Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 44: Meet Me On The Battlefield

Hold on, Danse.

It was nightfall by the time Kelly reached the bunker, harried and breathless, black uniform now flecked with dust and blood of the Wasteland's demons that had dared to hinder her. But she herself was a demon that could not be hindered.

She forced her pace into a low stalk before breaching the grass, eyes sharp through the night, ears pricked, aim steadied against her rapid breath-combat training imbedded deeply. A fast scan. Empty vertibird pad, bunker entrance, door ajar, mounted defence turrets, laser ash on the path... Danse.

With a snappy hand signal, she instructed Dogmeat to heel. A series of precise 10mm rounds had the turrets out of commission within seconds, debris combusting and sparking out. She waited a few beats for sounds of retaliation, then broke the grass line and flitted straight for the ash pile.

She scuffed into a kneel like a rabid raider and sifted her fingers through the ash. Blood. Dogmeat sniffed it and barked in recognition. Her breath spiked. This better not be Danse.

No. Kelly pushed that from her mind and hustled for the bunker, barely exercising combat procedure as she passed through and swept the interior. Busted protectron with laser scoring, drawers and cabinets rummaged, terminal on standby. He had been through here. These were his echoes.

Nurturing her hope, Kelly called for the elevator and was descending into the bunker's depths with a ragged heartbeat, forcing herself not to call out for him in risk of alerting more of his defences.

Only the low thrum of the elevator and her pounding heart permeated the silence. But then...

A laser shot.

No... No,no,no,no,no!

"DANSE!" Kelly splayed her hands against the elevator doors, exhaling a gust of hysteria. No, please not like this. Please not like this. "Danse!" Her fingertips attempted prying between the doors, as if it would hasten the speed of her descent. "Fuck!" Her fists bashed at the doors in failure. "Fuck! DANSE!"

She bulldozed out the moment the doors yielded. "Danse!" A warning bark from Dogmeat saved her from the opening laser of a protectron, the red streak missing her head by inches as she threw herself down into a roll. Reining her focus, Kelly sighted down her optics and returned fire with a crescendo of bullets, shredding the robot to scrap before it could even follow up with another shot. Dogmeat's trio of barked warnings alerted her to three more hostiles, and Kelly had them tagged and scrapped double-time.

"Danse!"

With Dogmeat silent, Kelly was confident the area was cleared, and rushed ahead through the robotic debris like a madwoman, her heart in her throat and threatening to vomit forth. Please, Danse. Please don't give up. Please don't leave me. I can't lose you now. Please don't do this. Please, please, please. She barely drank in the surroundings, all her focus pooled toward that fenced window directly ahead of her.

Danse. Alive. Alive. Slouched down against the wall. Uniform ripped open at the chest. Bloodied. Laser pistol in hand, eyes fixated on it. A scorch mark on the wall beside his head.

He was alive... but dead. Had he even heard her?

Kelly's hysteria subsided in place of dark foreboding. She had never seen him like this, his utter being withered and gaunt. If he had looked haggard this morning with a hangover, it was nothing in comparison to the ghost of a man before her eyes now. "Danse...?" she uttered softly, fingers clinging to the netting over the window space.