And there the lone wanderer sat, in a bathtub washing away the sweat that had accumulated on her tanned yet supple skin. It had been two weeks since she had woken up at Doc Mitchell's, she couldn't remember much due to the fact she was shot in the head. But she remembered little things, like her name. She loved her name, she thought it was exotic,
"Jasmine" she said in reply to Doc's simple question.
She took a sip from the bottle of whiskey she had found on the nightstand in the room. She was grateful for the hot water, so much so that the first thing she did after renting the room was fill the tub to the brim.
She lay there now one foot propped up on the edge of the tub opposite her and one knee slightly bent, enjoying the hot steam that had filled the bathroom and fogged the cracked mirror while taking a long swig of whisky. In the past two weeks, not a lot had happened, it left her with a lot of time to think. She began making rules for herself. Rule one was never give your trust out freely, though the people of Good springs had been kind and welcoming to her, as soon as she embarked on her journey to find the man who had shot her she learned not all people of the Mojave were so kind. Rule two was everyone is a potential threat until they proved to her otherwise, Jasmine learned this on her way to the nearby town of prim when she had stopped at a shack where the road split into a fork. She saw three men fighting off bloat flies, she stepped in to lend a helping hand, yet once they were dead the men kept on shooting, but now in her direction. She wanted to run, but something inside her told her to stay and fight. She had killed two of the men while downing another with a shot to his knee as he fled finishing him off with a shot to the head, she had impressed herself. As she went on she learned more and more about herself, like when her pistol jammed it only took her a second to realize what the problem was and fix it without a thought. She knew her skills with weapons would be put to good use when she arrived in Prim only to find out it was no safer a place to stay then on the side of the road. She fought her way through the men that had tried to take over the town only getting a few cuts and bruises. It was after she got out that she realized how good she was at patching herself up, she was no master surgeon but she knew more than she thought.
The next few days were spent on the road, she spent the days traveling and making camp at night. When she was in good springs she had been taught some basic survival skills, like how to start a fire and to know where it was safe to make camp.
She ran her hand over the soft fuzz that covered her head, the first day she woke up she had long brown hair down to her waist, she stared at herself in the mirror in Doc's bathroom one night after a shower. She was observing the features of her own face, her slender jaw, her heart-shaped face, full lips, and her big deep brown eyes. She finally came to her hair; she wondered to herself " Why did I want to keep my hair this long?" she ran her fingers through it. Though it was tangled and frizzy she liked the color. It wasn't brown but wasn't exactly blonde, she settled on describing it as a wheat or sandy like color. But she couldn't wrap her head around why she'd kept her hair this long. It didn't really make to much sense; first she lived in a desert. Second, it was a pain to maintain. Then lastly, it couldn't be to safe having it this long. So she settled on cutting it, but she fumbled with the scissors and ended up cutting off more then she intended. She tried to even it out but just ended up looking like fiend who had tried to cut her hair with a ripper while on a chem bender. Defeated, she asked doc for help. There wasn't many options, so she just settled on shaving almost all of it off. She liked the way it felt when she ran her hands over her head, the soft peach like fuzz tickled her fingers.
Though it had been a rather spur of the moment decision it didn't come out to bad, she thought she looked better this way and a lot safer to. She stood up out of the tub, pulling the plug to let the water drain, she scooped up her clothing off the floor which had consisted of a pair blue jeans, boots, and a dingy white t-shirt. She threw them on the dresser with her pack and began to towel off. She began observing her body; She wasn't the curviest of women, small breasts and petite waist that flowed into slender hips and long legs. She often looked over her body, it was unfamiliar, but she thought she was decent looking enough. She pulled out her sleeping shirt from her pack and slipped it over her head, she fell on the bed appreciating the soft sheets and blankets. She propped herself up against the wall the bed was against to and made yet another rule for herself. Rule 3, appreciate little comforts whether it be a bed, hot water, or good whiskey. She wrote the rule down in a small leather bound journal that Doc had given her, he said that writing things down would maybe help her with her memory loss. Her placed the journal on the nightstand and tucked herself under the blankets of the bed quickly falling asleep.
When she woke up the sun was streaming through the window. She checked her Pitboy, Yet another kind donation from Doc. It was 11:30 that was the latest she had ever slept, but she dismissed it due to how late it was when she rented the room. She began to get dressed, throwing on a fresh shirt and jeans then tying the laces of her boots. She took the sweaty top and jeans and put them into the bathroom so she would remember to wash them later in the day. The Lady at the front desk, Jeannie May Crawford, had been nice enough to give her some soap to wash with. Jasmine stepped into the morning sun locking the door behind her as she made her way to the Hulking green dinosaur that had peaked her interest since she entered the small town. As she made her way to it she heard a voice call out to her, "Hey there! Are you new in town?" Jasmine turned around to see a tall man in what looked to be an NCR ranger's outfit. "Hello" Jasmine said with a smile extending her hand to his. He shook her hand, "Now what would a pretty young woman like you being doing all the way out here in Novak? If I might ask?" he said with a friendly smile on his face. "I'm just passing through, I'm looking for someone actually. Would you of happened to see a man in a checkered suit?" Jasmine asked pleadingly. She hadn't really had much luck tracking down then man who shot her so far, but she had gotten enough from the citizens of good springs and the sheriff in prim to know he was heading in the direction. " No, I can't say I've seen anyone like that passing through here. I'm sorry to say, but I'm not really the one you should be asking. If I was you I would go check with Manny, he stands watch on days in Dinky's mouth."
" Dinky?" Jasmine said with a perplexed look on her face.
" The Big green dinosaur" Ranger Andy said "and by the way I didn't catch your name little woman, I'm Ranger Andy."
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm Jasmine, its nice to meet you ranger Andy." She said apologetically.
"No need to be sorry Miss Jasmine"
"It was nice meeting you, but I want to take you up on your suggestion to go and ask Manny about the man I'm looking for. Thank you so much for your help."
"The pleasure was all mine Miss jasmine." He said and she began to walk to the dinosaur. Jasmine didn't know why but she trusted ranger Andy, maybe because unlike the majority of the Mojave he had approached her in a kind way. She knew she made a rule not to be so trusting but she couldn't help but trust the Old NCR ranger. She swung open the door that led into Dinky, she asked the man behind the counter where she could find Manny and he pointed to the stairs just left of the counter. As she opened the door to Dinky's mouth she found the barrel of a gun staring her straight in the face. " Don't sneak up on a person like that." Manny said in an irritated tone. "Sorry." Jasmine said. She really didn't mean to scare him; she had only wanted to talk to him. Manny was bronze skinned man and wore a red beret on his head, With one cheesy moustache. She tried not to giggle as she brought her mind back to the conversation and asked the man her question. "Have you seen a man with a checkered suit come through here?" jasmine asked suddenly as Manny had sat down again. "Why? Is he your boyfriend or somethin'?"
The thought made Jasmine grimace in disgust.
"No, he's isn't. So have you seen him or not?" She said little annoyed.
Whenever she thought about the man who shot her all that came to mind was how she was left for dead in a shallow grave, how he just shot her as if she wasn't even a person. He could of just taken what he wanted and left her alone. But she was just a loose end to him that needed to be "taken care of". She snapped to reality as manny responded to her question.
"Well shit" Manny said looking up at the seemingly irritated women who now had her arms crossed over her chest. "Yes, there was a man by that description who came through here a few weeks back. But I don't give out information for free, if you want to know where he went you'll have to do something for me first." He said. Now jasmine was getting mad "Fine, what do you want?" Manny explained to her about his problem with the ghouls that were lingering in the science facility near by and that if she helped him out he'd tell her which way the man went. When Manny was done explaining Jasmine was even more irritated.
Why couldn't he just tell her where he went? It was as simple as a few words.
"Your kidding right? You want me to go and do all that just for a simple 'he went that way.'?" Manny had stood up and had a very serious look on his face and spoke with a harsh tone " You want the information that's what you need to do." Jasmine opened the door and left. Right there was a person she knew she'd never trust, she had bought some water and food along with a book to read from the gift shop. She went back to her room to try to calm down and figure out a way around this. She entered her room and set the packaged food down along with the water. She went into the bathroom to splash water on her face. Looking into the mirror she saw her eyes start to redden and her vision blur as she began to cry. She didn't realize how upset she still was about what had happened, she knew she wasn't over it but she didn't think it would come bubbling back to the surface like this. It caused an pain in her chest to think about how she could have family out in the Mojave somewhere and not even know it. Not to mention the fact she had no a clue who she was. She sat on the bed once again leaning against the wall with her knees to her chest chin resting on her right knee as she felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks. It was bad enough not knowing who she was, but the situation wasn't made any better by the fact that she has refused to talk to Doc about it, about how she felt completely alone, with her only goal being to find the man who had done this to her. She felt she had no real purpose.
"You know Darlin' its ok to talk about it. How you feel I mean. You've been through hell." Doc said sitting on the couch next to her.
"I know…I just don't really want to talk about it. I just want know why he did it"
"well then, if that's what you want then Ill do everything in my power here to help"
That was four days before Jasmine packed up the few things she called her own and set off. She missed the friends she had made in good springs. At least their she felt at home and not so alone.
Jasmine began to sob, not holding back, she knew she had to let it out. She didn't know how long she sat there crying, but she fell asleep at some point after. She woke up calmer and much more collected.
It didn't surprise her, that had been the first time she had cried about what had happened. She pushed it to the back of her mind as she walked into the bathroom, and filled the tub with and about an inch of water and began to clean the clothes that she had worn for 2 weeks. They reeked of sweat and dirt from dredging along the road in the hot Mojave sun. She finished cleaning the clothes, drained the tub and let them out to dry. She headed back into her room and decided to eat something pulling out a fancy lad snack cake, it wasn't the best thing to be eating but beggars can't be choosers right? She had sold some of the things she had picked up on the way when she first arrived in Novac. It was late when she got in, she didn't even bother checking the time but she estimated it was around 1:30 in the morning. But when she entered the shop she found the man asleep in his chair. She had made about 500 caps off of some metal armor, ammunition she didn't need and a large amount of Jet she had gotten off raiders. She put 150 down on the room for a week and 75 on food and water. She had enough left to keep her fed and housed for a while. She knew there wasn't another settlement for at least another days walk and that for all she could have known was in the wrong direction. She needed to get that information from Manny before heading out again. She didn't know how, all she had been her 9 mm pistol and a varmint rifle that was in crappy condition. She was in no way ready to be taking on ghouls.
She agreed to go back to Manny and talk to him after she ate and wrote a little in her journal. She hadn't written much since she'd got it, she refused to even writing about it, up until now the only thing the small book had written in it was her rules. But she began to write about how she was feeling and what she did remember before the man in the checkered suit had shot her, which wasn't much.
All she could recall was being bound and having the package she was supposed to be delivering stolen from her. She didn't know what the package was; she couldn't remember anything further back then that.
But she sat there and wrote for what seemed like a few minutes while she ate a second snack cake. But after writing a whole 5 pages front and back in the journal she looked outside to see it was dark. She looked at the time and it was around nine. "Well I guess I needed to write more than I thought" she said thinking aloud. Andy had said Manny watched over the town but never said for how long, she figured she could at least catch him leavening Dinky and work something out. She left her room in a hurry to catch Manny she didn't know where he lived so if she couldn't find him she'd have to wait till tomorrow. She practically ran up the stairs to Dinky's mouth purposely trying to make a lot of noise so not to scare him again and end up on the wrong side of his gun. She calmed herself before opening the door "It's ok Jasmine, you can convince him to give you the information you need no problem." She said to herself. She opened the door to once again finding herself at the wrong end of a rifle. "Well this is just going swimmingly already." she thought
End of chapter One