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It was late afternoon when Jacob and Joshua finally descended the stairs and got ready to go back to the grocery store for the water. Jacob shrugged on his duster, he thought about leaving his bag, after all, it would just be a short trip and should be back in under thirty minutes. He decided that he had been too complacent as it was and threw it on. He grabbed his rifle and opened the door and led the others outside. He peered at the buildings cautiously as he walked, suddenly and unpleasantly feeling less sure of the safety that the town afforded.

The grocery sat just as it had yesterday and they entered through the double doors at the front. "Josh, keep an eye out, we'll get the water." he said and Joshua nodded. Sarah led Jacob towards the back of the store, weaving through the aisles.

They had just reached the water jugs when suddenly he heard Joshua yelp, "Jake, help!" from the front of the store. Jacob jumped and spun around, ears perked and rifle shouldered. He tore off, Sarah just behind him as he lept over overturned shelving.

"That's close enough!" a familiar voice barked from the double doors at the front. It took a moment for Jacob's eyes to focus on the faces of the three dark figures contrasting against the bright sun outside.

"You!" Jacob snarled. It was the Warden, standing ten feet away, his suit ragged and torn with wear, and he had Joshua by the neck with a 10mm pistol pointed at the shepherd's head. Next to him stood Twitch, his equipment in somewhat better condition, pointing his rifle at Jacob's chest. "Let him go!" Jacob bellowed in anger, lining up his rifle's sights with the Warden's head, dangerously close to Joshua's for such a shot.

"Come on, Sarah. We've been following you, waiting for an opportunity to rescue you." the Warden said as Sarah caught up to Jacob. "We saved you when the raiders attacked you in the morning a few days ago."

"That was you?" Sarah said, her eyes wide as she froze in place next to Jacob. "How did you make it out?"

"The escape tunnel, just like..." the Warden began to answer.

"You killed the two girls! I'm going to fucking rip you apart with my bare hands!" Jacob roared, taking a step forward threateningly.

"As if you care!" the Warden snarled and Twitch took a step back out through the doors and into the sunlight. "Don't think I don't know. You've just been waiting for an excuse to leave them behind."

"That's not true." Jacob said lowly, knowing perfectly well that it was until last night and angry with himself for it.

"Sarah, we don't have time for this, we have to go..." the Warden said without taking his eyes off Jacob.

"Go? With that sorry excuse for a human?" Sarah suddenly snapped, pointing at Twitch. "Never! He raped me! Thirteen times! And you fucking let him!" she had leveled her revolver at Twitch now, who wore a sickening grin on his dirt smudged face.

Jacob calculated the odds quickly, if his aim was true, he and Sarah should be able to take the Warden and Twitch down without harming Joshua. He looked into Joshua's eyes, there was fear there, horrible fear, and Jacob desperately tried to reassure him silently.

"What? I thought you enjoyed it. The way you screamed in pleasure under me..." Twitch said silkily as if reminiscing over fond memories.

"Sarah, now is not the time." the Warden cut Twitch off. "The raiders are less than a day behind us, if we don't move now they'll catch us! And I can control him now!"

"Just like you could control him then?" Sarah spat, her revolver trembling slightly in her hands. "He's more of an animal than these two ever will be!"

A sudden crack from across the street split the air and Twitch stumbled forward onto the floor now spattered with flecks of blood, one leg collapsing as he swore loudly. Reflexively Jacob fired within the same second, taking advantage of the distraction, and the bullet tore through the air and whizzed by less than an inch from the Warden's head as he turned to look for the source of the bullet that had struck Twitch.

Joshua tried to wrench himself free, nearly succeeding. The Warden grappled with Joshua and more bullets peppered the ground around him, kicking up spats of dust. Unable to line up another shot, Jacob threw caution to the wind and dropped his rifle and leapt forward. "Fuck this!" the Warden swore as he saw Jacob rushing at him. Before the wolf could reach him, the Warden fired the 10mm pressed against Joshua's skull. The shepherd's eyes rolled back up into his head as the bullet passed through his head and he fell to the ground limply.

"No!" Jacob bellowed and seven years' worth of pure rage exploded within him. He roared as he smashed into the Warden, bloodlust filling him as he knocked the human to the ground. He didn't hear the sound of gunfire all around or the thump of a bullet from Sarah's revolver slamming into Twitch's back as he swung around to return fire. He heard only his own roaring and the Warden's screams as he held down the hand gripping the 10mm and began ripping out the man's throat with his claws. Blood gushed everywhere from the gaping wound as the Warden gasped in death.

Jacob wrenched the 10mm from the dead man's hand and turned to Joshua's lifeless form, still oblivious the bullets passing perilously close and Sarah's return fire. "Joshua!" he cried and turned the shepherd's body over. He dropped the pistol and clutched Joshua's head with his paws, searching desperately for life in his eyes, heedless of the bleeding wounds on either side of his skull. "No! You can't do this! You can't leave me too! I need you!" Jacob howled.

"Jacob, he's dead! You can't help him!" Sarah yelled, shaking Jacob violently by the collar of his duster. "We'll get killed if we stay here!"

"No!" Jacob roared as he looked up at Sarah. "I will not leave him!"

"He's dead!" Sarah fired off another couple rounds with the G3 towards the rooftops across the street. "And you'll die too if you don't fucking move!"

Jacob stared down at Joshua's lifeless face for seemingly an eternity, all their time together flashing before his eyes, from their first meeting in their cells to the afternoon spent together. He could almost see Joshua desperately urging him to move, to run, to save himself. Jacob's survival instincts suddenly clicked on and he released the shepherd and grabbed the forgotten pistol and dived into the store away from the incoming fire. He swept up his rifle as Sarah retreated towards him, firing away at the rooftops, and scrambled to his feet and began to run to the back of the store.

"This way!" Sarah yelled as she ran next to him. They tore through the store and Jacob hardly noticed Sarah scoop up one of the water jugs as he dashed into a back room where he found a fire exit and slammed the door open without slowing down. "Up the ridge!" Sarah exclaimed as she ran out the door behind him, her rifle clutched in one hand and a water jug under the other arm.

Together they scrambled up the rocky slope out of town without looking back. Without realizing it Jacob had shoved the 10mm into a pocket and had his rifle properly shouldered once more and was sweeping the crest of the ridge above for threats unconsciously out of long honed instinct. It felt like forever before they finally reached the top and found it deserted. From there they ran flat out into the desert, heedless of direction, only putting as much distance between them and the raiders as they could.

Jacob had slowed to a stumbling walk now, a half dozen yards behind Sarah, too tired and numb to focus on where he placed his feet and repeatedly ended up tripping. The raiders had ran after them for a long time, just visible in the distance, but they were more tired than the survivors and were forced to slow their pace. The sun hung low in the sky now and Sarah was leading onward.

Joshua couldn't be gone, he had survived so long and through so much, he couldn't possibly die so suddenly in one instant. He had made Jacob realize who he was and given his life some sense of purpose once more. It was as he was thinking this that his foot caught a rock that he failed to see and fell as he lost his balance. He laid there, not wanting to get up.

Sarah stopped and turned. "Jacob we have got to keep going, the raiders are right behind us." she said as she walked back to where he lay.

He looked up at her. "Maybe if we go back... maybe the Warden missed and... and..." Jacob struggled to find some reasoning may prove that Joshua still lived.

"Dammit Jacob, he was shot in the head! You saw it!" Sarah said in frustration.

Jacob sat up. "He can't be dead..." he said as he looked down at his paws, the fur red with dried blood.

Sarah sighed and crouched in front of him so she was eye-level with him. "Look, I know he meant a lot to you, but don't you think he'd want you get away? To survive?" she had stuck out her hand to him, offering to help him up.

Jacob stared at her hand and then up into her eyes for several long moments. "You go ahead. I'm going back for him."

"Jacob, you have to accept that he's dead." she frowned and then lowered her voice as she brought her face closer to his. "Do you remember what he said about you? You're a survivor. Now it's time to get up and survive."

Jacob stared at her outstretched hand for several long moments before grasping it.

Jacob was silent as he led Sarah through the night, partly because he was afraid of giving away their position to anything unfriendly, but mostly because he just wanted quiet, and to be alone. Once the sun had fallen below the horizon he used his night vision to set them on a course back towards the highway running east, at a very oblique angle from the town to avoid being seen. The truth was Jacob wasn't even sure if they would find it; they had run blindly into the desert without sense of direction and he couldn't say how far they had gone.

As he walked he worried that another of his worst nightmares may come true: being lost in the wastes. But really, how did that matter when he had just lost the one person on earth who had given him a sense of purpose and comfort in a world that offered neither? Even if he made it out of the wastes and to New Vegas, what was there to live for? Without Joshua to care for, he didn't know what he would do. He supposed that he would do what he had always done- survive, for now at least.

He kept walking, Sarah trailing close behind, until early in the morning just before the sky began to turn deep purple when he found a low flat surface cutting through the desert in a straight line. He had found the road. He stopped and turned, looking back west where Sweet Glenn, and Joshua, lay invisible in the darkness.

"Jacob?" Sarah asked in a whisper.

"We could go back, circle around. Get him back." Jacob said, surprised at how heavy with emotion his own voice sounded and how the words tumbled from his muzzle.

"So help me god, if I have to drag you all the way to New Vegas myself..." Sarah said in frustration.

Jacob stared in the direction of the town for several long minutes before turning and heading east along the highway.

They stopped just before midday to rest and eat a small lunch. They huddled behind a couple rocks that shielded them from view as they ate in silence. Jacob stared absently at a point in the cracked ground between them, or rather through it, as he shoved food into his mouth without tasting it. Walking through the desert today reminded Jacob of how he had walked together with Joshua through the desert, and was startled to realize that it had only been a week or so since they had escaped the Fort together. Joshua's optimistic cluelessness about survival had annoyed Jacob at the time, but now as he walked in silence with Sarah he realized how much he missed it. Joshua was dead, and he would never walk this desert road with him again.

"Listen, Jacob." Sarah said abruptly. "I know I've been really... pushy, but that was just so you would keep moving." she was looking up at him now, it was the first time he had seen her with compassion written across her features. "I really am sorry about what happened back there."

Hearing Sarah say this, a human who herself had helped ensure Joshua's slavery, it made something snap inside Jacob. He locked his teeth together and his fur bristled as he stared at her. "Sorry!" he roared suddenly, making Sarah recoil in surprise. "Why the fuck do you care? You kept him in prison for his entire fucking life!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing a shaking finger at her.

Instead of arguing, she only sat staring at him wide-eyed as she edged away slightly, and it only made Jacob angrier. "He had nothing but that goddamn cell his whole life! It was your people who made his father fuck his cousin and get her pregnant just so you would have another slave in the future!" the words tumbled from his muzzle in a rush.

"His parents were cousins? I..."

Jacob continued his tirade, cutting her off, "And I was the only one able to give him something, give him a future, and I fucking let him get shot in the head!"

"Jacob that wasn't your..."

"And those goddamned raiders! If they hadn't shown up I could have saved him! He'd be here with us now!" he yelled as his anger grew and grew, his voice beginning to go hoarse and pointed to a painfully empty spot where Joshua might have sat. He sat staring at a pale Sarah for several seconds before his gaze fell to his carbine at his side and a sudden impulse and rush of adrenaline consumed him. He grabbed the rifle and stood and headed around the rocks and back along the road towards the town. He released the magazine and checked to make sure it was full before slamming it home with more force than necessary and chambered a round.

"Jacob!" Sarah appeared, running to catch up. "What are you doing?" she cried.

"Going to kill the fucks who murdered Joshua." he growled without looking at her or stopping.

"Are you insane? At least thirty were at the ambush and their whole damn army is probably there by now!" she walked beside him, staring at him in exasperation.

"I don't care, I'll take as many with me as I can." Jacob retorted but suddenly Sarah's hand shot out and gripped his arm and spun him around to face her.

"Dammit, Jacob, don't think I don't know what you're doing! There's no difference between letting them blow you away and pulling the trigger yourself! Do you think Joshua would want you to do this? I've seen him help dozens of people like you at a cost to himself!" Sarah yelled and jabbed a finger into Jacob's chest. "And you! Of all people! I could see the way he cared about you!"

Jacob barred his sharp teeth as he towered over her by a head and stared at her furiously. "Have you ever lost someone? You have no fucking idea..."

"I lost my father to raiders!" Sarah's voice rose to a scream as she stabbed a quivering finger back along the road. "And a week ago I lost my home and all the people I've ever known for my whole life!"

Just as the urge to strike out was boiling within Jacob, it was as if someone had just released the steam from a kettle about to burst. Images of the murder of his family and friends in his home Vault flashed before his eyes, of losing the rest on the way to Junktown, losing Daniel, and then Joshua. He closed his mouth as his shoulders and ears slumped, he felt tired, so tired. He looked down at his rifle, held loosely now in his paws, and down at himself in his worn dark duster. Almost his entire life was filled with loss and regret, and he hid it behind a rough and threatening exterior, and Joshua had seen that.

"You and me, we're not that different." Sarah said quietly.

Jacob drew his gaze back up to her face. "Yeah, maybe not." he rasped.

They stood staring at each other for a long time before Sarah finally spoke again, "Come on, let's go."

Jacob followed her back to where they had sat for lunch, realizing with surprise that in his fit of rage he had left his pack sitting on the ground. He slung it onto his back and walked with Sarah along the road, side by side. "You said the raiders killed your father." he said after a long time, putting it more as a statement than a question.

She nodded. "I was born in a town east of New Vegas, I think it was called Nelson. My mother died giving birth, and my father waited until I was old enough before taking a job with the Crimson Caravan." she said. "We lived on the road, never staying in one place for more than a week. When I was about thirteen he took up a job to deliver goods from New Vegas to some place called "the Hub"." she almost spat the name.

"I passed through there when I was young, on my way to Junktown." Jacob said.

"We walked along this same road." Sarah continued. "It was a new route, nobody came this way because there were rumors of ghosts with rifles that would decimate an entire caravan and melt away into the wastes." she snorted mirthlessly. "My father figured that if we went with enough men and well armed enough, we would be just fine. As luck would have it, just a day after passing through that town back there we were ambushed by raiders, different from these ones, a bunch of morphs. Anyway, my father got killed in the fighting."

Jacob was silent. So that's why she had hated morphs so much. "How did you end up at the Fort then?" he asked.

"Those rumored "ghosts" saved me, and it turned out they were scouts from the Fort, and Twitch was one of them. At that point I was the only survivor, so they scavenged what they could from the caravan and took me to the Fort. The Warden placed me under his direct care, but turned a blind fucking eye when Twitch raped me over and over again."

Jacob didn't know what to say, and so he was quiet for a while until Sarah spoke again suddenly, "What about you? You never did say how you got to Junktown."

Jacob sighed and began to to tell of the Vault he was born in and the massacre within, and how he had spent nearly two years making it through the Mojave and staying in the Hub before moving on.

Sarah hesitated a bit when he left off with meeting Daniel, but asked anyway, "How did you not realize he loved you?"

Anger flared up within Jacob once more, initially at the fact that Sarah dare ask him that, and then with himself. Another sigh passed his lips, it was a question that deserved a better answer than he could give. "I don't know." he said. "I guess really that I didn't want to face the fact... the crush I had on that girl... I was so focused on her that I didn't want to deal with anything else. I reasoned that the sex was just blowing off steam, or that it was just because Elizabeth wasn't available."

"You fucked him and didn't even think..."

"I did, okay?" Jacob snapped. "I did, but I didn't want to think about it, didn't want to admit..."

"That you like males too." Sarah finished before adding, "You know, Jacob, the idea of two guys screwing is pretty disgusting, but there's a lot of fucked up things in this world and that definitely isn't the worst."

"Yeah, I guess so." Jacob said and shook his head. "And when I finally admitted it, to Joshua and myself, I lose him." he said, his paw going to the ring still hanging by the chain around his neck and turning it over in his fingers.

Sarah was quiet now, which was fine, as it let Jacob think. If he had just taken the shot a few seconds earlier, Joshua might still be alive. If he hadn't been so stupid and let his guard down, or let them stay that long in the town when he knew there were raiders out there. It wasn't so different from what had happened with Daniel, Jacob realized - what he had done had caused his own loss, and the loss of others. The people he cared for always ended up getting hurt because of him.

Jacob made a silent vow, a reaffirmation of an oath he had made to himself years ago: never again would he let himself care for someone as deeply as he had Daniel or Joshua. He didn't want to feel the pain that he had felt then and now ever again, even if it left him with nothing but loneliness welling in his heart for the rest of his life.

"We're going to have to get in cover." Sarah said suddenly in the early evening.

"We still have a few hours of sunlight." Jacob replied, glancing over his shoulder back at the sun hanging above the western horizon.

"No, look." Sarah said, pointing off to the south. "There's a storm coming."

Jacob followed her finger and saw that dark clouds were gathering on the southern horizon, illuminated briefly with flashes of light, and he realized that the wind was starting to pick up. "I've seen those before." Jacob said. "Shouldn't be any rain, just a little dark and windy."

Sarah shook her head. "You didn't see the dust-storm those can kick up. We need to find cover." she said, and when Jacob looked doubtful added, "I've lived out here most of my life, you've been out here for a few months."

Jacob followed reluctantly as she began to search for some kind of shelter, which wouldn't be easy to come by in the wastes. They split up but stayed within shouting distance as they searched with increasing frenzy, but just as Jacob found a small cave that he decided would have to do, he heard Sarah shout from the other side of a small ridge. He left the rock cavity behind and scrambled over the ridge and wound up standing shoulder to shoulder with Sarah.

"You're kidding, right?" he said incredulously. A small rusty and flimsy corrugated metal shack stood a short distance from the foundation of a house long-since blown into a pile a wood. "That thing is going to get blown away."

"You got any better options?" Sarah asked sharply. Jacob was about to mention the cave he found, but she was right, the opening would leave them exposed. When he remained silent Sarah led the way down to the shed and wrenched open the door to find it empty save for a few tools laying forgotten on some bare shelves. "Let's gather some firewood." she said as she looked up at the cracks in the shack's metal ceiling.

Jacob arched an eyebrow. "That's a little dangerous, the raiders..."

"Won't see shit through the sand." Sarah stated. "You'll thank me later."

"What if there's no sandsto..." Jacob trailed off mid-sentence as he looked off to the south. A veritable wall of dust at least a couple miles high was advancing toward them, seemingly have appeared out of nowhere.

"Let's go!" Sarah cried and began to leapt to the remaining flinders of the house, scooping up the wood and tossing it into the shack as fast as she could. Jacob quickly moved to aid her, the sky darkening as the cloud of dust advanced rapidly. The storm was almost upon them by the time they dived into the shed and Sarah slammed the door shut and buttressed it with a sturdy board. Immediately they were thrown into darkness as the door closed, and then the wind hit with a thundering roar as it scoured the surface of the shack with the sand it carried. The combination of darkness and howling wind was unsettling to say the least.

Jacob used his weapon light to clear a space for a small fire, finding that the shack seemed even smaller from the inside than it did outside, about only ten feet square. He stared around at the thin walls as they were battered by the wind and sand, making an atrocious racket that blocked out every other sound. He hoped the walls of the shack would hold.

Sarah sat down, leaning against a couple smooth boards instead of the metal walls, and Jacob found out why - when he sat and leaned against them himself he could feel the shuddering and the sand blasting against it, reminding him of just how thin their protection was. He had sat up his pack and leaned back against it like he had done many times when suddenly something hard and lumpy jutted into his side as his duster shifted, making him wince. He dug into his pocket to move the item when his paw clasped the 10mm pistol he had taken from the Warden, he had completely forgotten that he even had it.

He pulled it out of his pocket and looked over it, noticing that Sarah was eyeing him apprehensively. He waved her off, unable to speak over the racket, and stared at the weapon that had been used to kill Joshua. Some dried blood was still caked on it in places, whose it was Jacob didn't know or want to know, but the wear-marks looked familiar. This was his pistol, the one his father had given him, the one the Warden had taken and kept for himself, and now the one that had ended Joshua's life.

He stared down at the handgun, running his fingers over where the paint had long since worn away where his paws gripped it. He remembered everything he had been through since his father had shoved this weapon into his young paws, how many times it had saved his life, and how many others he had taken with it. Then before his eyes flashed the image burned into his mind, that of Joshua looking into his eyes, terrified and begging for Jacob's help, and then his eyes rolling back into his head as he died.

Jacob's eyes slid back into focus on the weapon in his paws and a glinting at his chest drew his eyes to the ring Joshua had given him and as he turned the polished metal over in his fingers he remembered what Joshua had told him: that he had to let his past go, that he had to move on.

He pressed the magazine release and pulled out the half-full mag... It may be the only thing he had left from his father, it may have saved him many times... He pulled the slide back and emptied the chamber... He may be a survivor, and survivors didn't throw away tools... He released the slide from the frame... But he didn't want to just survive anymore.

He tossed the pieces of the 10mm into the center of the fire. Sarah looked at the weapon and then up at him but said nothing and made no move to grab the pieces. He spent a long time staring at the pistol pieces as they grew red-hot in the fire, the metal slowly warping in the heat, listening to the moaning roar of the wind. Eventually Jacob pulled his rolled blanket from his pack and set it under his head and laid flat, trying to sleep through the cacophony of the quaking shack and the clamor of the wind.

Jacob woke with a start from an intense nightmare in which he had shot and killed both Daniel and Joshua. A man had forced him against his will, at first it was a faceless NCR soldier, then Twitch, the Warden, and finally a twisted raider. Once again he grabbed for the 9mm he had left laying on his chest, startled that the roaring wind was absent, but relaxed when he saw Sarah sitting on the other side of the shack, cooking breakfast on the low fire.

"The sun hasn't come up yet." Sarah said, answering Jacob's question before he could ask it. "Thought we should eat before we get moving."

Jacob nodded and stowed his 9mm in a pocket as he sat up. He unfurled the map he had taken from the grocery and read it by the flickering light of the fire. "The next stop is three days away, maybe two if we walk through the night." he said before handing the map to Sarah and pointing to the next dot on I-15. "You must have passed through there as a kid, do you remember if there's any kind of settlement there?"

"Baker..." Sarah stared at the map, searching her memory as she drew her finger along the thin dusty paper. She shook her head and said, "No, I don't think so. The last town I remember us leaving was only a few days out from New Vegas, probably this one, Primm. Although there may have been some traders passing through there..."

Jacob frowned and pulled the map back towards him. If indeed the next settlement was as far as Primm, they wouldn't have any measure of safety from the raiders for quite a while. He stowed the map when breakfast was ready and ate, not tasting the food much as he thought deeply. How long could they keep this pace up? How long could the raiders?

One question nagged at him more than the others though: why were the raiders chasing them this fervently, and all the way from the Fort? Raiders didn't normally operate like this, surely the reward from capturing a few ragtag survivors didn't outweigh the energy and resources they were expending. Hadn't they gotten enough from their raid on the Fort? Unless their psychotic fetish for violence had overcome their usual method of operation, something didn't add up.

He sat and stewed on this until they had finished eating, and then they packed up quickly and extinguished the fire before stepping outside into the pre-dawn darkness. Jacob froze, his ears perked, just after closing the door to the shed behind him.

"What?" Sarah asked him but he motioned for silence and listened closely. "What is it?" Sarah insisted.

Jacob shot an annoyed look at her that she probably couldn't even see before scrambling up onto a rock outcropping. "Gunfire, in the distance." Jacob whispered as he pulled his binoculars from a pocket and searched the western horizon near the highway and sure enough, he found small spats of light illuminating the darkness.

"Gunfire? Do you think the raiders are fighting each other?" Sarah asked as she accepted the proffered binoculars and gazed through them.

"I don't know." Jacob said grimly. "But they're closer than I'd like, and we should get moving while they're busy." Without a word he accepted the binoculars back, stuffed them into his pocket, and together they melted away in the darkness. He led them onto the highway so they could move faster in the dark, urged on with the knowledge of just how close the raiders were.

As the sky began to grow lighter ahead of them Jacob hoped that indeed the raiders were fighting among themselves. If they were busy tearing into each other then maybe they'd give up the chase and he and Sarah would be able to get away. Somehow though, Jacob felt like that wouldn't be the case. Something told him that he and Sarah were in for a lot of trouble, and broke into a jog as soon as the sun broke the horizon ahead.

"Ah crap." Jacob said under his breath as he stared through the binoculars at the raiders in the distance, their images blurry in the midday heat, running pell-mell down the road towards him and Sarah.

"What?" Sarah asked from next to him, ducked behind the rock that Jacob himself was peeking over.

"Raiders." Jacob replied without looking away. "At least thirty or forty, but there might be more behind them."

Sarah swore violently. "Any chance we can slip away into the wastes?"

Just as Sarah said this Jacob saw one of the raiders stop and raise his own pair of binoculars to sweep the road ahead. "I don't think that's going to be an option." Jacob said grimly as the grimy raider looked right at him and then pointed, yelling to the men around him. Jacob stuffed the binoculars in his pocket and grabbed Sarah by the arm, his survival instincts kicking into overdrive. "Let's go!" he said and tore off in a dead run down the road, his duster flaring out behind him in the wind.

There was a chance that they might escape if they ran fast enough, the raiders must be tired from their fight earlier that morning. Jacob grimaced as he considered the alternative: trying to find some kind of cover and digging in to make a last stand that he and Sarah wouldn't survive. He ran and ran, going as fast as he could without tiring himself out too quickly, Sarah right next to him. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and unbelievably before long the raiders materialized within eyesight, their running forms shimmering in the baking heat over the highway.

Jacob swore. The raiders had to be on Jet or Psycho or some other crazy drug to run even faster than them after a protracted firefight, and for this long. They had no choice but to keep running, the whole area around them was barren of cover and they would need it if they were going to stand and fight. He kept throwing fleeting looks over his shoulder, each time the raiders appeared closer and closer. He panted hard with exertion in the heat, his muscles beginning to ache after running so fast for so long, and pain stabbed him in his side. Sarah kept up next to him, her tank-top dark with sweat and their water sloshing violently in the transparent jug on her back.

Then when Jacob looked back again the raiders had abruptly disappeared into the shimmering air in the distance. "I can't see them anymore." he panted to Sarah, but didn't slow his pace.

"Oh thank god..." Sarah breathed, but before she could finish a sudden whistling filled the air, followed by a sickly wet thump.

Sarah screamed in pain as she pitched forward onto the shattered concrete, sending her rifle clattering to the ground. She swore and groaned painfully as she clutched her bleeding leg, her khaki pants growing dark around her shin. Immediately Jacob crouched by her side but she tried to push him away. "Go on! I'll slow them down!" she said, her jaw clenched tight with pain as she tried to reach her rifle laying several feet away.

Jacob glanced back down the road, the raiders had reappeared, running faster than ever. "Like hell you will!" he retorted. He cut the harness that held the water jug to her back and slung his rifle over his back before grabbing her by the arm and waist and pulling her to her feet. She swore again loudly as she hung onto him, one hand clutching onto his shoulders and the other pulling her revolver out of her waistband. Jacob grabbed Sarah's G3 in his free paw, leaving their water behind, and heaved her along as she groaned loudly in pain and swore angry oaths to kill the bastard who had shot her.

"Why the hell are you doing this? You can get away!" Sarah snapped.

"Because I'm not going to lose you too!" Jacob wasn't going to let another person die so he could merely survive, especially not Sarah, the closest thing to a friend he had left. They stumbled along together until they rounded a bend in the road, and suddenly an abandoned car park filled with the rusted hulks of pre-War cars appeared from behind a low ridge on the right side of the road. It was one of the few rest stops on the Long 15, and it gave Jacob the cover he needed. He heaved Sarah towards the center of the lot and sat her down against one of the cars in the middle of a tight group of vehicles.

Quickly Jacob dug in his pack for bandages and tore off a long piece and tied it tight around Sarah's wound, making her yell more obscenities. "I guess this is it." she said as Jacob stuffed the G3 into her hands. Jacob said nothing as he readied himself, leveling his rifle over the hood of the car and aiming towards the bend in the road, ready to make his last stand. Suddenly Sarah gripped his arm and he looked down at her to find her eyes boring into his. "Do you forgive me?"

Suddenly before his eyes flashed in an instant all the injustices he had been done from not just her, but all the humans in his life: the way she had stared him dead in the eyes as she had poured his water ration onto the dry earth, the way Twitch had beaten him mercilessly, his mother slumping against the cold steel of the Vault lifelessly... Jacob nodded somberly.

Suddenly a hail of bullets slammed into the other side of the car and he snapped his attention back to the road. He lined up the iron-sights carefully, firing only one shot for each raider as they came around the bend in the road. Each raider hit pitched forward onto the ground, but more kept coming. Suddenly the heavier report of the G3 deafened his ears; Sarah had struggled to her feet and was returning fire as well. Her wound hadn't affected her well-honed aim, and together they tore into the raiders, one shot for each rapidly approaching bandit.

By the time Jacob had to reload several raiders had made it to cover and were firing away, but a number of others hadn't stopped and were weaving through and over the cars at a dead sprint, waving grotesque blades over their heads. Jacob slid the new mag home smoothly and picked off the sprinting raiders. He crouched low as bullets sprayed the other side of the car and yelled for Sarah to stay put while he dashed to another car a few yards away where he stood and fired, catching several raiders behind cover by surprise.

No matter how far back he folded his ears, they rang painfully as he fired away, but that was nothing compared to the despair he felt as more and more raiders poured around the corner. He spotted several sprinting down the ridge to his left and he dashed to another car, firing as he went and sending them tumbling down the slope. He had to reload again, and by the time he was returning fire once more there was at least a score of raiders behind cover, laying down heavy fire on Sarah's position. He saw one of the sprinters racing up to her from the side and he swung his rifle and took him down cleanly.

He tried to flank the raiders in cover, but more were racing over the ridge to his left now, forcing him back towards the center of the car park where Sarah sat, returning fire with her revolver now. Just as Jacob was about to fire at a sprinter charging down the ridge towards him, his carbine only made one mournful click. The raider was upon him, and immediately Jacob ducked low and smashed the butt of his rifle into the man's gut, and then again into his head, sending him reeling to the ground. Jacob dropped his rifle and pulled out his 9mm and fired at the approaching raiders as he retreated to the car Sarah sat behind, reloading her revolver furiously.

They fired away at the raiders sprinting at them with twisted blades, now unable to return fire to the dug in raiders as they fought for their life. "I'm out!" Sarah bellowed from behind Jacob. Just barely able to hear her over the ringing in his ears he slid his last magazine home and handed her the 9mm, nodding as they made eye contact. He unsheathed his knife and caught the first sprinter to make it to their car in the gut, catching him by surprise. Jacob slashed the next one in the throat, but suddenly the knife was knocked from his paw as a raider to his left attacked with a thick wooden board. As the raider prepared to swing again Jacob moved quickly, ripping the man's throat out with the claws on his other paw. Suddenly Jacob was tackled from behind, the wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground. A raider was on him, cackling madly with laughter as pinned Jacob to the ground from above and pressed a steel pipe to his throat. Jacob couldn't get his paws around to slash at the attacker, and it was all he could do to try to pry the pipe away, but his tired muscles were failing and his vision began to blacken as the pipe pressed harder against his throat.

This was it, he was going to die with his face pressed against the concrete of the Long 15, which he had survived on for so long. His arms gave out and blackness almost completely filled his vision when suddenly the pressure on his throat disappeared and the raider on his back slumped to the ground beside him. At first he thought Sarah had spared him another few minutes of life, but as he gasped for breath and turned over onto his back he found that she was still firing away in the other direction.

Another raider jumped over a car and was coming right for Jacob, and he grabbed wildly for the pipe laying at his side but when he finally clutched it in his paws the raider's head snapped back suddenly and his limp body collapsed on top of Jacob. On top of the ridge, which the raider had hidden from view, stood the form of a morph clad in sandy khaki armor with a wide-brimmed hat and dark sunglasses. More morphs in similar armor appeared on the ridge next to him, firing into the raiders' ranks with polished repeaters that glinted in the sunlight.

Jacob dived into cover next to Sarah, who sat behind the car, knife out and revolver empty on the ground. He crouched next to her, the metal pipe gripped tightly in his paw and watched as the morphs on the hill decimated the raiders who had been caught by surprise and were without cover. It seemed like less than a minute before the firing stopped and quiet filled the air even as the ringing in Jacob's ears continued. As the morphs descended the slope recognition clicked in his mind - the armor, the hats and glasses, these were NCR Rangers. He stood, tossing the pipe to the side, and stared blankly at the approaching Rangers. He never thought he'd be this glad to see NCR soldiers, provided they didn't rob Sarah and himself or kill them anyway.

"You are one lucky sonofabitch." said a sandy colored fox with some gray salted fur and a smoldering cigarette butt jutting from his muzzle as he approached, carrying himself with confident authority even though he was almost a head shorter than Jacob. "I'm Lieutenant Perez, C.O. of the 7th Rangers platoon." he said gruffly around the cigarette.

Jacob barely heard what the fox said and stared at him blankly until he finally came to his sense. "My friend is wounded, she needs help." he said, his voice sounded muffled, but his hearing was starting to return.

More Rangers approached, clambering over the bodies of dead raiders and rusted cars until they reached the little circle that he and Sarah had defended. "A human girl?" Perez said in consternation as he peered over the bullet-ridden car, lifting his sunglasses off his sharp eyes as if they were somehow deceiving him. She was peering around, pale and obviously unsettled, at the surrounding canines, felines, mustelidae, and others.

"What the hell are you doing with her?" Perez demanded.

Jacob sighed and sank to the ground next to her and they looked each other in the eyes as he sat. "It's a long, really long story."

Jacob sat cleaning his carbine by the flickering light of the fire in the NCR camp. They had waited at the car park for another unit of NCR regulars to catch up before moving out a ways down the road where they had established a small camp to rest. He looked over at Sarah's sleeping form next to him, laid out on a blanket and he leg thoroughly bandaged.

"You two are lucky to be alive." It was Perez's characteristically gruff voice. "Sorry I didn't get to talk to you, I was too busy getting us organized to set up camp." the fox said as he sat down next to Jacob. "Now, let's hear your story."

Jacob sighed and turned his gaze back on his rifle and continued to clean its fine parts slowly as he began to explain his long journey from Junktown all the way to the harrowing battle with the raiders, carefully omitting the worst atrocities committed by the humans of the Fort. All the while Perez listened closely without interruption; Jacob supposed that was one reason he had made it to lieutenant.

"Well if that's the case then you have my respect, especially after that firefight today, and it certainly helps fill in some pieces. You're even luckier than I thought." Perez said when Jacob was finished. When Jacob gave him a questioning look Perez stared at him for several long seconds before continuing, "I probably shouldn't tell you all this, but you deserve to know after what you've been through." As he said this he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with a match, and took a long drag on it before releasing a long puff of smoke.

"My unit was ordered to act as advanced scout to a company of regular infantry, together were were to secure I-15 as a new route to New Vegas besides the highway from Shady Sands. We left the Hub a few weeks after you." Perez said. "Now, I'm guessing the reason the humans at the Fort were so nervous about NCR scouts is they somehow got wind that we were coming their way, and they were right, although we had no idea their little... establishment was out here."

"We found the place in a smoking wreck, crawling with raiders. My guess is they knew we were coming too, and instead of fleeing, they decided to defend their territory, only they needed the equipment to do it. Well, they knew where they could find the equipment too. They stormed the Fort and grabbed all the weapons they could."

"When we found 'em we had to wait for the regulars to catch up, there were so many. Their firepower couldn't make up for being bad fighters, but we still lost some good men when they hit us with those mortars." Perez stared into the fire as he said this. Jacob remembered the night of the attack vividly - the whistling of the mortars and huge explosions, the giant fireball in the night sky and women and children screamed in fear and men in pain.

"After the battle most fled south, some north, and a small chunk east down the road. Now, I figured the raiders had recently taken the Fort from someone else, but I didn't suspect survivors until a corporal found a bunch of dead raiders cooking in the desert off on the side of the road and a lot of spent brass sitting in the middle of some rocks." Perez said, looking at Jacob now, and the wolf remembered the frantic action that morning. "After that, I had my Rangers break off from the regulars and we kicked it into high gear, trying to catch up and save your asses."

Jacob looked up from his rifle at Perez. "So they were running from you more than chasing us." he said. "That was you, this morning, the fighting we saw before dawn."

"Sure as hell was." Perez said matter-of-factly, unscrewing the cap of a canteen and taking drink. "Killed about a third of them too before they peeled away. Don't know why they were so intent to keep chasing you though, if they had gone north or south we wouldn't have followed them and I'm sure they knew that."

"Who knows." Jacob shrugged, but then something came to him and he said, "You said you and your men are here clearing a route to New Vegas, but why?"

Perez looked at him incredulously and said, without removing his glowing cigarette from his mouth, "You haven't heard? There was a big battle at the dam east of the city earlier this year and the brass figures there's going to be a counter-attack. So, we're here to establish a new supply line to protect the city and the dam."

Jacob put down his rifle parts and shook his head, confused. "Wait, what?" he paused to sort out his thoughts before continuing. "Lieutenant, do you mean to tell me the NCR has soldiers in New Vegas?" he said, his eyes boring into Perez

"Damn straight." Perez said after blowing another puff of smoke towards the fire. "A big camp was set up south of the city a couple years ago, I expect the politicians are trying to expand their control east."

Jacob sat staring at the fox, who smoked away as if without a care in the world, with a feeling like someone had just dropped a big block of lead into his stomach. Jacob had set out on this journey, escaped death several times and lost Joshua in the process, to escape the NCR and its army; and here he was, sitting in an army camp surrounded by NCR soldiers, heading to a city being brought under the fold of the entity he had struggled to escape.

When Jacob failed to say anything for several minutes Perez quashed out his cigarette in the dirt and stood. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but I can't account for Captain Harper's men. Stay here with my Rangers and both you and the girl will be safe though."

Perez had started to walk over to another group of soldiers gathered around another fire a number of yards distant when Jacob asked him, "Lieutenant, did you recover Joshua's body? The German shepherd I told you about."

Perez stopped and turned for a moment, looking back at Jacob, "We did. He was buried outside of the town." he replied before walking away. Jacob closed his eyes and sighed quietly, at least he could sleep a little easier knowing that Joshua hadn't been left abandoned in the open.

He looked over at Sarah's sleeping form before sighing and hanging his head. Faced with the reality of the fact that without the soldiers, neither he nor Sarah would be here, still breathing, he was unpleasantly reminded of the fact that it wasn't they who was at fault for Daniel's disappearance, it was himself. For seven years he shoved the blame onto them, and even after he knew it was his own fault he continued to blame them in hopes it would ease the pressure on his soul.

The Republic had redeemed itself to Jacob, whether it needed to or not, just as humanity had through Sarah. The wolf closed a paw around the ring hanging by his neck and brought it before his eyes where it glinted brightly with the firelight. The real question was if he could find his own redemption.

"You've been dragging us across this whole damn desert at a murderous pace just for these two? Some godforsaken drifter and a human bitch who you tell me was part of a bunch of crazies holed up at that fort who held morphs as slaves?" A big booming voice woke Jacob from his fitful sleep. He opened his eyes to find a large sandy brown cougar clad in a matching khaki uniform towering over a bristling Lieutenant Perez.

Perez, who only came up about to the cougar's chest, jabbed a finger at the big cat and growled, "If you want to let people die just so you can sit on your ass and take it easy, fine, but that is not how me and my Rangers operate."

"Our objective is to secure this highway for transport of supplies and communication, not go running through the desert chasing bands of raiders!" the cougar boomed.

"I'd say we secured it pretty well, what do you think, boys?" Perez sneered and glanced around at the Rangers around them, who all gave a hearty cheer of agreement.

"You ran off without permission to engage an enemy nearly twice the size of your unit, after getting us into a firefight in the morning, Lieutenant!" the cougar spat.

"With all due respect, Captain, the army has no jurisdiction over my Rangers, and we are your forward scouts. We were doing our job."

"I was put in command of this operation!" Captain Harper roared.

Jacob had to admire how Perez stood his ground against the big cat. "An operation you have been dragging your heels on since we left the Hub!" the fox yelled back. The two stood staring at each other for several long moments, and just as Jacob was wondering if they were going to rip each other apart Perez turned to his men. "Rangers! We move out in ten!" he barked.

Jacob heard a sigh of relief next to him as Captain Harper stomped away, shouting similar orders to his own men. "I was worried he'd make us pay him back for saving our skins earlier than I had planned." Sarah said.

"Not today. Besides, I could take him." Perez said with a wry grin as he approached. He stuck out a paw and helped Jacob and then Sarah to their feet.

"How long until we reach the next town?" Jacob asked Perez as the fox stood with his paws on his hips disapprovingly, watching Harper's men slowly prepare to move out while the Rangers had been ready within five minutes.

"It'll be a couple more days until we reach Long 15. It's a small base at the intersection of the highway from Shady Sands, meant to protect the road from the raiders we made friends with." Perez said. "After that it'll be another day or two until the Mojave Outpost and then we'll be free of these lazy-asses." Perez scoffed and waved dismissively in the direction of the regulars before turning and ordering his Rangers to move out without waiting for Harper and his soldiers.

Jacob stuffed his rolled blanket into his pack before pulling it on and slinging his rifle across his back. He assumed that "Long 15" was the contemporary name for Baker, and was glad to learn that it was indeed inhabited. He was glad that his arduous trek through the wasteland was coming to an end, but at the same time he possessed growing apprehension at the thought of living in a city. Out in the wasteland he knew how to take care of himself, how to survive, even thrive. But the city... well, it had been a long time since he had been forced to play nice with others.

"Been a long time since I've seen that flag." Jacob said quietly, more to himself than Sarah, who was leaning against him to avoid putting weight on her injured leg. They and the Rangers had just crested a slight ridge in the road, revealing a clearing with various tents and buildings nestled into the surrounding cliffs and overshadowed by a tall overpass. Right in the middle of the camp stood a flagpole from which fluttered a worn red and white banner of the New California Republic, adorned with its iconic two-headed bear.

"All this time we were so scared of the NCR expanding out towards us, and they've already been out here all this time." Sarah said, taking in the camp like Jacob. To the right stood several buildings, interspersed among them were a number of tents and a rounded corrugated metal structure, shielded from the west by a concrete wall capped with a three-story tall guard-tower. To the left stood several more tents and on the other side of the tall overpass were two more buildings larger than the rest.

"Well I'll be damned!" someone called from the guard tower and Jacob looked up to find a fair-skinned human in power armor grinning down at them, a pair of binoculars held in his hands. "I was wondering if you boys would make it."

"A few raiders ain't gonna stop us!" Perez called back and saluted. "Colonel Royez?"

"The one and only!" he replied. "You boys must be tired, go ahead and get something to eat and get some rest. Lieutenant, come over here for a moment." Royez called down before turning and disappearing behind the far side of the concrete tower.

"He's human." Sarah said belatedly as the other Rangers walked off into the camp while Jacob steered them along with Perez.

"So?" Jacob grunted.

"I mean, there's not many of us left, I thought we were hated everywhere..."

"I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that hate humans a whole bunch, I was one of them, but officially the NCR doesn't give a damn whether you've got fur or not so long as you pay your taxes." Jacob explained.

"Sure glad to finally be here, Colonel, it's been one hell of a trip." Perez said after they reached the far side of the tower to find Royez jump to the ground from a couple feet up the ladder. The man had a thin face capped with a beret, and Jacob found that what he had initially thought to be some kind of cloak hanging over one shoulder was in reality a taxidermied bear's head, clasped onto his armor with a large golden star medallion over his left breast.

"I'm sure it has, the raiders in the area all disappeared about a month or two ago, figured it might have something to do with your mission. You can tell me all about it so I can send a report back to Shady Sands." Royez said and then paused when his eyes fell on Jacob and Sarah. "And who are these two?"

"A couple drifters. We saved them from a band of raiders that were trying to run them down, the girl's wounded but our medic fixed her up pretty good." Perez explained, looking back at the two of them over his shoulder.

"Had some fun with the raiders I take it." Royez said with a grin before turning to Jacob. "You two can stay in one of those tents over there." he pointed to the small group of tents on the other side of the highway. "We can't give you any supplies, especially with a whole company of new mouths to feed, but you can buy some over there." this time he pointed to the largest building on the other side of the overpass. "Now come on, I want to hear all about your trip." Royez said to Perez, clasping him by the shoulder.

"I'll catch up with you later." Perez said quickly to Jacob before following Royez along the wall towards the furthest building from the road.

Jacob turned them around and helped Sarah across the road and into the nearest tent, which was rather small and made of a dirty but heavy khaki material like the rest. Inside it was mostly empty save for a couple cots and a small table towards the back upon which sat an oil lamp. Jacob was relieved to finally set Sarah down on the cot after half-carrying her along since before first light.

"I guess we finally made it." Sarah said as Jacob unshouldered his pack and set it down on the other cot.

Jacob only grunted, he didn't know what to say really. Made it to civilization they had, but he still couldn't quite believe it, and his whole body and psyche remained under tension as if he were still fleeing the raiders. He was relieved that, after digging to the very bottom of his pack, he found his bag of caps wrapped in a blanket to prevent any potentially dangerous clinking noises. "I'm going to go get us some supplies." he said as he stuffed the bag of caps, his entire life savings, into one of his large duster pockets and left the tent with a nod of acknowledgment from Sarah.

Jacob strode to the building that Royez had indicated, eyeing the large decaying overpass uncomfortably as he passed under it. Inside he found a bored looking weasel at the front desk and after some considerable bartering he managed to secure some food and water and ammunition for all their weapons for a somewhat acceptable amount. He returned to the tent with a bag full of the supplies and upon pushing the flap back and entering dropped the several G3 magazines and box of .38 rounds into her lap. "Managed to get us enough food and water for several days." he said as he began to pack the goods into his own pack.

"Thank you." Sarah said in a bewildered sort of way and Jacob turned and gave her a questioning look. "I'm surprised you got me all this..."

Again the image of her pouring out his water on the parched earth all those weeks ago flashed before his eyes, and somehow he knew she was thinking the same thing. "Having you around with a gun and ammo has come in pretty handy." he said with a small smile.

"Yeah." she said. "We've come a long way."

Jacob sat down on the cot and sat looking at her and she stared right back. Her face was smudged and her blonde hair dirty, her tanktop frayed and cap filthy, her trousers bloodstained in places, but Jacob didn't need a mirror to know he looked the same. Grit penetrated deep into his fur, his duster faded in some spots and frayed at the edges with holes dotting it in places. Jacob was silent and so was Sarah, but he knew she was thinking the same thing: they'd been through hell together and seen each other at their best and worst, and had reached redemption in each other's eyes.

"How's that leg doing? You walked pretty far for getting shot." Perez's voice came from the entryway to the tent.

"It'll heal." Sarah said.

Perez nodded and sat down next to her. "I thought I should ask where you two are headed exactly, you might be able to travel with us depending on where you are going." he said as he withdrew a folded piece of paper from a pocket. He unfolded it to reveal a map and Jacob got up from his cot and stood to Perez's side and found that it was a map of the New Vegas valley. "We'll be passing through the Mojave Outpost in a couple days and heading east along this road." The fox said as he drew a clawed finger along a line that ran through a town labeled "Nipton". "And instead of going to the dam we got new orders radioed in to head to this town, Nelson, and establish a base there."

Sarah pulled the map towards her slightly and her smudged finger came to rest under the dot labeled "Nelson". Both Jacob and Perez eyed her as she sat quiet for a few minutes. "I'm coming with you." She said in a wavering voice.

"You'll be coming with us?" Perez said, looking up at Jacob.

Jacob's eyes moved from the map to Sarah, who was staring at him with a strangely expectant look. He remembered everything they had been through, escaping the fort, losing Joshua, their flight and battle with the raiders... they had made a pretty good team. "No." Jacob said quietly after a while and Sarah's shoulders slumped slightly. "Can I keep this map?" He asked Perez.

The fox nodded and handed it to him. "We'll be staying here for a couple days to rest and resupply before we move out again, and thank god we won't have to wait for Captain Harper taking his sweet time." Just as he said this a great commotion could be heard a number of yards away, the sound of many packs rustling and boots on the ground. "Speak of the devil." Perez said and stood, handing the map to Jacob. "Time for my usual shouting match." the fox grinned wryly and Jacob could see him digging into a pocket for his cigarettes as he left the tent.

Jacob sat down on his cot and studied the map in his paws. It seemed like the best route into the city would be to continue following I-15 through Primm and Sloan and then east after passing McCarran airport and up into the city. It would be several days' journey upon entering the valley to get to the city.

"What are you looking for in New Vegas?" Sarah asked suddenly.

Jacob looked up from the map and studied her. "What are you looking for in Nelson?"

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped, but he knew what she was about to say because it was what he was thinking too: "I don't know". Perhaps the best answer was to find a new life, but he didn't think he needed to say that either. "After so long, splitting up..." Sarah shrugged, apparently unable to find the right words. "You're all I got left from my old life." she said with a small laugh.

"Old life" Jacob thought. Here he was, trapped between the pain and horror of his old life, and an uncertain future in a city he didn't know. The idea of living among the bright lights made him anxious; he'd grown accustomed to the wastes, for as dangerous as they were, he always knew what needed doing and what direction to take.

He began to disassemble his carbine for cleaning once more to avoid his unexpected apprehension at the thought of leaving the Long 15.

The next several days seemed to pass in a flash for Jacob. He was glad to have gotten a chance to clean the dirt out of his fur and properly clean his gear, but it also felt like he was trying to put off the future ahead. But it didn't wait, and before he fully realized it he was back on the road with Sarah and the Rangers.

"What's that?" Sarah asked, pointing into the distance ahead with her free arm, the other holding onto the crutch she leaned against.

In the distance on top of a small rise between the mountains Jacob was able to make out two impossibly large figures. As they got closer Jacob was able to make out a pair of buildings also standing on the hill and the figures came into clearer view. They were humongous, a pair of statues several stories tall made of sheets of thin metal, one of an NCR Ranger, and the other of some masked man in a duster and helmet. They were patchworked together with many gaps in places, but were still impressive due to their sheer size.

Perez disappeared inside one of the buildings for about ten minutes, giving Jacob an opportunity to admire the prodigious statues up close, where he noticed a plaque at their feet which he read:

"In the year 2271, the Desert Rangers of Nevada and rangers of the New California Republic met at this spot to sign the Ranger Unification Treaty. Under this treaty, the Desert Rangers agreed to be absorbed into the NCR in exchange for NCR's protection of Hoover Dam, New Vegas, and southern Nevada against the forces of Caesar's Legion."

Jacob looked up at the masked man in the duster, obviously a canine morph judging by the long muzzle, and he wondered if it was a wolf under the mask. 2271, six years ago, about the time he had first heard of New Vegas and made up his mind to leave his home in Junktown. Six years too late.

When Perez reappeared he led them east down the road. Jacob was silent as they passed many rusted hulks of pre-War vehicles with the knowledge that his journey with Sarah was over, and it was time for them to part and begin their new lives. Before long they reached the fork in the road where the Long 15 continued northward and the road to Nipton stretched east through a dry lakebed, and Perez was amicable enough to halt so they could say goodbye.

Jacob stood alone, facing Sarah, who had traded her worn clothes for a khaki outfit not unlike that of an NCR uniform. Beside her stood Perez with the other Rangers behind them, most looking back at him as well. "I don't want to think this is the last time we'll see each other." she said as the wind off the dry lakebed tossed her blonde hair about and kicked up Jacob's duster.

"The world's a big place." Jacob said somberly, his voice gravelly with disuse. "But we ran into each other before." he added with a small smile that Sarah returned.

Sarah stuck out her hand to him and he took it slowly and gripped firmly as she did, and shook. "Good luck in New Vegas." she said.

"Good luck in Nelson." Jacob replied and then shook Perez's offered paw. "Thank you." he said to the fox.

Perez wore his characteristic grin with his cigarette hanging loosely from between his lips. "Godspeed." he said simply.

And with that Jacob resettled his pack on his shoulders and turned and started to head down the Long 15, alone once again. "Jacob!" he heard Sarah call from behind and he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. "I hope you find what you're looking for." she said.

Jacob peered back at Sarah for several long moments before nodding slowly. He turned and began his walk to the end of his journey without looking back.