The road east of the Potomac was cracked and sunbaked, the skeletons of buildings leaning like tired drunks against the horizon. Ash walked steady, revolvers holstered but close at hand. Dixon limped beside him, wrists bound, a trail of blood marking their path.
The raider grinned through his pain.
"You think Simms'll give you a medal? You're draggin' me to my grave, boy. My crew won't let me rot in some Megaton cage. They'll come for me."
Ash didn't answer.
Dixon smirked wider. "Don't talk much, huh? Let me guess. Some dead tribe taught you how to shoot, gave you a name and a gun, then left you to rot. You'll end up like me, kid. Blood on your hands, nothin' else."
Ash's voice came flat, cold.
"Shut up."
The ambush came as the road bent between two collapsed storefronts. A whistle cut the air, and shadows poured from the rubble. Eight raiders, guns raised, knives glinting.
"Well, well!" one shouted. "Boss, you okay?"
Dixon's grin widened. "Told you, boy. Told you they'd come."
Ash's revolvers cleared leather in a blur.
The first shot punched through a raider's skull. The second shattered a rifle. The third drilled through two men lined up wrong.
Gunfire erupted. Raiders scattered, muzzle flashes sparking off broken concrete.
Ash moved like he'd walked this fight a hundred times. Sidestep, pivot, two more shots—one man's kneecap exploded, another crumpled before he realized he was hit.
A raider rushed with a knife. Ash holstered one revolver mid-step, his fist snapping out. Steel-laced knuckles shattered a jaw sideways, teeth spraying. He grabbed the man's collar, swung him into the path of a shotgun blast, then dropped him like dead weight.
Another pivot—two shots, two kills.
The last raider screamed and charged. Ash holstered both pistols and met him barehanded. A gut punch folded him, a temple strike dropped him flat. He didn't rise.
Silence.
Eight corpses lay cooling on the road. The fight hadn't lasted a minute.
Ash reloaded with practiced motions, cylinders clicking into place, then grabbed Dixon by the rope and dragged him forward.
The raider leader's grin was gone. His eyes were wide, trembling with something he hadn't felt in years. Fear.
"You ain't human," Dixon whispered.
Ash said nothing.
And they walked on.