While scavenging, you encounter a giant rat. You shoot and kill it with your shotgun. The rat has blood all over his head.
As you approach, you see a dead man in a ruined building, he has been dead for at least a few days, the stench is strong.
You walk towards the dead body, your foot hits something hard under the rubbish covering the floor of the collapsed house you are about to enter.
After a quick look, you manage to spot a few bear traps, one has been activated, it still holds the man's lower leg.
You move carefully forward, you are now close enough to see clearly what happened.
The shinbone is broken and is coming out of the leg, trapping the man on spot.
It seems he tried to crawl away, but the bear trap is attached to the floor with a thick chain.
He is wearing comon scavenger clothes, nothing special but lots of pockets everywhere.
You see deep and thin bite marks all over the body, probably the rat's doing.
As you turn the body on the back to check the pockets, you see that half of the face has been eaten away.
As you are about to take his belt, you see its wrapped around his leg, it seems he stopped the bleeding.
It's dirty and covered in blood, but who gives a shit, it's still good thick leather.
After a closer examination, you see that most of the bite marks on the lower body made the man bleed alot.
The rat tried to eat him while he was still alive. He may have pushed the beast away, it came back until he could no longer defend himself.
After an extensive search, you don't find anything really valuable. A few shiny pre-war items but nothing usefull.
This area is know to be dangerous, no one comes here unprepared. The man was probably desperate.
Judging from his scrawny body, he didn't eat that much lately, it explains why he came here.
You search the house for old cans, you are hungry too and no one should die with an empty stomach.
You move slowly and carefully through the ruined house, you don't want to set off any traps.
No cans to be found, tonight's meal will be roasted rat. You move upstairs to the bathroom.
The roof is still standing somehow, and the heating pipes aren't too rusty. You drop your heavy backpack.
You take out that metal saw you bought last week, it was expensive so it better work fine.
You start sawing these old pipes that go around the walls close to the floor, it's fine metal, heavy but worth caps to crafters.
The year is 2238, every building still standing has been plundered already, cans are rare and expensive.
You wonder how food can stand that long without rotting, probably a side effect from radiations, who knows?
Cans aren't always good, but knowing that you eat something that is older than you always gives it a special taste.
You stop cutting pipes, you cannot carry more anyway. Your father told you to always stay light enough to be able to run.
That simple advice saved your life several times, it didn't save his though. It's getting dark.
Time to eat, but wait, the rat ate human flesh, if you eat the rat, does that make you a cannibal? Fuck it, you are hungry.
As you are about to move downstairs you hear distant voices. You peek from the window and spot three shadows.
They seem confident, as if no one in the wasteland could hurt them, raiders most probably.
Now they are close enough, you see one has a rifle, the second one has a revolver at his belt, the last one has a long rusty blade.
Three tagets and only two barrels on your shotgun. It's risky. No way out without being seen.
You could probably climb out from a window on the other side and outrun them, but you would have to leave your backpack.
Not a good idea, if the one with the rifle is a good shot, he'll probably kill you before you reach the next building.
You decide to wait for an opportunity. Maybe they will just pass by and leave.
One says something, making the two others laugh. Something about watching were you walk, nothing really funny.
You are really hungry and your stomach is making wierd noises, you hope they won't hear it.
You hear some hullabaloo, they are breacking some furniture to make a fire. One is skinning the dead rat.
You smell the meat roasting, yum. These fuckers are eating YOUR rat! Now it's personal.
One takes out a big bottle, probably a home made booze, this could be the opportunity your were waiting for.
The fire is almost out and you don't smell the meat anymore. The raiders have been drinking for over one hour now, one seems pretty drunk.
You only have a knife and a double barrel shotgun, but if you wait for them to fall asleep, you will have the edge.
The three raiders are asleep, the one with the revolver is clearly drunk, so you will target the one with the rifle first, then the one with the blade.
It is time to make your move, you leave your backpack were it is, it holds nothing usefull you could use during the fight and will only slow you down.
You check your weapons, your shotgun is loaded, your knife is sharp and you have a single stimpack in your right pocket.
Your left pocket is filled with buckshot shells, you have six left. You cannot attack from the window, you only see one of the raiders.
You decide to move downstairs to get a better angle. You kick something on the way out, the cut off pipes you piled up!
The clang is loud, very loud. You hear one waking up. He says he heard something to the other one and asks him to wake up the drunk guy.
This is bad, you lost the advantage of surprise. The fire is out, but the full moon gives a bit of light, too much to hide in plain sight.
You hear footsteps in the stairway, they are coming up. They stop halfway up and start to argue on which one of them has to go first.
You take advantage of the noise to move out of the bathroom and go as far as you can from the stairway. You lie down and wait.
They stopped stalking and are moving again. Appenrently the rifle guy lost and has to go first, you see the shadow of his barrel.
You see his rifle, his hand, a part of his arm. It's only this man at the end of the corridor, nothing else exists, your are totally focused.
Now you have a leg, a shoulder. You cannot afford anything less than a killshot, you wait to see the chest.
The raider is now fully visible. You take the shot, firing both shells at the same time by mistake.
Crap, this wouldn't have happened if you had your old and trusty hunting rifle, but it broke last month and you didn't have the caps to get it repaired.
You see the raider collapsing without a grunt, at least this one is dead, but now they know where you are and you have to reload.
The drunk revolver guy shoots blindly in your direction without exposing himself. You roll inside a room to take cover.
You need to reload, fast. You break open you shotgun and grab two new shells from you pocket before the ejected ones even touch the floor.
You are ready again. Now you remember why you are doing this instead of growing corn, you love the adrenalin.
You quicly peek to see if the raider moved. Surprisingly, the one you shot first is gone, and the drunk on still shoots blindly.
The rifle guy is probably the chief and is wearing armor under that coat, you should have aimed for the head.
You don't have any second too loose. You shoot the only thing you see, a hand holding a pistol.
You hear loud screams, you got him. But where did the other one go? You hear a crack behind you.
The third raider with the blade managed to climb up the window somehow. He raises his weapon and jumps on you.
You raise your shotgun to protect your head. The blade penetrates the wood underneath the barrel.
As the raider pulls his blade, you let the shotgun go, adding more weight on his arm and giving you a split second more time before the next blow.
His arm in far behind, his sharp blade turned into a heavy blunt useless shit, you tackle him down.
His head hit the radiator and before he recovers you stab him three times in the chest. You raise from the dead raider helping yourself on the window.
Before you can turn around, you feel an intense pain in the left shoulder and you topple forward through the window.
The pain blurs your sight and it is dark, you cannot see anything. You expect a long fall but hit the floor almost instantly.
You fell on a big pile of rubble, that's how the raider got in. You hear the raider you shot first running. You need to get out of sight fast.
You manage to reach and turn around the corner before the raider gets at the window. It hurts, you touch your shoulder, the bullet went through.
You stick the needle of your only stimpack around the wound and pray for the best. The raider is still after you, think fast.
You pick up a half burn wooden stick from the campfire. Your best weapon is now a hot broom handle, good luck.
You hear the raider jumping out of the window and going down the rubble. You head inside, it's dark, but there is nothing left to hide.
All the furnitures are gone or too shattered to offer any kind of cover, but you have an idea.
You see the raider entering the house, you see him and he doesn't see you. He moves carefully, he knows the house is trapped.
He approaches, but is not close enough. The smell is about to make you spew, but you hold on, your stomach is empty anyway.
Now the raider is really close, he turns around in direction to the stairs, his buddy is crying and needs help.
This is the moment you choose to attack and poke him with your hot stick behind the knee. The combination of pain and surprise made him drop his rifle.
You roll from under the dead guy and grab his legs to make the raider fall. When he hit the floor you hear a metallic noise and the screams stop.
This is your lucky day, the raider fell head first in a bear trap, almost chopping his head off. Good job, you survived.
You take the rifle and move to the stairway, it's time for an execution. The wounded raider is still there, holding his bloody forearm.
The buckshot cut off two fingers, pierced a hole through the hand and broke the cubit bone. Time to hear some begging.
And indeed he begs, but you don't want to spare his life, he feasted on your rat and will suffer the consequences.
You put the barrel of the rifle inside his mounth and enjoy the saltyness of the situation. Delicious!
You pull the trigger, but lean the rifle. You see a sheaf of blood, flesh and teeth flying out of a big hole in his cheek.
You decide to leave the guy like that, screaming to death with a big hole in his face, bullets are expensive.
You knock him out with a brutal front kick and loot him. You find some bullets for that revolver he left and some other crap.
You collect every weapon and valuable item you can find, oh, and those pipes who almost got you killed and leave.
You think about that raider you left alive, kinda. If he survives he will have a heck of a story to tell.
Or not, with half of his mounth gone. You walk near the firecamp and hear your stomach calling for food.
There is still some meat left on the carcass, it was a big rat. Sadly the meat had more than enough time to cool down.
These stupid raider fucked up your meal, no one fucks up your meal. You fall asleep, watching the moon and the stomach full.
You wake up late in the morning, the sun is high in the sky. Your shoulder doesn't hurt that much, the stimpack was a good one.
You leave after eating what was left of the rat, it was a huge one. Yesterday evening was entertaining.
You walk away, you survived, as always. Wasteland is harsh and you are even harsher.
Topic: Fonline, harsh Fonline (Read 3565 times)