Mojave Wasteland
August 4th 12:06 am
2267
They arrived at the market, where they'd been living for the past week, after going to the town that had been under attack by the Vipers. They had picked up enough caps from the dead raiders and enough supplies to sell as well, which fetched them both a respectable sum of base that they could use to buy stuff that they needed as well. They didn't step in without making sure it was safe to, however, and when they did, Emma walked in first. Rem followed behind, closing the door and turning back ahead to see his teacher removing the armor. First, her helmet came off, then the trench coat, and then the torso piece. She set it all aside on a table top as Rem walked up to the couch and sat down heavily. He set his rifle aside and Emma turned to glance at him, able to see very clearly that he was still thinking.
For the time being, she let him be and began walking to the back of the shop, removing her boots and then her pants once she got there. The black blouse she wore barely covered her curvaceous rear. Before she continued into the next area of the shop, however, she turned to glance at Rem over her shoulder again and when she saw him there without moving, without saying anything, she felt like she should be doing more. She should be teaching him something. "You're going to have to get used to having the blame on your shoulders," she said. Rem was called from his trance. "Yeah," he began, softly, "I shouldn't have let her git tew far from me." Emma turned around to face him and walked. There was a display case there with a cashier on top of it, and she leaned up against it with her elbows on the surface. "And I should have put a bullet in his head." His head lifted again subtly, a faint indication of his understanding, and lowered again.
She released a breath and shifted, resting her chin on her hand with an inkling of frustration nibbling at her. For a while, she fought with herself, but ultimately closed her eyes in digression and began. "Want to hear about the first time I had to perform a mercy killing?" After she asked the question, she wished she could take it back. The proposition garnered Rem's attention, however. He'd been with Emma for a whole ten months and hadn't gotten her to talk about herself too much. She told him where she'd been before but not much of anything about the things she'd been through. "Yeah," he said, taking off his blazer. She leaned off of the counter and began walking to where he was, and sat down on the smaller couch across from him, turning her body to let her legs hang over one of the arm rests while her back weighed on the fabric behind her. Once Rem got comfortable and looked at her, ready to listen, she began to recall the specifics. "We were out in Arizona at the time, my teacher and I, that is, and we'd gotten word that people in a town called Juniper were being abducted." Rem's unfaltering gaze began to bother her. She almost called it quits right then and there but decided not to. She was doing something she hadn't done in years, and it wasn't comfortable. Moments like these made her think about how much of a factor a lack of companionship could be.
"So we made our way there and when we arrived, nobody would even step outside to talk to us. We walked around for an hour, asking people to come out, and eventually, someone did. A woman. Her name was . . . " she struggled to remember but after thinking deeply enough and picturing the person's face, she did. "Lisa, and she began telling us about what was going on. She said that a few months before, a group of gunmen arrived in town and demanded to be paid rent for their protection. When the Sheriff answered no, a gunfight broke out and he ended up dead. The rest of the townies managed to fight them off, but after that, they began making silent trips into town. The people they got to, they gagged and bagged, and took them away. My teacher asked for a location and Lisa said she'd say it on one condition. She said that she'd tell us if we did her the favor of letting one of us stay in town because some people had said that they'd seen someone sneaking around at night, and that if one of them stayed, they'd be less likely to try something." Rem calmly cut in, "So you stayed behind and your teacher went ahead, right?" In response, Emma reached up to her face and dragged her hand down across it, nodding as she did.
"He went off and I stayed behind on a high vantage point to keep an eye out. The first night went by and I thought it was just taking a while, but then the next two days sped right by. I remember one of the townsfolk coming up to me and telling me that they were sorry, but it was very likely that the Desert Ranger was dead, and that I should move on." Immediately, Rem knew what he would do and expected Emma would do the same. "You went to look for him instead." Again, Emma nodded and then spoke quickly, as if to clear something up, "Well, not at first. I was different back then. I was fifteen years old at the time and I thought about going to look for him, but I was terrified. If my teacher was killed, what good would I do? So, I left town one day without letting anyone know and on my way along, I stopped. What if he's still alive and needs help, I thought. So, I turned back and went to look for him." As she spoke, Rem moved his arm as gently as possible but winced anyway. "Are you alright?" He nodded his head and spoke, "Yes ma'am. Continue." She felt uncomfortable being encouraged to speak, but she felt there was no going back now. The glance she gave the ground to her left gave Rem an idea of what was going on in her head.
"When I got there, I found an old farm and a barn. I could see the people moving around inside the house but the barn seemed quiet, so I went there first, thinking I could get a better view from there anyway." Right after that, she went silent and kept her eyes tilted down, aligned with the ground to her left. She looked entirely absent. Rem was watching her so closely that after more of the same, he came upon the understanding that she was looking back at the memories. Whatever she saw in the barn, she was probably looking at all over again. She snapped out of it on her own strength and looked at Rem, "I got there without being noticed and I found my teacher. He was all . . . cut up," her voice trailed off as she pictured him chained to a wall, naked. "Both his hands were cut off at the wrists and the wounds were cauterized so he wouldn't die of blood loss." She released a breath, "I could see lots of burns all around his body. Cigarette marks, cattle prods . . . " At that point, Rem didn't need to know any more to see where this was going. "A table nearby had medical supplies on it. Stimpaks . . . and the bastards even had a defibrillator there." As he listened, he leaned in, "To keep him alive longer . . . " She looked at him in the eye for a fleeting moment and then turned to the side again, offering one assertive nod as she did.
"I could see his chest rising and collapsing so I went up to him and patted his cheek to wake him up. Didn't want to make much noise. His eyelids opened up first, and I saw that they had taken them out." She watched as Rem's eyebrows furrowed, "Fuckers," he cursed, as she continued. "Then after a little while he said my name. He guessed right. I told him it was me, and that I would find a way to get him out of there." Before Rem could even hear the rest, he knew what her teacher must have said. "He told me that I was smart enough to know that wasn't possible. Then he said I knew what I had to do. After a few minutes of me bitching and moaning, I agreed, and he told me he had one more thing to say. He said that when he arrived, they knew he was coming, and then after they'd captured him, he heard them talking about how the townies had done such a good job letting them know he was on his way. The whole thing had been a ruse for the town and them to caps out of hapless mercenaries and other people who offered to help." Hearing that immediately reminded him of the way his father had died as a consequence of being betrayed by someone he thought he was helping.
"Then he said that I should lay mines around the area, shoot him, and run away to get help from another Desert Ranger. He said the mines should be enough to ward off pursuers and that to get in contact with someone who can help, I'd have to go to a safe house we had visited a few months before then." At that point, Rem was silent, letting her say the rest with no interruptions. His eyes were fixated on her and now that she was this far along, it didn't bother her as much. "And that was when I performed my first mercy killing. I thought about it for a long time. I still do sometimes, and mind you, I had already done my fair share of killing at that point. Not only that, but my teacher had mentioned a scenario just like that to me, and told me to shoot him if it ever happened. He said he'd do the same for me. Even then, I wasn't ready. It's hard to be ready for things like that until after you've already done it." He started to nod his head slowly but he wanted to know more. Hesitantly, he asked after he gathered up the courage to. "Wut . . . happened after? I mean, after yew got away." She gently began her answer, "I got help and went back with four other Desert Rangers. We killed the guys who had tortured my teacher and when we went to get rid of the townsfolk, they begged and pleaded, saying that they had been forced to do it." Emma shifted in her seat, lying further back into it.
She breathed deeply and continued as she exhaled, "We argued among each other. Two of us thought we should get rid of them and the other three said that we didn't have any proof that they had been lying, and even if they were, we'd eventually find out and if that was the case, we could come back. They said that there wasn't enough certainty to justify killing parents and leaving a few children all alone to fend for themselves." As he thought about her story, he couldn't imagine going on knowing that Wesley hadn't paid the price for killing his father. Something like that could destroy a person's life. "So, the senior Desert Ranger ordered us to leave them be, and we did. We left them there." Rem pressed his lips together and shook his head, "I'm sorry, Emma. Musta been hard." Her shoulders lifted and dropped slowly, offering a lack luster shrug as she continued, "A year later, I found out that the whole town had been wiped out. Nobody was left alive. Nobody ever found out who did it." His eyes finally moved away from her and he sat back, "Dudn't make much of a difference, right? Even if they died ten times over, they wudn't make up fer the person yew lost." She nodded and answered simply, but there was enough substance in her tone to make it clear to Rem that she was in deep agreement, "Exactly."
A while went by and Emma turned finally to glance back at Rem, speaking as she did, "I remember, when I was younger, that a lot of the things that my higher ups tried to teach me went in but never quite . . . got processed. You know what I mean?" Her rhetorical question went on unanswered. "If you want to be readier than most people as you go on ahead, don't let that happen with what I'm about to say." She garnered Rem's attention entirely. "You haven't become the perfect Desert Ranger when you've gotten yourself ready for everything that's going to happen ahead in life. You've become the perfect Desert Ranger when you've learned to live with yourself. When you've learned to accept yourself for all the mistakes you've made and are going to make again in the name of doing what's right, and continue performing your duties to the best of your abilities." His ears got hot after he heard that. Her choice of words, more than anything, had struck fear into him. What kind of mistakes was he going to make in the future? Before he could conjure up some hypothetical scenario, she began standing up, and his eyes turned to look at her.
"Keep that in mind. Always," she said, and began exiting Rem's field of vision. He sat there staring straight ahead even as she disappeared past his peripherals, and even after he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore. As Emma closed the door behind her, she pressed her back against it and tilted her eyes up to the ceiling, surprised that the moment left her feeling free to some degree. She had spent such a long, long time avoiding being friends with anybody, avoiding men she might be able to love some day, all because she never wanted to owe anybody any information about herself. The road had been so lonely for such a long time and now that she was finally persuaded to have a human moment regarding her past, she came to an understanding that she had been making a lifelong mistake. But then again . . . maybe it had all been less of a mistake and more of a punishment. She'd done something terrible, and was sure she'd never get over it entirely. But . . . really, could she truly not redeem over twenty years worth of good deeds for just one ray of sunshine in a life that had been largely covered in the darkness of night? She thought she could, but felt guilty when she left the decision in her own hands.
Her eyes closed and she looked back on the day that she returned to Juniper and slaughtered all of the inhabitants. She had even killed the children because she was so wrought with anger and vengeance that she thought it fitting by some ironically amusing logic to relieve them of their ensuing torture without parents, much like she had done for her teacher. Like she had done for her brother. She had known for years that she had been wrong. In fact, she knew she had made a mistake the second she put the last bullet in the last child's head. And now, she still knew. Sometimes, she wondered what she was still doing alive, and concluded that the reason for that was because she was weak. She was too weak to hold her anger at bay back then, and was too weak now to dispense the punishment she was sure she deserved. As she went into bed and covered herself up with blankets, searching for warmth, she thought that maybe she'd tell someone about her mistake one day and let them decide what should happen with her. As she wondered who that might be, she thought that . . . Rem wasn't such a bad choice. He was young, he was passionate about his work, unlike her, and would likely hold nothing back.
By the time Emma had fallen asleep, Rem was still awake, lying down on the long couch with blankets covering his body up to the abdomen. His arms were crossed behind his head and his eyes were staring at the worn ceiling while he was wondering about his father. If this lifestyle was what Emma was making it out to be, then he must have had certain moments throughout his life that had changed him as well, and he wished he could know what they were. Just then, he recalled the serenity with which his father faced his final moments. First, he bargained as best he could for his son's life and right afterwards, he looked up and stared straight up at those two shotgun barrels without even blinking, until they spewed pellets. While the memory of it weighed heavily on him, he found some comfort in the fact that there had always been more to his father than killing raiders, and he was understanding that now. He had also been steady. If certain death coupled with the prospective death of his son right afterwards couldn't derail him from his sound train of thought, nothing could.
Mojave Desert
August 4th 12:55 pm
2267
That night, Rem slept soundly. He was out through the entirety of the night and long into the morning, and it wasn't until Emma thought it fit to go up to him and pat his face a few times that he woke up. His eyes opened slowly and he began yawning while he heard her voice, "Rise and shine. It's late. I warmed the water not too long ago." Rem finished his yawn and sunk into the couch again, on his back, but his eyes didn't close. "Come on," she encouraged, and he finally listened. He could have slept another while but before he made this worse for himself, he just sat up to get it over with. The blankets dripped off his person and after he shoved them off, he stood up and began walking in the direction of the bathroom. Emma couldn't help but smirk as she watched him go, glancing at his rear, amused at the fact that she could see the apex of the split between the cheeks just above the line of his boxer briefs.
They didn't have an irrigation system here but they did have water available. Rem had gone out to get it a few nights before, and it served them for household purposes. So, he closed the door behind him and looked around for the warmed water that Emma had mentioned. It was in a large bucket there, and when he dipped his finger in it, he figured it was just a tad warmer than room temperature. It wasn't quite as warm as he would have liked but beggars couldn't be choosers. Emma had done him the favor, and he sure as hell didn't want to go outside and heat it again. When he poured the water on himself, he shivered, but got used to it after a while and continued. When he stepped out, Emma was seated on the couch, looking pensive. "What's on yer mind?" he asked. She glanced in his direction, "How long you're taking." Rem blew air out of his mouth, "Wut, are we goin' somewhere?" Surprisingly, Emma nodded her head to him. "As a matter of fact, we are. We're just going to go get Louise and head off somewhere else. See if we can find something to do." Rem nodded and turned towards his clothes, and approached them.
Each of them was ready at about the same time, and they stepped out of the market not really saying much. Once they were outside and the sunlight came barreling down towards them, covering them in an envelope of warmth, they looked around in every direction. "It ain't too hot," Rem mentioned. "Yet," she retorted, as they both began stepping forth. The two of them were carrying duffle bags filled with supplies, and Rem had held off on using a stimpak to heal up his arm, so he still appeared to be favoring his wound. He decided he'd risk walking around injured if it meant that they could use the miracle of medicinal science when it was truly necessary. "So, where are we gonna go once we git outta the area?" It took Emma a few moments to respond, but she did eventually. "Nevada." She didn't explain why, and naturally, that was precisely what Rem would have liked to know most. "Why?" he asked, and she began her simple answer, "Why not? I just thought we'd switch it up." His eyebrows rose, but he decided to leave the topic alone, thinking he really didn't have much reason to go against it "Awright then. Nevada," he concluded, and Emma nodded.
When they reached a high plateau, it had been about two hours since they had left the run down market behind. They were surrounded with sand, rocks, and in front of them there was a huge drop. One they had walked all the way around to circumvent when they traveled the opposite direction. They could see ahead for miles, and they could also see the farm where Louise was being kept. They had left her there so she could be outfitted with horseshoes, and for other . . . grooming purposes, the farmer called it. Normally, Rem wouldn't have left her with anyone, but after they had helped the family out with a problem they had been having, he thought it wasn't a bad prospect. This whole thing was a way to pay the two of them back. "It's been two weeks, so I figure they're finished." Rem nodded his head and began walking off to one side, "Yup. Well, let's git goin'. I wanna see how Louise is doin'." Emma turned away from the drop and began following behind her student.
They were navigating the twists and turns as they walked downhill, looking to find the level ground all the way at the base of the hillside, but before they reached the bottom, Emma spoke. "Wait." Rem came to a complete stop and as she walked up to his side, glancing straight to their left, he followed the same direction she was viewing and saw something odd flickering about. It must have been about a hundred yards and some change away. Looking closely, he was able to make out a few orange wings flapping about, carrying aloft some odd, green creature that he had never seen before in his life. "The hell is it?" Emma stared but she didn't answer. After that, she began reaching towards her back, removing her sniper rifle. "Emma, let me git a shot at it." Her head turned slowly to glance at him, "It's movements are too erratic. You aren't going to get it. Besides, I'm better equipped." As Rem glanced at the creature, he was reminded of the times his father trained him with rifles to shoot bloatflies. Bloatflies, like these . . . things, moved erratically, but they were smaller. He had never hit one at distances over thirty yards. "Yew just wait 'n see," he said, removing his rifle from his back, wincing as a sharp pain in his right arm clawed at him.
Emma stood back as Rem climbed up on a higher plateau and knelt down, pointing the barrel of the repeater forth. She knew he was a pretty good shot, but she still didn't think he'd nail this thing at this range. "I keep telling you to gather materials so they can make you a scope for that thing at the Center." Rem's lips dipped at the corners and his nose scrunched up at the proposition, "Naw. Scopes are intrusive. They just git in the way." Emma glanced at the insect again, disconcerted about how stubborn he was, and began waiting. A long while went by and when she got impatient, she glanced at him again. "Today or tomorrow?" Rem kept staring ahead, the tip of his barrel leaning from one side to the other almost imperceptibly. "Yew gotta be patient, Emma. 'Sides, we ain't been seen. We ain't in a hurry." She turned ahead again and waited. Another while went by and this time, she turned and spoke with more irritation in her tone. "Would you - - " her voice was cut off by the loud sound of his rifle spitting its flat nosed projectile forth. She turned her head to see and saw the creature fluttering in the air still. "Told you you would miss." A moment later, the thing stopped flapping its wings and fell into the sand, kicking some of it up in every direction. It lay motionless. "Hah! My shot's truer than the sky above our heads, Emma!" Rem exclaimed in triumph. "Took me a lil while to gauge her movements, but I got her!" Emma didn't return the excitement in Rem's loud voice, but she knew a good shot when she saw one. "Not bad," she said, "Now let's go get a look at it."
As they approached the creature, Emma was on point. The two of them stopped walking once they were about four feet in front of it. From there, they could see everything, from its large, rust colored wings to the metallic sheen of its body. From afar, it looked green, but up close, it looked bluish blackish. Its eyes were red, and it had this enormous stinger that the two of them immediately knew was lethal. "Jeez, Emma, you ever see a stinger that big?" As he posed the question, he smirked. "Not even in the moistest of dreams, Rem," she responded, dryly. Then, they saw the thing shift and flutter its wings uselessly attempting to elevate itself off the ground. As it did, they watched the spiky protrusions on its back inflate. Emma drew her revolver, pointed it at its head and pulled the trigger. The creature went lifeless again as it dropped in a crunch, its hard exoskeleton cracking. "These thangs are tough," Rem commented, as Emma holstered her weapon again. "They sure are. Maybe the Dale family knows something about it." After that, she stepped past it, made sure to keep a safe distance, and Rem followed her, glancing to his side at it just in case it revived. Eventually, they were far away enough from it.
They arrived at the farm in the evening, and from a distance, they could see lights on inside. The stalls were a few yards away from the house itself, where Louise was presumably kept. Before they got too close, however, Emma called, "Johnathan Dale!" A few moments of silence. Then, an answer. "Who is out there?" Rem responded this time, "Rem and Emma! We're here to pick up Louise!" The door opened up and out came Johnathan, an older man with overalls, plaid button up, and boots. His black hair was mostly hidden away under his hat. "Oh, it's you two!" Behind him, his wife watched from the doorway and then their young son peeked his head out as well. The three of them greeted each other and Rem lifted his hand overhead, waving at John's wife and her child. They returned the gesture and Rem lowered it, glancing at Johnathan, breathing in the faint scent of cigarettes and sweat. "Louise is all ready, but Megan says you two should spend the night. It's dark out, anyway. Megan will cook us up a nice dinner and you guys can be on your way tomorrow." Johnathan watched as Emma's helmeted head nodded to him, "Sounds good. Thanks a lot, Johnathan."
As they followed the farm owner inside, Emma removed her helmet and the young boy, whose name was Jerry, ran up to Rem. "Hey, kid," Rem responded as he reached out and patted his head. "I shot a gecko the other day!" Rem chuckled and began shaking his head, "Not bad." Jerry's winsome excitement made it easy for Rem to tolerate him, probably because his demeanor was similar to his when he was younger. "What'd ya use?" The boy answered without skipping a beat, "My dad's laser pistol!" Rem's disappointment was immediately reflected in his face, "C'mon now. How do ya expect there to be anythin' left if yer goin' around disintegratin' most of yer food?" Jerry's eyebrows raised, "Well, you're right. Dad said the same thing." Rem shook his head, "Energy weapons aint such a good choice when yer huntin' fer food. Try usin' yer dad's 357. next time." Jerry nodded his head a few times and went off while Rem followed the rest of the adults into the living room. Emma wasn't there. She was presumably upstairs in the spare bedroom, changing clothes, and Megan was pacing into the kitchen.
"So, how'd it go?" Johnathan asked, gesturing for Rem to take a seat as well. He obliged, plopping down, glad to rest his legs finally. "It didn't go particularly well. They said it was Vipers. We went to their HQ, got rid of 'em, but we failed to save a prisoner." Johnathan leaned back in his chair and shook his head, "Well, you win some and you lose some. At the least, you got rid of those Vipers." Rem nodded his head and winced. Johnathan responded, "You're hurt? You need first aid?" Rem shook his head, "Naw, we got a stimpak but I'm savin' the thang for when we actually need it. This'll heal up all on its own eventually." Johnathan shook his head, "Nonsense. Here, I got two stimpaks, let me go get one." Rem cut in before he could go, "Sir, if yew give me another stimpak, I'll just store it away fer later. Thanks anyway. I really appreciate it." Johnathan sat back down and breathed out, "Well . . . alright." Rem tried to assuage him, "Trust me, that food yer wife's cookin' up is more than enough."
After they had all gathered around the table and the food had been served, the five of them began to eat. Rem savored the steak for every second of it, thoroughly enjoying it. "This is the best food I've had in a long time, Mrs. Dale." Emma chewed as well, also enjoying it. It was a change of pace from gecko and bloatfly. "Why thank you, Rem. It's the least we can do," she assured. The food on Rem's plate was almost gone when he remembered, "Say, Mr. Dale, we saw a creature earlier that we ain't never seen before." Emma swallowed her food and glanced at Johnathan, clarifying further, "Big insect of some kind. Orange wings, bluish blackish carapace." Johnathan glanced from one to the other, "Woah. That was a Cazador. They usually only come out at night and in numbers." Rem was eating his food while he listened, and he didn't speak until there was nothing left in his mouth, "This one was out in plain sunlight. Alone, too." Johnathan's voice rumbled, "Well, you two got lucky. Those things usually spell disaster out in the Mojave. They're poisonous, too, but with the size of their stingers, that's just to make sure." Emma placed more steak in her mouth and Rem nodded, "Awright. Cazador. I'll remember that."
"They started popping up around here about three years ago. I don't know where they've been coming from," Megan commented. Emma answered, "From what I understand, the post war world is just one huge breeding ground for mutations. Radroaches, mole rats, mantises, all of them used to be a lot smaller. I wouldn't be surprised if Cazadores are some other pre world creature that mutated and got a lot bigger." Johnathan nodded his head, "That's interesting. They teach you a lot at Ranger Center, don't they?" Emma set down the clean rag she had been using to clean her mouth and answered, "Well, they do. But what I just told you, I learned from a guy named Sawyer Finnegan. Another Desert Ranger." Rem was finished by then as well, and began standing up, "Well, thanks for the dinner, Mrs. Dale. I'm gonna go take a look at Louise now, if yew don't mind." Johnathan courteously welcomed him to do just that, "Go right ahead."
Stepping into the stables, he saw four horses inside, but the golden brown sheen of Louise's fur set her apart from the rest. "Hey girl," Rem cooed, standing in front of her as he reached out and stroked her mane. After glancing at her eyes, he glanced down to her horseshoes, which were sleek and new. Her fur was softer, too, than what he remembered. "They got yew all prettied up, huh," he added, and it made him laugh when she began nodding her head. It was purely by chance, of course, but he always acted like she was more sentient than she actually was. She'd been with him for a while, and by now, he considered her more like the only family member he still had left alive more than just some speedy method of travel. "We'll be headin' out tomorrow wit' Emma. We're goin' back home, awright?" After that, he leaned in and placed a kiss on top of her face and began stepping away.
As per usual, Rem slept out in the living room. Emma always made it a point to sleep somewhere apart from him, and Rem could only imagine that it was because he had come onto her a few times when she allowed him to sleep close to her. At first, he felt guilty but now, he didn't really regret it as much. He couldn't help the fact that he was so attracted to her, after all. That was what he was thinking about as he lay there on the couch, listening to the sounds of the house and the sounds of what was going on outside. The wind was blowing, and sometimes, it'd whistle an eerie little tune at him. Other times, he'd hear Johnathan's dog's chains rattling as he moved about. The dog was kept chained up inside of a fairly spacy enclosure so that he could bark without having to worry much about the wasteland predators it was there to warn everyone about. It was about as safe as you could get without designating someone for night watch and another for day watch.