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"Wake up, mutt." Jacob shook Joshua gently by the shoulder an hour or so after sunrise. "You'll want to 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 quite that 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 5 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 it's reassuring weight, 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 paracord tying her wrists and ankles, no time to untie it, and passed her her revolver and its ammo 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 fire once, catching the raider in the chest and sending him stumbling 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.

Suddenly when he was returning fire he saw a raider pitch forward to the ground suddenly. 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 counter-attack! 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 station 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 fireless, 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.

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 he had taped to it. 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 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. We never went into it so I don't know what's there." 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 it wreaked hell on his system. 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 watched 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 paracord 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 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. The next day he began to loosen up though 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.