"Are you sure you want to head off now?" The caravan guard questioned his decision to break off from the group early.
" Yeah, it's about noon right now i'll probably reach my destination my sunset and then i'll set up camp"
Juan was sure he'd reach Juarez by nightfall and then he'll probably rent a room for a night at any hotel for a few caps. Then he'll meet with his contact for the purchase.
"Alright your choice then" the guard then went back to the caravan escorting them to their destination in Fort Hancock.
Alrighty then, he thought.
He pulled out his compass and read it to go in the direction of north towards his goal.
" just 40 or 30 miles away" he'd already made his plan of how to get their. He'll all day today, rest at night, Walk a bit during the day, set up camp and wait for nightfall when it'll be cooler. It was a good plan in retrospect, traveling first to gain some distance, rest at night under the cool skies and starry night, travel a bit more then venture out at nightfall with the rest of any other desert critter.
See the thing was, his compass was a bit off. Only a few degrees west instead of north, a small error that might seem insignificant but when traveling long distances a few degrees off might turn into a few miles off.
What the fuck? He thought confused and bitterly. I should be in Jaurez by now, not in the desert. He was sure he was going north, he checked his compass multiple times throughout the trip, made adjustments to his route but it made no sense. He looked around and only saw desert.
"I'm going to die out here" He thought. He packed only enough water for the trip because he thought he would be able to refill in Juarez. Same with his food supply. He would have to hunt for something to eat but you can only live so long without water, you could only last one or two days without water but you could live one or two weeks with water and no food.
Juan's lips were parched and his throat dry as a bone. At least if he would die he'll die in a chem-fueled high with the buffout, day tripper and psycho he carried with him.
The same things that got him exiled from his family's ranch, he remembered his family freaking out when they discovered he used chems. His two brothers were the first to find out, apparently it's because one of them went in his room to grab a combat shotgun they loaned to him. While he was in their they decided to snoop around, they found his stash hidden within the mattress he slept on by lifting it up to see if I was keeping something under it. When it was lifted up a small box slept out and spilled its contraband all over the metal bed frame. They decided to tell the other and then told their oldest sibling, Evelyn. Evelyn, being the oldest of the four and born before the war, told their dad.
Their dad's name was Ramon, Born before the war he and his wife managed to escape the nukes by waiting it out in their bunker hidden under there family's ranch, where they grew cattle and crops to sell. After the war, It became a major hub for trading and selling, and even managed to become a large sized settlement, that would argue, a small city. When his father heard about the chems(which were banned due to risk of addiction and overdose), He was spared death because not only was he his son, but because he didn't plan to or sell them to anyone.
And now I'm stuck here, in the desert, lost.
"Could be worst though"
"Could be running from raiders" Raiders in Mexico were brutal and savage. Descendants of members of pre-war chem cartels, which were already brutal in their own right, but now, now there weren't any cops or federal agents investigating them or their crimes. Whatever they wanted, they got.
Which is why I need to head to Jaurez, to buy protection. Jaurez and El Paso weren't hit during the war, but got their fair share of radiation from the bombs. Infact one of the warheads hit Albuquerque, affecting Both Nevada and Texas with heavy radiation, Jaurez got hit too though not as hard. The radiation eventually lessened but never went away.
"Yeah i'm a wanderer, yeah a wanderer, I roam around, around, around" he hummed to himself, keeping his mind distracted while he hoped he saw some kind evidence of civilization.
With danger around him high, he unslinged his modified combat rifle and hummed his thoughts away.