Chapter 8: Be My Valentine

"Arroyo? That place sounds... familiar." Rodger said.

"It should be. It's where The Chosen One came from." The old man responded from his seat.

"But why go to Arroyo? Couldn't they just find something else?" Courtney asked.

"Because Arroyo was the only known place of a working G.E.C.K." Jr. answered. "Weren't you listening?"

"I don't know. The talking Deathclaw just seems like a little too much to be real." Rodger said.

"Oh, he was real. The NCR has a file on him and his kind, since they did come from Vault 13." Said The Stranger. "The same vault that The Vault Dweller came from. The Enclave used Vault 13 as a dumping ground for their failed intelligent Deathclaws, but came back and slaughtered them like cattle. Goris survived because he had left the vault before it happened." He explained.

"Is he still alive?" McKilla asked, still tied up.

"That...I cannot say. I don't know what happened to Goris, but he may just still be out there; searching for knowledge." The old man told.

"Well, ain't that interesting." Mayor Jordan said. "Interesting indeed. But utterly pointless. If he's a Deathclaw than someone probably killed him. Just need a really big gun."

"What you gain in power, you lack in judgement." The old wanderer said to her. "Now that I have told my part, it is time for you to uphold your part."

"Fine. Your story was boring me anyway." She said as she put out her cigarette. "What do you want?"

"Ammunition, water, food, basic supplies to keep us going." He listed to her.

"Done. Now get out of here. You're a depressing sight." She said.

"Very well." The old man grunted as he stood up. "I bid you adieu, Jordan."

The group left the town hall, gathered their supplies and left Interplace to continue with their journey across the desert to Danbury. Hours pass and night had fallen. The group decided to set up a fire and rest for the night amongst the ruins of some building. The moon and stars shined above them as the campfire illuminated the area around them. Rodger, Courtney and Jr. slumbered in the sand, but two were still awake.

The Stranger sat near the fire, feeling it's warmth touch his old skin, but couldn't see the warm orange glow. McKilla was still awake as well, she usually was because of her restraints. She sat across from the old man, the fire pit between them, just staring into the crackling flames and wood. Silence was amongst the two.

"So why haven't you tried to escape?" The old man broke the silence.

"Huh? Oh. Because you guys will kill me if I try." She answered.

"No. That is not it." He said. "You have another reason for not breaking loose. Your legs aren't bound; you could've ran when we fought those Cazadores...but you didn't."

"Okay. Well, maybe I didn't think that through. What of it?" She said.

"...McKilla is not your real name, is it?" He asked. "It is a title, but not a name."

"...No." she answered. "My name is...Kelly. Kelly Newbell." The mention of her name seemed like a distant memory now.

"People aren't born a raider. You were once someone else." He claimed.

"Okay. Yes, I wasn't always a raider. What're you implying?" She admitted.

"Do you remember who you were?" He questioned.

Kelly sat in silence, not giving an answer. She had no answer to give. She had been a raider for so long that her old life seems like a dream than a reality. Her gaze fell back upon the crackling fire. The old man stood up and walked over to her. He kneeled behind her and untied her restraints that had kept her hands in place for so long.

"You're..You're letting me go?" She was confused from his action.

"Yes. You have been tied for too long. Any longer and you would've had rope burns." He said as he sat back down in his spot.

"But..but why?" She asked as she rubbed her wrist.

"It does not matter why, but what you will do." He said. "You can walk away and never come back. Or you can stay and hear an old man ramble on some more."

Kelly thought for a second. She stood up and began to walk away from the group, out into The Wasteland. She was free; everyone else was asleep and the old man wouldn't stop her; she just needed to walk away. But yet, she didn't. She stopped just on the edge of the light.

"So what happened next?" She asked as she looked to the old man. "With Micheal, Bonnie, everyone else?" She came back to the fire and sat across from the old man. The old wanderer smirked.

"So you really want to know?" He asked. "Very well."

—

"Arroyo?" Bonnie repeated.

"That's what it says." Micheal said.

"Arroyo? As in the village of The Chosen One?" Phyllis joined in.

"That's what it says. How many times I gotta say it?" Micheal answered.

"Dude, do you know just what we're getting into?" Bonnie questioned.

"No! I don't! You people keep saying all these names as if I know any of them." The young Vault Dweller responded, annoyed of the subjects that were unknown to him.

"You haven't told him of The Chosen One?" Phyllis asked Bonnie.

"Never came up." She quipped. "Haven't even told him of The Vault Dweller."

"Good lord, woman. You might as well have told this kid nothing." The Ranger said.

"Why should I? Arroyo's just a myth anyway." Bonnie said. "Just some tale locals came up with to try and make sense of The Chosen One." She replied.

"A myth?" Phyllis said in disbelief. "You think Arroyo is just a myth?"

"Yep. Some tale my ma used to tell me to go to bed." She answered with.

"Then you must be as dull as a burnt magazine." Phyllis insulted. Just then, Jenkins decided to punch a hole in the back of the car roof.

"JESUS!" Phyllis jumped, startled by the giant, metal fist smashing through the roof right next to him. Dogmeat jumped in surprise and climbed to the front passenger seat, right on top of Bonnie. A brief moment of chaos ensued in the automobile and the Highwayman swerved from side to side as Micheal tried to regain control. Becker eventually composed himself and the car, but the grown mutt was still sitting on Bonnie's lap.

"Dude! What the fuck?!" Bonnie screamed. "We just got this thing and you already break the roof?!"

"You're not the one sitting in the trunk." Jenkins argued. "There're bugs all over my visor. And those are just the ones I can see."

"So you break the roof?!" Phyllis joined the argument.

"It'll be fine. Where we going anyway?" Jenkins asked. "We're already much farther than I thought we would be."

"The mystical fairy land of Arroyo." Bonnie answered, trying to push Dogmeat off her.

"Arroyo is real; It was a major community in New California." Phyllis said.

"I have no idea what that is." Jenkins replied.

"How do you not know what it is? Doesn't the Brotherhood try to gather every bit of information they can scavenge?" Phyllis asked.

"I'm part of the Midwestern Brotherhood. We broke off from the main chapter out West." Jenkins explained. "We came here just a few years after The Vault Dweller killed The Master."

"Is someone gonna explain what in God's name is so important about this stuff, or am I gonna have to look to Dogmeat for answers?" Micheal said.

"Arroyo is where The Chosen One came from." Phyllis repeated. "It was once a bunch of tribals living in Southern Oregon. Eventually, the land became infertile, so they sent The Chosen One, grandchild of The Vault Dweller, out into The Wasteland to find the Garden of Eden Creation Kit. The Chosen One found the kit in Vault 13, but the Enclave had destroyed the village and kidnapped the people. The Chosen One fixed up an old boat and sailed to the Enclave base, an old oil rig in the ocean. They blew that place to high Hell and killed Frank Horrigan just before that. The Chosen One was a god among men and no one has ever been able to become as legendary as them." He explained.

As Phyllis explained his little history lesson, Jenkins popped his head back out and scanned their surroundings as Micheal drove. He saw a whole lot of nothing, but kept hearing this strange sound. It sounded like horrid screeching and violent wind. He looked behind him and what he saw rattled him to the core. He popped his head back in.

"Micheal, you need to drive faster!" He said in a desperate tone.

"What? Why?" Micheal asked. He peered out the drivers side window and heard the same sound Jenkins heard. When Micheal looked behind them, his face sank and his eyes were as big as saucers.

Behind them was a monstrous tornado destroying everything in its path. Micheal put both feet on the pedal, trying to make the car go faster. Bonnie and Phyllis looked out and almost immediately shot their heads back in.

"Go faster! Fucking FLOOR IT!" Bonnie urged.

"I'm trying! This is as fast as this piece of JUNK will go!" Micheal said. The car could only go 60 miles per hour.

Phyllis was trying to tie himself to the seat with the broken seatbelts, Bonnie was panicking, and Micheal was trying his best to make the car go faster. The swirling twister of torment got closer and the back of the car slightly lifted off the ground, and so did Jenkins. The Brotherhood Paladin was gripping on the roof of the car for dear life as his legs dangled in the air. Bonnie held onto Dogmeat in fear, nearly choking the poor thing. Micheal was trying everything he could to outrun the tornado, but to no avail. Micheal knew the couldn't outrun it, so he decided to try something else. He spun the steering wheel and drove the car off the road, on to the desert sand. The companions were screaming in terror, some more than others, as the tornado raged on behind them. The back end of the car touched the ground again and Micheal drove into a nearby cave. The car came to a crashing stop inside the dimly lit cavern, but it still ran. The group had successfully escaped the twister, but had some injuries of their own. Micheal's head hit the steering wheel, so he was a bit woozy.

"We don't get this shit back in California." Phyllis said through breathes, still tied to the back seat.

Jenkins was still gripping to the top of the car; he had to pry his fingers out of the steel roof; Bonnie let her body go limp for a second in relief while Micheal composed himself; Phyllis untied himself and nearly threw up in his helmet. The headlights of the car flickered back on and revealed what they crashed into. And it sure as hell was no rock. The thing they crash into stared back at them. The thing began to move and the group could only watch.

"Ah... shit." Micheal said.

The whole gang came running out of the cave, screaming and tripping on the rocks. The creature they crashed into emerged from the cave: a twenty-foot tall rabbit stood at the entrance of the grotto. It sniffed the air, looked around and went back into its hole. It was no mere cave they drove into. Instead, they drove into a rabbit hole. The quartet of survivors, and the dog, watched the giant creature in awe as they stood mere feet away from it.

"Holy shit." Bonnie said through breathes. "What the fuck is that thing?"

"No clue." Phyllis didn't have an answer. "Brotherhood?"

"Don't ask me. I've got nothing." Jenkins also didn't have an answer for what they just witnessed.

"Well, whatever it is, it's got our car." Bonnie said, helping Micheal back on his feet. "I say we go kill it." Bonnie reached for her rifle, but found it to be absent. The same could be said for everyone else.

"We left our weapons in the car, didn't we?" Jenkins stated the obvious.

"We did. Fuck!" Bonnie was outraged by their stupidity. "Come on, somebody has to have something. A knife, a spare pistol, anything!"

"I've got a grenade." Micheal said, displaying the aforementioned explosive in his hand.

"Where the fuck did you get a grenade?!" Bonnie questioned.

"I don't know. It was in the cup-holder." The Prodigy answered.

"I don't think throwing a grenade in there will solve our problem." Jenkins said.

"Well, how many caps we got?" Micheal asked. "C'mon, everyone empty your pockets." Everyone dug through every pocket and pouch they had and counted up their caps.

"How much is that?" Phyllis asked.

"We currently have... 75 caps on us." Micheal counted.

"Perfect. We don't have our car, we don't have our weapons, we don't have food or water, and we barely have any caps. This is just great." Bonnie sarcastically remarked.

"We still got each other." Micheal tried to lighten the mood.

"Mikey, just please don't." Bonnie was not in the mood.

"We can probably find a caravan or something out here." Phyllis suggested. "We can probably just follow the road and we'll eventually hit something."

"Yeah! There's probably a farm or something out here." Micheal agreed with Phyllis.

"It's our best shot. It's that or go fight that thing with our barehands." Jenkins also agreed.

Bonnie sighed. "Fine. But if night falls, I'm eating the dog." She said. Dogmeat growled at her. "Oh, shut up. It was a joke." She said to the mutt.

The group traveled down the broken road in search of anything. They walked for a little while before eventually meeting with a stranger on the road. Micheal ran up to the stranger in hopes of getting something.

"Hi!" Micheal greeted them.

"Howdy." The stranger greeted back. "You here to rob from me or just kill me?" They reached for their gun.

"No no no. We're not thieves. We're just adventurers in need of help." Micheal calmed them down. "I'm Micheal."

The stranger was hesitant at first. "Courier. Courier Six." They introduced themselves. "Sorry, but I'm not allowed to give my name. Them's the rules of the Mojave Express."

"A courier? So you must get around." Micheal said.

"Yep. I've been just about everywhere. Although, this is my first time in these parts. I usually do business out West." They said.

"Do you know of anything around here that can help us?" Micheal asked.

"Hmm. I do remember seeing a town just a few miles North of here." They said. "It's kinda...dreary though. You can probably go there."

"That's great!" Micheal professed. "What's it called?"

"Place is called Broken Heart. Or, at least, that's what they called it." They answered.

"Great. Thanks for the help, Six." Micheal left the courier and rejoined with his gang that were sitting back.

"I'm back!" Micheal announced.

"What'd they say?" Phyllis asked.

"They said there's a town a few miles North of here." The Prodigy answered.

"Excellent. We should get a move on then." Jenkins said. "Don't want to waste anymore time than we already have."

Micheal and his companions followed the road North to reach the town they were told about. As they walked, Bonnie pulled Micheal over to her, just out of earshot from the Ranger and the Paladin.

"Mikey, we need to talk." She whispered to him.

"About what?" Becker asked.

"About all this! I wasn't going to say anything about our expansive group, but then you brought that Ranger in." She said. "I didn't want that Paladin to join, but I didn't say anything. Then, you bring the NCR into this."

"What do you mean? We could always use more support." Micheal retaliated.

"Yeah, but these aren't your usual guns for hire. These are political and military groups and I don't think it's smart to meddle in their business." She argued. "I'm alright with Jenkins sticking around, but I don't know about The Ranger."

"Come on. We're doing fine! Besides, Phyllis is helping us get to California." He remarked.

"That's another thing." Bonnie said. "California is miles away. I didn't think we'd go this far and I'm starting to think maybe we should back out."

"Back out? Are you crazy? We've come so far, we can't back out now." Micheal argued.

"Micheal. We've been kidnapped, enslaved, nearly raped, killed a random thug, and somehow made a deal with the Brotherhood. And that was just my first day with you." Bonnie reminded. "Since then, we've traveled hundreds of miles, killed an army of Legion, found a manipulated tribe and spoke to a talking Deathclaw named Goris who gave us a car. Which is now stuck in a cave with a giant rabbit. You've got tattoos on you for God's sake. I just think this is getting a little too... crazy." She admitted.

"Yeah, but that's the dangers I'm willing to face to save my vault! I have family there, people I care about. It's not that I want to do this, it's that I have to do this." Micheal said. "I'm sorry you feel that way, but I don't control what happens. I just try to help people any way I can." He continued. "I know I've caused a few more problems than I should've, but I've always tried to make sure things turn out good. I would like you to be at my side when this is all over, you've been with me through a lot. But if you want to back out now, then... I understand."

Bonnie was silent, speechless at his words. She sighed in defeat. "You're a persistent little troublemaker, aren't ya?" She said with a sly smile. "Alright. I'll stay, but no more companions." She played with Micheal's hair, almost like how his sister used to do.

"Hey guys!" Jenkins called out. "Is that it?" He pointed to the horizon, where a junction of buildings could be seen.

"It might be." Micheal called back. "Only one way to find out."

The group continued on their journey and eventually reached the buildings on the horizon. Among them was a dense town that looked as if it were hit by bombs, but wasn't. The town was separated into two sections, a dense town, and a rural area that was spread-out into several miles. Although the town looked nearly destroyed, it was inhabited by a very small population of one-hundred and twenty. The place looked as if The Great Depression came back and made everyone want to kill themselves three times over. This was Broken Heart, a community that was only getting by.

"Well... this is...a town, I guess." Micheal didn't know what to say about the state of the place.

"This place makes Bordertown look like Vegas." Bonnie said.

The group walked down the barely destroyed road into the town and were met with the eyes of the inhabitants staring at them.

"I don't like this." Jenkins said. "Unarmed in unknown territory. Never a good position to be in."

The locals look as if they were homeless. They were dirty, wearing rags as clothes, looks as if they haven't bathed all their life. It was a depressing sight to behold. They had trading stands, so at least that was a plus. And farms, though they weren't exactly flourishing with food. Some of the buildings had collapsed and others looked abandoned.

"Good lord." Phyllis said.

"Hey guys, look." Micheal pointed their attention to a certain building. It was a small, depressing building with a sign that read "Henderson's Rentals" in paint.

"It's a place to start, I guess." Bonnie said.

The group walked into the building and the door rang a bell, announcing someone had entered. Inside were a selection of farm equipment and even a random collection of clothes. The clerk stood behind the counter, a woman who seemed to be very malnourished.

"Well, hello there. You lot don't seem to be from around here." She said.

"No, we're not." Phyllis said to her. "We're... travelers." That was mostly true.

"You lot don't look like no travelers I've ever seen." She remarked.

"Yes. We're, uh, a special kind of travelers." Jenkins joined in.

"Uh huh. Then why did you stop here?" She questioned further.

"Well, you see, our car got stuck in the cave. Which is currently being protected by a giant.. rabbit.. thing." Bonnie said.

"A giant rabbit thing. Heh. You four encountered a Jackalope then. Should be hibernation season for them." Said the clerk. "Names Olive Henderson, owner of the store after my pa, Steve Henderson."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Henderson. We... need some help retrieving our car." Micheal said.

"You say you've got a working automobile? Nice." Olive said. "We'll retrieve it, for a price of course."

Bonnie sighed. "How much you want?" She asked.

"Well, considering the manpower we'll need to march into a Jackalope den, plus how far the car is, that'll be... 240 caps." Olive set her price.

"We... we don't have that much." Phyllis said.

"Really? You all look like you're rolling in caps." She said. "Sorry. No caps, no help."

"Shit. Isn't there anything you can do?" Micheal asked.

"Sorry kid. Nothing I can do." Olive said.

"Fine. Let's go guys." Bonnie said.

The group were about to head out, but were stopped by Olive.

"Unless... you lot feel like doing me a favor?" She asked.

"Yeah! Yeah, we can do a favor." Micheal accepted.

"Good." Olive remarked.

Olive sent the group to do some manual labor on the farms: planting seeds, hoeing dirt, shoveling holes, picking vegetables of the plants, a real farmers work. That would good and all, if she didn't give them dull tools to work with.

"This is stupid." Bonnie said, picking another maize off it's stem.

"It's not so bad. It's beats digging ditches." Micheal said.

"You're one to talk. You're not the one actually digging ditches." Phyllis said, digging a hole in the ground for seeds.

"I'm baking in this thing." Said Jenkins, currently sweating like a faucet in his power armor under the sun.

"Then why the fuck are you wearing it?" Bonnie grilled him.

"If I lost this armor, I'd be killed by firing squad." Jenkins said.

"This is why the Brotherhood don't get along with the NCR." Phyllis commented.

"Well, the Brotherhood of Steel are vastly advanced in technology compared to you cowboys." Jenkins said.

"That didn't save you all when we kicked your asses at Helios One." The Ranger snarked back. "Or did you not know about that?"

"Oh, I know about what happened at Helios. You killed them like cattle." Jenkins said. "They were low in numbers, but you still wiped out half of them. But yet, you can't get it up and running."

"That's only because you Brotherhood bastards locked us out." Phyllis stood up. "You're all tech-crazed lunatics who say they want a better world, but all you do is harass innocent people and kill those who give you a funny look! Just like the Enclave."

"Don't you ever say that fucking name!" Jenkins said, getting in Phyllis's face. "Without the Brotherhood, there wouldn't even be an NCR."

"Keep telling yourself that and maybe somebody will believe it." Phyllis said. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away, what are you?"

"A trained soldier of war." Jenkins argued. "You're nothing more than a glorified sniper with riot gear and a fancy rifle. Even then, you can't take the shot until you get an order from your higher-up, three hours later. You all love your paperwork."

"We are a functioning government. You are a crook with rules." Phyllis shot back.

"You wanna go, NCR?" Jenkins said.

"All I have to do is take out your battery and you're as useless as a car with legs, Brotherhood." Phyllis shot back.

The two were in a tense situation, ready to pummel each other for the sake of their beliefs. Micheal and Bonnie watched in silence. Micheal was worried they would actually fight while Bonnie wanted to see what would happen. The air was filled with tense silence, until Dogmeat started barking at something.

"What is it boy? One of those Jackalopes?" Micheal asked his canine companion.

Just then, screaming and gunfire could be heard from the town. Jenkins and Phyllis stopped their bickering and the group decided to investigate what was going on. They walked to the town and hid behind a building. They saw other townsfolk hiding from the gunfire.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked one of the quivering inhabitants.

"It's them! They're back!" They said.

"Who? Who's back?" Jenkins questioned them.

"The Legion... and Custer's Army. They've been fighting for months for territory and they use Broken Heart as a war zone." They said, shaken from the events currently unfolding. "The Legion come from the South and Custer's Army comes in from the North. So many of us have died..."

Micheal took a peak around the building and saw the battle. The Legion were coming in strong, but the other side were holding them back. Custer's men were wearing full combat armor, wielding military grade weaponry. They flew their flag, a red and blue strip with a white triangle and two white swords. Custer's American Army, a Neo-Nationalist army. He saw corpses of innocent civilians amongst the roads, riddled with stray bullets and spears. If this were still the pre-war world, this would be a war crime.

"You have to help us! We.. we can't do anything. They took our weapons and raided our armory. We're defenseless!" Another civilian pleaded.

"What're we suppose to do? That's two armies right there." Bonnie said. "The Legion we could handle, but a heavily armed army like that is a no go."

"Yeah. We don't even have any weapons, we left them in the car." Jenkins said. This gave Micheal an idea.

"Phyllis, Jenkins, I need you two to get these people to safety, and anyone else you can find." Micheal ordered. "Bonnie, I need you to try and find supplies. Anything."

"What? What're you doing?" Bonnie asked.

"Something incredibly stupid... again." He said. Micheal ran off, Dogmeat following him, leaving his companions confused.

"Did he just run off?" Jenkins said.

"He's probably gonna blow something up." Bonnie replied. A bullet wizzed by them. "Well, come on. You heard him." Bonnie ran off into the town to fetch something to fight back with.

Phyllis and Jenkins looked to each other. "This ain't over." Jenkins said. The duo rallied the civilians and decided to hide them in the basements of the buildings. They went off to go find more people.

Bonnie found herself back at Henderson's and bursted through the door. She scanned the room and took a farming scythe from the wall, the blade of a lawnmower and a cattle prod. She exited the building and was almost shot by a stray bullet. Jenkins and Phyllis found more people and saved them from a firing squad about to shoot them down. They killed the Legionaries and took the people into the basements below for safety. The battle raged on outside, so the duo decided it was time to fight back.

"We can't fight with no weapons." Jenkins said.

"I'm skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Not so sure about you." Phyllis responded.

A civilian decided to speak up. "There is something we can give you to fight." They said as they pointed to a corner. There laid something covered by a tarp. "We.. we used it to deal with molerats."

Jenkins went over to the mysterious object and removed the cover. Under it laid a Flamer with the writing "Pest Control" on it. Jenkins put on the flamethrower and turned it on.

"Now we're cooking with gas." He muttered.

The duo ran up the stairs and joined the fight. Outside was Bonnie slicing both Legion and Custer's men with the scythe she found. A legionnaire was running at Jenkins, but the Paladin lit the Roman up like he were a candle. One of Custer's men tried to attack Phyllis, but the Ranger knocked him to the ground and stomped on his neck, crushing his wind-pipe.

"Where'd you find a scythe?!" Phyllis yelled to Bonnie.

"Don't ask questions!" Bonnie said, throwing him the lawnmower blade.

The trio fought both sides, killing soldiers and Legion left and right. Some of the civilians came to join with weapons of their own. They had killed men after men, but they were endless. Every soldier that they killed, five more popped up. Despite the hills of bodies, they were losing. They grew tired and their weapons couldn't last much longer. Bonnie has to use the cattle prod because her scythe broke off in some legionary.

They were out of breath and were eventually surrounded on both sides. Custer's men aimed at the Legion and the Legion aimed back. They were gonna shoot each other, not caring what was between them.

"Well... this is it." Jenkins said, accepting his fate. "Unless Micheal has one of those last minute rescues he's so good at."

"I don't know. This seems bigger than anything he's dealt with." Bonnie said. "What do you think he'll do?"

"I don't know. You can't predict him." Jenkins replied. The sun blazed down upon them. But, all of a sudden, darkness fell. The trio were confused, so they looked up and saw that something was blocking the sun.

"No fucking way he blocked out the sun." Jenkins said.

"No... no he didn't." Bonnie said.

The massive object came down and landed on top of the Legion side, crushing them all under it. It was a Jackalope. Another jumped up and landed on most of Custer's men. As they jumped in the air, they shook the ground and kicked up a hurl of dust when they did it. In the panic, the group looked down the Main Street to see something incredible, a whole squad of Jackalope launching themselves at least sixty-feet in the air. And in the center of it all, leading them toward the town, was a Highwayman.

"That kids fucking crazy." Phyllis said.

"You're just now realizing that?" Bonnie snarked.

Micheal had retrieved the car and brought with him an army of giant rabbits to combat the other armies. The Prodigy drove into town and drifted to a stop in front of his companions. Dogmeat poked his head out the backseat window and stuck his tongue out. Micheal opened the passenger seat door to reveal his companions weapons on the chair.

"The second amendment is a beautiful thing, ain't it?" Micheal said.

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Bonnie said as she retrieved her rifle. "Always keep your rifle by your side."

Jenkins and Phyllis retrieved their weapons and started firing at the enemy. Bonnie joined Micheal in the car and they drove off to fire at any remaining invaders. The Jackalope trampled both Legion and Custer's men in their path, the tide of war had turned against them. After a few minutes of the bloodbath, both the Legion and Custer's Army decided to retreat, leaving the town of Broken Heart to live another day.

"They're retreating!" One of the civilians shouted out.

The last few enemies had up and legged it or got shot down. The battle was over, Broken Heart had won. The civilians came out of their hiding spots and basements, cheering at their victory and hissing at the armies that treated them like fodder. Micheal and Bonnie drove back up to Jenkins and Phyllis and got out to reunite.

"That was bonkers. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that." Jenkins said to The Prodigy.

"Ahhh. It weren't nothing. Just another day in The Wasteland." Micheal remarked. "Got the car back, so we can go anytime."

A woman ran up to Micheal. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for saving us!" She was enthusiastic. She pulled Micheal up, kissed him on the cheek and ran off to join her fellow townsfolk.

"Hah. Nice. Keep this up and you might find a real girl." Bonnie nudged Micheal's shoulder.

"Who says I haven't?" Micheal snarked.

"Can we go now? I'm tired of standing on corpses." Jenkins asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, we should probably go before the townsfolk get rowdy." Bonnie said, hopping back into the passenger seat of the car. Micheal went back to the drivers seat and The Ranger and Paladin climbed back into their spots. Just as Micheal stepped on the gas, a civilian came up to window and stopped him.

"Hey! Why.. why are you guys leaving?" They stuttered. "Don't you want to stay here and celebrate?"

"I would like to, but we can't." Micheal explained. "We need to be in California as soon as possible, so we can't waste what time we got."

"California? That's a very long way away." The civilian stated the obvious. "It'll be a long ride if you go the normal way. Most of the roads are destroyed."

"Do you know a quicker way?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes, but... No, you should take the longer route." They said.

"If you know a quicker way, then tell us. We did just save your town." Phyllis joined in.

"...It's a very dangerous path you must take, but it is quicker." They said. "You'll have to go through... the Badlands." Bonnie, Jenkins and Phyllis physically recoiled at the mere mention of this place.

"The Badlands? What's the Badlands?" Micheal asked.

"The Badlands is a dark and hospitable place, torn apart by war and left to rot to time. Strong men have gone into the Badlands.. Strong men have come out quivering in their boots. It is the worst place in The Wasteland." The civilian explained.

"...Well, I need to get to California as fast as possible. If the Badlands I must go, the Badlands I will go." Micheal said, naive to what he has agreed to. His companions looked to him as if he was crazy.

"Very well. Follow the road South, you will see a sign that says the old name of the place, Wyoming, there you will enter the Badlands." They said. "May God have mercy on you." They walked away.

"Well, it's now or never." Micheal stepped on the pedal and they were off. Becker didn't know what he was getting into, but his companions sure as Hell did.

"Mikey, I know we've been through a lot together, but the Badlands is not something we need to see." Bonnie tried to convince him.

"Agreed. The NCR has only heard stories of the Badlands, we're too afraid to go into it." Phyllis joined.

"Micheal, it's much safer if we just go the long way." Jenkins said through the shattered window he made.

"Guys, we'll be fine. We've got a car, guns, two trained killers, and plenty of ammo. We can do whatever this is." Micheal said. "We need to get to Arroyo as quick as possible."

The group rode in silence, a feeling of dread looming over them. The road was getting more and more damaged as they continued, making the car jump a little every now and again. Eventually, they drove past a sign that made the toughest members of the group bite their tongues in fear. "Welcome to Wyoming" the sign read. They had entered the outskirts of the Badlands.