"So, Eli, do you have ghouly friends?"

"Not really."

"Are there girl ghouls?"

"Yes"

"Do you have a giiirrlllfrriiieeennndd?" Hanna asked, drawing out the word much like a young teasing child. The redhead hopped along behind Eli as they moved over broken and barren land on their way to the nearest safe encampment.

"No, never really thought of getting one." He answered with a sigh. The ghoul felt like he had answered hundreds of questions already. Where the heck did this boy come from? Eli half thought about losing him, but he knew he wouldn't survive long out in these lands alone. The fact the damn thing didn't go running and screaming, or even shot him on sight gave Hanna points with the man. It was then that some notes began to trickle into his ears as Hanna played with his pip-boy.

"So bongo, bongo, bongo I don't want to leave the Congo, oh no no no no no" He heard the human begin to sing softly with the radio that he seemed to be able to catch on the wrist gadget. "Bingle, bangle, bungle I'm so happy in the jungle, I refuse to go."

"Don't want no bright lights, false teeth, doorbells, landlords, I make it clear, That no matter how they coax me, I'll stay right here." The ghoul drawled along to what remained of the Galaxy Radio's waves the reached this face out.

"No way, Sam! I didn't think you listened to this stuff!" Hanna exclaimed as he paused and bounced just enough for Rex to bob his head along. "Well, I'm sure you did…do… Just in the…uhm…where I'm from, we gotta be sneaky with this music."

"Really?" Sam craned his head to the side then turned since Hanna had stopped walking. "Most've us listen to it out here. There's a classical station out somewhere, and the other music isn't…some of our styles." He with a shrug then seemed to pause. Amber eyes trained slightly behind the smaller boy. "Hanna…" He said carefully but with a sense of warning.

"Hold on, hold on. Tryin' to get a better sound from this—"

"Hanna…I need you to come towards me." Sam said slowly, softly as he drew his gun. There was something in the brush, and it was following them. Hanna looked confused and took a few steps forward to question his friend. Then it seemed that the boy disappeared as something had pulled him down to the floor! It was a dog and not the nice kind. These crazy diseased dogs belonged to raiders or wild packs that roamed the abandoned areas. Not your cuddly house pets, though some people have been found with dog companions from time to time. They were the lucky ones.

Sam muttered something beneath his breath and took aim at the one on Hanna, but then whirled his gun around to the one leaping at him. Time seemed to slow for a few moments as he took his aim and launched off a shot hitting the dog square in the chest. Sam didn't even have to wait to see if the dog was dead to know it would be when it hit the ground, he shifted back to the one that went for Hanna just as a yelp and a whine came from that direction. The ghoul paused and held his handgun at the ready; his first thought was that he had already gotten the damn boy killed. However, Hanna still laid on his back, panting softly scrapes and bite marks on his shoulders and arms, his hand tightly fisted around his hammer. The brown dog, an almost hairless mass of muscle and bone, lay just off to the side, bloodied. His head had a large dent in it, obvious from where the hammer had met its final mark. Seemed the small boy had more in him than Sam thought. Amber eyes drifted around the area as he listened for more of the animals, or even worse to see if raiders may be hiding waiting for a kill.

"Are you alright, Hanna?" The ghoul asked finally as he reached out a hand to him. The red head took a moment before beaming up at him and taking his hand to gingerly pull himself up.

"Yeah, yeah, Jayne. Man, how'd you know they were there? I mean, WOW, I couldn't even…" Hanna trailed off into babble about supersonic hearing and bionic-eyesight, as he looked at his wounds. Some where bleeding, but he felt fine for the moment. And none of the metal clips holding his chest up seemed to come off either. It was a rather successful defense, in Hanna's mind. However, Jayne now that he head time to get a better look at Hanna seemed worried. What was with all the markings and scars on his chest? Was he badly injured to start with? He seems too peppy to be badly injured…but…

"You just get use to it, I guess." Jayne said shaking his head and looking around to get his bearings. "Come on, we need to get you to town, get those bites looked at." The ghoul began to walk off and paused to look at Hanna making sure he was trailing along. The town could be seen on the horizon, large makeshift fences built around it to keep out those beings that were unwanted out. The unwanted for this place was anyone who would stir up trouble as it was a town where ghouls and humans lived calmly with each other. Atleast, the not feral ghouls did.

However, Jayne had shifted his course towards what looked like a shed on the outskirts of town. Hanna bounded up to walk beside him. His eyes squinted from behind his goggles and he hopped down a hillside and waited at the bottom as the got closer. "What's that?" He asked his ghoulish friend. "I though we were going to town…" Hanna frowned lightly.

"This is where…uhm…a doctor lives." Jayne said awkwardly as he walked up to the shed door and gave it a few knocks. It was as if the ghoul had rattled the cage of a sleeping radscorpion. Some crashing and loud blaring curses came from the thin metal walls of the shack like house. Finally the door opened, but only a few inches, and it was hard to see the dark eyes in the, well, darkness of the shack, but the soft glow of the cigarette gave the sign someone was really hiding behind the door.

"What…What…" Said the rough grumbling voice, "What'cha botherin' me for, bloody zombie, fuck…" Hanna furrowed his brow lightly as the voice faded into grumbling. Jayne seemed unphased and took a side step to reveal the boy some.

"This is Hanna. One of the crazy raider dogs went at him. I couldn't think of anyone better to look at him than you, Luce." He said rather calmly as he placed a hand on the door and pushed it open, letting light into the room revealing the doctor inside. He looked like he had rolled out of the junk yard. Dark circles wrapped around his eyes, stubbly dirty face, and blonde hair that looked grimy and dusty. He had to be the thinnest lankiest thing on the face of the wastelands, his clothes hung off his skeletal frame. He wore jacket with bad fur trimming, looked like he sewed it on himself, some tight fitting pants that tucked into his boots, and two layers of shirts, a white undershirt and something that looked as if he was trying to be presentable.

Luce seemed to retract back some and squint against the light. It took a few moments for Hanna's brain to click and realized he was human, though he could've passed for a well taken care of walking corpse.

"Well, bring the little fucker inside." He said as he turned and trudged into the building. Jayne followed and Hanna tagged along, a bit unsure at first. However, once inside, Hanna seemed to move around like a curious pup and poked at things. The place looked like a bad place, makeshift tools, tons of needles and a metal table for a work table. On the far side of the room was a mattress and all around were beer bottles, cig butts, and empty medicine bottles. Surprising enough there was light from a few of the electric lamps around the room, some books that seemed to be about medicine and some interesting dusty objects on the shelf.

"Oi! Stop pokin' yer nose 'round my shit an sit on the damn table, pup." Luce said and Hanna jumped slightly, but gave an awkwardly laugh, pulling up his goggles to rest on top of his head. He had a dirt tan, leaving a bandit mask-like light spot over his eyes. He then moved to hop on top of the table, the small falter almost went unnoticed but anyone, but Jayne had a keen eye set on the boy. He started to move toward him to help, but he seemed to get up there fine before the ghoul could help.

"I'm ok, really." Hanna assured as he watched Luce come over.

"If ya was, Zombie-ass wouldn't've brought you 'ere." The doctor came over and looked at the bite marks; Hanna resisted wrinkling his nose as he smelt like smoke and staleness when he came near. The he let out a soft yelp and recoiled as the main prodded at the bite mark.

"Ooowww, Luuucceee."

"Shut it! It's Dr. Worth to you, pup." Luce sighed and went to a shelf and began to take out some liquids in strangely labeled bottles and some old bandages. "It in't so bad now, but iffin' you just leave 'em be, they'll get all infected. Ain't a pretty sight." He said as he came over and began to clean up Hanna's bite marks and stopped to ask Hanna to take off his shirt so he could wrap them. He seemed hesitant but agreed to and, slide off the few sizes too big tank-top and revealed the scared and but up body. Worth had to pause a moment, he had seen worse thing, but on Ghouls. Ghouls get stitched up like this, but Hanna wasn't a ghoul. He removed the cig from his mouth and placed it aside and poked at his chest, following the zig-zag of the scars and clips and looked up at him. "What the 'ell is this shit?"

Hanna slumped slightly to try and look smaller. "S'nothin'." Hanna mumbled. "Had an accident with explosive where I worked." He lied, well it wasn't really a lie. There were always explosions at work, but he just kept silent for the moment and looked off to the side. Worth was about to scold him and just shook his head.

"Lift yer arms." Worth grumbled, and half pushed them up anyway and began to wrap up Hanna's shoulder. Jayne watched quietly, observing Hanna's back, which had considerably less marks, and if anything seemed almost untouched. There were things it seems everyone hid from others, the wastelands weren't exactly a place for companionship and parties. It's a game of survival, yet it seemed that everyone Hanna has met seemed to become slightly tamer. Worth was one of the few doctors that saw anyone, but not everyone. He would patch up ghouls and the saner mutants, raiders and commoners alike, if they knew how to get along with him. Jayne brought him left over cigs and beer, if he could find some which made him a part time raider.

There were few others he seemed to get along with, in the loosest sense of the term. Most all of them came to Worth for help, and most all of them had something strangely different about them. As Hanna got poked and prodded by the slimy surgeon, Jayne took the moment to take a step outside and keep a watch for bands of unfriendly raiders, which was just about every damn one of them. The plan of what to do next mulled around in his brain. He could keep Hanna along for a while, he still wasn't sure where he came from but with every utterance, the though of a vault escapee crossed his mind. If so, Hanna needed to learn and learn fast, or he'd be dog food or worse. The sun began to settle on the end of an interesting day, but it was the start of something stranger. Jayne closed his eyes a moment, the bickering inside of what sounded like a stubborn child and a disgruntled old man was heard, but muffled, from the door. For the first time, in what felt like years, Jayne smiled.