CHAPTER 11: MUTATED ASSAULT.

"Humans are mutants, everything's a mutant - things that evolve." -Oscar Isaac.

The state of New York, one of many that had a growing number of Super Mutants. The vicious, yellowish green, burly, and asexual beings were some of the most recognizable horrors in the Wasteland. In an old prewar town, around nineteen Super Mutants have made the place their home. And anyone walking in would recognize it right away from all the gore bags and hand built fortifications of their twisted design. The Super Mutants made the old mayor's office their main base, several of them and some mutant hounds patrolled the entrance with one Mutant on a makeshift post at the top of the court house was on lookout. The Super Mutant then spotted something coming towards them, it was a group of people traveling through the town.

The group of people were more than a dozen in number, and they were lightly armed and traveling with children. They looked like they have traveled for a long time and were looking for a new settlement to live that was in the area.

The Super Mutant at the post looked down to its brethren. "Kin! Humans are coming! A group! Weak! Easy to kill! Down main road!"

The Super Mutants below made their battle cry and started moving towards the people, bloodthirsty and ready to slaughter the defenseless humans that have unknowingly come into their territory. The travelers were about halfway to the Mutant's base, some of the ones in the lead were starting to argue about the direction they were on before hearing sounds of yelling coming their way and started to panic from the danger.

But before they saw the group of Super Mutants coming after them, another Super Mutant came running out from an old building near them. Unlike the rest of its kin, the Super Mutant was light green and wore surprisingly well made armor. It wore Brahmin leather pants with metal plates covering most of the legs and feet with a chain for a belt. Its abs area was wrapped in a black tubing mesh that was melted together to make a solid and flexible protection with some metal studs. Its shoulders and upper arms were covered in fitted metal plates held together by thick leather with the forearms covered in metal guards that had screws and nails poking out from the top.

The Super Mutant held a sledgehammer in its hand and turned to the group of people. They were stunned in horror as the Super Mutant screamed at them, waving its sledgehammer around. But for some reason, the big green being didn't attack them, it stood there and glanced back to its kin that was coming.

"Go! Run, now! Get out here!" the Super Mutant whispered loudly to them. "Go while you still can! Please hurry!" it started yelling again to get them running.

The people finally snapped out of their shock and ran. The Super Mutant sighed in relief as its kin finally reached the street where it was and saw that the people were already too far for them to catch up. They all yelled and screamed in rage that their next meals got away.

"What did you do?! We had them! You scared them away!" one of the Brutes yelled at it.

"I got excited! Wanted to kill them!" The Super Mutant replied hesitantly.

The group of Super Mutants suddenly split apart as if on command. Another Super Mutant marched through the opening, it was an Overlord, the aged and bulky abomination walked up to the Mutant that allowed the people to get away. "What have you done?! You let another group of humans get away!" the Overlord bellowed, it stood almost a foot over the strange Super Mutant. "We are hungry! We are tired of eating moles and scorpions and other plain meat! We want human meat! And we need more humans to make more of us!"

"I am sorry, Overlord. It won't happen again." the Super Mutant nodded.

But suddenly, the Overlord raised its fist and socked the Mutant in the face and sent it falling to the ground with a loud thud. "You say that last time! We low on ammo and food! And you keep losing them! Now go back to hitting hot metal! You too much trouble!" the Overlord pointed back to the mayor office.

The strange Super Mutant wiped the blood from its mouth and got back up and started heading to the old building. "It's called smithing, you meat head." it said to itself.

Once it reached mayor office and went in, the Super Mutant walked to the very back room of the building. The mutated creatures have indeed made the building their own, decaying body parts and bones were hung up on hooks, many gore bags laid on the floor with flies buzzing all over them. The rooms were also filled with weapons, various items that they've stolen, and cages that were thankfully empty at the time.

The Super Mutant came into a concrete room with a built in forge. All kinds of metal materials were scattered on tables with tools and anvils, the walls had all forms of metalwork hooked up. The items made in the forge were randomly shaped and useless, some would even think they were attempts at art. The Super Mutant soon got the forge burning again and laid a piece of metal into the fire and started to heat it up.

Soon the metal was red hot as the Super Mutant pulled it out with long tongs and started hammering it on the nearby anvil. "I don't belong to these Super Mutants. Maybe I just don't belong anywhere..." it sighed to itself before continuing to hammer away to make whatever came to mind.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

March 15/2296

The massive dog named Cavall ran back towards his new owners, in his mouth a fresh, large rabbit that he hunt down and caught. He soon found the group and dropped the rabbit in front of them.

"Good boy, Cavall! You're living up to the reputation of your namesake!" Louis praised him with a pat and picked up the rabbit.

"Well, it's better than the mutant squirrel the day before." Joe chuckled while giving Cavall a pet too.

"He's a good hunter. And since we've been on the road for a few days in Prattsville, finding food is becoming a little hard." Chloe said while taking in the mostly burnt out forest.

"Don't worry, I think we're almost to the state border of upstate New York. The next state will be Pennsylvania." Louis pulled out a map to check it over.

"So we're still going farther and farther across the country." Victoria sighed a little in disappointment.

"It's not all bad. We're having crazy fun, aren't we?" Louis asked with a smile as he put the map away.

"Speak for yourself..." Doug chimed in.

The group went over the hill of the road and saw another settlement that was once a factory. "Look at that. I've never seen a factory made into a place to live." Joe said to them.

"I don't care what they made it out of as long as they got booze." Doug was eager for a drink.

"As a matter of fact I could use a drink myself." Louis smiled.

"Same here as long as they have gin." Joe adjusted his rifle sling over his shoulder.

The group soon saw the sign hanging above the town. It was called Smelter's Grove. The entrance used to be the employee parking lot. The chainlink fence surrounding the area was covered by metal sheets for better protection. The old factory was filled with many people, shops of all kinds were set up near the entrance of the factory. The inside acted as a living section for a few hundred people, making the entire factory a livable shanty town.

The six wanderers took in the sites of the factory town by browsing the shops for ammo, weapons, and supplies. The residents seemed to take notice of the odd group of people.

"Why is it that everywhere we go, people look at us?" Doug asked as he glanced to some of the people looking at them.

Louis was looking at a new assault rifle he was considering. "I think they're mostly looking at me. I am a Vault dweller on the surface with a group of people and probably some very valuable things."

"Do you have valuable things?" Victoria asked.

"My Pip-Boy for starters. And my Vault Jumpsuit is made of rare materials, and my boots are made of super comfortable leather that makes every step feel like I'm stepping on clouds." Louis beamed a big smile.

"You better be lying about the boots. Or I may have to rob you..." Joe glared at him.

Chloe was buying ammo for her plasma rifle and noticed she was low on caps. "We're gonna have to find work soon. I'm sure all of you are low on caps."

"Dammit, she's right." Doug sighed and put the revolver he was looking at back down on the shop table. "We've been through a lot in the past couple of days."

"Then let's look around and see if anyone has got something for us." Louis placed the rifle back down. "We'll meet up at that restaurant over there later." he pointed to the handmade building near the factory entrance.

The six wanderers spread out with Cavall following Louis. They asked around for over an hour but didn't find anyone that was hiring, some even gave the wanderers colorful responses when they asked. Doug punched one of the shop keepers in the face when no one was looking and walked off. More than an hour passed before they regrouped near the diner to sit down and eat.

"So I guess you all didn't find any jobs?" Victoria asked them.

"Not a damn one." Joe answered as he lit a cigarette.

"I punched out a shop keeper who was being an asshole..." Doug smiled deeply.

"We're all proud of you..." Chloe rolled her eyes at him.

"I think we'll find something sooner or later. We just have to keep looking." Louis tried to cheer them up. Cavall seemed to bark in agreement.

()()()()()()()()

Unknown to the people of Smelter's Grove, a horde of Super Mutants were marching their way. The abominations were armed and ready to attack the unsuspecting people as they exited the burnt out forest. In the lead was a Brute, the second in command of the horde was leading them while the Overlord waited back in the old town.

The Brute took a few steps forward and scanned the town before pulling out its assault rifle and turned to the Super Mutants behind them. "Kin! Ahead is a town! Filled with puny humans! Attack them! Capture them! Bring them all back to eat! And those strong enough will become more of us!"

The Super Mutants shouted with bloodlust filled joy and readied their weapons. The yellowish green beasts charged for the factory settlement's lightly guarded side at the west end. A few of them tossed grenades at the weak wall as they exploded and blew a huge opening for the Super Mutants to come through.

()()()()()()

Back at the diner, the Wanderers and the people in the area felt the rumble of the explosion. They stopped eating and looked around as the people started to worry.

"What the fuck was that?! Doug asked no one in particular.

Cavall started to growl, Louis gently pat his head to calm him. "Something's not right. That was an explosion."

Joe grabbed his combat shotgun and loaded it. "I think we got trouble..."

"What trouble can it possibly be?" Chloe asked while holding her plasma pistol.

"Run! Run away! Super Mutants have breached the wall!" a man screamed while running.

"Super...Mutants...shit..." Victoria slowly spoke in shock before another explosion rang out.

The six wanderers saw the side of a nearby building explode, the pieces showered to the ground as the yellowish green menaces came running out from the dust. The Super Mutants screamed in joyful rage and fired away with their various and mismatched weapons. The yellowish green monsters shot at everything, they had no target in mind and reveled in watching the people run and scream.

"Puny humans! Super Mutants are the future!" one of them with an assault rifle screamed.

Louis quickly flipped their metal table over and took cover before they returned fire at the abominations. They shot one of them with several rounds, but the creature only slowed down as the rest turned and fired at them. The six ducked behind the table just as the bullets started to pelt it, but their cover would soon give out.

"Super Mutants! My god, I thought I would never see those things! I never wanted to see them!" Doug began to panic, the fear of fighting the mutant monsters creeping up on him.

Louis quickly patted him on the shoulder. "Calm down. You never gave up on a fight before, so I know you won't turn from this!" he said before firing a few shots at the mutants. "They bleed like any other creature! And if it bleeds, it dies!"

"Okay, fine! Enough with the pep talk!" Doug grabbed his Winchester and popped several shots.

Their cover was starting to give out from damage. "We need to go! Our cover is about to give out!"

"On it!" Chloe pulled out one of her plasma grenades. "I hate to waste it, but we have no choice."

The Synth woman tossed the grenade over, it landed near the group of advancing Super Mutants. One of them noticed the grenade and alerted the others to get out of the way just as the grenade went off in a dome of green plasma. The six wanderers quickly moved from their hiding spot and ran with the Super Mutants chasing after them. They ran to the main section of the settlement, the people who couldn't fight were routed into the factory as the guards of the settlement quickly headed to where the Super Mutants were coming. There was about forty guards, but everyone knew a single Super Mutant was worth several people, and there was about fourteen of the yellowish green horde attacking. The guards of the town got into defensive positions all around the area and fired. The Super Mutants also grabbed random junk and items that was used to build the town like concrete slabs, car bodies, and large sheets of metal to protect themselves.

They leaped behind one of the makeshift barricades with the other settlement guards to fight with them. The attacking forces were at a standstill, bullets, lasers, and plasma was exchanged. Several of the guards were already shot, about seven of them already killed and some bleeding out. The Super Mutants were also getting shot, but their wounds were only minor to them and didn't hit any place vital because of their thick skin. And the pain from their gunshot wounds only made them more aggressive as they pressed their attack. The Wanderers weren't fairing any better with the barricade taking a lot of damage, and they needed to be careful with their ammo and make every shot count.

"Damn monsters!" Joe shouted and reloaded his hunting rifle. "I've only seen a few handful of Super Mutants in my life, and they're scary as shit every fucking time!"

"You've only seen a few handful of them?" Doug asked while firing the last few rounds of his Winchester. "I figured you would have seen a lot more than that!"

"I'm not a fucking idiot that goes looking for Super Mutants to fight! I would have never lived this long!" Joe responded to him snidely.

"Guys, focus! We can't get killed here like this!" Victoria shouted at them as she reloaded.

Cavall could only bark for them, the Super Mutants started advancing forward while keeping the guards and wanderers pinned down. "Die! Puny humans! You die here! You will be our meat!" the Brute yelled as it fired wildly.

Louis quickly noticed the Brute giving the commands to the rest. "That one seems to be in the lead! If we take it out, the others might run!" the Vault dweller took out his magnum and fired at the Brute.

The Brute was hit in the leg, shoulder, lower stomach, and through the left eye. The Super Mutant Brute screamed in pain while covering its bleeding eye. "Ahh! Damn stupid human! I'll kill you! Kill all of you! Die! Give me missile launcher!" it turned and ran back to its kin.

"Did that thing just say missile launcher?..." Doug asked the obvious.

The Super Mutant Brute was handed a quad-barrel missile launcher. It smiled with murderous joy and aimed at the barricades and fired. The four missiles were shot in rapid succession, each one hit a barricade and sent concrete and metal flying. It then reloaded the launcher and fired again, this time hitting the barricade the six Wanderers were hiding behind. They only got a few feet from it as the shock wave sent them flying and slamming the ground hard. The Brute fired two more sets of missiles from the quad barrel, killing more of the settlement guards and sending everyone else falling to the ground in defeat.

Black smoke rose to the sky as fire burned in various places. The Super Mutants began searching the area for items to loot and survivors to take. Louis' eyes slowly opened, his head pounded with pain and was sure he had a number of bruises from hitting the ground. He saw one of the Super Mutants pick Victoria up off the ground and throw her over its shoulder. She was unconscious and lightly bleeding from her forehead, Louis tried to reach out to her, but he could barely move at all. The Super Mutants decided now was the time to leave, despite nearly blowing the settlement guards to pieces, they had suffered a lot of injuries and were very low on ammo. They kidnaped about thirteen people and started marching back to the entrance they made and left. The rest of the Wanderers managed to regain consciousness, their bodies aching in pain but mostly unharmed.

"Goddamn those Super Mutants!" Chloe moaned while rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm really starting to like my metal skeleton..."

"I need a drink to numb this pain..." Joe picked himself up from the ground.

Doug stood back up and checked on Cavall. "Hey there, boy. You okay?" he petted the giant dog that licked him in return. "Hey, Louis! You okay?"

The Vault dweller got up, despite the pain coursing through him. "Vic? Vic...Victoria! She's gone! The Super Mutants took her!" he said before stumbling forward in pain.

The rest gasped in shock. "You can't be serious! Please tell me you're mistaken!" Doug said to him in panic.

"Do you see her anywhere around here?" Louis asked before clutching his head in pain.

"We need to round up the settlement guards! I think those monsters took several of them too." Joe looked to the guards that were scrambling all over the place.

"There's not enough time. I know a thing or two about Super Mutants, and they are either gonna eat them, or even worse, make them into Super Mutants!" Chloe interjected and looked to the disorganized guards. "And they're too busy as it is with taking care of the injured and dead."

Louis pulled out a stimpak and injected himself to heal. "Then we go after them! The Super Mutants won't expect a small group following them! We have to get her back, I refuse to let her die after finally getting her freedom!"

"This is crazy! They are Super Mutants!" Joe pointed in the direction they went. "Believe me, I want to help her as much as you do, but we need to think this through! I don't even think we managed to kill any of them."

"But they're injured, I even shot the leader in the eye." Louis started reloading his guns. "It's our only chance to get her back."

Doug knew there wasn't anyway to talk him out of it. "Alright, but first we need to make a shopping trip."

"I don't think the store owners are in the mood to be open right now." Joe pointed out to him. Doug turned and gave him a look. "Oh...I get what you're saying. Not bad at all, Doug." the Ghoul caught on and winked.

Louis and Chloe soon caught on to what Doug meant as they came up to the nearby gun stand that was in pieces and took as much ammo they needed, along with several different grenades and a few pounds of C4 and detonators. Louis placed around two hundred caps under the stand to pay for some of the things they took. Soon they stood at the opening the Super Mutants made and looked towards the burnt out forest.

"We will get you back, Victoria. I swear it." Louis said and armed his assault rifle. "And we'll show those Super Mutants not to mess with us!"

The five followed the tracks the Super Mutants left behind, knowing they were probably getting in way over their heads against them. But they didn't care, they could not leave one of their own behind at the nonexistent mercy of the mutated abominations and the horrible things they do to people.