Chapter 133: The Roads Men Walk

Chapter 133: The Roads Men Walk

I just wanted to sleep.

I wanted to sleep for a billion years until everything just went away and left me alone forever.

Unfortunately, there were several factors keeping me from doing exactly that. First and most important: I had way too much to do. I had to get back to the Lucky 38, for a start. And I had to recover my car, too, that was kind of important. Probably. Second and more immediately pressing: my rifle was digging into my back like a motherfucker, and it was really uncomfortable to keep lying on the ground like this.

Come on. Get up. Any time now, that would be fantastic. Aaaaany time now.

"Sir?" Jeeves' said; I cracked open a blood-shot eye and stared at the speaker set in the ceiling. "Shall I have the staff fetch you a pot of coffee to rouse you from your stupor?"

"Mnnf." I grunted.

"Egnnph." I coughed out, trying to raise an arm. It flopped back down again, completely useless.

"Ffnnlg." I snorted, before finally giving up.

"Sir?" Jeeves asked, more than just a little bit confused.

"Give him a minute," Sue said as I continued lying flat on my back. "He's... had a rough day."

The electricity surrounding the teleport platform in the Lucky 38 died down, and the hairs on the back of my neck fell flat. I took one step forward off the platform before wobbling unsteadily and gripping the edge of a nearby console to keep myself from collapsing entirely.

I felt like a deflated balloon. It was like someone had pulled out a cork, and all the adrenaline keeping me going for however long I was in The Divide had just... evaporated. Every time I moved, my body screamed at me; aches, pains and wounds were gnawing on my insides, and my joints were killing me. I could barely keep my eyes open, and it took every ounce of strength I had just to stagger away from the teleporter and over to the elevator.

"Oh, hi there!" Yes Man's voice blasted through the speakers above me as I entered the balcony of the big monitor room. "I'm so happy to discover that you're still alive!"

"Still alive?" I muttered, grabbing hold of the railing to keep myself steady. "Why would..." I started hacking, and pounded my chest to quiet the coughing. "Why would you be worried?" As soon as I figure out if I was being sarcastic or not, I'll let you know.

"Why, because of the nuclear detonation centered over the ruins of Hopeville in The Divide, of course!" Yes Man said, in the same jovial tone of voice as ever. "It's kind of hard to miss that mushroom cloud!"

I looked out the window, beyond the big monitor, to see what I could see. It was the middle of the night, and the lights up here in the Penthouse were still on, so I didn't think I'd be able to...

Nope. Even dark as it was, that mushroom cloud stood out against the blackened sky like a blaze in an oil refinery.

The full scale of exactly what happened was hammered home, yet again. The mushroom cloud was even bigger than I thought. The head of the cloud was flat and wide, lit up from below by huge patches of orange fire, and stretching for... it had to have been miles in every direction. I couldn't see the edges, and it was just so massive that it was wrecking my sense of perspective.

"Do... do you know..." It felt like my throat was seizing up. I looked down at my hands, gripping the handrails; the metal bar under my right hand was already warped and deformed. "Do you know how many people were..."

I couldn't even finish the sentence. It was my fault. It was all my fault. If I had just... turned around and walked away... If I had just stopped...

"The number of casualties is currently unknown!" Yes Man said, still obliviously chipper. "According to preliminary sensor data, the warhead was detonated at a spot approximately 5.8 miles above the surface, creating a hypocenter at an estimated GPS coordinate of 35 north, 116 west!" Yes Man paused for a minute, and scrunched up his face. "Of course, the data was collected from only one sensor tower, and is mostly conjecture based on the apparent size of the fireball. I suppose we have to make do without the aid of satellite triangulation! I'm so sorry about that, but it's the best I can manage! However, you can take some solace in some good news!" Yes Man grinned broadly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, letting go of the metal bar; my cybernetic fingers detched with an audible clunk.

"The last time a roving securitron ventured close to those coordinates was 3 years, 2 months, and 15 days ago." Yes Man continued, nodding slightly. "It was ripped apart by a deathclaw! So the likelihood of any humans living within the 2nd and 3rd degree burn radii without having already been mauled by a deathclaw first is miniscule at best! The only confirmed settlements affected by thermal radiation are as follows: Primm, Goodsprings, and the Mt. Charleston ski resort. However, the energy felt at those locations during the blast would all be less than 3.6 calories per centimeter squared! Only about the same as a sunburn! So there's nothing to worry about!"

Despite his reassurance, I still felt bile crawling up the back of my throat.

"I must say, once ED-E stopped transmitting data half an hour ago, I was worried something truly terrible happened to you," Yes Man kept on going, blissfully unaware as ever. "But you're here now, safe and sound! Hooray!"

"ED-E was... he was transmitting data?" I asked, looking up. Yes Man nodded again.

Wait, hang on. Something isn't right here.

"Oh, yes indeed!" He said with a smile. "ED-E transmitted data packets directly into the Lucky 38's mainframe at regular five minute intervals, with a rather large exception right before the data suddenly stopped."

Despite everything else, I was caught up in a brief glimmer of hope.

"But then, that must mean... Can you access the files?!" Is ED-E still alive in some fashion is what I wanted to say. Yes Man scrunched up his features and shook his face.

"Sadly, no! The files immediately transferred themselves behind a partition within the mainframe utilizing a complex, multi-level encryption. And ED-E was the one I tended to rely on when it came to heavy decryption! I'm so sorry I've been such a disappointment!" I sighed, burying my face in my hands.

And then I looked back up, finally putting two and two together.

"Do you think the files are the reason your face is now animated?" I asked, cutting to the chase.

"Animated?" Yes Man asked, his face having frozen solid in his old expression again in the time it took for me to blink. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I was never programmed with an animated face!"

"But... didn't you... just..." I blinked, trying to force away the fog of a swiftly approaching splitting headache. But it was no use, and I just shook my head, making my way to the elevator. "You know what? Forget it. I don't care if I'm hallucinating or not. I just want to sleep..." I was stepping across the threshold of the room when Yes Man landed another bombshell in my lap.

"Have a nice rest, Friend_Courier!" I halted in my tracks, reaching up to grab the edge of the doorframe to help me stay upright. I was holding it so tightly the plaster started to crack. And then I let go, and kept walking.

" the Courier! That's him! He "

" are awaited! They walked the Lonesome "

" killed the world! You hear me?! You "

" end is upon us! Repent, for the end "

" want answers! Tell me what "

I couldn't deal with all this. Not now. I revved the engine, and flipped open the cover protecting one of the switches on my dashboard. Most of the people started to scatter at the bellow of my engine, more started to run at the unexpected sound of metal and the heavy, whirring clunk of machinery and the rest legged it when they saw a pair of grenade machineguns pop out of my Corvega's front wings. As soon as they were gone, I closed the cover and stamped on the accelerator.

People seemed to wise up after that, and I wasn't harassed the rest of the trip.

I brought my car to a stop in the Lucky 38's underground car park. For a few minutes after turning the key and shutting everything down, I just... sat there. I leaned back in the seat, pulled off my helmet, tossed it in the passenger seat, and let the car tick itself cool. I covered my face with my hands and dragged my fingers down across my face slowly, letting out a heavy sigh.

"What the fuck am I gonna do..."

A muffled sound caught my attention. I couldn't figure out what it was at first I sat up, looking around the empty parking lot. I opened the door just in time to see a bounding ball of fur and metal leap down a set of stairs, and Roxie trotted up to me, barking happily and panting all the while.

"Hey girl!" I said with a smile, getting out of the car and kneeling down to pet her. "How're you doin'?" Roxie barked happily again, leaping up the paw at me and lick my face. I couldn't help but laugh a little despite myself, and ruffled her fur, scratching behind her ears. "Aw, I missed you, too."

A roar echoed through the parking lot. In an instant, I was on my feet with Roscoe in one hand and That Gun in the other.

"What the fuck wa HEY!" Roxie bolted from her spot, but didn't head in the direction I expected. Most animals, when they hear something obviously huge and bellowing out a roar like that, they run in the opposite direction of the sound. But Roxie ran at full speed directly towards the sound, disappearing into the darkness. "Oh, fer fuck SAKE! Give us a fuckin' break, come on!"

There was nothing else for it. I took off after her, running into the darkness. I switched my eyes to nightvision, and about halfway down the ramp that led to the next level, I was brought to a screeching halt.

"What the..." I hadn't seen anything to make me stop like this I smelled something. "What is that?" I asked aloud, sniffing the air. Whatever it was, it smelled positively rank... like a body left out to cook in the sun. I started moving again, trying to ignore the smell. It was just getting worse.

Squish.

"Radroaches?" I said when I looked down to see what I'd stepped in. And yes, I suppose it had been a radroach at one time. It looked mangled, almost like someone had torn into it to eat it and it wasn't the only one. The further I got in this deeper level, I saw more dead animals. More roaches littered the ground, along with a few geckos, and couple of big radscorpions. I even saw a few nightstalkers and the mauled remains of a cazador! Not the small ones, either, one of the big ones! What the fuck were they doing here? I thought the Vegas wall kept these kinds of animals outside...

I heard another bark from Roxie up ahead, followed swiftly by another growl. I couldn't think about all this by now; I grit my teeth, gripped my pistols tighter, and ran in the direction of the sound. Roxie barked again... it didn't... it certainly didn't sound like she was in trouble...

A pair of eyes glinted in the darkness ahead of me, at about eye level. Something snorted... and Roxie barked again, from exactly the same place.

THUD.

The ground shook from a heavy footfall.

THUD.

Before I knew it, I was face to face with another deathclaw. It was slowly slinking out of the darkness, advancing on me like a curious animal, rather than a hungry one. My joints had locked up at the sight of him and especially when I saw the row of fur on top of his head, between his two curving horns.

No, it couldn't be...

Could it?

I turned on my Pip Boy light and shut off the nightvision to get a better look at him. The deathclaw leaned forward, cocking his head to the side and sniffing the air around me with heavy, audible snorts.

"Couuurrrrr...iiii...eerrrr..." Stripe bellowed in a deep voice befitting his new stature. Roxie barked again from somewhere above my head; I looked up, and saw the cyberdog perched on Stripe's back, sticking her head out of the furry mane.

"Uhm... h-hi, Stripe." I chuckled nervously, putting away Roscoe and That Gun as calmly as I could manage. "You're... a lot bigger than I remember." I paused, feeling one of my eyes twitch. "I wasn't gone for that long, was I?"

"I hunt..." Stripe shuffled past me, and I realized he was at eye level because he was hunched over, walking on all fours. Roxie happily bobbed and swayed on her perch. "Hunt for food. Meat. Grow strong. Be worthy of Alpha. Worthy of Mother Courier." He reached down and grabbed a piece from a nearby radscorpion, and tore into it with his toothy maw.

"Uh... huh..." I tried to be calm, but this was freaking me out. "So... I'm guessing... this is your... nest?" Was that even what deathclaws would call it? Stripe snorted again, turning to face me. A piece of rascorpion meat was hanging loosely from his jaw, and he leaned in to sniff me again.

"I can smell rival clan. You fought many. Showed your strength." He snorted again, blasting me in the face with foul smelling air. "Our clan is strong, because Alpha is strong. I must grow. Be worthy of Mother Courier."

"I-is that so?" I asked, a bit nervously. "Well, that... that's nice."

The next thing I knew, a huge, slimy, warm and wet piece of meat was dragging itself across my face. Stripe's tongue felt like I was being slapped in the face with a fish that was still alive and thrashing madly in the open air. The entire right side of my face was covered in mucus.

"Ahh...I... er... uugh..." is all I managed to say as I stood there, shaking and horrified from the rather unpleasant experience. And then... I heard a squeak. It was exactly like the squeaks I would hear when he was as small as a cat. I reached up to wipe the slime away from my eyes, and when I could see again, there was Stripe looking at me with his mouth wide open and another high pitched squeak, exactly the same as before, issued from the back of his throat.

"What." I said flatly.

"I will grow to be worthy of Alpha," Stripe growled in the booming, gravelly voice again. "But I will always be your tiny Stripe, Courier."