Author's Note:

Sorry guys, I spent my writing time installing Fallout 3 and a ton of mods on my laptop. Finally managed to get my body replacer mods working, but again, it ate into my writing time.

I'm referencing medical supplies in Fallout: New Vegas. Why? Because they make sense.

When we left off, Alice was badly hurt. This is the follow-up. If you are squeamish, don't read, I tried to make it as descriptive as possible.


WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF GRAPHIC CONTENT!


The blue, metal door slammed against the concrete wall. Jumping out of her seat, the orange-haired woman whipped out her SMG, knocking over her bowl of noodles and beer in the process.

"REILLY!" Butcher's voice, instead of sending the usual tremors of heat and passion, sent a bone-chilling fear up her spine. Holstering her weapon, she charged out of her room, hanging a left in the hallway.

The dark-skinned man came into view, lifting a pair of two-by-fours acting as handles to a makeshift stretcher. Atop the stretcher was a now familiar figure: Alice, the girl who had helped revive the orange-haired woman in Underworld. Blood-soaked pieces of cloth had been wrapped around her arms, legs, torso, and head. Her limbs were twisted into painful positions, and she was unconscious. Overall, she looked to be in more of a sorry state than Reilly herself had been in.

"What the fuck happened?" the squad leader demanded.

"Easy, Donovan," Butcher murmured as the other male who held the other end of the stretcher made his way down the stairs. "Let's take her to the kitchen."

Brick followed behind, toting Eugene around, as always.

"Butcher," Reilly growled, "what the fuck happened!?"

Her second-in-command locked eyes with her. While his face betrayed no emotion, the fear was present in his eyes. Still, he did not speak.

"Damn Mutie Master unloaded a whole lotta lead on her," Brick finally explained. Reilly closed her eyes, the reality of the damage the other girl had sustained sinking into her. "Luckily, she was quick enough to get outta the way, but the Mutie was a bad shot anyway: sprayed concrete over the whole girl, from the wall to the roof."

The group shuffled into the kitchen. In reality, the kitchen was also the living quarters of the other Rangers. It was extremely small, with very little space to actually walk through. Reilly considered telling them to move to her quarters, but Brick was already throwing the beer bottles littering the folding table onto the floor. Thankfully, the thick glass did not shatter as it impacted the metal floor.

"Slowly, slowly," Butcher ordered as the men lowered the woman onto the table. When she was finally secure, Butcher set to work. "Donovan, bring me all the medical supplies we have." As Donovan scurried off, Reilly approached the table. "Reilly, help me get her out of this." He motioned to Alice's jumpsuit and handed the woman a pair of heavy scissors.

Reilly worked as fast as her trembling hands would allow her. God, she had never seen so much blood; not even that time when Brick had taken a sledgehammer to a Raider after he had insulted Eugene. She cut through the fabric, careful to leave the girl's underclothes intact. As her fair skin was exposed, Butcher applied antiseptic and wrapped it in a bandage and Reilly could finally see just how much damage had been done: cuts, scrapes, fresh purple-brown bruises... and deep gouges, bullet holes, and broken bones. Her left shin had broken the skin and protruded out of place, exposing white bone and oozing red blood.

A retching sound in the corner informed Reilly that Brick had emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

Stupid girl. She should be wearing some goddamned armor, not some augmented jumpsuit.

Donovan stumbled into the room, carrying a rectangular, brown bag. Embroidered in white on one side of the bag was a winged pole, with two snakes wrapping around the length of the pole on either side. "Here's everything, Butcher."

"Thanks, Donovan," the medic mumbled, brandishing a pair of tweezers. He used the small tool to poke into the girl's bullet wounds, digging around and pulling out bits of lead. As he worked, blood flowed out of the wounds and the red flesh squished as he searched for more metal. Reilly cringed at the sound, still, she wiped as much blood as she could away from the areas.

The next object he pulled from the bag was a needle and thread. Reilly silently cursed. Even though she was a self-proclaimed, tough-as-nails merc, she hated needles.

After looping the thread through the needle eye, Butcher pulled out his lighter and sterilized the shaft. Reilly wiped the wound once more with antiseptic. Butcher poked the needle into the girl's skin and began threading the wound closed. Reilly looked away.

"Wipe." he said, after a minute. Reilly obeyed, and was relieved to see he was done... with that bullet hole.

After what seemed like an eternity of closing bullet holes, Butcher rifled through the bag, and pulled out a thick stick. "Hold her down." he ordered, jamming the piece of wood between her teeth. Donovan, Brick, and Reilly obeyed, Donovan and Brick holding her shoulders and arms while Reilly held onto her right ankle, as Butcher maneuvered around the table to the left leg. He placed one hand on her knee, the other around her ankle. "On three. One, two... three."

With a sickening SCHLOCK, he slid the bone back into place. The girl jerked awake, screaming against the stick and attempting to rise upwards. The Rangers held her down. The table shook and clanged against the floor. Tears came to the girl's eyes as the pain coursed through her body.

"Shh," Butcher attempted to soothe the girl. "You're okay. You're okay." He wrapped a leather strap around the site and flicked the Stimpak to life. He shot a look at Reilly and she understood: this girl was worth the rare Super Stimpak. Butcher injected the medicine into the girl and she finally stopped struggling.

She was breathing hard, her chest heaving and her body shaking.

"I'm going to have to do it again, Alice," the medic explained, moving to her arms. "I have to pop your arm back into place. Do you understand?"

She nodded, and Donovan moved to her left leg.

"Alright. On three," as he grasped the girl's right wrist, he shot a glance at his fellow Rangers. "One..." He pushed up and twisted.

Again, the girl screamed, though she did not writhe as much as before.

"Good, good," he purred, injecting the girl with another Stimpak. "We're almost done." he whispered, almost more to himself than to his patient. He looked at the girl's bloody underclothes and grimaced. "She can't stay in those clothes."

Reilly nodded, "Get the girl some armor while you're at it." As the men filed out of the room, Brick pulled out a few extra pairs of underclothes. Reilly removed the stick from the girl's mouth and explained. "We're just going to help you change, alright?"

Alice nodded, and, even in her sorry state, still managed to smirk, "You've already taken off my clothes, what's my underwear too? Heh."

The orange-haired woman smiled a little. Taking the scissors in hand once more, she cut off the girl's, previously, white tank top, blue bra, and blue boy shorts. The girl was completely naked, and Reilly didn't stare: she had the same body parts too, after all. It took a few minutes, but Brick and Reilly managed to pull the underclothes onto the slowly recovering girl.

As they worked, Alice began to move and help as much as she could; though the girl quickly discovered her movement was limited due to her injuries. The effort proved to be too much for the girl, and her eyes fluttered shut as the after effects of the Super Stimpak kicked in.

Reilly gave the okay for the men. "We're decent!" Donovan and Butcher emerged from the hall as Brick transferred Alice to a bed.

"How is she?" Butcher asked.

Shrugging, the orange-haired woman stated, "A lot better." Her eyes slid to the dark man beside her. "Thanks to you."

The man checked the girl's pulse, "Yeah, sure..." his voice drifted off, as if his mind were on other things.

"Hey," Reilly nudged his shoulder with hers, "At least this one lasted longer. That's something, right?"

He grunted in response.

Reilly gave up trying to comfort him, there was no point in wasting her breath. "Did you get her a suit?"

"Hell yeah, it'll be a lot better than that ridiculous -"

"Jumpsuit." the pair stated together and they chuckled, just a little, shaking their heads.


I've just realized I have to write the entirety of the events of Fallout 3 over the course of (in-story) 5 months. However, I will be altering that slightly (I need time to develop relationships, things don't happen overnight). Therefore, the events of Fallout 3 will take place, roughly, by the end of 2277, the DLC will take place by the end of 2278. I looked at the timeline and it states Sarah dies in 2278. HOWEVER, after looking at the Prydwen terminal entries, the journal entries which state Sarah's death, it does not give a specific year. Therefore, fuck Fallout 4, I'm changing that too.

Check out "Bornagain Combat Armor" by EmeraldReign and Cabal120 on Nexus, super cool.

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the delay, I'll try to post another chapter, on time, this weekend!