Hundreds of Miles from the NCR...
Calamity and Henry scuttle around the Courier like she's a cadaver waiting to be opened. Henry secures more fat, overfilled sacks to the side of her bed with tubes leading into her arm; Calamity tightens the mask to the woman's face and rereads the canister detailing how much gas is left; and the two check over the woman's body with careful eyes. Eventually, they begin doing the last they can for their patient. Ointments are rubbed into her skin, stitches are checked, and a few shots to the arm are given. Eventually, Calamity leaves the 'room' to get the Courier's items. Cass and I will be given a detailed list of what to do to the Courier and when along with a bag of supplies needed to treat her. Meanwhile, Henry turns to us and reminds us for the thousandth time what to do.
"Take her straight to the Followers. Check the gas to make sure she stays in her coma no matter what, don't let any fluids pop out of her arm, and try not to knock her head around too much. Now, you both are sure you can safely transport her?". Cass and I both nod without looking at one another. Jacob and a few of his mutants built his old friend a special sling attached to a brahmin to safely transport the Courier. Cass was reluctant to tell the mutant who exactly the mystery patient was, but I managed to convince her after a night of drinking. Calamity returns with a tremendous sack in her hands.
The ghoul passes it to Cass, then begins wheeling the Courier out of the 'room' with Henry's help. Mutants carefully scrutinize our every move as we exit the quaint cabin-like hotel and go outside. Nearby, Lily is tending to her herd of bighorners. My chest aches that we can't tell the woman her 'granddaughter' is right behind her, but Cass convinced me the kindest thing to do would be to leave Lily in the dark. Jacob hasn't even told Lily that the Courier is a wanted criminal, and the somewhat insane mutant is appeased with 'messages' from her 'granddaughter'. Although, if all of this blows over I definitely want the Courier to visit Lily. The two were close.
Close enough the Courier stop bringing the mutant along on her missions because she feared for Lily's safety. Henry and Calamity roll their unknown patient to where Jacob is already waiting for us. Calamity and Henry quickly detach the Courier's tubes and gas from her bed before transferring them onto the brahmin. The beast has a hospital bed tied to his back with poles and ropes attaching it. Jacob has the joints of the bed and ropes tied and screwed in such a way that the bed won't jerk and bump with the brahmin's steps, but will instead remain in roughly the same position while the beast below it walks.
Cass ties her bag to the brahmin, and all of the 'supplies' are officially moved over onto the animal. Finally, Jacob gently and carefully moves the Courier onto the bed. Cass is quick to tie her in and deem the contraption operational. Jacob mumbles his farewells and leaves to take care of his community. Calamity and Henry do one more check of the patient, then nod and return from whence they came. Cass pats the Courier on the head and mumbles something I can barely hear.
"Good luck.". My companion takes the brahmin's reins and begins leading the animal out of Jacobstown. I ready my fists and walk alongside the animal. The contraption, thankfully, works as it was intended to. The bed stays relatively stationary while the beast below it jumbles and trots along. While we walk, I take out my map and look for a good place to stop. The Courier's hooked up for enough to survive only a day or two's journey. Thankfully, it's completely reasonable to reach New Vegas by then.
We'll just have to follow the northern road into the northern districts of the city. The Follower's fort is in that general area of the city, so we should be completely fine. We'll even have time to make camp for the night if it comes to that. Cass deeply wants to be able to make the entire trip in one day, but I'm doubting that is going to be a possibility. Besides, stopping will do all of us some good. The brahmin will get to rest while Cass and I can get some food.
Cass leads the brahmin down the rugged road down into the valley. The rising walls on either side of us are covered in vegetation, and the sun to the north of us is shining directly into our eyes. I wipe some beading sweat from my brow as I examine the flat, barren land ahead of us. It'll take us hours to reach the edge of the valley, and even longer to cross the great expanse. The only highlight is New Vegas standing like a beacon far, far away from us. I, personally, never cared too much for the city due to the fact I was always stuck in the Lucky 38, but it'll be good to be in the major city again. We'll have to avoid the NCR agents like the plague, though.
I spare a glance at my friend and frown. Actually, we might not have to. The Courier currently looks nothing like what she once did. She's improved; she just still doesn't look like her old self. Her skin is still a sickly yellow; scars still litter her hide from multiple surgeries; and she doesn't have an ounce of hair on her body. A sudden grr from the Courier jerks my head towards her. The coyote shoved down her shirt pokes his head out, growls at me, and disappears again. The animal is doing about as well as his master. Some tufts of fur are back and his eyes aren't quite as yellow, but they both look about as ugly as sin and like they're going to kneel over at any second now.
I pat the side of the faithful brahmin and allow myself to go 'into my mind'. It's a state I can manage to get into where my body generally goes on autopilot and I'm free to think. I imagine everyone has something similar, but I've never asked. I'm not going to trip or walk into a wall or anything; I'm just looking without really seeing and hearing without really listening. That might not make any sense; however, it works for me. I go into my special autopilot space and begin thinking about the Courier. I want her to live. My holy quest for her death might have started out well, but now I don't give a shit about what she's done or the promise of saving my family.
My family can fend for themselves like they always have, and the fact I abandoned them probably helps the chase away the guilt. The Courier killed a lot of people. Like I'm almost certain the population of the entire Mojave has dropped an entire percent or two. Still, I find myself caring less and less about what she's done. Maybe I'm using her radiated madness as an explanation (or excuse). Maybe there's a deeper part of me that cares more about pleasing myself than getting justice for people I don't know and care about. I'm sure someone trained in psychology (or is it sociology) could tell me why I don't care. Thankfully, I'm not a psychologist and can just continue letting my mind wander. Although, I can already tell my remembrance will take me somewhere different than normal. Now I'm adding Cass to the mix.
I recall the scene I'm trying to think about the moment my mind stops on it. The only time I saw Cass before we went on this gigantic adventure together. The Courier had brought me to the Mojave Outpost to report her success in some mission to whoever ran the place. Honestly, I didn't listen nor care too much about why we were there. My friend even left Rex and I outside the building as she went inside to finish up whatever job she did. I vaguely think it was about killing some giant ants or something. Apparently, the Courier did it months ago and just never wanted to go back and report what she did.
While my friend gets her reward, I pet Rex and try to position myself to where the sun isn't in my eyes. It only takes the woman a few minutes to return. She smiles at me while struggling to put a sack of caps in her pocket. Rex walks away from my petting and stands beside his master. I follow his lead and take a few steps over to 'join' the Courier. Finally, she gets her money put away. Her goofy smile returns as she looks at me. Her eyes still don't quite meet mine (focusing a few inches above my eyes), but I'll take whatever I can get at this point. My friend suddenly cranes her neck back to look at the sun, then returns her gaze to my face. Her smile remains as she asks me a question in her rough, deep voice.
"You think we have enough time to get to Novac?". I look up to the sun. I study it for a minute before telling her what I think.
"I think we only have a few hours of sunlight left.". The woman doesn't say anything. She just continues looking at me with a smile. I inwardly groan.
"No.". Her smile fades and she looks at the ground. A rock by her shoe is lightly kicked in her 'uncontrollable rage'. I don't touch the woman unannounced, but I do whistle to get her attention. The woman snaps her head up and her smile returns. My dorky companion absolutely adores when I whistle, and now she's prepared to listen to whatever I have to say.
"How about we go to the bar and get a drink?". The woman nods and begins slowly walking away. As I trail behind her, I take in her appearance to make sure she's taking care of herself. She's chopped her hair short after I made her bathe in Novac a while ago, but now there's a decent amount of dirt in it; her combat boots are encased in hardened mud; her combat armor is covered in dust with bloody hands covering her torso area of her armor; and her guns have mud and blood on them. Even the chain of the cross dangling around her neck is soaked red and brown. I make a mental note to get her into a bath soon. Suddenly, the Courier stops in her tracks and I nearly ram into her back.
I barely avoid it by hopping awkwardly to the side. Rex, however, sticks his head out from between the Courier's knees and simply stands there. My friend is as still as a statue with her constricted eyes locked onto something. I quickly follow her gaze to whatever she's looking at. Cass (at the time I didn't know that was her name though) is leaning against the Mojave Outpost's bar with her hat pulled down over her face and cigarette smoke billowing out from beneath. The Courier's breathing is rapid and shallow. I turn my attention back to her. She's shaking and her mouth is moving up and down without any words coming out.
I say her name. She begins shaking her head and tries walking backwards. Rex quickly hops away and allows his master to walk. The Courier's legs jerk and her ankles are shuddering under her weight. Her knees threaten to buckle and her hips swivel in a way I'd imagine an alien trying to walk in a human body would. I say her name again and try to get her to talk.
"What's wrong?". She shakes her head and her mouth tightens into a fine line. Fuck. The last time she did that with her lips she didn't talk for a week. The woman stops walking and I try to calm her.
"That's your friend, isn't it? Wouldn't you like to go spend some time with her?". She shudders and shakes her head hard enough I'm sure it hurts. I reach out to try to stop her. She runs.
Note: Next update might be a little late. Sorry.