She stared at the large wall made of brick and wire, seeing the tip of Haven just over the top.

Her teeth were wearing on the tip of her thumb nail and she stood straight, sighing as she stuffed her hands into the back of her pants. Her hair formed a golden halo around her face for a moment and he smiled reverently that she was his.

"Marie," she jumped and looked over at him, smiling.

"Jackson," she breathed walking towards him heavily. "I thought you were out scavenging with the trogs."

He closed his eyes as her arms wrapped around his throat and wrapped his own around her waist. "Just got back, have a shitload of pencils for you."

She jumped back a step, her grin wide and fierce. "Oh my goodness! Thank you, thank you, thank you," she tackled him again. "I love you so much!"

"Aw, you only love me because I get you pencils?"

"Yep," she pulled back and grabbed his hand, looking back to the wall; should she ask him?

Silence wrapped around them and he sighed, leaning back against the railing. She did the same, gripping the railing behind her with her free hand. Everything smelt like fire, smoke and embers, melted steel and dirt. The smells she had grown up around, the smells she was used to, they all seemed like poison right now. She was suffocating in this hell-hole and the only thing that knew it was her diary.

She was technically despised.

While everyone still remained sickly or scarred, she was radiant and glowing, untouched by the world they lived in, only in mind but she was still fairly innocent. She could fight, she could handle a gun, she could work in the Mill but damn did she just want to get sick once. She didn't want everyone to despise her because she was a 'miracle of nature'. She didn't want to be a miracle of nature. She wanted to be a normal person, a simple teenager, but no one was giving her the chance.

"You ever been to the Capital Wasteland, Jackson," she muttered.

He hummed for a moment and looked over at her. "No, but Riley has. Why?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Had some traders come in, were talking about some pretty weird stuff and I just wanted to verify their stories," she smiled at him. "Sounds pretty cool."

Jackson scoffed. "Well, it's not. No one has any rules. Raiders run rampant, raping and pillaging everything."

"I thought you said you had never been there."

"I haven't," he stood straight, tugging her along. "Riley has, she tells me about everything. Look, you don't need to worry about the outside world. We're getting married soon. You talked to Jenna about it?"

Marie groaned. "No I haven't," she smiled sheepishly. "Not today anyway."

Jackson chuckled a little. "You need to get on that."

"I know…"

Right, marriage.

She and Jackson agreed to be married and Marie wanted to tell him she was leaving. She loved him, love him with her entire being, but she also loved her freedom. Possibly more. If she married him, there was no way she would ever be free.

But she loved him.

But she loved her freedom…

"I don't want to set the world on fiiiiiiire," she sang, swaying her hips as she dropped her shirts into the knapsack.

"What are you doing?"

Marie looked over her shoulder, seeing her 'mother' Jenna standing there. "Just putting stuff in the bag for Riley," she stuffed a few pairs of pants in there. "She said whenever they go out on runs, her clothes get ruined so she has to stay in soiled clothes for days."

"But your good clothes, Marie," Jenna bought the lie. "Honey, I don't think –"

"It's fine, really," Marie smiled gently. "What're you doing home tonight? I thought you had Mill duty?"

Jenna shrugged a little. "I'm going in late, wanted you to be settled in before I left. I got the chance to cook."

"Thank God," Marie sighed and tied the knapsack closed, following Jenna out of the room. "I usually have to cook. I'm lazy."

Jenna laughed and walked over to the stove while Marie sat in one of the old chairs. She kept looking to the clock while Jenna had her back turned, hoping she wouldn't stay in tonight and would run off to the Mill. Marie had told Jackson the lie, told him to tell Riley to come over, she had something for the scavenger. In truth, Marie was getting Riley to smuggle her out of the city to the Capital Wasteland. She didn't want to stay here any longer and Riley would have no quarrel with taking her out of here. Marie would just be another package; the only person she showed any other emotion to was her husband Carlton, other than that she was cruel and hard, doing nothing unless she was getting paid.

"Here, mac-n-cheese and Brahmin steak."

"Holy hell," Marie grinned, grabbing her fork. "We never have steak."

Jenna chuckled. "Exactly. So, eat up, I'll be back around one," she grabbed her gloves from the old rusty chair by the door and slipped them on, also grabbing her apron. "Oh yeah," Marie looked up from her food, the taste of ancient cheddar still delicious on her tongue. "They want you to come in for testing the day after tomorrow. That ok?"

Marie tensed up but Jenna didn't notice, she was trying to button up her left glove. "Um…alright, I'll make sure to drink some purified water."

Jenna smile, none-the-wiser that she was pretty much killing Marie. "Good sweetheart, I'll let you eat and then you need to go to bed early."

"Ok," Marie mumbled into her food.

Once the door was shut, Marie began to cry.

She set her fork down and pulled her elbows up onto the table, holding her face in her hands, tears staining her fingers and making her face slippery. She wiped at her nose and lifted her head again, hearing a knocking at the door through her blubbering. She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the door, opening slowly until a familiar, cruel, face pushed all the way in and slammed the door.

Riley was intimidating.

Standing at 6'2", she was a slim Amazon woman that had what she called 'tribal' tattoos across her arms and chest. 'Got them in the Mojave," she had smiled, a rare thing. "It is truly a land of beauty, a place I could see myself staying in if none of you relied on my supply runs."

Riley had violent green eyes and a head full of brown hair she had twisted into 'dreadlocks'; Marie didn't understand why they were called dreadlocks, what was so terrifying about them?

"You got your bag ready?"

Marie nodded gently. "Yeah…yeah, come on."

Riley followed the young blonde into her room and Marie handed the pack off to Riley, who threw it over her shoulder. "How do you have blonde hair," Riley asked gruffly, walking to the door. "Your parents had black hair."

"Maybe they weren't my parents," Marie muttered. "Where do we meet?"

Riley opened the door. "Meet me at the railway at midnight. I'll be hiding waiting by the dumpster," she quirked her lips in the corner. "Taking a big risk for you kid, people will think I'm trying to steal you."

"You kind of are," Marie smiled weakly. "I'll be there, probably early. Jenna gets off at midnight."

Riley nodded. "Marie…are you sure you want to do this?"

Marie looked up with wide eyes. "You're backing out now?"

The Amazon smiled, a true genuine smile, and shook her head. "No, but I'm hoping you will."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Out there…in the Wasteland…it's different. You may think 'no rules' sounds fun and everything, but it's the only thing keeping you safe."

Marie shook her head. "No, it isn't the rules that are making me want to runaway…it's the experimentation," she rubbed her arms, scarred from thick needles and testing strips. "I've been poked and prodded my own life, most people hate me because of my immunity to other things and most people only think of me as The Cure. I'm sick of it…"

"And?"

Marie grinned. "The and is a secret," she held a finger to her lips then pointed to Riley. "You just hold up your end, I'll pay you on the other side and I swear you won't have to deal with me after you drop me off at the nearest civilization."

Riley nodded. "Fine…fine, just be there. I can't send anyone after you."

And with that, the door snapped shut.

Marie stared at it for a moment and then took in a breath, walking into her room and reaching for the railing of her bed. She pulled it away from the wall, revealing a ten inch slit in the corner of the wall. She wiggled her hand inside and pulled out her diary, pushing the bed back with her hip while she grabbed a pencil from the bedside table; the pencils Jackson had given her, she had put in her bag. She sat at the kitchen table, pushing away her food and tore out a piece of paper from her book.

Jenna,

I know I'm gone, I know you've looked everywhere for me, I know you've asked everyone if they saw me. But, before you do all that, please know you were the best mother a girl could ask for, even if you weren't really mine. Midea and Werhner were excellent parents but you topped them on all levels.

But I'm gone.

Don't look for me, please. Let me be free. I'm tired of the experimentation, I'm tired of the needles and the doctors, the masks and the times I was carried back because of the blood taken from me. I'm going somewhere where I can just be me and I know I might die, I know I might get raped and I know I might want to be home but you know what, I'm never coming back. I don't want to.

Tell Jackson I love him, tell my friends I will miss them.

My wedding was in a week.

I have the dress and everything.

But I can't wear it.

I'm sorry.

It's selfish and it's horrible, but it's my choice and I wanted to just take the chance.

So, goodbye.

Maybe I'll see you again one day. When you're old and gray, tucked away in your bed.

We can both hope, right?