Chapter 2: Follow

>You awake to an unpleasant weight on your thighs
>God dammit, everything below your knees feel like white noise because of it
>You look down as see Gracie laying on the cot using you as a pillow
>Unceremoniously, you push her off causing a yelp of surprise
>You start massaging your calves trying to return blood flow to them as she looks at you rubbing her head tenderly
>"What was that for!? I was comfortable!"
>Her eyes focus on you rubbing your legs
>"What's wrong Anon?"
>You scowl and continues trying to return the feeling to your legs
>"You cut off the blood flow to my legs and now they're numb, also I'm not your pillow"
>She looks at you with her odd colored eyes
>"Oh... you were just so warm and your legs looked comfy"
>You frown and kick each leg out bit by bit, regaining control and feeling in them
>Although a nap is all you wanted you feel like you slept much longer than a few hours
>A quick check of your pip Boy showed it was 3 am
>Perfect
>"Well Gracie it's been fun, See ya later"
>You weren't going to see her later, but it felt better than just saying "bye don't die"
>A quick check through your things showed you that you were ready
>Gracie stares at you as you stand
>"You...uh.. you don't have to leave Anon! I can share the cave with you! It's safer in here"
>You smile a bit and nod
>"Thanks for the offer, but I can't just hide away in a cave while the world is out there, I've already hid before and I'm done with it"
>You turn and walk out of the chamber and down the ramp to the entrance of the cave
>No need for long goodbyes, no need to drag out the inevitable
>As you pass through the mouth of the cave, you breath in the dry Mojave air
>When it's night time it's not too hot out at least
>Your boots stir up dust as you walk swiftly through the desert, checking your pip boy occasionally to make sure you were going in the right direction
>West of the abandoned ranch, North of New Nipton
>There are supposedly caves around here full of coyotes and and non-anthro night stalkers
>Not what you were hunting today, or any day really; no point in kicking a hornet nest
>As you skirt the craggy outcroppings of tall, you spot the place you were heading
>Jack Rabbit Springs, the info from Mojave outpost was true to its words
>Brownish steam was the tell-tale sign of where it was
>You stop and kneel down, scrolling through your pip boy inventory
>Rad-x, definitely don't want to get radiation poisoning
>A sound behind you causes you whip around pointing the ratslayer in the direction of the noise
>A soft thud is heard and a bit of dust is kicked up from a falling body
>But you hadn't shot yet
>You wave aside some of the dust and spot the perpetrator
>Gracie
>She must have followed you
>You sigh and lower the rifle
>"Gracie what are you doing here?! Go back to your cave"
>A moment passes before she opens an eye at you
>Again with this bullshit
>"Get up!" you snap, causing her to squeak in surprise and scramble to her feet
>"Uh Hi Anon! fancy meeting you here!" she says rubbing a hand over her scaled head while avoiding eye contact
>You frown
>"Gracie what are you doing here?"
>She looks up at you
>"I uh, I don't want to hide anymore, like you said there is a whole world to see"
>"And what does that have to do with me?" You say turning from her
>You scan the hills for anything that might have heard you
>Nothing so far, which is good
>"You're the only person I know that hasn't tried to kill me, so I uhm, I followed you. Is that ok?"
>You rub your face, traveling alone had its drawbacks, and she hadn't tried to kill you
>"Fine, but-"
>Your words are cut short by monsterous yelling
>"GAAAH WHERE'S THAT NOISE COMING FROM!!?"
>From over the nearest hill comes a Green super mutant and several Centaurs
>Ugh those things gave you the creeps
>A flash of fire zooms overhead, telling you the mutant had an incinerator
>But he can't see you in the pitch dark of the night, the fact he's firing wildly tells you that much
>Again you hear the soft thump of a body hitting the sand
>You look back to Gracie and see She's playing dead again
>"God dammit Gracie now is NOT the time for that!” you say sidestepping and aiming down your scope
>The ratslayer is your only silenced weapon, and silenced weapons aren't quite your thing
>But it had a night vision scope letting you see the mutants face
>And letting you see the bullet hole you put between his eyes
>As the mutant falls, his incinerator goes off one more time, lighting one of the centaurs on fire
>the screeching sound it makes as it burns will haunt your nightmares
>You stash the rat slayer and draw out your Light machine gun
>No need for the night vision anymore, the burning centaur showed you right where the other ones are
>Controlled bursts of gunfire, bright flashes from the muzzle of your gun
>The smell of gunpowder and burning flash
>This is what you lived for
>They fall quickly, without their super mutant master to guide them, they can only meander slowly towards you
>Blood runs in small streams down the hill, and you stand with a smile on your face
>Well that's a good payday, hopefully you get paid enough to compensate the bullets you fired
>You hear Gracie stirring as you walk to the super mutant
>How the pip boy's devil magic works, you don't know, but it lets you carry so many guns and gear
>You disappear your LMG and draw out a machete and hack off the mutants hands
>"Gracie get up we're going"
>Gracie sits up and looks at you as you pick up the incinerator and place it into your inventory
>"Ew why are you talking the hand? you're not gonna eat it are you"
>The thought makes you shudder a bit
>"Need proof its dead , they won't trust me just at my words"
>She gags a bit as you toss the hand to her
>"EW EW EW! GROSS!"
>You look her up and down more intently this time
>Wide hips, very wide hips, and small breasts
>God damn this snakedog brings a whole new meaning to "child bearing hips"
>But she is still just wearing rags
>Hm maybe you have something
>As she wipes mutant blood off herself you scroll through your pip boy
>A Merc Cruiser outfit is the only clothes you have, Plus a Vexillarius helmet to hide her scales
>If people think she's just a wolf anthro there shouldn't be much of an issue
>"Here put these on, hurry up we got places to go" you say tossing the cloths to her
>She fumbles the clothes a bit and drops the helmet all together
>"Wha? Why?"
>You motion to her
>"You're practically naked and that helmet should hide that you're a night stalker"
>She sniffs the coyote head and makes a disgusted face
>"Smells like someone died in this"
>You smile as she pulls it on
>"Someone did die in it, come on, we're heading to New Nipton"
>You start walking quickly and hear her stumble a bit to catch up with you
>"New Nipton? What happened to old nipton?"
>you frown thinking about it
>News from it had even reached you on Nellis
>The Legion came and crucified the whole town, holding a lottery of who would live and who would die
>Now the town was run by ex-fiends, ex-vipers and ex-legionaries
>After that courier showed up out of nowhere and murdered Caesar most legionaries joined raider gangs
>Some stayed where they were and formed mini slave camps
>Cottonwood Cove is- was one of those
>As soon as you got your Gobi Campaign scout rifle, you took them all out
>Slavers were worse than super mutants
>"Hurry up! I want to get to new nipton before the sun rises"
>"Why what's the rush Anon?" she says as she catches up with your quick pace
>As you walk you check your pip-boy and stop
>Drawing out ratslayer, you hand it to her
>"Look down that way, and you'll see why we need to hurry"
>You point in the direction and she moves the scope back and forth a few times trying to get it to focus
>"I see just a lot of sand"
>You grab the barrel of the gun and slowly move it, using the pip-boy as a compass to the threat
>"I don't see an-"
>She gasps loudly
>"What are THOSE!?"
>You pull the rifle away from her and look down the scope
>Radscorpions; dozens of them, some small, some bigger than a deathclaw
>"Those are radscorpions, they must smell the blood from the centaurs and want a free meal, and if they see us, we're on the menu"
>You start walking again,
>After 40 minutes of walking you see the outskirts of the town
>The sun rises in front of you as you walk quickly
>A quick resupply in town then back to camp Mccarran
>You check the time
>7 am, you had made good time
>As you walk through the town, you can almost feel the uneasiness
>A Human wearing blood stained leather armor with a bomber jacket, and what to them looks like a wolf anthro wearing a legion helmet
>Not a pretty sight for these guys and gals, you probably look like the grim reaper
>A sign on one of the buildings reads "general store"
>You push the door open and head inside only to have a double barrel shotgun in your face
>"What's your business here outsider?!"
>The man holding the shotgun is trembling as he eyes you
>He looks over to Gracie, eyes wide as he looks at her helmet
>Just the chance you need
>You grab the shotgun and pull it out of his hands
>"Rude, I was just here to resupply before leaving"
>Popping open the shotgun you pull out the shells and hand him the unloaded gun
>"Uh, yes of course, sorry. I'm afraid we don't have anything here, the NCR folks from Mojave outpost bought all our goods"
>You frown at that
>Well there goes that plan
>"Anywhere we can stay for a bit and cook up some food then?"
>He shakes his head
>"Sorry stranger, people around here aren't too keen to let outsiders in. There's a cave behind city hall with a door and a lock on it, if you can get into that you can stay there safely"
>You hear Gracie groan behind you
>"Ugh another cave"
>You sigh and leave, pulling Gracie behind you
>"I know another cave isn't the ideal situation but if it has a lock it’s somewhere we can rest up for a while and eat"
>She grabs your arm as she looks around
>"Anon this place is scary, why did we come here anyway?"
>You had to agree it was a bit scary with all the stares you were getting, this place had seen better days
>"I had hoped to get a few stimpaks and some bullets before heading to the strip"
>As you leave town you head directly behind city hall
>Checking your pip-boy , the location of the cave is highlighted on your screen
>About a mile from town, and hidden in a rocky outcropping
>You walk with Gracie still latched onto you,
>At least she didn't play dead in town
>The door to the cave is hidden well enough
>Lucky you had learned a fair bit of lock picking from your limited time in freeside
>"Watch my back"
>You kneel in front of the door and pull a bobby pin out of your pocket, jamming it in the lock and twist it around looking for the sweet spot
>After a minute of 2 and a few curses thrown at the lock you're able to open the door
>Inside is a a small cache, lanterns and a radiation suit
>No bed or anything but you can make due with your bedroll
>In the cache there are just a few cans of cram, and some sunset sarsaparilla
>Eh not a perfect meal but food is food
>You recall hearing about a herd of wild bighorners north of Novac, maybe you should hunt some
>Opening a can of cram you hand it to Gracie and open one for yourself
>You dig in, eating with a hunting knife while Gracie just uses her long tongue to scoop out chucks on the meat paste
>While you had slept a fair bit earlier, you were tired, walking about 15 miles and killing a mutant takes a lot out of you
>Clicking through your pip-boy you find your bed roll in your inventory and magic it up
>Gracie watches you as you unroll it near one of the rock walls
>Lucky you had a pillow
>You sit on the bed roll and lean back against the stonewall , your back and head supported by your pillow
>"You're going to sleep sitting? That's weird" Gracie says crawling over to you
>You stifle back a yawn
>"Yea, it's just how I am"
>The last thing you do is pull out your LMG and set it next to you
>"And you sleep with your gun? I'm not gonna interrupt anything am i?" Gracie says in a teasing voice
>You grunt in annoyance as you charge it
>"If anyone or anything decides it wants in, I would rather have it ready"
>You motion to the door that's directly across from you, your back against the wall so you can face it directly
>"Oh..Yea, that makes sense"
>Gracie scooches a bit closer, eyeing the long unused part of the bedroll
>"Ca-can I use the bedroll too Anon? and use your legs as a pillow again? I promise not to make your legs go numb"
>You sigh
>"Yea fine, just roll up your shirt or something as cushioning"
>She slips her jacket off and folds in up placing it on your lap before laying her head down
>"Goodnight Anon"
>You put a hand on your LMG and the other on Gracie's side
>Maybe having someone to talk to wasn't so bad
>You should give her a gun too
>But that's a thought for another time
>"Goodnight Gracie"
>You can already hear her hissing snores as you drift off to sleep