Chapter 6: Worthless good.
About five minutes later, the super mutant that had stayed with him in the cavern, returned. But it took about another twenty minutes for the others to come back. It was a little surprising, honestly, but it was certain that they hadn't gone far. If he had eliminated the one in there with him, they almost certainly would have heard a gunshot from inside the cavern. Good choice, good choice. He listened closely as he heard the sounds of six of them walking towards the cave. When they arrived, one of them spoke, "I'm hungry!" It yelled, and he knew this was going to happen. He had been so certain, but regardless of that, he felt the pressure sitting on him. He was sure he had to do something about this now So, he took one of the rocks he got his hands on earlier.
When the super mutants arrived, they all went towards a select area of the cavern and started taking off their weapons. However, just like the first time, one of them started walking towards the cage. The girl looked up at the thing, and her eyes went pink again. She started to cry, acknowledging that it was her turn now, and that the same thing that she had witnessed before was going to happen to her. Then, when none of them was looking, a rock flew by. It traversed the air between Rem and the super mutant that was going to free the girl, flew right behind his back, and hit some rocks to the super mutant's left side. When he turned to see, he saw another small rock, which had been on top of another, drop, like it had been dropped by something. "Hmm?" he growled, "What's that!" The rest looked at him, and Rem straightened out his clothes. The plan was in motion.
The super mutant started walking towards where he saw the rocks move, "It's a rat maybe!" it yelled, and as he arrived, he stepped over some of the small rocks. The girl watched him, closely, and then she realized something. That space, that place where the super mutant was heading towards . . . that was where the man from earlier had placed a bottlecap mine. She shielded herself immediately just in time for the super mutant to hear a click, and then . . . boom. The sound was jarring, caused the cavern to tremble, and the super mutants all closed their eyes in response to it. They shielded themselves, and by then, Rem was on the move. He emerged from the crawl space like a shadow, his movements obscured by the dust that had kicked up and the sound.
Rem pointed the gun as he run, aligned it with one of the super mutants, and once his bald green head was in the trajectory of the trail carbine's iron sight, he pulled the trigger with all of the enthusiasm in the world. Bang, the shot rang in the cavern a single moment after the explosion was settled, and the super mutant stopped moving. It simply fell to the floor. At that moment, the biggest one, the smartest one, turned in the direction of the escape and saw a human. A human! This man, he was running out of here. He had been there the entire time! "Shoot!" it yelled, and some of the mutants turned. When the rest of them turned to see, Rem was halfway up the pathway towards cover, but before he got there, he turned around and started firing sporadically at as many of them as he could.
Some of them were suppressed by the gunfire, but not the leader. He picked up the minigun, pointed sloppily and fired. Rem dove towards cover, felt some of the bullets pierce the trench coat he was wearing, and stood up immediately after rolling a few feet. He lowered the duffle bag he had brought with him earlier and set a bottlecap mine right around the corner and started backing away. Then, he started running. "Get him!" the leader yelled, and the others started running up the pathway. Rem ran like he had never ran before, and eventually, he saw light. The end of the tunnel, and he set another mine there, inside some grass that was growing into the cavern. The moment he did, there was another explosion. He heard them screaming, and when he looked back towards the inside of the cavern, he saw a super mutant's arm land unceremoniously against the ground.
"Stop! He set up mines!" the super mutants listened to their leader and Rem responded, "Yeah, that's right assholes! I've got a couple of fucking surprises for you!" He knew he only had two more, but he wanted to make it sound like he had a lot more, to make them hesitate. And oh, did they hesitate. "Let's see you bald sons of bitches try to get me now!" He finished setting up the next mine, which left him with one more. One of the super mutants yelled, "I'm going to get you, and I'm going to eat you!" Rem smirked, "Fuck you! Eat shrapnel!" All the while, the leader paused, staring up the path with his eyebrows furrowed. They had completely forgotten about the girl. He started thinking, and in the background, he heard one of his three comrades, the three aside from him that were left, exchanging words with the human.
There was absolutely no way they could get up there without setting off the mines, and if they did, it was pretty damn clear that someone was going to die. Bottlecap mines packed a lethal punch, more so than frag mines, and that was what the human was equipped with. This was what he was thinking about as the exchanges between the super mutant and the human started to change, becoming less active, until the human, quite simply, was not answering anymore. His eyes widened, "HE'S ESCAPING!" The leader, absolutely infuriated with the idea that this human would get away with this, started walking forward without thinking much anymore. When he arrived at the assumed threshold of safe pathway and mineland, he grabbed one of his subordinates, and . . . tossed him, straight forward. "Master, no!" boom, another explosion resonated, and though the frag mine was weaker than a bottlecap mine, it dealt lethal damage to the mutant because he landed with his stomach on it.
After the explosion, the leader looked out and around, saw that there were no mines, and narrowed his eyes. This human, this bastard fucking human, he was damn good at bluffing. "RRRRRAAAAAHHH" he yelled, and the last two remaining super mutants watched in horror. "COME WITH ME!" The leader started running, with a velocity only a super mutant could achieve, and blitzed out of the cavern. The other super mutants followed suit, running behind him as closely as they could, almost entirely unable to keep up with their leader. "I'LL FIND YOU, HUMAN, AND I WILL DEVOUR YOU BY MYSELF."
Moments later, Rem pulled himself up to the platform of the cavern. They were gone, long gone, because of how fast they could run. He smiled. A couple of seconds later, the female heard steps. When she looked up, she saw the man from earlier, running towards her, and she stood up. Life pulsed through her veins again, and Rem started undoing the cage. When she was freed, he removed the tape. She didn't say a thing, however, and Rem grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go." When Rem ran, she followed.
When they emerged from the cavern, the girl squinted her eyes. She hadn't seen the light of day in something of a while, and honestly, she hadn't been expecting to ever again. It caused some discomfort, and after her hand was freed, she brought them up to clear them up. When she opened her eyes again, this man, this person who was attempting to save her life, was looking around the corner of the opening, checking to see if they were there no doubt. "Why didn't you do anything about Jesse?" she asked, relatively strongly, and Rem turned to look back at her. His eyebrows were raised but the look he gave her didn't mirror his inner sentiments of anger because the question was out of place. He was . . . a little daunted, actually, but he shook his head at her, "Now's not the time."
He grabbed her hand and started pulling her. The platform had a path, and on it, he saw the tracks that the super mutants had left behind. They were nowhere in the distance, and it looked like they had headed east. The safehouse was westward, so that's where he started heading. When they moved, he did so quickly, battling the uneven terrain of the hillsides they were getting around. The most painful thing about the situation was the fact that he had to put his rifle on his back so that he could help her as well as himself around, so if they were spotted, they'd get mowed down by the smart one's minigun like grass. He could have taken this more slowly and he could have been more calculating about the way he moved, but he felt that the benefit of getting away before being seen was the better payoff than being ready for a fight they still may not win even if they were prepared.
When they went over the first hill and slid down the other side, he felt infinitely more at ease. By the time the super mutants returned, if they returned, that is, to the cavern, there was a daunting plethora of hillsides that their prey could have gone over. Which one was it? They wouldn't know, he figured. So the rest of the way, he was still worried, but the trek was safe. Because of their haste, they arrived at the safe house and he quickly pulled her inside and dropped to his knees, breathing harder than he had at any point in time during the mission. "You thirsty?" he asked, as he removed the duffle bag from his back. He set it down and handed her a bottle of purified water. She reached out to it, opened it, and started drinking like she hadn't tasted anything other than spit for a while. While she did, Rem moved towards the radio.
Sandra heard it first, because she didn't leave the radio at all. "This is Rem," he panted after he spoke, "Radioing in on the supply situation." Sandra reached for the radio so fast she dropped it. Rem heard something tumbling and then he heard her voice, disheveled as it was, but it was clear. "Rem! Rem! They had 10 mm submachine guns on them! The assault rifles are alien!" Rem shook his head in an extremely disappointed manner, "I know. I'm aware of that now. They were . . . super mutants. Fucking . . . " he paused, shaking his head as he took his hat off and wiped sweat off his brow, "They eat people. They eat humans." Sandra listened, surprised as Rem, "Really? Oh god, I'm so glad you're okay." Rem nodded, still breathing heavily, and he turned around to look. The girl was on the floor, watching him and drinking water.
"I've got a survivor with me, and I'm afraid I don't think I'll be able to eradicate the problem myself. At least not now. I'll have to come back. Did you send the brahmin?" Sandra nodded, "Yes! Yes I did. They should still be there waiting for you." Rem nodded, too, his breath slowly steadying, "Alright. Alright then, we'll proceed as planned." Some of the other followers entered the room just as Rem finished speaking, "I'll radio in when we're transporting the supply cache. Rem out." He hung the radio up and started walking towards the door. The girl watched him, "So you're here for some kind of supply cache? Hmph." Rem stared at her for a moment, noticing the disdain she had towards him suddenly, "A supply cache that the Followers of the Apocalypse need to help some of their injured. Anyway, we have to go meet a contact. Let's go."
He headed for the door first, and the moment he did, he was shot.
When he felt it, he jerked his head to his left, felt a bullet land on his right arm, another bounced off his chest plate under his shirt, and another tagged him in the stomach. He felt another one had landed on his thigh, too, and his hat had been thrown off his head. He fell back, and the girl screamed loudly. "Agh!" he yelled as he fell to the ground. He gritted his teeth tightly, not even considering the extent of his wounds yet, and reached out with his leg to close the door. It slammed shut. "Come here!" he yelled, just as more bullets were fired. The minigun fire peppered the safe house thoroughly, blasting holes through the wall, sending whistling projectiles overhead as they both dropped, and making it feel like they were in hell all over again. "Come over here!" he reached for her, pulled, and pressed his back against a wardobe cabinet. Then, he pushed back, and the cabinet slid.
"Get in there," he said, as the minigun fired yet again, peppering the safehouse. He realized what was happening now. They weren't approaching, thank god, because of the possibility that he had lain mines around the house. Good, he thought, as he reached for the hatch where the supply cache was hidden and lifted it. The girl looked at him, "No! I'm not going in there." Rem didn't say anything. He reached over his back, grasped the trail carbine, and drew it to his front. She watched, but when he didn't say anything, she figured he wasn't going to try to convince her, so she looked away. Rem did that purposefully. When she wasn't paying any mind anymore, he smacked her with the wooden butt of the rifle. Robbed her of her unconsciousness, swiftly, and without making too much of a mess. After that, he dragged her limp body into the hole and let her drop. He dragged a mattress over it after that, and he heard something outside.
"Miserable humans! Did you think you would get away?" Rem gritted his teeth, and he heard one coming closer. They probably thought he was dead, but that meant they'd come in immediately. If he let them know he was still alive, they'd pepper the house again. "I dare you to come in here, bunch of - - " he winced, "Bunch of freaks!" They did what he thought they'd do. The big one unleashed his minigun on the safehouse, and he lowered, covered his head, and closed his eyes tightly. The more he breathed, the more he thought. He was going to die here. He was.
While the bullets continued blasting the safehouse, he crawled towards the door, wishing and hoping that he wouldn't be hit, and when he reached it, he placed his final frag mine right beside the door. Bullets blasted a part of the door off and he rolled away from it. He tried to stand, but they wouldn't have it. He knew he'd be shot if he did, so instead, he dragged, like a wounded dog, and ended up on the western side of the safehouse with his rifle on his lap. Didn't think it'd end like this, he thought, as he rotuinely began loading bullets into the chamber of the trail carbine. When the eighth round was safely inside, he performed the lever action and simply . . . he waited. Then again, how the hell else? He looked towards the hatch while the bullets continued tearing the place apart. At the very least, they won't get the girl. They'll drag me off, and she'll be free to escape on her own when she wakes up.
Yeah, by the time this was over, he will have done some good. Worthless as it may be, he will have done some good.
The sounds of three super mutants walking down the cavern could be heard, and when they arrived at the last cave, they were all silent. The leader, the largest one, looked the angriest. He was breathing heavily, squeezing the minigun handle tighter than he ever had in his life, and began putting things down before he heard a call. "Master!" He didn't look immediately, simply because he was annoyed. He was fighting his urge to mow down his own subordinates with the minigun right then and there, but what was said next grasped him. "The human is not here!" He yanked his body around, snapped his eyes to the cage, and when he saw that the young human girl was not there, he absolutely exploded. "RRRRRRRRRRAH!"
He turned around and in the same motion, he swung the minigun at the other super mutant. After hitting him in the jaw, dropping him on his rear, and walking over him, he paced to the pathway that led to the exit of the cavern. This fucking human. This member of an inferior species . . . had bested him. He had been tricked, had been made a fool of, and he couldn't handle it. The veins on his head thickened, his teeth gritted tighter than they had before, generating loud, crunching noises. And then a simple thought, no, a memory, fluttered gently onto his mind. It landed like a feather on a pillow, so softly, so delicately, and what he remembered was . . . the safehouse. Yes, the safehouse. "Follow me!" he yelled, growling as he did. Then, he zoomed out of there, leaving dust in his wake, and the other two super mutants began following. "Yes master!"
Those animalistic, hateful eyes were focused on something else now. He had found this man, this dog, hiding in the safehouse with the young woman he had been planning on eating earlier. He was wounded, too, but not dead. He wanted him dead, not wounded, and then he wanted to decapitate him, place his head in front of him, and make it watch as he ate the body. Yes, that's what he wanted to do. He didn't release his finger from the trigger. The minigun kept spewing projectiles into the house without cease, and it was a long while before he ran out of bullets. "Here," he uttered, "Reload it." He handed the mini gun to one of the other super mutants and took his assault rifle. After that, he aimed at the windows of the establishment, figuring that the man inside would want to take a shot when his subordinate was reloading the minigun. Little did Rem know, the master of the super mutants was ready for that.
Rem looked out towards the door when it stopped. He also heard when the minigun was being reloaded, and he figured that this was his chance to get off a pot shot. No, he couldn't. He didn't have the dexterity anymore to get off quick pot shots and get into cover before being fired at. Those eyes, still exuding a calm light from them, turned to look at the frag mine. It lay there, quietly but lethal at the same time. "Say something," he heard, faintly, and one of the subordinates started yelling. "We're going to eat you, human!" Rem knew what was going through their minds. Well, not their minds, but his mind, the master. If Rem didn't attack while the minigun was being reloaded, or if he didn't respond, he was either dead or too wounded to respond. In which case, they'd come in. He thought about replying so that they'd waste more bullets. He'd risk being shot, of course, but when he realized it, he couldn't waste too much more time.
Again, he looked at the hatch where the girl was hidden. There was no telling how long she'd be unconscious. If she awoke now, it'd be a problem, so he needed this to end. And it had to end now. He gulped, didn't say a thing, and held the gun up. He was ready to shoot at the windows, because they'd probably look before coming inside. Then he heard one of them running towards the house. It was time. Time to die, Rem. Make it good. Listening to the sounds, it looked like he was closing in on the left window, so he aimed his weapon that way. But . . . but then he heard he went right past it, and ran right to the door. It was kicked down with a momentous burst, and Rem pointed the gun immediately and fired. Bam bam bam in rapid succession, the lever action was barely discernible amidst the shots, and then boom. The super mutant didn't even have a chance to point and fire.
He was blown apart. His legs came right off, shrapnel penetrated his groin, and he let go of the assault rifle. He had been lifted off the ground slightly, and when he landed, he landed unmoving. He was dead. That was it, the last frag mine was gone. Now, he had to wonder if the master would call his bluff and rush in, knowing full well that he didn't have any more mines, or if he would wait again and blast the safehouse with the minigun. Then he heard the steps. Two pairs, running towards the door. Two of them. Shit, he began firing before they got there, hopefully to make them hesitate. When two more shots were spent, he only had three more, and he knew it was, quite simply, over. He wouldn't have time to reload and he doubted he could end this with the three bullets that were left. One super mutant dove in, flashed by like a green shadow, and Rem dragged the trail carbine along the trajectory as fast as he could. The last three shots were heard, bam bam bam, and he was surprised to see that when it landed, it stopped moving. That was a miracle. A real fucking miracle. But then he turned to the door, and there he saw the tip of the minigun, and he lowered the rifle.
When the super mutant looked at him, it yelled, "IT'S OVER, HUMAN." Rem closed his eyes, waited, and he heard an odd sound. Something high pitched, and then some sizzling, and when he opened his eyes, the super mutant master was turning around, casting his gaze up to the hillsides in the west as he pulled the trigger. He saw smoke rising from his right side, and then he saw another shot. A green pulse of plasma hit the door frame and melted it. "Die, bastard humans!" His minigun fire peppered one of the hillsides, and a girl ducked beneath cover on the other side. She had short brown hair, blue eyes, and wore black combat armor. If Rem had seen her, he would have recognized her.
After that, he heard more gunfire, and it took him a while to take in what was happening. When he realized it, he shook his head very fast and dug into his trench coat and drew out more bullets. He started loading them into the rifle, and when three had been loaded, he used the lever to load the bullet into its rightful place. Then, he stood up, using all the determination that had rolled over since he had been wasting his life doing nothing, and started walking towards the window. He saw another green pulse and it landed on the super mutant master's shoulder. It hit an iron plate, burned it, and burned the skin below. The mutant yelled again, this time in pain, and fired back. Rem's heart tingled just then, realizing that they were going to win this fight. He aimed, but just as he did, the mutant turned to him . . . and pulled the trigger.
Rem dropped back, dust kicking out in every direction from his weight. Everything . . . changed, as he looked up at the ceiling. He let go of the rifle, and gulped.
Outside, the super mutant master was shot in the side of the face as he turned to shoot at Rem. He yelled as it burned one of his eyes, and then something else occurred. A brilliant green luminescence. His body was vaporized, inside the clothes he was wearing, and when he was nothing more than a pile of green, radioactive dust in the ground, his armor and his minigun hit the floor. Rem was still conscious for a couple of moments, and he turned to look to the door. He saw someone coming through it. Her features were hazy, but when she came closer and pushed some strands of hair out of her face, he recognized who she was. Casey's bodyguard. "You . . . "
Then his eyes closed.