Part III: Auto-Doc

Kiera leaned up against a crumbling column and adjusted the bandages on her leg. Her calf throbbed. The bear trap had hobbled her. She'd been able to limp her way across the Sierra Madre for almost an entire day, but knew in her heart that she wasn't going to last much longer.

"You know, the sooner we get to the medical clinic, the sooner you won't be in excruciating pain," Dean grinned, fiddling with his explosive collar, or 'necktie' as he liked to call it. "I don't know why you're so hesitant to go there. If you didn't insist on searching every garbage can we came across for scrap metal and Abraxo, we'd have been there an hour ago."

Kiera glared at the withered ghoul. "Scavenging is the only thing that's kept me alive."

"Scavenging is what got you crippled." Dean chuckled. "I'd just like to get this over with. If the Old Man realizes that you've been maimed, he'll probably detonate your collar. Get someone else to run errands for him. Someone who's healthy."

Kiera gave Dean the finger. She'd found the ghoul a few hours ago, sitting high up in a loft apartment, deep inside of the Sierra Madre's Residential District. He was the only living person she'd come across since her arrival. He'd been elated to see Kiera, and had spent a little while fawning over her, telling her how nice it was that the Madre finally had a female visitor.

After spending a few minutes with Dean, Kiera concluded he was a pretentious [censored]. His accent grated on her ears. His gallows' humor made her stomach churn. He continually goaded her to go to the medical clinic, even though the Old Man had ordered her to go to the police station to look for someone else named 'Dog.'

Kiera found something unsettling about Dean's insistence that she go to the clinic. She couldn't put her finger on it; maybe it was just the way he said it. He seemed to care little for her wellbeing, but was so single-minded on getting her there, that she suspected he had an ulterior motive.

"What's inside of the clinic anyway?" Kiera limped forward. "Are there stimpaks in there? Or the vending machine code for stimpaks?"

"Stimpaks? Perhaps. There are auto-docs in there. They'll fix you up quickly, and if there are any stimpaks inside, you can take them with you. Use them later. For emergencies."

"I don't like auto-docs," Kiera mumbled. "I get claustrophobic."

"How cute." Dean quipped. "A stimpak may heal your leg, but it won't help your skin. I can see it sloughing off from exposure to the cloud. Another day or two, and you'll either be dead, or you'll look like me. The auto-doc might be able to help with that."

Kiera glanced down at her hands. Her skin was normally tan, sun-scorched from the Mojave. Now it looked white as ash. She touched her cheeks and nose and could feel them peeling.

"Fine. . .how much further is it?"

"Right over there," Dean pointed down the street, towards a large building with a cross hanging over the doorway.

Kiera and Dean quickly shuffled towards the clinic, staying low and keeping quiet to avoid alerting any nearby ghost people. They reached the front door, and Dean gingerly opened it.

The interior of the clinic was dark. Pitch black. Kiera squinted into it.

"Damn," Dean muttered. "Something's wrong. I was here a week ago and the power was on. All of the generators around here are still working. The line must have been cut. Somewhere. Probably ghost people. They're always causing trouble."

Kiera slipped past Dean and fumbled her way inside of the clinic. It was too dark for her to see anything. She felt her way around the lobby for a few minutes, trying to see if her eyes would adjust. They didn't, and she gave up on scavenging, retreating to the front door.

"Now what?" Kiera grumbled. "Do you have a flashlight?"

"No."

Dean looked skyward. The noxious cloud blotted out the sun. The third story of the clinic fed into a narrow terracotta skywalk that connected the clinic to the surrounding buildings. Near the entrance to the skywalk, he could see the tip of a thick wire, crackling with sparks of electricity.

"Up there!" Dean pointed up at the severed wire, beaming. "That must be the break in the line. If you can mend it, it'll restore power to the clinic, and we can boot up an auto-doc."

"Me?" Kiera balked. She pointed to her broken leg. "Why don't you go up there? I'm crippled. Remember?"

"Once the power's restored, the clinic's automated defenses will come online. Security holograms." Dean shuddered. "You won't last long against those ghosts. They're invulnerable to gunfire. While you're up there, I'll go inside and disable them."

"How?"

"Every hologram has an emitter. I know where they are and can switch them off." Dean reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a clear flask full of green liquid. "I call this 'ghost sight.' It lets you see in the dark."

"What?" Kiera reached for the flask, but Dean stepped back and held it to his lips, guzzling it. "Why did you do that? I could have used that to look for a stimpak!"

"More scavenging?" Dean rolled his eyes. "Scavenge the clinic once you're healed. Go now. Get up to the rooftop while I turn off those emitters. And hurry up too. Ghost sight doesn't last very long."

Dean darted into the clinic. Kiera frowned. She looked up and traced a path up to the clinic's skywalk. The building it linked to was mostly blasted out, but its staircase was still intact. She hobbled over to it and began to ascend the stairs, one-at-a-time, wincing with pain from each step.

It took almost fifteen minutes for Kiera to reach the third story skywalk. She was surprised that Dean hadn't come out of the clinic to berate her into hurrying up. She stood in place near the center of the skywalk for a moment, taking in the view.

From the skywalk, Kiera could see almost all of the Sierra Madre. The whole town was built on top of a mountain. At its northern edge, was a tall bell tower that dwarfed everything around it. That tower fed into a jumbled sea of terracotta catwalks and rooftops that billowed with cloud. Opposite the bell tower, near the fountain at the town's center, was the Sierra Madre Casino. That grand building was the jewel of the dead city. It sat high up on the mountain's summit; its penthouse barely poking through the cloud.

Its almost pretty. . . .Almost. . .

Kiera limped over to the clinic. The third floor had a small patio with several broken folding chairs. On the wall at the back of the patio was the power line, held in place by several rubber brackets. The line had been severed by a ghost person's knife spear, which was still stuck in the wall.

Kiera grabbed the shaft of the spear and yanked it out of the wall. She then examined the wire. The right half seemed dead, devoid of any current. The left half crackled with sparks. She pondered how she could join the two halves without electrocuting herself.

The knife spear's wooden shaft caught her eye. It wasn't conductive.

Here goes nothing.

Kiera broke the knife tip off the spear and tried to use the shaft to wedge the two wires back into the brackets, joining them together.

Once the wires touched each another, the clinic lit up. As it did, a bolt of electricity shot out from the exposed copper. The bolt arced into Kiera's necklace - its sterling silver an excellent conductor. The resulting shock paralyzed Kiera and she keeled over, tumbling off of the skywalk, careening down towards the pavement three stories below.

Kiera blacked out during the fall. She struck a rooftop, broke its terracotta tiles, rolled off of it, and crashed onto the pavement. Blood oozed out of her mouth. Her lip was split. The fall had knocked two of her teeth out.

The clinic door opened and Dean huddled over Kiera's crumpled, smoking body.

"A little worse for wear. Got a nasty shock, eh? Ah well. At least you're still alive. The power's on now."

Kiera slowly began to come to. All she could feel was pain. Mind numbing pain. Her explosive collar was smoking. It gave off a foul, noxious odor. She reached for it just as Dean grabbed her legs, and dragged her inside of the clinic.

Dean hummed to himself while carrying Kiera's broken body up the clinic steps, toward the auto-docs.

Kiera felt her collar with her fingertips. It was hot. There was a long, hairline crack down the side of it. She grabbed it and pulled. Hard. It broke apart, crumbling into several pieces.

I - I'm free. . .

Dean let go of her, shocked.

"You - you got your collar off?" His jaw dropped. "Wow. The electricity must have shorted it out. That, or the fall. Interesting. Have to remember that for myself."

Kiera tried to say something, but her tongue felt heavy and nonresponsive. She began to sit up, but Dean grabbed her legs and quickly dragged her the rest of the way down the hall.

"Very sorry my dear, but I can't have you running off." He pulled her into a small room with an auto-doc at its center. "As I told you before - the Sierra Madre hasn't had a female visitor since the war - and I need one. Or rather, one's voice. Worry not; this will all be over soon."

Dean let go of Kiera and turned around, programming the auto-doc.

Kiera was still in a daze. She reached into her pocket. Her hand wouldn't hold still. It was trembling. She pulled out her police pistol and aimed it in Dean's general direction while his back was turned.

Dean glanced over his shoulder, went wide-eyed, and then raised his hands.

"Come on now. Don't do anything rash. . . .I - I know you want what's inside of the Sierra Madre. Just like me. Just like the Old Man. That's why you followed the radio signal. That's why you came here." Dean gave Kiera an affable smile. "Only a woman's voice can open the Sierra Madre's vault. Now that you're free from the Old Man's control, you and I can work together. Keep its treasures for ourselves. Cut him out."

"I don't give a [censored] about the treasure!" Kiera hissed. "I - I just want to go home!"

Dean shrugged. "Go ahead then. Try and run on that crippled leg. The Old Man or his Dog will capture you and put another collar on you. You'll never escape this city, my dear. This whole mountaintop is surrounded by cloud."

Kiera fired a shot into the wall behind Dean. While he ducked, she scrambled out of the room, hopped down the stairs, and rushed out of the clinic's front door.

A pair of ghost people were standing outside.

Kiera didn't bother to engage them. She staggered off, limping towards the fountain at the center of the villa. Her leg cried out in agony, but slowly, adrenaline numbed the pain.

A spear flew over Kiera's shoulder and lodged itself into a nearby wall. Kiera darted left and hobbled forward even faster. As fast as she could go on one good leg.

After several minutes of frantic limping, the villa's fountain came into view. A blue holographic woman stood at its center. Kiera zoned in on the shimmering hologram, paying attention to nothing else. It glowed brighter the closer she came to it. She reached the fountain, turned right, and half-dragged herself to the Sierra Madre's exit gate. Her leg felt like it was on fire.

"Where are you going? Where's your collar? How did you take it off?" The Old Man's pitiless voice crackled out of a speaker near the fountain. "There's no escape from here. Try and leave and I'll send Dog to hunt you down! He'll break every one of your bones! Get back here! Get away from the gate!"

"Go to hell!" Kiera shrieked. She pushed the front gate open. It led into a wall of red, billowing cloud.

The Old Man continued to bark orders and threats at Kiera, but she ignored him. She limped into the blood red cloud. The noxious gas burned her lungs and blurred her vision, but she pressed on.

After a hundred feet or so, the ground began to slope, sharply. Kiera couldn't keep her balance on her one good leg. She fell forward and began to tumble end-over-end down the side of the mountain.

Eventually, Kiera fell past the cloud line, into the wasteland that lay at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Her entire body was bloody and covered in cuts and bruises. Cloud blind and disoriented, she clutched her police pistol and staggered off into the Mojave wasteland, painfully limping towards the setting sun.

END