Ch.5 Big trouble all over again
"I can't tell how many, but they're winning..." Carrington responded. Simms took another look over the small rock formation they had taken cover behind. It had taken the better part of twenty minutes to get around the cliff and the battle was still raging inside the town walls. They had the cliff to their backs and the town ahead of them now. Across the small expanse of flatland between them and the town a life or death battle was heading for a brutal end.
"We've gotta help them!" Billy cried his pistol out and ready. Simms didn't disagree, but he wasn't about to charge into the fray without a plan. Getting all three of them killed wouldn't do the townspeople a bit of good.
"If we go through the entrance we're going to get fire from both sides before we even have a chance to explain ourselves." Carrington explained hurriedly. Billy was about to charge out of cover Simms could tell, but Carrington went on. "If we break down one of the doors one the wall houses we can get in from the side and surprise the Mutants," Simms was nodding before Carrington had even finished. It was a sound plan and they were running out of time to choose.
"Stay low and follow me!" Simms growled, rolling out of the shadow of the rocks and rushing out. Carrington was faster than Billy and managed to stay beside Simms the whole time, his rapidly moving feet not making a sound. They needn't have bothered with stealth though, none of the Super Mutants had remained outside the town to keep watch and with so much noise inside the town a bomb going off wouldn't have drawn a second look.
They didn't have to look long before Simms found a door on the side of one of the buildings loosely boarded enough for him to kick off the hinges. He paused at the doorway and eyed Carrington and Billy in turn. Both nodded the go ahead and readied weapons, Billy his Magnum and Carrington his knife. With a final preparatory inhale Simms sent the door off its hinges with a crash of his boot and dove into the shadows of the house.
They followed him quickly, eyes scanning every inch of the dirty and empty house. They had come in through a small kitchen door, the only light pouring through the doorway and the few holes in the boarded up windows. The din of battle outside was distant now, though they were closer than ever. Simms could feel the emptiness of the house, a kind of sixth sense everyone developed after few battles. This house hadn't been entered in years, just a section of the wall the town used to protect itself. Or, he corrected himself, try to protect itself anyway. The houses of Big Town were all relatively similar, one or two stories of rotting wood and nails.
They went to the front of the house through a musty hallway, ignoring the other rooms of the house altogether. The front room was probably a living room before the war, complete with what was left of a couch and TV. The windows took up half the wall but were boarded up now, letting slants of daylight in between the planks. Billy looked to the stairwell on the other side of the room and headed over before calling in a whisper.
"Better line of site, I'll cover you!" Carrington nodded and went to the window.
"Nice and easy," Simms cautioned him, taking the other end of the plank Carrington was pulling on. A few good tugs had the plank sitting on the floor and both men ducked as the sounds of gunfire magnified three fold. When it became clear none of the gunfire was aimed at them Simms raised up and looked through the window.
Down the street the hulking forms of three Super Mutants were firing at something further down the road, backs turned to the house they were in. Their yellowish skin was gleaming under the glaring sun, covered only partially by the bits of armor plating they had tied on. Each Mutant was shouting curses and unloading with the hunting rifles their kind was known to carry. The house they fired at was full of holes, the door a fragmented mess on the ground. Sporadic return fire shot out at the Mutants, not even close to scoring a hit.
"Ok on the count of," Simms whispered but stopped in mid sentence when he noticed he was alone in the room. He whirled around, searching for Carrington, who had disappeared without a trace. Cursing silently Simms went back to the window, and saw Carrington creeping slowly down the narrow street toward the Super Mutants. He withheld a hiss of surprise at the site of the duster clad man sneaking up on three armed Super Mutants, his reflexes taking hold.
Carrington was heading toward the one on the left, so Simms let the barrel of his rifle swivel toward the one on the right. Hopefully one of them would be able to take out the third one before it painted the wall with his brains. Timed slowed down as Carrington lept from his slow crouch, sailing in the air as silent as a shadow with his knife hammering downward. From where he was kneeling at the window Simms could hear the knife punch a hole through the Super Mutant's skull, burying itself to the hilt. Carrington was suspended a few feet above the ground, hanging onto the knife which he'd lodged in the back of the thing's head.
His finger twitched expertly and the muzzle flashed three times in rapid succession. By the time the first Super Mutant was falling to the ground with Carrington on its back the one on the far right stumbled forward as its back rippled from three shots pounding home. It wasn't dead but it dropped its rifle and roared in pain, his fellow Mutant whirling around and bringing its gun to bear against the recovering Carrington. His knife tugged out freely as the thing prepared to fire. It was too late for him to kill the thing Simms knew, not with a knife. A gun shot cracked... and the Super Mutants head exploded into a shower of skull fragments.
"Yeehaw!" The cry came from above Simms, on the top floor of the house. Apparently Billy had found his clear line of sight. Carrington didn't pause, charging the injured Super Mutant and performing a forward version of his previous attack before its very shocked eyes. The thing only had time to raise hand pitifully before the knife found its mark dead between its eyes. Carrington waved a thanks to the top floor and froze, looking across the intersection of the roads at something beyond Simms view. Then he was off, running with perfect stealth out of Simms view.
"Billy," Simms called up the stairs. "We need to go after him!" The sounds of gunfire hadn't stopped, which could only mean there were more Super Mutants in the town. Whatever Billy had said in answer was lost as the door to the front room imploded, a large yellow fist replacing it.
"FOUND YOU!" The Super Mutant bellowed, charging into the room with a gun the size of a grown man. It was more heavily armored than his fellow Mutants, which marked him as what people called at "Brut." Its wide opened blood shot eyes shot daggers at Simms as it brought its massive weapon toward him.
"Shit!" Simms cried as the minigun's barrels cycled to life.
-()-
Chris ran down the road as fast as he could, knife cocked in a throwing stance. The scream was a woman's, and what was about to happen wasn't hard to guess. Super Mutants weren't above hurting women, or kids. The streets were empty of people and Super Mutants, the fighting was now coming only from the house he approached. Like the other houses that had been attacked this one was now without a door.
He stopped at the empty doorway, listening carefully. Heavy footsteps thumped around the house in the room closest to him. The feet were too big to be human. But whoever had screamed wasn't among the living anymore, he was sure of it. Once the boot falls became a bit more distant Chris entered the house silently. He was right about the owner of the voice he'd heard, judging from the ladies corpse he found crumpled on the floor of the living room. Somewhere in the back fo the house a thump gave away the Super Mutant's sparing another glance at the dead woman Chris stalked down the hall, blending into each shadow as he went.
"NO ONE ELSE HERE!" The voice bellowed from the kitchen. Chris froze, kneeling on the other side of the corner the voice had come from.
"KEEP LOOKING IDIOT!" Another one boomed from the same room. They spoke in a constant shout, Chris had learned that after a few encounters with the towering monsters. Chris waited for a moment longer, thinking out his plan of attack. It didn't take a genius to know a human didn't stand much of a chance in close quarters with two Super Mutants. For the hundredth time since leaving Megaton he wished he had made enough room in his pack for grenades. He'd have to make do with what he had though.
He entered the room calmly and without a sound, finding one super mutant hunched over and rifling through a cabinet. The other was staring at him somebody had just told it a joke it didn't get.
"WHAT," The thing started to question but was cut of by the spray of bullets from Chris's gun, only a few of which managed to hit the thing and even then nothing lethal to the resilient monster. The other Super Mutant stood suddenly at the sound, his head cracking into the cabinet with a crunch.
"TIME TO DO DIE!" It bellowed, drawing a nasty looking plank with half a dozen nails driven through it. The Mutant he'd fruitlessly shot at drew a similar one and took a menacing step forward. Chris held his ground, knife held in a reverse grip to better compliment the gun in his other hand. Chris withdrew a few steps as the closest one charged forward. In the hallway they would have to go in single file, and couldn't' surround him.
The Mutant rushed on with a downward swipe that could have driven a dull spike through sheet metal. Chris back stepped quickly and felt the wind of the blow as it passed within an inch of his nose. The club hit the floor with a wump, the nails burying themselves into the wooden floor. The Mutant tugged at the stuck weapon with a bellowed curse. Taking advantage of the moment Chris nimbly ran forward and up the weapon's length, stopping at eye level with the creature in a crouch. The Super Mutant looked confused again, debating with the options of dropping the weapon and attacking with its fists or trying to throw him off and unsticking the weapon.
Chris ended the debate by placing the barrel of his gun on the thing's eyes, driving it forward into the thing's socket as he fired. At that range a blind man couldn't miss. The Super Mutants brains flew out the back of its head, spraying its partner behind it. Chris jumped off the weapon before the twitching corpse dropped it and fell to the ground. The last Mutant stepped over its dead partner and growled at Chris furiously.
"Come on," Chris sneered at the ugly thing, It took a quick glance at the weapon sticking in the floor behind it and replaced its own club in its back holster. Then it raised its massive fists and charged on unarmed. "Smart," Chris said before the Super Mutant barreled into him and lifted him from his feet while still running. Stars appeared in his vision as he was slammed into the wall of the living room, two giant hands clasped around his neck and keeping his feet dangling off the floor.
"I''L FEAST ON YOUR BONES WHEN YOU'RE DEAD!" The thing screamed at him with a horrid smile. If he could have mustered the wind he'd have spat on the thing. The Super Mutant's grip was iron clad, not budging an inch as Chris plunged the knife into its forearm. He thought about using the gun but his arm wouldn't lift, and after another moment his other hand fell away too, leaving the knife in the monster's arm. His body was betraying him in its hunger for air. His vision went purple around the edges and a ringing blared in his ears. He knew death was near, had to be judging on how distant the pain was getting.
Just before his world could disappear completely a hammering bang pierced the ringing in his ears and the giant hands unclenched. Chris fell to his knees with a rasping intake of air, feeding his deprived lungs painfully. His head swam, on the verge of fainting. He fought the feeling down and looked up from the floor. The Super Mutant was dead, the top half of its head a bloody mess. Confusion briefly came before Chris looked across the room and found a boy holding a smoking pistol in trembling hands.
The boy couldn't have been older than sixteen or seventeen, his dirty clothes ill fitting on his thin frame. He was eyeballing Chris warily and with the shaking gun not lowered. Chris pulled himself to his feet, once again having to fight off the dizzy feeling. As the boy watched he crouched and yanked the knife out of the Mutant's arm with a quick jerk. He almost smirked when the boy flinched at the wet slurp the knife made.
"I won't hurt you," Chris told him, raising a gloved hand and walking slowly to the door of the house. It must not have crossed the boy's mind that Chris was just trying to help. If the woman laying dead on the floor only a few feet away was the boy's mother as he suspected Chris couldn't really blame him for his distrust. "Stay hidden until they're all gone." He told the boy from the doorway.
"Th, thank you," The boy stammered as Chris left the house. Well at least he had understood that much, Chris thought as he limped down the road.
-()-
Simms was running across them room, a stream of bullets destroying everything behind him within an inch of his rapidly moving body. All thoughts of counter attack fell away as Simms shot down the hallway, followed quickly by the Super Mutant Brute and his very large gun. He only just managed to dive into a side room when the hallway buzzed with bullets and the insane laughter of the Super Mutant.
He lifted his Rifle into a firing position as the Super Mutant made its way down the hall, spraying fire the whole way. Then he thought better of it and lay down flat on his back, aiming the rifle at what he guessed would be head level. The Super Mutant turned into the room with its weapon held high, and obscuring its view of Simms completely. The hail of the minigun passed harmlessly over Simms prone position. One shot at this, Simms thought grimly.
The Chinese Assault rifle chattered wildly, muzzle flash blaring. Sparks pinked off the huge gun in the things hands as Simms kept up the fire, blasting a dozen holes into the ammo box of the weapon. The thing finally figured out what was happening and lowered the weapon. Simms flinched as the constant stream of bullets approached his level despite the rounds he was putting into the weapon itself. Just before a bullet could find its mark the minigun's barrels stopped with a shriek of twisted metal and a small cloud of smoke.
The look on the Super Mutant's face was almost comically shocked as it looked at its broken weapon. Before he could press the advantage the Mutant did something he did not expect, it lifted the weapon over its head and roared.
"Shit!" Simms yelled for the second time as the Brute prepared to smash him to pieces with a broken gun.
It stopped in mid swing, looking down in surprise and confusion at the six holes that had appeared in its chest. Simms was almost as confused as the monster, he hadn't been able to hear the gunfire over the thing's roar. Their eyes met for a moment in mutual understanding before the Brute collapsed into a head on top of him.
Billy Creel couldn't help but laugh at the site of the hard ass sheriff trying to squirm out from under the dead Super Mutant. Taking a moment to savor the humor and reload his magnum Billy looked down both sides of the hall to check for any more wayward Super Mutants.
"Get this damn thing off of me!" Simms wheezed angrily. Billy chuckled again and pulled the Mutant up by its armor, but damn if it wasn't heavy he thought. Simms crawled out from under it and stood with a groan. He was covered almost head to toe in blood from the fresh kill.
"Don't you look nice," Billy whistled.
"Shut the hell up Billy," Simms growled, but he didn't stop Billy from patting him on the shoulder as they left the house.
The day was still early judging by the sun's position in the sky. The battle had taken only a few minutes, but it had felt like forever, as they always did afterward. And over it was, they could both tell by the feeling of the place and the calm that had fallen over it. They waited in the main road, Simms dusting off his cloths as best he could and Billy lighting up a cigarette. Before long Chris joined them with a nod of his head and not much else.
It took the townspeople a little while longer to come out, and they did so hesitantly. One by one they came from the broken down buildings of Big Town, some from doors and others through broken windows. They surrounded the group but did so peacefully. There were only a few dozen of them, all dirty and scared. They gathered around the three with fear and gratitude printed on each face. Simms stepped forward first, raising his hands to silence voices that hadn't even come.
"The Super Mutants are dead," He told them simply. "Good by," He added, parting the crowd as he left. Chris and Billy fell into step behind him, heading for the front entrance this time as apposed to the improvised one they'd made before. Billy wasn't one to seek praise but a thank you from even one of them would have been nice. Instead they just looked to their feet and remained quite. They were almost to the little bridge out of town when a voice spoke up from the group.
"Wait!" Billy tuned first, a smile breaking over his face. Finally, somebody showing so gratitude. The woman had dark skin and a bandanna covering the top of her head. She ran toward them frantically, only stopping when she was a few steps away. "Wait," She repeated, nearly out of breath. Billy glanced over his companions. Simms waited passively, but Carrington looked like he was beginning to get pissed off.
"What do you need mam?" Billy asked, offering his hand. The woman shook it briefly, collecting herself before she spoke again.
"You can't leave yet," She told them despairingly. "The Mutants have been attacking us for days and taking slaves like they used to years ago. And the ones you killed were just a few of them!" Billy nodded his head as she went on in a high pitched chatter. "When the others come back and find out this group is dead... they'll wipe out the town completely!" Billy cursed under his breath. Nobody said anything, and the woman waited nervously. For some reason she only looked at Billy, her eyes pleading silently.
"We can't just leave them to die," Billy said turning away from the crying girl to talk to his fellow travelers. Billy repeated himself and waited for one of them to answer. Simms frowned and Carrington scowled.
"It wouldn't be right to leave them now," Simms agreed thoughtfully. Billy sighed in relief, but Carrington laughed bitterly at the statement.
"If we stay here for another day Chevron WILL, make it to Paradise Falls before we can get to him," Carrington countered, his voice at a harsh whisper. He was talking to Simms alone now, ignoring Billy and the woman completely. "How do you like your odds of rescuing your boy from the army of slavers that will be guarding him if that happens?" Simms stared Carrington down, neither man blinking. Finally he spoke again.
"Billy, we're leaving." Simms said with utter finality. Billy gasped, and shot Carrington a glare. Carrington avoided his look as he turned to leave. It was the first sign of guilt Billy had ever seen in the sour man.
"Lucan!" Billy shouted, not moving away from the town. "Lucas Goddamnit listen to me!" Simms kept walking. Billy clenched his fists and shouted. "I aint leaving them to die, you hear me? I won't fucking do it!" Simms stopped long enough to answer calmly.
"Then don't, I'll tell Maggie you're waiting here for her..." Then he was walking again. Billy's mouth hung open, he was shocked into silence by his old friend's callus remark. The Sheriff and Carrington were gone without another word.
"Thank you," The woman whispered at his side after Billy had been standing alone for an hour, taking his numb hand into her own and leaning on him comfortingly.
"Oh, don't mention it!" He laughed hystericly. It wasn't funny, but he had to laugh anyway. She smiled hesitantly too, not noticing the tear sliding down his one remaining eye.