Practicing Medicine // Complete

Chapter Ten: The Calm Before...

"A doctor's most powerful tool is a Retrospect-oscope."

-An old adage

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HOLLOWTAPE LOADED: "THE-CALM-BEFORE..."

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STATUS

Battery Level: 3% (CHARGING)

Wireless Signal: (?)

Operating Temperature: 93F

HEALTH

BP: 120/90

SPO2: 100%

Temp: 98.5F

RR: 12

HR: 70

TIME

Day: 27 SEP. 2279

Time: 20:42

CLIMATE

Current Temperature: 82 F

Atmospheric Pressure: 732 mmHG - 731 mmHG - 730 mmHG...

Background Radiation: 0.232 RAD

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"... Barometer is reading lower than normal, and it's dropping fast. We're definitely getting a storm." Savanna's face glowed green beneath the sunset as she deciphered the words and numbers from the pip-boy. My pip-boy, technically, plugged into my backup battery cell, but I was more than happy to let her fiddle with it, considering how I didn't even know how to read anything outside of the HEALTH or STATUS tab. She stared at it for a while longer.

"Is it gonna be tonight?" Asked Gram, peering over Savanna's shoulder to look at the pip-boy. She shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I don't think it's imminent, if that's what you're asking. But, all I have is a barometer. Which is cool, but without something to measure wind speeds, I can't really get any super precise information like that." She scrolled one of the wheels on the frame, and some incomprehensible stuff flashed across the screen, the little green characters reflecting in her eyes. She made a disappointed, 'humph,' and clicked back to the STATUS page.

"Well, I don't wanna get rained on- bad for my skin, and all. We'll camp out by the crashed plane at Jean Sky Diving up ahead. Place is usually pretty safe, since it's already been looted ten times over," said Gram, walking up in front of us and to the Brahmin, who were getting a little bit off the path. He gently guided them back, tugging at the leather reigns and prodding each of them in the necks. Gradually, Hebe and Flebe found their way back onto the asphalt, where their footsteps sounded like the, "clip-clop!" of horses in wild-western movies.

"Would you nerds shut the hell up down there? I'm trying to sleep off all the shit that Sawbones here did to me last night!" shouted Tandi, from on top of the cart. Her and Savanna had temporarily switched places because of Tandi's wounds, which had been kind of nice because it let Savanna and I chat. Of course, it was a double-edged-sword- as it turned out, Tandi wasn't big on sitting in one place, and she took it out on us. She was complaining pretty much constantly about how we were too loud, or too boring, or too weak because we wanted a drink of water or a short rest. She was the only member of the party who hadn't asked me to help pop some blisters yet, because she was still too stubborn to accept help from me. Since the incident, she'd been especially biting towards me- everything I did that wasn't walking silently, Tandi bit my head off about it.