Intertwined (IC)

[MatrixOne]

Rin took a sip from the canteen.

She was grateful for the help, but her face remained expressionless.
There was a slight change in her voice, though - it was less bitter.
Almost... subtle.

"So you were searching for that person for years, all alone... Hard to believe that someone as kind as you never had companions"
She seemed to know an awful lot about Hugo.

The gunfire coming from the convoy finally ceased.

"I think your new friend the hunter could help you find whoever you're looking for"

The daylight began to dim as the sun was setting.
"I may only be a girl with no hands to you. But I know things. Tell me more about the person you're looking for"

She sat on the ground, just like that.
"I am tired. You can stay here if you want"

[FreedomLivesOn]

Hugo was taken back by the matter of fact way the girl expressed her knowledge about "someone" being looked for by Hugo. How did she know that? They had barely said more than a few sentences to each other and yet she...wait, could it be...

No. No, that was just silly. Those visions, that voice he heard, all that STUFF that he had just experienced was nothing but a momentary lapse in his mind. Was it all the time he had spent on the road? Was it the grief he felt over his sister, the war, his situation, was it...

"I may only be a girl with no hands to you. But I know things. Tell me more about the person you're looking for"

"But I know things."
That raised another red flag concerning the nature of the girl's mental capacity and gave Hugo even more of a suspicion that it was indeed this young woman that had accessed his mind. If this was true, could she read his thoughts right now? If so, couldn't she answer his questions? Before Hugo did anything else, he wanted to make sure he knew what he was dealing with.

"Well, she's important to me. Very important. She...well, her personality is slipping my mind at the moment." At that very moment, he conjured up memories of his younger sister that exhibited her nurturing, caring and sympathetic nature, especially toward animals. Hugo would try this experiment for a few moments to see whether or not he had been right about the possibility he had just rescued a mind reader of some sort.

[MatrixOne]

"Is it?"
The world flashed for a brief moment, as Rin's eyes changed their color to black. But it didn't last longer than a second or two.

Rin rested her head on the grass.
"I'm... sorry. I should not be doing this to you. Unlike others, you were good to me. I think I should trust what you say, even though you just lied"
She closed her eyes.

"...I could use some sleep"
She sighed.
"But it will be too unsafe to sleep if you leave"

"So don't leave. We can talk, but I am not good at it. I can't describe anything accurately."
Rin smiled, but her tone remained serious.
"People are hard to talk to. Like jellyfish. I don't understand"

[FreedomLivesOn]

So either the girl was playing with his mind figuratively or literally...or both. Either way, he knew he was dealing with not the average young lady. The girl's simple declaration about her wanting sleep did pluck a heartstring or two, the former detective sympathizing with the need for rest; rest not just from the physical world, but from the mental anguish that this war had caused for all of mankind. He smiled slightly when she told him not to leave, her request one that he would comply with. Hugo couldn't leave a young woman stranded in a wilderness like this one, let alone one with a physical disability.
"People can be hard to talk to. We're stubborn, angry, determined to get our own way...but talking can happen if we open ourselves up." This brief moment of sentiment was replaced by Hugo's worry about the resumation of the bulletstorm the duo had just left.
"I believe there's a village not too far from here. Can you make it another a few hours? We can get some shelter there."

[MatrixOne]

She gave a nod of acknowledgement, and slowly got up.
"We could do what the hunter did. He took one of the trucks that belonged to smugglers he just killed. You could drive the other truck... I'd do it, but I don't have any way to hold the steering wheel"

She closed her eyes, focusing heavily on... something.
"The hunter made his way for the major city. I think he can... do something to help you with your search"

Rin walked up to Hugo, standing closely at his side. His good nature and selfless behavior won her trust - it was a major accomplishment, as Rin didn't give out her trust easily, especially to strangers. But she could look into the very souls of people, and never she found one as... pure as Hugo's.

But she was always so... disconnected. She never really looked at people - more like through them. As if she hardly noticed them, or did her best not to concentrate on people too much. Her eyes wandered aimlessly and never seemed to focus on a particular item or person, and her voice often was blank, not expressing feelings.
And lastly, there was this... aura around her. The air in her vicinity was... different.
It's like that odd experience of hearing a ringing sound, and not exactly noticing it - but knowing that something is happening.

[FreedomLivesOn]

"How do you...never mind. I'm just going to trust you know what you're talking about. Although, I'm not too sure we can go back and find that truck without getting shot at." Just as Hugo finished talking, the bullets stopped firing once more, an eerie quiet consuming the naturalistic area. If the truck had survived that storm, then they may have an easy drive to Haven.
"Come on. Stay close and keep your head down." He slung his bag over his back and withdrew his .357 before heading toward the warzone.

Bodies were strewn across the clearing haphazardly, no sign of sentient life present. There was a medium sized truck that was riddled with bullet holes, but looked passable. Hugo checked some of the bodies, withdrawing as much as he could in terms of supplies and ammunition. That hunter certainly left the duo in better shape than he had found them.

Hugo had found two sets of keys, one set holding a key that activated the truck. He looked at the gas meter, reading that it was half full. He couldn't help but smile at the good fortune both he and Rin were experiencing, the former detective calling out:
"Hop in, Rin; we have ourselves a ride."

Once the girl got in, Hugo asked:
"This hunter...what major city did he go to? Haven? That isn't much of a city, but it's the next biggest settlement before heading into Pennsylvania."

[MatrixOne]

"You really don't want to take Fort Mercer into consideration... It is a base of one of the criminal factions, but they are... special. And that hunter is your connection to them"

She stretched herself in the truck seat.

"We will be offered a safe place there. And... You might get help with your search if you use your contact well"

Rin closed her eyes, and whispered:
"You were a policeman. Or a detective. Or maybe an actual hunter"

But it just worried her.
"What changed? Was it... her?"

[FreedomLivesOn]

As Hugo shifted into drive and began their trek eastward, he couldn't help but feel a bit caught off guard by the personal nature of Rin's question. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was driving around what appeared to be psychic. Hugo had heard through hearsay that people had been granted odd...powers for lack of a better term; it was all due to the nuclear radiation, people said. Hugo wasn't one for believing the social mill of rumor, but after meeting Rin, his perception would have to shift just slightly over the accuracy of hearsay.

But, back to the question at hand.

He didn't HAVE to answer this; he knew that. Hugo had dodged questions about his past many a time before, but he felt compelled to answer her. Maybe it was because of her youth. After all, he did have a soft spot for kids(at least, he assumed she was in her teens). Or maybe it was because he hadn't talked to anyone about what he was thinking for at least three months.

Either way, he found himself speaking:
"I haven't been a detective since the war started, but I was doing some law enforcement work out at a big settlement near Reno before I got a message from my sister. I couldn't believe it at first, but...well, I had to pursue it. I couldn't live with the fact that I might have had a chance to reunite with a part of my family and NOT have taken the chance." He blew out a sigh, his eyes focused straight ahead on the barren road. Silence permeated the car for a few moments before he asked:
"What about you, Rin? Why are you out here in this part of the woods? Any family nearby?"

[MatrixOne]

"You're older than I thought"
Her calm tone indicated she didn't necessarily point it out as a form of an insult.
"But that's okay. As for finding your sister, though... You did not do a very good job. But now that I'm here, you will"
That last sentence was so cheerful, it's as if it wasn't hers. Rin didn't exactly look or act like a happy schoolgirl.

"My family..."
She pondered on what to say.
"My father is quite a famous person. I'm sure you've heard of him"
Her tone was now back to its default 'serious and mystic'.

"My hands had to be amputated due to a birth defect. I was unable to do physical work for him, so I was useless. But then, one of his facilities started doing research on mind-control..."

After taking a deep breath, she continued.
"It was... rough. I was the only subject to make it out of there alive, and not because I was tougher than the rest... In fact, the reason was opposite. I couldn't work, so I had it easy"

A faint smile appeared at the corner of her lips.
"And, after what seemed like an eternity, they actually succeeded. It... worked. Clumsily, but it did. For the first time in my life, I had an actual weapon... And I used it. I busted out of the facility. My father ordered his freelancers to catch me, alive, and resume the research... And I've been on the run ever since"

Rin knew of Hugo's disgust towards people who lacked any compassion.
"My father is not... evil. Everything he did, he did for humanity. He believes the ends justify the means... And sacrificing some people to bring humanity back from ashes is not a big price to pay. Maybe he is right..."

[FreedomLivesOn]

So the hearsay was true then. Well, partly true; it wasn't radiation that had caused humans to gain unnatural powers, but rather under the radar facilities that were factories for genetic experimentation. Those sorts of places had been talked about before the war, but Hugo didn't think that the places had survived the nuclear onslaught, let alone be able to use the equipment in them to tinker with human genomes.

As Hugo listened to Rin's story, he couldn't help but feel angered. How could anyone experiment on another human being, let alone their own offspring? It was horrifying. Hugo had seen all sorts of cruelty done to children by their parents, but his exposure had never numbed his anger over the subject. When Rin mentioned the rightness of her father's philosophy, Hugo responded:
"Rin, we got to where we are because of men who thought that peace could only be achieved by nuclear annihilation. They thought the ends justified the means and they were wrong...but it's not your fault your father believed what he did. I don't mean to make it sound like that..angry I mean. I just...have strong feelings about the subject." Hugo allowed a few moments of silence to pass before he asked:
"Do you have any friends? Siblings?"