Chapter Text
Sniper pulled down his sunglasses. This wasn’t happening. There wasn’t a woman standing in the middle of his perch, marking down who-knows-what on a pad of paper and humming to herself. She was smiling to herself, leaning up against one of the wooden walls.
He cleared his throat to make himself known, returning his rifle into its place on his back so as to not alarm her. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
The woman looked up at him without missing a beat. “Oh, hi there. I figured this nest belonged to someone.” She didn’t look too alarmed to see a tall, strange, man with a rifle on his back within her immediate proximity. Maybe he should’ve left out the “ma’am” and been a little more intimidating, just so she would apologize and leave...
“It’s beautiful from up here.” Her voice cut though his train of thought.
He adjusted his orange-tinted shades, pushing them up the bridge of his nose before looking at her.
“What?”
Still unintimidated, she gestured to the horizon. “The landscape, it’s picture perfect, wouldn’t you say?”
Sniper raised an eyebrow, if he had any suspicions about this woman being one of the spies, those were out the window now. Neither of those bastards could keep up this kind of charade for this long. They’d be unable to resist the urge to decloak and either stab him or scare the living shit out of him.
“I’ve never thought about it,” he fidgeted with the kukri on his belt, “But never mind that, what’re you doing up here?”
Still undaunted, she replied with a soft smile on her lips, “Sketching.” As if that was enough of an answer.
Even though she was pretty candid in her answers, Sniper knew that she was beating around the bush here. She could definitely hear the explosions and gunshots not too far from where they were, just hours earlier.
“You know what I mean.” Sniper put a little growl into his voice, not sure how else to imbue the severity of the situation in her. He can’t imagine that a Spy looking for him would backstab an innocent civilian that he happened to find in this perch, but anything was possible; Just being close to him was a dangerous thing.
He didn’t even give her time to reply, though. “Look… Just… you aren’t supposed to be up here, or even within a 10 mile radius of this place.” He found himself becoming more and more agitated as he spoke. “How the bloody hell did you get here?”
He felt some strange relief as a hint of concern began to show on her face. “What do you mean? I was just on a nice hike and found this nice perch.”
“In the desert?” Sniper wasn’t so much angry as filled with anxiety because of this woman’s lack of awareness. “Haven’t you heard gunshots?”
“I heard a couple, but isn’t it hunting season?” The curious look remained in her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re hunting, but it must be something big, with how you’re armed.”
Giving himself a moment to wonder if she was serious, he decided that letting her think that he was a simple game hunter was probably for the best. If she knew the truth, he couldn’t imagine the Administrator would be too forgiving about a civilian knowing about their little war, so he ran with it.
“Oh… yeah. There’s a ton of dangerous wildlife out here... “ He took off his hat to wipe the sweat off of his forehead; it was one of the hottest days they’d had all year. This woman was either a medical marvel, or completely oblivious, since she didn’t look to be too affected at all. Either way, she was too close to the warzone for his comfort, and somehow he had to convince her to leave without tipping her off to the real danger.
With a sigh, he replaced his hat. “I... I don’t think it’s safe for you to be in this area. Teemin’ with adders, the whole lot of land.”
Still no dice, she looked largely unaffected by his words, but to Sniper’s relief, she nodded. “That’s fair.” She stood up straight and passed out of the perch. “Nice meeting you.” With a smile and a tip of her head, she was gone, presumably headed down the same trail that Sniper had taken to get up to the spot.
With a sigh, Sniper settled in to his usual position, taking up his rifle in his hands and peering down the scope to test it. What an odd woman, to simply hear gunshots and think of nothing but the most benign explanation one could imagine. The more he thought about her, the more distracted he became. It was almost agitating to know that there was some innocent civilian out there, in a proximity that was way too close their private little hell.
Just as he was about to take a break to pee, a scream pierced through the dry desert air. It wasn’t hard to hear, sounds carried through the desert for miles because of the dry air and the echoes from the canyon. Sniper jumped to his feet, setting down the jar and throwing the rifle to a position over his back before leaving the perch in search of the scream. It sounded just high enough to not be any one of the usual suspects, so a sinking feeling quickly grew in the pit of his stomach. He had just warned her about the snakes too…
Another, slightly quieter, scream echoed through the air, this one calling for help. Now he had a better idea of where to go, his boots crunching over the dry pebbles on the ground as he picked up speed.
Soon enough, he reached the ledge he had suspected he’d find someone at, and sure enough, 10 feet below, lay the woman from before. She looked to be holding back tears, as well as an ankle that certainly shouldn’t have been pointing in that direction. Sniper winced as he called down to her, trying to contain his worry.
“Hold on there, sheila!” He adjusted his belt before turning backwards to climb down to where she was.
On the way down, it wasn’t a hard climb; The outcroppings in the wall of the rock face were sturdy and easy to grip, but when he got down to her level, he realized that getting back up would be a lot harder.
He knelt down next to her, laying a hand on her shoulder to alert her to his presence. “We’re gonna get you out of here, okay?”
It was tricky business, but somehow he managed to get her securely on his back. “Alright, here we go. Hold on tight, sheila.”
With the woman on his back, he began to scale the ledge he had just come down. It was rough going, and as the sun beat down on the both of them, he came to a sinking realization. His camper was nearby, but there were virtually no hospitals within a driving distance. When he had checked it out, her ankle looked fantastically broken to the point where he didn’t have it in him to try and patch her up by himself and hope for the best. There was only one option.
He’d have to take her to Medic.