Begin Recording

New Faces

Recording by Scribe Ellison

Dear brother and sister scribes, the story we've been listening to on these tapes has been very intense, and I have it on good authority it will get worse before it gets better. But the settlement where I'm recording is just the opposite. Sanctuary is a very cheerful place. People complain a lot but they help each other and try to fix things. We should not encourage argument with commanding officers and having children underfoot in the Brotherhood, but for a civilian settlement it is a lot of fun.

The odd troop has returned from clearing out a raider camp. I'm distracted by the return of Cait, who is a very attractive woman and who I'm too scared to speak to, so I didn't notice the oddity that Percy is carrying all of his gear in his hands. He puts it all down, takes off his backpack and pulls out three puppies.

"Mamadog must've been one of the ones that wouldn't stop trying to eat us, but maybe we can save these? Are they big enough?"

There is a mass cooing from everybody who's around. The puppies are big enough to be squirming and whining and they're very cute. There is some discussion over who will take them home, which Shaun Mason wins by reminding Kaynah that small puppies need help going to the bathroom. The others decide they'll just visit.

Shaun says he has to set up a pen and I offer to help him. He has a plan, hauling a grungy mattress into the main room of the General's house and setting up a few crates to make a fence so the little squirmers are contained. I help with the heavy lifting and Shaun directs. Kaynah comes back with a pail of milk fresh from the brahmin and Jimmy's got leftover stew and we mash it up to make gruel. The puppies dig in.

"I see you've all done this before." I guess. "Will the General be ok with finding her furniture moved around and extra dogs in her house when she gets back tonight?"

"She won't mind." Shaun says confidently. "They won't be here for very long. Gene the dog trainer will come take them to the Castle to train them to be Minutemen guard dogs."

"Is that where all your dogs come from?" I ask. There are half a dozen dogs in Sanctuary, though I only know the names of the two friendliest.

The boy flops belly-down on a crate, watching the puppies slurp up their gruel. "Mmhm. Mom always wants to bring back raider dogs if she can catch them and sometimes we can tame them or Gene can. He's nice. I wish he lived here instead so we could have more dogs. Whoops, here's Goliath!"

The massive brown and black dog nudges her way between the crates, dumping Shaun to the ground so she can greet the new members of her kind. She gives the puppies a thorough sniffing and some licks, and lies down to let the puppies snuggle up to her then looks up at us with a doggy grin. Kaynah sits down to rub Goliath around the ears, telling her she's the best good dog.

Shaun says, "Goliath's the first dog from Gene, before I even came here. She's Dogmeat's girlfriend! They had a romantic dog meeting!" he hoots with laughter, and the other kids laugh and Jimmy says dogs don't do romance.

Coincidentally, the day after I learn how Sanctuary gets its dogs, I see an example of how it gets its people.

I've heard that there was a radio beacon in the past, but by now everybody in the Commonwealth knows that there are farming villages where people can settle down in a pretty good situation if they're willing to work for it. I'm surprised there isn't a flood of volunteers, but it seems the amount of work necessary and the dusty handmade look of the settlements keeps the population down. Tom the bartender says, "And Diamond City is a famous place with a famous Wall! We've got no upper stands to aspire to either, and we've got more rules than Goodneighbor. In Goodneighbor if you don't want to work you'll be left to starve, here you'll be fed but made to work however you can help."

So settlers trickle in slowly, from outside the Commonwealth or from the larger settlements. Or in stranger ways. Baby Boomer's arrival was a more dramatic variation of a fairly common occurrence. Word has gone around the raider gangs that they can drop off children or babies at any settlement and they'll be taken in.

I am on watch, the early morning shift widely considered the worst of the day. Everyone has to take a turn to grant that no one has to do it more often than necessary.

The watchtowers are on top of the houses, this one just behind the bridge into Sanctuary. they're well designed, with sandbags to lean on and an uncomfortable chair to prevent dozing off. Water and snacks are even provided. Not all watchtowers have a terminal but this one does, connected to the gen-one synth brain and eyes that run the turrets.

It's just after dawn and I'm looking forward to the end of my watch, and breakfast, when I see movement out in the wasteland. Human movement; a lone traveler bowed with something on its back.

Whoever it is hasn't set of alarms at the caravan camp but I hit a few keys to make the siren whoop the warning signal. The sleepy morning bustle rises in volume as people hurry to their posts, some hesitating to grab breakfast along the way.

The visitor is moving slowly and the turrets swing in his direction but don't open fire. The synth brain that runs them is programmed to detect hostility and it doesn't think this guy is trouble. I put my rifle up to see through the scope. It's a man dressed like a raider carrying a child on his back.

I holler this information down to the settlers congregating below and from the murmur that rises I gather this is not an unheard-of event. The only experience I've had of it involved land mines and I hope today's visit doesn't.

The traveler stops and waves an attempt at a white flag. Through my scope he looks like a raider: spiked hair, leather vest, and the kind of skinny that comes from too much jet.

"Hey! Hello! I want to talk to your boss!" Comes faintly to my ears.

I point to the spot on the other side of the bridge, in range of all the turrets. He comes forward cautiously still waving the flag.

A few more guards are on my side of the bridge with weapons in hand but lowered. I look back and there's the General hurrying down the street obviously just out of bed because she's putting her hair up as she walks, with a helmet tucked under her arm. She gets to the bridge, plops her helmet on her head and smiles easily. "I'm here. You need help? We have a doctor here."

"The baby got bit. Dog was foaming. Heard you help kids."

Doc Jenna steps up, "How long ago was the bite? Is she sick yet?"

"Last night. I walked all night."

"Plenty of time."

The child isn't a baby, it's a girl who could be Shiloh's age but she's stick thin. About what I'd have expected from a kid raised in a raider camp. Her leg is bandaged and standing she totters with a stick.

Em says, "You can come into town… without your weapons. We're kind; we're not fools. What's your name and hers?"

"I'm Brick." The raider says. He puts down a pistol and a knife and submits to a pat-down. "We just call her Baby. She was a baby and there weren't any others."

The General finds no other weapons. She picks up the knife and pistol and makes a face at their shoddy quality. Even from my perch I know a cheap pipe pistol when I see one! Doc Jenna brought a carry chair so the child gets to ride into Sanctuary in style.

Someone calls, "Hey Scribe!" My replacement is here! I happily surrender the watch post, climb down and stretch and go get breakfast.

Brick has joined the line for food, gawking around at everything. As impressed as he is by the food, I'm impressed by something else. "You… you have a cure for rabies?" I sputter.

The General is filling her plate. She smiles ruefully. "We don't. The Institute does, but they've promised to keep us supplied here in the settlements because we provided the original sample they made the vaccine from. From Dogmeat, believe it or not. The first time he got bit I loaded him up with stimpacks and cried a lot since I knew they wouldn't save him… but he didn't get sick. The second and third time I worried less, and eventually Doc Jenna tested his blood and found out he's immune. But we can't make vaccines up here so I told Doctor Holdren and he didn't believe me and then he said if that was true he'd give anything to look at that blood. He used those antibodies to train human antibodies and now we have a vaccine. I wish I could get enough to trade but at least we're protected."

Brick shakes his head like he can't believe it. He looks very out of place with his overdone hair and skinny bare chest surrounded by the better dressed, more solidly built settlers. He takes a plate and fills it up with porridge and jam and the slimy but protein-packed nuggets of radroach meat. "You all eat like this every day?"

"Mmhm." The General nods. "Most days, leaner in the winter. Food, clean water, clean beds, medical care, protection, and schooling. In exchange, work, hours every day to keep all those things available. And the rules: don't take what isn't yours, ask or trade or borrow. What willing adults do together is their business but any hint they aren't willing it becomes all our business. And everyone works and everyone trains. The Minutemen help each other and we have to be ready for action. That's what it would look like, if you want to stay. Baby can stay whether or not you do, we'll find a family to take her in and she'll get an education and a safe place to live."

The gobsmacked raider says hesitantly, "What about… chems?"

"If you can do your job and keep the jet, you can keep the jet. You have to pay for it but you'll be able to. If you want to get off it we have a good doc who's got enough chems… in a locked safe… to help you get clean without withdrawal taking you out."

"Hmm. Um. Camping in the auto plant hitting caravans. Waiting to be shot. Crazy boss. It's not very nice. This might be nicer. Might stay a while."

Someone in the group says something about learning to talk properly.

From here I can see the kids have gathered outside the hospital and are calling through the window at the newcomer. Shiloh hollers, "We have someone named Baby Boomer, maybe you could have a nickname? You can pick it!" Which is apparently what she finds important in this situation.

Em looks over at her daughter and shakes her head. "Shiloh…"

"Do you get a lot of raiders and kids moving in?" I ask.

"Plenty. Brick, you'll probably run into people from your old gang. Mostly adults though; Doc Jenna could talk for an hour about why the raider lifestyle doesn't lead to a lot of healthy pregnancies."

Between bites Brick offers, "Her mama died to bad jet. Not sure I'm her papa, but I like her. Someone has to mind the baby."

"We've got plenty of people for that. And lots of babies so she'll have lots of friends. Very determined friends. Shiloh! Give the kid a break, poor thing just got here! Come get food and get to school and bring your brother."

Shiloh argues but she doesn't have quite the volume to be heard all the way over here, so she and the other kids come slouching over to start the day.