Steel Waste

The men in blue prison uniforms with "NCR" written on them approached Afton, some looked angry, some impressed, and one looked non-plussed.

One of the angry ones step forward and give Afton a shove, "What the fuck was that man! You tryin' to get us all killed? Draggin' one of those fucking things over here, I should just put a bullet in your head and let it get what it wanted!" he exclaims, fingering something in his pocket.​​

The man had short messy hair that looked as if it were cut in a knife fight, his skin was tanned and his face had many scars, most looking to be from shrapnel from what Afton could infer.

Afton stands his ground and straightens his posture, "What do you want me to do? A Deathclaw comes outta nowhere and cuts my gun in half, you'd do the same in my position." he says, pointing at the man.

"Boy you better watch your damn mouth or I'll-" he's interrupted as someone else steps in.

"Quiet! Both of you, Tommy, you better get that temper in check or you'll find yourself headless at the side of the road." he states before turning to Afton, "And you boy, someone like you who'd put your life ahead of others?... I think you'd suit our group well." he says semi-sarcastically.

The bearded man with grey hair seemed to appraise Afton for a moment before nodding, "I ain't never seen someone get close enough to smell one o' those things breaths and live to tell about it... Well, how was it?"

"Deafening" he jokes, not having managed to get a whiff of the Deathclaw's breath as he was getting chased.

The man chuckles, "How 'bout you come with us, looks like you could use a place to stay the night... Just make sure you don't bring anymore Deathclaws wit' ya." the others look at each other warily as they hadn't expected to take Afton in.

Afton slowly nods, there wasn't really anything else he could do, he didn't have anything that would be of value to them so he was safe on that count. Not to mention he didn't have a weapon anymore, so wandering around here alone would basically be a death sentence.

He could hear the other men whispering to each other, making guesses as to where Afton had come from and his intentions were.

He was relieved as they started walking the opposite direction of where the Deathclaw had come from, he glanced to the older man who'd defused the situation earlier, "What's your name?"

"Karl Martin, and you?"

Afton wonders momentarily if he should give his real name... He knew for a fact that no one apart from the Brotherhood would know him, so he decided to just go with it. "Afton Parker."

The man nods, "Pleasure to meet you son... I've been meanin' to ask, but what's with the get-up?" he asks, referring to the Recon armour he was wearing.

Afton shrugs, "Just some leather clothes I strapped metal too... I'm good at repairing stuff so it was pretty easy to cobble together." he lies, even if he was good at repairs, the armour was too symmetrical to be cobbled together, though, the old man doesn't seem to notice. "And you?" he asks.

The old man lightly tugs on the collar of the blue jacket he was wearing and shrugs, "Depends, how you feel about the NCR?", upon asking this question all the eyes of the group focussed on Afton.

Afton wasn't stupid, he could tell they had something against the NCR so he just gave his actual opinion, "They're a bunch of assholes who'll do anything to achieve their goals. Fuckers killed my parents." he spits, getting satisfied nods from the group.

"Hm, sorry to hear that. You'll find that most folks in our... Group, have had bad experiences with the NCR, we understand how you feel." he says as they finally reach a camp, one of the group already lighting a campfire.

Afton sits on the sand next to it, the desert might be blisteringly hot in the day, but it could get terribly cold when the sunsets. There was a ruined car attached to a caravan nearby, this was probably where the guys slept... Sleeping on the sand would probably be dangerous, considering all the incredibly poisonous insects that are out and about.

Tommy, the guy who was trying to start trouble earlier eyes him, "So where you from kid? Can't be too smart if you wander into Deathclaw territory alone."

Afton shrugs, "I was kicked out of my home, got caught stealing something and had to run."

Tommy snorts, "Yeah, I hear that. Left my home the same way, parents dogged me into the man and had me sent to prison... Fuckers."

"So... What're you guys doing out here?" he asks.

"Oh, youknow, just roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories." one of the other guys say sarcastically.

Karl just shakes his head, "We're... Making sure to collect 'tolls' from any NCR traders coming through, though, the Deathclaws have made this route almost impassable, might have to move shop soon."

Afton had a lot of apprehensions at dealing with what basically amounted to raiders, but his hatred for the NCR made the idea of joining their gang or whatever significantly easier... He wouldn't mind getting his pound of flesh for what they'd done to his family, doesn't matter if he couldn't get the real people responsible, as long as he hurt the NCR as a whole. "Think I could help? Anything that hurts the NCR I want in."

Karl nods, "I pegged you as the sort, yeah, once we get back to base I'll ask for ya..."

Tommy sends at glare at him as he accepts though, "Karl, do you really think you can start accepting people without Eddie's approval?" he quickly asks.

"Half our numbers left after escaping Tommy, if we don't get some fresh blood the NCR'll eventually overwhelm us... Trust me, I know what I'm talking about." Karl explains, forcing the reluctant Tommy to agree.