#death claws

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Jade sits on the edge of another town, a cap rolling over the top of her knuckles as she watches people come and go. She had been walking until her feet were calloused, and her boots' soles had fallen off. Finding clothes had been hard, she had taken to stitching remnants together to make shawls that could keep the sun off of her. Jade had hit a dead area, it was mostly scrub bush, cactus, and lizards. Really, really big lizards. Jade had taken to eating them, at least the ones that weren’t glowing. Town would be a good place to crash if Jade had any caps to trade. The memories had been coming back over the many weeks she traveled, mostly at night when she camped under the stars. The nightmares were awful, crashing into shatters that would have Jade sitting upright screaming in fear.

There was still uncertainty about how the Ghoul fit into her life. He was there, pushing on the memories, like a shadow following her wherever she went. Her finger ran over the scars that were left, some had started to fade, and she vaguely understood that she had gained the ability to heal. Some massive creature made of black ooze, the ooze that looked eerily similar to the stuff she coughed up. The healing was also working on old scars, but the ones on her abdomen, which look more surgical than others, stayed. Sometimes if she touched the scars memories would pop in, but not these. The Enclave bounced around a lot, she had asked some other patrons what the Enclave was. Most would snort and walk away, the few who answered honestly told about the horrors these so-called doctors would perform. Jade wasn’t sure how much she wanted to know about her own stint there. For now, she hopes she could make some caps, and maybe find out more about the Ghoul. Jade’s fingers moved to her forehead; the scar there was still deep and indented. It burned worse than rad burns, sometimes it almost felt like she could touch the grey matter behind the scar. 

Bang

Jade 

Blackness

Jade groans, before standing up, knocking the sand off her boots, and straightening her bag. Squaring her shoulders she walks over to the makeshift fencing seeing others move back and forth, eyes taking her in. The place was large, almost as big as some of the east coast cities she remembered.  She hoped the fabric shrouds covering her face and the numerous visible weapons would keep anyone away from her. So far she had been lucky, and most people had kept their distance from her. 

“Y’looking for caps?” Someone calls out from the shadows, a smaller man moves out into the light. His face covered in a metal gas mask with two guns strapped across his chest. He wore what would have been classified as old-world western. Bandana around his neck, black leather jacket lined with red fabric, a once white shirt now covered in life’s icker, crisscrossed with a belt and a bandoleer that looks very familiar. His brown pants matched his brown boots which were much too shiny for the landscape. 

Jade shrugs, doing her best to look as uninterested as possible. “Always opening to make a little scratch.’

The man looks her up and down, slowly lowering the mask. There was a glint in his eye that Jade didn’t like, his thumbs hooking into the belt loops of his pants. “Spilt yah some caps if you can help me wrangle a Deathclaw.”

Jade ran her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip, she was almost certain this would not end well. That said, she had survived this long, how dangerous could it be? She’d taken out creatures as big as mature oak. 

“Sure.” Jade holds out her hand to shake the man’s, “Let's bag us a Deathclaw.”

***

Jade was covered in sweat, her chest rising and falling as she gasps for air. Her back presses against the stone wall behind her as the thing’s long claws swing at her. The long red gashes across her back stung with the cold stone, but at least for now, it couldn’t get to her. Her companion calls for it in the distance. The fool did not realize that there were at least three of these beasts, and yelling out his position was certainly going to get him killed. Though, if he died she’d get all the caps, and the guy was a handsy piece of shit. Plus he did have several explosive caliber weapons she would like to get a hold of. 

“There are three ya’dipshit.” Jade yells as loud as possible, as the Deathclaw screams into the air the footsteps shaking the stone around her. Her partner in crime at least stops hollering down the place. 

Jade scoots a bit forward trying to get a better idea of what is going on, the view is blocked briefly by the dust scuffled up by massive feet. She squints a bit as she moves further forward. The dust settles enough that she can see two of the massive creatures heading towards an overturned bus. Jade could only guess that that was where her partner was camped out. She desperately needed to see where the other one was before she could. 

The claws nearly crush her head as one of the things reaches from above down and into her hole. Jade pushes herself back as far as she can not before it crushes her arm. An involuntary scream leaves her throat as she tries to roll away her right hand now hanging limp. She kicks down at the thing's face relishing in the snaps she hears. A solid kick with steel-capped boots in the thing's eye was enough for it to finally back off.  

“Yeah, you stinking monster.” Jade howls struggling to feel with her left hand to see if she can push her bones back into place. It felt like a bag of mush under her fingers, the pain shooting up into her shoulder and neck. 

Several loud booms shake dirt onto her face and into her eyes. She grumbles and moves back towards the opening again, even with one broken arm she was not going to let those big assholes get her. Looking around she saw one Deathclaw swaying back and forth its arm on the ground. Blood is pooling on the sand, and another was now tearing open the metal body of the bus. More bangs as the third one stomps towards the bus, her partner underneath yelling inside for help. Jade slides out, grabbing the gun she uses her chin to reload it and ducks down by a bush. She just needs one down, the one without an arm suddenly turns and starts barreling towards her.

Left hand up she takes a shit shot towards its head, the bullet bounces off it’s head nothing more than annoyance to the beast. Jade drops the gun and runs towards it. The monster goes to reach for her, Jade ducks down and she slides through its big scaly legs. The other two have heard the shot and have now left the bus.

“Now is your chance,” Jade howls, reaching into the folds of fabric she pulls out a grenade, pulling the pin she sprints back towards the armless one. Screaming she jumps up as the Deathclaw turns, she gets just high enough to stuff the grenade into its hole. Jade lands in a partial roll, a groan coming out as her right arm is bumped. Sprawling out into a bush with a thud, a massive boom went off behind her. 

As she turns to get up, a splat hits her as the sound wave rattles the bushes around her, the Deathclaw stumbles and falls right on top of her with a heavy thunk. Breath knocked out of her, she moans staring up at the cloud-covered sky wondering why she was stupid enough to go on this hunt. Two more large bangs deafen her, maybe she’d die under this thing. Rolling her eyes she spits out as much of the Deathclaws blood as she can. Hoping that the fast steps approaching her wasn’t some other deadly creature.

“WOOO, hell yah, little lady,” The man cheers, stumbling out of the bus. The two maimed Deathclaws at his feet, he carefully scoots around them, his mask hanging loose from his face. 

“Well fuck me sideways, you said you had some skill. Didn’t think it was shoving a grenade into a Deathclaw kind of skill.”

The man grabs a long branch and shoves it under the body, using it to lift the thing off of Jade, enough for her to slide out. Her arm is screaming at her, the tingling was terrible, she needed a sling, and stimpak to hopefully help with the ache. 

“Yeah had lots of help from you, John, hiding in the damn bus,” Jade grumbles, shaking off as much blood as she could from her. She would smell of its death for the next week at least. She pushes at her arm grimacing, looking around to hopefully see her backpack.

John lets out a chuckle as he stumbles around looking at the three dead foes, “Which one you think would be the best to bring back?”

Jade groans as she starts to drag her jacket sleeve off, stripping off the material carefully, “Whichever one you want, but I am not dragging anything.”

John bounds over, ever the ball of energy, his brows furrowed, “Well holy stars.” He helps pull off her jacket to reveal the modeled purple and blue skin on her arm. “You got a busted arm there, Smallfry.”

“Just get the head off one, and help me put my arm in a sling.” Jade shrugs him off, laying her jacket out to make into a sling for her arm. “Can’t be doing everything for you.”

Cackling maniacally John hops over to the larger of the beasts, “I could just leave yah here, probably make it back to town before you.”

Looking up Jade glares at him as she slips the sling over her neck, with her left hand she grabs the gun from her right side and cocks it with an audible click. John’s head pops up as he looks at her, eyes wide, blood-covered knife in one hand.

“Ha-ha. Just kidding with yah,” John smirks, eyes moving between her and the gun. “No need for that.

Jade clicks her jaw, mind trying to calculate if it was worth keeping him around or not. Trying to drag the head was going to be difficult, she also wasn’t sure who she was bringing the head to. John had calculatedly kept that to himself. Plus there were some questions she needed answered, mostly about that bandoleer and boots he had clearly stolen. She clicks the safety on and slides it back into her holster, still staring at him. 

“How about we leave the jokes to things that are actually funny,” Jade seethes, the pain was not leaving her in the mood for jokes.

“Cross my heart, sweety,” John chimes elbow-deep in the monster's neck, Jade has to suppress the urge to shoot him again. 

Jade looks around the place, walking over to her bag that was strewn across the dirt. It had been dumped when the second of the large monsters had appeared. She grabs what she can, her canteen is dented, most of the water gone. Frustrated, she tosses it back on the ground, eyes searching for a small tin box. If she could get a stim-pak in it would hopefully dull the pain and help cover for the fact her arm was starting to knit back together. It was a strange sensation to feel bones starting to come back together, it was like a bunch of little ants crawling around on her skin. Even with the sling on it was intensely uncomfortable. 

Her foot tings on something, looking down she sees the partially crushed stimpak tin. Leaning down she carefully picks it up, hoping that maybe the syringe was undamaged. The tin is so dented that it is hard to open with one hand, she almost gives up on the whole thing until John walks over. 

“You know you could just ask,” John rolls his eyes at her, snatching the tin out of her hands and prying it open. 

Jade cringes as it pops open, letting out a sigh of relief when the syringe is still intact. “About time something went right.”

John carefully takes the syringe out, “Do you want it in your bad arm?”

She takes a few deep breaths, brows scrunched as she turns her arm to him. “Yeah, get it -”

The needle pierces the skin of her upper arm, she can’t help the yelp that escapes her mouth as the drugs are pushed into her system. A sigh follows shortly after as the pain eases into a dull ache. 

“Hate to say, not sure it will fix your bone,” John said as he tuck the needle back into the tin. Shoving it back into her dusted-up backpack. 

Jade shakes her body, rubbing at where the needle went in. “It will get me back to the outpost. I’ll figure it out from there.”

Shrugging John went back to his decapitated head, he had pulled out some rope and tied it around the head as best he could. Jade came over with her good arm and grabbed a side, John raises his eyebrows at her. 

“Let’s just get back to the town.” Jade grunts as she begins to pull the things head. It was heavy, and it would take a long time to get back to town. 

***

Jade stood outside the so-called mayor’s house, watching John negotiate the caps. The mayor, a round balding man with a tomato-colored nose, seemed reluctant to give him what he had promised. Typical bullshit, everyone likes to have someone else do their bullshit, but doesn't want to pay. John wasn’t having it, even telling the mayor he’d bring the Deathclaws to town. The man finally relented and handed John a good sack of caps. Jade pushed herself off the wall she’d been leaning on, she had started to be able to move her fingers again. She hoped she could keep that under wraps until she got her caps and some info from John.

“Alright, Chickadee.” John whistles as they walk away from the house and down a small pathway 

out of sight. She would rather not get caught with a large amount of caps out in the open.

Jade let him count out the caps, watching him carefully, she wasn’t going to get cheated by the bastard. Her mind went over what she could remember: the Ghoul had worn a bandoleer identical to the one John wore, along with the brown cowboy boots. Something in her gut was telling her that this man knew where The Ghoul was, and that he had something to do with his disappearance. 

“Alright, half for you, and half for me. If I do say, I feel bad about your arm there.” He states handing her a pouch of caps that she slides into one of her many pockets. 

Jade took a breath as she pats the pocket. “John, would you be straight with me about something?”

The man drops the pouch in his own pocket, clicking with his other caps. “Sure thing, girly. You lookin’ to do another round with ol’John.” The way he wiggled his unkempt eyebrows made Jade inwardly gag.

Jade felt her broken hand twitch as if it was trying to slap him. “Nah, I want to know what you know about the Ghoul.” 

John’s face drains of blood, one hand rubbing over the butt of his gun, the other fingering at the threads around the edge of his jacket. “What Ghoul you talking about.” He shifts back and forth on his feet, eyes darting around the alley. “Lots of Ghouls out here.”

She huffs making sure she is close enough to him that he can't make a run for it. “I think we both know what Ghoul I am talking about here.” She pokes at his bandoleer with one finger. “The one that wore this bandoleer, and those boots.”

The man turns to run but Jade is quicker and slams him against the wall. “John, don’t bullshit me. Where is the Ghoul?” 

“I can’t Jade, I can’t tell yah where he is.” John swallows, struggling against her grip. Jade slips out her broken arm and uses it to lean heavily against him. 

“John, I will drag you out of this town and cut pieces off of you until you tell me,” Jade hisses, her eyes watching as someone strolls by, making sure they keep their eyes out of her business.

John sags against her, “Dom Pedro has him,” Jade squints, the name sounded familiar, it was something she had heard before. “I don’t know where. If he finds out I told you, I am dead.” 

“Do you know where?” Jade presses, hoping that she can squeeze more info out of him. The little rat of a man was squirming under her gaze, she eased up making sure that he wouldn't take off. 

John shakes his head, eyes still darting around the space.“I don’t know Jade, me even talking about it is dangerous.”

Jade sighs walking back and forth for a moment. Dom Pedro, the words rolling around in her mind like tumbleweeds. Where had she heard it before? She taps at her head, hoping to rattle a marble loose enough for her to remember why the name was important.

“Can you give me a direction at least?” Jade sighs, rubbing her at her head, fingers finding the circular scar there. The sting is almost a comfort at this point, a way she could ground herself to this space and time. 

“Southwest. The ocean.” John nods as if trying to convince himself of his words. “But he probably won’t stay in the same place for long.” His whole body goes stiff as he looks over Jade, his eyes going wide and unblinking. “Holy shit, you’re his girl.”

Jade’s brows furrow, her forehead pounding. “What are you talking about?”

John stands to his full height digging around in his jacket pocket until he pulls out a piece of paper. Unfolding it carefully and facing it towards Jade. She blinks a few times, her brain trying to put it together. On one side was her sketch, on the other was the Ghoul. Digging around she finds her own piece of paper, opening it up and it matches almost perfectly with it. It’s unbelievable.  What was missing from hers was the writing.

Murders -Armed -Dangerous -Traveling together -Bring to the southwest coast to Dom Pedro

Reading it ten times over didn’t cement things anymore. It also doesn’t open up any memories, she had been traveling with the Ghoul. A bounty had been on their heads, for apparently murdering someone.

Bang

Jade 

The voice had been the Ghoul, Cooper, his name was Cooper. The memories of him telling her his name rattled her brain. The tumble of images passing through her mind, him carrying her. Helping to doctor her wounds, holding her at night. He had seen her get shot and had called out for her as she fell. 

“Southwest coast.” Jade murmurs, looking up at John who still was looking at her like she had grown another head.  

“They said you died, months ago,” John whispers, his hand coming up to touch her head. Jade swatting it away and glaring at him, folding up both pieces of paper and shoving them in her pocket. 

“Do you know where in the Southwest?” Jade asks, looking up and down the alley. It was going to be dark soon, and she really wanted a bed for the night. 

“Be smart to go to Bloomfield. That was the last word I got, but then they said they got you.” John squints at her. “How are you alive?”

Jade sighs, and shifts the weight of her bag, “Got lucky.”

***

eighteen

<3 I promise that we will get back to our cooper next chapter. <3

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