They started to go through the ruins outside Freeside when Jay spotted the sparsely dressed man with the spiked hair, a rifle slung across his back. "Damn fiends.", Jay muttered irritably, taking out his sniper rifle. "They're always holding me up. Come on, they're not going to let us pass, so let's get on with this." He knelt and peered through the scope, his finger light on the trigger, tracking the man until he had a clear line of sight. A single shot took him down. Craig fired simultaneously, taking out another at the same time.
Raiders might be drug crazed but they did have some sense of self preservation. The shot had alerted others to the danger. Ed-E flew headlong into the fray, seeking out the enemy in hiding. As the Raiders were routed by the flying robot and broke cover, Jay took them out his sniper rifle, while Trouble's arrows found a few targets. They worked their way through the ruins as a team, Jay taking lead with long distance weapons and Gannon watching the rear and taking out any attempting to sneak up from behind. Matilda slipped through the ruins, circling around to make sure none were set to ambush the team.
She noticed with alarm that Craig was storming down the road, twisting left and right with incredible agility, firing with unexcelled accuracy as he took down one raider after another. She honed in on a raider targeting the sniper. What the hell was the matter with him? 'Sniping', to the best of her knowledge, didn't imply a headlong, berserker charge, and Rangers weren't known for their stupidity. At least Gannon and Jay had sense enough to utilize whatever cover they could.
With the battle over Matilda searched feverishly for a survivor but could not find any one still breathing. She came upon Craig wandering toward her.
"Hey, Craig.", she called. "Have you found any alive?"
"Two. They aren't now.", he answered.
"Oh." She glanced down, looking distraught. The Courier came up to where they were standing. He glanced at the woman. He was aware she had been having difficulty with her thigh and needed healing.
"Craig", he said. "If we come across any more camps and have to take them out, leave any live ones for Trouble to take care of, would you?"
Craig looked from the Courier to the woman. He hadn't thought her the kind that would enjoy killing wounded men, but then how could he know? He had only just recently met her.
"Sure, Jay.", he agreed, turning away.
The battle to get through the ruins took longer than Jay had anticipated. It had been a rather large camp, and he could never pass up the opportunity to salvage usable items. By the time they had stripped the bodies of anything useful and stored all the goods in weather proof areas it was getting onto evening. They decided to stay in the raider's camp for the night and utilize their supplies, saving their own.
Arcade tended to the minor wounds they had incurred. He was worried about Matilda. Although the knife wound to her arm wasn't deep it wasn't healing as rapidly as he had hoped, and her thigh had not only stopped healing, it seemed to be getting worse. This was an indication her resources were running low. Since none of the raiders had been taken alive this could be a problem. She had fed on a warm corpse out of Boone's sight, but dead blood could only help a little.
The next morning they left directly after a hurried breakfast. Jay had them veer to the left off the road to avoid a confrontation with a known Scorpion camp. It was a much larger and better defended camp, and the Scorpions weren't into drug use, so the probability of taking serious injury was greatly increased. As they passed through a swampy area he glanced at the Pip-boy making a static sound. "We need to move a little faster, folks. There's radiation here.", he said, picking up the pace. Within a few minutes they had left the radiated area behind, having taken very little exposure.
They skirted along the base of the mountains, warily watching the camp across the road for activity, until they were suddenly attacked by a trio of fire geckos intent on driving them from their territory. Matilda hung back while the men cleared out the geckos, favoring her arm. It was still injured enough to make it difficult to employ her bow and she was carrying her .45. She could probably hit something with it if it came close enough.
A few feet further on Matilda noticed the dark opening in the side of the mountain. She glanced warily at Jay but if he had seen it he didn't pay it any attention. They kept on, going over the mountain. On the other side of a small valley Craig pointed out the symbols high up on a cliff ledge. They were approaching the territory of the Great Kahn. Not much further on they came to a large rock declaring this was the entrance to Red Rock Canyon.
There was a road that seemed to lead into the canyon but it was now late evening. Jay didn't want to walk into the camp after dark. Spotting a building off to the left he indicated they should check it out. A large herd of bighorners was scattered about between them and the building but they walked slowly and carefully between them, careful to not approach any too closely. The big bulls watched them warily until the humans had passed through the herd.
"Bonnie Springs.", Jay said, reading the location from his Pip-boy. The others were aware the device divined locations from old GPS settings and accepted this information without question. It was confirmed by a hand written sign that said 'Bonnie Springs', with an arrow pointing off around the buildings.
They approached the buildings cautiously with weapons ready but found them inhabited by nothing more than a few mice and small rats. There were only two rooms and a couple of beds with old but usable mattresses so Arcade and Matilda wouldn't be alone tonight. Matilda felt that was just as well. Her leg was healing slowly from the scorpion sting, though the knife wound to her arm seemed to be getting better. The stress of healing the new wounds on top of the older one had used up some of her resources and it had been weeks since she had fed properly. She was now feeling the hunger like something in her gut trying to gnaw its way out. It wouldn't be safe to have sex with Arcade if she was needing to feed. There wouldn't be any hurry to go to bed tonight, especially as they would be sharing the cabin with Craig and Jay.
Matilda helped the men beat the dust from the old mattresses. The counters were falling down and covered in dirt and rodent excrement so they decided to cook a meal over a small open campfire outside the building. The stars were partially hidden by low clouds and the moon was just a sliver, casting little light on the dark night.
"Maybe we could turn in first.", Arcade smiled at her, nodding toward the cabin. She shook her head.
"I'd like to stay up a while longer.", she said mildly. "I'll just take first watch tonight." She could tell he got the message by the way he looked at her.
"No, I'll take first watch.", Arcade said. "With Ed-E patrolling each of us should only have to watch for a couple of hours."
Craig yawned widely. "Whatever. I'm bushed. I'm going to bed. Wake me when it's my turn." He got up and went into the cabin.
"If you two want first watch then I'm turning in too. I'll take the last.", Jay said, yawning as he headed for the cabin.
"I am not sleeping in there with Jay and Craig!", Matilda said firmly. "I'll just put my bedroll out here on the porch."
"That sounds like an acceptable plan.", Arcade agreed. "I'll join you after I get one of the others up for their turn at watch."
Matilda spread her bedroll on the porch and stretched out on it. Although it was coming on to fall it was an unusually hot, close night. She felt like it was almost hard to breathe. The hunger clawing at her gut didn't help either. Arcade had slipped off into the shadows where he couldn't be seen, though she knew he was out there watching over them. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.
It was impossible. She couldn't sleep. The pain was getting worse. It was so hot, so stuffy, she was so thirsty. It was unbearable. A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly ripped through her, again, and yet again. She cried out, thrashing at the bedding as she tried to escape.
"Matilda! Matilda!" Her father was screaming at her. "Wake up! You're having a nightmare."
"Wh-What?", her eyes flew open. Arcade was leaning over her, shaking her awake. Her eyes focused on him, wild and terrified.
"It's all right.", he said soothingly, pulling her into his arms. "It's all right, hon, you're safe. I'm here."
She drew several deep breaths, her heartbeat slowing to normal as the dream faded.
"Was it the same nightmare?", he asked softly, holding her.
"Yes. It's not just a bad dream. It's a memory. A memory that haunts me and will never go away.", she said raggedly. "I did a terrible thing, Cade. I killed my baby."