Friends of the Road Pt I

It was almost midday at that point, and I joined the guard unit out to the pens where the Anderson Sisters had their brahmin all loaded up. There was no talking. Sarah angrily walked alongside the traders at the head, and I walked at the rear with one of the guards who occasionally glanced over at me with a smirk. Another guard took the head of the caravan walking about 15 paces in front. Mac and another guard were about 200 yards ahead, almost out of shouting range. I wondered why they were so far ahead, but I had a lot of thoughts on my mind. We walked over the old California roads and I didn't know which direction we were going at the moment, but remembered the Detective say New Reno was to the southeast. I thought about a million things as the sun beat down overhead and steadily began to despise the weight of my new road gear.

I've walked so many roads and many expanses of nothingness, but only really had the clothes on my back and a few things in my trusty old backpack (I still miss that backpack). As the sun made my skin pour, I was suddenly thankful for all the mining work I did recently. As screwed up as the mining trap was, I definitely got stronger from all that work. Then, I missed having Psycho. I covered two days of walking in a single morning on that stuff and also hoped to step through a ghostly time portal or whatever that was. I began to reminisce about the awesome feeling of Jet and began feeling the faint itch, but snapped myself out of it. Detective Paul said not to think about it, or it would make things worse.

I rustled my gear to get my bearing when the guard next to me said humorously, "Getting the shakes, Bud?" I shook my head and scanned the area remembering that I was a "Guard" now.

We walked on and on as the sun lowered behind us and the heat of day was eventually replaced by the cool winds of evening. The Anderson Sisters chatted amongst themselves usually, but occasionally asked Sarah a question. She walked with her scowl and replied to the traders usually with one-word answers. Eventually, the moon was high above and the Sisters wanted to call it in for the night. They began to unpack at a little spot under an overpass and Sarah whisper barked orders to us guards. She already had a schedule for watch set up in her mind. Mac and "The New Fuck" had first watch. This sucked because I was already exhausted from the day. The other guards set out their bedrolls, and soon passed out. Mac gave me a brief rundown about how night watch worked. Basically, we'd watch the area back to back for three hours and make a walk around the campsite every thirty minutes or so.

After our first round, we sat back to back on a rock in the pitch-black night when I asked, "What time is it?" not really expecting an answer.

I heard his head turn and saw a faint glow next to his arm. He said, "10:38pm we'll make another round at 11."

I saw the glow out of the corner of my eye, but couldn't make out what it was. It apparently told him the time, so I asked in bewilderment, "You have a glow watch?"

He let out a muffled laugh, "Nah, it's one of them 'Pip-boys' Vault dwellers usually have. One of those personal arm mounted computers. Thing's pretty high tech for my dumb ass."

I'd seen a broken one in a scaver's old shack in southern Oregon about a year ago. The dirty old scaver offered to let me touch it if I touched him, but I politely declined the deal... Anyway, those things were like big bulky bracelets that had a computer in them or something. I asked generally, "How have I not noticed that?"

He replied, "I altered the sleeves of my jacket to hide the thing. Lot of people in the wastes want them. Mine's got a built in Geiger counter and everything… Pretty neat tool to have on the roads." Then, he went silent.

I asked him, "So… You from a Vault?"

He chuckled, "No man… Guy I killed was though..."

I wanted to ask something, but he continued, "Some uppity fuck from Vault City wanted to play raider. Tried to rob us and I wacked him. 'Try to rob me and I'll rob you.' Gave the guy a lesson in 'Wasteland 101' real quick."

He was silent and I heard his head move as he surveyed the area. I asked, "What's Vault City like?"

He said, "Never been there? It's a big city built around a Vault in… the… Northeastern desert, I think? It's like way north of New Reno and a bit east..."

He paused for a minute and asked curiously, "Where you from?"

I thought for a minute. Last time I was asked that, I was enslaved in a mine. I finally dropped my guard for a minute and said, "I'm from Idaho…"

I was quickly met with a, "No idea where that is."

I shrugged, "Figures. Left the place when I was 12. Walked going nowhere for a few years and ended up in the Klamath area a couple months ago."

He turned his head, "Oh I've heard of the place. What brought you to Redding?"

I smiled to myself at the memories that grew more humorous in time, "I accidentally ripped off some slavers who set up there. Had to skip town after some drama with the trappers. Then, I spent a few days walking south, dodging cannibals, talking to Arroyo Hunters, and even running from ghosts on the northern highways believe it or not. Only then I ended up enslaved in the Redding mines…"

Mac turned completely around to face me. He said, "Damn… How you get out of that mess?"

I instantly gave a chuckle and said, "Stupid luck…" I thought about detailing the Detective, but decided not to in order to help his apparent "Mission" in this region.

I said, "That mutant attack the other day gave me the chance to flee. It was all confusion; they had no idea where I went… Too bad I got hooked on Jet while there."

He said in agreement, "Yeah, I heard about that mine shutdown. Supposedly the critters are crawling all over the place now."

I went on with the slightly altered truth, "I knew I'd need money since I only had the overalls on my back. In the panic, I managed to loot some of the supervisors and miners. Doing that gave me enough Jet to keep and sell for a few road goods."

Mac said, "Damn… you got an interesting predicament. I'm totally gonna tell the other guys about it, Haha!"

I grinned, "Go ahead. Then I got drafted into your company by Sarah there. I'm not really a 'marksman' but I'll gladly shoot whatever you want, Haha. If I'm being honest, my top priority is getting the hell away from Redding…"

Mac was going to say something when a tin can flew out of the darkness and hit my head. Sarah's voice came from the black in a hushed but distinctly aggressive tone, "Shut the fuck up! Make your rounds!" I heard a head thump onto a pillow, and we got up to patrol the area.

Soon enough, the guard shift was over, and I got 5 hours of amazing sleep. Before long, I was kicked awake for the thousandth time in the past month and threw my gear into the bag. No more than ten minutes later, we hit the road. We got back onto the highway at 6:30am and I resumed my position at the back. Things were a little livelier that time. The Anderson Sisters were chatting away, and Sarah was scanning the area. I got to chat with the guy patrolling the rear with me. The guy was a lot like Mac. Hardened mercenary exterior, fun lover interior. His name was Drake. We walked on for hours into the day and the lands were slowly changing from rolling hills to flatter desert. Lifeless desert was everywhere in the wastes, but the land evened out and the sands subtly got finer.

Drake gave me tips on patrolling like what to look for and told me about the different signals and words used to bring awareness to possible threats or basic communication. Around noon, the "Forward Lookout" signaled the halt. They halted the caravan and a few shots echoed up ahead moments later. The guard at the front ran to them, and a few minutes later; they approached hauling an animal. A golden gecko left a trail of blood and "Martina Anderson" told them to throw it onto the load. They tossed the animal onto the cart and we departed again when everyone was back in place.

The hours steadily went by again and we had fully reached the open desert with large mountains far in all directions. Before long, it was dark out again and we set up this time at an old rest stop. I got second shift that night and happily laid out my stuff as the trading gang prepared the gecko. The guards and traders chatted amongst themselves as Sarah scanned the desert. I got a prime cut of gecko and added a side of beans. It was amazing. I hadn't had cooked food in weeks, and fresh gecko steak was to die for. The traders went off to sleep and I was about to follow when Drake nudged me.

Standing over me, his silhouette asked, "Hey man, can I take a hit of Jet? I'm about to pass out if I don't get a hit."

I told him that it was diluted, and he said, "Perfect, can't get too fucked up on watch, Haha!"

I sleepily dug into my pack and tossed him an inhaler. He took a deep hit and coughed a bit before saying, "Thanks man."

I was woken up by Drake again a few hours later and took the second watch with Mac again. We chatted about various things again and took our rounds every thirty minutes. When I asked how much further we had to go, he said like another five days of trekking. I felt pretty bummed knowing that the walk was so long, and he said that it wasn't that bad compared to some of their other runs. Some of which lasted a few months. We didn't chat too much because there were signs of critters around the area that involved all of our senses. The critters stayed their distance though, but some creatures of the wastes had keen senses of hearing. Soon enough, I got to go to sleep again, but it was a brief one.

When morning came again all too soon, we were at it again. At least the highways were still intact, and our group knew where to go. I knew better, but I've heard that some other wanderers strangely have no regard for old world roads, spending days and weeks going over mountains in a straight line to their destinations. Drake said that some people waste a lot of time going straight across the map when they could just use the old highways and shave weeks off trips. After all, those old roads were built that way for a reason. Drake described those people as, "Usually dumbass tribals or Vault Dwellers."

*Little nod to the travel system in Fallout 1 and 2 at the end there.*