Chapter 3: The Scourge, Part I

Dear Marie,

If you are still listening this, it must mean that I'm either dead, or I wasn't able to convince you otherwise from seeking the truth of where your father comes from, and what he did to leave his mark upon this world. Perhaps after you listen to this holotape, you'll never want to associate yourself with me ever again.

The Scourge was a terrible and cruel thing, even for a place as terrible and unforgiving as the Wasteland. Ahh, but let me not get ahead of myself.

Back when I was with the Brotherhood of Steel, we decided that we needed to leave for Washington D.C. in the east coast, in order to recover vital technology, a super weapon built by the pre-War government before the war. Of course, I, along with others, weren't told what the weapon was.

My father, Abraham, was a scribe in the Brotherhood, and he was also fanatically loyal, the fool. My brother Isaac was a Paladin, and we were all under the command of Head Paladin Owyn Lyons. We were composed of a small squad of Paladins, surrounded by a large core of initiates, such as myself.

Initiate Ishmael Ashur! To think that I ever swallowed any of that repulsive ideology makes me shudder.

But anyway, we initiates were a mixture of young men, sons and daughters of scribes or Paladins. Recruits were also in our group. The Brotherhood, back in that time, took some of the locals in as an experiment to see whether locals were worthy of being part of a grand organization that was the Brotherhood of Steel. The Paladins had the latest weapons, including power armor, laser rifles, and plasma pistols. The initiates had a bunch of assault rifles, shotguns, and only a lucky few like myself carried Power Armor.

I wielded a shotgun and a laser rifle.

In our road east, we encountered countless villages and towns, and the occasional shithole raider outpost. Town after town of pissant wastelanders gazed at our armor with curiosity, and the occasional dumbass raider would try to rob us, just to get his head blown off.

Finally, we neared Chicago, a place where the Brotherhood of Steel had an outpost. But instead we found an irradiated river. It was patrolled by some sort of military. Paladin Owyn Lyons told us to retreat and proceed to our original mission east. As we proceeded to leave, snipers out of everywhere appeared.

They took out initiate after initiate, so easily that the Brotherhood of Steel vowed never to accept recruits again. I, however, along with another initiate, survived. Owyn Lyons then decided to promote me to Paladin, and I received a full suit of new T-45 Power Armor, rather than the outdated T-33 armor I was wearing. We proceeded east. And then we encountered the Pitt.

There were three dark green rivers. The last remaining initiate decided to take a drink from the river, and as soon as he put his hand into the river, it was burned to ash. He then turned into a ghoul, and we quickly put him down.

We followed the river to a bridge full of destroyed cars and debris. There were men there, scary enough to give nightmares for days with their countless tattoos, dirt on their faces, and menacing rifles they yielded. There was a group of feral dogs living out of one of the cars. There was a sign at the top that read "The Pitt". There were countless scrawlings in red spray paint that said "Leave!" in menacing, blood-like letters that send a chill down the spine of even the most fierce Paladin.

Head Paladin Lyons motioned to one of our snipers, and she picked off the three men rather quickly. The air in the area was filled with gunshots, so no one was even hardly moved by the loud noise three gunshots emitted, as they simply joined into the air already filled by countless other gunshots emitted routinely by the inhabitants.

We carefully crossed the bridge, looking to avoid all of the booby traps put in place by the habitants. There were a couple of rabid dogs living in the bridge. They look so hungry and underfed, that they charged us despite the fact that there were more of us. Several of our paladins with super sledges quickly took care of them.

When we crossed the bridge, near the entrance, there were several raiders, with Mohawks and leather armor laughing, as they had cornered a woman. She looked as if she was in her twenties, and she wore rags. The men were grabbing her, and were groping her all underneath her robe. She screamed and screamed to the top of her lungs, while the raiders laughed. Her exposed legs allowed the cold drafts of air to enter into the inside of her dress, as the raider's hands did the same. Elder Lyons commanded us to spread out, and we did, in formation, aiming our weapons at the raiders.

Head Paladin Lyons approached the raiders, laser rifle in hand. The raiders were raping the young women, and didn't even look up.

Lyons fired a warning shot, and then the raiders looked up.

"You've got to fuckin' be kidding me!" one of them yelled.

Lyons then told them to surrender.

The raiders then got up from the floor and dashed for their weapons. The woman quickly ran from the raiders, and hid behind a burned out pre-War vehicle that lay as debris next to the entrance.

"I want this one's head on a fuckin' platter!" yelled one of the raiders, pointing at Lyons.

The paladins and I too, fired their weapons at the raiders. I emptied my shotgun at the raider closest to the woman. They were completely annihilated, with their lifeless bodies looking as fierce and evil as they had been in life.

Lyons then coolly walked up to the woman. Her sobbing was the only thing heard in the entire place, as it had seemingly quieted down with the death of those raiders. She refused to take Lyons's hand, instead getting up by herself. Lyons asked the woman for her name. She simply said Midea, and she hurried away. But as she left, she stared at me the whole time…