Fallout NV fanfic: The City of Gold chpt 37

“Dog… Dog… can you hear me?”

“Huh… um… huh… wh… who are you? What is this place?”

“How do you feel?” Sol asked him, gently placing the knife and the bandages to the side.

“I… I… I feel… as if I've woken up... there’s... I think that... ugh, my head...”

“Are you still hurt?”

“Um... no... it just... feels like an old wound that... finally healed.”

“Oh good...” Sol sighed, relieved.

“But,” Dog looked at Sol confused, “who are you exactly? I don't know you, yet I feel like I do. And a feeling of... gratitude. I... ugh... forgive me, I... I'm wounded. This chain... this bear trap on my arm... how did I even get this far with these wounds? The pain is excruciating, I... I need to rest for a moment.”

Sol washed his hands in the steel tray on his side but Dog’s uneasy eyes kept staring at him.

“Please,” Dog said, exhausted, “please, I need to know... who are you? Who am I? And where am I?”

“You’re...” Sol thought for a minute before answering, “you’re in a cage... there used to be two of you there. But now...”

“I see...” Dog said, he obviously didn’t expect that answer, “that explains why I feel... relieved. As if I can finally be... free... although, I wonder why I feel free... if we’re in a cage.”

“Don’t worry,” Sol assured him, “all of us are in a cage, it’s just... it’s a scary world out there... out of the cage, sometimes it’s best if you stay in here. It’s... it’s relatively safe. Well, most of the time.”

“I... see...” Dog said, still confused but he was not sad. He seemed determined to find out the answers about himself but on his own terms, he said to Sol, “thank you... for whatever you have done. I will remain here, need to get my strength back.”

“Don’t worry, it was a pleasure.”

Sol cleaned the smear off of the cosmic knife, it was pretty thick in blood. Probably because Mutants were artificially created. And their skins were pretty thick too, luckily the knife was awfully sharp. It could probably slice a metal sheet in one go. Sol was then suddenly reminded of something when he looked at the knife – his stomach was growling pretty loud, go figure. He had been eating nothing but beans and junk food from the vending machine for the past few days. But he was always short on Sierra Madre Chips so he couldn’t always get the food from the machine, had to get water, too. He resorted to eating meat from the Ghost People from time to time, it was unpleasant.

Ah, what the heck, this is the kitchen after all. I'm sure nobody's going to mind if I take a few stuff from the fridge. That was what he thought.

“Oh wait, I forgot something,” Sol suddenly stood up to Dog, intending to tell him something but when he looked at the Mutant he realized that the one called Dog or God was no more. This one was... another being entirely. Sol felt a bit sad.

“Yes?” Dog said, “What is it?”

“Ah, nevermind... just that, I know you haven’t completely forgotten about... about us yet so... um... well it doesn’t really matter now but... if we ever meet again... and if you’re up for it then I’ll tell you the story about Jameson.”

Goodbye Dog, and may the Mojave welcome you into its glory.

 

 

 

 

“Christine?” Sol called out when he entered the big room, “Christine where are you?”

“In here…”

She could finally talk again, Sol wondered how. Although, when he listened more carefully he found that the voice was really similar to the lady at the fountain.

Sol opened the door to the back room and went in. There she stood, she seemed a little bit cleaner from the Cloud and outside dirt. There was an Auto-Doc near the bed, it looked old but functional. Maybe that was how she got her voice back.

“You made it… great,” she coughed, her voice still sounded a little unnatural, “ahem, still hurts when I swallow.”

“Your voice,” Sol looked at her then at the Auto-Doc then back at her again, “I see, you managed to get your vocal cords back… through its surgery I assume.”

“Yeah.”

“You sound like… her, the woman on the broadcast – Vera.”

“Do I?” She asked, “It sounds off to me… but I guess you can’t really tell when it’s your own voice. That’s probably why I got moved here to this suite. It’s hers, Vera. That’s her over there in the corner.”

Sol looked and there was a rotten skeleton wearing a bright red dress. Alongside was a bunch of syringes lying around where she last sat. The expression on Vera’s face… it was grim, it seemed as if she was sad about something. Sol wasn’t entirely sure.

“Well, just try not to talk too much, drink some water. It’s going to be a little uncomfortable but you should be able to adjust soon. I once met a patient with a bad vocal cord. It had a bunch of tumors, I was forced to remove it, wasn’t pretty.”

She nodded.

“That being said… I still need some answers… now that you have your voice back.”

“Yes… where should I start, though?”

“Well, I guess from the beginning,” he said, “who are you? Why are you here?”

“Well, I think you already know at this point but I’m part of the Brotherhood of Steel. I was part of a secret organization within the Brotherhood called the Circle of Steel. We were tasked with missions of collecting members of the Brotherhood who have gone astray from our original principles and philosophies. And that included the man named Elijah.”

“The Old man.”

“Precisely,” She said, “I don’t know if you know this but about five years ago, the Brotherhood was led by Elijah on a mission to seize a solar plant called HELIOS One. It… it didn’t end well for us. A lot of people died that day and it was all because of Elijah’s stubbornness. He tried to seize that solar plant like a child begging his parents for a toy.”

A sudden flood of flashback came back to his mind. It reminded Sol of the guilt he felt when he confronted Veronica. It made his spine shiver. He wondered how hilarious it would be if he told her about what happened at HELIOS One, oh what the fuck! Goddamn it, I’m a sick bastard, he thought.

“So yeah, I’ve been hunting him for some time now,” Christine continued, “he cannot leave the Madre alive, what he’s done… what he’s done here is nothing compared to what he’s done in the past. He came here for a reason, he wanted what’s in the vault of this Casino, but he won’t go down there alone. He… I just… don’t want him to run around free… he’s just too dangerous.”

“Sounds like you two have quite a history together,” Sol said.

“Yeah… I’ve been hunting him… for too long.”

“But the question is why?”

“Well… he… cut me off from someone I cared about a long time ago. We were... relatively close, but something happened and we couldn’t be together.”

“Must be hard for the guy huh?”

“Actually... she didn’t take it too well,” Christine corrected him.

He looked at her, surprised.

“It’s true. Elijah used his status to break us apart,” she said, “so I had to find a new purpose, same banner. Then he became unstable, left a trail of crimes across the wasteland. That was the last straw, I couldn’t stand it any longer.”

“Hah, that reminds me of my friend,” Sol smiled, “had a similar story. She's also a member of the Brotherhood believe it or not. She said she used to be in love with a girl. Poor girl, said that the girl she loved left because of her parents. They didn’t see eye to eye with each other and never approved of her. If I remember correctly, the Brotherhood’s tradition doesn't allow membership to just be randomly distributed to outsiders right? That’s probably why her parents didn’t approve of them being together.”

“That so?”

“Yeah, but Veronica didn’t say much afterwards, said she was young and she doesn’t remember much. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to talk about it, I don’t know.”

“Wait a minute,” she cut him off, “did you just say... Veronica?”

“Yeah... why do you... ask...”

And right that moment, Sol didn’t need to ask how she knew Veronica. He looked her in the eyes, eyes that were hiding behind layers upon layers of deep scars, both external and internal. The answer was as clear as day.

“NO WAY...” Sol exclaimed.

“Ronnie...” Christine said, “I... you knew Ronnie?”

“Yeah, we met at a trading post,” Sol said, “so you’re saying... that woman... you’re... her?”

Christine nodded.

“Wait a minute,” he muttered, “Veronica said that you had some sort of disagreement with your parents, something about how your parents didn’t approve of you and her.”

“Well,” she explained, “that was part of the reason, my parents didn’t originally object our relationship. It only happened because of... him, the Old man. He was very frank with me, told me straight up that he disapproved of me and Ronnie. He even convinced my parents to tell me off. He was very strict about it, and the worst part about it was that he forced me to break things up with her. He forced me to do it... without letting her know the truth. Ronnie... she... never knew. I... the words I said to her that day... all those mean things I said... I can still remember it... the look on her face, I could never get it out of my head. Every night when I go to sleep I can still see her... with those dreadful eyes stabbing at me... I...”

She collapsed on the floor and started to cry. Sol quickly came by her side to comfort her. She was shaking. Her hands covering the tears streaming down her face. The only thought on his mind at that moment was how much of a bastard the Old man really was.

“Ronnie...” she sobbed, “she was... always such a sweet little thing, always so innocent and joyful. She never knew... she never knew.”

Sol didn’t say anything. He couldn’t, how could he? Nothing from his long years of experience could’ve help with this. No witty remarks, no war stories, no nothing. He held Christine close, she embraced him. She felt like a puppy that had been waiting for a home and comfort all this time. He let her cry onto him, all the painful tears washing down his back.

Sol didn’t really know what to do. He didn't want to say anything stupid, he thought about just letting her cry all the pain out. But in the end he decided instead to do the only thing that he could do – offer her his hand.

Christine looked up to this man before her, his eyes darkened into a dark shade of red. It was gloomy and yet it sparkled like a fire. She felt fear... and yet there was this fiery fury within those sparks that somehow strengthened her once more.

“Come on,” he said, “I know I should’ve said this earlier but... Elijah’s holding my friends hostage somewhere. And that includes Veronica. They came with me to the Sierra Madre.”

“WHAT?”

“Bear with me now, I know this sounds bad but we can still get them back. He locked them up somewhere. He’s not going to kill them I assure you, he needs them alive. We can get them back but we need to work together.”

She didn’t know how to respond, she sat there staring in shock.

“Come on,” he said, “Veronica is my friend, too. I will not let her die, even if I have to kill a thousand holograms, even if I have to fight off a thousand Ghost People, even if I have to die, I will make sure that she comes out of this alive and that’s a promise...”

And at that point, Christine’s frown slowly turned into a light smile. There was still some droplets of tears left on her cheeks but at least she’d calmed down.

She wiped her tears off then said:

“Alright... let’s do this.”

“Let’s go, I still have a score to settle with that old fart.”

“And Sol...” she smiled at him.

“Yeah?”

“... Th... thank you...”

“What for?” He asked, surprised.

“For everything... you’ve done for me. You backed me up... when others wouldn’t. And I appreciate it. Even back then with Dean... you were the only one who trusted me.”

“Well,” Sol smiled shyly, “it’s not like there was anybody else around besides Dean who could disagree. Unless you count the Ghost People, but I don’t think they care that much.”

Christine made a gleeful giggle. Basically her way of thanking him for trying to cheer her up.

“Sol… can I… ask you one more question?”

“Sure.”

“Why… why did you interrogated everyone… back then? It was as if you didn’t trust them.”

But he clarified:

“It’s not that I didn’t trust any of you. It’s just that… Dean… he’s… he can be… careless sometimes. He was going overboard and I had to stop him. But I didn’t want to antagonize him. I know that he’s also in this with us.”

“So… what about that little story you told Dog… about Jameson… was it true? Or did you… just make it up.”

He paused for a moment thinking about it, and before he answered he held his lips again, still thinking.

“Nah…” he muttered, “… it’s just… something I came up with… ya know… to convince the Mutant. It’s… it’s not true… don't worry 'bout it."

 

 

 

 

“Hey, break time you two. You two’ve been going at it for four hours straight. At least get something to drink. Here.”

“Thanks sis.”

“Alright Sonny, let’s take it from the top.”

“I don’t know Sol, maybe we should call it a day. I mean it is getting pretty late and if Taylor comes out we’re going to be in trouble.”

“C’mon, Sonny, just one more round alright? I just don’t wanna play the drums without you here playing the sax.”

“I know, Sol, I know. It’s just that I’m getting pretty tired. And you should be studying, if not father will get very angry.”

“But that’s why we were doing this in the first place, isn’t it? To show father that there’s more to me… more to us than just work, study and the ranch. I want to perform, Sonny, like them folks in Vegas… or at least in New Reno, although I heard that folks in Reno do a different type of performance. Ha-ha, one step at a time I suppose.”

“Ew, that’s so gross, you guys.”

“Come Janna, it’s not that bad.”

“Yeah Janna, don’t be such a scaredy-cat.”

“Stop it Jamie.”

“Shh… c’mon Janna, you know you shouldn’t call him by that name, father will get angry. We call him Sonny for reason, ya know.”

“Sorry. Tee hee.”

“Alright, we ready to get back to work Sonny?”

“I guess.”

“So, what song’re you two playing?”

“Moanin’.”

“Again?”

“Yes, Janna, again, practice makes perfect. Oh shoot, we better hurry before father comes back.”

“Ooh, I’ll go and look out for father. I’ll signal you when he comes back.”

“Thanks Janna, you’re the best.”

“Right, take it from the top, ready when you are Sol.”