by Roger Bourke White Jr., May 2023
08 -- Explore down the railroad to Sheldon
09 -- Explore from Sheldon to Atomic Test Site
10 -- Explore north of Redwell
11 -- Explore more north of Redwell
The southeast is now well explored -- time for a new direction. Today May heads west. She first takes the road to Scout Post Charlie then climbs the hills that are west of that. She circles around a group of bandits that are in a glen and visits a shack which is on the cliff above them. From there she heads for Milard Pass, but she must take down a killerfang before she can go through it. She handles it in classic deal-with-killerfang fashion: she hides on a rocky outcrop and the killerfang doesn't notice her; she shoots it until it dies.
She goes through the pass and travels down the west side to a railyard. Once there she starts following the railroad south.
The railroad takes her to the town of Sheldon. It was controlled by TNT Boys until the Legion recently showed up in force and took over. The TNT Boys there at the time suffered mightily. May starts by exploring the town hall.
There are legionaries in front of it, but the town hall itself is abandoned... except for a big bunch of vicious legion mongrels they have left behind -- Mary engages in quite a shooting spree as she explores.
Along with classic corpse loot, and a whole bunch of dog meat, she finds another skill book -- another boost to Science skill. Yay!
Town hall explored, she skirts the legion soldiers again so she doesn't have to talk with them. She continues exploring south for a bit and discovers Davis Drive-in. That done, time to unload loot and get in another round of bed rest.
"Time for some more exploring in the deep south." Mary thinks to herself as she wakes.
She goes outside and travels to Davis Drive-in south of Sheldon that she discovered yesterday. From there she heads a bit south and mostly east. She travels through hills and discovers a small bandit pack. They attack her and she dispatches them. She continues east.
She comes upon something much more interesting than bandits. It's the Atomic Test Site. She is looking at it from a hillside and can see that the area is infested with ghouls. It is likely infested with radioactivity as well. But there may be some interesting stuff in the shack at the center. She decides to give it a try...
She runs to the shack. She picks up a posse of a dozen or so ghouls who chase after her. She takes some damage. She goes into the shack and the ghouls follow. Inside she tricks them: she plays dead. When the ghouls see her lying dead on the floor they leave. After they leave she gets up and loots the place and heals herself as she does so.
Hot dog! Another skill book! This one boosts her Energy Weapon skill. That read, and some healing done, she runs out.
The ghouls are still there. She runs off into the hills where she came from, dodging most of them. As the chase goes on most loose interest. When only three or so are still chasing her, she turns and shoots them up.
Ghouls taken care of, she continues her exploring east. She discovers the another farm with two big barns and lots of cattle. Here she finds a Survival skill book. Hot Dog! Two skill books on a single mission! She heads north and discovers Camp Starbright. That discovered, the journey is done for this day. She travels back to Grandma Hudson, sells her loot, then travels back to Palma.
"Time to explore closer to home." she thinks as she rises. She heads out to the courtyard and then travels to Redwell. She will now explore north of Redwell. She refreshes, then heads up the hill to the north which has a cemetery on top. In the cemetery she finds bigbuzzes aplenty. After she takes them down and loots them she travels to the nearby Hanlon Memorial and then heads north from there. There are bigstings aplenty north of the memorial and she will use their glands to make antivenom. That made, she can take on deadly poisonous deathflies.
She starts shooting the bigstings by first climbing on the roof of a shed just north of the memorial. She can see and shoot plenty from there but they can't get to her. Those gotten, she moves to an outcropping further north and repeats the process. This leaves just a handful in the valley and she can take on those remainders one at a time while wandering in the valley.
Time to move on to the next valley. This one is filled with deathflies, not bigstings. She stays out of their reach by staying on the steep hillside -- the deathflies can't fly there. She shoots their antenna. When the antenna is fully damaged they go berserk and begin attacking anything nearby, including their companions. When most are dead she climbs down and loots and explores. She discovers a campsite and then heads north to discover the town of Fresh Springs. There she is careful to sneak around behind buildings, she doesn't want the bad guys there to discover her. From Fresh Springs she heads back to Redwell to sell loot. This mission is accomplished.
She wakes and thinks, "Time to explore between Redwell and Richfield." She refreshes, and then heads back to the newly discovered campsite. She climbs the steep hill south of it and then heads into the valley east of it. This valley is infested with killerfangs. She dodges them by hiding on rocky outcrops -- when she is hidden on a rocky outcrop they ignore her. But she doesn't ignore them. She delights in her ability to shoot at them and not get any response from them. One-by-one they go down. When all those nearby are finished off she stands up again and moves on.
She goes through a small pass and discovers a small group of Rovers waiting in it. This place is remote, it is far from anywhere. She talks with them. Dorothy is their leader. They are awaiting a drug delivery that hasn't come through yet. This is a problem for them, not her, she moves on. She comes upon a big open-pit mine that is now infested with yet more killerfangs. This time a couple of them are big ones: a Mother and Father Killerfang. And with them are a bunch of baby killerfangs.
It takes time, but from an ore-loading ramp she kills all the killerfangs in this area. She loots them and collects some more loot that is scattered around this half of the mine. That collected, she travels to Richfield to sell it there.
Surprises in Richfield. She finds that she can give a killerfang egg to Jenny Jones, the mess hall cook, and get it cooked into a Fang Omelet in return -- fang omelets have a lot of healing power. She also gets the recipe. In the worker barracks she finds another skill book, this one for Explosive skill. And out front near the road she meets John Watson, father of Dorothy back up in the pass waiting for delivery. He tells her to talk with Bubba at the NDA camp near Milard. He has the drugs.
She heads to Milard, does some selling, talks to this NDA guy Bubba and gets the drug shipment, and then travels back to Dorothy at the Rover camp. Dorothy is delighted and tells her she is now a friend of the Rovers and should visit the main Rover camp located way up in the western mountains.
That done, May does a bit more selling in Redwell and then heads to bed. It has been a full mission accomplished day.
-- The End --