CHAPTER 9: THEY LURK BELOW.
"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. -Douglas MacArthur.
March 7/2296
Three days passed since Chloe, the Gen 4 Synth, joined them. Making the group now five wanderers. They traveled a new old road in an arid region. The border to upstate New York was still far, but the group kept pressing on.
"Bored...so bored..." Louis sighed with his rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Not now, Louis..." Doug groaned.
"I have to admit, wandering can be boring." Joe commented.
"Better than being shot at all the time." Victoria said next.
"We haven't seen another settlement since we started two days ago." Chloe spoke next.
Louis looked at his Pip-Boy and looked to the map. "Nothing on the map. We're out in the open here in Pittsfield. Anything could happen."
"Why do you have to say things like that?" Doug sighed at him.
"Nothing is going to happen because I said it..." Louis looked to him.
The ground around them suddenly shook. They heard a loud rumble in the distance that sounded like thunder striking the land.
"See?! I told you, every time he opens his mouth, something like this happens!" Doug shouted while pulling out his shotgun.
"He's the devil! Kill him!" Joe said half jokingly.
"That sounded like an explosion." Chloe said as they heard another explosion. "It sounds like dynamite. I think someone is blasting for a mining operation."
"If that's the case, then it's nothing we need to worry about." Victoria smiled in relief.
Louis looked at the map again for a moment. "Actually...we need to go into the direction of the blasting to cross into upstate New York."
"Of fucking course..." Doug put his gun away. "Come on, let's go..."
The five wanderers headed towards the blasting, the noise was getting louder and louder as the ground shook harder with each blast. The five came up to a deep quarry with at least more than a hundred people below, another explosion was seen coming from a hole nearby at the rock wall. The people carried around mining gear with many prewar mining vehicles that some were working on. The equipment was carried by a small herd of Brahmin caravans, along with armed men and women as guards. Another blast rang out from the tunnel entrance the miners were making. The explosion sent chunks or old rocks and dirt flying out.
"They seem busy. We shouldn't bother them." Joe said to the group.
"It will be faster to get to the border by cutting through the quarry than to go around it. This place is huge." Louis looked at his Pip-Boy to check the direction.
"These people clearly aren't Raiders, I'm sure if we approach them and keep our hands where they can see them, they'll let us pass." Victoria said as they started walking down the hill.
"Yeah, pass on into the afterlife." Doug muttered.
It took them several minutes to reach the bottom of the quarry by a slanted section against the rock wall on their side. The miners soon took notice of them as they reached the larger group near some old mining vehicles. An old man in dusty overalls and a mining helmet walked up to them, he also held a walking cane and had a metal brace around his right knee.
"Hello, sir! We're travelers, and we were hoping you would let us pass through the quarry. We're on our way to upstate New York, and this path is the quickest to the border." Louis asked the leader of the miners.
The miners just stood quietly and talking amongst each other, the five wanderers were becoming nervous as the lead miner started to laugh. "If that's all, then you can cross!" he walked over and held his hand out. "Folks call me Pappy. Nice to meet you fellas."
"Of course they do..." Doug secretly rolled his eyes.
"I'm Louis, and these are my friends. Doug, Joe, Victoria, and Chloe. We appreciate you guys letting us pass, the explosions drew us here." he said to the Pappy.
"Not surprising. That noise would attract a lot of attention." Pappy chuckled and looked to the mine. "We're blasting our way in to a new pocket of ore."
"What kind of ore are you mining here?" Louis asked.
"All kinds! Mostly metal ore for iron and steel." Pappy turned to the mine. "And once we get these mining vehicles working again, our production will be much faster. We ship the ore to all kinds of settlements that have old prewar smelting factories. I even heard of one big group of people are looking for train yards to get the railroads fixed. Just imagine the possibilities when people can start using trains across the country."
"Settlements can have better trade for starters. But won't that make the railroads and trains a target for all kinds of dangerous people?" Joe asked him.
"Anything we do is dangerous. There's lot's of people out there that are trying to make the world a better place. And all it takes is for someone to do it." Pappy chuckled happily. "But enough of me taking up your time. All you guys have to do is follow that path and walk up out of the quarry. You should reach the state border within an hour."
"If it's okay with you, I would like to have a look at your operation. It's not often we find such a well organized group of people doing something very good for others." Louis looked around the area.
"I don't see the problem in that." Pappy laughed again. "Take all the time you want. Everyone around here is friendly enough. And if you need some caps, there's plenty of work! Just about everyone here comes from settlements with work contracts."
"Thank you, we'll give it some thought." Victoria waved to him as they began to look around.
"Louis, why do you want to waste time around here? We're trying to cross into upstate New York." Doug looked to him.
"Why not? Look around you, all these people working together all civilized. When are we gonna see something like that again? These people want to make a difference in the Wasteland." Louis gestured to the workers going about their business.
"I have to agree with him. Being surrounded by people and not being shot at is a nice change of pace." Chloe said as she started wandering off. "I'm gonna see if they have any goods to sell. See you in a bit."
"I used to work in construction when I was eighteen to twenty. I might give these people some pointers." Joe walked off next.
"Then I guess we're taking a break." Doug threw his hands up in defeat. "I'm gonna see if there's something to eat around here. Maybe a chow station..."
"Looks like it's you and me, Louis." Victoria spoke while looking away a little.
"Sounds fine to me. Maybe I can help them with their construction vehicles." Louis said as they walked towards an old excavator.
The five wanderers spent the next hour checking out the quarry, talking to the miners and other people that worked for them. After awhile, they regrouped near the eating station and found Doug at one of the tables with a tray in front of him.
"Well, you found the chow station easily." Chloe said to him.
Doug finished his tray and pushed it a little forward. "It's not half bad..."
"So I guess we're gonna head out now that we've seen what these people got to offer." Joe spoke while sitting down.
"Yeah, I guess we've had our fun here." Louis said before looking to his friend. "And Doug, guess what, I had a talk with Pappy and some of his people in charge. I've established a trade agreement with them and your hometown. They'll send some representatives that way in the next few days. They will be sure to mention us when they arrive."
"Hmm, we actually could use some more metal. And we got plenty of goods to trade." Doug smiled a little and stood up from the table.
They were starting to leave as a horrible scream suddenly. Five miners came running out from the opening, one of them was badly wounded and bleeding. The miners started running over to help the miners that came out as Pappy quickly walked up to them as fast as he could. "What happened?! Was there an accident?!"
"It wasn't an accident! Something attacked us! The rest were taken!" one of them spoke.
"Taken?! How many were in there?" Pappy questioned.
"About twenty of us! Whatever was in there, they were fast! We didn't know what hit us until it was too late!" another miner said. "We barely managed to get out!"
Pappy turned around to the other miners. "I want everyone with a gun to gather around! And grab every single light equipment! We're gonna figure out what's going on in there!" he ordered everyone within hearing range.
As the miners started to disburse to gather what they needed, the five Wanderers heard everything they said. "I know you guys aren't going to like this, but I think we should help them." Louis said to the group.
"Going into deep dark tunnels wasn't in the job description!" Joe frowned at him.
"I hate to say it, but this seems like their priority. There's no reason for us to get involved." Chloe nodded in agreement.
"Come on, guys, I've already established a trade with these people for the town we came from. It wouldn't look good to just up and leave." Louis looked to the opening.
"We need to cross the state border! And I would prefer we do it before night comes, Louis." Doug looked to him, only to find that he was gone.
"Guys," Victoria got their attention and pointed at the Vault dweller. "He's already running towards the entrance..."
"I hate him..." Joe sighed as they followed.
Louis reached the entrance of the mine and grabbed one of the helmets and turned the light on, along with some heavy duty flashlights and flicked them on as the other four reached him. "Don't talk me out of it, guys."
"We're not. There's no point in trying." Doug said as he grabbed some flashlights.
Joe put on a helmet with a flashlight and grinned. "Kinda always wanted to use one of these things."
"Let's just get this over with." Chloe charged her plasma rifle up.
The five walked into the mine opening before anyone could stop them. Louis turned on his Pip-Boy light to better illuminate the place. So far they found nothing out of the ordinary except the small trail of blood leading out from the miner that was injured.
Doug pointed his shotgun towards the darkness. "It's quiet. Too quiet. And the one thing about the Wasteland is quiet is never good."
"We're in a cave." Louis bluntly stated.
"A cave in the Wasteland." Doug retorted. "If it's not a Vault, it's not completely safe."
"Just focus on whatever jumped the miners." Louis looked at his Pip-Boy screen to check for movement. "And for the record, the Vaults are never a hundred percent safe. There's all kinds of hazards if the place is not well maintained."
"Can you two cut the chatter and focus." Victoria said as she swept her flashlight across the ceiling.
"I am so having second thoughts of this..." Joe sighed.
Chloe turned her flashlight to another section with her plasma rifle aimed and ready. "I don't like this. We should have seen something by now." she suddenly stepped in something real sticky and looked down to see a patch of something white and thread like. "What in the world is this?..."
Louis looked to the white threads and realized what they were from an old book and gasped. "Oh...shit..." his Pip-Boy suddenly showed several blips and looked to see what was hiding.
Above them was a small swarm of eight legged horrors. The hairy bodies of the mutated spiders were around the size of a dog, their mandibles dripped with drool as they started scurrying down from the ceiling on threads of web.
"Open fucking fire!" Doug shouted as he shot the first spider that landed.
The group spread out to split the spiders up. Louis held his pump shotgun and aimed towards a spider that leaped for him and blew it back to the ground. A spider leaped onto Joe's back, the small claws of its legs dug into his body as its fangs were about to sink in. The Ghoul quickly leaped back and landed on the ground while splattering the spider. Three spiders surrounded Chloe and closed in quick. But she backed up from the creatures and fired quickly, the hot plasma melted their many eyed faces. Victoria still wasn't the best at shooting, luckily the rapid fire of her 12.7mm SMG just needed to pelt the spiders with a few bullets each and make them scurry off. More spiders came after them deep from within the cavern, they grouped up in a line and unloaded into the spiders, splattering blood and body parts all over.
The spiders started to flee with only a small group staying behind. Three of them turned and sprayed streams of webbing, the silky threads entangled Joe and Doug tightly and pulled to the ground. The spiders started to drag the two away from the group, Louis pointed his shotgun at the strand of webbing and shot Doug free. Victoria fired a burst of ammo into the lower abdomen of the spider dragging Joe. The section where the web came out splattered open and pulled out some of the organs and freed the Ghoul.
A spider dropped down from the ceiling and knocked Louis to the ground, its fangs dripping and about to sink into his back. Victoria quickly turned and kicked the spider in the side and off his back. The creature flipped a few times before getting back on its feet and scurrying for him with fangs bared. The Vault dweller rolled onto his back and fired a shell into its face. Joe broke free from the webbing just as a spider leaped for him. The Ghoul raised his arm and stopped it from sinking its fangs into him. The spider's mouth was just above his forearm and snapping at him, drool slowly dripping onto his jacket. Joe reached for his revolver and put three bullets into its mouth, the body went limp with the legs still twitching and blood pouring out. Doug finally wrest himself from the webbing as a spider scurried after him. He grabbed the handle of his fire axe and swung wildly, the side of the blade hacked into the mandibles and gave him the opening he needed to drive the blade into the spider's head.
"Die! You goddamn, eight legged freaks! Die!" Doug shouted and hacked away at the body until chunks splattered onto the ground.
"It's fucking dead, Doug!" Joe snapped at him and reached into his coat pocket. "In more than two hundred years, I have never been wrapped up in fucking spider web! I need a fucking smoke!"
"Save it for later! We don't have time! The miners won't last much longer." Louis said as he started reloading.
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.
"Easy. Those spiders were trying to wrap us up like they almost did with Doug and Joe. They wrap their prey in webbing and take it back to their nest to eat later." Louis finished loading. "The miners must have accidently blast into their section and pissed them off."
"So the miners that were taken might be still alive!" Doug loaded his weapons as well. "Let's not waste another moment."
"I better get paid for this..." Joe said to himself.
"That's my line." Chloe looked to him.
They picked up the pace while following the spider trails all over the cavern floor. Soon they found the section where the miners were blasting and spotted their equipment and mining gear. The Vault dweller looked to a small stack of crates at the corner and went over to it.
Louis picked up the crowbar and popped the lid open. "Hell yes! This will give those spiders a bang like they've never felt before!" he reached in and picked up a bundle of dynamite.
"Someone get that away from him before he brings the mine down on us." Doug commented unimpressed.
"I actually like the plan. And I have the lighters to set those sticks off." Joe held up his lighter.
"Wait, lighters?" Victoria raised a brow.
Joe opened up his coat and showed that the inner pockets had five others.
"Jesus Christ, Joe." Louis shook his head.
"Come on, we must be near the tunnel the spiders came from." Chloe said while grabbing a few bundles.
They picked up a handful of bundles and pocketed them securely in their pouches. At the far end of them stood a massive hole in the wall with strands of spider webbing covering the walls and ground. They slowly entered the opening, their feet sticking to the webbing on the ground with a squelch. The tunnel had a distinct smell of new webbing, most of it was still wet with a sheen to it, meaning that the spiders have made it recently.
"They're expanding their nest. The miners might not have much time." Louis held his flashlight up to better light the path.
"And this damn webbing is everywhere! If we're not careful, our asses will get stuck." Doug pulled some webbing off his shoulder.
"Yes. You could say they've woven quite a web of trouble!" Louis chuckled.
"I am going to kick your ass one day." Joe rolled his eyes.
The group finally came out into a new cave section. Just about every inch of the cavern was covered in webbing with countless sacks of animal bones cluttered on the walls and ground. Above them was a massive mound of webbing sacks woven together in a massive clump and gave a faint glow that lit the cavern enough for them to see.
Chloe looked up to the webbing. "What's with that glow?"
Louis held his Pip-Boy up as it started ticking. "Hmm, seems to be some form of radiation that's lighting the webbing above. But we'll be okay, it's not high enough to be dangerous, and it's way up there."
"Like that makes it any better. We're right in their den." Joe kept his combat shotgun ready.
Victoria's eyes went over the dim room and spotted something at the back and pointed to it. "Hey, guys! I can see something over there!"
Against the wall was large sacks of webbing lined up in a row. Judging by the size of the web sacks, they clearly contained the missing miners inside. They could see some movements in the sacks, but they were weak from the ordeal of being abducted and wrapped.
"Holy shit, the miners! Let's go!" Louis said as they started running up to it. "Can any of you hear me?! Are you all right?!" he called to the sacks.
They heard the faint yelling of the men and women inside starting to struggle and scream. "That's them all right!" Doug pulled out his combat knife.
The five started cutting open the web sacks and freed one miner after another. The men and women were a little shaken up with some cuts and bruises, but for the most part fine.
"Head for that opening! It leads straight out of the mine!" Joe pointed to the entrance.
The miners started to flee as the last of them was cut out and ran for safety. "That should be all of them." Chloe reached for the bundles of dynamite she carried. "Now time to blow this place to hell."
"Hey, Louis, where are all the spiders anyway? We couldn't have killed them all." Doug asked as he peeled the webbing off his hands.
"Hmm, that is strange. We are right in their den." Louis wondered and looked over the place before spotting another section that was covered in webbing. He raised a brow curiously and went over to look at it. He went in closer and saw under the thin layer of web was hundreds of eggs clumped together and about to hatch any moment. "Oh, double shit! These are eggs! And that must mean..."
The group heard a deep hiss that echoed in the cavern. Above them a massive spider crawled on the web covered ceiling. It was at least five times the size of the other spiders, its many eyes locked on to the people below. Venom and drool dripped from its open mandibles and let go of the ceiling. A large rope of webbing helped it land on the ground and disconnect from its abdomen. The queen spider eyed the group once more and hissed shrilly before lunging after them.
"Holy fuck! How are we supposed to fight it?!" Joe started to panic.
Doug whipped out his fire axe. "Any way we can!"
Victoria drew an arrow with her bow. "Spread out so it can't target us all!" she launched the arrow and got the queen in one of its many eyes.
The spider queen hissed in pain from the arrow sticking out of its eye. Everyone began to spread out and surround the massive arachnid. But the creature turned to Doug and spat a big glob of webbing at him and pinned him to the ground. Joe pointed his combat shotgun and fired away. The buckshot pelted the side of its body and sent it into an angered frenzy and came after the Ghoul. The spider queen struck him with its legs and sent him flying to the ground with a hard slam. Chloe stepped in with her plasma rifle and shot it in the back to get it away from Joe.
The bolts of burning plasma sizzled its flesh and made the spider queen even more angry. Chloe made a run for it with the massive monster right on her heels. Victoria went to help cut Doug out of the webbing he was under while the Vault dweller distracted the spider queen by unloading his entire assault rifle clip into its side. Every shot barely dug into its thick hairy body, the spider queen turned to him and hissed. Its fangs dripped venom that burned the very ground under it.
Louis ran at full speed with a panic cry as the spider easily closed in on him. Doug finally got free from the webbing, being wrapped twice in one day only pissed him off more. He took out his Winchester and fired a little too angrily and erratic at the spider queen. Everyone kept pressing the attack on all sides of the spider queen, but their attacks barely inflicted much damage on its hard shelled body. And their ammo was starting to get low.
Louis sighed in exhaustion and put his rifle away. "This ends now!" he reached for a bundle and pulled out Joe's spare lighter. "Get clear, all of you!" he warned them and lit the cord.
The others saw what Louis was up to and ran for safety as he tossed the bundle towards the spider queen. It landed right under its legs and exploded, causing the cavern to shake from it. Bloody chunks hit the ground, three of its legs came flying off before the body collapsed with its sickly blood starting to flood around it. The spider queen gave a weak hiss and twitched weakly, trying in vain to move. Everyone slowly walked up to it, their guns pointed to finish it off.
"Alright! It's as good as dead!" Doug cheered and gave it a kick in the side. It hissed in response.
"Now let's blow this place and get out." Victoria took out her bundles of dynamite.
The spider queen started shrieking, its pained howl echoed across the chamber walls. "What the hell is she up to now?" Chloe frowned with worry.
They suddenly heard skittering and turned to the other chamber section and saw many more spiders coming after them. The spiders scurried across the walls like a wave, almost covering every inch of it.
Everyone slowly stepped back away from the queen. "She's calling for reinforcements! Run!" Joe shouted the obvious.
"Start lighting your dynamite! Throw a few to the ceiling!" Louis ordered and lit one of his.
The group started tossing lit bundles all around the place, the ones they threw to the ceiling stuck to the webbing and a few on the mound of eggs to end the next generation. They reached the tunnel opening and threw the last bundles down at the entrance as the spiders were closing in. The first set of dynamite went off and caused the ceiling to start collapsing as the mound of eggs were blown to chunky pieces. The dynamite at the entrance then went off next, causing it to collapse and crush any spiders still on their tails.
Bits of rocks and dirt rained down on them, the tunnel they were in rumbled and shook. Making the ground under their feet unstable and likely to trip if they weren't careful. Finally, they came flying out of the tunnel and gave it one last look. The spiders were trapped inside the chamber, they will most likely starve or suffocate to death. With the mine finally safe for use, the wanderers went back to entrance and found Pappy and a number of armed people coming in. The miners stopped in their tracks upon seeing the slightly beaten group.
"What in the world, you people defeated the spiders by yourself?!" Pappy exclaimed in surprise.
The group stopped walking to catch their breaths. "We...caused the tunnel to collapse. We crushed the spiders and their eggs. You shouldn't have anymore trouble with them." Louis sighed.
"And even if some survived, they should be weak enough to handle." Doug finished.
"My god, you people are saints!" Pappy laughed and went over to shake all their hands. "We will never forget this! Your town and every other settlement we come across will hear of you people!" he hugged Louis a little too tightly.
"It was nothing...just helping out..." Louis chuckled as Pappy finally let go.
With the spider threat over, the miners started scouting the tunnels to make sure they were safe to continue digging. Later, the five wanderers were rewarded with extra ammo and some caps and better directions of the area after getting cleaned and patched up. Pappy and some of the miners saw them off as they finally headed for the border into upstate New York.
"Despite the delay, we're about to cross into the next state." Louis spoke as the quarry was finally out of view.
"As long as we don't run into anymore giant spiders..." Victoria sighed.
"Not to worry, we'll run into some other form of mutant freaks eventually." Joe commented.
"Cheerful, Joe. Real cheerful."Doug scoffed at him.
The sun started to set as the five wanderers finally came up to a large sign that showed the next state, its faded and rusted letters saying in bold letters, 'WELCOME TO NEW YORK'. Now that they were in the upstate section, the time to cross it will only get much longer, along with the danger getting only higher.
