Chapter Seventy-Four

THREE YEARS LATER*

The shotgun must have made noise. But Evelyn couldn't hear it. Not over the roar of the battle thundering around her. She flipped to her side in time to see Vincent grab her by the back of her armor. He unceremoniously plopped her on her feet, and continue firing into the wave of ghouls that was decimating their right flank. They only had to hold on a little bit longer and-

The noise in the air was unmistakable. Or maybe she couldn't even hear it, she could feel the rumble under her feet. Dozens of treads, crunching against the gravel and dirt of the wasteland rubble. The robots had arrived. The Lone Wanderer heaved a sigh of relief as her autonomous troops started to fire on the enemy troops. She screamed for her flesh and blood soldiers to fall back as the mechanized slaughter began. She reached for Vincent, but realized she had lost him in the chaos. She scanned the area but didn't see him.

The Ghouls scrambled to regroup as they were cut down methodically. Arcade Gannon wasn't far from them, maybe a mile out, controlling the robots with practiced precision. He and a team he had assembled in Freeside had been able to use all the information gleaned from Amaya's extensive archive to improve the existing robots, as well as locate more that had been in storage. He had sworn that the robots were what would win this war, and as she watched the massacre before her with glazed eyes, she knew he had been right.

Nothing had prepared her for what came next, however. They began to surrender. Empty hands thrown to the sky, in a universally understood plea for mercy. The battle that had raged for three days, was suddenly over and an eerie quiet had oozed its way across the Mojave along with the blood of the dead, soaking into the desert dirty. The remaining leaders were rounded up quickly. But she didn't know what to do past that.

Boone hadn't reported in from the south side yet, Evelyn didn't know who was even alive. They had run out of time. Frantically trying to complete the repairs and programming on the robots when the first rockets lit up the sky right over the strip. The ghouls had wanted her to know exactly when they arrived.

They called themselves The Enlightened Nation, the next step in humanity's evolution. Better adapted to life in an irradiated wasteland, they didn't rely on pre war medications to safely traverse the world they called home, they could safely drink the water and eat the food that the wasteland provided. And they were here to eliminate the remaining remnants of the last evolutionary phase. There would be no more bigotry, no more segregation. There would only be ghouls. They invited any ghouls living in New Vegas the opportunity to join them before they destroyed our monument to a failed smoothskin society.

Evelyn couldn't help but feel a little proud when no one took them up on their offer. She had spent long hours over many months building up New Vegas and Freeside. These were her people, skin or not. It had only been days before, but it felt like years, as she waited to hear what this last battle had cost New Vegas, and what it had cost her personally.

She sought out Arcade, knowing Boone would seek him out as soon as he could, and she knew anyone seeking Boone would go to him too. When she got to H Tools, she walked inside and was enveloped in long, strong arms immediately.

"Sure good to see you baby doll." The King gave her his patent half smile and she squeezed him tight.

"Harland, hey!" She exhaled, relief flooding her briefly. "Just us two?"

He frowned briefly. "I was hopin' Boone would be with you?"

She sighed. "I don't know where anyone is. Vincent and I got separated. Cass was out of touch all of this morning. Marcus hasn't checked in for three days."

The normally charming and smooth talking man looked grim. "I haven't heard from Charon in two days and Raul was in a bad spot last I heard." He sounded hesitant, like he knew something else.

"What happened?" She asked him quietly.

"Eric Matthews, I- I saw him go down. I didn't see him get back up and I didn't see the med bots bring him out." Harland admitted reluctantly. She felt a tightness in her chest as she nodded.

"I guess we just have to wait."