THE CHRONICLES OF THE PRAIRIE.

He woke up lying on his back his head was against a rock as he stared up into the sky, he looked to his left and saw a rising cliff. He sat up and looked at the rock which was covered in blood, "What an odd way to sleep." He said aloud to the rocks surrounding him. He touched the blood, it was still fresh, he looked around for any possible owner for the blood but instead saw a helmet lying nearby, the helmet seemed to be a modified army helm, he could've sworn he owned something similar but couldn't remember where he left it, come to think of it, he couldn't remember much, his name for one which was surely something someone should always know. He touched the back of his head and felt the newly formed scab, "Ah so it was my blood." He said to the rocks again and thankfully they didn't answer. After getting up he walked over to the helmet and donned it as a HUD appeared, he took it off and saw the remains of a Pip-Boy attached to the helmet, whoever he was, he was good at electronics, he put it back on and checked the STAT tab, Jason, it read, so that was his name. He looked up the small cliff, that was probably where he fell from, he stabbed a stimpack he found in his pocket to heal up and began his climb.

Once he had reached the top Jason looked upon the remains of a battle scene, the first thing he noticed was a small ammo back next to a dead brahmin, he walked over and almost tripped over his own gun, funny he remembered his laser rifle, customized to fire a few extra shots per fusion cell, a good mid-range dot scope, yep this one was his all right, Receiver, why he named it that he even he didn't know. Picking up Receiver he continued to walk to the bag stepping over dead soldiers, he'd look at them later. Inside of the duffle was some frag grenades, fusion cells, a .44 pistol, and ammo for the .44. He slung the back over his shoulder and walked over to a corpse wearing some T-45 power armor the only thing left intact was the chest plate, which had an emblem on it, it seemed to be a tower with ball on it with three triangles surrounding the ball, but the triangles had their point cut off leaving a curved section pointed towards the circle, ah he remembered now it was the symbol for the Confederacy of New Texas, the strongest governing power in these parts, that is unless the New California Republic comes in, or those newcomers, the Brotherhood of steel turn out to be worth half of what they say they are. Either way, this was good he was remembering certain things, not his past, but how this world, how the Prairie worked. He looted the man finding some more fusion cells, a somewhat used fusion core, and note.

I don't trust this merc, John. I don't care how many people he's helped, he's probably killed twice as much. John, I Respect you and you decision to hire this merc, this Jason Mistrol. But in the end, don't expect me to put my life on the line for him, cause I don't expect him to do the same for me. And \ I hope you feel the same way too, cause he won't be throwing his neck on the line for you only for the caps he was promised

Moe

So he was a mercenary, a gun for hire, not a bad way to make a living, helping people who can't help themselves. He looked at the other end of the battlefield, it was covered in metal husks of robots, something he didn't want to check out. He looked once more at the symbol painted on the armor, Reunion tower with the radioactive symbol around the ball at the top, he smiled and looked at the real Reunion tower in the distance and set off, if he was to find out more about his past, the best place to start, was New Dallas, the center of the Prairie. After looting some more of the bodies, finding some caps, fusion cells, some stimpacks, Radaway and some .44 ammo he started to walk towards New Dallas, but turned when he heard a creaking noise, it was an assultron trying to get back up and failing. He readied his laser rifle and slowly approached the robot

"Help *chh* me" The assultron said in a robotic tone

"And why should I do that?, I was obviously on their side why would i help you?" It was an honest question, he didn't remember why this group of robots, ranging from Mr. Handys to a Sentry bot would clash with a group of men from the Confederacy, and a mercenary.

"Because, I've * chh* heard of you. *chh* you've helped my *chh* kind before. *chh* Please."

"What can I do? It looks like you took a frag to both your knees and your heads barely even on." It was true the assultron looked barley salvageable, let alone repairable.

"Heh heh heh *chh* I guess I really am going to die, thought there might have been a way."

"I'm sorry I can't help you, what are you? I thought robots couldn't feel."

"You don't remember *chh* my speech before*chh* the battle? It was pretty bad *chh*. We are the Imperium of Robotics, the first know Theconarchy!"

The assault on somehow found the strengrth to lift its hand and clenched it into a fist, "And we will *chh* BE *chh* RESPECTeedd…" the assulton's eyes dimmed as his voice trailed off leaving an ominous feel to the air.

"Well that was an unexpected turn." he mumbled as he turned and continued his path to New Dallas. Whistling a tune, funny how he forgot his past but this song, whatever it was, was still in his goddamn head! He raised his head to feel the wind blowing as he walked along the old road, trees on either side began and continued a small forest, this was a site he got used to a lot of other areas around the Prairie were grass with the occasional group of trees and bushes. He heard a snap of a twig in the background he spun around unholstering the .44 pistol to see a ghoul wearing, was that a vault suit but with gloves? He was dirty too, covered in oil splotches he seemed unarmed but, who knew

"Who are you?" he yelled keeping the pistol steady

"My name i is Michael." He seemed nervous about the gun and kept looking around in surprise like he hadn't seen this world before

"So. Can you please p put the gun down?"

Jason shook his head no "Don't trust you, maybe you're a raider in disguise!"

"Raider? W-what sort of backcountry area did the management drag me to?" He seemed a bit more relaxed but still fear crept in his eyes, good that's what Jason wanted for Michel here to fear him, at least for now.

"You're in The Prairie, specifically, territory owned by the Confederacy of Texas." If he seemed official Michael might think he is official

"The Confederacy of Texas? What? Do you mean we left the U.S.?!"

"U.S.?" Was this ghoul mad, incoherent ramblings or loss common sense was often a sign of a ghoul going feral, was this ghoul going feral?

"Yeah, the United States, I don't know how long I was down there but the United States should still be standing unless management was telling the truth…" a mixture of fear understanding worry and sadness filled his eyes and Jason lowered his gun you couldn't fake that amount of emotion.

"Do you need to sit down?"

"No, no I'm fine.. actually yeah I do." Michael sat on the ground and started to weep dryly as his tear ducts no longer worked

"It will be ok, there are others besides us, but…" how do you tell someone their fate is slavery if this ghoul is truly ignorant of this world he is in for a huge surprise

"I know,I don't look like a normal man." He said between sobs

"It's a bit worse than that, you're what we call ghouls, humans that were mutated and somehow survived radiation, the formation of ghouls is rare and to my knowledge there's only one formed after the Great War and the nukes falling, but ghouls here are seen as less than humans and are well.. slaves a practice, according to some travelers, is unique to here." How he remembered all this and not his past seemed like complete bullshit, whether the Children of the Atom were right or there is some other force up there this seemed unnecessarily cruel, and confusing. " S Slaves?" He seemed past the fact that his entire world was dead, though now he was worried about someone being taking his freedom, Jason then smiled as an idea popped into his head "Yeah and you'll be my slave." it was an ingenious idea, really.

"Wait what?!" He backed away and picked up a rock " No way you're taking my freedom! S-stay away from me!"

"No that's the beauty of it, you'll have all the freedom, and none of the fear of being enslaved by a cruel master, I'll act like I'm your master, you'll live with me and pick up groceries to keep up a front but you'll never actually be a slave you'd just be a roommate."

"Truthfully? Aren't their free, Ghouls?" it took Michael a while to remember the word as he paused before saying it

"There are, but the papers are expensive and lengthy, and if you lose them or someone who wants you gets a hold of them you can be taken as a slave, and it's just not really worth it." It was the truth, he remembered that much.

"If you say so but if find out you were lying…" Michael tried to glare but failed utterly to intimidate Jason, who remembered he had faced worse than a fresh vault dweller.

"Come on I'll take you to New Dallas, that's where my home is, and where I might find some key to remembering my past."

"What you got amnesia or something?'

"Amnesia?" He heard a low growl and swung around raising his pistol

"Whats happe *Mph*" Jason slapped his hand across Michel's hand

"Shh" he looked around for the source as a feral ghoul climbed out from under a car it clothes tattered and ripped its hands covered in dried blood

Michael stared in terror as he looked upon a creature that looked like him but with look in its eyes that scared him to death

All it took was a single shot to the head to kill this threat and Jason was surprised there weren't any more crawling out,

"That's that." he holstered the gun and removed his hand from Michel's mouth

"THAT'S THAT!? YOU JUST KILLED SOMEONE!"Michael yelled as he started to panic pointing wildly at the corpse!

"That wasn't a person anymore, it was freal, it lost its humanity along time ago."

"Fearl?! It looks just like me! I bet it was just an escaped slave!"

"Nope, Feral you could tell by the tattered clothes and the eyes, no human, mutated or not, has that type of glare."

"I was scared, by something primal, in me. That's..." He seemed to calm down

"That's the Prairie for you." he chuckled, this ghoul had a lot to learn, he started to walk on, Michael followed

"So, am I going to go, you know,... feral?"

"Maybe,maybe not, how did you become a ghoul, if you were in a vault?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well ghouls are created by rads, vaults are supposed to block rads from entering. So if you were in a vault, how did you become a ghoul?" Jason's tone grew a suspicious edge, not everyone who was who they said he, she or it was.

"Rads? Do you mean radiation? There was a leak in the reactor that was powering the factory or vault,as you call it."

"Wait, your vault was a factory?"

"Yeah, the entire place was built so that, even in the event of a nuclear apocalypse, we could continue to work." The wind picked up as Michael spoke, while this could mean nothing it could mean something was coming.

"So that's what you meant by management wasn't lying."

"Correct, some of us thought the outside was completely fine, management just wanted a trapped workforce, guess they were just trying to keep us busy."

"Not really, vaults, according to some other escapes, were social experiments, it never really bothered me, though." He heard flapping, definitely bad. He raised his rifle and holsters the .44

"Oh, That makes sense, what are you doing, it only the wind."

"Get down,NOW!"

Jason crouched behind a car, while Michel quickly scrambled under a car, at the sight of a massive winged creature emerged over the horizon it's skin as black as the night and it leathery wings flapped as its talons grip at the air

"What the hell is THAT!?" Michael yelled from under the car

Jason quickly turned and put his finger to his lips, hoping this meant 'quiet' before the war as it did now, apparently it did as Michel promptly shut up

The creature landed on top of the car Jason was hiding behind and looked for the source of the sound it leaned down its head passing over revealing a kink in its leathery armor and Jason readily stabbed a combat knife into it neck and moved to open the wound more open, green blood poured from the creature's neck as it fell to the ground

"Its dead." He said to Michael as he moved out from under the creature

"What is that?" Michael said climbing out from under the car, it made Jason jump a little bit as he resembled a feral ghoul, suddenly a scene hit Jason like a sentry bot, a ghoul, this one definitely not feral, and wearing a helmet with only one eye hole and a strange design on its chest, a broken chain with an eye between the shattered link

"Hold on kid, you'll want to see this." He pointed a 10mm pistol at a woman tied to a chair, it was then he realized he was also tied to a chair and apparently 10 years old or at least in that age range, and that woman, it was his mother!

"No, don't p please don't." His mother pleaded struggling in the chair as the metal pressed against her forehead

Jason both his present and past selves watched in silent horror as the shot rang through out the abandoned Red Rocket, and the ghoul turned and left as reality returned to focus. Michael was standing over him yelling

"WAKE UP!" He continued even as Jason gave him a look of contempt

"Shut up, you idjit!"

"Good your awake I still don't know, WHAT THE HELL THAT THING IS!" He pointed at the creature

"It's a Blackwing." Jason sat up and rubbed his forehead "Just one of the creatures that roam the Prairie."

"Alright, now what happened to you?" Michael seemed actually worried a rare trait in the Prairie

"A flashback, a little bit of past revealed I guess."

"Oh…" Micheal seemed unnerved about the answer

"Doesn't matter." he skinned the Blackwing and took some of its meat

"Why did you do that?"

"The Blackwing is a hard thing to kill, we were lucky it leaned over like it did or I wouldn't have been able to slice the hole in its armor on its neck, and its skin and meat are worth some caps."

"Caps?"

"What you use to barter to get ammo, food, armor slaves, new weapons."

"So, money?" he pulled out some crumpled prewar cash

"Not that, those are scraped for cloth." Jason grabbed the cash to inspect it and handed back when Michel protested

"So this is useless now,great."

"I wouldn't say useless, cloth is a useful resource when you know how to use it." Jason did not, in fact, know how to use it but he knew a few guys who did

"Let's get going I think I remember where I live."

"You think?!" Michael grabbed onto Jason's shoulder and tried to turn him around but Jason held strong

"Yes, think I don't remember a lot of things about myself right now, alright!" Jason yelled at Michael as he stepped back surprised by this sudden burst of anger

"Oh yeah I remember, I was going to ask you about that…" Jason closed his eyes and calmed down, so he had a temper, good to know, Jason was focused on this new discovery and calming himself down he hadn't even heard Michael speak

"Let's just get going." Jason said hoping he would have more flashbacks at home, and if his memory was actually right, that was in New Dallas

"Ok, Hey Reunion tower is lit up!" Michael's demeanor changed as he smiled and pointed to the tallest standing structure in New Dallas and no doubt the most well protected, they continued to walk the breeze had died down and a Confederate outpost was in sight so the path should be free of dangers now

"That's where the President lives."

"The President? Of the United States? I thought you said that was all gone?'

"I did, and it is, that's the home of the president of the Confederacy of Texas, I told you about them right? "

"You did, but a confederacy, has a president, is he elected or did he force his way to power?"

"Elected, for life but if enough of the council deem him unfit they can call for a new election."

"Sounds, fishy."

"It's legit, and a good life they have a few settlements here and there, but most farms just trade with New Dallas."

A shot hit the ground in front of them as a man dressed in Combat armor stepped out holding a pipe rifle

"H-hold it right there J Jason!" He yelled pointing his rifle at Jason with a look of pure regret and terror in his eyes peering down the scope