Chapter 17: Unbeknownst.
The way a night stalker roamed the Mojave in the dead of night was eerie. It moved along like a vanishing plume of smoke, with its every detail being of clandestine nature. It was light on its feet and very perceptive in the silence that hung over it as if by the virtue of nature. From it, there came no sounds as it approached a bag filled with organs, arms and legs, and one blue eye. It sniffed thoroughly and after it did, the instincts that had been bestowed unto it by mother nature drove it to move away, concluding that the meat it had found was unfit for sustenance. As it continued moving along, it found the large body of a dead super mutant with pieces of the body blown away. It studied, sniffing more, looking for anything that it could eat, but there was nothing.
When dust and pebbles started falling from the walls it nearly jumped. Its body lowered and its front paws pressed down against the dirt heavily as it looked around, its hereditary night vision giving it a clear view of what was happening. There was nothing there that had been the cause of the shuddering, but with more time going by, it started to feel what was happening. There was something inside the cavern, something big, walking down the path towards where it was. In response to this, the stealthy hunter's body lowered and it started stalking in the direction from which it had come, pacing along with an impossible, silent grace.
"Hmmmrph . . . " it heard, as something shifted, and when it did, it paused. Whatever was there, it was huge. It could just feel it, dragging itself through the cavern, studying everything in its path before it continued on its leisurely adventure, not worried about anything. Minutes went by when eventually, its silent stalking brought it up to a corner. When it got there, it knew there was something right around that corner. Its mouth tightened and its hunting instincts took over, tearing apart the shroud of silence by shaking its tail. When it did, there was a rattling noise that in a cavern like this one, was extremely easy to hear. Following the sound, it exploded forth and rounded the corner, with a painful swiftness, finding a huge, ten foot monster on the other side that turned its body to the assault like it was addressing something as lowly as a gecko. It didn't stop the snake-coyote hybrid, however, because it vaulted up in an attempt to bite the neck.
"Rrrrrargh!" The larger creature yelled, reaching out with one of its enormous green hands and quite simply just yanking the night stalker out of the air by the neck and squeezing tightly. There was an odd choking noise as the creature kicked its arms and legs, waving from side to side uselessly, still above the air, and then the super mutant wildly swung its hand. "RRRRUUUUARGH!" The large, humanoid beast smashed the night stalker's skull into one of the walls and repeated the motion twice, leaving the helpless creature to yelp in pain once before it was simply tossed aside, right into another wall. It smacked against the surface like a wet towel and dropped to the floor just the same with its neck broken, its skull leaking out gory contents, and with its torso bent in an awkward angle due to a spinal injury.
When the large super mutant stepped forth towards the felled creature, it did so with such an intense certainty that it appeared as though it could wrestle a Deathclaw into submission with nothing but its arms. "Worthless vermin," he said, with a refined tone of voice, staring down at the carcass. Once he was certain that it was dead, he stepped forward and ignored its presence, cracking its rib cage, causing its innards to spill out under the weight of his foot. The super mutant was wearing something different from the ones that had inhabited this cavern before. There was a large, heavy, worn iron breastplate strapped onto his chest and another plate on his back, each with a plethora of bullet marks on them, and there were smaller iron plates strapped to the fronts of his thighs and shins. All of it appeared worn but in the same vein appeared stubborn and sturdy, like it could survive being blasted by a frag mine. Appearance wise, he resembled the leader of the group that had been here. Yellowish green skin tone but its face was not set in a contorted, angry semblance.
As he moved along, his steps rattled the immediate walls, causing pebbles to roll off and bounce against the floor. Each felled super mutant that he found got an irritated breath, like he found them all pathetic as they lay there dead. When he slowly stepped into the confines of the final space in the cavern, however, his mouth opened into a sneer and his eyes narrowed, expressing a latent anger. These super mutants that had been here, all of them, had been devouring humans instead of bringing them back to their lair. What's worse, there was no sign of the commander, which led him to believe that he was out there, somewhere. "ALEEEEEC!" he yelled suddenly, causing the entire cavern to shudder in fear. "WHERE ARE YOUUUUUU?"
"Where are you . . . Aleeeeeec?" he asked, pacing along the Mojave outside the cavern. There were hills everywhere and he figured that if he went to the highest plateau, he'd eventually find who he was looking for. When he reached the apex of one of the hills however, by brute forcing his way up, he saw something else. A locale in the near distance, riddled with bullets. The safe house. "Hrrrrmmmmm . . . " he growled, breathing heavily as he did, and began sliding down the hillside. When he got there, he landed on the roof very heavily, nearly causing it to break before he hopped off and landed on the ground right in front of the door. He immediately stepped towards the door, which was half way closed, and slammed it open. The entire house shook when he did and as he looked around, he was disappointed to see that Alec was not here. There was, however, another dead super mutant on the ground. From the ones he had already counted, only Alec remained to be seen.
When he stepped inside, he began perusing the details of the location. There was lots of blood but he could tell some of it was older, so there had been two fights here. There were bullets lining the walls and there was one small spot near one of the windows with a small amount of blood staining the wooden floor. A human had likely died there. But otherwise, there was nothing of note.
SLAM
He whipped his body around towards the door and saw it had been closed by the wind. "Hmmrph," he growled, cocking his head back at the door in irritation before he started walking towards it. He turned the knob and whipped the door open, glancing at the ground ahead. He paused and stared, looking closely, and that was when he saw it. There was green dust out there, mixed with the dirt, spread throughout a small region. It dawned on him that he was looking at Alec's remains. "Hmph hmph hmph hmph . . . " he laughed slowly, "There you are." He approached and knelt down, reaching to the dust and grabbing some into his hand. When he raised it and let it sift through the spaces of his fingers, he saw the green traces shining when moonlight shimmered against it. "It seems you've already paid for your transgressions. Shame, I would have liked for them to have been charged by my hands." He stood straight and tossed the dust away, letting it glide into the wind before he turned back and walked into the safehouse again.
As he walked, he stepped on a super mutant and walked right over him, stopping once he was in front of the radio. When he picked it up, he messed with it. In Sandra's outpost, the radio came on and they heard something flickering. A doctor was walking by when it happened, and he stopped and picked up the radio. "Yes? Is anyone there?" The super mutant paused when he heard a human voice, and he grabbed the speaker, "Where are you currently residing, human?" The doctor on the radio suddenly became terrified, so much that he just . . . couldn't respond. Instead, he turned and yelled, "Sandra! Sandra!" Sandra arrived moments later, but after the mutant realized that he hadn't gotten a response, he figured that the human had cut the channel. Instead, he began sifting through the frequencies, looking for the one to his lair.
"This is General Farragut speaking. Do you read?" It took a couple of minutes but someone did eventually respond. A refined voice, just like his. "Yes, Carl, I read you loud and clear."
"Gerald!" Farragut responded happily. Gerald knew that it was artificial happiness that was meant to be readable.
"Yes. Do you have anything to report to me?"
"Why else would I be radioing in to my favorite comrade?" Farragut asked, with the same fake happy tone as before. Gerald sneered in response, growing increasingly irritated.
"I've found Alec and his team. They've all been wiped out, but that's okay." Gerald cut in, "Okay? I don't see why this would be a good thing, General." Farragut added, "If you would only let me finish, you would surely come to understand why I say this, Gerald." That same tone again. The fake courtesy that Farragut always used to make a fool out of him.
"They were devouring all the humans they captured. All the reports of there being no humans was a lie."
"Did you dispose of them?"
"No, Gerald, I wish I had had the pleasure but it seems I was beaten to the deed by someone else. Humans, I believe. Anyway, that ends my report. Thank you, Gerald, for your time."
When he turned off the channel he grabbed the frequency knob and spun it, leaving no traces he had been there at all.