Chapter 07: Mr. Crane
Lee Crane was dressed in a crumpled uniform which had been torn in several places. His face was indescribable, a putrid wreck of a visage. Only through the general shape, maybe the position of the mouth (despite the jutting teeth and swelled black tongue), or the nose (what was left of it), or the milky white eyes that seemed to be moving on their own accord, could you see that it had once been a human.
The ghoul's right hand was held like a child would imitate a gun, index and middle fingers jutting, the thumb serving as the cock. Currently it looked cocked and ready indeed, and pointed straight at the pair. Despite the mess of the face, it was somehow possible to discern emotions. Presently it looked eminently surprised.
"I can't imagine how you two got in here, but yer sure not getting any further! Come on now, drop your weapons, or me and the boys will have to get serious!"
The corridor behind him was empty. There was a fine green mist rising from around him. He pointed his imaginary gun at them, and he didn't look quite as cocky as he would've wanted to.
Ron scoffed, but decided to play along with this game. He seemingly reluctantly sheathed his knife and his Beretta... and put his hand on the back of his head, acting as if he were scratching his scruffy hair.
The ghoul couldn't see either two-foot Bowie knife, so he didn't know Ron was preparing himself to throw one. And at the first sign of trouble, he would.
Edden felt the tension emitting from Ron like rads from a blast center. She walked over carefully, playing along with the ghoul, which was odd to her. Usually, the urge for violence was dulled by the presence of the ghoul. It wasn't pity. No, that was an emotion that was dead to her. Her stride slowed as she noticed the claw marks in the wall.
The etching was something so familiar. A deja vu, as it was called. The fear was growing but died as quickly as it came when she realized this deranged ghoul could have his uses.
"Ease up, brave" The voice was unusually silky and calm, even for Edden.
Hmm, a smooth talker. Interesting. I learn more about my lost soul everyday. The entire monologue was masked behind a calm and impartial face.
She whispered to Ron. Edden came to the middle, Ron at her back and the ghoul to her right.
"I have safe conduct from Alfred. He said I can venture into hell. Are you our guide?"
The ghoul lowered his gun at the mention of the General Manager. With some disgust the two watched his features rearrange themselves to form a rather dumbstruck expression.
"Mr.Wescot? Well, if he said you could come down here, I guess that's alright."
Obviously, this ghoul hadn't been very bright before turning, and the process hadn't exactly sharpened his mental capacity either. He gave a horrifying grin, showing his toothless gums while he "holstered" his "gun".
"Yeah, there was some talk of me acting as the tour guide, what with the regular...eh...having called in sick a lot lately."
The ghoul smiled apologetically, easing up as much as a rotting, practically skeletal entity such as himself could. He seemed entirely unaware of their surroundings, the blood, bullet-holes, scars and lighting. If you had a very vivid imagination, you could almost picture the young security guard stand in his newly-pressed uniform among the bustling staff of this huge, sterile facility.
However reality returned as a high-pitched shriek sounded from somewhere within the cubicle maze. At the sound, Lee Crane jumped and peered nervously over his shoulder.
"But we better hurry, the Stalkers don't much like intruders, especially smoothies like yourself."
With that, he impatiently motioned for the two to follow him, and with the characteristic gait of a ghoul he limped into the darkened labyrinth.
Ron slowly and silently pulled his long knife from his sheath as the ghoul turned, looking back over his shoulder as he walked away. Maggy trotted after him, resembling more of a Clydesdale pony than anything else.
"Hey, Crusty. I got a question for you... what exactly is a stalker?"
The shriek cut into Edden and the very room seem to blur and shake, as if sending her some place else.
The mental mosaic of endless night and large brick colored wall filled the dreamscape of Edden's mind. The place where all her past, present and possible future lay hidden. On the walls, graffiti of past sins, desires, hopes and people where forever etched upon its weather beaten surface. The avatar of Edden stood before it and appraised the barrier with cold awe. She looked the same as she did in the real world. The wall was massive, seeming to go left and right and upward towards the blackened heavens forever.
Somewhere she had already treaded in the past, but for some reason the safety barriers erected in her mind didn't allow the feeble famine image's futile pounding on the reinforced brick and mortar of her mind to give her access to that part of her past.
Her mental avatar screamed and kicked the gate. She was awake again.
It was for a brief and there seemed no laps in real time. She followed the ghoul and Ron's lead. The shriek still sent shivers down her spine.
"Can you take us to Durandal." Edden cut straight as always. Sometimes too straight. "Before our unfriendly guest arrive."
Ignoring Ron's question, the ghoul shambled into the maze of office cubicles. Unlike the higher levels, the cubicles were void of bodies. However, in the ghost-like light, dark splotches of dried blood were apparent in many of the small working spaces.
"I'm not the best tour-guide, but I'll do my very best!"
The ghoul formerly known as Lee Crane gave a ghoulish grin over his shoulder as the trotted on, followed by the pair. More empty cubicles came into view as they advanced further in, and the entrance with the destroyed security bot was soon lost in the twists and turns of the office complex.
"These offices here are actually nothin' less than a cover for the real thing. Hell! I worked here for nearly two years and didn't know a damned thing about it!"
They were moving with some speed now, and the full scale of the destruction within the thin walls of the cubicle maze became evident. A swift, incredibly deadly CQB had clearly taken place here. The entrance to one cubicle had been entirely blocked by several desks placed on one another. Between the cracks all that could be seen was a single office lamp, blinking on and off like it probably had for the better part of a century.
The wall on another had been shredded to pieces, and soon it became harder to walk through the debris on the floor. No bodies, however.
"But when the bombs started dropping, there were suddenly all these strange people we've never seen before all among us! Said they had come from "below" and that it was 'a hell down there'."
They came to an intersection, where a rocket-propelled grenade of some kind had hit the roof and caused tons of concrete to rain down. It was strange to see. No-one had moved a rock since it happened, everything was still, like it had happened yesterday. Except for a single, skeletal hand that jutted out from beneath the piles of black, artificial building material.
It held a holo-disk.
The ghoul merely continued on his path, taking a right around the pile. "Sorry about the mess. Most of the Mr. Fix-Its seem to be out of order, but I'm sure Maintenance will send one down to us any time soon!" He added, almost as an afterthought: "We're almost there. Damned big doors in the wall..."
The woman formerly known as Charlyn picked at the holo-disk in the out stretched skeletal hand of the dead security officer long buried under a ton of dusty concrete blocks. By the lock of it, you can deduce, that he may have been alive as he held the disk out, hoping someone could be warned.
The soft tap of a hammer could be heard, and as the trio headed around the bend of endless cubicles and other odd assortment of pre-war carnage, they could see a ghoul with his back turned, Nuka-Cola grape colored shirt on, torn and warn seeming pounding something with a hammer. He had no hair, except maybe tiny wisps of black that was attached to what remained of his flesh. He had no nose, but both his eye were intact, and one tooth had a gold cap on it. He looked more leathery and dried out then moist like most ghouls. On the table near him was a silver Browning 1000 Civilian model laser pistol and some clip boards and a stack of different holo-tapes, and what looked like a dead rat staked down by a rather rusty kitchen knife.
"D'damnn, ratz and gremlins... always getzen in my stuff. No wonderz I never got promoted." A thick wad of drool hits some dry rotted papers.
He turns around. "Hey, what are you skinnies doin' down here? Don't you know this is no place for friggin' normies? Lee? What the leapen Man Jezus did you bring dem down here? Lucy is out and hungry."
His milk white eyes filled with distress then hate. The trio stood silent.
"Well? Speaks up Boy, the rads didn't take away that sweelin' tongue of yours!"
It would be a major understatement to say one could get used to seeing a ghoul. Either that person was tripping on some stale chem, or they were just crackers. Edden was none of the above. "We were granted safe conduct by the manager." Edden showed the document Albert Wescot had given her. "Me and my companions came to see Durandal. Or more importantly we're expected."
The ghoul's face seemed to fall, as if it weren't already in a state of decay already. He scratched his partial rotted chin and flicked some of the dried, dead flesh that to Charlyn's eye looked like dried bugger snot. "Fine… Your funeral smoothie." He looked at the document and handed it back. The ghoul coughed violently into his hand and whipped whatever came out through his fallen nose and mouth on his shirt. Charlyn's eyes dotted on the smear like an eagle. It was thickening blood. The ghoul began to mutter to himself, shifting uneasily on its worn sneakers. The immortal classic high-toppers that seemed to never die, no matter what time we lived in.
Lee was busy picking his nose while the head ghoul with the hammer began to shuffle. The ol' gold mine in his nostril must have dried up a century ago. Poor Lee Crane.
The dysfunctional trio, a mad woman, a cracked commando and a stray dog that could have been Toto's brother followed the ghoul named Lee towards the sealed room where they were to see the great Wizard of Oz. It wasn't the emerald city, but it seemed close enough. For Red has come to get answers, and the Wizard best be able to provide answers… or something just may get broken.