Chapter 7

Date: March 7, 2292

Location: Ritz family farm

(just outside of Republic)

After we had arrived at the farm, Alex immediately went into action. As soon as George was done briefly telling his wife, Isabell, that we were here to help, Alex started working on their children, which were Elza and Jordan. It was a few hours later when Alex said that they would likely make a full recovery, with Elza being up in about a few days, and Jordan in a couple of weeks.

That was two days ago, and now George has been educating us about the wasteland and it's various aspects. He had first taught us skills in various things that'll help us, like farming, animal caretaking, weapon maintenance, and modification, driving and vehicle maintenance, bartering, combat, and basic lockpicking, hacking, and robotics skills, with any of us who know anything about those subjects helping.

After that, he told us about the wasteland itself. Like I had observed earlier, most of the land was still the same as before the war, if a bit deader, but still mostly the same. Even so, there were patches of it that were both irradiated and healthier.

The irradiated lands often had enough radiation to drive people off, and had many packs of mutated creatures using the lands as their homes. Most of these were ghouls, radscorpions, yao guais, mole rats, and the occasional deathclaw. Even so, they often had unlooted areas from before the war, still waiting to be collected.

Meanwhile, the healthy areas had their own kind of danger, While fertile and full of life, they were often fought over, usually between raiders and either other raiders groups or settlers. But while some healthy areas are plagued by war, others are peaceful. Either the group that's there is too strong for other groups to oppose, or there's few or no nearby groups to contest the area. These areas often have some of the most prosperous post-war settlements yet. In fact, George had predicted that if it wasn't attacked by slavers, then Malo would have likely become big and strong enough to have defended against those slavers within two years. This was due not only to it's decent strength and population, but also that it was located right inside of one of the largest stretches of healthy land in the Washington wasteland. It stretched north to the southern edge of Curlew, to the south in Republic. Besides settlements, they're often filled with animals and usually have at least a few farms, depending on the healthy land's area and how much more healthier it is then the average land area.

We asked how these different patches of land came to be. He said that it was likely a combination of these lands either being out of range or directly hit by 'the plague', nuclear comets, or just by dumb luck. The plague had been a biological weapon that had been launched in missiles against some of the western U.S territories once the nukes had been fired. They left one in every ten people it came in contact with alive. Unfortunately, due to using newer Chinese missile technology, most of them got past the barrier that saved Washington from nuclear destruction, killing off much of the population. Luckily, they had a small range of about 100 miles or so, so the disease they released didn't spread throughout the American wasteland. Nuclear comets meanwhile, were fragments of nuclear missiles that were shot down that rained throughout Washington. This lead to the distribution of most of what little radiation that got through the barrier into Washington. These comets also lead to most of the irradiated zones, which were their impact points.

George told us about how in some cases, healthy and irradiated land has lead to many important things in the wasteland's history. Some of the biggest factions in the wasteland have at least some of the healthy land. For example, the Tri-cities, Spokania, and New Coulee city all have healthy land, and they were big power players. Asking about these groups, George told us about these faction's histories.

New Coulee city originated from the original Coulee city, which was south from the current city location, on Banks Lake. The town had been one of the only areas not to have been hit by 'the plague' which made it one of the largest surviving settlements after the war. After a couple years, the town's inhabitants, combined with survivors from other areas and a military company assigned to the town, abandoned the town due to security and water issues, travelling north to the Grand Coulee dam. After discovering it intact, operating, and inhabited, the thousand or so people from Coulee city combined with survivors and the dam's original work force to create New Coulee City. Today, the people of New Coulee city occupy the Bank Lake area stretching between the main city itself and 'old Coulee', which had just recently been inhabited by people from the main city. The small nation barely interacts with the rest of the wasteland, preferring isolation except for groups that it's allied with, such as New Kennewick and many of the local groups in central Washington. When they do trade, they often trade purified water and electricity, whether in the form of charged batteries or electricity lines to other towns.

The Tri-cities had been created about 80 years after the nuclear bombs fell. The Tri-cities were divided into their respectful three settlement areas, Richland, Pasco, and New Kennewick. The area had originally been colonized by three merchant siblings, each leading their own group. The brothers had agreed on a pact, to share their resources and provide be in an alliance. The eldest brother settled Richland, where weapons, armor, and ammo would be created and sold. The middle age brother settled New Kennewick, where machinery, vehicles, ancient tech, and other related items were built, repaired, and sold. Finally, Pasco was settled by the youngest of the three, the sister. Being right in the most fertile land of the Tri-cities's healthy region, she used the area to grow food and purify water, selling much of it. However, even though they were friends, the three cities our now competing against each other or a nearby group, sometimes going into complete war. The only remnant of their former alliance is Tri-City Enterprises, which is a trading company that trades goods from all three cities. They're open to most people, with Richland open to everyone, even raiders and slavers.

Finally, Spokania was a Slaver town. Not much is known about the history of the town, except that it was created around 20 years or so after the Tri-cities nations were founded, and that it had a war with another group about 50 or so years ago with another group, which lead to the north of the pre-war city being taken by this group, only to lead to it being cut off and besieged by the slavers. No one is sure where the group came from, due to there being no settlements near the north of the city and Fairchild air force base being overrun by ghouls. But either way, the group is supposedly friendly, but no one knows for sure. This is due to them being besieged since they took northern Spokania. No one knows how they've survived this long, but some think that the slavers in Spokania originally had most of their farms and water pumps in the area, allowing the besieged group to survive without outside assistance from outside sources. Some can even occasionally hear gunfire from their, as a skirmish happens between the slavers and the group. We eventually concluded that the slavers who were in our Vault were likely from here, and it was confirmed once we saw that the vault was just north of Mead, which was one of the Spokane suburbs that the slavers occupied.

After this, we learned about more factions, big and small, as well as what each kind of people looked like, from raiders and slavers, to settlers and merchants. He then talked about some famous places from outside the Eastern Washington wasteland. From stories farther away, like the Capital Wasteland, the Commonwealth, and Midwestern brotherhood of steel, to ones closer to home, such as NCR and New Vegas Nation to the south in Oregon, California, and Nevada, remnants of Caesar's legion and other tribal groups to the east in eastern Idaho and Montana, some mysterious nation to the north, and constant war between the Brotherhood of Steel and some other groups in Western Washington.

After learning all of this, George decided on something. "Alright, since you know about the wasteland, what do you plan on doing now." We thought for a moment before I said "Well, creating a group to combat people like raiders and slavers doesn't sound like a bad idea." John asked, half sarcasticly "So you want us to create our own nation?" "Well, something like that anyway." I responded, getting suprised and then agreeing looks from everyone else.

"If you're going to do that, I'm guessing that you're gonna be setting up in Republic?" George asked, getting a nod from me. "Well, I figure that if I'm gonna be part of your nation, I might as well help you find a good spot and get some gear to start off, so it'll be a good time to put what I've taught you all into practice by combining this home search with a loot run, sound good?" After we agreed, he said "Alright, get loaded up, I'll go tell Isabell we're leaving."

About 15 minutes later, we were all loaded up and driving, taking two of Georges three trucks and our jeeps to Republic, leaving behind Isabell and Nat to watch over the farm and make sure nothing happens involving Elza or Jordan. 'Well, this is gonna be the start of what could possibly be a whole new chapter in the Washington wasteland's history, might as well get started.' I thought as I pushed down on the jeep's gas pedal, leading our caravan out of the farm and toward the town, filled with loot and possibilities.

Author's Note

I want to get a few facts down in case any of you are confused.

First off, the fallout story is in the Universe where the actual 4 fallout games, along with Fallout: New Vegas and much of Fallout: Tactics is considered canon, although I barely know much about the three oldest games (Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics). Any other fallout games are not canon.

Next, the North Western Commonwealth is a place where much of the real-world's way of life was just being introduced. As a result, there will be a mix of fallout and real life content, such as architecture, technology, and weapons.

Next, my story will not include Alaska, due to it being isolated from the rest of the story's area, as well as much of of Oregon and possibly Idaho, due to Oregon being mostly controlled by the NCR and I not having too many ideas with Idaho, since it's technically gonna be tribals and such (maybe somewhat similar to Zion valley in Fallout: New Vegas except a little more 'modernized').

With all of that being said, there will be fewer episodes within the next month or so due to school testing. I'm doubting that there will be this amount of chapters in this short of a time until summer break as well, so expect some waiting. Also, while it's not likely this will happen, if anyone wants to draw fan art or mention the 'Fallout: Washington' story in any of their own work, feel free to do it, just let me know first via private messaging or a review. Anyway, I'll see you all soon, whether it be the next chapter or a '100 views' special chapter! :P