Fallout 4: AR

70. Skill Up

Crack! The man's forehead disappeared in a spray of blood and brain matter as he, too, dropped to the concrete of the street.

V.A.T.S. initiated... kind of. Instead of a feeling of slowing time and hyper-focusing on target, I almost instinctively sensed the trajectory of my throw. It wasn't much assistance compared to a firearm, but it was enough. The grenade rolled towards the open manhole, loosely covered by the pallet I had spotted before. I clumsily scrabbled back against the barrier, counting silently and covering my ears. One... I felt terrible, Two... awful, like an idiot, Three... for even thinking I could convince a couple of raiders to change their ways. F-

BOOM!

Even with my hands clapped over my ears, the explosion rocked my whole body, vibrations translating uncomfortably from my seat on the ground to pound my skull. I curled up into a fetal position, head towards my knees, and just focused on breathing. Once the rumbling underground had stopped, I flopped over on my back in an excess of relief.

"That went about as well as expected, hmm?" A shadow moved in to block the sunlight. "I told you so."

I sighed, refusing to open my eyes. MacCready moved so quietly that I never heard his approach. Yes, you told me. I should have believed you, humans or no. "Mm-hmm."

The smile in his voice was audible. "Aw, c'mon Boss! Part of the deal was I got to say 'I told you so' over and over again! It's no fun if you're here beating yourself up over a couple of bottom-feeding drug addicts. They don't deserve that kind of hold over your conscience. I believe you called it a 'clear case of self-defense'?"

I grudgingly opened my eyes to his grinning face. He held out his hand to pull me to my feet, tousling my curls affectionately when I groaned and stood up.

The retort died in my throat as I stared at him, suddenly noticing the change in his appearance. It was amazing how quickly MacCready managed to get dirty, just from sniping. His face was smudged, muddy smears only broken up by the snaggletooth grin and sparkling blue eyes. Even the hand he pulled away from my hair was coated in grime. "You're right, Mac," I conceded, eyeing the state of his clothes. "Out of curiosity, and to completely change the subject..."

"You're not going to stop me from saying 'I told you so' you know," he interjected, still grinning his little-kid grin.

I felt my own lips turn up in an answering smile. "I wouldn't expect you to. But," and I gestured to his encrusted state, "how did you get so dirty so quickly? We took showers only this morning."

He looked a little surprised, glancing down at his duster, and holding up his hand to examine it as if for the first time. "Camouflage."

"Say that again?" I had used mud to cover my Pip-Boy pin receivers at the Diamond City gate, but...

He shrugged. "Camouflage. The last thing I want to do when I'm sniping is attract attention. Pale skin especially is a dead giveaway that someone is there. You camouflage yourself to look like a piece of the scenery and stay perfectly still."

"Smart." I wrinkled my nose at him. "Though did you have to use stinky mud?"

Before I could react, he swooped in to rub his muck-smeared cheek against mine in a sloppy drive-by kiss. "Ughhh!" He scraped along one pant leg and booped the tip of my nose with the glob of sludge.

"There. We match. Now you practice being camouflaged while I check out your handiwork downstairs. I'll let you know when it's okay to come down. Oh, and one more thing?"

I uncrossed eyes that were staring at the crap on my nose. "Yeah?"

"I told you so."

With that parting shot, he disappeared into the manhole. I sat there scanning the area, trying to ignore the smears on my face. They stank, and the slight clicking from my Pip-Boy warned me that there was more than just mud coating my skin. How does RJ not get rad poisoning from this? Glancing briefly at the screen, I noticed the red line of radiation dosage had climbed again since the last time I had worn the device. Better take some RadAway again, and soon.