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"Ah crap." Jacob said under his breath as he stared through the binoculars at the raiders in the distance, their images blurry in the midday heat, running pell-mell down the road towards him and Sarah.

"What?" Sarah asked from next to him, ducked behind the rock that Jacob himself was peeking over.

"Raiders." Jacob replied without looking away. "At least thirty or forty, but there might be more behind them."

Sarah swore violently. "Any chance we can slip away into the wastes?"

Just as Sarah said this Jacob saw one of the raiders stop and raise his own pair of binoculars to sweep the road ahead. "I don't think that's going to be an option." Jacob said grimly as the grimy raider looked right at him and then pointed, yelling to the men around him. Jacob stuffed the binoculars in his pocket and grabbed Sarah by the arm, his survival instincts kicking into overdrive. "Let's go!" he said and tore off in a dead run down the road, his duster flaring out behind him in the wind.

There was a chance that they might escape if they ran fast enough, the raiders must be tired from their fight earlier that morning. Jacob grimaced as he considered the alternative: trying to find some kind of cover and digging in to make a last stand that he and Sarah wouldn't survive. He ran and ran, going as fast as he could without tiring himself out too quickly, Sarah right next to him. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and unbelievably before long the raiders materialized within eyesight, their running forms shimmering in the baking heat over the highway.

Jacob swore. The raiders had to be on Jet or Psycho or something similar to run even faster than them after a protracted firefight, and for this long. They had no choice but to keep running, the whole area around them was barren of cover and they would need it if they were going to stand and fight. He kept throwing fleeting looks over his shoulder, each time the raiders appeared closer and closer. He panted hard with exertion in the heat, his muscles beginning to ache after running so fast for so long, and pain stabbed him in his side. Sarah kept up next to him, her tank-top dark with sweat and their water sloshing violently in the transparent jug on her back.

Then when Jacob looked back again the raiders had abruptly disappeared into the shimmering air in the distance. "I can't see them anymore." he panted to Sarah, but didn't slow his pace.

"Oh thank god..." Sarah breathed, but before she could finish a sudden whistling filled the air, followed by a sickly wet thump.

Sarah screamed in pain as she pitched forward onto the shattered concrete, sending her rifle clattering to the ground. She swore and groaned painfully as she clutched her bleeding leg, her khaki pants growing dark around her shin. Immediately Jacob crouched by her side but she tried to push him away. "Go on! I'll slow them down!" she said, her jaw clenched tight with pain as she tried to reach her rifle laying several feet away.

Jacob glanced back down the road, the raiders had reappeared, running faster than ever. "Like hell you will!" he retorted. He cut the harness that held the water jug to her back and slung his rifle over his back before grabbing her by the arm and waist and pulling her to her feet. She swore again loudly as she hung onto him, one hand clutching onto his shoulders and the other pulling her revolver out of her waistband. Jacob grabbed Sarah's G3 in his free paw, leaving their water behind, and heaved her along as she groaned loudly in pain and swore angry oaths to kill the bastard who had shot her.

"Why the hell are you doing this? You can get away!" Sarah snapped.

"Because I'm not going to lose you too!" Jacob wasn't going to let another person die so he could merely survive, especially not Sarah, the only friend he had left. They stumbled along together until they rounded a bend in the road, and suddenly an abandoned car park filled with the rusted hulks of pre-War cars appeared from behind a low ridge on the right side of the road. It was one of the few rest stops on the Long 15, and it gave Jacob the cover he needed. He heaved Sarah towards the center of the lot and sat her down against one of the cars in the middle of a tight group of vehicles.

Quickly Jacob dug in his pack for bandages and tore off a long piece and tied it tight around Sarah's wound, making her yell more obscenities. "I guess this is it." she said as Jacob stuffed the G3 into her hands. Jacob said nothing as he readied himself, leveling his rifle over the hood of the car and aiming towards the bend in the road, ready to make his last stand. Suddenly Sarah gripped his arm and he looked down at her to find her eyes boring into his. "Do you forgive me?"

Suddenly before his eyes flashed in an instant all the injustices he had been done from not just her, but all the humans in his life: the way she had stared him dead in the eyes as she had poured his water ration onto the dry earth, the way Twitch had beaten him mercilessly, his mother slumping against the cold steel of the Vault lifelessly... Jacob nodded somberly.

Suddenly a hail of bullets slammed into the other side of the car and he snapped his attention back to the road. He lined up the iron-sights carefully, firing only one shot for each raider as they came around the bend in the road. Each raider hit pitched forward onto the ground, but more kept coming. Suddenly the heavier report of the G3 deafened his ears; Sarah had struggled to her feet and was returning fire as well. Her wound hadn't affected her well-honed aim, and together they tore into the raiders, one shot for each rapidly approaching bandit.

By the time Jacob had to reload several raiders had made it to cover and were firing away, but a number of others hadn't stopped and were weaving through and over the cars at a dead sprint, waving grotesque blades over their heads. Jacob slid the new mag home smoothly and picked off the sprinting raiders. He crouched low as bullets sprayed the other side of the car and yelled for Sarah to stay put while he dashed to another car a few yards away where he stood and fired, catching several raiders behind cover by surprise.

No matter how far back he folded his ears, they rang painfully as he fired away, but that was nothing compared to the despair he felt as more and more raiders poured around the corner. He spotted several sprinting down the ridge to his left and he dashed to another car, firing as he went and sending them tumbling down the slope. He had to reload again, and by the time he was returning fire once more there was at least a score of raiders behind cover, laying down heavy fire on Sarah's position. He saw one of the sprinters racing up to her from the side and he swung his rifle and took him down cleanly.

He tried to flank the raiders in cover, but more were racing over the ridge to his left now, forcing him back towards the center of the car park where Sarah sat, returning fire with her revolver now. Just as Jacob was about to fire at a sprinter charging down the ridge towards him, his carbine only made one mournful click. The raider was upon him, and immediately Jacob ducked low and smashed the butt of his rifle into the man's gut, and then again into his head, sending him reeling to the ground. Jacob dropped his rifle and pulled out his 9mm and fired at the approaching raiders as he retreated to the car Sarah sat behind, reloading her revolver furiously.

They fired away at the raiders sprinting at them with twisted blades, now unable to return fire to the dug in raiders as they fought for their life. "I'm out!" Sarah bellowed from behind Jacob. Just barely able to hear her over the ringing in his ears he slid his last magazine home and handed her the 9mm, nodding as they made eye contact. He unsheathed his knife and caught the first sprinter to make it to their car in the gut, catching him by surprise. Jacob slashed the next one in the throat, but suddenly the knife was knocked from his paw as a raider to his left attacked with a thick wooden board. As the raider prepared to swing again Jacob moved quickly, ripping the man's throat out with the claws on his other paw. Suddenly Jacob was tackled from behind, the wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground. A raider was on him, cackling madly with laughter as pinned Jacob to the ground from above and pressed a steel pipe to his throat. Jacob couldn't get his paws around to slash at the attacker, and it was all he could do to try to pry the pipe away, but his tired muscles were failing and his vision began to blacken as the pipe pressed harder against his throat.

This was it, he was going to die with his face pressed against the concrete of the Long 15, which he had survived on for so long. His arms gave out and blackness almost completely filled his vision when suddenly the pressure on his throat disappeared and the raider on his back slumped to the ground beside him. At first he thought Sarah had spared him another few minutes of life, but as he gasped for breath and turned over onto his back he found that she was still firing away in the other direction.

Another raider jumped over a car and was coming right for Jacob, and he grabbed wildly for the pipe laying at his side but when he finally clutched it in his paws the raider's head snapped back suddenly and his limp body collapsed on top of Jacob. On top of the ridge, which the raider had hidden from view, stood the form of a morph clad in sandy khaki armor with a wide-brimmed hat and dark sunglasses. More morphs in similar armor appeared on the ridge next to him, firing into the raiders' ranks with polished repeaters that glinted in the sunlight.

Jacob dived into cover next to Sarah, who sat behind the car, knife out and revolver empty on the ground. He crouched next to her, the metal pipe gripped tightly in his paw and watched as the morphs on the hill decimated the raiders who had been caught by surprise and were without cover. It seemed like less than a minute before the firing stopped and quiet filled the air even as the ringing in Jacob's ears continued. As the morphs descended the slope recognition clicked in his mind - the armor, the hats and glasses, these were NCR Rangers. He stood, tossing the pipe to the side, and stared blankly at the approaching Rangers. He never thought he'd be this glad to see NCR soldiers, provided they didn't rob Sarah and himself or kill them anyway.

"You are one lucky sonofabitch." said a sandy fox with gray salted fur with a smoldering cigarette butt jutting from his muzzle as he approached, carrying himself with confident authority even though he was several inches shorter than Jacob. "I'm Lieutenant Perez, C.O. of the 7th Rangers platoon." he said gruffly around the cigarette.

Jacob barely heard what the fox said and stared at him blankly until he finally came to his sense. "My friend is wounded, she needs help." he said, his voice sounded muffled, but his hearing was starting to return.

More Rangers approached, clambering over the bodies of dead raiders and rusted cars until they reached the little circle that he and Sarah had defended. "A human girl?" Perez said in consternation as he peered over the bullet-ridden car, lifting his sunglasses off his sharp eyes as if they were somehow deceiving him. She was peering around, pale and obviously unsettled, at the surrounding canines, felines, mustelidae, and others.

"What the hell are you doing with her?" Perez demanded.

Jacob sighed and sank to the ground next to her and they looked each other in the eyes as he sat. "It's long, very long story."

_____

Jacob sat cleaning his carbine by the flickering light of the fire in the NCR camp. They had waited at the car park for another unit of NCR regulars to catch up before moving out a ways down the road where they had established a small camp to rest. He looked over at Sarah's sleeping form next to him, laid out on a blanket and he leg thoroughly bandaged.

"You two are lucky to be alive." It was Perez's characteristically gruff voice. "Sorry I didn't get to talk to you, I was too busy getting us organized to set up camp." the fox said as he sat down next to Jacob. "Now, let's hear your story."

Jacob sighed and turned his gaze back on his rifle and continued to clean its fine parts slowly as he began to explain his long journey from Junktown all the way to the harrowing battle with the raiders, carefully omitting the atrocities committed by the humans of the Fort. All the while Perez listened closely without interruption; Jacob supposed that was one reason he had made it to lieutenant.

"Well if that's the case then you have my respect, especially after that firefight today, and it certainly helps fill in some pieces. You're even luckier than I thought." Perez said when Jacob was finished. When Jacob gave him a questioning look Perez stared at him for several long seconds before continuing, "I probably shouldn't tell you all this, but you deserve to know after what you've been through." As he said this he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with a match, and took a long draught before releasing a long puff of smoke.

"My unit was ordered to act as advanced scout to a company of regular infantry, together were were to secure I-15 as a new route to New Vegas besides the highway from Shady Sands. We left the Hub a few weeks after you." Perez said. "Now, I suspect the reason the humans at the Fort were so nervous about NCR scouts is they somehow got wind that we were coming their way, and they were right, although we had no idea of their little... establishment."

"We found the place in a smoking wreck, crawling with raiders. My guess is they knew we were coming too, and instead of fleeing, they decided to defend their territory, only they needed the equipment to do it. Well, they knew where they could find the equipment too. They stormed the Fort and grabbed all the weapons they could."

"When we found 'em we had to wait for the regulars to catch up, there were so many. Their firepower couldn't make up for being bad fighters, but we still lost some good men when they hit us with those mortars." Perez stared into the fire as he said this. Jacob remembered the night of the attack vividly - the whistling of the mortars and huge explosions, the giant fireball in the night sky and women and children screamed in fear and men in pain.

"After the battle most fled south, some north, and a small chunk east down the road. Now, I figured the raiders had recently taken the Fort from someone else, but I didn't suspect survivors until a corporal found a bunch of dead raiders cooking in the desert off on the side of the road and a lot of spent brass sitting in a rock clearing." Perez said, looking at Jacob now, and the wolf remembered the frantic action that morning. "After that, I had my Rangers break off from the regulars and we kicked it into high gear, trying to catch up and save your asses."

Jacob looked up from his rifle at Perez. "So they were running from you more than chasing us." he said. "That was you, this morning, the fighting we saw before dawn."

"Sure as hell was." Perez said matter-of-factly, unscrewing the cap of a canteen and taking drink. "Killed about a third of them too before they peeled away. Don't know why they were so intent to keep chasing you though, if they had gone north or south we wouldn't have followed them and I'm sure they knew that."

"Who knows." Jacob shrugged, but then something came to him and he said, "You said you and your men are here clearing a route to New Vegas, but why?"

Perez looked at him incredulously and said, without removing his glowing cigarette from his mouth, "You haven't heard? There was a big battle at the dam east of the city earlier this year and the brass figures there's going to be a counter-attack. So, we're here to establish a new supply line to protect the city and the dam better."

Jacob put down his rifle parts and shook his head, confused. "Wait, what?" he paused to sort out his thoughts before continuing. "Lieutenant, do you mean to tell me the NCR has soldiers in New Vegas?" he said, his eyes boring into Perez

"Damn straight." Perez said after blowing another puff of smoke towards the fire. "A big camp was set up south of the city a couple years ago, I expect the fancy politicians are trying to expand their control east."

Jacob sat staring at the fox, who smoked away as if without a care in the world, with a feeling like someone had just dropped a big block of lead into his stomach. Jacob had set out on this journey, escaped death several times and lost Joshua in the process, to escape the NCR and its army; and here he was, sitting in an army camp surrounded by NCR soldiers, heading to a city being brought under the fold of the entity he had struggled to escape.

When Jacob failed to say anything for several minutes Perez quashed out his cigarette in the dirt and stood. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but I can't account for Captain Harper's men, but stay here with my Rangers and both you and the girl will be safe."

Perez had started to walk over to another group of soldiers gathered around another fire a number of yards distant when Jacob asked him, "Lieutenant, did you recover Joshua's body? The German shepherd I told you about."

"We did. He was buried outside of the town." Perez replied and walked away. Jacob closed his eyes and sighed quietly, at least he could sleep a little easier knowing that Joshua hadn't been left abandoned in the open.

He looked over at Sarah's sleeping form before sighing and hanging his head. Faced with the reality of the fact that without the soldiers, neither he nor Sarah would be here, still breathing, he was unpleasantly reminded of the fact that it wasn't they who was at fault for Daniel's disappearance, it was himself. For seven years he shoved the blame onto them, and even after he knew it was his own fault he continued to blame them in hopes it would ease the pressure on his soul.

The Republic had redeemed itself to Jacob, whether it needed to or not, just as humanity had through Sarah. The wolf closed a paw around the ring hanging by his neck and brought it before his eyes where it glinted brightly with the firelight. The real question was if he could find his own redemption.