Max LeBay looked around, saw nothing but the dull gray of the scorched earth, rock formations, and burned down remains of the pre-war human population. He felt nothing but the intense heat of the Sun and the fear of this new land, which he learned in school, was "inhospitable" and "showed no mercy to those ill prepared to deal with its many dangers." He took off the helmet he took from Officer Kendall, the first person whose life he took, and dropped it to the ground. He felt cooler, just a bit. As he looked down from the "scenic overlook" in front of Vault 101, he saw a road leading into the ruins of a small town.

He looked back at the small tunnel entrance leading to the Vault and wondered if he would ever return to his past home welcomed back, or if he'd make it back at all. He followed a dirt trail down from the overlook and followed the road to town. The remains of a sign: Springvale. He looked around and saw an old Red Rocket gas station with its old, iconic red rocket still standing strong, unaffected physically from the elements, but affected cosmetically as nearly the whole structure was red with rust than with paint. Max looked around and pictured it. Kids running around with whatever toys they had back then. Cars turned the corners of the streets and vroomed down the black-top streets. All wiped out within a matter of seconds by clusters of nuclear bombs.

The wind picked up, picking dust, pebbles and whatever small clusters it could and practically threw them into Max's eyes. God damn it! He rubbed his eyes but it only seemed to be making it worse. When it finally felt like he could open his eyes, he saw what looked like an old Nuka-Cola machine. Through two hundred years, nature and time seemed to have barely touched the machine at all. It's paint was sun-bleached but for the most part, still there and even had its light flickering on and off, struggling for sustained life.

Max crept up to the old vending machine, hoping it held the possibility of still having some Nuke-Cola bottles. If the inside was as together as the outside, maybe they'd still be good. He broke the lock to the machine door and sure enough, there were two bottles of Nuka-Cola inside the vendor. He took one out and held it... warm... Would it still be good? A terminal in the Vault said the Nuka-Cola company used strange ingredients during the manufacturing of their drinks... maybe those weird mixtures extended the expiration date or even made the drinks imperishable!

Max cut his loses, popped open the cap with his bare hands, and chugged the glass bottle's contents within a matter of seconds. The soda tasted flat, warm and had a metallic aftertaste. Max burped and... he felt off. His stomach roared and ached. Max fell to his hands and feet, and regurgitated the soda back out of his mouth like some fire hose spraying out water.

One more turn of vomiting later and that putrid soda was out of Max's system. He wiped his mouth and leaned against the machine, feeling tired and empty. God, if anyone survived the war, this shit would have surely finished them off. He looked at the bottle and tossed it. America's favorite drink my ass. He looked at the bottle cap and thought, A memento! The first time I almost died out here! He stuffed the cap in his pocket and sat there. Listening to that damned wind. Then, he heard a rather different sound. The sound of rustling. He thought he saw a piece of wood, a loose piece of wall move from inside one of the buildings ahead of him.

He stared at the houses, looking for something-anything-that moved. And then he saw something... big, brown... crawly. He thought he was hallucinating from the heat, his blurry vision and the bad soda because he thought he saw a giant ant the size of a car! Max chuckled to himself, thinking he'd gone crazy. That is, until it picked up a burnt out car and threw it at Max. Max jumped out of the way just in time for the car to crash into the vending machine. He struggled to take out his pistol from his pack but it only got closer and closer. The thought of running crossed his mind and he took that opportunity. Unfortunately, nature had different plans. As Max turned to run, he slipped on some rocks and fell head over heels.

The sound of the crawling monstrosity kept coming and coming and he heard the sounds of it click and chirp. The end was near. The giant ant was so close. All he did was lay there. He got this far.Not far enough. Max sprawled to his feet just in time to avoid coming into close contact with the ant and ran. His running ended a bit short after he heard the sounds of a gun sound off. The ant slumped forward, dead, with a several large holes in its head.

"Woohoo! My day gets better and better! Did you see that Henry?" a man yelled out.

"Mhmm," the other man confirmed.

"That ant had no idea what was coming!" The man laughed. "Come back so I can say 'Hello' son. Come see how Lucky Harith has made it your lucky day."

Max turned and looked at the dark man who saved his life. He had a brown ball cap, a yellow jumpsuit on and a shotgun in hand. "Th-thank you."

"No. Thank you. We hardly get to shoot at things when we're traveling but this? This was quite a rush." Max looked behind him. "We" meant Harith, a mercenary and a two-headed cow. A two-headed cow?

Max pointed a finger at the abomination. "What the fuck is wrong with that cow?"

"Cow?" asked Harith. "That there is a brahmin! Where have you been all your life son?" Harith surveyed Max's jumpsuit and gave a small chuckle. "Oh, so you're from that Vault! Welcome, welcome!" Harith took Max's hand in his shook it vigorously. "No wonder you're so clean! It's been a while since I've seen a Dweller. Look, for coming out here and giving me the highlight of my day, I'm gonna do you a favor. Come, come." Harith walked Max over to Bess, Harith's pack Brahmin, and opened one of the many packs on the brahmin's back. "See, Bess carries my toys. I'm going to give you one as a... reference to me. Whenever you save your rump using this baby, remember who gave it to you and seek me out." Harith rustled through the many packs.

"Toys?" Max asked.

Harith pulled out a rusting assault rifle and laughed. "Toys indeed, son. Here." Max took the rifle. "Here's two free clips of ammo for the girl and I'll take you to Megaton! Safest place I know nearby. We're on the way so I think it'd do you good to meet civilization anew."

Max took the rifle in his hands and fumbled with it until the clip went inside with a click. Movies he saw in the Vault had people pull back a lever on the side and... click! Locked and loaded. He got the strap on the rifle and threw it over his shoulder before following Harith.

Harith and his caravan lead Max to a large fortress of scrap. It had two airplane wings strutting out of the sides of the entrance and a plane engine in between. A sniper's nest above the engine looked down upon the group, a robot and a man in rags. The robot came up to the group and spoke, its words and syllables spaced out a second apart from its roboticized voice. "Welcome to Megaton, partner. The bomb is perfectly safe."

A Bomb? Megaton already seemed like one of those wasteland myths he'd hear about at school. I think the surface still has some bombs, one kid would say. I heard from Freddie that there are still bombs near the Vault, one would yell out. What? That's impossible! All the bombs went ka-boom a zillion years ago, another kid said. The "zillion years ago" may have been exaggerated but sure enough, there was still a bomb not half a mile from Vault 101. A nuclear bomb wasn't half a mile away from his home. Max shook his head. The Vault survived hundreds of nukes on the first day. One bomb wouldn't wipe it out. He hoped.

Harith's caravan settled by the entrance and the two men of the caravan unhooked folding chairs and sat down on them. "Don't mind him," Harith said. "That's Deputy Weld. Deputy he is called but is mainly the town greeter. The bomb? Just some decoration. No one even knows if it still works." The mercenary named Henry handed Harith a Nuka-Cola. "Want one son?"

Max's stomach growled at the thought. "No!" Harith raised a brow. "I mean, no, thank you. Me and soda don't... mix."

Harith laughed. "They're better cold, but, uh, you'll adjust. Go on inside. They won't bite."

Max approached the fortress and looked at the two large sheets of metal covering the entrance. He stepped forward and the sheets receded and opened to a small space meeting two, large double doors. Max pushed a door open and closed it behind him.

Max looked around and was both astonished and horrified. A whole town was built in and around a crater with an atomic bomb in the very center of the whole town. The buildings, walkways, and foundations of everything within the town, including the walls protecting it, seemed crude, scavenged and were mainly composed of pieces of airplanes, considering one building had the entire tail of one as its top floor. As amazing as it was seeing that there was pockets of humanity capable of living in such a desolate world, Max was disgusted that these people lived in rickety old shacks of rusted metal and had a bomb as their town statue. At least the giant metal walls gave protection from the dust clouds outside the town.

A man came up to Max, eyeing his clothing and the weapons clearly visible on his person. "I'll be damned, you're from that vault, Vault 101." The man chuckled and continued, "I haven't seen one of those jumpsuits in a long time. My name is Lucas Simms. Welcome to the town of Megaton. I'm the sheriff of this place, mayor when the need arises, and since you're new, I guess I can be a concierge for now."

Max shook the man's hand. Seeing a sheriff badge on his duster and a sheriff's hat on his head made Max a bit too nervous to be rude. "Thank you, sheriff. Uh… this is a pretty nice place you got. By any chance, have you seen my dad? He's a middle-aged person, graying hair, a rough shaven beard and wearing a vault suit with a white doctor's coat over it."

Lucas thought it over and said, "Nope. I can't say I have. I'm far too busy trying to maintain order in this town to keep tabs on everyone who walks in. Maybe you can ask… Moriarty," Simms said the name in disgust. "He's up in his saloon but be careful, he's a bad, bad man."

"Thanks sheriff. Er, what did you mean that you haven't seen a jumpsuit like mine in a while? My dad and I are the only ones to have left the Vault. No one leaves. Ever."

"No," the sheriff replied. "A while back, and I mean a while back, we had a couple people from the Vault come visit us. They wanted information on the wasteland so we filled them in on things. They left the same day, I think."

"No... Dad and I were the first ones out of there." Were there other people that came out of the vault before us? Of course not! We live in the vault and we die in the vault! No one leaves and no one enters!

"Well maybe it was people from a different vault. I'd ask Moira up in Craterside Supply about it. She was one of the people that talked to the Vault Dwellers a lot, so she might have more information. She runs the town's general goods store. You can go up this pathway above Doc Church's and make a right. First door you see."

"Okay, I will." Max peeked over Simms's shoulders at the bomb. "Say, does that bomb still work…?"

Simms looked back at the old WMD. He got closer to Max and said in a hushed whisper, "Not many people know this, I think I might be the only one to know in fact, but that bomb still works. Makes me nervous since there's a bunch of people that worship the damned thing. A bunch of nuts, but they seem harmless. None of them even know it's still a threat!"

"If you want, I could look into disarming it. At the Vault, I was taught how to do every job so I can see if the workers were doing theirs right, from leaky faucets to exploding radiators, I knew how to fix them."

Simms took off his hat and scratched his head in thought. "Well…, I don't want that thing ticking near my town so I guess I'll let you turn the nasty nuke off… just don't blow us up. I mean it. I may be getting old but I don't plan on retiring." Simms laughed and patted Max's back. "When you're done, come see me and I'll give you your reward. How does a hundred caps sound?"

"Caps? Bottle caps?"

"Oh that's right! You're new to the wasteland world. Well, caps out here are our money. You can find caps nearly everywhere, makes saving up pretty easy. You can even get one free cap from drinking a Nuka-Cola." Simms laughed at his last statement. All Max did was cringe. "When you get some caps, head on up to Craterside Supply and talk to Moira to buy what you want or need. She's somewhat loose in the head but she's nice. I think she'd be willing to do some bartering too." With that in mind, Max headed down the slope from the main entrance and towards the nuke in the center of the town. Around it was a small pool of water; his Pip-Boy ticked and ticked at the water, revealing its slight irradiated state. Max walked carefully into the small pool, over to the large bomb and opened a little hatch hiding wires.

The people of citizens slowly circled the young boy. What is he thinking? What is he doing playing with that? Does he want us dead! They looked on at what the young stranger was doing.

A heap of wires, conductors and electronics littered the inside of the bomb. Why don't they ever label the important ones, Max searched around the inside of the bomb, moving wires, and the such until he found a piece that had a slow, pulsing light. Sensor? Detonator? Think LeBay, think! Oh! The core! He grabbed it and slowly unhooked every wire he saw connected to it. After pulling it out, he smiled and and turned it around. He felt a small tug and he saw that on the back was a wire that ripped off. Fuck. The component exploded in Max's hands, sending its contents into Max's face. Max coughed wildly and collapsed. He heard the sounds of people running to his aid before blacking out, hearing the sounds of his Pip-Boy's Geiger counter go tick, tick, tick.

When Max woke up, he was facing a metal ceiling with an IV drip in his arm and three people around him. There was Lucas Simms, a redheaded woman, and an older man who Max presumed was the doctor.

"See Simms," the doctor said, "the kid is fine! Nothing a little Rad-Away can't fix."

"Doc, don't forget that that was my special batch of Rad-Away that saved the boy's life. I would absolutely love a testimony from a doctor witnessing the effects of homemade Rad-Away first hand." The redheaded woman, whose name was apparently Moira Brown, kept talking, and asking questions until the doctor asked her to calm down the townsfolk outside, which she happily agreed to do before finally leaving.

Max sat up and saw Simms sitting on a chair next to his bed. "I disarmed the thing."

Lucas only laughed and said, "Well that you did, son. You almost got yourself killed doing it, but seeing how you're not dead and the town is still on the map,I guess you can still claim the reward. Just wait until you're all healed up in-Church, how long did Moira say he'd be up and running again?"

Doctor Church went into the next room, apparently his office, and came back out reading a clipboard. "Well, according to what I've seen and what Moira says…, I'd say the mutation will heal him up pretty quickly .He'll be up and running by, eh, this afternoon, I assume."

"That's good news." Simms got up, nodded to the doctor and headed for the door while saying, "Remember, find me when you're all healed up." He opened the door and went outside.

"Good news?" Max couldn't believe what he heard. "I have a mutation? I'm going to grow another fucking limb or have more eyes or become some ticking time bomb!" Max remembered what he put on his G.O.A.T. test when asked what he'd do if he grew another arm. A bullet to the head. Max searched around for his pistol but it was nowhere in sight. He curled up into a ball and sobbed.

Doctor Church sighed frustrated. "No you won't. Just suck it up, you big baby. It's one of those-"he sighed again, "MOIRA!" Moira opened the door to the clinic and poked her head in. "Moira, tell him what the mutation is. He's already crying about it and it's damn irritating."

Moira shrieked in joy and sat on the chair Simms was sitting on. "Well, when I saw you on this bed glowing with radiation, I thought, 'This guy looks like a perfect subject for my homemade Rad-Away!' Sooooooo, I injected you with a few chems, with the doc's permission of course, and hovered a couple magnets over you and within a few hours, you woke up!" She grinned.

"I took out a bit of your blood," she continued, "and had it tested to make sure no more of that annoying radiation was in you and we found you now have a brand new mutation! After putting some irradiated water on it, the doctor and I found out that damaged cells regenerate as you get radiated! Not only is this great for you because you get to live but it's also good that my Rad-Away works!"

Max looked at her as if she was crazy. Whether she was or wasn't didn't seem to matter but she was a quite the talker. She stuck out her hand and greeted Max. "Hi! My name is Moira Brown! You should come down sometime…, or come up…, or … just…," she chuckled, "just come to my shop whenever you need anything."

Max cautiously took her hand. "My name is Max. Max LeBay. I recently left the Vault to look for my dad... Have you seen him? He's a middle-aged guy, whiting hair, a rough shaven beard? Does it ring any bells?"

Moira thought long and hard and finally said, "Nope! Can't say I have. Hey! I got an idea! You come down to my shop and I can give you a few things to help you look for him. You know, as thanks for disarming the bomb that threatened to blow us all to Oblivion...and as an apology for twisting your DNA like a towel."

"Okay, I will." Satisfied, Moira walked out of the clinic, saying bye to Doctor Church and waving goodbye to Max.

Max slept and as he slept he had a dream. He and his dad were both wiped out by a nuclear explosion by the Overseer, Amata executed for helping Max escape and Jonas being beaten dead again, Max woke up in cold sweat and with a heartbeat so fast, it felt like he escaped the vault all over again... which wasn't too bad, considering how well it went under the circumstances he was under.

When the good doctor felt that Max was well enough, he gave Max his things and sent him off, saying he wouldn't bill him this one time since he disarmed the bomb. Max exited the doctor's clinic and started to walk the metal ramp that went over the clinic, towards Moira's store. The ramp would creek and ache under his weight, and he felt he would fall through the long piece of metal with every step. Max would notice people whispering into their companion's ears and point at him in astonishment. Was it better to feel honored or ashamed of those talking of him? He opened the door to Craterside Supply and his nostrils become suddenly invaded by a putrid odor.

Moira waved at him front behind the counter saying, "Hey! Try not to mind the smell; it'll go away soon. Crack open the door, yeah?" Max left the door open and took a couple deep breaths of the wasteland's semi-fresh air. "That's the last time I use a Mole Rat'a bladder sack for an experiment. Whew!" She grabbed a lid from a metal box and fanned the room of the smell. Max grabbed a nearby lid and helped clear the air of odor.

After a couple minutes, the air inside the shop seemed breathable to the wasteland's standards. To Max, it still smelled wretched. "You said you had something for me?" Max felt somewhat awkward just popping it up like that but he wasn't very keen on taking his time that moment.

"Oh! Wait right here! I'll only take a minute!" Max saw the woman run to the next room, heard her climb up some stairs and saw her in the floor above through the scaffolding. He heard her open boxes, moves things around and finally came running downstairs with a blue suit in her arms. "Here, I had this thing made a while ago for another Vault escapee but since she never came back to get it, I'm giving it to the next Vault escapee, you."

"No, the vault has never been opened before. That's impossible…" Since both his dad and he were able to leave the Vault, Max considered that anything was possible for a Vault dweller.

"Well, it happened before and it happened again. All that matters is that you meet new people!" She handed Max the suit and he took it. It was a vault suit with the number "101" on the back of it. Moira twirled away from him and searched through the shelves and lockers on the walls of her store for something else. Max carried the suit, placed it on the counter, and admired it. It had a shoulder guard on the left side with a bandolier holding ammunition pouches running from it to the right side of the waist. At the waist was a belt that had even more ammo pouches and a pistol holster on the right leg. Max felt the inside of the suit and he thought he felt some kind of Kevlar. It was thin but at the same time thick. He picked up the suit and held it by its shoulders. He estimated it weighed no more than 10 or 15 pounds, probably lighter than his security armor, with probably better protection.

Moira came back with a thin belt of leather with a small pouch in the middle of it. "Here you go your first rifle holster. You know, so when you get your very first rifle, you can have a way to carry it around hands-free." As Max took hold of the belt, a man wearing leather armor came through the shop's door carrying a toolbox in his right hand.

"Moira, Walter said thanks for the tools. He said they helped a lot," the man said.

"Thanks, Diego. Max this is Diego, he watches over the shop when I'm gone and essentially watches over the shop even when I'm here." Max and Diego exchanged glares as Diego walked to a wall looking in the counter's direction and leaned against it, his slung assault rifle clearly visible over his shoulder. An awkward silence befell the room.

"Well I'm going to take off Moira. I got to find Lucas Simms."

"Alright, bye! Try not to die!" Max shuddered, hoping the same.

Max found Simms having lunch at a restaurant by the bomb. "The Brass Lantern" was what it was called. It fit with the decor: brass lanterns around the eating bar and one next to the door to go inside.

Simms saw Max walking towards him and waved his hand at him. "Max," he said through the food in his mouth, "there you are." Simms put down the kebab of meat he was chewing on. "I have your caps right here." Simms took out a small pouch and drop it on the bar.

"Thank you, Sheriff. I'll be on my way n-"

"Not so fast, boy," Simms cut him off. "Let's go for a walk. Walk off this food of mine, you know."

Max followed Simms up the crater towards the entrance. "See," Simms started "this town means quite a lot to me. It's a safe haven to those who can't make it anywhere else. Not just anyone can stick around, much less be accepted by the people who live here." They turned right up a crickety ramp.

"Is this going anywhere, Sheriff?" Max asked. He felt like he was going to be politely asked to leave town. Simms stopped in front of a house and sat down at a table just in front of it.

"Sit my boy," he said, motioning to the chair in front of him. Max sat.

"This here house," Simms said "hasn't been lived in for a while. I guess I've been saving it for someone who deserves it. Megaton is a crowded place, you know. Today, I saw someone who has done more than enough to deserve it."

Simms pulled a little key from his duster's pocket. "This here key, is entry and deed to this house." He threw the key onto the table, watching as it slid towards Max.

"I- I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Just keep doing what you're doing. The Wasteland could use more people like you, Max. Oh, and here are your caps. Don't spend them all at Moriarty's."

When Max entered the new home he was given, he saw it was surprisingly spacious. It had two floors. There were two lockers on the first floor, a random display case in between them, a bookshelf, a kitchen, and some electronics near the door. He went upstairs, opened the only door available, and nearly fell back in surprise. Inside that room, was a Mister Handy robot! Oh my God! My own Mister Handy! The robot was offline but it detected Max's presence and turned on. The robot saw him and introduced itself.

"Hello, sir," it said in a British voice, much like Andy's. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wadsworth, your new, personal robot butler. If there's anything you need, feel free to ask anytime." Max smiled wide at his new robot.

"Is there any place to put my stuff?" His back ached a bit. From the time he woke up, to the time he met Wadsworth, Max gained 40 pounds of equipment he was hauling with him.

"You have the two lockers downstairs, the bookshelf for nick-knacks and books, the room adjacent to us can be used as a storage room and you have a desk with a filing cabinet within your room, sir."

"Thank you, Wadsworth." Max put his pack on his new desk and jumped onto the bare spring bed.

This was a good day.

I really hoped you've enjoyed thus far! Any constructive criticism is welcome!