Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 25 Part 2

Reaching the last corner before the bunker, she eased her head around in a fast reconnaissance. As she had feared, the bunker door still had two Super Mutants guarding it. Why they hadn't joined in the fray at the far end of the trenches, she didn't know. It was possible the King had greater authority over some of the creatures more than others, or that they were simply too stupid to disobey orders. Either way, they were between her and the bunker door and she had to get through them to reach it.

She took a few seconds to breathe and prepare for the assault and then had a thought. She raised her left arm and switched on her Pip-Boy. She flicked through the options until she found what she was looking for, firing up the 'VATS' option. She was going to need all the help she could get. As an afterthought, she turned on the radio, raising the volume to maximum and nodded in appreciation as Smiley Lewis and 'I Hear You Knocking' raged from the speaker.

Taking two grenades from the bandolier, she pulled the pins, holding the spring levers tight and walked around the corner.

"Hey! You! You ugly sons of bitches!" That caught the attention of the two Super Mutant guards and they began to lumber her way. She calculated the distance and sent the two grenades rolling along the ground towards them, ducking back around the corner.

The dual explosion sent debris flying past the corner, the wall of the trench shifted against her body and, what looked like, a Super Mutant hand spun through the air, slapping against the far wall of the trench. She gave it a couple of seconds and then whipped around the corner. The light from her Pip-Boy's 'VATS' technology lit up the area, revealing both Super Mutants were still, somehow, alive.

She stalked through the haze left by the grenades and found the Super Mutants. One crawled back the way it had come, stretching its fat, yellow fingers back towards the legs the grenades had blown from its body. The other sat against the trench wall, clawing at its head with its one remaining hand, trying to push the skin of its face back up into position.

'VATS' recommended head shots for them both and she hated to disappoint the device. She stomped her foot in the chest of the one with no face and let loose half a magazine into its skull. Turning, she reached the other one, moaning pathetically as it tried to hold its leg to the wrong stump on its body. She finished the magazine into that one's face.

She popped the empty magazine, placing it away into a pouch at her back and taking out a new magazine in the same movement. She slapped it into place and cycled the rifle, ready to launch more bullets into any Super Mutant that came her way.

Almost disappointed that no reinforcements came, she moved on towards the bunker door.

-+-

Valrie couldn't feel her arms anymore, the ropes cutting in to her wrists, and she waggled her fingers, desperate to get some blood flowing, however small an amount. She wondered how the Super Mutants were able to tie the ropes so tight with their fat, cumbersome fingers. A strange thought to make as the creatures led them down, further into the bunker.

Gia had stopped crying, letting out the occasional sniff, but Valrie could tell the girl still felt terrified under the eyes of the Super Mutants. That little revelation, of her parents taken and turned into these monsters, had hit Valrie. Gia had seemed so fresh and cheeky and vibrant. She had no idea that the girl had such trauma in her past.

Everyone had a tale, in the Wasteland, some were more tragic than others and Valrie had, like many others, become anaesthetised to it all. Gia's story had hit home. It could be the amount of time they had spent together had caused Valrie to care about the girl a little more than she expected. Or it could be having your parents ripped away from you and transformed into Super Mutants before your eyes happened to be one of the more horrific stories she'd heard. Either way, she wished she could throw off the ropes and give Gia a hug.

"Where do you think they're taking us?" Gia thought she was whispering, but it came out in an echoing hiss, causing one of the Super Mutants to turn and growl.

"I don't know." She avoided Gia's eyes.

Only moments ago, a man had passed them, pushed by another Super Mutant, staring at his hands and babbling. In the dim bulkhead lights, Valrie had seen the discolouration of the man's skin, the cut on the palm of his hand. And she had caught a couple of the words he ranted. Somehow, the Super Mutants had infected him. It wouldn't be long until that man became a Super Mutant himself and she feared that was what was going to happen to them, too.

Eventually, they found themselves shoved into a room. It was stark. Almost empty, save for a line of five, terrified civilians against one wall and the Super Mutant King stood before them, leaning on its sword. The King's head almost brushed the ceiling as it inspected the civilians. It turned and smiled as Valrie and Gia found themselves forced into the room.

"Ah! My newest recruits." The King pointed to the wall. "Untie them and line them up."

One of the Super Mutants grabbed Valrie, spinning her around. It then cut the ropes from her wrists, pushing her against the wall and repeated the process with Gia. The pins and needles sensation hit Valrie's arms straight away as the blood rushed back into her hands. She rubbed them and shook them, trying to ease the pain as soon as she could.

"Don't bet on me not trying to kill you, you ugly fuck." It was bravado. She had nothing else to fight with. "Give it a few minutes and our friend'll be down here blowing every last one of you fuckers to hell."

"Good. I'm counting on it!" The King moved to the other side of the room, leaning its sword against the wall, then returned to stand before the humans. "She may just be what I'm looking for."

"You won't have to wait for long, asshole! Patience will come for us!" Valrie had to hold Gia back as the young ex-raider found her bravery, even as she still appeared terrified.

"Patience. That's what she calls herself now?" The King looked up, nodding his head. "You know, I wasn't certain it was her. She smelled familiar, but that look in her eyes? That was different. Took me a day or two to work out that she was what I needed."

"You don't know her. Don't try to fuck with us, snot boy." Valrie wished the creature would get it over and done with. Mutated or killed. Anything to end the whole damned thing.

"Oh, I know her. Well, of her. We're the same, she and I." The King showed Valrie its left arm, a series of scars and holes dotted the forearm. "I'm from the same vault. The same experiment. I was supposed to end the Super Mutant menace, but look at me now. I rule."

"You're nothing like her! She's kind and brave and she's coming. Coming to kick your ass!" Gia tried to shake Valrie's hands from her shoulders. What she thought she could do, Valrie didn't know. The King, meanwhile, laughed. A heavy, rumbling laugh.

"They sent me out here, just like they sent her. To infect the Super Mutants with a new virus. One to end their threat once and for all. Instead, it made me into this, King of the Super Mutants. All the power and strength, but with all my intelligence and skills." Placing his huge hand on Gia's head, the King ruffled her hair, playful. "When she gets here, right where we're stood, her Pip-Boy will activate. A powerful version of the virus will surge through her body and, within seconds, I'll have a queen to rule at my side. With two of us, we'll own this world."

"You are one fucked up son of a bitch if you think she'll join you." Valrie squeezed Gia's shoulders. The girl no longer struggled to get at the King.

Everyone's heads turned as the sound of an explosion came echoing and reverberating down the tunnel from the entrance. The King grinned, taking a knife from behind its back. He cut a deep slash into its own hand and then grabbed the hand of one of the civilians, cutting it and forcing their cut against its own. It repeated the action with the other four civilians and pushed them out of the doorway, back towards the entrance.

"Just a little something to keep her occupied." The King gave Valrie a grotesque looking wink. "The virus will work faster if she's tired. Hold them. Keep them quiet."

The two Super Mutants grabbed Valrie and Gia, putting their huge hands over their mouths. Valrie gagged at the smell, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't even move her head as she tried to look to the side for Gia. Patience was coming, but what she didn't realise was, she wasn't coming to destroy the Super Mutants. She was coming to join them.