The Lone Wanderer walked along the road, following Bishop. Every few minutes, Bishop would duck through a side street or clamber through a building, narrowly avoiding a patrol of raiders. The Lone Wanderer stopped, hearing an explosion down the street.
"We should probably try to avoid…" Bishop started, but the Lone Wanderer headed towards the noise.
"Yeah, cool. Ignore your guide. That won't kill you." Bishop shouted after him.
The Lone Wanderer jogged along, and came across several bodies. All of them were wearing Chinese Stealth Suits, which the Lone Wanderer stole and gave to the Paladin to carry. The Lone Wanderer stopped, noticing one of the bodies was wearing a duster, like the Courier. He turned over the body, and checked it for a pulse. The Courier was still alive.
"We need to get him to shelter. Where's the nearest safe place?"
"You're in New York City. No where's safe. Still, there's a nearby building that's safe enough. We'll head there. Pick up the Cowboy and follow me."
OOO
The Courier woke up with a start. He was naked in a bed with dirty sheets, surrounded by empty bottles of Nuka-cola and bullet shells. It was too much of a shithole to be heaven, so was still alive. That was good. His arms were tied to the bedposts by a rope, but he noticed a reflectron at the end of the bed. He reached for it, and after several attempts managed to pick it up with his toes. He twisted around and managed to look at himself. There wasn't any major damage, so he must have been knocked out by the shockwave from the dynamite. The Courier smiled, and smashed the reflectron against a wall. Glass shattered, and a shard flew out and onto his wrist. He twisted his hand and grabbed it. He began cutting through the bonds, before a familiar figure walked in, wearing a 101 Jumpsuit.
"Water-Giver. Were the assassins your guys?"
"No. I examined them, they're Chinese."
"Huh. You found me when I was knocked out?"
"Yeah."
"So, am I a prisoner, or are you going to cut me lose?"
"I can't let you go."
"Are you serious? I let you go when I captured you."
"You're simply an unknown factor. If I let you go, you'll attack the World Eater, and either die and scare them off to somewhere safer they'll fire from, or capture it and end up doing something stupid. Anyway, you threw a wrench in their plans. I found a launch key on one of the Chinamen. He must have been one of their commanders. The rest of the Communists will need to forge a new launch key, which'll so I guess I owe you one."
"Huh. Who's the kid?" The Courier asked, noticing that there was a teenager leaning against the doorframe.
"He's our escort." The Lone Wanderer said, turning to look at Bishop.
"So the Cowboy's still alive. Are we just letting him go or is he staying with us?"
The Courier opened his mouth to speak, but the Lone Wanderer stopped him.
"He's our prisoner now."
"Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Fine. We need to go. There's a group of exiles coming."
OOO
The Lone Wanderer walked along the street, hands tied, next to the Lone Wanderer.
"So, are we just going to walk in silence? Yes? No?"
The Courier stopped, and Veronica shoved him forward.
"Keep walking."
"Are you still pissed about the whole Hidden Valley thing? Come on. I gave you a dress! A very nice dress. It was owned by a famous singer from before the Great War. All our adventures meant nothing?"
Veronica sneered, and pushed him forward.
"Keep moving." She said.
"They deserved to die." The Courier muttered.
"You're a prisoner of war. Stop talking." The Lone Wanderer said.
"I'm not going to be in chains for long, Water-Giver. I'm a survivor. Do you know what the three best things I've ever eaten were? The best was the steak and scotch I had after capturing Hoover Dam, because victory tastes good. The second was the first Fancy Lad Snack Cake I ever had, when I was six, because I didn't get nice food handed to me, like you. But the third best was the weird one. It was a mole rat's eyes. See, I was guarding a water truck that got hit by a raider's missile. It overturned, and I got stuck under it. I had water from the truck, but I needed food. I managed to stretch out and get a dead raider's pack, and it was filled with Salisbury Steak. I survived for several weeks, but then I started to die off a much slower death. Malnutrition. I was dying of goddamn malnutrition. Then, a mole rat crawled under the truck to try eat me, and I managed to beat it to death. I don't know whether it was instinct, but I had the desire to eat its eyes. I gouged out the mole rat's eyes and ate them. There are a lot of vitamins and minerals in eyes, so it was the best thing I ever ate. A Merchant caravan rescued me a few days later."
"Why do I need to hear this?"
"Because I'm a survivor, and you should know that this isn't going to be the end of my days, a prisoner to some goddamn Washington myth."
The Lone Wanderer noticed a muzzle flash from the top or a building, and a second later he heard the gunshot. The bullet thudded into the tarmac next to him, and he knocked the Courier to the floor and dropped.
"Shit! Sniper, stay down!"
The team moved into cover as another shot was fired. The Courier was left trying to take cover behind a half-destroyed wall, next to Bishop.
"Hey Kid! Kid!" He yelled over the sound of bullets. "Who the hell's firing on us?"
"None of us are dead, so it's not Vault 18. It's probably someone trying to score a few sniper kills to see if they can join Vault 18."
"How much is the Water-Giver paying you?"
"The Water-Giver? You mean the 101 Guy?"
"Yeah. Just humour me here."
"Half a thousand caps."
"Five hundred? I come from New Vegas, where my boss could drop ten times that and not bother to pick them up. Tell you what, if you help me out, I'll give you ten times that."
"I wish I could, but I already took the caps and I'm too honest a person."
"Seriously? A teenager who's honest? Goddamn it, what are the odds?!" The Courier said, shaking his head.
A bullet whizzed past and hit a paladin in the ankle and he collapsed. Bishop ran out to help him, and the Courier took his opportunity. He waited until the sniper fired, and charged forward out of cover. He managed to turn around a corner and avoid another bullet, but his foot caught on a wire sticking out from some rubble and collapsed into a crater. He grabbed the wire and started to cut through his bonds to cut through and the bonds fell off. The Courier smiled, and climbed through the building the sniper was firing from. He started walking up the stairs. After a minute of climbing, he came out to find a sniper leaning out the window. The Courier crouched and moved forward slowly. He leaped forward and grabbed a Trench Knife from the sniper's sheath and stabbed him through the back, twisting and pulling sharply. The knife ripped out a chunk of flesh and stabbed the sniper through the back of the head. He grabbed the sniper rifle and aimed down his rifle. He tipped the brim of his cowboy hat and adjusted his sunglasses.
"Water-Giver! Drop the supplies you took off me and my weapons or I take you down!"
The Lone Wanderer looked up at him in disbelief.
"You're not a good shot, Courier."
The Courier fired, and a bullet went through his ankle. The Lone Wanderer yelled, and fell over.
"No, I'm not the best shot, but how lucky are you?"
The Lone Wanderer tossed a backpack forward, as well as Old Glory and the Courier's revolver, before turning to leave.
"Now throw your packs forward and get the hell out of here. Do you have Vera's dress in your bag, Santangelo? Because I want it back."
The Lone Wanderer did as he was told, and the Courier smiled. The Courier paused, noticing several maps sprawled across a desk next to the dead sniper with two silver keys on top. He read the title, and thought for about a second. This would be an advantage. He noticed a radio next to the sniper's corpse and grabbed it. He went through the radio channels until he found his companion's radio frequency.
"Courier, you deal with the assassins yet?" Boone asked.
"Yeah. I need you to come back to where you left me. I'll meet your there. Take your time, I have some stuff to do first."
"Like what"
"It doesn't matter."
The Courier smiled and saw noticed the Mister Gutsy's combat initiator as it turned away. He smiled and pulled the trigger.
"This is going to be fun."
OOO
"How the hell did he escape?" The Lone Wanderer said angrily, injecting a stimpaks into his ankle. He was sitting with his squad next to a large Yao Guai and a merchant named Boris that Bishop knew. He watched as the sun went down.
"Everything will die!" Sergeant RL-3 said from his position on the floor.
Sergeant RL-3 was lying on the floor with his arms tied up with ropes, weighted down with scrap metal in plastic bags. The Lone Wanderer kicked it, and turned to the Paladin.
"How long will it take to fix his Combat Initiator?"
"About an hour more."
"So…." Boris said in a thick Russian Accent. "Is the Brotherhood planning to set up in New York?"
"No."
"That is good. A lot of my income comes from recharging energy cells for survivors. I need the income."
"So, it's just you out here? A lone merchant without any protection?"
"Pavel is all the protection I need. I brought him from Washington!" Boris said, patting the bear's snout. "So where are you going?"
"We need to head back to the Metro. We'll meet up with the Lone Wanderer's friends, and resupply. I'll take as many men as he could spare to the coast, via Vertibird. Since I know where we need to go, we won't have to waste any fuel scouting the area, which is what they wanted in the first place."
"Can we just stop talking?" The Lone Wanderer said.
The Lone Wanderer lay down, and leaned his head against his hands and within a minute he fell asleep.
OOO
The Courier waited two hours after the Lone Wanderer fell asleep until the rest of them were fast asleep. Then, he crawled slowly towards the camp. After an hour of slowly crawling towards to camp to avoid waking the Lone Wanderer, he arrived. The Courier looked at all his enemies. He didn't want to kill the Lone Wanderer, but he needed to stop the Brotherhood from capturing the World Eater. That wasn't something that would be good for America. He drew a piece of C4 from his inside duster pocket and rigged the deactivated Mister Gutsy to explode when he pressed his detonator. He drew his straight razor, Figaro, and kneeled over a Paladin, and decided to kill him. The Brotherhood needed to be stopped, and he was the most expendable of their group. He grabbed his mouth and quickly slashed his throat. The Paladin struggled for a minute, and went over to eliminate Cross. He didn't want to kill Santangelo or the Lone Wanderer, because they had spent a lot of time together, and he didn't know enough about the ghoul. He kneeled over Cross, and placed his blade against her neck. Cross' eyes opened and grabbed his hands, and threw him off her. The Courier swore, and flinched as he heard a growl. He turned and saw a large Yao Guai. He slashed his knife and rolled to avoid a slash of its arm. He fired a few shots into the Yao Guai's arm and it roared. Then, the Courier turned and started running.
OOO
The Lone Wanderer woke to the sound of a roar. He drew his pistol and saw a large bear swipe it's paw at Charon. Charon ducked, and grabbed his combat knife and slashed at Pavlov. He stabbed it through the neck and stabbed upwards and swirled it, killing it.
"We have a loss." Cross said. "Fletcher had his throat slit. It was the Courier, he nearly got me as well."
"Goddamn!" The Lone Wanderer yelled.
He looked around. Sergeant RL-3 wasn't damaged any more than he had been, and the only loss had been the Paladin. Bishop was consoling a distressed Boris who stood over his dead pet, and the rest of his men had formed a circle around them to make sure the Courier didn't approach.
"Let's get moving. We can't spend any more time in the open. We'll get back to camp, capture the World Eater, and then we can deal with the Courier."
OOO
The Courier had done his job. The Lone Wanderer's group were scrambling back to his camp, away from the area. He laid out the maps he had found, looking at the location. It should be just in the building across from him. He loaded his pistol and started walking. He walked into the large office, and found the reception. He took a large key ring full of keys in case there were any locked doors, and made his way down to the basement. He unlocked the hidden panel in the floor, and went down to the basement. He smiled as he found what he was looking for, and quickly radioed his squad the location. This was going to be easier than he had expected. Thank God for Strausser and Wolstencroft.
