523 Scarred

After three hours of searching the Medical District, slowly clearing out Ghosts, destroying speakers, and avoiding the ever-moving Cloud, the group eventually stumbles across a hallway with a peculiar sound being emitted from it...

There were a couple doors on either side of the hallway, which meant the sound could be coming from any one of them... Not to mention the few shambling steps Afton could hear coming down from the end of the hallway.

Afton picks up a rock and tosses it hard, grabbing the attention of the Ghosts who start slowly stumbling down the hallway towards them, both not having noticed the group yet. Afton thrusts his right hand forward, shooting a grappling hook of wood from his plant arm which smacks the closest ghost in the face.

Once grabbed, Afton pulls his arm back while retracting his limb which forces the Ghost towards them and launching it off of its feet. Afton catches it midair with his Ultra Chainsword, cutting its lower body off with ease.

It lands on the ground with a wet flop, "I have the high ground!" Afton shouts as he swings again as the half torso Ghost. His strike bisects it, and he kicks the pieces far from each other to prevent it from reforming.

For the next Ghost, he just draws his revolver and fires a couple shots through its head, its heart, and its knee caps. It falls to the ground squirming, quickly beginning to regenerate, but Afton quickly dismembers it.

He turns towards his group and sends a thumbs up at them, "Shall we check out that sound now?"

Dean who's still surprised by the sheer martial abilities Afton possesses just numbly nods.

Afton looks at Veronica with a smug smirk under his helmet, "Bet you're wishing you had one of these now?" he gestures with his Chainsword.

Veronica shakes her head, "I admit it's more effective with these kinds of enemies, but I'd rather some fist-type energy blades... I bet it'd be way easier to do that than whatever you did to create the swords." she states.

"Huh... Oh yeah, I was planning on doing that, wasn't I?... We'll talk about it when we get back, alright?" he says as he approaches the first door along the hallway. Trying the handle but finding it locked and then immediately forces his foot through it, smashing the door open.

Inside is another operating room... Kinda? Instead of the typical operating bed, there was simply an Auto-Doc on standby, awaiting a patient.

"Hey, couldn't this help Anja out?" Veronica immediately asks, but Afton shakes his head as he approaches the machine and starts opening its software and noticing a couple discrepancies.

"No way... The hardware on this thing is too damage to perform any difficult operation. Plus, I don't trust any of the old machinery around here, one wrong zero from a one and it'll cut your head clean off. As far as I'm concerned it's just a piece of junk." he says, tapping his gauntlet against it, causing a metallic sound to ring out.

The rest of the room doesn't contain anything of interest, aside from a few expired vitamins, Chems, and a couple Stimpacks that look sort of useable? Afton would save those for himself, as only he would be able to survive them if they were found defective... If a good Stimpack can save you from lethal wounds, a defective one could end you faster than a bullet. There's pros and cons to everything after all.

The next couple of rooms contains around the same thing, broken Auto-Docs not fit for purpose, and expired chems... However, the further they went the more pronounced the peculiar sound was becoming... It sounded strange, like the humming of mechanical components mixed with a hair trimmer, and the sound of a butchers shop... Perhaps a Ghost had accidentally stumbled into one of the defective Auto-Docs?

Eventually, the group reach the last door and enter inside, finding an Auto-Doc that was currently running... Its door was sealed tight while it operated on something, but Afton wasn't able to use the machines internal cameras to see who was caught inside.

He had a really bad feeling about this, and wanted to find out what was inside, regardless if it was a Ghost or some other unfortunate victim. Using his Maxed out Science Skill he attempts to hack it and take it under control... Unfortunately, it'd locked him out until it was finished with its operation...

This was actually a security measure to prevent assassination via this method... It'd be far too easy to modify the operation and have someone gutted while inside the Auto-Doc.

So, he tried the next, more effective method.

*BANG!*

He smashes his fist through the terminal, immediately causing the humming to halt. He pries his fist out of the electronic scrap while it sparks ineffectively, still attempting to conduct its operation. With that sorted, he gets a grip on the door, and using his Superhuman and Power armour enhanced strength, he slowly pulls it open.

*GRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!*

*THUNK!*

He slams the door to the side, but is forced to catch something as it falls out of the machine... Looking down, he raises a brow at the thing he'd caught. It was a person, here was no doubt about that, but they were bald and completely covered in blood and wounds.

The Auto-Doc hadn't actually done anything to their body, instead focussing its brutal attack on the person's face and throat... Though, judging by the scratched and scuffed explosive collar, this was another of Elijah's victims.

He cautiously picks the person up and turns towards the group, "Er, I found...-" he glances at them and spots breasts, "This woman in the machine..." he mutters, the bad feeling punching him in the face with a particularly worrying idea... Was this Christine?

He couldn't really tell due to the thick slayer of fresh and old blood coating their face... The scarring was horrific, as if their head was an eggshell that'd been fractured all over. She even had a reverse joker smile, the scarring making her look like a permanent frown instead of a smile.