Chapter 45: The Singer

Chapter 45: The Singer

The mute woman and I were walking along the rooftops. Thankfully, we hadn't seen any inhabitants up here, I hadn't heard from Elijah over my Pip Boy, and somehow, even the air didn't seem so completely foul. There was still red Cloud above us, but it didn't seem quite as thick... somehow. I took a look at my companion, and decided to try and strike up a conversation. Despite the fact that it was probably going to be a bit one-sided.

"Hey, uh..." The woman stopped and turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow. "Those scars you have... those weren't done by the Auto Doc, were they? It was just the scar on your throat, wasn't it?" She nodded... slowly. She got a distant look in her eye, and she reached up to touch the scar on her neck... She closed her hand slowly, and then pointed at me, raising her eyebrow.

"Don't look at me. I didn't put you in there." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She tapped the side of her neck twice and opened her mouth wide, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't know. I can't restore your voice, I know that. All I have are stimpacks - we'd need a real Auto Doc to get your voice back." She shivered slightly at the words 'Auto Doc,' and shook her head quickly.

"I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to go back into anyplace small after that. Thing I don't get - why did the machine shave you bald?" She stared blankly at me for a few minutes... she ran a hand over her bald head, smiled, and shook her head at me.

"Wait, you cut your own hair off?" I asked. She raised a finger and opened her mouth - and then shut it quickly, shaking her head. She waved it off, and then nodded in the direction of the casino looming over us to the north.

"No, wait, I want to hear this." I started kicking myself immediately after I said it, and the mute woman just stared at me with a frustrated expression. "... You know what I mean. You were bald before?" She nodded at me with an exasperated look, then drew a circle in the air with her finger. She repeated it twice more, and then raised her hands, waving them like wings. She put both hands in front of her, and made a motion with her hands as if writing something. Something about that symbol seemed familiar... and then I remembered the night I killed Benny... when I found out Veronica was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, and saw a symbol like that on her forearm armor.

"Wait... that's a Brotherhood of Steel symbol, right? Are you a scribe?" She nodded, and for the first time since I met her... she looked impressed. I just couldn't understand what a member of the Brotherhood was doing all the way out here in Mexico.

"How the fuck did you find yourself all the way out here?" I asked. She shrugged... and then she pointed to me and shrugged again.

"Fair point. So... were you here before, or did you get here the same way I did?" She paused, thinking for a minute... and then she moved a finger in a wide circle, then raised a hand over her eyes, looking around.

"Yeah, no, I got that earlier. You're looking for something, right?" She shook her head, and made a motion of two fingers - almost like two people walking. "Someone?" She nodded again, then raised up a fist, letting her pointer finger hang limp... and then, keeping the rest of her hand steady, pointed up. I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"A man, huh?" She nodded, then made a motion with her hands around her chin, drawing it down, and then raised her hands, clenching them at the sky. Okay, that was a bit harder to figure out. Have I mentioned that I hate charades?

"An... angry... bearded man?" I took a gamble. Turns out, I was right. She nodded, looked concerned for a minute... then she tapped the side of her head, expanding her hands. "Someone smart." She nodded again, and circled her ear with her finger several times.

"... and nuts. Let me guess - you're looking for Elijah, the asshole who put the collars on us, right?" She nodded, frowning. "Sounds like it's pretty important for you to find him. That seems to be a running theme among the people here. I have no idea why..." I scratched absentmindedly at my bomb collar.

The mute woman just smirked, and shook her head. She frowned, raised two fingers and had them walk together. Then, she looked down on the two fingers, and her face became angry. Then she chopped her hand down, drawing the two fingers apart. One of the fingers she pointed at herself.

"So... he cut you off from someone?" She nodded. "What, like family in the Brotherhood? Husband?" She frowned and shook her head - and even more so at husband. "Boyfriend?" She shook her head even more. "...girlfriend?" She snapped her fingers and pointed at me, nodding.

"Heh... well, if it makes you feel any better, I know how you feel." She raised an eyebrow at that, so I continued. "I understand how important a loved one can be... and I know what it's like to lose... someone." I got quiet, trying to silence old memories in my head trying to surface. Now was really not the time to be thinking about... her. It's been 13 years. Push it out of your brain. Compartmentalize. Focus.

When I finally looked up, I realized the mute woman was staring at me with a raised eyebrow. It was almost like she was gauging me again - or judging me. One of those two.

"What, you think I don't understand love? Give me a little credit." She just rolled her eyes at me. She made a slow circle movement with her hands, and then tapped her wrist.

Yep. Definitely hate charades.

"No offense, but can you communicate some other way instead of the hand gestures? Can you write? I mean... if only so I could find out what your name is..." She opened her mouth, but closed it quickly and frowned. She traced one of the scars on her forehead with her finger. She then made a motion as if picking up a pencil, using it to write in midair, and then she shook her head.

"Something to do with the surgery?" She nodded, and then drew a jagged symbol in the air with her finger - almost like a symbol for electricity, maybe? She put a finger against each side of her head, shook her whole body, and then she put on an odd blank stare, her head lolling to one side and her mouth hanging open. She blinked slowly, closed her mouth, and looked around. She looked at her hands, shook them once, and let them go limp.

"Wait, are you saying somebody shocked your brain with electrodes?" She nodded. "That's... isn't that some kind of Pre-War brain surgery?" She nodded again, and then made a motion of typing and drawing X's and lines in the air, then gave a thumbs up. That one took me a minute to figure out.

"So, you can still do numbers and calculations?" She nodded slowly. "But you can't write." She shook her head. She motioned with her head back at the casino off in the distance, and tapped her wrist again.

"Alright, yeah. Good point. We should probably get moving again."

It didn't take us that long to get to the fountain. Of course, when we got to the edge of the roof that overlooked the central courtyard, I realized something rather troubling: we were at least four stories off the ground.

"Okay, we're here," I knelt down near the edge, looking around. "So, how do we get down?"

I heard some motion to my left, and looked just in time to see the mute woman leap off the roof! I tried to say something, to stop her or... something... and I watched her fall gracefully through the air and land on her feet. She picked herself up and looked at me - like she was expecting me to follow her.

"I... I can't do that!" I managed to stammer out eventually. Hell, the last time I fell off a two story drop, I ended up with a bruised shin and a bloody shoulder. If I attempted what she just did, I'd probably break both my legs.

Right. Staying up here gawking isn't going to get me down. I looked around and saw a gutter running along the roof, and a drainpipe that led all the way down to the ground. So, I swallowed my pride and lowered myself down along the pipe... careful now... don't...

"Fuck!"

About halfway down, my foot slipped against something slick, I lost my grip, and I tumbled backwards. The holorifle and the spear clattered to the ground, and then immediately after, my back smashed into the cobbled streets with a crack that sounded... a lot worse than it was, really. Don't get me wrong - as soon as I tried to move, my whole body ached. But I think the armor must have softened the blow or something, because I'm sure nothing was broken.

The mute woman stood over me as I lay there on the ground, staring up at the mass of blood red clouds in the sky. She did not look the least bit amused. When I tried to get up, however, she offered me a hand and helped me get back on my feet.

"Thanks," I grunted, rubbing my lower back with a grimace. "Fuck, I need to get some pads for my ass. Ol' gal wasn't built for that much abuse!" I let out a grim chuckle, and she just shook her head. I reached down to grab my weapons, and checked to make sure they weren't damaged. "Alright, we should start looking around - there should be a super mutant here that's -" Before I could finish, I heard a door behind me creak open.

"What's this?" I heard God's voice from behind me. I turned around to see the Nightkin exiting the nearby building and start advancing towards the mute woman. "Why... it's a little doll. Were you carved by a craftsman..." I followed his gaze; he was staring at the scars on her head. "... or were you mauled by a drunk who didn't know his tools?"

That sort of set the tone for my romp through the Residential District, really. If it wasn't rigged shotguns, it was grenade bouquets set to fall and explode, or it was a cluster of bear traps, or it was more mines. There was one trap that really stood out to me, however - at one point, I found a trap that involved a suspended I-beam hanging from the ceiling that, presumably, when set off by the trip wire at the door, the I-beam would fall and smash in the chest of the idiot stupid enough to set it off.

This place was just getting better and better by the minute, wasn't it?

I was getting close to the collar now. Eventually, I found myself on a balcony, overlooking what I presumed was another street... I couldn't really tell. Elijah said that when I saw concentrated pockets of the Cloud, I'd know. He really wasn't kidding. The entire street below me was completely obscured by what looked like heavy red fog so thick I couldn't even see the ground. I could hear movement inside the red Cloud, and when I got close - I had to, the only way forward to the next building was by a catwalk made out of scrap lumber - my eyes started to water. I didn't start choking or coughing, however. Maybe I was finally getting used to the Cloud? Honestly, I hoped not. I didn't want to be used to anything here.

After what felt like a million more traps (and finding another glowing handprint and a suitcase full of supplies that I raided) I wound up in another courtyard, surrounded on all sides by four story buildings. The strange thing is, as soon as I entered the courtyard, it was like I could hear music... and when I looked up, I could see strings of lights hanging between the buildings. All the lights seemed to originate from the same spot: a building on the southern end of the courtyard, with a large hole in the side of the top floor. I looked down at my Pip Boy's map. Yep. This was definitely where I needed to be.

I followed the staircase up, all the way to the top floor. The music sounded like... actually, I couldn't tell what it sounded like. When I finally got to the top floor, I saw two chairs facing the hole in the wall - and outside the hole, there was a perfect view of the Sierra Madre. The chair on the right was empty, but there was someone sitting in the chair on the left, with a small cloud of smoke hanging in the air above him. Off to the side, I could see - was that an old turntable and a vinyl record?

"Have a seat," I heard the figure sitting in the chair speak up. "And then... we'll talk." It was a man's voice. It sounded like his voice was wrapped in chocolate silk... and laced with snake venom. I don't know why I thought that, but... the smoothness of his words, and the precise way he carefully enunciated every syllable...

I was incredibly surprised to find the owner of the voice was a ghoul. I thought all ghouls had raspy, broken voices? He was wearing a ragged, beaten up tuxedo; there were a pair of mirrored aviators on his face - although, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how they stayed on without ears - in his hands was a lit cigarette, and around his neck... was a bomb collar.

"You collar 14?" I asked. He just smiled a cracked smile, and said nothing; he took a long draw from his cigarette, and let the smoke pour out of the holes on his face where his nose used to be. Obviously, he wasn't going to talk to me until I sat down. So... very gingerly, I did.

This is a bad idea, I thought to myself. With the amount of traps, mines, bear traps, explosives, and all the rest around here, and given how he was just sitting up here, smugly waiting for me... it was a good bet he was the one who set all those traps. Chances are, the chair was rigged as well, somehow.

"The Sierra Madre..." The ghoul leaned back in his chair, finally taking the cigarette away from his mouth. "Beauty, isn't she? She the one who invited you here? Or, maybe you didn't catch her voice on the radio. Woke up, confused, like some of the others. Least you're still breathing."

"There is that," I said, unconsciously fidgeting in my chair. The ghoul smirked at me.

"By the way, if I were you? I wouldn't get up or make any sudden motions, no matter how uncomfortable that chair gets..." The ghoul lifted up his left arm from behind where he was hiding it, and in his hands was what was unmistakably a detonator. "The cushion's just for show."

I looked down, and immediately realized what his game was. I could tell already: I wasn't going to like this asshole.

"That better be a shaped charge under my ass. Otherwise, you're going to kill both of us." The ghoul smiled wide, letting out an amused laugh.

"Sounds like you've done some blue collar construction work in your life! Oh, your mother must be so proud! Still... If you get up without my permission, I'll blast your ass so far through your head, it'll turn the moon cherry pie red. So - let's keep this meeting sweet and polite, and finish our conversation with no misunderstandings, yes?"

"You've got my attention. For the moment." The ghoul lowered the arm with the detonator behind the chair's armrest again, and he stopped smiling.

"Just because I work in entertainment doesn't mean I'm a moron," He tapped the bomb collar around his neck with the hand holding the cigarette. "I heard my necktie beeping, I know what this means. I'm part of this somehow. I want out of this contract. And if you put me in it, I'm not going to be too happy. So whatever's going on here, if you're part of all this? You're going to take orders from me." He smiled smugly at me and took another draw from his cigarette.

"Your negotiation skills assume you're bargaining from a position of strength." I said, rather bluntly. The ghoul stopped smiling again, and I saw a skinless brow raise from behind his sunglasses.

"What are you talking about?" He said slowly, deliberately. I tapped the side of my bomb collar.

"This thing on my neck isn't for show," I said, mimicking his words from earlier. "Our collars - these 'neckties' - are linked. That bomb goes off, so do I - and you, too." I saw the sides of his mouth twitch at that. He snuffed out his cigarette and tried his best to regain his composure.

"That's... an interesting clause," He let out a single, grim chuckle. "That's a real bad contract you have... We have"

"It's starting to make sense, now I've met you." The ghoul leaned back in his chair and just started laughing.

"Ha-ha-haa! All right, all right... Oh dear. Looks like marriage finally caught up to me. I'm listening... partner. What's next, if we're death-till-we part?" I saw him take the detonator in his left hand, put the safety cover back over the trigger, and toss it away. Good. I got up from the chair and started walking towards the hole in the wall - the chair didn't blow. Excellent.

"If I'm honest, I don't know what the whole plan is. I just know that I want to get this done so I can get the fuck out of this hellhole and never come back. As for our... 'contract?' We'll find out more back at the fountain in the center of town." The ghoul got up off his chair, and straightened his tux.

"The fountain, huh? Hope the hologram is still working and the battery is running strong. I'll follow you - but I'm not going alone, trust me." He hesitated momentarily, and then quickly added "Not like I'm a coward or anything. I'm just not used to running around town without an escort." I just stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You're kidding, right?"

"I'm serious," He said, looking out the hole in the wall. "One of the Ghost People catch us, we aren't coming back - and besides. I'd like to keep an eye on you."

"Fine. Whatever. Just one more thing. What's your name?" I asked. Seemed like a sensible enough question, but the ghoul just sighed, and shook his head.

"Well, I guess what Danny Parker always said was true - fame is fleeting, indeed. You really don't know who I am?" I shook my head. He seemed insulted. "I was one of the biggest names from before the bomb!" As he spoke, he gestured wildly with his hands. "London, Paris, Barcelona - my name was in lights for sold out shows all around the world! Everyone knew me - the world famous entertainer, Dean Domino, loved by all! And here, in the ruins of the Sierra Madre, I find myself being questioned by a tourist who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground."

"Sorry if I insulted you," I said, not really meaning it. "But like you said, that was before the bombs. Maybe you didn't notice, but the world got blown to shit 200 years ago. It's understandable that some things might have gotten lost in the interim."

"Still doesn't make the injustice sting any less..." I just rolled my eyes.

"Right. Well. It's a... 'pleasure' to meet you, Dean. I'm Sheason Fisher."

"I didn't ask."

Fucking hell. This was going to be Fun, wasn't it?

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