Having lived in Vault 101 most of his life, Jason had never needed to walk very far to reach whatever his destination was. He remembered thinking five minutes of walking to reach the basement was a lot. He used to go down there to practice with his BB gun. That was probably why he was a good shot now, though he was certainly far from perfect. Now, he had to walk for hours to get anywhere. The occasional bloatfly, mole rat, or vicious dog barred his way, but, other than that, his journeys were mostly uneventful.

Jason was beginning to wonder just how long it would take to reach Arefu when he came upon an old church building with a cemetery beside it. His pip-boy registered the location as the Hallowed Moors Cemetery. At first it looked like any other building, until Jason saw filthy bags of gore hanging from chains or scattered randomly in the dirt. He gagged just from looking at them. The wind changed and suddenly he did more than gag because of the awful stench. Getting sick alerted whoever or whatever resided here because two things happened at the same time.

First, Jason heard a scared man screaming, "Someone help me!"

Then, gunfire erupted. An inhumanly deep, gruff voice hollered, "No more games! Time to die!"

Jason looked around frantically, but he could not see his attackers. Despite the putrid gore bags, Jason ran for the building to take cover behind the walls. He could not believe his eyes when he first saw one of his attackers. A green, mutated giant was charging at him with a wooden board. The board had nails sticking out of it. There was no way Jason was going to stop this monster with his baseball bat. He drew his 10mm pistol and started firing. It took way too many shots, but the monster fell before it could reach him.

That was when the Sugar Bombs hit the fan. Three more of the mutated goliaths rounded the corner. Two of them had hunting rifles. The third wielded a minigun. Jason's eyes went wide as the minigun revved up. He turned tail and ran as a hail of bullets tore past him. A few of them punched through his side as he staggered around the corner of the building.

Stunned from the bullet wounds he staggered and fell onto one of the gore bags. Hurling whatever was left in his stomach, Jason dragged himself off of the gore bag. He found himself face to face with something that was somehow more monstrous than the things behind him. It was a vile-looking creature: a nondescript blob of flesh with a barely defined head that had three disgusting tendrils writhing about. It spat rancid globs of filth at Jason. He pulled out his knife and sliced off the tendrils as they tried to grab him. He embedded the knife in the thing's skull. Because of its shape, it couldn't fall over so it just sort of slumped in death.

A hunting rifle fired behind Jason, and a bullet tore into his shoulder. He screamed, tears streaming down his face as he realized this might very well be where he died. His entire body protested as he forced himself to his feet. He turned around and planted several 10mm bullets in the face of one of the monsters. Muscles and wounds aching, he scrambled behind a cluster of rocks. The minigun pelted the other side of the rock. The resulting dust was caught up by the wind, blowing into Jason's eyes and mouth.

The other monster with a hunting rifle came into view, taking aim. Jason threw a grenade which thankfully blew the monster into pieces. He crawled to another side of the rock as the monster with the minigun followed its fallen comrade. His pistol had almost no effect on this one. It seemed tougher than the others. So, he holstered his pistol and drew his combat shotgun.

Yelling a fierce war cry, he charged out from behind cover and began blasting. His first shot knocked a chunk of flesh off the monster's arm. His next shot broke the gun itself. After five more shots to the chest and two to its face, the monster finally fell.

His adrenaline wearing off, Jason collapsed to the ground. He barely managed to retain consciousness long enough to inject himself with all of the stimpaks he found in Minefield. His pain only slightly eased, Jason drifted off hoping no more of those monsters were around.

Jason awoke incredibly hungry yet nauseous. He was still in a great deal of pain. The stimpaks had saved his life, but his body was still broken. As he drug himself over to the church, Jason quickly realized he was feverish. He somehow felt stiflingly hot and freezing cold at the same time. All the wounds he had sustained over the past several days were catching up to him. Stimpaks could repair immediate damage, but his body was still feeling the effects of consistent, traumatic damage.

Upon entering the church, Jason saw a wastelander tied up in the back. A dead wastelander lay beside him.

"Help!" the man cried. "Please help me!"

Jason staggered and fell over. He tried to get to the man, but he only made it as far as a sleeping mat. He reached his hand out toward the man in a final vain attempt to help him before succumbing to unconsciousness again. Jason lost all track of time as he drifted in and out of fevered sleep, shaking and mumbling deliriously.

After an unknown amount of time, Jason finally woke from his restless sleep. His head still hammered, but at least his temperature felt normal again. His hair and beard were drenched with sweat. His skin underneath his armored jumpsuit fared no better. Moving was uncomfortable, and lying still was worse. He wiped sweat off his face.

"Hey, you, you're finally awake!" The man was still tied up. "I thought I was in a predicament, but you've spent that last couple of days in a fever. I'm kind of surprised you're still alive. You're a tough one, I'll give you that."

"Ugh," Jason groaned. "I've been through one rough fight after another for weeks after being torn from a life of peace."

"A life of peace?" the man asked incredulously. "In the wasteland?"

"I used to live in a vault," Jason said. "It's a long story."

"Yeah," the man said, "and as much as I'd love to hear it, do you think you could untie me now that you're conscious?"

"Of course," Jason said.

He went to draw his knife when he realized that it was still in the flesh-blob's head.

"I'll be right back," Jason said.

He went back outside, keeping his eyes open for any hostiles. If he had had anything in his stomach to hurl, he would have. He had almost forgotten about the gore bags. Now, the flesh-blob was rotting as well. A disgusting SCHLUP made him dry heave as he yanked the knife out of the gnat ridden carcass. He hurried back inside and cut the man's bonds.

"Thanks for your help," the man said. "I'm going to get out of here in case any more come back here. Here though, take this."

The man held out a bottle of water. As much as Jason wanted it, there was no way that man had drunk any water recently since he was tied up.

"No, you keep it. You'll need it out in the wasteland," Jason said.

"Okay," the man said. "If you insist."

The man opened the water and started drinking it as he walked away. Jason turned back to the contents of the church. He found first aid supplies which he gladly took. He found some food and water as well. He made sure it was safe before he sat down for a meal. He was careful not to eat or drink too fast lest he lose it all over again. After eating, his headache lessened though it was still present.

"I really need a bath," he thought.

Jason spotted a bottle of beer. He was slightly tempted to drink it to wash away some of his pain. He shook his head.

"I can't drink any more than I can take drugs," he thought. "I can't dull my senses or awareness just because I'm hurting. I've got to handle my stress healthily. I've got to persevere."

Jason grabbed the bottle and threw it against a locker. Beer sprayed in all directions as the bottle shattered. Then, he saw something exciting. A Chinese assault rifle and a pile of ammo were in the corner next to the locker. He grabbed the Chinese assault rifle and looked it over. It was in better condition than his other assault rifle so he tossed the original. He happily loaded the ammo into his backpack.

"Maybe now, I can finally get to Arefu," Jason said. "I really hope delivering this letter isn't complicated once I get there."