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Mackenzie

Recording by Scribe Ellison

Luckily the market was right there, and clearly labeled. I pushed in through some bright red doors and the first thing I saw was a bramaluff. The animal I came all this way to see. They look like some kind of water buffalo, but shorter and with two heads. The two here didn't have fur but Carlos Monteiro told me they sometimes do have fur that can be spun into yarn.

The market was a round space with no roof and the traders stood at tables in front of the shacks where I supposed they stored their inventory. The traders wore collars, and they looked at me with fear. What had Colter been, that the title of Overboss could still strike fear? I was limping, staggering, my hair hanging in my eyes, and they were afraid of me. I felt like saying something reassuring, telling them I didn't have the control for their collars so they didn't have to be scared. But I kept my mouth shut.

A few stalls on was a clinic sign with a chalkboard listing prices for services and beneath it a woman in rags just finishing wrapping a raider's injured arm. The raider paid and the doctor was washing her hands at an outdoor sink when she saw me. "Oh! Uh… hello, boss. Congratulations on taking out Colter. I'm… sure you'll do great."

She was terrified. Mackenzie is younger than I am, and was raggedy and too thin. She shifted her collar nervously.

I tried to sound kind. "I'm not even sure what I'm doing around here yet. Are you Mackenzie? The doctor?"

"Yes, that's me. Sorry. I'm just nervous, I don't mean any disrespect boss. I just don't know where I stand with you. You need medical help don't you? Come on inside."

It wasn't Doc Jenna's hospital, but the inside of the clinic was surprisingly clean and white. I saw not just an exam table but a small biometric scanner and a big boxy device that smelled like clean steam. A washer for sterilizing surgical instruments.

Now that we weren't in sight of the entire market Mackenzie slipped into doctor mode and sounded a little more confidant. "Where are you injured? You've got a Pip-boy? Show me its diagnostic scan. I think we'll need to cut your clothes off."

Which was its own problem. My reinforced fabric vault suit had probably saved my life in the Gauntlet but it wasn't going to be easy to cut. "Fabric's knifeproof, it'll probably blunt your scissors. You'll have to help me get everything off."

So we did that. It was no fun. The doctor looked me over and said things like, "Shock baton? Two weeks?" And felt my ankle while I flinched and whimpered. Exam done she said, "You're a mess, boss, but I think I can get you back on your feet. And keep the infection from- um- killing you. Now take a puff off this so you won't feel the next bit."

I hesitated, knowing she was right but not sure fuzzing up my brain even more with a dose of jet was a good idea.

Mackenzie saw my uncertainty, "Don't worry, the chems are clean. Every batch is tested and anyone bringing in bad chems gets hung up outside the market for target practice. And the other choice is to tie you down and cut the dead tissue from around this burn while you're awake."

I grabbed the inhaler. I have to do a countdown in my head to squeeze and inhale at the same time. The drug hit my lungs and instantly everything went very detailed and very, very far away. Everything that hurt and everything I was afraid of was very far away and it was great. So Doc Mackenzie did terrible things and I did not care one bit.

Some time later I faded back in enough to ask, "Sterile instruments… clean chems… place like this?"

"Gage makes sure I get one of every medical gadget the traders bring in. He set up the chem testing too. Everybody uses so one tainted batch could take the whole place down. Does this hurt?"

"Right now nothing hurts." I said happily, but the fact that I could string a sentence together meant that soon the rest of reality started coming back, including things that hurt. My ankle was wrapped and covered in a supportive brace and I could feel a bandage taped around my middle. "How bad is it?"

"You'll live, boss. I think we got enough stimpacks in you before that burn went septic. I'd tell you to take it easy for a few days but I don't think you'll be able to."

I moved, stretched to see how far I could stretch. The medical brace was going to be a problem. With one leg longer than the other I wouldn't be any use in a fight. "How long do I have to wear that?"

Mackenzie shrank a bit. "I'd like to say two weeks, but at least one. And you have to eat and sleep, stimpacks can't work without nutrients. Is there anything else I can do for you? Boss? You need more med-x?"

I shook my head and smiled my best reassuring smile. "That's probably the last thing I need. Ow… I'd kill to wash my hair. I don't look much like an Overboss."

"I have a hot water tap and soap." Mackenzie offered immediately.

I don't think she expected me to take her up on it but I was happy to bend over a sink and use the hose attached to the tap to get my hair clean. Mackenzie wasn't hurrying me out the door, in fact she was dithering like there was something she wanted to say. I gave her a few minutes then asked the first thing I could think of, "Is Mackenzie your first name or your last name?"

"Oh. First name. Mackenzie Bridgeman. What's—um. I should just call you boss shouldn't I?"

"Em. Emily Mason."

"The alpha of the Pack is named Mason."

I turned to look at her from under my dripping hair. "Really?" It's not exactly a rare name, but Nate had crowds of family so it was possible this Mason was a relative. Not that it mattered now. "Then I'll have to call myself Overboss Emily."

Mackenzie tittered at the incongruity and found the rest of her courage. "Well whatever name you go by, this is your show now, you can do anything you want. You could run Nuka-world just like Colter, business as usual… or you could… uh, well, you know… get rid of the raiders. I-if you don't agree with how they're running the place. Just listen for a minute! The gangs that call this place home are already at each other's throats. You'll be risking your neck every day trying to keep them from tearing each other apart, or you could… do the right thing, and this place goes back to being a trading hub, you can still run the show and live up on the mountain it'll just be different for… us."

I'd carefully kept my head down, rinsing the last suds out of my hair so she could talk without seeing my face, then I turned the water off and straightened up. "Yes."

"I just meant… what? Really?"

And then for about a minute the relief and the chems and the lovely hot water combined to make me feel like myself again. I slicked my hair back and smiled. "I don't like raiders and I don't like slavers. But it's going to take time, and planning, and help from my friends in the Commonwealth. So don't celebrate yet. We have work to do and I need to heal up before I can do much."

"Yes! Right!" I think Mackenzie was almost crying from relief. "What can I do to help?"

I'd been thinking about it, of course, while pawing through the scrap pile for two weeks. Getting rid of the raiders without giving them a chance to use half their slaves as human shields or cannon fodder was going to be a challenge. A challenge I wanted the Railroad leaders in on, but all I could do then was try to think what Desdemona would need to get started. "Is there a way you can communicate with all the slaves and civilians fast? Not now, but when there is a plan we'll need a way to get all of you out of the line of fire."

"I think so. I'll work on it."

"Keep your head down until then ok? And can I have some chalk?"

"What? Sure. We found hundreds of boxes of chalk in the gift shops. What are you going to do now, boss?"

"I have to talk to Gage. Wish I could put that off. I feel pretty awful. Let's try standing up..." Mackenzie produced a box of chalk and I tested my ankle by standing up, going outside and adding to her clinic price list. A railsign of a stylized smiling cat, indicating a person who didn't know the Railroad but was sympathetic to the cause.

"Boss? Do you want..?" The doctor was offering another inhaler. "Jet with aerosolized mentats. It'll keep you on the ball. For about two hours, then everything wears off at once and you crash."

"More chems is the solution to being stoned out of my mind?" I asked, but I could already feel everything getting fuzzy again. More chems was a safer bet than saying the wrong thing in front of Gage. I was alive, with the collar off and an ally, but if I didn't pull off this overboss thing I'd still be dead. I picked up the inhaler. "Thank you. Two hours?"

"Then you'll need to be somewhere safe. Come back here if you need to."

I nodded and took a long breath off the inhaler. I could feel the drug hit my brain and suddenly the fog of pain and exhaustion and worry was gone. I was seeing everything clearly and I could think without memories of the Gauntlet and Colter's death shoving themselves to the front of my mind. "Oh my god this stuff's amazing."

"Sorry boss but you will not think that when it wears off." Mackenzie said, standing straight and smiling for a second before she touched her collar and remembered to cringe.