Hi guys and gals, today I have a rather smaller chapter, but there's a reason for that, this is the start of the "long road" our duo will have to travel, and I needed to establish and give hints of some things, hope you like this one and talk to you guys latter at the end of the chapter.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, it's me again, Mr. New Vegas."

"Good morning! Capital Wasteland! It is I, Three Dog! A-oooowho! How is everybody doing?"

"The sun is getting really low now, won't take long before the night comes."

"Hope you all had a good night sleep, kids, now, time to get up and get ready for the day."

"Better hurry back home and enjoy a good relaxing dinner with friends and family, however, if your life is misfortune enough and you don't have anybody by your side, well, I would like you to remember, that you don't have be alone, you aren't alone, you'll always have me."

"My best of wishes for those who had a rough night, and my deepest condolences for those who didn't even got a new day, a toast for those who we lost, stay strong, friends."

"Now, let's get down to the news, you lovely people, just let me put my 'news man fedora' here."

"What? No, Margaret, I'm not encouraging people to drink right now, it was a figurate of speech, listen kids, it's too damn early, wait until 1 at least, happy now, Margaret?"

"The price of water sale permits has gone down to half of what it was, so if you want to start selling completely purified water on your establishment or want to renew your permit, this is the best time to do so."

"River city's residents had it rough last night, as a strong wind current brought down a big metal pole from the ship's high area, all the way down into the marketplace, luckily, no one was hurt, but I do believe the food area will be needing some new decorations."

"Jacob's town residents manage to captured and looked up the so called 'Mister Fantastic' after he tried to fix the radio tower of the place, only to somehow, and, I'm not joking here, folks, melted it down."

"We got some good news from the CWPG, after a year of renovations and some pesky electric problems, we can finally announce that the new and improve Tenpenny Tower is open for businesssssssss! Oh! Sorry children, force of habit, I meant, the one and only, Town Hallllll! … Yeah, that doesn't sound good to me either, say whatever you want about the late Allistair Tenpenny, but we do have to admit, his name had class."

"And before you ask yourselves 'how?', well, we aren't sure, as a matter of fact, the man wasn't even using any type of corrosive substances. Anyhow, the man is charged with destroying private property, stealing, and trying to impersonate a licensed scientist, so unless he has a damn good lawyer, he's probably going to pass some time behind bars."

"Like, seriously guys, we need a better name for the place, it's not a Hall and is not in a Town, why the hell are we calling it that?"

"As you all may know, the next elections of the Mojave are getting closer and closer, each settlement have their own candidates, who all want to be the next Major of their respective towns, however, here in Vegas, the favorite candidate of the people is the leader of the Kings, The King, even though, the man hasn't made any statements of wanting to participate in the elections."

"Whatever, the point is that the Provisional Government finally has a building of their own, where representatives from all the over the place, from Megaton to Oasis, can meet and discuss the best plans for the future."

"And now, lastly but not least, the situation on the balls of light. Yesterday, we talk about two strange balls of light that appeared and disappeared, in less than a minute, in different parts of the Mojave."

"We are getting more, and more reports on those balls of light I talked about a couple of days ago."

"Two more cases of the bright anomaly have occurred, one near the outskirts of Bitter Springs, and the other one all the way in California."

"Some scavengers found another one while exploring the underground tunnels of the DC area."

"This last one, occurred on the night sky of Vault-City not long ago."

"But it didn't last long."

"And as for usual, it let different types of objects behind, this time, however, they all felt on the city, damaging buildings and hurting some poor residents."

"We are still not sure why is this happening."

"Or what it caused it."

"The Brotherhood of Steel has joined forces with our own Good fighters, to discover the meaning of these anomalies."

"The NCR hasn't done any official reports on the situation yet, but they ask the people of the Mojave and California to remain calm."

"Some new threat? Alien abductions? Who knows?!"

"For now, all we can do is wait, and pray for the best."

"No, seriously, what the fuck just happened?"

We stay kneeled in the same spot for a while, trying to get an answer for that question.

"Did you hit them with a laser while I wasn't looking?"

I pass my hand over the floor and then bring it up to my face.

"There's not even a trace of ash."

Or any kind of trace for that matter

"So, that's a no, then?"

I ignore the comment and get back on my feet.

"Whatever happened and whatever those things were, we got lucky."

"Oh, you noticed it too?"

"It's always good to notice an advantage."

The advantage they are talking about, is the fact that those creatures were already hurt. Some parts of their armor were cracked and one of them was limping, a leg was probably broken.

"Those wounds didn't seem like anything a wolf could do."

"So maybe there's someone else … or Something else in this forest."

"Correct."

That's what's more worrisome.

"But why attack if they were so hurt?"

That's actually a really interesting question, they weren't slightly hurt, they were very hurt, so much so that two almost incapacitated humans on the verge of vomiting were able to kill them without a scratch, and yet, they continue fighting, why?

When an animal is hurt, usually its survival instincts kick in, and it'll run away. Sometimes, when it is in the blink of death, they may decide to go all out and try to bring as many things down with them as possible, but this pack was hunting a wolf (one of their presumed kin) and then decide to attack us.

Was it hunger then? What drove them to do this? To eat themselves and then try to eat us ... No, hunger doesn't cut it, their actions would be still against any logic of the survival instinct. You hunt to survive but you ignore confrontations that may definitely lead to your death.

"They were ignoring any type of survival instincts." I acknowledge. "A hunt driven by the loss of logic."

"Loss of logic, huh, well, radiation tends to do that to the brain."

Like in all feral ghouls, another point for the mutation theory. Although, something here felt odd, and yes, odder than the fact that the corpses just disintegrated out of nowhere.

There's no evidence of their existence to even take a sample from and try to analyze it later.

We think about our theories, trying to make sense of what happened. Julius (I guess I can call him that) shakes his head, gets up, looks around and starts walking, passing me and some trees, stops at the bigger one in the area, and finally, drops his bags and starts climbing it.

"What are you doing?"

"Climbing a tree."

…

"I can see that."

"Hey, you asked."

"I meant why, why are you climbing it?"

"It's clear for the both of us *grunt* that we aren't in Texas anymore, we can't just continue walking without a clear path, not with those things running around, *grunt* maybe I can see something from atop the tree, like a settlement, some form of civilization or a trail at least."

Not a bad idea, we can take care of injured enemies, but healthy ones in packs? I prefer not to figure it out. Good thing we didn't kill each other, that would have just made the surviving one an easy target for those creatures.

However, I take a good, long view of the tree.

"Can you even climb?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That one is At least, 60 feet tall."

"And?"

"You're carrying a bunch of weapons, armor and ammo."

"And?"

"You can hardly walk 10 feet without emptying your stomach."

"I don't think it's physically possible for me to do that anymore." Just as the merc said that, a strange sound came from his throat. The Vault dweller raises an eyebrow. "If you're that concerned, just keep a distance, or better yet, prepare for my fall."

The wanderer obliged while staying in the look up for any danger. The guy takes his time climbing and struggles to not fall at first but gets the hang of it after the 15 feet.

"This is Search patrol B to Search patrol A, do you copy? Over"

"…"

"This is Search patrol B to Search patrol A, do you copy? Over"

"…"

"Damn it! Ming! Pick up the radio!"

"I'm going to guess you haven't found them either, over." He hears a voice from his radio, however not the one he wanted to hear.

*Sigh* "Negative, we are still trying to find a trace, how are you and your team doing? Found something? Over"

"Negative, my squad and I are thinking of increasing the search perimeter."

"They couldn't have gone that far."

At least not by themselves.

"Maybe, but we are almost done with our part of the perimeter, in case we don't find anyone it would be better to increase it."

"Ask Control, and don't go too far, we don't want to lose you too, my job is already stressful enough."

"hehehe, and we appreciate your hard work, keep it up."

Ass

"Talk to you later, over and out."

"Over and out."

Search patrol A went missing in the night while investigating some strange transmission outside of the perimeter.

Going outside the base (especially outside the perimeter) is putting yourself and your squad at risk. No matter how much experience you have, or how good of a fighter you are, the outer wilds will always be a dangerous place, especially at night.

Idiots, they should've waited until morning.

The last we heard of them was around 3 in the morning when they last checked in with Comms, after that, Comms tried to contact them 30 minutes later, but no one responded. Most teams and squads were already inside the base or perimeter, no one was near their area, and we didn't want to lose any more troops (a group of people having feelings of worry and uncertainty would just attract the Grimm), so we waited until morning to start the search.

It's been 3 hours and we haven't found anything yet. 3 teams were dispatch, Search patrol B, C, and Task Force Jiā mǎ, the first two were sent to establish a search perimeter and try to find any trace of our missing comrades, while the latter was sent directly to find what caused their disappearance and detemir the level of threat.

At first, we all meet up on the last known location of Ming's squad (where we found marks of a battle in the terrain, blood and what remained of some weapons), but after that, Task Force Jiā mǎ went to see the origin of the strange transmission Comms received last night. For all we know, that transmission was a trap, and we felt for it like a bunch of morons, Jiā mǎ must found it and if necessary, exterminate it.

If a full squad wasn't able to end the deed, then a Task Force unit is our best option, one of the few Fort's units with Huntsmen on their payroll.

"Comms to Search Patrol leaders, I repeat, Comms to Search Patrol leaders, please respond."

"This is Captain Kitrino, coming in, Comms, over."

I pick up my radio again.

"This is Captain Renboga, coming in, over."

"Have you found them? Over."

"That's a negative from C, Over."

"Negative from B, Over."

"Control has given you permission to increase the search perimeter by 10%, but first you must assist Task Force Jiā mǎ, over."

Huh?

"How can we assist? Over." Kitrino asks first.

"By helping them transport bodies and objects they found in the coordinates of the unknown transmission, Over."

Damn it.

"Search patrol A? Over."

"Negative, two unidentified males and different objects, send two people from each squad to help Jiā mǎ and then continue with the search, over."

"Orders received, over."

"Orders received."

"Good, over and out."

"Come on, you can do this." The courier encourages himself to get to the top.

After some minutes, Six gets the hang of it and he's able to continue his task without vomiting (again, it's impossible now, unless he throws up a kidney or something), the spinning head on the other hand gets worst and worst the higher he gets.

Passing more branches and getting closer to his goal, the feeling of wind in his face comes, and with it, the smell of the forest. The smell of clean air helps a bit with his headache. This has to be the cleanest air he has ever encounter, no rotten flesh, no shit, no rusted metal, nothing, only the strange smell of nature.

And, yes, I said strange, because there is no way a place like this should exist.

Only a handful of places could compare to this, like Zion or the surroundings of Jacobs Town. Yes, they are still affected somewhat by radiation and have dangerous animals, but I guess we can say the same thing about this Forrest.

Still, something felt different about this place. Six sits on a branch capable of supporting his weight and takes another look on his Pip-Boy.

Nothing.

No signals, maybe the GOAC really did break their computers. Taping the Geiger counter, there's still no reaction.

So, yeah, broken, because there is no way those wolves mutated from nothing, there must be some form of radiation around here somewhere, either that or something like the FEV is involved, and that's another can of worms I don't want to open right now, especially if some crazy doctors, cult, or whatever miss Luck wants to send his way this time, are experimenting with said wolves, he has enough crazies back home.

"Hey!" The sound comes from below. "Are you at the top?!"

"Not yet! Give me a minute!"

Continuing his task, he manages to get past the leaves and branches of other trees, and finally see the sky. Even the view feels odd, a clean blue sky, like the one you could find in old paintings or comics, Six doesn't know where the hell he is, but this has to be one of the most beautiful sights a wastelander could ever ask for.

Unfortunately, this wasn't what he was looking for, there's only trees and mountains, nothing resembling civilization or even tribes.

"Aww, crap." I look down and scream. "I don't see anything! Only more nature!"

My friend must be analyzing my answer since he takes his time to speak back.

"Any water?! A river perhaps?!"

I take out my binoculars to better search the area.

"No river! Or any kind of water for that matter!"

Well, there must be water somewhere around here, otherwise, all this nature wouldn't be, maybe underground rivers.

"What else?!"

"We're surrounded by mountains! Aaaaaaaaaand there's a cliff southeast of here!"

"That's all?!"

"It appears so! I'm going down! The screams don't exactly help my head."

I put one foot back, then the other, and keep doing that until I find something solid underneath, while also trying not to look down. Don't have that much of a problem with heights, but I doubt that looking down will help whit my spinning hell.

"So." I say while getting down the tree. "What do we do?"

"Well, there aren't many of options."

"We could go for the cliff or head back and try the other direction, maybe we could find something up North."

"That's a really bad maybe." The guy crosses his arms and looks at me. "Where was the cliff?"

"Southeast, it was kind of far, it will take us some hours to reach it."

"What about the mountains?"

"Even farther away than the cliff, plus, do you really want to climb a mountain right now? Because I can already tell you that the height ain't exactly going to make our heads feel any better."

We both turn to our computers and see the hour, it took us some time to get here, going back would just be a waste.

"We're already here, let's go for the cliff, maybe we can see something from there."

"Sounds good."

(Quest update; The long road. Find a safe place to heal, obtain information and decide what to do next.)

(Quest update; The good, the bad, and the Doctor. Continue with the truce until reaching a safe place, after that [option blocked], [option blocked], [option blocked] or [option blocked].)

I take my stuff and we head southeast, with our weapons out and ready. The sun is up in the middle of the sky, its high noon, and let's hope we find something before it gets dark. Playing with my computer one last time gives me the same results.

"Have you been able to pick up any signal on your Pip-Boy?"

"No, and you?"

"Same."

"Yours is broken too, then."

"I wouldn't say broken, everything else appears to be working, it's more likely something is blocking the signals."

"Hmm."

I hum softly while thinking. The watch appears to be okay; the data and audios haven't gone corrupt, the radiation, food, water, and temperature meters seems to be correct, even the self-constructing map is functioning correctly (a map that the Pip-Boy creates as he explores unknown areas, it only shows the places where he's been) the only things not working are the radio, the massages, the satellite map and maybe the Geiger counter.

"Can I ... take a look on your Pip-Boy?"

He raises an eyebrow again, clearly denying my petition.

"Alright, boundaries, I get it, don't need to get worked up about it."

"I didn't."

Yeah, right.

Until now, I've only seen a total of 6 types of expressions on his face; stern, aggressive stern, more stern, passive stern, curious stern, and somehow, even more stern. How can someone just use one expression? And how can he use it to show other emotions as well? Does he do it unconsciously or is that some kind of bad poker face?

I take a couple of glances at his face and see some of his features; brown eyes, a cut over the right side of his mouth, a burn mark that starts at the lower part of his left cheek and goes all the way down to the base of the neck, and his short-military-like haircut.

Our journey continues without any other major incidents, we keep an eye on the surroundings and the other one on each other. Other than that, time passes, my boredom increases, and luckily my pain gets more tolerable.

We keep to ourselves again, I can try to work my charm and start a conversation, however, it would be more difficult than before. In my experience with serious quiet people, they tend to close up even more once they already opened for a bit.

Thanks a lot, wolves.

"So, who gift you the jacket?"

"A friend."

…

"Does this friend have a name?"

"Yes."

…

"And why a snake?"

"It was the best they could come up with."

…

Man, this is Boone all over again.

If he is anything like the sniper, then there are two ways of making him talk; either by gaining his trust and respect thru time and tasks, oooooooooor by just annoying him until he does (it's not like he can get away).

The latter option gives results more quickly, but it usually ended with someone getting punch into the floor. And even so, it's not worth it right now, I mean, we are trying to cooperate and not kill each other, annoying him would most likely cause the opposite of that.

Since we aren't going to talk, I decided to take in the scenery; the place is beautiful, our path painted whit a lively green and the sky above us with a deep blue. Not even Zion can compare to this.

Zion.

If I ever grow old, and the idea of traveling isn't as fun anymore, then Zion would be one of the places I would like to live in, die in, with the Dead horse, the Sorrows and, yeah, even the Canaanites. Other places for me to lay down could be Freeside (what can I say? I still like trouble and will always will) or Goodsprings.

"Hehe." A small laugh comes out of my mouth.

Remembering the time Veronica called bullshit on that, telling me I would never leave Vegas. A lot of people think the same way, I can't blame them, not after all I've done for the place, however, I want something more 'real'. Even without House (who was, surprisingly, the more real part of Vegas) the schemes and manipulations on the Strip are still going on, either by the NCR or the casino families.

I know I'm just as full of lies as the city itself, but even people like me want to feel 'real' from time to time.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, sorry, I just remembered a joke a friend told me."

Speaking of lies.

The walk continues, and I swear, the place gets even more beautiful by the minute, now flowers adorn our path, blue ones, red ones, purple ones, and more. They are like a big bed inviting us to lay down and relax. I quickly pick up one and inspect it, carefully touching it, biting the lower half, savoring it, and then spit it out.

"What was that for?" My companion asks.

"Wanted to know if it was poisonous before smelling it."

"And the best option before putting it in your nose, is putting it in your mouth?"

"Exactly."

He blinks in confusion but doesn't say anything. I keep doing my inspection.

"Why do you want to smell it?"

"Why not? Ever seen those old billboards of a happy family before?"

"Yes."

"In one, the mom and the daughter are carrying a bunch of flowers while the dad is smelling one."

"And?"

"Never wonder why he does it?"

"I … No."

There are flowers normally in the Wasteland, but most of them are poisonous or are better for eating than smelling.

"Well, I do, what was so special about it?"

I put it against my face and start smelling.

…

"How is it?"

"It's ... good, it's not the best scent or the strongest, however, it's soft." I touch the petals. "It's not bad, nothing special either."

I toss it, take another and do the same, then another, until I'm satisfied.

"Either way, it's still something you can't do every day, enjoy the little things and all that."

Turning his attention, Six hands over a flower to his new 'friend'.

"Wanna try it?"

(Speech check; Failed.)

"I'm okey."

*sigh*

"Suit yourself."

The Courier doesn't have a problem with people keeping things to themselves, he does this a lot of times back in Vegas (any other person who tries the opposite tends to end up swimming with the fishes of Lake Mead). Everybody has their secrets and most of the time you really don't want to know them (trust me on this one).

But I'm not asking for his secrets, I just want to feel like I'm actually traveling with a real person, not some stone-hard-quiet robot killer, maybe that way we can both stop being so damn paranoid of each other.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should sit back, hold hands, open some cold ones, and start singing Big Iron together (although the cold ones aren't a bad idea), No, he's dangerous, I'm dangerous, and we both have our own agendas.

Before, we had two main reasons to work together, now we have three; the first one is the reality that if we had gone for each other's throats, neither of us would be alive. We are already injured, and fighting a skilled fighter, no matter if you win, would still mean a lot more injuries that could lead to your death.

The second reason is to keep an eye on each other. What? Do you really think either of us is going to let the other one go free? Hell no, not after all the things we know about the Doctor and the GOAC.

(Quest update; The good, the bad, and the Doctor. Option unblocked; rob him.)

If I manage to get some information out of him and the storage card, then I could just leave, but he's as big a threat as Patrician. As I said earlier, just because we don't need to fight right now, doesn't mean we won't do it in the future. Indeed, I don't like killing without a reason, but I will do it if necessary.

(Quest update; The good, the bad, and the Doctor. Option unblocked; kill him.)

And finally, the fact that we need each other to survive. If someone is alone, lost, and hurt in a dangerous area, that's basically an invitation for any wild animal to eat them, simple as that.

Again, don't get me wrong, we SHOULD be paranoid of each other, but if someone is going to die, he'll die, and then all these worries would have been for nothing. So why bother? Let's chill, and if the time comes, it comes.

(Luck check; Pass.)

Within a second, Michael quickly takes one flower from the floor and stashes it in his stuff.

"What was that for?" Now is my time to ask.

"Nothing, just a sample, and gift."

"For who?"

"A friend."

Back to this again.

"Is it the same friend who gave you the jacket?"

"Yes."

"Do you think he/she/it will like it?"

"No, he'll hate it."

Huh?

"Then, why gift him that?"

"He's very allergic to pollen."

"The guy is very allergic to pollen, nothing deadly, just a bunch of sneezing, red eyes, some tears, and one time, he almost vomits because of it." The gears in my head slowly get to work. "That's never been a problem since flowers are rare from where we are from, so I wonder how he'll react."

His face stays the same, but there's a small relaxation in his features. I for my part start to grin a little, and let out a laugh.

"Your more of a jerk than I thought you were if you are willing to do that to your friend."

Maybe his not that big of a robot.

Whatever Six ends up doing (as well as his companion) will come later, for now, let's try to survive.

"He deserves it, and as you said, enjoy the little things."

"Enjoy the little things."

Not far from their positions, about 4 miles from where they are, an Ursa smells the air, at first, he detects malicious intents, like the idea of robbing and killing, he starts to follow these emotions, but after a while, they disappear and the creature turns the other way. Little did the duo know that this change in atmosphere, helped them avoid another group of Grimm.

So, yeah, we didn't have that much time with Six and 101 this chapter, sorry if it feels like I'm going slow in the narration, I don't want to hurry up things if they don't come up naturally. For example, our dear duo are still a bunch of strangers who don't trust each other, I want them to interact more, but if they did, that would feel kind of out of character for them at this point, they are "good" (well, "decent") people that prefer to avoid bloodshed, but they'll TOTALLY kill everybody in a room if necessary.

I honestly feel that I cheated with that Luck check because it let me calm down their situation when normally they would still be unease, but that's the point of being lucky.

Luck and Charisma have all ways been the "use bullshit to get out of trouble free" card from the Fallout universe.

Also, another thing I'm conflicted on is the Grimm, I feel I made them too weak in the last chapter, so that's why now we know they were actually already hurt because of something else (I mean, Six and 101 mange to kill 3 of them without receiving a hit, and while being in a "spinning hell" as Six called it).

I'm doing a list of more powerful animals (from the Fallout franchise) and Grimm, this way I can decide how difficult would be to kill one of them. For example, I'm putting a normal Beowolf under the Yao Guai (but not for much), an Ursa is over both of them, etc.

-Ursa

-Yao Guai.
-Beowolf

-Mole rat, Fire ant.
- Radroach

If you have any ideas on this list please let me know, I'm investigating all types of Grimm and animals for this list (in the wiki of both fandoms)

Thanks for reading, you lovely people, for following my story, and for leaving a review.

wwgaming; we'll see, I'm still looking for their "ultimate" armor, the Elite Riot Gear is one of my many options, as I said before, they are going to change their getup a lot.

Follower; Thanks, man! Hope you are enjoying the story so far.

peterg1254; Glad to hear you liked it, thanks.

diegoliracruz2002; Well, thanks for the compliments, I'm really grateful that people are reading and liking my story, thanks, man.