Marla
The shots cut me off mid-sentence. I feel my eyes widen as I look at Doc Mitchell. I bolt to his front door and yank it open. Those shots weren't from in town, but they were close. I look around wildly.
"C'mon Cam, where are you?" I can't spot her anywhere. My heart pounds.
Wheels rolling over dirt catch my attention. I look for the source and find a securitron coming towards me. It's carrying something- no someone.
"Doc!" I shout. The securitron gets closer.
"I reckon she's still kickin', partner," it says in a male voice as it reaches me.
"No, no, no!" I mumble taking Cam from him and running into the house. "Doc, we gotta work fast!" I'm shouting again, freaked out by the amount of blood coming from my baby sister's head. Doc Mitchell appears next to me as I lay her out on the table.
"Yes, we do," he says starting to work. I take a breath before helping him.
Camilla
Bright lights sting my eyes as I crack them open. My head pounds worse than anything I've ever felt before. I have no clue where I am or how I got here. I hold up my hands. They look dirty. I wiggle them. At least they still work and are all there. I put my hands down and wiggle my toes. I can't see them, but I think they're all there. My head starts to throb worse. I close my eyes and suck in a few deep breaths. My stomach feels like it's swimming. Someone clears their throat. I turn my head towards the sound and open my eyes again. An older man is looking at me. His hair is grey and receding, a bushy mustache sitting above his upper lip and wearing overalls.
"You're awake how 'bout that." he sounds surprised. I turn on my side and start to push myself up. "Whoa, easy there." he helps me sit up. "Been out cold a couple days now." I blink at him a few times to clear my blurring vision. Now that I'm sitting up, my stomach doesn't feel as bad. "Took a couple shots to the head. Hope you don't mind but we had to go rooting around there in your noggin' to pull all the bits of lead out." We? I immediately feel like I'm forgetting someone important. He takes a breath. "Well, let's see what the damage is. How 'bout your name? Can you tell me your name?" the way he says makes me think that he already knows my name.
I can hear a woman's voice in my head saying a name. I recognize it and her voice.
"Camilla," I say, my voice pretty raspy. He nods with a smile.
"Sounds 'bout right. I'm Doc Mitchell. Welcome to Goodsprings." he smiles again and pats my shoulder. "Why don't you relax a second? Get your bearings. I have someone who'll be happy to see you up." I nod a little and watch him leave. I grip the edge of the bed and think about the voice I heard. I close my eyes. I know her voice. So why can't I remember who it belongs to?
"She seems to be alright and I have some tests I want to run but I don't see any harm in lettin' you see her," Doc Mitchell says.
"Thanks Doc," a woman says. My eyes fly open. Doc Mitchell comes back into the room, with a woman following close behind him. I recognize her. She smiles widely, blue eyes filling with tears. She rushes over to me, she short caramel waves bouncing with every rushed step.
"Cam!" she exclaims, enveloping me in a tight embrace. I hold tightly. Only one name comes to my mind now and I know it's hers.
"Marla," I say into her chest. Marla, my older sister. She pulls back and kisses my forehead before turning my head to the side.
"We did good," she says over her shoulder. Doc Mitchell comes up beside her, nodding. "Maybe it won't scar too bad."
"Why don't you sit next to her, Marla. It's important that she's relaxed for this test." Marla sits next to me and Doc, across from me in a chair. Marla takes my hand, giving it a squeeze. Everything about myself is fuzzy. What kind of tests is he going to make me do?
"All right Camilla, I'm gonna say a word. I want you to say the first thing that comes to mind." I nod.
"Okay." he takes a breath.
"Dog." a picture comes to mind, but I can't remember the name of the animal. I look at Marla.
"What are those things called that have a long tail and walk around on all fours like dogs but are fluffy with whiskers?" she blinks at me.
"Umm cat?" I think for a moment. Yes. Cat. That's what those are. I look at Doc.
"Cat." he writes something down.
"House."
"Renovate."
"Night." I pause.
"Uhh, pictures in your head while you sleep." he looks at Marla, so I do too.
"Dreams?" she answers. I nod.
"Okay then. Bandit."
"Stab." he grins a little.
"Light."
"Dark."
"Mother."
"Genes." he writes a few more things down. Marla rubs over the back of my hand.
"Okay. Now I've got a few statements I want you to tell me how much they sound like something you'd say." I nod again. I'm getting really tired and my head still hurts. "First one; Conflict just ain't in my nature." I think for a moment. Is that me? I bit my lip.
"Strongly agree." well it is now.
"I ain't given to relying on others for support."
"Agree." I know that one's true.
"I'm always fixin' to be the center of attention." I shake my head.
"Strongly disagree." I rub my forehead with my free hand.
"I'm slow to embrace new ideas."
"Strongly disagree."
"I charge in to deal with my problems head-on."
"No opinion." he nods. I look at Marla. She kisses my forehead again. Guess I answered right.
"I have one more test I want to get done but it can wait until you've got somethin' in you and rested a bit." I nod. Marla stands. I slowly slide to my feet. Marla keeps me steady. She leads me into the next room and we sit on the couch.
Doc Mitchell comes in and hands me a warm can. It smells alright. I carefully put a spoonful in my mouth. Tastes alright too. I go back for another and miss my mouth. Marla giggles. I glare at her.
"Want some help?" I shake head but then I miss the next spoonful. I sigh and hand her the can. I can see a torn label, reading Pork'n Beans. What a weird name.
Marla holds the spoon up for me. I eat what's in it. She does this a few more times before I'm done.
"Marla, I'm tired." she puts the can on the floor.
"Wanna sleep here or on the bed in the other room?" I put my aching head in her lap. She gently runs a hand through my hair. I've been so distracted I didn't notice how tired I am. I close my eyes. "Sleep tight, Cam." I slowly drift to sleep.
Marla
Mitchell comes in shortly after Cam falls asleep. He looks us over. I keep stroking Cam's straight, strawberry blonde locks.
"So, how'd we do?" he asks.
"Well other than her forgetting words she's known all her life, we did good."
"Good," he nods, "good." he sits down on the chair across from the couch. "With all that damage, she's bound to have some issues. Might be some anomic aphasia." I nod. Sounds about right.
"Only time will tell though." he nods again. I smile down at her. I'm glad he was there with me. If it'd been just me working on her, I would have panicked too much and probably lost her.
"I don't mean to pry but her answer when I said mother… it's been bothering me. Did you two not have a good relationship with her?" I shake my head.
"She died when Cam was two. We didn't have any mother figures growing up." he nods.
"That make sense then." he stands and hands me a form. "Fill out this form for her medical history and we can forget about any other tests I was gonna do." I take the form from him. "When she wakes up we'll talk more." I nod and fill out the form quickly. Seeing as I've been her doctor since I was fully trained, it's easy. I hand it back to him. He takes it and leaves. I look at her again.
"What are we going to be in for, Cam?"
Camilla
My hands are tied in front of me. I struggle to get them free.
"Guess who's waking up over here?" I look up and see three men. One with a mohawk, one without, and one wearing a god-awful checkered suit jacket. Checkered suit takes a long drag from his cigarette before dropping it and stomping on it with his foot.
"Time to cash out," he says. I keep struggling with my hands.
"Would you just get it over with?" no mohawk asks, sounding more than irritated with checkered suit.
"Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but ain't a fink, dig?" he takes a platinum chip out of his coat pocket and shows it to me. "You've made you last delivery kid." he puts it back and takes out something else. "Sorry you got twisted up in this scene." he voice lacks the feeling behind his words. "From where you're kneeling it must seem like as 18-carat run of bad luck. Truth is… the game was rigged from the start."
I shoot up breathing heavy as gunshots split my skull, causing it to pound and throb.
"Cam?" Marla asks softly. I grip my head and try to control my breathing. Most of the dream is gone but I can still hear the last thing that was said.
She touches my shoulder. I look at her for a moment before Doc Mitchell comes into the room.
"Everyone alright?" Marla rubs down my arm.
"Think Cam just had a nightmare." I look at him and then back to her.
"Who shot me?" I ask with a shaky voice. She looks at Doc before shaking her head.
"I don't know. You were in the saloon while I was talking with Doc here. We heard the shots, but I didn't even know where to look." I look at Doc Mitchell.
"Do you know anything about the man that shot me?" he shakes his head.
"I didn't see him or the men with him. You might ask around town, though. Could be someone saw which way they was headed." I nod. "Your best bet would probably be Trudy, the bartender at the saloon up the road. If anyone saw anything, she'd know about it." I sit back against the couch, still holding my head.
"Who was it that rescued me?"
"That'd be Victor," Doc replies, "Curious fella. Sort of odd. And I don't just mean 'cause he's a robot. I couldn't tell you much about him. He's real friendly, don't get me wrong. You just get the sense that ain't the whole picture. Just a feeling." I look at him. My head hurts too bad for this shit. "Keeps to himself mostly. You want to know more about him, you'll have to ask him yourself. He has a shack on the southern edge of town." I don't say anything. "Oh, before I forget." Doc gets up and leave the room for a moment only to come back in with an armful of stuff. "one of the townsfolk dropped this off while you was sleepin'. Said they found it near where Victor found you and guessed it might be yours." He sets some items in my lap. I pull my hand from my head and look at one strange object only to just then notice that my sister has the same thing on her wrist.
"Your Pipboy!" she says happily. "I thought it was lost. I worked so hard to get it for you." I blink at her. I can't remember. I look at it and tinker with it a bit before it lights up again. A part of me knows I could have fixed it if it didn't power up right away. I set it next to me on the couch. There're some boots, pants with ripped knees, a smaller gun that I hardly remember using and a small bag. Marla gets up and grabs some other things that look like fabric.
"I got these while you were out. Your shirt was a bloody mess." She adds to the pile in my lap. I look at the shirt. It's two colors one being black, but I can't remember the name of the other one and it's shorter than it should be. I rub my fingers over the color I can't remember. I look at Marla.
"Why can't I remember things?" She looks over my face.
"Like what?"
"Like cat or dreams or whatever the fuck this color is?" I point to it.
"That's red. You had some serious brain damage." I huff a little. "It's call anomic aphasia. It just means that you've forgotten what some things are called but not how to use them. It just takes time to get over it." I grumble a little and look at the jacket. It's black leather with two leather straps on the front and under it make me so excited. A dusty and dirty pre-war baseball cap. I'd know them anywhere. I hold it up and inspect it farther. It's in great shape.
"You remember that?" she asks. I nod.
"How could I forget?"
"Remember how you always wanted to play baseball back in 101 like-" her voice catches. "Like Donovan." I think for a moment about the name. Tears fill my eyes when I think about him or his father, James who was like a father to me and Marla.
"But I never got the chance because we followed him when he left the vault." she nods. I put the cap on, careful of my head wound.
"I knew you two had to be from a vault when I saw that Pipboy," Doc says. We both nod.
"We're from vault 101 in the Capital Wasteland. Cam was born there but we both grew up there." he nods.
"Know what that like. I grew up in Vault 21, on the strip. Had my old Pipboy around here somewhere." I take off my cap to pull on the shirt. To my surprise it ties in the front. I take my time tying it, but I do it all by myself. I put the cap back on my head. Marla laughs.
"I knew you'd like it, but I didn't know you'd like it that much." I shrug. It blocks out the light and helps my head not hurt as bad.
"While you're up, you should go talk to Sunny Smiles. If not now, then at least before you leave town. She can help you remember how to fend for yourself in the desert. She'll likely be at the saloon." he get up. "But anyways, try not to get killed anymore." I smirk a little.
"Thanks Doc. I'll try real hard." he grins as he gets up and leaves us along again.
"Finish getting dressed. We'll ask around town about the guy that shot you and if your head hurts too much we'll see if we can stay here one more night." I look at her.
"You want to leave now?" she nods.
"That bastard has to pay for what he's done, and he's already got two days on us. Plus, I feel a little cooped up." I roll my eyes.
"Fine." I shove everything out of my lap and stand. I pull my pants on and sit back down to pull on my boots. Like my shirt I have to take my time lacing them up, but I do it. I put the gun on my hip, along with the small bag. Marla gets up and pull out two bigger bags from the corner of the room. She hands one to me.
"I got us some other clothes and supplies too while you were out." I pull my bag on my shoulders.
"Try not to sound too excited. I feel like shit." I grab my jacket.
"Not to worry. We'll take it easy on you." she grabs my hand and pulls me out the door.
The light burns my eyes and makes my head throb. The hat helps a little but not enough. I follow Marla up the road where there's a small store next to the saloon. It looks kind of familiar, but I can't remember. We walk up the steps. An older man nods at us as we go inside. Marla opens the door and holds it open for me.
The saloon is dimly lit which eases the pain behind my eyes. There's a woman standing near the pool table with a dog resting under it. She looks at us. The dog growls a little.
"Cheyenne, stay. Don't worry, she won't bite unless I tell her to," the woman says coming over to us. Cheyenne trails behind her.
"Are you Sunny?" Marla asks. She nods.
"Sure am." She looks at me. "Hi there." Then back to Marla. "Sticking around Goodsprings for a while longer?" Marla nods.
"Doc Mitchell said you could help me remember how to survive in the desert," I say. She looks back at me.
"Yeah, I guess there's a thing or two I could show you. Sounds like you need all the help you can get after what they done to you." I nod.
"That's why she's got her older sister with her," Marla adds, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Sunny smiles at us.
"Meet me outside, behind the saloon." I nod. She slips passed us and heads outside with Cheyenne behind her. Marla grips my shoulders.
"Do you want me to come with you?" I look up at her.
"What are you going to do?" She looks around.
"I'll see if I can get some info on the guy that shot you, see where he went." I nod.
"Okay. I should be fine." She moves the hat up and kisses my forehead.
"Be safe okay?" I nod. She rights my hat and lets me go. I head out the door and walk around the side of the saloon. Sunny looks like she's setting up some bottles on the fence. Now that we're outside I can see she's got brown hair pulled back into a bun and brown eyes.
"You got a gun?" I nod and pull it off my hip. "9mm. Not bad." she steps back a few feet. I follow her. She hands it back to me before taking her rifle off her back. She shoots one of the bottles before helping me line up a shot. I shoot a few bottles after a few tries. She also shows me how to reload. I can tell she's please with herself. Now that I've been shown again everything is very familiar.
"Well, that's a start. But I don't reckon you came to me to learn to fight sarsaparilla bottles. I laugh a little.
"No. believe it or not I've been having problems remembering how to do things." She pats my shoulder.
"Looks like you're doin' just fine to me. Tell you what. I gotta go chase geckos away from out water supply anyway. Darn critters are attracted to it. Why don't you come along?" I think about it for a moment. It would probably be good for me.
"Alright. Couldn't hurt." She smiles.
"Follow me. it's just down to the southeast a short ways. Shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. Especially with two of us." She starts down the hill. I follow after her.
It doesn't take us long before she slows down. She pulls her gun and gets low. I do the same.
"They're just up a head. They're fast lil' shits." I nod. I see some movement before I can tell what it is, Sunny fires. Two more geckos start towards us. I line up my shot and fire a few times before one falls over. Sunny takes out the other in one shot.
"Those are nasty." she nods.
"They're good eating, but that's about it." I nod. "We got some geckos to clear out up on the ridge behind me." I sigh. This is going to be longer than a few minutes.
Sunny and I walk back to the saloon with Cheyenne trotting between us. Sunny showed me how to clean up the geckos for cooking. She pats my shoulder again.
"You're getting the hang of it. I'm bettin' in a couple days your shot will be as good as it always was." I grin a little. "Hope I didn't miss anything good on the jukebox. Cheyenne would never forgive me." I laugh some.
"Thanks for helping me out Sunny. I know you didn't have to."
"Hey, you helped me with our problem too. Here's a little spending money for the trouble." she takes my hand and puts a small pouch in it. I look inside and see some caps. "Do me a favor." I look at her. "Trudy- she's the bartender up at the Prospector, kind of the town mom- she'll like to know that you're okay. You were in before you got shot and she'd be cross with me if I didn't ask you to poke your head in and say hi."
"I don't see any problems with that. Marla's still at the saloon as far as I know."
"Good. It's nice that you have someone with you." I nod.
"I'm glad I have her too. I doubt I'd remember anything without her." we continue walking back to the saloon quietly. I hope Marla was able to figure more out about the asshole that shot me.