Nevada: High Roller (Fallout New Vegas)

Chapter 7: For My Baby

[Author's Note: Please remember to click 'Vote' on the chapters as it really helps me out! I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! <3]

Boone had made me wait up at the balcony concealed within the mouth of the Dinky The Dinosaur statue, with nothing to do besides light up another cigarette during his brief absence while he 'surveyed the area from the ground.' 

     Said he wanted to make sure that nobody was up and about to interrupt us, or to overhear what he said he was going to tell me.

I was almost certain it was some euphemism for heading off to go for a piss behind the Novac motel, but I hadn't wanted to inquire any further. Just in case I was right.

While I had the small space to myself, besides Boone's sniper rifle that had been propped up with the long, sleek barrel facing out through a gap in the teeth of the Dinosaur that took up more space than I would have anticipated, I peered my head around the opening of the mouth. 

Something about the place always made me feel like I could have fallen asleep on the spot, even if I'd only ever visited during the day. Whether it was the radio silence that filled the grounds between the motel and the three surrounding bungalows parallel to the block building, or the strangely cozy ambiance brought by the brick and the dirt tracks, I wasn't sure.

Or the place was just so goddamn boring that too much time there dulled the mind and the senses enough to make you wanna lose consciousness, just to avoid having to spend another waking moment stood in the grounds of a motel in the middle of shit-fuck nowhere.

The soft nighttime breeze weaved through my wild mess of hair, as if somebody were running their fingers through the red ringlets with ease. A strange comfort, I found, most times during the night or when I was on the road. Added to the sleepy serenity of the place. 

I gave a quick glance out from the left side of the mouth's opening, where the two-floored block of motel rooms stood, illuminated by the cozy haze of yellow porch-lights hung up on the exterior walls. 

"Manny's got the first room on the left side..." I racked my brain, unable to stifle a yawn as I began rubbing the back of my head beneath my gambler's hat, while my eyes furtively scanned each of the doors towards the left side of the building. "On the ground floor, right next to the reception."

Deputy Beagle had told me that Mr-Suit-And-Tie and his Great Khan buddies had been heard talking about heading towards Novac whilst they had passed through Primm. And, well, I'd reached Novac within twenty-four hours of leaving Goodsprings, so I'd hit the target destination. 

Where to next, I'd just have to find out. 

I had to give myself credit for making good progress. Novac was a well-known rest-stop -- a more trustworthy option, though a notably more expensive one in comparison to sleeping inside seemingly uninhabited gas-stops on the side of the highway. 

Judging from the way that my oh-so-pretty killer had been dressed, donning that pristine chessboard-lookin' suit out in the sticks, it wasn't a dreadful assumption that he was more inclined to sleeping in a real bed with amenities nearby for his convenience, rather than settling for some shoddy sheet of damp cardboard as a mattress on the side of the blacktop.