Recoil
"We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death." - Nathaniel Hawthorne
So if this is what heaven, hell, or limbo looks like. It's Bullshit! Absolutely no feature at all! It's all pitch black! I understand, that there is different beliefs of what happens after you die, (or at least there used to be) but this does not fit any description to ANY of such beliefs. Am I supposed to look and listen to total nothingness forever?!
I'm quite certain I'm dead, I feel nothing at all. I never really attended to the Vault's church very often, but come on. I died trying to save the people in my Vault, don't I get something a little better than total nothingness?! I felt ripped off... Like I just suckered into a cheating bargain...Wait...I felt?
Oh boy. What's going on now? Hey is that pain? I missed that fella...Ow... Not so much anymore. Suddenly the total nothingness became a light, the light showed colors, then it showed figures, then it became blurriness. I soon heard muffled words become more clear. A voice I heard sounded old and tired, but bold and ardent. I raised my head and my body to see the owner of that voice.
"Easy! Easy now! Just relax boy, keep your head down."
He gently pushed my head down on a soft cushion with his wrinkly hands. I grunted as I felt a spear of pain hit the left side of my body. I opened my eyes again, seeing an old man finishing some stitches on my side.
"Heh heh, you know this ain't as bad as stitching your ass"
I thought this man was going to kill me, why did he save me? My ass feels numb...
"Your ass was at least easier, the bullet came right out your leg. The second bullet was wedged into your flesh. This vest of your's saved your life, it slowed down the bullet before it hit your lung."
Well, I am at least grateful for his deed, I wish i could speak but I was too busy wincing at the pain I was getting from my side. He left my side walking to a different direction, I turned my head around. The sun was nearly gone, I could partially see it on the horizon. We were camped several yards away from the road, but I wasn't sure if we were at the same area where I went unconscious.
The old man came back with a small white bottle container in his hand.
"Here son, take some of these. This will ease the pain for you, open up"
I hesitated, but I opened my mouth for him to put 2 white capsules. I swallowed them, and in several seconds I felt...Really good actually. I feel great! I tried to pulling myself up, then somehow forgotten that my thigh was damaged, and quickly fell. The old man caught me before I could fall, he seems really strong carrying almost my whole weight for an old man.
"Heh heh, don't get too ahead of yourself boy. Here, why don't you just try to set up first."
He placed me next to a large boulder, to which I sat up next to.
"Those meds really help huh, can you talk?" he said.
I opened my mouth to speak.
"Yeah... I can, thanks."
"How are you feeling?" he said.
"Very numb, though I can still feel pain on my side. It stings bad..."
"Well, you're just gonna have to tolerate it, I can't give you more of those meds I gave. you'll get hooked on 'em too easily."
"What kind of meds are those?"
He showed me the white container "What? These? They're UltraStims. You... Never heard of them?
I nodded my head.
"You weren't out that Vault that long haven't you? I noticed your jumpsuit has those Iconic yellow font numbers. I haven't seen a Dweller in years." he said.
"There were others?" I said, astonishingly.
"Several, from what I hear. In my younger years, I met a Dweller that traveled here from way up north, we teamed up for a while. He saved my skin more times than I could count."
"I asked him once, why couldn't he just go home. He told me that he was exiled from his Vault." He continued.
Exiled?
"Why was he exiled?" I asked
"He never told me about that, He never really told much about himself other than he was from a vault and exiled."
In my Vault, we have a Jail that holds anyone who disturbs the peace, but we would never cast anyone out no matter how much of a danger they are. I thought this was standard to every Vault, why would that Vault cast out a resident?
Later, a man carrying a long rifle with a scope behind his back emerged from the dark, dead forest. A caucasian man wearing rugged pants and a leather jacket with only one sleeve in place. The jacket he wore looked very modified, it was padded with metal bits and had a pauldron covering the left side of his shoulder.
When he saw me, he stopped on his tracks for a second, then continued to walk toward the camp.
"I think we're in the clear, the rest of the guys are doing another patrol around perimeter." he said.
"That's good to know, our guest has waken up if you haven't noticed" said the old man.
The armored man looked very fit, he had brown reddish hair, and carried another kind of pistol I never seen in his holster. Judging by the size of the rifle he's carrying, it looks like it was meant for long range.
"Are you the one that shot me?" I asked him, I didn't want to tick him off, but seeing as this whole thing was some sort of accident I don't think he would be hostile to me unless I proved a threat.
He sat down and began rubbing his legs and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah, I shot you. When Jas called out to me that you weren't a raider, I knew I fucked up there. Sorry about that."
"Your method of shooting people before finding out if they're a danger is going to give our merchant caravan a bad name, Nage." said the old man.
"Hey! he was staring down you guys, and had his shotgun drawn out. I figured he was a threat." he argued.
"In any case, I think we're lucky we haven't run into a band of raiders. I'm sorry for shooting you. I'll make up for it." he continued.
In my mind, I accepted his apology, but kept silent for a moment. If he now owes me, I wonder how far will he be willing to go to pay for his accident? I wanted to change the subject.
"Who's Jas?" I asked
"That ought to be me." Said the old man.
"And you?" I asked the armored man.
"Name's Nage." he answered. "And who are you?" he then asked.
Nage and Jas seemed like odd names to me, I guess names up here in the surface aren't as recycled as they are in the Vault.
"Ken" I simply said.
"When I took a look at you a while ago, I noticed that jumpsuit you're wearing and that computer thing on your wrist. You're from one of them Vaults aren't you?"
I hesitated at first, be it seemed obvious I was from a Vault, the jumpsuit and whatnot.
"Y-Yeah... I came from one of those vaults, I've only been out for a day and I'm already quite injured."
Nage chuckled a bit, "Wow, you must have quite a day huh? So why did you leave the Vault? Got exiled like they did to Jas's Vault buddy?"
"N-No, the vault had some... Internal issues, and I simply had to leave a-and-." I said.
"No need to tell me any further, I ain't interrogating you here." he said.
A moment later a wandering question came to my head. "Are there many people out here? In this world, I mean" I asked.
"Hmph, too many people if you ask me." Said Nage.
"Yeah there are quite a number of people still living up here, however a majority of them are hostile and murderous. Don't let that bring you down though... There are several settlements throughout the wasteland that are friendly, whether for caps or simply for a good face." said Jas. He then stood up from the camp fire, stretched his arms out and let out a good yawn.
"This old sack of meat is worn out. I'm headin' to bed, Nage keep first watch." Jas then walked toward a tent and went inside to sleep.
"Caps?" I asked.
"We can explain that tomorrow, You should be getting some rest too." said Nage. He went over to me and pulled my left arm over his shoulder, helping me get to a tent. He suddenly let out a little chuckle.
"You know... You're lucky to be alive, something about you is different" he said.
I was rather, freaked out by this. "What?" was the only response I gave.
"A totally still target, with not just one but two shots, and you're alive. One of those bullets should have hit your heart..."
We entered the tent and helped me lie down on my makeshift bedding, but before he left the tent he said.
..And I never miss.