(Untitled)

[eureka_bell]

Steve just spent several hours in a bad, bad place.

Spooky-noises, monster-attacks, bloody-wire dead-people bad.

And now he is out. Walking, carrying his jetpack in case it shorts out again, and indescribably jumpy.

Oh. Oh. he has a radio. A radio which until recently was good only for alarming bursts of static when something was about

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[hundred_twelfth]

Satya, for her part, is not in the immediate vicinity of her radio.

She's a few feet away, kicking rocks, wishing Aurren were here.

[eureka_bell]

No answer? Are you trying to make him paranoid?

"Satya? Master Satya!"

Maybe it's just the distortion and crackle of the radio. Or maybe his tone is staccato and slightly too high.

[hundred_twelfth]

"Steve?"

Okay, she's here now. And predictably displeased.

"What the kriff is going on?"

It's not you she's angry at, Steve. It's everything ever.

[eureka_bell]

It's debatable whether he even notices the anger; he's that relieved to hear her.

"Oh, thank Christ."

That audibly relieved.

"Where are you? I'm coming to find you."

Splitting up really sucks.

[hundred_twelfth]

"Right where we split off. Which we are never doing again, by the way. And next time I suggest leaving the 'speeder at the farm you can tell me I'm a vairen idiot."

[eureka_bell]

Steve should really have installed sat-nav or something in his jetpack. Ah well, that can go in the notes for the next version. For now he'll have to make do with the compass, and try to remember exactly where it was that he lost his bearings in the fog. (If he'd been any higher up when Silent Hill stopped his jetpack working, then the narration could make a joke about getting his bearings from the impact crater, apart from the bit where he'd have broken legs.)

"I went north, didn't I?" He starts retracing his proverbial footsteps. "For-- oh, no, I'll have to use the 'pack..."

Hopefully it'll hold out this time. He's giving it a thorough stripping-down when they get back to the farm.

[hundred_twelfth]

"Don't tell me you broke the pack, too."

She snorts.

"It's a gorgeous piece of technology. Yes, you went north."

[eureka_bell]

Slightly offended: "I didn't!"

There's a pause, and then a faint, hopeful humming to indicate that the pack is back on its feet. So to speak.

South it is, then.

[hundred_twelfth]

"Did something-- no, never mind, I heard it for a second there. Okay. What the kriff happened to you? Did you piss off a strong electromagnet? What?"

[eureka_bell]

There's a distant, tinny sound of wind through the radio: Steve is taking a second to go high, trying to spot her.

An answer is not forthcoming.

(He's still shaking. His arm is still torn, the cuts black. There's still blood and water and the slime they make all over him. What happened is not something he wants to talk about, right now.)

[hundred_twelfth]

"Steve. Talk to me."

[eureka_bell]

Breathe.

Wind.

Breathe.

"O-okay, I think I know where I'm going now."

[hundred_twelfth]

"Good. Can you see me yet?"

[eureka_bell]

"If you're a very small and distant blob, then yes."

And if he's a wavering speck that's getting gradually larger as it approaches -- he's cranked up the jetpack to full speed, though he's staying low on the logic that this gives him less distance to fall should something terrible happen -- then she should be able to see him...

...right about now.

[hundred_twelfth]

"Oh, there you are."

She waves.

Let's just not mention the ugly, charred gouges that litter the ground, or the way the dirt around them has fused into glass. Okay? It's not pretty when a Jedi-in-training loses her temper.

[eureka_bell]

o_o

Steve, when he arrives, very carefully avoids opening a conversation on the topic of the sorry state of the landscape. It's preferable to barbed wire, rust and blood, anyhow.

...speaking of those last two.

He's going to need a hot bath and a new outfit, stat.