Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20181223224329/@comment-5543592-20181228182849

"Don't think of it like that." Tanner said, as they followed Duncan. "We'll drink to new beginnings."

Hours later, Tanner climbed up onto a hill overlooking the Emerald City, and looked down on it for what would be hopefully the last time. There was no way he was coming back here. He began the meticulous process of collecting enough large sticks and branches to build a pyre. Once he was done, he laid the Boss’ wrapped body on it.

The sun set in the distance. Snow settled on the ground, and it continued to flurry.

“Well, Boss,” he said, “this is it. The end of the road. You always joked I’d be the death of you.”

Tanner picked up two rocks at random from the ground, and struck them together over the pyre. A fire lit immediately.

“I hope I can fill the shoes you left. They were pretty big ones.”   He pulled out his flask, and took a long drink from it.

“I know I’m no good at helping people. I never have been. It’s always been me who needed help. In a book, the heroes gets powers like mine, and they’re his call to action. But the catch is that I can’t use them without major repercussions. I’m a superhero whose weakness is being himself.”

A bush rustled behind Tanner and he whirled around, drawing his revolver (recovered in the aftermath of the fight).

It was only the young Causer he had seen earlier, sitting on the stoop near the Undercity’s entrance.

“I didn’t mean to snoop.”   He apologized. “It’s cold, and I saw a fire…”

Tanner groaned inwardly, and motioned for the boy to join him. So much for a final moment with his mentor.

“What’s your name?”   Tanner asked, as Cable joined him at the pyre. It was starting to really catch now.

“Cable.”   He answered. “I know you. The Cause was talking a lot about you and your friends the last few weeks.”

Tanner nodded.

“What do you think happens now?”   Cable asked, looking down at the city.

“I think things get better.”   Tanner said. “I think they only can.”

“I thought that too, once.”   Cable said.

<p class="MsoNormal">“And?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“And then I came here. I thought I’d finally found my place. The Cause took me in, gave me a home, when no one else would. And then they were taken from me.”

<p class="MsoNormal">A sense of déjà vu settled over Tanner. “It sucks.”   Tanner agreed. “But that’s life.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Not if I was you.”   Cable declared. Tanner glanced at him, and he blushed. “You saved the city, took down Hades. You changed things.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah, well, I’d be careful of anyone who claims to change things. They might alter the course of the boulder as it rolls down the hill, but it’s still going to hit whoever’s at the bottom.”   Tanner mused.

<p class="MsoNormal">They stood in companionable silence around the pyre. It was alight now. The Boss’ corpse burned within.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well, I’m sorry to have bothered you.”   Cable said, stepping back. “It was good to meet you.”   He reluctantly began to turn and wander away, but without any purpose to his step.

<p class="MsoNormal">Tanner didn’t make any move to stop him. “Goodnight.”   He murmured, as Cable vanished back into the trees.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Can’t save the whole world, Boss.”   Tanner said once Cable was gone. “You taught me that.”

<p class="MsoNormal">The pyre began to pop as the bones were consumed. It was burning down now. Soon the ash it left would blend seamlessly with the snow and no one would even know who was laid to rest here. Tanner looked out at the city.

<p class="MsoNormal">The snowfall dulled any noise or bustle the wasteland might have on a day like this. There never was much, traffic between settlements was small and most who patrolled the city streets belonged to a military of some sort. But the wind blew down the abandoned boulevards and off the ancient pavement, echoing up and down streets and bouncing off of buildings, highlighted just how empty this city was.

<p class="MsoNormal">The echoes raced down the streets, between the skyscrapers of the inner city, out to the more residential distracts, where Pioneer Square lay, and beyond. In the woodlands beyond Seattle, the snow wasn’t an eerie remind of how the vast majority of the earth was empty, but a nuisance that created mud and obscured one’s vision as a fog dropped into the valleys on the slopes of the Cascades. Seattle was chilly, and this autumn was chillier than most, but the snow was beautiful, and so was the city, and for once the silence was not that of the dead but of the peacefully asleep.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, fuck me.”   Tanner cursed, turning away from the pyre. “Cable! Wait up!”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Emerald City drowsed back into a quiet lull and things were as they should be. The pyre burned to ash and was swept away by the wind.

<p class="MsoNormal">THE END

<p class="MsoNormal">(Thanks for playing Fallout: Prophecy!)