Chapter 1- Nightcrawler

"Dead. Everyone of them. Final-fuckingly they're all gone!"

"Trinity, red marker, duck NOW!"

A startled young female leapt out of the way of the oncoming creature as a man with a beret popped a few pieces of led right into the creature's skull.

"Trinity, what were you thinking? I understand your shooting skills have improved tenfold since I first met you, but that's no way to go about surviving in this day and age."

"Aw come on Sebs, why'd you ruin my fun? You know I had that puppy by the throat. All I needed was a little nudge in the 180 degree direction, and his neck would've made a fine flap for a sweater."

"Your neck would've held a nice crimson stain if I hadn't Pip-Boy'd it in the head. Sides, your mercenary uniform looks fine anyway."

"Well don't you know the way to a girl's heart, mister fancy duds?"

"No, I just know the best way not to get a hickey right in the uvula."

"Alright tough guy lets grab some of the skin and use it to cover ourselves up. I'll go deeper into the cave; see if I can't find anything worth looting."

That girl had served her weight in gold to Sebs, or, Sebastian. Although Sebastian was a recon sniper in the NCR, he had to admit the girl had chutzpah. She had an undesirable urge for bloodlust, in the good way of course. I guess it had to do with her being a legionnaire slave in her past.

Trinity was a young 21 year old brown haired girl, who had a more slender figure since her past had its toll on her, and modeled a mercenary uniform that compensated for her skinny posterior. Ever since Trinity was a little girl, she was a merciless fighter. Every opportunity she had to show her stuff in the fight pits, she always proved to be a worthy opponent to any fighter, man or woman who took her on. Any Legionary, Decanus, Centurion, or Vexillarius who was curious to rear their ugly head to watch barely blinked at the mere sight of such a creature dashing their ideals about slaves. She once claimed that Caesar himself watched her performance, but Sebastian scoffed at the idea, since he believed Caesar's only place in society was at the top of his fortified hill at The Fort. Perhaps it was Vulpes, since somebody in the higher ups took notice of her success by giving her her personal own prison cell once she reached the age of 14.

Sebastian was a 33 year old bald man who wore a 1st recon beret, and had a fair build. In his past, he had his hand in the battle of Bitter Springs, a blank spot he preferred to keep unchecked in his checklist of life experiences. As a recon sniper, Sebastian's accuracy was only matched by a former friend of his; Craig Boone. The two, however, hadn't kept in contact since that event in their life. Other than his NCR service, Sebastian was also part time babysitter, taking care of the 21 year old Trinity.

When Trinity was 18 years old, she was sentenced to be burned on the cross for double crossing the Legion. During the night of her 18th birthday, she was given the opportunity to escape, with a friend helping her escape. That "friend," unfortunately, was an obedient little slave who helped the Legion sniff out any dogs in the camp. All Trinity could do was make a break for it, with several Legion on her back and the mongrels hot on her tail. After her capture, Caesar was her presiding judge, giving her the sentence of crucifixion on a cross in the nearby Cottonwood Cove. There she hung for the night, freezing in the cold, night air, as hypothermia nearly took its course on her, when an invisible figure came across her hanging body, and cut her down. Her night in shining armor, of course, was Sebastian.

It took three years for Trinity to see life outside the cages and fight pits. Needless to say, she had trust issues with people she met in various towns like Goodsprings and Nipton (or, what it had been before "the incident.") Sebastian gave her a weapon to fend off the wild with, but Trinity preferred her hand to hand experience, and her knife skills were unparalleled. So, Sebastian did the primary firing while Trinity was as sleek and sneaky as a nightcrawler. By the time a group of Powder Gangers began to lob dynamite at Sebastian, Trinity could use her extreme stealth skills to slit a nice gaping hole in their jugular and be on her way back to Sebastian while whistling one of the Pip-Boy's limited library of media.

"Trinity, did you find anything back their? I'm beginning to get worried, which I don't usually do, unless you don't report back to me every few minutes, in which case, I get panicked. You know how I was in the military."

"Yeah, yeah yeah, Sebs, don't worry. All I found was this dingy terminal back here, but I can't unlock it. Do you mind coming back and using that grey matter of yours to solve the issue?"

"If you give me a few minutes, I'll be sure to put it on the agenda, but right now, I'm cooking out dinner."

If Trinity had one defining trait about her, it was her impatience. Rather than allow Sebastian a few minutes of peace and quiet, she instead hoisted the terminal on her back and dumped it in front of his posterior.

"GAH! Trinity, what the hell? Can't you for once, I don't know, knock before you enter?"

"Come on Sebs, I am the one who knocks! I'm the master of announcing myself to people!"

"Just stand back, I got it."

Sebastian's science was on the positive side this time around, since he was fortunate enough to only have one word to work with: Nightcrawler.

"Huh. The irony in that password is just too convenient."

"Know what's convenient? The nightcrawler meat is cooked!"

Sebastian scanned the computer screen as everything loaded onto the screen, until a single entry appeared on the screen; Nightcrawler.

"Looks like we've got some in-house entertainment while we chow down, eh Sebs?"

"Yeah, sure, entertainment. It's probably another entry about post-apocalyptic problems."

…

Alcohol; the only substance meant for a traveler like me. The only thing that truly understood the plight of someone who had faced hell and back like I had. The only actual thing that would listen to my drunken stupors and the bullshit I spouted. Mostly though, it was the cave walls that echoed back at me every time I opened up my gums to speak my peace on a daily basis.

So rather than force the walls to bear my words, I instead decided to record my thoughts on this dingy terminal. Not a very convenient one at that, since it's so far back into a cave full of fucking nightcrawlers, but Stealth Boys are beautiful inventions. Nightcrawlers, yeah right. More like night terrors. Sadistically, I find that funnier now than I ever would, since I'm surrounded by the bastards.

Anyway, I'm wasting space on this heap of steel. Maybe somebody else more interesting has better words to type than I do. I never was the best typist anyway. But for anybody reading this in the future, my name is Billy West. I'm 46 and for the past year, my life fell apart, with my wife's sudden death and my sons kidnapping (Johnny West for reference.) My rants almost over. As is my life. It's almost like I can feel the warm breeze from the beasts behind me. If theirs anything left to write it's simply this; please, find my son. The Powder Gangers took him to a cave nearby here. The data on the terminal can take you their. Download the coordinates and it should lead you to a nearby cave. And don't forget, the cave is potentially filled with a;kslj fd;sfsdklff'a.

…

"a colon k s? Never heard of a creature with such a ridiculous name before."

"That's because he died before he could finish it, as indicated by the dried blood splatter on the keyboard."

"Obviously."

"According to the data I encrypted on my Pip-Boy, it says the cave is named Nopah Cave. And it's only a couple of minutes away."

"Well we can't let a dead mans wish fade away into oblivion, can we? I say we take a trip to Nopah Cave first thing in the morning. Then we ransack the place, and blast our way through the cave until we find the kid."

"Sleep first. Powder Gangers and acolonks's tomorrow."

"Goodnight Sebastian. Goodnight Powder Gangers. Goodnight Billy."

...