บท 175: Hunting Season

Karl slowly made his way down the dark, dank shaft by using the rusty metal handholds on the side. He cautiously made sure each was able to support his weight before using them, if one came off and clattered to the bottom the enemy would no doubt know of his intrusion.

Taking a glance below him he couldn't see any lights, meaning that the Fiends were in almost complete darkness, or the lights were further into the sewers. Regardless, he was going to take a look... Hopefully there wouldn't be an ambush waiting for him at the bottom, Boone would know if he was in trouble as he was watching from above.

As his foot reached the bottom of the shaft he was immediately hit with the stale scent of ancient faeces. True most of it had decomposed through the years, but somehow the smell still lingered... He tried not to notice the squelching nose his boots made against the floor as he warily looked around.

Currently he found himself within a dead-end, there were only two exits from where he currently was, one back up the shaft, and the other ahead. He signals up to Boone that he's alright for now, and that he'll be back in five minutes max, once Boone gives a thumbs up Karl looks at the hallway leading into almost abyssal like darkness...

Sighing to himself he pulls out his faithful .44 Magnum and starts sneaking inside, mentally blaming Afton for this unpleasant situation he'd found himself in.

Karl was very careful as he headed through the hallway of the sewer, he could barely see but still did his best to make sure he wasn't about to trigger any traps. It'd be entirely too easy to hide a tripwire down here, Karl was very aware of that fact.

As he progressed further he could hear the sound of flowing water... As sad as it was, it took a while for Karl to recognise it, the unfamiliar sound almost scaring the hell out of him. As his eyes adjusted themselves to the darkness he noticed he was within a large tunnel, a small change of sewer water going through the middle.

He could see that there were many entrances to other hallways across the channel, he wasn't willing to get his feet wet to check them out though. No, instead he focussed on the vague sound of talking he could hear... They weren't whispering, but it was so far away that he'd almost missed it. A couple moments later the talking was replaced was the sound of... Metal hitting stone?

The sound got clearer and clearer the closer he got, until he was just outside the entrance to the hallway the Fiends were presumably within. Faint light could be seen streaming from inside, Karl didn't dare take a glance inside, the illumination and apparent closeness would reveal his position almost immediately.

No, instead he headed straight back to Boone. Once he was back at the manhole he signals for Boone to come, taking his Light Machine Gun and Boone's two rifles to make it quieter and easier to get down the claustrophobic shaft.

"The Fiends seem to be digging for something, I couldn't hear much else, but I know where they're at... I have a couple idea's on how to deal with them, but if you got any plans then let 'em out now." Karl whispers as checks over his Light Machine Gun to make sure it's in proper condition to be used.

"Hmm, I remember some covert messaging techniques... Thought I'd never use them, but considering the Fiends are low on supplies, they might draw some out."

Karl raises a brow, "Show me."

Boone raises his hands to his face and inexplicably makes a squeaking sound, one that Karl recognised as coming from giant rats from their recent delve into Vault 11. The Fiends were probably hungry, so the sound of a potential tasty morsel might be all they need to drag someone away... His move morphs into a small grin, "That'll work."

Meanwhile :

Nutter had just returned to the site without the supplies she thought they'd have at this moment, she swore that if that damn gang tried that again tomorrow there'd be more than one corpse needing to be cleaned.

She watched as a few of her men continued to whack metal pipes, rebar, and other sturdy pieces of scrap against the wall. The wall itself seemed to be just a pile of dirt and stone that'd caved in and blocked off another path, in-fact that's exactly what it was.

Her stomach growled, she scowls and tosses a rock at the back of one of her men's head just to keep her mind preoccupied. She wasn't used to going this long without a pick-me-up, she'd found herself in this situation with only a few doses of Psycho and Jet, doses that quickly ran out.

Her ears twitched when she heard the vague sound of squeaking, she could barely notice it above the almost deafening sound of digging, but it was there. This wasn't the first time she'd heard that sound, Giant rats were the only other inhabitants of the tunnels, and thus the only food source they currently had available. "Oi, Shiv, sounds like there's prey outside, go grab it for me." she says to the nearest man trying to dig through the rubble.

The man just grumbled to himself, not dropping the rusty pipe he held in his hands as he began walking outside the room.

Shiv stepped out of the hallway and was shocked to find himself under assault! Soon enough he was pulled away from his allies without any of them noticing a thing.