Joshua Graham's Trip to the City of Sin

Part 2: Stars and Fires

"I found something!"

The rustling, as it turned out, was just Carrie.... chasing a tumbleweed that was somehow faster than her.

"Stop moving, ya little shit!"

She dives on top of it and it flattens under her weight. She scrambles back up, picks up the now deformed ball of wood and proudly shows it off to Joshua, as if she just killed a Deathclaw with her bare hands. She then places it next to the wood pile, the former tumbleweed slumps down pathetically.

"It will do....Step 2 is how to make the fire. You will need gray gunpowder and spread it evenly around the wood, no black gunpowder as that will burn too quickly."

He takes 2 .45 ACP rounds and cuts them open at the point where the bullet and the casing meet, spilling its guts all over the wood in a controlled manner.

"What's next?"

"It is not required but I would advise to do it anyway. Find some stones of a somewhat large variety and place them in a circle around the campfire. This will prevent any fires from starting."

"Alright, some huge rocks! Got it!"

She jumps excitedly to find some rocks. Every few seconds, she would bend down and pick up a rock, examine it then add it to her collection. Graham couldn't help but quietly chuckle at this display of childish zeal and determination.

After a few minutes of rock-searching, Carrie came back with a huge pile of rocks, balancing on her hands as if it was a circus act. She actually managed to get to the campfire and dump them onto the sand somehow which, by her standards, was pretty darn impressive.

Once the fire got going, the western sun quickly set until all that was left was the moon and the thousands of stars twinkling in the twilight.

Luckily, the one thing Carrie had packed was her sleeping bag so, as much as some people might've wanted, Joshua and her did not have to share a bag together. That, of course, did not take away from the beauty of the night sky; sure, it wasn't as unique as Zion's sky which had a darker black void and a million more stars shining brighter but it was beautiful all the same.

Carrie stared at the stars in pure childlike wonder, the sky was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen aside from Zion. This was her first time in a while she had actually taken a rest ever since the liberation of Hoover Dam and the NCR's withdrawal from New Vegas; running a city officialy labeled as 'Free' was harder than it sounded, it seemed. Riots happened all over Freeside and even bled onto the Strip. Unsurprising, ever since the literal paywall people had to pass to get onto The Strip was rescinded.

Treatment of NCR citizens was better since The Kings agreed to stop harassing them but, as always, there were the ones who weren't quite happy with the "hospitality" some of the soldiers showed towards those on the outskirts of Vegas. Not to mention the Brotherhood's sudden reappearance via taking back Helios One and even more surprising to all 'cept for Carrie was the reappearance of Enclave forces in the Battle for Hoover Dam. "Arcade was badass in that power armour," she thought. "Wonder what's he doin right now, probably doing a smarty-pants brawl with Veronica over ED-E, I bet."

Boone was still his old grumpy self but perhaps a little less depressed now that he let go of his wife's death, he was unhappy with how the NCR were effectively driven out of the area by the Courier but he was strangely not angry with her, maybe out of respect? She wasn't sure. Anyway, all the stress had really tired her out lately so just lying there under the stars was really soothing. No beasts to fend off, no citizens to save...it was simply put... peace....

Her eyes slowly closed as Joshua read from his scriptures which soothed her just enough to make her pass out. Finally, Joshua finished and noticed Carrie's peaceful face as she slept, illuminated by the orange glow of the flickering fire. He smiled. Taking care to not wake her, he smothered the fire til no more flames nor embers were present and with that final action, he went to sleep.