“STOP MOVING YOU FUCKING PUSSY!” A single woman’s voice echoes around the Followers of the Apocalypse fort, a few of the followers and patients that had been walking past stumbling for a step as they hesitantly looked over their shoulders at the tent the voice had come out of. Many of them had had the misfortune of having the stranger from the east as a caretaker, and they knew just how unpleasant she could be, especially when she thought you got hurt for a stupid reason… And sadly for the woman she was working on right now, she believed it to be a truly stupid reason.

“You are the dumb fuck who went and pissed off the raiders! If you can’t get behind cover after pissing them off then you deserve to be full of lead! You’re lucky I need you alive and intact or I’d just stick you full of Med-X and chop the whole damn arm off!” she growls. 

One of the followers, obviously someone who hadn’t worked with this woman poked her head in, worried by the shouting. He was stopped dead in his tracks as he set eyes on the two women, one laying on her side with a belt shoved in her mouth, the other one straddling her side, pinning both the woman’s arms to her body as she hovers over a bloody patch on the first woman’s right arm, a pair of forceps probing the wound, “e-excuse me” he starts, voice cracking a bit at the beginning, “Do you require any assistance Mi-“ His question was cut off by the crashing of the metal tray from the cot-side stand as it flew through the air and slammed into the support near his head.

“What I require is you to get your ass out of here before I’m forced to put some lead into you!” she shouts, practically snarling. She didn’t have to “ask” twice as the man quickly ran out of the tent and was on the other side of the compound in the few seconds it took her to go back to the job at hand “I nearly got the fucker…” she mumbles as she starts to pull the forceps out, gripping the chunk of lead and starting to pull it out. The moment she starts to pull, her “patient” starts to buck, attempting to throw her off, and she just clenches her thighs, squeezing the woman’s belly, hard, “STAY THE FUCK STILL!” she screams over the muffled screams of pain coming from her patient, “We can’t spare the fucking drugs!”

“I CNNT!” replied her patient with a muffled scream. For being an “Elite soldier” this girl was a bitch when it came to pain.

“FINE!” Ellie finally snaps, free hand reaching blindly to the table beside her and grabs one of the syringes setting there “You’re lucky I swiped this from one of the other tents” she hisses, glancing at the label to make sure it was Med-X before stabbing the needle into Rabecca’s arm right above the wound and pushing the plunger. “Fucking baby…” she grumbles, “I was gonna add that to the med-pack for a rainy day…”

“shk uo oo” she hears Rebecca mumble, and it forces a loud, barking laugh from Ellie.

“ ‘Atta girl!” she laughs as she sticks the forceps back in, “I just about got the fucking thing, you just need to stay still a little longer…” she mumbles as she grabs the bullet and slowly pulls it out, being careful not to cause any more trauma to the surrounding muscle than needed. A few more seconds of wiggling and pulling and out popped the bullet. With a grin Ellie dropped it onto the bed by Rebecca’s face “Wow, that little splinter’s it?” she teases as she starts sewing the hole closed, “We should go off the bastards and see if they don’t have any chems we could make use of…” she says before hopping off and pulling the belt out of Rebecca’s mouth.

"You're gonna hurt for a couple days, but don't go bitching about it to me, you're not getting any drugs. we don't have enough to spare, and I'm not having you go junkie on me. Don't know how much of a light weight you are." She explains as she rubs her gloves in the dirt to get the blood to clump before wiping them off on the fabric of the tent.

“You dirty rotten bitch! Next time yank the fucking thing out, dont play with it!” her patient growled at her. So ungrateful.

“Sure! I’ll gladly just tear the fucking thing out of you… That isn’t your gun arm is it? If it is I suggest you start practicing with your left now, because next time I’ll just tear it out and not bother to protect the other muscles.” she replies sarcastically, "The proper response is 'Thank you Ellie for removing the bullet from my arm and not allowing me to go septic. I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to save my dumb ass’ come on! Let’s try that!"

The expression on Rebecca’s face showed that she had struck a nerve, which of course brought out a broad grin on Ellie’s face as her companion as she responded in a just-as-sarcastic tone ““Oh Im sorry! Thank you, now go fuck yourself” before storming out.

“See? Much better!” Ellie calls after her, laughing, “Get yer’ ass back in here, we need to talk dammit!”

Seeming fairly irritated, much to Ellie’s enjoyment, Rebecca poked her head back into the tent “What. Do. You. Want.” She asked.

“I found out more information that we need to know. Since I already pulled the bullet out of your arm, try to pull the bug out of your ass and get in here.

The deep breath Rebecca had to take to calm herself gave Ellie such a deep satisfaction that she couldn’t even try to conceal the mischievous grin that crossed her face. “What? Found something out? Well spill it” she says as she sits back on the bed.

Ellie inches over to the tent opening and pokes her head out, making sure there wasn’t anyone nearby before pulling back inside and moving closer to the bed, “Alright, so, turns out that the people around here are just as interested in those rails as we are. I guess the head honcho and some rich bastard are funding an expedition to do something about it… Dunno what exactly they’re doing about it, but we should probably check it out…” her voice trails off as she picks her trenchcoat up off of a nearby chair and pulls it on, “There’s a bit of an issue though…”

“Wait wait.. they have rich people here?' Rebecca replied sounding rather surprised, “Well, if they have an interest in the rails.. We need to saddle up and find out exactly why.” She continues as she stands and grabs her windbreaker “What problem would that be exactly...?”

“Yes… They DO have rich people around here… Just… not… HERE…” she says, frowning as she reaches in her coat and grabs the pouch she keeps her caps in, “THIS is our problem” she says with a sigh, “I counted and I have roughly 200 some caps… I never took the time to count YOUR caps, but something tells me you don’t have much more since you keep coming to me to patch you up… So either you’re broke or just really stupid” She jabs playfully, “They’re meeting in that big ass tower on the other side of the wall…” she continues, getting serious again, “And in order to get on the other side of the wall they do a credit check… and you have to have at least two THOUSAND caps… or some kind of passport… So far nobody’s trusted me enough to tell me how to go about getting a passport, and from the sounds of it we don’t have the time for ass kissing to get one…”

 “Two thousand... We need two thousand caps..” Rebecca replied, dumbfounded before taking out her cap pouch. “I got.. three hundred. Last time I counted..” she says before squinting at Ellie and replying “You know, being a hooker pays pretty good around here..” and then releasing a little sigh “Well.. what are we gonna do? Thats a lot of money.. and we dont even have half of it..”

“Yea I know it it… But you seem pretty open to the idea of being a hooker… so while you work the streets,” she shoots Rebecca a playful grin and a wink, “Which I sure hope you enjoy yourself, just make sure they wrap their peckers” she adds with a giggle, “I intend to give the casinos a try. Using my SKILLS rather than my assets. I’m told there’s one on the other side of freeside, it’s apparently a shithole but hopefully people will be too shit faced to pay much attention.

An eye twitch showed Ellie she had won, causing her to puff her chest out a bit as her grin broadens “You got plenty of assests to go around though..” Rebecca replies, shrugging off her loss and standing up “Right.. So while your playing games, ill make sure the owners are busy or something... Let just get going.” Before heading out of the tent “You coming?”

“Yea, my [i]assets[/i] and I are coming.” She says, following Rebecca, “Thankfully I have the skills, brains, AND assets. Too bad you don’t” she continues to jab, pouring salt on the wound, “You’re more than welcome to use your assets to earn a little side cash as well though, every bit helps.”

“C’mon… c’mon… just give me a face… just give me a fucking face…” she growls under her breath, staring at the cards in front of her, an 8 and a 2, totaling 10. Although she was hoping for a face card, she’d be happy with anything above five… And of course when the dealer tossed another card her way, the bright red of a five of diamonds stared up at her, “God dammit… hit me…” she grumbles, crossing her fingers in the sleeve of her trench coat, hoping for something under six this time… And again, the dealer gives her a big ol’ “fuck you!” as the King of spades flips up

“That’s a bust” he says, before moving on to the next.

“DAMMIT!” Ellie snarls as she slams her fist down on the table, causing it to jump a bit as she quickly swapped out the bet of 42, two twenties and two ones, with a bet of twelve, two fives and the two ones, leaving the 1 cap chips on top so to conceal the chips beneath. “Fucking deck’s loaded…” she grumbles under her breath as she looks at her rapidly dwindling pile of chips, she had gone from 500, clear down to 200… Although the dealer cast her a rather frustrated look, he didn’t say anything and she just cast him an apologetic look, giving him the most innocent face she could, “I’m sorry… just… a bit frustrated… You’re taking all my caps man!” she says before leaning back in her seat and sighing loudly as the man deals to the man beside her.

“Now, now, dahlin’” the man next to her says with a thick southern accent which just about everybody native to this area seemed to have, “No need to go gettin’ all frustrated, ‘tis the nature of games such as this. Sometimes ya win, sometimes ya lose. There ain’t nothin’ you can do ‘bout it.”

She just shook her head as she casts a glance across the room, hoping that Rebecca was still at least keeping the bosses busy, seeing that she was doing an effective job of at least distracting them still she just scoops up her chips, sighing, “I’m sorry guys, I just can’t afford to lose anything more… I’m gonna have to bail.” She says with a sigh as she drops her chips into an inner pocket of her jacket and stands up, moving around the table and opening her arms wide “No hard feelings, right?” she says to the dealer, and before he can reply, she grabs him in a hug. As he struggles, she quickly grabs a stack of 100 cap chips, and swiftly pockets them, casting a warning glance at the man opposite her as she does so.

She doesn’t fight as the dealer pushes her away, obviously pissed off, and she just gives him her biggest smile, batting her eyelashes, before moving over to the man she had been sitting beside and holding her arms open for him, and he eagerly takes the hug, his hands cupping her ass and squeezing. She releases the little squeak she knew he wanted to hear, and slides her hand in his coat pocket, pushing down so he knew something was still there, before pulling back and giving him what passed off as a shy smile, “Thanks for the pep talk, but I gotta get going regardless” she says, “best of luck to you” she says, patting his chest, before heading off, grinning to herself as she slides the pouch she had swiped from his hip into one of her inner jacket pockets, she felt the caps clinking together inside, but decides to wait until she was out of the casino to count them.

Approaching the counter, she pulls the remainders of her chips from her pocket, along with the six 100cap chips she had swiped, and sets them down on the counter, “Need to cash out, better get out while I’m ahead,” she says, grinning at the man behind the counter before giving him a wink “Thanks for the fun, I’m definitely gonna have to come back she check out the rest you have to offer” she says as he counts up her caps, drops them in a pouch, and tosses it to her, which she slips in her pocket right beside the guy’s pouch. As she pockets it, she just nods at him with another grin and heads for the door, shooting a glance at the woman that had been behind the counter as she started screaming at Rebecca.

As she closes the door behind them, she motions for Rebecca to hurry away frm the door, “need to get out o here before that guy checks his pockets…” she mumbles under her breath, repeatedly checking behind her shoulder.

"Check his po- whoa whoa you telling me you took his caps?" Rebecca asks. Ellie was about to respond before she heard the door slam open and the man’s voice screaming out 

“ ‘ey! What tha fuck you think yer’ doin! Git yer’ asses back here with mah caps!”

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck move!” she hisses, starting to run all out down the street. Just as they hit the corner, she heard the hissing, bubbling sound of a plasma bolt flying through the air behind them, “Fuck! Get down!” she yells, slamming into Rebecca’s side and throwing her to the ground as the bolt flies over their heads and hits the ground a few yards ahead of them, hissing and bubbling as it starts to dissipate, leaving a green stain on the street, the asphalt about half an inch thinner. 

Frantically, she crawls over behind one of the derelict cars and puts her back against it, frantically trying to figure out what to do as she pulls her pistol out of her hip holster .

“Ya little fuckin’ whore!” he screams as a plasma bolt splats against the side of the car, “think ya’ can get away with stealin’ mah caps! Ah’ll fuckin teach ya!”

"This is why you DONT FUCKING STEAL" Rebecca screamed at her, magnum already in hand.

“No! This is why you don’t get caught and move fast enough that they can’t get you when you are!” she yells back as another blob of plasma slams into the car and the frame begins to melt. She could already feel the heat in the old rusted metal and knew it wouldn’t be effective cover for long. “Alright, stay here, I’ll run as fast as I fucking can for the opposite side of the street, chances are since he’s pissed at me he’ll go after me, I know I’ll be able to move faster than a plasma bolt so as long as he’s too fucking stupid to lead his targets I should be fine. Once I go you get up and take the sh-“

She’s cut off as the shockwave hits the car, stealing her breath a millisecond before the explosive *BOOM* causes her ears to ring and the ground to shake. Instinctively, she drops to the ground and covers her head, not pausing for even a moment to wonder what the hell was going on. About two seconds later, while she’s still reeling from the explosion, something wet lands on her back with a meaty smack.

She just stares at the ground, eyes wide as she tries to focus on her breathing, slowly taking check of every part of her body, even if she couldn’t feel any pain she could still be going into shock. Her arms were still there… she could feel her legs.. She could still see… her ears were ringing, that was somewhat of a good sign… She could just barely hear Rebecca screaming her name so she could at least hear some. The only thing out of place, was something on her back… she reaches up to touch it and then brings her hand back down to her face to see it covered in blood!

-Oh no! Was Rebecca hit??- she thinks to herself, quickly looking over at her companion and releases a sigh of relief as she sees she was okay… She slowly lifts her head to peek out through the shattered and warped windows of the car, only to see a crater in the ground, and a massive bloodstain. Gore littered the street where the man had been standing, his weapon sparking and hissing a few feet from the crater. It wasn’t until she went to stand, pistol still in hand, that she sees the giant, blocky robot rolling their way.

“Fuck!” she hisses under her breath, dropping her gun and holding her hands up in the air.

[b]”THREAT ELIMINATED! NO NEED TO WORRY CITIZENS! YOU ARE SAFE N-“[/b] The robot cuts off as the screen, which had moments before shown the image of a battle hardened soldier with five o’clock shadow, goes to static only to be replaced moments later by the image of what appeared to be a laughing cowboy.

[b]”Well howdy partners! Y’all wouldn’t happen to be them easterners that have come to visit the strip lookin’ for work would’ja? Mr. House has heard y’all’ve been askin’ around about work!”[/b] he says, causing Ellie to glance hesitantly over at Rebecca, [/b] “It sure is a good thing I saw that commotion from over by the gate or else things could’a ended badly for ya! If you’re still interested in that job, yer’ more than welcome to come with me to visit the Lucky 38 and speak to Mr. House yerselves. I’m sure he’d love to meet ya, we don’t get many folks from out east.”[/b]

Dumbfounded, Ellie hesitantly reaches down and picks up her side arm, slipping it back into her holster, “Oh… uhm.. a-alright…” she stammers, ears still ringing slightly as she looks over to Rebecca. Sure she had been asking a lot of people… but how the fuck had somebody as important as this Mr. House guy found out about them? “Y-you… you think we should go?”

"No choice... Lets go see what this is about." Rebecca replied.

Ellie just nodded, turning back to the robot, “I guess we’re in, lead the way?” She says, the robot just chuckles as it somehow turns on the spot with only one wheel. [i]how the hell did he manage that?[/i] she can’t help but think to herself as she fell in step behind him, heading into the strip and towards the Lucky 38