May 15, 2284 – 6:55 am

"You be careful now, you hear?"

"I hear ya, I hear ya."

"Just, if anything happens…"

"I love you mom."

"I know you do."

I waved to my mom as I climbed down the mountain – civilians still weren't allowed regular access to the bottom anytime between 10 at night and 8 in the morning. But I wasn't a civilian. I was being escorted to my section test by Chief Matheson, who told me I wasn't the only one starting their test today. Two others would be. I quickly worked out in my head that I was the earliest to get up. Lucky me!

Reaching the bottom of the mountain path, the rocky walls of a canyon all around me, the front gate opened into an area that the guards called "The Dell." Here, two huge rocks protect a garage, a security tower, a shooting range, and a recruit training area. I came down here every day for the last month or so at seven in the morning, working my way through push-ups, jumping jacks, pull-ups, and shooting practices. In the afternoon, we did more technical stuff like weapon maintenance and radios. One hour before school, and two hours after it. The worst month of my life.

We walked through the Dell, the morning guards eying us as we passed, and when we reached the far side I could see people moving through the rocks. Matheson nudged me towards the silhouettes that stood ahead. Even though we were only a few hundred yards away, I still wasn't sure who they were. Traders, obviously. But what kind? Slavers? Druggists? Mercenaries?

As we neared, leaving the Dell and it's guards behind, I realized that the apparent person in charge was a woman in a yellow jumpsuit, but I couldn't see her face. Two Brahmin were reined to a wagon filled to the brim with weapons and armor, while a heavily-clad man sat on top of them, sporting an assault rifle. The closer we walked, the more I could make out. Finally, the woman turned, smiled broadly, and walked towards us. Holding out her hand, she introduced herself.

"Hey there! Name's Providence Harith, but you can call me Harri. I never liked my name."

She was definitely a morning person. As I shook her hand, I couldn't help but notice she was very pretty, no older than 25. Wearing a bright yellow mechanic suit and a red baseball cap, she appeared to think that you couldn't have enough weapons. Two 10mm pistols sat at her waist below a series of knives and a police baton. On her back were a Chinese Assault Rifle, a Laser Rifle, and a Hunting Rifle. Also, hanging from her chest pockets, were at least 6 grenades ready to be pulled and thrown without a second thought. This was one dangerous woman.

She smiled kind of strange for some reason, but then I remembered that I hadn't said anything.

"I'm, uh, Daniel. Daniel Bone," I stuttered.

"Well, nice to meet you Daniel," she said, then turned to the Chief. "Is he all I'm bringing?"

He put his hand on my shoulder before answering. "Indeed he is. I don't think he'll be much trouble. Two colleagues will be following him within the day, so if he falls unconscious, they can pick him up."

He laughed at his little joke until he noticed that Harri wasn't laughing, but had a stern look on her face. I could tell that it wasn't a funny joke. Of course, Matheson had only gone hunting once, and they came back with but a small amount of Mirelurk that time, so he had never been deep into the Wasteland before. The officers that did either didn't come back, or returned as different men.

Clearly uncomfortable, the chief absent-mindedly patted my back until he got something through his head and addressed me.

"Danny, don't cause any trouble for Ms. Harith here. She's got enough to deal with, I'm sure. Just help her out with anything she asks and try to make this a learning experience."

"Oh, he'll be learning stuff alright," Harri spoke up. "Isn't that right, Kooza?"

The merc on the wagon looked up from the gun he was cleaning, and responded with a French accent. "Oh, yeah. He is sure to be learning some good stuff with us."

"Well OK, then. We're all set. How about you Danny?"

I looked at the wagon and back at Harri. "Um, sure. Anything that I really need?"

On my back was a tiny backpack that carried maybe 200 caps, a fission battery for my Pip-Boy, a notebook and pen, a bag of grizzly nuts, one change of clothes, a pistol, and this cool book a crazy trader was selling called The Wasteland Survival Guide.

To my question, Harri shook her head. "You got a gun and ammo? That's all you really need." She sighed. "Armor is a luxury unless you're in the business of trying to get yourself killed, no one bothers anyone that isn't wearing clothes, and food is an easy catch with a rifle."

Harri had to have been, and is still today, the most down-to-earth person I've ever met. The "no clothes" thing kinda weirded me out, though. I was hoping not to see any naked people on my trip.

She nodded her head to no one in particular, and walked back to the wagon. Once up on the vehicle with Kooza, she looked at me and motioned for me to come. Before I could leave, Chief had one more thing to say.

"Victoria will be coming up 6 hours behind you, followed by Jon. I wouldn't be surprised if you met them in the cities, so keep an eye out."

"I will," I replied.

He blinked at the surrounding wasteland. "Alright. I'll see you in a week or so."

And with that, he walked back to the Dell, past the gate, and up the mountain. As Harri's wagon inched away from my home, past the potato fields, I could see his figure slowly moving up that incline. And then, we moved past a large boulder, and I couldn't see the mountain anymore.

May 15, 2284 – 8:18 am

Boulder, boulder, tree, car, boulder, tree, tree, robot, car, shack, boulder, crater, boulder, fence, truck, building, tent, fence, mole rat, tree, tree, shack, dead yao guai…

Surveying the endless wastes was hard and rather boring work. The only thing that made it cool were these high-tech binoculars that Harri gave me.

She said, "This first day, your job is to sit up there and look at the landscape with these." She had handed me the binoculars, this big military-issue device with night vision and some automatic targeting thing. Once I was finished marveling it, Harri continued.

"Be on the lookout for anything that might kill you. Raiders, security robots, yao guai, Super Mutants… you ever seen a Super Mutant before?"

I shook my head. I'd heard stories of the giant yellow hominids that scoured the wastes looking for humans to capture or eat. However, I had been graced with the luxury of never seeing one.

Harri nodded her head, reached into a little bag, and pulled out a piece of paper. When she handed it to me, I realized that it was a photograph, and the picture's subject almost made me hurl.

"That's a Mutant Brute," she told me. "Tougher than the recruits, and more mindless than the masters. But, the masters will rip your head off too."

I just shivered and handed the photograph back, then immediately started using the binoculars. I had no intention of running into one of those uglies.

"Good," she just said. "We should be in Port Bradley by the end of the day."

Now, it had been about an hour, and the most I'd seen was the shell of a infantry tank, crushing the remains of a big rig that was transporting it. I thought it looked pretty cool, how something so powerful was destroyed in a matter of seconds. But then, I looked around me, and it came as less of a surprise.

Kooza, the French merc, walked beside the wagon, keeping an eye on the opposite direction that I was, which happened to be west. I watched the east, towards Suffield. Oddly, I'd have thought that Raiders would more likely have come from that direction, so Kooza had what seemed to be the easier side.

We continued along the beaten path, barely talking, minding our own business. I had spotted a few vultures eating the carcass of a Brahmin, and stopped to look at their feasting. It was disgusting, yet intriguing at the same time. I really can't explain it, but I just kept watching them out of wonder. Suddenly…

"Hunters, 12 o'clock," Kooza said loudly. I whirled in that direction, straight down the road. In the distance, three figures trundled along together, all with guns in their hands. I wasn't sure how Kooza knew who they were and what they were doing, so I childishly concluded that his eyes had the same powers as the binoculars.

Harri spoke up, "Alright, let's see what these guys are up to." Within a few minutes, we crossed paths with the hunters, two men and one woman, each carrying a backpack. They smelled like death, but that was just my observation.

"Hi ho!" one of the men exclaimed. "If it isn't a trusty trader here to help."

"I'll only help if I feel compelled to," Harri replied. "So if there's anything you wanna trade, do it fast and smart."

"All we got is some ammo and meat."

"What kinda meat?"

"The best kind."

Harri cocked her head. "No, I mean what animal?"

"I'm not revealing our special hunting area," the hunter defended. Harri and Kooza looked at each other, nodded, and brought up two shotguns to the men's heads. With two simultaneous shots, both where killed instantly, leaving the woman screaming. Kooza quickly aimed his gun and shot her in the chest.

Once I opened my eyes and took my hands from my ears, I started hyperventilating. They killed them! They just killed them! "You killed them! Why'd you kill them?!"

"Shut up!" Harri yelled at me, and held up a clear bag filled with a bloody red meat. "Do you know what this is?" she asked grimly. I shook my head.

"It's human flesh…"

I almost barfed when I realized why the hunters smelled like death. They had just been on a killing spree. Harri took out a shovel and dug a small hole before proceeding to dump the meat into it. The hunter's packs were also filled with bones, a liver, and two hearts in little plastic bags. It was placed in with the flesh. When the hole was filled again, Kooza was finished with making a small cross out of two sticks, and he jammed it into the ground. Without a word we continued down the road. The only things we got from that ordeal were a couple of hunting rifles.

May 15, 2284 – 11:24 am

"When surveying the wastes, you really do not have to look for anything in particular. Rather, you should be looking for three movements. The lumbering, heavy kind of movement is usually the most dangerous. That could be Super Mutants or… you'll find out. Then there are those convulsive and volatile kinds. That could be Raiders or Slavers or any hostile men. Or, it could just be an excited friendly. Still, look for it. Lastly, and usually the least dangerous, are the low-to-the-ground, quick but clumsy movements. That's probably ants or rad-scorpions, or mole rats. Look out for the giant variations of the bugs, though. They can slice an arm off."

Kooza was giving me a lesson in my job, and a lot of it helped. Some of it was just unnerving. I wanted to know what he meant by "you'll find out." There were a lot of creatures I had never seen, apparently, but it would do me best if I knew about all of them. I should probably consult the Wasteland Survival Guide. It told me all I needed to know to separate the good meat of a mole rat from the bad.

I had been listening for some time. He was grumbling about the dead hunters for a while, and I finally got the nerve to ask him about it. He said that some people didn't have good food resources, and had to resort to drastic measures so that they could survive. He hated those particular people though because he could see that they weren't desperate, they just killed for the taste.

After that, he explained himself briefly. His real name was Cosme, and he was a French refugee. That was all he'd say. After that he began to teach me about the wastes, while Harri added in any tidbits she could.

I still needed to keep an eye on the east, so I would often continue watching while listening to Kooza. I didn't want to be rude, but he understood that doing it was a necessity. After a while, he stopped talking, and I was back to my counting of the objects I saw.

Boulder, bed frame, burnt house, car, car, tree, nothing, nothing, god there's a lot of nothing out here… tree, truck, fence, building, mailbox, boulder, boulder, crater, bathtub… what the hell is a bathtub doing out there?

While I was pondering this, the Brahmin started to low. They got distracted and Harri had to pull them back on the road or we would've fallen into a ditch. I eyed them before putting my eyes back to the binoculars… and almost screamed.

It was more of that weird silent scream, where you are doing it at the top of your lungs, but the voice gets caught in your throat. Still, it wasn't silent enough to escape the ears of my two escorts. Harri spun in her seat to catch me pointing ahead of me, a fearful look all over my face. Following my finger, her eyes widened when she spotted it too. A huge demon, complete with reptilian arms, legs, and a tail, it's hands extended with massive claws, and it's head crowned with curly horns, drawing attention away from the bloodstained teeth. I had spotted it too late, though. It was only a few hundred yards from the wagon.

"Deathclaw!" Harri shouted, automatically pulling a grenade and throwing it. Unfortunately, it didn't blow until the monster had stepped over it, and I was dead still in both amazement and fright.

It brought its two gigantic arms over its head, and brought them down over me. I braced for the ripping pain of my head being removed, but instead was "rewarded" with a pull backwards, across the wagon and to the ground on the other side. Kooza stepped over me and brought his lucky shotgun to his shoulder, discharging the thing at least a dozen times before the great beast even noticed. He ducked as the claws sliced the air over his head, and he grabbed my shirt so he could get me out of there.

The Deathclaw was perched on the wagon, crushing some of the guns underneath its weight. I could see Harri underneath it, scrambling to pull out her guns, but the demon wasn't interested in her, it had already seen us.

Kooza made me run for the cover of an old Chryslus while he continued to fire at his target. It expertly jumped from the wagon and landed just ten feet before him, slashing in his direction, but the merc fell on his back. I was scared out of my mind as Kooza and the Deathclaw had a tense staring contest. Apparently, Kooza lost.

The creature roared to the air as if he was already triumphant in his kill. I pulled out my rifle and tried to shoot it's head, but all the bullets grazed right on past. The only one to hit its mark had barely any effect, and it ignored me.

It's eyes, though devoid of color, were full of what I thought might as well be evil. Saliva dripped from its grotesque jaws, begging for the meat that lay before it. Again, it raised its arms high above its head, and for a moment I was reminded of a movie I saw on an entertainment disc from the Vault. It was happy, proud to be a hunter, and would now come in for the kill.

The claws ripped through the air, and I actually heard the oxygen being split apart from the sheer force. I could not watch as Kooza died there, but my eyes remained glued to the scene. Down, down, tearing down, and…

A blast. The Deathclaw exploded into a plume of brown smoke, and Kooza was enveloped by it. I tried to rub the dirt out of my eyes and look again, but suddenly a huge piece of debris landed before me and knocked me back. When I gathered myself and looked up, I saw half of the Deathclaw's head, torn up and gory, its one eye pointed directly at mine. I kicked it away and tried to gather myself. My gun, my backpack, my body. It was all there. Confident that I was still alive, I ran to the site of the explosion.

I only thought this happened in movies. The legs of the Deathclaw were still standing up, dug into the ground. Anything above the waist was gone. In the distance, standing on top of the wagon, was Harri armed with Fat Boy and a seriously scared look on her face.

I ran forward, but remembered something and looked down. Kooza sat there, one of the claws of his attacker lodged into his thigh, but he didn't seem to notice it. His eyes stared straight ahead and his entire front side was covered in first degree burns. What I thought was the most unusual was that the hair just above his eyes had turned completely white.

He wasn't dead. After a few seconds, he exhaled and started to cry. I don't know if it was the shock of seeing that thing being blasted to oblivion before his eyes, or the gratefulness that his life had been spared. Whatever the reason, I ran over to him and kneeled at his side.

In no time, Harri was there too, soothing him in French and tending to his leg. When she had stopped the initial bleeding, she looked up at me and nearly fainted. I had to catch her before she landed on Kooza. When she had regained control, she spoke up.

"That shouldn't have happened."

I didn't know what to say. "I… I wasn't watching. It's my fault that -"

"No it's not," the trader interrupted. "Those things are the fastest, most dangerous creatures ever put on earth after the dinosaurs. They… aren't usually in this area. It must've been an outcast."

"What was that thing?" I asked tentatively. I already knew what it was called, but wanted to know more.

She sighed. "A Deathclaw." Even its name was horrifying to think of. "They are, simply, a mistake of nature. I heard once that they were once soldiers who took a modified government experiment to grow stronger, and were then exposed to extreme radiation. But, they can reproduce, so I'm not so sure."

That told me a lot, but I'd have to consult the Guide. Together, we both carefully lifted Kooza in a chair-lift, and settled him on the wagon. Already, his wound was becoming infected, a strange pus beginning to crawl around his bandages. Harri noticed this, and began to frantically gather her fallen supplies.

"We need to get to a hospital now," she said fiercely. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and we were supposed to arrive in Port Bradley at the end of the day. I wondered how we would make it before Kooza's leg reached the amputation point, short of booking it all the way there, ignoring all the things along the way.

As if to answer my question, "We'll need to go past all the villages along the road, not stopping for anything. Bradley has a great clinic, and they'll take care of him."

Kooza had fallen unconscious now, his brow furrowed in restless pain. He had to have fallen into shock, so I grabbed as many clothes and blankets as I could and laid them over him, then lifted his feet onto a box. When Harri was finished grabbing all that she could, she nodded to me and grabbed the reins. I secured myself inside the wagon and we were off. The Brahmin were faster than I expected, and all I had to do was keep Kooza from dying until we got to the city.