FALLOUT: War for Vegas {WattyAwards 2013 Contender (Did not make Finalist) }

Chapter 10

Everything was black. There was no light, no smell, no sound, no feeling. Then there was the smell of musty air mixed with medical supplies and blood. The sound of moaning of the wounded and hurried footsteps. Then the feeling of numbness and total confusion. Jackie opened his eyes. Everything was fuzzy, and then his vision cleared. He was in a tent, but where exactly was unknown. There were bed filled with wounded militiamen and Civilians. Jackie tried to lean on his side, but his arm started to jolt with bolts of pain. He looked and saw his left arm was put in a sling. He looked onward and saw Gob next to him, who had gauss bandages wrapped around his torso. As if expecting him, Gob turned, smiled his usual toothy grin, and said in a unusually dry voice, even by ghoul standards.

"Smoothskin, glad to see you’re awake. How you feeling?" he said.

"Woozy." replied Jackie. "Where are we?"

The ghoul shrugged. "Don't know, I just woke up a few hours ago, but I can obviously guess we are nowhere near Megaton anywhere."

There was a moan to Jackie’s right. He turned and saw a sight that made his blood drain from his face. He saw Officer Gomez, bandaged covered his body and face. There was only one eye for him to see out of. He was missing three fingers on his right hand.

"Poor guy."  Said Gob "Got caught on the unlucky end of a minigun. It’s a miracle that he's breathing."

Jackie laid his head back on the cot. "It’s all my fault." he said. "If I hadn’t of been careless and left a trail-"

Gob cut him off. "Listen, Jackie, It wasn't your fault. The Enclave’s been nipping at our necks before you showed up." They stayed like that for several minutes, and then Jackie sat up and slowly swung his legs over the cot to face Gob. "How long was I out?" He finally asked.

"Four days, I've been falling asleep now and then but I know you've been unconscious for that long."

Jackie stood up. "Thanks, I'm going to see if anyone else wasn't killed or injured."

He walked past Gob towards the entrance when someone whispered his name. He looked to see Butch laying on the cot, his leg in a splint and a patch over his eye.

"Butch, what happened?" Said Jackie

"The explosion knocked us all over the map." croaked Butch in a raspy tone. "I lost sight of you as we  fell backwards from the shockwave."

"What happened to you I mean."  Said Jackie, indicating Butch's cast and patch.

"Impact broke my leg." Replied Butch. "The building I hit was destroyed, debris cost me my eye."

"I'm sorry." Jackie said.

Butch laughed. "Its fine, to be honest I should be the one apologizing to you." This caught Jackie off guard. "I was a total dick to you, Amata, and your dad when we were still living in the vault. I guess it was because your parent wasn't such a drunk like mine." he held out his hand. "We even?"

Jackie shook his hand. "Even." he repeated. "Then he left Butch's bedside and left the tent towards the broad daylight.