A Day in a Casino

BANG!

The smoke stayed there in the air for a second, lifting slowly out of the barrel of the 9mm pistol, before disappearing into thin air.

And once again, the casino was completely silent.

Roy kicked his legs a bit back and forth, resting the 9mm on his thigh, looking at the dead gambler, lying facedown, her body sprawled across the carpeted floor.

"That all of them?" he asked.

"Yeah," Boone said stonily. Sometimes Roy wondered whether or not Boone would eventually shoot him in the back. He didn't seem to ever show any emotion, he just shot what Roy told him to. Gamblers, cashiers, geckos, raiders, ghouls, anything that could be a threat.

Roy sighed, standing up off of the blackjack table where he'd been sitting, his feet landing on the chest of the dead dealer. Roy stepped down off of him and walked over to the dead lady. She was wearing a dress, and a veil over her face as if she was a widow. Blood seeped out of the gunshot wound in the middle of her back. She was completely still, completely silent, just like everything else in this casino.

Roy sighed again, turning around and looking at Boone. The sniper sat on a roulette table, staring down at the ground blankly.

"I'm going to the courtyard," Roy said.

"Fine by me," the sniper replied.

Roy stared at him for a few more seconds. He wondered if he should just kill the man, before he could kill him. After all, he made him nervous as hell. He could always recruit someone else. Then again, it was good to have someone who didn't have much of a conscience. Someone who thought Roy was evil probably was more even more likely than Boone was to shoot him in the back.

Roy headed off to the courtyard, leaving the sniper sitting there silently, stepping over bodies as he walked across the casino.

Similar to the rest of the casino, bodies were sprawled about the courtyard, all silent, unmoving, holes in their heads, or their chests, their bellies, their backs. It didn't matter where the bullets had hit, as long as they were dead, they had no use for their caps.

Roy sat down in front of the steps leading into the pool, his feet dipping into the water. He crossed his arms across his knees, and rested his head on his forearm, looking at the blue water.

It was so silent. Not a single word, no laughs as people splashed about in the pool, no grunts and burps as drunks collapsed into the water. Completely silent.

What would be waiting for him outside? What would happen when he left the casino? There was no way he could just waltz right out of here, completely forgiven for killing dozens of people in cold blood. Would he be able to handle whoever was waiting for him out there? He'd handled everybody in here, in the mighty Tops Casino. Could he handle the entire Strip? Just him and Boone?

The NCR would probably be waiting for him out there. Who would Boone side with, the people he'd been working with all his life, or some psycho on a killing spree? Either way, it'd probably be the end of Boone. If he sided with the NCR and killed Roy, the NCR still wouldn't forgive him for helping kill all those innocent people. If he sided with Roy and sided with Roy, they'd still probably be outnumbered. So now what? More important, then what? Roy had killed dozens of people, dozens of innocent people, nice people, kind people, people who would even save him from a fire after what he'd done. So what'd be there for him after he died? After he was still, silent, unmoving, like all the people around him? He supposed he could go up to the Presidential Suite Benny had given him the key to before he'd killed him, too, and wait for the NCR to barge in here on there own. There was enough food in the fridge to last him for a while, if he just ate a bit at a time.

Roy sighed again. Now was the time to pray, if there ever was a time. So the question was, to who? He'd heard about this one religion, Christ-ianity or something. Sounded nice, some God who loved everybody, was completely peaceful.

Completely peaceful. How'd somebody like that, somebody who loved everybody, who loved peace, who tried to get everybody to get along, like somebody like Roy? A guy who was a mass murderer, who didn't give a shit about people, thought the world all depended on caps. He was supposed to love everybody, but love somebody like Roy? How did it make sense, if He loved peace, too? He was supposed to be really forgiving, more forgiving than any of the other religions Roy had heard about, and that was what he needed right now. Forgiving.

Roy put the 9mm down on the concrete and looked up at the sky.

"So," he said aloud, and rubbed his face.

"I, uh, I, yeah, um, uh," Roy said. He held his face in his hands for a second, then looked up again, running his hands down the side of his face as he lifted his head. He straightened his back for a second, stretching out, then rested his chin in his palm, thinking about what to say. What was he supposed to say, "Yeah, sorry about killing a bunch of guys and gals, forgive and forget, huh?"

Roy looked back up at the sky and said, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, that-that's all I can think of."

Roy stood up, groaning and stretching his bones. He walked back inside. Boone was still sitting in the same place, looking down at the ground.

Roy stood and thought for a moment, then said, "Hey, let's get out of here."

The sniper looked over at him. "Alright," he said, and got of the roulette table, then walked over to Roy.

The two walked over to the entrance room of the casino, where they check for weapons.

Roy paused a moment, then pushed the doors to the outside open and exited the casino.

The light blinded him for a few seconds. He covered his eyes, and there they were. Twenty or thirty NCR soldiers, all with their rifles and shotguns pointed straight at the two murderers.

Roy knew it was pointless, but he raised his gun anyway. Before he could pull the trigger, or Boone could pull out his rifle, the sound of thirty or so rifles and shotguns blasting off at the same two targets filled the air. When the noise and the soldiers calmed down, the two men were another two dead, unmoving, still, silent bodies, their blood splattered across the wall.