Both Vito and I shifted our grip on our guns, preparing ourselves for a fight. Another fifty steps further on, the hideous stench was joined by an obscure screech. While Vito didn't seem that bothered or scared, I, on the other hand, was drenched in my own sweat and with every other step I take I had to wipe away the perspiration that had started streaming down my forehead as well as ease the galloping pace of my heartbeat. If the intensity of the stench wasn't a given that we were getting closer to whatever was down here then I don't know. Then again, I might just be a little bit paranoid, maybe even scared shitless, but I swear I just saw a shadow looming from behind us.
I quickly turned to look behind, only to find nothing. At this point, I was starting to believe that my mind was playing some tricks on me. Even though I wasn't sure if that was the truth, I kept an eye out for any shadow that might be coming from behind, just in case, that shadow that I thought I saw was indeed real and not made up by my brain. A few minutes later, Vito's flashlight beam finally found something other than those tunnels. The beam swept through the darkness for a second before it shone into some kind of glass. We quickly took a closer look only to find a few barely recognizable cars. Now that I think about the area above us did look kind of strange for a simple road, but now, that we had found those cars down here, makes me believe that what's up there destroyed was a bridge while those cars were under it when the ants made this place their home.
"It seems that we had found what forced the bridge to collapse after all. "
"I was thinking about the same thing, but isn't this a bad sign? I mean if the ants had dug some many tunnels, doesn't that mean they have a queen down here as well?"
"Not exactly, at least I hope so. The raiders that attacked us were somehow involved with whatever is down here one way or another. My guess is that they use the ants to take care of all of the people that are either brave or dumb enough to take their chances against them. We can still go back and tell Jackson that this is a lost cause. It would take us days if not weeks to clear the tunnels, and that's me being optimistic."
Another choice was to be made, but at the same time, Vito was right, this was a lost cause. There were both a predator version of those ants, as well as god knows how many normal ants roaming in those tunnels, maybe even a queen is hiding in some room. At the same time, if we can manage to get rid of all of the ants, maybe in the future, after I manage to begin working on my dream, we could use these tunnels to smuggle more "fragile" goods from outside of the Mojave through them and away from NCR's prying eyes. However as I said before cleaning those tunnels would be hard as hell, not to mention even more dangerous than every single experiment those scientists had done on me back in the OSI lab.
"Say, Vito do you think that we, a super mutant with experience dealing with those things and a complete newbie that had barely even used a gun in his entire life, could clear those tunnels by ourselves?"
"Kid, I know that asking you this would be a huge mistake, but why in god's name would you even ask something like that?"
"You know what I want to become right?"
"Of course, I know, after all, if I hadn't told you those damned stories from my youth, you wouldn't have ever dreamed of becoming the leader of a criminal family. "
A moment after he said those words, his eyes went wide open before he glanced at me, ready to slap whatever thought I had in mind to oblivion. "Dante, don't tell me that you are thinking of using those tunnels if, and that's a huge fucking if, we can even clear them. Look kid, I've decided to take care of you, after getting you out of the lab, and this is the first time I would ever put a foot down. Despite being a super mutant, I was a father once, and because of that, I won't let you die for a dumb reason. "
"I…"
"Listen here son, I know what you want to become and what you want to create, but right now, you lack almost everything needed for that. Besi…"
Just as he was about to continue a huge head raise its head from behind the farthest car in the tunnel, before letting out a defying scream. This graveyard of rusted metal, where no human being could possibly be found, this macabre place, was in fact the lair of the ants and found that the hard way. The predator ants have greedily dragged their prey all over the tunnels, but not a single body or skeleton can be seen in this room, and now we found out why, this was the queen room, a room that she uses for making more her spawns. The bodies or better said what was left of them that we had found in the tunnels were their feeding grounds, leaving the pungent smell of death to linger there, probably to deter anyone from adventuring further.
In a showdown of unseen occurrence, "the rocks" that stood unmoved on the walls ever since we walked into the room moved as if they were alive, and a repulsive screeching sound could be heard from, all sides. One of "those rocks" gave a hoarse cry and slowly walked down from the wall, stopping just a few meters away from us, raising its mandible and front legs as if it was taunting us to attack. Its brothers and sister started climbing down off the walls in the same lazy fashion, hissing at us everyone glanced at them, sniffling and baring their teeth at us.
Standing erect, they were bigger than me but thankfully smaller than Vito, and that says a lot, after all, I wasn't short. From what Vito said, those things were quite the cowards and would not attack unless provoked, but when they do, god has mercy because they won't. However now I know why Vito almost begged me to leave this place as soon as possible, the fear, no, the irrational horror that these things put into you when you look at them was something you see in your darkest nightmares.
I was a fool to believe that we could kill all of those things and now we might just become food for those ants. Moreover, the ending fitting for a fool led his only friend to certain death.
The truth was that these things weren't afraid of people, not even for a second, instead, they want you to believe that so that you could blindly fall into their trap. Since this might just be our end, I might as well go out in a spectacle of bullets, taking down as many of those things as we can before they got us.
< Just change "3" with "e" Patr3on Link : https://patr3on.com/meatbunkun>