FALLOUT: Sievert - Vol.2: Threshold

Chapter 13 - The Rescue

   'We're gonna get through this' I ran over and over in my head as I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the feeling of the vehicle rocking and bumping. I then felt a small shock run through my body, my heart rate increased dramatically as my muscles and nerves were beating fast and hard, I felt like I was going into shock, the closer we got to the objective, the more I felt tense and aching.

"2 MINUTES!". I jolted awake; I was asleep, all my pain was suddenly gone. I looked down, Claire with her head in my lap, making me feel calm and collected. I must have been in sleep paralyzes, something I learned about in medical course.

I shook Claire. She wouldn't move or wake up. "Claire. Hey Claire! We're almost there." I said.

She grumbled and said, "Just one more..." My eyebrow raised in instinct. 'One more what?' I thought as I watched her tail gently flip around. Looking at the Major across from us, he had his helmet on, he was leaning back. I couldn't tell if he was awake or asleep from his pose.

"A.O. in 60 seconds!" The soldier manning the Heavy machine gun yelled.

I got an idea from when we were still in survival training. Something Claire freaked about. I quickly stopped everything I was doing then yelled "IS THAT A RAT!"

Claire jumped up and hit her head on the ceiling of the APC but then proceeded to look around. "What!?" said in a slightly higher voice, pulling her legs up. I sat back and laughed gently as Claire regained composure and proceeded to sock my arm with an annoyed look.

"What? How else was I supposed to get you up?" I chuckled off.

She sat there "Yea, whatever. Are we there yet?" saying before she yawned out loud without care.

  The vehicle stopped and the door started to come down. "Yup," I said in response. The Major finally moved from his statue pose, making me remember he was in here with us. He grabbed his Wattz-2000E. laser rifle and dismounted the vehicle. I followed next, then Claire on my rear.

Parts of the area were growing trees and grass. I've never seen free-range trees before. The area looked green, hilly, and kind of run down. The convoy stopped off the road in a curve that took you off the main road. All four of the vehicles fit on it just fine. The headlights turned off right when I got a good look of the area, making my eyes have to readjust to the low light levels. I looked around a bit as everyone disembarked their APCs. There were signs next to the road; it said "Welcome to Idaho" and "U.S. Route 93", branding a bunch of stickers of other states and commonwealths.

  Looking over the edge of the runoff we stopped at, you could easily see lights and campfires coming from homes dotting the darkening landscape not too far away. 'They have power?' I thought to myself. I could easily see large fields with fencing in the crescent moonlight.

'Farmers?' I thought as it was kind of weird that such a punitive force was able to take 6 highly trained men captive, and farmers no less.

These are people who would only better have business negotiation to defend themselves, and not stirring a military-sized force. Also; why wasn't I recommended to not use more medium infantry? With such a force as a power armor detachment, we could have cleaned this up with no problem. Something didn't feel right.

Breaking my thought, Claire flopped her hand over my shoulder, "gah!" I blurted out, making me jump in reflex.

"Hey, Lyn. Are you. Feeling. Okay?" She asked gently.

I turned around and replied back."Yea. I'm fine, I was just thinking. I want you to go around and ask if everyone is prepped to go."

  I turned back around and looked around off the edge of the turn-off. The left view off from that point is nothing but what looks like weeds and wild grass covered in the moonlight. The right of that is a scatter of houses. Further right is an airfield covered in what looks like debris. Campfires dotting the area sounds of a few people being routy; it had to have been at least 2 am.