Catching Up

Raul had to hand it to Courier Six—the girl knew how to go out with a bang.

Her death was sensational. She and Cass had been cornered in a Legionnaire stronghold, and, seeing no way out, the two girls blew up the whole base—with them still inside it.

Still, she did what she had set out to do, and that was to destroy the Legion's new foothold in the Mojave.

Apparently, Six, in all her childish glory, didn't bother thinking about the political ramifications of such a move—or maybe she didn't care. Either way, there was no one to lead the Independent New Vegas, as she didn't appoint anyone and had no heirs to speak of.

Currently, Raul didn't think about that. He wasn't thinking about much of anything, really. He was simply standing in front of a pair of graves and wallowing in grief.

Raul was bitterly surprised to find that very few people had attended Six's funeral. She had been a popular and very well-known figure, and she had known a lot of people. But there was a small handful of people eat the funeral—Not even the heads of the Three Families showed up to see their leader off.

What hit Raul the hardest was that, out of everyone Six had traveled with, only him and another ghoul had shown up, and he didn't even know who the other ghoul was. As the funeral ended and the people left, he started counting off his old friends, trying to see if they had any excuse to not be here.

Well, Cass definitely had her excuse, since she died with Six, but the rest, like Boone…

Oh, yeah, Boone was gone. There was a thing with the Legion a few years back, and he died in that.

Gannon…Gannon was gone, too. He went to NCR lands to get supplies for the Followers and…just never came back. From what he had overheard from Six and Julie at the time, the NCR took him as a prisoner of a sort…something with ties to the Enclave and Navarro.

Speaking of Navarro, ED-E was gone too. He had headed off in the months following the Battle at Hoover Dam.

The dog was gone too. Rex had been killed defending his old owner, the King. He'd died valiantly. The King was still alive and keeping the peace because of him.

Lily…Lily had also disappeared. She had run off looking for her grandchildren after the Battle at Hoover Dam and was never heard from again.

Raul frowned in the sudden realization that he was the only one left out of the companions. Well, him and the other ghoul, but the other ghoul could be lying for all he knew.

There was no on left now; just him and the other ghoul. Raul sighed, took his vaquero had off, and bowed his head in respect and grief at the grave in front of him.

He was going to miss the girl. And no matter what she said—or how much she decided to haunt him—she would always be a girl in his eyes.

He's lived so long. Almost everyone was a child in his eyes.

He didn't get too far into his reminiscing when the other ghoul moved towards him and patted him on the shoulder—hard. Raul grunted at the impact, but the other ghoul didn't hear it. Instead, the ghoul stood by Raul and said, "So you've been left behind too? That's all she was ever good at," he nodded to the grave, "making friends then leaving them behind."

The other ghoul stared at the grave a little longer—and Raul could have sworn he was glaring—before he abruptly turned around and left, half stomping on his way out.

Raul watched the ghoul go before turning around and looked back at his fallen comrade. He smiled sadly and said, "Heh. You know, he's right, boss. You just leave us old men behind. And we chase after you and wondering how far we've fallen and how long until we catch up."

He stood there a while longer, looking morosely down on the grave. He left shortly after the sun had set, and he never went back to the gravesite.

After all, he was still trying to catch up to Six, and he had a long, long way to go.