Unchosen 21

Somehow, a half-dead man with blood gushing from his throat blowing away two of their packmates took the fight out of the rest of them. Those that could still move tried to beat a swift retreat. Those that weren't fast enough never made it to cover, as Chasity and I took them down, fleeing or not. I even heard the shotgun roar a couple more times, despite Doc's protests.

"Knock it off, Tex!" he growled from behind me, as I emptied the last two chambers. "I've just barely got the bleeding stopped, you moron!"

I crouched down next to Chasity while I reloaded, and she glanced my way with a smirk before she turned back to scanning the perimeter for any less survival-minded muties.

"You got him stabilized, kid?" I called as I slapped the cylinders closed and half-stood, making my way over to them in a crouch.

"Almost, no thanks to this goon," Doc replied, never taking his eyes off his patient. I glanced down as I approached. Tex was a mess of blood, and pale as a corpse, but I could see his teeth were clenched in pain, and his eyes glared up at me, daring me to comment. I just nodded to him before dropping to my haunches on his other side, ready for another attack, if it ever came.

Unchosen 20

Chasity was still prone out in the open, but nothing else came at us just yet. I guess the ugly gleam in her eye and the ever-scanning barrel of her rifle dissuaded any heroics from our ambushers. Still, it couldn't go on forever; The longer it took to end this conflict, the worse it would be for us. I whistled a sharp, abrupt little signal, then stood up from behind the rubble I'd been using as cover, both revolvers up and ready. As soon as I showed myself, I caught a flash of movement ahead of us, and by the sudden swivel of Chasity barrel, I knew she had too. Still, it wasn't a clean shot, so she held off. I stepped around the rock, eyes roving around, anywhere but right ahead of us; Chasity would cover that direction more than adequately, and I knew that any creature cunning enough to stage an ambush wouldn't attack from only one direction.

I wasn't disappointed. From Chasity's left, a sudden disturbance turned into a rush of three of the yellowish mutants, charging right down on her position. She never even batted an eye as I lifted both revolvers and sent the beasties to meet their maker. A single crack told me that the creature to our front had thought to take advantage of the distraction, and paid the price.

A sudden stab of dread made me reverse course, leveling my revolver back toward Doc and Tex, but I knew I was too late even before I saw the pair of monsters bearing down Doc's back. Suddenly, a roar of fire shredded both of them, and Doc threw himself to the ground with a string of curses. Barely audible under his tirade, I heard a feeble voice.

"Fuckers only get the drop on me once."

Unchosen 19

I lunged forward and caught Tex's shoulder, keeping him from falling forward onto his face. Just as he'd crumbled, I'd seen the shaft of some sort of dart or arrow protruding from his throat, and if it hadn't killed him already, I didn't want it getting jammed in any deeper to finish the job.

I quickly dragged him into some rubble and struggling foliage as Chasity and Doc winged off some shots to our front and found their own cover. Taking advantage of their cover fire, I examined Tex with a practiced eye. The dart protruded about 3 inches out of his throat, and blood was flowing copiously. At a guess, I'd have said that it was buried another inch or two inside, and from the gurgling sound as he gasped for breath, it'd sliced into his trachea pretty well. There wasn't much chance for him, especially in the middle of an ambush.

"Doc!" I bawled, laying Tex down as gently as I could behind a good sized rock. I turned with a hand already dipping down to draw my revolver when I saw the kid was already scurrying toward my hiding spot, while Chasity placed a few more measured shots into likely hiding places. Still, nothing showed, and no more projectiles came our way. Doc crouched down beside me, his face pale but resolute.

"He doesn't look good," he said grimly, swinging his pack off of his shoulder to get at the supplies inside.

"He's not going to make it, is he?" I asked as calmly as I could, not bothering to look back over my shoulder as I scanned our surroundings.

"The fuck he isn't!" Doc snarled. I just shook my head and drew my other revolver.