The man had been 'following' their trail, well technically he'd been working on deductive reasoning, a system which could be frightfully inaccurate at times and it was likely that If he had gone the wrong way there wouldn't be enough time to catch up to them before they got lost in the crowds. It was also probable that if he allowed the deaths of two Legionnaires and the escape of a slave to go unpunished as well as returning without an emancipator he'd probably be lucky to keep his head on his shoulders.
Nonetheless he'd spotted a tiny settlement up ahead, if his map was accurate then it was the "188 Trading post." If he was lucky the proprietor would have information on them as they would most likely stand out from a crowd, couples were rare in this day and age, even rarer to be travelling this way. If he was very lucky with the slave's bad legs and no reason to rush they might've stopped to take a break there and he could be back to the Fort by Wednesday with their heads held high.
"Y-Yorick m-my legs hurt, can w-we rest?" April asked sounding like a bored child as she pointed to the collection of shacks and merchant stalls. "Yeah, we've got the time." He replied, secretly thankful that he could take a rest, he wasn't getting any younger and nothing seemed to be getting any lighter. More than anything he was happy that she was confident enough to ask for things instead of just suffering in silence which no doubt sounded silly to most people, of course most people hadn't spent much of their lives as slaves.
They walked into the small and poorly built trading station "Sam, 'Chelle mind if we catch a break." He said to the entrepreneurial traders. "Sure." Michelle said almost perkily. Samuel merely nodded.
They sat at an old bench and chatted quietly, feeling the need to be quiet that often comes from being in a quiet place. "S-so you know those p-people." April asked as she looked up at Sam's dour visage, the stress of running this little trading outpost was evidently getting to him. "Yeah, their nice people, little odd but still nice." He said as he sipped at his purified water, April seemed to have guzzled hers already, in her now familiar style of consuming what was handed to her as soon as possible, most likely an instinct born from greedy (or rather desperate) slaves back at her camp.
"Wh-what's it like?" April asked with a childlike innocence. "What's what like." He said as he bought out another ration bar and broke it in half, though secretly gave much more to April, figuring that she seemed to need, or at least want it more. "T-travelling w-wherever you w-want." She said between mouthfuls. "It's nice being so free, but it get's pretty lonely." he said with naked honesty. He had no intention of dumping his problems on the little lost woman but he still wanted to let it out, if only a little. On the outside he was rarely actually alone but without friends or family he was always lonely. Until now.
These last few days he felt like he was home again, having someone he could trust with his more private details, that feeling of admiration he used to see in the scribes under him, he sometimes wondered how the order did without his guidance but he was sure they would be up to the task if he was a worthwhile mentor. But most of all there was just something about her that seemed to make him feel a little bit less like a temporary wanderer in these wastes and more like he was…home.
"W-well at least y-you've got m-me." she said cheerily as she grasped his off hand. Normally he recoiled at being touched without permission but after a day and a half of constant contact he wasn't all that bothered, though the…brazenness of April's action was still quite a shock. He was the equivalent of a professor, well read, pushing fifty and for the moment completely speechless. "I…" he went to mumble ineloquently before a welcome distraction appeared from out of the blue.
"Yori?" a young woman in a set of old and tattered robes sat herself down rather intrusively next to April who squirmed away and nervously withdrew her hand. "Journeyman Santangelo?" He replied authoritatively half in annoyed confusion and half in pleasant surprise. "Shh." she said ,mischievously. "You don't want an angry mob coming after us." she said with slight smirk, though the look in her eyes intimated that she was quite serious. "And who's this?" She said playfully towards April, who seemed to quiver slightly at the stranger's attention.
"April, I'd like you to meet Veronica Santangelo." Somewhat less nervous for knowing Yorick liked her she beamed a wide smile at Veronica "Are you sure she talks, Yorick." Veronica asked with a wry smirk at the corner of her lips. "Yes, She's just a little bit nervous around strangers." he said calmingly.
"By the way what are you doing here, thought you preferred scavenging around the south?" Veronica said as she leaned forwards to rest her elbows on the old table. "I'm heading up to Outer Vegas, see if there's something the Followers can do for April's legs." "They look fine from here." Veronica said with a flirtatious grin.
"M-my le-legs d-don't work s-so well." April spluttered out, even more tongue tied than usual. To her she was stuck between a strange woman, a concrete fence and a table, and like any trapped animal she would either fight or panic, unfortunately the Legion had more or less bred 'fight' out of her vocabulary.
"So, how's the…" Yorick quickly checked for eavesdroppers. "Brotherhood without me." he continued though he whispered 'Brotherhood' just to be safe. "We don't have a head scribe, what do you think?" she replied sardonically. "They didn't come looking for me or Garibaldi so I'm guessing either very well or very dead." Yorick said acrimoniously as he bitterly remembered his part in the Brotherhood's sad saga of defeat.
He had always resented the fact that Mc Namara hadn't bothered to make an exception to that paranoid lockdown for the Head Scribe yet he was prepared to send and receive scouting parties, he always suspected it had to do with his involvement in getting that fool Elijah a position of leadership.
Around a decade ago the Brotherhood had decided that it would set out to take the Hoover Damn from some 'savages' and as such formed a chapter with that as it's central aim besides securing that territory for the Brotherhood. Every chapter had an Elder as the codex dictated, the Elder Council had decided to place Head Knight Mc Namara in command.
Yorick was not so big on the idea, their mission was scientific and therefore should be lead by a scientist. For science. Knowing that even as one of the 'youngest' Head Scribes in the order he wasn't experienced enough to lead, nor was he that interested in doing so. He conspired with a long time ally, former mentor and fellow visionary a Head Scribe known as Elijah who seemed to feel the same way with years in the position under his belt and a knew way of doing things.
They gathered support, first in the Scribes who had wanted more say for nearly a century and then gathered a fair number of followers in the other divisions before they presented the petition along with an impassioned speech to the Council, fortunately Yorick's family had been of high standing for years and the help of Elder Velasco did not go unnoticed. In the end it worked and Elijah accepted, there was uproar among the knights and the paladins but ultimately amounted to nothing. they were unaccustomed to getting their way with legislature as opposed to lasers.
Under Elijah's reigns Yorick was in essence the second in command to the entire 'Mojave Chapter' this left him with a wide amount of sway to conduct his own research and for a time things seemed to be going well for him. If the endeavour proved successful it was highly likely there would be more Scribe Elders in the future, leading to a greater voice for them in the Brotherhood's politics. From there he hoped that new voice would allow the scribes to finally make real scientific progress so that instead of recapturing old-world technology they could recapture the spirit of innovation that made such feats of engineering possible.
And then Helios, Elijah had became fascinated with the ancient wonder, as befit's a man in his position. Unbefitting of someone in his position he decided, irrationally to attempt to hold the area in the face of the NCR, a large and organised army beyond a single chapter's ability to resist.
Whilst that trouble brewed Elijah had sent his right hand, namely Yorick to scout out some food synthesisers he'd heard mention of in an old invoice memo in the Helios mainframe believing that they would be invaluable in the event of a siege and in the long term it could provide leverage to rally the natives in their defence with the promise of free food or as a bargaining chip with the NCR.
As luck would have it the NCR attacked at that exact time, without the first and second in command the Brotherhood's lines fell into disarray and the NCR overwhelmed their defences. and from there the rest was history. That madman Elijah got half of a chapter killed, the leadership of the scribes was lost and Mc Namara assumed command of the operation secluding the chapter in some hidden safe house that only a select few were permitted to enter or leave. Even worse this unprecedented failure in leadership would be held over the heads of the scribes for years to come and would most likely keep another of their ilk from becoming an Elder for decades.
Yorick had, in his hubris believed he could usher a new golden age in the dwindling days of the order and instead lead (if inadvertently) to the death of numerous honoured brothers and sisters of the order along with exacerbating the conflict between the Brotherhood and the Republic.
Thus was Yorick's greatest shame, for all he'd studied of the old world's science and it's literature he had understood little of it's history and as such was doomed to blindly repeat it in small scale. Ah, what a piece of work is man, the only species on earth smart enough and powerful enough to do something stupid twice.
"Bit of both I s'pose." Veronica replied with a smirk. "Lovely, and I suppose Mc Nammara's got you picking over old store houses for food again." He replied with a hint of sarcasm. "Nope, actually I'm kickin' around with this guy from back west." Yorick simply raised an eyebrow saying all he needed to say, he remembered quite well the sultry look she'd shoot every other woman in the chapter. "No." Veronica said in a stretched out knowing manner. "he's this…Courier called Harrow, I think he's from a vault somewhere, you'd like him, reall smartass you know." "I sn't he the guy who was shot in the head?" Yorick smirked derisively.
Meanwhile April's wide eyes nervously bounced from speaker to speaker with a look of discomfort plastered on her face.
The man had finally caught up to them, from across the way his sharp eyes saw her, he was unfamiliar with the old man but he had been given the slave's picture and even from here he was quite sure it was her, The woman next to him was Veronica Santangelo, she was often seen around this trading post purchasing enough supplies for a large and unknown group, she was also often seen working with a known allie of the NCR the 188 would be a good place to meet a fellow emancipator perhaps she was part of an 'underground railroad' of sorts. The fact that she was seen working with a known agent of the Republic suggested that they were involved as well, possibly there just to provide relief or perhaps sponsoring it below the board to spread anarchy in the Legion lands.
Either way he knew what he needed to do as he loaded a single hollow point bullet into his weapon.
"So Yori why didn't you tell me you had a girlfreind?" Veronica smirked as she looked at april, ounce again sqeuking in fear. She turned her head to face Yorick as he began to speak. "We…I… She's." Yorick mannered to stammer out. "Oh come now Yor-" A shot rang out from the distance and struck Veronica in the side of the head. April screamed as loudly as she'd ever heard.
She toppled over and fell with an unusual grace to the floor. "Get down." Yorick shouted over the screams of the other traders and travellers. They both ducked under the concrete fence hoping it would provide adequate cover. There was a small trickle of blood that ran over Veronica's face and she didn't seem to move.
Yorick took a moment to register her passing, she was his only connection to his old home, he'd known her all his life and for all their squabbles over the years she was still his friend and he was proud to call her a sister of the steel. Now she was gone.
"April stay down, I'm going to see what I can do for these people." He said as he crawled away in a trail of expletives a few tears left puddles on the dusty ground.
Yorick remembered there were a few weapons merchents below the bridge along with some caravan guards, hopefully the pressing situation would force them to aid the trading post.
He ran quickly along what little cover he could find before he scrabbled down the cliff to the gun runners who were already locking away their things and setting up a defensive perimiter.
"Hold still Raider." a guard said with his riffle pointed squarely at Yorick's chest.
The Trading post was in dissarray, he'd caught sight of a large number of traders preparing to move their Brahmin and the man talking to Santangelo had scurried down the side. It was possible he had abandoned the slave, in which case he was a coward and forcing him to surrender would be easy enough.
However it was possible he had some form of stock pile there or worse that he was going to try and rally the mercenaries, without backup time was of the essence to capture or kill him before he can mount a defence.
"Raise your hands, raider." the guard said slowly but aggressively. "Im not a Raider!" Yorick shouted back his voice hoarse and still rife with sorrow. "I said rais your ha-" the guard was cut short by a single, well placed headshot.
A man in a black suit stepped out of the shaddows the crunch of his ounce upon a time designer shoes clacking on the pavement had been masked by the ongoing screams of The Forecaster.