Hancock let out a shaky breath his hand shaking ever so slightly as he held the journal in his hand. Raising a hand he ran a finger over the words. What the hell had that been. A vision? A hallucination? He had been high. Heck he still was but he'd never had anything happen like that before and he'd been shooting up for so many years now you'd figure he'd have experienced this before now. This wasn't the first time he'd used mentats and jet together. So why was he seeing all this? What was different? But one thing was for sure. He wasn't about to stop. He loved the high, he loved the rush. And there hadn't ever been a rush like seeing another's life. He popped another mentat and took another hit of Jet and turned the page and began to read...
July, 2265Was fiddling with a radio, heard this strange message over and over again inviting me to a place called the Sierra Madre. Asked around, heard how its some sort of treasure city. If I can find it and get that treasure... Message invites me to Begin Again. Damn straight. Never have to shovel brahmin shit again if I'm rich, time to get a whole new life. Sierra Madre here I come.
Serenity was the way she had been with the last vision. Her hair was a little longer, maybe half an inch, probably less. She was also dirtier but she looked much the same as she had before. Same leather jacket. Rifle on her left shoulder, .22 varmint rifle on her right. He could see the butt of the 9mm inside the jacket of Serenity's jacket. Her hat was the same, so were her goggles. Nothing had seemed to have changed. She was walking down a road. Heading south given that the sun was in the west maybe an hour from sunset. It was at that moment that Serenity slowed to a stop and looked to the west, instinctively adjusting the straps of her loaded pack on her back as she stood there. Seeing the sun coming down she turned around slowly eyes scanning the horizon. To the east there was the faint outline of a shack or some kind of building. Shifting the way the sling of her .22 rifle she moved off the road and began walking towards the shack.
The sun was just touching the horizon when she reached the shack. A quick look at the exterior would tell it had been abandoned for some time. There was a well around the back that when pumped produced dirty brown water but it was still water and though it looked and tasted nasty it was clean and rad free. Serenity took a drink and refilled her canteen on the dirty water before checking the inside of the shack. The shack was a single room. Whoever had lived here was probably long gun judging by the lack of any possessions. There was the metal frame of a bed without a mattress along one wall. A lantern hung from a hook on the wall but a quick check showed it was out of oil. Before she ran out of daylight Serenity quickly dropped her pack on the bed and opening it removed a small canister of fuel. Carefully she poured a small amount into the base of the cannister. She had a spare wick in her pack as well that went in place. Flint and steel produced a spark that lit the wick and she had light right as the sun finally disappeared beyond the horizon. Leaving her pack inside she took the lantern outside and did a quick walk around the shack checking for any signs of inhabitants or critters and found none. Taking another drink of water and taking a moment to take care of her natural needs in the bushes she retreated inside for the night.
She laid her sleeping mat on the metal frame of the bed and then her sleeping bag over that. Finally a thin blanket was laid out. Hot though southern California was the nights could get awfully cold. But it wasn't yet cold and it was too early to sleep. She ate a pear for a bit leaning against the shack wall her eyes on the radio in the corner. Crawling over to it made clear it wasn't working but she wasn't ready to sleep so she opened the case exterior and began fiddling with the interior wiring. Serenity had a knack for mechanicals and electronics like most wasteland scavengers and explorers. She wasn't capable of building a robot from scratch or anything but she could run a basic computer hack or repair basic items. After all scavenged prewar items were always more useful if they worked. So it was in her interest to fix the broken items she found. Inevitably over time she was slowly getting better and better with mechanicals. Radios were still new to her since they were too heavy to normally be found in random remote locations. Clearly someone had brought this one here but abandoned it when it had stopped working. After about half an hour of work and one accidental mild shock when she touched the wrong wire the radio came to life. Idly she began tuning her way through the radio channels. It would be nice if she could find some music.
What she first discovered though wasn't music. But a woman speaking.
"... from your troubles, or if you just need an opportunity to begin again, join us, let go, and leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening this October... We'll be waiting."
Serenity listened. Not sure what to make of the transmission. It seemed weird. Particularly when the transmission seemed to loop and start again. Sierra Madre? What was that?
"Has your life taken a turn? Do troubles beset you? Has fortune left you behind? If so, the Sierra Madre Casino, in all its glory, is inviting you to begin again. Come to a place where wealth, excitement and intrigue await around every corner. Stroll along the winding streets of our beautiful resort, make new friends, or rekindle old flames. Let your eyes take in the luxurious expanse of the open desert under clear star-lit skies. Gaze straight on into the sunset from our villa rooftops. Countless diversions await: Gamble in our casino, take in the theater, or stay in one of our exclusive executive suites that will shelter you and cater to your every whim. So if life's worries have weighed you down, if you need an escape from your troubles, or if you just need an opportunity to begin again, join us, let go, and leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening this October... We'll be waiting."
She listened through the entirety of the transmission in silence and listened once more as it began again. Sierra Madre. Where had she heard that name before. She sat in silence as the woman's voice repeated the invitation over and over and over again. When the loop was nearing its twentieth time Serenity's mind finally made the missing connection. There'd been a crazy old man two or three towns back who'd mentioned it. Saying it was a city of the dead that held a mysterious treasure. That meant that this wasn't a new post war casino like those found in New Reno. But something from before the bombs. It seemed odd that the transmission was still playing almost two hundred years later but perhaps that was providence. And treasure. Treasure certainly appealed to Serenity.
It was hard to say what form the treasure might take. Water? Weapons? Caps? Something else? As Serenity sat there lost in her thoughts as the transmission continued to loop over and over again she eliminated the water and the caps. Serenity was smart enough to know that caps and water were hardly valuable in the pre-war world. While weapons certainly might be found this was a civilian place by all accounts. So what was the treasure. Pre-war money? That wasn't nearly as valuable though it still had some valuable with merchants. It would be better if it was something else. But perhaps there were other things. A city of the dead, apparently unspoiled and preserved? There might be more there. There might be tech, weapons, chems, and water after all.
She smiled softly as she finally started to feel tired enough to sleep. Getting up she blew out the lantern to preserve the oil in it and made her way to the bed. She put her knife between the bedroll and bedframe while she held her 9mm, safety on, in her hand as she pulled her blanket over her body. As she closed her eyes the radio repeated the message for the hundredth time and the woman's voice repeating the same message that she'd sounded for decades and centuries lulled Serenity off to the land of sleep where dreams of the treasure awaited her.