The Mall

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens onto a hot day in early September, and stairs sticky with blood half-covered in shadows. They've just emerged from a rattletrap gate that once kept people out of the Museum Station metro stop- "It was the only door I could reach safely," Ellen explains. "Once we get to the top of the stairs, we're visible from the Mall- it's maybe ten yards away, tops. The mutant've got miniguns, I know that much for sure."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Holy- Annabelle? Are you all right? Hold on!"

BANG. "Oh, God, they're shooting, come on, recharge, recharge already-"

BANG. "Launcher mutant's down- eek!" That last is prompted by a hail of automatic rifle fire tearing through the air in Ellen's general vicinity.

BANG. "No closer, greenskin! Knees are a privilege!"

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle is stunned for a moment or two from the impact, but comes back to full alertness by the time Ellen 'eeks' at the automatic rifle fire.

Annabelle is sprawled on the ground and doesn't waste time trying to maneuver herself into a more upright position. Raising the rifle into a firing position is agonizing as muscles pull on cracked ribs, but Annabelle manages to get a shot off with a shout of "Die you bloody green abomination!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's still other mutants coming, but they've got the trenches to navigate and get out of, thank God. Ellen takes the opportunity to scramble over to Annabelle as fast as elbows and knees will carry her. "Okay. You can move," she says, and the concern would be plain on her face if she'd remembered to take her head unit off and de-stealth the armor. "Are you bleeding? What hit you?"

She's fumbling for a stimpak regardless, although that's probably a little difficult to make out given that she's currently a talking distortion in the air.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle looks at the distortion that currently marks Ellen's presence. "I'm not sure what hit me," she replies with a hiss of indrawn breath. "It feels like it cracked a couple ribs, but not like I've punctured a lung or anything..."

"Do you need me to get some of this armor off?" Annabelle asks as she moves her hand toward the necessary straps and catches.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No. If it's broken bones I can't inject into the site directly. I can find a vein from here," says Ellen. "I've got two stimpaks on me. They speed up the body's healing, but you have to hold still while they work. Are you all right with that?"

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods, "I'm fine with that." She chuckles, "It's certainly better than having to heal them the natural way, especially with visitors on the way." Annabelle holds still and lets Ellen do her work.

"I think I've met my mistakes quota for the next week or so now..." she grumbles.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Dad used to make them in the Vault pharmacy," Ellen murmurs as she finds an exposed blood vessel on Annabelle's arm. "They were one of the few medical things we could acutally make instead of just rely on a pre-war supply for. Now hold still..."

It takes several seconds to inject the full stimpak, but it does start working quickly. At least, if the onset of itching in the vicinity of the broken ribs is anything to go by.

"Do you need painkiller? Ellen says as she reaches for the second stimpak. "I've got a syringe of Med-X- there was some in a Museum locker. Tends to make me dozy, but if you can't move without it, it's our only option."

The mutants are going to open fire again any minute, she just knows it.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Impressive" Annabelle says with a whistle as the medication starts it's work. "I can get by without the painkiller for a while," she says with a small smile. "We've got trouble on the way, and I've been in fights with worse injuries than a few cracked ribs..."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They were a military invention," Ellen murmurs. "Before the War went nuclear, there'd been ten years of conventional war with China. The War Department came up with an awful lot of things to keep our soldiers on their feet."

She glances sidelong towards the Mall and adds, "I can see two of them on the path across the Mall. Looks like they're taking positions behind a car..."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods and carefully tests her range of motion. She snorts at Ellen's description of them taking cover behind a car. "Taking cover behind something that can be made to blow up..." she shakes her head.

Annabelle grins sharply, "Do you know where we need to shoot to make the cars explode?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's a big sedan," Ellen reports. "Forward end should do it. Think you're ready?"

The distortion moves away somewhat; Ellen needs room to ready her own rifle.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Ready," Annabelle replies as she readies her own rifle. She aims at the front end of the sedan and fires. Considering it's power, the bullet should have no trouble hitting the important bits underneath the body panels of the rusted hulk.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

One of the mutants starts firing back. The other one has some measure of brain; it calls out, "Run! It's gonna blow!" and gets to its feet to start running.

What it does not have is enough acceleration to get out of there before the breach gives way to an explosion that lights up the area with white. When the smoke clears, there's enough scattered limbs around the area to account for at least two mutants, possibly three.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle may be cackling a bit with glee at the explosion. "I think that's done it! Do you see any others?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"One more on the far side," Ellen reports. "No, two. I'll take the one on the left."

BANG.

"Crumbs, I think he saw that coming... come on come on come on..." BANG. "Okay. Better."

[aeons_crackshot]

"We'll have to work on predicting how your enemy is going to move," Annabelle remarks as she takes aim and fires on the other mutant. *BANG* The mutant shrieks in pain and attempts to dodge. Unfortunately, Super-mutants aren't very good at dodging. *BANG* The mutant collapses backwards, its corpse crushing something made of rusted metal on the way down.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm usually better than that," Ellen says. "The ones in the Museum- never mind." The blur shakes its head. "I think that's it for this part of the Mall... if we're very lucky, there'll only be a few more of them on the other side of that rubble, and then we'll get a clear run at the Monument."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Weren't as lucky as that one?" Annabelle fills in. She's relieved that they might soon have a clear shot at the monument. Just because she can fight while in pain doesn't mean she wants to.

"A clear run would be nice," Annabelle remarks. "Do you want to scout around the pile of rubble before we head that way?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That would be best. I'll be right back."

The blur creeps away, leaving a silence marked only by the occasional bug noise or sound of concrete and rubble settling. If there are birds, they're anywhere but here.

Eventually, though, the blur creeps back. "We're in luck," Ellen murmurs. "There's still plenty of trench on the other side, but everything in it is dead. It's five hundred feet from there to the Brotherhood of Steel guard post outside the Monument."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle grins at Ellen's report. "That's good news! There's an outpost at the monument? That might mean it's relatively safe..."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We can hope," Ellen says soberly. "There were Brotherhood Knights stationed outside Galaxy News Radio, and the mutants nearly overran the place anyway. We'd better be careful, especially since this-"

She ducks down into the tunnel gate area and emerges with a big metallic dish antenna in her arms.

"This is why we're here, and there's only one of it left in the world so far as anyone can tell. The mutants shot the last one off the Monument and nearly killed Galaxy News Radio's signal. If we can get it working again, Three Dog will tell me where Dad went."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods, her expression more serious. "I'd thought that the bodies behind the rubble pile might be their work, but that doesn't mean they're still alive."

Annabelle looks at the dish antenna, "One thing in this whole mess that we can fix...." she says with a smile.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "I sure hope so," she says. "Here goes nothing..."

She'll leave her stealth field off as they approach. At this point, if there are any mutants close enough to cause trouble, she wants to make sure that any Brotherhood survivors don't inadvertently put a couple dozen bullets through her instead. Besides, it's not much good if she's moving faster than a creep- and the thought of five hundred feet at that snail's pace makes her want to scream.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle follows, gun at the ready. She's keeping an eye out for trouble, whether it's human or mutant in nature.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When you're used to spontaneous eruptions of gunfire or the sudden arrival of mutant creatures from over the horizon, five hundred feet of quiet, open urban wasteland can feel like miles. The shattered remains of concrete walls and asphalt paving give back every footstep, every motion, and make every shadow seem like something making ready to leap.

But nothing comes; and as the two draw nearer to the Washington Monument, a line of what had appeared to be nothing but rubble turns out to be an organized, fortified wall painted with the sword-and-gears symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel. A little ways along the wall gives way to a metal gate- and to rows of sandbags, curving out from the gate and providing cover for a pair of heavily armed figures in power armor.

"Hold it right there," says the one on the left, a woman with some sort of energy rifle in her hand. "Who are you two, and what's your business here?"