The wind whistled by Lucas Simms ear, it carried the smell of bramin across the nearby wasteland, it was almost offensive to his nose but Lucas had smelt much worse. He had also seen much worse, the one that really stuck in his mind was the destruction of megaton and how powerless he was to stop it. The only joy felt that day was finding out that a new found friend who joined him in the defence of the town had somehow miraculously survived the blast with minor injuries. Lucas had come a long way since then, so had the rest of the megaton refugees. And now they had created a new city, Wanderers folly. After the megaton incident his friend Perry had scouted the area out and found vault 106. The town had quickly sprung out of the vault and become bigger and more popular than megaton ever was, it wasn't hard to see why either. For a start megaton was ramshackle and slapped together, but wanderer's folly had had time care and attention paid to it. Properly planned by the town elder committee and built with proper old world construction techniques and materials, turning it into what many now call the jewel in the wastes, a great white citadel of sorts high walls defensive gates and buildings jutting out of the landscape, heck they even had a tower for Simms and Stockholm's own personal use to defend the town. And then below a large warren of a vault, all for the towns use that is except for the science section that belonged to Perry and Perry alone or the lone wanderer as everyone now called him. Simms was the only one who knew his real name now. As for the wanderer he had changed since the explosion, he'd become colder than he was before almost as if Perry had died and someone else had taken his place. He ended up gaining quite a reputation out in the wastes as a saviour of sorts appearing out of nowhere when he was most needed and seemingly invincible in battle, some even said that the wanderer and the wastes were symbiotically conjoined as if the wastes worked through the wanderer. But then Amata and Jonas left to return to the vault leaving the wanderer distraught. Slowly he'd become a recluse pouring every waking moment into his scientific hobbies unseen by anyone for nearly three months. Lucas dropped his cigarette on the ground and stamped it out before heading back to his quarters in the tower. His watch was over.
Meanwhile in the vault laboratory a computer screen cast a fluorescent glow onto a pallid, tired face that looked older than it should. The eyes however, looked like those found on Siberian huskies, and they had never aged. Still sharp and still accurate and more importantly they made people feel as if these eyes could look through them into their soul. These were the eyes of the lone wanderer and for the first time in months they brightened. He'd found it, found out where his father was. Just a few months ago the wanderer was riding high, He'd found Madison Lee and his fathers holotape archive, wanderers folly was coming along nicely as a defacto settlement and three dog was spreading a message of hope. Then it went to hell, Jonas and Amata left while he was in rivet city, small cadres of soldiers turned up, who three dog identified as "enclave" and then finally the wanderer realised that his fathers holotape archive spanned the whole of James's life and more importantly were encrypted meaning he couldn't search for the entry he needed. He had spent three months decrypting and reading each and every entry one after the other in jumbled order. But now it was over, he had the information he needed and could head out tomorrow night after he had the supplies he needed and night had fallen.
Amata rose from her sleep to the sound of shouting, her father was arguing with Jonas again. There had been many arguments since Amata and Jonas had returned to the vault. People who didn't want her and Jonas to return versus those who fell inline with the goals of the overseer, arguments with her father over the baby. The baby, Perry didn't even know something that left a twang of guilt in Amata. Sometimes she even wandered if it would have been better if she had stayed with Perry, the wanderer, whoever he was now. He had changed so much she barely recognised him. She'd become afraid of how much of a stranger he had become, Amata chose to run rather than stay. But now she regretted her choice, she wished she had stayed with him. Now he would never know the joy of fatherhood and she would be alone in a cold sterile vault raising a child with her father and everyone else looking down on her. Half the vault viewed her as a traitor the other half believed she should abort her child. But both had decided she wasn't welcome. And now here she was sequestered from the rest of the vault in private quarters with only Jonas and her father for company. She remembered the conversation with her when she returned and revealed her pregnancy.
(Three months previous outside the vault door)
"Please father open the door, I need help" Amata was in panic, Jonas was losing blood fast and the radiation levels from the megaton detonation were becoming dangerously high. Then the intercom buzzed " you left Amata, you know you can't return so why should I open this door?" her father's harsh tone knocked Amata into stupor. she didn't want to tell him like this, but it was the only way to get the vault open and get Jonas some help. "father, I'm pregnant and I need help, please just help me" Amata waited for what seemed like ten minutes, waiting for her father's reply, she thought to herself that if it takes this long to reply then he must be deciding to turn her and Jonas away. Then to her surprise the vault door began to hiss and hum before sliding back and across with alarms blaring, revealing the vault auxiliary control deck behind. But it was empty, no one to meet and greet them, no security detail to march her straight to her father's office. However she wasn't complaining, she grabbed Jonas and made her way inside. As the door slid shut behind them a fog began building up within the control deck, Amata realised too late that knockout gas was being filtered into the room. As she drifted out of consciousness she made out the form of five vault security guards in gas masks staring down at her and Jonas. And now here she was in a dark place and the man she so desperately loved and needed an impossible distance from her with no way out. Her watch read nine am, the sun would be rising from the green glowing horizon in the wastes, and Perry would be there on the roof of their home watching it with green and red flecks dancing across his shockingly blue eyes and a dusky purple tint across his amazingly pale face, so white it was almost angelic, of course she didn't like the fact his hair had gone a whitish gray, but when someone survives a nuclear blast it's amazing they have hair at all. She missed him more than ever. She would always remember him that way, on that roof, smiling at the sunrise.
Sarah Lyons on the other hand didn't have time to think of anything. She couldn't believe it, nine in the morning and she and the pride were pinned down at Roosevelt academy, super mutants everywhere. Was she going to die here? And the pride, her pride. Would their deaths come here too? And it would all be her fault. She was the one who had taken it upon herself to find the wanderer, dragged her men through hell and back to find one man who they hardly even knew. But of course this man was special. Three dog doesn't get enamoured often but these days the wanderer was all he talked about so the wanderer must have something about him. But then Sarah was rather enamoured by him too, since that day in Chevy Chase when the wanderer seemingly came out of nowhere and saved her and her team. It was like watching a force of nature in battle. A single shot to the head of each enemy, dancing around the battlefield and not a single bullet hit him. He ran up walls, flew through the air and made super mutants feel fear, something Sarah had never seen before. His powers were almost god like, and surely no mortal could do this. Perhaps the rumours were true, maybe he and the wastes were one and the same. Maybe he was the wastes instrument of will. She had met him several times since Chevy Chase. Each time he had saved her backside and each time he had stunned her with his abilities and how seemingly unstoppable he was. As far as she was concerned after all the wanderer had done, the people of the wastes owed him to at least search and help him if he was in trouble. And now this foolhardy action was going to get her killed, the wanderer wouldn't have wanted this. Then when all hope seemed lost, Vargas slowly bleeding out near a sandbag wall and the rest of the pride locked into hand to hand combat the strangest thing happened. A great blue wave swept across the plaza vaporizing the super mutants but leaving Sarah and her pride unscathed. They were all stood in shock, and then Sarah saw it, a slender and tall shadowy figure atop a building holding a glowing blue device in his hands. Sarah rushed into the building with the pride on her tail, somehow even Vargas was keeping up. Immediately Sarah darted up the stairs heading for the roof access door, skipping two steps at a time, her goal so close. She had finally found him and could ask him why he disappeared. She flung the door open and ran straight through. The wanderer stood with his back to her and didn't react to the fact a power armoured squadron had just burst onto the roof behind him. Sarah edged closer slowly. It was strange, he didn't acknowledge her presence, and in fact he didn't seem to be making any noise, she couldn't even hear him breathe. And a strange blue aura hung around him, then as she was about to speak it happened, the wanderer sort of flashed with static before fizzling into nothingness. It was a hologram, a goddamn hologram. Sarah was crestfallen, she was so close and then to be fooled by one of the wanderers magic tricks. How could she be so stupid? A holo sentry, she had seen these things all over. The wanderer always left them in creature nests to prevent the super mutants from re-populating. She turned around too leave, she was almost at the door when the hologram re-materialised, but this time it turned its head towards her. Sarah turned to look at the hologram that had disappointed her so much. Then it spoke "stop searching Sarah, I will return when I am ready, continuing down this road will only lead to the death of you and the pride. Go home!" it said in a harsh tone. Sarah quickly retorted "where are you?". But the hologram did not answer back and returned to its natural state of keeping an eye on the empty super mutant nest below. It had obviously played a pre recorded message, but how did the wanderer know it would be Sarah looking for him. Once again the wanderer had left Lyons pride in shock and awe of his abilities.
The wanderer spent most of the day on the main court yard in wanderer's folly. He was amazed by how much it had grown, and the town had put his environmental sanitizer technology to good use. With Green terraces and gardens with hanging plants everywhere. And the plaza paved completely in reclaimed stone. The new water purification system had even allowed Walter to put a beautiful fountain with clean azure water in the centre. Wanderer's folly was a paradise. Then it struck him, while he and the megatonians had lived in paradise for three months the rest of the people of the wastes had continued to live a hellish existence in the world beyond the great ivory walls of the town. He had his supplies, why was he waiting to head out; he could leave now and help someone in the world before going to find his father. He made his way to the security gate at the end of the main concourse. On his way he spotted Billy creel stood under a rotunda with harden and Maggie playing behind him. Billy began walking towards the wanderer "good to see you up an about, had us all worried for a time" the wanderer stopped and turned to face Billy. "I had some important work that demanded my full attention" Billy looked bemused "i didn't mean anything by it, just sayin people care bout you" the wanderer looked down at the ground "I know, but my absence will end now, i have finished my work for now, I will be in the wasteland to help out just as before" with that the wanderer faced back towards the gate at the end of the concourse and headed towards it, he could feel stock holms gaze beaming down from the ramparts above the gate. As the wanderer made his way through the gate known as the great barricade he heard billy shout behind him, "after all this time how do you know if people even still want your help" the wanderer looked back over his shoulder "I just do" and with that the wanderer departed heading off west into the wastes.