Chapter 1 – The Ghoul
Desert Rock Airport, Mercury
2 Days since the Proposal, 7:21am

"I'm going under, getting over you
I'm going under, drowning in these blues
I'm down so doggone low
Have to look up to see the soles of my shoes
I'm going under, I'm getting over you."

"GET UP GHOUL!" The scream of a Nightkin was not enough to wake Abe from his sun drenched morning slumber but the thud of the blue mutant's giant foot was. As the ghoul was recovering from his rude awakening, he looked up from his garden chair to see two giants staring down at him. He lifted up his sunglasses and strained his eyes to make sure his elderly vision was not lying. They were on the roof of the Desert Rock Airport, easily the largest building and the ghoul's home in the small town of Mercury a few miles northwest of 'New' New Vegas.

"Hello there Muteys, what can I do you for?" He replied in a gravelly sarcastic southern accent, before coughing and spitting on the floor. "Were you using your Stealth Boys on your way in? I could have put the kettle on."

"Shutup foolish ghoul. If you knew the full predicament with which you find yourself in, you would not be so hasty to be so rude!" The taller Nightkin bellowed.

"Oh, so I'm the rude one… Hey now, what are you doing with Emily?" Abe saw that the smaller of the two had hold of his trusty Hunting Rifle.

"You named your weapon Emily?" The smaller mutant smirked. He tried aiming the gun before attempting to analyse the insides of the barrel. "What is metal round thing on top of weapon?" He demanded.

"For god- It's called a scope, genius, now put it down before you put a hole in that empty head of yours."

"Do not threaten my companion ghoul. For you see, I am Captain Davison and we are Antlerists." He announced.

Abe gawked at the two of them for a brief moment. "You're what?"

"I am blessed by the guidance and wisdom of the powerful god Antler, and as a group of loyal Nightkin we obey his demands to appease him." Davison pulled from his belt what appeared to be a Brahmin skull. "Antler knows truth, Antler knows all."

"Antler knows truth, Antler knows all." The other mutant echoed, before going back to poking the rifle.

"What, your god is that little skull right there? It talks to you? And you guys do what it says?" Abe was fighting the urge to laugh out loud.

"Strange that you mock us for obeying an all-powerful god that you seem to believe is inanimate, when you yourself ghoul have given your weapon a feminine title." The smaller mutant mocked. Abe simply shrugged in response.

"Do not doubt the infinite knowledge Antler bestows upon us, for you see, if it were not for Antler, we might have crushed your skull and used your bones to season our radroach soup by now." Davison pointed out.

"Well, how dandy, tell him he has my gratitude. Look, this is my airport, this is my town, no one has come here in years and that's the way I like it. What do you fellas want?" Abe sat back in his chair and spat on the floor once more.

"We know this is your home ghoul, but you see, Antler has told us that the owner of the Big Shiny City southeast of here wants to give away his city and his wealth, and Antler wants us to get it so we can buy more Stealth Boys. However, he does not want us to go into the Big Shiny City as it is far too dangerous for us, so we need someone to do it for us instead. Antler knows truth, Antler knows all." The smaller mutant repeated the delusional phrase once more.

Abe stared at Davison for a little while and guessed that he was around 8 foot, probably weighed about 1000 pounds. He then peered at the other mutant, who was still inspecting his rifle as if it were alien technology. He imagined jumping up, taking back his beloved gun and blowing the empty heads clean off of these idiots, but he was far too frail for that. Maybe many years ago, when he still had his youth and his vigour, but not at this age he thought.

"Is it just the two of you?" The ghoul smarmily asked.

"There are twelve more downstairs making themselves cosy in our temporary home."

Abe let out a sigh. "So what, you guys are kicking me out of my place until I go and talk to this hotshot in the 'Big Shiny City'? On my own? What could possibly make you think that I'd be better than a group of hulking blue ogres such as yourselves!?" He demanded.

"Antler knows truth-" They both started to chant.

"Ok ok!" Abe looked at the two of them and shook his head. "I guess I'm going to have to accept your black mail. Wasn't too busy anyway." He got out of his garden chair and necked the rest of his whiskey.

"This is excellent news ghoul. Antler is pleased and wants to let you know that you have approximately 78 days before the Big Shiny City man kills himself. Have a safe trip." Davison said in what was an oddly joyous tone for a Nightkin.

Whilst walking down the airport's flight of stairs, Abe got to witness the rather pleasant sight of Davison's Nightkin rummaging around through his stuff and setting up camp. He could see that they had already set up a fire, which they were using to spit roast a radroach. One of them was stood in a closet (that they just barely could fit inside of) and was pulling out handfuls of tinned airport food and chucking it to another Nightkin behind him, who was cracking open each one and chucking the edible contents down his throat in one gulp.

"Of all the Raiders, Slavers, Maniacal Robots, NCR invaders- Of all the vermin I've imagined taking over my airport, I never once even imagined that it'd be you idiots." The ghoul said, beholding the slow invasion of his home.

"Well, you should be glad it was us Ghoul. Instead of sending you on a divine mission from the great god Antler himself, any other intruder would have probably have maimed your weak little body." Davison remarked, following behind him.

"How Lucky I must be…" He scorned. Abe walked to the entrance of the airport just in front of the group of mutants who were ransacking the place. Seeing as he had been forced to leave the place in the mutant's trust, he felt it appropriate to give a speech to them before he left.

"A-hem." His attempt at getting their attention was nowhere near loud enough.

"Excuse me!" He shouted as loud as he could in his gravelly ghoul voice. Still no response.

"Oh screw this…" He grunted, as he stormed out of the entrance to begin his questionable quest.

Davison stuck his head out of the doors behind him. "Make sure you win over the man in the Big Shiny City ghoul! We need those Stealth Boys! And remeber, if you die, Antler will never forgive you. Antler knows truth, Antler knows all." The rest of the Nightkin could be heard repeating the phrase in the middle of their ransacking, before carrying on their vandalizing of Abe's home.

As he came to the edge of the quiet town he had spent many years in solitude residing in, Abe stopped to admire. He hadn't ever been southeast of Mercury, but he had heard all sorts of stories about a large city glowing in the distance. Over the years he had seen many flashing lights and heard huge explosions come from that direction, usually giving him more and more reason to not venture down there. Before setting off, he checked what he would bring on this suicide mission. He was wearing a large jacket to hold his belongings, his sunglasses sat firmly on his face, he carried plenty of canned airport food and purified water as well as 200 .308 rounds for his beloved rifle.

"Alright Emily, one last time. Let's just try and make this fun." Abe chuckled as he plonked his rifle on his back and began his journey towards the rising sun.