Chapter 7: Again, Again
I closed my eyes and cover my head from the vortex. I opened my eyes and I was in a room with people surrounding me. I was lying down at a table from the looks of it. I looked towards my body and looked at it, and then felt all the pain of the battle.
"Ah crap, nurse, I don't think his eyes are supposed to be open." A man said nervously. I screamed and tried to breathe in air at the same time. "Oh, he's definitely not supposed to be making that sound!" The man's voice said in alarm.I felt like I was being torn to shreds with knives. A person held me down and told me to stay still. The pain was so excruciating that I felt that I had to move. I continued to scream until I was out of breath. My head was dizzy and I felt I was going to pass out. I looked at my body again as the room spun and my I panted. Blood poured from my stomach and I couldn't feel my leg. I let my head fall back and I blacked out again. "Well that was weird. Care to get some coffee?" The voice muttered. I opened my eyes and saw a man studying me with a ophthalmoscope. I felt tired and hurt, but not as much as before. I looked at the man.
"Ah, you're finally awake! Another fine job by Doc Hill!" The man exclaimed.
"Where am I?" I asked him, my throat hurting and my voice as raspy as Jab's.
"You're in my office in Springvale; your friend brought you here after some nasty fight in Megaton." He told me.
"Springvale?" Once again, confusion was all around me.
"Yep, not too far from Megaton. You're other friend is here, too by the way. A looker, I must say." The man smiled and winked.
"I really hope you didn't take care of her." I muttered.
"I need to see them now." I said, trying to get up. My abdomen ached and I grabbed my wound. I was shirtless and a long bandage covered my lower torso.
"You're not going to be doing anything with your wounds. It's a miracle that you're living. A miracle by me, Doc Hill!" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, I figured out your name, I get it." I said, not amused by his attitude, figuring I just came from being shot by the man that ruined my life.
"You took two bullets in the stomach and one in the leg; you need some time to heal and some medical therapy." He told me.
"I don't need anything right now; I just need to talk to my friends." I said, becoming annoyed by him.
"Ooh, looks like you need more than just medical therapy it seems. Only one of your friends is here, and she's hurt still. Took a nasty blast from a grenade. Almost made her unattractive, but my standards are low, I guess. That and I'm a bless-ed healer." He said, shaking his head.
"I wish I could punch you." I said weakly.
I sighed out painfully and held my stomach wounds. "Is she okay?" I asked.
"She's living, if that's what you mean. But conscious? Nope. Tried slapping her awake, but that just gave me a raging b—"
"Great, so they dumped us here to die then, is that it?" I said, making it clear I was aggravated.
"Sorry friend, but you and your friend have been out for a while now. It's been a few weeks." He said.
"I've been here for weeks?!" I shouted. I tried to get off of the table but my leg felt like I was mutilated at my appendages. I yelped and fell to the floor, keeping my mouth wide open and trying not to scream. Doc Hill picked me up.
"As hilarious as that was to witness, my medical opinion states that there's nothing you can do now with those wounds, just sit here and let them heal."
"Can I at least walk around?" I asked.
"Fine, but don't do anything extreme, like jumping jacks or paragliding, you don't want to break your stitches. To be honest, I don't want you to break your stitches, I made a little smiley face out of them and you'll just ruin it." He said. He gave me some crutches and opened the door.
"I'll send a courier to tell your friend you're awake." Doc Hill informed me.
"Thanks. And thanks for helping me, Doc." I said, slightly regretting the words.
"Not a problem. Not like I get paid in pussy for this job." He said quietly.
"Huh?" I asked him.
"Have a wonderful adventure!" He said loudly as he waved me away.
I crutched outside my room into the hallway. It felt natural using these crutches, because I used to hurt my legs all the time when I was little. I used to play in the atrium of the vault every day, running around it or playing tag with the other kids. Remembering my life in the vault made me hate its lies even more. I moved down the hallway and peered into every room, seeing the various patients. Doc Hill was right, I was lucky. Almost every patient looked as if they were about to die. Eventually I found Victoria's room, where she laid in a bed, with various medicines around her. I sat in her bed and looked at her. Her face still had cuts and dirt around it. The explosion looked like it tore away at her back, because she had bandages all around her torso, but I didn't see any blood. The bandages were around her like a jacket, and looked as if a doctor had put more on after the original. I noticed a bottle of lotion next to her on a nightstand. I raised an eyebrow at it. I noticed that her Power Fist was missing, and not anywhere on her bed. I got up and searched the room, trying to find the weapon to give her at least some sentimental value if she ever wakes up. Every crutch around her room made me feel like I was being shot again and again. Eventually, I gave up and went back to Doc Hill, who was looking at my medical clipboard.
"Have you seen my friend's gauntlet? She had it on her during the battle." I asked him.
"I put it on the desk next to her after I was done-ah… probably hoodlums took it." He said to me.
"Yeah… hoodlums." I said, looking at the room across from us, where a man had an amputation.
"So, how are your wounds?" He asked me.
"Well, they're still wounds." I said sarcastically, confused and a little annoyed by the question.
"HAHAHAAHHAAAAAH!" Doc Hill burst out a laughter so cackling and dry it made me cringe.
"We'll start your therapy tomorrow, when you can rest on your wounds. Keep up that humor, I almost peed mysel—and I peed a little bit." Doc Hill said as he quickly and awkwardly left the room with a clipboard in hand.
"Alright." I said, sitting back down at my bed.
I lay down in the bed. I thought about my vision. Was it a vision, or was I just dreaming? Was that woman my mother? If she was, why did she tell me to forget about Chain? I need Joe to get here to get the vault its food before they run out, but I also need to kill Chain before he rallies more raiders and takes over the town again. Now I can't do anything about it when I'm in here. I closed my eyes and waited for me to go to sleep; waiting hours trying to find a position that didn't make my body feel like it was on fire. I woke up and got up from the bed. I grabbed my crutches and walked down the hallway. I stopped at Victoria's room and looked inside. I frowned at her state of being and kept walking until I got to the front desk. I saw Doc Hill writing and went up to him.
"Good morning! Ready to start your therapy?" Doc Hill asked.
"Yeah, sure." I said tiredly.
We went to a room in the clinic that was open with different types of equipment. Doc Hill walked me over to a part of the room with a mat on the floor and rails above it. He told me to walk without my crutches and use the rails to balance myself. I gave him my crutches and grabbed the rails. My leg ached and I groaned and fell over onto the mat. The mat smelled horrible so I scrambled up onto the rail and used my left leg to pull myself to my feet. I continued to walk, despite the agonizing pain. My legs started to shake and sweat rolled past my cheek. I started to breathe heavily and put all my weight on my arms. I stopped walking to catch my breath, but my arms gave out and I fell onto the mat again. I moaned and stayed on the mat. "Stand up, you're not—you're not supposed to be on the ground, you know." Doc Hill told me. I caught my breath and stood back up. I finally made it to the end of the railing and turned back to him. He told me to turn around and come back to him. By body screamed for rest as I continued to move across the rails, my arms shaking and my face strained as I made angry faces, as if they would help remove my pain. "Stop doing that, that's weird." The Doctor said with a judging face. This pattern of moving, falling and getting up continued for the next 30 minutes. Doc Hill finally handed back my crutches and said I'm making progress. I didn't respond to him and crutched back to my room. I sat back to on my bed and grabbed my wounds, hoping to stop the pain. Eventually I adapted to them and the pain subsided. I lay down to take another harsh nap.
I woke up and got on my crutches and moved to Victoria's room. I sat on her bed and looked at her. I felt awful about what happened, and wished she can get back up. I heard that people can hear you when you're like this, so I started to talk to her.
"Hey, Victoria..." I sighed, looking to her.
"I'm guessing we won that fight, since we're both here, huh?" I sighed and smile when I looked at her face.
Her face was still and she breathed easily. I waited for a moment, substituting her breathing as a way of talking.
"Look, I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I don't care. I need to tall someone about this; I don't even care if they're unconscious." I said tiredly.
"Come out the closet, come out the closet…" Doc Hill muttered form the doorway in anticipation. I turned around to him and he ran away like a little girl.
I mustered up enough courage and looked down with my eyes closed, saying "I didn't leave my vault to get food for my people or to kill Chain."
"I left because I don't belong there." I said, looking up at the wall.
"I needed to be different so badly that I went out here and did this. I wanted to be different, I wanted to think differently like my friend Rachel. The truth is I'm so adjusted to the vault, that I'm still scared of leaving it now. It would have been different if Rachel left. She wanted this more than I did."
"I did this to you; I'm the reason why you're like this. I can't think the way you think; I can't be 'Wasteland savvy'." I expressed.
No response, as was regular by now.
"I'm sorry, for what it's worth, and I wish it were me here, then maybe you can just go home and forget about meeting me. That would be better than this..." I said, looking at her hurt body and face.
"Well, that's it for now, Victoria. I'll see you tomorrow." I said, trying to get up.