Working Out a Plan

It was still early October when I decided to take action. I got off work in the afternoon and decided to buy some goods in Commercial Row before spending the night in with Sophia. I changed over, and my wife jumped at the opportunity to go on a little shopping run. We headed to Commercial Row and spent the afternoon gathering what we needed. I was already making plans to leave New Reno in my head, given the events of the past month as I studied an NCR propaganda poster on a wall. The thing was clearly mass produced since those posters were all over town but usually covered in graffiti. The posters talked about bringing civilization to all of California and the northern wastes like New Reno. NCR supposedly stood for "Law and Order", but that idea didn't fly so well in a city that stood for the polar opposite. Most of the posters clearly illustrated New Reno's feelings by the blatant spray paint above the posters saying, "FUCK NCR" sometimes in creative and colorful ways.

Anyway, we were buying some goods from a general wares merchant on a street corner when I saw a caravan recruitment stand on the opposite side. I left Sophia to her shopping, approached the man, asked what he was recruiting for, and where the crew was going.

I read the sign and the smiling wastelander said, "Howdy friend, come to sign on with the Happy Trails Caravan?"

I never heard of this caravan company and asked, "What's the Happy Trails Caravan? Where yall going?"

He gave an overtly friendly grin and said, "Glad you asked, partner. Happy Trails is an independent recently founded trading outfit based outta Sac Town to the southwest. Ever been?..."

He didn't let me answer, and added hastily, "So, can I sign you down for trading? Guard? Scout? What'll it be?..."

I said, "I'm just asking questions right now. You also didn't answer where you guys go since I never heard of you."

He lowered his pen and responded, "Fair enough, we do a bit of trading with NCR, and do our recruiting runs here in New Reno since Sac Town don't see much business as of late..."

He stopped and motioned for me to lean in. I did, somewhat perplexed, and he continued, "But our real bread and butter is where this crew is going…"

I acknowledged his intriguing statement and asked, "Where's that?"

He whispered, "Way out east beyond Broken Hills, and way beyond that beyond is a settlement in a place called 'Utah' ever heard of it?..."

I never heard of anything out east past Broken Hills, so I shook my head and he went on, "Well, there's a group of religious cuckoos holed up in a town called 'New Canaan'..."

I nodded for him to continue, "Thems the only civilized folks out east in a thousand miles. Surrounded by tribal nut-jobs and seas of raiders, they hold their own and have plenty of treasures to trade if you can reach'em…. So, trader? Guard? Scout?..."

I was skeptical and the guy was clearly delusional or desperate. There's nothing out east anyone knew beyond Broken Hills. Hell, there was nothing in Idaho either, and that was to the northeast. My paranoid New Reno mind said the Happy Trails Caravans was obviously trying to lure people out into nowhere, probably to steal their stuff.

So, I said, "I'll have to talk it over with my wife."

He said in a saddened tone, "Alright, that's fine" but added cheerily, "But don't take too long! We depart in three days! Incognito like, you dig?"

Sophia just approached me, but I steered her away from the strange caravan recruiter. We headed back to the Shark Club and I looked back on that brief conversation in a new light. We entered our room and set out the goods she picked up, then she showed me the present she picked out for me. It was a box of 10mm rounds for my pistol; she's so thoughtful. We settled down for the night and ate some boxed food from the shops, just trying to ease the night away. I sat there on the bed staring into the distance and thinking about what I was going to do with my life. She sat next to me, reading an old clothing magazine, and listening to the radio.

I went over that encounter with the Happy Trails guy again and again. I thought about the enumerable events I experienced in 2241 like many nights before. The most prominent events to me at the time were my encounters with Detective Paul. I again recalled one of the last thing he said to me that had been echoing in my mind since he knocked me out;

"Find yourself in Shady Sands when you can… NCR will take you in."

I thought those words so many times since waking up, but before I could continue formulating any sort of plan in my mind, I felt something. I was already involved in something bigger than me, Sophia, the Bishops, and New Reno. What I felt was destiny, or an unbearable urge to take action. I interrupted the quiet ambiance of the room and low radio volume with;

"Are you happy here?"

She turned her eyes from the magazine, somewhat startled by my outburst, but more confused by it, so she asked, "Wh-What? What do you mean?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, "Just asking if you're satisfied with the way of things here in New Reno?"

Her face remained puzzled as she said, "Yeah? I guess so? What's this about?"

I took that answer to cowardly back off, "Never mind… I just… Nah, we're good."

But she didn't let it slide and asked, "Are you? You've seemed pretty out of it since you woke up from that blow to the head… Is this about that detective guy?"

I'd forgotten that I've shared just about everything from my past with her and responded, "Yeah, I just, I feel like there's so much more waiting for me somewhere else."

She took the uncertainty of my voice as a cue to comfort me and put her arms around me. She tried to soothe me by saying, "I'm sure you been dealing with a lot. This past year was pretty crazy for you, and for the both of us..."

She paused, nestled closer into me, and added sincerely but in a strangely graphic way; "Can't imagine watching an innocent family and their two little babies get splattered into red mist and bloody chunks right before your eyes… Poor thing."

I held her warm hand, shrugged off her vivid reminder of that horribly traumatic event, and asked straight to the point, "Do you want to go down south? To that NCR place?"

I felt her astonished expression on the side of my head, "You want to leave New Reno? Like, for good?"

I responded plainly, "I think so, Detective Paul said they'd take us in? What do you think?"

She asked, "But what about the Bishops? You can't just 'leave' the Bishop Family? They'll come for you, for us, right?"

I said, "I know. That question's been burning a hole in my mind ever since I woke up. I'll come up with something, I'm sure."

As much as I thought about it, I mentioned that I didn't have an actual plan and I meant it. However, in that moment I was more focused on how my wife of about 7 months would take the idea of me leaving the New Reno thug life.

I also mentioned that nobody in New Reno knew exactly how to, "Be Married" (at least by any criteria of old-world life).

So, I suppose I wasn't all that shocked when she responded, "Well, I am your wife… So, I guess wherever you wanna go, I gotta tag along with, right?"

I wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question, but her simple query seemed like she was onboard regardless of what she genuinely wanted. I think she assumed that being married meant she was bound to me no matter what, and that I as the man make all the decisions.

So, being largely ignorant of what being married really meant myself, I answered, "Correct."

The sun was already set, and the bright lights of New Reno shone in through the cracks in the curtains. We stayed up for hours and into the early morning brainstorming on a plan for the future. She asked what or where I was supposed to meet the detective if I made it to NCR and I didn't have any answers. We thought about ways to leave the Bishop Family without a hit getting placed on our heads, and I didn't really have any answers for that either. She wondered what her brother Tuco would think about the whole situation, but he'd been out of New Reno for months at that point. Tuco still didn't even know his sister got married to the same guy he had kill a chem pusher.

So, we discussed everything for a long time, and couldn't decide on the best way to get to NCR or where to go when we got there. However, we did come up with a seemingly good plan to get out of New Reno. During a break in our planning, she asked what I was talking to that caravan recruiter about and an idea hit me. I concocted a plan to make it clear to the Bishop family that I was roped into that Happy Trails Caravan out to that "Utah" place. Nobody I ever met knew what a Utah was, but the guy said it was some place out east. I figured that if they didn't like the other parts of my plan, they'd send people out east instead of where we were truly going, south.

With that diversion plan in place, I set the whole scheme in motion. However, I still didn't like the idea of abandoning the Bishops who'd been so good to me. Sure, they were a merciless organization in a scummy town, but they were family to me. I got a great job, learned a lot of skills, made friends, and had the respect of the boss himself. I felt bad that I was planning to leave them, but I was still just a low-level thug and knew I was destined for better things. All that respect I gathered from the Bishops' would be thrown out the window if I didn't have a good reason for ditching them. But, by the end of the night, I had a decent plan in place.