Ancient Hysteria: A Fallout New Vegas Fan Fiction.

This is my very first fan fiction, but I'm trying my best to make it interesting and engaging to the Courier's story. The Interlude is a bit slow, but when the actual story starts, it'll speed up quite a bit.

Interlude

The first day of 2277 approaches me, and almost immediately I wake up. Maybe a coincidence, I don't know. No. A rock has pierced the window of my two-story home. I change into a pair of jeans and slip on a leather jacket over my "Nuka-Cola" T-shirt. I walk to the window and observe the gaping hole that the rock had knocked away in the window. I look out onto the Hopeville street and observe. It seemes to be around midnight.

"Awfully late for someone to be about, isn't it?" I mutter under my breath. I hear a whisper from outside the window, and look straight down.

I sigh. "Sally, you destroyed my window!" I mutter. I don't want to wake any of the neighbors up.

"Come on, James, you have to come see this!" she whispers back. I sigh, and head downstairs. It is quite strange, how she has taken to calling me by my middle name, but if it's what she enjoys doing, then I can put up with it. I walk down into the living room, and slip on a pair of pre-war sneakers.
I leave the house, Sally leaves her rock-throwing spot, and heads over to where I am.

"The pre-war fad is to throw a pebble at someone's window, not a damned boulder," I sigh. I notice that she has a 9mm pistol attached to her hip.

"Couldn't find any," she smirks.

"Is what you woke me up for important enough to destroy my window and wake me up at midnight?" I ask.

She ponders this for a second, and then replies, "I think so." It's obvious that she didn't quite think this through before throwing a rock at my window.

"Whatever, I'm awake now." I reply.

"Come on, James!" she replies. I moan, but follow her. She leads me through an end of my neighborhood that I don't often visit.

"What's there to see here?" I ask. Most of the homes in this part of Hopeville are abandoned, and are not worth visiting.

"Just follow me!" she replies. We leave my neighborhood and walk to a different part of Hopeville. There are three two-story houses lined up in the direction of which Sally is leading me. The one on the right has a particularly strange light coming from the second-story window. "In here," Sally whispers. She climbs through the window of the first floor, and sticks her hand out of it, beckoning me to enter. I climb through the rusty window, almost stumbling on my way through. Sally leads me upstairs and takes me into a bedroom with a strange white-light coming out from it. When I lay eyes on what sits adjacent to the bed, I can't believe my eyes. A pre-war T.V! Sally sits on the bed in front of it.

"I don't think its signal works very well anymore, but this television is on a loop from some Old World shows," says Sally. I sit on the bed next to her and watch. At this moment, it feels as if we are at complete peace. As if, we are not a part of the rest of the world, but a part of our own, right here in the bedroom of this abandoned house. She gives me a large hug, and I accept it. After a few seconds, it becomes somewhat strange because she doesn't let go for a little while. Eventually she does, and I turn to watch the television. Some of the sound and video is static, but nevertheless, the show is audible and I am able to watch it.

"Next week on RALPHIE the Robot's Incredible Odyssey!

RALPHIE, hurry! If mean old General Winters catches you, you'll never make it home!

No! RALPHIE, fly far! Fly fast!--"

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110728120937/fallout/images/f/f7/Ralphie_poster.jpg

Hahaha, I enjoyed it And it wasn't too slow, so nothing to worry about there.

Book One: War is Peace

Chapter 1- The Courier

I awake much later than I had planned on, but I don't mind too much. I groan, get out of bed, and head downstairs to get ready for today's work. I pull out my only other T-shirt, a simple white one, and put it on in place of the "Nuka-Cola" shirt. Then, I put on my leather jacket, a pair of boots, and leave the house. Thankfully, it is early enough in the morning that it isn't ridiculously hot. I head for a two-story building, which is named to us as "Hopeville Headquarters". A large neon-sign stands adjacent to it, but the lights on it do not work. I open the front door and enter. The lobby of the building contains desks lined up from left to right. Some are occupied by accountants, and some are left empty. The man sitting behind the front-center desk beckons me over.

"Courier. There's someone here to see you," he says.

"Someone here to see me?" I think. I hesitate, and ask, "Who is it?"

"Hell if I know, he simply waved a few caps at us so that he could see you, specifically," replied the man at the desk.

I address the man at the desk, "Thank you, Sedillo. Where can I find this man?" Sedillo turns around and points to the door of a closed office. I walk past the rows of computers and stacks of paper, and approach the door. I've never been in this office before. I open it, and enter the room.

"Are you the Courier that I sent for?" asks a strange, but twisted voice that reverberates from the other side of the room.

I flick on the light-switch in the room and reply, "Yes." The man is tall and very thin, who contains a face with a more cruel expression than that of a ghoul. He is wearing a suit and pre-war fedora, which is unusually formal attire in these times.

"Close the door, then we can talk, Courier," he says in a cold voice. I close the door. He then stands up from his sitting positions and begins to speak.

"Good. My name... is Vulpes Inculta.-"

"What is the Legion doing here in Hopeville?" I asked. A name as strange as that could only come from straight from the Legion itself. Vulpes smiles, and slowly nods.

"I want you to deliver something, Courier." I shake my head. "Will 4,500 caps sate your thirst, Courier?" Vulpes asks.

4,500 caps? That kind of money could renovate more of the Divide and increase the quality of life here even further...

"What's the catch, Legionnaire? I've been in this business long enough to know that this job isn't that simple," I reply.

"Is it?" says Vulpes. He pulls a small container, about the size of a tin can, out of his pocket, and places it on the floor. He then pulls out a folded map of southwestern America, and opens it. He draws an "X" on an area in Southwestern New Mexico.

"Courier, this container needs to be delivered here." Vulpes points at the "X" on the map.

"I will pay you 2,000 caps up front, and you will receive the other portion when you reach the designated Legion Encampment," says Vulpes.

"Do you accept?"

I hesitate. "The Divide needs this money." I think to myself. Then, I nod.

"Good," replies Vulpes. He hands me a large sack of caps, folds the map, hands it to me, then gives me the container.

"I've heard that you are good at what you do. Make sure it gets delivered, Courier." says Vulpes. He then leaves the room.

I then leave the Headquarter building myself to go find Sally. I ponder for the next few minutes the deal I have struck with the Legionnaire. Is this money too good to be true? What's in the package? What will NCR do once they realize that I'm delivering Legion property? These thoughts circulate in my head on my way back to my house. I notice that Sally is in front of my house before she notices my approach.

"What am I going to tell Sally?" I thought. "Oh, Sally, I'm going to leave for a few weeks to deliver a potentially dangerous item for the Legion?"

Damn it, I shouldn't have let Vulpes talk me into it! How dangerous can it be? It is only the size of a soda-can. I remember Vulpes' directions to not open it, so I refrain from opening and looking into it.

I am still figuring out what I should say when Sally approaches me and says, "James. What took you so long? We're going to dig out an old general store across the street from the collapsed-car tunnel."

"They kept me in the headquarters longer than I would've expected," I respond. I start to shiver. Sally knows that there's more to the situation than what meets her ears, but she decides not to elongate the conversation any further. She ignores the fact that I'm telling her a white lie. "Well, we can move the renovation to tomorrow."

"I won't be here tomorrow." I reply.

Realization flickers through Sally's eyes. "So, you're going to have to leave for an entire month on another delivery job?" she asks.

"This one's different. And no, it won't take longer than a month." I reply. Often times, people in Hopeville forget that I breathed life to this place. I bring home the money that so many now take for granted.

Sally knows this, but she never likes to see me go for too long. "Don't be gone for a long time, please." she says. "If I have to put up with more than two weeks of Rune by myself, it's going to be your fault." She is right. I think Sally is beginning to get sick of being hit-on by Rune.

"Don't worry. Just shut yourself up in your house for a while, or go pass the time in front of that television." I reply.

"But I need to work, James." she says.

"No, not this time, Sally. The money I'm bringing home from this Courier trip is going to be different," I reply.

"How is it different from your other trips?" asks Sally. She stares me down, and it makes me quite uncomfortable.

I know I can't lie to her. I gulp. "Legion." I reply.

She turns away, sighs, and then rushes to give me a long hug. "Be safe, Connor." she whispers in my ear. This is the first time she's ever called me by my first name. Is it a sign of respect? Did she forget that her personal preference is to call me by my middle name? I don't care. Once she decides enough is enough, she lets go, walks two houses over from mine, goes to a house with a door labeled "Sally Williams" and enters.

I know that this is the last time I will see her for the next few weeks. I walk away from my house, past the Headquarter building, and into a pre-war gas station. It has been put to use as a simple store for food, drinks, and some miscellaneous items. I'm then addressed by the clerk behind a desk inside.

"C.J, what brings you to my little slice of hell?" asks the man.

"I'm getting ready for another Courier trip, Wander," I reply.

"Oh, are you?" asks Wander. "Good, good. Some people forget that your money is what keeps this [censored] place from crashing into the ground."

I nod. "I'm going to need five-or-six bottles of purified water, and a few caravan lunches," I say.

"You've got it," replies Wander. He goes into the section of the gas station filled with aisles, then counts off caravan lunches and waters. "The money you bring is good, but I hate it when you go on those damned Courier trips. Besides Sally, there aren't many interesting people to talk to. My job is [censored] boring, so talking to other people always makes it go faster," he says.

"I wish I didn't have to go on these trips. Most of the people I work for are shifty characters looking to get their items moved. But the pay's always good, so they keep me coming back to their offices," I reply. Wander nods.

I leave the gas station. I spot Rune, who is sitting in front of the door that leads to Hopeville's abandoned military base. He's drinking.

"Rune," I mutter. He is definitely not very sober, because when he peers out, he doesn't even notice me for a few seconds.

"Ah, Connor. Where are ya' off to?" he asks in a drunken tone.

"Another Courier trip," I reply.

"Can I come with ye'?" he asks.

"No. I do these trips alone, and even if I did want to take someone, you're not even sober enough to walk to the gas station from here," I reply.

"Fair enough," he remarks.

I enter the old military base, as it is the quickest way to leave Hopeville. No one dares to enter this place, but it's been abandoned for two-hundred years. After entering, I pass through a military-training hallway-type room, and start to descend from a flight of stairs. I'm almost through the military base. I enter one final office room before I leave. But before I go, I notice a flickering red light coming from an old control panel. I observe it more closely and realize that it is shining on a lever. "Curiosity killed the cat," I whisper to myself, and pull it. What I thought was the wall in front of the control panel reveals a window in front of a massive white item. A missile.


"There sits the wildcard,
Representation of greed, evil, jealousy cruelty, and disregard,
On the middle level sits the king,
With rows of five it represents power that government brings,
Laws of power, evil greed, and a mask of authority where money is everything,
With the power of man so prevalent it shakes the land,"

-Kurt Kacich

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/9/9e/The_Silo.jpg

Thanks!

The way I'm designing my chapters, is that I'm giving it a few large paragraphs, then adding more and more onto it until I think that it's summed up. Still not exactly done with Chapter 1 yet.

Chapter 2- The Beginning

I push the lever back to its previous state as quickly as I can. A missile!

"It's definitely active, if the technology in here can wake it up," I think to myself. All these years, we've been living right next to a very active weapon of mass destruction? Whatever. No one comes into this military base anyway. I open a rusty iron door, and just like that, I'm outside again. Except, I'm quite far from Hopeville now. The military base stretches quite a bit of distance underground. I'm on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the rest of the Divide. I open a footlocker next to the door, and retrieve a service rifle. This is the place where I store my weapons. I can't spot Hopeville from here, but I can see the ruined urban city that used to be Ashton. I open the footlocker again, and retrieve a .45 auto pistol. They don't sell these in the Mojave, so I always found a special place for it. I close the footlocker. I am a bit cautious going around the cliff, as it's about a two-hundred foot drop off the right side, but I make it past the cliff and head for an opening in the ridge in front of me.

"The Mojave," I think to myself. I'm not entirely fond of it, but New Vegas is sure a sight, especially at nighttime. When I make it past the opening in the ridge, I'm looking over Primm. It's been a while since I've been here. I used to take Courier jobs from the Mojave Express, but now, I take most of my delivery contracts from independent characters.

I decide to entirely avoid Primm, though, because the NCR controls this area, and I don't want to be seen with a Legion package. I rub my hand on my pocket. "I wonder what's inside?" I mutter. I pull it out of my pocket. It's then that I realize that a large red bull is pained on it, so I immediately place it back in my pocket. It's then that I wonder.

"How am I going to get into Arizona?" Cottonwood Cove is strictly forbidden to outsiders, and if I simply swim across the river, I'll be killed by a Legion Sniper. I then remember the bull that is painted on the package. Maybe, just showing it to them will give me access. Did Vulpes think about that before he sent me with this? Does he WANT me to be killed or enslaved by Legionnaires? Did he simply give me the 2,000 caps straight-away so that the Legion can take them off my corpse? Countless amounts of questions circle in my head. While I'm thinking about my quarry, I'm walking on an overpass, leading away from Primm. It's about thirty feet off the ground. It's at this moment, an NCR soldier approaches from the other side of the bridge.

"What's your business in Primm, wastelander?" he asks.

"I'm a simple traveler, sir," I reply.

"Oh, really. I've sent about three chem smugglers to NCRCF yesterday alone. Turn out your pockets." he replies.

I take out my map, and hand it to him.

"Thank you," he replies. I nearly breathe a sigh of relief, that is, until he notices the indentation in my pocket.

"TURN OUT YOUR POCKETS," he says again. The NCR soldier drops the map on the floor, as it is of no use to him. I pull out the container. By this time, I've picked up the map and I'm running in the opposite direction.

The overpass is fairly short, but not long enough, as I hear the soldier cry, "It's the Legion Courier! Kill him! Kill him!" I hear a gunshot, followed by another, and another. He's shooting at me from behind. I swerve back and forth while running, to try to avoid the bullets. It slows me down, but I have been lucky enough not to be shot. I get cocky at the wrong time, as, once I am nearly to the end, the NCR soldier unleashes one final bullet. "Maybe he's given up", I think in this instant. He has no need to. In that moment, the bullet buries itself straight into my shoulder. I'm ten yards short of leaving the overpass. The NCR soldier is now running. Too fast, I won't be able to out-run him! I cry out in pain and drop on my knees at the edge of the bridge.

It takes every bit of my strength, but I leap over the edge of the gigantic overpass, and fall. It's a large drop, and in addition to my wound, I ponder if I'm going to survive the fall. I don't have much time to think about it before I'm laying flat on the ground, thirty feet below where I had dropped.

"GAH!" I scream in pain. I turn my body over and look up to the overpass. About six NCR soldiers are lined up on top of it, holding out their service rifles and chuckling.

"[censored] off. I'll handle this one myself. Get back to work, lazy asses," the middle soldier says. He walks around the overpass, and eventually reaches my location.

"You scumbag Legionnaire, the NCRCF is going to screw you up," says the NCR soldier. I moan in pain.

"Oh, quit your whining. The drop was only, what? 30 feet?" says the soldier. He bursts out laughing. He lays me out on the floor, pulls out the bullet in my shoulder almost carelessly. I shriek in pain. He then pulls out a first-aid kit. He pulls out a long bandage and wraps it around my wounded shoulder. The fine white material is now completely red, soaked in my blood.

The NCR soldier moves me away from where I had fallen. He lays me up against the dirt beside the road that leads under the overpass.

"The NCR is better than this," I moan. "I don't work for the Legion, I'm just trying to bring money to the place-in-which I live."

"Oh shut the [censored] up, don't tell me your problems. You're going to NCRCF," replies the soldier. He retrieves the map, caps, and container that were in my pocket. I turn to where I had fallen, where a massive pool of blood was beginning to dry up.

I look back up at the trooper, and I then spit blood in his face. The soldier laughs, and knocks me unconscious with the edge of his service rifle.


"Like violence you have me, forever, and after
Like violence you kill me,
Like violence you have me, forever, and after
Like violence, you kill me--"

-Blink 182 (Violence '03)

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/a/a8/Primm.jpg

Pretty dawm good, you have inspired me to write my own one of these.

Thanks!

Chapter 3- Let the Chains Begin

I awake inside of a cell.

"So... You're awake. That's a welcome improvement," says a nearby voice.

I lift my head from the soggy mattress I am laying on, and try to peer around the room. "Agh," I moan. My shoulder wound has started to swell. Stupid NCR. When someone removes a bullet from a wound, you use tweezers, not your [censored] bare hand. I rub my shoulder with my hand.

"It's infected," says the same nearby voice.

I turn my head to the other side of my cell. A few yards from the mattress in which I am sitting, there is another mattress. A man with buzz-cut hair faces me from across the cell.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"My parents never gave me a name. People call me Skorpio," replies the man.

"Why?" I ask.

"Well, before these NCR pricks placed me into jail for no valid reason, my favorite weapon was a sub-machine-gun called a Skorpio. I took to calling myself that, and it stuck," says Skorpio.

My mind comes to the realization that I have been placed into jail. "Oh, Sally," I sigh.

Skorpio gets off his mattress and sits on a chair next to mine. "So, you must have been no-good if the NCR bothered shooting you over it," says Skorpio.

"I was delivering a package for the Legion," I reply.

"Ah... So that's why the NCR bothered shooting you," replies Skorpio. "Welcome to hell, delivery-boy."

***
Even with my wounded shoulder, the NCR forces me to work the same amount as everyone else. Picking up gecko-[censored], hammering railway spikes, or simply sitting in my cell waiting for something to happen. The last few weeks have been difficult. My shoulder wound still isn't completely recovered, but the swelling has stopped. Skorpio is a good friend to have around, but often times the work the NCR has us do splits us up during most days. I've met others, such as Hannigan, Eddie, Cooke, Scrambler, Phil, and Meyers, too. Just a group of men trying to make their life work in all of the wrong ways. Nighttime is approaching, and I'm heading back to "Cell Block C", where my cell is located. Before I go, I hear a whisper in the dark. It's Skorpio.

"Hey, Courier, over here!"

I walk in the direction of his voice, and notice that he's crouched in a corner behind Cell Block A. "The NCR will whip us nearly to death if they realize that we're out of our cells at this time!" I whisper.

"I don't care. Those [censored]s don't threaten me. You wanna hear something interesting?" he replies. I nod. "Come up here," says Skorpio. He's clearly mad! The administration office is directly in front of where he is walking. The office is a fortified two-story building where the NCR officials work. Skorpio pushes a ladder against the building, and leads it up to a second floor window. "Come on!" says Skorpio. I follow him up the ladder.

The window that Skorpio has chosen contains a niche surrounding it that is large enough for us to both sit in. The window is closed and has a blind covering it from the inside. "Shh," whispers Skorpio.

He partially opens the window, and we are able to hear the inside."What are we going to do about that Courier we found on the overpass by Primm?" asks a voice. This voice belongs to the NCR soldier who had taken the items from me in the first place.

"The Legion has been attacking frequently in the five square miles that surround the NCR Correctional Facility. They're trying to find him," replies another voice.

"Why do they persist? The Legion item he was carrying has been shipped to California for scientists to anolyze," replies the NCR soldier.

"They know that, Sergeant Taylor. They're here for his blood, not for the package," says the voice who had announced the Legion's presence.

"Captain Johnston, what do you want me to do?" asks Taylor. Johnston sighs loud enough for us to hear and replies,

"We need to set him loose. We can't risk losing this place to the Legion over a man who will not be a threat to us anymore."

"What about his cellmate?" asks Taylor.

"What of it, Sergeant Taylor?" asks Johnston. "Let the cellmate go, too. He shouldn't even be here," replies Taylor. "Okay, Taylor," says Johnston. "However, if these two come to cause trouble to the NCR, it's your fault."

Skorpio gasps, not loud enough for them to hear, and shuts the window. "Good. They're letting us go," I say.

"Not good, Courier. They're sending us out, so we can die from the Legion away from the NCRCF, instead of NCR being attacked," replies Skorpio.

I ponder this for a moment. "What are we going to do?" I ask. Skorpio shakes his head.

"Freeside," says Skorpio.

"Freeside?" I ask. He nods.

"That's the only place that's out of the Legion's reach, but at the same time, the NCR has no real presence there either," says Skorpio.

"All too simple," I reply.

"No. Getting there without being killed by the Legion is going to be the challenge, Courier," he replies.

"What could I have been carrying that would be dangerous enough for NCR scientists to have to anolyze?" I ask.

"No idea. Sounds like there's more to it than you or the NCR know," says Skorpio. That part is true. Not that I'd ever know what it really is. It's probably a few-hundred miles from here by now. Skorpio and I climb down from the ladder, and set it down on the ground. We make a run for Cell Block C, and enter before the NCR notices that we are out of our cells.

***

The next morning approaches. Skorpio and I have rationed our nightly food and water, knowing that today would probably be the day of our release. I wake up at the same time Skorpio does, due to an NCR soldier knocking on the bars of our cell.

"You're being released today at noon," he says. He opens the cell door, throws in a large, black duffle bag, then leaves the room. I nod at Skorpio. We both gather the food and water we had rationed from the previous night, and pack it inside the duffle bag. I slip the bag under my mattress, just to make sure we don't have a misunderstanding with NCR soldiers.

Another NCR soldier enters the room, and opens our cell door. This one, I remember. Sergeant Taylor. The man who had shot me in the shoulder in the ridge. He smirks a little.

"I wish you two the best in your efforts when you leave the NCRCF," says Taylor.

I clutch my wounded left shoulder.

"Just a little something for the road," says Taylor.

He pulls out a 9mm pistol, and shoots Skorpio about two inches below the knee.

Before I can do anything, he fires a shot directly into my left wrist.


"A declaration,
Embedded deep under my skin.
A permanent reminder,
Of how it began.
No hesitation,
When I am commanded to strike.
You need to know,
That you're living the fight of your life"

-Disturbed (Indestructible '08)

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/8/80/NCRCF_visitors_center.jpg

OMG NCR are totally, horrible, cold blooded morons in your story!!!!!!!!

Excellent story! Once I began reading, I couldn't stop. I really like your setting! Hopeville and the Courier tries to revive it, again! It does take place in the current Divide? Or is that story set before the missles created the Divide? It's definitely a great setting for a story. I'm very much inspired by Ulysses and the Divide as well.

One tip. Your dialogue should be set apart from your narrative like so: (http://www.novel-writing-help.com/punctuating-dialogue.html)

I awake inside of a cell.

"So... You're awake. That's a welcome improvement," says a nearby voice.

I lift my head from the soggy mattress I am laying on, and try to peer around the room. "Agh," I moan. My shoulder wound has started to swell. Stupid NCR. When someone removes a bullet from a wound, you use tweezers, not your [censored] bare hand. I rub my shoulder with my hand.

"It's infected," says the same nearby voice.

I turn my head to the other side of my cell. A few yards from the mattress in which I am sitting, there is another mattress. A man with buzz-cut hair faces me from across the cell.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"My parents never gave me a name. People call me Skorpio," replies the man.

"Why?" I ask.

"Well, before these NCR pricks placed me into jail for no valid reason, my favorite weapon was a sub-machine-gun called a Skorpio. I took to calling myself that, and it stuck," says Skorpio.

My mind comes to the realization that I have been placed into jail. "Oh, Sally," I sigh.

Skorpio gets off his mattress and sits on a chair next to mine. "So, you must have been no-good if the NCR bothered shooting you over it," says Skorpio.

"I was delivering a package for the Legion," I reply. "Ah... So that's why the NCR bothered shooting you," replies Skorpio. "Welcome to hell, delivery-boy.

Oh, I clumped it all together and I was planning on opening it up once I finished revising my chapters. Whoops.

i would still use it. Treat your story like a real story! Wall of texts are never easy on your readers eyes. But yea, it's a great story. So, does it take place in the current Divide or before it was destroyed?

You really handle conflict very well in your story, I like it! And you write very convincing characters. Your courier is well developed and I can't wait to see what that package is or what will happen next!

Nevermind, since it's a PRE-quel, I guess it's Hopeville before the destruction! Awesome setting!

It's hopeville, before the Courier's accident, although,


I edited the Dialogue, as well.

OMG Gingy, I've been dreaming about the Divide, since I'm playing through it for the 2nd time now LOL and I'm still wondering how the Courier could forget it all. Man, what a great story idea! I should have thought of that!!!!!!!!!!! LOL Hmm, now you got me thinking...

By the way, hats off for writing in first POV!!!!!!!! That's not easy!

Ulysses is going to make small appearances, but until the Divide is blown sky-high, he won't be important. Yet.

I can't wait and wow what a cool twist that "the package" is of Legion origin! LOL

OH check out your story now! You revised it and it's looking good, bro!

The devs said that he couldn't have taken brain damage, so it is likely that he doesn't recognize Hopeville post-bombing.

It's not. The Legion package is cloud residue from the Sierra Madre held inside a small and special container.

It will become more important later, as it ties into how he is going to get intertwined with Dead Money.

EDIT: With the end of chapter 3, I'm trying to make it similar to the Gladiator ending. In gladiator, when Maximus fights the Emperor, the Emperor severely wounds him before the battle.

In this case, the NCR soldier severely wounded them both before sending them off into the wasteland.

Wow, the NCR soldiers at the prison are pretty horrible in this story, but the prisoners will get their revenge soon, haha.

Anyways, a few things:

I really like the setting. The Divide/Primm area has always intrigued me.

The way you rearranged the dialogue makes the story much easier to read.

Sargent Taylor is a [censored].

The only thing is that taking a 9mm to the wrist or lower leg, especially at that range, would probably end up being a mortal wound IRL unless you immediately bandaged it and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. So I'm interested to see how well they are going to be able to travel with those injuries, especially Scorpio.

Oh, I planned on it being that way.

The next chapter will sum that part up. Just wanted to leave a cliffhanger.

Thanks for the tip!

(As for the NCR and their approach, I wanted to show a different side, instead of the Legion simply being the bad guy. The NCR is going to probably end up being more harmful to the Courier's world than the Legion. Especially considering that the package that the Courier carries from Navarro (in lore) is an NCR package)

Chapter 4- The Truth Never Set Me Free

As Taylor locks our cell and leaves the room, Skorpio completely falls to the ground and screams in pain. I go down to my knees and clutch my wrist. It's a nasty wound, but it will recover. I turn to Skorpio. The 9mm bullet has burst open the tissue under his knee, and there is blood everywhere. Hannigan, who witnesses the event from the other side of the room, runs to the bars of our cell.

"Skorpio!" he cries out.

I unwrap my newly cleaned bandage from my shoulder, and quickly apply it to his knee. It's no use though. It becomes soaked in blood almost immediately.

"Hannigan! Do they keep medicine here?" I ask. Skorpio is moaning in pain.

"Yea, man, but I have no [censored] idea how we're gonna steal it from them," replies Hannigan.

"Just do something! This wound is going to be fatal for him if we don't get a tourniquet of sorts!" I holler back. Hannigan leaves the building.

"You'll be okay, man, just breathe." I say. I put more pressure on the wound. It's at that point that I remember that my own wrist had been shot. I carefully remove the bullet from my left wrist, and rip off a small portion of the bandage on Skorpio's leg to soak some of the blood.

I take the bandage off his leg.

"Connor, there's a pair of tweezers over there," says Skorpio. He points at the middle of the room outside of our cell. Taylor must have dropped them. I reach my hand out of the cell as far as I can, and snatch them. I carefully remove the pieces of the bullet from his seemingly mortal wound. Then, I re-apply the bandage to his leg. There's nothing left to do but to wait for Hannigan.

"So, you trying to play hardball with me, Courier?" asks a voice that enters the room. It's Taylor. He pushes Hannigan and two other prisoners below his feet and raises his 9mm pistol. Among these three men are Finny, Hannigan, and Gene. He shoots Finny, and the man falls to the ground dead.

"This is for betraying the NCR," says Taylor. He then turns and fires a round into Gene's head. "And that, is for not accepting your fate," says Taylor.

He raises the gun above Hannigan's head, but before he does, a pair of arms lock around Taylor's neck. Taylor drops the gun, and is pulled out of the room. It's Cooke. Hannigan picks up the 9mm pistol.

"I was able to steal a stimpak and some Tourniquet, C.J," says Hannigan. He hands them both to me. I apply the Tourniquet to Skorpio's leg, and increase its pressure. I then grab the Stimpak, and inject it it into Skorpio's shoulder.

I clutch my bandaged wrist and pull Skorpio off the ground. Cooke enters the room.

"Did you kill Taylor?" I ask.

"Hell no, man. That would be asking for a death sentence from the NCR," replies Cooke. "I just roughed him up."

The makeshift clock in the room reaches 11:30. I move Skorpio onto his mattress, while I lay on my own mattress. I probably should have asked Hannigan for my own piece of Tourniquet, but that's not a good option right now. Over the next fifteen minutes, several NCR soldiers enter, push Hannigan and Cooke back into their cells, and haul what's left of Gene and Finny out of the room. The clock strikes 11:50. Johnston himself enters the room this time. He unlocks our cell, and beckons us to follow him. For the most part, I have to help Skorpio walk. He cannot put any pressure on his left foot, so I am used as his crutch until we reach the front building of the NCRCF.

Johnston sets Skorpio on a chair in the administration office, while I stand, still clutching my wrist.

"We, the NCR, thank you for your cooperation in the NCRCF, and hope that you have left as better men, than when you entered," says Johnston. I know this is rehearsed. He opens the front door to the NCRCF, and points outward. I help Skorpio to his feet, and help him walk his way out of the NCRCF. I spit on Johnston's shoe on the way out.

Due to Taylor's interference, I don't think we're going to survive the next night. Skorpio isn't paying attention to our quarry, though. He's too busy trying to keep from falling over. I then walk him as fast as I can, which, believe me, is not very fast.

***
Nighttime begins to approach. We've made it several miles past Primm and have just passed the Mojave Outpost. I see a town in the distance, but I do not recognize it, at first. Nipton. We can't stay the night outside, as we'll be killed by local wildlife, or the cold. I start to pick up my pace. Even though Skorpio hasn't been walking himself, he's dreadfully worn out. We move closer and closer to Nipton, until we've made it past the large "NIPTON" sign. I head into the nearest building I can find, which is a general store.

"We're just about to close, sir, can I help you?" asks the man sitting on the other side of the room.

"My friend needs help. He's been shot at nearly point-blank under his knee," I reply.

"Well, I'll see what I can do. Bring him upstairs." Upstairs. Upstairs. The word keeps bouncing in my head. Partially, because I know it's going to be a difficult job getting Skorpio up the stairs, but my mind seems to be growing somewhat feeble. Upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs.

"SHUT THE [censored] UP!" I scream. The General Store owner looks at me strangely, and then shrugs it off. He helps me lift Skorpio upstairs, and onto a bed. Upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. I think I'm beginning to go mad.

"Do you have a restroom, sir?" I ask. The store owner points at the door near the edge of the room. I enter, and turn on the sink. "Should I ask him if it's irradiated?" I think. No matter, I just need... water... I turn the sink on, and bury my face in water. After about ten seconds of doing this, I turn off the sink. Skorpio, has strangely, fallen asleep on the bed in which he was placed. The store owner is cooking something on the stove adjacent to the bed.

"Your friend will be alright. He's lucky you applied the Tourniquet when you did, otherwise, he'd have bled to death," says the store owner. I thought of Hannigan, for a moment. He saved Skorpio's life, and put himself in Taylor's reach to do it. How will I ever repay him? I'll have to think of something later.

"What's your name, sir?" I ask.

"Brad," he replies.

"Does the town have a clinic?" I ask.

"Yes. I think now might be the time to send for the doctor. I'll be right back. Keep watch on my tomato soup while I go fetch him, eh?" he says. I nod at him. Brad goes downstairs, and leaves the building. I pick up the spoon next to the tomato soup bowl and stir. Skorpio wakes up a few times, but he falls asleep quickly after.

Brad returns with the doctor, a man who he tells me is named Doctor Retzer. The doctor pulls a Stimpak out of his jacket pocket, and injects it almost straight into his wound. Skorpio immediately wakes up, and shrieks.

The Doctor nods at Brad, and says, "He'll be alright. Just let him rest." We let him fall asleep, and Brad returns to cooking his tomato soup.



My un-attended wrist begins to bleed violently once more.



"The world is a scary place
Now that you've woken up the demon in me"
-Disturbed (Down With The Sickness '2000)

A picture of Sergeant Taylor wielding a cattle prod: http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/4/42/NCRMilitaryPolice.png

This is a great so far, I am really liking the characters!

Thanks, man.

I always try to leave a cliffhanger on the end of my chapters, so people aren't sure what will happen next.

Just saying, I look at pieces of writing from people like you & Tycho and wish I was a better writer

Congrats on your first star!

W00T W00T!