Cass whistled. She whistled all the goddamn time. If she wasn't eating or drinking, she was whistling. This madness had to stop. Other ways to keep her mouth occupied, right. Don't go there, Callie. They just had to keep walking.
Nope, nope, had to stop the whistling. Where were the rumored roving bands of Legionnaires when you needed them?
"Could you stop that?" Callie had reached her breaking point.
Cass tilted her head, "stop what?"
"The whistling, it's kind of grating." Callie just had to live with herself coming across as an asshole.
"It's a big world out here, Callie, and nothing to fill it all up. We could listen to the radio? Your computer gets it, doesn't it?"
She shook her head, "No, absolutely not. The last thing I want is to listen to the radio."
"We could talk. Swank said you were a little quiet, but this is ridiculous."
Fuck if it would stop the whistling, okay, she would try it. Maybe she could talk to Cass like she used to talk to the bots back in the vault. She was just going to disassemble Cass in the end, anyway, like her bots, Cass would have no one to tell.
"Okay, what do you want to talk about," cautious at first, maybe let Cass do most of the talking.
"Where are you from?"
"You know that already, Swank must have told you."
Cass shrugged, "We're starting with the easy questions and working our way up."
"Fine. Fine. I'm from Vault 3. Yes, you thought they were all dead. Well, I'm not dead." Always having to give the same answers was tedious. She was already regretting this.
"What do you like?"
"What the hell kind of question is that?"
"A friendly one? Damn are you tense." Cass had a habit of smiling through every response. The longer they were in the sun the redder her face got, the freckles becoming less noticeable. Callie knew her freckles only got darker in comparison to her skin. She never burnt.
"No, I mean it, how do I answer that? What do you like?"
"I like whiskey, cards, Brahmin calves when they're real little and gangly, all heads and legs. Damn adorable. I like dancing when I've been drinking with boys who don't know any better. I like traveling and sleeping under the stars, but I know it's not safe. I like having enough caps to know where my next meal is coming from and I like grown-ass men in NCR uniforms. See, things you like."
Callie breathed. This would be good for her, right? Learning how to talk to people in a controlled environment like this. She reminded herself that Cass would be dead in a couple of days and anything she said would die with her. If she embarrassed herself terribly, she could just remember that she was going to reduce Cass to a pile of ash.
"I like robots, and energy weapons, and sometimes picking locks..."
"That won't do. You're listing things you're good at, not things you like."
"I like things I'm good at." It was true.
"Try again." Cass drank from an already open bottle of water. A little spilled down her neck.
"Okay." She was stuck. This question was really hard. She panicked a bit at how hard it was, this friendly question. "I like traveling too. And the sky. I saw the sky for the first time when I was 18 and it was so big and open and perfect."
"Good, that's a good start. What else?"
"I like Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. And uh..." She couldn't say Mentats or pornography so she was drawing a blank. "Math?"
Cass was exasperated with her, "that's a skill again."
"Okay, I like the smell left behind when a laser shot turns someone into ash?" From the look of horror on Cass's face, she should have gone with pornography. "Pornography! I like porn."
Cass was laughing so hard she doubled over, choking on the water she just drank and dropping the bottle. They had to stop walking for a minute so Cass could compose herself. Callie wanted to die she was so embarrassed. Who cared about killing Cass later, she wanted to die right the fuck now. But if she was dead, she wouldn't be around to kill Cass.
"Oh man, you are awesome." Cass slapped her on the back and they resumed walking.
Still embarrassed, Callie stuck her hands in the pockets of her leather armor. "I like Benny."
"Yeah, like that wasn't obvious." Cass kicked the little pebbles that littered the path. "Guy sure looks at you like you're an angel. You two got it bad. Is it true he turned you into a corpse?"
Callie was only half paying attention at this point. "Hmm, yeah. It feels like a long time ago now."
"Dunno how you could do it. Guy put a bullet in me I'd pay him back tenfold."
"It just works for us." Callie was getting uncomfortable again. Cass must have picked up on it. Luckily she had other things to discuss. Maybe this had all just been a ploy to get to the topic Cass really wanted to get at.
"You gotta do something for me when we get back."
Always with the favors. Was there some neon sign hanging above her head that just screamed problem solver? No, she was fucking sure there wasn't. Then again, Cass was helping her out here. Then again, Cass wasn't going to make it out of this trip alive. Callie just kept on walking, eyes straight on ahead.
"You gotta get Swank off my case. Screw around with that guy a couple of times and suddenly he thinks you owe him something, pff. I got other problems too, but you can help me with this one. You got both those boys wrapped around your little finger." For every step Callie took, Cass needed a step and a half. If Callie quickened the pace enough, maybe the redhead would be so out of breath she couldn't speak or whistle. "Have you given him a spin?"
"What? Swank? No, fuck no. I'm not like that," Callie glowered.
"Not like what?" It hadn't occurred to Callie that Cass might be fucking with her.
"I'm with Benny. I wouldn't just sleep around like that." Except she sort of did, back in the Vault. But she was never really with any of those women. They all dropped her as dead weight once they decided, or had decided for them, who they were going to marry.
"Ah, so you're not a slut. Not like me, eh? You judging me?"
"No, it's not that."
It was totally that. Swank was good and sweet and noble. A better person than Benny or her or Cass. And here Cass was, just toying with him. Callie may have not had the best record with affection, but at least she was trying. Even though she thought about revenge-fucking Sarah Weintraub she didn't actually revenge-fuck Sarah Weintraub. So there was that.
Callie saw red at the corner of her eye. Just a dash of it standing out against the beige of the desert.
"Shit. Legion." Callie grabbed Cass by the arm and jerked her behind a rock outcropping.
There were three of them, following at a distance from the east, running alongside them, just up the ridge. They couldn't have been there for long. Either that or they had been exceptionally talented at tailing them. Now they would suspect they had been spotted. Good. Callie needed to draw them out, into laser range. If she was good enough, she'd ash them before they got into spear-chucking range. Cass and her shotgun would become useful if they did cross into closer quarters.
"I didn't see them." See them or not, Cass was crouched down as well, keeping her head low.
Callie reached into her pack and produced her tin. She swallowed down the pill with a swig from Cass's almost-empty water bottle. Water splashed down her hand. Mentally, she counted down the seconds until her vision would be enhanced.
"Hey, hey. What was that, are you some sort of junkie?" Cass kept her voice low, although it was largely unnecessary at this distance. They were only half-hiding anyway
"Not now, Cass," Callie spat. Unholstering her laser pistol, Callie raised her body above the rock high enough that she would be spotted. The landscape was largely without vegetation here and there would be fewer places for the Legionaries to hide. Now that she knew they were trolling about, she was sure to pick them out. If they were dumb enough, she could eliminate all three.
One made the mistake of peaking above the ridge that had been concealing them. This could be a standoff, but Callie was hesitant to lose her advantage. "Cass, walk."
"What? Fuck no. You want me to be some sort of target?" Yes, exactly.
"They're too far away to hit you with their spears. We need them to approach, I'll get them long before they can even hit you." She might let them hit her anyway.
Cass didn't seem too happy with that plan, but she stood anyway, taking a deep breath as she did. "You're the hero here."
Callie still didn't like the sound of that.
The pace Cass adopted was an irregular, stilted one. She looked all around her like the Legion brutes would jump right out in front of her. Both hands gripped her shotgun like it too. Callie focused in on the area she had last seen the head pop up. There, just there, one of them stirred and started his descent. Then he signaled to the others and they forgot all about being sneaky, instead rushing towards Cass far too quickly.
Well, this would make things interesting.
Callie lined up her first shot. She didn't need to use the sights. She was sure of her positioning and angle. The nearest one was by far the fastest, and might be troublesome at close range. Two rounds went off, the first where the quick Legionnaire stood and then a second where Callie anticipated he might dodge. The first connected with his upper chest. It didn't crit though and he was still standing. Shots three and four hit him in the lower torso and he went down.
Cass advanced on the corpse and fired her shotgun at close range just to make sure he was dead. The body practically jumped at the impact. With the other two Legionaries approaching, Cass looked for cover herself. The remaining men were gaining on her.
Laser pistols had absolutely massive clips compared to conventional weapons and Callie was able to land seven shots in the bigger of the two remaining men. The seventh hit was critical and all that was left behind was that sweet smelling ash Callie had admitted to liking just minutes before.
Got the fastest, got the biggest, the one in the middle though had just entered throwing range on Cass and hurled his spear in Her direction. The small woman was agile though and managed to dodge the spear, instead it sank harmlessly into the dirt.
"You said something about picking them off before they got to me!" Cass was angry, but not too angry. Adrenaline had kicked in for them both.
The Legionnaire looked up and spotted Callie, she was clearly the intended target for this attack. Cass was just a bonus target. Underprepared, or something, he only had one more spear to throw. As it left his hands Callie got a little cocky and shot it clear out of the sky.
There was a long, impressed sounding whistle before the powerful thud of the shotgun. The Legionnaire fell forward into the dirt and Callie rushed towards him. By the time she reached him, he was already trying to get back on in a feet. She stamped her boot in the middle of his back, pinning him down to the ground. The cries he let out were pitiful. The mighty Caesar's Legion, indeed. Callie lined up her shot and his body disintegrated below her boot when the laser hit his skull.
"Fuck me, you are that good." Cass was making her way over to Callie's position. She was all smiles again as she reloaded her shotgun. "That trick with the spear, something else."
"Takes practice I guess." Callie wiped her foot against the ground, removing the traces of ash that got on it when the Legionare disintegrated. Rarely was it worth checking Legion corpses for tradables. They never had chems or ammo, light stuff that was easily traded. As they continued walking, Cass grabbed the spear that had landed in the dirt and clipped it to her back along with her shotgun.
"Do you know how to use that?" Callie was actually, mildly, interested in the answer.
"Nah, Mom was a Tribal, but she didn't teach me anything like that. It's for practice." Cass was beaming.
"I don't think it'll work with a shotgun, Cass. Your accuracy and perception have got to be really good."
"Got my pistol too. Reckon that'll work. And I'll have you know my accuracy is excellent."
"I've actually never done that before, so, I mean..." At least this wasn't a completely embarrassing topic of conversation. Only a mildly embarrassing topic of conversation. "Besides, laser cuts through the air different than conventional weapons."
"First you say practice, then you say you've never done it before? Make up your damn mind." There wasn't even a hint of malice in Cass's voice.
Callie scrunched her face, "It's the same as shooting crows, I guess. Calculate the distance and velocity...I guess it's easier than crows because once a spear is released it won't change trajectory much."
They managed to stay on the topic of shooting shit until it was time to make camp for the night. It would take a whole day of travel tomorrow to reach Novac. Then it was a simple in-and-out job to lift the rockets. Callie didn't even plan on staying the night in town. They'd fill up both packs with as much isotope as they could once the shopkeeper went to bed and then get a couple of miles out of the settlement before anyone knew what was going on. Sound plan. A half day to ditch Cass somewhere then and a day and a half to travel back to the Strip. Then she would be golden.
"Hey, so about earlier," Cass was eating directly from a barely-warm can of pork-n-beans. Turned out she chewed with her mouth open. "Really though, are you a chem junkie? I wouldn't have pegged you for one."
Callie leaned back against a low, flat rock. Her back was killing her for some reason. Not wanting to answer Cass, she chose to say nothing.
"Hey!" Cass threw a pebble in her direction, as if Callie hadn't heard the question.
"They just help in combat." She wasn't a great liar, so she picked a response that had truth to it.
Cass resumed eating, shoving forkfuls into her mouth. Kept her quiet, at least. When the rest of the food on the fire was actually heated, Callie started on her own dinner. The silence pleased her.
"They're bad for your heart, you know?" Not a moment after Cass had finished eating and she was already talking again.
"And drinking is bad for your liver." What was with Cass judging her when drunkenness was downright rampant. Drunkenness and smoking both.
"So another question. I had reports about my caravans, you know the ones that got trashed?"
Callie didn't know but nodded in assent, the story would end faster this way.
"The reports were that the drivers on my caravans were burned to ash. Swank and I passed one getting those books for you," Cass actually sounded a little bit sad. Like she had lost something important. "Some of the cargo was ash too. Not burned, more like, disintegrated. When I had first heard ash I assumed burned. But that wasn't it. Do you think it could have been lasers?"
"With a big enough laser you can ash anything, eventually," Callie shrugged. "It either takes a bunch of shots or some luck though. You saw, it won't ash them one-hundred percent of the time. Maybe some special gun or something could."
She was just finishing up her meal and was anxious to sleep through the first shift. Cass was pensive for a moment and Callie took the opportunity to climb into her bedroll for the night. If Cass had any decency, she'd let her sleep her shift straight though.
It was a chime that woke Callie. Her body protested, it was too soon for her to wake. At first she assumed it was her Pip-boy, maybe Benny was in trouble already. But when she finally got her eyes open she realized the noise was a bit off for it to be her Pip-boy. Cass was already on her feet and had her pistol aimed out towards the Wastes. Someone or something was there.
Sleeping out in the open like this was a mistake. The fire had attracted attention and now someone was on them. Callie grabbed her laser pistol and listened. Anything from the darkness was better than nothing at this point. Nothing couldn't be pinpointed.
There was a gentle crack of dried grass underfoot, then a thrill of several chimes. Eyebot. They were eyebot noises. Or a very similar robot, something small and simple. But an eyebot wouldn't make noises along the ground like that. At least now she knew where to aim. Cass was fixated on the same point.
Careful, careful. The fire already gave away their position, there was nothing to lose in speaking to each other. Whoever or whatever it was, already knew they were there.
"It's a bot, and something else. The bot will be floating in the air, no feet. Don't damage the bot too much if you can avoid it. I want it." She did want it. An eyebot was like, ten times better than Cass. Having already worked on ED-E, another one wouldn't take her long at all to reimage.
"Why has it always got to be robots? Fuck me." Cass kept her eyes ahead as she spoke.
"Hey! Person with the adorable robot! Hand it over and I won't kill you!" Callie wanted to get back to sleep. She wasn't being entirely irrational, she still kept low to the ground, made herself a small target if the person in the distance started shooting. But no one had the element of surprise anymore, so it wasn't worth faking.
"No! He's my adorable robot!" A female voice came from the dark, just as defiant as Callie's. Only now did Callie think that they might be attracting other, nastier, things to their location. Well, shit. Shit. She knew that voice.
"Veronica?" That two-timing, Brotherhood bastard.
"Mint?" Veronica should have known that was not her name, even though they were only just on the edges of unraveling who she was when Callie assumed her betrayal and ditched her a Old Mormon Fort.
"ED-E?" Callie's heart skipped at the thought of the troublesome bot.
Another set of electric trills, a bit like a purr, came in response. The eyebot floated nonchalantly into the range of the campfire light and hovered sweetly. It was different than she had left it. Before it had been covered in paint and grime and stickers. It had character. Now it looked bright and shiny and new. Someone had upgraded it.
"Do I need to be lowering my weapon here or not?" Seeing ED-E and hearing Veronica's voice had been so overwhelming that Callie had forgotten about Cass for a moment. She was still poised to attack if necessary, keeping her pistol aimed on ED-E.
Callie certainly wasn't ready to trust Veronica outright. Hell, she still couldn't even see the Scribe through the darkness. Her HUD was off too, since she had been asleep, so she couldn't say exactly where Veronica was standing.
"I know them," it wasn't really an answer, but Cass relaxed just a little.
"I'm coming now!" Veronica's voice was quite close. Another few seconds and a shimmer passed into the space gently lit by the fire. Cass reacted and drew her weapon again, but didn't shoot. A soft click and Veronica disabled her stealth boy, rendering herself visible.
"Mint, Mint I thought I had lost you forever!" She looked the same, her hood covering her hair and her pale skin flushed a little from either happiness or exertion. Straight rows of white teeth peeked out from behind her pink lips when she spoke. She came forward and embraced Callie, wrapping her arms around her waist. Callie tensed at the contact. Their touch had been much more intimate than this before. Arguably, it had been Callie who craved affection from the other woman at the time. Wanting the scribe was much more in line with the person she was now than it was with what she knew of Mint. But it wasn't the betrayal alone that made the contact odd. Veronica felt foreign all around her.
"Are you okay? I thought you had died and the Followers were experimenting on your body and wouldn't tell me…" Veronica gripped Callie's upper arms. She had pulled away a bit in order to get a good look at Callie's face in the firelight. ED-E still hummed nearby, probably still appraising Cass.
That the Followers were experimenting on her? No, what bullshit. Callie had been a specimen to Veronica. She may have been at least somewhat responsible for the occurrence and duration of her seizures. Veronica had been there when she started having attacks and sat by her side through, arguably, the worst period of her illness. It sure seemed like after she ditched Veronica, her attacks were less frequent, at least for awhile.
Callie drew her own laser pistol at Veronica and Cass mimicked the action, forgetting about ED-E for a moment. "Keep yours on the robot, Cass."
If ED-E's companion protocol was attached to Veronica's biosignature, it wouldn't matter that she had been the one to repair the bot and tend to it first. It would attack if Veronica was threatened. It was a small miracle that it hadn't started attacking yet. ED-E had always itched for a fight, even if Callie didn't want it.
"Mint," Veronica looked genuinely concerned at this turn of events. "What's wrong?"
"You, you're what's wrong," Callie hissed. "Did you think I wouldn't notice? All the notes that you kept for the Brotherhood? You knew what was wrong with me and you said nothing." She was trying not to yell, not to scream, not to throw her fists in Veronica's face. Honestly, she was exhausted. With everything.
"What are you talking about?" Veronica had both hands in front of her chest, her palms facing out in a sign of submission, she wanted to talk even if Callie wanted to fight.
"Was I just an assignment to you?" Not crying, but almost. Veronica had been her first 'friend' after waking up from death. And then to be betrayed like that; and to now fake innocence like this. It was just too much.
"Listen, I only ever knew as much as you did," she paused and bit her lip. "I know a little more now. But I didn't know about...everything. So it was you, who killed Dr. Henry up in Jacobstown? I couldn't believe it, it seemed too much to hope for that you were still alive."
"What do you mean you know a little more now?" Veronica may have been spinning lies, but they were so pretty.
"We knew Dr. Henry had been looking for a body, he had been from some years. He had experimental tech we were interested in...acquiring. But that wasn't part of my job for the family. I only found out about it after I went back home. I told one of my friends about you and it occurred to him that you might be that body Henry had been waiting for. I went up to Jacobstown after that, and Henry was already dead. There was no one around to ask. Just supermutants, you know? I stealthed in and stealthed out." Such pretty, comforting words. Fuck did Callie want to believe her.
There were still unanswered questions. "You were writing, all the time, in this brown notebook."
Veronica blushed slightly. "It's just a diary, so yeah, there's stuff about you I guess. And no, you can't see it. Well," she reached into her pack and produced the notebook in question, "you can see the outside I guess. But not what I wrote." She pulled the book back to her chest and crossed her arms over it, coddling it.
Callie's shoulders relaxed. This all seemed plausible. Maybe too much. But Veronica's voice was so sweet and kind to her ears. Veronica was pretty and good with robots and didn't whistle. It was weird to think she wanted Veronica back with her, but she did.
"Why are you here now?"
"I didn't have any more leads on you until today. Like you've been hiding out. I continued my supply runs for my family. But there was a Legion troop a couple miles back, one of them ashed. Not that many energy weapons users outside of us, and I knew it wasn't one of our groups, they've mostly been called back home. So, I tracked you to here."
"But why are you here now, why come after me?" Veronica's previous statement explained how she had found Callie, but not why she was looking for her.
"I-I, I thought we were friends. I missed you. I thought you were dead," her voice was so sad, tender even. Their friendship had meant something to V.
Callie really didn't have more questions, or more snide statements to make. "Okay." That about summed it up. Finally, she put her arms around Veronica and hugged her back, setting her head at the junction of V's shoulder and neck.
"Do I get an introduction now?" Cass had been both patient and had kept her weapon trained on ED-E.
"Veronica, this is Cass, Cass, Veronica," Callie gestured back and forth in introducing the two women. "The robot is ED-E. It's awesome. This means we can all sleep, it'll watch. That is, if you're staying, V? If not, I'm still taking the bot."
Laughing, perfect teeth exposed, Veronica responded, "Of course I'm staying. You're the best tour guide in all the Mojave, Mint."
"Callie," she corrected.
"You sure this time?" Veronica didn't have a bedroll with her, she just sat in front of the fire, the light of the flames flickering against her skin.
Absolutely she was sure. "Yes, it's Callie, for sure." Being haunted by another woman's ghost was becoming more tolerable, now that she was surely gone.