Alex's feet dragged through the sand, stirring up clouds of dust in his wake. He placed both feet carefully in front of him, careful not to fall. His feet wobbled and his 10mm pistol made it feel like he was carrying a block of steel, which made his journey even more laborious. Both feet were swollen so bad, they almost popped out his leather boots. He liked those boots too. Not to mention, the sun beat down on him so hard, he could feel heat trapping in his pores. Every ounce of sweat he could muster would be at once caked with dirt and dust, not letting the sweat cool his body. Sweat was even rare too, as Alex had not had water in about two days. Any droplet of moisture in his body seemed to be non-existent, and carnivorous crows were circling his head. Still, through the pain, he staggered through the dirt, praying any sign of water or civilization could be recognized. None. The only thing he noticed were rocks, dirt, and mole rats out in the far reaches of the blurry horizon.

I screwed up, he thought, it probably would have been better if I stayed put throughout the rad storm. Now I'll never find them.

The sun hovered over him, and after a couple more steps, his foot crunched to a halt in the old dirt. Alex looked slowly up to the sun, wondering what time it was. The cool but, still warm, air of night had passed Alex by in a flash. The day seemed to last longer than any night Alex had lived through. After staring back down to the ground, he set off again, to his unknown destination. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the chalky strands fall between his finger. The shaggy brown hair of his was matted with clumps of dirt and sweat, accumulated from the death march of the past two days.

For the next few hours, Alex traversed the rocky wasteland. Nothing of importance really caught his eye. His body and mind only craved two things; food and water. The determination to find these objects drove him, his instincts to survive gave him his strength.

I need a vantage point, he thought, somewhere I can recuperate.

Alex rested his right hand on his forehead, blocking the sun from his vision so he could scour the horizon for any sign of elevation. He had almost gave up, but soon he spotted a rocky cliff that towered slightly off the ground. Now with his adrenaline pumping, Alex race walked over to the cliff, stumbling to the ground a few times in the process. Soon, Alex found himself wrapping his hands around the large rock, pulling himself over. While dragging himself over the rocky cliff though, he stumbled, falling down over the opposite side into the jagged cracks of stone.

"I'm done," he rasped aloud," it's over. All of this for nothing…."

Alex started to sob, the tears in his eyes rolling down his dirty face. He gave up, letting his body go limp as the sun hammered down onto his face. There he stayed, unmoving, accepting his fate.

Fate had a different plan for him though.

Soon a shadow had cascaded over him, providing a tiny bit of shade for his sweating and peeling head. Even as Alex opened his eyes, he could still not make out the face's figure. Struggling to get up, Alex shifted his torso and the stranger tucked their hands underneath him, hoisting him up. To be honest, Alex was more dragged then hoisted up, but still the figure was moving him. At this point, Alex gave up on trying to follow the person's face with his eyes, but instead focused on their figure. No doubt was it a female. She had a slender waist, pronounced chest, and just an overall feminine structure. Again Alex tried to follow her face, but to no avail, he could not set eyes upon her. The journey ensued, slowly traveling to a place Alex could not see. The only view he had was of behind him, and his body left tracks in the dirt. His view remained the same for most of the journey.

After a long time however, Alex's rear met asphalt as he was being dragged and the former shells of buildings slowly passed us by. His eyes followed a sign with weathered letters, which were barely readable. His brain slowly comprehended the letters which then spelled out one word.

Springvale.

So we're in a town, he thought, where is she taking me?

The question started bugging him so he mustered the strength to talk through his dry throat.

"Where….we going?"

The woman stopped dragging him, and dropped him hard into the cement below him. Even though he fell inches, it felt like Alex was dropped from stories up. He let out a sharp gasp of pain and the woman leaned in closer to him. Alex turned his head to her and he opened his eyes wide in surprise. The first look at her horrified him.

A raider.

She had blood smeared on her dirty face and her golden blonde hair fell just barely over her shoulders. On her face she wore a wicked smile and her eyes met his for an instant. The eyes were what let Alex confirm his suspicions. They were the eyes of a madman, a plain psychopath. This woman wore those eyes like jewelry, showing them off to Alex.

After staring for a solid minute, the raider woman firmly grasped Alex's neck and sunk her sharp, dirty nails into his skin. She giggled wickedly, whispering into his ear," Now, where's the surprise in that? You seem far too cute to let rot out there, I want to kill you on my own terms. It's ok though, this should be an okay spot to put your head on a stick."

She then stood up, kicking Alex in the chest for good measure, and then took out a rusted pocket knife. Twirling it in her hands, she bent over and proceeded to sink the teeth of the knife into Alex's neck. "Okay, let's get started you little shi-"

She never finished her sentence as a loud bang rang out and her skull broke apart, and it spilled brains and blood onto Alex's jacket. Even with the hole in her head, the raider still wore that wicked expression, and she always will as her body crumbled over mine and sun again beat down on his face. Alex tried to get up, but the raider was too heavy and he was too weak. With his heart racing now, Alex shifted his head to and fro, looking for the source of the gunshot. He saw no one, only did he hear the crunch of footsteps in the broken road. Alex heard a whistle, and this time he turned his head to the left, spotting a man wearing a tattered duster, and a grimey blue and yellow striped jumpsuit underneath. He carried various amounts of ammo in his utility belt and slung over his shoulder was a .308 caliber hunting rifle accustomed with a scope. He was as dirty as Alex, if not dirtier. The man crunched to a halt about five feet from Alex and started laughing in surprise.

"Damn, I actually hit her. How far was that? I'd say about a good one-hundred meter shot right there."

Alex just stared back, in awe and fear. The man just stared as well, waiting for something.

"Could, you help me man?" Alex asked.

As soon as he said that however, the man had kicked the raider off of Alex and he held a .32 revolver to his head. " I asked you a question boy, I said 'how far was that?', not 'you need some help?'" Alex was surprised by this sudden act of violence, and he recoiled, turning over to crawl away. The man was on him in a second, crashing his foot into Alex's back, screaming," What you got on you?!"

Alex again tried to scramble away, but the weight of the man held him in place.

"ANSWER ME!"

"NOTHING!" Alex screamed back, still struggling.

Oh well, what we have here," the man asked, grabbing Alex's holster,"Well, we got ourselves a 10mm. You know, this is the first ever gunI used to kill somebody. It's reliable, good at close range, and pretty compact for easy storage. It's a good pistol, if you're going up against your everyday bloatfly or radroach. That's going to do nothing compared to this…."

The man shook his shoulder, sliding the hunting rifle into his arms.

He continued,"This here is a .308, high damage and good penetration. Takes down a protectron with about…. seven shots. That is if you aim in the right place. Also good on super mutants, yao guai, and….people."

Alex just listened to the crazy man's ramblings, looking for an opening in the conversation to run.

"That's what I'm gonna kill you with today. My little rifle here is very eager to fill you up with lead."

The man glanced over Alex's pistol, before tossing it on the ground in front of him.

"But, I'm not an unfair man. I'll give you thirty seconds to run. Or you can stay and fight, which, will be a little more entertaining. So here I go. On-"

The man's jaw was blown clean off, spraying blood over Alex.

He then put his arm, and gun down, just staring as the man fell backwards with a thud.

The bastard should have been paying attention, Alex thought, too busy talking to see me reach for the gun and blow his head off!

He looked down at his 10mm, the barrel smoking. Alex then stared back at both of the bodies that laid around him and he started to laugh. It was a sad laugh, a laugh that held back a lot of sadness, The sadness had soon seeped through the laugh though, and was replaced by a soft sob. The sun beat down harder than ever and Alex started to lick the salty tears streaming down his dirty face. The air was hot, the sound of wind sweeping through the broken buildings filled Alex's ears. It was a beautiful sound, a sound unlike any other.

A sound almost as beautiful as mom's singing, he thought with his eyes happily closed.

This thought jerked his eyes open, and his survival instincts kicked in, giving him adrenaline. Alex hungrily looked back to the remains of the sadistic man's face. He won't need his stuff anymore I guess, Alex thought. He then pushed himself off the ground, sending pains throughout his body, and he strode over to the man's body. Alex hesitated though, not sure if he should touch his disgusting body. Smacking his dry tongue to the roof of his mouth changed his mind.

Alex turned the man over, and firstly looked into his backpack. He was not disappointed.

In the patched over bag, laid two boxes of salisbury steak, some type of jerky, and a canteen of hopefully clean water. This guy was relatively carrying light amounts of food, so he must have been running low or he was close to home. Either way, Alex greedily stuffed the food into his mouth, crying over the amazing flavor of the two-hundred year old package of steak. It was so good, he almost opened the other box, but decided to ration it in case he couldn't find any other food for a while. And the canteen of water, which he drank in about four gulps, was thankfully purified. With his belly full, Alex was still very weak and the sky was becoming a slight orange, indicating sundown. He continued to rummage around in the pack and found two stimpacks, some Jet, and a box of .308 rounds. He took inventory, adding up his ammunition, and came to the total of sixteen .308 rounds, seven .32 rounds, and sixty two 10mm bullets. He stuffed everything into the pack and dusted off his pants, getting ready for tomorrow's journey. He looked around for a place to lay his head for the night. That little tool shed will do, he thought.

Alex shakily got up and went on his merry way, or so he tried.

PING

Alex looked back at the man's corpse, alerted by the loud noise which originated from him. A small green glow was radiating from the man's wrist. Alex, now perplexed, stepped over the bodies, inspecting the bulky device on the man's arm. Alex hadn't noticed the device earlier as the man had been shoving a gun in his face, but here it was glowing a light green. He then bent over, releasing the device from it's original owner.

Ehhh, what the heck, you only live once, Alex thought.

Fixating the device onto his left arm, Alex secured the device, and pressed the little power button next to the screen. Almost instantly, hundreds of lines of codes flooded through the screen. It took a couple seconds, but soon the machine seem to be running a diagnostics. It read:

************************************** PIP-OS(R) V7 1.0.8. ******************************************

COPYRIGHT 2075 ROBCO(R)

LOADER V1.1

EXEC VERSION 41.10

64k RAM SYSTEM

38911 BYTES FREE

NO HOLOTAPE FOUND

LOAD ROM(1): DEITRIX 303

Soon, the text was replaced by PIP BOY 2000 in big dark letters. After the text disappeared, the image of a guy in the same jumpsuit as the man flashed onto the screen. He was smiling and giving Alex the thumbs up, to which Alex responded with a little laugh. Alex was now walking towards a little shed, still marveling at his new found toy. Entering the shed, Alex spotted an assortment of rusted tools and a small clearing on the floor to lay his head. Putting his backpack on the floor, Alex rested his head on it and continued to stare at the little boy on his screen. But sadly, he was gone and was replaced by a line of text saying," Please state your name."

Alex looked around, checking to see if anyone was in earshot.

"Alex Black," he stated.

The Pip Boy went blank for a second, and an hourglass took form, spinning in the middle of the screen.

"Did you say 'Alex Black?'"

He responded with an amazed 'yes'. Never had he seen such amazing technology, not in the Commonwealth anyways.

Soon after, the Pip Boy went blank again.

"Commencing neural interface link…."

A white hot wave of pain coursed over Alex's left arm, traveling up his arm and down his back. He was now convulsing on the floor of the little shack and his eyes had rolled back in his head. Than, if it wasn't bad enough, the pain traveled finally, to his head. Alex only saw darkness as his back made an arch and he was hitting his head violently on the floor. It felt like forever, and Alex wasn't sure if he was conscious or unconscious. Just then, as soon as it began, the pain was gone and the Pip Boy gave off a slight green glow. Alex had stopped shaking and his eyes were now back to normal, but closed.

He passed out from the pain.

The Pip Boy uttered one word,"Complete."

However, Alex didn't hear it as he was having the best sleep in what felt like years.

. . . . . . . .

Hello!

Thank You for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I can answer any of your questions if you like, and I hope you guys like my sequence with the Pip Boy startup. I know it's not lore friendly, but I hope it doesn't bother anybody too much. Reviews are welcomed and I hope you all have a fantastic morning, afternoon, or night!

-Hardcore Hamsta