Chapter 2.1 The Outside
William walked down the path from the entrance to the cave that led to Vault 101. He followed the sound of the harmonica.
He found a man who had glasses on, who was in leather armor that was strapped with weapons. His hair was black, and his eyes were green. There was a blackish scarf around the man's neck that was covered in dirt.
The man noticed William walking towards him, but he continued to play his harmonica, and he sang a tune to it.
"Another Vault dweller comes out of his home, to possibly search for his lost dad." The man sang, playing his harmonica.
"How... how do you know that?" William asked. The man put away his harmonica.
"Cause, I saw him walk out of that ol' Vault just like how you did. And he looked a lot like you, so I figured you came after him." The man said.
"Did he tell you where he was headed?" William asked.
"Nah, he was quiet, however... he looked as if he's been in the wastes before. He came up to me and asked where Megaton was, I told him it was near here... and he went off on his way." The man said.
"Megaton? Where's that?" William asked.
"Hmm... well you seem like a nice kid. Tell you what, I'll lead ya there, and tell ya bout the wastes." The man said. The man began to walk towards the ruins of Springvale, William followed him.
"So Megaton's past these ruins right?" William asked.
"Yeah, but before Megaton, like I said, I'm gonna teach you about the wastes and how to survive in the wastes." The man said, pulling out his harmonica again. He played a single note, and something growled, and jumped out of nowhere.
It was a rabid dog of the wastes, the man pulled out a combat shotgun from one of the straps on his armor. He aimed at the approaching dog, and fired.
The shot hit dead-on and killed the dog. The man put his gun to his side and continued walking.
"So... what was that supposed to teach me?" William asked.
"That anything can be lurking around the next corner. Come on..." The man said, he walked to one of the half-destroyed houses in Springvale.
There was a safe in the ruins of the house, and a rotting corpse on a mattress next to it, it had bite marks that looked like those of a canine.
"Ah... he probably was traveling through to Megaton, and he probably stopped to rest... maybe he put some of his valuable stuff in the safe before he was mauled by the dog. Here." The man said, pulling something out of his pocket and handed it to William.
It was a lockpick. William took it and standed there looking confused.
"What? Don't you know how to pick a lock, or do I have to teach you that too?" The man said.
"I don't know how to pick a lock..." William said.
"Oh, come on. That's one of the basic steps of survival out here... here give me that... look closely while he do this." The man said, taking the lockpick back. He crouched down to the safe and began to pick the lock with William behind him, watching.
Eventually the safe popped open, and the man took all of the contents of it for himself.
"Wait... you aren't giving me any of it?" William asked.
"Why would I do that? That's another rule of the wastes, whatever you find that isn't property of someone else, then it's yours. Of course you could take the property of someone else, but... I don't think their gonna be too happy bout it." The man said, pocketing the caps.
The man stopped, as if he heard something.
"What?" William asked.
"Don't you hear it?" The man asked, pulling out a sniper rifle from his armor's straps.
"Hear what?" William asked, but then he heard it.
A patriotic tune... then it ended and a voice was heard.
"Hello again, this is President Ede..." Just then the sound of the man's sniper rifle being shot interrupted the eyebot.
The eyebot exploded into pieces, and the man and William walked over to look at it.
"What... what was that?" William asked, picking up a piece of the eyebot to look at it closer.
"It's an Enclave Eyebot, and whenever you see those things, shoot them." The man said.
"Why?" William asked.
"Because, some people believe that it's just a old pre-war recording... but... I think there's something else... cause why would there be so many of them roaming the wastes. And I've actually examined one up close. They have a little camera on it, so there must be something making those... things." The man said.
William shrugged and continued to follow the man. Just then a ticking noise began to come from William's Pip-boy.
"Hey, kid. Your wrist computer is ticking." The man said.
William looked at his Pip-boy to see why it was ticking.
"...it says that I'm gaining rads. That explains why I have a nautious feeling all of a sudden..." William said.
"Well if you're getting irradiated, then that means I'm getting irradiated which usually means we better hurry the fuck up." The man said, fastening his pace.
After a minute of walking, the ticking slowed down, and eventually stopped altogether.
"There we go... however it says I got thirty rads..." William said, feeling nautious due to being irradiated for the first time.
"Ah, fuck. We're both irradiated and I only have one rad-away left... here, kid." The man said, tossing William his rad-away.
"Err... how do I use it?" William asked.
"Oh, come on kid... damn Vault dwellers..." The man sighed.
"Are you a Vaultist?" William asked.
"A what?" The man asked.
"You know... like racism only about Vault dwellers..." William said.
"What is that? Vault comedy?" The man asked.
"Yeah you could say that I guess..." William asked.
"Well, your Vault comedy sucks ass." The man said.
"Yeah, it truly does..." William said, he dreaded the memory of him reading "Vault Boy's Book of Laughs" when he was a child. The jokes in it were very unfunny and dry comedy.
The man then taught William how to use rad-away.
William began to feel better as he injected rad-away.
William and the man continued to walk on.
"Hey, I haven't asked you your name." William said.
"Name? I don't have a name. I'm just a man..." A Man said.
"Well, my name is William." William said.
"Uh oh... don't look now but there's raiders coming." A Man said, seeing a group of raiders coming their way. "Just lay low kid... that pistol ain't gonna protect you from a group of these motherfuckers..." A Man said, pulling out his sniper rifle again.
There were four of them, and they were greatly equipped, they had bloody raider armor on, and they had laser weaponry that they had gotten from raiding a squad of Outcasts.
William stood away from A Man as he lined up his shots.
Like music to the man's ears, four gunshots were heard in rythym.
William walked towards the man to see if he had gotten them.
"Like shooting retarded raiders in a barrel." A Man said, reloading his sniper rifle.
William couldn't believe it, each raider was dead and had a bullet in their bloody brains. The man had shot them right between the eyes.
The man walked over to the dead raiders and began to loot their still warm bodies.
"How'd you do that?" William asked, excitedly.
"All ya gotta do is aim and shoot." A man said triumphantly.
"You're the best shot I've ever seen." William said.
"Pft... you should see ol' man Tenpenny, all he does all day is stand up there on his tower and snipe... actually shot me in the foot a few dozen feet away from his tower... it was probably a warning shot to tell me to get off of his lawn. Old bastard." A man said.
"Tenpenny's Tower? Where's that?" William asked.
"Hm... let me see your map on your wrist thingy, and I'll show you where it is." A man said.
William pulled up his pip-boy and the man walked over and pinpointed Tenpenny Tower's location and marked it on William's pip-boy 3000.
"There... you'll need caps to get in... or good charismatic skills..." A man said.
"Caps...?" William asked.
"Well, in the wasteland bottlecaps is the currency. Don't ask me why, but they are." A man said.
William planned on going to this tower, later on, but first he needed to search for his father in this "Megaton".
"See that robot in front of that thing of rusted metal?" A man asked.
"Yeah... I see it..." William said, looking at the metal gate with the robot near them.
"That's Megaton. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it's a safe settlement." A man said.
"Well... thanks for everything." William said. "Also... why do they call it Megaton?" William asked.
"Oh, you'll find out, trust me." A man said, he walked away from William and Megaton, playing his harmonica, singing.
"Oh, that Vault kid, he's about to see a wasteland settlement for the first time... I don't think he's gonna be ready for the place that most call hell..." The man sung.
William shook his head, as he didn't understand some of the man's lyrics, the wasteland couldn't be that bad, could it?
William walked towards the rusted metal gate, he was approached by a derranged man.
"Please! I need water!" The water beggar cried.
"If you're thirsty partner, you should go and get a drink at Moriarty's." The somewhat annoying protectron said.
"GOD DAMN IT! I DON'T HAVE ANY CAPS YOU GOD DAMNED MACHINE!" The water beggar screamed.
"You better calm down partner, before I take you down." Deputy Weld said.
"Here." William said, pulling out a bottle of water that he had from the Vault out of his bag. He went to hand the bottle of water to the water beggar.
"Are... are you serious or are you just messing with me?" The water beggar asked.
"Well if you don't want it..." William began to retract his arm with the water bottle, but then the water beggar snatched it and began to sip from it.
"You're a good person." The water beggar said. He walked over to a rock and sat against it, licking the water around the water bottle's opening.
Maybe it is really as bad as everyone said in the vault. The LW thought.
"Stand back, partner. The gate is openin' now." Deputy Weld said to William.
The metal gate began to open, and the LW watched it in amazement. He wondered how they got the gate to work, as it looked like it was made up of nothing but scrap metal and pieces of vehicles.
William shrugged and entered Megaton, when the gate fully opened.
He was approached by a man in a duster and had a sheriff hat on.
"Another one? And this time from the Vault too." Lucas said, approaching William. "Hello, stranger... name's Lucas Simms. Mayor of the town, sheriff when one is needed." Lucas Simms said.
"Hello..." William said.
"So what's your name?" Lucas asked.
"Eh... my name is..." William stopped, out here his name could be what he wanted it to be, maybe he would choose to be like "A Man" and remain nameless, but what would his name be?
"You can call me 101..." William said.
"Ah, considering you came from that Vault and all..." Lucas said.
"Say... I've been wondering this for a while... why is it called Megaton?" William asked.
"Well... look down there." Lucas said. Lucas pointed down the path to the center of the town where the dormant A-bomb slept.
"Holy shi... you have a A-bomb in the center of your town?" William asked.
"Yeah..." Lucas said.
"Is it... disarmed at least?" William asked.
"Well... no it isn't." Lucas said.
"Wait... your town... is around... a armed... nuke. And... why are people still here again?" William asked.
"Well, it's either here or out there... dead." Lucas said.
"Has anybody tried to disarm it?" William asked.
"Well... nobody is that good with explosives around here and plus... the church would go crazy if someone tried to disarm it." Lucas said.
"Wait... your town has a church and they'd be angry at you by disarming a armed nuke at the center of the town?" William asked.
"Well... the bomb is their god." Lucas said.
"...goodbye." William said, turning around about to walk out of Megaton.
"Hold on... the nuke is safe for now... as long as nobody tries to make it go off... I watch for anyone who gets near the bomb excluding Cromwell..." Lucas said.
Just then Lucas had an idea.
"Are you good with explosiv... no that's a stupid question to ask... considering you're a vault dweller." Lucas said.
"Well, I'm sure that I'll need to learn how to use explosives sooner or later. I'll try once I have the time." William said.
"Well... I guess I can give you two hundred and fifty caps if you actually pull it off. We don't got a lotta caps... and I don't honestly think you can pull it off." Lucas said.
"Okay then... do you know anywhere I can stay?" William asked.
"Not without some caps. And we don't have any room for anymore newcomers." Lucas said. "There might be a room in the common house but... you'd probably have to fight for it." Lucas said.
William noticed a man walking behind Lucas Simms, the man was in combat armor that had blood stains on it and the color was faded.
There was something about the man, he looked as if he had survived through wars.
The man glanced at William, and kept walking.
"Who... was that?" William asked, pointing at the man in combat armor walking up the ramp.
"Oh? Him? He's Jericho. A grumpy, angry, old bastard... wouldn't fuck with him though... even though he's retired, he can still kill anything with a gun, two bullets, and a cigarette. I'd stay away from him if I were you kid." Lucas said.
"Well, thanks Lucas... I'm gonna get going now..." William said.
He walked away from Lucas and he was met by a man in leather armor, closing and opening a pocket knife.
William walked past him and up the ramp, and he saw that he was in front of the town's shop, Craterside Supply.
But he didn't have any caps so he didn't waste his time by going in the shop.
He kept walking up the ramps and he came to be in front of the town's main establishment.
Moriarty's.
William shrugged and walked into the bar.
William looked around and he saw a bunch of wastelanders sat down drinking their asses off.
He also saw Jericho in the corner still in his armor, drinking a bottle of whiskey.
William sat down at a unoccupied stool at the counter.
A woman with red hair walked over to the counter and smacked the radio that was playing a old song but it was mostly static.
"Damn it... GOB! Come down here and fix the god damn radio!" Nova yelled.
"God damn it... can't a ghoul take a piss?" A voice came from the upstairs.
"You know you wouldn't say that if Moriarty was in here... he's only just outside... I can go get him for you if you'd prefer..." Nova threatened.
"Yeah yeah yeah..." He said walking down the stairs.
William stared at Gob.
He was missing bits of his face, and it looked like raw meat in a meat store.
"Uh..." William couldn't say anything, he was stunned at Gob's condition.
"Haven't you seen a ghoul before?" Gob asked.
"No." William said. "I'm from the Vault... what are ghouls exactly?" William asked, trying to look away from Gob's face.
"See... some people weren't as lucky as you to be living in a cave safe from all the radiation... some of the people who were still outside... didn't die they just... mutated... their skin began to peel off... and their life was extended... as there are some ghouls out there who actually remember what it was like before the Great War... but... most of them went feral." Gob explained.
"Feral?" William asked.
"Well... some of us, begin to... "ghoulify" to a point even after becoming a ghoul. We become even more... ghoulish... and we lose all memories of who we once were and we go feral, attacking anyone in sight except for fellow ghouls." Gob said.
"Well... ghouls aren't that... bad..." William said.
"Hm... I know that's a lie but... compliments are rare around here..." Gob said, laughing.
Gob turned his attention to the radio.
He punched it to try to get it to work.
"Damn radio!" Gob yelled.
"It's not the radio Gob... it's GNR's signal. It has been shit for the last few days." Nova said.
William could still hear the radio partially, even with all the static.
"We've had sightings of another Vault dweller coming out of Vault 101... we don't know his name, so for now let's call him 101... I met with James earlier... great guy... I haven't seen him in a long time. Well, children... don't get bit by the yao guai!"
The guy on the radio was followed up by the song called "I don't want to set the world on fire" by the Inkspots.
"So I'm guessing that's you." Gob said.
"Yeah... say... where is that radio station?" William asked.
"I don't know... I'd ask Moriarty but... he'll probably make you pay for it's location." Gob said.
"Well... thanks Gob..." William said, getting up from the stool. William walked out of the bar and he was met by the man in leather armor with the pocket knife, and he was blocking the way down.
"Uh... excuse me..." William said, trying to walk down the ramp without accidentally bumping the man.
"Hold on kid... how long have you been outside in the wastes?" The man asked.
"Not very long... can I get past you please?" William asked.
"If you want to survive out here kid... you gotta make some caps..." The man said.
"Hmm... I'm listening..." William said.
"I have a job... for someone to help me with... I need you to deliver a package to..." The man was interrupted by someone else.
"Back off, Kev..." A man in metal armor said. "Don't help this guy kid. He wants you to deliver a package of jet to a feral ghoul infested shit hole..." The man in metal armor said.
"Heh... he'll be back, when his stomach is growling and he can't afford food." Kev said, walking away.
"Kid you don't want to be involved with him, he's nothing but a jackass, cause if you do come back after delivering it, he won't pay ya." The man in metal armor said.
"Uh... thanks?" William said.
"Now I have a good and easy way to get caps real quick like... and it isn't as dangerous as dealing with a horde of feral ghouls." The man in metal armor said.
"I'm listening..." William said.
"Come... let's walk for a while... name's Jenkins." The man in metal armor said.
William and Jenkins walked to the center of Megaton.
"So you're from the Vault?" Jenkins asked, walking towards the gate of Megaton, with William beside him in his old Vault 101 suit.
"Err... what gave it away? The suit?" William asked.
"Greeeat. Another smart-ass. Like we need another one of those with Jericho around." Jenkins said. They then heard a distant yell.
"Fuck you, mirelurk hunter." Jericho yelled from above, in front of Moriarty's.
"Mirelurk?" William said.
"You don't know what a mirelurk is yet? Well I'm going out to go hunt a few of 'em. You can come along if you wish." Jenkins said. "Mirelurk meat is how you get rich in the wasteland... it's one of the best foods that you can find... but before we go... you gotta get some armor or something at Craterside Supply, because Mirelurk claws rip through clothes no problem." Jenkins said.
"Okay..." William said. He walked up the ramp and went inside of Craterside Supply.
"You're from the Vault huh?" The voice surprised William as he wasn't even halfway through the door.
"Yeah... I am..." William said to the smiling lady at the counter.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Well... the guy on GNR has called me 101... I guess you could call me that..." William said.
"It's nice to meet you, my name is Moira." She said. William stepped further into the shop and noticed the hanging Vault 101 armored suit on the wall of the shop.
"What's with that vault 101 suit on the wall?" William asked.
"Ah... I made that for a girl who left the vault a couple years back... she said she needed protection... she looked scared too." Moira said.
"What happened to her?" William asked.
"I don't know... I armored her vault suit for her, but she never came back... she was probably killed... poor girl. Say... I have a proposition for you..." Moira said.
"What do you have in mind?" William asked.
"I'm writing a book... it's called the Wasteland Survival Guide. I was going to make the foreword about Vaults... and considering you're from a Vault... you could help me." Moira said.
"What would I have to do?" William asked.
"All you'd have to do is tell me what it was like in the Vault." Moira said, grabbing her notebook and pencil. "I'll even give you the Vault 101 armored suit." Moira said.
"Well... let's see... it was dark, the lights were blinding, the food sucked, annnnd the overseer was a douche!" William said.
"Sounds terrible." Moira said, writing in her notebook.
"But no... in all reality... the Vault was okay... the water was clean... the food was okay... and it was safe... for the most part... damn radroaches always messed with us down there... the Overseer was... well, actually the Overseer was a douche." William said.
"Ah... thank you... here... I'll get the suit down for you..." Moira said, putting down her notebook and walking over to where the suit was hanged up at.
She took the suit down, folded it, and handed it to William.
"If you help me further with the book... I'll reward you even more..." Moira said.
"Sure, I'll help." William said.
"Well for the first chapter... I was thinking on talking about irradiation, finding food and medical supplies, and dangerous places like Minefield." Moira said.
"Uh... I may regret this... but... what's this about radiation?" William asked.
"Well... I need an alive test subject to be highly irradiated. If they were really irradiated it'd be even better, but... not to the point where they would die from it of course... and because you have that Pip-boy, you could see how irradiated you are at all times." Moira said.
"What's in it for me?" William asked.
"Well, I'll give you some meds, and a glass of brahmin milk." Moira said.
"Brahmin?" William asked.
"Oh, you haven't seen the one outside?" Moira asked.
William shook his head.
"Really? It's pretty obvious." Moira said.
Moira led William outside and led him to the brahmin.
"What the hell..." William said, looking at the two headed cow.
"Yep... after the bombs dropped some of the cows mutated and became... brahmins." Moira said.
William couldn't stop staring at it.
"Two... heads..." William said.
"Yeah, I was freaked out when I saw one for the first time." Moira said.
Moira and William walked back up and inside to Craterside supply.
"Well... if I do ever get THAT irradiated, I'll come in here." William said.
"Alright... I'll be waiting for ya to come back." Moira said.
William pulled out the Armored Vault 101 suit and he put it on over his old vault jumpsuit.
"Uh... where'd you get that armored suit, kid?" Jenkins asked, pointing at William.
"Oh, that lady in Craterside Supply gave me it for me agreeing to help her with her little book." William said. "It's a little stiff, but other than that, it's a perfect fit." William said.
"HA. Good luck with that. I've heard about her past assistants' track records. Dead, mutated, driven insane." Jenkins said, walking towards the gate of Megaton.
"Wait, what?" William said surprised. He began to walk fastly to catch up with Jenkins.
"You see, kid... whenever you see Mirelurk eggs around... you take your hunting knife, and stick it right in the middle of the egg. To kill the 'lurk that's in the egg, before it's fully grown. Then you scrape out all the precious hatchling meat. Mirelurk meat is precious, as it doesn't taste as awful as the other meats in the wasteland." Jenkins said, picking up a mirelurk egg, to demonstrate how to get the meat.
He stuck his knife in the middle of the egg, and cut a opening in it, and emptied the egg's meat into one of his jars.
"Ergh..." William moaned, he felt sick just watching.
"Don't worry kid, you get used to seeing horrible things in the wasteland after a while. When you harvest the meat from eggs... you must be sure that all the mirelurks are gone... as they don't like us slaughtering their children for food that much. Hatchling food is the worst of the meats, then there's normal mirelurk meat, and finally softshell meat. Softshell meat is usually found on Mirelurk Hunters, and Mirelurk Kings, which are the most dangerous. I've even tasted a strange mirelurk meat down south... for some reason it tasted like NukaCola." Jenkins said.
"I just heard something..." William said, looking around nervously.
"Shit... the family is back from hunting proabably... get down in the water and hide! Back me up if they begin to overwhelm me." Jenkins whispered. William went underwater to hide, he began to hold his breath. A group of Mirelurk Hunters and Mirelurk Kings charged Jenkins.
Due to William being underwater, he didn't witness the fight.
William tried to continue to hold his breath, but he couldn't do it, so he rose to the surface and breathed.
"Kid! Give me a hand! I've never seen so many kings and hunters together!" Jenkins yelled. There was five Mirelurk Kings and six Mirelurk Hunters. William rose from the water and he aimed his gun at the mirelurks.
When one of the kings looked at him, his arms began to shake, he was afraid for his life. That very same Mirelurk King had Jenkins in its hands.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot it!" Jenkins yelled, coughing up blood. William's arm shook even more, and it returned to its side.
He shook his head nervously and he turned around and ran away through the waist-deep water.
"KID! KID!" William heard Jenkins screaming behind him, but he didn't care. He just wanted to go back, to the Vault, where they didn't have to fight for each other's lives, where all he had to worry about was a few radroaches.
End of Chapter 2.1 The Outside
You may think the last part was familiar, well it is because if you hadn't remembered, Jenkins' part was in chapter 49. But anyways... I shall update this later, until then... adios.
