Chapter 207 - Send Off Of Five Fingers

Afton can feel the final lurch as the building completely begins to disintegrate. His body is thrown against the metal insides of the machinery and the world finally goes black.

*CRRAAAASSSHHHHH!*​​

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Eventually, Afton's eyes begin to flutter, an intense pain shoots through his body. He groans in pain as he tries to activate his Pipboy, having to use his nose to press a button as his right arm was held down by something.

As he does, the claustrophobic area he and Karl were trapped within was revealed with amber light. The previously vertical metal machinery had fallen onto its side, he looks at his unconscious companion and notes that he doesn't seem all that injured...

After inspecting Karl, Afton begins looking over himself, once again feeling pain shoot through him as he tries to move his arm. Looking to his side at it, he spots that it's been completely crushed by something. The machinery the two were inside had partially collapsed, almost severing his right arm with the incredibly sharp shards. "Shit."

He didn't know if that was something he could heal, he couldn't even tell if his arm was completely intact as the rubble blocked him from being able to see the rest of it... Whatever its condition, the profuse amount of blood leaking from underneath the metal was worrying.

He wondered if his [Adamantium Skeleton] Perk had failed, but eventually realized that if he could survive tons of metal on a concentrated area then he would be basically unkillable. He gives his arm one last tug and almost faints due to the pain, sure enough, he wasn't moving from this position without a crane to lift the metal.

Fortunately, the metal acted as a make-shift Tourniquet so he wouldn't bleed out... He look down at Karl and gives the man a light kick to the face.

"OOF!" the man looks up at him spitefully, "What the fuck was that f-..." he looks around for a moment before paling, "Oh, we are so fucked."

"Karl, of the two of us, I'd say I got fucked the most in this situation." he momentarily thinks back to the hostages they'd failed to save and sighs, "No, nevermind... We need to get out of here."

Karl spots Afton's arm and shakes his head, "You're not going anywhere trapped like that... Even if we could somehow get out from under all this rubble, there's an army of Fiends waiting outside."

Afton slumps slightly, "So, we're fucked..."

Karl nods, "Yeah. I don't see a way outta this..."

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"I know this isn't a good time to say this, but... Did it really have to be my wankin' hand?" Afton says, pointedly glaring at his crushed right arm.

Karl shrugs, "Must be karma, teaching you a lesson for beating your meat so viciously." he jokes, though, both could tell it was forced. Neither really knew how they were going to get out of this mess. Not to mention they didn't know how long they'd been unconscious for, hopefully Boone had gotten away before the Fiends turned their attention to him... He probably knew how to drive Dirt-Bird, right?

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The two sit in silence for a couple minutes until Afton gets bored with their eventual impending doom and looks at his Pipboy. He wanted to see if it had anything that could get them out of here... Unfortunately, all it had were his quests, inventory, status that stated his right arm was 'crippled', no shit. And the map which clearly stated they were still in the Rock Crushing Plant.

*Creeeeaak*

The duo's ears perk as they look over to the side where the sound had come from, they hadn't expected anyone to actually come for them for a number of reasons. The first being this was Fiend territory, the second being that they weren't worth all that much, even if you add up the price of their weaponry, you'd get more for salvaging a building.

"Boss, do you really want these bodies so badly? We can just grab some more people off the highway if you want." a quiet voice makes its way through the rubble.

"It's not them I want! I want those two bounty hunters! Put their heads on pikes to show how strong I am!"

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Karl and Afton look at one another as if trying to decide what to do with their eyes alone. The latter looked down at his right arm and gives it another tug, grimacing in pain as nothing happens. The limb was better attached to the metal crushing it than himself at this point.

He couldn't leave it like this though, their enemy was eventually going to find them, so if he was stuck here and unable to move he was super fucked... This whole situation reminded him of a movie in his old world. It was called '169 hours' or something? The protagonist was stuck and had to cut his arm off to escape...

Afton pales slightly as he looks down at his arm... Could he really do that? It wasn't as if that was the end of the world, cybernetics existed in this universe, and he was sure with maxed out science he could construct something usable... Right?

Still, just thinking about it made his stomach churn. He had never been a squeamish guy, and was fine with committing all kinds of brutal acts on others... But now that he was presented with the choice of death or mutilating his body, it was honestly difficult to say which he would prefer.

"Karl, pass me something to bite on." he states after coming to a decision. The sound of the Fiends digging through the rubble was getting closer and closer, he couldn't delay it any longer.

Karl seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, reaching into his bag and pulling out a clean-looking rag. "You sure about this kid?"

"No. But there's not another way." he says as he secures the rag in his mouth and pulls out his knife.