"Pretty b- bullshit that you have an assault rifle and I only h- have a knife and a b- bat don't you think?"
She stammered as she tended to when she was nervous.

She'd thrown her crappy pistol off a hill in childish frustration after she couldn't figure out how to repair it and she'd never found it despite looking for it until the sun went down and she had to scramble to find a place to hide. The baseball bat over her shoulder that had been used so much since yesterday it was actually becoming splintered. The knife was so dull that she might as well be using a spoon.

"Looks like you're shit outta luck kid." Said Roy.
He wanted to gage just how much game she had in her. That was a good thing to know about anyone.

before you went ahead and used them to carry your will.

She tried her best to give him a steely stare, held her her knife way too tight as she struggled to make her breath stop being so wobbly.
Roy laughed that laugh of his. Like a bark run through the spokes of a ripper.
He could take her down with a stick and one hand tied behind his back but
she was cute, he'd give her that much.

"I'm just fucking with you kid. I have nothing to gain from killing ya except maybe copping a feel when I loot your corpse." He laughed and shouldered his rifle.

She looked at him, unable to conceal her discomfort at the idea that he had just implanted into her head.

It wasn't bad enough that she could die at pretty well any time in any number of ways, now she fretted about the concept of could happen to her body after the fact.
She could be eaten by animals, or even worse...other humans. She could be put on display, or dragged

away by some sick fuck who would do any number of disgusting things to her.

The whole idea made her feel like crawling somewhere that nobody could find her, shooting herself in the head and decomposing into the peaceful anonymity of being fleshless.

But how long would that take? She wished she could just go hide in Gob's room. She wished that everything was all nice and normal in the Vault, the way it had been before her world crumbled around her.

"Hey! Still there, kid?" Roy said, snapping her out her head.

"S- sorry!" She said softly.

"Why you keep saying that? Sorry for what?"
This is just too easy, thought Roy.

She let her arm drop to her side, her knife dangling limply in her hand..
"I've- I've just been through a lot in the past few days. I'm- I'm sorry."

"S'alright, kid." Roy rasped at her, again thanking his good luck for running into the soft touch before someone else'd had the time to get at her.

"I'm just pissed off because they won't let me in."

"Why won't they let you in?" She said.

"Because they're bigoted assholes." He snarled.
"But they can't keep us out forever."

"Wait- you mean they're barring all ghouls from going in? If they're banning all ghouls from going in, that's just wrong. I thought they weren't letting you in because you did something bad or something."

She said.
"You can come with me. Maybe if you come in with me they'll let you in."

"Not a chance" Said Roy.
"But I have an idea."

He waved her away from the walls of Tenpenny, just be be sure nobody would overhear him and she followed him like a pet as he walked and talked at her.

"There's a subway under the Tower" he said.
"If you opened it up we could get in."

She stopped.
"We? Wait a minute. Not letting you come in because you're a ghoul is wrong, but when you say 'we' is that to say you want to take the place over?. Push people out of their h h- homes?" She said.

Oh. So she's one of those types, Roy thought to himself.

It'd be easy enough to appeal to that bleeding heart to get his way and plus,

people like her tended to be easier to manipulate because they didn't think like he did and hardly ever figured out what he was up to until it was too late.

Roy played do gooders like her before. Heck he was married to one.

"Not necessarily." he said,

"I d- don't know" She said. "I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, ghoul or h- human.
Maybe I could talk to them. Maybe they just need to be enlightened"
She said, the idealism of youth lighting up behind her eyes.

"Whatever." Said Roy.
"If you want to talk like grown ups, I'll be down in the sewers where us ghouls obviously belong, scuttling around in the dark like vermin."

He turned his back on her and began to walk away, counted down from 10 in his head, guessing she'd come running after him by 8...7...6...5...

"Wait!" She cried, right on cue.
She trotted up to him like a pup running up to its master.

"What?" Roy said.

He knew what but he'd play his cards close to his chest and let her do all the work

"What do you want me to do?" She said in almost a whisper.

"Where you staying?" He growled.

Her face dropped and her shoulders slumped.
"Nowhere really. I m- mean- I have a friend but he doesn't really have enough room so...I d- don't know"

"Don't worry about that, kid.
I got plenty of room" Roy said motioning her to follow him with a flick of his finger.
"As you don't mind the sewer."

She had practically jumped at his offer. Anywhere was better than alone on the Wasteland.

"Really? Oh thanks! Thanks a million!" She said bouncing after him as he walked.
Looked like she was right about ghouls after all

because 2 out of 2 wasn't bad.