Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 5 Part 2

They moved in a wide circle around Fairfax Ruins. If the state of Valrie was anything to go by, Patience thought she must look like a mess. The Super Mutant blood, that covered them, now drying in the heat of the hazy sunlight.

No other Super Mutants came anywhere near them, though they could see them. Their hulking bodies moving within the desolate ruins of Fairfax. Once or twice, one of the creatures seemed to catch sight of them, but backed away, keeping their beady lifeless eyes upon them as they retreated behind walls.

"That's not how those ass lickers work!" Valrie mumbled to herself once again. She had said the same thing several times now. "They kill you. They beat the living shit out of you. They don't talk and they certainly don't walk away!"

Patience couldn't agree or disagree. This was, as far as she knew, the first time she'd ever encountered the giant creatures. From what she'd seen of them, however, she felt inclined to think that violence appeared to be their main attributes. Their leader, the King, did seem to be a fair bit different to the others.

"It's done. We're alive and they seem to be leaving us alone." Patience caught sight of another Super Mutant, trying, and failing, to watch them from cover. Its huge frame making it difficult to show any kind of stealth. "Let's just get to Megaton."

"You don't get it, vault girl!" Valrie stopped, turning on Patience. "They didn't just talk! That King fella talked well. Like a human! And they're organised. I'm no strategy person, not like you, but didn't that seem tactical to you?"

Patience hadn't thought about it, but there did seem to be a crude form of tactics to the creatures. Herding those raiders out into the open, using a sniper to take them out. The missile launcher held back and only firing when people used cover. The King accepting surrender.

"Terrible tactics, yes." She took another look to where the Super Mutant had tried to hide and watch them. "Is this the best place to talk about it? We should move fast before they change their minds."

Valrie threw up her hands and turned to continue walking. They soon left Fairfax behind, forging northwards and reconnecting with the freeway. The road, no longer elevated, gave better purchase at this point. It still had places where the structure had buckled and broken, large cracks and uplifted sections making minor obstacles, but much more flat than the previous sections.

At one point they found a large section packed with the rusted, buckled remains of vehicles, sitting bumper to bumper as if caught in an apocalyptic traffic jam. Skeletons were in most of the cars, as if waiting for the traffic to move. Remnants of shirts and ties, once colourful dresses and hats and bonnets adorned them, giving an eerie sense of stasis. A grim fragment of time. A snapshot of unforeseen disaster.

Valrie moved between the cars and the trucks, eyes scanning for anything worth taking. Packs of cigarettes, rings, watches and other jewellery found their way into her pockets. She tossed one pack of cigarettes to Patience and leaned against one of the cars, lighting one of her new finds. Patience joined her, lighting a cigarette of her own while keeping a constant eye on their surroundings.

"Relax. Megaton keeps this area mostly clear. 'Cept for damned Mole Rats. Can't seem to kill them quick enough." She flicked ash from the burning end of the cigarette and drew in more smoke. "Megaton's just over that rise. The folks there are pretty good people. Not too wary of strangers. But you need to keep your mouth shut about what happened in Fairfax."

"You don't think they should know about the danger, almost on their doorstep?" Patience tried to see if she could catch sight of Megaton, but she couldn't see any buildings. Only the tip of what looked like a derelict scrapyard. "They should prepare, just in case those things come this way."