Mindblown: A Fallout Tale

Part 8: Overdue

It had been two years since she left with the caravan.
Big Town was fairly peaceful since she'd dealt with the Super Mutants and slavers.
Of course, there was the occasional, inevitable raider attack now and then, but the robots she had helped repair were performing their job as defenders more than adequately.
Yes, it was all very peaceful.
After the traveling Timebomb had done, however, the peace was unsatisfying.
Sure, with the traveling came a lot of impromptu naps and injuries that by all rights would kill any normal human, but the sweet taste of adventure was worth it.
Besides, he made friends with a very interesting group of people.
That it all suddenly ended just felt wrong.
He no longer felt at home in Big Town.
Not without...
...
Nevertheless, despite his dissatisfaction with his current routine, he continued to live peacefully alongside his childhood friends.
He always felt the urge to go after her, to find her again, but he felt that something might come across as weird if he did that. He wasn't sure.
So, he remained.
He lived in a safe, friendly, familiar place.
Someplace someone would be happy to call home.
But no matter how much he tried, he could never feel the inner warmth of home.

...

One day, a normal day, like any others, Timebomb left his cabin shelter to face the new day.
He kept waking up later and later, day by day, bit by bit.
The sun was fairly high in the sky already.

 "Hey, Timebomb!"

He turned and saw the town medic, Red, who had just come out of the clinic.

 "Oh, hey."

 "Nice to see you up and about, this Mr. Handy unit came around a few hours ago, asking for this to be delivered to you. Some kind of letter."

 "A letter?"

Red handed over the piece of paper to Timebomb.
Paper was fairly scarce in the wasteland, most messages tended to be sent via holodisks as they could be wiped and recycled whenever needed. Plus, holodisks tended to be more secure than paper.
Timebomb didn't think about it too much and just read the message.

 "'Friend of Mistress Cywren Caster, this is a message from Wadsworth. It has been several months since the Mistress was supposed to return home. I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I believe it has been long enough to warrant some form of worry. If anyone has news of her whereabouts, please come see me.'"

Timebomb hadn't taken into account exactly how many months had passed since Cywren left, but as he thought back, the amount of time that had passed was indeed concerning.

 "What's it about?"

 "Ah, it's about Cywren. I've gotta go."

 "The hero of Big Town? Is she okay?"

 "I don't know, I'm gonna go see."

 "You're leaving? Alright, it's been a while since you've been out, be careful out there. Do you want one of the guard robots to accompany you?"

 "Nah, Big Town needs them more than I do."

 "You're just gonna leave all by yourself?"

 "Just until Megaton. I think."

 "... Okay, whatever you decide to do, just be careful out there, okay?"

 "Thanks, I'll be fine, don't worry."

Timebomb folded up the letter and went back into his cabin. He had his combat armor hung up in a closet, as well as an assault rifle, so he'd be ready if he needed to get back out on the road.
He equipped his old combat armor and picked up an assault rifle to defend himself with, and picked up a couple of rounds of ammo for it.
He said goodbye to his friends and began his journey toward Megaton.