Gibson's Shack

Gibson's shack is an unmarked location in the Mojave Wasteland, just west of Gibson scrap yard, past the power lines along the railroad tracks north of Novac.

Background
According to Veronica, the comm station terminal found in the shack was used by Father Elijah to pass technological information to her and is used in the quest I Could Make You Care.

Layout
The building is a destitute shack consisting of a campfire and various detritus. A broken shelving unit and hubcaps flank the entrance. Several bottles of alcohol are strewn about the room, including vodka, large whiskey bottles, empty whiskey bottles, regular whiskey bottles, and beer.

There are also a few chems including several Med-X, Jet, and Mentats scattered around. Two doses of Psycho can be found behind the bookshelf on the north wall.

Evidence of previous violence can be found in the shack, including a skeleton on a bed in the corner. A butter knife is stabbed into the television set. A bloody lawn mower blade lays on the ground. There is a finger impaled on a machete driven into the wall above the skeleton. If the Courier brushes past it, the machete and finger will fall to the ground.

Loot

 * Unique finger - Near the skeleton.

Related quests

 * I Could Make You Care

Behind the scenes
Alice Hostetler has a set of dialogue lines and movement packages directing her towards Gibson's shack. If convinced to fulfill her own dreams and leave her parents during Someone to Watch Over Me, she would eventually make her way towards Novac in search of a home, and finally choose to settle down inside the shack. However, a variable which controls the movement is not set correctly, so this scene will never appear.

Appearances
Gibson's shack appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * It's possible that after downloading the notes, an infinite loop of dialogue with Veronica occurs when she is spoken to. There is no option to exit the dialogue. The only solution is to quit and load the most recent save. This bug was found in a game in which HELIOS One had already been activated, the notes for the vegetation technology had already been found, and the pulse gun had already been discovered.
 * After fighting the Brotherhood of Steel paladins outside the door to the Hidden Valley bunker, Veronica freezes and will not follow after the completion of "I Could Make You Care" quest. She will talk and listen to commands, but will not follow. The only fix after this happens is to visit Gibson's shack, go to the terminal, and download the notes. Veronica will then reappear inside of the shack, where dialogue can be manually opened with her, and this is where the infinite dialogue loop bug will happen. Unfortunately, it's not much of a fix because if the infinite dialogue loop appears, the quest can't continue. In addition, if the shack is left, she will stay where she is and won't follow and there will be no option to even get into the dialogue. It will be necessary to go back to before the part of the I Could Make You Care quest where she speaks to the elder after the notes were retrieved, and tell her to leave (don't give her the option to stay and don't allow her to choose for herself), after her speech about wanting to stay or leave because the elder would not listen about the vegetation notes.
 * When entering Gibson's shack, the load screen will freeze (roulette wheel stops spinning) and a fire crackling will be heard. Commanding any current followers, including Veronica, to wait outside will usually fix the issue.