Ch26. Fiendish Pain Train

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!!!" Running through the rubble and fire, the dirty man with a belt of human skulls ignored the pain in his shoulder. This shit wasn't what he signed up for!

Watching all his buddies getting mulched and torn apart like that wasn't worth any amount of jet or med-x, too think that times were starting to look up! With that new settlement up in the mountains plenty of caravans were coming this way, the pickings were good!

But they took too much and now judgement had come for them!

Tripping over a steel beam from a collapsed building, the man hit the dirt as a sharp pain shot up his side, rolling over he let out a pained grown at the sight of a large chunk of dirty glass sticking out just above his hip.

"Fuck!" Slowly standing back up, the fiend reached down and slowly pulled the large shard from his hit, inch after inch sliding out. Finally pulling the shard free, a gush of blood shot out and trailed down his calm as he held the wound.

*BOOM* *Screams*

Hearing the sounds of battle approaching quicker and quicker, the man turned and hauled ass, his leg now dragging behind him while leaving a small trail of blood.

His eyes kept focused on his goal as many others ran past him towards the chaos, he wanted to scream at them to fall back, to save themselves, especially a few pretty dames he noticed, but hey, at least each of their sacrifices can buy him a few more precious seconds to make it to safety!

"ROOOOOOOOOAR"

*Scream of pain and squelching*

Shit! That beast was back again and working its way towards him! Who the fuck brings a deathclaw to a gun fight anyways?!?!

"Ouuf" falling over once more, the man tried to get back up only to realize his legs weren't answering his commands any longer. Seems he had lost to much blood.

Rolling over onto his back, the man looked up towards the night sky, subtle hues of dawn starting to shade the darkness.

Sounds of mechanical foot stomps echoed in his ears as he gently turned his head to witness a pristine warrior in power armor revving a large Gatling Lazer.

Bright red flashes lit up his face as hot beams of death shot past him hitting whatever unfortunate soul the person was aiming for, screams of pain and disintegration echoed in the early morning air.

The breath in his lungs turned cold as the armored warrior looked over towards him before marching on, a female mechanical voice carried out of the helmet. "Keres, no survivors."

"Growl"

The man turned his head just in time to see the last thing he'd ever see, the large bottom of a deathclaws foot as it came down on his skull, popping it like a Nuka cola someone dropped peppermints into.

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Keres wiped off her foot as she used her claws to throw the dead ant that dared to run from her earlier at another who had popped up from some debris.

Sarah watched in amusement as Keres jumped over the debris pile, only for large chunks of…'people' to go flying out in random directions due to the pissed off deathclaw.

*Dink*

"Seriously?" Sarah turned her head as a fiend shot at her with a .22 from 20 meters away.

Sighing, she aimed and let loose once again, hot beams turning flesh to ash while melting concrete and steel alike.

*BOOM*

A massive explosion rocked the opposition she faced causing a large building to topple over and send a dust cloud around her. Turning on her helmet's thermals, she noticed a few beings stumbling out of the debris.

However she didn't care and with a quick pull of the trigger the stumbling and crawling fiends were cut down before she switched her comms. "Building collapse on our end, re-routing."

After a short second the voice of Alex came back with an affirmative.

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"Please, spare me!!!"

*Bang*

Alex fired a round into the begging man's head and quickly moved on, making sure not to miss any hidden fiends or traps they may have set.

The loud rumble in the distance caught his attention just in time to see an old hollowed out building collapse. His radio crackled as Sarah told him it had blocked their path.

After affirming he had received her message, he quickly reloaded his R91 and moved forwards.

"DIE!!" An enraged fiend with hazy eyes, probably hyped up on psycho came rushing out on a tin metal shack that had half collapsed, only making it a few feet when two shots rang out. One blowing off his jaw while the other took out a large chunk of the back of his skull.

Turning to see Ava who was holding a fresh mag in her teeth and an unloaded NCR service rifle in her left hand, her right hand extended and holding a smoking .44 revolver.

She ignored his amused smirk and re-holstered the .44 and took the mag from her teeth and put it in the rifle before releasing the bolt, loading the rifle for more shenanigans.

"Show off." Katie came up behind her while holding her 5mm LMG, bumping her shoulder before walking over to Alex with a smirk.

"Gotta keep your eyes open little broth—" Katie froze as Alex raised his rifle at her face and pulled the trigger.

"Argh! The fucks your deal!" Katie fell on her ass holding her ear as the ringing echoed and a fiend holding a shotgun slumped onto the ground with a hole in his forehead.

"Diddo." Alex turned and continued his sweep of the area, firing his rifle at anything that moved while Ava laughed her ass off at Katie who got up grumbling. "He got you good! Diddo he said!" She laughed and followed behind Alexs path of destruction.

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*SLAP*

The 15 year old girl covered in grime and sores, her body malnourished fell to the hard concrete floor as the man before her raged.

"WHAT THE FUCK YOU MEAN WE'VE LOST THE NORTH AND SOUTH ENTRIES!" Motor Runner cursed at the young girl who simply held her cheek.

"Th-that's what Juicy told me sir…" the girl tried not to cry as the man visibly calmed down and sat back down on his makeshift throne. Grabbing a few doses of med-x, he tossed them to the small girl. "Get the fuck out of my sight."

The girl quickly grabbed the drugs and held them close as she ran out of the reactor room.

The humming of the reactor calmed Motor Runner as he thought about the best course of action, they were secured in this vault…but food was an issue. Without violet offering up her mutt meat and the food stuffs from raided caravans, they wouldn't last a couple weeks before they would have to resort to eating the weak or slaves.

Motor Runner rubbed his temples as a large man came out of the shadows in the corner, noticing the man, Motor Runner spoke "Ave true to Caesar."

The man repeated the phrase and stepped closer. "New orders sir."

Maxius looked up at the man from his throne and let out a sigh. "What are they, what is Caesars orders?"

The man nodded. "Hold out until we can dispatch reinforcements and supplies. Our spy in Macarren will keep us informed and sneak us supplies through the back entrance."

Maxius nodded and got up, walking towards a console along the wall he turned on the PA system and spoke. "Any still outside of the vault in three minutes will be locked out to face their fates." However he then proceeded to start the lock down, making the man in the shadows raise an eyebrow.

"Got to give'em hope at least." Hitting the button, Maxius walked back to his throne and smiled, unaware that he wasn't going to survive the next 24 hours… as even the most well hidden spy…couldn't survive Cassidy's ire.