Real title: Ghouls, Mutants, and Dog. Oh my. (Chapter titles can't have punctuation, so that wouldn't work.)
Strangely, even though so much happens in this chapter, this one actually has the least number of words out of all the chapters so far. But you don't care about stuff like that, on with the story!
A bone-chilling shriek echoed through the metro tunnel and caused goosebumps to rise on Carmen's skin.
"What was that?"
Grey paused as if waiting for another sample of the noise. "Ghoul," he finally explained.
"Ghoul? You mean like Gob?"
Her partner laughed. "No, nothing like our bitter-yet-lovable bartender back home. These are feral Ghouls. Their minds have degenerated to the point where they act entirely on instinct, attacking anything that enters their territory."
They froze as the topic of their conversation passed in front of them through an intersection. The Ghoul must have been severely lacking in senses because it walked right past without even turning their way.
"They also have a penchant for wearing little to no clothing," Grey added.
"Unpleasant experience?" Carmen asked, referencing the twitch under the man's eye as he said that last bit.
"Just be glad that one had half a shirt and a loincloth that used to be shorts. I've seen a lot of things, but nothing more scarring than a feral letting it all hang loo-" His hands flew up to his mouth and he ran to a nearby trash can to fill it for the first time in two hundred years.
After half an hour of adrenaline-pumping and eyebrow-raising encounters (Carmen learned that Ghoul skulls are fragile and prone to exploding with a single bullet), the Wastelanders reached an iron gate back to the surface.
"Alright. If those marks on the wall are right, we should be heading towards Galaxy News Radio," Grey said as he wrenched the gate open and they stepped outside.
"Right."
"So...Why are we going there again?"
The look on the red head's face told him he'd made a fatal mistake. "Grey! What's the entire reason I left the Vault?"
"Oh yeah, your dad. Moriarty said he was coming here, didn't he?"
"Yeah! I can't believe you forgot something so important. Sometimes, I don't even know why I tolerate your-"
Grey grabbed her by the waist, covered her mouth with his hand, and pulled her behind a nearby building. At first, she struggled and yelled at him through his fingers, but what happened next silenced her. A green-skinned humanoid creature at least two feet taller than her with a rifle stepped into view. The thing looked around and then kept walking.
Grey released his grip and Carmen released the breath she'd been holding.
"What new horror are we facing now?"
"Super Mutants. I've mentioned them before." Grey took the shotgun off of his back and checked the ammo. "Ugly as sin, about as intelligent as a Raider with Mentat withdrawl. They're not that bad when they're alone or in pairs, but any more than that, and they can be a pain."
They rounded a corner and stopped as four Super Mutants stared back at them.
"Aw, hell."
As the Mutants drew their weapons, Carmen tossed out a grenade and the two took cover behind some columns. Bullets bit into the concrete and bounced off of steel rods. Carmen looked over to see Grey nod towards a half-broken wall a few feet from her. After waiting for a suitable lull in the gunfire, she dashed out and behind the new cover while Grey drew attention by firing blindly around his column.
Carmen sidled up to the wall and moved to the other end. A Super Mutant with a sledgehammer attempting to flank the travelers in the same way met his end at the hands of Carmen's assault rifle. Carmen leaned out to get a look at the remaining opposition. All three Mutants were focused on where she had been and where Grey still was, but one had been injured by the grenade and sitting against a large piece of rubble with its only usable arm clumsily trying to handle a pistol far too small for it. Carmen finished it off with a three-round burst to the side of the head. The other Mutants were distracted by this new attack, and Grey took his chance to run out and score a point-blank shot. Most Super Mutants are naturally inclined to never run from a fight, but this one hesitated long enough for a laser from seemingly nowhere to bring it down.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" a female voice demanded.
Three figures in suits of armor, one with a helmet that covered their entire head, stepped out from an alley.
"Do you have any idea where you are right now?" the leader, a woman with blonde hair, asked.
"Yes we do," Grey replied. "That's kind of why we're here."
Carmen shot a look telling him to shut up as the armored woman said, "No one comes into the D.C. ruins unless they have a death wish, so I assume you're either suicidal or you want to get to the GNR building. I don't care why you want to go there, but as long as you stay out of our way, you can tag along. I'm Sentinel Lyons, by the way, leader of the Lyon's Pride of the Brotherhood of Steel. This is Paladin Vargas." She indicated the man next to her. "And the one in the helmet is Initiate Reddin."
"What's up?" Reddin said, voice solving the puzzle of her gender under the armor.
The Pride starting jogging back the way they had come, and Grey and Carmen moved to follow them.
"Grey, what do you know about the Brotherhood of Steel?" Carmen whispered.
"Not much. I know that they have tons of weapons and power armor, hate Super Mutants, and they oppose the Enclave. I can see the next question in your eyes, so I'll explain. The Enclave is the private army of President Eden. You've probably heard some of his messages on the radio."
"Yeah, I have. But why would they go against the president? He sounds like he wants to help the people out here."
"I don't know, and I don't care. As long as I have caps in my pocket and a bottle in my hand, everyone else can fight whatever war they want."
"Oh." For some reason, what he had said made Carmen feel somewhat disappointed.
A few minutes later, the group met up with another Brotherhood member crouching outside the entrance to a small courtyard with another lying dead beside him.
"What's the situation?" Sentinel Lyons asked him.
"Four more Super Mutants have been removed from this world, but the building ahead is swarming with them." His gaze fell on the Wastelanders at the back. "New recruits?"
"Just a couple of scavengers who want to get to GNR."
"Ah."
"Stay close, we're going straight through and attacking the main force from behind."
Carmen wondered what she meant by main force, but didn't have time to find out more before they were on the move again. The moment they set foot in the courtyard, Super Mutants appeared in the doorways and windows of the building on the other side. With numbers on their side, the human group quickly cut through. Halfway into the building, Lyons sent the Brotherhood member from earlier upstairs to "provide support." When they reached the exit, Carmen finally saw what all of this was about.
At least twenty Super Mutants were gathered in a plaza, opening fire on a large building protected by Brotherhood forces. This could only be Galaxy News Radio.
"It can never be easy, can it?" Grey muttered to himself.
With a signal from Sentinel Lyons, they flooded into the plaza and started gunning down Mutants. There was already so much gunfire, the fighters at the front didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. As the last Super Mutant fell, a cheer went up from the Brotherhood and Reddin started firing into the air. Paladin Vargas started to chastise her for wasting ammo, but everyone was silenced as the ground rumbled beneath them and a loud roar could be heard.
Several cries of "Behemoth" and "Get the Fat Man" could be heard and the Brotherhood of Steel started running around to new postions.
All except for Initiate Reddin, who was frozen where she stood.
Paladin Vargas tried to call out to her just before a bus that had been laying on its side exploded and a Super Mutant the size of a four-story building stepped out of the smoke. Without so much as a glance, it brought down one massive hand and swatted Reddin aside. She went flying and slammed into a pillar with an audible crunch.
"Where's that Fat Man?" Lyons shouted from behind a wall of sandbags.
Right before the Behemoth had made its entrance, Grey had seen a knight hefting a large weapon over his shoulder and crouching in the fountain in the plaza's center. When the bus exploded, a piece of debris impaled the knight and sent the weapon skittering across the ground. Grey now saw it laying a short distance away and went after it. The movement caught the Behemoth's eye, and it started trudging towards him.
"Grey!" Carmen screamed.
The man scooped up the Fat Man, took aim, and launched the miniature nuclear device it held. The nuke caught the hulking monstrosity in the chest and the blast swept Grey off his feet. The Behemoth fell with a resounding thud and Carmen ran out to where her partner lay facedown on the asphalt. Fearing the worst, she flipped him over and was surprised to see him smiling.
"I've gotta get me one of those things," he said.
With a sigh that turned into relieved laughter, she helped him to his feet as the Brotherhood let out another cheer.
Sentinel Lyons walked over to the pair. "Nice job. Maybe you two aren't just stupid scavengers after all."
"Thanks," Carmen responded. "I'm sorry about what happened to Reddin."
"She died well. In the Brotherhood of Steel, that's all that matters. I'll tell the others to let you inside."
Grey was a little unsteady on his feet, so Carmen put one of his arms around her shoulders and helped him up the steps and inside the GNR headquarters. They were escorted upstairs to where a dark-skinned man held up his arms in welcome.
"Hello. My name is Three Dog."
See you next time!