Gus

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The western sun's rays slanting across the Wasteland cast long shadows, reminding Ellen that as much as she wants to reach DC and find out what the situation is at the Lincoln Memorial, she's going to need to get some rest first. It's a long way from the Temple of the Union to the ruins. She's tired, Dogmeat's tired, and the temperature's dropping fast as it gets darker. Plus, her armor's starting to hum the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which Ellen figures is never what you'd call a good sign. Luckily there's a shack up ahead, one with a door she can open and close. "What do you think, Dogmeat?" she asks. "Does it smell okay to you?"

Dogmeat raises no objections, so she tries the door. It's solid enough. There's a table with a radio on it to one side; the radio's got enough juice left in its fission battery that it picks up the GNR signal when she turns it on. Unfortunately, when she moves to survey the rest of the place, her Geiger counter starts going off as she approaches the far corner of the room.

"Blast. It's not worth the Rad-X we'd both need," Ellen says to Dogmeat. "We'd better find somewhere else."

As they head out of the shack she pulls the door closed behind her, hard. It's not really built for that, so when it hits the doorframe it bounces open again. Pity she didn't turn around at the sound, because she'd've caught sight of the light of Milliways leaking through the inch or so that the door bounces open.

And anyone in Milliways who happens to be looking at the right spot at the right time will notice the door that suddenly opened an inch or so, letting in the cool evening air.

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The first house we come across, or the first standing fence with a gate in it, I'll try and get us back to the Bar," Ellen says. "I don't think we should go back to that shack, though. There's a radiation source in one corner of the building and I don't think you want to get contaminated... okay, I'm done here. Let me just wash my hands off and we can find somewhere to stop for the night. There's only half a moon, so it'll be easier to travel in the morning, okay?"

She's all too aware how overwhelming the Wasteland can be to a newcomer.

"It'll be okay, Gus. I promise."

[thanksrainman]

"Oh, that's great," he says, exasperated. "I went in there, ya know?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's not a very strong source, it's just not one I want to take chances with if the door doesn't work on the first try," Ellen says. "I've got some anti-rad chems on me if you want. They do nasty things to your stomach, though, so you might want to wait until we find a door and not take them until then."

By 'nasty things' she means they go through you like a raging Brahmin on a bad day. Ellen has something of a talent for polite understatement.

[thanksrainman]

"Whatever you say, kiddo." He looks up at her, completely lost. He gets up to his feet, picking up the glowing bottle. "Lead the way."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Up ahead in the distance- not too far, maybe five or ten minutes' walk- there's a sheltered little dip in the side of a hill. "I think we can stay here," Ellen says. "I've got some stuff for a fire, and I can trade guard duty with Dogmeat so he and I can both get some rest. And I've got some stuff that I think you won't mind eating. You'll probably feel a little better for it, too. I know it helped to have something good to eat after my first encounter on the surface."

Dogmeat looks at Gus for a bit, then bumps his head against the man's leg and wags his tail. He may be a little bit 'off' as dogs go, but he knows when his human is trying to be friendly, and he's learned to do the same thing.

[thanksrainman]

"I just got out of bed and hour ago," Gus says. "Just had breakfast."

He looks at the dog and frowns. He almost considers petting the animal but thinks better.

"We're camping outside, then? With those things?" He points at the crab monster on the ground.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Unless you want to walk in the dark," says Ellen. "Don't worry. They don't like fire. Even yao guai stay away from fires, so it's only humans who might be a problem."

Dogmeat snorts. It's not HIS fault if Gus doesn't want to play.

"Snack cake?" Ellen adds; she's extracted a box from her pack and is offering him half the contents. Which is to say, something that looks and smells almost exactly like a Twinkie.

[thanksrainman]

He shakes his head. He's not exactly sure he'd be able to eat anything without throwing up. "It's yours," he says. "Keep it."

He follows Ellen's lead, careful to avoid Dogmeat's mouth... just in case.

"This is just normal for you, isn't it? This is nuts!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right," says Ellen, and puts the Twinkie thing back in its box. "It'll be there if you need it later."

She starts extracting the crumpled-up paper and other things one needs to get a fire started from her pack and heaps it in a neat little pile. "Hm?" she says. "Well, yes, it is. I can't really argue with you there. I felt exactly the same way when I first made it to the surface, and... honestly, most of the time I half think there's something about living on the surface that makes people crazy. But you get used to it, after a while. As long as you're careful, anyway."

[thanksrainman]

"Crazy?" Gus asks. "Ellen, you just shot a... monster back there! I'm 41 years old! I know there's no such thing as what I saw back there."

He looks nervously toward the vanishing horizon. "This is fucking beyond crazy."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There's no such thing as mirelurks where you come from," Ellen points out. "This is 2277. It's been two hundred years since a nuclear war ended the world. All kinds of things exist that didn't before, and things don't exist that used to exist. It happens. Things change."

[thanksrainman]

"Not like this they don't." He buries his face in his hands. Maybe when he looks up, it'll all be gone and he'll be back in the bar.

It was the eggs. That's what it was. The bar fucked up, and gave him eggs that came from something that wasn't a chicken.

He looks back up at Ellen. They're not in the bar.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

No, they're not. However, Ellen is pretty good about scavenging certain bar-like things, which is why she's holding out a bottle that may just possibly have a familiar smell.

"Take as much as you need. You look like you could use it."

[thanksrainman]

Gus almost refuses, but after a few moments hesitation, he takes the bottle. Taking a drink, he grimaces quite severly.

"Christ, how old's that?" he asks, looking at the label.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Two hundred and... I'm not sure. Maybe two hundred and twelve years," Ellen says. "Aged whiskey's supposed to be good, right?"

[thanksrainman]

He shrugs. "I don't usually drink the hard stuff," he says. "I wouldn't know."

He takes another drink anyway before screwing the top back on and handing it back.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I don't bother with Wasteland beer," Ellen says as she tucks the bottle back into her backpack. "It's nasty. I'd rather drink water straight out of the Potomac, and that's irradiated as anything. The alcohol's safer."

She eyes her pile of flammables, then comes up with a length of metal about the size of her finger and a knife of the size and shape normally issued to soldiers. Scraping the knife over the metal produces a shower of sparks, and shortly there's a nice little campfire going. "I'm going to let Dogmeat sleep first," she says. "If there's any questions I can answer in the meantime, anything at all...."

[thanksrainman]

"I'm gonna die here," he says quietly. "I just am."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, you're not," Ellen says firmly. "I won't let that happen."

[thanksrainman]

He looks up at her. "Yeah, well, you're crazy."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"As long as you stay somewhere I can protect you," says the nineteen-year-old, sober-faced, grey-haired Korean-looking girl, "you'll be fine. I've rescued people from lots worse situations than this."

[thanksrainman]

He sighs. "So... what's the plan then? We find somewhere that'll take me back? I don't even know how this works, since..."

Yeah, it goes without saying, really.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"In the morning," Elle says, "we keep moving south. It's about an hour to the first edge of the DC ruins, but there's some scattered places along the way where there's a wall or two with doorframes in them still standing. I can usually get to Milliways by concentrating on the Bar while I open a door. I must've been thinking about it when I slammed the door in that shack, or something. We find a door, I open the door, you go back to Milliways, and I keep going into the city."

[thanksrainman]

"Usually?"

Gus doesn't like the sound of that.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It didn't work when I was in the virtual reality simulator of the Battle of Anchorage," Ellen says. "I really wanted to get out of there a few times, but none of the doors inside the computer version of Alaska let me into the Bar. In the regular world it's always worked when I've had the time to concentrate."