Everything except his surroundings solidified, they just kept pulling to the rear of the car. Caine was worried by the movement, and the large shimmering area right over his lap, but also by what could have occurred to cause the world to be put into a state of seemingly constant flux. Resigned to attempting to get used to this world, he closed his eyes and a new weight materialised on his lap. As he opened them, he realised the new weight was in fact Tanner, hunched over and sleeping on his armoured and again injured chest. After she appeared, he realised that the world was not in a state of flux still, and that the cause of the movement was his foot, on the still depressed accelerator. He moved his foot off of it and let the car coast to a stop, trying to survey his surroundings and figure out what exactly had occurred in this universe to get him here. He remembered the phase shifts clearly, but couldn't get more than a vague dream when trying to remember the events in the current universe. He remembered both the doctor and Lucas trying to stop him; Simms on the ground, bloodied; and the pain in his side. But he couldn't remember anywhere near enough to piece anything together.
"VICE, can you recall what happened?" Caine said, wincing from the pain that speaking, especially with Tanner atop him, was causing.
"I... I don't know. I must've wandered, I have no recordings, no ... memories, of what happened. I remember being in the helmet with you as a General just after you had debriefed two generals after some attack; That I had a body, a human body, and was a detective with the NYPD; and that I was a piece of obsolete tech, being ridiculed and mocked by my more advanced brethren in a recycling center while waiting to be scrapped. There were flying cars; colonies on Luna, Mars, even Neptune; I remember all of that, but I can't remember what happened here." VICE replied.
"Same boat here; Ask her." Caine said, trying to limit his speaking, and therefore his pain, to a minimum.
"Ms. Tanner, wake up. I have a question for you." VICE said, rather loudly.
"Huh, what... what's going on? Where are we and why am I... oh god." Tanner replied,realising what could have happened.
"Don't worry, I'd remember if we did." Caine groaned, trying to calm her down.
"Well, alright; I would've rocked your world if we had, especially like that." Tanner replied with a chuckle, then slipped off of him and into the passenger seat.
"Anyhow, that answers my question. None of us remember much of what happened and I don't even know what maps I should be using to get us... anywhere, really. I have no records of where we were during the... confusion. I do have a map of the area, but there aren't any landmarks to tell me where we are." VICE admitted, disappointed.
"So, you have no idea where we are?" Tanner asked groggily, and slightly angrily.
"No, I don't. Do you have any idea what happened since Megaton that night?" VICE asked, expecting that Caine would ask the same if not for his current issue.
"Caine and I got insanely drunk.I have the hangover to prove that. I remember being carried somewhere, then getting out and puking all over the road. It was mostly beer, but I think there's some food in there. But that's all I remember, and it seems more like a dream than the other stuff, even though it was what really happened. I remember my dreams better than real life; I can remember being a general, an admiral in some navy, a housewife and even being a whore, but I can't remember last night." Tanner said, trying hard to remember every detail and getting angry at how little she could actually recall.
"Oh... okay then. Uh, if you see anything that could be a landmark, let me know. I should be able to..." VICE said, drifting off before excitedly adding "Wait, I found something! Point the helmet at the dash and I'll put it up!"
Just as he said that, a light sprouted from the helmet and began rendering a holographic image, which soon turned into a video. Just as it started, Caine's voice came from inside the helmet, even though he wasn't wearing it, and definitely wasn't moving his lips.
"VICE, med scan me. Tell her what you need." Caine's voice blurted out from the helmet, seemingly in pain.
VICE replied "I'm going to need the scanner attached to the medical liner. Once you've found it, plug it into the jack on the helmet."
Tanner's voice now emitted from the helmet, asking "What am I looking for VICE?"
VICE replied "Its a cord, which should be on the outside of the left shoulder on his armour. If it's not, you'll have to detach the shoulder pad so you can reach it. Then, hold him down, This is going to hurt."
In the video, Tanner leaned over Caine and looked for the cord, then released the clips on the front of his shoulder pad and flipped it up, like the lid of a foot locker. Then she reached down under his armour and pulled out the wire she was looking for and plugged it into the helmet just as VICE made an electronic beep.
Then she rolled onto Caine's lap, sitting on his legs and putting her hands on the front of his armour and asked "Ready?"
Caine pulled what looked like a bone wrapped in leather out of a vest pocket and bit down on it, then nodded. Just then he tensed up and howled through the gag, making tanner flinch, but she kept holding him down, even as he involuntarily tried to push forward, to try and get away from the pain. Soon, the liner loosened up, or Caine got used to the pain, because he sat all the way back.
From the helmet came Tanner's voice again, asking "Caine, are you alright? Caine?"
VICE responded, "He's alive, just unconscious. He broke about half of his ribs and cracked the other ones. From the way they've broken, it seems as though they were overstressed after being cracked, probably due to lifting or carrying something."
Tanner asked "OK. Can I move now?"
VICE responded "No. If he wakes again, he might try to move, and you need to be there to stop him from injuring himself."
Tanner sighed, then asked " Well, can you make the seats lay down, so I can tie him up? It seems like this bucket of bolts can do everything else." Apparently uncomfortable with the whole situation, although from the recording's angle it seemed the steering wheel was pressing into the small of her back.
"Sorry, you're just going to have to find a way to make that comfortable." VICE replied.
"I just hope that whomever shifts into these bodies next doesn't assume what first comes to mind with this position. That could be very awkward." Tanner said, worriedly.
VICE replied, "I'll make a copy of my point of view and save it to the helmet, completely separate from my program. Hopefully the next me isn't stupid."
At that, the hologram shimmered, then faded and the sound stopped.
Tanner said "OK, good. We didn't do... that", but then quickly added "No offense."
Caine gripped the steering wheel so tightly his hands began to turn white, then painfully said "Good. Get off."
Tanner, picking up how much pain she was causing him, said "Sorry, give me a second." then rolled into the passenger seat just after he released his right hand's grip on the wheel, allowing her to pass. She wasn't sure why, but she was less embarrassed about the assumption that she had made, and more that she had caused him so much pain and felt helpless to stop it.
Caine then groaned, through gritted teeth "Left. Med-X. Now."
Tanner, not understanding what he meant, asked "What about Med-X?"
VICE replied "In the driver's side foot locker, there's a cigarette case. In that case are some syringes of Med-X. My guess is that he's asking for one of those."
Tanner answered "Fine, give me a sec." then opened her door and rolled her legs out of the car. When she attempted to stand, though, she almost collapsed out of the vehicle as pain shot up her entire right side, originating in her foot. She shifted her weight to her left side, and used her arms to take the rest of the weight, but she now felt constant throbbing in the foot.
"I... I think I broke my right foot at one point. Probably why I puked on the road and not off to the side." Tanner groaned, shimmying towards the rear of the car.
She slowly made her way around the car and arrived at the driver's side rear door, and then realised that she would have to use one hand to open the door. She used her left hand to open the door and slid into the back trying to keep her foot as stable as possible. Once she was in, she opened the locker and began searching for the cigarette case and something to wrap her foot with. The contents of the footlocker were very disorganised, seemingly just thrown into it when they were acquired. Eventually, she found the cigarette case and an old ACE bandage, and only then did she realise that she wasn't wearing any footwear, only a pair of black socks that she had bought back in Tenpenny.
"Hey, why... why aren't I wearing any shoes.?" She asked, dumbfounded.
"Don't know, aren't up here." Caine replied, pained and impatient.
"Oh crap, sorry." Tanner replied, popping open the cigarette case. Inside, ten syringes of Med-X sat where cigarettes were designed to, and at one time had, gone. She pulled one of them out, and slightly depressed the plunger to make sure there was no air inside it, then she injected it into his arm. As soon as it hit his blood-stream, his whole body seemed to loosen, the pain beginning to subside. Then she decided to wrap her foot with the bandage, then pain becoming more manageable due to the fact the foot now had support. Although she wanted complete pain relief, she decided against the use of another syringe of med-x on herself, since one person had to be aware.
Tanner said "VICE, just drive along the road. We should find something to use as a landmark. Maybe a highway sign, at least."
VICE took control of the car, driving in what they were assuming was a northerly direction. Eventually, after what seemed like hours to Tanner, who was still laying on the floor in the rear of the cabin, VICE spoke again.
He asked "I have good news and bad, which do you want first?"
Tanner said good, but Caine said bad, then Tanner chose to agree with him, since she'd hear the good anyway.
VICE responded "The bad news first, then. We won't have enough fuel to get back to the capital. The good news is, I've figured out where we are."
Caine asked, dreamily "Where, then?"
VICE replied "We're on the I-68, about 20 miles from Cumberland, West Virginia. We're closer to Pittsburgh than the Capital, but I don't think we'll be able to make it all the way there with what little fuel we have."
Tanner asked, "Is there any way to make the car more efficient? Maybe that will leave us enough fuel to get back."
VICE replied, "No, I've been attempting to do that. I can't find a way to do it without causing catastrophic damage to the engine in the long run."
Caine asked, "Distances?"
"Pittsburgh is roughly 115 miles, DC is roughly 145." VICE replied, concisely.
"Wait. What about Cumberland?" Caine asked.
Tanner responded "No, Cumberland's a ruin. Even the scavengers want nothing to do with it, it's so bad."
"Fine, no good. Pittsburgh?" Caine asked, slightly worriedly.
Tanner replied "The Pitt really isn't a safe place to be anymore. Everyone I've heard of trying to go there has disappeared, except for the Lone Wanderer. I've heard third hand that there was a big battle either inside or for control of the city, and that the mills might be running, but I don't have any idea what we'll find when and if we get there."
VICE said "Well, we don't have much choice. Morgantown, the only other city within range that might still be intact, is 80 miles away. Both DC and Pittsburgh are 110 plus, to far away without a refuel. And if people have disappeared in Pittsburgh, that means that people are there to make them disappear."
"Would you need to mess with the engine's efficiency?" Caine asked, the Med-X stopping much of his pain.
"Probably not, although we'd be close to empty." VICE replied.
"Then go there. We'll be able to get back to the wasteland faster once we get refueled." Caine said.
Tanner asked "Why go back, why not explore the rest of the country?"
Caine replied "Remember the Brits? I want that to be the future, and it's got to start somewhere."
Once he found a turn off to get them to Morgantown, VICE turned the car in a wide arc, not even using the brakes, though making sure to keep the car on the road. They spent another hour and three quarters on the road and moving through Allentown. Much of the highway itself was in great shape, seemingly untouched by the passage of time and then nukes that hit everywhere else. Like the capital, though, the roads lost a good deal of quality as they neared the city proper, but unlike the capital, erected around the city was a huge, thick concrete wall, with gates at each of its entrances. The walls reminded caine of the ones that surrounded New Vegas, just much thicker, sturdier, and taller. Also different than the New Vegas walls was the fact that this wall had guard towers every 300 feet, with powerful looking laser turrets in them. On the gates once was painted a greeting, which had once said 'Welcome to Morgantown', but had been scoured by time and recently repainted to just say 'Welcome to Morgan'. The guns for the gate they were currently approaching armed and locked onto the car, tracking it as it came closer and closer to the gate.
Caine said "Uh... VICE? Can you do something about those?"
"I'm transmitting the LA access codes now, the guns should recognise the car as a Police Vehicle, but I don't know if the gates will be opened or not." VICE replied.
Over the radio came a new voice, an older sounding man asking "What do you want? The guns are seeing you as cops, but there aren't any of them anymore."
VICE replied "I found this code at a police station out west. I've got two injured people here, in need of medical attention. Are you going to let us in or are we going to have to run out of gas somewhere near Pittsburgh?"
"Yeah, I'll let you in. But don't you try anything funny, I can override the guns." said the man on the radio.
The giant steel and concrete gates began to slide open, grinding on the old and underused tracks used to move them. The car got to the gate just as there was a space big enough for it, and slid through with just a few inches on either side. Just as the car slid through, the gate began to close behind them. People came out of buildings to see the visitors, and a stocky, bald, greasy man in a scientist's or doctor's coat waddled over to the car with two similarly dressed people behind him. One was a tall, muscular black man, and the other a shorter brunette woman, who was very good looking by wasteland standards and Caine thought would probably be considered pretty good looking before the war.
The greasy man addressed Caine "Who are the injured and how? There are only two of you here."
Caine replied "Both of us."
Then Tanner added "Broken foot for me, he's broken some ribs and cracked the others."
The stocky man commanded "Dick, Ash, help them get inside the clinic, start to work on them."
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman, Caine assumed that she was 'Ash', helped Madison to her feet and the man, whom he assumed was "Dick", tried to help him to his feet. All he ended up doing was almost pulling Caine's arm out of it's socket, but the gesture itself was nice, and Caine pulled himself to his feet and leaned most of his weight onto the strong-looking man. Before he got fully out of the car, though, he reached around and turned his hand like he was pulling a key out of the ignition, even though he didn't have a key, and VICE shut the engine down in tune with his hand movement.
"Ash" brought Madison to a reclining chair, not unlike the one's Caine had seen inside ruined dentists offices, and sat her down. When she did, she adjusted the chair to get all of her weight off of her feet, then she started to unwrap the bandage around her foot. Caine and "Dick" went into a room which was labeled "Exam Room 1", and the other man began to pull the layers of clothing off of Caine. While this was happening, Caine felt the familiar pain surge again, signalling that the Med-X was wearing off. Eventually, Caine was down to the Medical Liner for the armour, which was still stretched tightly over him, making it look like his skin was naturally a gunmetal grey instead of the normal range of hues, only the much looser neck line showing that the Liner was, in fact, another layer of clothing. "Dick" picked up a pair of clothing shears, ready to cut away the layer, when Caine put his hand on top of the shears and nodded against cutting the clothing.
Dick was about to ask why he shouldn't cut it when Madison, able to see into the exam room, explained "In his gear is an old riot gear helmet. If you plug the cord that's coming from his left shoulder into it, then the liner can be released and should come off easily."
Dick, in a much more effeminate tone than either Caine or Madison expected, replied "OK hon, I'll give it a shot." then started looking for the cable. Once he found it, he had almost no trouble figuring out what to plug it into, then asked Caine "What do I do to release the liner?"
VICE responded "Do you want me to release the liner, Caine? You'll need to provide your overly long authorization code."
The man jumped back from the table and the helmet, looking around for the owner of the mysterious voice.
Caine, on the other hand, groaned and very quickly said "Yes, Vice. Authorization Niner, One, Seven... Bravo, Delta, Delta, Foxtrot, Thr... Three, Four, Seven, Eight, Six, Whiskey, Whiskey, Foxtrot," then gave a particularly desperate groan of pain, and continued "One, Three, Five, Two, Six, Romeo, Echo, Lock."
Then he grabbed the gag out of the coat and bit down on it, in on the edge of blacking out as the liner decompressed his ribs. As soon as it finished, Dick injected him with a syringe of Med-X, and he let his jaw loosen as he felt the pain dull. Caine paid less attention to anything now, just trying to get his nerves and the pain back in control, but he felt like Dick was staring at him as he removed the liner, especially at his stomach and abs, but only for a few seconds. Then Dick started to unwrap the old gause slowly, as it had apparently been wrapped badly.
"Once you're all better, we can pull those bandages off, get a good look at you." Dick purred suggestively.
"I don't think so. I'll be leaving well before these fully heal, and I'm sure I don't need a nurse to supervise." Caine replied, deadpan.
Dick pouted coyly just as madison hobbled into the room, and so he walked out to give them privacy.
Madison asked "Did, did what I think happened just happen?"
Caine, only a bit less confused than her, responded "Yeah, I think the nurse just tried to hit on me. I'm thinking we should definitely share this room for now."
"You aren't worried about Dick, you just want to get me alone with you." Madison responded.
"No, no. I didn't mean it like that. It'd just be more secure if we stayed together." Caine replied, feigning that he was aghast at what she thought he meant.
Madison put on a grin and purred "I didn't say that was a bad thing." then added "But that Ash character did just try to hit on me. I'll move my stuff in here after they leave, then go get some fuel for the car."
"Fine, just wake me when you get back. Vice will explain what you need for the fuel mix." Caine said dreamily, starting to drift off to sleep.
Med-X, if I haven't already explained what it is, is the Fallout Universe's name for Intravenous Morphine Tartrate. From the Wiki : "Med-X is a potent opiate analgesic that binds to opioid receptors in the brain and central nervous system, reducing the perception of pain as well as the emotional response to pain. In layman's terms, it's a run-of-the-mill pain killer delivered with a hypodermic needle. According to Boxcars, 15 hits of Med-X is more than enough to kill a man."
Pittsburgh, colloquially known as The Pitt to wasteland dwellers, was under the control of a gang during the events of Fallout 3. Before the player's character arrives, a gang controlled by a man named Ashur takes over the city and, through the use of a huge population of slave laborers, gets the city's industrial district, specifically the metal mills, running again. Then he uses the slave labor to keep the mills running and making him ammunition and other supplies, a la Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
Interestingly enough, the Brotherhood of Steel had shown interest in the area before the events of Fallout 3, so far as to send a detachment to clear it in 2255. Star Paladin (now Elder) Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel led the Scourge, a large-scale military action that wiped out nearly the entire population of The Pitt. In a single night, the Brotherhood swept through the city, eliminating any resident who put up a fight. Although the intent of the Scourge remains unclear, several unmutated children were taken from The Pitt by the Brotherhood and placed into initiate training. The motivations for the Scourge are unclear to this day, but many in the Brotherhood note that it was a marked change in the way the Brotherhood operates. Additionally, it is known that something was recovered from The Pitt during the Scourge, although to date it would seem that only Elder Lyons knows what it was.
The wiki also seems to theorize that Ashur is, or was, in fact a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin who stayed in the city after the scourge, and that the raiders joined up with him after the scourge, then they captured the slaves and created the self-sustaining community of the Pitt.