It's been too long. Anyway here is chapter 11 I hope you all like it I'll do my best to get a new chapter out within the next two weeks. I did plan for there to be a bit more to this chapter but I didn't want to bore you all with a longer chapter.
James strode out of Old Mormon Fort and turned back to the street he, Ashlyn and Veronica had down minutes prior. He only then realized that he had no idea where to begin looking for the men he must speak to. James immediately thought that he should head back to Mick & Ralph's and ask Ralph if he knew the location of either of the men or that drug dealer, Dixon. Rufus who was trailing behind James as he walked towards the shop was distracted by a smell in the air that was so faint that only he could notice.
Rufus began to track the smell. James took notice and decided to humor his companion and follow rather than redirect his attention. Rufus lead James to a pile of rubble, which the canine proceeded to shove his snout into sniffing wildly then pawing at it. James lightly pushed Rufus away from the rubble and started to toss the debris away form the heap. Upon doing so James was shown the secret of the smell Rufus had been detecting, a duffle bag.
"Well, well what do we have here?" James asked out loud.
James pulled the bag from the rubble and began to search the small pockets that were the outlying storage areas of the bag. Inside he found a couple of clips, two 5.56 clips, one 12.7mm clip and two 9mm magazines. James immediately pocketed the ammo in his large pouch around his belt. Continuing his search he opened the main section of the duffle bag.
"Surprise, surprise." James said with a slightly mischievous grin.
James lifted the newly acquired duffle bag over his shoulder as he began to continue to Mick & Ralph's with a smile. As James approached the shop he was greeted by a shady man wearing a merc outfit and a hat normally worn by traders.
"Hey. You ranger. Ya need a fix?" the dealer asked.
"DixonI presume?" James asked slightly raising his right eyebrow.
"Y-yea, how'd you know?"Dixonasked now nervous.
"You've got two options. Option one, I kill you. Option two, you tell me where Bill Ronte and Jacob Hoff are, and stop dealing all together." James said as he reached for Haul Storm.
Dixonnoticed James' movement and immediately grabbed his pouch containing his chems and handed them to James as he revealed the location of the two men "Bill is in a destroyed building near The Silver Rush normally and Jacob is in the building across the street there."
"I'm happy this didn't turn out bloody, but if I hear you're selling again you'll be lucky if I give you the choice next time." James said trying his best to pull of a sadistic smile as he looked directly into the former dealers eyes.
James' sadistic grin went stiff as his blood ran cold and his skin began to become even paler that it had been from his chem use. James did an abrupt turn and walked into the previously mentioned building to find Jacob. Walking through the concrete entryway James heard some coughing towards the back of the roofless structure.
Rufus advanced to the location of the coughing before James could figure out the exact direction he would have to walk to find the source. James was soon standing in front of a man lying on a makeshift bed with empty Jet canisters surrounding him. Rufus was sitting near the man, who appeared only semiconscious, wagging his tail. James knelt down and lightly shook the man. The man didn't react in anyway.
James shook the man with more force, causing the man to finally regain at least some consciousness.
"Jacob?" James asked.
"Thas my name. Who the hell're you?" Jacob asked in a haze caused by his obvious addiction.
"I'm James, Julie sent me." He responded.
"Julie? What does she want you to do with me?" Jacob asked seemingly more sober after hearing Julie's name.
"She wants you to kick your addiction Jacob." James said.
"And you don't think I don't want to kick it? Hell if I could do it I would have already. I feel so weak these days, but I just can't take it when I'm not high." Jacob said.
"Do you really think that you can't just quit? If you ask me you're just too weak to do it." James said bluntly.
"Who are you to say I'm weak!" Jacob asked in an aggravated tone.
"I can say you're weak because I don't see you out in the wastes risking your life for someone you only met days ago." James retorted.
"That doesn't make you any better than me!" Jacob said with rage more than showing in his voice.
"It doesn't? Really?" James said as he grabbed Jacob by the throat and shoved him against the wall.
Jacob coughed as he was slammed into the wall by The Ranger.
"I want you to look at your life right now and tell me that you don't regret where you are now!" James said yelling into the addicts face.
Jacob simply looked at James unable to say anything to fight back.
"You hate yourself don't you? You hate what you've become, but you don't think you have the power to change." James said.
"I'm done. You win. I will quit. You're right I want to change and you've helped me get motivation to do so." Jacob said as James released him from the painful hold he had on his neck.
"I'm living with demons too, but it doesn't give me an excuse to quit. I'm glad that you were able to make this choice." James said as he walked away from Jacob "Make sure you go to the fort tonight or I'll drag you there myself."
"I just need to grab some things and I'm going." Jacob said.
James nodded.
James strode out of the destroyed building as if nothing had just occurred as he began to walk to the gate to the other part of Freeside. He reached the gate and slid open the bus door that served as a makeshift gateway. James looked around for the buildingDixonhad mentioned. He heard someone mentioning The Silver Rush and pointing down one of the prewar streets so he followed the street to the end where the building the crier had spoke of was located.
James looked at the building across from The Silver Rush and walked inside hoping to find Bill inside. As he passed the open doorway of the building he was immediately greeted by a man chugging the final amounts of a bottle of cheap whiskey.
"Bill Ronte?" James asked as Rufus walked towards the man and began to sniff him.
"S'me." Bill said so drunk he could barely construct sentences, let alone short phrases.
"You know what I'm just gonna take you straight to the fort myself after I try to get my point across." James said "Now them. You're going to quit drinking."
"Hell'm" Bill replied.
"Well you at least understand me. Now then you're going to make this easy because I don't want to have to show my bad side anymore today, so either you stop drinking from today onwards or I'll just follow you everywhere you go and take care of any source of booze you've got. Do we have an understanding?" James said
Bill nodded.
"Good. Let's go to the fort then." James said as he offered his hand for Bill to grab onto.
James walked with the stumbling drunk as he made the trip back to the fort. The sun was just starting to fall and the entirety of Freeside began to get a red-orange glow cast upon it. James moved his hand to signal Rufus to bark at the door to Old Mormon Fort. The guards opened the door as James reached it with Bill, who was supported by The Ranger.
"Here's Bill can one of you take him?" James asked.
The taller of the two mercs walked over and took James' place and lead Bill to one of the tents in the fort.
James looked down to Rufus "I wasn't to hard on Jacob was I?"
Rufus looked at James and wagged his tail.
"Huh. I thought I did what I needed to do to. Though I wish I hadn't done it in a sense, but it's the past and I have to deal with it." James said as he looked up and turned his head spotting Ashlyn stepping out of the tent that Bill was just taken into.
"Ashlyn." James said with a small wave.
"James you're back." She said back with a smile.
"How has everything been in the half an hour I've been gone?" James asked.
"Well, I've managed to help some of the patients and I noticed the two men come in here. Jacob, then Bill just now. How'd you do it?" Ashlyn asked.
"Well, Bill I just carried here after I told him he had no chance of getting drunk, as for Jacob I did something a bit more drastic." James said.
"What did you do?" Ashlyn asked with a bit more serious tone.
"I held him up to a wall by his throat and called him weak." James said turning away hoping Ashlyn wouldn't be angry at his actions.
Ashlyn put her hand on James' cheek as she turned his head back to her then looked at him "I'm glad you didn't actually hurt him."
"But…" James said shocked by Ashlyn's reaction.
"Hush. No buts." She said with a sympathetic smile.
James smiled at Ashlyn.
"So, what's in that duffle bag you brought in?" Ashlyn asked turning from caring to as curious as a small kitten.
"Well, you'll find out, in a minute that is. Where's the tent we're staying in?" James asked purposely trying to tease Ashlyn.
"How about I take the duffle bag and lead you there?" Ashlyn said questioningly.
"Oh, okay, well here's th-no." James said just trying to push Ashlyn's buttons at this point.
"You sure can be mean when you want to you know that?" Ashlyn said as she walked towards the tent.
"Yeah, I know, but the multiple sides of me make me rather interesting don't they?" James asked.
"Don't get cocky now." Ashlyn said teasing James for messing with her.
As James entered the tent that he and Ashlyn would be residing in with Veronica, Rufus and ED-E he noticed Veronica sitting at the table cleaning the giant metal glove she had been wearing. She looked up and waved at him as he set the duffle bag down on the last of the three beds in the tent.
"Veronica do you have any experience with energy weapons?" James asked.
Ashlyn perked up at James' words knowing now what the duffle bag contained.
"Yea, why?" Veronica asked "Does it have to do with that duffle bag you brought in?"
"Yes it does." James said as he pulled out the weapons located within the main section of the duffle bag.
James laid out a strange rifle with coils and tubes, a pistol that was similar to the rifle and a couple of objects that resembled grenades. Veronica perked up as she saw just what James had discovered.
"Do you have any idea how much these are worth?" She asked James.
"Well, I'd have to guess a lot because of you asking that question, but regardless what are they?" James asked.
"The rifle is a plasma rifle, pistol is a plasma pistol and the other things are plasma grenades and pulse grenades." Veronica answered.
"Value is?" James asked.
"I'd have to inspect everything to give you a rough estimate." Veronica said.
"Sounds good. Ashlyn have you ate yet?" James asked.
"No. I was actually waiting for you to be honest, but that thing over there already ate, and ate a lot." Ashlyn said referring to Veronica.
"Hey!" Veronica said "I was hungry and the Followers offered."
"Still you ate more than you should have." Ashlyn said.
Veronica just made a shooing motion to Ashlyn.
"So, shall we see what there is to eat?" Ashlyn asked as she turned back to James.
"Yea, I was starting to get hungry anyway." James said opening the tent flap for Ashlyn to walk through.
Ashlyn lead James to the tent that the Followers were serving meals from and walked inside. James took in the smells of the food, mostly vegetables but some meats. James looked at the table that the food was on. He saw some type of stew.
"How about we get some of that stew?" James asked Ashlyn.
"It does look good, so why not." Ashlyn said as she motioned for the Followers cook to give her two bowls of stew.
"Can we get one more bowl?" James asked the man dishing out the stew.
"Sure, but why three bowls?" He asked "Does the other woman want even more to eat?"
"No, he needs some food." James said as he pointed to Rufus who had been rather unnoticed as he and Ashlyn talked.
"That dog is quiet. I didn't even notice him." the cook said.
"Yea, it's probably a result of being a ranger's dog." James said.
"James let go see if Veronica has figured out how much that stuff is worth also, I'm really hungry." Ashlyn said.
"Yea, I'll grab these two bowls and you take your's." James said as he picked up two bowls of the stew.
As James, Ashlyn and Rufus entered their tent Veronica was setting the grenades down on the table that occupied the center of the tent.
"So you finish with the estimates?" James asked as he set one bowl of stew on the ground for Rufus.
"Yea, about 1,000 caps." Veronica said.
James and Ashlyn both just stared at Veronica.
"I'm not joking." Veronica said.
"I've got some grenades that I could sell along with this stuff and we should get enough money for the passports then." James said.
"Tomorrow lets got to Mick & Ralph's and see if they will do a trade for the passports instead of straight caps." Ashlyn said "For now let's eat then get some sleep."
"Sounds like a plan, but we will still help around here for a bit because the passports will take time to make I'm sure." James said.
"Sounds good." Ashlyn said back.
James nodded then proceeded to begin to eat his stew.