Chapter 518 - Hopeless Sight

Afton had just caught Anja as she'd been kicked from the roof, and they both had plummeted into the Cloud below. He'd done his best to help Anja alleviate the impact from the fall, but they both still heavily hit the ground.

Afton didn't have time to be stunned however as he could immediately feel the Cloud beginning to fuck with his Power armour, that wasn't the more dire thing, however...​​

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRGGGHHHHHH!!" Anja howls, her recon armour and Deathclaw leather duster only providing limited protection from the Cloud. She tears her mask from her face as her skin visibly begins to corrode and melt from her body.

Afton feels as if his heart is about to explode from his chest at the sight, his friend and companion was dying an agonizing and painful death right before his eyes, and there was almost nothing he could do about it!

Panicking, he quickly looks around for anyplace that might be free of the Cloud, but doesn't immediately spot one... Deciding that he had no other choice, he pushes material from his plant arm through the hole in his palm and quickly tries to form a protective shell around Anja... He picks her up, and in her fetal position, she's quickly covered by the wood-like substance.

*COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!* Afton splutters, beginning to feel the effects of the Cloud. "FUCK! I'm not getting infected by more fucking FOG!" he shouts, ignoring the burning in his mouth, throat, and chest.

He picks up the shell covering Anja and quickly runs down the street where the Police Station should be. Already, despite the shell having been created seconds ago, the Cloud was already corroding it, eating away at it as if it were paper to a flame.

AND! If things couldn't get worse, hundreds of Ghosts were rapidly approaching him from all directions, their stuttering and slow movements not making apparent how much shit Afton had just found himself in.

A Ghost charges him with some kind of spear, but with Afton's hands currently full with Anja he simply jumps over its attack, stamping on its face as if he were Mario against a Turtle. He kicks off and lands on another Ghost, its weapon skittering off of his armoured leg as he lands ontop of it, crushing its skull with his foot.

*Clang! Clang! Clank! Clang!*

More and more Ghosts begin speeding up as they approach, all of them making fierce yet ineffective attacks against Afton as his armour deflects all of them. He ignores them and pushes fast towards the Police Station... He could barely make out the lights through the Cloud, and after fighting off a few more Ghosts, eventually managed to reach the Station doors.

He kicks them open before slamming them shut again, dropping Anja at the side while grabbing all the nearby furniture and shoving it against the door as a makeshift barricade. The Ghosts, without a living target become slower, their attacks against the door seemingly as weak as a regular person...

They wouldn't be getting through the barricade anytime soon, and the amount of Cloud inside the building was far less than outside, meaning he and Anja were safe for the moment. Once he determines that they are safe, he tears apart the shell covering Anja so Afton could get a good look at her...

He stifles the gasp threatening to escape his mouth once he sees her... Her skin couldn't be classified as pretty even before this, her Ghoul nature making her look like a necrotising ballsack... But now? She looks as if someone had skinned a human alive, covered them in sulfuric acid, and finished them off with extensive blowtorch 'treatment'...

That wasn't the most horrific thing however... Her eyes were gone, her sockets vacant and empty, with heavy scarring. By the looks of it, any attempts at transplants would be useless, as the optical neves were too extensively damaged... Even Cybernetics might not work...

That wasn't all of the damage though, all her teeth had corroded and disappeared, her mouth and throat heavily scarred, so much that Afton was surprised she was able to breathe at all... Without waiting another moment, he applies two stimpacks to her and the effects are immediately apparent, though, somewhat disappointing.

Her skin begins healing slightly and the open wounds on her body stitch themselves closed. The damage to her eyes and throat weren't helped all that much however.

Afton looks around the room, it's a reception office of the Police Station, with cells nearby and doors leading to other rooms... He swipes an arm across the reception desk and places Anja on it, using a few stacks of paper as a makeshift pillow.

She's stable for now, but once she wakes up she'd be in terrible pain. Add her blindness and he was worried about how she'd react... To make everything a bit easy, he injects some Med X into her side, the painkiller hopefully helping her sleep better.

Once she was safe and secure, Afton releases a sigh and takes the chance to look himself over... The silver-bluish tint of his armour had seemingly rusted and begun deteriorating. He takes off his helmet and coughs into his hand, quickly realising the red he'd just spit out...

Further examination reveals that the air filtration systems of his armour had all become filled with some sort of red viscous fluid. It's like tar, but corrosive and slightly less sticky. He could still feel the faint burning in his chest, meaning that whatever damage had been done to him wasn't healing as quickly as he'd expect... His various regeneration Perks somehow unable to combat whatever the Cloud was trying to do to him.

He rubs his face and begins thinking over his various plans and contingencies when he could hear steps coming towards him from the next room... He pulls his Ultra Chainsword off of his belt and ignites it, just as a Ghost barrels through the door and thrusts a strange-looking knife at him.

He deflects it with the back of his fist and plunges the blade into its stomach, twisting it and forcing it upwards, bisecting the top-half of the creature... He then cuts off its arms, legs, and head, and places them at opposite sides of the room to prevent it from regenerating.