New Vegas: Sheason's Story

Chapter 127: Descent into Hell

CRUNCH.

The blast door moved another few inches, grinding against the frame. It was deformed slightly underneath the grip of my cybernetic fingers, and the surface was still blistering hot. At least, I assumed it was hot. The metal was blackened and had literally blistered, but I didn't feel any heat under my palm. It's possible that my cybernetic arm was able to dull anything that might be picked up as 'pain,' leaving other tactile sensations intact. That would certainly explain why I could feel things as normal, but still punch through steel doors without feeling anything more than a mild rap on the knuckles. I might also explain why I didn't pass out from the deathclaw trying (and failing) to bite off my arm.

I know that doesn't seem all that important, but I had to do something... anything to take my mind off the... cloud... Focusing on something insignificant while ignoring the truly pressing matter: wasn't that was a common symptom of shock? Some kind of acute stress reaction? Sounded like something I'd read in one of Arcade's books, at least...

I gave the door another shove, and it opened wide enough for ED-E to float through. I could hear the sound of a klaxon ringing from somewhere inside, along with some other indistinct sounds. Beyond was darkness... and it was probably going to lead deep underground. That meant tunnelers. But it's not like I really had much of a choice. It was either that, or I stay out here and wait for the end. Neither choice was ideal.

Every part of my body was screaming in pain. I didn't need to check to know that I had to be covered in bruises from the concrete pummeling I'd taken. Even though I was sure my armor had taken the brunt of the heat from the explosion, my limbs still felt like they'd been set on fire. I could take some (small) comfort in that I could still feel things. No pain after an explosion usually meant only one thing: third degree burns. They'd melt away most of your flesh, and you'd never feel it because they'd cook off your nerve endings first...

I cast a glance to my left, off into the distance. The mushroom cloud had only gotten bigger since the explosion. The head of the mushroom was now so large that I could barely see any sky behind it. It was illuminated from below by the orange light of fires and radioactive molten slag. The scale was just... it was too big for me to wrap my head around. This was no longer something I thought they'd be able to see from Vegas. It was so huge that I was sure people could probably see it in places like the Boneyard, or even as far north as Shady Sands. And even if they couldn't see the cloud, I'm sure they'd seen the flash, which had lit up the sky like there'd been another sun. Plus, there was that earthquake caused by the explosion's shock front...

Yeah. I think people are going to notice.

I don't know how I'd survived. I don't think I should have. Had ducking behind the concrete wall actually helped shield me from the blast, or had I just been far enough away from the explosion? I tried to push these questions out of my mind. I had to keep moving forward. I had to get my answers from Ulysses. But the more I tried to force them away, the more the questions just kept popping back into the forefront of my mind:

How many people had been under the warhead when it detonated?

How many more people would die in the weeks to come from the fallout?

And how many more would have to die as a result of my selfish curiosity?

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. Focus. Compartmentalize. You're no use to anyone if you stay still, paralyzed by fear and questions. You've got to keep moving forward.

"ED-E? You alright?" I asked, when I noticed that ED-E hadn't really moved yet. He wobbled a bit in midair.

"I am..." He moved forward, unsteadily. "No. I am not alright, Friend_Courier. But we must keep moving forward." As if to punctuate the thought, he started hovering his way to the now-open door, but stopped just before the threshold. "Are you going to leave the Red Glare behind?"

I looked over my shoulder at the rocket launcher. It was twisted in a mangled pile of half-melted metal, lying on top of the pile of concrete that had both shielded and nearly buried me earlier.

"Lost cause," I grumbled. "It'll only slow me down." And good riddance, I thought to myself as I followed ED-E into the underground. It was too heavy and cumbersome, ammo was way too scarce, and they did a total of jack and shit to the deathclaws around here. Unsurprising, really. There was only so much explosive fuel you could pack in rockets that tiny.

"Sue?" I asked, looking down at my chest. "What about you? How are you doing? You alright?"

"I'm sorry, Sheason," Sue squeaked out, a very audible waver in her voice; the digital processing was highly noticeable. "I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."

"Okay then," I turned on my Pip Boy light. "At least we're on the same page."

Directly in front of me in this darkened structure was a large platform with a control panel in one corner. Based on the shape of the walls and the slanted ceiling beyond the platform not to mention the gaps underneath it it looked like some kind of cargo elevator leading underground. Hell, it would probably lead straight to the silo. And that distant rumbling from somewhere under my feet definitely wasn't encouraging. This did not seem like a good idea.

But this was my only way forward.

I checked my gear again, to try and get my brain to focus something I could actually control. With the exception of the Red Glare, most of my guns had been under me or protected by my armor when I'd taken cover. Roscoe, That Gun, the Ranger Sequoia, the sawed off, the pulse gun, the sonic emitter... they were all pretty much fine. Even the Big Mountain Transportalponder!, which I'd been keeping in a pocket somewhere inside my duster, was unmarred. There were a few pieces on the G36 which had melted or been bent out of shape, but all the important components on that gun which allowed it to fire still seemed to work. Even though it now no longer had a stock. The only other major casualty had been the flare gun. Damn thing had snapped clean in half, somehow. I'd have to find another one before I ran into more tunnelers.

The fact that so much of my gear survived intact was, frankly, a little surprising. What wasn't surprising was that my Pip Boy was completely unscathed. Hell, the glass wasn't even scratched or chipped or anything. The image of the Vault Boy looked up at me from behind the screen with that cartoonish, winking grin, and almost seemed to be giving me a thumbs up, as if to say "Of course I'm fine, I was built by Vault Tec! The one thing they knew how to do was build shit to last!"

"Alright, c'mon," I looked over to ED-E, and motioned at the platform. "We've got to keep moving." ED-E bobbed in place silently, as if nodding his agreement, and I walked over to the control panel, ignoring the klaxons ringing in my ear. Thankfully, this control panel was not like the one outside, and only had two buttons: "UP" and "DOWN." I could only hope that this wouldn't launch another missile, but as I'd just been trying to open a door before, who knows.

I pressed the button for "DOWN" and immediately the floor dropped out from under my feet several inches with a heavy KUH-CHOONK! The whirring and grinding of metal machinery all around filled my ears. The platform began to inch down the sloping ramp, entirely too slow for my liking.

And then, as things are wont to do, they suddenly got worse. One of the pipes on the sloped roof above the platform exploded without warning.

"FUCK!" I yelled, leaping to the back edge of the platform, and brought my Pip Boy to cover my face. And that's when I finally made the connection: those distant rumbles were the sounds of explosions going off elsewhere in the bunker! This place was tearing itself apart after the missile launch! And as if that weren't enough...

"Friend_Courier!" ED-E shouted, just as another large pipe burst in a plume of red fire. "I am detecting movement all around us!"

Sure enough, the hideous screeching sound of tunnelers wormed its way into my ears, drowning out theexplosions briefly. So much for finding another flare gun before fighting more tunnelers. I held the G36 in my cybernetic hand and reached behind me to pull out That Gun. They weren't going to take me without a

"Behind you!" I heard ED-E shout right before the platform shook from yet another explosion from somewhere underneath us. I wheeled around, aiming the rifle one handed as a curtain of fire rose up from below, providing a stark contrast to the jet black monster leaping through the air, its mouth wide and its arms and claws spread.

I was so caught off guard that I stumbled backward, firing at the tunneler as I fell. I landed flat on my back, and there was something vaguely surreal about the sign of the tunneler flying over my head, missing me by miles, illuminated by the darkening wall of fire from all sides and bright yellow muzzle flash from the assault rifle directly underneath.

The beast missed me completely and face-planted on the edge of the platform, flailing uselessly in a tangled mass of limbs as it skidded off the edge. When I got up, I had to keep myself from laughing: it had slid right past a "Caution: Trip Hazard!" sign just before toppling over the edge.

Another set of pipes near me burst, and the screeching just got louder. And no wonder: a pair of tunnelers had practically flung themselves out of the hole, ignoring the fire and smoke, and landed on the platform opposite me.

"This is my elevator! Find your own!" I yelled, firing off round after round from the revolver and rifle in both my hands. A few bursts of blood later, and the two of them were lying in crumpled heaps. They were surprisingly fragile, given that I'd seen these things tearing at deathclaws earlier... but there were a lot of them. I kicked a carcass off the edge, and three more suddenly appeared one from above, and two clawing their way up from below. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a streak of red lasers slashing through the air.

They're the ones tearing this place apart, I thought to myself just as another explosion rocked the platform. I fired at another tunneler trying to climb onto the edge, but that's when That Gun decided to go dry. Another pipe burst along with a section of wall and more tunnelers started pouring out of it like water from a hose. I holstered That Gun, pulled out the sawed off, and fired into the mass of chitin swarming at me with the shotgun and the rifle until both went empty as well. I'd taken out quite a few, but five tunnelers had evaded the fire and landed on the platform. They all crouched down low, getting ready to leap.

"FUCK YOU!" I shouted, shouldering the rifle and balling my cybernetic hand into a fist. The tunneler in front screeched and leapt at me, but I met it halfway. The monster managed to clip the side of my helmet with his claws, but my fist connected with the center of its face. The diamond-shaped head buckled and snapped, but its hindquarters still had momentum, so it started spinning around in midair like a pinwheel.

The spines of the dead tunneler smashed into me, providing a decent buffer between myself and the next tunneler trying to leap at me. I desperately grabbed at the mass of spikes and chitin while pulling back with my cybernetic hand again. I could feel the claws trying to rip into me for a brief second and then the clawing stopped abruptly when I punched the tunneler in the side.

"FUCK!" I grabbed the tail of the tunneler with both hands before it dropped out of the air. "ALL!" I started swinging. "OF!" For a lifeless carcass, it was a decent enough club. "YOU!" I caught two of the tunnelers with one swing, and they both flew off the edge of the platform and right into another explosion.

The platform came to an abrupt halt. I looked around and realized that there was now a door I could use as an exit! I don't know where it led, but who cares as long as it led somewhere away. I tossed the dead tunneler in my cybernetic hand as hard as I could, and sent it flying into another tunneler that had just landed on the platform. Or had it clawed its way up from below?

"ED-E! We're leaving!" I yelled, running for the door and pulling Roscoe out of its holster. ED-E didn't say anything, but floated backwards toward the door as fast as he could, blasting lasers all the time. I punched the button to open the door. The hydraulics coughed and wheezed, so I spun around with Roscoe leveled and started firing. I don't know exactly how many tunnelers were now crawling along every surface after me, backlit by the fires from all the explosions, but there had to be at least ten. Probably more.

ED-E and I both backed into the open door, firing into the mass of chitin. The one closest to me only went down after five shots to the face, and then the one behind used it as a ramp to try and leap at me. I hit the button on the other side of the door, and the hydraulics now properly warmed up from use kicked in much faster this time. The tunneler reached forward as it leapt through the air and got one of its claws caught in the rapidly closing door for its trouble. The door slammed shut as if there had been nothing in the way. There was a sound like a radroach being flattened underfoot, and the severed claw flopped to the ground lifelessly.

I backed away from the door, trying to catch my breath. The klaxons were still going off, and I could hear the muffled sounds of other explosions elsewhere in the facility. But, for the moment, there were no more tunnelers in my immediate vicinity. I knew that would change, and fast, so I made my way forward, reloading as many of my guns as I could on the move.

"Got any idea which way?" I asked as we came to a hallway on one side and a staircase leading down on the other. The constant drone of ringing sirens was making it incredibly difficult to think or concentrate.

"No," ED-E admitted, before floating down the stairs. At that moment, the hallway erupted in fire, so I followed as quickly as I could before that explosion got any bigger. The two of us entered into a narrow, winding corridor which occasionally shook from an explosion somewhere else... and then something really unexpected happened.

"WEAPONS FREE!" A sentry bot boomed from around the next bend. "NON COMBATANTS ADVISED TO STAND CLEAR!" There was an explosion, and the top half of a tunneler was blown into the wall directly in front of me.

I looked over at ED-E, and he just sort of... silently bobbed in place, like a nod. I reached into my duster, pulled out both the pulse gun and sonic emitter, and clicked the button on my belt. I shimmered into transparency, and slipped around the corner, energy pistols at the ready.

The room looked like the inside of a meat grinder. Blood and guts were liberally sprayed across the walls, and dismembered, chitinous body parts were strewn around all over although most of them had collected in the corners. In the center of the room was a solitary sentry bot, pivoting slowly on its treaded wheels on the end of its three legs, scanning the room with a rocket launcher and a 6-barrel rotary cannon.

"THREAT ANALYSIS: GREEN." It boomed."NEUTRALIZATION OPERATION COMPLETE." There was a robot stasis pod on one side of the room, the door having cracked open to lean against the wall at a distressing angle, and I didn't see any other sentry bots. This one must have been activated by all the explosions, and taken it upon itself to defend this particular scrap of nowhere.

A streak of blue lightning arced through the air, followed by the digital bark of a large dog. The sentry bot shuddered from the energy blasts, and collapsed face-first into a crumpled heap without ever knowing what hit him.

"Friend_Courier, we must keep moving," ED-E floated in behind me once I became opaque again. "The underground creatures will be drawn to the noise. They will arrive soon."

"I know," I said, prying open a panel on the deactivated sentry bot. "But we're running low on heavy ordnance. I'm gonna need something if we're gonna keep running into deathclaws, Marked Men, and the eight million tunnelers around here..." At least I didn't need to add robots to that 'things to watch out for' list. I seemed to have those well under control.

Either way, I didn't spend all that long scavenging. In fact, I'm surprised I was able to pick that room clean of useful supplies as quick as I did. With the distant rumble of intermittent explosions, the constant drone of ringing klaxons over a sick-sounding PA system, and the sounds of who knows how many unseen tunnelers echoing through the air vents, it was very hard to concentrate. And then, a few twists and turns later, it got even harder to concentrate.

Tik-ik. Tik.

"Holy shit!" I couldn't help but yell as I ran through a wide open door, and almost fell off the edge of a platform, flailing my arms stupidly to try and keep my balance. I looked around, and instantly understood where I was: the silo. The room was hot in more ways than one. Not only was my Geiger counter clicking steadily, but all the walls were glowing red. A bright column of dirty orange light shone down from the open hatch in the roof illuminating the thick miasma of smoke and ash hanging in the air.

"Scanning for possible egress points. Hold please." ED-E muttered, floating out into the center of the silo and spinning in place. He focused his grill straight down, and then looked back at me. "The only reliable exit is through the sinkhole at the base of the silo, Friend_Courier."

"You've gotta be shittin' me..." I leaned over the edge, looking down. The whole bottom of the silo had turned into a collapsed mess, with exposed rock, twisted metal, and... was that... was that a building? "That's bound to be tunneler city. Are you sure?"

"This passage will lead to the chasm. The only other open path is back the way we came."

Ti-ik. Tik.

"Fuck..." I muttered, leveling my rifle and heading for one of the broken catwalks. "Don't look down, I guess." I tried to ignore the clicking Geiger counter, but I couldn't because the clicking I was hearing wasn't just coming from my wrist.

"Friend_Courier! Above you!" ED-E shouted, drawing my gaze up. I was right in the middle of the silo, right before it led to a building buried in the rock. On every level of every one of the rings above my head before the hatch in the roof, I saw eyes looking back at me. Dozens and dozens of eyes attached to black, chitinous heads with entirely too many teeth.

"MOVE!" I shouted, snapping off a few shots as I started to run. The pulsating, clicking screeches echoed through the silo, drowning out the gunshots. ED-E blasted a few lasers at the tunnelers, and I made a beeline for the building. The walls were roasted and the paint had evaporated from the missile launch, but it was my best bet of getting out of here.

I slammed my cybernetic shoulder into one of the doors, and it crumbled into splinters; I was expecting it to put up more of a fight, so I wound up falling off balance and rolled into the hallway. Behind me, I heard the tunnelers clawing or dropping their way down to me, and above me I saw ED-E floating backward, blasting lasers into the oncoming horde.

"Get going!" I yelled at ED-E, shouldering the rifle while reaching into my duster. "I'll deal with these!" The eyebot sped off down the hallway, and I pulled out a microfusion cell grenade I'd put it together in a hurry, along with a few other things. I smacked the button on the top, tossed it over my shoulder, and took off after ED-E, half running, half skidding down the slanted floor.

Everything shook when the MF cell went off. I managed to slam into the back wall and dive for cover just as the hallway was consumed in green plasma fire. I couldn't tell how many tunnelers were caught in the blast, but it was big enough that the whole hallway practically collapsed in on itself, sending flaming chunks of walls and floor my way.

"Which way?" I said, trying to catch up with ED-E. He zoomed off down another hallway, buzzing along without saying anything. The noise from the explosion had died off, but all around I could hear the muffled thumps of the tunnelers clawing their way through the building.

"ED-E! Slow down!" By the time I thought I'd caught up with him, he was already at the top of a staircase that looked more like a climbing wall. "Fucking... son of a..." I scrambled up the stairs, fighting for grip. And just as I reached a landing (leading to another set of stairs), the ceiling broke open, and a tunneler leapt out of the darkness, knocking me into the wall.

"FOR FUCK SAKE!" I grabbed hold of the tunnelers neck, trying to keep that gnashing maw as far from my face as possible. A claw swiped against the side of my helmet, and I almost lost my grip... but I could punch harder. I kicked off the back of the wall, shoved the tunneler into the opposite wall, and aimed my cybernetic fist right for its wide open mouth. My fist broke maybe two dozen of its teeth on the trip to back of its skull before my knuckles hit brick.

"Stay down already!" I pulled my fist out of the new hole in its head, tossed the corpse aside and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. There was bound to be more coming soon, so I pulled out a tin can packed full of rocket explosives and wired into a jury rigged sensor module. I'd made more microfusion cell grenades, sure, but I couldn't risk another huge explosion like before. Not if I couldn't get away in time because I had more stairs to climb.

I tossed the grenade into the ceiling, and was halfway up the stairs when everything shook again. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see the rest of the ceiling behind me start to give way, so I poured on the speed, trying my damndest to get in front of the rapidly collapsing masonry.

"Oh, for the love of ED-E!" I shouted. "Where the fuck did you go, man?!" I'd lost sight of him. This was starting to become problematic, because that was when a pair of tunnelers leapt into sight right in front of me, rearing up and ready to try and rip me apart. I didn't even try and dodge. I just kept running and shoulder-checked the beast straight into the wall.

"I'm gettin' a little tired of this!" I yelled, holding the thrashing mass of limbs and teeth against the wall with my metal arm. I pulled out That Gun and buried the barrel against one of its eyes. By the time I pulled the trigger and blew away half its face, the other one had leapt on my back.

"Motherfu- AUGH!" Several rows of teeth gouged their way into my shoulder blade. I dropped the tunneler in my hand and elbowed the one on my back as hard as I could. It thrashed, but the teeth were still digging into me, so I spun around and slammed back-first into the wall. The spines on the tunneler went crunch (or maybe it was the brick wall, I don't know...), it screeched right in my ear, and finally let go.

"I SAID!" I spun around, putting my boot against the tunnelers throat. "I! AM GETTING! SICK!" I pulled Roscoe out of its holster. "OF! THIS! SHIT!" Five rounds later, and it finally stopped thrashing. I moved on, grimacing under my helmet, and clutching at my shoulder. Fuck me, that stings!

"We're not going to make it..." Sue spoke up softly as I made my way up another set of stairs. Fuck sake, how many sets of stairs are in this place? "Are we?" The waver in her voice was still present from earlier.

"We'll make it," I grunted out, holstering Roscoe, grabbing a stimpack, and jamming it into my shoulder. "Where the fuck is ED-E?"

"Friend_Courier," ED-E's voice buzzed in my ear. "I have found the way back outside."

"Well, that's just fantastic," I grumbled, checking the ammo on Roscoe. "And where are you? I've lost track of you in this crumbling piece of shit maze." And, as if things weren't complicated enough, I heard more tunnelers crawling through the walls. Great.

"The roof," is all he said.

"Motherfucker."

The wall in front of me exploded in a shower of brickwork and plaster. Another pair of tunnelers emerged, screeching and roaring and ready to eat me. I just took aim through the shower of shrapnel and emptied Roscoe into the closest one. I holstered the pistol, grabbed one of my boot knives, and rushed into the hail of debris, blade first. The knife sliced between a pair of chitinous plates on the abdomen of the other tunneler, and I dug down deep until I felt bone. Or was that the floor? Yeah, that was definitely the floor.

"Take the fuckin' hint already!" I yelled, picking up the not-quite-dead tunneler by the neck, and throwing it into the other one. More eyes looked at me from the darkness, and more claws emerged from the hole. I shrugged the G36 into my hands and hosed them. They screeched from the muzzle flashes, and I honestly think the bright lights were hurting them more than the bullets.

"I'm through fucking around, you assholes!" I yelled, emptying the magazine. The claws had disappeared, but the eyes were still looking at me... So I shouldered the rifle. "Alright, we do it the hard way!"

"Sheason?" Sue squeaked. "What are you doing?"

I didn't answer. I just grabbed two microfusion cell grenades from inside my duster, hit the buttons, tossed them into the darkness, and bolted. I figured I had maybe... 15 seconds? Maybe more, may-

The whole building shuddered. Definitely less. It felt like the floor was going to drop out from under me, so I just kept running. Up more stairs, trying to ignore the green plasma fire behind me, around a few more bends, leaping over sections of hallway that had already given way from the explosion, until finally...

"Friend_Courier!" ED-E yelled at me from the end of the hall, right in front of a door. "This way!" I kept my head down, and ran as fast as I could, straight for the door. ED-E floated up out of the way. And good thing too the door practically splintered when I slammed into it and rolled out onto the roof. A huge cloud of dust and smoke exploded out the door behind me, and it sounded like everything inside the building collapsed.

And speaking of sounds: I couldn't hear any more tunnelers. Either they'd been vaporized by the MF cell grenade explosions, or the floors collapsing behind me had crushed them. Either would have suited me, but the silence was very, very welcome. Contrasted nicely with the ringing in my ears.

"Ugh..." I was lying facedown on a roof somewhere. I had no idea where, I just knew that my legs were screaming at me. I shook my head and tried to look around. Sure enough, the door I'd rushed through was completely collapsed. There was a huge cloud of smoke everywhere, too... and there was... something else...

"Where the... fuck..." I finally looked up. I pushed off the ground, and finally understood what ED-E had meant earlier when he'd said 'chasm.'

Gigantic rock walls rose up in every direction all around me. And it wasn't just rock there were buildings halfway buried in the cliffs, sticking out at odd angles. The building I was standing on was just one of dozens. It was surprisingly lit up down here. Fires were burning at the bottom of the chasm below me, and every so often I saw a pulsing red light. The sky beyond the lip of the crevasse was completely blocked out by the still present mushroom cloud. At least it wasn't on fire anymore.

What really freaked me out, though, was the weather. It almost... it looked like snow. But that was... I reached out to grab one of the flakes between my thumb and forefinger, and it was crushed instantly. It left a grey-brown smear on my fingertip.

"Ash..." I muttered, looking around. All this ash must have been kicked up by the nuke... but I don't think it was fallout. My Geiger counter wasn't clicking, so it wasn't radioactive, and that seemed like a good sign.

"Alright, c'mon ED-E," I muttered, trying to take stock of everything. "We need to keep moving." As bad as The Divide had been already, I was getting that sinking sensation in my stomach again. I just knew, deep down, that things were going to get much worse before the end. I wasn't sure HOW. I mean... I'd already accidentally launched a fucking nuclear weapon today.

Silence.

"ED-E?" I turned to the silent, immobile robot hovering several feet away from me. I knew what was coming next. At least that explained the sinking sensation in my stomach.

"Hopeville..." Ulysses voice growled out of ED-E's speaker. "High Road... Ashton... Tiny cracks in the earth. Nothing compared to the road carved ahead. Before you now is the edge of The Divide. Ahead... lies your work. The History you burned in the earth. What you brought to the people here..."

Bad to worse. This is what my life had become.