There is a lot of talk about me these days; some good and mostly bad but does that make me the bad guy? Am I evil because of it? Well I'm writing this to get my point across and that point is I did what had to be done and nothing anyone says will change that, Three dog seems to love praising me for the deeds he deems righteous and condemning me for the ones he sees as evil. So this is my memoir as I am to die soon anyway I figure the Capital wasteland should know the truth of their "Black Prince". So where should I start I guess is the appropriate question eh? The start seems relevant, my life in the vault, growing up, leaving, and my quest and many deeds that I did in the wastes. My name is Erik Gray the Lone Wanderer and this is my story.
I was 14 when I realized my feelings for my good friend Amata; she was the overseer's daughter and a beautiful sight to behold. I did everything I could to impress her and defend her. It was my 14th birthday and only a few people showed up as I was not very popular in the vault but I made my friends.
"Erik! Happy birthday!" Amata shouted across the room and ran up to hug me and I think it was that time when I realized that I had physical attraction to her because at the moment I had movement "down there".
"Hi Amata" I smiled at her trying to recover from my surprise boner and luckily she did not notice. Amata was going through a faze and that was trying to look as sexy as she could at 14 and it worked sadly because every boy in the vault wanted to be with her and I wanted her for myself so I tried to bulk up but I could never build as much muscle as say Butch the asshole Vault bully.
"Soooo did you get me a present" I said slyly to try to pull attention away from my embarrassment. She smiled and pulled something from inside her vault jumpsuit.
"I know we don't have a lot of things for kids our age in the vault but you are pretty sneaky so here" she handed me a piece of paper that had the digits "7294" I looked at her questionably, and she leaned forward and whispered into my ear.
"My dad's collection of old pre-war books, tech, and holotapes and the best part is he never goes in there, there are a bunch of military stuff in there and computer programs and stuff like that. I dong get any of it." She shrugged
"Oooh cake" she said and frolicked off, and I think my dad saw me staring at her ass because he chuckled and slapped me on the back. The rest of the party was uneventful until after which my dad gave me my present; it has been a tradition that he gives me my present at the end of my party when everyone leaves.
"Son meet me in my office I need to go get your present." He said and walked off to Jonas's office on the reactor level. I started to dad's office when I heard shouting and started walking quietly around the corner and peered.
I saw butch, the smug greaser bastard with his stupid punk gang the "Tunnel snakes" anyway butch had Amata against the wall trying to kiss her, my heart broke. She was with butch? Why? It was all that was on my mind and I shrank to the fetal position and was about to cry when I heard Amata.
"Butch, get off of me I said I don't want to make out with you! The only reason I agreed to go out with you is so you would leave Erik alone." I stood up and tried to listen more.
The bastard butch began to speak, "And part of going out means meeting my needs babe so shut the mouth" he went in to kiss her again but before their lips met his head was yanked back and plunged into the wall. I didn't even notice myself doing it but I immediately regretted it because once butch got up he beat the shit out of me. I tried to fight back but only landed a few punches, as I feel to the ground with a dislocated jaw I was happy that my father was a doctor. Apparently butch left because in a daze I realized Amata was helping me walk to my dad's office.
"Erik you're an idiot! Why did you think you could fight him! And why were you even there it was none of your business!" she was practically crying I tried to talk but it hurt so I just mumbled a short "I'm sorry" she glared at me for a few minutes and smiled
"Thank you" she said and kissed me on the cheek. We arrived at my dad's office right as he did and he wasn't shocked he just sighed and told Amata to lay me on the table and to go home.
"Son, you have a thick head you know that" he said as he began to look at my wounds.
"Butch" I responded. And he sighed again and put his hands on either side of my jaw and cracked it back into place. I screamed
"What did he do this time?" my dad said as he was getting an injection of Med-X and a stimpack ready.
"He tried kissing Amata" I said over the pain and then that pain was replaced with another pain in my left arm where my dad injected me with med-x.
"Amata may like guys other than you Erik, you need to accept that" he then injected the stimpack into my neck.
"She didn't want to kiss him though" I said looking down
"well regardless you should learn to fight before you decide to do that again, I would teach you but I don't know how" he started laughing and put an ice pack on my right eye and looked at my Pip boy's vital signs then wrote them on my clipboard.
"Sit up" he said then walked out of the room and I forced myself up. He then walked into a room with a small box and I just looked at him then the box.
He sighed "Look in the box my son" I did what I was told and I was a little surprised by the present my father gave me.
"What is it?" I asked looking at the contents of the box.
"Pre war tech, the government called them contacts, it's so you don't have to wear glasses anymore and it's safer than frying your eyes with a micro laser. I added a microfusion optical lenses that they used for the old T51b power armor helmets before the war, not only will it improve your vision but it will adapt better to poor lighting conditions." He said sounding very proud of himself.
"That's awesome dad" I said happily as I took my glasses off and proceeded to put them in according to the directions my father wrote out.
"They also have a transmitter built in that contacts your pip boy to activate them just enter 7:13 in to the external device transmitting app to activate the lenses, I'm quite proud of this son I have worked on this for 4 years." He sat down and helped me activate them; once I hit enter it was like my world changed my vision was amazing it was better than when I wore glasses but I noticed my dad's worried look.
"What!" I said panicky and looked around the room for a mirror and once I found one I didn't know to think it was bad or cool. My eyes were illuminating a lime green almost yellow color. I mean for the people who have seen me in the wasteland you know what I mean it's not outright glowing but it's an attention grabber.
"Happy Birthday son" my dad said while placing a hand on my shoulder.
I then looked up and responded "Thanks dad" I smiled.
