Luna raced up the hill with Sam leading the way. She tripped, over a protruding root, and came crashing down on her knees. The pain and shock of the fall, mixed with the urgency to reach the house, had adrenaline pumping through Luna's veins. Her movements felt jerky and her knees were numb to majority of the pain, except for a sharp sting that let her know the skin had broken and was bleeding.

Without missing a beat she was back on her feet and scrambling to the top of the hill. The gunshots became a cacophony of noise. Screams of pain and cries of war were swallowed by the surrounding trees.

To her immediate right there was a man clad in military fatigues and scratched up combat armor, taking cover behind a splintered stump. Mid turn, as he was about to take aim at whoever he was firing at, he spotted Luna and began shooting in her direction instead. One of the bullets chewed its way through her thigh before she could even react and take cover. The rest either missed or grazed her arms and cheeks. Whoever this guy was, he wasn't a very good shot. Luna drew her pipe pistol and dove for cover behind the once yellow, rusted out, skeletal car that was to her left. The hole in her thigh oozed blood with every beat of her heart. Pulling the belt from the loops of her battered brown cargo pants, Luna wrapped it around her thigh, above the wound, and pulled it tight; effectively staunching much of the blood flow.

The shouts and most of the gunfire had quieted to just a few shots every couple seconds now. The fight was over, but there was no telling who came out victorious from Luna's vantage point. She hoped that Sam was alright. When Luna had fallen coming up the hill, Sam kept racing ahead and disappeared at the top.

"Hey!" Luna shouted, up and over her left shoulder. "Who survived?" She queried.

"That depends." Her attacker stated.

She let out an exasperated sigh, "On what? I'd really rather not get shot again." Came Luna's snide reply.

He paused. "Depends on whether or not you're a Gunner."

A branch snapping to Luna's right drew her attention. She turned to see what it was and was met with the butt of a shotgun to her temple. Vision blurry, she could only vaguely make out the figure of another man. He seemed quite large, possibly muscular, but Luna was having a hard time discerning what was what through the blur. The edges of her vision began to darken and fear snaked its way up her spine before everything finally went dark.

There was a jumble of voices, all talking over each other. Luna couldn't decipher anything in particular that they were saying, the words were just a buzz of noise. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and snapped them back shut. The light from the campfire had the same intensity of the sun, sending pain pulsing throughout her eye sockets. Groaning in pain, she tried to bring her hands up to cradle her throbbing head, and found they were cuffed and chained to the side door of a Vertibird. There was an image of a skeletal-esque head with an 'X' on the forehead paint on the side.

"Look who decided to join the land of the living!" There was a roar of hearty laughter from the group of men. A rustle of clothing, and clank of armor, drew Luna's attention. Someone had gotten up and came over to where she lay on the packed and rocky earth.

"Why did you come here?" The grizzled Gunner asked with a certain calmness that one only experienced before being ripped into by a Chameleon Deathclaw when they knew they had no chance of surviving. Luna turned toward him slowly, trying not to disturb her increasingly upset stomach and swollen head, "Does it matter?" She snapped

"No, I suppose it doesn't." His blue gaze was intense and penetrating, as if he could see into her very soul. His shout was sudden and rang through her skull, "Tyler! Get her cleaned up. Can't have our little prize bleeding everywhere and drawing the attention of those damn mongrels."

Prize?! Who the hell do they think I am! Luna struggled against her cuffs.

"Wait, what are you talking about? I don't want anything to do with you and your merry little band of raiders!"

"First of all, we're not raiders. Second, I'm talking about bringing you back to HQ for our Captain. He's been awefully lonely these past few months, and you're just his type." He sneered and reached out to caress her cheek, then stood up and walked back to the group as Tyler came over to her. The threat was clear to her. She was going to be their toy, their slave.

Luna looked Tyler square in the eye as he kneeled down. There was something off about him, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She didn't have to ponder long because Tyler quickly set about cleaning her wounds with a bottle of vodka and cleanish looking rags. When he began to speak to her in such a low whisper, she had to strain to hear him.

"There's a 10mm strapped to the underside of the pilot's seat. There's also two guards watching our camp at all times." Tyler cast a casual glance over his shoulder, then went about slowly bandaging her thigh.

"Why are you telling me all this? And where is my dog? You didn't..." Luna choked on a silent sob before she could finish her question. Tyler looked up and tried not to falter in his bandaging, lest one of the others was watching a little too closely.

"I'm telling you because you don't want to be here as much as I don't, and I'm busting out of here as soon as I'm put on guard tonight."

Luna screwed up her face in confusion. "How are you going to manage that? You said there was two guards at all times, meaning someone else will know if you just pick up and run."

"Don't worry, I've already thought about that. You were kind of an unexpected addition to my escape though. Really, this whole day didn't go as planned." The bandage on her thigh was finished, and the rest of her cuts had been cleaned but were too minor to require anything more. Tyler began packing up his medkit as he quickly explained his plans for escaping.