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Guns, Grease and Gears;

Tales of the Post Apocalypse

by Mog Moogle

"Knowledge is Power."

Johnny sifted through the stack of holotapes on the counter. He'd do his best to read the faded label before either pitching it over his shoulder or setting it to the side. Some of the words he would sound out, others were more natural. He'd only found two of interest in the stack when he heard the awkward boot-steps of wolf approaching him.

He saw Colt with a few holotapes and hardback books under his right arm and a tattered paperback in his left paw. Colt's limp had gotten much better, but Johnny still felt a little guilty when he saw the wolf walking. Johnny looked down at the paperback as Colt handed it to him.

"To kill a ... Mockingbird?" Johnny read aloud. "You gotta be shitting me. Another kids novel?"

"It's a literary classic, kit," Colt said. "Required reading for Junior High. Of course, you could always go back to Fun with Dick and Jane, if you feel that's more your speed."

"Fuck you, Colt," Johnny said as he stuffed the paperback in his jacket pocket.

"At least I'm not making you read Dickens," Colt said as he turned around and started to walk over to another bookshelf.

"I thought when you taught me how to read, it'd be repair manuals or firearms nomen- ... nomenclature," Johnny struggled as he forced himself to recall the large word. "Not inspiration stories about a dead old world."

"You think I started with Big Book of Science_and _Dean's Electronics?" Colt asked over his shoulder.

"... Yes."

"Okay, so maybe I did. But if I had it to do over, I would have learned how to read the small stuff before I tried the big stuff."

"This just isn't what I had in mind when we started scavving libraries."

"Don't sweat it, kit. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for. You've taken to the car repairs a lot quicker than I thought you would. Hell, you can almost weld a straight seam already."

"Twentieth century literature just doesn't seem terribly relevant out here."

"You've been at it for three weeks," Colt said as he tossed a few destroyed books on the floor. "Your vocabulary has improved, you can pen basic sentences, you even know what's worthless and what's not. _A History of Chrysalis Motors?_Not a bad find you have there."

Johnny blushed softly as he looked at the battered holotape on the desk. He shrugged his shoulders as he picked them up and stuffed them into a hide rucksack. He slung the strap over his shoulder and walked up behind the wolf, laying his head against his back as he continued to scour the shelf. "How's your leg, wolfie?"

"Doing better every day, vixen."

Johnny giggled softly and nuzzled at Colt's back. He put his arms around the wolf's sides and squeezed him in a tender hug. "Good. You being out of action is starting to get to me."

"What'd I tell you about hanging all over me in public?"

"I doubt the librarian's skeleton is _too_bothered by a little public affection." Johnny eased back and looked down at the wolf's rear at the denim hugging his masculine curves. "Have I told you how much I like your new jeans?"

"Every day," Colt said before turning around and facing Johnny. "Have I told you that you have a libido of a fox?"

"Every day," Johnny said and smiled.

"Broken Gears."

Johnny looked over at Colt as the wolf eased forward in the passenger seat. The fox squinted his eyes and scanned the horizon, trying to see what the wolf saw. After a few moments, he sighed and looked over at the wolf. "What is it?"

"Brotherhood," Colt replied.

"How far?"

"Not very. Much smaller convoy than before."

"It's been a month since we last saw them. Are you sure it's the same one?"

"Yeah," Colt said as he eased back in his seat. "They're running."

"What would the Brotherhood run from-" Johnny was cut off by a roar over the top of the car. He hit the brakes and locked the wheels. He saw the twin rotors of a Vertibird. They rolled back and stopped in the air in a brief hover before the fuselage swung around and it was facing the car.

"Drive," Colt instructed. "Fast."

Johnny slammed the car in reverse and punched the accelerator as hard as he could. The car sped backward through the cloud of white smoke on the pavement. The motor whirred loudly as he hit the rev limiter then cut the steering yoke hard to the right. The nose of the car whipped around and Johnny slammed it into second gear and popped the clutch.

He could hear the air chopping behind him as the aircraft perused them. He ran through the gears until he was in fifth and the tachometer climbed slowly up toward the red line. The red overspeed indicator blinked on the speedometer as the needle passed 350 km/h. Johnny saw the VTOL behind them in the rearview slowly closing the distance.

"Colt," he yelled over the deafening roar of the motor, wind and chopper. "Colt, they're faster than us."

"I know!" Colt said as he looked around out of the windshield. "There!"

Johnny eased the car off the road into the dust toward the rock face the wolf had pointed out. As they approached it, Johnny eased of the accelerator and looked at the solid wall in front of him. "Colt?"

"Cave, to the right," Colt said.

Johnny eased the yoke to the side and hit the brakes as the car crossed into the large mouth of rocks around them. The car skid on the soft cave floor until it finally came to a stop. The faint glow of the mouth of the cave was behind them. The sound of the Vertibird stopped at the rock wall and it sounded like it hovered there for a few moments before turning away and growing distant. Johnny sighed in relief and looked over at the wolf.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Enclave, maybe? I'm not sure kit." Colt looked over at him and scowled. "Better let me drive."

"With your busted leg?"

"I know the car better than you, kit," Colt explained. "Even with my injured leg, we can't risk rolling this thing over while we run."

Johnny sighed and then nodded at the wolf. He reached down and pulled the door handle up but felt Colt jerk his arm back roughly. "Ow! What the fuck?"

"Shut up!" Colt demanded. "Stay still. Slowly reach up and turn on the headlights."

Johnny shook his head as he leaned forward and pulled the knob out with his left paw. The lights lit up the cave in front of them and something nearly as tall as the cave ceiling. Johnny saw a huge scaled beast with horns curling back from its head. The lights constricted its pupils as it looked at the strange invader of its den. It roared and threw its arms back, showing off claws longer than swords.

"Go," Colt said softly. "Go!" he yelled at the fox.

Johnny slammed the car into reverse again and hit the accelerator. The car sped backward through the dark cave as he looked behind him and aimed it for the cave opening. Johnny felt the front of the car shake and looked back out the windshield to see the deathclaw grasping as the front fenders.

"This is turning into a shitty day, kit," Colt said as he drew his pistol. "Just keep driving."

Johnny looked back out the rear window. The car burst from the cave just as he heard two shots from the wolf and the rocking on the front of the car ceased. He looked again to see the deathclaw falling behind the car as one of its horns flew through the air behind it.

The fox had enough presence of mind to reach over and grab Colt's jacket and pull him back in the window before cutting the yoke hard and flipping the car around in another moonshiner's turn. Johnny ran through the gears again as he noticed Colt dropping his magazine and putting two loose rounds from his pocket in it.

"Rock and a hard-place, eh kit?" the wolf said.

"This shit sucks, Colt," Johnny said as he saw the dust of the Brotherhood convey had stopped and beams of energy shot skyward toward three Vertibirds buzzing around them. He saw the Vertibird between the car and the convoy touch down and the drop-gate on the back lower. "What do I do?"

"Drive past them," Colt instructed. "Lead that pissed off deathclaw right into the bastards."

Johnny eased the steering yoke to the side and drove right underneath the bird's right rotor. He pulled up to one of the Brotherhood trucks and slid the car to a stop. Looking back, he saw furs in tan uniforms with red berets firing bolt action rifles at the deathclaw as it started tearing them to shreds. When it had killed the four that ran out of the Vertibird, it continued running at the car.

Colt lifted his pistol and pointed it out the window, but streams of light shot over the top of the car and pelted the beast. Johnny looked over at the boxy truck and saw the gunner on the top spraying lethal light from the laser gatling mounted to the top. He looked back to the deathclaw as it dropped to the ground smoldering, then watched as the trail of light moved over to the cockpit of the Vertibird and sprayed it before the rotor blades could spin up to speed.

Johnny saw the silhouettes of the furs in the bubbled glass glow like lightbulbs and crumble to ash in their seats. Flames jumped up from where they once sat and the aircraft's engines spooled down. He looked back at the truck to see the gunner point her laser gatling skyward and pelt the side of one of the other two Vertibirds.

It yawed to the side and sped off, catching up with the second one. It didn't make it too far before a missile fired from somewhere in toward the back of the convey streaked through the sky and hit its tail. The bird rolled onto its back and slammed into the ground in a giant fireball. Johnny gasped as he saw it explode, then sighed at the end of the skirmish.

He looked over at Colt but felt something grab his jacket and pull him out of the window. He was put on the ground by the lion in power armor with laser pistol to his head. As soon as Greene saw that it wasn't the wolf, he stood up off Johnny and walked around to the other side of the car.

"Easy, General," Colt said as he eased out of the car with his paws up. "My leg huts too much for you to go throwing me around like the kit."

Johnny stood up and looked over the car at the lion towering over the wolf. His power armor had dents, scratches and burns all over it. A trickle of blood ran from his right nostril. The lion holstered his pistol and looked the wolf over.

"Quick thinking," he said to Colt. "Dragging that deathclaw onto those first recon boys."

"We were more just running away from it, and figured the guys with the big guns might be able to stop those Vertibirds that seemed as keen to kill us as they did you."

"We've been in a running firefight with the NCR Rangers for the last five days," Greene said and then looked over at Johnny and scoffed. "At least they'll be sending home more folded flags than us today."

"Yeah, since when did they start using Vertibirds in military operations?"

"Since they found an old Enclave hanger and painted that mutated bear over old glory. If our intelligence is correct, putting those two out of commission should take them down to six, total."

"You've been fighting off eight Vertibirds for five days?"

"Seven," the lion sniffled the blood back into his nostril and then spit it on the ground. "They wouldn't risk their precious president's personal Vertibird. We downed one two days ago, but it wasn't destroyed. With those two gone, maybe they'll reconsider sending the other four after us."

"I wouldn't count on it," Colt said.

"I'm not. Looks like you'll be coming with us."

"Hold on there, General. I'm not some initiate you can order around."

"You really have any doubt that they didn't radio that you're fighting with us back to their HQ? I can have my comms officer play back they intercepted transmission if you doubt it."

"Fuck," Colt said and looked up at the lion and shook his head. "That's why I didn't want to get involved with you. I operate inside the NCR a lot. I can't have this kind of heat."

"You've got it, whether you want it or not," Greene said. "We're going to hole up in those mountains while we tend to our wounded and do some repairs on our vehicles. I could use a good grease monkey."

Colt shook his head and sighed. "I want _triple_your contractors fee. No negotiations, no discussion. Triple. Clear?"

"You'll have it," Greene said before turning around and walking back to his truck.

Johnny looked over at Colt and cocked his head. The wolf looked at him and smiled.

"Paydirt," he said, smirking.

"R&R."

Johnny watched the banner flutter in the evening breeze. He sighed to himself as he saw the tattered cloth embroidered with the wreathed gears and sword lift and fall.

"Fifteen millimeter," Johnny heard from under the tracked vehicle.

He bent down and picked up a wrench from a set that was laid out on the ground as the wolf's boots stuck out from under it. He sat it on the pavement and kicked it softly and it slid up under the APC. Another wrench was tossed out beside Colt's boots and Johnny picked it up and slipped it back into the pocket from set it came from.

"You would think that they wouldn't fly their flags like that if we're being tracked by Rangers," Johnny said with another glance at the banner.

"Pride's a double-edged sword, kit," Colt said. "It leads these soldiers to do things that rational furs would never do. Charge the cannons and all. But it also leads them to flaunt that pride as if they're any different than who they're fighting."

"It just doesn't seem smart, is all."

"Like they could hide a column of vehicles in a place where they're more rare than a New Reno virgin. Just take it easy, kit. NCR will lick their wounds for a few days before they try anything again." Colt rolled the creeper out from under the APC and tossed the wrench on top of the toolset. "Help me up, kit."

Johnny leaned down and took Colt's paw and lifted him to his feet. The wolf brushed his back off and then limped up against the side of the armored vehicle and pulled out a cigarette.

"You want one?" he asked the fox.

"Uh, sure," Johnny replied and then watched as Colt fished out another and handed it to him.

Colt pulled out his lighter and lit the one in his mouth and took a long drag. He handed the lighter to Johnny and the fox tried to repeat what the wolf had done, but started coughing as soon as the tarred smoke hit his lungs. Colt laughed at him as Johnny handed the lighter back. "This is awful," he said between coughs. "Why would you use these?"

"Because it can take the edge off. Better than flying around on jet, anyway."

"What's jet."

"It an amphetamine with an addiction rate higher than anything old world you'll ever read about."

"What does it do?"

"Makes you fly. For about ten minutes, then it makes you shake for two days."

"How do you fly?"

"Get high, kit," Colt explained. "Furs use it when they think life is too tough not to use it to just get by."

Johnny took another experimental drag then coughed. It tasted terrible, burnt his lungs and didn't make him feel like the edge was off of anything. He pulled the filtered butt out of his muzzle and spit on the ground. "Just surviving like this isn't enough?"

"Surviving like this is too much for some, kit."

Johnny's ears sagged a little bit as he thought of his farm. He looked up at Colt and managed a smile. "I guess it depends on who you share that survival with. It wasn't hard with my family, even when it was a dry season." Johnny paused as his cheeks heated. "It's not hard with you, because ..."

"Sentimental bullshit again, kit?"

"It's_not_ bullshit, wolfie," Johnny said before stepping up to Colt and pressing his muzzle into the wolf's chest. "I've got you, so I don't need jet. Or cigarettes." Johnny held out the lit cigarette and dropped it on the ground.

"Hey! Don't waste- mmph!" Colt was cut off as the fox pressed his muzzle against the wolf's in a kiss.

Johnny pulled back from Colt's lips and the wolf spit half-smoked cigarette out of the corner his muzzle beside Johnny's. Colt grabbed him and pushed his lips against him and forced his tongue into the young fox's mouth. Johnny murmured as the wolf held him tightly, stroking his vulpine tongue up against the lupine tongue in his maw.

Colt moved his paws down Johnny's sides and over his rear, squeezing his pert cheeks through the denim. He pulled out of the kiss and the fox panted softly while Colt unfastened his belt. He slid his paws of Johnny's sides and pushed his jeans down to his thighs, exposing his sheath, balls and quickly inflating erection.

Johnny blushed as he looked down the wolf's chest until his eyes fell on the red flesh slipping from his sheath. He felt Colt's paw on his shoulder but he didn't need the coaxing. The fox lowered himself to his knees and took the half flaccid wolf flesh between his lips.

He engulfed Colt to his sheath and then drew his muzzle back, suckling on the wolf while sliding his tongue along the underside. He heard Colt moan and felt the wolf grasp his headfur and ears. Colt was moving his head lightly back and forth with his paws, but as before, Johnny needed no coaxing.

He would slurp down to the base and suck to the tip, all the while using his tongue on the wolf the same way he'd been shown several weeks back. Colt's penis came fully alive in Johnny's mouth, and the fox loved the feel of it throbbing, the contours and the musk of the wolf in his nostrils. His own pent up member throbbed against the closed fly of his jeans as he worked the wolf.

Johnny pulled back to the tip and flicked the opening with his tongue. He was rewarded with a splash of the wolf's pre on the tip. The fox noticed that it was much sweeter than he remembered. The weeks of eating canned fruit acquired at Desert Aire instead of dried meat seemed to have another pleasant side effect than just lack of indigestion.

After he tasted the wolf's pre, he was determined to get a mouthful of his cum. He focused wholly on the task, doing everything he could to get an orgasm from the wolf. His efforts and enthusiasm yielded a swollen knot at Colt's base. Just as Colt had showed him, he kept his teeth far from the sensitive flesh and teased it with his tongue.

Johnny slid his paws up Colt's thighs, (being careful about avoiding his injury,) and then moved his right one to the furry duo dangling between the wolf's legs. He cupped them and rolled them softly in his palm while he slipped his left to Colt's toned rear. His fingers traveled the cleft between his cheeks and then stopped as his fingerpads brushed the textured surface of the wolf's tailhole.

"Kit," Colt said aloud after a long groan at a particularly intense suckle, "what are you doing back ther- Yip!" Johnny pushed his finger past the wolf's tailring and knuckle deep. The wolf clenched his backside against the fox's finger and tightened his glutes against his paw, but it didn't deter the fox from exploring the silky insides of the wolf. When Colt relaxed a bit, Johnny moved his finger out slightly and then back in, timing it with his ascent and descent of his muzzle.

He continued that despite a rough jerk on his headfur by the wolf. He wanted to make his wolf cum in his muzzle. He_needed_ to make Colt cum. Johnny knew he was close to getting it. He could hear the moans turn to desperate panting and the wolf's muscles tighten.

Johnny felt Colt's paw jerk his head back roughly on his way up to the tip and the wolf's member popped free of his mouth. Johnny looked up at the wolf confused, but saw an angry scowl on his face. The fox yipped as Colt picked him up by his headfur until he was standing, forcing his finger free of the wolf's backside. Johnny laid his ears flat as he was sure Colt was about to beat him.

The wolf released his headfur from his fist and grabbed Johnny's shoulders. He pushed the fox against the APC hard enough that the armored panel thudded when Johnny's body impacted it. Colt took Johnny's wrist in one paw and cinched it up into the small of his back as he stepped against the fox and pinned him there.

"Little bitches don't get to be in my ass, kit," Colt growled. "Looks like you need a lesson in your proper place in this relationship."

"Please don't hurt me," Johnny said with a quiver.

"Oh, it's going to hurt," Colt said coldly. "It's going to be rough, and hard, and you're going to love it like the vixen bitch you are."

Colt slid his free paw between them and unfastened the fox's tailflap. He then took it and grabbed the left side of Johnny's jeans and yanked them down, causing the fabric in the front to tug sharply on the fox's arousal as it was forced over it.

Johnny yipped as he felt the wolf grind his hips against his barely exposed rear and Colt's member slip between his cheeks. He felt the wolf bend down a bit behind him, but he kept his body tightly against him so that he still couldn't move. The tapered tip of Colt's cock brushed against his tailhole and Johnny whimpered, but not in fear.

Johnny wanted him so bad that he almost couldn't contain the desire. The wolf behind him didn't keep him waiting long as he felt the tip push past his tailring and plunge into his body.

"Colt!" Johnny screamed. "Gods, that hurts," he hissed as pain radiated out from the suddenly abused muscle.

"I told you it would," Colt said before giving him a sharp bite on the neck.

Johnny yipped as he felt the wolf's canines dig into his flesh. He felt Colt pull all the way out and then slam back inside again, recreating the pain of the rough entry. Johnny saw white and felt like he was going to pass out under the wolf's assault, Colt's full length dragging his tailring and then pushing it open over and over.

Surprisingly, the hard bite on his neck seemed to help take his focus away from it. What little was left of his cognizant thought wondered if that wasn't the wolf's plan to begin with. Johnny runted and gasped through clenched teeth as his lover used him like he'd been tossed a few caps for the wolf to get off and it was all he was worth.

A few minutes of the rough fuck felt like hours to Johnny. He could barely comprehend anything. Slowly, his senses came back. He could focus on more than just the pain in his backside and neck, and both sets of pain seemed to be dulling.

Something new was starting to replace it. Something in lieu of the anal virginity that was just violently pulled away from him. The bulge midway on Colt's shaft rubbed the special spot inside of him he'd discovered on his own. With the wolf doing it to him, it was something like he never imagined it could be.

Colt's penis made the pressure less directed and more focused. Very subtle while being super intense. It was a wonderful contradiction inside of Johnny's body that dulled out the pain entirely after a few more moments of the wolf working him. He felt Colt finally release his wrist and Johnny moved his paws in front of him and braced himself against the cool metal.

Johnny began to buck back against the wolf when Colt thrust into him. He felt Colt's knot bounce against his tailring with added pressure as he rocked his body against him. The wolf released his neck and then Colt's tongue lapped the small pinpricks to soothe them.

"Colt," Johnny said with a moan. "Gods, this is amazing. You're amazing. Make me yours."

"You are," Colt whispered hotly into the fox's neck fur.

Johnny shivered at the words behind the warm moist breath tickling his bite mark and fur follicles. Johnny's body quaked and his knees felt weak. Had it not been for the wolf behind him pinning him tightly against the Brotherhood's armored track, he would have collapsed to the ground.

Johnny could feel his stretched tailring letting a little more of the bulbous appendage on Colt's shaft in a little deeper with each thrust. He mustered all of remaining strength to rock his rear back against him as hard as he could when Colt thrust upward. He could feel the tension building like a rubber band about to snap. Then, suddenly with a throaty howl from the wolf and a sharp yip from the fox, Johnny felt the knot force inside and lock him in a tie.

Johnny's eyes were wide at the sudden full feeling in his backside. Colt howled and the entire length of the member in his ass swelled and pulsed. The fox could feel the warm liquid from the wolf's tip flooding into his body and oozing around the shaft that stretched his insides. Johnny and Colt both gasped for breath as they rode out Colt's orgasm locked inside Johnny's body.

He could feel the flood slow to a trickle, then something happened he never expected. His whole body tensed and the full feeling in his backside radiated up and down his loins. Johnny gasped as the tip of his vulpine member shot weak spray of his thick seed against the metal in front of him. It did so once more before the stream became more of a dribble as if the climax was forced from his body by Colt's instead of Johnny actually working himself to it.

He'd had just orgasmed from being fucked. Just like the vixen Colt said he was. It was the most intense climax he'd ever felt despite probably having the least amount of muzzle velocity since the young fox first figured out his vulpine dick could spray cum if he pawed it. Johnny's whole body felt weak and it sagged downward.

Colt wrapped his arms around his fox and held him upright before Johnny could slip any farther. He pressed his muzzle against the side of the fox's and kissed him tenderly.

"Ahem," the pair heard to their right.

Johnny looked over and splayed his ears back as a Brother of Steel in recon armor stood there. In the darkness, about all he could see was a silhouette, but it was enough to fill the fox with embarrassment that'd he'd been seen.

"Would you two mind taking that somewhere else?" he asked. "All that thumping against the side of my track made me think I was getting shelled."

"In a minute," Colt replied nonchalantly. "Kit and I are a little tied up, at the moment."

Johnny heard the Brother sigh as he turned away from them and walked back to the front of the track. Johnny's cheeks and ears burned hotter than they ever had. He couldn't believe they'd been caught fucking and Colt just brushed it off like it was no big deal, but his thoughts were diverted as Colt began kissing his muzzle again.

Johnny opened his mouth and pushed his tongue toward Colt, and the wolf responded by doing the same. His wolf held him, kissing him tenderly in an intimate display unlike anything he'd ever seen from the rough Wasteland hardened killer before. When Colt pulled his muzzle away, Johnny whined audibly.

"Don't be like that, vixen," Colt told him. "We got three more of Greene's vehicles to look at before we can call it a night."

"Can't we take a nap first?" Johnny asked softly. "I'm afraid you wore your vixen out, wolfie."

"Kit, I promise that after we're done, you'll sleep in my arms. And I always keep my promises."

"If I'm in your arms, how are you going to get any sleep?"

"That's my girl," Colt said and then chuckled.

"What we Leave Behind."

Johnny's eyes fluttered open as the break of dawn shined on his face. He yawned softly and brought his paw up to the strong arm draped over his chest. He found the wolf's paw and squeezed it softly. He heard Colt murmur and then felt the wolf nuzzle the back of his neck.

"'Morning, wolfie," he said softly.

"'Morning, vixen," Colt replied.

Johnny eased his bare back against the wolf's bare chest. The feel of Colt made the hard ground beneath them much softer. He didn't mind that there was only a blanket between him and the rocks. He didn't mind that he was held against it as the wolf took him again and again the previous night. Just being with Colt was enough to make anything better.

"It's not going to be so easy to walk today, I think," Johnny said as he felt the dull soreness in his backside and the dampness in his fur.

"We can gimp around together then," Colt said softly before kissing the back of the fox's head. "I'll have a limp and you'll be bow-legged."

Johnny chuckled and started to close his eyes to ignore the day and spend some more time with his wolf, but then his ear cocked as he heard a distant sound. He looked up into the sky as he heard a faint chopping of the air. He couldn't see anything, but the wolf sprang up from the blanket quickly.

Johnny rolled over and saw Colt gathering up his clothes and throwing them on. The fox had a feeling he knew why, and the sounds of electric motors from the Brotherhood vehicles starting up confirmed it.

Johnny sighed to himself as he rolled over and picked his black shirt off his pile of clothes at the head of the blanket. "Two shitty days in a row, eh wolfie?"

"I dunno," Colt said as he slung his pistol belt around his hips. "Last night made up for yesterday fine. We'll just have to do that again tonight."

"You won't hear arguments from me," he said after he pulled the shirt over his head. Johnny stretched his arms and legs before getting dressed and arming himself as Colt had. He walked up to the wolf and looked at him as he scoured the Brother's moving their vehicles to the ridgeline of the mountain they were encamped on.

"The bastards are going to make a stand," Colt said as he looked them over.

"Should we get out of here before the shooting starts?"

"Can't," Colt said and looked at the fox. "We haven't gotten paid."

Johnny sighed and shook his head," Being caught between the NCR and Brotherhood doesn't seem like it'd be worth a few caps to me."

"Don't sweat it, kit," Colt said. "Brotherhood has the high ground, and I doubt the NCR will try that direct assault like they did yesterday. They try to fly into that wall of vehicles, they'll be cut to pieces. They try to climb that mountain, they'll be cut to pieces. We're golden."

"Why can't furs just leave each other well enough alone?"

"Because furs never change. We've been fighting each other ever since the pointed stick was invented."

Johnny shook his head as Colt walked toward the vehicles lining up. He followed the wolf up to the lion that was yelling out orders to the Brothers as they prepared themselves for their final stand. Johnny couldn't hear what the wolf and the lion were talking about over all the noise. He looked out toward the sky and saw several sets of strobing lights crest a mountaintop less than five kilometers from them. The wolf slapped him on the shoulder and Johnny looked back at Colt.

"Greene says we can stay out of it if we want," Colt told him. "Let's go watch the car."

Johnny followed the wolf back to the car. He watched as Colt picked the blanket off the ground and hastily folded it up. He tossed it in the open window of the car and looked back at Johnny. The fox looked at him with a confused expression.

"What's wrong, kit?" Colt asked.

"You don't seem worried at all."

"Ain't nothing to worry about unless the Brotherhood loses," Colt explained. "For now, just watch the show. If it comes to it, and we get swarmed with NCR troops, we'll fight. But to tell you the truth, I honestly don't feel like killing anyone today."

Johnny blinked and then chuckled. "_You,_don't feel like killing anyone?"

"Why's that so strange?"

"I don't know. I guess I just-" Johnny's words were cut off as one of the vehicles on the ridgeline was engulfed in a fireball and an explosion rocked the Brothers around it. "Shit!"

"Looks like the bear brought in the big guns today," Colt said as the line of vehicles erupted with energy weapons fire.

Johnny watched as paladins in power armor and knights in recon armor fired down the mountain. Gunners on the tops of the vehicles sprayed lasers and plasma bolts at two Vertibirds that returned fire with chainguns as they darted through the air. Johnny saw a few of the Brotherhood soldiers get ripped to pieces by the bullets impacting them as the Vertibirds sprayed the convoy.

A missile wormed its way from a launcher toward one of the aircraft then the Vertibird banked hard as white hot flares fell from the wingtips and tail. The missile spiraled toward the flares and splashed in a fireball harmlessly away from the VTOL.

Johnny then saw three missiles come up from the Brotherhood's line toward the aircraft again, and this time, it didn't get any countermeasures off. They impacted one after another and a series of fireballs in the sky sent pieces of what was left of the bird to the ground. The remaining Vertibird turned away and headed back to the mountain it flew over on its approach.

The Brotherhood stopped firing skyward and aimed their heavy guns down the mountain and kept firing. Johnny couldn't see what they were shooting at but ricochets and impacts from conventional weapons still peppered the Brotherhood convoy.

"I'm guessing they sent a whole battalion," Colt said over the gunfire to Johnny.

Johnny looked at the wolf and shook his head. "I don't know what that is."

"A fuckload of troops," Colt replied. "A thousand or so, give or take some-" Colt ceased his explanation to the fox as the front of his white shirt blew out on his left breast and Johnny was coated with a fine red mist.

Colt toppled to the ground as Johnny stood and watched. The fox's eyes were wide. He couldn't really process what had just happened until Colt rolled onto his back and drew his pistol. He saw the hole from a large caliber exit wound that was quickly soaking the wolf's shirt red.

Colt pointed his pistol up over the top of his car at a small rock ledge behind them and started firing. Johnny glanced up to see three furs with scoped rifles wearing tattered trench coats and tin stars on their chest. He saw their riffle muzzles flash over and over. He even felt the fur on his right cheek part as one of the rounds grazed his face, but he didn't move.

He looked back down at Colt. The pinpoint accurate wolf straining to even keep his pistol up. His paw shook as he pulled the trigger. The muzzle quivered as it flashed. The slide slamming back almost ripped it from his weak paws with every shot.

Colt looked up at him and yelled something, but Johnny couldn't hear it. Johnny couldn't hear anything. Everything was quiet. The fox drew his revolver and pointed it at one of the furs with the dark riot helmet on.

The mask over his face split in two and he toppled over backwards. The next was a fur with dark sunglasses and a ragged cowboy hat. He fell forward and off the rock ledge. The third in the pre-war riot gear got up and turned to run away, but his trench coat collar split at the base of his neck and he dropped down the other side out of Johnny's view.

The sounds of the laser and plasma weapons slowly started to filter back into his perception. He looked back down at Colt as he laid with one paw clutching his chest and the other laying by his side with his pistol out of his grasp on the ground. Johnny holstered his revolver and knelt down, scooping the wolf's head up and cradling it in his arm.

"Colt?" he said quietly. "Colt? Colt!?" his voice became frantic.

The wolf opened his eyes and looked up at the fox. He managed a smile through blood-stained teeth at the fox. "Johnny."

"You're shot. What do I do? How do I help?"

"No help ..." Colt paused to cough up a spray of blood. "I feel it ... can feel my heart, slowing down."

"No. No, there's got to be something! Stimpacks, the first aid kit. What do you need?"

Colt moved a shaky paw into his jacket pocket and pulled out the ignition key.

"You need me to take you somewhere?"

"The car ... take care of her."

"No. No Colt, she's your car. Now tell me what to do. How do I help you?"

"You've helped ..." Colt gasped and coughed, blood beginning to run down the sides of his muzzle from the corners of his mouth. "I told you, I didn't think I could love. It's not true."

"Colt, no sentimental bullshit. The Brotherhood has medics," Johnny started to tug Colt off the ground, but the wolf reached up with the paw that was covering his wound and grabbed Johnny's jacket.

"Not bullshit," the wolf said as he forced the fox to stop lifting him with a painful grip on his arm. "Listen to me." Colt paused until Johnny nodded softly. "You're smart. I've taught you what ... you need to do. You'll do fine."

"Not without you."

"Without me. Whatever comes. You're strong. You're strong ... inside. You gave me something I thought ... I thought was just a fantasy. I love you." Colt loosened his his grip on Johnny's shoulder and weakly brushed his other paw up into Johnny's. "The car is yours now. Go, live. Promise me."

Johnny broke down. He started crying for the first time in weeks. Tears streamed down his cheeks, he sniffled back the snot in his nose and sobbed loudly. He opened his paw against Colt's and felt the wolf loosen his grip on the key. "I promise, Colt," Johnny said as he forced his crying back down, burying it deep inside him. "I always keep my promises wolfie."

Colt smiled at his fox. It was frozen there. His eyes glassed and rolled back. His labored chest sagged and stopped. His head was limp against Johnny's arm, but his smile remained.

Johnny laid his head gently on the rocky ground and moved his paw away from Colt's. He brought it up in front of him and opened it up, looking at the coded key. The fox put it back in the wolf's jacket pocket then pulled his arms free of his own jacket. He shrugged it off his shoulders and it crumpled on the ground behind him.

The little farmer boy rolled his friend over gently, then eased the leather jacket off his arm. The little farmer boy leaned over the wolf and took his other arm out of the jacket. The little farmer boy tossed the jacket over his shoulders and ran his arms through the sleeves. The little farmer boy pulled the revolver from his holster, sat it on the ground and picked up his lover's pistol and slid it into the revolver's place.

The Wasteland hardened killer stood up from the corpse of the wolf, reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette. The Wasteland hardened killer put it between his lips, lit it and took a long drag. The Wasteland hardened killer turned toward the line of vehicles still blazing away down the mountainside and walked toward them.

He stepped up to the steep drop off and saw furs in tan uniforms scurrying between cover as they fired their weapons up at the Brothers of Steel. He heard the lion yelling at him to get down and take cover, but it didn't matter. He put the front blade over one of the uniforms and matched it with the rear notch. He pulled the trigger and then moved on to the next one. Again, and again, and again.

Wisps of smoke from the barrel stretching skyward along side the wisps of smoke from the burning cherry on his cigarette.

"What we Pick Up."

The otter moved his burning wrists against the bindings. His lips were dry and his webbed feet bled. He didn't know if he'd make it another step. Let alone another blazing day in the Wasteland heat. He started to fall behind the crowd of furs around him, but the rough nudge of a rifle butt made him pick his pace back up.

He saw one of the caravan drivers stand up from his wagon and motion a guard over to him. Then he heard something the likes of which he never had before. A high pitched whine that was growing louder and louder.

There was a cloud of dust on the horizon that kept getting bigger. It's size echoed the sound that got louder with each passing moment. Suddenly, he heard a squeal of rubber on asphalt and the silhouette of an actual car against the dust cloud backdrop sat between the caravan and the road ahead of them.

Gunshots rang out. The otter's eyes went wide and he dove to the ground. In only a few moments, all was silent. He heard the clatter of metal and opened his eyes. He was looking into the face of the scruffy rabbit with snaggled teeth that had just moments ago gave him a rough bump on the back with his rifle. There was a clean red hole right between his eyes.

He looked up and saw a fox in a leather jacket climbing up onto the drivers seat of the caravan wagon. He stood up as did the other slaves and made his way over to the wagon. Inside was the driver, toppled over some crates in the back. Blood soaked his ragged shirt and his eyes rolled back.

A dingo that was with the group of slaves walked over to the side of the wagon by the fox and looked up at him. "Are we free?" he asked. "Are you settin' us free?"

The fox, in his mid twenties by the looks of him, with a physique uncommon to the normal malnourished folk of the wastes, barely looked up from the crates at the dingo. His faded leather jacket lifted and dropped as the fox shrugged. "Do what you want," he said as he didn't stop working. "Live. Die. Just do it away from me."

"What'chu mean?" "I said, fuck off!" the fox yelled as he drew his pistol and pointed it at his head.

The dingo stumbled backwards and nearly tripped over his own feet before turning around and running away. Most of the others in the group did the same, but the otter looked up at the fox, terrified. The fox shot him a harsh glance, but the otter didn't move. He watched the fox pick up a crate then toss it out.

"Tch. Not even worth my fuckin' time," the fox said as he jumped out of the wagon and started walking back to his car.

The otter took a step toward the fox and was instantly looking at his face over the top of the slide of his pistol. The fox's glare was cold, and the scar on his right cheek that parted his tuft made him look even more imposing. The otter swallowed hard and then took another tentative step forward. The fox smirked and holstered his pistol. The otter watched as he walked back over to him.

He tried to turn away from the fox but a strong paw caught his arm. He heard a click then felt the bindings fall off his wrists. He turned around to see the fox folding a pocket knife and tucking it away in his jeans pocket.

The young otter rubbed his sore wrists and then padded up to the fox as he continued walking to his car. He watched the fox get in the drivers side and walked around to the passenger side. After fumbling with the strange door mechanism for a moment, he managed to open the door and he climbed in and sat down.

When he looked over at the fox, he saw the fox glaring at him like he would kill him, but then it faded to an amused smile and a soft chuckle.

"What's your name, pup?"

"David, sir," the otter replied timidly.

"David? Heh, must be a farmer thing," the fox said as before pushing the ignition button and the motor whirred to life. "'Name's Colt. Long story how I got it. Maybe I'll tell you someday."

Colt put the car in gear and the two sped toward the horizon.

_ The End _