A few times throughout the night, Cherry woke in a haze as the sleeping drugs began to wear off. She could see the glow of the gang's campfire over the edge of the cart where she lay and it stirred something in her chest, a deep longing and discomfort that she couldn't place. Swallowing roughly, she rolled onto her side and tried to position her arm in a way that she could rest her head on it but her hands remained tied too tightly to move them much, and so she ended up flopping onto her back roughly and forcing her eyes shut with a sigh. Her stomach grumbled angrily, but a quick fumble around the empty space on either side of her did not produce the can of brown slop she'd been given earlier. Maybe the man that helped clean her up took it when she passed out, she thought.
Nearby, she could hear snippets of the conversation between the few men that were still awake. Guards, perhaps, while the others slept.
"I hear you made yourself a little girlfriend out of the cargo, Gabe," a voice jested, accompanied by a chorus of snickers from the others. She didn't dare sit up to look at them, but she did stare up into the stars and eavesdrop. Cargo? That didn't make much sense, but if she thought about it nothing really made any sense right now. She recognized his voice when he scoffed, "Girlfriend? Man, you've been hittin' the jet too hard. I'm just not an animal like the rest of you. You want her to die before we get back to Boston or somethin'?"
"Oh, if she's not your girlfriend you won't mind if I have a go at her, right?" Something foul had crept into the other man's voice, Cherry's skin prickled with goosebumps despite it being a balmy summer night. Boots crunched their way across the sun-scorched earth and stopped at the rear gate where Gabe had helped her up to go to sleep just a few hours previous. Cherry swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping if she pretended to be asleep she man would go away. A second later the cart squatted as he climbed up onto it, jostling her a bit and sending the stolen goods around her tinkling.
"How much shit did you pump her full of, Gabe? She's out cold!" He knelt down and cupped his rough hand around her face, turning it side to side to inspect the bruises and cuts from nights previous. She forced herself to stay still despite the white hot panic brewing in her stomach. To her relief, he grunted and straightened back up, mumbling something about a dead fish as he made his way back to the others.
"Wassamatter, you get cold feet?" One of them called.
"I like 'em squirming, that's dead meat right now." The man that had just inspected her face said, chuckling. She sighed with relief.
"Yeah, plus she ain't cute no more with how busted up she is. You could screw a ghoul for the same effect."
A hand drifted to her face, wincing at the cuts and swollen flesh there. A ghoul? She'd caught a glimpse of herself in the creek's reflection earlier, it hadn't seemed that bad then. No matter, if it kept their attention away from her then she was happy to be ugly. What would happen once she healed, though, was still yet to be seen. The stims that Gabe had been giving her worked wonders to speed up healing and she figured it would only be a few more days before her cuts were scarred over or gone entirely and the bruises had retreated back into her skin. Cherry laid there awhile longer, wishing he'd come back with another injection of whatever concoction had made her sleep so easily earlier but relief from wakefulness never came. Finally, after what seemed like forever of listening to the men bullshit around their fire she must have fallen into a fitful sleep because suddenly she was being shaken awake in the back of that godforsaken wagon as it rumbled down the road once again. The sun was still rising, the warmth on her cheeks more of a gentle caress rather than the painful hammering radiation of the midday heat that would soon follow. Despite being achy, hungry and confused, Cherry was feeling a bit better and she chalked it up to the chems rather than any actual improvement in her condition. Forcing herself into a sitting position, she leaned toward Gabe in the driver's seat above her and mumbled almost incoherently.
"Where'rewegoing?" She struggled to force the words out, her tongue still behaving as if it had a mind of its own. He jumped in his seat and spun to look at her, eyes wild and scary like she was a stranger that'd snuck up on him. His demeanor was off today, vibrating with energy, pupils dilated until the brown and gold flecks she'd noticed previously were almost totally consumed in black. She scooted backwards, suddenly scared he'd strike her, but his death grip on the brahmin's reins didn't budge. He considered her for a moment, jaw working frantically although he didn't actually appear to have anything in his mouth to chew on.
"Boston, going to Boston. Well, kind of. Nearby. Confidential intel, can't say exact location." Gabe rattled off, auctioneer-style. Cherry considered him for a moment. She'd overheard the whole Boston thing before, but she was glad he'd confirmed it. Had she ever been there before? The redhead couldn't remember, and trying to force the memories back just made her head hurt. He stared at her for a few more seconds until one of his compatriots, a skinny man with mismatched boots and a shaved head, barked at him from further ahead on the road to watch where he was going. Gabe spun around to face forward again and yanked the brahmin back on track, just before it managed to snag a mouthful of dry grass from along the path. The animal mooed in protest and shook its head, but didn't put up much more of a fight. For a moment, Cherry knew exactly how that cow felt.
From her position, she could finally watch the world pass by from a passenger's viewpoint rather than just staring into the sun until she saw stars. There wasn't much to see, which was the norm for the wasteland. Just radiation-warped trees, burnt buildings and the twisted carcasses of centuries old cars scattered amongst the black skeletons of their previous owners, or perhaps travellers that had once met the gang along this same route on previous trips. Looking ahead, she counted five men in total, plus the one brahmin. They all wore similar dark green uniforms, aside from the man at the head of the group who had the base layer of the typical green garb along with metal plating across his chest and right leg. All of them carried assorted weapons, at least one sidearm on their hips and a larger rifle in their arms. While she had no real desire to try and escape, on the off chance that she did attempt it Cherry knew she'd be shot dead before her feet hit the ground.
Since Gabe seemed so edgy, she didn't bother him again for several hours and instead propped herself against the side of the cart, neatly wedged between two sacks of potatoes, and watched the landscape pass by. The longer they travelled, the more interesting things became. By the end of the day when the sun had already risen, burned her in the sky for what felt like ages and then begun to set again, she could see the ruins of an enormous city in the distance. Skeletal skyscrapers stood as sentinels, overseeing their journey from miles away. Their dirt path eventually bled into cracked asphalt and Gabe had to take more care to guide the cart around destroyed cars and bits of crumbling buildings that'd been blasted off their foundations and into the road. The men on foot grew more alert, more jumpy, waving their rifles to point at the slightest noise of the wind rustling a tree or a dog barking in the distance. They were the only living things that she had seen in a very long time, but everyone acted as if they were not alone. It set her teeth on edge and she suddenly felt very exposed; Cherry took one last glance at their surroundings and ducked back into the bed of the cart where she had slept the night before, not daring to speak or even breathe too loudly.
When they stopped for the night, Gabe mentioned that they would arrive at their destination by the next evening. He seemed drained as he said it, a complete shadow of the jumpy livewire he'd been earlier in the morning, and while Cherry didn't ask him about it she'd already gathered that he was coming down from...something. She wanted to ask him for some more of whatever he'd given her on her first night with the group but felt too shy to bother him about it when he obviously wasn't feeling well, so she silently trundled along next to him as he guided her to another little crop of trees to relieve herself. Even days after her injuries, she still had no sense of smell, struggled to keep her feet straight and focusing her eyes on a single spot for very long proved agonizing. The edges of her vision were blurry and smudged as if she were living in a memory, where the details of her surroundings couldn't quite be etched out. Cherry chewed her lip as she struggled to button her pants back up; they were a few sizes too big and the extra fabric kept tripping up her fingers even after Gabe tied a piece of twine through the belt loops to hold them up on her hips.
"Why'm I like thisss?" She asked finally, tears springing to her eyes in frustration as he swatted her hands away and fastened the fatigues himself. His eyes met hers and they were back to their normal brownish-gold, although they seemed dark and sunken now.
"You don't remember?" He asked carefully, considering her. She shook her head, lip still trembling. Looping her arm around his wide, solid waist, he guided her back towards camp. Each time she tripped over herself he seemed to wince a bit. He hummed to himself, considering his next words.
"Uh, mutants. Mutants destroyed your settlement. We happened to find you after they left. I guess you, uh, hid well enough that they thought they...got everyone." She took his unsure tone as hesitance to break the news to her, as if he hated to reopen the wound that her memory loss had so thoroughly closed. "You were pretty, uh, banged up when we came along."
She didn't respond further than a soft 'oh', the air leaving her lungs as the information sunk in. If she thought about his words hard enough, the memories of it almost appeared. Fires, giant green-skinned creatures trailed by their similarly mutated hounds. Shuddering, she swallowed back a thousand more questions and nodded once at him. "Thank you for helping me." He smiled weakly, revealing dirty teeth, and then didn't speak again as they arrived back at the little encampment his compatriots had set up. In a way, it made Cherry feel better. The way they talked about her was often discomforting, not to mention the robberies and murders, but if the group had stopped to help her maybe they weren't so bad. After all, killing and stealing was a common pastime in the wastes even for the most honorable folks.
She ate another can of smooth, vaguely meat flavored slop for supper along with a bottle of water they'd gathered from the creek on the previous day and just as she was settling in for another uncomfortable night in the wooden cart she heard a 'psst' from the foot of the wagon. Gabe leaned over the side and beckoned her closer. Scooting feebly on her butt, she could tell even in the dimming afternoon light that he was high again. Dinner plate eyes gazed at her and his hands trembled with energy as he gestured toward the little campfire the others were huddled at, passing a bottle of liquor between each other and laughing.
"Shockley left to scout ahead since we're getting close. You want to use his bedroll instead of sleeping back here?" Gabe licked and chewed his lips as he awaited her answer, wringing his hands together. Smiling, she nodded. Anything would be better than hard wood and splinters for the night. "Cool, c'mon. Do you drink? We have some whiskey. You know what they say, the boss is away so the mice will play. Or at least I think that's the saying. I don't know," he continued to chatter mindlessly as he held her hands while she climbed down, gripping her so tightly she had to bite back a painful yelp.
"Gabe! You bringing your girlfriend over or no?" It was the thin bald man she'd seen earlier in the day. Somehow, the dim light made it easier for her eyes to focus on him. He had a crooked nose and the sight of him made her quail although she couldn't pinpoint why. She avoided his gaze and tried her best to walk independently of Gabe for the few steps it took to plop down near the fire. It wasn't cold outside, but the glow of the flames still comforted her a bit. Fire also served to keep wild dogs away, lest they raid the camp and eat both them and their food stores. Nearby, the brahmin chewed cud contentedly and hopped from one patch of grass to the other, unable to move very quickly due to the hobbles on its feet. She rubbed her wrists, wincing at the rope burns that lingered. Gabe had cut her hands free earlier in the day after he brought her back from using the restroom but she'd grown so accustomed to the rope around her wrists that sometimes she could still feel it there.
Aside from Gabe, who sat on the dirt next to her and jittered in his seat, there were three other men around the fire. The bald one, a bulky man with a patchy beard and another who had short-cropped blonde curls and a milky, blind eye. She tried to memorize their faces and thought about asking their names, but decided against it in case her speech disobeyed and embarrassed her. The blonde one took a long pull from the liquor bottle that Baldie passed to him and then offered it to her, a strange look in his eye. She suspected this was some kind of test, and not wanting to disappoint Cherry took the bottle gingerly and drank deeply from it. Doing her best not to make a face at the taste of it, she passed it to Gabe who did the same.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before the largest of the three fixed his gaze on Gabe. "What's on the menu tonight, buddy?" He rumbled, deep voice matching his appearance perfectly. Cherry's ears perked up at the hopes of food, the shit in the can she'd eaten previously wasn't quite enough to take the edge off. Gabe began digging frantically in the pockets on his cargo pants, and instead of anything edible he emptied various syringes and pill bottles onto the ground before him. Sitting cross legged, he began to section the chems out and naming them off as he went, 'psycho, mentats, jet, got a little weed...whatever you want…' his teeth chattered as he spoke and when he finished doing inventory on everything, he fixed a stare on the man that asked him about it in the first place as if awaiting a command.
One by one, the others reached over and picked their drug of choice until most of the stash was depleted. Gabe snatched a syringe of psycho and fumbled with shaky hands to find a good vein on his arm to inject. In the firelight, the track marks that trailed up and down his skin stood out in profound detail. Rather than being appalled as she knew she should have been, her fingers twitched and she licked her lips. Just as he had lined up the needle with a suitable injection spot, the blonde man chuckled and broke the thick silence between them. "Aye, I think you're forgetting someone." She spun to look at Blondie, eyes wide with embarrassment. Gabe looked up from what he was doing and met her gaze with shark eyes, wide pupils that held none of the humanity she was used to seeing from him. It unnerved her.
"My bad, girly. Here you go." Gabe said, grinning as he offered the syringe to her. She grasped it with shaking hands and looked at it, frozen with nerves. "You don't know how? Here, let me," he took the psycho back and steadied her arm in his hand; she closed her eyes when he stuck the needle into her skin. Ever since the second dose of chems had worn off she'd done nothing but dream of this moment and now that it was happening, Cherry felt rather sheepish.
The second that the plunger was fully depressed on the syringe, her veins lit up with white hot, molten energy and flushed away any nervousness she may have felt. In fact, she felt unstoppable. Her muscles felt hard with strength, the cool night air on her skin so succulent she could have cried. She found herself working her jaw almost unconsciously, the same way she'd seen Gabe do before, and as she zoned out and focused on the sensation of absolute ecstasy coursing through her body she heard him laugh and it echoed as if he was a thousand miles away. In fact, they were all laughing and it was so contagious she found herself joining in, eventually laying flat on her back with the exertion of the hysteria and cackling until tears streamed down her cheeks. When she'd sat down at the fire she had been beaten down, ready for a year long nap, but now she knew she could do anything. In fact, she didn't think she ever needed to eat or sleep or piss or be sad ever again. It was as if she'd died and gone to heaven, except heaven was a campfire with four strangers and a half empty bottle of booze.