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They sat side by side, staring into the fire.
The atheist and The Devoted.
She was baptised by water in a world that she watched get bathed by Nuclear Fire then baptised again by ice and technology.
He was Baptised by water in a world born by nuclear fire then he was baptised again by fire and water.
She was reborn with steel in her veins
He was reborn with God’s love in his heart.
They sit side by side, whispering words of the good book.
“For a non believer you seem to know a lot about the lord and his word.” He says, smiling under the bandages.
“Hence the reason I’m an atheist...I’ve read his word far too many times to keep believing, well part of the reason anyway.” She takes a swing from a bottle of wine, and offers the Burned man some, he shakes his head.
“Tell me what is the other reason?”
“I’ve heard the lord’s voice, seconds before I watched this world be born.”
The Man looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“You were there when the bombs dropped?”
She nods, taking another sip of the fermented fruit beverage.
“I was 24 years old and in Los Alamos for school, I was outside picking pumpkins with my best friend, it was warm and sunny. We were tossing the pumpkin back and forth when the siren went off. I remember watching the pumpkin smash to pieces as it hit the ground. I sent one last text to my parents as me and her ran to the vault located up by the lab.we were interning there, and were on the list. We watched through the window as the bombs were dropped.”
She paused and took another swig of wine.
“We were being lowered down when it happened….For a fraction of a second nothing existed and time came to a halt. In that immeasurably small amount of time, I saw him”
“You saw the Lord?”
She shook her head.
“I saw truth and then I heard Non est deus.”
“That’s latin for-”
“No God. I knew what it meant despite never hearing those words in all 24 years of my existence. In that moment I realized all 24 years of my devotion and existence being given to the Lord was pointless.”
The burned man puts a hand on the woman’s shoulder and squeezes, she leans her head on his ruined and bandaged hand.
“Then time moved and so did the world, I was nearly knocked unconscious from the blast but I wasn’t I stayed upright and got to watch the world be born. And you want to take a guess at what I heard when It was born?’
The man pushes a lock of hair of behind her ear, and hums.
“Screaming? Glass shattering?”
“The opposite. I heard nothing, there was no sound to be heard at all, not even the humm on static in the air. Everything was so loud, it was silent. If that makes any sense, which it probably doesn’t.” She chuckles and takes another gulp of wine before talking again.
“I didn’t hear another sound until we were in the vault, me and my best friend clung to each other. I’m not sure if I was terrified form the blast or that I no longer had faith and was on my own or if I was numb and in shock. Nobody was crying, we were all too shocked and scared and that when we were lined up and branded.”
“Branded? Like with iron and fire ? or tattoos?”
“No, with Vault suits. We’re just cattle to Vault-Tec, we were taken to these pods that were called decontamination pods. PFFFT more like cryogenically freezing pods. My best friend suggested we try to get a picture on our phones and cherish it. I still have that picture and still have the smell of her perfume stuck in my head. I gave her one last hug. I remember as we climbed into our Vault suits and then got into the pods.”
She paused chunging more wine as tears came to her eyes, the man with the ruin hands wiped the tears away and takes the bottle away as well.
“You were Cryogenically frozen? They were doing God’s work and you paid for it but please carry on.”
“We blew kisses and Said our I love you’s. I remeber seconds before the door to the pod closed we yelled, SEE YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE!”
She took a deep breath, and even though it caused he pain from his burns he pulls her into his chest.
She isn’t his lover but his only true friend but he sometimes feel maybe there's more than just friends but he knows his heart and soul belong to god.
But he will still hope and do what he can to make sure she knows what he feels.
“We were so convinced that we’d be okay and that we’d be together forever. But then the pod started freezing, and I was being baptised again for second time in my life by Ice and technology. There was a fluke in the programing and I was unfrozen just 3 years ago, My world was gone and so was my best friend.”
She looked around for the bottle of wine, she spotted it on the other side of the burned man. She went to grab it but her shook his head, and handed her a bottle of water.
She took a sip and laid back into the comforting arms that were covered in bandages.
“But when I awoke I felt alive, terrified but alive. I didn't know it then but I was reborn with steel in my veins. I soon acquired my PIP-boy from the overseers office by locking pick and then I somehow stumbled my way out of my underground tomb of ice and wires and rose into the world that I watched be born.”
She took another sip of water and started coughing. He helped her regain her breath and encouraged her to keep going.
“I made it out alive screaming but alive. I saw what the world had become and ended up fainting and went tumbling down a cliff.”
Graham snerked and apologized.
“I'm sorry but that's slightly amusing.”
She nodded, give him a small smile.
“You're telling me but anyway when I came to, I was surrounded by soldiers in power armor with a sword and gears on their chest pieces, and above me was a giant blimp like an airship passing over. I instantly knew that whatever that ship was part of was what I was reborn to be part of.”
She smiled and sighed.
“I was reborn and baptized to be part of the Brotherhood of Steel. I may have lost my faith but I found my reason for existing instead”
Graham smiled and nodded, his heart was beating erratically, he felt drawn to her. He knew what minded to happen.
God would forgive him, or at least he hoped.
“You know what else you were rebirthes for?”
“Salisbury steak and sunset sarsaparilla?”
He chuckled and leaned closer to her.
“Maybe but I believe you were rebirthed for this…”
And with that he pressed his lips to hers and for the third time in his mortal existence he found God.