Chapter 118: Nerves = Grated

It was the next day and before Afton was able to get his hands dirty repairing the motorbike his aid was needed over in the medical tent... Now that he had a project to work on he was rather miffed that he'd agreed to help the town... He couldn't really refuse now though.

Fortunately he'd made sure to lock up the motorbike tighter than a safe, the brand new vehicle parts that he'd "created" would probably be worth a shit ton of caps. Definitely enough to convince any usually good man to pick it up and sprint for the hills.

He'd locked access to the bike's internals with pieces of thick metal that he'd scavenged. If someone wanted to get access to the expensive parts they'd either need a plasma welder or a controlled explosive... All of which would allow him to run over and kill the poor bastard who'd made the attempt.

The bike still needed replacement axle, wheel, and tire. So he wasn't able to drag it into view on the tent, even with his 8 points in strength the reactor core and heavy frame made it impossible to lift on his own.

Over in the medical tent Afton was greeted by Ada giving advice to a young adult who'd somehow injured their knee.

"Now, the best way to help your knee heal is lots of squats. A hundred deep, weighted squats a day would have you feeling as good as-"

*Smack*

Afton slaps Ada in the back of her head before she can corrupt the boys mind any further, "Ignore everything and anything you may have said to do. Squats are literally the worst thing you could do right now... Anyway, what's the problem?"

The boy gestures to his knee and shrugs, "I was working the farm when a stepped into a pothole, twisted it good... Hurts whenever I move it."

Afton slowly nods and pulls their jeans up to get a better look, there wasn't any visible bruising yet but a part of it was slightly swollen. He gets the man to move his knee around a bit to see his range of movement and eventually determines that its just a knee sprain, not "great" but not debilitating.

"You've injured your ACL, not much can be done about it except rest. You'll need to be careful on it for at least two to three weeks... If the pain gets too much then use painkillers."

"Er, what's an ACL?" the patient stutters out.

"Anterior cruciate ligament, keeps your knee joint stable and helps with movement. Terribly painful if its injured though. As I said, best you rest with minimal activity if you want to get better faster."

"Do... Do I have to pay for this?"

Afton gives a 'kind' smile to the boy and shakes his head, "Nah, I didn't have to do anything. The painkillers won't be free if you want them though.

The boy limps off and Afton looks to Ada, "I still have no idea how you believe you're qualified for this, do you even know what a ligament is?"

She shrugs, "No, but I'm learning, a ligament is on your legs right!?"

...

Afton shakes his head and sighs, "No, that's not even close to being true. If that's all then I've got something else to attend to-"

As he's saying this a few people approach the tent, all either holding a limb, sniffling pitifully, or coughing exaggeratedly. "Sir, could you help us?"

Oh for fuck sake, I just want to get back to fixing my bike! The thought runs through his mind but he puts on a fake smile for them, "Of course, take a seat... What seems to be the problem."

In the end, Afton has to spend four hours treating people. At first he was greeted with actual patients, people who'd injured themselves. But gradually the injured gave way to the idiots.

"Doc, my back hurts, my feet are numb, my thoughts are fuzzy, and I think my cock is about to fall off."

...

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Afton growls out, having heard this exact set of symptoms for the third time in a row now.

"Ah, I can't afford proper treatment but if you would be willing to give me some chems then-"

"I refuse, now fuck off back under the rock you crawled out from under!" he exclaims, sending them running away.

These pieces of shit had started bothering him after he'd given free chems to a child who was having an incredibly bad allergic reaction to something. He couldn't identify what he was and the boy's parents couldn't afford treatment so he offered the chems that's reduce the reaction for free.

Course, word of his "selflessness" got around quickly and he'd been greeted by a constant stream of people trying to take advantage of him. Someone had even somehow gotten the exact symptoms that'd require the use of some rather strong chems. Of course, this also made it very, very easy to distinguish the ailed from the mentally deficient junkies.

After all was said and done Afton had made around 400 caps from the treatments. The day had been terribly busy and all he wanted to do was get back to his other project. Waving to Ada he left and headed straight for... WHERE THE FUCK IS HIS BIKE!?! He'd only started fixing it up yesterday! Was it that unlucky that someone would instantly try to steal it!?

He rapidly looks around to see if anyone was nearby but doesn't spot anyone... Instead, he sees drag marks in the dirt leading somewhere. Must be around four people at a minimum to drag the bike like that, he pulls out Lucky from its holster, not that four people would be a problem... It was just helpful to know how many graves he'd need to dig.