Akuma wasn't sure what to anticipate when it came to the raiders, but sending a second lone scout out on the roof wasn't it. These guys were a special name brand kind of stupid. It was a shame, too, because they had a strong tactical advantage given their location. Maybe they had gotten cocky and complacent over time, or maybe they just happened to be the remnants of what was once a functioning operation. Maybe they seized the location after a lucky firefight with the previous occupants. There was really no telling, and - in the grand scheme of things - it didn't matter especially anyway.
The ripples of the roar of Joe's last shot spread out and died til the air was calm again and the silence settled over the parking lot like a fine veil that the ambiance of the night couldn't quite pierce. It swelled until it was heavy and threatened to burst at the seams. It felt to Akuma like, were it ten years ago and their trigger finger still green, it was a real long minute and a half. These days, though, they were barely settled back into place before they saw movement.
They couldn't believe it. Lordy be, those idiots were coming out the left front door. Three raiders all but spilled from the entrance, and Akuma was surprised with the state of them: two young, underweight raiders - one of each sex - and a tall, grizzly looking older woman whose expression could probably be used as a pot scrubber. It took all types to maim the weak, they supposed, and it wasn't their place to judge on who could and couldn't be a menace to society. They let the matter go and pulled the pin on their frag before sending it sailing.
It met its mark, arching neatly over most of the parking lot before bouncing once. "Frag! Move!" Escaped the older woman's lips in a gruff bark, and she rushed to the right, forcing the younger woman aside with a hard shove. Behind them, the grenade detonated halfway through its short descent back to the pavement. The building shook, and the sliding glass door of the entrance shattered and was shifted off track. The blast sent the young male raider to the blacktop with a pureed torso and an arm detached at the elbow, and the other two shot several feet forward and down in a sharp diagonal. Their bodies audibly slapped against the pavement, and shrapnel from the grenade hissed in a metal rain for a few seconds after. Akuma was silent, ears ringing, but over the squeal they could hear the screams of one of the women in agony. As the dust settled they could see the young woman facedown and propped up on her elbows, screaming bloody murder. The back of her scalp had been blasted forward by the impact and hung forward in her face like a shitty combover. Both thighs stuck out at odd angles; either her femurs or her hips or both were shattered to pieces when she hit the ground. Beside her, the old woman was a motionless, smoking figure. Both women were doubtlessly pumped full of shrapnel.
Akuma fought instincts to pull the trigger of their pistol and take the young woman out of her misery, knowing her cries for help might draw more raiders out. Sure enough, like a pack of dogs drawn to a whimpering puppy, a figure appeared to peer around the corner of the nearest door, while two more cautiously poked the barrels of their rifles out the right entrance, casting a yellow light from their scopes to the ground. When the light caught sight of what remained of their comrades, one of the raiders let out a curse.
"Fuck. They fucking destroyed them..."
"Help me", sobbed the woman on the ground.
"Oh shit...Julia's still alive!"
Nobody made a move. Julia's body shook with both her cries and - likely - her adrenaline. She tried to crawl forward with her arms, but her lower body was dead weight. She didn't have the strength, and she barely moved before she stopped and rested her face on the ground. In the split second following, her exposed skull popped like a gourd and painted the sides of the building as one of the raiders squeezed their trigger.
"Dude! Why the fuck did you do that!?"
It was the raider on the left side of the entrance shouting to the pair on the right. Akuma didn't move a muscle, except for the index finger waiting on the trigger of their pistol. It twitched with anticipation. Best, however, to see how this played out first.
"Did you see her? Should I have left her like that?"
"She could have been fixed up. We have stimpaks inside. You didn't have to fucking kill her!"
"And did you want to go out there and drag her back? You fucking idiot, you'd have been in pieces too. Besides...ain't wasting fucking chems on a lost cause. Boss only kept her around for the free pussy anyway."
The third person, who had yet to say a word, quietly retreated back inside. The other two followed, but continued their shouts from within the safety of the building. They were, if nothing else, going to be easy to track and currently distracted. Akuma glanced up at the ridge and flashed their pip-boy. It was time to go inside.