A.N.
I don't really know when or where I want this to take place. It's just something that came to me in a dream that was very fallout like.
Future chapters will have more fallout related stuff. If there is interest. on that note.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own fallout or anything related to it.
Without further ado I give you...
PYROMANIAC
The sun was sinking in the sky over his shoulder, making the sweltering heat of the wasteland slightly more bearable. The walk was a long one. His legs ached and longed for rest. He turned to his right expecting to see something, when he did not it caused him to pause. A slight thrill of panic went through him. Turning to look behind him slowed his heart. There she was ten paces behind kneeling in the dust.
"Come on, get up it's not much further." He said pointing to a spot just over the hill. "Look you can see the camp fire smoke." Sure enough one could see three distinct columns of smoke rising into the after noon sky just beyond the hill.
"But my legs hurt." The whiny reply made his expression sour.
" Well I won't carry you, my legs are sore too."
"But I can't take another step."
He stared at her kneeling there in the dust, eyes big and pleading. He let out a wherry sigh, He was defeated. "All right get on my back."
" Yippee!" The cheery response as she ran over brought a smile to his face.
He knelt to let her scramble on. " Only until the edge of camp."
"Mm-hmm." She nodded as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs in the crooks of his arms. He stood unsteady at first, but leaned forward and marched on.
She was humming something behind him as they moved on. Getting closer to the top of the hill he began to feel a foreboding worry knot his stomach. Picking up on his apprehension she asked, "what's wrong?" Unable to keep worry out of her voice.
He stopped just before cresting the hill. "It seems too quiet."
She stilled and listened. The low din usually present when a small town of people go about their lives was absent. "Maybe everyone went to bed early?" She suggested, her young mind trying to figure the situation.
"Hmm..." He took a step forward, and then another each one filling him with more unreasonable fear. Dozens of thoughts on what the lack of sound could mean passed through his head, not all of them pleasant. He would hold his tongue though, he didn't want to worry her more.
The last step over the top of the hill brought to him a scene that made his heart drop to his stomach and his entrails turn cold.