From the Causeway to Washington DC, Thursday Afternoon

[arboreal_priestess]

This was not the first time on Fandom that Verity had been glad her apartment could double as an armory, but it might have been the most acute. This week had been ridiculous, from fighting off a radroach invasion in their kitchen to the heart attack that had been discovering that the colony of Aeslin mice had been replaced by a colony of Aeslin mole-rats.

Nightmare fuel was walking into a room of giant mole-rats and hearing them talk to you, in case anybody needed a shot of that real quick. (Nobody needed a shot of that. Nobody.)

They also ate a lot more than Aeslin mice normally did and even though they supplemented their diet by eating pretty much any other creature they could find, the food levels in the Kincaid-Price household had gone from 'dangerously low' to 'practically non-existant' over night.

Which was why Liam and Verity had decided to strap on pretty much every single weapon they owned and head into the Wasteland to scavenge the remains of D.C. Supposedly, that was where the best remaining supplies were located.

Supposedly, that was where the most dangerous predators in the Wasteland were located, too. And most of them walked on two legs.

That was a problem they'd deal with when they got to it.

"All right," Verity said, securing another rusty container of bobby pins and her spare screwdriver. "We ready to head out?"

[Open to anyone who wants to join Liam and Verity on a scavenging expedition. Be prepared to self-NPC!]

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hot," Verity called as the beast roared once more and fell over. "That means I'm going to have to ride radscorpion to properly one up you for this one. Or one of those big suckers with the claws."

[firstofitskind]

Of course, now Liam had yao guai ichor in his hair. Ugh.

"Probably should've stabbed it," he admitted, resignedly trying to shake some of the gunk off. "Less messy."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good luck showering that off," Verity commented, raising an eyebrow. "And not growing a third arm while you do."

[firstofitskind]

"I dunno," Liam mused. "You don't think we'd find a way to take advantage of sudden extra limbs?"

He was kidding, of course.

[arboreal_priestess]

"If you get a useful one," Verity said, a little gleefully. "Not just a useless, boneless one that just dangles there, all gross and covered in lesions."

[firstofitskind]

"Gross," Liam made a face at her.

[arboreal_priestess]

"That's the problem with radiation," Verity said with a nod. "You only get cool stuff in comic books."

[firstofitskind]

Liam shuddered a little, thinking of Colonel Robillard and what the nuclear detonation in Tibet had done to him.

"Unless you're a bug, in which case apparently you do okay," Liam commented. They just got bigger. And some of them spit venom.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So our kitchen agrees," Verity said wryly. She looked at the corpse "Looks like the bears didn't fare so badly, either."

[firstofitskind]

Well. The fur was a little patchy.

"Wanna take any of this back for the mi- molerats?"

That was still so, so weird.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I have a feeling this won't be the only thing we kill today," Verity said with a sigh. "And do you really wanna carry mutated raw meat in a sack across to DC and then back?"

Verity was already calling 'not it.'

[firstofitskind]

"Not especially," Liam admitted.

... Though honestly, if pressed, he'd prefer it to the centuries old processed-food-product they were supposedly on the lookout for.

But like the lady said, there would probably be other kills made today.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good, cause in about an hour or two, I'd have to stop walking next to you," Verity said. "When the stink got to be too bad."

And again, lack of real showers.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, Liam was going to spend, like, an hour just standing in the decontamination room at the clinic when they got back.

"Might be a good idea to pick up some meat eventually," he pointed out. "... On our way back."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Agreed," Verity said. "Who knows? Maybe by the time we come back, enough things would have been drawn to the carcass that we can kill more and bring those home relatively fresh."

[firstofitskind]

"Just gotta think positive," Liam deadpanned. His gaze went distant for a moment, and then he was reaching out to pull her down behind the rusted out remains of a car, finger to his lips.

Raiders. A gang of them, with the advantage when it came to both firepower and numbers. Sometimes those little bursts of precognition came in handy for avoiding situations like that.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity went with him, silently sliding behind the car and waving the others to do the same. She didn't know what Liam was sensing, but she knew better than to question it.

She quirked her brows at him, waiting for the sitrep.

[firstofitskind]

“Raiders,” he murmured, just loud enough for the rest of their little group to hear. And yes, even being outnumbered and outgunned, they probably could’ve taken on the raiders, but that wasn’t what they were out here to do.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Stay low?" Verity asked, checking to see whether this was Liam setting up an ambush or keeping them hidden.

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. Stay low, hopefully let them pass without incident. Save their energy and ammunition for when they'd really need it.

[arboreal_priestess]

Never pass up a chance to be lazy, as Francis Brown used to say, because those times are rare and precious indeed.

Verity slid under the burned out car, trading ease of movement with more concealment and a better vantage point. Her hand stuck out the other side, the better to signal Liam with.

Five fingers flashed, then five more, and five more. Four-to-one odds, which were generally shit, even if these guys weren't particularly skilled. She didn't even bother trying to pass along how many weapons she was counting on them as they came into view. Each person had at least two, maybe even three.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, it was hard to get an exact headcount when you were working from a flash of precognition, so Liam appreciated the numbers.

This was one of those times when actual telepathy would be useful. As it was, she'd just have to trust that he saw her signals.

[arboreal_priestess]

It was times like this where Verity regretted that Sarah wasn't a fighter. Cuckoo powers would be so handy.

...But there was a reason Sarah didn't fight and it wasn't just because of what happened against the Covenant. It was really easy to go from 'Cuckoo powers would be so handy in this situation' to 'Cuckoo powers would be so handy in all situations.' And, honestly, that was how you got cuckoos in the first place.

The raiders seemed to be heading off to the southwest, away from their little group. Verity drew an arrow in the sand, showing their direction.

Good, because as little as she wanted to fight them, she less wanted them to start heading towards the Causeway.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, if they'd been headed towards the causeway, then their little group would've essentially been obligated to take them out. Which Liam didn't necessarily have a problem with, if it needed to be done. But it would cut their trip short for sure.

So they'd wait a bit longer, until the raiders were well out of earshot, and then start moving again.

[arboreal_priestess]

The next time Verity's fingers moved, it was to take his hand. She was plenty used to lying in wait for things and was taking the opportunity to half-doze in the heat, her nose and mouth protected by a balaclava.

Holding his hand was just a bonus.