"Are we there yet?" Ruby groaned, dragging her feet through the wrecked highway.

"No." Six answered for the tenth time today.

"How much more walking do we have to do to get to this Vegas place?" Six could feel Ruby staring intently at her from behind.

Six shrugged "A couple days give or take."

"A COUPLE DAYS?!" Ruby shouted in disbelief. "I-It can't take That long right?"

Six sighed internally. Ruby had been the second biggest pain in the ass she's had to deal with this past week. An actual fucking alien/extradimensional/whatever that had landed at her feet. She knew nothing of the Wasteland, how to survive and most importantly, TO NOT FUCKING SHOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF HOSTILE TERRITORY!

Six repressed the urge to go off on Ruby. "Do you want to walk for a full day without rest?" She looked over her shoulder, looking at a now deflated and speechless Ruby.

"N-No…"

"Then we have to make stops to rest. And who knows, maybe do a job or two to get some caps." She shrugged once more.

"Caps? Like bottlecaps?" Ruby shot Six and inquisitive look to which she responded with an affirmative hum. "Why would you need to get bottlecaps of all things?"

"To buy things?" Six spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Don't you have money on-what's it called again? Remanant?"

"Remnant. And yes we do have money. It just…isn't bottlecaps. Why do you even use bottlecaps as currency? It makes no sense." Six didn't look at Ruby (she was too busy looking ahead and staying ever vigilant for possible ambushes) but she could notice Ruby's curiosity.

It made sense she wanted to learn more about the world. And would need to eventually. Six had averted most explaining for the past several hours since, to be honest, she wasn't a teacher. The only things she knew were due to her experiences, reading and teachings from others. She reckoned the Followers were more capable of giving Hyper (what she began calling Ruby) there a semblance of education.

Still, Six reckoned it was better if she did learn some things now. "It makes more sense than you think. Okay, quick history lesson. I ain't gonna repeat m'self so listen close." Ruby fastened her pace to be right besides Six. "Getting clean water in the Wasteland is hard. Like, very hard. So it quickly became a valuable commodity in the early Wasteland economy. There's this city in California called the Hub, which used to be the biggest settlement in all of California 'bout 100 years or so back. In the Hub there were a buncha merchants that started selling said water."

Six heard a noise behind some rocks off to the side of the road. She quickly stopped her monologue and whipped out Maria to aim at the rocks. A few tense seconds went by before a snake slithered away from the rocks.

"Hmm." Six holstered Maria. "As I was saying. These Water Merchants started using the caps from the bottles they sold as currency."

"But why?" Ruby still looked confused.

"I'm getting there. There were 2 reasons why. One, you can't reproduce caps because most machinery to do so was lost. And even if, by some miracle, have the machinery, if you make new ones people will notice. Two, there's a limited amount of caps in the world, so that helps to regulate prices and stuff. Eventually, the use of bottlecaps spread all around the west coast because other towns would buy water from these merchants and adopt the system. Creating the Wasteland economy we know and love today." Six looked at Ruby who looked deep in thought. Probably processing all this newfound information.

"I…I think I get it." Ruby finally answered. "How do you know all that? Like the history behind it."

"Some of it is common knowledge. The rest's basic economics. If you travel the wastes as much as I do, you need to know how to barter and know the general prices of things." Ruby hummed, rubbing her chin.

Six brought her pipboy up to her view. It was a couple hours past noon and they barely had breakfast. She didn't exactly want to make a stop at the Mojave Outpost but it was looking ever more appealing. The only issue, the goth ball of hyperactivity that was Ruby. It was inevitable people would ask questions, questions Six would rather not answer.

The thought of making another camp cross Six's mind, but she quickly discarded that possibility. The NCR barely patrolled this area, so raiders have a field day when it comes robbing caravans along the route.

"Say, Six?" Ruby tugged on her duster.

"Hmm?"

"Does this world have cars?"

Six looked at her for a moment. At first she thought it was a ridiculous question, but then she noticed they hadn't come across any wrecks yet. And technically speaking, the world did have cars. "Yes."

"So why aren't we using one?" Ruby smirked. "Is it because you don't know how to drive?"

Six knew how to drive. In fact, she could drive both a car and a motorbike. But very few people knew that. Ruby did not need to be one of them. Looking ahead she spotted their first wrecked car. "We must be getting close to the outpost" She figured. "Left."

Ruby gave her a confused look. "Left? What do you mean by left? Did you leave your car home?" Six pointed left with her thumb. Ruby turned to where the Courier was pointing, spotting the wrecked vehicle. "Oh…Are they all like this?"

"For the most part. Unless you're NCR, the chances of having a vehicle here are close to none." They once again fell into silence. Something Six was grateful for. Not even Veronica talked this much, and boy did she like to talk.

They were finally approaching the intersection to the Mojave Outpost. Six really didn't want to go there, but she didn't have much of a choice right now. "Six? What's that?" Ruby pointed to the Ranger Unification Treaty Memorial that was barely visible.

"Where we're going."

Ruby stared in awe at the two big statues in front of her. Despite being made by a bunch of metal and looking like it could shatter with a good swing of a hammer, it had its charm. According to Six, these statues were a memorial of some kind, celebrating the "Ranger Unification Treaty", whatever that was. Fortunately for Ruby, there was this little plaque right under the statues. Unfortunately, she'd quickly realize something that was very very bad.

"Uhhhhh Siiiix?"

Six excused herself from talking to this guy who Ruby reckoned was a soldier of some kind and walked back to the teen. "Yes? What is it?"

"I can't read this."

Silence engulfed the two for a moment, letting the awkwardness of the situation sink in. Six in turn, took a very deep breath. "What do you mean, you can't read?"

"I mean just that. I can't read it. Which is y'know kind of freaking me out right now but it's fffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine…probably."

"I-I…I don't understand. You're speaking eng-...It's not called english where you come from is it?" Ruby shakes her head. "And you have a whole ass different script don't you?" Ruby nodded her head. "This is just fucking amazing." Six sighed. Ruby opened her mouth to speak but was quickly shut down. "Don't. Just don't…I need a drink."

"Didn't think I'd see you back here again mailgirl." Lacey said as soon as Six stepped through the double doors of the outpost's barracks building. "Whatcha doing around these parts? Word is you're hot shit in Vegas now."

Six sat on an empty stool, completely ignoring the bartender's comment. "Whiskey. Leave the bottle." She took off her helmet and massaged her temples.

"Someone's in a good mood today." Lacey remarked sarcastically, only earning an eye roll from Six. Six began fiddling with her pip-boy, looking over the root she was going to take back to Vegas. The quickest route would be through the I-15, but the NCR dipshits still weren't patrolling that route even after Quarry Junction being cleared.

Six shuddered at the memory. "Never doing that again."

Then there was route 95 which was kinda safer? But it would take a couple extra dayS. Not to mention having to go through Nipton…Ruby didn't need to see that.

The thud of a bottle hitting the counter snapped Six back from her thoughts. There it was, in all its glory, a bottle of Jack Danniel's Tennessee Whiskey and right next to it, a glass filled with its golden liquid of life. Six grabbed the glass and downed most of it in one go, the warm burning sensation in her throat always improved her mood. "That hits the spot."

"Six you shouldn't drink…" Six turned her head to see the little pipsqueak standing there next to her. Wait, was she always there? "It's bad for you."

"You only live once kid." She downed the rest of the glass. "Hey Lacey give the kid somethin' to eat." She pointed at Ruby with her thumb while pouring another glass for herself.

"Speaking of, who's she?" Lacey leaned on the counter.

"A stray I found." Six finished pouring and took another sip of the whiskey.

"Didn't take you for the kind to take in strays like her." The bartender shot her a smirk.

"I'm not."

"Right." She turned to Ruby. "Well girl, can't say I've seen someone as pale as you out here, or dressed up in such ridiculous clothes." Six noticed Ruby slightly puffing her cheeks. "But, if you're with her, you're in good hands. Imma go get you somethin'. Hold tight." Lacey walked behind the shelf filled with bottles and disappeared from both Six's and Ruby's view. Shortly after she returned with a lunchbox and placed it in front of Ruby. "There ya go. A good 'ol caravan lunch." She shifted her gaze to Six. "I assume you'll be paying at the end?" To which Six nodded, forgoing the glass and simply drinking from the bottle.

Ruby opened the lunch box and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of things inside. Sure, she had no idea what any of these things were, and that green thing did look a bit icky, but beggars can't be choosers right? She dug in on this 'caravan lunch' and…it's surprisingly good! It's not as good as her dad's cooking but this was the…what did Six call it again? The post-apocalypse? Yeah that! Midway through her lunch Ruby realized something important. Six still hasn't told her why the world is like this! "Hey Six?" She turned to her traveling companion who was already halfway through the bottle. "You haven't told me why everything is all like, destroyed and stuff." She spoke in a whispered tone to not drive more attention to herself.

Six stared at her with slightly squinted eyes (yup the alcohol was probably starting to take effect now). "Why does she do that? It gives me the creeps." Ruby thought to herself, taking another bite of whatever meat she was eating.

"What answer do you want?"

"Hmm? What-What do you mean?" Now that question caught her off guard.

"There's four answers. The physical one, religious one, philosophical one and political one. Which one do you want?" She raised a finger for each option she mentioned

"I-Uh-I don't know. Which one is the correct one?"

"That depends on who you ask. Things happened so long ago that what we think is the truth might end up not being so." She produced a small wrap of old newspaper from her duster, unraveling it revealed what looked to be dried meat which Six promptly started nibbling on. Ruby in turn was not amused by Six's answer. "However, I can tell you what I think is the truth."

"Yes please." She said almost immediately.

"Alright. Make sure you're comfortable because this will take a while." Ruby shifted in her stool to make sure she was in the most comfortable position possible and fully turned her attention to Six. "This world is no stranger to war. Over the many thousands of years that humanity has existed, war has always been a constant. However, a little over 300 years ago, there was this massive war that stretched all around the globe, killing untold millions of people. But to end that war, the United States of America, created a weapon. The atomic bomb, or nuke. An explosive capable of reducing an entire city to ash in a second." Ruby widened her eyes. How were people capable of creating so much death? Not even the Grimm were capable of that.

"That's awful!" Ruby interjected but was quickly shushed by Six.

"Don't interrupt. Though the nukes developed by the US brought so much death, there was a silver lining to this. A new source of energy was found. All was great for a while, technology rapidly advanced and world peace had been achieved to a certain degree. Still, ideologies of different nations, mainly the US and Soviets, then China clashed. But despite that, all was well. That was, until the resources needed for many things, including the energy source, started drying up, and that led to the whole world going ballistic on itself. It reached a point where the two biggest superpowers of the planet fought in all out war. Then, on October 23rd 2077, the world burned to ash." Six leaned back, taking another swig from the bottle. "No one really knows who fired first. But what we do know is that on that day thousands of nukes were launched across the globe and killed most of the human population on Earth. I can't exactly tell you the death rate but it's probably around a couple billion people." Ruby grew pale (well paler than she already was). Billions of people being killed just like that? Over resources? She didn't want to believe it but what lied outside those doors confirmed it. "I know it's probably a lot to take in but, well, that's life." Six shrugged.

"How can you say that?" Ruby mumbled quietly, feeling water filling up the corners of her eyes. "How can you just brush off the deaths of so many people just like that?"

Six sighed "Listen Ruby, none of us think about it because this is all we've ever known. This desolate wasteland is our home and our priorities are survival, not feeling for the dead of a bygone era. Just, the less you think about it the better."

"...okay." She reluctantly answered, wiping the tears from her eyes. "What about those guys there? The soldier people. Who are they?" She asked, trying to divert her mind from horrible events she had just been told about.

Six's gaze shifted to one of the aforementioned soldiers who was sitting leaning on the counter. Her face was just as unreadable as she was with her helmet on, but Ruby did detect a hint of annoyance. "New California Republic, NCR for short. The closest thing to an emulation of the old world government you'll find in the wasteland and the so-called 'bringers of civilization'."

"Soooo…they're the good guys?" Ruby tilted her head to take a better look at the soldier in question.

"No." Six responded almost immediately. "No one's the good guy here kid. You just have less shitty ones."

Ruby winced at Six's immediate answer. "That doesn't sound like a healthy way of viewing the world."

"Not a matter of being healthy. It's a matter of survival. Besides, it's an objective truth. No one's without their bad. Everyone on the wasteland has done something you'd probably consider morally reprehensible at some point in their lives. Again, that's just out it is." Six took a final swig of the bottle, placing the now empty JD's bottle on the counter.

Deflated by yet again being defeated with cold logic, Ruby went back to her lunch. Her mind went over all the information she'd learned, though eventually, she found herself thinking about Remnant, about her home with her dad and Yang and Uncle Qrow. She really hoped they were okay. She could only imagine what they were going through right now…

Ruby was too distracted with her own thoughts to hear the double doors opening and a person taking a seat right besides her. She couldn't make out what they said but she did make out that the person had a very raspy voice. Curiosity got the better of her and she looked at this person next…to…her…OHMYGODOHMYGODTHISGUYHASNOSKIN.

Six was snapped from her peaceful drinking of the second bottle she'd ordered by an ear piercing shriek coming from right next to her. Looking at Ruby she noticed she'd fallen off her stool and next to her was…a ghoul…and everyone was looking at her. Ah SHIT! "Everyone" Six stood up. "I'm sorry about that. The kid has never seen a ghoul before, just go back to your drinks." Six turned to the ghoul in question. He wore an old duster with what looked like a set of the common clothes of traveling wasteland doctors. He appeared to be one of those older ghouls. Not because of his appearance per say, but older ghouls tended to have a certain aura and way of carrying themselves. "I'm sorry sir. She didn't mean to be disrespectful."

The ghoul smiled warmly. "It's fine miss. It's not the first time something like this has happened."

"Still, that wasn't right of her." Six looked at Ruby who was sitting on the floor stunned and looking at the ghoul. "Ruby." Ruby looked at Six who cocked her head to the side, motioning her to apologize.

Ruby slowly stood up and while still shaking mumbled. "I-I-I'm s-sorry s-s-sir. I-I-I didn't-"

"I know you didn't mean anything malicious with it." The ghoul smiled at Ruby. "I'm Doc Rotson."

"R-Ruby." She stuttered, but she was a noticeably calmer.

"Rotson?" Six interjected. "Like the doctor that swings by Primm every now and then?" Six recalled Nash mentioning a traveling doctor that would swing by Primm every couple of months to treat people when she helped with the whole convict and sheriff situation.

"That would be correct missssss?"

"Six. Courier 6." She extended her hand for a handshake, one Doc Rotson took with a firm hand.

"Six? So you must be the one that helped the people in Primm. Mr Nash told me about you when I went there a couple days back. You've probably already heard this, but thank you. You helped a lot of good folk there." They broke off the handshake

"All in a days work. Besides, I couldn't just leave the place like that and I sure as hell knew the NCR wouldn't do shit." She shrugged. Six remembered how she had to essentially bribe Knight to give Meyers a pardon just so he could do the NCR's job.

Six noticed the doctor was studying her, his eyes darting from her helmet, to the armor, to her eyes. "Of course." He turned to the bartender. "Lacey dear, can I have a bottle of bourbon for the road? The people of Nipton aren't going to be cured alone." The mood in the room soured, with both angry and sad expressions filling the faces of the patrons. "Am I missing something?"

Six noticed Ruby was also confused and looking at her for answers. "Hum doc…Nipton was hit. Legion raid. There were…no survivors."

Ruby's eyes widened whereas Rotson simply sighed. "A Legion raid this far in? That is a shame. Nipton might've been a town of many wicked people, but also of many good honest folk." Lacey placed the bottle of bourbon on the counter right in front of Rotson. He popped it open and took a swig. "Truly a shame."

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news." Six wasn't exactly sorry, she had no connections to Nipton and the town was indeed a den of snakes where many raiders would find refuge if they had the money to pay the mayor. Still, the other people there didn't deserve what the legion did to them. Heck, even the Powder Gangers didn't deserve to be crucified.

"No, I thank you for that. You've spared these old legs half a day of walking." He closed the bottle and put it in his satchel.

"So what are you going to do now?" Ruby asked the ghoul which actually surprised Six.

He rubbed his chin "Hmmm…Probably head back to Primm and buy some supplies before heading home. Why do you ask?"

Ruby turned to Six. "Are we also going to Primm Six?"

"I mean, it's one of the routes I thought of bu-" Six couldn't even finish her sentence before Ruby interrupted her with a smile on her face.

"Then we can all go together! You say the Wasteland is a very dangerous place right? So, the more people you travel with, the more safe it is, right?" Six nodded. She couldn't argue with logic. "What do you say Mr. Rotson?" A beaming Ruby asked the ghoul who in turn looked at Six for some sort of answer.

She shrugged.

"Sure Ruby. I'd be thrilled to have you as my traveling companions until we reach Primm." The good doctor smiled at Ruby.

Ruby rushed to the doors with renewed energy and a newfound quest: Escort Doc Rotson to Primm! She could use this to get more answers about the world and, if she was being honest, she really wanted to explore the world. Milling about what was happening at home would only make her sad, so she had to keep moving forwards, just like dad and Qrow had told her.

Quest Started: Way down the I-15

I know this chapter was kind of slow and just a lot of talking. But unfortunately this stuff has to be done early on. I promise in the next chapter we'll see some action and witness Six's badassiry. Also, I fucking hate algebra.