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Jacob woke with a start, the air raid siren outside the Vault from his childhood ringing in his ears once again. He reached for the pistol on his chest instinctively and panicked when he found the comfortable weight missing. He opened his eyes to find himself in his cell, early morning light streaming through the window, and a figure sitting on a rickety wooden chair in the corridor. His vision slid into focus and cleared his dry throat when he recognized the person before him. "Why, good morning, beautiful." he croaked.

Sarah pursed her lips. "The Warden let you sleep in today, wanted to show you what you can have if you talk. I still think he should have put you to work for another day, Twitch has first shift for watching the prisoners." she said before grabbing her rifle, which had been leaning against the wall behind her. "He's awake, John. Let's take him over to the Warden." she called down the hall. There was a scrape of a chair and after a few moments later a man appeared who Jacob recognized as part of the party that had captured him.

Jacob struggled to his feet, his muscles aching more than ever, and followed Sarah outside, John bringing up the rear. He was led back to the Warden's building, but instead of turning into his office they passed it and continued up a set of stairs and to a small room through a doorway at the end of the hall. The floor was wood like the rest of the building and a small bed stood against the wall, its dirty white linens matching the peeling floral wallpaper. A single window, in front of which stood a series of iron bars drilled into the wood, lit the room and everything sitting on the bed. All of his possessions had been laid out on it, from his duster to rifle. Jacob's eyes lingered on his boots, which sat on the floor near the bed.

"I must say, wolf, you have a very fine compliment of equipment here." the Warden's voice came from the other corner of the room. He sat in one of the two wooden chairs near a round table which supported a dusty old vase of synthetic flowers that stood in such contrast with the Warden's face that Jacob had to force himself not to laugh. The Warden was inspecting a pistol he held in his hands, a 10 mm, its paint was worn, but it was clean and its action was silky smooth as the Warden worked it.

"That's my father's." Jacob said in coldly.

The Warden looked up at him. "And you can have it back. In fact you can have all this." he said as he waved his hand to indicate the room. "All you have to do is tell me your mission." Jacob only stared at the Warden without saying a word. "Surely you don't want to go back to digging that trench with no water and no food." the Warden continued. "The NCR will never find you here, and even if they did, they would have to muster quite the army to assault this fort. You will never leave here, so why make the rest of your life miserable? You would be given much less strenuous tasks, I assure you."

Jacob's voice was cold and steady, but a flame was alight in his eyes as he spoke. "I work for no one."

The Warden studied him silently for a long minute before speaking softly, "All is as it must be." Then he looked up to the humans behind Jacob. "Sarah, John, take him up to the trench. Have him beaten in front of the others and then set him back to work." When Jacob didn't move he felt a hand grip his arm and he reluctantly turned and headed out the door, his eyes flicking to his boots once more before they slide from view. Jacob was too angry to notice the poorly hidden shocked look on John's face.

Like before, none of the humans that Jacob passed so much as glanced at him on the way through the compound and up the dirt path to the perimeter trench. His stomach wrenched unpleasantly when Twitch's merry voice floated down to him, singing some demented song he must have thought up himself. "Oh lookie! It's my favorite wolfie!" Twitch cried as Jacob approached the dugout near which the morphs labored. "Come here boy! Come here!" he bent and slapped his knee, panting as if her were a pet dog.

Jacob was shoved forward suddenly from behind by Sarah. "The Warden said to make an example of him."

"Well haven't you been a bad boy? Just asking for a beating aren't you?" Twitch said without dropping the sweet tone from his voice. "Hey, fluffy!" he said, turning to a stocky malamute morph who had been watching from several yards away. "Throw me that shovel! I bet bloodred would just look positively smashing against that rust!"

"He needs to be able to work when you're through with him." Sarah said as Twitch reached for the shovel. "The Warden's orders."

Twitch pouted for a few moments before turning to the morphs laboring at the trench. He stuck his little fingers in the corners of his mouth and let loose an earsplitting whistle. "Oy! I got entertainment for you lot!" The morphs all turned to look at Jacob with pity on their faces as Twitch flourished a billy club that seemed to appear in his hand as if from nowhere. Sarah and John backed away as Twitch slowly walked around Jacob, eyeing him critically with a hand on his chin as if he were a blank canvass for him to paint. He stopped a couple times around him, miming smashing the club into various parts of him and then nodding or shaking his head as if in deep consideration.

"Come on, Twitch. I'm getting b..." Jacob, but before he could finish he loosed a yelp of pain as Twitch sent his club crashing into the back of Jacob's knees, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Never... interrupt... an artist!" Twitch said dramatically above Jacob, pressing a hand to his grimy red tanktop and wielding his club as if it were a paintbrush. "Ralphie!" he said suddenly to one of the men watching from the dugout. "Hmm, station 3 should do it!" Jacob heard a click and a radio sprung to life, from which came the fluid tones of smooth jazz. Twitch resumed pacing around Jacob, who was still sprawled on the ground, dipping his club in time to the beats of the music. When a saxophone solo kicked up he lunged suddenly, too fast for Jacob to react, smashing the billy club into his arm.

The beating was terrible. Twitch knew exactly how to cause the most pain with the least amount of damage, and he certainly caused Jacob a lot of pain. The club swung down on him again and again, crashing into his ribs, arms, and legs. Jacob squeezed his eyes shut tight and tried to curl up to protect himself, but couldn't stop from yelping out in pain. It seemed to go on forever and Jacob began to hope that he would just black out again when he caught a sudden crack to his muzzle, knocking a tooth loose.

"Enough!" Sarah's yell pierced the air and Twitch's club halted just an inch from the side of Jacob's head. He cracked his eyes open and spat out his loose tooth, which was accompanied by a good amount of blood. His vision was blurry, but he could see Sarah standing some feet away, her face stony and expressionless; John looked entirely different though, his face a pallid white and replete with horror. "I'll take over watch." Sarah said.

Twitch crouched low next to Jacob and patted him on the head and picked up his sweet pet-owner voice again. "You be a good doggie now, and come back and see me again!" he said and then leaned over, and cupping his hand over his mouth, spoke quietly in the same voice, "Don't tell anyone, but you're my favorite puppy!"

Jacob would have lashed out with his claws if he hadn't hurt so much. He glared back at Twitch but maintained a stony silence. Twitch only grinned and stood and, twirling his club, began to stroll down the path to the Fort whistling a merry tune. Everyone watched him go, and when he made the reverse on the path and faced them again he gave them a cheery little wave. The morphs set back to work when he disappeared from view and men in the dugout returned to their interrupted game of cards. Sarah kicked a shovel to Jacob's side before turning to John, who was still pale and rooted to the same spot, and telling him he could go back down to the Fort. He nodded vigorously and scuttled away.

Jacob pulled himself to his feet and limped over next to where Joshua worked. He stabbed his shovel into the dirt bitterly and tossed the shovelful to the side, his muscles burning in agony. He worked slowly and painfully for the rest of the day, and was forced to lean against Joshua as he limped down the path with the rest of the morphs. Again the guard gave Jacob no food, but did shove a cupful of water into his paws which he gulped down thankfully. Again Joshua split half his meager dinner with him, an old block of cheese.

"What's Twitch's story?" Jacob asked after they had finished scarfing down their paltry meal in the quickly darkening room.

"He used to be a raider." Joshua said. "From what I understand, they found him in the desert three days east of here at an old service station. They said they found him humming to himself as he was stringing up a dozen mutilated corpses to the overhang. He had killed the entire band of raiders he was with himself. Never learned how he did it" the shepherd stated at the inquiring look on Jacob's face. "Anyway, Chief about shot him right then and there, said nobody like that was fit to live at the Fort. But the Warden thought he might be... "tamed", and prove useful. Guess he has."

Jacob was about to speak when the doors at the doors at the end of the corridor crashed open and a group of voices drifted to his ears. "Fine, fine, I don't care what you do with her. Just don't wake up the whole damn town, and remember the Warden's orders: no damaging the females!" That was Chief's voice...

Suddenly there was screaming, a female's screaming. "No! No! You can't do this!" Jacob heard the cries coming closer and followed Joshua to his feet. He looked down the corridor to see two men holding a struggling brownish feline between them, followed by two more men, all of them carrying excited looks of anticipation on their faces. "Let me go! You already took everything I have!" the girl screamed.

"Oh no..." Joshua spoke quietly as he watched the group approach with wide eyes.

"Not quite everything!" one of the men chuckled as the group passed Jacob's cell and rounded the corner into the room on the other side of the wall. A light turned on abruptly and then the door slammed shut behind them, but it did little to muffle the girl's screams. "Stop! What are you doing?!" there was a scraping of a table being pushed across the floor and a soft thump. Jacob looked over at Joshua, there had to be something they could do, but the shepherd only stood there with a horror-stricken empty look in his eyes. The girl screamed again and then Jacob heard the men laughing.

Jacob's stomach lurched as he heard grunts and groans through the wall. He turned to look back at Joshua but he wasn't there, instead, he was sitting in a ball by the bars dividing their cells, his paws clamped over his ears. Jacob went and sat next to him. "They caught another girl...oh God, no..." Joshua's voice wavered. "They're going to make poor Nathan..." the shepherd didn't need to complete his sentence to understand what was going to happen.

He growled in frustration as he listened to the screams of the feline girl in the next room and the jeering of the men who were raping her. Despite hating "animals" so much they didn't seem to mind fucking one if it had breasts and a pussy. Jacob had to stop this, to get these people away from these twisted humans, and he thought he might have the slightest chance at it. He kept thinking of his boots sitting there beside that bed this morning and how the Warden had said he could have it all back if he heard what he wanted...

Jacob smiled to himself. That was it. He just had to tell the Warden what he wanted to hear.

_____

It was noon the next day and the sun beat down upon Jacob's back mercilessly as he toiled at the trench. He didn't recognize the human on watch today, a young dark fellow who left his rifle leaning against the dugout wall instead of holding it like the others, so Jacob thought he could risk quiet conversation. "Joshua, do they keep females in the Pound with us?" he whispered.

The German shepherd shook his head. "They stay at the Warden's place. Probably to prevent... the kind of thing that happened last night. They work as house-servants."

Jacob had thought as much. "How much free reign do you think they get?"

Joshua was silent as he shoveled for a few moments, thinking. "A lot more than you or I at any rate. I know there's a bitch in there pregnant with Sam's child." the shepherd nodded towards the malamute Jacob had seen yesterday. "I've only seen her a couple times since..."

Jacob didn't ask since what, but continued to think as he dug. The morphs had made some headway with the trench since the day he had been set to work, they were now nearly to the next dugout. Jacob was idly wondering what they would be set to next after completing the trench when he heard the yell of "Water!" behind him.

He dropped his shovel like the rest and formed a line before man carrying the water jug, who Jacob noticed to be that John fellow. He waited in line patiently and he finally got a chance to get a good look at the man. He looked surprisingly younger without his leather armor and a rifle in his hands, for he now wore a simple worn gray shirt that stood against the shock of auburn hair that sat on his head and covered his chin in a goatee. Not a day over 25 Jacob guessed. When Jacob reached him at last, John looked around furtively before pouring water into the tin cup, filling it to the brim. "I'm not supposed to give you this." he whispered as he handed it to Jacob.

Jacob eyed John over the tin cup as he drank, perhaps this guy could help him. "A female morph was raped last night by four guards." he said quietly.

"What?" John looked stunned. "But... we're taught never to touch you, they say you're filth... why would they..."

"I heard her screaming four hours last night, right next to my cell. We need help." Jacob said as he turned to go back to his work, he couldn't chance the guards getting too interested.

It was only after a long minute of standing and staring at Jacob's back before he returned to the Fort, leaving Jacob deep in thought as he shoveled away. He wondered if he could get John to blackmail those guards to get them to help in some way, remembering what Joshua had said about the Warden trying to prevent the female morphs from getting raped by his men. Jacob shook his head, that wouldn't work, the four of them would just beat John to a pulp. Still though, John could potentially prove to be a useful set of hands outside the Pound. Jacob thought long and hard, and by the time they were told to drop their shovels he thought he might have the beginnings of a plan.

After their shared meal of cold and overly-viscous porridge after sunset Jacob and Joshua sat together at the division of their cells as had become habit. "Do you think he'd keep his promise?" Jacob asked Joshua after explaining to him what the Warden had offered him the previous day.

"Hard to say..." Joshua replied. "On one hand of course he hates morphs and won't want to give you shit. On the other, he might want to show that good behavior is rewarded... Why do you ask though? I thought you said you had nothing to do with the NCR."

"I don't." Jacob said. "But the Warden seems determined to see that I do."

Comprehension dawned on Joshua's face, followed by a wide smile, and then a frown. "I'd hate to see you go..."

Jacob leaned closer to Joshua, even though the guard at the end of the hall probably couldn't hear them anyway or more likely asleep. "I'd be doing it to get us out of here." he whispered. "I think I might have a plan to get us out of here."The shepherd perked his ears and leaned close.

"There's a set of lockpicks and a stiletto in my boots, if I get them back and they're still in there I might be able to pop the door to that room and get into the tunnel you mentioned." Jacob said.

"How would that get the rest of us out?"

"For that we'd need outside help, and I think I know someone who just might help us. Remember that fellow who brought up the water today? He seems pretty disgusted with what goes on around here."

"Even if he sympathizes with us, he might not want to risk his neck."

Jacob nodded grimly. "Yeah. I know. But it's all I got." he said. "If we could set up a diversion somehow, it might give him enough time to break you guys out and run here and escape through the tunnel."

"It might, but it might not give you enough time to pick those locks." Joshua said and was silent for a few moments while he thought. "You asked about the girls earlier today, maybe they could get you the keys... But this all hinges on that human fellow. You have to get ahold of him somehow."

"We would have to wait until we could get him away from the others, at least for a few moments to ask him to come here at night." Jacob thought aloud.

"That might take a few days. I suppose that might be for the better though, it would look odd to go to the Warden after resisting him so hard just yesterday." Joshua said and then laughed quietly. "Even if this whole plan is ridiculously farfetched, it feels good to have hope again. We haven't had any hope in a long time."

Jacob nodded and they said their goodnights before curling up to sleep. "We"... Jacob wondered how many morphs he'd be willing to leave behind to save his own hide, or if he could leave behind Joshua, the only friend he'd had since Daniel. He wondered how much of a soul he'd have left if he did.