Yet another Lone Wanderer's journal.

I really wanted to write something first-person as a change of pace, so I figured I might chronicle the early days of my newest playthrough.

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Day 1 of the rest of my life

Dad was always big on journals and notes. He wrote everything down, all the time. Once, I asked him, why?
He said that it was an old habit of his. It helped him process things; events and information. He said that a lot of times, things happen so fast that you don't get to really think about them while they're happening. It's only when you go back and think it through in a linear fashion that you can get things straight sometimes.

He also said that it's good to write things down, because you never know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

This I always rolled my eyes at; I mean, we're in a freaking Vault. Nothing really changes.

Yeah, right.

Suddenly, I understand both of dad's points. Because in the space of a few hours, everything changed for me, and it happened so fast that by writing it down now, I'm hoping I can make some kind of sense of it.

I'm sitting here in this little town, Megaton. I'm sitting at a counter that used to be part of an airplane. I'm picking at a plate of... something. The cute girl running the lunch counter says it's called 'Cram'. It's strangely tasty, actually. I'm just not that hungry.

God, my hand hurts. The town doctor, Doc Church, said there was probably nerve damage. He said that the pain isn't likely to go away anytime soon, but with luck, I'll get used to it. Hoo-freaking-rah.

Behind me, there's a guy standing in a pool of water that must be irradiated slightly. He's worshipping an unexploded bomb sharing the pool of water with him. I don't know his name.

This is strange. I'm used to knowing everyone. In Vault 101, there were no strangers. Everyone knew everyone. It might be a good strange, though. Here, no one knows about how the G.O.A.T. told me I was supposed to be the Vault's tattoo artist.

I'm maybe half a mile away from the entrance of Vault 101. But I might as well be on the other side of the world.

How did I get here?

I'm fiddling with my PipBoy's controls, thinking about playing the tape that dad had left with Jonas for me again, but I kind of hate him right now. I know he couldn't have known what would happen in his wake. He might have thought that the Overseer would pitch a fit... but not that he would go as far as he did. Emotion and logic are two different things, though.

Instead of listening to dad's tape again, I scroll down to some notes I had recovered off his computer on the way out. He had destroyed most of his files when he left, but he failed to delete a half-finished journal entry. It was short, not even a complete entry. He likely had started an entry and got distracted before he could complete it. I'm convinced that these five words are the key to explaining why he left.

It says 'The Enclave knows I'm here'.

This is amazing. Why has nobody posted here?

This is true. I'll be reading.

Yes, I liked it very much as well. I like the sense of denial in the character's mentality

Day 1 of the rest of my life (continued)

Enclave. Sounds fairly ominous, doesn't it? Who or what is the Enclave?

Dad mentioned that the Enclave knew where he was. That implies that maybe, this Enclave had been searching for him? The timestamp on the journal entry was this morning, so he started it before he left. But he had wiped all his other files. He was in a hurry, but was being as thorough as he could. He didn't want to leave much behind.

Except me, of course.

Wow, that sounds a lot more maudlin than I actually feel. He wanted me 'safe in the Vault'. Was it because the general level of danger outside? Or a more specific, they're-coming-for-me level of immediate danger'?

The Enclave?

God, I don't know. The pain in my hand is making it hard to focus or to follow any train of thought.

And dad never finished the journal entry that would have conveniently explained things to me.

I guess




Okay.

I was sitting here, getting ready to detail my 'thrilling escape' from the Vault and I heard an old man behind me talking to another Megaton resident.

I heard, very clearly, the words 'Enclave station'.

I asked the old man, whose name was Nathan, what he knew... he was more than happy to tell me all about it.

The Enclave is, apparently, the United States government. Or more likely, what was left of it. Nathan seemed to be proselyzing a bit, like an eager convert to a new religion.

Hey, I'm from Vault 101. We're fed endless propaganda about the infallibility of Authority for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I realize now that dad, in his subtle, non-obvious way, did a lot to teach me to question authority, quietly. He never bought into the 'ominpotence of the Overseer'. And so, neither did I.

Anyway, Nathan told me that most of his information came from a broadcasting radio station that the Enclave runs. After I took my leave of his company, I tuned in using my Pip-Boy and listened for awhile. It sounded like a prerecorded loop, like the Vault 101 station. A few patriotic anthems, and then President Eden comes on and talks at you a bit. Rinse and repeat until brain is fully washed.

So I have an idea of what the Enclave is. But the station doesn't give me much more useful information. I still don't know what their connection to dad is.

I don't know if they're chasing dad, or dad's chasing them, or what.

The only answers I'll get as to why my life got turned upside-down are from dad himself. He must have come through Megaton on his way to wherever. It's the closest settlement and at the very least he'd need a change of clothes that don't have '101' in giant yellow numbers on his back.