Blood from Vault 18

Stalker

Kieron stared at all the possibilities while the others packed everything that looked useful for the long rip they would have to do in the next morning. It was quite the risky bet they were taking but it was once that he was willing to make, he felt his body sweat with unease as the sun began to set on the horizon.

While not the best place, the cabin was a place that he would not have minded staying longer, it was safe and it was close to what once had been his home.

A soft hand was placed on his back and to his surprise Kira was the one that was behind him "Hey don't stress yourself that much, we can take whatever raider scum that comes our way. The first of many, will kill them all and save our tribe" she said with a small grin. Kieron really wished he could feel the same confidence that the purple haired girl had.

"Maybe but we still need to be cautious Kira… I don't want to get you hurt because I didn't plan ahead" he muttered completely missing the way the cheeks on the girl colored slightly "You planning ahead? That's not the jock I know"

Kieron chuckled a bit "Eh what can I say, I feel a bit different out here" a bit more on edge he wanted to say but he would save that little bit of information for himself, if he was being completely honest, he was on the verge of breaking but he did not want to let anyone else down.

So he pushed on like he felt he should, as if programmed to be like the heroes he had read to his sister before her bedtime "Do you think we got everything we need? We'll be making a long trip Kira" the girl shrugged "Food we might have to scrap by and raid almost every building we find but according to Jaime we have bullets and ammo to fight a battalion, you trust her right"

"Yeah, we have been friends all my life. I trust her judgment so if that's the case… then we should rest for the rest of the day" Kieron concluded as he let his shoulders hang a bit, his mind tired and foggy. He nodded at Kira as he headed to bed but before he could sit down he felt compelled to exit the house and enter the cellar one last time just in case he missed something, the dried up blood painted quite the picture and the boxes all seemed to be empty but he did notice how the blood made a pattern. Now that they had emptied all of the useful things they had revealed a bloody handprint that was leading to a peculiar looking rock.

"What do we have here?"

Pushing the rock he was surprised with how easy it was to move, he gently pushed it to the side and he found a hole in the side of the wall with a peculiar looking sack. Kieron pulled it gently wondering what was inside, he opened the bag and found some discs that he did not recognize at first until he inspected them closer.

"A mine? Why would the people here have this things lying around?" he wondered to himself as he placed one of them in his hand to feel their weight, this was not something he had in mind. Should he take them on the trip?

Or maybe just leave them here?

He briefly remembered what Ben… or Kurtz as he like to be called now said on the first day. Make a perimeter and secure the area round their small little base of operations, Kieron nodded to himself as he numbly set out to plant the mines around the area, most of his friends seemed to be already retreating into their respective sleeping places, he could not blame them for wanting to rest, after all they had a long journey to start tomorrow with no destination planned.

So he set out to the barely lit forest and looked around to see were the best spot to plant mines would be, his first thought would be the road leading up to the cabin but the again someone might decide to take a stroll at night and he would have the blood of his friends on his hands. So he put one behind the house and the rest on a small clearing to the side, Kieron let out a long sigh as he felt his body move on autopilot out of pure instinct that he didn't know he had, the young vault kid let out a long sigh as he headed to the small bed that he had gotten for himself in what looked like the closet of the house.

His body did not feel tired, but his head felt heavy, and his eyes stung. The cold sheet and pillow helped little to relieve the headache that he was experiencing but little by little his body finally let go and he began to dream.

Darkness without form surrounded him, as far as his eyes could see there was nothing. Kieron tried to speak, yell, kick and scream but nothing he did could disturb the abyss. He felt a flash of light surround him as he began to walk towards a dimly lit light in the distance "The Unity… PROOF… All my work…"

"What… are you?" Kieron wondered as he tried to stop walking, but his body refused to obey him, a grotesque monster greeted him as a melted face simply looked at him with an unreadable expression "Go… go while you still have h…"-"Kieron!"

The boy jolted awake as an explosion rocked him awake from his nightmare "What..." Kurtz pushed him to the floor as he looked outside with a worried look on his face "We ran out of time, the raiders found us. I spotted the leader near the clearing, they have a missile launcher"

Kieron felt cold sweat form on his brow as he crawled to another position "… they want to kill us then"

To his surprise Kurtz shook his head "They shot near the house, they want us alive" Kieron heard someone yell at them but he could not make sense of what they were saying, Kieron turned to look at the others and then back to Kurt "Can you leave without being noticed?"
Eric shuffled towards them "Yeah, the bricks on the chimney are loose and we could escape, but they will notice the noise" Kieron stood up "Not if they are distracted… I will go talk to them" Jenn almost tackled him to the ground as she looked at him with concerned eyes "Are you insane?! They will kill you!"

"Vault Dweller! I know you are there! I can hear you!"

Kieron shook his head "Doesn't look like we have any other choice… I will be fine, just wait for my signal" Kira placed a hand on his shoulder "We got this, we can make them talk about our tribe" walking with a confidence he did not feel Kieron opened the door and watched as a group of six looked up at him with apathy "There you are, you really are a pain in the ass to track down, do you know that?"

"Who are you?"-"Don't matter who I am vault boy, what matters is that you get the fuck down here and come with us. You have a pretty big bounty on your head, me and the boys are looking to cash that sweet reward"

Kieron spotted the mines he had planted just a couple of hours ago near the raiders, so close… they had been so close. "If you do not move I will blow your legs off, boss didn't say anything about bringing you alive" the raider said as he snapped his fingers and a guy with a missile launcher pointed the weapon at him.

Out of the corner of his eye he heard the others moving the bricks to get out of the house, so he decided to roll the dice with fate "No need, I'm moving… I'm moving" Kieron slid down the slope grabbing a rock along the way. Walking up to them he forced his body not to tremble in fear. This people looked down at his hand with a small smirk "That rock won't do much boy, but if it helps ya… go ahead throw it, we will make you wish you were never born but go ahead" The leader stepped forward and slapped Kieron

"Throw it"

Kieron let out a long sigh "I'm not stupid" he tossed it to the side "Good boy, now…" BOOM an explosion shook the mountain as the rock triggered a chain reaction that detonated the landmines, gore and guts flew into the air as Kieron was flung back against the rocks gasping for air as he felt something inside him break.

"What the fuck!" Kieron looked up in fear as he recognized the voice of the leader of the raiders stumbling up, he looked around as if confused before he screamed. Kieron almost threw up at the sight of him, the skin on his face and almost all of his torso seemed to be burnt and he could spot pieces of bone and rock that had sunk into his flesh.

With his one good eye the raider glared at him as he tried to reach for his gun making Kieron snap out of his surprise and tackle him, the raider did his best to push him off as he tried to use his knees to do something "BOYS GET HIM OFF…" Kieron slammed a rock against his temple, the already burnt and torn flesh did not give any resistance as Kieron slammed it over and over until the raider finally stopped moving. Tossing the rock to the side Kieron stumbled back as he felt his hands tremble. A shot rang out, a bullet pierced the leg of the young vault dweller, screaming Kieron fell to the ground as one of the surviving raiders aimed his varmint rifle at him "Don't you dare move you… WHAT THE FUUUUCK?!"

Kieron wished things weren't happening so fast, it was one thing after another. All of them in quick succession, his brain could barely register what was going on but he knew one thing, what was happening right now was real. The raider that attacked was floating, he seemed to be struggling against something in the air but Kieron could not tell what the hell was happening.

The raider screamed for help as he tried desperately to go back down to the ground but a low growl made both of them freeze in fear "Pathetic human" Kieron screamed as the raider's arm was separated from the body, then the other arm followed and then the leg. As the blood erupted from the screaming raider the blood fell upon the creature making a faint blue light flicker and Kieron could see the silhouette of a monster. Forcing his body to stand up the boy ran terrified the rest of his fellow group of survivors finally arrived as they stared at him in surprise "Kieron we tried to get here but there was a raider in the back..."-"RUN!" the boy screamed as he pushed Kurtz and the other towards Pinehaven.

"GO GO MOVE IT!"-"Kieron what the hell is going on…" the corpse of the raider was thrown towards them as the others got the message and darted down the mountain, Kieron was dead last as his leg kept him from going faster. His heart was beating so fast he could have sworn it was going to explode.

He could hear it breathing, the footsteps.

That thing wasn't running after them, it was playing with them.

A/N: Ten points to the one who can guess what the monster is, thank you for reading!