The torn cloth tasted like dust and fallout, but Piper kept her teeth clenched as she finished tying off the bandage with her one free hand. The sunset's glare kept getting in her eyes, forcing her to readjust. First aid was not her favorite pastime.
This would be so much easier with someone else, but she made do. It looked like the knot would hold, and it wasn't like she was critically wounded. That was the problem. The shot had only grazed her — not enough to warrant a stimpak, but still enough to hurt like hell.
Damn Gunners, picking fights with innocents, shooting just because they could. Piper sighed; she had no one to blame but herself, and knew it. If she hadn't gone so far off her usual route to make sure her informant got home safe, she'd be home by now herself, and probably without this burning in her arm. Once again, kindness had gotten the better of her, and now she was going to have to spend the night in an abandoned house because of it. Traveling alone at night was not wise.
She pulled an old mattress into the corner and gathered her belongings around it, including what remained of the sheet she'd used for gauze. Been a while since I've camped out like this. She wanted to say the words out loud, if only to herself. Thinking without speaking left her feeling stifled. But she was not completely sure the Gunners had given up on tracking her. Better to keep quiet for now. She leaned back against the wall and took a few minutes to simply admire the golden light of sunset, pouring in through ancient glass.
The tranquility didn't last for long, left to nothing but the wanderings of her own worrisome mind. Would she really be safe here for the night? Would Nat worry in her absence? Everything would work out when she got back to Diamond City... right?
She reached into her pack and pulled out a box of gumdrops. Real food would have definitely done better by her, especially for healing up her wound, but she couldn't deny how much she loved the occasional pre-war sweet. Today had definitely ended in a scrape, a mark against her best attempts at keeping a hopeful outlook. She felt the urge for something that would comfort her.
Piper also reached into her trenchcoat and withdrew her trusty notebook, to consult what she had jotted down from her little news-gathering journey. Best to do it now while there's still natural light. She had a flashlight with her, but wasn't in the mood to risk attracting ferals. She flipped through pages of rapidly scrawled notes. A couple of leads from Goodneighbor, some fluff about a settlement "outside" the Commonwealth, whatever that means. Unconfirmed hearsay about a surviving band of Minutemen — definitely something to investigate. But then she got to the last page. The crown jewel. The story that had excited her so much, she'd offered to escort her contact home for a scouting job well-done.
A vault dweller, Pip-Boy and all! A woman, she'd heard, roughly Piper's build and age, with medium-length red hair. Apparently she was traveling the Commonwealth unarmed and alone. Adding to the intrigue, her contact had also caught word of a Vault 111 suit, recovered not far out from Concord.
Vault 111! Had anyone ever come out of 111? Piper wanted few things more in that moment than to get her hands on this woman. Her very own firsthand account of life in a vault! An undiscovered vault! A fresh perspective for everyone content to make ruts in Diamond City. This would be perfect for her next article.
Piper excitedly gnawed on her candy, mind continuing to spin, until the last of the sun's rays vanished from the opposing wall. Her daydreams faded into a gradual realization that twilight had come. Setting her food and notebook down, she quietly inched to the windowsill, thoughts decelerating. This was her favorite time of day. The breeze had yet to turn from cool to cold, and the sky was not yet black enough to scare her inner child. Piper rested her head atop her forearms, and looked up to the sky. She had to wait no more than a minute for it to happen.
And there they were. Those inexplicable little specks of light that glittered in the darkness. Even between abandoned skyscrapers, they made the sky look bigger, more. A simple, quiet joy consumed her. Her fears evaporated — Gunners, ferals, mirelurks, darkness, her future, Nat's future, the Mayor, the Institute. Nothing could scare her, when she was lost among the stars.
A humbling, quiet joy consumed her. Yet for all that it made her happy, it also made her sad. What she wouldn't give, for someone to share in this sense of wonder. Sobered by her loneliness, Piper broke eye contact with the sky and inched back over to her makeshift corner of a home. She took her steps one at a time. A creaky floorboard could catch the interest of a nearby hostile. That was her pragmatic cover of an excuse, anyway — the truth was, noises in the night just made her scared.
She settled into the mattress and pulled the old sheets up around her. Even after so many nights and years in the comfort of Publick Occurrences, she hadn't forgotten what it felt like to sleep outdoors. It was like her time with the caravan all over again. Not that remembering it made it any more enjoyable.
She felt the warmth of sleep approaching. For a single moment, her mind flickered to the thought of that nameless vault dweller she'd heard rumor of. She wondered what it must be like for someone of that perspective, to step into a world like this, uneducated and alone. But the sympathy blurred as Piper slipped into the quiet of the night. Tomorrow she'd be back in Diamond City. Everything would probably be just fine.