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Post by Basil on Oct 28, 2011 6:12:58 GMT -5
"Adder took me on a hunt, once", said Wasp. "Back when I was still a newbie. There'd been stories about a Chimera roaming the area North of the warehouses, so went after it one night, with a couple of other people."
She scooped some more food up with her spoon and ate it quietly before continuing her story:
"So we'd been told it was staying at an abandoned farmhouse, and that it came out every night to hunt. So we went there, and we waited for it to come out. Night came, and we saw it come out of its lair with our night vision specs. And just as we were all about to gun it down, Adder raised her shooter and popped off a single bullet at it. She hit it in the neck."
Wasp mimed the gestures, as if she were reliving the whole thing.
"The monster chased us, and we had to hide in an old Soviet tank. It prowled around us for half an hour before it fell quiet...I was the first one to look outside. The chimera was dead. Poisoned. With a single bullet. I'd never been so scared in my life...but Adder, she just stayed completely cool, like a snake who knows its prey will die sooner or later."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Nov 11, 2011 8:03:52 GMT -5
Ferret mused silently, realizing that Adder had sent him to kill the mate for his initiation into penumbra.
“Then you understand why I don’t care to meet another,” he said finally, “Adder and her poison bullets aren’t here to bail us out and all this snow will keep us from running fast or far.”
Sighing he added a little more,
“Just the mention of one tends to make me jumpy, never should have brought it up… the reports are probably just the grunts trying to scare away the loners.”
The rest of the night passed quietly for the Freedomers, Ferret had finished what was left in his can then turned in for the night. Sleep came easily to the ex-bandit; however, a rest full night was not going to be something for him to enjoy.
As a bestial roar rolled into the pig sheds from the outside. The call awoke the Freedomer from his slumber, for he now knew that that the reports were not tales.
“Wasp kill the fire,” he said in hushed tones, maybe the Chimera didn’t know where they were.
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Post by Basil on Dec 17, 2011 11:59:36 GMT -5
Wasp's dreams were far from peaceful. As she slept, her dreams were rife with darkness and fear, images half glimpsed before being swallowed up by shadows. However, one such image stayed imprinted in her memory: her flesh dying and going black.
She was abruptly torn from her nightmares by Ferret.
"Huh?", said Wasp, bleary-eyed and tired. The urgency of the situation was not lost to her, however, and she quickly grabbed two handfuls of dirt to throw over the embers of the dying fire. With the fire dead, it seemed like nothing would give their presence away, but Wasp's lungs decided otherwise. She began to wheeze, and she stared at Ferret in panic as the first, hacking coughs came.
And they simply wouldn't stop. One cough followed the other, and Wasp began to grow dizzy as breathing became practically impossible. She slapped her sleeve over her mouth to muffle her coughs. Finally, it stopped, and Wasp withdrew her sleeve to take several, shuddering breaths. Every breath made her lungs hurt as if they'd been scraped raw with sandpaper, and as her eyes got used to the darkness of the shed, she saw a dark stain on her sleeve. Was it blood?
"Is...do you think it's gone?", she wheezed. What a stupid question. Her coughing fit had probably drawn ever single mutant in the area.
Just then, the frigid winter air was shattered by a single, savage roar. The moon suddenly came out from behind its cover of snow-laden clouds, flooding the Cordon's ghostly landscape with pale light.
Wasp's eyes widened as she saw the hulking shadow at the other end of the shed.
"Oh...shit...", she breathed, barely audible.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Dec 28, 2011 13:27:41 GMT -5
Ferret shared that last sentiment with Wasp, they had no means of any real defense in the sheds. They would be butchered just like that swine that had once lived there, just then a vile thought crossed into his mind. Wasp was sick and weak, easier pray for the hungry two-headed beast, despite her small size he was more than sure that she would give him enough time for him to get to safety, should it not get its fill from the small woman first. What’s more with her out of the way perhaps he would take over her position in Penumbra. He took hold of her arm, fully intending to carry out his plot, but instead flung her to the back closer to the nearest escape route. In that split second he decided that he would not have his motivations ruled by greed and fear, he would not fall into the dark pit that others in the Zone had fallen into.
“Run, a crossed the road is a house with a second floor,” he yelled back to her, “get up the ladder don’t wait for me.”
He quickly pulled off the ragged coat from off his body and then smashed a bottle of vodka from his bag over the duster. No sooner had he lite the alcohol soaked coat on fire with a match did the chimera come lunging at him. He threw the flaming fabric at the mutant then took off running, behind him he could hear the beast thrashing about. It bought him the time he needed to get a head start, but the snow was slowing him too much and it would only be a matter of time before the chimera closed the gap.
He somehow made it into the house and began to climb the ladder, he was almost home free when the mutant finally caught up with him. The chimera jumped, it’s larger head just missing taking a chunk out of the Freedomers leg but the smaller head’s jaws clamped on to Ferret’s leg and pulled down.
The Freedomer hissed in pain and shock as he felt himself slip backwards, as a last ditch effort he pulled out his knife and stabbed the head. The beast let go and as fast as he could he pulled himself up the rest of the way. He rolled on his back panting as the chimera roared below them.
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