I've been walking for longer while. It was about 10 o'clock, I leaved last town about 5 hours ago.
Wastelands were ruthless.
After 5 hours of walking in cloud of dust my eyes finally saw peoples.
Bad thing was that they were raiders.
Three of them. Walking in South-East direction.
I took my faithful Sniper Rifle, Sandman from bag, and started targeting.
Puff. One Down.
The other two started obsessively seek for sniper.
They didn't have time.
Puff. One Left.
Last one started running, it seemed that in random direction.
Unfortunately for he, I was skilled in shooting running targets.
When he finally left of sings of life, I decided to come closer.
Total loot was:
62 9mm ammo,
12 10mm ammo,
About 40 caps,
and holotape.
I decided to listen to it without delay.
"Scout Khans Team Numa 34 To Grand Khan:
Unknown thing felt from sky about
5 miles East of Ceville.
It wasn't a nuke, something much smaller,
We ask for allow to investigate this.
Grand Khan to Scout Khans Team Numa 34:
You have my permission."
'Ceville... Yea, I know! Last City in which I was.'
So i decided to explore it on my own.
About second 5 hours of walking I returned to Ceville.
It was already evening.
Wild Wastelands. It was theoretically winter, but
only effect of this was shorter days.
I decided to stay in canteen for rest of day.
After few beers, I decided to rent a room for night.
Walking in the wastelands at night was a suicide.
In my room I set Pip-Boy mark to 5 miles east of city.
Meantime, I saw how far I was from home.
About 2500 miles. In 5 years of wandering I saw all spectrum
of human(and ghoul) characters.
From Vilified Great Khans by NCR to Idolized Followers of Apocalypse.
2500 miles.
How far do I have to go to finally wash away the shame?
How many more people will have to die to eventually left it out?
They killed my family.
I had to escape.
Till present day I don't know how it happened.
I just went to town to buy some food.
When i returned, my children, my husband, my dog were dead.
Only clue I found was:
"Someone tries to escape from her dark past, huh?
No one can. You have 3 days to surrender to the Mr. House.
We're waiting."
I packed everything valuable to backpack, then buried everyone who was meaning to me,
and started wandering.
This was 5 years ago.
And I'm still not safe.
They can be everywhere.
So I became a shadow.
Black Composite Armor with supported hood,
Shooting Googles and scarf(which had served me also for the air filter)
made me almost faceless.
Only visible thing was strand of gray hair from beneath hood.
My hair was originally black, but when I saw massacre of my family they turned white,
and with time and influence of wastelands they slowly turned gray.
I've looked at Pip-Boy. 10 p.m.
Time to finally sleep.
When I finally woke up there was chit near bed.
I've read it.
"Jodi, known also as 'Wanderer'. Reward for your head:
NCR - 250 caps
Caesar Legion - 2000 caps
Great Khans - 9001 caps
Mr. House - 'Her weight in caps.'
Better eat your breakfast.
I want that caps.
~Ronnie"
Ronnie. The man who killed my family.
Mr. House henchman.
He followed me for all the time.
How did he know that I returned to Ceville?!
I had to run. Fast.
I took my backpack and started running.
I decided that I'll run to that 'thing that felt from sky'
And hide. Only 5 miles.
This took me 7 hours.
It was literally, HELL.
If you think that before-war saharian sand storms were big,
you never seen the post-war wasteland sand storms.
At last few hundred meters I had to crawl, or wind would blew me off.
But to my suprise, when it left only few meters to crater, wind died.
Crater was fairly small, maybe 10 meters in diameter.
At bottom there was...
crystal?
At least it looked like that.
When I picked it up, I've saw few details.
At first, it was purple.
But it wasn't a Nuka-Cola purple.
No, it was very bright purple.
Color made out mixing Nuka-Cola Quantum and Nuka-Cola Victory.
Again, It was bright. No, not bright, it just shone!
That stuff would attract too much attention.
So, I decided to wrap it with duct tape.
I packed it to my backpack and started thinking.
'Return to Ceville? Ronnie would catch me.
But... spending night outside is even more dangerous.
Decided, back to Ceville!'
When I finally get to Canteen, it was 8 p.m.
I bought room, and instantly went sleep.
Walking in front of storm for 5 miles would tire anyone.
In middle of night, crystal started to glow brightly.
Very brightly.
Few hours later, someone stood behind door.
He opened door with kick, and shoot all 10mm SM clip in all the room.
When he finished, he noticed that room was empty.
He frowned, and went downstairs, to canteen.
Barmaid was cleaning cups.
He walked to her,
and grabbed her by the neck.
"You said that she will be there!"
"eee...hh.. Sh... as..."
"Don't lie to me! Room is empty!"
"hhh...at?..."And she left to ground, dead.
"I will find you, 'Wanderer'!"
But I had different problems.
I did't remember going sleep in middle of forest. GREEN forest.