Trav'lin' Light [Open]

"Yes we can," Spencer said, idly examining a piece of broken tile that was sitting on the counter.

Spencer heard the knock and lazily turned his head toward the door before it occurred to him that he should probably be hiding. Before he had the chance to, he saw Haley Brown approach him. Spencer stared in semi-disbelief.

"How the fuck are they all finding me," he asked to no one in particular.

"Okay, but what the fuck is she doing in this shithole town?"

Spencer took a deep breath. "Listen Haley, I'm sorry. This whole thing isn't- this is weird. It's just weird. It's great to see you," he said, giving her a hug. Suddenly, the door busted open.

Spencer stumbled behind the countertop, searching for his pistol while he was behind cover. By the time he arose, Sierra had killed all but one.

"You three can help yourselves," he said blankly, glancing on the bottle. He noticed Haley was still very unnerved.

He approached Sierra and lit a cigarette. He took a deep breath and placed his hand over his rapidly beating heart.

"You just saved my life," he said before embracing her. "Remind me never to piss you off," he said with a weak laugh. "Listen, I'm gonna get Sierra out of here while you take care of the bodies. She's not good with stuff like this, you understand."

He walked to the counter and helped her on her feet.

"Come on, let's let these two handle this."

He took his gun from the counter and tucked it into his pants. "Just in case he had friends."

The two exited the house through the back door and Spencer led them behind an abandoned general store, now mostly rubble.

"Well, you met Sierra," he said. After a long pause, he continued. "That wasn't the best first impression, but she's my new girl. And before you ask, it's not like- it's not just a fling, it's not like the girls at the casino. I really feel something for this girl. It's like how I felt about Natalie at the beginning. I... I don't know how to describe it. But just everything feels different now. I don't know. It's just the first time I've been out of Vegas in God knows how long. Everything is different."

He took another drag of his cigarette.

"I'm rambling, aren't I?"

(Bobby bb )

"That's all I need to hear, dolly. I know she might seem like she's got a few screws loose, but she's a gasser. You ready to go inside? You seemed a bit rattled after what went on in there. Understandably, I might add. I still think I'm in shock with this whole scene- don't think its really hit me yet."

Hayley visibly paused with a blank stare into the ground. She took a deep breath and looked back up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Hayley walked with Spencer, it was a short walk, they were not that far away from the house. When they had entered, there was hardly a trace of combat. The place was cleaned up, but there was still a bloodstain on the floor. Hayley avoided it, and sat down on the couch.

"What do we do now,"

Sierra spoke up.

"This could have been an isolated incident, pure luck for them. But if it's not....."

"If it's not, what? Come on, they're not just gonna forget about me, are they? You can't honestly believe that. Maybe they won't come back here, but I couldn't go back to Vegas! I'd be signing my own death warrant. I'd have to be mad. Or at least mad to show up without a good plan,"

Sierra was dumbfounded. She had no idea what to do. Killing all of them would not work. They also seemed hell bent on Spencer's death, so reasoning was out of the question.

"I....I don't know. We could keep moving. We can't eliminate them, not yet anyway."

"Oh Jesus, I just have all the luck. I've haven't dealt with this in years- hell, I haven't dealt with this ever. Now, come on, we're a bunch of smart folks, let's come up with something!"

Sierra started to become visibly pissed off, so Michael attempted to calm the situation down.

"Sierra's right. We can't get rid of Jake yet. We'd need proof of his ordering, or Swank will leave us all lying in a ditch. We didn't find anything on the mercenaries."

Then suddenly, a not-so-great idea hit Michael over the head like a pissed off Kings member.

"We could break into his room, search it."

Michael was really a good source of not-so-great ideas, except when it came to business. Trading and negotiating were his strong points. He had plenty of charisma, too. When he was little, he tried to grow a cactus just by spitting on it.

"Break in?"
"We work at the same place, right? You know the security? The entire fucking casino is there so the good people of the Mojave can have a week to spend all their bread and not worry about getting shanked by some tweaked out raider in the middle of the night. They wouldn't be as popular as they are if it wasn't the safest place out there. And he doesn't know it yet but he's gonna find out you're with me. Probably soon."

"I'm sorry. I should be more open minded. Thank you for contributing. Care to elaborate? And as for the rest of the class- any questions, comments, concerns? Who knows, maybe we could make this work."

As much as it would be simpler to simply break a glass and use it to slash Jake's throat, Sierra knew that she'd be gunned down. She made particular note of the security of ever place she entered. The Tops was well patrolled. All they would need would be solid proof that he ordered a hit on Spencer, then they could take it to the head Chairman. Right now, they had nothing but the dying screams of a mercenary, who for all they knew, said what he thought would keep him alive.

"I...I don't want to kill anyone, no matter if they tried to kill you."

Hayley piped up. She was slightly naive, and thought that nobody had to die. Sierra rolled her eyes and finished the fine alcoholic beverage.

It was getting to late afternoon now, and the adrenaline was wearing off on Sierra. Her head acknowledged the pain inflicted upon it, and it was starting to bruise. The pain slowly went away though, and it was replaced by the effects of alcohol.