Easy City Downs. They'd stumbled on it after having a few too many beers and deciding to spend the afternoon wandering around looking for trouble. Even though the sun hung low on the horizon and she knew they should head back to Diamond City before nightfall, she couldn't resist taking a closer look. MacCready followed without question. He never seemed reluctant to walk into potential danger.
It took the better part of an hour to scour the grounds and eliminate the raiders and gangsters that had infested the place. When they were done, they carefully picked through the thugs' belongings, stashing any ammo, chems or caps they found. Then they stood in the firelight of a burning barrel of debris, staring at the racetrack as they realized what exactly was going on. It was some kind of… robot race.
The machines paid no heed to their now dead masters as they circled, beeping or occasionally spouting a programed taunt. She wondered if it would ever end, or if they'd keep circling forever.
"As good a use as any for the things, I guess," MacCready said with a shrug.
She nodded in agreement, turning to the southwest. The sun had set more than an hour ago. She was still surprised by how bright the stars and moon were in this world, with so little light pollution to mask their brilliance. She considered the option of heading back to Diamond City in the dark, but knew it was too dangerous.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" MacCready asked.
"That we already pushed our luck by drinking all morning then heading out into the city, guns blazing?"
He gave her a rueful grin. "Ya. Maybe not the best idea ever."
"We can stay here for the night, should be relatively safe," she agreed. She lugged her heavy pack onto her shoulder and headed for the main building.
They found their way upstairs, picking the room farthest from the entrance to set up for the night. She dug through the drawers of a nearby desk that was strewn with debris as MacCready dragged a dirty mattress in from another room.
He tossed it against a wall, then sighed heavily. "This place is depressing."
"It's ok," she replied, "I found alcohol."
He smiled as she offered a bottle of bourbon out to him. He opened it and sniffed the contents, recoiling slightly. He shrugged, then took a deep drink, shuttering at its apparent bitterness. He offered it back to her and she took a swig herself, grimacing as well. Why couldn't any decent bourbon have survived the apocalypse?
"Are you even old enough to drink?" she asked with a smile.
He rolled his eyes. "Come on. Why all the grief about my age?"
"I just can't get over the child mayor thing." Her grin widened as she recalled his drunken tale from this morning of how he became the mayor of Little Lamplight, an all-child community outside of what was once Washington D.C., though now it was apparently referred to as "The Capital Wasteland".
"I never should have told you that." He shook his head. "I knew you'd use that knowledge for evil."
"Young man, I am over two-hundred years old, show some respect to your elders."
"Oh whatever, cryo-woman," he grumbled. She made a disgusted face to indicate her disapproval of the name, but he ignored her and continued. "I know you were married and all that, but you can't be much older than I am."
She let out a sigh and decided to relinquish a bit on badgering the poor guy. "Honestly, we're probably about the same age," she agreed. "I married young, had Shaun right out of the gate, more or less."
"Shotgun wedding, that's what they used to say right?"
She gave him a lopsided grin. "Yes, but… that's not exactly what happened. He was about to be deployed again, and we didn't want to wait till he got back. So we went to the courthouse and got it in writing. I was eighteen at the time."
His face slowly fell blank, and his voice quieted as he grew more serious. "I know he died… ten or so years ago, but to you it must have seemed like almost no time passed, right?"
She nodded slowly. It'd been over five months since she'd thawed out, and at the time she still thought her baby son was out there somewhere and her husband had been killed just moments prior. It had only been a few weeks since she'd discovered the truth — that after she saw Shaun being taken from her and watched her husband brutally murdered — she'd been frozen again for another ten years.
After she got out and the weeks and months passed, she thought it would get better, that she would gain some relief from being able to take action, to find her husband's murderer and avenge his death, to find out what really happened to Shaun. But in truth, she felt just as powerless now as she had when she was trapped in that pod, pounding on the glass and begging them not to take his life.
"I'm sorry," MacCready said softly. "It must have been hard to lose him like that."
"Thanks…" she said, trying not to sound skeptical. She hadn't quite been able to figure MacCready out yet, but he was rarely serious with her. She didn't sense an ulterior motive for his sentiment however, so for now, she would take it at face value.
A nearby beep startled them both, and they raised their guns toward the desk. After a few seconds of silence, they exchanged an apprehensive look before stepping toward it. MacCready kept his weapon up as she lowered hers, tossing some of the debris off the desk to reveal a functioning terminal.
"I can hack this." She knelt down in front of the computer. It took her only a few short minutes to unlock the console, revealing a host of commands. "It's the robot controls."
MacCready stepped closer to hover over her shoulder. "Great — make them shut up, please."
She read through the options, smiling mischievously back at him as she saw the last selection. His expression was blank at first, but after a moment, he smiled slightly and shrugged. It had been that kind of day, after all.
She arrowed down, then hit select to initiate the self-destruct sequence.