A.N.

I'm taking a brief hiatus on Company, for anyone who's wondering. It's still in the works, just moving verreh slowly. In the meantime, I've been melting my brain with my alltime favorite game and came to the realization that I've never seen a Jericho story. Never really looked, either...but oh well. He's one of mah favorites.

Chapter One

Jessica limped toward the giant metal monstrosity of Megaton, her left leg dragging slowly through the dirt as stinging sweat dripped into her eyes. She blinked heavily, adjusting the limp, furry body across her shoulders. Dogmeat yelped in pain, jaw snapping the air reflexively. The sudden movement knocked Jessica off balance and she tripped, landing heavily on her left knee. A shriek of pain was cut short as she bit her lip, a sudden burst of coppery warmth blooming from between her teeth as they pierced the skin. Climbing slowly to her feet, the woman's brown eyes were beginning to glaze over as stringy black hair stung them mercilessly. Her skin was sallow, and hung from her bones as though it were slightly too big. She had the angular look of a once healthy young woman who had lost a great deal of weight very quickly. Dogmeat yipped, his paws scrabbling feebly at her arms.

"That's what you fucking get for messing with Mirelurks. I think," she paused to spit out a gob of blood, "I should let you walk the rest of the way."

The Australian Shepherd whined, and the young woman sighed loudly.

"They almost didn't see us, asshole. I had the observe-thing in the eggs and everything."

Anchorage War Memorial. She had followed Moira's directions northeast of Megaton, getting a more precise location from a batty old lady in a weird hat situated beside the river. And why? Because it was supposed to be infested with Mirelurks.

That had proven a severe understatement. After wrenching open the pneumatic seal on the facility bay door, she'd paused, listening to a strange clicking noise from the dark interior. The sudden burst of sunlight had stunned the Mirelurks, which shielded beady black eyes with massive claws. Jessica counted six before the door shut in front of her face and she backed away slowly, .32 caliber rifle held against her shoulder. Either Mirelurks didn't know how to work a pneumatic door, or they simply weren't interested in killing her. Jessica decided quickly that it was the claws. No way to grip the release.

So after half an hour of snooping, she found the back door. The Potomac had been wearing away at concrete and riverbed for two hundred years, and the thin ledge before it was nearly inaccessible. She'd scrambled up with a minimal amount of difficulty, nearly losing her footing and tumbling the ten feet or so into irradiated muck. She'd intended to leave Dogmeat outside, but had been warned about hives and egg clusters along the riverbank. The last thing she needed was to come back outside and find a few scattered scraps of fur.

Jessica smelled them before she heard them. Nearly losing her breakfast as she traipsed through ankle deep Mirelurk dung, she made a quick mental note.

Intelligent enough to designate a bathroom.

Oh good. Bloodthirsty AND smart.

She could make out an outline against a dim mote of sunlight, a single large claw standing out sharply. A low growl rumbled in Dogmeat's throat.

"Bad Dogmeat, very bad," Jessica hissed furiously under her breath, heart beginning to pound in her chest as the distant Mirelurk glanced up sharply. She looked around furtively. There, she could see a clutch of slimy, greenish orbs situated in a cluster of pipes. She moved forward quickly, loathing the soft splash of muck and water against her boots. Dogmeat continued to growl, now moving away from her and down the tunnel.

"Bloody fucking cockbiting hell," the young woman growled, slipping a small mechanical device amongst the eggs. It disappeared with a soft squishing sound, and Jessica turned to leave, feeling strangely accomplished.

An angry snarl echoed through the sewers, rising to a high pitched yelp of pain as a loud snap followed. Dogmeat scurried back toward her, one paw held up against his stomach and tail between his legs. An angry Mirelurk was in hot pursuit, two pairs of claws snapping furiously at the air.

"RUN!" Jessica screamed to no one in particular, taking off through the pipes as she slung the rifle from her shoulder. She fired into the darkness, the flash of gunpowder illuminating the dark tunnel momentarily. There were now two of the creatures, and her bullet pinged off the smaller of the two like a rock off concrete. She swore fluidly, every foul word she could think of spilling from her lips in rapid succession as she reloaded, suddenly screaming aloud as a blinding pain erupted on her side.

The Mirelurk behind her had missed, knocking her with the flat of its claw instead of snapping her in half. She dropped like a sack of rocks, and rolled to one side, ignoring the fetid muck that clung to her hair and face while rapidly oozing into her clothes. Attempting to rise to her feet, she slipped, and scuttled backwards through the mud as the creatures closed in on her. Gripping the barrel of her rifle like a club, she swung furiously as claws tore chunks from her flesh, and she screamed again as she felt her left knee snap out of place.

She opened her eyes when the attack stopped. The Mirelurks had backed away several feet, sizing her up anew. She barely noted the chips she had knocked out of the shells, and a long gash across the fleshy face of the largest one. Dogmeat whimpered beside her. With a grunt, she was on her feet and lifting his furry body, slinging it over her shoulders as she backed down the piping. One of the smaller beasts, possessing only one set of claws, lunged again; she nearly fell, managing to jerk to one side at the last moment. The creature missed by inches, and Jessica felt the edge of its claw smack her squarely in the ribs. She ran. How she managed to make it back to the door, wrench it open and slam it shut before the Mirelurks ripped her limb from limb was still hazy, but it had been close. Through a thick red fog, she'd managed to limp back to Grandma Sparkle's shack, where the old woman had helped her staunch most of the bleeding and splint up her shattered elbow.

Now, having drug herself and Dogmeat the remaining five miles, she was reaching the end of the last of her strength. Her vision swam, more from pain than the intense heat rising from the parched ground, though both were threatening to overwhelm her at any moment. Someone groaned, a despairing, hopeless sound as the dirt rushed at her, and Dogmeat yelped loudly. Goddamn it, she was breathing dirt. Sandstorm?

The sun continued to beat down on the girl's sprawled body, while Dogmeat scrabbled feebly in an attempt to free his broken legs from beneath her. Several of the buzzards above Megaton took note, and veered off course to circle a more certain meal.