Calli and Hawk were waiting when the Tradewind pulled in to the trade port for Rivet City. They didn't bother to take off their wasteland armor as they waited for Jack to give his final instructions to the crew. They had a long way to go.

"Where are we going?", Jack asked, sliding onto the bike behind Calli.

"We have a safe place up in the north. We told you about the Settlement. We're gonna leave the bikes near there and then head into the mountains. Old Three Dog's been going on about an Oasis up in the north mountains. He kinda knows where to look but he wasn't sure where he was and it might have just been a drug induced hallucination. We're gonna check it out anyway.", she said airily.

"Really? You check out hallucinations?", Jack asked. Calli laughed as she revved the bike.

"Always.", she agreed and they sped off up the road.

They didn't go straight to the Settlement. Calli wanted to stop and visit old lady Agatha to see how she was doing since it was on the way. It took some little maneuvering but they managed to get the bikes up the rocky path and over the bridge to her isolated home.

"Calli, Hawk, hey", she greeted them delightedly. "Who's this you've got with you?"

"Hey, Agatha", Calli returned the greeting. "I'd like you to meet my husband Jack."

"Husband, eh? About time you got married. Well, aren't you the handsome one.", Agatha said, looking him up and down. Jack grinned at the old woman, taking the proffered hand and kissing it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Calli's told me about your wonderful playing." He didn't mention she rarely listened to the station Agatha played on. It wasn't her type of music.

Agatha giggled. "Did she tell you she brought me the Stradivarius violin? She rescued it from a vault for me. And sheet music too! I don't know how we'd get along without our Calli." Calli smiled at her.

"How's Tina and Kyle doing?", she asked, referring to the students she had brought for Agatha to teach.

"Just great. They're very talented young people. They sure do eat a lot though. Come on in, I'll have them play for you."

"Are the traders leaving you enough supplies?", Calli asked, as they entered the old woman's home.

"Oh, yes, they're very generous with us. I'm so happy to have the young ones around. I was lonely before they came. And they really want to learn to play the violin! I'm glad you found those other ones, even if they aren't Stradivarius. They aren't allowed to play that one yet 'cause it's so valuable. I'm glad you didn't just decide to sell it. I could never have paid for it."

"That's all right, Agatha. Just keep playing your wonderful music for the wasteland. Teaching young ones is payment enough. Now let's hear what they can do.", Calli requested.

They stayed for a few hours then made their excuses. It was still a good ways to the Settlement. Jack was beginning to understand why she was so revered by some in the wasteland. And hated by others, he didn't dare forget that.

They were speeding through the wasteland when Hawk slowed and came to a stop. Calli pulled up beside him.

"What's wrong?", she asked.

"Over there. There's a building on that hill. I don't recognize it. Have we come this way before?" Calli looked around at the vista and then checked her Pip-boy.

"I don't think so. We've never headed to the Settlement from Agatha's. I don't have that marked." She grinned up at the big mutant. "Let's go check it out, big guy."

"Whoa.", Jack said. "I thought we were chasing a dream." Calli laughed.

"Sure, we'll get there, but you don't want to pass up opportunities. Hmmm, we can't go in there on the bikes though. Could be unfriendlies. Let's stash 'em among those boulders over there and sneak in."

As Jack moved with the partners toward the house, utilizing all the cover available, he realized he must have had a sheltered upbringing in the nice house near Baton Rouge. Sure, he and his brother had hunted in the mountains and explored the area, occasionally coming across a group of outlaws or thieves, but nothing like he had found in the DC wasteland. Watching Calli and Hawk moving as one unit, communicating with signals he couldn't interpret, he felt like a novice.

Calli signaled to Jack and he moved up beside her as she slipped behind some boulders and took up a stance. Hawk had disappeared around a small hill. She motioned to him to be quiet. Taking out her sniper rifle she carefully rose up over the boulder and sighted on the barn.

"Look", she said, handing him her field glasses. He stared at the barn while she continued to peruse the area through her scope. "See the mutilated corpses hanging around for decoration? You can smell them from here. Raiders.", she whispered.

She looked around. "Over there, see that old car?", she asked.

He swung his glasses where she pointed. "Yeah.", he said.

"Stay away from it when we go in. Those can be blown and the shrapnel can take a person right out." He nodded.

"Ready for action?", she grinned at him. It wasn't a pleasant grin.

"Ready.", he answered.

She took aim and let off a shot. A raider dropped. She had been careful when she picked her target. The others weren't alerted yet. She dropped two more before the alarm went up. The Raider's yells and Hawks maniacal screaming galvanized her into action. She slammed the silenced sniper rifle in the scabbard as she whipped out the combat rifle. She leaped toward the building, zigzagging from cover to cover.

Taken by surprise, Jack was a few seconds behind her. He dashed forward, skidding behind a junk pile, whirling to fire a volley at raiders storming him. He jerked back around as gunfire hit beside him. A raider had taken cover behind the old car and was firing at him. Suddenly a grenade landed under the car and it exploded in a majestic display of violence. The raider flew into the air and landed hard, unmoving. The gunfire had ceased as quickly as it had started.

Jack cautiously stood up. Calli and Hawk were moving out of cover to check the bodies. None of them were injured. He started to put away his gun.

"Hold it.", Calli said. "Reload before you put away."

"But I only used part of the clip. There's still plenty of bullets in it." Calli shook her head.

"Always reload after a battle. Out here you never know when something is going to attack. Just toss the used clip in your pack and we'll reload it when it's safe." Jack slapped in a new clip.

The main rule of battle is the same everywhere: kill or be killed. But Jack realized the wasteland had different nuances than the sea. On the water he knew what to do, how to beat the pirates and thieves. Even as children he and Zach had been drawn to the sea and spent little time in the mountains or areas surrounding their home, preferring the docks and fishing vessels of friends. Here he felt he would do well to learn from Calli all the things she had learned the hard way over the years.

He glanced over at the burning car.

"You do that to make a point?", he asked. Calli laughed.

"Sure. It's fun too. I used to shoot 'em just to watch them blow until I decided it was a waste of parts that might be useful someday."

"Why do you do this?", Jack asked. "Just for the scavenge?"

"Of course not. Someone has to make the wasteland safer. Raiders, they like to torture and kill just for fun. These Raiders won't be killing any more. The scavenge pays the bills so we can keep doing what we do. Come on. Let's see what we've got for our efforts."

They methodically searched the bodies taking anything of value. The creatures might be human, but they were so disgustingly vile it was all Jack could do to keep from throwing up as he touched them. The stench in the area was turning his stomach. He glanced over at Calli but she didn't seem to be affected. He clenched his teeth, determined not to show any weakness in front of her.

Then they went to the barn and began searching the raider's camp. Calli knelt by a locked footlocker and pulled out a bobby pin. She began to work at the lock. Jack watched for a while, but it seemed the lock was being difficult.

"Want me to shoot the lock out?", he asked. Calli looked up at him.

"No. Never do that. We don't have any idea what could be in here. I once saw a wastelander try to shoot a lock out. There were frag mines in the container. There wasn't much left of him."

"Oh." Jack waited patiently until at last the lock gave way. There weren't any frag mines, but there was a good assault rifle, ammo and 85 caps. Not bad.

After they had gathered all the salvage they could find Calli divided it up. Some of the more valuable items they would take with them. The rest she put in the footlocker. It had a good lock that few others would be able to break. They would come back for it later.

Leaving the bodies for predators they made their way back to the bikes. As they approached a skittering sound alerted them something was approaching from behind. Jack whirled, firing at the giant radscorpion almost upon them. Hawk added the whir of his mini-gun and the creature fell. Wiping his brow, his heart racing, Jack stared at the creature. He had emptied his clip. He didn't look at Calli as he pulled out a fresh clip and slapped it into place.

Evening was falling when they approached the shacks on the mountain top. They had stopped before reaching them to scan the area and make sure it was clear. Super mutants sometimes used the shacks as a base when in the area. It appeared a band of the stupid, vicious creatures were there now. Calli sighed. They had to get past the shacks to reach the path to the Settlement and it was a given the mutants weren't going to just let them by.

"We'll have to leave the bikes here.", Calli said. Hawk disagreed. "They're very quiet, thanks to the Machinist. I think if we ride them up the trail we can jump off and take cover behind the boulders this side of the bridge before they can react. We can engage them from there and take out as many as we can before we go close range. My mini-gun can reach that far and you're carrying a missile launcher. We should be able to hit them pretty hard before they try to cross the bridge to get to us." Calli nodded.

"It might work. What do you think, Jack?", she asked.

"Sounds like a better plan to me. We should try it.", he said.

"All right then, let's go." Calli put the bike in gear and headed for the path.

It went better than planned for once. They managed to get up the trail and hide among the boulders before being spotted. The first the mutants knew they were there was when the first missile hit them. Disoriented, they were still searching for the source when the second missile hit, then the third. By then they had figured out the missiles were coming from across the bridge and hurried to return fire. Calli had been careful with her aim; she didn't want to blow up the shacks, so the mutants weren't as badly injured as they would have liked.

Jack was strafed along the right side when a mutant rounded the boulder with a mini-gun. His shotgun made short work of the injured creature but now he was injured too. He pulled himself up and leaned over the boulder, firing at another mutant trying to cross the bridge. He barely missed taking a head shot from a mutant on the other side with a mini-gun. Good thing Calli made him wear a helmet. Hawk and Calli meantime had made it across the bridge and were engaging the last of the mutants. Soon it was quiet.

Calli leaned over Jack and examined his wounds. "Here, this'll help.", she said, injecting him with a Stimpak. At least it didn't hurt now. "Come on, let's get to the shack so I can clean these for you. You should be fine by morning. I doubt you'll feel like having sex tonight though.", she grinned. Yeah, she was right. Good thing he was GECK born or the bullet wounds would have been much more serious.

"It's too dark to go to the Settlement tonight.", Hawk said. "The guard can't get a good look at us. I don't feel like getting shot by mistake." Calli laughed.

"Yeah, and your wife wouldn't like it much either. It could limit your activity for a while. Let's just stay here tonight and go in the morning."

Calli snuggled next to Jack on the not very clean bed while Hawk took the equally filthy bedding on the floor in the next room. Fortunately it was plenty cold enough at night to use their blankets so they didn't sleep directly on the dirty mattresses. They ignored the growls and snarls of predators feeding during the night. At least Calli and Hawk did, falling into a light sleep quickly and not waking at the familiar sounds. Jack listened nervously for a while before drifting off.

Calli leaned in the doorway, surveying the landscape and finishing off her morning tea. "Say, Hawk, you remember that path we spotted when we came up here before? When we were looking for the Brotherhood?"

"Sure", he replied. "The one we were going to check out and then didn't because we found the Settlement. I forgot about that."

"Well, we never went back there to find out what was at the other side.", Calli mused. "I assumed it just led over the mountains but I marked the entrance on my map anyway. What say we start there and see if that path inspired a hallucination?"

Jack grinned. "Is this the way you always work?", he asked.

Calli smiled back at him. "Of course.", she said. "We reach a lot of dead ends but how else would we find things every other scavenger has missed? So what do you think, Jack? You want to visit the Settlement first or go looking for a drug induced dream? We have to be back at Rivet City in 5 days if you're going to catch the Tradewind."

Jack considered. "I really want to meet your people, Hawk, but I can't miss the Tradewind. There's always too much to take care of in Baton Rouge. Maybe I can meet them some other trip. Let's chase the dream."

Hawk laughed. "Spoken like a true scavenger", he grinned.