Chapter 4: Different
I woke up in the morning, with the sun shining through the old metal in the wall. I then got up and put my gear on, ready to see what the outside had to offer. I walked downstairs and saw Joe and Victoria sitting at the bar, eating. They turned around and said good morning. I sat at the bar stool next to them.
"How'd you sleep?" Victoria asked.
"Good enough." I replied.
"Don't mind the stains, you'll get used to them. And don't try to think about what they are, too." Joe said. Victoria elbowed him in the ribs.
"Good morning, smoothskin. What'll you have?" Jab asked.
"Get him what we're having, Jab." Victoria requested. She handed him the 'money' as she called it and Jab handed me a bowl. It was a greenish-yellow water and had bits of food floating in it.
"It's mole rat stew. Try it." Victoria assured. I took a wooden spoon Jab gave me and took a sip. It tasted mildly sour, but went down well enough. I finished the bowl and gave it to Jab to wash.
"Hey Jab. I want to say I'm sorry about last night, I just didn't know, I'm still getting used to things out here." I expressed.
"It's all right kid, I guess you didn't know any better. Thanks for being nice about it, and not yelling at me like other people." Jab nodded.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me Doctor Whatisthat, we got to get you some new clothes." Joe said.
"W-Was that another reference? And why?" I asked.
"Otherwise people will think you don't know anything about the Wasteland with that… thing on you." Joe informed me.
"Isn't that what people think of you?" I joked around.
"Wow, we've known each other for eight hours and you're already insulting me? Cool, dude." Joe said, putting his arms up.
"As rare as it is, Joe's right. People will think you don't have Wasteland smarts if you run around with that on." Victoria said as she tapped my jumpsuit. I flinched.
Joe and Victoria finished their food soon after and we got up and left the bar. We walked down the rickety stairs and Victoria pointed out the general goods store. We walked inside of it. Inside, there was a woman with red hair sitting at the counter with weapons and clothing behind her. She looked up at us.
"Hey guys! Who's your friend?" The clerk said with a cheery tone.
"Morning, Moira. He wants some clothes, as you can see; my friend here is in need of some fashion sense." Joe said as he laughed. Victoria rolled her eyes. I looked at my jumpsuit with the vest over it and shrugged.
"Of course, of course, let me see..." Moira said as she examined my structure.
"Here we go; I've got something for you." She laid out some clothing on the counter.
"We'll take it." Victoria said with a nod. She gave her the money and took the clothes and we left. We made our way back to our rooms at the bar. I asked Victoria what these where called. She pointed out a dusty white shirt, some faded and dirty brown pants or another name was 'jeans', faded brown sneakers, and a green over shirt, which she said is supposed to go over my white shirt. Joe was upset after I put them on correctly because he wanted to see me change into them in the wrong way. I told them I knew how to put on clothes; it's just like a jumpsuit, just separated, I wasn't stupid. I walked into my room and put them on. I walked out and looked at my new clothing.
"See? Now you look normal." Victoria smiled.
"I could pull off the look better." Joe shook his head. He took another elbow to the ribs by Victoria.
"Alright now that you're Wasteland savvy, we can talk to the mayor to get your vault some food." Joe said.
"Mayor?" I asked.
"Kind of like an Overseer, just with much less power." Victoria informed me.
"Much less. From what I heard, it's kind of… communist-y there." Joe added.
"Alright, let's go." I said. The three of us walked downstairs and left the bar. We walked towards a building that looked grand considering it is made out of scrap metal and knocked on the door. Inside was a man sitting at a desk with a duster and curved hat, sporting a weapon that looked stronger than mine. He looked like a cowboy from the vault comic books.
"Something happen on the patrols you two? Who's this?" The mayor said. He had a gruff and deep voice.
"No, just some raiders like always, that's where we picked up this guy. He's a vault dweller, says he needs some food." Joe said to the mayor.
"Well, howdy. The name's Larry Simms. I'm the mayor here and sheriff too, if the need arises." The mayor said.
"Rehearses that line to himself every freakin' day. It's weird." Joe whispered.
"I'm Jace." We shook hands and he examined my clothing.
"So you guys bought him some clothes? Why's that?" Larry asked.
"We were wondering if he could help us on our patrols to pay for the food." Victoria told the mayor.
"And the clothes." Joe mumbled.
"How much food are we talking about here?" Larry asked.
"We need food and water for about 75 people." I explained.
"That many people in that vault, huh? I thought there'd be more." Larry sat back in his chair.
"So can you do it for me?" I asked.
"We're going to need something more for this...partnership. What are your skills?" Larry questioned. I told him about my minor medical experience along with the self-defense training I had along with the classes that I took in the vault.
"Well, you have more experience in medicine than most, and you can fight. Patrolling the outer city will be a good job for you. As for this water situation, our town is having a water problem as well. It seems that the purifier isn't working to its full potential, why don't you head out to the water plant and help out over there. You start patrols tomorrow. Victoria and Joe will tell you when they are ready to patrol."
"Thank you Mr. Simms." I nodded.
"Call me Larry." He said back.
"Don't… don't call him Larry." Joe whispered.
The three of us walked out of the building and Victoria pointed me to the water plant. This is where we went our separate ways, because they had to go and prepare for their patrols for the night. I walked across the town and made my way to the plant. The door had a sign on it that said it was the water plant and I walked in. A young man with brown hair and a shaved beard greeted me on the way in.
"So, what brings you here?" The man asked.
"Larry Simms sent me here to help out." I answered.
"Well what do you know about piping, son?"
"I know a decent amount of maintenance."
"Good enough for me." The man walked me over to some rusty pipes and pointed to them.
"We've got a problem in the piping, when the radiated water passes through, this pipe is supposed to purify it, which it's not. I thought we could take it apart and see what the problem is, but that would cut off the town's water supply and I don't know if I could get it back together."
"It purifies the water? Well then inside there should be a bunch of metal work, probably rusted as well as the pipes. It's probably jamming and just letting some of the irradiated water go through, while leaving some purified. If that's the problem, than we should definitely cut off the water, because the people could get poisoned by it."
"Any plan's better than none." The man shrugged.
We took out the pipe and unhinged the bolts. Inside, the metal work was lodged and letting some water flow out, like I said. We replaced it with a new one and put the pipe back together. The old man tested the water afterwards.
"Well I'll be. You fixed the water! I could learn a thing or two from you! Here, take this, dude. It's the least I could do." The man gave me some money and I looked at it in my hand. This is the first time I've touched money before. It felt rough, but also had some smoothness in it. I smiled and said thanks.
"Hey, what's your name, kid?" The man asked.
"It's Jace."
"Well thank you, Jace, you just helped out the town a whole lot. By the way, I'm Walter."
"Nice to meet you, Walter." I nodded.
I walked out of the plant. The sun set again and it seemed darker before than yesterday, although I could see pink light on the horizon. My eyes strained to see things in the dark; I could barely make out the bar. I shuffled my feet over to the building and went inside. I opened the door to the bar and saw a circle of people who were shouting, something more unusual than what I saw there yesterday. I walked to the center where two men were fighting. One was using random objects to beat the other. Blood was flying everywhere, staining into the rusted metal on the floors. He got on top of him and started punching and cursing at him. Blood was all over the man's arms as he punched angrily. This sight felt familiar to me, and hurt my stomach and head. I remembered Chip and I. I looked closer at the other man who was getting beaten by the other.
It was Jab.