FFF - Join the hunt

You do the math: Maggie’s not making it up that there’s something out here. Playing along with her may be smarter than going in blind, although Trixie being here isn’t great. The back of your neck tingles, and you remember what Dr. Clemens and the Overseer suspected: that she might’ve been responsible for your head injury.

“We’re in,” you say, and Trixie and Maggie join your huddle. Trixie looks sour, but serious. Like you, she’s been on the surface for a while, and she appears to be handling herself. Like you, she has probably toughened up and become more formidable. The brutal reality of the surface has changed you both.

She offers no protest to you joining the hunt. You don’t know how she and Maggie met, and they don’t bother telling you.

“What exactly are we hunting for?” you ask. Chastity does a brass check on her Glock while QT opens her magnum’s cylinder to make sure it’s loaded.

“You’ll know them when you see them,” Maggie tells you flatly. “Try not to make noise. That’ll bring them to you. They look like people when you first see them, but they aren’t. So don’t think twice to put them down. Getting them quietly is the key,” she says, pointing a finger at you for emphasis. “You can get a lot done with no grief that way. If you fire your gun, that’ll bring you a fight. They don’t go down easy, so if you draw a pack of them you have to run. And we have all the usual stuff here too,” she adds, and you make note of how she said ‘we’. As though she lives here. “Watch for Rad Shrooms and Copperheads. God knows what else. Stay on the paths and remember the turns. If you get too far off, you won’t find your way back. Meet back in two hours. They wear earrings. That’s your proof of your kills. Bring me those earrings.”

“They wear earrings but they aren’t people?” you ask skeptically. “We talking about Super Mutants? Is that why you’re using Mutagen Rounds?”

“No, thank God. But these work the best,” Maggie says, tapping a finger on her belt of glowing shells. “If you have them, use them.”

“We don’t,” you say with a glance at Trixie. The glow from her shell pouch tells you that she’s packing those shells as well. “Will lead be enough?” you ask.

“It will, but you should try to get them from behind. Stab them. Quietest that way,” Maggie says. “Trixie, take the middle path. You guys, go right. I’ll circle around up the hill.”

You don’t trust Maggie, but you do trust that she’s serious about this hunting trip. Will she really pay you? You can worry about that later. Your instincts tell you that the threat here is real. You need to take care of that. Maybe then, you and Trixie can catch up. How many entries does she have in her D.I.C.K. device? Maybe she’s wondering the same thing about you.

Your crew breaks off as Maggie and Trixie split up.

“Watch the back in case they want to try something,” you murmur to QT, who nods. “Keep those pretty eyes open,” you add to Chastity, who smiles at you.

With Chastity as your secret weapon, the hunt is both short and easy.

You haven’t even been prowling through the forest for twenty minutes before she urgently prods your arm and points.

There’s a white figure beyond some vines. The three of you creep closer. Maggie was right; it looks like a person, yet it’s obvious that it isn’t one. The thing in clearing has the body of a slim, shapely woman about your height. What makes her strange is that she’s nude, her skin is truly white, and she’s bald.

She also doesn’t appear to be doing anything.

You signal to QT and Chastity to get back and draw your knife. You put your back to a tree and use the blade to rustle a branch. This draws the creature to you. You step out behind it, put your hand over its mouth, and stab it in the back.

It convulses, then collapses to the ground. The liquid on your knife is white, not red.

QT and Chastity emerge to join you in looking down at it. The creature is smooth and hairless. The eyes don’t look human; everything else would be normal if not for the skin color. Like you, this woman has a large penis.

You wipe off your knife.

“What the hell is this?” you mutter. Before you can kneel for a closer look, Chastity stiffens. She was distracted by the strange creature, but now she senses danger.

There’s a click behind you. You all turn, but you’re blasted off your feet by a shotgun. You smash to the ground in a cloud of glowing particles. The shotgun booms twice more. Chastity and QT fall beside you, coughing. Pain shoots through your body.

Trixie emerges from the shadows. You go for your revolver, but she expressionlessly blasts you in the chest a second time, forcing you into another bout of coughing on the swirling green things in the air.

Trixie rips your vest open and takes the D.I.C.K. device. She tucks it into a pouch, leans her shotgun on her shoulder, and walks back into the trees without a word.

Lying on either side of you, Chastity and QT cough and groan.

[ Jane – Mutation Added – SLIPPERY: Your sweat is copious and extremely oily, suitable as a lubricant. Advantage in hand-to-hand combat. Disadvantage in polite company. ]

[ QT – Mutation Added – BEAST: Sexual tension converts to rage. Cures ED, but requires frequent release to prevent being consumed by fury. Advantage to combat abilities. Disadvantage to judgment. ]

[ Chastity – Mutation Added – HYPERSENSITIVE: Erogenous zones in overdrive; the slightest touch will light a fire. Advantage in the bedroom. Severe distraction and disadvantage in all other situations. ]