FSE

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Nat's body emits a unique kind of radiation and is the only known form of radioactivity that can actually be seen. It can pierce even the best radiation suits and get through as much as a foot of lead shielding. Her suit is the only known barrier against it, and the origins of it are a mystery.

I have done some dangerous shit in my life, had some close calls and had some "I should be dead" calls. Before I got the Civic, there were more than a few incidents when I was by myself with my Mom's Nissan Quest where I almost hit the people in front of me at sixty plus miles an hour, there was also that time where I decided it would be funny to sneak up on my Dad after he got home from work and he nearly shot me. There was also that one time that I was putting a new pistol grip on my M4, but I didn't put the screw for it in the right way and when I tried to put a round through it, for a reason I'm not sure of, the screw gave out and my weapon fell forward, as the round went off. Now having said that, Medusa's Fog was somewhere in between one of those close calls and I should be dead calls. I was super fucking happy to finally be out of it. Returning to the wastelands free of the influence Medusa's Fog, I saw a strange beauty in the run down and bleached houses. It was also noticeably cooler outside of the Fog and the atmospheric pressure was much lighter. I could compare it to when you were little and things went bump in the night, you would hide under all of your blankets until you couldn't breath any more, so you emerged to take a breath and everything felt colder. Nat seemed to notice it a lot more than I did.

"Do you feel light headed?", she asked putting all of her weight on her spiked pole, holding her head as if she had a headache.

"No", I said, "you're just so used to the pressure inside of the Fog your body doesn't remember what to do with normal pressures. You should adjust to it here in a few minutes."

Nat breathed a heavy, raspy sigh and she didn't address me any further. Eirren was a short, 25 minute hike away from the Fog Barrier. She was camped out on the porch of a in not so great a shape house with her AK in hands, watching the road like a hawk. When she saw me coming, she set her gun down, hopped the porch railing with a single wing stroke and charged me. I scooped her up with open arms and she yanked the mask off my face, tossed to the ground and then kissed me in such away it amounted to her trying swallow me. We held each other as tightly as we could for a good few minutes before she spoke up.

"Don't ever do something that stupid again please", she begged, "I felt like I had the weight of ten thousand tons on my shoulder and the wait for you to come into view was torture."

"I think I ran into a similar problem", I said, "inside of that Fog is how I'll forever picture hell from now on. I know for a fact I'm gonna have the sickness for the nest few days."

"I'm just glad your safe", Eirren smiled hugging me again.

"Yeah that ones a keeper", Nat laughed leaning on her pole.

"Who are...", Eirren began.

"You probably know me as The Ground Zero Ghost", Nat said.

"Holy shit....", Eirren gasped, "after seeing the Fog from above, I didn't think anyone could be living in it, Ghost or not."

"Eirren, what I was doing was existing. Not living. Hell I wasn't even surviving", she sighed, "I died the day Medusa laid this curse on my shoulders."

"You and Arien must have been talking I take", Eirren mused looking into Nat's visor, "is there even a guy in there?"

"No", Nat laughed, "there's a female pit under that mask, or at least, what's left of one."

"You sound male though", Eirren said.

"Arien thought so at first too", Nat shrugged, "it's the mask. Something in the way it purifies the air makes my voice sound weird. It's nothing to complain about though, if you could see what I look like underneath it."

"I'm not sure that I want to", Eirren commented, "I can sure see why they call you Medusa's Ghost. Thanks, by the way, for getting Arien through that shit."

"Ah don't mention it", Nat said holding out a paw, "it's not radioactive, the suit cancels out external rads, but the leather on the glove might feel a little warm."

Eirren accepted the handshake and so did I. Without a word, Nat turned and headed back the way we had just come.

"Nat", I called after her, but she kept going.

"Nat hold up", Eirren said running around and getting in front of her.

"What?", she asked.

"Where you headed off to?", I asked joining them.

"Home", Nat said, "back to the Fog."

"You seriously gonna go back to that shit?", Eirren asked, "why? My tiny brain is having trouble understanding your reasoning."

Nat looked to the ground, laughed slightly and then, with some difficulty, pulled her head back up to look at Eirren.

"Eirren", she said, sounding like she might cry, "I won't lie. The thought of being left alone to wander the Fog forever scares me, but I'm used up. My body has become something it was not ever supposed to be, and the radiation that calls me home kills everyone I try to get close to. I don't want to kill you, Arien or your son. I don't want the death of more innocent furs on my conscious."

"You can hardly lift your mask on your own", Eirren said, "and you expect us to just let you wander back into that Fog? You better think again."

"I really do appreciate the invitation", Nat said, sounding like she was about to start crying, "but if I stay, you will die, and that's all there is to it. Never mind the fact that I need the high level of radiation in the Fog to function properly."

A thought struck me.

"Nat, how do you manage when you go seen your friends at the church?"

"Khen has an insane immunity barrier and James is well...a scorpion, completely immune."

"I mean to satisfy the radiation levels you need", I asked again, 'what do you do?"

"I usually just close up the vents in my suit", she said, "but I can only keep them closed for so long before the rads will start to get through it."

"How long can you keep them closed?", I asked.

"Why do you even care?", she asked, "I can't turn my head, my eyesight is shit, my hearing's not that great and I can't lift my arms above my head. On top of that, Khen took my guns and won't give them back. I'm a decent shot, but that's about all I can bring to the table."

"It's not about what you bring to the table", I shrugged, 'our son, Nero? Totally blind. Can hardly see blurs of color at the brightest part of the day. On top of that, he's barely two years old."

"Sometimes it's more about making friends", Eirren agreed, "someone who has the...relationship", she continued, searching for the correct words, "with radiation that you do could make a world of difference if the right situation comes up, and it already has once."

"And based on what my Geiger did when you just unlatched your helmet, to say nothing of when you took your jacket off? You could fry bandits like a chicken wing just by taking your gloves off. That alone, plus the fact that I don't think you should let Medusa control you any more is plenty of reasons for the three of us to find ways to put up with your radiation."

"I can't believe you would even consider this", Nat sighed. I could tell by her voice that she couldn't decide if she should stay or go.

"Ultimately", Eirren said, "if you want to return to the Fog, we can't stop you."

"You guys drive a hard bargain", She said, 'I'll tell you what, cut you a deal. I'll stick with you till you reach St. Joseph's Church. If you can convince Khen to give me my gear back, I'll stick with you permanent. If not, I'll stay behind when you move on."

"Sounds fair to me", I said, "Eirren?"

"It'll be nice to have another girl on the team", She smiled, "for a little while any way."

"You guys can get to know each other", I said turning and going towards the house, "I have gotta get outta this damn rad suit, clean my guns and get some rest."

"Sounds like a good idea", Nat agreed.

Up on the porch of the house were two rocking chairs and a door way without the door on the hinges. A swing was hanging from the ceiling of the porch on the right hand side, swaying gently in the light breeze. It was made of thin wood planks and painted with a peeling paint that had been turned stone grey by Medusa. The towing chains that suspended it from the ceiling were rusted to the point where they could be used as sticks. Nero was sitting in the middle of the swing, seeming greatly amused by it.

"Enjoying that swing buddy?", I asked stopping next to him.

"It doesn't swing from side to side", Nero shrugged, "only forward and backward, so it's only a half a swing."

I couldn't help but grin, "most swings only go in one direction."

Nero hopped off the swing and followed me inside. The old house was one of the most decrepit pieces of shit I'd ever seen in my life. The paint on walls that were burned and full of holes was an ugly yellowish white and it didn't hide rusted screws and imperfections in the sheet rock that were as much there from shoddy manufacturing as they were from having endured the biggest nuclear blast in the history of the Earth. The carpet was full of dust or sand or ash or whatever the fuck the fine powder was that I kicked up with each boot step. The creaking of the old dried out wood under foot and the shaking of the house itself with every step that I took told me that the house had a basement. Who knows what horrors would be hiding down there. The living room was directly to the left of the main door way. The old brown leather couch that sat in the middle of the back wall with an end table on either side was scorched and had many, many holes ranging from the sizes of pins to giant tears that showed the springs and steel frame work of the couch. It wasn't half as bad as the rat's nest of a red sofa chair that looked like it might have actually been just that for a year or five. The coffee table was old and grey, having that all too well known toughness that super old, dried wood had. The kind of toughness that would bend even the thickest of rail way spikes. The TV was totally shot with burn marks around all of it's buttons and connection ports and a large, visible black splotch in the center of the screen. Of course it didn't matter if the TV worked or not, because the power in this house was out and the last cable channel had gone dead years ago.

"Well this is probably the most decrepit house I've ever seen in my life", I said shedding the lead lined blanket. I set my pack down on the coffee table with my AR-15 and Sig. I pried off the boots, pants and then the jacket and gloves and sat back into the couch.

"Suit worked", I sighed as the girls came inside, "heavy and suffocating, but it worked."

"You're serious?", Eirren asked.

"More or less", I said, "contamination inside of that Fog was well over twenty five hundreds rads a second and the one I had inside the suit held steady at 550 the entire day. Well below my Immunity Barrier, but it blistered the hell outta my feet and made me sick to my stomach. Probably won't sleep well tonight, though I should be fine in the morning."

"I'd be lying if I said that I thought I'd be taking care of Nero on my own", Eirren said sitting down next to me and leaning her head on my shoulder, or at least she tried to before she recoiled, "damn, you're burning up."

"All of the radiation he took inside the Fog", Nat commented, "partially my fault I'm sorry to say."

"Don't beat yourself up over it", I said, "I'll be fine."

That was when Nero heard Nat for the first time.

"Someone new?", he asked aloud, "I can't smell you."

"There's nothing to smell buddy", Nat laughed, "I've got a radiation suit on."

"But the house isn't radioactive?", Nero questioned following his ears to Nat's feet and sitting down, "so why are you still wearing it?"

"It's not to keep rads out, it's to keep them in", Nat explained, "my body is a shot, radioactive mess."

"Why not just take medicine and get rid of it?", Nero asked.

"I've mutated", Nat said, "been exposed to it for so long that I can't live without it. That's why I wear the suit, to keep the rads inside so they don't kill my friends. And it's not like I haven't tried in all fairness."

"You're weird", Nero smiled.

"There's no denying that", Nat shrugged, "though usually people gotta hang around me a few weeks before they figure that part out."

"I said the same thing to Eirren when she figured out I was weird", I said unlacing my boots and getting them off. My feet were an angry red with scales peeling every where. There were several blisters on the tops of my feet and ankles, but the bottoms seemed to be okay. Exposing them to the air may not have been the best of idea's, because they started to sting pretty badly. The ache from hiking through the Fog was starting to set in, and I can't say that I haven't felt worse. It wasn't that bad of an ache to be honest, but it was the fact that it was ingrained into ever inch of my body that made it bad. I sat back into the couch, which despite it's condition, was still super comfortable.

"Arggghhh", I sighed, "I am totally beat. Turns out that adding 90 extra pounds onto a load that already weighs 60 or 70 isn't that good of an idea. I still gotta clean my guns too."

"Just rest for now", Eirren said leaning back into me, "give yourself time to wash the radiation out of your system."

"Seems like quality advice", I said closing my eyes.

When I woke up, the sun was starting to go down, so I'd been asleep at least a couple of hours. Nero was curled up asleep next to me, Eirren was in the kitchen and the smells wafting from it said she was cooking something and Nat was out on the porch, sitting in the swing with her hood down, but her helmet still secure. The stinging in my feet had started to reside, but they hadn't gotten any visually better, they actually looked like they were getting worse. Be that as it may, my guns still needed all of that radioactive shit washed off of them. I broke down the AR and Sig, took the cleaner out of my pack and walked outside with the AR first. I sprayed the cleaner lightly over the entire upper and then cleaned my optics with a lens cloth that Eirren loaned me.

"Brake parts cleaner on an AR-15?", Nat asked, "how'd you come to start doing that?"

"My Dad taught me how to do it", I said, "also showed me how to use just hot soapy water to clean an AR."

"I never thought of that", Nat said, "I was always sold that you had to clean AR's by hand. That would have made things a lot easier when I first bought an AR."

"Well now you know", I said spraying down my rifle and walking back inside for my pistol. I sprayed it down as well, got everything back together and then crashed back to the couch. Eirren finished dinner a few minutes after that, three packets of Great Value thick and creamy mac and cheese cooked with evaporated milk, powdered butter and what little bit of gas was left on the stove. She had saved the water, said she would clean it later. She had also found four bowls in the cupboard, cleaned them and dished the food out till it was gone, scraped the bottom of the pot for the sauce and even portioned that out. This was what it had come to. Having to eat every last bit of food we could find, even licking the pot afterwords to make sure we got every calorie possible. While Eirren tried to scrub the table just a little bit for dinner, I went to get Nat.

"Hey Nat, Eirren found some Mac and Cheese in the cupboards and cooked it up. You hungry?"

"Yeah", she said, "I can't eat with you guys though. The rads might kill Nero."

"Right", I sighed, "it won't get us through the walls will it?"

"Short range", she told me, "about 10 feet is where you'll feel it, past that it's harmless."

"So you can just eat in the living room", I suggested, "don't need to be sitting out here by yourself."

"I could", She said, "but do you really wanna have my face in your peripherals while you eat? I'm thinking you might be a little grossed out by that."

"I've seen worse", I said, "I've seen people radiation actually killed. All melted and shit. I've seen Rabids too. You aren't bad enough to gross me out really."

"I'll take it as a compliment", she giggled coming back inside with me.

Eirren had managed to get the table somewhat clean, clean enough to eat off of.

"It's not my best work", she said, "but this table is shot. Eat up."

I picked a place at the table and sat down, instantly digging into the food. Nat took her bowl and headed back into the living room.

"You're not gonna...", Eirren started, but quickly stopped herself, "right, radiation."

"I'll just be in here', Nat said, "my kind of radioactivity is very short range, won't even set off a Geiger past ten or eleven feet."

"That's...strange", Eirren noted.

"Yep", Nat shrugged, "but it is what it is. I can't do much to change it."

Nat went into the living room, took off her helmet and sat on the couch to eat. She hadn't lied to me when she said she couldn't lift her arms over her head, I could tell it was hard for her to get any real motion from her arms by just how much trouble she was having lifting the spoon to her muzzle. She suffered in silence though, seeming as though to her, it was just another nuisance. The three of us ate in silence as well. When dinner was done, we simply put the bowls in the sink, wouldn't be using them again. Eirren started trying to clean the water she used to boil the noodles while I went outside to clean myself up. The greedy Fog Dust had settled in my crest, in between my horns and even on the top of my eyelids. The annoying shit was nearly impossible to get fully off, but after some patience, I did. I used the last bit of my radiation drugs on bandages for my feet. It stung a lot, but that was probably a sign that it was working. I went back inside. Nat was out front in the swing again, her helmet in her hands and her hood was up. Eirren was standing in the door way chatting with her and Nero was asleep in the corner of the living room in a nest that was made out of the radiation suit I'd recovered this morning.

"Think it's safe for him to sleep on that thing?", I asked.

"I checked it", Eirren said turning around, "it's clean. Oh hey, while your in here, follow me upstairs, I got something I wanna show you."

I followed her upstairs and into a back room, which was completely empty.

"An empty room?", I asked, "is that what you wanted to show me?"

"Clothes", Eirren said, "lose them."

And then, I remembered what she told me this morning, but I decided to play dumb anyway.

"Umm...why?", I asked.

"The radiation must have screwed with your head", she grinned sheepishly, "I told you I was gonna do something to you if you survived. Remember?"

"Can't say I do", I said shaking my head, trying to keep my poker face.

Eirren put her arms around me and kissed me, "do I need to refresh your memory?"

"Hmmm...I don't know", I purred looking into her eyes, "maybe you do."

Eirren smiled and started kissing me again, pulling my shirt up over my shoulders and throwing it aside. From there, things just went down hill. First her top came off, followed by my shorts, then her's. Soon we were on the floor and I was on top of her. What followed after that? I'm sure you can guess. It was an amazing experience, and honestly, something I thought I'd never get the chance to have. She was mine now, and I belonged to her. A combination of both of our scents drifted through the room, not very strong, I had a good nose and could barely smell it, but it made me happy. I'd gone back and fourth in my life about weather I wanted a mate and kids or not, I already had one, and now I had both.

"That was the best thing ever", I said managing to regain my composure just a little bit. I was more out of breath and more tired right now than I'd ever been in my life.

"Yeah. It was. Remember a few days ago when I said I wasn't impressed?", Eirren slurred through her panting.

"Yeah?", I asked, trying to catch my breath as well, wondering how long we'd been at it.

"I was wrong", she laughed, "size doesn't matter."

"Oh come on", I grinned, "even after that you just had to go an crack that joke."

Eirren tried to take a deep breath and laugh at the same time, the resulting sound could convince you she had asthma, "I did. You sure that was your first time? I don't buy it."

"I goggled how to do that."

"No you didn't", Eirren said, "Goggle wouldn't host the article on how to do that. How much porn have you looked at in your life?"

"Enough", I laughed pulling her close to me, "I love you Eirren."

She buried her snout in my neck, "I love you too Ari."

We lay there for a good while. After some time, I spoke up.

"We should go get cleaned up", I suggested, "I'm even more tired than I was after that."

"Seems like a good idea", Eirren said stretching. The two of us rose from the floor and made our way to the upstairs bathroom, where we ransacked it, used what we could to clean up. We got dressed and went back down stairs, both of us limping a noticeable amount due to our legs still being rather taxed. Nero was still asleep, though Nat wasn't anywhere to be found. Her weapons were in a pile near the door, so she was still around the property, somewhere.

"Wonder where Nat went?", Eirren asked pulling a small sleeping bag from her back pack and laying it out on the floor.

"Probably sitting on the back porch or on the roof or some really weird place", I said, "I've watched enough movies and shows to know that whoever has the biggest medical problems of the bunch likes to isolate themselves. Soon as I get some feeling back in my legs I'll see if I can track her down."

"You do that", Eirren yawned, "I"m going to sleep. Night my boy."

"Night love", I smiled. Eirren pulled her sleeping bag up to her neck and quickly fell asleep, probably the quickest she had since the bombs fell. I stayed awake, sitting on the couch. There was a lot on my mind. All of the thoughts were racing around and crashing into each other, forming one big mountain of scrap that I couldn't process. A lot had happened in the past few days. First Eirren and Nero turned up, then we met Hunter, Eirren's last surviving family as far as I knew, I literally walked through hell with the help of a Ghost cursed to walk the face of the Earth forever and now...had a mate. How's that for a crazy week? There were still a dragon and scorpion supposedly living in an old church a ways up the road and who knew what we'd find there. I was praying hard for a trading post/hotel where I could give all of my equipment some much needed maintenance and decontamination, get things organized and maybe even get Nat's suit cleaned, because it was filthy looking and didn't look at all comfortable for her to wear, at least on the outside. I sat on the couch for a good while, starring blankly out the window into the bleak landscape, light in an amazing blue hue by the moon, much larger in the clear night skies than it was when I was growing up. Many more stars were visible, twinkling in the distant, cold void of space without a care in the world. I knew where Nat was.

I grabbed my jeans and boots, pulled them on and went out back, stepping off the porch and into the back yard. Sure enough, Nat was laying on the roof, her suit completely off and the Corium that laced throughout her body glowing with that sinister copper glow. Her gaze was locked on the sky, appearing as though she were deep in thought. I silently climbed up onto the roof and walked over to her. I could feel the radiation immediately, but the sharp pain of a broken Immunity Barrier was absent, even when I was sitting about a foot from her.

"Wonder if this has already happened on their planets?", I asked.

"Who knows?", Nat asked, "maybe some other dragons and pits are sitting on a roof staring at their skies asking the same questions."

"You and Eirren finally tied the knot didn't you?", she asked.

"Yeap. Can't say I didn't enjoy it", I smiled.

"Everyone does", Nat sighed, "I'm jealous of you Arien, your mate isn't half as dumb as mine was."

"Ben on your brain?", I asked.

"He's always on my brain", Nat sighed, "when I met him, I felt like I needed to watch out for him. Had a sinking feeling he'd drag me down and I'd have to spend the rest of my life with him."

"Wouldn't change a thing would you?", I asked.

"Hell no I wouldn't", Nat sighed, "I just wish I'd gone with him on his last trip North. I might not be cursed."

"You call it a curse", I said, "I call it a damn cool power. It's the stuff of a sci-fi novel. You're a living conduct of radiation that no one can touch. You can't be robbed, beaten or forced into slavery, you can kill any one who tries on the spot without even touching them just by breathing in their direction."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be my brother", Nat sighed, "shit look at me. I'm a charred, burned mess with metal inside of me that can pull a steel nail out of a wall from 5 feet away. I'm just thankful Medusa left most of my internal organs intact and that I don't need help to use a toilet."

"I think everyone is thankful for that", I shrugged.

There was a long pause.

"Nat..does your suit hurt you? It doesn't look at all comfortable to wear."

"That's where you'd be wrong", Nat smiled, "it's like wearing pajamas around. Super comfortable actually and it's got on board cooling systems so I don't overheat and die. It just sucks the cowl keeps me from turning my head. Keeps the outside out and the inside in."

"How long have you had it?", I asked.

"Since the bombs fell", Nat said, "when Medusa came, I was the only survivor. Woke up with ash falling on my face and nothing around me. Wandering through the fog that killed everyone but me, I found the suit in a military container mostly buried under ash, dug it up and tried it on. It fit, and since I was naked underneath it, I just kept it. From that point on I was the Ghost. Plenty of people rolled through the Fog in the first months after the bombs, and since I had the immunity, I tried to help them with whatever they wanted. More often than not though, furs who found their way into the fog were just killed."

"You won't go back there of Khen doesn't give you your weapons back will you?", I asked, "it's gotta be a hellish live. Just passing days and nights with no end in sight."

Nat sighed and sat up, large pieces of black skin peeling off her back with a sound like crumpling aluminum foil. It made my scales crawl. She turned to look at me.

"If Khen doesn't give me my shit back I don't know what I'll do. When Ben and I moved to America from the UK, I bought an AR-15 the same day I became a citizen. So did Ben. We built his and her's rifles. That rifle is all that I have left of him."

"Then he'll give it back", I said, "if I have to force him to hand it over."

"I don't doubt that you will", she sighed, "but..Khen means well. He considers me a friend, and he's not going to let me any where near a firearm as long as he thinks there's a shred of possibility I'll put another barrel against my neck."

"Then it sounds like I had better brush up on lying congressional style", I smiled, "I'll see you in the morning. Night Nat."

"Night Arien."