Fucking goddamn Gunners — How the fuck did they spot them? They’d stayed low in the brush the entire time they were trying to creep around the encampment. (Which was a nasty surprise to stumble upon, Zetta would like to add. It’s tucked into the hills, and they didn’t see it until they were almost on top of it.) The guard up on the wall, the one who fired the first shot — He must’ve gotten lucky and looked down at the right time.
And that sonofabitch nailed Riley right in the side. And bad. He’s losing so much blood. There’s a part of Zetta’s mind that can’t see anything else, even as she’s swearing under her breath and trying to haul Riley somewhere safer, somewhere with cover. It’s so much blood. Fuck.
“Fine,” Riley gasps, fumbling with the crank on his laser musket. “I’m fine. We gotta — ”
“Shut up,” Zetta hisses. “Idiot. Save your breath.”
There. Gray boulders jutting up out of the ground. They can duck behind those for a minute. Zetta pushes Riley up against the rocks, forcing him up against them and down to sit. Fuck, that’s a lot of blood.
“Stims,” she mutters under her breath, shoving her backpack off her shoulders and patting down the outer pockets. There should be — There should be…
“Out,” Riley says, breathless. “We’re out. The super mutants…”
“Goddammit.” Bullets ping off the top of the rocks, but Zetta can hear them shouting to each other — can hear a gate screeching open. The Gunners are sending people out to hunt them down. She pulls her coat off and presses it against Riley’s side. “Just — fuck. Fuck, stay here. I’ll — ” Between the two of them, she isn’t the trained combatant. She doesn’t know how she’s going to do this alone. But she doesn’t have any choice. She snatches up her modified Institute rifle with shaking hands.
“Shut up. You can’t move, you’re losing too much blood, it’ll just get worse if you go out there — I’ll take care of this.” She doesn’t have much fucking choice. Goddammit, they should’ve brought Codsworth with them. They shouldn’t have come out here on their own.
A figure was tucked away on the ridge of a hill that conveniently overlooked this modest encampment. Binoculars were pressed against a pair of vigilant eyes as their steady gaze followed a pair, one in visible distress before they disappeared behind the cover of a rocky outcropping. The danger lurking below wasn't lost to this spectator, his sights quickly adjusted their focus on the gate that tore open to allow a hunting party to funnel out in search of the unfortunate intruders.
“Fuck... fuck these stupid people,” he grumbled to himself while he hastily shoved his binoculars into his messenger bag and grabbed the rifle which had been laid nearby; Rick went through the motions of pushing in a filled magazine into its receiver and propped up the weapon steadily on a rock. Quickly he adjusted his scope, peered through the sights and took aim at the leading member of the gang that stampeded below.
With the butt of the rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder, his left hand slid to grip the forestock while his right pulled on the bolt handle to push a .308 into the chamber.
Another grumble pushed through frowned lips, “Shawn, why am I following around bumbling idiots again?” Then, the shot of the rifle cracked through the air and its report roared through the valley as its bullet struck its target and the gunner fell to the ground. Another man ultimately tripped over his fallen body as a result of the ambush.
“Oh right, some family bullshit?” he griped again, and another bullet fire followed suit and picked off yet another unsuspecting gang member. At this point, the small group had come to a halt and desperately scanned the area for the source of the sniper. The shots were evenly timed and executed without hesitation, one by one a man was struck with death from above. Finally, there was one man left and in a move of sheer desperation, he turned tail to run back toward the camp for sanctuary. This straggler wouldn't make it and hit the ground as another shot crackled through the air, briefly, did he writhe about in the dirt before falling still laid face down.
Rick waited a moment, poised with one more bullet left in the chamber, just waiting for any more to run out so he could reach for a second mag from his pocket... but no one came. They must have been a scouting party, only passing through, or the others were too scared to leave... Either way, he had to break away from his cover to find out about the couple hidden nearby. The man shuffled down from the ledge and gathered his possessions before he stood and began his hike down a game trail toward the location where the couple had disappeared.
When he was close enough, hoping they were still nearby, he let out a whistle to alert them of his presence, then called out.
“Hey! You two okay?- Not your enemy! Just thought I'd offer some help!”
