We Got Your Back

That day went on like the others for at least a few hours until around 10:00am. I was walking along with Drake when the forward guard halted the march.

We stood in formation scanning the surroundings for a few minutes until I heard Sarah shout, "SEAN! Get up here! We need a Marksman!"

I sprinted to Sarah who was talking with Cam and he told me that Mac needed me up front. I did as he commanded, and Cam took my old spot next to Drake. I walked the 300 yards up to Mac and he waved his arms signaling forward. I caught up to Mac and we began leading the march. I asked him;

"What's the deal, Mac? Need me for something?"

He glanced at me still walking and responded, "This area is somewhat unknown, I could use your scope to scan the area."

I gestured the rifle towards him, and he waved me off, "I want to see how good a shot our 'designated marksman' is, Haha!"

We kept moving forward into the endless desert. I thought a lot about all the things they told me last night and I had a number of questions. I remembered that the whole guard outfit was from New Reno and asked the first question I had about our destination, "What's New Reno like?"

He smiled through his shades, "Lawless town, and probably the biggest place here in the north. Bunch of Families control it. Bad place to grow up, great place to make it big, and not by gambling."

I asked, "What do you mean by 'Families' I never quite understood that? I figured you don't really care for the 'Wright Family' based on your chat with Drake last night?"

He said, "Anybody who's anybody belongs to one of the Families in that town. Sarah's not from one of the Families despite being Reno blood, but she don't discriminate, so all of us come from or worked for at least one of those Families. Me personally, I worked for the Bishops before signing on with Sarah's crew."

I said, "I still don't get it?"

Mac elaborated, "The Families of New Reno are big crime organizations… Well, it's hard to call them 'Crime' organizations in a town without any law whatsoever. Anyway, the Families constantly fight it out for control of New Reno, but in Sarah's outfit; our loyalty is to each other. No time for petty rivalries out in the wastes, but we still give each other shit when we can, Haha!"

I said, "Sounds like complete anarchy."

He laughed, "It is! There aint no police, written law, or nothing, but the Families take care of their own so… Yeah. Like I said, anyone who's anyone belongs to one of the Families. Otherwise, you're just one fish in a sea full of sharks."

I asked, "So, it's loyalty to Sarah's outfit before the others?"

He said, "In a sense… Yes. Like, Drake used to work a few jobs for the Wrights, that's how he knows this 'Sam' guy we're supposed to meet. Jonah and Cam used to work for the Mordinos, and I used to do a few odd jobs for the Bishops'…"

I asked, "What about Sarah or that guy Willie?"

He said bluntly, "No fuckin idea. There was no trace of Sarah working for any of the major players, but last time I was in town; I caught word Sarah used to work for the Yakuza outside of town. Then, one of those rumors is that Willie worked for the Salvatores. Those guys are fucking shady."

I remembered the great mystery we discussed that was "Willie" last night but asked, "What's the difference between the different Families?"

He responded while surveying the area, "I was with the Bishops for years, we essentially ran the city from our casino, 'The Shark Club.' Mr. Bishop runs a few schemes around town and tries to build ties with other communities. He knows that New Reno can't stand on its own and…"

He stopped himself for a minute and proceeded, "I can't say much more. But the Mordinos supply most of the chems around town and lead the prostitution racket from their own casino, 'The Desperado'…"

I asked stupidly, "What's a casino?"

He chuckled to himself, "A big building where people throw their money away, Haha!... Best to play For one instead of Against one. Trust me, that's how you actually win, Ha!"

I asked Mac, "Well, what about the Wrights and Salvatores? What makes the Salvatores so shady?"

He continued, "Oh right, well, the Wrights are an actual family. They're a giant fucking family on the east end that's super anti-drug. Mrs. Wright wants to 'Clean Up' New Reno. Waste of fucking time if you ask me. However, Old Man Orville Wright got out of drugs a few years back, but I say they're only anti-drug because they run the biggest alcohol stills in a 100 miles, Haha! But the Salvatores? I don't know. They're one of the smaller Families, but don't ever cross them. Bishops try to steer clear of them after we saw what they did to a bunch of the Mordinos guys… Lost a bunch of Bishops too."

I asked, "What happened?"

He simply said, "They massacred a bunch of them" but then went on, "They run 'Salvatore's Bar' and have West Side under lock. They extort protection money from some of the local shops, but mostly just stay in their bar…"

Mac stopped abruptly and whipped around waving to the caravan. I saw the distant caravan stop and Mac said sternly, "With me. Now."

I followed the man off the left side of the road over to a small dune. He threw himself onto the edge of it and I did the same. He motioned for my rifle and I handed it over. He looked through the scope at some dots in the distance. He studied them for a minute and quietly handed the rifle back to me.

He silently pointed in the direction he was looking and said, "Take a look."

I brought the stock into my shoulder and rested it atop the hot sands. I peered through the scope to see three people sitting around a dead camp surrounded with debris. There were two corpses on the ground and the tattered remains of a withered green army tent.

Still focusing on the people, I heard Mac say, "Raiders… Wanna take the shot?"

I said, "I guess? Why?"

He responded, "It's now or later. Best do it now before they wise up to our location."

I said, "But there's only three of them?"

He said as a matter of fact, "Raiders are fucking stupid, they'll attack a group of Brotherhood Paladins with pocketknives…"

He saw the confused look on my face and before I could ask what "Brotherhood Paladins" were he shot in, "Doesn't matter, I'll tell you later, just take the damned shot… Besides, I kinda wanna see if our 'Designated Marksman' is an actual marksman."

With that, I turned back to the scope. I had never fired a sniper rifle before or any gun bigger than that 10mm auto rifle. I flicked the safety catch off and focused in on the closest person, somewhat familiar with the concept. The "Raiders" were all sitting there in patchwork leather and metal gear. They had metallic helmets that looked like those old timey umbrella hats and they sat next to the corpses occasionally lifting a bottle to their mouths. I focused the crosshairs on that person and instinctively slowed my breathing.

I was about to take the shot when Mac asked, "How far out?"

I told him that they looked about 3-400 yards out and he told me to adjust the scope to compensate for the distance. I looked at the knobs on the scope and saw they were set to "5", so I cranked it to "4", and leveled the weapon. I placed the reticle on the closest one and just below the torso, estimating him to be about 375 yards out. As the raider lifted the bottle to his mouth, I halted my breathing yet again and slowly squeezed the trigger… *BANG*

One millisecond later, the round tore through the raider's neck and the others stood up frantically looking all around. Mac shouted, "NICE! Now hit the others!"

I focused again as the other two stumbled around not knowing where the shot came from in the echo. It was difficult to line the crosshairs on the others because of their jerking movements. Slightly panicked and unsure if I had the next scumbag in my sights, I squeezed the trigger again and, *BANG*

Once again, the round pelted the raider's torso and they fell over staining the ground. Just as I saw the last one through the scope, the raider raised a large rifle towards us. I collapsed onto the dune as I heard dirt kick up in front of us. Without saying anything, Mac raised his stockless assault rifle over the dune and let loose a spray of blind gunfire. His brass casings landed next to me and one fell down my collar.

I winced at the pain of the hot brass on my neck, and Mac shouted, "Take another shot!"

I lifted the rifle onto the dune again and saw the desert psychopath charging straight towards us. I lined up the crosshairs yet again, aiming significantly below this time as the raider got closer and, *BANG!*

All was quiet as the crackle faded into the still winds.

Mac casually slung his rifle back over his shoulder and walked back onto the road. I followed in silence having never killed a person, let alone three before (Never one I'd seen). Mac motioned for the caravan to keep moving and I walked side by side with him into the afternoon.

Almost immediately back on the trail, Mac said, "Damn Sean! I honestly never thought you'd be a decent shot… No offence."

I shrugged at my own apparent skill and replied, "Scope makes it easier."

He laughed, "So humble, Haha! Still though, three perfect shots and one under fire is impressive, scope or no. Most guys play tough but piss their pants when a bullet lands next to them, Haha!"

I responded smugly, "Who says I didn't piss my pants?"

He whipped his head towards my pants and saw the joke, "Hahaha! You're funny, Sean. Didn't know you had jokes..."

I stayed silent and he added, "Good thing those weren't Super Mutants. Three of those FEV fucks coulda absolutely obliterated us."

I asked Mac, "What are Super Mutants?"

He turned to me again with a look of astonishment and said, "Where the fuck is Idaho anyway? You're the most oblivious wastelander I ever met… No offence again."

I said, "It's a desolate plain of nothing but ash and fields and mountains. I never even knew there were mutants of any kind in the world until about a year ago."

His face said it all. He couldn't believe that somebody who wasn't a vault dweller could spend most of their life not knowing about anything people in the wastes feared daily. He asked curiously, "What was it like where you grew up?"

I responded plainly, "I grew up indoors in the middle of nowhere alone with mom and dad. Mom taught me how to read and write, and gave me history lessons while dad went out into nowhere, sometimes days at a time…"

I was going to say that dad would come back with lots of strange meat, but I somehow knew that would be frowned upon in this party (Especially after their reactions to that "Iguana meat" story).

Mac patiently waited for me to continue and I did, "…So uhh… Before the age of 12, I'd only seen about five other people in my life."

He asked, "What changed all that?"

I said, "I knew life was going nowhere even at a young age, so I left at 12. I roamed going nowhere in particular but coincidentally west for almost 6 years. I ended up in Oregon about a year ago and camped around Klamath about… four months back? Then got myself into that 'Slaver situation' a little over a month ago."

He asked, "So, you lived most of your life beyond the known wastes for almost 18 years?"

I nodded but said, "Yeah, just over a month ago, I stumbled into some situations that put me where I am right now…"

It was then that I briefly reflected back on my life. More things happened to me in the first two months of 2241 than I experienced in my entire life. Years of walking and loneliness in the wilderness were all gone. The further west from home I went, the more people I saw, and the more I learned about humanity. All those years of neutral pointlessness went on until I met the evil of slavery, the heroism of a detective, and the friendship of very different men on the road united against a hostile world. I was still very naive about most things, but none of that mattered at the moment; I was walking the roads going towards "New Reno" accompanied by a great group of new friends. Despite the wandering and endless walk into the desert, I felt "At Home" for the first real time in my life.

Mac rested his rifle onto his hip as he walked, threw his arm over my shoulder, and said, "Well… I know it's past due, but welcome to the world, Sean… It's a shitty place, but we got your back."

I almost teared up at that little gesture, but knew better than to let that kind of emotion show in this crowd. But, I thought a lot about that. These guys, the Anderson Sisters, and even Sarah were the first people to accept me in all my life. No money needed to buy their acceptance, no drugs to force my involvement, just awareness about the need of friendship in this bad world.

Mac summarized it perfectly, "It's a shitty place, but we got your back" and I definitely had theirs.