It's been too long, I know, shame on me! But here we...hope you're still hanging in and the new chap is any good. Lemme know by review, enjoy!


They walked back to the trading post and to John, who was putting up some more guns and ammo on the table in front of him.

"Oh you two are back. Decided yet?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah, we're going raider hunting." Ashley said with a smirk.

"Great! Thank you so much, maybe I can finally ease up a bit when they're gone. Here, let me show you their location on your map." John said happily as Ashley pulled out her map sheet and unfolded it.

"Alright that's not so far away, we can go right now and make it back before dark. See you later John, and keep those caps warm!" Ashley said as she walked over to the truck where Joan was waiting.

"So?" She asked.

"We're going right now. Pack lightly, stock up on ammo, leave everything else and don't forget your rifle, we're putting your skills to a test." Ashley said as she put down her backpack and started checking the pouches on her vest for ammo.

Joan agreed and put the bag with the rifle down. She took it and loaded a fresh magazine it. She replaced the energy cells on her vest with the few magazines she had for the rifle and filled the now empty pouches with stray .338 rounds that she didn't have magazines for.

"Not taking your laser?" Ashley asked as Joan slung the carbine across her back and picked up her new rifle.

"No, not this time. Hell, maybe I'll even ditch it completely, gotta say I like shooting guns." Joan answered as she worked the bolt on the rifle to chamber a round.

"Okay, you all set? Time to go." Ashley said as she audibly racked the charging handle of her FAL.

"Yep, all set. Let's kill some bad guys!" Joan replied with a smirk and a nod.

They started walking north-east, where John had marked the hideout of the raiders. It didn't take long until they had the small shack in sight, they saw it in a distance of a few hundred meters, and it was unguarded.

Joan raised her sniper rifle and looked through the scope, checking the shack. "Door's open, there's a body out front, looks like raider. Something happened down there." She said.

"Damn, see anything else?" Ashley asked.

"Nope, all quiet." Joan said, scanning the building.

"Alright, let's get closer, change your weapons, forget the sniper." Ashley said as she started walking towards the shack, rifle at the ready.

Joan quickly switched weapons, readying her carbine as she followed.

They got close to the shack, which still stood quiet, nothing moved, nothing made a sound.

"Damn I don't like this." Ashley whispered as they closed in to the door, that was partially open. She stood against the wall on one side of the door, while Joan was on the other side. Ashley raised her rifle and nodded for Joan to open the door. The redhead reached out and opened the door quickly. Ashley took a step into the doorway and aimed her rifle. She didn't react, she didn't fire, nothing happened for a few seconds.

"Oh fuck!" Ashley suddenly yelled out and opened fire into the shack. In return, there was a loud buzzing from inside. She kept firing as she started moving away and yelled "Cazadors! We gotta go, come on, go go go!" Her rifle clicked empty and the first of the large insects came flying out. Joan took over and fired her rifle while Ashley reloaded, keeping the mutants at bay. But more and more of them came buzzing out of the shack.

"What the fuck is going on? Where're they all coming from for fuck's sake?" Joan yelled over her own gunfire.

"Shit, I'm out! Go, we gotta move!" Ashley yelled and took off running, Joan staying behind, firing at the remaining mutants with her pistol. Ashley did the same after she got some distance and drew her Colt, killing more of the bugs.

They lowered their weapons, the last of the bugs fallen to the ground. They looked at each other for a moment, then broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Fuck, that was a close one!" Ashley said after calming down, loading her pistol with a fresh magazine.

"Tell me about that, that shack was actually bugged." Joan said, holstering her pistol.

"Well, at least they solved the raider problem." Ashley said, shrugging.

"Speaking of which, let's check those guys out, maybe they got something useful." Joan said and walked back to the shack, stepping over the dead bugs.

"Exactly, after annoying the merchants they ought to have some gear on them, at least." Ashley said, rolling the first dead raider over and checking his pockets while Joan went inside the shack. She took all the ammo, caps and drugs off the raider.

"Hey Ash, get in here!" Joan yelled from the hut. Ashley leapt up and ran inside, expecting to see more bugs attacking Joan. But she found the redhead standing just past the door, looking into the poorly lit building.

"Look at that." She said as Ashley waltzed in.

"Fucking eggs? You make a commotion for a bunch of bug eggs? I thought you were getting gnawed on by more insects!" Ashley said, groaning in annoyance.

Joan shrugged "Just thought it was noteworthy."

"We'll burn them when we go, can't let more of these bastards buzz around." Ashley said as she pocketed some more ammunition from one of the raider bodies.

They looted the rest of the dead raiders and stepped out of the shack.

"Now what?" Joan asked.

"Now we burn it down." Ashley said, holding up a recently looted incendiary grenade. She pulled the pin, let the lever flick off and tossed the device into the building, where it exploded, causing the small shack to burst in flame quickly, along with the Cazador eggs.

"Let's go, John owes us our reward." Ashley said and shouldered her rifle, starting to make the way back, with Joan on her heels.

"Technically, we didn't kill them." Joan said.

"We killed a couple dozen Cazadors, that ought to be enough." Ashley said with a chuckle. "Besides, we gotta go back there anyway, we just spent like a trillion rounds, gotta restock."

"True, can't argue with that." Joan said, taking out her magazine and checking the load.

"Hey, did you hear something?" Ashley suddenly asked, stopping.

"Hear what?" Joan asked in confusion.

"I don't know, just thought I heard some…." Ashley said and suddenly got hit by something, tossing her a few steps back and down on the ground, unconscious.

"What the…? Ashley!" Joan yelled, catching a glimpse of a shimmer right next to her, ducking down just in time to feel something whip something over her head but avoid it. She rolled away and raised her rifle, shooting at the spot where she saw it.

After the first few shots the Nightkin got visible, storming towards her with a large sledgehammer. She fired her last few shots before her rifle clicked empty. She rolled to the right to avoid another blow from the Nightkin, discarding her rifle, she drew her pistol, shooting at the mutant as fast as she could, not harming it much as it closed in.

It swung its hammer at her again. She tried to scurry out of the way, this time unsuccessful as the hammer hit her left arm, shattering it with a deafening crack. Joan screamed out in agony, dropping her gun and clutching her destroyed arm as the mutant walked close to her and picked her up with little effort.

"Puny human!" It growled, raising its other hand, bringing it around her neck. Joan punched at the arm with her own unharmed hand, not sure if it planned to choke her to death, or just snap her neck. She was about to give up when two shots rang out, piercing the mutants skull and sending the insides of its head splattering all over Joan. The creatures grip loosened and she dropped to the ground.

She looked up to see Ashley, half laying in the dirt, half sitting up, one hand clutched at her chest, the other holding her rifle. She was coughing as she dropped the rifle. "Are you…alright?" She asked with a big pause.

"My arm is broken." Joan whimpered, crawling away from the dead mutant. "What about you?"

"I feel like I broke every single rib, fucker got me with the sledge. But I think the armor plate took most of it." Ashley said, slowly standing up with a loud groan of pain.

"We gotta move Joan. Before more of the goddamn bastards show up." She said, holding her hand out to Joan. The redhead took it with her healthy hand, getting pulled up by Ashley.

"Hold still!" Ashley said, jamming a Stimpak into Joans broken arm, followed by a dose of Med-X. Then she unclipped the sling from her rifle and put it around Joans arm and neck, immobilizing it at least a bit. "Let's hope it works. Now let's go."

After the first aid they quickly made their way back to the trading post. Where they, once again, climbed on the back of the old army truck. Ashley used the sheath of her combat knife as a makeshift splint for Joans arm, still leaving her the gun sling to immobilize it.

"I don't know how Stimpaks affect broken bones, but it should still take a while to heal completely." Ashley said and leaned back.

"We'll see, now let me see your ribs." Joan said, holding her arm close to herself.

"Alright, but don't go all shocked on me, it's probably looking ugly." Ashley said and opened her combat vest. She took the vest off and raised her shirt, revealing a nasty, black bruise that took up a big part of her upper body.

"Ouch! That looks painful!" Joan said, reaching out to touch Ashleys skin, gently prodding at the bruise.

"Ow, stop that shit! It hurts." Ashley grumbled.

"Sorry." Joan said, chuckling.

"I'm gonna go collect our reward, back in a few minutes." Ashley said and stood up, jumping from the truck, grunting in pain from her tormented ribs..

"I'm coming with you!" Joan protested and was about to stand up when Ashley stopped her.

"You stay on your ass and rest. And clean your face, you got brains all over you." She said and walked away.

When she reached the arms shop of John, he was arguing with his son about the shotgun Ashley gave him.

"I don't want you to have a shotgun, you're too young." John said.

"I'm not stupid, I know how to use it, I saved the girls asses!" Brian countered.

"Gotta give him that one John." Ashley said with a grin as she stepped up to the counter.

"Oh. You're back already. Jeez what happened to you? You look like crap." John said after looking at Ashley.

"Thanks, cause I feel like hell. Got jumped by a fucking mutant. But the raiders are dead. So here I am!" Ashley said.

"Yeah, I know what you want. Here you go." John said, sliding her a bag of caps.

"Thanks man. I'd also need some new ammo, we had to spend surprisingly much of ours." Ashley said.

"Alright, it's on the house for the troubles. What do you need?" John asked, opening up his ammoboxes.

"Some seven-six-two, five-five-six, nine millimeter and forty-five, if you have." Ashley said.

"I don't have forty-fives, but everything else I can give you." John said and started counting out the ammo, sliding it over to Ashley.

"Thanks, but now I gotta go, Joan's even worse than me. Catch you later!" Ashley said, grabbed all her stuff and walked back to the truck, where she jumped up and sat down next to Joan, who was asleep.

"Med-X working it's magic." Ashley mumbled to herself, put all their stuff down and leant back to get some sleep as well.