Chapter Three: You and What Army?
Sunny was already wearing leather armor, as was I, so I gave one to Trudy, one to Ringo and another to a random townsperson. I divided the stimpacks and doctor's bags among Sunny, Ringo, and I and quickly told her how Cheyenne was.
We all met at the Prospector Saloon. I decided to brief everyone on what to do – "find cover. That's your first thing. They aren't likely to get a clear shot if you're behind something. Stick your gun outfirst. They'll shoot at the first thing they see. Rather your gun than your face. Trust me. I've also been told they use dynamite. If a stick of that shit comes flying at you, tactfully get the hell outta there. Don't run out in the open. Stay crouched, run along the sides of buildings, but never out in the open. Dynamite, other than for blowing stuff up, is also meant for drawing things out. Such as you...when they throw said stick of blasting powder at you and you run from your cover. Bullets are expensive, so hopefully you have good aim and enough ammo. I got a case of 9mm off Chet, but that's all he could spare. If you run out of ammo, stay put. Don't try to run for shelter. If you're using cover, you should be good. Chances are, they'll use cover too, and won't leave it to come find you to shoot you. It's pretty simple. Follow my lead. Everyone take cover and we'll wait for them to come. Probably as a group, on the road. Keep a look out."
And with that, we all left the saloon. Trudy took the left side of the saloon for cover, I took a large boulder in front of the saloon, and Sunny and Ringo took a cart halfway between the General Store and saloon. The other townsfolk either gathered near Trudy or in between buildings.
Just as I had suspected, the Powder Gangers came into town using the main road, all in a group. Stupidest thing I've ever seen. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone light a stick of dynamite.
"Eat shit, Powder Gangers!" He yelled as he threw the stick. It landed right in the middle of their group, and they began running about. There was a shower of blood and limbs. Two out of the six of them were dead. The ones furthest from the blast had some pretty deep gashes. Two men took refuge behind an old telephone pole, Joe Cobb hid behind the saloon sign and one guy with a baseball bat charged towards the center of town, still on the road. I poked Romulus out from behind my rock. No gunshot, so I poked my head out far enough to aim down the sights. With an echoing blast, I shot the Powder Ganger in the chest. His baseball bat fell out of his hands as he flew back and he was dead before he hit the ground.
Trudy poked her head around the corner, and there was a shot fired. Not from her, but from Joe Cobb. I immediately saw the blood that streaked her cheek. From what I could tell, he shot the side of the building and she was hit with splinters.
"Gun first, Trudy!" I yelled as she ducked back in for cover.
Sunny followed my advice, and before she could aim down the sights, I counted four gunshots from the Powder Gangers. I took that time to aim at Joe Cobb, and pulled the trigger.
But I missed. He moved out of the way just in time. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I noticed that Ringo had also taken that time to shoot at one of the guys behind the telephone post. He caught him in the arm and he dropped his weapon. Sunny took the shot as he bent down to retrieve it, and got him right in the neck.
I heard the hissing sound of dynamite, but it wasn't coming from us. I saw the stick flying over my head and watched and it landed near Ringo and Sunny. Ringo had completely forgot what I told him and started running in the street. Sunny kept low and was able to get over to the Prospector Saloon before the blast showered us with gravel and dirt. I heard a gunshot, followed by a yelp and another shot. I looked in Ringo's direction and saw he was clipped in the shoulder. I could only assume the second shot came from Ringo. I poked my gun out, and nothing. I aimed down the sights and saw that Ringo had injured Joe Cobb. I took the shot, and yet again, missed. I instead hit one of the posts the sign was held up by.
The guy that had lit the dynamite earlier was now getting ready for round two, and I watched the dynamite soar above me, and while everyone was distracted, I looked down the sights to see that the guy behind the telephone pole was making a break for it. I aimed and shot him right through the back of the head. Joe Cobb looked around and saw that he was the last man standing. The dynamite went off, raining dirt down on Cobb, but it wasn't close enough to injure him. At that point in time, Trudy, Sunny, Ringo and I had all taken advantage of the moment to gun him down. One shot ricocheted off the sign, another hit Cobb in the foot and two bullets found their way to his lower back.
I motioned for everyone to stay in place as I looked around to make sure there was no one else in hiding. I kept Romulus at the ready as I checked around the sign. Cobb was still alive, his legs twisted in ways that didn't look possible. Blood was dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, and he brought up the energy to spit at me.
"This town belongs to the Powder Gangers."
"Are you paralyzed?" I asked, "can you move your legs?" I doubted he could, but I was having too much of a power trip, standing over him - so helpless and defenseless. I could kill him now with a twitch of my trigger finger, but what fun would that be? I could see him trying to muster the strength to hold his gun up to me, but I kicked it out of his reach.
"I'm just gonna assume you're paralyzed. Being shot in the spine like that...twice, you're lucky to be alive," I looked down at him and he was struggling to sit up.
"You're...you're a bitch. I won't die by your hand. I'll kill myself first."
I balled my hand into a fist and plummeted it straight to his nose. I heard a few townsfolk gasp. We just killed all those people and me punching someone was more offensive?
"You wanna take care of him, Ringo?" I asked. This was, after all, Ringo's problem. I offered to help out because six Powder Gangers is too much for one guy to take on alone. It's down to one, now crippled and bloodied man and if Ringo couldn't take him down, what could he do?
Ringo walked up, shaking in his boots. Joe Cobb started blathering on as I prompted him to pull up his weapon, aim down the sights and hit Cobb clean in the head. But the way he was shaking, I could tell he was going to miss. So I pulled out my 9mm and it made a quiet popping noise compared to Romulus. It was done. I dipped my finger in Cobb's blood and smeared it across Ringo's face. He looked mortified. I gave him a stern nod, and without looking at anybody else or saying anything, I went and sat in the bar. Trudy served me up a shot of whiskey and sat down beside me. When she noticed I wasn't interested in the alcohol, she knocked it back herself. Everything was quiet for a while before I asked Trudy if there was any more help the town needed. Sunny and Ringo came and sat down with us after a while. Ringo's arm was in a sling made from an old ripped shirt.
"I don't think there's anything else that needs to be done," Trudy admitted.
"Here, these are yours," Ringo said, plopping a bag of bottlecaps in front of me, "they're Crimson Caravan funds. ...Not technically mine to give away, but I think they'll understand." I noticed he still had the blood smeared on his cheek. Maybe Doc Mitchell told everyone I was a tribesperson and I was crazy, so everyone just let it be. I sighed.
"Look, Ringo, you can give me money when you have-"
"No, it's fine," he said.
I shrugged. 250 bottlecaps is fine for me. More than what I had before, anyways.
"So are there any other towns close by that I can ask around about my attackers?" I asked.
"There's Primm," Sunny said and I remembered it was mentioned in my invoice, "it's a bit south east. You'll notice it when you come across a large rollercoaster. I believe there's a Mojave Express there."
"Great. That's just where I need to be. Thank you for all the help you've given me." I slung my duffle bag across my chest and made sure I had Romulus with me. Everything seemed to be in order, so I waved goodbye as I set off.
"Look me up at the Crimson Caravan," Ringo called out, "I'll give you the rest of what I owe you there."
And with that, I set off, pulling the map up on my Pip-boy, and following the route Sunny marked for me. I went back down the trail that led to the Goodsprings Source, filled up my water bottles and checked the dead geckos. They seemed fine, so I took some meat from them, recalling there was a campfire at the bottom of the ridge that I could cook these on. I put them in the one plastic bag I had stored in my duffle bag, and continued down the path.
There were two different sets of cinder blocks with wood piled on top of them, and not far off, I noticed a Pre-war vehicle. I read in a book somewhere that people used them to go camping, which is like living in the outdoors for a few days and living off the land instead of sitting in those nice Pre-War houses. Sort of like how I lived my life. I don't know why someone would want to do this if they had a big cushy house to go to that wasn't missing a ceiling or doors and windows.
I set up my gecko meat to cook on the fire closest to the vehicle, and set off to check it out. There was no door, and the tires had been taken off by someone, as it was now sitting on more cinder blocks. Inside, there were two mattresses, a case with ammo that neither my 9mm nor Romulus could use, and a suitcase with a pretty dress and hat in it. Some empty Nuka-Cola bottles littered the floor, and other than the rust, the place was surprisingly clean for being left out in the open since before the war.
I checked my Pip-boy, it was a little after 10pm. I felt the presence of someone near, and while fiddling with my Pip-boy earlier, I found it tracked anything living within so far. I'm not entirely sure how it worked, but it did, in fact, work. I glanced at it in the bar with Trudy and it showed one tick mark close to me, as she was the only one in the bar. When Ringo and Sunny walked in, it then displayed two more tick marks.
But despite the feeling of someone being near, there were no tick marks appearing. I went back to check on my meat, flipping it over using the cleaver I kept with me. Letting out a loud sigh, I sat with my back towards the ridge, facing the camper. I played with my Pip-boy some more, switching between the local map, and the Nevada map, both of which showed the path Sunny marked for me. Most of the time, it followed a road, and critters normally stray from the road, so that would save me some trouble.
I heard a rock skidding along the dirt, and looked around. I didn't see anything, but I got that feeling I was being watched again. I had Romulus at the ready, and even with the fire lighting up the night, the sky was still inky black and I couldn't see much further out than a few feet. I checked my Pip-boy again, and there was a blue tick mark lingering a bit to the west, which was off to my right. Supposedly the blue was friendly and the red was hostile, but I wasn't taking any chances.
"I know you're there!" I called out.
Suddenly, a man came running out of nowhere, yelling frantically about his girlfriend being stuck up on a hill surrounded by geckos. I raised an eyebrow, set my cooked meat on a part of wood that wasn't on fire, began chopping it into small pieces and eating it.
"Didn't you hear me?!" He yelled, "my girlfriend's surrounded by geckos."
I nodded, "I heard ya. But chances are, by the time you ran down here, she was already dead. Rescued a lady from geckos earlier. They fucked her up pretty bad before I got to her."
I chewed slowly, though the meat hadn't been over cooked, and it had a rubbery feeling to it. It had a bland taste, but I had no room to complain. At least I was eating. But it was burning the feeling from my fingertips.
"So you're not gonna help her?" He asked.
"Nope. You obviously left her for dead. Why should I help her?"
He sighed, "I knew this wouldn't work. Cough up that duffle bag."
He had pulled a gun out from behind him and held it up to me. I stared at him for a minute, before standing up and raising my hands.
"My gun is in my duffle bag. I'm unarmed," I said, my blood rushing in my ears again. It was not only because of the gun in my face, but because I kept my 9mm in my back belt loop. I'd have to be fast to do it without him noticing. The blood rushing in my ears caused an unparalleled pain in my head, making my vision go from blurry to normal with every thump.
He kept his gun pointed at me as he circled the fire and came towards my duffle bag. I made sure to keep face-to-face with him as he was eventually standing beside me. He kneeled down, setting the gun beside him and started looking through my bag. I'd have to act fast, or he'd be re-armed with Romulus.
I put my boot to his chest and kicked him back. He seemed surprised, but he didn't let that slow him down. Lunging forward, he was able to get his fingers maybe an inch away from Romulus. I stomped on his hand, hearing a cracking noise. I pounced on him, pushing him back and sitting on his chest, my legs pinning his arms down.
"Thought you'd get the jump on me?" I asked, pulling my 9mm out of my belt loop.
He struggled and fought, bucking me around. For the most part, I am all skin and bones. I'm not sure how I held him down for so long, as he finally jerked around underneath me hard enough that I flew off of him, slamming my head off the ground. After a flash of white-hot pain, everything went black.
I woke up with a jolt, suddenly freezing and remembering the man that was trying to kill me. I looked down and saw the reason for me freezing. I was in nothing. Butt ass naked. Other than the fact that it gets freezing-ass-cold out in the desert in the middle of the night.
I heard the click of a hammer being pulled back and I looked in that direction. He had my own 9mm pointed straight at my face.
"I'm not sore, so you either didn't rape me or you just aren't packing," I said.
He laughed, "you've sure got a mouth for someone with a gun in her face. The answer is no, I didn't rape you. I wanted you to be awake. To experience it."
I shrugged, "fair enough."
He gave me a questioning look. Despite the fact that he had a gun in my face, he was attractive. He had messy brown hair, green eyes and stubble on his chin. Even if he wasn't "forcing me" to have sex with him, I probably would've anyway. Traveling like I do, I never keep relationships. If someone is willing to have sex with me, then that's good enough.
"Do you always have to force women to have sex with you?" I asked.
"N-no. Shut up," He stammered, "I'm the only doing the talking, here."
"You're the one with the gun who hasn't bothered to use it yet."
His mouth dropped open, as if to say something, but instead, I leaned up to kiss him, putting my hands in his hair to pull him down towards me. It took him a moment, but he got the idea.