August 18th, 2279

Zack sprinted down along the road and crouched down by a burnt out car. He peered around the side of the rear end of the car and scanned the area. He motioned with his left hand to move up, but when looked back, he was all alone.

"Damn, where are the others?"

Zack pulled his assault rifle up and moved up to one of the buildings that served as the entrance of the town, with his back against the wall. He then moved down the street, checking building alcoves, windows, rooftops, but did not see anyone or anything. He came to a building which was badly damaged on the left side, it was collapsing inward. A sign read "City Library" on a bronze plate attached to a wall near some stairs leading up to the entrance. Zack stopped in his tracks. A body was sprawled about along the steps. He moved slowly up, assault rifle arching back and forth as he walked. He then saw who it was.

"Alex! What happened to you?"

He walked up the stairs and went inside the library. The doors creaked so loudly that he thought for sure the sound was heard everywhere in the small city. Once inside he listened for any sounds, and looked for any movement. Neither occurred, and he made his way forward. He walked down the rows of shelves littered with degraded books, most likely unusable. Zack came to an open area with desks with old computer terminals sitting on them. He spotted blood spattered across a few of the desks. Alarmed, Zack quickly moved to the other side of the area. From what was in front of him, he had to use all of his willpower to keep his stomach from erupting. The carpet was stained with blood, and littered with body parts. Near the center, he found the remains of three badly torn up bodies. He closed his eyes and cursed. It was Jeremy, Darren, and Gavin, the rest of his squad.

"This was only supposed to be a recon mission, damn it!"

Zack heard the sound of breathing behind him. He quickly turned around and saw what had caused the demise of his squad. Standing ominously four feet taller than him, arms flexed ready to strike, was a Deathclaw. Zack's eyes widen, and he drew his assault rifle up aiming at the beast's core, and squeezed the trigger. All was heard was a faint click from his gun. It did not fire. The Deathclaw grunted a few times as if laughing at him, and swung its right arm. Zack had little time to react, he tried lean backwards to avoid the attack, but his left arm was struck.

The pain was so unbearable he dropped his assault rifle and covered his wound with his right arm. He turned around and ran. He saw a door way ahead of him, and could hear the thumps of the Deathclaw's feet in pursuit. Zack made it through the door shutting it behind him, and locking it with his good arm. The room was some sort of maintenance storage area, which had a ladder bolted against the wall leading up to what Zack thought would be the roof. The Deathclaw started pounding at the door.

"That door won't last two minutes."

Zack made his way up the ladder as fast as his wounded arm allowed. He had to push open a latched door once at the top to gain access to the roof. He pulled himself up, and rolled over on his back. He closed his eyes, and tried to fight the pain in his arm.

"No way can that monster make it up here. It's too big."

Zack heard a low growling sound from his right. He opened his eyes and looked over, his mind racing on what would be there. Another Deathclaw was up here, and it started making its way towards him.

"Can't I catch a break today?"

Zack got up and starting backing away as the Deathclaw moved closer. He pulled out his combat knife, his last defense. As Zack moved further back, he felt one of his feet halfway off the building, he had to quickly pull it back and fought to regain his balance. The Deathclaw starting sprinting towards him and Zack prepared to thrust his arm, trying to aim for the creature's throat. The Deathclaw was too fast however. It attacked and its claws pierced Zack's chest and stomach. Breathing became difficult for Zack. Most likely one of his lungs had been penetrated. He dropped his now useless knife and coughed up blood. The Deathclaw lifted him up into the air and flung him off the building. Zack looked to the ground, his impending doom coming closer with each second. He was about to impact-

Zack woke up quickly and let out a short cry. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and he was breathing rapidly. It felt like he had actually landed on the floor of the toll booth. His arms and legs seem to be in pain, and he had a hard time moving them. After about half of minute Zack realized where he was and let out a sigh of relief.

"It was just a nightmare."

This recon mission had actually happened. It was a couple of years ago when Zack was ordered to lead a squad to check out a city nearby his town where caravans and traders had been disappearing over the last few months. The squad went expecting to find some new raider group that had moved in, but found a lone Deathclaw inhabitant instead. The events in his dream were a lot different than the actual ones that had occurred. He was never wounded by the Deathclaw, or thrown from a rooftop. Zack only lost two members of his team, Darren and Gavin. They were ripped apart by the vicious creature. With fast acting on his part, the remaining part of the squad was able to take it down with a coordinated attack. This memory has always haunted him. It was a constant reminder that no matter how well you plan, things can go wrong, very fast.

Zack sat up, and looked outside the window of the small building. The sky had a grey overcast, and he did not see any dangers from this view. He usually only preferred to travel at night, but this nightmare was a recurring one. He would not be able to sleep for quite some time. He opened his pack and removed the tin container. He ate the squirrel bits and mutfruit. The mutfruit tasted alright, but the squirrel bits were quite tough and lacked any real flavor. All Zack had left for his food supplies were a little bit of Brahmin jerky, and some cuts of cooked Jackal Rabbit. He reached for his canteen, and drank the last of the water in it. He refilled it with the water bladder from his pack. There was enough water in the bladder for about two more refills.

Zack rolled up his bedroll, and reattached it to his pack. He stood up and began to search the place for any supplies. He had been too tired when he first arrived about six hours ago. In front of him he found an old register on a counter with some pre-war money in it, useless now. There were some papers shuffled about, none looked to serve any purpose. Behind him he found two five foot lockers. The left one had a padlock on it, so he opened the right one first. Inside on the top shelf he found three boxes of .32 caliber ammo. He glanced down on the bottom and located a first aid kit. He kneeled down and grabbed the box and opened it. Inside he found a stimpak, one bottle of rad-x, and two syringes of med-x. He took all the medical supplies and put them in his pack with the ones he already had. Zack stood back up, grabbed the three boxes of ammo, and put those in his pack as well. He turned his attention to the left locker. He took out his multi tool along with a bobby pin. It took several minutes to pick the lock. He opened the locker and found nothing. It looked like it held some kind of rifle at some point in time. Disappointed, Zack closed the door.

"Guess the ammo could be used as trading fodder, since it is meaningless to me."He thought hopefully.

The cloud cover was starting to break up by the emerging sun. Zack pulled up his tinted goggles over his eyes and wrapped his face and head with his cloth garment. He left the toll booth, thanking no one in particular for the safe place to rest, and made his way down the road that led to the Sandy Lake Recreational Park.

After a bit of walking, Zack came to forest of the skeletal remains of burnt up dead trees. The trees were of many sizes, and all along their bases were the brownish wasteland weeds that seem to pollute the land no matter where one went. He paused for a moment when he got closer to the trees to take in the surroundings. He did not sense any immediate danger, so he continued on. After a bit of walking he came to what was left of the lake. The lake had been large when it had been full. It was just a standing crater now, with a small amount of dark color liquid near its center. The water looked too dangerous from this distance to even bother checking it. He saw a small dock with two boats tied to it, but now they rested on the ground to remain endlessly. Zack looked around from where he stood on the road. He felt some kind of presence, but did not see anything.

Zack continued on a bit more and came across a campsite to his right. A picnic table was in the center with two camp trailers on each side. He walked to the closest trailer. The door was missing from it. He went inside and found only moldy mattresses. He stepped back out of the trailer and made his way to the other. He heard the sound of movement behind him. Zack turned his body to his left and was hit by some kind of wooden weapon. Luckily since he turned, his shoulder pauldron took the bulk of the hit which was aimed at the back of his head. A small part did hit his head however, he saw white spots and his vision became blurred. Zack was pushed with his back against the side of the trailer in front of him. He felt pressure on his arms restraining him in place. He saw four fuzzy black silhouettes in front of him. He figured they were some group of raiders.

"Heya buddy." The figure in front of Zack said as he punched him in the gut a few times. He could tell the voice was male and his breath reeked of vodka. "We've have been following you for a bit, since you entered our little park, and waited for an opportune moment to introduce ourselves." Zack's head was still cloudy from the blow earlier to his head and could not muster any response. "Let's see what goodies you brought for my friends and I, shall we?" The man began to take his pack off, one arm at a time.

Zack's head was wavering from side to side. A gust of wind came rushing by, causing the branches of the trees to shake, and make an eerie sound that caused Zack to shudder. The air smelled of decayed flesh and feces. Zack's vision was just starting to come into focus.

"That smell, it smells like a-"

There was a loud bellow from the left, and a large hairy figure came running by on four legs. All heads turned toward it. The first man was struck with a claw and went down holding his gushing throat. The creature pounced on the next man who screamed in horror as he was mauled. The man holding Zack shouted a curse and took off. Zack slumped down to his knees. The pain in his body was still severe. The last raider was female, standing motionless, her eyes and mouth wide open. The creature finally took notice of her, latched on to her left arm with its teeth and pulled her to the ground. The screams of her dying filled the once silent campground. Zack now realizing he would be next if he did not move, went into a prone position and rolled under the trailer. He reached out his arm and pulled on his pack which barely had enough clearance to make it under. Zack placed his hand to the ring he wore around his neck and gripped it firmly.

"Please help me."

Zack crawled out from under the other side of the trailer and sat crouched. He placed his pack on his back. He started making his way slowly away from the trailer as silent as he could. When he felt safe enough he started to sprint, heading east. While he was running, he thought of a phrase he had heard once, "Don't feed the Yao Guai." As of right now however, he was glad someone else had done so.