Through the walkie-talkie, Lizzy kept us informed on what was happening. She said that the truck looked like a old but large U.S Army supply transport. She could make out one person in the front, but couldn't get any more details after the truck pulled up under the part of the roof covering the gas pumps. After hearing this, I motioned for Roy to come with me out the opposite exit and flank them. I told everyone to not fire unless they shot first, before heading with Roy to check it out.
After reaching the front, I looked around to see what we were dealing with. What I saw slightly surprised me. I had been expecting a full party of raiders or slavers, ready to kick down the door. What I saw instead was an old man looking through the engine of his truck. He was wearing a checkered shirt and old overalls, complete with a small stenson on his head. He looked like he was in his mid-60's, and was likely a farmer of sorts.
After looking at each other, I decided to move forward and confront the man, motioning for Roy to go left. After getting to about 12 feet away, I spoke. "Put your hands in the air, now!"
After a bit of a pause the man sighed, putting down what looked like a wrench and saying "Take it easy there, son, we don't need to fight." The man turned around, looking at us with a true expression that said that no fight was needed. "What are you doing here, and is there anyone else with you?" I asked, motioning for Roy to look at the back of the truck.
"I needed to take a look at my engine, and I figured that I'd be nearby a place where it would be easy to repair it if need be, and that place was here, since it was the closest." He said without missing a beat, looking genuinely honest. "And I ain't got nobody back there, so you can stop looking." He added, looking at Roy who was looking inside the back. "Alright, I'll stop looking. Just some medical supplies make there anyway." He said, backing away.
I then looked at the old man and asked "Why do you have medical supplies?" The man looked conflicted for a few moments, but then sighed. "They're for my kids. A few days ago, we had heard that a new trading outpost had been set up to the north in a town called Malo. Me, my two sons, and my daughter all rode up there to check it out while my wife stayed to watch over the farm." The man pauses, taking a piece of cloth and dabbing it on his face, removing some of the sweet and dirt that had built up, before continuing.
"Well, it turned out that the rumor was true. A travelling merchant had settled down, and with some hired guards and some willing settlers, had set up a small trading village. Bad news was, we weren't the only ones who had found out. By the time we got there, the village was in ruins. After we saw that everyone had already been taken by the slavers who attacked, we started to head back home. However, we were ambushed along the way by a slaver patrol. They were likely looking for people who escaped the village attack, since I hadn't seen any patrols that big in the area before."
Before continuing, he paused, looking at us. I then realised that I and everyone else had tensed us. And by everyone else, I meant that everyone had was at least listening to the story by then. We stood there for a second in silence, and then I motioned the man to continue. Nodding, he continued his story.
"They came at us with on several motorcycles and were shooting all over the place. We shot back and got a few of them, but we were all hit." At this, he showed his left arm, which had a slightly bloody bandage wrapped around it. "I got the luckiest and was only grazed. My oldest son, however…" He looked sad before continuing sorrowly "My younger son got shot in the gut and my daughter in the leg. While we eventually managed to get away, we were very low on medical supplies due to most of it either being destroyed or fallen out during the chase. I managed to patch us up, but we lacked stimpacks. By the time we got back home, we were almost worn down to the bone. Luckily with my wife's help, we patched the kids up, but by then their wounds had become infected to the point where stimpacks wouldn't be able to help. So now I've spent the last two days looking for antibiotics or something that could cure them. However, the town hospital is overrun by ghouls, and any other places with medical supplies either don't have any of the things I need or have already been long expired." He finished, a sad expression on his face.
I could easily tell that the rest of us were saddened by the story too. As I was looking through our crowd, I saw John looking at me curiously. When he noticed I saw him, he motioned to himself and then over to the old man. I figured out what he wanted to do, and I figured it would be alright, so I gave him a nod, which he immediately took. Doing this, I confirmed that at least some of our group considered me the leader.
Walking over to the man, John said "Well sir, I may not be too familiar with bullet wounds, but if you would allowed it, I can help you heal up your children. We also got some antibiotics as well, so I should be able to purge the infection."
The man looked at him in wonder, and then to me. I then nodded, showing that our intentions were true. After that he said "Oh thank you, we should probably go now, my wife is expecting me soon." As we started to pack up our gear, I thought 'Why does everyone think I'm the leader!?'
We soon had everything packed up, and as we were about to head out the old man asked what our names were. I told mine and let everyone else say there own. Nodding, the old man said his name was George Ritz. After the brief conversation, we loaded up onto the vehicles, with Lizzy and Beth riding in the truck, the rest of us on the jeeps. We soon sped down the highway toward their farm, in our little convoy.
1 Hour later
We were driving along as George explained some things about the wasteland to us over the walkie talkies. From small things like what the typical settler might prefer as a weapon, to all the different kinds of mutated animals and which kinds didn't mutate.
As we were talking and driving, I looked across the land to our sides. On one side was a forest of mostly alive trees, dotted with the occasional pre or post war cabin or building. On the other side were plains and hills, stretching far away. Using binoculars, I could even slightly make out the shape of a lake. Looking in front of us, we saw a farm, likely George's, and after that was some of the outlying suburbs of Republic, with the town itself not too far away. "Well, here we are!" Hollered George, confirming that we were indeed at his farm. 'Well, this will be interesting' I thought as I jumped off.
Location: Ritz family farm
(just outside of Republic)
After we had arrived at the farm, John immediately went into action. As soon as George was done briefly telling his wife, Isabell, that we were here to help, John started working on their children, which were Elza and Jordan. It was a few hours later when John said that they would likely make a full recovery, with Elza being up in about a few days, and Jordan in a couple of weeks.
That was two days ago, and now George has been educating us about the wasteland and it's various aspects. He had first taught us skills in various things that'll help us, like farming, animal caretaking, weapon maintenance, and modification, driving and vehicle maintenance, bartering, combat, and basic lockpicking, hacking, and robotics skills, with any of us who know anything about those subjects helping.
After that, he told us about the wasteland itself. Like I had observed earlier, most of the land was still the same as before the war, if a bit deader, but still mostly the same. Even so, there were patches of it that were both irradiated and healthier.
The irradiated lands often had enough radiation to drive people off, and had many packs of mutated creatures using the lands as their homes. Most of these were ghouls, radscorpions, yao guais, mole rats, and the occasional deathclaw. Even so, they often had unlooted areas from before the war, still waiting to be collected.
Meanwhile, the healthy areas had their own kind of danger, While fertile and full of life, they were often fought over, usually between raiders and either other raiders groups or settlers. But while some healthy areas are plagued by war, others are peaceful. Either the group that's there is too strong for other groups to oppose, or there's few or no nearby groups to contest the area. These areas often have some of the most prosperous post-war settlements yet. In fact, George had predicted that if it wasn't attacked by slavers, then Malo would have likely become big and strong enough to have defended against those slavers within two years. This was due not only to it's decent strength and population, but also that it was located right inside of one of the largest stretches of healthy land in the Washington wasteland. It stretched north to the southern edge of Curlew, to the south in Republic. Besides settlements, they're often filled with animals and usually have at least a few farms, depending on the healthy land's area and how much more healthier it is then the average land area.
We asked how these different patches of land came to be. He said that it was likely a combination of these lands either being out of range or directly hit by 'the plague', nuclear comets, or just by dumb luck. The plague had been a biological weapon that had been launched in missiles against some of the western U.S territories once the nukes had been fired. They left one in every ten people it came in contact with alive. Unfortunately, due to using newer Chinese missile technology, most of them got past the barrier that saved Washington from nuclear destruction, killing off much of the population. Luckily, they had a small range of about 100 miles or so, so the disease they released didn't spread throughout the American wasteland. Nuclear comets meanwhile, were fragments of nuclear missiles that were shot down that rained throughout Washington. This lead to the distribution of most of what little radiation that got through the barrier into Washington. These comets also lead to most of the irradiated zones, which were their impact points.
George told us about how in some cases, healthy and irradiated land has lead to many important things in the wasteland's history. Some of the biggest factions in the wasteland have at least some of the healthy land. For example, the Tri-cities, Spokania, and New Coulee city all have healthy land, and they were big power players. Asking about these groups, George told us about these faction's histories.
New Coulee city originated from the original Coulee city, which was south from the current city location, on Banks Lake. The town had been one of the only areas not to have been hit by 'the plague' which made it one of the largest surviving settlements after the war. After a couple years, the town's inhabitants, combined with survivors from other areas and a military company assigned to the town, abandoned the town due to security and water issues, travelling north to the Grand Coulee dam. After discovering it intact, operating, and inhabited, the thousand or so people from Coulee city combined with survivors and the dam's original work force to create New Coulee City. Today, the people of New Coulee city occupy the Bank Lake area stretching between the main city itself and 'old Coulee', which had just recently been inhabited by people from the main city. The small nation barely interacts with the rest of the wasteland, preferring isolation except for groups that it's allied with, such as New Kennewick and many of the local groups in central Washington. When they do trade, they often trade purified water and electricity, whether in the form of charged batteries or electricity lines to other towns.
The Tri-cities had been created about 80 years after the nuclear bombs fell. The Tri-cities were divided into their respectful three settlement areas, Richland, Pasco, and New Kennewick. The area had originally been colonized by three merchant siblings, each leading their own group. The brothers had agreed on a pact, to share their resources and provide be in an alliance. The eldest brother settled Richland, where weapons, armor, and ammo would be created and sold. The middle age brother settled New Kennewick, where machinery, vehicles, ancient tech, and other related items were built, repaired, and sold. Finally, Pasco was settled by the youngest of the three, the sister. Being right in the most fertile land of the Tri-cities's healthy region, she used the area to grow food and purify water, selling much of it. However, even though they were friends, the three cities our now competing against each other or a nearby group, sometimes going into complete war. The only remnant of their former alliance is Tri-City Enterprises, which is a trading company that trades goods from all three cities. They're open to most people, with Richland open to everyone, even raiders and slavers.
Finally, Spokania was a Slaver town. Not much is known about the history of the town, except that it was created around 20 years or so after the Tri-cities nations were founded, and that it had a war with another group about 50 or so years ago with another group, which lead to the north of the pre-war city being taken by this group, only to lead to it being cut off and besieged by the slavers. No one is sure where the group came from, due to there being no settlements near the north of the city and Fairchild air force base being overrun by ghouls. But either way, the group is supposedly friendly, but no one knows for sure. This is due to them being besieged since they took northern Spokania. No one knows how they've survived this long, but some think that the slavers in Spokania originally had most of their farms and water pumps in the area, allowing the besieged group to survive without outside assistance from outside sources. Some can even occasionally hear gunfire from their, as a skirmish happens between the slavers and the group. We eventually concluded that the slavers who were in our Vault were likely from here, and it was confirmed once we saw that the vault was just north of Mead, which was one of the Spokane suburbs that the slavers occupied.
After this, we learned about more factions, big and small, as well as what each kind of people looked like, from raiders and slavers, to settlers and merchants. He then talked about some famous places from outside the Eastern Washington wasteland. From stories farther away, like the Capital Wasteland, the Commonwealth, and Midwestern brotherhood of steel, to ones closer to home, such as NCR and the remnants of Caesar's legion and other tribal groups to the east in eastern Idaho and Montana, some mysterious nation to the north, and constant war between the Brotherhood of Steel and some other groups in Western Washington.
After learning all of this, George decided on something. "Alright, since you know about the wasteland, what do you plan on doing now." We thought for a moment before I said "Well, creating a group to combat people like raiders and slavers doesn't sound like a bad idea." Max asked, half sarcasticly "So you want us to create our own nation?" "Well, something like that anyway." I responded, getting suprised and then agreeing looks from everyone else.
"If you're going to do that, I'm guessing that you're gonna be setting up in Republic?" George asked, getting a nod from me. "Well, I figure that if I'm gonna be part of your nation, I might as well help you find a good spot and get some gear to start off, so it'll be a good time to put what I've taught you all into practice by combining this home search with a loot run, sound good?" After we agreed, he said "Alright, get loaded up, I'll go tell Isabell we're leaving."
About 15 minutes later, we were all loaded up and driving, taking two of Georges three trucks and our jeeps to Republic, leaving behind Isabell and Nat to watch over the farm and make sure nothing happens involving Elza or Jordan. 'Well, this is gonna be the start of what could possibly be a whole new chapter in the Washington wasteland's history, might as well get started.' I thought as I pushed down on the jeep's gas pedal, leading our caravan out of the farm and toward the town, filled with loot and possibilities.