"And you served in Alaska?" the woman at the desk asked.
"No, I didn't serve in the military." Carter responded.
"I'm sorry sir, the file corporate sent over states you participated in the Anchorage Campaign, as well as in Gobi." the woman said, almost matter-of-factly.
"I did participate. I'm a... uh, soldier of fortune." Carter said, not being able to think of any nicer way to put he was a mercenary.
"I see" the woman replied, jotting down something on the paper. "Well Mr. Lakeman, you'll be happy to know Vault-Tec has accepted your resume for auxiliary security staff of Vault 0! Congratulations!" she continued in a mock joyful voice.
"Great." Carter said, "And when will I be called in?"
"Mr. Hernandez is the head of the regional offices, he'll speak with you later and answer any questions you may have. But first you'll need to confirm your spot in the Vault-Tec family! Please go over to window C and sign the papers given to you."
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Those fucking papers, Carter thought, searching through the ruins of yet another small shack. If he hadn't signed those papers he'd never have been in this mess; sleeping through a nuclear war, chased out of a safe haven, and forced to wander around ruin after ruin looking for supplies. In two days he'd barely made much progress east from Vault 0, what with his wounded shoulder and all the creatures he had to fight off. First was some big rat, size of a dog. Next was an actual dog. In the last hour alone he'd been attacked by three big mosquitos. Whatever happened to people in this world he almost didn't want to find out.
Carter noticed a small white box beneath some rotten wood. "Jackpot" he said, opening up the medicine kit, pulling out some bandages and a syringe of med-x, and pocketing them in the satchel he found last night on the side of the road. When his shoulder would begin to ache again he'd be able to take some painkillers. Carter still had yet to find any sign of living humans, besides the soldiers that attacked the Vault and some recent tire tracks in the soil. It seemed people had found some reason not to live in the area, even though he had found fruits growing and a stream not too far away. Pulling himself through a half fallen door, Carter exited the shack and continued walking. Roads were falling to pieces, signs were worse, barely readable anymore. If he could find just one fine sign he'd be able to tell how far he was from Denver, where hopefully he could find someone to take a look at his burns and tell him what had happened.
It wasn't long after that Carter had his first look at civilization in awhile. From behind a hill he could see the remains of some ruined buildings, around them a wall and a number of smaller, cobbled together dwellings. He noticed a sign just outside what looked like a guard gate, "Springs" it said. Colorado Springs? Carter thought. Near the gate, farther out from the wall was a little building with a sign labelled "bar". Alright, there first he decided. A bar was the best place to get the info he needed, and was just far enough away from the city that Carter could make a run for it if he had to. Approaching the building he noticed a rundown motorcycle, recent footprints, and some flyers on the wall too worn to read. Carter took a deep breath and walked in to the bar.
The inside was simple, some booths on the left side, a counter in the back, chairs and tables to the center. In the back he also noticed a man, presumably the barkeep, turned away from the door and polishing some dishes.
"Am I glad to see someone out here." Carter exclaimed, walking towards the counter and readying to take a seat.
"What'll ya be having?" the barkeep asked in a raspy voice, turning to Carter. As the barkeep turned Carter was horrified to see his face, which was rotting in places and lacking a nose and ears he quickly realized.
"Oh god! What happened to you!" Carter screamed, almost falling from his stool.
"What? What's wrong? There something on my face?" the barkeep asked excitedly.
"Your face! Your face is falling off!" Carter yelled.
The barkeep made an annoyed look at Carter. "Is there something wrong with you, boy?" the disfigured barkeep asked.
With the immediate shock wearing off, Carter was able to think more clearly. "No, no. I was just surprised at your face. I've never seen anyone that scarred, and I saw some shit in Anchorage" he replied.
The barkeep took a look at him and seemed to glance underneath his armor, noticing the Vault uniform. "First time seeing a ghoul, eh? Heard you Vault Dwellers act crazy like that when ya see us, but ain't never had one myself" he said.
"Ghoul?" Carter asked.
"Yeah, ghoul. What they call people like me, radiation makes us look like zombies from them pre-war tapes. Ain't complaining though, got a few perks."
Carter wondered how anything so horrible could have perks, but pushed the thought aside. "You got any whiskey?" Carter asked, getting ready to pull out some of the dollars he found in one of the ruined houses he searched yesterday.
"Yeah." the barkeep said, reaching under the counter and grabbing a bottle. "That'll be-" The barkeep stopped and looked at Carter's hands, holding the wads of cash.
"You still accept dollars, right?" Carter asked.
"Eh, I could take it in trade" the barkeep responded, taking a wad and sliding the bottle of whiskey over.
Carter grabbed the bottle and walked over to one of the booths. If he was gonna have to stare at that "ghoul" and ask him some more questions, he needed to get drunk first.
Carter had gotten only a few sips when he heard a vehicle pulling up outside the bar. Perfect, Carter thought. Maybe he didn't have to talk to this barkeep, could ask for a ride to Denver and leave this weird place behind. He heard a few people outside and as a pair of heavy footsteps began to get closer Carter prepared to get up to speak with whoever was coming through, and then his heart skipped a beat. The man who entered was clad in head to toe with the same beastly power armor the soldier in Vault 0 had been wearing. Carter slid back into the booth and tried not to make any noise.
"Staples, four colas" the soldier said, setting a pouch down on the booth. The barkeep, Staples, opened the pouch up and inspected it's contents, then spilled it out, a mound of bottle caps.
"Coming up" Staples said and smiled, going in a backroom to grab the soda. "Whatchu doin round here Conrad? Ain't you Brotherhood guys busy back east what with all we've been hearing bout your other brothers?"
The soldier, Conrad, shifted uneasily in his armor.
"They aren't our brothers, not anymore. And we've still got work that needs to be done on the western border as well, can't leave any place unprotected. Not to mention the shit going on over at 0." he replied.
"0? You guys cleared that place years ago. Whatchu doing back there?" Staples said, coming back with an armful of soda bottles.
"Business, can't say any more. Thanks." Conrad stated, walking back out to his vehicle.
"You be safe now." Staples yelled after him. He then gave a look at Carter, the smile leaving his face. "Vault Dweller, eh?".
Carter walked back to the counter. "Let me explain. To make a very long story short, I woke up from some cryosleep, started getting shot at by those guys in power armor, escaped the Vault, and now I've been walking around this desert the last two days looking for help." Carter said, hoping the barkeep wouldn't call after those soldiers.
"Hm, ya know just how lucky you are, right?" Staples said.
Carter was confused, "What?" he said.
Staples gave a sigh. "Ya wandered through raider infested territory without getting yourself killed. Ya somehow didn't go near Denver and get scooped up by those Legion pricks. You, on your first day in the real goddamn world, didn't get torn apart by Deathclaws or worse."
Carter didn't want to know what a Deathclaw was, but he was sure he'd end up finding out soon.
"I was a mercenary before the... war, I think you said before about a war? What year is it?" Carter asked, remembering everything he had planned to do when he found civilization. Staples started to brush at his forehead, which Carter just realized was being held together with some staples. "Oh boy, have I got some explaining to do"
And that's the end of episode two. Tell me anything, suggestions or critiques, and thanks for reading. Fun fact, did quite a bit of geography work for this episode. When I initially planned out the story I just used placeholder names for locations, but actually writing places in I realized just how fucked up Fallout's geography is compared to how it's supposed to be irl.