[Only read if you came from Chapter 27]
Benny didn't breathe a word of it when they were both awake in the morning but kept casting her these disgustingly satisfied glances, as if she'd passed him her life and happiness in a check and signed it, all for his pleasure. She hated it so much she skipped breakfast and ran upstairs to pack her things. The lights in her room and down the hallway had lost their glamor. She sat over her bedsheets with tears streaming down her face.
Now she's stepping downstairs with her pack slung over her shoulder, her eyes never lifting above the tile floor.
She hears a voice down the steps, and her bones freeze.
"Hey, baby."
She quickens her pace and tries to rush past him, but he steps in her way.
"Hey, what's this all about? I had a blast, like Cloud 9 happy, why won't you look at me?" He grabbed her shoulder, "Look at me. Look at me, baby."
A burst of rage boiled up from her insides, "Fuck off." She shoved him aside and kept walking.
He called after her, "Oh, yeah, walk away skank! Get outta my casino! Yeah, fuck off!"
She leaves while the sun washes over the broken streets, her steps quick, eyes set forward, weapons thrown over her shoulder. Everything on the street's quiet, seemingly abandoned and bathed in yellow. She turns the rusty switch on her radio and it crackles quietly into life as she passes through Freeside.
Dust stirs under the wires weaving the North gate when she approaches as if the restless wasteland were seeping through to peek inside. She kicks the dust as if it were a naughty dog and grunts as she pulls the lock and opens the gates. The wasteland hissed and flew in with the rising breeze. As she closed the gate behind her and stepped into the sand-ridden road, it wrung round and round her ankles and followed her the way down while she kept trying to kick it away. Plants and rocks, orange and red under the sunrise, sit and watch her enviously go past, the fading night watching from behind them.
Her eyes catch sight of footprints in the dust. Old ones, maybe from a day or two ago: the wind had mostly swept them away. Whoever it was is traveling solo, which is a bit strange. Going alone into the Mojave isn't very common, and most often very dangerous. She picks up the pace a little. She might happen by them on the way, dead or alive.
Once I update the other lines of story this'll be updated.