TWO YEARS AGO
He was always looking for work, never stopping to rest in one spot for too long. At the same time, while he'd grimace and curse whenever things got rough, he was always eager to keep on moving, but I never saw more than just a young man looking to help out the less fortunate. Maybe I wouldn't have stayed his companion if he wasn't so altruistic.
But being altruistic and being forgiving are two very different things.
We were investigating a string of disappearances from a NCR refugee camp not far from Westside. Figuring that any shady business going on in that area would inevitably reach there, we searched through a "house of ill repute" if you will, for clues. What we found was a book.
Specifically it was a ledger, revealing that two residents of Westside were kidnapping refugees and selling them as slaves to some of the Fiend leaders.
This disgusted him to no end. I'm not saying that I wasn’t appalled as well, but for a while after that, he wouldn’t even crack a smile. Thankfully, he didn’t take justice into his own hands at that time, but like I said, after turning the two “salesmen” in, it was a good week or so before he eased up. I always knew he was a moral person, but I figured at first that since he had been traveling the Wastes a while, he was used to cruelty like that.
And that’s not even getting into what he did to Cook-Cook.
All of the Fends were vile, certainly, there wasn’t a single member of that group who wasn’t abusing some substance that drove them half mad, but Cook-Cook was the worst of them. As one of the Fiends’ leaders, Cook-Cook was one of the people that the two slavers made business with. The ledger described even their disgust and horror on one occasion, where they sold a few young women and a teenaged boy to Cook-Cook, who, immediately after purchasing them, used a flamer to burn the boy alive while forcing the women to watch.
I think that may have actually been what disturbed him the most. That kind of senseless depravity made him angry, but he never really confided in me. In fact, I don’t remember him talking much at all whenever he was furious like that.
More to the point though, he and I had gotten word that there were bounties on the four Fiend leaders, Violet, Driver Nephi, Motor-Runner, and, of course, Cook-Cook. The first three were bad enough, Violet was arguably the most hopped up on chems out of all of them, and spent most of her time training vicious hounds to protect herself. Driver Nephi, we didn’t really know much about, just that he beat most of his opponents to death with a golf driver, earning him his title. Motor-Runner was actually almost amicable, although that’s just what I was told. The Courier went in alone to take him out, under the guise of selling them chems. But like I said, none of them could compare to Cook-Cook. Not only was he a sadist, but he also snuck up on an NCR sniper sent to take him out and took her by surprise, having his way with her. We actually met up with her, and, although she tried to play it off as no big deal, he was able to talk her into finding an associate of the Followers in order to get counseling in order to better deal with the trauma . With how gentle he was at that point, I was put at ease the night before we went after Cook-Cook, so what occurred the next day likely came as an even bigger shock to me than it could have been.
There was another bounty hunter who bailed out on the job to kill Cook-Cook, but had done a little information gathering on the man. He told us that there was one being that Cook-Cook actually held dear to his heart. Apparently he had a Brahmin named Queenie that he genuinely loved, and suggested that if something were to happen to her, he’d go on a rampage and be an easier target while blinded with grief and rage.
So, with this knowledge, we set out to find and claim the last bounty the evening after talking with the last hunter. Throughout all of it, I thankfully didn’t do much of the killing, and although violence and death, whether or not the victims “deserve” it, for profit isn’t exactly a career I support, I still believed that, this being the Wasteland, we were still doing some kind of good, even if the means were iffy.
But this still didn’t prepare me for what happened that day.
Like I said, we were going out to kill Cook-Cook, and I can still remember the only thing he said to me that day verbatim. Hiding behind some rubble, a stone’s throw away from Cook-Cook, a group of Fiends surrounding him, and of course, Queenie, he told me “Wait here Arcade. You don’t need to be forced into what I’m about to do.”
With that, he snuck away to get to a better spot in order to get the jump on the Fiends, the dark of the night keeping him from being spotted. I waited for a few minutes, before I heard a rifle shot ring out, along with a Brahmin death throe. Immediately after this came the chilling, animalistic screams of anguish and ferocity that obviously had come from Cook-Cook. The sounds of a flamer going off followed this, and then I heard the screams of those who had been targeted by Cook-Cook’s wrath. I thought I had been unnerved just seconds before, but now I was getting disturbed beyond belief. On top of all of this, Cook-Cook was still shrieking about Queenie, and, after the last screams of pain died out from the Fiend grunts who had been scorched, Cook-Cook finally started shouting phrases I could understand. “WHO DID THIS!? WHO FUCKING KILLED HER!? WHO THE FUCK DID IT!? I’LL FIND YOU AND FUCKING BURN YOU BEFORE FUCKING WHATEVER PARTS OF YOU ARE LEFT UNBURNT!”
More rifle shots rang out, and Cook-Cook started shrieking incoherently yet again. At first I thought he had been shot, but I later learned that those shots were deliberately aimed at Queenie’s corpse, except for the last one, which hit the Flamer Cook-Cook was using in such a spot that rendered it useless.
“I’VE GOT ANOTHER JUST LIKE THIS ONE YOU FUCKER!” he screamed, dropping the broken one to the ground, before going after the other one that he spoke of. “AND ANOTHER RIGHT NEXT TO IT! MARK MY FUCKING WORDS, YOU WILL FUCKING BURN!”
At this point, I couldn’t help but stick my head out from the cover and observe. I figured I was far enough away to not be seen, and even then, Cook-Cook was still too enraged to pay much attention to his surroundings to notice me. Thankfully the darkness kept me from getting a very clear view of whatever was left of the Fiends Cook-Cook had burned, but I did see him, with the weapon still attached to his back, pacing furiously. I never saw his face, as it was covered by what looked to be a metal mask, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what it must have looked like while he was in such a state of mind.
At this point, I still hadn’t yet noticed The Courier, and neither had Cook-Cook, so when he made his way behind the maniac, towards the third flamer that he had mentioned, and said, loudly and firmly “How do you think they felt, you sick fuck?”
Cook-Cook, spun around, and with the split second he had to aim, The Courier took another shot, which put this flamer in even worse shape than the first one he had busted.
“YOU FUCKER! YOU CAN’T FUCKING STOP ME! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT ANYWAY!?” Cook-Cook grabbed a nearby 2 by 4 and lunged at The Courier, but this was easily dodged by the much calmer, much more clear headed young man, who used the butt of the rifle to bash Cook-Cook’s leg after he had passed him during the attack.
The psychopath screamed yet again, except now not just due to rage, but due to pain. He fell to the ground, and while he got up relatively quickly, The Courier had bought himself enough time to prepare the last functioning flamer and aim it at Cook-Cook. The Fiend had just enough time to turn around and pause briefly, actually shocked, possibly afraid, before shrieking again and preparing to tackle.
Maybe he wanted to die, or maybe was still just crazy with rage, I don’t know.
The Courier let loose a torrent of flame not more than a couple meters away from Cook-Cook, and promptly dropped the flamer and got a decent distance away from the burning Fiend. With a final bout of screams, which now stemmed from agony as well as rage, Cook-Cook started thrashing about while ablaze, and The Courier watched, before he started shouting himself. “That’s what I mean! Now you know what it’s like to watch something you love die right in front of you, while you’re completely helpless! And now you know what it feels like to be set on fire by someone else for no other reason than the fact that they want to watch you burn!”
Cook-Cook still thrashed for about a full minute after this, and I eventually pulled my head back behind the rubble, unable to take in the sight for much longer. Eventually, the screaming stopped, and The Courier walked back to my position, and I got a better look at his face as we silently made our way back to McCarran.
His clothes were singed, as well as his face, although not bad enough to require much medical attention. His expression was one of anger, determination and, although it disturbs me to say it, satisfaction.