The moment they passed under the gate it slammed shut. Bruce turned around to look at the gate and saw a man coming down from the top of the gate. He was carrying a scoped rifle and was dressed in normal wasteland clothes. He had short red hair and a full beard. "Hi, I'm Ian, sorry about shooting at you but security and all that."

"It's fine but what happened our friends said that they were able to just walk right in." Chris said shaking Ian's hand.

"Let's just say that there are some people that we'd rather not let in, but I'm sure that Debbie will fill you in on that. She's in that big blue house down the street." Ian pointed down a street to their right.

"Thank you very much." Bruce said. They group then turned and walked down the street. Once they got to a more central part of the town they began to see other people. Most people seemed to not notice they were there, but all the kids stopped at stared at the three armored men carrying guns walking down the street. When they arrived at the blue house Bruce noticed a large sign above the door, 'Town Trader', there was another man with a gun standing guard. ""We're with the New Wasteland Council, were here to see Debbie." Bruce said to the guard.

"Ok go on through, she's in the shop."

The guard opened the door and the men walked into the Town Trader. The inside of the house was covered. The main area of the house seemed to be the business part of the shop. There was a wide assortment of goods in the shop. There was a counter near the back of the room. Behind the counter was a stern looking woman. She had dark black hair tied back in bun. "Hello welcome to the Town Trader I'm Debbie, how can I help you?"

"I'm Bruce, this is Chris and this is Butch," He pointed to each of them in turn. "I'm the New Wasteland Council Ambassador, Ian at the gate told us to talk to you."

"Ah, Yes, yes, come into the back we need to talk." Debbie led them back into the house and to a sitting area. She motioned for them to take a seat and then sat across from them. "I want you to know that I don't speak for everyone in Scottsvale but they will follow my lead. Now then your friend, Riley I think, wasn't very specific in her explanation of your council."

"Well the council is a union of wasteland settlements to help us better protect ourselves. Each settlement sends one representative to the council in Rivet City the council will not interfere with settlement administration. Each settlement in the council houses a joint Brotherhood of Steel and Regulator outpost. The Regulators are a sort of police force for council lands and the Brotherhood runs council communications. Chris here is a Regulator so he can answer any questions you may have."" Bruce pointed at Chris "As a member of the council you are agreeing to provide support for any council settlement if it is required or if the council is at war. That's about it do you have any questions?"

"As you can see we are a very small community and I'm not sure we can provide support in the form of soldiers."

"That shouldn't be a problem. If Scottsvale decides to join the council a settlement is only asked to provide as much support as it can without hurting themselves, however you are not allowed to prevent an individual from offering their services to the council."

"That seems reasonable." Debbie said "I'll have to talk it over with some of the others."

"Ok we'll be passing back through in a few days you can let us know then" Bruce said.

"We will be expecting you."

"Now mam if you don't mind me asking why the hell were we shot at when we were approaching the town." Butch asked.

"We decided to take in those orphans that your friends found and a few days ago some men came to the walls and demanded that we give back the children. We said no and they said that that they would get them back one way or another. Then yesterday they tried to sneak some men in but the children pointed them out. Now we can't be too careful."

"Mam you'll be glad to know that the Council is taking care of that problem in the next few days." Chris said. "You see those men and that compound belong to an enemy of the Council called the Enclave and the council has mobilized it army and is going to attack it."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"My job is to secure Scottsvale's introduction into the Council and to bring the idea to that other settlement you told our friends about." Bruce said

"Oh you mean Brentwood" Debbie said

"Yes, we should actually be leaving shortly its quite a hike isn't it." Bruce said standing up

"Yes it is, it's a good two and a half days walk and I'd feel a lot better knowing that you didn't have to spend an extra day out in the wasteland, why don't you spend the night here and head out tomorrow." Debbie stood up.

"Thanks for the offer mam but we don't want to inconvenience anyone."

"Nonsense you can spend the night here, we even have a trader headed in that direction leaving tomorrow, he can show you the way. You'd also be doing us a great service by getting her there safely. The road is crawling with bandits and animals." Debbie said.

Bruce looked at Chris and Butch, he got a shrug from Chris and Butch put it quite simply "As long as they have booze I don't care."

"Ok we'll stay, besides I need to get in touch with the Council and let them know that you are joining. Is there a radio in town somewhere I could use?"

"Yes, just go talk to John in the tavern he has uses it to boost the signal from your GNR station. It's on the other side of town it's pretty hard to miss." Debbie said as she led them out the door.

The three men began to walk through the town in the direction they had been told the tavern was. As they walked they looked around the town. This inner part of the town seemed to be much more busy than the outskirts they had already passed through. There was a weapon shop on one side of the street and clothing shop on the other. At the end of the street was a large two story building that before would've been very nice but its brick and wood exterior had overtime been replaced with whatever scrap material the owner had been able to find in order to keep the building standing. Despite all that it was still quite a sight and was without a doubt the largest building in the Scotsvale. "You think that's the tavern?" Butch said.

"She did say it'd be hard to miss." Chris said with a chuckle.

"Ok, so I say we go get a room at the tavern and then we can go refill on supplies and get some food." Bruce said as they were approaching the building.

"Sounds good to me." Chris said. They walked up the steps to the porch and into the building. The interior of the building is very similar to the outside, the once beautiful wallpaper was pealing off the wall and the walls were burnt or charred in some places. There was also evidence of disgruntled customers in the form of apparent bullet holes in the ceiling and walls behind the bar. The bar itself had not originally been intended for this purpose, it was made up of the counter from the house's kitchen and some makeshift counters branching off of it. The tavern was empty except for one patron and the bar tender.

Behind the bar stood a bald man of about forty-five. The other person at the bar was a quite obviously a woman but the pistol on her hip and the shotgun on her back were evidence to the fact the she could hold her own in a fight. When Bruce, Chris and Butch walked in the man looked up from his dish work and called them over. "Hey, welcome to the Scottsvale Tavern, I'm John." As they approached the bar the woman turned around to look at the new arrivals. This allowed Bruce to do the same. The woman had blond hair that she kept short enough that it didn't get in her face. She was wearing a very well fitting suit of leather armor and on the bar next to her was what Bruce assumed to be her cowboy hat.

The three men sat down at the bar, "What can I getcha" John said walking over to them. Butch ordered a whiskey and Chris a beer. Bruce asked where john kept his radio. Once he was told Bruce got up and walked into the back room to contact the Council. A second later John returned with their drinks. Both Chris and Butch sipped their drinks in silence just glad to be able to relax and get a drink. Every once and a while they would glance over at the woman at the bar who had returned to her drink.

Bruce returned from the back room and sat back down at the bar. "How much for a room."

"It's twenty caps a night and that includes breakfast in the morning." John said without looking up from where he was counting his money.

Bruce paid the man the twenty caps for a night's stay. After Chris and Butch finished their drinks the men walked back out into the sunlight. Bruce looked around for a second until he spotted a a shop with a sign that read 'Loch's Guns', having spotted the store he began to walk down the street to the building. The shop door had a bell that jingled when Bruce opened the door and they walked inside. The shop was a lit by a collection of work lights that hummed in tune with a generator somewhere in the shop. The jingling of the bell alerted the owner of the shop that he had customers. The owner of the shop came out of the back room and welcomed the group to the shop.

"Welcome to Loch's Guns I'm Flint the owner, now what can I do for you gentlemen today." He said walking up to the counter.

"Hello, we need to restock up on ammo, we wasted a lot of it trying to kill a Yaou Guai." Chris said as he approached the counter.

"Well lucky for you I've got quite a bit what type are you looking for." Flint asked

"We need about four magazines of 5.56 rounds for our rifles and as many .44 rounds as you have." Chris said

"Oh and do you have any flamer fuel?" Bruce added

"Here's the 5.56 ammo and give me a second to find the flamer fuel." Flint put the ammo on the counter and then disappeared into the back.

"Why the hell do you need flamer fuel cause I dam well know that you didn't bring a flamer." Chris asked turning to face Bruce.

"I need it for my Shishkebab." Bruce said drawing his Shishkebab.

" That's a machete."

"Thats what I thought too." Butch said from the front of the store.

"Watch this." Bruce said. Then he clicked the handle of the machete and the blade went up in a blaze. He let it burn for a few seconds then put it out.

"Holy Shit that's awesome." Chris said, as Bruce re-sheathed his blade. That was the moment that Flint came back out of the back with a tank of flamer fuel.

"This is all I could find."

"Thats fine thank you." Bruce said. Bruce payed the man and they left the store. They walked back out into the street and looked around.

"I vote we eat." Butch said. As they began to walk again.

"Ok, let's head back to the tavern and get something." Bruce said. They walked back to the tavern and went back inside. They ordered their food and sat down to eat it. Butch noticed that the woman who had been at the bar was now gone. After asking the John where she had gone he discovered that she had gone to pick up some hings for her trip tomorrow. This peaked Bruce's interest and after some asking he found out that Alice, as she was called, was the trader that they were supposed to travel to Brentwood with the next day.

When Alice returned the three men introduced themselves and told her about their travel plans. "Well listen, I don't need your help. I've made this trip plenty of times by my self. I'm only doing it because I owe Debbie a favor. So stay out of my way and we'll get along just fine. By the way we leave an hour before dawn tomorrow so I suggest you go get your beauty rest." She said as she got up and walked to her room. The men agreed to take her advice and after they finished their drinks they also went to bed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

When I was writing the other chapters I realized something wasn't going to add up so I had to change it. I should have chapter 4 up by next weekend. As always comments and suggestions are welcome.