Hello everyone. Hope you are all well and not insane. I might be. Just kidding! Or am I? My mental state aside, here is the next chapter, please review! Also, pm me if you have any OC's you would like me to put in or any NCPs + any information on them, thank you!
Chapter 7: Descent
Traveler lurches to his feet as gunfire erupts throughout the camp! Rushing out of his tent he is treated to the sight of fiends dropping down from the camp's massive wall. He doesn't stop to wonder how the managed to scale such a barrier, he just reacts to the danger. Hsu confiscated his weapons, but that has never stopped him before. With no regard for his own safety he charges the nearest fiend.
The raider junkie doesn't see him coming until it is too late! Traveler tackles the woman to the ground and snaps her neck. He grabs her weapon. It is a laser rifle in surprisingly good condition. He takes the fusion cells from the woman's gun belt and turns to face the rest of the attackers!
Many of the fiends have already made it past the first line of tents. The NCR soldiers will have to deal with them. In the meantime Traveler can give those soldiers a chance by holding off some of the other fiends. He slides into cover behind some sandbags and opens up with the laser rifle. Beams of light spray in both directions. These bastards are far to well equipped to be regular raiders!
He takes down three and disintegrates at least two before they realize where he is and turn their attention to him. A fiend with a tommygun puts down covering fire as two others charge Traveler's position. Traveler blind fires and hears at least one raider cry out in pain. The other leaps the sandbags and lunges at him with a rusty shiv. Traveler kicks the weapon out of the man's hand and blasts a hole through his chest! He then rolls to the side and targets the tommygun welding fiend with a volley of shots. The fiend goes down, his hand still gripping the trigger, and in the process wounds two other nearby fiends.
A fiend jumps onto Traveler's back and forces him to the ground. The bastard slams his head into the concrete ground! Disoriented, Traveler heaves and only just manages to throw the fiend. He reaches for his knife, only to find it missing. Damn it Hsu! Frantically Traveler looks for his rifle and spots it a few feet away, between him and the fiend!
The fiend spots the weapon at the same moment Traveler does and leaps for it. Traveler lunges forward, but the fiend gets there first and shoots. A burning sensation flares through his body but Traveler ignores it. He grabs the barrel of the gun and yanks it to the side before the fined can get off another round. The two grapple for control of the weapon. Traveler gives a hard jerk and at the same time headbutts the fiend. The fiend releases the weapon and stumbles back. Traveler slams the stock of the rifle into the fucker's head, knocking him to the ground. Traveler fires the rifles last round into the fiend, finishing him off. He tosses aside the useless weapon and looks for a replacement.
The sound of a rifle cracks nearby and a fiend drops dead next to Traveler. Instinct makes him look at the killer. An NCR veteran ranger is standing there with a smoking anti-material rifle. The ranger runs up and tosses him a riot control shotgun. "Make every round count!" The ranger shouts, his voice sounding strange through his helmets filtration device. "The camp is pushing them back but there are more coming from across the way! We need to halt their advance so the infantry can retake the camp walls!"
Traveler nods in understanding and follows the ranger to the steel doors of the camp. The doors go up and Traveler pumps a round into the chest of a raider standing just outside. The ranger reverses the controls for the doors and they close behind him and Traveler as they step outside. Once out Traveler sees how the raiders scaled the walls, with ladders. "How did the patrols not see them coming?"
The ranger works the bolt action of his rifle. "They were killed from long range." Traveler gives the man a wary look. "Laser weapons. Someone is supplying these people with laser weapons." Traveler looks across at the ladders and nods. He had already come to that conclusion. How else would two bit raiders have such good weaponry? "Where they got their weapons doesn't matter right now," the ranger shouts as he heads off, "what matters is us holding off the reinforcements."
Traveler runs to catch up with him. "How exactly are two people going to hold off a horde of raider fiends?"
The ranger points up the road to a bride. "They have to cross here, best place to attack from. It is a funneling point. Others might take a different path, but the camp will be able to deal with those. We don't have to defeat the group headed our way. We just need to hold them long enough for McCarran to get its artillery up and working again."
The ranger takes up position on the left side of the bridge and Traveler on the right. Behind them the fighting at McCarran can still be heard. Ahead of them the lights from the torches of the approaching horde is easily seen. Traveler checks the ammunition of his riot shotgun. "How many rounds do you have?" He shouts to the ranger.
The NCR veteran turns to look at him slowly. He dramatically holds up both hands, wiggling all ten of his fingers. It takes Traveler a second to understand. "You only have ten rounds!" The ranger nods. "I only have twelve!"
A strange sound comes from the ranger. After a few seconds the sound amplifies and Traveler realizes it is laughter. "I know, this is going to be so much fun!" Traveler turns away from the ranger and looks up at the sky. Above them are several crows, circling in preparation for the feast to come. One of them comes down and lands next to Traveler.
The bird tells him that the fiends coming there way are about to arrive. It also tells him that their leaders are the ones wearing the funny hats with cow skulls on them. Traveler relays the information to the ranger, "The raiders coming towards us are being lead by the ones in the tribal headgear. If we take them down then the rest may scatter."
"I don't care to know where you suddenly got that information." The ranger is looking through the scope of his rifle. "Somehow, I think you are right."
Across the bridge, the horde has arrived. The raiders are running full sprint towards them. They are hooting and shouting all manner of war cries. Some are even shooting rounds into the air. A slow smile spreads on Traveler's face. "We have twenty-two bullets between us, but they sure as hell don't know that." A maniacal laugh starts to bubble inside of him. Soon both he and the ranger are laughing loudly.
Luther, Luther, Luther. You thought You could escape from me? Me! No my friend. I am always here. Always just a word away...
Emptiness. A vast plane in every direction. No color. No changes. All flat. Nothing to distinguish the sky from the land. Light comes from all around. There are no shadows. Walk in any direction, turn to look back, and it is as if you haven't moved at all.
Darkness. A void. Nothing to see. Even the empty plane is preferable over this. You cannot see yourself. You cannot see at all. You cannot move. You cannot breath. Yet you live, suffocating for eternity. No land, no sky, nothing to hold you down. As if you are falling, but you cannot feel the fall. There is no gravity, nothing to hold you down. You can float off into the abyss, or you can fall.
If there is an afterlife, Luther prays it is nothing like this. He is aware of himself, but in two places. A vast featureless plane and an empty void. One part of him turns and speaks to the other, attempting to make contact. The one in the plane, it is calling out to the one in the void. In the darkness, the second stirs, wondering at the sound that pierces the bleakness around it. The plane is running now, desperately calling out to the void. The void is awake now, kicking and lashing out at the darkness that confines it, driven mad by its inability to reach the voice it hears.
The plane seems to be shrinking. Pulling further and further away. Despite being unable to see or feel, the void panics. It can sense that the plane is weakening. The void tries to scream, but it has no air in its lungs. The plane runs hard and fast, like an animal it chases after the void, but the void only seems to move further and further away the harder the plane tries. They both struggle, lashing out at the madness around them! No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Running, running, running! Keep running! Find the void! Bring it back. Rescue yourself!
You are mine, Luther.
NO!
Relatively short chapter here, I know, but sometimes you say all you want to in just a few words.