Dallen opened his eyes as the dawn began to break through the sky. It was a long cold night before, as all he had was his trench coat and a fire pit to keep him warm. As he remained lying down he looked to the dead fire, with only clunks of ash remaining. His eyes turned as he saw an approaching radroach wandering aimlessly in his direction. 

'Breakfast,' he thought as he sat up and pulled out his tactical knife.  The roach was stopped dead in its tracks as he brought the knife down onto it, holding it firm until the disgusting thing finally died.

By noon the sun was shining brightly and raged down on him. The wasteland landscape looked endless and dry, with small peaks of mountains far off in the distance. After a few more hours he reached one of the formerly distant pinnacles. He climbed its' rocky surface and eventually made it to the top. The breeze was cooler up there and the vegetation around him seemed to change greatly.

After a brief rest he continued through the rocky slope, searching everywhere for signs of water. He found a small crevice that looked corroded, so he dropped his backpack and jumped down into it. The dirt formed into clay clunks, which was a good sign to him. He took off one boot and a sock, then dug up some of the moist clay and dumped it into the sock. From within he squeezed the moisture of water out of the bottom and drank into it, it wasn't nearly enough but it gave him a slight boost of energy. Dallen then cleared out of the hole and continued onward, hoping to find something a bit better. 

By dusk he was traveling through a mountain pass. His stamina was low and he wanted to stop, but he kept going anyway. He had maybe an hour left of light in the sky, and knew he had to think of something quick, as a noticible change in the weather could be seen ahead. It seemed luck was on his side, though, as he crossed over into an open desert field. There was an abandoned train station in the valley below him. An old cargo train was set on the tracks, dusted and worn. 

He scouted the area. It seemed safe enough to sleep, but he still had to be extremely cautious. He looked in one of the train carts to find it empty, with dirt strewn on the floor. After he climbed in he shut the cart door partially and sat down, taking a much needed rest. 

He had fallen asleep, unaware that a rad storm had blown in and out during the while. When he awoke the sun was up again as if it were midday, as it shined through the crack he left open from the cart door. He got up, then took out a cigarette from a wringled up pack and lit it with a match.  He took a moment of relaxation as he finished the smoke, calming himself more so than he already was.  

He got out of the train cart and looked up to the sun. Judging from its placement in the sky he figured it was only eight or nine o'clock in the morning, it just felt later. He cracked his neck and began to scavenge the barren train station.  Soon realizing this was just another dump, he decided to head back out into the great nothing.  If he hurried, he might make the next town or settlement by nightfall, though whether the people down here were good or bad remained to be seen.  He was aiming toward bad.

Suddenly, the roar of gunfire took to his attention.  Dallen quickly exited the station from the rear, climbing up the rocks behind it to get a decent vantage point.  His ammo was low, having only his .357 with him, holding 12 rounds.  He had hoped to reach a town for resupply by now, but he apparently had been taken off the main route at some point.  Probably when he avoided that large group of scavengers back a few days ago.

Dallen watched patiently as raiders moved up to the area.  He laid flat and tried to stay silent.  Minutes felt like hours as the group searched the place, just as he had moments before.  Just another gang, just another day.  Dallen waited until they all were on the other side, setting up a camp for themselves.  He slowly rose to his steel toe boots, then backed away, wanting to avoid the entire situation.  

He made it up the hill, but just when he was about to scale the top and be out of these raiders area for good, something big tore through the earth below him.  Just a few feet away, a radscorpion surfaced and stared directly at him.  It was as large as a brahmin and as black as the night, with red dots spotted all over it.

[color=steelblue] "Shit!" [/color] Dallen said, then immediately went on the defensive.  He backstracked his steps as the giant creature lunged forward.  Narrowly missing an attack from the radscorpion's stinger, he fell, back down the way he came.  He landed on a flat rock, seeing the thing jump after him.  Quickly gaining control of his firearm, he had no choice but to let it loose and open up some rapid fire direct into the radscorpions face.  It backed the creature enough for him to roll off the flat ledge and down onto the next one below it.  

Dallen quickly reloaded, dumping out the shells he had just fired and tossing in new ones.  The radscorpion again followed, scaling down the side as Dallen shot more into it.  The two kept going down the unsturdy hill, until Dallen reached the bottom and fired his last shots into the weakened thing.  It still attacked, but it wasn't fast enough.  Dallen sidestepped an oncoming stinger thrust, picking up a fist sized rock, and then bringing it down with all his force and onto the radscorpion's skull.  He continued to keep bashing the rock against the creature, smashing its head into the hard ground beneath it.  When he felt satisfied that it was dead, he backed away and layed down, staring up at the sky to catch his breath.  

"Pretty impressive showing."

He didn't have to look up to know that it was the raiders, all standing over him with their weapons drawn.  Yet, he did anyway, only to receive a boot to his face.  Then darkness.

When he came to, his hands were bound and a bag was over his head.  Feeling that the bind around his wrists was tight enough to keep him there, he had no choice but to wait and hear out whatever came next.  He remained silent as he heard others in the room with him, one of them a very vocal female.  When the bag was lifted from his head, he blinked his eyes a few times and then observed everyone around him, as well as what was being said. There were easier ways to obtain his services, however Dallen accepted this as the way it played out.  It was either go along with it all, or wait longer and kill every last one of them in their sleep.  Cracking his neck, Dallen just slightly nodded and let the ghoul continue.