Bleeding Steel

Chapter Nine: Monsters of Men

Nora sat bolt upright with a gasp, sweat plastering her hair to her skin. She could hear the low moaning of the wind and somewhere in the heavens, the distorted booming of a radstorm. A faint flash of eerie green light illuminated the room, piercing through the rag that covered the window and momentarily revealing the silhouettes of her companions in their sleeping bags.

She swallowed, raising her hands to her face. Her eyes were itching with tiredness, but she couldn't face going to sleep again, not when only nightmares awaited her. The booming echoed again, louder this time, the wind picking up in strength. She shivered as a cold draught whistled through the wall beside her, prompting her to rub her arms. The first time she had seen a radstorm, she had found it to have a terrifying beauty, the appeal quickly wearing off when an exasperated Preston had pulled her into the nearest shelter, explaining that the storms could result in severe radiation sickness.

There came another flash of light, brighter than the one before, painting everything a sickly green. Her Pip-Boy crackled loudly and she watched as the needle on the Geiger counter swept sharply upwards, before returning to a low count, dancing between 1 and 3. It would be a bad night to be out, unless you were a ghoul or a deathclaw. The booming that followed was enough to make the shack tremble and she heard Burke whimper in his sleep. Gradually, the darkness began to fade as the noxious clouds descended over the Hill, illuminating the night with their eerie luminescence.

Nora rolled the covers down and swept her legs out of the bed, pausing a moment to massage the calf of her bad leg through her uniform.

Don't let me down now.

Taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet and padded towards the window, peeling up a corner of the rag. Fog was veiling the compound outside, the canopy of lights above dim and ghostly in the vapour.

At another blinding flash, she let the rag fall back into place, dazzled. She turned back to face the room and yelped, her heart lurching into her mouth as a large, shadowy figure rose suddenly in the gloom.

"Nora?"

She sagged back against the wall, exhaling heavily with her hand over her heart.

"Danse. You startled me." She whispered, smiling weakly.

There came another flash of light and his handsome face was illuminated, though the hollows of his eyes and cheeks seemed to grow darker, giving him a skeletal aspect.

"I could say the same about you." He whispered back, frowning at her. "What are you doing out of bed?"

Nora parted her lips to speak, only for the storm to release another deafening boom. She gestured at the window, out towards the storm. Danse began to make his way across the room, trying to move as stealthily as he could. Nora couldn't help but smile. His footsteps were still clearly audible, but if the thundering above hadn't roused their companions, she didn't suppose his footfalls would.

When he was beside her, he raised the rag up and peered outside himself.

"Radstorms always make me uneasy." He murmured as she leaned on the sill beside him. "They make for poor visibility and drown out sounds that you would otherwise be alert to. A deathclaw could be stalking you, and you wouldn't know about it until it's too late. To say nothing of the radiation itself..."

Nora glanced up, studying him silently for a few moments before looking out across the compound.

"The Glowing Sea's supposed to be one endless radstorm, isn't it?" She said quietly, her voice barely audible above the dull roar of the wind. "Deadly levels of radiation, all sorts of irradiated creatures... And I've got to go straight into the heart of it." She sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Most people seem to think I'm embarking on a suicide mission..."