Ceder Crest Ridge

That's alright, I'll busy myself if that happens.

Good good.

You want to write Terrence awakening and stepping up to the roof when the shift change happens?

Any of this making it through?

...Nope?

Goddammit.

The honed eyes of the Tribal Sniper had already been tired when he had taken the post hours ago; sleep had almost taken him again as Bandit opened the door of the shack below. Alert once again but still exhausted, Terrence slugishly climbed down from the tin roof and slunk to the doorway of the outpost. He stopped for a moment, something important occuring to him.

"You do happen to have a long-range weapon on you, right? Or at least something that would let you see farther." His father's words returned to him. 'What is the point of a lookout if he can't actually look out? That rifle has no mounts for a scope and it has too much kick for a custom job to hold together.'

The Paciencia. It was a perfect model of hunting rifle, capable of inflicting higher damage at greater distance thanks to the workmanship involved in creating it. The increased recoil meant it had it's drawbacks; the magazine had to be shortened to make room for a larger bolt and scopes were impossible to use as they would come loose more frequently. But it was his mother's rifle, famous in the Stone Walker Tribe for punching through a Mirelurk's shell while using the same rounds as it's inferior versions. It was the perfect rifle. It was his rifle. 'This rifle has saved lives for years. Mother used it to save lives for years.' And that had been the end of it.

"What is the point of a lookout if she can not look out."

Null

---

Null moved as he slept; even when consciousness was absent from him, he could not sit still, as though he were trying to escape from where he lay, leave this place. None could see what he saw within his mind; none could understand the 'why' of his actions. None could bear witness to what he lived, every single night.

She smiled, lying back against the warm rock beside him, upon the peak of the mountain where they both rested. He felt the slightest warmth from her skin graze him, gentle and comforting, a constant reminder of her presence.

He summoned up the willpower to gaze upon her, to let himself slip into it all, and as he did so, he gazed out over the wasteland before him. It was hauntingly beautiful, in its own, unique way; cracked earth and split rock as far as the eye could see, the broken remains of an overpass standing vigil in the distance, the jagged shapes of mountains far into the distance. All of it covered in a golden, perfect light, casting long shadows and illuminating the pair as though it were the warmth of a fire.

She looked older now - older than he remembered her. In this place, they'd grown up together since that fateful day; known each other a long time. Her face was a little less rounded, her hair a little longer and more organised, her figure a little more developed; but she still looked exactly the same as the one whom he had witnessed all that time ago.

"You do know that we'll have to go home sometime..." she sighed to him. "We can't stick out here forever. We'll freeze, or get eaten, or-"

"Why not?" he interrupted, slipping an arm under her and pulling her tight against his side. "Swore to protect you; near-none dare to threaten you in my presence, and I pity the few who do. As for freezing..." he rolled her over his form, quickly and softly pressing their lips together for just a moment; they were softer than his, smaller, stunned for a moment before sinking into the motion, her eyes closing as she kissed him back. As they pulled apart, he grinned. "I'm sure we can think of something to take care of that..."

She sighed heavily, before laughing a little and smiling; he simply lay there, watching her smile, able to watch that forever, feeling the warmth and love and- not innocence, never innocence, but the carefree nature of it, discarding all the evils in the world as her lips curled, as though sealing them off against the darkness of the wasteland. He gave her a squeeze with her right arm, making her smile a little more. His eyes drifted closed.

"Fine then," she said, sounding exhausted and frustrated; but she was a poor liar, and it was all too apparent that it was simply an act. She grinned and pecked him on the lips. "We'll spend the night here."

He smiled; he saw that things were darkening now beyond his eyelids, but not excessively so. Thusly, he lay there, whole body relaxed save for the arm that cradled her slender form, hearing her slow breathing and feeling the gentle beating of her heart against his body. He saw nothing, felt nothing, thought nothing, not consciously; only the soft blanket of contentment settling over him, and the warmth of her body against his.

"I'm sorry about everything that happened," she said to him softly, one hand trailing a scar that had been cut onto his neck by the Sigma hunters that had once pursued them in this reality. "Because of me, you can't-"

"Don't want to go back," he cut her off, voice no louder than earlier, but with a drive, a force behind it. "No use for them, no want. This - you - all I need. Will ever need. Forgave you for it all many years ago."

She said nothing more after that, as night settled over them, the only indication that she even existed the warmth of her skin and the almost-imperceptible sound of her breathing. He felt, just then, lying there, truly happy. Lying there with her. His perfect human being, everything he could ever want out of this world. He opened his eyes, as so to look upon her once more. His forgiven angel.

He looked into her eyes, and saw a world that did not exist.

He looked into her eyes, and saw a world he wished he was in.

He flew into a sitting position, breathing heavily. He looked around the shack; Terrence was gathering up his gear, already awake. The first cracks of dawn were shining through the holes in the improvised structure.

He shook his head violently, clearing his head of the thoughts that had come to take him. Another day with her, just like all the rest. Another day in that world. Another day in the future that had been so monstrously taken from him.

He gazed down at his hand for a moment, before curling it into a tightly-balled fist. His eyes darkened. He hated it, every second of it; as though some god were sitting beyond the veil, taunting him, showing him things he knew he could never have, every single night since that fateful day upon that damnable hill. Showing him emotions he knew he could never feel again.

There was only one thing in his future now.

"To live as I please, and die a senseless death," he muttered to himself. Words that had crept into his mind all too often. Words that pervaded every second of his existence, and which he defined himself with. His words.

He shook his head, standing, quickly pulling the leather armour back over his form, moving around a little to warm himself from the cold night air. Those dreams meant nothing. He felt nothing towards them. That was the only thing he allowed himself to believe. A series of events his mind played over, devoid of feeling. That was the only reality he would permit himself to believe in.

Mechanised memories, nothing more.