Nate stretched his arms above his head, wincing as his shoulder blades popped and cracked. They had been on the move for a solid eight hours - though for all he loved to complain, it wasn't such a big deal. Not when he had the afternoon sun shining on his face and Mac's easy company by his side. When Mac was around, everything was always better.
"How much longer?" Mac grumbled. His hand shielded his face from the sun - even though his hat probably did a fine job on its own - and he still squinted as he turned to Nate. Or maybe he was glaring.
Nate found himself smiling, fighting down the absurd urge to laugh. "Just up ahead. See that big grey hospital? We're headed there." He pointed, although it was obvious where they were going.
The hospital towered above the tiny houses littering the streets, still standing tall after two centuries when everything else had turned to dust. Back in the day it had been stark white and honestly hideous, but the years had dulled it to a dirty grey. It still stuck out like a sore thumb more than anything else in the Commonwealth.
Despite its impressiveness, Mac only shrugged. "Great. What's so special about it?"
"A couple of nearby settlers tipped me off about raiders hiding out there, and maybe a radroach infestation. I've been relaxing at Sanctuary for too long and it's about time I helped out."
"You can't do everything on your own. Get your beloved Minutemen to help out."
Nate resisted the urge to roll his eyes and simply replied, "I would, but I was getting bored of Sanctuary anyway. Besides, you came along willingly."
"I can never say no to you, and you know it," Mac huffed back - but there was a hesitant smile playing at his lips.
Nate's chest bloomed, warmth flourishing. It was the little moments like that, when Mac said something kind of sweet without even knowing, that made it all worth it. Why would he want to ruin what they had by telling him the truth? His gaze wandered to Mac, who strode on ahead, watching the way his arms swung so casually by his side. Until his foot collided with something solid and he tumbled, feet sliding on the dry earth. He braced himself to hit the dirt - but strong arms caught him before he fell.
How Mac had gotten there so quickly he didn't know, but he was never one to complain; especially with those solid arms holding him close and Mac's breath across his skin...
Air rushed through his hair and Nate's ass hit the ground with a thud. He stared at his legs for a moment, tangled on the ground, before letting his gaze wander to Mac.
He was walking ahead again, hands deep in his pockets. It was as if nothing had happened.
"Did you have to drop me?" Nate demanded as he scrambled to his feet. The earth was dry and crumbling after weeks without rain, but he still struggled to find grip as he kicked up dirt. "Catch me and then drop me. Thanks."
Mac said nothing - which in itself wasn't so weird. It was weird though, the way his hand disappeared underneath his jacket, tracing the marred skin that had been his soulmark.
Something was up, and it was none of Nate's business, but there was a burning question on the tip of his tongue anyway. Swallowing it down, Nate took a breath and hurried after him.
The rest of the journey passed in tense silence. They forged ahead with their heads forward, not a single word passing between them. Questions still lingered in the back of Nate's brain - but the bigger part of him screamed no, it isn't worth it.
As the enormous grey building loomed closer and closer overhead, Nate felt something cold stir in his stomach. He couldn't place why the hospital gave him chills or why it made his skin prick, but looking at those wooden doors made him shudder.
If Mac felt anything, he didn't show it. His discomfort was a different kind - not caused by the hospital or what they might find inside. It left Nate wondering if it was his fault.
A sigh slipped from his lips as he shook his head, ignoring how hair fell in his eyes. He needed to get it cut, but that was a problem for later. "We go in nice and quiet, don't bring attention to ourselves. Those raiders aren't expecting us, so we have the advantage." Nate didn't have any fancy weapons on him - just a plain .44 pistol and his favourite combat knife. He slipped the pistol from its holster as he eased the door open - it swung inward with a deafening creak, grating on his ears.
Not as subtle as he had hoped.
But no one rushed at them screaming or pointing weapons. In fact it was eerily silence inside. Not a voice or even a creak of wind against old window panes.
It didn't sit well with Nate, but he let out a breath of relief and crept inside. Ducked low, he let the flashlight on his pip-boy sweep the room, blue glow flickering across broken chairs and an old hospital gurney. Not a single raider in sight.
Mac dropped low beside him, and the hefty rifle in his palms was a familiar sight. Reassuring. Where Nate's weapons and Wasteland knowledge lacked, Mac made up for it. "No one's here. You sure this is the right place?"
Nate felt himself smile despite the uneasiness in his gut. At least Mac was talking again. "Definitely. It's a big place, maybe they're in another wing."
Mac cast him a raised brow, but didn't hold his gaze. Instead he stood up, adjusted his hold on the rifle, and drifted over to the old nurse's desk in the middle of the foyer. "Maybe," he replied simply, "we should check everywhere just in case."
He doubted there was anyone hiding in the desk drawer, but Nate kept silent as he joined Mac's side. The desk itself was covered in dust, scattered with papers long faded and pens that hadn't worked in decades. Nothing interesting, and certainly nothing to indicate raiders.
Across the room stood two elevators. A light blinked dimly in the darkness, so at least one of them still worked. Stairs sat down a hall, shadowed and murky. Which was best?
"We should take the stairs," Mac spoke as if he had read Nate's mind, "elevator is too noisy."
They crept along the hall together. It was so narrow Nate's shoulder brushed Mac's as they moved, though that wasn't bad, per se. The warmth of his skin soaked through the thick jacket, even though Nate was shivering. Not to mention the fact that every so often, Mac's hand bumped against his leg. It was difficult not to let his mind wander, to imagine what that calloused hand felt like cupping his cheek or-
This was not the time to be thinking about that.
Nate crept upstairs first just so he wouldn't have to watch Mac ahead of him. The first foot landed silently, and then the second, and the stairs didn't so much as creak. Behind him, Mac was just as silent.
The next level made Nate's lips curl and his stomach lurch. Whoever was staying here hadn't bothered to clean up the radroach corpses; tiny crushed husks littered the ground. It wasn't until his foot hit the top step that the stench hit - the bitter rot of corpses lying out for weeks. But it was too strong, too overwhelming to just be 'roaches.
Nate tugged the neck of his t-shirt to cover his nose, but his eyes were already beginning to water. Even covering his face didn't block out the putrid smell. "I guess we found the raiders."
"Couldn't they at least clean up after themselves," Mac's nose crinkled, throat bobbing and for a moment Nate thought he was going to be sick. It must have been bad if a hardened mercenary like Mac wanted to puke. "I've met super mutants with better manners than this."
Nate actually had, this mind going to Virgil, but Mac had a point. The place was disgusting, and he was pretty sure he didn't want to know the origins of that rotting smell. "Let's just keep quiet and check the rooms one by one."
Up ahead a sign read maternity ward - except the letters were so faded it was almost impossible to make out.
Nate took a step forward, hands clutching his pistol - but he paused, eyeing that sign. It wasn't the same hospital, not even in the area, but for a moment he thought of Shaun and Nora, the two people he had loved most.
And now he loved someone else, someone right beside him, and he didn't even know.
"Nate, why'd you stop? See something?"
Nate blinked, and reality shot back into focus so fiercely he almost stumbled. "No, it's nothing." He forged forward without looking back, without turning to look at Mac's face.
He didn't need to look to know the narrow eyed look Mac shot him. He felt it hot against his back.
Footfall was quiet in the hospital despite the hard wooden floors and echoing hallways. Every so often Nate's foot squished against a radroach corpse, the soft crunch of it's exoskeleton almost enough to make him gag. A hardened wastelander he was not.
Door after door revealed nothing except for crumbling walls and ancient hospital beds. One room, probably once an operating theatre, had crates of Nuka Cola stacked against one wall and mouldy mattresses piled around a metal barrel. From the faint smell of smoke, it had been the source of a camp fire up until recently.
"We're close," Nate whispered, softly closing the door behind him, "I think-"
He stopped, words faltering as a gentle tap tap of footsteps caught his ears. Too far away to know the direction, but too close for comfort. Had they heard him moving about?
Mac's lips curled, hands clenching around the rifle. Ready for action as always, though Nate expected nothing less. Nate knew that underneath that jacket lay arms thick with muscle, arms that punch a raider dead if he needed.
Any other time, that would have been hot.
To their left something clattered. A bottle rolling across the floor? Someone kicking trash? It was too out of place in the silence to be caused by anything but a human.
Silently Nate gestured down the hall. It stretched on into blackness - but if they couldn't see the raider, the raider couldn't see them. That, at least, worked in their favour. "Stay here and shoot from a distance. I'll see if I can scope the place out."
There was no time to argue. Voices not their own drifted from down the hall, deep and rough. By the way they kept their voices low and walked so quietly, they suspected they weren't alone.
Nate instinctively dropped to a crouch, though there was nothing to hide behind in the open space of the hallway. He could duck into a room - but they hadn't checked out the rooms ahead. Who knew what other dangers lurked behind those wooden doors? Nate swallowed, ignoring the way his chest thudded at the thought. With each step forward his heart skipped another beat and his palms became sweatier; but he forged ahead without so much as blinking.
Shadows up ahead. Vaguely human shaped in the gloom, Nate made out two. Something else scuttled about their feet - an attack hound? - and a third figure hung back from the rest as if keeping watch.
The pistol shook in Nate's hands as he slinked back, disappearing into the shadows. His heel hit something and it rolled out into the hall before he had the chance to reach out and stop it. A metal tin. It clanked against the opposite wall and bounced back, deafeningly loud in the silence.
"What was that?" A gruff voice asked from the shadowed hall. "Did you hear something?"
"Sounded like a person if you ask me."
Nate was open and vulnerable in the hall but he froze, whole body seizing up even though his brain told him to run. Wide eyes fixed on the largest figure as it strode forward, the smaller silhouette of the dog close behind.
Within moments a towering brick of a man faded into view, his face a forest of scars. He smirked, and Nate's blood went cold. "So, what do we have here?"
He did what came naturally - aimed that pistol. sucked in a breath, and fired.
The raider had no time to react. Blood spurted from his forehead and he crumpled into a bloody heap on the ground. A cry squeezed from his lips as he collapsed, echoing down the hall - but then he lay still as blood pooled around him.
There were a few, precious moments of silence - and then everything burst into chaos.
The dog peeled into view, teeth glistening as it lunged for Nate. Red gums and white teeth filled his vision and then he tumbled backward with his hands out as the dog struggled to take a chunk from his neck. Nate's back slammed into the ground and his head spun, alight with stars as it cracked against the rotting wood floor.
Above him the dog growled - and then his vision went black.