Here I am at Mojave Outpost, trying to walk tall and not trudge. Turns out the desert is difficult to walk through for two days straight. I was ready to fall over as tiredness pulled at my legs and shoulders. The man out front whom welcomed me happily seeing as though she wasn't a threat told me to talk to some man inside this building that I pushed the doors opened to now. I stood there for a second, dusting off my legs and pulling the dusty used-to-be-white cloth down from covering my mouth to lazily hanging around my neck. The man at the desk didn't even look up at me, so I walked in looking for the girl my "boss" told me to find. Seeing that she wasn't here, I checked the building that I passed before. I guess I should have listened to that man before.
This place seemed to be an NCR restaurant/bar, but there weren't many people in it. Three at the most, counting the bartender. This just made things easier.
It really did. The girl I was seeking sat on a stool chugging some whiskey from the bottle. 'Great,' I thought sarcastically, 'I love alcoholics.'
I approached the ginger girl in the cowboy hat and decided to take a kind approach. I sat in the stool next to her and started with the basics.
"Hello." I dumbly said.
"The hell do you want?! Can't you see I am busy ...?" She slurred a lot, showing she was drunk. She's lucky I'm in a patient mood.
"Well, uh, to be quite honest, I saw that you looked like a girl I think I might have encountered before." I said, and soon after brushed away the bartender who was asking if I'd fancy a drink. I prefer to not ruin my life with alcohol.
"Oh yeah!?" The gingers voice raised a bit and she slammed the now empty whiskey bottle on the counter. "Who am I then?"
It was funny to hear her ask me who she was, rather than ask who I was. Silly drunkard.
"Miss Rose of Sharon Cassidy." I kindly said with the ghost of a smile on my lips.
"What do ya want?" She asked me, trying to glare. I think; it's hard to tell since she's drunk.
"I just wanted to know if you've ran into a courier recently. One working for the Mojave Express...?"
"Oh. Uh, yeah. Why?" She seemed unsure of herself, but sources say they saw Cass here talking to courier 6 of Mojave Express.
"Look, I just need to know where she went and I'll buy you another whiskey and be on my way." I offered. Cass seemed to visibly perk up with the sound of whiskey in my sentence.
"Simple enough, pal," she started, and gave me an awkward-friendly punch in the arm. "She went to Nipton. Said the ghost on top of where we are now said she'd be a great help if she could check it out for her." Cass said. I left the money on the counter, yelled to the bartender to give her another whiskey, and left. I gave a wave of my hand and a quiet "Thanks." to Cass and stood outside again.
Ghost on the building? What was she talking about?! And then that town, Nipton. I've heard of it. I looked around and noticed a ramp leading to the top of the building, so I went up there. Perhaps this leads to the "ghost on top of the building."
"Shit!" A girl screamed and next thing I know, I almost fell back off the ramp and was looking at the most pale human being I've ever seen in my life. Heh. Ghost. I get it.
"I'm so sorry," I offered the girl a hand as I apologized. Thank god she screamed, otherwise I wouldn't have even known she was a girl.
"I'm Delaney," I started. "Ramming in to you, I figured I at least owed you my name." The girl took my hand and actually smiled.
"What do you want, Delaney? I'm called Ghost, by the way." She was kind with that, so I figured she'd be of help to me. And wow, her name was actually Ghost? How ironic.
"Well, I'm looking for a worker of mine. Courier number 6 of the Mojave Express? Ring any bells?" I asked the pale woman. She raised her eyebrows.
"What's her name?"
"Well, her real name is Heidi, but I doubt she either remembered it, or used it."
"Weird blue colored hair?" Ghost asked, "And in a bun?" She swirled her finger around the top of her head for emphasis.
"Well, it's more of a turquoise, or teal, but they're all such similar colors." We both laughed a bit. It's been a while since I've had such a peaceful conversation.
"Aha, yeah I've seen her. Just sent her to help me out. Didn't know she was a courier though." All I needed was for her to tell me whether or not she's seen her. And where she is, if she has seen her. I was now too excited to get into a conversation about it all, but I had to play it calm so no suspicions were created.
"Yep. Got shot in the head, actually. But that's none of your business..." I let my voice trail off a bit before continuing, "Where'd you send her off to?"
"Nipton, just straight across from here. Saw some smoke and wondered what happened." ghost was now looking through some binoculars she got from a small white table she had up here. She looked towards what I'm guessing was the town of Nipton.
"How long ago did you send her out?" I asked, hoping it was recent. I could either walk there and meet her half way, or, the more likely one, just sit here and wait for her to come to me. I'd prefer the latter considering the sunset in the distance welcoming the night, and my eyes taking longer blinks. I am so exhausted.
"Um, not sure really. Maybe about, 2 hours ago?" Ghost put down the binoculars and sat in the chair that was beside the little table.
"Should she be back soon?" I asked, trying not to throw the question at her as if I were excited.
"Yeah..." Her voice trailed off.
"You sound unsure." I raised an eyebrow.
"Look," ghost began, "She said she could handle herself with a gun and offered to check it out. Her time all depends on what is over there and how fast she is." She concluded.
I didn't respond, there wasn't much to say. Instead, I pulled my water bottle out of my backpack and drank the last drop. I'd have to buy some more before making my journey home. I sat on the ground with my back against the small wall and gazed up at the stars. They reminded me of home, when I wouldn't be able to sleep and I'd just stare at the beautiful sky. I'd even try to make shapes by connecting the dots and eventually fall asleep.
The only reason I knew I fell asleep was because the scratching of a chair against pavement woke me up with a jolt as Ghost stood up and looked forward with her binoculars. Really though, I was such a light sleeper, it wasn't her fault for waking me.
I stood up, realizing it was now dark out. I rolled my neck a bit before talking, "what's there?" I asked ghost, who jumped at the sound of my voice.
"Woah, Jesus." She said turning around. "Thought you were asleep."
"Who's there?" I asked once again, not caring for her statement.
"Oh, well, seems to be the Courier. Heidi, you said?"
My eyes lit up at that. Normally things never work out for me, but here's Heidi the courier and I in the same place.
The girl went straight to the ramp that led to where Ghost and I were, I guess to report back to her. When she reached us though, she looked pretty sick. Like she had to throw up.
"Hello, Heidi. Have anything to report? What was the smoke about?" ghost asked her and I backed away, trying not to be noticed.
Heidi's lips moved, but the sound was inaudible.
"What?" ghost said in a worried voice. "What happened?"
Heidi cleared her throat before trying again, "The Legion is coming." She said in an empty voice.
"What?! This close!?" Ghost was yelling now, but Heidi shushed her and continued.
"Yes, be quiet! My head is killing me..." She sighed and continued. "This man was yelling about winning a lottery when I got there, and I assumed he was some junkie so I continued further. But aligning the streets were people hanging on crosses, all weeping and begging for me to kill them... I almost did, too, but I saw some people lining up in front of a building so I approached them. This man was there and had a weird fuckin' dog hood on, and as I walked closer to everyone, I realized they had on legion armor." Heidi took a deep breath and Ghost had a sneer to her face, like she tasted something sour.
Me, on the other hand, I felt my face go pale. The legion...? This far? I know it's been 3 months since I've last spoken with any member of the legion, but with how close I am to them I expected a form of communication on what's going on.
And did Heidi say something about a dog hood? Could it be...? I was about to interrupt and ask what he looked like but they started again.
"The man in the weird dog hood was talking about how it was a town of whores and they deserved to die but..." Her voice trailed off.
"Heidi, what happened? Are you hurt?" ghost asked, but Heidi just shook her head.
"Heh, no. I'm... Scared. This man had the finest silver tongue I've ever come across. I'm not saying that he scared me, but my mind scared me, if that makes sense. He made my mind scare me. I almost saw the Legion and their crucifixions and slavery, even their torturing of everyone as logical. That's how well this man talked, I swear." She shook her head and changed the subject before Ghost could talk again.
"Look, I'm fine, okay? The smoke was from the burning buildings and everyone is dead. You're welcome. Anyway, you said my name twice. How do you know it? I never told you." Heidi's tone went from empty and frightened to strong and sassy. Now this is where I come in.
"Well, this girl here, Delaney, told me it. Said she was looking for you." Ghost pointed to me and I took that as my cue. I forced a smile out and stepped forward.
"Hi, I'm Delaney." I offered a hand shake, but Heidi glared at me.
"Okay... How do you know me?" Heidi was now facing me, looking utterly confused. What was my excuse this time? I'd just tell the truth.
"Well, I've been looking for you. I know somebody that wants to talk to you and I was asked to bring you to them." I said. There, I didn't even lie.
"Who?" Was all Heidi asked. She was eyeing me weird, as if I had this aura giving off bad vibes to her. I thought I seemed pretty friendly.
"If you'd come with me, you'd find out." I was pushing the limit here. She was obviously a sassy independent girl who wanted nothing but to do her own work.
"What if this is a trap to get me killed?" Heidi questioned.
She seemed like she wasn't going to trust me easily. I remembered a friend saying something about the courier being shot in the head by the owner of The Tops back in Vegas, and that she was seeking revenge pretty recently. "If we wanted you dead, I'd have killed you already," I stated first. "Look, my friends and I have some information on Benny, if you'd like to hear it."
Her face noticeably changed and seemed interested.
"Yeah? That fucker who shot me!? Where is he, I wanna rip his arms off." She smirked. I yawned.
"The sooner we leave, the sooner we get there and that means, the sooner you get your information." I crossed my arms with a bit of an impatient feeling flowing through me. Can she just come on!?
"Fine." She said. And we began walking. Well. That went well.