Chapter 46: The Crew

Chapter 46: The Crew

I was starting to dislike Dean.

I'm sure the mute woman - whatever her name was - probably thought I never shut up. But at least I had the good sense to only speak up when I was pretty sure we wouldn't be ambushed by the Villa's inhabitants. This guy, though...

"Going to be sad to leave the Residential District. Well... not really."

"Sure left a lot of traps around. Sometimes I forget where they are..."

"You sure came a long way to rob this place. Guess greed is in the blood."

"You'd think it was Spring, the way tourists keep rolling in."

"Ah, aren't the trees lovely this time of year, all blooming and green..."

I'd had enough. More than enough, honestly.

I grabbed Dean by the shoulder of his tux, dragged him into a nearby alcove, slammed his back into the wall, and shoved my Pip Boy against his neck - between his rotten chin and his bomb collar. He only had a moment to look surprised - his sunglasses now sitting askew on the stump of his nose - before I gritted my teeth and hissed in his face just loud enough for him to hear.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Do you have a fucking death wish, or something?" By now, Dean had gotten over the initial shock and had started struggling against me.

"Hey, hands off the merchandise!" He gave a solid push against my arm, so I backed off a bit - taking the Pip Boy away from his neck. "What are you talking about?" As he spoke, he tried to straighten his jacket; never mind that it was filthy and torn in over half a dozen places.

"I haven't been here all that long, but even I've figured out that those gas-mask zombies-"

"The Ghost People?" Dean straightened his sunglasses.

"Yeah, them. I'll bet you any caps they're drawn to sound - and here you are, refusing to shut up." I kept hissing through gritted teeth, right in his face. "No offense, but I don't really care about you. I care about getting the fuck out of here. And I'm not going to be able to do that if I'm neck deep in zombies because you're an idiot."

"Oh..." Dean just shook his head and chuckled softly to himself, straightening his bow tie. "Well, if that's all you were worried about, you should have said something sooner, tourist."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Calm as you like, Dean reached into his tux and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. I backed up a bit, eying him carefully... what was he up to?

"Smoke?" He offered. I shook my head and waved him off. He just smiled. "Good, I wasn't going to give you one anyhow." He leaned against the wall and started smoking. "This isn't the first time I've had to leave the Residential District. Occasionally, I have to leave to scrounge up supplies, and I don't like taking chances. So, before we left my flat, I set off one of my little... distractions."

"Distractions?" I asked. Dean nodded.

"Yes, just a charming little something I cooked up a while back. Makes a hell of a lot of noise, and flashes a lot of lights directly into the underground - where the Ghost People like to live. It's clear on the other end of town. By now, there shouldn't be a single one of the Ghost People between here and wherever we need to go. Just so long as that somewhere isn't Puesta Del Sol."

"Huh," I stepped back further, appraising the ghoul. "Any other tricks up your sleeve?"

"Of course," Dean got up off the wall, flicked the cigarette away, and started walking off. I through it best to follow him - keep an eye on him. "I'm going to take a stab in the dark here - our destination is the fountain, yes?" I nodded. "There are a few shortcuts between here and there I'm sure you'd be interested in taking."

After about a hundred yards of following him, he veered right, into another alcove in the wall. I heard a click, and rounded the corner just in time to see him open a door into the building.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked, looking around the dusty interior of the building. Dean closed the door, and immediately it felt easier to breathe - if nothing else, this place was protected from the Cloud.

"Well, we could always use my normal shortcut - but that back alley is saturated so thick with the Cloud..." He looked back at me, and chuckled grimly. "Honestly? You don't really look all that... acclimated to the weather here."

"Good point." Dean led the two of us through the building and up a flight of stairs. I didn't hear anything around except the creaking of old floorboards under our feet. Nobody around, no cloud... and with any luck, no traps. I decided to use this little bit of downtime to try and.. make amends. I didn't really like this asshole, but I was going to have to work with him. And that meant at least attempting to play nice.

"Hey, Dean?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I've just... it's been a bad day, alright? I really don't like this place, and I want to get the fuck out of here as fast as I can. So... sorry." Dean muttered a monosyllabic laugh (that was more like a grunt, honestly), and didn't even bother turning around to face me.

"Yes, well, I've had a bad... how long's it been now, 200 years?" He sighed, reaching into his jacket - presumably for more cigarettes. "I've honestly lost track. But yes, I suppose you have had a bit of a rough day, little boy. Just like all the rest who've wound up here..."

"The rest?" Dean was leading us down a long hallway, past a few windows so filthy they could've been red walls.

"The others who've come to visit the Sierra Madre - Tourists, you know? They don't stay long... and they don't stay alive long. If they survive the Cloud, the Ghost People, the traps? That's when greed takes over, and they start sizing each other up for funeral suits. First, they figure they can get out, escape - like you keep claiming you want to do. Then, they start thinking it over, start thinking about how they can have it all. They start weighing the odds, taking risks... and then taking each other out. Bomb collars or no. Although... it's odd. The bomb collars weren't linked before like they are now. Guess someone learned what the problem was..." Dean started softly chuckling to himself. I started thinking about what he was talking about, and something he kept saying stood out to me...

"Actually, I got a question for you. The gas-mask zombies - the Villa Inhabitants - you called them Ghost People, right?"

"Yes... what of it?" He turned around and stopped to get a look at me, cigarette hanging limply out of his mouth, his left brow raised. Well, that was something, at least. "Ghost People" was a hell of lot easier than saying "Villa Inhabitants" all the time. It wasn't much, but... little victories, you know?

"Do you know where the Ghost People come from?" Dean just shook his head and kept moving.

"Friend... 'There's more mysteries in heaven and earth...' wait, no, that's not right..." Dean clutched at his cigarette and looked pensive for a moment, before taking it out of his mouth and opening his arms, raising his hand up towards the ceiling "There is more between heaven and earth..." And then he paused, mouth slowly closing. Eventually, he shook his head and lowered his arms. "Oh, forget it. You know that old line anyway, right?"

"Hey, don't look at me, man. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Dean stared at me, astonished.

"It's a line from Hamlet! How do you not... ugh, philistine..." Dean shook his head, and kept walking. "Forget it. Point is, I'd sooner ask what makes me an undying son of a bitch than spend any thought as to why they crawled back to life here. Personally? I'm counting myself lucky I still have my faculties - they certainly don't. Then again... they may not have had the... focus that I posses."

"Focus?" I asked. He nodded, still looking away from me as we turned a corner down another hall.

"Always had the Sierra Madre to keep my mind occupied. Most folks... they don't have the same drive. The same need. None of them were ever worth my time..." He finally looked over his shoulder at me and smirked. "Pretty much Ghost People before the Bomb... and Ghost People after."

"Why do you keep calling it 'the' bomb?" I asked.

"What the fuck does the hologram have to do with anything?" I asked. Off in the distance, I heard a pair of doors open - God was leaving his building, and on the other side of the courtyard, I saw the mute woman make her appearance as well.

"I don't know why, but for some reason the Ghost People stay away from the holograms. Perhaps they learned on some basic level to stay away after enough of them got disintegrated by the security holograms. Make a loud enough racket without something else to draw their attention, though..."

God strode up towards Dean and myself, each of his footsteps reverberating against the street with a dull, heavy thud. The mute woman was keeping a decent distance away from God, but kept staring at the fountain; it looked like she was deep in thought. Dean ignored the Nightkin as the blue-skinned super mutant walked past him, and instead watched the mute woman from his seat on the edge of the fountain.

"So... are we on our way to somewhere else?" God growled, looming over me. "A Gala Event perhaps?" When he said that, it made me wonder - just how much did Elijah's voice travel? Did he hear it from his hiding place on the other side of the courtyard, or...

"What do you know about it?" I asked. God grunted, and I saw the corners of his mouth twitch.

"It's the way to bring the Old Man out. He won't show himself until the casino doors are open. So triggering the Event is key... and the key. Do you follow?" I nodded slowly.

"Yeah... I think so, yes."

"The question becomes... can we trust each other to do this?"

"Trust is such a strong word, God..." I looked up, and was acutely aware of just how close this giant mass of muscles was standing to me. "But I think we can work together just long enough to get out of this alive. Because that's all I want - to leave." God started laughing - slowly, deliberately, and so deeply that I could feel it shaking in my legs.

"We'll see. If we go to the point on your map," he pointed a giant sausage-finger at the Pip Boy on my arm. "and you bring Dog out, then..." God leaned in close, and I tried not to retch; somehow, his breath seemed worse than the Cloud. "I'll make sure you pay in blood."

"Don't worry about it, God. You may be an asshole, but I'd rather deal with you than someone who wants to eat me any day." I looked down at my Pip Boy, zooming in on the point marked on the map for the super mutant. I showed him the screen and pointed to it. "Any reason Elijah assigned you to this point on the map?"

"Maybe it's familiar, comfortable... After all, practice makes perfect. And as much as it bruises my ego, some things require... brute strength. In the right combination."

"Practice?" I asked. Does that mean... has he done this before?

"Besides," God continued, turning to look at Dean and the mute woman. "none of your assembled band of thieves look able to rip down a rusted, 200 year old power switch down. And, obviously, I can."

"Good point," I said, walking towards the ghoul and the woman. Dean had gotten up from his seat and it looked like he was trying to talk to her - or, more likely, trying to hit on her. Good luck with that, I thought. I only got the tail end of the one-sided conversation...

"So tell me, gorgeous. What happened with those scars? Somebody... something carve you up, or...?" Dean asked. The mute woman just ignored him, looking up at the fountain; she was focused on it, like she was trying to figure something out.

"Don't... eh... don't talk much, do you?" The mute woman finally looked at Dean with a glare that could've been made of lasers. Slowly, she started to shake her head.

"All right then," Dean turned on his heels and slowly started walking away. "I'll just wallflower it over here..." He walked right past me, and then started talking to himself, but just loud enough for me to hear. "Damn shame... hate to think if someone put you in there. Who bailed you out again, the new guy? Interesting..."

"So, you look deep in thought," I said to her. She continued to look at the fountain, narrowing her eyes. I followed her gaze, as her looked from the fountain to the perimeter of the courtyard... was she gauging the distance? She looked back, and down at the Pip Boy on my arm, and then back at the fountain. I looked down at my own arm, and looked at the fountain myself... and that's when I figured out what she was doing.

"You think he's using my Pip Boy?" I asked, turning to her. "To establish the projector connection?" The mute woman started nodding slowly. She raised her hands in front of her face, palms facing each other, rotated each palm in a 180 degree arc, and then back again. I nodded.

"You're right, he'd have to be broadcasting from somewhere nearby... Somewhere close." I looked around, scanning the rooftops. "Any idea where?" She looked behind her, up towards the casino on the ridge overlooking the Villa... and frowned. She looked west... then east. Eventually, she turned around, pointed at my Pip Boy, and held out her hand.

"Uh... alright." Cautiously, I held out the arm with my Pip Boy, and showed it to her. She started studying it intently, turning my arm around in her hands like an old sensor module. It kind of reminded me of when Veronica was handling my Pip Boy, after I showed her the Sierra Madre transmission. Except she didn't seem interested in the screen - she was studying the exterior, and the casing. It was like she was making sure it was intact. But weren't these things supposed to survive damn near anything?

"Hey, don't worry about a thing, I'll just stand here like a piece of furniture until you're done." I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I couldn't help myself. She looked up at me with a smirk, and rolled her eyes at me - and then yanked hard on my arm, so she could look at the screen. "Hey! Careful, that's my arm, all right?" She ignored me, her finger stabbing through the red buttons, narrowing in on the local map. I leaned over her, trying to get a look at what she was doing - she had called up the local map of the Puesta del Sol switching station, and zoomed in. Her intent expression lost some of its edge as she noted the marker, and let go of my arm. She looked up at me, pointed at the marker on my Pip Boy, pointed west, and tilted her head.

"Yeah..." I said, looking closer at the map marker. "That's where he wants you to go, all right. Why do you think he wants you there?" She frowned, then made a motion in the air, as if typing at keys... then she pointed at me, raised her left wrist, and pantomimed talking into it. She pointed at me, then herself, and looked behind me - towards God and Dean, who were loitering on the other end of the fountain. She raised two fingers - one from each hand - tried to type, paused, and slowly shook her head.

"You're the only one who knows how to operate any computers at the switching station, aren't you?" I asked. She nodded slowly, looking impressed. I wasn't so impressed - in fact, I was getting a little tired of playing this game of charades.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if you did one snap for yes, and two snaps for no."

She smiled humorlessly... and nodded slowly. Then, she shook her head slowly. She looked up at me, her face wrinkled in that same humorless smile.

"Okay, okay, I get it," I said with a smirk, nodding myself. "Better than finger snaps." Her face wrinkled more, and then, reluctantly, smiled wider.

"Smiling! There we go, that's more like it." She just rolled her eyes, and slowly tapped the back of her wrist. This was getting too much. I needed to try and lighten the mood... somehow.

"You know, you really need to relax. This whole place is a pre-war paradise, you know." Words really can't do justice to the expression she tossed my way. So, I figured I'd keep the joke going - as long as I could, at least. "Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I'd want to build a summer home here... but once you get past the Ghost People, the Cloud, and all the traps, it's really quite lovely."

She threw her head back, and opened her mouth as if to laugh... but no sound came out. As soon as she realized her laugh was silent, she stopped, and looked pained. Her expression darkened, and she hung her head. Right, that was the opposite of what I wanted to have happen. I put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at me.

"Look... we'll find a way to heal you, all right? I don't know how, and I don't know when, but I promise. I'll figure out a way to get your voice back." She looked away, and shook her head... brushing away my hand. She turned, walking away back towards the building she'd been using for shelter - but before she did, she motioned with her head behind me.

"Well?" I heard God's booming voice from behind me. I turned around, and saw the Nightkin making his way towards me. "Are we going to the power switches, or should I just wait for you to die from exposure, first?"

"Sure. Quicker we get there, the quicker we can get this over with, and the quicker I can leave this shithole." I checked the holorifle on my back, and the pistol under my arm, checking how much ammunition I still had left. While I did that, I turned to the ghoul - who was back to smoking at the edge of the fountain. "You going to be alright here for a while, Dean? Shouldn't you try and find some cover from the Cloud?" The ghoul just laughed.

"Just because you're my ball, chain, and dog collar all rolled into one doesn't mean you need to be so fussy, dear," Dean laughed again, taking one last draw of his cigarette, and tossing it aside. "I've lived here for so long... watched the Bomb fall... watched as the Cloud kept climbing up out of the Madre over the years, until it was curtains for the sun. I haven't seen the sky for a century. Maybe more. I got used to the Cloud in small doses over the decades, and it's so thin here... it's almost like breathing air."

"So you're going to be fine on your own then." I just wanted a straight answer. That's all. Just... something to go right today. Dean smiled, and slowly shook his head.

"Go and get everyone in position, so we can trigger the Gala..." He smirked to himself, and added softly: "Again."

"Again?" This wasn't a coincidence. I needed to figure out what was really going on.

"I'm sure you'll see soon enough... or maybe the Boss-man will just keep you in the dark, and set off your necktie. Personally? I'm not really a betting man. I'm content to merely sit back... and watch the fireworks."

I just sighed, and rolled my eyes at Dean. I motioned to God, and he and I walked east, away from the fountain... and all I could hear was Dean, slowly laughing to himself.