Chapter two
After what seemed to be an hour Neo checked his arm to check the responsiveness of it. He couldn't help but notice the woman was staring at him the whole time, but she never said a word.
"Can I help you somehow," Neo asked as she slowly nodded, "How is that?"
She pointed to her head before pointing at her throat. "Ah you got shot in the head and can't speak is that it," Neo added as she nodded again, "You're wanting to find the one that did it to you too."
"She needs to go to an auto-doc for her to fully recover from her injuries, but I don't know where one would be around here," Mitch interrupted as he walked into the room.
"Most vaults that I've visited had one or two in the infirmaries. But not many are operational," the ranger stated, "But Vault 11 has a few that are but I don't think I can make it there on my own let alone with someone else in tow."
"Which direction is the Vault," Neo asked as he stood to his feet and honed his combat armor.
"To the east of here and south of the I-188 trading post," the ranger added, "Lot of trouble along the way, Deathclaw, legionnaires, raiders, and the works."
"I'll figure out a way there she will need to tag along," Neo started as he looked at Mitch and the Rangers Pip-boys, "Mitch do you have any use of you pip-boy anymore?"
"No I guess not, why," Mitch replied as he looked at it for a minute.
"Would you mind giving it to the woman here for her to use," neo concluded.
"Not at all," he replied as he disconnected the strap holing it to his wrist, "Here you go."
She looked at Neo for a minute before she strapped the computer to her wrist. She quickly stood up and looked at the ranger as to reassure herself that she did need to do this.
"Okay lets go we don't have much time left for the day so we need to get a move on," Neo stated as he opened the door outside.
Night fell within the hour as the two walked in silence. Neo was not very much amused by the wildlife that continually tried to kill the two of them. Final Neo came to a halt looking around before he reached for his rifle. He heard something close by but it wasn't a sound he had known. Before long sound began to get clearer as he could finally make out the sound the courier grabbed him from behind and pulled him behind a rock. She started to draw a word in the sand. Cazadors, very dangerous. Neo nodded as he began to peek over the rock to see what they were. Mutated wasps of the old world, there buzzing began to get annoying as they began to move away from the pair. As the last one crested one of the dunes that covered the land scape Neo stood to his feet before helping the courier who swatted his hand away.
"Cazadors, Deathclaw what else mutated geckos," Neo added as he noticed a large golden lizard sprinting toward him, "Spoke to soon."
Quickly he sighted the rifle and fired hitting it in the leg, causing it to trip. He quickly pulled the bolt back to chamber another round before firing into the creatures head.
Neo looked at his Pip-boy and scanned the map for the Vault, "Let's go north. Not too far from here now." The courier nodded and followed Neo as he stopped. "You don't have a weapon do you?"
She shook her head before noticing Neo digging through his bag, removing a 9mm pistol, and extending it to her.
"You do know how to use this right," he asked as he quickly pulled it away from her as she reached for it. She nodded, "Good."
He handed it to her and began to walk north. It wasn't long afterwards that he heard the sound of gunfire behind him and a group of raiders began to fire at them. Neo was quick on the trigger but when one of the raiders had a hold of his rifle Neo reached for the pistol he carried on his vest. It was a 9mm handgun as well and he placed it against the raider's skull before firing it off and sending fragments of skull and chunks of grey matter into the desert winds. He quickly sighted it on another raider that wasn't too far from him and fired a round into his leg. The courier was firing at each raiders head and causing untold amounts of damage and blood to cover the ground. She had finished off nearly four of them before turning toward the one Neo was holding for questions.
"Who are you," Neo yelled as he pressed his pistol to the raider's throat.
"You can burn in hell for all I care," the raider spat as he looked at the courier, "And your little bitch too."
Neo wasn't one for smart ass remarks before he shot the raider in his knee, "Again who are you?"
"Kill me I won't tell you," the raid shouted as the courier raised the handgun to his head.
"Okay I'll give you a name," Neo said as he looked at the courier, "Dog meat."
She fired the gun as neo let go of the raider and he fell limp to the ground. Neo looked at her as she holstered the pistol in her belt. She was young and she seemed familiar to him for some unknown reason, but he dismissed the thought and continued to the vault that was just coming into view. The vault door stood out against the desolate landscape. As they entered Neo holstered his rifle and honed the 9mm pistol and quickly checking each room and corridor they entered till they came to the infirmary. Neo was worried that while she was inside the auto-doc that they would be ambushed. So he closed the doors and began a program to lock all the doors in while she found the program to do a full diagnostics scan. Suddenly the steel door of the machine slid open and the courier stepped in. Neo watched as the door quickly closed and the monitor began to record the Couriers status. The bullet had caused her to have a slight instability to her sanity, loss of voice, and a split personality.
Finally the screen read performing operation to voice box and banging began to ring out at the door out of the infirmary. He knew it was going to happen, raiders. But instead the door opened and soldiers bearing the seal of the brotherhood flooded the room. All technology was the target including the auto-doc that was currently in use.
"Hey leave that alone," Neo shouted as he grabbed the arm of one of the soldiers that began to fiddle with the machine, before having it being jerk from him, "I said stop soldier!"
The man turned toward Neo fast enough to see Neo's fist implanted into his face. It was a matter of seconds that the team of soldiers raised their laser rifles toward Neo and began to threaten him.
"Go for it, unless you want to be court marshalled for killing an officer of higher rank," Neo started as he pointed to his insignia, "head star paladin Neo Alexander Wynn, Head of the brotherhood of steel District of Columbia branch. Fire, if you will. There is a living person inside this auto-doc and she will die if you tear it down."
"Neo Wynn we have orders to shoot you on sight for treason and disobeying the chain that binds," one soldier stated as he sighted the laser rifle, "Do you have any requests?"
"Yes," Neo replied. "Just one."
"What would that be," the soldier replied.
"Get down," Neo started as he dropped to the ground as a sentry bot entered the room and began unleashing a hell fire of rockets and lasers into the BoS soldiers. Neo watched as the bot began to finally stop and scan the room once again for targets. Finally it registered no more targets in the area and left the room. "So I have committed treason and broke the chains that bind. Huh."
It was several hour that the machine held the courier inside the tube before the doors opened and she dropped out onto Neo's back. She was unconscious but she had the scars healed completely, Neo stood to his feet and lifted her onto his shoulders before he walked out of the vault. "In this life there are some things that one person can do but only to a point, but when you have someone you can trust there is nothing that you can do," neo muttered under his breath, "So trust me and you will not fall."
Neo carried her back south to a small town that was now called Novac, and decided to rest there for a few days till she full recovered before returning to Goodsprings. It wasn't long till she awoke to see Neo asleep across the room from her, his hunting rifle resting on his lap and a 9mm pistol on the nightstand next to him. She looked around the room for a minute before trying to call his name, "N-Ne-Neo."
Neo's head slowly lifted up as he looked at her, he didn't look like he had much sleep since a week ago.
"Ah, you're finally awake for once," Neo said as he rested the rifle into the chair he sat in, "are you feeling okay?"
"Yes much better still… barely able to talk," she replied as she sat up in the bed as he sat at her feet.
"Okay you need to rest a bit more I'll go get some food here soon," Neo said as he lifted a pouch of bottle caps, "Can you please stay here till then?"
She nodded as she looked around the room while he walked outside.
"So Neo how is she," a man in a gas mask asked as Neo closed the door.
"Ulysses what do you plan to do to the woman? She never did anything to you," Neo said as he leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette, "And do you think that she will go through with your trail of destruction on her own?"
"I plan on letting her join of her own free will," the man said as he stepped away, "And she will succeed in defeating me one way of another."
Neo continued to take the last drag off of his cigarette before walking to the supply tent on the other side of the building to get some food. He met the sniper that takes his shift during the night a few days ago and became decent friends with him. The man's name was Boone, he was also a first recon sniper for the NCR a few years back and he still bore his beret from the unit as well. Neo laughed at the motto of the unit, "The last thing you'll never see." It was ironic in a way, Neo was a sniper in the Brotherhood of steel for ten years and he never wanted to leave the rifle that was given to him those years ago. He too never gave his enemy a chance to see him before he fired the round.
"Neo shift change," Boone said as he pointed with his thumb towards the big dinosaur.
"Thanks man," Neo replied as he walked back into the room and grabbed his rifle before turning toward the courier, "here's the food and I'm changing shifts with Boone for night watch. I'll be back in eight hours."
"Neo thank you for helping me," she said as she looked at him, "And my name is Sarah."
"Sarah," Neo repeated, "Well then Sarah I'll see you in a few hours."
"Please be careful," she said as she laid back in the bed.