My mind went in and out of consciousness several times. A couple of moments I came to feel my soaking body being dragged across the ground. I thought maybe it was Highwaymen, but I couldn't do anything as I kept passing out.
When I finally regained my senses I shot up, gasping and looking frantically around. I was in some kind of old-world building; rickety, run down, and ancient. I was by a warm fire; probably for several hours as my body was nearly dry.
"Your awake!" I looked around and saw Carmina over by a work bench. The girl came over to me, worry in her bright blue eyes.
I got up, groaning in pain. "Hey. Hey! Take it easy." She grabbed my shoulder steadying me. "You've been through a lot."
"What happened?"
"I fished you out of the water. I carried you to this old mining building. The Highwaymen are looking for us—any stragglers really, from the train."
Last I knew it was nighttime when those bastards blew us off the cliff. Now it was daytime. There was no sign of anyone else around, besides Carmina and I.
"Am I . . . the only . . ."
Carmina looked away. "You were the only one I found alive."
It suddenly felt like it was getting harder to breathe. I looked Carmina over; she was worse for wear. She had a bleeding bruise on her right cheek and a couple tears in her jacket. I choked back a sob to ask my next question.
"You were with the other group. Rush? Charlie? Is anyone else with you?" I asked desperately.
Carmina still didn't look me in the eye. "I'm sorry. The Highwaymen managed to find us. They wanted Rush and attacked us to get to him. We all scattered; as far as I know . . . we're the only ones alive."
That hit me harder than the water. The only one left of the Rush Movement? The last survivor of the Eureka? The chill I felt consumed my whole being for a minute. I felt like I couldn't breathe. No! No, I couldn't be the last one. We were all tough! We joined Rush because we all were strong and believed in his vision for the future!
'C-Carmina said they scattered, so there's a good chance some people are still alive.' I remembered the Twins were very interested in Rush. 'At the very least they had to've taken him alive.'
"I'm sorry, Captain." She croaked. "This is all my fault."
"No, it's not. It's my fault." I told her back sternly. "I'm the Captain of Security of the Rush Movement. I'm responsible for everyone's safety. I should have been more concerned about the capabilities of the Highwaymen. I should have been more outspoken about my worries coming here. Everything that's happened here is all because of me, not you."
I could tell that she didn't really believe my words. Guilt was a hard thing to let go of, despite how heavy it was.
"But, if I hadn't—"
I raised my hand to silence her. I didn't want to argue about this, what I did want was to kill something.
"We'll talk about this later, right now we need to get to Hope County. We're no use to anyone just hiding in the woods."
That seemed to jostle Carmina out of her funk. Giving me a determined nod showed me she still had fight in her eyes. Good. The Highwaymen haven't broken her yet.
I held my hand out to her. "Help me up." Carmina did as asked, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. "I had weapons where are they?"
"Oh!" She walked over to the bench and picked up my Claymore, Skorpion, and Bow. She grabbed my quiver too, but it was empty.
"I dried out your guns. Your quiver was empty when I salvaged you from the water. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Thanks." I said taking my weapons back.
"You're welcome."
I looked them over, she did indeed maintain my weapons. They were all in good condition. I pulled out my Claymore's magazine and saw it was full. Carmina handed me one more magazine for my gun.
"This was all you had left." She said.
I took it. "I'll make each one count then. Do you have a weapon?"
She smirked. Instead of answering me she walked back to the workbench. Raising an eyebrow at her lack of response, my eyes widened when she reached the bench and turned around. In her arms was some kind of large contraption that resembled a crossbow.
"What is that?"
"This is a saw blade launcher." She answered proudly as if expecting me to know exactly what that was. She pulled out a couple of rusty saw blades and placed them in the launcher as a demonstration.
"You made that from scratch?" I asked with legit impression in my voice.
"Yep! I made this from some of the junk I scrounged around here. But I didn't invent this thing, my Auntie Grace did. She just showed me how to make it."
That was still majorly impressive and I really wanted to try that thing out, but Carmina needed it more.
"Where're we headed?"
"The Highwaymen have a Camp about a mile up ahead. The Twins left them here for stragglers and loot. There's a tunnel entrance behind it that can take us to Hope County fast."
I took out my Claymore and gave it one more once over. "Show me."
Carmina led me the way up an old beaten path. We came across some Highwaymen along the way, tagging junk or defiling human corpses. I recognized some as members of the Rush Movement. Carmina sated my anger by demonstrating her saw launcher.
It was amazing! At first, she aimed nowhere near them, instead hitting the surfaces of cars and rocks. But they ricocheted off and somehow got the raiders. It was one of the most metal things I've ever witnessed. Carmina held her head up proudly from seeing my awe.
We eventually arrived at the camp. Like most places in this world, it was made with what junk people could find lying around. The highwaymen were quite good at fortifying their places as they already had a lookout tower, defensive walls and a gunners hole made from a school bus. But they weren't finished prepping it yet. The only way inside was through a bridge that led straight through to the place. It looked like they were going to block it off with the old destroyed cars on it, but they seemed to have stopped to party if the glaringly loud music was any indication.
I looked through the scope of my rifle and spotted ten enemies, but there likely could be more.
"So, what the plan?" I heard Carmina whisper to me.
I didn't answer immediately, instead scanning over everything first. Ten enemies, possibly more, there were explosive barrels of ethanol in some spots, a caged wolf, the gunners hole had a machine gun in it facing the bridge.
I looked to my right and saw a zip line that led to a grassy area away from most of the raiders.
"Here take this." I handed her my zip line hook. "You take this and try to go around them. We'll flank them."
"Got it." She took my hook and covertly zipped down to the far side of the camp. I kept my eye on her the whole time; saw her take out a couple of Highwaymen with her knife. She reached the end of the camp and took cover in some metal hut.
"Alright." I started looking down my gun's scope. "Let's get this party started." I fired taking out the lookout on the tower. The shot alerted the whole camp, but by the time they figured out my position I had dropped three more of them.
They screamed and shouted to take cover and started firing on my position. I kept low to the ground and fired on the wolf cage. Releasing the beast, the wolf managed to kill one raider before being put down, but that quick distraction was enough for Carmina to pop out of her own hiding spot and fire the saw launcher. The spinning rusty blades bounced around like bats out of hell and imbedded in the surprised raiders.
One of the Highwaymen went for the machine gun in the bus. I saw him move and popped him in the head. Unfortunately, more raiders came rushing out of the nearby tunnel, joining in the shootout. Many of them rushed to the machine gun knowing I couldn't get them all. I killed two on the way, but the third slipped by and got to the gun.
He fired off with the rest of his masked brethren to keep me down. There was a momentary pause after a minute of gunfire. I chanced a peek to see the gunner had been taken out by a saw blade. Carmina got most of their attention now, shooting off saw blades, letting them ricochet in random directions. The Highwaymen were perturbed by such unorthodox ammo and were focusing on her.
This gave me the chance to finish off my magazine and pop a few in the head and back. I was out now and decided to join the fight at a much closer perspective. I hopped down to the bridge, keeping my head low.
Some of the raiders saw me and fired at me. They missed, as I rounded a corner and they pursued; unaware of that's what I wanted them to do.
I pulled out my knives. Once one was close, I reached out and plunged my Spike into her eye, then my Stiletto into her chin and twisted. Her companion was spooked by what I did, but was only armed with a bat. He took a fast swing at me, but I ducked and plunged my Stiletto into his side. He backed off a little, clutching his side, but I didn't relent. Getting in close he swung his bat more wildly, trying to keep me away. I moved like a snake, back and forth, then finally struck, stabbing my Stiletto in his shoulder. It was deep enough that he was bleeding more.
Before I could finish him off, a Highwayman dropped from the structure and tried bashing me with a pipe. I got out of the way in time, but now two of them were after me with blunt instruments, caked in old blood.
I readied my Stiletto in a stabbing position and my spike in a backhand position. It was hard to avoid one swinging bat, but now two forced me to keep further back. They were driving me into a corner, I was losing control of this fight fast. If I didn't do anything soon, I'd be dead.
Just as I thought that, one of the raiders fell forward and in his back was a saw blade. At a mid-distance, Carmina was loading her saw blade, while smiling.
This gave me an opening and I lunge at the remaining shocked raider. My spike got him in the chest, puncturing his lung, then my Stiletto was in his neck and I pulled, opening it from side to side. Blood spurt out like a sprinkler and the raider fell back clutching and gasping for breath. They died in seconds.
"You alright?" Carmina checked on me.
"I'm fine." I panted.
"That was quite . . . brutal." She noted my execution methods.
"Yeah well, I've seen people get stabbed in the chest and still come after you." I recalled a few times when I had to repeatedly stab someone to ensure they wouldn't get up again. Sometimes a little extra goes a long way. "Besides, you can't say they don't deserve it."
She nodded in agreement. "Come on." Carmina motioned for me to follow. "We just have to go through this tunnel and we'll be home and safe in no time."
"Check the bodies first." You never know what you can find on someone's dead body. I said while wiping my knives off with a dead Highwayman's shirt.
Sure enough most of the raiders had stuff on them, but nothing much or special. We got some ammo mainly handgun and rifle rounds, some food, gum, Carmina found an ice pick on one of the bodies
We entered the tunnel and walked down its dark corridor for what felt like an hour. Carmina and I kept quiet in case there were more Highwaymen in the tunnel. It was eventless the whole way through and we exited out into the light. I got my first glimpse of Hope County; a beautiful land, lush with trees as far as the eye could see. Near the horizon was some kind of structure that Carmina pointed to. It looked almost like a fort.
"That's Prosperity. That's my home."
"Then let's go."
It took us another twenty minutes to reach Prosperity. We got stopped by a lookout, guarding the entrance to the trail leading to Prosperity. Once Carmina identified who she was, the lookout relaxed and was clearly relieved to see Carmina. He told us to wait where we were, saying he'll call ahead to inform her mother.
A couple minutes later, there was a woman that looked very much like an older Carmina coming out to meet us. As soon as the two saw each other they rushed one another and embraced.
"Carmina! I was so worried, thank God!" Her mother tightened her hug.
"Mom!" Carmina expressed happily, but also sadly.
As if her motherly intuition caught her daughter's mood, she looked at Carmina seriously. "What's wrong?" She looked at me. "Who's this?"
I took a step forward and planted the stock of my gun on the ground. "Kieran Young, ma'am. Captain of Security of the Rush Movement."
Kim's eyes widened in surprise. "Then you found them? Where's the rest?"
. . .
. . .
I looked down silently. I didn't know what to say. Even I couldn't believe it wholly yet and I lived through it.
"Mom . . ." Carmina croaked.
"Carmina?"
"There was a whole train of people coming here to help us. But the Highwaymen, the Twins," She choked, "they killed everyone and took Rush."
"Oh my god." Kim breathed in shock.
"It was terrible." Carmina started crying and sounded like she was on the brink of a panic attack.
Kim brought her daughter into her arms, hugging her with warmth and comfort only a mother could provide. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
Carmina started sobbing. "I never should have gone out there, mom . . . I . . ."
"Oh, Honey . . ."
"What are we gonna do now?!"
"I—I don't know."
"I mean, no one's coming to help us, we're on our own! It's just us."
"Ssh, let's get you both inside. You can tell me the whole story." She led us both into the complex. "Thank you for bringing her home." She turned and said to me.
"No thanks needed. I wouldn't be here if not for her." I stated truthfully.
The metal doors slid open and we walked in. The place was a lot smaller than I thought. There only looked a few places like lodgings and most buildings looked closed down or unfinished. How long has this place been running exactly?
There were some people working; they stopped to look at us. Some whispered amongst each other, lots had worried expressions when they laid eyes on Carmina and Kim. I noticed some people gave me looks of suspicion. Typical of settlements; strangers were an unknown they either accepted over time, chased off, or killed. Seen it many times.
We entered the main building that looked like some kind of lodge. Kim directed her daughter to the bathroom to cleanup while she prepared some food for us.
When Carmina was behind the door, Kim said, "Follow me."
We entered a kitchen and Kim started making some hot tomato soup. As she prepared, she asked—no, told me to tell her everything.
I explained everything from when we met Carmina, to what she told us, our travel to Hope County, the destruction of the Eureka by the Highwaymen, and the death of many of my people.
Kim's shoulders seemed to weigh down the more I told her. As she prepared the soup, she seemed to slow down little by little. She never looked at me as I retold and focused more on the soup, but her eyes looked like they were filling with unbearable grief. This woman had clearly been through a lot and I just added more to the pyre.
"I'm sorry." She said to me. "You've lost so much, all because of us."
I shook my head and stated firmly, "No. I lost so much because of the Twins and their Highwaymen. Rush wanted to help you guys; wanted to help Carmina. The Rush Movement never apologizes for aiding others, even at the detriment of ourselves."
"I see. Sounds like you all were great people."
"Still are." I corrected.
Kim looked at me with confusion. "But, you said—"
"There are more of us than the ones that were on the train. You're not the first settlement we've established . . . and if Rush is still alive, you won't be the last."
Kim looked shocked by my declaration. "You think he's alive?"
"I do. The Twins seemed interested in using him, so they're definitely going to keep him alive. At least, that's what my gut is telling me. And I'll find him no matter what."
Her eyes scanned the weapons I carried on me. My sidearm, my bow, my knives, and my Claymore.
"I'm sure you will." She smiled confidently.
Carmina entered the kitchen. She was wearing sweat clothes and drying her wet hair with a towel. She actually looked kinda cute with her hair frazzled like that.
"Just in time, sweetie." Kim said and picked up the tray with water and bowls of soup on it. We followed her back to the main entry room and we sat down by one of the massive fireplaces. This place was in great condition.
As we ate, Kim informed her daughter that I told her everything. The look of guilt spread on the poor girl's face and she didn't say anything more during the meal. Neither did I. There was really nothing more to say.
Looking around, there was an air of depression. Not just around us, but in the whole community. I felt it as we walked through the place and it never left. These people have been through a lot.
"All right, guys!" Kim suddenly proclaimed, getting our attention and somehow lift the bad air away. She pointed to me, "You know how to handle a gun." then her daughter. "You know your way around the Valley better than anyone."
"So?" Carmina replied dismally.
"So, sitting around moping isn't gonna do any good. Look, Rush was supposed to help us build someplace safe. Until he's found, it's up to us. There's a whole valley of brave people, scattered around. We just have to find them."
"Bring them together. Show them we can stand up to the Highwaymen."
"Rush was good at establishing places. Me? I'm good at building up forces and liberating assets. I'm game." I said.
Carmina smiled for a moment, but it faded just as fast. "Mom it's not gonna be easy."
"I know." She took our bowls and walked off. "But it's our only choice." She said seriously.
Carmina stared at the fire for a bit, just watching the wood crack and burn. Then she looked to me.
"Did you mean it? You're still gonna help us?"
"Of course."
"Even after I led all your friends to their deaths?" She asked quietly.
"You did not lead anyone to their deaths. We came to save your home from the Highwaymen and that's exactly what I intend to do. I just have a more personal stake in it now."
"Thank you."
Our eyes locked with each other's. She looked at me with such gratitude and I was lost in her blue eyes.
'She really does have nice eyes.'
"You both should get some rest." Kim suddenly said from the door.
We both jumped and averted our eyes. We were staring too long at each other.
"Tomorrow we'll go over what needs to be done, alright?"
"Got it, Mom."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Great. Good night you two." Kim left us alone again. We let silence invade the air around us. For a second, I didn't know how long we just stood there not looking at each other.
"Good night, Captain." Carmina said.
"Yeah. Good night."
And she walked away, up the stairs to the second floor. Once the door closed, I released a sigh I didn't know I was holding.
"What was that? That was weird."
Ubisoft should have expanded on lore. By that I mean, 17 years have passed and honestly, this is a very tame apocalypse. Say whatever you will about Fallout, but it at least had several interesting stories and mysteries to keep it interesting. The FEV, the mutants, the raiders, the vaults, etc. New Dawn didn't have to be like Fallout, but it should have learned from it. You'll see what I mean in later chapters. I'm going to be very different from canon.