The darkness began to part as a thin blue pale light of the morning sunrise washed into the room it occupied unveiling a dresser worn and weathered from hundreds of years of misuse. The room continued to brighten overtime as the harsh sun began to raise once more over the horizon and bled in through the window, this time it creeped up a queen sized bed to a couple sleeping under some wool blankets. Almost on cue the man opened his bloodshot tired eyes as he didn't sleep well again. He felt his wife's warm naked body under his arm and he smiled closing his eyes wanting to stay like this forever but there is work to do, even though he disliked it. He slid himself away from her hating every second of the action but he also hated that damned blanket almost the same.
He stood up and rolled his shoulders with a groan before walking over to the mirror next to the dresser and grabbed his pants off of the side of it, slid on the old pair of jeans and picked up a white t-shirt that was stain from its many years of use and tucked it in before fastening his belt. The man looked at the mirror to his unshaven black hairs on his face thinking today while he went to town that he would get a shave and his hair cut as his shaggy hair was getting to be too much once more. His brown eyes trailed his battle hardened and toned face and body noticing his scar from his right cheek to his jawline has finally turned to a whitish hue.
The man peeled his eyes away from the mirror and went for the door collecting a brown leather coat with a fur neck from the closed door before he went into the living room. The aged wood was holding up pretty well for it's age, whomever built this house knew what they were doing as just now some of the dry wall was crumbling, the ceiling was starting to peel, and the paint on all the doors finally faded to a dull grey. The man made his way to the kitchen that was in the middle of being replaced for the first time in two hundred years and he started to boil water for coffee.
Today's list of boring every day life was to check the fences, every Sunday and Wednesday was fence day, check it, fortify it, and continue on. Then he had to go through his fields, tend to the crops, then by ten it would be his hike a five day round trip into town to take care of trading from his hull from yesterday's scavenging run through Lake Havasu City to The Quartz which is south east from his quaint little valley. After that it is to come home and finish tearing down the wall in between the kitchen and the useless bathroom. His pot was boiling and he made his coffee in a flash, grabbed a some dried banana yucca and went outside to enjoy the rest of the sun rise eating his fruit.
The man turned his head to a man walking up to him wearing a similar piece of attire only instead of a leather coat it was a red button up and a straw hat, "Howdy Esteban."
Esteban huffed as his boots crunched up the gravel path to the home and he parted his lips in a smile but the man couldn't see the man's teeth due to being the only evidence of him smiling was his cheeks curled as the man's thick mutton chops covered his upper and lower lip in a black shroud, "Marcus my friend. Good morning, how was your rest?"
"Great to be honest," Marcus spoke with a deep gravelly voice that would have been in the old holos of westerns he saw back in California. He reached inside his house and placed his empty coffee mug on the stand just inside the doorway before grabbing his belt with two pouches, his Bowie knife, and his .357 revolver snugly wrapped in it's holster. He slipped on his belt and reached back inside for three more articles that he needed before he could comfortably walk outside his own him. First was a harness that had a holster that would go on the square of his back made of a nice thick leather, his favorite .45-70 lever action rifle that he has had forever now. He inspected the weathered weapon seeing she was couple hundred years old but Jolene was still one hell of a bitch capable of striking targets farther than his damn scope that he once had on her could reach.
He slipped the rifle into his holster and he missed the nine pound weight on his shoulders once more. His final thing was his most favorite piece of attire, his leather Stetson hat that he always wore. Once he stepped off the porch he heard the porch door close and looked at his friend while putting on his hat, "Julio?"
"Bah I let him sleep in today," Esteban chuckled and walked over to Marcus. His eyes couldn't help but look at the missing index finger on Esteban's left hand that he lost twelve years back from a Legionnaire's round that bounced off the Receiver of Esteban's .308 hunting rifle. Marcus always considers him lucky that he was naturally a left handed man or The fifty four year old man wouldn't be here in this small farming community east of the Colorado River. "Where is your son Evan?"
"He is nineteen," Marcus looked at the house as he saw a figure grabbing a coat and a rifle to join them. Evan was his first born of three children, and thankfully he was smarter than Marcus in the way of life. Marcus was born in Shady Sands and he joined the military when he was sixteen because he got his wife Pregnant with Evan and he needed to have a source of income other than her Followers of the Apocalypse charity work and even then it wasn't much. "He can make his choices."
Evan swung the door open tucking on a grey ball cap and tossing his .308 rifle across his shoulder. He was shorter that Marcus, didn't have his features except for his black hair, instead he held his mother's jade eyes, oval face, and lean frame. Evan finished tucking in his cotton blue and green plaid button up before readjusting his worn denim coat, "Morning Esteban!"
"Buenos días hombrecito," Esteban spread his arms wide and wrapped them around Marcus' son. "Glad you didn't sleep in."
"Had to leave a note for mom," Evan patted Esteban's back. "I haven't seen Quartz before so I am rather excited for the trip."
Marcus waited for them to chat some as he looked out to the sun then around the small farming community of twenty some houses before him. He came here once before about ten years ago when he was tasked to scout the Colorado river and he found it peaceful, only nine of the houses were occupied and he found Esteban to be a rather kind man, so he chose this place to live out his life after retirement. Now fourteen houses are occupied and it is a very self sufficient farming community a few days walk from the relatively untouched after the Great War, Lake Havasu City.
Lake Havasu was missed from the bombs as some poor SOB must have been a stupid idiot when they dropped the bomb, they missed most of the city by striking the 95 south of the city, what killed the residents there was the extreme radiation storms that plagued the world after the Great War making the city a massive graveyard, Ghoul city, or a scavengers wet dream. He turned back to the community to see another member of the group heading back to the town. He must have eaten whole Brahmin a day to feed himself as a child as he was enormous, a staggering seven foot tall giant covered in every square centimeter of muscle and scars lined his broad jawline and gorilla like arms. His nearly pitch black skin scared the hell out of Marcus one to many times as Cliff rarely if every speaks unless there is a clear danger. Marcus always wondered how he got the name Cliff, but everyone in town knows he was a Great Khan.
The Great Khans, Marcus had to engage them on countless occasions and he respects Cliff as Marcus knows of their barbaric rituals and right of passage. Marcus is also glad that someone like Cliff is always willing to go on the scavenging runs and perimeter checks, meaning someone with combat experience.
Marcus tipped his hat to Cliff and placed one thumb of his into his belt, "Morning Cliff."
"Morning," Cliff said and Marcus could tell the man was trying to be friendly. "Ready?"
"We will be meeting up with Henry by the main gate like normal then teams of me and Marcus," Esteban spoke as he walked up to the approaching man. "And you Henry, and Evan. After that we get to work."
The walk to the main gate was silent as Marcus kept his eyes out past the fences in wide arc like sweeps. As they got to where Henry and his wife Eva were Marcus had this uncomfortable itch in the back of his head that he was being watched. Henry was a very small and not very intimidating man with big black framed glasses and a nervous twitch to him. He is minorly weird, always straightening up the smallest of details, labels everything, and has a strict level of scheduling that he rarely breaks. But what Henry has is a brilliant mind behind under all of that quirk. He has programmed a sentry not to take over watch at night freeing up a night guard. He has also fixed terminals and hacked into terminals on many occasions, but even better, he wants to head out into Havasu on every occasion so he could get any scrap he can get his hands on to work on something.
Eva is the opposite of his bonkers way of life. She is laid back, when working she is walking around in a jumpsuit with it open to her naval exposing a white tank top. She is covered in dirt and grease from her work. Half the time he swears the mechanic Eva will drive Henry to insanity but they are like two pieces of a puzzle that match perfectly. Just recently they fixed up solar panels and batteries to store power. They are geniuses and Marcus is glad two people can be like this still. Henry turned to them with a smile, "Hey guys. We ready?"
"Yeah," Marcus looked at Eva's dark brown hair. "We will come to you when we are done so you can-."
"Yeah I know boss man," She out on her own black framed glasses. "So I can patch em up. You all enjoy yourselves."
And with that the five split into two and went to their Jobs. Marcus looked around feeling the itch become a full on scream, this time, he knew something was watching him but he couldn't find it. And that bothered him.
Hey all, this chapter is kind of dry (Get it? Because they are in a desert.) and that was to introduce the main character and co. I love the Fallout universe and I will gladly continue this series as it will have a Western appeal to it as the location is quite a western place. Expect to learn more about some of the characters introduced here in this chapter, along with a few others that have yet to make their appearance. I don't own anything in the Fallout franchise but these characters are original.
once again pals, enjoy.