The small Poseidon energy gas station had two spots where pumps used to be, a doorless garage, and a sarsaparilla vending machine by the door.
A safety being flicked off was the first sound she heard after peeking inside.
"That's close enough. Who are you, and what do you want with me?"
Lenora glanced to her right. Behind the counter stood a young man wearing a shirt and overalls with a pistol leveled at her head.
"Looking around-" she mumbled, staring down the barrel.
Ringo gave a regretful sigh.
"Sorry about the gun. You could've knocked first."
He laid the pistol by the cash register in front of him.
"We got off to a bad start. I see you're unarmed now. You must be here to talk, right?"
"Yeah, about Cobb and those thugs. What's got them all wound up?"
"My caravan was on the return trip from California and heading back up to the company branch in New Vegas. News doesn't travel fast down here so we didn't know about the breakout. Not even a "drop your weapons and hands up" before the Powder Gangers started attacking us with dynamite. We put up a good fight, but they got the drop on us and had numbers. I shot two of the bandits before I fled, so between them and the others we killed, I figure their friends want revenge."
"Not just revenge," Lenora replied. "I bumped into Joe a few hours ago. It sounded like he wanted to take over this whole area for himself. He's got some deadline in a few days for when he brings his people over to take you by force. Seems to me like even if Goodsprings turned you over, he'd just attack later on anyway.
Ringo, this town helped me get back on my feet like they helped you hide. I can't leave knowing people might be in danger from those thugs, so I'm going to help you stop them."
"Stop them? Lady, we'd end up sharing the same grave if it's just the two of us. Now, if some of the other people in town got on board…"
"That's what I was getting to! They're gonna attack the town. I want to help the town prepare."
Ringo was startled by her sudden outburst.
"Woah, alright. Look, did Sunny Smiles help you? Maybe you can start with her."
—
"I'm game."
"That quick, huh?"
Sunny nodded.
"Joe Cobb talks about leaving us alone if we hand over Ringo, but I know his type. He and his friends will come after the town eventually.
But You, Me, Ringo, and Cheyenne aren't a force to be reckoned with. If you could convince Trudy to join us, a lot of the folks in town might decide to help out. People respect Trudy. That NCR girl might want to help, Easy Pete has a stock of Dynamite, and Chet could dip into his stock as well. Finally, Doc Mitchell would be happy to cough up some extra medical supplies, so getting him on board would be great."
—
"I was waiting for this even before you helped me find Baxter. I'll find some cover by the Saloon."
—
"We're going to confront the Powder Gangers, Sunny said you could lend some dynamite."
Easy Pete leaned forward in his chair and nodded in disagreement.
"Too dangerous. You're either gonna be ambushing them from far off, too far off to throw it, or at point-blank range, and that'd risk blowing up the town. Better leave it buried, safer that way."
"Oh." Lenora hadn't considered the range of the fight as a factor.
"Exactly. I'll stay home away from the crossfire. Try to not damage this here chair while you're fighting."
—
"So you're planning on helping Ringo. Big risk, but I suppose you have to do what you think is right."
"Not just me. Sunny joined in too, and we think the road near the saloon would be a good spot for an ambush."
"That could work. All right, you two seem to know what you're doing, so count me in. I know some people who wanted to kill Cobb, and I can sway a few others and some travelers into joining our militia and taking up positions. We all have guns, but probably not the best for a fight. The General Store could lend us what we need."
—
"You must be the one Doc Mitchell was patching up. If this is about stopping the Powder Gangers, I can't commit to anything. That's a 1000-cap investment you're asking for."
Sunny stepped in front of Lenora before she could reply.
"Trudy's not gonna let you hear the end of it if I tell her you tried to shortchange your way out of saving the town. Or we can let them have their way with us and see how much they wanna 'invest'."
"Fine, Sunny. I'll bring out the Remington 700s and Mini-14s with ammo. Temporarily. I hope it's what you need. Just let me guard the store while the fight starts. I have to put my business first, you understand."
Lenora and Sunny stood aside to let several people line up in anticipation of getting better guns.
"Who wants the first pick?"
"Me," Ringo called from the front of the line.
"I'll go talk to Doc Mitchell," Lenora told Sunny before sprinting out.
—
"I ain't much good in a fight with my bum leg, and supplies are scarce, but since it's for the town-"
Lenora reached out to take the armful of First aid and Trauma kits when several muffled pops rang out from behind the door.
"Oh no."
"Can't hear anything, '' Mitchell remarked, dropping the boxes to grab his revolver.
"They must've seen people assembling out front." Lenora grabbed her 9mm and burst out the door. She didn't stop to examine the scene from her vantage point, tearing down the hill while more shots echoed nearby but not close enough.'
As it turned out, she didn't need to worry. Sunny gave her the whole story: Cobb's gang had the sense to try and sneak through the brush instead of marching up the road, but Cheyenne sniffed them out and alerted the whole town. A few people started firing at them from houses on the south end of town, which made Cobb lead his men charging forwards…right into the line of newly-armed citizens, Sergeant Arkus, and hunters taking up positions around the saloon.
By the time Lenora reached the Saloon, the stragglers were being picked off while they tried to crawl through the bushes. Chet had already emerged from his store to pester people about handing the Semi-autos and scoped rifles back over.
"Joe Cobb did not know what hit him," Sunny cackled at her relieved friend.
"Looks like it."
"Naw Miss, you don't get it," a younger man carrying a lever gun walked over and point out to the field.
"He was still looking at those houses when we opened fire here. Saw his head explode after the first shots."
"That'll show 'em," a woman cheered.
"I just hope his friends get the message too and don't come looking for him," Trudy added.
Ringo turned over to Lenora after handing over his rifle to Chet.
"I owe you a huge favor for this. Here-call it a down payment. These are technically Crimson Caravan funds, but Mclafferty is an understanding boss. Try and look me up when I reach their Headquarters and I'll have more for you."
He shoved several NCR $50 bills into her hand.
Then Sergeant Arkus approached in a downcast manner.
"Kid, I don't know how you intend to reach Crimson Caravan, but you'll have to put those plans on hold. I've been tuning into NCR military channels, and they all agree that the I-15 is getting choked off right now."
Ringo sighed.
"You're sure. I'd heard some weird reports on the Mr. New Vegas Show that sounded too dramatic, but I guess if you've got a direct line to the NCR, it's true."
"Actually Ringo," Lenora stepped up to the depressed trader, "I'm going to be driving the same way. You want to take a ride on my Motorcycle?"
Ringo's face all but gleamed.
"You'd do that? No, it doesn't need to be all the way. Take me to the NCR outpost in Primm and I can see how things shape up from there."
"Deal."
"Seems like a safe choice," Arkus added. "A motorcycle's a lot faster than a brahmin caravan."
"Hey gal, come check out the gangers with us," someone waved near the road. "there's 30 guys worth of loot out in them fields."
—
The Powder gangers didn't have much worth taking except an excess of dynamite. What Lenora saw provided a good explanation for why they'd fought so poorly. They carried pistols and revolvers, a few shotguns, and some varmint guns. Their plan seemed to rely on getting within throwing distance and raining sticks of dynamite, which didn't work out when people chose not to make 30 feet their "long-range". Worse, they had no protection to keep them alive while they charged in. A few wore bowl-shaped NCR trooper helmets. Others had bulky guard vests similar to Joe Cobb's,which didn't seem to have stopped .223 rounds judging by the holes. "Didn't these guys pilfer from the NCRCF armory," one townsperson asked.
"Maybe they got stuck with the scraps, besides, a prison ain't armed like a fort," another answered.
Lenora then happened upon Joe Cobb himself, fortunately crumpled in a bush with whatever remained of his head out of sight. Ignoring the red stains on the plant, Lenora pried out his weapon, which appeared to be an archaic model of revolver designed to take modern .357 bullets.
At this point, the sky was rapidly turning ochre against the mountains, and Lenora was tired. She had started not just a new day, but a new life. At that moment, she was most exhausted from the load on her back and all over her trader coat. Much of her excess supplies had now been stored in her motorcycle along with her caps, but she was still hauling around 7 guns. If anything, she should've been more imbalanced, but somehow the load wasn't tormenting her shoulders like she imagined. Some of the guns would still have to go for practicality's sake.
—
Lenora questioned Chet about the intricacies of firearms, specifically for her current weapons.
"You have any .22?"
Chet's reply was to pull out a filing cabinet drawer loaded with various parts that glimmered in the dim light of the store.
"I've got parts from every 22-caliber gun on the continent. It's the most common cartridge out on the frontier. Good for training kids, goes easy on the old. I'm sure I've got some magazines too, and not the homemade-kind."
"What makes homemade magazines bad?"
"Same thing that makes reloaded ammo bad. Most people, hell, most 'gun companies' these days don't have the advanced tools and manufacturing centers that existed pre-war. Gun Runners would, but they have much richer customers than us. A few steel plates welded around a spring aren't going to function as well as the real thing. You'll have feeding issues, or the magazine ejection won't work."
Lenora ended up selling the Colt 6520 after seeing the cost per round and the general dirtiness of the gun. Barton's S&W M39 was also too shoddy, and Chet had only one more magazine for it anyway. The revolver she kept because she liked the design, and the difference between .357 and .32 acp felt more appreciable than 9mm and .32. Bullets of various calibers taken from the Powder Gangers were also sold. She used the money to pay Chet for repairs to her AEP7 laser pistol.
After exiting the General Store, a thought entered her mind. Ringo mentioned a radio show before. It seemed like a good way to learn what was going on in the area.
She opened her pip-boy and sure enough, the radio station menu had already picked up "Radio Free New Vegas" as a channel.
"-visitors to Mojave outpost have lodged numerous complaints to NCR authorities, over so-called 'apathetic' reactions to encounters with wildlife along I-95. One NCR trooper called in to deliver a message:
'Yeah, Jackson' got a stick up his (Bleep) but it doesn't really matter! They're ANTS! Not even the fire-breathing kind! Just shoot them and they buzz right off, I promise. What do you think we're gonna do if you just head out there, detain you? Like we're already doing? Place is already costing Caravan companies from the delays. If Jackson starts arresting people, they're gonna squeal so bad, Kimball will have to step in!'
"In other news, we talk with a guard who used to work at the NCR correctional facility, and how he spent his vacation losing all his savings on the strip…while the convicts broke out and took over his workplace. Talk about a silver lining.
But first, here's Roy Brown explaining why you should always keep an eye out for Butcher Pete…"
Instead of music, Lenora heard a different kind of rhythm in her stomach. She flipped through her pip-boy to the status display, seeing a cartoonish woman with an exhausted look on her face. In other words, she was hungry. With night approaching, she decided to order something from Trudy and knew where to finish it.
—
Lenora studied the shack Victor had claimed residence of that morning.
"Ran off, really?"
The pre-teen and her grandfather both nodded. The child spoke.
"Yes'm. Was about 2:20 PM when he rolled out of town towards the road."
Same time Arkus and I set off for the sewer… She noted.
The shack wasn't anything special. Only the American flag with its 9 rows of stars hung sideways by the door made it stand out. After digging into her brain for memories, she wasn't sure if that was the "current" flag or some older pattern.
Victor being gone only stayed at the forefront of her mind for so much longer. She was tired, but also hungry, and with the fresh scent of Bighorner steak salad rising into her nose. Her foot worked the handle and revealed an amazingly spacious interior. It had two desks, a shelf, an oven, a bathroom, and a bed. The shack was also littered with items, from spare parts to ammo boxes to energy cells, and other things a robot like Victor had no use for. It would make the perfect home, at least for the night until she and Ringo set out.
Lenora scarfed down the steak, drank some pure water, and almost leapt into bed.