It's More Than Nature

Wandering in the dark for a day and a half, plus an uncharged belt, plus about no food or water equals one very pissy Fallout Dust. I'm such a jackass.

I waited until everyone was gone, then I smashed through the window and escaped, sure I'd never see them again. Being drowned in Dylakane, I wasn't thinking straight, so as I came to my senses in the black emptiness of the desert I realized how stupid I was. I cursed at myself aloud, the sharp staccato of the word hanging in the smothering night.

"Fuck," I muttered again more quietly, checking all my stocks.

No belt.

No food.

No water.

No emergency meds.

No bandages.

No nothing.

I almost yelled aloud, but a rustling not far to my left made me stop dead. The thing causing the noise sighed lightly, moving forward. I stepped back. "Who's there?" I called quietly, my voice swallowed by the darkness.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," said a shockingly female voice, and I flicked on the flashpact I'd found in my holster. A flashpact is like a tiny flashlight in a compact, like for makeup.

A girl stood like a deer in headlights, watching me warily. Her long white-blonde hair waved down her back in tangled sheets, her pale mint-colored eyes locked on my own. If her hair was brushed and her face cleaned and her features not so prominent, she would have been pretty, or even beautiful.

"Hi," said the girl slowly, watching my every move. "I'm a Killjoy too... but I don't have a name yet," she added at my unspoken question. I sighed. "Too many of you now," I told her sadly. "Too many unnamed Killjoys. I'm Fallout Dust."

She shook my proffered hand and asked me, "Why are you here?"

"I'm a Killjoy," I began reluctantly, "and then I got bit by a D cobra and split cos I thought I was being chased by Dracs. I have no clue where I am now." I'm sure the light chuckle I gave after that creeped her out a bit, but oh well. The loner shivered. "I... same story," she told me, the corner of her lips raising up in a soft smile.

I nodded and slid my hand through my fucked-up hair, frowning as my pinkie finger brushed against something more solid than hair. It was soft and rather fuzzy, and quite sensitive to the touch. I froze. So that sensation in the early effects of the drug... was not a dream. I really was a freak.

"I... can I show you something if you swear to never, ever tell aybody else?" I asked, breathing quick. Alarmed, she nodded. "But why me?"

I sighed. "Because I've never met you. I tend to trust random strangers with my secrets."

She tilted her head sideways. "Good thing... I haven't seen another Killjoy for weeks, I think, so chat away."

I narrowed my eyes and leaned my head forward, letting the oily hair stick to my face as I did so. As I raised a hand to part the hair over the mutated cat ears I glanced up, almost as though sucking courage from her face, and made myself brush the hair away.

She gasped aloud. "Oh my God!" yelled the girl, backing up a few wobbly steps. "You're..."

"A freak," I finished her sentence grimly, feeling the flaps of skin contract to flatten against my head. She demanded to know if I had a tail, which much to my horror I did.

I made her swear again not to tell.

After a while, the silence grew too much to bear. Lucky for the awkward convo-starter me, the loner broke the silence with a hesitant question. "Can I... touch them? Your ears?" she murmured softly, almost to herself. Surprised, I nodded. "Sure."

As we were both sitting on the ground by now, I scooted closer to her and leaned my head forward again, managing to angle my ears up enough to see. Her breath caught in her throat as she let her hand wander up to the top of my head, fingers brushing lightly along the surface of the silky ear. Like a cat's.

I shivered involuntarily at the sensitive nerves in my ear, feeling the sensation echo through my head. She pulled away, smiling slightly. "It's soft."

I nodded, flattening them agan in self-defense. "We need to do something about this," I began, looking around. She agreed silently with a nod. "Desert plus nighttime plus Killjoys equals big bad danger. The best we can do for now is... stick together?" she suggested. I nodded, glad I'd not been the one to suggest that. "Yes. What you got on you?"

She searched her pockets, her holster, everything. "Nothing," she admitted, embarassed. I shrugged. "Ditto. We'll be fine," I told her, more for my own comfort than hers. She smiled and scooted over until she was right next to me. "Who gets first watch?" she asked. I shrugged. "I haven't slept in days, but I get the feeling neither have you."

"You sleep," she told me, and uncomplaining I dropped onto the sand, asleep before I hit the ground.