How long was I out? All the others are dead. Well, not at all. But my wife, dead. Everyone I knew, dead. Shaun? Who knows. Why did they wake me up just to watch them kidnap my son? Why did they put me to sleep in the first place? This was supposed to be a shelter, not a deep freeze.

The roaches... they're... huge. And they're no joke either. I almost died just trying to get out, get home. Whoever invented the Stimpak has my eternal gratitude. At least my arm's working again. Would you believe a roach broke it? A roach.

Codsworth, he's still alive. And it's apparently been 200 odd years since the bombs dropped. When did they take Shaun? Yesterday? Last week? I have no clue.

That was tough. Hearing my wife's voice, my son's gurgles. She's dead. He's gone. I know she meant well, didn't expect this, but dammit, hon, that was the biggest slap in the face ever.

My head is spinning. It's been 200 years in the icebox. I did pretty well against the roaches, and I was a decent enough marksman to be recruited for a nameless, faceless black ops sniper squad. We never saw any action until... never mind... once was enough. I resigned my commission there and then. Lieu-y wasn't too happy. I mean, I did my job, but his broken nose, thanks to my bruised knuckles on the evac probably would have meant a court martial anyway.

I need to test my post TV dinner skills, stretch my muscles. Cods want to check out the rest of Sanctuary with me. It's been 200 years. I don't know why he hasn't left the yard sooner, but, who knows.

I don't know which is worse, the roaches or those gross green flies. They already made me want to puke before they were the size of basketballs. And the smell when they explode... old socks and July garbage. Nasty.

Cods says I should look for people in Concord. It's a bit late in the day for that. I'm going to take a stroll down to the Red Rocket. I never liked the owner much. Seemed like a shortcut taker. They used to say he was fined a few times for illegal dumping. I don't know anything about that, but he never made the last quarter turn, and that always bothered me.

Red Rocket doesn't seem to be in bad shape, considering. Oh, I met a dog there. Haven't named him yet, but he's been by my side since he saved my bacon from these hairless, blind, rat-things. Just when I though the bugs were bad, these proved my wrong. The roaches are actually kind of cute by comparison. I cleaned the place up some. Stacked the wood, rubber, steel, all the stuff I'll need to use eventually. I'm going to head back to Sanctuary and clean up there a bit too.

Didn't that terminal at the Rocket say something about someone hiding something from someone else? I should check that out. There may be something useful. Or it might be a secure area. It's been 200 years, though, and it's late. If it's still there, it'll be there in the morning.

Sweet dreams sunshine. That's what my mom used to say. Sweet dreams.

No one. There's no one. I woke up screaming into blackness, out of blackness, at myself, the blackness. Yesterday certainly wasn't pleasant. What the hell happened to the world? Is EVERYONE gone?

Well, there are at least three other people in the world, Shaun and his kidnappers. Fair bet they're working for someone, so more people than that. But where is everybody? Maybe hiding in that hiding place at the Red Rocket?

It was a dumping ground. Old. Really old stuff. Full of those mole-rat things. I did find a Fusion Core, if I need to power something and can find a working generator. Oh, and some edible fungus. It actually makes a nice soup with milk. The milk didn't smell off, not at all, so there must be some people around.

Man but I HATE mosquitos. And these are, by far, the worst. Deadly aholes the size of turkey vultures. Geez, probably should have kept that baton. They're probably a lot easier to swat than shoot. Damn near died. How's that for a headline? Elite Sniper Drunk Dry. I guess I know where the milk came from. Kill looked fresh, smelled fresh, so I took a cut of steak for later.

Is that gun fire? It is.

I scouted the perimeter. There are a few open houses, but most were boarded. I can't imagine anyone living here and not gawking at the fire fight going on down the main street. Or maybe those are the people who live here? I did find one root cellar shelter that looked like someone, at one time, had taken time to conceal it. Just a widow and her shotgun. What a thing of beauty it is though. Untouched by time. Hope she works as good as she looks. More important, those folks outside have some serious issues with some other folks they've got pinned on the top floor of the museum. Well, one person at least. Dressed the same as his dead buddy in the street anyway. This is my one mission all over again. I won't abide the slaughter this time.

Pinched them in. The guy on the balcony had a laser musket! Man but those raiding bastards were surprised when their heads started spontaneously popping off. About to head into the museum...

Dead guy in the street also had a musket. Man this thing is crap. So slow. My trusty 10mm, Whisper made quick and silent work of the rest of the lunatics. Grabbed another Core, too. I should have stuck with intel. I was always so much better at computers than people, than taking illogical, unethical, immoral orders.

Well, I guess you could say it's good to have met people who aren't shooting you or someone you love. Or is it? That Sturges guy is a bit weird, and Preston is a bit too gung ho for his limited skill set. Irresponsible some would say. How many people has he gotten killed? That Jun kid is an absolute mess. And Marcy, phew, yeah, easy to see why she's still among the living, no one wants to get close enough to kill her. But Mama, well, she just takes the cake. And how the hell does she know my dog? Says his name is Dogmeat. Dogmeat it is, I guess. At least it's better than Rin Tin Tin. But these folks don't know that dog anyway.

The only one who isn't mostly mental is Sturges. In fact, he's preternaturally... normal?... which in itself is weird. Fine. Let's get in this Power Armor and see what we can do about getting back to Sanctuary. Those raiders are in endless supply, and I'm pinned down here now, too, just like those folks are. Thanks guys...

Pardon my language, but what the ever-loving F was that thing? Good thing it was too big to get through doors.

I gathered supplies, ammo, guns, and armor mostly. Those folks in the museum are completely oblivious. They're just walking past stuff that could easily save their lives. I'm not too worried about the stuff I'm leaving behind. The Raiders are all dead. I'll be back tomorrow. Wherever that... THING came from, if there are more like it, they need to be taken care of. Too close to home. Too close for comfort. Let's get these folks to Sanctuary.

I won't be resting with them nearby. I don't trust Marcy, or Sturges. They're all back at Sanctuary. They don't seem very handy. I guess they'll sleep in shifts on the one bed I cobbled together yesterday. Unfortunately that means I have to make another bed for myself here, tonight. The Red Rocket, Home Sweet Home. I was able to tap into some ground water and build a shower.
I AM FILTHY.

That was a loooooong day. Eat, drink, poop, shower, sleep. I'll check on the folks in Sanctuary in the morning, then head back to Concord for a bit of supply gathering and exploration.

Yeah, I know, this "DIamond City" thing is important. Shaun might be there. But if he has no home to come home to, what's the point? If they were going to kill him, he's dead already. Worse, if I die, there's no one. If I die, he has no one left.

No wonder the Sanctuary folks are dropping like flies. These "Minute Men" are nigh on helpless. They can't even make their own beds. Fine, beds, food, water, And I even managed to build them a couple of turrets.

I mean, I appreciate that you want to secure those walls, Sturges, especially against the rad storms - holy hell, and I thought Nor'easters were bad - but it doesn't seem like you're getting anywhere. Any how, there you go, eat, drink, be merry.

Preston? It's not enough that I saved his bacon, now he wants something else? Fine, yes, I'll check out Tenpines. Not now. There's a literal ton of stuff to do (haul) before I can get to that. And you people can barely help yourselves.

Back to Concord. Going to check out the "Civic Access" first. Hoity toity name for a sewer if you ask me.

Thankfully, that "death claw" was the only one of its kind, but that crab thing lurking in the mire was no joke. Also nabbed another fusion core.

One thing that really strikes me about this new world... People sure do a lot of drugs. They're literally all over the place. More plentiful than food and water. The world is bleak. It's disgusting, in fact. Where are all of the collectives? The people in power who take care of things for the clueless folks, like those back at Sanctuary, who can't seem to find their own back ends with an escort and direction? I mean, I guess these Raiders could be considered a collective, but certainly not a beneficent one. These, and other, musings occupy the brain as one collects supplies from Concord and brings them back to the Red Rocket. Wish I had a back pack, or at least an idea as to how to make one.

Grabbed all of the best loot from Concord. Weapons, armor, odd rarities that have screws and springs and gears and adhesives that can be repurposed later. I am so sick of eating mole rat and rad roach. Can't be good for me either. RadAway still seems to work. And we're pumping pure water in Red Rocket and Sanctuary now, so there's that. Another long day. Sleep now, Tenpines in the AM. May finish cleaning out Concord. Not sure. There's that safe in the church I should get back to eventually. No time to learn safecracking now, though. Dad was a locksmith, so I know a fair bit, and a fair bit's coming back using those skills again, but I'm not up to that safe. Yet.

Found a 44 on the way to Tenpines. Too little ammo though. Haven't been finding any 44 ammo either. Still, packs a wallop, I'll hang onto it. These little pipe based zip guns are virtually useless. Good for scrap, not much else. I'm going to crank out a handmade revolver and maybe an auto or semi-auto rifle at some point, just to show them how it's done.

Found another suit, if you could call it that, of Power Armor, too. Not going to waste a core on that just yet. Helped the decision that I didn't actually carry the cores with me. I should remember that in the future. Hate being tuna in a can, but they could be very useful. I'll carry some cores with me from now on, just in case.

More damn Raiders at Satellite Station Olivia between us and Tenpines. It wasn't easy, but I took care of them. F'ers laid mines, too. Without field time, I never would have noticed them. Some nice goodies in the station, another core, and a damned Backpack! Hallelujah! Good thing, too. I'm already about at my limit and I wasn't about to leave a mini-nuke laying around.

Made it to Tenpines intact. There was a travelling trader there who wanted a ridiculous sum for goods he had that I could basically find laying around. He traded for my surplus guns though. And still had some spare change after we were done. Since I couldn't carry everything from the satellite station, I made a second trip. Trading is always more equitable than buying outright, but selling can be profitable. Sort of.

Spoke to the "leader" at Tenpines, Apparently they're having trouble with some Raider group. I guess the ones at the satellite and in Concord were only a small part of that group. Anyway, at least these folks seem to have stuff in hand, actually eking out an existence without my help. And, they seem like okay folks. And they're neighbors. Still, they wanted something just for the sake of their friendship... So I agreed to see if I can help them out. I left them some extra supplies I scrounged from the satellie.

Picked the station clean on my way back to Red Rocket. It's late and I'm dirty, hungry, thirsty, tired. I've got to at least get the neighbors on board with this "Minute Men" thing, strength in numbers. Looks like Diamond City is going to have to wait another day. Sweet dreams sunshine.

Two people Ms. Tenpines, you're two people. How are you not dead? Lexington is a warzone. Worse. Worse than any imaginable horrors. The dead... are they dead? They look dead. You can hear them first, the gurgling groans. Like the stuff of nightmares.

I just got here, I'm at the Lexington Red Rocket. And there are dead, walking the streets. I guess my skills are still there, and heightened by the adrenaline dump. I took out all six, right between the eyes, all six, without even blinking. That almost, not quite, but almost, scares the crap out of me more than those things did.

I wish I had a clear scope. This one's night vision, but it's the only long range I could scrounge, so it'll have to do. Corvega. It's literally crawling with Raiders. They have the advantage of numbers, and of higher ground. I'm going to have to sneak up that overpass and see if I can get a better view point, a better, defensible, position.

Rad storm? Again? Made it to the top of the overpass. There's a bed up here, and partial shelter at least. Good thing this storm's not so bad.

Got up on the roof of a pickup. They had no clue where it was coming from at first. I took out six of them before they figured it out. By the time they did, though, they were thinned out enough to be easy pickings. I shifted my position to the other end of the barrier wall and nailed the rest. They didn't even come close. That was way too easy.

I don't know if I can do this. I'm, I'm in bad shape. I came through the door and they were oblivious. I picked off one, two. Then the grenades cam flying. Grenades! And these guys weren't nearly as clueless as the ones outside. They figured out pretty quickly exactly where I was, and they had me pincered. Visions of the Lieutenant ordering that massacre had me in their grip, only this time, I was the sheep, and they were the wolves. I don't know how I'm still alive, but I am. The murders from the past, playing over and over in my head... my eyes replacing their eyes... my face their faces. In a strange way, it's cathartic, and I can almost forgive myself. Plenty of Stims. Can you get addicted to Stims? I don't know, but I think I'm going to find out. And thirsty, I've never been this thirsty. I've been saving those beers and colas at the bottom of my pack. I think I may have to use them. Down to one can of good water, two boxes of that dirty crap.

I, I think I'm good. I'm going to poke around just a tiny bit more. If things get hairy, I'm out of here, and Preston and Tenpines can go scratch.

Well, that wasn't too bad. Just stragglers. Man is there a lot of loot here. Way too much to carry. I was right, all of these Raiders were connected. Some psychopath named Jared seems to be the one whipping them a long. I learned a lot. If there is a diametric opposite to "nice people", the Raiders are it. They conscript children, rape, torture, and kill adults. Every essence of depravity permeates their entire being. I never understood "shoot first, ask questions later". Now, I do. I doubt this is the last of them. This world is a diseased pustelance. And the Raiders are just oozing from the open sores.

How long was I in there? How many days? It was noon-ish when I got here, but it's early morning now. At least a day. Doesn't seem like it. I thought I had gotten them all. There was no movement, anywhere, not a body to be seen. I guess I was wrong. As I stepped out into the bright sun, they came swarming in from everywhere, even jumping down from the roof above. Lucky for me, this exit is almost a bunker. Defensible and with good long range visibility. Those who jumped down from above were floored by Dogmeat, and took the wrong end of the widow's gun to the head. There are going to be more. I know it. They're everywhere.

The trip back to Tenpines was uneventful. Stark contrast to the job I did for them. Ms. Tenpines was actually really grateful, and agreed to "join" the Minute Men, for whatever that's worth. So the Minute Men are now an army of two? Three? Preston and the Tenpines. I'm sure the Raiders are quaking.

I'm back in Sanctuary. Preston is out of his freaking mind. Not only does he want me to clear out some drive-in to expand settlements (with WHO Preston? with WHO?), he wants me to go help (did he say robots?) at some garden. I almost just got killed, did him this huge favor so he could expand his team, and now he wants me to leisurely stroll into to big unknowns? For what? He's also calling me "General" now. I knew this guy was dangerously delusional, but he's really, really out there. No way in freaking hell I'm going anywhere near either of those places. I'm off to Diamond City tomorrow.

Broken, beaten, scarred, I've come through the 12th circle? level? Whatever it is. Of hell. I'm taking the rest of what's left of today off. I have some building I want to do. On the bright side, I told Sturges the other day that he was in charge of building up Sanctuary. He's gotten quite a bit done. It's no magazine cover suburbia, but it's looking serviceable. I think I may be impressed. I thought he was going to uselessly hammer at walls for years and here he's done more than I could have dreamed possible. The man's a machine.

That day and a half delve into Corvega has me a little spun. Preston wants me to check out two more places, something garden and some drive-in. Pretty sure I saw the drive-in the other day, the garden he marked on my map. Anyway, it's five in the morning according to my Pip-boy, and I'm getting ready to head out.

Everything is so black. Without my Pip-boy's lamp, I can't see a thing. Was it always this dark this early? I mean, before the war? You can see the stars. It's incredible, quite beautiful, calming. What did we do to the world? Before, I mean, before the war. We built a shell of light and sound and concrete so thick around ourselves that we couldn't even see the vastness of it all beyond our homes, beyond our planets.

Well, I can see a beacon of light off in the distance. That has to be Diamond City. Between musing and the darkness, and fluttering lazily to that light, I've gotten lost. I can't see a road but I'm up on a ridge and there's a greenhouse below. There are a bunch of Mr. Handys in there, weirdly colored ones, too. I'm going to head down and check it out.

If I would have checked my map, I would have known. It was the Greygarden that Preston wanted me to check out. They're a farm. Run by robots. Well organized and productive too, and they didn't seem to mind me picking up some produce, and even a few chicken eggs. They have a problem with their water supply, though. I'm going to check it out on the way back from Diamond City. We need this small plot of land on our side. They're a constant supply of food, and no overhead.

Damn. There're a bunch of Raiders down on some floating barge and wrecked boat settlement under this stuck open bridge. Fog's rolling, sun's coming up, and all I have is this useless night vision scope. Caught a glimpse of one and he's in Power Armor. Beat up bad, but a couple of pieces still look intact. It's going to be close combat now if I want to get past.

I love The Widow. A little stealth, some well placed head-shots from my 10mm, and by the time they realized what was going on, they were in such a frenzy that The Widow made it short work. Grabbed some loot, what I could. DC doesn't look so far, I can probably trade for supplies.

A brothel? Still the oldest profession. Some Raiders attacked as I was passing by. Sadie, the woman I kelped out, brought me in to see Cueball. That guy is seriously creepy. And I really don't like the way he looks at that boy. She's got a line on the Raiders, I'm going to take a walk with her to the church.

Well, that was easy. Unexpected, but easy. Four well placed shots. The church was a trap. Sadie's heading back to the Bordello. I'll meet here there later. I'm off to Diamond City.

Guards! Patrols! Security! I feel like a farmboy in the middle of Times Square. I'm going to have to update later, It's a city, a real hustle and bustle city. Or what passes for one nowadays. More later.