[M] [IC] Fallout: Ain't That A Kick In The Head?

[abbiejlee95]

Dani took off running as a grenade was tossed the groups direction, she leaped forward right as it exploded and it sent her flying several extra feet. She landed on her chest and braced herself with her arms, quickly flipping herself over and firing her duel pistols into the crowd of attackers. She emptied both clips before transitioning to a crouch and taking a flying leap into the face of a shocked warrior. She grasped his weapon arm and twisted as she sent her spiked knuckles slamming into his face. She heard his nose crack and he screamed bloody murder and collapsed to the ground. She used his chest as leverage and pushed herself up and onto the shoulders of another warrior and she wrapped her legs around his throat. She used his frantic spinning as an opportunity to reload and empty two more clips of ammo into the crowd. She winced as the warrior dug at her legs with his fingernails and tightened her legs, snapping his neck. She rolled away from his body and into the shelter of the building. She stood up right as Nikola yelled directly into her ear for someone to take care of whomever was weilding the machine gun. She gave him an annoyed side glance and blew a wayward hair from in front of her eyes.

[LupusSilvae]

In the midst of all the chaos, Stephen took shelter with the others behind a corner of the building. Rhea crouched beside him, tail rattling wildly as she took in the situation. With Dani and Nikola doing a decent job of covering their immediate area, Stephen took it upon himself to deal with the machine gun. Glancing back to see if he could get an idea of where the shooter was located, he roughly gauged how difficult this next shot would be.

Deciding it was worth the trouble, he plucked one of the grenades off the belt on his waist and pulled the pin. "Heads up!" he warned. With that, he lobbed the grenade over the shelter in the general direction of his target. Several cries were heard as some of the White Legs scattered. After the inevitable explosion, the machine gun fire stopped - at least for the time being.

[Holocene]

Joe lay on the ground, his hands and arms covering his ears and head, his face planted firmly on the asphalt. Sure, he knew the rest of his team was fighting back, and probably could use more firepower. Sure he knew that lying here perfectly motionless hoping the tribals would think he was dead was cowardly. And sure, he knew they would have good reason to be pissed at him if any of them survived the battle.

He knew all that, but he couldn't bring himself to get up and fire his weapon. Another grenade went off, killing a White Leg firing a .45 Auto, with more dust landing on Joe.

Meanwhile, the rifle fire from the hills picked up, more warriors firing from hidden positions at the visitor's center which Stephen, Dani, and Nikola were hiding behind. The remaining warriors on the ground grouped up for an assault now that they had covering fire. One shouted, "Baika-dems!", and they ran forwards, firing guns or waving clubs and tomahawks. Suddenly more fire erupted, but this time from another location. From the road leading into the canyon another group of tribals emerged, firing .45 Auto pistols.

These tribals were different. They wore small amounts of clothes, like the white legs, wearing only leather and fur over their loins, and straps of leather and fur across their chests. Instead of body paint, they had various tattoos, such as many small triangles on their chests and sides, snakelike spiked creatures, and tattoos going around their wrists.

The new tribals shouted out "Shtairb, chin dees!" as the White legs fled from the field, and the fire from the hills stopped.

The tribals approached the visitor's center, weapons raised, but in a calm mood. One said, "A bil he neh fuhr jahd thli gai!" and the other warriors laughed.

One warrior, who looked like the leader of the group approached Stephen, Nikola, and Dani with a curious look, his right hand raised in the air, with palm forward as a sign of peace. "You..follow. Hurry. White Leg return." he said in broken English, pointing back into Zion canyon.

While all of this was happening, one warrior came and started picking at Joe's backpack. Joe remained motionless. "Shit, I'm the only one left," Joe thought to himself, not knowing it was a friendly tribal perusing his gear.

[UserError404]

As more of the White Legs assaulted their position, Nikola new things weren't looking good. He saw Joe laying on the ground and said "Well this is quite the welcoming party! I wonder if Zion Valley treats all of its guests like this." Trying to asses the situation, Nikola checked his V.A.T.S. to see that Joe was not seriously injured. With a frustrated sigh, Nikola signaled to Niels who ran away from the firefight.

Shortly after, a new group entered the fray. The shooting stopped and Nikola looked to see a group of tribals approaching them. He heard their leader say to follow them and then shot Dani a puzzled look. "That way? He wants us to go deeper into this place?" Nikola said, as he then turned his attention to Joe who was still on the ground. "This is going to go well." He said sarcastically as he holstered his weapon.

As the White Legs were scared off, Niels tried to make his way to Joe. As the Gecko was running up to Joe, it was scared off by a warrior coming to loot Joe's belongings. From a safe distance away, Niels made a few chirping sounds typical for a Gecko before running off again and returning to Nikola shortly after.

[abbiejlee95]

Dani surveyed the groups injuries as best as she could. No one seemed too bad off. She shrugged at Nikolas concern and and glanced over at the obviously uninjured but still scared stiff Joe nearby. She sighed and took a step his direction with the intention of scaring off the curious warrior that stood above him. She paused as a burning pain shot up her left leg and glanced down at the three jagged tears in her pants from her encounter with her earlier victim. She sighed again and limped over to Joe. She lightly shoved the warrior perusing his belongings and put a boot on the back of Joe's already dusty suit jacket and leaned down towards him. "Hey there Daddy-o. Don't you think it's high time you grew some gonads and stopped pussying out on your people?" She sardonically mocked his New Vegas way of speaking and promptly turned her back on him and limped back towards the rest of the group.

[LupusSilvae]

The arrival of the other tribe did not exactly instill confidence in Stephen, but they at least seemed to have an idea of what was going on. Whether or not they were actually friendly was up for debate, but that was a bridge that could be crossed later. With Dani dealing with Joe, all that was left was to see how this scenario would play out. He whistled for Rhea to rejoin him as he followed the new tribe, for better or for worse.

[Holocene]

Joe got up, and started wiping the dirt off of his clothing. Dani’s comment embarrassed him, a feeling of defensiveness going through his body, as it does with men when their masculinity is under attack.

“What..no…I wasn’t hiding. I thought I had been hit you see! A bullet passed….” Joe stopped as he lifted up the side of his coat jacket, his finger going through a hole in it. “Oh….” He said, looking down at it, shocked. A bullet had actually just missed him.

Eager to follow the tribals to safety, and avoid discussion of the last battle, Joe let out a passive, "We should..uh..get going with these guys...." still holding onto the belief that he was the leader of this group, and not just the paymaster.

The group followed the roads and then rocky footpaths deeper into Zion as the night fell on them. Fortunately the tribals seemed to know their way, even in the dark. Joe attempted to make conversation with them, but the only replies he got were grunts or broken English to signify they didn't understand.

Joe was glad to have gone with the tribals into the valley. It seemed his group was too busy thinking about escaping the White Legs to actually question why they were still following Joe on this mission, or to question why Joe freaked out whenever fighting started. He spent most of the journey separated from the rest of his group.

Joe’s only concern now was keeping his group with him until the job was done. If there was one thing Joe knew how to do, it was to sweet talk people into doing things against their own self interest. Like the cattle baron who had mercenaries pointing a gun at his head, or the people who loaned Joe even more money despite him losing it all previously.

Maybe sweet talking people didn’t always get Joe in the best situations…but for now it was all he had.

After several hours, the group crested a ridge, and saw a small encampment below a rock face. There were two fires crackling at the camp, illuminating a few figures sitting at the fires.

"You talk." one of the tribals said to the group, pointing to the camp.

[UserError404]

"Talk? Did Joe not do enough of that?" Nikola asked, seemingly taunting Joe. Following the pointed finger, Nikola saw the camp and added "Wait, talk? What does that mean? Please tell me their version of talk is the same as ours. I swear if I get burned at the stake or whatever the hell tribals do to people, whatever metaphysical bullshit I have left is haunting all of you."

Nikola's sarcasm was met with harsh stares from the tribals. Noticing this, he said "Ok, right. Onwards to the ominous and probably deadly tribal camp then."

With a slight air of caution, Nikola slowly walked towards the illuminated camp site. He reached his hand out to pat Niel on the head and make sure he was close by as they made their approach.

[abbiejlee95]

Dani glanced up and took note of Beggar circling the group at a safe distance and took comfort in knowing he could swoop in and cause a distraction if they needed a quick escape. She knew tribals were unpredictable but she also didn't want to jump the gun and make enemies when it wasn't necessary. She sighed and let her gaze follow the pointed finger of the tribal that had been leading them. Talk. What about? She blew a wayward strand of hair out of her face and rubbed her sore leg. She seemed to have a knack for talking and winning people's favor despite her best efforts to avoid human contact. But she hoped she could leave the talking to someone else.

[LupusSilvae]

As the group looked on the firelit tribals ahead, Rhea glanced up at Stephen and gave a concerned rattle. Everything had been upset in the last hour or so, and there was nothing but uncertainty ahead. What Stephen did know was they couldn't turn back, so their only option - as much as he despised the very thought - was to speak with whoever sat around that fire pit. He looked at Joe with a dull, expectant look. "You got us into this, so you better damn well have a way to get us out."