Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 63: Fire And Fury

*WARNING*
Graphic violence, horror, and disturbing content involving sexual abuse. This was something I found difficult and that was making me quite squeamish to write, even to the point of nausea, as sexual violence unsettles me more than anything else. But to really capture the horror of this new world and the nature of the enemy, I powered through it. This is also probably the most violent chapter yet, even more than the torture scene with Doom-Guy, which is why I categorized it as horror. If you're sensitive to themes of these natures, please read on at your own discretion, or feel free to skip over it.

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A typhoon of bullets bombarded Kelly's power armor, stalling her from reaching Kip as dirty hands reached at him like leeches, pulling him further from view with a helpless cry. The visors over her eyes splintered almost immediately under the fire, breaking her vision into fragments. Sheer pain pushed her back to the tunnel's opening.

"No! Kip!" she called out, desperation cracking it into a shriek. Her chestplate buckled against the unbroken hail of fire, and her laser rifle was pelted out of her grasp as she stretched for a grip of her Lieutenant. She heard the sound of it splitting over the racket of bullets and knew it was unsalvageable.

But she couldn't let them take him!

She dragged out her 10mm handgun and popped off rounds blindly, even while her power armor warped inward on her.

"Just go, girl!" she heard through the pandemonium. "Just get the hell out of here!"

He was still alive! They were keeping him alive! But she knew what that meant for him.

"No!" Something heavy collided with her faceplate, hammering her head back and staggering her balance. Her neck jolted down her spinal cord and her brain pounded against the walls of her skull. Another impact at her firing arm nearly freed her pistol, but she retaliated and flung out her elbow, feeling a surge of relief at the feel of it connecting with a body. She continued to fire into the distorted view of darkness and sparking bullets around her, but more melee impacts landed on her plating to join the bullets. They didn't care that they were shredding their own men. They just wanted to destroy her.

"Go! Just Go!" Kip was blasting at her amid the grunts of his struggle. "Get your people out!"

One backward step into the tunnel suddenly solidified her choice. She had to. She had to leave him. Had to get out. Pull her people back. Retreat and regroup. Even against Danse's advice. But the exit wasn't far. They could make it.

Kelly screamed out her defeat, her apology, her promise for vengeance, and pulled back into the cover of the tunnel's walls-leaving Kip to a fate of torture. The Minutemen behind her were slipping off shots around the bulk of her armor, but she barked them into a retreat.

"Fall back! Go go go! Get out of the cave!"

With horror-stricken faces, they gushed back up the tunnel, panicked breaths rasping against rock. Her own panicked breath rasped in her helmet, every fibre of her survival instinct telling her to spin and run behind them, but she wouldn't. Without covering fire, they would be slaughtered in the tunnel.

Taking up a wide stance, Kelly filled up the space of the tunnel with her battered power armor and formed a blockade. She broke out the hindrance of her shattered visor with her finger to clear her vision, shards of glass falling inside her helmet and slicing at her cheeks. The Dark Bloods flooded the tunnel entrance like rapid dogs, shoving at each other for the first bite of her, hounding her with their war cries, reaching and scratching at handholds of rock to pull themselves in against the squish of bodies.