aaaaaaaagh_sky | Protecting the Water Way

The door opens onto what can only be described as an urban wasteland. "Don't worry," Ellen calls from Shiphrah and Puah's back, "all the mutants that used to live here are dead. Just don't let your horse go in the water, okay?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

not_his_pa

"Its alright, we get coyotes and cougars that need to be taken care of around the herd. Just a different sort of creature. When we get back, let me see about findin' you somethin' better than a knife maybe a stick like jockeys use."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Like who use, now?" says Ellen. "I'm not sure what that-"

Up ahead, the Arlington Memorial Bridge is coming into sight. So is the rump of a Brahmin loaded down with massive yellow-painted metal barrels, and a few human figures scattered around it.

"Hey, I think that's them!"

From:

not_his_pa

"I'll show you later. Folks who ride in races have these sticks for gettin' their horses goin',"

William nods and gets going to a canter.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Will's horse is faster than Ellen's cow, or than the Brahmin they're chasing. He'll be the first to catch up with the foot travelers...

... and the first to see the armored bandits stepping out of the shadows under the bridge, their assault rifles raised and ready.

There's going to be a lot of gunfire in a moment.

From:

not_his_pa

He unholsters his rifle and fires at the first bandit aiming for one of the unarmored spots and focusing on just firing quickly.

He slows his horse down so that hopefully he ends up in front of the caravan and not out on his own with the bandits.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

He's a good shot. William's bullets catch one of the bandits in the abdomen, where it's more leather and rubber than metal. The bandit staggers backwards, doubling over- briefly. When he comes up he's wounded and bleeding, all right, but he's also mad as hell. He just can't hold his gun straight, so his stream of 5.56 rounds isn't so much targeted on William as it is sort of 'spray and pray' at everything in William's general area.

The other bandit is busy firing on the caravan driver, who goes down like a poleaxed mule, and then on the Rivet City officers, who're diving behind whatever cover they can find and shooting back. Oh, and there's green fire streaking through the air from behind, too- Ellen's going after Will's bandit, just to be on the safe side.

From:

not_his_pa

Bullets shouldn't come that fast from a gun and William spurs his horse on hoping to get the bandit to stop firing. Later he'll realize how stupid an idea this is but cavalry charges artillery.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Well, the bandit does stop shooting, and starts screaming instead- he is after all being charged by a COMPLETELY UNFAMILIAR MUTANT HELL BEAST so far as he knows. And there's still gunfire going on.

It's just that some of that gunfire was intended for the bandit, and while Ellen's usually precise and accurate with her shots, she's not really used to making them from a moving platform while someone else is crossing her line of fire. William's going to get a hell of a partial thickness burn where the plasma bolt grazes him.

Although he may not notice just yet. The sight of two more plasma bolts striking the bandit and reducing him to a faintly luminescent pile of green goo can be kinda distracting.

From:

not_his_pa

Les doesn't like the noise and the goo is slippery.

William almost drops his rifle before taking the reins with both hands and saying, "Shh, we ain't dead."

That's when he feels the burn and stares at his arm.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

The other bandit goes down pretty quickly, but not before taking out the water Brahmin. There is a short, panting silence from the two Rivet City officers, broken as Ellen rides up. "Are you all right? Oh, my God, I'm so sorry-"

"What just- what just happened?" asks one of the officers. He doesn't seem to know whether to stare at the plasma puddle or the horse or the fact that someone is riding a damn cow.

"Officer Lepelletier sent me to follow you because of the bandits," Ellen says. "Um. You'd... um, I need to take care of my friend there...."

From:

not_his_pa

With his non burned arm, William manages to put his rifle away but that's mainly habit.

He keeps staring at his arm and he's going to have to fix his shirt and jacket and explain it to his mother.

Les whinnies and William turns him towards the caravan.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen slides off her cow and has a rapid, low-pitched conversation with the Rivet City officers. As soon as she's done she starts unbuckling the saddle's girth, and when it's off she hands the reins to the security people and turns to William. "Are you okay?" she says worriedly. "I'm sorry- I'm usually better than that- how bad is it, can I see?"

From:

not_his_pa

"Um, I ain't dead,"

He's still in shock from the whole situation but he makes sure Ellen can see his arm.

The plasma blast hit a long strip from his shoulder to his elbow and he's starting to shake because his skin shouldn't bubble.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Good," says Ellen, "good. I can fix that, I've still got a stimpak, but- I need you to keep an eye on the security guys, okay? They're going to load the water on my Brahmin so it can keep moving. I need you to watch them while I do this because I have to pay attention to what I'm doing."

And because she doesn't want him to wig out any further from looking at the kind of burn a plasma bolt can leave.

From:

not_his_pa

He swallows and turns to look at the security men and nods at them,

"Right, lookin' at them."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Good," says Ellen. "Now, this is going to sting, and then it's going to itch like crazy, but keep watching the security men."

It'll be the itching of six weeks of healing happening in the space of several minutes. Not the kind of thing one usually handles easily, but... at least it's over with quickly, right?

From:

not_his_pa

He nods again since its hard to shake the image of his skin with bubbles in it from the burn and it hurts.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"All right," Ellen says. "Now hold still."

She'll hold his arm still herself during the healing process, just in case. It's not something you want to take chances on. She's been wearing armor and wielding all kinds of things long enough to have a surprising amount of arm strength, too.

"There," she finally says when she releases him. "Is that better?"

From:

not_his_pa

The sting is familiar from when she healed his ribs but there's a hell of a lot more itching and he bites his lip and stares at the men.

He's grateful for her hand holding him down and with his other hand grips his horse's reins and tries not to think too much about what's happening.

When she releases him, he looks over at his arm and says,

"Y.yeah, thank you. I'm goin' to have to mend this before I go home."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"No you won't," Ellen says firmly, because firmly is better than letting the shaking she actually feels come through in her voice. "Because I'm going to mend it. I was the one who caused the damage, so I should fix it up. It's only fair."

From:

not_his_pa

"Oh, thank you. Do these folks need help gettin' where they're goin'?"

Her firmness helps him and he tries to pull himself together after all he survived that day in Contention. He can do this.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Probably," Ellen says. "They don't... they're not used to cattle. I mean, more than I'm not used to cattle." She scratches at her head, thinking. "It's not that far- they're going to Megaton. This is the makeup load for what the cult stole. We can probably stick with them to get there, but there's one thing I need to do first..."

From:

not_his_pa

"Oh, I can help with that,"

He wants to feel useful and not think about the pile of goo that used to be man and how a few minutes ago his arm was bubbling.

Edited Date: 2011-09-26 02:24 am (UTC)

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"All right," Ellen says. "We can take one of the doors there back to the Bar. Um, could you go and make sure the cow's not uncomfortable or anything?"

She could do it just as easily herself, but she's got to see if there's anything left that could give her a hint about where these bandits came from, and people get really uncomfortable when they see you searching corpses or sticking your hand in goo piles.