Some time later, when the dust had cleared and they had dressed, he said, "Your Pip-Boy shows there's a cave over there, further to the east. I'll clear it out and mine it, and we can stay there tonight. I think you need to get some real sleep. You're acting unusual, even for you."
They made their way to the marked cave. She sat in one of the antechambers and stared at her Pip-Boy, idly looking through all the menus, while gunfire and animalistic squeals erupted from the depths. She stared at the map, wishing she could use it to teleport away. Back home to Vault 15 … Vault 15 … the sirens that had been blaring in her head earlier returned with a vengeance, and suddenly she knew what had set them off. She jumped up and ran into the caves, after Vulpes.
"You couldn't wait until I came and got you?" he asked when she finally caught up with him, pumping one last volley of gunfire into a dying animal. "I could have been mining this place, and you'd be a fine red mist by now. Do you know if yao guai are edible? I've never killed one before, but we haven't eaten all day and it would be a shame to let this go to waste." He looked at her, noticing her eyes were burning in anger, beneath the puffy red lids. "What?"
"You know where we're hiding," she hissed.
"Yes, we're hiding in this cave. Other than that, I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"Earlier. You said that Marcus was 'far away from our base.' I have it marked on my Pip-Boy, the one you've been checking for me. You know."
"To be fair, I knew before I even saw your Pip-Boy," he said lightly. "That's one of the three things everyone knows about the Courier. Got shot in the head, tends to use excessive violence, and loves exploring Vaults. And two of our operatives trailed Miss Cassidy back from Shady Sands."
"And you haven't attacked us."
"In a Vault? I'm not interested in losing half an army mounting a fruitless assault against a steel door and a bunch of turrets. We can always come back with explosives, when the war is over."
"You won't get away with this." Six wasn't sure why she was so angry, other than having the concept of the last safe place for her and her friends ripped away from her.
"I won't get away with not attacking you? Have you gone completely insane in the past few hours? Not that I was complaining about the first part; you could stand to lose your mind like that more often. But I'm not going to drag some irrational lunatic screaming about revenge and Vaults across what's beginning to feel like half of California."
"Six?" yelled a distant voice. They both froze.
"Let me see the map," he whispered, grabbing her wrist. He stared at it for a few seconds, then pushed her away. "Does this thing let them track you?"
"Six? Are you here?" This was close enough that she could identify it as Veronica.
"Don't hurt them," she said, hardly daring to make a sound. His gun was pointed towards the entrance to their chamber. Any minute now, one of her friends would stumble in, and then they'd all be dead.
She was surprised when he tossed her pack at her. "I can get back to the road from here on my own in a couple of hours. Go. If anyone walks into this chamber after you leave, I'll kill them. So I suggest you make sure that doesn't happen."
Six didn't have to hear that twice. Scooping her up bag, she sprinted out of the cave, up to the waiting light, up to where her friends were loudly trying to figure out why her Pip-Boy was tracking her to a deserted hill. Arcade, Veronica and Cass, the latter's eyes red with tears. Oh God, finally. She ran up, yelling various happy profanities, and hugged Cass as tightly as she could stand.
"Cass. I'm so sorry. I heard about Marcus. I'm so … this is my fault."
"It's the fucking NCR's fault, is who it is. You heard their radio broadcast? 'Legion spies' and 'traitors to the Republic,' my ass. Six, what are we going to do?"
"Can we head back before anything else awful happens?" She glanced towards the cave. "I'm exhausted, and I can't even think about our next steps until I get at least ten hours of solid rest."
"You're also dirty, bloody, and smell like explosives," Arcade said. "Wait, did you get shot in your arm? What happened to your armor? What were you doing up here, Six? We decided to come get you when we heard about Marcus because we were worried the NCR would get you too, this close to Shady Sands, but it looks like trouble found you anyway."
"Oh, right," she said, smiling faintly. She'd almost forgotten about her little victory. It had felt like a lifetime ago. "I blew up a train."
"For a reason, or just … because?" Veronica asked.
"Because it was full of legionaries. It's a long story." She thought for a moment. "No, actually, that's pretty much it. Let's get walking."
"Noooo, no, no," Arcade said. "First off, we rented a caravan to take us here, so all we have to do is make it to the road and we can ride back in style, and more importantly, safe from any prying NCR eyes. And second, you look awful. We need to find someplace to treat that wound. I think there's a cave down there."
"Don't go into the cave!" she yelled, then collected herself when they stared at her. "I was trying to hide in there for the night, but it's full of fucking deathclaws. I think it's a breeding ground. I made it this far, I can walk to the damned caravan. Where is it?"
"A little bit to the southwest," said Veronica.
"Try not to go directly west of here. There are a few NCR encampments, and they probably won't be happy to see us."
They headed south, but after Cass saw a plume of smoke on the horizon and immediately ran right at it, they ended up detouring to the ruins of the NCR camp Vulpes had destroyed hours ago. She wasn't surprised to see that he'd managed to string up the trooper he'd tortured and killed on a telephone pole, nor that he had set the place on fire and smashed the communications equipment, but the spray-painted graffiti was an unwelcome touch.
"They don't do anything halfway, do they?" Cass asked. "I almost have to admire that. Better than stabbing people in the back, like those other fucks."
"We're at least fifty miles away from the nearest Legion encampment," Veronica said. "We're right to the southwest of Shady Sands. Where did they come from? That train Six blew up?"
"This is recent," Arcade said, looking at the bodies. "Really recent, like last few hours recent. I think we should go, now."
"I agree with Arcade," Six said. The whole scene, and her participation in it, was making her nauseated. What the hell had she been thinking?
They headed due south, Cass and Veronica taking point. Arcade and Six trailed behind. He asked her if she needed some Med-X for her arm once they reached the caravan, and she gratefully accepted his offer. "I've been shot a lot before, but this one really stings for some reason."
"So why didn't you use the Med-X in your pack?"
"Um … I couldn't get to my pack."
"Six? What's really going on here? You blew up a train, right, I got that. It does seem like something you'd do. But that doesn't explain the gunshot wound. You never leave your pack behind, anywhere. You have bruises, and not blowing-up-a-train bruises, someone-tried-to-strangle-me bruises. And you didn't exactly seem surprised at that NCR camp back there. Did you kill them and frame the Legion? I mean, smart thinking, but it does seem kind of gratuitous."
"I'll explain it all to you when we get back to the Vault. I can't even think right now." She glanced ahead, where Cass and Vero were happily chatting about what they'd do to Kimball when they got ahold of him. Throwing him into the arena versus Caesar sounded good to her. "Just you and me."
Within half an hour, they made it to their caravan and climbed in, exhausted. Cass had forged fake identification papers for them, so they were able to take the quickest route back to the Vault, despite Cass's sudden desire to lob a mini-nuke at all of the NCR waystations they had to pass by. And people think I'm all about revenge? The Legion should just try capturing Cass. She'd have the camp in flames within hours. When they arrived at sunrise, Beatrix, who had been given watch over the gate, let them in. Six stumbled through the halls, everyone staring at her, until she unlocked her bedroom and fell face-first onto the mattress. She'd passed out before her head was even on the pillow.