Chapter Two: Life Elevated

August 10, 2289 Joseph, Utah

When the Brotherhood entered Joseph territory, it marked the first time that Anita had ever been outside of New California Republic territory. According to Delta squad, Joseph territory was under the control of a Pre-war religious group called the Mormons. According to the citizens that would talk to Delta Squad, Joseph territory was led by a man named Joseph and had been for over one hundred years. It was unclear if Joseph was the title given to the leader or if in fact it was led by the same man for a century.

It was nearing the evening hours and the vertibirds had gained permission to land in the outskirts of Joseph. Anita was sure that the Brotherhood must have been a spectacle for the locals—she was grateful that they weren't hostile. Her vertibird had landed near one of the big horner ranches, which surrounded the outskirts of the town proper. Buildings from before the war dotted the landscape, she could tell that they had been refurbished over time. Both parents and children were toiling away in the fields as chickens scratched at the stubbly grass in a search for grubs.

"Is there anything we should know about the Mormons?" Veronica whispered into Anita's ear as they wandered closer into town, with Knights Moretti and Smith trailing them. She knew that they would face little hostility here, but Elder Casdin was focused on intimidating any of the small settlements such as Joseph that they encountered on the road.

"Unfortunately our library at Lost Hills didn't have an extensive amount of information about them. I know that in terms of old world religions, they're one of the newest. Other than that, the main things I know about them is that they value modesty and don't drink alcohol, I believe" she explained briefly.

A younger woman started approaching them. She was pale-skinned with long blonde hair tied back into a low ponytail that was hidden under a straw hat. Her long tan skirt billowed in the summer breeze. Anita assumed that she must have some form of status in this settlement because her face was free of the dirt and grime that covered many of the other villager's faces.

"Hello, my name is Bonnie; Joseph, our leader, has requested me to guide you on a tour of this settlement" she said with a formal smile. "Joseph is aware that as travelers, you may not be aware of our culture. I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to pass on any information to your leader. Our scouts tell us that your group is in the hundreds and well-armed, we are glad that you come in peace" she informed them neutrally.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Bonnie. I'm Anita, I'm a historian for the Brotherhood of Steel" Anita introduced herself.

"I'm Veronica, I'm a researcher for the Brotherhood. Pleased to meet you ma'am" she said as she gave her a friendly nod. "On behalf of the Brotherhood of Steel, we thank you for your generosity in letting my brothers and sisters pass through the land unharmed."

Bonnie looked at them curiously. "Your initial squad that passed through here informed us that you were leaving New California Republic territory. We see a great deal of travelers heading east on the 70. Although, I believe I see more travelers heading west than east as of late" she commented. "Will you be settling along the 70 for good?"

"No, we will keep on traveling until we reach the Capital Wasteland" Anita informed her. She assumed there was little harm in letting her know her group's true intentions.

Bonnie showed them the assortment of buildings in what Anita assumed was the main town square of Joseph. It was dominated by a large church that rose two stories high and another building that she assumed was some kind of town hall. Curiously, Anita noticed that there was a small saloon. Bonnie must have noticed that she was looking at it.

"As you know, we personally don't drink alcoholic beverages. But, we do recognize that it's important to have a gathering place after a long day of hard work, so we decided to create an alcohol-free saloon" she explained.

Veronica nodded at that. "Where is an acceptable location in your territory for the Brotherhood to camp? There's hundreds of them, but we would rather not infringe too much on your territory" she inquired.

Bonnie pointed towards the interstate 70 exit. "Joseph wants your group to stay near the interstate 70 exit. You're welcome to use any of the water wells. We just ask that your main group of soldiers stay away from the town square" she informed them with little explanation.

"Understood" Anita stated firmly. "If I may ask, why must the rest of our group stay away?" she asked delicately. She didn't want to seem too forward, but if there were any tensions in this town against the Brotherhood, they had every right to know.

Bonnie sighed. "We've heard stories about the Brotherhood of Steel over the years. When travelers from the east coast arrive, they talk of the Brotherhood creating a sustainable source of freshwater in Washington DC at no cost. However, travelers from the west often mention that the Brotherhood of Steel are merely well-armed raiders with a penchant for technology hoarding" Bonnie said while keeping as neutral of a tone as she could muster. "Needless to say, many who live here are suspicious of your group's intentions, especially Joseph."

Veronica smirked at her comment. "Understood, Bonnie, we will make sure to communicate that with our Elders."

"Don't take it personally. We're just trying to do what's best for us" Bonnie said apologetically as she walked back towards the town square.

Once Bonnie was out of earshot, Knight Moretti glanced at Veronica. "Wipe that smirk off your face Veronica" he teased.

"If she had told Elder Casdin his chapter were like raiders, I would have loved to see the look on his face" Veronica laughed. "I know you're amused too Tomas" she told him. "There's nothing that make Elder Casdin more uncomfortable than wastelanders."

Until Anita had arrived at Hidden Valley with the remaining few members of the California chapters, she had no idea that Elder Casdin was disliked by many within the Hidden Valley chapter. After several years of being forced to live underground, many within the Hidden Valley chapter were relieved when they had brokered a treaty with the NCR, much to Elder Casdin's disdain once he had received word of that alliance. Looking back, Anita was starting to understand why so many had left Lost Hills over the duration of her life, especially many of her peers who were unwilling to die in a war that they would not win. Even though her mother was a wastelander, Anita had no idea what she would be able to do in the wasteland, even from a young age, she thought that serving the Brotherhood of Steel would be her destiny, despite the organization's flaws.

Thoughts flurrying through her mind, she turned her eyes towards the evening sky. Dying sunlight painted the sky with vibrant pink and orange streaks and illuminated the scrubby terrain of the area. Anita had noticed as they got further east along interstate 70, the terrain slowly ascended in height. In approximately fourteen days, she was estimating that they would be nearing the pre-war metropolis of Denver. Despite most of the Legion's forces being decimated in the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, she had read declassified NCR reports that Caesar's Legion still had an iron-tight grip on the tribes of that region. Before the war, she had read that it was one of the most prosperous cities in America and was referred to as 'the mile high' city due to its altitude. Delta squad had radioed them earlier that they would begin to approach Denver within the next week, Anita wished that she had more information about the groups operating in Denver to help out the squad.

Tomas and Josh were pitching up canvas tents while Knight Smith was using the vertibird's radio to relay information to the vertibirds escorting the main Brotherhood group. Anita hoped that Smith left out Bonnie's comment that many of her neighbors viewed the Brotherhood of Steel as little better than raiders. She doubted that he would, Elias over the past ten days had struck her as being a quiet man who only spoke if he felt that there was something he needed to say; which made him the opposite of Moretti, who rarely ceased talking.

Suddenly feeling quite hungry, Anita helped Veronica create a small fire and hung a small kettle of water over the fire with a portable hook. Once she started a modest fire, she walked over to the stream to get water for their vacuum sealed meals. After nearly an hour of preparation, all of the MREs were prepared for the group. She slowly picked away at her meal of mushy beef ravioli; no matter how many of these meal packets she had tried, they all tasted the same to her—salty and bland.

"You know, I don't think it would violate our tenants if we researched how to make food taste good" Moretti commented, looking rather depressed while eating his preserved dinner.

"Be glad that we don't have to eat bug meat for now Tomas" Li remarked to Moretti. "Back in Dayglow, we ran low on supplies after some raiders infiltrated out outpost and that meant we had to start eating the bloatflys. You have to boil those little fuckers and hope that you have access to some kind of seasoning to mask the awful taste" Li grimaced as he remembered the texture of the waxy wings if they didn't get removed before boiling.

Anita wrinkled her nose at his description of bug meat and the rough living of Dayglow throughout dinner. Most of the survivors in Dayglow that didn't come from bunkers or vaults were ghouls of varying degrees of intelligence, some were merely disfigured humans, and others were feral. Based on Josh's stories about the city, it seemed about as rough as she had heard Washington DC was when the Brotherhood of Steel had settled there years ago.

Around six the next morning, she threw open the flap of her tent. The red hues of the morning sky over the mountains concerned her; she remembered the phrase that old sailors had often said centuries ago 'red morning, sailors take warning'. Vertibirds were sturdy, but if the winds became too strong, they would be forced to land for at least a few hours. Once they got further out east, they would have to worry more about twisters, since according to old weather books, this was twister season.

Josh was already starting his morning inspection of the vertibird and was sitting in the cockpit, waiting for everyone else to climb aboard. Despite this being a routine for over a week now, getting on the vertibird in the morning still made her stomach feel queasy, although she thought that she was better at hiding her uneasiness now. Josh turned around in his seat, running a hand through his dark hair. "I'm surprised that you're the first one in here today" he commented with a smirk.

She gave him a quick smile. "I hate being in this bird, but I do look forward to the views every day. Have we decided how we're going to proceed over the next three days?" she asked him.

Josh looked at his map which was marked with dozens of notes and flight paths for this journey. Smith said that Delta squad radioed him last night about avoiding the I-70 stretch between Joseph territory and Green River. It was over 100 miles of desolate canyons and three raider groups fighting to the death for control of the precious few arable settlements in the remains of the pre-war parks in that region. Ordinarily, those groups wouldn't pose much of a threat to the brotherhood, but given the fact that there were many vulnerable members of the brotherhood in the pack, Elder McNamara didn't want to risk any harm coming to his group, especially since his ten-year-old son was walking along his side.

Over the next thirty minutes, everyone else climbed aboard, thus beginning the first ascent of the day. From this height, she could see the beginnings of the lonely red canyons carved into landscape south of Joseph territory. Small farming settlements dotted the river that they followed east most of the day. Around mid-afternoon, the wind started to create turbulence that slowed them down, hindering much of the progress they had made that day. Anita's hands went to her harness to make sure it was secured properly and her knuckles were growing white from maintaining her strong grip onto what Moretti had called the 'oh shit' handle near her right arm.

"Alpha squad report from Delta Squad, over" the garbled voice of Paladin Ritchie came through on the radio.

"Copy that Ritchie" Anita said, picking up one of the radio microphones near her.

"We're flying over Green River, it's on fire, over"

"Damn it, what caused it? Over"

"Raiders started invading this morning, the call themselves the 'Exalted Cowboys' no idea why. Estimated heavy casualties. Over"

Shit, Green River was one of the few trading settlements along the I-70 in Utah before going into Colorado. At this point, with how the road east looked, they could hardly afford to detour north at this point—according to her old maps, north of 70, the terrain became inhospitable mountains and there were few traversable roads between Joseph Territory and Green River. They had to make it close enough to the Capital Wasteland to get picked up by one of the airships in the Capital Wasteland before the nights got too cold for the young and old to survive in the wilderness.

Only hearing static from Paladin Ritchie's side, she adjusted the nob to a different frequency. "Elder Casdin, this is Anita McNamara, over."

"Elder Casdin here, what's your status? Over" Casdin's static-filled voice said over the radio. The mountains and plateaus here were not doing radio transmissions any favors.

"Delta Squad reported an attack on Green River, one of the last supply points in Utah, over"

"We must continue forward, over. We have enough vertibirds and soldiers to fight any gang of raiders, over."

"But…" she started to say before her senses came to her. "Roger that, we'll continue forward with no delay, over" she responded reluctantly and slammed the microphone back onto the hook.

To the south, the sun painted the landscape a violent shade of red. Canyons and plateaus decorated with stubborn scrub stretched as far south as Anita could see. She could see the wooden outlines of small settlements—most of which she guessed belonged to raiders or other groups in the region. If supplies were no worry, Anita had to admit that rural Utah took her breath away with its arid and rugged beauty. She hoped that the memories of the sprawling desert with few inhabitants would stay fresh in her mind forever.

The next three sunsets blended together until they landed in Green River for a brief reconnaissance mission. At this point, it had been around four days since much of the town was burnt to the ground. Soot was floating in the air and glass from Molotov cocktails crunched under her boots. The moon was taking its place in the sky as the sun was setting, illuminating the husks of the buildings left. Moretti and Smith, both donned in their power armor suits, were standing guard while Anita and Veronica sifted through the rubble, in search of any supplies they could pass along to the main pack of Brotherhood. The Exalted Cowboys certainly did a thorough job on this town, Anita thought.

After three hours of searching, they were only able to find a meager amounts of maize and flour in a cellar, which at the very least was better than nothing. She heard a sound of rustling in a dark corner. Veronica nodded at her and angled her flashlight towards the corner. Light reflected back from a small pair of human eyes.

"You can come out, I promise we won't hurt you" Anita said as calmly as possible.

She saw the eyes peak out at her from behind the wooden crates and sneak out from behind them. It was a little girl, Anita estimated that she wasn't older than six or seven. She looked too thin for her age and was wearing an ill-fitted dress made out of burlap. Anita knelt down onto her knees to make herself seem less intimidating to the timid girl, who was shaking in fear. Her dark hair was matted from what appeared to be the wind.

"Hi, I'm Anita. Can you tell me your name?" she asked gently.

She looked at her suspiciously. "My Mom told me to not talk to outsiders" her small voice answered back.

"Do you know where your Mom is at? I could see if I could find her for you."

"My Mom promised that she would come back for me, the bad men took her away. I've been hiding down here in case they come back."

Anita's heart sank at hearing that. Her gut instinct told her that this girl's mother was not coming back for her.

"Where did the bad men take your mother?"

She started sobbing "I don't know, it all happened fast" she managed to slip out.

"Maybe we could find your mother if you told us your name, sweetheart" she said soothingly.

Between sniffs, she glanced up at her. "Chipeta, my dad called me Chip before bad men took him away last year."

"That's a pretty name, do you know what it stands for?"

"My Mom told me that it means 'white singing bird' in her tongue" she explained meekly.

Anita smiled at her. "Chipeta, I promise that my friends and I will protect you" she insisted to her. She offered her hand to Chipeta. "Could you show us where the bad men went?"

She nervously shook her head up and down. She seemed marginally less scared now than she had five minutes ago. Much to Anita's surprise, she accepted the offer. With her small hand in hers, she let Chipeta lead the way out of the cellar. Once they reached the surface, Chipeta pointed towards the eastern end of Green River that the group hadn't explored. Plumes of smoke billowed from a hole near the river.

"The bad men took my Mom and Dad there" she said, pointing towards the hole near the river.

Anita looked towards that end of town and her heart sank when they walked closer. She had a horrible feeling forming in her stomach.

"Chipeta, can you stay right here with Veronica? We'll try to find your Mom" she attempted to assure the girl.

"But my Mommy is there!" Chipeta shrieked. "I watched them take her there!"

Despite Moretti's face being hidden behind a helmet, she knew what look he was giving her.

"We have to do this Moretti" she whispered. The stench invading her nostrils gave away what lies in the pit as Moretti and she got closer to the pit's edge. Breathing deeply, she peered into the pit and felt bile rising in her throat.

She closed her eyes and fell to her knees at the horror in front of her. A few feet behind her, she could hear Chipeta crying into Veronica's sleeve. How was she supposed to tell this girl that her mommy wasn't able to come back to her?

Turning around to walk towards Chipeta, she got down on her knees in front of her once again. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but your Mom is in a better place, one where she can't come back to you, Chipeta."

While hyperventilating, Chipeta started sobbing even harder. "I'm all alone here now!" she said between sobs. "What if the bad men come back?!"

"No you're not Chipeta" Anita told her with a determined tone. "We'll take you away from this place, you'll be safe where we're going."

"Anita, a quick word" Smith said quietly. He walked just out of earshot of the girl. "Are you crazy? We can barely guarantee the safety of the Brotherhood's children, let alone this wastelander girl. Elder Casdin ordered us to stay out of wasteland business that doesn't concern us" he told her sternly.

"Elias, she'll die here if she's left all alone. Besides, she's just a child, the amount of resources she would use would be marginal" Anita insisted. She knew Smith was coming from a place of pragmatism, but even he must know that it would be wrong to leave her here to fend for herself.

"Anita, I can't omit this out of the field report for Elder Casdin. I want to protect her, but I don't think we can guarantee her safety if she stays with us until Washington DC" he argued. "Hell, Washington DC is hardly what I'd call safe, for god's sake it's called the Capital Wasteland" he whispered.

Anita crossed her arms in frustration. "God damnit Elias, I made that girl a promise and I intend on keeping it!" she said more loudly than she intended. She walked away from Smith to take the girl's hand.

"We'll take care of you Chipeta" she assured her as she knelt next to her. "Moretti, tell Josh to radio Paladin Hardin that we found a cache of supplies in the marked cellar" she ordered.

"Will do" Moretti responded, his power armor leaving a trail of dust behind it.

Anita knew that today would haunt her dreams for years to come. They say that it becomes easier; however she knew it never would for her. Death was no stranger to her for it had already struck so many in her life. She hadn't been much older than Chipeta when her father was sent to Helios One and never came back.

With Chipeta's hand in hers, Anita guided her towards the vertibird. Chipeta's eyes grew large at the sight of it—Anita couldn't tell if it was fear or awe.

"I know it looks scary, but it will make you feel like a bird, a singing bird in fact" she assured her with a smile. "The sky will protect us."

Chipeta didn't say anything, just stood staring at the vertibird. At this point in the night, the stars lit up the sky and there was not a cloud in sight. As far as Anita knew, Josh planned on flying at least an hour east before camping for the night; nobody in the group wanted to risk an ambush in the middle of the night from the local raiders.

She managed to get Chipeta to board the vertibird and she pulled down a seat for her to use. The girl sat in it reluctantly, with much fear in her brown eyes. Veronica showed her how to secure herself into the seat—they had to tighten the harness all the way to get her to fit safely.

"Josh, we're ready for takeoff, what's our next stop?" Smith asked.

"The outskirts of Thompson. Delta squad reported that it's a small farming village, there's at most one hundred people living there."

"Roger that, I'll be glad to get some sleep" Moretti commented, clearly groggy from a long day.