Goodness, I am just so happy with the support for this story. I didn't mean to be gone this long, things happen.


"Marie….Marie!"

Her eyes fluttered open, her instantly racing at the way she was awoken. Her eyes blinked harshly, trying to adjust, as Riley jerked her up, forcing her bag into her hands. The fire was gone but the morning sun was already beginning to bathe everything in light. But, it was too early for anything to really be seen, just the silhouette of trees and broken houses.

"Riley," her voice croaked, hoarse.

"We gotta go," Riley growled. She slung her rifle over her shoulder, pulled Marie to her feet. "You need to wake up, fast."

Marie nodded numbly, pulling her back around her arms and onto her back. She took her gun from Riley and watched her for a moment, saw the way she was twitching everywhere and she was finally awake. She followed the directions Riley's eyes went, seeing nothing but half-lit darkness and hearing nothing but bullets flying way too close but far enough to not be involved.

Riley froze on one spot and Marie decided to look there, only finding dust swirling in the wind. That was when Riley grabbed Marie's hand and started dragging her.

"R-Riley," Marie sputtered, trying to use her feet but Riley was running. "Riley stop!"

"If I do, they catch us," Riley hissed, looking back over her shoulder.

Marie looked forward, confused. She didn't see anything. What the hell was Riley so…oh…oh, there it was. Two people, one small, one large, charging at them. The big one was grinning ear to ear, holding a bloody baseball bat in his large hands. The smaller one, though he wasn't that much smaller, was twitching this way and that, obviously high on something, and had a lead pipe in his hands. This was why Riley was running?

"Th-They're just idiots, we have guns!"

"Ambush, dingbat," Riley growled. "They distract us, more pour in. You don't hear the gunfire? That's their buddies killing more people. We were next to Big Town."

Big Town…so they…

The town had just been slaughtered, and they were next.

Until, beautifully cliché, a bullet snapped through the big ones head. It was enough to make his pal stop, it was enough to make Riley stop. The sound of the shot echoed against the rocks and Riley looked back, into the eyes of the manic one. He was looking in all kinds of directions, trying to find the bastard that had shot his partner, and then he received a spray of bullets from a combat shotgun.

Riley hadn't even noticed the ghoul approaching from the left.

He kicked the corpse, looking over at Riley and Marie, who was shaking. Blood had sprayed across her. Not much, but enough to see. He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a rag he used to clean blood from his knife, and tossed it at her. Riley had let go of her by now and Marie was thankful for that, turning to the right and wiping the blood from her face while Riley and the ghoul stared at each other.

"You were the one I noticed last night," she spoke calmly.

He nodded once.

"Don't talk much, do ya?"

He shook his head.

"Not allowed to. You know, stranger-danger and all."

Riley's head snapped to the left, eyes bright, and she saw a small woman approaching them. Not a girl, this was a woman. She wore recon armor that had obviously seen some fighting and an old Oasis hood that had holes in it, possibly from bullets. Her face was lightly scarred and so were her hands, as if from burns. But, she wasn't threatening. She was smiling at Riley and then Marie, who hadn't noticed her approach. Her eyes followed Marie's hand as she shakily passed the rag back to the ghoul, like she was angry, but her smile portrayed rightness.

"You were watching us," Marie questioned, ears perking.

The woman nodded, shifting her weight. "Yeah, we didn't know if you were friendlies or not," she gestured over her shoulder to where faint lights could be seen. "You were getting pretty close to Megaton, we had to make sure you wouldn't be a threat to our home."

Riley eyed the sniper rifle the woman had on her back. "Thank you," she spoke genuinely. "But Megaton was our destination. I need to drop this girl off there, her name is Marie. I'm Riley."

The woman smiled, taking Marie's outstretched hand. "Hello Riley, Marie. Call me Turnip."

"Turnip," Marie questioned, wanting to giggle.

"Yep, Turnip," she adjusted the rifle. "My friend Gob calls me that on occasion, it stuck as a name."

Riley nodded, looking over at the ghoul. "And you?"

"His name is Charon," Turnips voice grew a little gruff. "Let's head back to Megaton. I'm sure you guys are hungry, thirsty? Maybe you need a nice place to sleep instead of the cold desert ground."

Marie grinned but Riley remained indifferent. "That would be so nice," she looked over at Riley. "Come on, let's go! We were headed there anyway."

Riley nodded, reluctant. "Fine, fine. Let's go then."

"Excellent, Gob will be happy to have fresh faces in the Saloon…"

Saloon?


There it was, Moria- er, Gob's – Saloon.

A rickety metal shack atop more rickety metal shacks, surrounding a disarmed, undetonated, bomb. The moment Marie saw it, her eyes sparkled and she took off, sliding down the hill towards the bomb and Riley reluctantly followed. But at a much slower pace. Turnip and Charon followed as well, whispering amongst themselves but Riley could hear and knew she shouldn't be listening, this was just private talk not 'Alright, you bag the bitch I'll get the air head' talk.

"Who tore out the right wires," Marie questioned, peering into the panel with the timer.

"It's a little more complicated than that," Turnip politely closed the panel. "But I did."

Marie grinned. "That is so cool!"

"Really," Turnip looked over at Riley, who just gave her a look of 'Go with it'.

Marie nodded vigorously, her growling stomach breaking her excitement. She grabbed at the fabric covering her stomach, looking around almost nervously. Turnip smiled and began to lead everyone up towards the Saloon, saying Nova would have lunch ready. Inside the saloon, air poured from a rattling window unit behind the bar and a ghoul manned the drinks, placing beers in front of several older men and a Nuke-Cola in front of one with an eye patch. Turnip directed Riley and Marie to a small corner that seemed to be cut off from the rest of the bar and Riley was glad to see Charon following behind the stranger.

"I'll stay for a few days," Riley muttered, settling in a chair that creaked under her weight. "Think I'll arrange something with Turnip to teach you about the Capital Wasteland."

Marie nodded but she was only half-listening. She was more concerned about the unfamiliar faces around the bar. It was so weird, to see so many smiling faces in a bar. There was no rusty smell in the air, no peeling sores or cries of the turned from outside. It was just smiling facing and pretty music trickling in from the radio.

Marie smiled at Riley. "Thank you so much for bringing me here."

Riley almost smiled back, but heard Turnip laugh and her eyes hardened. "Don't thank me yet…