Remainers

A Path of Loneliness, Part 1

Warm sunlight shone into Caleb's eyes, abruptly waking him up from his short slumber. He opened his eyes and quickly realized that the cave he and Hope had chosen to rest in was facing east, allowing the morning sun to shine right into its opening. It was a rather poor choice of shelter for the night in retrospect, but considering how tired they were when they first got here, they didn't have much time to make an informed decision.

Caleb glanced over at Hope, who was still asleep on the floor next to him. He remembered when she used to throw a fit about being told to go to sleep at night. Of course, it didn't take long for her to realize that she do much at night when Caleb was asleep and unable to accompany her, so she might as well try to sleep anyhow. Nowadays, it felt as if he was the one who needed to get her to wake up on most days.

Of course, it had now been two years since they had first teamed up, so he had a lot of time to learn about Hope's various personality quirks in the time since then. She had become a lot less rigid in the years he had watched her grow and develop, but she still seemed to be quite cagey when it came to the subject of her humanity. Perhaps that cold, detached demeanor really was her true personality, but he sensed at the very least a conscious attempt on her behalf to avoid being too open and emotional.

Having said that, he didn't really know how to approach the subject with her. He didn't want to be overly preachy, and in any case, he'd probably talked enough about the subject that he'd just be going over the same old ground if he kept trying. The problem was trying to figure out just what it was keeping her walled in, but that wasn't something he could just force out of her.

He sighed. Maybe he was overthinking things. After all, being emotionally closed off wasn't all that strange. Maybe this was just the best he could expect from Hope. Still, even if that was the case, he felt strongly that the distance between the two of them hadn't shrunk in the years they'd known each other.

He heard Hope groan behind him, and turned to see her waking up. As she crawled out of her sleeping bag, he walked up to the campfire they'd set up inside the cave and started preparing for breakfast. "Morning. You slept well."

"As if I could sleep well on such a hard rock floor," Hope replied with a pained groan. "We should have pushed until we came down the mountain."

"The sun was already below the horizon by the time we got to this cave," Caleb said, somewhat exasperated. "Even if we ran, we couldn't have gotten down the mountain before it got too dark to see."

"Whatever. Are you making breakfast?"

"Yeah. Do you want some?"

"No. We don't have much left in the way of rations."

Caleb merely shrugged as Hope let out a tired yawn and walked outside. Inwardly, he wondered whether or not she even understood how much trouble he was going to on her behalf. Then again, did she really need to be in touch with her humanity as an immortal remainer? Maybe it was just his hubris as a natural human that made him want to see her act more like a human. It was that sort of thought that kept him from really pushing her on this subject.

It wasn't long before the two of them were out on the road once again. It was about a two-hour trek down the mountain, then a four-hour walk through the woods. By noontime, Caleb and Hope finally arrived at their destination, a relay tower standing amongst the plains of the northern United States. They were running a little late, but naturally, most remainers wouldn't exactly make a fuss.

As they approached the relay tower, Caleb and Hope noticed two figures standing outside, a man and a woman, frolicking in a grass field with a group of small brown puppies. The sight was fairly surprising to Hope, who seemed taken aback by such a whimsical image. "I thought we were here for a job."