"A bunker!?" Max, Beth, and Chris yelled at the same time. Everyone else was equally shocked or surprised, just not voicing it. I had decided to wait until the following morning until telling everyone about the bunker. By then, It had been agreed on that a sort of council be created to advise over the actions of our group and lead them. After the formation of the council and a small discussion, it was decided that I would be the leader, which I had a feeling would happen. We had also converted a small conference room into our meeting room. So now here I was, talking about what I found with the council, as well as Richard and George, who had come over to check on our growing community.
"Well, this certainly makes things interesting." Says George, looking interested. "We'll have to find this bunker and secure it, does anyone have any ideas as to where it could be?"
"My guess is that it would either be at some sort of official place, like the town hall or court, or somewhere hidden outside of town, like in the forest." Richard speculates, thinking hard about it.
"They would have kept it in these places to ensure better security and concealment."
"That is true, but it looked like the colonel was trying to make it to the hospital on foot, so the bunker probably isn't in the forest, otherwise he wouldn't have made it that close." I reply, trying to figure out where the bunker could be. "Has anyone found protectrons in the town yet?" I ask, remembering that there was supposed to be a couple of them guarding the entrance to the bunker.
"Besides the couple we found at the police station, we haven't found any, and those that were there were deactivated and a police model." Lisa replies.
"Is there anywhere in town that we haven't scavenged yet?" I ask everyone. Chris immediately replies, "Well, there are around a dozen or so houses left, but besides that, everything else has been looted."
'Where could it be!?' I thought as I tried to think of anywhere it could be, or at least any clues. After thinking for a couple of minutes, I finally reach a solution that was acceptable. "Well, I guess we'll have to just keep an eye out for now. We can't afford a several day search for the bunker, not yet anyway. In the meantime though, I want any government, army, or large company buildings to be searched again. I would also like someone to go to the town hall and go through the residential files and find the homes of anyone who used to live in or near Republic that worked in the government or army. Once that's finished, search through their homes and try to find anything, any questions." I look around briefly and then finish up. "Good, this meeting is adjourned and everyone can continue on with their daily tasks.
With that, everyone got up and started moving. Some people, like Richard and John, immediately left, heading back to jobs that they needed to get back to. The rest stood around and talked with each other, sharing stories and experiences that have happened recently, ideas they've come up with, or the bunker that I just mentioned. As I was getting ready to leave, George came over.
"You know, I got to give you people credit." he said, clearly impressed with us. It's been less than a week since you've left the bunker, and you've already established a small community with sufficient food, water, meds, ammo, and enough guns and vehicles to keep most raiders away. Heck, you already got a reputation." At my confused look he asked "Haven't any of you used the radio?" After saying no, George chuckled and told me to check the radio feature of my pip-boy. I soon turned to the radio feature and saw 5 radio broadcasts on my pipboy's screen. Taking a look at them, I saw that three of them were unavailable to reach. I showed George the screen and asked him what I should do.
"Well, PNWS doesn't come on for about five days since it's a weekly broadcast unless something major is happening. However, EWR should be on in a few minutes, so let's switch to that." Nodding in agreement, I clicked on the radio channel tag marked 'Eastern Washington Radio' and turned down the volume a little as classical music started coming out. For a few minutes we waited for the news broadcast to start, talking about how we had apparently gained a reputation. The slavers back in Spokania had sent out a broadcast on loop putting a bounty on our heads. Each of us had a thousand cap bounty alive, which was quite impressive. As we finished talking about this, the song finished so we turned up the volume, just in time for the broadcast to begin, a calm yet formal and captivating voice coming out of the pipboy's speakers.
"Hello fellow wastelanders. It's me, James Porce, and I'm here to bring everyone their regular noon report."
"First off, it has been confirmed from both merchants and my own sources that Malo has been overrun by slavers. Whether they're from Spokania or another slaver den is unknown, but either way this is troublesome due to them not usually coming out near the Republic area unless it's a long-range patrol or expedition, and this was definitely neither. So if anyone is going through the area within the next couple weeks, I advise that you find an alternate route until things cool down there. I would also advise any people living in the area to either evacuate or dig in until the slavers live, but the choice is up to you."
"Speaking of slavers, they've apparently raised the bounty of the vault dwellers' to 1,500 caps per person alive. Even so, I wouldn't recommend going after them. From what I've heard, they're well armed, very well organized and efficient, and haven't been seen since they escaped vault 24. Besides, do we really want the smug slavers in Spokania think that thing can do anything they can and get away with it, using us as desperate pawns in a race to find these people…?"
"...No. We can not allow these bastards to gain any more of an advantage then they already have. So if any of you see anyone lookin to claim the bounty, stall them from finding those dwellers. Slash the tires on their ride, dump their food out, hell, even telling them the wrong directions to a gas station would help."
"With that out of the way, I have been receiving reports of increasing activity along the Cascade borders from both Enclave and super mutants. Some witnesses claim that the mutants attacked an Enclave outpost and are now being pushed back. Others claim that the Enclave started it, attacking the mutants along the Okanogan frontier. Either way, one thing is certain. The Enclave are attacking, and hard. Super mutants and any humans present have been killed or driven away from Wenatchee and Kitt, with sightings of Enclave troops as far as the outskirts of Yakima ruins and Royal. Mayor Nickola of Royal is currently putting together a militia to try to stand against the Enclave, and there are rumors that New Coulee is sending troops in to assist. I'm not sure if they'll win or not, but every little bit helps. If you want to help, make your way to Royal or New Coulee to sign up for the militia."
"And finally is an update on our big neighbors to the south. The NCR has been ceased their expansion just south of the Columbia river. Most of the settlements south of the river have been disbanded, abandoned, or are under NCR control. The only exceptions are land within the Washington and Idaho state lines, and the major settlements of New Ortley, Junction, and Longview station. Normally I'd hope that this would be the end of their expansion, but with a wide , fertile land just in front of them, they'll likely be on the move soon. *sigh* And I thought the Mojave would've taught them a lesson, I guess I was wrong."
"Well, that's all I got for all you wastelanders out there on my side of the Pacific Northwest, stay safe folks."
The broadcast ended with a click. Amazed, I glanced up only to realise we had caught the attention of everyone in the room, as well as a couple of guards who were standing in the door frame, looking in. "Well, that was something." Max muttered, before clapping his hands once. "Alright everyone, back to work." He said as he got up and left the room, leaving everyone to come out of their trance and get back to their own work or conversations.
"Well, I guess I'll show you around George." I said, motioning for him to come with me. We left the conference room and I started leading him through the hospital, giving him a tour of what we've done so far and things we had under development or planned.