The paths we're following are slow going, so you might as well keep your ears open and listen to what old Jed has to say. A few decades back, folks in the NCR started to hear about a community in the northern Utah called New Canaan. Didn't know much about them, except that they were religious folks. Sent out missionaries to talk to the tribes. We've seen our share of cults, but the New Canaanites, they were honest traders. Good fighters, too. Raiders wouldn't tangle with 'em. But then the Legion appeared in Arizona. I reckon you know all about them. Turns out Caesar's first war chief, the Malpais Legate, was a New Canaanite. Joshua Graham. Legend goes that Graham was the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the whole damned Legion. The New Canaanites wouldn't talk about him. They were ashamed. Guess I can't blame 'em. Well at Hoover Dam, the Malpais Legate finally met his match. Hanlon and Oliver kicked his New Canaanite butt right back over the river. Caesar had to make an example for the others, to show them that even at the highest level, failure wouldn't be tolerated. He had Graham covered in pitch, lit on fire, and thrown into the Grand Canyon. People say he didn't even scream on the way down. Not long after, some of the slaves and tribals started to talk. Said Graham wasn't dead. Shouldn't have been any surprise. All this talk bothered Caesar, so he forbade anyone from speaking his name. Wanted to erase Joshua Graham from history. He got his wish. Joshua Graham disappeared. And in his place came legends of the Burned Man walking the wastes. Probably just a tribal ghost story. But New Canaan's been silent for a long time. Maybe it's coincidence. Maybe the Malpais Legate is dead. Or maybe Joshua Graham did crawl out of that canyon and finally found his way back home…
"All right, people. Been a long couple of weeks, but here we are. Zion!", Jed announced as the crew of the Happy Trails Caravan emerged from a long dark corridor of canyon land to the other side, the brightness of the light around them in the open making them squint and shield their watering eyes. Six had a look around and although it was a blistering heat, the area was incredibly beautiful. Green fir trees peppered the area, offering a welcomed respite from the sun. To her right some twenty or thirty feet or so was a shear drop down to what appeared to be a shallow stream; you fall off of the side of the cliff, there's no saving you or soft surface to break your fall. Six's stomach reeled as the very thought made her feel green around the gills.
"I know your feet hurt, I know you're tired. But I need everyone's mind on the trail ahead", Jed added.
"Ain't the trail ahead worries me, Jed. Those descents we made, through that slot canyon back up there? Ain't no way we're getting back out the way we come. And then what?", Stella voiced everyone's concerns.
"Goddamnnit, Stella, heard you the first time, and the fifteenth, too. The New Canaanites will know a way. And if they don't, we got the maps on our friend's Pip-Boy over there", Jed answered, "Now, enough lollygagging! Get moving and keep an eye out for tribals!"
"Sorry to bother you with reality, ol' Jed. Who cares if we can't get back out the way we come? That's not a problem", Stella jibed as she joined up with Jed to carry on down the path, but Jed just laughed her concerns away.
Not long after they set out, Jed and Stella abruptly stopped ahead of them and crouched down.
"Shhhh! Hold on, now… Could swear I heard something up ahead", he uttered to the rest of the caravan crew and everyone complied, stopping where they were and crouching low to the ground, ears open listening for any suspicious sounds.
The familiar surge of adrenaline surged through Six's body, and she took out her rifle to look through her scope; she couldn't see anyone but anyone could be hiding in the unfamiliar terrain. It wasn't until the first volley of bullets hit one of the caravan guards further ahead that the group knew they were in serious trouble.
"Goddammit, ambush! Cover, people! Watch yourselves!" Jed cried out, rushing for cover behind some rocks. Six made a dash for one of the larger fir trees to her right that was several feet away from the perilous drop. Pressing her body onto the hard and rough bark of the tree until she felt the jagged edges threaten to pierce her skin, she took aim with her rifle and scanned the area; but before she could take out the first enemy in her sights, a rapid volley of shots forced her to turn back and hide behind the safety of the tree's thick trunk. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ricky and one of the caravan guards take a hit, both lurching forward as bright red trails of blood spurted out of their torsos.
The enemy was appearing from all sides on the cliffs above them and they were well camouflaged, making it harder for Six and the rest of the Caravan crew to get accurate targets. The Happy Trails Caravan was outgunned and in a precarious position; the only way they could gain an upper hand was if they retreated back to the safety of the canyon path they had just come out from.
"Jed! Get back to the canyon path and take shelter!" she yelled above the noise of gunshots and shouting, but it was no use. She broke cover and began taking down some of the attackers; one…two…three…but they just kept coming. It seemed the more she took down, the more hostile tribals came out of hiding to attack them.
"Stella NO!" she heard Jed cry out and turned just in time to see Stella crumple and fall to the dusty ground, "You sons of bitches!", Jed cried out in fury and unleashed a volley of shots with his revolver at the enemy above, taking out several of them before a bullet found his chest. Six watched in horror as Jed's lifeless body crumpled to the ground. Quickly scanning the area she realised she was the only remaining survivor of the Happy Trails Caravan. All the effort, the hard work they all put into this journey was gone…wiped out in a single attack. With the rest of the Happy Trails Caravan members killed, Six was outmanned and outgunned with seemingly no end in sight to the attacks being hurled at her. A dark thought crossed Six's mind…
'If this is how I go out, then so be it'.
Breaking from her cover she quickly took aim and fired until her clip ran out of rounds, her mind calm as Boone's teachings came back to her.
"Keep your trigger finger loose until you're ready to fire. Back straight, loosen the shoulders, the rifle will recoil when fired. If you've got more than one enemy coming at you, make sure to switch to your next closest target soon as you pull the trigger".
"Yeah yeah, I got it", Six had grumbled as Boone was correcting her posture.
"This isn't a joke Six. You'll need to know how to handle multiple targets. One day I might not be around to watch your back", he chided her.
"Pff, that's never gonna happen", she remembered scoffing at him; now she couldn't believe how naïve she was back then. She wished he was here now to help her get through this mess.
She counted another six enemies down, two to go that she knew of. Ducking back down behind a rocky outcropping to reload while the enemy focused their fire on her, she swore she could hear another set of shots being fired further away as she reloaded the clip with .308. It wasn't long before she noticed the tribals begin shouting at one another, some of them turning their attention away from Six's position before falling dead to the ground. Hesitantly peeking behind the safety of her cover, Six saw the two tribal men that were left on the cliff ledges above her slumped on the rockface…dead.
She wondered who it was that took out the last remaining enemy and if they were friendly enough to know not to target her. Still, even though she knew that eventually she had to come out, without knowing what was waiting for her out in the open she was hesitant to leave her position.
"Oh, what the hell", she grumbled, loading a bullet into the chambre and moving out into the open. Staying low to the ground, she checked the still bodies of members of the Happy Trails Caravan, hoping against hope that some of them might still be alive…but that was a fool's hope.
"Shit", she muttered, wondering what she was going to do now. Six found herself alone again and, what was worse, in uncharted and unknown territory. There was no NCR here to call for aid over the radio, no settlements that she knew of that she could seek help from, and no one to watch her back… It was just her. The only place she knew of that might offer her shelter and help was New Canaan, and so she decided that her priority would be getting there as quickly as possible.
Hastily scavenging what she could reasonably carry on her in terms of ammo and supplies, Six saw a rope and wood plank bridge not far away from her; judging by the map information on her PipBoy, crossing it was her safest bet to reaching New Canaan.
Without barely a sound she stealthily rushed in its direction, her heart racing in her chest as she began to cross it. Halfway across she noticed a human figure standing atop a large boulder ahead of her – another enemy tribal. By this point it was too late to turn around and head for cover, and not a moment after she spotted him did she see several muzzle flashes and the wooden boards in front of her disintegrated, leaving a gaping hole in the bridge. Lucky for her he wasn't a good shot. Before she had a chance to fire back, another figure came up behind the tribal and attacked him, despatching him with an axe and, when the warrior was down on the ground writhing in pain, unloaded several bullets into him.
Six stood rooted to her spot, her rifle aimed at the other figure. He spotted her after confirming the enemy was dead and held up his arms to the side in a none threatening way.
'Must be a friendly', Six thought hopefully, remembering Jed mentioning some of the locals they were likely to encounter in this area. Despite that, she decided to err on the side of caution and kept her rifle at the ready while gingerly traversing the now damaged and rickety bridge.
"Hoi! White Legs don't leave survivors often. You're some kind of lucky, let me tell you", the man spoke when Six reached solid ground. He was relatively young, possibly in his early twenties judging by his appearance. His face and body were covered in tribal tattoos, and he wore a faded denim baseball cap adorned with several feathers. "You came from outside, didn't you? From the civilized lands? Wow… Joshua will want to hear about this".
"Who are you?" Six asked, holding tightly to her rifle.
"My name is Follows-Chalk", the man added. His accent was somewhat thick and odd to her ears, but Six was intrigued and hopeful that she may have found someone that could help her reach New Canaan.
"Who is this Joshua?" she asked.
"Joshua Graham – he leads our tribe. Thanks to him, the Dead Horses are strong, and safe from our enemies. He'll want to talk to anyone coming up from south-ways. Guess that means just you, now. Come, I can take you to him".
"You say I've come from the 'civilized lands'? What do you mean by that?" Six inquired.
"I mean the Lands Beyond the Valley – the place where the cities never fell. Where people don't live in tribes and forage just to survive. Joshua keeps saying it isn't paradise out there, but how can it not be, compared to this?" he answered, though quickly realised he was getting carried away, "Sorry, I'm getting distracted – Joshua will want to know about you – please, go to our camp on the Eastern Virgin. Tell him how you came to be here".
"You've got a funny idea about what the Mojave's like, but I'll go with you and see your boss", Six added, her curiosity about this tribe and the man the tribal kept referring to rising.
"Goot sists. Maybe while you're there, you can tell me about where you came from, yeah?"
Six nodded hesitantly and decided to follow her odd-looking saviour to his camp, "Alright, I'll follow your lead then". Securing her rifle over her shoulder, Six followed the man down a winding dirt path away from the canyon where the fighting took place; they walked side by side quietly for what felt like a long while before Six began feeling uncomfortable with the silence.
"So, uh… who were those tribals who attacked me?" Six asked
"White legs", the man shuddered, "Nasty bunch. They been raiding deeper into Zion ever since New Canaan was wiped out".
"Woah, wait wait!" Six stopped in her tracks, eyes wide in disbelief, "New Canaan was wiped out?!... How?"
"That's what Joshua said. White Legs came down from Great Salt Lake in force – fell on New Canaan before they could mount a defense. Joshua found some of the survivors led by a man named Daniel. Most of them have fled the valley, but Daniel stayed on with the Sorrows tribe. He and Joshua have been arguing over whether to stand and fight the White Legs or take the Sorrows and the Dead Horses out of the valley".
"Where do the White Legs come from?" Six asked.
"That's the weird part – normally the White Legs keep to the Great Salt Lake. I don't know what brought them down this far south", the man answered.
"Follows-Chalk, why is it so important that we fight the White Legs?" Six asked.
"Well… because they're our enemies", the man answered in tone as if the answer was as plain as day, "What else would we do? They take our land, they kill our scouts, they poach our hunting grounds".
"You've mentioned that Joshua Graham is your leader… I've heard his name but I don't know much about him. Could you tell me more about him?"
"He's been the chief of our tribe since he came back to the Valley. He went off to the civilized world years ago, to fight a war. That didn't go well".
"What happened to him?"
"You see his face, you'll understand", Follows-Chalk answered solemnly.
"The only recent war I know of is when Caesar's Legion attacked Hoover Dam. Is that where he fought?"
"I don't know, he doesn't talk about it much. Maybe – but how can two civilized tribes fight over something as small as a dam?"
"Small?" Six exclaimed in surprise, "Have you ever seen Hoover Dam? It's bigger than some of these mountains".
"Hah!" Follows-Chalk chuckled, finding her words incredulous; then upon noticing the sincerity on Six's features his amusement was replaced with awe, "…Really? That's…my gods. Must be some mighty civilized folks who built that".
"Yeah well… you'd be surprised what 'civilized' tribes will fight for", Six answered, her words thick with cynicism.
"Now you sound like Joshua. He always tells me the tribal life is better, that I should stay here and forget the outside world", Follows-Chalk added.
"Tell me more about your tribe", Six inquired, curious to know more about his people.
"We came up in the Land of the Dead Horses, though why the Back When folks called it that I got no hint. We raided, we fought… we lost. Our enemies drove us back into Zion, and we would have died if it hadn't been for Joshua. Joshua, and his Caesar".
"Wait… what about Caesar?" Six prodded, feeling her head reeling with the information he'd just given her.
"When Joshua first came to us, he was servant to a man he called Caesar. He led his master's armies, and we were ready to follow him into war. Then he lost his master's army to a tribe called Enseeyar, the Sunset People. When he returned, he was burned, broken… but changed. He led us away from Caesar, led us to our own destiny in Zion".
"What else did Joshua do for your tribe?"
"If it wasn't for Joshua, the Dead Horses would still be the whipping boys of the Zion Valley. He taught us how to hold our territory, to protect ourselves. He guided us away from Caesar, and showed us how Caesar would have destroyed us".
"Do you remember anything about Joshua from before he became your leader?"
"Only a little – I was very young. He was… different. Prouder, yes, but harder, crueler, more driven. Really, I was terrified of him. We all were… When he came back, I almost didn't believe he was the same man. He was humbler. He wanted to protect, not destroy".
Six was starting to get a better picture about Joshua Graham. When she'd first met Jed before they were preparing to leave New Vegas, he'd told her not to mention Joshua Graham to the New Canaanites because his own people were ashamed of him. The New Canaanites were now gone and, after hearing Follows-Chalk's story about tribals in Zion being part of the Legion, Six couldn't help but wonder whether that had something to do with Joshua. If New Canaan was wiped out, Joshua Graham was now quite possibly the last remaining New Canaanite alive. Following close behind Follows-Chalk, Six contemplated what else she would find out when she met the infamous leader of the Dead Horses…and what Joshua Graham would say when Six reveals that Caesar and his Legion were, yet again, defeated at Hoover Dam.