The crack of the .308 and the fine pink mist that followed had Kate stunned for a moment. She stood still, watching the smoke wafting from the dino's mouth where Boone had fired his perfectly placed shot into Jeannie May Crawford's cranium.
Well that was… weird, though Kate. Not that she had never seen someone's head explode before, but to have led that person to their death herself was a little shocking. She supposed Jeannie May had deserved it for selling Boone's pregnant wife into slavery, but it was still a little hard to shake off the chill of watching an execution like that. She felt numb as she ascended the creaky wooden stairs clutching the bill of sale in her hand. Boone just looked at her with no emotion in his eyes and asked, "So, how did you know?"
She handed him the bill of sale and his beret. He read the note, tore it into pieces and let the hot Mojave wind blow it from his fingers. They watched them float out of sight against the velvety night sky.
"Well that's done. Time to move out of this town." Boone shouldered a battered rucksack and slung his rifle over his shoulder.
"What will you do now?" Kate asked as she followed him out of the gift shop.
"Haven't given it much thought. Maybe join up with my old NCR unit."
"I'm headed towards New Vegas. I have…business there." she said, hopefully. "I could use some help getting there in one piece."
He turned and looked at her through his dark shades, his expression unreadable.
"Look miss, uh… hell I don't even know your name."
"It's Kate." she said, trying not to sound too eager.
"Well Kate, I'm kind of a solitary guy."
"Yeah, but you're a sniper. Don't they usually work in teams to be most effective?"
"That's true, but…"
"I need a job anyway, maybe the NCR needs two new recruits." She barely managed to avoid a childish "pleeeeeezzeee."
He stood stock still in the swirling dust for a long minute. Finally he heaved a sigh and dug into his rucksack, pulling out a worn beret, just like the one he wore on his own head. He snugged it down over her hair with less than gentle yank.
"Alright, but you really should change your mind. I've got bad things coming to me."
Without a chance for questions he picked up his bag and began a swift march towards the distant lights on the northern horizon. Kate had to run to catch up. They walked until dawn when they stopped at a little trading post called the 188. Kate spent an obscene amount of caps on a sniper rifle and enough .308 ammunition to take down Caesar's Legion single handedly. Boone watched silently as she lay prone on the broken pavement, shooting at, and mostly missing the giant ants in the nearby dry lake bed. He listened to her curse for 20 minutes or so before he grunted and knelt down beside her. He silently adjusted her grip on the rifle and then lay down next to her with a pair of rusty binoculars.
"You're hitting six inches too high. Bullets rise above your sight picture so aim lower than you think you need to." Her next shot split the worker ants head right between the antenna. Kate smiled and glanced over at Boone, but no words of praise were forthcoming. She tried to hide her disappointment and continued picking off worker ants. After a while she got tunnel vision and forgot to glance up from her scope occasionally. Her first clue that something was wrong was a hot blast of fire that singed her face on the right side. She rolled quickly left and jumped to her feet in time to see Boone plunging a wicked looking combat knife into a soldier ant's abdomen. The ant collapsed into the dust and Boone wiped the knife on his trousers. Kate bowed her head, ashamed of her lack of perception. Boone didn't look at her, but as he strode past, headed for the 188's canteen he muttered, "Don't get tunnel vision" as though they hadn't just been nearly roasted alive.