Fandom Fallout 2318: Neo's Path

[hephrakith]

"Clover, I know you've had it rough. We all have," Neo spoke as he turned and walked back towards his friends. "But that's no excuse to ridicule my work, okay? I'm looking around for supplies and information on what happened here. If you would stop bitching about my drinking for five minutes and LOOKED AROUND, maybe we could leave a little faster."

 

[shanbutt]

"That's the last straw," Alice thought, tired of Neo's and Clover's constant bickering. They always did this, always fighting to a point of annoyance. Clover's anger regarding her family and Neo's drinking pissed her off to no end, but she never said anything about it. She was too timid to when she wasn't enraged. Alice bit down on her lip, her jaw muscles straining in anger.


Thoroughly exasperated, she stomped over loudly, her combat boots hitting the floor with multiple thuds. Her hand reached out and grabbed Neo's shoulder turning him towards her. Alice looked directly into his eyes. "Will you please just stop drinking for once?" She quite nearly yelled. Then she turned to Clover and pointed her finger at her sharply. "You, perhaps for a few minutes, need to not take your anger out on everyone!" Alice clenched her jaw once more. "We get that you're mourning and all, but your anger isn't exactly productive either." She lowered her voice towards the end, trying to calm herself down.


Once more relaxed, Alice lowered her finger and looked at the floor. She rubbed her necked sheepishly. "Sorry," she mumbled with a hard edge.

 

[Kiersten]

Clover was taken by more than surprise as Alice stomped over to a frightened looking Neo. In fact Neo had stopped dead in his tracks. The sudden incline in volume of Alices voice was nearly startling and no one in the room, not even Remo, was expecting it. At this point, all feelings of anger towards Neo had left Clovers mind as she was more focused on what has Alice so worked up about. "Will you please stop drinking for once?" Alice proclaimed. Both surprise and amusement filled Clovers gut as the demanding words left Alices lips. She had never seen Alice so distressed, nor Neo so frightened that Clover had to stop herself from bursting into laughter. The scene was overly amusing.


Yet all thoughts of laughter were dismissed from her mind as Alice turned to Clover with a finger extended. "You, perhaps for a few minutes need to not take your anger our on everyone!" Her face went blank as Alices attention moved from Neo to Clover. "Oh shit" Clover thought to herself. As the rest of the words fell from Alices lips, Clover became increasingly upset with herself, as well as everyone around her. "Who the hell is she to tell me how to live my life. She doesn't know me. She doesn't know how I feel." Despite the feelings she felt inside, Clover pushed it down and cleared her throat as Alices rant came to an end. "Sorry," Alice said quietly. "Well. Whatever... sorry I guess," Clover muttered.

 

[hephrakith]

Neo's face fell as Alice started yelling at him and Clover. Feelings that he hadn't felt in ages rushed at him suddenly. Pain. Sadness. Depression. Things that he had buried long ago, using whiskey and rooting around in old laboratories to cover them up. Neo walked slowly out of the lab and out of the memorial, Rosie in tow. He sat down outside, fiddling with his Pipboy 3000.

 

[Kiersten]

"Well... this is awkward..." Clover stated the obvious, reaching down to pat Remo on the head.

 

[shanbutt]

"Sorry," Alice mumbled. "Shouldn't of done that. Anger got the best of me." She meant her apology well, and now too felt awkward because of her actions. "Do you want to see where Neo went?" The question left her mouth with an odd quietness, and she coughed after. After that, she looked down at Clover's hand, then stroked Remo on his back.

 

[Kiersten]

Clover watched as Remo stuck out his tongue, and began to wag his tail as Alices hand moved up and down his back. "Its fine..." Clover began. "You have the right to speak what you feel... the only difference between you and me, is I do it to often," Clover paused. "I know I can be a bit of a bitch," She muttered.

 

[shanbutt]

"It's no biggy," Alice said with a shrug. "We have our differences, but arguing with one another is not gonna solve it." She looked away from Remo for a moment, contemplating what she should say next. "It's just that, well, sometimes I have outbursts. It's not something that happens often, so now it's just best to move on." She looked back at Clover, giving her a half smile. "Maybe you should apologize to Neo?" Alice asked quietly.

 

[Kiersten]

"We'll see" Clover said dryly. She pretended apologizing was even a thought to please Alice. Really though, she wasn't going to apologize to Neo. She had no reason to. "Lets find Neo," Clover called as she and Remo headed towards the door.

 

[hephrakith]

Neo got up after looking for a nearby town to sell the copper wire in and packed up Rosie with his bags. Taking the brahmin by her harness, he started making his way towards Rivet City to exchange the wire for much needed caps.

 

[Kiersten]

As Clover and the others walked outside, Clover spotted Neo walking away. "Where the hell is he going?" Clover briefly glanced back at Bob and Alice with an annoyed look before shouting. "Neo!" She was already annoyed with him from earlier, but how could he be so careless all the time. He didn't respond. "NEO!" She shouted louder. Still, no reaction came from the boy, nor the two headed cow. "Remo. Go get Neo!" Clover urged the dog that was at her side. Without hesitation, the medium sized German Shepard shot away from Clover and the rest of the group with great determination. Only moments passed before Remo reached Neos side, tugging at his pant leg and barking up at him obnoxiously.

 

[shanbutt]

Alice laughed, the situation simply comical for her. Neo was being stubborn as usual, and completely ignoring the dog barking playfully and tugging at his pants. Also, as per usual, Clover was annoyed with him. At this point, Alice had completely cooled off and found amusement in Clover and Neo's antics.

 

[hephrakith]

"Damn it, Remo..." Neo muttered as he felt the dog bite on his armored leg. He put a note in Remo's mouth telling the three and the mutt to stay at the memorial and camp out there while he traveled over to Rivet City to get caps for the wiring. "Go, boy! On you go!" After sending the dog on his way, he resumed his short trip to the rusty old ship.

 

[Kiersten]

"Whatever! I guess I will just sit here and twiddle my thumbs!" Clover shouted after Neo."So," She continued. "What now?" Clover turned to Alice.

 

[shanbutt]

"Well, first of all," Alice started. "What does the note say?" She grabbed the slip of paper from Remo's mouth and handed it to Clover, but not before unfolding it for her.

 

[hephrakith]

The note read, "Don't follow me, I'm going to Rivet City then coming back, please stay at the Memorial. Neo."

 

[Kiersten]

"I didn't even see that... just shows how distracted I am," Clover sighed as she took the piece of paper from Alices fingers. The paper was a small fist size piece of scrap paper that was wrinkled and smudged with dirt. "Gross" she thought to herself.


"Dont follow me, I'm going to Rivet City then coming back, please stay at the memorial. Neo " She read the note aloud to Alice after reading it to herself.


"Great. So he calls us here to just sit here and play dog while he goes and gets to visit the city?! Thats no fun. I say we follow him," Clover says as she turns towards the direction that Neo disappeared in. "Come on Alice, its time for an adventure." Before Alice had anytime to talk to Clover about it, Clover had already set off in the direction of the city, with Remo trotting along side of her.

 

[shanbutt]

Alice thought about protesting, but decided against it. There was really no use trying to persuade Clover; she was sure hard to convince her of anything. She was a tough cookie. Before Clover got too far away, Alice jogged up towards her, dirt kicking up from the ground. Once she was caught up with her and Remo, she slowed down to a walking pace.


"Maybe you should ease off of him," Alice began, slowly. "I mean, he obviously doesn't want us following him..." As soon as she said this, she immediately regretted it. There was really no reason to defend Neo at this point, especially with his binge-drinking and his poor decisions he made on a whim, just like the one he had written about on the note. "Never mind," Alice added as a second thought.

 

[hephrakith]

Suddenly, a warning shot whizzed by Clover's head (not harming anyone) from the barrel of Neo's sniper rifle. He then turned around and continued on his way.

 

[Nerdicus]

Bob remains quiet for a while, confused as to whats going on. He hasn't been paying much attention for the past few minutes, because he just found out his new PIP-Boy 3001 had a Pong game on it. After he heard the warning shot, Bob actually payed attention for a few minutes and went to investigate. "Did I miss something important, guys?"

 

[shanbutt]

Alice jumped, surprised by the warning shot, shivering. At first, she didn't know where the fire came from, but then dead ahead was Neo holding his sniper rifle. Once she realized everything that safe, she sighed. Alice looked at Clover's face to see what her reaction would be.

 

[Kiersten]

"What the hell does he think hes doing!" Clover snapped, speaking to Alice. "Im going to try and talk with him," Clover said as she quickened her pace to catch up with Neo.

 

[hephrakith]

Neo glanced behind him and sighed, "I knew this would happen...."


He zoomed in and aimed carefully, firing his rifle so the bullet went clean through Clover's foot.

 

[Kiersten]

Clover looked up as she saw Neo standing there with his gun poised in her direction. Not just in her direction, but at her. Before Clovers brain or body could react, a shot rang out, sending a loud pang through her ears. The bullet was felt on impact, but the world seemed to be slowed down as she watched the bullet bury itself into her foot. For a moment, she felt nothing as it happened so quickly.


After a moment, a sharp, searing pain sent her body lifelessly to the ground and she opened her mouth to scream. "OWWWWW!!" Clover screeched as she curled into a ball, her foot gushing large amounts of blood. Her foot felt as though it were on fire, and it throbbed as her heart pounded in her ears. Clover never was able to deal with pain very well. She had broken bones before, but she had never taken a bullet. The pain was severe and she felt suddenly disgusted as she felt hot tears burn down her face, looking up to meet her gaze with Neos.

 

[shanbutt]

Alice watched as Neo raised his gun in the distance, and her mouth dropped. For a second she considered screaming at him to stop, but it was too late. A bullet exited his gun, sending out a loud bang through the air, and it whizzed through the air towards Clover. For a moment, Alice was scared that it would hit a vital part of Clover's body. Her eyes shut as the shot sped towards them, and her hands flew over her head to block out the sound of both Clover's screams and the pang of the gunshot.


Getting up from her crouching position, she ran over to Clover's shaking and crying body. Her eyes grazed over the blood, and for a moment she felt nauseous. She then stopped herself. "Calm down... your friend just got shot... by your other friend." She growled in Neo's direction. In a moments time she pulled out the medical contents of her bag, then took out a cloth and pressed it against the wound, applying pressure. Alice pressed her hands firmly against the bullet hole in her foot, comforting Clover to the best of her ability. "It's going to be okay, don't worry," she tried to say calmly.