We came to an abrupt halt about 15 feet in front of a makeshift guard tower. I almost expected to see a rough chalk outline of yours truly waiting to be inspected for clues. I breathed a sigh of relief to be wrong in this case.
"Here's where you popped out of thin air, dead as the proverbial door nail." Nick said as he pointed to the ground in front of us.
I knelt down and placed my palms on the spot. Probably just wishful thinking, but I was hoping to get even a tiny flash of memory about the car crash. The idea that this was my version of the afterlife was becoming more plausible by the second. Now there's a horrifying thought if I've ever had one.
Piper and Nick remained silent while they gave me the time I needed to process what I was seeing.
"This isn't helping much. I vaguely remember hearing someone say something about life flight and getting me to safety. They wore medic gear but it had a version of the Vitruvian man instead of that caduceus thing I usually see. That's about it. It's all black after that." I mumbled.
Nick seemed to make a mental note of my description. "So we've got suspicious medical personnel at the scene of your accident. You sure nothing else comes to mind?" he asked.
I looked directly into his glowing eyes, raised an eyebrow, and reminded him that I had likely died at that point. The exhaustion from my seizure was swiftly overtaking me.
"Can we find me a spot to collapse in for a few hours? I'm too tired to go on." I asked.
"I've gotta get back to Nat. And get started on tomorrow's issue of Publick Occurrences. Interview. Don't forget, Zombie." said Piper as she headed back the way we came.
Nick scrutinized me and seemed to realize just how much my eye lids were sagging by then.
"Why don't you come back to the agency with me? I don't actually sleep so my bed is free. Or at least it is for the recently reanimated." he said while firmly taking my arm in case I did collapse. I was too worn out to argue with the man.
After we were safely ensconced in his office again, I kicked off my boots and stretched out on his bed. I laid my arms over my face, trying to block out both the light and the view of this wholly unbelievable situation. I heard the familiar click of a desk lamp being turned off. Some things never change I guess. At least everything sounded like my world so far.
I lifted my arm just enough to see the golden glow of Nick's eyes coming towards me in the dark. "Hey, Nick? Is this all real? Like really real?" I whispered as he drew near.
The springs creaked as he sat on the edge of the bed. "Afraid so, lovely lady. I don't have answers right now, but I do have some ideas. Get some sleep." he said, giving my leg a gentle pat. Before I could say another word, exhaustion took me.
"Ellie, she needed a safe place to recuperate! I'm not up to anything but working her case." Nick's voice called from the other side of the room, waking me up.
"Safe place?! And what if you needed to be safe from her, Nick? You don't know anything about her!" this Ellie woman practically shouted at him.
I slid my boots back on, and made my way over to his side. "Nice to meet you too." I said.
If looks could kill, well, I'd be a corpse in seconds. I assumed this enraged woman was his secretary or perhaps a fellow detective. As furious as she was about my presence possibly harming him, it was good to see that the people in Nick's life appeared to genuinely like and care about him though. Likeable guys are generally not untrustworthy in my experience.
"She's not a monster, Ellie. Zombie maybe, but no monster." Nick said while directing a wink my way.
I rolled my eyes, and lightly punched his closest arm. This zombie thing was never going to die. Damn. More bad death puns. I could see that Ellie was fuming inside. Was he always such a flirt, or was there something between them that I was inadvertently damaging? Shit.
Nick pointedly began steering me towards the door of the agency. Again. Being ushered around by the clockwork detective was starting to become more commonplace than I'd like.
"Piper and her friend asked to meet with us as soon as you'd woken. Now I've helped Nate out before, and he may have some connections to help figure out what happened to you. Trust me?" he said.
What other choice did I have? Stranded in the distant future, and the only person in my life now wasn't actually human. I looked into his strange eyes, and said yes. Those eyes. I found myself stealing glances at him almost involuntarily. In my time, this fully self-aware animatronic man would not have been possible. It occurred to me that for a detective, Nick didn't seem to ask many questions. Maybe he was just waiting to see what happened in this meeting with Piper and Nate. Hell, maybe he was just as lost as I was.
In a way, standing in the market by the light of day was somehow worse than it was the previous night. The blue New England sky above me looked no different than it had on the day I'd stepped out of my normal life. I thought at that moment if I asked myself how any of this was possible one more time, I'd start screaming and never stop.
I grasped Nick's hand to help stave off the panic rising in my mind. It must have startled him because he practically jumped out of his trench coat. He regained his composure rapidly though.
"You ok, lovely lady? At least ok as you can be, given the circumstances." he asked while easing his hand from my vise grip.
I guess if he wasn't going to use my given name, I'd take lovely lady over zombie lady any day.
"I'm fine. Good. Yeah, we'll go with that. Let's just get this clandestine meeting over with. It is clandestine, right? God, I've always wanted to say that." I snarked. Whistling past the graveyard and all that.
"Follow me. Time to hear what these two have come up with." he said, leading us towards a young child hawking newspapers.
I knew I must have had a look of confusion on my face until I remembered Piper saying something about an article. Reporter maybe? Guess this was it. We went past the girl, and through a door into a room with a loudly banging old printer press.
A dark haired muscular man was hunched over the nearby table, head to head with Piper.
"I'm not willing to drag anyone else into this mess, Piper. You know that. Haven't we had enough drama for the time being?" he pleaded with her.
"Blue, I'm just saying that we can't pass up this opportunity. I can't pass it up. Two mysterious strangers within months of each other? Man out of time, and now zombie lady from…what…an alternate universe? You've gotta know at least something to help her, Blue." Piper said.
"Must we keep going with the whole zombie lady thing? I'd like to think that I've reigned in my taste for human brains by now." I griped.
Three stunned faces stared back at me. I do so love to make an entrance.
Piper was the first to speak up. "I take it back. She's not a zombie lady. She's just insane! You sure know how to pick 'em, Nicky."
A huge grin spread across my face. If nothing else, this investigation would provide some much needed entertainment.
The imposing man with Piper crossed the small room in a few long strides. "I'm Nate. I'm still not entirely sure why these two thought I'd be the best person to help you, but I'll try. That's all I can promise. I'm sorry I can't offer more." he said while clasping my hand in a very business-like shake.
I could feel Nick's presence behind me before he even spoke. "Nate, you've been to the Institute. Hell, you know more about it than even I do, and I'm their throwaway prototype. Is there anything there that could help us? How could someone from a time even earlier than yours be here? Especially after she may just have died in that world." he asked, shooting me a sidelong glance.
"Institute? Could that sound more ominous?" I asked.
"Believe it or not, it's actually worse than it sounds. Nick, I would help if I could but I can't risk my cover. Not yet. I can keep an ear out for anything pertinent to her situation but you're mostly on your own here." Nate said with a sheepish look on his face, and a bit of guilt dancing in his deep brown eyes.
"If she's gonna be here for the long term until we can come up with a solution, where's she gonna stay? Nick, you seriously can't keep her tucked away here in Diamond City and expect no one to notice. Not with the way people here are feeling about strangers lately." Piper said.
"I can always head back home to Connecticut. Can't be any worse or stranger than here." I mused aloud.
"There are so many reasons that make that a bad idea. Have you ever fired a gun? With the intent to kill?" Nate asked.
"I'm a marketing major." I stammered as if that had any bearing on the here and now.
Killing people? Was he serious? The silence that hung over the room told me that he was. Nate sighed heavily and rubbed his temples as if I were the sudden cause of a migraine.
"Can we send her to Sanctuary, Blue? She'll be out of the way there, and Preston can teach her some basic Commonwealth survival skills." Piper asked.
"I hope your zombie delivery service offers shipment tracking. Nick would be absolutely lost without me." I said. My attempt at humor was lost on them. This was more serious than I understood, I suppose.
"I'll bring her. She's my client, so she's my responsibility. We'll leave in two days. Gives me enough time to rustle up the caps for supplies." Nick said with a certain kind of resignation in his voice.
Gently touching his shoulder so as to not catch him off guard with physical contact, I pulled Nick off to the side.
"I never meant to burden you. Don't feel you have to do this. If I'm a lost cause, I can and will find a way to make it back home. Whatever is going on here, I'll find my answers." I said.
A look I couldn't define briefly touched his face. "No, you're no burden, lovely lady. This case just got infinitely harder to crack, that's all. We'll get you to Sanctuary one way or another. Don't worry about the details. That's my job, remember? Although your determination is quite the asset if you ever want to partner up." he replied.
With a parting nod of his head towards Nate and Piper, Nick motioned for me and we left to plan our departure.