Tough Decisions

A slight burning feeling filled my body as my Agility increased but, it was nowhere near as painful as having half my skeleton replaced by metal so I easily endured it. Once the process was finished, I got up and noticed how light I felt. It was similar to the feeling you get after putting down a heavy weight you've been carrying or finishing a long run. And it almost felt as if I could leap into the sky with just a small jump.

Of course, that feeling was just an illusion that would probably fade away as I got used to my new abilities.

Checking my Pipboy I saw that it has been around an hour and a half since I left Yoruichi at the camper and knew I should hurry back.

The trip back down was uneventful and before I knew it the small trailer was back in sight, and I was about to call out when I noticed something interesting. Letting out a small grin I decided to keep quiet and continued making my way back towards the camper. When I reached the entrance, I suddenly paused and reached out to my side and grabbed at the air.

"Got you" I smirked!

"No way" Yoruichi suddenly flashed into existence and knocked away my hand that was pressed against her neck! "How did you know I was there" she exclaimed!? "I was outside your line of sight the entire time and never made a single sound!"

"Instinct" I crossed my arms and raised my chin condescendingly.

"Bullshit" she cursed, and I just started laughing!

Truthfully, I didn't see or hear anything the entire time she was sneaking up on me, it was honestly incredible how good she was with that Stealth Boy. But, unfortunately for her I was a filthy cheater.

I had long since gotten into the habit of activating VATS to make sure there were no enemies around. And just as I approached the camper, I managed to pick up her transparent silhouette crouching behind some bushes nearby. An interesting thing about VATS was that it could actually pick up invisible targets, however even if I could see them I couldn't actually select them as a target.

So, the entire time she was sneaking around behind me I knew exactly where she was making it easy for me to surprise her.

"Why exactly were you hiding" I decided to ask?

"So, I could ambush that Thorn bastard if he managed to take you out" Yoruichi put her hands on her hips "And when I saw you approaching without him I knew you already took care of him and decided to play a little trick on you." She pouted "But, who knew you'd be able to find me when I was invisible, seriously how did you do that!?"

I just shrugged and stepped inside and was surprised to see Gale sat up on her mattress sipping on a canteen of water.

"Uh, hi" I awkwardly waved as Yoruichi pushed inside passed me.

"She woke up half an hour ago" she explained "And told me about what really happened between her and Thorn."

I raised an eyebrow at that since I was really curious about who this girl was and how she was related to Thorn.

"Is the bastard dead" Gale grit her teeth while boring into me with her steely blue eyes?

"Yeah" I nodded before gesturing to the shotgun slung over my shoulder "Put two rounds right in his chest."

"Good" she let out a sigh of relief and her body visibly relaxed.

"So, who exactly are you" I couldn't help but ask "And how exactly did you end up inside in a fridge next to a massive Gecko nest?"

At my question a conflicted expression came over Gale's face and she bit her lip and Yoruichi stepped up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright you don't need to talk about it again if you don't want to. I can fill him in later when you're not around."

"No" Gale snarled! "I'm not that weak!"

Yoruichi understandably backed off after that while Gale took a deep breath to collect herself.

"My name is Gale Harris" she spoke "I'm an NCR citizen and was a member of a trade caravan trying to set up a new trade route between New Vegas and the Hub."

"The Hub's an enormous trade city in the NCR" I whispered to Yoruichi while she nodded in understanding.

Gale continued "We thought it would be a safe time to enter the Mojave since the NCR had just defeated the Legion at the Battle of Hoover Dam and were pushing the rest of their forces back across the river. Unfortunately, we were wrong" she deflated, and her eyes lost their brightness "We were ambushed by a squad of legionnaires, and I was one of the only survivors.

T-they took me as a slave" she shivered but, kept talking "I was given to a high-ranking soldier stationed at their main base at Fortification Hill. I don't really want to talk about my time there" she teared up "But, eventually the soldier who owned me was transferred into a command position at Cottonwood Cove the Legion's forward operating base in the Mojave. Where I stayed for more than three years until a pack of wild Deathclaws attacked the base and I escaped in the chaos."

"How does Barton Thorn fit into this" I wondered?

"After I escaped, I knew the Legion would do everything in their power to recapture me and even put a large bounty on my head" she looked up at us worryingly but, calmed down slightly when she saw we didn't seem to care about her bounty.

"So, he was one of the people after your bounty" Yoruichi answered.

"Yeah" Gale nodded "He figured out I was trying to escape back into the NCR and hired the Powder Gangers in the area to keep an eye out for me. Thankfully just before they could catch me a wealthy caravan passed through and got into a big battle with the Powder Gangers. After the area was filled with Gecko feeding on the battlefield and I decided to try and sneak into their nest hoping Thorn wouldn't be brave enough to follow.

Unfortunately, I didn't expect there to be a Gecko Matriarch at the nest. I confident I could have escaped from the regular Gecko but, a Matriarch was more than I could handle, and I had to seek cover in that fridge before it found me. I honestly thought I was going to die in there" she sighed.

"You're lucky Thorn was so stubborn" I shook my head "If he hadn't managed to convince us to try and save you, you definitely would have died up there."

"At least everything is alright now" Yoruichi tried to lighten the mood! "Thorn and the Powder Gangers are all dead. So once we drop you off at Goodsprings to heal there should be nothing stopping you from going back home."

"No" Gale shouted making us jump! But, quickly realized what she'd done and shrunk down "I-I mean I'll have to pass on that."

"But, why" Yoruichi frowned? "You're in really bad shape and should see a doctor as soon as possible."

"The Legion has spies everywhere" Gale shivered "I can't take the chance they'll find out I'm there. Before I make it back to the NCR the fewer people who know where I am the better."

"So, what do you want us to do then" I asked?

She looked conflicted "...Just give me a bit of supplies and be on your way, I'll be able to take care of myself from there."

I glanced at Yoruichi and could tell that she didn't like this at all and was about to speak up but, I stopped her.

"Fine" I said "I'll give you some of the meat I just collected and another canteen of water. That should be enough to tide you over until you're good enough to move."

"But-" Yoruichi tried to say.

"It's fine" I interrupted again "We've already killed all the Powder Gangers and Geckos in the area so there shouldn't be anything too dangerous nearby. I just grabbed plenty of food so she's in no danger of starving and if she needs more water, she can go to the springs not far from here."

"Thank you" Gale sheepishly whispered "I know I'm asking a lot of you but, I'd really rather deal with this on my own."

"Why are you agreeing with her" Yoruichi grit her teeth "Just look at her she's nothing but, skin and bones! There's no way she'll be alright if we just leave her here!"

I sighed "Yoruichi I don't think you quite understand just what kind of people the Legion are and what exactly will happen to Gale if they catch her." I turned back to the woman in question "Tell me how exactly does the Legion usually deal with escaped slaves?"

Gale's face went red and clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white "Most of the time they crucified them driving large nails through a person's hands and feet pinning them a giant cross and letting them roast in the desert sun for days at a time. Giving them just enough water so that they didn't die too quickly and making them suffer for as long as possible."

Yoruichi had a look of shock on her face as Gale continued.

"But, that isn't the only way they punished people. Sometimes they'll cover people in pitch and light them on fire before tossing them off a cliff. Other times they might strip a person naked and strap them inside a bathtub and force feed sweats until they had diarrhea and are vomiting uncontrolably as they slowly filled the tub with their excrement. Which usually attracts all sorts of bugs like Bloatflies and Radroaches who would either devour the person whole or lay eggs inside them which would hatch and slowly eat the person alive."

By this point Yoruichi had gone completely pale and I was starting to feel a little nauseous myself from the vivid descriptions.

"See" I looked towards Yoruichi "That is what's waiting for her if she's recaptured. She'd rather die out here in the middle of nowhere than go into town and risk having the Legion find her."

"...W-we can take care of her ourselves" Yoruichi stammered out.

"Would you really be okay with doing that" I put a hand on her shoulder "It will take a while for her to heal, long enough that we might not be able to find any more clues about the man who shot you. And besides" I said looking back over at Gale "Even though we saved her I don't think she actually trusts us completely and will probably feel safer once we're gone."

Gale blush and looked away ashamed silently agreeing with what I said.

"...But" Yoruichi muttered, and I pulled her into a light hug.

"I know how kind you are and that you only want to help. But, you have to realize that you might not always be able to help as much as you want to. The world's a complicated and dangerous place and sometimes bad things happen, and you have to make tough choices."

"Why are you both acting like I'm going to die the instant you leave" Gale snapped ruining the moment!

I let go of Yoruichi and looked back at Gale who was looking at us in anger.

"I survived for YEARS in that hell and there's no way I'm going to die out here in this shitty desert after finally escaping! So just get the hell out of here already and go deal with your own business I'll be okay on my own!"

"Fine" Yoruichi eventually sighed before giving me a bitter smile "I guess I still have a lot to learn, huh."

I shrugged "Yeah but, at least you have an excuse for being naive. When I inevitably do something stupid in the future, and you have to save my butt it'll be no one's fault but my own."

Yoruichi giggled "And I'll make sure to never let you forget it."

"Alright, stop flirting" Gale groaned "Just get going already! Didn't you say you were heading towards Primm? That's a good ways away, if you want to make it there before dark you'd better leave right now."

"She's right" I looked back towards Yoruichi who still looked like she didn't quite agree with this but, knew there was no other choice.

Now that we were all on the same page, I took out about a reasonable amount of meat for Gale along with that extra canteen of water and the 10mm Pistol I took from Thorn since I wasn't heartless enough to leave her out here completely unharmed. And as for the fact that the meat I left for her was completely raw I wasn't too worried about that since there was a firepit outside she could use to cook it up on her own.

As long as she was careful Gale should have enough resources to last a week or two which should be more than enough time for her to get back on her feet.

After saying one last goodbye to Gale the two of us stepped back out into the desert to continue our journey. As we walked into the distance, we suddenly heard a shout from behind us and turned to see Gale struggling to stand at the entrance of the camper.

"Hey" she screamed "If you're even in the Hub look me up at the Far Go Traders Company! I'll definitely repay my debt to you then!"

"Count on it" Yoruichi shouted back!

'Where have I heard of the Far Go Traders' I idly wondered as the camper finally disappeared behind us. 'Oh, well' I eventually shrugged and decided to ignore it because if it was important, I'd remember eventually.

After our initial adventure with Barton Thorn and the Gecko nest the rest of the walk to Prim was relatively uneventful.

We did pass by the Jean Sky Diving building which usually had a small Powder Ganger camp next to it but, the place was surprisingly deserted. I guess after their friends never came back from Goodsprings they decided to run away before they were killed too. Not that I minded since it had been another exhausting day and I knew a third was most likely coming tomorrow so I just enjoyed the peace and quiet while I had it.

We did stop briefly to loot the building but, there was nothing inside besides an old .357 Magnum that Yoruichi found inside a locker she picked open.

She even decided to keep the weapon even since she had realized after the fight with the Gecko Matriarch that she needed a ranged option to take care of monsters like that. Yoruichi originally pestered me to give her back the Grenade Rifle since she'd decided she actually really liked explosives. But, I still hadn't forgiven her for tricking me into letting her keep the Stealth Boy, so I refused and told her as much.

And in response she just pouted and called me a "Jerk."

After that nothing really of note happened as we followed the I-15 Highway towards Primm. We did run into the occasional lone Gecko or Bark Scorpion but, Yoruichi just used them as target practice for her new revolver.

Eventually almost six hours into our walk the sun finally set and we were forced to travel in the darkness.

Not that it was actually all that bad.

We were in no danger of getting lost since we only had to keep following the highway south and the endless starry sky and full moon above us cast everything in a pale light making it quite a bit brighter than you'd expect.

I wasn't even worried about being ambushed either since I'd be able to spot anything that tried to ambush us with VATS.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity we saw the shadows of a small town appear on the horizon. But, before we could even think about getting close we were stopped by a pair of patrolling NCR soldiers.

"Whoa, there you two" one of the soldiers leveled their rifle at us "Where do you think you're going? Primm's off limits!"

"The entire towns off limits" Yoruichi questioned? "How the hell does that happen?"

"Some convicts from the prison up the road have taken over the town, everyone inside is either dead or hiding" the soldier explained. "What's more there are two tribes of raiders claiming territory in the surrounding area the Jackals and the Vipers. So, you folks best make your way back up towards Goodsprings if you know what's good for you."

"No way" Yoruichi huffed! "We've already come way too far to turn around because of a couple escaped prisoners!"

The soldier shrugged "If you really want to get into that hell hole so badly, you'll want to go and talk to Lieutenant Hayes. He's in charge of our company and get the final say in stuff like this. Just don't go blaming to us when you're brutally murdered."

"Great take us to him" Yoruichi agreed.

"Sorry but, no" the soldier refused "He's already gone to bed and we're not going to wake him up for a couple of travelers. If you want to meet him, you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"That's perfect" I agreed "We've had a long day and could use some rest. Can you point us to a place we can set up our tents for the night?"

The two soldiers looked at each other before nodding "We'll escort to the entrance of our encampment. You can't actually stay the night inside the perimeter since neither of you are NCR personnel and that's against regulations. But, there's a couple of good spots you can set up in that are within sight of our sentries, so you don't have to worry about being attacked in your sleep."

"Just make sure to stay away from the entrance of town if you don't want to get killed" the other soldier spoke up for the first time "The convicts have been taking potshots and anyone who gets close."

"Thanks for the warning" I nodded before following after them.

"This sucks" Yoruichi crossed her arms! "It's just one thing after another! Why can't things be simple!"

"Yoruichi" I nervously laughed "I get the feeling that as long as the two of us are involved, nothing will ever be simple."

"Whatever" she sighed "Let's just get to bed, I have a feeling we're going to have to go on another massacre tomorrow."

"I have a feeling your right" I seconded that sigh already dreading what tomorrow would hold.