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]

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."

[thanksrainman]

"Oh. Good."

He's just dripping with sarcasm right now.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's okay, Gus. Worst comes to worst, I'll take us on a side trip to Megaton. I've always been able to use the front door of my house to get to Milliways, without question. It won't be that much of a delay in what I'm doing," Ellen says.

[thanksrainman]

"Sorry, we didn't have that in our school geography lessons," Gus says. "Where's that?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It didn't exist before the War," Ellen says. "You wouldn't have known about it anyway. It's near where Arlington used to be, and a little south of where Springvale used to be, but I don't think anyone really knows Springvale, so."

[thanksrainman]

"Arlington, right. And where're we now?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen thinks for a bit, then calls up her area map on the Pip-Boy. "I think," she says, "that we're ... okay, it looks like the nearest anything of any size whatsoever is Bethesda. So we're in what used to be Maryland."

[thanksrainman]

"Fantastic," he says. "I just woke up, so I ain't tired. Not that I'd be able to sleep anyway, ya know."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, I imagine not," says Ellen. "Do you want to take a guard shift? You won't have to shoot at anything, just- wake me or Dogmeat if you spot something, or hear something. If not, I understand. I'll stay awake as long as I can so you don't have to be alone."

[thanksrainman]

"Whatever," Gus says simply. "You're the boss, I guess."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I could use a few hours' sleep," Ellen admits. "I don't usually last more than a few hours at a time out here anyway, so I'm going to bunk down for now. Wake me up if anything happens, or if you need anything, and take this with you if you have to do anything latrine-like."

They don't really have toilet paper in the Wasteland, so they use whatever paper they can get their hands on for the job. In this case, that means a tattered, faded, largely unreadable copy of the Sears Catalog from 2077.

[thanksrainman]

He just looks down at the catalogue. "Right," he says slowly. "I'm gonna die."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"You can have a gun if that'd make you feel better," Ellen says, pausing in the process of lying down. (It's complicated in the armor.) "Seriously, I've got extra."