Having finally received water, Vupes started to think clearly. He slowly and deliberately started to take in his surroundings.
First, his location, he noticed no landmarks and no trace of the battle that killed the rest of his unit.
Next, the girl and her companions. Her companion's were armored and carried a decent amount of weaponry, they were most likely mercenaries.
The girl was wearing a Followers of the Apocalypse lab coat. The group also traveled with two heavily loaded pack Brahmin.
All in all he expected he could kill them all fairly easily if it came down to it, once he got his strength back that is.
"Um..." the girl made a sound nervously, as if she knew he was thinking on ways to slaughter them in their sleep. He looked at her and she spoke again, "Could you lift your leg a little please?" He did as she asked and painfully raised his leg. The girl inhaled sharply "Ooooh...Looks like a few bullets didn't go all the way through...I'm going to have to dig them out." She looked at him as if wanting his approval before she continued, he gave her none. She then narrowed her eyes and called back to one of her companions. "Gary, could you get me a few bottles of whiskey?"
"What? A few?" one of the men scoffed "Are you kidding? Were wasting our good whiskey on that peice of Legion trash?"
Vulpes was slightly taken aback. He had forgotten that he was wearing his Legion armor.
"Fine." The girl said through gritted teeth "Ill get it myself..." She then stomped over to one of the Brahmin and pulled a few bottles of whiskey from one of the bags. While she was up she grabbed a few miscellaneous items from the brahmin as well then made her way back over to him.
"Fucking Christ..." he heard one of the men say.
She sighed and handed Vulpes the whiskey and a twisted rag. He took only a small sip of the drink and then placed the rag in his mouth.
"Sorry if-...when this hurts. Ill try to make it quick." she said.
He almost laughed, he had heard many Legionaries say roughly the same thing to innocent slave girls.
She then took a pair of long metal tweezers and began extracting the bullets.
By the time she was finished the wounded Legionnaire was sweating but silent. In fact, he barely made any noise at all through the whole procedure. She assumed he had passed out.
"Okay, you fixed him up...can we go now?" the man known as Jose asked, obviously annoyed.
"Oh my God!" she turned and yelled "No, no we cant fucking go! Trust me...I will tell you when we can go!" She then turned back to see the Legionary staring right at her.
"Oh shit!" she gasped "I mean...sorry you startled me."
Vulpes stared blankly at her.
"Um...Next Ill need to clean your wounds and bandage you up...Jose start a fire and...Robert you start making dinner." she commanded then men. It was somewhat amusing.
"What? Were making camp here? Were already behind schedule because of this bastard and now your making us set up camp in the middle of nowhere just so we can hold his hand through the night?" Jose spat.
If the time did indeed come for Vulpes to kill them all, he would enjoy this mans death the most.
"Fine." she said cooly "you can leave him-"
Vulpes was not surprised, maybe he could follow them, kill them in their sleep, take their supplies, and find a safe place to recover...but his thoughts were cut short by the girls next defiant words.
"but youll have to leave me too." She then began laying out her medical supplies. "You show up to the fort without me and see how much money you get payed."
"You wouldn't dare..." Gary glared at her.
"Try me." she said, still focused on her task. "You could always pick me up and drag me along...but Id run away. Youll all be distracted with something eventually. Molerats, geckos, cazedors...something."
The group was quiet. Finally the men looked at each other and sighed before finaly begining the tasks she had appointed them earlier. Each mumbling their own collections of obscene rants.
"That was good." Vulpes finnaly said.
The girl glanced up at him before returning to her task. "So you can speak...I was beginning to wonder."
"You had them in the palm of your hand." he resumed, ignoring her remark.
She chuckled a bit "You think so?"
"You saw it yourself..." he replied. "Tell me though, would you have really seperated with your companions rather than abandon me?" Vulpes found himself curious for an answer.
"I don't know...Maybe..." she said casually. She then looked lost in thought for a moment and continued. "I guess fate led me to you for some reason...I couldn't very well just walk away could I?"
Vupes looked at her in mild disbelief "People turn their backs on their fellows all the time. I don't know you. You have no binding reason to help me."
"No logical reason maybe..." she answered. She then poured some whiskey on a rag and began to clean his wounds. "Sorry if I hurt you..." she said before touching the rag to his skin. It burned, but it was tolerable.
"I think their is a reason for everything," she continued as she cleaned him "I mean, the Mojave is huge, but you just happened to collapse on a rock, that just happened to be in the path of a group of travelers, that just happen to have someone with not only the medical know-how to heal you but also the will to waste that kind of effort on a complete stranger? I dont know about you, but I think all those occurrences are way to specific for this to be just one big coincidence."
Vulpes almost smerked. "And it doesnt bother you that I am a man of the Legion? Or is that part of some divine plan too?"
She laughed "Heh, , I wouldn't be a very good doctor if I only treated those who's philosophy's I agreed with." With that she finished cleaning his wounds and picked up her gauze, she then momentarily froze before looking back at him nervously.
"Um...You'll have to take that off so I can get to the wounds on your side..." she said quietly blushing. He wanted to laugh at her. What kind of doctor was shy about seeing a mans body? It wasn't like he was wearing nothing under his armor.
After he removed his armor, before she could begin her work, the man known as Gary approached them. "What?" she said, but her words were met with only a silent glare. He then reached down and grabbed Vulpes machete that he had dropped earlier. "Oh look!" he exclaimed with a bitter smile "Free machete!" he then turned and left, playfully tossing and catching the weapon as he went.
"Ass..." she muttered and glared back at him. She the directed her attention back to Vulpes. "Dont worry...I'll get it back to you before we leave."
She would give him back his weapon? Why? Was she stupid?
The girl then began awkwardly bandaging him, resulting in an the occasional odd hugging position. He finally figured out what the soft sensation on his face was earlier. It was her skin.
She was soft, not like the bony, calloused slave girls he was used to coming in contact with. He found himself almost liking the feeling of her touch. He recalled his first inpressions of her and decided it wasnt just the heat affecting his brain, she was indeed attractive. She wasn't the divine being he first thought she was, but she would have fetched a good slave price.
"Uh..." she said interupting his thoughts "Ill have to get your leg..."
He immediately noticed the problem. Several of his leg wounds were on his inner thigh, if him taking off his armor made her nervous, than this surely would. He raised his leg slightly and she began bandaging his leg, blushing all the while. By chance he glanced over and saw the man who had taken his machete was glaring at them. Vulpes then made the realization, the man was in love with her. He then deliberately threw a wicked smirk at the man, who looked like he was about to come over there and punch him. He probably would have if they hadnt been interrupted by the declaration of another man.
"Dinners ready!"
Thank you for reading this. I enjoyed writing it more than any other fic Ive ever written. I hope you enjoy it and keep reading!
