"Ah, Miss, it would appear I have the honor of enjoying your company during this soiree," his voice had sounded inviting. Kind, even. But I was filled with a certain sense of avoidance; as if he truly didn't want me there with him. He was hard to read as he wore that queer smile. He always had it on. A kind smile – a gentle smile – but a smile that never reached his eyes.
I nodded back to him, but he turned away. I followed suit and saw the mess of a front yard; blown out fence, concrete barriers lining the way, and piles of dirt stacked beside rough looking craters. Before all of those were the remnants of a dark, paved road.
Anton moved at a brisk pace without any inhibition, as if he were a ghost out for a stroll. Once he had set his focus toward actually moving, I had found myself slowly falling a few paces behind and that distance only grew as time passed. Despite the rough terrain, it really seemed as if Anton were walking along a flat plane without any sort of obstructions; meanwhile I had to occasionally glance down just to keep myself from tripping.
I could only watch as his back drifted farther and further ahead; eventually my eyes settled on the .32 revolver in his hand, almost as if I were entranced. I watched as it swung about without any sort of rhyme or reason, as if he were a kid in a store and had to point at everything that caught his muse.
My vision naturally shifted down toward my own gun, I hadn't meant to do so, but there was a subtle allure. A magnetic pull that captivated me and prevented me from glancing away. However, a pit had formed in my stomach and a feeling of unease crawled through my bones. I found myself clutching my hunting rifle tight, squeezing it close as I tried to ride through the discomfort.
It was only then that I noticed the soft crunch of rocks shifting beneath my boots with every step. Every second brought me closer to the super mutants, yet farther from my speedy companion. I could feel a thumping in my chest as my heart pounded with a fury, each beat echoing within my head. My knuckles drained of color as I clenched my rifle, letting it rub against my armored chest, as it was all I could think to do to quell the rising feelings from deep within.
I started to pace my breathing to the beat of my steps, toward the clacks of rocks tapping and hugging one another, and toward the ever-gentling rise and fall of my chest.
It wasn't until I spotted Anton crouching and passing through a broken segment of fencing that I was finally able to gather my wits and allowed myself to observe my surroundings once more. Having been slower, I only just arrived at the base of the trail – if it could be called that – leading down the way, the high chain-link fence which ran the perimeter of the dugout front yard, and touched the front face of the compound; the metal having been long exposed to the elements had since rusted, many of the segments were outright missing, collapsed, or broken in some way, leaving only a trace of what had once been.
What looked like broken and weathered monsters of metal, once known as machinery, had been spread about; some were being used to prop up scrap metal walls, others were just lying out in the open without purpose, while others were used for... less than clean activities or design.
Despite the lack of cover, Anton hadn't been spotted after he passed through. I crouched and followed after, yet, just like Anton, I wasn't spotted. The security was far too lax. I shuffled my way ahead, finding cover behind one of the makeshift metal walls; I did my best to not touch the gleaming sheets, painted with rust and what might have been blood. One could have said these walls were of shoddy workmanship, but that might be more praise than they were worth.
Carefully peaking around, I barely made out the shapes of three super mutants standing around in what almost constituted a circle. They were chatting with one another, but the speech was far too broken for me to glean anything. So I shifted my attention back to Anton beside me—
And discovered that he had continued on ahead during the twelve or so seconds my focus had been on the mutants. He half-ran, half-slid (at least that's what it looked like) alongside a low wall, then ducking around a bend. He was making his way toward a hole in the side of the structure, which stood tall and proud over the yard – the factory. It was mesmerizing to see his movements, there was never any hesitation or doubt as he crossed much of the distance within a short span of time.
I motioned and waved toward him, trying to get his attention – yet he didn't cast so much as a glance back. The way he moved so effortlessly, the way he slithered with such purpose; this hadn't been the Anton I'd seen until now. It's almost as if he were an entirely different person. There were several instances where it'd seem like he'd get spotted, but as if he had a supernatural sense, he'd slip under the noses of the super mutants.
Before I could properly make heads or tails of my observations or collect myself after the majesty and awe at having seen such clean movements, he was gone. Disappeared within the factory through a hole in the brick and metal reinforced structure, a spot that looked as if an explosion had gone off.
It wasn't until he had vanished that I realized just how distracted I had been, during that entire time – only a minute as it may have been – I only watched. I could have started after him. I could have found some other way around. I could have done something, anything. But I didn't. I just stayed put and watched.
What's wrong with me?
I for one knew that I couldn't move like a ghost – my body was tied to flesh and blood. I couldn't move like a serpent, either. Just what would I have to go through to move like him?
"Huh, what's that?" A deep voice – guttural, even – called out from behind. I felt my hair stand on end and a shiver run down my spine. "Uh–"
I didn't need to turn around to understand the development nor what action I had to take. Turning my head, I hopped right into V.A.T.S. and watched as perceived time froze before me, which allowed me to take in my surroundings; only one super mutant was looking toward me, the metal covering being the only reason he couldn't fully make out my figure but I was definitely spotted. This was one of the three mutants that had been talking, clearly broken off from the other two, who were seemingly still talking just a short distance away.
When did they get so close?
I queued up the two remaining shots in my hunting rifle, targeting the mutant's head; each with a fifty-six percent chance to hit. Just like that, I watched as the first bullet screamed out the barrel and smashed right into the mutant's skull, digging deep; it reached to grasp at the pain in slow motion, a deep groan filled the air. The second shot quickly followed, yet whizzed right past and found a home in a large metal monster.
A grunt filled with anguish echoed to life as the mutant's palm pressed against the wound, quickly getting dyed in blood. If it hadn't been fully aware of me before that then it'd certainly be after. It was seeing blood – both figuratively and literally – as it roared out with a mighty bellow, "Rraaagh!" The other mutants were alerted to my presence, just like that.
My body jumped into action, without me having to give it a single thought as it worked to reload the gun; my attention, meanwhile, had been squared entirely on the super mutants around me and looking for a means to get distance and cover. With a single step, I bounced forth and raced in the opposite direction of the super mutant. A ping of bullet striking metal rang out nearby, furious sounding shouts of unintelligible dialect followed, and more gunfire started to ring out.
Just before I could duck behind another wall a bullet pierced my leg and I crashed to the ground. I gasped for air, not noticing that my hunting rifle had flown from my hands; rather, the pain had been too much a distraction that my entire body trembled and shook as I reached for a stimpack. I jabbed the needle near the wound and injected the contents without hesitation, and a wave of numbness squashed the pain as a sense of relief washed through my being.
It was as I heard the heavy, near thunderous footfalls of the massive super mutants coming closer that I had realized my gun was no longer in my hands. Scrambling forth, I grabbed my gun just as something began to pepper the other side of the wall, bullets hammered at metal as the familiar sound of an assault rifle roared with life, and splotches of dirt shot up as bullets penetrated the cover.
The rifle fire suddenly ended as several mutants got into what had sounded like a heated argument, but before I could rejoice the lack of gunfire a set of heavy footsteps moved ever closer. A super mutant, ever-so-slightly larger than the other mutants, peered behind my cover. One giant foot landed near my feet as he stepped before me; he loomed above in a delicate state of menace and calm, like a dew drop clinging to the edge of a leaf. He stared down at me, some grim emotion in his eyes, his knuckles tightened around some thick metal bar.
The weapon, improvised as it might have been, was a squared metal beam with holes dotted along the length, and a flat disk at the end, painted on one side. The mutant glared down at me, as if having sized me up, lifted up his large weapon, and dropped it like a hammer striking at an anvil.
A quick push is all it took to send me rolling to my left, just in time for the weapon to strike at a rock and a shattered cracking noise immediately followed. I rolled until I was staring back toward the sky, and scrambled to point my hunting rifle toward the mutant; the large body of the mutant, ripe with muscle, was both a blessing and a curse for the thing.
The barrel pointed toward the mutant, I pulled the trigger once, readied the next shot as quickly as possible and fired again. Both shots found themselves biting into its flesh, but that seemed to only rile the bar-wielding super mutant up. It lifted one of his powerful, trunk-like legs up and brought it down toward my leg, I barely shifted in time as it crunched and shook the ground. Using the shifting momentum, it swiped with the bar.
Without a second to spare, I instinctively brought my rifle to intercept. The first thing I heard was metal breaking against metal, then a lurch and queasy feeling. Next thing I knew I saw the world spin until my back slammed against a hard surface and my breath escaped from my chest in a hard puff. My head pounded and my body ached, but I could tell that my chestplate had protected me from the worst of it; if only it could have helped my hands, which radiated with a stinging pain that somehow got worse with each pulse of my heart.
I quickly aimed my hunting rifle toward the mutant, both halves mostly aligned, then the realization dawned on me. I could only drop the front barrel and tried to pull the trigger, only for nothing to happen. Doing the only thing I could think to do I tossed the broken weapon at the mutant.
It passed harmlessly over the shoulder of the creature, who in turn didn't even bat an eye; instead, the mutant took on a gleeful grin as it started closer. Before he could even get close, a pop-whiz of another hunting rifle filled the air. The bullet impacted before me, just short of my hip. A ways behind the bar-wielding mutant, I could spot a rifle-toting mutant readying another shot. Impatient, the bar mutant raised his weapon high and brought it back down, much like a one-trick pony.
Not much better than it, I rolled to the side once more; this time feeling as my body writhed with each motion. As dexterously as I could manage, I pushed myself to my feet, and booked it for the first piece of cover I could see. My feet skid across the rocks as I slipped behind a gooey pile of red mass. I was too out of it to notice the limbs sticking out.
I dropped low and slid my knife from my boot to prepare for the bar-wielding mutant. However, before my half-baked plan could come to fruition, a rapid burst of fire rang out from behind. I didn't have a chance to tell what was going on before something bit into my shoulder and thigh.
I clutched my knife as my feet carried me, then the next thing I remember I'm standing just on the other side of the hole. With my head beating loud against my skull with every thundering heartbeat, I couldn't think straight.
I felt the cold, weighted knife in my hand and tossed it through the hole, just hoping that a super mutant was there to taste the blade.
Except.
It wasn't a knife...
-Transmission Copied and Corrupted-
Author's Note:
Hello all. I've been away for a bit and that wasn't intentional. Around the time of the last chapter, where I expressed my hopes to increase the release rate of chapters, I was being far, far too optimistic. I had some stuff going on and I thought it'd improve afterwards, instead I faced a heavy decline in health. I'm not one hundred percent yet, but I can start doing things and I plan to try and get back on top of my writing. I've already got some work done on the next chapter, but I'll have to look through it to see how much I'm willing to keep and how much needs to be reworked. Anyways, life happening to me aside. I'll see you all in the next chapter, which I'm hoping to get done within a couple weeks.