1A/N: Here we are again, lol. This one is significantly different to the other one and I thought that my F!SS could use a little bit of a revamp, she felt a little flat to me upon reading my old chapters again but in the end I decided that it would probably be better to give Lara her own chance since a few people had said they preferred Jack. So, Lara's getting her own fic. It's still the same premise as before but a little bit more beefed up and it'll go in a very different direction to the other.
Warning: There will more than likely be a lot and I mean, a lot of swearing and violence in the upcoming chapters. It's only rated K for now but the rating will definitely go up as we get deeper into the story, so if that kind of thing offends you then you're probably better backing out now. Peace and love.
1.0 / Lara.
"Bye, Honey! We love you!"
The holotape ended with a click, leaving nothing but the gentle hum of the small generator to her right to ease the silence of the Wasteland. The Pip-Boy on her wrist flickered to life, illuminating her features with a dull green glow as she raised it to pop open the tape-deck. She took a deep breath and paused, her hand hovering hesitantly over the holotape inside. Her brows furrowed as she chewed lightly on the inside of her lip, her mind was racing with thoughts. She sighed and clicked it shut once again.
"Oops," Her late husband's warm laughter filled the air. "Little fingers away."
Lara Taylor had never been the sentimental type in her old life, she had never seen the point. Nate had always criticized her for so carelessly throwing away items that most people would have cherished and she would always argue back that it was the memories that mattered, not the materialistic things. But things had changed for her drastically, both literally and figuratively, since she woke up in that Vault alone all those months ago and wandered into the Wasteland by herself. She found herself clinging to the smallest of memories and trinkets.
"Hi, honey, listen-"
This holotape being one of them, she had listened to it so many times since the day Codsworth had given it to her, she was surprised that it still worked at this point. She knew every word that Nate said, knew every single little noise that Shaun made. She was torturing herself, of course, she knew that too. But that didn't stop her playing it every single night as she lay wide awake in bed, unable to sleep until the small hours of the morning. It was the one of the few things that kept her sane in these trying times.
She kicked her feet up on the small table in front of her and dropped her head back against the ruined couch with her eyes closed. She knew she should at least try to sleep, too many people had been telling her lately about how run down she was starting to look. And honestly, she didn't even need to look in the mirror to know they were right. She felt it on a daily basis, she would spend every waking moment exhausted but then when she finally came to settle, her mind refused to ease. Where she should have welcomed sleep with open arms, it had become her enemy. What little sleep she did get was plagued with nightmares that she couldn't shake.
"You're kind, loving and funny-"
The only sleep she got was when she passed out, whether it be from utter exhaustion or in a drunken stupor. She knew herself that it was becoming a problem, she was relying on alcohol too much. Her people were starting to talk, starting to doubt her. Not that she could blame them, she wouldn't want to follow a raging alcoholic either. But she was trying her best, she had poured out what little whiskey she had left and had told herself that would be the last of it. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She tried her best to let her mind drift, tried pushing out the cacophony of thoughts and focused solely on Nate's calming voice.
"Everything we do, no matter how hard, we do for our family."
The loud whurr of an engine, followed by several gunshots in the distance snapped her harshly back to reality and she shot forward, her heart pounding. She hit pause on her Pip-Boy and snatched her rifle from the shelf before stepping outside, her eyes on the sky trying to find the source of her disturbance. She squinted and spotted the culprit in the distance… A vertibird? It had to be The Brotherhood, she deduced. They were the only people in the entire Commonwealth careless enough to parade around in pre-war tech that attracted so much unwanted attention. But what the fuck were they doing this far North? They usually stuck to the lower end of Boston, near that flying eyesore at the airport.
"Ah, General?" A voice came over her Pip-Boy.
"Go ahead, Preston."
"Sorry to disturb you, ma'am... But ah, you're seeing this too, right?"
He was hauled up in Sanctuary with the others, they had all insisted that she get some kind of rest and had ushered her down the road to the Red Rocket station with the intentions of her getting some peace and quiet. She had begrudgingly complied, she knew they were just trying to look out for her and honestly, it was easier just to listen to them all than try to argue.
"Hard to miss it," she said, rubbing a hand over her tired face.
"Do you want us to send a te-" Preston didn't even have time to finish his question, he was abruptly cut off by the sound of a missile screeching through the sky. It collided solidly with one of the vertibirds engines, which began spinning out of control almost instantly. "Oh shit!"
The vertibird was wavering dangerously close to the ground, mass amounts of smoke propelling into the sky. Whatever sleep that had lingered on her was stripped away instantaneously, her mind had been snapped back into gear, "Get a small team ready now, meet me two clicks east ASAP."
"No problem, General. Be careful. Over and out."
Lara drew her sidearm as she cautiously approached the where the vertibird had gone down, dipping down behind a large rock for cover. She peered her head around the edge to assess the situation, her trained eyes scanning the perimeter thoroughly for any signs of hostile movement. She hadn't bothered to wait for Preston and his group, deciding that time was of the essence if she was going to be any form of help to the survivors, if there even was any.
The 'bird was a crumpled mess when she reached it, several bodies were littered around it, just as crumpled. She wasn't sure if they had fallen out or bailed out intentionally when they knew they were in for a crash landing in an attempt to save themselves, neither option seemed like a fair way to go. She edged out from the rock and crept towards them, pressing her fingers to each of their necks in search of their pulse. Nothing. She grimaced and gently removed their holotags before slipping their eyes closed and saying a silent prayer.
She was about to call the whole thing a loss as she slipped their holotags into her pocket but a pained groan came from inside the wreckage. She squinted, trying to see past the flames in the hopes that she could spot the survivor but it was futile, thick black smoke stopped her from seeing any further than a meter in front of her. She inhaled deeply and pulled her bandanna over her nose and mouth before she stepped into the wreck.
Twisted and warped steel formed a horrible cage around her, the raw edges were snagging at her clothes as she tried to sliver past them and deeper in. The heat was unbearable in the several layers of armour that she sported and it quickly became very difficult to breathe, even with light protection of her bandanna. She grimaced as her lungs began to spasm, causing her to cough violently.
She spotted a man at the back, lying face down dangerously close to the flames. He looked huge, a flannel shirt was stretched over the mass of his back, blackened, ripped and drenched in blood. She heard him groan again as he planted his arms beneath him and attempted to lift himself, but they quickly crumpled under the weight. He was understandably weak, but at least he was alive. She couldn't be sure of the extent of his injuries until they'd escaped this shit heap.
She stepped forward and hissed as a sharp edge she hadn't seen tore through her protective gear and deep into her thigh. Fucking great, she cursed to herself. Always loved Tetanus. She did her best to ignore the searing pain that now coursed through her leg and pushed forward to the survivor. She knelt down beside him, wrapping one arm firmly around his waist before tugging one of his large arms over her shoulders. She heaved in an attempt to pick him up but immediately strained under the weight and they both dropped.
"Jesus, this would be a lot fucking easier if you weren't three hundred pounds of solid muscle,"
She huffed and yanked, her feet sliding against the steel as they struggled for purchase. The stranger hissed in pain at the movements but she didn't slow. She knew she must be hurting him, she didn't know yet how bad his injuries were but it didn't stop her, in her mind, pain was always better than death. Moving him was too slow and they certainly didn't have time for slow right now. The vertibird groaned, the heat around the two was only intensifying, as was the smoke. Her lungs burned and sweat now drenched her brow but she didn't ease up until she had pulled him to the opening.
"Any help you can offer would be fucking fantastic," She growled under the stress, more to herself than anything else. "What's the point in having all those muscles if you don't fucking use them?"
To her surprise, her harsh words must have spurred whatever life was left in the man to the surface and he planted his feet beneath himself, albeit feebly, and wrenched himself forwards. It wasn't much and Lara still had to take the brunt of his weight but it was enough momentum to get them moving a little faster.
"General!"
She would have rolled her eyes if her mind hadn't been completely engulfed by the task at hand, of course Preston shows up after she had done all the heavy lifting. His sudden appearance didn't halter her, she continued trailing the survivor until they were both a safe distance from the flames. She dropped to her knees and set him down as gently as she could muster before she ripped the bandanna from her mouth, her lungs drank in the fresh air. Her chest was heaving and her vision was a blur but she had done it. She had saved him.
"General! Your leg!" Preston called as he and the group gathered.
"I'll be fine," She brushed him off, her attention going solely to the injured man that lay before her as she turned him over onto his back to assess his condition.
He was not in a good shape in the slightest, his clothes were drenched in blood and there were several burnt patches where the material had melded to his skin. She grimaced and her hand delved into her rucksack for a Stimpak, it wasn't going to do much for him but it would hopefully buy them some time to get him back to Curie alive.
The man wheezed, his eyes barely open, "...Sarah?"
"General, we need to move him," Preston urged, snapping her attention up to him. He was right.
She gave him a curt nod and stepped back while Preston slid his arms under the survivors shoulders, another one of the Minutemen grasped his ankles and they both hoisted him off the ground with ease. Luckily they weren't too far from the settlement, but he had lost a significant amount of blood, hopefully if they acted quickly they might be able to save him and this wouldn't all be in vain.
A/N: So there it is, take... 3? I think. I'm hoping that this one is better than the others, I actually took the time to proof-read this one! Yes, I'm surprised too, haha. As always thank you for taking the time to read this and if you've got any feedback at all for me then I would be eternally greatful if you left a wee review. It helps a lot. (:
