A Dance With Death

Part two here: https://steemit.com/challenge30days/@olmech/trapper-walsh-diamond-city

As I stared looking down into the Glowing Sea from my position high up on the ridge of the crater, I could not help but wonder what had once been there. Even from where I was I could see human remains littering the landscape for as far as my eyes could see. Their twisted, charred black skeletons seemed to be looking up for answers to a question they have been asking for 210 years now. They could not talk. There was no one left to talk for them. Whatever must have been their last thoughts had to include a why though.

This had been the epicenter of a massive attack by the Chinese. Nobody knows for sure how many nuclear warheads had been detonated here but each crater was miles across. Some craters even had craters within them. If the Chinese had been aiming at Boston... they were piss poor shots. The blasts had been so massive that they had in fact destroyed Boston even though the point of impact was well to the southwest. I reckon that if you're a poor marksman, you had better be using really big bullets.

I had been hunting these crater ridges for about 22 years now and had developed harvesting Radscorpions and Deathclaws down to a science. I would come to a place I had hunted many times over the years and it had never failed to produce. The place had a glassy smooth rock overlooking the whole expanse of the crater that was visible. To my right was the only way in or out of that crater. It was a narrow path winding back and forth down into the crater among the jagged, broken rock walls that were impassible for anything with legs. If something in that crater wanted to get at me, it had to run my gauntlet. The exception was flying insects like Bloatflies and Stingwings, but even then my vantage point made them fairly easy pickings. I just hated to waste ammunition on those critters because there was not a huge demand for them with traders.

My strategy was simple enough. I would scan the crater for anything that would show up in my infra-red binoculars. If it was something I wanted, I would pull out my .38 revolver and fire a shot in its direction. There was no hope in actually hitting anything with the revolver at this range. I just wanted to get whatever I was shooting at to pay me some attention and .38 shells are a lot easier to come by than the hand loaded .45-70 cartridges in my rifle. My target then had to make its way up the crater ridge along that twisting path making itself a very easy target in the process. It would take 6 well placed rounds to bring down a Radscorpion or a Deathclaw... more if I was clumsy with my aim but I did not miss often. If you did not hit these things with 540 grain slugs where they wear their smiles, the bullets would simply bounce off their thick hides.

It's always quiet up here which is just the way I like it. I only need to worry about what I need to see after my ears give me the all clear. As I scanned the crater floor with the binoculars, my ears began to give me the red alert. Something was behind me, what I did not know. I lowered the binoculars very slowly and raised my left arm so I could look back under it in the direction of the sound. A Radscorpion had silently crept up to within 40 yards of me. It had been stalking me ever since I entered this area I figured. I was not the only one hunting this day it seemed.

I began to quickly consider my options. I needed to be on my feet but if I tried to get up and turn around I would be dead before I could get a shot off. I decided to roll over on my back while bringing the rifle around as best I could to get a shot off. There was no chance that I could kill it with one reckless shot like that, but maybe it would stun the beast and buy me time to get on my feet where I could move.

When I made my move and squeezed the trigger I could see the impact of the bullet had been high hitting right where the armor starts above the face...if you could call it a face. Nevertheless the sledgehammer like blow from the bullet did sit this thing down long enough for me to find my feet. I put the heels of my boots right on the ridge of the crater and took careful aim this time. For their monstrous size, these Radscorpions had very small brains and that's what you have to hit to kill one. The beast shuddered under the impact of each shot but kept coming right at me. I quickly slid another round into the rifle and worked the action. As I looked down the barrel this time, I knew that one of us was about to lose this dance of death. I centered up and squeezed the trigger and the beast finally slid to a stop, its massive stinger touching the toe of my left boot. I had been lucky today, but that's what all survivors say. Luck is for the living.

More to come...

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