Nevada: High Roller (Fallout New Vegas)

Chapter 30: Show Your Cards

[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]

On the way out of The Ultra Luxe, Benny and I followed shortly behind Victor, heading straight through the gate and up the flashing white-light slope that drifted upwards to the foot of the Lucky 38. A few peeking looks across the street between Gomorrah and the Lucky 38 only confirmed what I already knew: Benny had been putting up 'wanted' posters for Ringo everywhere.

Spread across the walls separating the innermost section of the city from the outer, tacked on like some hurried and messy maniac. Plastered over the front entrance of the Lucky 38. Stuck on the back of one of the many patrolling army-faced Securitrons, unbeknownst to it while it rolled along through the crowds of people that parted for the three of us to pass through. 

              Even, I noticed, on the very top of the neon light-lined silhouette of a seductively posed woman looming over the top of the entrance of Gomorrah, precariously placed right on the breasts in the exact placement of where the nipple would be.

Typical Benny. Always a rack man.

At that, my whole face contorted in a scrunched expression of awe and slight concern, mixed with a wonderment of how the hell Benny had even gotten up there. A quick look over my shoulder paired with one that begged 'what the fuck' in the direction of the placed 'wanted' poster only earned a shrug and a guilty grin from Benny, trudging along at my side. 

Rather than dwell on Benny's manic poster-placing spree that had occupied his entire morning until our lunch outing, I decided to push the thought and all the wonderment to the back of my mind, halting for a few seconds while Victor opened the doors to the 38's interior.

Welcoming us inside was the dingy interior, speckled with floating gray specks of dust illuminated by the brief sunlight that swept in until the heavy doors creaked to a close behind us once more, trapping us in the red glow cast by the ceiling ball-lights. Those Securitrons standing readily by remained as always, no change in their routine. 

               I wondered just how aware they were, if they could feel just how boring standing in one place endlessly must have been. The thought alone, the thought of being stuck in one place for the rest of my life, itched my brain uncomfortably. I cast aside my gaze, unwilling to indulge in that thought any longer than I needed to.

With Victor leading me and Benny, rolling ahead, it was only in the middle of the carpet between the entrance and the elevator that he rolled to a sudden halt, caught off-guard by the elevator dinging to a stop and opening out with a whoosh of metal. 

Out from the elevator stepped Boone who, in mirroring our movements, stopped right in place just a step outside of the open elevator doors with a surprised expression jumping onto his face. His rifle was slung readily over his shoulder in addition to a full bandoleer, like he was ready to hit the road and shoot down some Legionaries while he was at it. 

I felt a pang in my gut at that. I wondered if he was already leaving my company to head off somewhere with the First Recon already. 

"Hey, Boone." I greeted, striding forwards past Victor and coming up to a stop closer to Boone, eyeing up his attire. "Headin' out somewhere?"