Friends of the Road Pt II

The day passed just like the other two (nonstop walking). We passed another caravan and the traders swapped some gear along the way; both parties almost didn't even stop. Towards the end of the day, the sky got dark and the Anderson Sisters were even more engaging. Mary Anderson lingered towards the rear of the caravan with Drake and I, chit chatting about whatever came to her mind as we scanned the area.

Once the moon was all the light we had, Martina Anderson led us to a flat patch of desert and offered us guards a couple bottles of "Klamath Bob's Moonshine" saying, "Take the night off, boys! We gals got this shift."

Sarah looked angrily at them, but the sisters insisted. So, with two jugs of 180 proof dirty alcohol, we gladly accepted. The brahmin rested and all the gear was spread out in a separate area while the guard team made their own campfire out of voice range from the traders and Sarah. Sarah sat alone staring menacingly into the desert while I rolled my gear out next to the tiny little fire with my new comrades.

I knew I should have taken the night to sleep, but I was still an unknown element to this group of veteran caravan guns, and wanted to fit in. The days of walking in armor and heat took a little toll on me, so I snuck a tiny hit of Jet. Wow. That was the first time I hit the diluted stuff and it made me feel so good. My aches and pains slowly went away as I listened to the guards chat amongst themselves.

After that hit, I felt like you do when you've had four or five shots of liquor and had no need to drink anymore. The feeling was easy and satisfying unlike the psychotically euphoric, hallucination causing, and mind looping of a concentrated hit. I focused in on the campfire wondering why whoever made Jet didn't sell it diluted since what I felt was more "Good" than "Horrifyingly Pleasant."

As I looked into the fire, I overheard the guards chatting. Over the days on the road and by talking with Drake and Mac, I learned the other guards' names. At the fire, they were all passing the jugs around and taking swigs from them, talking about whatever.

One of the guards, "Jonah" was talking about tribals for some reason when his pal, "Cam" said to me, "Hey Sean! Mac said you had a run in with some tribals a few weeks back."

Leaning back on the rock, I asked, "Which ones? The cannibals? Or the Arroyo guys?"

Cam slapped his knee in a drunkenly humorous way and slurred out, "What's the difference!? Haha! I love this guy, Ha! But the… Umm?… The Arroyo fellas?" I took the sentiment despite my only talking with Cam one other time on the trail.

The others looked at me waiting for an answer and I said, "Yeah, I uh, I spent a whole evening running from cannibals only to be found by some hunters from Arroyo…"

I thought of what to add to the "Story" when Jonah asked, "What they want?"

I replied, "They didn't want anything. They just put out my fire and told me to be more careful. Said, 'lucky it was Us who found you.'…"

I paused for a minute, "They did say they were headed back to Arroyo for some ceremony, though?"

Mac asked drunkenly shaking his head to focus on me, "What was the *Hic* ceremony or whatever about?"

I said, "No idea. Something about a 'Chosen One' and a 'Temple of Trials' I don't know? They mentioned ending a famine or drought or whatever."

Drake set the half empty jug down and blurted out, "Modoc was hit in drought pretty bad from what I heard. 'Chosen One' gonna do a rain dance and fix all of northern California? Haha! Tribals are fuckin weird, man..."

He glanced at me and added, "No offence, bud."

Mac gave Drake a rough kick on the leg and slurred, "He aint a fuckin tribal, man! Sean's from… Uhh… Idaho? Right?"

I nodded and took a bite from my leftover salted Gecko steak. I absent mindedly asked, "What's Sarah's deal with that guy, Willie by the way? She was like on the verge of tears or somethin back in Redding?"

All of them shot their faces towards me and went, "SHHHH!" in a drunken and over exaggerated manner.

They all looked over at the Anderson Sister's camp and Sarah lying on her bag in the distance cautiously. Cam motioned for everyone to bring it in closer.

I leaned in and looked at Jonah's faintly illuminated face as we all hovered around the fire. Jonah focused his attention on me and said, "Our outfit is pretty small, get me?..."

I nodded and he continued while everyone's eyes went from one person to the other, "We don't have many secrets in our group, and Sarah's always been a mean bitch, but… We think Willie was bangin Sarah before he got hurt."

I asked, "Why? What makes you say that?"

Jonah went on, "Sarah's a mean woman, but she really cares about her guys. Despite her horrible attitude, I've been with her on six runs now because she knows the roads, knows how to fight, and splits all the loot evenly…"

He paused to take a swig from the jug and said, "We picked up Willie about three runs ago. Motherfucker came walkin out of Golgotha as soon as we left town on our way to Broken Hills, fuckin straight up to our caravan… I don't know what it was about the creep walkin out of that place, but I saw the look in Sarah's eyes."

I asked, "What's Golgotha?"

Cam chipped in by briefly explaining, "Dumping ground, dumping ground for the New Reno families…"

I didn't know what any of that meant, but caught the "Listen" gaze from Jonah. Jonah went on, "Guy walks straight up to our caravan covered in dirt. Looked like he either crawled out of a hole, or finished diggin one…"

I asked, "What about Sarah?"

Jonah said, "She didn't see all the red flags we did. Guy drew an SMG from his waist, walked straight up to Sarah and said; 'I'd like to join your crew, but I prefer to use a sniper rifle'… That was fuckin it... All the fuckin guy said… We wanted to gun'em down right there as a possible threat, but Sarah looked like she was starin at the love of her life. It was super weird, but the guy's been with us for almost four months now without a hitch, until Redding."

I asked everyone, "So you guys don't know anything about Willie?"

Drake said, "We know he's an unbelievable shot. We know he doesn't drink, do chems, or bang hookers, and he was always down right and fair with us. We also know that Sarah, 'the proud hardened mercenary bitch' turns into a little girl around him. Also, also, the guy never explained shit about coming out of Golgotha!?… Guy's such a fucking mystery that we even got money on what he did before joining us!"

Everyone chuckled and Mac said, "I have 200 bucks on Salvatore Family assassin. Cam has 100 on buried alive in failed hit job. Then Drake has 200 on former Desert Ranger of Nevada, and Jonah is too much of a bitch to bet on anything! Haha!"

Everyone laughed, but Jonah sneered, "I aint no BITCH, Mac! I'm just good with money! Besides, you guys won't get to see any of that money anyway. We don't even know if Willie is trailing us or if that old fuck was any good for his word. Hit man, zombie, or Desert Ranger hardly matters if you only got one good leg on these roads…"

Jonah was about to finish his rant when Cam interjected, "Oh yeah!? Almost forgot he was holed up…"

He paused and we all thought for a second. Then Cam asked anyone willing to answer, "Think that doc gave him a prosthetic? I wonder if Willie even needed the leg amputated? I know a good bite can do damage, but shit, man..."

Mac took the moment to lean back from the huddle, and we all did the same back to our prior spots before talking about the boss. After a couple seconds, Mac answered Cam's question, "Probably not. Doc probably just wanted to make a few bucks off 'iguana meat' or something…"

Everyone sat there in odd silence for a moment and I asked plainly, "What?..."

The others adjusted uncomfortably in their spots or took swigs from the jugs with sour and contemplative faces as Mac tried explaining his answer, "Yeah, long time back… It's kind of a rumor, but…"

He stopped, Cam leaned over to me and said, "There was a story from down south. Long time ago. Thing was about a doctor who killed people who couldn't pay their fees or made unnecessary amputations to… Sell to a guy named 'Iguana Bob'… I mean, I don't know if it's true, but…"

Mac jumped in again, "Those stories were from a long time ago, but we heard that 'Bob's Iguana Stands' are like a food chain in NCR territory. Regardless, the rumor around here goes; anyone selling 'Iguana' is probably selling discarded human meat from crazy wasteland docs. NCR is fucked, but I don't think a place like that would endorse cannibalism? They say they got 'health inspectors' or some shit…"

Mac was about to trail off when Jonah said to me, "We're all New Reno boys in this outfit. I been to NCR and I'll gladly stick with the Families of New Reno to all that Old World 'Laws' and bullshit in NCR. At least thugs back home are honest about robbin your ass instead of hidin it with 'Taxes' or whatever the fuck…"

Jonah eased away from his drunken rant promoting anarchism and I thought about all they said. The diluted Jet was slowly wearing off and the others chatted quietly to each other passing the jug around. So, I looked around the area to pass the night off. It was too dark to see where the Sisters were, and I honestly didn't care in my state. I thought of asking what New Reno was like and bounced a million questions off my mind. I listened in on the conversation between Mac and Drake. I heard Mac say;

"We still meeting up with your buddy, 'Sam'?"

Drake said, "Yeah, hopefully. I talked with Sarah while we were setting up here. Sarah says our route should take us right to his group and their rendezvous point."

I jumped in sounding unnecessarily paranoid, "What's that about? Where are we going?"

Drake turned to me and said in a patronizing tone, "Everything's fine. Nothing scary going on, Sean? Ha."

I said, "Oh ok, didn't mean nothing by it. Just wondering what the plan was."

He said, "All good, Haha. A buddy of mine is doing some work for the Wright Family in New Reno as an explorer."

Mac interrupted with a laugh, "Fucking Wright Family, Haha!"

Drake turned to glare at Mac and then back to me, "My buddy, Sam Pritchard was taking a group to the northwest of town when we departed a few weeks back. The group had a rendezvous point along the main caravan route to Redding. I was just saying that there's a chance we could run into them on the way back to New Reno."

I said, "Oh, okay…" still coming down from the Jet euphoria.

Drake said, "Get some sleep Sean, your kinda fucked right now, Haha!"

I simply nodded and took the man's advice. It was late, and though I wasn't drunk, I was tired from the road and incessant walking of the past few days. My sleep was ended all too soon as the sun peaked over the mountains, and I packed up my gear to move out. The women were all ready to go and the other guards were dreading last night. The slow moving and hungover guards were quickly jerked into motion at Sarah's piercing voice. I felt ok, just a little fatigued, so I filled up my bottles and stood by as the others chugged water straight from the drum. Ten minutes later, we were moving again, and the sun rose more and more.