“Wow, nice place you’ve got here… What’d you spend on it, ten bottlecaps?” The girl asked from her place in the dirt, glancing around to the few tents and poorly thrown-together campsite. A rope held her wrists together against a post and it was already starting to cause a friction burn.

“Shut up, meat,” One of the men spat with a sneer. He had greasy black hair jutting out in all directions and Sienna just had to wonder if he thought he looked handsome or intimidating… He achieved neither.

“You still haven’t told us where we’re even going… What’re you gonna do? Stand there and get pissed at me ‘cause your buddies wanted you guarding us instead of sitting around the fire over there? I’m freezing your balls off out here. Not good stock if we’re dead, are we?” She asked venomously, “We need at least something small – a night in the Wastes’ll kill the fattest pig on the farm if he doesn’t have a blanket,” She explained lackadaisically.

“I said shut up, whore,” The rookie slaver growled, smacking her directly across the face. He turned on all of the others, among them were two men and a redhead who they had found lost in the Wastes just earlier that day, speaking with more entitlement than he had earned, “All you need to know is that you’re property now. All that matters, anyway.”

Sienna stared at the ground to her side for a moment, licking her teeth to ensure she wasn’t bleeding… Nope, she was fine. “And I say think with your brain, and not your dick, asshole.”

The man made no reply, just adjusting his lever-action rifle – the one he took from the newly captured girl. Sienna hadn’t caught her name when she was being added to their ranks, but she didn’t seem to know much about out here, in the Dust Basin. Must’ve spent her whole life in Sydney and this was her first time out. It was her lucky day to be unlucky, the wastelander mused silently. Each of the four “slaves” were tied the same way that Sienna was, to a post driven into the ground. The knots were tight, but the slavers relied on their own competence and an armed guard to keep them in check, as sacrificing the health of your wrist-flesh and fiddling with the rope could loosen it enough to pull it off of the short pole. That was exactly what she was doing every time the guy turned around. Trying to untie it was futile thanks to the angle her hands were at – she didn’t even know what kind of knot it was – but getting it off of the post was still possible.

The shouts of excitement could be heard from behind them as the slavers shared in the revelry of just a few drinks and a bonfire. The guard was carrying Sienna’s holstered pistol and her machete too. That bastard. She had to be thankful, though, that she wouldn’t have to even try fighting all of them to get her equipment back.

She coughed. At first, it seemed innocent enough… then the girl doubled over to her side and began to cough phlegm onto the ground. “Fuck…” She muttered, spitting a couple of times, slumping down against her post and looking to the guard, “It’s so dry out here… The dust’s stuck in my throat…” Her expression had shifted to one of a convincingly non-defiant prisoner, the softness of her green eyes playing quite well to her advantage as she stared at the irritated-yet-interested guard.

“What the fuck do you expect me to do about it?” Her lips moved, but the sound was so faint that even the prisoners beside her couldn’t hear her. The guard stopped in front of her, “Speak up!” Again, they moved, but the sound was caught in the wind and carried away before he could catch it. He put the rifle on his back, rolled his eyes and crouched down, “Wha-” He hadn’t even finished when a boot caught him in the square of his chin and Sienna made one final tug to pull the rope over the post, standing with it.

Her arms were still stuck behind her back, but the other buffoons were still focused on their little pow-wow. The two guys on the posts looked at each other, feeling rather stupid for not having tried to just pull the rope up with themselves. The guard was pulling himself up onto his hands and about to shout when Sienna took a forceful step into the center of his back, pinning diaphragm under his own weight and leaving him speechless as he gasped after air. She had to lower herself and awkwardly pull her machete out of its sheath on his back before driving it into the ground behind her, just beside the slaver. Pulling her foot off of his back, she took a seat on him and, with little finesse, reached back to cut the rope around her hands on the blade of her machete. An audible sigh of relief escaped her as they fell away and she yanked the weapon from the dirt. The guy was gathering enough energy to rise and push her off, just in time to get a boot to the side of his head. The blow knocked him over onto his back and unconscious, a small trickle of blood running down his skull. Sienna spit into the dirt next to his face.

“Just scuffed him with my boot – he’s not dead… I don’t think.” She had to keep her voice low as she crouched down and cut each of the other prisoners free – from the redheaded girl to the man on the far end. Next, she retried her pistol and strapped it to her thigh, nodding to the other girl, “You might wanna take your rifle before somebody else does – you’ll be lucky if you find many rounds on him though.”

“Hey, thanks for he-“ One of the guys started before finding the girl’s hand over his mouth.

“Sh. Get the fuck outta here – if you’re gonna come back to the Wastes, do it with more friends, you jackass. You’re lucky there’re only four of ‘em and not twelve. Slave trade’s on the rise. Now get home,” She ordered, pointing east – toward the Bazaar. “It’s a few miles’ trek to the first gate, but I’m sure you can find your way there. Not like you have any weapons, you’re no good out here anyway.”

The two guys looked at her like ‘what about you two?’ But the daggers in her eyes told them to keep their traps shut. Next, Sienna strapped her machete to her back again, looking to the other girl, “You look like you could use some help finding the way back,” She spoke as quietly as she could. “I know a place we can stay not too far away, c’mon. These guys’ll be following the other two in the morning – we’re going a different direction, it’ll throw ‘em off-scent,” She explained, motioning for a lateral move, rather than heading back toward ‘The Bazaar.’ Really, she didn’t want to keep talking, not when those guys were still pretty close by. The air was starting to bite coldly and finding shelter had to be priority number one. She rubbed her wrists softly, shit... that's gonna itch like fucking nuts.

She’d decided to leave the vault a week ago, and spent the remainder of her time trying to collect what useful items she could. It hadn’t been easy. Her home had become a foreign and frightening place to her. The people were acting strangely hostile towards each other, and sections that had previously been used had been barred because they feared what hid in the dark.

Now came the difficult part where she had to get from her own room to the exit of the vault, carrying her rather large backpack, without anyone noticing her or sounding the alarm. She had waited until it was late at night before she got the backpack out of its hiding place.

Zoe got further than she had expected before anyone noticed her, but unfortunately it wasn’t as far as she needed it to be. She answered their questions evasively, hoping they would leave her alone and the woman did say she would go back to bed when they parted. However, the alarm went off shortly after and Zoe had to start running towards the exit. She heard the sounds of running guards in nearby corridors coming towards her.

A guard got a hold of her backpack when she spotted the exit, and he shouted at her to surrender or he’d kill her. The guards had used much milder threats when she had been younger. It had been a slow change, but to hear him threaten to kill her just made her more certain about her decision to leave.

She did try to get the backpack with her, but more guards were closing in and she had to accept it was gone. Zoe pushed it hard towards the guard that held it which made him trip and fall over, giving her time to get to the exit.

After she had blocked the door to the room she was in with a few crates, Zoe activated the mechanism that would open the entrance door to the vault. It couldn’t withstand the pressure the guards were putting on it for long. It did give her enough time to exit the vault though, and she stepped out into the wasteland where they weren’t likely to follow her.

She instantly regretted losing her backpack as it had contained most of her water, but she had one canteen left. It was doubtful she would survive out here for long with that. It was a certainty that she would be killed if she returned to the vault. Zoe began walking before the guards broke the rules to chase her down and make an example out of her.

There was no shelter in sight, and the environment seemed to be a kind of prairie. The blue sky was a beautiful sight to behold after seeing nothing but dark steel and concrete above her head for her entire life. They had been wrong about the time of day inside of the vault. It was warmer outside than she had expected too.

Zoe still had her rifle and her pip boy at least, plus most of her stimpaks that she had stuffed into her pockets. Some part of her had known it was unlikely she would get that backpack with her, and figured the stimpaks were the most valuable. Well, maybe she would be able to hunt with her rifle and what ammo she had, but the water would be her most immediate concern.

Those had been Zoe’s first thoughts while taking her baby steps in the wasteland. A few hours later her bad luck had made itself known again, when she ran into a small group of people. She had approached them with friendly intentions and gotten nothing for it. They had knocked her out, and tied her up. Apparently they were slavers, even though she had read that slavery stopped a long time ago in the old world.

Zoe wasn’t the only one the slavers had captured. Two men and a loud mouthed woman had had the same bad luck. The other woman was arguing with the slaver that had been ordered to guard them. She didn’t care much for any of these people. Hell, after the day she had lived through she would rather have woken up to find she was the last human left in existence.

She sat staring in front of her, feeling as if fighting reality just made it worse. She heard the slaver slap the other woman, and figured it was probably the right decision for her to make. What had she hoped to find out here that was better than her vault? Maybe a life in slavery would not be so bad…

She rolled her eyes when the loudmouth started coughing and drawing even more attention to herself. At least it meant that no one cared about her and left her alone, but if she had wanted to get some sleep it would have been impossible with this woman nearby. It was too cold anyway.
The fact that she hadn’t eaten for hours made her more irritable than usual too.

A fight soon broke out, and to her surprise the loudmouth won it. She’d thought she was all talk, but the woman knocked the slaver out and freed the rest of them. Zoe rubbed her hands where the rope had been digging into her skin seconds ago.

“Thanks.” She whispered with a snarky tone and retrieved her rifle, as if she didn’t care either way. Most of the ammo was still in her clothes anyway. The rifle was the main thing they had taken from her, and a few stimpaks. She had been clever enough to hide what she could in hidden pockets or other places.

Zoe became suspicious of the other woman when she told the men to fuck off. Why would she want anything to do with her? Out of the three of them, Zoe was the least experienced by far, even if neither of the men had a weapon they could have taken hers. Perhaps she had been able to hide her lack of knowledge from the others.

When she told her that the men would serve to distract the slavers while the two of them got away, Zoe’s suspicions felt warranted. The woman would likely turn around and stab her in the back, as coldly as she had done to the men, if she ever needed to save her own skin. She nodded, and began to walk after the woman. If she asked why Zoe walked behind her with her hands on her rifle, well, it wasn’t like she knew where they were going and it was clearly best to be prepared for the worst out here.

She sighed. Was this really any better than the declining situation in the vault?

Sienna sheathed her machete on her back and pulled the defender from her thigh, checking to ensure it had a full count of cells. She'd have to use them sparingly, still - they took her refills. Even as they walked together, the wastelander could feel distrusting eyes on her back, but had little fear of it. This girl didn't show even an ounce of defiance against her capture, what made her think she could pull that trigger were she to have a blade to her throat now?

It took probably twenty minutes before the small shack came into view. It was patched up by scrap metal and bits of wood, a worn sign over it used to read Breyman's Petting Zoo. But years of dust storms and difficult weather tore up the fence posts and made a mess of the place. Senna had spent a couple of weeks cleaning it up and clearing out the tiny building which was once the registration office. Her cot was behind the counter and as they opened the door, several cans clattered on strings. She didn't always stay here, but it was her go-to place when she spent a while in the wasteland. It probably wouldn't be long before it was found by somebody else and either adopted or used against her as a trap, but for now it was their best option.

Most of the shelves were clear and Sienna got right to work as she stepped behind the counter, shuffling her cot out of the way. "I think this was the registration office for whatever this place was before the bombs dropped and it was abandoned. I found a bunch of old yellow-y papers with names and signatures... They were labeled 'waiver' at the top... Some were, anyway. Been using those for fires; they had a ton of them. But here, you'll want... these first," She explained, pulling a couple of blankets out and placing them on top with a pillow. "There ya go - it'll get cold out here, so you'll wanna be bundled up pretty quickly." Sienna pulled one of the blankets off of her own cot and then wrapped it over her shoulders, hopping up on the counter and turning to face Zoe, pulling one foot to her chest while the other dangled over the edge.

"I'll start up a fire soon... We don't want to rush that, because it'll turn to embers quickly and to be honest I only have so much fuel for it, so we'll wait for a bit more cold to set in... Otherwise, make yourself at home. Sorry I've only one cot... I don't typically have visitors, but you can use anything you find or... whatever," She placed her defender beside her on the counter to show she had no malicious intent, her eyes on the sound-trapped door. Completely ignoring the subject of the two men that were captured with them, as Zoe would ask should she like elaboration on that, Sienna moved on to the obvious question.

"You're pretty new to the wasteland thing, huh? I'm Sienna - from Sydney, a ways east. Not an easy life, but a more comfortable one than most. What about you?" She asked curiously, green eyes intently studying Zoe.

Zoe aimed her rifle at the woman’s back when she sheathed her machete to pull her weapon instead. She’d prefer to not make an already bad day worse by killing someone, but she wouldn’t hesitate to do it if threatened. Frankly, she didn’t think killing this woman in particular would be an act worth torturing herself over either. She’d likely killed enough people herself out here to deserve it. It seemed like a very unfriendly place, so she had to wonder what the woman wanted with her at all. She could have sent all three of them away as bait and escaped alone.

They walked in silence, and the thought crossed her mind that she may be leading her into some sort of trap. A shack came into view after they had walked for what felt like half an hour or so. She checked the time on her pip boy, which said that it was more like twenty. The slavers hadn’t known how to remove it without cutting off her arm so they had let her keep it. She’d learnt how to tweak one without taking it off, so maybe it wasn’t possible to begin with.

Zoe carefully followed the woman inside of the shack, with her rifle at the ready. To her surprise, it soon became evident that she had been lead to this woman’s home. It made her feel a bit more at ease around her, because why would she take her to a place that must have been a safe haven for her if she had hostile intentions? It did occur to her that there might be cannibals out here though. She gripped her rifle a bit tighter at that.

She raised an eyebrow when the woman explained what this place was, and what she had been doing here, unsure of how to respond. “Thanks… I appreciate it.” Zoe said, grateful, and let her rifle hang across her shoulder as she took the blankets and pillow that she was offered. The tension she had been feeling in the presence of the other woman faded some, but it would be foolish to let her guard down entirely.

“If you say so.” Zoe answered, and looked around the room for a place she could put the things. It wasn’t like she knew much about the life out here. She’d have thought their shelter would have protected them against the worst of the cold though. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten in a while. “Um, you don’t happen to have anything to eat…? I lost my backpack with my rations in it.”

Zoe cleared away some of the dust and rubble in a corner of the room, then sat down and wrapped the blankets around her. The pillow she put behind her head against the wall. The rifle was put behind her so that it would be easy for her to grab, but harder for anyone else without her noticing. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable to sleep in the corner of a room, but it was better than sleeping under the night sky with no protection against the climate, animals or worse.

“Yeah, I suppose I am.” Zoe said and met Sienna’s gaze. “My name’s Zoe. I’ve read about Sydney in the old books we had, but I’ve never been there myself. I hadn’t been outside my vault till this morning anyway.” She sighed, looking down at the floor. “It used to be an easy and comfortable life, things changed slowly over the years and I had to get out. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Sienna moved easily about as Zoe answered her questions and the two made themselves comfortable. She reached under her counter and pulled out two unlabeled cans and an opener, cutting through the facile material with ease before pulling the tops up and handing one over to Zoe with a plastic spoon. "It's canned stew. Nothing special... Be careful and don't cut yourself on the edges," She instructed before digging into her own. As she ate, she moved about and made sure all of the windows were securely shuttered and boarded, using one hand to test them and the other to hold her food and utensil. "A vault dweller? A rare breed, you lot are... You'd do well to be a bit more careful out here, what with the slavers and the violence around the oil settlements," She said between bites, finally taking her space seated on the counter again. "Nasty business outside the city... It's nasty inside the city too, but at least it's civil if you live close to the Bazaar."

She grinned, "Don't wanna talk about it though? You've come to the right place, then. People out here..." The girl shook her head and readjusted, sitting cross-legged and pointing at Zoe with her spoon, "We don't care where ya been. Where ya came from. Fuck, most don't even care where you're goin'... 's not about nothin' but what ya can do for them an' what they can do for you." She tipped the can up and scraped around the edges, making sure that none of the food was sticking to the sides of the can as she took another bite. It wasn't warm, but it took so much more resource out here to heat something up that it was honestly worth it so long as it wasn't cold.

"Never been to Sydney? It's a pretty nice place. Don't get your hopes up though, it ain't what the bumpkin settlers out here make it out to be, I promise you that an' more. If you go in without expectations, you'll like it. If you go in expectin' paradise and a safe place to sleep at night, you'll be pretty sore after the first week." Sienna's eyes were scrutinizing as she looked Zoe over, biting the inside of her cheek for a brief moment, "I didn't realize there were enough of you around to want to leave those vaults. Good on ya for it, not an easy thing leaving home. I left my family's little hovel when I was seventeen, yeah? We lived in one of those caves, like out in The Pedy, but a lot smaller and with a lot less other people. Went out hunting with a few others one day, massive dust storm hit and... well, we lived in such a small place, ain't nobody got it written on their maps. Couldn't find my way home for ages. By the time I got back, they'd all moved on. Musta thought me dead or summin', I dunno," She explained with a shrug, her eyes downcast coldly for only a moment.

"But, that was years ago. Nothin' I can do about it now 'cept keep moving, living... It's what we all do out here." Again, she watched Zoe's slight indications of distrust and wondered from where they stemmed. "I'm not gonna off ya, if that's what you're thinking. I'd've done it by now... What's got you all twisted up about me?" She outright asked, standing up and putting a hand on her hip with an eyebrow cocked.

Zoe took the can and the spoon that was handed to her, but put it below her nose and sniffed the contents before deciding whether it was edible or not. It didn’t smell bad, and while it could have looked more appetizing she was too hungry to care at the moment. She dug in, but kept an eye on Sienna as she checked the windows.

What an understatement, Zoe thought and scoffed when Sienna said she needed to be a bit more careful out here. It wasn’t much better than the situation in the vault. At least she had more freedom out here and could carve out her own haven given time. Maybe it would be beneficial for her to be the aggressor next time, before someone got the jump on her again.

She smirked when Sienna said it was about nothing else than what someone could do for you, and what you could do for them. What did she want Zoe to do for her then? It was doubtful she’d picked her to come with her out of the good of her heart. No, she didn’t think that was likely at all.

“Nope, never.” Zoe confirmed, once more. She wasn’t honestly expecting to find much in Sydney, especially not if the other cursed survivors of humanity were drawn to it. It made her less eager to go there in the first place. Perhaps there was some kind of hidden oasis waiting for her somewhere else? She smiled briefly, but shrugged the silly thought away. A girl could dream.

“I left alone.” She put the can down on the floor, and pushed it away from herself. She didn’t want to accidentally sleep on it during the night. “There were quite a few of us before then. Maybe thirty or so. I don’t think anyone followed me though.”

Zoe listened with half an ear to Sienna’s story about her own experience of leaving home. It wasn’t like their experiences were all that similar. For one, Sienna had left unwillingly and Zoe had escaped by her own free will. Secondly, Zoe’s family had died years before she left. Well, other than her brother, but she didn’t want to count him as part of her family.

“Or they just wanted to get rid of you.” She mumbled, having closed her eyes and leaned back against the propped up pillow. “There were children stories in the vault about how parents got rid of children that were too much of an annoyance or problem to keep.” She smiled to herself, amused, even if they had had those stories just to keep children in line in the vault.

Sienna was partly correct in assuming that Zoe thought she was going to kill her. She had been thinking that earlier, but now she was more concerned about what the woman actually wanted with her. It had to be something else, like she said she could have killed her already, or tried too if nothing else.

“Gut feeling?” Zoe answered, disinterested, and pulled her blankets tighter around herself. At the same time she moved her hand below them towards her rifle, in case Sienna was going to go off because she didn’t bother giving more of an answer. “I’d like to get some sleep, if you don’t mind.”

"It's pretty doubtful - the area was getting dangerous even before I got lost... Made for a good excuse," She said with a wave of her hand. With a smirk, Sienna pointed her spoon at the girl across the room. "You're cheeky. Don't get a lot of jokers out here," The girl observed. Zoe requested time to sleep and the wastelander shrugged passively. "Rest up well - we can't stick around here for long tomorrow. Gotta get more food, some water, and decide if we're going to the Bazaar. Once you're out of this shit, we can part ways. Sorry if this is harsh, but you obviously can't handle yourself as well as you think out there..."

Sienna set her can on the counter and wheeled around to hop off on the opposite side, a finger picking some of the meat from between her teeth. "Hmph... G'night," She called out, falling into her cot without using the blanket. She unstrapped her body armour pieces, from her legs to her torso, placing them aside. Her machete was pulled from its sheath and placed beneath her tightly packed cot and her defender was on the shelf of the counter directly beside her. All were easy to reach for her, but difficult for anybody to take without waking her up.

The pitter-patter of feet could be heard outside the walls all night. It was something Sienna had been used to. If you were inside, they didn't come after you. There was no need, really. A lot of things out here weren't too hostile unless provoked; some of the mutated creatures, on the other hand, were insatiable. On the other hand, a lot of the dangerous beings lacked a grasp on object permanence. If you were in a house, they didn't go digging about that house, so long as they didn't see you enter it.

Sienna tucked a hand under her pillow and rested her eyes. It had been a very long day and she definitely needed the sleep. Soon enough, the sun would rise and the heat would return. Gradually, it would flood the cracks and fill the room.

Sienna sat up slowly, rubbing at her eyes before clearing her throat. "Hey, Zoe... Wake up," She called out, scratching her head and her mussed hair. "We got a lot of ground to cover today."

Zoe smirked as she was called a joker, but didn’t reply and kept her hand on her rifle underneath the blankets. I can’t handle myself as well as I think? Heh, she wasn’t certain what she thought to begin with. One moment she wished she would die, just turn the rifle on herself to make it quick perhaps, and the other she felt some kind of hope. At least coming off as confident to others was a good thing, even if she didn’t like Sienna’s attitude about it either way. She’d accept her help for now, until the woman showed what she wanted from her.

“G’night…” Zoe responded, but remained upright for a while, listening for what the other woman might be trying to do in the dark. Once she
had calmed herself down, she laid down on the hard floor.

Sometime during the night she was awakened by the sound of feet. At first it made her reach for her rifle, as she figured that it was either Sienna or someone else who’d decided to make a move against her. Half an hour passed in darkness, without the sound getting any closer to her. She checked on Sienna quickly, and found her seemingly asleep despite the unnerving noises.

Maybe it was normal then, something to get used too. It wasn’t like she had the time to get used to it though. She had dozed off near machinery at times when working in the vault, but this was a whole other type of annoying. Zoe tried her best to get some sleep. When Sienna called her name she didn’t know whether she had slept or not, time had passed faster than it should have, but she didn’t feel rested.

“I’m awake…” She mumbled, and yawned. The idea of covering a lot of ground after so little good sleep wasn’t appealing, but what could she do? Demand they stay a few more days just so she could get used to the noises? No, better get going and get separated soon.
Well, on a positive note she had survived her first night in the wasteland. She doubted every vault dwellers who did leave their vault managed that. On the other hand, she had survived her first night and that meant some other brutal and painful death may be waiting for her.

Zoe didn’t need to get dressed or anything, as she had slept with her clothes on. It wasn’t like she expected Sienna to have a bathroom nearby for her to use either. If she did make it to Sydney she’d go for a swim in the ocean, assuming that was possible.

Sienna sighed and finally rubbed the sleep from her eyes, getting her things back in order. Her defender was holstered and her machete sheathed after she climbed from the cot. The woman ran her hand through her hair a few times, shaking it out in the hopes that it wouldn't look too frazzled. She glanced over to Zoe and cocked a brow, "Rough night, eh? Takes some time to get used to it," She said, noticing the bags under the other girl's eyes. However, she had no sympathy for her. "Don't worry, we'll make it a walk, there's a small settlement between here and there so we can get some water. I've got the caps, but we're going to have to spend a lot of the day dehydrated anyway. Could make it to Sydney before nightfall again, though. Let's see where the sun's at," She explained, opening the door and stepping out into the dessert.

"Oh, duh, I forgot," She said, laughing and rolling her eyes as she had to shield them from the blazing light outside the shack. "Hold up," The woman turned and headed back behind the counter, grabbing a couple of sunglasses. They were cheap and incredibly old, but she'd found them on the store shelves when she got here. There were a few pairs leftover and they'd need them pretty badly. "Here," She handed over the lenses, putting the other pair over her own eyes before resting her hands on her hips and looking out across the wasteland.

"Alright... Sydney is... This way..." She pointed, biting the inside of her cheek hesitantly. "Oh, wait, no, this way... Or was it..." She tapped her chin before sighing. "Guess it wasn't that funny, c'mon," She nodded her head in the initial direction. Conversation was sparse save for the odd Radroach or feral Dingo every now and then. "The critters like to come out at night..." She observed, waving a hand dismissively, "At least in this region, the muties are more nocturnal than anything. Look, up there, ready to meet your first non-slaver Wastelanders apart from me?" She asked with a grin, pointing to the few buildings and tents off in the distance, just on the edge of their sight.

Yeah, no shit, she thought to herself. Sienna was still to blame for giving her no warning of how loud the nights in this particular place could get though. Although, she may have prefered a more consistent loudness than the fucking pitter patter of the creatures. She perked up at the mention of another settlement between Sydney and their current location, perhaps she may find a job there. Engineers or mechanics couldn't be all that common in the wasteland, right? Her best bet was to make it to Sydney, but whether she wanted to do that with Sienna or not she hadn't decided. If she was willing to share her water with Zoe, she figured there could be a lot worse company to travel with.

Zoe hadn't gotten a chance to step out into the bright light before Zoe returned, and told her to wait. She smiled genuinely for what might be the first time in a while as she was handed the sunglasses.

"Thank you, I'll be keeping these." Zoe said, put them on and joked. "Nothing quite as useful as looking snazzy in the wasteland."

She was less amused when Sienna pretended that she didn't know the way to Sydney. She was right, it wasn't funny at all. The last thing she wanted to do was get lost in a climate that would be comparable to a desert due to the heat. She did follow Sienna once the woman stopped acting up.

"Muties?" Zoe asked, not recognizing the slang word.

They'd been walking for a while by then. She'd mostly stayed quiet, just being polite enough to let Sienna know she was listening to her when she spoke. She'd been more interested in surveying the area and the climate. If she couldn't find a place to stay and work soon, it seemed likely she might return to the wasteland to travel somewhere else. Either way, she wanted to remember where Sienna's safe place, if only so she could find it by herself.

She looked in the direction that Sienna was pointing. Oh joy, more people. "So if they're not slavers, should I assume they're cannibals or rapists then? I mean, just to be on the safe side." She grumbled. "Maybe they'll be more upfront with what they want with me, unlike others." The last comment was a jab at Sienna, perhaps a bit too blatant, but eh.