In the morning, Celia woke when a ray of light fell across her eyes. She pried her fingers open, having clenched her fists in her sleep, and held them up to the sun, waiting for them to thaw. It didn't take long for the wastes to warm up.
A wave of gold swept across the land, transforming the darkness into a pleasant morning. She sat in the car until the sun had risen completely. Inside the Vault, she'd never had the chance to see the sun like it was today, flying up into the sky like some sort of red-hot balloon. She had felt as lonely, before. She didn't much care for the company the Vault offered.
The whole wide world was open to her now, but she felt a sudden strong desire to run back to the Vault. The long corridors lit by Simu-Sun, the hiding spots she'd discovered deep in the closets of her brother's married living quarters, even the unused storage rooms that she would set her fairy kingdoms and space adventures in, that was her world. Not this limitless waste, with real monsters and people she didn't have to make up to have a conversation with.
She'd ruled the roost in the lower levels of the Vault, while she was supposed to be at school and Ed and Ann had been working. She missed her mother, who had died when she was four.
The fires had claimed so many lives... Celia changed her mind. She'd rather not be back there.
Her father had been the very first to leave the Vault, almost nineteen years earlier. He'd never returned. All she knew of him was family photos and what Ed bothered to answer when she asked. It wasn't much. Ed didn't think very highly of Cameron Landis. ...Even the family records were sparing of his person. Celia felt a funny sort of kinship to the black sheep reputation that she seemed to share with him. Apples and trees, she guessed.
She resolved that she wouldn't die in the wastes, like he had. Like Bobby Perkins had, after him. She might be alone now, and a loner by choice, but she didn't need to rely on anyone to stay alive. She was stubborn. She could make it.
The sun had moved higher before she wiggled out of the car and stepped into the bog it was stuck into. Immediately, she covered her mouth and gagged at the smell. Oh, it was like someone took a dead thing and mixed it in a bubbling pot with stinky socks and armpit hair. She paused, and the smell faded. It must be in the ground, when I step, she thought.
She trod off to the edge of the bog and listened to the squelching of her boots. Something painful suddenly hit her leg, and she stumbled forward.
Looking back, she saw two mutated flies the size of someone's head, projectiles flying from their rears at her. She yelped, covered her head, and ran up to the road, away from them. Her leg stung fiercely, swelling up to twice its size, but she did not stop. If there were more of those things out there, with more horrible defenses, she did not want to find them.
The gate guard let her in, chuckling. "Ronnie said you wouldn't be back," he told her. "Man, I owe him five caps."
Celia ignored him, pushed her hair out of her eyes, and walked off to ask Dr. Jen about the fly things. She tripped on the pieces of asphalt and gravel that lay haphazard in the streets, her leg still sounding off like an alarm.
"Dr. Jen?" she asked, pushing open the clinic door. The clinic was mostly intact, with an operating room, office room, and open area where patients were seen. Dr. Jen stuck her head out of the office and waved Celia into it.
"Coffee?" she asked. Celia accepted a cup and drank, but made a face.
"Is it, really?" she asked, frowning.
"It's similar, according to Lionel," Jen said. She turned her eyes, covered with big glasses, onto the girl. "What's up?"
"Uh, I ran into some kind of fly, outside the gates..."
"Bloatfly stings are not poisonous," Jen said. "They just hurt like hell. Did you spend all night out there? Calhoun was looking for you here."
"In a car by the road," Celia answered. "I was trying to give Lionel some advice on dealing with Calhoun."
Jen laughed. "He'd listen to advice just as well as an Brahmin would understand words," she said. "I admire your stubbornness, though. Keep it up."
"He had a visitor, I guess," Celia told her. "Sounded like a woman, but with that ghoul-sound in the throat?"
"Well!" Jen threw her hands up. "Lilian is back."
The girl looked up at the doctor. "Who is Lilian? Lionel mentioned her, when I first met him. But he didn't seem to want to talk about her."
"He wouldn't, really," Jen said, refilling her own cup, then Celia's. "He's a very private person. Lionel and Lilian have a strange relationship. He keeps her safe, feeds her, keeps her company. She keeps him from going feral." A smile played across the woman's face. "She's irritating, sometimes, but I think you'll like her."
Celia brooded over her cup. "...What is this feral thing? Lionel said something about it, but... not much."
Jen sighed, crossed her legs, and sat back in her chair. She didn't speak for a moment or two, looking at her fingernails in thought. "When a ghoul absorbs too much radiation," she began, "they begin to change even more. It's―well―they lose their minds, and become like animals. Feral ghouls are dangerous and are shot on sight." She picked up her cup, blew on the liquid inside. "No one really know how it all works. Lionel is terrified of going feral."
Celia snorted. "He doesn't have much love for ants, either."
"That's more prudence than any fear." Jen looked at her pointedly. "You should be mindful of that."
"...Is Lilian a ghoul, too?" Celia asked, trying to get back to the subject.
Jen nodded. "Much, much younger than him. She used to be the mayor's sister here in town. About ten years ago, she started the change, and Mayor Harper kicked her out of town. Lionel took her in, when I asked him to." She grimaced. "We kicked Harper out, too, after everyone got sick of him and his crony Swanton taking advantage of us."
"Do people really hate ghouls like that?"
"People hate for all kinds of reasons, Celia. Don't let that affect your judgement of ghouls in general, or either of our local ones. Both are good people, even if some don't think they qualify."
Celia thought about it for a moment. "I don't think I'd mind being a ghoul," she said, looking down at her cup. "If people would let me be."
"Don't wish for it," Jen said. "It's painful in both physical and emotional aspects, and you can't go back. Lilian was so distraught when she wasn't allowed into town, I thought she might try to kill herself." She looked into the air, darkly.
Celia drained her cup, thanked the doctor, and got ready to leave. "Wait," Jen stopped her at the door. "Before you leave. Don't spend another night outside of town, okay? It's more dangerous than you realize."
"Yes, ma'am," she said, subdued. She gave the doctor a wave and went "home" to the common house.