Ch. 4 First Quest Complete

[ Home Sweet Home:

- Help Jack repair the water pump

- Check out the clothes in the bunker

- Secure the perimeter with Jack

- Clean the bunker with Samantha

- Count and log the items in the bunker

- Find earplugs or find a new place to sleep

- (optional) Find and unlock the hidden door

The sooner the better. The best home is a safe home. Don't dilly dally ]

There's a hidden what now? And isn't this long for a... oh. I guess it is the tutorial quest. At least it won't be boring like most are.

Colton follows Jack up the ladder. Which Jack has some minor difficulty with. And when it's Colts turn he realizes how great it feels to be ambidextrous. He could fully use his left arm like his right arm. And the Pipboy didn't feel like it weighed anything either.

They got to the top and went over to the water pump and got to work. Colton was able help out much more now. But it was more of a basic knowledge ordeal. But he could follow what his dad was doing until it got to the more complicated mechanics of the repair, the motor.

He knew basically all the tools there and handed his dad the tools he needed. 2 hours later the water pump was working and filtering the clean water out. They had it so that the water would go near the containers inside the bunker. All they needed to do was to swap the containers when necessary.

[ Completed:

- <Help Jack repair the water pump>

1/6 objectives complete ]

'Arent there 7? Is it not counting the optional objective? That means I need to search for the hidden door sooner rather than later. There must be a reason why it says to find 'and' unlock it.

"Get out of your head Colton. What do you want to do next? We still have some time before we will eat lunch" Jack lightly puts his index and middle finger on Colton's forehead and gives it a light push. He was mildly shocked to notice he had to put some effort in to move Colton, more than it did not even days ago. "Or we could start your combat training….. after making sure this place is safe and secure"

[ Till I Collapse ]

"Let's make sure the place is secure. I'll decide after. Does that work?" Colton needed some time to read the quest...

Colton activated V.A.T.S. and time came to a crawl. Colton looked at the new quest:

[ Till I Collapse

-Have Jack and Samantha teach you all they know about surviving.

4/4 years remaining ]

'It has a time limit. And it's in years? That's a great sign' Colton rolls his eyes.

Colton rubs his face and then looks back to his dad and resumes time.

"Yeah. I've already got my gun, why don't you go down and pick your choice from the few down there. They are good to go, cleaned them yesterday. So have your pick" Jack says, he takes out his Ranger Sequoia and holds it in his right hand.

"I'll be back in a sec" Colton quickly goes down and checks the guns out. There was plenty of ammunition. But nothing too big. He had his Guns Skill at 41 so his options are wider than they would normally be. He grabs a varmint rifle and some 5.56mm ammo and heads back up to his dad.

"That's surprising. How did you know to grab the 5.56 ammo? I've only shown your own to use low caliber pistols and my sniper rifle?" Jack looks at the ammo in Colton's pockets. Was it a lucky guess?

"Oh… uh…. The ammo was right next to the rifle so I just grabbed some" Colton wanted to facepalm. He really needed his speech to go up.

"Sure bud. Just a 'Lucky' guess huh?" Jack says with a big smile before holstering his pistol. "Anyway, I'll show you how to load and fire this thing. We can just fire at those rocks over that way. If something comes towards us due to the noise it'll save us the trouble of having to go looking for it"

Colton holds the varmint rifle to his dad. Jack didn't take the rifle since he wouldn't be able to hold it and show Colton how to load and fire it. Jack showed Colton all the parts of the varmint rifle. It wasn't complicated. The safety, where the magazine goes. How to load and unload it. And showed him how to fire.

Colton knew all this. But it was good to just go over it to not draw suspicion. The skill already taught him how to use this basic rifle.

After 15 minutes Colton was shooting like a pro.

"Congratulations, you're a natural!" Jack says beside Colton looking at the rocks and seeing the very specific pattern his son shot into the rocks. It wasn't spectacular, but it was not the shots of your average beginner. "Since you have that down, let's get to checking the area around us. So here's what we're gonna do and how….."

——————

[ Complete:

- <Secure the perimeter with Jack>

2/6 objectives complete ]

"And we're back at base camp" Jack says as they get back to the bunker. "Let's head in"

Both Jack and Colton descend into the bunker and are greeted by Samantha cooking. It wasn't anything special. But it was like a 5 star restraints meal in this wasteland.

"There's my hard working men. Lunch is almost ready" Samantha says with a gentle smile.

"How about I show you how to use the rest of the guns? Might as well get the introduction over with" Jack said. He wanted to see how much Colton could learn. He knew kids were sponges when it came to learning. Sometimes the soaked it right up, others the let ooze out.

"Yeah, sounds great!" Colton says as he follows his dad to the rest of the guns.

Jack proceeded to thoroughly show Colton how to use the guns there. While they weren't advanced, the basics could be carried to the higher tier of weapons.

Colton was watching his dad struggle to load a 10mm pistol when he noticed something off with the wall behind the gun rack.

"Damn thing, can't get any leverage" Jack says in a frustrated tone. He's trying to get an empty magazine in it but can't hold the magazine and the gun at the same time.

"Hey dad" Colton says while moving closer to the gun rack.

"What is it Colton?" Jack asks as not so gently puts the pistol down.

Colton points to what he sees. "What is this behind the gun rack? It looks off"

Jack leans in. There wasn't all that much light. He was even surprised the power was working. But he checked the generator and it's just been shut off for a long time.

"That….. looks like a…" Jack leans in and then stands back up. "Nice eye Colton! That's a hidden room inside a hidden bunker" Jack the laughs to at the irony of this.

Jack and Colton move the gun rack away from the wall to reveal a door that was looking exactly like the wall. You could only tell there was a door by the slight outlying of the door. And in the dim light it was hard to notice. Especially behind the amount of bullets.

"Seems like we will need to find the key, which is unlucky. The key is probably nowhere near here" Jack says as he kneels down to get a better look at the lock. "Luckily for us I can lockpick it. Let me tell you the basics and show you how it's done. This door is going to be a tough nut to crack but your dad knows how to break these open with ease... I can even do it single handedly! Hahaha" Jack laughs loudly.

"What's so funny over there?! Did you make another bad pun?!" Samantha shouted from the other side of the bunker.

"Colton found a secret door honey! I'm gonna teach him how to lockpick! We can take a break when you're done cooking. Not like the doors gonna move!" Jack says. He didn't intend on actually opening it yet anyways. He wanted his wife and son ready with their weapons just to be safe if something dangerous was inside. It could be a prewar ghoul or something.

"Be safe!" Samantha shouts back in response.

"We are!" Jack shouts before turning to Colton. "So when you lockpick you're gonna want something small and sturdy. I prefer bobby pins, but those can break easily sometimes. You have to look for the 'sweet spot' and not just jam it in and move it around….. hehe" Jack laughs at his unintentional innuendo. He would have to have 'The Talk' with Colton soon. But that was a problem for future Jack to deal with. He's already postponed it, mainly because they haven't even been around people for some odd years. It's taken them a while just to get this far.

"Colton to Jack, please respond Jack"

Jack blinks away his thoughts. "That's Colonel Dad to you soldier" He smiles at his son.

Colton's eyes widen. "We're you really a Colonel?!" Was his dad that high of a ranking officer. He pieces together his dad had some sort of special training. But he wasn't 100% sure since they were running from the NCR after all. But then he thought about all the crappy politics involved and was suddenly not surprised they would hunt them down. But the next question would be why.

"I'll tell you when you're older" Jack had such a smug smile on. He watched Colton furrow his brows and sigh in frustration. Jack would do the same thing his dad did to him. 'You may be old enough to kill, but your too young to be told classified information like that sonny'. Old bastard had so many secrets.

"Now back to the do's and don'ts of lockpicking"

He explained how you have to not rush and take your time. Each lock is different and most are unique. So feeling around the internals should be a slow process. You don't want to break the lockpick inside.

Jack shudders. He's been making innuendo after innuendo for his own amusement. But then he though breaking your peni-

Jack shudders again thinking about it. He should probably imagine it as blowing your load too early. Maybe that would be better.

"Are you cold? Or did you break something in your head?" Colton asks. Slightly worried. He got the innuendos but just tossed them to the side. It was kinda fun just learning from and listening to his dad.

"Yeah, just had a chill go down my back…. Maybe this place is….." Jack waits for the suspense to build. "….Haunted!"

"It's probably just got cobwebs in here" Colton waves off his dads attempt to scare him.

"Hey! You fight an entire nest of giant Rad Widows. You'll go running back to mommy right quick also!" Jack made the mistake of letting Colton know he had arachnophobia a few years back. It's been a while since Colton teased him about it, in fact. It's been a while since they were this close in general.

Colton feels his entire body shudder at the thought of giant black widow spiders. He didn't care for the small ones. But if they were as big or bigger than a cat he would definitely need to run for the hills. After he pumps all the lead he has into them.

"I think it's best we go see if mom needs help" Colton says after feeling his skin crawl. Jack had definitely sparked a new fear for Colton.

"Truce?" Jack holds his hand out.

"Truce" Colton shakes his hand and that's that. No more spider talk.

They get up and got to Samantha who seems to have just finished. "Found some extra spices so I was messing around a bit. Sorry for the wait"

Colton was ready to sprint out of the bunker if they started flirting. But it seems his dad was more tame. He just went over and hugged Samantha.

Colton looked at his mom as she looked like she was getting crushed by the huge guy that was his father. She looked at him with the 'What happened' look. Colton made made his right hand crawl on his palm. Maybe she would understand 'Spiders' or 'creepy crawlys'.

Colton sat down and waited for his parents to stop 'checking for cavities'. Suddenly the objective to find headphones jumped up in priority. Hopefully he can find them before he gets emotionally scarred.

'More' emotionally scarred that is. Maybe he couldn't beat that Young Deathclaw now. But he'd be willing to try his luck...

….Or maybe not. On second thought, he'd rather take the emotional torture that is going to happen in this bunker.

He goes to the radio on his Pipboy and sees a new station. He hadn't looked at the stations previously, but he's heard his dad play some old times songs in the past. He selects it, "Early 2,000s Throwbacks" was the name. He selected it and was pleasantly shocked.

It was 'Whistle' by Flo Rida. Colton was very shocked to hear this. And it definitely didn't help his situation. But when he looked to his parents they either didn't hear it or they were 'searching harder for cavities. Gotta check the back teeth as well'.

"Can we eat please? I can only take so much" Colton pleads. He hopes that his parents weren't in LaLa land.

"Sure Colton" Samantha says. And then she whispers something to Jack. Colton could have heard it with his high perception stat. He just shut out whatever she said, he didn't need more scars. He had another 4 years ahead of him.

They are and then they went to the secret door.

'Secret Tunel' played in Colton's head for no reason. He just enjoyed how funny it was. He couldn't remember exactly what it was from, only that it was amusing and funny to say.

"Colton, safety off. Just don't shoot me in the back alright?" Jack sarcastically warns.

"I may be new to shooting, but I can at least stop my twitchy finger" Colton fires back.

"You have a twitchy finger?" Jack asks. Samantha also looks to her son. She had a Caravan Shotgun at the ready. She was going to blast whatever hostile things were inside.

Colton was going for a more 'accuracy' sort of style. And Jack would open the door and roll to the side before joining them in blowing whatever was inside back to before the war.

"Ready?" Jack asks. He gets a nod from his wife and some before turning back to the door. He moves the Bobby pin and hears the magic sound.

*Click*

[ Complete:

- <Find and unlock the hidden door>

3/7 objectives complete ]

Jack held up three fingers.

Then two.

Then opened the door. He couldn't exactly use one hand to signal and the other to open the door.

The room was dark. Colton immediately activated V.A.T.S. and it targeted his dad. When he moved to the next target it whipped him over to his mom.

'No hostile yet'

Colton went back to his dad and deactivated V.A.T.S. as he turned his full focus to the inside. Nothing popped up on his radar that was hostile.

Jack was next to Colton and had his Ranger Sequoia in hand. It definitely fit him, just a shame he can't reload it properly, but that doesn't stop him from hitting all the shots currently loaded.

"Colton, the flashlight" Jack told his son.

Colton lowered his gunfire the floor and turned around to grab the hand held flashlight. He turned back to the door and flicked it on.

When the light went inside the dark room it illuminated a great sight to some. It was like a secondary bunker. But this was full of weapons of all kinds.

"Holy Shit" Colton comments.

Samantha doesn't even respond. She hasn't seen this much ammunition and fire power since they were back home at some of the armory's.

Samantha was the one to enter the room first. A shotgun was more effective than a pistol currently. The room had a corridor leading in. Then the wall slowly angled to match the walls of guns and ammunition. It wasn't all guns either. There were other 'rarer' supplies. Stimpacks, Radaway, Rad x, radiation suits, and other things that a person would only have if they had enough money before the war.

The stimpack probably needed to be cleaned and recycled since their shelf life isn't over 200 years. But most of the other stuff was good.

Nothing was alive inside this secret door. And there wasn't a skeleton or anything either.

"Guess they didn't make it here in time" Jack says as he holsters his pistol. He checks for traps and so does Samantha. They both teach Colton how to and not to. They also told him that they will show him how to disarm and make traps later.

"So now we can supply a small group of soldiers with whatever tickles their fancy" Samantha says. But she was looking over the supplies inside that weren't filled with bullets and gunpowder.

"Let's take inventory" Jack says, magically reading Colton's mind.

——————

[ Complete:

- <Clean the bunker with Samantha>

- <Count and log the items in the bunker>

- <Find earplugs or find a new place to sleep>

6/7 objectives complete ]

'Haha! The easiest one is the last one'

It was suffice to say that the three of them would have to be shooting every day for the next few years to use all the bullets.

Colton goes over to the corner with clothes neatly folded. He saw quite a few that he liked, but he already found his armor he would wear out of the bunker when he was 18. It was in the other room and looked great. But for now, Colton just went with some prewar tracksuit. He still had some training to do with his dad.

[ Complete:

- <Check out the clothes in the bunker>

7/7 objectives complete ]

*Ding*

[ Quest Completed: Home Sweet Home ]

*Drum roll!*

[ Level Up! ]