Chapter 20

Wanted Dead or Alive

"I love you."

-Sean Flannagan's last words, spoken to his executioner

The remaining time I had regarding R&R was quick. It's like most of my free time before I had something to do. I can look at a clock and say "Oh, that's not too bad. I still have a good five hours before I have to get ready."

And then, I'll be reading something (the current sponsored book in the book club I've decided to start at this moment is 101 Ways to Make ILLUSIONS- An Associate's Guide to Gacy's by some guy called Corporate).

Anyway, I'll be reading (sometimes I read aloud to Dogmeat because he seemed to like it, and when Cord's eyes got too poor, I'd read to him, too), and when I look at my Pip-Boy... what the heck happened to my five hours?

The point is, time flies. Time flies...

My dinner with Veronica? Awkward, awesome, and fun. How was it awkward? Well, I... sort of had brahmin steak with a cute girl, a cyberdog, and an albino deathclaw because if I left the latter two alone I had a feeling Argutus would cause some kind of turmoil among the Kings. Heaven knows he's turned many heads. I remember him saying his father wore a sheet as a means of keeping his form from alarming anybody he met.

I wondered if that would remedy the situation, but most everybody in this safe haven has already seen Argutus, so asking him to wear a sheet would be a bit like slamming the barn door after the horses ran out. Also, if he wants to be proud of what he is, then who am I to tell him otherwise?

The time I had left was spent mostly hanging out with Veronica (though Dogmeat and Argutus would not leave me alone unless I told them to stay, which I had to do every now and again because I needed some space without them in it). It was loads of fun. While I waited for Nikolai to arrive, I also got to know Manny a little better, and he taught me a little more about sniping. I was actually planning on putting down the sniper rifle after I killed Caesar. I'd still carry a weapon, sure, but that weapon would be something that I already knew how to use.

An MP5, maybe. Not an Uzi. I was assigned with an Uzi as part of my cover when I was with the Brotherhood. It kicked like a mule. The point is, I may have gotten better at sniping, but what use is a sniper rifle if you walk into a room full of hostiles? With something like an MP5, at least you've got a fighting chance. I only wanted to snipe again if it was for sport (Lucas Simms hosted a shooting competition every so often in Megaton, and I've never beaten him) or hunting.

The King managed to get into contact with this "Craig Boone" I've heard so much about lately, and he apparently jumped at the chance to kill Caesar, or at least engage in a kill mission. He would show up three days after we heard from him.

I tried calling him Craig, but he insisted on me calling him "Boone". He asked me for my last name, but since I don't have one, he decided to call me "101", like so many others before him. I asked him why it was so important that I call him "Boone" and not "Craig", and he said it was to keep us from getting too acquainted. I was taken aback initially, but I later heard through Manny that I looked kind of like his late wife.

Boone looked stoic at best and violently angry at worst. He always wore a 1st Recon Beret and sunglasses, and he was carrying a DSR-1, and a Beretta 92. He was already outgunning me, with only an SRS and a Beretta Tomcat, since replacement pistols apparently went extinct.

I asked the King about it, and he said his gun runner was encountering some Legionary resistance, which made me wonder if the Legion finally got the clue and started calling some troops back to defend its last stronghold. Of course, by the time Caesar swallowed his pride and recalled them... it was too little, too late.

We were already here. The Legion wouldn't attack the rebels in Freeside directly; they'd tried a few times before, but no matter the number they mustered, Freeside's sniping perch allowed the Kings to spot them with time to prepare.

When I found out about the holdup with my weapon (the King said his gun runner had mercenaries with him, so at least there was a chance that it would get here), I radioed Nikolai to get an idea of where he was.

I'll admit I was a little worried when he didn't answer.

"Nikolai," I repeated. "Come in. You there?"

Still nothing. I shook the radio, hoping it was just buggy.

"Nikolai? Are you alright?"

Finally I got a response, and any worry I might've had went right out the window.

"...upid machine... Hello? Whore, can you hear me? Radio was off."

I sighed. "Why did you turn your radio off, Nikolai?"

"So I didn't have to hear you."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like you."

I said nothing, and he continued.

"I thought we established that already."

I squeezed the bridge of my nose.

"Whatever... look, where are you?"

"A few miles out. Now, before I get there, there is important task for you."

"I lost my sidearm, but I still have my SRS. Fortitude is dead."

"That's not... Fortitude? Who is that? Sorry for your loss. Now, I need you to tell me... do they have any vodka?"

First time we're seeing each other in what feels like forty years, and the first thing he wants to know is if Freeside has something to drink... why am I surprised?

"...yes, Nikolai. They even have a surgeon that can remove your liver and just stick it a vat full of an alcohol of your choosing, if you'd like."

There was a pause.

"...Can they really do that?"

At this point, I glanced over my shoulder to see Veronica stifling laughter.

"See you soon, you drunken buffoon..."

"Hey, that rhy-"

I turned off the power. I didn't even let him finish. I turned to Veronia and smiled.

"Sorry about that!" I said.

"It's okay... he certainly sounds like... a... good... partner..."

She broke down into laughter, and I couldn't blame her. Cord would've loved to meet her.

"Hey, I could've done worse, couldn't I?"

She nodded.

"Sure, of course. You could've hired... uhh... hmm..."

She fell silent. I looked down at Dogmeat and saw him eyeing me with pity.

We waited by the front gate for about ten minutes, and then I got a call from Nikolai on the radio (having turned it back on after Veronica stopped laughing).

"Whore, I need you to come meet me at farm a mile out."

"That doesn't narrow it down, Nikolai. What farm?"

"The green one, due north from Freeside entry with the obvious sniper. There is burned out shed nearby."

"What's going on?"

"Brotherhood of Steel is outside."

My blood ran cold, and looking at Veronica, it seemed like she felt the same. I glanced at the SRS on my back.

"I don't know how much help I'll be if this erupts, but I'm on my way..."

I felt a heavy paw land on my shoulder and I looked up at Argutus.

"I'll protect you, don't worry."

I smiled.

"I'll be there in five minutes," I said into the walkie talkie.

"I'll go, too. Maybe we can talk them down!"

I looked at Veronica in surprise.

"Really?"

"Hey, I used to be one of them. I'm not sure if that means anything, since these guys probably aren't from around here, but..."

"How do you figure?"

"That asshole Judge Holden sabatoged them. He blew up their base of operations. More would've escaped if he didn't disable the alarm, too."

I stared.

"Holden Lee? He didn't seem too bright to me."

"He was an idiot. He probably stole the self destruct codes and forced a Scribe to disable the alarms. Maybe. I don't know, I wasn't there at the time."

Veronica suddenly looked a little sad.

"I do not mean to interrupt, but... shouldn't we go meet with this man? If we do not hurry, something bad may happen," said Argutus. I nodded.

"Yeah, let's get moving."

I didn't want to ride Argutus. It wasn't a long walk, and Veronica knew where the barn was Nikolai described. We were both approaching without a weapon in hand.

As we began to get closer, I wondered what they would do upon seeing me. We passed the burned out shed that Nikolai described, and I saw four guys in power armor, and one with no armor on. I saw a horse's tail poking out from behind the barn and I assumed Nikolai was there.

"Friendly!" I shouted. Two of the Paladins whirled around to aim their weapons at Veronica, Argutus, Dogmeat, and I.

Sure enough, I saw the horse stumble back a few steps and Nikolai poke his stupid head out.

"Whore? Is that you? Damn, you got fat!"

Dogmeat and Argutus almost simultaneously started growling lowly at him. The Paladins mistook it for a threat to them.

"Miss 101, hello."

The man without the armor turned to face me.

"You weren't a top priority for us, but since you're here, it's just as well."

I instinctively reached for my Beretta Tomcat (I moved it into my pocket until I got a new sidearm).

"Why is that?"

"Whore, I got new pistol. Well, it's magnum. Is Model 500."

"Nikolai, the grown-ups are talking... Sir? Why do you want me?"

He pointed the pistol at me. Veronica immediately held up her Power Fist, Argutus readied himself to block the pistol for me, and Dogmeat began growling lowly.

"Well, it's fairly obvious you've been around lately. Your Russian terrorist friend here is higher on our totem pole, but since you're here, we'll accept your surrender for interrogation on anything you've learned."

"Will you, now?" I asked. The officer with the group said nothing.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I can do that," I said. Nikolai broke from cover and pointed his magnum at one of the Paladins. At this point, anybody that had a weapon was holding it. I was holding my Beretta Tomcat up, too, and Argutus kept a paw in the way of the officer's pistol.

"I'll be honest," said Nikolai to the Brotherhood. "I don't mind if you die."

"Lower your weapon!"

"Fuck you, Brotherhood scum!"

At this point, three Paladins were holding guns to Nikolai, and the officer was still holding me.

"Your friend's about to have a very bad day. You can save him by surrendering," said the Officer.

"Drop the gun. Do it!"

"I'll drop you!"

"Okay, everybody calm down!" shouted Veronica.

I glanced over my shoulder for a moment as shouting began to fill the air. Argutus continued shielding me from the Officer. No more than ten feet from us, a man in a three piece suit and top hat was watching. Time seemed to slow down. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled his hand back out, this time making an "L" shape with his thumb and index finger. He pointed to the ground next to him, and as his eyes met mine, he folded his thumb down.

Next thing I know, Argutus is wrapping his arms around me and shielding me from the bullets with his back. Nikolai quickly shot one of the Paladins, and he was telling the truth about having a Model 500, because all it took was one bullet to pierce the power armor and kill the Paladin. Dogmeat quickly started running for another Paladin, his false eye glowing menacingly, and Veronica was about to punch out the Officer, but he was already falling backwards.

I'd accidently fired three rounds into his chest as Argutus moved to shield me, and he shot Argutus on the way down.

The deathclaw wasn't seriously injured, as was to be expected, but when I looked up to aim at the man in the suit, he was already gone. Veronica went after another Paladin, and soon we were free and clear.

All was silent for a few more moments as we all regained our composure. Veronica broke the ice.

"Well, so much for any chance of the Brotherhood taking us back," she said. I looked at her.

"I don't want to be taken back by the Brotherhood, anyway. What about you?"

"Are you kidding? I left them because of how controlling they were; how unwilling to change they proved to be. I guess this means I was right about them."

She forced a smile, but I could see pain in her eyes.

"Yeah, some family, huh?"

I put a hand on her shoulder, and then Nikolai made things worse, like he usually did. He started slowly clapping, and Dogmeat growled lowly at him.

"Good for you. You give up the Brotherhood. Now I won't call you the Brotherhood Whore anymore."

Veronica looked at me.

"Now it's just 'Whore'," he said, pointing at me, even though that's what he usually called me, anyway.

"And a hearty hello to you, too, Nikolai," said Veronica. He stared at her for a second, and I could almost immediately see what he was thinking.

"Nikolai, she's spoken for," I said. He shrugged.

"So? I found flour sacks in barn. They looked very comfortable."

"Yeah, sounds good!" she said. "How about you go in there and get ready, and I'm going to go do something else!"

"Like the Whore?"

She stared.

"We just saved your life. A thank you would be nice," I said.

"Why didn't you get here 5 minutes sooner? I had to listen to Brotherhood members call me very nasty names."

"Worse than Whore?" asked Veronica.

"They called me a Mercenary. I think I deserve a break to recover mentally from such awful name calling."

He suddenly noticed Argutus and Dogmeat, and then he pointed at Dogmeat.

"Oh, when did you get a dog?"

I saw Veronica fight back a chuckle.

"Not long ago, in fact. Just... about 5 years ago."

Dogmeat barked. Nikolai stared directly at Argutus but said nothing. He started walking.

"Now lets go. I want to get my liver transplant you promised now."

...I thought he was joking at first. It wasn't until he turned around that I saw how serious he was.

"Actually, they were planning on doing that for you after we finished the job with the Legion," said Veronica. Nikolai stared at her for a few moments and I could almost see her skin crawling. He turned away again.

"Fair enough."

She mouthed something to me, and I shrugged.

"Nikolai!" I called.

"Yes, whore?"

"Your horse?" I asked. He stopped in his tracks, and then nodded.

"Right, I forget sometimes."

He turned and jogged back over to his horse, which, judging by the look on its face, was completely miserable.

"Go," he said. "Go away. Find Sergei. Tell him I was good rider, and there's no need to hurt me."

The horse just sort of... stood there.

"Go."

No response.

"Go."

No response.

"Go."

No response. Nikolai took his pistol out and I put a hand out at him.

"Nonono! What are you doing?!"

He looked at me, and pointed the gun at the ground.

"Scaring it away. What kind of sick bastard do you take me for?"

Just the sick bastard kind, I guess...

"Why don't you take it to Freeside? Then you can ride it to the water when we go after Caesar."

Nikolai thinks for a minute, and nods.

"I'm glad I thought of it. I could just take horse here to Freeside, and then ride him to the raft for when we attack the Legionary scum."

Without another word, he hopped onto the horse and rode off for Freeside. Veronica gave me a smug look.

"I was desperate for a good ally, alright?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You were trying to with your eyes," I muttered. That gave her pause for a second.

"Yes, but I didn't say anything."

"I hate that man," muttered Argutus.

"Join the club. I bet his own mother hates him," I said. Argutus snorted, and turned away.

"Shall we go?" he asked. I saw the bullet wounds in his back and felt a pang of guilt, so I told him I would walk with him.

We were silent as we started heading back for a little bit, but as we passed closer to the shed from earlier, I started to notice an odor in the air that I didn't catch before.

I decided to go check it out, but as I got closer, the smell got stronger, and stronger, and stronger. I peeked inside the shed, and I immediately started coughing harder than I think I've ever coughed before.

Lying prone in what looked like an ocean of maggots were two rotting corpses, one human, and one canine. They looked to have been dead for quite some time. I could see a hand moving ever so slightly, likely from gas escaping. Though they were so badly decomposed, I could still make out three bullet wounds in the chest of the human, but I saw no obvious cause of death with the dog. Dogmeat had followed me to the shed and yelped when he saw what I was seeing. Almost instantly, he started yanking on my pants leg, trying to get me away from the scene. On the wall, someone had written "MY FAVORITE NUMBER IS 2300" in white paint. I wondered if it was something the human wrote before death, or if it was there for a while.

I didn't think about it too much. I wasn't even in the room for more than a few seconds, and that was too long.

I stumbled away from the shed and nearly fell on my face. Argutus was by my side in a heartbeat, and I saw even him shy away for a brief moment when the smell hit. He still managed to help me get out of there.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I started coughing, and then shooed him away.

"Milly, are you alright?" asked Veronica. I think she thought the answer was 'No' once I threw up.

I hate throwing up, but the smell made my stomach do flips. The only reason I didn't projectile vomit onto the Brotherhood guys was because we were a fair distance from the shed on our approach. Also, we were more concerned with the Brotherhood of Steel holding up Nikolai than the smells of the Mojave (one of the Kings, a one-eyed guy everybody called 'Pa-Patch', referred to the smell of decaying bodies as a "Mojave Surprise", since he claimed all bodies had different smells. I personally made a point to avoid dead bodies).

At that point, it didn't matter what I said. Argutus insisted on carrying me back to Freeside, even though once I was out of smelling range of the shed, I felt right as rain (though the memory stayed with me for a long time). I wondered why Veronica didn't so much as cringe, but then again, she didn't get too close.

When we reached base, Nikolai was waiting for us. He was being kept at the door by Vargas until I waved him down. I had a feeling, if it wasn't for the alcohol that Freeside offered, Nikolai might've killed Vargas (or at least tried to). He shot him enough dirty looks. What's that saying... if looks could kill?

The plan was simple: Boone would head out a few hours before us to find a spot that he might be able to snipe from. It would be a very long shot, no matter what- he'd be sniping from across the river. It wasn't an undoable shot, but it would be tough. Even then, he'd only fire if he had Caesar or his Legate, Lanius, in his sights. I had my doubts of his role being meaningful in the long run, since Caesar knows better than sticking his neck out in the open for too long.

Nikolai, Dogmeat, and I would all be on rafts heading for the Fort. Veronica wanted to tag along, too, so we'd end up taking two rafts. I couldn't take Argutus with me, since the rafts would only hold so much weight, but I promised him that I wouldn't get hurt.

That doesn't mean he went along with it. He really wanted to go with me, and I think he even felt a little betrayed that I wasn't going to take him, but... that won't make the rafts any stronger. I felt bad for having to tell him no, and eventually I had to tell him to 'Stay', as if he were Dogmeat.

It took a lot of doing. He was very worried about me, but I knew Dogmeat would protect me if anything happened. It was getting through the Legion that worried me, but I couldn't say that to Argutus, or else he'd never let me go without him.

I was touched that he cared so much. It was so sweet... Nikolai, meanwhile, had to interrupt the moment by reminding me that we still had two targets to kill. Regarding any Legionary presence, Nikolai suggested simply sneaking through their lines. If we could, we'd quietly kill Caesar and Lanius, and then sneak back out. If we had to go loud, then we'd fight our way out.

...of course, the 'fighting our way out' part was more for Argutus. I had a feeling that, if we were found, we'd be able to fight for a while, but we'd probably die. Then again, most of the Legionaries were probably waiting on the riverside. If we could get to the rafts (at this little camp called 'Cottonwood Cove', because the water only started flowing towards the Fort from Cottonwood Cove), we could probably thin their numbers before even leaving... maybe. If anything, they'd defend the Cove first.

At last, I'd be able to exact revenge on the man that caused Cord's death. I'd be able to stop the Legion.

I would bring cease to Manifest Destiny.

End of Chapter

3,753 words. I thought I had more than that.

Yeah, I got my internet fixed again, once it broke two days after I got a new router.

There are two chapters left in this story, and then there's "The Stuff You May Have Missed", which is trivia from the story that nobody cares about but me. I get bored while writing.

I'm so happy that this story is almost over. I'm so sick of writing for Fallout, and I want a break, but I won't get one, because I still have 55 hours of work outside of classes I have to do to keep my scholarship and shot at graduation, and I also have to work from 7:30 Thanksgiving night until 5:30 Friday morning in November. God, I need a vacation (and I don't count the 2 months without being able to write this, since I was busy working or doing random crap for school).

Oh, and judging by how well GTA V Online works, don't worry about me slacking off and doing that 24/7. I still can't get on, and odds are I won't be going on it until sometime next year. No, I'll just spend what little free time I'm expecting to have on Black Ops II, wondering why I even play it.

Next chapter covers the attack on Caesar's Legion. Here's hoping it doesn't take so long.