Wanderer's Diary: Week One

Day 1: The Downward Spiral Begins...

Okay... where to start...

I guess by explaining things.

See, dad just left the vault. By necessity, this also meant I had to leave the vault, because the Overseer and his people were going after me because of that. I can only carry so much, so I just packed up all the important stuff that was close at hand and ran for it.

By important stuff, I mean my BB gun and some shots for it, baseball, gloves and bat, cap, a few spare vault jumpsuits, dad's bobblehead, since he didn't take it himself for some reason, and that Grognak comic I like.

You'll notice something important was missing from that list - namely my old diary. Which is understandable. I didn't have time to boot up the computer and download and delete everything, being in a rush. Still, this is a problem, and not just because it's irritating to type journals with the Pipboy. I recorded things in those diaries. Private things.

I sure am glad the Overseer is dead.

Oh, yeah. I think I've skipped some details. I killed some people on my way out. Actually, a lot of people. Officer Kendall was first. He came at me after he barely beat back a load of radroaches. He was weakened, and I think his arm was bad. Amata had offered me a gun earlier, but I didn't take it. So I beat him to death with my bat.

I think something's severely wrong with me. I just said that I beat a crippled man to death with my bat, a man I have known for years in fact, and I still don't actually care. Hell, I had a crush on his daughter for a while! And I killed him, and...nothing.

He wasn't the last, either. I killed O'Brian and Richards after they gunned down the Holdens. Snuck up on them, stole their guns, bullet through both their heads. I killed Paul Hannon's dad, the security chief. And on the way out, I killed Wolfe and Park in a melee. And those are just the ones I knew by name. There were others.

I did what I could to stop the bloodshed. Honestly I did. I saved Butch's mom, even though I hate Butch. I tried to talk down the Overseer after I found him and Officer Mack interrogating her about what happened to me, but that didn't work, and I accidentally killed him in the ensuing fist fight. Amata was NOT happy.

But it wasn't like I was the only guy killing people in there. The security officers murdered people in cold blood too, and Amata shot Mack, so she's got no right to talk to me about that. And Jonas! They killed Jonas too! What did Jonas ever do to anyone?

Well, point is, with Amata's help I did indeed exit the vault. She locked it behind me, so now I'm stuck outside. And it has been an adventure, let me tell you. Because the violence didn't stop at the vault door.

There's this town, called Springvale, that was right outside the vault's entrance. It's where I am right now. I'm guessing that makes Vault 101's residents the descendants of the people of Springvale? I don't actually know. I guess so. That would make sense, but it's just idle speculation on my part.

Well, true to what the history books said, the world has in fact been blown to hell by nukes. Though the radiation isn't present anymore, at least not in the immediate area. This Pipboy has a Geiger counter, and it says the air's clean. The same is not true of the water. Or the rain.

That's also something that got me. Weather, and the sky. We learned about that in science classes of course, but it's really something to see these things outside of a text book. They're amazing in their own way, but radioactive water falling from the sky is going to be a problem.

I'm going to have to make sure to never be outside when that's happening. I know there's a drug that can counteract the effects of radiation - RadAway - but I don't have any. There might have been some in dad's clinic if I had searched around now that I think about it, but at the time, the first thing on my mind was not raiding the supplies. I did get some stimpaks from the first aid kit in my room, but I've used up those already.

Anyway, the town's basically destroyed here, but there were two buildings around that were habitable and not boarded up. Those were the school, and a single house where a lady named Silver was living.

When I was in the vault, some terminal entries on the Overseer's computer mentioned that he had sent out scouts years before and found an inhabited town around the area, called Megaton. Silver came from there, fleeing some bastard called Moriarty that thought she owed him. I planned on talking with him, but I got distracted.

The distractions were many. First of all, I discovered from Silver that the local school was inhabited by raiders, which is a term outside people use for thieves and murderers. Pretty much the criminals of the wasteland, even if there is no real "law" out here. Wasteland is also incidentally the term for this whole place. Capital Wasteland to be precise, because pre-war Washington D.C. was the capital of America. Appropriate, I think.

So that was my first distraction. Cleaning the scum out of that school. They decorated the inside of the place with the mutilated bodies of their victims. Charming people.

Fortunately for me, my enemies were idiots. Their armour was just cobbled together crap and their weapons were in shit condition, because they were too stupid to figure out how to repair them.

I however am a super smart vault dweller, with a slightly less crappy piece of damaged armour taken from a vault security guard I murdered, because I'm a morbid individual with no sense of shame, and I had a pistol that was not in shit condition, given to me by Amata, that I had already fixed up with parts from all the other security guards' weapons.

Well, I cleaned that place out, stole anything of value I found in there, (including a book about explosives, a Chinese special ops manual, and a Nuka-Cola bottle that actually glowed), looted the bodies, and then went on my merry way.

I'll say it again, I think something's wrong with me. How many people did I kill today? The vault security and raiders put together adds up to a big number, but I didn't exactly count them. And not once did I ever feel any kind of regret. No remorse at all. I didn't care then, and I still don't care. I was even searching the bodies for anything of value to steal. And that's what's bothering me. I should feel something.

Am I a sociopath?

This is something I should talk to dad about when I find him. And I will find him. He can't have gotten far. He was only a few hours ahead of me, after all. When he died, Jonas was carrying a holotape on him, from dad to me, expressing his wishes that I stay in the vault and not pursue him. That wasn't exactly an option by the point I found that tape though.

He and I are going to have words.

Either way, it's late now. I'm staying in Silver's place tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to go up to Megaton and deal with this Moriarty character, while hopefully finding some information on dad's whereabouts.

Tomorrow though. Definitely tomorrow. I've had enough adventure today. I mean, look at this entry; In my old diary, I rarely wrote over two paragraphs. This is a fucking massive wall of text. I hope this doesn't become a trend. If every day in the wasteland is this hectic, I may just die from the stress.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. I'm going to bed now. After I'm done reading these books and listening to the local radio stations and their hosts. These people fascinate me.

Day 2: Town of the Tards.

I'm going to start this entry with a simple question: Who builds a town around a bomb?

The people of Megaton do. And they're still alive. Clearly, this is a horrible subversion of the laws of natural selection as I know them, and one so extreme that if they were animals, I would be forced to correct it. This lends credence to my earlier theory that I am a sociopath, but that same theory is also contested by the fact that I have not, in fact, detonated the bomb here and put these people out of their misery. Instead, I saved them. I'm a bit of a jackass like that.

I came into town earlier this morning, where I was greeted first by some old guy begging for water, then by a robot, (not like Andy, this one was a Protectron, not a Mr. Handy), and finally by a black guy dressed like a cowboy named Sheriff Lucas Simms. I thought he was a little weird at first, but I've come to like him. I saved his life later on, but that's skipping ahead a bit.

Simms told me a bit about the town, and naturally, the subject of the nearby undetonated nuclear weapon came up. I offered to disarm it for him, and he had no problem with that. Frankly, if he did, I would have been very concerned. At the time though, I wanted to get my bearings first, so I wandered about town.

I went to Moriarty's first, both for Silver's sake, and because I'd been told he would be the best person to ask about dad. He was an old guy. Spoke with an accent I've never heard before. And his bar was being tended to by a walking corpse.

They're called ghouls. Three Dog, the DJ of one of the two radio stations I was listening to last night, explained a bit about them in one of his news segments for the benefit of ignorant vault dwellers like me. They're really just people who've been disfigured by radiation as far as I can tell, though I'm also told a lot of them have a tendency to go feral and try to kill you on sight. Gob, the bartender, so far has not.

I tried to get some information out of the people around the bar. Moriarty told me that Silver was actually a junkie that had stolen from him, and offered to tell me what I wanted if I could deal with her. I told him to go fuck himself. That means I now had to pay for the information. Fortunately, Moriarty's other prostitute Nova was able to help me. I charmed her into giving me the password to his computer, and looked through his files.

They told me some interesting things, as did he. According to this guy, neither me or dad were born in the vault, and he recalls seeing the both of us many years before when dad was actually trying to get into the vault, and I was just a baby. When he told me this himself, I called bullshit, but I don't see any reason for him to lie about a person he's never met to his personal log.

Dad, what else have you been keeping from me?

He also had a few entries on the other people in town, from speculation about their own illicit activities to things he knows they've done. The local doctor worked for slavers, the rival bar owner's brother is a junkie, there's a dude called Jericho around who raped a girl, and he also had an entry on Mister Burke.

Burke was in the bar at the time, and he gestured for me to come over as I passed. He wanted me to detonate the bomb in the centre of town and murder everyone. Because he's an asshole. This time, instead of the standard "go fuck yourself" response, I played along until I found out who he was working for, some pricks from a place called Tenpenny Tower, which is my next destination after I'm done here.

I reported him to Sheriff Simms, who went to arrest him and nearly got shot in the back by Burke. I killed Burke before he could, and then I went on and disarmed the bomb, using my fancy vault education and knowledge of explosives that I shouldn't really have with my upbringing but whatever.

As a reward for my heroism, I was given a nice house to stay in, and I say nice in that it keeps me safe from radioactive rain and it does not have a nuke stored in it. I wouldn't have been surprised if it did. These people all give me bad vibes. I think I may actually get stupider if I hang around here too long.

Not that I have much of a choice. This place is looking more and more like it might be my new home. I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing. At least they threw in a free Mr. Handy who dispenses purified water and tells jokes. That was nice of them.

I've also taken more time to listen to the local radio stations, because get this, dad already left Megaton and went off to Galaxy News Radio to meet Three Dog. So I've been listening carefully to anything he has to say. Three Dog's news reports actually mentioned me coming out of the vault at one point. He also said something about a town called Grayditch going quiet, and Tenpenny Tower refusing to allow some ghouls residence. Oh yeah, I'm definitely heading there next.

The other station is much clearer, and that's Enclave radio. I'm not sure what to think about them. Their leader, this President Eden, seems like a stand-up guy. I'd vote for him. He wants to fix this blasted wasteland, and that's a goal I can empathise with. He still does sound a little suspicious at times though. In the same way that the Overseer was. But even the Overseer wasn't all bad. Just kind of a dick, and with a twisted view of what was best for the vault. Their music is not as good though.

The radio stations between them and all the people I've spoken to though have given me a clear list of objectives. Which I will summarise as follows:

1. Go to Tenpenny Tower and facefuck everyone there.

2. Find where these Enclave guys are based, because they sound pretty cool, and less idiotic than my current neighbours.

3. Go see Moira at Craterside Supply, because Simms said she can fix up this shitty house.

4. Take a bottle of purified water to that beggar outside the town if he's still there tomorrow, because he just looks so pathetic.

5. Kill Moriarty, because he's a prick.

6. Go find dad at Galaxy News Radio if I find time.

7. Explore the town a bit.

8. Avoid the following: raiders, slavers, super mutants, Brotherhood of Steel, Brotherhood Outcasts, feral ghouls, mutant wildlife like that fucked up thing I saw today with multiple heads, and rain.

9. Get some fucking RadAway.

And oh look, it turns out I was right about my entries being really long now. This had really better not become a trend.

Day 3: If it Ain't Broke, Ya Still Gotta Do Maintenance.

From the moment I stepped into town, I pretty much assumed I was the smartest person here. Field research of subjects today confirms this. If I have to spend a significant amount of time around these people, I figured I'd get on the good side of as many of them as possible.

I started with that Leo Stahl guy I heard mentioned on Moriarty's terminal. We did some talking, and I convinced him to quit his habit. His brother and sister appreciated it too. This coincidentally landed me a nice supply of drugs. I don't exactly want to end up like Silver, but my dad's a doctor, and I'm pretty knowledgeable about medicine too; these things do actually have some physical benefits. If I ever get into another fight, they might come in handy. I could use some of this Buffout stuff if I ever have to deal with raiders again.

Next I asked around town and got to know all the people.

Mr. and Mrs. Vargas were this old couple who've been in Megaton a long time. Nathan told me a little bit about the Enclave and how they're a continuation of the U.S. government, which makes me even more eager to meet them, and Manya explained the history of Megaton too, including shedding some light around why they built a town around a bomb and never removed it. Apparently it was this weirdo cult's fault. People who worship the bomb. Church of Atom they're called.

I was surprised to learn that there were in fact two factions that wanted to explode the bomb here who had nothing to do with each other, but the church are unable to actually do it now that I defused the thing, and seem unaware that I ever did it in the first place. And they never made any attempt to force it before. They're just harmless crazies; people to be looked down upon disdainfully, rather than people to shoot. I gave that Confessor Cromwell guy a pity cap.

His wife looks old too.

Despite what Moriarty's terminal speculated, I kinda like Billy Creel too. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. A bit like dad, except a dirty wastelander. Okay! Okay! No more vault prejudices. I'll try to stop with the superiority complex now.

His daughter Maggie's nice too, I guess.

I stopped by to see that Doc Church guy too. After what I read on Moriarty's terminal, I want to make sure that this town is safe. For a guy who used to work for slavers, he really didn't act like it. Seemed like an okay guy, just concerned for his patients. And I don't often meet another man of medicine. Not that I was a qualified doctor exactly by the time I left the vault, but I know a fair share. He even sold me some RadAway, so that's one problem solved. I decided that he gets to live.

Then I went to see Moira. She was cheery. Seems a bit delusional and crazy, but she means well. I offered to help her with a project. She's planning on writing a book called the Wasteland Survival Guide. Something like that would have been really helpful to have earlier. Being a vault dweller, she thought I could provide the foreword, by recalling life in the vault.

She gave me an armoured version of the vault jumpsuit as payment, apparently made for a previous vault dweller who escaped into the great outdoors but never came back to get it. Hell, I'm not complaining. This thing is nice.

So anyway, the first chapter was going to cover treating radiation sickness, so she requested I go out and catch some. I immediately went outside and took a good long drink of that disgusting irradiated water around the bomb, and went back to her with over six hundred rads on me according to the Pipboy. She was extremely pleased. Got her research done, and informed me that I have a permanent mutations thanks to my stupidity. It's benign, but that pisses me off. And all this was still not enough to get a free house refurbishment.

Bitch.

Next it was back up to the bar to deal with some problems. Burke's corpse had already been slung out when I got up there, and I spent the next hour just mingling. I met the water treatment guy, Walter, who got me to go out and fix some pipes around town for him and whom I set up a deal with, where I provide him with scrap metal in exchange for caps. I also met some woman called Lucy West who wanted me to deliver a letter to her brother in some settlement northwards, which I also plan to get to.

And I met this fuckhead Jericho, who was the man who raped Jenny Stahl according to the terminal. He was the last guy on my list to check out. Former raider, and with an interest in returning to the old life too. He did not meet the standards of my "you get to live" trial. I followed him to his house later that night and left a live grenade in his bed. No-one suspected me, because when I later joined the crowd of people hanging around his house and asked what was going on, I had just returned from giving a bottle of my purified water to that beggar outside. (Whose name is Micky, by the way.)

After that, it was dinner with Lucas Simms and his boy, Harden. Them showing their appreciation for all the good I've done. I found a bobblehead like dad used to have in his house, only dedicated to physical strength instead of knowledge of medicine. I stole it while he wasn't looking, because I'm a saint.

Then it was back home after a long day of murder, theft, self harm, and giving water to the thirsty to sit around in my house and pretend like I'm the nicest gosh darn kid this town's ever seen. And to be fair, I've solved pretty much all of their immediate problems in the two days I've been here, so I have done them a lot of good. I just happen to have done it in a very shady way.

Oh, who the fuck cares? So they don't have Jericho to protect them anymore! They've got Simms, and they've got me. What else do they need? Quit complaining, Megaton!

Day 4: Take a Break.

Organisation was first priority today. After breakfast. I sorted all the shit I've collected into the appropriate containers. The house came with two sets of lockers.

In one, I stored all my clothes and armour. Those being the jumpsuits from Vault 101, including the utility jumpsuit, and the security armour and helmet from the same place. I got a Tunnel Snakes outfit too. Butch gave it to me for saving his mom. My baseball cap also went in there. I guess I'm keeping it all as a memento. I don't think I'll ever be likely to play baseball again. And that makes me sad.

In the other, I will store my weapons and whatever other miscellaneous crap I collect. So that's where the ball, gloves, and baseball bat go, and my BB gun.

Not the bobbleheads though. There's a stand in the house which conveniently looks like it'll be just perfect for holding a display of bobbleheads. Maybe I can start collecting. Take, buy or steal them wherever they pop up and see if I can get a full set. Because they look to be part of a set. I put the medicine and strength ones on already. They look nice there.

Then I went to see Moira again. I sold her all the crappy guns I got from the raiders I killed. .32s and Chinese pistols mostly. I only have a 10MM pistol, but it's in pretty good condition. I took it from Mr. Burke, and fixed it up with the parts from Amata's gun. I did that rather than the other way around because Mr. Burke's gun has a silencer, and I'd be a fool to not take advantage of that.

And if it turns out to not be enough, I always have the other grenades.

Given the caps I had afterwards, I brought a few stimpaks to keep me going and ordered Moira to put a Nuka-Cola machine in my house. I could have got a jukebox, but I have the Pipboy for now. That Nuka-Cola machine is in here right now, and it certainly brightens up the place. I stole a few bottles of cola out of a vending machine back in Springvale too, and stuck them in there. According to Moira, they should be nice and chill when I ask it to dispense again.

I just had a thought. I'm living in an economy where these people use bottle caps instead of coins or notes like we had in the vault. With all the other strangeness going on, I barely even thought about it. The mutant cow thing that I am informed is actually called a brahmin barely got a mention in these journals for Christ's sake!

And now I get an extra bottle cap every time I drink a soda. That's...I don't know what to think about that. I gotta start drinking more Nuka-Cola.

And speaking of drinking Nuka-Cola, I tried that glowing blue bottle I found in the school the other day at long last, and it made my piss glow. I don't think I'll be trying that again any time soon. Maybe I should just collect them like I do the bobbleheads and use them as nightlights? Or I could get a whole bunch of them and leave them out in the wasteland, arranged to form words.

Imagine some raider on the roof of their hideout looking out into the distance one night and seeing a bunch of glowing blue letters on the far away hill spelling out "YOU'RE DEAD". That would scare the fuck out of me if I saw that.

Then again, maybe I'm giving these people too much credit by assuming they can read.

Oh look, there's that superiority complex again.

Aside from buying and selling, I've also busied myself listening to the radio today, trying to gather what else I can. President Eden on Enclave radio repeats himself a lot. It's mostly pre-recorded messages talking about the Enclave's values and what they hope to accomplish. It all sounds good, but it's repetitive, and I'm not fond of the music.

Three Dog on the other hand has been much more informative. Word has spread about my defusing of the Megaton bomb, and he's been very congratulatory of me for it. Apparently I'm a "defender" now. Yippee. Hope dad's listening though. Maybe he'll hear I'm still in Megaton and come back.

The other reports were also interesting. Grayditch is still quiet, there's a large concentration of raiders around Evergreen Mills, and some weirdoes that sound like something out of a pre-war comic book are fighting over in Canterbury Commons. I've also heard that Arefu, where I'm supposed to deliver the West girl's letter is being harassed by some thugs right now. I should probably get over there tomorrow.

Oh, and I also murdered Moriarty.

Day 5: The Quest for Justice.

Hello journal! Today, I'm writing to you from scenic Tenpenny Tower!

I was torn. I knew shit was going down up north with Arefu, and Evergreen Mills, and I also think this Paradise Falls place that I've heard about a few times now is also in that direction. But equally, Burke was working for someone who came from Tenpenny Tower, and that's south.

In the end, town nuking won out against thugs and people who want to take you alive for slaving, and I decided to head over that way.

My Pipboy has a map of the D.C. area available, which I've never really turned on before now, but it's all pre-war landmarks. Mostly useless to me. I switched to a clear version of the map and have decided to make my own landmarks as I come across them. It can tell me where I am too, so I can use it to find my way, and I can set a waypoint on it too so I know where to go.

I marked down Vault 101, Springvale, the school and Megaton on the map, and then set a marker for Tenpenny. Started trudging in that direction.

On my way, I came across more mutated wildlife. Giant flying insects with radioactive spit, and an animal which I am going to guess is a molerat from how it matches up to the descriptions people have given me. I was also accosted at one point by a malfunctioning pre-war Protectron. It had lasers, which was bad, but I also now have some energy cells and scrap metal for Walter, which is good.

I passed by the old RobCo facility on my way here too. I marked it down. I'm coming back to take a look in there later. My inner scientist is curious about all the technology such a place could house.

There was a roving trader just outside it too, being followed by a number of robots. I tried to buy a Mister Gutsy I liked the look of from him, but he refused me. Jerk.

Anyway, now I'm in the tower, and it is here I shall be staying for the night. I had to lie to get myself in, but there's this old guy called Dashwood who let me stay with him for the night, because it was late by the time I got to the tower. He seems trustworthy. Intelligent even. I like him already.

Tomorrow, I'll ask around and sort out this nasty town nuking business.

Day 6: Living in Luxury.

Dashwood's famous, as it turns out. He did some adventuring in his youth with a ghoul companion called Argyle, and they made a radio play series out of it that's broadcasted on GNR. I honestly had no idea.

I'm told Argyle's been lost for years. Dashwood asked if I could perhaps find him, if I have time. I've got a billion things to do already, but hey, why not? He's been good to me. So I agreed. We talked some more, he told me a bit about the tower, and the thing with the ghouls too. Other residents are bigots. Don't want them in. That Roy Phillips guy is pissed. I think I saw him yesterday when I was trying to get in myself.

I'll have to talk to Roy if I see him again.

That's all a side project for now thought. My goal was to find out who ordered Megaton destroyed, and I found my culprit in Mr. Alastair Tenpenny, a chap with a red suit who speaks weird and who owns this tower. I choked him to death and left his body out on the balcony.

Not before taking that suit of his though. I needed some nice clothes, and that suit was fine. If I'm ever required to attend a formal gathering, I know what I'm wearing!

I think I need to see a psychologist.

Day 7: Adventuring East.

Left the tower today. Managed to get out without anyone suspecting anything. If I had left immediately after murdering Tenpenny, the guard would probably go in and find him dead, and I'd be found out immediately.

So instead, I stayed the night in Tenpenny's suite. When the guard came knocking to check on the old man, I answered the door half naked and told him not to disturb us again. I let his mind fill in the blanks, and I was given no further trouble.

I snuck out early in the morning after tossing the body off the tower. A quick retrieval at ground level, chucked it over the fence, went out the front way, gave some more water to a beggar I didn't even notice before, and then I took the corpse and ran as far east as I could.

I eventually found a cave to stash the body, which as you'd guess, was full of raiders. Also, giant mutant black bears.

It was worth it though. Totally worth it. You wouldn't believe the haul I got from this trip. One raider had a missile launcher, and ammo for it! I found a miniature nuclear bomb, meant to be fired from a shoulder mounted weapon! I got another of the glowing Nuka-Cola bottles, which the label calls the "Quantum".

And then there's the literature I found! Another Chinese Army manual on infiltration and espionage, and this one looks to be a different one from the last! A Grognak comic! I haven't seen a new issue of this since I was a kid! We only had the same several issues circulating the vault! I can start a library with these and the other books when I get back to Megaton!

Best of all though, I got schematics for a way to turn those glowing bottles of cola into a high powered grenade. And this thing looks fucking dangerous too. I don't even know if I trust my throwing arm to get it far enough away from me!

Well, I left Tenpenny there and marked the cliffside cavern on my map in case I needed a cave for whatever reason in future. Continued east. Passed an overlook drive-in full of those pre-war nuclear powered cars. Raiders too. Shot one of the cars, and they all exploded and killed everyone. Stripped the bodies, marked the drive in, moved on.

And that's when I arrived at my current location, Andale, whose residents I all killed because they turned out to be inbred cannibals who'd capture people in either a shed or a basement, kill them, and harvest their flesh. I let the two kids live, and they're going to be raised by their...grandpa, I think. He claims to have reformed from cannibalism. How true that is, I don't know, but he tried to warn me when I first arrived, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm staying the night in the house of one of the families I killed. I've also taken the liberty of emptying their fridges of all that human meat.

To dispose of it, of course.

Honestly, I'm not still carrying it or anything.

Really.

Notes from the author:

I'm just writing this here to inform you all that Wanderer's Diary is also available in Google docs format. The docs version comes with a hub page, a quote from each week to easily distinguish chapters, and a longer description. Some rare chapters in the docs version also have links to relevant videos which weren't possible in this version. For the record, I dislike this site as a story hosting format, which is why it was written up in docs first, but the story is better able to reach its target audience here.

Wanderer's Diary is also currently being adapted into a video series on YouTube by Reeve x. Links for both the docs version and the video series are on my profile.