Chapter 37: Conversation Killer
"When are we going to be in Nevada?" Lennie asked Rilee at dinner a few days later.
"By the way we're going, a few weeks. We're a little bit into Texas, I think." Rilee said.
"Oh yeah, you got your maps back?" Lennie asked Ulysses and I.
Ulysses pulled up his Pip-Boy as I looked sadly down at my right wrist, continuing to cut with my left arm, and dropping and picking up a fork to eat the gecko.
"Something's wrong, it shouldn't be out still." Ulysses said as he looked at his Pip-Boy.
"Maybe it'll be back in Nevada." Rilee mumbled with her mouth full.
"Maybe..." He said.
"I didn't know you had a family, Joe." Rilee said, trying to start up another conversation.
"Yeah, I do." He said.
"Any kids?" She asked.
"Fou-uh, three girls." He stuttered in response.
"Their names are Carrie, Casey, and Jessica." Joe added.
I bit a piece of food, and chewed it, taking in the flavor of the meal. With every bite, I felt a pain in the back of my head. I tried to ignore it, but the pain became so ferocious that I put my fork down for the moment.
"Why Jessica?" Rilee asked Joe.
"Honestly? No idea why I made her name start with a 'J'." Joe answered with a shrug.
"Nice." Lennie smiled.
"Thanks for the food." I said quickly, putting my dishes in the pile for Lennie to wash.
"What's the rush?" Lennie asked.
"I'm just tired." I said, walking to the door and grabbing it.
"You've been sleeping for a week, I doubt it." Rilee said with a smirk.
"I'm just not feeling good, that's all." I told them.
"You're not?" Ulysses asked me as he got up.
"Did you get hurt anywhere else?" He asked as he checked my head.
"I just want to sleep." I stated sternly, removing his hands from my head.
The train bumped violently on the tracks, sending me crashing towards the ground as Ulysses slipped backwards. The force of the crash made Rilee jump to attention, and she ran past us towards the front of the train. I yelped in pain, for I had landed on my arm, and now, I had another thing to complain about as Ulysses helped me up.
"What the hell was that?" Joe asked as he got up frantically.
"It's Logan! He found us!" Lennie screamed.
"Calm down, Chicken Little." Rilee eased him.
"Is… is that a penis joke?" Lennie asked her.
"No." She answered.
"Let's just go see what we hit." Joe said as he guided us to the front of the train, where Rilee slowed the train to a stop.
"You see what we hit?" Joe asked her.
"Some debris, or maybe the rails are getting into rough condition." Rilee answered as she looked outside via a small window to the right.
"We've got company." Rilee warned us as she pointed to a band of four legged creatures racing towards us from the right.
"I'll handle this." Ulysses said as he held onto his bow.
"No, we all will." I told him as I looked seriously into his eyes.
"Okay." He complied as the train hissed and popped finally.
Joe opened the door and we all aimed our weapons at the band of people as they casually got off their horses.
"Don't take another step, Eastwood." Rilee instructed at the person closest to us as they unsaddled their mount and walked from the darkness towards the light of the train.
It was a female ghoul, all of them were. They wore brown dusters and had different weaponry that I haven't seen before, all seeming to be made of iron and wood. The woman in front had patches of short red hair, and was the only one with a brown cowboy hat that matched the duster. They got off their four legged creatures of the night that were just as rotted as they were. The things they rode on were saddled, and had four legs with two small arms coming from the long neck. Patches of hair came down from the back of the long head, and from the back of it's equally as long spine. They snorted disgustedly at our presence.
"Calm down, we're not here to hurt you." The woman said innocently as she walked towards us.
"Stop right there, cowgirl, or we'll pop a cap so far up your ass you'll need a telescope to help you find it. Seriously, it's tough to get out." Joe threatened.
"Fair enough, we were just here to assist you in your journey. We heard about you all, and we're honored to help you." She told us in a raspy, yet welcoming tone.
"Why?" I asked.
"Oh God, what happened to you?" She asked me.
"You don't see me asking the same to you." I snapped back.
"You'vegot cuts all over your body... bruises, and... are there burn marks on your clothes?" The woman asked me.
"This is none of your business. Answer the question, why do you want to help us?" I forced her with my iron.
"Well, we saw you hit that stuff, and you didn't seem to pay any mind to it, so we went to investigate, that's when we realized it was your group, the one being chased down." The woman answered.
"Ulysses, go check out the place where we hit." Joe said quickly as he continued to aim his weapon at her. Ulysses lowered his bow and walked down the tracks in the night.
"It's dark out, and you can only see a maximum of 10 meters at this time a' night." Lennie called her out.
"Well, a speeding train with lights all over it crashing through the wastes is a telltale sign of something out of the ordinary." The woman responded coldly.
"I-I... uhm..." Lennie stuttered.
"I don't trust her, guys." Lennie decided after a minute of stutters.
"If you wanted to help, why are you traveling with a posse of people with powerul guns?" Rilee asked her.
"I take it you've been through something like this before, haven't you?" The woman asked.
"What do you want?" I asked her angrily.
"Well first things first, we can help you out with those cuts and that arm of yours." The woman said to me with a chapped smile.
"I don't need your help." I told her.
"Sarah, I fainted during your surgery, I honestly have no idea how you're even still connected to that thing." Joe confessed.
"It doesn't matter. I'm fine now." I told them.
"Is that why those wounds are infected?" The woman questioned.
I answered with a glare.
"You have about a few weeks until your body shuts down from that infection, if you still don't want our help that's fine, we'll see how far you'll get without it." The woman said as she turned around and walked to her mount.
"What are you going to do?" I asked her reluctantly.
The woman turned around to me and walked forward to me, saying "We'll disinfect your cuts and make sure your arm can move."
"What do you guys think?" I asked them.
"No." Lennie said.
"Go ahead." Rilee sighed as she aimed at the woman's hat.
"If it means you'll get the help you need, then go ahead." Joe agreed.
"How much will this be?" I asked her.
"We'll see how much you owe us after we're done with you. Stay right here, people. We'll bring her back, we promise." She smiled as we lowered our weapons.
I walked nervously towards her and walked along with her towards their horses as the rest of the ghouls walked behind us.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Sherry." The woman attempted to smile with her lip rotted off on the left side.
"You think he really wants me to go with you guys?" I asked her.
"Your friend Joe knows how much you need this, and he'll go against his better judgment to help you accomplish that." The woman said as she patted her mount.
"I don't think I said his name." I questioned uneasily.
"What?" The woman asked.
"SARAH!" Joe shouted as he and Ulysses ran towards me.
"What's wrong?" I asked them as Sherry turned around with me.
"The thing we hit wasn't debris, it was a roadblock." Ulysses told me.
"They knew we were coming this whole time, they're Logan's men." Ulysses told me.
"You're wrong." The woman declared.
I turned to Sherry and aimed my pistol at her as Lennie and Rilee ran to us. The ghouls took out their weapons and aimed them at us angrily.
"Who are you?! What do you want with us?" I shouted at her.
"We're here for the kids, that's all. We can make a deal and clear your bounty if you give us the two young ones." The woman answered normally.
"Well you're going to have a problem with that, cowpoke." Joe threatened.
"Heh. That was a southern joke." Joe chuckled to himself. "You guys like that one?"
"It's tasteful." Lennie nodded.
"We'll see who the victor is eventually, Marston." Sherry told me.
Sherry smacked my arm to the side, making me fire into one of her posse member's chest. Ulysses and Joe then fired into two of the women as Lennie popped off a headshot from behind us. I was kicked in the upper abdomen by her, with the next foot flying into my head, dropping us both with her double leg drop kick. I dropped my pistol on the sand from the drop and coughed from my lungs being rocked by the force of the ground. Sherry held my right arm down and made me scream as the gunfight continued above us. I swung my foot around and kicked her off of me, backing away from her by kicking the ground. I sat myself against a chunk of metal sticking out from the ground. Nest to me was a metal pole, roughly the size of my arm. I picked it up and used it to get me to my feet while Joe and Ulysses took cover on the other metals around us as they were shot with revolvers and other weaponry. I ran at Sherry as she was on the ground and brought the pole down to her. She caught it in an instant and used it to flip me onto the ground as I stupidly held onto the pole. Now, on the ground, with Sherry atop of me, we resumed our struggle with the control of the pole. She forced the horizontal facing pole towards my neck as my left arm couldn't defend and my right arm only laid there. It soon went against my neck and started to crush me as I tried to get myself out of the pin. I could feel the blood flowing to my head as she crushed my neck, and the only thing I could do now was look to my sides, where Rilee aimed a backup pistol at the women. I let my left arm off of the pole in a final stand and let it go out to Rilee as my gurgles called out for her.
Her eyes met mine, and a small equation played out in her head as she looked at my problem, and hers. Rilee then aimed her pistol up and fired at the remaining women, neglecting me entirely as she resumed fighting. My eyes then met with Sherry as my fingers twisted and flexed as I tried to get out of my situation. As my air soon ran out, I kicked my legs once, and then directed them at Sherry, pushing them as hard as I could against her. She flipped off of me and let go of the pole, and I turned over to the sand and coughed sickly on the ground as I held my head in pain. I looked ahead at her, and got up and ran as fast as I could at her as Sherry got up and sprinted to her horse. I limped slowly at her as Sherry climbed the saddle and galloped away from the battle, leaving me chasing her slowly.
"Get back here! Get back here you son of a bitch!" I choked as I threw the pole a few feet in front of me and missed her.
Next to me, Ulysses' bow went off, and attached itself onto Sherry's back, and yanked her off of her mount, sending her towards us into the ground. Ulysses and I ran to her, and held her at gunpoint.
"That wasn't a smart idea, Sherry." I told her weakly.
"What do you want?" She asked weakly.
"Answers." I told her.
"We've been trained never to give ourselves away, so if you think for a second that I will-"
Ulysses retracted the bow from her shoulder, ripping the knife back through her skin and bone and back into the crossbow.
"AAAAAAHHRGH!" She screamed into the air as the blood splattered all over the sand.
"You have an hour until you bleed out." He said to her as he turned around.
"Let's bring her back to the train, we'll figure out what to do then." Ulysses told me.