Museum Station

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Annabelle will no doubt recognize the cast of the sunlight and the thin dry feel of the air when she and Ellen emerge at last from the reeking Metro tunnels. They're on the opposite side of the Mall from last time, though, and the steps up on this side aren't anywhere near the same- they're rusted, corroded, two-hundred-year-old escalator steps, frozen in place with the weight of time and decay. "I don't hear too much from here," Ellen reports, "but I'm all out of Stealth Boys, so we'd better be careful. There might be mutants."

Comments

[aeons_crackshot]

"A fitting name," Annabelle says with a smile. "I don't think we'll need to bribe this one with honey-cakes, however."

"I don't suppose you could provide us with directions, Cerberus?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm programmed to offer assistance to any and all visitors to the fine, upstanding people of Underworld, damn this pansy zombie programming, so long as they behave themselves," Cerberus announces. "Name the place and I can start you on your way."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Where did you want to go first, Ellen?" Annabelle asks. "I've no particular preference."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Is there somewhere we can buy supplies, Cerberus?" Ellen asks.

"For equipment and provisions, I suggest a visit to Tulip's Emporium," the robot answers. One arm extends to point towards the first gallery door under the left-hand stairs. "On the other hand, if it's medical supplies you need, Doctor Barrows' Chop Shop is open twenty-four-seven, even for smoothskins. We've got one there now, in fact. Assuming that rotting maniac hasn't taken her apart to see how she works."

Ellen eyes Annabelle with some alarm.

[aeons_crackshot]

"I think we'd better get directions to the Chop Shop," Annabelle replies, deathly serious. If the doctor is taking people apart, Annabelle wants to know about it, stat.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Head to the opposite end of the ground floor and turn left," Cerberus advises, "and be sure to keep an eye out for Nurse Graves while you're at it. Can't miss it."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Thank you," Annabelle replies. Then she starts walking quickly in the direction indicated, trusting Ellen to keep up.

Once they're out of earshot, she says quietly, "I don't like the sound of that place, so it might be wise to prepare for trouble."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "It can't hurt," she says. "But we're going to have to be careful, whatever we do. We're kind of outnumbered."

[aeons_crackshot]

"True," Annabelle admits, undaunted. Whether she's more confident in her ability than she should be is debatable.

"If something needs to be done, I'll see to it that it's done quietly," she reassures Ellen. Annabelle picked up many things from Whitley Styles, including how to strangle someone properly.

"Do you know if a ghoul's body works like a normal human's?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Gob says it does, more or less," Ellen says. "They don't age and they can't have kids, but they've got a lot of the same health problems, plus a whole set of their own issues. And I've killed enough of the feral ones to know where important things are."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods in understanding. "Do you happen to have a piece of cloth on you about this long?" Annabelle asks, showing the length with the spread of her hands.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've got a roll of bandages in my backpack," Ellen says. "Will that do?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"That will work," Annabelle says with a nod. "Have you ever learned how to make a garotte?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've seen it done in spy movies..." Ellen shrugs and hands over the bandages. "Anyway, we'd better get in there."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Good point," Annabelle replies as she twists the bandages into the appropriate shape. "I'll show you later, if you'd like."

"I'll go in first," she adds as she moves to enter the Chop Shop.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The old bloodstains on the floor near the door can't do much to improve the atmosphere of the place.

On the other hand, once inside, there's a lot less blood to show. Several neat and tidy beds separated by screens occupy one gallery wall. Chicken wire covers a frosted glass window onto another room where a pair of emaciated, but visibly glowing, ghoulish-looking figures prowl around restlessly. A female ghoul in worn fatigues is watching them through the glass. At the far end of the gallery, a male ghoul in a blood-spattered T-shirt and cargo pants is making notes on a clipboard at the foot of a bed; there's what looks like a pale, but still un-ghoulified, human woman unconscious in it.

[aeons_crackshot]

The glowing ghouls startle Annabelle a bit, but the scene calms her nerves a little. It doesn't look like anyone is being vivisected at the moment, at least.

Annabelle gestures to Ellen in an attempt to communicate that it doesn't look like there is going to be trouble. She unwinds the bandage that she was carrying in her hands. "How is she?" she asks the ghoul with the clipboard.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm afraid she's going to be out for a while," says the ghoul without looking up. "She's not well at all. I'm hoping the rest of Reilly's Rangers will show up soon and take her home."

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm not familiar with the Rangers, I'm afraid," Annabelle admits. "She's in good enough shape to survive a journey?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, you must be new around here." The ghoul hangs up the clipboard and turns to Annabelle. "They're a mercenary company that bases themselves out of the DC ruins. I'm assuming she's their leader, Reilly. What was left of her armor had her name stenciled on it. She was in a pretty bad way when they found her outside Underworld. Most of what I know about medicine's a lot more chronic and a lot less traumatic. I'm hoping they have a doctor or somethingi n the Rangers who knows how to handle this."

Ellen, for her part, is moving forward with a thoughtful expression to crouch down next to the bed.

"Hey, does she know what she's doing?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I am," Annabelle says with a nod. Hopefully, the Raiders aren't after the bounty on Ellen's head.

"She grew up in a doctor's household and used to assist him from time to time."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Huh. Okay, that could be useful," says the ghoul. "Think you can help her out any? She's been out for a few days."

"What's wrong with her, exactly?" Ellen asks as she starts to remove the part of her armor that covers her fingertips and hand.

"She had a real bad case of supermutant, as far as we could tell when they brought her in," says the ghoul. "Quinn found her outside of Underworld, pleeding and unconscious. Broken ribs, bashed skull, snapped collarbone, you name it. I got her as stable as I could and put some stimpaks in her to get the bones knitting, but humans're so fragile..."

"I might be able to get her on her feet," Ellen says. "Just possibly. I've got some things I keep for extreme emergencies in the bottom of my pack."

"Be my guest," says the ghoul. "She's not getting any better like this, and I don't wanna make her worse."

Ellen nods, rummaging in her pack, then digging all the way down to the bottom. Eventually she comes up with a weirdly skinny bottle of something that glows a faint translucent blue. "I had a medic I know named Ratchet analyze this," she says. "It's mostly stem cells, along with a few other things to speed healing and neurological regeneration. It does absolute wonders... we're going to need to get her mouth open or get a syringe, though."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods solemnly at the list of injuries and eyes the glowing blue vial curiously.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asks Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Wordlessly, the ghoul opens a drawer and gives Ellen an empty syringe, which she proceeds to fill with the contents. "I think we should be all right," she says, "but someone's going to have to give her the shot for me. This probably needs to go into her bloodstream, and I've only ever done intramuscular shots."

"I can do it," says the ghoul, coming forward. "Gimme."

"Thanks," Ellen says, and after a little dabbing at the woman's arm with what might be mercurochrome, the ghoul performs a textbook-perfect injection. "Now we wait."

A few moments later the woman groans, blinks, and tries to lift her head. "Wh- where am I?" she says. "What happened?... and how long have I been out?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"Whatever that was, it worked quickly," Annabelle says with an impressed whistle.

"You took a hell of a beating in a fight," Annabelle tells the woman with a small smile.