Fallout 4: War and Pursuance

Chapter Five: Man's Best Friend

Nate crosses the southern footbridge on his way to Concord. If he can try to find anyone there, he could be able to get help to find Shaun. He takes another look around at his surroundings; devastation. Not a speck of living life anywhere. The nuclear fallout has completely destroyed life as a whole in the region. Nate wonders if anyone else survived the bombs. He believed that was the case because of the amount of Vaults built across the country.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the Red Rocket station. He decided to stop and search the building for any food or water, just incase he gets hungry or thirsty. As he walks over to the station, he heard a loud bark. He turns around to see a dog run towards him. A German Shepard. The dog quickly stops as it got closely to Nate and pants happily.

"WOOF!" said the dog. Nate couldn't help but smile. He's always wanted a dog since he was a boy, especially a German Shepard. He got his wish.

"Hey boy," he said. Nate kneels down to the dog's height and pets his head. The dog comes closer and licks his face. Nate smiles and makes the dog feel comfortable.

"Where's your owners?" he asked. The dog stared at him and sadly whimpers. Nate stares at him sadly, believing his owners were dead. Poor dog. He quickly gets an idea and smiles.

"You wanna come with me?" he asked. The dog's head bolted up and barks happily. Nate considers that a yes.

"Let's go pal," he smiled. Just before they could go, the ground began to shook. Nate looks down, thinking it's an earthquake. He was wrong. Instead, the dirt began to pile up, as if something was coming up to the surface from the ground. Pink-skinned creatures arose from underground. Nate glances at them. Mole rats! The hairless animals hissed at him. The dog looks at them and growls aggressively.

"Oh shit!" yelled Nate. He takes his 10mm and aims at one of the creatures. He fires and blows off one's head off. Blood explodes out of the head and sprays out of its body. One of them jumps on Nate and bites his leg.

"AGH!" he screamed. Nate grabs the rat and throws it at the gas station's window. The mole rat goes through and shatters the glass. The dog runs to one and bites its neck. The mole rat screams and tries to break free.

Nate hits the last one with his pistol and fires at the brain. The dog sinks his teeth in the mole's neck and swings him around like a rag doll. He opens his mouth and lets it go. Nate walks over to his new dog.

"Good boy!" he chuckled. The dog panted happily and woofed at him. "You know, you're gonna need a name. Can't always call you dog. How about...Dogmeat?"

"WOOF!" barked the dog.

"I'll take that as a yes," smiled Nate. He looks back at the Red Rocket Station and enters inside. He finds the dead mole rat that bit him and that he threw through the window. Nate searches through the station, not finding much of anything. He looked through the cash register and found four stacks of paper money. He takes it and searched the back. Nothing. He exits the station and walks over to Dogmeat.

"Let's go pal," he said. Dogmeat woofed and followed Nate. The two walked down the asphalt road to Concord. The wind blew slowly and has a mixture of ash and dirt arise above the ground. Pre-war skeletons laid not moving a muscle, though having no muscles on them.

Nate could already see Concord in the distance. Remembering history, it was part of the first battle of the American Revolution, Lexington and Concord. He and Dogmeat head inside town. The place was a mess filled with debris and broken glass, though decorations of American Patriotism were still up from celebrating three hundred years of freedom in the U.S., ever since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.

Nate and Dogmeat walk around the town, feeling a bit safe. He believed no one was here, until hearing a gunshot. Then more. Nate crouches and held his 10mm up high. The sound of gunfire grew louder by seconds. Looking around to follow the noise, Nate moves over across the town. The sound grew closer and closer by each step he took.

Nate turns right and peeks over the next street. His eyes widen as he sees a group of people firing at a building. One of them collapses as a red energy beam hits his chest. Nate couldn't tell whether or not these people were good or bad. One of the men turns to see the sole survivor. He did not look friendly in Nate's eyes. Dogmeat growls.

"We got another one boys!" yelled the man. "Kill him!" Yup, they're bad. A few of the men turn to Nate and fire their funky-looking pistols at him. These pistols they wield looked very different from any gun Nate has seen. Coated in a yellow color, these guns look to be made from pipes. Pipe guns.

Nate takes cover behind a car. Bullets flew past him for a few seconds until they stopped. He quickly looks to check to see these men reloading. Perfect chance. Nate gets out of cover and fires his 10mm at them, hitting and killing them. Blood sprayed out of their gunshot wounds. One of the raiders runs up to Nate with a tire iron in hand. He swings at him, but Nate dodges, then slams his pistol across his face.

Dogmeat viciously barks as he runs over to a raider. He jumps and tackles him down, pinning him down. He bites his neck really hard before sinking his teeth deeply inside his flesh. The raider screams in pain until part of the flesh of his neck gets ripped off. Dogmeat opens his mouth to let go of the raider's flesh.

"Hey you!" a voice called out. "Up here! On the balcony!" Nate looks up to see a survivor. An African American wearing an outfit that Minutemen in the late 1700s would have worn during the American Revolution.

"I've got a group of settlers inside!" the survivor said. "The Raiders are almost through the door! Grab that Laser Musket and help us! Please!"

Laser musket? Nate looks over to see a rifle he has never seen before. He picks up and to his surprise was pretty heavy. About fifteen pounds. He analyzes this bizarre rifle. It appears to be meshed together from various mechanical and electronic parts strapped to a regular wooden rifle stock. Attached to it was a hand crank.

Probably for reloading, Nate thought. Time for looking at it was over. Nate enters inside the building where the survivors are stuck in: Museum of Freedom.