Kapitel 60: New Crew

Once inside the administration building they headed straight up to the second floor, a few guys wearing what looked like bulletproof vests eyed Afton suspiciously, but when they saw that Karl was with him they let him through.

They entered the main office where Eddie had his feet kicked up on the desk, and was shooting some jet. He had a relatively handsome, broad face, with hair that seemed to defy gravity while it stood in the air. He was paler than most of the other guys around here, though, whether that was because of his ethnicity or because he didn't leave this building much, Afton didn't know.

Behind the man was an ornate painting of some sort of NCR leader, perhaps a former president? He couldn't really tell due to two reasons... One because that Afton had never bothered to research much about the NCR, and second because the Powder Gangers had drawn graffiti all over it to make the man resemble a clown.

Eddie slouches into his chair and tosses the empty jet away, it skidded across the floor and joined many other discarded ones. "Karl? I see you've brought an outsider here, gonna give me a reason I shouldn't have them flayed and left out for the coyotes?" he says threateningly, Afton found it hard to take this guy seriously though, from his attitude to the small twitches he made probably due to the jet, he didn't seem much of a leader.

Karl just blankly looks at him, "I didn't bring the kid here to ask for permission, I'm telling you they're one of us. They've got history with the NCR, killed his folks, could use some more hands if the NCR does decide to attack us." he explains.

Eddie looks to Afton, "You know my name, yet I don't know yours."

"Afton Parker." he states.

"Afton Parker huh? Never heard of you. Where you from?" Eddie questions.

"California, travelled here with my parents before the NCR killed them. Karl helped me out as a Deathclaw was trying to tear me a new one." he explains.

Eddie's brows raise, "California? Know the Hub?" he asks curiously.

Afton shakes his head, "We tried to stay away from NCR territory... Not that it matter nows." he admits with a sorrowful look.

"Hm, whatever, you're one of us now. Also, some advice, try stay clear of Scrambler. One with the eyepatch, look at him wrong and he'll fuck your day up." Eddie says, but before they leave Karl looks at him.

"The trade route is dead Eddie, Deathclaws have stopped anyone from coming through, we gotta think about our options." Karl says.

"What options? There's fuck all East of here apart from that shitty town Goodsprings, south of here is miles of canyon passages that are invested with mutated creatures, and the NCR have set up outside Primm." he spits back, knowing full well that their situation was worsening every day.

Karl shrugs, "I'm just saying, lay off the jet and start thinking about our next moves. We start running outta food and people start fighting, there'd be nothing we can do." he says and leaves, Afton following after him.

"How bad do you think the situation is?" Afton asks as they leave the building.

"Bad. Doesn't matter how organised we are now, our group is still just a bunch of criminals and misfits. First problem appears and people'll be leaving like we're a sinking ship." Karl explains.

Afton nods at his answer, he couldn't imagine people were sticking around due to some sense of loyalty. "What now?"

"Now?... We'll get you a gun and go see if we can find any NCR caravans heading to Goodsprings, not much else there is to do besides that."

Afton ends up spending some time at the bar, he didn't have any caps so he just drank the slightly irradiated water he was given. Karl was going around to gather up his gang to look for caravans, most of their group as disturbed and gone to do their own thing, so it was pretty annoying to have them all reconvene.

Eventually though everyone was present, Karl, Tommy, Reggie, Louis, and Blank. Reggie and Louis were relatively normal guys, who'd been down on their luck and had resorted to stealing to make ends meet. Obviously, they got caught and were imprisoned in the NCR Correctional Facility.

With Blank? It wasn't his real name, but the man was so incredibly stupid that he'd just constantly give blank stares at people when they tried to explain something to him. Strange thing was he didn't try to correct anyone, instead just adopting the nickname as his own.

"So what's the plan?" Tommy asks as Karl approaches. The man walks by Afton and tosses a couple of things in front of him, one being a blue jacket with NCRCF on the back, and the other being a poorly maintained Laser pistol that looks just about ready to fall apart. Fortunately, he was given a couple of Energy cells to go with it.

Afton ties the NCRCF jacket around his waist as he didn't want to wear any more layers in this desert heat. It'd get the message across that he was one of them though. He grabbed a nearby cloth and started cleaning the gun aswell, as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, it'd been ingrained into him to keep his weaponry well maintained.

He quickly took it apart and started cleaning the individual components, this stopped whatever Karl was going to say as the whole group watched him meticulously look at every part for damage or signs of stress.

"You some sort of mechanic newboy? Never seen someone take apart one of those like that before." Tommy finally breaks the tension.

Afton glances up having not understood they were talking to him, "Hm? Oh-er... I've been taking these things apart all my life, a business my parents used to own youknow?"