Episode 6: Exploring Route 90

After learning the location of the Free Radical Raiders headquarters, I set out in the morning to see if I could learn a bit more about this group, and maybe find a way to defeat them. I was reluctant to go, and I considered just packing up my gear and moving somewhere else, far away from Flatwoods, rather than risk my life for these people who, quite frankly, I don't really know. The information I traded for with Duchess would have been discovered in a couple of days anyway whether I had agreed to help or not, and if I had decided to disappear, they shouldn't have been too surprised. At least I had given them a location where they could find the Raiders. 

But I like the idea of forming a community with the people living around the Wayward, even if the numbers are small. And Flatwoods seems like a good place to try to revive the Responders. They already have a radio broadcast inviting people here. I also figured I would run across groups of Raiders no matter where I went, and at least here, if I was successful getting them to stop harassing the Wayward, I would have some friends who I could rely on to help me if I got in trouble. So with that thought in mind, I packed my things, ready to do a little reconnaissance of the West Virginia Lumber Company, and see who else I might meet along the way.

Mort suggested that I return to Vault 76 and then head up Route 90 toward WV Lumber. Mort had mentioned a couple of places along the road where I might get information - Anchor Farm, which has an old-style biplane parked in the yard, and Tyler County Fairgrounds, where there is someone who claims to know secrets about how to assault WV Lumber Company. I had originally come south from Vault 76, sticking mostly to the southwest side of Hwy 88 once I reached Gilman Lumber Mill. This time, I decided to follow Hwy 88 again on my way back to the Vault, only this time, sticking to the northeast side.

Isolated Cabin Northeast of Hwy 88 Near Wixon Homestead

My first destination was a lone cabin that I had noticed on my Pip-Boy (but never visited) on the way down to the Wayward. I expected it to be occupied by either Settlers or Raiders, as many of the buildings have been, but what I found instead was a very small, deserted cabin with a dead man in a Vault Suit lying on the floor! I thought for a second I was going to find someone I knew, and then have to figure out how to bury them, but the man turned out to be wearing a Vault 51 suit. I don't even know where that Vault is located, but I suppose it could be the location of the treasure everyone is so interested in. The man carried a note on him, a kind of checklist, with several things crossed off, including "find someone from 76". So it would appear he either ran into the Overseer, or one of the other residents of Vault 76 before he was killed. Another item on his list was a note to "Kill ZAX". That one, however, had not been crossed off, and I wondered if maybe this ZAX had gotten to the Vault 51 Dweller first?

On my way up to the cabin I caught a glimpse of the Landview Lighthouse, the top of it just barely visible above a stone escarpment. It seemed to still be standing, despite the bombs, and didn't look to be that far away from the cabin. A good excuse for a detour. Almost anything will do when you're not excited about the task at hand, right?

I found a relatively easy path up the hillside that eventually led to the lighthouse park, though it turned out to be a bit further than it first seemed. I was thinking that if it was safe to climb to the top, I could take a look around and see if there were any other interesting landmarks in the area, and maybe more importantly, whether I could see any settlements out there with large numbers of people moving around. I was really beginning to wonder what had happened to all of my fellow Vault 76ers. Still am. At least some of them must have survived these first few weeks out of the Vault. If I can do it alone, surely they can survive in their teams.

Landview Lighthouse

There was a little house in the lighthouse park, but it had been picked over pretty good. The lighthouse itself was accessible and the structure seemed to be in good shape, so I climbed to the top to have a look around. It looked like a couple of people might have called the lighthouse home at one time, but I didn't see anyone around except for a few Scorched. At the top of the lighthouse, though, I found a body of a woman who recorded a holotape before she died. She apparently came down with radiation sickness sometime after the war. She was already coughing on the holo. She said she was a student at Vault Tec University who wanted to be a photo-journalist, so she decided to try to get photos from a list of tourist attractions in the area before the radiation sickness took her. From what I could tell, she had gotten most of them, but a few were left unmarked. Seven in total. The camera doesn't seem to work, but if I can get it working again, it will be an improvement over my Pip-Boy camera.

Looking around from the top of the lighthouse, I was able to see quite a bit of the surrounding area. I found a pair of binoculars in the building, and they helped me to locate what appears to be a junkyard of some sort not too far northwest of Slocum's Joe Coffee Shop. When I get back from this trip, I'll need to head over there and see if there is anything useful. I would like to expand my CAMP a bit and maybe build some other workbenches, and the junkyard seems like a good place to find the right components and parts. I couldn't see the area where I'm headed beyond the Vault because of the trees, so I guess I'll just have to wait until I get there to find out how dangerous it might be.

North Kanawha Lookout Tower Near Vault 76

As I made my way from the Landview Lighthouse back to Vault 76, I stumbled across what was probably a tower associated with the Forest Watch mentioned by the Responders. At least, that's how I interpreted it. I found the bodies of dead Responders at the top of the tower, and they had left a note for what was probably their attackers, mocking them because they couldn't read, even as they seemed to recognize they were about to die. The tower was located northwest of the lighthouse and due east of Vault 76. 

I ran into my first Super Mutants there. They are very large, green-skinned, and certainly more intelligent than Scorched. They fired on me as soon as they saw me, but I managed to run and hide long enough to lose them, and then I sniped at them from a distance. 

There were only two, but they didn't go down easy, and they know how to use guns. I didn't find any of their dogs, so won't be able to try out that Mutant Hound Soup recipe just yet (I'm more happy than sad about that) but I would hate to run across a larger group of these alone, and I can see why Mort thinks that any Raider group who can take on a whole group of these things has to have some pretty potent firepower, or else impressive numbers.

There was a house associated with the tower. The inside was mostly destroyed, but someone had taken up residence in the crawlspace below the floor at some point, and what I found there was pretty grisly. Four skeletons with no heads, and a sign painted on the wall that said "Sickleman is Here". The place gave me the creeps. I just hope whoever "Sickleman" was, he at least waited to decapitate these people until they were dead.

Main Parking Area Just Below Vault 76

My next stop was Vault 76. The old homestead! As far as I could tell, nobody had managed to get inside in the three weeks or so since I left. There were still Red Star robots in the parking lots, but this time I felt more confident taking them on. I had some decent armor, and much better weapons, and was able to kill all of the ones I could find with minimal injuries. The presence of the robots seems to have kept many looters away from the area, and I was able to find some useful items in the vehicles and containers there. I decided to collect what I wanted, stash it for later, and continue on down the road. Highway 90 gets its start from this parking area, and from here on out I was covering totally new ground.

I didn't have to go far before I met my first challenge. There was a line up of old abandoned cars and trucks on the road, and a man was trying to get inside one of them. When he saw me, he wasted no time pulling his gun and shooting at me. My reflexes must be getting better, because I had my gun out and a couple of bullets into him before more than 15 seconds or so had passed. He died on the spot. When it was done, I noticed my breathing was heavy, but my hands weren't shaking like before and I only felt the faintest sheen of sweat. Believe it or not, I think I'm actually getting used to shooting people. Killing people, even. Terrible, right? I hope there never comes a day when I feel nothing after killing someone. I don't want to be like the Raiders. I keep thinking about the dead Responder I found locked in a refrigerator in Flatwoods tavern, who was clearly alive when he was put in there. How could someone do that to another person? Whoever did that deserves a slow and painful death. 

Anchor Farm Along Hwy 90

I made it to Anchor Farm in the late afternoon. It was a good location to settle and I could see why the family had decided to stay here. A good water supply, fairly flat land for farming, a house that had pretty good structural integrity - it seemed like the kind of place that anyone with a will to produce their own food might decide to settle. I even found some honeycombs near a rock-encircled pond to the southeast of the farm. Had to battle the bees to get some of the golden sweetness, though. Those little guys are relentless when you mess with their homes, but if you have a shotgun and enough shells, you can probably survive. They also don't move very fast as a swarm, so running away seems to work!

When I got to Anchor Farm, I went up to the house trying to find someone to talk to. I called out, but when I didn't hear anyone, I went inside and climbed the stairs until I ran into a man named Daniel. He seemed to be head of the family, and was not very friendly. Maybe because I had entered the house without getting his permission first, I'm not sure. I don't really understand some of the social behaviors of these Outsiders. He seemed to be trying to get rid of me, but when I mentioned West Virginia Lumber, I could see him stiffen just a bit, and I could tell that he knew something. I pressed him, and he finally told me that he and his people had made a deal with the Raiders up there. He told me that the Raiders were former prisoners from back east, but that they can be reasoned with if you're willing to give them supplies for a promise to be left alone. He reluctantly gave me the password for getting into their encampment, then asked me to leave, and went back to what he'd been doing.

I went back downstairs, which was empty except for a little girl playing by herself. The girl looked unhappy, and she told me something curious without prompting, about a holotape under the stairs. With nobody else around, I went over to the stairs to see if I could find this holotape. I saw a safe there, and inside was a holotape. I took it outside, in case someone came in or out while I was listening to it, and what I heard sent chills down my spine. It was a recording of the agreement made between Daniel and a group called the Free Radicals, which must be the Raider group up at WV Lumber. The speaker was promising protection in exchange for food, but one of the women present, by the name of Maggie, objected pretty fiercely, saying that she didn't want to be the Raiders' slave. When she refused to endorse the agreement, somebody - I think it was Daniel - choked her to death. The Raider leader seemed unperturbed by the killing, and cool as you please, continued negotiating like nothing had happened.

I knew then that I wasn't going to go into WV Lumber to try to negotiate. Somebody needed to pay a price for that woman's death, and for the loneliness of the little girl who told me about the holo. I wasn't sure how I could do that all alone, but I knew I couldn't make a deal with them. I brought the holo with me - a kind of evidence to justify whatever I ended up doing to them when I got to their encampment.

Tyler County Fairgrounds

My next stop was the fairgrounds to try to find the guy with knowledge about WV Lumber and its defensive weaknesses (or so I thought). The fairgrounds were overrun with Scorched. They seemed to be all over the place in ones and twos, but there was also quite a bit of salvage. I found a bunch of different stuffed bears, and decided to gather up as many as I could find and use them to decorate my CAMP when I got back. In all I found nine different kinds of Teddy Bears, including some of the ones I had in Vault 76, and five different Mr. Fuzzies. I had to stash them in a box to pick up later. Fond memories from a happier, much less dangerous time.

The guy who said he could tell me how to sneak into WV Lumber is called Liebowitz. He lives on top of one of the food stalls at the fairgrounds. Took me forever to find him, but I finally noticed a wooden ramp leading to the top of a tent, and from there I could jump to the food stall where he was living and talk to him. He seemed kind of strange, but he told me he could give me a device that would make me nearly invisible if I would bring him an egg from a nearby island. He didn't tell me what I would be taking the egg from, but suggested it was something nasty, which was why he didn't want to do it himself. Turned out to be a Deathclaw! I'm not sure I would have gone there if I'd known. That's probably why Liebowitz didn't tell me. I'd seen a holotape of one of these when I was in high school from one of the Eyebot Observers. Very mean, very fast, and could kill a man with one or two swipes of its claws.

My strategy was to draw it away from the nest, head into the water where it couldn't get to me easily, then sneak back ashore and take the egg while it was busy looking for me. Worked like a charm! I managed to get the egg back to Liebowitz in one piece, and he gave me three devices that he said would put me in the astral plane. They looked like legitimate tech, but the only way to find out was to test one. If they worked, I could use them to sneak into the encampment, kill the man in charge, and sneak out again unseen.  Nobody would even know I had been there, and the other Raiders might start accusing each other of murdering the boss and end up culling their numbers further. It sounded good in theory, anyway.  But first, I needed to make my way up to the encampment and see what I would find.

It's getting dark now, so I'll finish up the story next time.