"Lily! Come quick!"
From her hiding spot, the redheaded raider gritted her teeth at the sound of Curie's voice. Her words morphed as they bounced through the empty buildings, echoing through the streets. Lunchtime! Get it while it's fresh! She hesitated, fingers digging into faded upholstery, waiting for the ghoul screeches and supermutant roars that'd inevitably follow the summons. Curie didn't let up for a second in the tense minute that followed, alternating between calling out her name and talking to herself.
When three minutes had passed and the guests refused to appear, Lily finally peeked over the diner booth, revolver propped and ready. There she was, standing at the mouth of the bridge with no cover in sight, waving.
Lily squinted against the sun, searching the windows on the far side of the river. Bridges are the perfect ambush spot she'd warned, snapping her fingers in front of Curie's face to keep her focused. Once you're on them, there's no way out if someone starts shooting.
Curie had nodded vigorously.
So when we get to the bridge, we're going to split up and stick to cover. You watch for traps, I'll watch for snipers.
She'd nodded again and nodded once more when Lily had repeated the plan when the maze of buildings opened up to reveal the river they'd been searching for all day, followed by ten minutes of listing what not to do if bullets started flying.
It'd taken much longer than she'd expected. Much of that time was spent wracking her brain for the stupidest, craziest, most suicidal actions she could possibly imagine with the express purpose of warning her not to do them.
Don't jump into the water. Don't scream and wave at me. Don't leave cover. Don't ask for directions.
And now, five minutes later, the mirelurk-brain was hopping in place, ringing the lunch bell for every ghoul, mutant and Minuteman on the block.
Beat some sense into her. Red urged, as Lily slunk out of the diner to hunker down behind a lamppost. Always worked with you.
"Look!" Curie cried, pointing at a second bridge a few blocks upriver. Lily followed her finger on instinct.
At first she didn't know what to make of the living, seething black mound lying at the base of the bridge. Swarms of birds dotted the sky above it, their shrill caws growing louder as she drew closer to the shoreline. Lily gawped at the sight, curiosity overpowering self-preservation as she stood to get a better look.
"Those are people." She whispered, and her eyes adjusting to the midday sun confirmed it. Blue-dustered Minutemen, more than she'd ever seen in one place, were swarming around the mound. Interspersed among them were others in regular clothing, poking and prodding at the thing while others stood a respectful distance away, watching.
"Minutemen." Curie said, taking a step forward. "We could ask for directions."
Lily's arm shot out to grab a fistful of flannel, yanking the woman behind a rusty car before leaning in so close their noses touched.
"I warned you. I fucking warned you not to pull this shit."
"I'm sorry!" Curie shrieked, cheek pressed flat against the metal, eyes pinched shut.
"No Minutemen. No ghouls. No running around taking samples, waking up every scavver in the city." Lily spat. "Out here, you listen to what I say, got it?"
"Yes." She whimpered, and Lily let go. There were tears, of course. She turned away, giving her time to wipe them off.
"You remember the plan?" Lily asked in a softer tone once the sniffling had stopped. "You don't have a weapon, so you'll have to go first. I'll cover you."
Curie nodded, and this time Lily was sure she meant it.
Told ya.
With her attention now split between two potential threats, Lily allowed her instincts to take over while Curie tepidly crossed the bridge. She moved up when she could, always keeping her aim trained on the windows.
Short, calming breaths. Red reminded her. Watch your flank too.
About halfway across, Lily was pressed up against a chain-link fence. Curie had managed to reach the other side, and was dutifully sitting behind another car, legs crossed. She offered a half-hearted wave when Lily looked her way and holstered her revolver.
Now that they were more-or-less in the clear, guilt rose up to fill the vacuum adrenaline had left behind. She stood up and Curie followed suit, watching her with laser-focus, copying her every move. Mocking her? Or just trying to follow her orders in her own, odd way?
"I have a question."
Sparks lit up behind Curie's gray eyes. Lily tilted her head towards the fence, at something she'd noticed crossing the bridge.
"What're those?"
Curie cautiously moved closer, flicking her eyes from Lily to the metal object hanging from one of the chains.
"It looks like it's stuck." Lily said, tugging on it to prove her point.
"It's a lock!" Curie declared, scampering forward. Lily stumbled out of the way as she latched onto the discovery, fingers trickling over worn, rusty metal. She looked up, eyes shining. "Miss Jennifer told me about these. People in love, they write their names on the lock, then stick it here."
"Why?"
"I-I don't know. But there are so many here." She grew silent, the light of curiosity dimming slightly. "So many names…"
All snuffed out in a blink of an eye Lily thought, looking at the hundreds of locks dangling along the bridge. Sometimes it was hard to remember the world hadn't always been this way. There'd been people here once, young boys and girls walking and laughing and holding hands. It was all a dream to her, something she'd hear snippets of in episodes of the Silver Shroud or seen in picture books.
"It's like magic then?" Lily asked. "You write two names on here and they fall in love?"
Curie's nose twitched. "It cannot be magic."
"Why not?"
A slight roll of the shoulder dismissed the theory while Curie rifled through her pack.
"Magic isn't real." She said simply, pulling out a pen and a pad of paper. "But these names are. Lily, can I write them down?"
Lily cast a wary eye down the length of the bridge. There were dozens of locks, maybe even hundreds.
"All of them?"
Curie shook her head, grabbing the nearest lock and tilting it in her direction. Its metal surface was a solid rust-red. She leaned in close, trying to spot a name.
"Many of these are damaged." Curie explained. "I'll only document the ones I can read."
"Checking all of these will take hours. We can't stay that long."
"Please, Lily." There was something in her voice that made Lily pause. She'd never heard her so passionate about anything, except maybe when her hand was on her chest, pushing her back into bed. And there was the guilt too, still festering in the corner of her head no matter how hard she tried to push it out. Curie had spent days at her bedside. She owed her this, didn't she?
"Five minutes."
Curie didn't waste time arguing. She scrambled towards the nearest clump, grabbing lock after lock with feverish determination.
Lily watched her for a minute, then glanced back at the swarming mound upriver. She'd seen Minutemen before, even after leaving the city to settle at the stockpile. Mostly Minutemen corpses. Red harbored a special hatred for the men in blue, one she'd held on to for as long as Lily could remember.
They killed mom. She'd said once, after a night raid on a caravan passing through their territory. Lily had expected anger, a slap even when she'd asked why they were only hitting caravans guarded by Minutemen. But in the dim, flickering light of burning bodies, Red looked more vulnerable than ever. Their eyes met, and Rachel slipped through for a second, pleading for a touch, a hug, anything.
She'd frozen, terrified. Knowing even the smallest gesture of affection would be punished later, when the mask returned cold and furious she'd made her look weak in front of the gang. So she'd stayed in place, hands firmly as her side, turning away to keep her own tears concealed. Red had walked away after a minute, leaving her rooted in place until the fires began to dim and the gang moved out.
The raids had grown less frequent after the Castle fell. Blue dusters that appeared in their territory were usually soaked through with blood, or worn by scavvers who'd stripped them off the dead. It'd been a long time since she'd jolted awake in a cold sweat, peering into the darkness wondering if she'd woken up in a cell.
But as the sun reached its peak in the sky, the truth couldn't get much clearer. There, across the river, was proof that, despite everything her sister had said, no matter how unbelievable it seemed, the woman in the blue jumpsuit hadn't been lying. The host of laser-musket wielding soldiers at the Common wasn't a dream. Tommy wasn't just talking out of his ass. The Minutemen were really back, and she was standing, exposed on a bridge, in the heart of their territory.
Suddenly this didn't seem like a good idea.
"Five minutes are up." Lily said, wiping sweat off her brow.
Curie didn't spare her a glance, still hunched, still scribbling.
"You hear me? We're leaving." She moved down the bridge, tapping on her shoulder as she went past.
Nothing. The woman was chewing on her lip, nose hovering inches above the paper.
Lily kept walking. She'd come scrambling along eventually, once she looked up from her book to see no sign of her companion. Huffing and puffing, she'd make the same complaint she'd made dozens of times on their long trek from the Combat Zone, wishing she had more time to take samples or scribble notes or whatever else she did while poking through trash cans and old buildings.
She made it to the end of the bridge without looking back. Once there, after she was satisfied there wasn't an ambush hidden in one of the buildings or behind any of the rusted hunks of metal lining the street, she turned around. Curie hadn't moved.
A part of her was stirred to anger when her feet came to a halt a few feet away from the bridge. She knew the rules. They'd been drilled into her head from the moment they stepped out of the Combat Zone. It was well within her rights to leave her behind. Might even be better for the both of them.
Lily endured that part of her in silence. She owed something to the woman who'd been her constant companion through hell and back. It wasn't yet obvious what she owed; Curie herself didn't seem to know. But at the very least, she owed her a little patience.
She began walking back towards the bridge. Curie didn't look up when she returned.
"Time's up."
Curie shook her bowed head and clutched the pad closer. "Five more minutes." After a brief pause she added: "Please."
"It's been five minutes, and you haven't moved a foot!" Lily grabbed the fence and shook it, rattling a dozen locks. "What's another five gonna do?"
"I just…" Her voice quivered, fingers tightening around her notepad. "I need to do this."
"Why?" Lily demanded, pointing towards the group on the opposite bridge. "To give them more time to find us?"
"No!" Came the forceful denial, as she finally raised her head to meet Lily's gaze. Her lip wobbled, her eyes moist and threatening to spill. "I don't want that!"
"Then what's so important about these locks?" Lily asked again, softly. "Why are you trying so hard to get us killed?"
"Lily I…" The rest caught in her throat, coming out as a choked sob. "I feel…"
"Feel?"
Curie nodded.
"Feel what?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. There is this pain in my chest." Curie reached out to grab her hand, placing it directly on her chest. A strong, slow heartbeat pulsed under her fingers. "Here."
"When I look at this, all this." She waved at the bridge, the fence, the cars on the road. "I feel this pain."
"Oh." Lily slowly withdrew her hand, letting it run up the back of her head to settle in her hair. "Like sadness?"
"Yes!" Curie cried, rising to her feet. "But more sad."
"Right." Lily sighed, tugging on her hair. "More sad."
"I want to talk to them." Curie said, shaking her head. "But I know they're dead. So I can't."
"And that makes you sad." It was starting to make a little sense. Rachel had always told her vault dwellers felt a strange connection to the people who'd created the vaults. And this bridge was basically a graveyard, the locks were tombstones.
"I want to remember their names." Curie held up the book and, sure enough, there were dozens of words scrawled across the front page. "To keep them alive. I have heard of people doing this."
"There are hundreds of names here. And we'll walk past hundreds more." Lily explained. After a moment's hesitation, she awkwardly reached out to touch the woman's shoulder. "You can't remember all of them."
Curie nodded, staring at the names she'd taken down. Then she looked up, smiling through red-rimmed eyes.
"A few more?" She asked, hopeful. "Five more minutes?"
Lily swept her eyes down the bridge, then over to the crowd of Minutemen. Peals of ringing laughter echoed from among them, as small, darting shapes conquered the mound, waving from above and posing with a flag fluttering at the top. Nobody was looking their way.
"Five minutes." Lily muttered, grabbing a fistful of her shirt before she could turn back to her book. "Then we're leaving."
"Could you help?" Curie reached into her bag and pulled out another pen. She ripped a piece of paper out of her book and held it towards her. "Could you write some of the names on the other side?"
Lily nodded, plucking the offered items gingerly out of her outstretched hands. She shuffled over to the other side of the bridge, eyes on the ground watching for traps they might have missed. When she reached the fence, she turned her back on the river and leaned back for support. From where she was standing, she could watch the mound, Curie and both entrances to the bridge. She'd see trouble coming from any direction. The paper slipped into her pocket, the paper wiped the sweat off her cheek before flying over the fence.
Boredom caught her a minute later. Her feet, trained to keep moving no matter what, began shaking off energy as she stifled a yawn. She chanced a glance at the locks she was supposed to be "documenting". A large, silver-steel one stood out to her among the sea of rust. After a quick glance back at the Minutemen and down the bridge she approached it.
The words written on it were long. Five, six letters atleast. And in between them…
"Curie!" She called. The woman perked up instantly, coming over with a smile. "There's math on this one."
She pointed to the cross symbol, wedged between what she assumed were names.
"Ah!" Curie exclaimed, after a few seconds of staring. "A plus sign. It means the two were very close."
"I can't make out the names." Lily mumbled, tracing one of the carvings with her pointer. "This one looks like a J."
"John plus Jenny." Curie read aloud. Her eyes narrowed at Lily's empty hands. "Where is your paper?"
"Must've dropped it." Lily said, going red all of a sudden. "But I've got the pen."
"Lily, you can't waste paper like that!" She began pulling out another piece of paper before changing her mind. "I'll write them down."
Lily nodded, holding the lock up for her. After a few quick scribbles, the Vault doctor trotted off.
"Wait!" The moment the words left her mouth, she wanted them back. It was a silly idea that'd just popped into her head. Stupid. Childish. But Curie was already coming back, brow raised.
"Yes?"
"Can I write something on this one?" Lily asked, hiding her tato-red face with her sleeve.
"Of course. But you'll need a marker!" Her hands dipped into her pack.
"What's a marker?"
A marker, Lily found out, was a pen that could write on anything. She tried it first on her arm, drawing squiggly lines and rough imitations of flowers she'd seen in books. Then she moved on to the nearest car, making bigger, prettier flowers that stretched across its rusted hood.
"Don't waste the ink!" Curie called when she started working on the sidewalk. "It's my only one!"
Reluctantly, Lily rose off her hands and knees and returned to the lock. It didn't seem right to scribble over the dead people's names, so she flipped it over in her right hand while her left clutched the marker in a clenched fist. There were only two names she knew how to spell, but she didn't trust her shaky fingers to fit either of them in the space she had. After a minute's consideration, she began to write, slowly and with painstaking care.
R+L