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Crunch crunch crunch.Each step Lucy Maclean carried out always sounded the same. The ground was always dry and withered away exactly like the rest of this new world was.Before she left vault 33, footsteps would sound more metallic and loud, you could never sneak about unless you crept without shoes on. But the thing about metal was that it was cold, and sneaking about as a child to meet her friends at night or to get out of chores was almost worth it less than cold feet.Oh how Lucy wished her only concern was cold feet now.Crunch crunch crunch.You definitely couldn’t take your shoes off out here that was for sure, unless you wanted to step on something poisonous or get infected with a radiated bug somehow.It was entirely possible that these tiny dry cracks in the ground could house a whole radiated, creepy little bug army ready for the possibility of easy pickings…looking back on her first few days out here the vault dweller was proud that at least her very naive mind to this new world didn’t think to take her shoes off before she went to sleep.Lucy shivered at picturing basically her worst nightmare of bugs and shoes and ew ew ew think of something happier Lucy!Being deep in thoughts was probably not the best thing for the girl to be doing and that thought only amplified when she noticed that her steps were now accompanied and being overlapped by other crunching.The girl looked up from her shoes to notice the looming figure of the Ghoul that earlier was walking ahead with Dogmeat, he seemed to now be matching her speed and that meant some sort of rare conversion.“Not to offend and all those niceties but you’re slowing the group down greatly.”Lucy tilted her head at the man, rubbing an arm on her forehead to wipe the ever coming sweat off of her head.“Oh I am?” She asked genuinely, not realising she was walking any slower than usual.“I’d compare it to a snails pace but that would be just plain mean don’t ya’ think?” He asked sarcastically making the girl stand slightly straighter than she had before.Usually most people didn’t notice the little posture and body language changes Lucy would make when she was offended but the Ghoul did, and Lucy would be lying if she didn’t hate it.“Strike a nerve? Sure are a soft one aren’t you?” He commented more to himself before he sped up his steps slowly once more.Lucy decided to keep her gaze strictly straight on after being accidentally ambushed by the man’s proximity.It had been about nearly two weeks now since travelling with the ghoul and Lucy could complain about his blatant sarcastic personality and the way that he conveyed himself which screamed ‘I’m doing you a favour, so stay out of the way’ but honestly she could have had worse partners to be in this situation with.A little conversation here and there would be nice though.Lucy did want to ask the man a question though, she had been avoiding the topic all together because for some reason she felt like she may hit a nerve but after realising that she practically saved him a while ago with those drugs he so badly needed a simple question couldn’t do that much damage.“So uhhh..hey!” She started, making the ghoulafied figure infront of her turn his head slightly despite still walking.“I’ve been meaning to ask, because calling you ghoul is probably not what you ideally want to be referred to-“His head turned slightly more.“What is your name exactly?” She asked with a smile.The disfigured man stopped walking almost immediately and instead became still. Lucy sensing the rising tension walked up to him.“You know, Everyone has a name and I feel rude not knowing- well yours!”The man’s face didn’t waver, it stayed as straight as a mannequin. He did although, decide in that moment to spit to the side of him aiming at the ground below.Lucy grimaced slightly.“What do you think we are? Pals?”Lucy rolled her eyes, he was trying to be rude. Luckily, Lucy wasn’t as ‘soft’ as he liked to tell himself and her on the daily.“Come on not even I would go that far. I just think-““Yeah? Well maybe stop doing that.”Lucy raised an unimpressed brow, at that point though, the guy had already started his ascent again.“You are such a grump you know that? Honestly getting so defensive over something as small as your name!”The older man adjusted his hat so the lowering Sun avoided his eyes as he walked in its direction.“If it’s somethin’ so ‘small’ then maybe you should stop getting so agitated when I don’t tell it you, hey sweetheart?”He spoke nonchalantly as if he was simply disregarding her like a child. This made Lucy walk closer to him and match his pace a bit better to defend herself.“I am not agitated in the slightest bit!”“Sure, and your voice has gone ten pitches higher because you were trying to sing.”This made the girl open and then shut her mouth quickly. She instead chose to do a deep breath…. breathing exercises Lucy, calm, trees, safety, a cold nuka cola…see wow that was easy. Ahhh much better.“Okay mister ‘tough guy’ don’t tell me your name, that’s dandy with me.”Mr tall dark and rude tilted his head.“Great.”“But that just means I get to make up a nickname for you.” She grinned up at him, making him instantly lock in eye contact.His face scowled more so then usual,“Oh no, did I hit a nerve this time?” She grinned slightly.The ghoul squinted his eyes and tilted his hat back as if he found himself no longer being able to be in his ‘relaxed’ demeanour.“You’re being more ear deafenin’ then usual, what’s the occasion?”“Hmm, let’s see. We have hunter,” Lucy started, ignoring the Ghouls impolite jab .The ghoul lowered his brows in confusion.“You know, cuz you hunt.”This made the man roll his eyes in the apparent stupidity of it all.The Vault Dweller looked up at the mans…hat?“Hat man?”Then down to his hip.Lasso?”“You can’t be fuckin’ serious- hat man? Lasso? Are you jus’ naming the things I own?”“Sure am cowboy.- hey! You do look and act like one of those. How about it, cowboy?”The Ghoul stared daggers at the girl beside him, she seemed to love the sound of her own voice or somethin’. Maybe she just enjoyed to annoy him but most of the time that simply backfired onto herself one way or another. It was easy to mess with Lucy when she was being irritating but today she seemed really stuck on this whole naming thing.He didn’t want the Vault Dweller to know his name because it wasn’t any of her damn business. Not just that, but because it was of a man he had killed a long time ago. Cooper Howard died along with everything he knew and loved.So that never ending voice just full of questions and joy really grated him the wrong way more than usual today. He could think logically and know that she was jus’ simply making conversation, and maybe he himself would be inclined to join maybe a few hundred years ago when life was more simple and conversation came easier, but that wasn’t simply the case anymore. Nowadays he realised talking with no point benefited nobody, getting close with folks and making friends wasted time and to put it simply, he couldn’t care any less.Despite himself showing annoyance by the way he glowered at the Vaultie, she simply chose to ignore his threatening presence for some reason. Usually he would teach anyone a lesson to not get so confident and comfortable around him, but because he couldn’t simply kill this girl anymore, he decided to let it go just this once.“You could call me your royal highness and I still wouldn’t give any more of a shit.”Lucy seemed to take the Ghouls lack of usual worse verbal abuse towards the name as a small victory.“Cowboy it is.”
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Two days later.Two people and one dog.Well, maybe one and a half if you believed in the fact that the Ghoul amongst them didn’t follow the human biology like it should anymore.So finally Lucy had somewhat of a Nickname for the man she had been travelling with, but she just couldn’t stop the feeling of wanting to eventually learn his actual name. Maybe it was just how she was brought up but it didn’t feel right to not have a name to his face.The vault dweller suddenly felt a soft object, a rare texture to feel in the wasteland, tap rhythmically against her shins.It was Dogmeat and her tail wagging happily. Lucy smiled at the dog and bent down to stroke her fuzzy brown fur, enjoying the softness that it produced as she brushed her hands through it.“I need your secret girl, how is your fur still in great shape whilst my hair is all matted and bird nest’ty’?”The dog simply tilted its head to its side, tongue wide out of its mouth, panting loudly. She must be hot. Well Duh Lucy, was it really that obvious? Have you touched your forehead yet, because it’s probably dripping with sweat again.The thought made the Vault dweller act and wipe an instinctive arm across her head, and there it was, sweat. It almost felt wasteful just leaving it on her arm there every time , but she had yet to stoop so low that she had to resort to licking it off her arm just yet.Thank the small blessings Lucy, you haven’t become completely barbaric. You did although, drink radioactive water and later threw up a whole lotta poison from the radiation so, don’t kid yourself too much.Lucy’s ears picked up someone nearing that wasn’t coming from her, seeing as she was currently bent down and petting a Dog. The person must of only been a metre away before she noticed them.“Hello cowboy.” She greeted, not needing to look up to know who was judging her from up above.Clink.The Vault Dwellers eyes widened momentarily, that sounded like a gun getting flipped off safety mode. Who on Earth snuck up on her? Before, she was sure it was just the Ghoul telling her to get a move on. Lucy didn’t know whether to look up or not, would they shoot if she moved so much as her head?! Where was the Ghoul? Had he seriously abandoned her as soon as he saw danger? Why was she even surprised! Shit! wait hold on, why haven’t they tried to kill her yet-“You, Vaultie, have absolutely no sense of awareness.” A heavily Texan accent commented.Lucy’s nervous demeanour instantly wiped off her face when she heard that voice. The Vault Dwellers eyes looked up, still bent down to pet Dogmeat which only now she realised never growled so of course she wasn’t in any sort of danger.Once seeing the ghoulified cowboy looking down at her with a gun tilted in her face she quickly pushed it to the side sharply, picking herself up in the process.“Do I even ask why you just did that?” She half demanded, wiping the dirt from her knees in the process.The Ghoul fastened the gun back into his holster with a ‘you can’t be serious?’ Looking grin that turned quickly back stern. He then hooked his thumbs under his belt, looking ready to use his posture to emphasise his point.“Well let’s see sweetheart. We made a deal that if I scout ahead, you will watch our backs from behind back when we first started this whole ordeal. Pray tell, how you pettin’ that Dog is gunna save our asses if we get ambushed?”Lucy waited for the man to walk away after saying his piece which he usually did when Lucy did something wrong, which was apparently always. Some things he would fault her on included, getting picky with certain foods or objecting to his methods of killing things (hey it was pretty brutal ok?) and so on. Usually it was simply..different preferences that the pair had and for some reason if it wasn’t his way it was automatically wrong.Lucy could kill if it really fell down to it, she did back when her Vault got attacked and when she was threatened. It’s not like she couldn’t make people die, it’s just that she preferred not to and would do anything to prevent it from happening.Well, that’s a big no no in Mr Cowboys book, ‘death is inevitable’ apparently and that’s all there is too it. It’s been like this since the pair set off from shady sands around two weeks ago. At least he hadn’t tried to end her life as quickly as he does with most…yet anyways.This time, the Ghoul waited for an answer from the Vault dweller and didn’t walk away. This made Lucy eye him again for longer, he seemed to be getting impatient.“You want me to actually answerOr..” She asked almost genuinely and only with a slight bit of sarcasm. Lucy was just baffled that he was more invested now than ever with, putting it in his words not hers, this ‘pointless chatter about being a team’ that she usually would bring up.“Well I’m not stood here waitin’ because I want to stop and admire the scenery.” He doesn’t even bother to look around to make his point because genuinely anywhere else on earth would be better than being neck deep in the waste land with low rations and no civilisation for god knows how long.“I was about 30 seconds, no more than a minute. So I’m actually more surprised you noticed and got near to me so quickly.” She sidetracked, quite impressed with the Man’s perception and speed.He had to of been 15 meters infront of her and Dogmeat before, he was definitely keeping an eye out on Lucy probably because he still didn’t trust her which was very obvious already. Still Lucy felt a bit annoyed that the- god she really needed to learn his real name soon because Ghoul and Cowboy was just not working- cowboy didn’t have a shred of trust despite them travelling for so long. Lucy swore the guy also kept an eye open at night when it was Lucy’s time to keep watch.“You were surprised? Sweet baby Jesus! I wasn’t exactly tip-toeing to you Vaultie. Now you’re either deaf or have absolutely no spatial awareness.”Lucy could feel her temper rise at the jab towards her and hated the way he could clearly tell by the way her fists tensed and cheeks puffed.She realised she wasn’t angry at the rude comment, but rather by the fact that she had embarrassed herself. Maybe she wasn’t as good at this whole above ground thing and that wasn’t so good when she was thrown straight into it. She knew that. But someone else actually clarifying that fact made it so much worse.“Okay okay, my bad.” Lucy sighed, fidgeting with her hands.“But I don’t see you being so careful out here yourself you know? You literally go into fights being heavily outnumbered and I don’t know, do crazy shit!”The Ghoul tilted his head, and Lucy could see him working his tongue over his teeth slowly.“Look I just don’t see how me petting a Dog has got you so…peed off!”“Who’s been out here longer?”Lucy frowned.“I understand that fact but-“The Cowboy clicked his tongue in frustration and raised a tilted finger in her direction.“Answer the question.”The Vault dweller sighed once more and shrugged.“You have.”“Grand. Now the reason I do ‘crazy shit’ is one, if I get shot I’m pretty good at doin’ this thing called regeneration. Also, I understan’ and follow the ways of the wasteland that you little lady, do not just yet.”Lucy could only stare, feeling to much like a child being lectured or rather, scolded. She was more so unsure why any of this mattered to the Ghoul, maybe she pushed him too far, the guy didn’t exactly take too kindly to weakness.The girl thought about the one rule he had told her all those weeks ago, the many rules did seem to make sense the more she spent time up here.“thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time.” She muttered.“Well hey there, welldone Vaultie, you remembered one of them.” He grinned with no real kindness before turning around, his long trenchcoat flowing as he did so.Lucy squinted in annoyance behind the man and then down at Dogmeat as if to say ‘what’s up with him?” The dog looked up at her and whined hungrily.“Don’t worry pup, we will set up camp soon. hopefully..”
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Lucy and Dog meat weren’t as lucky as they hoped to be.It took another three hours until the Ghoul finally stopped and decided to set up camp. He also had to make sure that he found somewhere he could lean on to sleep instead of lying down like most NORMAL people did.They were in the middle of the wasteland but near mountains that housed a small cave at the bottom. Lucy and the Ghoul scoped out the area incase any radiated animal lived in the inside but it was practically spotless, nothing had been in there for a long, long, time.The Ghoul was now going through their rations whilst Lucy started a fire within the cave but near its entrance so the smoke had somewhere to escape. They did the same thing every night, it was nice to have some sort of structure in a world full of chaos.It only took Lucy ten minutes to prepare and alight a pretty good fire if she did say so herself. Back in the Vault, all the necessities were already prepared for her to set up to light the fire in practice, but actually needing to forage for wood or bits of flammable material in the daytime up here made it even more satisfying when it all came together at the end of the day.Lucy’s eyes wondered from what she was doing and over to the Ghoul. He had all the water and food rations laid out on the floor bellow him, he seemed deep in thought. Dog meat sat across from him, eyeing up the meat and looking hopeful to get some later.“Fires done.” She commented, pointing a finger back at the flames behind her. The Ghoul didn’t look up, but nodded once in recognition.Lucy joined the man by standing beside him, looking down at what he was looking at. There was water and random tin cans with no clear packaging to see what was inside, a few pieces of meat inside bloodied cloth from a mole rat that the Ghoul one shotted and caught with Dogmeat yesterday, and some…Jerky.The Vault dweller stared at the Jerky for a second longer, still not getting used to the fact from where it came from, she shivered slightly then looked back at the rest of the supplies.“Is this everything?” She asked, not worried by the amount but not exactly happy either.“Sure is.” He responded after a moment, grabbing the fresh meat from yesterday and beginning to put away the rest of the supplies, Better to eat the fresh stuff first so it doesn’t go bad.“Can’t say I’ve ever eaten mole rat before.” Lucy Hummed, remembering she had eaten scorpion with the Ghoul in the first week, it was crunchy was what she mostly remembered, but that was it.“Not that I’m picky, but what does it taste like?” She asked whilst the Cowboy headed over to the fire to cook it.“Think of it as chicken, but uglier and seasoned with light radiation.” He summarised, bending down near the fire and retrieving a stick to pierce the meat on.“Chicken huh?”Lucy tried hard to imagine Chicken. Did it taste like deviled eggs because they come from the same animal? Then again, it was kind of artificial too.“Chicken apparently was very popular in America alongside cow.” Lucy started to ramble, making the Ghoul let out a sigh preparing for one of Lucy’s many monologues about things in a world she never experienced. It was sad really or rather a backwards joke on its own that she talked so intently about a world that was now pretty much extinct but hey, each to their own.“Burgers were pretty popular if I remember from in a lesson but you could be real creative with chicken, fried chicken legs, chicken wings, thanks giving chicken-““It was usually turkey for thanks givin’” he corrected for some reason.Lucy looked lost in thought but then quickly nodded in understanding with a small smile, the Ghoul actually seemed interested enough in this conversation to correct her, maybe it was because he felt reminiscent of old human food.“Ohh yeah, I remember now. Well, did you ever eat all the different types of chicken that I listed?”The Ghoul turned his head away from the fire for a moment, still bent down so he had to look up in her direction a little.He seemed lots in thought himself.“course I did.” He said plainly and then looked back away.Lucy tilted her head at the sudden abruption but then wasn’t really surprised, she still seemed to be getting used to the Ghoul and his personality it seemed.The Vault Dweller walked to the side of him but a little farther away and sat down on the hard surfaced floor, sitting cross legged.“I hope I can try real chicken one day, not the fake artificial kind.”The pair fell back into silence, which didn’t come as a surprise. The Ghoul liked it that way and although Lucy wished she could talk to him, it wasn’t the end of the world.Whilst Lucy waited for a meal she stroked Dogmeat whose head lay in her lap, ‘it felt good not being on edge to stroke a dog finally..’ a little voice said in her head sarcastically.When food was finally finished the ghoul placed the head and upper body of the rat into her hands. It was the latter part but obviously she wasn’t going to say anything, he hunted and cooked it so he should have what part he wants.Still, Lucy looked slightly horrified at the fact that you could still see the mole rats screeching facial expression even after death, it was a bit wasteful and she knew that but she only mostly ate the upper body and snuck a bit here and there of the head to Dogmeat who gratefully ate every last bit that was offered to him.That night there was no need for anyone to stay awake and be on watch duty seeing as they weren’t in the middle of an open area and completely off all trails, Dogmeat also had a keen ear for intruders.The Ghoul tilted his hat over his eyes and leant against the wall, Lucy on the other side of the fire used her backpack as a pillow and did up her jumpsuit for extra warmth. “Mom?” A woman with beautiful brown hair stood looking out at a sunrise in a cornfield.She didn’t turn around but acknowledged her daughter.“Lucy? What are you doing up sweetheart?”Lucy wasn’t sure.“I’m..not sure, I think I have nightmare and it was about you?” She responded after a moment.The woman looking away from her nodded .“I see, well don’t worry sweetheart. I’ll always be here for-“She was interrupted by a coughing fit that didn’t seem to die down. Lucy took a step towards her mother with a worried face.“Mom? Mom are you okay?” Now only stood a metre away, Lucy slowly reached for her mother’s shoulders and gently pulled her so she turned around.“Do you need help-?““Nobody can help her anymore Lucy, she’s a traitor to her family and everything we built.” A familiar voice said behind her whilst she finally saw the woman’s face, ghoulafied, but not like a normal Ghoul, no it was more deteriorated, more unrecognisable. Only some pieces of flesh stuck to the bone now and the once beautiful hair now fell away onto the floor.Lucy stepped back in horror.“She’s not your mother anymore.” That same voice added on, more angry.“Dad.” She spoke quietly as shock settled into her body.She turned to see him, his one hand open and extended in her direction.“Lucy, come back home where it’s safe and right, not backwards like this place is!”Lucy looked at the extended hand with wide eyes but then she shook her head harshly.“No. You did this! You killed mom! All those innocent people-““People up here aren’t innocent nor redeemable. You know that Lucy.” He interjected strongly, taking a small step closer.“No, you’re wrong. You’re the unredeemable one Dad. I- I trusted you!” Tears welled up in her eyes but despite that she carried on.“I had no reason not to, but god! I wish I figured it out sooner, figured out that you are a bad- no, terrible person. Why teach me and Norman about morales and be surprised that I reacted like this?!”“…You disappoint me Lucy.”“What?” Lucy looked up but not quick enough to notice the gun and the quickly followed shot that hit her right in her chest.“D-dad-“ pain mixed with betrayal caused the tears she concealed to slip through.“I can’t die- I need- I can’t.. why?”Lucy woke up in a panicked haze, sitting up quickly and holding a hand to her chest. She looked down, no blood. No Dad either just her in a cave with Dogmeat and-He was looking at her, eyes peering at her beneath the rim of his hat. He looked wary, which was an emotion Lucy hadn’t seen on him before.“I’m sorry. Was I being loud?” She asked with a grin that slipped when she noticed her voice hitched.The man sat himself up very slightly.“Settle down kid, it was just a nightmare.” He uttered quietly, almost too quiet that Lucy didn’t register what he was saying until she saw something fall from her eye and onto her body suit. A tear?The Vault dweller went to wipe her eye and that was when she noticed it was more than one tear, but her whole face under her eyes was covered in water.Lucy turned away, quickly becoming embarrassed and wiped her face with both hands quickly.“Pfft, nightmares am I right?.” She remarked trying to find some comedic relief somewhere.The Ghoul on the other hand just carried on staring, making Lucy lie back down slowly, realising she wasn’t ready to wake up just yet. It was still dark and it seemed all the prior adrenaline washed away after seeing the Ghoul wasn’t going to mock or laugh in her face.The pair looked away from each other when Lucy lied back down. A small silence filled the room and Lucy felt herself begin to drift back to sleep.“There’s no need to cry any tears about anybody, it ain’t good to waste water.” He hummed as her eyes slowly began to flutter against the make shift pillow.“Okey dokey.” And back to sleep she went.