Echoes of Eras Past
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A Fallout: New Vegas fanfic.
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Be generous, be delicate, and always pursue the prize. Henry James, from his essay about the rules of writing.Oo000ooo000oO
Fantastic was buried in a manner fitting of man such as himself: Two troopers drug his body past the wire to where the smell wouldn't reach the installation and dumped it into a small ravine. While he was being laid to rest, Molly and her team set to work gathering up their payment- in this case, all of the damaged solar panels that were lying around in the array.
They finished up by mid afternoon and headed back to Novak to rest up before heading out in the morning. When they walked into the motel parking lot they ran into Cliff Briscoe crossing the parking lot and he angled towards them.
"Hey, Molly is it?" he asked, singling her out.
"Yeah." Molly answered. "What do you need?"
"Me and the other residents of Novac have been talking, and we'd like to thank you for all the good you've done us, what with clearing out those ghouls and that Viper encampment..." Briscoe said as he dug around in his pocket and produced a key. "So, since I'm the manager here at the hotel now, I've decided to give you your own room at the hotel. It's the one you rented when you first came here."
"Oh, well, thank you." Molly said as she took the offered key.
"You're welcome." Briscoe said. "Also, there's a ten percent discount at the Gift Shop for you and your friends."
"We'll be sure to take advantage of that." Molly told him. "But, right now, I just want to get out of this armor and go take a shower."
"It's all yours." Briscoe said and resumed walking towards the Gift Shop.
Oo000ooo000oO
"Hey, Ami..."
Ami looked up from where she was sitting on the bed tinkering with the project that she had been working on and saw Molly standing by the foot of the bed fresh from her shower, wrapped in a towel.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I want to borrow those leather working skills of yours." Molly answered, nodding at the leather components of her project that she had been stitching together.
"Okay." Ami agreed. "What do you want me to make?"
"A holster." Molly replied, and walked over to where her pack was.
As she bent down to rummage in her pack. Ami took the opportunity to ogle her friend's bare bottom as it peeked out from underneath the towel. After a few moments of rummaging and pulling a couple of things out, Molly found what she was looking for and straightened up.
"For this, specifically." Molly said, handing over a weird, clunky, looking revolver that Ami didn't recognize.
"What the hell kind of gun is this?" Ami asked as she took the weapon from her friend.
"It's a Shimago-Cominstetz ZG11. Basically, it's a .223 caliber revolver," Molly replied.
"Huh." Ami said as she pushed the cylinder release and it came out with a quiet whir and click. "Interesting piece of equipment. What are you going to do with it?" she asked, pressing the release again and watching as the cylinder retracted back into the gun.
Molly shrugged, causing her towel to slid down a little. "I was gonna give it to Sara." she said.
Ami looked at her friend and arched her eyebrows.
"What?" Molly said. "She needs a sidearm, and since she's already running that varmint rifle, she's got ammo compatibility."
"Okay..." Ami said. "Though I figured you would rather want to trade this off to the Gun Runners instead..."
"They sell copies of it, and they're the only ones who have them." Molly pointed out as she walked over to her pack and pulled out a tank top and a pair of panties. "The only thing that makes it valuable is the fact that it's an original. And I figured I'd do something nice for the kid, you know?"
"That makes sense." Ami said as she looked over the revolver. "I don't have the materials I'm gonna need for this on me right now..."
"The McBride's will probably have some hides." Molly pointed out. "They had a bunch of Brahman killed by a Nightkin recently."
"Nightkin!" Ami exclaimed, her head whipping around to look at Molly. "Here? There's Nightkin here!"
"Not anymore." Molly told her. "Me and Boone cleared them out for a cult of ghouls that had taken up residence in the Repconn Facility up the road."
"Oh." Ami said. "Wait, when was this?"
"About a week before we ran into you, give or take a couple of days." Molly told her.
"Ah." Ami said and swung her legs off the bed. "Well, I'm gonna go see if those people you mentioned have any hides for sale."
"Don't you want to know where they are?" Molly asked, arching an eyebrow at her friend.
"That would help, yes..." Ami said as she grabbed her gun belt.
"You know where that big tent is?" Molly asked.
Ami nodded. "Yeah." she said.
"Well, follow that road next to it that leads to the railroad tracks. They're in the last house on the left." Molly continued.
"Thank you Molly." Ami said, giving her a kiss on the cheek before heading to the door.
"You're welcome." Molly told her. "I should have dinner cooking by the time you get back, and the shower should be reheated by then too."
"Okay." Ami said as she went out the door.
Oo000ooo000oO
By the time Molly was done with her shower Ami was back from the McBrides with a whole cowhide and a gleam in her eye.
"Found what you were looking for?" Molly asked.
"Oh, yeah." Ami answered. "Got a good deal for it."
"How much?"
Ami held up the hide. "Seventy caps."
Molly's eyebrows shot up. "Seventy caps, for a whole hide?" she asked, surprised at the price, as a whole hide normally ran around a hundred and fifty caps depending on how it was tanned. "How'd you swing that? You give Dusty a blow job?"
Ami grinned. "I grew up on a Brahman ranch." she pointed out. "I just talked shop with him and he was so impressed that he gave me a discount."
"Of course." Molly said with a snap of her fingers. "So, is it gonna take you long to make?" she asked.
Ami shook her head. "No, not really." she said. "The stitching is gonna be the longest part."
"Ah." Molly said and undid the towel that she had wrapped around herself. "You have fun with that. I'm gonna be drying off."
"Oh, I get some scenery while I work!" Ami exclaimed as she tossed the hide onto the bed.
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The group left Novac shortly after dawn the next morning without any major incidents. There was a tense moment when Manny and Boone saw each other, but they walked past each other and didn't say a word. Sara, thankfully, was using the restroom at the time and wasn't able to put in her two caps worth.
They made the 188 by late afternoon. Molly decided that they'd be better off just camping there for the night rather than pushing on and having to camp on the road. There was security in numbers after all, and the last thing that Molly wanted to have was a night fight with Raiders or the Legion when they were all by their lonesome.
After getting the Brahman settled and a campsite set up, Molly and Boone headed for the bar to get something to drink for the party, leaving Ami and Sara by their lonesome.
"Alright, what is it?" Sara asked, putting her hands on her hips as she stared at the purple haired girl.
"Huh?" Ami asked from where she was setting a stew on the fire.
"You've been looking at me out of the corner of your eye and smiling for the last fifteen minutes." Sara said. "Just what the fuck are you up to, Crazy Bitch?"
"I'm not up to anything." Ami answered as truthfully as she could.
Sara, on the other hand, was decidedly unimpressed. "Bull shit." she said, crossing her arms. "You're up to something."
"What could I possibly be up to?" Ami asked.
Sara gave her a skeptical look. "Well, for one thing, I think you want to fuck me." she said.
Ami thought for a second, then nodded. "Well, yeah, but you don't naturally swing that way, so there's no point in me trying, really."
"I doubt that-"
"Hey, you kids getting along there?" Molly's voice interrupted their conversation.
Ami and Sara turned and saw her walking up to them in the dying afternoon light with a couple of bottles in one hand and a cloth wrapped bundle in the other.
"Crazy Bitch here is up to something." Sara said, jerking a thumb at the purple haired woman. "She's been looking at me out the corner of her eye and smiling."
"Oh." said Molly as she walked up to them. "She's not up to something. I'm up to something."
"What?" Sara asked, instantly on guard.
"Here." Molly said and handed the bundle to Sara. "I got you something."
Sara looked at the bundle for a moment, then cautiously took it from her.
"Go ahead, open it." Molly said.
Sara glanced up at Molly for a second, then unwrapped the bundle to find herself looking at that gun that Molly had acquired, in it's holster, on a gun belt, with a couple dozen rounds of .223 inserted into the loops.
For one of the few times in her life, Sara was at a loss for words. She looked up at Molly with an expression of the most complete astonishment that she had ever seen and tried to say something, but nothing came out.
"Whuh- why?" she was finally able to get out.
Molly shrugged. "Because you need a sidearm, and that thing has been rattling around in the bottom of my pack for the longest time, and I thought it'd be a really nice thing for me to do."
"I don't know what to say." Sara said, still dumbfounded by what had happened.
"Thank you works." Molly told her. "Now put that thing on so we can see how it fits, then we can eat."
Sara nodded and buckled the belt around her waist, tied the hold down thong around her thigh, and then stepped back so everyone could see how it looked on her.
"It looks good on you." Molly observed.
"Where did you get it?" Sara asked, as she looked at it, trying to catch the last little bit of the sun coming in over the Western horizon.
"I made it." Ami answered.
Sara jerked her head up and looked at Ami with wide eyes. Ami just smiled back at her.
"Oh." Sara said awkwardly. "Uhhhh... thanks."
"You're welcome." Ami chirped, and then went back to tending the stew.
"What do you think?" Molly asked, nudging Boone with her elbow. "Does she not look like one of the most bad-assed bitches of the Wasteland?"
Boone swallowed and looked at Sara, then he nodded. "It looks good on her." he said quietly.
Molly shrugged and clapped Sara on the shoulder. "That's high praise, coming from Mr Friendly there." she said. "Now come on and sit your ass down. I got you something to drink."
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The ruins of Las Vegas were a blob on the horizon as Molly directed their proto-caravan right, heading directly north, towards some crumbling elevated highways and alongside the main water pipe from Lake Mead.
"Hey, Fatass, why are we heading this way?" Sara asked. "Vegas is over there."
"Yeah." Molly said as they trudged on. "And this way cuts a day off of our travel time, plus it's safer."
Sara gave Molly a "WTF" look. "Safer?" she asked.
Molly nodded. "Uh huh. Vegas has a lot of people concentrated around it. The Fiends tend to stick to the outskirts, picking off the unwary. We'd be a massive target. And let's not even go into what Freeside would be like." she explained.
"Yeah, but the Fiends also wander around out here, too." Sara countered. "You know how chem deals we've did out here?"
"Quite a few." Molly replied. "I've even broke up a couple." she added, tapping the side of her head to show how she did that. "But the Fiends aren't out here in force like they are on the West Side of Vegas and near McCarren. And the Legion is kinda thin out here too because the Rangers are right over that ridge in Camp Golf."
Sara glanced at the ridge that Molly pointed at, made a face, and spit in the general direction of Camp Golf.
"So what are we gonna do when we need to bed down?" asked Sara.
"I'm sure we'll find a spot." Molly said. "In the meantime, keep your eyes open. Just because there is a reduced threat doesn't mean that there is no threat."
"Duh." Sara said as she rolled her eyes.
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Molly's warning as anticlimactic, as the only dangerous things they ran into were a pair of Fiends arguing over a prospector they had ambushed, both of them easily dispatched by Boone and Molly with a pair of headshots.
They had gotten some decent loot out of it, considering the circumstances, but they did do the poor prospector the favor of digging him a grave with a marker before continuing on.
About an hour after that, they saw a small Radscorpion ahead of them scuttling along the road.
"I got it." Sara said as she unslung her rifle.
"You sure?" Molly asked. "That thing's a little light for a Radscorpion."
"You're not the only one who knows how to shoot, Fatass." Sara told her as she wrapped the sling around her forearm and crouched down. "Watch."
Opening the action of her rifle, Sara extracted the .223 hunting round that was in the chamber and clicked another round into the magazine, a black tipped pre- War round. Closing the bolt, she chambered the round and shouldered her weapon.
Molly looked through her binoculars at the Radscorpion that Sara was sighting in on.
"The wind's about 2-3 miles per hour, coming in directly on your left." Molly told her as she observed how the dust and the foliage around the Radscorpion moved.
"Thanks." Sara said, and shifted her aim accordingly.
Sara's rifle fired with a flat crack of a muzzle report, and downrange Molly saw a jet of ocher spurt from the Radscorpion's body before it spasmed and collapsed.
"Nice shot." Molly observed as she lowered her binoculars. "Where'd you learn how shoot?"
"My dad taught me." Sara answered as she stood up and slung her rifle. "My mom taught me how butcher one of those things. You wanna see?"
Molly thought for a second. On one hand, she had learned long ago how to do just that out in California from a squatter. On the other hand, having Sara show them would be good for her sense of belonging to their group.
"Sure." Molly said. "Always good to what's edible out in the Wasteland."
"Ain't that the truth." Sara muttered. "Anyways, it tastes like ass, but it's better than nothing. First thing you do, you cut the stinger off..."
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Late that afternoon, they were nearing the junkie camp when Molly called for a halt.
"What is it?" Ami asked, seeing that Molly was looking at something on the ground. "You see something?"
"Yeah." Molly said. "Some one buried something."
Walking up to the patch of fresh turned earth, Molly knelt down and drew her knife and gently probed at it. The blade sank a couple of inches before hitting something solid. Poking around with it, she slipped it under whatever that was buried and lifted up with her knife.
It took little effort, but the object lifted up and the earth fell away from it, revealing it's identity.
A femur.
A human femur.
Molly looked at the bone for few moments, frowned, and sheathed her knife. Unslinging her rifle, she sighted in the direction of the junkies camp where the light of a campfire could just be seen.
"Huh." she muttered, and then fired twice.
"What was that all about?" Ami asked as Molly got back to her feet.
"I think I know what happened to those two junkies we had to shoot." Molly said, and then gestured for them to follow her. "Let's go."
The group looked at each other, then followed after Molly. They were all wondering what was going on as they approached the camp. Lying on the ground were two people in tattered Brahman skin clothes, each with a .30 caliber bullet hole in their heads.
"Hey, Fatass, why'd you shoot them?" Sara asked, giving the body she was closest to a good kick.
"This." Molly said, stepping over to the fire and picking up something that was lying next to it.
"Oh." Sara said when she saw the severed forearm Molly was holding up.
"How... how could anyone do that?" Ami asked.
"When you're hungry enough, you'd be surprised at what you'd do." Sara said. "I was never that hungry though..."
"Thank goodness." Ami said.
"Yeah." Sara said as she knelt down to search the body. "Let's see what these guys have for loot..."
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By the time they got near Nellis, the sun had dipped behind the mountains, blanketing them in shadows. As they walked down the road towards the gate, Molly saw movement out along the fence line and decided to take a look with her binoculars.
What she saw warmed her heart: a patrol of three Boomers was walking along the fence, keeping an eye on their perimeter.
"Hey, Boone." Molly said, handing her binoculars to him. "Take a look. On the fence, two hundred yards out, about ten o'clock."
Boone took the proffered optics and looked through them at where Molly had described them. "Huh." he said. "A patrol. Looks like your little lessons have taken effect."
"I hope so." Molly said as she took the binoculars back from Boone and used them to glass the tower. "And I think they have some people on that tower, too."
"It'll probably do wonders for their artillery spotting." Boone commented.
As if on cue, there was a distant crump of a howitzer going off as soon as he finished speaking.
"You think that they're shooting at us?" Ami asked, a trace of nervousness in her voice.
"Nah." Molly said. "If they were going to shoot us, they would had us pegged before we got to the outskirts of the ruins, when we were out in the open."
"I wonder what they're shooting at?" Sara asked as a thump echoed in the distance.
"Probably someone got too close" Molly mused. "From how faint it was, I think it was on the far side of their perimeter."
Sara grunted in reply and nothing else was said as they headed for the gate.
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"Halt! Who goes there?"
Molly resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the guard's challenge: Who else could have approached the front gate with a loaded Brahman and not gotten blown up by artillery fire?
Sara, on the other hand, suffered no such restrictions.
"Who the fuck do you think it is?" she snapped.
"Don't mind her." Molly said, neatly stepping in front of the Khan as Raquel came up to the gate. "We're back, and we're bringing those parts for the solar panels you needed."
"Oh, good." Raquel said, her tone saying on just how thrilled she was that the outsiders had returned. "I assume you'll be repairing them tomorrow?"
"That's the plan." Molly said. "Now, if you don't mind, we'd like to settle down for the night."
Raquel grunted and nodded at the gate guards, who unlatched the gates and swung them open. As they walked through them Molly saw Sara glance at the guard who had challenged them when they approached the gates.
"What?" Sara asked the guard. "You got a problem or something?"
"Yeah." the guard responded. "Do you normally insult someone who's carrying a rocket launcher?"
"No, normally I just shoot the motherfuckers." Sara responded back "But since we're supposed to be on the same side and all, I thought I'd try something different. What do you think?"
"It needs some work." the Boomer replied. Sara flipped him off.
"Is that really necessary?" Molly asked Sara as they walked away from the gate.
"It's the truth." Sara defended herself. "I don't do that sweet talking shit."
"So I've noticed." Molly said, making a mental note to swing by Raquel's CP and make nice with her. "Anyways, who want's to cook tonight?" she asked the group.
"I do!" Ami exclaimed, raising her hand.
"This ought to good." Sara muttered, just loud enough that Molly could hear. "Crazy Bitch cooking."
"Don't knock it." Molly told her. "She can make mutfruit taste good."
"How the fuck do you do that?" Sara asked incredulously.
"I don't know, but she does." Molly replied. "Trust me, you'll be wanting seconds."
"Oh, this I gotta see."
Oo000ooo000oO
After dinner Ami grabbed Molly and drug her off in the direction of the control tower for blatantly obvious reasons. Boone ignored them, preferring to sit in front of the fire and poke it with a stick while Sara watched them go.
"They're like two dogs in heat." Sara muttered as she watched them disappear into the darkness.
Boone grunted and poked the fire. "They enjoy it and they're adults." he pointed.
Sara said nothing in response as Boone's comment had gotten her to thinking. She tapped her forefinger on her thigh as she pondered what he had said, then chewed on her lip for a second before turning to face her companion.
"Hey, Boone, what's it like?" she asked.
"What's what like?" asked Boone back.
"Fucking for the fun of it."
Boone dropped his stick in surprise, He stared at the fire for a few moments before he could come up with something resembling a coherent answer.
"Ahhh... well, it's... this is a very difficult question to ask." he finally said.
"Why?" asked Sara. "You were married, right? You obviously know what it's like, that's why I'm asking you."
Boone swallowed nervously. "Ah, look, I'm really not comfortable discussing this with you-" he began.
"So, show me." Sara said.
It didn't help that at precise moment Sara's vest had flapped open and Boone could see one bare breast, lit up by the fire light.
Boone didn't panic- he was First Recon, and they did not do something as mundane as panic when faced with an impossible situation. They just took a shooting breath, aimed, and squeezed. That's what Boone told himself as he forced himself to look Sara in the eye and not look at any of hr lower anatomy.
"No." he told her. "I won't. You're a kid, and-"
Sara rolled her eyes in frustration and stood up. "Fuck this." she said. "I'm going for a walk. See you in a bit."
Boone watched as she walked off into the darkness and exhaled the breath that he had been holding. "That... was a close one, Craig." he told himself. "Very close."
Oo000ooo000oO
Fuming, Sara kicked a rock and sent it skipping across the ground and onto the tarmac where it clattered across the ancient, cracked, paving before coming to a stop.
"Stupid rock." Sara muttered as she stomped along.
Deciding to cut between the hangers, Sara went right and walked down them, head down and her hands in her pockets as she quietly seethed. And that's why she didn't see the young Boomer come stomping out of a doorway.
"GAH! What the fuck?" Sara said as she was jolted out of her seething when she collided with what felt like a brick wall.
"Hey, watch where you're going- you again?" the Boomer said as he got a look at who had ran into him.
"Oh, God..." Sara groaned. She recognized that voice- it belonged to the Boomer with the missile launcher at the gate. "What are you doing here?"
"I was going for a walk because my girlfriend just broke up with me because she's too good to give me a blowjob and I was taking a walk to calm down." snapped the Boomer "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I got shot down and I'm pissed about it, so I decided to do the same thing."answered Sara as she got back to her feet. "She broke up with you because you wanted a blow job?"
The Boomer scowled. "Yes." he growled. "She said it was 'unnatural', and that no one in their right mind would want to."
Sara arched an eyebrow and looked at the Boomer. "She sounds like a stone cold bitch. I think you're better off."
The Boomer grumbled and Sara was struck by an idea. "Hey." she said.
"What?"
Sara smirked and cocked her hip. "You know, now that you're not pointing a missile launcher at me, you're kinda cute. How about we go somewhere private and I give you that blow job- and you can a bunch of other things to me that she probably wouldn't do?"
The Boomer thought for a few moments. He was angry, horny, and tired of his ex- girlfriend's shit.
"Okay." he said. "I know a place."
Oo000ooo000oO
End.