August 22nd, 2279

Zack woke up first. He stretched his legs outward and sat up. It was not a full night's sleep, but was refreshing. He looked over at Kade and could see she tried to use her own small side bag as a head rest. It did not work as well as Zack's since it was a lot smaller. She slept lying on her back breathing through her mouth, which was open slightly. Zack listened to each breath she took. He looked towards the entrance to the small cave. The lightning storm seemed to be gone. He could tell it was sometime in the night, but no clue was to what time. His stomach was stirring, but he knew he could not eat the last of his food yet. Zack turned his attention back to Kade, placed one of his hands on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Hey, Kade. Time to get up."

Kade groaned and turned on her right side. Zack smiled, got up, and exited the cave to relieve himself. As he was outside doing business he looked around. There were a few clouds floating around the edges of the sky and the moon lit up the land with serene beauty. Zack returned to the cave and saw that Kade was sitting up. She moved some hair from her face and rubbed one of her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked up to him and gave a closed lipped smile.

"We got breakfast today?"

Zack chuckled and shook his head. Before he could respond in any way, Kade spoke first.

"Yeah I figured, I was just teasing. What time is it?

"Don't know the time. I would say early morning, sometime after midnight." He reached to his pouch inside his duster. He pulled out his small package of gum. "I do have this though, if you'd like some." Zack took a piece out and popped it in his mouth.

Kade held her hand out up at him. "Yes please, it's better than nothing."

Zack handed her a piece and grabbed his canteen and drank from it. He then passed it to Kade, which she took quickly.

"Thanks. I feel a bit bad about using half of your supplies. I don't have anyway to repay you at all."

"It's alright. I figure if we double time it today we can reach Cherry Cliff before nightfall. Don't' worry about caps, our friend Spoon Jacker left us enough for us to share a big meal once we get there."

"Really? You're too generous Zack. Some people in the wastes might take advantage of that, need to be careful."

"Oh yeah? You plan on stabbing me in the back and taking my gear?" Zack said with a grin.

"Oh shut up!" Kade pushed Zack backwards playfully as she stood up. "Not like I have anything to stab you with anyhow. Well, except maybe a screwdriver."

"Well then, I'll have to keep my guard up." Zack laughed and crouched down to pack up his belongings and to roll up his bedroll. After he had it attached to his pack, he placed it on his shoulders.

Kade reached into her bag and withdrew a pair of black mechanic's gloves. She held them in one hand, and slung her bag on her shoulder. She placed the gloves on each hand. She then reached down and adjusted the belt she wore over her jumpsuit. She squeezed her hands a few times as she looked down at the gloves. "I forgot that I had these in here. Alright, let's get out of this place." She said happily.

Zack and Kade made their way down the steep side of the mountain. They walked back to where the road was and continued to follow it north. Even with all the time that has passed since any maintenance was done to the road it still seemed to be in decent condition. They came across a few vehicles every so often, but found nothing of use in any of them. Along the side of the road they passed green signs showing distances to places, but the words were faded beyond recognition. When the sun finally rose from behind the mountain Zack wrapped his head up and placed his goggles over his eyes. He felt some sympathy that Kade did not have anything to cover herself with, but she seemed to not mind too much.

"Hey Zack, I was meaning to ask you something. I saw you take out that revolver yesterday during the storm. It looked a lot different from any revolver I've seen during my life exploring and scavenging the Phoenix ruins."

"Yes, it is. When I was ten, my father was injured at the casino. He took a hard hit to his right wrist causing it to break. It never healed one hundred percent. There was this well known gunsmith in New Vegas who was able to modify this revolver for him. They ported it along the end of the barrel. Basically, they are exhaust vents, and allow the gasses expunged to vent upwards at an angle instead of going through the end of the barrel. It decreases recoil almost by half and improves the accuracy of the next shot. It does make the gun a lot louder though if you remember by the metal shack. They also added a counterweight along the bottom of the barrel to make it more balanced over all. It helped my father greatly with his damaged wrist. It took me a good half a box of rounds to get accustomed to it though. It's a bit heavier than I'd like it to be, but I'll eventually get used to it fully."

"Yeah, I could tell it had been modified, it looks really unique."

"Some of the people my father worked with nicknamed it Griever. When my father had to use it, someone would be grieving for the person he had used it on."

After much walking, and protests from Kade, Zack agreed that it was time for a break. They came across another corpse of a vehicle and sat with their backs against the side of it. Zack took out the last of his Brahmin jerky and tried his best to divide up evenly and handed half to Kade. Zack pulled his head wrap aside. He chewed his slowly, trying to savor as much of it as he could. Kade looked down pathetically to hers. It fit in the palm of her hand.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers." She said and then started to eat.

After they finished eating, they each drank from the canteen. When Kade lowered the canteen from her mouth, she squinted, and looked off in the distance.

"Hey Zack, is it just me or is there some movement out there?" She pointed her finger out into the desert.

Zack looked to where she pointed and pulled his goggles to his forehead. He went in his pack and pulled out his binoculars. He peered through them. Zack could make out about twelve shapes of adults as well as a few children. They were all wearing brownish tan robes with hoods covering their heads. The people walked with a pole in one of their hands. They also had three fully packed Brahmin in their midst. Zack lowered the binoculars and passed them over to Kade. She brought them up to her eyes.

At once she spoke. "What the, only one side of these things work." She lowered them.

"Yeah, they got damaged awhile back. What do you make of those people?"

Kade returned the binoculars to her eyes. She sat a moment looking. "I'm not really sure, some kind of caravan?" She lowered the binoculars and looked towards Zack.

"I don't think so. Caravans are usually armed. They look more like some nomadic people, probably just moving to a new place with more food and water."

"Ah. Seems like a tough life though. Moving in a big group like that usually draws unwanted attention."

"Yes, but as you noticed, it was hard to spot them with their desert camouflaged outfits. They also are traveling far away from roads. I'm sure that helps keep them unseen."

A light breeze filled the air. Kade stood up and leaned against the side of the car. She unzipped the top of her jumpsuit down to her belt, exposing the white tank top shirt she wore underneath. "Well, good luck to them."

As Zack packed up he could not help but notice small droplets of sweat accumulating on her upper chest. He also saw that the tank top she wore underneath the jumpsuit was a little short. He could see the smoothness of her stomach showing, as well as her navel. After he had placed his pack back on, they made their way onwards.

The sun was beating on them harshly as they walked. The breeze seemed to have vanished. After a few more hours, Zack took notice of the rock deposits in the mountain to their right. The coloring was starting to change to a bright reddish brown. He looked back to Kade, her head was drooped downwards, and she dragged her feet as she walked. He smiled under his head wrap.

"Chin up Kade, I think we're almost there." He pointed to the coloring of the rock deposits.

Kade brought her head up and looked to where Zack had pointed. She jogged to catch up to Zack. "Great! I was starting to worry we wouldn't make it today."

"Hold up." Zack stopped walking, he held his arm out to his side to stop Kade, and stared down the road.

Ahead of them were two people, a male and female. They were not too far away from them. It was puzzling to Zack as why he did not see them before. The man was pushing a shopping cart which its contents were covered by some kind of blanket. The woman was holding a rifle that Zack had not seen in a long time, since his childhood in Blue Diamond. It was a Winchester-style lever action rifle. The stock and metal of the gun were dark in color. Zack knew that it fired .357 rounds. One hit from that would be deadly.

Zack pulled Kade by the arm off to the side of the road. As the couple approached, the woman held her rifle at the ready. They wore armor less attire. The man had blue jeans and plain short sleeved green shirt. The woman had on tan shorts with a white tank top. Zack held his hands outwards with his palms facing the woman, showing that he meant no harm. The woman glared at Zack and Kade as they walked by. Zack followed her eyes as she moved passed.

"Cherry Cliff not too far up the road?" Zack asked slowly.

The woman took some time to respond, perhaps thinking if she should charge for this information. "Yeah, it's about three miles further." She said without turning her head.

"Thank you." Zack called to her. The woman said nothing and continued walking alongside the man pushing the shopping cart.

As the couple left earshot, Kade turned to Zack. "Such a pleasant couple." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

"No matter. Come on, we'll bet there in no time."

After a bit more traveling, they came to a short sheet metal sign attached to a couple of wooden posts that had been buried into the ground. The words "Cherry Cliff" was painted sloppily in white and an arrow pointing towards the mountain. Behind the sign was a dirt road going in that direction, so Zack and Kade turned onto it from the one they had been following for most of the day.

As they neared the side of the mountain Zack could see that it was impossible to scale the side of it from how steep it was. There was an opening in between the mountain, almost like the mouth of a canyon. The entrance was blocked by a high chain link fence that was reinforced with wooden slats going through the links. Hanging high above the fence along a chain were four bodies. They were stripped of any useful belongings and were in a late stage of decomposition. Zack slowed his pace along the dirt road to take in what was in front of him.

On the right side of the entrance sat a sandbag weapons emplacement fortification. There was a light machine gun set up on a tripod with its barrel extending over the sandbags. There were two men behind the sandbags, one sitting in front of the machine gun, and the other leaning against the side of the mountain, a military assault rifle as slung over his shoulder by a strap. Above this, built against the side of the mountain, there was some makeshift lookout tower. A shoddy looking ladder led up to it, and it appeared only big enough for one person to sit in, which was occupied by a lone man holding a scoped sniper rifle.

On the left side sat a metal desk, which must have been dragged here from somewhere. Behind it sat an elderly woman. The woman's silver hair was styled upwards. She was wearing some kind of pre-war flower dress, wore metal framed glasses, and had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. Next to the desk was another woman, but she looked barely a day over eighteen. She was holding a pathetic looking bolt action rifle.

All the others besides the elderly woman were wearing a similar kind of outfit. They had brown combat boots, desert colored pants, grayish armored sleeveless jacket that flowed down past their waist, a white undershirt, and atop their head was a rimmed brown hat. Each had a belt that looked to hold water canteens, a knife, and a couple of grenades. A bandoleer was worn crossed over their shoulder to their waist, to carry extra ammo Zack supposed. Zack could see a small orange and yellow emblem sewn onto the upper arms of their white undershirts, but could not discern what it was.

It was late afternoon, the sun was still visible, but making its way towards the horizon behind them. As Zack and Kade were about twenty five feet from the entrance, the man behind the light machine gun spoke as he placed his hands on his weapon.

"That's far enough!"

Zack and Kade both halted. Kade turned her head slowly towards Zack.

"They're New California Republic forces." She whispered.

"State your business!" The man asked the two of them.