"I dunno why I'm writing in this. Guess I feel better knowing a part of me won't truly be dead if the wasteland kills me."
Veronica fiddled with the pen in her fingers for a second, staring up at the blood-red gaze that met her eye. It was a hard sight to grow accustomed to, especially if you had been living in the Mojave before The Cloud doomed the skies to an eternity of crimson.
She remembered the days where she could look up at the clouds, during nights where the scavenging was slow, thinking about everything that led up to that point. But as she sat on the bench, she quivered a little, remembering that everyone had long disappeared from the 188.
"They sent me here because they thought there was still stuff left to scavenge for our journey. Not really much around here anyways, all the animals died, people gone, the place feels like an actual wasteland."
She continued writing her thoughts, pouring her heart out into the notebook she began to use as a journal. It helped her feel like she'd be remembered, or at least identifiable by anyone who happened upon her corpse. In reality, she knew they'd probably just steal her Power Fist, and run off, not bothering to read up on history. That's how most people were these days.
She wished she could remember a time when people were more civil, but in her mind, all she could think about was Elijah's comment about The NCR and Legion. "Children playing with a bomb.." She muttered to herself.
It hadn't been more than a year since Elijah, or someone who claimed to be Elijah, entered the Mojave, bringing with him The Cloud, and mysterious technologies unknown to the Mojave. Strange ghost-like figures would appear from the distance, firing upon all who stood in his way. Platoons and squads of Legion and NCR alike would be cut down by blue lasers, as both sides retreated east and west respectively.
The NCR was a recent, but fading memory in all who still struggled to survive in the world Elijah had created. Elijah had taken his army of holograms west, conquering the NCR, and trapping all the surviving citizens, with the expressed purpose of: "Experimentation." Survivors Veronica had encountered told horror stories of Elijah's dystopian nightmare. She wanted to say she couldn't imagine him committing such atrocities, she knew that would be a lie.
Even beyond rumors of the mad-man Elijah had become, something beyond that disturbed her. Rumors and stories of the one person who stood at his side during all of this. A man who covered his face with a helmet, and spoke to nobody but his partner in crime. A once renowned figure known for both sin and salvation, reduced to a hulking brute before The Mojaves eyes. Veronica knew who was behind the helmet, but like Elijah, she knew denying the truth wouldn't bring life back to New Vegas.
"Wonder if Mcnamara was right before.. When he said The Brotherhood was gonna outlast everyone else. I wonder what he would say if he saw how bad things got."
Nevertheless, she concluded her thoughts, putting her journal away, and looking around at the empty roads and barren bar. She had fond memories of the people here. Some of them had filled the hole that was left in her when she was assigned to scavenge, while others filled her mind with hope that The Brotherhood would see the error of their ways. She went over to her bag, storing it up with as many medical supplies and untainted bottles of Purified Water she could carry.
As she left, she debated whether to take the path around Helios One, or to travel the road parallel to it, on the opposite of Black Mountain. While The Cloud was a curse to most, it was able to eradicate The Deathclaws that had made travel to and from Hidden Valley difficult.
Besides, rumor had it that Helios One's defenses had been activated after the destruction of The NCR, and had set up a perimeter around the roads. While it was a fight she could win, she wasn't taking any chances.
"Guess I won't be paying Helios a visit. Might've been able to bring something extra special back this time.. Not like they'd use it." Veronica mumbled. The roads had gotten lonely ever since The Mojave was hit with The Cloud. Aside from the orders given to her by Elder Hardin, she had nobody to talk to but herself.
As she started along the highway, she saw the skeletons of wastelanders and soldiers long past. Some wore armor of The NCR, while others donned merc gear. Skeletons of the hulking Deathclaws could be seen strewn about the road, as they piled out of Quarry Junction. The uneasy feeling of death washed over her, as she looked with sympathy at the corpses of those who couldn't escape the initial exposure of The Cloud.
As she neared the end of the area of the road she would need to travel in order to reach Hidden Valley, she came across the destroyed town of Sloan, as she saw the skeletons of the mining crew. Thinking she could scavenge a bit more off of the deserted shanty-town, she stumbled down the hill, entering each of the houses.
While none yielded anything amazing at first, she was able to harvest a fission battery and some scrap metal from their generator. As she entered the final house, she saw the remains of what appeared to be their kitchen. All of the food had rotted, though she did note the odd meat cakes that were lying on the counter. As she got a moment to breathe without having to worry about inhaling The Clouds residue in the air, she pulled her journal back out and continued her entry.
"Found some scrap that could last us the journey north. It seems like a random direction to move, but Hardin wont take any suggestions. Not from the likes of me.. Every day, it feels like he gets more and more annoyed with me. Even if I'm not there. If I had known better, id have left with chr-"
Veronica paused.She heard a whooshing noise outside. As she placed her journal down on the countertop within the kitchen, exiting the shack, and looking up at the sky, as a dense red fog began to rapidly approach her position. God dammit! A Cloud-Storm.
As she hurried back inside, she pressed her hands against the door to gauge its durability. It was held together by several steel beams, likely scavenged from the railroad tracks. They had been wielded to a large piece of metal, completing the entry point. There was no locking mechanism, so Veronica picked up a nearby plank of wood, prying two of the beams forward, and placing the plank within them, keeping the door shut. Cloud Storms were infamous now for being deadlier concentrations of The Cloud.
As she sat down to catch her breath, she picked her journal back up, looking to see where she had left off. Though, something broke inside her when she saw it. "If I had known better, I'd have.." She trailed off. Taking out her pen, she crossed off the "Chr", and continued writing. The less time spent remembering her, the better.
"This strange town always felt creepy to me. The way everyone just stood around, waiting for The Deathclaws to get cleared out. Might've made good allies if they weren't part of The NCR."
As she heard the storm rumble outside, she pulled out her Power Fist, and started slowly inspecting the weapon, playing around with it. She got bored with nobody to talk to. After a couple hours, she heard the rumbling stop, as she got out of the shack, and bid farewell to the deserted mining town. "Back home then.. I'm sure Ramos will be happy to see me!"
Veronica was getting sick of talking to herself. As she ran into Hidden Valley, she accidently stumbled on a wooden crate, causing her and someone else to trip.
"Watch it!"
"Ahh- sorry!"
Veronica looked to see the very annoyed face of Apprentice Watkins staring her down. Great.. Veronica thought. Of all the people I stumbled into you.
"Well. Took you long enough to show up. What useless junk did you bring this time?"
"A missing laser pistol, dry sense of humor, a nice shade of hair. Heard you were missing some of those Watkins!"
"I can't believe you're still joking after everything that happened. You of all people should know it isn't helping matters!"
Veronica smirked. "If it's bothering you, why dont you punch me and see if I block you with the Power Fist or not?"
"Shut up!"
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. I know things have been tough. But you're lucky you weren't in California when this all started. Things are bad now, but there's no use complaining. It's what Mcnamara would have said. I think?" Veronica reasoned, trying to appear more friendly.
While The Cloud hadnt bothered The Brotherhood at first, once some of it got stuck in their filtration system, they were forced to migrate out of the bunker. Elder Macnamara, Head Scribe Taggert, and many others were killed, leaving Hardin as the highest ranking officer. He made the order to make preparations to migrate north, an imminent event. There were barely more than fifteen people left.
"Says the girl who would always go up to him with those stupid ideas of yours. Besides! Wasn't it your friend who helped cause all of this? Your lucky Hardin hasn't kicked you out based on that alone."
"How was I supposed to know he was crazy!?" Veronica said, angered by Watkins' reference to her former friend.
One of the Knights heard Veronicas yelling, and walked up, looking at the two. "Will you two cut it out? We have enough problems as it is. Veronica, what were you able to scavenge?"
Veronica placed her bag down, pulling out several bottles of purified water, scrap, batteries, packed food, and a laser pistol.
"Huh?" Watkins asked. "I thought you were joking about the missing laser pistol-"
"I was. You.. Didn't actually lose one did you?"
Watkins turned away in anger, as the knight took the supplies and secured them to the pack brahmin. As Watkins wandered over to help load one of the turrets into the bags, Elder Hardin walked over to Veronica.
"Hail, Veronica. How goes your mission?"
"Good. Though could you really call it a mission at this point if we're just gonna leave The Desert anyways?"
Hardin waved away Veronica's stupid question. "We don't need more of this nonsense from you. Mcnamara may have stomached your insolence, but an entire voyage to the Northern Brotherhood Chapters filled with your ramblings is too far."
"At least I know where I got them from."
Hardin's face grew angrier at the reference to the one who caused all of this. "You speak so highly of the man who killed Mcnamara, Taggert, and several others."
"No- that's not what I meant and you know it! Besides, he was right every once in a while."
Resisting the urge to slap her on the spot, he continued debating with her. "So it's come to this. Our former elder returns with this cursed fog that kills anything it touches, he goes and destroys The Western Chapters, and you're trying to argue that he had good points?"
"Maybe you should stop focusing on who did it, and focus on how he did it! The old Brotherhoods problems-"
"The old Brotherhood is dead. The Mojave Chapter is dead. When we move north, there won't be any remnant of us, and our connection to Elijah."
"No. You listen to me! Mcnamara would have at least heard me out. He knew better than anyone that the brotherhood would fail if it didn't learn from the past. If we had actually made connections and invested in new technologies, we could've-"
"New technology wouldn't have saved us." Hardin said. "The NCR were foolish to think they could outlive us. It was their failure to fight Elijah's technologies that led to their destruction."
"Their only failure was not bothering to ally themselves with anyone else. We were not the only group they massacred, remember?"
"I fail to see how that's relevant. You go on about technologies and allies, when the only remaining group that hasnt resorted to self-cannibalism is us. We outlasted two apocalypses, not because we put false hope into corrupting ideas, but because we stayed true to The Codex."
"A bunch of closed-minded bullshit isn't worth a fucking cap anymore, Hardin. If we really are the only ones not under Elijah's control, we need to adapt!"
Veronica gestured to The NCR Correctional Facility in the distance. "The NCR was able to be overturned just like that. But they were still able to stand against us, because they had numbers! They had ideas we could only dream of creating!"
"And we survived because-"
"We survived because they didn't even know we survived." Veronica interrupted.
"Get to the point, Veronica. The sooner we can begin our migration, the better."
"Look.. What happened to The NCR will happen to us if we don't learn from their mistakes, and our mistakes. The other Brotherhood Chapters aren't prepared to face what Father Elijah wields."
"We have sufficient information. We will find a cure to the plague that Elijah brought."
"I wish I could be around to see if you stay true to that.." Veronica said, looking down.
"So. After everything, you're leaving. Is that it? You fail to convince me, and you give up. Veronica, there's nowhere to go."
"I could go west-" Veronica tried to reason, only for Hardin to cut her off.
"West into Elijah's Empire? Don't be stupid Veronica. The East won't help you either, because The Legion left nothing worthwhile there. This is your family Veronica."
"Hard to believe when you all never listen to me." Veronica crossed her arms, feeling the weight of her Power Fits offset her, as she stumbled a bit from the exhaustion of a long scavenging voyage.
"Veronica Santangelo. You were always an embarrassment to The Brotherhood. We should've exiled you long ago. Insolence may not have been enough to cause it, hell! Showing that Courier our bunker might not have been enough! At least Mcnamara could feign ignorance and pretend like he needed an outsider to search for god knows what up here. But your failure to let go of your idea of what The Brotherhood needs is pathetic."
Veronica resisted the urge to cry. Tears formed in her eyes as the harsh words given to her by Hardin began to set in. Hardin noticed this, realizing he could have worded it better. "Veronica- I-"
"No, no.. It's ok. I understand." Veronica said, closing her eyes. "I hope you find what you're looking for out there." As she finished speaking, she began to walk away. She had drawn the attention of the rest of The Brotherhood Remnants. Well, what little remained. They watched as Veronica, the only one who had the guts to challenge not one, but two elders, walked off into the distance, until her lonely figure disappeared behind the mountains.
Veronica wasn't sure what to think. She had just left the only home she had ever known. She had no plans, no family, no friends, she had nothing. But if she knew one thing, it's that she'd always run into people, no matter what. Somewhere out there, she knew she could find purpose again.
So, Power Fist in hand, with what little supplies she had, Veronica got onto the road, heading west. She didn't know what was in store in the empire that Elijah had forged out of The NCR, but she could only hope whatever she found there would make up for everything.