Disclaimer: I am not the owner of the incredibly amazing Fallout franchise. Bethesda is the best gaming company in the world, and I have no intention of taking the glory away from them. I am simply expanding upon ideas that they gave to us in the form of a video game.

Chewing on my lip, I wondered where the heck I was. Faintly, I could see a tower. I cocked my head to the side. How is a tower that big still standing? Better yet, how are the lights glowing with anything except radiation? Obviously, this place didn't get hit nearly as bad as D.C.

I decided to not inspect the tower, as it probably would have led me into something that would have killed me in the long run. So I walked in the opposite direction.

After walking for another few hours, I came across a little farmhouse will a weathered lady plowing her field. "Hey. Ma'am?" She glanced up at me wearily.

"Yes?" Her voice just sounded tired.

I took pity on her. "Need some help?"

Her eyes widened and narrowed within a matter of seconds. "What?"

"With your work. You look tired. I can help."

She brushed her hands off on her filthy apron. "I ain't got no money."

I chuckled. "I have plenty of caps. I don't need yours." I walked closer to her, and took the hoe from her hands. "I also have plenty of water." I offered her a bottle of my Aqua-pura. She reluctantly took it, glancing at the label.

"Aqua-pura?"

I nodded, and started plowing the field where she left off. "Pure water straight from the Capitol Wastes." She sat down in the dirt beside me while I displaced dirt, leaving room for planting.

After I finished several rows, I asked her, still working, "So where am I, exactly?"

She was staring at her water as if it would jump up and run away if she loosened her grip at all. "California. Shady Sands, actually."

I nearly tripped over the dirt. "What?" Had the vertibird taken me that far? I shook my head. Whatever. "Is there Brotherhood here?"

She stared at me. "NCR would shoot 'em on sight if they were. They just overtook one of their bases in the Mojave about a week ago."

I turned back to the dirt. So this was the government the Brotherhood started a war with. Interesting. "NCR?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

The lady looked at me like I was crazy. "New California Republic. You been livin' under a rock, lady?"

"No." I laughed as I plowed the last section. "Just under the ground."

She stood and took the gardening tool from between my fingers. "Thanks for the help, but I should get back inside. My pa would be awful mad if he saw me talkin' to you."

I frowned. "Okay. Nice talking to you."

"Likewise." She rushed off.

I shrugged. Whatever. Locals around here don't worship the ground I walk on. That's fine.

Still slightly pensive, I cast a troubled glance back toward the east. What had I gotten myself into?

[BREAK] 2 MONTHS LATER

*Leah*

Still slightly disheartened by the bullets to the head I'd taken only two days earlier, it was understandable that I might be seeing things. But a dinosaur? A giant reptilian animal that had supposedly existed billions of years ago? Come on. Let's be realistic Leah's ever-so-creative mind. But it was a pretty persistant little self-generated image. It still didn't go away after I chugged a bottle of water.

ED-E was springing delicately in the air behind me. I turned half my body. "You see that thing, too, ED-E?" I squinted. "Either that thing is really there, or one of the things I don't remember about myself is that I'm crazy." ED-E beeped. I glared at the self-propelling eye bot. "Yeah, yeah. Hallucinations or no, I'm crazy anyway. I get it. Ha ha." Serves me right for talking to a robot.

But the dinosaur continued to get closer, and a town began to form around it. Another glance at the scene in front of me and much mulling over earlier conversations, a detail I'd neglected earlier clicked into place. "Ah. So that's what Lieutenant Hayes meant by 'distinguishing features.' Cool." I clicked my tongue.

Upon further examination, I noticed the dinosaur was composed of metal, and was holding a sign that was so weathered by wind and sand that it was nearly impossible to read. Not that I'd bothered. "That'd be a dang good place to camp out, if there was any way inside." I explained to ED-E.

As if I'd written it that way myself, I saw the barrel of a sniper stick out of the dinosaur's mouth. I looked to ED-E. "Can I call 'em, or what?" ED-E's response was coated with sarcasm. "Hey! I'm not the one that thought there was a real dinosaur here, stupid!" The reply I received was outraged. "Oh… Was I? Aw, cut me a little slack. That guy in the checkered coat was using hollow point rounds." A condescending beep followed. "Yeah? Well I have some .308s you can help me test…" Silence. "That's what I thought."

With a final glance at the Mojave sun that had just begun to fade, I walked toward the somewhat rickety stairs that led towards a dinosaur's mouth.

*Boone*

I sighed as the sun began to set. It was almost time for me to head back into my twelve-hours-a-day prison. Also known as 'Dinky the Dinosaur.' I hated that stupid thing. It was cramped, stuffy, and more often than not, incredibly boring. We hardly ever got legion this far west, and other than the occasional powder ganger party, we got nothing. Freaking frag mines could keep them out of this hellhole. But they paid me well enough, and sometimes I could catch some sleep if it was cool enough.

After taking a final swig of water, I grabbed my scoped hunting rifle from my bed and a few .308 rounds and walked out, slamming the door behind me.

As I neared Dinky's mouth, I heard shouting.

"So would it be safe to assume that you require special dirt from Canada so you'll tell me-"

"Hey! Don't try that bullshit. I'm just trying to help my town-"

"By telling me to go investigate some place that you're assuming is swarming with ferals? I can't stand those things. The glowing ones really piss me off."

I recognized the first voice as Manny Vargas, my spotter in first recon. The second voice, though, was someone new.

"I really don't have time for this. Will you go or not?"

There was a pause. I took the opportunity to push the door open.

All three figures turned to see the obtrusion. Vargas, a strange robot, and a blonde woman clad in leather armor and a fierce grimace.

Said woman turned back to my old friend. "Fine. But if I decide to blow your face off after you tell me what you know, consider it repayment."

Vargas rolled his eyes and pushed past me. "Whatever, lady." He paused for a second. "Watch out, man. Chick's lethal." He seemed to forget that I hated him. Funny.

The girl looked tired. "So much for not making enemies." She was looking at her robot as she spoke.

I shrugged, knowing full well she wasn't talking to me. "Manny's a bitch to get along with."

She laughed. "He's not so bad. I'm just really frustrated. Dammit!" She aimed a kick at one of Dinky's teeth. Taking out all your anger on Dinky isn't a bad release, but is very unresponsive. I would know.

Gosh, I missed Carla.

I tried not to think about her, knowing I would just be putting myself through more unnecessary grief, no matter how much I deserved it, but my thoughts weren't very evasive. They always seemed to find a way back to her. Her red ringlet curls, her sparkling green eyes, her fierce passion for the son or daughter she carried inside of her… and knowing that I was the one that erased all that. Silenced her. Took her out for good.

And it fucking hurt. Always.

Not that I was the one who'd sold her. Of course not. I'd hated the legion long before they'd stolen my wife in the dead of night. But I was still the one who'd silenced her. Well, me, and a single .308 caliber round. That had been the first time I'd been thankful for my accuracy since Bitter Springs. Another shot, and I'd have been overwhelmed with pain.

The girl sighed, and held her hand out. "Name's Leah. 'Lone Star' Leah."

I took it, numbly shaking. "Boone. Just Boone."

Leah took a step back, and gazed out into the wasteland. "So, Just Boone. What hell did you walk out of?"

I felt more than a little bit analytical as I said, "What place isn't hell in a world like this?"

Okay, so I really really really didn't want to spend too much time in the Mojave. But… I couldn't help myself. It had been a very long time since I'd updated, and I felt bad. I have also decided that I will have weekly updates (on this story, since I have it mostly complete). Most chapters will be about this length, except maybe a wee bit longer. I don't want to promise too much, though, because I have this story written down in my journal and it all depends on how much I feel like typing.

-Kirsten