The Long Road to Hell.

(OOC: Securing first mortgage. Trying to find house. Dealing with agents. Dealing with landlord. Trying to figure out negotiation. Head imploding.)

Calvin half-smiled at Calico's annoyance with Lucinda, but it seemed like she wasn't the only one giving the robobrain dirty looks.

"Listen, Luce," he said, patted the bot affectionately on its braincase, "why don't you make way back to Megaton and hold down the fort there for a while? I saw the looks you were givin' that Deputy Weld junkheap. And I don't think we can keep it violence-free from here on out, honey."

"Deputy Weld treats his shotgun as if it were a vital component, not a peripheral. I will attempt to educate him in the ways of non-violent conflict resolution. And proper diction."

The bot rolled away at a brisk pace, treads kicking up twin clouds of dust. Calvin's smile widened, watching it. They'd been through a lot, and it wasn't poor Luce's fault she'd gone crazy.

"Alright, guess I'm ready to go get myself killed," he said lightly, falling in line behind Jarek.

(OOC: Sorry for short post. Can't seem to find my muses.)

Four nodded solemnly at Jarek's reply but he was genuinely surprised by it. Sure none amongst them seemed the harbinger-of-justice type, least of all the maniac that had captured him, but he had somehow expected this to be a heroic mission all the same. Casting another glance at the group he couldn't imagine how he'd mistaken them for bleeding hearts.

Calico smiled as she watched the retreating form of Lucinda. Good riddance. Here's hoping that junk heap gets lost on the way. She took up step a few feet behind Calvin, and began whistling a senseless, off-key tune.

Four sauntered after her, making a point not to follow behind her directly. He wasn't a dog, and he wouldn't act like one.

Lex took one last look around, making sure all evidence of their stay was gone. Sure there was none, she fell in line with the others; Acharon slung over one shoulder. Almost unconsciously, she began singing softly to herself. It was called "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond." and it had been Diar's favorite song on long trips like this. Lex herself had learned it from her father, who'd sing it every time they went to family reunions near Mt. Rainier. She didn't really care if the others heard her, but Lex doubted that any of them knew the words.

"By yon bonnie banks,
And by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love
Were ever want to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond"

The familiar song felt hollow without his voice. And it brought fond memories of her father and siblings, but with it came fond memories of her son; and painful memories of his death. she pushed the feelings aside as she continued to walk, now coming into the final verse.

It wouldn't be long now, a few more days and they'd be in Evergreen Mills; and she could finally put his ghost at ease.

(OOC: Apologies again, only just recovered from my birthday, hah)

As Jarek walked he listened curiously to Lex's singing, but soon found his mind starting to concentrate on other matters.

It had been such a long time since he had last faced them, last faced him that Jarek didn't even know if he would be recognized.
After all, they think I'm dead and they fucking fried half of my face anyway.

In all honesty he hoped they didn't recall him. Explaining to the rest of the group exactly what had led him down the path to this situation and why a bunch of raiders actually knew his name wasn't his idea of a good plan.
Not that he planned to let them close enough to see his face.

All the same, he wasn't going to be able confront that fucker without something he didn't want coming out into the open.
If they ever got that far.

Thinking about it, Jarek figured most of that group were probably dead by now or not even at Evergreen Mills. Most of the raiders there he would never have seen before, but it still worried him. As much as he hated and dreamed of blowing their brains out, he really didn't want to face that group again. The thought of the last time made him feel sick to the stomach.
I'm not that person anymore.

Jarek could feel anxiety and nausea creeping up on him. Taking a deep breath he forced himself to concentrate on keeping an eye and ear out.
I'll deal with it when it happens.

Just then, something caught his eye and he snapped out of his thoughts. Eyes focused, he recognized the erratic movements in the near distance and then, the sound of maniacal laughter.
Fucking raiders already.

Cursing, Jarek swiftly crouched down low behind some rocks as he gestured silently to the others to get down and nodded towards the source of the noise.
Luckily it seemed the small band of raiders hadn't spotted them yet. Raiders weren't exactly known for their observational skills, however they had what appeared to be two guard dogs and with the way the breeze was blowing it wouldn't be long before the dogs caught scent of the group.

Jarek silently chided himself. He would have seen them much sooner if he had been concentrating.
Speaking in a low, quiet voice he turned to the group.
"Fucking raiders. They have a couple of dogs with them too, as you can probably see. We're going to have to be quick."

With that, Jarek silently and quickly readied his sniper rifle and carefully positioned himself with a good sight on the raiders.
There wasn't much cover aside from some small rocks and boulders but it was going to have to do.

(OOC: No dogs were harmed in the making of this post.)

Calico had spotted the Raiders a moment before Jarek did, but her reaction was much different. Fuckin' eh. Time to see what these kids can do.

She drew her Hunting Rifle and split off from the group, walking out in a wide arc towards the Raiders. This would put her out of her companion's line of fire and, if the Raiders charged her, leave the others open for flanking. She walked slowly and deliberately, sizing up her targets. The dogs should be taken out first... Not that they're dangerous at long range, but once they get in close they're a fucking pain. Calico grinned and twisted her neck to one side, producing a sick cracking sound.

Four ducked down next to Jarek and pulled the scope from his pocket. He peered through it for a moment, inspecting each enemy in turn. He muttered under his breath to the man at his side, "Half the troupe has guns, the others seem to be wearing a variety of melee weapons and... Fuck..." He broke off, stuffing the scope away, and reaching for his own sniper rifle "One of them has a flamer."

He froze, hand halfway to his gun, when he spotted Calico wandering off. What the fuck is she doing?!

Calico kept her eyes on the group as she moved, amazed they hadn't spotted her yet. She slowed to a stop on a flat bit of earth and idly kicked a few small rocks away. Good place to make a stand. Alright, lets do this. She brought her rifle up and took aim at one of the dogs. It's head was back, frantically sniffing the air. She figured it must just be picking up their scent. Too little, too late. The gun erupted in her hands, a thunderous crash breaking the eerie silence of the wastes, as the first dog crumpled to the ground. She turned to the next one without hesitation and pulled the trigger. Click. Nothing happened. No deafening bang, no recoil, and most importantly, no dead dog. ... Jammed. "... Shit."

Oh fuck no.

Jarek felt his stomach lurch as he heard Four mention the flamer. A quick look through the site on his rifle confirmed it.

"They fucking well would have wouldn't they" he mumbled partly to himself and partly to Four.

Taking aim at the flame throwing raider he could feel his hands shaking, but he knew it wasn't all from adrenaline.
Of all the things in the world that set deep panic and dread into Jarek's mind was fire. And most of all, fucking crazy people wielding it.

Fuck's sake Jarek, it's not the time and place to lose it, pull yourself together. You knew this was going to happen.

He'd always known they were bound to come across a raider with a flamer at some point in this mission, but his fear didn't help him rationalize. It never got easier, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let that thing close enough to do any damage. Jarek still had a lot of his body scar free and he preferred to keep it that way.
Taking a deep breath to calm the creeping panic, he lined the raider up in his site.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the almost deafening sound of gunshot went off to his side and one of the dogs dropped down dead.
Then all hell broke loose amongst the raiders.
Jarek stopped for a moment, his target suddenly running towards the source of the shot. Except it wasn't anywhere near where he and Four were and where he figured the rest of the group would have been.

Still crouched down, he turned to see Calico off on her own, out of cover and about to take another shot.

The woman is fucking crazy.

But then nothing. No shot sounded, only an eerie pause as realization set in.

It's jammed.

"Oh fuck. What in the hell is she doing over there, she's a sitting duck!" he exclaimed, his eyes growing wider as the raiders and their remaining guard dog gained on Calico's position.
Thinking quickly, he lined his sniper rifle up, tracking the rapidly approaching raiders. Thankfully the one with the flamer was predictably going the slowest, so they had a few precious seconds. However the dog was almost upon Calico and one of the raiders had already stopped and was preparing to fire their hunting rifle at her. It was only going to be a matter of seconds before they saw the rest of the group, if they hadn't already.

Not thinking, or having any idea what anyone else was doing, he shouted to the man at his side.
"Four, take the fucking dog out it's almost on her!"

He knew someone would have to take that raider out before they pulled the trigger and he didn't have time to explain or even see if anyone else had noticed.
If the bastard fired it was going to hit her a hell of a lot faster and harder than the dog.
Lining his shot up he felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he had to get this shot.
Jarek pulled the trigger.

The raiders body fell to it's knees and keeled over, half of his face spread across the ground.
Taking a deep breath Jarek turned to line up another target.
It had really started now.

OOC: sorry for the lack of postage, we've been experiencing technical difficulties, I'll tell more in an OOC post later)

Lex didn't hesitate; swinging Acheron around, she bolted for the raiders. Fucking stupid kid, true, she'd drawn attention away from the rest of the group, but at this rate she'd have them all dead before long. She fired several rounds into the Raider taking aim, his body crumpled before she reached his position. The took down two more before sprinting towards Calico; unhitching her combat shotgun from her pack along the way. Coming up beside the girl, she threw the weapon towards her.

"I want that back, got me?" she shouted over the din. Taking aim she emptied the rest of her magazine into the other dog. Dropping the epmty, she quickly grabbed another from her belt and reloaded.

Lex was going to tear that girl a structurally superfluous anal cavity, that was for damn sure.

The tone in Jarek's voice caused Four to pause and give the other man another look over. He had noted the burns before but never put much thought into their origins; now it seemed almost painfully obvious. It's a certain type of fire that makes burns like that. He grimaced and returned his attention to Calico. Her first shot was true but the second never came.

For an uneasy moment he thought she had planned this, but as the seconds drug out and the Raiders got closer to her his uncertainty turned to immobilizing horror, They'll tear her apart...

Jarek's barked order broke him from his trance and he fumbled for the gun at his back. The man beside him had already dispatched one of the Raiders by the time he took aim at the beast barreling towards his captor. It was the first time he'd fought sober in years If I do anything right in my miserable life... let this be it. He inhaled deeply, held his breath, and pulled the trigger. A small puff of dust was kicked up as his bullet hit just shy of his target but the dog fell dead anyway, gunned down by Lex as she charged towards Calico.

Calico tossed her rifle away furiously before reaching for the .32 on her hip. The miniscule voice of reason in her head murmured that she should try to calm down and think clearly, but it might as well have been suggesting she flailed her arms around in an attempt to take flight. "Motherfucking son of a bitch!"

Her first shot took out a female raider that was charging her, ripper in hand. She took aim at the next one in time to see it blown away. Glancing over her shoulder she spotted Lex coming up behind her and managed to turn just in time to catch the shotgun that was thrown her way and the accompanying warning. A sick grin split her face as she cocked the powerful gun, "Got ya."

She turned towards her unfortunate opponents with a practiced grace and opened fire into the stampeding marauders.

Jarek turned his attention to the remaining raiders.
With a sickening feeling he soon realized the bitch with the flamer was fast approaching his and Four's position, screaming obscenities in their general direction, her eyes blazing with hatred.

Get it together you idiot.

Taking another shaky breath he lined the screaming woman up in his sites and pulled the trigger.

Jarek's eyes widened as he watched the bullet swiftly make it's course.
The raider woman gasped and stumbled back, the bullet lightly grazing her shoulder.

It fucking missed.

Deep panic kicked in as he realized one of his worst fears was rapidly becoming reality.
By now, she was almost upon them, certainly within reach of her deadly weapon.

Jarek knew he shouldn't have had a problem hitting her when she was so close. He knew he should and could have moved out of the reach of the flames, knew he should try and fire another shot into the raiders snarling face, but he couldn't move.
He was frozen by the sheer horror and realization that he was so close to being consumed by flames again. His eyes locked with the crazed woman's.

Then the memories came flooding to the surface.

Jarek was on the floor. The leering, laughing faces of the raiders who knew his name holding him down. He was in agony, his legs and arms were bound and broken and his body was beaten. The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air and Jarek was choking.
They had slowly and systematically murdered his family, his friends, everyone he had known in front of his face and he couldn't do a thing except scream that he would kill them, as they forced him to watch.

They made them think I planned it, they made them think it was me.

"You're fucking pathetic Jarek, do you know that?"
The man who spoke he knew all too well. He was the man who had taken him from this place many months ago, the one who he thought was going to change his life for the better. The reality had been so very different and the hard cold realization of his sheer, foolish naivety crept up on him.

The man was screaming now, his face contorted in rage.
"You motherfucking son of a bitch! I'll make you feel real fucking pain for what you did to us. You and your fucking zombie freak show family!"

Jarek didn't speak a word. He didn't have anything left to say. His mind was numb.

The man spat at him and turned away in disgust.
"Burn the fucker. Make it slow."
Jarek closed his eyes as the flames and searing pain overwhelmed him, the sound of sadistic laughter ringing in his ears.

Coming back to his senses, he realized the laughter wasn't just a memory. The raider woman was laughing in his face, her eyes were lit with anticipation as she readied the flamer.
Jarek closed his eyes.

Four took aim at another one of the Raiders charging Calico. His initial anxiety was slowly being replaced by adrenaline and with each passing second the prospect of actually hitting something seemed less daunting. The strange thing was, he recognized this feeling. All these years he assumed it was the drugs that gave him the courage to fight but as he pulled the trigger and watched the knee of one of the lunatics disintegrate he felt a familiar, clear intensity overtake him. He fired again, taking the downed man's head off.

Two shots left... Better make them count.

It wasn't until he was lining up his next shot that a nagging feeling settled in the back of his mind, Something isn't right... He tried to push the thought away but it kept returning. After a moment he lowered his gun slightly, knowing he wouldn't hit if he wasn't entirely focused and he couldn't afford to waste the bullets.

Now isn't the fuckin' time for... A mad cackle broke off his train of thought as he looked up to see a squalid woman bearing down on them, flamer at the ready, and Jarek sitting stock still beside him. Shock and horror replaced the calm he had managed to build up instantly, but by some small miracle he didn't freeze. Swinging the sniper rifle around he fired twice. The first shot went uselessly wide but the second hit it's mark, exploding into the Raider's thigh.

The woman shrieked and staggered back, lowering her weapon for a crucial second. Four cast his gun aside with a snarl. He wouldn't have time to reload now, not now that she was so close. Instead he leapt over the rocks they had been using for cover, darting towards the injured woman with a speed he barely knew he possessed. Her head snapped up and she brought the flamer up with a curse but he was already upon her.

Twisting past the barrel of the heinous machine he fired a punch out, connecting with the woman's jaw and sending her sprawling.

(OOC: I hope no one minds, but I'm getting tired of fighting this "small group of raiders". if I need to I'll edit and leave a few more baddies for someone else lol)


A silence had settled over Lex's mind, she was so focused on each shot that the sounds of gunfire and screams were blotted out. With a lifetime of practice, the only things that seemed to really exist were her and her gun. Like an extension of herself, Acheron hit every target she lined up. Knowing full well that the shot she had just fired into the oncoming raiders chest was that last in that magazine; she hit the catch and sent it to the dirt with a thud. Grabbing another from her belt, she quickly reloaded and aimed again. there were four, maybe five raiders left in the small party, lex expected the wounded remnants to try and run any time now; Raiders were not known for their reliability in battle. Kill enough of them, and the cowards would flee.

Beside her, Calico was butchering Raiders left and right with the Shotgun; no less than she had expected when she had given the girl her spare gun. Most of the remaining Raiders were barely equipped with some sort of melee weapon, she deftly loosed three rounds into a boy Jarek's age wielding a pool cue. Lex had lost track of the psycho with the flamer, she assumed that Jarek had made a priority kill out of that one. Slipping behind a boulder to her left, Lex switched Acheron for her sniper rifle, her gut feeling that the last two or so raiders would flee. Checking the magazine, she reemerged from behind the rock to see that she was right.

Taking aim, she could barely make out Calico shouting some obscenity towards the Raiders quickly retreating backs. sighting the cowards in her scope, Lex dropped the two of them quickly, reciting a mental curse on their graves. She turned to Calico to say something when she saw the flamer woman advancing on Jarek and Four. Jarek was frozen still while Four connected a punch to the raider's jaw. without thinking she took careful aim and sent a .308 straight into her brain.

(OOC: Thanks for the heads up that the thread was active, Calico! My participation is going to be spotty, since our offer on a home got accepted (yay!) and now it's time for paperwork, negotiation, and working extra hours to save up for remodeling. Ugh. Anyway, I thought that instead of being a dead weight, I'd come up with a reason for old Cal to step out of the fray for a while. And look like an incompetent dingus, too! I'll keep checking the thread when I can and looking for a good place to jump back in.)

Calvin felt the old brittle calm settle into his solar plexus as the firefight exploded around him, his gun finding its way to his hand as if of its own desire. Though he would strenuously protest it with his conscious mind, over the years some older, darker part of him had grown to enjoy the chance to pick of a few more human predators, the way some sadistic part of him had enjoyed stomping ants as a child.

Still, his gun didn't have much in the way of range, unless his goal was to leave a raider really pissed off but still able to shoot. He began creeping closer to the ragtag band of raiders, low to the ground, his earth-toned leathers helping him blend into the ground. He circled a good ways around the group, took cover in a stand of sickly brush, and readied his shot.

But he'd spent too much focus on hiding, and not enough on seeking. Before his finger could depress the trigger, he felt a sharp, startling burn as a thin, none-too-sharp blade made its home in one of his kidneys. He half rolled as he slumped, facing his attacker: a young woman, pretty but too thin, her knife dripping with his blood in one hand and a wicked assemblage of wood and metal in the other. Perhaps more disturbing than comforting, her eyes held none of the jet-crazed wildness of the usual raider. She looked solemn, intelligent, contented.

He whipped up the barrel of his shotgun to aim at her midsection, the movement awkward from the flaring pain in his side. Before he could complete the motion, her makeshift club sped through the air and connected with his temple, mangling his ear and knocking all the light and air right out of him.

Homerun... was his last, weakly amused thought before he sank into the black.

The woman waited until he'd stopped twitching before casually looping his arm around her shoulders and hustling him out of sight before the fight had a chance to end. He didn't weigh much. She left his shotgun where it had fallen--she wanted his friends to find it. Most of the other raiders didn't grasp the concept of hostages, finding too much joy in instant butchering, but most of them didn't care about living to see the next sunrise, either. She'd seen the way this zombie's allies fought, and had an idea of the danger they could do to the Mills if they were the only ones planning any surprises.

Not that she planned to tell anyone else what she'd witnessed. For all she cared, the stupid ones could burn.

But she sure as hell wasn't going to burn along with them. Not with her new ace up her sleeve.

She noogied the ghoul affectionately in the bloody bruise spidering out from his temple as the last shots rang out far behind her.

Four recoiled sharply as the head of the Raider in front of him disintegrated in a spray of blood, brains and bone fragments. His first thought was to take cover lest the next bullet be in his head, but a moment's more consideration reminded him that the shooter was on his side. He looked at the bloody corpse with a grimace and felt a strange sense of familiarity looking at the wrecked woman before him. Without her face she could have been any of the girls from his old troupe and for the first time the thought really struck him that he wouldn't see them again.

Dropping to his knees he began rooting through the cadaver's pockets, taking whatever he found without a second thought.

Calico laughed bitterly as Lex took out the last of the Raiders. Turning slowly she studied the desolate land around her, looking for something more to shoot. Damn... must have got them all.

Taking time now to actually study the weapon in her hand she smiled darkly. The combat shotgun had been her weapon of choice a few years back, but she found they weren't worth the hassle in the end, Fuckin' near shake themselves apart. Striding over to Lex she offered the gun butt first and grinned, "Nice moves. It's damn refreshing to team up with someone who can actually fight for once."

Lex took the offered weapon with a smirk. least she gave it back she thought to herself wryly. Checking the magazine, she found that Calico had left three shells in it, how considerate. with a curt nod, she replaced the shotgun on her pack and collapsed her rifle, also returning it to it's place.

"Wouldn't be standing here if I didn't." she finally replied, with a little less sarcasm than she normally would. looking about her, she saw that all were alive and counted for...except...

"Where's Calvin?" she asked tensely, he probably wasn't the type to run if a fight broke out. Lex had briefly wondered where he'd been during the skirmish, but had shrugged it off as her mind blocking out all but where her next bullet was going. Calico seemed surprised at the question, she'd probably done the same thing.

Calico jerked her head around at Lex's question, scanning their surroundings. No sign of him... "Son of a... Coward took off!" She crossed her arms moodily, and blew a rogue hair from her face. "So now we're down a gun... Great. I mean, don't get me wrong, I can take the camp on my own if I have to... but the more eyes watching my back the better."

Four turned the corpse over and took the last bit of gear, a few bottle caps and a pack of darts, carefully stowing each item away. He could hear Calico and Lex talking but couldn't be bothered to listen. Calico sounds indignant though, which can't be good. He stood and stretched, looking out over the carnage, and began to make his way towards the next body.

He stopped after a few steps, a sense of wrongness nagging at his mind, turning around he saw Jarek sitting in place, a haunted and horrified look settled across his features.

"Jarek?" An edge of concern made it's way into his voice, despite his best attempts to hide it. He didn't have to ask what that look was from, if his guess was right a smoldering gun like the one a few feet away had dealt the disfiguring scars his temporary companion wore. He didn't know how much trauma the weapon could stir up with it's wielder dead but they didn't exactly have time to figure it out. He hefted the big gun onto his back and began to make his way towards a small thatch of brush a little ways off.

Jarek opened his eyes.
It seemed almost like slow motion as he saw Four leap towards the raider and then the sound of Lex's gunshots broke through, finally silencing the psychotic woman.

At first, it didn't really register in Jarek's mind that the fight was over. All he could think of was the flash backs and the memory of immense pain as he slumped to the floor. He wasn't burning though, not this time.
It had been some time since he had one that severe. Normally they haunted him in his sleep and that was bad enough, but as reality flooded back, the thought of his flash backs returning like this disturbed him.
You idiot, how did you let this happen?
He clenched his fists in frustration. He felt pathetic.

Jarek didn't look up as Four said his name. He just continued to stare at the dusty ground as he realized he had nearly had himself and Four killed due to his inaction.

Glancing up for a moment as he heard Four come back over towards him, he watched as the flame thrower was hauled away.
Jarek frowned. He could swear the man actually had some concern in his voice and he was taking the gun away?

Hauling himself back up on his feet, Jarek brushed himself down and breathed in, slowly.
He was worried, he had to admit. If this happened again, and hell he hoped it didn't, it would probably have some nasty consequences.
The truth was though, he just couldn't control it. He didn't know if the others had seen him freeze up, but if they had....fuck knows what they thought. However, he did knowFour had seen what happened.
Jarek watched as Four walked towards the brush up ahead. Perhaps he had the man all wrong, or perhaps he was getting too soft in the head.

Walking quickly Jarek soon caught up with him.
"Four", he started, "Uhm..thanks for back there.." he paused momentarily, not sure what to say. "It's ok about that though." He nodded towards the flamer. Jarek stopped and half turned away, looking towards the others. "It won't happen again."
Not waiting for an answer he started to walk towards to the others, wondering if Four figured he was lying or not.

Four turned when he heard his name called from behind. He let the flamer come to hang at his side as Jarek approached and spoke to him. He did nothing more than nod as Jarek finished his explanation.

It wasn't until the other man turned and began walking away that he was sure he was finished and took the chance to speak, "Yeah. I figured I'd hide this anyway... last thing we need is another asshole finding it..."

He watched the retreating back a moment longer before speaking up to catch Jarek's attention, "Hey!" He lowered his voice after that, hoping to keep it at a level only he and Jarek could still hear, "One of my brothers was mauled by a dog when we were young. It wasn't too bad, I mean... he survived fairly intact. Thing is, he could never stand the sight of dogs after that. He was a crazy fucker too... Shoot first, ask questions later, if he bothered to ask them at all type of guy. Put a dog in front of him though, even a friendly one, and he froze up..." He trailed off, realizing that was probably the most he'd spoken in a few years at least. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd offered that information up to begin with. "Just saying... I know. I get it."

Seeing that Four and Jarek were back in action, Calico called to them, her voice laced with annoyance, "Calvin fucked off!"

Four sighed heavily and turned back to the task at hand. Shit... if we're down another gun it's going to make this that much harder. Our odds were bad to begin with, but now... As he came upon the brush and began to shift it to better hide the flamer something behind it caught his eye.
Blood... And quite a bit of it... But no body. Leaving the big gun where it lay he made his way around the bushes to find his second surprise in so many minutes.

"I can't believe this! I mean, if he couldn't handle a few Raiders out in the open wastes, why the hell did he agree to come with us to the Mills? Well it's a damn good thing he decided to run off now before we got there, that's all I can say." Calico was still fuming when Four approached, a familiar and weathered shotgun in his hands.

"I have a feeling he didn't run anywhere." He spoke tensely, holding the weapon up, "Certainly not without this."

Jarek stopped walking and turned to Four in surprise.

He hadn't expected the man to talk to him at any length, never mind the fact he seemed to be trying to make him feel better.
Jarek nodded his head slightly in acknowledgment and was just about to reply when Calico shouted over to them, the anger apparent in her voice.

"What the fuck?" Jarek exclaimed, turning to frown at Calico and Lex, astonishment and anger spreading across his face.
This wasn't something he had expected of Calvin, at all.
He wouldn't have done that, would he?
"Is this some kind of fucked up joke or what? Why the hell would he just run off?"

Striding over to Calico and Lex, his rage was quickly cut short by Four's appearance, gun in hand.

Jarek stopped, his mouth half open, staring at the gun in disbelief.
"Ok, this is really messed up."

Hundreds of scenarios were spinning through Jarek's mind. Where had he gone? He wouldn't have ran off without his gun, that was obvious. Had he been dragged away by a Yao Guai or a Deathclaw? Not likely, they would have just ripped him to pieces where he was and that would have left a hell of a lot of mess. And Super Mutants? They weren't exactly hard to spot and wouldn't have just taken one of the group.
It only left two possible answers. Raiders or slavers. But then, that wasn't really how either of them operated. Not usually anyway, but there were exceptions as he knew all too well.

Especially with the Mill's raiders, or at least, some of them.

A shiver went down Jarek's spine and he frowned as he spoke.
"I'm guessing there's no bloodied gore pile and all the rest of us are here, so that rules out some of the obvious.
It must be raiders or slavers, the son's of bitches. Fuck knows where he will be, unless he's been taken to the Mills.
Four, where did you find the gun? Was there any blood?"

Four nodded his head towards the stunted bushes he had just returned from, "Some blood, yeah. The dirt is kicked up a bit too, but it's mostly deadpan so no useful tracks..." He looked unsure, chancing a quick glance at Calico, "At least... None that I saw."

Calico marched past him without another word, her mouth set in a grim line. Motherfucker.

She slowed to a stop as she rounded the bush. Blood had never really bothered her but the idea that the red smears, that were slowly becoming red mud, had been spilled from the veins of one of her companions. True, she hadn't known Calvin long, but he has always reminded her of an old friend. That alone was enough to set her blood boiling.

Meticulously she circled the crime scene, searching the ground for anything that may help. She had never been much of a tracker, but one could always hope. Eventually she found what she was looking for. In a particularly dusty stretch of earth she could clearly make out two sets of tracks. Use tracks loosely, the second set look more like drag marks. Unfortunately after a few steps the sand gave way to the parched, unrelenting turf. She could keep going straight and probably pick up the trail in the next bit of dirt, but if Calvin's captor were to change their route on one of these such dry spots they'd never be able to track them.

She turned to face the others, her hands on her hips, "Okay. So now what?"

Lex crouched near the scene; lightly biting her knuckle in thought. True; the surrounding dirt had been churned up a bit, but nothing that looked like an outright struggle. There was blood, but not as much as she'd first thought; and it wasn't bright. she took up a bit of the ruddy sand and passed it across her fingers; is was damp, but not wet. Judging by the heat, and the length of their previous scuffle; she'd guess it couldn't be more than thirty minutes old. She brushed off her hands on her pant-legs as she stood; looking at the scene around her.

"Well; s'far as I can tell he ain't dead... yet. Blood's the wrong color to be worrying about that just yet." she said; coming to stand near Calico, to get a better look at what she'd found. there was a set of smallish, but deep; footprints in the blood dampened sand. Next to them were two semi-parallel drag marks. Lex scowled at the marks; looking for all the world as if the depressions in the sand had just colorfully insulted her mother.

"I've got a pretty good idea of where he is..." she said lowly, seeing all of the pieces fall into place.

Jarek walked over to where Lex was inspecting the ground and nodded his head at her comment.

"The Mill's raiders" he started, "they take people as slaves."

He knew it was fairly likely. They weren't far from Evergreen Mills and the raiders there weren't your usual wasteland psychos. Besides, the drag marks were heading roughly in that direction.

((OOC: I'm moving this thread to the archives due to inactivity. Jarek and I will be starting anew if anyone else wants to join us ))