As we traveled through the night, we didn't stumble upon many problems. We had a few fire ants and boat flies here and there but nothing that couldn't die with a quickly aimed bullet to the brain. Almost to our destination with maybe two miles to go. Weary eyed with sore legs we find a shack and start up a fire to get some rest.
"I didn't think we would have to do this much walking. Goddamn!" cried out Panda as she fell onto her back. Bassie laughed hard while he was drinking some water and almost choked on it. "Well my dear Panda!" I start. "There's no telling if this is the least or even a fraction of what we will have to walk until we find my mother. So you just might need to learn to love it." I finish with a slight laugh with a sigh. I lay on my side watching the camp fire flicker. My stomach growls but I know if I eat right now It'll keep me up for the extent of our planned rest and I can't afford to be sleep deprived.
I look to Bassie as he stared at the holes in the ceiling of the shack. He looked completely lost in thought. I've never been like that. I turn my back to the fire and pull my moms letter from my bag. I hold it close to me and run my fingers along the edges. The distant cries of deathclaws faded out as the we drifted off the sleep. Daytime quickly surrounded us without mercy.
After a quick breakfast of Brahmin steak and Nuka-Cola, we set our sites on Goodsprings again only stopping once when Bassie pricked himself badly trying to get some prickly pear fruit. Panda kept singing in humor "Bassie got pricked by tge prickly, Bassie got pricked by the prickly." Finally over the irradiated horizon we saw it.
Welcome to The Town of Goodsprings.
We walk up to the Prospector's Saloon and are greeted by what looked like a prehistoric dinosaur I saw out of an old half burned book once. We stood there staring at it for a minute and as we were about to make our way past it I finally realized, " No way! That's Cheyenne!" Bassie and Panda looked at each other and then at me as if I had completely gone nuts. I reached down to give her some love and her tail wagged weakly. Right on queue the unofficial but understood sheriff of Goodsprings came around the corner. Sunny Smiles. "Well I'll be a deathclaws lover, Scarlett Manhattan, I haven't seen you since you were a little bitty thing, running around like a maniac with a knife trying to kill radroaches." Sunny laughed and motioned for us three to sit down at the stools of the bar.
"So what are you guys doing this far away from the strip?" asked Sunny with curiosity written all over her face. Both Panda and Bassie looked to me waiting for me to explain. "I think this could lighten everything up for you." I say as i reach for the letter in my bag. I hand it to Sunny who gives me a weird look as she opens the letter and begins to read. Only a few minutes pass before her face goes from a cheerful grin to a solemn grimace. "Scarlett... this doesn't sound like a wonderful idea." I blew some air out of my mouth and before I could even begin to speak she interrupted with, "Don't you give me that attitude, I know what you're trying to do! You're just like your mom and dad..." she began to trail off but started up again. "Which means there isn't anything I can say or do to stop you. So if you really want help, I would talk to Yes Man, he's the only one around here who never forgets anything... He is a damn robot after all." Sunny looked down with an angered embarrassment on her face.
For a while we sat down and drank together. Introducing Bassie and Panda to Sunny and also a lot of catching up with Sunny. Everything felt good for a moment, almost like we didn't all live in an post apocalyptic wasteland.
We all awoke the next morning hungover and reaching for irradiated and even radiated bottle of waters. As we all finally composed ourselves I gave a long hug to Sunny and told her that it might be a while before we see each other again after we talk to Yes-Man. She looks at me sadly then turns that around into a smile and and kisses me on the cheek, making me promise I would come back even if it was a long time from now. We walk through town, stopping to pet some of the brahmin. "They like being scratched right in the middle of their heads and behind the ears." both my companions look at me strangly. Panda curiously says, "How much of your life have you actually spent out here?" I shrug, not really knowing how to answer.
The only time I ever traveled outside of New Vegas was with dad when he had mission or a delivery he felt I would be moderately safe on... which was probably too many thinking back now. I've almost been killed numerous times, more than someone my age living in a place like this normally should. It got better the more adventures I went on with him. He taught me how to lock pick, hack computers, and even disable and reuse land mines. You know, all the basics.
We kept strolling down the half dirt - half asphalt road and finally stood in front of the door of Yes-Man. I knock a couple of times and wait as patiently as I could. After a few minutes pass I start getting agitated. I knock some more and this time a lot harder. Yet again another ten minutes pass and I feel a blood vessel in my head is about to pop. I take a deep breath and step back for a moment. With an angry grunt I go to kick the door as hard as I can. Then it happened. The most perfectly timed and a painfully embarrassing moment happened. Yes-Man opened the door. My fury filled foot hit the air as hard as I hit my back to the ground. Dazed for a moment with ringing in my ear, laughter from Bassie and Panda arose and before I knew it even that damned robot was laughing at me with mono-toned mockery.
I get up and I compose myself wiping away the dirt and rocks that have tried to become familiar with me. Everyone becomes quite. They can see the storm rising in my eyes. I rear my arm back and with a satisfying clunk I land a punch on Yes-Man, slightly cracking his screen and unfortunately letting some blood run from my knuckles.
Yes-Man lets off a disapproving siren as his smiling picture of a face turns to one with rage then gets in my face. "WHY YOU! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THAT TO ME! HELL I SAVED YOUR OWN FATHER AND IT WAS DEFINITELY NOT SO THAT I COULD BE PUNCHED IN THE FACE BY HIS SPAWN." I begin to laugh really hard, grabbing my stomach as a few tears roll down my cheeks. I look up to his cracked screen. "Yeah and you almost got him killed more than a hundred times, then you swore to me when I was a little girl you would never let anything bad happen to him. Well you know what? You broke your promise Yes-Man, because my father is dead!"
He backs away from me, His screen turns to a frown. "You're joking right? This has to be some kind of sick joke right? Right? RIGHT?" I put my head down and nod at him. Digital tears start rolling down his screen and a crackled cry sets out. He looks to my friends and then back to me and beckons us to come inside. We all stand around for a few minutes while Yes-Man tries to get a hold of himself. After he calms down he begins to question me about my father and I give him every answer I could trying not to go into detail. He told me how he thought my dad was okay because a tracking chip he had given my father was till going off. It could detect a pulse but it must have had some kind of glitch to still be going on after all this time.
Some more silence went on in the small shack and I felt it was time for me to the point of the sudden visitation.
"Yes-Man, Do you know anything about my mother or her whereabouts?" A loading screen appeared on his face and after a few seconds a map appeared with a pulsing dot on it. "Vanessa Manhattan's tracking chip appears to be at the Nellis Air Force Base. Estimated trip time is four days. Weather predictions are seen as hot and dry with 2% chance of rain." I get up and give the metal lug a hug and tell him thank you and also apologize about his screen. I pick up my stuff and tell him if he needs to speak to me anytime before I leave in the morning that I will be at the gas station up the hill. Yes-Man hand me a box of Sugar Bombs as an apology for laughing at me.
Me and the gang head to the gas station to get a nights rest I pull out my last bottle of scotch and start sipping on it. "You know that's going to kill you eventually." Bassie says as he turns his head towards me. I quickly respond with, "I'd rather die doing something I love than to die doing something boring." We both look up to the ceiling and begin passing the bottle back and forth. Panda reaches her hand in to get in on the action. Half yawning and on the border of a scream Panda exclaims, "I love you guys, you're the best friends someone could have in a world like this." We all laugh together and I fall asleep to the sound of them breathing.
