7 Mother Gossip

Afton found himself carried through the build he'd been living in since he'd been born here, most of the furniture was still here but everything and anything that contained technology in it had been moved.

There were many unfamiliar faces in Power armour, Scribe robes, and some kind of light metal-reinforced scout armour? He wasn't sure but concluded that they must've belonged to the lower-ranked members of the Brotherhood.

His mother carried him out of some heavily damaged double doors and he was immediately blinded by the light, he'd not been in direct sunlight in this life yet, and it was definitely more intense than he remembered.

It took a couple of minutes for his eyes to adjust to it, but he was eventually able to start looking around... And boy, was the area around them attention-grabbing. Simply put, everything around them was covered in sand, there seem to be a small oasis nearby with limited amounts of foliage growing around it, even if they looked terribly weak and frail.

The sun was slowly scorching his tender skin, his mother luckily noticed this and wrapped him up in a cloth so the sun wouldn't get him directly. She didn't obscure his sight either, apparently wishing him to get a good look at the surroundings.

The building they'd been living in thus far seemed to be a hotel named El Manana, the sign was hanging off of the front of the front by a thread, threatening to fall ontop of the next unlucky person walking through the doors.

There didn't seem to be any other buildings around, well, standing buildings. There was plenty of rubble and clear foundations of buildings that'd used to be here, most having already collapsed.

Ignoring the ruins of pre-war civilisation, he turned his gaze towards the place his mother was heading. He spotted hundreds of people gathering in an area, there was a large number of people wearing Power armour and wielding weapons, some of which he actually recognised. Plasma Rifles, Gauss Rifles, Gatling Lasers, and even some Super Sledges... Clearly the Brotherhood wasn't taking this "relocation" lightly.

Strangely, all the people who weren't wearing Power armour had large packs on their backs, he could spot metal pieces sticking out of a few of them... If he was able to speak he'd ask them what their purpose was as he didn't recall anything like this happening in the game.

He could also spot some animals being fitted with large packs on their backs, they were large cow-like creatures with rust-red skin and two heads that had large horns sprouting from them. Afton vaguely remembered that they were called Brahmin, usually used for meat, milk, and as pack animals due to them being one of the only domesticated animals in the wasteland.

He found it strange that a faction as technologically advanced as the Brotherhood of Steel would be using these creatures to travel, but he imagined there was a good reason for it...

Verna walked past the people in Power armour and arrived in the centre of the group where the robed people were, most were wearing packs but a few who were holding newborns weren't. Two people walked up and greeted his mother, one a tanned female with black hair, and the other with pale skin, blonde hair, and hazal eyes.

His mother seemed to know them, probably due to the duo both carrying their own newborn children with them... "Katie, Trisha, how're you?"

The tanned one called Trisha smiles at her, "As fine as you can be in this shit-hole desert-" she's lightly slapped on the shoulder by Katie, "Oi, watch your language around the kids. I don't know about you but I'd rather them not picking up your bad habits."

"As lively as ever then guys?" his mother remarks, amused and slightly exasperated.

"Of course, pushing this one out won't change that... Was wondering if you'd ever get around to visiting us with your one." Trisha says, glancing at Afton.

"Well we're here now, so quit your complaining..." Verna says as some other people walk up to greet her.

Susan was carrying a lightly looking pack compared to everyone else a she approached them, Christine was at her side looking at Afton with a timid smile, it was clear she wasn't comfortable with being out in the open yet. "Hey, you guys ready? The Elder says we should be moving in half an hour."

Verna sends a glare at the pack she's carrying, "They still made you carry stuff huh? No mercy unless you've just gone through labour." she sighs.

"Christine's ten years old now, if I complained about having to carry stuff like everyone else I'd get the book thrown at my head... Atleast they gave me as little as possible."

"Any idea on what the Elder is actually looking for?" Verna asks, keeping her doubts about Elijah to herself for the most part.

"What else, technology. The only thing that seems to draw his interest, here's at tip though, if you wanna prank him then just melt some metal together and leave it around where he is... He'll spend hours trying to crack it open to see if there's something interesting inside." Susan says with a silly grin.

"I feel bad for Veronica... The Elder isn't exactly the best role-model, plus, isn't she a little young to be apprenticing under him?" Katie asks, having been good friends with Veronica's parents before they were killed by the NCR.

Afton wished he could just crawl out of his mother's arms and go somewhere else... Listening to chicks talk was still as boring as ever, and provided little to no good or even reliable information.

Fortunately for his sanity, it seemed everything had been prepared, the Elder was supposed to give a small speech on where they were going and their objective for doing so, but apparently had better things to do, leaving the responsibility to Head Paladin McNamara instead.