Grabbing her rifle, Alexei charged into combat, providing Jess with adequate support while she ran behind their make-shift barricade. It quickly became absolute chaos. As Jess took a much needed breather, Alexei and Mullins both fought with equal viciousness and tenacity all in order to protect their sister-in-steel.
The ghouls were relentless in their assault, the horde kept growing and growing and spilling from the town far enough out in the distance. The guttural growls and half melted corpses of the irradiated horde was both terrifying and deafening.
"What the hell did you stir up Reddington!?" Alexei shouted into her radio. She turned to look at Jess who was still sitting, leaning against the barricade. Her hand was up on her chest, over her heart. She seemed to trying to calm herself.
"Knight? What.. Did.. You.. Do?" She asked again, as she brought the butt of her rifle down on the head of a nearby ghoul. It exploded on impact as the irradiated masses were only held together by withered skin. Wiping her helmet visor with her sleeve, Alexei then ordered Mullins to cover them as she went to check on Jess. Getting only a grunt as a reply, she quickly ran over to Jess, picking her up and standing her on her feet.
"Soldier! We need you! We are drastically outnumbered and we seem to be down a man. Can you please pull yourself together and take this shotgun and shoot the enemy! We did not come this far to avenge our brothers just to die here!" Alexei said. After some time, Jess sheepishly took the shotgun out of Alexei's hands. It seemed foreign for a second or two, but then her inner soldier came out and she was back in action
Upon deciding that Jess would be ok for the time being, Alexei took her own rifle off her back and begun to tear apart the crowd. After some time the horde finally started to diminish gradually. Then Alexei heard the first bit of good news that she had heard in a few hours. While the signal was still rather broken up, Alexei began to hear the familiar voice of Lancer-Sergeant Newark, coming in from her pip-boy.
"...Icarus...20 minutes...over and out" was all that Alexei could make out, but hearing that safety was close, she felt re-energised, but that could also be the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Opening the comm channel, she informed her team.
"Right Icarus, 'birds out about 20 minutes. We have to hold the line until then. Don't worry, We'll be going home today. For the Brotherhood!
As the three continued fighting, things began to look up. With the prospect of going home so close, the adrenaline was pumping and they were like a well oiled killing machine. Their collective body count rising. But like all good things, it must all come to an end, and that feeling was re-enforced when suddenly the ground gave a slight tremor. The tremor gradually gained fervour and soon Alexei, Mullins and Jess had to hold onto something to keep themselves on their feet. Fortunately, the tremors also kept the horde from advancing. The shake continued for a few minutes and then all of a sudden it stopped. Surprised, Alexei looked around at her teammates. They picked up their weapons and aimed out at the scrambling horde. But before they could get a shot off however, radscorpions erupted from the ground, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Suddenly, things got a whole lot worse.
It was absolute chaos. The scorpions turned against the horde and were demolishing them. The horde that was advancing on the barricade, stopped to go and help their irradiated brethren, only to be rewarded with stingers going through their faces or giant claws, sawing them in half. While they kept each-other occupied, Alexei moved her team back, further into the airplane graveyard. Climbing up onto an old destroyed airliner, Alexei checked the signal again. It was stronger this time and Alexei could understand more of the signal.
"Light flare... should see... approximately 5 minutes.."
"Knight Reddington! Grab the flare gun and let it fly!" Alexei ordered. Somewhere in all the fighting, she had slipped into her terrifying Sentinel persona. Jess followed her orders dutifully, and soon a sharp red hue attempted to break through the murky green. Suddenly, the noise that had moved into the background, began to get louder. The sounds of scorpions, scrambling over old wrecks and the sound of their pincers was like a symphony of expected death. Swapping out her bolt-action for an assault rifle, she reloaded and gave some ammo to both Jess and Mullins.
"Remember, we're almost home free. Our rides only five minutes out. We have to stand until then. We have to get back to the others and warn them. Ad Victorium Icarus!"
For the following five minutes, the only thing keeping them alive was their self-preservation instincts and the fact that they were a team, they were watching each-others backs. Sounds of bugs screaching in pain filled the air. Suddenly Jess dropped. Mullins, ran up and shoved his weapon through the cranium of the scorpion nearest to her and fired, splattering what little brains the creature had, all over the floor. Carrying Jess bridal style, he brought her back behind cover as he went and continued the assault alongside their commander. As they got increasingly tired, as they were about to give up, a light punched through the murky green and told them all to hit the deck. The sound of a mini-gun rotating alerted Icarus to the presence of Newark. Bullet fire erupted, peppering everything with lead. The scorpions seemed to back off then, deciding a ghoul feast is more interesting then trying to go up against a fully automatic machine gun. Newark landed and while Mullins carried Jess aboard, again bridal style , Alexei grabbed their gear and after she hopped aboard, the Vertibird departed.
The wind rushed through the rear of the aircraft and Jess, lying along the rear seats began to shiver violently. As Alexei slid the doors shut, Mullins grabbed his combat knife and cut open the fabric of Jess' combat fatigues. Underneath the fabric, they saw what had taken the stubborn soldier down. While the initial wound couldn't have been bigger than a stab wound, her lower calf had swollen and turned blue and black. There was blood around the wound, but not enough to warrant it priority over the obvious poisoning.
"Newark! Any supplies aboard? We have a scorpion poisoning!" Alexei asked, putting the back of her hand to Jess' pale forehead.
"Sure, check the cabinet on the wall. Should have some anti-venom in there. Should do the trick." The lancer replied. Sure enough, Alexei managed to find the medicine along with some spirits and some gauze. She handed the anti-venom to Mullins, while she prepared a field bandage.
"Sorry Jess, but this will probably hurt like a bitch!" Mullins said as he plunged the needle deep into the grievous wound. Jess howled in pain and soon went limp. She had fainted due to shock. Mullins watched as the medicine seemed to work instantly, the immense swelling and the colouration almost gone already. Alexei cleaned the wound using the spirits and one piece of gauze and then made a bandage using the rest of the medicinal fabric.
As Alexei took her seat again, alongside the Lancer-Sergeant, Mullins sat on the floor of the aircraft and leaned against the seats. He soon succumbed to some much needed rest. Alexei stared out onto the remains of the USA underneath them, soon she too started to feel tired. Asking the lancer to wake her when their closer to their destination, she too succumbed to a sound slumber.