Scott Starlyle left Goodneighbor in search of adventure. He was going to the city of New Vegas, for the third time in his prolonged life. He was a ghoul, a human being so plagued by radiation they were barely recognizable. But that was okay for him, because very few people cared anymore. After all, it was the end of the world. People had bigger fish to fry. As Scott traveled, he usually hummed, or whistled, or sang along with the radio he kept in his knapsack. Of course, for a lot of trips, signal was scarce, so he sang from memory. Today he decided to whistle, and whistled an off-key rendition of almost every song that came up on the radio. To start off his journey, he traveled south. Of course, he could always plot a straight course to Vegas, but winter was fast approaching, so he wanted to stay south of any snow. This, if course, meant he had to travel through the Glowing Sea. Scott didn't need any power armor or hazmat suits, obviously being a ghoul. Although he didn't love the feeling of radiation baking him into a crispy human biscuit, he could put up with it. He walked carefully on the bomb-burnt ground, always watching for anything that moved. After having to put down a few feral and a radscorpion he almost shot the head off a Child of Atom out doing some exploring. After apologizing profusely for almost murdering her, Scott asked if she could take her back to their home, The Crater of Atom. "Sure thing!" She replied happily. "Thinking of joining the church?" "Uh, no." Scott replied hastily. "Just passing through. Thanks for the offer though." They walked the rest of the way in silence. Scott always wondered how everyone there stayed human, and, more importantly, alive. "Maybe they're just ghouls with makeup." Scott thought, but then quickly dismissed it. "That'd be a lot of makeup." After a long walk in silence, they arrived at the Crater of Atom. "Thank y.." Scott started to say, but the girl who escorted him here had already left. After a moment of confusion, Scott walked over to Mother Isolde's cabin. "Hey, mama. What's going on?" Mother Isolde looked up from the magazine she was reading to face Starlyle. "Hey, Starlyle. What are you doing here?" "I was actually heading to Vegas. I'm going south first, I don't want to get snowed in." "Ah, I see. So you'll just be passing through?" "Yeah, I'll be out of your hair in a few days." "What a shame. You always bring the most... interesting events with you." "I can't just be a pretty face, can I?" Mother Isolde laughed. "Before you go, perhaps you could tell me a story? You tell the most fascinating tales." "Need something to lull you to sleep? Alright, but I'll need somewhere to sit. And a drink." Mother Isolde moved over on her couch and pulled a flask with an unmarked flask from her pocket, handing it to Scott. He took a look into the flask before giving it a sip. "Oooh, this is good. Thanks. So a story, huh? Pre- or Post-War?" "It doesn't much matter, either one would be exciting." "Alright then... One time, I was in the wasteland before any of the vaults opened, right? So at that time almost everything in the wasteland was untouched. So me and the people I traveled with at the time... We find a vertibird. Like, fully gassed, in the middle of no where, mostly intact. I think we were somewhere in the Midwest. So, one of the guys with me, he says, 'All right, get in!' but none of us knew how to fly the damn thing! So he puts me in the pilots seat, okay s-" Scott paused as he was hit with a wave of dizziness. "Is something wrong?" Isolde asked politely "Uh, yeah, no, I'm, uh, I'm fine." Starlyle felt like he was about to puke. He fell off of the couch and onto the ground, looking up at Isolde smiling sadly. "I'm sorry. We had no choice." it sounded like her voice was miles away. Then, a deep voice from even further away said "Alright, grab him." It sounded vaguely familiar... After that Scott was out cold and got dragged away. Starlyle woke up atop a mountain. The first thing he noticed was a yellowy haze. He was still in the glowing sea. That was good. Then he noticed pain all over. He felt like someone beat him up while he was asleep. Which was surprisingly accurate, because someone had beat him up while he was sleeping. The third thing he noticed was that he was tied, both his hands and feet. He was also stripped down to his underwear, so nothing could get him out of this jam but himself. "Well, well, well," said a voice approaching from behind. "Sleeping Beauty awakens." suddenly a face was all he could see. It was the face of a man. He was muscular, tan, and hairy, he had a thick beard, bushy eyebrows, and long hair. "The boss is gonna see you now." He said in an accent that was undefinable, but definitely there. He lifted Starlyle up by the chains around his hands, and put him behind his shoulder, so they were back to back. "Got a name, bruiser?" Starlyle asked nonchalantly. "Yeah." He didn't say anything else. "Mind telling me what it is?" "Yeah." "Yeah you'll tell me or yeah you mind? You need to specify these kinda thing, muscles." "How about you shut your fucking face before I rip that jaw of yours right off, pal?" "You could say please." "You know wha-" Without warning Scott had broken the burly man's grip and rolled over so the chains fell in front of the man's neck. He wrapped his legs around the bruiser's hips and pulled the chain tight before cris-crossing his hands so the chain wrapped fully around his neck. The man stumble forward in surprise, and Scott used this to his advantage by leaning forward, making the big fellow fall face first. He choked him out until he quit struggling. then he slipped his chains out from around his neck, and patted him down to find anything to help him. In one of the man's pockets, he found a gun. A small, silenced .22. Not much, but it'd have to make due. He got it into his hands and, with minimal struggle, he shot the chain, severing it and freeing his hands. Then he shot the big guy in the base of his neck to be sure he wasn't faking. He gave him a last pat to find two extra clips for the .22. After that, Scott followed the path the big guy was walking along to find a big warehouse. Counting to three with the .22 in hand, he kicked the door open and entered the warehouse gun first. The warehouse was empty- well, almost empty. At the opposite end of the building were three people, two burly bodyguards centered around a ghoul woman sitting on a crude throne of various items glued together. "You! Who are you and what do you want with me?" The woman in the throne laughed. It was a raspy laugh, like most ghouls had. "You think you can get me with that little pea shooter from across the warehouse? Come on closer, I won't bite." Starlyle slowly, cautiously, crept forward, trying to watch all three of them. "Come on, buddy. You can get closer than that." After a few more rounds of encouragement from the woman in the throne, Scott was about five feet away. Then it hit him like a brick who lie was. "June, is that you?" "Damn straight," June said, standing up from her chair to move closer. "And I'm better than ever. No thanks to you." "June I- I didn't- It was for-" "Save your babbling, Starlyle." She gave her head a quick jerk to the left and the ccorresponding man the Scott his suit. "Clothe yourself. And make it snappy." Scott hastily put on his favorite blue suit, and after straightening his tie June said, "You want to know why I wanted you hear, hmm? Take a guess." "Uh, because, I, uh, we-" "Specify who we are, exactly." "The group. Our band of survivors. Me, You-" "Are you trying to imply that I did this to myself? Try again." "We being Me, Jerry, Luther, Martin, Leila, and Sam. We, uh, we abandoned you. In, uh, in the wasteland." "Yes, precisely! Give this man a medal for his astute scientific discovery." "Look, June, I'm really-" "Save it. I know you're 'Really honestly truly very sorry,' and 'It was a tough choice for all of us'. I don't care what ungodly excuse you can come up with. It doesn't change the truth. And the truth is, I kinda want to fucking kill you right now." "Oh." "Oh indeed. However, I also miss human company outside of these idiots." She said, gesturing to her bodyguards. Then she laughed. Although we aren't really human anymore. Anyway, I'll strike you a deal. You, in return for your life, will take me on your grand journey to Vegas. Fair?" "Uh, yeah, seems fair enough." "Fantastic. Gentleman, give him his stuff." One of the beefy guys tossed Starlyle a key and pointed to a big trunk behind the makeshift throne. Scott unlocked it to find all his stuff, exactly the way he left it. But one thing was missing: His Tommy gun. He lifted his head out of the trunk to ask, but June cut him off. "Your Tommy gun? Mine now, don't bother looking for it." Scott shrugged. He didn't use it much, but felt odd without it anyway. June pointed to the body, nodding grimly. "Choked the poor sap out, huh? Can't say I expected much else. You always were tricky." "Thanks, although I think my real talent is juggling." Scott said sarcastically. "Maybe you could get a part-time as a clown. guitar all this mercenary garbage." "If people can afford to buy clowns, I don't think mercenaries will have much work anymore." "I suppose you're right." They walked the next few minutes in silence, before Scott asked tentatively, "So, how did you know I was heading for Vegas?" "Eyes everywhere." "Ah." Scott said quietly, but it was too unclear to actually learn anything from. A few more minutes passed in silence. "Hey, I know you said to save it, but I really am sorry for what happened. I know it was wrong and we could've helped, but we were scared, so we just left you behind. So, very sorry." June sorted. "Talk is cheap, especially these days, How about you show me you're sorry, eh?" "Yeah, alright. But, if you don't mind my asking, how did you survive?" Scott asked cautiously. "Thought I'd make good bait, huh? You thought wrong.So it was just me and those goddamned raiders, you pussies were taking of in your aireagle-" "Vertibird, actually." "Yeah, that's what I said. you pussies took off in your Vertibird, leaving me surrounded, when I see a guy, say, twenty feet from the brawl, watching. Looked like the leader. So I dash through the crowd, and run over to him, knock the shortest out with a punch and turn to the raiders yelling 'Anyone else want an asswhoopin'?' And they all just accepted me as their ruler." "You trusted a band of raiders?" "Yeah, why?" "Uh, no reason." The two kept walking on, talking about earlier stories and having fun, but Scott stayed on edge just in case June changed her mind about sparing him, although after a while the jitters faded. Starlyle could get used to having company.
"So, why are we going South?" June asked curiously.
"Well, the snow is coming fast, so I want to stay as far away as possible from that."
"Ah, got it."
"That, and I want to make a stop in the Capital Wasteland."
"Why's that?"
"The free water. When we'll be in the deep south it'll be hot, regardless of the season. Water will be priceless."
"Free water? Why?"
"Project Purity, obviously. June, when is the last time you've traveled?"
"God, it must've been... About 160 years now? Just a guess."
"Oh, uh, ever been to Vegas?"
"Nope."
"Oh, boy."
So Scott, now traveling with June, realized that this journey would be much more arduous than he originally planned.
