Fiona awoke to the taste of dirt. She closed her cottony dry mouth and found that she had half a mouthful of dirt and rocks. That at least explained the taste, if not why she was eating it. She spit the dirt out as best she could and wasn't sure if it was easier to get out of her mouth because of the dryness or if it was more difficult for the same reason. She was able to pull herself up enough that her arms could support her torso and just let her head hang for a while.

Where was she? She pulled her head in one direction and found herself looking at a rusted out shopping cart that was missing all of its wheels. Beyond it was the dried up scrub that seemed to be what so much of this land looked like these days. It had been normal while growing up, but now that Project Purity had truly kicked in, the deadness was more difficult to see without cringing. The areas around where the Projects were was green and apparently some very expensive real estate now. Funny since that tended to be the watery areas that had been avoided as early as a few years ago due to the crustaceous mirelurks.

She let her head swing in the opposite direction and found herself staring at the dulled silver of one an old vehicle. No one today had ever seen one moving and to Fiona they looked like large silver bullets with a transparent middle. The proof that they were vehicles and not strange wheeled bullets was sitting in the passenger seat and staring with the eternal skeletal grin that was so common to find in old, unused places these days.

Shifting to sit up straight brought waves of nausea and dizziness, but she did it anyway. She felt drugged and wondered what those two men had done to her. Michael had just been petting her and she hadn't felt anything like a pinprick from him so she didn't think he had injected anything. She knew she hadn't taken anything. Greg had kissed the side of her mouth and even now she felt the pull to have more from him.

Slut.

Her head spun back to the vehicle. Surely the skeleton hadn't just called her what she thought it had. "You can shut up. You're just jealous." Talking to herself or inanimate objects was nothing new. It happened when too much time was spent alone and she had made a habit of spending time alone because so few people could be trusted that she didn't want to risk taking any of them with her. These two were a prime example of that. They had done something to her.

And you want more done to you.

Her eyes narrowed at the skeletal grin that seemed oddly wider. She did want more. Low in her belly she felt the pleasant clenching that told her that she needed to get a bit of relief. Whatever they had done to her had addled both her mind and her sex drive. So be it, the fog in her head was rapidly fading and soon she would try standing up.

Alpha Project Claret and the number 42 rattled around in her head. She had told them everything she knew about that just because they had asked her too. That was strange and she knew that whatever they had done had happened then. Whatever this Project was worth something to them and therefore it was probably worth something to her as well.

Almost as an afterthought she checked for her pistol. It was still on her hip, odd that they hadn't taken that. A quick search showed that they hadn't actually taken anything from her. They had left her here, in the dirt, but hadn't done the typical robbing that so many others would have. Why? Didn't they need the extra caps that the pistol and few items she owned could have gotten them. Where they being nice? Nice after drugging her and leaving her in the dirt seemed odd.

You just want to find them.

She had just pulled her gun to shoot the skeleton back to being quiet when she heard a slight scuffle that was familiar to her. Mole rat. She scanned back and forth, looking for the source of the sound and spotted it right as it started to charge her. Being prone in a sitting position lead the speed of fear in her shooting and with three shots it was a slightly scorched version of dead, less than a meter away from her.

She was panting from both fear and the weakness that whatever they had done to her had caused, but she forced herself to stand on wobbly legs anyway. Molerats often roamed in packs and the very idea of sitting down while another of them came after her was enough to fuel strength back into her.

The molerat was a solid looking beast and she used her knife to strip enough meat off of it for a few meals. If she got a fire going tonight she could have a pretty tasty and hot meal. Night wasn't far off though so she would have to get working on that. She packed the meat in a couple strips of leather that were cured for just the purpose of carrying wet meat. The rest of the beast would be found by something else and consumed. Nothing was wasted out here in the wasteland.

She stood after stashing the meat and found a dual set of prints on the other side of the molerat. That would be Michael and Greg heading off to find their al important APC 42. Well it wasn't dark yet and if she was lucky she might be able to join them at their fire up ahead, if she found it. If she didn't find them tonight, she would find them tomorrow. There were questions she wanted answered and she was a little annoyed at waking up in the dirt. She was lucky the mutant hadn't followed them here and found her while she was sleeping.

Fiona started walking and from behind her she heard the skeleton speak one last time.

Oh the boys will be sorry for not playing with you, wont they?