Survivor's Guilt (Fallout New Vegas Fanfiction)

Chapter Six

The two brothers talked for a while longer, mostly about happier things. A warm breeze picked up and ruffled their hair as they gazed into the bleak, sandy distance.

Zack leaned his head against the concrete wall, finding it strange that the surface was refreshingly cool rather than hot enough to burn his skin off like most surfaces in the Mojave Desert.

"Hey, wanna go find Mom?" Peter asked, scratching the side of his nose. Zack reluctantly lifted his head up from the gas station wall and yawned. "Yeah, all right."

Zack rose to his feet along with Peter, legs cramping as he did so, and walked across the small gas station lot with the sun blazing down and rapidly heating his dark-haired head. His leather boots kicked up dust as he walked, and he was relieved when they stepped into the shade at the door to the Dino Dee-lite Motel lobby. He glanced up at the roof above him - it was bent into a sharp, shallow V shape in the middle with the sides sloping down and out, creating its unique appearance as something of a giant, flat, wooden caterpillar. He was reminded of Peter's earlier comment about the edge of the Tops casino's roof resembling a strip of bacon.

Pete pushed the door open, light briefly flashing on the small square window near the top, and he and Zack entered the lobby.

This building wasn't too small, but still lacked any impressive size. Its width surpassed its length, and it sported grimy, peeling, once-white painted walls and a floor of cracked gray tiles. A blue-topped, L-shaped desk sat in the corner with a row of scratched filing cabinets at the wall, and a threadbare Persian rug was laid in the center of the floor. To the left of the door a large steel dropbox, ripped couch and another row of filing cabinets lined the wall.

Sandra stood at the desk talking to a woman aged about fifty with graying brown hair tied in a bun and large, round glasses. Deborah was standing in front of a long-broken Sunset Sarsaparilla vending machine at the far wall, tapping a tune on its rusty, red-and-yellow surface.

"Hi," Zack said as Peter shut the door behind them. Sandra stopped chatting with the woman at the desk and smiled at them, hands clasped together. "Oh, thank God you're safe! What'd you two get up to?"

Zack blinked. Yeah, let's not tell her we were talking about Dad. "We just hung out at the gas station for a bit."

"Oh, all right then." She kept staring at them for a moment longer, as if making doubly sure they were okay, before turning back to her companion.

Deborah glanced round at her brothers for a second before returning to her musical pursuits.

Zack sat down on the battered couch near the door while Peter wandered off to read a poster near the vending machine.

With nothing else to do, Zack started picking at his fingernails. After a while he tuned in to his mother's conversation.

"...I suppose, yeah, but he's really strange. You gotta be careful about who you live around, Jeannie."

"Sandra, I really think No-bark is all right. He's, eccentric, yes, but I haven't seen him hurting anyone. All he does is go around telling people about his little conspiracies. I think some things he says have a nugget or two of truth to them, to be honest."

"Jeannie, a bunch of radscorpion stings pierced his skull. He's crazy, that's all there is to it."

"Think what you want, my friend. But I reckon if you had a good chat with old Noonan, you'd warm up to him." Jeannie checked the contents of the cash register for a moment, then took her glasses off and rubbed them clean with her gray dress.