Wanderer's Diary: Week Three
Day 15: Taking Stock
Went back and recovered the Brotherhood Outcast power armour, energy weapons, raiders' weapons, including flamer. Caravans stopped by Arefu. As in, multiple of them. Explained the situation. We did business. I sold:
1. The Brotherhood Outcast power armour sets.
2. All but one assault rifle.
3. Pistols; all my .32s, Chinese, and 10MMs, including the silenced one I got from Burke and fixed up with parts from Amata's. With the scoped magnum, I have no need for handguns that weak.
4. The sawn-off shotgun.
5. Laser rifles.
6. Laser pistols.
7. Plasma pistols.
8. All but one plasma rifle.
9. All my mines. I have no need for an explosive weapon I can't throw.
10. Chinese sword from Vault 106.
11. Combat knife from Sam Warrick.
12. So much other leftover shit from the Family that I am not even going to bother listing it.
Total caps made: A lot.
Not counting the stuff I would go on to sell to the caravans, I looted the following from Arefu and Maresti, where the Family were based:
1. Vance's coat, because it looks nice. Yes, I pulled the clothes off a dead man because I wanted them. I know I'm shameless. I already did this to a vault security guard back in 101 and to Tenpenny.
2. Vance's flaming sword, apparently which he built itself, and a set of blueprints for how to make my own. The technical term for it is "shishkebab."
3. A pristine condition regular sword taken from a cabinet in Vance's room, referred to by the cabinet's label as "Vampire's Edge."
4. Another mini nuke.
5. Another bobblehead for the collection found in Evan King's house. This one is for repair.
6. Three more books for my library. One new one, Lying, Congressional Style, which I have read already and found to be hilarious. Two copies of books I already own, Tumblers Today and Pugilism Illustrated.
On a related note, I skimmed both of the new duplicates, plus the extra copies of Tesla and You, Duck and Cover! and the other Tumblers that I picked up recently. I think these new ones are better quality than the ones back in Megaton. They're cleaner. I'll keep the duplicates and sell the tattier ones back home.
And from the merchants, I purchased all the crap I need to build that rock-it launcher and the Nuka-grenades, which I will get right on as soon as I can bring myself to care.
For now though, I really don't. My apathy is all consuming. I'm going to stay in this ruined town for the rest of the day, and tomorrow, if I can work up enough of a fuck to give, I guess I'll journey out to see about completing some of the rest of my tasks. Maybe Minefield next. I sold all the mines today because I'm going to inevitably pick up more when I get there anyway.
At least Moira appreciates my work.
No. I'm not bitter. I'm not even going to think about Arefu.
Day 16: Ugly, Dumb, Mutant Scum
Okay, fine! You want to know what happened with Arefu?! I'll tell you!
I don't know what exactly happened, but I can take a wild fucking guess and say that this is that fucking cannibal Ian West's fault.
The way I see it, he must have ran right back to Arefu after I rescued him and told them all that Vance was the second coming of Jesus Christ, because he's such a fucking saint, that when he eats people, he restricts himself to just sucking the blood out their necks.
No doubt he praised the Family to high heaven and made me out to be the bad guy for wiping out the cannibal gang, and being stupid wastelanders, they believed this asshole immediately, and didn't think twice about shooting at me on sight when I returned to give them the news, never mind asking for my side of the story.
As far as I'm concerned, that lying motherfucker is responsible for Arefu's destruction, not me. What was I supposed to do? Shrug off the gunfire? There was no cover to hide behind on an open highway, I couldn't go anywhere other than jumping over the side of the bridge to my death, and one of those shots could have hit me in an unarmoured spot if I let them take shots at me long enough! I had to fight back. And by fighting back, Arefu got killed.
And Ian West IS a liar. He couldn't have told them anything resembling the truth if what he told them got them to throw explosives down the highway and shoot at me. And I knew that. That's why when I had finished walking through the rest of the town's residents and I found Ian cowering in his house at the end, I didn't just kill him, I smeared him over the front of it and left a big red stain.
I digress though. That's all in the past now. This is the present, and in the present, I have bigger problems than pissed off humans to deal with. Remember I wrote in this journal a few weeks ago about all the things that President Eden warned me against on Enclave Radio? Well, I came across another of them today.
Today, I met a super mutant.
Actually, that's wrong. The way I wrote that sentence implies I only met one of them. I met a whole fucking gang of them.
After Arefu had turned out so bad, I headed north back to Seneca and began walking east in hopes of finding Minefield, and hopefully Canterbury Commons too, because I've been meaning to check that place out. On my way, I passed through a place called Hallowed Moors Cemetery, which was home to a whole group of these big ugly green bastards.
One of them had a minigun, a few others had hunting rifles, and the rest tried to beat me to death with whatever they had found. Things got worse when a malfunctioning pre-war Robobrain and some tentacle-faced abomination also entered the fray. I wanted to cower in the ruins of the old church and just wait for either the robot or the super mutants to die, but minigun mutant followed me inside, where they were also keeping a captive wastelander.
I couldn't risk the potential harm to the captive, so then I did something really dumb, and ran out into the open, just as the others had finished with the Robobrain. At least that machine managed to kill fuckface before the muties rushed me.
I swear, I have never taken a more painful beating in all my life. Growing up, I always thought Butch could throw a damn hard punch, but now I realise what a complete and utter pussy he really is. Firstly, because this green monstrosity, that managed to get within beating range and disarm me, just after I had dropped the last of his friends, almost knocked me out cold with a single punch.
And secondly, because I hit the mutant back, and I PUNCHED HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF.
I'm not even kidding! His head literally separated from his shoulders and went flying back behind him. I didn't even realise I did it, until I punched again and hit the still standing corpse in the shoulder and separated his arm as well! I have never seen such a brutal dismemberment in all my life!
And I did that! Accidentally! With my fists!
I must have been mutated by the radiation to become super strong or something. It's this wasteland air. It's making me superhuman. I bet if I gave Butch a pat on the shoulders now, I'd liquidise him.
Nevertheless, the captive was very grateful for my help, and got away clear. The church also had some interesting items. A mini nuke and another copy of the Big Book of Science were among the more mundane findings. My two favourite finds there were actually an issue of the D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, which is about what you'd expect it to be and I am very happy to have found, and a holotape recording by a woman named Tina.
This thing is old. Pre-war. But it still plays. Turns out that this woman's brother was a soldier in the U.S. army, and he stole a pass code for a secure military bunker where they were going to ride out the apocalypse, because they couldn't get into a vault. Her number was five.
I wonder if they ever made it? It's sad to think, in a way. All the people that died. I never really thought about it before. The fact that we're living in a world destroyed long ago was just one of those facts of life I accepted and never really thought about. Hearing a voice from before the war though... gets me thinking.
You know, they say that ghouls are the way they are because of radiation. They're apparently really long lived because of it too. Most ghouls are probably like the way they are because they were around when the bombs dropped. I wonder if Gob the bartender was there when the world died?
If I ever see him again, I'm going to ask. I want to know his story.
Well, I got a decent hunting rifle out of it too, and another minigun. So there's also that. I was worried I wouldn't be able to carry all my stuff, but I've got a pretty strong back now after a two weeks out here. I can handle it.
After that, I needed a doctor, so I wandered around for a bit until I eventually stumbled across Big Town, which is where I am now. They've got super mutants attacking them from one side, slavers from another, their town doctor has been captured and taken up to some place called Germantown, and they also had a severely injured man here too, a fellow called Timebomb.
I may not be able to do anything about my own injuries, thanks to a lack of stimpaks, but I did have all the equipment on hand to perform an impromptu operation on Timebomb. Dad's lessons weren't wasted after all. I saved a man's life. Feels good.
The kidnapped doctor also had another Internal Medicine in her clinic, which I stole. Feels good too.
From now on, if any books I've found are just copies of something I've read before, I'm just going to skim it quickly to see if there are any real differences in quality or content, like pages missing from one version that weren't from another, and just sell off the inferior copies. Red's D.C. Journal here has a whole chapter that the one I found in the church didn't have, and the Big Book of Science from that same church has an index that was absent from the Jury Street Metro version.
Anyway, this town looks like it's going to go to shit pretty fast unless I do something. After Arefu, I'm really wary of going off to fight bad guys and rescue people, but I want to at least give them a chance to not be dicks to me.
So, we're going to try the Arefu formula again; I marked Big Town and the cemetery on my map so I know where I'm starting from, set a waypoint for Germantown, and I've stored my equipment away in the clinic, which is where I'm staying for the night, and tomorrow I'm going to head over there to rescue this Red person and see if I can end the threat of the super mutants.
BUT.
I swear to GOD, if I find that Red is a super mutant, and I return to Big Town after rescuing her to find a bunch of fucknuggets shooting at me because she told them that the minigun wielding hulks who attack people on sight were really just shy and that I murdered them because I'm the antichrist, that I'm going right over to Evergreen Mills, picking a fight with the raider leader, taking over their gang, and using them to bring down a rain of fucking destruction on this entire wasteland.
I am talking scorched earth and rivers of blood. I will personally kill every tenth wasteland scumbag I ever meet and use their teeth and rib cages to construct a fifty storey tower dedicated to my greatness, so I can lord over the rest of these primitives, and throw these mini nukes I keep finding down on the general populace from on high.
Then I'm going to use my raider gang to dig out a cavern underneath my tooth and rib cage tower, and build my own vault, entirely out of my victims' skulls, and I will seal myself inside it and just live in there by myself, alone, forever. Because no-one else in this hellhole has the required IQ to be allowed entry into my skull vault.
And maybe one day an enterprising wasteland hero can breach my vault and kill me to rescue one of the many people I will inevitably kidnap for repair and maintenance materials, and he can take him or her back to their home town and be shot at by them. And thus, the cycle will continue.
My skull vault will be a haven for the intellectual murderers of the Capital Wasteland for years to come. I will build a LEGACY, son!
Day 17: The Old Man Who Could
Well, things turned out okay, I guess. The super mutants of Germantown are dead. I got Red out of there, along with another guy called Shorty. Both got back to Big Town safe and sound. Neither of them, or the town itself, have tried to kill me. In fact, I helped save the town from further attack by getting some wrecked robots I found there up and running again and turning them into sentries to protect the bridge in and out of the settlement.
Those people love me now. That Timebomb guy I saved gave me his lucky eight ball, which is a nice gesture, even if not particularly useful to me in any practical sense, and Red's offering her medical services to me for free from now on.
Big Town looks like it's going to survive. I didn't have much in the way of stimpaks, so I purchased all her spares off her. Surprisingly, she accepted the minigun and a few other spare weapons as payment. I guess Big Town doesn't have much in the way of firepower. I was happy to offload those at any rate.
And as always, let's talk loot.
By FAR the prize I'm happiest about, is a great monster of weapon known as a Fat Man that I found in the police HQ in Germantown. This thing is what fires those mini nukes I've been finding around the place. NOBODY can fuck with me now. This thing will utterly destroy all my enemies.
In addition, more copies of the D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, Lying, Congressional Style and Tumblers Today, all good condition I might add, and another Nuka-Cola Quantum for my growing collection.
I also picked up a new type of gun. A 10MM submachine gun, which should be useful for medium-to-close range encounters. Shotguns are useful for close combat, and I prefer to keep the rifles for longer distance. This thing provides a happy mid-way point.
Still haven't offloaded a lot of my other equipment. I still have that raider's flamer from my encounter outside the bed and breakfast. I want to keep this though. I keep finding flamer fuel tanks, and with this thing I can start up fires and cook meat just like that.
Plus, it's surprisingly easy to fit into the backpack when I break it down.
After that, I returned to my journey.
I had marked the police HQ earlier, so I headed back up there, knowing that Minefield was a ways east of it. Came across some wastelanders and some super mutants fighting on the way. Took care of it. Wastelanders were happy.
And then I reached Minefield, which I have now discovered why people think is haunted. Because there was a sniper here who kills anyone who enters. He wasn't just aiming for me, either. This guy was smart. He shot at cars near me, and tried to kill me with the miniature nuclear explosion that would result.
To make matters worse, if I dived out of the way of the cars or his gunfire, I was likely to land on a mine. I'm pretty sure he placed all the mines here himself, too. It was all very meticulously planned out. This guy had to be some kind of tactical genius.
I had my own sniper rifle, thanks to my encounter with Warrick, but I didn't know if I could get him. He was too distant, and he knew when I had my sights on him. The Fat Man doesn't have the right range, there were still mines all around, and I could only disarm so many at a time. Plus if I spent too long out in the open, I was liable to get shot.
It took me a good few hours to get over to the ruined building he was in and get up to his position, but I did it. Stabbed him right in the shoulder with Vance's sword, and followed up with a decapitation. Got his name from him before he died. Arkansas. Like the state.
He had a key on him that allowed me entrance into the houses around Minefield, and I'm staying in one right now. Even now though, I'm still thinking of him. He was a kill I had to earn, not one just given to me. That old man put up a fight. He was a worthy adversary, and I respect him, even in his death.
After all, not just anyone can stand up to me. Because let's face it, I am fucking awesome.
Day 18: Having a Plan
Disarmed all the mines in the town, marked it on my map and looted the place before I left today. The houses contained a few books. Pugilism Illustrated, Tumblers Today, D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, and another Grognak comic. All kind of a disappointment really. All things I'd read before, and not in particularly good condition either. Even the Grognak comic was an issue I've already read.
There were a few other old books, but nothing that interest me. Mostly boring stuff, or mediocre romance novels. A few weapons were around, but nothing new. There were some more stealth boys though, which was good because I used up the ones I already had with me yesterday trying to avoid Arkansas.
After that, I left town. Came across some dogs on my way out, gathering around a corpse. They look just like they did in our biology text books back in the vault. I'm surprised that they're not mutant abominations like the rest of the wildlife. I would have tried to tame one and take it as a pet if they didn't keep trying to bite my arms off and forced me to shoot them.
Well, after that I looked at my map again, and realised that Canterbury Commons, the place I heard about on GNR that is also suffering attacks right now, was just east.
It was a long walk, but I decided it was for the best, since I don't know when I'm going to be up this way next. Now I'm actually in the town, staying the night in an old garage. There's only one bed here, and two people already living in this place, but I had the caps to convince them to rent me the bed for the night.
I'm not entirely unconvinced that they will murder me in my sleep to take the rest of my money, because they saw that I had a lot. Just to be safe, I picked up a tire iron I found in here and I'm sleeping on top of it. It's just uncomfortable enough that I'll probably be waking up periodically throughout the night, and if worst comes to the worst, I can beat these people to death with it.
Because that's my survival strategy. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet. It's the only way to be sure.
Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of freaks in costumes commanding giant ants and robots to fight in the streets earlier, but I don't think that's anything out of the ordinary for the Capital Wasteland.
Day 19: It's a Sunny Day in Metropolis.
RIGHT.
So let's go in chronological order.
Woke up, still feeling tired. Checked that the people I stayed with didn't steal any of my shit. Found that they hadn't. Stole their copy of Dean's Electronics anyway, because I'm sure that in an alternate reality they probably did. Went out and got to know the residents of the town.
Uncle Roe appears to be the leader of this place. He was a pretty good guy. I spoke to him about the town and its history, and he mentioned that the caravan merchants I've been dealing with since Megaton actually circle the whole Capital Wasteland and make their final stop here. He let me know a bit about all of them too.
Then I had an idea, to unify the merchants that stop by Canterbury Commons into one greater company. By providing an investment of caps, they could all get better stock and expand their inventory, allowing greater trade and stimulating the economy of the wasteland. I think I just found a way to help pick this place up a bit.
Almost three thousand caps of mine I put into the caravans. I hope they're worth it.
Anyway, by that point I had been ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room long enough, and I asked about the two quote unquote "superheroes" from yesterday.
There was a rational explanation for both, talking about childhoods, loss of parents, obsessions with robots.. .Like a comic book origin story. I will just sum up the deal with both of them right now though, to keep it short and sweet: They're both fucking crazy.
The douche with the bucket on his head is Scott Wollinski. He calls himself the Mechanist, has robot minions to fight for him, used to be the town's mechanic or something, and makes his base in the robot repair centre north of the town. The bitch in the ant costume is Tanya Christoff. She commands an army of ants, somehow, calls herself the AntAgonizer, and lives in some hole south of the town.
I scouted out both the places real quick and marked them both, plus Canterbury Commons itself on my map. I wasn't really sure what to do about either of them, to be honest.
According to the townspeople, the AntAgonizer just by herself was barely a threat when she first appeared alone, and was something of an amusement. Then Scott took it all seriously and started fighting her with robots, and now they think this is getting out of hand.
That's why I'm unsure of which moral path to take here. Scott's got good intentions, but he's clearly the bigger threat to the town. Whereas ant bitch is actively trying to destroy these people, but they never had a problem with her until the fights escalated, which wasn't her fault in the first place.
I spent most of the day just hanging around town, trying to decide what to do.
Met some of the merchants while I was. That guy who I sold some of the Outcast power armour to and purchased the rock-it launcher schematics from back in Megaton was one of them. Crazy Wolfgang is his name. He thanked me for my investments by giving me some stealth boys.
I also reunited with a weapons trader who I've seen around before and sold some stuff to. Lucky Harith. Seems pleasant enough. Gave me another mini nuke for my new Fat Man. He also took the liberty of relieving me of all my spare guns, mines, grenades, and to my surprise, chems too. I wasn't expecting him to buy my chems, but I certainly wasn't complaining. I've found surprisingly little use for them. Especially the Mentats.
Well, after that I rented out that garage again to stay another night. My temporary landlords weren't happy about it, but they weren't about to turn down the caps. I think they've been sleeping on the floor since I arrived. Hey, I don't care what happens to them. They're wastelanders. They're probably used to this. But I'm a vault dweller. I expect a certain level of comfort, like a bed. I tried sleeping on a cave floor once, and that was the worst night of my life.
I'm still going to hide my stuff somewhere underneath some rubble in town and sleep on top of that tire iron again in case of night murders. They're more pissed off with me than they were before, so it helps to be safe.
God, I'm getting jittery lately. It's been too long since I've killed someone. I keep getting paranoid. That's what this is. I'm probably convincing myself that Dominic and Machete are going to murder me so that I can justify it in my own mind if I decide to murder them myself later on.
Well no, brain. It's not going down like that. Even if it is more for practical reasons than anything, I actually do have a moral code which outlaws that kind of behaviour.
Not that that means I'm not keeping the tire iron anyway. I've grown attached to it.
Actually, you know what? Fuck it. Tomorrow, I'm going to just pick a superhero and kill them.
Day 20: Adventures of the Wasteland Wanderer, Issue #3.
I stormed the Mechanist's forge first. Yes, I decided to take down the hero first and deal with the villain later. Bite me.
It was all easily dealt with. There were a lot of robots in there, the most annoyingly persistent being the sentry bots, but I happened across a supply of pulse grenades while in there, which are especially made for dealing with robots, and quite effectively ruined them.
Sad I used them all up, because those could have been useful to me in future. Unlike the frags, which I've started selling as soon as possible to lighten my load, I have no risk of dying if one of these accidentally goes off. Plus, I do still plan to raid the facility near Tenpenny Tower one day.
The Mechanist I confronted once all his minions were dead. He was a good guy, so I gave him a chance to back down. I talked him out of his stupidity, and he gave me his costume and left. That was easy.
I took the copies of Nikola Tesla and Lying, Congressional Style I found in there too. These look to be good quality, though not as good as the versions I already have. Might fetch a nice price though.
Additionally, I happened across a Nuka grenade while here, of exactly the design my schematics were specifying. I took it with me, hoping to test its effectiveness. I want to see how much punch one of these really packs before I try to make my own.
Next, the AntAgonizer. I went back to her lair next, and made my way through the caves. I shot my way through an army of ants and found her at the very end of the place, seeming rather pleased that I had defeated her nemesis for her. She asked me to hand over his stupid looking armour, but little did she know that I was still carrying my shotgun not because I wanted to lean on it as I got down on one knee to pledge my allegiance to her, but because I was about to remove her head with it.
Damn, her body was a mess afterwards. It was like that super mutant all over again. I just seem to witness the bloodiest deaths.
Anyway, I stripped the armour off the remains of her corpse, sort of as a way to prove I took down both the superheroes. I also picked up another Quantum and another stealth boy in there.
I returned to town later with my new trophies to prove my victory. They were very pleased with me, and I made six hundred caps in reward money. Because I really needed more caps. Seriously.
Another merchant also approached me to thank me for investing in his caravan too. This one was a doctor, called Hoff, who gave me some stimpaks. Those are always good.
Well, I did it. I cleansed the world of superheroes and supervillains in a day. Really, I was disappointed to find that both were all theatrics and no fight. Their underlings did all the work really, and the Mechanist was stopped by just talking to him. There was no challenge. Arkansas was a better superhero than either of these two.
But then I realised, I still had the armour of both... I had the powers of both...While the AntAgonizer may have been too weak to fight properly, and the Mechanist too easily swayed from his path, I have the strengths of both and none of the weaknesses! So tonight, I put on the helmet of the ant queen and the body armour of the master of machines, equip my flamethrower, and descend from my new lair in the robot repair centre down onto the town.
Tremble, Capital Wasteland! For you are witnessing the rise, of the Steel Insect!
Day 21: A Stupid, Foolish Mistake.
Okay, so the wasteland isn't ready for the rise of the Steel Insect just yet, but my day will come.
I say that mainly because I came out the front of the repair centre I stayed in today, and found a bunch of Talon Company mercs politely waiting just outside my door for me. I soon found the Mechanist's armour to be woefully inadequate for stopping gunfire compared to Talon Company's own armour.
Though testing has revealed that Talon mercs are still vulnerable to flamethrowers.
Well, after that I went south. I stumbled across two things of note. First of all, a vault, which immediately sent me running screaming when I saw it. Second of all, the Corvega factory. That's a place where they made cars before the war. I went inside in search of adventure and fortune, and was immediately set upon by giant mutant ants.
Sadly, dressing like a spastic didn't seem to work for me like it did for Miss Christoff, and I had to kill them all. I now have ant meat to last me for days, and a surprisingly large number of books I found in and around there as well, which I'll get to later. One in particular was hard to get to because it was stuck in a footlocker that try as I might, I couldn't bust open. Good thing I found a key.
Then I headed southwest towards Megaton, and stumbled across the Chryslus building, which is the headquarters of the company behind Corvega. This place held super mutants instead of ants, and that made me sad.
There I found something that made me smile. Guns and Bullets? Could it be? A book that interests me that I don't have thirty extra copies of already because I'm too retarded to sell them while I'm in the town where all the trade caravans congregate? Ooh...I'm saving this for later.
After that, I checked my map again. It turns out I came around in a circle from Big Town, and I was coming to the close of it. I figured, "Hey, I got an idea. Instead of going to Megaton, I should close the circle. I'll go north here and return to Big Town to stay for the night, and in between I'll hit all the pre-war ruins where there might be interesting things."
So I did.
BAM! Hit one: Bethesda. All kinds of crap there, but the thing that makes it all worth it was the bobblehead. Adding another vault boy to the collection. Thank you random pre-war corporation of unknown function.
BAM! Hit two: A raider outpost just east of Bethesda. Nothing much of note there aside from more ammo and parts to repair my weapons, though I did pick up a combat knife there (off a dead raider) that I've taken a liking to. I don't know why. I just like it. Maybe the handle just feels more comfortable than the last one I had? I call it Stabhappy. I think I'm going to use this.
BAM! Hit three: Wheaton armoury. And that's where I am now, and where things really went to shit. I fought my way through the raiders inside and out just fine, but then I made the mistake of assuming that I was infallible, because as a vault dweller, very little is able to pose a challenge to me.
Ah, the hubris. Sometimes, I need to reminded that I am not, in fact, immortal. I know, it's an easy mistake to make. But yes, it's true; I do have weaknesses.
One of those is radiation.
I heard the Pipboy warning me, but I needed to plunder the armoury. That was the point of this excursion; to loot things. Still though, I pressed on through the place with a bit of Rad-X and the occasional dose of RadAway.
I eventually did reach the armoury itself at the bottom, and I got the door open. I think that armoury door was the toughest lock to date I ever successfully picked, even if I did use Mentats to do it. The Mentats weren't enough for that footlocker...
Anyway, in there, I found more anti-radiation supplies, which was good because I sold a lot of my stock due to the fact I didn't seem to use it a lot. I found suits for radiation protection too, and put one on.
While I was at it, I began collecting up everything I found. I couldn't help it. It was like being in Fort Independence again. So many missile launchers and miniguns and sniper rifles and ammunition boxes and various other killing equipment. I couldn't leave it all behind. I had to drag it to the surface.
And I did. And now I'm on the top level of the armoury again with all the weapons and ammunition I collected. My problem though? Well, there are a few problems.
1. I panicked when my rads were getting too high and used up too much RadAway too quickly. More than I should have. I have since ran out.
2. I still have some minor radiation sickness despite that, and I feel fucking awful.
3. There is simply too much equipment here for me to carry it all any further. Not just the stuff I picked up here, either. There's just too much crap in general.
Especially the books. I've picked up so many copies of books I already own since leaving Megaton. To list all my findings today alone, I have four more copies of the Big Book of Science, three more copies of U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes, two more Chinese Army manuals, two more Dean's Electronics, and one copy each of Lying, Congressional Style, Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor and Pugilism Illustrated.
I also picked up another Quantum, two more mini nukes and four more stealth boys.
I've gone over a number of scenarios, and the way I see it, I can't carry all this with me and also live. It's one or the other.
So, here's my solution. All the weapons of the same make, I'm going to break down. I'll use the parts to build one single weapon in almost pristine condition. That'll be less weight, but probably the same value. Still not light enough to carry, but that's only one part of the plan.
I'm going to keep all my extra equipment here in the armoury, hidden in an out of the way place on this floor where there's not too much radiation. I'll separate it into two piles. Things I want to sell, and things I want to keep.
I need medical help, and I need to move fast. So I'll dump everything here except the lightweight radiation suit, some caps to pay for services, the scoped revolver, the SMG, and Stabhappy. That'll be enough for me to move quickly and still defend myself. Once I'm better off, I can make a few runs between the armoury and Canterbury Commons to sell this stuff a bit at a time, until my load is light enough that I can carry it all in the backpack again.
And this will be a lesson to me to not pick up every little thing I might find interesting, because that shit gets heavy.
I've marked down the major locations I've been to so I can get a clearer idea of where I am and where I've been. Chryslus, Corvega, Bethesda, Vault 108, Wheaton. I think the closest place is actually Canterbury Commons, but there's no doctor there. Unless Doc Hoff stuck around, but I doubt it. My best hope is to make a run for Big Town and hope there are no super mutants in the area.
Well, here goes nothing I guess. Wish me luck.
Day 21, Part Deux: Ouch
Hey, diary?
I think I'm dying.
I was going to get to Big Town. I really was. But there was this rocky sort of area in the way. A small chasm with a bunch of boulders on one side, but apparently a path through, because there was a rope bridge up ahead. I was heading for the rope bridge, when I saw that... thing...
Thing is the only word for it. It was like Satan fucked a lizard, and I was meeting the baby. Only it was all grown up. It was chasing down this wastelander. Whoever he was, he managed to cripple the thing's leg by the time I arrived, which slowed it down a bit. I tried to save him from it. I shot at it with the revolver, but it was pretty tough, and didn't go down.
It gutted him, and then turned on me. And yes, while it was crippled, that thing still moved fast. And I was already in close range. I was backed up against the chasm and shooting at it. I did kill it, but it got a swipe at me first. My radiation suit cushioned the blow so that that by itself wasn't fatal, but as it happened, the suit was destroyed, and I fell into the chasm.
I've broken a leg and both my arms.
Because the suit was torn to ribbons and falling off anyway, I removed it. That left me in just a thin vest and some boxers. I was bleeding from the stomach, I had broken limbs, I had radiation sickness, I was laying in the dirt, without my radiation suit to protect me...
And then came the radioactive rain.
Did I? Yes, I did. I just coughed up blood.
Well, it's been a good run. I'm fucked.
Guess this proves God is real after all. No doubt this divine punishment for all those murders. I'm sure I read in a bible once that that's a sin. Pretty big one too. I only wish I could say I was sorry for them.
Maybe when Three Dog gets news of this and tells my story on GNR, dad will hear it. I did some good. I saved Megaton. I saved Big Town. I saved Canterbury Commons. Maybe he'll hear about those. And maybe he'll be proud of me for them. And maybe he won't judge me too harshly for Arefu.
In fact, that's my one real wish. That when I'm gone, people will examine my actions, see all the people I saved, and then ask;
"Why would this upstanding individual slaughter an innocent town then?"
And they will conclude that the people of Arefu were simply dicks.
BECAUSE THEY WERE.
YES. I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WEEK. I'M STILL NOT OVER IT. FUCK YOU IAN WEST. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUU!
