Adam burst through the door like a wild Brahmin. Eyes of an alpha male surveyed the main room and unfortunately couldn't find the beautiful woman that had trekked across the Mojave with him. He was not dissuaded; the strength he showed was accompanied by speed, which carried him over the bar top and straight out of the front door, blowing past the seedy guards in the most bombastic way possible. The door slammed behind him and he was out on the street, his head positioned down to the ruined intersection long before his body had made it all the way through the door. He caught of glimpse of the little liar while she rounded the corner, moving much faster than he thought her capable of. Apparently much more had been hidden besides her origins. Little care was afforded to his possessions. The rucksack was thrown onto the street just a few feet from the Silver Rush's entrance; he wanted as little weight holding him down as possible.

Fast as she might be, Angelita wasn't running with the same dogged determination that was yanking Adam through the street. Pride more than anything else had been laid on the slab and chopped into itty-bitty pieces, the knowledge that he had been duped by a pretty face was embarrassing. Angelita on the other hand had played her cards perfectly, just as her mother had told her to. She said, "If he doesn't try to rape you a man will believe anything he'll tell you. They want to protect a pretty girl." Without explicitly thinking as much Adam had followed the mantra to the finest letter. The chase moved one section of Freeside to the next with Angelita heading towards a group of burly looking men. The kind that would have likely dragged her into a back alley and left her there to rot once they were finished, but juxtaposed to another male and she hoped testosterone's ugly head would allow her to make a second escape.

"Stop!" Adam screamed. "Stop fucking running!"

Angelita whipped her head around instinctively to see that Adam was closing—the man was moving faster than the sandstorm that had encompassed them. It sent a chill through her spine and reached out to tingle in her fingertips. She'd been pursued before by her former master and it felt much the same. Had it not been for the piece of concrete jutting out of the ground she would have ran until she coughed up her lungs. From Adam's vantage it appeared that the ground had been pulled out from beneath her feet while she plummeted to the ground, her forearms the only thing preventing her from having bouncing her skull off of the pavement. Her knees hit just as hard while other pieces of the misshapen street stabbed their way into her legs and torso. It was a very real and intense pain, paralyzing enough that she was reduced to pulling her body away from Adam as he approached.

By now Adam had a pistol in hand, the 10mm held prominently in his right hand, displaying proper trigger discipline even while he raged on. Both hands would have been holding the pistol had it not been for his left hand reaching down to grab Angelita. The initial shock of the fall had run its course by time he reached her and he resorted to grabbing her by the ankle while she tried to crawl away. Nothing she said was discernible by any sort of ear; she was howling and groaning while she made virtually no progress. On the other hand, the odd display had in fact garnered the attention of those she had been running towards. Just as mother said, "rape or protect."

"Hey!" Of all the things to have survived in such great quantity it was a crying shame that mousse was the item. "The hell you doing to her?"

The king slinked forward, accompanied by two other men.

One was a king, pushing his practiced accent a new notches before THE King. "Looks like she doesn't want anything to do with you."

The third man wasn't entrenched in emulating a long dead icon. "How about you let her go?" He wore old football pads outfitted with spikes and reinforced with whatever scraps the Gun Runners tossed over the gate.

"Are you morons serious?" Adam stood straight and let Angelita's leg fall to the ground. The now free hand immediately moved to its proper position on the other side of the pistol. "How about you walk your silly asses back over to that gate and try to make some caps by giving each other a reach around?"

They didn't budge. Great. Heroes.

Angelita lay there on the ground, even more dirty than she had been five minutes ago, staring between the groups of men that had come to fight for her honor. It was an oddity. The Legion didn't have some petty conflict between its men. Not in front of slaves. But here, in what had been described to her as freedom, there didn't seem to be an ounce of respect. No notion of who was superior and who was subordinate. Either no one knew their roles or they chose to ignore them—even in the eyes of a slave girl it was chaos. Still, she was temporarily free if not prisoner between walls of testosterone. It saved her from clawing her nails off in a desperate effort to get the hell away.

"You probably haven't noticed but," The first king took center stage again. "You're in Freeside."

"And you look like a fucking idiot." Vitriol. Adam could have handled the situation peacefully with a few words but he was angry. His heart was pounding viciously against his chest. His index finger was retracting and moving across the trigger. "Like I said—why don't you go stand your ass over by that gate?"

Normally, that would have started a fight. The two kings didn't appear to be interested and the spiked linebacker followed suit. A little aggression would have made shooting them easier.

"Look," It was Mr. Football. "Why don't you just let her go?"

"She owes me something."

"I'm sure—"

"I'm sure we can't." Adam interrupted.

The man nodded, taking a few moments to drag his teeth over his upper lip. "The short of is she doesn't have to go with you if she doesn't want to."

The second king chimed in. "So how's about it? Do you want to go with him?"

Angelita had been hoping that they would start a brawl and she would be able to sneak by unnoticed. No such luck. With a few words she was suddenly the center of the conversation. Like a lost child she stared up at the men, blinking and looking at one then the other over and over again. Eventually the question resonated and she shook her head. Adam could have kicked her in the face right then and there.

"Bullshit." Adam responded. "She doesn't have an opinion."

"Yeah, she does." The first king kneeled next to Angelita.

Adam responded appropriately. He had been standing casually, but now he was aiming at the King while he kneeled. His index finger embraced the trigger and threatened to punish any additional movement towards her. "I wouldn't do that."

"No," The man with the gun pointed at his forehead gestured behind Adam. "I wouldn't do that."

Adam didn't move at first. It was the simplest of tricks and he'd actually managed to kill a fiend or two with such a maneuver. But he couldn't ignore the sound of loose debris kicking across the street. Had it not been so much of it he would have dismissed it as wind picking up. There were more kings coming. At least a half dozen that he could make out with his attention divided between what was in front of him and what was behind him.

"Fine," Adam eased up, stuffing the 10mm pistol in its proper place on his waistline. "Take her. I'll be back for her."

One of the men said something but Adam ignored her. He turned and walked through the group of kings—seven, he was off by one—and went to go check on the possessions he so carelessly chucked into the street. If he was lucky the thug or addict that was rummaging through his rucksack was too stupid to realize the value of anything besides the chemicals. Those things could be replaced without much incident, but screwing with his tools would definitely set him back in caps and time.

The Mojave Wasteland was a cruel, cruel mistress. Often she would show you all of her scars: the ravenous creatures, the corrupt authority and the endless deals gone awry. It was something you learned to accept. This time, she had dangled a sweet promise by her teeth and yanked it back at the last minute. Adam had been looking after Angelita for reasons beyond the 'instinct to protect.' One he wasn't particularly proud of.

"I need you to lean on the Queens," Adam went on. "They've got something of mine.

"Really?" Gloria smiled her devious smile. "Adam strolls back into Eden and he has the nerve to start making demands?"

"I didn't know you read."

"Spare me the trademark sarcasm." Gloria turned her back to him and continued. "This is about that girl, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Adam nodded. "Was supposed to get a few caps out of it."

"Still haven't paid that off, hm?" Gloria rubbed her hands together. "So let's get down to business, shall we?"

"You want someone dead?"

"No, we don't need you for that anymore."

"Then?"

"I want that little runaway of yours."

"That's why I'm here, Gloria." Adam responded, annoyed. "I was hoping you could make them cough her up."

"You think I don't know that?" The false image faded. "I know exactly who the little bitch is and you're going to sneak your ass into their little shit hole. Then you're going to find the pretty little princess and bring her back to be. Then I don't ever want to see you in this fucking store ever again, okay?"

"And what exactly do I get out of this arrangement?"

"A little bit of the caps you need," Gloria turned and stood face to face with Adam. "And I don't fuck your fucking balls off."

Adam walked out of The Silver Rush like a child that had been disciplined and assigned a laundry list of chores that he was sure should have been divided amongst siblings. He hadn't smoked a cigarette in almost five years but at that very moment he could have inhaled a carton and asked for another. He grabbed his things from the crate without saying a word to the guard and immediate made his way to Mick and Ralph's. Angelita on the other hand had climbed out of one hole and fallen into another. You see, The Kings weren't all that bad. Absolutely ridiculous hairstyles, yes, but the vast majority of the kings were stand up guys. That was also Angelita's issue. So while they gave her water and food that wasn't served on a stick, they began to ask questions she wasn't necessarily ready to answer.

"What did he want from you?"

That was one of them.

"What're you doing in Freeside?"

There was another.

"Where are you from?

That was the kicker.

Angelita mumbled and groaned an answer for each question while she had a mouthful of steak. "Iunher" Was how it sounded to the Kings.

The collective stare from the kings that occupied the room with her made her feel uneasy. In their rush to be gentlemen they had shirked the notion that there were always two sides to a story. Angelita, with all of her secrets, feared that they saw the error in their judgement.

"I…" Angelita finished eating and went on. "I'm from south of here."

It was an answer, vague, but an answer. The kings stared in response, waiting for her to be more specific.

"My mother and father were killed trying to get here."

True, sort of, but also something a clever child could have conjured up. Angelita tried again, this time with a lie. "That man," She didn't refer to Adam by name. "He took me and wouldn't let go of me. I got away from him for a few seconds and I ran."

She paused. "He did things to me."

Angelita went for the home run and knocked it clear out of the Mojave. She didn't provide details but the men in the room ate it up and asked for seconds. A gruff mercenary type had taken advantage of a pretty girl with an angel's voice? That was an entirely believable scenario. In fact, it was more common than any morally centered individual would have liked to think about. The small group came to a consensus without consulting the King. An oddity, but it didn't appear to be something that he would have taken issue with. The group, which was now made up of seven men, left the woman with one of the King's groupies and headed for Mick and Ralph's, where Adam had last been seen.

Adam wasn't there when they arrived. He'd stepped in to get what Mick was holding for him and left immediately after. He was still in Freeside, just exploring paths that the average resident would have never considered. The ruins that the people resided in were rarely stable enough to support the amount of humanity they'd been designed for. So when Adam climbed over debris and stacked cars, no one bothered to look up and see him—they were too used to not having to set their eyes that high up. Slipping into an unlocked window was easier than it should have been.

The building reeked of mousse. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have bothered Adam to the point it was, but the smell was everywhere. Thick and pungent, it made him drag a scarf over his nose while he made his way down the halls. Expert care was taken to balance his weight and test out the floor with each step he took—just because it was night didn't mean that everyone was sleeping. While the rest of the Mojave had resorted to a time before lights were commonplace the area around Vegas was an entirely different world. Careful baby steps carried Adam past room after room until he finally came across women. The King's groupies.

"The King's a great guy," The blonde was enthusiastic. "You'll love it here."

"We just need to get you some new threads, sugar." The other woman plucked at the dirt-ridden hoodies Angelita wore. "Something that shows off ya' girl parts."

Angelita was a little worried when they started to remark about dressing. The women appeared to be older, but not too much older—she really couldn't tell, she was no accurate judge. Whatever they were, they were barely dressed. Their breasts weren't restricted at all, more flanked by thin veils that covered, something she couldn't quite imagine being comfortable. They'd been in their get up for hours, too, it appeared to be as much of a uniform as the same two or three outfits she saw all of the men wearing.

"Aren't you cold?" Angelita took note of the poking nipples.

"King keeps us warm." The blonde was fast with her answer. What was the word? Enthusiasm.

"I guess." Angelita and the other two women were sitting in the room beside the King's, on one of their beds. The King himself was downstairs in the theater, handling business as they had described it. "Are you comfortable?"

"What could be more comfortable than being free?" The blonde did a little shuffle, her parts jiggling in the sheer negligee.

She couldn't have invoked more thought in Angelita had she tried. "I see."

Silence wafted over the trio. Angelita was looking down at her nails. They were far different from the manicured perfection that the others were sporting. She had dirt and built up under her nails. The water that Adam had spared her was used for other parts of her body and she spent most of the time trying to pick it out while she was following him. Angelita had never cared much for her hair; her mother was usually the one who worried about it for her. The groupies caught on.

"Uhm," The brunette tried her shot at conversation. "Do you know your size? We could get you something right now."

"I think it's—"

"What about your hair?" The blonde dived back in, head first. "How about we do something with your hair?"

"My hair?"

"Your hair." She shifted her eyes to the brunette. "Right?"

"Sure! That's a great idea. The King likes—"

Adam inadvertently saved Angelita again. He hadn't checked whether or not the King was downstairs, he was in too much of a rush. The women were far too interested in their new playmate to notice that the doorknob was twisting; careful use of a bobby pin and another tool opened the lock. He lead with the pistol, the same 10mm that Angelita was far too accustomed to seeing, poking into the room to make sure none of the men were around before he pushed all the way in and closed the door behind him.

"Not a word," Adam poked his head past the trio into the adjacent room, which he saw to be empty. Good. "Not one goddamn word."

Angelita could feel her pulse throbbing behind her ear.

The blonde fixed her mouth to shriek and was presented with the pistol to her nose. She closed her mouth.

The brunette fainted at the mere sight of the pistol pointed at her.

"You," Adam circled the bed, the pistol pointed at Angelita. Unnecessary, but practiced regardless. "You've got some explaining to do."

Angelita also fixed her mouth to speak but only managed a squeak. Terror and surprise temporarily robbed her of the ability to communicate properly. Letting the two half-naked women give her a makeover suddenly sounded amazing.

The proper grip on the pistol was dismissed so Adam could reach forward and grab her by the wrist. He yanked her from the bed and moved towards the door when he heard the shuffling of feet and voices from the hallway. What's more was the sniffing and barking that followed the footsteps. Rex. And when Rex was around so was the King.

A bad situation suddenly became worse.

Adam, forced with deciding whether to take the violent route or sneak his way out of the situation went with the latter. "Not a fucking word." He pressed the pistol against the blonde's neck and yanked Angelita in the other direction towards the King's room.

The exchange of doorknobs twisting open masked the fact that Adam slipped into the wide open room with Angelita, although he didn't quite have time to shut the door.

Rex's barking was dismissed as the slow decay of his brain catching up with him—chalk it up to the luck Adam thought Angelita carried with him… sometimes. The pair tip-toed past Pacer's room, Angelita's silent encouraged by the grip preventing blood circulation and the one on the gun.

If you'd never been inside of the King's building then you wouldn't have realized what a maze it was. Most building designs were simple and easy to navigate only made difficult by the collapse of floors and debris tossed every which way. This building was practically untouched by the bombs and it was still hell to get around in. Each turn led to a hallway that looked exactly like the one before it, all the doors looked the same and to top it all off everyone talked the same. It wasn't as though he could hear new voices and new he hadn't double backed.

Adam pushed on, careful not stand in plain sight of a king who had woken up or was just on guard duty. It was in his carefulness that he walked right into one of the kings. Perhaps he wasn't as careful as he thought he was. Perhaps that one guy was just quieter than he should have been. Whatever the reason was, Adam bumped into a king who instantly recognized him and had to be dealt with.

"He—" The bottom of the pistol was planted into his temple. Hard.

The man crumpled over in a heap and Angelita took off.

A chase ensued, one much shorter than the one they had experienced before but it was just as loud. Past midnight and their feet were thudding on the floor hard enough to wake up those who were light sleepers and others that just begged the question "What the hell was that?"

Adam dealt with the situation by going through the window. The moment she was ready to round a corner and jet down the stairs, he wrapped his arms around her and yanked her out of the window with him. The Kings were awake and they were flying through a window. Adam repeated the same words in his head over and over again. Great. Just fucking great.