At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Academic

The Commonwealth
June the 20th, 2288
17:11

The bizarre and jarring sight of body after body of raiders within the perverse art gallery had been unsettling enough, worsened by the realisation of the paintings scattered about having used a massive amount of blood substituting paint.

Going up the stairs to find more dead raiders, some laid out on autopsy stretchers, while disturbed, neither Nora, Piper, Cait, or Nick were surprised. The creaky, splintering wooden stairs felt out of place with the, while not particularly well kempt, rest of the building, a few light fixtures on the walls with fading paint, and what remained of roughed up furniture, hinting at a past of at least some luxury. Questions running wild through her head, Nora tried to recall if, at any time, she had been in the building before the War. When she felt sure she hadn't, anxiety about their surroundings eased a little. The more they took a look around the building, however, nothing felt particularly comfortable nor safe, even for a brief second or two or three. The gritty smell of blood and the nauseating scent of decay permeated every room. Still unconvinced she wouldn't puke, Piper slowly weaved in and out of each room they passed through, avoiding as much of the gore as possible. Just as uneasy, Nora was no more than a foot or two ahead of her, seemingly trying, more than anything else, to keep up with Cait. Her usual, apparently unfazed self, Cait only paused when she noticed some plywood on a wall was loose. After tugging at it for a few minutes, she finally got it off and, to her surprise, found a tight passageway hidden in the wall. Walking to the end of it with almost uncharacteristic caution, she called out for the lawyer, the detective, and the writer to follow her, having found a ladder down to a half lit, apparent basement below.

Not hesitating to descend to the apparent basement, adrenaline rising in her with every rung down the ladder she went, Cait waited down at the bottom, soon followed by Nora, and laughed when Piper, the second she was low enough to safely do so, dropped the rest of the way down. Dusting herself off, Piper reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight, the few lights on the walls around them flickering on and off. She turned around suddenly, startled, upon hearing someone start swearing, relieved to find it was just Nick, having trouble getting down the ladder with his exposed mechanical hand. When he was within reach, Nora and Cait helped the aged detective down the rest of the way, and the three of them joined Piper no more than a few feet away from them. Flicking on the light of her Pip-Boy, Nora slowly began deeper into the room, waving Cait, Piper, and Nick over when she found another tight corridor, the faint sight of red safety lights at the end of it. Seeing no other way out of the room than going down the corridor or back up by the ladder they descended into the room from, Nora pulled out her gun, and made her way down the corridor, Cait never more than a step or two behind her. Shouting and gunfire rang out the farther down the corridor they went. Behind them, Piper turned off her flashlight and kept one hand on her holstered gun as she followed after, and Nick, unsettled by the noise and ever the more suspicious of what happened in the gallery proper, kept looking back to ensure they weren't being followed. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, however, it was clear the shouts and gunshots had been coming from what was now likely no more than a few metres away.

Peeking her head around the corner, Piper glanced around to ensure they hadn't yet been seen or heard. When she saw no one but the noises did not stop, she nervously took a few steps back, taking in the sight of the tunnels ahead of them. Even in the dim light provided by a sparce number of still functioning safety lights, it was clear one of them had caved in, mounds of dirt and brick visible just past its entrance. A second seemed accessible, but was at the bottom of a series of steep drops, and a third was nearest to a nook almost completely hidden by another one of the gruesome paintings. Cait let out a disgusted yelp when she accidentally stepped in some human remains just past the entrance to the third tunnel, but went silent when she realised the voices had gone quiet, too. With unusual grace, the former cage fighter began walking almost noiselessly into the tunnel the moment she knew Nora, Piper, and Nick were just behind her. Rounding a corner and careful not to step into any more of the pieces of dead bodies haphazardly strewn about, they paused upon realising there was, not too far ahead, bright, white light, the kind which usually required a new or, at the very least, clean set of lightbulbs. The noise had started again, louder and louder the closer they got to the clean light, and, sure enough, there were a few raiders fighting each other in the large, circular room the light was coming from.