Meanwhile in Springvale ... (And why RPGs can be dangerous)

"Do not go out without your Rads." That is something that I keep telling people, but somehow forget myself. I ended you spending more bottle caps on them for myself, than what I bought for Pepper Gomez, and I was so tired that I ended up spending two days in bed recovering. My only excuse was that I was only going to Megaton which is literally down the road, and not a problem, right? Wrong! It depends on where the wind is coming from and , if you read Moira's book, you will know that, she has all the hot spots marked on the map, and warns you about it.

By the time I got to Craterside supply, I was already looking tired. She offered me discount on an Advanced Radiation Suit, which does help in situations like this, but is not good if you want to avoid raiders. All she wanted me to do was go down to Rivet City and pick some things up for her a couple of times over the next month, but when I get there, don't tell Flak that it is for her. She didn't say why.

Anyway, I am stuck here in bed -- if you can call it that. Silver brought me something to eat. God, I'm tired. I really hate these Rads. I really need some ...

Another problem with the Capital Wasteland is that there are times when you just get lost, and no amount of searching can help you. It is just that your PipBoy needs a new battery at the most awkward moment, and from knowing where you are, you find yourself thinking, 'how the hell did I end up here', knee deep in water as you try to at least get to the right side of the river, and work your way down stream, and hopefully get sight of Springvale School.

I think I can see Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema in the distance, but I've got to be careful round there because it is a place that the super mutants seem to like to gather before hitting Big Town, but it is the best place to cross the river. If anybody has any ideas, I'd be extremely grateful. I'd like to get to Big Town, at least before nightfall. Some of you might say it'll teach me for going out to get some spare parts from the Old Relay Station for Moira, but I say that if you can do something good, it is better than most of the other options that you have around here. It may be risky, but at least it doesn't damage your karma in any way.

Whoever thought Big Town was a good idea was mistaken. I won't say wrong, because, by their way of thinking, all adults were bad, and Big Town seemed to be a way of staving off the influence of adulthood for as long as possible, but it created a lot of very angry people who, when you think about it, will find it difficult to get on in the real world. It is not that there aren't any solitary people, it is just that those that there are, are mostly predatory, only out for themselves. The rest are the people who just want to get on with life, untroubled by the pains of community life; having witnessed it, they just want to leave.

Places like Paradise Falls, which is just nasty, or Tenpenny Tower, which has a veneer of niceness over the core of nastiness of the people in charge. Allistair Tenpenny, just wants to have it all, at least within his own little world.

Maybe Moira has an idea?

It always surprises me that we act more like a bunch of individuals rather than communities trying to work together for the benefit of the whole. Even now, so many years after the war, we know who our neighbours are, but if you would ask us what they were like, you would get very few who would be able to say that they really knew about them.
We are still filled with suspicion, afraid that the person sitting next to us might, one day, turn round and betray us. Raiders do that to you, though. Like the Commonwealth, or the Enclave, they have cast seeds of doubt and suspicion where we need the opposite. You just don't know. So you sit on the sidelines and wait for the outcome to happen, and live with what fate seems to have dealt you. What kind of a life is that?

There are some days when you really feel as though you are talking to yourself. You cannot even get Three Dog on the radio. People just don't go out. It is very different from the vaults, where everything is very clean, and where you can do anything you want as part of a community of people still living within the confines of one or other of the fallout shelters that protected you from the effects of the blasts from the incoming missiles. Outside, in the wilderness, there are days, and sometimes weeks when you just can't get out for more than a very short time because the winds are going in the wrong direction. And you end up thinking too much. Even the raiders don't come out.

The only thing you have to worry about, is them creatures that don't really care about the wind from the Capital, or them for whom the wind doesn't really matter, because it is already too late. The ghouls ... they're the ones you really have to worry about:



"If you've never seen one, either you're very lucky, or you’re dead." That's what Moira says, and I agree.

But, they don't seem to be coming about so much at the moment. Something for which we can be thankful. It's probably down to the Brotherhood, the only ones with the sort of armour that can protect you for long periods of time against the radiation. But, that doesn't get us out, and living alone, here in Springvale, that can make things pretty difficult. Maybe I should see if it is safe enough to go over to Silver’s place. Haven't seen her in a while.

So, I finally got over to see Silver. She seemed relieved that the winds had died down; she was planning on going to Megaton to get some supplies. She wasn't really looking forward to it, she was still edgy over what Moriarty might want to do. The problem with Colin Moriarty was that, while he could be really nice, he had a mean streak about him, that manifested itself if he felt you had got one over him. He needed to be the boss, which is why he didn't get on with Lucas Simms.

He was a son of the wasteland. He saw that the real power outside the Capital, and a few other places, lay with Raiders. There was a rumour that he had once tried to let them into Megaton, so that he could take over the town, there was another armour that he had struck a deal with Allistair Tenpenney to destroy the place, kill everybody off, then he could pick up the pieces. Either way, he would be the boss. Why he didn't, nobody knew. It seems that there was something that even Colin Moriarty was afraid of.

Fear is a terrible thing, and outside the major enclaves, it is a common commodity. It is otherwise known as not knowing what is going to happen next, and really believing that the worst is possible. It is also knowing that, no matter how much you wish it would go away, if you are not careful, the worst CAN happen. Here, in the Wasteland, it is no longer true that you only have to fear fear itself. If that was true, then people wouldn't feel the need to hide in the deepest hole, at night when sleeping, so that people can't creep up on you, only to realise that they can bury you alive, just for the fun of it.

And, don't look to the powers that be. More often than not they are the powers that b'aint, or they are too busy taking care of the bigger picture, making sure that when sanity does finally come back to humanity, they'll be the ones in charge. It doesn't mean that they won't help you, it just means that you can't be sure; there is no 911 to dial to get someone out to help you when you are bleeding to death after some raider cut off your hand to get that nice piece of jewelry that you got on your wrist there, as a reminder of the past. You really don't want to be rememb'ring the past.

Thankfully, Silver knows all this which is why she knew that the best thing to do with two two-headed cows, out in the wasteland is not to advertise that you got them, even to the people who gave them to you. Silver knew the minds of the raiders and the slavers. She had seen them up close. So, she lost her house, but she kept her cows, and she kept herself alive, unlike the trader who had tried to sell her off. You really don't want to hear what happened to him; the sound remains with you for the rest of your life.