Fallout: Part two: Another day, another hellish-foreboding -wasteland
Okay this is part 2 of my currently nameless series, written before I posted my first part. I figured I would write a couple more parts so things wouldn't get backed up. If I get going I intend to make the series quite long. Maybe not too long... Mostly a large number of short chapters...Part 2: Another day, another hellish-foreboding -wasteland.
Brilliant white radiance poured from the sky by the bucket load. David's arm went up to cover his eyes as the light blinded him. He had been so lost in thought that he had forgot about the visual adjustment required when leaving the vault. After a few moments of fading blindness, David slowly opened his eyes and froze, he couldn't believe it. It was incredible. Before David's eyes lay seemingly endless tundra of white.
The rocky walls of a hill behind him were covered in a thin coat of it and it covered the ground completely. He remembered learning something about 'snow' in vault school. It was supposed to be found in very cold places. Then it hit him. A freezing gust of icy wind bowled him over and he stumbled back into the open doorway behind him. He was used to cold temperatures at night but this, this was insane. All previous thoughts and questions instantly disappeared as a greater question emerged, a question, the likes of which represented an infinite number of possible queries.
"What the fuck!" He yelled with his arms crossed rubbing at his sides to try staying warm. He quickly realised his mistake, he was probably being a little too loud.
His arm flew to his side as a quiet hiss filled the air. David tried to take a step forward, but met resistance and he tried to lift his foot. His fingers shaking from the biting cold he scanned the area in front of him with his gun looking for any sign of movement.
The ground exploded in front of him as something long burst from the ground in front of him sending snow everywhere. David's adrenaline kicked in again, increasing his reaction time, but it did him little good. The snow was still floating down in front of him, so all he could do was blind-fire twice and stumble backwards. The thing writhed about and screeched at him as he fell over. It was a giant millipede! It's hundreds of legs flailed about as it shook its head about emitting the piercing screech.
The thing lowered its huge insect jaw things and lashed out at David. He rolled to the side as he had with the deathclaw as the thing crashed into the ground beside him. David leapt to his feet and fired a round at the things head as it withdrew from its strike. The shot connected with its head with a squelch as it writhed about again. David mentally thanked himself for reloading the gun while in the tunnel. Three shots left.
David raised his arm for the killshot. As he tightened the trigger a little.
"David one, wasteland ze-"
A huge white figure crashed down on the insect from above, sending even more snow up into the air. As the snow cleared David could see a large animal, similar to a Yao-Guai, shaking the insect about with its jaws wrapped around it. As soon as the insect went limp, the Guai raised its eyes to David and dropped its previous prey. It had found a bigger meal. The Guai leapt at David with a mighty roar. David fired three rounds into the beast, but to no avail. The creature bowled him to the ground and stood over him. It roared again baring its teeth and went for the kill, only to be stopped halfway there. David lay on the ground, with his hands in the mouth of the Guai keeping it from moving any further or biting him. With a tremendous effort, David grabbed the Guai harder and with all his strength violently jerked it in a twisting motion. The Guai stopped and gradually slumped to the ground where it lay unmoving. David forced the heavy beast off him, gasping for air. "That still counts as two." He thought.
It was too cold. Cold was not a battle he had the correct weapons for. He lay there shivering wondering what to do when he heard a call from his right.
"Hooey! Looks like sum'bawdy left their outside jammies at home!" David looked to his right to see a woman in a white warm-looking fur suit and a cowboy hat toting a shotgun. Her hair was as white as the snow and tied in a ponytail.
"Come here honey" She called out. "Got me a spare suit in my pack here you can use. Don't want you freezing your sweet li'l ass off. Come on boy!" She called un-slinging her pack and digging through it.
Despite the woman's odd dress and strange accent, David was in no situation to turn away help. David got to his feet and with his arms crossed still trying to conserve heat and plodded through the snow towards her. The woman drew out a full body suit identical to hers and handed it over to David, who quickly pulled it on over his jumpsuit.
"Don't you want to take off that dirty thing before you put that on?" She asked pointing at him. David followed her gaze to his jumpsuit and looked back to see a playful smile on her face.
"Nah, I'm jus' kidding! Don't you worry about it luv." She said with a small laugh. David returned a small smile before pulling on the hood over his head.
"Don't forget these!" She added pulling out of her backpack what appeared to be two tennis rackets with shoes tied to them. David paused for a second before putting on the odd footwear. He was pleasantly surprised to notice he tended to sink into the ground less, if at all.
David followed his new companion as she headed off to the north-east, singing and whistling as she went. She didn't talk too much for now, giving him plenty of time to think.
"Why," he thought, "would I appear two years into my past in some kind of alternate universe, while still somehow retaining my fitness and skill? I am still as strong as I was before I re-appeared in the vault." He thought back to when he was fighting the Guai.
"There was no way I could have normally done that straight out of the vault normally."
"So, where ya come from boy?" Came a sudden query from the leading figure.
David thought for a minute before answering.
"I am a mighty inter-dimensional warrior from an alternate plain of universal existence the likes of which are unbeknownst to mere mortals." He replied with a small smile. The woman in front turned around with an amused look on her face. "Oh another one? Yeah, we sees folks like you all the time." She said, playing along.
"And which alternate plain of universal existence do you hail from?" She continued.
David paused, trying to come up with another smart-ass answer.
"The third one." He answered with a smirk.
"So are ya some kind of space man then?" She asked innocently.
"Yes, I am a space man." He replied continuing the conversation.
"And which planet do ya come from?" She pressed on with her questions.
David thought for a few seconds. He didn't know his planets too well.
"The seventh one." He said, unsure of which planet that was.
"Ya mean Uranus? Oh yeah, I know that one. I'd really love to see Uranus." She said smiling innocently again turning away from David.
David was a bit shocked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that." He said with slightly embarrassed look on his face. He never did usually socialize with women.
"I said I'd love to see yer planet." She said turning around and smiling again.
"What did ya think I said?" She asked.
"What, oh nothing." He said looking away blushing a little. "So where are we headed exactly?" He asked trying to change the subject.
"Well, we be going to the l'il ol' place called Megatown. Oh and by the way, m' name's Shawna."
"David." He replied. David processed this information. "Megatown, obviously Megaton," He thought, "and Sean, obviously Shawna, except where Sean was a fat jolly half-drunk slob of a man, David smiled a little at the thought of him, Shawna was a young slim gorgeous woman with a great- David cleared his throat as he realized he was getting a little carried away in his thoughts.
"How long until we get to Megatown?" He asked wishing he could curl up in a nice bed in the cosy town and sleep. He mentally slapped himself for being such a pussy. "Cosy town? Fuck, I must be tired..." He thought.
"About ten minutes more, that should be it," She called back.
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"Just over here!" Shawna called down to him from atop a snowy hill. David could see smoke from over the top. Smoke meant fire, fire was warm.
David hurried to the top of the hill and almost fell over. About two-hundred metres in front of him down the hill, a huge expansive ruined city sprawled out. Huge buildings stuck up into the air like, like big spiky things. This was not a town, it was a huge city!
David turned to Shawna to see her lying on a piece of corrugated iron with another beside her.
"Well come on now, are you ready for the ride down?" She asked.
David realised what she meant and stared open mouthed. Sledding.
"You are SO awesome!" He mouthed in awe.
"Well thanks." She replied.
David paused out of confusion for a second before backing up and charging toward the awaiting piece of iron. He leapt onto it at full speed as Shawna pushed off herself.
David shot down the hill at an incredible speed as the icy wind whipped at his face. The snow ripped up around him as he flew down. David glanced behind him. Shawna was coming down behind him, but she was standing up!
"If she can do it..." He thought. Holding onto the sides of his iron David lifted himself up and placed both feet in a balanced position. He let go of the sides and was almost blown right over backwards by the wind. He crouched into a low position and regained his balance.
"This is so awesome!" He yelled, but the message was lost at the speed he was going at. He looked back at Shawna, who was lying down again. He felt a little confused and looked forward again. To his slight horror, he was approaching a small hill in the slope.
"Oh SHIT!" David hit the hill at full speed, getting half-a-dozen metres of air as his iron flew out from beneath him. Acting quickly, David pitched forward as he neared the ground and went into a rough roll. But instead of rolling and stopping, he just kept rolling and rolling down the last 20 metres where the slope flattened out where he eventually lost momentum and stopped.
"Hey David, are ya all right?" Shawna called out in a concerned tone running down the slope after him.
"Yeah, I'm right." David answered getting back up slowly. "Ow, shit, I think I broke my ass!" David said rubbing his bruises respectively. "How about you?" He asked.
"Oh, my ass is fine, don't ya worry yer pretty li'l head about it." She replied with a wink before heading towards the huge gate of the city.
David shook his head quickly. "She's just messing with me now." He said to himself as he followed him to the gate.
The gate was guarded on either side by two mean-looking guards brandishing assault rifles.
David gasped in astonishment. One of the guards was some kind of dog-thing! He had a white muzzle full of sharp-looking teeth protruding from the hood of his suit and a bushy tail slowly flicking behind him.
"Well well, what's this we have here then?" Asked the dog-guard as he moved in front of Shawna.
"Just leave her alone Bob, you got no business with her." The other guard called to him.
"It looks like cowgirl has returned to town." He said mockingly.
"Piss off dirtbag." Shawna said trying to move around him. The guard gave a short growl and moved across to block her path.
"Awww, what's wrong cowgirl?" He asked, again in a mocking voice.
"Bob, I wouldn't." The other human warned eyeing David as he marched towards the guard in front of Shawna.
"I have an idea cowgirl," He continued, "Let's play a little horsey. I'll be the horsey and lie on the ground and you can ride me for a whi-" David stepped in between the guard and Shawna.
"The lady told you to piss off." David said in a menacing tone. "I suggest you do so."
The guard laughed.
"Or what? What are y-?"
David's knee shot forward and hit the guard in the crotch, making him double over in pain. David then grabbed the man's suit by the back of the neck and swept his feet out from under him, flipping him over and making him land on his ass.
"Aaaaaaagh! SHIT SHIT SHIT! Fuck you, you stupid fucking son of a-" The man was cut off as Shawna's boot hit him in the crotch. The man lay silent rolling around holding himself in pain whimpering a little.
David looked across at the other guard suspisciously.
"I didn't see nut'n." The guard said with a small hint of satisfaction in his voice as he smiled slightly.
David smiled back and nodded before heading into the city with Shawna. David looked over at her to see how she was feeling.
"Oh, I see how it is now," She started, "big tough man saves the lass from the bad guy. How macho." She said. David saw her angry look and felt a little annoyed at himself.
"Awww shoot, I was jus' messing with ya." She said smiling. "But just remember that I can take care of myself. Though I got to admit, that was pretty nice back there." A smile returned to David's face, thankful that he didn't offend her.
"So, "David started. "What's with that guard back there? Is he affected by mutation or something? He asked. Shawna looked at him, obviously confused.
"Of course he is, he's a wulf isn't he?" She said. Shawna saw his confused look and realization dawned on her.
"You came out of that vault, didn't you" She asked. "Of course! Everyone in a vault is human!" She said hitting herself on the head.
"So what there are more of them?" David asked shocked.
"Yes," Shawna said looking at him amused, "There are more of us." Shawna turned forward and before David could ask what 'us' meant, Shawna spoke.
"I'll tell you t'morrow, C'mon, I got me a nice getup in the centre of town. Ya can spend the night there." She ran down an alley to the left.
"I don't know how I can thank you for this," David said as he ran after her.
"Aah, don't worry luv', I'm sure we can think of somt'in." She cut in without looking back. David gave a small nod and followed. This was one interesting woman...
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...He is most entertaining...