Entry 57: The mysteries behind the roads I walked...

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I woke up with a massive roar, didn't know from what, but it echoed throughout the tunnel and scared the crap out of me.

I found a dead NCR trooper nearby my makeshift-one-night-camp. On him he had a note for a mission, saying the tunnel was overrun by "semi-humanoid creatures sensible to light", so the troopers were issued flash bangs. I took what he had, just in case. There were two more NCR troopers dead ahead (in both meanings, see what I did there?). One of them was a Ranger and whatever could take out a Ranger had to be looked out for.

I kept hearing the roars as I advanced through the tunnel. Then I heard some rubble move and I hid, to see what it was. A freaking monster appeared from the ground, black with glowy spikes, claws and eyes. I shot him in the head with the sniper and he died. At first I was happy it was that easy, but then, as I walked a bit more, I heard the rubble again and with it three other of those motherfuckers attacked us. I took only two blows from one of them, but those two blows almost ripped my insides out. Jesus fucking Christ.

After killing more of those bastards I finally reached the exit of the tunnel, with the sign "High Road" on it. As I entered the High Road the Courier spoke with me again, through ED-E. Told me that The Divide had a lesson to be teach. People tend to hold on too much to something. So much it breaks, or falls apart. Then he told me that he could already see the cracks around New Vegas, from Mr. House holding it so much. I told him that, unlike him, I'd rather look to the future instead of the past and that was why I worked with Mr. House. He told me that there was no future in either road I could take from working with Mr. House: crushed and opressed like the Three Families of New Vegas or immortalized as a Securitron. I don't like to think about it that way. I'll do my best to help Mr. House and the mankind, but eventually I'll die off, knowing full well what I did for everyone. But I just told him that Mr. House's plans account for a future much further than what he spoke about. Then I added that Vegas was one of the safest places out there and that was because of Mr. House. That gave me - and not only me - hope.

He said he deduced that someone - referring to Mr. House - had protected Vegas during the Great War. That someone who protected Vegas, in his mind, was selfish enough not to protect the world. I mean, common! Mr. House almost died protecting Vegas! Sure, he told me he "did not care to save the rest of the world" but I saw through his arrogance! He meant that because he would not be able to save it then, so he saved what he could to then rebuild the world. I wanted to tell the Courier too many things at the same time, like how he never even met Mr. House. But, for the sake of the argument, I told him that Mr. House is more pragmatic that what he might think. He actually believed that Mr. House's plan was to, eventually, turn everyone into robots he could command. There I got sick of it. I wanted to meet him. The man who had hunted me, the man who despises Vegas.

I told him that the Mojave was behind us and I wanted to focused on what was ahead. Then he said he was surprise we made it this far, me and ED-E, living through the skinned men and those tunnel creatures. I asked him about them and he said the beasts were called Tunnelers. Told me they were created by the Great War radiation and that it would be a slower death to the Mojave, meaning they were spreading out, via underground tunnels they dug themselves. He compared them to some creatures I knew to exist only East, at Legion territory. He told me he knew that because he did not only walked the Mojave and the Divide. He walked through the East before the Legion came. Like the Bear - NCR - they seized everything. In his opinion, though, the Bull - Legion - did a better job at it. He also called those skinned walking corpses Marked Men. SO now I have a name for them. I told him about the blades and mask I found in some of them and he told him that they used it as an insult to their former Legate, Lanius, the commander of the Legion forces.

He was obsessed with me and The Divide, it being my home. Because of what I did. Something I made by walking the roads in and out of the Divide. He kept saying it, but speaking in riddles. I was close to getting to where he wanted me to go, to know what I "did", in his eyes. But after one more cryptic speech, his transmition ceased. Fuck.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 56: Warhead Fun!

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

So I travelled the stormed lands of The Divide. It was nightime and I didn't really know where to go. I soon had my first run in with those skinned living corpses. They are pretty easy to fight alone, but one of them caught me off guard once I entered a building - seeking for refuge for the night -, hitting me with a thermic lance. That shit hurts! Luckily there was an Auto-Doc in the place which patched me right up.

They may be zombies but they have some serious fucking fire power. No wonder, since they live in a military base! But shit, I knew I was in real trouble when I saw a guy on a roof shooting at me with a RAPID FIRE ROCKET LAUNCHER! Jesus fuck. Eventually I was able to find an angle to shoot him in the head before he blew up the entire building I was hiding in.

I had already found three "awake" nuclear warheads in the place. And there were even more for sure. I was afraid of what that Courier would have me do once I had the detonator he wanted.

I found the laser detonator and a note attached to it. Apparently I needed to use it to blow up some of those warheads I told you about, in order to open new paths. Of course, I got scared... I didn't know how much of an explosion the warheads would cause and the Courier did want me dead, so...

After I picked it up me and ED-E were ganged up by a group of those corpses. They are ruthless in groups, really. They didn't even give me room to move. After I killed all of them it was time to sleep again, at their camp on the roof.

On the morning I tried my best to pray, even though I don't do much of that and tried the detonator, keeping as safe a distance as I could. Fortunatly, the blast was not so big, not even a fifth of what I expected, so I was ok. And from then on, my hobby is to blow up warheads - and survive in the middle of this hellhole.

After blowing up one of those said warheads I uncovered a Corpse base camp and they weren't too happy about it. One of them seemed special somehow, like he was a commander, since he had a helmet and a different armor.

Another bomb detonated, another passage discovered. We went through the collapsed overpass tunnel and then ED-E played one of his logs, which was Whitney complaining about Colonel Autumn's proceedures on ED-E. I took that chance to make camp at one of the turned around trucks while talking to ED-E about what he showed me. And also to write you this.

I don't like this place...

Love you,
Bill

Entry 55: The Divide

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

So I fearfully travelled to The Divide. To walk the Lonesome Road.

Strong, hot winds were there waiting for me, along with an incessible Sun that burned through the storms.

The place was a fucking mess. Even if Mr. House hadn't saved New Vegas from the end of the world, I don't think it would look like The Divide.

The first door I got into was the Hopeville Defense Station, that led to a missile silo. The door was marked by that Old World flag symbol I found all over Big MT. That belonged to him.

Inside I tried to open the Silo doors but the console was locked out and beyond my ability to hack in. Which is rare. So I made way through the Maintenance Level. There I foun a Pod with a robot inside. I unlocked it and an eyebot just like ED-E came out, playing the same music as ED-E did and then a sound file of a kid calling for "Ralphie". I asked him if he was ED-E and what was he doing there and I was able to decypher pretty well what he said in beeping sounds. The Silo had some kind of technology that was able to continuesly scan and then reproduce copies of the original ED-E, the one back in my suite. I asked him if he wanted to come with me and he actually seemed... Happy. If you could say so for a robot. He immediatly played a recording of an experiment his creator made with him, to show me that he could override electronic devices that I couldn't. Only panels with a receiver sort of dish-shaped.

As he had told me, he was to override the Silo Power controls. That way I was able to pull a lever that revealed the actual missile silo, with more ED-E's working on a missile with the Old World Flag on it and also opened a door to the Reactor, that I could use to proceed.

Once we entered the Reactor I found a broken eyebot on the ground. I was able to salvage a module that I could use to upgrade ED-E. That was awesome. When we entered the actually Silo, ED-E seemed scared and played another recording. It was about how someone named Dr. Grant invaded Dr. Whitley's - this ED-E's creator - lab to experiment on ED-E, by order of someone named Colonel Autumn. The whole thing was to show how much Whitney cared for ED-E, because he actually cared that ED-E's damage sensors were online when Grant did the experiment, making it "hurt" for ED-E. I was starting to feel bad for him.

After exiting the silo-itself area we reached a room with two skinned corpses in armor, one of them brutally killed, impaled on rebar. Ahead there were a couple more of those skinned cropses. They were very weird though, three of them had armor that resembled the NCR while the other had Legion armor - one of those I found more ahead. But the room had signs that both corpses had fought side to side against a robot, so I did not understand, Another question was why were they skinned if they had their armors on?

I finally reached a door that had tagged in graphiti "You can go home, Courier", like in the Canyon Wreckage. When we crossed those doors someone started talking to me through ED-E. That voice... Chilling, had me scared just from listening. It was him, the Courier. He knew I worked for Mr. House and told me that the sight before me was what awaited New Vegas and its "Old World ghosts" (refering to Mr. House). I tried to answer accordingly, telling him he should be afraid of me and Mr. House, but all that came out of my mouth was the question of who he was. I couldn't live with the mystery anymore. He said he was Courier Six, like me. Said he was like me in many ways and not like me in many ways either. Told me he had searched for me for long years. That I was hard to kill, survived storms, bullets. He let the oportunity for the Platinum Chip job pass on to me because he knew it would get me killed, but he was wrong. I told him I knew we had never spoke before, because a voice like that... I'd remember. He told me we only met by the roads we travelled. Never in person. He talked about The Divide being my home, because "Couriers can build societies" and a home is "not only the place you were born, but also the place you changed so much".

Avoiding the "home" topic, we talked a bit about The Divide. He told me it was all an old military base and the Silo I just went through, the missile in it, was a nuclear warheads. And there are many others around The Divide. He told me about those corpses I saw, which apparently were the new Divide inhabbitants that were NCR and Legion who had come here to fight at the same time the place all went to Hell. Now they fight side by side, feral, as the new inhabbitants. They were skinned by the "fires of the Divide" - the strong winds - and kept alive and strong by the radiation.

Finally I asked how was he speaking through ED-E. He told me he actually wanted me to find it as he used it as a radio to speak with me. So I told him that, after all the trouble he went through to find me, I was finally there and we could get on with it. He said I needed to destroy some of the warheads. Walk through the nightamares of America that the warheads and The Divide were. Only then I'd be able to speak to him. So I told I'd find the the triggers and that he was next.

So now I have a job to do, given by my personal hunter. I have a feeling this will be epic, either ending well for my said or his.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 54: Building up to this

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I finally decided to get the substation powering up Mr. House wanted done. As soon as we exited The Strip Veronica noticed for the first time my star bottlecaps pocket. Remember me telling you about it? She didn't know what it was for, like me, but as soon as we counted them and she saw I had 50 she begged me to pass by the Sunset Sarsaparilla Headquarters, to see if it once had some prize or something.

Stupid idea right? That's what I thought too, but no.

We got there and besides some "feral" robots was a robo-greeter named Festus. He was a cowboy, in pretty bad shape, kind of creepy at first. But nice, overall. Like Victor. He responded to a determined list of commands listed by himself. He told me I could dump the star caps on a slot near him for him to count them, that I could ask for information on those bottlecaps or I could challenge him to some game. I didn't want to play any games nor did I want to waste my caps for nothing, so I said "Star Info". He told me that if I had "enough" star caps I'd win a prize. That didn't convince me at first, but Veronica told me to go for it, I had nothing to lose.

I deposited the stars and the robot did an animation like it was all happy, saying I had done it. My prize? Yeah, I got a little sad at first, while Veronica laughed at me: the robot started telling me the "true story" behind Sunset Sarsaparilla... It was kind of a legend, a nice story, in fact, but still I couldn't help asking if that was it. He told me that the company had received many complaints about that prize, so there was another prize waiting for me inside the factory. Only the path Festus indicated was blocked, so I had to snoop around.

Finally I found it, down a whole. The place smelled terribly. I quickly found out why, there was a dead guy in the corner. The place was also full of caps and fake deputy badges, but near the body was a holotape. I plugged it into the Pip-Boy and listened to it. Turned out the guy murdered and stole (from) people to get all the fifty caps. In the end it was him saying he got what was coming to him. Wishing he stayed home, taking care of his mother, who always had taught him well and in the end it turned out like it did. Asfixiation with his prize all around him. A valuable lesson.

So then it was, indeed, time to do what Mr. House asked. We walked all the way to El Dorado Dry Lake, to reach the substation. The place reminded me of Vault 11. I just had shivers writting it down.

Mr. House warned me the NCR runned the place. When I got there I was so happy that I was finally going to get the chance to kill these bastards. So when a guy came running towards me saying (RUDELY!) that there was going to be trouble if I went in the control room, I gladly punched his face out of existence.

I left a nice, good path of destruction. I don't think Veronica appreciated my loss of control. But hey, I didn't open up to her completely about you and all they did to me, so she doesn't understand. I inserted the Platinum Chip in the Power Station and powered it for Mr. House.

The plan was to go back to Mr. House, but as soon as I left the power station my Pip-Boy started jamming and working on itself. When it finally stopped, it had coordinates marked on the map. So it is time. I knew instantly what it was.

It all built up to this. The Courier Five who passed on the oportunity to carry the Platinum Chip as soon as he saw my name. The Courier who was hired by Caesar himself to assassinate Joshua Graham. The Courier who had visited the Big MT, saving Christine and giving her a message to deliver me, while at the same time manipulating Elijah into recruiting me for his dirty job in Sierra Madre. And now I know where to find him.

I sent ED-E and Veronica to the Lucky 38. This is a road I need to walk alone.

I went to Primm, as the coordinates lead somewhere near the place. Then, at the coordinates, I found a wreckage with a message for me. It said "Courier Six", told me I could go home, to The Divide. Walk the Lonesome Road, by his own words.

My heart is beating fast.

Love you,

Bill

Entry 53: Deathclaw Promontory

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

We (and by "We" I mean "I while Veronica tried to talk me out of it") thought about a way to get to the Promontory. It was inevitable that we passed through Cottonwood Cove, Legion territory. As The Legion learned I was working with Mr. House, they did not accept it so well as the NCr (because, you know, they are true warriors and not dumbass pussies), so we knew we had to go ready for a fight.

So we decided to go for it. We chose a hill from where we'd start and me and ED-E starting shooting at them with all we had, while continuesly going down the hill. Once we were down there I put Salt.Upon-Wounds' power fist on (you know, because he wanted to join the Legion and I'm such a poet) and me and Veronica started punching ass (see what I did there?).

After we killed everyone I found some slaves locked inside a cell. They had explosive collars, so I tried to set them free. Unfortunatly, I messed up my first try and the woman died. The other captives were her children. Shit. I... I didn't mean too... I swear... I mean, they weren't exactly children nor teenagers, but I still made them orphans... Like me... Fuck. FUCK.

So after that I made Veronica leave me and go back to base or something. I was going to face deathclaws and I didn't want her to have anything to do with that, after last time. She gladly (or so it seemed) understood and wished me luck, relunctantly.

After swimming upstream for a while I finally found it: a narrow path between two hills, on the other side of the river. I looked at ED-E - thinking if I should have brought him along and, at the same time, kind of asking him if he was ready -, took a deep breath and then put on the armor's helmet - which was kind of ugly too, but at the time I thought that it would, hopefully, do the job.

The fucking place... I don't think I'll ever be afraid of deathclaws again, because I ran out of fear from that place. One Alpha Male, two Mothers and like 15 "normal" ones. Jesus. I... I'd be dead.

But fortunatly, I have a story about friendship for you. You see, I was surrounded and already in pretty bad shape. Thank God I had that armor, or else... But even so, they were pounding and pounding at me, ignoring ED-E and his laser shots. Even though I took down a few, I was starting to be pounded around like a pinball, watching my life passing through my eyes. Groggy from the last hit, I faced the Alpha Male, ready to tear me apart with one blow. But then I hear a scream and see Pushy's magnificent blue shockwave glow, throwing the Alpha Male to hell (not literally, but it sounds good that way). Veronica had come back. For me. Even after what happened the last time we faced Deathclaws. She shook me up a little and I found my ballance. Then we went back to back, pounding and punching every one of those motherfuckers that came at us. We did it. We are the Deathclaw Promontory survivors. We owned those motherfuckers.

We made a happy way to our Suite, back the Lucky 38, where I now write you this, because of the woman who had the courage to venture alone a deathclaw home to save her friend. Her... friend... Who blew up her family's bunker... God, I have to talk to her.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 52: Roaming around

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I needed to think to what I did to Veronica. And about Red Lucy and what (who) she reminded me off. So, as the last time I needed to think, I went South. Veronica wouldn't go to the Suite though, no matter how much I asked. I even reminded her of how my "thinking" trips can sometimes become dangerous, but she didn't care. Oh well, women.

Eventually we got past Nipton and the Drive-In, where the satellite that took me to Big MT was. But I just kept going.

Eventually I got to where I wanted. An observation deck that pointed to a place filled with feral ghouls. Feral creatures who no one will miss and I can kill at will? Just the thing to blow off steam.

Every pound I gave with Oh Baby reminded me of Mr. House and what I already had to do for a better future, for a better mankind, what I did to Veronica, killing all her family and friends and, more recently, almost getting her killed.

Every punch with Two-Steps-Goodbye reminded me of Benny and what he did to me and what would I do if I were in his shoes. I was a loose end. But still, he got too greedy and wanted all for himself, I am choosing what I know to be best for New Vegas, not what it's best for me.

Every shot with Christine's Rifle and the Light Shining in the Darkness reminded me of my adventures outside the Mojave and how they all built up to one person: Courier 5, my hunter. The man who refused Johnson Nash's work offer because he saw my name on the list. The man who was hired be Caesar to try and assassinate Joshua. The man who told Elijah about Sierra Madre and saved Christine from him, before I ever knew they existed. The man who was after me, with all the strength he had. The man who was controling my path.

The place turned out to be an old nuclear test site with a big crater behind a fence and that was probably why there were so many ghouls there. Felt good. We also found, near it, a crashed vertibird with a bigass energy weapon near it. Sweet.

Night started to fall and there was a town nearby, so we decided to go there. As we approached those weird feral ghouls in NCR armor started appearing. So I checked my map and we had already been close to that place.

Veronica remembered it to be Camp Searchlight, a once NCR base which was flooded by radiation by The Legion, killing or turning everyone stationed there into a ghoul. Damn. After killing some more NCR ferals we ran to the church where we found a basement door. There we decided the place was too much, none of us liked radiation and even though killing ferals is good for the health, that was not worth it. So we went south-er.

We found the Searchlight Airport, which was totally overrun by Radscorpions of all sizes. Then Veronica told me something she wishes she hadn't. She even covered her mouth after saying it. "This is like the Deathclaw Promontory, but with Radscorpions!". Of course, I made her tell me what was that "Deathclaw Promontory". Eventually she told me it was an only-talked-about place where it was said to be the living place of many, many deathclaws. Supposelly it was across the river, past Cottonwood Cove.

Looks like I'll have something to write you about soon.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 51: Dead memories

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I look so badass in that Remnant armor. It has kind of a weird design, but I got used to it.

I left Rex at the suite and took ED-E with me. Didn't want anything to happen to Rexie, since he wasn't even mine. Veronica, though she bugged me the entire way there that it was a stupid idea, didn't want me to take Lily instead of her. Maybe deep down she liked the challenge too. Or maybe she thinks she's the only one who can keep my crazyness in check. I dunno.

The mere entrance of the place had 5 deathclaws guarding it. Jesus Christ.

I was in pretty bad shape already after the first four deathclaws, who seemed to be waiting for someone to enter the God damned cave. These beast are fucking ruthless, I was probably wearing the toughest armor in the world and those claws still cut through and threw me around.

We found the mother there and ganged up on her. The bitch in the Quarry Junction was tougher, though. She was guarding the eggs so we had what we came in for. Veronica was releaved and told me to get out of there as fast as possible. But I told her I wanted to stay. You see, I'm afraid of these assholes. And what better way to face my fear than to litterally face my fear? Besides, a legend of a deathclaw? I had to check that out.

Wish I didn't. Wish I didn't...

We found him in one of the cave's areas, accompanied by two other deathclaws. Those we were able to lure out of that area and kill them but the other... The Legendary Deathclaw. He was so much bigger than all others. When we got back to the cave area he saw us and ran. Sliced through Veronica's armor like it was made of paper. I hesitated for a moment and he slammed me with his tail, knocking me to the ground, then headed to ED-E, which was shooting at him almost pointlessly. I got back on my feet and grabbed his tail. When his attention got towards me again I quickly picked Oh Baby up of the ground and tripped him, making him fall on his back. Then I climbed on to him and pounded and pounded and pounded and pounded, with all of my strength. He was so big...

I put Veronica on my back and got her out of there, running as fast as I could, trying to ignore fatigue and pain. Then tried to run all the way to Novac, which was like two miles long of a way. You may think it's nothing, but was wearing both power armor AND carrying a girl IN power armor. There I layed her on a table and screamed for the doctor. She was bleeding so much. I took of the armor before the doctor arrived, since she wouldn't know how to. It seemed like an eternity, me waiting for the doctor and looking at a nearly gutted Veronica.

Then she arrived and treated her. Fortunatly she was out more for the shock than the actual wound or pain. Still, it was really messy. I apologised to Veronica. She looked at me and smiled. She knew I don't apologise very often. We stayed for half a day and then she told me she was feeling well to walk.

We went to The Thorn, at her own pace. No rush. Then I talked to Red Lucy, all bloody in my face and armor. She seemed to enjoy the sight. And she enjoyed it even more when I grabbed the eggs and gave them to her. She told me I had become the greatest hunter she had ever seen and gave an unique shotgun she had, Dinner Bell. Then she told me to follow her. Alone. I looked at Veronica, worried. I didn't want to leave her alone. But she looked at me and winked, making a gesture to go on. At the time I didn't realise why she winked.

So innocent, your son.

She took me to a room with a mood light and a queen sized bed. She walked up to the bed and undressed, standing there, bare naked, looking at me with a smile. She layed on the bed and asked me to join her with her finger. I... I didn't know what to do. I know I told you some time ago that I'd be looking for company, but you know damn well that's bullshit. I know I haven't talked about her for a long time, but you know I had the love of my life. I had her, I lost her for years and years, while I roamed the wasteland with you guys and, then, alone, then I had her again and, after our first night finally together, full of love and making up for lost time, I find her laying dead and raped after coming out of scavenging. The bastards who did it, petty raiders, were still there, cocks hanging around. Those were my first kills. Three of them, with my own bare fists, punching all of them with all the anger of the world, tears streaming down my face. I know I hadn't talked about her for a long time, I know. But I... I had to justify this beautiful, beautiful woman laying in a bed waiting for me... And I just said "sorry" and walked away.

She could have been one hell of a lover. Hell, I bet she would be. I just couldn't go on with it. When I left the room Veronica saw my face and asked me what happened, I just told her that we had to get out of that place.

So that's my story for today. I've spoken too much anyway.

Love you,
Bill

PS: I should start writting to her too...