Joshua Graham's Trip to the City of Sin

Part 4: Chems with a Freeside of Rodent

As Graham pushed open the huge gates of Freeside, he saw streets littered with various chem needles; bullet casings and trash strewn about the place. Dried blood stained the cement of the pavement and a homeless man sat by a broken window, gibbering on about a "Chupathingy" creature he heard from a good friend of his. "A trusted professional!" The man grumbled.

Carrie then entered after Joshua, panting slightly from having to keep up with him. "W-Welcome to Freeside Joshie!" She looks around and seems...happy?

"Oh hey! They finally cleaned the place up!"

"You call this clean?"

"Sure I do! That blood stain used to have a corpse on top of it, killed that one months back and nobody touched it since til now I guess. Guess Farkas' campaign is working out for her."

Carrie laid her eyes on the homeless man and seemed to say an assortment of grumbles and burps that was structured as a greeting.

"Greetings and Salutations Malacai!"

"By Jove, my fair lady! It has been a coon's age since I last laid my sight upon your all too familiar face! How has this journey we call life been accommodating you as of late?"

"Unfortunately, Malacai, you may have heard of the spot of bother I'm in. Running a former capitalist ideologised city and the unruly populace have been quite troublesome to deal with."

"That is most unfortunate indeed! I hope good fortune affects you in the future. Say, I do not intend to seem uncouth or of ill will but would you, perchance, have any currency to give to one of destitute descent and circumstances? It would benefit me greatly."

"But of course, good sir! I intend to show anyone of lesser standing than me a more pleasurable time in mortality! Please, accept this gift of charity."

She seems to give the man 100 caps. All Joshua heard was a cacophony of burps, gargles and drunken murmurs which confused and, somehow, slightly frightened the poor guy.

"Well, Malacai, good chap. I must set forth immediately, I am taking my friend," She motions at Joshua, "to the city of vice and sin in order to have some very good times indeed."

"But of course! Make sure to take care not to lose everything to your name and end up in the same predicament I currently am in myself."

"But of course, Malacai, I thank you for your words of advice deeply rooted in care! Take good care of your health and wellbeing now!"

She moves on and Joshua, still utterly dumbfounded, slowly walks forward. For the first time since the fires of the Legion mutilated him, he was, quite frankly, confused as all hell.

"Carrie....who was that man?"

"Hm? Oh Malacai? He's just a friend, met him while I was searching for a high powered space death ray. He actually told me where it was!"

Joshua blinked several times and, seemingly given up with asking questions, decided to just drop the subject entirely unless he risked having a heart attack and an anuerysm at the same time.

As they walked through the streets, they saw small fires raging in barrels and a rodent of an unusual size being chased by 2 young boys who looked identical to each other.

"Hey Donny! Hey Ronny! You boys chasing another rat again?!" Carrie yelled from across the street. She pulls out her revolver and blasts the rat in the head, killing it instantly. This somewhat startled Joshua who usually wouldn't flinch when a shotgun went off next to his ear, she was... different, he supposed.

"Thanks lady!" The twins chortled with the exact same voice as eachother.

"Disturbing", Graham thought, but what disturbed Joshua even more was what the boys did to the rat's corpse. They were eating its raw insides without a second thought, with their bare hands! He had seen people eat raw meat from Bighorners and even Yao Guai but never an unclean rodent! He was disgusted by the sight of it. Carrie, meanwhile, didn't seem to mind at all, she just proudly smiled and nodded slowly, as if she was watching her sons hit a homerun.

She moved on. Joshua kept watching the boys eat the bloody insides of the rat in both disgust and astonishment. Eventually, he realised Carrie wasn't by his side and caught up to her quickly. She strode with confidence towards a makeshift gate, comprised of a blue bus door as the entrance and burnt out cars stacked on top of each other to about a story high.

She tried to slide it open with one hand but it seemed to get stuck. "Damn, fucking shitty door...." she grumbled in frustration and grabbed the door with both hands. After a few seconds of struggling, Carrie managed to slightly pry the door open, making a gap but it still wasn't budging. Joshua then casually put his hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her away from the door. With one hand, he forced it open which made it slam into the safety catch of the door.

"Woah... so strong, Joshie! Ya been working out or something? You're not trynna impress me, are you?" She teased and nudged him gently, he was unamused, to say the least, and rolled his eyes. They both continued on their way through and Joshua saw to the left of him a great big glowing neon sign of a guitar and multiple silhouettes of a man in various poses on a building.
The sign read,

King's School of Impersonation.

"That's where the Kings operate out of. They're assholes at first but they care about Freeside deeply. They all have this funny.... what's the word again? Gi.... Gimmup? Uh.... Gimmmmmiiick?? Right, yeah, Gimmick! Anyway, they all have this funny gimmick where they dress up and talk like some guy from the Old World called "The King." Must've been real important to be called a king. Wonder how he died? I imagine he went out guns blazing on his throne, raining hellfire down on his enemies!" She gets excited by the idea of this but quickly composes herself after seeing Joshua give her a funny look from yammering on too much.

"Uh... sorry. Guess I got a little excited."

"It is alright. It is good to be able to find enjoyment in life. As God had intended."

She smiles and also rolls her eyes at the mention of his precious God.

"You know, Joshie... if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're a little obsessed with the guy the way ya keeping talking about him." She leans in and has a smug look on her face. "Didn't know ya swung that way, Joshie. I don't mind, 'course." She gave him a wink and booped his nose, clearly enjoying teasing the poor man.

"Don't be ridiculous. I love God as God loves me, as family. He protects us from evil and delivers evil unto us. He is perfectly balanced. I must remember to read you a few passages when we get a chance to rest. Everyone deserves God's love."

"Uh huh... suuuure. I might fall asleep though so don't expect it to stick. Besides, I'd much rather just talk to each other about...stuff. Wouldn't you, hmm?"

She looked him in the eyes with a smile that felt nothing short of flirtatious. Graham thought nothing of it and simply carried on forward. Carrie pouted and caught up with him, walking with big strides and her arms behind her back.

Eventually, they stopped at a checkpoint of Securitrons, "TV's on wheels." Carrie described them as. She was right too, their 'faces' were screens displaying a cartoon face wearing a power armour helmet.

"Turns out the Platinum Chip wasn't the only upgrade House built for his little army." Carrie explained. "Heard mention of a Diamond Chip up North about 3 weeks back, near New Reno. Eventually found it in some casino's safe room and plugged it into the mainframe. These bad boys now have mini nukes! It's friggin awesome!"

Carrie was extremely excited to talk about the securitrons new upgrades but Joshua stopped her before she figuratively, and possibly quite literally, exploded.

"Anyway, Joshie.... you ready to find out what you've been missing out on?" She placed her hand on the gate leading to The Strip.

Joshua, not bothered in the slightest, nodded and with a push....they entered The Strip.