Nevada: High Roller (Fallout New Vegas)

Chapter 12: Vegas In A Snowglobe

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Walking inside the Lucky 38 felt like walking into a whole new world, separate from the one outside of those big, gold-bordered ornate doors flooded with glimmering, shimmering neon lights and lively music -- not to mention the world outside the fortified walls of New Vegas and Freeside.

I wasn't so sure what exactly I was expecting to see on that casino floor, as the doors behind me rumbled to a close once again, but the rows of abandoned slot machines, blackjack and roulette tables arranged squarely around an elevator in the center of the room illuminated by white neon letters advertising the name from the inside, seemed to fit the bill pretty neatly.

Black, red and white diamond-shaped motifs found their way upon almost every single surface: the metal bars of the railings separating the low casino floor from the outer walkway, the advertised name of the casino above the elevator -- almost everything. From the grand ceiling hung red ball-lights, resembling lanterns. They cast just enough light to illuminate the open room, deserted of human presence besides my own, in a dim red light.

Some may have argued that it gave the place a romantic feel. With no music -- no sound besides the gentle whir of the internal workings of the three Securitrons present in the room and the jingle of my spurs treading across the circle-patterned red and black carpet, leaving the room quieter than the bone orchard back in Goodsprings -- I'd have to argue otherwise.

The Lucky 38's interior felt dead to the world.

Strange, for a place so opulent and filled with so much potential to be somewhere that city folks could'a gone to waste all their hard-earned caps for the sake of a thrill, that instead, it appeared completely abandoned.

Off to the left side, above what I assumed to be an empty vault area for stored guns and caps for a payout, a section of guard-rails overlooking the casino floor surrounded the flat balcony space of a bar -- judging from the stocked liquor cabinets on the poster-pasted red walls and the selection of tables and chairs neatly arranged as if ready for use the very next morning.

            For a place that hadn't seen human interaction, other than the reclusive Mr House, I wasn't half surprised that the layer of dust coating every perceivable surface swiftly found its way into my lungs, prompting a cough until I pulled my bandanna up over my nose.

"House sure don't do no spring cleanin', huh?" I observed sarcastically, turning my head to my shoulder as Victor rolled up behind me with a squeak of his wheel. "Guess he ain't expectin' many visitors."

"Yeah..." Victor chuckled lightheartedly. "In two-hundred or so years, you're the first visitor this place's had." 

Despite the static face on the screen giving no indication of facial expression, the tone of his voice sounded like he, if he even could, would be smiling. 

"I reckon that makes 'ya mighty important."

I let out a half-assed grunt in response as I stepped down onto the lowered casino floor, past two other Securitrons with static Policemen faces on their screens as they stood patiently, guarding the passage to the elevator from the casino floor leading up to it.