Waste land chapter two
What felt like hours later I finally reached the gates of megaton, all my muscles screaming in protest with every step. I looked up at the ever vigilant stolkom and he opened the gate for me not seeming to care that I was carrying an unconscious woman over my shoulders. Even if he cared I am not sure he would have come down to investigate, in the six months I lived in megaton I have only seen him off his perch twice. The man ate, sleep, pissed and shit up there. He only every came down to visit Nova, a local redheaded prostitute who worked in bar for a sleazy man named moriarty, she was very popular with the towns men. . I made my way down to doc Churches place, the guy was kind of an ass but he had a soft spot for me because I helped him in his clinic from time to time. Hopefully I was enough in his good books that he would help me. I banged on his door "hey doc open up" I shouted.
"Who in the hell is calling me this late at night you better me missing a damn arm" He open the door and say me "Oh it's you" he said flatly.
"Hello to you to doc, are you going to help me out or what" I replied.
"Do you know what time it is" Doc church said
"I get it, I interrupted your beauty sleep but raiders do not particularly care what time of day it is when they try and kill you." I said exasperated, I knew he was going to let me in and he was just on power trip. "Come on let me in I am bleeding and this girl is not getting any lighter."
Doc Church opened the door and step back "alright come on in set the girl on the couch."
The doctor's clinic was simply little building with only three rooms and medical equipment lad out everywhere. He had the tools and know how to fix broken bones heal radiation poison and patch up people after a gun fight. "She is severely dehydrated can you get an IV and some fluids in her?" I asked as Doc Church starting looking over her, checking her pulse and her forehead for her temperature.
"I can, but what are you going to give me in return." He said
"Well I got some knifes, very sharp" I said. He just grunted so I took that as a no. "Alright what about some pain meds?"
"Oh no you are not going to fool me with expired medicine, sell that garbage elsewhere" He said
"Fine" I said "how about this" and I pulled out the only thing I had of worth, the stimpak.
"Now you are talking my language son give it here" he said. I reluctantly handed it over and the Doc set to work setting up the IV.
"I am also going to take some needle and thread for the whole in my hand" I said
"That's fine you know where they are now stop bothering me I am working here" he said
Damn right its fine I thought. A Stimpak for an IV bag and stitches, highway robbery but then, I never was that great at bartering. I wondered to the next room to leave doc alone to his work and opened a draw to a cabinet to pull out a tiny needle and thread. Once I threaded the needle I undid the bandage on my hand to look at the damage. It didn't look to bad but it was bleeding badly and I did not have that good of dexterity with the hand. I took a bottle of alcohol and purred some of it on my hand and the needle to try and sterilize everything, after all risk of infection was always high out in the waste. I took in a deep breath, here comes the sucky part, and poked the needle through the skin and began to stich up my hand. I flipped my hand over and got to work on the other side of my hand, god why did this hurt more when you do it yourself.
By the time I had finished with my hand the doctor had finished looking over the woman and came in to the room I was sitting in. He took my cut hand and examined it checking both sides before grunting his approval. "Some good handy work you got there. Almost as good as mine." He said earnestly.
"Thanks doc, How is she is?" I asked nodding to the room were the woman lay asleep.
"She is fine, like you said just some dehydration and maybe a little shock to, she will be ready to move out tomorrow. She come from the same vault as you and that other guy? Do you know her?" He asked
Doc church was not one for small talk so I guess he was actually curious "Yeah she came from the same vault but I do not know her, seems vaguely familiar that's it" I answered. I was too tired to say anything else even if I wanted to.
The doc stood up and said "you need to get some rest you can crash her till she wakes than I am kicking you both out."
"Thanks doc you always had a soft spot for me" I said sleepily.
"What can I say, I Like a patient that can take care of themselves." He said pointing to my hand. "I get paid for nothing and I get to work on people I actually like." He laughed and went into his back room and closed the door. I was so tired that I feel asleep in the chair.
I awoke with a start as the door to the shack flew open. I jumped to my feet but relaxed slightly as I saw who the intruder was, it was the town sheriff of shorts, a tall middle aged black man. He was a fair man that cared about the town and was good with the rifle he carried. He was with a man who I did not recognize and between them was another man who was so badly mutilated I wouldn't have recognized him even if I did. The doctor came charging out of his room looking to kill the people who had awaken him instead of healing.
"You got patients" I said quickly. Doctor church say the bloody pile that passed for a human and looked at me and pointed to the girl and said "get her out of here I am going to need all the room I can get for this one."
I ran to woman and removed the IV and scooped her up in my arms and made my way out the door. On the way out the door I got some of the conversation between the three men.
"The bunker was there" said the man I did not know "but there were ghouls everywhere could not get past them."
"Damn, we really needed those supplies I am not sure how much my stores will last even with the trade caravans." Said Doc Church.
"Just relax Doctor one problem at a time" Said Lucas Simms.
He voice really does have a calming soothing tone to it I thought as the door of hut closed and drowned out the noise. It was still dark outside and I hurried to my house. I owned a small little house in megaton, it was the second floor of a building and it was only two rooms but it was enough and it was home. A person could not survive out in waste fully exposed for long without going crazy. Everything out there was looking to kill you from the people to the irradiated animals, sometimes easily ten times their normal size. If you were able to survive all that then there was the actual wasteland itself. In the day it was blistering hot and at night it was freezing cold, clean food and water were hard to find. Inside walls of megaton was shelter and clean water and people decent enough to not cut your throat for your supplies or just for shits and giggles. I had heard people talk of other towns just as rivet city but I had not seen anything as good as megaton so far.
I climbed up the stairs to my apartment and entered. "Home sweet home" I muttered. It was a modest home at best. The main room had a fridge that only worked if I had a fission battery which I did, and luckily I had a couple and they lasted a very long time. Also in the room was a couple a set of lockers and a dresser were I kept most of the things I own. I moved through the room to the bedroom which had as you can cause a bed and just a nightstand. I set the woman on the bed and went back into the other, a living room of sorts, and walked to over to the dresser and flicked on the lamp which was the only source of light. I had a wash basin and mirror on the dresser and I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
I had blue eyes that looked very tired and my hair which was usually blond curly was flattened due to the dirt and grease, hey it was not easy to find a shower and clean your hair. I had a little beard growing in due to the fact that had not bothered to shave in months. My face was also covered in dirt and blood. No wondered the lady screamed when she saw me, I looked like a murdering psycho path. I splashed some water my face and washed off some of dried blood and crusted on dirt. I pulled out my knife and started to shave my face when I heard movement in the other room and looked to see the woman standing there looking at me. She did not look scared to see me and color had returned to her face.
"Hey" she said looking at me, she was picking at her hands not sure what to do with them. Her voice was soft and had a slightly raspy quality to it.
"Hey" I said. I had questions I wanted to ask her and I am sure she did too but everything felt a little awkward "how umm how are you feeling" I asked
"I'm fine, thank you for your help I'm not sure what would have happened if you had not shown up" she seemed to shutter a little bit thinking about it.
Yeah no problem. So what's your name? Where you from?" I Asked and looking back at the mirror to shave my face. I felt it better not to tell her they would have rapped her and killed her, if she was lucky. If she was unlucky they would have raped her and kept her around as a toy to torture and rape at their leisure until they got bored or she simply died from it all.
"Madison Miller, some people like to call me M&M for sort" she said. I stopped to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "I know stupid right and I'm from a vault an underground bunker of sorts. What about you?"
"My name is Robert Clay" I said ignoring were I had come from and said instead I asked "why did you leave the bunker? Seems like a perfect place to live."
"Oh" she gave a long pause thinking of what to say next. She did not trust me, or at least not enough to give away too much details of her home. She was smart and would be hard to get information from. "The overseer asked me and three others too scout out the surroundings." Her eye's got wide. "The others, they got caught by those people." She said slightly panicking "Please help me."