When we reached the gates of Galactic Zone there were about two or three dead settlers laying out front. It appeared they were battling robots and lost the fight. Gage walked by them, completely oblivious to the loss of lives in front of him, as I felt the usual pain in my chest when I saw a fallen settler.
It made me think about how fragile our lives were in this new world. One minute you could be living in your settlement trying your hardest to make a life for yourself, one where you could live without fear. Another minute you are out trying to forage for more valuables to support your group and then you're dead. Never able to make it back to your settlement to see your loved ones or fend for them.
After I said a few words in my head for the Common Wealth deceased I searched their bodies. Gage didn't not say much, just observed me from a far. That's how most of the trip to Galactic Zone went. He helped me mow down what seemed like a million Mr. Frothy and Eyebots, and observed. I didn't confront him about it, I just kept doing my thing. Kill, scavenge, collect, and move on.
I felt like a test subject after a few hours of exploring the park and I was starting to get annoyed. I walked faster ahead. He didn't change his pace to keep up. I looked up at the next building. It read Nuka Galaxy. My attitude completely shifted when I realized this was the ride for Nuka Girl! She was my favorite character and without hesitation I made my way inside.
I immediately heard her voice, ushering me into the waiting area and encouraging me to help her save the galaxy. As I made my way through the attraction I took care of the robot attacks by myself. I knew Gage was a few feet behind me but I kept pushing forward without waiting. When I made it to the end I froze. There it was. A Nuka Girl costume, right there for the taking. I approached it completely star struck and tore it off the mannequin. I went into the rides operating room and tried it on.
"Boss…?" I heard Gage's voice emerge from the ride. "Boss, where the heck are you?"
I opened the door quietly and tried not to make any noise. I crept up behind him, my thirst zapper in hand. A crunch came from underneath my boot as I stepped on some debris and it made him turn. I popped up and blasted him with a few squirts from my water gun.
He held up his arm blocking the water "What the hell-" he was mad. As he lowered his arm he swore "what the fuck are you doin-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw my outfit. His slanted angry eyebrows furrowed up making a crease in the center of his forehead. His mouth hung in shock. His eyes slowly looked me up and down. I studied his expression, trying to figure out if he liked what he saw.
The silence grew awkward and I didn't know what to do. I did a half-ass spin and posed, holding my squirt gun with two hands up to my face "What do you think?" I noticed his cheeks flush as he looked down to hide his reaction. Did I just make Gage blush? I thought. My exposed belly button, pushed up breasts and thigh high boots actually broke this stone cold man. In that moment I felt powerful.
"I…It…It doesn't matter what I think, Boss. If you like it than keep it on." He turned away.
I bounced back into his vision "Do you know whose outfit this is?"
He was making quick glances back and forth from the ground and my breasts that were bouncing up and down from my excited jumps. He wanted to stare but didn't want to seem like a creep "No…" he struggled to say.
"I'm NUKA-GIRL!" I said playful as I started to blast random things with my squirt gun. "Will you help me defend the galaxy?" I pointed at Gage like Uncle Sam selling war bonds. He shook his head back and forth in response "Come on cadet, chin up we have a galaxy to save!" I squirted him a few more times and he swatted me away.
"Squirt me with that thing one more time and I'll-" I squirted him again and it splashed his face. He stood still for a moment with his eyes closed, clearly annoyed. His fist still raised from his dry threat. I was smiling, my mouth ajar as I waited for his response.
He wiped his face and revealed a playfully angry smile "Alright, Nuka-Girl, I'll show you who the real threat to the galaxy is! Come here!" He grunted as he went to chase me.
I laughed as I ran away from him, squirting him some more "I'm not afraid of you, evil alien scum!" I ran back into the control room to change.
After our Nuka-Galaxy charades we continued to the other side of the park. It was dark now and we searched for a place to rest. We came up on a building named Starlight Interstellar Theater and figured it was our best option to spend the night.
We stopped, ducked down in the doorway. "You hear that?" I said as we listened closer. It sounded like screaming and then the compression of steam. "There must be robots in here." I warned.
We made our way slowly into the building and immediately were caught by a Mr. Frothy. We shot down the annoying robots as we walked into a large theater with booths that looked like Nuka-Rockets. It resembled a drive-in. Just when we thought we were safe we heard the deep robotic voice of a Sentry. He powered up, his red eyes glowing in the dimly lit theater. We took cover behind the wall as he shot machine gun lasers at us.
"Shit, this thing is tough. I've never seen anything like that." Gage said as he braced himself against the wall, the ground shaking from the heavy machine gun blasts.
I was started loading my Spray n' Pray as I spoke "Really? I've dealt with these things a hand full of times."
"Where are you going?" he said as I got up fully loaded and ready to attack. "You can't go out there" his eyes were pleading.
"Trust me" I revealed myself to the clump of metal on wheels and blasted him with everything I had. Pieces of metal were flying off of him. He shot back each bullet shaking my body as they were stopped by my armor. I knew I was going to feel that later. Then with a few rounds left it caught fire and shut down.
Gage emerged from cover "Well I'll be damned…" he was shocked.
I turned to him quickly, my face contorted into worry "Get back!" I screamed as I jumped toward him, pushing him back into cover. The Sentry Bot exploded and shrapnel hit the other side of the wall we were behind.
When I lifted my head from cover I was inches from his face. He was looking back at me, his expression, again, unreadable. The world seemed to slow for a moment as I felt his breath warm my skin. My heart pounded, I never felt this way being so close to someone "Are you alright?" I finally said. He never broke my gaze, his mouth still a thin line as he nodded up and down. "I'm sorry," I felt my face blush as I pushed myself off of him "It was about to explode and I didn't know what else to do. I didn't mean to jump on you."
"It's fine." He said as he brushed himself off. Sometimes I hated the fact that he showed such little emotion.
"Well," I surveyed the room "It looks like we cleared all the robots out." Pieces of gun barrels and metal parts scattered the floor. I looked up at the screen and saw a movie playing. I felt a thrill when I realized it was a movie I remembered seeing once. Then I saw the projector room. "Let's check that out!" I pointed for Gage so he could see what I was looking at and then made my way to the elevator.
When we got into the room there were holotapes of old movies loaded into the computer. I grinned as I read all the names. When I turned I saw Gage going for the star core. We had been collecting them to get the power armor out of a display case in the star control exhibit. "Wait" I stopped him, knowing that if he pulled that out we wouldn't be able to watch the movie. He paused "Have you ever watched a movie, Gage?"
He thought for a moment "No, Boss, I can't say I have." I smiled at him and his eyebrow went up in worry, reading the expression on my face. "Uh-oh, what is that brain cooking up now?"
I ordered the movies in the secession I wanted them to play in and we made our way back down to the rocket ship booths. I ordered Gage to move one of the rockets front and center of the screen. I went to the bar in back and rummaged around for some snacks.
Gage had laid out our sleeping bags in the rockets and was in his ship, waiting patiently for my return. I set the Nuka choices in front of him "Wild, Victory, or Dark" He picked wild and I made a note of that in my head.
I got comfortable as I opened my cotton candy bites. "You're gonna like this one, it's called Attack of the Slim."
"Have you watched these before…?"
I hesitated. I never told Gage my backstory and I didn't know if I wanted to. So, I kept it short "No, but it sounds good…" I felt his eyes on me, but then he turned to the screen.
A few minutes into the movie I felt him staring at me again, then he spoke "Hey, Boss, can I have your ear a minute?"
I didn't pull my eyes away from the screen "Hm…?" I hummed and stuffed some more cotton candy into my mouth.
He didn't start until he had my full attention. I set down my bites and turned to him. I wish I had a pause button, I thought.
"I just wanted to talk to you about the whole Colter, thing. I know we talked about it briefly but I wanted you to understand that I would never turn on you. I'm sure you've thought about that…" He looked at me, his expression slightly embarrassed.
"It's crossed my mind." I said, trying to keep my expression neutral.
He sighed "I figured…" he continued to explain his story. It was hard for him to explain his feelings I could hear it in his slow speech, each word clearly being mulled over in his head before being spoken. "Listen, you aren't like other Raiders I've run with. You're smarter than the rest and…you care, not just about yourself but others. The way you do things is just…different, I've watched." He let out a sigh as he played with the bottle cap in his fingers. "I've had a lot of fun with you these last couple of days." He chuckled, probably remembering todays Nuka-Girl incident. "Ah, fuck, you know what I'm trying to say right, Boss?"
I smiled as I pressed my lips together "I do, Gage."
"Good." He sat back and turned to the screen "Let's finish the movie."
I stared at him a minute longer, watching the light from the screen dance across his face. It may have been a short conversation but it was something I needed to hear.
We finished two movies and when I turned back to Gage he was sleeping. Clearly, he wasn't a movie guy. I reached over and pulled the blanket higher on his body, then snuggled back into my seat.
The next movie started to play as I smiled to myself and took a sip of my Nuka-victory. I felt I deserved it. It was a little victory to finally have my right-hand man open up to me.