Phoenix in Arizona
(Chapter Four)
Rene was still soundly sleeping when Boone rose from his sleep. Eli was dutifully keeping his watch, eyes gazing off into the horizon with his firearm casually cradled in his grasp. Boone could see that the sun was just barely beginning to peek over the horizon. It was not hot yet but soon the heat of the Mojave sun would begin to smother them.
"Sleep well?" Eli asked cordially.
"Yeah." Boone said with a sigh.
It was all Eli could do not to roll his eyes. The New Canaanite understood that Boone had been through a lot. He would never disrespect that. Still, he sometimes wondered how the sniper could stand being so bloody melancholy all the time.
Eli squinted at something off in the horizon for a moment.
"I need to check on something for a moment. Can you watch the girl and yourself?" he asked.
"I can." Boone replied, standing up.
Boone watched Eli as he started off in a quick trot but decided that was just his usual manner. Having stretched, Boone began to check to make sure his rifle was in working order. The gun had certainly seen better days but it got the job done and he was familiar with every little detail and quirk about it. If you wanted to drop your target's head from a few hundred yards, you needed to know your rifle.
Rene woke with a yelp when a thunderous explosion rocked the ground. Boone was immediately up and his rifle shouldered when the crack of gunfire hit their ears shortly thereafter. Rene glanced up at the NCR soldier as rounds continued to boom in the background. It took a moment for both Rene and Boone to realize that the gunfire they were hearing was in fact Eli's rifle.
The gunfire ended just as suddenly as it had begun. Boone and Rene were already at a rapid trot to find their wayward companion. For his part, Boone was not expecting to find anything pretty and kept his rifle on hand just to be sure.
What they found was...unexpected.
They came upon Eli casually lounging on a rock overlooking the mangled body of a decanus, Eli's knife buried deep in the dying legionnaire's chest. The New Canaanite was wrapping bandages around a wound on his forearm but as he did that he carried on in what seemed to be a lively discussion with the dying man.
"...So are you sure? That's the reason why you're so determined to kill those two?" Eli demanded.
"The will of Caesar...will be...carried out." the decanus groaned.
"Sure, sure but you got to understand, there's just some things Caesar can't control because let's be honest, he was just a man. Ah, and here's the two you have been so dead set on killing. You should really meet them in person. The one with the red beret is Craig Boone and he's not so bad once you get to know him. The young girl is Rene. That little thing is what has caused your Legion so much trouble, a regular Joan of Arc she is." Eli chuckled.
The dying legionnaire growled in his death throes.
"One last thing. There are a few more names you should hear. The Malpais Legate and the Burned Man, the names both given by Caesar to the man called Joshua Graham..." Eli said condemningly.
The Decanus glared at him in pure hatred.
"He came from New Canaan, the place I knew as home. You couldn't wipe that place away and till the day I die, I will make sure the world knows of your failure." Eli murmured as his enemy breathed his last.
Eli retrieved his knife and hopped to his feet to greet Rene and Boone.
"I got the answers I was looking for. You two just don't have any death order on your heads. You've both been condemned to Damnatio Memoraie. You're both condemned memories, history that never happened. The Legion will stop at nothing to eradicate any evidence you two existed at all." Eli explained.
"I guess we really pissed them off." Boone murmured.
"Sure, but if you really want to do something about it, keep living. Trust me, I know." murmured before walking back towards the road leaving Boone and Rene to their thoughts. This time, the New Canaanite could offer no off hand remarks to lighten the mood.
Rene played the Legion words over in her head, wanting to wish the Legion never existed in the first place. Nobody wanted to let the Legion exist in the first place, but if they didn't something most likely worse would have taken its place, and the NCR wouldn't even be able to defend itself. At least it the Enclave wasn't breathing still- or at least, not anywhere close to the Mojave. Trying to brush out the sand and tangles from her long brown hair, Rene only wished they could teleport to Arizona, and kick the Legion's asses. For her, she wouldn't mind playing matador with the Bull once more.
"Is this what you wanted?" Rene asked Boone cautiously. He always talked about wanting to go after the Legion, even after they had destroyed The Fort and The Legate's camp- each one with everyone in it- and they started eradicating slaving parties and go after every single damn Legionnaire they could.. even the Prisoners of War.
"What do you mean?"
"You talked about going after the Legion. You also said that you wanted them to come after you… is this what you wanted?"
Boone sighed, and looked perplexed at her question this point. Rene ever rarely asked him questions like this.
"Wasn't it a little idealistic?"
"Don't ever say that again", Boone said, poison filling his words. He didn't mean for it to come out like that as it did… but Rene, being the person she is, just frowned and continued walking alongside him, trying to comb out the sand in her hair and scalp. He offered to cut her hair once, but she took it as an insult.
"I mean, it was hard, because you helped me. So I wanted to give you what you wanted, so you can be happy. I mean, if you're not happy and you just don't smile a lot and your smiles are frowns".
Eli held his breath to keep from chuckling at the last part of Rene's attempt to reach an understanding between the two. The pent up laugh was quickly dissolved, however and he just continued walking, seeming to drift in the same direction as everyone else.
"But now, I'm not sure if I helped you, or if I betrayed you, due to the danger we're carrying now."
"Do you two have loved ones or families? Is there a place you both call home?" Eli asked them.
Rene and Boone thought about that for a moment. Everything they had was either gone or left behind. The Twisted Hairs were consigned to history for Rene and Boone had all but left a quickly disappearing trail since he signed up into the NCR military.
"I take that silence as a no. Sad, but probably for the best. You two know what you're up against. It's those that have known you that you should worry about." Eli warned.
"What did you do to be declared Damnatio Memoriae?" Rene asked.
"Me? Nothing. It was one of my tribe who committed the sin and New Canaan was simply collateral damage. Given the chance, if I had done something to warrant Caesar's wrath, I probably would have told him that Rome already fell once and did it so well that there was no reason to practice it a second time." Eli shrugged.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Boone snapped.
"No, I take medicine and God very seriously though I do believe the Maker also has a sense of humor."
Boone and Rene gave him wry looks.
"Well just look at me! I wandered this far away from New Canaan only to bump into you two and what do you two want to do? Drag me even further closer to the place that wants me, and you two, wiped off of memory. The three of us living middle fingers to the Bull." the New Canaanite shrugged.
"You are a very strange man." Boone declared.
"Thank God. Have you seen most of the people out here? We do need a couple different people every now and then to keep things interesting."
Boone shook his head realizing he was not getting anywhere.
"But really, Boone, life is a gift and you of all people should know how quickly it can be whisked away. We are all just a few centimeters from death, six liters from exsanguination and four minutes away from suffocation. Life should be approached with seriousness but lived with joy. Besides, it's not like anyone misses out on dying. There's plenty of time to be grave in the grave. Ha! I amuse myself sometimes."
"Keep amusing yourself, we've got pressing matters to attend to", Boone snapped towards Eli. He didn't enjoy all of his joking but he did have to admit that it provided something to listen to than his droning thoughts that filled his mind daily. It was kind of stupid how he joked though, Boone was tempted to knock his teeth down his throat.
Sighing, Boone let Eli's humor drip into his head and let it sound out the sound of the wind that blew past his ears. Rene still seemed to be struggling with her hair, and all this fidgeting was bothering him. Boone had no idea why he was so hyper-sensitive to everything all of a sudden, and it scared him just a little bit.
Rene turned to Eli, her hands stuck within her knotted hair.
"You got any scissors? I…. I need to cut my hair off. Just a little bit, I think…", she stammered, hoping he'd turn up with a brush instead. Cutting her hair would mean cutting her history into nothing, once more. Rene tried dragging her fingers though her hair once again, but eventually gave up. Letting her fingers reach up once more, Boone gently placed his hand on hers and kept it from messing her hair up any further.
"I told you I could cut your hair, but you said no. See where it's got you now?"
"Well, it grew since the last time you offered..", she pouted slightly, tossing her waist-length hair across her shoulder. She wrapped it around herself like a scarf and Boone shook his head again.
"It's going to get even more tangled now."
"…It won't stay tangled forever, right?"
"Maybe it will if you keep messing with it."
Rene looked horrified and quickly tossed it over her shoulder again.
Eli shifted his eyebrows and gazed into the sky for a moment as if sorting through some of the dusty corners of his mind. There was something useful in there but he wasn't quite sure where he left it. He smiled in happy triumph when he found the data he was looking for.
Boone and Rene once again shot him quizzical looks as they saw him trot off for a bit only to return whittling down some cactus fruit. He'd place those in his pack and continue to fall in pace behind them. However, in a few minutes he would do the same thing, wandering off to scavenge yet another item, usually a fruit of some kind though at one point they heard a short scuffle off in the distance and he came back carrying the arms of what once belonged to a giant mantis.
Eli never explained what he was up to and Rene and Boone decided not to ask. If the man wanted to go on his own personal easter egg hunt, so long as he didn't blow himself or them up, they wouldn't care.
It didn't come altogether, literally, until that evening when they found him determinedly mashing and mixing everything he had gathered from the day. From what Rene could tell, there were several kind of plant juices in there and maybe some of the insides of a mantis. She was starting to wonder if this was some sort of ridiculous soup the man liked. That was her running theory up until he drained the contents into an empty bottle he found.
The corked bottle with the mystery fluids was abruptly tossed into her lap.
"What is this?" Rene demanded.
"Tribal remedy." Eli shrugged.
"For what? I'm not sick." she replied.
"Many tribes place an emphasis on styling their hair in various ways. One group concocted a mixture to promote healthy hair...and prevent tangles. This will help until you salvage a proper brush out in the wastes. I believe it's called 'conditioner.'" Eli explained.
"..Oh. THAT Stuff. My mother used it on my hair before I had it put in elaborate dreadlocks to keep it nice and healthy. I… I didn't know the recipe for it, but thank you. It does mean a lot to me to keep my hair kept nice", Rene smiled, looking at the bottle and studying it carefully.
"I still can cut your hair if you want, Rene. Just the knots, though", Boone offered once again.
"No thanks… unless the knots don't come out still", she smiled once more. Boone shrugged, and just wanted to catch his hour sleep before the hour was up. Turning over, he grumbled slightly and closed his eyes, resting his head upon his arms and closing his eyes behind his shades.
The sun started to dip below the horizon as it always did, leaving streaks of red against a violet sky. It was chaotic looking but still abstractly beautiful.
Rene sat, her knees hugged up against her chest, and clutched the bottle in her hand.
"You know what you said about loved ones, Eli?"
Eli turned to her from the fire he was kindling, watching the flame rise from one corner of his eye as the Mojave temperatures dipped to a chilly night.
"Yeah?"
"Well… Boone is a loved one", Rene whispered to him with a closed-lip smile. She had always liked him- not just because he had saved her, but because she wanted to save him from a pit of despair. And because she just did, for every reason that she could think of.
Eli chuckled lightly.
"I meant of relations. But that can work too."
"With Boone, you need to worry more about what's brewing inside him. You, you're just driven. Him, he wants to be martyred. The Legion is not worth martyring yourself for no good reason." Eli murmured, watching the horizon for danger.
"I thought you of all people would agree that sometimes it's worth dying for a cause." Rene replied.
"For the right reason. Self loathing, unforgiveness for one's self, these are not good reasons. He's followed you this far out in the wastes and stayed alive when by all accounts he probably would have done himself in if you had not come along. You probably already know this but don't let him hurt himself. It's not worth it." the New Canaanite preached, glancing at the rising moon.
"Do you have any loved ones left?" Rene asked.
Eli could not help but give a melancholy smile.
"Ash, smoke and salt. I lost everything with the destruction of New Canaan at the hands of the White Legs on the orders of the Legion. Since it's so bloody important that I get wiped off the map with extreme prejudice, it would be reckless of me to get too close to someone else." Eli explained.
"You've traveled alone all this time?"
"Sure. I miss people but at the moment I'm a walking angel of death. Ironic because I carry a medic's pack. A small tribe helped me once and gave me shelter. I found out Legion assassins slaughtered and crucified them, even the children, after I left. I didn't stay around with others I met after that."
"What I don't get is why you've stayed with us-"
"You were both being shot at and it turns out you have the same problem as me. And you're both on a journey to correct the problem, the one I share too." Eli interrupted.
"-in the wrong direction. By all accounts, shouldn't you have turned around and gone north away from the Legion?" Rene inquired suspiciously.
Eli rolled his eyes and sighed because by all accounts, Rene had caught him red handed.
"I wandered down here to help the people of Arizona. That was the original plan, at least."
"You mean the Legion." Rene accused, disbelieving what she heard.
"No, the Legion, the heathen carrying the machetes and weapons can rape, pillage, crucify and kill themselves into the depth of hell for all I care. No, it wasn't for them I came down here, it was for the tribes and civilians living behind the standard of the Bull that I came for. I figured I could heal their wounds, heal their sick, deliver their children. I could be an example of compassion and maybe, by practicing forgiveness, I could one day find myself forgiving the madmen who ordered the destruction of my tribe. Maybe there was a chance, in whispered shadows and closed tents, people would hear that while New Canaan was destroyed and suppose to be forgotten one of their own was walking amongst the Legion, showing them a better way." Eli explained, his eyes once again burning in the direction of Flagstaff.
"The people who ordered the destruction of your home are still burning in Fortification Hill…", Rene sighed. She now wasn't sure if this was a crusade or a suicide mission; most likely both.
"My home was in Arizona. I lived in Dry Wells… and I hear it's a slave camp. In fact, it's not far from Flagstaff. You want to help the sick and the dying? Start in Dry Wells- it is the biggest slave camp that there is. It's where most of my people are.. Where most of everyone is. We'll need to devise a well thought-out plan, too.. because honestly? Arizona isn't far from us."
Eli sighed again.
"You must know that place much better than Boone or I. So you'll have to handle the mapping of the area. I'm not much good within the tactical area, so you're going to have to get Boone for that. "
Rene nodded, her eyes wanting to close. It was early to go to bed for her, but damn, was she tired.
"…I.. can't stay awake, honestly. We'll have to plan more tomorrow, see what we can all pull together..", Rene yawned, and was soon out like a light.