Snippet #2487640

A few moments passed after the tanned Numinu had thrown the pouch of healing powder toward Bandit. She had not responded to his query, but she could simply be inspecting the contents for poisons of some kind. 'Or waiting for me to come help and present a better target.' Such a thing would be a cold act in the Texan heat, but not unheard of. Another few moments of quite and he heard some muffled coughing and then silence. A mild sense of dread welled up within, almost forcing Terrence's inborn altruism to overpower his caution and make him stand.

Slowly and steadily, Terrence raised an eye over the hill's crest. His face was turned away and his eye stared as far to the side as possible, presenting as little of his head as he could in a way his own father had taught him as a boy. That was when he saw her doubled over, like a dried husk. 'Caution be damned.'

The purified water from Terrence's canteen, both the object and it's contents a commodity in the dry, radiation tainted wasteland, was slowly trickled into the light-skinned woman's lips. It was already half empty before he'd gotten to Cedar Crest Ridge. After seeing those Children of Ruin pour something into the town's water source and the mindless monsters the towns folk themselves had become, plus three days of waiting until the creators of this situation came back, the rest of the pure water was slowly going down Bandit's dry gullet. Bandit wasn't going to wake up before sundown, she had inhaled enough of that healing powder to make a Death Claw unable to walk and she was already wounded and fatigued. Thankfully, should she wake up, that daze would allow Terrence to overpower her should she become violent.

Water from another source would have to be found. But, this woman couldn't be left in the sun while she healed. She could die from heat stroke, water or no water. And then there was the matter of that creature she had arrived with. How long until it put two and two together and followed where the gunshot came from. 'And if it did, what might become of her? And what might become of me?'

+ + +

Paper is a rare resource in the Ruined world. No factory produces it, but notebooks are not impossible to find. Impaling a large branch from nearby in the ground at his sniper's nest, Terrence wrapped a note around the shaft and tied it in place with an extra shoelace. On it, he wrote a simple message.

'Bandit is alive. She is protected. I do not trust you. When she is well and asks to be reunited with you, I will lead her to the nearest town. If she fears you, you will never see her again. Take care. Don't drink from the well, someone has put demons into the water.'

Five yards away, a Bottlecap Mine ticked down from ten minutes on an egg timer. If that beast cared enough to stay around and search for it's companion, then it would surely see the blast and find the message. 'Assuming the wiring isn't faulty.'

Hefting Bandit's form onto his back and wrapping wrapping the water canister around her hand, hoping that an empty canteen being the first thing she sees would somehow build trust, Terrence took his rifle into one hand and made way to a nearby shack he and other's of his tribe frequently used when travelling. It would be an afternoon's travel and they wouldn't get there until after nightfall. After nine minutes, Terrence and his unconscious companion would be lost from sight among the hills. When the sound of the mine's explosion reached Terrence's ears, he'd start walking a little faster.