Chapter 1
Chapter 1
“The Wasteland. It can be in the east, or the west, but it is synonymous with the nuclear war years ago. I, however, live in a strange place between the coasts. I use the term “strange” only to give someone outside of the Valley an idea of what it is like. Greenery is abundant. Growing food is never a problem. In a way, it is Eden, but with the abundance brings attention from both sides. The NCR, Brotherhood of Steel, Caesars Legion, the Enclave, the list of those who’ve shown interest grows. We are not a people who allow change to happen. We make it. If we want governance, we will seek it ourselves. We will speak with those who wish to help us, but when they fire upon us, they are met with a hellfire of steel and a wrath second only with the Lords. If they are smart, they will submit to our inquisitions and allow us to decide. But these people are desperate. It is a sad fact that we live with daily, my friends.” The man, balding but in his late twenties, continues to speak to the small group that he has amassed around the town square. A young man and woman take the opportunity to walk away from them. They had both heard the speeches before from Brother Bond, and while it wasn’t a horrible one, only a handful of the community took the time to listen to him fully every time he talked.
The Valley, the Green Wasteland, whatever you wish to call it was its own great defender. No one knew how, but right after the war that flattened the world was over, the city they lived in, St. Louis, came springing back to life only after about half a century. The people couldn’t jump out of their vaults for an additional fifty years from the radiation, but by that time, the plants and animals had adapted and neutralized the radiation. It was a miracle… of sorts. Vault hunters looked at all the information they could about any experiments done that could answer for this, and the closest thing that came close was off in Nevada. No one complained about it. The clean food and water was good enough for them. But it wasn’t as simple as walking out and grabbing a handful of fruit.
The furry and semi-psychic Midwest American Deathclaws roamed in packs, sometimes with humans mounted on their backs. Common Deathclaws where making a comeback after an absence of over twenty years, as well. Super Mutants and raging savage ghouls had banded together, and made life difficult. The list could go on for Lord knows how long, but the fact still remained that this land was theirs.
“So, when do we go hunting for meat, Sam? Heard deer are actually showing up.”
“Rodger, Deer are extinct. You know. Their like horses, couldn’t survive the first fifty, even with the green.” Samantha said as she put her arm around her husband’s neck, playfully hanging onto him. “We’re stuck with radscorpions and Brahmin to ride on.”
Rodger’s eyes lit up momentarily, till Samantha smacked him lightly on the back of his head. “No, we are not going to try that again.”
“But, Sam, wouldn’t it be cool, running around the Green with a pair of Scorpions under us? Especially if they grew up to be giant radscorpions!”
“Hush. Radscorpions don’t learn anything. They’d just as soon chop you up as listen to you.” Samantha laughed as the two made their way to the town’s limits. Munyville was a rather nice place, even with the fact that the entirety of the village was built on the slope of the once great outdoor theater of similar name. Samantha and Rodger where born and raised on the clean(er) and peaceful(er) slice of The Green. The Park Forest, as it is known, surrounded them, and was one of the only things separating the other towns and settlements. The closest one, The Big Z, was a big place but surrounded by several nasty creatures that had managed to survive and thrive after the bombs fell. The Center was the outpost that separated the safety of the Forest with the rest of the Green.
Rodger and Samantha made their living hunting the creatures of the Forest. Not the best, but definitely made a good enough living to be able to maintain their weapons and occasional bottle of booze that they would share. Food and water where never in short supply.
Samantha hugged Rodger as they approached the gate. The head guard, an old man with leathery, tanned skin, looked down at the couple as he adjusted his red baseball cap. His lips turned up to a smile as he brought his sniper rifle onto his back. “You two going back out to do some more work, I recon.”
“Stop with the small talk, Red. Unless it’s about finding any Deathclaw packs.” Samantha said as she looked up at the man.
“We’ve heard of two packs to the north, but they aren’t the ones you want to go after. They are the Big Ones. You’d need a lot more than those rifles of yours to take one of them down, much less a pack.”
Rodger looked disappointed as his face focused on the door in front of him. He had, thankfully, never had to deal with the giant beasts, and knew of them from other hunters dragging a corpse into town a few years back. The creature was the subject of several nightmares for weeks afterword.
Samantha looked up at Red, unamused as she put her hands on her hips. It didn’t take long for the gate keeper to motion for the doors to open.
The two stepped out into the Forest, looking as a small caravan began to roll on by, headed by a man heavily armored riding a wagon pulled by a team of Brahmin. Heavily armed and armored men and women walked alongside the three wagons, but aside from a rather neutral nod at Red on the wall and the two hunters walking out of the small town, they barely batted an eye as they walked past.
“Must be the third time I saw that caravan go by Munyville…” Rodger said as they walked the opposite direction of the caravan.
“How did you know? I haven’t seen you standing at the gates lately.”
“Because I tend to wait till you’re asleep.”
“And why, pray tell, is that?” Samantha glared at Rodger as they continued onwards.
“Because I wanted to see your eyebrow do that cute little twitch when you realize that I do things without you knowing.” His smile was enough to break the glare, but not enough for him to be spared a swift punch in the arm.
“I have to put up with people saying that I keep you on too short a leash already, Rodger. Don’t encourage them, please.” She begged while still sounding like she was on the verge of tying him in knots.
Rodger looked at Samantha with concern as he rubbed his arm. “What’s really eating you, sweetie? You aren’t normally this short with people. First Red, and now…”
Samantha sighed again as they walked past tall, thick trees. Their footsteps sounded like the crunching of stale fried potatoes. “Rodger… I don’t know. I just feel angry right now.”
They walked in silence for a few hours, going deeper and deeper into the forest. The trees where thick, and aside from the relics of the old world, could almost look like the deepest jungles of the Pacific Northwest. It left Rodger ample time to think as they went on. He wanted to put his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. He wanted to tell her that she could trust him, and that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
He wanted to, but all he could manage to do was raise a gun up and trip his wife as a massive pincher snapped shut over where Samantha’s neck would have been if not for what Rodger would ascribe as Divine intervention.
“Radscorpion. Albino. Got AP rounds?” Rodger asked as he shot the joints leading to the claw, cutting the risk of the large arthropod down by a third.
Samantha quickly rolled out of the way as the giant, white stinger struck down where she was resting as she brought her riffle up. “Check! Light this meal ticket up!”
The two made short work of the giant arachnid, bringing it down in a heap as they emptied their clip into the eye sockets. Samantha stood up as she quickly reloaded, looking around the area as Rodger did as he always did.
Walking over to a large tree, he broke off a long branch, keeping an eye out for the sudden re-awakening of the Radscorpion, then walked behind it. He had learned many things from his old man. One of those things is that, regardless of the species, no matter how smart it is. If it is still alive, and trying to play dead, then one little trick will make certain that they wished they were dead.
Lifting up the tail of the creature, he found his target, and shoved the stick into the Radscorpion’s cloaca. -Barely a twitch from the creature’s muscles could be seen.
“Dead.” Rodger sang as he pulled the dirt, filth and blood covered stick out.
Samantha groaned as she shook her head. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, Rodger. That’s another thing that people keep on talking about. They’re calling you the ‘Stick-man’. “
Rodger smiled as he threw the stick away and pulled out a combat knife. “I know. I kind of like it.”
Samantha rolled her eyes as she scanned the area. “You are such a strange man.”
“And you love me for it, my sweet lady.” Rodger tore off the large stinger, carefully cutting it at the seams between the armor. It only took a few minuets before he was carrying the basketball sized organ of death. “Alright, we probably got about six regular glands worth of venom in here. A little bit of work here and there, and we can probably salvage some meat from the claws, too. Think we should smoke the meat now? Or wait till we get some wild Brahmin?”
Samantha didn’t say anything as she looked at the line of trees.
Rodger looked at the scorpion, and realized what he had done. Something that he did several times, hoping it would make things better. He hoped to ignore the problem, to bury it. But by doing that, he hurt her. And after almost losing her, he couldn’t help but mentally attack himself.
“I’m sorry, Samantha…” he almost whispered. “I… I know that when we’re out here, we should be focusing on making a living, and maybe I do take things less seriously than I should. I just don’t like seeing the people I care about frown…”
He felt arms wrap around his waist as he was hugged from behind. “I know… and that’s why I married you, you dumb ass.” Sam’s arms squeezed him once before letting go. “It wasn’t your fault, and you shouldn’t be feeling bad about it. Just get the meat and lets find a place to rest before the sun goes down.”
The embrace was short, but it was all Rodger needed as he resumed his work. They managed to pick up a few pounds of meat from the radscorpion, and decided that they would have it for their dinner, once they set up camp. Of course, in the Park Forest, that is easier said than done.
Sam would watch over as Rodger gathered sticks and fuel. It didn’t take long before they had more than enough for a small fire, but the more important question of “where they would camp” still remained unanswered.
The forest’s floor was a trip hazard of enlarged roots and outcroppings. Rodger looked over one such semi-cliff and realized that there was a natural “hut” (in this case, a large, hollowed out tram-car caught in the grasp of the roots of a particularly large tree) and with minimal debate with Sam, the two decided to make their way down the side. As they got halfway down the more than thirty foot drop, Rodger grabbed hold of a length of bare vines and wrapped the fire wood in it. A quick tug and use of his combat knife, and he allowed the little bundle of fire starter to fall onto the ground.
That was when they heard the shuffling of leaves.
Rodger brought his rifle up and scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The creatures of the forest knew how to trick even the most hardened of hunters. Thankfully, most of the creatures where pray animals, and because of that, they were the ones who brought the best prices in market. A FEV-infused rock rabbit, one of the few creatures that could maintain its original form (but not size) and capability of reproducing when infected by the notorious virus that was once used (and could probably still be in use) to create Super Mutants, were especially prized.
The Rock Rabbits, roughly the size of small cars, where fiendish with their tricks, but never truly cruel, since they enjoyed hiding in plain sight, pretending to be rocks or stones. They even would move boulders around to prime grazing areas to MAKE hiding “partners”. It wasn’t uncommon to wake up to a once clear patch of land, filled with what could only be described as a small quarry, only for the next day for the entire stone field to be gone, and the grass a few inches shorter.
To Rodgers delight, there were three potential rabbits near what could barely be called a tree-line. He looked up at Sam with a smile. “I’m going to look up ahead… if one of them is a Rock Rabbit, then they should be spooked when I get too close.”
Sam didn’t share in her husband’s excitement, but she was far from against the idea of finding such hard to find game. She raised her rifle and aimed at the center stone, keeping the other two rocks in her peripheral vision. Rodger made his way down the remainder of the way with no incident, and again, raised his weapon up. He slouched down, keeping himself small as he made his way towards the rocks.
“Come on, big beauty. I know your hiding there. Just come on out, and we can make this quick and painless…” Rodger said as he waited for any sign that the rabbits to give a tell.
However, instead of the quiet breathing of an animal, or even the slight nervous thump of a rabbits leg, he heard the heaving breathing and quiet sobbing of a young woman. “Oh, please… don’t kill me…” the voice whispered, almost like a prayer. “Oh, please, Celestia… don’t let them kill me…”
Rodger stopped in his tracks as he heard that, and held up an arm. Samantha went from hunting over watch to raider over watch rather quickly; she changed her focus from the rocks to nearly everything around Rodger’s immediate area, making what she had affectionately called “The Guardian Angels Halo” for her husband. If there were two raiders down there, she could take them out easily. Four or five, Rodger would deal with the stragglers. She wished that they had a dog to watch HER back as she took care of Rodger, but as things stood, they couldn’t afford to buy one from the Big Z.
“You alright, lady? If you are, I need you to walk out from your hiding place nice and slowly. Keep your hands up where I can see them. Please.”
A few seconds passed, and the voice grew louder. “I-I won’t come out. You’ll eat me up. And I can’t bring up something I don’t have! Please, j-just go away!”
Rodger brought his rifle down, much to Sam’s chagrin, and put it back on his back. The look in his eyes was the look he had when he saw rock rabbit pups abandoned. Several times, he brought one or two such creatures to Munyville to take care of in his own special way (namely, keeping it away from humans and making sure it retained its natural capacity to hide) then released it back to the wild. He could never allow anyone, or anything that couldn’t protect themselves to be hurt. And while he didn’t know what he could do for an armless woman, he knew he had to do something.
“I wasn’t talking about eating you. I was talking about hunting a Rock Rabbit. Come on. I’m not pointing my weapon at you now. Just come on out, and we’ll see what we can do for you, okay?”
A small gasp could be heard as shifting could be heard from the rock on the far left. “Yo-you were going to kill a poor rabbit? Why?”
Rodger rolled his eyes as he began to walk to the rock. Rodger knew that there were plenty of vegetarians in The Green, and that they didn’t like his job, but he never got angry at them. They had their opinions, and the Green was still a free and wild place. “Because they are worth a lot of money. If it makes you feel any better, we make sure every bit of them is used up, not just the meat.”
There was a few seconds of deep silence, making Rodger stop in his tracks. “A-alright… I don’t like it, but I understand.” The voice was quiet, filled with a sad regret. “L-look. I’ll come out, but please, don’t hurt me.”
Rodger let out the breath he unwittingly as holding as a smile came to his face. He turned back to Samantha with a smile, giving her a thumbs up, but could tell that something was wrong. Samantha had brought her gun down, her mouth hanging open. Rodger, slightly perplexed, turned back around, and noticed the creature standing behind the stone. A grey furred, big eyed creature with a long, pearl white hair looked back at him, her own mouth agape. Her eyes where lavender colored, and on her hind quarters was a picture of what looked like a bag and a compass.
Rodger’s smile didn’t leave his face as he waved at the creature.
“Hey.”
And with that, he heard two bodies hit the ground, one being the creature, the other he surmised being Samantha.
“… I guess I still got it.” He managed to sneak past his mouth as he, too, succumbed to the pressures of the situation.
///////////////////////////////////////
Compass Rose felt uneasy. The forest floor was hard, but warm. She could barely make out the light shining onto her eye lids as she began to regain consciousness. She remembered walking through the Everfree Forest after the… incident… in her new home in Ponyville, then a deer, then waking up in a new forest altogether. The term “confused” would be an understatement for the poor Earth Pony.
She opened her eyes as she saw a leaf on her muzzle, just smaller than her hoof. It was old, most likely from the last fall, but it still had a beautiful brownish red to it. She got to sitting up and noticed the creatures. Tall, lanky and both wearing heavy looking clothes. She was slightly afraid of the way the closest one spoke earlier, but she couldn’t help but walk towards him, looking over him further. He didn’t have any spears or swords on him. No crossbows or bows, either.
She looked at the male (She guessed it was a male by his voice) and took a few more steps towards him. His skin was dark, almost ebony, while his hair was short, and colored soft brown. She saw a strange pole sticking from under him, but didn’t even attempt to examine it further. She stepped back as she felt a sudden stirring from the forest.
“oh, no… Oh, Celestia…”
She had already seen one of the denizens of this forest before seeing the two creatures before her, and she shivered as she looked down at the male. “Please… please wake up before that demon appears…” She whispered as she nudged the male with her muzzle.
He stirred as his eyes opened up slowly. His hand lazily reached up and patted Compass Rose on the top of her head as he smiled. “Good doggy… let me sleep for five more minuets.”
Compass Rose blushed, but as she heard the distant echoes of large, menacing footsteps, she poked him hard. “I’m not a dog! My name is Compass Rose, and you need to get yourself and your marefriend awake! Please, the demons are coming!”
The stallion’s eyes shot open as he looked Compass Rose straight in the face. He slowly sat up as he kept his eyes on her. “You… you’re a… a horse, aren’t you?”
“What!? No! I’m no whorse! I’m the happy head mare of my herd, thank you very mu- Never mind! Get up! The Demons are coming! Get your marefriend and get in the metal cave!” Compass almost begged the big creature as he got to his feet. His senses where coming back to him as he reached for his weapon.
“They aren’t demons… uh… Ma’am. They are Mid West Deathclaws. Get to the tram. We’ll be with you shortly.” He began to run to the cliff. Compass Rose did go to the “tram”, the artificial metal cave and looked out one of the holes on it. If she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn that they were once windows.
She heard quiet moaning and movement. She couldn’t tell where it all came from, but she began to back away from the narrow opening as the movement came closer to the cave. She heard a blood-curdling roar as she heard the chilling popping and exploding sound.
“GET IN THE TRAM!”
“RODGER, WHAT ARE YOU-“
“I SAID GET IN THE TRAM! I’LL BE BACK! COME ON, UGLY! GET SOME FOOD!”
She then saw a figure almost launch into the cave, but then almost immediately turn around, shaking as it’s… her hand’s wrapped around a strange object from her back. She looked to be in shock. Compass Rose slowly walked towards her, clearing her throat. She didn’t expect the female to turn and aim the object at her.
“Uh… uh… I’m s-sorry… I just… “
The female put the object back down, her face still filled with hurt as she turned back to the opening. “Shut up and sit down.” She almost whispered as her attention was fixed on an unseen horizon. “I don’t care what you are. I don’t care where you’re from. You better be worth saving.”
Compass Rose did as she was told, and averted her gaze down on the floor. The metal felt cold, but dirty. Not a relaxing place for her to rest, but it will do for now. She laid down as her mind wandered to Ponyville, and her stallion, Written Script. She wanted to go back, but she had no idea how to even start.
The sun long past set before she heard footsteps from outside. She kept quiet as the female shirked away from the door, her weapon ready as she waited. The footsteps stopped just short of the entrance as Compass Rose heard whistling. A rather poor imitation of a bird, but she could tell that was what was trying to be accomplished, as opposed to random gibberish.
The female brought her weapon down as the male entered the cave, a bit worse for wear, but aside from a few scrapes, looked well enough. His smile was wide as he caught his breath. “You… will never believe… how awesome things went! I think I killed, like, all of them by trapping them in the blast of an exploding car. It… was… magnificent, to be sure.” He walked over to the fire and sat down, looking right at Compass Rose, still smiling. “Well, would have been cooler if I could have gotten the meat from them to eat, but hell, can’t be beggars.” He reached into his pocket and tossed her a few large, strange looking fruit as he tossed a few more to his significant other.
“Thank you.” The still nervous mare said as she ate the fruit given to her. It was a sickeningly sweet fruit, but she managed to keep it down as she looked at how nonchalantly her “hosts” at it. “I-it’s pretty good…”
“No, it isn’t.” The female almost barked as she hit the male on the shoulder. “Rodger is pretty bad at foraging for food. He forgets that mut-fruits aren’t in season for another two weeks.” She finally gave the mare a smile as the tension she had felt melted from her. “By the way, I’m Sam.”
Rodger looked at Sam with a frown. “Samantha… I can’t believe that you and our horse friend-“
“Pony!” Compass corrected.
“Sorry, Pony friend has been in here, waiting for me for almost half a day without introducing yourself?”
“I’m sorry, Rodger, I was too worried about your scrawny ass being eaten by Deathclaws to worry about being nice to something that shouldn’t exist on Earth!”
“Earth?” Compass Repeated to herself as she looked at the two. “Is that the nation we’re in?”
The two stopped their bickering as they both gave a chuckle. “Nation? Earth isn’t a nation.” Samantha said as she took a seat at the fire next to Rodger. “Earth is the planet. We aren’t stupid enough to belong to a nation here. NCR wants us, as does… lets see… Enclave, the Legion…”
“Don’t forget the Brotherhood of Steel and the Crusaders of Atom.” Rodger added.
“Oh, yes, of course, let’s not forget the Crusaders of Atom.”
Compass Rose’s jaw dropped, her eyes pin pricks as she looked at the fire. “Who… who are they?”
Rodger took a stick and began to poke the fire. “Well, lets get the worst out of the way first. Ceasers Legion is filled with a bunch of slavers and their slaves that swarm around their enemies like giant ants and tears their enemies apart. Good news is that there is too many tree’s, and the animals in them are able to cut enemies down real easily, especially when the enemy can barely keep themselves in proper armor.”
“Slaves? How many humans have they…”
Samantha exhaled slowly from his mouth as he shrugged. “Hard to say, really… a couple hundred tribes and settlements? Might have a couple hundred thousand for all I know.” Samantha said as she took another bite of her fruit. “They got numbers, but lets face it, they toss their soldiers into the meat grinder, hoping to clog the NCR’s guns while their generals take the credit for the win.”
“That’s horrible!”
“Yeah, it is, but that’s how it’s like at times.” Rodger continued as he looked at Compass Rose. “NCR, now, is a lot better. Worse you’ve got to worry about them is bureaucrats and corrupt politicians. Troops tend to be good people, but they always seem to be on the edge of having jack. They sometimes got to have other people help them out.”
“Get a good number of caps from that.” Samantha said as she smiled.
“Why? I mean, if they ARE a better group, why don’t you help them for free?” Compass Rose tilted her head to the side as she thought out loud.
“Because people don’t have the money, and they think that getting some quick caps will keep them fed for a bit. Folks in the Green also know that the farther you are from where the big decisions are made, the more likely you’re going to be screwed royally by them. Folks from the Green will help NCR citizens, no problem, but don’t expect anyone here to be carrying flags for the West.”
Compass Rose continued to listen to the two humans explain the world she was in. She was told of the cruel Enclave, the enigmatic isolation of the Brotherhood of Steel, and the fanatical Crusaders of Atom. Each description was rift with opinion (which they had plenty of) but honest insight in how the world she was in worked.
Rodger smiled at Compass as he looked into her eyes. “What about you? How is your little part of the wasteland like?”
“Uh… I’m definitely not from here… “ Rose began. “I-I come from Equestria… a country on Eqqus…” She stopped when her hosts looked at her, confused. “I… um… I come from another planet.”
It only took a few seconds before the two humans looked at one another. They looked like they where debating with one another without words as Samantha seemed to have a skeptical look on her face. Rodger, however, couldn’t contain the smile on his face as he turned back to Compass Rose. “Could you tell us about it? I mean, Equestria.”
Compass’s eyes stared at him and Samantha for long, agonizing seconds as she thought of what to tell them. She blinked as her eyes went to the fire, and a small smile came to her face. She began to tell them of Equestria, about the towns and cities bustling with ponies. Of the capital city built along the mountains. Of the Princess of the Sun, Celestia and her just reign, and of the Ponies themselves.
She never knew that she would enjoy explaining about Magic or about Pegasi and Unicorns, but the more she spoke to Samantha and Rodger the more she talked about her world, which made her realize that, as soon as she ran out of things to say, that the silence was excruciating to her. The look from Rodger, who was locked onto her as she explained her world, contorted to one of pity. Samantha’s face was harder, but the pity was still noticeable through her normally cold eyes.
Compass found that she couldn’t keep speaking, and soon the only noise she could make was her sobbing. With the sobbing, came the tears.
She buried her face into her fore hooves and continued to cry. It felt like she was crying for hours till she felt something drape over her back. She looked up, only to see the back of Samantha’s figure walk back to Rodger, sitting closer to him and laying her head against his shoulder, her eyes closed.
“Go to sleep, Compass. It’s been a long day for all of us. We’ll…” Rodger stopped talking for a moment as he waved his free hand slowly for a few seconds, as though as if he was looking for something. “We’ll think of something.” Rodger’s chin rested on the top of Samantha’s head as he looked at the entrance of the makeshift camp. She could only imagine seeing his and Samantha’s hands resting on their weapons, ready at a moments notice. Her eyes became heavier, and it only took a few seconds for the earth pony to fall asleep and dream of better times.