New Vegas: Sheason's Story

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.

"No. No no no no no no no no no no no. I can't deal with this mountain of shit right now. I'll figure this out in the morning."

"It's already morning!" Yes Man added unhelpfully.

"SHUT UP!" I bellowed right as the elevator doors slid shut.

Ding.

The lights were still on in the Presidential Suite. Or, at least, they were still on in the hallway. I took one step out of the elevator, and immediately my knees gave out. I fell to the floor on my hands and knees. The G36, mangled and empty as it was, clattered off my back and came to a rest next to my hand. I suddenly found myself unable to summon the strength to move any further. I was so close to my bed and glorious sleep...

"Sheason?" A voice cut through the fog. Was that... "Holy balls! Sheason!" The next thing I knew, a pair of slender, calloused hands were reaching around me to help me get up. I did my best to look to my right, and there was Cass, missing her hat and leather jacket, kneeling on the ground trying to help me back on my feet. "Holy fuck, man, I thought fer sure that nuke was... I mean... I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I'm alive," I grunted out, not having the heart to tell her that I was pretty fuckin' far from alright. I managed to get back on my knees with her help, and leaned on her gratefully.

"Just barely, by the looks've things." I snorted out a laugh.

"So..." I said after a moment or two. "You saw the nuke go off, huh?" A stupid question, I know. But cut me some slack, I felt half dead. Cass nodded grimly.

"Saw it, felt it, scared shitless by it. The whole building shook, I thought it was a fuckin' earthquake until I looked out the window. The sky lit up like it was daytime... an' from the sounds of things down in the city an' Freeside, it wasn't just me freakin' the fuck out. People were probably thinkin' the world was comin' to an end. Again." Cass coughed nervously. "So did I, if I'm honest."

"That why you're up this late?" I asked weakly. I didn't know precisely what time it was, as I hadn't bothered to check, but I knew it was late enough Yes Man was calling it morning. Which I'm assuming is plenty late.

"Couldn't sleep. Can you blame me?" I snorted out another laugh, unable to do any more than that. "So... you went into th' Divide to try an' find some answers. You find what you were lookin' fer?"

I sat there in silence, using Cass for support, and just stared into nothing while the events replayed past my eyes.

"Yes... and no," I said, my voice getting more and more hoarse. "I... left with answers I never intended..." I hung my head.

"Wait a minute..." Cass looked around. "Where's ED-E?"

I can only imagine the expression on my face when I looked back up at her, because Cass' eyes suddenly went wide with shock. She gasped. And that was it. I couldn't handle it anymore, and desperately drew her in to me as closely as I could. I wrapped my arms around her, and buried my face in her neck, holding onto her for both kinds of support.

I couldn't even work up the strength to sob.

When I finally slept, it was like I was dead. No dreams, no nightmares, just the all-consuming blackness of oblivion.

I was terribly tired.

As soon as the electricity died down, I was surrounded by a cloud of dust. It didn't bother me, because I'd grabbed my helmet that I'd discarded in The Sink before coming here. The teleporter had deposited me at the specified coordinates: the desert, roughly ten or twenty feet away from my Corvega. Thankfully, it was still in one piece and completely unmolested, parked next to the canyon wreckage that led into The Divide. Considering what was overhead, that was hardly surprising.

The sun was up, and it was finally light enough for me to agree that it was 'The Next Day.' Not that you'd know that. The mushroom cloud was directly overhead, and much of it was blocking out the sky, casting everything below it in a pall of darkness. It wasn't quite the same shape as it was earlier the edges were ragged, and it was definitely starting to diffuse in the wind. But it was still here.

I tried not to picture the people directly under the mushroom cloud. Goodsprings. Primm. Jacobstown. Even parts of southwest Vegas would be directly under it...

I shook it off, making my way to my car. And that's when I finally noticed something out of place: a small box sitting on the hood of my car. Almost without thinking, I pulled out Roscoe, my paranoia kicking in again. There didn't seem to be anyone around. The box wasn't wired into anything, so it... probably wasn't a bomb. And it wasn't until I saw the small flag symbol painted on the top that I realized what it was: just a box.

It was a package. Like the kind that would be delivered by a courier. Yeah, real subtle Ulysses.

I sighed, shaking my head and holstering Roscoe. I reached out and plucked the box off my hood carefully. It was remarkably light. Understandably light, when I cautiously opened it (away from my face) and looked inside: the only thing it contained was a holotape.

"One last message, huh?" I muttered, plugging the holotape into my Pip Boy. I tossed the empty box to one side, and sat on the hood of my car, mentally preparing myself for Ulysses' last bout of verbose explosive verbal diarrhea. I had certainly had quite enough of his shit, thank you very much, but I plugged it in to listen anyway.

The recording clicked on, and Ulysses voice crackled to life.

"Last tape. Last message. In case..." Ulysses paused, grunting. "In case you best me. If you're hearing this, you have. Through blood or word. This message... it is for you, Courier. If you want to know the... why of things." He snorted in a manner that was almost entirely unlike laughing.

"Oh, fer fuck sake. Just speak plain, you asshole." I grumbled, burying my face in my hands.

"This world. I've walked a good part of it... and I only stopped because of you. What you did gave me pause." As if to emphasize the point, he actually paused. "Long ago, I crossed the Colorado, the first among the Legion to see Hoover Dam in all its glory... an Old World wall, yet bridging two sides. And beyond it, a symbol of a two-headed Bear. An idea great enough to challenge Csar himself. Might kill him, taking it, whether he won or lost. The Bull needs to fight. Needs the challenge. Without it... it falters. Dies in the dust." Ulysses grunted again. "Might be a lesson there, in you and me. Leave the thought behind the message to you."

"My thought right now is 'fuck off'," I said aloud.

"The destruction that has been wrought at the Divide - or elsewhere if I was wrong, and you couldn't stop me can happen again. It will keep happening. It's said that war... war never changes. But men do, through the roads they walk. And if men can change, so must their symbols." Ulysses grunted again, ending his pause with a sigh. "Even if it is nothing at all, know what you follow, Courier... just as I followed you, to the end. Whatever your symbol, carry it on your back, and wear it proudly when you come full circle. When you stand at Hoover Dam... and your road reaches its end."

The recording clicked off.

The road back to Vegas was, for the most part, uneventful. Granted, I was going the long way around: down the Long 15, along Nipton highway, up 95 and past the 188 trading post. I suppose I probably could have just gone straight up the 15 to Vegas, but that would pass too close to Sloan and Quarry Junction, and you know what? I'd had my fill of fighting deathclaws for the moment.

So I made it back to Vegas with my car and myself in one piece. This is not to say that things didn't get interesting when I got back to Freeside. After going through the Freeside gate, I must have passed at least 5 street preachers yelling about the world coming to an end, all surrounded by mobs of people yelling, praying, crying...

And then, people started to notice me.

Almost as soon as I turned onto Vegas Boulevard, people gravitated to my car. I was forced to slow right the fuck down a lot of them were so close now they were clutching desperately at the body, and I was bound to run someone over if I went any faster. There were people of all sorts crowding around my car, staring at me, banging on the windows yelling over one another trying to be heard which only had the opposite effect.

" 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."