After spending the night in the town's inn, Mariah managed to buy a sand gecko.
"We are going to be riding on these two giant gooey lizards?" said D-45 with a hint of disgust.
"Nah, the geckos pull a sand glider," replied Mariah.
"WOLF WOLF!" Dogmeat barked at the geckos.
"Dogmeat seems to think they're fine," added Mariah.
After getting everything set up, the group headed east, backtracking in the direction the unit had come from before.
They occasionally had to stop—feeding the lizards, and Dogmeat and Mariah also needed to eat and sleep as well.
D-45 couldn't get used to the new schedule. The unit had no need for sleep, eating, or drinking. The closest thing to that was when D-45 had to recharge once in a while after spending a lot of energy.
The unit also didn't like the lizards. They were gooey, and they had frills that were wet. D-45 hated having to feed them. The gooey substance usually stuck to the units metal fingers, which then needed to be cleaned.
The sudden change to D-45's lifestyle was mostly unpleasant, but the unit also seemed to enjoy it at times.
The Freo virus gave the replicons every emotion in the human spectrum—that also included loneliness. D-45 had spent more than a hundred years without direct contact, simply living in isolation and only stepping out into the world to destroy a fragment of the Freo virus failsafe.
There was a person that D-45 spoke to once in a while to gather information. The person went by "Hermit," making it impossible to tell their gender—if any. But it wasn't direct contact; they spoke through an old, broken walkie-talkie. The person hadn't stepped outside their barricaded shop in over 54 years. It was a surprise that the person was still alive. The unit had started thinking that the Hermit might just be a replicon instead of a human.
"I SEE A VILLAGE!" yelled Mariah. They were in the middle of a dust storm. They wore specially made attire—brown head scarves covering their entire heads. Each of them also wore sand goggles to see better in the storm, though D-45 didn't need them.
Dogmeat had a custom headpiece made for him and also some sand goggles.
They managed to get out of the dust and head toward the village Mariah had seen.
This village was the one D-45 had visited a while ago. This time, however, the unit had made a new identity card.
D-45 wasn't afraid of being caught again. After all, the mask he had could change faces, and with the group he was with, it made things even less suspicious. After all, who's going to suspect someone with a dog?
After a bit, they managed to reach the village gate and heard, "Identify yourself now," from a guard standing with a spear and in a ragged uniform.
Both Mariah and D-45 handed their IDs to the guard. After thoroughly checking them, he let them pass.
The village was in a worse state than when D-45 had left. The houses had visible burn marks, and the wall was even more dilapidated. If you saw how their wall looked, you'd be surprised it hadn't fallen down yet.
"What happened here?" asked Mariah. You could see how terrible she felt for them.
"Most likely bandits," replied D-45 with a harsh tone. "I thought I had gotten rid of all the bandits, but it seems they're a bigger group than I assumed," added D-45.
The first thing they did was go toward the only place they could find in the small village. The inn was made of mud. You could see some other materials in the place from time to time, like wood. They hitched their lizards outside, right next to their rooms.
"Dogmeat, stay here with the geckos and bark if anything happens to ya," said Mariah before heading in to get some rest.
D-45 didn't go inside the inn. The unit had no need for rest. Instead, D-45 decided to relax on top of the sand gliders.
The unit made a tent out of the sand gliders' sails and just relaxed, with Dogmeat sleeping next to the unit.
Like every night when everyone was asleep, D-45 was left figuring out how to spend the night without using too much energy.
The next morning, Mariah went to get some supplies. When possible, Mariah and D-45 would take turns—one watching the geckos and Dogmeat while the other went out. This time, it was Mariah's turn. She didn't mind, since they weren't in some random sunken ship or abandoned ghost town.
However, Mariah noticed the village lacked some supplies. "Lacked" was an understatement—it was a surprise they'd survived this long with what little they had.
There was barely anything in the market. Mariah decided to ask a lady working at a stall what the situation was. The woman looked impoverished, as if she hadn't eaten properly in weeks.
The stall lady said, "Bandits have been attacking our village for the past year, but things have gotten much worse lately. An attack group sent by the bandits was wiped out clean by the replicon D-45. It seems the bandits had a bad feud with the replicon in the past. Thanks to that, they've been attacking us relentlessly and stealing everything we have."
"Are the bandits really that hard to kill for the guards?" asked Mariah.
"Normally, the bandits wouldn't be much of a problem, but they got their hands on some strong weapons a while back, which made it impossible for the town guards to fight them on equal footing—not to mention being outnumbered five to one," replied the stall lady.
With the new information in hand, Mariah went back to the inn to tell D-45.
"I figured it was them," said D-45.
"What?" said Mariah with a puzzled expression.
"About half a year ago, I wiped out a human supremacist group named Magus—or at least that's what I thought. But it seems some of them slipped through the cracks and hid away as bandits," added D-45, who was now getting up from the small sail tent.
"So what now?" asked Mariah.
"Usually I could get rid of them, but I don't have my usual equipment. My core was damaged, so I had to get rid of the stuff that used the most energy. But I think I've got just enough to get rid of these flies. They're probably just some low-ranked members who managed to escape anyway," said D-45.
"Well, what's your plan?" asked Mariah. "Ya can't attack them without knowing' where they are," she added.
"We could just stick around until they do. Most likely won't be lo—BOOOOOOOM—ng," replied D-45, as a loud explosion came from the front of the village.
"Right on the money," added D-45.
"Now we have two choices: attack them and let them retreat, or let them do what they usually do and follow them when they're done," said the unit, going back into the sail tent.
"HURRY! IT'S THE BANDITS AGAIN!" screamed a guard running past.
"We should definitely stop them. If we do it now, there'll be fewer of them later, and the village will have more supplies," said Mariah.
"If we attack them and let them retreat, they could lead us into a trap. There's less risk to us—and everyone else in this village—if we let them take the supplies. Besides, we can just take them back afterward," replied D-45.
After an hour or so, the bandits fled the scene, thinking they'd pulled off another successful job—unaware of what was trailing after them.