Chapter 176 - Nothing

Boone had just started creating the sound of a giant rat and already they could hear someone coming. It was tough to tell if there was more than one person, but with Karl on the opposite side of the entrance, they were ready to deal with at most two people.

Fortunately it was only a single man, they had the usual thick layer of dirt covering their tanned skin, raider armour with black war paint covering their face. They were bald but made up for the lack of hair with a thick beard that looked like it belonged to Gandalf.​​

Almost immediately they noticed Boone standing there causing them to reflexively swing the rusty metal pipe at him. Karl was already moving however, forcing a thick piece of fabric into their mouth from behind while kicking their knee out. The rusty pipe slips from their grasp and flies off into the nearby sewage.

The man tries to shout but due to the fabric in his mouth it only comes out at pitiful groans, even still the duo was lucky the sound of digging was still going on. Boone throws a couple punches at their face and stomach as they try to unblock their mouth, breaking their nose and visibly winding them.

Karl ties off the fabric and forces his victims arms behind their back, pushing against a pressure point to get them moving where he wanted them before proceeding to lead the man away from the rest of the Fiends.

A minute or two later they reach the hallway which contained the shaft leading to the manhole, Karl shoving the man against the wall while pointing his .44 Magnum at them.

Having been freed the quickly pull the fabric out and are about to scream for his friends when he finally notices Karl's gun and Boone's hunting rifle pointing directly at him.

"You'll answer my questions or I'll make your chest to prolapse." Karl threatens as Boone sends a look of revulsion at him. Karl just shrugs back at him and goes back to glaring at the enemy.

Shiv holds hands in the air, he wasn't loyal enough to risk his life, nor was he treated well enough to justify such loyalty. "I-What do you wanna know?" he quickly asks in a harsh voice.

"What're you doing down here?" Karl asks, cocking the hammer on his revolver to add further persuasion.

"We got lost, youknow, just-" *Crack*, Boone uses the butt of his rifle and strikes the man in his chin after the rather obvious lie, causing the Fiend to stumble onto his knee.

"Strike one, you better stop lying to us or the rats'll be fishing your body outta the sewage." Boone growls out.

Shiv rubs his chin and looks back up at them, "We're here to spy on Freeside alright? Seek out easy targets and holes in its defences. Grhhgu-hak!" he hacks up a loogie on the floor and pulls something out of his pocket causing the duo to tense up, they quickly relax when the man just injects something into his neck though.

"Ahhaaaaaaa~, bet-ter..." he mutters after taking the drug.

Shiv himself had been hiding his last dose from Nutter as she'd ran out of her own and stolen everyone else's. He knew he probably wasn't getting out of this situation alive and decided to take it on impulse.

"Fuckin' junkie. What're you digging for down here?" Karl asks, wanting to get this over with before the guy goes psychotic and forces their hand, or the other's notice their missing companion.

"Mmhm? Oh, the tunnel we came through collapsed behind us, leaving us stranded within Freeside. Only way out was to dig our way back through." he says, his voice now airy presumably from whatever he'd just taken.

The duo continue questioning the now very talkative man who was apparently called Shiv. The group of Fiends had apparently been digging from outside the Freeside sewer system to try and get into the blocked off passageways. Clearly they'd succeeded, but it collapsed behind them, leaving them in enemy territory.

Their leader, a woman called Nutter, had apparently not told anyone else of their expedition yet, wishing to present it to the ruler of the Fiends Motor-Runner personally. Without any way out, they'd been forced to start trying to dig their way back out, which proved to be more difficult as their tools had been left on the other side...

The Fiends had apparently been here for around a week, they'd managed to blackmail a gang that considered this place their territory into a fragile alliance. The Fiends were reviled even by the criminal gangs in Freeside, apparently they'd threatened to say they'd allied with the gang to the others, that would quickly lead to their demise as while there were few rules, not working with the Fiends was one of them.

Karl didn't know what to make of the situation, he wondered if their prisoner was being truthful... He wasn't like Afton who somehow knew if someone was lying or not, nor was he heavily trained in this specific area of expertise.

One thing was for sure though, the Fiends were trying to make some big plays and he had no idea how to deal with it. The group of Fiends was only around thirteen people, which made it manageable, especially if he and Boone caught them off-guard.

Shaking his head, Karl looks to Shiv gives him a kind smile, "You've answered everything I wanted. Unfortunately I can't let you return to your pals, but I'll let you leave out the ladder." he states.

Shiv's eyes widen and he grins back, "T-thanks!", turning around and beginning to climb out. Only for a hand to cup his mouth and hard steel to drag across his neck, blood spraying across the wall as his vital arteries were slit.

Tears crawl down his face as he realises he'd die soon, without friends in a sewer. The drug he'd taken didn't even start to suppress the existential fear he felt as everything started becoming cold, his vision darkening as oxygen was prevented from reaching his brain.

First came darkness, and then... Nothing.