Chapter 2: The Dogs Of Freeside
3 months before the bombs dropped...
On a Sunday morning, in a little house somewhere in Massachusetts, a young lady called Maria stood in the living room, sweeping the floor. The family's dog, a border collie named Abigail, was laying on the couch and watching Maria sweep. The border collie wagged every time Maria happened to shuffle closer to her. A clarinet piece was playing on the radio, and Maria hummed along.
And then, right on time, Maria heard the clarinet song come to an end, and the theme song of her favorite morning show began. She stopped her sweeping, and sat down beside Abigail to pet her as she sang along.
Every week
We're coming together
We laugh and we chatter and we
Have fun with Zoo & Me
Right before the song even came to a full stop, Abigail sat up on the couch and started licking Maria's face. Maria's heart fluttered at her beloved's advances, and she returned some of the kisses as the talk show continued to start in the background.
The familiar voice of Brass Bulldog said through the radio, "Good morning Massachusetts! The weather this morning is a hot and humid 92 already, and will only be getting hotter as the day goes on. Today might be a good day to take a break from long walks and vigorous fetch activities, and instead keep it close to an air conditioned home as much as possible. Remember to keep plentiful amounts of cool water available for any four leggers, they're going to want it today." You could tell from his voice that he was probably on LSD.
The voice of Akito came in at that moment as well, saying, "Don't skimp out on water for yourself too! It's going to be a real scorcher today. Be safe, and be zooey. Kiss animals!"
Maria smiled a little to herself. Although she had very much kissed an animal already just now, she gave Abigail an extra smooch on the top of the head, and then stood up to resume sweeping.
Akito went on, "In Maine yesterday, sex with animals was briefly made illegal, by way of an extra line that was covertly slipped into a bill amending the state's traffic laws. About an hour later the extra line was noticed, and a follow-up amendment was quickly made to remove the line, making it the fastest reversal of a law in US history to date. The reversal was passed unanimously, and investigations are still underway as to how the line was added to begin with."
Brass asked, "Wait, what? How does a line just get added? Was an elected official just testing their pen, or?"
"Maybe someone's assistant added it?" Akito speculated.
"I think that would be treason."
"I think ANYONE making sex with animals illegal would be committing treason, elected or not."
"Amen," Brass agreed.
The conversation went on, and Maria hummed the theme song to herself again as she continued to sweep.
Hmmm hmmm hmmmmm
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hmmm hmmm hmmm hmm hmm hmm hm hmm
Hmm hmm hmm hm hmmmm hmmmmmm
The smell of cigarette smoke was heavy in the air of the Atomic Wrangler casino. Cards shuffled at the tables in the back. Murmurs of conversations sounded around the room at each of the little tables in front of the stage. It wasn't a bad turnout for a Thursday night.
On stage, Mike, known professionally as "Mike The Dog," was doing some stand up comedy.
"So, awoo'nyways, are there any Kings in the audience tonight? You'd think I would know, what with those outfits, and all of that, 'Ah-huh mama, don't be cruel.' You think I could get in? Haha, I'll work on it. I just wonder if they take days off, you know? Maybe I wouldn't recognize if one was here tonight. You sir, can you repeat after me: 'The warden threw a party in the county jail.' Now you go."
The audience member, urged on by the others at his table, played along, repeating the lines of the song, as Mike teased and encouraged and tried to get them to do it like a King would. It got a smattering of chuckles around the room.
But there were some people who were NOT laughing.
At the bar, Vex leaned 99% of the way off of their bar stool to whisper straight into the ear of the stranger they were seated next to. The ice in their whiskey went clink-a-clink-a-clink as they whispered into the stranger's ear, "That's my friend up there, you better fucking laugh pal."
Vex then gently bit the stranger on the ear for good measure.
The stranger, whose name was Doctor Arcade Gannon, clambored away, swatting at Vex. He commented, "Ew, freak. You're garnering a poor reputation with The Followers of the Apocalypse for this."
Vex exhaled whiskey breath in the stranger's direction, and then laughed breathlessly to theirself, falling off of the bar stool and onto the floor.
On stage, Mike perked up, and said, "Hey, that guy in the back gets it!"
Vex summoned a deep breath and then roared, "You go Mike!"
Arcade Gannon left through the front door of the Atomic Wrangler. Before the door had closed behind him, three figures bursted in to replace him: Zipwok, Old Lady Gibson, and a werewolf. All three of them were wearing leather jackets and jorts. The werewolf's fur was white and blue kind of like WereGarurumon. The werewolf picked Zipwok up and pinned him against a wall. The two started nuzzling and heavy petting each other, or, probably RESUMED nuzzling and heavy petting each other, since they had probably already been nuzzling and heavy petting each other outside. Old Lady Gibson, facing them, pumped her fist in the air repeatedly in encouragement, and chugged from her brown paper bag.
At a table in the corner, Milk and HugDoggy also looked on at Zipwok and the werewolf in approval.
Milk commented, "This is very good. I'm glad that the werewolf seems to be getting even more out of petting a human than the human is getting out of petting a werewolf. Zipwok must be a very good human to pet, or that werewolf is just very into humans. Either way I like it."
HugDoggy added, "I was as skeptical as the next when those fruit loops started loitering about at the edge of my bramen herd. I was glad as a pup in a tickle tango when I learned their interests weren't culinary, but had to do with the flesh in another manner of speaking that the bramen were a good deal more keen on."
Old Lady Gibson, done with her drink, smashed it on the ground with a loud glass "CRASH!" She turned her face up to the ceiling, and howled, "AWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Mike and Vex responded, "AWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Zipwok and the werewolf responded, "AwoooOOOoooOOOooOOOooOoo!"
Milk and HugDoggy responded, "Arf! Yap! Bark!"
Vex slammed the rest of their whiskey and then threw the glass against the floor where it blew up.
Francine Garret said from behind the counter, "Hey! Those glasses aren't free!"
Vex scrambled up onto the bar counter and whispered into her face, "Awooooooooooo," then turned and ran outside, joining the other dogs of freeside who were congregating outside the Atomic Wrangler's doors. The seven of them (Zipwok, the werewolf, Old Lady Gibson, Mike, Vex, Milk, and HugDoggy) plus five or so feral strays all skipped around in a circle for a moment, howling and yipping and barking with glee, and then they all unanimously began running up the main street of freeside, towards the strip.
At the gate, a securitron rolled up to intercept the group at the center of the path.
"Halt," it said. "Submit to a credit check or present your passport before proceeding to the gate. Trespassers will be shot."
Vex reached into a pocket, and pulled out a platinum chip. They said, while holding it up to the securitron, "Youuuuu stupid fuck, do you know how much this is worth? OVER 2 MILLION caps! I will kill you by overloading your data banks with how much this chip is worth if you make my convert it into caps for you you dumb robot."
The securitron, intimidated by Vex's Terrifying Presence, wheeled itself back out of the way, saying, "Please enjoy your visit."
The seven continued forward towards the strip. Milk and HugDoggy also held up their passports to the securitron as they went by, just to be safe.
Meanwhile, south of New Vegas...
Two Brotherhood of Steel scribes, Veronica and Miguel, stood in the room with the big simulation machine. They were each rubbing their own chin as they looked at their guests.
Miguel sighed. "McNamara said he wants them out of here. I hate to take such a blunt approach to it, but should we just..."
"Kill them?" Veronica asked.
"I mean, they'd have it coming, barging in here like that."
Veronica sighed. "It wouldn't do any good. Watch."
Veronica revved up her laser pistol, pointed it at the human who was hooked up to the simulation machine, and pulled the trigger.
BEW!
The human ragdolled for a moment, but then settled back into her comfy laying-down position she had been in, and continued to breathe.
"Oh no," Miguel said.
Veronica nodded. "Essential NPCs."
"I hate this," Miguel said.
"Everyone hates this," Veronica agreed. "We can't disconnect them, that just kills them too and resets everything. We can't turn off the machine, that ALSO just kills them and resets everything."
"What are our options?" Miguel asked.
Veronica counted off the two options on her fingers. She only had the two fingers left, both on her left hand, after a nasty mole rat encounter, so it was somewhat lucky that there were only two options before them right now. "Option one, we go in and convince them to leave the simulation. Option two, we wait for them to get bored on their own."
Miguel sighed. "What are they even up to in there?"
Veronica scoffed, and gestured towards the computer terminal that was glowing beside them. "Have a look for yourself."
Miguel turned, and began reading aloud off of the screen. "Let's see... Oh. OH. Frottage. Masturbating another. Fingering another. Sounding. Wait, sounding? Are these in chronological order?"
"Yup."
"Huh." Miguel read on. "Oral. Oral is AFTER sounding?"
Veronica shrugged. "The logs have no way of telling you what they liked or didn't like, or why they're doing the things they're doing. That much is anyone's guess. Brother Thomas noted that each item seems to escalate off of the previous, or at least, sometimes there are little runs of that happening. But who knows why. The logs can only give us a matter-of-fact record of what transpired."
Miguel skimmed ahead and read off just some of the highlights that jumped out to him. "Spanking. Excessive cum. Somnophilia. Pillory. Underwater sex. Sex while skydiving. Knotting? Ovi... ovipo... ah-vee-poh-zi-shun? Wait, does this really say non-euclidean sex?! I didn't even know our simulation could facilitate that!"
"You think that's a lot, you're still on page 1."
Miguel's face scrunched up in confusion. "Page 1? What do you... Oh... My... God..."
The dogs of freeside splashed around in the outdoor pool of the Tops casino. Milk and HugDoggy tossed toys into the pool for the ferals and Mike to jump in after and fetch again and again. The werewolf and Zipwok swam laps together. Vex and Old Lady Gibson rested back against one edge of the pool, elbows up on the poolside, each of them sipping on wine. Vex had grabbed them six bottles to share from inside, although they were each still on their first.
"How IS Reina doing?" Vex asked, referring to one of Old Lady Gibson's dogs.
Old Lady Gibson sighed. "Leaving me without much pocket change, from all the radaway I have to get her. I could swear she can smell the radiation off of bones from glowing ones, and for whatever reason thinks those are the creme de la creme of archaeological chewtoy finds. But I am keeping up her treatments as far as that goes, so she's well."
"Hm, I see," Vex said, nodding mechanically.
"Her cookie still glows if that's what you were asking."
"It is, thank you," Vex said, and then had a sip from their bottle of wine. They then dropped the bottle into the pool and said "aaaaaaaaaa" as they were grabbed under both armpits and hoisted up out of the water.
A strongman, holding Vex up, turned them to face a man in a black and white checkered suit.
"Bennyyyyy!" Vex said, and relaxed in the strongman's arms which continued to hold them facing the casino owner.
"You got a lot of chutzpah, bub," Benny said with a grim expression. "Extreme self confidence. Audacity." Then he cracked a smile, and said, "Lucky for you, chutzpah is hard to hire these days, so you and I might be in business."
"Fat chance," Vex said aggressively, "YOU are not a dog. Three thousand caps for a night and oral will cost triple, you human fuck."
Benny laughed incredulously, and looked around to his bodyguards to see if they saw Vex's words as a joke too. There were about ten bodyguard around. Not one of them was laughing.
The dogs of freeside around the pool had all stopped their activities, and were facing Benny and Vex.
Benny stepped forward, and mushed Vex's chin in his fingers. "Hey doll, I swing both ways, don't get me wrong, but I worry that if I swing with any of you I might catch fleas."
"Whad do you wand?" Vex said, mushedly.
"Two things," Benny said. He reached into Vex's pocket and took out the platinum chip. "One, stop touting this fake chip around my turf."
With that, Benny turned and threw the fake chip overhand over the wall that encompassed the pool area.
"Hey!" Vex shouted, and struggled for the first time to get out of the strongman's arms, but had no luck. "Just because it was fake doesn't mean you're not still a PENIS HOLE for ruining the fun!"
"Whatever you say dear," Benny said, and then crossed his arms. "Hugo, let go."
The strongman set Vex down on their feet.
Vex, free, leaned back against the strongman's chest like leaning back against a wall, and crossed their arms back at Benny the same way Benny's arms were crossed at them. Vex would NOT be out armcrossed. And Benny could tell. The casino owner sighed, out dominated, and uncrossed his arms.
Vex asked, "What was the second thing you wanted, penis hole?"
"If it interests you, I have it on good authority that the REAL platinum chip is inside some bucket of bolts called Beebee who clanks around in Novac. Don't ask why, don't ask how I know. But I think the robot has gotten wise that I found out, because when I sent my boys around, the clunker wasn't there. So I figure I might hire some dogs to pick up the trail. If you can track that chip down, I'd reward you handsomely enough that you could have all of this for real, instead of waving around a fake chip for it."
Benny leaned down and grabbed one of the bottles of wine off of the poolside, took a corkscrew out of his pocket, uncorked the bottle, and had a drink.
Benny went on, "In any case, enjoy your night. Pool's all yours. I'll have to get someone over to clean the dog hair out of it anyways."
In the simulation room, several Brotherhood knights and scribes sat in rows of fold-out chairs.
The computer terminal chirped as a new line was added to the simulation's logs.
Scribe Miguel read the new line aloud to the room. "Feet!"
"Bingo!" someone in the back shouted.
Several groans and curses were muttered around the rest of the room.
The person in the back read off their winning line: "Auto fellatio. Flaccid play. Feet. Snowballing. Tail pulling."
The groaning and curses from everyone else grew louder as everyone else crumpled up their bingo sheets.
Scribe Veronica tossed a candy to the winner, who caught it and gladly started unwrapping it as a new round of bingo cards was handed out.
HugDoggy, Milk, Mike, Vex, Zipwok, the werewolf, and Old Lady Gibson knelt around an upturned milk crate in the Gibson scrap yard. HugDoggy had laid a map of the area out on the crate, and was walking them through the plan.
"Gibson, being the most familiar with the area, you will begin here, and make an approach towards Novac like so. In support, Milk and I will proceed alongside you during the journey, in the event that any danger is encountered. Zip and Weregarurumon, we'll want you in league with us as well to bolster our numbers, intimidate any who might be sizing us up, and add to our arms if it does come to blows. Mike and Vex, you'll be coming along as well for the same reason."
Zipwok nodded, and said, "So to summarize, we're all going to walk into Novac."
"Yes."
"Beautiful."
The seven of them walked into Novac.
Once in town, they all fanned out and began to sniff around. Mike chatted up the local doctor. The werewolf snuck off to go pet and smell the barmen that were fenced in behind one of the houses.
At some point, Milk tapped HugDoggy on the shoulder, and pointed something out. "Look at that disheveled shack there. The second one on the left, as you're coming in from the mountains."
"What about it?" HugDoggy asked.
"Everything is just a little off about it, compared to the rest of the disheveled shacks. The mailbox is moved five inches to the left. The pile of dusty rocks outside is moved five inches to the left. The door is moved five inches to the left. How do you even do that? You would have to cut out parts of the wall on one side of the door and put them back on the other side after moving the door. It doesn't add up. I think someone there wanted to move very far to the left in a hurry, and what we're looking at is all of the collateral damage."
HugDoggy nodded. "Good point. Based on the angle of incidence on this mailbox, and the hypotenuse of this door, I would say whoever did this made it left all the way to Powder Gangers territory, clear on the other side of these mountains. My boots are already broken in just fine so I don't much fancy a trip straight over, and I'd rather not be caught out straight in the middle of wherever we would end up going that far left all at once. I say we play it safe and take the long way around to the south."
Milk nodded in agreement.
The two of them rounded up the others, and the group began their trip south around the mountains.
Inside the simulation in the Brotherhood of Steel bunker, Brass and Akito (who was a blue feral fox right now) floated around together in zero gravity, hanging out in a simulation of a space station as they brainstormed what to do next.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmm," Akito said. "We could try knotting again. That could be fun."
"What, me in you this time?" Brass asked.
"Yeah!"
"I think I'm kinda good on... everything... right now," Brass admitted, surprised to hear himself say it. "Maybe we should just go back out to the real world."
Akito scoffed. "It's only been like a week!"
"Wait, HAS it?" Brass asked. He ran back over his memory of the time they had been in here. "Oh my god, we do need to leave. I have to make sure Daisy 2's been getting enough water, I have to make sure Daisy 8's been finding enough to eat, I have to-"
Akito interrupted, "Oh gross I didn't realize anyone actually depended on you for stuff, that sounds awful, I ditched that kind of thing SO long ago. But yeah sure we can leave and go check on all of that quick." To the open air around them, Akito said, "Simulation, exit all participants, override engage now."
Everything went white for a little while. Then, gradually, a room made of dingy metal came into focus. The room was filled with a whole bunch of Brotherhood of Steel knights and scribes who were staring down at her and Brass.
"Ummmmmmmmm," Akito said, looking up at all of them. "Turns this base inside out."
Suddenly all of them were standing on a dingy metal cube in a fenced-off pocket of the desert.
"Okay anyways bye!" Akito said, and then grabbed Brass by the wrist and began running with him away from the inside-out bunker, towards Goodsprings. The two of them laughed to themselves as they ran, laser blasts grazing off of Akito's power armor and Brass's chassis.
Late in the evening, the dogs of freeside had made it north of Primm, and were just coming up on Goodsprings.
Vex was quick to make the group's presence known, letting out a loud, "AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The others quickly took up the howl as well. Many Goodsprings residents just shook their heads as they continued the work they were doing in their fields. A couple of local dogs joined in the howl, wagging at the newcomers who were speaking their language so fluently.
As they continued walking, Vex asked the group, "What do you say we call it a night and turn in to this saloon, boys?"
"And Milk and Old Lady Gibson!" Milk added.
"Boys and Milk and Old Lady Gibson," Vex corrected.
"The saloon sounds okay!" Milk accepted.
"Awoo!" Mike agreed, and then leaned over to pet a local dog who had come in to join their fray.
As the dogs of freeside approached the saloon, the owner, Trudy, happened to be stepping out. "Well now!" she said. "None of you would happen to like rum and sunset sarsaparilla, would you?"
Vex kept their cards close to their chest, answering, "I could order one if the mood struck me. Is it a specialty here?"
Trudy laughed to herself, in a way that made it sound like she was taking a bad situation in stride. "You could call it a specialty tonight, if you were being generous with the word 'specialty.' Our barrel of rum that was coming in from the north from the Great Khans crashed with our barrel of sunset sarsaparilla that was coming in from the south from Primm. Created two perfectly nice barrels worth of rum and sunset sarsaparilla, but I'm afraid it's already going flat :("
Vex responded, "Oh no :("
Trudy went on, "Drinks are free if you can stomach 'em, you'd be doing me a favor by drinking it instead of making me dump it out and attracting a mess of flies."
The dogs of freeside howled, and proceeded in to the saloon. Vex shook Trudy's hand on the way in, and assured her, "We will do our absolute best to help you with your dire situation."
About an hour later, as night had settled in, the dogs of freeside all stood around playing pool, or watching pool being played. Except for Zipwok and the werewolf who were slowdancing together. The radio in the Prospector Saloon was broken, but the two of them were happy with dancing to the music of the love in their hearts.
Old Lady Gibson finished off her current drink, and set it down on a little table that was nearby. "Nature calls," she mentioned to HugDoggy, and began walking off around to the other side of the saloon, towards the restroom.
"Always calling and never much for conversation," HugDoggy responded, lining up a shot with his pool stick.
"What?" Old Lady Gibson asked, and stopped walking. "I don't think I completely get that one."
"Don't trouble yourself, I don't think I fully thought much about it either. This rum and sarsaparilla is very strong."
Old Lady Gibson laughed agreeably. "I'd bet the barrel of rum was bigger than the barrel of sunset sarsaparilla for sure. Anyways, I'll be back shortly."
Old Lady Gibson resumed walking off, around to the other side of the saloon, where she could get to the restrooms that were in the back. Over on this side of the saloon, there was Trudy behind the bar, sipping from a glass of rum and sunset sarsaparilla herself. There was one patron seated at the bar sipping on the specialty drink as well, the brim of a grey fedora obscuring her face. And there were also a couple of figures sitting across a booth together in front of one of the windows. One of them was a robot, and wore a cowboy hat. The other, whatever they were, wore power armor.
As Old Lady Gibson walked by, she overheard the robot saying, "I suppose I did overreact a little bit at the fact it had been a week in the simulation. I don't make the rounds that often all the time anyhow."
The person in the power armor responded, "Well, I'm glad Daisy 2 is doing good. We can certainly set off wherever we need to tomorrow as well."
At the sound of those voices, Old Lady Gibson stopped dead in her tracks and gasped.
A couple of days before the bombs dropped...
On a Thursday afternoon, in a little house somewhere in Massachusetts, a young lady called Maria knelt in front of a border collie called Abigail. The dog was nervous about getting her nails trimmed, but was being very brave about it all the same.
Soon, though in that moment it was unbeknownst to her, Maria would find herself cryogenically frozen in Vault 111. Someday, in the very distant future, she would no longer be called a young lady, and would just be called a lady, or Lady Maria to those who knew her. Someday after that, she would be informed that she was no longer even young enough to just be Lady Maria, and was, in fact, Old Lady Gibson.
But, for the moment, Young Miss Maria Gibson didn't know any of that. For the moment, she knelt in front of Abigail, humming a tune to distract the brave canine from the nail trimming.
Hmmm hmmm hmmmmm
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hmmm hmmm hmmm hmm hmm hmm hm hmm
Hmm hmm hmm hm hmmmm hmmmmmm
Before anything else, Old Lady Gibson did proceed to the restroom, finish her business, and grab another glass of rum and sarsaparilla from the bar. With the drink in hand, she dragged a chair over to the booth that the old radio cohosts sat at, and sat down with the two of them.
"I never thought I'd see the day," she said, beaming at the two of them.
Brass, a bit perplexed, asked, "Am I being told that someone at this table has a reputation?"
"Oh, hang on now!" Old Lady Gibson said, putting something together. "You ARE the one from Novac! I must see you at least once a week in passing, but I'd never had the pleasure of putting a voice to the face. It mightn't have clicked anyhow, without the both of you talking. Bless my stars. Brass. Akito. It's TRULY a pleasure."
She offered out a hand to each of them in turn, and shook both of their hands, introducing herself as Old Lady Gibson in the process.
She went on, "I was a big fan back in the day. I even called in a few times. Maria Gibson."
Akito gasped. "Maria! I remember you!"
Brass tapped his fingers on the table a few times, and then remembered it: "Abigail. Border collie."
"Yes!" Old Lady Gibson said warmly. And then a little more ruefully, she repeated, "Yes." She took a sip of her drink. "I thought the days of hearing your voices were far, far, faaar behind me. Are you working on bringing Zoo & Me to the airwaves of the Mojave?"
Akito leaned back in her seat. "That would be a blast, but I don't know how we would pull off something like that."
Brass let a little pause hang in the air. He processed whether to share something. The timing of it seemed perfect. Suspiciously so.
Well, what the hell. If his hands were coming up all aces lately, there was no reason to doubt another.
He mentioned to Aki, and to their fan, "We could get a station up and running if you wanted to."
With that, he ran a program that caused a hidden compartment in his chassis to slide open. From the small compartment, he removed a platinum chip. He twirled it around between his fingers for effect.
"Platinum chip. Highly advanced computational device. I don't even think most of the people looking for this thing know the half of it. Up on the mountain nearby, there's a radio broadcast station that's mostly in working order. But you don't hear much from up there, because the range is... lacking. Slot this chip in, it would redouble the efficiencies of that station until we could send a clean signal clear to the Pacific coast. I figured I would set it up to do just that someday, playing our archive. But maybe we could do it live."
Akito agreed, "Oh my god we should."
Old Lady Gibson again beamed at the two, and then said, "Excuse me while I check back in with my friends."
With that, she stood up from her chair, and went back to the other section of the saloon that had the pool table.
Vex and a feral dog from town were on the pool table making out.
Old Lady Gibson announced to Vex, "Job's off."
Vex looked away from the dog, who continued to lick the side of their cheek. "What?"
"Platinum chip job. We're not doing it anymore."
"Oh that's fine." Vex gave a little side smooch to the feral, who wagged and continued to lick, now licking the side of Vex's eyes.
"Drunk ass," Old Lady Gibson muttered to herself, and then asked, "You don't want to know WHY?"
Vex reached into their pocket and pulled out their fake platinum chip. "Nah I climbed that wall and got back my fake one that Benny threw. I don't really care about the real one that much."
"Oh," Old Lady Gibson said. "Alright. Works for me."
Over on the other side of the saloon, the woman at the bar wearing the grey fedora finished her drink. She thanked Trudy, stood up, and made her leave.
Outside, the droning of bugs filled the night air. The woman marched off into the hills north out of town. As she walked, she blinked her flashlight in a sequence that spelled out TOPS to anyone who knew Morse code.
Very briefly, one dim red flash came in response, signaling to a keen-sighted observer where her group was. She marched for their direction, and met up with Benny and a couple of fellow goons there behind a bush, hidden under cover of night in the hills.
In a hushed tone, Benny asked, "How's it look, Lou Cat?"
Louey settled in beside Benny on the hillside, looking down at Goodsprings with him. "The chip is in there with the robot. Looks like our collateral is the bartender, our seven freeside dogs, one actual dog, and someone in power armor that the robot is with."
Benny ruminated on that. "NCR or Brotherhood?"
Louey answered, "Armor looks to be lifted off the Brotherhood, but it has some other faction stenciled onto it. Blue zeta, if that means anything."
"Diddly," Benny said. "They'd have done better to leave the armor alone and let someone worry they might have serious backup. Hm. Alright then. The one set of power armor alone might throw a wrench in things more than I like, but all the same, I think by morning we'll be one chip richer."
To the east out of Goodsprings, Elder McNamara knelt in wait alongside a half dozen of his most elite Brotherhood knights. "I am told they cannot be killed. But I will not have them make such a mockery of our stronghold. That will take us at LEAST a month to turn rightside-in again! We have so many other plans and, and, and OBJECTIVES we should be working on! We should not be wasting our efforts on such silliness! Though we cannot kill them, we WILL put them right back in that simulation machine that they so brazenly co-opted, and show them that besides offering limitless pleasure, we can also set it to be a featureless prison."
The knights nodded, and continued to wait, ready to apprehend anyone leaving east out of Goodsprings.
In the nooks and passes to the south of Goodsprings, a Powder Ganger underling returned to Joe Cobb. The underling reported, "Okay boss. Dynamite is set. Razzle-dazzle is ready when you are."
"Derelicts only?" Cobb asked.
"Sure boss."
"SURE? Or YES?" Cobb asked more insistently. "I don't want tonight to be anything more than some wooping and hollering to show our firepower isn't something to be taken lightly. If I find out you rigged up a house that had people in it, you better start flinching every time you hear something go tick."
"Derelicts only, boss," the underling assured.
"Okay. Good," Cobb said. "We'll give it some time yet. Wait till the ruckus in the saloon dies down."
"Sure thing, boss."
"Nobody asked you."
"Sure th-"
The underling shut up.
"Good job," Cobb noted.
A couple hours later, inside the Prospector Saloon, everyone had decided to settle down for the night. Trudy, drunk as the rest of them and acknowledging that Goodsprings was a bit lacking in lodging for passing travelers, agreed that it would be fun to make a pillow fort for all of them. And so, working together, a pillow fort had been constructed out of pillows and blankets and bar stools and the pool table and a lot of duct tape and a few nails through the walls here and there for good measure.
When it was done, Zipwok and the werewolf and Old Lady Gibson and Vex and a local feral dog and Mike and HugDoggy and Milk and Trudy and Akito and Brass all laid together inside of the pillow fort. Given that it had been a very busy day for all, and that most of them had been drinking to cap it off, snoring quickly filled the air.
"Hey Brass," Akito whispered. "Are you up?"
"Yeah," Brass whispered back.
Akito took off her helmet, planted a kiss on Brass's metallic forehead, and then put the helmet back on. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Brass returned. After a moment, he brought his fingers to where his lips would be, and then gently tapped his fingers against the forehead of Akito's power armor in turn.
(While the events of this chapter were taking place, Tarro the raccoon in Novac ate a roasted bloatfly, nachos, sushi, cashews, a coffee energy drink, strawberries, a bag of chocolate chips, some toast with peanut butter and jelly on it, and meatloaf microwave dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, and then took a nap.)
