Songs: Black Pistol Fire - Hipster Shakes; Eivør - Trøllabundin
"I think now is your chance to head out into the forest without anyone noticing. If you wanna get that piece of the key, do it now." Anouk had told us, when we had just gotten back to the town of Sindor. We had captured a few loyalists, a good few of them died in the attack and four or five had gotten away.
It was weird how she came up with that all of a sudden, but with everything she mentioned about keeping our search for the Vault on the down-low for now, it somewhat made sense. There was a whole lot to do in Sindor, however, and it felt a little weird just leaving it all up to her.
I mean, I knew Anouk was probably more capable than half the Crimson Raiders, but she was 19. And she had just gotten shot in the shoulder, had been up all night planning out defense and counter-attack and then being up all day helping out with the defense and leading this whole operation. All I could think of was how tired she had to be. This girl hadn't slept in two days.
"Are you sure you wanna do this all on your own?" Brick asked her. Anouk shrugged and gave us a tired smile.
"I've pulled worse all nighters." was all she said.
"Anouk, you really should get some sleep." I replied. She gave me a defiant grin and crossed her arms.
"Who are you, my mum?"
"No, I'm serious. There is a lot to do and you had no sleep for God knows how long. It would probably be best for you if you got some rest and let us handle the whole prisoner business." I offered.
"And how would you do that? Look, with these people I have to file official reports. There are guidelines I need to follow, government officials will be arriving here shortly. It's probably less suspicious if you're somewhere else while they get here. They'll ask way less questions that way. Plus, I'd have to tell you about all the protocols you need to follow anyway, so it's easier if I just do it myself. Pavel and Mikhail can help me. I'll be fine." Anouk explained. Damn it. She had a point.
"What about all the wounded? I'm sure you need some help with them." Brick asked. Anouk sighed and shook her head.
"Look, this will probably be the only chance you get to go and get yourself that Vault Key fragment. There will be government officials all over this place, soon, as I said, and they won't be happy for you to snoop around that part of the forest. So you either go now or it'll be very difficult."
"You think they'll ask questions on why we're here?" Mordecai wanted to know. Anouk nodded.
"Yup. They'll be asking loads of questions, especially since they'll know that it's no coincidence this whole thing happened the second we all showed up in Sindor. They'll be very suspicious of that." she told us.
"Sounds like we should get going then. Quickly." he agreed. I raised an eyebrow at him and Anouk.
"That doesn't give us much time to prepare. Especially since we don't know what we're up against." I mumbled.
"Pfft, who needs preparation? Here's the plan, girl. We go in, make a big boom, take the key and go out. Easy." Tina chimed in. She seemed to be utterly enjoying murdering a bunch of people.
"It's not like anyone knows what you'll be up against. I'll send you the rough area where people have disappeared, but you were there when we were gathering up all those reports. It's not like anyone really knows what we're up against here. Some sort of monster. Maybe. Maybe not." Anouk answered. I sighed and shrugged. I really didn't like going into this with no information whatsoever, but it looked like we had no other choice. At least we might be able to get it done and over with.
"Well, we'll see when we get there, I suppose. Let's not waste any more time." Brick said. I nodded. He was right.
"I'll send you the area on your ECHOs. Keep me updated if things get bad. Now head out and get that Vault key!" Anouk said and headed off towards the train station which had been repurposed as a temporary hospital.
We had spent about an hour walking until we reached the border of the area Anouk had given us. It was starting to get late and I wasn't sure whether this was such a great idea anymore. It had been a good while since we had left the limits of Sindor and now we were just out in the wilderness, not knowing where the hell we were going and what we were even looking for.
"I'm tired." Tina complained. At least she wasn't complaining about being hungry anymore, after we had given her some of the snacks we had packed up. I just hoped that we'd find something soon.
"I know, Tina, we all are." Mordecai replied. This was insane. We had no idea what the hell we were doing out here.
"Maybe we should get back and get some rest and come out here again tomorrow..." Brick said. Just then I heard some movement. It sounded like some branches were cracking. I held up my hand, so everyone would be quiet. There it was again. Some strange gurgling noises accompanied sounds of movement. There was something out there after all. I looked over at Mordecai.
"I hear it, too. This way." he said and pointed toward our left. I nodded.
"Should we scout ahead and see if we can get a glimpse at what that thing is?" I suggested in a whisper.
"Sounds like a good idea. You can let us know over the ECHO and we can charge in. Plus, Tina and I get to rest for a bit." Brick said.
"Alright, sounds good." Mordecai agreed. The two of us started walking towards the noise, trying to be as quiet as possible. Which wasn't easy, considering we were in a massive forest and there were leaves and small twigs all over the place. Plus, we were carrying some heavy equipment around with us.
"What do you think we'll find?" I asked quietly.
"No idea." Mordecai said and shrugged. I could see that he was 100% focussing on the noise right now, trying to estimate how far away it was, whether the wind was making it seem closer to us or further away, how much noise we were making and where it was coming from. He was probably also trying to estimate the size of whatever was making that noise. Mordecai has had that analytical mindset from the day I met him, even if he wasn't always very obvious about it. I always found it fascinating, especially since he had taught me all kinds of stuff about ballistics and hunting. There was a lot you could find out if you just listened.
"Sounds like it's not far away now. We should be able to see it soon, so try and stay alert. Make as little noise as possible. See if you can find a tree that might be easy to climb, so we can get a better view." he told me. I nodded.
"How big do you think it is?" I wanted to know.
"12 feet at least." he replied. Shit, that was really tall. That was as tall as some of the bigger bullymongs.
I looked through the trees and slowly moved in a circle around the area. I could see something white at some point, but it was difficult to differentiate with all the snow around. But there was definitely something there. I waved at Mordecai and gestured for him to come over.
As he was on his way over to me, there was something suddenly dropping out of the sky and landing just in front of my feet. I quickly covered my mouth with my hands, because I was afraid I'd scream. I looked down at what had just fallen in front of my feet. It was a cadaver. Looked like some sort of deer. There was still some bloody flesh on the bones and it looked like the corpse itself was fresh.
"Well, shit. I guess at least it's not hungry anymore." Mordecai commented, as he had made it over and looked down at the cadaver. I took a deep breath.
"Holy shit, that thing almost hit me in the head."
"You okay?" he wanted to know. I nodded.
"Yeah, I think so. I can see something over there, maybe we can get a better look from higher up. Wanna try climbing those trees?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was really okay, but it wasn't like I had much of a choice.
"Good idea. Looks like it might be a bit difficult, but doable. You climb up first, I'll look out in case it moves." Mordecai said. I nodded and shouldered my rifle. I quickly started climbing up the tree that was next to me. The branches were really high up, so the first few metres were incredibly tough.
Thankfully I had my robotic leg that really did most of the climbing work. Once I had reached the first few branches it was much easier to get up higher. I didn't climb all the way to the top, since the trees were huge, but I climbed about 15 feet high. I found a good spot on a branch and looked over to where I saw that white thing earlier. If I hadn't held onto the tree I would have fallen off my branch.
"Holy shit, Mordecai, get up here and have a look at this..." I breathed into my ECHO. I looked back at the thing that was in front of me. There was some sort of rock and an entrance to a cave. Just outside of that there was an area that was filled with old bones, decaying cadavers and corpses. There were a whole bunch of what looked like human skulls.
In the middle of all that sat something that looked like one massive bullymong. It had white fur and was really difficult to make out in all the snow, but from up here we could get a good look. It didn't have as many arms as the bullymongs, but it had about the same stature, an elongated face and claws that looked incredibly sharp. It was chewing at some bone at the moment and its teeth looked like they were made of steel.
"Holy shit..." Mordecai mumbled. I hadn't even noticed him coming up here already. He was standing on the branch next to mine.
"Yup." I agreed.
"Well, not like we haven't killed anything bigger before. Let's get the others." he said. I nodded and got my ECHO device.
"Brick, Tina, carefully get over to our coordinates. We're up in a tree. There is one massive creature, white fur, similar to a bullymong, sharp claws and sharp teeth. At least 12 feet tall. We're waiting for you. Let us know when you're ready, so we can start attacking from far away..."