Voodoo - Cram It

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The North American continent is big. Not stupidly big- it's not Asia or anything- but it's still pretty damned big, especially when you're a) walking and b) periodically set upon by mutated things that want to eat you. It is probably best not to speak of the ruins of Cincinnati, or of what lurked in the landscape of thorns where Hoosier National Forest once stood, or of the stretch of road punctuated solely by massive granite sculptures of Popeye chararacters, who watched over the endless empty miles with blank gray eyes, forever.

Unfortunately that leaves the ruins of East St. Louis to talk about, and that wasn't even nice before the war.

At least a binocular sweep of the place from a nice safe distance indicates there's lights in what's left of some of the buildings, and shapes that look more human than otherwise.

Comments

[boston_bruiser]

"Mhm. They did."

He tears open a pouch containing an alcohol swab. "I got good news and I got bad news. Good news is you've got some radiation sickness. That, we can make go away. Just gonna put an IV of RadAway in you, let it drip for a while, and that fever'll go away. Nausea, too."

He takes the swab to the crook of one of her elbows, cleaning away the grime and dirt as best he can. "Bad news is you've got dioxin toxicity along with it. That, we can't make go away. It binds to fat molecules in your body, and we ain't got anything to flush it out with. About the only thing I can say for that is that you won't die from it. It'll be some major-league suck, but if it was gonna kill you, it would've by now. Might take months, might take years, but you'll recover."

Satisfied with the results, he removes the catheter from its packaging. "Okay, here we go. -Fawkes, get the bag ready?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Fawkes nods, and holds up the bag of straw-colored fluid. "Ready," he rumbles. "This may take a while."

"If it helps me feel better," Anne rasps, "I don't care."

[boston_bruiser]

It's easy enough to fix a tourniquet just up the arm from the crook - loose enough to slip a finger under, tight enough to make the veins show. Complications do not present themselves throughout the rest of the process, and soon enough, the tubing is secured to Anne's arm with med tape as the RadAway drips into her system. The stock of Voodoo's carbine, once it's affixed properly and extended, makes for a satisfactory field-expedient IV stand, relieving Fawkes of having to hold it up.

"Okay, that should do it. Way this works is the RadAway binds to the radiation particles in your body and passes them out your bloodstream through your kidneys and bladder, so in a hour or so you're gonna wanna piss real bad." He rolls the disposable gloves off his hands, tossing them in a corner. "Just let someone know when you do, and we'll help you up. You might get some headaches or stomach pains as it takes effect, but they won't last."

He slips his Mechanix back on, his attention focused on the dad now.

"This place with the water. It have a name? Any recognizable signs, landmarks, shit like that?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Anne nods a little, grimacing. "There were signs," she says. "Couldn't read most of them. Lots of pictures of happy suns and people walking on the grass hand in hand. Said it was a park..."

"There was a tower, too," says Marian suddenly from the shadows. "A big one, all rusty and scabby-looking. It had a name painted on it. I think it said 'Times Beach'."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo bites back a where did you come from? as Marian speaks up. Instead, he nods. "'Times Beach', huh? We'll keep an eye out."

A tower should make for a pretty hard-to-miss landmark, in any case.

"Meantime, we'll get you folks on your feet again. Ain't got much to spare, but you look like you need it more than we do. Some Rad-X, for starters, plus some water - clean water, we tested it - and army rations we found at a base a while back. Trust me, those things last forever. Won't taste good, but you won't be left hungry."

He nods to the father. "I'll trust you to split it up as appropriate between Pete and, uh - what's your name, kiddo?" he asks, nodding to Marian.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We can't give you much for this," says the father. "I mean, we still ave a few things we brought with us, we're not ingrates, but-"

"My name's Marian," says the girl. "I'm not going anywhere."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo's expression turns into one approximating a not bad. "So you're the one who shanked that Legion dude. Pete told me about you. Good job, kiddo."

Then, to the father:

"Whatever you can spare," he says. "We ain't gonna be assholes about it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The father nods. "Well, I doubt it's worth anything anywhere east of here, but we still have some of the Legion's money," he says. "You're welcome to that. And we do have some other supplies that we can spare."

The satchel he has Marian hand over is a nice, hefty bag that makes a disturbingly familiar sound of metal banging against metal.

"There's been a lot of scavvers around here, but they don't know where to look," Marian says. "This place had more to it than they thought."

[boston_bruiser]

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Voodoo takes the satchel and opens it to reveal -

-Cram. So. Much. Cram. Cram to the brim.

(Twenty caps, too, but it's mostly just ALL THE CRAM.)

"We'll take it," Voodoo says, securing the satchel to his ruck. "I can barely stomach this shit, but it'll last us a while."

A quick glance out the window reveals a sun a few minutes away from dipping over the horizon. "Almost twilight. Mind sharin' the place with us for the night? We could use a roof over our heads. We'll head west at first light, if nothin' happens overnight."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That's the great thing about Cram," says the father. "After a while, just thinking about the fact that you have a dozen cans of it to fall back on makes you not even a little hungry any more. You're welcome to stay, although Peter's coming off guard duty soon."

[boston_bruiser]

"I'll relieve him. The rest of my people'll rotate guard duty throughout the night."

As he adjusts his posture:

"Meantime, you mind tellin' us the details of your escape from the Legion? The version your boy gave was long on time-saving, short on useful intel."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The man blows a sigh between his teeth and settles back into a squat.

"I can give it a try. How far back do you need me to start- at the edge of their territory, back in Two-Sun, or what?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Start with when you entered their territory and go from there."

Voodoo leans back against a nearby box, making himself comfortable as he can - this might take a while.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Okay," says the man. "We started off from Kino- it's a town a couple of days from the edge of Legion territory- heading north to look for somewhere a little more stable to live..."

He'll go on for quite some time, and answer questions along the way until it's time for the next guard shift to start.