To Zion

In the late afternoon, she meets Blake, a merchant, and supply manager. As she looks through some things to buy she keeps over thinking about Boone and finds herself crying.

"Hey, you alright? You can always shop later, Goldeneye," he says urgently, having brought her the things she had requested. Four purified water, three replacement stimpaks, six of her favorite Salisbury steaks, and then some scrap metal for potential small repairs, electronic parts, and fifteen more gallons of gas giving her three jerry cans in total to leave her at fifty caps.

"No...no here are the caps. I just need a break from some asshole." she quickly says with a quivering voice. She smears her cheeks against each of her shoulders roughly and sighs deeply forcefully dragging herself out of her thoughts.

"Ahhh I get it...well, have a good rest of your day," he says as he jingles the profit into his pouch. "Come again though. You and your mother are good for business." he clicks his tongue and smiles warmly.

"Yeah, no problem…" She slightly smiles, covers up her satchel, and grips hard at the gas canisters at her right hand and arm. As she moves she keeps her arm tight against the metal scrap under her arms. Showing her gloomy side to Blake they do not stay to talk as they have done in the past about trade route news and newer jobs.

Coming back outside of the large metal garage door she checks her gauges closely and refills her tank. Staying active she over-stuffs her right saddlebag and attaches the new jerry can to the side of the bike with a metal wire. She sighs and eats on her usual food as she looks around her bike looking for any potential leaks and abnormal sounds. Feeling a sudden breeze she tosses her empty food can and finishes up a Nuka-Cola. After tossing both she heads back out to the roads with everything on her mind from the weather, potential dangers, and other things dealing with her travels. After taking about half an hour to get to the northern passage she opens her journal eyeing a piece of paper her mother had left for her maps. She kills the engine and sits with her motor off in thoughtful silence. Her mother had noted that the path was to be north and along mountains, so she follows her eyes along the wall of mountains, observantly. She closes the book repeating a sentence to find on a rock.

"'The sun is killing me'...'The sun is killing me' yeah no shit buddy I feel you." she rubs her forehead hoping the tunnel is completely shadowed to lessen her headache.

Now walking herself and her bike along the shadowing rocks she stops to the exact words in white on a hallowed rock then drifts her eyes to the blackened entrance leading to a wooden gated door. She pushes her bike closer and looks over her shoulder and then to the door after seeing she was alone. Lifting a hand to her bandage at her head she grips it, pulls it off, and stuffs it to her pocket for reuse after disinfecting it. She grabs her magnum and pops open its cylinder to reload it completely back up and clamps it closed and returns it to her left hip. Continuing along she puts herself in front of the bike and keeps the door open with one arm having the bike naturally rolling down into the tunnel by itself with one hand to a handle. With a grunt, she makes it through safely, despite the rolling weight of the bike, seeing lanterns along the wooden pillars making it seem as if it was a mining tunnel once. She now leaps onto her bike to ride it down the short slope. It rolls her a couple of feet away down and she comes to the end after twenty feet of walking. Now to the end's door she pushes it open and leads her bike through it. The sun makes her wince and groan to the pain.

"Damn it…" she lifts a hand over her brow and sits to her bike and hurries to kick start it. Looking along the mountains she eyes a path leading east of her to pathways and more tunnels ahead but open just enough to drive right through.

The soft rumbling of the muffler is silent throughout the enclosed spaces. With her installation of a quieter one, it was easier to hear the wind howling through as well, aside from when she was revving the throttle. She looks over the once water flowing land for a moment only seeing mountain paths to her right and her left after the tunnel she had driven through. Eyeing the map then the pathway she had marked from her mother's notes, she heads northwest taking the correct path for a few hours. Hitting the first hour she comes to a faded path barely visible and barely used heading northeast and to the one, her mother had mentioned still headed northwest to loop back east and to Zion. Glancing to the sun an hour away from setting, she looks to the worn path with a questionable look and heads on the more worn one all the while feeling the sun raise her body heat and having her sweat profusely.

"I will find the damn river coming close to Zion and bathe...I need it…I am not wasting my water. As much as I want to cool down…" she says as she wipes the back of her right hand to her forehead to stop to get a bottle of water out and drink as she drives on.

For the next hour and a half of humming and taking a break to pee, she comes to a quick descent. She stops and cuts off her engine to see the sun setting and sadly a cut off path welcomes her to what seems to have been a rockfall to close it off the slot canyon that should have led just beyond the descent.

"Fuck...I have to backtrack to that path then...that is a waste of gas...shit." she groans and sits on the wide mountain path.

She steps around looking for any shrubs or anything to burn for the night. Finding nothing of use she looks back to her bike as the sun disappears to the horizon of the canyon. She slips out her blanket and unstraps her gear to become more comfortable. Her eyes then trigger and glow golden having her now see clearly and without a headache. Now reaching a book out from her satchel she reads something different now that she is alone, The Love In Waiting.

"Finally I am almost done with this one and I am taking my time," she mumbles to herself and sits cross-legged to a flatter rocky area. Before she laid back against her balled up coat, she had thrown off some uncomfortable rocks and covered herself with her heavy blanket to keep warm. Reading a part of the woman in the story, it was close to its end and the author had the woman confess and explain her love to her long life best friend. Susan cries when he denies the story's main character.

"Oh, no...why…" she shifts the blanket to her nose as she whimpers to the words of the main character of the book. "You are the world to me. I was blind to see it but I am yours and I only wish for your love in return"

"I knew she should have ignored him and went for Michael. He is so much better for her…she is so brave to come out to her true feelings..." She takes a deep breath and blinks the tears from her eyes and jumps a bit and sits up to quickly snatch her magnum from her belt to the right of her head. Slowly lining up her sights she looks around and shifts under the blanket. She then looks to a small herd of Big Horner's leaping from ledge to ledge just feet in front of her not noticing her. She keeps silent and bends the corner of her page to mark it and sets it down slowly. Watching them move on she lays the gun across her chest and clicks it to safety. She heaves out a breath after hearing their hooves echo loudly in clanks below. She closes her eyes for a moment and falls back to her coat and opens them back up to the clouded starry sky.

"Well, goodnight…" She talks to the night and smiles and soon softly hums to herself to sleep to a song she had heard on a radio in New Vegas, Blue Moon.