Snowflake on the Sand

Bonus chapter: The ecstasy of gold

(Or how Six got banned from gambling)

Winter hummed as she watched from the cocktail lounge down on the strip. She was planning on what was the best route to take to reach cotton wood cove, the Legion seemed to have control of the area. The invitation certainly granted them passage there but the main trouble came when she thought about the main problem.

"Would they let us leave?"

If they traveled at Caesar's leisure the tyrant could change his mind about how useful they were to his empire. She let out a sigh as she drank from the bottle of water, the sunset sarsaparilla that Six liked so much not to her liking and the nuka colas of the wasteland madeher wary.

Nuka Quantom especially, it glowed. She had never seen a drink do that and from the few terminals she had read around the land the radioactivity of the beverage had nothing to with the passage of time.

Her toher big problem was in figuring out how to get Six to go to the doctor, the courier had been roughed up at the hand sof Benny. It was clear to everyone with eyes that the man was still wounded but for some reason he insisted that he was just fine. Even now she could see him moving… to the Gomorrah?

"What is he up to now?" she wondered. Humming softly she decided to follow him, Victor and the securitrons eying her with curiosity as she left with a frown on her face. A few prostitutes eyed her with want "Hey baby looking for a good time?" Winter shook her head and moved inside. Cheap entertainment not something on her list of priorities, a thugh a the door stopped her from walking deeper into the casino "HEY! No one but Omertas are allowed to carry weapons, leave them with me or get the fuck out"

Winter frowned but emptied her pockets, she was happy that she had left her sword back in their apartment because she would never trust the Omertas of all people with something so dear to her. The Omerta grumbled as he put away the small 9mm pistol, something that wasn't even hers but it never hurt to be armed.

"Thanks, enjoy the games or the ass"

Winter felt her eye twitch at that, walking inside Gomorrah proper Winter felt herself cringing at the sight before her: cheap booze flew everywhere as the lustful eyes of the patrons watched with raptured attention at the dancers. Male, female and even ghoul entertainers all tried to lure their victims to spend money on the casino, and those whose eyes where not on the entertainers gambled away their fortunes. It was nothing more than a den of sinners, worse than anything else on the strip and in the middle of it all Courier Six grinned as he placed down his bet on the slot machines. Winter walked towards him as she did her best to not bump into anyone near her, not out of respect or anything simply because she was genuinely afraid of catching a disease.

"You should be resting"

Six looked up and smiled "Nah, I want to try something. Do you know what a vigor tester machine is?"

The specialist did a face as she tried to recall what it was "Wasn't it the thing that Doc Michel in Goodsprings has on his clinic, I remember that I scored high on intelligence and agility" Six snapped his finger as he grinned his green eyes almost seemed to sparkle "Bingo! Now… guess who has everything on luck?"

Winter raised an eyebrow "Everything? I had a little bit of every single stat, not too much but not too little" Six pulled and it landed on three completely different things but for someone reason the machine itself seemed to malfunction as it gave Six money "Meh I got my high and my lows, but would you look at that seems like I am lucky on this"

"So… you plan to gamble instead of seeing a doctor?"

Six made a so so hand gesture as he bet the maximum amount "I want to see how far I can take this lucky streak, we are going to make a long journey and I think it would be best if we have a lot of caps" as the machine landed on three lemons Six felt his grin widen and he had to use both hands to catch all the chips. "Three thousand caps in one sitting not bad at all"

"You know… your reasoning is not bad, I would stay and supervise you" this comment made the courier chuckle as he handed her all the chips he had just won on the slot machine "You make it sound like I am going to fall dead at any moment, Benny's aim was shit. He won't kill me… not again"

To their surprise one of the Omertas flanked them and gave him a nice smile "Looks like you hit a nice lucky streak there pal, here on the house. Keep playing and keep spending"

Winter looked at the booze and almost gaged when Six downed it one large gulp "Six! You don't know if it has something! This people look…" she trailed off as debauchery happened all around her. Six actually laughed at that. He stood up and went to the tables to try his luck with cards "You worry too much, but don't worry. I wont be here for long"

What followed was to everyone on the casino something simply ludicrous, Six doubled down on his first hand and his bet paid off. Four hundred caps on a single play, Winter had stop herself from snorting as she saw the indignant look of some of the players.

Hand after hand Six chips starting moving to his side of the table, Six either went all in or doubled down, one of the more irate gamblers even accused Six of cheating. So knowing it was best to leave Winter elbowed him on the ribs and moved her head towards the slot machine, nodding the courier grabbed his winnings and walked away for a moment.

The Omerta who Winter assumed was the floor manager approached them again this time with a tight smile and two Nuka Colas, seems like they were not expecting that the dusty looking wastelander would earn so much "One more and I am done here" he said quietly as he spun the machine one more time and it landed three times on the number seven. Winter swore she heard the floor manager scream a loud "What the fuck?!" but it was drowned out by the sound of the machine giving out chips like it was it's job. Six grinned as he watched the floor manager approach him red on the face.

"Ok that's it, no more games for you. go rob the tops, you can still get booze and women but… don't even think about touching another one of my tables"

Winter made a mental note and hummed "Almost twelve thousand caps, not bad at all" Six nodded happily "I really got lucky there at the end, what do you say? Want to rob the tops like the Omerta guy suggested" Six said as he extended his hand towards the pale warrior. Winter scoffed but took his hand "We go to the Ultra Luxe first, I heard that the food there is to die for"

Three casinos on the strip had been cleared by Six, and one from Freeside was the only one still standing. Winter had gone ahead to the followers camp and asked them if they had the time to tend to one patient, the Followers always kind quickly told her to bring her friend so they could take a look at him.

"He should be done by now" she muttered under her breath as she approached the wrangler to stop the courier arguing with a woman next to the silver rush "Look, I really don't know you! I am not… gah stop looking at me like that. Look here's the caps just buy your contract or whatever and leave me alone… I'm really sorry but he is dead. Run back to California"

Six let out a long sigh as he walked up to Winter "Sorry about the delay I got wrapped up in some things. So, the doctor is ready?"

The specialist narrowed her eyes at him but dropped it turning towards the main road of Freeside "Yes, let's go to the followers. We have a long walk to get to Caesar"

A/N: a small bonus chapter to help fight off my writers block and to distract me from my sickness. Added a character at the end that some of you might be familiar and if you are not… well, let's just say that she already showed up in Blood from Vault 18. Thank you for reading!