You were born in the wasteland of the former southwestern USA and scavenge as a "solo". You have no family, and have had no education or moral instruction, so your only concerns are food and pleasure. Your partner is a telepathic dog named Blood, who helps you locate people in return for food, because Blood can't forage due to the genetic engineering that granted him telepathy.

You two steal for a living, evading "roverpack" gangs and mutants.

Blood has just detected someone in a nearby YMCA.