Snowflake in the Sand

Chapter 3

The Bison Steve Hotel was very dark once they walked inside, Winter lowered her sword "No guards on the entrance" she muttered to Six, who nodded.

"They will be here soon enough" he hid behind one of the counters and waited patiently, Winter decided it would be best to stick to the right side of the room noticing that there was some sort of computer, it would be good to check it out later. Now they needed to take care of this people, footsteps reached their ears and Six raised two fingers.

Nodding Winter steadied herself just in time to see the first thug moved towards them, Six smashed his fist against his liver and grabbed him behind cover.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF…" Six smashed his fist against his face with all his might shattering his nose and rendering him unconscious, while this was happening Winter had frozen the other criminal to the wall, he tried to flail his arms to free himself

"What the…" a sword pressed itself against his throat "How many of you are there?" Winter pressed her sword enough to draw blood, but to her surprise, he did not break "Eat shit mutant freak!"

Winter felt an explosion throw her back against the other side of the room her face now covered in blood; the psychopath had blown himself up trying to take her out with him not counting on her aura.

"Psychopath" Winter muttered under her breath and looked at her companion who was dusting himself off "You all right? I got a stimpack to spare"

Winter shook her head, inside her head she had many questions about how she was so affected by melee weapons but explosions and shots bounced off. Shaking her head she followed her companion to another room, Six peaked through the corner and cursed "That bastard has a big weapon, time to improvise"

Pulling out two sticks of dynamite he turned to Winter "Get ready" Six threw the dynamite in quick succession and pulled out his machete, the explosions killed some but the leader remained unharmed, blasting at Six with his Incinerator.

Flames burned away most of his armor and Vault Suit making him hiss as his flesh was burnt, Winter was preoccupied by another force of criminals who had flanked them, moving faster than they could aim she kicked and punched most of them. A lead pipe connected with her skull and knife was jabbed into her abdomen. Winter merely grunted as she summoned two glyphs two get both of them away from her.

"She's a fucking witch!" one screamed as he was flung against the wall, Winter used her sword to cut the weapon of the other one and with her powers she froze the man's foot to the ground, cracking her knuckles she punched him over and over again until he finally passed out. Winter nodded in satisfaction at her handiwork and ran to see how six was doing she had to cover her nose as the smell of burnt flesh and leather was a bit much for her.

Six was sitting in one of the chairs his back to her "Could you pass me that bottle of Whiskey"-"I would rather not, a drunk man is not very useful" she said as a particular person came to her head.

"Not drinking it" Six said, Winter immediately passed him the bottle, his voice sounded ragged and pained "Bastard got me good, the flames I expected but the knife was another story, got to give to him though he really did fight to the bitter end" Six stood up as he finished taking care of his wound what remained of his vault suit clinging to him by one shoulder the other side completely exposed.

Winter at him for a second then quickly turning away "You can't fight like that, you need to get new clothing"

"Aww and here I thought you would have liked the view"

Winter fixed him a glare, which made him chuckle and raise his hands "I know I know, head on the game I will get something as soon as I can" the courier said as he walked to the kitchen where he found his target; the deputy, Beagle.

Winter looked down and frowned, blood stained her outfit but this time it was hers. Even if the cut was not deep she was deeply worried, this was the second time a melee weapon had hurt her meaning that the thing she had to watch out the most for. "Are people here stronger?" she wondered.

"Fine go away! You don't look like you would be much help anyways" Six shouted, what followed was perhaps the saddest and the funniest thing she had heard all day "Then I would defer to your superior judgment and get out of your war"

A very beat up man then stealth (crawled) his way out of the room, Six walked out as he stuffed his face with what appeared to be rat meat "Stupid asshole, said he couldn't remember that he was to shaken up and that maybe he would once all of the criminals where cleared out"

Winter let out a sigh "Then we have more job to do" Six raised up his hand and shook his head "I'm going to go clear the second floor, you stay here and check if there is anything worth taking"

Winter wanted to disagree but Six had already started walking leaving the eldest of the Schnee siblings alone. Not having anything else to do she started her search, gathering mostly bullets for Six and healing items for both of them, noticing out of the corner of her eye a funny lucking cap bottle.

Winter pocked it and made her way back to the entrance, fiddling with the computer for a bit using some of the basic knowledge that she had to bypass the password, she found no useful information but she did manage to unlock the door behind her. Satisfied with herself she took all she could of the small room ignoring the skeletons that where littered around the floor.

How many people died the day the bombs fell she wondered? The way Viktor had talked about the reason they even started in the first place made it sound like earth had been so full that they had to resort to total war in order to try to save their own country.

Remnant was not teaming with people, most of the kingdoms consisted on large stretches of land filled with fauna, the threat of Grimm often dissuading most colonizers of venturing to places that hunters would take a long time to get to. Would it always be that way she wondered, could Remnant one day conquer the Grimm and become as prosperous as earth had once claimed to be without turning on itself.

"It won't happened in my life time anyway" she decided as she heard footsteps, Six had changed into something with a lot more leather, he offered her some nuka-cola "Not many people upstairs, took the best gear they had"

"You let a naked criminal upstairs?"-"I left a naked corpse upstairs if it makes you feel better, he really didn't want to go down"

Not knowing what to say, she simply took a drink of the soda she had been offered, raising an eyebrow "Surprisingly not bad" she muttered as they walked out of the hotel. Once they made it back to Viki and Vance, Six managed to intimidate the information out of the depute and got himself the task of searching for a new Sheriff.

Novac was their next destination, but they had to go through Nipton first, not much happened to them on the road, some giant ants attacked them on the way and group of raider ambushed them but soon enough they made it to the road they needed to be.

"You know it has just occurred to me, we might be traveling together for some time, why don't you tell me about yourself" Six said as the sun started to set behind them, Winter gave him a sideways glance "Not much to tell, was born into a rich family, my father wanted me to work in the business, I hated how he ran things so I left to join the military, been with them for some years no, I guess the most I can say about myself is that I miss my sister Weiss"

"Is he your only sibling?"-"No, but my relationship with the rest of my family is very complicated and I won't get into the why"

Six nodded "Don't worry I get it, I don't know why but I get it" Winter felt some pity for Six as he scratched the bullet wound on his forehead "Does it still hurt?" she asked as the sun finally set behind them.

"Yes, I get headaches a lot now and it itches horribly" Six frowned as he gripped his gun tighter.

"I will get him for this, for robbing me of everything" she heard him mutter, he was driven she would give him that "Do you remember him? I thought you lost memory of everything"

"Almost everything, some things that I remember don't make sense I see fire and giant cloud of dust a Divide on the land but I remember the man that shot me perfectly, he had the ugliest fucking suit you have ever seen it was checkered white suit, on his sides two great Khans… he has the platinum chip I was supposed to deliver that to Vegas, I need to get it back and…and maybe… fuck I dunno I guess I'll help you get home if you let me tag along"

Winter smiled sadly at him "Thank you Six, I know that the package will help you get your memories back"

Six did not reply his gaze as fixed on Nipton, he frowned "It's burning, someone destroyed Nipton"

"YEAH WHO WON THE LOTTERY? I DID! Ughh smell that air couldn't you just drink it in like booze hahahah" startled both Winter and Six aimed at the noise, a lone powder ganger was cheerily celebrating as he ran towards them.

Six aimed for his head, but Winter placed a hand on his arm and made him lower it, Six grumbled but nodded. Winter tried to get him to talk but he was to delirious about winning the lottery, deciding it would be best to continue they let him enjoy his "victory".

Winter gagged once they walked into town, it smelt of burnt corpses and gore. Winter actually gasped once they walked towards the town hall along the way people where nailed to crosses pleading with them to free them of their torment. "This was inhuman, what kind of…" Six stopped her and held her arm, he muttered quickly "Don't move a muscle"

From the fire and ash emerged what she could only describe as warriors from old, their blades and guns darkened with blood they surrounded them and Winter strengthened herself for a brutal fight but Six didn't budge.

"Don't worry I won't have you lashed to a cross like the rest of this degenerates" a smooth voice came from the middle of the battalion, wearing the carcass of what looked like to be a wolf on his head the man eyed them for a bit.

"I want you to witness what we have done to Nipton and spread the lesson that we have taught here"

"Why? Why did you do this?" Winter asked noticing how the soldiers looked at her with spite, the man simply chuckled.

"Nipton was a wicked place, debased and corrupt. It served all comers, so long as they paid. Profligate troops, Powder Gangers, men of the Legion such as myself the people here didn't care. It was a town of whores. For a pittance, the town agreed to lead those it had sheltered into a trap. Only when I sprang it did they realize they were caught inside it, too" a cruel smile danced on his lips.

"We will do as you say" Six said in a defeated tone, making the monster nod "Good, then I bid you Vale see that the work of Caesar is done"

As soon as he said that he turned around and left, followed by his men. Six finally let go of her arm and let out a sigh "Legion, this is bad if they are here... we should head back and seek refuge for the night, maybe we could stop by those giant statues I bet that place is NCR… they need to be warned"

Winter swallowed nervously "What makes these monsters different than the other raiders e have fought… you know them Six"

The courier started to walk backwards as if expecting them to pop out of the shadows "Only in reputation, Caesar legion the biggest tribe in all of the wasteland they not use that many guns but in honesty they don't need it, they want Vegas… my head fuck" he muttered in between pained breaths.

Winter grabbed him before he collapsed to the floor, Six leaned on her and pushed on "We need to leave they can't get close to you… slave… fuck"

Winter looked back and felt her face pale, there on a hill the entire group was staring at them. Observing them like hawks would a rabbit, Winter sped up her pace as Six stabilized himself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Powder Ganger they had passed being devoured by giant scorpions.

A brutal reminder that maybe next time, she would be on the chopping block.

A/N: My theory in how the people of the wasteland manage to use such heavy weapons and some individuals can even fight super mutants in hand to hand combat is that as a species humanity grew stronger, thanks to evolution or radiation. So using my theory a normal citizen of Fallout's world would be stronger than one from Remnant, I hope I'm making sense.

Thank you for reading!