Her Savior
Now entering the cave and soon the cavern, many of the Dead Horses walk pass them as they move tents and gear out. Busy as they are, they send glances to her and whispers about her glowing eyes in their native tongue. She quickly looks down at Joshua's moving feet keeping the tribals from getting scared from her gaze.
"Lower your eyes. They are worried that you may hurt them with your gaze." Joshua tells her suddenly as they come to a turn then to an incline and stop to a makeshift workshop. Scrap metals and items all about she sees an ammo and weapon workbench from her upside-down vision just past his right side.
"Sorry I can't really turn off my eyes," she says in response and feels him kneeling and his right knee softly glide along her inner thighs. Now landing to her bottom to a bedroll of hides and fabric. He kneels over her for a moment to look to her eyes. He remembers them, his eyes widen in thought, and stands quickly keeping calm as he steps back.
"Rest for a moment I will return later tonight. I have some things to take care of urgently," he says and hesitantly turns his back trying only to keep her gaze to his own but instead leaves her alone.
"What a day mother. That long trip would have been terrible if I had shown up just a day or two late." she sighs and she smiles, it then slowly flows into happy laughter. Now looking up to the cave ceiling she leans back onto her hands keeping a peal of relieved laughter as her arms keep her up. Once she finishes her laugh she looks back down to her left foot and tugs her satchel to her side and pulls out her bandages and a bottle of vodka she had wanted to use in case she could not sleep. Pulling off her boot she tugs the sock off her foot seeing clearly in the blackness of the cave examining the flesh of the arch of her foot having slow-flowing blood from its small puncture.
"I don't have time to wait for a few days for it to heal…" she groans and eyes the bandages and stuffs them back to her bag and grabs a stimpak.
She thinks over the amount used to heal a small wound. This was a puncture but not too deep but just enough to affect her performance. She grips the plastic cap, pulls it off, and gabs the gleaming needle an inch into the arch of her foot. She grunts and pushes the pressure bar and it releases with a hush and she stops seeing the liquid bar reaching a quarter amount way down. She pulls it out suddenly and wipes the needle to her coat, pours a bit of vodka over it, and recaps it. Stuffing the stimpak back to her bag she leans back once again feeling her heart pump more than usual for a second and her foot tingles rapidly feeling her cells regenerate and heal over. After a moment of numbness, she feels hungry and thirsty. Now slipping back on her sock she puts back on her boot lays out her weapons to her side and relaxes as she peels open a steak. Eating it with her fingers she twists open a water bottle to sip from. Some time passes as she spends it to herself, she wanders around the cave eyeing a desk of pistols.
She smiles at them, "Taken care of I see. Good condition…" she says low as she takes the last bite of her food and gulps from her water bottle; she finishes as she gets to a broken battery lantern.
She takes the chair from the desk and pulls it back bored with her time. She finds some scrap electronics, finds some pillars, and a screwdriver. Now left with her water she takes the screwdriver and uncaps the lantern. She checks the bulb and shakes it after she loosens it. Hearing the wire inside is not broken she screws it back in and disconnects the small battery from it. Her eyes gleam off the metal parts and detach the bottom connector of the lantern. Looking to the platform and the small circuit board she glances about for a small handheld torch. Making sure it was filled with butane she takes the ends of the battery connectors and makes a spark to start the flame for her to solder new wires to the lantern's circuit board to reestablish the connection. After some time and late to the night Joshua returns looking to the bedroll but noticing her on top of the raised area of the cave. He watches for a moment from the shadows as she puts it back together and a new source of light forms just after he witnesses her golden eyes gleam with their night vision and fade with the newly refurbished light.
"Seems you kept yourself preoccupied. What is your name?" he asks in a low tone as he slowly walks to her weapons and eyes them and their condition he smiles under his bandages. Glancing over her knife he notices a name carved in it acknowledging that it was important to her. His blue eyes, the only thing visible from his face, flick to her suddenly awaiting her answer.
"Susan La'Grange. Or Goldeneye." she lifts a finger to the left most corner of her left eye and gives off a smile. She stands from the chair and looks down at him ready to answer more.
"Please sit, get comfortable...I have more questions for you," he says and comes closer and up the incline. Resting her weapons to the desk she sits at, he strides around looking to the lantern. "Your eyes, they are unique. Can you tell me why?" he grips another chair and pulls it up to her left side not mentioning their familiarity.
"I was nine. I had joined my family on a trip to Novac and I decided to jump in some puddles. One was highly radioactive so that being I had looked down and it had splattered in my eyes. Everyone was surprised I didn't go blind, but the trip was fun just spent a while in Novac healing. I can see in the dark and the sun kills me with a headache. You know, surprisingly I don't remember their original color." she huffs a snicker and sits back to her chair and taps the lantern feeling proud of her work.
"You were blessed with a new sight…how old were you three years ago?" he asks as he secretly tries to find out where he had seen her in his past journeys.
"Twenty...I did more of my traveling time when my mother stayed home and the majority of that time was that of being a mercenary." She sits up and stands to return the torch, screwdriver, and the pillars to the shelves just below the incline.
He stays quiet for a moment and looks at the lantern quite impressed with the repair of the lantern he looks at her standing over the shelves and sighs lightly knowing she was indeed someone he had run into before and had hoped to have left the Mojave completely behind. "Those scars...they came from a deathclaw didn't they?" he asks, hearing her stop moving across the rocky ground.
"How did you…" she turns on a heel and feels her heart beating fast. All of her vague memories of the weapon she had seen the day the deathclaw had grabbed her from behind at the entrance of a cave, came back. It's silver color and the engravings of a language she had known of but could not read from a distance. The sunlight from the entrance of the cave had blinded her but not the hand that had saved her. "You...your gun...let me see it. That could be a wild guess! Geckos have claws of large size as well…" she is a bit shocked and masks with small snickers and scoffs trying to hide the fact she pretends to ignore.
"No need. You who I am now and I know who you are. Don't thank me for your life. I was doing the work of God." he says standing suddenly as she quickly rushes to him with eyes filling with joyful unbearing fearing tears. That day she had searched for disappearances of people of a small town only to venture to a very dangerous cave that she was unprepared for. To meet her savior face to face was a massive change in knowledge of The Burning Man. Having her be delivered to a close-by doctor, by him, as she had passed out from the pain was the day she would have never guessed to survive.
"Joshua...no I have to...look I…" she wants to reach out to him and embrace him but knows of his injuries she clutches tightly to her hands balling them separately. The tightened fists she makes turns the edges of her hands white and she closes her eyes and drops to her knees. She weeps softly and into her hands pressed to her eyes. A silence overcomes Joshua, he never knew how saving a life would fully affect someone let alone a young woman. He had no idea how to react or how to comfort her. He only knew how to survive, kill, overwhelm, conquer.
"Susan, please. I am not your savior. I am merely doing God's work." he says kneeling down to her keeping a distance. He raises a hand to her right trembling shoulder. "How is your foot? You must rest it for tomorrow's walk." he swiftly changes the subject, clearly not knowing how to deal with such a moment.
"Fine...I took care of it. No need to worry, I am capable of many things." she chuckles a bit and wipes her tears. "Thanks anyways...God, I am such a cry baby. Never cried so much since my guilt about my mother…" she mentions low, now lifting her head to his gaze. His back blocking the lantern has her eyes gleam and focus on his blue eyes.
"Want to talk about it?" he says low and lowers his hand from her shoulder.
"No...perhaps tomorrow. I just need some rest I'm sure. Heh…" she softly smiles recovering quickly from her emotions only to toughen up before him. She felt the need to be strong before her hero so she stood up. It made him proud in some way to see her face to face, the woman in the past three years he had saved was a kind soul trying to do the right thing for something she believes in.
"As you wish." his voice rasps and he stands up and walks by her proceeding out. She is left to her thoughts and she simply grabs her magnum from the table and her rifle from leaning against it and tows them with her to the bedroll.
She lays them to her side along with her things. Now pulling her blanket from the top of her satchel she flings out the blanket and lays to the bed. Closing her eyes for a moment she could hear a light wind howl at either exit of the cave. This time she would sleep peacefully knowing another day was to come safely but her later dream kept to her mind.