Ain't no rest for nopony

Where am I? How'd I get here? Ugh.. My head.

I slowly staggered to my feet, still a little sleepy, and confused as to why I had been sleeping on.. Sand?

What in the hell?

"Strange.. Where the fu-" I noticed a sign. And it sends a chill through my body. "Welcome to Pandora, your final destination guaranteed" I mumbled. "Well, I'm fucked." I look around, seeing nothing but the vast nothingness.. Yet, there's a small dust cloud in the distance, moving.

A bus? Must be Marcus's bus. Maybe I'll survive after all.

As the bus slowly approached, so did a Skag, unseen. It jumped for me, from the other side of the road, and to my amusement and relief, got hit by the bus. It slowed to a halt a little past where I was standing, and the door opened. I ran for it, unsure if there were more Skags around, and I wasn't intending on finding out.

"Are you lost, my friend?" Asked Marcus as I stepped into the bus. It was heavily armored, looked like it could take a beating. Of course, it had to be able to on this god forsaken world.

"You could say that.. I woke up here."

"Woke up?" He said, chuckling in disbelief. "Yeah, good one. I bet the Skags just ignored you too?"

"Look at me for a second. Do I look like an adventurer? A soldier? Someone supposed to be on Pandora at all?" I answered. He looked me over, closely.

"Hmm. You're right. You don't look like an adventurer or anything special like that. Still doesn't answer how you got here" He said, obviously deep in thought. I let him be, and took a seat. The bus was empty, besides me. As I sat down, I thought about it as well.

How'd I get here? Why? Did I get here alone? Gah, so many unanswered questions. This bus is most likely headed for Fyrestone, I'll get off there and hopefully get a heads up display and a firearm.

With these thoughts, I decided to take a short nap.

"We're here, Fyrestone. Of course, I can always take you to New Haven if you prefer that?"

I was awake now. I had been for a few minutes. I had asked Marcus to stop in Fyrestone, I had a feeling that progressing from there would be the best idea.

"No thanks, Marcus. I'll see you in New Haven as soon as I get there. I'll see if I can help out around here in the meanwhile."

"Alright friend, stay safe, and remember to visit my shops every now and then!" He replied.

"I will, don't worry" I stepped out of the bus, into the open area that was the bus stop of Fyrestone. With a depot and a large open area, it looked more like a boss area then a bus area. Markus drove off towards New Haven, and I turned around.

Hmm. Where's Claptrap? Strange. Oh well. I'll get moving.. Need a gun.. If I remember correctly there's a gun crate on top of the depot.

I began climbing the depot, and after a few falls and scrapes, got up there. I looked around and a red crate caught my eye. "Gotcha." I walked over and opened it, to reveal 2 rifles and some ammo. "Ugh, without a HUD I can't see the stats.. Better bring both along." I grabbed the ammo and put it in my pockets, seeing as I had yet to get a bandolier or belt, and then both rifles, one in each hand, and began walking into town.

Walking into the town square, I noticed Claptrap doing his usual thing at the bounty board, dancing and other acts of randomness, and walked over. "Hey Claptrap"

"Hello, traveler! You seem to not yet be equipped with an ECHO device. Would you like one? They're free of charge!"

"That's pretty much the main reason I came in here in the first place.. Is Zed still around? " I asked, not so much to find out if he was here or not, but to get a general idea of where in the Borderlands timeline I was.

Claptrap, who was now holding an ECHO device in his left grabber, answered: "No, he moved to New Haven, seeing as he could actually set up shop there."

"I see.."

Alright. So this is after the defeat of Mad Max. That means the vault hunters are here, too. Good, I'd hate to hunt down all those bosses myself.

"But you might get trouble doing the same. A few hours ago there was this big portal storm, and I've been getting reports about Mad Mel's return, as well as Ninetoes and Sledge. I've also gotten reports about roars from Skagzilla's cave in the Dahl Headlands." Claptrap began, continuing on.

Oh fuck my life.

Of course, I knew all of the bosses from playing the game, and didn't really care much to get them all repeated to me, so I stopped listening. Instead, I equiped my HUD, and checked the stats on those 2 assault rifles.

"Not bad.." I looked to the other, a new hologram appearing. "Better rate of fire, better mag size.. But the rest is pretty bad. I'll go with the other, it's S&S too, they make some good rifles." I equipped the Sands and walked over to the gun store. Here, I sold off my other gun.

Now to get some money.. Let's see, if all the bosses have respawned, that'll mean most of the missions will open up again. I hope.

I went over to the bounty board where Claptrap was still rambling on about the portal storm, and checked it. Luck seemed to shine upon me, as several missions were available.

"Hey Claptrap, why were you not at the bus stop?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"A few minutes ago another traveler arrived. She should still be around, I think she said something about taking a nap and waking up..." He answered.

"Alright, thanks." I began my search. However, it wasn't as easy as I had hoped. Most of the huts were not able to be opened in game, however here, in the real world of Borderlands, they were. There was a lot of huts to go through, and all of them seemed empty.

Where is she, and more importantly, who? Can't be Lilith, seeing as the vault hunters are elsewhere.

Deciding to end my search for this woman, I decided to search for provisions. Food, and more importantly, water. Of course, water was easy enough, with the big water tower located in the middle of town. I found little food, but I did find something to start a fire with.

Guess I can try some Skag meat, the bandits seem to enjoy it.

However, it was getting dark, those quests would have to wait till tomorrow. I found a nice hut, and went to sleep.

That's the end of chapter 1, people. Hopefully you enjoyed, and please, leave a comment about what you liked and what you did not like. This is my first story, and I'm not a native English speaker. And 15 years old. But I digress.