Hi! DevilKing091 here. Enjoy my chapter, written with the help of The Pen-Wielding Gunslinger.
Onward Chapter 2!
Chapter 2
The Courier became a part of Tiani's day-to-day schedule. He woke up at noon, smoked and gossiped until four, then departed from Novac until almost two in the morning. He drank and swapped stories with other guests over a hand of Caravan. She had no idea what his business was. She hadn't spoken to him since that day in the lobby. A few evenings she saw him disappear off in the direction of Helios ONE, but mainly he took the path up to the REPCONN facility. She wondered what he did all day that was so important. He seemed like a loudmouthed drunk to her, not some kind of Wasteland hero. He woke her almost every night staggering into his room and turning on the radio as loud as he could, always the same Ink Spots song. Tiani hadn't heard it in years before she met the Courier, and now it played incessantly. She fantasized about putting an ax through his radio and blowing up the station that broadcasted that song with a nice brick of C4.
One day, the Courier left and did not return.
A week passed, then two. Tiani found herself looking up every time the front door opened. The Courier did not appear. At nights she lay awake listening for the sound of footsteps. But there were none. The radio remained silent. Somehow, it made Tiani feel lonely.
The days slipped by in a haze of monotony. Wastelanders came and went; the supply of money rose and fell. Tiani stopped watching for the Courier. It was somewhat of a relief to not deal with his slurred singing, intense card games, and occasional fistfights in the parking lot. Slowly, Tiani built up her strength again. Muscles began to form under wind-roughened skin now tan from the relentless sun. She began to consider moving on. It was time, she reasoned. She had been in Novac almost a month, and as much as she loved the little town, there were too many dangers awaiting her if she stayed. It was only a matter of time.
One night she awoke in the darkness with a pounding heat and the coppery taste of fear in her mouth. All of her limbs thrummed like live wires. She pulled the blanket around herself, trying to bring a modicum of warmth to her icy body. Blood pounded in her ears. The tiniest noises were loud enough to deafen her. Paranoia brushed the edges of her consciousness. "Damn," she said aloud. The word echoed flatly in the little room. She sat up. Pacing sounded like a good idea. Anything to make the itchy, restless feelings fade.
So she paced, up and down, on strong legs tanned and smooth from weeks of work. The blanket hung off her shoulders like a shawl. She paced and paced, but the restlessness didn't go away.
Finally, she decided to walk outside in the parking lot. Boone was awake and alert up in the dinosaur's mouth. He would keep away danger. She opened her door as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the other patrons and slipped outside out into a world of silvery moonlight.
The parking lot was cool and quiet. Tiani breathed a sigh of relief. The air wasn't scratchy and close. Out here she could at least relax a little. It was so hot in her room. Tiani had never liked heat, but in the Mojave, there were few places to escape from it. Outside afforded a decent breeze. She breathed deep the scent of dust and hardy desert plants. Winter was coming. It didn't mean much here; the temperatures didn't decrease by much during the day compared to other seasons. Nights, though . . . nights could be brutal.
Tiani sat down on the pavement outside her door. The worn concrete pressed into the backs of her thighs. She ignored the discomfort and arranged her blanket across her legs. Time . . . to just breathe.
She observed the stars in their eternal, heavenly dance. There had been a time in her life when stars had seemed cold and terrible to her. Now they were comforting pinpoints of light in a velvety darkness.
They looked beautiful when you weren't viewing them through a chain-link fence.
Tiani suppressed those thoughts with uncommon viciousness. Tears sprang into her eyes. Her expression hardened. There would be no crying tonight. There wasn't time for it. She concentrated hard on swallowing her sadness. Gradually, the feeling faded behind its veil. Sorrow was a tricky thing, always trying to pop out and hurt her when she was vulnerable. But not tonight.
Still absorbed in her nighttime viewing of the world, Tiani cast her eyes around the little circle of houses. There was no light leaking out of the boarded-up windows. She glanced down at the pavement, admiring the shine of the concrete beneath its light coat of dust. Her gaze rested on a little spot on the ground not five feet away. It shimmered in the glow of the moon. Tiani stood up and crept over to it. "What the hell is that?" she muttered under her breath. It was opaque; too cloudy to be booze from under Miss Crawford's desk, too runny to be the primitive ink some of the wandering traders sold. It didn't smell like chemicals, so it couldn't be Stimpak fluid: those had a ridiculously strong scent similar to decaying flowers. She would have smelled it by now. It was almost suffocating when the syringe broke.
It took her a few moments to realize the substance was actually blood.
Horror and revulsion crawled along her spine. She took an unconscious step back. The little spot of blood was the first of many; there was an entire trail up the splintery steps. Tiani steeled herself and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. Time to get to the bottom of this mystery.
The trail of blood continued up the stairs and around the corner. There was a bloody handprint on the rail. Tiani shuddered. Someone was bleeding badly.
The trail led into the Courier's room.
A confused burst of joy exploded in Tiani's heart, accompanied by bewilderment and unease. The Courier was back! When had he gotten home? How? How badly was he bleeding? The questions roared in her mind, piling on top of one another. Strangely, she found herself relieved that the blood trail disappeared under the door. It meant the Courier was at least healthy enough to walk. She knocked on the door. "Sir? Are you all right?"
Stupid question. Tiani cursed herself inwardly. However, a little flare of hope emerged when the lights glowed to life inside. There was a thump, a click, and the door swung open.
The Courier emerged from the brightness of his shabby motel room. The light inside threw his form into shadow, but Tiani could see the pronounced limp in his left leg. He leaned heavily against the metal doorframe, one hand pressed to his belly. The other hand held a full inhaler of Jet. "The hell do you want?" he wheezed. His voice was gruff and strained.
"Courier Six!" she gasped. "You're bleeding!"
The Courier, damn him, was healthy enough to scoff. "Bah! I knew that already, little girl." She had a feeling he was rolling his eyes at her, but she couldn't see. He was still wearing those stupid red goggles. "I ain't got Stimpaks left."
"That'll kill you." Tiani pointed to the Jet.
"It helps," mumbled the Courier. He almost sounded ashamed. "It stops the shaking."
"From what, addiction?" Tiani asked scathingly.
"No, from blood loss and exhaustion." The Courier sounded annoyed. "Girl, look. I'm busy."
"My name is not 'girl,' it's Tiani," she retorted. "And I happen to have a Stimpak if you need it, but I'll not deal with your nastiness, Courier Six!"
"And my name ain't 'Courier Six,'" the man said. He sounded even surlier now. "And uh . . . yeah. That Stimpak would be great."
Tiani had to smile at his attempt to be civil. "I'll go get it. Sit very still." She raced back down to her room and dug under her bed, eventually producing a little metal box. She flipped it open. Inside, along with a meager supply of caps, were five Stimpaks. She felt a little pang when she took one out. Her departure supplies couldn't shrink much more. She'd never be able to get out of Novac at this rate. But the Courier needed one. She didn't want his death on her conscience.
She slipped back upstairs and tapped on the closed door. The Courier reemerged and took the Stimpak from her hand without comment. With the other hand he ripped off the bottom of his Brahmin-hide shirt. Tiani gasped. The tough, sun-darkened skin beneath the rough leather was covered in a layer of pinkish scars. The newest wound was almost as wide as her hand, ragged and deep. Blood flooded out in what looked like gallons to Tiani's nauseated eyes.
The Courier didn't look up. He injected himself near where the skin gave way to pulsating, oozing flesh. The chemicals went to work at once. Tiani didn't know what was in those things, but by God, they worked fantastically. Slowly, the bleeding stopped. The edges of the wound smoothed out and began knitting together, replacing angry red heat with knotted white flesh. Now it was just one more stroke of ink on a human canvas, a testament to endless suffering and agony born from violence.
The Courier dry-mopped the remnants of blood off his belly with the scrap of shirt. "Damn," he grunted. He threw the bloody scrap into a little bin beside his bed. "That uh, that would have been bad." He peered at her. "Thanks kid."
"No problem, Mister Courier," responded Tiani politely as she walked to the door. "Now sir, I hate to ask, but I'm trying to get out of Novac; could you perhaps—"
The Courier shut the door in her face.
That night, he played I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire for two straight hours. Tiani didn't sleep at all the rest of the night.
)-(
The next morning Miss Crawford delivered breakfast and the daily instructions to her door. Tiani crawled out of bed and got dressed, sulking the entire time. One Stimpak down and not even a decent night's rest in return. She cursed the Courier's name (whatever it may be) bitterly as she squeezed her small feet into boots. This was turning out to be just like the day she first met him. She hadn't even seen him today and she was already angry. Not even a decent thank you. Dear God. She wrenched the door open.
The Courier stood just outside, his fist upraised, as if to knock. His bulk loomed over the short girl. Tiani jumped back, startled. An awkward silence fell. Slowly, the Courier lowered his hand. "Kid," he began.
"Tiani," she told him.
"Tiani, right." He took a deep breath and tucked his hands in his pockets. "I uh, I wanted to . . . to say thanks. For last night. I uh, I probably would have been screwed if not for you. It . . . was a deeper wound than I thought at first."
Despite her distress over her dwindling Stimpak hoard, Tiani was touched. The curt man was at least trying to repay her in some way for his behavior. "What got you?" she asked, curious despite the previous night's revulsion.
"Got jumped by a handful of Vipers." The Vipers were a local raider gang. "I took care of 'em pretty good, but one of them had a nice machete. He got me pretty good before I blew his head off."
Tiani winced. "Nasty."
The Courier shrugged, as if they were discussing a broken fence instead of a human life. "What the hell am I supposed to do? He was gonna kill me. Almost succeeded, too."
"True," admitted Tiani. "Well, I'm glad you're alive, Courier Six."
He chuckled and tugged at the bandanna around his mouth. "Thanks." He took his other hand from his pocket. He appeared to be holding something. "I dunno if the merchants like you more than me, but . . . I felt this was in order." He slid a bulky bag made from some animal hide into her hand. She tugged it open. Inside were at least two hundred caps. She could buy five or six Stimpaks and have money left over. "That should pay for at least two, I think . . . they run me a lot of caps, but the merchants know I don't know jack about haggling . . . ."
"They don't cost this much." Tiani realized her jaw was gaping open and closed it. A light blush spread across her cheeks. Good job, Tiani, look like a stupid Brahmin in front of this guy. "Wow. Um, thank you, Courier Six."
"I told you last night, Girly," he admonished her. "My name ain't 'Courier Six.'"
"I know that," she said. "But you never told me what it is."
"'Course I did." He sounded perplexed. "I told you last night right before you went to go get me that Stimpak."
"Then what is it?" But the Courier didn't respond. He heaved a sigh and began to walk away, hands once more in his pockets. "Courier Six!"
"What the hell, woman?!" he shouted, exasperation clear in every nuance of his voice. "I told you . . . ."
"No you didn't!" snapped Tiani.
The Courier threw up his hands. "Are you deaf?!"
He doesn't know he hasn't told me, Tiani realized. What the hell's wrong with him? She gave up. Aloud she said, "Sorry. Guess I am."
He grunted. "Whatever."
Tiani decided to try mollifying him. After all, motel guests were supposed to be as content as one could be in a wasteland hell. And she was grateful for the money. "Can I get you a bottle of vodka or something to start off your day?"
"Nah. Thins the blood. I'd take coffee though."
Tiani grinned. "I'll see if I can rustle up some."
And that was how Tiani and Courier Six went on a coffee date.
)-(
"So tell me about your job at REPCONN."
The cups of coffee had been drunk, the cigarettes (all Courier Six's) smoldered in the ashtray. Miss Crawford took her break in the form of a mid-afternoon nap at home, leaving Tiani and the Courier to hold down the fort until she awoke. The girl tidied up the lobby, just to keep herself busy, while the Courier messed around with the Sunset Sarsaparilla machine. He'd gone up to his room and returned with a huge bag of scrap electronics he kept in his closet. Apparently, he wasn't as bad at repairing equipment as he was at haggling.
"Manny wanted those goddamn Ghouls outta there." The Courier mock-shuddered. He was seated on the floor cross-legged, a wrench in one hand, a screwdriver in the other. "Those goddamn things are freaks."
"Don't call them freaks." Tiani hated it when people talked poorly of Ghouls. They were just like everyone else, except for their frightening appearance. "There are some intelligent ones."
"I met 'em," said the Courier. He pulled off the bottom panel on the sarsaparilla machine and began fiddling with something inside. "Jason Bright and his followers. Man glows like a goddamn barrel of nuclear waste."
Tiani frowned. "A Glowing One?"
"Yep. Crazy bastard. Mumbling something about the moon. But there's Nightkin in the basement, and until I can get rid of them, Bright and friends ain't moving." He swore loudly and dropped his screwdriver. "Goddamn thing!"
Tiani waited patiently until Courier Six regained control of himself. When he ceased muttering, she began to speak again. "So, you gotta kill the Nightkin?"
"Hell no. Too hard to kill. They've got like five feet on me. I'm gonna try sneaking past them and getting inside, see if there's anything I can use to take 'em down. Got some Stealth Boys in my virtual pack." The Pip-Boy's STORAGE function held up to 280 GB of equipment in what Vault-Tec referred to as "digital stasis." "I was looking for a couple more when that goddamn Viper party got me."
"So, you're living here until you can clear out the Nightkin and the Ghouls?"
"Yep," said the Courier. He carefully extracted a tiny widget from inside the machine. "I like Novac. It's . . . homey."
"Where did you live before?"
"Ehh, Primm, I think. Ya know, the place with the rollercoaster? I worked for the Mojave Express, so I must have lived somewhere near Primm."
Tiani raised her eyebrows. "You don't remember?"
The Courier straightened up and looked at her directly. It was a little eerie being looked over by a man whose face she couldn't see. She couldn't even read his eyes thanks to the goggles he still hadn't taken off. "I got a head full of memories that don't seem like my own," he said slowly. "I can remember . . . flashes. Of maybe home. Of maybe a childhood. But if I lived in Primm, New Vegas, Novac, Goodsprings, or up at the 188, God alone knows. Nobody seems to remember me, in any town. Or if they do, they ain't talking. Maybe I was in the NCR prison for an ungodly time. I really don't know. That's what all this time has been about: getting my memories back and recovering my strength. I can shoot all right now, but . . . it wasn't always like that."
Tiani fiddled with an empty Scotch bottle. "You woke up in Goodsprings, right?"
"Yeah, that robot dug me out. Victor. I don't trust him. I don't trust robots." He spoke casually, but Tiani sensed suspicion underneath. "He smiles too much. I don' trust a smiling man, and a smiling robot is even worse. There's something up with him. I think there's a chip or something that's rusted in the God-blasted sun."
"What happened then?"
"Eh, I helped around town. They got a girl at the Prospector Saloon, took me out huntin' Geckos. Gave me a rifle. But I ain't welcome there anymore."
"Why not?"
"Never you mind," said Courier Six shortly. He slammed the panel back in place. The Sunset Sarsaparilla vending machine hummed and whirred to life, the lights on the front glowed. Tiani clapped her hands. The Courier chuckled. "I guess I'm good at something, huh?"
"You put your gun together," Tiani pointed out.
"I'm good with appliances," the Courier said. He sounded embarrassed. "I can't bargain worth a damn and I can't throw a grenade to save my life, but I can tinker with machines pretty good."
"Can you hack computers?"
He shrugged. "Eh. Too many numbers and letters. I prefer blowin' them up. I can pick locks though." He wiped his greasy, dusty hands on a rag. "So, what's your story?"
Tiani hesitated. "I came here about a month ago. And I became the assistant here. That's . . . about it."
"You said you were looking to leave here last night," he remarked.
"Well . . . I figured it's time."
"No clue why you'd wanna leave this place," he said. "It's . . . it's pretty much the least hellish of all the hellholes I've seen."
"I need to get out of here," she murmured. "I have my reasons."
"Eh?" He tilted his head, considered her a moment, and shrugged. "Your secrets are your own, then. I ain't asking. I got secrets aplenty I wouldn't trust you with."
Tiani accepted the comment with equanimity. After all, they'd only been on decent terms for a few hours. She wasn't willing to share her past with anybody, even him.
A silence fell, and Tiani thought the talking was done. She took the coffee cups from the table and prepared to wipe them out. Then the Courier spoke up again. His voice was much softer, and Tiani had to strain to hear him. "Ever since I came to Novac, I've considered it home. It's my base. I can leave my supplies upstairs and get peacefully drunk under a roof instead of under the stars. And there are friendly people. I prefer bein' alone most of the time, but everybody needs to be around others once in a while. Nobody's an island. And Novac is home to me now. Pretty sure I used to live in Primm, but, there ain't any interesting people there. I like it here."
"I like it here too," said Tiani softly.
"Then why leave?"
She hesitated. "There are . . . things . . . in my past I'd prefer not to talk about. I need to go away. I . . . ."
"You're in hiding, aren't you?"
She turned around to look at him, nearly dropping her coffee cup. "What makes you say that?" Oh my God, how the hell did he know . . . .?
"Just the way you act, sometimes." He shrugged. "You twitch when somebody opens the door. You're so damn eager to get outta here. Jeannie May told me you came here without any supplies. I mean, we ain't got a lot here, but most people come with a caravan or at least bring a pack. She had you pegged for a runaway, from one of the Legion camps, maybe?"
Tiani bit her lip. "Drop it, please?"
The Courier shrugged. "Suit yourself."
The door opened, and Jeannie May came in. She smiled when she saw Courier Six. "Well, you again! Good to see you. Can I getcha a cup of coffee?"
"Already had one, Missus," he said. He pulled his hat down farther on his head in some kind of respectful gesture. "I'll be seeing you."
He strode toward the door, but when he neared Miss Crawford he seemed to catch his foot on the carpet. His left leg, still in poor shape from the night before, gave out; he stumbled and dropped. Reflexively, he grabbed Miss Crawford to stay upright, throwing one arm across her shoulders and the other around her waist. The woman gave a slight cry of surprise. The pair rocked alarmingly to the side as Courier Six tried to stand. Tiani lurched forward, intending to catch them, but the Courier found his feet again and steadied himself. "Sorry, Ma'am," he said apologetically, releasing her.
Miss Crawford brushed herself off. "It's fine," she replied.
The Courier chuckled and put his hands in his pockets. "Guess I'm not healed up. Got m'self attacked by Vipers last night."
Miss Crawford winced. "Oh, mercy! Be more careful!" she chided, patting him on the shoulder. She turned her attention to Tiani, peering over her spectacles with eyes that still looked dull and tired. "Time to get started cleaning the upstairs rooms. The merchant party left this morning."
"I'll take care of my own room," the Courier said quickly. He passed by Miss Crawford and opened the door. There was a flash of bright sun, a dusty breeze, and then the door clicked shut. The lobby fell quiet again. Miss Crawford opened a bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla from the newly-repaired machine and starting writing in her log book.
Tiani took her cleaning supplies up to the second floor and sat alone in the first of a series of naked, threadbare rooms. As she collected metal dinner plates and remade the bed, she thought about the Courier. He was certainly a strange man. He observed too much, even when he was working or drunk. His eye was better than she thought. She wondered if those goggles had some kind of camera imbedded in them. There had to be some explanation for how a man could still see everything, Godlike, and still manage to fix vending machines and play Caravan.
It was disturbing to think that he watched her as carefully as he did, and knew about the Legion.
She had to wonder whether the Courier was involved with the Legion and its slavers, and if so, how friendly he was toward Caesar.
She also had to wonder if she had truly seen him place something in his pocket after nearly knocking over Miss Crawford, something that glittered in the harsh light of the bare Pre-War bulbs.
Short chapter I guess but I hope it was worth it. Please review and leave some con-crit!