My Wasteland Angel Bk. 01

With a twist of her shoulder she slips free of my grasp and pulls away. She turns and crawls for the exit.

In my rough rasping voice I say. "Gabriela...I'm happy...you're...okay." I grimace as I swallow, each word again feeling like molten glass shards tearing up my throat.

She stops a moment. I watch her shoulders relax as the anger drains from her. She turns her head though her eyes don't look back. She responds. "Thank you Filth..." She is still for a long moment, I could see she wanted to say more. It is quiet. Just the steady pat, pat, pat of the dripping water and the distant crackle of the campfire to be heard.

"Gabby...don't...leave. Talk. Talk to...me." The more I talked the more it hurt, but as she turns back to return to me I knew the pain had been worth it.

She crawls up and settles in beside me. Her small hand grips my bare shoulder, her other one lower down on my arm, and she stares into my eyes. "I'm a human. Okay? I...I don't know why this happens. My Mom said it was my guardian angel looking out for me, but...I don't...I'm just not a mutant. I know that in my heart. It is impossible for me to be a mutant, okay? God wouldn't...let that happen. I'm going to heaven...when I..." She sniffles as she struggles to maintain her composure. She blinks the tears away rapidly then manages keeps her emotions in check. She says once more with conviction. "I'm a human. I'm a pure blood human."

This poor girl. That religious shit had really gotten to her. Her belief in her own pure blood humanity was her desperately trying to hold onto her everlasting soul. She simply could not imagine herself as anything less than human. She could not cope with her eternal paradise in the afterlife being denied to her simply because of the body she'd been born into.

I felt sympathy for her. Many of us out here knew that feeling well, but as it related to the pure blood colonies. Mutants cast out of the relative safety and security of these communities into the unforgiving Wastes for something beyond their control. Usually as babies or small children. Innocents punished for nature's cruel curse on them. If it wasn't for the Orc women known as the Doulas that roamed the areas near the colonies most of these babes would perish.

I look at her resolute expression. If she didn't want to admit she was a mutant that was okay by me, I would not press it. Fuck, we all had to live in our own little bubbles sometimes to get by in this world. How much shit had I blocked out or repressed over the years to convince myself that I wasn't really a bad person? I'd told myself being a raider was just a way to survive and that surviving was all that mattered in the end. I told myself anyone would have done the same thing in my shoes. Now that I had met Gabriela...I realized that wasn't true. Had our roles been reversed I would have NEVER considered staying to try to save her.

Reaching up with my good hand I rest it on her shoulder as she was doing to mine. "Gabby...human." I nod.

A sweet little smile brightens her face. Her eyes drop to watch her own hand as it lightly strokes my muscular arm. She sidles up close to me, kneeling right up against my hip. "So soft." She says. "Your skin...it's so soft. You...you aren't at all what I thought..." She grins even brighter. "What's your name Filth? It was awful of me to call you that. You didn't do that thing to me. What is your real name?"

I turn the question over in my head. My Orc name, while it wasn't Puppy Kicker as she had quipped, was of the typical warrior Orc variety. No, I didn't want to hear Gabriela's pure voice say that ugly name. As I watch her feeling my skin I see her hand run over the gang tattoo...and I hated it. Oh how I hated it in that moment, and all that it represented. The person who had gotten that tattoo, the person with the dangerous sounding Orc name, was no more. She had died in that ambush up above as surely as the rest.

My mind casts further back...far far back to my childhood. A time in my life I rarely thought about anymore. My non-Orc parents had given me a name. A name I hadn't used since I was thirteen and old enough to truly fight. A name from before I started running with raiders. A name that I had never shared with anyone in my adult life.

I lick my dry lips and swallow again, I wanted to make sure I said it clearly for her. "Willow...my name is...Willow." It sounded familiar and foreign all at once. It was strange to hear it out loud after all these years.

She looks back up at my face in surprise. "Willow?" I nod. She smiles once more. "What a lovely name. What a beautiful lovely name. Willow." She laughs. "That was not what I was expecting." There is an intense moment of connection as we look eye to eye, soul gazing. She blushes and looks down. "I am realizing I have so much to learn. Some things in the Wastes are like they said back home. But...some things aren't. Not at all."

"Thank...you...for saving...me...Gab..." I break out into a rash of coughing, each causing fresh bursts of pain. Gabby grabs the water jug and offers it to me. I control the coughs and take another long full swallow of the soothing cool water, the jug was almost empty now. The pain eased for the moment I clear my throat and I say again. "Thank you Gabriela."

She just nods slowly. Then, shaking her head, she takes a deep breath and chirps. "Hey, um, you must be starving! Hope you're ready for some fresh fire roasted toad."

Was I ever!

Part 11:

Gabby was right, I was absolutely famished! I hadn't eaten since the fall the day before yesterday.

I can hear her moving the heavy chunks of concrete and metal that I used to secure the outer edge of the shelter. Looking around I soon find my spear and walking stick. I take it then start moving forward to help her open our tent up once more, as she had done the previous morning. The support sticks are put up again, her doing one and me doing the other, and I am able to look out into the clearing beyond.

I see she had built the fire roughly in the center of the area. Just a small simple cooking fire. Beside it she had dragged the broken windshield that had been covering the wood to use as a work area where she was gutting the toads and skewering them on sticks. I see some general flotsam of junk and dead vegetation around the area, blown in from the storm last night. Her shirt, hole in the shoulder and the dark stain of blood all down the one side, hung from a jutting out piece of metal. It looks like she had washed it and had hung it out to dry.

Gabriela was right. It felt cool and smelt fresh. The melodic call of a song bird could just be heard in the distance. The whole world seemed more alive in the calm after the chaos of the storm. With a limp, less so than yesterday, I step out of the shelter and walk a few steps. I stretch upward to my full height. "Unhhhhhhhh." I moan as arch my back and stretch out my arms. God it felt good.

Gabriela stands between me and the fire. Her wide eyes run up my muscular nearly seven foot frame. "Wow! You're really big!"

I look down at her. "Gabby small." With my throat the way it was now I could finally communicate with her, though I had to keep the number of words to a minimum. Anything more than two or three and I'd start a coughing fit. I must sound like a neanderthal, probably just the way she thought I would normally talk, but it is what I could manage at the moment.

She grins as her eyes settle on the shorts and tank top she'd gotten me yesterday. "The clothes fit...sort of. The shirt is too tight, isn't it?"

I shrug as I smile back at her. I was so happy she was okay, I still couldn't believe it after the worry and panic of last night. "Tight good." I reply. Reaching up with my injured hand I smoosh my big breasts under my forearm. "Tight sexy...yes?"

Her eyes widen. "Oh! Uhh...sure. Sure Willow." I see a delightfully cute blush darken her cheeks as her eyes flit across my too tight tank top and my pushed up cleavage.

I saw no point in beating around the bush with her. As a raider I generally just went after what I wanted. I liked her, I really liked her, and I could finally express it. I would never force anything with her but before the fates required us to split up I deeply hoped a physical relationship could develop between us.

I widen my tusky grin, trying to make it as friendly as possible. I look over her bare shoulders arms, and upper chest. I can't help but think about the fact that she was completely nude under those overalls. "Gabriela sexy too." I say in my raspy voice.

She looks momentarily stunned. The blush darkens a shade. She then squirms and glances to my groin before spinning away from me. "Ohh, oh my. Oh...uh...thank you Willow, but um... Um...oh my...I...I better get to cooking these toads." She hurries forward and resumes her work cutting and scooping the entrails out of our breakfast. I watch her hunched and squatted over her work, shooting me bashful glances. Maybe I was coming on too strong but I knew of no other way.

As I start to walk around the area, just doing a quick perusal of the perimeter, I am thankful the dry thirsty ground had soaked up most of the water from the storm and that it had had enough time to dry out a little bit. The ground was wet, and a bit of mud stuck to my bare feet, but the clearing wasn't a sloppy or sticky muck hole. As I move I realize the splint could come off today. My ankle still hurt but the support was slowing me down more than it was helping me at this point.

I spy our water bottle, full of fresh clean water, sitting beside Gabby. I hurry over with the idea of taking a drink. Bending over I reach for it...Smack! I recoil my hand in surprise as Gabriela had snapped out with her hand and slapped my wrist. "That's for breakfast!" She scolds me. "There's a little water left in the jug, drink that." She motions off toward the shelter. "I brought this for breakfast."

She continues on, just now finishing with gutting the frogs. I stand looking down at her and lean on my cane. A low chuckle shakes my torso. Even in my condition I could end this little woman in the blink of an eye, yet she felt confident enough and safe enough to smack my hand like a naughty child. I found this hilarious. Gabby is taken by the contagious laughter and lets out a little giggle herself.

She looks up from the toads. "If you're walking you can be working. If you could clean up in there a bit that would be good. Keep the rats and bugs away." Yeah, good thinking. The storm had kept the rats hidden away over the night, but they would soon sniff out the smell of old blood. I head back to the tent.

She calls after me as I limp toward the shelter. "And pull the blanket out, let's air it out while it is nice." I shake my head. Seemed like she felt like she was in charge for the time being. So be it, I didn't mind that one bit. I pick up a half torn plastic bag as it wafts by on the gentle morning breeze.

I hunch over and enter, then sit down hard on my left buttock. The area still stunk of whiskey and sweat and blood. I finish the last of the water in the plastic jug then turn to cleaning up the bloody bandages and such. I stuff it all in the bag as I watch my companion set up all of the toad skewers over the fire, leaning the skewer sticks together like in a conical tipi over the crackling flame.

Gabby being Gabby had started up another of her one sided conversations. "I read once that frog legs were quite a delicacy in the old world." She laughs. "Imagine my toads here being served in one of those fancy restaurants? All those people in nice clothes munching on these guys." She shifts a few of the sticks. "Found these ones all together, probably mating or something. Wish we had some salt. We should always have salt, don't you think?" I liked the way she said 'we'.

"Smells good." I say.

She looks over toward me and smiles. "You're probably so hungry anything would smell good." She looks down at the mess of entrails left on the old windshield. "Um...do you want to eat this?"

I cringe and shake my head. "Yuck." I clear my throat. "Make...sick. Frog legs...ahem...grmm...French food. Yes?"

She looks surprised. "Yes! That's right Willow, I read they served them in French restaurants." A look of new found respect slowly settles into her. "How...?"

I swallow again and tap the front of my neck. "Throat...burn...can't talk...grmm...much. Not dumb." I rub my throat and swallow again, fuck this hurt but I was trying to make a point. "Orcs...not dumb."

She nods slowly. "No. No you're not, are you." She shakes her head. "Oh boy, I had you so wrong. We were taught, in the colonies, we were taught...that you Orcs were just savages. Just a step above animals." She takes a deep breath. "And, to be honest, with what I've seen out here...I thought they were right." She looks guilty as she says. "God Willow, I'm sorry I called you Filth. I didn't...I didn't know."

I put up my hand to assuage her. "It's...okay." I clear my throat. "Understand." I point to the spot she had been raped. "Other Orc...garbage. I hate...him." I struggle to quell a round of coughs.

I pull our blanket out and make my way to hang it out over a semi clean chunk of rubble. I make sure it is fully exposed to the warm sunlight. I make my way back to the fire and sit down heavily beside Gabriela.

She is looking at me curious. She goes from a squat to sitting down onto her knees, shifting closer to me as she does so. "So...you're smart. That's good to hear." She tilts her head. "But...then...why are you guys always fighting. Always attacking the colonies and stuff?"

I give her a hard stare. "Not all...grmmm...Orcs...raiders." A lot of us were, our strong bodies made us ideal for battle, but Orcs were as varied as humans or any other type of mutant.

"No, I suppose not. I've seen some of you as scroungers. But I kept my distance."

"Orcs...need survive...too." My voice was almost gone. "I fight...I take...I survive."

"But..." She had so much she wanted to say but she was choosing her words very carefully. "...but, what if...what if someone can't fight? What do they do? Do you take from them?"

My proud words from a second ago drain away. The answer was yes, of course I take from them. I take what I need and if they don't cause a fuss I leave them alive. Seeing her wide earnest brown eyes looking up at me I suddenly wasn't so sure about my way of life. In a harsh whisper I simply say. "...I survive..."

She is looking at me closely. "All that fighting. Do you ever...get scared? Do Orcs get scared?"

I nod. Watching her bleed out last night had been the most terrifying moment of my life. Oh yes, Orcs did get scared.

She lays her soft hand on my knee. "It's okay to be scared. When...when I had to leave home, my Mom said that...it was okay to be scared. That being scared keeps you alive." I looked at her honest face. I had the feeling she was scared all the time. What a hell that must be.

I lay my hand over hers, totally eclipsing it. I can feel her tense a bit but she soon relaxes. "Gabby...don't...be...scared..." I cough. "...of...me."

She smiles, her teeth perfect and gleaming white, and she edges a bit closer. "I'm not scared of you Willow. Not anymore." A stare into her rich brown eyes. It suddenly gets very quiet between us.

When it gets too much for her she looks away. Pulling her hand from under mine she returns her attention to the toad skewers and begins turning each sizzling chunk of meat over to cook on the other side. I take two fresh dry pieces of wood and carefully add them to the fire.

She says softly. "Willow...it really is such a lovely name. So lovely. I like it. I like you Willow."

I liked her too.

Part 12:

Staying quiet a time I swallow repeatedly, trying to clear my scratchy throat. I look down at my splinted ankle and decide to see how bad it actually was.

As Gabby attends to the food I sit down fully onto the wet ground and begin to unwrap my ankle splint. She watches as I do it. "Leg feeling better? I honestly didn't think you'd be walking for a while. You're pretty tough Willow."

I nod. "Hurt...but better." That applied to my whole body. My right side and throat still hurt, but I was actually starting to feel like myself again. I could feel my strength and health returning to me. I was sure this food would do wonders.

I lay the splint and wrapping to the side. I can feel around my ankle and twist it from side to side. Some swelling and it had some acute pains in a few specific places, but it seemed in working order. Standing once more I very gradually shift some weight onto it. I grimace as I feel a slight crunching sensation as my ankle takes my weight, in her concern Gabby stands herself and readies to step forward and support me if needed. Even just that simple little selfless moment of concern was so different than what I was accustomed to. In the gang we might carry someone out of battle if they went down, but once they got somewhere safe the medic would patch them up and after that they were on their own to figure their shit out themselves. If they couldn't keep up too bad for them.

My cane was all the support I needed but I reach out to allow Gabriela to help me. I would take any excuse I could to touch her. The look of genuine concern on her face making it all the better.

My large long fingered hand rests lightly on Gabby's warm soft shoulder. She holds my arm with her small hands. Her open expressive face was searching mine to see if I was okay. I take a moment to just appreciate her gaze, finally able to admire her closely in the full soft light of morning. She was such a pretty Latina woman. Large soulful brown eyes, fine yet full pink lips, a small button nose, thick dark but not bushy black eyebrows, delicate little ears that stuck out just a bit, making her all the more adorable, and of course her tussled maybe two inch long shiny black hair. Her overall frame and elegant facial bone structure was fine and immaculately proportioned. Everything about her was flawless.

I'd forgotten all about the ankle I was supposed to be testing right now. It sure as hell hurt, but it was holding my weight just fine. I just stand and openly admire my small companion.

The way I look at her I make no secret of my feelings and desires. I smile as I rub her shoulder gently in my hand. Her expression goes from one of worry to one of nervousness as she sees me studying her closely with a hungry gaze. That lovely blush rises in her cheeks once more. I was coming on strong once more and happily so.

"Oh, um Willow. Hoo boy. Willow, please...please stop looking at me that way." She looks down, unable to maintain the intense eye contact.

"I..." I swallow to try to clear my voice. "I like...you."

She shakes her head and stammers. "I-I-I like you too Willow but...not like that...Willow women can't...um...you know. I know you have a...um...peni...oh boy...but you said you were a woman. And a human a mutant certainly can't! That is simply forbidden! And...without marriage... Willow, don't you see that it would be a sin three times over. At least. Just...we can't okay?" She looks back up at me nervously. "But, I'd sure like to be friends."

A sin? Because of some dead words from a dead book? More mumbo jumbo from this Padre Diaz she spoke of no doubt. More make believe bullshit. Of course I would respect her wishes, but if it was just because of this crap I sure as hell wasn't going to give up. If she said that she wasn't interested for her own reasons that was one thing, but I couldn't take seriously this "sin" argument. I knew better than most that sin existed, real true soul scarring evil, I had seen it many times. I had committed it. What she spoke of was just silliness.

I simply smile warmly. "I like you. Gabriela...grrmmm...sexy." Ugh, that gross clearing of my throat could have come at a better time.