Chapter Eight

Jenny and I walked out into the desert, heading for the hills slightly southeast of the town. I brought my rifle to my hands and Jenny did the same with the one in hers.

"Alright first rule of gun safety. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot." I glanced down and watched Jenny move her finger from the trigger. "Now look on the left side of the rifle, just above your thumb, see the switch?"

"Uh-huh."

"Make sure it's set to safe. With practice, you'll be able to switch it without looking, but now look to see if it's safe."

Jenny twisted the rifle in her grip and checked. I already knew it was on safe, but it's always good to check. I stopped walking and crouched next to her. I adjusted her grip, and slid the stock to the smallest possible adjustment.

"How's that? Easier to hold?"

"Yeah, but it's still heavy."

"Don't worry, after carrying it for a few days, you'll get used to it. Now, on the right side above the magazine, is a button. Hold onto the magazine with your left hand and hit the button with your right. That'll let you pull an empty magazine out. On the opposite side, in the same spot, is a lever. You use that to close the bolt if it's open. Now see the T shaped handle in front of the stock? Slide the magazine back in, hit it up into the gun to make sure it's seated and secure, and pull that handle back." Jenny did as I said, but needed help pulling the charging handle back.

I moved around behind Jenny and gripped her shoulders. "Now the gun is loaded. Bring to rifle up tight to your shoulder, like that," I adjusted her grip and made sure the stock was tucked in against her shoulder, "and switch the rifle to semi-automatic. That will let you fire one shot with each trigger pull. Now, aim down the sight, lining up the center of the red dot with the front sight of the rifle, and aim at the dirt about 10 feet in front of you. Close your other eye if it helps." She aimed and the barrel of the rifle lowered slightly.

"Now put your finger on the trigger, but don't pull it yet. Just rest your finger on it… Alright now gently squeeze it until it stops resisting. You almost want it to surprise you. Tighten you grip when you do, or you'll hurt yourself."

Jenny nodded and slowly pulled a trigger. The rifle stayed tight in her grip, but she still flinched and her aim moved.

"That's alright, with practice you'll get used to the sound of the shot and your aim will improve. Now, put the rifle back on safe, and take your finger off the trigger. See how how the trigger clicked forward a tiny bit once you took you finger off? That menas it's reset. You have to let it do that each time you pull the trigger, otherwise the gun won't fire."

We began walking again, ED-E floating behind us, beeping to himself. We came up to a large hill and stopped.

"Ok, the geckoes should be over this hill. We'll crawl up slowly so we don't startle them and we'll fire from there."

Jenny nodded and slung her rifle across her back, as did I. Then we got low on our hands and knees, and slowly crawled to the crest of the hill. Easing onto our stomachs, we pulled our rifles around and looked for geckos. I saw some and pointed them out to Jenny, who shifted her aim.

"Alright aim for its chest. Remember to gently squeeze. I'll let you do the shooting, at your own pace, but you need to be quick. If they get too close, ED-E and I will take care of them. Now, take it off safe to semi auto, and fire whenever you're ready."

Jenny took the gun off safe and put her finger on the trigger. I looked through my scope at the gecko she was targeting. A moment later, she fired and the gecko dropped dead. What I didn't expect was the eight other geckos to immediately turn and come charging at us.

"Jenny, duck down. Now! ED-E protect her," I said standing up and began firing into the mass of geckos I dropped three before they reached the bottom of the hill and reloaded.

"Fuck it," I said, switching to full auto and spraying into the geckos, dropping the last five quickly. Swapping mags again and picking up the one I'd dropped, I saw Jenny peek up from where she had ducked down.

"It's safe now. I'll go skin the gecko you killed, and ED-E will take you back to town. There should be enough leather to make you some armor. I'll see you in a bit." I handed Jenny the room key, and she walked back with ED-E.

Ten minutes later, I walked into town. It was dusk, so I put the skin in the truck before I went to the room, but decided to speak with Manny about the ghouls. As I opened the door to the sniper's nest, a different man stood there, though he also wore a First recon beret.

"God dammit, don't sneak up on me like that. What do you want?" the large man said, turning towards me.

"Sorry man I was looking for Manny." I turned to leave.

"Wait, maybe you shouldn't go just yet. I need someone I can trust."

"You only trust strangers?"

"You're not from around here, that's a start. My wife was kidnapped by the Legion, and they only took her. Someone sold her out, and I want the son of a bitch who did it."

"Fuck man, sorry to hear that. What do you need me to do?"

"Ask around town, see if anybody saw anything. When you find who did it, bring them to the front of the dinosaur." He handed me his beret, "Put that on as the signal and I'll take care of the rest."

I nodded and left. First I headed to the room to assure Jenny I was all right, and just needed to take care of something. As I walked down the stairs, I saw the motel owner locking up the lobby.

I walked up to her and she turned to face me. "Sorry for bothering you, but I was wondering if you could tell me about Boone's wife?"

The old woman's face distorted even worse than when I mentioned Benny and she proceed to tell me all about how Boone's wife was a bitch. I had a feeling she didn't like the woman because she was from Vegas, having learned that little tidbit from our conversation. I thanked her and turned to walk back to my room. On a hunch, I paused at the stairs, pretending to check my PipBoy, and saw her turn the corner and disappear. I quickly moved to the lobby door and picked the lock. Entering, I moved to the counter and rummaged through the file drawers, finding nothing but money reports. Next I checked the safe in the floor. Picking that lock as well, I found a note from the Legion, thanking her for giving them two slaves. Apparently Carla Boone had been pregnant. A feeling of anger and sorrow washed over me so, I took the caps and left the lobby. I caught up with the old woman just before she entered her house.

"Ma'am, there's something in front of the dinosaur I think you should see, I heard Manny mention it earlier. Said you might want to take a look." I lied, fighting to keep my anger from showing.

"Well alright, if you think it's important."

She followed me up the road. As we approached the front of the dinosaur, I pointed to the ledge near the road.

"We think somebody dropped a suitcase, maybe you could identify whose it is." It was a bullshit claim, but the woman didn't seem too bright in the first place.

She nodded and moved to the ledge. I turned to look up at the dinosaur's mouth, and put on Boone's beret. A second later, a gunshot rang out and the old woman's body tumbled off the ledge. Good riddance.

I walked up the door to the sniper nest and opened the door. Boone was waiting for me. I handed his beret back and he placed it back on his shaved head.

"That's it then, how did you know?"

I said nothing, just handed him the paper and watched him read it. He dropped the paper to floor, confusion and pain on his face, and a little bit of wetness formed at the corner of his eyes.

"Carla was pregnant? I didn't know…" he trailed off as I placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I am so sorry. Look, Boone, maybe it's not too late to save her. She might be still alive. I'll help you however I can."

He shook his head, "No she's dead." The finality in his made me stop speaking for a moment.

I sighed and spoke up again. "What're you gonna do now?"

"Don't know, maybe wander like you."

"Then why don't you come with me, I have no love for the Legion either," I said as I pulled my dog tags out. His eyebrow rose when he saw the pin.

"Ranger huh. Well I guess I can travel with you for a bit."

"Sounds good. I'm James, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the gang tomorrow." I turned to leave when Boone spoke.

"Ranger James Pendleton, the Hero of the Dam. I'm sorry for what happened. I was at Bitter Springs myself."

I turned around, meeting his eyes. "Yeah this war loves creating massacres. I'll see you in the morning. Manny needs me to get rid of the ghouls at the rocket facility.

"See you then," was all Boone said before returning to his duties.

By the time I stepped into the motel room, Jenny was already asleep, rifle leaning against the wall. I lay my duster over her and moved to clean the rifles before heading for bed. I once again fell into a restful sleep, somewhat happy with life now.