Andie remembered bits and pieces of her life before she got shot in the head. She remembered how to fly a plane and a Vertibird. She remembered that she was in the NCR. She remembered growing up in the Hub and the NCR. She remembered being in the Mojave, and being a courier. But.. there was something missing. Something big was missing. She couldn’t help but feel that she had forgotten a promise. A big promise at that.
But she remembered it had to do something with Zion. So that's how she ended up here with the Happy Trails Caravan Company with not much more than some supplies and the clothes on her back. She got the call for help on her Pipboy, the one given to her by Doc Mitchell, and decided that she was going to figure out what she forgot. Before she left, she had slipped that small bible into her pocket, which was found on her when she was dug up from her shallow grave.
The caravan was a couple hours out of the canyon, and it was getting colder. It was late winter, but the wasteland was always hot. But not in Zion. While there was no snow, they were at a much higher elevation than the Mojave was. Andie and many others in the caravan were in long coats, gloves, and heavier jeans. Andie herself had added on a hat, vest, and bandana onto her outfit, keeping herself extra warm.
After her… many injuries(?)... that she went through at the Big MT, her body didn’t work quite as well as it used to. Being electrocuted and getting your brain, spine, and heart removed and replaced did quite the number on her. She was more robot than human at this point, but she chose to ignore that. She had gotten her brain and heart back, but her spine was still robotic. The chronic pain she had from that experience as well as being shot in the head was terrible, but it was nothing that she couldn't work through.
The caravan company did recognize this pain that she was in, so she spent most of her time riding on of the brahmin that wasn’t carrying much. She kept an eye out for any raiders or enemies that may be coming from the top of said brahmin. She had quite the rifle with her, a CoS silencer rifle that she had taken from the Big MT. It was the biggest thing she brought with her. Her pack had one other set of clothes, a lot of food, and some water purification items. She also had quite the plethora of medical items, and a ton of Med-X for when her pain got to be too much. All of her ammunition was kept in different holders, like the ones on across her chest, and the bags that were attached to her hips and thighs.
Today was one of the days where she had to take Med-X and had to sit on top of the brahmin. The cold had her spine freezing up, and it was making her scar on her head sear with pain. She was still as alert as possible, as reports showed that there was an uptick in legionary activities near and around Zion Canyon. While she no longer served the NCR, Andie did have quite a few ways of getting information out of them.
Her rifle was hugged to her chest, her finger on the trigger. Her eyes scanned the environment around her. But that unfortunately did not stop the rampage of what look like tribal people from attacking the caravan. The brahmin she was on top of took a couple of shots before it bucked her off, leaving her winded on the ground. Her head had taken a hit on the way down as well, leaving her in and out of consciousness. She couldn’t quite tell if she had taken a hit from a weapon, or if it was just how hard she hit the ground, but it felt like there was some blood on her body.
When she finally regained all of her consciousness, there were a couple of kids looking down at her. They had paint on their faces, and they were wearing some sort of blue-gray clothes. There was a soft voice who shoo’d them away. She was a tanner woman as well, with a shaved head and some feathers that were attached to her neck on a necklace. She helped Andie sit up with worried eyes. “I was afraid that you would not wake up. When Follows-Chalk found you, you were passed out with blood all over you. It looked like the White Legs had attacked your caravan.”
“Are there any more of them alive?”
“No.. I’m so sorry. You barely survived. You had some nasty gun holes in you. The others you were with were already dead.”
“Andie. That’s my name. And that truly sucks that they didn’t make it. They were kind people.”
“They were not your friends?” One of the small children asked. Andie looked over to her, and smiled.
“No, I was just a gun for hire. I didn’t know them very well.”
They sat quietly for a moment before someone pushed away the animal pelt that was blocking her off from the rest of the cave.
“Ah, White Bird. Have you come to check up on our Andie?”
The man nodded, and grabbed a couple of salves from a chest to her side. The woman shooed the children out of the room, and went to help Andie take off her clothes. She unwrapped the bandages on her head and back.
“If I may ask, what exactly is the damage?”
The man spoke up, applying the salves to her healing wounds, “You hit the back of your head hard. You also landed on a sharp rock, which cut your back up.”
“No. Waking Cloud, Joshua and Daniel have requested to see her. Make sure she is in suitable dressings and clothes and have Follows Chalk help her to their cave,” The man, White Bird, said, standing up from the ground. He obviously was busy and probably had more pressing matters to attend to than a measly caravaner.
Waking Cloud helped her up out of the bed roll, and helped her wrap up her wounds. Andie struggled to get her bra, undershirt, and button up, embarrassingly, but it seemed that Waking Cloud didn’t mind helping her. She left the room after that, stating that she was going to get some food for Andie. Continuing getting dressed, she buttoned up her purple pearl snapped shirt. She tugged on her newer pair of jeans, and slid her boot socks and boots on. She tied a red bandana around her neck in a bow, and slid her belt into its place. And finally, she grabbed her jacket. She wouldn't put it on until she got outside of the cave, not wanting to dirty it up with food.
Waking Cloud and her three children were eating peacefully when Andie joined them. They kept quite through the meal, being some simple fruit and some cooked gecko bits. Their language was somewhat similar to her native language of Spanish, but it sounded like there was German and maybe even French thrown in?
It didn’t matter, because she was soon thrown to the wolves that were Joshua and Daniel. There was one man wrapped in bandages. He was cleaning a pistol. The other was plain looking, and he was reading a book.
“You’re back Andie. It was getting close to the time where I would have assumed you were dead,” the bandaged man spoke, putting the pistol he was cleaning down. Andie looked at him confused. How did he know her?
“And thank the Father that you are back Andie. We are in need of your help more than ever,” the plain one spoke, closing his book. It was the Bible he was reading. So they were religious, similar to Andie.
Andie looked at the bandaged one again. From what little skin she could see, it was burned. He must be the forsaken Burned One that Vulpes spoke about in Nipton. But that didn’t explain how these people knew about her. Andie took her cowboy hat off, holding it in her hands. Why in the world would she as a NCR Airman know the Burned Man so well that they called each other by their names?
“Is there something wrong Andie?” The Burned Man questioned, standing up from his seat. Andie took a step back from him.
“You are the Burned Man. I am not sure how I know you. I have never met you, and surely I wouldn’t have gotten to know the enemy?”
Joshua sighed. He had heard on a radio that a courier had been shot in the head and miraculously survived. He had prayed that the good Lord would have made sure it wasn’t Andie, but alas she didn’t remember him. The person that he had called his closest friend for… well he didn’t even know how long now didn’t remember him. He watched as she pushed her bangs away from her face and that's where he saw it. That pink scar on her head. It only confirmed his suspicions.
“Ah. I had prayed that it wasn’t so. Maybe this would spark a memory or two?” Andie watched with bated breath as he pulled something from the inside of his vest. She assumed that maybe it was a gun, and that he was going to kill her. But it wasn’t. It was a rosary. Her rosary. The one her mother gave her before she left for the Mojave campaign.
“I thought I.. I thought I had lost that. Mí mamá had given me that-”
“Yes, as a promise to return to her.”
“And.. before she joined papá in heaven, she said to do the same with the person I loved.”
“We always traded something too. I gave her… Well I don’t remember right now. But I know it was something important?”
“Yes. I gave you my scripture.”
Andie reached into her coat, grabbing the scripture. She knew it wasn’t hers, after all she was Catholic, but she didn’t know whose it was. There were few Mormons in the Mojave, and those that she asked told her that it wasn’t theirs. So it must be his. But that didn’t explain how she was friends? With the enemy.
The Burned Man held his hand out, the rosary hanging off of it. Andie slowly grabbed it, and she slid his book back into his hands. Their hands brushed for just a beat, but that was enough for Andie to have to grab her head. This always happened when she would remember something from before she got shot, so she was no stranger to it. But it did suck that it was around someone that she considered an enemy. Especially with how she was going to pass out very soon.
“I would love to continue our conversation, however could we put it on pause? I need to lie down before I hit the ground. Don’t wanna scare a potential friend by passing out on you.”
The plain looking man shot up with a look of concern. While Daniel was no doctor, he knew that whatever was happening wasn’t normal. He personally had never met Andie, only hearing stories from Joshua. From what he heard, she was a very strong woman. She had survived a Vertibird crash after a legionary shot it down. She had pretty much nursed him back to health as best as she could after searching for him for months in the Grand Canyon. Hell, she was a high ranking officer in the NCR’s Air Force. She had survived a couple of assasination attempts.
Before they could get her to a bed roll, her eyes rolled back into her skull, and she passed out. Joshua managed to catch her before she hit the ground.