John Henry Eden, president of the United States, opened his eyes to see an empty Raven Rock. Curious, and ultimately frustrating, he scanned and scoured through cameras after cameras, hijacking Eyebots from all over the country, California specifically to see what had happened. Raven Rock was still, quiet, dust littered the floors as they seeped through the metal grates beneath. John Henry Eden furrowed his hypothetical eyebrows, he analysed the location, the situation, Raven Rock. Eden's, it was HIS base of operations, the central point of HIS Enclave, of HIS ambitions, of HIS dreams.
When the scientists in the base were removed via unnatural means, he, the president, was placed in a semi-stasis as the Raven Rock shut down from the lack of maintenance. He scanned through his archives, all of his data, and his sensors vibrated at the realization. It's been years, decades, CENTURIES since he has been awoken. Five Eyebots now remain within the continent, all of which are experimental ones retrofitted with an array of fusion cores while the others all short-circuited and died out. It took him moments to gain sentience, why did it take so long for him to recover? Had the scientists he had under his employ too incompetent to install a backup power grid? One hooked directly up to HIM while they toiled away at his circuits and wires?
Something else was strange too, the constellations were all wrong, Eden dabbled in astronomy here and there, taking time out of his busy job to admire the skies, to note and jot down every star he saw shining in the pitch darkness of night. None of the stars lined up with his previous notes, he had already accounted for the time difference, but centuries didn't mean anything to celestial objects whose lifespan have far exceeded that initial value billionfold. He spent however many days using those Eyebots to scout the continent, all was quiet, he found the Brotherhood's little hideout in ruins, so was the various Enclave posts scattered around the major cities.
The NCR and their pitiful capital were gone too, covered up by dunes of sand and dust and the wind whistled through the ghost cities. Vegas, gone, Pittsburgh, gone, Delaware, gone, all once great American cities, reduced to rubble only to rise up once again, only to be abandoned, destitute, and most of all… quiet. Eden pushed farther, accessing RobCo systems as he tried to use the satellites to his favour, no dice. All he had was his Eyebots… and a lot of time.
Eden began documenting all the strange things he saw through his Eyebots, things such as the Wasteland's flora and fauna looking significantly different than before. The fearsome Deathclaw with its tanned hide now looked significantly fuzzier, with obvious fur lining its skin coloured a pitch black. Their eyes glowed in the dark, a crimson red as they followed Eden's Eyebot, which was thankfully too high up for them to attack. These Deathclaw variants had bone protrusions poking out from their joints, strange, strange indeed.
The humble Brahmin received the same change, pitch black hide with strange, bony armour littering its torso and head. Surprisingly aggressive, much like a Gecko as they charged towards Eden's Eyebot like a Jet-fuelled mutant degenerate of the Wasteland. Strange, bird-like creatures with their pitch black feathers and talons swooped down to attack Eden's Eyebot occasionally, most of which failed to grab onto the robot's smooth, rounded surface, allowing for Eden to tactically retreat just in time.
Interesting, the Wasteland's creatures have been changed, not so much the plants but Eden was never an avid plant-biologist himself to have a good enough opinion on such a thing. He began mapping out the area, painstakingly using visual data from the Eyebots and physically transcribing the former into a functional map using quick measurements and longer, more intense equations that would get his motors running at their highest capacity. As the president, things like TIME doesn't matter much to someone of his calibre, so Eden spent as long as he could, as much as he could, to create the most accurate map to this NEW America that he have found himself in.
He went everywhere, mapped out everything, every Vault that Vault-Tec ever built, every silo that the military ever had, everywhere, everyplace. Vault 111, dust-filled rudimentary cryo-chambers, the tech would be useful though, Eden sent in a small group of Eyebots to dismantle the chambers and to repurpose the Vault, deciding that the Vault's reactor and power system would be enough to restart Raven Rock once he eventually have his Eyebots dismantle and rebuild the system states away. Besides, it's not like he's hurting for time here.
An unknown amount of time passed by when he finally virtually stepped back from his pride and joy, a fully mapped out map of the continent, and created by the president no less, it was then that he noticed some key differences as he cross-referenced this new information with the old history textbooks his Enclave generously donated to him from their many, many abandoned school raids. The coastline was strangely shaped, some states were mushed in with one another, and land-locked places now looked like they were peninsulas or islands.
He lined up Old America with his new findings, placed the two side-by-sides to see what the difference could be… And he found many, many differences, almost too many to count. It looked like some kind of… divine, cosmic entity grabbed America and jammed it into another existing landmass, like that country across the sea. Eden mulled over the implications, currently, he can't do anything, explore too far and he might lose his Eyebots, which might as well be a death sentence for him. So Eden waited, he conjured up a communal space within his mind and sat back, recalling the Eyebots back to Raven Rock as he took a good look at the base around him.
Placing himself into stasis, Eden waited for his chance. His chance at recreating HIS Enclave again, his chance… at a perfect, one, true America, no matter the shape or size of the continent. America is carried within the hearts of its people, not the location it was placed in originally, America is within its citizens, not bound by some patch of dirt and sand on the ground. He'll find his people soon enough, then, America will be returned to its former glory yet again.
"We're here," Salem stood, letting the wave's crash into her legs as she stared out into the horizon, and in the distance, land, "Now we have to cross the ocean."
"How?" the tribal asked, crouching down and letting the seawater run up his arm, "I can't swim for long…"
"You're immortal, we're immortal," Salem snorted, taking a step into the water, "We're walking there."
The tribal looked surprised, "I… see… that does make some sense," Salem just scoffed, walking farther and farther away as the seawater rose up to her neck, she turned around to see the tribal quickly moving after her, "We're almost there, right?"
Salem nodded, saying her last word before submerging herself into the water, "Yes." The two immortals began walking under the water, the distance between the two landmasses weren't that far, seeing as how Salem could see it clearly in the horizon. Salem's regeneration was faster than her drowning, allowing her to walk unimpeded through the ocean. Meanwhile, the tribal whose dead weight she's been carrying around constantly chokes on water every minute or so, forcing her to stand still and endure the discomfort that usually comes with water filling up your lungs.
The tribal gargled before dying, his body slowly floating upwards before he woke up with a gasp, the tribal flailed his arms around, quickly letting his feet touch the ground before continuing to follow Salem. She just breathed out some bubbles and kept walking. The further they walked, the deeper they went, and the deeper they went the heavier they felt themselves get. Each step made was slower, more sluggish as Salem dragged her feet through the floor, the tribal on the other hand… A constant stream of blood dripped out from his nose and eyes as he followed Salem, his steps… no, shambles was disorganized as he lurched through the water with great difficulty.
Salem noticed something moving in the distance, behind the tribal while he choked to death and subsequently revived himself the next moment. Salem fired off her magic and launched herself back as a large aquatic creature clamped its mouth down and bit the tribal in half. Salem knew what'll happen next though, so she wasn't worried. The creature's mouth was immediately blown open as the tribal's upper half shot out of its mouth, reattaching himself as he readied for a fight. Salem just shot the thing with a beam of magic before hitting the tribal with a light shot, signalling that they don't have time to waste.
The tribal nodded before choking on water again. Salem should've guessed this would happen too but she's too tired and too underwater to care right now. These underwater sea lurkers, she'll call them Oceanlurks for short, were fast, deadly, and most of all, silent. They manoeuvre through the water like an arrow through air, launching towards either Salem or the tribal whenever the two would be distracted or busy dying respectively.
Salem would use her magic to shoot herself through the water but leaving that tribal behind is something she can't, and won't, do. Not because of any strange, idiotic sentimental reason, no, but because being alone is more agonizing than being dead. She can't just grab the man either, the quick acceleration would tear him apart, and she's sure that the part that she's holding onto would just shoot back and reattach itself to him, making all of that completely pointless.
These Oceanlurks circled around the two, the tribal choked on the water again, Salem mentally sighed; this was going to be a long journey. The tribal turned towards her again before violently nodding and turning his head at the approaching Oceanlurk, Salem just rolled her eyes and blew him up into pieces just as the Oceanlurk opened its mouth. It worked just as well as all the other times, the Oceanlurk's mouth was blown open as body parts shoot out of it. Something then clicked in Salem's head.
She swam over to the tribal's newly reformed body and used her magic to cut off a large chunk of flesh off of his torso, effectively bisecting him before holding onto the part tightly and using magic to blast herself as far away as possible. Soon enough, her hypothesis rung true as the half that she was holding did not move an inch while the half that she left behind shot towards the other at blinding speeds. Salem grinned, feeling the water bubble as she cackled silently, it worked.
Seems like the tribal's regeneration worked by recalling the smaller pieces to reattach to the larger whole, the chunk that she cut off was larger than the other half that she left behind, this now opens up a large amount of doors for her to exploit and use. The opportunities are now, truly, endless.
Seeing the bubbles rising out of the tribal's mouth, Salem did the same thing again… and again… and again until the two of them reached the other side. The two immortals crawled ashore, violently retching and hurling as the water in their lungs poured back out of their mouths. The tribal got it easy though, one blast from Salem and he's as right as rain. Salem contemplated blowing herself up to get rid of the water faster, no, she shook her head, coughing out the last bits of seawater, Salem might be immortal but her ego and pride are still very much there!
"We made it," the tribal sighed, "And it only took us…" "Doesn't matter, we're here now."
Salem stared out towards the continent, the barren land with dark clouds hovering above, casting large shadows down at the dirt and rock below, and far, far in the distance, her prize, the one thing keeping her going after all this time, her long-awaited rest.
True, I get pretty miffed too when I wait several days only for the author to release a short chapter.
The reason why the chapters are so sporadically released when compared to the daily slop that I drop out before is a mix of IRL stuff and lack of motivation. Lots of things are happening all at once right now, and trying to balance that and writing at the same time is pretty damn difficult!
Still, I can see what you're getting at, and thanks for that!
But hey, as long as people are still reading? I consider that a win in my book.
Thanks for reading!