The campsite was a mess. Their fire had long since extinguished itself, and when Cherry woke it was with a pounding headache that could have been from injury or from the comedown. Her entire body was aching with a renewed vigor that she hadn't experienced since the second round of stimpacks Gabe gave her, and she also realized with a start that she was naked. Her thighs were still slick with fluids whose origins she could not place, which she tried to scrub away with the palms of her hands. There was a familiar ache between her legs and worryingly, her asshole twinged as well. Hot embarrassment crept up her cheeks as she looked around for her discarded clothes, yanking her shirt out from under Gabe's sleeping body and pulling it over her head in the hopes of avoiding being seen by the others, who appeared to already have gotten up for the day and were nowhere in sight. He began to stir as well, groaning painfully. She raced to get dressed before he saw her, and he must have sensed what she was doing because even still being face down in the dirt he raised an arm and waved it lazily at her, "No need to be shy now, you ain't got nothin' we ain't seen," his voice was muffled still, and he seemed reluctant to turn over and face the sunlight.
His words didn't soothe her and she still ripped the clothes onto her body as quickly as possible, noticing with satisfaction that her hands seemed to cooperate better when buttoning her pants. "I need to go to the bathroom," She said, worried they'd think she got lost if she went without announcing it. Gabe groaned and forced himself up, short mohawk more disheveled than usual. "I'll take you. Can't leave you alone. C'mon." His eyes were sunken and tired again when he looked at her, but she didn't comment on it and followed him dutifully to the same spot he'd taken her to the previous day. He watched her walk, one arm extended toward her in case she stumbled, "You're healing up good, back to normal in no time."
She wasn't quite sure what 'normal' was, but the sentiment was appreciated nonetheless. After they both had a chance to relieve themselves, Gabe guided her back to the camp where the others had since returned and were already packed up. The other men looked just as wrung out as she'd expected them to, holding their rifles at lazy angles and gazing dully into the distance; they didn't even have the energy to bark an order to hurry up at the remaining pair, nor did they speak to Cherry directly which she was strangely grateful for. Once the brahmin was hitched and she was settled into her normal spot in the back of the wagon, they headed out in silence. She thought about asking why everyone seemed so serious, but just as before when Gabe was fighting off the residuals of a nightlong bender, she knew better than to bother him too much.
Breakfast consisted of three packs of ancient snack cakes, who's frosting was suspiciously just as colorful and sweet as it had been two hundred years prior when they were made. She didn't question it, just gobbled them down and washed the fuzzy, sticky feeling from her mouth with more creek water. The sugar made her stomach ache soon after, and then a food coma gripped her not long after that. It'd been almost a week since she had eaten much of anything of substance, so the sudden onslaught of calories made her feel bloated and eventually the only option was to sleep it off. The sun was high in the sky when she laid down in the gently rocking wagon, and after tossing around for a bit she finally plopped a ratty old t-shirt over her eyes to block out the light in order to sleep. No one spoke to each other the entire time, which was just fine.
"Look alive, we're heading into mutie territory!" Cherry jolted awake, momentarily blinded by the shirt still wrapped around her face. Scrambling to get it off, she sat bolt upright and tried to force her eyes to cooperate long enough to scan for incoming danger. Mutants had gotten her into this predicament, a group of them blowing her only protectors to smithereens was the last thing she needed. When her head popped up over the side of the wagon, there were fortunately no mutants ready to blast them all away, only dreary dead trees and tumbleweeds. The men leading the wagon were all somewhat more lively looking now, their guns propped in front of them rather than dangling to the side or hanging over a shoulder by their straps, but otherwise the scene was very much uneventful. In the near distance, the same skyscrapers as before now loomed closer, some more intact than others. Anything could be hiding in the steel confines of that city, she thought with a shudder.
"Just a precaution," Gabe turned and said, hearing the scuffle from behind him. She exhaled in relief, hoping to never experience the real thing. Without prompting, he glanced over his shoulder again and quirked an eyebrow. "Be there soon." Cherry nodded, but wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that.
"Hey, um, Gabe?" She whispered so the others wouldn't overhear. He grunted in acknowledgement. "When you guys found me...my family, did they…?" She didn't want to finish the question, but thankfully he didn't make her. Shaking his head, he cleared his throat. "All gone. The whole place was a crater." Her throat ached as she forced the tears back. Despite having muffled memories, Cherry could still recall her parent's gentle faces in a fuzzy way, features painted in broad strokes rather than etched in fine detail. They didn't deserve such a fate.
"Thanks again for helping me. Do-do you think it'd be okay if I slept until we got there?" She asked, sensing his patience was running short with her. The man didn't speak, just produced a syringe from one of his many pockets and passed it to her. "Think you can do it yourself this time?" He asked. Her mind flashed to the memories of the previous night, the last thing she could recall was him taking her arm in his hand and aiming the needle for the vein in her elbow. Swallowing hard, she hummed in agreement and turned to face the other way before he decided to look at her, lest he see her burning cheeks. Examining her arm for a good spot, just as he had done previously, Cherry quickly found a vein and was nodding off before she'd even fully depressed the plunger.
A mild commotion drew Cherry from her haze, her first conscious thought being that her mouth was so dry it felt like sandpaper when she ran her tongue across her lips. Bleary eyes focused and refocused, adjusting to the dimming afternoon light as men darted around the wagon and hauled its various bags and buckets away, plopping them onto a yellow platform just to the right of them. Gabe and the others were gone, she noticed with some fright. He hadn't even bothered to wake her up and say goodbye! Or, perhaps he did try and she was just out cold. Choosing to believe it was the second option, Cherry sat up and looked around at the faces working around her. All were men, all wore the same green uniforms she'd first spotted on the group that'd escorted her here. It made her feel a little better, surely if they were an army of some sorts she'd be plenty safe with them.
"You go up next, missy." A gruff voice sent her rocketing back to the present. Up? She cast her eyes toward the sky, the sun blotted out by a massive gray chunk of concrete looming overhead. The city was very close now, almost so near that the rotten buildings there cast a shadow over them, and to the east was a churning river sure to be infested with mirelurks. Images of razor-sharp pincers sent a chill up her spine and suddenly being far from the ground sounded like a pretty damn good idea. Lurks couldn't climb, surely?
Shaking her head, she reached out and took his outstretched hand. He lead her toward a rusted yellow platform attached to heavy cables, stood next to her on it and punched a glowing red button that sent them rocketing upward at a sickening pace. Her vision instantly blurred and she nearly keeled over the edge, a white knuckle grip on the stranger's arm the only thing keeping her from plummeting to the hard packed dirt below. Steadying her, he tightened his grasp around her arm as the flash of nerves whisked across his whiskered face. "Don't go leapin' off, please."
Cherry's knowledge of prewar architecture was not what could be considered extensive, but the group's encampment was obviously structured around what had once been a freeway, teetering off the ground and held by aging beams that she did not care to inspect too closely. Ignorance is bliss and all that. The elevator shimmied to a stop at the side of the interchange and a little gate opened to lead them across the median and toward a fairly expansive group of huts, tents and even what looked to be a mess hall in the center of the makeshift town. All the while, the man's grip on her never loosened; it was as if he expected her to bolt at any second although where he thought she might go was a bit of a mystery to her since the only possible directions were off the side of a freeway or into the center of a camp teeming with armed men. "Where're we going?" She asked, stumbling briefly over her own feet. He didn't slow his pace or help her keep her balance like Gabe had when her motor functions didn't cooperate, nor did he respond to the query. She briefly considered asking again but the grim set of his jaw didn't seem like he was open to further interrogation. Swallowing hard, Cherry allowed herself to be guided past the open-air cafeteria and it's mouthwatering smells of food and toward a medium sized shack directly to the rear of the barracks. It was less of a lean-to filled with knapsacks as the other quarters were and more of a ramshackle little house, complete with a padlock on the doorknob and barred windows without glass.
A pit formed in Cherry's gut and she began to lean back against the man's urging, which caused him to simply yank her one-handed with enough force to cause her to tumble to her knees at his feet in front of the door to the little shed. "Boss!"
Unable to hear over the pounding in her ears, she struggled back to her feet and twisted her arm feebly in the soldier's grasp as tears blurred her vision. A second later he grunted in annoyance and backhanded her with such power as to send her back to the asphalt, sobbing loudly and without shame at once. It was all so confusing, one second these men were kind and the next she was being beaten. The only thing Cherry could do was tremble on the ground, tears and blood from a reopened cut on her temple mixing on her cheeks and trickling onto the fabric of her ruined, too-big cargo pants. Flinching at the sound of a door banging open, she was suddenly pulled back to her feet by the shoulder with a yelp. The man who'd escorted her to the center of the camp gripped her sharp collarbone with too much pressure, but when she tried to shrink away from the pain he yanked her back to his side and threatened another slap; this time she held still and fixed her eyes on her threadbare shoes.
"Safe and sound, as requested." He said to the man in the doorway, who made a sort of chuffed sound and strode forward a few feet to close the distance between them and pinched Cherry's chin between two fingers before she had the chance to squirm. Forcing her to look at him, he surveyed her face as one might a piece of radstag flank at a meat market. Bruises lingered across her face, her blue eyes were sunken into her skull from lack of nutrition and from the chems of the previous nights and her once well-groomed red hair hung in ragged knots around her shoulders.
"Seen better days, huh girl?" Said the man, obviously not requesting an answer. Fear kept her mouth shut regardless, chapped bottom lip trembling with the effort. Instincts told her to scream, kick him, bite his hand until it bled, but common sense won out and instead the girl stood as still as she could and hoped he would go away. His heavy brow shaded beady eyes and a flat mouth, a slick mat of brown hair atop his head shone with pomade even in the relative shade they stood under. It was almost unimaginable that Gabe could have been associated with him, with his jovial face and gentler ways. Even the others she'd travelled with had been different, despite being hardened by the wastes and hard living. Something foul radiated from this man and coated her skin with a cold film of dread until she shivered from terror rather than temperature.
"Barnes and MacCready are out on a run, should be back soon. We can keep her in the Quarters for now. Should be room now after we cleared out the last guy. A decision'll be made once I can talk to the others."
"You got it, Winlock." The man at her side said, making her jump. She'd been so focused on the ape before her that he'd seemed almost mild in comparison. Winlock pushed her face out of his hand as if it were a slimy insect he wanted to drop as quickly as possible and strode back inside the little shack, banging the door shut behind him. Relief washed over Cherry the second he was gone, but seconds later she was being guided behind the rows of barracks and toward a large set of cages with thick iron bars and straw mats on the floor. Men caught sight of her as she went, hooting and whistling joyously until her cheeks burned with shame and it was all she could do to keep from crumbling to the ground once again.
"If you scream, fuck with the locks on the bars or otherwise put a toe out of line, I'm cutting that toe off and you can eat it for supper."
She responded with a whimper, already knowing that resistance was futile long before he'd even made the threat. He placed her into an empty cage on the end of the row and she did not protest, only slunk to the farthest corner she could and huddled down within herself with her face to the opposite side of the freeway. In the distance, the river burbled. Suddenly, Mirelurks didn't seem so bad. Behind her, a lock clinked shut with finality.