An empty syringe was thrown to the ground, and the man in pain finally stopped.

"50 caps." Alexandra held out her hand to Andy.

"Don't think that this is the price I sit on the ground, this barren mountain and wild mountain can supply hemp boiling-x is good." Andy happily gave her the bottle cap, and then walked over to the man whose face had become soothed again, and he wanted to ask Jericho what kind of town it was.

"It's all right, let's talk about it, don't waste my time." The man paused for a moment, and finally began to speak, urged to speak.

"I.... My name is Ivan, a native of Jericho, or a former Jericho.... That place was really scary, and I can't go back to it now. Alexandra sneered.

"Who told you to steal." Ivan's cheeks twitched a few times, and he continued with difficulty.

"I.... I'll admit I did steal from a man, but it was just a bit of food, I.... I wasn't born for manual labor at all, I couldn't do those hard jobs. And my parents who abandoned me didn't leave me half a bottle cap, even if I wanted to do a small business, I didn't have the capital, and I felt terrible if I went outside to live that kind of work with my head and pants belt, so.... I've got to figure out a way to live, don't I? Alexandra's face was full of disdain.

"You waste, if you don't have the ability to live well in this world, you might as well hurry up and run to those mutant lizards and give them your useless skins, so that they can grow the lizard skins I need faster." Ivan kept his head down, and Andy glanced at Alexandra with a slight sigh before trying to extend the conversation.

"So, it looks like you were caught stealing, and they branded your hands? After that, what punishment did you suffer? Hearing this, Ivan's face suddenly showed a bitter and hateful expression.

"Oh my God, sir, you outsiders can't have imagined it, God.... I've been caught by the police in New California before, but they just locked me up or told me to hand over the stolen goods to compensate the owner. But in this hellish town, even if you commit a small crime, you will be called as a slave once you are caught. Andy couldn't help frowning when he heard this, because of the cultural background, most NcR people are naturally hostile to the slavery system, and it can even be said that the NcR's national construction and ideological establishment are based on the abolitionist movement of the Rangers, so the views on this matter have always run through Andy's approach.

When he heard that the man in front of him, Ivan, was also from New California and was enslaved in Jericho for committing a petty crime, his first impression of Jericho couldn't help but start to deteriorate.

Perhaps criminals should indeed be punished, but if the law is enforced indiscriminately and excessively, wouldn't it be no different from arresting slaves?

But before he could jump to any conclusions, Andy knew he needed to know more details.

"So, what are you doing in Jericho after you've been captured and taken as a slave?" Ivan immediately began to complain, tears glistening in his eyes as he spoke.

"It's miserable, it's really miserable.... You can't imagine or believe how miserable it is to work there, there's a desalination plant in Jericho, and all those who are deemed to have transgressed the town's laws are forcibly requisitioned as what they call 'laborers', when in fact they are all slaves, and we are driven in like cattle, pumping water from the great salt lake out of the wells day and night, and sending that coal into the boiler to drive the desalination machines to work..."

"We don't eat well, we don't sleep well, many people get sick, all kinds of strange diseases, and people are destined to die in that factory sooner or later." When Andy heard this, he felt disgusted with the rulers of Jericho, who presumably wanted to make enough profits, so he reduced all the people he considered criminals to slaves, and controlled them to work in the factory for long periods of time without pay until they died because of the poor working conditions and the extreme intensity of their work.

Thinking, he looked at Ivan in front of him, since this person has not become the body of the saltwater desalination plant now, he must have escaped, presumably this kind of behavior will be tolerated by the people in power there, so he said that he will never go back to Jericho Town.

"So how did you escape?" Ivan wiped tears from his face and began to recount his escape.

"I worked in the factory for several months, and the hard labor there almost destroyed me, and I saw with my own eyes that people were silently poured into the stagnant water and then thrown into the boiler like a lump of garbage mixed with coal and burned to ashes..... Sergeant O'Connor, the liar, initially tricked us into saying that we would only need to work in the factory until the end of our sentence to be acquitted, but that was not possible, and we would die inside before the time was completely over. ”

"I didn't want to die, so I kept looking for an opportunity to escape. Then I finally found an opportunity, and one of the guards who was guarding us that night said he was going to find a girl to 'rest', but he was just going to Anson's to find a bitch to vent. But I knew it was my only opportunity, so I found an opportunity to get out of the factory, where there was a two-headed ox cart loaded with clean water. ”

"Then I found a barrel and hid in it, mixed it in the cargo and went out of Jericho with the caravan... On the way, I heard them say that they were going to a place called the abandoned fortress, and I had planned to use their car all the way to that new place to make a living, but the road was farther than I thought, and I had to go out to the toilet because of the urgency of urine, and they found out. ”

"They pulled out their guns and asked me who I was, and after I did, they decided to take me back to Jericho because they didn't want to offend Sheriff O'Connor, but I knew that if I were sent back, that bastard O'Connor would hang me on the gallows in the center of town, as he had done when this had happened."

"I had to try to run away again, and they hit me in the leg, and I ran all the way..... He wasn't saved until he met this lady, but... Oh, it just so happens that I haven't used medicine for too long at this time, so..."Andy listened to Ivan's rambling description, and had some new preliminary understanding of the town of Jericho, which could be described as a relatively chaotic settlement, where slaves, drugs, prostitutes, and other industries that were generally completely banned or partially suppressed in the west were probably more prosperous.

Jericho's well-known wasteland's low-priced, high-quality purified water is contaminated with so much blood during the production process, no wonder it is so inexpensive.... Ironically, one of Andy's reasons for coming here was to negotiate with them about the clean water trade, and the Hoover Dam was in dire need of cheap clean water.

"That..?" Andy's musings are interrupted by Ivan's inquiry.

"Excuse me, where is the abandoned fortress? I can't go back anymore and want to go there and see it. "I glanced at poor Ivan, whose palms and arms were full of calluses and scars, some of which looked like they were the result of intense labor, and some of which looked like burns; In addition to the gunshot wound on his leg, the unnatural swelling and strange bite marks from the long-term soaking of sewage can be seen on the calves and feet exposed by the broken trousers.

The bite mark looked familiar, but Andy couldn't figure out why he thought it was the way he did.

"You walk southeast for a few days, and when you see the railroad, you just keep following it." Throwing him some food and water at will, Ivan's grace and grace Sheri Andy waved his hand to signal him to leave quickly, and in a short time the staggering figure walked away.

Alexandra was about to turn around and leave, but was stopped by Andy.

"Hey, don't be in such a hurry. I've got a trip to Jericho town, and there may be some places to go in the future, and you know I've got a car with a big place on it, and it's more than enough to take another person. Well.... I need a competent helper, I thought you were very unusual before, how about it? Can you think about it? The blonde woman in the cowboy hat and leather jacket turned her head and grinned questioningly.

"Didn't you hear me say that I had been offered a job from a boss? And, you'd better be clear about what the word 'capable' means? If you think I'm the kind of woman who insults me like that, I'm going to treat you to a bullet. Andy thought for a moment and began to quote.

"I just think you're cool and good for being a bodyguard.... You see, if you were hired, and how about 500 bottle caps, including the loss of that life before you gave up? Alexandra narrowed her eyes, as if she had moved, but finally refused.

"It's not enough, it's about the same price for a trip to the caravan as a guard, and the place you're going to is Jericho, so it's even more expensive." Andy looked at her strangely.

"What do you mean? Is there anything special about Jericho to you? Or do you think it's too dangerous? Alexandra scoffed, seemingly dismissive of Andy's question.

"You don't ask about this, and I don't want to answer you anything, as for whether it's dangerous there? As far as I know, it's just a rotten pit inhabited by a bunch of rotten people, and it's not dangerous, but it's disgusting. Andy scratched his head and couldn't figure out what the woman was thinking, but anyway the price increase was right.

"What about 650 caps?" Alexandra hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Deal, but say in advance, first, don't think that I will do things beyond my ability or against my will, and second, this price does not mean that I will sell it to you in my lifetime, I will adjust the amount of remuneration appropriately according to the work process and working hours, and you must not try to repay the account when the time comes." After the negotiation, Alexandra joined Andy's team, she seemed to have no problem with Otto, but at first she was curious about the gadgets that were stuck everywhere on Otto's body, but it didn't take long for her to fall silent, sitting in the atomic Humvee either closing her eyes or wiping her gun.

Although at least she looked very eye-catching, she seemed to be uninterested in chatting, and the woman always seemed to be wary and preoccupied.

The car continued to drive northwest, and Andy thought he would probably be a little behind Simon's group, but that didn't matter, he didn't want to hang out with the gang anyway.

On the way, as we got closer to the largest water producer in the region, more and more caravans began to appear on the road, those two-headed oxen with red skin pulled carts, carrying several large heavy boxes, or had just come out of Jericho Town to transport water to other places, or were about to enter Jericho Town.

Just by looking at the number of caravans coming in and out of the town, you can understand that the state of Jericho Town is relatively prosperous.

Some people stop and watch because they see unusual cars, while others turn a blind eye and only have their precious goods in their hearts.

The rough road seriously affected the speed of the car, and judging by the surrounding environment, even before the war, it was not a place of prosperity, and I am afraid that it was a remote and isolated place at that time.

When the car finally bumped to the vicinity of Jericho, Andy couldn't help but be slightly surprised by the strange sight in front of him.

Jericho is not a small settlement of humble or pre-war buildings built on a small plot of flat land, but rather a relatively open flat land that occupies only a small corner of the area.

On the land beyond the town of Jericho stands the remains of a large number of ruins, some of which look quite old, and seem to be the last vestiges of the high-rise buildings before the war, which were destroyed by the aftermath of the nuclear bomb explosion at the outbreak of the war, and which have survived for more than a hundred years; But there are others that don't, and the buildings don't look like they've been built very long, but they've also been destroyed, with scorched black marks left behind by the flames.

The greatest manifestation of this is on the east side of the town of Jericho, where there is a ruined wall that is longer than the town of Jericho, and apparently once the walls of a larger urban settlement.

But now the walls have been destroyed, some have collapsed, some have been charred, and they can no longer do anything.

All of this points to the fact that the so-called town of Jericho is actually a small settlement built on the site of a larger settlement.

And this once existed large settlement, which may have been destroyed not long ago. Otto looked around in the car, his mouth exclaiming from time to time.

"Ogden, how did it become what it is today... Jericho? Sure enough, the name is taken from the saltwater desalination plant..."Alexandra stared at the slender fence that still stood east of Jericho, her eyes flashing with a complicated light, and she involuntarily clenched her fists, and the emotions in those eyes seemed to be hatred and sadness.