Time stopped. He saw his wife's face plastered on the person next to him. The black hair, the v-neck shirt. Studying her, he noted some inconsistencies. Her hands were those of a working person. His wife preferred to stay at home, and she had quite delicate hands. When holding them, he could remember it so well, the softness of her palms. She would grasp his with care and solicitude.
Lucas extended his reach to her. There was a bit of hesitation from her. She let out a confused interjection, but in the end she did end up grasping his hand.
This wasn't what he remembered. This wasn't the hand he had once felt. It was possible that he was misremembering what his wife's hands really felt like, but he he decided to trust his scrambled memory.
This wasn't his wife. He was sure of it.
(Her: "Are you okay?")
She spoke suddenly, his hand still interlocked with hers. Her voice was definitely higher than his wife's. She was young, much younger than he assumed.
His hand slipped away from hers and he averted his eyes. He sat up in the bed, looking down at the protuberance of his legs under the sheets.
(Lucas: "Where are my clothes?")
She crossed her legs and sat back. She sighed and pointed to the door in the corner of the room.
(Her: "I washed them.")
Lucas raised his eyebrow, perplexed by her words.
(Lucas: "Washed them? With what?")
(Her: "Well… water. Duh. What else am I going to wash them with?")
There was a sudden explosion of cries from behind the door. Was that… a baby? She got up and walked out of the room to attend to it, opening the door and walking away without closing it.
Lucas was dumbfounded. He thought he was dreaming for a moment. He's had hallucinations more believable than this. This was a shock to his senses. The soft candle light that illuminated the room. The bed he lay in. It was all too surreal. He had to remind himself to breathe again.
Just seeing another person for the first time was unbelievable. And they had access to water? Where? Where would they possibly get it? There shouldn't be any water on the surface of the earth, so he couldn't imagine where she possibly got it. And she had a child?
He pulled the sheets off him and got up. His underwear was clean too. In fact, these weren't even the same pair he wore when he saw that masked person. He felt a bit uncomfortable knowing that she had completely stripped him of all his clothes and put new boxers on him, but he couldn't be bothered to care all that much.
He searched for something to cover up with when he saw that at the end of the bed was a folded shirt and pants. He quickly got dressed and looked at himself in a mirror that was perched on a wall.
The shirt was tight on him, as well as the pants. They were a couple sizes too small, but it was better than nothing.
He scrutinized his body in the mirror. Whoever that woman was must've washed him, because his hair was back to its natural blond color. There was no dust or dirt on him.
He walked out into the hall. His legs were still weak. He almost lost his balance, but he recovered it by rebounding on a wall. He followed where he saw the woman go, and he came a across an open area. There was a kitchen to the right and a living space to the left. At the table, a child no older than one and a half years old sat in a high chair. He could see the woman in the kitchen carrying what looked like milk in a trainer cup, as well as a plastic container that contained baby food. She brought it to the child and opened the lid of the plastic container. With a tiny spoon, she fed the child.
Lucas entered the room, looking around. It was night out, but he could see clearly in the house. There were many candles all over. They did a good job of keeping the house bright.
The woman looked over at Lucas, covering her mouth at the sight of him. She was trying not to laugh.
He took a second look at his attire. He could at least admit to himself that he did look ridiculous in the tiny clothes he wore.
The house they were in was nice, but it looked barren in some places. He could see spots on certain walls where you could tell that a picture frame and been there, but were removed.
Lucas looked out a window, watching for any dangers.
(Lucas: "Where are we?")
(Her: "Don't worry, we're too deep in this forest for any small apostles to get to us.")
Lucas still searched however. He looked for any potential weaknesses to fix.
(Lucas: "These windows should be boarded up.")
(Her: "I'm not boarding up the windows. You seem to be very restless. Why don't you take a seat?")
(Lucas: "Where's the guy I saw on the road? He had a mask and brown jacket.")
She snorted at him, almost offended by his remark.
(Her: "You're looking at him.")
(Lucas: "You're a dude?")
(Her: "No, idiot, I am the person you saw.")
(Lucas: "Ah- right…")
Lucas sat down at the table, finally calming down a little. He rubbed his face. The baby was staring at Lucas. It pointed at him and squealed in excitement at the sight of a new face.
(Lucas: "Is it a boy or a girl?")
(Her: "Boy.")
(Lucas: "Is he yours?")
(Her: "Technically, no. I found him it the arms of his father's corpse. It's lucky I found him too. He almost starved to death.")
Getting better look at her now, it was clear this was not the woman he married. Liliana had beautiful hazel eyes. This woman had eyes as dark as the night. He couldn't tell her pupils apart from her Iris. Then there was her hair. It was thinner, and straighter. His wife's hair was wavy.
He wasn't sure how he thought she was his wife. He was just seeing what he wanted to see.
(Lucas: "Hey, where did you get the water?")
She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
(Her: "There's a well outside. There's water under the ground.")
Lucas in all his time in the wasteland never thought of that. He assumed there was no water left anywhere.
(Lucas: "What do you eat?")
She paused for a moment.
(Her: "Are you a Raider?")
Lucas didn't know how to respond. Raider? What's a Raider? He sat there and looked dumb for a second.
(Her: "Obviously not, then. I thought you were by how you were dressed.")
She let out a relieved sigh.
(Her: "You asked me what I eat like you have never eaten before.")
(Lucas: "I don't eat. I'm not human.")
(Her: "Very funny.")
She didn't believe him. She got up and walked into the kitchen and brought back a bowl. She placed it in front of him. Lucas was disgusted by what he saw in the bowl.
(Her: "You hungry?")
She said this as she placed a bowl filled with little raw chunks of meat, cut up into cubes.
(Lucas: "No, not really.")
He pushed the food away from him. Why did she give him raw flesh to eat? Why hadn't she cooked it?
(Her: "What? You don't like your food raw?")
(Lucas: "No, and rightfully so. You can't eat raw food!")
(Her: "Why not?")
(Lucas: "It could have all sorts of nasty things inside it. It'll make you—")
He paused.
(Lucas: "Huh. I guess you can't get sick now, isn't that right?")
She nodded, as if she was waiting for him to realize. She took the bowl away from him.
(Her: "I'll cook it for you if you help me find firewood out there. Stoves don't work, so we'll have to improvise.")
(Lucas: "No, no, I'm fine. By the way, what's your name?")
She hesitated for a moment. It seemed as if she didn't fully trust him at first, but she gave in.
(Her: "My name is… Stella.")
Lucas nodded. Stella. It was a nice name. Unique. He'd never heard of a Stella, but it felt strangely fitting.
(Lucas: "Well, Stella, I apologize. I know I probably didn't make the best first impression, but I assure you, I'll be out of your hair come morning.")
Lucas walked back to the window and pulled up a chair. He sat down and crossed his arms. Stella stared for a moment, but she went back to feeding the baby.
An hour passed. Stella was walking back into the dining room after putting the baby to sleep. Lucas still sat next to the window. She wondered what he saw out there. What drew him to the window. He looked zoned out. He was awake, but not fully there. He was strange. Almost suspicious, but she didn't feel like he intended to hurt anyone. Why was he passing through the mountains?
So many questions and so little answers. She could, of course, just ask him, but she still didn't quite trust him. But at the same time, she didn't want him to leave. She didn't want to ask him to stay though, she just didn't know enough about him, but he was the first live person she'd seen in about a decade, not including the baby.
Stella fought her own instincts. The person she truly didn't trust was herself. She didn't want to make a bad choice, but it wasn't clear whether letting him go or not was right.
She distracted herself by cleaning the table and the kitchen, but she couldn't ignore it. She'd have to sleep on it. By morning, she'd make a choice. She'd have to.
Stella went around, blowing each candle out one by one. The house grew gradually darker. She made her way around to Lucas. He was still sat at the window. There was a candle on a shelf next to the window, and she went to blow it out.
Lucas' eyes were closed. Was he already asleep? She blew the candle out and was about to move to the next one, but something felt off.
She inspected Lucas for something, anything to confirm her suspicion. He was slumped over, and his arms had fallen into his lap. His right hand was clenched, and it was holding something. A necklace?
She leaned forward and grabbed hold of his fist, prying his fingers open.
There lied a necklace. It was a typical necklace, nothing fancy, but something that did stick out was a heart-shaped charm.
She wrapped the lace around her finger, about to pull it away from his grip, but his grip tightened suddenly. This scared her into thinking he was still awake, so she backed off.
She continued blowing out the candles, somewhat embarrassed by what had happened. She finished up and took one last look at him through the dark before going to her room and sleeping.
At the crack of dawn, Lucas ventured around the house. He found his clothes neatly folded in the room he had woken up in. He wasn't sure when Stella had the time to do this, be he appreciated it. He changed out of the clothes her wore over the night and took inventory. He had his knife, he had his necklace, and that was all he needed.
He was preparing to leave when he heard a door creak open down the hall. Stella walked out from around the corner. She was in pajamas and rubbed her eyes.
(Stella: "Oh, it's just you.")
(Lucas: "Yup, just me. Like I said, I'll be getting out of here.")
(Stella: "You have somewhere to be?")
(Lucas: "Unit Twenty-one.")
(Stella: Oh? The H.S.A. Unit? I thought those went out of commission long ago.")
(Lucas: "You know about them?")
(Stella: "You don't? They are huge underground bunkers built to house thousands of people.")
(Lucas: "I heard about Unit Twenty-one over a radio.")
(Stella: "A radio! Where'd you find a working radio?!")
(Lucas: "A gas station. The power was restored there for about five minutes, and in that time I heard a message on it that mentioned it.")
(Stella: "My god.")
(Lucas: "Yeah. They might know something about what I'm looking for. I've got to go.")
(Stella: "You can't stay a little longer?")
(Lucas: "No, I've got to find this unit as fast as I can.")
Stella sighed. She looked off to the right, past Lucas.
(Stella: "Okay. Let me get dressed.")
(Lucas: "Hm? For what?")
(Stella: "To go with you. Duh.")
(Lucas: "No, no, no, you can't. You can't follow me.")
(Stella: "Why?")
(Lucas: "It's too dangerous. It'd be safer to just stay here. Plus, you've got to look after that baby of yours.")
(Stella: "If it's safer here, then why go?")
(Lucas: "I need to find something.")
(Stella: "Then let me help you!")
(Lucas: "I don't need help.")
(Stella: Then at least just let us follow you. Resources will only last so long up here in these mountains. We need to find somewhere that food won't run out. Just take us to Unit Twenty-one, and you can leave us behind.")
Lucas scratched his brow in frustration. He took a deep breath and grounded himself.
(Lucas: "Okay, you can follow me to Unit Twenty-one, on one condition: you don't get in my way, and you keep that baby quiet. I don't need his crying to attract attention from any apostles.")
Stella nodded, and ran back to her room to get dressed. Lucas sat down, immediately regretting his decision. What did he just get himself into?