- Joined
- Feb 6, 2025
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February 25th, 2021
Still no sign of the Stranger returning, had I taken too long? Even with how uneasy he is to be around the hideout we found is just as eerie, too quiet. He could be hiding somewhere doing God knows what but I have searched every corner of this bunker complex already. Its architecture quite similar to the Watcher's hideout, maybe the debris path is what cut this place off. Clearly we have the crappier end of the stick but it would have to do for now. Anyone with any sense knows that out in those open deserts you are just as liable to get bombed as you are hacked up into pieces on the meat market.
By happenstance on my journey to the surface this morning I happened by Ramos while keeping an eye on the camp. Watching over them carefully, always moving yet remaining so stagnant and unchanging, had I become like the Watcher? At least when I met the closest thing I had to a friend in this camp I was doing something the Watcher was seemingly incapable of, 'meeting people' or at least approaching others. Yet after you seen the footage you could not blame a hermit such as him for taking out his anger on outsiders. Then again, why was Ramos so eager to side with me and accompany me on our investigatory tour to that place? No, it was paranoia again, that is how broken men such as the Watcher and Stranger isolate themselves... and right now I need Ramos to help translate the Stranger's foreign tongue so we can plan on stopping the Trader and his slaver ring.
At the time I had not thought about it deeply but showing Ramos our hideout might have not been the best idea. Once again I trusted the man, but what if the mercenary thugs found him or the Combine? No man, no matter how loyal could withstand torture while holding out on that information, my thoughts become even more morbid. If anything he was going to keep me sane. When the rest of the camp is too preoccupied fighting the Combine to care about a bygone crime scene while being harassed by your closest 'ally' through IED explosions, all the while being creeped out by your other French speaking psycho then it is rather difficult to get people on side. Therefore it was necessary to let Ramos know that if things went down south, this is where we were hiding if the Combine decided to take over the region as revenge for the attack on Commander 626. Or even worse, if the Trader and his friends returned.
Ramos departed and would let me know if anything big was about to go down, for now I awaited the Stranger properly this time. If by tomorrow he had not returned then well... who am I kidding?
