Fallout Girls: Devastated Desert

Sunset would later admit that she was more terrified now than she had been in a long time; she’d faced down a lot of things in her life, but never a gun. “Primm is off-limits, especially to mutants.” the soldier warned, leveling his gun at the girls.

“Please, don’t hurt us,” Sunset pled as she set the shotgun down and raised her hands. “We just wanna pass through on our way to New Vegas. We’re not mutants.”

The soldier didn’t seem convinced. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word on that,” he said threateningly.

“Really? Simply judging us by our looks? How shallow can you be?” Rarity asked haughtily. “I admit this dirt isn’t exactly flattering, but it doesn’t make us slobs.” She cast a quick glance over at Rainbow Dash. “Well… not all of us.”

“Hey!” Rainbow snapped in annoyance.

The soldier seemed confused. “There’s an interesting accent. Where’re you comin’ from?”

“Canterlot City,” Twilight answered quickly. “We’re trying to get back there now.”

“Never heard of it.” the soldier remarked.

“It’s on the east coast,” Rainbow said simply.

“Bullshit. East coast died in the war.” the soldier countered.

“‘War’?” Applejack asked, earning only a shrug from Rarity and a scowl from the soldier.

“Sir… please…” Fluttershy shuddered in fear.

The soldier glanced at her and the frightened and battered expressions of the other girls and sighed, lowering his gun. “Sorry. Just… can’t be too careful, especially not around Primm.”

“Yeah, we heard.” Sunset nodded as she picked up her shotgun, making sure not to hold it threateningly. “So, can we go through?”

“Wouldn’t advise it; between the escaped convicts in town and the two tribes of raiders in this area, I’d say you’d be safer headin’ back up to Goodsprings.” the soldier advised.

“That may be, but if we don’t get to New Vegas, we might never find our way home,” Twilight assured.

“If there was a safe route to the east coast from New Vegas, I’m pretty sure the NCR would’ve heard about it by now.” the soldier shrugged.

Sunset’s eyes popped a bit when he said that, still thinking about what Matt and his buddy had said back at that shack. “It’s… sort of a secret route.” she shrugged vaguely. “People in Canterlot are the only ones who know about it.”

“Can we please discuss this in the morning?” Rarity pointed out; it was still very late at night.

“I’m with ya there, Rarity; Ah’m bushed.” Applejack agreed.

“Yeah, my watch is almost over anyways.” the soldier shrugged. “We have a camp down the road; I’ll talk to Lieutenant Hayes about letting you stay there for the night. Just stay on the west side of the overpass if you don’t wanna get shot.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Sunset nodded as she and the girls walked down the road, jumping a rusty crush barrier and passing a small bunker of galvanized metal… and half a bus.

“Jeez. What happened to this world?” Rainbow asked as she looked at the bus… and the blasted-out ruined buildings lining the road.

“Ah’m not sure Ah wanna know.” Applejack shrugged. Eventually, the road led to a small line of wooden barriers blocking the road before a few medium tents.

“Wait here; I’ll talk to the lieutenant.” the soldier ordered and walked past the barriers into the camp toward the larger tent.

Sunset looked around and saw a large flag above the camp; a two-headed bear against a simple background and familiar text on the bottom; New California Republic. “Well… at least we’re not with criminals anymore.” she shrugged.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this an improvement.” Rarity pointed out.

“At least we’ll have beds. Better than crashing on the floor in that shack.” Rainbow shrugged.

Twilight wasn’t sure; if that sentry mistook them for mutants, then this lieutenant might think the same. And when the sentry stepped from the tent with a man wearing a beret who looked at the girls quite curiously, it cemented that belief for her.

Eventually, the man strode over with a serious look on his face. “I’m Lieutenant Hayes of the New California Republic Army, 5th Battalion, 1st Company. Perez here says you want to take a pitstop in our camp on the way to Vegas.”

“If that’s alright with you, Lieutenant,” Sunset said nervously. “Honestly, we’ve… we’ve been on the move all night; we need somewhere to rest.”

Hayes glanced back at Perez, who just shrugged. The lieutenant sighed as he looked back at the girls. “One night,” he said, pointing at the other tent. “There’s open bunks in the other tent; just keep your hands on your gear and be ready to move by morning.”

“Thank you,” Sunset said truly as she and the girls slipped past the barricades.

“Just one question first.” Hayes stopped them with his statement. “What’s up with… this?” He gestured to the girls’ hair.

Sunset just glanced at the other girls and shrugged. “We were born like this. All of us.”

“Alright.” Hayes shrugged and let the girls go to the tent.

The bunks were crammed pretty close together and looked really filthy, but the girls didn’t have many options, so they grouped up in a few bunks in the corner and tried to keep their discussions quiet so as not to alert any of the other soldiers in the barracks. “Well, that could’ve gone worse.” Twilight shrugged.

“We’re not actually serious about New Vegas, are we?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s the only lead we have.” Twilight shrugged. “There has to be something there that can get us back to our world.”

“And if there isn’t?” asked Rainbow.

“Then we’ll figure something else out.” Sunset insisted. “For now, let’s just… try to get some sleep. We’re probably gonna need it.” She had no idea how right she was as the girls all bunked in for the night. The wasteland was about to get a lot worse than Sunset could’ve predicted.