This is off from my semi-usual schedule but I've had this thing sitting here for about... a month I should think, anyways, I've really wanted to get this out there so... here you go, enjoy.
When I reached the hole I pulled myself through, jagged pieces of wood and nails cutting into my skin and drawing small beads of blood onto my chest. Once I was free from it I stood up, looked around the shadow covered corner and saw that they were once again arguing about who should check to see if I was dead. Eventually one apparently got bored and tossed a belt of grenades into the house, causing me to dash away and take cover behind a rock.
The explosion shook my teeth and my ears to ring, those were my chief concerns until I noticed the large splinter buried in my heel, nearly fainting at the sight of the wound. It was buried in where I think my Achilles tendon used to be. More than likely it was torn and I would never be able to use it properly again unless I got immediate medical reconstruction which was unlikely.
See, in the Vault or Pre-War an injury like this would be nothing, head to the hospital, get surgery, and four days later you'd be running and jumping strong as ever. But out here, in the Wasteland, the only things that could help me now were either an Auto-Doc or a highly skilled and trained doctor with a replacement tendon that was the exact right length and several Super-Stimpaks ready. But all I had were a few stims and painkillers. It'd have to do. I pulled the partially used pen of Med-X from my pack and injected it into my leg before grasping the chunk of wood and pulling.
"Mmf..." I kept myself from screaming by biting my lip as a searing pain shot through my leg but I kept pushing through the pain. Eventually I must've gotten the wood out as I was sitting with a slowly, but steadily, growing pool of blood in no time.
Not caring about bullet fragments that I could pull from my leg afterwards I quickly checked the wound to see if any slivers remained and pulled a Stimpak from my belt before pushing the pressure sensitive needle into my heel and I sighed as it began knitting my flesh together. Wrapping the new wound in white cloth I checked the one on my thigh to find it mostly healed. I rewrapped it in the same, now rather dirty, bandage and stood up behind the rock, testing my weight on the leg once again to find that it would not support my weight.
Now certain that I had torn my Achilles I grabbed a long board and broke it against the rock and taped it into a hasty splint around my leg. Grabbing a broken branch off to my right I tore off a long strip of fabric from my shirt under the jumpsuit and turned it into a pad on the jagged end of the stick.
Checking on the raiders I saw that they were knocked unconscious, some dead from fragmentation piercing their chest, others from the blast, and I limped over there with my improvised crutch.
I pulled my pistol from my side and coldly put a round in their heads before searching them and coming up with two grenades, another handful of 10mm bullets, three assault rifles, eight rusty magazines of 5.56 rounds, a bottle of vodka, three switch blades, a claw hammer, a set of brass knuckles, two Shanxi Type-17 pistols, one Stimpak, assorted drugs, and several handfuls of Nuka-Cola bottle caps. Normally I'd leave them but if everyone's carrying them they must be important.
Taking all but the hammer I stood up from the last corpse before seeing a dirty piece of paper sticking out from his chest piece. I bent over and picked it up to see a crude map of what I assumed was the area. opening the piece of paper I saw that there was a gray blob named Megaton located slightly Southeast of an area labeled 'Springvale' and 'Home'. I looked around to see large billboard that said, in broken letters, SPRINGVALE SCHOOL. Taking note of something titled VAULT and below that: REMEMBER TO GET MORE EXPLOSIVES DIPSHITS! I snorted and thought of them blowing through the vault door. That thing was a foot and-a-half thick and made of a steel-titanium mix. They'd have more luck finding a working Auto-Doc than blowing through the door with conventional explosives.
Putting the map away I took the approximate location of the town and started limping towards it.
An hour later I came across what looked like a heap of scrap metal jumbled together with three men camped around a fire outside. I wiped the pain induced sweat from my forehead, drew my pistol and pointed it at the ground and to my left, and shouted out.
"Hey!" I started hobbling slightly faster towards them and one pulled an assault rifle from his back, putting his finger on the trigger. Before I could react he fired but not before someone wearing an eyepatch pushed the barrel upwards, sending a bullet that was probably meant for my heart into the fleshy part of my shoulder. I was knocked to the ground by the unexpected blow and held my shoulder tightly. This shit hurts. Not even out here for a day and already I've sustained three different relatively serious injuries, one of which was from the Vault. Today was just not my day.
As I squirmed in the dust someone rushed up to me and probed the wound before sighing in relief.
"It went through and through. You're damn lucky that it's not lodged in there otherwise you'd be paying a whole lot more. Trust me." A male voice with a slightly annoyed tone said.
"What do you mean 'a whole lot more'?!" Asked a gruff and incredulous voice.
"You're the one that shot him! You think that a Vaulty is going to have enough caps to pay the Doc?"
I quickly adjusted to the pain while he was talking and opened my eyes. Pushing my self up on my good arm I took one look at it and knew that I'd need to have someone who was medically trained to see if it chipped any bones. Like he said, it went through and through and caused some ringing in my ears but that'd subside in a little bit so I wasn't worried.
I stood up and pulled another clean bandage and some tape from my pack, attempting to wrap it with one hand until the man wearing an eyepatch, who had been the one to check on me, crouched down to help me out while what must have been doors screeched open to reveal a black man wearing a weathered and sleeveless duster and cowboy hat to match.
"What in the hell was with the gunfire?" He took one look at the assault rifle in the man's hands and the bullet wound in my shoulder and said, "Damnit, how many times have I told you to not fire without making sure that they mean you harm? This is your last warning. Next time something like this happens, you're out on your asses and not coming back." His tone suggested that he would throw them out himself if need be so the man just nodded and went back to sitting on a slightly rusted chair that looked uncomfortable. I picked my improvised crutch up from the ground and a man in a dirty two piece suit came up to me and held out three Stimpaks.
"I do apologize for my companions... actions. He is quite excitable, but don't worry. Your expenses will come out of his next paycheck and these should cover it."
"No fucking shit." I grabbed the Stimpaks in the man's hand and limped my way over to the guy sitting in his chair, reaching into my back pack as I went.
"Hey." I said and he turned to me, a scowl on his face that changed to shock as I punched him in the face with my good arm and a set of brass knuckles, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. I shook my fist and slipped the weapon into a pocket on my jumpsuit, smiling at the very satisfying crack his nose made.