Chapter 7: Goodbye
Nobody came. Not even Jericho, but then I certainly could not blame him after his ordeal. The party was not a success. Perhaps the location was bad? I sat alone in my shop at my desk, scribbling down notes to be entered into my new guide.
- The wasteland is full of disappointments! Just when you overcome one horrible situation, make sure to anticipate the next !
The lack of people who showed up played on my mind somewhat, although I knew I was just being silly. Next time I would have to do it well in advance!
Not being able to concentrate on my work, I eyed a packet of cigarettes in front of me. Not wishing to stink up my shop further, I took the red and green cigarette packet and left the shop. I had changed back into my dirty, washed out overalls a while ago, when I realised that nobody was coming. Though the sky was as black as my plug-socket test subjects, I continued toward the entrance of Megaton.
Springvale was close by, and were I not mistaken a playground awaited just outside. Thinking I would have my own little fun with the swings or the slide, I leisurely made my way to the recreational area - long abandoned by children. To make it more interesting I took along something special I had found in a rusty metal box on the outskirts of Megaton.
I came upon it as I was studying the different types of rocks in the area. I theorised that each area of the Wasteland would have its own special kind of rock, which would aid travel as you could easily identify which rock was where from my guide. Needless to say, the only successful part of that endeavour was stumbling upon a metal box with smooth, cube-shaped black things inside.
The playground was deserted, as I had surmised. Though it was night time the nearby pools of irradiated water sparkled and lit the surrounding area enough to permit visual coordination. The slide looked fun!
I dashed over to it, eager to forget my trouble and remorse. It was about twice as tall as me, coloured pink and probably shaped like an animal at one point, but intense heat had warped it somewhat. A small corpse was nearby, long decayed. I could make out that he or she was reaching out to a hole in the slide's side. It seemed that it was hollow inside! With vacant eyes that smiled I thought of my own childhood, how I would hide in secret cubby holes and perform experiments with molerats. The other children would tease me and call me names as I was not interested in liquor and killing things as were the others.
Beaming a smile, I decided to first go down the slide then hide in the hollow for a while. Perhaps something was inside? One rung at a time I heaved myself up, careful not to place too much weight on the obviously weakened ones. After what seemed like an eternity (though perhaps it was the radiation poisoning that was dulling my senses), I reached the top, and with a huge scream I slid down it as fast as I could! My ass was not so big as to slow my descent; thank god for chronic starvation!
WIth adrenaline coursing through my veins, I once again approached the hollow as I laughed breathlessly. Slides were fun! The hollow's entrance was small, about the size of a cupboard door, but I could easily fit. Inside it was rather big, owing to the dome-shape of the slide, and it felt warm and secure. As my eyes adjusted to the relative darkness, I could make out scratch marks on the inside, and see the endless cigarette butts that littered the ground.
I thought back to my guide, and decided I would add this playground as a hotspot for fun! Living in the Wasteland was not easy, so any shred of happiness and fun would certainly be appreciated! But then I thought back to the party which nobody had attended. Pushing that thought out of my mind for a moment, I took out a piece of the shiny black thing I had found months ago. I did not know what it was at first, so I had confided in Jericho to identify it as he was recuperating in his house. After bargaining with him (basically, giving him one of the cubes that he had demanded), he identified it as something you smoked, having the near opposite affect of Mentats. After drugging and poisoning my body countless times (voluntary or not), I decided it did not really matter if I used it. So using the technique that Jericho had shown me, I emptied a cigarette slowly and then-
Suddenly came a bright flash of light, brighter than the fake diamonds Nova wore on her pierced nipples. I shrieked involuntarily as huge gusts of wind pelted against the side of the slide. Not being able to think rationally at all, I ducked my head into my knees as a huge, earthquake like sound echoed throughout the hollow. Blocking my ears with my fingers, I feared for my life once more; had Silver come back from the dead to get revenge for us killing her? Suddenly my geiger counter went off the charts, emitting loud cracks and pops. Not wishing to die of radiation poisoning so young in life, I hastily injected RadAway and some new drug that actually prevented radiation poisoning temporarily. Grabbing the cigarette and the tobacco I had emptied, I shoved it into my satchel (which, amongst other things, contained a handgun, grenade, many black cubes and Jericho's now stolen lighter) and waited for the wind to stop. After about five minutes it eventually ceased, and worry and fear entered into my mind once more. Had something happened to Megaton? Just then, it hit me. The atom bomb in the centre! Had it finally exploded? It must have been active after all!
I considered leaving the hollow as the radiation prevention drug would not last forever, but corpses and pieces of metal rained down from the sky. I could not risk leaving just yet, so waited for several minutes, scribbling into my notebook to pass the time. The strong wind prevented me from modifying any cigarette.
I squinted as I jotted down my notes -
Rapid-descent propulsion devices, commonly known as slides by children, were common pre-war. To escape the sometimes wretched life that is the Wasteland, sometimes it is advisable to let down your hair once in a while, and I don't mean radiation-caused baldness! They can be identified by their various rungs and narrow plastic or metal sheet suspended at a gradient to the ground. Plastic slides are usually warped heavily by the bomb blasts of the last war, so metal is the way to go!
Taking out my map, I marked down the location of this particular playground and shoved it back into my pocket. It seemed that Megaton was no more.
I thought back to the people I had met whilst living there... Nova, Colin, Gob, Jenny, my shop assistant and... Jericho. Had all of them perished in the bomb blast? That I would have to assume. The blast from the atom bomb would render Megaton unvisitable for a while, so I would have to come back for their corpses later. My experiments would have to wait.
Wiping away a tear, which had appeared for reasons I did not know (possibly internal hemorraging caused by rapidly elevated levels of radiation before), I put everything away and took out my pistol. I had no other choice but to go somewhere else and live my life. The only person I could think of was Flak, so gathering up what was left of my strength I exited the slide and made my way toward Rivet City alone.