[IC] Frozen Darkness

[Lucius Cypher]

A thunderous roar echoed over the deafening blizzard. A tale of two people who met by chance, who's lives could end in the very next moment. Though they took different paths Donny and Catherine both would have to pass through a hospital to reach their next destination. Catherine came from below, able to maneuver through the tight and crumbling underground pathway into the building. Donny had managed to refuel his generator and rushed through the storm, the heat from the generator helping him fight against the cold before he got inside the building and shut off the generator. The two took a separate path before they had a chance encounter. They had only a glance at each other before all hell broke loose.

Cat would've noticed it first. The building groaning under the stress of it's age and winds were not unusual. But there was a certain rhythm to it that would catch her attention. It was constant, deliberate. Like footsteps. Suddenly dropping in from the thin hospital floors was a massive mutant monstrosity: a Pseudogiant. The thing was eight feet tall and had more than five times the mass of either Donny or Cat. The creature's thunderous roar deafened the two and both had precious few seconds to escape it.

Donny had heard of these creatures in tales from other soldiers. They had the strength to ripe apart stone and cement, so trying to take cover would be an early burial at best. Even it's smaller arms were strong enough to break someone's skull with a punch. And Donny wasn't going to test his helmet's durability against it. There was only one real solution he knew: High Ground. The mutant's giant arm legs were fast and strong but had limited mobility, so Donny could climb slightly faster than it could. He ran from the giant and looked for some sort of way up. He saw some stairs but ignored it: the giant could follow easily and it could already be collapsed. Instead he saw a section of floor that had fallen. "Perfect." He thought. It was a bit of a climb, but if it was going to be tough for him it'll be tough for the giant too. He wasn't sure what would happen to the girl though. He couldn't worry about her right now... But when he reached the top, he tied a length of rope to a pole and tossed it off the edge. If she followed, she could climb it. If not than Donny just loses some rope.

Either way the monster was on the hunt. It'll kill both of them if it had the chance, and it'll catch whoever is the slowest.

[rivaan]

Cat reacted as soon as the thing fell from above." Fuck!" She cursed and bolted, her excellent kinetic vision allowing her to recognize the beast in the moment it fell before the dust and debry cloud exploded. Of all things to run into, it had to be one of those! Of course she hadn't seen this exact one before, but as a soldier she had seen similar ones that all fell under the same category and she sorely regretted not getting an anti-material rifle before leaving. Sadly those were held under lock and key in the armory and only used when taken on missions, so she couldn't just grab one. Cat knew she could outrun this thing through difficult terrain and she could easily outclimb it, the problem came if it tried to have the wall she was climbing destroyed while she was on it. That would be unpleasant. She had ran at a slightly different direction from the man she had just encountered. Yet another thing that made this day weird.

Turning a quick glance at him, she noted he was going up a pile of rubble. Yeah that was a decent plan, she was planning to just make a move downwards back into the underground where the tunnels were tighter and this thing would have difficulty chasing her, however going up also worked. Suddenly with her periferal vision she could something as the mutant had decided to chase after her since she wasn't immediately going up. The guy threw a rope! She made a shift in different directions, making it hard for the creature to use it's powerful 'legs' to do a straight charge at her.

"Well..." She mumbled and made a sudden shift in direction, weaving around a pillar as she ran towards the rope. She used a bit of the rubble to jump higher as she grabbed the rope and rapidly pulled herself up with a trained ease, while also bundling some of the rope as she went to not allow the mutant to grab it and pull it down since where it would snap is anybody's guess." Thanks!" She called as she pulled herself over the edge.

[Lucius Cypher]

It wouldn’t be hard for Cat to catch up to Donny thanks to her agility, as well as the fact Donny was trying to enter doors that were locked or blocked off. If he wasn’t in immediate peril he might have time to break through but alas, every second would count. The pseudogiant was indeed sluggish to climb the rules, but what it lacked in finesse it more than made up in sheer brutality. Cat and Donny would hear it leap from the bottom floor to their floor, tearing apart the walls and floor of the hospital to reach them. “Oh fuck.”

Eventually the two would cross the hall where the giant must’ve broken through. The mutant itself was barreling down the hall, giving both only a few seconds to brace themselves. But Donny had an idea seeing as you decided to follow him. He cupped his hands together and lowered himself to the ground. “I’ll throw you across! Then you help me jump the hole! Hurry!” Donny said as the monster continued to roar and build speed.

[rivaan]

"Why did I even come to the surface?" She asked herself as she ran after the man, turning the rope in a rope bundle as she ran. It was a trained subconscious action at this point since she often did it as a soldier. She saw him trying doors one by one, well why didn't he just shoot a lock of or something? Granted loud noise and all that, but with the snowstorm that would likely hit any time now outside, it wasn't likely to make any difference or allow anything to notice it too easily. In any case she felt the floor tremble as the thing fucking jump." How is that thing even moving underneath it's own mass let alone jumping?" She complained as she ran forward, seeing the man offering to jump her across.

"Alright!" She called out to him as she ran, speeding her step even further, creating more distance between herself and the mutant as she ran at him, she jumped, stepping at the precise moment needed in his hands and pushed herself out to jump once more, using his movement to propell herself even further as she landed on the other side with little difficulty. She turned right away." JUMP! I've got you!" She called out to him as she reached over her edge of the hole, waiting to grab his arm, though she also still held the rope, just in case he didn't jump far enough to grab his arm, so she could toss him the rope and then pull him back up.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny needed a few steps to build moment. A few steps too many. As he jumped, the beast caught up to him and clipped his leg. His jump was thrown off but he did catch your hand, his massive weight nearly pulling you off your feet. Fortunately Donny caught himself on the ledge and was able to pull himself up. As for the mutant, its momentum was too great for it to slow down and crashed into the wall out of sight, the sound of cement and glass shattering bring the only indicator of its fate.

Donny crawled away from the ledge and tried to stand up. However then he stumbled; his foot had barely grazed the pseudogiant but that alone was enough to bruise him. ”Goddamn. Fuck. Ow.” He said with heavy breaths as he looked around for something solid. There was the rotted remains of a wooden bench which he broke down until he got a straight stick and turned to you. ”Can I have my rope back?”

[rivaan]

Cat managed to catch the man while he jumped, however he turned out heavier than he looked, likely because of his armor. His mass and momentum simply pulled her nearly down with him, but she managed to grab the ledge and redistribute her weight by going prone right away as he caught himself to the ledge. She saw how the monster couldn't control it's speed and turn and eventually vanished from view, the sound of destruction being the only proof of what had happened to it. She sadly wasn't willing to accept it was dead however." We should either confirm or ensure it's death first or we should bail before it could return. These things are too sturdy and if it's alive, we cannot afford to hang around for too much longer." She told him seriously as she helped him get up.

She rose and eyebrow, looking at the rope bundle in her arms, before shrugging and tossing him the neatly bundled up rope." Sure, you helped me and it's yours to begin with." Cat stated and looked at his leg." Can you stand? We need to move, we can't be certain it's dead or even temporary neutralized and the weather's likely to worsen very very soon. We need to find a shelter before the storm catches us out in the open." She told him as she dusted her pants." I'd suggeest we head underground, however I came from there and only did so becase the tunnel I was following had caved in, so we will need to find another entrance if we are to continue in the underground ways."

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny took his rope, cutting off a length of it to tie the splint to his leg and brace it. He stood up and winced. It hurt, but hopefully it won’t break. ”Yeah. I can move. As for an underground, I know this building is connected to a parking lot. Might be some supplies to scavenge there and if nothing else, pretty sure it’s a stones throw away from a metro. As for the mutant... Yeah let’s just get out of here.”

Without being chased by the mutant, Cat and Donny would be able to move at a brisk but calm pace. Though you both were wise enough to be aware of ambush or other threats. Donny lagged slightly behind you despite trying to keep pace due to his bruised leg. Soon however you’d come across a gristly sight: corpses. They look relatively new, considering that they aren’t rotten bones not covered in snow. It looked like it was three people who were unfortunate enough to get too close to the Pseudogiant.

”Poor bastards.” Donny picked up one of their guns. The weapon itself was as good as broken but Donny still took out the magazine, seeing a few bullets left. He cleared the chamber and slung the wrecked weapon over his shoulder as he checked the other bodies for anything valuable. While he did so you would notice something partially buried in the snow. It’s glint caught your eye: a severed arm with a silver watch. Your keen senses could even hear faint ticking from it. A watch that works was rare in this world.

[rivaan]

"That will work I suppose, however don't expect too much, anything this close to the settled areas has long since been picked clean of any old world loot that's worth anything." She reminded him with a shrug after he confirmed he was still able to walk at least. Good, the makeshift brace was also a nice addition. Showed he at least had some basic knowledge on how to survive out here.

As they moved, Cat kept a weapon ready just in case, never hurt to be careful and in this case with them being inside a building, she chose her shotgun, especially doubly so since it had the attached axe head to help with melee strikes if hse so wanted. What a wonderful multifunction weapon it was. It wasn't long before they stumbled upon the result of a pseudogiant hunting grounds... corpses. Rather more than she had expected this far from the proper settled area actually. Very curious.

"So... what's your name?" She asked while they were more or less looting the bodies for anything of worth. He had found some bullets so that was a good thing. Anything eatable was gone, the mutants would have eaten it right away." Mine's Catherine, just call me Cat though. It's easier on the tongue and faster." She introduced herself as she too was now running through whatever remains were left until her hearring picked something as she had narrowed her eyes since she found a metalic glint half burried in the snow." What's this..." She smiled, leaning over and grabbing the thing through the snow, picking up some of it along with the item." Well... look at that, this is unusual." Cat stated, fingers running over the silver watch that was still working, wiping some dirt and grime with the snow." Odd... this isn't something that your regular everyday exile, scaver or even settler would have. Unless they scavenged it up here on the surface of course." Cat stated, eyes narrowing as she put it securely away on the inside of her clothing where she had a few secret pockets sown for special things." We are too far from the settled areas, only thing so far is that exile haven that's being talked about the last few years or so. So where did these folk came from and why?" She was pleased of the find, but worried what it could mean. Her eyes narrowed though, hearing the howls of the storm.

"We should continue on and hopefully find shelter as soon as we could." Cat added, readying her weapon again.

[Lucius Cypher]

"Name's Donny." He said simply as he continued to scavenge the dead. Unfortunately not much else of worth aside from bits of scrap metal, which Donny did take since he couldn't afford to be picky if he has to make new gear for himself later. He took small things, such as the pocket knives, springs, and even coins. Large bits of metal were easy enough to find but the tinier machine made stuff was rare and hard to get. When you asked about where these people came from Donny was finished looting and he stood next to you with a shrug. "Dunno. I imagine they're here for the same reason I am, to get to that haven. Or maybe they thought they could find something in this hospital and found that mutant. Can't say for sure. We should keep moving." As there was nothing else left to find, the two of you would continue on wards towards the skyway that would lead to the parking lot.

The skyway was not in the best of shape. The windows have long sense shattered and many parts of the bridge had broken off. It's structure stability was suspect at best, but it was either going this way or risk going back to the ground floor and walking through the blizzard. And that wasn't even accounting any mutants who might've already shown up here. At least the Skyway provided some measure of cover against the roaring wins. Donny activated his generator to provide himself some warmth as the noise from the winds would block out the noise from his generator. He took out his axe, using it as a sort of climbing tool to latch himself to the railing. He walked carefully, slowly, and when he came across a spot he thought was weak he would poke it with the tip of his foot to test it's stability. One could never be too careful when walking around the ruins.

[rivaan]

AS they moved through the building, the best path to their destination eventually revealed itself to be a skyway. She grimaced, since the winds were blowing very hard now and while it had some protection and at least they weren't trudging through meters deep snow, it wasn't a nice experience. Falling from this height would be... undesirable. SHe spoted him do somehting and by the look of it he felt somewhat warmer. Cool he had nifty tech, curious, Cat however didn't. She just very neatly wrapped herself in a scarf, zipped her jacket to the very top and pulled a set of old ski glasses to protect her eyes from the frosty wind and snow.

Cat more or less did the same thing as Donny when it came to securing herself to the railing. Her shotgun axe ever the multifunctional weapon, worked wonders once more as they walked. She actually had a somewhat easier time with it since she had better sense of balance and general senses than him. Slowly, but carefully she followed, keeping her eyes wide open for anything that might be a danger. They avoided one mutant and while this skyway probably wouldn't stand a pseudogiant, there were other mutants that could use it as an ambush point. Hopefully that wouldn't happen." Look, give me one end of the rope again and let me go ahead. I'm better at climbing and getting across such situations. The storm hasn't even reached it's peak yet and it's so bad. If we dally on the bridge for too long, we might as well get blown over or walk to our death when we get blinded by the blizzard whiteout." Cat told him and carefully moved around him." With the rope on, you can always follow me onwards and if the bridge does give way halfway acorss, I will be able to pull you up should for any reason you find yourself falling." WIth that she waited so she could wrap the rope around her waist and then proceed to nibmly move her way across the skyway as fast as possible.

[Lucius Cypher]

It was slow going for Donny. Cat was easily able to over take him as she suggested just giving her the rope. He looked at her, uncertain, but figured that if she really wanted to steal his stuff she wouldn't have saved him from falling. "Aight. Give me a moment." Donny hands her his rope. It was a little bit shorter since he had to cut some off previously, but it would still be very long. "Just be careful. Snow's already broken in here so the floors are compromised. They could break even under your weight." Once secured by the rope you'd find that Donny was right. About midway through the bridge, where the snow was heaviest, must of the floor had broken away from the snow freezing into ice and wrecking the inner workings to the point that you could break it with just a few gunshots. The railing itself wasn't doing any good either, as you could feel it threatening to get ripped out of the wall if too much weight is pulled against it.

You had an option though. With a running start, you could easily vault over the snow-covered part of the floor, and latch onto a more secured railing. You could get through this area easily. Donny, however, wouldn't. you could already tell he's not nearly as light on his feet as you are and that's before considering his bruised foot too. You also know his gear would make his weight more than enough to break the ice and and break the railing if he tries to hold onto it. However if you manage to get to the other side, secure the rope to the sturdy railing, and gave Donny the other end of the rope, he could possibly make it across.

[rivaan]

"Don't worry, I'm good at this. Very good. Don't walk ahead until I toss you the rope over." She reassured him as she took the rope and carefully walked forward onto the skyway until she reached the very problematic section. She tapped it with the point of her gun, eyes narrowed and ears strained. Shew as being made deaf by the growing blizzard, but the way the gun hit the ice, made her feel it wasn't secure for certain. All in all this part was a deathtrap.

Finally she took the shotgun axe in one hand and took a few steps back. She crouched her legs lightly before she blasted off forward, with very fast speed, taking the distance to the corner of the damaged part in just a few steps before leaping over with all the grace of a cat like her namesake. Her hand shot out as teh axe head of the axe latched onto the good railing as the ice underneath her gave way. Even while the thing was crumbling underneath her, she pulled herself up and rolled over on the other side, between her and Donny now standing quite the decent hole. She hadn't actually calculated the distance quite right, Cat was pretty sure that she could leap the entire distance without having to rely on the axe if she had to do it again. No way the man was doing it though, especially with all his heavy gear.

Walking a few steps onwards, she chose the most secure part of the railing, and after making sure it wouldn't loosen up or unwrap by chance, she picked a stone, wrapped the other end of the rope around it to give it weigh and hurled it over the gap. The stone prevented the blizzard from blowing it away. Even with that weight it still had altered the throwing trajectory, but she had thrown it with that in mind already to compensate." HERE! How do you want to do this? Secure it on both ends and you crwaling your way over via the rope or you wrapping it around yourself and jumping, with us working together to pull you up afterwards?

[Lucius Cypher]

Grabbing the other end of the rope Donny started to secure it to his chest. "I'll try jumping. I know I won't make it either way, so this way saves us rope." He took a few steps back, and then went to get a running jump. He made sure to jump with his good foot but unsurprisingly he wouldn't make it across. He got about half way before he grabbed the rope, saving him a fall. Cat could hear the railing behind her groan from Donny's weight, but with her help it didn't falter. Donny swung in the air for a bit as he climbed the rope up. Unfortunately for the both of them it was never that simple.

From behind Cat would here the sound of skittering. The noise from the ice breaking had attracted some of the local mutants. Cat would see one appear and it would immediately come running at her: A Head Crab. These mutated crustaceans were surprisingly durable and resistant to cold weather, and worse of all had a tendency to eat people's faces. It jumped high into the air, screeching loudly to alert others, revealing it's disgusting mouth belly to Cat in an attempt to eat her face. "Fuuuuuuck what was that?" Donny said as he quickened his pace climbing the rope.

[rivaan]

Cat was very careful when she had picked up the section of the railing she had tied the rope to and she had held the rope to provide additional stability and sturdiness to the arrangement by being the first one to take the blunt of the pull that Donny's falling body made. She gripped the rope tightly as she felt it try to burn her hands iwth the friction, but she managed to hold in without scraping her palms at the rope. What she hadn't quite expected was the head crab. Well she had expected somethign to show up, just not a head crab.

Being one of the lesser mutant creatures that ahd appeared, she had to wonder what it originated from. She was told that before the end, tehre were these small flea bugs that could still sometimes be foudn in the underground, but honestly because of the general temperatures even underground, most bugs were gone unless they were specifically underground ones or ones that adapted. For all she kenw this thing might be one of those, it didn't matter really though. As it jumped at her, aiming at her head, screeching, she just pulled a very trained move and in a moment's notice her combat knife was in her hand and the knife on the crab's trajectory stabbing it through the grotesque mouth where it was the softest. Luckily there was a blizzard going on and the screetching wasn't going to be heard far. With that crab out of the way she swung her knife to the side, tossing the stabbed thing over the railing and to fall from on high, she returned to helping Danny get up, but this time kept her attention ebtter to the surroundings in case more showed up.

"Just a head crab!" She replied to him." It's taken care of, but don't know how many more are around hte place, so let's hurry up. They aren't too dangerous as long as you avoid having your head eaten." Cat called as she put her effort into helping him climb faster. They had to get to the other side, out of the storm and then head downwards, preferably in relative safety of the undergrounds where thigns couldn't just jump at them from every direction.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny clambered over the edge of the broken bridge, seeing the blood stains of the headcrab. "Jeez. Where there's one there's more." He sighs as he takes out his pistol and his axe. Unlike the pseudogiant, he was certain he could take on headcrabs. He'd have to use his AP rounds though, since unless he can shoot their soft underbellies their armored carapace can take a few bullets. Exiting the bridge the two would enter the decrepit parking lot. Unsurprisingly, a majority of the vehicles already show signs that they've been broken into and partially looted. Many tires stolen, doors and trunks ripped off their hinges, and even radios ripped out. A sure sign that this area had been traversed before it nothing else.

Cat's keen senses would alert her that there were headcrabs more or less all over this area, most of them up top. Why they were concentrated up there she wouldn't immediately know and maybe it's best if she didn't. There were a few below though, largely thanks to the broken elevator. The door and the emergency hatch was open, allowing any of the mutants to simply fall into the hole and move around the bottom floor. So they both would need to be on their guard. Aside from that there was a stair case leading down which was dusty and smelled rank, but safe to walk. Donny had his gun pointed forward and his axe resting on his shoulder, ready to shoot anything in front of him and slash at anything that tried to get a drop on him. The sound of headcrabs here were small. There were maybe five or six: nothing an aware hunter couldn't handle alone, and trivial for two people.

[rivaan]

"That they are, don't fire a gun if you could help it..." She nodded in return to him and readied her axe as htey moved onwards. Inside the building, she could hear the rest of the headcrabs around. There were quite a lot of them all around, frankly the staggering considering hte location and she wondered how they maintianed such numbers without a steady supply of food. Yeah ecosystem with these mutant creatures was very weird. She turned to him, placing a finger on her lips to indicate to be very very quiet and indicated the sourndings with it and afterwards she pointed upwards to the concentration of them. Hopefully he got the message that there was a number around them and a lot more up above them.

She waved to get his attention and jestured towards the rank staircase. It was the best way downwards, dropping through the emergency hatch was a way to cause even more noise because well, they'd have to drop and the landing would make noise and waht's more leave htem momentary open for attacks.

She readied her axe well in hand, ready to bat any of the headcrabs off as soon as they jump at her or Donny and she took point because her senses were better, she was used to it. Back in the settlement she usually acted as the scout anyways. She could detect danger before it appeared and act on it. Thus she headed for the stairway.

[Lucius Cypher]

The duo would enter the lower level. This was a underground walk way towards one of the subway metros, perhaps one of the safer places to be in. Relatively speaking: At least down here you won't freeze to death in a few seconds. But mutants, bandits, and starvation was still threats down here. As Donny and Cat walked through here they could sense the danger ahead. Though the headcrabs were few, they didn't attack either, which was the oddest thing. Mutants weren't like most animals that tend to only want to preserve their own life, with many of them suicidal attacking anyone or anything on the off chance of gaining sustenance. So the fact what few headcrabs the two saw didn't attack was something to worry about.

Eventually one would try to get the drop on Donny. It landed right on his head and started biting him, but fortunately his metal helmet prevented him from instantly getting his brains eaten. Instead he scraped the thing off with his axe, and once pinned to the ground shot it in the mouth and killed it instantly. But that was his first mistake. Despite being far away enough from the headcrab nest for the gunshot to go relatively unnoticed, there was a different threat down here that revealed itself nearly a foot away from Donny. A Crab Brute. Bigger and tougher than the usual headcrab, and in facts eats them if possible. That would explain why there's so few down here and why they've been relatively peaceful, because the alternative was awakening this beast. Which Donny did.

"Shit fuck!" The creature snapped a claw at him which Donny barely avoided. He fired two shots into it's it's face but all the mutant had to do was lower it's body a little, and the bullets instead sunk into it's hard armored carapace. Granted thanks to using AP rounds the bullets did at least go through, but not instantly like Donny had hoped. The creature turned towards him while Donny tried to back away, still on his bad foot, but it seemed like the creature was at least distracted going after Donny instead of Cat. This could give her an opening to attack it while it's attention wasn't on her.

[rivaan]

Everything was going swimmingly while they were traversing the parking lot. She kept her shotgun axe at a high stance, ready to intercept airborn targets, but sadly everything was brought to a rather unpleasant situation when one tried to drop on Donny from presumably the ceiling instead of jumping at him. Luckily his helmet was gonna help while in her case she would have just torn the thing off her head before it could do any substantial damage, he instead shot it. The loud bang echoed in the building even through the howling of hte storm outside and it's winds that were entering through the meriad of openings in the building's shell. Moment's later something burst upwards from the ground and since she was a few steps ahead of Donny, it put it's between the two of them. It was a fucking crab... In that one moment, she cursed Donny in 12 different ways as she turned around and readied for battle.

There were a few ways to deal with the situation. One was to take the charge of the Crab Brute and counter at the moment before it attacks when it raises it's torso and reveals the vulnerable head. Problem was, she was behind it and it was charging somebody else. The other alternative was...

She ran at it from behind, going to it's right side, aiming her shotgun at it. She was close enough for even the slightly warped barrel of the shotgun to shoot right. She aimed at the back right leg. It was a four legged creature, should they cripple even one of those, it's ability to move would be more than halved hell it might not even be able to move at a quarter of it's usual speed depending. She aimed and pulled the first trigger as the shot rang, she maintained expert grip and negated the recoil fast as she reaimed and shot the second shot at the same joint she had shot with the first one. The leg chitin was thinner and the joint especially so. So if she was lucky the hsot should damage the flesh underneath it and maybe even cripple the leg. If not and it continued to charge forward to Donny, she was going to whack it with the axe and sever it for good now that she damaged the chitin.

[Lucius Cypher]

The beast lumbered towards Donny as he tried to fend it off. He dared not risk sticking his gun out too far less the creature snatch it away or even literally disarm him. He fended it off with his axe as best as he could but the creature continued to rapidly approach. Fortunately, Cat’s shotgun blasts were effective at crippling it. The first stop stopped the brute in its tracks. The second blew off its leg. The creature screeched as Donny used this opportunity to shoot it twice in the face, this time his bullets striking where he wanted them.

Even so the beast was hardy. It staggered back, recoiling in pain. Donny tried to shoot it some more but then his gun clicked. ”Fuck, I’m empty!” instead of wasting time to reload Donny holstered his gun and grasped his axe with both hands. As the crab was flailing around he took the hooked end of his axe and buried it between the pincers of the crab brute’s claw, drawing its blood. He torqued its arm to the side, forcing it down onto its bad leg, and opening it to an attack. ”Shoot it in its face!”

[rivaan]

Cat didn't even bother try to reload the shotgun. It was goign to be pointless loss of time since it was a double barrel, she had to snap it open, take out shells, insert new ones, close it and then fire. Too short time to do all that even for her. So as the beast's leg was blown off and Donny went onto the attack and then stagger the thing, opening it for her to hopefully finish it, Cat dropped the axe and grabbed her rifle that she kept on her carrying strap, it took a very simple movement to pull it to bare and then aim it. It was a semi automatic rifle, currently loaded with a number of 5.56 bullets, she dashed forwards to get a good view point to shoot it in the head, jumping over a husk of a car getting a good angle.

She aimed and fired from this close and into the unprotected head and body of the crustation, it shouldn't take too much hits to bring it down, she suspected. She fired one at it's head, then another and another. Methodically and steadily she delivered shot after shot with trained precision. She was a soldier, trained since early childhood to do this and she excelled at it, her incredible senses helping with the act. This was actually a good thing too, if they managed to kill this, they could quickly snap some chunks of the underside and continue down to the tunnels with the pieces of meat. Crab was actually rather tasty treat.