Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 23: Lost Soul

Kelly felt her head swimming in the dark, now and then hitting her with a sense of disembodied awareness, like she was dreaming and simply watching from inside her body as it operated of it's own accord. Not only that, but every time she caught Danse's eye, her pulse spiked, and in turn, that brought on a headache to keep her vertigo company. She needed to stay focused.

"Deacon, how did you end up down here with us, anyway?" she queried to keep herself distracted while they were searching the rubble. Already, her muscles were screaming in protest each time she hoisted up rock. Her back was no exception.

"I was on the railings when they came loose," Deacon explained with a sigh of remembrance. "Whole fricken thing came down under me. I got lucky, though-rolled under it and used it as cover."

Kelly was nodding her head, the event playing out in her imagination. "The others... did you see if they got off the railings in time?"

Deacon plonked a substantial rock down and stood in thought, stretching the muscles in his lower back with a grimace. "Pretty positive they didn't jump down like you two, but I didn't have enough time to see if they went down with the railings. Strong grabbed Cait and MacCready behind me and pulled them back... They might have gotten back to the ledge in time..." his voice trailed off as he peered up, toward what was left of one of the stone ledges. Both her and Danse followed his direction.

"It's possible they could still be up there," Danse voiced their collective thoughts.

Then came the obstacle-how to get up there.

"We could climb up the rocks there," Kelly pointed, then brought her fingernail back to her tooth in thought, "but there's still a big height to get up to the ledge..."

Danse hummed. "This might not be the safest idea I've ever conjured up... but I could attempt throwing you up there."

Kelly cast the Paladin a thoughtful look, then exchanged one with Deacon, who was giving a nodding shrug, and she mimicked him in agreement. "Good thinking, Danse."

"I have my moments," he quipped dryly as he picked his way across the rubble and toward the tall pile of rocks stacked up beneath the ledge. "Now, I suggest Deacon goes up first. For obvious reasons." Despite making the claim for obvious reasons, Kelly wasn't sure he meant simply because Deacon was a man and therefore more able to pull himself up and then give her a hand up behind him, or because she was injured, apparently afraid of heights-then again, so was Deacon-and had virtually no muscle mass since dropping in weight. Neither reasons offended her, they were both true enough, so she let it go.

Deacon pushed up his leather sleeves and stretched his limbs like an athlete before approaching. "Time to shine," he prepped himself. "How do we wanna do this thing, Danse?"

"I think a good old-fashioned boost-up should do it." Danse then conjoined his hands, weaving the fingers together with palms up for Deacon to step into.

"Okie-dokie." Deacon sounded a little hesitant, but he went ahead and stepped aboard, a hand on Danse's shoulder for balance. Kelly watched in fascination. The two had never worked together so cooperatively before. Her two closest pals, actually getting along with each other. Out of necessity, but still...

Danse counted down to three, then propelled the spy up with a powerful thrust. Deacon soared, letting loose a startled holler at the rate of which he ascended. His hands reached for the ledge, but failed to latch on and he fell straight back down in a heap amongst Danse's arms.