ICC- Lone Wanderers Chapter 4

[welsh]

OCC- Ok, this is a strategic decision, and I am not sure if it is a wise one. Chapter 3 was waiting for Gunslinger to finish up and Rogue to finish. Since I am unsure when Rogue will complete, and since Gunslinger is almost done with his section and wants a break, I am pairing this part off from the regular chapter.

This section will involve the University and the rescue of those who went there. I hope to pick up the story of the crew at the University, and the rescue.

This story will be simple- go to the University, rescue the group, return. Then we can think of the next chapter. Gunslinger- you can add join up when ever you want to continue the next part. But calling this other than chapter 4 is confusing. Chapter 3 is currently locked.

Is cool? Sorry for the confusion.

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ICC
In the morning, Zoe found that Isabella was doing better. She would slowly recover and the child in her womb was unaffected. Zoe instructed one of the DeSilva women on care. In her brief time she had begun to instruct others on medical care and had discovered, suprisingly, that she was good at the art of instruction. With Ibis gone, they would need more people with medical training.

Isabella listened to Talon ask for horses and supplies, telling her that they had people at a ruined site some distance, that they were after medical supplies that were needed for both the caravan and the De Silvas.

Zoe added that they had exhausted what supplies both the caravan and the DeSilvas possessed, and while they had found some supplies in the mall, these were of too insignificant a quantity.

Isabella listened, privately relieved that her child was fine. But she had other concerns as well. Montoya, her would be suiter, was taking advantage of the time to build friends among the families. He would press her for marriage, and as a woman, she would be forced into making a difficult compromise. For now, as the widow of Don Pablo, she had the loyalty of her clan. But it was not the clan way that women should lead. Rather, the clan still lived by the old ways. Isabella would have to remarry if she were to lead.

She listened and agreed. They could take what horses they need. But Talon didn not press her for support from the clansmen. It was a political choice. They had fought side by side, and had saved each other's skin. But Talon was reluctant to press for more. There were few men to spare in any event.

In the interval, more people had come up from the South and were stopping by the mall. Many came to see the horses and a few were trying to barter for the beasts. De Silva men were training new comers on how to ride and care for the beasts. In the meantime, there was significant trade going on between the new comers and the traders of both the De Silva Clan and the caravan.

A few of the caravan had volunteered to join, as had a few of the new comers. But Talon wanted to keep the group small. Himself, Zoe, Gruug, Dreg, Rogue and Grim and a few others would make the journey. The rest of the caravan would remain there until they came back.

Isabella assured Talon that the De Silvas would remain for sometime, to gather strength before moving further north. They would wait.

Grim had stayed outside while Ibis body had slowly burned away. Then, he had returned. Inside he felt older, but also wiser somehow, more calm and something else, something foreign, gentler. Cerberus had not come in, but had stayed near where Ibis had last lay.

The caravan was without a formal scout. Thing Two had died, Thing One was with the company and McReady was missing. Grim would be their only scout. When Talon asked him if he would join, Grim had only nodded.

He was with them when they saddled up and road to the West, in search of their lost friends.

 

[welsh]

McReady was stumbling through the high plains grass, his face skin burned and his body dehydrated. The blast and scorched his skin, leaving second and third degrees on the areas that had been bare.

Had it not been for the thing inside his mind, perhaps he would have stopped and died under the bleaching sun.

But it kept stabbing him, kept burning him.

ANd it kept talking.
Talking and never shutting up.
Never could he shut his mind to it.
Never

Because it was in his mind.

Often he thought it was is conscience. Just like the time the girl had found the scar under his scalp in Big Easy, and how his hands had found her throat, cutting off her cry.

He couldn't seem to forget that.

Was that him or the voice that did it.

Did it matter?

The voice suddently stilled as they occassionally did, and he fell to the ground.

And there he lay, for a long time.

Hoping to finally stop thinking, hoping to finally stop.

He closed his eyes and drifted.

And in his dreams he was in hell, and the girl was screaming even as he strangled her. Not just her, but the others. He felt his hands digging into her throat even as he tried to escape the dream.

And he heard the hooved beasts bearing down on him, trampling, coming on, their heavy breath.

He opened his eyes.

To see the small group race past.

He waited until they had past to lift his head.

They were going in the direction of the University, and he recognized them. They were from the Caravan.

There was a stinging sensation between his ears, then a coldness came through him, chilling his body.

He slowly stood up, found his gravity, and continued.

The voices urging him on, whipping them with their punishments, like the wicked rider whips a brahmin.

 

[Zoe]

The group traveled as fast as possible, trying not to overtire the horses before reaching their goal.

Still when they finally saw the university at a distance, Zoe started having that traveler's ilusion: the farther they got, the farther the goal seemed to be!

She decided to pay more attention on the way and in the companions than in the goal, to avoid that annoying illusion.

* * *

After talking about the battle, the explosion and all, the group at last reached the University.
"Any of you ever been here?"Zoe asked.
"Nope."
She dismounted and before entering the building, took a good look around to see if anything was weird or looking misplaced in the surroundings, and payed attention to any possible sounds.
All seemed quiet.
Everything is too quiet!
Grim noded and entered the building. Zoe looked at the others. Rogue smiled and Gruug shrugged and dismounted, ready to enter.
Zoe readied her rifle and entered the building.

 

[welsh]

The first building was unoccupied as were most of the others.

And that was the strange thing. There were was no sign of life. No scavs, no stray dogs.

Not even cockroaches or rats. Nothing, not scavengers, not insects. Nothing.

But stillness.

To break the stillness Talon called out. But there was only echo. The others began to call out as well. But nothing.

Slowly they began to spread through the ruined campus looking for life, not just of their friends but anything.

Even a corpse would have been a welcome site.

Outside Grim looked for tracks. At first there was little. So much of the ground was covered with rubble that there was little dirt for a track to be printed. But the further he moved away, the more tracks he saw. And what he saw he didn't like.

Large tracks, multiple and of different sizes and shapes. Many. And nothing recognizable.

The best he could see they had scurried about but in every direction. He continued to move further away, looking for clearer tracks.

Further away, Gruug picked up a green boot, the kind one often saw on combat armor.

He looked inside expecting to see a foot, but it was empty.

In the university, Talon found a stairwell going down. "I think I found something." He called out.

Rogue was quickly on the scene, worried about Lyall. "Let's have a look." She lit a flare and tossed it.

It tumbled down the stairwell, a bright red light, momentarily illuminating the stairwell, until it hit the bottom, some flights below.

Talon reached out to grab the rail, to test it's balance. His hand came up with something green and slimy.

"What the fuck?"

Zoe, having heard the commotion had come up. "Let me take a look at it." She said.

She examined the slime and scrapped off a bit. Popping open her kit, she used her scalpel to cut off a small piece and put it in a solution. It fizzelled and burnt away.

"What ever it is, it's organic."

Grug had by now come as well and took a look at the sample. "Not mutie blood." He said.

"I've never seen anything like that either." Said Talon.

"Nor I." Agreed Rogue.

"I found a boot." Said Gruug, holding up his prize.

"But what about the owner?" Asked Talon.

Gruug could only shrug.

"Hey!" Called Grim. "I found tracks. Human tracks too. I think it's them." Grim was still outside.

Something moved quickly down in the shaft, some thing big. Everyone had been distracted by Grim and hadn't been looking down. But when they looked, they saw only darkness.

Something had snatched the flare.

"I think we should follow this while we have light." Called Grim, far away, outside.

Talon looked down the shaft and then at the others. "Maybe he's right."

 

[Zoe]

Zoe said: "Yeah lets follow it while we have light. But lets be ready - this could be a trap!"

And with that, she readied her pistol and started moving to the direction of the stolen flare. She was trying to be as quick as possible, but also being careful, cause she did not know well that place. Zoe could hear someone from her group was following not so far from her.
After a while, she was not sure anymore if she was still being followed: no sound of footsteps and it was heard to see in that darkness, even if her eyes got acostumed since the group had been in that place a few minutes already.
She continued in the chase, there were many corridors and who/whatever had taken the flare was moving really quick. Zoe tried to look before she moved ahead, trying to get as much information about the surroundings as the little light from the flare made possible while it moved ahead.

Suddenly, a noise behind her! A door, being locked.
And a sound: A laughter?
A voice said: "Welcome"

OOC: Hey Welsh, not sure if this matches your planes. Feel free to edit.Your turn!

 

[welsh]

OCC- This picks up from Rogue.

Cleary had given the instructions-

“Right, this how it’s gonna happen. Studly, the lieutenant, my self, Stryfe, and the big guy upstairs will be the spearhead out of the building.” explained the sergeant.

“Right hand side will be Crome, Paterson and Luciel. Emerson, Drake and Mitzi, you got the left hand side. Those left will form up and watch our ass out there.”

The small group had gone out, resolute, aware that in moments the abominations would be atop them with claw and tooth.

But when they had finally stepped out, they had found nothing but a newly risen sun on the Eastern horizon, climbing into a cloudless sky.

That had been four days ago. Now there were so few left.

They had packed what they could, quickly, eager to escape the confines of the University. Whereever the Abominations had gone into hiding, they were still at the University site. No one dared risked another evening.

They had packed their wounded on stretchers, taken what gear they could, and had fled. Lt. Lyall had said there was a small outpost to the West where they could get rest and medical supplies. It was close and safe. So instead of going East, following
the route taken by the caravan, they had elected to head West.

For a full day they had traveled, resting for short periods, before darkness that they found the Lt's outpost. An small stone house, abandoned, with thick walls and a cache of ammunitions, food and supplies buried in the basement.

The group had tendered to their wounded. Mitzi and Studly, the wounded recon troopers, Kelly who was still suffering from back injuries, and Syphon, who was doing better after receiving the mechanical arm. Reggie and Nat had tendered to the wounds.

They lit the fires outside because there chimney inside the house was blocked up, and they had set camp under the stars and soon the camp had gone quiet as the crew tried desperately to get much needed sleep.

Paterson had been on guard duty and was walking a perimeter when he heard sounds. He signaled to Crome and went to investigate. That was shortly before the dawn.

Paterson didn't have a chance to scream.

THe abominations than attacked, charging out of the darkness.

The crew had barely time to raise their weapons when the creatures were inside and tearing at anything they could. Those that could managed to get into the house, each person on their own. Studly and Mitzi, both wounded from the night before, were killed in their sleeping bags, before the alarm could sound.

Syphon had made a start for the house, than thought of Kelly, turned back only to see an abomination bit off her head, styfling a scream.

Crome had been among the last ones to make to the door and was pushing people inside when one of them snatched him away, carried him back into the campsite where he was torn apart by a frenzy of abominations.

They slammed the door and closed the window shutters, barricading them and waited, listening to the insect like scurry of feet outside, on the building, atop the building. They could listen to the creatures picking at the bricks and the door.

Lyall had looked at the others but had said nothing.

It was Drake that spoke. "Where the fuck did they come from?"

Sarge, who's big bulk filled up a large part of the room, spoke. "They followed us out here. They came after us."

An hour later the sun had come up, and their was no evidence of the abominations except the ruined campsite.

SO once again they moved, now to the North, moving more quickly this time, no longer carrying their wounded.

And that night the abominations came again.

 

[Syphon]

(What? You killed off Syphon?...Oh, well NMA is going under anyways, right?)

 

[Zoe]

(Yo, Syphon, it seems it was Kelly who got killed, not Syphon)

 

[Syphon]

(oh... My bad...)

Syphon stood infront of the wooden door, breathing heavily. He barely made it out when the Abominations came, and now Kelly was gone. Syphon bowed his head, and mumbled a few words. He began to break-down. She was gone. Syphon lit up a cig, and breathed deeply. It was over.

He almost forgot about the usual pain in his arm, but with the mechanical device in place, it felt normal. His new, left arm looked like a metal skeletal arm. Nice and gloss.

 

[welsh]

OCC-

(What? You killed off Syphon?...Oh, well NMA is going under anyways, right?)

What makes you say that? Folks try to keep the OCC in the OCC thread. By now the group has left the house. There is a time problem and I am trying to clear it up.

In the last chapter the group split up with Rogue writing about one group (the university group) and I writing about the other (the caravan group). Everything that happened at the University to the university group (Syphon if you haven't read that please do so) happened only a day ago or two after the groups split up. But the caravan group went through a few days. We need to tie this up pretty quick and I hope to do so soon.

Rogue's splinter also included a lot of characters. Most I have to get rid of but I have to at least identify them first.


ICC-

They had ridden for half a day following the tracks when they came across the house, and by then it was getting dark.

Zoe inspected the inside. There was blood on the table. She touched it, and her fingers came back damp. "Someone was here recently. Looks like a fresh wound a few days ago."

Talon picked up one of the used shell casings that were all over the floor. "Looks like quite a fight."

Gruug was also looking around. On one wall he found traces of green blood. "It was them alright. This is Mutie blood."

Dreg said nothing, moving about the camp site while Gabriel looked the house over for damage. There had been a fight here, no question about it. Gabriel was gathering the horses and looking for a place to coral them for the night. "What the hell is that smell." He asked, catching the odor. Perhaps the horses smelled it to. They had been acting skittish.

"Not sure but it seems to becoming from over here." Said Dreg, walking towards a river.

Grim moved about the camp, checking for tracks. It was strange, he could find tracks, but most were leaving the house, few were returning to it. THere were also the tracks he had seen at the university. They seemed to be coming from the direction of the river. Other tracks seemed to be heading North. "They were here, but these tracks are a couple of days old. But it's them. Seems there were fewer of them too."

Talon was looking at the shell casings. He had seen shell casings at the University too, and knew that the group had not resupplied. Whereever they were, they were growing short of ammo.

He stepped out of the house to watch were Gabriel had moved the horses and to see where Dreg was walking.

This place didn't feel right. There had been a fight and it had costly.

But against what?

 

[Zoe]

Zoe checked her plasma pistol. If there was a fight,
there was a chance the enemy was still around - or would be back.

"You guys have any idea where would your friends go? Since
they left this place..."

She blinked for a moment and breathed deep: another mistery to
face, and about people she did not know.
Zoe liked solving puzzles and misteries. She felt tempted to get a
sample of the mutant blood on the ground, to see if the mutations were different than the ones she studied back at the vault's lab.
But it seemed it was not the time to make scientifical research - and ironicaly, they were in an university. What knowledge was abandoned there, just waiting to be recolected or developed?

 

[Gruug]

As Dreg was walking along, something clicked inside him. Nothing chaotic/psychotic, nothing like that.
Just clicked. He didn't know how and he didn't know why, but for some reason, something inside him wanted him to back the hell up, to not take any more steps, or else something terrible and irreperable would happen. Most likely the death of Dreg himself. Humbled by this overpowering bout of fear, Dreg slowly back away. Straining, he could hear something, and it was definatly not human. Dreg hurried away just in time, as some abomination came stomping from behind a building. Dreg was amazed.

 

[welsh]

Gabriel had gone after Dreg and therefore, witnessed what happened next.

The creature was a mixture of a dozen different beasts but moved insect like.

Dreg used his fighting stick on the creature, slamming it down hard on the shell. The creature paused a moment than came closer. Meanwhile three more had joined the first and quickly encircled Dreg.

Gabriel withdrew his pistols to shoot, but it was already too late.

Dreg, encircled, lashed out furiously with his staff, but then one of the creatures snatched it out of his hands and crushed the staff in it's mouth.

Dreg drew his body into a weapon. But there were too many of them.

He let out no sound, nor did he scream. Not when they pulled him down. Not as the acid burned into his body. Not even when the abominations pulled his body apart.

Gabriel watched it all, dumbfound. A burst of blood into the night sky shook him from his daze. He turned and ran for the building his comrades had taken as shelter.

As he passed he could see the horses were now startled and kicking up, struggling with their restraints.

He opened the door, Grim looking up suprised.

"What?" Asked Gruug.

"We have to leave, right away. Dreg is gone and we're next."

 

[welsh]

Lt. Lyall and Cleary took turns with the infra-red binoculars. Many times they had used them on recon, now they used to them survive.

Neither men spoke much since the first attack on the house. They weren't really a squad anymore. Just two survivors. Everyone else was dead and what communications gear they had was lost. Lyall's pipboy had been damaged in the fighting at the University, and Cleary's hadn't worked in a long time.

"What do you think command will think?" Aske Clearly.

"THat we didn't make it."

"No rescue?" Asked Cleary.

"Not SOP. But then there are the surgical beacons." Said Lyall. THere was a rumor that since the Slayers had joined the League, each had been given a beacon that could be tracked through the LEague's communciations net. Lyall didn't believe it.

They had been hit again since the night Mitzy and Studly. But this time they had dug in well and had lost only Emerson.

Now, there was only Reggie, Sarge, Nat, Syphon, Thing One, Luciel, Duke, Shannon and Danti were left.

They were dug in on top of a rocky hill. For unknown reasons the Abominations didn't like to climb over rock. They had been moving over rock for the past few days without attack. THey had followed a narrow trail ontop of the hill, resting only in those areas that were easily defendable.

"Plans?" Asked Cleary.

"There's an arms cache a days hike from here. Pre-war site. Supplies there too" Said Lyall, although he kept watching through the binoculars. "Got 'em"

The abominations had not attacked, but they had not stopped following the survivors.

"Later this time." Said Cleary.

"Yep." Said Lyall. "Looks like they have found something more interesting." handing over the binoculars to Cleary.

Cleary looked down. "Deathclaws."

The group had been come across fresh Deathclaw tracks that morning and been aware that the Deathclaws were following them now, perhaps planning an attack at night.

But the hunters had become the hunted. Now the pack of deathclaw were surrounded by the abominations. The deathclaws were fierce and tore at the abominations, but slowly, one by one the deathclaws where brought down, their bodies dragged away from the fight and quickly torn to shreds.

__________


Further away.

The group quickly saddled their horses while Talon and Zoe moved to observe. Talon had brought with him an armburst, a single shot flame weapon. Zoe was more to observe.

She watched, overcoming their horror, as the creatures quickly finished off the body of Dreg. The creatures were efficient. When them moved away, she could see nothing left of the man's body. Not even his bone.

Then the creatures turned on those that Dreg had wounded. The wounded fought well but were quickly overcome. And so the healthy continued to consume the wounded.

Tentacles and claws, teeth and muscle, the creatuers were part reptile, part insect, part mammel. A collection of bits and pieces from other species. Each creature a horrific unique example of a crossed evolution.

It was a fascinating if horrific display of effeciency. The creatures left nothing behind. Then began consuming anything organic.

Grim joined them. "We're saddled up." He reported then seeing the beasts in the hollow below, "Shit. We need to go. Now."

Talon lowered his weapon as Grim pulled Zoe's arm, pulling the girl away from the nightmarish spectacle. Talon fired his flame weapon at the tunnel in which the creatures seem to be spewing out.

The weapon exploded, casting flame in all direction. Talon didn't wait to inspect the damage, but turned away and ran for the horses. The wicked screams of the creatures behind him, full of anger and fear, was enough for him to know that there were more of the creatures coming.

 

[welsh]

Another night of respite. The abominations had destroyed the Deathclaw pack and then had turned on those that had been wounded. It was the same practice. They would consume each other for their nutrient.

Quietly Lyall and Cleary had returned to camp, careful not to trip the flame traps that they had placed along the path through the rocks.

They were being tracked. The creatures had come near each night but had not pursued them into the high rocks. Neither Lyall, Cleary, Reggie or anyone else in the group could understand why. But they also were aware of one harsh truth. The creatures were pursuing them.

Lyall nodded to Sarge and Syphon to take over at the OP. Most of the others in the camp were sleeping. Luciel was curled up next to Nat, Shannon with Drake. Reggie was up stoking the fire and Thing One was getting an early meal. The tribal scout rarely slept.

When Thing One saw Lyall come in he nodded and then, after getting his cup full of Reggie's breakfast, went over to speak to him.

"We move?" Asked Thing One.

"Yes, we're going to follow the ridge line. Stay off the valleys during the daylight."

"They don't like the rocks." Agreed Thing One. "But this path will take us back towards the hive."

Clearly nodded. He had been thinking the same thing.

Lyall sighed. "Yes. I don't think it matters where we go, they will just keep following us. Better we take it back to them. Following these rocks will get us there safer than going through the valleys."

THing One nodded, and quietly slipped out of camp, scouting ahead, alone now.

Reggie, the old ghoul, listened. Was this what the Bio-weapons team had been working on. He tried to remember the rumors he had heard, but his memory wasn't what it had been.

Reggie walked to Lyall and said, quietly, "I think I know what these things are, or more likely, what they were...."

...............

Out on OP, Sarge and Syphon watched the abominations. To Sarge these were mutants, that was all, but he felt no kinship with these beasts.

Syphon was practicing using his mechanical arm when he heard, barely a whisper, his name called.

"Syphon....."

Syphon got up with a start.

"What? Did you hear that?" He asked Sarge.

Sarge looked at him. He had been with the man a few nights and knew that Syphon was still feeling the loss of Kelly. "What?"

"I thought I heard my name." Said Syphon.

"You're hearing things."

"Maybe."

"I am going to check further down that ridge. You stay here." Said Sarge.

"Right."

Sarge got up and quietly moved further down the ridge. THere had been another trail and Sarge was worried that the trail might give the creatures a chance to move up behind the camp.

Syphon watched the big mutant move and then settled down, trying to get comfortable despite the cold.

He was tried. They all were. Barely any sleep, terribly cold, and the thought that those things might be atop them at any time.

Then he heard it again.

"Syphon...."

He listened.

"Syphon.... Help me." The voice was barely a whisper but he recognized it's origins. Kelly.

_________________

Further away.

They had ridden through the night, away from the house and towards a hilly area from which they could gain better observation.

When they stopped it was nearly dawn.

"We need to rest." Said Talon.

"I want to go back." Said Zoe.

Gabriel shook his head. "It's risky. If those things are back."

"We don't know anything about them. We need to go back and investigate."

"They would crush you in a moment." Said Gruug.

"But if we don't go back and learn something, we might not know what they are, and we might not know how to destroy them."

"It's risky." Said Talon. But he knew that Zoe had a point.

"I am willing to take the risk." For Zoe this was the experience of a life time. A new strange mutation. This was the type of discovery for which she yearned.

"But I am not." Said Talon.

"I'll go with her." Said Grim. The old gunslinger was not looking himself these days. Greyer, paler more worn out.

"What about the others?" Asked Talon.

"The trail is quite clear. They were heading north. Follow the trail and you should be able to find them. I would guess they were moving towards those hills yonder. If you go Northeast from here you will cut their trail." Said Grim. "Besides, once we find out what there is to learn, we will catch up."

Talon looked at the others and the horses. "Alright. Take fresh mounts. But don't delay. We will rest here for a few hours. The horses need it. But get back as soon as possible. After midday we'll be heading Northeast."

Zoe was already gathering her things. Grim nodded. "We'll find you."

 

[Zoe]

OCC- edits- Welsh here. Zoe, I am making some edits to make this a bit more consistent with the story. No plasma pistol and you are back at the stone house. The university is a bit far away for you.

ICC-As they rode back to the stone house on rested horses, ZOe said with enthusiasm:
"It would be great if we could get a sample of the creatures. At least a bit of one specimen so that I could study it!"
She looked at Grim. He seemed very worn out.
"Sorry, am I boring you?"
"No, I just am not used to that science talk, that's all."
"Are you ok? "
"Just tired. Don't underest ol' Grim!" and he snickered, but she did not feel too convinced. Yet, she noded, and said:
"Listen, I dont want to put anybody in danger. So I'll destroy the creature as soon as I've gattered enough info out of it. Also, we'll only bring it alive if we find a proper way... Such as a container (OOC: I need a more technical term than "thinguie" :p )

Soon they were back at the stone house.
Cautiously, they dismounted. Zoe readied her pistol, looked at Grim and as soon as they were ready, they entered the house, as stealthly as possible.

 

[welsh]

There was nothing in the house. But there were tracks, all sorts of tracks.

"Hard to make out what kind of critter this is." Said Grim. "Here we got different types of claw, like a deathclaw, then you got this here, looks like a rad scorpion or a cockroach. This here looks like some kind of slug. Damn peculiar."

Zoe had gone through the house. Before their quick depart they had been about to eat. They had left their food behind, but that was now missing. "What ever it was it must have been hungry." She said.

"Maybe we can find what's left of Dreg?" Suggested Grim.

Together they proceeded to the place where Dreg had fought his last battle. But there was no trace of his body, not even bone. Talon and Gabriel had both reported that the monsters had turned on themselves, but there was no trace of a carcass on the ground either.

"Where in the hell did they go?" Asked Grim.

"A better question is where is everything." Said Zoe.

"Meaning?"

"There is nothing alive, nothing. Not life not vegetation. Nothing. Everything organic has disappeared."

Grim had crossed many deserts in his years of travel, but the site of the house felt more like a desert than he could not recall a more dead place.

But the trails all led to a large sewar drain. "Looks like they came from here."

The drain was down in a recess of the land that fed into a dry stream bed. Grim led, followed by Zoe. Grim had removed his pistol though, remembering what had happened to Dreg, he doubted it would do much good.

They both neared the dark, shadowing pipe. "They came out of here." Said Grim.

"Where do you think it leads to?" Asked Zoe.

Grim shook his head. "he only place with underground access I have seen around here was that University, but I'd be suprised if they had tunnels out this far."

As the got near, Grim reached down and removed a flare. He held it out to ZOe to light the fuse, but ZOe pointed at something. "What's that?"

"What?"

She looked past him. "Look, on the pipe. There's some kind of slime."

She removed her science kit and removed a scaple, reached over and touched scraped off a bit of the residue. "It looks organic. Hell, it even smells organic. But I need to look at this under a microscope to figure out what it is."

Then when she brought it out to see it in the light, it began to fizzle and burn.

"Why would it do that?" Asked Grim.

As the sun moved through the sky, the light began to move through the pipe and the shadow receeded. There was more the residue began to burn.

"Looks like it doesn't like light." Said Grim.

"Perhaps it's more fragile than we think. Susceptible to ultra-violet radiation from the sun? But perhaps that explains why we don't see them in the day."

Grim climbed up into the pipe. "I am going to take a look further down. Maybe get some idea of this tunnel."

"Alright but be careful. The darkness is probably it's refuge. I'll try to see what I can learn from here."

 

[Zoe]

Zoe examined the pipe again and took another sample of the organic . "A slimic tissue... Would it have come from the monsters? Never saw anything like it! Fascinating..."

She put the sample inside a tiny thin circular glass that could be hermeticaly closed, and that was proper for samples. "I'll be very careful with this!"

Then ZOe started looking around, to see if she found any more clue...

 

[welsh]

OCC- Ok, this moves the story quite a bit. Anyone who wants to join, is more than welcomed. This part picks up the "horror" themes I want this chapter to roll with. Next insert will be Thing One, McReady and Talon.

ICC-
"Syphon.... Syphon.... I need you...." Called the voice of Kelly from the darkness.

Syphon had thought his mind was playing tricks on him. But the voice had become clearer now.

"Kelly?" He called out.

"Syphon, yes. Where are you?"

Syphon looked to where Sarge had gone, but the big mutant had moved further down the path and was no longer in view.

"I'm here Kelly."

"Come to me."

He knew he shouldn't go. He knew it could be a trick.

And yet, if it were Kelly.....

Despite himself, he got up from OP and found his feet carrying him towards the sound.

"Kelly?" He called out.

"Yes, here."

He walked down the path, her voice a murmur in the wind, calling him forward.

I shouldn't do this. I shouldn't leave the OP.... He thought, yet his muscles betrayed him.

He came around a large rock and then he saw her.

It was her. It was Kelly. Her hair was blowing in the wind, her body standing, naked, to his eye. She was smiling at him, and in her eyes were all the mysteries that he had so longed to discover.

It was easy to dismiss that her body disappeared into that of beetle, it's thousand legs scratching the rocks around her, keeping the balance for Kelly's torso. It was easy to ignore the long tentacles that swept out from her body and even now were circling around him.

It was easy not to think of that, as he walked towards her, his arms outstretched. And when she reached out and embraced him, it was not quite as he had imagined it would be.

......

A few minutes later Sarge returned to the OP to find Syphon had gone. He looked about. The man had left his weapon behind. He looked back along the path towards camp. Had he gone back?

He settled down to maintain his post and the night was otherwise uneventful. When he returned the next morning and asked for Syphon, he was told that the man had not returned.

...........

Reggie talked quietly to the others.

"It started before the war." He said.

"What?" Asked Cleary, impatient.

"It's hard to remember. It was so long ago. But back then the University was doing a lot of research, and not all of it was without government interest." Said the old ghoul, trying to stretch his mind back to the days before he was a ghoul.

The others listened patiently.

"We forget that before the Great War, there were many smaller wars, and that the people of this planet pointed weapons that would destroy hundreds of thousands, millions of people, with one blow. It was those weapons that gave us our wasteland. And they made weapons and threatened each other with extinction should war happen, and they tested each other's limits and they teased each other. War is not just about having the weapon, it is about the character needed to use them. The weapons were clearly understood, the character of men aiming the weapons was not."

"This men, they made weapons that they always believed would be used, but, because of their fear of the weapons, they didn't use. Instead they became stored and preserved in buildings and stockpiles. They stood waiting to be used, for years."

"But time takes a toll on us all, and even those weapons. Weapons made to be used against fellow man but which no disposal had ever been imagined. No disposal because they were to be used. And so the weapons began to leak, grew unstable and unsafe. And so they had to find a way to dispose of them."

"So they built plants, and incinerators and disposal plants, in far away places were accidental spills would not cause damange. They burned and destroyed the weapons they would not use. But it was not enough. Harmful residues remained that would kill those that tried to clean up the remains."

"So they looked to nature for an answer. Nature which had found ways to clean itself. And they found their answer, sort of. Nature has always allowed for the evolution of disposal experts, inscects, bacteria, viruses and species of fish or animal that would eat what others left behind, so there was no waste. Algae eaters and fungus, creations of nature that had evolved to clean nature would be used to clean man's wastes."

"But it wasn't so easy. Man's weapons would destroy all life, so to dispose of this waste man created new life. Something that would clean and consume that which was left behind. That no one wanted. But it had to survive the weapons of man, and there were many kinds of weapons."

"So they experimented and they tested and they studied the genes of different creatures and learned how to mix and match genes, how to create something that would evolve fast enough that it could adapt to new environments, that would survive, and would consume. An insect that could become something else, that could match the environment."

Reggie grew silent as he watched the fire, thinking about what the ghouls had done.

Lyall and Clearly waited, and then Cleary said. "A predator that adapts to any environment."

"Yes, that will track it's prey, that will hunt, will consume and waste nothing in pursuit of it's goal, to consume. That could evolve to the uniqueness of environments, and do so quickly to overcome environmental changes too drastic for any other species. That could take the best of any organic tissue and integrate it into it's own."

"But what if such a creature escaped?" Asked Lyall.

"It was never supposed to." Said Reggie. "It was supposed to stay in contained and trapped spaces. To be used selectively and then destroyed."

"But there had to be a fail safe." Said Cleary.

"Yes, one. Ultra-violent radiation from the sun. In it's core genetic code, the creature was designed to be allergic to sunlight."

"Which is why it never comes out in daylight." Said Lyall.

"But why it seems to change so quickly." Said Clearly, "But why doesn't it attack."

Reggie shook his head. "This I don't know. It does not like to climb the rocks for a reason. Perhaps there is too little organic life here for it to use. It has us trapped on the rocks and can wait. I don't know. "

Lyall shook his head. "You ghouls were very reckless."

"Yes and no." Said Reggie. "YOu must understand. We are facing extinction. You humans would destroy us eventually, or at least many believe so. The League would clearly not tolerate us. The Oprezki will destroy us, and even here we are second class, a hidden caste, despised by most humans. You would destroy us if it suited your needs."

"But what about the abominations?" Asked Cleary, "Wouldn't they also destory you."

"Ah well, you see....."

_____________

Further away. Grim could hear Zoe continue her work. She was enthusaistic, a discoverer. Bent on her own discoveries she wasn't listening to the world around her.

Grim, further down the tunnel, his torch offering little light, could feel the danger before he heard it.

It was a dark, cold place these tunnels. A place to hide. Judging by their design they must ahve been prewar. But where did they go?

They seemed a bit like the train tunnels they had found earlier with the caravan. And he remembered the Gimmmers. But this was infinitely worse.

He could feel them. Sliding, slithering. If he listened to the air he could almost hear their chitter chatter of thousands of insect teeth chewing whatever they caught.

And they knew that Grim and Zoe had stepped into their world.

"Zoe. I think you should leave." Said Grim, trying not to raise his voice to high.

"What? These samples are amazing. It looks like they are immune to even the worst acids, but they don't like fire." Called Zoe back.

"Zoe, it's time to leave." Said Grim, a bit louder, and now stepping back, his pistol drawn.

"A few more minutes. This is incrediable stuff."

"NO Zoe, I think we need to leave now." Said Grim, louder and sterner.

"Just a minute." Said Zoe. Who was beginning to pack up her bags.

"Move, damn it. They are coming." Said Grim.

He couldn't see them. Not in the dark, not yet.

But he heard their movement, the dancing a million legs down the corridor, coming fast, like an army marching increadibly quickly.

He had time to glance at the light at the end of the tunnel, where he could see Zoe continue to work.

"Go, Go now." He yelled.

Then he fired down the tunnel into the darkness. He got off one shot, and a second, and then they were atop of him. Grim felt himself hit hard, and fell. He felt their legs atop of him, thousands of sharp insect legs and he had but a moment to hope that Zoe escaped before everything went dark.

Zoe heard the shot. IF she delayed before, now she scampered. She could hear them.

She quickly ran for the entrance of the tunnel as she heard the creatures near her, their sound becoming thunderous. At the last moment she threw herself forward, out of the tunnel, out into the day light, and she fell down into the dry stream on her side. She turned around, so that the ground was at her back and reached for her pistol.

Above her a long tentacle like limb, the tip of it like the stinger of a scorpion, and it hovered there above her head, only for a moment, before suddently, it took ablaze. Fire, down it's length, into the hole and Zoe could briefly see the mouth, a round almost gelatinous orafice with thousands of teeth under two eyes that protuded from stalks, focused on her.

And then, almost as quickly as it had been raised to strike, the long tentacle retracked back into the tunnel, and she could see it, still burning, fleeing back down into the darkness.

She got up slowly, carefully. Peered down into the darkness, her pistol now ready. Her kit was there. A few of the bottles had been crushed, but most of the kit seemed intact.

And her companion?

"Grim?" She called, "Grim? Are you there?"

But the tunnel was as quiet as a graveyard.

 

[Zoe]

"Oh my God, what happened to Grim..."

He could not be dead! He couldn't! Not because of her...

Zoe's heart beat fast, she was trying to decide what to do.
If he was dead, there was nothing else she could do for him! But if he was not...

If he is not dead, he'll be soon, cause those things were all over the place!!!

A tear left her eye. Zoe hide her face in her hands, her hair covering as her head bent forward. She sigued. Logic told her that going back down there would only get herself killed. Would be a useless sacrifice, that would rend useless the sacrifice Grim made for her. But the idea of being all alone, along with the idea that he died to save her, was devastating.

If only there was a way to send light inside there, to kill those... monsters...

The creepy crawling sound was low and distant, but was geting near.
"whatever I decide, I cannot stand here still..." she searched her backpack. A mirror. A simple object, that she did not care much about, and yet now it could prove useful.

"I hope it works!"

Zoe patiently placed her mirror in a position where it could reflect the sunrays into the tunnel.

"Burn, foul creature, burn! Grim, are you ok? ! Can you hear me?"