Chapter 8: All in the Blood
I got up finally onto my crutches and crutched back to my room. Doc Hill was inside waiting for me. He said the courier had been sent and that someone would come for me in the next few days. I said thanks and sat back on the bed. I looked at my bandages closely. I bled a lot around my stomach and the doctor had to add more bandages, but blood poured from those and stained the bandages on the outside, but it was minor. Blood was also splattered on the lower part of the soft pants the doctor gave me. I looked down at my leg and saw that blood came from the back of my lower knee and my front. I guessed that the bullet went through my leg and that it had to be stitched in both places. I was weakened from the therapy and my head continued hurting, so I told Doc Hill.
"Put these in your mouth and swallow. They're probably not roofies. Probably." Doc Hill instructed me as he handed me a glass of water.
The water tasted awful and dirty, but I took my pills anyway, regardless of the water's state. I looked closer at the cup and saw that it was tinted brown. I frowned in disgust and put the cup at my bedside. I lay back down and waited for the medicine to kick in. Eventually my pain numbed and my head cleared up. I felt at peace. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. Doc Hill walked in a few minutes later. "Ah shit, they were roofies. Well it's not like he'll remember taking them, anyway. Where'd I put my lotion?"
The next few days were repetitive: wake up, therapy, medicine or roofie gamble, talk to Victoria, eat, sleep. After a few days of this, the pain in my leg felt lessened and Doc Hill told me that I should try walking without crutches because of my progress. I gave him the crutches and began to walk on the mat. I didn't need the bars, but my legs still hurt. My walking seemed semi-normal, with the occasionally limp of my leg and the slump forward of my torso when I try to straighten my back more than I should. He congratulated me and gave me back my crutches just in case. He said soon I can walk around without crutches, if I keep doing certain equally painful stretches with my body. I took my medicine and went back to sleep in case they were roofies. This time, I woke up and finally felt normal (they were still roofies). I got up from my bed and started to walk around my room without my crutches. My leg shook but not as much as before. I started to walk around the hallway, smiling at my progress. I went up to Doc Hill and he smiled at me and clapped his hands. He got up and I followed him back to my room. He opened a closet and gave me back my clothes. My clothes were even more dusty and had large blood stains on them with tears in the stitching riddling them. I put on my shirt and jeans and left my green over shirt in the room.
"You seem healthy enough to me to waltz your way around town, friend." Doc Hill smiled.
"You just make sure you come back here every day for treatment, you might be able to walk, but you ain't nearly as close to being fully healed." He warned me.
"Aright. Thanks Doc Hill, for everything that you've done." I smiled, shaking his hand.
"Don't worry about it. It's bad for you. Seriously, your heart can't handle that many processes, you've been roofied, like, fifty times this week. That's gonna fuck something up inside you."
Doc Hill gave me a bottle of painkillers or possible roofies and my pack. I put the bottle in my pack and put it on my back. I walked out of the clinic and looked up at the sky. The sun scorched my eyes like it did when I left the vault, but I adjusted faster this time. I walked around the town, holding my abdomen wounds. I finally saw how this town looked. Burnt out houses have been transformed into buildings held together by wood and scrap. People in cheap clothing all gathered around fire pits to warm themselves up. Children ran around the town, chasing each other with pre-war toys that seemed almost as dirty as they were. I wandered around, looking at what the people here did. Makeshift signs made out of random junk showed above the rebuilt buildings. I stopped walking and caught my breath, holding my arm onto a wall and resting on it. I felt weakened again and started to turn back, telling myself I wasn't ready for this. My ear caught a sound of some people talking loudly as I walked, and I couldn't help but turn. A group of people surrounded one as he talked to them all. His posture looked like he was gloating to the small crowd, raising his upper body towards the people, but still trying to be taller than everyone else. I walked over to hear what he had to say, my curiosity outweighing my tiredness.
"Yep, found this thing in the clinic, has a bunch of gadgets and contraptions on it, but it looks cool! How much you guys want for it?" The young man asked the crowd.
He held up a black large piece of metal with a yellow cloth draped around it. I looked closer at it and saw that it was Victoria's Power Fist. I glared and clenched my fist, but let go as it hurt too much.
"Wonder how much this thing would cost, what do you guys think? 50?" The man positioned the bargain. I went up to him.
"Give that back! It doesn't belong to you!" I shouted as I tried to grab it. The young men and women ran off and I tried to chase them. My leg started to hurt and I fell to the ground, slamming onto the dusty ground hard.
"Come back!" I coughed, raising my hand at them, and trying to grab them at the distance I was laying on.
Each cough hurt my chest, and I felt like blood moved up from my throat every time I coughed. I gasped for breath and finally calmed down. I pulled myself up, writhing with pain. I breathed in deeply and walked back to the clinic. I went to Victoria's room and sat down at her bed, putting my hands on my lap and panting.
"I'm sorry, Victoria. I found your Power Fist... and I lost it. I tried so hard to get it back, but I just couldn't." I sighed.
"I just… couldn't do it." I sighed.
"But I'll get it back... one day." I said, getting up to walk away.
I saw someone standing in her doorway. He was a tall, built and hairy man with a beard and red bandana. My face lit up and I limped faster to him.
"Joe! Thank God you're here, you've got to do something for me, I-"
"People saw you at Megaton talking to Chain before the town rebelled. Why were you talking to him?" He asked.
"What are-" I was interrupted by him.
"Why were you talking to him?" He said with a stern and serious voice. I sat down at Victoria's bed, and sighed as I looked at him.
"My vault is dying, that's true. I was sent out here by my Overseer to get some food for them, too. I only went out here for one reason, though. When I was young, I was born out here, but my parents didn't want this for me, so they found a vault. They were traveling to one when raiders ambushed them. Chain shot my father and killed my mother and then left us for dead. He ruined my life, my family, so I wanted revenge. I went out here to kill him. I just didn't expect this to happen..." I looked at Victoria in grief.
"This is my fault; I didn't want this to happen. She's like this because of me, and now everybody is going to die, except him. I'm sorry that I did this to you, I am. I tried to end it right there, but I just couldn't do it." I held Victoria's arm and looked at Joe.
Joe sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just that I thought... it's just that Larry is dead along with most of the security and the town has no idea what to do with Chain still on the loose. Larry's kid's been taking it rough, too. Not… not in that way." Joe told me.
"I wish I could do something about it, I wish that I went and killed him as soon as I left the vault. Instead... all this happened. I couldn't have ever predicted this." I said, looking down. Joe exhaled through his nose.
"Hey… cheer up. You helped the town too, we wouldn't have clean water without you, and now Jab is getting more respect after what you did." Joe patted my back and smiled, hurting me. I winced and then I elbowed him in the ribs. "Not you, too." Joe moaned.
"As soon as we heal, I'm going to help you guys. Things are going to change." I promised.
"That's the spirit, kid! Hey, nice beard by the way. Not as good as mine, though. Been growing this out for five years." Joe said with a smile.
"Beard?" I asked. I walked to a mirror in her room and looked at my face. A brown stubble covered my chin. I rubbed my hand against it and felt its texture. It was rough and prickly as it scraped against my fingertips. I turned back to Joe.
"Nice, huh? Anyway, I'll rent a place in town and wait for you to heal, just tell me and we can head back to Megaton." Joe nodded.
"Alright." I said.
"Glad you're all right, buddy. I am." Joe nodded. He walked out of the room and down the hall.
I went back to my room to sleep, happy that I had someone here with me, someone that I can actually have a conversation with. I continued my daily routine for the next week, making my mind set to going back to my peak condition, even if it meant unbearable pain. Eventually, my legs stiffened and became usable. Doc Hill said I was a fast healer and congratulated me again on my progress. I went to Victoria's room to talk to her. Her face was calm and she lay motionless on her bed, as she has always done for weeks now.
"I think I'm better now, Victoria." I told her one morning.
"And, uh, Joe and I will be leaving to go back to Megaton soon." I said hesitantly, acting like she could hear and understand every word coming out of my mouth.
"Please wake up, Victoria." I begged.
"Please don't be like this forever, I can't sit here and watch you like this, knowing that I did this. This feeling is…" I sighed, getting up. I couldn't put into words my experience in the Capital Wasteland thus far.
"Joe and I will come back for you, I promise." I said, shuffling out of the door, and not turning back to her.
I went outside to walk around and see what it's like with my feet working again. I saw the buildings again and everybody walking around, saddened by the state of their lives. It was a depressing sight how bad this town was that people had to steal from the ill to get themselves in higher standards. I saw the shops around town, barren from anyone willing to spend the little money they had. I felt my pack and walked inside the nearest shop. I checked my bag to see if I still had my money, so I can get something that wasn't slightly irradiated water. I had a few dollars, so I continued inside.
"Welcome to Food and Shit. How may I help you?" The bored clerk spewed her rehearsed line. "I would like… food? And… not… shit?"
I paid for some food and water and walked out, happy that I won't have to eat more bland crackers and protein supplements. I brought the box of steak and put it in my pack along with the water.
I walked outside, and started to pull out my water and drink it, wiping my lips with my arm afterwards. As I rested against the wall, I spotted a group of people walking down the street. One person strayed from the group, walking in front of them all. I saw that it was the man who stole Victoria's Power Fist. I walked up to him and grabbed him by the shirt, not thinking for a second about the men behind him.
"I told you that this doesn't belong to you, now give it back." I said, holding onto the Power Fist.
"What are you going to do about it, fall asleep on me?" The man said as he tried my patience with a grin as cheap as his clothes.
"I'm not the one who's falling asleep today." I threw him and he stumbled to the floor. We raised our fists at each other, and startled the men walking behind him.
He threw a punch with the Power Fist and I dodged it, pulling it off his hand and onto the ground as he stumbled back from his attack. I came back with a hook to his cheek with my bare hand, making him move back for a moment, recovering with an angered huff. He ran at me and charged me into the ground. He threw a punch at my face, smacking my head into the dusty ground. I kicked him off of me, and brought myself to my feet, feeling the pain in my stitches. He got a jab at my head and it knocked my head back. The weeks of staying motionless were shown in my bones when my neck popped and cracked with the punch hitting me. I kicked him in the stomach and punched him in the face as he grunted loudly. He tried to kick me with a side kick, but I caught his foot and let my elbow down on his knee. He fell to the floor, sobbing angrily as he made it his goal to take me down. He struggled upwards and punched my face and pushed me backwards. My lip started to bleed and my wounds started to burn on my body from moving. The man shouted with a bloody smile and the group of men ran from behind me, flanking me easily while I was fighting. Four men started walking towards us both and I turned to them. I knew that I couldn't take them because of my wounds, and I realized I bit off more than I could chew. I knew I needed a gun, a weapon or anything but there wasn't anything near me.
The man that I was fighting smiled at me and I remembered my past experience with Chain. I told my ego that we weren't running. I ran at the man and tackled him at the stomach, landing us into the ground. I picked up the Power Fist from the ground and started compressing the air with a lever on it as I got off of him. The men took pieces of wood off the street to use as weapons and ran at me. I readied the Power-Fist and gasped a quick breath and leaned against the wall, my lungs burning and my body in pain. The men stopped as a figure steeped out of the darkness and faced them.
It was Joe, armed with a 2x4 found off the street. He waked to one of the men and broke it over his head. I ran up to the remaining men and proceeded to fight. One man swung down a piece of wood over my head from my right. I moved back and it got caught between two buildings. I kicked the piece of wood and it broke in half, sending shards of wood into the air. I punched the man with the Power Fist and he rolled back into the ground, kicking up a dust cloud around him. Joe punched a man in the stomach and he swung a metal rod at the side of his head. Joe ducked and grabbed the man's arm and took the metal rod from him as Joe held the man's arm down. He swung it at the man and made a loud noise as it clanked against his head, echoing the attack at the rod's hollow center. The man fell over and grabbed his head in pain as Joe held the ringing metal pole, and waked away. I ran to a man who pulled out a knife at me and started to jab at me. I moved back as Joe called to me. "Watch the dick-head here!" he shouted as threw the metal rod at the attacker's head. Blood flew from his mouth and he barreled into a wall and slumped against it. "Pole beats knife, douche-cheese." Joe taunted him.
"Hey!" A man screamed loudly at us.
Joe and I turned around to see the man who stole Victoria's gauntlet aiming a small gun at me. I put my hands up as the man wiped blood from his cheek, squinting his eye at me and raising the pistol. Joe quickly pulled out a pistol from his pocket and shot the man in the chest. The man fell over and pulled the trigger on his gun before he hit the ground. The bullet flew off into a wall, shooting out the dust trapped in the hard wall. I caught my breath and looked at Joe.