The Rescue, The Pain Left Broken

The sudden humidity and brightness of the sun was uncomfortable for the three as they arrived at Cottonwood Overlook to climb down to a sniper spot. Susan notices why Boone led them here; it was a spot he knew about and only him. The wind was bold with specks of sand and dirt as it was whispering for her to slip her helmet on for the first time. Laying to their stomachs, besides Joshua who kneels behind them, they look over the patrols.

"How do you want to go about this Susan?" Boone asks not caring one way or another.

"Sneaking to that fence line. Joshua doesn't need to make himself known. You will need to be our eyes as we go down there. Got enough to keep them off our back if something happens?" she asks as she pulls away from her rifle and lays it down. Now slipping her satchel over her head she lays it to her rifle lowering her risk of being spotted more she takes her helmet off and coat.

"Yeah don't worry about it, Goldeneye, get down there and save her. Joshua, keep her safe," he says lifting his head from his scope with his piercing green eyes gazing to Joshua's blue eyes.

"Expect nothing less," Joshua responds with confidence and upheld shoulders just before they head down around the east side of the camp with ease. Susan smiles at Boone patting his shoulder for luck and follows behind Joshua.

Heading down near tents some Legion men still sleep. Crouching near them Joshua leads her by and behind the main building towards the slave encasement. Coming close, Joshua flicks out a hand and kneels to one knee to stop her. She hears footsteps coming close; she slips out her knife and places it to his lifted hand. He was quicker than anyone she ever saw. Brutal almost, he cupped a hand over the Legion patrol's mouth making him gag on his own blood as her knife was stabbed through his neck and turned in a crescent movement.

"Go on, take the key from his hip, and set them free. Tell them to keep low and head east they have no patrols and the ones in the tents are asleep." he whispers to her as he drags the body away from the gate. Some whimpers could be heard and her heart stopped up along with her quiet feet.

Her matted hair was the first thing she saw. Auburn and dirty with tears and distress. She had her hands cupped around her knees and rocking back and forth in soft whimpers. The collar around her neck was the second thing she saw, it was tight around her mother's skin and she started to shake. Lifting the key slowly to the gate she clicks it open quickly. Her golden eyes latch to her mother's green tear drying eyes. The other people sat up and stood, keeping quiet as they urgently pointed to their collars.

"Our collars will kill us in a certain range. Please." one man says low and another younger woman shakes as she nods.

"It is alright I know. I know...I am getting you all out of here. Once I free the collars head out and head east along the mountain range. It is a climb but it is clear. I have a recon on scout. You must hurry and stay low and quiet. The tents are nothing to worry about if you keep quiet."

The whole time her mother keeps her eyes on her only daughter and she keeps calm with clear forward-thinking to keep the peace and worry about survival as of now.

"You will need this. I hid two men that had woken up. Hurry along, if I remember correctly two of Caesar's strongest are here." Joshua warns as he pokes his hand around the corner with her knife to return to her.

"Him...it's him." her mother shivers in her breath with admiration. Susan nods and hushes her as she reaches to the collar. "No get them first…" she begs and Susan obeys.

Lining them up she takes the tip of her blade to each collar's brick of the glowing red lights. She hammers her hand down to the hilt to crack open the metal plate. Some of them jerk to the sudden movement and Susan catches them and eases their minds that it was to be over soon. She then scans over the four wires all of them the same, the first one is red, second red, third green, last blue. She spots the blue wire and instantly cuts the first red wire. Each of them squints and gasp as she suddenly and precisely cuts the leather of each of their collars she then comes to her mother. Joshua points them all to move along a path and everything seems to pause as she frees her mother. She whispers something to Susan as she shoves a book, ragged and old, into her chest it was only natural for Susan to grab it. A voice, another voice she did not want to accept or believe it to be there was there right around the other corner. His black hair was cleared away from his face close to his scalp, his brows were the same color and same usual expression as she had always remembered, his speech was the same but his presence was not warm at this moment of shock. He was a whole different person, a stranger, a betrayer to her eyes. It broke her to see him in a much different armor of red than green and brown. It broke her trust and love. It. Broke. Her.

"The slaves are getting away, Severus…" his hazel eyes spotted his wife and then his only daughter. "Su-Su?! No, wait!" his voice was soft yet stern, gravelly and gruff but most of all it filled with a pang of brittle guilt. This was something he never wanted her to witness, not at the sight of seeing her mother in this state or her father, who she called her hero and someone she looked up to, to belong at the opposite side of the lake. At this moment, Joshua drew his gun only knowing to protect her as promised. Only reacting to instinct they both drew their guns. Joshua shoots a piercing deadly shot to her father's chest and past the poor Legion armor. Decanus Severus shoots one to the escaping slave and prisoner, her mother. Susan, being grabbed by the waist from Joshua's free left arm is pulled up and back around a corner, pulls her trigger as she carefully breathes in anger to precisely am down her magnum sights and pulls the trigger aiming a shot through Severus' goggles and straight through his right eye. The last thing she saw was her mother doubling over in the cage and backing up close to her father and her father was gasping for breath as he bled out across to the other side of the fencing reaching to his wife through a small bent open hole.

"Susan, move now!" Joshua snaps her out of her suffering, keeping her into his clasped left arm, like a beacon to a ship just off a lonely coast, her free right hand grabbing tightly onto a blood-splattered covered book, her mother's journal. He drags her along having her walk backward and stumble a few times.

Sprinting alongside each other now keeping her away from the camp to his right side, Susan weeps in emotional pain as other long-off shots are muffled and heard from Boone's rifle. Her left hand tight around her revolver's grip swings alongside Joshua's right thigh as her other clenches hard to the journal as if it was the only lifeline she had saved.

"Jos- I- We were so close. No...just both of them…there…before me!" she whimpers between her gasps as they make it to the top of the steep hills and now moving a bit faster by trailers after passing a broken path of an old road.

"Later. For now, you need to return to Boone. I will finish this for you, one way or another they will feel your wrath through me and only me. Take arms up there. I will return." Joshua says suddenly gripping hard to his pistol and sprinting back down the road now and back to Cottonwood with fierce hatred in his eyes.

Susan felt lost and angered, she was confused and saddened, most of all she was alone.

"What the hell happened down there? Why is he back down there?" Boone asks, keeping his rifle to his shoulder and eyeing back down into the scope.

"Just shoot them! Finish it...they deserve it." she felt the anger Boone had for them. It was not right, she knew this but she was blinded by so many emotions nothing seemed right nor good.

He eyed her in the sudden change for a moment then slightly nodded in agreement with the command and did what he was brought to do. Susan kept to her knees now and looked to her gun to her palm swiftly returning it to her holster; she swayed around and slid to her gauss rifle. Taking up arms she was precise. Spotting Joshua suddenly and keeping her eyes to the Legionnaires coming up to his back she pulls the trigger. Her scope picks up the image of the bright blue and white blast of the shot exploding the chest of a Legion scout. Now looking back at Joshua she sees him with his pistol to his right hand and her knife in his left hand stabbing lethally to those who come close. Swiftly making work of the fight, the onslaught. After cutting one down she would be taken back noticing him lash out an empty magazine clip and tossing it to stun a man as he lifted up a clip from his vest velcro pockets.

"Th-this guy, he is one hell of a sonofabitch." Boone calls out trying to keep up with his movements and cocking back the bolt handle hunting rifle causing the used shells to pop out steaming as it reloads another.

Susan was witnessing it too. He was ruthless, fluent, and quickly finishing the job with determination and ease. Joshua was a monster it seemed like, a bringer of death as he would have put it to Susan, 'I am merely doing God's work.', she was shocked yet it fueled her anger to shoot down every last Legion of Cottonwood Cove. She did just that. The noise of clicking of metal and static could be heard from her weapon; she never felt the adrenaline come till it was time to keep Joshua out of harm's way as the Cove turned to a massacre. Clipping in another round, then another round after round she found herself eyeing the last one at the docks who seemed stubborn enough not to take the boat to safety and unholstered his gun. He aimed at Joshua, who was sprinting along the dock bridge, who was greeted to a bullet to his left shoulder. She gunned him down, blowing his head to pieces and sending them to the pure water of the lake. The bright expansion of light was all anyone could have seen and it was all they were going to get from her. Joshua stumbled a bit and kneeled down bracing his right hand to his shoulder to bear the gritting pain keeping his gun in hand. Sitting up now she keeps to herself feeling isolated despite Boone being there.

"Hey, I will be in Novac as promised. I know I should give you time between you and your family. What happened down there?" he asks low kneeling to her.

"Dead, she is dead Boone, gone. My father...is dead. Serves him right...letting my mother get captured and not do a damn thing but side with them. Just staring down at me in horror and shock that I was capable of freeing her and seeing what he became. How little faith he had in me. How too much faith I had in him. He turned out to become the monster he chose to fight." she says in a grimacing tone of emotions, pure and raw as they were, she burst into tears. Alone, she felt alone lost in her own darkness.

"Susan, I'm-" he is cut off abruptly.

"As you said give me time. Return home, Boone. I don't know...if I will recover from this but...it is worth a try and I know you understand...but now is not…" her voice breaks and erupts into whimpers of help and pain. Boone could only offer a caring hand to her trembling upper back before leaving her to herself. Walking away now he sends back a caring glance to her in hopes of seeing her again being well and stronger.

For minutes it seemed she had tired of crying, feeling the tension grow to her forehead. The sun began to bother her now and she tugged to her sunglasses from her shirt and slipped them on. She glanced down to her revolver, it tempted her, with no one else around she soon found it placed to her temple, no sobs, just streams of tears as she contemplated her end. There was no honor in it, mere suffering, and choosing to give up, her mother would not have wanted this and at a time her father would not have wanted this either. She closed her eyes, falling silent; she felt a soft hand grip her wrist.

"Thy child wept, yet she would find solace in knowing she lived to endure and carry on. Oh, she wept to keep her spirit alive than be lost to the darkness. From the darkness, she will find strength through her burden of loss. Thy Lord guides all who are lost to eventually be found, purpose, purpose in life to carry on in a cruel world." Joshua spoke in encrypted words but Susan understood, clearly she knew what he meant. She opened her eyes to his blue pained filled, understanding eyes.

"Joshua…" her voice low and helpless as he lowers her gun from her temple. She drops it for a moment and looks to the knife of hers that he offers.

She then looks to his wound. Scrambling she comes to her satchel blinded by tears she soon finds some bandages for her to use and some medical scissors and a lighter. She eyes him as he sits up comfortably and she aids him. Cutting away the bandages they stay silent between each other on the occasional grunt from his discomfort. Looking along his burned skin parts fade out from a charred color to regular pink and white skin seeing just at the border of colors is the opening of a bullet wound. She takes the lighter to heat up the knife's side, after using vodka to disinfect it, she seals off the skin to keep from bleeding. Pressing the hot blade to his wound he tenses under her touch and groans only once to the pain. He settles down looking away and back to the Cove then observing the splatter of blood along his arms with a calm demeanor. Now she takes the tip of the blade pulling out a .357 bullet, as small as it was fast to take out with a quick scoop. Now lifting the stimpak she had used she shifts her bag close to her now and pours over some vodka over the needlepoint and injects it to his arm. The hole was small but painful the rest of the liquid flowed to the injury and soon the cells regenerated over into fresh new skin. Something came across her mind, something scientific and life-changing.

"It could work." she thought. Sitting back away and gripping the bandage tight she started to work it around his forearm and close to his sleeve. Finishing at his upper forearm she huffs a breath.

"There. Done." She says low and pours the vodka over the scissors and wipes her knife to her pants and returns it to her thigh hesitant to keep it.

"It is done, I suspect you may be hunted now. I shall escort you home and give you guidance during such lost and darkening times," he says low helping her gather her things as the afternoon approaches.

"I don't understand. My father was there, as a Legionnaire. I was close to saving my mother as well. I-I knew I should have hurried like you warned I was just…"

"Overwhelmed. Cruel as they are they will see that death comes to everyone who will not bow to their power. There must be a reason for him to convert to such savage ways. For now, you should ease yourself, ease your burden. I will help you and keep you from getting lost as I have been." he says softly and stands up moving his arm bit by bit.

She kept her eyes up to follow his, as she stood up to him. Slipping on her coat and tying on her helmet she takes back her things. Lifting her bag and gun over her head to have them be returned to her back and right side, she takes in a deep breath clearing her head for a moment. Looking back to Cottonwood Cove she kneels to the ridge of the sniper spot and opens her bag to her lighter. Using her finger to make an indention in the dirt she keeps the Zippo lighter on and places it to the hole in honor of her mother and memories of her father.

"I am sorry. So, so very sorry," she says low and stands up to follow behind Joshua to her bike.

After some hours they set up camp just a few miles outside of Primm as night approaches. He stokes the fire for a moment before eating a can of beans through pulled away face wrappings.

"I felt rage and it never let up back there. I am sure that is normal but it didn't feel right," she says low gripping hard to her soda bottle.

"You were feeling God's wrath through you. Their sins outmatch your own. It was only natural to act upon your feelings, Susan, but to intentionally do it is to be blinded by darkness. Ask the Lord, our God for forgiveness, when you are ready, but for the time focus on you and what you are to do now. You are never alone, not now." he seems to hesitate about what to say more of. It was clear he cared but for her it was unsure, she was conflicted and filled with questions.

"I know. For now, I am not sure the journal my mother gave me will give me the answers and I am not sure I can take it, or accept it. When you return to Zion I wish you the best and I thank you for helping me one last time." she looks from the fire to him and she sees a smile over his lips. They were normal lips untouched by such flames. She was shocked to see his smile genuine and now seen.

"It was no difficult task. It was a blessing and a trail for us all, even them. Yet I had hoped not to be seen by the Legion, but it was for the sake of our Lord and by your suffering to extinguish the growing of their numbers there. Yet Aurelius of Phoenix was a difficult encounter." he says low and looks at Susan. She was surprised at what was under his bandaged face she had thought all was burned and yet it was not. The moonlight had just brought out his pale lower face.

"Ah, yes...thank you for that. I am sure I will be alright at home. I will get by. Somehow." she mumbles a bit and shakes her leg with the need to pee. Looking at her rifle rest near her, her satchel, and her helmet she waits a moment. "I will be right back, got to go." walking a bit away from camp she goes to relieve herself.

At a second of pulling back up her pants, she faintly hears a rattle of dry bushes. Her eyes narrow and they focus quickly spotting three pairs of eyes and one pair peer from wolf head skin she did not want to see. She gasps and tries to yell out to Joshua above her on the rock ledge hill.

"Jos-!!" a tight hand cups over her face a whisper comes to her ear.

"I told you to not ask questions of us and you continued on. Leading to slay some of my men. You are coming with us, hesitate and you die." Vulpes hisses to her ear and a cloth comes to her face holding in a breath to keep from breathing she still gasps for breath, slowly dozing off, she knocks out cold.