Fallout: Undaunted

Chapter Two

I swear I remember these steps taking longer to get up when I was a kid. They weren't half-sunk into the ground then either though. Oh well, times change and so do other things. We just have to keep on going I suppose. Just like since I kept going up these steps, I got to my destination: the top of the wall. The defensive wall was nothing more than large sheets of thick metal forcibly sunk into the ground and reinforced from the inside with wooden posts and pieces of timber. The "top" of the wall was a catwalk of wooden planks, with timber refined into rectangles on the outer part for defense of us guards. The usual patrol route for guards on the wall is counter-clockwise around the entire wall, at a slow pace, so I begin walking my beat. I get maybe 20 feet down the wall, and I notice something about 15 yards from the wall. Something shiny. I can't really make it out because of the foliage surrounding it. The only entrance/exit to the whole settlement was on the complete other side, and this thing might not be there when I get to it the normal way. I look around to make sure no one is near me or watching, and grabbed the timber and leaped off of the wall, and tucked my knees in so I could attempt a roll for a small chance for injury. The moment I landed, my rifle was slung off of my shoulder. I recovered fairly quickly so I could find my weapon, not wanting to be without it outside the safety of the wall. After poking around for a minute, I found my rifle "hiding" behind a rock. After picking it up and checking it over quickly, I looked around the general area of where the shiny object was, and began making my way over to it, being very cautious of potential threats. As I got closer, I saw what it was. It was some sort of robot, I think it's one of those Protectrons or something. I got closer so I could see it better, and tripped on something, and then all of a sudden, the Protectron started making a really loud air raid siren noise, and several deep voices gave off a war cry of sorts from some 20 yards ahead of me. "We got a humie fellas let's go get some lunch!" Was the first one I heard, and the rest were cries of "Lunch!". The makers of these cries appeared from behind some rubble. Greenish - yellow giants came rushing towards my direction with a motley assortment of weapons. Some had bolt-action rifles similar in appearance to the ones most of the guards use, and others had giant clubs made out of rebar. They weren't very organized, but somehow that made them all the more intimidating. As I ducked behind a rock, I remembered why all of the guards were gone today. Most were on "vacation" in the vault, and others were escorting scavengers. This meant practically no backup. It's do or die.

I cleared my head, and poked up to see how close they were. 20 feet away. The ones with rebar looked like they were readying grenades to flush me out with. For unorganized Frankensteins they did have some battle smarts. I gripped my rifle and took aim at the freak that was about to loose a grenade. I squeezed the the trigger three times, the equivalent of pulling it once if I could put it on burst-fire. The freak dropped the grenade and clutched his midsection, but not dropping. I let loose another three rounds, this time going for his upper body. A spray of blood erupted from the things throat and it collapsed. The grenade went off a moment later, killing another and turning the first one into red mist. That left some six more. Next thing I know, three grenades are all around me, so I scramble to get away from them. The combined explosion threw me some seven yards from where I ran to. I recovered as quick as I could and began to blast away at these abominations. I fired at least twice towards all six and then began to focus on the ones with guns, managing to take out two of them, and I guess one of them had a grenade and I hit it, because one blew up and took out one of the ones carrying rebar. The moment after the explosion, the voice I heard first yelled out "Enough, I'll take care of this pest myself!" And a larger, well armored Frankenstein came out, carrying what looked like a heavy fifty-caliber machine gun, moving it like a child moves a teddy bear. I stood there and stared at it, petrified with fear. Before I realized it, the two survive rebar toting mutants each grabbed one of my arms, hoisting me up and bringing me over to the big one. "You have caused me a lot of trouble human." He growled at me. "These are my soldiers that lie on the ground, killed by you." "Is that so?" I asked, "If so, maybe you should look to get smarter troops, or just train them better, because if your rifleman had covered these fools with the rebar and frags, I might have actually died." I saw, trying to humor the beast. He just nodded at the one with the rifle and then the rifleman socked me in the gut, the blow practically ignoring my Kevlar and making me want to vomit. "You should watch your tongue when talking to me weakling." It said matter-of-factly. He nodded again and the same freak came up to me, except I was ready this time. I swung my lungs upward, forced my entire back, and used the mutants holding me to bounce myself forward, all but breaking the freak's skull with the momentum and my steel - toed boots. "Restrain him!" Biggie Frankenstein shouted. "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU CLOWNS TRY!" I yell, before ducking under one mutant's and letting it hit the other. The two, admittedly idiotic freak's began to bash each other with their clubs of rebar. By the time they finished they were all but dead, bring unable to do anything to me. "You should've just surrendered pest, you would've been an excellent addition to my growing army." Biggie F said, slowly circling around me. "No offense, but I like my body the way it is." I say, not enraging him in the least. "If that's the case, I'm going to have to kill you know. But out of respect, may I ask you your name. I'm called the General." He says, seemingly opening up to me before he cuts me down. "My name's Everett, and I appreciate the respect General." I say, half sarcastic half sincere. Upon the conclusion of my sentence, he slung his gun over his shoulder and picked me up with one hand, clearly intending to squeeze me to death. For some reason, the General here had a gauntlet made out of what appeared to be anything he could find, which included a makeshift machete or crude saber of some sort. I wriggled my hand free, and grasped the hilt of the blade, tugging on it until the cable holding it in place snapped. I brought up the blade, and began slashing and hacking at the General's hand and fingers, forcing him to let me go. I dropped to the ground, quickly regaining my composure, and drawing my 10mm with my left hand, since I'm a lefty. Firing off a couple of shots at his head, I rushed his leg, diving in, hacking and slashing, and then backing out and firing again before going back in. After five minutes of rinsing and repeating, his leg was practically cut off, and he collapsed towards the ground, covered in his own blood, and even a little of mine. I wasn't sure he was dead so I emptied my clip into his head and neck. I gathered my gear and began to walk back to the wall, and then I lost conciousness.