NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes
Jessica...

I got dressed after I was finished in the shower, I ran outside to meet up with the Pathreplaceer. He was holding something. “I need you to put these on, they should fit over your clothes.”

He handed it to me, it was a white robe… like his, and a mask, like his as well… Though it was a bit more feminine.

I put it all on, it was, roomy. The when I went to put the mask on I head a click, so that’s how it stays on… It locked to the robe, it was easy enough to take back off; but it was interesting… Why did he want me to wear this though?

I asked him the question. “Why do you want me to wear this?”

He seemed serious. “Appearances, as my assistant you will be going with me to a meeting. The only issue is that you must wear this outfit as well, but only during them. You’re free to dress however you want afterwards.” Ok then… “We’re going to have chat afterwards involving, that…” Oh crap…

I should change the subject a bit. “So, why do we need to wear these. I’m not complaining just curious.”

He seemed willing to answer. “Well that comes to appearances. I have always been wearing this. The world recognizes me by this outfit, in our government it is a symbol of the highest authority… While you are wearing this, it is showing the authority you have as my assistant, but you do not command anyone. Don’t try to take advantage of it.”

I don’t plan to. “I have no intentions to do that, I’d probably get in a lot of trouble anyways.”

He sighed. “More then you could imagine.”

We started walking, I noticed we were heading to the edge of the wall… Where were we going? As we got closer I saw several armored trucks, we got into one of them… A convoy? The trip took a while, it was different sitting in the front of a truck… I’m used to being in the back. I fell asleep on the way there, they woke me up once we arrived… It was a base, it looked familiar.

This base looked familiar, but it wasn’t anything that screamed I’d seen this before… maybe it had the same design of something I’d seen once before… We walked up to the gate it had, slowly… Everyone had their weapons put away, they were trying to appear as little as a threat possible.

Once we got to the gate we we’re greeted by armed guards… and Jessica! She looked irritated and had her aggressive stance. “If you want to talk, your body guards can’t come in. I’m not going to be having any fighting here!” She was angry.

She looked older as well, she should be around twenty one but she looks a little older… She was a good bit taller than me now, probably around five-eight. I wanted to say something but thought it would be best to keep quiet. If she’s tense now suddenly hearing my voice might send her over. The Pathreplaceer motioned for the guards to stay behind, I tried following him in but Jessica put her arm out.

She looked irritated. “I said NO guards.”

The Pathreplaceer calmly replied. “She is not a guard, merely my assistant… I wouldn’t bring her if we had the intention to fight.”

Jessica scoffed. “Tch, fine; but she has to stay close you!”

Jessica was walking slowly, she was rearing for a fight… It made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like having people with guns staring me down… We walked around the base, I guess this was near the Yellowstone crater then… at least that was the goal, wasn’t it? We went into a room, it had a large desk and we sat opposite of Jessica… farthest from the door.

She crossed her arms and leaned back. “Now what could you possibly want to talk about?!”

The Pathreplaceer folded his hands and spoke calmly. “I wish to apologize for my actions. The incident was entirely my fault, I do not have an adequate reason to justify my actions…”

She scowled. “Really? You think an apology would make up for that incident. My sister suffered because of that! Now she’s dead. Can you bring her back!?”

The Pathreplaceer looked at me, I shook my head. I was worried. “I see, I do not wish to fight… My goal is to protect my people and having as few enemies as possible would be best for them…” She looked angry.

I whispered into the Pathreplaceers ear. “She’s in a really bad mood. I don’t know if you’ll be able to talk her down.” He nodded.

She replied to that. “You want to protect your people? I wanted to protect mine. A lot of good that did! What about your assistant huh? What does she think about this?!”

She was staring at me… I didn’t know what to do, out of fear I moved my hands around and pretended to be mute… Her scowl softened…

She calmed down a little… “I’m sorry, my anger it towards him not you… I’ll hear you out then. Say what you need to and get out.” How, how did that work.

The Pathreplaceer still spoke calmly. “I would request that we work together, we don’t need to share resources; nor troops. Simply an agreement that we won’t attack each other… We don’t need any more bloodshed between us, we should be dealing with the degenerates of the world. Not those trying to save it.”

She touched her chin. “I’ll think about it… You two should probably leave, several of the people working here are survivors from the attack. They wouldn’t be as willing to talk.”

Was that a threat? The Pathreplaceer nodded and we started heading out. Once we got out the door Jessica locked it behind us, then she went back to that aggressive stance… She was eyeballing the Pathreplaceer, I don’t think she expected much from me… As we walked down the hallway I saw something… It was a picture in a slot in the wall, there was a candle… It was a picture of me? I stopped and looked at it, I guess Jessica and the Pathreplaceer noticed as well… I turned around they were both staring at me, I jumped when I saw them; it startled me.

I froze, Jessica was glaring and the Pathreplaceer looked concerned… Jessica smiled for a moment, then she stopped. “She scares easily?”

The Pathreplaceer replies. “She was once a fighter, due to severe injuries on multiple occasions, she was given a new role.”

I looked back at the picture, it was when me and her took a picture screwing around… She was smiling. Then she said something. “That was my sister… She didn’t make it.” I pretended to be mute once, I lowered my head and raised it back up. She seemed to have softened a little, I wanted to let her know it was me, but I didn’t know how that would go. Would she get angry and attack the Pathreplaceer? I’ll wait before I let her know.

We walked out, several people watched us leave… Some glared, I saw Elizabeth in the crowd of people… She looked furious, but she didn’t say anything…

After we started heading back the Pathreplaceer seemed pleased. “That was a good idea to not talk… Though you may have given off the impression that you’re mute… Good job though, she was bomb waiting to go off. You put out the fuse for a time… Hopefully we won’t be the ones to relight it.”

It was quiet on the way back afterwards, I ended up falling asleep again.