Hopeful Dream

It was warm and dark and there was no light around her. It grew hotter and hotter to where it felt it was engulfing her but there was no pain. She suddenly stepped back to find a man burning before her strangely it felt as if he emerged from her. He was silent and walking ahead of her now into the darkness. He was like a beacon for her to follow after. With each step of his, he left behind blazing footprints that hissed and faded to flying embers like fireflies. She reached out a hand to him and she stopped once he stopped his walking. Now he turned to her as if he was bringing her calm and peace with a simple gesture of his right hand reaching out to her to take his hand. His blackened ashed right hand became visible as it reached to her to beckon her onward to come to his side. He had his torso twisted slightly to her as his feet were planted and still. She moved forward suddenly to have embers disperse before them she trips toward him to feel as if she is falling. He catches her hand and kneels to her to pull her up. Thinking the fire was to engulf her too, it quickly retreats away from their touching hands and fades to a humming flare to his chest. For a moment he lifts her and she hovers at her feet as she then reaches to the flame. Both of her hands cradle it and a happy smile flows over her face when she cries for a moment suddenly feeling the pain and a flash of death shows before her and it frightens her. She is scared for a moment through her tears before embracing the flame then becoming one with only flame now blazing at her chest.

Awaking slowly from a deep sleep, all but remembering pieces of the dream, she places a hand over her eyes to shield them from the blazing sun. Leaning up and facing the ground she slowly opens her eyes, having them squinted and adjusting once again. Pressing her weight hard to her palms now she pushes herself back and stretches against the floor as if attempting yoga. Her black hair floods past her brows staring at the ground then up to her NCR Helmet staring back at her with the red lens. For a minute she keeps still in thought trying to grasp what the dream meant but she closes her eyes hard and opens them back up to now stand and shade her eyes from the sun. She says nothing to herself but imagines the image of the man over and over until finally she takes a breath and starts her bike up to keep her ride back to the fork relaxing and smooth as the morning breeze that rushes through the canyons ahead.

Coming now to the unused hidden path she stops a moment to mark the start on her map to how far she has come. "Damn...almost a hundred miles...just almost forty to go should just be a few hours or so. Damn imagine on foot." she groans in memory of her trips on foot. At times they were unbearable and intolerable in the Mojave heat. To her glee she had a working motorcycle with storage of a power cell that was to be used for emergencies and could last for however long she did not know, she never did the math or tempted to test it as she had no way of recharging the cell. "Just glad I have one tank of gas left...I am hoping I won't have to use the power cell. Not sure how long that would last giving its long history." she rubs her neck and sighs. Now lifting back up her feet and storing away the map she heads back onto the trail, a bit bumpy and narrow. She takes it easy and at times saves gas just by coasting along with slight declines.

For an hour in a half and making it through a tunnel, she shades her face from the revealing sun. Now placing a foot down she opens back up her map from her coat. "Okay...tunnel...a south tunnel...uhh." She kicks down the stand to walk about the man-made tunnel exit and scans her eyes about looking over the right edge to the water below. "That is...the river...Virgin River! This must be the Southern Passage. Hah! I made it!" she cheers and suddenly looks to the path to her left seeing a wagon tipped over the edge and the rope bridge not far from it. She sighs deeply and in irritation in knowing there was no way of bringing her heavy motorcycle across the bridge to the other side. She then cuts the engine and pushes it close to an indent of a wall of rock in a corner near the bridge. She then walks back to the wagon and pulls it hard away from the edge and some of the edges crumbles and falls to the water below it.

"Close…" she whispers and pulls it back to her bike.

Now kneeling to her left saddlebag she dumps out her satchel looking and debating over the contents. Tapping her chin she gathers four stimpacks. Her journal, her romance book and leaves the others. Then she grabs some water and some sodas knowing she could refill the water bottles she took a few. Looking over the scrap items and grabbing a few she puts the rest to her right saddlebag, she grabs a box of .44 rounds and all of her microfusion cells that fill up the majority of her satchel. Now putting all of her food to her bag now she eats one that can not fit and closes her satchel now. Lastly, grabbing her blanket she tightly rolls it to balance in between the strap ends at the top of her bag to rest at her side. She stands fully up, walks back over to the canyon edge, and tilts over the wagon gripping firmly at the handles to act as a shield and hiding spot for her motorcycle. Taking a free clear breath now she turns to the bridge and straps her weapons tight and tightens her boot laces.

"Alright, this will be fun. Just don't break on me. Please…" she says in a hushed voice and grips her hands firmly to the start of the ropes testing their strength. She does not take her time well and sprints at the start looking straight ahead and occasionally looking to her feet at the feeling of something snapping. To her relief, she makes it fine, despite missing boards of wood along the rope bridge, and looks to the upper ridge ahead of her now just along the canyon.

"Alright on the east side of the river now...just keep heading east...to highway fifteen. To Ogden place of the New Cannan. Wait...that is…" she taps her chin doing math but hurries out her journal and grabs her red marker then a pencil. Writing it out she gulps loudly. "Five hours on my motorcycle. Three weeks on foot including breaks. Damn it." she grips hard at her pencil and snaps shut her journal on her writing of numbers and markers on her map. Now thinking over survival notes she had learned she sighs as she gazes out to some forgotten plants. Feeling lost to how she could make it off the land she sighs and continues on her way to an incline then a decline to the Virgin River.

"I knew I should have just gone to Cottonwood and just scoped out. I am good at that. If I saw her there I would just bust her out with some ranger help. Some of them would have known my dad…just had too." she groans and tosses a rock to the water. Wanting much so to bathe in the crystal clear water and to be rid of the grime and dirt on her skin; she was not sure if the water was pure as her mother said it was. Unclipping her helmet from her hip, she places it on the boulder for her to easily kneel to the water. She unstrapped her rifle, the rest of her weapons, and then her boots and socks to be set on the small boulder near her. Lastly placing her map to her coat and journal to the rock as well she slowly approaches. Coming to the water she gazed at her reflection seeing her eyes and kept the stare. She then slowly kneeled to the water waiting for a change, something that was unique only to her. She then gladly smiled back at herself, noticing her eyes never shifted in color.

"So it is true...pure, safe water. I see why people would fight over this. Perhaps the canyon had protected this place from radiation. I would not be surprised…" she stands back up to scan the canyon high above her to all sides. She shrugs and rushes to undress, excited to get clean. Before she forgets she digs through her pants pocket for her bandage and her coat for the map she walks back to the boulder to put down her map into her shoe. Positively thinking she was alone, she freely walked about bare as the day she was born, though twenty-three now, she was stunning to the eye as if she was from a dream.

Taking all of her clothing she tosses them to the water near the water's edge and comes back to get her revolver from its holster and a bar of soap, she had always carried around from long trips, from her satchel. Placing the revolver now close to the water she keeps it out of its reach for quick protection. She rubs the soap between her wet hands and begins to wash her clothing and bandage for new usage. Humming lightly as she sits her bare skin to the rugged sand and half in the water she finishes and lifts her heavier clothing and lays them out evenly to the boulder and she reminds herself to run alcohol over the bandage afterward. Keeping the soap with her she rushes back to the water this time diving in with satisfaction of the cool water. She shivers a moment before she returns to the surface with a gasp. Rolling the bar of soap in her hand she opens her eyes and rubs both of her hands together with the soap in between them. Keeping her focus to the soft sounds of the running river she rubs the soap over her curves and along her now dirtless skin. Finishing her skin, she adds its foam to her hair and face. She then ducks back into the water to wash it all off. Feeling a fish quickly swim by her feet she coughs in the water in surprise. Lifting her head quickly out she flips and pushes her hair out of the way. Smiling at the surprise she quickly comes out of the water having the air chill her skin. Raising out of the water she places her soap to the bolder to dry, she runs back to the water to now relax and enjoy some time as her clothes dry. Floating for a moment in the water she keeps her eyes closed and calms her breath as if she is meditating as she floats on her back. A noise rumbles through the water as if it was a splash of something entering the water. She assumes it is a fish and parts her eyes a moment as she rubs her fingers together feeling that they were pruning. Now she lifts herself fully up and begins to swim forward till her feet touch the bottom's tender sand. Once there she opens her eyes from wiping the water away from them. She stops suddenly and her heart in her chest steps up a beat.