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Jacob wondered what the hell had made that noise, or if he was just losing it, when out of the silence that had followed the "thump"s came an equally faint whistling sound, this time from above. Jacob sat there thinking he must finally have lost his mind when suddenly the entire building shook violently as a humongous crash thundered outside. Finally realizing what the sounds were he reacted quickly and threw himself to the floor and covered his head as several more explosions rocked the Fort. When everything went quiet again he began to stand, hearing shouts from all over the camp, but just then there came one last whistling noise and the earth itself seemed to shake as a massive explosion erupted from somewhere on the other side of the Fort.

Jacob scrambled to throw on his duster and pack and then flung the door open to find the guard on his feet at the end of the hall, looking about as if unsure what to do. The wolf sprang to action immediately, he didn't have time to wait for him to head down the stairs, and wrested his rifle from his grasp as he caught him by surprise. Before the guard could react he slammed the butt of the rifle into his head viciously, making him collapse to the floor limply, and he slung the rifle over his shoulder and dashed down the stairs without looking back.

There was even more shouting now, all of the voices running back towards the far corner of the compound, and a siren had begun to wail. Jacob found the floor empty and immediately went the door of the Warden's office and dug out the key he had left in his pocket and rammed it into the locks in the door. They both slid back and he threw the door open and rushed inside and around behind the Warden's large wooden desk where he yanked the drawers out and tore through them until finally he found a small brass key. He swiftly kicked the chair over and found the tiny keyhole in the floor and shoved the key in and unlocked it. As he was flinging the trapdoor open he heard two people scramble into the hall. He quickly slipped the stolen rifle from his back and was drawing a bead on the doorway when Anna and Samantha burst into the room.

"You said it was happening tomorrow!" Anna cried.

"I don't know what's happening but we're taking advantage of the confusion." Jacob slung the rifle back over his shoulder and grabbed his own carbine off the wall, pulling a magazine from his pocket and slamming it home into the magwell before chambering a round. "You two start running. Wait for us by the exit." he ordered and without waiting for reply dashed past them and out through the front doors of the building.

A huge column of flame and smoke was billowing from the far corner of the compound, lighting up the Fort with grim shadow. It looked the fuel dump had gone up. Jacob swore as he saw figures racing up onto the scaffolding against the walls and dashed into the shadows between buildings. His heart was thumping, there was shouting everywhere and the siren wailed loudly over everything. Jacob considered just making a break for it through the tunnel and leaving the others behind, but the image of Joshua flashed in his mind, emaciated and weak as he was. He couldn't leave him.

He was steeling his nerves for the run to the Pound when suddenly a rippling thunder erupted in all directions from the heights surrounding the Fort. A wall of bullets suddenly sprayed everything in the Fort, tearing down the men on the walls with ease and kicking up the dirt at Jacob's feet. He dashed to the base of the wall as men fell from the scaffolding. Maybe the NCR really was here, who else had that much firepower?

He stole along the wall towards the Pound as the surviving guards manning the walls attempted to return fire, getting torn down in the process in most cases. Screams of pain added to the confusion as Jacob approached the Pound, where bullets tore across the yards of dirt between him and the building. Jacob swore to himself never to help anyone ever again as he sprinted across the open ground, bullets kicking up the dirt at his feet, and kicked open the doors and put a single round through the head of the guard in one smooth motion. As he was snatching the cell keys off the wall he heard a voice behind him and spun around, carbine raised.

"You killed him!" It was John, his voice panic-stricken. "What the hell is going on?" he yelled.

"Someone's attacking the Fort, we're taking the chance to get out." Jacob said quickly and calmly as he threw the keys to John. "You unlock the cells, I'll stand..." Suddenly there was another loud crash at the front gates followed by more yelling. "GO!" Jacob roared as John stood rooted to the spot, looking at something down the road. The man scrambled down the hall, unlocking the cells as he went and in less than a minute they were all back in the office. "Okay, everyone follow me, keep your heads down!" Jacob bellowed over the chaos surrounding them. He dashed out the doors and saw what John had seen, a large truck engulfed in a colossal inferno had smashed into the front gate and guards were running to defend the entrance to the fort.

"I'm coming with you!" John said as he and Joshua appeared at Jacob's side. He didn't reply as he tore back across the courtyard to the concrete wall with the group of escaped morphs behind him. They were all running along the wall back towards the Warden's residence when suddenly gunfire tore through the group, hitting several morphs and making them scream in pain as they fell to the ground.

"No! Not that way!" Joshua yelled from beside Jacob and the wolf turned to see the entire group of morphs scattering in panic. Movement at the top of the wall caught his eye and he saw dark figures scrambling over the wall and onto the scaffolding, through the firelight Jacob could see one aiming a rusty hunting rifle at him, a human covered in patchy leather and strips of spiky armor, a mask over his face. That was no NCR trooper. The rifle in the man's hands spat fire and a bullet whizzed towards Jacob. His aim proved to be just too far to the left, catching John in the chest and sending the man backwards onto the ground.

Joshua was making to pick him up and carry him when Jacob grabbed the shepherd's arm. "Leave him!" he bellowed and pulled Joshua away with him, leaving John lying on the ground gasping in dying pain. He pulled Joshua along until they reached the Warden's residence and they ran to the office where the trapdoor still lay open and the girls gone. They dashed into the earthen tunnel and ran. They stumbled in the darkness, the sound of their panting and their feet replacing the sounds of gunfire and yelling as Jacob struggled to see the way forward. Thankfully the tunnel proved to be fairly straight, and after what seemed like an eternity in darkness, he saw shards of moonlight ahead.

They were both panting from their exertion as Jacob clambered out of the tunnel through a hatch that had been left open, but Jacob knew they weren't home-free just yet. Black smoke billowed from the other side of a ridge a few hundred yards away and the cracking of gunfire filled the air as Jacob pulled Joshua up out of the tunnel and looked around for Anna and Samantha. That's when he noticed Joshua was standing frozen in place, staring at something a short distance away with horror in his eyes. He followed the shepherd's gaze to find two motionless figures lying on the ground. Anna and Samantha were dead, blood oozing from gunshot wounds to the chest.

"There's nothing we can do for them, we have to get moving." Jacob said bitterly and grabbed Joshua by the arm and pulled him along even as the shepherd heaved and vomited. Jacob kept them moving at a run in the direction he thought the highway lay in, watching the area around them carefully as they went. He didn't think Anna and Samantha were killed by raiders, which meant that someone else had escaped through the tunnel and were likely nearby. When he finally found the derelict highway he angled them away from it, heading east, preferring to traverse the nearby countryside to avoid any raiders or escapees from the Fort.

Joshua was out of breath now and Jacob reluctantly slowed his pace to a quick walk, frequently throwing looks back over his shoulder and the column of fire and smoke that rose high into the night sky behind them. They walked and walked and Jacob wore a scowl about his face as he kept his rifle at the ready, he had that unnerving feeling that he was being followed. When Joshua stumbled and fell Jacob went and threw the shepherd's arm over his shoulders and helped him to his feet, but he didn't stop. He supported Joshua with one arm as he walked and kept a firm grip on his rifle with the other.

It wasn't until the sky ahead of them began to turn a deep purple did he veer farther out into the desert where he managed to find a rock outcropping which had a sort of small crevice between two large boulders. After finding the gap free of any hiding radscorpions he set Joshua down within. He unslung the rifle on his back, a slightly rusty G3 model, and checked to make sure there was a round chambered before setting it on the shepherd's lap. "Take this and wait here. I'm going to check the perimeter, make sure we weren't followed."

Joshua didn't even look up at him, instead staying completely silent and staring ahead at the rock face opposite him. Jacob wanted to say something to reassure him but couldn't find the words, so he turned and stole over to another outcropping some fifty feet away and climbed up it a bit and pressed himself against the rock. He pulled out his binoculars from one of his pockets and scanned the surrounding area, able to see fairly well with the strong moon and starlight. He saw no movement, nothing unusual in the barren and dead landscape. He didn't hear anything besides the wind or his own breathing, and caught no unusual scent on the wind. He lowered the binoculars and scanned the horizon with his own squinted eyes as if the binoculars were deceiving him, he still felt wrong, like someone was watching him.

He reluctantly stuffed his binoculars back into his pocket and strode back the rocks where Joshua sat, not having moved an inch. Jacob frowned and sat against the opposite rock, setting his bag down next to him and keeping his carbine in his lap. He peered at Joshua through the dark, his eyes seemed glazed over and unfocused. He was in shock Jacob realized, he had just lost everyone and everything he had ever known, good or bad. The look on the shepherd's face made Jacob's insides knot up more than anything in the last several hours. "Try to get some rest." Jacob said and nudged him slightly. "I'll wake you up in a few hours."

The sun had risen and hung in the eastern sky, Jacob's watch read 9 AM. 28 hours without sleep, Jacob noted, that was okay; he was tired, but his senses and aim wouldn't begin to fail him for about another 20. He hefted his rifle and crept silently over Joshua's sleeping form and out from the wedge between the rocks, his gaze sweeping the immediate area for threats before heading to the other rock outcropping to sweep the perimeter. Satisfied, he headed back to Joshua.

"Wake up, we need to get moving again." he said and gave Joshua a little shake of the shoulder, who awoke with a start. Jacob opened his bag and pulled out his spare clothes, a small jug of water, and some granola bars and set them next to Joshua. "You can wear these. Eat and drink, you need it. I'm going to head to that ridge over there..." he pointed to a small outcrop some distance away, "...and see if there's anyone behind us."

Joshua nodded and Jacob left again, walking to the ridge he had indicated and crawled up on it before pulling out his binoculars once more and peering over the edge back along the countryside they had traversed in the night. In the distance he could see a pillar of black smoke rising into the clear blue sky from behind the rim of the gorge that the Fort sat within. What he saw at the base of the rocks turned his insides to ice. A massive raider camp and literally sprung up overnight, littered with various materials stolen from the Fort which was presumably entirely engulfed in flames at this point.

He turned and made a beeline for Joshua. "We have got to go!" he said as he approached.

The German shepherd looked up at him, now dressed in a black shirt and rugged pants. "Why?" he croaked, seeming to have found his voice at last.

"Because there's an army of raiders behind us." Jacob explained as he hurriedly slung on his pack. "I've never seen them in these numbers or this coordinated, which means I don't want to be within a hundred miles of them. Let's go."

Joshua followed as he led the way east, heading back towards the highway once more. "What do you think happened to the others?" the shepherd asked weakly as he walked next to Jacob.

"Dead, most likely, caught in the fighting. At best held captive to be sold to slavers." Jacob said matter-of-factly.

"Then what was the point! All their suffering just to die or be sold back into slavery!" Joshua exclaimed suddenly angry.

Jacob eyed the German shepherd. "We made it out."

"Just the two of us!"

"That's more than I expected when shit hit the fan back there. We should count ourselves lucky." the wolf said. "There's the road, we'll follow it from here."

Joshua suddenly froze in his tracks. "We're heading east. Jacob, shouldn't we be going the other way? To the NCR?"

"No," Jacob said, rounding on Joshua. "for two reasons: one, if we were to head west we'd have to swing all the way around the Fort and out there," Jacob pointed off into the wastes. "and anybody that goes out there dies; two, I left the NCR for a reason, we're going to New Vegas. Now, let's keep moving."

Joshua looked out into the wastes and his shoulders slumped and continued following Jacob along the highway. They walked through the day, only stopping to break for lunch and to let Joshua rest a bit, before moving on. When the sun hung low in the western sky, casting long shadows before the two, Joshua spoke again, "Jacob, shouldn't we find a place to stop for the night?"

"No. Assuming most of those raiders were humans they won't travel by night, which means if we keep going we can eventually outpace them." the wolf said without looking back at Joshua.

"Jacob. I've spent my entire life in slavery, with little food and water." Joshua said. "I'm tired, I need rest."

Jacob's tail twitched in annoyance, he had been worried about this. For a moment he considered leaving Joshua behind, his instinct for survival demanded it, but he reasoned that with a decent night's rest that he would be strong enough to continue. "Fine." he grumbled and led them at a southern angle from the road, looking for a place to stop for the night. Finally Jacob found a small alcove under a rock overhang out of sight of the highway and they stepped inside as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.

They shared a small meal, leaving the last of the food for breakfast the next morning, and Jacob handed Joshua a shabby blanket for the cold desert night. The shepherd took it and lay on his side while Jacob sat upright against the rock behind them. "You should get some rest too, Jacob." Joshua said quietly.

"You need sleep more than I do right now." Jacob replied. "And we're not both sleeping when there's an army of raiders behind us."

"We can take watches." Joshua suggested.

"Just go to sleep." Jacob said irritably and with that Joshua rested his head down on his paws and closed his eyes. Jacob would have torn down the G3 leaning against the rock next to him if he was confident that the raiders weren't following him, but as it was, he had to dedicate all his attention to listening for trouble, which the clinking of metal parts was liable to bring about. The feeling of being watched and followed had not yet gone away, his fur prickling every time he looked over his shoulder, leaving him feeling jumpy and nervous.

Jacob found his eyelids drooping as the night grew longer and struggled to stay awake without anything to focus his attention on than the eerie silence caused by the lack of wind. He began to reach for the G3 to begin disassembling it, figuring it would be better to be slightly distracted and awake than caught asleep, when something made him freeze in place. Little bits of dirt and pebbles had been sent rolling down the face of the rock overhang above them, falling to the ground in front of Jacob only a few feet away. That wasn't right, there was no wind to blow the debris, someone or something was directly above them.

With his heart pounding in his chest his shouldered his rifle and tested the air. Human, familiar too. He quietly disabled the safety on his carbine and waited, seemingly for an eternity before more debris fell and a figure landed before him with soft thump. Jacob held his breath as the human seemed to turn and survey the area before walking onward, allowing Jacob to see more than just the human's legs. Immediately he placed the scent when he saw the human's feminine form: the girl from the Fort, Sarah.

Jacob slowly and soundlessly crept from under the rock ledge and up towards her as she slowly crept away. "Why, hello there beautiful." Jacob said in a wry but quiet voice as he pressed the muzzle of his carbine between her shoulder blades, making her freeze mid-step. "Let's see those pretty hands of yours." She was trembling with anger as he raised her hands into the air, nearly making Jacob chuckle aloud. "Anyone following you?"

"Just raiders a few miles behind. But you already know that." she hissed.

Jacob nodded and then said, "Sorry I have to do this my lady, but I can't have you sneaking about, and I don't feel particularly like shooting you at the moment..." the truth was Jacob very much felt like shooting her, but he couldn't risk attracting the attention of anyone who might be following her, raider or not, and Joshua needed rest. "...so you'll just spend the night with us."

Abruptly he kicked her in the back of her knees, making her fall to the ground, and he began to check the numerous pockets of her cargo pants. He liberated her of a .38 revolver, some ammunition for it, and not two but three blades before pushing her over onto her back. He frowned, ignoring the look of complete scorn she was giving him. "I know I'm missing something...Ah, you'll have to pardon me, I'm not the gentleman I used to be." he said with a smirk and reached down the front of her green tanktop and between her cleavage; his fingers grasped something and drew his paw back to find a small razor wrapped in cloth.

"Oh you're a wily one." he said and nudged Sarah with his boot. "Come on, up now, and don't wake up my friend." She got to her feet, seething with hatred but otherwise silent as Jacob nudged her along with the muzzle of his carbine and instructed her to sit under the rock ledge where Joshua lay. He rummaged in his bag and withdrew a couple lengths of cordage which he used to bind her wrists and ankles together.

Jacob reclined back against the rock between the sleeping Joshua and fuming Sarah, rather pleased with himself that he had been right that they had been followed, and that he had caught the pursuer. He may be tired and he may have to stay up the whole night, but at least now he would have some fun prodding Sarah every now and then with his rifle.

"Wake up, mutt." Jacob shook Joshua gently by the shoulder an hour or so after sunrise. "You'll want a look at what I caught while you were sleeping."

The shepherd's eyes opened slowly before he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What? Food?"

"I'm afraid she wouldn't be very tasty." Jacob quipped.

"She?" Then Joshua's eyes locked onto Sarah and his lips turned up in a snarl, revealing his sharp teeth. "You! What are you doing here?"

"Running from the raiders, just like you." she said in a growl to rival Joshua's.

"Why you? Why did you make it out when none of the people who deserved to..." the shepherd was creeping towards the girl, his claws outstretched as if getting ready to pounce.

"Easy now, Joshua." Jacob said, placing a gloved paw on his shoulder. "She might be able to help us."

"Help?" Joshua and Sarah echoed each other.

"Yes, help." Jacob said flatly and handed Joshua the last bit of food and water he had before turning to Sarah. "I figure you know the land pretty well, without water we won't make it far out here. Know where there might be some? I wasn't able to nick much before shit went to hell."

"Why should I tell you?" Sarah snapped. "You probably wouldn't let me have any anyway."

Jacob's eyebrows shot up and he turned to her. "Missy, I don't pretend to be a nice guy, but I'm not in the business of torturing people." He began to untie her feet as Joshua ate. "So what's it going to be, Sarah?"

She stared at him for several moments, seemingly surprised he had used her name. "There's a stream a day's walk from here, we would restock our supply from it on long scouting missions. That's where I was headed."

Jacob nodded and did a short recon of the area while Joshua finished his food, finding no raiders in sight. He let Sarah lead them onward while he walked by Joshua's side. "Jacob, what if she's the one who killed the girls?" the shepherd asked Jacob as they walked.

"I didn't. I found them like that." Sarah stated.

"And we're supposed to trust you on that?" Joshua snarled and then rounded on Jacob, coming to a halt as his voice grew louder and more vehement, "Why are we trusting her at all? What if she's leading us into a trap?"

Jacob stopped as well and stared at Joshua's wrath-filled eyes. He spoke calmly and carefully, "That doesn't make sense, why would she lead us into danger just to put herself in danger?"

"Because she hates us!" Joshua roared, stabbing a finger towards Sarah. "You heard what she calls us! We're nothing but animals to her and she kept me caged my whole life, just like the others! Twenty-five years of my life, Jacob!" he yelled into Jacob's face. "Twenty-five years of my life spent in a cage! And now we're supposed to trust her!"

Jacob listened to him, growing ever more impatient. "Joshua, if you want to turn around and head west I won't stop you. But I just about guarantee you won't make it alone." he spoke, trying to remain calm. "Listen, I'm sorry that so much of your life was wasted in that cage, but I want you to have a chance to have a life outside it." he rested a paw on the shepherd's shoulder. "And chances are if you don't stick with me, you won't have that chance."

Joshua's shoulders sagged and his ears drooped a bit. "I just... I just don't want to have to rely on someone who stole so much of my life..."

Jacob glanced at Sarah, who stood a few yards away watching them with a stony expression. "I don't either, Joshua, but it's only temporary. If we can find a supply cache with enough water to last us to New Vegas we can leave her behind. Alright?" Joshua nodded reluctantly and they resumed their trek through the waste, the air growing hotter through the day.

The sun hung low in the sky when they finally stumbled upon the small stream of water that ran down from the larger mountains. Jacob left Joshua with the G3 to watch over Sarah as they drank, and went to survey the area with his binoculars. Now that he had caught Sarah that uncomfortable sensation of being followed had subsided, and he figured that the raiders probably hadn't even seen them escape, they might even be able to risk a small fire to make some of the tea he had. So he set about to collect some firewood to bring to a small sandy area ringed by protective rocks.

It was as he was picking up the long dead bits of wood that a splitting headache struck him and he screwed his eyes shut from the pain, he needed sleep tonight. He set the wood down in the middle of the roughly circular sheltered area before heading back to Joshua and Sarah and drank his fill of water. He filled a metal tin with water and led them back to the campsite he had found and ignited the fire with his magnesium striker. The sky was colored with purples and oranges by the time the tin was heating on the fire, and Jacob had taken the precaution of binding Sarah's legs again before sitting next to Joshua on the opposite side of the fire from her.

"You mind taking first watch?" Jacob asked the German shepherd after taking the tea off the fire and sharing it with him. "I haven't slept in about three days I think. Wake me after four hours." Joshua opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again and nodded. Jacob slipped from his pocket the .38 revolver he had taken from Sarah and set it in his lap after checking to make sure it was fully loaded with ammunition. It wasn't his father's 10mm, and didn't have quite the same heft to it, but after going so long without that familiar weight in his lap at night it felt a lot better than nothing.

The gunfire woke Jacob long before the violent shaking of Joshua's paw on his shoulder. Immediately he grabbed the revolver in his lap and looked around, the sky was still imbued with purples and oranges and for a moment he thought it was still dusk before he saw that the fire had gone out. His ears swiveled about for the source of the gunfire, the only trouble was it seemed to be coming from every direction. Bullets slammed into the rocks, sending debris showering down onto his head.

"It's the raiders! They followed us!" Sarah yelled over the racket from across the small campsite. "They have us surrounded!"

Jacob swore and grabbed his rifle, the revolver forgotten, and checked to make sure a round was chambered as he listened for the closest pocket of gunfire. When there was a pause in incoming fire he swung his rifle over the rocks and fired several rounds in that direction and then ducked again, barely dodging several bullets that cracked over his head. He glanced to Joshua, who sat petrified with terror, his rifle sitting across his lap.

"God dammit Joshua, start shooting!" Jacob yelled as he fired off several more rounds at the nearest raiders. He saw a couple figures slump to the ground next to a small rock only fifty or so feet away before ducking to avoid more incoming fire. Then he heard the roaring of the G3's report next to him and saw Jacob returning fire in long bursts. He pulled the shepherd back down behind the rock. "One bullet at a time, we don't have enough ammo for that gun!" he yelled as he tossed the two magazines he had recovered from Sarah. He moved across to the other side of the campsite to fire upon the raiders on that side. Before long he was forced to take cover behind the rocks again to reload his carbine. Four mags left, 120 rounds.

"Let me help!" Sarah bellowed from the ground next to him, struggling against her bonds. "They'll kill us all anyway!"

Jacob's lips turned up in a snarl as he hesitated. She was right. He cut the cordage tying her wrists and ankles, no time to untie it, and pressed her revolver and its ammo into her hands reluctantly. Quickly she began to return fire with the small revolver, it seemed a truly desperate effort, trying to fend off raiders armed with hunting rifles with a revolver. Jacob chambered a fresh round and took aim over the rocks, firing only a few carefully aimed rounds each time, causing several raiders to fall to the ground dead.

But it wasn't enough. Jacob knew they were dead. They were surrounded by a band of raiders, at least thirty he guessed by the gunfire, who had had time to prepare for the attack. Behind him he heard Joshua and Sarah firing away desperately as the raiders closed in, and time seemed to dilate as a couple grimy masked men wielding rusted machetes charged him. He took them down with one shot each, the action of his carbine seeming to work in slow motion and the casings tinking off the rocks next to him. He dropped to reload as Joshua had, who fumbled in his terror, trying to force the magazine home.

Then Jacob saw it, a man leaping over the rocks right above Joshua with an evil looking blade, his face contorted in a yell of savagery as he prepared to strike the shepherd. Jacob was still reloading, and he thought Joshua dead when he saw Sarah take aim and fired once, catching the raider in the chest and sending him falling right over Joshua and into the middle of the campsite where he lay dead. Wasting no time Jacob began firing again at the approaching raiders. Three mags left, only 90 rounds.

As he was returning fire he saw a raider pitch forward to the ground abruptly. Jacob hadn't fired at that one. Then another one went down and his compatriots began to look around confused. Jacob took advantage of the pause and dispatched two more of them, and as more of the raiders began to fall they began to pull away in a fearful rush, melting away into the early-dawn shadows. Once the incoming fire had stopped and he was confident that they wouldn't strike back immediately he pulled on his pack hurriedly and called to the others, "Come on, before they come back! Let's go!"

Joshua looked at him, frozen in a daze before springing to life and following him and Sarah over the rock wall and in the opposite direction of the raiders. They ran and ran until they were panting and were forced to slow down. "We...we made it!" Joshua exclaimed.

"Barely." Sarah said, out of breath. "If someone else hadn't been shooting at them we wouldn't have been so lucky."

"What?" Joshua said incredulously. "There was someone helping us?"

Jacob nodded and said, "We don't have time to look for them though. We have to keep moving and get away from those raiders." And so he led them back towards the highway, keeping a close lookout all around, noticing Sarah doing the same while Joshua just seemed to stare forward into space. Jacob decided to lead them down onto the broken road surface where they could travel faster than stumbling through the uneven countryside, and kept at a fast clip until midday, when they had to stop for water before continuing.

"You saved my life back there..." Joshua said uncertainly from behind Jacob.

"Well if I hadn't shot him I would have been dead too." Sarah replied stonily.

"Yeah...but..." Joshua struggled with his words but finally seemed to compose himself. "Thank you."

Sarah said nothing and they continued walking in silence. Jacob hardly noticed the day pass and before long they were huddled together on top of small hillock that Jacob thought defensible. They all stared at each other quietly as they sat down together only a few feet separate from each other and Jacob's eyes flicked down to the revolver in Sarah's hands and back up to her sweaty and dirty face. Sarah caught his look to her pistol but said nothing.

"I'll take first watch. Since you let me sleep all last night." Jacob said to Joshua as the sun set in the western horizon. "We'll swap watches." The shepherd nodded and leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

Jacob and Sarah remained completely silent as darkness fell, and Jacob stared at her in the darkness, her eyes glinting with the starlight as she stared right back at him; they both kept their weapons resting in their lap at the ready. He kept his ears swiveling, trying to listen through the wind for any hint of the raiders, and knew Sarah was doing the same. She was experienced like him, Jacob thought, she had handled herself well in the firefight, taking down a number of raiders at a distance with the revolver. The wolf found that he could respect that, even if she was on of the humans from the Fort and had helped to keep the morphs locked up.

He frowned, finding himself wondering about her story as she frowned right back at him. He had never seen her beat any of the morphs while he was there even though she certainly hated them. Was she afraid of the morphs attacking her? Or was there a different reason? Was she born in the Fort, or had she come from somewhere else? None of that mattered now, Jacob thought, right now the biggest question that faced him was could he trust her?

The next day Jacob decided to risk taking the highway again in an attempt to outpace the raiders before they decided on making a counter-attack on them, hopefully the three could slip away into the desert. Sarah said the nearest place they might find food and water lay a day and a half down the road, one of the abandoned fuel stations that dotted the highway so many miles apart. Jacob had let her keep her gun, but decided it would be best to have her walk ahead of Joshua and himself along the way.

They were mostly quiet as they walked. Joshua kept looking over his shoulder and gripping his rifle tight in his paws, but at least he seemed less on-edge about Sarah's presence for now. Sarah seemed to be the most agitated from their firefight with the raiders, Jacob thought, almost jumping at shadows. Seeing the raiders that had destroyed her home for a second time had probably shaken her.

The night was again cold and fire-less, spent huddling together uncomfortably on rocky ground. The next morning they once again set down the highway to avoid missing the fuel station, and by midday Jacob had caught sight of it on the horizon. "There." he pointed.

"Joshua, I want you to wait out of sight off the side of the road while Sarah and I go check it out, that way we won't get caught by surprise if trouble shows up." Jacob said as they approached the lonely building. Joshua nodded and hurried over to a small ridge opposite the station. "Ever been in here before?" Jacob asked Sarah quietly as they stepped across the asphalt lot filled with rusting cars in front of the building. "Anything to worry about? Any traps?"

"I've been here a couple times." Sarah replied, her voice quiet as well as they approached the open front doors, firearms at the ready. "No traps, and there wasn't anything I would worry about last..." a sudden rustling sound from within the interior of the building cut her off.

The windows had been boarded up, leaving the inside mostly dark with random shards of sunlight stabbing through the darkness, not enough to let Jacob see inside through the cracks between the boards. He sidled over to the front entrance and listened closely for any more sounds and when there were none he flipped the safety off on his rifle and turned on the flashlight mounted to its rails. He nodded to Sarah, who nodded back from the other side of the doorway with her revolver ready in her hands, and Jacob turned and stepped through the doorway as quickly and quietly as he could.

His light swept over rows of mostly empty shelves to one side of the room and the checkout counter on the opposite. A scuttling and the tinking of a falling can came from behind the shelves and Jacob swung his carbine back around. "Stay close." he whispered to Sarah, who followed him closely as he followed the wall, flashing the light down each row as he went, his anxiety mounting each time. His senses were alive as he approached the last of the shelves, he could hear Sarah's breathing just behind him, the rattling of the boards from the wind, and more scuttling from the last row.

He sucked in a breath and leapt around the corner, M4 shouldered and ready to fire, and let out a long sigh of relief as he saw several large radroaches dash out of the light. "Just some big-ass radroaches." he said as Sarah came around the corner. Jacob headed down the row of shelves. "See if you can find anything." he said as he unshouldered his pack and combed the shelves, stuffing the rare canned or packaged foods into it.

He was through about half the shelves when Sarah suddenly called out, "There's water here, two big containers. What do you got?"

"Some food to last us a few days." he replied and then asked as he continued along the shelves, "How long is it to the next water supply?"

"The only place I know of beyond this is an abandoned town maybe two days from here. Not much there from what I've seen of it." she replied and then added, as if it were an order, "Let's stop to eat."

"And just who do you think you are?" Jacob growled. "You're not in charge here, not any more."

"Maybe not. But who's going to watch your back when I'm dead and starving? And what about him?" Sarah spat, pointing across the road to where Joshua sat in hiding. "Does he look like he'll make it much farther without food?"

"As if you care!" Jacob roared. "He's like that because of you, and your fucking crazy friends!" he yelled, jabbing a finger at her. "And I'll have you know that I can take care of myself!"

They were quiet as they stared each other with pure loathing in their eyes, then Joshua's voice carried from across the street. "You guys okay?" He was looking out from behind the rock, he really did look like skin and bones.

"I'd like to see you fight off that pack of raiders yourself." Sarah said icily. "You couldn't even do it with me and him, there was someone else out there helping us."

"You shut the fuck up!" Jacob snarled threateningly. He hated the thought that he couldn't survive on his own, he hated the thought of trusting his life to other people, but in the back of his mind he knew she was right, even if he wouldn't admit it. He called for Joshua to join them inside.

"Find anything?" Joshua asked as he stepped through the door.

"Yeah. We're stopping to eat." Jacob said coldly and began to rip off the wooden shelving off their brackets and crack them in half for a small fire. Joshua and Sarah watched him silently as he lit the fire and then, once it was going decently well, forced the front doors shut and dragged one of the nearby shelving racks in front of it with a loud scraping noise. "Don't need anyone catching us by surprise while we're in here." he explained. The inside was only dimly lit by the invading shards of sunlight and the dancing flames.

Sarah pulled over one of the water jugs and a few coffee mugs she found and poured some water for each of them while Jacob opened his bag and sorted through the food. He scowled, there was a lot of canned fruits and vegetables, which he could eat but could also cause some mean cramps in his gut. He tossed a can of peaches to Sarah and rummaged through the cans again and found a can of meatballs, it looked like the heartiest stuff of the bunch. He looked at it for several seconds, suddenly aware of his own potent hunger, and then looked up at Joshua; again the wolf was struck by Joshua's apparent hunger, and worse, his striking resemblance to his old friend Daniel.

"Here. You'll like this." he said as he tossed the can to the shepherd. Then he pulled out the three knives he had confiscated from Sarah and handed one to Joshua, but paused as he stared at Sarah with the second clutched in his paw.

"You already trust me with a gun." Sarah stated as she stared back at him, the reflection of the flames dancing in her eyes.

"Don't make me regret it." Jacob muttered and shoved it into her hands. He pulled out a can for himself, beans and meat sauce, opened it with his knife and set it on the small fire as Joshua did. He sat and watched the food cook silently, trying to listen for trouble, but it was hard with the smell of the food tempting him and tried to ignore Sarah setting to her can of peaches. He pulled his can off the fire carefully when it was done cooking at set it down to cool. "Careful pulling that out of there, it's gonna be hot."

Once the food had cooled and all three were eating Joshua spoke, "Jacob, I should thank you for helping me all this way, I wouldn't have made it this far without you."

Jacob grunted, growing ever more sour. "Don't be so quick to thank me, I was ready to leave you behind."

"But you didn't." Joshua replied. "You're a survivor, and survivors don't take chances, especially on sick dogs like me, so I appreciate it."

"I made up my mind back at the Fort that if it was too dangerous I'd leave you all behind, and the only reason we're stopping to eat is because I need another set of hands with a gun if those raiders show up again." Jacob snapped.

"But you're still stopping to let us eat."

"God dammit, Joshua!" Jacob suddenly thundered in anger. "Stop acting like I'm a good guy, because I'm not!"

"But you are." the German shepherd replied calmly.

"I've let people walk into obvious raider traps just so I don't have to deal with them! I've seen women get raped and done absolutely fucking nothing to help them! I've withheld food and water from people who needed it!" Jacob roared, the words just spilling out of him without thought. "And I let Daniel walk away with those god damned NCR soldiers just to get his ass killed!"

"Whatever you may have done in the past," Joshua said to Jacob after several long quiet moments. "you've made up for it in the past couple weeks. Whatever you say, you can't convince me that you're not a good man."

"Whatever." Jacob muttered and threw his empty can to the side and grabbed the cordage in his bag and went over to the other water jug behind the counter and began to tie together a harness that Sarah could use to carry it with. It was quiet aside from the crackling of the fire and the scraping of the knives against the cans as Sarah and Joshua finished their food. Thank god, Jacob thought, he was sick of Joshua's preaching; he didn't know what he was talking about, he didn't know about the things Jacob had done to survive.

When he was finished with the harness he carried the plastic jug of water around the corner and handed it to Sarah. "You can carry it with this." he said stonily. After she swung it onto her back they all drank as much water as they could from the open container and Jacob picked up his bag and rifle. "Ready? Let's go." he said without waiting for an answer and went to the doors and heaved the shelving out of the way with another loud screech after kicking out the fire. He cracked the door open cautiously and when he didn't spot anyone or catch any scent he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped outside.

Jacob decided to lead them back out into the countryside to try to shake off anyone who might have found them at the fuel station and walked a little ahead of the other two, wishing that he was once again traveling alone. When dusk came he found them another rock shelter to hide in and still didn't trust Sarah with a watch, especially knowing that he could wake up to find himself being stabbed to death.

He didn't join Joshua and Sarah in conversation the next day, not that he talked much usually anyway. However, the next day he began to loosen up with the knowledge that they may hopefully reach the town by sundown, and he just might get to sleep in a real bed... he hadn't slept in a real bed in a long time. The three walked side-by-side as the sun was sinking low in the sky behind them and Jacob was describing his old hometown of Junktown when they came upon a sharp slope downwards from the hills they had been walking through. Nestled in a little valley before them sat a stand of buildings, mostly houses with what looked like a general store and bar. Jacob began to lead them down the slope and towards the town, wondering what they would find inside.