Calli blasted out of Arhome Entrance into the Valley of Death. She had indeed mutated long ago, a true child of the wasteland now, and she could feel the radiation, burning her like the sun, burning in her brain. 'I'm so alone'. She thought. 'I'm always alone.' 'You're never alone, child.' The voice was a whisper in her mind, a feeling. 'They're gone, Sally's gone, David's gone. We're just monsters.' 'Are you sure about that?' The voice whispered. ' Look inside you, child, is Sally not there? Do you not see David in Hawk?' 'I'm a monster', she wailed. 'Who can love a monster?' 'I can', the voice whispered. 'I love you Sally. I am always with you. You are never alone.' 'No!', she screamed. 'No! I don't believe in you. I just used you to hide.' 'Yes, Sally, you can hide in me', the voice whispered. 'You are not the first to use me. It has happened before and will again. You don't have to believe in me just yet; I believe in you.' Pain screamed through her brain, her body burned. She fled, faster than she had ever run, her strong well-conditioned body blazing through the blasted landscape as she tried to escape herself.
Calli burst into Cave Entrance, past the decontamination area, slamming into the wasteland beyond. Her brain burned. 'I love you', she sobbed, 'I love you'. But even Calli didn't know who she was referring to. The wasteland swallowed her fleeing figure until she couldn't go any further. Calli stumbled and dropped to the rocky ground.
Nathan burst into Cave Entrance and bolted to the decontamination area. Standing under the pouring stream of pure water he scrubbed furiously at the suit to dislodge radioactive dust particles. He wasn't mutated; if the dust got on him he would die. Finally the monitor read within acceptable limits and he quickly shed the suit, letting it drop to the bottom of the stream to join Hawk's suit. Hawk was mutated, he probably hadn't taken the time to clean the suit, just dropped it in the decon stream.
He had taken a lot of radiation and had to take the time to inject several Rad-a-way before he hastily donned wasteland armor from the lockers and grabbed a medical pack, always kept prepared. Without the Rad-a- way he wouldn't have gotten far.
He had passed a shuttle still in its bay but the controls weren't responding. No one would be coming out from Arhome in a hurry. He rushed over to the bike storage area. Calli and Hawk's bikes were gone; they had probably left them somewhere in the wasteland. It was just as well as his bike had been hit with some kind of weapon. It wasn't going anywhere.
He groaned at the wasted time but he had to check the guard lying in the entrance. He was already dead; there was nothing he could do for him. He radioed Jewell from the dead guard's headset before he hurried past the open gate into the entrance to the wasteland. He didn't want anyone to try to leave Arhome until the shuttle was operational. They couldn't help the guard.
It had been a long time since he had tracked game, but then Calli and Hawk weren't exactly hiding their trail. Eyes on the ground Nathan hurried into the wasteland.
Hawk's long stride gained on the fleeing woman. He was within sight of her when he saw her stumble and fall. The figure didn't move. He raced grimly to her and dropped down beside her.
"Hold on Calli" he grunted. "Just stay with us. Nathan's coming, you know he is, he wouldn't leave you." He jerked Rad-a-way syringes from his pack and injected them as quickly as he could. Four, five, six, it was all that was in the pack. Her gauge crept downward, barely moving out of the danger zone. It had been much too close to lethal. If the path had not been paved with Radilite she would never had made it through.
He picked up the limp, unresponsive form and moved off toward a nearby safe house. There's no way she could go back through the Valley of Death to Arhome. He could only hope he was right and Nathan was following them. She desperately needed her doctor.
Nathan followed the trail as quickly as he could without losing them on the hard rocky ground. He stopped at the place where she had lain, taking note of the discarded syringes and muddled tracks, then headed off again. Hawk was making it easy for him to follow them. He approached the mountain face without any of the caution usually advisable in the wasteland. The cave was forbidding but he didn't hesitate. This was where the trail led.
At the back of the cave was a steel door. Nathan pounded on the door.
"Hawk", he shouted, over and over. The door flung open.
"She's in there". He motioned to a room on the left. "I've bathed her in pure water to remove the dust." He was following Nathan into the room.
He quickly examined Calli. Her radiation levels weren't fatal although they were unacceptably high but her vitals were erratic. Where her heart rate and breathing should have been uniformly elevated, they were all over the place. Calli had taken the brunt of the grenade, unprotected, slamming her into a wall. Her organs were probably a mess but he wasn't concerned about that. The lack of extension in her gut indicated healing there was well under way.
He checked her eyes. Dilated, fixed pupils. Not good. Blood trickled from her left ear to mix with the blood drying from her head wounds. He lifted the head and felt along the back. There, the skull was depressed and mushy. His hand came away covered in fresh blood. He looked at Hawk grimly.
"She has a bleeder in her brain", he said. "I'm going to have to go in." Hawk silently picked up the pack and began to lay out the surgical tools. This time he would have to fetch purified water to use, but he knew the drill. Calli's life was now in Nathan's expert hands.
Calli moaned softly. She had dreamed that she was with David, but she knew he wouldn't stay. He smiled at her before he started off for his mission. "I will always love you", he said. She didn't call out this time, he would be back. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around confusedly. She didn't know where she was. What had happened? The last she remembered was Scott trying to kill her, fire and noise and a sudden slamming pain. How had she gotten here? This wasn't Arhome.
"Calli" the familiar, beloved voice cut through her remaining fog.
"Nathan" she murmured. "What happened? Where are we?"
"We're in a Brotherhood safehouse", he explained.
"What are we doing here? We were fighting for Arhome." Panic seized her, and she started to rise. "The kids. What about the others? Has Arhome been taken?"
Nathan pushed her gently down. "Arhome is fine, Calli, you have to relax. We defended her. The kids are okay, everyone is okay. You took the worst of it. You took the blast from a grenade."
She seemed truly confused. "I don't remember", she said, lying back down. "But then why aren't we in Arhome? How did we get here?"
Nathan's mouth thinned grimly. "You ran out through the Valley of Death without protection. By the time Hawk got to you, you had collapsed. You had too much exposure; he couldn't risk taking you back through. He brought you here. You have to be quiet awhile longer, now, you had a bad bleeder in your brain and we had to go in after it. You have a lot of healing to do."
"Then I'm glad you're here with me", she smiled weakly.
"Yes, well, I have a lot to take care of back in Arhome. I'll see you there", Nathan said stiffly. "Hawk will look after you until you've recovered enough to come home." He turned away and walked from the room.
"Nathan?", she called after him, but he didn't come back.
Calli looked imploringly at Hawk. "What's wrong with Nathan?" she asked.
He grunted. "You screamed at him that you didn't trust him, he was a traitor, you never wanted to see him again, then you threw a shotgun at him and ran through the Valley of Death without protection to get away from him. What do you think?"
Her face paled. "I did that? But I had a bleed in my brain. He has to know I didn't mean it."
"Maybe. But maybe he thinks there must be some truth in there for you to do that", he said.
"Oh", she said and turned over, away from him, and closed her eyes. She didn't want to think. She was so tired. Why couldn't she just grow old and die like everyone else. The tears fell softly on her pillow.
Aileen approached the porch where Nathan was sprawled, already on his third beer as he watched the night softly closing in around him. He looked tired and defeated, like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The children would already be in bed and sound asleep.
Aileen sat down on the porch with the younger man, watching with him as the sun set over Arhome.
"Would you like a beer?", Nathan asked, taking one from the cooler at his bare feet. Aileen observed the sweat staining the front of his tank top and the stains on his shorts. His hair was in disarray and a slight beard bristled on his jowls. He wasn't taking care of himself in his usual meticulous fashion.
"Thanks." She took the beer. They drank in silence for a while as the sun dipped below the mountains and stars began to twinkle overhead.
"Is everything all right at the clinic?" she asked.
"Yes, Jewel took care of everything while I was gone. She really is a jewel", he said.
Aileen nodded. "Yes, she's very good isn't she? We didn't have any injuries she couldn't handle among the Arhome residents, except for Janus. He was a good man. You know he sounded the alarm before he died, don't you? " she said sadly.
"Yeah, that's what alerted us in time to ward off the attack. I don't understand why the shuttles were offline though. They were working when I got back", he said, puzzled.
"Oh, it seems a power relay was hit during the fighting. One of the engineers had it fixed shortly after the battle was over. Now they're crawling all over that vertibird in the courtyard" , Aileen said.
She went on, "The Enclave didn't fare so well I'm afraid. Those that are alive are in custody. The council just isn't sure what to do with them."
Nathan frowned. "I don't care what they do with them."
"What about your brother?", she asked.
"He threw in with them, he can stay with them. I don't have a brother", he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Aileen sighed. "Aren't you going to go see him?"
"After what he did? No. I don't want anything to do with him, and I don't want to talk about him", he growled.
"All right then, how is Calli?" she asked. Nathan knew that was what she really wanted to ask. She loved her sister.
"We pulled her back again. She was through regenerating when I left. She just needs some rest", he said coolly.
"Oh, Nathan," she sighed. "You know she wouldn't have said those things if she were herself. She loves you."
He shrugged. "Really? She ran through the Valley of Death! She risked dying to get away! Maybe she did mean it."
Aileen shook her head. "You of all people should know how fragile she really is", she said. "Who knows what demons were driving her? I can't believe she was running from you. If she really thought you were a traitor she wouldn't have thrown that gun at you. She would have used it. She could never hurt you. I can tell you this, she never really believed you could love someone like her."
"What do you mean 'someone like her'? She's the best thing that's happened to this blighted world. And to me", he said with conviction.
"Not the way she sees it. She's mutated, Nathan, she knows she isn't fully human. Why do you think she brought Jewell in and threw her at you? She wanted you to be happy when you didn't want her anymore. She was always afraid you'd leave her. You've just shown her that she was right", she said quietly.
Nathan stared at Aileen for a moment. "I didn't know that. We've been together for 6 years. How could I not know that?", he asked brokenly.
"She's very good at hiding, isn't she?", Aileen asked.
Nathan rose. "Maybe I'd better see if I can find her", he said. "Really find her." Aileen nodded.