Acta non Verba - Ch 3

Chapter 3

Acta non Verba -or- Actions, not words.

(Apologies for this taking so long. This is probably the 15th version of this and it still doesn't feel that right but you know? Sometimes you just have to say fudge it and move on. THIS was blocking me so, I'm posting and moving on. If it's short, do forgive.)


If there was one thing Terra liked to do, it was to play cat and mouse. She'd had enough training over the long months of doing just that with various Fiends, beasts and other such entities. It added to the thrill which did much to quench the dullness the Mojave offered at times.

For quite a few weeks now, she had been playing a good game with Vulpes Inculta, staying a few steps ahead while toying with him any way she could think of. The Mojave was huge, yes, but there really was only a few places she could think of that would allow the Frumentarian to follow her and still pick up her trail were he to lose it.

It was growing late into the afternoon, that time when the desert was starting to come down from its sweltering heat and get into its cooling down period. Nights in the Mojave could get cold - a shocking opposite to the daytime. Terra wanted to get some place where she could bunk down for the night and still remain out of Vulpes' sights. He wasn't going to find her until she was ready.

If ever.

Terra knew if he were to catch up with her, he'd not let her go. The girl definitely wasn't stupid. She may have been shot in the head by Benny but her marbles were intact. The Legion wasn't a group to mess with. Everyone knew if they enslaved you, that was it. The only freedom one would get would be via death. The fact Vulpes had let her go was something no one would believe. However, the fact that he WAS on her tail was very much real and just as deadly. The man knew more about the desert than she did, if she was to take things into a serious consideration of fact. All Terra could do was hope that she could remain one step ahead of him.

She rounded a pile of boulders against a huge cliff and paused dead in her tracks, hand moving to pull out a hand grenade. Crouching down, she moved  slowly forward, keeping the bushes at the base of the rocks as her cover, as she kept eyes on the group of Fiends ahead. Without dropping her eyes from them, she slowly pulled her 12.7 mm out while simultaneously bringing the grenade to her mouth. Squeezing the handle, Terra pulled the pin free and rose, thankful the setting sun was behind her, at the perfect level to hopefully blind the Fiends if they happened to look. Bringing her arm back, she let the grenade fly and hunkered down, bracing for the blast to follow.

The roar of the explosion shook the ground, sent body parts flying up into the air and also sent a Fiend limp-running past Terra's spot. She surveyed the damage ahead, noted all the hostiles were either dead or very close to, and turned, following the injured Fiend. He was limping pretty badly, his calf having been almost destroyed. How he was able to hold himself up was a puzzler but Terra didn't care. The only good Fiend was a dead Fiend and he could have valuables on his person. Even so, he had a pretty nice looking blade in his hand as he kept his eyes out for the attacker. Raising her pistol, the girl cocked it and shot the mans wrist, causing him to instantly drop the knife and fall to his knees.

She stepped up behind him, barrel against the back of his head where his spinal cord fit into his skull and grinned. "Today's not the best day, is it?"

"Fuck you, bitch..." The Fiend got out despite his obvious pain and, no doubt mentally fried up on chems, he whirled around to grab her - and got a bullet point blank in his face.

"Ew." Terra got out as she wiped brain matter and blood off her face while kicking his body backwards. Holstering her weapon, she knelt and searched his body, turning up her nose at the stench. 'What is it with Fiends and how they reek?' She mused to herself as she pocketed about 21 caps and some radroach meat. Figuring it had to be chem use that contributed, she finally rose after collecting her bounty and pulled out her dagger, proceeding to leave her 'calling card' for the pursuing Frumentarian.


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Vulpes had waited the full hour as he'd promised the girl and had finally set out with his men, content with the knowledge that he'd have her as his own either by the end of the night or within a few short days. No one knew the Mojave like he did and he had enough scouts out who could easily inform him of her whereabouts.

As soon as the group was free of the Fort, Vulpes sent a few of his men to the West, some to the South and he headed North-West with three of his men to cover the outer outlying areas around New Vegas and the city itself. That was his territory, after all and no one knew it like he did.

About an hour into the hunt, Vulpes and his men came across a dead Wastelander which made the lot stand and stare for a while. Under normal circumstances, no one could tell who killed anyone in the Mojave, unless they had a special bullet or lied them out in a certain way every time. Most people just shot and kept going, leaving a body crumpled where it fell and most of the time was ransacked for goods and valuables.

Whoever killed this wastelander had slashed his throat and had placed the body with the legs straight and the arms out to either side so they formed a cross.

"Interesting..." Vulpes mused, eyes narrowing as he took in the scene before him. The symbolicism didn't escape him whatsoever and he let his eyes move across the horizon, searching for something that wasn't there. Finally he nodded to his men, "Let's move. Pick up the pace."

As they walked, Caesar's finest Frumentarian had thought to himself. True, he'd never seen anything like it before - save what the Legion itself did to its victims - but there was one fact about it all: it was purposefully done. Even if animals had fed off it, there was no way the body would assume that position on its own.

Deciding to take the advantage of covering more ground quicker, the man ran his Explorers hard, only stopping to get a few hours rest before moving on. Vulpes noticed as they went that the bodies in cross form were showing up more and more. He was sure of who was doing it. The crucifixion was a Legion trademark but none of his men would crucify someone on the ground or by slicing their necks open. The current body Vulpes was kneeling by had perked him up even more; this one had been disembowled and the intestines were marking a very obvious arrow pointing ahead of them.

Letting a little smile grace his lips, Vulpes bent the corpse's fingers, trying each joint. He then touched the blood and played with it between his fingers before rising. "The girl was here about two to six hours ago. The consistency of the blood is very telling as is the pliability and warmth of the corpse. It's just starting the rigor mortis stage right now. We move and move hard. She's playing a good game right now... baiting me like this. Almost makes me think she wants to be caught." They started off at a hard pace, Vulpes intent on catching the girl, and he thought to himself, "Playing a good game, Courier. A good game indeed. You have no idea what you're waking up deep within me, none at all."

With a frightening grin, the Frumentarian walked on, now more determined than ever.