26The New West
Beginnings
It's really hard to think about how you were when you were a kid because life changes all around you, as well as the people in it. You just develop into who you are and what you stand for without even really noticing it or experiencing any sort of grand event. I had nothing but good memories about my childhood and grew up believing in good and evil until I felt the fire. I felt it burn me away but didn't truly understand its effects until many years later. That fire made me eventually realize that there was no true good and evil; there was no black and white to morality. Though the two extremes did exist; there is a giant space of gray in the middle between them. Some say I am evil, and some say that I am good, but my past will hopefully show that I am simply: Nothing. I was in the black as well as the white, but ultimately; I believe I ended up in the gray… All that depends entirely upon who you ask.
I was what everybody in the wasteland might call, a drifter. I was never in a single place for more than maybe a week or two. I drank in bars, saloons, and brothels, ran odd jobs for people, helped look tough for trade caravans across the deserts, and got myself into more than my fair share of trouble. Whether it was the use of chems, liquor, or cards, I somehow managed to get myself into a bad situation if I stayed in one place for too long. Though I believe that fact could be said for most people in the wastes. I roamed the wasteland for a long time, only calling this planet my home. I wasn't always that way though, and I wasn't born into that kind of existence. I talked about my childhood and the fire for a reason…
I was born in the year 2234 on a brahmin ranch north of that dead and vacant city known by people of the southern California wastes as: The Necropolis. Our family homestead was north of those ruins and a bit northeast of the Hub which everyone knows was a sprawling city of commerce that came to prominence in the early years after the bombs of 2077. So, the ranch was our home; it was just Ma, Pa, my older brother Bill, and my baby sister Abilene. I was the middle child, so I had to do most of the ranch work with Pa while Bill always stood watch for raiders or other troublemakers. Sometimes Bill helped out around the ranch, but mostly it was just Pa and I while Ma raised little Abilene.
It's hard to remember exactly who my brother was since it had been so long. But, from what little I can remember, Bill was the best big brother anyone could really ask for. My difficulty remembering his characteristics was replaced by what he taught me and all the little lessons that helped me survive over the years. Bill taught me everything from scavenging the desert ruins, how to find food, water, what had value to different types of people, and even how to shoot. When he wasn't on watch, and when me and Pa's workday came to an end; he and I played games and roped brahmin. I remember when I was a little guy, he used to read stories to me by the lantern light about travelers and heroes of the wasteland. He had a way with words and a certain emphasis in his story telling that made wasteland legends come to life as I drifted off to sleep.
Ma and Pa were the greatest. At the time, I never really thought about how lucky I was to have parents and a loving family even though I knew the world outside was so dangerous. Ma was always there, teaching me and my siblings how to read and write or giving little lessons about historical events. I don't know where Ma got all the knowledge she had, but she always talked about living near the L.A. Boneyard long before I was born. How Ma got to settle down with a barely literate rancher north of the Hub, I'll never know. So, she was always looking out for us and sharing her loving embrace when one of us kids got hurt by a wasteland critter or just by dealing with the ranch life. Ma was a very lively and well-educated woman, but Pa was the typical quiet and stern rancher man. He was just that kind of person. He loved all of us dearly and showed me just about every other thing I know. Whether it was running the ranch when he was out, or how to dust myself off after taking a beating; Pa was a great man. Ranch life went on simple as could be for most of my childhood, but on occasion, he would take us all to the Hub to experience the big city. After hiring a mercenary or two to guard the ranch, Bill and I would load up our goods to sell in town and the whole family left going southbound. We weren't rich by any means, but offering wasteland guns-for-hire free access to our food stores and liquor cabinet was as good a payment as any.
Then there was little Abilene, and she was the baby. When I was 13, she was 7 and Ma and Pa treated her like the little princess she was. However, I have to admit that I did too. Sometimes siblings tend to get envious of all the affection shown to the newest born in a family, but that wasn't the case with Abilene. Even after a long day of back breaking work around the ranch, that little girl waddling over to give me a hug always turned the hardest days around. She made me and Bill little trinkets out of rocks, twigs, and other desert debris, and gave them to us with the most heartwarming, gap-toothed, prideful smile I ever seen even to this day. I tried to make her sweet little gestures up to her. So, whenever I went to town with Pa and Bill, I was sure to use what little cash I had to buy her a nice doll or something. Her eyes would light up like the stars at night after seeing the little toys I'd bring her, and the fact I made her smile would give me one of my own. Abilene and I shared a room and I helped her go to sleep countless nights by retelling one of the stories I heard from Bill or Pa. That little girl woke me up every morning with a soft nudge and that gap-toothed grin looking right at me; she was my best friend in the world. I knew the world out there was unforgiving even at my age, so I guess I loved her so much for her innocence… Something this world was seriously lacking.
I was so blind back then; I never saw all the problems with owning an independent ranch during the Republic's expansion north. The New California Republic or "NCR" was born out of a tiny settlement far to the north called Shady Sands in the late 2100s. They had been swallowing up communities left and right promising stable government, protection, food, and safe roads long before I was even born. So, by the time I was born, we were considered citizens of the NCR since the Hub was only a dozen or so miles to the southwest. The NCR incorporated the Hub long ago, and consisted of several southern California territories known as; states. The NCR's reach went from Shady Sands, far to the north, and all the way to Dayglow, many miles south of us and past the L.A. Boneyard. I had no idea how far their northern expansion had gotten, but by 2248, their military was annexing many territories north of their capital and poured resources into backing a movement of wastelanders going east. Growing up, I thought the NCR were the good guys finally bringing civilization to all of California since the bombs fell all those years ago.
But none of that was relevant to a young kid pressed by the burden of helping his family run a ranch.
