FO4 | Book 0: The Diaries of Anarchy ✔️

November 10, 2287

Fahrenheit and I were going over business plans. We stood between the Old State House and Kleo's gun store. While we were standin' there, I overheard one of my guys, Finn, hasslin' my old pal, Nick Valentine, and a newcomer he was travelin' with.

This newcomer had long blonde hair, a dirty face, a cut lip, and a merc's outfit that looked a little baggy on her. She didn't look like the mercenary type, so I assumed she was a poser that got Nick to take on some lame-ass case to find her missin' boyfriend or somethin'. She was extremely easy on the eyes, though. Closer inspection revealed that under that dirty face and cut lip, she was delicate — almost too delicate for this world. She reminded me of a porcelain doll. She had big eyes like a Radstag caught in a searchlight; she looked like she had no idea what she was doin'.

Finn was one of my best fighters. He was ruthless in combat but usually harmless to scavvers and drifters. He was annoying at best. But today, he was hasslin' a newcomer and one of my personal friends. How long had he been hasslin' folks at the gate, I wondered. I handed Fahrenheit the papers we were going over and marched over to Finn.

"Whoa, whoa. Time out. Nick Valentine makes a rare visit to town, and you're hasslin' his friend here with that extortion crap? Good to see you again, Nick."

We had a disagreement in which he mentioned somethin' about a "new mayor," seein' as he didn't appreciate my tone. I groaned quietly with suppressed frustration. I knew I was gonna have to take him out. He wasn't playin' by Goodneighbor rules. It was gonna be a pain in the ass bein' one man down, though.

I stabbed him twice in the gut and let him crumble to the pavement. I shot a look toward the onlookers that gathered 'round, and they turned their heads and continued their business. I wiped my knife on my red coat.

"Now, why'd you have to go and say that, huh?" I said to the corpse. "Breakin' my heart over here..." I eyed the newcomer. I knew Nick could handle himself, but this girl... She looked like she didn't know a snake from a shoelace. "You alright, sister?"

"You. You're... a ghoul?"

Not the answer I was expecting, but I rolled with it. I slapped some confidence on my response. "That's right. Like my face? I think it gives me a sexy king-of-the-zombies kind of look. Big hit with the ladies."

She raised an eyebrow at me, obviously not taken by my charm.

I sighed. "Listen, lots of walkin' rad freaks like me around here, so you might wanna keep those kinds of questions on the low burner next time. Goodneighbor's of the People, for the People, ya feel me? Everyone's welcome."

Her expression slowly changed into a grin. "Of the People, for the People? Oh, brother..."

Her smile was strangely contagious. So, she did have a sense of humor after all. "Heh heh heh. I can tell I'm gonna like you already. Just consider this town your home away from home... so long as you remember who's in charge."

I walked back to the Old State House and waved Fahrenheit with me.

Fahrenheit mumbled to the newcomer, something about how she's a new pawn in our long-standing game of figurative chess. I rolled my eyes, knowin' she just wanted to keep up her threatenin' appearance.

She had been takin' her role as bodyguard and second-in-command pretty seriously the last few years. She saw Goodneighbor as one side of the chessboard, and everything outside the gate as the other side of the chessboard. It was almost unsettling, but I had to admit I liked the way she operated. She got the job done, and that's what mattered.

"What was that about?" she asked me as I reached the office. She flopped down on one of my worn-out sofas.

"What was what about?"

"You fucking stabbed Finn. Now we're a man down."

"He was hustlin' a newcomer. That's against my rules..."

"We don't have rules, Hancock."

I sat down on the couch across from her. "We do. Unwritten laws. Finn knew better than to pull that kind of shit."

"I think you just wanted to impress that woman."

"Whatever." I picked up a canister of Jet from the coffee table. I wasn't just tryin' to impress her, but in the same breath, she was more interesting than most of the people that came through the gate.

"Now, about this Bobby No-Nose business. We know she's going to try to steal from your storeroom. Her workers can't keep their mouths shut."

"Right. That's what you get when the hired help is cheap and unreliable."

"She seems to forget that we know everything that goes on in this town. I can't believe she'd turn her back on you, after everything you've done to put a roof over her head and pick her business up off the ground."

"If she actually pulls this off, I'll be surprised."

"She'll die trying."