Chapter 1

The wheels creaked as they rolled over the cracked and broken pavement of the old highway. Eugene had been tired of the smell of Brahmin since they left the Capitol Wasteland weeks ago. He had traveled with roving merchant caravans after leaving Nevada and the thought of another week with Millie was enough to make him crazy. She was a medical supplier to doctors in the wasteland and would often stop at hospitals to scavenge for Old World medical machines or medicine. This scavenging group never included Millie of course, instead it was Eugene and two brutes named Gruff, the other known as Femur (he had used a femur to kill three raiders in Indiana.) They were fine enough, Eugene thought, a bit daft but alright people. Millie was a nurse before the bombs fell and was ghoulified in the process. She knew her way around a doctor's office and capitalized on that.

Boston Commonwealth had plenty of hospitals and the trading hub that was Diamond City so that was where the group was headed. They had to come from the south because of some crazy radiation, at least that's what Millie said. Either way Eugene was missing the discipline of traveling with his squad in the NCR, especially in comparison to this group of super mutant-eque men and a ghoul women. The pay was good though. At least it was good enough for food and booze that wouldn't turn his stomach.

Eugene was in the midst of cleaning the barrel of his hunting rifle when MIllie let out a scruffy yelp. He looked up to see Gruff's sausage finger pointed to the big red cross on the side of a one story infirmary. It was time to hit another empty building. He knew they needed oxygen tanks and Med-X and Millie was in desperate need of stitching supplies so she could hold the skin to her face (something she was strangely self conscious of despite her age.) Eugene hopped off the back of the caravan and walked to the rails of the side of the highway and pulled the scope of the rifle to his eye. He scanned the area around the infirmary and then the entrance.

" The entrance is clear," Eugene said letting his rifle down. They followed the sign to the exit ramp and Millie pulled the Brahmin to a halt.

" Okay Eugene here's what I need...''

Eugene interrupted her not wanting to hear her growl on, " Millie just write me a list. I don't think I will remember." She scoffed and wrote out her list. Eugene wouldn't have had any problem remembering he just was tired of her talking. She handed him the list and the three started down the crowded exit ramp. Cars blocked off the way down and that was Millie's reason for not coming along. At least that was her excuse for not coming. Eugene knew this wasn't going to go well. He felt it in his gut.

" Listen guys, let's just do this in and out. If we can do this without getting every raider and feral on us, we need to."

" Shut up Eugene we can handle ourselves and you're not the boss, Millie is." Gruff was always rude and defiant towards Eugene. His best pal Femur joined him in everything no matter what, whether it be fights, drugs or women.

" Whatever, come on." The three walked between cars being careful to look around their surroundings for anything good. Eugene saw a pack of cigarettes and eagerly went for them before his slower companions realized. It was a nasty habit he had picked up while staking out in the frontlines of Camp Forlorn Hope back in New Vegas. He often would smoke when the nerves of being so close to Caesar's Legion soldiers got to him.

Eugene thought back to when he was a Lance Corporal in the NCR before he decided to resign. He was part of the battle at Helios One with the Brotherhood of Steel and remembered clearly the hulking men in their suits of power armor. The sound of mini guns whirring through the night and bright headlamps blinding men while they screamed being cut apart by the .5mm bullets would stay with him for the rest of his life.

After the horrors of that night he was deployed to Hoover Dam as a scout before the first attack of Caesar's Legion. For a while it was a laid back station. Morning rose over the Mojave when the first Caesar's Legion battalion attaked. Malpais Legate and his centurions charged at his entrenched brothers and they held him off. The rest of the 1st Recon team left him to join the Rangers in their "tactical retreat" to Boulder City, bringing most of the attacking force with them.

Despite the success of defending Hoover Dam Eugene was forcibly removed from 1st Recon and assigned to Camp Hope. The frontlines. He had seen dozens of men killed in charges toward the Legion held town of Nelson. Night after night Eugene layed perched in between two boulders with a radio and his sniper rifle while he watched the blood soaked wasteland. The sound of moans and cries of pain of the dismembered NCR soldierss laying in blood was yet another horror he couldn't shake. Seeing countless people die in the no man's land between Forlorn Hope and Nelson forced him to resign after that tour ending in early 2281 and lived in the scum of Freeside for years fighting and drinking...

A sound snapped Eugene to the reality at hand. It came from a car crashed into a light post at the bottom of the exit ramp. a violent thump against metal rang out through the small town centre. Gruff's eyes grew large with excitement and Femur ran down towards the source. "Shit," Eugene jogged after them gripping his 10mm with confidence. He slowed down to a walk with the rest of his small group and stared pontedly as the sound grew more consistent. Femur jumped around the back of the trunk towards the drivers side. He yelled as a feral ghoul lept onto him and he toppled over the railing. The moment was moving in a blur, arms were flailing and the creature was straddling Femur, clawing widly at his leather armor and screeching unintelligible gargles. As fast as the moment, Gruff dived into the side of the ghoul and dropped his sledge hammer into it's skull.

The two lifted Femur to his feet and asked if he was okay. Other than bruising and surface level scratches he was fine. It was getting dark and the trio was in a rush to get to the infirmary. They arrived and stood at the door, Eugene grabbed the handle and readied his pistol...locked.

Femur stepped up to prove his questioned masculinity, "Watch out punk ass." He lowered his shoulder and slammed himself into the metal door. Nothing. Once again. The door dented in. After a third time the door gave way.

They stood there at the doorway looking into a pitch black corridor filled with the echo of the metal ringing off of tile, afterwards an all encompassing silence. The smell of mold and rot came with the cold breeze that wisped across Eugene's face. There was something more that settled upon the three of them. It was desolate.

Eugene went first.