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TWENTY-ONE
Novac, Motel Room
July 3rd
09:52
En opened her eyes and looked at the motel room ceiling, lit by the bright sunlight that fell in through the windows and made her head pound. Her legs felt heavy, but that was because they hung outside the bed. And she was still wearing her clothes.
Right, she'd given the remainder of her steak to Melissa and then laid back to close her eyes for a few minutes. Looked like those minutes had become a few hours.
Aside from the constant headache, she felt rather well for having stayed up all night. She looked at her Pip-boy. Almost ten. That meant she'd slept for what, four hours and a half? She'd had shorter nights.
Grimacing from the taste in her mouth, she sat up on the bed, which of course made the headache-friend inside her hear speak a little louder. Her back was sore from sleeping in the awkward position, but that would probably go away after a while. Ringo lay on the other bed, on his side, his mouth wide open. Melissa had, for some reason, ended up on the floor, sleeping quietly on her back, her hands folded across her belly, using the motel bible as a headrest. Next to her was Cheyenne, a gnawed bit of bone discarded next to her muzzle. Through the window, she saw Meyers standing outside, smoking a pipe. Where had he found a pipe?
She groaned loudly (so what if she woke somebody up) and scratched her head. Her short hair probably stood in all directions. Whatever.
She got out of bed, her joints cracking, stretched and trudged to the door.
"Mornin'," Meyers greeted, puffing his pipe. "You look radiant."
"Hey. Yeah, I know. Where'd you get a pipe?"
He chuckled, sending puffs of blue smoke into the pleasant warm morning air. "It was one of the things I brought back from NCRCF. Holier-than-thou NCR pricks took it from me when they locked me in."
Right, the paper-wrapped packet. "Must have been some important stuff if you hauled it all the way back here." Well, technically, Melissa had hauled it, but yeah, same difference.
"They are things of no value," Meyers said mysteriously, "and at the same time, immensely valuable."
"Hey, hey," En protested. "I'm the secretive one around here, that's my job."
He smiled. "It's just personal things. Sentimental value, you know?"
Unsatisfied, En settled for a low "Mmmm."
"Anyway, shouldn't someone check on your friend?"
Shit, yeah, Sunny! She'd been in that Auto-Doc for hours now, more than enough time for the thing to complete its procedure. What if she'd woken up inside it and thought she'd been buried alive?
She hurried inside the other motel room and saw the screen of the Auto-Doc pulsing in red.
PROCECURE COMPLETED
HIT OPEN BUTTON
Without thinking, En put her fist down on the button, and with a hydraulic hiss, the Auto-Doc's lid slowly opened. Sunny's legs were bandaged, and En quickly threw the white sheet over them (and the exposed private Sunny-parts) so she lay in the Auto-Doc, looking like she was simply sleeping. She was still out from the anaesthesia the Auto-Doc had administered, but now, with a beep, the Auto-Doc's screen announced in green letters:
ADMINISTERING STIMULANTS
IMPORTANT! DO NOT REMOVE PATIENT UNTIL THIS MESSAGE DISAPPEARS
After a minute or so, Sunny's eyelids fluttered.
The 'do not remove patient'-message was still there, and a new one had appeared under it.
AWAKENING CYCLE PHASE 1 OF 3 COMPLETED
En waited a few minutes longer, and then Sunny began mumbling incoherently and her eyes opened slightly. The awakening cycle message changed to phase 2 completed.
Sunny slowly opened her eyes, looking unable to focus, her eyes slowly rolling around in their sockets. Her tongue lazily licked her lips and her fingers slowly moved.
"Hey Sunny!"
There was no response apart from Sunny's dark brown eyes trying to focus on the origin of the voice.
As the minutes went on, Sunny slowly awakened, and another beep sounded.
IMPORTANT! DO NOT REMOVE PATIENT UNTIL THIS MESSAGE DISAPPEARS
AWAKENING CYCLE PHASE 3 OF 3 COMPLETED
NOW COUNTING DOWN SAFE TIME FOR PATIENT REMOVAL
Right. It was probably too early to let Sunny get up or remove her from the Auto-Doc.
"En, that you sweetie?" Sunny's voice rasped.
"Hey Sunny! Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"
Sunny smacked her lips and woozily looked around. "Like I stepped on a mine."
Hm, so she remembered. "Yeah, you got us all worried here. Doc said you're going to be okay though."
"Cheyenne okay?" she asked, her eyes fixing on En.
"She's fine. Few scratches and bruises, but she looked perfectly healthy when she gnawed on Ringo's leftover steak last night."
Sunny groaned and laid a hand on her forehead. "How long was I gone?"
En had to sigh and look at the ceiling as she counted the time. It felt as if a year had passed, but it was only a day, really. "Not long. Just a day. Me and Melissa pulled an all-nighter to get this old Auto-Doc to your bed," she said, not without pride.
"Hm, guess I should thank the intolerable shrew for that."
"You should. She hauled that ten ton thing all the way here from NCRCF."
Sunny flapped her hand feebly. "I'll remember to say thanks, don't worry. And you too, sweetie. Thank you."
"Hey, we're B.F.F., right?" En said with a grin.
"I still don't know what the Hell that means."
"Doesn't matter. So anyway, not in too much pain?"
It seemed like it was only then that Sunny realized she should be in pain after what had happened yesterday. She frowned, propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at her blanket-covered legs. "Actually, no. My legs still feel weird… stretched, somehow, but pain, no, not much."
"Could be the sedation still working?"
"Mm. Maybe."
"I see you were impatient enough to already start the awakening cycle without me?" Dr. Strauss' voice came from the doorway.
"Yeah, sorry," En admitted sheepishly. "I was just afraid she might wake up still inside that thing, and well, you know…"
Strauss chuckled. "Those Auto-docs have safeties built in to avoid that. They'll keep the patient in a coma, and if that's impossible, they'll start the awakening cycle themselves."
En shrugged. "Machine said it was ready, so I figured it wouldn't do any harm to go ahead."
"I should slap you on the back of the head for that," Strauss scolded, "but I suppose I can understand how you feel."
"Yeah," En said, "just a note to my parents in my diary will do."
Strauss made a disapproving face at En and then said to Sunny, "Let's take a look at those legs, shall we?"
En could tell Sunny was afraid to look, but she kept a brave face and nodded nonetheless. "Okay. En can stay, it's alright."
"M-hm."
En watched as Strauss cut the fresh bandages the Auto-doc had applied. The doctor kept the bandages in place, however, and only when they were both cut open did she ask Sunny. "You ready?"
Sunny bit her lip. "No, but this has to be done."
En winced as Strauss folded the bandages open and showed the state of Sunny's legs. The skin was somehow reassembled and put back together, and the muscles beneath looked to be in place again, but the skin on Sunny's shins and lower thighs was a spider web of jagged, bright red tears that had been… glued, it almost looked like, back together, so the texture of Sunny's skin looked to be plastic, or even waxen. As if there was a smooth, shiny, transparent coating on top of her skin, with the red tears beneath. Sunny let out an inarticulate whimper when she saw it, and her eyes teared up. En could do nothing else than hold Sunny's hand. Poor Sunny.
"The worst will still fade," Strauss quickly assured. "Most important thing is that the Auto-doc made your legs usable again."
"They look… hideous," Sunny whined, laying her free hand over her eyes. Her lower lip trembled.
More slowly now, Strauss repeated, "It won't stay this way, dear. Trust me, it'll get better. I won't lie, you'll still see them, they won't disappear entirely, but it won't stay like this. They'll heal over, become scar tissue, and that'll fade in time."
"Yeah," En made an attempt to brighten the mood. "Scars add character right?"
"Shut up, En," Sunny snapped.
En felt her stomach knot at Sunny's sharpness. She rarely, if ever, called her by her first name, and she'd never used that tone with her before. Having Sunny mad at her felt awful. "Hey, Sunny, I was just saying – "
"I know, but I really don't need your immature attempts at cheerfulness now." She still held a hand over her eyes. "If that's all you can offer, then I rather you go outside and be a child there."
It was En's turn to have her eyes tear up. "Sunny, come on, I'm just – "
Her eyes still shielded, she turned her head away. "Go away, En. You're not helping. Get out."
Strauss looked up at En and gently said, "I think it's best you leave, dear. Not because you did something wrong. Don't take this too hard, I know you're trying to help."
En stood up, feeling miserable. "I just thought..."
The doctor smiled at her. "I know, it's alright, just give your friend a moment."
En sniffed, wiped her nose with the back of her hand and walked out.
"Is she awake?" Ringo asked, looking nervous and sick with worry. Then he saw the look on En's face. "Is it… that bad?"
"It's… not as bad as it looks," En said, even though she didn't know what to think. "It's just… Sunny's pretty mad at me, I think."
Ringo had already half-shouldered past her to go see, but he checked and asked, "Mad at you? Why would she be mad at you?"
En shrugged, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I don't know… probably because all this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."
"Hey!" Ringo commanded, jabbing a finger at her. "This situation is dire enough without people feeling guilty for no reason, alright? This was due to no fault of yours."
"I guess."
He squeezed her shoulder impatiently. "Don't guess, know. We cannot start doubting or second-guessing ourselves now. Sunny might be unpredictable right now, but she needs us at our most reliable. Can I count on you?"
The man was right. Sunny wasn't being herself (she hoped!), but the best way to help her deal with it was to appear stable and strong. So she nodded and said, "You can always count on me."
He gave an approving nod. "Lovely." And with that, he knocked on the motel room door. Cheyenne followed at his heel.
Melissa had found her way back to the waking world too, and came out on the balcony, fishing a cigarette out of the pack she'd leeched off Ringo. "She all hunky-dorey?"
"Hunky what?" En didn't have the courage to start deciphering her weird-ass vocabulary.
Melissa lit her cigarette and looked out over the courtyard, leaning on the railing. "Is she alright?"
"Oh." En came to stand next to her, putting her elbows on the railing too, looking at the morning sun. "Yeah, I mean, her legs should still work, but they look pretty beat-up."
"Imagine they do."
"She's… not taking it well."
Melissa took a drag, and casually asked, "Rotten to you, was she?"
"Kinda. Guess I can't blame her for it."
She blew out smoke in a chuckle. "Don't take it personally. People who get badly hurt often lash out at the people closest to them. No need to be hard on yourself."
Melissa was right, of course, and En's mind was put somewhat at ease, but she'd still feel a lot better if Sunny took a moment to recover and tell En she hadn't meant what she'd said.
Melissa clapped a hard but friendly arm around her shoulder. "It'll be fine, you sook. Stop frettin', alright?"
"Yeah, you're right. No point beating myself up over it."
"Bloody oath. 'Sides, people always get tetchy over their first scars. The more you get, the less you care. It's always scary an' hard to deal with, first time you come a gutser, but it gets easier every time."
"Uh… yeah."
It was only now that En noticed Melissa had taken the bandages off her burns. They were now dark pink, palm-sized patches of rough, raw skin that contrasted with her tan skin tone. What a bunch of scarred misfits they were.
Melissa was apparently thinking the same thing. "I reckon we should take one of Ringo's eyes out or somethin'. His skin's still far too smooth compared to ours."
"M-hm," En agreed, gradually finding her good cheer back. "Or lop off a finger or two."
With a grin, Melissa said, "Let's just stick to fingers then, though. Sunny might get mad if we take off certain extremities she still has a use for."
"Ew," En merely said, still grinning. Sunny and Ringo bumping pelvises wasn't exactly a thought she liked to have taking up residence in her head.
"Hey, by the way, jillaroo?"
"Yeah?"
Somewhat embarrassed, Melissa said, "I really need some new clobber."
"Errr… you need someone new to hit over the head?"
Melissa tugged the lapel of her leather jacket. "Clothes. I mean, I'm beginnin' to stink even by my standards. And I think I've got pikin' mushrooms growin' in my under-chunders."
"Lovely."
"That, and my socks are beginnin' to house all kinds of interestin' flora an' fungi."
En chuckled, Sunny's harshness temporarily forgotten. "Alright, we'll go buy you some uh… clobber, or whatever you call it. I'm sure there's some kind of general store in town."
"Just grundies is fine. I'm attached to my leather."
"Yeah, I figured. So where's the old guy?"
Melissa jerked her head toward the door of the room they'd slept in. "In there. Readin' a book."
"Hey Meyers?" En called to him.
"Yeah?"
"Me and Melissa are going into town for a sec. You staying put?"
A scolding voice came from the motel room. "Melissa and me. Melissa and I, in fact. But yeah, I'm stayin' here."
"Cool."
"He and Ringo should get along," Melissa remarked. "Competing to see who can linguistically out-stuffy the other."
En got a mental image of Ringo and Meyers sitting at a coffee table, drinking tea with their pinkies in the air and wearing Victorian suits, monocles and top hats, going "Oh I say" to each other, Ringo being prissy about Meyers' sloppiness in pronouncing –ing forms, and Meyers telling Ringo to cease using those damned americanisms.
"C'mon, jillaroo, we need to buy some food anyway. We still got the caps we got from our ranchin' friend."
Dusty was more than willing to part with some fine brahmin sirloins at a reasonable price, and there was even a general store in town that sold a modest selection of clothing. Melissa categorically insisted she only wanted fresh underwear and a few T-shirts (which, she assured, she'd immediately cut the arms and collars off anyway), and nothing else, repeating her desire to stay true to her leather. En noticed she'd cut the Great Khans logo off her back and the embroidered GREAT KHANS- and MEMBER-strips off the front, but she didn't mention it.
Skeptically, Melissa held up a pair of lace panties, with only the groin area made in opaque fabric. "I think these are my size, but…"
En giggled. "Not really your style."
Melissa made a sour face. "Not really."
"They'd show off your butt pretty well, though?"
Melissa grunted and threw the panties back on the shelf. "Not really something I'd show off with."
"We could always restyle you?" En suggested, grinning mischievously. "Make your femininity blossom and radiate?" She danced over to one of the tables and held up a short denim skirt. "Show a bit of leg…" she snatched up a sleeveless T-shirt in stretch fabric and held it up to her. "… make your curves stand out more?"
"With these arms? Yeah, that'll look good." Melissa was only half-amused. "No thanks, I'll stick with my man-bitch outfit."
Exaggerating her disappointed look, En let her hands drop. "Nothing wrong with looking a bit feminine."
"…Says the tool belt-wearing tomboy."
En cocked her head. "I said a bit feminine. Besides, I don't mind dressing nice every once in a while. When I'm not travelling and getting shot at. In fact…" She held up the sleeveless white T-shirt and short skirt to herself. "I think I'll try these on myself."
"Sure, give it a burl."
"I will."
The store clerk, a young woman of around twenty, had remained silent until now, letting them browse without bothering them (an attitude En wished more store attendants would adopt), but now she came forward and said, "Changing booths are over there, miss."
En hung her tool belt on a convenient hook on the booth wall and changed. The T-shirt was just her size, though a bit stretchy around the boobs, and the skirt fit perfectly too. She stepped back into her boots without tying the laces and looked at herself in the tall mirror. To be entirely honest, she looked pretty classy, the skirt drawing just enough attention to her thighs, but not short enough to be cheap or vulgar, and the T-shirt enhancing what little feminine curves she had. "So? So?" she asked Melissa. "What do you think?"
Melissa stood looking at her without saying anything. Not exactly a sign of approval. Maybe she didn't look as stylish as she thought.
"Come on, it can't be that bad."
"Uh, no, no… you look nice." There was a strange expression on Melissa's face. A sort of wistful, almost sad look that was only barely perceptible. It made En feel rather uncomfortable.
The store attendant, however, was much less opaque in her opinion. "It would be a crime if you didn't buy these, if I may say so, miss." She was a pretty thing, around En's age, with long brown hair cut into straight bangs in front.
"Uh… how much are they?"
The clerk's smile widened. "Skirt's seventy, and the shirt's eighty. But I'll let you have them both for a hundred and forty."
They still had the cash given to them by Dusty McBride, but buying the clothes would eat up two thirds of the caps they still had left. And that super mutant's machine gun was eaten by rust and one cap short of worthless. On the other hand, she did look sharp in them, if she said so herself.
"Go on," Melissa encouraged her. "They'll understand."
"Yeah," En still doubted, "but it doesn't leave us with a lot of cash, and it's our money so I shouldn't spend it on myself."
Melissa went back to rummaging through the ladies' underwear box. "Just buy 'em, you sook. If they do their blocks, just tell them I threatened to beat you up if you didn't."
That settled it, then. "Alright, I guess. If it'd be a crime to leave them, then I'll be a good and law-abiding citizen."
She counted off a hundred and forty caps (damn Wastes still using those unwieldy bottle caps instead of the actual currency used in New Arroyo and the West) and scooped up her heavy leather, draping it over her arm along with her tool belt. Melissa, in the meantime, had found two pairs of panties, and a bra which had been given the nod after a quick inspection of the size on the tag.
"I'll throw those in for free," the attendant said, still smiling. "We don't get customers often, so might as well treat them right. And it's not like I still have a boss to care about."
"Why's that?" Melissa asked, stuffing the underwear in a plastic bag.
"The um, owner of this place was Jeanie May," the girl said. "So yeah, she won't be coming around anymore."
Looked like this girl had just inherited her own clothing store at the age of sixteen. "I'd say sorry for your loss," En began, "but…"
"Yeah, she was always fair to me, if a bit stingy, but what she did to Boone's wife, well, can't say I feel bad for her."
"Well, uh, good luck on your new store, then?"
"Thanks. And you two, good luck on, errr, whatever it is you're doing."
As they walked out, Melissa said, "We do what everyone else in the Wastes does, babe. Survivin'."
"Can I order you a sunset to ride into, Melissa?" En asked.
"No, I'm good." But then her eye fell on something hanging from a hook on the wall. "Speaking of sunsets! How much is this, babe?"
The store girl made a throw-away gesture. "Go on, it's free. Consider it the welcoming gift to my very first, very own clients."
Melissa pointed her index finger at the girl with a wink. "Ace, babe!"
The midday sun was scorching hot again, but at least the girly clothes En had bought provided some relief from the usual airtight leather pressure cooker she found herself trapped in during these hot hours. Her heavy combat boots looked comically mismatched with the stylish outfit she wore now, but can't have it all.
"Whoa-hoa," Ringo called out as they reached the courtyard, leaning on the railing, holding a beer bottle. "Now there's a change."
Meyers had taken his chair outside and was reading his book in the sun, on the walkway next to Ringo.
"Yeah," Melissa called back." Who'd have thought there was a girl underneath all those tools and leathers?"
En swallowed the remark that she was one to talk.
"Oh, I always knew there was one there, it's just refreshing to actually see it. You look lovely, miss En."
En curtseyed as well as she could in her short skirt. "How's Sunny?"
Ringo took a breath and set his beer bottle to his lips. "She'll pull through. Resting now. Doctor Drug Pusher informed me that the worst of the injuries will fade, so Sunny's fatalistic disposition is mostly unjustified."
"She'll still be healin' right?" Melissa asked, calling up to the walkway.
"M-hm. At least a day, then the Auto-doc's accelerated healing should return her to mostly-hale condition."
"Means we've got some time to spare," En said, coming up the stairs. "No point heading for Boulder City just yet, might as well take a day off, right?"
"I suppose there's nothing else for it," Ringo said with a sigh. "Though I'm not sure I'm comfortable with us lounging about while Sunny – "
Ringo was interrupted by a deafening roar overhead, and reflexively ducked his head as three odd rocket-like things passed overhead. They looked like enormous child's toys, completely unaerodynamic and painted in silly colours, but they flew, making a deafening noise as they did so. One briefly looked like it'd fall out of the sky and crash into the motel, but it corrected its course, and with a roar, got back into formation with the others, and all three went over the motel roof, and off into the sky.
En, Melissa and Ringo stood dumbstruck, and even Meyers had been torn away from his book, looking at the sky.
"Three weird-ass rocket things just passed overhead, right?" En asked, breaking the silence. "I mean, I didn't imagine this or anything?"
"As funny as it would be to act as if we didn't see anything," Melissa said, "yeah, we saw it too. That was some shonky business right there."
Meyers clapped his book closed and rose. "This calls for an expedition, wouldn't you say?"
Ringo could only reply with, "Um…"
"Yes it does," Meyers agreed with himself. "Who knows what we'll discover?"
"They have to have been launched from a pad or something," En thought out loud. "So that means there's a lot of operational tech still working there. Definitely worth checking out."
Melissa slapped her shoulder. "But not in the miss-hoity-toity clobber you're wearin' now, jillaroo."
"We'll leave when our young driving force has changed clothes," Meyers decided.
Ringo drained his beer and turned back to Sunny's room. "Without me. Sunny shouldn't be left alone."
"Yeah," En said, "guess that's understandable. I can stay with her if you like?"
"No, it's fine. Circumstances being what they are, we have some time to get to know each other."
"Go on," Melissa ordered En, poking a finger in her lower back. "Get your ooh-la-la rags off and go back to wearin' somethin' functional, yeah?"
En quickly changed back into the heavy leather gear she'd got from Sunny, hooked her tool belt around her waist and joined Melissa and Meyers in the courtyard.
"Ready?" Melissa asked her.
"M-hm."
"Let's head on out then," Meyers said, "see what the cause of this strange phenomenon was."
Melissa grinned. "By the way, we bought you somethin'."
Meyers put a hand on his chest. "A present? For me? I'm touched."
"You better be," Melissa said, taking the crumpled present out of the plastic bag and tossing it over to Meyers.
"Well I'll be," Meyers breathed, his awe genuine this time. "that's a fine gift indeed, ladies!"
"Go on," En said. "Put it on!"
With an idiotic proud grin, Meyers put the Stetson on his head.