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Moon Rise - Ch 6/8
Date: 2013-02-09 04:01 am (UTC)Talget died... They had been crossing the Potomac when they came to a ridge. He and Diaz mad it down just fine, but Talget slipped, went tumbling, and wound up closer to the dogs than them. Before they could get to him one of the bigger dogs stood over him, dead grass caught in a scabbed wound on its side. As it looked back at the oncoming duo, the grass ran over the man's face and the shock made a smile cross his face.
Despite the distance, James heard him say "Hey, baby girl."
It echoed in his mind as the hot summer air seemed to shimmer around him in the lull just before the animal grabbed his leg and dragged him off into the brush. He and Diaz were firing and shouting, but there was nothing they could do but watch as he vanished. No matter where they went the animals were always one step ahead of them, ready to pounce. All he could think of as they started walking was the story Talget told them about his daughter, the only real discernable bit of depth or passion around the soft-spoken man.
"My daughter, Mary, she's got really long hair, almost down to her waist," he had told him. "In fact it's the one rule, my fucking ex respects: I'm the only one who cuts her hair. She does this thing, she'll come and hover over me. I'll just be dead asleep, and she'll start swinging her head back and forth, tickling me with her..." His voice had nearly broken as he thought about the child, safe somewhere in the Wasteland or perhaps long dead care of the many horrors that lingered within it.
"...with her hair all in my face and she'll be laughing like crazy. Just...it's a certain type of laugh, you know, when a kid goes past laughing to laughing like a..." James could still hear it... the strained echo of a child's cackle, reminding him of the way his child used to laugh when playing with Amata while he tested the capacity of Vault's spare Water Chips. "Like they can't really breath. Sound more like an old man than a kid. I miss the hell out of that kid."
He felt his chest ache as he thought of the life he left behind in 101, his heir hidden away in a world of restrictions and without imagination. What would Catherine have said at his decision? Maybe things would be better when Amata became Overseer... Maybe the Vault would make a respectable citizen rather than someone "selfish and insubordinate" as Alphonse claimed he was. He still felt fresh outrage over the man's lack of vision for his home, his people, or the world, but he could also understand the desire to hide from the past and the damage it dealt.
He remembered what he told Talget about missing his daughter and the hope of seeing her again. "You should. You know that? Those parts of your life, whatever they might be, make you want that next minute more than the last. Make you fight for it."
It had not saved him from death... It seemed nothing would save any of them from death... Nothing would save Project Purity from obscurity or make Catherine's death anything but a waste... Still, he and Diaz kept moving, needing to get to Vault 112 and search through the ruins for any information left behind by Dr. Stanislaus Braun or Vault-Tec about the Garden of Eden Creation Kits they had manufactured. The mission had to come before his feelings, be they pain, fear, or shame.