Second Class Cravotta reporting, sir. We've apprehended the Zimmerman boy trying to infiltrate our perimeter again. Orders? Over.

Voice 2: Shit! Again! Well that's the last time that's going to happen. Eliminate him and make it look like the Blades did it. Understand?

Voice 1:… Sir? Uh… Did I copy correctly, sir? Kill him? Over.

Voice 2, That's affirmative, Regulator. And I want it messy. Impale him on the guard posts out front—oh, and cut out his tongue so he can't talk while we 'attempt' to save his sorry ass.

Voice 1: It shall be done, sir. Out.

Everyone in the room was silent. Although Razor had heard it before, it was clear the recorded transmission still deeply affected her.

Albert swore. 'That son of a bitch kept a straight face while Zimmerman told us about his son's death.' It was quickly becoming apparent just who the real gang was. This was Garl. This was Gizmo. This was Decker. This was the Underground shit at its finest all over again. And in some ways, the deceptive element just made it seem that much darker and dirtier.

'Why haven't you tried to give this to Josh's father?' Natalia asked Razor.

Razor gave a short bitter laugh. 'It's not like any of us can even get close to Adytum. We'd be shot dead before we even reached the gates. And honestly… I'm not sure it would help.' She looked back down at her maps. 'The only way it's going to work is if it's backed up by the threat of violence.'

'That's what all this is for?' Albert gave a wave at the maps.

'It's still not enough,' Razor revealed. 'I wasn't lying when I said we were short on firepower. There's no way we can go toe-to-toe with the Regulators with our limited arsenal, and certainly not against the kind of armor most of them use. We need more and better guns, but the only ones we know who have enough to arm us are the Gun Runners.'

'And?' said Natalia expectantly.

'Well, for one, there's a deathclaw nest between us and them.'

'A nest?' Natalia felt the blood drain from her face just a little.

'We've seen the babies.'

'There must be another way around,' said Albert.

'Not the way the Gun Runners set it up. Back when they were still competing with rival gangs, they made a fortress for themselves – took over an old factory east of here, dug up the land around it, then poured barrels of toxic waste into their self-made moat. There's only one way in and out. So after the deathclaws arrived and plopped their scaly lizard asses in front of their doorstep, the Gun Runners' business dried up. No one wants to go to them and they can't exactly just pick up shop and move, at least not quickly, which is what you need to be able to do when you move through deathclaw territory.'

'If they deal in weapons, why haven't they simply gone in and wiped out the deathclaws?' Albert asked.

'I don't know. We've never had the guts to try to make it past the cinema to find out.'

'The cinema?' Natalia looked concerned. That was the place Sammael had talked about.

'So if the deathclaws were out of the way, you could get guns from the Gun Runners?' asked Albert.

'It's not that simple,' Razor admitted. 'They're not going to arm us for free.'

'You have one more problem,' Albert pointed out. 'Even if you get those guns, you don't exactly have a stellar reputation amongst the people of Adytum. They think you're bloodthirsty thugs. If you show up armed to the teeth, there's no telling if the townspeople themselves won't decide to stab you in the backs when you're not looking.'

Razor swore silently.

'There is a way around this,' Albert continued after a long moment's thought, 'but we're going to need two things. First, we're going to need this holodisk. Then we're going to need your help to wipe out the deathclaws for good.'

'We can't do that!' Razor protested. Even Natalia looked shocked. 'We have a few Colts and a few boxes of bullets, but that's it! And none of us has ever faced a deathclaw before!'

'Razor,' said Albert, 'we'vebeen in the wasteland long enough to know that the only way to get unpleasant things done is to do them yourself. We're not asking you to do this alone. But we can't do it by ourselves either. We're gonna need to help each other out here.'

'But what then? Even if we succeed, the Gun Runners aren't just going to give us free weapons.'

'They will if we reverse the order of things.'

The huge old cinema was in a shambles.

Convinced either by Albert's plan or his display of confidence and determination, Razor had agreed to help them with the deathclaw problem, although she clearly felt out of her league. She had brought three people with her – people whom she could trust to do their jobs, even if that meant facing down a deathclaw. The three were Michelle, her scout leader, Dolgan, the weaponmaster, and Jade, one of her immediate subordinates. The Blades were indeed sorely lacking in weaponry, so Albert and Natalia loaned them their AK-112s.

While Razor and her crew surveyed the scene from behind the cover of the wrecked furniture in an old restaurant, Albert and Natalia moved off to the side to have a private conversation.

'Albert, I'm… not sure I can go through with this,' Natalia confessed. 'I thought I'd put it behind me but… I keep seeing Stone's face. And all these people here… I see Stone in each one of their faces. They're all going to die if we try to make it past the deathclaws.'

Albert gripped her shoulder firmly. 'Keep it together, Natalia.' His tone was serious. 'We can do this. We're more prepared this time.'

'We're really going through with this? Helping the Blades get back at the Regulators?'

'You heard that recorded transmission. Is there really any other option?' Natalia shook her head. 'It's the only way we can get to the Library now,' Albert continued. 'And at least this time we'll have allies on our side.'

'That's if we manage to convince the Gun Runners. Do you really think they're going to help us even if we do make it past the nest?'

'They will if they know what's good for them.'

Natalia sighed. 'Alright,' she said after a long pause. She walked over to where Razor and the rest were standing watch. 'Remember, we're not here to get into a fight,' she told them. 'Not yet anyway. If they do spot us, only fire if I give the command, and focus on one deathclaw at a time. If they're anything like the one I fought before, they like to charge headfirst at you. So don't attack them out in the open. Stick to cover.'

'I don't know how you can be so calm. Most of the people who pass through this way never come back,' Michelle revealed.

Natalia wasn't calm. In fact, she was surprised she hadn't appeared even more nervous than any of Razor's people. And having all these people around… all these potential casualties… Natalia knew that history couldn't afford to repeat itself. She wasn't sure if she could bear another repeat of the incident in the deathclaw cave.

The group moved from cover to cover, all the while drawing closer and closer to the old cinema. They could detect no movement and the place seemed empty, but Natalia remembered how the cave Ian, Stone and herself had entered had also seemed empty at first. Fortunately, she now had the motion sensor Albert had given her and its sonar-like readout was not picking up on any movement except their own. On the walls of the cinema, they could see the tattered remains of movie posters featuring some horror film from pre-War days. The movie was called Ripper and no one could fail to notice the morbid aptness of the title.

They made it another block before their cover ended. Ahead of them lay a mostly barren parking lot. To their left loomed the large double-story cinema. On the other side of the parking lot up ahead, they could make out the silhouette of the factory and its large adjoining warehouse. Surrounding the factory stood the Gun Runners' own self-made moat. Even from a distance, Albert, Natalia and the rest could see the greenish goo that filled the moat. In the darkness, it actually seemed to fluoresce. Whatever this factory had been manufacturing before the War, it must have also produced extremely toxic byproducts. A single bridge forded the narrowest part of the moat, constructed of a few planks of wood that had been fastened and nailed together.

The Gun Runners had certainly made for themselves a formidable defensive position, second, perhaps, only to the Brotherhood of Steel's bunker. No other settlement they had come across since first leaving the Vault – not even Junktown's wall of cars – was this well defended.

Unfortunately, this impenetrable fortress had now also become the Gun Runner's prison. Not entirely, of course. They were heavily armed enough that if they needed, they could probably make it past the cinema without too much harassment. But it certainly made the prospect of moving caravans of weapons and goods to and from the factory a laughable one.

In the end, there was now only one way to the bridge – directly across the parking lot. Fortunately for them, there were still wrecked cars dotting the space, meaning they would not have to make an open dash to the bridge.

Natalia took a deep breath and led the way out from the cover of the buildings they had hitherto been sticking to and into the wide open lot. Now, with nothing above their heads but the night sky, they felt even more vulnerable. Fortunately, there was still no sign of the deathclaws. Sammael must have been right about the advantages of moving around at night.

Natalia swallowed the thought as she brought the group to an abrupt halt. The blip that appeared on the motion sensor indicated that there was something moving up ahead. With her keen eyesight, Natalia had no problems detecting the large truck forty feet ahead. Whatever it was that had registered on the motion sensor was behind that truck. Pointing in the direction of a detour, Natalia led the group around a longer route that was more sheltered by old car wrecks and that skirted around the truck.

They made it a little further until the cars, too, ran out. There were still a few further ahead, closer to the bridge, but to reach those, they would have to break cover. The deathclaw over by the truck was still there but wasn't moving much – probably having a midnight snack of something (hopefully not human).

From their new position by the edge of the last car in the row, the group could now see the long tail of the deathclaw sticking out from behind the truck. Keeping their eyes on the dim silhouette, they began crossing the open space between their car and the next.

They had just made it to the cover of the next car when Natalia's motion sensor began detecting movement coming up from the bank of the moat up ahead. As they watched with great trepidation, another deathclaw emerged straight ahead of them, almost directly next to the bridge to the Gun Runners' factory. There was nothing between them except about forty feet of empty space – no cover to hide behind this time.

What the deathclaw had been doing down along the bank of the moat was a mystery – perhaps it had found some poor animal that had died trying to the ford the moat the hard way, now to become its meal. Slowly, the full shape of the deathclaw came into view, its sunken, white, seemingly pupil-less eyes visible even from that distance. Everyone gasped. Albert himself, though he had heard all the stories from Natalia and Ian, couldn't help but gape at the sight of the creature. Even now he couldn't understand how fallout radiation could cause this much mutation. In response, he found his thoughts going back to FEV. This was all the FEV's fault – it had to be – which actually meant that it was all the government's fault, at least back when it had still existed. Hadn't they watched enough movies and read enough books to at least be familiar with the idea that when you make viral weapons, they inevitably backfire?

The deathclaw clearly wasn't fully grown, standing only at eight feet in height, but even so, Natalia herself found herself inhaling sharply at the familiar sight of a creature whose lookalike had ripped Stone's body open all those months ago. The only thing that got her body moving again was the determination that what had happened back then would repeat itself.

The others eventually got over their awe and were beginning to line up their shots in anticipation of Natalia's command when, to their surprise, Natalia pulled off one of her gloves and lifted her hand into the air. Almost immediately after, she began frantically gesturing for them to lower their weapons. To their amazement and puzzlement, the deathclaw, even though it had practically been staring straight at them, turned and began striding slowly away in the direction of the other deathclaw at the truck. When it had moved far enough away, they began heading over to the bridge.

'What the hell just happened there?' Razor whispered in relief. 'It looked like you were waving it away!'

'I was testing the wind,' Natalia explained, no less amazed than everyone else. 'We were standing downwind. It seems like our deathclaws can't really see all that well at night.'

'Good for us,' said Michelle.

'As long as the wind doesn't—'

'Ah, shit,' Albert muttered as a gust of wind hit them in the faces from the other direction.

First they heard the growl, then they saw the deathclaw turn. The other one stuck its head out from the back of the truck and joined the first. Neither was fully grown but that didn't make them seem any less threatening.

'What do we do? Do we run?' asked Razor. 'We're not that far from the bridge.'

'No, it'll be on us before we're even half way there,' said Natalia. 'We need to take them down. Both of them.'

'Both?' the one called Michelle murmured weakly.

'Get ready for it. Closest one first,' said Natalia as one of the deathclaws pinpointed their scent, its eyes widening more as a reflexive action than because it had necessarily spotted them in the dark. It growled once and was replied with a growl from its partner.

They charged.

Natalia lobbed one of the grenades she had gotten from the Brotherhood armory towards the rampaging deathclaws. It struck the ground, bounced once, then exploded. The deathclaws tried to avoid it as it hit the ground but Natalia had timed her throw well. As the grenade exploded, the nearest deathclaw stumbled as its tough scaly hide was peppered by shrapnel. But that only slowed it. The other one was only too eager to take the lead.

'Fire!' Natalia yelled, as the second one got into range. Two assault rifles and two plasma pistols went off in rapid succession. Albert fired with one hand, his other on Dogmeat's back, urging the dog to stay put; he could feel Dogmeat quivering in anticipation of the attack, his fangs bared, a ferocious growl deep in his throat. It wouldn't do for Dogmeat to get into the line of fire.

The 5mm rounds from the assault rifle were doing nothing substantial to the deathclaw. Neither were the 10mm rounds from the other Blades' weapons. But the plasma worked surprisingly well. Hissing splotches of green burned their way into the first deathclaw's chest as it neared. Clearly in pain, it stumbled twice. One lucky shot from Natalia's weapon struck it in the face. Its eyes bubbled and the front of its head melted away, and the enormous beast finally crashed to a halt less than fifteen feet in front of them.

In the meantime, the second one had caught up. The group was able to get a few lucky shots in but Natalia knew it wasn't going to be enough. At the last moment, noting the deathclaw's likely trajectory, she threw herself at Razor, intending to tackle her out of the way. At that moment, Albert released his hand from Dogmeat's back as the other Blades members ceased firing in order to take evasive action.

Dogmeat's leapt at an angle towards the deathclaw, his fangs latching onto the deathclaw's neck as it headed for Razor and Natalia. Thrown off balance by Dogmeat's attack, the deathclaw's long talons missed their mark, swiping the air instead. Dogmeat's momentum carried him over the deathclaw and off to the side, his fangs ripping away a huge chunk of flesh from the deathclaw's neck. No sooner had the deathclaw hit the ground than Dogmeat was back on the offensive, finishing off the work he had started.

And then all was silent. Razor had been thrown completely clear. Natalia, though spared the claws of the mutant lizard, had nevertheless ended up under the massive weight of the deathclaw's tail. With the help of Razor and her three other helpers, they managed to get the tail off their fallen friend.

'Are you alright?' Albert asked as he helped her to her feet.

'I never knew I had that much wind to be knocked out of me,' Natalia breathed. 'Good thing these ones were just younglings.'

'Younglings?' Albert sounded worried.

'Come on, we need to get to the bridge before more come,' said Natalia. 'They may not be able to see very well, but I'm willing to bet they can hear just fine.'

As if in response, they heard what sounded like a ferocious roar coming from the cinema. It was replied by two more roars, softer and coming from various other places in the surrounding ruins.

Leaving the two deathclaw corpses behind them, the group quickly covered the rest of the distance to the bridge, reaching it, to their great relief, without further incident.

As they neared the bridge, the glowing moat loomed closer. Contrary to their imaginations, the moat wasn't bubbling or churning at all as they peered over the edge of the embankment; it stood calm but no less lethal. Gazing over the curvature of the moat, they spotted a small patch of dry, raised ground in the middle of the moat where the remnants of a corpse lay, its hands outstretched as if the person had somehow crawled there after… what?... swimming in the moat?

'Maybe he was trying to escape the deathclaws,' Michelle suggested.

Everyone cringed at the thought.

'Looks as though he died painfully,' Razor said sadly.

Casting their eyes away from the grizzly sight, the group looked across the bridge where a guard dressed in combat armor and carrying a shotgun stood watch. He was standing so still that they almost mistook him for a part of the wall of stacked barrels behind him. A careful look revealed that another guard stood behind the wall, watching the moat bridge and them through the gaps between the barrels.

The first guard stood up and stepped onto the bridge, blocking their way across. 'What is your business here?' His shotgun was held at the ready even though it wasn't pointing directly at them.

'Not even an "Are you okay?"' Jade muttered. 'We sure could have used your help back there,' she said irritably.

'We know of some people who have an interested in your weapons,' said Albert, ignoring Jade's comment and drawing the stern-looking guard's attention to himself instead.

The guard reached for his short range radio that had been fastened around the chest plates of his armor. He exchanged a few words with his superior, then turned back to them. 'Go on into the warehouse. Gabriel will speak with you there. Don't fall of the bridge.' He stood back and allowed them passage.

Crossing the bridge single-file was a harrowing experience but at least the planks were sturdy. They made it across to the other side without incident but were struck by just how impressive the size of the moat was. Judging by its width, it must have taken months to dig, or at least must have required some serious heavy duty machinery.

Once across, they headed to the entrance of the warehouse ahead. The large building had once been accessible by means of a large metal roll-door to allow for vehicular access, though that would have been impossible now since the only way to the factory was across the bridge, which was too narrow for even a compact car. Any caravans that arrived would have to offload on the other side of the moat. Perhaps for that reason, as well as security, thick metal bars had been driven straight through the base of the roll-door, effectively jamming it shut. That left the single door beside it as the only way in – again, another impressive defensive precaution.

Inside, the group found themselves in a large storage space, both horizontally and vertically. Over in the far corner stood dozens of old metal lockers and wooden crates. To the right a couple of cheap mattresses had been arranged beside a large machine that looked like an old assembly line machine of some kind, complete with its own conveyor belt. On the left were a couple of ancient forklifts and dozens of piles and racks of all manner of weaponry and ammunition. Ahead, seated on car-seat chairs at a couple of wooden tables were half a dozen armed Gun Runners. A squat man in faded blue coveralls seemed to be the only one who wasn't armed. Noticing their arrival, he waddled over.

'Hi, I'm Zack.' He reached out a pudgy hand to Albert. 'So. You want to buy some weapons, do you?'

Albert shook the shorter man's hand. 'We do, but we also have a proposition. Are you Gabriel?'

The short man shook his head and led them to another room at the back of the warehouse. Inside there were a couple of bunk beds and a few desks. The place double-functioned as an office and bedroom to the leaders of the Gun Runners. A large, well-armed man checking inventory lists at one of the desks got up upon their entry and made his way over to them. He was a giant next to the shorter man who had just brought them in. He reached out a hand in greeting to each one of them, introducing himself as Gabriel.

'It's not often that we get visitors.'

'I'm not surprised,' said Albert. 'This place can't be very accessible what with a nest of deathclaws right outside.'

'You got that right.'

'You guys seem fairly well armed,' Albert observed. 'Why haven't you exterminated those lizards yourselves?'

'Believe me, we've gone over and taken out a few, but they always come back.'

'Go after their nest,' Albert suggested.

'We'd like to, but we're machinists, not fighters.'

'Didn't you used to be a mean gang of some sort?' asked Jade sarcastically.

'"Used to" is right. That's over a generation ago. We're different now.'

'How difficult can it be?' Jade pestered. 'If we had the guns, we'd wipe them out ourselves.'

'Think it's that easy, do you?' Gabriel challenged. 'Have you ever shot down a deathclaw before?' Jade was silent, the memory of their most recent scuffle with the two young deathclaws still fresh in her mind. 'Pump them full of lead and they still keep coming. We already lost a few men during those first few days when they arrived. And if they got you in close quarters…' He left the sentence unfinished. 'If there are deathclaw eggs, they sure aren't above ground, out in the open. Trust me, we've checked. And if you think we're going to go chasing after deathclaws into their dark hidey holes, you're sorely mistaken.'

'That's where we can help each other,' said Albert.

Gabriel looked surprised. 'If you could actually get rid of the deathclaws once and for all you could name your price.'

'My friends here could really use some of your weapons,' said Albert.

'Enough to equip a dozen people,' Razor said, then added: 'Enough to cut through Regulator armor.'

Gabriel smiled. 'Ah, that's how it is. Y'know, ever since the deathclaws moved in, we haven't been willing to leave this place for long. The only place close enough to trade with us is Adytum. Now, trust me, the Regulators are leeching us – we'd love nothing more than to find less… cutthroat trading partners – but for now, they're the only stable trade source of income we have. If you get rid of them—'

'Then you'll be dealing with us,' Razor said matter-of-factly. 'And I can guarantee you we'll give you a better deal than what the Regulators are offering.'

Gabriel appeared to seriously consider the proposition. 'Twelve people you say? I have some weapons that are higher grade than the stuff I usually sell. But I'll only give those to you on loan.'

'What are we talking about, exactly?' Razor asked.

Gabriel nodded at Zack who raced around the back to a couple of lockers and returned carrying a weapon that was all too familiar in make to Albert.

'That there's a Wattz 1000 Laser Pistol,' Gabriel announced with gusto. 'The latest in hand held laser technology.'

'What kind of damage will this do?' asked Razor, examining the small pistol he had just passed her.

'Well, that one won't do you much good. It's still lacking the lenses and amplifier.' He took the weapon back and placed it on his desk. 'But in the hands of a skilled warrior, a fully functioning laser pistol could cut a person in half. The beam will shear flesh faster than you can run your finger through sand.'

'And metal?'

'Meh. Not so good. Likely it'll probably just reflect off.'

'Well, in that case, one or two of those might be handy for some of the guards, but we'll need something else.'

Gabriel nodded to Zack again who trotted back over to the lockers and returned with a mini rocket in one hand and a huge tube-shaped weapon that was taller than he was.

'Now this,' Gabriel gushed, 'this is the Rockwell BigBazooka rocket launcher. Heavy duty stuff. Uses a three-pound trigger and fires explosive or AP rounds. For metal armor, you'll want this.' He relieved Zack of the rocket shell and showed it to them. 'This one creates a smaller bang than the explosive warhead, but it's designed to pierce armor plating. Although you'll probably want someone who can handle the weight. It's a light design, but, even unloaded, this thing weighs in at sixteen pounds. And that's a nine-pound warhead.'

'We do have one more request,' said Albert. 'We need your firepower to take out the deathclaws.'

'Didn't you hear a word I was saying?' Gabriel exclaimed. 'I told you, we're not fighters. And besides, if we did all the dirty work, why would we even need you?'

'Two things.' Albert raised his fingers. 'First, I didn't say you'd have to go deathclaw hunting. All you need to do is sit tight with your weapons ready.'

'Until what?' Zack demanded.

'Until we bring them to you. No cramped close combat fighting. Just straight out raw firepower. And, second: how long do you think you can hold out until the next bunch of crazies comes in offering to help you with your deathclaw problem? I saw the amount of equipment and weapons you have on display. Moving base to another secure location is going to take a lot of uninterrupted time and effort. I don't think the deathclaws are going to give you any slack in that department.'

Gabriel looked over to Zack with a brief flash of uncertainty before turning back to Albert. 'Alright. You help us clear out the deathclaws, all of them, and you got yourself a deal.'

Albert turned to Natalia who gave him a silent thumbs-up. Her mouth silently formed the shape of the words: 'You still got it.'

The darkened night sky was just beginning to lighten when the Gun Runners, Razor and her Blades, and the two vault dwellers and Dogmeat were finally prepared. Overnight, the group had moved dozens of barrels filled with sand out to the other side of the moat in the middle of the parking lot, where they had constructed their barricade and laid their trap.

As for the trap itself, it was a minefield made up of individual barrels, filled with the glowing green chemicals, spaced out in a large area with enough space between them that a human could pass without difficulty but narrow enough that a deathclaw would have trouble getting through without at least bumping into some of them.

'Alright, we're as ready as we're gonna be,' said Gabriel. 'Now what? How are you going to bring the deathclaws here? They're smart enough to avoid the factory, so what makes you think they're gonna want to attack us here when we're in full force?'

'Firstly, because you're hiding behind all these barrels until it's time to fire,' Natalia began.

'Which doesn't seem to matter,' Gabriel interjected. 'We've killed a couple that were dumb enough to walk past our bridge but that rarely ever happens.'

'And secondly,' Natalia continued, 'because the usual way in which they identify your presence, their sense of smell, isn't going to work.'

'Why not?'

'Camouflage,' said Natalia.

After thirty minutes and much complaining, the deed was done, and over twenty miserable looking people, covered in the innards of the two dead deathclaws from the previous night, stood behind their barricades, waiting to unleash hell on the deathclaws for the indignity they just had to put themselves through.

'Alright, now what?' Gabriel repeated, sounding a whole lot surlier than he had a half hour ago. 'We can't just wait here and hope they decide to walk past our trap.'

'Now we piss them off,' said Albert.

'Correction,' said Natalia, coming back from what she had claimed had been a bathroom break but had turned out to be a wardrobe change. 'I'm going to piss them off,' she said.

Everyone stared with their jaws hanging open at the sight of Natalia wearing only the somewhat figure-hugging black bodysuit that normally was worn beneath combat armor. Her hair, by now much longer than when they had first set out from Vault-13, had been pulled sharply back and tied up in an intricate chignon so it wouldn't get in her way. The only thing she carried with her was her plasma pistol and bandoleer of three throwing knives she had liberated from Decker's corpse all those weeks ago in the Hub.

Albert caught himself allowing his eyes to wander over the curves of her well-toned body. He had forgotten she had once been actively involved in acrobatics back in the Vault. It certainly showed.

'Err… what are you doing?' he asked, realizing as he spoke that his voice came out just a little strangely.

'There's no way I'm going to be able to outrun or outmaneuver a deathclaw in that,' Natalia explained as she tossed her combat armor at his feet. Albert glanced down at her feet.

'And you're barefooted…' he commented.

'Spandex and boots are the worst possible combination,' she retorted. 'Besides, I need to be able to move quietly.'

'That thing's not going to give you any protection at all! One swipe from a deathclaw and you're dead!' Albert protested. That wasn't entirely true and Albert knew it. The bodysuit wasn't exactly spandex. While very flexible, it had also been designed to resist tears and cuts, just in case an assailant managed to get a blade under the wearer's armor padding. On the other hand, tear and cut-resistant though it was, there still was no way it would be able to stop an attack by a deathclaw.

'Then I just gotta be careful,' Natalia replied. 'And I have this!' She waved the motion sensor attached to her PIPBoy in the air.

Albert gave her a serious look. 'You're… sure about this…?' He was referring to her earlier doubts.

She returned the look. 'I am.'

Albert sighed. 'Alright. Just… really really be careful in there. There are at least three deathclaws still prowling around somewhere.'

'I'll be fine,' she smiled.

She headed over to the pail of deathclaw innards that they had salvaged from the two nearby deathclaw corpses a few hours ago. Inhaling deeply and shuddering more than once, she began to scoop out the blood and chopped up organs and generously smear them all over her body.

With that done, she turned and walked past the barricade of empty barrels and through the barrel-minefield. Even as covered in gore as she was from head to foot, everyone else, Albert included, found themselves unable to resist awkwardly watching as her taut glutes flexed beneath the fabric of her bodysuit.

Natalia approached the cinema with trepidation. The barricade was behind her now and everyone had fallen silent. She stopped and checked her motion sensor for the umpteenth time. Nothing. She hoped the deathclaws didn't know how to lie motionless in ambush for their prey. Still, the motion sensor seemed sensitive enough to pick up even slight movements.

Now that she was on her own, doubts began creeping back into her head. Could she really do this on her own? What if she froze the next time she was face-to-face with a deathclaw? The image of Stone's eviscerated corpse kept coming back. This is the only way, she told herself. Razor had nearly bitten the dust in the last scuffle. Natalia wasn't sure if she could take it if someone else died at the hands (or claws, as it were) of a deathclaw. Not on her watch. Not this time.

A blip appeared on her motion sensor – something just inside the cinema. Carefully, she peered into one of the open windows. There it was: a lone deathclaw crouched over in the middle of an enormous empty lobby, its attention (and teeth) focused on the remnants of a human corpse. A few feet away lay some piece of equipment's CPU. Natalia had to do a double take before she realized that, judging by the descriptions Sammael had given her before she and Albert had left Adytum, it was likely the part he was looking for.

'That thing's coming with me,' she said under her breath, as she stepped gingerly through the open window and drew her plasma pistol with her free hand. Silently, she allowed herself a moment of thankfulness for having discarded the combat armor; there was no way she would have been able to make it through the small window as noiselessly or as quickly as she had in heavy duty defense padding or combat boots.

Once inside, she realized she was still too far to have a guaranteed hit. She needed to make it a headshot. Anything else would likely just maim the deathclaw but not stop it. And this time, she wouldn't have the backup of five other people and one dog. She edged closer to the deathclaw from behind, trusting to the blood and entrails smeared on her suit to mask her smell and her shoeless feet to conceal the sound of her approach.

She was almost within ten feet when she began moving around to the deathclaw's side so as to get a clear line of sight to its head. Whatever deathclaws had originated from before their species' mutation, they were certainly geared towards a predatory role now, judging by their forward-facing eyes. Fortunately for her, this meant she should have little difficulty sneaking up to its side without being noticed.

She could just start to make out the whites of its eyes when, deciding she had come close enough, Natalia pulled the trigger. The sound of superheated plasma flying from the barrel of her Glock 86 was far more muted than more conventional firearms, but it was still too loud for comfort in that silent cinema.

The plasma hit the deathclaw in the head and, immediately, it let out an enormous bellow of pain. It managed to turn halfway round to face her when she sent another plasma bolt into the creature's now partially exposed brain. The deathclaw gave a guttural shriek, and then abruptly crumpled to the floor as its synapses liquefied in a flash of plasma.

Without wasting any time, Natalia rushed over to the fallen CPU. It was the size of a briefcase and weighed about as much. The casing had been battered, likely when the deathclaw (or deathclaws) had attacked the now-dead scav, but a quick look inside suggested the electrical components within were undamaged. Snatching it up from the floor, Natalia was just about to leave when two more blips appeared on her motion sensor, approaching rapidly from the north. She looked up just in time to see two mid-sized deathclaws – even smaller than the ones from the previous night, each one about six feet in height – appear at the other side of the cinema. One galloped through an open doorway, the other leaped gracefully through one of the large windows on the northern wall.

Another blip appeared, this one coming from behind her to her left. Glancing quickly in that direction, Natalia saw a large staircase headed down into the main auditorium of the cinema. From within emerged a large, fully grown deathclaw, this one just above ten feet tall. Natala looked back towards the window to the main street from which she had come and knew the adult deathclaw would reach it before her if she tried to make a break for it.

But had they seen her? None of the deathclaws looked as though they had detected her yet. Looking down quickly at her options and with no other cover in the wide open space of the lobby, Natalia dropped the CPU, then squeezed herself under the corpse of the dead deathclaw. There she waited with bated breath as the deathclaws approached the scene, curious as to what had caused the commotion and why one of their fellow deathclaws was lying motionless next to the corpse it had been snacking on.

For the longest time, the three deathclaws merely milled around the scene. Prodding the corpse of the deathclaw, making small grunting noises, and looking around for an unseen enemy. But when the adult deathclaw began nudging the dead one's body more forcefully, Natalia knew she was in trouble.

With one sudden shove, the deathclaw completely rolled the corpse over, revealing Natalia's hiding place.

For the longest moment, everything, human and beast, froze in shock. Then Natalia let loose with a burst from her plasma gun. The adult deathclaw howled in pain as the plasma ate away at its face. Before the other two deathclaws could react to the sudden turn of events, Natalia was up and running, heading for the closest shelter she could see – the ticketing booths.

Vaulting gracefully over the counter of one of the booths, she turned her body as she slid over the countertop, firing her gun as she did so at the two remaining deathclaws. She managed to take one down, but the other had closed the gap in the meantime and leapt over the counter at her.

Natalia ducked at the last moment causing the deathclaw to hit the wall behind her and collapse to the floor beside her in a disoriented mess. Cornered by the temporarily fallen deathclaw, its claws flailing dangerously close to where she crouched, Natalia turned and leaped back over the counter behind her in order to keep the booth between her and the mutant lizard.

By the time the deathclaw had recovered and risen to its feet, Natalia was ready for it. Before the creature could pounce again, she had fired two point-black blasts into its head.

Natalia exhaled in relief. She was lucky the two half-grown deathclaws had gone down so easily. The only one left was the first adult deathclaw. The plasma had burnt away most of the top half of its face which meant that it couldn't see or smell anymore. The creature stumbled around the lobby, making painful choking noises in its throat.

Despite how close a call the fight had been, Natalia couldn't help but feel pity at the excruciating pain the deathclaw was undoubtedly going through. She walked over to the lurching, staggering creature, ducking every now and then to avoid its swinging arms. Finally, when she had a clear shot, she pulled the trigger once more. The second blast from the plasma pistol finished the job, ending the deathclaw's cries as well as its pain.

Plasma weapons did terrible things to their targets, Natalia decided. Though she could certainly imagine it, she felt sure she didn't ever want to see what a human face would look like were it to be struck by a plasma bolt. She shuddered at the thought, holstered the weapon, and walked over to retrieve the fallen CPU.

As the adrenaline wore off and her hearing became more attuned to background noises, she realized she could detect the sound of gunfire. With all the ruined buildings in the area, the echoes made it difficult to tell its exact source but she was willing to bet the team back at the barricade were facing their own share of deathclaws that, perhaps, had been drawn in by the commotion from her own firefight.

How long had it been going on already? Judging by the sounds of it, the fighting was still at its peak. Natalia wasn't sure if she should go back to help. After all, she didn't want to get caught in friendly fire by mistake. Still, perhaps it would be better if she at least went to take a look to make sure they were doing okay.

Her mind decided, Natalia was about to leave the cinema when she felt something tug at her attention, causing her to turn reluctantly around, her gaze focused on the staircase leading down into the large screening auditorium.

The feeling was familiar. She remembered it from back in the Vault during her younger years. It was cacoethes: the urge to do something inadvisable – to sneak into places in the Vault she wasn't meant to go, to take things that weren't hers, to unlock doors that were not meant to be unlocked… Now the darkened entrance to the auditorium beckoned, its doors standing ajar from when the adult deathclaw had first burst its way out into the lobby. A small gust of wind blew through the open windows, doors, and damaged walls of the lobby, causing the auditorium doors to flutter, banging sporadically against the wall, enticing her to see just what was inside. Part of her screamed that nothing good could come of this, but the other inquisitive half of her won.

Natalia knew she should get back, at the very least to give Albert the CPU for safekeeping. Yet wasn't her job to draw out the deathclaws and lure them back to the barricade? She hadn't even needed to do that with the last three deathclaws. Shouldn't she at least have done her job to warrant her return?

She sighed and walked back over to the ticketing booths, where she slid the CPU into one of the shelves for safekeeping. Then she turned her attention to the flapping doors and the darkened entrance of the auditorium within. Chances were that it was probably empty. After all, if there had been anything inside, it should have emerged to investigate the sounds of fighting at least a minute or so ago. It was probably nothing.

All the more reason to check it out, just to be sure, Natalia thought to herself. The thrill of excitement and fear rushed through her veins as she silently made her way over to the auditorium steps.

Each step she took down brought her closer to the gaping darkened entrance, and as she neared, her muscles tensed, prepared to send her into a quick flight if anything should emerge. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, pumping the adrenaline steadily throughout her body.

But nothing came.

After the longest descent over the shortest distance that she had ever undertaken, Natalia found herself standing within the darkened room, more steps leading downwards to where the large viewing screen hung. At first, that was all she could see. She took a few more steps into the darkness to help her eyes adjust.

Slowly the curtains framing the screen became visible, then the silhouette of the hundreds of folding seats took shape in her vision. And then…

Eggs. Over two dozen of them, situated in clusters of three or four along some of the rows of seats. These ones were bigger than those Natalia had seen in the deathclaw cave months ago. These ones were at least two feet in height, if not taller. And they had to go. If the Gun Runners were going to live up to their end of the bargain, she had to do her part in turn.

Gingerly, Natalia approached the closest cluster of eggs. She drew one of her throwing knives and pressed the blade against the eggshell. When it didn't yield, even under pressure, she changed her grip, and stabbed hard.

A dark ichor ran out from the hole. Natalia made a face, and then dragged the knife down even further, releasing more of the albumen. Placing her knife aside, she reached for the egg on both sides of the cut she had made, and then pried the shell open. With a sudden audible crack, the shell broke in two, and an almost fully-formed deathclaw fetus slid out onto the floor.

Natalia yelped in surprise and leapt back as the slimy thing came to rest in a wet puddle of fluids that had once protected and nourished it. For the longest moment, she just stared at its lifeless form, not knowing how to feel. Then, gradually, guilt welled up inside her. She should have known this would happen – should have prepared herself for it – yet the suddenness of it all took her by surprise. And the longer she knelt there staring at the dead thing lying on the floor, the worse she felt. Before she knew it, tears had sprung to her eyes as the implications of what she had just done hit her. Dangerous as they were, perhaps even when they were newborns, this thing that now lay in a puddle of albumen and yolk still represented life trying to struggle for survival in this harsh wasteland – life that she had now extinguished.

Albert would have dismissed her concerns, she knew. Just like before the War, people in the Vault had very different opinions about when life actually began. As a former marriage and family counselor, Albert was the kind of person who prioritized the physical, mental, and emotional health of the mother. Natalia didn't know what she herself thought – didn't know if the lifeless form that lay before her now could in fact truly have been considered a "living being". Maybe Tycho might have felt that way – him and his faith. Or maybe not. Natalia didn't know – didn't know what Tycho thought and didn't know what she herself thought. She didn't even know if making such a cross-species comparison was even warranted in the first place; at some level, it did seem utterly ludicrous to bring ethics into this. But it didn't change anything. All she knew was that in a world that had become so adverse to the continuation of life, she had just trampled on the one tangible symbol of it – if not a newborn itself, then the prospect of one. The act might have been necessary, but it didn't make her feel any better. And, looking at the other two dozen or so eggs in the auditorium, she knew she was going to have to do the same thing again, many more times.

She sat there by the broken egg, staring at the motionless deathclaw fetus for what seemed like hours. Gradually, her tears stopped. She wiped her eyes, sniffing loudly, and then tried to steel herself for the rest of the task. There could be time for remorse later. The fact of the matter remained: this had to be done. The deathclaws had become a threat to everyone living in the area who didn't have the luxury of a chain-link fence and dozens of armed guards to protect them day and night, regardless of whether those guards were also extortionists and liars. 'Sometimes doing the right thing means being a very bad person,' Albert had said. Maybe this counted.

Slowly and reluctantly, Natalia moved over to the second egg her knife raised but still shaking in her hand. She wasn't sure if she could do it. Not again. But it had to be done, she reminded herself. She gritted her teeth and was just about to take the plunge when she heard a long, loud, low growl – the same one she had heard the previous night from this very cinema; the one that had dwarfed all the others. Worst of all was that it was coming from behind her, from the doorway through which she had just entered. She glanced down at her motion sensor. It was close, too close, and it had blocked off the way she had come in.

Spotting the small corridor at the bottom of the auditorium steps which would logically (and hopefully) lead to an emergency exit, Natalia got up from beside the egg, prepared to hightail her way to safety. But she had only just cleared one row of seats when she heard the heavy thump of a deathclaw's foot as it entered the auditorium. With no time to run, Natalia dropped into a prone position, using the row of seats she had just leapt across to hide her from the approaching creature.

From her place of concealment, Natalia couldn't see the deathclaw, but she knew this one had to be different from all the others. Its breathing was deeper, heavier; its footfalls were louder, harder. And when she heard it pause by the remnants of the broken egg and the lifeless fetus, Natalia suspected what it was. When it began making deep yet whining noises in its throat as it examined the lifeless form, Natalia's suspicions were confirmed.

Mother.

A mixture of guilt, fear, anguish, terror, regret, and pain struck Natalia all at once as the mother deathclaw wailed – a wail that was at the same time both terrifyingly loud and yet also deeply pained.

Eyes still wet from tears, Natalia cringed and, to her surprise, found herself crying openly now – a reaction she would never have thought possible in her first encounter with a deathclaw back in that cave all those months ago. The empathic reaction of the mother deathclaw to her dead unborn was so akin to a human's that Natalia couldn't help but feel even worse about what she had done a few minutes before.

'I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!' she whispered inaudibly to the mother, just one row above her.

The moment seemed to last forever – a mother crying over the physical evidence of her dead offspring, now never to see the light of day, and the silent weeping of a woman who, though never having experienced motherhood herself, still found herself somehow empathizing with a creature not even of the same species.

As if in response to the wailing, one of the eggs in Natalia's row, two feet from her head, began to shake. Natalia's silent cries ceased as she looked up at the crack that had just appeared at the top of the shell. A small claw poked its way out.

The mother's wailing faded. She had heard the egg too.

Another crack and a bit more of the shell fell away. Lying next to the egg, Natalia realized she was in the worst possible place she could be in. The guilt was still there. The pain was still there. The regret was still there. But the terror jumped up a notch.

As she looked up above her, the enormous head of the mother emerged over the top of the seats in the row. Judging by the size of her head, the deathclaw had to be at least fourteen or fifteen feet in height. Her two terrible, sunken white eyes filled Natalia's vision, almost mesmerizing her by their pasty whiteness. Although Natalia was sure it was just her imagination, she almost believed she saw the pain Razor had evinced earlier in her own eyes when she had been forced to remember Josh's passing now mirrored in this deathclaw's huge white orbs.

But her musings were shortlived. Deathclaws may have had poor vision, but at that close distance, there was no missing Natalia. First, the deathclaw looked at the egg as it began to hatch. Then her attention inevitably shifted over to the prone form of the human lying just next to it.

Albert and the rest wiped the sweat from their brows. Less than a minute after they had heard gunshots coming from Natalia's direction in the cinema, the deathclaws had arrived from the south, probably drawn by the same noises. As luck would have had it, they had walked right into the middle of the toxic barrel trap that the group had spent the night laying.

The group had opened fire on full-auto, not only catching the deathclaws in a cloud of bullets but also hitting and rupturing many of the barrels that had been fully loaded with corrosive chemicals. Even then, it had only been just enough to take down three full-size deathclaws and two younglings. One of the adults had even managed to make it all the way to the barricade, its head, smoking from the dozens of bullets within it, now sticking through a hole in the barricade where it had almost made it through.

The barrel-minefield really did look like a warzone now, with deathclaw bodies and a mixture of blood and chemicals blending together into a ruddy brown mix that seeped into the dusty sand-covered ground. But it was a victory, at least on the side of the humans who had suffered no casualties.

The group had managed to take down the family of deathclaws and spare Natalia from becoming otherwise overwhelmed, but now their attentions turned back to their missing friend. What had happened over on her end?

As if in response, there came from the direction of the cinema the sound of bare feet slapping onto tiled flooring. Closer and closer it came until suddenly Natalia came diving through one of the windows. She curled herself into a roll and ended up on her feet in a graceful crouch.

Before anyone could say or do anything, she opened her mouth and shouted at them.

'Shoot!'

At first, no one knew what she was talking about. But a split second later, the window frame and the entire wall on that side of the cinema burst apart, scattering rubble and dust all over Natalia. Barging through came the biggest deathclaw any of them had ever seen, her fangs bared and eyes wide with insane rage. Her head and shoulders were covered in powdered plaster.

The gigantic mother deathclaw gave a deafening roar, spurring Natalia into action. She broke into a sprint, moving faster than Albert had ever seen anyone run. The deathclaw's talons raked the ground where she had been crouched only moments before. The mother turned her attention to her fleeing prey, then leaped after her. Natalia turned her head in mid-stride, suddenly engulfed within in the enormous shadow of the creature. Realizing how close the mother was, she threw herself flat to the ground as the deathclaw missed her by a hair's breadth.

Now the deathclaw stood between her and the rest of the group. Natalia scrambled to her feet. In response, the creature lowered herself close to the ground, readying for another leap. At that distance, there was no way Natalia, however agile, would be able to dodge in time.

A .233 round slammed into the deathclaw's shoulder, causing her to lurch ever so slightly. She turned and fixed the people at the barricade with her maddened glare.

'DAMN IT! Missed!' Gabriel swore as he lined up his DKS-501 sniper rifle for another shot. He pulled the trigger again but, to everyone's amazement, the deathclaw, through some survival instinct or sixth sense or just pure dumb luck, actually jerked herself aside, causing the second bullet to whiz harmlessly through the air.

Natalia didn't waste the opportunity she had been given. Running across the road, she leapt through another open doorway of an old grocery store opposite the cinema. Hearing her movement, the deathclaw turned and gave chase, again smashing through the relatively flimsy concrete walls as if they were made of twigs.

'Damn!' Gabriel swore again as they lost sight of both Natalia and deathclaw. All they could hear now was the sound of utter carnage as the deathclaw gave chase through the old grocery store, destroying every single thing in her path in the process.

For too many seconds, that was all they heard – that and the occasional roar of rage and frustration. Then the sounds grew closer towards them and, a few seconds later, Natalia came bursting out of yet another window, cleverly using the walls, flimsy as they were, to slow the deathclaw down.

The mother deathclaw came crashing through again; predictable now but no less awe-inspiring. Temporarily slowed by the impact, she shook the clouds of debris from her face as she tried to relocate Natalia with her limited vision. Natalia was already sprinting again.

'Shoot!' Natalia yelled again as she ran directly towards them. Fatigued from bashing through all those walls, the deathclow took longer to react this time. Too far away or too tired to pounce, she broke into a run. Like a locomotive, she started slow, but picked up momentum and speed with each passing second. Her heavy footfalls thumped noisily as she gave chase.

Everyone behind the barricade had their weapons raised without a clear line of fire.

'Wait!' Albert called with one hand raised in the air to halt any gunfire. 'Not until Natalia's out of the way!'

'It'll be too late!' one of the Gun Runners yelled frantically as the deathclaw shifted from a two-legged sprint to a full four-legged gallop, narrowing the gap between herself and Natalia in seconds.

'Wait!' Albert repeated, louder this time as Natalia and the behemoth raced towards them. 'Dammit, she's not going to be able to make it in time,' he hissed to himself. 'Hold fire!' he shouted again to the rest. The deathclaw mother was close enough now to leap after Natalia had she actually the energy left to do so. Natalia's hair, now covered in white plaster, had come loose from its chignon and trailed crazily behind her as she sprinted for her life.

The gap between Natalia and the pursuing deathclaw had shrunk to less than ten feet when she finally reached the first barrel in the minefield. Knowing she wouldn't be able to make it all the way past the minefield back to the barricade, Natalia launched herself into a dive, aiming for a gap between two of the chemical-filled barrels.

'Shoot!' she screamed again as she hit the ground.

With Natalia finally out of the line of fire, Albert affirmed the order.

The air was filled with a cacophony of half a dozen different kinds of weapons going off simultaneously. Many of the shots went wide, but with the amount of firepower that was being unloaded, the giant deathclaw found herself charging straight into a hailstorm of death. Several rounds hit the remaining chemical-filled barrels, splashing the creature with their contents.

While the air became filled with fiery death, Natalia low-crawled frantically through the minefield towards the safety of the barricade. She was close enough to the ground that none of shooters were aiming directly in her direction. Even so, stray bullets were striking the barrels all around her, causing droplets of the glowing liquid waste to spray dangerously close to her.

As large and powerful as it was, the deathclaw, already bleeding from dozens of bullet wounds, could not withstand the onslaught. All she knew, was that her brood was dead; even with her limited vision she could see their corpses all around her now. The source of all the pain lay ahead and she was determined to end it. The mother kept lumbering forward towards the barricade, one of her eyes now blinded from having been hit not once but twice. Nearly trampling Natalia in her blind charge, the deathclaw kept rampaging forward, slowed but still too fast for comfort.

Everyone broke formation as she crashed through the barricade of sand-filled barrels, scattering them everywhere. Still she ran, no longer able to see, driven only by her madness until she hit the slope leading down into the moat. She stumbled and then fell, her entire upper half splashing into the glowing green moat behind the barricade. Too weakened even to raise herself out of the moat, the mother of the deathclaws finally met her rest.

Natalia pushed herself up weakly from the ground, the black body suit sizzling in places where the contents of the barrels had splashed onto her. Through the scattered barrels that had once made up the barricade, she could make out the tail and back legs of the mother even as her top half was being eaten away by the chemicals in the moat.

'I'm sorry,' Natalia said again, then collapsed from sheer physical and nervous exhaustion.