As he walked toward Megaton, Jason snacked on some of the food he had found in the Super-Duper Mart. He had just finished a box of Salisbury steak when three haggard men ran up to him. They wore strange collars.
"Please," one of the men said. "We need help."
"What's wrong?" Jason asked. "What do you need?"
"We're escaped slaves," the man said. "They put these explosive collars on us to make sure we wouldn't try to escape."
"And you still escaped?" Jason asked. "You've got guts."
"Or maybe we're just stupid," a second man said.
The third escaped slave just stared off into space, completely silent.
"We need to get these collars off or we'll never be free," the first man said. "Please, do you know how to do that?"
"Let me have a look," Jason said. "I know a little about explosives."
Jason inspected the first man's collar.
"Look," Jason said, "I can try to remove it, but it might explode. I'm not entirely sure I know how to disarm it."
"Please," the first man said. "I have to be free. If you're willing to risk your hands, I'm willing to risk my head."
"Okay," Jason said. "I'll try. There's no guarantee this will work though."
"Just do it," the man said.
Jason meticulously worked on the explosive device. He was not entirely anxious to lose his hands, but he couldn't just abandon these people.
"Y'know," Jason spoke as he worked to alleviate some of the tension in the air. "I killed a few slavers yesterday."
"Really?" the first man said.
"Congratulations," the second man said. "Can you just hurry up and get his collar off already?"
Jason rolled his eyes and continued working.
"Moment of truth," Jason whispered.
He unlocked the collar and started to pull it off. A whining sound erupted from the collar. Jason jerked his hands away as the collar exploded, decapitating the slave.
"NO!" Jason screamed. He slammed his fist into the dirt sending dust everywhere. Tears rolled down his dust-caked face.
"Great!" the second man shouted. "Just great! Thanks for your 'help.'"
The second man spat on the ground and marched away. The third man turned and numbly followed him.
"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to happen that way."
Jason looked over at the corpse. Blood stained the ground where his head used to be. A slip of paper was sticking out of one of his pockets. Jason grabbed the slip of paper. It was a map leading to a place called "The Temple of the Union." On the map were written the words, "There is hope. There is a safe place. Find the Temple of the Union, where slaves are made into free men. Look to the north near Canterbury."
Jason put the map in one of his pockets. Shaking his head, he rose and began moving toward Megaton again.
Eventually, he reached Megaton. On the way to Craterside Supply, he ran into an old, bearded man banging on a pipe. The old man was cursing up a storm.
"Sir," Jason said. "Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong?" the man said. "These stupid pipes are leaking our precious water is what's wrong."
"I could help fix them?" Jason suggested.
"I don't have much money, son," the man said.
"That's okay," Jason said. "I just want to help."
"Really?" The man's demeanor changed from growsy to cheerful. "In that case, find the leaks in the pipes for me. I appreciate your help. My name is Walter by the way."
Jason shook Walter's hand. "My name is Jason."
Walter showed Jason where each of the leaks were. Jason got to work. He didn't know a lot about repair work, but he knew enough to patch a few leaks.
While Jason was working on the second leak, a young woman approached him. She was blond, tanned, and beautiful. Jason raised a curious eyebrow.
"Hello," she said. "My name is Lucy West. I know this might be a little presumptuous of me, but I was hoping you could help me with something. Moira said you help people in need."
"I try to," Jason said, the pain of his earlier failure still fresh in his mind. "What do you need?"
"I haven't heard from my family in a long time. We usually correspond through letters, but I haven't been getting replies for several weeks now. I'm really worried. I was hoping you could go to Arefu where they live. Could you deliver this letter and make sure they're okay?"
Jason took the letter. "I'll be happy to," he said. He looked at his pip-boy. Arefu was near the minefield he needed to go to for Moira. "As soon as I've checked in with Moira, I have to go in that direction anyway. I'll stop by Arefu and deliver this letter. If your family is in any trouble, I'll do my best to sort it out."
"Oh thank you!" Lucy exclaimed.
She wrapped Jason up in a crushing hug. She almost knocked him over because he was still in a weird kneeling position from working on the pipe. He braced himself and returned the hug as best he could.
Lucy pulled away. "I'll let you get back to your work now," she said. "I look forward to hearing about my family."
"Of course," Jason said. "Have a good day."
After Jason had finished fixing the pipes, he went to Craterside Supply.
"Oh yay!" Moira shouted. "You're back! Did Lucy West find you?"
"Yes, she did," Jason replied, smiling despite himself at Moira's enthusiasm. "Arefu is only a little past Minefield, so I'm going to stop there before I come back with your mine."
"Oh good!" Moira said. "What about the Super-Duper Mart? Did you find food and medicine?"
"I did," Jason said. "Unfortunately, what I found was all that was left. The Super-Duper Mart has been cleared out by a band of raiders. Speaking of which, it was infested with raiders until I killed all of them. Though, it's possible there's more that were out exploring."
"Oh well," Moira shrugged her shoulders. "I guess you can keep what you found. I got a new shipment recently anway. Also, let me give you this as a reward!" Moira handed Jason a strange device. "It's a food sanitizer! It gets rid of all that nasty radiation in the food out here in the wasteland. I made it myself! Do you like it?"
"I do like it, thank you!" Jason said. "By the way, do you think you could pay me with some caps? I need some money to…"
"You don't need caps!" Moira interrupted. "What I give you as rewards are always way better than plain old money!"
"Alright," Jason said. "Fair enough. Maybe next time you could pay me with caps though?"
"Probably not," Moira winked. "I already have a fun prize in mind. I think you'll love it way more than boring old caps!"
Jason rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Moira."
"It's getting late," Moira said. "You can sleep on my couch tonight, seeing as you probably don't have a place to stay right now. Also, you should probably take a bath because you smell, and you look awful."
"Thank you," Jason said. "I'll take you up on that offer."
Jason enjoyed that bath more than any other he had ever had before. After giving himself a stimpak, he curled up on the couch and went to sleep.
In the morning, he headed out for Minefield and Arefu.
"I really need to find someone who'll pay me caps for my services. Of course, it would probably help if I would charge people instead of doing everything for free. I just can't turn down a soul in need can I. I guess if I'm going to save the wasteland, I need to help innocent people and not just kill the evil people. Don't worry, Dad. I'll get around to finding you eventually. I just need to take care of a few people first."