Sorry for the delay in getting this up, things have been crazy busy around here. As usual the link to the playlist for this chapter can be found on my profile page.
January, 2278
Jason woke to the sound of heavy cursing. Groaning, he checked his Pip-Boy for the time; he had slept for ten hours straight. He hadn't slept that long since before basic training, when his drill instructor had given him the strong impression that should he ever sleep longer than seven hours in a row the enemy would sneak into his room and draw on his face with a rusty knife.
Jason automatically brought his hand up to his face; no deep scaring. That drill instructor had been a nasty son of a bitch, but he had at least left Jason with a strong sense of paranoia and a finger always on the trigger; which looking back, were probably the most valuable qualities a soldier could have.
"Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck!"
Jason's ears zeroed in on the source of the cursing and could hear Wolfgang banging around under the hood of one of the trucks.
Jason sighed, for one sleepy moment he had almost thought this broken world had all been a bad dream.
He sat up and reached for his shirt and pants then grabbed the combat armor and proceeded to complete the ensemble. Once Jason was dressed, and his magnum holstered, he exited the tent and walked over to where Wolfgang was nursing a slightly burnt hand and muttering something about wanting to resurrect the dead Raiders so he could "fucking kill them again."
Jason raised an eyebrow, "Trouble?"
"The alternator is fucked, the battery has a bullet shaped hole in it, and when I tried to jury rig something that could get this piece of shit on wheels back to Megaton it fucking burned me."
Jason leaned over and looked under the hood and was astounded by the mess within, "How the hell have you kept this thing running up till now? Her insides look like something Dr. Seuss might dream up."
Wolfgang smirked, "Well when you can't call up the manufacturer and order new parts you gotta get creative."
Wolfgang pointed to the dump truck, "I got Hunk O' Ugly over there running off a homemade engine I put together from a water heater, a vacuum cleaner, and half a dishwasher; she can get up to 18 miles an hour, 30 if she's not running cargo," said Wolfgang proudly.
"Of course I'll have to sell her and every other fucking thing we can salvage when we get back to Megaton," growled Wolfgang bitterly.
"You don't sound pleased about that," noted Jason
"Yeah, I'm not wearing a fucking party hat, but I don't have much of a choice in the matter. Raiders blew up the trucks carrying my most valuable cargo - fuckers - anywho, my only hope of paying back my investors is to sell the three trucks they didn't blow up along with Hunk O' Ugly."
"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Jason
"I don't know, all I know is there isn't any profit in running caravans in the Capital Wasteland anymore. Hell, only reason it took me this long to pack up and leave is because I owed the local Caravan Chief a favor, but Old Roe is just going to have to manage without me."
"Where are you going to go?"
"Someplace not infested with Raiders, Super Mutants, Enclave, and giant fucking bugs."
"I've been riding the Caravans for over 30 years now, ever since I was a kid. Been up and down the East Coast. Everywhere from Miami to Toronto, even been as far inland as South Dakota. And sure, shit sucks pretty much everywhere you go, but nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is there a place as fucked up as the Capital Wasteland."
Jason raised an eyebrow, "That bad huh?"
"Well not always, at least not when I was a kid. When the radiation cleared out enough for people to begin resettling the area a little over 60 years ago things were pretty good. We were able to excavate all sorts of technology from the DC ruins and we even got a few factories up and running again. This place was actually on the road to rivaling the Commonwealth. Then about 20 years ago the Super Mutants started showing up; huge, green, vicious mother fuckers that can literally rip a man in half with their bare hands. There were just a few of them at first, they came into our settlements, murdered, stole weapons, and dragged people off to do god only knows what. It was bad, but we had the situation in hand, at least for a while. Then more started showing up, it was at that point that everything went to hell, in fact if the Brotherhood hadn't come along I'm pretty sure the Capital Wasteland would be a graveyard by now."
"What's the rest of the country look like?" asked Jason
"Pretty much like you would expect it too after a nuclear apocalypse. Most of the country is a wasteland, but there are a few places that mostly escaped the Fallout such as the Everglades, the Black Hills, and Point Lookout, but even those places aren't exactly tourist destinations, especially Point Lookout, in fact don't ever fucking go to Point Lookout," said Wolfgang with a shudder
"A couple of major cities and some corporations survived the bombs as well. Up north in what used to be the New England states is the Commonwealth; it's run by the remnants of a few corporations that escaped the nukes by fleeing to Greenland when the bombs fell, they spent 40 years freezing their asses off up there while the radiation levels dropped. Once it was safe they came back and founded the Commonwealth."
"The place is run out of Boston, which may be the only city in the world which has actually grown in the past 200 years. The people who live there are kind of off their rocker though, still, the place has the best tech around so I try to maintain friendly relations."
Jason felt a little relieved to know that humanity hadn't slipped back into the Stone Age, but was still confused on one point.
"Why hasn't the Commonwealth spread across the country by now, if they have the tech and the resources what's stopping them?"
Wolfgang actually laughed out loud at that, "Let's just say they are a bit isolationist."
Jason raised an eyebrow.
"Ask Jessie, she was born and raised there, so she can tell you all about it."
Jason nodded, "So besides the Brotherhood, the Enclave, and the Commonwealth, any other major powers I should know about?"
Wolfgang thought for a moment, "Well nothing on the same scale as the Commonwealth, at least not on the East Coast. The West Coast on the other hand has been folded into a nation called the New California Republic, but it's a bit outside my normal trade routes so I can't really tell you much about it."
Wolfgang reached for a wrench, "And unfortunately that's all the time I have for geography lessons, but I'm sure Jessie would be just delighted to answer any and all further questions you may have."
Wolfgang ducked his head back under the hood of the truck.
Jason ignored the obvious innuendo; Wolfgang was clearly pissed off at the world at the moment, and his bad mood was starting to seep onto Jason so he left him to his work and walked over to where some of the caravaners were sorting through the supplies that had survived the Raider attack. Jason found Jessie taking apart an assault rifle, cleaning it, and putting it back together with surprising skill.
Jason raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that going to piss off your Hippocratic Oath?"
Jessie chuckled, "Me and my Oath have an understanding; if someone tries to kill me I'm allowed to try and kill them right back."
Jason grinned, "So where did you learn to be a doctor anyway?"
"The Institute," replied Jessie, then seeing Jason's quizzical look she explained.
"You would probably know it as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,"
Jason smirked, "M.I.T. is still around? I guess those eggheads are more tenacious than I ever gave them credit for."
"They had it easy…relatively speaking. The Chinese didn't directly target universities and West-Tek evacuated the faculty and grad students from there as well as Harvard, Yale, and University of Pennsylvania to Greenland before the fallout could reach them. When they came back after the radiation cleared out they built the Institute; a massive underground complex that serves as a center for higher learning and advanced research."
"So why did you leave? Sounds like place is a whole hell of a lot better than this," said Jason gesturing to the crumbling ruins of civilization around them.
"Exactly," said Jessie darkly.
"You see, the Board of Directors have this idea that they and everyone else in the Commonwealth are superior to the backwards inhabitants of the wastelands and that to take the time to improve the lives of those people would be a waste of resources. Not everyone agrees with that philosophy and the ones who make their disagreements too public are banished to remote outposts. They tried to send me to a research station off the coast of Canada, but I told them to burn in hell and moved down to the Capital Wasteland instead."
Jason grinned in approval, "So what are you doing with Wolfgang's caravan?"
Jessie shrugged, "Wolfgang pays well enough and this way I can give the people we visit some much needed medical attention. Although I guess I'll be looking for a new job here pretty soon."
"You could always hook up with another caravan, right?" suggested Jason
Jessie smiled, "I don't think so. You can't count on a dashing hero riding to the rescue every time the Raiders come calling."
"So how far does the Commonwealth reach?" asked Jason curiously
"The Commonwealth itself encompasses Massachusetts and most of Connecticut and Rhode Island. And we still have a presence in Greenland, as well as research and manufacturing outposts up and down the East Coast. We also maintain a small fleet of scientific research vessels that are spread out across ocean, monitoring the far corners of the world."
"Really? What does the rest of the world look like?" asked Jason, interested.
Jessie was quiet for a moment, "You know I've always wanted to know that myself, but unfortunately the Board classifies all the reports the fleet brings back, I used to wonder why they did that, it never made much sense to me, and the only answer I could come up with for their actions was that there was still something out there that could threaten their power."
The roar of an engine followed by Wolfgang's loud "BOO YA!" derailed Jason's next question.
"Alright boys and girls time to saddle up! We get moving now we'll reach Megaton before nightfall!"
Driving through the bombed out ruins of Springvale was an eerie experience for Jason. He had actually lived here for a few years as a kid, back when his father was stationed overseas. It was a nice place to grow up, great neighborhoods, friendly neighbors, and a pretty girl next door. Jason passed the park where he had had his first date when he was six; the swing set that he had sat on was now a pile blackened and warped metal tubing. The entire town actually was just a collection of decaying and crumbling structures, but enough of the road way was still intact that the caravan was able to make good time.
Up ahead Jason could see the walls of Megaton, they were easily 50 feet high. Wolfgang told him that the town had been built inside a bomb crater over two miles in diameter and that the walls enclosed the crater; effectively creating a fortress. As Jason approached the gates he saw that built next to the town was something that closely resembled an impound lot, complete with electric fence and patrolling guard dogs. Inside the fence were several dozen vehicles as well as a garage from which the sound of machinery could be heard.
Wolfgang got out of his truck and turned to address the others, "Y'all can go luxuriate inside the city walls if you want, I got some haggling to do so if you want to avoid the blood spatter I suggest you get moving."
Wolfgang walked up to the gate of the car lot and started shouting at the people inside.
Jessie walked up to Jason who was still sitting on his hover bike, "Come on Cowboy, I'll show you around town."
"Sounds good," replied Jason walking his bike up to the car lot.
"I'm going to leave this with you fellas for a while; If you fuck with my bike in any way you will regret it," he stated in an informative tone.
A few of the guys in the car lot exchanged confident expressions as Jason walked away
Wolfgang spoke up, "Trust me on this boys, the smartest decision that you could ever hope to make in life is to keep those meat beaters off that bike."
"Why? What's he going to do?"
Wolfgang shrugged, "I honestly don't know, the man is very creative in thinking up ways to kill people, but hey, at least your death won't suffer from a cliche."
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Megaton felt like an overturned ant hill; it seemed that every single available space in the city was occupied by stalls and shops. Jason could barely hear himself think over all the noise; he could tell right now that his FEV improved hearing was going to require a period of adjustment. Jessie guided him to the center of the city where it seemed a huge debate was taking place….around a partially buried thermonuclear warhead.
"What the fuck?" he whispered
Taking note of his reaction Jessie chuckled, "We did tell you that Megaton was built in a bomb crater."
"Yeah silly me, here I was thinking the bomb that created the crater had actually blown on impact. Are these people out of their fucking mind?"
"A little yeah, but no worries the Lone Wanderer disarmed the bomb nearly a year ago."
"Lone Wanderer?" asked Jason perplexed.
"That's right you wouldn't know about him, would you…"
Jessie scratched her head, "Well it's kind of a long story and I'm not sure I can do it justice, but I guess I can try."
"The Lone Wanderer was a Vault Dweller from 101 he's a legend to the Capital Wasteland. He left the Vault searching for his missing father and in his search he helped everyone he came across, the differences he has made in the lives of the people around here are…profound. His father was involved in Project Purity, a massive filter located in Jefferson Memorial that had the goal of making all the water out here clean of radiation, and when the Wanderer finally found his father and discovered what he was trying to do he agreed to help him, only it wasn't long after that his father was murdered by the Enclave and Project Purity was taken over. The Enclave had this psychotic idea to use the filter to poison all the water in the wasteland so that anyone exposed to radiation would be killed upon drinking it. Not about to take that kind of shit lying down the Wanderer charged Project Purity with the Brotherhood of Steel and a giant robot. They fought their way to Project Purity's control room only to find that the nuclear reactor being used to power the facility had been sabotaged and was about the blow and to make the situation even more wonderful the control room itself was flooded with radiation. Someone needed to enter the control room and shut down the reactor or the Capital Wasteland was going up in flames. His companions wanted to draw straws to see who would to go in, but he didn't give them the chance. While they were arguing he silently entered the control room and locked the door shut behind him. By the time they realized what had happened it was too late, the Wanderer shut down the reactor and saved the Project, and probably the Wasteland as well, and then…he died."
"Sounds like a hero," said Jason
"Yeah, well for the Capital Wasteland the Lone Wanderer has transcended hero; to the people out here he's a messiah. An Angel of Mercy delivered straight from heaven itself."
"People will believe what they want to believe," shrugged Jason
Jessie looked at him, she was getting the impression he was talking about more than the Lone Wanderer.
The debate around the bomb suddenly exploded into a brawl. Reflexes honed from years of breaking up fights between drunken soldiers kicked in and Jason leapt foreword. Only he forgot to take into account his enhanced strength and speed, he had intended to just pull a few people apart, what actually happened was that he subdued the entire crowd with the brutal efficiency of an L.A.P.D. SWAT team.
"Sorry…sorry," he muttered to the people groaning on the ground.
"Thanks for the help, I think you may have been a bit overzealous in delivering it though," said a dark skinned man walking up to him.
"Lucas Simms, Town Sherriff, and who might you be?" asked the Sheriff holding out a hand.
"Captain Jason Wolfe, United States Army, for whatever that still means," said Jason shaking the hand.
"You know there's a tale spreading through town bout a man frozen 200 years ago who woke up with a powerful urge to butcher himself a squad of Raiders; you wouldn't know anything about that would ya?"
Jason was a little astounded, "I literally got to town less than an hour ago."
"World travels fast round here, best be careful Captain, else people will start marking you as the next Lone Bad Ass in these parts."
The Sheriff tipped his hat politely to Jessie then walked over to the people groaning on the ground.
"What seems to be the trouble here?" he asked pleasantly
"Sheriff!" cried an old man getting to his feet.
"These..these blasphemers are trying to remove this shining beacon of Atom's Glory from the center of town, we must stop them at once!" shouted the man.
"Now Confessor Cromwell, we've had this discussion before and ain't nothing changed since then. The Town had a vote, you gave yours, I gave mine, and long story short the nuke goes. We're putting up a statue of the Lone Wanderer in it's place, you remember him don't you? The nice man who rescued half your flock from the Enclave?"
"Oh yes of course! A child blessed by Atom if there ever was one!"
"Is he coming to visit again?" asked Cromwell.
"I'm sure he will, he's just real busy at the moment helping folks out and all," said the Sheriff kindly.
The Sheriff nodded to a group of approaching men and women dressed in long coats and cowboy hats.
"I'm gonna have one of my deputies take you home now, ok? I'd be mighty grateful if you'd tell your flock to do the same, you can always come back tomorrow once y'all had a chance to rest up and reflect upon the glory of Atom," said the Sheriff in a friendly tone.
"You speak with truth my friend! Come everyone! Now is the time for reflection, tomorrow comes the time for action!"
Once the crazies were out of ear shot the Sheriff turned to the people still gathered around the bomb.
"Henry you had better have that bomb dug up and out of my town by sun up or there's gonna be hell to pay," warned Simms.
The Sheriff turned back to Jason, "You just met the Church of Atom," he said informatively.
Simms inclined his hat to Jessie again, "Mam," he said politely.
Jason was silent for a few seconds before turning to Jessie.
"Do I even want to know?" he asked.
"Probably not," she answered
"Okay then, moving on,"
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Jason sat down at the bar and turned to Jessie, "You know I don't have any money right?" he asked.
"Relax Cowboy, it's on me," she said flagging the bartender.
Jason looked around the bar a place called, "Moriarity's" there was a Jukebox in the corner blasting out more of the kind of music that made Jason want to bash his head against something, and in another corner was a woman licking her lips suggestively at him who was so far from his type that it made him vaguely nauseous. Jessie noticed his discomfort and didn't have to look far for its source.
"Back off Nova! This here is my man!" she growled, throwing an arm around Jason's shoulders for effect.
Nova shrugged and went to bother someone else while Jason chuckled, "Thanks for the assist," he said.
"Anytime," she grinned
"What can I get you?" asked a raspy voice, the bartender Jason decided without looking.
Jason turned his head, "I don't know, what do- Whoa! What the fuck are you!" demanded Jason subconsciously reaching for his magnum.
The bartender was a fucking corpse, his skin was charred and hanging off his face in random patches and Jason could actually see bloody red muscle twitching as the man talked.
"I'm the bartender asshole, now can I take your order or would you prefer to fuck with me some more?" asked the corpse in the same raspy voice.
Jessie's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, "I'm sorry Gob, believe it or not, he's never seen or even heard of a ghoul before, this is my fault for not giving him a heads up."
"Heads up? It's a fucking zombie." hissed Jason.
"No he's a human who's been exposed to extreme amounts of radiation; and you're being a real bastard to him by the way."
"Oh…oh."
Jason finally remembered his manners and turned to address the ghoul "Ummm sorry for the zombie remark; I saw a lot of horror movies as a kid and you just…umm…, you know what never mind, let's just start over. Hi my name's Jason, and I'm sorry for being an asshole, sometimes I just can't help myself."
The ghoul raised what might have been an eyebrow, "Hi Jason, I forgive you for being a dick, my name's Gob. Now can I please take your fucking order?"
Jason side glanced at Jessie who was shaking her head in her hands, "We'll just have a couple tumblers of whiskey Gob." she said.
The ghoul bent down beneath the bar and came back up with two glasses and a bottle of amber liquid which he poured into the tumblers. Jason noticed that Gob gave Jessie significantly more than he gave him.
"Well that was awkward," said Jason trying to break the sudden tension.
Jessie snorted, "That's quite a gift for the understatement you have there,"
"Hey! How the hell am I supposed to know about ghouls! When you're exposed to radiation you're supposed to die not turn into a fucking zombie." hissed Jason quietly.
"Yeah, well there were a lot of things we didn't know about radiation before the war," replied Jessie.
While Jason sipped at his drink he noticed a group of people wearing purple and gold jumpsuits with a large 101 stamped on the back in white letters.
"It's good to know the Vaults weren't the massive waste of money most people thought they were," commented Jason inclining his head toward the group.
"That's a matter of debate," replied Jessie dryly.
"What do you mean?" asked Jason
"We've found a few Vaults in the Commonwealth, when we opened them up we didn't exactly find a peaceful world of tomorrow. What we did find was a fucking massacre. I've only seen vids of those expeditions but what was on them was still enough to give me nightmares for weeks," said Jessie shuddering
"Hmmm," said Jason thoughtfully.
"Hey Gob what are the 101ers doing here?" asked Jessie.
"They're looking to bring on some folks to fill the vacant positions in the Vault. Way I hear it without an engineer to keep that reactor running and a doctor to treat the wounded the place will be done for within months."
"They have any luck?"
"Plenty of fellas out here would give just about anything to live in a Vault. They must have signed up at least 80 people; only thing they couldn't get their hands on was a doctor. There ain't many doctors around hear outside Rivet City and the one here in Megaton doesn't want to leave."
"Well I guess we know where you can find a new job," commented Jason.
"I don't know a Vault seems like a stuffy place to live…" replied Jessie.
"I toured one in Los Angeles one time. They're actually pretty nice, they got replicators that can create just about any food, a massive atrium with every plant you can imagine, an Olympic swimming pool, and even an underground baseball and soccer field. There are worse places to spend your time."
"I guess it could be kind of fun…"
Jason turned toward the 101ers, "Hey Vault Boys! Still need a doctor?"
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Jason saw Wolfgang leaning against his hover bike as he entered the car lot, he tossed Jason a heavy looking satchel; it made a clinking sound as he caught it.
"That's your cut from the sale; 2,500 caps. Now we're almost halfway even for you saving my ass."
"Thanks, but you can keep it if you can just tell me where I can find a bio containment lab in the Capital Wasteland." replied Jason.
That wasn't a question Wolfgang was expecting."
Wolfgang raised an eyebrow, "Why not ask Jessie?"
"Because then I would have to explain to her why I needed one,"
Wolfgang smiled slyly, "Why do you need one?"
"Science project," stated Jason dryly.
Wolfgang chuckled, "Rivet City has the set up you need. It's up in the old Washington Naval Yard; you know where that is?"
"If the landscape hasn't changed too much I think I'll be good."
Wolfgang grinned, "It's pretty much the same general layout…more or less, but just in case you get lost look for black Vertibirds in the air. Rivet City Security has been patrolling the skies pretty heavily since the Enclave started showing up so you shouldn't have to much trouble finding them."
"Sounds like the place still has some decent technology,"
"It was founded by remnants of the Naval Research Center after the war so there were plenty of eggheads to keep things running."
Jason held the bag of caps out to Wolfgang but he waived him off, "Keep it, we still ain't even close to even, besides if you want to use one of Rivet City's labs you're gonna need to make a cash donation anyway."
"Thanks for the heads up," said Jason stowing the caps in the hover bikes storage compartment with the rest of his gear.
"No one tried screwing with the bike did they?" asked Jason starting it up.
"Actually some dumbass tried to get inside that storage compartment there, but wouldn't you know it as soon as he touched it he got a few thousand volts of electricity up his arm."
Jason chuckled darkly, "Yeah, these babies come with one hell of a security system. I did warn them….sort of."
Wolfgang laughed.
Jason held out his hand, "It's been an eventful experience."
Wolfgang clasped the hand, "Be seeing you around mate."
Jason pulled the throttle and accelerated outside the gate, once he was about a mile outside town he kicked the bike into gear and headed East toward Rivet City and toward being one step closer to getting some payback.
Author's Note:
Okay like I said in the beginning the world in the story is A LOT bigger than the world portrayed in games, and the story will be traveling to places outside the Capital Wasteland as well. The settlements in this story are also a bit farther along than the ones in the game (e.g. Rivet City having Vertibirds). The reason for that is because this story is set in a slightly alternate alternate reality and because after 200 years I find it difficult to believe that the people on the East Coast have made so little headway in terms of rebuilding anything. Also Rivet City is on a freaking aircraft carrier, why the hell wouldn't they have vertibirds?
Oh and the Lone Wanderer in this story is in fact severely corpseified although most of his companions will make an appearance at one point or another, in fact Lyon's Pride will be in the next chapter and they play a massive role throughout the story. I'm sorry for murdering everyone's favorite Vault Dweller, but this story is about Jason and I felt that if the Lone Wanderer were in it then the plot would take a reaming. Alrighty, I think that just about covers it, but if I missed anything let me know.