Fallout: Adonia

Pip van Buren grunted in pain and dropped the mutant roach as one of Suano's randomly-fired shots hit her in the shin, causing her to drop to one knee. She pulled out her own pistol and fired twice on the bug nearest to her. It died with a final hiss and a flutter of its wings, trying to get back on its feet. She responded by quickly training her weapon on the other insects.

Pip van Buren: Grrr...Suano! Stop shooting without aiming, or you're going to kill us all! Or run out of ammo! Or worse, do both!

Michael holds his fire as people still continue to run about. He tries to find clear lanes of fire and squeezes the trigger with single shot bursts. The insects might be deadly but definitely aren't invincible. They splatter with yellow and green fluid from the bullets and drop where they are. When the immediate area of bugs are cleared, Michael moves up to Pip and kneels next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Michael: Hey, you okay? You're bleeding.

Pip van Buren: Yeah...just give me a moment to bandage my leg...I should be fine for now. We'd better get out of here quickly though, as we have over two thousand other Vault-dwellers behind us ready to leave this place as well. *calls out loudly* ANYONE HERE HAVE SOMETHING I CAN BANDAGE MY LEG WITH?

---

Confronted with gunshots from Suano, Pip, and Michael Moen mowing them down, and seeing many of their brethren being gutted or sliced in half by James and Jackson's knifework, the remaining radioactive roaches flee into the darkness. Up ahead, you can see what seems to be the end of the Vault exit tunnel, a large iron grate covering part of it. Several more skeletons are bunched around it - as well as one body with bits of decomposing flesh hanging off of the bony frame. Apparently, there may still be human life out there after all.

I see light at the end of the tunnel. I have never seen natural light and don't know what to expect.

Are we supposed to take the cart, Daniel?

I help Pip steady herself as she's bandaged and then give her some leverage to stand, holding onto my shoulder. A warm feeling passes over me, helping a girl out and all. However the situation and setting hasn't faded from my senses just yet and my rifle remains held in my other hand, magazine about a third empty.

We follow the other up to the coal mine and stop, scanning over the branching tunnels.

Michael: Well...not out of the woods just yet I guess.

Michael then suggests using the tunnel that leads uphill, instead of down.

Pip van Buren: I am kind of curious...what would happen if we went down instead of up?

Pip van Buren: I think Jack's plan sounds like a pretty good one to me. I'd want to at least feel the sunlight for the first time before we go back into the tunnel.

Pip van Buren: Okay, whoever raises their hand will be on the 'going down team', and the rest will go up first. Who wants to see where the tunnel goes before heading out?

Ryan Tate: Looking around at the group as they debate as to where they should head first, I quietly slip away heading for the surface. Let them debate amoungst themselves while I get the first taste of Sunlight. As I neared the cave entrance, The intensity of the light grew and grew, the dampness of the cave began to let up as warmth and dryness took over. His detector beeped a few times, indicating radiation levels but nothing to serious. As I continued towards the entrance, I though to myself What will i see, what will i feel, Will it be a wasteland like my great grandfather described? will there be greenery? Would I see a city or just rubble? So many questions filled my head as I took the last few steps towards the entrance. I was scared, yet excited at the sametime to see what was out there. I couldn't believe my eyes as I entered the opening and looked upon the land.........

Michael: I'll help you up to the surface. I don't think you should be walking on your own for a while.

Michael kept Pip on his arm and steadily walked her up the path toward what seemed to be daylight. The climb was more tedious with a second person to help but eventually ended facing the back of another who he guessed decided to run off ahead. He swore if everyone continued to act gung ho they won't last long enough to really enjoy this moment.

They made it up to Mr. Tate and stood next to him as they stared out at the immediate landscape. Michael put his hands up above his eyes to help shade him from the sunlight as he just stared, speechless.

Just so you know what you are looking at, you are on a high mountain ridge near the Etrus Mountains. From there, you can see the city of Charles on the river not to far away. Further down the river is a large lake; the same lake that Troy is on. Behind you would be forests. But since it was nuked, you can't expect all of that to still be there.

I continued with the others up to see the sunlight. I tried to keep calm, but I could not help how anxious I was to get to the top. The few in front of me stopped abruptly. I reached the light and looked around.

My eyes scanned the area, dusty brown, dead trees in places, the sun was filtering through the clouds. From the map of the world this area should have been more "lush" than it looked. My eyes then centered on what was obviously a spherical area of burnt land, like all life had been sucked from it. Ruins surrounded the flattened circle, with a lake surrounding that. My years of studying maps came to me.

Michael:That's Troy, isn't it? What's left of it.

Pip van Buren: *limps outside* I thought it would look... greener. More beautiful. Not like this.

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Pip van Buren points at a small series of flickering lights in the distance, near some burned-out buildings.

---

What do you suppose... that is?

Yay, a destroyed version of Troy! How do I jump back into this? It's been so long. I don't even remember my character. Can we get a recap?

Wow, it just seems so...dark. Are those lights I see down there? I'm obviously just tired.