New Vegas: Blood Ties

"Maybe we should start looking for a place to set up camp."
 
Tom looked over to Brad, "Yeah, maybe it is, i'm getting a tiny bit tired, plus I want some food, it's been a while", Tom walked over to David, lowered his voice and looked down to the floor, "David, watch yourself with Yasmin, I don't entirely trust her, I think she's had a..." Tom paused for a couple of seconds and looked up from the ground at David, "...a disputable past, thats ironic coming from an ex-talon company merc to an enclave vet".
 
"Ah, yes but while we attempt to redeem ourselves for our acts, she might not. Watch her, she's easibly angered, so think of the last time somebody attacked you for the slightest thing, and who they were and what they were. And that might provide a clue to who she used to be."
David moved away from the group, and said,"I'll be sentry, while everybody calms down. I'll volunteer for sentry duty when we set up camp."
 
Tom looked back at David as he walked away, maybe David was right, maybe if Tom baited her, he might just see her true colours. Tom looked at the sky, it was getting darker, it must be about quarter to six by now.

Tom lay down on the ground and looked up into the sky. He put his hands behind his head, as a cushion against the hard ground of the Mojave, it wasn't late enough to go to sleep, just to relax. Tom looked over to Mark, poor guy, it's horrible to lose people you like or love, Tom knew about that feeling, but Mark looked like he had been through a lot of it.

Tom looked over to Yasmin who was currently walking back from the ghouls with Carib. He shot a look at David and got up from his lying down position and walked over to David and stared at Carib and Yas as they walked back to camp, Tom was eager to know about Yasmin, maybe a little to eager for his own good, but Tom would know when to stop asking questions.
 
Yasmin ground her teeth. “Sure, he shoots at an already dead ghoul 20 meters from us with no warning, and I give him a shot to remind him that there are people down here, yet I’m the bad guy?” She snarled and stalked away from them still up on the ridge.

“Set up camp here.” She barked over her shoulder, then found the most desirable spot away from them and sat so her back was to them and could still see the valley out below.

She took off oth her sniper and her assult rifle and kept them by her legs while she dug out some water and food. Her stomach was growling as loud as she was.
 
Brad set up a spot and dug out his combat knife and an apple and cut it into slice before eating it. Then he took some water and made his instamash.
 
Carib looked at everyone. He knew everyone was hiding something, even the boss who held his contract. Mark had it rough, but unlike the rest, Carib knew the story and Mark was probably the only one here and maybe Brad who weren't hiding skeletons in the closet. Still they weren't hear to know eachother intimately, they were a crew assembled to get a job done. It was pretty straight forward.

Carib saw Brad working on a fresh apple and was making himself some instamash. "Even if its two hundred years old, it still tastes good." Carib removed his mask, the scarred face shining in the low camp fire they built. Reaching into his pack he grabbed a small canteen labeled Vault 15 and sipped from it. Breaking out a grilled mantis leg, he held out and offered some to Brad.

"Goes pretty good with the mash."
 
There was only one little group formed on the squad, everyone else seemed to be by themselves, except for Carib and Brad, Mark approached them, maybe looking for the comfort of old friends, or new ones for that matter. He spoke on a soft tone and with nervous voice, yet trying to hide it. "So what do we have here." Mark had a weakness for food, more so with cooked food. He avoided saying anything about what happened. His nerves were shattered and he was on the edge of tears, sharing a nice meal might as well help. Mark opens up his caravan lunch. "Ok, here we got some more mash potatoes, cram and beans, maybe we can put a nice meal together with this." He then opened his mess kit, a plate, a skillet, a knife, a fork and a spoon, these last three carefully wrapped in a napkin to avoid making sound when transported inside the kit.

What happened that afternoon was a series of unfortunate events, if only one of them would had failed to occur it wouldn't had ended up that way. If David wouldn't had shot the ghoul Yas wouldn't had shot the rock, if Yasmin wouldn't had shot the rock Mark wouldn't have freaked out, if Mark wouldn't had freaked out he wouldn't had started shooting.

The ghouls had not been a real treat, but a single mistake almost sends everything to hell, such is the way of the wasteland, death can come from where you least expect it. The group was going to need to learn to work together or they wouldn't need any deathclaw to come and kill them, they would do it themselves.

Everybody is a friend when things go well, but when things go to hell is when you can really see how people really is. This last impasse served as a trial, and as a consequence, some more cards had been revealed.
 
Yasmin finished her chips then built a small fire to heat her cram up and keep herself warm as the temperature started dropping. While the cram cooked she took out her knife and sat cross legged, digging the stones out of the grooves in the bottom of her boots. ~This is shit, next time I am forced to put together a team, I’m going to give them psych evaluations first.~ she thought, then stabbed at her cram with the knife to see if it was ready yet.
 
Tom was one of the only people in the camp standing up, he looked around the camp. Mark, Carib and Brad were sitting down together enjoying some food, and there was Yasmin, crouching down, removing stones from her boots, he knew he would rather sit with Carib and Mark, but to find out more about this mission, thats what was most important to Tom. He knew Yasmin didn't look in a talking mood, but he had to find out.

He walked over to Yasmin, he was standing over her now, so he crouched down next to her. He knew he was going to have to tread carefully, he looked over to her, "So....I noticed those other dead ghouls bodies, would you happen to know anything about them?".

He was going to avoid the topic of what he saw in Gomarrah until he knew she wouldn't try to bite off his head for the simplest act.
 
She looked over at Tom and raised her eyebrows. “They were killed by gun fire. That’s about it.” Her tone was blunt as she flicked another pebble out of her sole with the point of the knife.
 
Tom smirked, it was clear to him that she didn't like the fact that there was some dead ghouls before the other ghouls, he saw her out of the corner of his eye when it happened, "You know all clear and well thats not what I meant, are you sure we're the only people that know about this pre-war bunker, when someone told you about it was there anyone listening in?".

Tom was really hoping that she might tell him, he needed this. He didn't want to be killed by a dirty scavenger after all that he has went through in life.
 
Yasmin stuck the knife into the side of her boot and picked up her cram, opening it carefully.

“Can’t rightly say. The casino was crowded when I was told about it, so there’s a chance someone could have heard.” She started scooping the mush from the tin into her mouth with the knife. “But unless whoever it was found out the location and left that night, I doubt anyone else would be after it yet or ahead of us.” She looked at him over the container. “Satisfied?”
 
Tom looked at the floor, "Satisfied...yeah for now, but we spent a night at the casino they might've left before we did, just a warning, i'll be back in a second, i'm going to look for a beastie for food".

Tom walked away from Yasmin and un-holstered his hunting rifle. He looked down the iron sights, he reloaded his rifle and shot. He had shot a radroach, good enough for one night. He ran off and picked up the newly deceased roach, and ran back to Yasmin. He lay down the radroach on the floor and started scooping the meat out of it's shell and placing it on a black flat rock. He placed the rock over the fire, the meat wouldn;t be raw in about 15-20 minutes.

He looked back at yasmin, "So what are you going to do after this expedition?".
 
Yasmin frowned at the greenish-white meat of the radroach. They’d always disgusted her. The way someone could eat them was beyond her. She’d rather eat a human than one of those.

She put her cram down, having lost interest in the scraps in the bottom after seeing the roach emptied and stared out at the wastes to keep herself from looking at the guts. “Again, can’t rightly say. It’ll depend on how it goes. But if all goes well, I guess I’ll go back to just wondering round, but with better gear.”
 
Tom looked at Yasmin frown at the radroach meat, Tom chuckled, "Don't worry, I don't eat it all the time, i'm not that mental", Tom turned the meat over on the slab of rock. He knew it didn't taste well, but he needed to show that he could live off of the land so people knew if they ran out of food or water he would know what to do.

"You may think this is a bit stereotypical, but what I want to do after this is build a ranch, probably buy some land in Goodsprings, get some brahmin and bighorners, get some crops, y'know the usuall".
 
Yasmin smirked and took her knife then started idly drawing a Brahmin in the dirt. “Everybody wants to be a rancher these days. Though I hear there isn’t much money in raising cattle these days. There’s only a few big sellers around the Mojave, and from angry chatter, it sounds like soon there’s only going to be one.” She looked up at Tom. “Or were you talking about a ‘family’ kinda thing?”
 
"Yeah it's family sort of idea, i'm just getting annoyed of having nowhere to call home, plus the place i'm looking at is going for a cheap price, Goodsprings is a nice place, i've just had a life of wandering, working for different people, I just want to settle down and take it slow", the radroach was done now, he picked the meat up and started pulling it apart into easily manageable chunks of meat.

He put one in his mouth and started chewing it, actually tasted quiet like roasted brahmin, but in more of a scummy way. He was starting to get tired, he yawned and stretched his arms out into the air, it was getting late, but he wasn't going to sleep until somebody else did, he didn't like being the first to go to sleep, in any situation.
 
Yasmin nodded while listening. "Goodsprings is an ok place, if you can handle the random powder gangers. If it were me looking for a place to set up a family home, I'd want to be further away from a prison and a lot closer to somewhere with a lot of protection." She shrugged. "But then again, I'm not a family man."

She tossed the cram container off the edge of the cliff so it fell down into the valley and sat her boots almost in the fire to keep her feet warm. Right now she wished she'd thought to bring some booze to keep herself warm. The dessert got freezing at night.
 
Carib smiled at his friend. He broke off a leg and handed it to, Mark, "They actually do taste good. Goes excellent with the mash or greens." Carib knew there was more going behind the Be-Spectacled Mark than more than meets the eye. He was sure that something had been tripped, like faulty wiring in a generator. Carib knew not everyone was on the same side but he was sure Mark wanted to believe they were. The shot from David and the counter shot from Yasmin had tripped Mark's breaker.

Carib promised himself at the next stop he would have a face to face with Yasmin and find out exactly how this all plays out. For himself, Carib would stay along for the ride through thick or thin, boom or bust. So long as she didn't serve the Caesar's interests and doesn't endanger Mark.

"I never did thank you, Mark." Carib began, "I never thanked you for taking me off that cross six years ago." Carib grabbed a few small mugs and a the coffee pot he carried along sometimes.
 
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