This Place isn't Right Anymore
One Month Later, Early October 2241
It turned out that Detective Paul knocked me out in that alley and carried me back to The Shark Club. At first, I wondered why on earth he did that, but I needed to come back injured if I was absent from the Bishops for almost five days. That guy always thought ten steps ahead. Paul knocked me out, carried me all the way to the Shark Club, and handed me over to the entrance crew saying he thought I was one of them. No questions asked, he mentioned some shootout at a garage and found me unconscious nearby. Nobody questioned about where I was, and my dumb answers were chalked up to the obvious head injury I sustained. I was hoping that head wound would erase the image of that family getting obliterated, but I wasn't that lucky. I was just glad to be back home, and safe.
The Bishops gave me a few days to recover from my head injury. Apparently, Detective Paul cracked my skull, which wasn't surprising given all my blows to the head in 2241. The skull fracture wasn't anything a directly applied stimpack couldn't fix, but I was able to enjoy the days off as my body repaired itself. Days off were fairly rare in the Bishops. This wasn't a big deal considering most of the job was standing and looking angry, but I thoroughly enjoyed uninterrupted days in bed with my wife. I felt fine after the first day or two awake, but the things I'd seen just made me mentally exhausted, which wasn't something a stimpack could really fix. I'm usually not one for expressing myself, but it felt good to confide in my wife. The first thing I woke up to after Paul knocked me out was Sophia scowling at me. When I asked where I was, she slapped me across the face saying she thought I died. Then it came back, I remembered the last time I saw her was when I ran up to change out of my suit for the car job. I apologized, and when the doctor left the room I told her everything. Like I said; I'm not one to share feelings, but the days leading up to that point were stressful.
It was in that time that I learned about all that happened in the days I was gone and unconscious. Of course, the only real news I was interested in was about Vincent and Tom. The shootout at the Chop Shop was talked about all over the city and Mr. Bishop was furious. A price was put out on the car owner's head and the Boss lost a profitable operation in one day. The casualty list was T-Ray, 8 of his mechanics, 3 guards, and Tom. All of them were dead at the hands of that prizefighting maniac vault man and his crew of misfits. Mr. Bishop was even more angry when he heard a circulating rumor that the same vault suit wearing degenerate slept with his wife and daughter. However, I was a little more concerned with the well-being of my fellow thugs.
Though Tom was dead, Vincent was one of the first people I saw in my recovery time. He was still wearing a sling from having his arm shot to hell in that shootout. Other than the sling, his arm was fine. Normal people would've been killed by a direct spray from a minigun (As evidenced by the murdered family) but New Reno thugs were a different breed of human. I always talked about how large and muscular my friend Vincent was because his arm alone was able to take almost 20 rounds of high velocity 5mm rounds.
I didn't know for sure why Paul knocked me out in those initial days. I had to figure out why he did it through my interactions with the Bishops. As much as I disliked the fact he spontaneously cracked my skull, I couldn't stop thinking about him or our brief encounters over 2241.
It seemed like a miracle that I ran into him at all. He told me just about everything he learned since we parted ways, we unsuccessfully tried to take a family to safety, and both watched the appearance of the very type of aircraft that landed me in his interest. Over my next few days back on the job, I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I discussed with Paul. Then, I would see that family getting gunned down in my mind and wondered who the murderers were. The same questions ran through my mind over and over again, "Who were they?" and "Why did they kill them?" The most frustrating thing was that we weren't able to ask a single question during our brief time with them. They died leaving more questions for Detective Paul and I, and even fewer answers to the questions we had.
Two weeks back into my job, it was early October and my mind remained locked on the questions while the world subtly changed. Many times in your life, you may see reference to something and not understand its significance. For example: you may see the name of a distant town on a map, and then life events put you there down the road. That isn't what happened per say (If anything this whole story is about tiny events that end up leading to something greater) but this is how my life course got altered yet again:
New Reno was my home. I lived with my parents for 12 years and spent almost 6 years never in one place for more than a day or two. I forgot my actual birthday, but I always celebrated it at the end of the first week in October. So, in October 2241 I officially turned myself 19. Still doing the usual Bishop thug routine, I simply couldn't take my mind off the strange events of 2241 and my supposed destiny. I ran through every conversation I ever had with Detective Paul constantly, but really contemplated the last thing he told me;
"Find yourself in Shady Sands when you can… NCR will take you in and… I'd love to work with you again Sean."
I don't know what he saw in me to say that, but I felt like I was starting to see it in myself. I always considered myself a wanderer just stumbling through life, but this feeling was different. I stumbled into Klamath, Redding, and New Reno, but recalling everything that happened to me in 2241; I knew I was done wandering. For the first time in my life, I had a true goal, and it wasn't in New Reno. I needed to follow the detective to his homeland, the New California Republic (NCR).