Fallout - Ruins of D.C.

... and at the same time a solid steel door slammed down over the hole Garge had made. They were trapped.

"What the .. ?"exclaimed Bob.
"Someone was expecting us." said Shef.

A loud, low, rumbling voice sounded from everywhere at once, "NOW YOU ARE MINE!"

Bob looked at Falks. "Hello?" he called.

"I GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!" the voice rumbled, and armed mutants began to swarm around the opening door. The company dived for cover and began shooting.

"Bring it on, BI-ATCH!" said Bob. The firefight continued...

Shef grabbed a frag grenade in each hand, pulled the pins simultaneously with his teeth. He held them for 5 seconds and then chucked them both while remaining in cover toward the far side of the room, hoping to find his mark.

5 seconds later the combined explosives rocked the room amid the grunts and cries of the injured mutants. Dust from the catwalk also began to rain down on everything in the room. As Helix, Bob and Shef spat out dust Shef shrugged and said "Sorry guys". The three turned their attention back to the problem on the other end of the room.

Henry was halfway across the room when the first of the mutants came through the door, he mentally kicked himself for being so foolish and began to back peddle toward the overturned table Bob and Shef had ducked behind.

Slowly he moved back shooting the oncoming muties in an attempt to slow them down when a grenade sailed over each shoulder. An observant watcher would have seen for a second or two, they'd have seen, Henry lose his cool. He back peddled faster. He went backwards over the upturned table and landed on his head his legs continued over and he ended up in a ball.

When the world stopped spinning he glared at Shef who shrugged.

Henry peeked over the table 3 of the mutants were down and two were stunned a fifth mutie was entering the room, Henry Holstered his assault rifle and drew his Enfield after sighting down the barrel he shot and a mutants head exploded in a shower of gore, Shef jumped up over the table and scrabbled toward another table and upended it and hunkered down as a hail of bullets flew toward him

The flow of mutants seemed to be never ending. Every time Falks, Shef or Bob killed one another stepped up to take it's place. Bob could hear the rest of the group pounding on the steel door, stuck on the outside and unable to help. Falks threw a well placed grenade that landed in the doorway which the inexhaustible supply of mutants were coming through. It exploded and, though they could still hear noises, the flow of mutants stopped.

"Jesus!" exclaimed Bob. "You two ok? How're you doing for ammunition?"
"I'm good." answered Falks. "Ammo's ok for the moment. Shef?"
"Ok over here." came Shefs call from behind his table.
"I'm not." said Bob. "My shotgun's dry and I got half a clip left in this." He waved his combine. "Only two grenades, too." Falks looked like he was going to answer but Shef called.
"HEADS UP!"

The mutants had regrouped and started to amble into the room. Falks looked and then said
"Guns. They haven't got any guns." He popped off a couple of rounds and looked at Bob. "See if you can get the door open, we'll cover you."
Bob ran to the door, checked the edges of the frame looking for a lock or a switch, something to get the door open. He had just spotted a lose brick next to the frame and was considering knocking it looser when he felt something on his ankle. He looked down and saw the top half of a mutant, with one hand on his left ankle and another grabbing for his right knee. He looked around wildly but both Shef and Falks had their attention on the other door which was spewing mutants. As he looked back he spotted a suit of armour set into an alcove by the door. It held a sword.

By this time the mutant had both of his knees and was reaching for his crotch, but Bob couldn't quite reach the sword. He felt the clawed, dessicated hand grab onto the crotch of his trousers and, with strength and agility born of desperation, he reached and grabbed the sword. He swung the heavy weapon across and cut off the mutants left arm and then buried the sword in the mutants head. It went limp and collapsed to the floor.

Bob forgot about the door he was trying to open and walked towards the oncoming mutants, sword raised and ready to fight. He had cut down five enemies when Shef called,
"Any chance of you opening the bloody door?" Bob looked a bit sheepish.
"Yea, sorry."

****************************************************************************

On the other side of the door an argument was taking place.
"You can't just blow the door off!" said Zuki, "You could kill them!"
"They sound like they're being killed already." said Carrot-Top. "Why can't the robot force it like it did before?"
"I have nothing to start with." said Garge. "The other door had a seal to work with. This is a solid steel plate."
"We need to do something!" said Zuki again. "We need to get in there..." She broke of as clunking noises came from the door. After a minute or so, the door swung open.

"Fancy some hand to hand with some mutants?" asked Bob with a vicious grin. Hefting his sword, he turned around and threw himself into the fray.

Shef heard the door open behind him and several people run into the room. Mutants continued to pour into the room through the door at the opposite end. 'Where are they all coming from' thought Shef to himself and he continued to unload his shotgun at the raging mutants.

With the added help, the humans gained some ground and tentatively held half the room now. The mutants had broken a door size hole in the wall and now were entering 2 and 3 at a time.

Shef saw something fly through the air out of the corner of his eye as he shot a mutant in the head. The mutants stopped where they were and some even took a step back. Suddenly Falks shouted "DOWN. EVERYBODY GET DOWN".

Shef dove behind some crates and covered his head, but nothing happened. He turned back to look in the middle of the room was what looked like a mini nuke. Falks, Bob and Shef stood staring at the bomb for a minute before Shef said "Huh! Looks like it's probably a dud"

Both Falks and Bob stared at Shef and Bob said "Ya think...maybe" "GET THEM" yelled a mutant looking through the hole in the wall.

"Back to work," said Falks as he drew began firing toward the mutant "Garge, pick this nuke up and get it out of here"

Shef pulled out two more frag grenades saying "Let's try to make another hole" as he pulled the pins and tossed the explosives through the doorway...

The grenades rocked the room again and the Mutants stopped coming, Falks moved out and over to the mini-Nuke Garge was about to pick up and stopped him.

He then tentatively reached down and gently picked up the explosive projectile, carefully he turned the top and it popped off everyone's Geiger counters ticked and some cautious people took some radaway and swallowed some Rad-X, Henry looked inside, he frowned and pulled out a small bent bit of metal.

"The primer switch is gone" he said
"Guys there are more of them coming" said Bob from the other end of the room

Falks handed Garge the bomb and told him to hold it still while he fashioned a new primer out of spare bits and bobs then added them to the device he screwed the top back on grabbed it and ran up next to bob, Falks studied the corridor it had a long ramp leading down to a cave entrance.

"Bob get ready to shoot the nuke" he said as he stepped fully into the hall, he wound up then hurled the bomb toward the Mutants "now"

The Gun shot is all he heard as he dived toward Bob knocking him into the room they had been in as the shock wave had knocked him out cold.

Bob knew only darkness. Stillness. Calm. His unconscious mind reveled in the silence, it had been so long since things had been this way. Not since he stayed in the Vault had he known such peace. But the Vault had ended up with it's own problems which Bob had only just escaped with his life. His wife and daughter had not been so fortunate. As if jolted by the unhappy memories his mind began the journey back to consciousness.

Sounds returned first. The sounds of dust settling, the occasional clatter of rubble dropping to the floor. He could hear breathing. His own at first, but he soon heard others. A cough.

He realized he was laying face down, with a weight across his legs. He pushed himself up and with a bit of a strain moved the rubble from his legs. Standing up, he checked himself over. A few cuts, some pains that would turn into bruises but he was ok.

He looked around, Henry was pulling himself out of the rubble, basically ok. Shef had sat up and was reloading his gun.

Zuki was looking at the still form of Carrot-Top. Bob moved over to her and looked at the still body which had been brained by a huge piece of falling masonry.

"Jeez. Sorry Zuke." he said. She rounded on Bob.
"You're SORRY! He's DEAD! And it's your fault!" she shouted. "You shot that nuke and it nearly brought the BUILDING DOWN ON ALL OF US! And now my partners DEAD!" She stopped for a moment and her legs sagged beneath her. "You bastards. Both of you. Convinced us to come here with you and then you behave like lunatics."
"There are no more zombies." Bob pointed out. "It was our only option."
Zuki opened her mouth to reply but Falks spoke first.

"We need to get out of here." he said. He indicated a street level hole that had been created in the explosion. "That way."

Henry climbed out of the hole into the crisp night air, This had been a side adventure that cost them more than they had gained.

Henry helped the others out of the hole while he was helping Shef up Bob said "look at this" they all turned to see a large crate half covered in dirt sticking out of the crater they had made only moments ago.

They gathered around it "anyone know how to open that?" said Zuki.

Shef brushed some dirt off his shirt, pants and hands as he approached the crate. He brushed some dirt off the crate and the lock. After a few seconds said, "I think I have something."

He fished a very worn lockpick kit from his pocket and set to work on the old and rusty padlock. "Dammit!" shouted Shef as he broke one of his picks. Grabbing another pick he set to work on the lock. "You sure you got a handle on that" quipped Bob. Shef grunted back at him. Shef felt the tumblers inside the lock fall into place, but the hasp was so rusted over that the lock would not release. Shef put his picks away and stood up.

"Gonna have to use my universal lock breaker." he said as he leveled his shot gun at the lock. "STOP! You crazy bastard; we don't know what is inside that crate. You could kill all of us." Henry shouted. With a heavy sigh Shef moved to a position right above the lock, pointing the shotgun down towards the lock, but most of the shot would miss the crate. "Is this better?" he asked Henry.

Henry smiled and said "Not until the rest of us take some cover." 20 seconds later, Sheffield pulled the trigger on his shotgun and blew the lock off the crate. "Okay, I unlocked it. One of you guys get out here and open it!" Shef yelled as he took several steps away from the crate.

Bob and Falks approached the box with a small degree of trepidation. Even though the lock was gone, there could still be booby traps, either explosive, poison gas or destroy the box contents if not opened correctly.

Bob knelt in front of the box, felt carefully around the edges of the lid, examined all four sides and found nothing. He lay on his back and with one hand tipped the box back slightly to check to base and still found nothing.

"As far as I can see, it's fine. Safe. Safe for Falks to open." he said. Falks looked at him.
"Why me?"
"Shef unlocked it. I examined it. You get to open it."
"Cheers."

Falks stepped up to the box and grabbed the lid...

Falks turned the latched and the lid swung open slowly on two hydrophilic arms.

Henry's face lit up in a smile as soon as he saw what was in it.

"10 Grenades, a tone of 45 ammo and these" he said picking up two M1911s "These are the longest serving hand guns in the world, I love this gun" he said trying to contain his excitement.

"Who wants one?" he said stashing the other in his holster after removing his warn out 10mm Pistol "hmm what's this" He took out a small metal box and looked it over "Its heavy"

"Damn it has a combination lock on it, I hate combo locks, ah well we'll get back to the others before we try to open it, best not to stay here longer than we have too"

Henry divided the grenades out to every one "who ever doesn't take the 1911 gets an extra grenade, you can't divide 10 by 4 so that's the fairest way to go."

Henry took half the 45 ammo and left the other half for whoever wanted the gun. Zuki looked at her own 10mm then grabbed an extra grenade.

"I will take your 10 mill too Falks it will come in handy for parts" she said
"Ok not a problem you can have my 10 mill ammo too"

Zuki nodded then started back toward her people stopping a little way up and waiting for the others.

"I'll have the other gun." said Stryder after a momentary pause. Henry handed him the gun a few boxes of ammunition. Bob stowed it in his pack.
"Let's get back to the rest of the group." said Henry starting to move around the building towards the front door. They got to the group and began to make their way back to the metro station, keeping their eyes open for enemies.

The group made it back to the station without incident.
"Amazing," said Henry, "we made it somewhere without Bob attracting attention and getting one of us killed."
"I've got something in my pocket for you, Henry." replied Bob, fishing around in his trouser pocket. When he withdrew his hand it was his fist with a raised middle finger.

The rest of Zuki's people were camped just inside the entrance to the metro station. There were about forty extra people.
"Hmmm." said Bob. "Plenty of red shirts here." Henry sniggered.
"Right people, pack up 'cos we're moving out." shouted Zuki.
"Where're we going?" asked one of the uglier red shirts.
"The Mall, people. The Mall..."

Shef tagged along with his new friends. They made it without incident to the metro station. Shef stared with amazement at the sheer size of the company. There must have been nearly 50 people he thought to himself. Of course, he had been alone for six months, so any amount of fellow humans would have felt like a legion.

He heard somebody yell that they were moving out; followed by the fact they would be heading toward the mall. Shef looked around quickly and found Henry. He hurried over to fall into step with Henry and said "So, you're still gonna take me with you right? Cause I really need to get back to some sort of civilization"

Henry looked at Shef as they walked down the corridor then stopped and turned to face him,

"Shef we are headed to the Mall I don't know what is there but from what I hear its a war zone, a meat grinder odds are most of these people we are with aren't going to come back... But you Stick with me and I'll bring you back and you'll be rich enough to start your own civilization" he said.

"How far is it to the mall?" asked Mika
"About a Day and a half travel through the Metro, providing we don't run into to many ghouls and the tunnels are still intact" replied Zuki

Henry walked up next to them and smiled at Zuki "here is that other cap I said I would give you" he said as he handed her a shiny gold cap.
"It won't replace Barry" she said
"no I don't suppose it will"
"So what do you want in the Mall"
"I won't know until I find it"
"What! If you don't know what it is how will you find it?"
Henry smiled and winked at her "because I know where to look" he pressed on toward a growing commotion ahead...

Shef wandered around the "camp" and managed to bum a few shotgun shells here and there. He also traded a hunting rifle for another shotgun and made some much needed repairs.

One of Zuki's men gave him some plates to replace some damaged plates in his body armor. Shef felt like he could fit in with a group like this and relaxed a little bit. He thanked the guys for their help and scanned about the camp. He saw Henry near the edge of camp and trotted over that way.

Resupplied and patched up Sheffield was eager to get going. He did not really like being outside, but he was really glad he wasn't alone.

The dawn hadn't been promising. A breeze had sprung up overnight which was blowing dust, grit and other crap around. Bob had looked out from the small, wrecked store he had taken shelter in and decided that today wasn't going to be a day he would remember. Most of it would be spent walking underground which didn't really inspire him to get moving in a hurry.

Bob didn't like underground. It wasn't that it was any safer, a super mutant could move around underground as well as overground, but it was being able to see the sky and know what time of day it was, see the stars at night and the air was always fetid underground. The air wasn't exactly pleasant overground but it was better.

Bob sighed, turned back to his pack and began looking for a bandanna to cover his mouth and nose and his goggles to keep the dust from irritating him. All dressed, he shouldered his pack, holstered his weapons and left the cover of the store to find Henry.

He found Henry with Shef and the two of them were having a debate with Zuki and Mika. The discussion showed signs of becoming a bit heated when Bob butted in.

"What's up?" he asked. "Sorry I missed the beginning of your chat. I used this morning for a bit of a lay in."

"Your mate Henry wants to take the underground to that mall." said Zuki.

"You disagree?" asked Bob.

"It's not safe!" burst out Mika. "We should stay above ground. There're things down there."

"There're things up here as well." said Falks. "The underground is the most direct route to that mall, you know that as well as I do."

"He doesn't even..." started Mika.

"Stow it, Mika." interrupted Zuki. She looked at Falks. "You want to go to the mall but you don't know what for, you've already got some of my men killed and now you want to drag us underground to get slaughtered." She paused for breath. "Tell me why we should follow you?"

Henry glanced at Bob who raised his eyebrows.

"Because he's paid you." he said. "You've taken his caps and been told that there's a lot more where that came from. Yes, some of your men got killed. Apart from Barry all your guys who've been killed were killed by their own stupidity and inability to follow orders, or even depend of their own experience."

"I've only know the guy a few hours." said Shef. "Follow his example and you could be rich people and wherever you want to go or whatever you want to do will be possible."

"Ultimately the choice is yours." said Henry. "You can leave now and take your people if you want. I'll tell everybody I meet that Zuki and her crew will make promises, take your money and then run. That Zuki and her crew are dishonest, untrustworthy. That they have no honour. We'll meet you by the entrance."

Henry turned toward the entrance of the metro station and marched away. Bob looked at Shef who shrugged.

"Got nothin' better to do anyway." said Bob.

"Nope." answered Shef as they turned to follow Falks.

Henry stood by the shutter to the metro until Bob and Shef came up beside him.

"We doing this?" asked Bob, Henry just nodded then looked back toward Zuki's party who were now making there way toward them.
"Looks like our little tag team speech motivated them" said Henry with a smile.

Bob slid open the shutter and they moved inside surprisingly some of the lights where still working and the three of them moved with speed they moved up to the ticket office killing some rad roaches on the way their gunshots drew out some ghouls which they also killed.

Garge and Zuki came running up "We can expect more of those deeper in" said Zuki "allot more"
Henry nodded and started searching the ticket office.

"Hey look another Protectron" said Bob "Henry can you get it working?"
Henry moved over to the terminal next to the Robot's pod and hacked the terminal, the pod slid open and the robot lurched out.

The Protectron lurched toward Garge and scanned him "Rival unit detected sabotage mode engaged" it squawked, but before it could act Garge disabled it and started pulling it apart looking for spare parts and a power source.

By now others had caught up and were investigating the area. Henry, Bob and Shef moved on toward the station platforms with a few of Zuki's people in tow...

Bob took point, Shef and Henry were just behind scanning the sides for enemies. They'd been going for fifteen minutes, and had dropped down three levels using the dead escalators. The hallways were largely empty with only a few ghouls and roaches to deal with. Melee weapons were used because gunfire traveled a long way down the tunnels. They moved slowly and quietly along an empty platform toward the tunnel that, 250 years ago would have had trains running through them twenty four hours a day. Bob crouched down and raised his clenched left fist. The rest of the company crouched as well. Henry and Shef moved up to Bob.

"'Sup?" asked Falks.
"Voices." replied Bob. "The light's coming from behind us, if I poke my head out I'll be seen easily." Shef rustled around in his pack for a few seconds, then pulled out a mirror.
"Here," he said. "This should help."
"Cheers." said Bob, taking the mirror and peering around the corner. He grunted. "We may have to go round. There's a whole defensive line across the tunnel manned by Raiders." They shifted around a bit until all three had seen the predicament.
"It'll cost us to go through there." agreed Falks. "But I didn't see any side tunnels or even vents."
"What are they defending against?" asked Shef. "I mean, you'd expect a gun emplacement set up behind a pile of rubble or something. But this? They've blocked off the whole tunnel, and I'm sure I sure explosives down there as well."
"Good point." said Bob. "Maybe we should head up the line rather than down. We may have allies up there." Bob glanced at Henry. "What do you think?"

Henry looked around for a vantage point, a little way up the line he saw the back end of a metro train the light from the over heads didn't go that far back and one of the light fixtures was hanging down creating a dark shadow behind it.

"Okay we can't go around but we can go through, I have a plan." Falks said grinning
"Oh great" said Bob
"What's the plan" said Shef

Henry pointed at the train "I'm going to snipe them from up there, you guys set up a kill zone around here"
Bob Nodded "That's actually not too bad"

Henry winked at Bob then darted off and up onto the train, while Bob and Shef took up positions behind cover and let Zuki and Co know what was happening.

Falks sighted down the scope on his Enfield, he could clearly see ten raiders, one of which was bound and gagged she looked familiar "Shit" he said the tunnel blockade was clearly here for him.

He aimed at the raider manning the gun emplacement and fired, the next twenty minutes were a storm of bullets and screaming, 7 of the raiders had been killed behind the barricade before they had decided to rush the sniper but those were cut down by Shef, Bob and Zuki's crew and about 2 dozen more had rushed out from a side passage to meet death all was quiet now, Henry made his way to the bound raider.

He reached down and pulled the gag out of her mouth "Hello splat" he said in a jovial manner
"I did what you said" she said hurriedly "Please don't kill me Mr Falcon"
"Mr Falcon?" echoed Shef
"Long story" said Bob
"I came here to tell them about you and they tied me up, they said that I probably lead you to them"
"Not really" said Falks "I was headed this way, are there any more further in"
"I don't know"

Henry pulled her up so that they were face to face "I'll ask you again, are there any more further in?"
"I said I don't know mr" she said close to tears
"right then guess we'll just have to find out" he said as untied her "What's your name?"
"Nancy Degon" she said rubbing her wrists
"Right then Nancy stay behind us" he looked around for Zuki "We'll push ahead, you and your people loot these guys for ammo and caps, well be back in a bit"

he nodded to Bob and Shef and then moved toward the side door.