The walk was nerve-wracking, I kept thinking about that big lizard, about the vaguely defined 'other things' that were too big to get through a doorway easily. I thought about Press, raising a little baby boy by herself, even as I reminded myself how unlikely it was that she was pregnant. Not unless this cannibal voodoo bullshit gave fertility a buff too, it didn't seem impossible.
I needed to focus.
My mind was made up, and there was no sense in distracting myself while walking a dangerous, difficult environment. Jesus, I was taking a walk to the capital city of the region. One of the only real 'cities' in the known world. Good fucking christ they'd fucked up hard. The bastards running things really managed to kill this much of the human race, destroy this much of what we'd built? It was sickening.
Even if there was a sort of pride in all the lights I saw here and there, as the day turned dark.
We were still here.
The world order those assholes had built had burned down, but the human race was still here. Bastards might have lived in air conditioned bunkers on the edge of the planet after the nukes dropped, but they didn't live like kings. Their precious kingdom was gone.
That bittersweet reminder is probably the only reason I slept that night. I'd brought a bag with me, a pain in the ass to carry, but cozy. It kept me warm enough to sleep without the attention a fire might bring, if nothing else. Been a little worried about waking up covered in roaches or some other nasty critters, but none of those fears manifested.
The next morning I was back on the path no worse for wear.
Though I was very aware that the bridge I moved towards had been host to a great number of lights last night. It was a relief when I got closer and found some semblance of respectability. That is, there was a large sign deeming the place Montgomery bridge, and demanding a toll of fifty caps to pass. Don't know what the fuck that meant but it seemed safe enough to ask.
No wall or fence or anything of that nature, just two dudes with rifles sitting on the concrete railing.
I approached them.
"Hey there!" I called out jovially, making a mental note of what to jump behind if they started shooting.
They didn't.
"Yeah hey man," one of them said casually, standing up to face me but not setting his gun down. I stopped a few yards short, smiling without hiding my unease.
"So, don't have any caps or know what they are, just came out of a vault actually-"
"Ammo, chems, or caps," he shot back apathetically.
"How about a nice gas mask?"
"Ammo. Chems. Or caps," he repeated, gripping his weapon a little closer.
I sighed.
"Alright I got couple clips of ammo for a ten milimeter, I can part with one of them," I offered.
"Yeah that's not gonna do it. Tell you what since I'm such a nice fucking guy we'll make an exception just for you," he began, putting a ball in my stomach with his tone. "Hand over the pistol and you can go vault boy, it's not half a days walk to the green jewel, you'll be fine,"
"No," I shot back immediately, aghast. A fucking pistol, a good pistol, just to cross a damn bridge? "Forget this shit I'll swim!"
"Oh yeah? Watch out for mierlurks, and pissed off property owners with rifles!" he warned. The other dude on the bridge stood. His rifle had a scope. I'd either have to wait until dark or take a long ass walk to get by. Then there was that other remark, whatever the fuck a mierlurk was. Press hadn't warned me to stay out of the water, though looking at the grey sludge it seemed entirely possible she just didn't feel the need to.
I yanked my pistol free and threw myself onto the pavement as I fired.
One of them got a shot off but it went high, and my only injury ended up being a nasty scrape on the left arm. A whole lot better than the two bumpkins who ate half a clip of pistol shots. The fucker in the back was still wheezing and gasping, but didn't look like he was going to be grabbing his gun anytime soon.
Hearing voices down below, panicked voices, I opted to crawl forward.
One of those rifles looked real, not like homemade crap that is. I had it in my hands and my back against the stone bridge railing before anything in my surroundings actually changed. Ten yards or so away, a head poked out. Just a head oddly enough, over the tip of the bridge, a few meters up the way. Their eyes widened in fright and I decided not to take any chances.
I saw pink splatter in the snapshot of a moment before the head was gone.
Thirty seconds later I felt confident assuming that nobody else was climbing up that ladder. Not wanting to be surrounded, I crawled to the edge, poked my own head over the side and immediately yanked it back. The flurry of bullets that rang out saw to that. Three separate guns and one was automatic, if I counted right.
What I wouldn't fucking give for a frag grenade, idiots were all just bunched up together. Only one was even in cover! Waiting them out seemed like the only option there, but what if there were more? It was this thought that spurred me to the other side of the bridge, keeping my head low but moving quickly. There was a pretty big boat there in the water, right next to the wrecked one below the bridge.
More to the point, it had four more armed folk.
Thank god two of them were crossing the gangplank over to my new friends. Also that I had a weapon with decent range. I didn't even take the time to line up with the head or heart, two blasts knocked them off the narrow wooden bridge and into the filthy water, then I had to duck again to keep my head in one piece.
An smg and some kind of enormous rifle, not enormous in a good way though. Two meters along the bride and I poked my head back up with mechanical efficiency, the rifleman dropped when I put one through his kidney. A shrill scream rang out as I ducked back into cover.
It's a good thing I did too, as one of my old friends seemed to be making another attempt on the ladder.
I did hit him. In the head as a matter of fact! It was only a graze though, just made a groove in the side of his skull is all.
The impotent click of my trigger told me the clip was empty on my second try.
The intense pressure in my gut and the shiny silver metal in his hand told me I'd been shot a couple times.
How the fuck was this asshole still holding onto the ladder after being shot in the fucking head!? Thank god he stopped after two, after I slumped to my side on the ground. Fell on my left so I could pull my pistol, two more shots and he dropped. The sound of his splat below filled me with a sadistic pride. Even so, I stared at that ladder until the revving of an engine broke the silence.
Against the heavy protests of my ribs, I poked my head over. It looked like they were all on the functioning boat, it also looked like they saw me. I yanked my head back but no shots followed. They seemed to be retreating.
Then some crawdad-looking hell beast burst from the water and lots of gunshots rang out.
Then it happened again, with a second crawdad-looking hell beast.
Then I watched the remaining half dozen people on their crampt little boat get absolutely ripped to shreds in perhaps the most gruesome display of viscera that I had ever seen. I'll remind you that I was in the power armor core, where I routinely saw torso's pop like balloons after taking a super sledge hit.
It was probably good that I had opted not to swim.
Thanks for reading!
