"So, what's your story?"
Remi threw the mercenary a fleeting glance. "My story?"
"Yeah. I mean, I practically told you every single detail about my life." MacCready's lips curled into a sardonic grin. "It'd be nice to get the same in return."
Scoffing, Remi rolled her eyes jokingly, hoping the back and forth banter would be enough to stave off the anxiety swelling inside her. The Med-Tek Research building was eerily quiet without the groans and hisses of the Ghouls. Although she was sure they'd dealt with every decaying body, she still swore she felt eyes on her back as they made their way toward the exit. Every so often, she peered over her shoulder, hoping to catch sight of whoever – or whatever – was trailing them.
Then again, it could've just been her imagination.
"I don't think my story is really worth telling," Remi admitted, kicking aside a chipped coffee mug. "I don't have parents anymore, so it's just me."
MacCready wasn't buying it. "Sounds boring," he said. "C'mon, Remi, I put everything out on the table for you. That wasn't easy for me."
A pang of guilt hit Remi. More than anything, she didn't want to disclose anything about herself. However, MacCready was right: the story about Duncan and Lucy was equally as difficult to tell. She let out a ragged breath and replied, "Maybe once we get out of this place. It's really starting to creep me out."
"You too, huh?"
Remi's gaze followed his hand as it slid across the belt hidden beneath his frayed coat. Once the medication had been securely tucked between the cracked leather and his trousers, the initial shock of what occurred began to fade from Remi's mind. She'd taken down a heavily radiated Ghoul and with a gun, amazingly. The memory of repeatedly pulling the trigger made her mouth run dry, but it wasn't what took up most of her brain capacity. It was the fact that once the echoed ringing from the gunshot subsided in her ears, she had listened for the rain she had heard just moments before she had forced bullets from the weapon.
Silence met her. The rain had fled as quickly as it came.
Grunting, MacCready yanked the doors open and cringed at the ear-piercing squeak of the metal. All around them, darkness lingered. The shadowed mounds of Ghouls lay still, though a nagging voice in the back of Remi's mind doubted some of them were truly dead. A thought struck her then, like a slap to the face: upon approaching Med-Tek, MacCready had only taken down a single Ghoul.
"I don't like this," MacCready murmured, leading Remi to wonder if they shared the same thought. "We should find somewhere to camp out until morning comes."
Mildly disappointed, Remi nodded in agreement and reached up to rub at a sore spot on her shoulder. "I'm exhausted. A bed sounds even better than food right now."
A chuckle rose goosebumps on her arms. "Who are you and what have you done with my Remi?"
My Remi.
MacCready took the lead, crossing the damaged road and headed for the cluster of hills on the other side. With every gunshot that bounced off the buildings, Remi winced. It was impossible to tell where the noise was coming from, or where the two were going. Still, she followed. She trusted MacCready. He knew the world better than she did, it seemed.
"So, which parent do you look like?" came MacCready's hushed inquiry. The sound of his voice startled Remi; she had been concentrated on keeping a keen eye on their surroundings. "I've always thought I looked more like my old man, even though I have no clue what he looks like. If I looked like my mom, well, I feel a little bad for how ugly she must've been."
Remi's delicate hand collided with his forearm. "Don't talk about dead people or yourself like that," she scolded harshly. She drew in a breath. "My mom always said I looked more like her, but I never saw it."
For a moment, Remi could have sworn MacCready's eyes had traced her up and down, but the night had tricks up its sleeve.
He said nothing more for the time being, which allowed her mind to roam. It had been such a long time since she thought of her mother. Remi tried to picture her face with the freckled, turned-up nose she passed down to her daughter. A blank slate appeared behind her eyes, then suddenly, there was a gust of wind and the sight of golden locks flowing along with it.
Remi lifted a hand to touch her own hair – splitting image in color, but lacking in length. "I think I'm going to grow out my hair," she blurted, a hard lump gathering in her throat.
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the feel of MacCready's fingers tangling themselves at the end of her mane. "You'll look beautiful either wa-"
Remi shrieked as his fingers gripped the strands and yanked her downward. MacCready's free hand clamped over her mouth, hushing her as he dropped down next to her. There was a stinging pain on her ear and a warmth that seeped down her cheek and onto her neck. Hands trembling, she touched her ear and the blood, and the empty space of missing cartilage. Panic surged through her, quickening her breaths.
In the blink of an eye, MacCready was grabbing for his gun and her face simultaneously. His hand cupped her quivering chin and turned her head to look at him. "Remi," he hissed urgently. She couldn't focus; her vision had been blurred by a veil of tears. "Remi! Remi, look at me!"
Her clouded eyes wavered up to meet his. "I-I...I..."
MacCready spoke rapidly as he peered through the scope of his gun. "Stay here and stay down. I'm going to go find a way around this place, okay? Don't move unless I tell you."
Remi's body couldn't keep up. MacCready hopped to his feet and dashed from the safety of the hill, leaving the girl frantically grasping at the space where he once was. A chorus of gunfire and deep, throaty hollers reverberated from seemingly everywhere. It all gave away the horrifying fact that they weren't up against humans.
With bile threatening to rise up, Remi touched at her ear once more. The sting had dulled, casting forth a pulsing ache that had synced with her heartbeat. She forced her eyes shut, pushed out the mental image of what her ear must have looked like, and waited.
For how long she waited, she wasn't sure. The shouts and deafening pops faded, leaving her with the melody of faraway creatures howling against the night, and her own breathing.
"Where are you?" Remi gasped, her chest tight and constricting. She pulled herself onto her knees and glanced over a jagged boulder. "Damn it, MacCready, where are you?"
Squinting into the darkness, she desperately searched for any shadows that could have resembled MacCready's lanky body. Instead, great machines blocked her view and past those flickered the flames of trashcan fires. MacCready's demand for her to stay hidden flashed through her mind before she skittered to the machines and used them to shield herself. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of a bulky being lumbering across the fires.
Dread set in as Remi realized that MacCready hadn't returned, but the booming voices still remained. She took a second to rest her forehead against the cool metal of the machine before grabbing her for crowbar and making her way toward an unfinished house foundation. Tools and wood of all different variety lay haphazardly about, making silent traversing a challenge.
As best she could, Remi tiptoed about, her heart sinking further with each step she took. How in the hell was she supposed to find MacCready in the middle of the completed houses and equipment she'd never seen in her life? Curling her hands around the edge of a long since abandoned car, she considered turning tail and saving her own skin. It made sense. Why should she care what happened to MacCready? People died every day.
Remi sighed and turned her back to the half-finished neighborhood.
My Remi.
She groaned, kicked at an overturned tire, and sucked in a sharp inhale as pain washed over her foot. "Stupid freakin' idiot," she hissed, unsure if she was directing it toward herself or MacCready.
As Remi hurried closer toward the houses, dodging every movement she caught in her peripheral, an odd sense of urgency rushed through her. Time ticked away, and yet her body wasn't moving fast enough. The idea that MacCready had already been killed attempted to invade her mind, but she paid no attention to it. Somehow, she knew he was still alive, and she was intent on finding him.
She paused at a point to take in her surroundings. Massive sacks of rotting meat hung from telephone poles, sharp stakes jutted from the ground, and smears of blood had been painted on the streets and overturned cars. Remi decided she didn't want to know how or why these things were here, but deduced a terrifying fact: Super Mutants roamed this area, and she doubted they'd let her go if they spotted her.
Her steps fell short as she approached the rear end of what appeared to be a makeshift wooden barrier. Raucous voices sounded between laughter.
"Ain't got much meat on him," came the first. "All we get is tiny humans now."
"I'm still going to eat him," the other replied. "I'm starving. How long until the water is boiling?"
"Not long now. Won't take long to cook; ain't got much meat on him."
"You already said that."
"Oh, yeah."
Their footfalls shuffled closer to Remi, who had been trying to catch her breath during their conversation. They'd caught MacCready and were planning on eating him. Doubling over, she nearly heaved, but chose to hide before they caught her too. She retreated to the nearest house on her left and thrust at the door with her shoulder. The rusted hinges cracked, the door collapsed, and Remi tumbled down with it.
"What's that noise?!"
"Go look, stupid!"
Remi scrambled up, her eyes darting every which way in search of a place to hide. "Shit, shit, shit," she whispered. Her gaze settled on another door and her body moved before she could give herself a chance to consider it.
Practically kicking the door open, Remi bolted from the house and leapt over the frame of what once appeared to be a car. The world around her slowed, blurring in every aspect save for what was right in front of her. Before she could survey the possible hiding places, she found herself directly in the eye of the storm. Metal cages darkened by years of blood splatters hung from high poles covered in barbed wire. Smoke formed around a charred body and danced into the sky. A subtle beeping repeated from somewhere unknown, but Remi assumed it was just her mind adding to the fear.
She skidded to a stop near the body, her lungs screaming against the idea of running again anytime soon. After a quick seizing up, she let out a wispy sigh. Whoever this poor soul was wasn't MacCready, and Remi wondered if she should've felt remorseful for being relieved of that.
"Another human!"
Every single hair on Remi's body stood straight. Her head whipped to the side just in time to witness a trio of Super Mutants shove each other to be first to get a good shot at her. Heart pounding agonizingly in her chest, she wasted no time breaking into a sprint toward a house in the opposite direction. Empty bags of chips, candy wrappers, and sticky Nuka-Cola bottles littered the floors. Remi bounced around them as she hurried to the kitchen and wrenched open a cabinet underneath a putrid sink.
Seconds ticked by as she huddled in the tiny space. For the first time, Remi couldn't help but feel thankful for her small build; if she were any larger, it would have made for a cramped hiding spot.
Guttural barking sounded from somewhere outside the cabinet. Remi inched further from the door, covering her mouth and nose with her palm. Every muscle in her body tensed as low growls and staccato sniffing rattled the door. She closed her eyes, undoubtedly sure that this was it. The disgusting mutated Hounds that often patrolled Super Mutant colonies would find her soon and rip her to pieces. She would never find MacCready. He would be left to a fate that nobody deserved.
Before she could think her actions through, Remi's foot rammed against the door, smacking something solid on the other side. She cringed at the high-pitched whine, but didn't allow herself the chance to stumble. The collision had staggered the Hound, confusing it. Remi kicked at its side, forcing it into a sloppy slump, and plunged the serrated end of her crowbar between its eyes.
The creature began to let out a pathetic howl, but Remi cut it short with a quick stomp to its grotesque, slobbering mouth. In a building pool of its own blood, the Hound lay still, its beady eyes staring straight ahead. Remi yanked her weapon from its corpse and fled the house, immediately forgetting about the beast and what she had just done.
MacCready took control of her thoughts as she stepped back into the rancid outside air. His face twisted in agony, his skin melting in the boiling water, his voice never again saying her name. Remi's gaze darted about at all the houses that seemed to take on a replicated image of each other. Her hands found her hair and gripped hard. A shriek of frustration and horror slipped through her clenched teeth.
It was all too much. Too much.
My Remi.
Her eyes snapped open, her hands fell to her side.
"Let go of me, you ugly bastards!"
Remi, her eyes fixated on the pair of Super Mutants carrying MacCready's flailing body, reached toward her hip. The pistol she'd used to take down the Ghoul back at Med-Tek had remained bound to her. Expecting the same sort of adrenaline to pump through her body at the mere touch of it, she lifted the weapon as MacCready had taught her, exhaled, and pulled the trigger.
It simply clicked. She'd wasted all the bullets trying to save his life before. Cursing, she launched the gun over her head and toward the Mutants. It bounced off off the one closest to her and brought them to a halt. Remi reached for a rock at her feet and repeated her action, grimacing as she watched it land a few feet from them. The Mutants burst into grating laughter.
"Where did you learn to throw?" teased the smaller of the two.
MacCready's head turned in her direction. Eyes widening, his mouth dropped as he realized who had distracted his captors. "Remi! Get out of here! Go! Run!" With his hands restrained behind his back, he struggled against the Mutants.
"Remi?" sneered the other beast, grunting as another rock hit his arm. "Stupid name for a stupid human!"
An idiotic grin spread across Remi's face as the final rock sent them into a frenzy. They roared in agitation, dropping MacCready roughly onto the ground, and began their murderous stride toward her.
Knowing she had little time to waste, Remi turned on her heel and took off into the house behind her. She sprinted through the broken door, past the Hound's body, and hopped through the bay window in what she assumed was once a dining room. Her lungs burned as she circled the exterior of the house, but she pushed through it and rushed to MacCready's side.
"There's a pocketknife on my hip," he told her breathlessly, jutting his chin toward his waist. "Cut the ropes on my – Whoa, Remi! Watch where those hands are going! We'll save that for-"
Absolutely infuriated, Remi's fingers curled around the collar of his coat. "You really think," she growled, her face crimson, "that I would barely touch the spot where your dick is at a time like this on purpose?" Her grip tightened. "Get your head out of the fucking gutter!"
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!"
While Remi filed away at MacCready's rope bindings, she blinked back tears. "I'm never going outside during the night again," she decided.
MacCready swallowed. "That's what I've been saying all along, but does anyone listen to me? No." His shifted his weight. "Look, Remi, I know you're trying as hard as you can, but can you hurry up? I'm pretty sure dumb and dumber over there are starting to notice-"
"Done." Remi hoisted MacCready onto his feet, a deep scowl etched onto her face. "Let's go."
"But my gun is-"
"We'll get you another one!"
(~)
The silence ate away at her, coiling her insides with a sinking pain she hadn't felt in years. Remi sat on the filthy mattress, hugging her knees to her chest as she listened to the occasional sharp exhales coming from the other side of the grocery store office. Tears threatened to fall, but she refused to let them.
"You never realize how bad ropes can hurt until they rub back and forth on your skin for so long," MacCready commented with a smirk. Huddled over a chipped wooden table, he applied the mystery healing cream to the rope burns marks on his wrists. "Your ear looks better."
Remi glared at him, suddenly craving both a pack of cigarettes and more relief from the cream. He had doused her ear with it once they were securely locked away in the office, but the pain had returned. She constantly fought the urge to scratch at the wound, although she refused to ask him for another dollop.
"Thanks for saving my butt back there," MacCready went on. "You're pretty good a being a distrac...tion. What's with the long face?"
She hadn't noticed her gaze trail toward her; she'd been too focused on enviously watching him rub the cream onto his damaged skin. "You almost died," she stated flatly, "again."
"Yeah, well, it happens. I'm just glad you were there."
Her hands balled into fists. "But what if I wasn't, MacCready? Wh-What if it was just you and that Ghoul? It could have ripped your throat out! A-And those Mutants could have boiled you alive!" Speaking of it made her stomach churn. "You're acting like it's no big deal!"
Bewilderment settling onto his face, MacCready simply stared at her until he decided to place the black tube onto the table and make his way over to her. He knelt in front of her and she wished she could melt into the wall. "Remi," he started with a sigh, "everyone will die someday. You, me, everyone."
Remi rolled her eyes as she shoved him back onto the mattress and stood up. "You think I don't know that?" Her voice came out thick. To mask a sniffle, she kicked a can across the room. "I know that better than most people. I-I just...I don't want you to die. I don't want to lose you, too."
Her restless hands landed on a radio that she was certain was broken. Aside from the mattress and the partially dissolved candle on the table, it was one of the first things she noticed about the office MacCready had decided to wait out the night in. Densely, she fiddled with the knobs and buttons, expectantly staring at the cracked, dark screen on its surface.
"If you died," Remi continued after taking a moment to gather her thoughts, "Duncan wouldn't get the medicine. Everything we went through would've been a waste. I would've been screwed. I would've been left alone again, just like...just like when Mom died."
She wasn't aware of the fact that MacCready had rolled back on his heels and stood up. Long, slender fingers took hold of hers, placing a cigarette into her hand. Remi lit it with the flame of the candle and closed her eyes in relief as the smoke poured into her lungs. It felt as if years had passed since she last tasted one.
"Where'd you find these?" she questioned as MacCready lit one of his own.
"Stole it," he admitted, taking a seat in one of the metal folding chairs. It creaked against his weight. "What happened to your mom?"
He waved his hand toward another chair opposite of his. Remi sat without protest; her feet were throbbing. At first, she hesitated, savoring the cigarette and curiously watching as MacCready began to tinker with the radio. Then, he glanced up at her, wordlessly telling her to talk.
"It was Super Mutants," Remi finally said. "We were on our way back to Diamond City when...when we heard this beeping. I didn't know what it was at the time, but Mom did. She made me hide in a Dumpster and told me to stay put and stay safe. Then, I heard her yelling and...a-and there was an explosion."
She wiped at a tear before it could trickle down her cheek.
"I stayed in that Dumpster for two days. When I got out to look for her, I could only find part of her face."
She cleared her throat twice.
"A girl I know, Piper, found me that day and took me back to Diamond City. That was seven years ago."
A bitter smile spread on the sides the cigarette hanging loosely from MacCready's mouth. "Piper," he breathed, setting aside a wire he'd ripped out of the radio. "Everyone's pen-and-paper hero. What about your dad?"
Remi took an extensive drag on her cigarette. "Never met him. He died before I was born."
"Your mom didn't tell you any stories?"
Sweat began to gather on her palms. "Just that he was from New Reno, drifted down to New Vegas, got caught up in gambling debts, and ended up here somehow."
"How'd they meet?"
"I-I think they worked together for a time."
"You think?"
Remi scoffed and took a final inhale from the cigarette before smashing it on the concrete floor. "Look, I don't know, okay? Mom hardly talked about him and most of the time, I forgot I even had another parent," she snapped, already craving another stick of tobacco.
MacCready didn't look up from the radio. "All right, sorry. I'm just trying to get to know you better."
She decided to keep her mouth shut for the time being, wishing he had wanted to get to know her better in different ways, like trying to find out what her favorite color was. Deep down, she felt a tad guilty. Remi could easily trust him with her life, but trusting him with information left her undecided. People could perform great and terrible acts with information.
"Where are we going?" she asked after a stretch of too much quiet.
"To Goodneighbor. Daisy will make sure Duncan gets the medicine."
"And then what?"
MacCready's eyes flashed up to meet hers and he dropped his crunched cigarette butt onto the floor. He leaned back in the chair, his spine popping. "What do you mean?"
Remi pursed her lips, growing more and more annoyed with their conversation with each passing word. It was like going in circles with him. "What are you going to do? Where are you going to go?"
"Do you know how to dance?"
"I – What? No, why?"
His eyes crinkled at the edges as he grinned in satisfaction, turning a knob on the radio. There was a muffled pop, and then a soft concluding melody of a song Remi had never heard before. She couldn't help but mimic his expression as the beloved voice of Travis filled her ears, giving insight to the song.
"How'd you get it working?" she questioned in pure awe.
MacCready lifted his hands, moving his fingers about dramatically. "Magic touch."
As if Travis' squeaking voice held magic of its own, Remi's spirits soared as she listened to his words. "Back when I lived in Diamond City, I had the hugest crush on that guy," she confessed. "Turns out, he's not really my type."
"You have a type?" MacCready inquired, propping his elbow on the table.
"Yeah: men who don't run away at the sight of me."
MacCready opened his mouth to probably shoot back a witty retort, but Travis distracted him. "Um, well h-here's The Ink Spots with, um, another song. I-I think it's overplayed, but you guys like it...I guess. So, here you go."
"I don't ever care to rise to power. I would rather be with you an hour."
The groan of the chair sliding against the floor brought Remi's attention to her handy companion. He towered over her, looking particularly playful from this angle, and informed her, "This is a really good song."
"Th-That's nice."
He held out his hand to her and chuckled as she squirmed in her seat. "I don't bite."
"And I don't dance."
MacCready wasn't taking that for an answer. Before she had the chance to hide her hands by sitting on them, he swiftly grabbed onto them and gingerly pulled her from the chair, ignoring her grunts of protest.
"In my heart, I have but one desire. And that one is you, no other will do."
"MacCready!" Remi yelped as he pulled her into his chest. Her face felt as if it were on fire. Instead of pushing herself from him, however, she stayed in place, following his slow side-to-side rocking. Not exactly dancing, she figured, but close enough. Besides, she no longer had the energy to fight him.
"Lucy used to force me to dance with her," MacCready murmured near her ear as his left hand rested on the small of her back. She almost shivered at his touch. "I used to hate it, but I realized how relaxing just moving like this is."
He was right about that: it definitely calmed Remi down. She placed her head against his shoulder, her nose barely touching the crook of his neck. His hand gave hers a soft squeeze. "Just don't drop me into any dips," she warned. "Unlike you, I do bite."
MacCready's short laugh brought a smirk to her lips. "Wouldn't even dream of it."
An odd sensation flowed through Remi. She'd felt it a few times before. Once, when she thought she was in love with Travis, and again when MacCready nearly jumped for joy at finding Duncan's medicine. Her heart pattered against her chest, her tongue dried, and her stomach fluttered.
"Can I stay with you?" she whispered.
"Stay with me?"
Remi leaned back to look at his face, at the red tint to his cheeks. "After we get the medicine to Daisy, can I keep traveling with you?"
"I don't want to set the world on fire."
Lips twitching in an effort to fight another grin, MacCready placed his forehead against hers. "Funny how that works out. I was going to ask you the same thing."
"I just want to start a flame in your heart."