Luna wasn’t sure what to make of Sienna. The doctor worked for the Enclave, yet seemed to harbor a genuine dislike for them which was both intense and obvious. There was a possibility that it was all an act, of course, but somehow Luna didn’t think so. Dismissing the concerns as irrelevant for the moment, the Vice-Principal turned her attention instead to trying to memorize the route they were taking through the maze of corridors.

“Tara said that the Rainbooms were in battles, right? Like, with actual soldiers?” Trixie said tentatively. “None of them were hurt, were they?”

“If it was a proper battle, then there were probably a lot of soldiers hurt,” Sonata noted.

“I was talking about the Rainbooms!” Trixie hissed.

Sonata blinked slowly. “Huh, I guess they might have hurt some soldiers, too.”

“I’m sure that the girls are fine,” Luna said reassuringly. She had to admit that she was concerned about certain hotheads in the group, but the others were smart and sensible enough to keep them out of harm’s way.

The wince that Sienna tried to repress shattered Luna’s certainty in an instant. “Well, they’re all still alive, but not all of them managed to get through completely unscathed,” the doctor admitted.

“What happened?” Luna demanded.

Sienna sighed heavily. “Most of it wasn’t actually from the battles. Like we said, the wasteland is dangero- holy shit!” The group turned a corner and stopped abruptly as they walked into a scene from a nightmare.

A figure was crawling along the corridor towards them. It resembled a man, but its joints were all broken, causing its extremities to drag along uselessly behind it as it crawled, and where its face should have been was nothing more than a ruinous mess of smoking and charred tissue. One of its arms was abnormally swollen and jaundiced.

“What in the ocean depths is that?!” Sonata exclaimed.

Luna felt the blood draining from her face as the creature slowly looked up at her. Sickly yellow tendrils emerged from the hole in its face, like oversized maggots. Luna quickly stepped in front of the girls.

Before anyone else could react, there was a sudden loud blam and the back of the creature’s head exploded outwards, splattering gore everywhere. Luna desperately flung her arms out to try and block the horrific sight from the girls. The sound of Trixie vomiting loudly behind her felt like a spike being jammed through her soul.

“Looks like Becky and Tara definitely aren’t getting any donated sperm from that guy,” Sienna said calmly.

Luna slowly looked around to stare incredulously at the clearly insane doctor, who was casually reloading some sort of sawed-off shotgun. “What in the name of the darkest cells of Tartarus do you think you’re doing?!”

“Protecting you three,” Sienna said flatly. “That was Turner, the guy who sabotaged the portal, and considering that he could somehow still move while missing half of his brain, I’d say that there’s some sketchy shit going on, wouldn’t you?”

“So you immediately default to murder?!” Luna spat.

Sienna gave her a flat glare. “Would you prefer it if I let him grab one of you? That freaky arm of his is magic, and not a pleasant type. Every test I have run has shown that it has a very nasty effect on biological tissue, but if you want to test that out yourself, be my guest.” She glanced back at the corpse. “Oh, look, here’s your chance.”

With a tense knot in her stomach, Luna looked back at Turner’s body. To her horror, his mutated arm shifted and stretched, then a large, bloodshot eye opened up in its bicep.

“Yep, gonna see that shit again in my nightmares,” Sienna said in a surprisingly calm tone.

As Luna was trying to make sense of this impossible situation, the sound of heavy footsteps rapidly approaching echoed through the corridors. A few seconds later, the soldier from before came tearing around the corner. He skidded to a halt when he saw the bizarre scene. “Shit, how the hell is that guy still alive?!”

“Fuck knows,” Sienna replied. “I blew what was left of his brains out, but I think that just slowed him down. Do you have anything on you that can put him down permanently?”

The soldier shrugged. “I can see if a plasma grenade will work, but…” He scratched his head. “I’ll just drag him back to his cell for now. The President can work out what to do with him later.”

Luna stood and watched as the soldier grabbed Turner’s leg and slowly dragged him away down a corridor. Shock, horror, and fear fought for priority in Luna’s mind. She was having difficulty believing what she had just seen, even with the gory evidence splattered over the floor.

“Right, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the main hangar.” Sienna tucked her shotgun away under her lab coat and adjusted her glasses, supremely unconcerned by the horrific occurrence that had just taken place. “As I was saying, this world is dangerous. If you think that was bad, wait until you see what other crap is lurking around out in the wastes. The Rainbooms have dealt with much worse things than Turner.” She glanced back and gestured for the trio to follow. “Come on, there aren't any other freaks lurking around down here that I know about.”

The thought of trying to escape from this awful place flickered across Luna’s mind, but she quickly dismissed it. Even if she could find a way out without the Enclave stopping her, she didn’t have the faintest clue as to where she could go or how to find the Rainbooms, not to mention the fact that it was entirely possible that the Enclave were telling the truth, and the outside world really was as dangerous as they said. Sticking around was the only option for the moment.

Unable to see any way out of their predicament, Luna turned and wrapped an arm around Trixie, who was staring wide-eyed at the spot where Turner had been laying. “It’s alright, we’ll find a way out of here as soon as we can,” Luna whispered. “Come on, let’s get away from this place for now.”

Trixie just nodded weakly. Sonata, surprisingly, didn’t seem bothered by what had happened in the slightest. She was just staring at the corridor Turner had been dragged down with an expression of mild curiosity.

With a little bit more gentle coaxing, the two girls joined Luna as she followed Sienna once more, walking along in grim silence.

---

Sunset felt a little odd as she walked through the corridors of Vault 101. The nostalgia was expected, but walking into the Vault from the entrance was a novel experience for her. At least it all looked much the same as it had before, though she hadn’t really expected it to change that much since they had left.

As the group walked along the last corridor into the atrium, angry voices floated in from up ahead. Gomez stopped suddenly. “Uh oh.” He glanced back at the others. “Wait here. This doesn’t look good.”

Sunset frowned as Gomez walked to the atrium door. The Rainbooms shared a concerned look, then blatantly ignored Gomez and quietly padded up to the door behind him.

As soon as she looked into the atrium, Sunset realized that her initial thoughts that the Vault hadn’t changed were completely wrong. The walls were dusty and grimy, the usual bright lights had been dimmed significantly for some reason, and several metal tables had been overturned to form a makeshift barricade around the atrium entrance. A single security officer was standing behind the barricade, clutching a pistol in his shaking hands. One of the Tunnel Snakes was standing in the shadows a little further into the atrium. It took Sunset a second to realize that it was Freddie, Officer Gomez’s son.

“That’s it, old man! We’re opening that door, and to hell with the Overseer’s rules!” Freddie snarled.

“You know I can’t do that, Freddie,” the security officer countered. “Now get back down below, before I have to do something we’ll both regret.”

“What? You gonna lock me up like they did to Brotch?” Freddie raised a fist, revealing that he was carrying a knife. “You can’t cage a Tunnel Snake, man, ‘cause we rule!”

Gomez stepped forward to intervene, but before he could say anything the other officer raised his pistol and shouted, “Stay back!” Gunshots echoed through the atrium as the officer fired several shots, sending Freddie scurrying down one of the side corridors towards the cafeteria.

“Taylor, stop shooting! Damn it!” Gomez spat.

The officer whipped around, and Sunset recognized him as the security team’s oldest member; a geriatric old fart with a ring of wispy white hair and more wrinkles than Granny Smith. “Gomez? I didn’t mean to-” Taylor let out a yelp the moment he saw the group waiting and fired wildly at Adam, making the others dive for cover.

Adam let out an annoyed huff and stepped forward, smoothly snatching the pistol out of Taylor’s hands before crushing it in an armored fist. “What the hell are you doing, you old coot?”

“No, don’t hurt… wait.. Adam?” Taylor took a step back and squinted at the Rainbooms. “And you outsider girls?” His expression shifted into an angry grimace. “What the hell are you all doing back here? Don’t you know enough to stay away?”

“Don’t give us that shit,” Sunset growled. “You almost shot Freddie.”

Taylor shot Gomez a guilty look. “I-I didn’t mean to, I swear! I just wanted to scare him!”

“Guns are only somethin’ you scare people with when they’re in their holster. The moment you take it out, it’s somethin’ you kill people with,” Applejack said darkly. “Anyone who don’t understand that shouldn’ be carryin’ one.”

“He’s not carrying one now.” Adam dropped the lump of crumpled metal on the floor. “Now stand aside. We’ve got business with Amata.”

It looked for a moment like Taylor was going to argue, but he quickly thought better of it and got out of the way. “You shouldn’t be here. You don’t belong here, none of you do,” he muttered spitefully.

Adam just snorted and stomped over to the table barricade, then casually kicked them out of the way rather than go around, causing the blood to drain from Taylor’s face.

Gomez just sighed and walked ahead to lead the way, while the girls fell into step behind them. Pinkie was the only one who bothered pausing long enough to say anything to Taylor. “You know, next time you have to deal with a bunch of people with big guns and short tempers, try not being a dick.” The old fool could only stutter as the group left him behind.

As they crossed the atrium, Sunset glanced up towards the Overseer’s office. There, glaring down through the round window with his arms crossed, was the Overseer himself, looking for all the world like a disapproving feudal lord surveying his domain. Sunset just snorted and looked away, raising her middle finger in his general direction until they passed out of his line of sight.

Gomez didn’t look up or back at all as he strode straight for the door that Freddie had disappeared through. Sunset could hardly blame him; any sane parent would want to check up on their kid after seeing them get shot at.

“I’m surprised you didn’t knock Taylor’s teeth out,” Rainbow said flatly as they headed downstairs, getting enthusiastic nods from Applejack and Rarity.

“I was tempted, believe me,” Gomez replied tightly. “Everything has gone crazy down here since you all left. Some of the security team even tried to organize an assault on the rebels against the Overseer’s orders. It probably would have worked, too, if Stanley hadn’t secretly reprogrammed Andy to act as a sentry for them, but that still ended up with four more people dead.” He shook his head angrily. “I get that the Overseer is trying to protect the Vault from the dangers of the wasteland, but at this rate there’s not going to be anyone left in the Vault to protect.”

“We’ll fix this,” Adam said grimly.

The group fell silent as they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the cafeteria. It was obvious that a vicious fight had occurred in there; tables were overturned and bullet-ridden, the jukebox was lying shattered in a corner, and scorch marks marred almost every surface. Sunset guessed that this was where Andy had fended off the security team’s assault.

Continuing on, Gomez led the group through the door at the far end then, to the girls’ surprise, turned right and headed up towards the clinic.

“Where the heck are we goin’?” Applejack asked. “Couldn’t we have just used the door from the atrium to go straight to the clinic? Why are we goin’ the long way around?”

“The rebels have barricaded it,” Gomez replied. He glanced at Adam in his power armor. “I daresay you could have gotten through it, but the rebels need all the security they can get at the moment.”

Sunset didn’t like the implications of that. If the security team had attacked against the Overseer’s orders, and yet the rebels were still in danger, then it seemed likely that the Overseer had near enough lost control of his security force altogether. His authority was likely hanging by a thread.

As the group turned into the corridor to the clinic, they found a bunch of metal shelves and cupboards stacked against the walls in sequence, turning it into a series of choke points that only one person could fit through at a time. Sunset had to applaud whoever was in charge of the rebels’ defences.

“Who goes there?” A sharp voice called out. Sunset recognized the voice, but she didn’t quite believe her ears until she saw Butch step around the first choke point. “Holy shit! I never thought I’d see you assholes again.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 126 - Discomfort Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 22 Minutes