Journal of Honcho Biggs - Chapter 6

Chapter Six of the Journal of Honcho Biggs, titled "City of the Dead".

## City of the Dead

   Despite my misgivings, we continued on the 164 East towards Nipton. It was eerily quiet, with only a small ambush by giant worker ants breaking up the doldrums. Every alarm was going off in my head, but Niner kept going, merrily humming some Sinatra song. Niner said he needed to get to Nipton because he had some small little plan with the mayor. "It'll be fun!" He said, popping a steady, "We'll party and drink and all that good stuff, and we'll make caps by selling these little baggies to the mayor. It'll all be sunshine!" I declined his offer of steady. I needed my mind at full force if anything bad were to happen, which was seemingly likely.

About halfway to Nipton, we arrived at a little prewar rest stop. Two crumbling buildings on either side of the road. Perfect for an ambush, and it would be easy for the Powder Gangers to have hidden here after sacking Nipton...I immediately crouched down and hid behind some bushes. Niner got the message and slid next to me. "Trouble," I whispered. "I'm sure of it." Niner nodded, and pulled out his submachine gun. I grabbed my sledgehammer in one hand and moved quickly toward the edge of a building. I peeked behind a corner.

A raider had his back to me. Not a Ganger, an actual raider - some Jackal, aka the Vipers' retarded cousin. Like I said, unorganized crime is the worst and sometimes it honestly disgusts me. I was doing the world a favor when my sledgehammer connected with the side of his head and crushed it against the brick wall of the building.

Gunfire erupted and bullets bounced off the wall as a slid back around the corner. Me and Niner had never been in serious combat before, like really serious, so I hoped he would be capable of killing a couple of bastards. Turns out he was more than capable. He's a beast with the submachine gun. Firing over a broken wall, Niner must've downed about four or five raiders. As fitting for our duo's leader, I took on the Jackal leader.

Bitch had a goddamn flamethrower. Not even trying to get close, I switched the sledgehammer for my varmint rifle and put a few rounds in her, eventually crippling her arm. Throwing away the flamethrow, she charged with a crowbar. Idiot. My sledgehammer had far more range, and now her chest went inwards rather than outwards. Hopefully her raspy breathing with a broken ribcage and lungs while the sun beat downs on her for a day will be punishment for trying to attack the Honcho.

"Please...help," we heard a voice cry out from inside the other crumbling building. We headed over cautiously and looked inside. A sorry-looking NCR trooper was tied to column inside. His face was bruised and he wasn't looking so hot.

"Should we, uh, cut him out?" Niner asked.

I held my hand out. "Not yet. Don't ever cut a man out before asking him some questions," I said, unintentionally giving him a tip for free.

"I'll tell you whatever you want, man," the trooper said.

"I thought NCR soldiers were supposed to never break," I commented.

"Nah, fuck that, I joined up to get out of shovelling brahmin shit back home and to tame some Mojave strange. I've been here for four fucking years."

I like this guy. He has his priorities straightened. "What's your name? And how did you get captured?"

"Private General, ah, I mean, James General. The brass gets kinda confused at that, yeah," Private General said. "Like I said, I've been here for four years, my tour officially ended last week. My buddies got some off time and took me to the huge shindig in Nipton. Only fucking Legion shows up and pull up on everyone. Me and a few others booked it out of there-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "Legion?" When Niner didn't understand, I clarified. "Legion this far across the Colorado?" Niner didn't have a mind for the deeper geopolitics of the region like yours truly.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it with my own eyes. Guess they had some Jackals waiting outside, prepared to capture anyone that escaped Nipton. We didn't have no guns so the Jackals got us easy. The others were Powder Gangers, worthless as hostages, so they brought them back to Nipton like they were supposed to. Me, I'm an NCR trooper, so they thought I was worth even more. They were gonna try to ransom me to the Outpost." He spat. "Like the brass would ever think I'm worth anything."

"Are the Legion...are they still there?" I asked. If there's somebody that disgusts me the most, it's the Legion. They're unorganized crime organized into organized crime but they still act like unorganized crime. A truly disgusting combination.

"It's been a few days, but from what I heard from the Jackals, this was gonna last a good bit of time."

Goddamn. I whistled. "This certainly makes getting to Vegas harder. Long 15 gone to shit too."

It was Niner's turn. "What about the Mayor? Just curious, not like I got a, dunno, drug deal going off with him."

"Mayor's a shifty fuck. Wouldn't be surprised if he was somehow in on this. Someone had to let the Legion in."

Well, shit. Anyway, I was satisfied. I tossed a knife to Niner. "Cut him out, we're good here."

Niner nodded and cut the ropes. James sighed in relief as he felt his wrists and stood for the first time in a good amount of time, stretching his legs. "Where do you plan on going now?"

I shrugged. "We're searching for a courier. THE courier, if you've been reading the papers."

"You mean the one that got shot in the head and lived?"

"The one and the same. We got a job, to, uh, protect him."

"But we may have lost him. Just maybe," Niner clarified.

James scratched his chin in thought. "Jackals said the Legion weren't interested in captured any travellers. But still, I don't want to take any chances by going back there."

"You could head to the Mojave Outpost," I pointed out.

"Nah, fuck that, man. I'm tryna get to Vegas, too." He smiled. "Strength in numbers, right? Well, I know where we can get some supplies - on the cheap. Fightin' supplies. Just in the case the Legion tries anything else."