[h2][color=teal]Darlen Hammond[/color][/h2]

  ((Exiting Novac))
  Darlen had remained in good shape during the trek to Novac, and his endurance hadn't faltered. He relayed what he had seen to the NCR patrol, and they mentioned Craig Boone to him. Darlen hadn't heard of the man: or the name of any NCR higher operative for that matter. In any case, since the NCR was failing to take action all over the wasteland as the Mohave deteriorated, Darlen figured he could safely rule them as irrelevant. It was nice to see that Novac wasn't being turned into a bloodbath by child slavers. At least there was some good being brought by another military presence than the Legion in the Mohave. But Darlen didn't imagine that his sister would be safe in this town, when it seemed to be next on the block after Nipton. He had to get Chloe further from land where men filled each other with lead in acts of petty dominance. So unless Craig Boone had words for him explicitly, he was going to be on the road again. He bought food and water from the NCR squad leader, in addition to what the man had given in kindness to his sister. Darlen watched her eat a well-preserved steak in the desert moonlight. He guessed that after two years she would have many questions for him, but for now tears streaked her face and patted into the sand. It would take a long time for either of them to fully adjust to what had happened at Nipton.

  But as Darlen had learned, in the Mohave and in many places both far and strange. It was a world of killers. If his sister was going to be truly safe, she had to be able to guard herself. And that meant becoming one, too.

  He readied himself for the road, and took his sister by the shoulders. Was this really the first night of my return? Darlen thought. It feels like the sun couldn't possibly wish to rise on a land so barren and broken as the Mohave. But Chloe knew nowhere else. Darlen was soon to ponder whether that should change, before the sands covered both of them like a funeral shroud.