Everfall (WIP)

2-0-1-5
Sarah ran her finger over the faded and worn down letters carved into the wooden wall of the building. It was a date, that much was obvious. She grabbed the golden locket that hung from her neck as she stroked the numbers a second time. The carving had it's own story, from a time long ago, where some innocent kid must have scratched it into the wood thinking he was being rebellious or what not, leaving his mark. He didn't think anyone would actually care about it or be intrigued by it, so why write anything more than 2015. He probably carved it into the wall, and got caught and reprimanded. Or maybe he finished and just walked away. Or maybe he meant to write more than he did, but didn't have the wherewithal too actually do it. Whatever the case, it was just another story that would never be told, as Sarah dragged her finger across it a third time.

"Are you done, Ms. Archaeologist?" A familiar voice asked from behind her. Sarah stood up calmly, and turned around to face her friend Veronica. Sarah was briefly startled, as Veronica looked significantly different when she wasn't wearing her heavy brown tunic and armor, so seeing someone just walk up behind her carrying a rifle gave her a small shock. Veronica just laughed at Sarah's reaction, kneeling over for a bit as her short black hair feel in front of her face. Veronica watched Sarah, with an everlasting grin on her face, as Sarah regained her composure raised her arms as a general expression of "I guess" before stopping to look up at the tall mountains surrounding them, covered in lush trees and tall grass.

"It's been a long time since I've seen any trees." Sarah said, wiping her long brown hair away from her eyes. She turned around to get a good look at the whole valley, not quite in awe, but in general amazement at seeing such a rare sight.

"Yeah, well, I've never seen so many in one place." Veronica remarked. "Can you believe it? No sand at all. Just trees, grass, dirt, even a lake." She said as she swung her rifle and gestured over to the large lake that sat at the bottom of the valley. "And it's so warm Luke even want's to go swimming. Can you believe that? This warm this early in the morning." Veronica expressed with sincere surprise.

"This places weather patterns are so weird, does Gear have any idea why it's like this here? Why it wasn't affected by the Extermination?" Sarah asked, taking off her tunic as well. She didn't need the extra layers or the protection from the sand anyway.

"Not that he's told me. He's watching Luke now, but Luke doesn't want to swim without his big sis." Veronica said, punching Sarah's shoulder playfully. She laughed, but then quieted down. Veronica quickly sensed her discomfort.

"He doesn't have to know what you did last night." Veronica said calmly.

"I killed those people Veronica, all three of them."

"But they would have killed you, me, Gear, and then taken Luke. Quinn want's him for some reason Sarah. You did the only thing you could do, Sarah. And he doesn't have to know you did it at all. We just have to keep moving." Veronica said, Sarah grabbed her shoulders and looked down at the ground, a dismayed look forming on her face. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin, like she had become something she was not. A killer, a murderer. She couldn't get the image out of her head. One shot straight through the first mans skull, four more in too the chest of another, and then a lead pipe straight through the back of the women as she tried to flee. She hadn't just killed those soldiers, she'd executed them. She knew Veronica was right, she had made the right choice killing those men, she just wished it was her choice to make.

And then she felt a hand slip into her own, and she felt Veronica's fingers close over her own. A smile formed from her frown as a warm feeling filled her, safety. She smiled at Veronica, a silent thank you for being there for her. Veronica smiled back as Sarah danced her fingers between Veronica's.

"Go over and tell Luke he can go swimming, I'll be right over. Also make sure he doesn't get much of his clothes wet. I'd rather he know it's okay to get pretty much undressed and swim rather than have him fall in and complain when we have to start walking again." Sarah said, giggling a little.

"So," Veronica laughed "You knew he'd be ending up in the water one way or another." She said, walking away and taking off her undershirt.

"Oh yeah!" Sarah shouted as Veronica ran towards the lake. Sarah watched Veronica run over. She saw Gear and Luke standing by the edge of the Lake, the giant mutant monster hovering over the water, seemingly equally as fascinated as her young human brother.

And then Sarah turned, and hid herself behind the wooden wall of the building. She turned towards the side of the building opposite the lake and felt the locket on her neck grow warm, than hot, than almost scalding as if it was about to burn her skin off. As the locket burned against her chest, she watched the form of a young woman phase into existence in front of her. The woman had long brown hair, a thing figure, tan skin and a small but pointed knows. As her figure continued to form, her head moved, and her blue eyes shifted to look right into Sarah's. A large brown tunic formed over the woman, and simplistic armor that looked almost scraped together formed around her body. And then the locket began to cool, and the woman had fully formed in front of her. Sarah swallowed hard, as she did every time the woman appeared from the locket, as this was none other than a reflection of Sarah, and a dark one at that. Her very own living shady side.

"Oh, honey," The Reflection said, "No need to look so angry."

"What the hell were you doing last night! You're not supposed to take over unless I let you, and guess what? I didn't let you!" Sarah exclaimed, furious at her shadow's hijacking of her body.

"Well that's not really the right way of saying it, is it? I mean you clearly let me take over. Just not willingly."

"I'm not fucking joking around. You are not allowed too do that." Sarah said angrily.

"Oh what are you gonna do? Throw the locket away? I've already told you you're Dad left you with it for a reason before he put you and Luke in that chamber, and it's got the only pictures of Luke and your parents that you have." The Reflection taunted. She was completely aware that Sarah had no true power over her, as it was her fathers intent that she be assisted. "Besides, your girlfriend is right. If I hadn't intervened, they would have killed you and your friends and then taken Luke. Really you should be thanking me."

"I'm not thanking you for hijacking me. I'm supposed to be in control of my own body."

"Yeah, except when you're going to get us killed. There's two of us in here now, remember? I'm not gonna let us both fail and die just so you can feel like you have some kind of control." The Reflection crossed her arms and turned around, facing a particularly sunny side of the valley. Sarah sighed, defeated.

"Do you know anything about this place? Why it would have been spared from the Extermination and why it's weather would act like this?" Sarah asked, exasperated.

The Reflection tilted her head and looked slightly at Sarah, "Do you know how far we are from Fireside... Oh, I'm sorry, Old Fireside."

"No." Sarah shrugged, "I've never been."

"Yeah well, we'll pretend like that statements true." The Reflection muttered, looking up into the sky. Sarah had seen her do this before, the data and light streaming across the Reflections eyes, just large enough for Sarah to watch the numbers and words dance across what was essentially her own iris. "This place... was a Boy Scout camp at one point. That's where the building behind you came from. It's an old pavilion. They probably had lunch and snack in there or something."

"From before the Extermination?"

"No, before that. The Infestation. This place has been abandoned for a long, long time." She explained.

"Is that it?"

"Well that's the thing, the only reason I know that is because that's not all." The Reflection said with a hint of snark in her tone. "Stark, your father, had a facility here. It's located under the valley."

"A facility?" Sarah asked, surprised, and almost excited. "Like the kind we've been looking for?"

"Well not quite. This wasn't one of his personal facilities, and it doesn't seem like he really supervised it." The Reflection said, her expression and voice, Sarah noted, indicated she was intrigued. "It was ran by a man named Cross... Jaxon Cross... It specialized in tissue replication..."

Tissue Replication? Like cloning?" Sarah asked, nervously looking around the valley, which had started to lose it's magical, peaceful aura.

"No... oddly enough Starks files list cloning sites. No this was something different... but I can't get any of the files without getting into the facility. Tissue replication, plant, animal, even human..."

"And I'm not going into the facility." Sarah snapped back. The Reflection glared back at her, an angry and frustrated glare.

"Well then I guess we're at a crossroads." It said as it began to shimmer, and fade away into nothingness, returning to it's digital resting place within the locket. Sarah grasped the locket ever so briefly, took a deep breath, then turned and walked over to the lake.

~~~

Gear, a hulking and mutant monstrosity, sat peacefully on a rock outcropping, hanging out just over the lake. He watched Luke and Veronica splash and play in the shallow part of the lake, near a small beach and an old, ruined shed. The mutants green skin boiled in the sunlight, but he paid it no mind. He couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel it when the Wastelands reached a hundred and twenty degrees and sand was ripping through the tunics and skins of his friends, why should it bother him now. He instead busied himself, continuing to sharpen a lrge metal sword, large enough that only a mutant, and one of his size, would be able to swing. He was quite proud of it, he'd been crafting it himself from a rusty metal sign post.

"Tired yet?" Sarah asked, climbing up to the outcropping behind Gear.

"I haven't felt tired in a long time." He said, continuing his work without missing a beat.

"I know. I realized on the night when Luke fell asleep walking and you still wanted to keep going another fifty miles."

"Don't dance around the subject, Sarah." Gear said, even as he continued his work, "You have a tone when there's something you want to talk about." Gear placed the large rock he'd been using as well as the in-progress sword on the ground, and stood up to his full, monstrous height of nine feet before turning to Sarah. "Besides, I saw you talking to your friend."

Sarah sighed, defeated. "Underneath this place is a facility my father owned before the Extermination. It worked on recreating living tissue from scratch. Engineering it themselves."

"From what I've learned through my travels." Gear said, wiping his hands and long talons, "Jack Stark wasn't exactly a biological master, he seemed much more concentrated on technology, robotics, that sort of thing."

"Well that's the thing. It wasn't my father who ran this place. It was under the supervision of one of his higher ups. Jaxon Cross. Stark barely supervised it, I don't think he knew what went on here."

"Well what did go on here?" Gear asked. Sarah shrugged, and Gear paced around the rock, kicking his large barefoot a long the ground as he thought. "It could be the explanation for the flora around here. The facility has been abandoned likely for a long time, maybe there was a containment breach and the experimental flora escaped, repopulated the area surrounding it. Could be a good thing. If it keeps spreading, maybe in a thousand years the earth can be re-filled with plant life." Gear explained, Sarah nodded her head in agreement. Sure she wouldn't live too see it, but a revitalized Earth was what they were working towards on this whole journey, no matter what Quinn, his Imperials, or the Congress had to say about it. "But I'm not entirely sure it'd be a good thing." He added.

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.

Gear turned and reached into his rucksack, and pulled out a small, flat, computer screen between his two fingers. He handed it too Sarah and turned it on. "This was the artifact we got from the last facility we explored. It wasn't like the others. Didn't fit into the potential armor theory you came up with, and had no influence on it's surroundings or it's user. No memory exploration like with your locket, no temperature influence like with Luke's glove. All this thing does..." He explained, swiping a finger across the screen. Suddenly, the screen lit up with all kinds of information on the surrounding area, including Water Level, Humidity, Cloud Cover, Longitude, Latitude... everything you could possibly want to know about exactly where you were standing. "Is tell you about the area you're in. But the thing I noticed was the oxygen level. I've been keeping records of most of this information as we travel. But the Oxygen levels in the wasteland are the same as the oxygen levels here."

"So?"

"So..." Gear said, knocking his fist against one of the trees, "These trees are imitations. They aren't producing any oxygen. They're frauds."

"Well that's worrying." Sarah muttered.

"How so?"

"They were trying to replicate animals and humans too."