Chapter 1

I held my hand in front of my face to shield my eyes from the glaring power of the sunlight. It took a few seconds but my eyes slowly began to adjust. My breath caught as I was finally able to take in my surroundings. While in the vault we had been taught about what the outside world had become but I had no idea it was this bad. I stood atop a scenic view of something that was once an amazing sight I guessed, but now there is nothing but dirt, ashes, and sorrowful pain and suffering. I looked past that and I could see the remains of a group of houses and a much larger building behind those. I took a deep breath and started towards the houses. When I reached the first one I had a closer look around and found that this was probably a small neighborhood at one time that's when I heard a sound it was a man's voice I looked around but didn't see any one that's when I saw the small object flying towards me the man's voice was coming from it.

It flew past me like I wasn't even there so I kept on walking. A little ways down the road I saw a sign pointing up the road to the right it said megaton and I could see something metal peaking out above the rocks so I made my way over there. I was met by a strange robot who told me plain and simple welcome to megaton next thing I know the large metal doors opened to revel the town of megaton. I walked inside and was slightly amazed at the settlement it looked like everything was crafted and made out of metal and spare parts. Back in the vault I had always been good with my hands always taking apart and putting back together anything I could get my hands on fixing things and figuring out how things worked was a hobby of mine.

"Well looky hear we got us another new comer" said a voice. I turned to my left and saw a man in a duster and cowboy hat coming towards me. "Names Lucas Simms welcome to megaton" he told me. "Hello Lucas my name is Jacklynn Curtis it's nice to meet you." "Polite and well mannered I think we are gonna get along just fine" he said with a smile. "I hope we do" I said smiling back "but I'm here for a reason and I wonder if you could help me out." "Well I suppose so what is it you need" he asked. "Well I'm kind of looking for my dad you see I came out of the nearby vault to look for him" I explained. "I'm sorry but I'm too busy to keep tabs on every new comer but maybe you could head up to the saloon and ask Moriarty if he knows anything" Lucas turned and pointed up to a large building. "Thank you" I said as I walked past him towards the saloon.

I opened the door to the saloon and was greeted by the heavy odor of cigarettes and alcohol I stepped inside the dimly lit bar and took a look. The bar didn't have many people in it but there were a few sitting and drinking. Then I heard a banging sound coming from the corner followed by curses and more banging. "Give it a rest Gob it's not the radio it's the station it's been down" came a female voice followed by some grumbles. The grumbles came from well I'm not really sure maybe a man but he was really disfigured looking I guess you could say. The woman walked over to the other side of the room and I didn't realize I was staring at him till he spoke to me.

"Hey smoothskin can I get you a drink" he asked in a raspy strangled voice. "oh huh ummm no I'm good, sorry" I managed embarrassed I was caught staring. "You sure" he asked "yes I'm fine" I told him "but can I ask what you are" I said sheepishly not wanting to sound rude. "What you ain't never seen a ghoul before" he said "well no what's a ghoul".

"Well you see when the bombs fell we didn't all get to hold up in a nice comfy vault, some of us got stuck out in the wastes and got a full on blast of heat and radiation when the bombs fell and it turned us into a pack of walking corpses" he explained. "Oh" I said and after a slight pause "well you know it really isn't that bad looking". He chuckled to himself "thanks for saying that even if you don't mean it, a fake complement is better than the usual spit in the face I get around here, you're alright for a smoothskin" he said with a smile "my names Gob". "Hello Gob my names Jacklynn Curtis and maybe you could help me with something". "sure what do you need" he asked, "I'm looking for my dad a middle aged man was he here" I asked. "Well umm I can't really talk about customers Moriarty would beat the shit outa me just for talking to ya". "Oh I see well I guess"-"I saw that man he was talking to Moriarty it's hard to forget handsome men like that" came the same female voice from earlier.

I turned and saw a woman walking over to us. "He came in and talked to Moriarty" she said when she got over to us. "He did, well thank you" I said as I turned and started off towards the back of the bar. "By the way my name is Nova look me up if you ever anything hun" she called after me. I looked over my shoulder "thank you Nova and my names Jacklynn". I headed to a back room where I found a man that I guessed was Moriarty sitting at an old terminal typing furiously. I cleared my throat to get his attention he turned to me and looked me up and down for a few seconds and then his face lightened and he stood up.

"By god it's you your James's little baby girl aren't ye" he said with his very heavy accent. "Wait so my dad was here?" "How did you know him" I asked? "I and your dad go back a little ways you see". "Well where is he now where did he go" I asked feverishly. "He was here and now he's not and yes I know where he went but that will cost you" he said. "Can't you just tell me where he went" I said. "Well little lassie what you want is information and information costs you" he told me with a smug look. "I sighed alright how much". "100 caps will unlock the box that holds your information" he said. "100 caps" I said in disbelief "I don't have that kind of money". "Well if you don't have my money then maybe you could earn it by doing a little job for me".

"Alright anything to find my father" I said. "Good, in Springvale there is this bitch named Silver I want you to kill her and get back the caps she owes me". "Fine I'll go get you caps from her" I said and walked off out the door of the saloon. He said it was in Springvale but I might as well go see what the general store has anyways. I headed down towards what they called the crater side supplies. I opened the door and walked inside I was greeted by a woman in a jumpsuit and one of the largest smiles I have seen in a while.

"Hey I hear you're that stray from the vault! I haven't seen one of you for years! Good to meet you I'm Moira Brown and I run the crater side supplies". "Hello Moira I'm Jacklynn I was wondering what you have for sale". "Well sure" she said as she walked over to the other side of the room and turned around again. "So what is it your looking for" she asked. "Well mostly ammo but weapons to and I have some stuff to sell as well". "Ok" she said and brought out a few boxes with what I asked for, I shuffled through them and picked out some ammo and sold some of my items. "Alright I think that's it for now" I said. "Ok but could I ask if you might be interested in helping me out with a little experiment" she asked. "Well maybe what kind of experiment" I said being slightly interested now. "I'm working on a book about the wasteland it's a wasteland survival guide to help people and I need a field researcher to test my theory's and prove them true so I can out them in the book would you be interested". "That does sound helpful" I said "alright I'll help you out". "Oh that's great just tell me when you want to start" she said genuinely beaming now. "Ok I will" I said walking out and down the path heading towards the doors of megaton out into the wastes.

I headed out and then down towards Springvale, most the houses where filled with dirt and nothing else but I decided to loot through them anyways and found a few useful things. There were some bobby pins, a few bottle caps and even a magazine. I made my way to Silvers house and went inside. "Who the hell are you" asked a gruff voice "did Moriarty send you". "Yes he sent me here he told me you owe him some caps". "Well he's a lying bastard those caps are mine I earned them" she told me. "How about we make a compromise alright" I said, "Oh ya like what" she said. "You give me the caps you owe him and I'll tell him your dead he won't bother you again". "Wait you'll really do that well I guess your right here is everything I have take it and please leave me alone" she said while handing me 400 caps. I nodded and headed back to megaton and into the saloon. "Ok Moriarty here are the caps" I said as I handed it over to him. "Good job lassie" he said with a grin taking the caps. "Now where did my father go" I demanded. "He headed off to that Galaxy News Radio to talk to that disk jockey 3-dog". "Ok" I said satisfied I now had a new lead I stepped out of the saloon and walked towards the doors of megaton.

I brought up my pit-boy to look at my map to see where the radio station broadcast was coming from. It looked like it was coming from the middle of D.C I would need more ammo and weapons before I can get there. I walked out into the wasteland and climbed up a small mountain of rocks that had a good view of the area so I could look over some of the wasteland. I can already tell this is not going to be easy.

Dad why did you leave? Where did you go?