I don’t know who to feel sorry for more, the Lone Wanderer or Autumn. I will be taking requests for...well, quests of course so put them in your review.
This fic was inspired by Iofiel’s awesome and highly amusing screenshots on Deviantart and of course, the Follower Autumn companion mod by Lawlder that can be found on Fallout3Nexus.
I got the title for the fic from a song that appeared at the end of "House, M.D" season 3, "Good Man" by John Ritter. When I heard it, I thought of Autumn for some reason.
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Fallout 3: The Good Man
Chapter One: Of Alliances and Trust
“I don’t want to world to see me
Cos I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything is meant to be broken
I just want you to know who I am”
-The Goo Goo Dolls, Iris
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter One: Of Alliances and Trust
“I don’t want to world to see me
Cos I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything is meant to be broken
I just want you to know who I am”
-The Goo Goo Dolls, Iris
"Hello Colonel,” the female stated casually, as if finding the esteemed and infamous Colonel Augustus Autumn in the brig of Rivet City was an everyday occurrence.
The silver haired man looked up and felt his face twist into a well deserved snarl. Such was the effect that the black haired, browned eyed girl had on him. After all, she had been his downfall. The female in question was quite young; only perhaps nineteen or twenty in age. She was adorned in a denim jacket that had certainly seen better days, leather slacks worn and cracked with age and boots that were old, shabby but still obviously loved. A wrist mounted computer flashed every now and then, lighting the Rivet City Brig a pleasant emerald green. Nothing about her weathered and fraying appearance indicated that the young woman was the esteemed Lone Wanderer known to most as the Best, Last Hope of Humanity. He had simply known her by her last name of Cameron.
“Harkness mentioned you had been tossed in here. I came to see if it were true. I thought the Brotherhood had killed you.”
“Do you really think I am that stupid?” the old colonel asked bitterly. What he would not give for a Laser pistol or an Enclave Eyebot. Neither the steel bars of his cell nor the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101 would have been safe.
“You really did this to yourself. You know that right?” The female continued idly from the other side of the prison cell, her gloved hands braced against her hips. The occupant of the cell shot the woman a glare that could have melted steel but kept his jaw clenched and said nothing in response. The man did not want to dignify her comment with a response. She was not deserving of that.
Clearly, his silence seemed to do nothing to dampen the girl’s cheerful spirits. She toddled forward and sat down into the chair opposite his cell then folded her arms neatly across the swell of her chest. “Just so you know, there is a debate going on with the council whether or not they should just hand you over to the Brotherhood of Steel. Gods above know you deserve nothing less.”
He hated the way her large, brown eyes seemed to glitter at little too brightly at that last sentence. He could not stand the way the little mirthful smile that played on her lips. It was as if the girl was getting some kind of sick kick out of seeing him at the other end of the spectrum.
That was most likely why the prisoner’s self-restraint snapped so quickly. Or maybe it was the alcohol still playing havoc his system.
It was quite hard to tell.
“So you are simply here to brag right? Go ahead. Ruin my day. You’ve ruined everything else of mine.”
Cameron’s forehead crinkled slightly, as if she were contemplating something complex. “No, I’m not here to brag.”
Autumn looked up through the steel bars of the cell, his curiosity aroused. “Then why are you here then?”
“I’ve got a proposition for you. If you’re interested of course,” the young woman added quickly, as if she were worried that he would refuse her outright.
Dark emerald eyes narrowed in an acidic mixture of suspicion and malice. “What kind of proposition?” the colonel asked.
The girl unfolded her arms and suddenly looked very serious to the Enclave Colonel. It was of his opinion that she did not suit the look. It almost seemed out of place to him. After all, since as long as he had known her, the Lone wanderer had always been rather cheerful. Even when he had pressed his pistol to her forehead the girl had simply quirked her head and gave him a merry little smile. He often did wonder just how she managed to stay so positive and cheerful, considering the circumstances.
“Listen Autumn. I’ll just cut right through it. No point in wasting time. This ‘Capital Wasteland’ business, I can’t do it on my own. I need someone to watch my back, someone I can count on.” She stopped suddenly but Autumn caught the silent words upon her lips. Someone loyal. Somehow, Autumn did not feel as if he fitted that description quirked an eyebrow, acting quickly to mask his surprise behind an arrogant smirk. Best not to let the Vault Dweller have an inch because she would most likely take a mile. He knew that from personal experience.
“And you think that someone is me?”
Cameron threw him a lopsided smile. “I can’t think of anyone better qualified.”
The Enclave colonel leaned back against the steel wall of the brig. “Why not just get that one of those boy scouts from the Brotherhood to help you?” Autumn enquired.
“Because they are underhanded, thieving bastards. A bit like you come to think of it,” Cameron answered in a painfully light-hearted tone that unnerved Autumn more than it would of had she been bellowing it at him.
“Least that is something that we can agree on.”
“So are you interested?” she enquired.
Autumn braced his arm on his thigh and rested his chin upon his hand. “Say I do decide to help you, what is exactly is in it for me?” he asked lazily.
The lone wanderer looked around the jail, her eyebrows raised as if she thought he were being deliberately ignorant. It was obvious that the beached city did not often have prisoners since most of the cells came complete with complimentary cobwebs on the locks. Even Autumn knew that most lawbreakers in Rivet City ended up face down in the freshly purified Potomac River.
“Think of this as a ‘Get-out-of-jail-free card. I’ll get you out of here and help you find what remains of the Enclave.”
“Lies and deceit,” answered the Colonel.
“I already have a lead on a few of your officers. A Lieutenant Williams and Navokova. Don’t you want get out there and find them?”
Autumn felt his mental shields flare and he wondered briefly if he could squeeze out the bars of the cell to wring her neck. If not, the good Colonel would have simply settled for trying to pull the Lone Wanderer through the narrow steel bars. “You lie,” he hissed.
“No I don’t Autumn. I overheard Lyons talking about them. If you want to find what’s left of the Enclave before the Brotherhood do, you’d best help me out with a few jobs.”
“How can I be sure that you won’t just hand me over yourself and take all the glory?”
Cameron’s eyes flashed dangerously. “I think I’ve proven my word enough to you already thank you very much. I let you walk away once before didn’t I?”
The former Enclave commander grunted in recollection. He remembered the shame of it all a touch too vividly. “Sometimes I think you would have done me a service by shooting me in the Jefferson memorial,” he remarked with the bitterness of a bucketful of lemons. The offer of an alliance with the Lone Wanderer sounded almost too good to be true. Cameron was hiding something, Autumn could feel it in his old bones. Something about the entire situation did not add up, no matter which way he looked at it. The colonel racked his brains, trying to figure out the teenager’s angle. She had made it perfectly clear the last time they had...tussled that she wanted nothing more to do with him. And vice versa.
What had changed? He looked to her examining her nails and wondered if he had in fact gone completely insane without even realising it. When had he even considered having her as an ally. But stranger things had happened to the Enclave Colonel as of late. Had someone told him three weeks previously that he would fail at the hands of the Brotherhood of Steel, Autumn would have likely laughed in their face, court marshalled them if necessary then sent them on their merry way.
“So, you in Autumn?”
Autumn looked up, sucked in a breath of oxygen then took the biggest leap of faith known to mankind. “Alright then kid. I’m in.”
The minute the words left his mouth, Colonel Autumn knew he would live to regret them.
Of that, he was more than certain.
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Katie could not believe how easy it had been to enlist the Colonel’s help. He must have been desperate.
Ugly desperate.
She chanced a quick glance over her right shoulder, making sure that the Colonel was still following her and had not tried to bolt again. Yes, there was no denying it. The man sitting trotting after her like a little lost puppy was indeed Colonel Autumn, just not quite as she remembered him. The lone wanderer had never ever expected to see him again after Project Purity. Back then, the Colonel had been a terrifying sight indeed with his two Elite Enclave body guards and fully-automatic laser pistol. He had carried so much bearing and authority in his voice and words alone that the lone wanderer had always felt an uncanny need to obey his orders.
Now, he did not look the least bit frightening. The bodyguards were gone, probably dead. He looked thinner than she remembered and even more tense than before – if that were even possible. His sturdy and somewhat iconic coat was rumpled and creased – almost as if he had been sleeping it in. Combed, grey hair that had once gleamed like polished silver appeared dull and ruffled and he had rings around his eyes that were so intense and dark that Katie had first thought he was wearing eyeliner. Worse still was that the stench of whiskey still clung to him like an overbearing aftershave. He did not look like the dominating and commanding predator that she had been accustomed to seeing in the past. He looked more like a hobo than a Colonel.
It was a rather sorry sight indeed.
She considered it fortunate that she had come along in time.
“Not too much further now Colonel,” Katie stated cheerfully, trying to keep the conversation going. The colonel merely grunted in typical Autumn fashion as he followed up behind the Lone Wanderer. Every so often, Katie heard a tut of disapproval or snort of disgust. She could hardly blame him. Rivet City was dark, noisy and smelly and litter commandeered every inch of the floor. Wires hung down from the ceiling like jungle vines and copper pipes lined the wall and, surprisingly enough, in good condition. Floor lights were dotted down every pathway and flat panel monitors were placed in strategic positions at the end of corridor; displaying temperatures, new bulletins and a map of the city every four minutes. It was very unlike the clean, polished and almost sterile Raven Rock that Colonel Autumn was no doubt used to.
“Could I ask how long have you been here for Colonel?” the ebony haired girl asked, not entirely expecting an answer.
Imagine her surprise when she got one.
“Twenty six days, four hours and seventeen minutes,” answered the Enclave colonel, casting a disapproving glance at Tammy Hardgrave as they passed the clearly intoxicated mother.
The girl’s lips tipped upwards into a small smile.
Still as articulate and precise as ever.
“And yourself?” asked the southern Colonel.
Katie rounded into a second corridor before answering with some level of surprise. She had expected him to stay quiet and sulky. “Oh? Me? Only about a week I guess. I was unconscious for nearly two weeks after that Project Purity nonsense. Ah, here we are.” She suddenly stopped abruptly outside a heavy bulkhead door. The colonel leaned against the steel walls; looking quite exhausted on his heavily booted, size eleven feet. The girl wondered just how much sleep he had gotten over the past two weeks. Judging from the circles under his eyes that could have put Bigsley’s to shame, Katie guessed very little.
The teenager heaved open the heavy bulkhead, not bothering to ask for Autumn’s assistance. He was not much use in his stressed and exhausted stage. The steel door swung open with a sick groan, conditions that the Colonel was unaccustomed to. He visibly jumped inside his overcoat and looked to the door as if he expected a great big monster to come rushing out of the apartment.
His actions coaxed a sly smile onto Katie’s suntanned face.
They were going to have so much fun.
“Well, here we are,” Katie stated, as if announcing something of great importance. She gave a sweeping motion, gesturing the old colonel forward into her rented Rivet City apartment. The Enclave commander threw her a disgruntled look before brushing past her through the door. Katie followed him into the quarters that she rented whenever she had business in Rivet City. Judging by the Colonel’s facial expression, he was certainly not impressed. Katie could hardly blame him. Her apartment was not exactly the high rise. Though it was highly spacious, it was empty and quite barren. The sparsely adorned lobby was connected to the bedroom where lived a double bed, a few empty wardrobes and a desk with a terminal. Another corridor to left lead off to a small kitchen that was barely big enough for two people while a second lead towards a tiny bathroom that had to be bleached several times before Katie even considered using it. The living room doubled as a tiny dining room and held a table and two chairs, a beat up coffee table and a very old bookcase.
Despite its limited dimensions, Katie was extremely happy with her apartment. It offered all she needed and as long as she had a place she could call home, she wasn’t going to complain. If the good Colonel didn’t like it, he knew where the bulkhead door was.
The girl watched him scout out her apartment like a man on a mission, as if he were deliberately looking for things to complain about. He was going to be disappointed to find none. Katie kept her apartment spick and span. “It’s not exactly much but it does the job,” Katie stated, dumping her back onto the dining room table. Colonel Autumn followed her, looking exceptionally out of place. Despite the fact that he looked as if he had been dragged through a hedge backwards, the Colonel still appeared refined and when compared to her apartment. “Well, It’s not my quarters at Raven Rock.” Autumn looked around once more. “But it’s not a hole in the ground either,” he continued, his southern tone a touch softer. The colonel then proceeded to flop on her battered armchair and put his booted feet up on her makeshift coffee table as if he owned the place.
Katie supposed it was just his way of saying thanks. She stared at him for a few moments then trotted on through to the kitchen, looking to make some coffee. Gods above knew she could do with some. She looked longingly at the sink and was half tempted to drown herself. The realisation of what she had just done had finally sunk into her unusually sober brain. Katie groaned and placed her face in her gloved hands. What on earth had she been thinking? This was Augustus Autumn, the commander of the Enclave armed forces and the man who had driven her father to an early grave. She should have been shooting him rather than bailing him out of jail. Why had she bailed him out of jail?
The teenager sighed. She knew why she had bailed him out of jail, why she had felt him as a kindred spirit as much as it repulsed her. Katie felt royally screwed over by the esteemed Brotherhood of Steel, thieves in Shining Armour. Without Madison Li, Katie had felt lost and alone. She had no one to turn to, no one whom would listen. The Capital Wasteland saw the Brotherhood as heroes and champions. It was of her opinion that they seemed to take all the credit for Project Purity. Katie was still treated as an outsider despite Elder Lyon’s assurances that she was a welcome member.
She fished out a couple of satchels of Instant Coffee that were only a few centuries past their sell-by date then emptied a few bottles of purified water into the battered, battery powered kettle on the kitchen counter. She found a packet of white dust that was once sweeteners at the bottom of a box somewhere and proceeded to trot through to the living room to ask the Enclave colonel whether or not he took sugar. When she reached the living room, her jaw nearly dropped to the ground. Katie’s hand clamped over her mouth in a desperate attempt to prevent herself from bursting into hysterical laughter.
There was Colonel Autumn. Asleep in her arm chair and snoring away without a care in the world. His chin was touching his chest, a small patch of drool trickling out of his open mouth. His tanned clad shoulders had relaxed considerably. Steel grey hair flopped lifelessly over his darkened eye sockets, the locks rising upwards when he breathed out. He looked so very vulnerable, so unlike the domineering predator that she had been accustomed to. The colonel’s practically patented scowl was gone, replaced by a much more relaxed and peaceful expression that made him appear years younger.
The sight made pulled Katie’s lips upwards into a small smile and she discarded all thoughts of making coffee. She had never associated Autumn and normality together. It was just a dangerous combination. Katie had not ever figured that the colonel did anything remotely human such as sleeping or eating. At one point, she had thought he was like a Mister Handy that only required being plugged into the wall for a couple of hours.
The girl crossed the room silently, only the sound of her soft leather boots padding against the worn and frayed rugs could be heard. She gave him a hard prod. The colonel did not even have the decency to awaken. He simply mumbled something and carried on ignoring her. It quickly became obvious to the young woman that Autumn was not going to budge no matter how many times she prodded him.
So the lone wandered opted for physically moving him. She reached down and gave one of his arms a tug. “Come on Autumn. Let’s get you to bed. You’re not cluttering up my living room.”
He grumbled a few curses at her, his speech slurred by sleep. “You call this a living room?”
Katie decided he was being deliberately uncooperative and difficult. She gave one more tug and somehow managed to heave him to his booted feet. The six foot one man fell against her like a puppet without strings. Had the situation been entirely different, the girl would have been inclined to give the colonel a punch to the jaw. Instead, Katie managed to throw one of his arms over her shoulder and grasped a fist of denim like material.
Carefully, Katie lead the man through to her barren bedroom. “Really colonel, I don’t know how you would have managed without me.”
He mumbled again something, threatening to fall asleep on her again. Katie gave him a little shake as she pushed the door open to her bedroom. With a little bit of coaxing, the removal of one tanned overcoat and a few choice grumbles, Katie managed to bundle the man into the double bed. It was not until she had tugged his boots off did the teenager suddenly wonder why on earth she had given him her bed in the first place. It was beyond all logical reasoning. Perhaps that radiation in Project Purity’s control room had affected her higher brain functions more than she had first realised. Yes, that it was she told herself. It was the radiation.
Katie looked to the colonel and was not the least bit surprised to find that he was asleep again. “Looks like it’s just you and me tonight Mister Sofa,” she remarked softly to herself before she flicked the bedroom light out.
Oddly enough, she did not seem to mind in the slightest.
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Colonel Autumn awoke with a start, his heart pounding away under his uniform. Green eyes focused and he blinked once at his surroundings, the image of his dreams starting to fade with each passing second. The feeling of unease it left in its wake refused to shift. Only moments ago, he had been back at Raven Rock – his home for nearly twenty five years. Everything had been alight with flames and plasma. The Brotherhood had been there, capturing his officers and executing them brutally before his very eyes. He remembered how his throat had tightened until the point where he couldn’t even breath as he watched his soldiers killed one by one. And there was not a damned thing he could do about it.
Autumn’s gloved hands clenched into rock hard fists under the blankets. He took several deep, calming breaths to steady himself; to remind himself that it was all just a nightmare and nothing more.
Once the dream had been banished back to the furthest reaches of his mind, Autumn looked around the bedroom he was currently occupying. No, this was defiantly not his Raven Rock quarters but..It was not the Rivet City jail either. He was in a bed – quite a nice one if the truth be told – and he could not remember how exactly he had got there. Autumn could remember being in the “Muddy Rudder” as the locals called it. He also distinctly remembered getting arrested for something obscure. Then he ended up in the Brig and...
Yes, that was it. The Lone Wanderer. The Kid from Vault 101. The Best, Last hope of humanity. Katherine Cameron, “Katie” she liked to call herself if his memory served him correctly. For some unfathomable reason, the girl had bailed him out of jail and simply asked for his assistance with a few errands. Colonel Autumn snorted at the indignity of it all. It was all her fault that he was in such a predicament. He stared at the ceiling of the bedroom, mulling over the situation and trying to figure out just how he could regain control. True, perhaps they could be allies. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. She viewed the accursed Brotherhood of Steel in the same light as he.
Plus she was not hard on the eyes, an added bonus in his books.
The Colonel sat up in the double bed and suddenly felt odd, as if something was missing. When sturdy black sleeves met his eyes, the colonel noticed that his coat had indeed been removed as well and was draped on the chair by the desk. Most of his weapons were on the table sitting on top of the desk including his trademark 10mm pistol, his customised Laser pistol, the Plasma rifle and pistol. He wondered briefly how the girl managed to get his coat off without waking him. And his boots as well. Cameron must have been sneakier and nimbler than he had first anticipated.
Some effort was spent before Autumn managed to coax himself into pushing back the blankets. It had been good to sleep without having to worry about being ambushed by Brotherhood forces or Super Mutants or raiders. He felt rather recharged and ready to take on the Brotherhood and the Wasteland once again.
His stomach, however, disagreed with the colonel’s excellent plan.
Autumn’s gut suddenly rumbled loudly, groaning away fit to bust. Autumn looked down and frowned slightly. It had been some time since he had last eaten. Perhaps this Cameron girl had some food in her cupboards. If not, he was certain to send her out with her wallet to find him some.
Without further ado, Autumn swung his legs off the bed and slid his boots back onto his cold feet. The colonel adored his steel capped, genuine leather boots. Nearly five years old and still just as sturdy as the day he got them. They were one of his most prized possessions – apart from the Enclave standard issued overcoat that every Wastelander and their mother seemed to eye up when he passed. The man then got up properly and swung his heavy coat back home onto his frame. The silver haired man felt better than he had done for close to two weeks.
All thanks to a goodnights sleep.
Upon reaching the living room, Autumn discovered to his great dismay that the Lone Wanderer was already awake and was bustling around the box she had the audacity to call a kitchen. Autumn knew a kitchen when he saw one and the...broom cupboard she was trotting around in was certainly not his idea of a kitchen. Evidence of a couple of blankets and a few pillows suggested that the girl had slept on the couch the previous night while he had the bed. Any other man might have felt some level of guilt but not the good Colonel.
After all, she had ruined his life. Giving up her bed for the night was the least she could do.
Cameron appeared at the threshold to the kitchen, still in her pyjamas and had a box of Sugar Bombs in her hands. Her black hair sticking in odd angles, making taunting gestures in the face of gravity. She blinked at him in surprise and tugged up one of the shoulder straps that had been sliding down.
Autumn took comfort in the fact that she looked worse than he. “Good morning colonel, I was just about to come wake you.” She gave the cereal box a shake as if to rouse his stomach. “You want some breakfast?”
His churning stomach rumbled in response. He sat down on one of the chairs in front of the table. The said chair squeaked in protest but managed to hold the weight of both Autumn and his coat. An achievement and a half indeed. Cameron returned a few moments later with a dusty spare bowl, another bottle of Brahmin milk and a pitcher that was filled with what he assumed was coffee. “What time is it?” Autumn asked. He had lost his wristwatch somewhere in the Jefferson Memorial and not had a chance to mosey on round and retrieve it.
The girl flopped down in the chair opposite, her denim overcoat wrapped around her pyjama clad frame. “About eight I think. Which is perfect since there is a few things we need to discuss.”
Autumn looked up from his breakfast sharply, not liking where the conversation was going. “Like what exactly?”
Cameron laced her fingers together and leaned forward on the old table, staring at him with utmost concentration. “Like you for instance. We should probably lay down some ground rules.”
“And what might those be?” Autumn asked and gave his cereal a spoon in a rather careless manner, giving the impression that he cared very little for anything that she had to say.
Which he didn’t.
“For starters Autumn. I don’t want to wake up dead. I need to be able to trust that you don’t try and kill me while I sleep,” the girl explained, pouring herself a cup of coffee before filling his own chipped mug.
“How can you ‘wake up dead?’ that don’t any sense. What do they teach you in those Vaults?” the silver haired man asked before taking a sip and wincing. It was hardly the mixture of freshly ground coffee beans, cinnamon and sugar that he was accustomed to.
“You know what I mean.”
Colonel Autumn gave a snort before continuing. “As tempting as it is, I’ll have to pass up on that one. After all, you’re my only ally I suppose. And I hate you for the record,” he added with a smirk for good measure. He promptly received one in return. “Well, I could hardly be called your biggest fan either,” she responded before continuing onwards with her demands. “So it’s agreed then? We don’t try and kill each other? Accidental or any other means?”
“You have my word. For what it’s worth to you at least.”
The smirk on the girl’s face morphed into a smile that Autumn was not entirely sure he liked. “And you have mine. Also, we share whatever supplies we get okay?”
“Agreed. Anything else?” Autumn asked before taking in a spoonful of Sugar Bombs.
“Yeah.” She looked him squarely in the eye and without any shame or hesitation she answered thus: “I shouldn’t have to say this but keep your hands to yourself Autumn.” She said it so candidly and suddenly that it practically knocked Autumn right out of his chair. Choking on his cereal with a mixture of indignity and humiliation, Autumn mustered his most scathing, withering and will-breaking glare; the one that used to sent officers regardless of rank running for the nearest escape hatch. He managed to swallow down the gulp of toasted wheat and sugar before ripping into the female. “What kind of person do you think I am?” Autumn demanded, his hackles raised.
But much to Colonel Autumn’s total and complete horror, his outburst had the opposite effect. The girl simply raised her eyebrows and gave her shoulders a little shrug, looking innocent. “Calm down Autumn. I was just making sure you knew the boundaries. I woke up to you, half naked in Raven Rock. You have to admit, it doesn’t make you look good,” Cameron explained in her cool-as-a-cucumber-tone.
Autumn felt heat rise up his neck but he kept his glare level with her. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“Of course not.” Her tone suggested that she did not believe his statement in the slightest.
Autumn gave her a well deserved scowl, unable to prove his point. “Is that all? I’m growing tired of playing these petty games with you,” the Enclave colonel remarked shortly.
She clicked her tongue at him, the metal stud inside her mouth clinking against her teeth. Personally, Autumn found the piercing revolting. He had no idea why young people felt the overwhelming need to pierce their body parts with bits of metal. It was just ridiculous and stupid and disgusting.
“I think that’s all. Apart from the obvious to stay away from the Brotherhood of Steel.”
“Certainly. I don’t particularly feel like being turned into target practice for those boy scouts,” Autumn remarked bitterly
“Well, as long as we keep out of sight of them, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Hang on a moment, don’t you work for them?”
Cameron took a gulp of her breakfast before continuing. “Not really, I help Bigsley with some water deliveries since I have my jeep but apart from that, I want nothing more to do with them,” she explained openly as if she were reporting the weather.
Autumn’s green eyes narrowed in suspicion, a look that he was becoming accustomed to wearing around the lone wanderer. “Can I ask why?”
The woman looked up at him and something in her facial expression changed. For a second, Cameron looked nothing like the warrior and fighter that had stared across the rotunda at the Jefferson Memorial at him with determined eyes. With an even more determined gun. She looked more like her actual age than anything. She looked like a lost girl, fighting because she did not know how to do anything else. The Colonel was startled. He had forgotten just how young Cameron was. Her age had always niggled away at the back of his mind but never had he associated the age with the fighter. The capital Wasteland made one grow up quickly.
And just like that, the insecurity and fear vanished as quickly as it had come; almost as if she were afraid he would pounce upon her weakness. Autumn concluded that it was too early in the morning for him. “Because, they took my parents project from me that’s why.” She paused for a moment, seemingly trying to find the right words. “I mean, I’m used to people trying to take it from me. It hurt more because I had honestly thought that they were my allies. I expected it with you, with The Enclave.”
“Presidents orders kid, not mine,” Autumn defended, lying through his chemically whitened teeth.
“Yeah but I expected it Colonel. But now, I don’t even get a say in what happens to it. Everything related to Project Purity is decided by them. I’m on the outside looking in. My mother wouldn’t have wanted that. Or my father,” she continued, an edge of unbridled bitterness attached to her tone. Cameron then shook her head and looked to him. “So, we’re friends now yes?” the bitterness was gone, replaced by a lining hope.
“Until you start on my wick.”
The girl gave him a smile that just seemed to light up all her features. She reached across the table and offered the Enclave Colonel her hand in friendship to deal the seal. Autumn stared at her open palm and before he could rein back his sanity, the silver haired man reached forward and grasped her small hand between his gloved one. “Thank you Autumn,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“That’s Colonel Autumn to you missy,” the said Colonel remarked sternly, asserting some of his old authority into his voice. After all, she had to remember who he was exactly. The girl gave him a smile, real warmth glimmering away in her brown eyes. “Well eat up Colonel, we have a big day today. We need to go to the market and the doctors and -“ And off the teenager went, nattering and chattering away to him as if he were an old friend. Despite himself, Autumn felt a smile tug away his lips. He had almost forgotten what it was like to smile.
It felt good and for the first time since the defeat of the Enclave, Autumn allowed himself to relax and joined into the Lone wanderer’s bizarre conversation.
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