Raiders of the Lost Ruins [M]

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Naomi pulled out the map and winced as the radiated dust hit her face. She unfolded the sand coated paper and observed it for the umpteenth time. This map she got out of a bandit hideout said that there was a weapon cache in the basement of the Germantown police station basement. She had her doubts when she picked it out of the junk of the bandits loot pile( Using the term loot as loosely as possible.) But she had nothing better to do, so she figured why not. She approached Germantown with growing trepidation. She expected it to be full of things that want to kill her, but there was no one here. Or so she thought. She rounded a corner and saw two figures. She jumped behind a large boulder and risked a peek. A man in leather armor and a figure clad in power armor. The figure in power armor worried her, she had read in a pre-war book that those suits had sensors that could detect movement as far as a mile. Though she knew for a fact that the armor the figure was wearing didn't have that far of a sensor range. it was too beat up and that kind sensor range was extremely hard to come by anyway.

She contemplated on how to approach this situation. His armor wasn't painted so he wasn't an outsider. That didn't mean he wasn't hostile. Naomi looked at his friend, less armored, less aware of his surroundings, if she threatened to blow his head off she could keep them in her sight. But something told her that wasn't the best idea...Fuck it. Naomi stepped out from the rock and quietly approached the pair with her hand on the hilt of her katana. Once she got closer she realized how well equipped they were. The figure in power armor had noticed her, and raised his weapon. She gripped the hilt harder and raised a hand in a gesture of friendliness.
" I figure if you weren't friendly I would be dead right now. That about right?"

Naomi let out a sigh of relief. She took her katana off her belt and set on the ground. She did the same with her other weapons. She backed up from them and put her hands in the air. She looked around the deserted settlement. There was definitely a creepy vibe about. She looked at the man in power armor."I don't suppose you fellas are lookin' for a hidden weapon cache here. Because if you are, I'd be happy to split the goods...Seeing as  you're calling the shots right now." she said warily, eyeing his gun. She glanced over to the second figure, who she now realized was a male ghoul. It seemed he was digging into a grave marked "Cannibal". What he was looking for, she had no idea. She was half-tempted to say they probably deserved it, but the panicked look on Ghoul's face told her they might know whoever was down there. That scared her. She looked at the figure in power armor again. If these two were friends to a pack of cannibals, she wasn't sure she wanted to be at their mercy. There was nothing she could do about it now.

Within the warm rough soil of the freshly dug grave, something sharp grabbed Coyote's arm and dug into the ghoul's leathery old hide. Dirt shifted and displaced as the grave's occupant came roaring to the surface in a flurry of heavy breaths and frantic screams. It was a girl - that much was clear, even behind all the dirt and dried blood. Six feet of filth was not quite enough to hide the girl's distinctive head of fiery red hair. Plus she was swearing and screaming loud enough to bring the Devil up with her. It was Willow Cohen all right.

The screams were largely due to pain. Whoever had dug the grave, had somehow thought it necessary to bury Willow in Miriam Cohen's trademark junk armour, and bind the famous minigun to the teenager's back with chain. Rusty links cuts into Willow's back, and the wounds bite very time she moved. But the screams were also that of shock. Being buried alive will do that to you anyway, but Ghouls - for want of a more socially acceptable word - are basically zombies. Living corpses. The irony of being dragged from a grave by such an individual was currently lost of Willow, due to the fact she was hysterical. She fought, bit, screamed and kicked at Coyote for every inch he pulled her upward. It was unclear whether Willow recognised Coyote, or even knew who he was.

However, bigger problems were on the horizon. Literally. Lurk the Super Mutant, who had been watching events from afar, had now decided that the grave was his personal property and therefore must take an interest in all transgressors. The giant Mutant lumbered forth for the ruins, swinging his fire hydron club as he stomped towards Naomi and James.

"Humans screwin' with the special! That Lurk's thing! Lurk gonna EAT...YOUR...LIMBS! LURK! HAHAHAHAHAHA! LURK LURK LURK!"

Naomi jumped when a girl came out of the grave, screaming and hollering and covered in metal. She looked at the Ghoul in astonishment, as he had uttered the word "Zombie Tits". She felt the foot steps before she heard them.

Lurk the Super Mutant, who had been watching events from afar, had now decided that the grave was his personal property and therefore must take an interest in all transgressors. The giant Mutant lumbered forth for the ruins, swinging his fire hydrant club as he stomped towards Naomi and James.



"Humans screwin' with the special! That Lurk's thing! Lurk gonna EAT...YOUR...LIMBS! LURK! HAHAHAHAHAHA! LURK LURK LURK!"
The Ghoul yelled at them to run and Naomi couldn't think of a better idea. She sprinted towards her weapons, gathering them up and her arms and re-equipping them while she ran. By the time she had gotten to the man in power armor, she was fully equipped. She spun around watched the mutant charging towards them. She slammed a magazine into her M4A1 and unloaded in his general direction. A lot of them found their target but it only slightly slowed down their assailant. The beast stumbled and roared, finding renewed rage.
"FUCK! I knew I shouldn't have gotten them that cheap." Naomi said, regretting her cheap ways. The ghoul was now with them, and the mutant was almost here.
"You guys gotta distract him, if you just hit him with everything you got, I can go around and take out one of his legs." she said quickly, she took out her revolver and aimed at his head, she fired; hoping the bullet hit somewhere near the eyes. She dashed away, so the first thing the mutant sees is her new allies.

Naomi's bullets hit the left hand side of Lurk's face in a storm of smoke and spattered blood. When the dust settled, the mutant no longer had an ear. The blood was prolific, but all Naomi had done is mess up the big mother's pretty face. However, it had the desired effect - thick red mess covered the mutant's eyes and rendered him temporarily blind. He stumbled boundlessly on, roaring garbled profanities.

James's Kukri buried deep in the mutant's side. Lurk howled with frustration, knocking James to one side and pulling the Kukri from his abdomen like a lawn dart. The beast crushed the weapon to junk in a single hand, scattering bits and pieces like ashes all over his attackers.

"Willow, here's the ripper. Free yourself if you can, but please don't run on me. I'm here to help you."

Willow barely registered Coyote's words as the scream of wasteland battle rang in her ears and she wasn't yet accustomed to any light that wasn't found in the bottom of a hastily dug grave. She pulled the ripper's throttle, and jumped with a start when it roared. Willow screamed. Just because.

With no other option, she picked herself up - chains, minigun, armour and all. Willow could barely walks, let alone fight, but she ploughed forward breathing harshly and screwed up her eyes. She tensed her entire skin and bones body - all ninety pounds of it - as the minigun revved. Willow Cohen was fifteen. She lacked the experience, strength and just plain artillery artistry of her mother. But by more luck than judgment, she took out one of the mutant's arms. She just hoped that neither Coyote nor anyone else was caught in the crossfire.

Lurk blinked for as long enough as it took to register that his right arm was now a bloody stump. He bellowed with crazy stupid raged as he span viciously forward, swinging his club like a whirling dervish with a useless bloody stump dangling by his side...

    And then shit hit the fan. Germantown, like Meserti Station one year before, became a small warzone. The mutant was the recipient of scorches and pistol rounds, it's near perfect muscular structure no match for the searing plasma rounds dispensed by the paladin's rifle. The girl's pistol rounds had stunned and disoriented the monster, and she took advantage quickly. Focusing on James, Lurk failed to noticed the girl slip away. The close quarters scuffle forced Coyote to hold his fire when James Masterson sunk his blade into the mutie. John Morgan lowered his rifle and yelled.

    "Da fuck are you doin'!? Get o-"

    His cry was cut off as the power armor was sent tumbling towards the ghoul. Juking to his left, the man in the armor narrowly missed him and came to a rest on the side of the road. "Christ." the ghoul grunted. The mutie removed James' weapon and destroyed the blade in one hand, dropping the chunks like funeral ashes. Coyote raised his weapon again, only able to fire a few rounds before a hum caught his attention in between LMG blasts.

    John Morgan dove belly first into the dirt when the high-pitched whine stirred from behind him. 5mm rounds began spraying across the road. They peppered the mutant's torso, sinking deeply into it's dense muscle tissue. Coyote found his feet as Lurk's arm was dislocated and cut away by a hail of led. Blood splattered across the ancient asphalt, leaving a hideous trail of gore. Ravens and radroaches would later feast on it.

    As soon as the chained young woman ceased her firing, John called to her. "Easy." Keeping his sights on the flailing and bleeding monstrosity before them, the ghoul strafed his way to Willow's side. "Don't know how ya did it, but nice gunnin', Kid. " Taking advantage of Lurk's temporary tantrum, the ghoul eyed Willow. She was still screaming and squirming, but also focused by the bleeding behemoth before them. He moved quickly.


    John Morgan dropped his LMG as his boot swept the dirty young woman's feet out from under her and his palm pushed her forward. His left hand caught one of the chains as she fell, narrowly preventing Willow from smashing her nose against the dry earth. Laying the thrashing girl down, John placed his knee pad on her back. She howled and screamed, but more in outrage than pain. John Morgan snatched the deadly tool with his free hand, and revved the ripper.

    As he began to saw through Willow Cohen's chain, the ghoul suddenly realized the ground was shaking. He looked over his shoulder in time to spot the handicapped super mutant coming for him, swinging it's hydrant like it was a 9-iron and John's head was a nearby golf ball. John readied the ripper, knowing fully well it would not save Willow nor his life from the hydrant. But the blow never came.

    Another mutant, this one smaller, burst from the ruins nearby and sprinted towards Lurk. Lurk hesitated to attack, realizing another mutant had entered the battlefield. The new mutant attacked the injured Lurk, and Coyote quickly focused on freeing Willow once again. The sounds of the ripper seemed like a whisper compared to the heavy fists smashing Lurk's face to a bloody pulp. He briefly wondered if the other girl had ran off. As the ripper finished sawing, the ghoul recovered his LMG and found his feet again.

    "Sorry about that." John said in his dry drawl, the new mutant in his iron sights. He nodded his head to a parking lot. "Now get back, Willow."

    "Talk to me, James!" Coyote growled as the sneering monster rose once again. "Metal Ass, can you hear me!? We got another problem!" John prepared to empty the magazine into the murderous mutant. The ghoul might be clobbered to death, but at least he would do some damage. He found and hopefully saved Willow Cohen. And when the mutie charged, he would at least unload a hail of AP rounds into the monsters guts. But once again, a blow never came.

    Gah', me' not going to hurt any hew'men' or zombays', put boomsticks away prease'..." the mutant pleaded.

    Ghouls like Coyote had seen nearly everything. This, he had never seen.

"Talk to me, James!"
"Metal Ass, can you hear me!? We got another problem!"

James had been knocked unconscious. The blow, he was not ready for. The first sounds he heard when he came to shortly after passing out, were Coyote's insults. He was glad to hear them. James rose to his feet, and looked at the "problem". Another mutant. James could not do much, as the new mutant was in between him and his rifle.

"Gah', me' not going to hurt any hew'men' or zombays', put boomsticks away prease'..."

James was skeptical, very, very skeptical. He had never seen a mutant that didn't want to pummel his face in. He skirted around the mutant, saying nothing, until he reached his rifle. He picked it up, and kept it lowered, but ready to fire at this mutant, incase it tried attacking them.