Kindness in the Wastelands

The hunt went well, three groups, each going down rather quickly between Sunny and I. The last group had cornered a woman, who was desperately fighting with only a cleaver. It honestly wasn’t very hard to save the poor girl, who rewarded me with a few bottles of clean water she’d drawn from the well.

“I keep telling them how dangerous it is to come out here.” Sunny said with a sigh as we made our way back.

“You think they’d learn.” I said quietly, rolling my eyes. “You need more than a knife and hope to come out here. Some training, a gun, something!” I sighed, chuckling.

“Still, good work. Glad I brought you along.” She said, patting my shoulder. “By the way, before you head out of town, make sure you poke your head in and say hi to Trudy. She’s kinda the town mom, and she’d be cross at me if I didn’t tell you to stop by.” I smiled in return.

“Well, I think I will, thanks Sunny.”

“I’m done being nice. If you don’t hand Ringo over soon, I’m going to get my friends, and we’re burning this town to the ground, got it?” An unknown voice floated through the air as I opened the door. It was male, and low, laced with threat.

“We’ll keep that in mind.” This voice was female, but I recognized this one. This was the owner of the saloon, the woman who had aimed at me to protect the girl before. As I came around, I sa a black amn wearing a sort of bulletproof vest with the letters “NCRCF” on the back, talking to the woman. Trudy, I guess. “Now if you’re not going to buy something, get out.” The man glared at her for a moment, but turned around and began to leave, bumping my shoulder to shove me out of the way.

“What the hell is you’re problem?” He snapped.

“Was gonna ask the same.” I snapped back. He glared at me, but kept going. Rolling my eyes, I continued on, walking to meet the woman who was heading for behind the bar.

“Well, you’ve been causing quite a stir. Glad I finally got meet you. Welcome to the Prospectors Saloon.” She stopped, recognizing me suddenly. “Hey wait a second, aren’t you…” She chuckled. “You’re the one talking to poor Flutters, earlier.” She chuckled and shook her head. “So, what can I do for ya?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, but, what the hell was that all about?” Trudy sighed, moving to the other side of the bar.

“It looks like our little town got itself dragged into the middle of something we don’t want anything to do with.” She sighed again, pulling out a rag and starting to clean up the bar. “About a week ago, this trader, Ringo, comes into town. Survivor of an attack, he says. Bad men after him, needs a place to hide.” She looks up to me, nodding to the other room where the pink haired girl, ‘Flutters’, evidently, was. “Seems to be going around..” She shook her head. “Anyways, we figured he was just in shock, so we gave him a place to lie low. We didn’t actually expect anyone to come after him.” I sighed, bringing a hand to my chin, thinking.

“That doesn’t make sense.” I said, taking a seat on a bar stool. “The town’s not that big, why can’t Cobb find him?

“Well, Cobb hasn’t exactly been looking for Ringo to haard. Honestly, I think he’s afraid that Ringo will ambush him. Which is probably true…” I shook my head at her response.

“Shit, why not just shoot the fucker in the head while he’s walking away and be done with it.”

“What, you mean murder him? That’s just not our way, even if he is scum. Cobb can bluster and threaten all he wants…” I nodded, putting my hands together and leaning my face into them, thinking. Finally, I made a decision.

“Where’s this Ringo? I want to talk to him.” Trudy eyed me, as though she was trying to figure if I was working with Cobb. Finally, she nodded.

“He’s holed up at the abandoned gas station up the hill…Be careful, ok? He’s kind of…jumpy.” I nodded, smiling.

“Thanks Trudy, I’ll be fine.”

I left the saloon, making my way up the hill, back towards the doc’s house, and the abandoned gas station. Opening the door, I hear a gun cock. In one motion, I took a single step, drew my 9mm, and pointed at the man pointing his gun at me.

“That’s close enough.” He said lowly. “Who are you, and what do you want with me.”

“If you’re going to shoot me, you better be damn sure you don’t miss.” I hissed as the door swung shut behind me. We glared at one another, both holding our guns steady, aiming at one another’s heads. After a few moments, the man brought his gun down.

“Sorry about the gun. You just caught me off guard, that’s all…” I narrowed his eyes, not lowering his gun. “Look, we got off to a bad start. What say we start over with a friendly game of Caravan, you know how to play?” He asked, holding up two decks of cards.

After nearly two minutes after playing this card game with this man, I was starting to regret not shooting him. We discussed the situation over the game.

“You know,” I started, looking up to him as he removed three of my cards for some reason. “there’s a man name Joe Cobb looking for you.”

“Yeah. He doesn’t look very tough though. I hear he’s afraid I’ll shoot him down from one of the windows when I see him. He’s right. I’ll have a much bigger problem once his friends show up. There’s no way I could handle all of them in a gunfight. You lose.” He told me, taking his cards back. “Play again?”

“Hell no.” I told him, looking up to him. “So, what’re you gonna do?” He sighed, putting his face in his hands.

“I’m going to lay low for as long as I can, assuming the doesn’t throw me to the wolves. I’ve got no chance against the gang on my own.”

“Need a hand?” I asked him, standing up.

“Well, all I’ve got left on me are a handful of caps, but you get me out of this, and I’ll make sure the Crimson Caravan pays you back. You’ve got my word.” I snorted, waving my hand.

“I don’t need your caps… I’ll help you out. “

“I won’t let you stick your neck out for free. I can’t pay you now, but I’ll make sure the Crimson Caravan pays up. Now, we’d just end up sharing the same grave if it was just the two of us. Now, if some of the other people in town were also on board…”

I traveled around the town, asking everyone I could, however, I could only get Sunny on board. But that was just as well. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to put any of these people in danger. I could tell, they weren’t much the combat types. I even ran into Victor, a securitron bot that told me he was the one who saved me. We talked for a moment, but I had to get back to Ringo before the Powder Gangers, the gang after him, got here. Opening the door to the gas station door, I saw Ringo knelt down behind the counter. Hearing the door shut, he looked up, standing.

“What’s going on? Is Sunny with us?” I nodded, cocking my gun.

“Yep, you all set?”

“I hope…” No sooner than the words had left his lips, we heard the door swing open behind us, Sunny and Cheyenne. Sunny looked at me and Ringo.

“Time to look alive. The Powder Gangers are here to play.”

It took us a few minutes to get down to what I liked to call the finical district of Goodsprings, in front of the Saloon and the general store. I had told Sunny and Ringo to go on ahead, and lay down in between an electric pole and some boxes in front of the general store. I put my SMG ahead of me, and pulled the rifle that Sunny had given me from my back. Taking aim, I saw the six of them. All, except for two, dressed in blue gear with the NCRCF logo. The other two had no shirts, just pants. One of those shirtless ones was wearing a black cowboy hat. I liked that hat. Four of them were packing guns, one of them a knife, and the last, a baseball bat. I focused in on the man in front, cowboy hat, holding a rifle like mine, feeling my breath. In….out…in…out. Finally, the group moved into a clear spot. In…Finally, I fired, and watched his head kick to the right, a red circle appearing in the center of the side of his head. As he dropped, Joe Cobb shouted, and the group scattered, the two who had melee weapons, ran to cover, presumably trying to safely get to me, the others charging for the saloon. One dropped immediately from Sunny, and Ringo shot another one down. I heard two screams, and looked at the nearby dip where some of the houses hadn’t survived the bombs, brandishing their bat and cleaver. Jumping to my feet, I grabbed my SMG, and charged back, emptying the clip into the two. Taking a breath, I heard a gunshot. Looking over, I saw Ringo had fired, hitting the bulletproof vest, as Joe brought his gun up to aim at Ringo’s head. I dropped my now empty SMG and pulled my 9mm, charging.

“Joe!” I screamed out, causing the criminal to look up at me. I fired three times, every bullet missing their mark. Joe spun, taking his shot without aiming. The bullet was lucky, catching me in the leg, making me fall to the pavement. The bullet didn’t hit anywhere vital but the face plant into the road didn’t feel good. I heard boot steps just ahead of me. Looking up, I saw Joe, leveling his revolver on my head.

“Shouldn’t have played hero smartass. Time to die.” I growled, trying to grab my 9mm again, when I heard a gunshot, and saw a hole appear in Joe’s forehead, as the man fell to his knees, then on top of me.

Shoving him off, I stood, looking at Sunny.

“Close one.” She said with a smirk. “That’ll teach the Powder Gangs to avoid Goodsprings.” Ringo ran to me, helping me up.

“I owe you big for this.” He said, shoving one hundred caps into my hands. “Here, There are technically Crimson Caravan funds, but I know they’ll understand once I explain things.” I smirked at him.

“What was that about you not having any money?”

“Well…” He started, his shoulders sagging. “I did have what was left of the Caravan’s money from when we were attacked. But…I wasn’t sure if It was my right to just give it away.” He looked up, looking me in the eyes. “But I owe you more than that. Look me up at the Crimson Caravan camp in New Vegas if you ever visit.” I nodded, smiling.

“Will do.” I turned my head, looking at the bodies. “I can’t just leave these guys laying in the middle of town. With a sigh, I started to cleaning the bodies, dumping them in a ditch outside of town, but not before taking what I liked from them. Starting with a nice new hat, and a shotgun practically calling my name.