Download App
73.48% Steel Waste / Chapter 521: Horror Cell

Chapter 521: Horror Cell

The duo slowly makes their way down to the basement, Afton mentally remarking about the blood-stained walls that seemed to lead down there. Once at the bottom he's greeted by the overwhelming scent of death and decay... The floor was coated in bloodstains and also whatever the fluid the Ghosts produce.

There's a jail cell in the middle of the room, inside there's a bucket filled with what is most likely piss, but that's not even mentioning the human-looking shit scattered all around the room. However, the most damning piece of evidence is the litany of bones present...

Human skulls and other gnawed-on skeletons are present, with absolutely no flesh on their bones to be seen. He glances behind him at Anja who seems to be struggling with the smell, her sight might be gone, but that only proves to heighten her other senses.

Nearby the cage is a radio playing a strange signal... This should be the one capable of triggering Elijah's collars, meaning that whoever was kept in here was probably another victim... Though, judging by the state of the place and the fact the jail cell isn't locked, they were more accomplice than victim.

Afton just shakes his head, "There's nothing down here, let's head back up." he states, not feeling the need to wade through shit and bones just to confirm this.

They head upstairs and back to the reception where two familiar faces are already present, both looking at the message he'd left for them. Veronica and Dean quickly turn with weapons ready when they hear the door open behind them, but they quickly relax once they see who it is.

"Afton! I knew you'd be alright!" she quickly says in a relieved tone, though, this doesn't last long once she looks at Anja.

*Gasp!*

"Anja! What happened to you!" Veronica exclaims, walking up and clasping the ghoul's arms comfortingly.

"I-I was caught off guard... It's my mistake." Anja solemnly admits, "If I was paying attention, then sir wouldn't have had to save me."

Veronica shakes her head "Don't say that! It's all of our fault for not noticing... That guy who attacked up was big and heavy enough for us to have heard him coming..."

Afton nod with crossed arms at the side, not that Anja could see him of course... He turns to Dean, "Anything happen on the way here?"

Dean rolls his neck as if he'd just been asked a loaded question, "Other than fighting off that big blue bastard? Our mutual friend seems to be trying to persuade Veronica here that he's not all that bad. You know, if we ignore the collar, the kidnapping, the evil genius playbook, et cetera, et cetera."

Afton raises a brow under his helmet, "You know he's listening right now, right?"

Dean nods with a sneer, "I know. That old man can lick my wrinkly, necrotic testicles for all I care!"

*Beep Beep Beep Beep*

His collar rapidly beeps, indicating it was close to detonating, Dean just laughs however, instead of looking horrified like Elijah would expect, "You, Need, Me. You would no less kill me than you would yourself... Unless of course, you wish to forget about the treasure..."

The collar stops beeping, making Dean smirk victoriously.

Afton just watches this happen with a strange expression, there was clearly more going on than what first meets the eye... Judging by what he'd heard so far, Elijah was most likely trying to find some sort of treasure contained in the Sierra Madre Casino itself... Though, what would be worth coming to this damn hellscape, he didn't know... He could make some inferences though...

Judging by Elijah's character and his past actions, he was most likely looking for some sort of technology... Now. What technology present here could be used for absolutely destruction and control if used properly?

*Ping, Pong!*

The Cloud. Elijah was trying to gain control of the Cloud... Fuck, if that wasn't a scary thought he didn't know what was.

Afton shakes those thoughts from his head momentarily while looking at Veronica, "You came from the upper floors right? Did you find anything?"

Veronica shakes her head, Nothing but Ghosts... Anything down here?"

Afton sighs, "Nope. Nothing but a cell filled with bones, piss, and shit... Guess we can cross this place off of the list."

"Ah... Can we go to the Medical District next? Elijah said Christine was there... I don't think there'd be any harm in looking..." Veronica sheepishly says.

Afton raises a brow under his helmet, "You mean, other than the litany of traps, Ghosts, and other deadly things he has there waiting for us?"

...

Veronica glances sideways, "Maybe?"

...

He sighs again, "Fine, but I retain the right to say 'I told you so', regardless if Christine is there or not." he states nonnegotiably.

Veronica shrugs and escorts Anja to the stairs leading to the higher floor as Afton leads at the front like an immovable shield. He follows the duo's directions to the window on the third floor they'd initially entered by, climbing out of it and walking along the rooftops.

Once outside it was left to Dean to lead them... Fortunately, the Medical District wasn't all that far away from the Villa Police Station. This meant that they'd have probably gone there next, regardless of Elijah's prompting... Had the man taken this into account just to try and gain some trust? Or was he simply trying to trap them?

....

All Afton knew was that he'd be punching through Elijah's skull once he found him. Not just for what he'd indirectly done to Christine, but also because of his actions at Helios One... If anyone was responsible for what happened to his parents(aside from the NCR), it was Elijah, but his mismanagement, poor strategy, cowardice, and reliance on technology that may or may not even be functional.

Putting all your hopes on an orbital laser? One that was 200 years old and may have been hit by meteors, space debris, or other objects? Foolish.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Chris Lindsey

Kingsprovince

Michael Jarrett

Nazlican Erdem

next chapter

Chapter 522: Dry Remnants

It takes a couple hours to actually reach the area where the Medical District apparently sits. Due to them primarily using the rooftops, they almost never encountered Ghosts, the only time they did was when they had to scale over a Rooftop Villa Restaurant which was almost completely infested.

Fortunately, Afton easily cleared the area, collapsing the staircase leading to the roof with a few hard punches while tossing all the Ghosts off of the roof.

By now the sun had already set, bathing the entire place in further darkness than it already was under the Cloud. Usually, you'd be able to see somewhat in the night with the moonlight, but none of its light managed to breach the Cloud overhead...

In actuality, the Cloud overhead seems to become more erratic and tumultuous during the night, which was quite disturbing considering the effects it'd already had on Anja. Every now and then you could see orange lightning flashing overhead, providing a flash of sight before disappearing, this of course was followed by the loud crack of thunder.

Afton and Veronic had activated the lights on their Power armour to see where they were actually going. Anja would too, if not for the obvious... Dean seemed fine using the other's lights to navigate however.

Soon enough, they reached the Medical District... If Afton were honest, it looked less like a proper district and more like a collection of relatively large buildings. Of course, most of it was obscured by thick Cloud and shambling black figures, so perhaps he was missing something.

The only actual indication that they were where they were supposed to be was the flickering red and green medical sign...

Dean takes one look at the place and frowns, "This place is full of Ghosts... Are you sure you want to try this now? We can come back tomorrow when the Cloud has thinned and some of the Ghosts have migrated."

Afton shakes his head, "I'd rather not spend more time than we need to in this place, Anja still needs extensive medical treatment and I doubt this place will have the equipment we need for it. She needs to be taken back home, but first, we gotta find Christine." he states, hopping to the next roof.

Dean audibly lets out a long sigh, "Whatever you say..."

The group make their way towards the District, hopping across rooftops until they finally reach it. They climb through a hole in the roof to get inside, and are immediately attacked by a Ghost that spotted them from the hallway.

Afton immediately kicks it, and accidentally sends it through the wall and plummeting to the ground below... "Wah... I didn't even kick it that hard..." he says with surprise still present on his face.

Dean just chuckles, "Don't be too surprised, this whole place is barely held together with spit and glue... I dare say if it ever rained here, it'd melt like a sandcastle." he jokes.

Afton hums at Dean's words while looking around the hallway, quickly spotting a strange device in the far corner... It looked like a speaker mixed with a camera of sorts... Dean spots it too and unconsciously takes a step back, clearly avoiding it.

"Another 'detonation signal' huh?" Afton asks, already guessing its function.

Dean nods, "I have no idea what purpose they serve... Back in the day they were used for announcements and such, but now they only play that single signal that'll blow my head off." he says, making sure not to mention the fact that his collar was disarmed.

Afton shrugs and draws his revolver, firing a single shot that causing the speaker to explode. "Well, just try to keep your head, cool?" he chuckles before beginning to look around.

Veronica of course continues to assist Anja in moving around, they weren't about to risk leaving her alone in her current state. Not to mention the fact that Dean had never been in this part of the Medical District before, partly due to disinterest, and partly due to Elijah setting up shop and collaring him.

The group begins slowly exploring the place, occasionally finding medical supplies, but more often than not they had already passed their expiration date, that or the Cloud had rendered them useless or dangerous.

Afton does eventually stumble across something of interest... He pushes through a doorway that seemed to have some trash fallen behind it... Once inside he finds an operating room of sorts? Old black blood still stained the equipment around the place, but more importantly, there were some clothes presumably left by the last patient...

Afton gapes as soon as he sees it, and this feeling is mirrored by Nyx... He lifts it to straighten it out and is confused when he finds a suit looking remarkably like the Stealth Suit. The only difference was the fact it contained no electronic components, meaning there wasn't an AI contained within.

Aside from that, the materials looked almost identical... Well, it would have if Afton hadn't upgraded his own slightly. "Nyx, what is this? Why is it here?"

"Sir, that is a previous version of the Stealth Suit, one without the components that make me so valuable... It's from Big Mt." she states.

Obviously, this means Christine had been here... He doubted Elijah would try wearing this as it seemed to suit people with smaller frames...

He glances behind him at the others, "I found some of Christine's clothes, we must be getting close." he states, tossing Veronica the clothes so she could hold onto them, he doubted Christine would want to be walking around naked.

Veronica almost drops Anja as she catches it, her eyes still angrily scanning the various blood stains covering the operation room. If she found out Elijah was responsible for this she'd tear his damn heart out!

The group continues moving, the new discovering spurring them forwards at an accelerated pace. In all honesty, Afton and Veronica were slightly frightened by the amount of blood they'd discovered...


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to : https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Chris Lindsey

Kingsprovince

Michael Jarrett

Nazlican Erdem

Load failed, please RETRY

Weekly Power Status

Batch unlock chapters

Table of Contents

Display Options

Background

Font

Size

Chapter comments

Write a review Reading Status: C521
Fail to post. Please try again
  • Writing Quality
  • Stability of Updates
  • Story Development
  • Character Design
  • World Background

The total score 0.0

Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
Vote with Power Stone
Rank 200+ Power Ranking
Stone 0 Power Stone
Report inappropriate content
error Tip

Report abuse

Paragraph comments

Login

tip Paragraph comment

Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

GOT IT