Hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Veronica and Cass...
I balance my brush gun up against a low rock and watch the caravan slowly trotting down the road. Five heavily-loaded brahmin with twice as many guards. Three merchants are trying to disguise themselves among the guards, but I can already tell they're not mercenaries. They're holding their guns all wrong and slouching in their armor.
"What do you think, Rex? Shoot all of 'em dead or let 'em pass?". My cyborg dog stops scratching his ear and lets out a loud, ringing bark. The entire caravan breaks into a run. I laugh, lean over, and kiss Rex on the side of the face. Then, I pull down on the trigger and swing my gun back and forth two times. The entire caravan is on the ground when I'm done. I stand and kiss my steaming gun. Finally, I lick my burning lips as I slowly walk down to the caravan. Already, the road is running red with their blood. I take all of the ammo from the guards before rolling their corpses to the side of the road in a line.
It'll make it easier for whoever finds them to bury them. Traitors to the Republic hardly deserve a proper burial, but that's not for me to decide. Those higher in rank than me make those calls. When I'm finished with the bodies I begin raiding the caravan. Food, water, and blankets are the main things I find. I get some purified water and a nice blanket, but the caravan had apparently eaten through their supply of food.
I shake my head while checking my ammo. What I find causes a deep frown to split my face. I only have a thousand bullets left. That might sound like a lot for any reasonable person, but 'reasonable' people get to stop by civilized places and buy bullets. My .45-70 Gov't are rare to find out in the waste. Generally, NCR veterans are the only ones to carry them, and I haven't found a corrupt NCR official in months. I load my Ranger Sequoia and decide to go hunting. The mountains where I was hiding are bound to have some prey worthy of eating. Rex bounds around me silently. I snap and the dog rubs his head against my digits.
When we're a decent way up into the unpaved mountains I turn and look at my work. Already, scavengers are moving in on the dead caravan. A group of coyotes and wild dogs are forming a rough circle to wait until a baby Deathclaw is done eating his fill of brahmin and caravan guards. Rex throws his head back and lets out a long, low howl. A few of the dogs and coyotes go bounding away. The Deathclaw stands at full attention, scans the area for us, and goes back to eating.
I'd shoot the beast dead, but I need him. If he eats all the evidence or chews them up bad enough, then nobody will know I was here. I enjoy everyone knowing of my spree of justice; I just don't want the corrupt and wicked catching my trail and following me.
Rex quickly follows me as I turn and ascend higher in the mountains. I've only gone a mile or so when I find suitable prey. A bighorner bull is grazing with his back turned to me. I level my pistol, take careful aim, and fire. The gun bucks in my hand like a rifle and the bighorner's head explodes into a mass of meat and bone. Rex runs forward and begins 'attacking'. Meanwhile, I walk forward, lean down, and kiss the bighorner's side. Rex keeps 'attacking'. I allow him to continue chewing on the dead bighorner's leg while I glean whatever meat I can. In the end, I get five prime cuts of bighorner
. Enough for the rest of today and tomorrow. I spend a few more minutes combing the area for more bighorners, but none make themselves known. I sigh and pack the meat away for later. They'll shrink when cooked, but there'll still be enough for me and Rex to share. My dog travels after me as I go back to our temporary camp. A single crudely made fire and a blanket laid out beside it. I add the new blanket to the 'bed', then put a slab of meat over the fire.
I end up pressing the meat and turning one side a dark brown while the other is barely grey. Hesitantly, I take the meat off the fire and cut into the center of it to yank a small amount of meat off. Pink. I toss the meat into my mouth and instantly spit it back out when I taste it's cold. Rex gobbles down his chewed snack while I place the meat grey side down on the fire.
I press the meat again, then pull it off and look at the inside of the steak. Brownish. I cut off another small chunk and taste it. Cooked. I rip the steak in half and offer half to Rex. My robotic companion inhales his half and watches me eat mine with longing eyes. The grease drips and stains my combat armor; my fingers are burned by how hot the meat is; and it's tough to chew and without any taste. I choke down the bighorner and grab a bottle of purified water. I only have ten left, so I'll need to pick up some more the next time I go 'shopping'. I drink until my thirst is quenched, then begin pouring the rest out. Rex sees me dumping it and begins lapping at the running stream. Thankfully, he's done drinking a second before I run out of water. I begin crushing the bottle and talk to Rex.
"Seems like the caravans are carrying less and less nowadays.". Rex yawns and curls up by my dying fire. I look up at the darkening sky before leaning over and scratching Rex behind the ear. My dog begins kicking his leg and wagging his tail.
"We'll just have to try harder. Find better places to hit, you know?". He sighs and I take that as a 'yes'. I scratch him for a few more seconds before going over and smashing my makeshift firepit to pieces. Darkness consumes the ledge I'm camped on. Quickly, I lie down on top of the blankets on my back. The stars slowly reveal themselves to me.
"You ever wonder what those are made of?". Rex snores.
"When I was little I always thought they were holes in the sky. Because my daddy use to tell me that.". More snoring.
"I like talking to you, Rex.". A whimper as his legs begin scratching against the ground.
"Good night, boy. Sleep tight and don't let the gigantic mutant insects bite.". Rex eventually falls off into a deep and quiet sleep. I remain lying on my fake bed with my eyes open to the sky.
"I miss having a real bed.". No response from Rex.
"I hope we find food and water. I don't want you to have to eat me.". Rex is asleep in a tight little ball. I close my own eyes and try to think of something to put me to sleep. I hope Boone is proud of me. He likes the NCR. Lily probably just wants me to be okay. I wish I could tell her I'm not dead in some ditch. I wonder what Arcade is doing. He promised to help me do stuff, and I guess he kind of did. Hope he doesn't mind I killed a few of his fellows. Raul and ED-E probably miss me. Haven't seen those two in years. Cass probably misses me even more. Always liked her. She talked fancy and I liked listening to her. I know Veronica is okay. I dropped her off at the Lucky 38 before I left for the Divide. She's probably stuffing herself full of fancy food and listening to old radio adventures.
I open my eyes to look over at Rex. I love the dog to death (hence why the King hasn't seen him in years), but I wish he wasn't my only companion. I can only talk to the same dog for so many hours before getting tired of hearing my own voice. I don't sleep that night. I just keep looking at the stars and dreaming. Snipping Legion with Boone; letting Lily climb Dinky the Dinosaur to put me on his head; Arcade doing that think where he checks my head to make sure I'm okay; Raul begin a lovable ass when I say something obvious; and ED-E beeping to pretend to have a conversation with me. Cass and Veronica both get their own hour long 'dreams'.
Cass drinking, joking, and practicing her aim with me. All the while making sure I don't do something that'll get me in trouble with someone(she calls me 'rash'). Veronica telling me all about the Brotherhood, trying (failing) to teach me how to punch, and making sure I've taken enough medication to keep my healthy. Constantly stopping me from doing something that'll get me killed (she never called me 'stupid', but she couldn't stop other people from doing it). I'm snapped out of my waking dream by Rex walking over to me and nudging me with his nose.
"Hungry?". He whimpers and begins running around in a circle. "Okay. Go use the restroom and I'll get us some breakfast ready.". Rex bounds away.
I attempt to cook another bighorner steak while he's gone. It goes worse than last night. It's charred on one side, dark brown on the other, and somehow still bloody in the middle. I manage to rip it in half and choke mine down with a liberal amount of water. Thankfully, my sense of taste died a terrible death long ago. Rex, however, seems to enjoy his meat. I repeat the process from last night with the water. Rex still tries to lap at the empty bottle, but I crumple it up and toss it to the side. The only trace I was ever here. My dog looks upset his thirst wasn't quenched, but he'll have to make due. I've gone to bed hungry and/or thirsty more times than I can count. The days are just starting to become more often than not.
I load my Ranger Sequoia, roll up my bed on my back, and start hunting even higher in the mountains. I spent all day sweating bullets as I climb higher and higher over terrain that gets rougher and rougher with each step. When night's beginning to fall I find my only prey of the entire day. A tiny, baby coyote who's lying on his side. The animal doesn't even rouse as I near him. I crouch down and wave my fingers in front of the coyote's eyes. Nothing. Only the tiniest of breaths escapes him. He's dying. I speed up the process by grabbing him by the tail, heaving him over my shoulder, and smashing his skull against the ground like a hammer.
His neck snaps and the coyote pup is put out of his misery. I raise the thin, tiny body up to where his sightless eyes are in front of mine. Quickly, I lean forward and kiss him between the eyes. I place the dead pup in my pack and begin forcing my way back to camp. It's well into the night when an exhausted Rex and I return to camp. I'd hoped to find another bighorner and get some food to last us a little while. Instead, I have a baby coyote. As I begin cleaning the animal I sigh.
There's not enough meat to even replace the energy I spent climbing up to get him. I didn't even see a water source to get some radiated water from. I rebuild the campfire, unload my bed, and begin cooking the coyote meat. I traveled far away enough from camp that I didn't want to leave a trace I was here. Yesterday I was close enough I kept the camp made. Tomorrow, I'm going to dismantle it again and leave with Rex to get enough food and water to last us for months. I scrape the burnt coyote meat off the fire and give a small handful to Rex.
"How do you feel about killing some Khan, boy?". He licks up his dinner in one gulp and begins growling. I smile.
"That's what I thought.". I toss my own handful of meat into my mouth.