[Sunday September 15, 2075; Mechanical's Compound, Puyallup, Seattle]
After the initial tumult, screams, automatic weapons fire and the slavering of the ghouls, the noise drops off eerily fast. The Mechanicals, after the initial panic, react with startling efficiency, almost as if they’d trained for an attack like this…not that anyone could anticipate some sick fragger weaponising the local ghoul population! The circus folk too manage to keep their heads and retreat to the comparative safety of the land trains where they cram themselves in cheek by jowl…
That leaves a few ghouls in the open gorging on the flesh of the dead but they are easy prey for Dogmeat’s drones and the studied shots from Al and his oni compatriot. The LAV barely has time to make it into the air… from Cutter’s vantage point a devastated scene spreads out below, sprawling bodies, some moving feebly, and the low heat signature corpses of the ghouls that succumbed to weapon fire…but far too few for the devastation…so where have they all gone? Tribals begin appearing on the roof tops amidst the green houses and rooftop gardens, herding sleepy children and the rest of their frail or infirm…so if they are retreating to height…