The next message clicked on. Ryleigh was walking, her breathing slightly laboured.
"Ok, turns out everything out here can be paid for with caps. Some people are willing to trade but most want their 'currency.' I've spent the last few nights outdoors, huddled behind a building. I couldn't afford to sleep at Moriarty's again and still afford food and water, not that I really wanted to stay there. Scumbag tried to extort me for information on dad. Can't wait till he realizes I had little to do in the Vault besides learn how to get into locked places."
She swore and there was the sound of her tripping over something and sliding down a dirt hill. There was a gentle thump and groan before she began walking again.
"As much as a part of me wants to just go running the direction dad went, I know I'll be dead in hours out here. I need supplies, and that means I need to earn some caps. Finding work isn't too difficult. I helped patch up some of the pipes in town that deliver clean-ish water to the shacks. Moira, a woman running a scavenger shop, is having me do some experiments in exchange for a couple hundred caps a job. She wants to write a book about surviving out here but I am quickly growing concerned that she has a romanticized view of life outside of Megaton. And at the moment I am out delivering a letter for Lucy West. Sort of. She hadn't heard from her family in a while."
Ryleigh grew silent for a moment, the only sound on the tape was her walking along the pavement. Her voice became sharp and clipped, like she was not sure whether she wanted to cry or vomit.
"I figured out why. They were killed by some raiders called the Family. Their bodies had been gnawed on. It reminded me of a wastelander I found a while back near a yao guai den, only the teeth that did this were… not from a bear. They looked…" She gagged and coughed a few times. "I'm working with the self-proclaimed sheriff of their little town to try and find them and Lucy's brother, Ian. I have no idea where to start looking. These raiders were last seen 'down by the river' so that's not a great help. But I said I would deliver this letter and that's what I'm gonna do."
Her footsteps stopped. There was a pause as Ryleigh took a drink of something and a few deep breaths. Her tone of voice was slightly more upbeat when she continued walking.
"At least it hasn't been boring. I have run into massive mole rats and two headed bovines. There are huge, angry, green people that everyone calls super mutants that raid settlements. A place called Big Town was hit recently. I said I would keep an eye out for their people since I'm traveling that way for Moira. I've been attacked by massive flies and raiders and vicious dogs. Got my ass kicked pretty bad yesterday and had to hide in an abandoned raider hangout resting up. I'm almost out of stimpacks and other medical supplies and I'm already running low on ammo for some of the guns I have scavenged. For every few caps I earn I end up trading them away for essentials.
Thank the overseer… thank fuck chems exist. I overheard people talking in Moriarty's and around town so when I found some Jet I figured I would hold onto it to sell back in Megaton. Instead I ended up huffing it when three super mutants charged me. It was like time slowed down around me as I began picking off their legs with my pistol. Once they couldn't chase me anymore I found cover and finished them off. It was crazy. I am being responsible though. The raiders tend to have plenty of drugs on them so there should be more than enough for me to sell even if I do sample a few of them."
The wind whistled over the Pip-Boy as Ryleigh's voice grew soft. She sounded defensive and her shrugs came through clearly in her inflection.
"That's what it takes out here. Sometimes you just need a little pick me up or a boost in order to take down the nine-foot monster charging at you. Some jet and vodka to fall asleep at night so you don't think about the day before.
Strange how quickly I got over murder. Killing radroaches and mole rats was easy but that first raider… They may want me dead, or worse if the stories in Megaton are to be believed, but they are still people. They are trying to survive out here like everyone else. I threw up that first time. Now I don't even flinch. Hell, I found a sniper rifle and have been practicing with it on bottles and mole rats. Took out a raider the other day before he even knew I was there and I actually smiled. I have to survive."
She stopped walking again. The faint grind of her boots on dirt and asphalt could be heard as she slowly turned in place. Her voice held a sense of awe and amazement at what she was looking at.
"There's a strange peace to this place. A bleak sort of beauty to the silver skies and crumbling highways. At first it scared me when I left the Vault and couldn't see a ceiling. I could see for so far in every direction and clouds would occasionally block the sun, changing the lighting. My adrenaline at where I was and what had happened quickly overrode my fear. I feel like I can breathe, like my whole life I was suffocating and never knew it. Even when it is quiet out here it is a different quiet than back in the Vault. The Vault always had a steady hum of the generators and lights. In Megaton the buildings creak and groan in the wind and as people walk over them. Out here the wind whispers as buzzing insects and the occasional wild animal go about their day."
The smile in her voice was obvious as she began walking once more. Her pace was upbeat, almost a swagger.
"And there is no one in charge of me. I mean, Sheriff Sims is I guess in charge in Megaton but he only cares if you cause too much trouble. Otherwise he lets you do whatever you want. When I leave town no one can tell me what to do. I can take jobs or abandon them as I see fit. Most of these people don't seem to care one way or the other. I could almost get used to this life."
*Click*