Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 26 Part 1

She had seen the Super Mutant coming towards the door as she began to enter the bunker. In a flash, she had taken another grenade, removed the pin and let the lever fly, counting a second before launching it towards the creature. Ducking back out of the door, she pressed herself flat against the wall. The bunker door swung out from the pressure of the blast, twisting off one of its hinges.

Even before the dust cleared, she reentered the bunker, ready to pour bullets into the Super Mutant, only to find it collapsed on the ground, a sizeable hole in its chest, the thick skin peeled back exposing damaged, burnt organs and seeping blood.

She sidestepped the creature, holding her rifle to bear upon it until she had passed. It didn't move. Further into the bunker, she could hear shouting, or screaming. She couldn't tell which, the voices echoing and distorting as they travelled through the concrete and metal tunnels towards her. There was an oppressive air about the place. A feeling of claustrophobia that only worsened the further she edged deeper into the bunker.

Reaching a room at the end of a short flight of stairs, she saw only one door, opposite the entrance, and tensed as she heard movement coming towards her. Her Pip-Boy flashed a warning. It couldn't discern whether whatever was approaching was human or not, switching between displaying 'human' and 'unknown'. When the approaching figure burst through the doorway, she understood why.

Like the man she had killed above, another human, a woman, racing towards her, screaming. The woman had already begun to transform, her hands and arms extending beyond normal lengths, thick veins pulsing, skin yellowing. The Pip-Boy identified several points to shoot, flashing upon the chest area. Patience did not hesitate.

The bullets ripped into the transforming woman's chest, tearing into her hardening flesh. Flesh that was not yet hard enough. The woman dropped to the ground like a brick, almost rolling over her head with the momentum of her mad charge. Patience did not have time to check her magazine before two more semi-humans flew through the doorway.

She fired without settling on the designated area the Pip-Boy highlighted, catching one of the semi-humans on the shoulder tearing off a large chunk of the muscle, before he, it, slammed its body into her. She lost her grip on her rifle and it dropped, dangling against her chest. The semi-human and its companion fell upon Patience, dragging her to the floor.

The semi-humans grunted and growled as they attempted to rip into her flesh with their bare fingers, growing larger every second, pressing greater and greater weight down upon her, forcing her rifle to dig into her chest. She couldn't breathe. She tried to push back, to gain some space, but the semi-humans gave her no quarter. Desperate, she reached for her sidearm, bringing it up under the chin of one of the semi-humans and firing until the action locked back, out of bullets.

The semi-human's head almost exploded from the stream of bullets sending flesh and blood spattering upwards in a grotesque shower. The other semi-human dragged the dead one from atop Patience and fell upon her, punching at scratching. Patience knew there was little chance of reloading her sidearm. All she could do was fend off the scratches, twist and cover from the punches, but the semi-human was becoming more Super Mutant by the second.

In desperation, she twisted her hips to the side, pulling her legs out and upwards. She dragged the semi-human's arm to the side, with much effort, and wrapped her legs around the creature's neck. Gripping the creature as tight as possible, tying her own legs together, she pushed the creature's arm across its own throat and squeezed with every ounce of strength she had left.

The creature struggled, its strength increasing by the second, but Patience held on. It lifted her into the air and slammed her back to the ground, knocking the air from her lungs, and still she held on. Soon, its movements became sluggish, weaker, but Patience did not loosen her grip until she felt certain the thing was out cold. As soon as she felt sure, she rolled it off her body. Rising, unsteady, to her feet she moved behind the semi-human, grabbed its chin and the back of its head and twisted, as hard as she could, until she heard a horrible cracking sound.