FALLOUT: West Coast

"You stupid boy. You're going to get us killed."
"But what if somebody comes to save us?"
"Yeah, more like a feral ghoul is ghoul is going to come and eat us...'
"I don't care, it's better than being stuck with you!"
"Reowr. Stop shouting."
"No you drive me nuts!"
"I think you're just used to being alone you ass. I hope you get shot!"
"Now who's shouting?"
"Oh well, at least I'm cute and usually likeable around more sociable people."
"OH my god!" Bang! My ears started ringing.
"Did you just shoot past my head?"
Yes, now... Shut! The! Fuck! Up!" his yelling echoed through the desert.
"I will light you on fire you bastard!"
"Try it!"
"I don't want to waste anything on you asshole!"
We continue walking and I glare at him hands on matches and a bottle of moonshine.
"Stupid asshole, doesn't know who he's dealing with." I mutter to myself, under my breath.

I pulled my binoculars from my survival pack as I laid my rifle down. I peered through to mmaybe 450 meters. Two from what I could tell, a thin lanky one and I chubby average one. Looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks. I set my binoculars down and pulled my Service Rifle into my hands and got ready. I could hear the two arguing and and kept my eyes focused right on them. They looked armed, not to heavily but enough that they could be a problem if I didn't get them disarmed. I clicked the selector switch up to put it into full auto with my modification of a shear. I just stayed down as low as I could. The closer they got the more I could hear them and they obviously didn't like each other. Hopefully they would hate each other enough to try and kill each other when they saw me instead of turning their sights onto me. I could hear them yelling much closer now. Maybe, 10 meters away and not to far below me, now was my time to strike. I leaped up and pulled my rifle to my shoulder as I proped myself down on one knee.
"CEASE MOVING NOW. DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND STAND BACK OR ILL EMPTY THE DAMNED CLIP."

"Go ahead! At least I won't have to be with this blathering baffoon any longer. He shot at me and verbally insults me regularly." I turned away from both the people, struck a match and threw a molotov cocktail at the man I was walking with then sat on the ground and put my matches beside me, "Idiot didn't know who he was dealing with..." I put my hands up after finishing my sentence and listening to the chubby man scream.

I'm returning home from a day of scavenging; this day has been a lucky one. Found a dead merc laying on the side of a popular caravan route — whatever had killed him hadn't bothered with looting him. Managed to pick up a few caps, a frag grenade, a stimpack, a nice hat, and a submachine gun. The poor bastard had run out of ammo — there's never any ammo out here. I hear some voices up over the hill, sounds like an argument.

"Maybe it's a merchant... Would be nice running into one who's alive for a change."

Just as I come up over the hill, *FWOOSH* I catch a bright flash of light as a man is engulfed in flames. I duck down out of sight, and mutter, "savages", under my breath. For a moment, his screams inspire genuine pity, but that quickly passes. I'm much more concerned for all the gear he's carrying that's currently getting burned to a crisp. What a waste.

Peeking out from cover, I try to ignore the burning man while assessing the two homicidal maniacs. They don't seem to be getting along well either.

"Hmm... not all that bad," I think to myself, "Maybe I'll have three more corpses to raid today."

I watched the chubby one burn like a bonfire. I lifted my head from the sights and opened both eyes as the blaze filled my eyes. I had no idea who this person was who threw the molotov, but boy did I want to.
"My my," I shout down to the non burning one, "you know just how to put a Legionaire in a good mood."
I lower my rifle and begin the steep decent to the road. As I get down there I put my rifle over my shoulder on a sling and pull my .45 from my holster. I start walking across the road to the lanky one who I could now identify as a feline. The chubby one was now rolling on the ground and begining to extinguish the flames. I walked over to where he was rolling on the ground and fired a round into his knee. It'd been a while since I heard the screams of inceneration and the smell of burning flesh. I stomped on his arm to stop the rolling.
"Stop rolling you fat son of a bitch, I haven't had this smell in my nose since I burned down NCR barracks while the troopers slept, and I wanna savor it."
I pointed the pistol at his face and with one shot silenced him. I knew I was completely psychotic, but it was more habit from my days of total war with the Legion proper. I turned my head and walked over to the cat and crouched infront of him. I took my pistol and pushed his head back with the front.
"I like your style kid." I put my pistol away and stood up extending my hand. "Awe, true to Ceaser."

"Oh hello glad you liked the show, I've been wanting to burn him for a while..." Ignoring the fact that you just put a gun up to my head, "I have no idea what the Ceaser comment is about, but I guess I'm lucky yo meet you; I guess you could be more delightful than that ass. Probably much nicer too. I wish I didn't waste my cocktail though... actually that is a lie, I loved it and I wish I could have done it again." I grab your hand and smile up at you, "Nice to meet you Mister Legionaire."

"What's up with these people? I can't believe the Overseer thought I was crazy. This shit is crazy."

As I scan my surroundings for a way to get around you, a burning ember from the chunky guy's corpse finds its way into my left nostril.

"AH!"

*COUGH COUGH cough*

I throw myself at the ground, hoping I wasn't seen.

"You don't know who Ceaser is?"
I look at the guy on the rock with a perplexed look.
"Have you been hiding in a cave for the past decade? Ceaser, son of Mars who has waged a glorious war against the NCR for the past 7 years? My my."
I glare a bit at him now.
"And its not Mister Legionaire. I am Octavious Benedict Blaskowitz. Centurion in Ceaser's Legion. But you, wh-"
im cut off by a wheezing over the road behind a rock. I pull my Service Rifle from my shoulder and point it at the rock firing a short burst at the ground.
"Profligate, approach."

"Alright, Mister OctaviousI had no idea who this war was between, I was a part of the Reaver Movement, and regardless of what you might think I didn't have much contact with the outide world; those guys creeped me right out so I decided I would be Neo-Reaver sounds cool does it not?." I look at where you're shooting with a dull expression after hearing the cough, "Ummmm... If he doesn't come out can I light him on fire too?" I look back at Octavious, "by the way... "My name is Taz."

"Fuck!"

I huddle up behind the rock and check my sniper rifle. From the other side of the rock, you can see my hat hang around the side as if I'm peering out.

"I don't want any trouble! I'm only a traveler passing through here!"

"Come on out." I say to the rock in a sing song tone, "If you do I won't light you on fire. Er, if Mister Octavious here is okay with that course of action, he has guns, I only have fire, and these really nice metal gloves I use to beat people up." I pick up my matches and light one throwing it behind the rock as t goes out.

In a moment of clarity, I sling my rifle over my back, pull the grenade from my pack, and step out from behind cover. The grenade sits in my left hand, and my right index finger runs through the ring on the pin. I make sure it's as visible as possible as I proceed.

"Look here, smoothe-skins, play it cool. If you shoot me, I'll drop this grenade, and then we are all gonna have a really. Bad. Time. I don't want any trouble."

"Smoothe-skins? Pfffffft! Ah hahahahahaha! Hehehehehe, aha, hoo... You're funny, I like you."

I pull my head from the sights keeping it on the ghoul.
"Heheheh. You think a grenade scares me? Eh, zombie?"
I keep a half smile on my face as I try to descretly hide my legs moving into a less fighting stance and a more flight stance incase the ghoul was serious.
"Might want to put that down so you don't blow yourself to bits, radiation can do things to your brain."
I keep looking at him waiting for a response as the burning flesh smell grows into a more and more charred smell to the point of making my body want to heave.

"Can we keep him? Like a pet?" I grin and look back at the guy, and start walking up to him slowly swishing my hips and tail, "Pleeeeease? He's funny, wouldn't it be fun? I could poke him with sticks!"

I take a step away from the feline, eyes locked on the one in the Legion armor.

"No way in hell I'm putting up with that. I'm just trying to get home, alive... If you Legionaire psychopaths weren't in my way I could be halfway there by now."

Riv wrote:

I take a step away from the feline, eyes locked on the one in the Legion armor.

"No way in hell I'm putting up with that. I'm just trying to get home, alive... If you Legionaire psychopaths weren't in my way I could be halfway there by now."

"Hehe, only one here is a Legionaire. He, from what I understand is a Neo-Reaver. Now if yo-,
I started to hear some high bass booming in the distance as the ground shook a bit. I knew the battle for Westside was usually going on in the South Vegas ruins and the NCR had no problem lobbing artillery shells into South Vegas because they held Vault 3, but those sounded way off."
I could hear a shell screeching through the air as it struck the mountains.
"Oh shit." I ducked down as rocks started raining on the road. "Shit, NCR bombardment. Fucking hell are they off course with that one."
I started hearing more booming.

I put away the grenade and duck for cover, looking skyward to make sure there aren't any inbound shells.

"Where the hell are we supposed to go now?"

"How should I know? I can't tell if that's a misfire or intentional."
I lay against a rock waiting for the sound of shells hitting us, but they seems to be landing more towards South Vegas.
"From my guess," I shout to Taz and the stranger, "the western mountains would be a good bet. Looks to be the max range for the NCR."
I cautiously stand up with my Service Rifle at the ready.
"Can I trust you?"

"Eh, you can trust me. I trust anything more than bombs, and honestly, I'm outgunned here. I couldn't kill both of you if I wanted... at least not without blowing myself up in the process."

"Rocks from the sky eh?" I catch one in my hand, "They're kind of hot, meh." I get hit in the head with a rock and don't really notice at all, or at least don't seem to mind and drop the rock in my hand, "I wish I had bombs like that... so wait, we're keeping him? That's great! Furthermore, where are we going?"

"We should get up this mountain quick. It may be a stray shell, or it could be directed. Either way I don't know about you all but im headin to Westside."
I sling my rifle back around my back and start climbing up the side of the mountain as quickly as I can.
"If you wanna tag along then hurry and don't piss me off. From up there im deciding how to get to Westside. If you're gonna tag along then we can see what to do."

blackfuredfox wrote:

"We should get up this mountain quick. It may be a stray shell, or it could be directed. Either way I don't know about you all but im headin to Westside."
I sling my rifle back around my back and start climbing up the side of the mountain as quickly as I can.
"If you wanna tag along then hurry and don't piss me off. From up there im deciding how to get to Westside. If you're gonna tag along then we can see what to do."

"Welll... since you're the best person I have met so far. I'll follow you happily."
I follow up the mountain after you, trying to follow the same way you're taking, "Hey, this is way easier than I thought it would be!"

"I'll do anything that reduces my chances of getting blown to bits... Just as long as you promise not to set me on fire."

I quickly rummage through the charred remains of the fat man, burning myself and cursing under my breath a few times in the process. His 10mm pistol and two clips of ammo are all that survived the fire. With a disgusted expression, I cut a good sized chunk of fat off his side and put it into a jar. I glance up and notice that the two of you have a good 50 meters on me, so I run to catch up.

I keep climbing until I get up to a solid rock outcroping. From there I set my rifle down and pull my binoculars from my pack. I lay down and look through them down onto the valley below. The front of the binoculars have the caps on them still with rectangular slits in the front to reduce the glare. I peer down and get a good view of the valley. I wait for the leopard to get up close enough, I keep looking to get a fair lay of the land.
"Okay, here are our options. Heading to Westside we have 4 options none of which are easy. Option one, we go around South Vegas through the western mountains, but there are tribals hiding up there, mostly fiend remants and some hostile wildlife. There's option two, a walk through that 5 mile clearing, it leaves us exposed and with the snipers for the NCR hunting Legionaires for sport, we can be annihilated from one man. Option three, we go around South Vegas to the east into a major NCR bloodline for Vault 3 and crawl up a railroad, then jump to that expressway. Then, there's option four. Run through South Vegas. We would have to make it past the NCR and dodge artillery to make it to the Militia front line. Or fall back and around to the East past Primm, through Primm Pass and go from there. That's the longest way. What do you think?"
I look at the leopard next to me.