» Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:15 am August 30th, 2279
Zack had originally only wanted to stay at Christina's store for the duration of one day to rest up and then began their way onto New Vegas again. One day however, quickly turned into four as Zack had begun to develop a fever after a few hours upon finishing tending to his injury. His head had begun to swim with fogginess as well. Kade blamed herself for her cooking, which Zack had thought to have been a very enjoyable meal. But she kept pushing on about not boiling the water long enough. Zack assured her it wasn't her fault.
The suturing of the wound had gone well. It was unlikely that it would get infected. Zack had placed a tight dressing over it, but he must have gotten sick from either one of the numerous airborne bacteria or just from pure exhaustion from the past couple of weeks. Either way, he thought it best not to push himself. Becoming sick in the wastes was a fearful thing due to the lack of doctors and antibiotics. Zack figured it wasn't too serious though, no coughing involved, yet. He was still young and had a strong immune system.
While still able to move around, he asked Christina if she wouldn't mind if they were a burden a bit longer and stay a few days more. At least until he got the sickness in check. She agreed immediately, saying that it was nothing to what they had done for her. She even brought them a small amount of food. Much to Zack's surprise, it wasn't a bunch of pre-war food, but actually garden grown food. There was also a small package of meat which Zack determined must be Brahmin. He thanked her for it and gave them to Kade for safe keeping while he readied himself to battle the sickness with sleep.
The next few days were a bit fuzzy for Zack. He only remembered bits and pieces of it. Kade had taken the floor to sleep on, setting up her bedroll and giving Zack the bed so he could sleep comfortably. He stripped his shirt off, leaving him only in his boxers while he rested. Kade had stared curiously at his mother's ring that hung from the silver chain down on his upper chest. It looked like she really wanted to ask about it, but then thought better of it and allowed him to rest instead. As he slept he could feel his body sweating out toxins that had been accumulated the past couple of weeks. Kade would wake him every so often to offer him food and drink. She made mostly makeshift soups, combining lots of different ingredients together. The warmness of them made him feel somewhat better. Also, Kade had to help him to reach the bathroom a few times each day. She didn't seem to mind though, even when he had to vomit a few times. She remained and helped him clean up.
Zack would come out of rest sometimes and gaze around the room in a stupor. A couple of times when he did this, Kade would come over and place a wet cloth over his brow. Other times when he awoke he saw her sitting with her back against the wall writing in her journal. She was so focused on it she did not realize he was awake. She scribbled away furiously filling multiple pages in no time. Another time he awoke, he heard Kade and Christina speaking in the next room. They talked about a wide range of topics. Kade spoke immensely of her home in Dedge and how the elderly couple that had raised her treated her so well, like a child of their own. Zack usually fell back so sleep quickly once realizing where he was and why he was there. He tried his best to be patient while his body fought the sickness.
On Saturday the thirtieth, Zack awoke feeling great. His head was clear and he wasn't profusely sweating anymore. The sheet he used hung somewhat loosely off the side of the bed. The rest of it covered his lower body leaving his top exposed. Zack exhaled and sat up. He rubbed at his eyes for a moment and then stretched his arms above his head. He turned his head to see Kade sitting on the floor on her bedroll cross legged with a maroon towel in front of her. She had pulled her jumpsuit back on over her upper body and had the sleeves rolled back to her forearms. She was shoeless. Her socks were of mismatched color. On the towel were different parts and pieces to some larger technological object. There were wires, capacitors, and circuit boards, among other things. The items were arrayed in some specific way that Zack couldn't decipher by looking at a distance. He finally decided that she had arranged them in a way so she could put them all back together with ease.
Kade, in one hand was holding a screwdriver, and in the other a bulky metal object that had a darkened screen and several knobs on it. The object was opened, half of it resting next to its counter part on hinges. Kade was looking at the back side of it fumbling with the screwdriver. She had almost gutted the entire thing. Zack felt a smile form on his face. He was glad that she had been able to keep herself busy while he slept most of the time.
"I take it that's the Pip-Boy?" He asked her.
Startled, Kade looked up to him. "Oh, sorry Zack, I didn't realize you were awake. I guess I was caught up in disassembling this thing." She brought her hand up a bit showing him. "It's turning out to be a bit of a pain in the ass though."
Zack moved his body over, planting his feet on the floor. His lifted the sheet to check his leg. A fresh bandage had been placed over the wound, there was no blood seeping through. He figured Kade must have done it while he slept, he was grateful. He lowered the sheet keeping his lower half covered.
"I see." He responded smiling wider.
Zack looked around for his clothes. He felt slightly exposed with Kade present. It was a silly thought though. She had seen plenty of him the past few days when he needed the assistance. Zack looked over to the window and took notice of amber light entering the room. His internal clock told him it was sometime in the mid afternoon. They could move out later tonight if circumstances allowed. He finally located his navy colored shirt at the foot of the bed and proceeded to place it over his head while Kade continued on.
"I've only heard about them, never actually have seen one physically till now, only a few sketches of a crude blueprint that some trader had one time with information written upon it. It's actually really neat though. It's almost on par with a regular computer."
Kade set the screwdriver down, took a small machine threaded screw from inside the Pip-Boy and placed on the towel in front of her. She brought the back of her hand to her forehead to wipe a few beads of sweat that had accumulated there. She then gave more information about the device.
"A serial number on the back shows this to be a 3000 model. I pretty sure this is supposed to be one of the more advanced models available. I think P.I.P was supposed stand for private information program. No wait, personal information processor, that's it."
Kade looked from the Pip-Boy up to him. She gave a small frown.
"You probably don't want to hear about all this tech gibberish." She said.
Zack chuckled and patted his hand down next to him on the bed to gesture her over.
"What can this more advanced model do?" He asked
Kade's eyes glittered and her frown was immediately replaced with a wide smile. She got up and plopped herself on the bed next to him with the Pip-Boy still in hand. She turned it over a few times giving Zack a closer look.
"Well, once assigned to someone, it will keep loads of information for them and about them. It will also integrate the person physically and will show vitals when needed. It can tell you your heart rate, radiation, and dehydration levels. It will keep the date and time accurately. Also, usually depending on what area they were originally designed for, they will have detailed maps installed on it. The user is able to add locations on the map such as settlements, dangers, and caches for later scavenging. They can also transfer data from and to holodisks with relative ease."
Kade placed the Pip-Boy on her lap and fumbled with a few of the knobs on its front.
"It has a built in radio transceiver which can pick up local transmissions or heavily boosted ones, which might come in handy eventually. For its power source it uses and alternator to charge its core by absorbing small amounts of energy from the wearer's body."
"Sounds impressive." Zack said. He turned to her and lifted an eyebrow. "Does it work?"
Kade scrunched up her face some. "At the moment, no. It has a few burnt out capacitors and I think the motherboard needs to be re soldered in a few places. Some connections have been knocked loose. Overall though, it's in pretty good shape."
Zack nodded. He reached up and scratched at the three day's growth of stubble on his cheek. "We might be able to find the means to repair it along the way." He said with enthusiasm.
Zack wasn't too tech savvy and didn't comprehend everything she was talking about. Still, he wanted her to know that he had an interest for her passions.
"I hope so." She said. "I have a few ideas to upgrade it as well."
"Upgrade it? How so?" Zack asked her.
Kade explained. "I want to find a way to be able to hardwire it easy to computer systems so I will be able to hack them with more speed and be able to upload and download information from them. Another idea I had was to add motion sensing capability to it, similar to radar in a sense."
"How will you manage that one?"
"Well, I destroyed that sentry bot almost entirely, so the parts I would need would be useless from it. The more advanced models of robots have built in motion sensors to help them track and kill. If we come across another one though, preferably inactive, I can extract the sensors and figure out how to apply them to the Pip-Boy. It will take many hours of configuration and tweaking to get the accuracy of distances and heights correct, but it will be worth it when it's fully optimized."
"Wow." Was all Zack could manage to say. With that capability it would be most invaluable.
Kade placed the palms of her hands on the bed on each side of her. She looked to Zack and sighed.
"So, you feeling any better? And how's the leg?" She asked.
"I think the sickness has passed. I always take being healthy for granted." He said.
Zack then lifted his left leg outwards in front of him. There was some soreness around the wound as the muscles extended and contracted in his thigh. He then stood up and slowly put weight on it. He walked around the room some, taking care not to mess up the small items that Kade had organized atop the towel on the floor. There was some discomfort as he moved about, but it would be manageable.
He turned around to face Kade. "Everything seems good. Will have to change the bandage periodically and clean it as well for the next couple of weeks. Now I just have to figure out where we're going next."
Kade snorted, cupped a hand over mouth and laughed a bit.
"What?" Zack asked innocently.
Kade shook her head. "Sorry. It's just a little hard to take you serious while you're walking around with no pants on."
Kade flicked her eyes downward and quickly brought them back up again to his eyes. Zack blushed. He had totally forgotten what he was wearing, or lack there of, when he got up from the bed to stroll around the room.
"Uh, right. First order of business, finding my pants." He said.
Zack located his pants and finished dressing. He grabbed his bathroom kit from his pack and entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him. While Zack was in there, Kade busied herself by reassembling the Pip-Boy, leaving out the non working components.
Zack relieved himself and proceeded to the mirror to take in his appearance. His face was dirtied up a bit and the stubble on his face was more than he liked to have. He turned on the faucet of the sink, cupped his hands to fill with water, and he splashed it across his face and the top of his close cut hair. The water felt refreshing at first contact, but after a moment Zack could feel the tingling of the small amounts of radiation present in it. He saw a small dark colored towel on a shelf. He picked it up and wiped himself clean of the water. Zack then shaved his face carefully, brushed his teeth, and placed some deodorant on.
When Zack exited the bathroom he smelled something delicious siziling in a pan on the stove, meat. His stomach voiced its approval with a rumble. He saw Kaded kneeled down by the bed packing up her belongings. She had already finished putting the Pip-Boy back together, had wrapped it in the towel, and was placing it gently into her pack with both hands.
"What's cooking?" Zack asked her.
"Brahmin!" She said with excitement. "I figured your stomach can handle some of it now."
"Sure can, I'm starved."
Kade moved over the stove to check the progress of meat cooking.
"So, where we heading next?" She asked him.
Zack sat down on the bed. He propped his chin on his hand and thought a few moments.
"Not too sure yet, need to look at my map and decide." He said at last.
As they ate, Zack had taken out his map, unfolded it in front of him, and studied it. He found where they were at and looked around the area for the next best location to stop for supplies. He grinned when he saw the name of city.
"Nikolai." Zack said aloud.
"What?" Kade asked through a mouthful of food.
"You wouldn't mind taking a little detour would you?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" She said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, remember when I said I had some ideas for getting the rest of the buy in for the poker tournament?" He asked.
Kade nodded.
"Also about my father's friend who helped my mother and I escape to Polvo?"
"Yeah?" She said.
"His name is Nikolai. Back in New Vegas he was a freelancer, a jack of all trades kind of guy. He would always be driving around in that barely working beat up pick up truck of his. He mainly worked for the crime families, but sometimes did things for some of the local gangs."
"He wasn't a hitman or anything like that, was he?" Kade asked with a frown.
"Not that I was aware of. He was more of a messenger, runner, and muscle when need be. Everyone around the area knew him. Always figured he was on a job for one of the families and left him be."
"Wait though, your dad worked security at a casino and became friends with this Nikolai guy?"
Zack laughed. "It didn't start out that way, well at least what mother told me. She said were natural enemies by design. Nikolai would come and go through his casino, but he was under orders not to impede him in anyway. There came a few times when Daniel Tull sent the both of them out to do certain grey area tasks. My father at first wasn't to keen on the arrangement, but after spending time together they both came to realize they actually liked each other's company, that plus the fact that they saved the other's lives at one point. This was the time when my father had his wrist broken and had dropped his gun. Nikolai bashed the assailants face in with a metal bat before he could do more harm to my father."
"I see." Kade said.
"Yep, he would come to visit us every so often in Blue Diamond when my mother and father wanted to spend some time alone."
Kade laughed. "He was your babysitter?"
Zack smiled. "Yeah I suppose that's an accurate statement. But at least he taught me a few survival things, mainly proper ways to wield a knife effectively, and as a bonus, he let me stay up past my bedtime."
"Nice, but what does he have to do with a detour?" She asked.
"He figured his luck wouldn't hold out forever and retired from the business about six years ago. He moved on the outskirts of city north east of here called Prescott. My mother received a few letters from him. At first they were just friendly ones, keeping in touch, that sort of thing. But, then he began to ask her for some help. Apparently he had some grand scheme for a business up north, but needed some capital to get it off the ground. My mother was lenient at first, but only agreed to send him the money, but wanted it repaid at some point."
"So we're heading there to collect the debt then?" She asked.
"Only if that's alright with you. It's a little out of the ways, but it would be good to see him as well as collect what is owed."
Kade shrugged. "Sure, if it helps you out I'm fine with it."
"Alright. Leaving tonight good for you?" Zack said.
Kade nodded and then abruptly looked concerned. "You do trust him though right? He's not going to stab us in the back or anything, will he?"
Zack pondered the question. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't, but can never be too cautious I suppose."
They finished eating and Zack packed up the rest of his belongings. He got fully dressed within his duster, pauldron, gloves, holster, head wrap, and goggles. Kade got fully ready as well.
"Oh yeah before I forget, here." Kade passed him a black rounded object.
Zack took it and looked it over.
"It's a flashlight, standard issue for the military when the war started. I figured you didn't really know what to take for your reward in the store, so I picked it out for you."
"Uh, thanks." He said. "Could come in handy."
"Yep. It only has one fission battery though. We'll have to find more once it runs out of juice."
They left the store together. Dusk was approaching and the sounds of the day were dissipating. With the way his leg was, Zack wasn't too sure how far they could actually travel, but he was willing to endure some pain to continue on. They searched the town in hopes to find Christina. They found her at a café about a block down the road. She was behind the counter at a stove cooking up multiple items for the townsfolk that were seated here. Their gaze was still a bit distant and they looked a little green around the gills. Other than that they seemed to be getting back to themselves. They were acting normal. Well in the sense that they weren't caught up in the illusions of dreams anymore.
Christina turned around and saw the both of them standing here. Zack thanked Christina again for the hospitality. She asked them if they wanted to stay for dinner, or breakfast in their case. They declined nicely explaining they had already eaten and wanted to get back on the road. They said their good byes before heading towards the north east, leaving the town of Aguila behind them.
. 
