» Fri May 27, 2011 1:42 pm
7-20-68
I didn't walk too far last night. Just when I was about to call it a night and curl up under an overpass, I saw some shacks up ahead. There were lights on inside. People? Nice people? I knocked on the door of one of them and it was answered by a lady who said her name was Sierra Pet-something-ah.
She kind of reminded me of of Moira, the lady back in Megaton that owned Craterside. Sierra was nice enough and I really did like her, but some of the things she said were strange. It was like she had no common sense at all. "Unwise", is what I think my Dad would have called her. Yes, unwise. It fits.
She gave me a tour of her Nuka-Cola collection and told me that if I found any Nuka-Cola Quantums, she would pay me for them. I had one on me, but I wanted to save it for now. I'll come back this way some other time and bring her a whole bunch of them.
I told her I was from the Vault and we talked about Vault life, life in the Wastelands and my mom. Sierra hasn't seen or heard of her. Dead end.
We even talked about my dad. I don't know why I blamed him for being locked out of the Vault. He wouldn't have done that; he's my dad and he loves me. The Overseer has to be the only reason why my Dad has not come after me and why I cannot get back into the Vault again. Things are a lot more clear now that I've talked to someone about all of this. I feel a lot better now. At least about that, anyhow.
As for mom, I can't help but wonder if heading west was the smart thing to do. I mean, Jericho said that the east was very dangerous and if I went that way I would most likely get myself killed, but there's no one out here! Well, hardly anyone. How am I going to find my mom if I can't find people who have seen her?
Sierra and I talked until it was pretty late and she gave me some dinner and asked me to spend the night. A bed and a hot meal, always good!
Oops, it's getting late and I need to head out. I'll write more when I stop for lunch.
. . .
Wow. What a morning! I started off heading north, but a huge pack of molerats a couple of miles out made me change my mind. One or two I can deal with, but there had to be five or six of them out there. I could see some buildings off in the distance, past the molerats, so I turned west to make my way around them.
It started to get really windy and cold. And dark. I couldn't even see the sky for the clouds. There was a gully up ahead of me and it looked like it would keep the wind off. A pathway, going through the gully. I followed it. It was . . . strange. Quiet. Too quiet. I stopped and started to turn back, but then I noticed a glow in the west where the end of the gully seemed to be.
One foot followed the other and I don't think I even knew I was still moving. I couldn't get my eyes off of the glow in the distance. It grew brighter and brighter as I got closer. The gully opened up into a clearing. I could make it out now. . .it was a rock. A glowing rock. I stopped. Up, in the sky, there was a huge FLASH of red and green and white followed by a very loud BOOM!
I screamed, threw myself on the ground and covered my head.
Glowing, greeny-blue things started falling from the sky. They hit the ground and bounced everywhere. One got through my hands and hit the side of my cheek. I tasted blood. I heard a "THUD!" right beside my ear and turned my head. What the. . a . . . gun? Yes, it was a gun, but I'd never seen anything like it. It was round and shiny and had glowing blue squares on it. I picked it up and as many of the glowy things as I could find and I realized that they fit in the gun. Ammunition?
I spun around. MOLERATS! With everything going on I hadn't been paying attention and three molerats were charging up on me. I sprinted for the glowing door. The molerats were snapping and snarling and I could smell their horrible breath. I felt a sudden pain in my calf and I almost tripped and fell. Too close! I reached the rock and as I touched it, it swung open and I fell into a hole. I heard a loud *click* as the door shut. The molerats were on the other side, thank goodness.
I was bleeding from the cheek and missing a chunk out of my leg. My eyes saw the ladder I had fallen down. A ladder? I limped into the cave, for that's what it was, a cave.
It wasn't even dark! There were lights. A motorcycle? A couch? Desks? Wardrobes? What *was* this place? At the far end of the cave I saw something lying in the rocks. It looked big and it wasn't moving. I went closer to get a look at it.
A body. A dead ghoul. There was a dead ghoul in the cave. Except for the two raiders I killed, I've never really seen a dead body. Especially a dead ghoul body. Okay. I admit it. I'd wondered about ghouls and their skin and all that and here was a body lying right in front of me. Ever since I saw Gob and those Wastelanders I've been wondering about their skin. Does it fall off? Was it mushy? Sticky? Or something?
I poked it in the face with my rifle. Twice. Then once more for good luck. And. . . nothing happened. It was lumpy-bumpy, but the rifle just kind of slid off like it would with my own skin. Was a bit of a let-down, really.
There was a note beside the body. The words were smudged and all I could make out were "Argyle", "Daring" and "slavers". Odd. I stuck the note in my pocket as a keepsake. I like saving stuff like that. You never know if something might be important.
After using a stimpak on my face and leg, I climbed up the ladder and poked my head outside. No sign of molerats! I decided to take off eastward at a jog, so I could put as much distance between myself and this weird place as possible. This whole thing has given me the heebie-jeebies.
, , ,
I found a garage called "Smith Casey's". There were a few radroaches right inside the office, but I killed them all with my pistol. Then I heard noises coming from the other side of the garage door, behind the counter. They sounded like molerats. I found a couple of frag grenades in a bucket. I'd never used these before, so I prayed I wouldn't blow my hands off. I opened the door, pulled the pins, threw them in, and shut the door again. The blast almost blew the door off the hinges and me to the other side of the room. WOW! Neat!
Hah! I opened the door and there was molerat all over the place! Fun! And I found out why the blast was so big. I beaned a motorcycle. Heh. Now that the place is safe, I'm going to sleep on this mattress I found behind the counter. My face and leg still hurt and I'm really tired. Just a little nap.
. . .
I've pretty much got the majority of this planned out in my head already -- still have some logic problems to work around, though -- so I just want to continue on. She's all alone in the world, after all is said and done. At least for now.
