A search for Vicky

Part Thirteen

The fading light of day was passing when he stuck his head out to check the area. The death claw from the east was still prowling but was distance enough to not hear him moving normally. He checked the high street, staying low. A kilometre up the road another was standing in the street. Definitely more active in the day, standard giant lizards he thought. The big guy might be about, he moved more cautiously, and quietly as he had left the cooking gear in the basement with Vic, she was asleep when he left. He stayed low and headed north through the shops and odd house. Asra managed to get to the shop opposite the bank before he spotted the giant. It was around 100 metres behind the bank and towered above all one story buildings. He hunkered down behind the counter to observe and see if he could learn anything. After a full hour the creature had done one lap of the church and the school to the west. As the creature turned to face away, he made a dash across the main street into the bank. The lobby was wide open and all the windows were smashed, it had large claw marks all around the outsides, with a few reaching in. He walked past a back room and found it to be empty. Further back was a security door which was slightly ajar; he could see part of a skeleton slumped out of it. A vault door was further back in this room, towards the back of the building; this door was of an ordinary size though three times as thick, solid metal and closed with a wheel. Should provide enough shelter to sprint to if spotted or heard whilst breaking into the convoy lined along the street outside.

The door was shut and locked, he gathered the key from next to the single corpse, he began turning the door wheel to open. There was a loud thud as the mechanism snapped into place; it had been shut for many years. Asra froze for a half minute, nothing; he breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled the door and it began a loud hiss and a rushing of air entering the vault. He looked in and fell back in horror. ‘Fuck,’ as he said this the building shook, something large had hit the front of the building; clearly he had been too loud. He could hear rubble breaking on the floor as he moved towards the security door. He took a fast look. The one that had visited them in the house, it was forcing its way through one of the windows. Asra sprinted back to the vault and took a large breath, as he entered he pulled the door almost shut behind him. The death claw had made it in and was clattering around the building, dust wafted in as it destroyed the security wall. It stood menacingly in the new space it created for itself, its back almost scrapping the ceiling. Asra kept focused on the light trickling in the gap of the reinforced vault door, trying his best to ignore the edges of room. Around him they were lined with the corpses, half decomposed women and children. The security guard must have sheltered them in here, but succumbed to injuries before getting back, possibly from the creature stood in the ruin, unable to release them. They suffocated.

Asra spent a while listening to the Death Claw shuffle around just outside the door. The sound of a laser pistol broke the relative quiet, followed by the very loud crash of a trucks door hitting the asphalt further up the street. The creature was active again and smashing its way back out of the bank.

‘Get back to the basement Vic, do not get fucking caught.’ He said to himself hopefully.

As he finished the sentence the whole building shook with giant thundering footsteps, the Alpha was running. Vic was almost back to their camping building when she looked back up the street. She saw the Alpha slam into the smaller death claw and shove it and a truck across the road into a shop. One down she thought as she jumped into the shop so she could break for the basement if needed.

Asra heard the roar of the creatures attack and the unbelievable noise of twisting metal and half a building collapsing. Now, he made a break straight towards their bunker, fuck looking back. He vaulted in through the front, sliding over a table. Hit the floor running and slid into the back. He turned as he went through to the office and jumped clean into the basement, catching the top of the hatch as he went, thud.

‘Quite an entrance.’ Vic said from the seat in the corner. ‘That worked better than I expected.’

‘Clearly, I didn’t mean to attract them to the bank.’ He huffed as he still lay on his back at the base of the stairs.

‘At least we know the vault is safe to retreat to.’

‘No!’ He almost shouted. ‘That’s a fucking no go, for anyone.’ He didn’t give Vic a chance to question him on this. ‘How many did you manage to check?’

‘Managed 5 before the Alpha started towards all the noise you and your buddy were making in the bank.’ Vic sounded excited.

‘What’s got you so happy?’

‘He killed it.’ She handed over the moonshine. ‘The Alpha completely took out the one that fucked with us.’

‘So we only have to deal with, the most terrifying thing I have ever met, and not the third.’

‘Yeah… Wait what’s the second?’

‘You!’ he said trying to keep a straight face. ‘Mostly, for being able to talk me, into this crap.’ They laughed and set up to wait until the next day.

They drank until they passed, out just after midday, this meant they could get out just after dark.