She was trudging slowly back toward Megaton. She had always thought herself fit and strong, but right now her muscles were sore from the unaccustomed strain and her abdomen and arm throbbed in spite of the meds she had taken the day before. She didn't want to use any more in case she really needed them later so she would just have to deal with it.
She supposed she'd have to get used to this kind of discomfort if she was going to pursue this lifestyle, and she didn't see much choice in that. How else could she make a living? Her mind felt dull and her body felt incredibly weary and sluggish. She was lost in gloomy thoughts and wasn't paying proper attention to her surroundings. The skitter skitter sound penetrated her consciousness, causing her to jerk around.
The creature was on her. Fortunately she hadn't put her shotgun in her pack, but before she could raise the weapon the radscorpion struck, its formidable stinger just grazing her shoulder as she ducked. Pain seared through her shoulder but Sally was barely aware of it as adrenaline rushed through her system.
She blasted the creature, slowing it down, but she wouldn't have time to reload. She whirled and ran. Don't panic, she thought. Think. Think. How can you stop this thing? The mines, if she could get it with a mineā¦..As she ran she pulled a mine from the cavernous pocket of her suit, armed it and tossed it on the path without slowing. She jerked the assault rifle from the scabbard on her back, using her other hand to slam the empty shotgun into the scabbard.
The blast alerted her that the radscorpion had encountered the mine. She whirled to face the beast. It was moving much more slowly now. She steadied herself and aimed for the face. Hold it, hold it, she told herself, control your fear, steady, NOW! She blasted it straight in the face with the assault rifle.
Sally stood still, breathing hard from the exertion, feeling the thrill of her escape, watching the radscorpion warily. It didn't move. Finally she went over to it and examined it. The doctor had told her about these creatures. The poison gland was supposed to contain useful ingredients. She slipped off her pack and knelt beside it.
It was pretty messy, but she had finally located the gland and cut it out, being careful not to nick it. She had a lunchbox she had picked up in the store that now had some of her food in it but she emptied it out to put the dripping glands in. She packed it with dried grasses for good measure. She didn't like the thought of it leaking in her pack. She stuffed the food in the pack also. She didn't have an appetite today and the butchering job hadn't helped that any. She already felt nauseous and was now getting a little dizzy as well. Maybe it was the heat; she just felt so warm.
Having completed the chore she poured a bottle of irradiated water over her hands and the knife to clean it before replacing it in the pack. She would have to do something about the knife; she didn't like having it in the pack. It was too inaccessible. She had material from armor she had scavenged, and tools she had found. What she didn't have she could borrow from Walter or buy from Moira. She would make a calf holster for the knife, she decided.
Sally trudged into Megaton almost totally exhausted. Her arm throbbed from the scorpion poison, which had gotten into her blood stream and slowed her down. The front of her suit was soaked with blood where the knife wound in her abdomen had broken open from the fight with the creature. She looked up at the clinic.
The doctor wasn't going to be happy to see her but she didn't care. She entered the clinic and dropped her pack on the floor. "What's wrong with you, girl?" he growled unpleasantly. He sure didn't have any kind of bedside manner. She didn't care. She was hurting.
"Radscorpion", she muttered, pointing at her shoulder. "Knife." She pointed at her abdomen.
The doctor snorted. "Well get that suit off and let me look if you want me to do anything." She shrugged out of the suit and climbed up on the surgery table. The doctor ran his hands over her, examining each wound. She was burning with fever.
"Hmmm, knife wound here, and here, bullet hole, yep, radscorpion hit here. This gut is badly infected and is gonna require some deep cleaning and stitches and some hemostatics. Here," he said suddenly addressing Sally, holding out a small bottle of foul smelling liquid. "Take this. It's an anti-venom. It should help with that poisoning. It'd wear off eventually on its own, but I don't want to wait for that as sick as you are. We're gonna hafta bring down that fever too."
Sally grimaced and drank it down. The doctor was readying a syringe. "Now hold still a second", he snapped. "This is gonna put you out. I have work to do and I don't think you wanna be awake for it." Sally felt the syringe jab her arm and then blackness gently surrounded her.
"Hey, girl, you gonna wake up?" The gruff voice penetrated the fog in Sally's brain. She stretched out, yawning, opening her eyes. Oh, yeah, she was in the clinic. She looked up at .
"How long was I out?" she asked curiously.
"About 30 hours. Come on, I need my clinic back."
"That long?", she asked, surprised.
"You were pretty sick. You had a bad infection in that abdominal wound. It's going to leave some pretty nasty scarring behind. You need to take it easy for a few days and give your body a chance to heal up. I think you should know, that scarring is going to be so bad that you're never going to be able to carry a baby."
Sally shrugged, slipping out from under the warm blanket and sitting up, swinging her long legs over the side of the bed. She was alive. She'd deal with the rest later, if it ever came up. Her stained and dirty suit lay on the floor where she had left it. Well, she hadn't expected him to clean it.
She slipped off the table and picked up the suit. "How much do I owe you doc?", she asked. She felt a lot better than she expected she would. "Let's see, stitches, anesthetic, antibiotics, some anti-venom. I didn't give you any healing drugs 'cause you seemed to be healing pretty fast on your own", he said thoughtfully. "I think 300 caps should cover it."
Sally decided against putting on the dirty, blood encrusted armor. She didn't need armor inside Megaton. She counted out the caps and pulled a clean vault uniform from the pack. She quickly dressed. "See you later, Doc", she grinned taking her items and heading for the door.
"Try not to", he growled back.
Sally went first to the bathrooms to take care of business and wash the armor. It was somewhat the worse for wear but it could be repaired. At least she had a good night's sleep and she didn't even have to pay for a room. The doctor wasn't as unkind as he seemed and she liked the gruff old man. Still if she kept this up she wasn't ever going to be able to buy a sniper rifle. Medical care was expensive, even if she did suspect the doctor had given her a break. She was either going to have to get better or find another way to make a living. She was broke again.
Sally put her armor out on the rail to dry and picked up her pack. She headed toward Craterside Supply but she had to go past the bomb to get to it. She stopped and waded into the radioactive water. Checking her Pip-boy she discovered her levels, that had risen to near the fatal level while she was in the wasteland, now were way down. Maybe the doctor had added a rad-away to the meds he'd given her. She wondered briefly why he hadn't said so.
