… We Dont Leave Unscathed
1
Dog had found some way to relieve God of their bodies control. They had been moved to the kitchen, perhaps because he had eaten someone who used to be a chef at this place before the bombs dropped, or maybe being beefy-looking stereotyped him enough to pass as a cook who eats his own food way too much.
They would argue, one voice with two agendas. One to end it, one to save it. Dog had had enough, ('Who wouldn't?' Grace thought.) and had twisted the tubes on the kitchen walls and under the floors until they broke, filling the room with flammable gas. No way to shut them off. A great risk (if you could call it that) was that if it was set off by say, a match, then the whole casino would burn. If it did, the world would be a better place, no doubt about it. But they would all go down with it. This would've been simply an inconvenience, had Dog not found a matchbox and was currently fighting God to bring it forward to strike. The mutant worked its way across the kitchen, kicking aside the pots and pans that were in his way. Mumbling all the while.
Near him stood four huge ovens all neatly together. The third was on, a shimmer of heat coming from it. Behind the first peaked a Deathclaw and a human, one above the other. The mutant hadn't noticed them sneak in.
"You weren't wrong when you said you're like him." Grace whispered.
"Huh?"
"Way back when. Before you… died. You talked to yourself sometimes."
"Hmm, maybe I was… Oh well, call me Round the Bend Ryder, you wouldn't be the first."
"Okay 'Rounder', I think-"
"No, you are not calling me that."
"But you just said…"
"I just...! Let's just forget the whooole thing, okay?."
"But why even bring it up?"
"You started it!"
"I did not."
"You did!"
"How?"
"You spoke first! AND! You-"
Their quick paced back-and-forth argument was interrupted by a presence, they turned as one to face Dog/God, who had no trouble in overhearing them and walking over to investigate. He hunched over them, somehow bringing his body into a pose of both sulking and uncontrollable anger.
"Dog… Dog is tired of talk." said Dog. "No more, now it ends."
Dog went to strike the match. The duo leapt from the oven not a moment later. They grasped one arm each and held on for dear life. Dog did a huge twirl, yelling "Arrrgghhh!" as he put his arms out to resemble a Jesus post cross. He lifted both of them off the ground, but only Grace kept her grip.
Ryder went flying (yelling as well) and his back met an oven door. He grunted and slowly slid down to his ass. It hurt, but, the oven warmed his back slightly, sending the shivers away for a few relieving seconds.
He screwed his face up when he felt something small in his hands grip. It was the match, he must've pried it away just in time. But it was an omen – Dog was charging him with a sneer painting his features, with a Deathclaw not too far behind him.
He went wide eyed and dashed to his stronger side – the right. Just in time to avoid (and see) Dog smash his head into the oven glass window and stick himself there. Grace avoided such a fate by letting go at the last moment.
Dog wasn't stuck – despite their hopes – but was no longer aggressive. He turned and sat down, leaning against the oven with a pained and slightly burning expression. His arms were slumped like he'd given up – relatable. Dog made no move from that, sitting there before the Deathclaw and human. Instead, he finally said his first words to either of them… soft, tired, not like God's at all (hard, angry).
He looked at Ryder.
"You… Master? No, not Master. Dog remembers you. Kind to Dog, didn't want other voice to…"
He looked at Grace.
"You? Remember you… Left Dog IN cage. Mean to Dog… now, Dog…"
God's voice interrupted.
"… Will kill us both unless you do something. He won't listen to my voice anymore. He's…"
Dog again, vocals switching like a slideshow.
"… Hungry. Come here, or Dog will chase you." Dog went to stand but Ryder put his arms out in an attempt to calm the super duper mutant down.
"Wait Dog!" said Ryder. "If you do that… uh, Master will be mad?" he half said, half questioned the last bit. He remembered what God told them back in the Villa, and wondered if it would work.
It did.
"Master? W-What does Master want Dog to do?"
"Uh, he… he wants you to listen to me. To my voice."
"You?" Dog asked, a bit hesitant. "You are… Master?"
"Yes, I am Master."
Grace flinched at this but it went unnoticed.
"Dog… Dog is listening."
God now.
"We both are. Tell him to listen to my voice. Then we can finally… be free."
"Dog is listening." he repeated.
The fate of not one but two people were in his hands now. Four people were in that kitchen but only three would walk out of it. He wanted someone to help him decide what to do but his voice was all that the mutant would listen to.
But, isn't this what he was always after? A chance to live his own life, not to seek out others to guide him? Perhaps fate had answered him and given him the one thing he always wanted. To make your own life, or in this case, to determine another's. He didn't expect the destination to be like this, in some burning casino in a City of Dead. He thought it would be more… well, anything other than this.
Was there a word for wanting something, but ending up hating it when you get it?
Yep, he thought, it's called life…
Life was full of shit. Is shit. Maybe if he had been born before the fallout like Verl he would've turned out alright. Everything would've been alright. Life wouldn't just be like shovelling a Brahmins shit, or getting yourself jacked up on drugs because you thought it would make you better to be around. He imagined this place before the war, before everything. A blue sky, bustling streets with people giving endless smiles to one another.
You can't bring it back. The world has moved on. You either move with it or die trying. And if moving on involved helping a super-infected mutant overcome its twin-personalities, AND having a talking iguana as a pet-but-turned-sentient friend? Then by God life must've took a turn at some point and said, 'Hey! Fuck everything!'
Well, it certainly beats walking with two parents clawing at your back twenty-four-seven, three sixty five, until death took you.
Ryder had gotten so looped up in his head, that he didn't even realise he had given the mutant an answer, and had chosen the fate of the one called Dog and God without even paying attention.
The saying 'easier said than done' seemed to have no power here.
2
They were back in the lobby, three of them, ten minutes later.
"Thank you." said the super mutant to Ryder. "Just… thank you."
"Is he gone for good then?"
"Yes… he is."
Elijah once more told them that to destroy the mutants collar they had to kill him. But none of them listened.
"I'll go get Dean. You two wait here." Ryder said. "I'll put it blandly, he hates you Grace, like… hates you a lot."
"What did I do?"
He shook his head. "Dunno, but, I learned that he's got quite the ego. I guess taking command was a start."
She gave a much too harsh comment about the ghoul that deserved no place in anyone's ear, of course she botched a few words with her accent, but this got Ryder to give a nod of appreciation (even the mutant was a bit shocked).
He disappeared past the theatre door, putting a hand to his mouth and calling out, "I'll be right with you's."
Despite Ryder's past behaviour. He did return with Dean in a matter of minutes without a single scratch beside those he got in the kennel. Ryder wouldn't tell Grace what he had done and learned until much later. But he did tell her that Dean was so much darker on the inside; he was a despicable man.
They had a good chat about how Dean was to take all of the Sierra's treasure with the help of a certain young bald woman.
"I put her in the Clinic, tuned her like an instrument. If she heals up it's not going to be her voice speaking any more."
Dean wanted a backup plan, have as many options open as possible. He knew if he had enough time and access to the casino, he could piece together a good facsimile of the owner of the casino's love interest – Vera Keyes (which Elijah also wants to do). But what's better than a replica? The real thing. And that's what Dean did to the mute woman when she was captured and brought here. Into an Auto-Doc she went, surgery to change the voice for his own personal gain.
"But why do that? What's so great about a voice?" Ryder had asked.
It was because the only way to get into the vault is through a special elevator that only opens to Vera's voice up in the executive suite. There is no other way and Dean was sure about that. Sinclair built this place for his only love: Vera, and when she and Dean planned to rob him senseless, the bombs dropped, the casino locked up tight, and sent an emergency signal out to the world, pleading for help. Dean has been here ever since.
Two hundred years of cloud, Ghosts, and the touch of freedom just out of his reach.
Out of everyone, Dean was the worst off of all of them. Heisting before Elijah, before Ryder, or anyone.
Dean was a rich man, no doubt about it. But he wasn't out for the treasure, no, he was out for revenge on Sinclair. But Sinclair had done nothing to Dean but boast about his wealth, something Ryder could never understand. "He thinks he's better than me. And now? Now he's ruined!" Dean said, all snake-like. But all he got out of it was two people lives ruined and trapping himself in his rivals creation. The ultimate irony. Seeing all that wealth from down in the Villa.
Some would say he deserved it. But with renowned caution, Ryder simply nodded and sympathised, and took Dean to the lobby. Dean acted all posh-like, as if he had never told Ryder this in the first place, just so no one would think of him differently.
"So, now that you have us four all together, wedded by our collars, what's your plan now?" Dean asked – hiding that conversation behind those tinted sunglasses.
"If what you say is true, and the mute is still alive, we can get to the vault before Elijah can." Ryder replied.
"Cheerio, but I'm afraid I can't go down there with you… believe me I'd love to kill the collar man. But! But! I think I can hit that old guy where it hurts."
"How so?"
"Using my favourite weapon of course! Music. If there's any speakers and radios down there… they won't set your collar off."
"I'm not sure I can do anything." said the mutant. "I feel… so hungry… so… empty."
"That's fine," said Grace. "You should leave this place as soon as we're done."
"Thank you… Ryder. Thank you, Grace. I won't forget this."
Grace smiled. "You're welcome, God."
"Hold on you three! We have to kill the Old Man first before we think about beginning again. I'll see what I can do from here. You must hurry before the mute slips away or… or loses her patience."
"Your right Dean." Ryder said. "C'mon Grace. Let's go."
With a final goodbye, they left for the suites.
3
They emerged from the elevator to hear a beautiful voice belonging to a different body, it rang throughout the floor, for all to hear.
"This is Christine… recovered. In an Old World hotel room, high class, two rooms – exit's sealed. Security's activated. Not latest tech… it seems primitive. Familiar."
"So that's her name." Ryder told himself.
They found something disturbing on that floor. As they walked around they heard a voice that sounds just like Christine's, what they just heard. Only it is not Christine's voice, its Vera's. So that means it must be Vera Keyes herself talking! But as they delved deeper and explored more and more of the suites, they came across a starlet hologram – the same one on the fountain.
The hologram of Vera Keyes (still quite a looker). They can hear her as she paced every room – she sounds frightened.
"I'm going to die here, amongst the ghosts. I'm still being recorded by the holographic system. I came so far to be here, now… now I just want to leave. Let go? Let go of what? Sinclair? Where did you go? Why did you leave me here? Sinclair? Sinclair?! I'm trapped, security won't let me go. Why? Why?!"
When the bombs dropped, security locked up tight, shutting down everything, trapping all the guests… including Vera… in their rooms. While the guests were dying, from cloud, from radiation, from starvation or holograms. The defence system recorded them, Vera said as much. What Grace and Ryder heard was the last words Vera Keyes ever spoke. Now, instead of looking like security, the holograms all now look and sound like the last person it ever encountered – a dying and scared lover, moments before she died.
They weren't facing Vera.
They were facing her ghost.
So twisted, and whenever the holographic Vera saw the Deathclaw or the human sneaking about. She would raise her hands to her head – all creepy like – and shoot thick beams of light at them that melted all it touched.
The holograms, things designed to protect them, the things that slaughtered all the guests, now wore their faces, and use their voices.
It was a tough, long task. Sneaking about from room to room to avoid Vera's ghost. Hallways of cloud, blocked doorways, traps for the unprepared. But at last the duo had found their way safely to a set of double doors. Inside it was clear that this was the master suite. Mini bar, lots of furniture, a terminal and door on the rear wall, and a closed door on the left side.
Christine's voice was behind that door. Though this one was no hologram. She was testing her throat after a long vow of silence – singing poems, recalling names, that sort of thing.
The door was locked, Ryder knocked instead and out she came, wearing armour now, the scars on her face still as fresh as ever.
"You made it, good. I'll keep this quick in case my… voice goes out."
"Hmm, you sound just like Vera." Ryder said.
"Do I? Feels off to my ears, maybe that's why I got moved here… to this suite. Its hers. That's her over there." She points to the bed behind her, where a skeleton lay to rest. "Looks like she took a different way out."
Freakily, the skeleton had its sockets pointed right at the doorway, where they stood. Why did you leave me here!? was what that gaping… screaming skull said to them.
"So, back at the fountain, you were trying to say something, what was it?" Grace asked.
"I've been hunting Elijah for some time. What he's done here is nothing compared to what he's done in the past."
"How long have you been hunting him?" Grace continued.
"Too long. I had a chance to settle it before this 'event' happened, but he always slips away. I've got orders to kill him, I believe in them."
"Sounds personal."
"I had to find a new purpose after he cut me off from someone I care about. He became unstable, left a trail of crimes across the wasteland. Once word reached us, I was ordered to kill him."
"So you've met him before."
"Yes, before the scars, at a place far from here, where he found some of the tech he uses now. 'Big Empty' it's called. Nearly got trapped there. There was someone else, though, who came along. Knew about Elijah."
"Who?" Ryder put in.
"No idea. A caravaner. Well, formerly I think. He pulled me out there, told me where Elijah had gone. Helped me… Sympathised. Understood what it meant to track someone who had such a… impact on his past life. He was hunting for someone… some caravaner."
Behind her a bench with a few metallic arms holding scissors and razors and other surgical equipment could be seen. Ryder asked if it worked and she said it did. It was about chest-high, he put one bloody arm on it and the Auto-Doc recognised the wounds and began healing him up in a series of quick sweeps and swipes.
Grace came up to Christine's side, pointed at the Doc-thing , and said, "Can that thing heal your scars?"
Solemnly, the bald woman replied, "No… they run a lot deeper than that. Never had good history with machines. Got trapped in a medical station in the Big Empty – Elijah's doing – messed with my head, got off lucky though. Other patients there are worse off. Old self is gone… now I have a new voice, another thing Elijah has to pay for."
"He didn't put you in it, Dean did." Ryder commented, making her spin to face him.
"What? Dean Domino? Why would he do that?"
"The elevator responds to only Vera, he wanted you to use the audio-lock. It's like a key…"
"A key to the vault," she finished for him. "of course. Hmm, I've done much worse, for more hopeless causes, and I will again."
Ryder swapped his other arm onto the bench.
"That door leads to the elevator." Christine said, pointing to the one with the terminal. "I'll unlock it when you're ready."
Grace searched the room but came up empty handed. No weapons or anything. They may just have to outwit Elijah, if such a thing was possible. She went up to the Auto-Doc when Ryder waved her over.
"Grace, you know how I was… acting, before? In the Villa?"
She nods.
"Well, I may be like that again." An odd tool sewed up a tag of skin near his elbow, he looked pained but continued anyway. "Just give me a good punch if I try anything."
"What?"
"Don't worry, I can take it."
"You want me to hit you?"
"Sure."
"By D'law your strange."
"Yeah, I know."
They held a smile to one another before the machine was done and moved no more. Christine hung back and waited (and watched) before producing a key from her pocket and unlocking the door on the rear wall.
"You… wouldn't happen to have a gun or anything, Christine?" Ryder asked.
"Afraid not, though I have no doubt the vault will have one. If not, I'll see what I can do up here, maybe turn security on him when he comes down. He's not one for sharing…"
"He will come through here, won't he?" Grace said, looking at the woman out of the corner of her eye.
"I..." Christine started.
"You're staying here to kill him."
"I can let him leave here." she defended. "You two… you've done so much. He's not going to show himself until you go down there."
"No, we will deal with him."
"But…"
"Let go of this Christine."
"I can't let go. Every time I've thought about it…"
"If you die up here…"
"Yeah, you will too. I… I need to be sure – see his eyes, his face, when he dies."
"Let him come through. We'll kill him."
Christine showed fierce stubbornness in her features. Ryder silently watched nearby, not daring to comment.
"Promise me you'll deal with him… If I see him…"
"He won't escape." the Deathclaw promised.
"All right." Christine sighed. "I'll leave this floor… go somewhere… anywhere… Fine. Let's get it over with."
She went to the audio-lock (it looked a bit like one of those radios, back at the bunker), then looked unsurely back at Grace and Ryder.
"Uh, what do I say?"
Ryder said, "Just… anything, I guess. Maybe 'Fuck this place.' That'll do."
And she said it with a laugh, and surprisingly the elevator unlocked itself and opened up to them.
When its two curious victims entered it fell slowly down into the heart of the Madre.
4
They saw the vault, floating above a sea of the cloud, waiting to be raided. It was accessed by floating walkways that twisted about like snakes. Four turrets hung back in the shadows near the vault – guardians of something everyone wanted a piece of.
Across from there elevator, crossing walkways, were tiny structures filled with speakers. Ryder's collar started up but alas, Dean's voice came through on his pip-boy.
"Hello? H-Hello? Is this thing on?"
"I hear you, Dean." Ryder replied.
"Good, good. Speakers are down, yes?"
"Just in time."
"Splendid! Now… put a bullet in him for me."
The vault door was surrounded by a small half-made glass dome. As they approached, the cloud crept up their legs through the platform grills. It felt like stepping on a few hundred ants, the feeling of the poison hot on their heels tested Ryder and Grace's resolve.
No humming engines, no Elijah to speak to, only the clink of boots and talons on metal. It was deafeningly quiet until…
Like lightning, sparks of electricity darted off in random directions above the vault door where an engine was suspended in the air, all matter of crazy wires powering everything up above. Cracking BZT!'s came out like small screams at random times, never quite making them jump, yet still making them all the more wearier.
So close. They expected something, anything, to try and stop them. Their hearts were tight, surely one last obstacle was about to try and stop them?
No. Not a thing. Aside from another skeleton, seeming to be placed as if clawing towards the vault in its last few moments.
Ryder went to the door terminal while Grace watched his back. Two paintings hung on both sides of the door. Come to the Sierra Madre! Your fortunes await! And the other saying Let go. Begin again. Each one had half naked women in loose positions, luring all the unlucky ones to their doom… the doom behind this vault door.
One option read back at him on the screen.
Vault Door Control
Only the trustworthy may enter my vault.
F.S.
He unlocked it.
The door swung open.
He gave not a second to spare before stepping inside. Grace was right behind him but he didn't even notice her until the moment they both passed in and the door threw itself back into place, locking them in with a loud clunk.
Grace turned and tried to reopen it. Couldn't. She turned back and examined the room what so many people had died to get to.
On the left were two large technological contraptions with blinking red lights. Next to them is what looked like a set of chemicals a mad scientist would have in his lab. To the centre of the room was a U shaped desk with a toppled chair. And on the right side, panels and switches accompanied with blinking lights lined the whole wall – showing random colour patters. Ryder was there, staring at a desk.
But watching over all of this, on the back wall, was the Sierra Madre logo engraved on a circular panel. Large, intimidating, like the casino looming the Villa.
She came up to Ryder's side, curious as to what had him so fixated to not even bother exploring the vault deeper.
"What're we-"
She stopped at what she saw.
There, hastily thrown down and scattered about the desktop, was piles upon piles of gold. Bars, long as her fingers. Not to mention loads of what Ryder called mon-ey.
The golden glow could be seen reflecting off of Ryder's eye. His face lit up with them, one long smile from ear to ear. Hands out, not quite touching them, but so desperately wanting to. I'm in heaven, his face said.
But, all Grace saw was a pile of metal in a reasonably interesting colour. She was immune to its effects, in other terms. She picked one up and found it so heavy that she had to use two hands to lift it up to her eye. The letters S.M. were printed in tiny letters on the face.
This… this is what was so many others undoing.
Three towers of gold on the table.
Three towers of beginning again.
Three hurdles of letting go.
Grace went to the main desk, where the master terminal sat, she passed the knocked over chair and read it over. After a moment, she called Ryder's name.
No response.
"Ryder?"
"…"
"Hey!"
"Huh? What?"
"Come."
He did, though he always kept the gold in his vision.
"What is it?"
"Files, on the lover named Vera."
He opened it up.
To Vera,
Vera, if you're reading this, my fears have come to pass, and this is an apology.
I knew about your plans to rob the casino with Dean before you told me. Hearing it from you didn't make it any easier. For what it's worth, I am glad you told me yourself, and I understood the tapes he had in his possession.
When first building this Villa, this casino, I meant it for you. As the world seemed to race headlong toward war, it became part of my desire to protect you. The loans, the funding I poured into the casino's construction...
I fear, however, that I overstepped myself, and the only safe place in the casino is the Vault. I have tried to rewire the systems, change the protocols, and I cannot. I will do one last check on the pipes by the edge of the outside platform and see if anything can be done.
"I guess that was him outside." Ryder said, but read on.
If you come down here, do not access my personal accounts entry.
It contains only a message for Dean, and it will seal the door and you will have no way out - even the elevator is designed to automatically return when the door is closed, and it will lock in place.
The holograms should defend the casino from any attackers, and the hologram beacon in the Villa will broadcast an emergency signal so that others know you are here.
When danger has passed, rescue will come.
I hope you were able to read this, and know that I loved you.
Frederick Sinclair
"We're a bit late." Grace said, "Poor Vera… poor Sinclair, if only he could see this place now…"
"He loved her, but she didn't love him." Ryder added longingly.
Ryder grew tired of the file, so he turned back to see all that golden glory again. But before he could, the panel with the Madre logo slid open, revealing a circular portrait of an old grizzled man with a green hue.
"You." it said. "You're in my vault… finally. After all this time. The Sierra Madre… mine."
The sound of Elijah on the edge of success. Almost there, yet the Old Man was holding back on something.
"Don't move. Don't touch anything. There may be more traps down there… another security system."
"I want to know a few things." Ryder said.
"Of course you do. You've come this far, and our conversations have been much too one sided. I'll answer… ask away."
"This thing." Ryder held up his wrist toy. "How've you gotten into it?"
"No machine is foolproof, they are designed to obey us. The pip-boy system has vulnerabilities… advantages to those who've studied its construction. But… it's just a machine. The real vulnerability is the one who wears it. That's how you were caught."
"Hey, Grace?" Ryder whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Remind me to toss this thing in the trash."
"Will do."
Ryder went back to Elijah but the Old Man had heard them and said, "You should be proud that you have one! It's a convenience, a crutch, you certainly need it a lot more than I do."
"Elijah, you've got a lot to answer for." said Grace.
"Do I? For what? Your greed? Curiosity? I didn't hold a gun to your heads, no one did. You two picked up the signal just like I did, you couldn't resist. So if you… an animal… think I have a lot to answer for your wrong. You might as well have put the collar on yourself. You think you're so special that you got the casino door open? No, I did it first, with other hands and bodies. After that, the casino wouldn't let go. Locked in… no way out… until you two came along. Then…. then things changed."
He wasn't hiding, he was trapped. Like Dean, like Dog and God, like Christine… and now, like them.
"What is it that you want?" she pondered.
He answered with vigour. "A citadel. Weapons, security, the Madre's all these things. A chance to… begin again. Once I unlock its archives, I can carve the world into any shape I choose. The cloud protects this place… I can use it to preserve other relics – and cleanse them. And I need holograms that work properly."
"Properly?" she said with a touch of unbelieving. "You should look elsewhere."
"They kill trespassers." he stated. "That's what I want. Its like holding light in your hands, just one hologram makes you… unstoppable. The cloud wipes the slate clean. Collars ensure cooperation. Holograms – defence. The Sierra Madre can build a nation… and kill them, with the right applications."
"Wipe the slate clean…" Ryder mused. "Sounds like those Purifiers."
"You're a murderer Elijah! What you think of doing is madness!" Grace said.
"Oh, if I was, I'd have not told you to tear off your collar, would I?"
"Why even do that then? If you wanted my cooperation… you shouldn't have told me I could've."
"My nation has no need for animals like you. I wanted you gone. Out of here before your filth did something wrong. Thought that freedom would make you consider leaving but no. You held on… you stayed… and now you're in the vault, tied to the junkie… it's as if you always had a collar on… isn't it? I wonder if there are more like you… talking animals with 'goals' and 'friends' like you think you're people. Well, I have something to tell you. You're not. You won't last… I'll make sure you don't. And if you cooperate? I'll make it quicker…"
"Everyone out there are merely children." Elijah pressed. "Human instinct is always against us. Its why that even if you wanted to willingly be a part of my new world, you'd still need a collar. To beat greed… it can be done. Contained, controlled. You two know it better than anyone, or… I hope you do."
"We found this place by a signal, but, how did YOU learn about it?"
"It started with… a setback. Fires, blood, beneath the sun… a sun so close you could touch it. Moments like that, however, failures… can provide the brightest clarity."
It was vague, unspecified, they would later know of these places.
"After that… I wandered, alone. Saw the Divide. Travelled to the Big Empty. Heard the signal, the voice to reverse my fortunes. All… nonsense."
If only me and Ryder had thought the same.
"After all the bodies kept dying on me… you… you two… you got farthest of them all. And now I can finally get what I want."
"Fine then." said Grace. "Coming down now?"
"No. Not this close… not again… I can wait, afford to be careful. But you two are locked down there. I have free rein of the Sierra Madre. I have time… more than you. But besides, there might be more traps. I'll send more scouts in… yes, others. You're resourceful, for an animal. Don't want to leave anything more to chance."
"Wait? For how long?"
"May be a while. Heh! Consider this punishment for following the signal in the first place. So eager to rush ahead… now, enjoy your reward."
No… no there had to be a way out. She rose and went back to the vault door. Try as she did, it did not budge.
"Ryder, help me with the door."
He just stood there, staring at Elijah.
"Hey! C'mon!"
Aimless standing and staring. She approached him and thought about hitting him like he had suggested before. She brought back her right fist and held it there for a second. After a few seconds of silently thinking, she sent it forward…
But he reeled away in time for her to miss him completely. Yet he never looked like he registered her fist, instead, he walked up real close to the projection and pointed an accusing finger at it.
"You won't come down?" Ryder said with a touch of slyness. "Then I'll find a way to unlock the secrets of this vault, take them for myself."
Elijah responded with equal footing. "You've gotten far. Any farther, you'll became a corpse. What's inside is mine. Anyone else touches it… tries to take it from me… they'll answer for it!"
Ryder looked at Grace for a moment, then back to Elijah. "Well, I already managed to unlock the elevator and get here before you." Then he added an afterthought. "Better hurry."
Elijah wouldn't let up. "This casino isn't some caravan safe. And the lock that secures the Sierra Madre vault doesn't hold all its secrets."
"You wanna stay up there and wait? Fine." He turns away. "I'll keep myself busy down here."
She imagined Elijah shrugging when he replied with, "You can try. The Sierra Madre is a patient thing, and it has outlasted many who've come to its doors."
"This place is just one big combination lock. And I've almost cracked it."
This was when Grace thought that this conversation wouldn't end. But ironically that last bit had tipped Elijah off, it was easy to hear it in his angry voice.
"I've had enough…" The Old Man said like a child who couldn't get his desert. "… enough of others stealing from me. I'll find you myself, break into the vault and I'll set off the collar."
And at that, the projector slid closed.
"Huh, I actually did it… Hey! What's in that cabinet?"
Yes, beside the mountains of gold a cabinet sat against the corner. He rummaged around inside it for a moment, delving deeper and deeper while Grace hung back and waited. He disappeared into it, first his head, arms, then his torso. It looked as if the cabinet was eating him up! He raised one leg – maiden style – and murmured excitement.
It tricked her eyes, maybe it was bigger on the inside? How could he…
It vomited him out, one hand holding a moderately-sized magnum coated in coal-black paint, the other holding a few auto loaders that he stuffed into his pockets. He then moved on to the bench of gold and proceeded to put as many bars into his jumpsuit. He struggled, couldn't even fit one bar in.
"No." he whispered as he jammed a bar that wouldn't stay put. "C'mon… c'mon…."
"Ryder…"
"Its gotta… its gotta work."
"Ryder!"
"What?"
"It's time to go."
"No!" he desperately said. "Not with all this… We have to get it… Carry some for me!"
He held a bar out to her but she shook her head. "They're too heavy."
"No! You got arms, w-we need to get as many out as we can."
"It'll only slow us down."
"Don't say that! We can do it!"
"You're doing it again, those tats-"
"You don't understand!" he cried. "This is worth so much! We could do anything out there… I could get anything… everything…"
He sounded like he was talking to himself.
"A new life… My new life. All this gold – it's a good start. GREAT start!"
God was right. God warned her about this moment and she dismissed him. 'You better call me when Ryder finds what he's looking for. I'll help you kill him.' is what he said. And now that Ryder had come here…
He had become Elijah. And now… now the Madre wouldn't let him go.
Or, he couldn't let the Madre go, it depended on how you look at it. But she didn't come all this way to be called greedy and be hurt for it, to get knocked out twice and almost trapped in a vault full of useless gold (in her eyes). No, she came to find Ryder, and they were getting out of here.
"Stop, Ryder." she said, knocking away the gold out of his hand.
"What are you talking about?" he cried, kneeling down to pick it up, visibly struggling, without an eye he had some trouble.
"Leave those… things… here, forget them."
Silence, then he said, "Think of the money."
"Think of freedom . Think of the outside, no cloud, no collar."
"I am! With all this I… I won't have to worry about running into traps anymore! Or anything ever!"
"You haven't learned a thing, have you?"
"What? I don't-"
"Dog and God – hunger and control. Christine – obsessed with her mission. Dean – a liar, thief, who twisted Vera into betraying her lover for his own gain. Elijah – a lust for technology, fighting madness with madness. They were all controlled by instinct, by greed. All of them. Greed is the strings and they are the puppets. This place has killed enough people and its weapon is greed. Don't you get it? The others are alive, Elijah is at deaths door, we are so close! Don't turn your back on everything now. Please, can't you see the effects of greed? Elijah just tried to shame us for coming here! Please… Please don't let him be right about us."
Madre had gone quiet, like a cheat who had been caught.
"Just… let go. Let go of it all and lets go home."
"… Where is home?"
"It's not in those bars."
"But…"
"Let go."
What did he tell himself a while back? In that odd dream… his parents, something about those two very words…
Can you let go?
Yes.
Then prove it.
He gave the gold a longing glance. "Its… so much." He felt and sounded on the edge. "I could… begin again with… all this…"
"But it's not worth becoming someone I know you're not."
"… You don't know a lot about me then."
She waved a hand to the pile of treasure. "Prove me wrong."
He didn't move for a while. She had a suspicion he wasn't listening but she knew he was. Whatever clockwork that ticked his mind was spinning so much that he couldn't use his body at the moment.
But after what seemed like forever, he turned to the table and put the pistol down. He brought his hands up in front of him, one holding a thick gold piece, one empty with the palm up. A ghost of the shakes could be seen in the empty hand. He curled it into a fist, then released it. Curled it again, released. He did this for what seemed like forever, until at last, he dropped the gold back on the table. He picked up the pistol and checked the chamber with one flick, putting it back with another.
He sighed heavily. She did as well – on the inside.
"Alright Grace, let's go."
She nodded, turned and opened the door with a look of determination.
"Oh," she said, seeing it was still locked up.
"Lemme see if this terminal will do the trick."
There was one next to the vault door. It had the option to release the door, but when he activated it alarms started to blare, both in and out of the vault. But the door swung open silently, and this time Grace was the first one out – Ryder in tow.
But there, just outside the dome, with two turret sentinels on his flanks, was the man with many names. Old Man, Master, the Father or Elijah. He wore great blue robes that bagged at the knees and heels. His face was a little different from the images and screens, but he still had wild white hair along with a thick beard of matching colour.
What struck Ryder was that he also wore a pip-boy. A little different, smaller, modified most like. So much dictatorship and control shaped his voice into something terrible.
"You think you can steal from me?" Elijah practically growled. "This place is mine."
On his back was the butt of a gauss rifle peaking over his right shoulder. But Elijah didn't go for it. Instead, he mashed a few buttons on his wrist-toy, seemingly at random – though it was actually a series of complex commands for the Madre to listen to, his old fingers danced on the buttons, typing a code of death.
"No one. Not you, not an animal, will stand in my way."
The sentinels rose there electronic barrels with a whirr, reawakening to obey its new master. The motion sensors (looking like empty light bulbs) scanned for a moment, then aimed at Ryder and Grace menacingly. The barrels lighting up a dark red.
"You've outlived your uses. Should've left while you still could. Now stand still…"
Then, Christine's voice rang throughout the great Vault hall through unseen speakers.
"Burn in hell you son of a bitch!"
The turrets adjusted their aim and fired a volley of crimson energy.
Elijah explodes inside his clothes as the volley strikes him in the centre of his back, belching blood and torn flesh from the buttons of his robes, even the cuffs of his pants spewed up crimson bile. The turrets ceased there slaughter, the motors cooling down and preparing for round two.
Elijah went to his knees, clutching his stomach (now certainly growling). Despite taking an overwhelming amount of fire, the man had been through a lot, and rather than lie down and die already, he instead gritted his teeth and pointing his finger like the barrel of a gun at the both of them.
"What have you… done? I… Think about what your throwing away! Arrghh…. Please… help me. Stop the turrets and help me!"
They could hear the holes in his lungs effect his voice, slowly tearing him apart…
"You… don't understand!" he said after he got no response. "There's so much in there… I-I can show you! You can rule the wastes! With an army at your back!"
He got a flicker of Ryder's eyes and that got him going further than he should have. His left arm fell to the floor, keeping his talkative face from the cold ground.
"Let's go." Grace said, walking past the excuse for a being towards the lift they used before. Ryder did the same but Elijah clutched at his knee, making him stop.
Desperately, "Don't you leave me here!" Wheezing, "I saw the things recorded on your pip-boy, you want to take the Purifiers down!"
"How do you know that?" he asked – whisper.
"It records you when you aren't looking. I can help you take them. We… We and the Madre. Together!"
Ryder pitied him, despite all this man had done to him and the others, he still had his mind on turning the world in his hands. But the pity was… short-lived. He wouldn't let this old man be right about anything anymore.
"Goodbye, Elijah."
"W-W-Wait… ack… please, you can't do this to me!… Bleeding out like a… Just shoot me."
Ryder twirled the pistol on his finger, now holding the barrel in his palm, he brought it up behind his shoulder and said,
"You're not worth the bullet."
"You-"
The iron pistol grip struck Elijah square on the forehead. In the next second Elijah's face was one of unbelieving, he tumbled backwards, and since there were no guard rails on the walkways, down went the old man's body, his eyes filled with pure rage stared back as he sailed into the depths of the cloud, into utter darkness.
Ryder froze in that executioners pose for a moment.
But when Elijah was gone, the casino vault was going to go down with him.
The electric sparks went wild, flashing this way and that. The turrets exploded like some scripted light show. A walkway tumbled down with on his right, a section of the wall peeled off on his left.
"Hurry Ryder!" Grace called from the elevator, which he had temporarily forgotten all about.
Clutching the pistol, he raced forward to the Deathclaw, who beckoned him forward with one long arm.
BNK BNK BNK! went his boots on metal. Faster and faster the more the chaos followed him, sparks reached out, tempting to knock him back and bring him into their electric clutches. With every step one section after the other rattled and broke beneath him.
The walkway behind him was gone. But, a piece of it ahead of him at first threatened to fall, then did. About five meters of it disappeared, revealing the dark red cloud's terrifying gas.
"Ryder! Jump!"
He did.
5
The starlet hologram watched over her as she stood – for the final time – near the fountain's ring. The Ghost People gave her not a glimpse. They had seemed to accept her deathly presence as one of their own.
But she wouldn't overstay her welcome. No way Jose. Is that how you put it?
The human woman – Christine – approached, silent as ever, trained to perfection in the art of hunting.
But… she could be smelt from a mile away. She decided to put down the humans sneaking skill by announcing to her, not looking in her direction.
"Thought you'd left."
Christine made a chuckle, and no longer bothered to muffle her steps as she stepped into the fountains dying light.
"Likewise, Deathclaw."
The Deathclaw gave a toothy grin. "Planning to stay?"
"Too many people have fallen here. That signal will lure more and more unlucky souls. I can't let all this happen again."
"So you are staying."
"Mhmm. What about you? Can't imagine two of us watching over this place."
"What? Oh, no… No I'm waiting for old Ryder."
"Wow, out here, among the Ghosts? Don't want to leave? Or… is he already gone?"
"No, he went out there. Said he saw something and had –" she put her fingers up, signalling air quotes. "- to show me."
"Out there?" she frowned. "On his own? You didn't go with?"
Grace shrugged. "Said it was a surprise."
"Huh. Guess it might be a… gun, or something."
The Deathclaw shrugged again, saying nothing.
Like a new born emerging from a mother's womb, up above in the cloud, one golden ray of sunlight pierced the red blanket. It only lasted a moment, but the Deathclaw closed her eyes under the temporary warmth and simply let the cold escape her.
"Cloud… think its sentient?" the human asked. "Like you?"
"Could be."
"I got a feeling it is. Hmmm, might be a way to keep it here, or extinguish it. Certainly don't want the world to look like this."
She waved her arms, gesturing in all directions. After that? Silence.
"Uh, Grace?"
"Yes?"
"I just want to know something. If Ryder followed the signal from his pip-boy, then how did you get here? You with him at the time?"
"No, I wasn't, actually."
"Oh, well, how then?"
"I heard Vera's voice. But, what really got me going was hearing his. We united after a long while… in this place."
"If you knew that voice would bring you here – to a form of hell – do you think you'd still follow it?"
Now she had the Deathclaws attention. "Well… Why do you ask?"
"Call me curious."
"Well, Curious, if I knew I would have a collar to my neck, and I had to obey an old crazy mans orders… I think I still would."
"Sounds like you two have a history."
"I owe him."
"And now?"
"Ha! Now he owes me!"
"Are you guys talking about me?"
Vomited forth from a random Villa building door came the one called Ryder, holding a small object in one hand, pistol in the other. His suit incredibly dirty and already starting to tear.
"Yep." said Grace. "You owe me big time."
"Huh? Whaddya mean?"
"I mean, that you owe me, like, a lot."
"What? It's not my fault this place got you."
"Yeah, it is."
"Nuh-uh."
"Ya-huh."
"How old are you two?" Christine interrupted.
As one, they shrugged. Not quite an answer but they seemed to get the message.
"So, Grace said you were getting something?"
He lit up. "Ah that's right." He turned and walked up to the Deathclaw all casual-like, holding one hand out to her, like offering a present.
What he held was a small palm-sized object. Thin golden circular base with a glass dome. Inside it was a tiny version of the Sierra Madre, only rather than being cracked, menacing and a symbol of doom. This one looked rather bright and pretty, with tiny little searchlights lighting the building pink and blue and red.
And rather than a red cloud, small white flakes flew about like birds, the effect was dazzling.
Grace studied it with intent eyes for a while. Then she popped the question. "What… is it?"
"A snow globe!" he said, excitedly. "Take it, shake it around."
She did those two things. And he could tell she was infatuated by it. She didn't ask him how or why he got it, so he presumed that even though it represented a terrible place that should be forgotten, it would later prove to be a sort of… memento, perhaps so that they never forgot what they had learned here.
The Sierra Madre. A promise. A place of changing fortunes. Begin again. It was a terrible and hard task to beat this place.
Finding it though… that wasn't the hard part.
It was letting go.
Ryder learned this the hard way, how greed and eagerness would be his undoing. What the Madre told him… he would forget at times, looking as if he shrugged it off like some sort of meaningless task. But its message would ring clear in his head when the time came. The time when his mistakes would finally catch up to him, where he would stand were it all began, and face the biggest threat in his whole life.
But that is a story for a different day.
"You sure you wanna stay here?" Ryder asked for the umpteenth time.
"I'll turn the unfortunate away from here. I have to." Christine said.
"You should take a break sometime. I may need your help in the future."
She thought, nodded, then, "Suppose I could. I'll show you a route out of here on your map."
She told him, and he understood. He thought the route to be complex, but it seemed so straight forward.
The gate out of here awaited them, but just before they went to it, Ryder turned back to the woman who chose to stay and said…
"Where did Dean and God go?"
Christine simply pointed at the gate.
"Huh, alright. So long, Christine."
"One more thing, Ryder."
She beckoned him forward while Grace watched from the gate. Out of earshot, a respectable distance.
"You take care of her."
"Uh, it's a Deathclaw." he replied, talking to someone he thought might've said something dumber than he was.
"It's your friend. Treat her well, her heart lies in the right place. She came all this way for you, you understand me?"
He slumped at bad memories. But maybe…
"I'll… I'll try."
"Good. Now, get out of here." She clapped him on the back and bid him farewell.
Grace did not even attempt to find out what they had said.
6
In the room where they had passed out, with the bunk beds attached to the left and right walls, each accompanied with a footlocker, the air seemed empty and less thrilling than the last time it had been occupied.
That was until… a large hatch, hidden in the back of the room, rattled away, along with the sounds of muffled voices…
"… and then you shot me!"
"Hey! I told you why and it wasn't my fault!"
"Well… Wait, how long have we been down here?"
"Beats me. Look! Help me with this hatch."
Like a zombie in a grave, a Deathclaws fist punched the hatch from below, sending it flying off to be forgotten. A piece of the floor revealed Grace first, who saw nothing out of the ordinary as far as she could remember. Behind her, one human arm reached out after the other until at last he planted his feet and stretched his back.
The radio that had lead them here – sitting there on the central table – still talked, but now… now Vera's voice sounded kind of desperate.
"Wait a moment. Before you go, I… we… hope you've enjoyed your stay. Farewells can be a time of sadness – letting go, difficult. As a guest of the-"
KSH
"No I did not enjoy my stay and yes, it was difficult! Phew…"
Ryder pulled a comical face at Grace's 'slight' outburst. She lifted her fist and turned, combining a shrug and shy smile. "Sorry."
"No, no its all good. Hey! What's in these lockers?"
He searched them. In the last one he found something. He pulled out a massive gauntlet in the shape of a human fist. Overly large, massive nails like knives, all of it coated a midnight black.
"Power fist… think you can wear it?" Ryder asked.
She made sure he saw her large talons as her answer.
"Oh, right. Never mind then."
He put it back. They went down the hall to the exit, but it branched off to the right halfway down and they had to investigate. It looked ransacked, toppled chairs and tables, not to mention book-loads of pages littering the floor. There was an old and broken laser rifle and a chemistry set on one table, and a pile of scrap on another.
There was only two things of interest. The first was a small cabinet near a nice looking bed, inside was a small square object that said 'For Veronica.' on its side. Ryder had no idea why but decided to keep it. The second was found by Grace, who found a pile of objects in the far corner. The pile was familiar, as it held a handbag (with all its contents untouched) and a messy stack of armour and weapons.
"Ryder, I have a few of those tats leftover."
He smiled and took two from her hand, lightly grazing her palm. He gobbled them up like a starving man for food, and felt better for it.
Ryder donned his old (and still blood stained) armour, (Grace waited outside, Ryder wanted 'privacy', whatever that meant). He soon came back to find her near the exit, which was in the corner on the roof, a rusty ladder leading to a hatch.
"We all set then?" he asked, clapping his hands once and swishing his trench coat behind him.
"Yes but, that hatch seems smaller than before."
"Yeah, well, you've certainly grown since last time."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"No!" he said, reeling back.
Grace smirked and put her hands on the ladder holds – which looked tiny when she grasped them – and ascended while Ryder waited. She reached the hatch (punching it out like the other one) and managed to squeeze her shoulders through before stopping to catch her breath.
It looked like she was simply enjoying the sun, but that wasn't the case…
"Everything all right?" Ryder called after her 'break' went for longer than expected.
Was that humour she heard?
"Yes, very."
"Alright. I believe you."
She wormed one arm out after a minute. But she grew tired, and had nothing better to do then scan the outside. It was morning, maybe midday. No critters or humans, thankfully. Just the passing dust off of the light wind, which brought her peace after a long time of dead casino air.
"Graaace." Ryder called, sing-song.
"I'm working on it."
"I can tell."
A pause. And alas, she said, "I'm stuck."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Need a hand? Or a push?"
"Mhmm."
"You sure?"
She swiped her tail randomly backwards. She heard him go "Woop!" but didn't make contact.
"Sheesh! You nearly took my head off!"
"Get me out of here now." she ordered.
"Alright alright… damn… huh, guess I was right about the fat part…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
He climbed the first few steps and realised that he had no idea how to help from this position. There her lower body was, tail drawn back against her rump and legs. He balanced himself on his feet and raised his hands… but brought them back down after a thought about how he would look if he did that.
Instead, he turned around on the ladder, placed his back against her underside, and pushed upwards.
They got her a bit further. She suggested that he should, "Just use your hands!" to which he replied with an awkward laugh. But no hatch could stop them for long. For after a while (longer than it should have) Grace at last was free and was joined by her human friend. Who adjusted the front of his collar and straightened up after emerging from the ground – all posh-posh style.
"So, you mentioned this 'Brooks' girl before. Shall we go? I'll tell you all about how I got here whilst we do."
She said it sounded good.
"You forgot something." he said out of the blue, and reached behind his back, revealing a strap of a handbag, which she had hastily dropped just before being… stuck, in the hatch.
She took it from his outstretched hand, checking the contents once (snow globe was inside it). She asked him if he wanted the bag, since it was technically his, but he waved it away, saying she should have it 'Just because'.
The two of them walked north from there, it could be seen that they walked a little differently, whether it be with a hard lesson at the Madre or some other reason, it didn't matter. They had passed a trial, but had many to go.
Hopefully, the Sierra Madre hadn't held them for too long, and the world hadn't moved on just yet.