[center][b]Elysia Sykes[/b][/center]

An armed figure rummaged through the empty husk of some office building. The rotting desks and chairs around her were disturbed from their slumber as she searched for anything of moderate value. The vast majority of the room's containers were empty or contained pencils, buttons and other worthless knick-knacks. After a rigorous search through most of the desks, finding nothing of real value, the woman sighed. She wondered how she even ended up in this spot. She shoved a dusty skeleton off of a chair, planting herself in its place. She stared at the skull, its bleak eyes stared back; its gaping maw made it look as if it was laughing. She kicked the skull away, wishing to stop herself before she ended up sharing a joke with the pile of bones.

The woman turned her attention to the window next to her. While it was faded and dusty, it was missing some panes, which gave her a clear view of the area outside. She looked upon the wasteland with a strange mixture of boredom and awe. She had seen the scenery many times, yet the amalgamation of the dreary, morose sky and row upon row of both decrepit buildings and battered cars evoked an emotion like no other. It was a testament to both human ingenuity and idiocy. It all produced a taxing feeling, one that stuck with its wearer and never truly left.

"This is the world we're livin' in . . ." she sighed. With a deep breath, she jumped out of the chair, trying to produce some sort of vigor within herself. The effects of this action were hampered as she heard her stomach grumble loudly, like a child crying out to its mother. She felt a dryness within her mouth as well. She needed some food and water.

The woman dragged herself into the next room, looking for something that could provide a modicum of sustenance. Her eyes were fixated on a stick of wrapped gum. She inspected it carefully. It wouldn't be enough, but it was something. She lifted part of her balaclava so her mouth was visible and gently began to unwrap the gum. She threw away the wrapper and stared at the gum with reverence before devouring it in the blink of an eye. The gum gave her a fleeting feeling of pleasure; some of its sugar particles still stuck after all those years. She eyed the wrapper and the words pasted on it. 'With real PIRATE TATTOO' were written in large black letters under the blue logo. She inspected the wrapper. Lo and behold, the "tattoo" was still there, although its dye was faded and it most likely wouldn't work. Still, she figured she could use it somewhere, so she placed it gently into her uniform pocket. The woman placed the balaclava back over her mouth and continued on her hunt for food.

It took her a while as she traversed over rubble while climbing the stairs, but soon, she found what she was looking for. A faded sign hung above a doorway, "Lounge". Within the room she saw a fridge and a Nuka-Cola machine. She silently celebrated as she ran towards the machine. The woman gently placed her gear on one of the tables within the lounge and began messing around with the apparatus. The woman shook the machine and heard the unmistakable sound of a number of bottles rattling. It was quite the conundrum trying to extract the bottles from the machine, but she managed to secure four Nuka-Colas, two of which she drank almost instantly. She began to search the fridge, elated that she was able to find such a cache of foodstuff. The fridge wasn't as exciting, as it only had some Cram and a few Salisbury Steaks, although she didn't complain.

Not long after she had eaten her fill, the woman heard the unmistakable sound of a Vertibird. She rushed to go see what it was doing, her heart racing. She hadn't heard the familiar buzz of those rotors in a while. The roof was just above her and a collapsed portion of it gave her a good pathway onto the top of the building. She took caution, her heart racing, hoping that they wouldn't shoot at her or land on the building she was in. The last thing she wanted was a shootout with some armored goons. Yet she soon saw that it was targeting one building with some Super Mutants plaguing it. Although this did little to ease her worries, she now also worried for the safety of the Vertibird. The Super Mutant that adorned the top of the infested building was outfitted with a rocket launcher, which she soon noticed but it seemed that the Enclave Vertibird didn't. As one of their men blasted a volley of fire, the mutant reciprocated with a clean shot back at the Vertibird. The woman watched in horror as the Vertibird spun out of control, flinging one of its men straight at the building she was in. She looked straight at the mutant, and for a moment it seemed as if the beast had smiled. 

The woman ducked back into the building as she heard the explosion caused by the Vertibird. It took her a while to remember that the man crashed into her building and was probably on the same floor she was on. Adrenalin raced through her body; this entire scenario was too much to take in at once. She rushed to find where that soldier had been dropped, finding him propped up against a wall. It looked as if this guy had taken quite the bump to the head. She approached with caution, her heartbeat increasing with every step. She aimed her assault rifle at the soldier's head, as a precautionary measure, but she really didn't want to kill this sap. It was clear to her that this goon was out cold and was in no state to attack her. She tried pulling off his mask; it took a bit of elbow grease but she was soon able to reveal this soldiers face. The soldier was an older man, at least, older than her, and was clean shaven with short hair. The woman wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she figured he was kind of cute. She placed his helmet next to him as she moved back. She kept her gun pointed at his head as she sat herself down on one of the office chairs, prepared to sit with this guy for a while.