Lost In Lucidity

Asphalt Fossils

"Eight, I'm... that's terrible. I'm so sorry." Val tells her.

Eight crosses to the tree and yanks out her blade before shrugging, "That's just the job. She knew what she signed up for. That tough lil' bitch took that thing down with her, though." Eight chuckles. "I am going to miss her." Neither Val nor I know how to respond, but that doesn't matter as Eight speaks again anyways, "The city ain't going to send anyone to get those 'civs."

"Yeah, I know." Val sighs. "Are you guys going to be okay? Just the five of you now?

"We'll have to be. We're not going to get any more guards before the transfer. We'll just... make do, I guess." She looks at us, "Not unless you two wanna join the watch." Val and I look at her in surprise before Eight breaks into laughter, "Nah, I'm just screwing with you. Six would never let you anyways. She still sees you as civs and not fighters." The guard returns to flicking her knife and staring off toward the wall.

"What do you mean by that?" Val asks.

"She just doesn't see that you two know how to handle yourselves. We're trained soldiers with tools and weapons, and we still get the shit kicked out of us constantly. You two are a couple of high school students with a knife and machete that have been injured, what, like maybe three times severely?"

"To be fair, we aren't directly fighting like you are."

Eight shakes her head, "That doesn't matter. If you two can survive out there as long as you have... Well, six should take you more seriously, is all I'm saying."

"Thanks, Eight. Although, we don't really need her to anymore. It's not like we need to go out now that we're transferring."

"Sounds like you might."

"What do you mean?"

"You really gonna play coy, Val?" When Valentine doesn't respond, Eight throws up her hands, "Look, I'm not saying you should go; I don't want to see you two hurt or... y'know, worse. But I know just like us, and just like Ten, you know the risks that come when you try to protect others." The guard slots her blade back into her belt and then starts forward, "Anyways, I've gotta get back to my post. Alone this time..."

We watch as she walks down the sidewalk between streetlights and houses and out of sight.

Val and I don't say much to each other on the way home. We just walk in melancholy silence. As we make our way past Claireese's house, despite everything going on, I can't help but pull my phone from my pocket and glance. When I see no texts, I feel a pit in my stomach and slide it back into my jeans.

'It was one visit, Wes, and it was against her will. Do you really think she'd be all buddy-buddy with you again?'

We finally reach our homes, and Val hugs me.

"Goodnight." She says plainly.

"Goodnight." I return. I start to head for my house but stop when I see her begin to cross the street. "What are you doing?" I call out.

"I'm not ready to go home yet." She responds.

I look at my house, then back to her, "You want to come over for a bit instead? More comfortable than the garage."

She hesitates, then nods, "Yeah. Yeah, alright."

The two of us enter inside and remove our boots before heading to the sofa and falling back onto it with heavy sighs. Neither of us bother to turn any lights on. We've practically become nocturnal at this point. Val slumps her head over to my shoulder.

"What do you miss?" She asks after a long while.

I think for a moment, then chuckle to myself, "I never thought I'd be saying this, but you remember the 'Rhine Co. Diamonds' commercials that never stopped playing on the radio?"