Fallout 4 - story

Chapter 4 - part 3

After a short examination of the area and a quick glance at the map on Laila's Pipboy, a trailer park to the east proved to be a good location to set up camp, though the sun had yet to sink beyond the horizon. They locked themselves inside of an abandoned mobile home and started a fire in the middle of the space, huddling near it as the sun disappeared, giving way to the unforgiving cold and darkness of the night. Moonlight bathed the park as Cait gazed out a broken window, mulling over the past events. It had been two full days since the incident at the Fort Hagen military base. The two women didn't speak of it, they had only spoken as much as was actually required to survive. The redhead had also been uncharacteristically quiet, barely making any sarcastic comments or criticizing her companion. There had been a lot on her mind.

Cait wondered how far they had traveled. She would pick a certain location along their way, a grassy mound or a pile of rubble, and then she would wonder whether or not their feet had crossed those paths before. They had traveled far and wide together, survived many ordeals, and yet they were still total strangers to each other. She should not be bothered at all from keeping their lives a secret, it was the only way to stay independent and relatively safe. It confused her that she was, and yet she remained distressed about it. Cait found herself frustrated that she knew so little about the woman sitting cross-legged on the other side of the fire.

What concerned her most were her own feelings around Laila. Nothing had changed between the two since the incident at the base, but Cait had felt weird ever since. Her hand contracted involuntarily as she recalled the feeling of Laila's fingers intertwined with her own. She huffed. Was she a stupid teenager? That seemed like the age people would obsess over something as insignificant as hand holding, wouldn't they? Of course, Cait had never really been a teenager so she couldn't tell for sure. It was something she prided herself on, how fast she had grown up to defeat the odds against her survival. But still...

Cait pulled herself away from the window and sat a little closer to the fire. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as she investigated the home they had set up camp in. It wasn't very big and the insulated metal walls had once been green, but most of the paint had peeled off or faded, exposing the metal to the elements. On the far side was a broken, wooden bedframe from which they had snagged pieces to build the fire with. The mattress had long since disappeared but they were used to sleeping on the ground in their sleeping bags, so it did not matter. The rest of the place was pretty empty, a small kitchen with broken appliances was attached to the wall opposite of the window Cait looked through, and a fragile table stood near the door. The women had deposited their bags just within reach on one side of the fire and set up their sleeping spaces on either side of it. Dogmeat had settled a little bit away from them and was gnawing at the remains of a squirrel he had caught.

The Irish woman studied her companion. She had uncovered her face, something she did more easily now when only Cait was around, and was very focused on eating her canned ravioli. The redhead wondered briefly why Laila covered her face all the time. It couldn't be because she was concerned about her looks, not only was the small brunette not the shallow kind, but she also had a very attractive face. Or so Cait thought. Sometimes, people would hide their faces because they had something to fear, but Cait had a hard time imagining her companion to be scared of anything enough to hide from it. Then again, Cait knew nothing about her, really. Maybe she did have something to be afraid of.

There it was again. Everything, no matter what the topic was, always returned to their ignorance of each other's backstories. She decided right then that she wanted to change something about that, but Laila would expect a bit of Cait's own story in return, and Cait did not know if she was ready to talk about her past. But screw it! Her curiosity was tugging at her mind almost uncomfortably and needed to be satisfied. She waited patiently for Laila to finish her meal before she initiated the conversation.