Chapter 1: Shady Sands—December 5th, 2161

I clutched the grip of my 10mm pistol until my knuckles were white as I began to take my first few steps in the outside world. After about ten steps, I stopped. I was amazed and proud of myself for surviving this long. I'll be honest, I thought from the way I heard it from the overseer and my parents, if you take two steps into the outside world, you were likely to get murdered by a bloodthirsty band of raiders. That statement was supported by the dead man in a radiation suit lying right beside the Vault 13 entrance. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this was Ed, a Vault 13 resident. He had gone missing days ago, and no one has seen him since. So, I guess I wasn't the first to be sent out into the cold, unforgiving world. There was little time to waste, so I didn't bury him. I did, however, loot from his corpse. What can I say? I'd be needing much more than him at this point. I found an extra combat knife and some more 10mm ammo.

Anyways, the outside world was very drab. Vault 13 was built inside a cave, so I had the honor of experiencing my first few moments in the wasteland inside a dark, dull, and damp cave. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something scuttling towards my feet, and so naturally, I shot at it, completely startled. A loud "bang" echoed through the cave as the creature exploded into a bloody mess of bone shrapnel, fur, and guts. I felt queasy just looking at the bloody mess and vomited off to the side. Just lovely. Looking closely at the creature, it was actually an oversized rat. 81 years of radiation tend to enlarge things, apparently. I continued to make my way through the cave, shooting and knifing more and more rats as they came to follow me. One even tried to attack me, but my feet were protected by the leather boots I was wearing.

I took a few more steps and saw a natural light. My guess was that this led out of the cave. I wanted to be cautious as well though, as I saw, by the light, the skeleton of a brahmin. Poor mutated cow. I finally decided on walking into the light. As soon as I stepped out of the cave, I was met by the red hot sun beating down on a barren wasteland. The ground was dry and cracked, deprived of vegetation. I figured my chances of survival were a million to one, but I didn't care. This was for the vault. I adjusted the strap on my satchel and, following the map on my Pip-boy, began walking east.
I spent the first day in the wastes walking towards my destination, at which nothing happened. My first night in the outside world was pretty uneventful too. I woke up the next day and continued walking. My feet grew tired by the end of the day, so I rested uncomfortably at night. I would give anything for a car. Lucky pre-war bastards. Day three went by uneventful minus the fact that I was already extremely homesick. Around day four, I ran into a caravan, but I didn't have any caps on me, so I couldn't purchase anything. It was day five when something finally interesting happened.

I was walking, pistol in hand through the barren California sands. I checked the calendar on my Pip-boy. It read December 10th. I would give anything for the pre-war luxury of snow. I decided that I would travel at night tonight. At least these nights were cool, so no worry of the sun burning me to a crisp at night. The walking had gotten monotonous by now, but I had to keep going. It was around midnight, and I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, and I decided to ignore it, but I felt that maybe it was something helpful—or dangerous. It didn't faze me. If it helped me get the water chip, I was more than happy to put myself at risk. I turned to the new destination and headed there. I hadn't walked three steps before I heard a rough, yet friendly voice say, "Welcome to Shady Sands, stranger. Please holster your weapons while you're here." The man spoke with a southern accent, and he was standing at the front gate of what I guessed was Shady Sands. It looked like a humble town, but a good one to make base camp for a few days. I turned the safety on, and put my weapon in my side holster. I then walked up to the man to greet him. I shook his hand. "Good day," he said. "I am Seth. How can I help you?" I smiled at the man as he had such good manners.

I said, "I'd like some information." He looked puzzled.

"Information? What do you want to know about?" I was about to inquire on the water chip, but I decided against it. I'll get more info from Vault 15… Hopefully.

So, instead I replied, "Nothing, thanks." He looked even more puzzled, but shook it off as we parted ways. I could find myself actually liking this establishment if everyone here was as friendly as Seth. I walked around the town some more and found people staring and pointing at me. They probably did not get a lot of visitors here. I walked right past a large obelisk at the center of the town, and right into the largest building I saw, which was, as I had guessed, the town hall. I needed to speak to the leader of these people for permission on setting up a campsite here.

As soon as I walked into the building, I accidently bumped into a girl about my age, and she was just leaving. As I was desperately apologizing to the beautiful young lady, she seemed to tune me out. She didn't seem mad, in fact, she looked excited.

"Hi!" the young girl said. She had tan skin, dark hair, and those wild eyes that excited children always have. She continued. "I heard there was a traveler in town, but I was kinda skeptical until I saw you. My name's Tandi, What's yours?" Wow. I wasn't even here for five minutes, and news of my arrival reached her before I did. News must travel fast in this town. I didn't hesitate in giving her my name.

"My name is Anthony."

"Well... How do you like our little town? Bored yet?"

She seemed like the kind of girl that wanted people to see things her way. The conversation was going good so far, so I lied, "Hell, yes! There's nothing to do here but watch the brahma mate." I sure hoped that didn't piss her off. A big smile crept onto her face.

"Finally! Someone who sees! Of course, you've probably been everywhere, so this must be hell for you." I was about to tell her that I left the vault less than a week ago, but I decided against it. These outsiders probably had no idea what the hell a vault was. I continued the conversation.

"If you're so bored, why don't you leave?" She let out a short chuckle.

"Me, Leave? I wish. I don't know enough to leave alone and no one else wants to go, and worst of all, my father said he would have a heart attack if something happened to me!"

I merely shrugged my shoulders and ended the conversation by saying "Shoot, I have to go. Good luck!" As much as I wanted to talk to her, I had to speak to the leader of this fine town to see if it was even okay if I was here in the first place. Maybe we'll get to continue talking later. Tandi shrugged her shoulders, and left the building.

I went over to the man who looked the most important. At the moment, it appeared to be a man who was wearing sandy brown robes. I walked over to him, and said "Hello!" He removed his hood, revealing the same tan skin tone that Tandi had. Perhaps they were related. "Greetings." The man said in a calm voice. "Your business in Shady Sands might be?" Wow. This guy was right to the point.

I calmly replied to the waiting man, "I come from a vault to the west. My people are dying of thirst, and I need a water purifier chip for them to survive." The man looked hesitant.

"A vault," he repeated. Then he glared at me. "How shall I trust you, wanderer, if you are not honest with me?" This was the exact reason I was hesitant on telling people of the vaults. I knew at least someone wouldn't understand. I tried to convince the man of my mission without giving too much away.

"No, honestly, I come from a vault!" The man relaxed again.

"Hmm… Yes, yes, yes. Then tell me of this vault." I decided to play the simple card and said, "It's a big place built into a mountain far to the west. My people have been there for the last 80 years." The man nodded, causing his earring hoops to jingle.

"Wanderer, I shall believe you . . . for now. You may enter Shady Sands, but be warned your every move will be watched." Well, at least I'm allowed to be in Shady Sands for a while. I was just about to leave the adobe house and possibly stock up on food and water as I was starving, but I looked at the leader and asked his name. "My name is Aradesh." He said, proudly. "I look after Shady Sands." I nodded in respect, and was about to walk off again, but some greater force made me stay where I was.

I asked Aradesh, "Thank you, can I…Can you tell me about the radscorpions?" I have heard a lot of talk of them around town when I first arrived. Based on the stories, one is worse than an entire pack of giant rats.

"Oh my, yes. Great packs of radscorpions are killing our herds. We don't know where they're from, and no matter how many we kill, there's always more!" Aradesh seemed completely terrified of the topic.

My only response was "Go on." He continued the story.

"And now the monsters are attacking my people! Razlo is trying to find a cure for their poison, but I'm not sure how it goes." I wanted to get on these peoples' good side, so if that meant killing a few oversized scorpions, then I'd gladly take that opportunity.

"Well, I'll help you get rid of these things!" A smile formed on his face as he got all excited. "Ummm, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Please talk to Razlo. He possesses far more information on these creatures than I." I nodded and said goodbye. He waved and said, "Please hurry and rid us of those radscorpions!" I guessed that Razlo was the doctor, and that was right next door, so I started walking there. Along the way, I was wondering what I was getting myself into.

I headed up to the doctor's office in Shady Sands. Everyone here seemed nice, yet isolated. It reminded me of the vault. Anyways, when I got to Razlo's place, he and his wife are laying there in a bed. I guess it is a little late to be up. I was about to leave, when all of a sudden, his eyes opened. "Whaddaya want?" Razlo said, not even attempting to hide his annoyance. "This had better be important. Are you hurt?" The only things that hurt were my feet due to excessive walking, so I said, "No." Razlo glared at me before yelling "Then get out of here! Come back in the morning!" I guess that meant that I would have to set up camp and get a few hours of sleep.

I was going to have a long day the next morning, so I went back to Aradesh to ask where I could sleep. He told me that there was a medium sized building north of the town hall. I was to tell the guy in the back room that Aradesh said I could sleep in the guest bed. I went to the building up north, and found three guys drinking and talking like old friends. They could be for all I knew. I walked up to them and asked where the back room was. They all pointed to the left, and so I went there.

I delivered the message from Aradesh over to the man in the back, and he took me to where I was sleeping. Turns out that I was bunking with one of the three guys that were in the main hall. I met up with him. He had a leather jacket on. One sleeve was cut short while the other was long. It reminded me of a pre-war movie. "Mad Max" or something. Anyways, he was short and stocky, but had a 10mm pistol strapped to his side. It looked just like the one that I had. He had a combat knife in a side sheath. He had a bit of stubble growing beneath his lip, and his long messy dark hair was all knotted up. He looked like a mercenary, or maybe just a caravan guard. We were lying in bed. I got the top bunk, and he got the bottom. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, he spoke up. "Hey, uh… Stranger. I heard you're new here. What's your name?" I was caught off guard by the question a little. As far as I was concerned, the man was asleep. I stammered a bit, mostly to show that I was awake. "I'm Anthony." I could tell that if he could shake my hand from where we were at, he would. "Good to meet you, Anthony. I'm Ian." It seemed like a nice name. I decided to have a little chit-chat with him. "I'd like to know more about this place. Can you help?" He yawned before saying, "I was a guard for the merchants of the Hub. However, I was shot during a raid by bandits." He took a swill of the beer he kept at his bedside and made a relieved sigh before continuing. "I've been staying here, since the people have helped me recover. Still, my knowledge of the outside world and my experience make me useful here. Shady Sands is my home now. Occasionally, I even get to visit Junktown or the Hub to do some trading, since I'm the only person here who has ever really left town." I nodded at the ex-guard's story. He seemed like someone that could take care of himself in the wasteland, and could pull his own weight in manual labor. I think I liked this guy. He seemed nice and everything, so why not have him travel with me? It's only a matter of convincing him to come along. But first things first… "Sorry to hear about your injury." I could tell that Ian was shrugging. "Thanks. It's been healing up well, thanks to Razlo." I wanted to know a bit more about the raiders and radscorpions… After all, you never know when a raider will attack, and I will have to go off to fight the radscorpions in the morning.

"Hey, Ian?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are the radscorpions trouble?"
"Radscorpions are very dangerous. They have a poisonous stinger in the tail, and they are very quick. Aradesh has been trying to find a way to get rid of them. If you feel brave, you could talk to Aradesh about them."
I was about to tell him that I already have, but figured he would shrug it off.

"Are there many bandits?"

"There are several. They come from various groups. They steal our food and occasionally shoot a few people. Seth organized the guards to help fight them off."
Wow. Ian was very knowledgeable, but I still couldn't get it through my head that there was more than one group.
"There are different groups? Who are they all?"
Ian turned to his side, trying to find a good and comfortable sleeping position. "There are three groups: the Khans, the Vipers, and the Jackals. They pretty much hate each other, but they all raid Shady Sands."
Well, this trip was going to be tougher than expected, and I expected it to be the toughest of the tough. Ah, well… Maybe I'd survive with Ian helping me out in a gunfight… that is, if we ever get in one. I guess now is the time to ask him. "Could you help me out a bit? Your experience would be useful." I could tell that Ian was thinking about it. "Hmm. Tempting offer, since this place gets boring. Tell ya what. Standard rates. 100 caps, and you've got a deal." My heart sunk. I didn't have any money on me. Damn it! Maybe he would go on different terms.

"How about a piece of the action, instead?"

"All right, I'll help you out in exchange for my share of loot."
Yes! Success! Maybe being out here in the wastes won't be so bad… And thus, an invaluable friendship was forged. I was about the thank him, but I heard Ian snoring, so I just closed my eyes and went to sleep too.

The next morning, I woke up and relished the wonderful night I had. The first night you have in a whole week that you get to sleep in a bed is a very comfortable one. I was about to wake Ian up as well. I had to tell him of my quest for the water chip, and the current task of eliminating every radscorpion in the district, but he wasn't there. The bunk bed was empty, and the worn blanket was just on a big pile on the middle of the bed. I got up with a grunt and walked outside, ignoring the bacon and eggs waiting on the table for me. I was still in my vault suit, and by now, it was starting to smell. I really had to get some extra clothing.

As I thought of new treads I could get, Ian walked up to me, his pistol glinting in the sunlight. "Hey, sleepyhead." He said, chuckling. I made a groggy groan in response. His chuckling ceased, and he became serious. "What are we doing today, boss?" I patted my pistol that was strapped to my side, and said, "We're going to take care of those radscorpions." With a grin and a nod, my partner whipped out his firearm.

"Let's cap those sons-a-bitches."

After refilling my canteens at the local pump, we approached Razlo in his abode. He was busy cooking what looked like deep fried rat. Lovely. Anyways, we walked up to him and tapped his shoulder lightly. He whipped his head around. "Whaddaya-" he stopped after remembering who we were. "Hi, Ian." He said, turning back towards the clay brick stove. "Stranger." He said, addressing me. He seemed to ignore me, probably because of how rudely I woke him up last night. He looked at Ian and went over to a table to set it up for his breakfast. "So, Ian," He said, setting a fork down. "Is your abdomen giving you anymore problems, or are you here to ask about the weather?" Ian rubbed his arm saying, "Uh, no. We came to talk to you about the radscorpions." At the last word, Razlo stopped setting up, glared at me, then Ian, then right back to me. He sighed and removed his glasses. He was rubbing his eyes when he handed us a slip of paper straight from his pocket, yellowed from age, and torn from wear. It was crumpled, and had messy handwriting on it. I could barely make out what it said. It said "Retrieve radscorpion tail (preferably with poison sac still attached.)" I looked at the doctor, confused. He sighed again, and said, "It's what I want you to do for me while you're down there taking care of those damn radscorpions. If I have a radscorpion poison gland, I can reverse engineer its effects with a few chemicals in my lab, and possibly create a cure for virtually any kind of poison." I understood now, and if we can make an antidote just in case we don't completely eradicate the monsters, the people of Shady Sands can at least cure themselves in the event of an attack. I nodded in agreement. Razlo nodded back. "Good." He said, setting down a plate of fried rat (yum!) He sat himself down at the table and said, "Speak to Seth at the guard station. He's usually the one who fights the radscorpions, so he knows where their cave is. Ask him to take you there. There will be a lot of the little fuckers in there, so watch out. Also, make sure that you kill every single one of 'em." Ian and I nodded, and left the adobe house.

Ian took me to the guard station since he knew his way around more than I did. When we saw Seth, we sped up our pace a little. He greeted us with open arms. "Hey Ian! How's your stomach feel? And How about you, stranger? How are you enjoying our small community?"

I smiled at the friendly guard and said, "It's not bad. Tends to be a bit boring, but it's a lot better than being alone in the hot desert sands." Seth nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, plus, from what I hear from Aradesh, you're going to get a little excitement AND rid us of our radscorpion problems." He gestured towards the 10mm I had strapped to my waist. "It's a win/win situation, eh?" He continued, chuckling a bit. I nodded. He stopped laughing, and became serious. "Now that greetings are over, I take it that you want me to take you and Mr. Ian to the radscorpion caves?" Ian took out his 10mm pistol and gestured for me to do so too.

As soon as I took mine out, I said, "Yeah."

And so, we set off towards the radscorpion caves. It wasn't a long walk. About two minutes at the least. We finally arrived at a dark cave which stood out amongst the barren Californian sands. "We're here." Seth said with a smug grin. "Good luck, guys." He began to walk back towards Shady Sands. "You're not going to help us?" I called after him. He shook his head. "Can't. As much as I want to, I need to guard the entrance to Shady Sands. You never know when some raiders decide to pass by, y'know?" I nodded in understanding, and went, with Ian, to the caves.

The inside of the cave was damp, dark, and smelled of death. In both appearance and smell, this has got to be worse than the cave Vault 13 was built into. Ian loaded twelve bullets into his pistol, and cocked it. I did the same. "So…" Ian said, his voice echoing throughout the cave. "Before we run into any radscorpions, I have to tell to something. I-" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a quick movement, and jumped to the side, just in time to miss a radscorpion tail. Ian luckily dodged it as well. I turned to saw my opponent and aimed my pistol at it, but nearly dropped it when I saw how huge the creature standing before me was. It must've been twice as big as me. Hell, Ian and I could probably ride on one if we tamed it. Unfortunately, we had no time for that, so I fired four rounds towards it. One hit it in the leg; another in the head, while two missed and hit the cave wall behind it. The sounds of the shots fired echoed throughout the cave, more likely than not alerting every living thing in it. We had to finish this one off quickly. Ian got behind me and we began to move in unison.

Ian fired a shot, and at the same time, I felt a sharp pain in my back. I put my hand behind it to feel something thick, sticky, and wet. Blood. I shot got in the back… By Ian! "Ian!" I yelled in agony, falling to the ground. "What the hell?" Ian began to repetitively apologize as he helped me up. "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, that's what I wanted to tell you. My accuracy kinda sucks, so you might want to stand behind me if we ever run into trouble." Oh great, because I want to feel this every time we get in a gunfight. "Once again, sorry." He said, firing a shot towards the radscorpion to hold it off. I replaced the bullets I previously shot and cocked my gun again. I knew that he was genuinely sorry, and although a part of me wanted to tell him to leave, I knew I could think of a better solution. "Then do that! Either get in front of me when you're about to fire, or beside me!" I yelled towards him. He nodded and stood right next to me. Ian emptied a whole round towards the radscorpion. Although about six shots missed, that didn't matter because four hit it in the head, effectively killing it. I walked over to it, took out my combat knife, and got to work. I used the knife to make a small incision on the end of the tail. I reached inside, gagging in disgust. After feeling something squishy, I cut it out with the knife. Poison gland. I took one look at the bloody appendage, and with a face of disgust, I threw it into my satchel.

We continued walking through the cave, sometimes coming across a human skeleton. It sickened me to know what goes on in the wasteland, but something tells me that I didn't know the half of it. We turned a corner and saw a lone radscorpion, luckily turned with its face to the wall. Ian waited behind the wall to be on lookout for any other radscorpions, and to watch my back in case the radscorpion was alerted. I momentarily dropped my satchel, pulled out my combat knife, and began to tiptoe to the menace. I went around it, searching its backside for a weak point. Luckily, one spot was not armored with its shell. I seized the opportunity of having the element of surprise and stuck the knife into the weak point. The creature emitted a shriek of fear and pain, as it turned towards me. I let go of the knife, and fired a few rounds into its head at point blank range. While the radscorpion died, I went around it, and pulled my knife out of its back. I stuck the knife into the dirt to clean the blood off of it before picking the tail back up.

Ian walked up to me and, just as I had, he took out his knife and hacked the poison gland out of the tail. He shoved it in his jacket pocket. I questioned whether or not I should get him a bag. We continued to walk throughout the cave and into one area, where we were immediately cornered by two of the buggers. I took the left one while Ian got the right one. Ian hacked and slashed his knife like a pro at one's face, while I emptied a whole twelve bullets into the other's head. When both of the radscorpions inevitably died, we trudged on.

We made our way through radscorpion after radscorpion, gunning down any of the fuckers standing in our way. By the time that we had nailed about fifteen radscorpions, we were getting tired, and were almost out of ammo. We had reached the end of the cave to find the biggest radscorpion I had ever seen out of the fifteen we had fought and killed so far. Before either of us could react, its tail shot out at a lightning quick movement, nailing me in the leg. I was immobilized from the fear, pain, and poison now shooting through my veins, and was in complete agony. Then I began to feel very sick. I reached into my satchel, and fished around for a stimpak. Ian recovered from the fall after the tail had flung the poor man into a wall. He picked up his pistol, and began dashing to where I was at. Unfortunately, so was the radscorpion. It began scuttling towards me and began to lower its jaws towards my feet. I had just jammed the stimpak syringe and emptied its contents into me. It had felt good, but the pain from the poison was still there, although a few of my wounds had closed up like magic. I had just noticed the giant radscorpion standing at my feet, and reached for my gun, but it was out of my reach. I looked to Ian, who was dashing like mad. He wasn't going to get here in time. "Ian!" I yelled weakly, as the corners of my vision began to fade. "Fire the gun! Take a leap of faith! I trust you!" Although, I didn't fully trust him, I wanted to assure him I'd be alright the best I could. Ian nodded, and raised his firearm. A single bullet flew out of it as he pulled the trigger. It seemed as if everything was in slow motion. The bullet narrowly whizzed past me, and struck the radscorpion in the eye. It screamed in pain as it stepped back from me, just as it was about to turn my feet into a brunch. I crawled over to my gun and grabbed it. I fired the last of my bullets into its head, and as I watched it die, my vision finally faded as I passed out. The last thing I heard was Ian calling my name.

I woke up some time later, I didn't know how many hours had passed, but the room was dark, and the air was chilled. My guess was that I was passed out all day. I noticed that I was only wearing my underwear and my Pip-boy. I also had bandages wrapped around my stomach with a patch on my back—presumably, from where Ian shot me on accident. My vision was still a little blurry, but I noticed that I was in Razlo's place. I don't know how I ended up here, but I remembered killing the last radscorpion. At least that was out of the way, and the citizens of Shady Sands shouldn't have to deal with the buggers anymore. I propped myself up on my arms, and as I did so, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder blade. I groaned in pain, and soon afterwards, Razlo came into the room with Ian right behind him. Ian had the most broken and scared look in his eyes until he saw me. His eyes were then filled with joy as he gave me the biggest smile I'd ever seen from him. "I thought you were a goner," was all he said.

I smiled too, and said weakly, "Me too." Razlo took out a stimpak and jammed it into my arm. After he emptied the syringe, he gave me a cup filled with a thick, brown liquid. It looked and smelled revolting.

"Drink this." He said, not looking at me. "It may smell bad, but at least you will be the first to drink the prototype antidote that I have whipped up. Yay you." He added, sarcastically. I drank the liquid, and then winced from the terrible taste.

"What happened?" I asked, setting the cup down on the bedside table. Ian sat himself down on a chair beside the bed.

"Well," he said, recalling the events after I passed out. "It went a little like this…"

Flashback (Ian's PoV)

Anthony slumped over, and I immediately knew he passed out. The radscorpion was dead, so there was no more worry of it getting to him before I did, at least. After the initial shock settled of me actually hitting my target back there during the fight, I began to run, as I had just remembered that the poison from that bastard's initial strike was shooting through my friend's veins. I sprinted over to Anthony's unconscious body, and pressed my ear to his chest to make sure he was alright. His heart was beating fast. I would really have to run if he was to survive. I didn't know what to do, but I knew one thing—I had to get him some medical attention… Stat! I bent down, and scooped my partner up into my arms, resting one arm behind the neck to support his head, while the other rested on the back of his knees to support his lower body. He really wasn't that heavy, so, I began to run out of the radscorpion caves as soon as I picked up our equipment and the two radscorpion tails that we had collected.

Once I escaped the cave, I started to dash towards Shady Sands. I made it there in a minute or so. My feet were tired, but I didn't care. I had to save my best friend. As soon as I got to Shady Sands, I was greeted by Seth. He looked as worried as I was. "What happened? Is he going to be okay? Did you cap all of the radscorpions?" Endless questions flowed from his mouth while I began to carry Anthony to Razlo's house.

My only response was, "I'll tell you when Anthony gets the medical attention he needs." Seth nodded in agreement, and followed me to Razlo's.

As soon as we got there, we saw Razlo sitting at his desk, reading medical exams. He looked at me, and then lowered his glasses to look at Anthony, still limp in my arms. He got up from behind his desk, and took his glasses off, placing them in his pocket. "Another victim to a radscorpion sting?" He asked, grimly. I nodded. He sighed before saying, "Well, there's not much I can do unless I have an antidote—which I don't." At the last word, I emptied the glands out of Anthony's bag. Razlo's eyes widened in amazement as did Seth's. "Yeah." The doctor said, still amazed and at a loss for words. "I can make an antidote out of those. Hell, I could make enough vials of antidote to cure the population of Junktown with those."

I rested Anthony on one of Razlo's beds and followed Razlo to his lab. Razlo took a knife, and poked a hole in the poison sac of the gland. Poison started to seep out. Razlo quickly mixed some chemicals from labeled vials in a flask, and then put it over a Bunsen burner. He ignited a gas flame under the Bunsen burner, and poured the contents of the radscorpion poison sac into it. The liquid became blood-thick, and turned a sickly brown color. After cooking it for a few seconds, he took the Bunsen burner off of the lab stove, and poured the liquid into a vial.

Razlo led me back out into the main room where I saw Seth watching over Anthony. He looked noticeably worse than before. I had hoped we weren't too late. Razlo examined Anthony for a while before muttering a bit to himself. "He's already about as bad as your brother is, Seth." Seth winced at the mention of the mention of Jarvis, his younger brother. Jarvis had gotten stung in the last radscorpion raid on Shady Sands. He wasn't stung as bad as Anthony, but eventually, if we don't do something, the poison will kill him, as it will Anthony. Razlo took out the vial and an empty syringe. He poked the needle of the syringe into the vial, and extracted the thick liquid from it. Razlo then jammed the syringe filled with antidote into Anthony, and then ejected the antidote into his veins. He then turned to Jarvis, and did the same. "Luckily," the doctor said, reaching into Anthony's satchel for a stimpak. "The stinger didn't hit any major arteries. If it did, your friend here would be fucked." I winced at the thought of Anthony dying. I had just met this guy, and he was already my friend. He entrusted his life with me. I didn't want him to die so soon.

I noticed that sweat was dripping from Anthony's forehead. Perhaps it was a side effect of the antidote. Razlo followed my stare, and began to take Anthony's blue jumpsuit off. I wondered what that was for anyways, and where he got that weird mini-computer on his wrist. What was with the number, 13 on the back? Maybe I'll ask him this when he gets up… If he gets up. Once Razlo got the jumpsuit off, he threw it with his pile of clothes to be washed. Razlo and I noticed some huge cuts on his stomach, and I helped him wrap some bandages around my friend's abdomen.

After Razlo did all he could do, he told me to sit and wait for the results. He told me that, as usual, his services were free. I thanked him, and then sat myself down next to Seth in the main room. Seth looked at me with a look that said, "Will you answer my questions, now?" I gave Seth a smug grin, and said, "Do you have any questions?"

Seth nodded, and said, "Yeah. How did he get poisoned?" I looked back on how he got stung, when the tail came crashing down on us, I was flung into a wall, while Anthony got nailed in the leg.

"The fucker stung him in the leg," was my response.

Seth asked another one, "Do you think he's going to be alright?" I sighed heavily, and looked at him.

"I don't know," I said. "I honestly don't know."

"Did you nail all the radscorpions?"

I nodded before saying, "Yep. Each and every one of 'em." Seth gave me a huge smile despite this sad moment.

"Well, at least one good thing came out of this." I knew he was trying to cheer me up, but it wasn't working. He noticed this, and said, "Well, are you going to be okay?" I nodded, and he immediately got up. "I have to go back to my post, but I will tell Aradesh of you and Anthony's brave deed. You two shall be recognized as heroes in Shady Sands." I nodded as thanks, and as soon as he left, I picked up a pre-war magazine and began to read it. It was about the pre-war suburbs. Pretty boring, almost boring enough to put me to sleep.

Some time of awkward silenced passed before Razlo walked over to me and held a cigarette packet out towards me, offering me one. I took the whole pack and could immediately tell that he was about to yell at me, before he got up to get us some drinks.

I heard him mutter, "Ah, screw it." When he came back with the drinks, he tossed me my favorite brand of firewater. Although all alcohols out in the wasteland were warm and flat, this was the best, in my opinion. I drank about half a bottle before I fell asleep, cigarette hanging out of my mouth.

Razlo woke me up a few hours later, and it was nighttime. He seemed excited. He began to whisper yell. "Ian! Your friend! He's alive! I heard him groaning! Come on!" I had just realized the cigarette was still in my mouth, and although it was burned out, I could still feel myself inhaling the smoke, while my breath faintly tasted of alcohol. He led me to Anthony's room, and there, I saw him, alive and well. For one moment of my life, the troubles of a rough world were put aside.

End flashback (Back to Anthony's PoV)

My eyes widened in shock. Ian cared about me enough to not give up on me until I woke up. I looked at Ian, and he looked at me. We both knew that we were destined to travel with each other until the end, as that was what best friends do. I sat up, pivoted my legs to the side of my bed, and stood up. I felt great, seeing as I was recently detoxified. I could tell that Razlo was hesitant on me standing up so soon, but he simply shrugged himself off, and walked off to his office.

"Thank you, Razlo!" I called in a cheerful voice.

"Mhmm," he mumbled from his office. Ian and I grabbed our stuff, and walked out of the house.

When Ian and I got to the town center of Shady Sands, we got looks of shock and awe. I seemed to be getting a lot of those lately. Once Ian and I made our way through the large crowd of people, we got to the town hall to speak to Aradesh. There, we ran into Tandi again. She ran up to me and gave me a huge hug on sight.

"Anthony! Everyone knows of the radscorpion elimination campaign! I can't believe you almost died trying to kill off the radscorpions." I grinned at the young girl.

"Trying? More like 'We completely kicked their asses!'" She smiled a bit, and then hugged Ian. "Ian, you put yourself in just as much danger to save Anthony. Thank you!" He smiled.

"Thank you, Tandi. We need to speak to Aradesh." Tandi nodded in understanding.

"My dad's not here right now. He went to visit Katrina at the guard station to talk to her about something." My eyes widened.

"You never told me Aradesh was your dad!" Tandi shrugged

"You didn't ask, now did you?" I shrugged back.

"I guess not." Tandi gave us a smile before leaving the town hall. Right at that moment, Aradesh walked in, and he looked pleased.

"Boys! I cannot thank you enough for all you've done for this humble settlement. We are all in your debt. If there's anything you need during your stay here, consider it yours." I held up my torn satchel.

"We would like you to have your finest craftsmen to weave us two new carrying bags, please." Aradesh nodded and called for his secretary. He whispered a few things into her ear, and turned back to us.

"It shall be done." Ian and I nodded at thanks. I had just remembered that we had used up all of our ammo in the radscorpion caves.

"Aradesh," I said. "Ian and I seem to have used up all of our ammo in the radscorpion raid. Would you mind placing any spare bullets you have into our bags—preferably 10mm? It doesn't matter if it's AP or FMJ" Aradesh nodded again, still smiling.

"Anything else?" I thought for a moment. This could be the opportunity to live like a king while I'm out here. I asked for some fresh water to store in my canteens, some dried and salted foods, and two bedrolls, hoping that I wasn't asking for too much. Aradesh nodded once more and said, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes… Your wish is my command." He chuckled for a second. Just as Ian and I received our bags, Seth ran in.

"Wait!" he yelled, breathing heavily. "I just… Wanted to uhh… Thank you for saving my brother, guys. If you hadn't brought the redscorpion poison glands, well…" Tears welled up in his eyes at the mere thought of it. "I know that it isn't much, but here's some caps, a few stimpaks, and a coil of rope." He dumped the handful of supplies into my bag. "Just remember that your deeds here are priceless. We here at Shady Sands could never thank you enough."

Ian and I had decided on celebrating our victory along with everyone else in Shady Sands. About midway through the party, I checked my Pip-boy calendar, and saw how many days had passed. I updated my "Things to do" note, and realized that Ian and I would have to leave eventually. Ian set his bottle of alcohol down on the table that we were sitting at, noticing that I was looking at my Pip-Boy.

"What is that thing, anyways?" he said, pointing at my wrist. "Forget the mini-computer on your wrist. What's the jumpsuit for? And Why does it say 13? On top of that, where are we going? What is your destination?" The man fired questions at me left and right. I guess his curiosity had built up since we've met, and now that we can finally relax, he wants answers.

"Well…" I said, searching for the right words. "I come from a vault out west… It's about a five-day's walk from here. It protected my grandparents from the bombs when they fell 80 years ago. Since it's Vault number 13, the standard dress code includes a Vault-Tec approved jumpsuit with the number '13' on the back. As for the Pip-Boy, this little computer has a clock, calendar, map, notepad… You name it. As for my mission, well…" As quickly and as accurately as I could, I told him about the water chip and Vault 15, which is far to the east. Ian nodded, intrigued.

With a grin, he said, "Well then, let's head out tomorrow. Tonight, we shall party. Cheers!" He brought his beer glass up to mine and we both took a swill of our drinks.

The next morning, I told Ian that it was time to pack our bags and say goodbye to everyone. Once we finished packing our equipment into our new backpacks, we said our goodbyes, giving an especially long goodbye to Aradesh, Tandi, and Razlo. Then, we passed the entrance to Shady Sands for the last time in a long time. Ian and I were just getting started…

…

A/N: I rewrote some of this for multiple reasons, one being that I felt like I was making Ian out to be some sort of crybaby, and another was that I felt the chapters should be longer. So, from here on out, every chapter will transition to the next when the group goes into a new settlement or town.