Chapter 193 - What Happens In Sewers Stays In Sewers...

Afton walks up beside Boone while making sure not to step on the increasingly large puddle of vomit. "Are you alright?"

Boone holds his stomach and wipes his mouth with a tired expression, "I'm fine... Just bad memories is all... I'll be good to go in a minute." he mutters weakly.​​

Hm, for whatever reason Boone couldn't handle the rather brutal massacre they'd just performed... He never gave any indication of having such a quirk before, but Afton knew better to broach it without Boone first bringing it up himself. Clearly whatever problem he had was still fresh in his memory.

Afton nods at him, "Alright... You guys wait here, I'll go see if I can raise this wall in the maintenance room, keep an eye open, never know what might be lurking down here. I heard stories of Crocodiles living in sewers, so I wouldn't be surprised to find a Deathclaw down here." he says semi-sarcastically.

He leaves the two former-rangers alone and heads off, Karl was probably better equipped to talk to Boone than Afton was. The men had probably experienced similar things, Boone was still in his twenties, Karl had served in the NCR longer than Boone had been alive so hopefully he'd be able to help.

Afton glanced around at the blood-stained walls of the tunnels, all of which were caused by the group in previous battles. He idly wondered what the metal walls were actually for... He'd noticed the placements of them but they'd never been activated... The only place where they seemed to have malfunctioned was in a part of the sewer that was heavily irradiated and filled with feral ghouls...

Ah, that must be it... The reinforced metal walls must've functioned like blast doors to protect the sewers when the bombs dropped. Judging by the fact feral ghouls were located in the malfunction section meant that some of pre-war Vegas's residence tried to get shelter down here.

He also imagined that Mr House had another reason to keep the sewers functional aside from the moral aspect. The immortal RobCo didn't strike him as very morally conscientious.

Soon enough Afton had reached the maintenance room again, quickly pressing the same button he'd pressed last time. That wasn't all though, he wondered why the Fiends hadn't just used this to block off the tunnels the NCR were currently holed up in...

It took a couple minutes for him to match the layout of the console with the map of the sewers on his Pipboy, but he eventually found the button that'd supposedly close off the entrance between here and the NCR... He presses it and waits for the sound of scraping stone, raising a brow when he doesn't hear any.

He checks to see if anything had happened and returns to the maintenance room empty-handed... After thinking for a moment longer he glances at the console and starts taking a look at its internals.

He unscrews the top with the tools he always keeps on his person and tinkers around until he finds the problem... The wires responsible for that section of the sewer had been frayed and burnt out. To be honest, it looked like someone had sabotaged it, but it could also occur naturally in very rare circumstances.

Shaking his head, he decides to not fix it as it'd essentially give the Fiends free rein over the sewers... Plus, he wasn't that bothered if a few NCR soldiers died while protecting a tunnel that could easily be sealed.

Once he'd gotten back to Boone and Karl the former seemed to have composed himself. Watching silently as Karl sliced the right ears off of the bodies before depositing them in a bloody pouch.

"Yo Boone, you alright now?" he asks as he slowly approaches.

He nods, albeit slightly reluctantly, "Yeah, just... I'm not comfortable with massacring people who can't defend themselves..." he admits, taking a small glance to Karl as he does.

Afton rests a hand on his shoulder, "Then don't, me and Karl can handle those jobs if they're required. All of us have weaknesses, Karl, for example, doesn't know when to keep it in his trousers-"

"You better tighten those lips kid before I smack you." the older man grunts as he continues with his job.

Afton ignores him and continues, "Anyway, if you can't do something just say so." he states, stepping back and looking at where the reinforced wall had been.

"Thanks." Boone mutters quietly, getting a small nod in return.

Behind where the reinforced wall had been was the end of the tunnel, a ladder coming down from a shaft that'd probably lead to a manhole. The group could see faint beams of light managing to make their way into the sewer, meaning that it was still daytime outside.

To be honest, Afton had thought it would have taken significantly more time to get through the sewers. He wanted to sneak out through the manhole during the night and take out Violet before escaping where they'd come from.

So they currently had a few choices, though, a few would probably result in everyone's demise. One was to just leave now and fight through the veritable army of Fiends that likely surrounded the manhole's position. Of course, this was unlikely to work.. Unless they wore the garbs of the Fiends?

Afton glanced over to the bloody clothing of the Fiends, grimacing slightly at the thought of wearing them. Not only did they provide almost no protection, but they smelled strongly of sweat, blood, and other chemicals scents that burned the nose when close enough.

Second and Afton's preferred option would be to wait down in the sewers until nightfall as his original plan had meant to go. Judging by Karl's 'No shit' look, he was in favour of the latter option, not that Afton could blame him.