บท 235: Nazi Zombies?

"Shit!" Afton growls as he looks over the hole Anja had fallen down... Klaus had disappeared behind the metal door and left him here, Afton had honestly expected the room to start filling with some kind of poison gas judging by how this had all gone so far...

Shaking his head, he approaches the metal door while checking underfoot for anymore floor traps, nodding as there didn't seem to be any. "Klaus! You better open this door and return Anja to me or I'll burn this fucking house down and lock you inside!" he shouts, trying to be as intimidating as possible.

With a crackle, sound starts coming from the intercom system overhead signalling that Klaus had either activated a pro-recorded message or was going to talk to him personally. "*Zzzt!* L-looks like you are caught in m-my trap! Heueheueheueheue!"

...

"You need to practise more on your evil laugh! You sound like a mix between Bill Cosby and a Pedophile... If there's any difference there." he remarks while tapping the metal door with his knuckles to check how thick it is.

"*Zzzt* I d-don't know who this B-bill is, but it d-doesn't matter! Y-you are trapped, and you w-will join my family with the r-rest of the trespassers!"

With that said Klaus does something which causes a *Clank* to ring out, this is immediately followed by the familiar click of his Pipboy's Geiger counter. Klaus was flooding the room with radiation, probably attempting to turn him into a Ghoul?

It wasn't an insignificant number either, ten rads a second would kill most people in a couple hours... Afton was fine with more than fine with this though as his [Rad Absorbtion] would tide him over for now. What Klaus doesn't know however, is that his introduction of Radiation would be his undoing.

A feeling of adrenaline, but not, could be felt... Afton hadn't felt this before but immediately recognises the cause. It was his [Atomic!] Perk in action for the first time. His muscles swell and veins bulge as they suck in Radiation greedily, his cells rejoicing as power fills them

The metal door had been to thick for him to break earlier, but now with his added Strength it wouldn't be too difficult to get inside... Not to mention that Afton had just the right tool for the job.

He pulls out the fire axe called Knock-Knock that he intended to give Tamia as a gift, hefting it in one hand and doing a couple practise swings to get used to using just his left hand. "Last warning Klaus!"

"*Zzzt* There is n-no escape for y-you!" the madman shouts over the intercom.

Afton gives a cocky smirk and raises the axe above his head, bringing it down with the force most would view as inhuman. "Graaah!"

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIK*

The sound of metal being torn assault his ears, but the sensation of getting through the metal trumped whatever discomfort he felt from it. He wrenches it out and looks through the new hole in the metal door, spotting Klaus sitting in the corner looking at some kind of surveillance system.

They lock eyes and Klaus looks like he's about to shit himself, his insanity didn't remove his instincts of self-preservation... And right now, Afton was the apex predator. "Here's JOHNNY!" Afton exclaims, not missing a chance for a movie reference only he would be able to enjoy, breaking Klaus out of his stupor as the man quickly stands and presses a button that opens a staircase before running down it.

Afton back up and starts swinging again, slowly tearing the metal door to pieces. Soon enough he's able to give a firm kick and break the rest apart like flimsy plywood. He stores the axe and walks into the room, glancing down the staircase where Klaus had retreated before walking to the surveillance system...

Cameras seemed to have been set up in every room of the house, not only that, but even the outskirts of the house were monitored. Hundreds of meters in all directions Klaus would be able to see what was happening, meaning he knew he and Anja were coming.

His eyes trail past each of the individual screens until he spots some rooms that look like they don't belong to the same house. Concrete walls reinforced with metal like a nuclear bunker, it looked dark in most of the cameras but Afton could spot one with a number of humanoid shapes...

Scanning them, most looks like ordinary ghouls, rotten flesh with dull eyes... Some look human though, he recognised them as the people in Klaus's pictures and paintings. They were the madman's family... That wasn't the only person he recognised in the group though, Anja was standing upright, stock-still amongst the feral ghouls, a look of abject terror on her face.

He wonders what Karl and Boone's reaction would be to hearing this story... Maybe he could make it sound like it was all planned to give Anja some experience?... Yeah, probably not.

Afton checks the machinery one last time for anything that could help but doesn't find anything, the only other controls were for the traps in the first and second floor of the house, nothing was connected to the basement where the bunker likely was.

He heads downstairs with That Gun drawn, ready to fire at anything that requires it. At the bottom of the staircase was a large double door, one that Afton swift kicks open and immediately after finds himself face to face with Klaus's Mister Handy.

The robot was currently flailing its saw-arm at him while insulting him as politely as it can...

"Forgive me sir but after my blade is done you'll find yourself looking more attractive than before!" it says as Afton ducks under the blade, just as its flamethrower turns in his direction.

Afton blows the offending weapon off with his pistol though, causing the resulting scrap metal to loudly clatter to the floor. He deflects reactionary sawblade strike with the barrel of That Gun, causing sparks to fly and not a small amount of damage to the weapon itself.

Not wishing to waste any more time, he gives the robot a brutal kick, sending it flying at a nearby wall before unloading the rest of his ammunition at it, finally killing it.