“We should get out of here, nightkin being here is a very bad sign.” Boone said quickly, bringing up his rifle and quickly looking around for anything that might jump out at them.
“We can’t go Boone, as much as I want to. We need the information Manny will give me and he wanted this place cleared out if he was going to that.” Anne grumbled, doing the same thing as Boone but pulled up her shotgun instead.
“T-they are big but what’s so bad about them?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“They’re crazy, bat fucking shit crazy, they won’t stop trying to kill you until they’re dead.” She said. “You can shoot one in the gut with a shotgun and it won’t stop it if it didn’t kill it.”
“Don’t forget about the Stealth-Boys.” Boone states.
“Fuck, I almost forgot about that.”
“What’s a Stealth-Boy?” Twilight asked confused.
“It’s what make the nightkin crazy, what it does is make them near invisible, all you can see is a sheen like ripples on water and when you’re in a darker place like this all you have is sound.” She muttered. “Though there is one saving grace, if they attack it’ll turn off, so if you survive the first strike you’ll know where they are.”
Twilight swallowed nervously. “H-how many are there?”
“Can’t say for sure but a fair few, that ash pile on the road here would have been one and if the number of dead non-ferals is any indication then there’s quite a few.” Anne said.
Before anything else could be said a door to the left burst open and before anyone even noticed what it was a rifle shot from Boone and both barrels of Anne’s shotgun went into it, the bloodied feral ghoul dropping to the ground before it even let out a scream.
Anne quickly reloaded her gun as the sound of dozens of screeches came from around the building.
“Shit.” Both Boone and Anne said in sync, Twilight flinching back.
“Quick, the door behind the counter.” Boone said, quickly diving over the front counter, used back when the place was still running.
Anne and Twilight followed after him, the woman going to the door to open it while Boone as his gun at the ready and Twilight tried her hardest not to have a panic attack. “Fuck! It’s locked. Princess, open this door.” Anne said quickly standing next to Boone who had his rifle resting against the table, shotgun at the ready.
Just as Twilight got to the door the first sounds of the human’s defense was heard, Anne’s gun going off followed by the sound of a wet thud on the old tiled ground. The sudden sound frightened the pony slightly and she jumped in shock, hyperventilating as the sounds of scream was let out again.
“We need that door open now!” Anne called, firing another shot at an incoming ghoul and as she reloaded Boone shot a round into the head of a ghoul, reducing it down to a bleeding stump.
“G-Give me a minute.” Twilight answered back, taking a few deep breaths before looking back at the door and the lock. With a flash of her horn there was a small click inside the lock and it opened a slight amount. “It’s open now.” She says as she opened it, finding a staircase behind it.
“Then let’s go!” Boone yelled, starting to back up into the doorway with his gun still raiser, firing at any ghoul that showed itself.
Twilight waited by the door until the other two made their way inside before she slammed the door shut and locked it quickly, a few moments later muted thuds could be heard from the other side.
“That won’t hold them long, we should quickly get moving.” Anne stated as she quickly ran up the stairs with the two others following her.
Up at the top of the stairs was a hallway leading to another part of the complex while there were doors going left and right. “Shit, which way?” Boone asks.
“Give me a number between one and three.” Anne quickly said.
“One.”
“Then it’s left we go.” Anne said going over to the left door and finding that it was locked. “Princess, open it quickly.” Anne said stepping back with her shotgun at the ready.
Twilight quickly runs over to the door and focuses in on it with her magic, the lock letting out a small click before Twilight slammed it open and ran in, the humans running in shortly after before Boone shut the door.
In the room were a large number of filing cabinets, one propped up against the other door into the room. In the corner was a large black safe, a skeleton wearing the tattered remains of cloths slouched on the ground next to it, the whole top of its head gone with a large revolver in its bony fingers. It was huge, a lot bigger than any of their pistols yet, silver with a large black scope on the top.
“Damn. These things are super powerful.” Anne said picking up the gun from the bone’s fingers. Flicking the cylinder to the side she sighs disappointedly, tipping it up and the one used shell falling out. “Shit, no ammo, this thing would be ideal for killing nightkin.” She said taking off her backpack and putting the gun inside. “That my pony friend is a point forty five dash seventy G hunting revolver, extremely powerful, probably the smallest thing of this size with this amount of power, it could go right through a nightkin.” She stated.
“Why not check the safe to see if anything is inside it?” Twilight asked.
“You can check but there wouldn’t be ammo for this type of gun.” Anne said dismissively.
Twilight went over to the safe and her horned glowed, taking deep breaths and focusing in on the safe’s lock. It was a little harder than normal with the easier locks, the mechanisms all rusted and corroded but managed to open it neither the less.
Anne was right with her guess, inside there was no ammunition for the new hunting revolver but there was another 10mm pistol like Anne’s one along with a half filled box of ammo for it, two dirty water bottles, a few microfusion sells, a box of .308 ammo which Boone quickly picked up for his rifle.
People took things they needed before Anne closed the safe with the tip of her iron boot. “We should keep going down the hall, deeper into this building to get to that ghoul on the intercom.”
“So that was a ghoul speaking?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, they tend to have gravely voices, you’re barely able to tell what gender they are from just their voice.” Anne stated.
“We should keep moving you guys, east wing of the building, remember.” Boone said gruffly. “I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to with nightkin around.” He stated.
“Fine, I have a compass on my Pipboy so I’ll lead the way.” Anne said cheerfully.
“Great, we’re lost.”
________________________________
After twenty minutes of wondering around, everyone but Anne annoyed at the human woman, they finally arrived at the metal staircase mentioned to them, stepping over a broken down metal door, a dead feral ghoul crushed under it and bent around the corpse.
After clearing it out from some other ferals they saw another corpse of a nightkin, in the same makeshift clothing and armor as the one by the entrance had and with another one of those makeshift repair hammers with rock on the end.
“Those stairs do not look safe in the slightest.” Twilight said worriedly. “I’m not walking up those.” She finished.
“We have to, we need to get to the top.” Anne said.
Twilight didn’t answer, just spreading her wings and jumping up, flying up to the walkway made of rusty metal as well at the top of the staircase.
“Oh right, wings…” Anne muttered as Boone and her climbed up the stairs, the metal groaning and bending slightly.
Once at the top they noticed another one of the metal red rockets hanging from the ceiling but this time its windows weren’t painted on but actual windows, but the glass had broken and fallen out long ago.
Going further along the walkway they found a door, Anne reaching out to open it only to find it locked.
The intercom that was right next to Twilight at the time let out a static sound, making the pony let out a surprised yelp before jumping back in fright.
“All right smoothskins, I’m letting you in. You better watch yourself, I’ll sure as hell be watching you.” The same gravelly voice from the lobby said through the intercom before a click came from the door.
Anne let out a giggle at Twilight’s reaction, earning a small smack across the back of the head from some magic. “Oww, don’t do that.” She said rubbing the back of her head, an idea suddenly springing to mind but that could wait until after they cleared the place out.
Opening the door they were greeted to a sight of a normal run down looking hallway. Once the door closed behind them someone stepped from around the corner. While Boone and Anne looked confused Twilight was confused at why they were confused.
The person was a normal looking man, no hair on his head and a slight scruff around his mouth. He wore a long lab coat and seemed to have a scowl on his face permanently.
“God, are you ugly.” He exclaimed. “Get upstairs and talk with Jason before I throw up from just looking at you.” He said in the gravelly voice from the intercom.
Twilight became confused like the others, this man talked like he was a ghoul but his smooth skin and non-rotted body.
“Hey, you’re not a ghoul.” Twilight said tilting her head.
“Your pranks won’t work on me smoothskin, they won’t work on Jason either.” He stated.
“Smoothskin? Your skin looks pretty smooth to me.” Anne said.
“Stop wasting my time, go waste Jason’s.” he said annoyed before turning and walking away around the corner.
“That was…”
“Weird?”
“That’s one word for it.”
After Wandering around a little bit in look for this Jason ghoul they saw many of the robe wearing ghouls walking around and talking normally to each other, these ghouls having more meat to their bones and not just walking skeletons but had muscles and eyes that weren’t bulging out After looking for a few minutes they found a ghoul that could have been the leader, he was wearing a worn brown business suit and he was halfway through turning into a glowing green ghoul, some parts of his body a glowing green color while the rest just the normal rotted.
“Hello Wanderer.” He said, his voice creepily sounding like it echoed out of his mouth, sounding like it came from all direction at once but in a soft calm voice. “Please forgive our humble surroundings. Our true home awaits us in the Far Beyond.” He continued. “Have you come to help us complete the Great Journey?” He asked.
“Well, we’re here because feral ghouls have been wondering into Novac.” Anne said rubbing the back of her neck.
“And they’ve been shooting them down like animals haven’t they?” He asks sadly. “Those ghouls were members of my flock even after madness consumed their minds, we never let them wonder free.” He said. “We kept them safe on the first floor, we kept them contained. The demons must have let them out, somehow. Now they’re lost forever, denied salvation and healing glow of the far beyond. Please Wanderer, bear in mind every feral ghoul you spare now is one we can save later. Once the way is clear our feral brothers and sisters will accompany us on the Great Journey, if there are any left.” He said sadly.
“What’s the ‘Great Journey’ you’re talking about?” Anne asked.
“We wish to escape the barbarity of the wasteland, especially the violence and bigotry of its human inhabitants. The creator has promised to my flock a new land, a place of safety and healing, a paradise in the Far Beyond. Preparations for the Great Journey were nearly complete when the demons appeared.” He said.
“What do you mean demons?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“The demons appeared from nowhere, expect it might be more accurate to say they never ‘appeared’ at all.” He explained. “The demons are invisible, where one of them stands the most one sees is the air shimmering, like sunlight on water. They set upon us as we were on our way to worship one morning, we had just entered the basement. My flock fought bravely, and killed a few, but at such cost.” He said sadly, the three friends, knowing what he meant from all the bodies of robed ghouls there were. “Nearly half of us died or went missing. The rest of us retreated up here, one of the demons raved at us but they have not tried to attack us since. Still, their demonic presence brought all progress towards the Great Journey to a standstill. But now you have come, once again the creator has sent a human to help us across a seeming insurmountable obstacle.”
“Can you give a minute?” Anne asked with a friendly smile, not waiting for an answer before she pulled her two companions out of the room and into a group huddle. “Okay, this guy is bat shit insane.” She stated.
“We need to get the ghouls out of here before the people in Novac can come here.” Boone stated.
“We can always help them with their ‘Great Journey’, it’d be a kind thing to do.” Twilight chipped in.
“But that could take ages.” Anne mumbled. “Fine, but you owe me a bottle of booze.”
“Alright deal.”
“But why did we have to help the religious nutjobs?”