Chapter Text
Simon opens his eyes, his vision is blurred, but he can see the clear blue sky is right above him.
He lets out a groan, the left side of his body feels like it is already burning. He tries to move his right side, it hurts not as much as the other side, but the pain is still beyond normal limits.
He hopes his arms would help him sit up at least. As his arms began to push, pain surged in waves. He trembled violently, gripping his teeth harder, nearly breaking them.
The wave continued as he lifted his upper body, the world was spinning and buzzing loudly, but he didn't let it go. The buzzing held on for a while after Simon could sit still. After some uncounted minutes, finally, it stopped.
Now he sits here, under California's strong sunlight, which he thought he would never feel again. He hates it before all that happens, even though his face is all covered in sweat now, he's glad to have it back. Especially after he escaped that goddamn vault and killed that motherfucking deathclaw (or at least he hopes).
So, what's next?
Can't sit here forever, the pain still burns like hell. But where to go? Simon tries to memorize the map he peeked a few times at the NCR camp when they took him to here to send him down to the vault, he's on… somewhere, near Nevada, great. The nearest human settlement is… nowhere, the map only has a small part of this area, and this place is really depopulated. Whatever, he doesn't expect there are other living people around anyway.
It's fortunate that his legs are less painful than the rest of his body parts. But still take some time to get up, 'cause his left arm is completely useless right now. He stood up, unsteadily, then carefully took a step.
Good news: walking isn't a problem for him. Bad news: he has nowhere to.
The best choice now is to find a road and try to head down. He could remember that the last good thing today is NCR mark down the roads nearby and his brain is still capable to identify directions.
The sky turned orange, and the sun's half disappeared already. How long has it been since he started walking? This trail seems endless, and not a single functional or useful building in sight.
Simon feels his stomach turn to roar. Every step is a challenge, the desire to live became the only thing that keeps him going on.
He struggled for another 100 meters further, maybe? The sunshine really makes him dizzy—the light, the heat. He thinks he's going to hate it again.
And the sun seems to be starting to let him have hallucinations now. 'Cause he just saw two human-like figures on the horizon, and they noticed him? It might be a sign that he is dead already.
They are coming his way, Simon could only hope they are not some mobs. He doesn't have any power to resist, then the last thing he does is black out.
...
Simon wakes up, again. This time he doesn't see the sky, though, he sees the ceiling right above. And no more painful limbs this time, maybe that means he's been saved, or perhaps he is already dead.
Looking around, he appears to be in a living room. They set him on a cot near a window, and the broken curtain allows sunshine to pour directly into his eyes. He squinted to improve his observation, and his left eye stayed blurry… He decided to put this off for later.
The rest of this room is a total mess, there's bloody bandages and… blood everywhere, and some medical stuff scattered across the counter next to the cot.
So he's been saved, looks like he used up all his luck in just one day.
But there's no one coming and not a sound outside. Simon tries to stay awake as long as he could, but his eyelids start growing heavy…
...
The alarm bell rings hard in his ears, drilling all the way into his brain, and the hallway is filled with red light from the emergency light. Simon rushes down the hallway to the conference hall and almost stumbles on the threshold.
He staggers to the conference table, and finds the button underneath. He presses it, no results, nothing. "No, no, come on!" He presses more, but nothing happens. Then, he stands up and checks the shelf. It should move aside to reveal a secret exit.
"Shit." He should've thought of it, this place has been abandoned for a long time, there's a huge chance that many mechanisms may have gone broken.
So now he'll just sit and wait for the self-destruct charge to blow them all up. The vault, the deathclaw, and himself.
The bulky footsteps echo in the hallway, rhythmic with the alarm, closer and closer. So that fucker doesn't want to let him have a peaceful moment even in his last moments. He grabbed a random metal pipe on the floor, if he's going to die, he doesn't want to end up in that monster's belly.
The footsteps are made to the entrance of the conference room, Simon holding the pipe tightly, preparing for defense at any time. The deathclaw sniffs, it can sense him here. It walks across the room, spots him immediately. Then this monster roared and leaped at him, its maw opened wide, a piercing roar tore from its throat—
"Hey? Hey! Can you hear me?!" That's… not how it sounds. "Can you hear me? Please wake up!"
That's a human voice.
Simon slowly regained consciousness. He saw the ceiling again, and his left eye was still blurry, his head felt heavy and numb, it is new. But he doesn’t care now. And a strange man sat on the edge of the cot, hands on his shoulders, was about to shake him to wake him up.
A concerned look on the man's face. He had a pair of water-blue eyes, and a pair of glasses hung on his jaw. But their eyes contacted a little too long, considering they were strangers.
"Who are you?" Simon decided to ask first.
The man blushes a little and lets off Simon's shoulders. "… I'm Dr. Ryland Grace. I'm, hmm, I teach science at Boneyard, mostly kids. Just call me Grace, that's how my friends usually call me. And eh, we, I mean my friend Rocky and I, found you, and took you here. You were half dead, I tried to treat you even though I'm not a 'doctor doctor,' and it was a hard time to get you back, but I'm glad…"
He's making my head ache again. Simon stares at the blond man's lips as he speaks, and rubbing his hands the whole time, however, he sounds like a good, law-abiding person. That's the first thing at this point.
"And… Oh!" Grace stops his speech, looks awkward, then looks back at Simon. "Sorry, for I haven't asked your name, always talk too much when I get a little bit too excited."
"Simon." For now this man is trustworthy.
"Okay, Simon, are you feeling all right? I think you are having a nightmare, looks pretty serious," Grace gestured to Simon, "so I have to wake you up."
"It is… But I'm fine."
"You don't need to tell me if you don't want to. But can you please tell me what happened before we met? You were gravely injured, so I need to understand how… what happened to you." Simon can see Grace trying to be as friendly as possible.
"I was trapped in a vault, and I got a way out with an… explosion."
"How did you get in there in the first place?"
"I can't remember, they knocked me out when they got me."
Simon chose not to tell him the truth. Maybe this man really is kind-hearted, but he'll probably be scared of him when he finds out Simon was a convict. And he will definitely try to send him back to prison or just kill him as he's a threat.
"Can you remember who 'they' were?"
"No, I can hardly remember everything from the past."
No, as a "criminal", Simon doesn't enjoy lying. But this time he has to, for freedom, and that's what matters to him.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
The front door opens, interrupting their conversation with a creaking noise. "Grace! Did that new guy wake up?" So the other person came back.
"Yeah, I think he's fine, Rocky."
The man called Rocky gets close to the cot, and he's got a really weird look. A missing nose, and his whole face looks like it is already rotten long ago. Simon was met by someone who looks like this in the NCR prison before. People in there call them 'ghoul.'
The ghoul, Rocky, is just standing by, like he can see though Simon if he's no good, the room now filled with silent. Simon is starting to feel uncomfortable in this situation.
"So, Rocky, this is Simon, and Simon, this is my friend Rocky, he was dragged you all way to there." Grace breaks the ice first, well, so he's the most uncomfortable person in this room.
Simon's the second uncomfortable person then, he scans between them, "Are there anything wrong with me?" He is just curious about it, he swear.
"You didn't feel hurt or pain?" Rocky asked, looking shocked.
"No?"
"I think morphine works maybe too well then."
"What? What are you talking about?"
Simon tries to prop himself up on his hands to sit up. And—he couldn't feel his left arm, he looked to his left side, the blanket slid down along his move, he knows now, his left arm is gone.
Grace's frustrated voice came from above, "I thought we'd need to discuss how to… properly tell him that."