What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Why would some weirdo call this thing the Duchess Gambit? To me it should have been called the fucking Whore's Shit Boat. I mean this steamboat is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. This boat is all rusty and the smokestacks give off the most unpleasant smell.
I am just glad that after a month of traveling on this sinkhole I am finally getting closer to my destination. Or so the young captain of this boat tells me.
"We are gettin' closer!"
I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to the source of the voice.
It was the ferryman, Nicky. This man has really orange hair like a large orange fruit is growing out of his hair. He is wearing merc charmer outfit. The outfit mainly consists of a sleeveless jacket covering up a white shirt and having pants.
I looked out into the sea and the only thing that I see is fog. I turned back to face him.
"What do you mean?" I ask him, "I don't see anything but fog."
He says, "Just wait he are getting' closer."
"That's what you said a hour ago."
I turned back to the fog that is in front of the ship. It was so thick that I can't even see my own nose. I hope that this stubid fog is not what I will be experiencing when I get to this Point Lookout.
"Why are you here?"
I turned back to where that captain was but to my surprise he was not in the location that I thought he would be. I was confused until I remember that hole. I looked down right through the hole that is right next to my feet and I see Nicky on the steering wheel. He usual likes to use that hole to jump from the steering wheel to the second floor, he claims so he can move trough his shortcuts.
Since he is close by I don't need to yell at him, so I said, "I am running an errand for someone."
"But why do an errand in Point Lookout? Do you know how dangerous it is?
"I don't care about this dangerous stuff that people say about the place. I just want to get in and then get out."
"It is just it has not been the same since the war."
I smiled and said, "Everything was not the same after the bombs fell."
"It's not that."
"What do you mean?"
"After the bombs fell and before you showed up, there was another war in Point Lookout."
I became intrigued when he said that, which made me want to know more. I simply responded, "What was the war about?"
The captain shrugged and said, "I don't know something about a ghoul getting into a fight with these tribal people. I do know that afterwards an abandoned mansion blew up and there was a commotion down at a Ferris wheel."
A Ferris wheel? That got my attention.
"What do you mean about a Ferris wheel?"
"Oh that one over there." And he nodded in the direction in front of the ship.
I looked at where he was pointing at and I was amazed. There, right in front of me, was a Ferris wheel. A wheel! Man, I only seen those things in books I found along my travels in the Capital Wastelands. But seeing one in really life is like amazing. Well, it was a Ferris Wheel, which is if you don't count the seats that are missing and the rusty rings it's still a Ferris Wheel. But as the fog dissipates I finally get a good look at the "Point Lookout Pier."
This pier is just like the piers I would see in books and in the Capital Wastelands: rusty, old, and unstable. I mean the boardwalk, the place where we are supposed to park, looks all rickety and unstable that it looks like one touch would send it collapsing into the water. I don't have a good look at the buildings but I could tell that they are just as bad as the boardwalks.
"So what is this place?" I ask Nicky.
"Oh this place used to be a tourist attraction before the Great War. Now it is an adventurer's paradise, where anyone could come in and explore for buried treasures or fight off creatures they have never seen before."
"Will there be anyone waiting for me there? Like a shop or a café I got to eat."
"Uh…Yeah I think there will be someone there."
"Like who?"
That is when I began to notice the strange look on his face. A look that says clueless.
"I thought you told me that you take trips to this place?"
"I do…I-"
"Shit lookout!"
When he was talking about his trips to Point Lookout, he did not see a rock jutting out of the water. When he saw this rock he quickly dodged it before it could pop a hole into the boat. But I fell down the stairs when he made that sharp turn.
Nicky and asked, "Are you okay?"
"I am fine you dumbass! What the hell was up with that?
Nicky tied the boat to the dock and muttered, "I don't remember a rock there."
"What do you mean? I thought you knew the way like the back of your hand?"
It looks like I took him by surprise because he began to hesitate.
"Well…no…not exactly."
I finally lost my marbles, "You haven't done this before have you?"
He took a breath and said, "Alright, I have never done this before."
This is when I became confused; "I have been told that you could take me to this place with no trouble. I thought you knew the-"
"My father knew the area," Nicky cut in, "I only drove this boat only around the Capital Wasteland, not to Point Lookout."
"Then why did you take me? And, why didn't your father take me?"
"First off, you said you would pay me and I needed the money. Second of all, my daddy can't do it cause he's dead."
"You better explain yourself," I said to him, "You told me you knew this place."
"You better explain yourself too. Why do you want to come to this place? And, where did you get the caps?"
I knew I shouldn't but I just have to know why Nicky took me to this crap hole of a pier. So taking a breath I spilled the beans.
"Alright but you better tell me the story of this place."
"Fine whatever."
"My name is Dave. I am what you call, a Lone Wanderer. I travel from place to place looking for work wherever I could find it. One day I went into Megaton to get some beer until this man walked up to me and ask me if I needed any work. I said yes and then he gave me three hundred caps. I was really happy that he gave me all of these caps but then he said I will get three thousand caps, so that was when I said yes. He told me to find a man in Rivet City that has this riverboat to take me to this place called Point Lookout. There I have to find a package that I need to deliver to some man. That's all he told me."
"He told you to bribe me with some of the money he gave you didn't he?"
"Okay yes but you said that you could take me to Point Lookout."
"No," he said, "I said that I know of it. You said that you would pay me if I could take you there. You flashing money convinced me to take you to the place. Came at the right time too, I was planning on tearing this boat to pieces and then sell them away."
I was pretty mad by then, "You are an ass."
"Eat a dick."
"No thanks," I said, "How do you know it anyway?"
"Well, okay a deal's a deal. My dad used to take me to Point Lookout a long time ago. Years. I remember I was a little kid when my dad would take me on his trips to this place."
"How do you know the place?"
"My grandma Nadine took tourists and adventurers to Point Lookout. She told me that after the battle between the ghoul and the Tribals people all over the wastelands came to this place for exotic foods and treasure. I guess because there was no more threat. That was a very long time ago though, before my daddy or I was ever born. When she had my daddy he took over and became captain. But after grandma died and I was born daddy stopped."
"Because of you?"
"No he stopped doing it for some other reason."
"What is it?"
He gave me a smudged look and asked, "Pretty curious ain't you?"
I shrugged and said, "What can I say I always like to pry into people's business. So why did he stop going there?"
"Well after that ghoul and those tribals died, everything continued as a normal business for everyone that lived here. Then one day, when my dad pulled in to the pier some of the inhabitants were waiting for him there. As he pulled up they demanded him to take them to the Capital Wastelands. Now this group was comprised of vacationers, adventurers and even some of the original inhabitants were in this group as well. My dad didn't care so he shipped off to the Capital Wastelands with a bonus fee."
"Did you learn why?"
"Well, I was there when it happened. I do recall that I asked a man why he is leaving and all he said was that there were 'monsters' out there."
I was baffled when he said monsters. Because in the Capital Wastelands there are all sorts of monsters: Deathclaws, Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants, Radscorpions, and Raiders. What could some monster scare everyone out of some swamp.
"What do you mean 'some' inhabitants?"
"Oh some of my dad's friends were not among the group that wanted off the swamp. After he dropped those people off at the Capital Wastelands he went back here to see if he could find them."
"Did he?"
I know I should get to my job but his story sounds really interesting. I just had to stand there and listen.
"I did not go with him, but he came back empty handed. I remember I asked him if he found them and he just said that they are 'lost in the swamp'."
"Lost in the swamp?"
"I did not want to know what he meant by that but seeing those looks on those 'survivors' I don't want to come back to Point Lookout."
Okay so this guy is taking chems or something. I don't know but I didn't care I need those caps for food and bedding. Food is very scarce in the wastelands and I remember that I fainted from starvation a couple of times in my travels. Luckily help was always close by.
But enough about that, time for business.
"Alright thanks for the tip, but I think I-"
"Are you fuckin' me?" he asked, "Did you hear what I said?"
This guy does not know what kind of a hell I have experienced. He should try walking out into the wasteland and try fending for himself, instead of living off people on a ship.
"Look I need the money so I need to find my package."
So grabbing my backpack and putting it on I leaped from the boat and onto the pier. Wish I shouldn't because I could feel the pier creak underneath me. I was almost afraid that it would collapse but luckily for me it did not.
"How long?" Nicky said.
"I don't know maybe twenty-four hours or less. You think you could wait?"
"Wait in this boat on a pier that might collapse any second? Sorry pal it's going to cost ya."
I am just about to beat the living shit out of him.
"What do you want me to give you? I gave you one hundred bottle caps!"
"I am not wasting my neck out for some stranger unless if I get some reassurance!"
I thought about this proposition and I would be devastated if I lost all that money that the stranger gave me. But I am getting three thousand caps so what's the problem there?
"Alright how about one-fifty?"
"Two hundred?"
"What the hell," I reached into my bag and pulled out the sack with the caps in it, "Here." I handed my caps to him.
"Oh don't worry I won't be leaving you anytime soon."
"I'll kill you if you do."
I turned my attention back at the pier. It is pretty well decayed, I am even afraid that another step might collapse it. It appears like the front end of the pier is sinking while the side that is connected to the shore is rising up like a wave.
"It's okay," Nicky said, "The pier is made out of the strongest wood around and good against the weather, you will be fine."
"I hope," I called back.
As I was about to take another step Nickky calls, "That name sounds really familiar. Are you named after someone?"
"No."
I took another step and the only thing I felt was air.
