Chapter 2

Following in His Footsteps and Power of the Atom

As they looked around, the Vault was surrounded by large boulders and outside of that there were small homes that looked like they were burnt. 'Either from a fire, or the radiation when the bombs fell.' Ryan thought. "Where to first?" Sapphire asked. "To Megaton. Hopefully somebody will be there." Ryan replied.

They walked down the path as they walked into the vicinity of the small town of burnt homes. Ryan saw a random bathtub. There were two skeletons in the bathtub. "Poor people." Sapphire said. Ryan nodded. "Ok. Let's keep going." he said.

They came up to a crossroad and there were two skeletons there. They both had .44 caliber revolvers in their hands. Ryan picked them up. "Could come in handy soon." he said. Ryan clipped them to his belt and a feeling of wonder came to him. "Hey Sapphire. Do you think that the whole D.C. area is like this?" Ryan asked. "I don't know. It is probably worse." Sapphire said.

She shivered at the thought. Ryan walked up to a sign that said,

MEGATON -

This was written in horrible handwriting and with faded paint. "Ok? I guess we're going the right way?" Ryan asked in confusion. "I think so..." Sapphire replied in confusion.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" someone yelled. Ryan and Sapphire turned around. It was another Lucario but it had ragged clothes with spikes. "DIE!" it yelled. The Lucario shot a bullet.

Ryan and Sapphire barely dodged the bullet. They ran for cover. Ryan took out the two .44 caliber revolvers and popped out from the cover and dived, shooting every bullet, as he was in mid-air. Every bullet that Ryan shot entered the other Lucario's body. It fell to the ground.

Sapphire looked over the cover, hoping that Ryan wasn't dead. She saw Ryan on the ground and thought the worst, then, he got up. He brushed his Armored Vault 101 clothes and holstered the pistols. He slowly approached the other Lucario and saw that the gun it was using was a rifle of some sort.

Ryan picked it up. "Here. If I get into trouble again, you take cover and take them out. It seems that this place is very hostile. I just hope Megaton isn't." Ryan said. He threw the gun to Sapphire. She caught it. "O-Ok." she said. "Where did you learn to shoot that good?" she added. "I really don't know but I thought it was right as of the moment." Ryan replied.

They searched its body some more and found something that was circular. It read, "Nuka Cola Bottle Caps!" There were 50 of them. "Must be important so let's keep them." Ryan said as he put them in his pocket. He took one last look at the Lucario's body.

The many bullet wounds that were in him were gushing out in bright red, fresh, blood. He looked closer. Its body had a lot of dirt on it. "Possa riposare in pace." he repeated off the top of his head. They slowly walked away.

They walked up an open trail that led to a huge pile of metal that looked like it was meant to protect something. As we got closer we see a two humans with a two headed cow outside with a strange looking robot. "Welcome to Megaton the bomb is perfectly safe I promise." It said as the large metal gates opened to reveal a second metal door.

I look at Sapphire "Okay what the hell do you think it means when he said that?" I ask her our of worried confusion. "I hope it doesn't mean mean that there is an old atomic bomb in the center of town or something worse." She says equally confused. We both enter the gates and we see to our worst fears an atomic bomb in the center of town.

We then see a tall male Zoroark approach us from the bottom of the hill leading up to the gate. "Well well more newcomers." I hear him say quietly. Once he is close to us he holds up his hand to us. "Welcome to Megaton name's Lucas Simms I'm the sheriff and mayor of this town." Both of us shake his hand before responding. "My name is Ryan Hunter and this is my friend Sapphire Waterflower."

"Friendly and well-mannered I think we'll get along swimmingly." He says with a small smile on his face. "Have you seen my father come through here? He was wearing a doctor's coat and a Vault jumpsuit the last time I saw him." I ask with a small amount of hope in my voice. He shakes his head " No sorry I don't have time to keep tabs on everyone who comes through here." I nod then look at the bomb in the center of town.

"Have you given any thought to disarming that bomb?" I ask uneasily. "I don't trust the locals to mess with it hell we even have a church that worships the damn thing." He responds with indifference. "I'll take a look at it and see if I can disarm it." I offered. Lucas gives me a surprised look as if what I did was a completely foreign concept to him.

"Well if you can disarm it I'll pay you 100 caps for the work." He offers. "Caps? You mean these Nuka Cola Bottle caps? What are they for anyway?" Sapphire asks as she holds up the bag I looted from the Lucario "You're kidding right? The caps are currency out in the Wasteland you'll need then to trade and barter with." He calmly explains to us.

"Well since you're helping me I'll tell you what I know I did see someone matching your description walk into Moriarty's Saloon. You might want to check with him first." Lucas says while pointing to a building on the outer edge of the crater that made up Megaton.

I nod and thank him before heading to a small building on the upper level of Megaton that read "Craterside Supply" Above the door in sloppy handwriting. We entered the building and saw a male Mightyena leaning on the wall keeping an eye on us. We see a female Umbreon behind a counter idlely sweeping the floor not paying any attention to us. Once she turned around she finally noticed us and instantly smiled "Well, Hi my name is Moira Brown the owner of this little shop." We look at each other with questioning looks never encountering someone this happy.

"Um…Hi we'd like to do some trading." Sapphire spoke for us. "Of course come with me please." She walks over to a large locker and takes out a key to unlock it. There are several weapons varying from pistols to rifles. 'Guess everyone needs a gun around the wasteland.' I think to myself as we sell random things from the vault as well as our Vault guard armor. Thanks to Sapphire we got a lot of caps when we were done trading.

We walk down the steps and head to the bomb planning to disarm it. We open a lose panel on the side of the bomb and look inside. The interior is almost perfectly intact and of course very dangerous. "Okay let's try and disarm this thing." I say I climb in and look at the various wires running to the nuclear core. I carefully look at where the wires are connected and cut the most important wire that read, "Needed to Arm bomb payload."

I climbed out and stretched from being stuck inside a small cramped enclosure. We turn to go find Lucas but he was already waiting for us at the edge of the small pool of water that surrounded the bomb. "Wow I didn't think you could actually do it well a deal's a deal here are your caps." He lightly tosses a bag to Sapphire who quickly caught it. "There is one more thing. Since you disarmed the bomb why don't you two live here? There's an open house on the second level of Megaton." He offers with a smile. We look at each other then over to Lucas.

We nod and he laughs "Took you two long enough here is the deed and key to the house." He hands me the deed and gives us each a key to the house before leaving. I look at the two items in deep thought 'Live here? I suppose it would be a good idea to have a place to rest. But we won't be staying here for long not when I have to find my father.' I place the items in my bag and sigh.

" Ryan are you okay?" sapphire asks in worry due to my silence. "I'm alright don't worry about me. Let's go to the Saloon." I say quickly and head to the saloon. Sapphire stays in the same place for a few seconds before following. 'He's hiding something. I'll let it go for now but I'll confront him later about it.' She thinks to herself as she catches up to me. We enter the dimly lit building and walk up to the bar to ask a human with molted skin where Moriarty is.

"Hey there furry what can I get you?" He asks in a raspy deep voice. "Let me think about it for a bit." I replied he looks at me strangely as if he was expecting me to do something. "Wait your not going to hit me or threaten me?" He asks. I give him a look of confusion "No I wasn't planning on it why?" I respond

"Nothing it's just everyone tends to beat me up for fun." He says defensively "Wow that's bad anyway can you tell me if Moriarty's here?" I ask. He points to a room behind the bar "He's in that room go ahead and talk to him." He walks away and tries to fix a radio by hitting it. I go over to the room but the door opens and reveals a Human in mercenary clothing. "Ah so the son follows the father." He says with a dark smile on his face. "You know my father?" I ask "Yeah I know your father lived he here before he went into the Vault with you barely born." He said nostalgically. "That's impossible my father told me that he and I were born in the Vault." I say hollowly " 'All Hail the Overseer! We're born in the Vault, we die in the Vault!' Isn't that what they tell you to brainwash you in that damn hole." He says with a smirk knowing he hit the nail on the head.

I sigh " Look I want to find my dad so let's cut to the chase how much do you want for the information?" I ask pulling out my small pouch of caps. He laughs hard "Ah he raised a smart kid 100 caps for what you want to know." I hand him the caps and he counts them before speaking. "Alright your father went into the Northern D.C. area to find a man named Three-Dog and he runs a radio station called Galaxy News Radio with any luck you'll find him there." I nod and walk out of the room.

As we exit a man in a business suit waiting outside "You two ruined 's plans for this town now you must pay." He says as he reaches for a pistol on his belt. I notice this and unholster my dual .44 caliber pistols and fire all of the remaining shots. The bullets riddled his body with holes as he slumped to the ground and the pistol sliding towards us. Sapphire picks it up and holsters it I loot his body and find a pouch with 100 caps in it.

We walk out of the saloon and head to find the house Lucas gave us. We walk in and are greeted by a Mr. Handy robot. "Hello Sir and Madam my name is Wadsworth I am your personal house keeper. If you have need of me all you need to do is ask." It says before moving to another part of the house. I place my pack into a locker that is next to the door and Sapphire did the same.

I walk up the stairs and find a bed net to a desk. I sit at the desk and think about what happened today. Sapphire sits on the bed and looks at me waiting for me to speak. " Ryan I know this must be hard on you but we can't let what we have done get to us." She says trying to comfort me. "It's not that Sapphire I just can't believe my father lied about being born in the Vault." I say while trying to calm my emotions from getting out of control.

"I know it's a little bit of a shock but your father only said that to protect you. It's not like he did it to harm you." She says soothingly. I sigh "You're right but it's still a shock to me anyway let's get some rest. Tomorrow we'll ask around Megaton for some jobs so we can stock up on supplies." I say as I get up from the chair. Sapphire nods and lies down the bed to sleep.

I walk down stairs and grab my pack and use it as a makeshift bed as I try to forget the events that led to me being out in the wastes.

End note: I'd like to say thanks to those of you have been reviewing and a minor note I'm not sure if this is still happening but in the Dialogue where Ryan guns down man in the Saloon he's suppost to say 'Tenpenny' just an FYI