Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 12 Part 1

She turned off the radio and the silence became deafening. Every footstep sounded like an avalanche. She could hear the smoker's breathing of Valrie, the little clicks and metallic tinks of the rifles that she and Vincent carried and the rustling of clothing. She even heard her own breathing through her nose.

The smoke clung to their lungs, caused their line of sight to diminish, revealing only a few feet ahead at any time. To their left, she saw two doors appear from the gloom and she indicated to Vincent to check the one further ahead as she stepped towards the nearest one. Gia almost attached herself to her shoulder, sticking far too close for Patience's liking.

Reaching out, careful and steady, she turned the handle and pushed, raising her rifle as the door swing an erratic path open. She found it incredible that there were still working lights in the station and, here in this room, the single fluorescent strip light blazed, clearing any shadows from sight. It was a bathroom, a ladies, with several closed stalls and three wash basins.

A dull skittering sound came from inside one of the stalls and she gripped the rifle tight, side-stepping towards it. Her hand shook as she reached for the stall door. The intensity of the whole thing had started to get to her, this was clear. A quick push sent the door banging against the stall sides and something jumped out towards her face.

"Radroach!" Gia shouted, even as Patience recovered her composure, turning her rifle in one swift movement.

She was too late, though. Gia had launched her baseball bat at the creature as it tried to run out of the bathroom door. The young girl slammed the bat down onto the creatures back, hitting it several times, each hit punctuated by an excitable shout. She kept hitting even as the radroach became a smear of ichor and body parts on the floor, each hit sending a thudding echo throughout the station, not even dulled by the smoky air.

"Gia! Stop!" Patience hissed, grabbing for the girl's arm and seeing the crazed, wide-eyed look on the girl's face. "You're making too much noise!"

Gia stopped hitting the radroach, grinning. Half-giggling, half-gulping in breaths. Patience considered they had made a mistake allowing the girl to follow. Although, she had said she would have followed anyway. At least with her close by, Patience could try to keep her more exuberant excesses to a minimum.

With the immediate threat ended, Valrie pushed into the bathroom, checking the trash can, opening each stall door and checking everything. The floor, the toilet bowls, even the cisterns. Shaking her head, Valrie seemed disappointed. Even now, the older woman was scavenging. It was her livelihood, after all.

"Other door was the men's bathroom. Couple of radroaches. Nothing else." Vincent kept his voice low, keeping his eye further into the station.

"We had a radroach too! I killed it! Dead, dead, dead. Pow!" Gia didn't seem to know how to whisper, swinging the baseball bat around to punctuate her story.

"Don't get fucking cocky, kid." Valrie pushed past Gia, shoving the bat downwards as she passed. "And keep your fucking voice down or we'll have worse than fucking radroaches on our asses!"

"There looks like an office on the other side of the hall." Vincent nodded across the station hall to a door cloaked in the haze of the smoke.

He coughed into the crook of his elbow. Patience knew the smoke was getting to them all and they needed to get under the blanket of it before they became ill. They couldn't, however, leave any place uninvestigated. The last thing they needed was an attack from behind because their throats were a little scratchy and they couldn't bother to check a possible hiding place.

She and Vincent headed for the office door. Patience placed her back against the wall and held on to the door handle. With a nod from Vincent, she opened it, pushing the door wide and followed the bodyguard as he swept inside.