Consciousness came back to him slowly, and when it did, it was accompanied by no small measure of pain. His entire right arm and part of his back ached dully, right down to his bones. He opened his eyes slowly, and realised he was lying down. He was in a room lit with bright daylight, walls clean and the paint still relatively white. There was even unbroken glass in the window.
"The kid's awake, Miss Nightingale." The voice came from his right, but he found it too painful to turn his head towards it. In response to whomever had talked, he heard the rustling of clothing, as if someone had stood up, and then footfalls on the tiled floor. The sound walked around the bed he was on, and it was accompanied by a person, who came to stand next to him, and peered at him closely.
"Good to see you ain't dead." The person said. She was a red-haired woman, tall and gentle-faced, dressed in a clean shirt and jeans. He looked up at her, confused, and asked, "Who are you? Where am I?" The woman reached behind her and pulled a chair up to his bedside, its metal feet screeching slightly on the tiles. She sat down on the chair and said, "I'm Nightingale. And you're in Avalon."
It took a second or two for her words to sink in, and when they did he frowned. "You mean, Dokter Good's Avalon?" he asked. Nightingale nodded, "Yep, Dokter Good's Avalon." He was even more confused now, and he frowned as he looked her up and down. Then he asked, "You're a raider?" Nightingale shrugged, "I guess so. Technically speaking, I don't actually do any raiding. I'm the medical specialist here in Avalon. But yeah, we're raiders here. Just like you, if your armour and gear were anything to go by. Nice missile launcher by the way."
"Her name's Violetta." He said, involuntarily, and then, "Where's all my stuff?" Nightingale smiled a half smile and said, "It's safe, you'll get it back. Violetta too." Then she looked up, past him and called, "Nurse Lucy, could you bring our patient's clothes over? I'm sure he'd like to dress now that he's awake." It was only when she said this that he realised he was totally naked, though mercifully covered with a blanket. A whirring met his ears as a robot hovered into view. Her white paint told him she was a Miss Nanny, and her eye stalks buzzed as she focussed on him. She was carrying a bundle, which he recognised as his road leathers and boots, and when she saw him looking at them, she held them out and said, "All clean, buddy, and stitched up where that Yao Guai took a slice out of ya. Congrats on the not dying thing."
"Yeh. Thanks." He said, and made to sit up. It was difficult, and Nightingale didn't move to help him, probably knowing he would have refused her help had she tried. However, she did say, "You lost a lot of blood kid. Didn't know if you were gonna stick with us for a while there."
He finally looked down at his arm and shoulder then and was slightly relieved to see it completely swathed in bandages. He hadn't really been up for looking at whatever horrific damage the Yao Guai had done him. "How bad is it?" he asked. Nightingale leaned back in her chair and said, "I ain't gonna lie to you. I thought you were gonna have to lose the arm. Lucy and I managed to save it, but I can't guarantee you'll have full use of it. Or even if you'll have any. It might still come down to cutting it off."
He looked up sharply, a bolt of distress flashing through his chest. "No." he said, and Nightingale raised an eyebrow. He shook his head and continued, "I need it. Violetta, my missile launcher, she's my thing, ya know? That's what I do, I blow shit up. I can't hold her with one arm." Nightingale studied him for a few moments before asking, "What's your name, kid? What'd your last gang call you?"
"Boomtown." He said, "They called me Boomtown."
Nightingale glanced at Nurse Lucy and then said, "Well, Boomtown, you ain't gonna be making anything go boom anytime soon. I'm gonna advise you don't try picking up your dear Violetta until that arm of yours is totally fixed. If and when that happens."
But Boomtown shook his head again. It was like she didn't understand or something. "But I'll be useless with just one arm. Raiders don't keep useless people around." At this, Nightingale snorted, and took his road leathers and boots from Nurse Lucy. Handing them to him, she said, "You might notta heard, but The Good Boys ain't like other raider gangs. You won't be getting executed for losing an arm. Now get dressed. Someone wants to meet you."
And with that, she left the room, Nurse Lucy hovering out behind her. Boomtown sat without moving for a minute or so. This wasn't what he'd been expecting when he decided to seek out Avalon. Though now he thought about it, he didn't know what he'd been expecting, not really. Not this. Not a clean bed and clean bandages in a clean room with glass in the windows. Things like that were unheard of, especially when you were a raider. And these people were raiders. Boomtown looked around the room, at the shelves of medical equipment shining in the sunlight filtering through the window. He supposed the things he'd heard about The Good Boys were true. They weren't anything like other raiders. They were a new breed entirely.
Boomtown dressed in his road leathers as quickly as his currently useless arm would allow him to, and noticed as he did so that Nightingale and Nurse Lucy must have bathed him while he was unconscious, not an enviable task considering his previous employment's hygiene standards. For the first time in a while he could see his actual skin colour without the near constant coat of motor oil and grime that usually covered him. He thought that maybe this was the first time he'd been properly clean since he left the Gunners, roughly two years before.
Despite his arm, he managed to get his leathers and boots on, though not without a considerable amount of pain. Again he felt that pulse of fear go through him. He didn't want to lose his arm. He couldn't. He looked down at his hand and tried to make a fist. His fingers twitched, but the pain was too much and he couldn't do it. Boomtown swallowed his fear and headed towards the door.
Exiting the room with the bed, Boomtown found himself in a small office, cluttered by a small metal desk and far too many filing cabinets. Nightingale sat behind the desk, making notes on a piece of paper in a folder. Nurse Lucy was organising a drawer of files, and humming mechanically to herself.
Nightingale looked up at him and put down her pencil. "Now, ain't that better? You don't scrub up too bad, kid. Dokter Good might make good use of you yet. Now c'mere. Let's put that arm in a sling so it ain't just dangling by your side all useless, like a leg o' radstag hung up to cure."
Though he tried to keep his face neutral as Nightingale strapped his arm across his chest, the pain was really quite bad, and he felt a sweat break at his hairline. Nightingale obviously noticed because when she was done, she gave his good shoulder a brief pat and said, "You're gonna be in a considerable amount of pain for a good while, kid. But don't worry, I can help." As she said this, she picked up a hypodermic needle that had been on her desk, and tapped the bubbles out of it.
Immediately, Boomtown held up his good hand and took a step backwards, almost bumping into Nurse Lucy. "Whoa, what's that?" he said, eyeing the needle suspiciously. Nightingale gave him a weird look and said, "It's just Med-X kid. It'll help with your pain." But still Boomtown stared at the hypodermic needle warily. Images of Jared driving similar needles into the necks of terrified junkies rose in his mind. Experiments Jared had called them. Those experiments had always made Boomtown feel sick.
"Yeah, but it's just Med-X, right? It ain't cut with nothin'?" he still hadn't relaxed at all, and Nightingale was looking very confused. "Jeez." She said, "I ain't never seen a raider who didn't want to take Jet, let alone Med-X. Lucy, wanna tell Boomtown here exactly what's in this shot?"
The robot whirred forward as if leaning reassuringly over Boomtown's shoulder, and said, "Sure thing, Miss Nightingale. Med-X is a potent opiate analgesic that binds to opioid receptors in the brain and central nervous system, reducing the perception of pain, as well as the emotional response to pain. Essentially, it is a painkiller delivered by a hypodermic needle. I'd take it if I was you, kid. That arm's gonna give you nothin' but agony without it."
Boomtown said nothing. Nightingale waved the needle she still held aloft. "I swear to you kid. This ain't your usual raider grade shit. We get our stuff from Diamond City, from respectable folk. This ain't cut with nothin' dangerous. It's just Med-X, and right now, you need it. You're no good to anyone if you're in too much pain to do anything. And you want to make a good first impression. Better to do that on a bit of a morphine high, than rolling on the ground in agony."
She held out her hand, expecting him to give her his good arm. "I promise, Boomtown. I won't let you get addicted. Here in Avalon, we only take chems when they're needed. So quit being such a fuckin' pussy and let me help you."
Boomtown huffed, and rolled his eyes, but held out his arm to Nightingale. The medic shook her head in an exasperated fashion and pushed his sleeve up. Boomtown did his best not to look away as she pushed the needle into a vein in the ditch of his elbow, and pushed the plunger. The contents of the syringe emptied dully into his blood and he found himself feeling slightly grateful. His arm really was hurting.
When she was done, Nightingale handed the used syringe to Nurse Lucy, who immediately placed it in a sterilizer contained within her own body casing. Boomtown ran a hand gently over his bandaged arm and asked, "What now?"
Nightingale was rubbing her hands together absently when he spoke, and she looked up at him with a slight smile on her face. "Now, Boomtown, you're gonna go met the infamous Dokter Good."