Pistol Pete was chewing slowly on his chewing tobacco as he watched the young woman approaching the front gate.  Paul, the other gate guard on duty, was stood statue-like.  Pete was the superior officer on duty, Paul would let him do the talking.  When the woman got closer, he could see that she was exhausted and wore a few injuries.  He spat and continued chewing, looking for any tattoos that might signify she was a raider, but she had none that he could see.

"You alright miss?" he asked.  "You look like you've been to hell and back."

He would normally tell outsiders sternly, 'What's your business?' but the girl was a sorry sight.  He couldn't bring himself to be stern with her.  His tone was sympathetic and he could tell Paul was looking at him in his sideview.  The young guardsman was probably confused, but Pete was experienced to know that sometimes you had to judge the situation and change accordingly.  This woman had no weapon on her, and her clothes were bare enough that she couldn't really hide one.  She was without a weapon in the dangerous wastes and looked like she hadn't slept peacefully in weeks.  Pete would bet that she'd been running from trouble too, with the fresh scrapes on her arm.  Maybe she could use a break, this once.

Whatever she answered to his inquiry, he told her;  "Paul here will take you to the guards barracks where you can get some rest.  We'll give you a day to get yourself sorted.  After that, you'll need some caps or do some work if you want to stay longer.  That's the best I can do for you."

If she agreed, Pete would give a nod to Paul, to follow his order, and Paul would lead the way.

[h3][center][b]***[/b][/center][/h3]

Isaac Storm gave the raiders the run-around all night.  Firing off shots at them and fleeing, taking corners, getting lost in the mazey ruins around them.  He'd even took one of them down, leaving only Tasha and three others following him.  And one of them was injured, with a bullet in his arm.  It had been a fun night.

In the end, Isaac watched the sun rise as he lounged on the broken roof of a building.

"Shit, we've lost them!" he heard Tasha shout.  He was tempted to fire a shot at them for giggles.  He smiled at the thought.  But he decided against that when he heard, "We need to fall back to base... report to the bossman that she's gotten away."

"Someone in the Diamond Backs must've helped her out.  There's no way this wasn't planned."

Isaac watched them leave and then waited for a half hour before getting down to the ground and heading in the direction of Grasscroft.  He moved carefully, and regularly checked to see if he was being followed.  After an hour, he was just travelling normally.  It was still a long walk away to Grasscroft.  Isaac hoped Zara had made it there.  He didn't want to abandon her.  After all, there was no way she could just set up in Grasscroft.  It was too close to the Diamond Backs base.  She needed to get further away, and Isaac knew a settlement in Manhattan where she would be very safe.  If he could just catch up to her, he would follow through on his vow to help her.  All the way.  It wasn't a vow he'd actually made to her out loud or anything.  But once Isaac got himself into to some trouble, he would always vow to himself, to see it through.

He just hoped she'd be there when he arrived.