Fallout: Born Unto Trouble

22. Mourning

"Are you sure this was what sent out the signal?" Cass asked as Elizabeth walked around the crashed satellite outside of Nipton. When she didn't answer, Cass nudged her back with her boot, and Elizabeth gasped in surprise.

"What? What is it?"

Cass snorted, "I asked you if this was what sent the signal?"

"Yeah, of course," Elizabeth held out her Pip-Boy and pointed to a marked location on the map, then switched to the third tab from the left and pointed to the marked quest, "This is really accurate, it helped me more times than I could count in Zion. Which probably wouldn't be that much because I can't count..."

"And what about the Mojave?"

"Yeah, here too!" She chirped, making Cass' heart flutter. She was so cute, even when they were both dying in the heat. She smiled at her friend as she glanced back between the satellite and her Pip-Boy, pushing buttons between both of them and making a confused face after a while when nothing happened. Cass stood between Elizabeth's arm and her body, reading the text out loud, then turning back to the other. "I think you need to wait until midnight? The Midnight Science Fiction Feature!"

Elizabeth blushed and stepped back, "It's only around ten at night, though..." She looked at the moon, then back to Cass, who looked a bit frustrated.

"You dragged me all the way out here so we could wait around for this thing?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Elizabeth looked at the ground in front of her feet, "Honest, I didn't know."

Cass sighed, "I'm not mad, I'm just... it's hot." She wiped some sweat off of her forehead. Elizabeth tilted her head, "Well, you are wearing a jacket and long pants."

"Says the one wearing a million-degree vest and ten-thousand extra pouches."

Elizabeth rubbed the front of her pants where her pockets should be, "These don't have pockets! We need pockets!"

"Okay, yeah, that I can understand." Cass laughed.

Elizabeth smiled, "Good. Now, we could wait inside one of the houses in Nipton but..."

"But what?"

"I'm still scared."

"That's okay," Cass walked up next to Elizabeth and put her hands on her shoulders, "we can wait out here, I don't really mind."

Elizabeth blushed, "Um, okay, thank you. I just... don't want to be alone."

"Hey, I get it, no one wants to be alone either," Cass sat down in front of the satellite and patted the dirt next to her. Elizabeth sat down next to her and pulled her knees up to her chest.

At 12:00, the satellite projected an image onto the screen of the Mojave Drive-in, waking both women up. Elizabeth jumped up and stared up at the projection.

It was an eye furiously looking around, it seemed. A curious image to project, but there must be a message behind it.

Cass rubbed her eyes and stood up, staring at the projection as well.

"What does it mean?"

Elizabeth shrugged, "A message?" She turned back to the satellite, "Maybe there's something on here?"

She touched the side, and a blue field of some sort wrapped around her, then she was gone before she could scream for Cass to help her.

"Elizabeth!" Cass yelled, but she was gone! Disappeared into thin air!

___

It had been a week since Elizabeth returned to the Mojave. She sent Cass a letter via (another) courier, telling her that she was okay and she was going to go treasure hunting in the Sierra Madre.