Fire In The Dark
The mother radscorpion slammed into the rocks again, hard enough to shake the entire ledge beneath them. Stone cracked. Dust showered over Adrian as smaller radscorpions continued swarming upward through every gap in the canyon walls.
The screeching had become unbearable. High-pitched and constant. Adrian fired his last shotgun shell into a radscorpion scrambling over the rocks barely two feet away.
BOOM.
The creature burst apart in a spray of black gore, then came the click. Empty. "Awesome."
Tandi slammed a fresh magazine into her rifle beside him, breathing hard. "We're getting overrun!"
No kidding. Below them, the mother radscorpion shrieked again, smashing one enormous claw into the rocks while its tail stabbed upward again and again, searching for them. Venom hissed across the stone. Near the edge of the ledge, Cassandra never took her eyes off the cave behind the creature.
Planning and measuring while looking for an opening. Finally, she turned toward Adrian. "We collapse the nest."
He pointed emphatically at the giant monster below them. "Again... HUGE issue with the murder tank blocking it."
"We distract it."
"We?"
Cassandra's expression never changed. "You wanted to help."
"This feels like punishment for personal growth."
Despite everything, Tandi barked out a nervous laugh. It ended the moment another small radscorpion crawled over the rocks beside her.
CRACK.
She shot it point-blank. Its body tumbled back into the cave below. The mother creature answered with another furious screech. Adrian glanced toward the cave again. The eggs clustered closest to them pulsed beneath thick layers of slime while dozens of smaller radscorpions crawled over them.
If that nest survived... Shady Sands wouldn't. Children, farmers and families. Gone, that settled it.
"Okay," Adrian muttered. "I officially hate responsibility."
Cassandra rose in one smooth motion. "Good."
"You say weird things at weird times."
"Tandi. Rifle support."
She nodded immediately. "Got it."
Cassandra looked at Adrian. "You're with me."
Of course he was, apparently near-death experiences counted as flirting now.
☢ ☢ ☢
The mother radscorpion slammed upward once more. Closer this time, too close. Cassandra moved without hesitation. She vaulted off the ledge onto a lower shelf of rock with the kind of confidence normally reserved for people who had completely lost their minds.
Absolute lunatic behavior, Adrian followed anyway. At this point, staying behind somehow felt even more dangerous.
The instant they landed, the mother radscorpion swung toward them. Black blood streamed from a ruined eye socket while its remaining crimson eye fixed on Cassandra. "Oh... it definitely remembers you."
"Good." Then she charged it, actually charged it.
"CASSANDRA WHAT THE FUCK!"
Her shotgun thundered.
BOOM.
The blast hammered into the creature's damaged face, drawing another enraged screech as Cassandra slipped beneath a snapping claw with impossible precision. Watching her fight was becoming a legitimate health concern. Then the creature shifted its attention toward Adrian, "...Bad."
The radscorpion lunged. He threw himself behind a jagged rock outcrop just as one enormous claw carved through the space where he'd been standing. Stone exploded around him. Above them, Tandi's rifle cracked over and over from the ledge, each shot echoing through the cave.
Each shot hammered into the creature's damaged face and upper shell, forcing it to split its attention between two threats. Cassandra had positioned them perfectly. A realization settled over Adrian, this wasn't improvisation.
She was thinking tactically in the middle of a firefight. Military, definitely military.
☢ ☢ ☢
The mother radscorpion wheeled toward Cassandra once more. She gave ground deliberately, retreating toward the cave entrance while placing controlled shotgun blasts into its ruined face whenever an opening appeared.
She wasn't retreating, she was leading it. Adrian finally understood. Oh… oh, that was actually brilliant and absolutely horrifying. "HEY, UGLY!" The creature snapped toward Adrian's shout. Wonderful… terrible idea. He snatched up a loose rock and hurled it straight into the ruined eye socket.
The mother radscorpion shrieked in fury and charged. "Yep! Regret that!" Adrian sprinted for the cave entrance while every survival instinct he possessed screamed at him to reconsider every decision that had led to this moment. The creature thundered after him.
Too close, way too close. Its massive claws hammered into the rocks behind him, sending shards of stone flying through the canyon.
He reached the entrance to the nest just as Cassandra appeared beside him.
"MOVE!" She shoved something into his hands. Dynamite, Adrian stared at the bundle. Then at her. "Where did you even GET this?"
"You ask terrible questions during combat."
Fair enough… without the slightest hint of panic, Cassandra lit the fuse from a lighter she'd pulled from her pack. Apparently, she planned for everything. The fuse spat sparks. "Oh, this is a TERRIBLE plan."
"Throw it!"
The mother radscorpion barreled toward the nest. Massive, fast and enraged. Adrian hurled the dynamite deep into the nest. Then he and Cassandra threw themselves behind the rocks. The explosion hit like the fist of a giant.
WHUMPF.
Fire erupted from the cave mouth, carrying shattered stone, burning egg sacs, and screaming radscorpions into the air. The entire canyon shuddered. The mother radscorpion unleashed the loudest scream Adrian had ever heard, then the cave ceiling gave way.
Enormous slabs of rock crashed onto the nest, burying it beneath tons of rubble and pinning half the creature's body beneath the collapse. Dust rolled through the canyon in a choking wave. Then... silence. A heavy smothering silence. Broken only by falling debris and Adrian's coughing.
He forced himself upright, every muscle protesting the effort, "...Please tell me that worked."
The dust began to settle, the entrance to the nesy had vanished beneath a mountain of shattered rock. The smaller radscorpions had either been crushed or scattered into the wilderness. The mother radscorpion... till moved. "Oh, COME ON."
It dragged itself partly free with it’s one remaining claw while black blood poured from beneath the slabs trapping its lower body. Still fighting and rrefusing to die.
Cassandra stepped beside Adrian, breathing harder now. The shotgun hung empty at her side. Tandi climbed down from the ledge, reloading as she came. The mother radscorpion gave one last weak screech, then clawed toward them again.
Adrian watched it in silence, the rage. The instinct to survive… the absolute refusal to surrender. For the first time... he felt something besides fear. Not sympathy, respect. This was the wasteland. Everything here fought to its last breath, no matter how monstrous it became.
The creature raised its shattered claw one final time, Cassandra drew her pistol.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
The echoes rolled through the canyon. This time... the radscorpion didn't move again. Silence returned, real silence. Only the wind whispered through the broken rocks. Adrian sank against the canyon wall as the last of the adrenaline drained from his body. His hands started to shake uncontrollably.
Tandi laughed first. A sharp, exhausted burst of nervous laughter.
A second later Adrian joined her, because honestly... what else were you supposed to do after surviving giant radioactive scorpion genocide?
Cassandra looked between them as though they had both suffered permanent brain damage. Which, honestly... remained a possibility.
Eventually Adrian looked up at her, still laughing between exhausted breaths. "You know..." He coughed once. "This might officially count as the worst date I've ever been on."
Tandi groaned dramatically. "Oh my God."
For the first time since meeting her after leaving Vault 13... Cassandra laughed, a real one.