Fallout: Wasteland Wanderers

Chapter 8: Rise and Fall of the Scorched Plague

"Going to just a decade after the bombs dropped, Appalachia was one of the few places in America not seriously impacted by the nukes since most were aimed at major cities and populations. People like the Brotherhood of Steel and other older factions lived together with minimal conflict. It all changed in the year 2086. In the beginning, you'd only hear rumors or gossip about these fleshy looking creatures roaming about causing trouble around the wasteland for caravans or settlements. After a while things started to pick up, more and more of these things started showing up along with a lot of folks going missing. Eventually people started realizing that those missing people weren't getting kidnapped or killed, they were turning into those burned flesh looking creatures."

Hannah steps in to continue the story

"A lot of the folks who got infected were said to lose their minds over time. Their skin would start to get rashes and eventually look like this dead bastard here. They eventually earned the nickname of Scorched for it, and boy were the people around here not ready for the shit storm coming their way. Many of the old factions banded together to try and fight the virus. These guys known as the Responders managed to make an inoculation for the virus so that you couldn't get infected, though just cause they couldn't infect you doesn't mean the Scorched are just gonna roll over and die. Since they were part human they still retained some qualities like using guns and weapons in combat, but they were mostly gone once the infection took over. Eventually they found out how the virus was being spread, and that's when Appalachia realized the infection was only a part of the problem."

Isaac changes gazes and looks to Rollins

"How was the virus being spread?"

Rollins begins walking around the room

"Scorchbeasts. They were these giant mutated bats that emitted a gas releasing the virus onto anyone it fell on turning them into Scorched. The factions realized they couldn't let these things escape Appalachia otherwise the virus would go national and maybe even global. So the Brotherhood had a plan to nuke them before they had the chance to. Or at least they tried to."

Isaac grows a concerned expression

"What do you mean they tried to?"

Rollins looks down in discontent

"The Brotherhood now only arrived in 2104, the Brotherhood that was originally in Appalachia all died trying to stop the Scorched, along with every other faction present in the area."

Isaac looks at Hannah then back at Rollins

"So then how did the Scorched die out?"

Hannah steps in once again seeing Rollins unhappy

"It was because of people like you dweller. Around 2095 vault 76 opened up and the people from that vault managed to finish the jobs of the people of Appalachia before them by getting inoculated and launching the nukes into the nests of the Scorchbeasts killing most of them off. They only had one threat left to kill....the queen."

Isaac turns towards Hannah with more curiosity than ever before

"The queen?"

Rollins takes back control of the conversation

"The Scorchbeast Queen, she was a much bigger and nastier Scorchbeast herself. She was responsible for why the scorch act the way they do. Its like how bees and ants are, they have this hivemind connection to her and she tells them what to do and can speak through them. Fortunately the vault dwellers of 76 were able to kill her as well making the Scorched mindless and without a leader."

Rollins now faces Isaac looking him dead in the eye

"Years would pass after and Scorched would slowly start to die out from the lack on infections and the inoculations, eventually a couple years after the Brotherhood came back to Appalachia the Scorched kept declining until eventually they were wiped off the face of the earth."