Tales of Six

PREFACE

Tales of the infamous Courier Six had been uttered over campfires for decades--- her tale still echoed across the wasteland, uttered on tongues of people who knew her and those who didn't alike. Embellishments had been added by each new storyteller- at first the tale was that of a woman whom saved what little there was to rescue, by now the tale has long been forgotten, replaced by the legend instead. Throughout the whole of this time only one person kept their tales close to the truth, disparaging many a wild theory about the Courier. 

Yes, Nana Chase knew these stories better than the back of her battle worn hand (for the other had been removed from her--- though the old woman would not divulge how exactly it had happened). Each night, as the sun slipped under the cover of the horizon, she set her fire and waited for another band of travellers to come her way. Some sought refuge, others a fight, but most wanted her to speak of the Courier's adventures. Tonight was a band of three travellers. The first a handsome ghoul rigged to the teeth with guns, only in the early stages of his transformation if the scarring on his face was anything to go by. Before the drugs and radiation Nana reckoned his mottled skin must have been a glorious brown in colour, deep and rich as her own eyes, what was left of his hair was thick and gleamed like a copper coin in the fire's light. The second was a young woman, barely out of her teens but as wise as any tribal elder. She was quiet, but her green eyes suggested a intellect that could be fatal if used incorrectly. Lastly there was an elderly man, hair white and teeth yellow. Despite his age he was spritely, hopping around and keeping his young charges out of trouble. The trio sat a while before the ghoul piped up, curiosity lacing his tone.

"You're the one, aren't you?" His question came as no surprise to Nana, nowadays she had little use other than sharing stories. In response she bobbed her head slowly until the ghoul piqued up again, his eyes alight with elation and his . "Me and my friends been searching a long time t' find you- Javier said you wasn't real, that you was just some myth but I knew you was real, isn't that right Lollie? Didn't I say that she was real and that Javier was being stubborn like he always is?" 

'Lollie' nodded. Nana decided she liked her, there was a lot to be said about a woman who knew when she had to speak and when actions would do just fine.  

"Jackson here has spent the last three weeks tugging us around like headless chickens, although the less I speak about that the better. Knowing him he'll dance around the question until morning and Javier ill be sulking about being wrong so I'll ask instead; what happened to Courier Six?"

For a moment there was silence- no one spoke, the coyotes had quit their howling, even the cicadas fell into the eerie quite. Unease settled across the camp, it almost seemed as if no stories would be shared tonight. But Nana was not one to disappoint and with her most grandiose voice she began the tale.

"The Mojave never really leaves you; it is a taint that sticks through even the darkest of days and the Courier understood that. Despite its apparent allure- New Vegas and its surroundings were nothing but a sinkhole. The Mojave desert devoured everything in its path; the Legion, the NCR, the Vegas Strip, even the infamous Courier Six knew that eventually, in some dark alley or out in the desert sands, she too would return to the dust and the memory of her actions would fade as the lives she touched were extinguished. But still, whilst she still had breath in her body and a fire in her belly, Courier Six would find her way home, back to the scorching sun and radioactive sand storms of the desert."