A search for Vicky

Part Fourteen

The sky was getting dark as they emerged. To start they checked up and down the street, empty.  They began north towards the head of the convoy, staying in and close to the buildings on the east side of the street. When they got to where the Alpha took out its smaller counterpart, they could see its power. The truck had been pushed half way into a building and been twisted to a right angle in the centre. The dead creature lay in the indent, head half torn off, a leg shorn and chucked a few meters down the road.

‘Still fucking freaky, even now.’ He whispered.

‘Yeah, hopefully useful though,’ She pulled her knife. ‘Manicure?’ she laughed quietly as she removed a single giant claw.

The next lorry up the road was the first of the final three they need to search. Vic tried the door, locked. She motioned towards the next; this was as the harder they would be to open the more noise they would make. They headed for the furthest away from their safe place. This one had a padlock Vic would have to shoot. Asra checked on the Alpha, no sign of it, and then checked the one north by the market. He could see it lurking on the road nearer to them than he was comfortable with. He nods and Vic shoots the lock. She checked in the lorry and Asra continues to watch the death claw.

‘It’s looking this way but not moving.’ He reported.

‘This ones not medical, let’s settle in that shop for a while, before we make any more noise.’

They hid in the shop checking on the creature intermittently; it just stood in place staring at the vague direction of the noise. It was around an hour before the creature moved and began heading west. They approached the second in convoy and eased the shutter up, inside was a single crate. Asra held the shutter open as Vic clambered in. It was held with bolts to the bed and closed with straps. Clearly this was a military container. She was confused at how solid the straps were after a couple centuries. She looked at Asra as she cut the final strap, smiling hopefully.

Bang!

The lid flew open, with quite the force, and hit the inside of the lorry, rattling it tremendously. Vic, whilst practically deafened grabbed the large briefcase inside. It weighed more than she expected, she took off down the eastern side of the street, quick as possible. As Vic steamed past Asra he dropped the door, no point in subtlety now, it slammed and he sprinted to keep up with Vic. As they ran past the gap in the convoy they saw it, arms spread wide and picking up speed towards them. They knew they had no chance at making the basement but they could manage the bank, Asra knew this as well. He followed as Vic darted towards the building; they jumped through where the felled death claw had gouged its way in, and again through the trashed security wall. The entire building shook, dust was shaken from the whole structure. Vic swung from the open door into the vault as a claw pierced the ceiling. Asra fell into a slide, making it underneath falling debris; he pulled himself into the vault. Vic stood in silence in the centre of the room; the light vanished as he pulled the door shut.

‘The room seals then.’ Her voice was weak. ‘How long do we have?’ Rubble and claws crashed against their small room, scraping and rocking the reinforced steel.

‘Around five days with just the two of us in here.’ His voice almost steady, as he tried to reassure his friend.

‘Huh, always assumed it to be faster.’ Vic clicked on her battery powered lamp. ‘Jesus, it’s a fucking tomb.’

‘Guy with the keys got killed outside, couldn’t let them out.’

‘But… we can?’ she panicked.

‘Providing that bastard doesn’t bury the door, yeah.’ He jangled the keys.

‘It would seem we have time to make a plan.’

‘Sure, but also…’ he gestured towards the case.

‘Shit,’ Vic was almost surprised by what she was holding; she shone her light directly at it.

                                             G.E.C.K.

‘Vicky, if that does half of what the rumours are, this was worth it.’

They placed their packs either side of them to avoid looking at corpses, they tried to rest. Whilst they laid there they could feel the Alpha stalking around the outside of their metal box. Asra awoke to see Vic was seated facing the door.

‘Any idea if the big guy has gone to his lair to sleep?’ he queried.

‘Yeah it slept,’ Vic sounded hopeless, ‘About 15 feet from the fucking door, looking right at us.’

‘Fuck…’ he breathed. ‘Right, we have three days of food and drink and we can open the door.’

‘Only a few inches, most of the building has collapsed. I didn’t want to push any harder with it asleep so close.’

Day three was coming to an end and their food had run out. Asra peeked through the door gap, the evening suns glow came in through the demolished roof. He watched for a moment as the Alpha appeared coming down Main Street, it lumbered back to the bank. The creature had not attacked the building any more but had taken to sleeping in the centre of the rubble from the collapsed ceiling. After a moment of just standing in the rubble it finally laid down, as the sun dropped below the walls edge. Asra and Vic had discussed the plan again that day, this was done as the Alpha clawed against the site of their old base, it had their scent. The idea was that Vic would make a break for the gate and when the beast followed, Asra would then follow the creature and hit it in the back to get it to turn and he would jump into the old hideout. This would leave Vic to hit the creature with the 308 from different parts on the wall to get the thing away so Asra could escape. They left almost all of their suppliers, only taking a minimum amount of ammo for their weapons and their armour. They had left substantial caps with Dis so they could restart when they made it back.