As Ghost slept in peace, He dreams of the pain of the past in a faint and loose way. He dreams of how brutal the attack was on the vault, of all the hope they lost, and of all the family he lost. He tosses and turns in the night as the nightmares of the past pain him more and more. He felt the burns of the explosion, cuts from the flying pieces of metal from the grenades thrown, the blood dripping down his arm, and his shoulder bruised from the collapsing tunnels. He could still hear the deafening screams and rocks falling. He could taste the blood, dust, and radiation. He could smell the iron from the blood that pooled on the floor and the lead from every bullet fired. Ghost awoke in a cold sweat and in tears. He looked around the room quickly and remembered that he was no longer in the vault. He lifted his sleeve to look at the scar on his shoulder. He took a moment to remember why he was here and what he was doing. He looked at his pipboy and noticed that he still had an hour left on it.
Ghost got up, put on his gear, and left his cabin. He walked to the back of the cabin car, opened the door to step out, and leaned against the bars. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of gum. He opened it and threw a piece into his mouth. He looked over the empty and rough land of the desert. A few miles to the south was a mountain that was hit by a few of the nukes over 220 years ago. It had a green glow in the dark of the early morning sky. Even here on the moving train, and the Geiger counter on his pip boy was going off from the rads.
Ghost takes a breath and walks back inside. He walked back to his small room, opened his bag, and grabbed a radaway. After dealing with the rads, he sat down on the bed and grabbed the book "A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World: A Novel by C.A. Fletcher" and started reading for the next hour.
After an hour, someone knocks on the door, and Lisa yells from the other side, "HEY YOU UP!" Ghost jumped, placed his book on the table, got up, and opened the door. Lisa looked at him with a grin and stepped to the side where Connor was standing. Connor waved and was grinning, too. Lisa said in a calm voice, "Connor was grateful for what you did, so he and I decided to do something nice for you." Lisa was holding something behind her, which Ghost didn't notice until now.
She lifted it from behind her and showed Ghost what it was. It was a prototype UP77 laser rifle with the words Smuggler's End painted on the side of it.
Ghost started to smile and said in a quiet voice, "Thank you." Ghost just realized that he wasn't wearing his helmet and quickly placed his new weapon on the table. He grabbed his helmet, placed it on his head, and pursed the button on the side, which activated the air filter and the speaker so he could talk when needed. He grabbed the rifle off the table and placed a fusion cell in the open space near the back of it. He flipped the switch right to the fusion cell power port. The rifle tip starts to glow a dark red glow. Under the helmet, a grin starts to form. He was excited about the time he could use it. He looked at Lisa and said in an excited voice, "Want to take a few practice shots?" Lisa grinned and nodded.
Lisa led them to the armory on the train, where there was a firing range. They spent the next hour all shooting the new rifle. Lisa was crack shot; same with Ghost, but Connor needed a little more time to practice. They spent about a dozen fusion cells, and Connor got better as time went by.
Before they knew it, two hours had passed. They heard a raspy voice say, "HEY SMOOTHSKINS!"
They all jumped, as they weren't expecting to hear a voice behind them so suddenly. Lisa turned first and said in an annoyed voice, "Hey boss." Uncle Ray was standing there, looking as cheerful as ever.
"I got something for you two and the rest of the Chaos brokers." Uncle Ray says this while grinning like always. Lisa nodded and looked towards Ghost and said, "I guess you get to meet the squad." She grabs him by the arm and leads him to the door, leaving Connor and Uncle Ray behind. Connor looked sad, and Uncle Ray said, "I got a job for you too." Connor's eyes let up, and he said in a voice of excitement, "REALLY!" Uncle Ray Grins again: "Antonio needs help with kitchen duty today, and I overheard him say he might teach you something." Connor smiled from ear to ear and quickly ran off toward the kitchen. Uncle Ray grinned and said, "Good kid."
Lisa leads Ghost to the back car, where a group of five are sitting on old and various types of chairs with a cooler pack full of drinks and ice. The car was dark, and the room was lit by a hole in the middle of the roof with a campfire that was recently used, with smoldering embers still glowing. In the cooler, there were three different sodas. There was the common Nuka-cola in the dark red missal-shaped bottle, the rare sunset Sarsaparilla in brown a bottle with a yellow plastic wrapping around the bottle with the name of the brand, in the middle under a logo of a barrel, and an unfamiliar drink called Vim Pop. It was in a thick bottle with red plastic with "You Got Vim" under a logo of a woman on the plane.
Noticing Ghost staring at the unfamiliar drink, a man in a worn-out lavender suit and tie grabbed the bottle and tossed it towards Ghost, who caught it. "It is called Vim Pop; we picked it up back in Boston Commonwealth on the ports." The man said in a kind manner with an Irish accent, "By the shadow, I am Dave." Dave had light skin, a sun-kissed face, brown hair with a bit of a five-o'clock shadow, and brown eyes. He was a little taller than Ghost and only a few years older. Lisa said, "He is our sharp shooter. He is the best sniper I have ever seen; just don't mind his terrible taste in clothes."
As Ghost was about to introduce himself, an older woman stopped him and said in a southern drawl with a sweet tone, "We already know who you are, sweetheart, and I am Carrie." Carrie was wearing old jeans and a blank red t-shirt. She was a short woman with a pale look, as if it had been a time lapse when she had last seen the sun. She had black and white streaks from stress and age and blue eyes. Lisa said, "She is our explosives expert."
Ghost nodded and opened the bottle in his hand. A bit of foam rises from the dark liquid and disappears. It smells like a mirelurk nest with an icy chill from being in the ice. He lifts his helmet a little and brings the bottle to his lips. He lifts the bottom of the bottle up and takes a long gulp. His face twists from the flavor. It tastes like fish and root beer mixed together. He places the bottle on the floor and says, "I really dislike that flavor."
A tall man with dark skin grins and says with a Boston accent and an interested tone, "I'll take it if you won't finish it." Ghost handed the bottle over to the man. Carrie says, "That is Brenton; he is from Boston and drinks those like crazy." Brenton was wearing old jeans with holes in the knees and an old blue t-shirt. He was a bald man with large burn scars on his arms. He takes a long drink from the bottle, finishing it. Lisa said, "He is good with tech. He was former rail road; he can get into any terminal and know a lot about robots."
An even taller man opens a bottle of nuka-cola and takes a sip. "That is the only place you can get those Vim pops." The much older, tall man said, "I am Vincent." He raised his hand for a handshake, and Ghost took his hand and gave him a firm grip. Vincent smiled. He was a Hispanic man with mostly white hair and a milky white left eye. He was wearing some old NCR gear. It was the NCR military police armor, which is really just a suit of trooper fatigues, with "MP" armbands added. Lisa said, "He is our main weapon expert." He noticed the gear Ghost was wearing. "You've been with NCR, kid?" Ghost shook his head and said, "What was left of NCR in Texas gave it to me as a gift after I helped them deal with a remnant of Caesar legion down there, but I was a part of the Texas Rangers."
A short Asian woman wearing some black combat armor has a logo bird with a human skull that someone recently scratched out. She had a scar on her throat from an injury long ago. She looks middle-aged, with scars covering her arms from many battles. She had green eyes and black hair that's shoulder length. Vincent said, "That is Donna; she can't talk, but she is a real sweetheart." Lisa said, "She is the one who sneaks into enemy lines and is one of the most stealthy people I have ever met."
Lisa was grinning from ear to ear like a kid who was excited to show her friends somebody new they met. She said in a joyful tone, "This is our new guy, Ghost. I haven't figured out what he can do yet, but he is an excellent shot and can take out a super mutant fortress on his own." Ghost was sweating under the helmet. He wasn't used to being complimented, and he was still getting used to being around people for a long period.
He was nervous but knew that he had to tell them what he was good at. He said in an unsure manner, "I am a bit of a jack of traits, but my specialty is robots and tracking." They looked unsure of what to think of that except for Lisa and Breton, who looked intrigued. Breton looked excited and yelled out, "Finally someone I can talk tech to. These idiots can't barely tell the difference between an eyebot and a sentry bot."
The others looked at him with a glare but didn't say anything. After a moment of awkward silence, Lisa breaks the silence with, "Okay, what is the mission that Uncle Ray wanted us to do?" There was another moment of silence. "So no one asked; ok, I will call him on the intercom." Lisa said. She walked up to the black box on the wall, with a speaker sitting in the middle of it and a faded red button above it.
After pressing the button, Lisa said, "Hey Ray, what have you got for us today?" Then there was a loud screech from the small speaker, like someone scratching a chalkboard. There was a crackly familiar voice starting to ring out like an old radio play.
Uncle Ray Voice came from the speaker and said, "I got you a job that should take a day or two at most, but I need you to go to the nearby General Atomics Factory and find new fusion cores. We only have enough for two days of power." Lisa asks, "How many do we need?" "Two or three cases of them," Uncle Ray said. Lisa nodded to us and yelled, "Get geared up; we head out in two hours from now." They all nodded and left the car for their rooms on the train.
Ghost left, walking toward his room. The train felt warm as the sun beat on the black and rusted walls. An old, torn, red carpet covered the floor. The windows were dirty and tinted by sand, with white curtains hanging from the rods above them. He reaches the door, opens it, and walks in. He looked around the small room and noticed the plate with two sticks of iguana meat placed on it. He sits on the chair beside the table.
He removes his helmet and picks up one stick. He moves it toward his mouth and bites into the meat. It was tasty. It had a slightly savory flavor, like the artificial chicken he had back in the vault. He always wonders what real chicken tastes like, but unfortunately, chickens are either extinct or really rare now in America.
He finished his food and placed his plate on the side. He looked at his watch and noticed that he had an hour and forty minutes left to wait. He sat on his bed and grabbed his book. He opened it where he left it off.