Dee and Helios shared their own history with Gertrude over supper while Melany repaired her plasma rifle, not wanting to risk a radiation leak in the night, before she joined them. Then they all turned in for the night.
Dee woke up to the feeling of ferocious itching over most of her body and a throbbing pain on the side of her head. She groaned then stumbled out of bed and quietly made her way to the bathroom. Because the walls didn’t go up to the ceiling Dee used a small lamp by the sink to get a better look at herself without waking anyone else up. She had to squint in the light for a moment but saw nearly her half-severed and bandaged aura-dread was swollen and straining against the tightly wrapped bandage. She poked the bandage and winced, having to cover her mouth so she didn’t cry out in pain. Was it infected or badly bandaged!? She’d seen a couple infections back in the vault and how they looked painful and swollen. Out here if she couldn’t get proper treatment… she didn’t want to think about that.
Dee shook Gertrude gently to wake her up. “Gertrude? I need help!”
Gertrude blinked her eyes open, “Huh?”
“I think I have an infection!” Dee whispered close to the Zigzagoon-woman’s ear.
“Just a minute,” Gertrude extracted herself from her bed, just wearing undergarments, and grabbed for her glasses from the side table.
A moment later they were in the bathroom again and Gertrude was carefully sterilizing a pair of surgical scissors, “Just hold still,” she whispered as she took the swollen bandage in hand, “This will probably hurt.”
Dee bit her lip as Gertrude cut the bandage, which practically burst open. Gertrude gasped, “Dee, look!” She held up the lamp.
Dee stared in the mirror then touched the now unbandaged aura-dread, the completely intact aura-dread. “It grew back? How?”
“I don’t know,” Gertrude yawned and set the lamp down, “Let’s check again in the morning.” She shut the lamp off and stumbled back to bed. Dee touched the regenerated dread one more time before she too headed back to bed.
“It’s amazing,” Gertrude walked around Dee who was now completely unbandaged and without any signs of injury, “I didn’t think you’d heal this fast.”
Dee had her arms crossed over her breasts as she followed Gertrude’s movements, “Maybe it’s because of that serum Dr. Rossman gave us.” Now that she had taken a chance to look at herself in the bathroom mirror without her bandages she saw that her aura-dreads and neck each had a thick band of light-blue fur around them.
“Then why haven’t I healed that fast?” Helios sat nearby, also in underwear and still bandaged up.
“You’re healing just fine,” Gertrude stepped back and motioned that Dee could stand up, “It’s more the complete regeneration of her aura-dread that’s amazing. Maybe it’s your species, I haven’t treated a Riolu or Lucario before.”
“We can ponder that on the road,” Melany was working on her plasma rifle again, just putting some finishing touches on it, “once I get the dents banged out of my armor I need to see the Gun Runners.”
“So where should we go for supplies?” Dee pulled on her half-intact Vault Suit, it was either that or walk around topless.
“Molly’s, I’ll show you after breakfast,” Gertrude had already moved to the kitchen to get something ready, “Molly Murkrow sells food, junk, clothes, armor, a little bit of everything really.”
“Good place to start,” Helios also pulled on his also barely intact vault suit.
It was close to noon and Getrude was packing gear and pulling on suit of leather armor, with some difficulty fastening it around her middle, when everyone returned to the house.
“Sorry, GR-0-WL, I don’t have enough scrap to make you a proper face yet,” Melany looked down at GR-0-WL, who had accompanied her the whole morning.
“I appreciate the effort,” GR-0-WL barked.
“Any luck with the Gun Runners?” Gertrude asked while she carefully loaded her medical supplies into a backpack.
Melany shook her head and leaned up against the wall, “No, not a single energy or microfusion cell for sale. I used up most of my ammo on those raiders yesterday, months of scrounging MF cells almost all burned away in a day. I only have about a dozen shots left for this thing.”
“Then you can have this,” Dee handed her laser pistol to Melany.
Melany stared at Dee then took the weapon, “You sure?”
Dee handed over her energy cells too, “Like you said, I’m a terrible shot.”
Melany accepted the ammunition then smiled for the first time since they’d met her, “Thanks, Dee.” She pointed the pistol at an empty wall, “Not what I’m use to but I’ll manage.” She holstered the weapon at her side, “So what did you get?”
Dee had traded in her Vault Suit for durable traveller’s clothes that let her tail comfortably poke out. “Just some frag grenades. I’ll fight hand-to-hand if I can.”
“Shouldn’t you wear some armor like your friend?” Melany pointed to Helios, who had purchased his own suit of leather armor for the trip.
“Felt too tight, I’d rather have something that lets me move easily,” Dee did some stretches to limber up.
“I got another rifle and some ammo too,” Helios held up the old busted rifle from the previous day, “They wouldn’t pay much for this.”
“Keep it for spare parts,” Melany stood up, “Guess we should get moving. The sooner we do this the sooner I can stop worrying about the general hanging me.”
They pushed past the Stunky’s morbid comment and headed outside. Gertrude followed at the rear and locked her house’s door behind her. “Alright, which way?”
Melany paused and stared at the Zigzagoon woman, “Why are you coming with us?”
Gertrude put her key away, “Because until we deal with this my home won’t be safe and you’ll need someone to patch you up. Stimpacks won’t last forever.”
Helios smiled, “Welcome aboard then, let’s go!”
The front gate to the town was being repaired and so there was a double guard on the wall as they left. Ranger Vargas saw them off, “Be careful out there.”
Dee and Helios checked their Rotom-Boys then led the group off Eastward down the route.
Melany turned her head to Gertrude, “Can you shoot?”
Gertrude patted the 9mm pistol she had holstered at her side, “Not really. The NKR insists I carry this but I only ever used it at a firing range and missed every target. But I know a few techniques to defend myself.”
Dee looked over her shoulder, “So what else can you do, other than fix us up?”
“I’m good at sneaking around and picking locks. Like I had to when I was a kid,” Gertrude looked a little downcast.
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Helios didn’t look back.
Gertrude smiled, “Well I’ve heard all your stories, I feel like you should know mine.”
“Please tell us,” GR-0-WL looked up at Gertrude, “I want to know your history too.”
“Save it for when we make camp,” Melany sped up which encouraged the others to do the same.
Thankfully their first day was uneventful and they set up camp beside the road with a campfire started by Helios. Once supper was cooking over the fire they all looked to Gertrude to hear her story.
Gertrude nodded, “Alright. First, I just wanted to say that I’ve always been a Zigzagoon, since they day I hatched. When I was a child, my parents were killed by raiders. I didn’t have anyone to turn to so I had to start stealing to survive. Just enough food to keep myself going and people just seemed to ignore me as long as I didn’t take too much. Until I met Alex,” Gertrude blushed then looked at her right hand, where everyone noticed the steel ring she was wearing for the first time.
“Are you married?” Helios looked Dee for a moment then back to Gertrude.
Getrude nodded, “Yes.”
Melany leaned over, “Is that an everstone?”
Gertrude lowered her arm, “I don’t want to evolve. Linoone, even Linoone people, have an overdeveloped internal compass and can only face one of the four cardinal directions; I once saw one try to sit at a diagonal table and he kept twisting 90 degrees ever couple seconds and never got comfortable. I used to wear this as a pendant until Alex had it made into a wedding ring.”
“Why didn’t we meet him?” Dee leaned forwards.
“He’s out with a caravan he started up North,” Gertrude cleared her throat. “He was a Vulpix the same age as me when he caught me stealing food from his grandparents. I thought I was going to be locked up but he offered to let me keep it and then his convinced his grandparents to help me. He lost his parents to raiders too but had grandparents to look after him. They even paid the fines for all my petty theft so I could walk free. After I got a little older I decided to join the Followers of the Apocalypse and become a doctor.”
“So you’re a Joy then,” Melany looked at the top of Gertrude’s head, “Where’s your pink hair rings?”
“Oh well…” Gertrude laughed, “I quit a couple years ago, when Alex and I got married, so I shaved it off. We wanted to start a family and we moved out here because we wanted to get away from the heart of the NKR because of the opportunities the NKR offered for doctors on this frontier without needing to join their military.” She blushed, “He even got a fire stone as a wedding gift from his grandparents and he was sooo handsome when I saw him evolve into a Ninetails!”
“Whoa!” Melany scooted away, “Cool off before you explode!”
Melany turned to the robo-Growlithe, who stood by in his usual guard dog position, “I guess whoever built you didn’t give you any sex-ed information.”
Gertrude fanned her face and giggled, her hand straying to her belly, “Sorry, it’s just been a couple months since I saw him last. We honestly have a hard time controlling ourselves when we’re together. That’s why he’s spending so much time out with his caravan, so we can earn enough money to raise a family when he comes back and maybe even start our own business.”
“What are The Followers of the Apocalypse?” Helios asked.
“They’re an organization that tries to keep the world from repeating the mistakes that lead to the Final War and provide medical and material help to anyone in need,” Gertrude checked the cooking food, “They were inspired by a pre-war dynasty of Pokemon nurses called the Joys so graduates of their medical school are called Brother or Sister Joy. They also dye their hair pink to honor their legacy.”
“Sounds admirable,” Dee smelled the food and realized it was done.
Helios took a bite of the cooked meat and swallowed, “So you’re worried this whole Aether and Raider business might destroy what you’ve built?” he turned to Gertrude.
The Zigzagoon-woman nodded sullenly, “Yes. If Trovitopolis falls or gets taken over then we’ll lose everything we’ve built there. Even if we survive and they don’t take us as slaves we’ll have to move back west and start over.”
Dee reached over to give Gertrude a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “We’ll stop this, I promise.”
Melany sighed, then smiled, “Cheesy as this all is and as much as I wish I wasn’t being blackmailed, I’m honestly the more at ease than I’ve been in a long time. I don’t think I’ve been able to get a good sleep for years until I met you, especially GR-0-WL.”
“Happy to be of service,” GR-0-WL barked.
“Bedtime then,” Gertrude yawned as she unrolled her sleeping bag and climbed in. Melany just lay down on the ground, too used to sleeping in the open.
Dee and Helios stayed up, seated next to each other on the rock near the guttering fire.
“Not ready to sleep yet?” Helios asked.
Dee just stared into the campfire then down at her blue-furred hands, “Just a lot on my mind. We lost our old home and everyone we knew is either dead or a member of Team Skull working for The Aether Enclave, and even we’ve changed so much that I can’t recognize who we used to be. Now we’re going to try and save a city from a water shortage.”
Helios turned sideways to look at her, “Why were you so fast to agree to that?”
Dee turned to look back at him, “It felt like the right thing to do, something I had to do I guess. Sorry I dragged you into this.”
Helios smiled, “I would have volunteered if you hadn’t. We should help them if we can.”
Dee leaned sideways and rested her head up against Helios’ shoulder, “Thanks for being here, Helios, even if we’re not the same people we were a week ago.”
Helios curled his tail around Dee’s waist as the campfire finally went out, his tail fire illuminated both of them, “Thanks for being here too, Dee.”
D-6alaxy and 
