Chapter Text
The first week is always the hardest. That’s what Charon warned her, and boy, he wasn’t lying. It had similar qualities of traversing the wasteland as a medic, but a guard was harder. You have to make sure everyone is safe and the cargo doesn’t go missing. You had to stay alert, especially as a spotter. As a medic, everyone took care of you.
A week traveling west in the summer sun had left her normally pasty skin toasted and hot to the touch. She peered through her binoculars to see a pair of mole rats fighting in the distance. Adrian sighed and dropped her sunglasses back over her eyes. “Mole rats. Should I get them?”
Mac shook his head no. “Nah, let Brandon.”
As the wagon pulled by two brahmin approached, Brandon stepped ahead of them with his assault rifle shouldered tight. It took him only seconds to put down the creatures, then he fell back into his position: front left of the cart. Charon and Nate brought up the rear.
An hour passed, and the cart rolled to a stop outside of a small, empty trading outpost - the first she’d seen so far. Mac jumped off the seat and waited for everyone to gather around. Charon held towards the back of the group, and as Adrian walked up, she quickly squeezed his hand. No one ever noticed her quick and subtle shows of affection towards the ghoul, but he warned her about playing dangerous games. It wasn’t a normal thing to be attracted to ghouls.
“We’re an hour ahead of schedule, gents. Pen up the cattle and sleep in shifts. You know the drill.” Mac tipped his hat, grabbed his bag off the wagon, and headed inside towards a desk to finish his notes.
Nate stepped forward, taking charge. “Brandon, Adrian, go pen up the cattle. Charon, lock up the wagon and you take first guard. Meet you back inside for chow.” Nate wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He had been with Mac the longest, so he was second in command. Nate grabbed his pack out of the wagon and headed inside.
Adrian headed to her side of the wagon, sitting up front next to Mac, and began to untie that brahmin whose name was Lily. She yanked off the leather straps and took the brahmin’s leash, leading her towards the pen, but Lily refused to enter. Adrian huffed loudly, tugging on her leash, and eventually her face’s harness. “Come on, you big, dumb bitch.” Adrian mumbled through gritted teeth, pushing on the brahmin’s hind.
She heard a sigh from behind her, and looked over to watch Brandon walk up and swat the animal on its’ ass. Instinctively she moo’d and hurried into the pen. “As funny as that was to watch, it was taking.. Embarrassingly long.”
Adrian wiped her hands on her pants and laughed uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, I’ve never been good with animals.” Brandon looked over and arched an eyebrow.
“But you’re good with people.” He commented.
She shrugged. “People are easy. They can talk and tell me what’s wrong.” Brandon shook his head and smirked, leading the other brahmin - Luna - into the pen. “What are you laughing at?” She questioned.
“Animals are easy. They try to kill you. People pretend to be your friend first.” He patted Luna on the side before heading out of the pen and locking it. He looked to Adrian, who was standing there watching him. Brandon shot her another smirk and her blood ran cold. His eyes were pale blue, and they sent a chill down her spine every time he looked her way. And she thinks he knew it. Adrian lit a cigarette and hurried off.
--
It was halfway through Charon’s guard shift, around 9pm, and Adrian was sitting on a bed in the far corner of the room. She was thumbing through a new medical book she had picked up at their last trade stop. This was a different type of medical book, though. Instead of physical symptoms, this was giving overviews of common mental health disorders. Adrian glanced up from her book to see Brandon walking over.
“Got a light?” He questioned, cigarette dangling from his lips.
“Uh, yeah.” She leaned, reaching into her pocket. “Actually, I’ll join you.” The man shrugged and Adrian dog-earred the page in her book - the beginning of anxiety-related disorders.
She grabbed her coat and walked outside, tossing the lighter to Brandon as she slid on her leather jacket. Adrian put a cigarette in her mouth, and reached out to grab the lighter, but was instead greeted by Brandon lighting it for her before handing it back.
“Thanks,” she looked towards him, to notice him staring off in the distance.
“Women shouldn’t light their own cigarettes.”
She shrugged, and looked to see Charon heading towards the pair. Adrian tried to hide her excitement. “Hey, big guy.”
The ghoul approached and lit his own cigarette. She noticed the two men nod to each other in greeting. They all smoked in silence. Charon was done first, and continued on his round of guarding. Nothing was really said between Adrian and Brandon, but she did catch his eyes looking her up and down in her peripherals. She put out her cigarette and headed back inside the building, and to her cot.
The men inside the building were playing spades when Charon entered, done from his shift. Nate nodded to Brandon. “Your turn.” The man nodded, grabbing his assault rifle and heading out the door. Charon took his seat at the table as Nate shuffled the deck of cards, then dealt them. Adrian looked up to see Charon looking towards her. The other two men’s backs were to her, so she quickly waved to him with a smirk. He looked back to his cards, and she went back to reading her book.
About an hour later, Nate called it. He looked towards Adrian in the corner of the room. “You’re after Brandon.” She nodded and laid out on the mattress, and watched as Charon took one of the beds near her. He was discrete, that’s for sure.
She was able to catch some sleep before being awoken by Brandon crawling into the bed next to her. Adrian groggily sat up, grabbed her rifle, and put a cigarette between her teeth. Then, she was out the door, pacing around camp.
The brahmin were good at alerting, surprisingly. They just really loved to moo at people. So a few hours later when she was situated at the brahmin pen, smoking, she wasn’t alarmed when they moo’d as Charon approached from the darkness. Adrian’s eyes lit up, and she stepped forward towards him.
“Hey, what are you doing out here?”
Charon didn’t say anything, just kept walking right up to her before taking grasp of her head. He pulled her into a kiss, much like the one back at Underworld, which made her melt. After not being able to act on how she felt, the relief of his touch made her skin tingle.
Charon backed her towards the brahmin’s shed until her leather-clad back pressed against the splintering wood. He hoisted her up by her thighs and instantly began sucking a kiss along her neck. As his teeth met her throat, she let out an audible gasp, before Charon pressed his hand quickly to her mouth. “Shh..”
“Adrian?” A voice called out seconds later, and Charon quickly dropped her as panic struck. He pulled out two cigarettes and propped himself casually against the brahmin’s shed. Adrian wasn’t as good as the ghoul was at collecting herself, but she did manage to light the smoke he handed her before the voice gained a body. It was Nate.
“What’s up?” Adrian attempted to act smooth, taking a puff.
He arched an eyebrow. “Out taking a piss and thought I heard something. Glad it was just you two. I’ll come relieve you in an hour or two.” Nate assured her, and headed back into the dark.
Charon huffed and turned towards her. She smiled sheepishly, “I’m sorry. Sometimes I can’t help it.”
“You can’t make that mistake. You’ll get a bad reputation.” He placed an arm on her shoulder, and slid it down slowly to squeeze her bicep. “So I guess I’ll have to gag you.” Adrian’s eyes widened before a small smirk creeped over her face as he dragged her into the brahmin’s shed.
--
Morning came all too early. Adrian tossed her canteen up onto the wagon’s seat before hiking herself up. She cradled her sniper rifle, just waiting for Mac to saddle up. A moment later the dark skinned man appeared out of the building and hoisted himself up onto the seat with the woman. “Alright men, let’s move out.”