"Maybe scrounging for food, if they're ferals. We'd better just take them out. We'd be doing them a favor. Every ghoul who's ever talked about it has said they'd rather be dead than be a feral."

And there's always something, whatever path you take, so even if they tried to go around, they'd just run into raiders instead, or super mutants, or gunners. At least ferals don't have guns.