August 20th, 2279

Zack was done with his food, and sat patiently watching the stars appear in the sky above while Kade finished hers. She tossed the sticks aside when she finished and stretched her arms above her head taking in a deep breath as she did. Zack turned to her picking up his canteen and holding it out offering her more water. Kade shook her head.

"The food was good, but I'm afraid if I drink any more water it might cause me to throw it all back up. That jerk was real stingy with the water, and he hadn't given me any food since before that dust storm came through."

Zack nodded and opened up the canteen and drank from it. He set it down and looked over the bruises on the side of her face.

"I'd like to help you out with those injuries if you don't mind, they look like they hurt a lot."

Kade brought her hand to the left side of her face and rubbed it softly. "Are you a doctor of some kind?" She asked him.

"Not really, no. If anything I would be called a doctor's assistant. I'm a pretty decent medic though. You don't need surgery or anything, just some relief."

"Well okay, what should I do?"

"Just lay down and I'll fix you up."

Kade lay down on his bed roll with her head closest to Zack. He reached for his pack and took out his medical supplies. He pulled out one of the syringes of med-x and one stimpak and placed them on his lap. Zack turned his body towards hers still sitting.

"Now, I'm going to administer this med-x first to help with the pain. The needle will feel like a small insect is biting you. I will have to use the stimpak as well on different areas. There will be some discomfort. Your muscles on that side will feel as they are burning, but its part of the healing process. Understand?"

With her soft green eyes she looked up at Zack and nodded.

Zack took the med-x in his hand and was about to inject it, but then pulled his hand away.

"You could talk while I do this, it might help with some of the pain."

"What should I talk about?" She asked.

"Whatever comes to mind?" He thought for a moment. "Don't slavers usually have those metal collar things that they place around the neck? How come you didn't have one?"

Kade smiled. "Well, to start off I live in this settlement just south of the outskirts of the Phoenix ruins, called Dedge. There was a small mountain between Dedge and Phoenix which prevented the bombs from affecting it or covering it with radiation. From what the others told me at one point in time it was a quarry of some kind. One of those places where they take big stones from the side of mountains and ground and use it to build things. After it had been emptied, some company bought it and it was turned into a junkyard, where they put old vehicles that were outdated or didn't run anymore. The place provided excellent protection from all sides. It had the mountain to the north, and walls of cars and a barbed wire fence surrounding the rest. The only is one entrance to the place which lies to the south. In the area surrounding the entrance we keep a minefield that I help to maintain. Only the inhabitants know the clues to where the mines are. There is also an old giant old bulldozer that the founders got working and used to block the entrance when needed with its blade. It weighs so much that little is able to move it. It keeps animals and enemies out quite well."

Zack started to inject the med-x in different parts of her face. She seemed to not wince too much from it.

"Dedge huh? How did it get that name?" Zack asked while he continued to work.

"Well, originally since where it was located, in between the Phoenix ruins and the fringes of the desert wasteland it had been named Desert's Edge some fifty years ago. Caravans started to add the settlement to their routes, but they decided that Desert's Edge took too long to say in conversation, so they just condensed the two names and it was called Dedge from then on. Our major business is scavenging and repairing items. We send small teams to out to the ruins of Phoenix to look for anything of value, or items that can be fixed up and sold for a good profit, which we then trade to passing caravans."

Zack finished using the med-x and threw the syringe to the ground at his side, it was useless now. He picked up the stimpak and was readying to use it.

"How did the caravans come to trade with the minefield in place, did they know where the mines were at?"

"We had the caravans meet us at a place nearby on the outskirts of the minefield. We did have warnings about the mines posted though, so innocent people wouldn't get injured."

Zack started to inject her with the stimpak along her face. He could tell that its healing properties were working instantly by the look of distress on her face. "Was Dedge attacked by slavers recently? Is that how you came to be here?"

It looked like Kade was trying her best to keep her face still. "No, I was part of a scavenging team. There was this new place that was recently discovered near Phoenix. It was a pre-war landfill. Back then, many people took everyday commodities for granted, and tossed out a lot of stuff which if done today would be ignorant to do so. We were sent there to get an initial survey of the landfill to see if it was worth our time to try and scavenge from. I left with two other people. There was Jim, our protection, he was an alright marksman. Then there was Rhonda, who was our navigator. I was the one in charge of inspecting the landfill to see if the place could be made profitable. We never made it to the land fill however." Kade clenched her jaw as Zack used the stimpak across the lower part of her face.

"Sorry, I'm almost done. Please continue."

"We were heading down a small hill, about three miles from where the landfill was supposed to be when we saw them. There were four of them, three men, and one woman. We could tell they were slavers right off with the metal collars hanging on two of their belts. It almost seemed like they were waiting for us. It was right then they opened fire. We tried our best to find cover there were only scattered boulders to hide behind. Rhonda took a hit to her abdomen immediately before she could make it to safety. It looked like it was caused by laser fire. She laid face up screaming and clutching her stomach. Jim took position lying down behind a medium sized boulder and started to take shots with his assault rifle. I wasn't used to combat and did my best to hide crouched behind a rock as the firing continued from all around. I glanced around the edge carefully a few times and saw that Jim had scored a kill to one of the male slavers. I could hear one of them yelling to take the shooter out. One slaver was able to flank Jim while one shot a suppressing fire at the boulder he was behind. The female slaver rushed up to him from his left, and in a rage kicked Jim square in the face just as he turned to try and line up a shot to her. She shot him twice in the chest with the combat shotgun she was carrying."

Zack finished using the stimpak on her face, and held it in his hand at his side. Kade looked up to him, her eyes shaking slightly.

"Are you all done Zack?"

"Yes I am. The bruises should start to fade within the next few hours. The stimpak's medicine should help some with your wrists as well. The pain will fluctuate during this time, just to let you know."

"Thanks so much." Kade sat up rubbing the left side of her face. "It feels better already." She closed her eyes for a minute before reopening them.

"What happened after Jim was killed."

"I knew that they would be coming after me next, so I pulled one of the sticks of dynamite from my bag, I had them in case I needed to remove any obstacles. Two of the slavers made their way past Jim's body to where Rhonda lay. I could see her legs moving slightly. I've known her for some time and knew she would take death over being a slave for the remainder of her life. Also, I didn't know if her wound was life threatening or not, but I decided to do it anyways. I lit the fuse to the dynamite, and tossed it at the two slavers by Rhonda. The female one looked down as it landed near her feet. She barely got the words "Oh fuck" out of her mouth before the explosion snuffed all three of them from this world. The last slaver came up behind me as the explosion occurred and hit me from behind, knocking me out. When I came to I was leaning against a boulder with my hands and feet bound. That man standing over me was the one you killed outside. I killed the two that had all the slave collars though, so his only option was rope."

Zack looked solemnly at her. "Throwing that dynamite seemed like the best course of action at the time. At least you were able to take two of them out. I'm sure Rhonda would understand what you had to do." Zack saw a few tears run down the sides of her cheeks.

"If I hadn't been so terrified from the beginning I would have started throwing dynamite right away. The others might still be alive."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You could have easily been shot in the process of throwing them and died out there or have a slave collar around your neck and who knows where you'd be now."

"I guess that's true. He hit me a few times there when I was leaning against that boulder. He was really pissed about the rest of his group getting killed. He dragged me up by the rope on my wrists and started pushing me from behind to start walking. One of the other slavers had picked up Jim's gun, so all were mangled beyond use in the explosion from the dynamite. So all he had was that ripper thing."

"How long have you been his prisoner? Do you know where he was taking you?"

"It's been a little over three days since we started out. When that dust storm came through, luckily we came across this old radio tower that had a small maintenance building that we stayed in. For the whole time he did nothing but talk about himself. He would go for long hours about what a great slaver he was and of the dozens of people he had sold. He never gave me a real name. He said the others only called him Spoon Jacker. He said it was from when he first started out and a person from a group they captured wouldn't stay quiet, just spat out curses and demanding to be let go. He had warned the man to shut up. The yelling continued while the slavers were eating dinner. He got pissed off, got up, grabbed one of his comrade's spoons while it was in use, and with it he went to that person and jabbed the spoon through one of the man's eyes. He said that the man didn't speak after that. That was when he walked back to dinner. His buddies were laughing up a storm, and coined his new name of Spoon Jacker. I think he said we were heading towards a place called Cherry Cliff. He told me he would be able to get a lot of caps for me there."

"Damn. The more I hear about this man, the more I wish he didn't die so fast, he deserved to suffer more." Zack turned his body and leaned his back against the metal shack. He stared down a stone in front of him. "He didn't, um, try and, force himself on you in any way, did he?"

"No!" Kade responded quickly with her voice raised. "He never did anything like that. The worst was when he would get drunk and pummel me a little. I was always fearful when he was like that. Sometimes he would pick up that ripper of his, brought it close to my face and pretended like he was going to cut me with it." She clenched her fists when she spoke, causing her knuckles to whiten.

"Sorry Kade, it felt necessary to ask."

"No, I'm sorry for getting upset. I just-. I really hated that man." She brought the back of her hand to her mouth and yawned.

"It's probably best that you get some rest. Take the bed roll. I'll use the ground. Cherry Cliff isn't too far away. My guess, another day and a half, we can head there together if you'd like. I'm in need of more supplies. Or if you prefer, we can part ways tomorrow and you could head back to Dedge."

"I have no idea where I am, or even how to get back to Dedge from here. I'd like to come with you to Cherry Cliff if that's alright."

Zack nodded. "Yeah, we can leave in the morning. I'm going to go check around the area a bit before I turn in."

"Alright, thanks again for all your help Zack." Kade lay down with her back facing the opening of the shack. She curled up with her arms held tightly to her chest.

Zack stood up and walked to where the fire had died out while he had attended to Kade. He took out his revolver and unlatched the cylinder and took out the two spent rounds. He replaced them with new ones, and returned the gun to its holster. He walked around the outside of the shack in a wide circle, checking for any signs of wildlife. Satisfied with the safety of the area, he made his way back to the metal shack for sleep.