Chapter 1: Prepared for the Future

Night had fallen hours ago above the midwestern desert, the ruins of housing and buildings laid dormant and silent this night. All was quiet in the darkness, except for one spot in the shadows. A campfire had been made and a group sat around it, laughing and drinking.

"No fucking way, dude. You did not kill a deathclaw." One of them said to the other.

"I swear, the thing had claws and scuttled at me." One of the other men had claimed. "It had this shell over it, we had to shoot it in the face to kill it. Courtney, you believe me, right?"

"Not my business, Jr." Courtney said as she tipped her hat. "If anything, you probably killed a Brahmin or something."

"No I did not. That son of a bitch had claws." Jr. stated. "Could squeeze your head clean off." He was going off about his achievement, but was soon silenced when the sound of a gun cocking appeared from behind him.

"Nice night?" It was a raider, she had Jr. at gunpoint. Courtney and the other mercenary pulled out their weapons, but were soon surrounded by two other raiders.

"Ah shit." Courtney exclaimed. "What're you gonna do to us? Kill us? Rape us? Sell us into slavery?" She reluctantly asked one of the raiders.

"Oh, we have a special plan for you, beautiful." The raider girl said. "Somebody ought to buy you, maybe this clown as well." She was referring to Jr.

It all seemed over for the band of merc's, but something else emerged from the darkness. The light had caught another stranger from the moonlight. "...water..." The stranger said in his raspy voice. It was an old man being held up by a cane and appearance hooded by a robe.

"Who the hell is this? He with you?" The raider girl questioned.

"Water..." The stranger wanted water. Who knows how long he had been out here. He certainly looked like hell, but, then again, who doesn't?

"Man, fuck this. I ain't wasting ammo on some old bastard." One of the raiders pulled out a knife and went to stab the poor old man, but the old man wasn't as weak as he appeared. The old man swung his cane at the raider and hit him square in the jaw. The raider fell to the ground and the stranger gave one last blow on the back of his skull.

The raiders didn't shoot him, for some reason. "To hell with this." The raider girl said as they all decided to run away, but the stranger had caught the woman by her foot and tripped her. Jr. came up and put his gun up to her head.

"Ain't fun being on the other side, is it?" He said as he cocked his pistol. The other merc's looked to the old man.

"..water..." The old man demanded again. Courtney was the one to hand the helpful stranger a bottle of purified water. He drank it and sat down next to the camp fire on a log.

"Thank you." He said after he drank the refreshing beverage of fresh water. "I've been out here for days, I needed that." His movement was slow and his voice was raspy, but he had a friendly aura around him, as if he wasn't a threat. What he had done to the raiders was a different story.

"No problem. Why'd you help us?" The unnamed mercenary asked. The old man didn't look to him.

"You're mercenaries, right?" The old man stared. "I need assistance. I need to get to a town, Danbury." The old man wasn't looking at any of them.

"Danbury? That's three states away." Courtney pointed out. "Why would you want to go there?"

"I have business to attend to there. I'll pay handsomely: 200 caps right now and 800 when we get there." The old man put his cards on the table.

"Shit, that's about a thousand caps right there." Jr. said. "We gotta take this." This seemed like the deal of a lifetime, help an old man move a couple states for a thousand caps.

"I don't know. It's a long journey." Courtney was trying to get more out of the old dog. "He won't even look at us in the eye when he says that."

"That is because I am blind. I-I have been for about 15 years now." The old man said.

"Oh yeah? If you're blind how did you manage to take down a raider." Courtney was skeptical, and she had every right to be.

"I've been in the wasteland a long time, longer than any of you by the sound of it. You tend to learn to trust all your senses."The old man said as he pulled down his hood to reveal his silver hair and crystal colored eyes. His beard was rugged and his hair was messy, but he looked better than most wastelanders. He had prominent scars from years prior on his face, but he was still able to fight. "I don't have much. Please." The stranger pleaded.

The unnamed merc felt sorry for the old man. "To hell with it. You helped us, it's right we helped you." He said. The old man thanked him. "I'm Rodger, that's Courtney, over there's Jr." Rodger said.

"I'll learn your voices." The old man said. "I overheard your-uh-discussion about that deathclaw you killed." He was talking to Jr., despite not looking at him.

"Oh? Are you amazed?" Jr. was flaunting his own horn.

"No. Unfortunately, from what you described, that wasn't a deathclaw." The old man corrected. "No son, what you killed was a mirelurk, a giant crab if you will. Not native to these parts, but found particularly in the East and some parts of the West."

Jr. tied the raider down and dragged her to the light of the campfire. "How would you know?" He asked as he dropped the degenerate.

"I've seen both mirelurks and deathclaws in my youth. The way you described your encounter: hard shell, scuttled, had to shoot the face, definitely a mirelurk." The old stranger said. "Many different breeds of mirelurk as well. The queen mirelurk is said to be about twenty-five feet tall."

"Twenty-five? Please." Courtney said. "That's ridiculous."

"Never doubt the wasteland, it throws everything at you, things you would never expect." The old man said. "You know, you lot remind me of a story. But I doubt you'd all want to hear an old man ramble about a team of mercenaries, survivors and unlikely heroes."

"Buddy, we're gonna be here all night. Might as well." Rodger said.

The old man thought for a minute. "Alright." He agreed to tell the tale. "It all started with a famous sentence, probably the most famous quote in the world."

—

War, War never changes.

In 1945, Robert Oppenheimer had perfected the destructive capability of atomic weaponry for the U.S. In the same year, the U.S. would bring an end to the second World War by dropping two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world now understood the power at their hands, but instead of using it to destroy, something incredible happened.

Atomic energy was used to bring forth machines that were once thought to be science fiction: robot butlers, trendy cars, a limitless supply of energy was now the American Dream. But soon, people woke up when they realized that normal fossil fuels were running dry. America had to defend Alaska from Chinese invaders for the last source of oil in the world, which resulted in the annex of Canada.

America had won the war because of the integration of power armor, suits that could be worn by men, but had the protective capabilities of a tank. When the war was over, the American troops went home back to their families in hopes of having a brighter tomorrow. But fate doesn't work like that.

On October 23rd, 2077, hellfire rained from the sky. Nuclear bombs were dropped on Pennsylvania and New York and thermonuclear war had broken out all across the world. The Great War had begun and lasted only two hours. Billions of people died that day. Students hid under their desks as they were taught and some probably shrugged it off as if it was another drill. The people in their beds probably hid under the covers when the blast hit, hoping it was all a bad dream. However, there was one precaution that spared people the horrors of war, but gave them a new kind of terror.

The government established Project Safehouse in 2054. A company known as Vault-Tec had created underground bunkers shielded by an air-locked steel door, Vaults, all across America in case if nuclear war broke out. The idea was to house citizens until the Overseer was given the "all clear" to let them out, only a few got this message.

The rest of the vaults were used to house experiments on the inhabitants. Grotesque, ungodly tests were forced upon these people. There was one vault where the dwellers were exposed to something called the FEV, it mutates them into horrible abominations and monsters. This created the Capital Wasteland's super mutants, hulking beasts that terrorized settlers, raiders, merchants, anyone.

There are stories of many vault dwellers emerging from the ground. Shady Sands, the main settlement for the New California Republic, was built from the inhabitants of Vault 15. There's a tale of a Vault Dweller from Vault 13 sent on a quest to find a water chip for his vault and ended with them conquering the super mutant leader, The Master, and saving the West coast. Another one is where a dweller of Vault 101 left the vault to find his father and would restore fresh water to the Capital Wasteland. But our story doesn't begin with these tales though.

Our story begins in one of the Midwestern vaults, Vault 25, in 2280. The experiment was to give the Overseer complete control. He was the only one given a gun and a Pip-Boy, a portable computer that could strap onto your arm, and a master key that could open every door in the vault. Eventually, one of the descendants of the original Overseer decided that, in order to survive the Wasteland, the inhabitants had to be stronger, smarter, better. He created a program around one of Vault-Tec's systems, The S.P.E.C.I.A.L Program. S.P.E.C.I.A.L stood for strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck.

He tried everything: physical exercise, mental testing, a hardy diet of protein and fiber for muscle growth and brain stimulation, but nothing worked. He decided to take more drastic measures, experimentation. He ordered his scientists to make a vaccine that could make a person much more than they were.

It took years of scientific breakthroughs and progress, but they finally got something that worked. The only problem was that it didn't work for fully grown adults or teenagers. It only worked on kids because they were more underdeveloped than anyone else.

The Overseer decided to test the vaccine on the youngest person in the vault, a two year old infant. Unfortunately, the infant was the lead scientists son, so he had forbidden any testing done to his child. The Overseer betrayed the scientist and applied the vaccine anyway to the infant. The father stopped the testing right in the middle of it, so the infant had some issues growing up. He would occasionally have these outbursts of anger and enhanced capabilities of strength, agility, endurance, and perception. But these were separated from his other capabilities outside these episodes.

The vaccine worked. Years down the line, the baby grew up and had more enhanced skills than anyone else in the vault. By the time he was fifteen, he had already passed the G.O.A.T test with flying colors and could've very well ran the vault alone.

He wasn't particularly the strongest, he had a little meat on him, but his upper body strength was just enough to get him through. His intelligence skyrocketed and he was able to study almost anything with ease. At the age of seven, he created his own nuclear generator that could easily run the vault for forty years at minimum out of nothing but a toaster, an oven, and a bit of Quantum Nuka-Cola. He was a genius, so he had earn himself a nickname among the dwellers: The Prodigy.

It was an ordinary day in vault, the students were in their classes, all except The Prodigy. He was down in the lower sections of the generator room with the vault's Mr. Handy robot at his side.

"Checkmate." The fifteen year old said as he took the robots King with his Queen. "Three moves that time." They were playing a friendly game of chess, as they usually would. "Are you even trying anymore?"

"Oh dear, foiled again. Very good, sir!" The Mr. Handy congratulated in his standard British accent. "That would put us at 340 wins for you, and 8 for me." They had been playing chess ever since The Prodigy was eight years old.

"Come on, Toddsworth, try to focus." The young man said. Their game was interrupted by the sound of a moving metallic door behind them.

"There you are." It was a young woman, about the age of The Prodigy. "Class started half an hour ago. You gotta go." This was the best friend of The Prodigy, Alice Garcia. They had been friends since childhood.

"Damn, really? Alright. See ya Toddsworth." The young prodigy said as he left with his friend to join the class.

"This is the fifth time I've caught you down here, Michael." Alice said. "You're lucky it's me. If one of the engineers caught you down here, they'd report you to the Overseer."

"The Overseer wouldn't do anything. I'm the only one who can fix what he breaks." Michael said. The duo walked through the metal corridors of the vault, passing the likes of many vault dwellers in their standard, blue vault jumpsuit with the golden number, 25, on their back.

"Watch out. It's Danny." Alice warned about the individual up ahead. Danny was the bully of the vault. He was rude, selfish, and arrogant. He was particularly interested in bullying his fellow classmates, especially Michael.

"Look here. If it ain't the vaults own little freak of nature." Danny said as he noticed Michael in the halls. Everyone had known about the experiment done to Michael, but they treated him just as they did any other. Well, except Danny of course. "Whatcha doing with little miss nanny girl?" He was referring to Alice because she was assigned to the daycare in the vault.

"Piss off, Danny." Alice said.

"Woah! You talk that way around the kids, sugar?" Danny mocked. "Why're you rolling with this loser, you should be rolling with me." He flirted with her.

"Not on your life." Alice denied. "Come on, Michael. We need to get to class, Mr. Garland's not gonna wait." She elbowed Danny out of her way and continued leading Michael.

"I know you want me, darling. I know it!" Danny called out. They reached the classroom on the fourth level. Vault 25 was bigger than most vaults, it was one of the vaults the company focused on because they didn't know what the experiment was to be until the vault had about ten floors while most had only four or five. The duo entered the classroom full of students and grabbed the attention of the teacher.

"Finally. Down in the generator room again?" Mr. Garland asked Alice.

"Yep. Playing chess with Toddsworth." Alice said as she took her seat. Michael sat at his disk at the front of the class.

"Mr. Becker." The teacher called out to The Prodigy. "You can't keep us this tardiness. If you weren't one of my star students, I'd have to take this into account. However, this is an annoyance that must not continue." Michael didn't respond, he knew his tardiness was a bad trait on him and his peers. Mr. Garland continued with his lesson on trigonometry.

Hours had passed and the school day was over. "Alright, class." Mr. Garland said to his students. "Your homework is to read chapters 4 and 5 in your textbooks and to finish your worksheets. Remember, the vault prom is tomorrow night." Students had left the classroom to scatter among the vault. Micheal was heading back to his family quarters.

"Hey Michael! Wait up." Alice called out to Michael and joined his side again. "You understand anything Mr. Garland taught. Who am I kidding? You've probably already studied this."

"Trigonometry? Basic stuff. Why?" Michael said to his friend.

"No reason.." The two were in an awkward silence for a bit as they walked through the halls of their underground home. "So, the vault prom is coming up. And I was wondering..." She cut herself off.

"Wonder what?" Michael asked.

"I was wondering if, maybe, you'd like to go." She said sheepishly. "Like-like not as friends." She looked away as she blushed.

Michael was shook by her request. He may have been a genius, but he had never expected Alice to ask him out, and he certainly couldn't admit his feelings for her.

"Y-Yeah. Yeah sure. I-we'll go, together." Michael stuttered over his own words, but he was secretly ecstatic from her request. He had feeling for her for years now, but he was too afraid to admit them to her. Michael had a happy, goofy smile on his face.

"Cool. Cool. So-uh-I'll see you around, I hope. I mean, if-if you want me-you t-to, that is." Her speech mimicked Michael's. The two had been extremely close to each other for years, but the idea of a relationship, once thought to be "icky" when they were kids, was now a deep dream in their teenage years.

"Yeah. Okay. I-I'll see you around." Before Michael could leave, Alice gave a quick kiss on his cheek and ran off behind a corner. Michael was frozen in place for a second and put his fingers on the spot Alice had pecked. A smile full of love grew on his face and he cheered in the metal corridor.

He ran off back to his living quarters with that same smile on his face. He entered his family's quarters and saw his parents, sister, and the Overseer in the main room listening to old songs on their jukebox.

"Ah good. You're back." His father, the vaults lead scientist, said from his chair. "The Overseer wanted to talk to you."

"Yes." The Overseer stood up. "My Pip-Boy's acting up. The engineers couldn't fix it, so I was wondering if you could." He handed Michael his Pip-Boy. It was a standard Pip-Boy 2000 Mk VI created by Rob Co. before the war.

"Yeah. I can fix it." Michael said as he took the device into his hands. It was the only Pip-Boy in the vault, so it was extremely important.

"Good. Anyway, I should go. Got a vault full of people to run after all. Try to fix it as early as possible." The Overseer demanded as he left.

"So how was school?" Caroline, The Prodigy's mother, asked as she took a sip from her coffee.

"It was okay." Michael said. "Baby stuff to me, but important to the others." He flaunted.

"Don't doubt it." His older sister, Natalie, remarked as she read her book.

"Alice asked me to prom." He said.

"Oh my god!" His mother exclaimed. "Oh I just knew you two would get together eventually. You're just the cutest couple." She hugged her son in happiness.

"Heeey, congratulations!" His father, Adam, padded his youngest child proudly.

"Yeah." Natalie pulled her brother into a headlock and gave him a sibling noogie. "I knew you weren't a coward." The siblings laughed and started to play fight, despite their age.

"Alright, that's enough you two." Their father demanded. "Michael, you have homework to do. We'll watch a movie later on one of the holotapes." The siblings separated and Michael went to his room.

His bedroom was cluttered with parts, tools, books, scrap, anything that he could put together. He flicked the table lamp at his desk on and moved some stuff out of the way. He started working on his homework and it took him barely five minutes to finish.

"Well, now that that's done." He said as he push his homework to the side and picked up the Pip-Boy. The Pip-Boy (Personal Information Processor) was a marvel of technology. It could show the wearer their vitals, had a gps system, a built in Geiger counter, a radio that could pick up any signal, a flashlight, and a holotape player. This specific model is an upgraded version of the Pip-Boy 2000, which didn't strap onto your arm and had some major technical downgrades. The only models that were used after this model were the 3000 and 3000 MK IV models, which were mostly the same, despite design.

It was an easy fix, but it would certainly take awhile. This model wasn't a single piece, unlike the other models. Some of the insides were built like a radio, but it was also a very complicated mess of wires and lights. Not to mention the nuclear core that powered it.

Michael was working on the Pip-Boy for hours. He had grown tired and his body wanted sleep. He put the finishing touches on his repairs and rebooted the Pip-Boy to its factory setting.

"Finally, done." He yawned. He set the device up and saw the number scroll from the screen. He crossed his arms on the desk and laid his head on them. He watched as the Pip-Boy rebooted and his tired eyes slowly fell into a deep sleep at his desk, a place you would usually see him pass out at.

The young boy woke up hours later to the warm, green glow of the Pip-Boy shining on his face. He found it a peaceful moment and a pleasant site to wake up to. He wiped his tired eyes and looked around him. He was still in his room, but it was coated in a shadow of darkness, the vaults lights never went out before.

"Strange. Did the fuse box blow?" Michael questioned as he fully woke himself up. He picked up the Pip-Boy and turned on the flashlight. When he could see, he walked over to his door and pushed the button next to the metal door. The door slid open and the living room was also in pitch black darkness.

"Mom? Dad? Natalie?" Michael called out as he walked out into the living room. The green light from the device showed what hid in the darkness. The room was in ruins: furniture was destroyed, plates and cups were smashed and broken, books and glass laid on the floor, and the front door was laid outside in the hallway.

"What the hell?" Michael was confused. He went out into the hallway and noticed a massive hole in the wall with snapped wires protruding from it. Micheal grabbed hold of the broken wires and put them back together. The lights flickered back to life, but the vault was silent.

Michael switched off the flashlight and wandered cautiously through the halls. He saw scratch marks and spots of blood on the walls and floor. There were pipes ripped out of the grates and strange sounds could be heard from the halls. Michael looked over to one of the ventilation grates and saw a strange gas coming it.

He took a closer look and even shined the light from the Pip-Boy on it to see if it wasn't dust. The silence in the vault was eerie and uncomfortable to the fifteen year old. No one was around and there were extreme damages done to the vault. Just then, a distant bang echoed the corridors.

"Hello?" Michael called out. "Is anyone there?" Was this a dream? Certainly felt like it. Michael walked over to the source of the noise and encountered more damages and blood on the walls. The only sound that could be heard were Michael's footsteps on the metal floor. Some of the lighting were broken or flickering with a buzz. Michael was looking all around him and eventually bumped into something. Michael jolted and snapped his head to face what had bumped into him. It was Toddsworth, the vaults friendly Mr. Handy unit.

"Toddsworth?" Michael said.

"Mr. Becker! Are you one of them? Have you turn?!" Toddsworth was tense. His exterior plating was covered in dents, scratches, and blood.

"One of them? What're you talking about?" Michael was more confused than ever. "What happened to you? And why are you out of the generator room?"

"Sir, do you not know what happened?" Toddsworth sounded like he was horrified. "The vats broke and the vaccine created fumes when exposed to air. It went through the ventilation and-and..."

"Vats? The vaccine?" Michael started to piece together what Toddsworth had given him. "You can't mean the one they gave me right? And what do you mean by vats?"

"The Overseer had the vaccine they gave you mass produced for everyone in the vault, but the vats holding them malfunctioned and the fumes they created were let out and traveled through the vents." Toddsworth explained. "You probably weren't affected because you already have the vaccine in you." Micheal was now caught up to speed and the events were sinking in.

"You said people turned? What did they turn in to?" Michael asked. Before Toddsworth could answer him, a sharpened pipe was thrown at him and went right through his chassis and he fell to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Michael screamed. He looked to where the pipe came from and saw his teacher, Mr. Garland. He was slouching and breathing heavily. His teeth were on full display and his eyes were filled with rage as they were bloodshot. He roared at Michael and began to run at him with incredible speed, wanting blood.

Michael ran the other way in fear. He sprinted down the corridors, taking twists and turns, with his bloodthirsty teacher close behind. Michael jumped into an elevator and began spamming the button for any floor. Garland got close and closer, but the doors closed before he could reach him.

"Holy shit. Holy shit." Michael said through breathes. He slumped to the floor and found some peace in the silence. He looked next to him and noticed a security guard laying dead on the elevator floor. Michael jumped in horror at the sight and shot up against the elevator wall. He stared at the corpse and felt dread fill his body.

"Oh my god. Holy shit. If this a dream I want to wake up." Michael said in fear. He started slapping himself in hopes of waking up at his desk, but nothing happened. "Come on..Come on..Wake up!" He desperately tried. It soon sank in. This was real.

He could feel the elevator slow down, so the doors were to open. He put the Pip-Boy on his left arm and picked up the guards baton. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open to reveal the atrium on the first level.

The atrium was in a horrid state: flipped tables, broken doors, dead bodies. Michael slowly entered the atrium and the silence was now a dreadful horror once again. He was extremely cautious of his surroundings, but that didn't stop a surprise encounter.

Another crazed dweller jumped out from one of the rooms and lashed out at The Prodigy. Michael was pushed into the first floor med bay and fell to the floor, but got back up on his feet. He looked at crazed dweller and found it was his older sister, Natalie.

"Natalie?" Michael said, only to receive a growl from his sister. "Natalie, sis, I know you're in there. I don't want to hurt you." He readied his nightstick. Natalie tried to lash at him again, but Michael whacked her to the floor. He grabbed a stimpak from one of the trays and ran back out into the atrium.

He needed to find somewhere safe. He looked up and saw the window of the Overseer's office and decided to go there. He heard more crazed dwellers coming from up ahead, so he bolted up the stairs to the office. He tripped on one of the stairs and dropped the baton, but didn't bother to try and get it back.

He made it to the Overseer's office and sealed the door behind him. No one was in the office, so he took a breather. He went over to the terminal on the Overseer's desk and booted it up. It required a password, but Michael was able to hack it. He scoured through the files on the terminal, but found nothing on how to fix this.

"You hold a dangerous vaccine and you have no safety measures?!" Michael said. He heard a bang on the door and put his attention to that. Another bang followed and so did more. His breathing was getting faster and he began to panic. He dug through the drawers of the desk to try and find something to defend himself.

He looked through multiple drawers and eventually found one that held the only gun in the vault. Inside was an M1873 single-action revolver, a peacemaker, and six .45 bullets. He grabbed the gun and loaded the revolver. The banging was getting louder and dents were being made. Michael pointed the revolver at the door as the banging continued.

Michael was at a serious disadvantage: A single firing weapon, low ammunition, cornered, and no way to escape. Not to mention these were people he grew up with, they were basically his family. Michael put down his gun and went back to the terminal. He flipped through file after file and eventually found a page with every code to specific areas of the vault, even the code to open the vault door.

"Yes!" Michael said. The banging was getting louder and the blast door couldn't take much more. Michael didn't want to kill, so he thought about a solution.

"Time to do something real stupid." He pointed the gun at the window of the Overseers office and shot it, shattering it. He saw fingers slide from under the blast door, trying to lift it. Michael ran at the window and jumped out, crashing through the shattered glass and landing on the floor of the atrium.

"Ah! Eugh! Holy..Christ..FUCK!" Michael groaned in pain. He pulled out the stimpack he grabbed and injected himself, making the pain numb and putting him back in shape. He heard roars and running, so he rushed through the halls to the vault entrance. He reached the vault entrance room and shut the door behind him.

He walked over to the main panel, put the code in and slammed the big red button. An alarm blasted and spun the color red. The old gears and pistons sprang to life once again after over 200 years of laying dormant. The latch came down from the ceiling and slid to grab the massive steel door. The door would grind against the steel and air escaped to the other side. The vault door moved to the side and showed the cave it was built in.

The Prodigy couldn't believe he was about to leave his vault, his home, but he had no choice. He took one last look at the vault and felt sorrow. Michael walked out the vault entrance and the door began to close behind him. He watched as his home was cut off from him by an invincible steel blast door with the number "25" on it.

"Damn." Michael said under his breath. He slumped against the vault door and sat on the ground. What was he to do? His home was gone, his family were bloodthirsty, and he was on the other side of the vault door. He stayed in that spot for what felt like forever, thinking.

"What am I gonna do?" He said as he rested his head against the steel door. He heard his Pip-Boy pick up a signal. He looked and a station by the name of "Pilgrim Radio" popped up. Michael selected the station and a voice came on.

"Good morning all you diggers of dirt." A country man said on the radio. "My name is Long John DiVagria and you're listening to Pilgrim Radio, a station for those traveling for miles. Before we play a song, here is your daily forecast: It is sunny, that is all. Now this first song we're gonna play is a true testament to those days you could drive aimlessly on the road, here's 'Move It On Over' by Hank Williams."

Came in last night at half past ten

That baby of mine wouldn't let me in

So move it on over (move it on over)

Move it on over (move it on over)

Move over little dog cause the big dog's moving in

The Prodigy listened to the radio closely and pondered his choice. He couldn't just sit here and die.

She changed the lock on my front door

My door key don't work no more

So get it on over (move it on over)

Scoot it on over (move it on over)

Move over skinny dog cause the fat dog's moving in.

He had a gun, a Pip-Boy and advanced skills given to him by an experimental drug pumping through his veins.

The dog house here is mighty small

But it's better than no house at all

So ease it on over (move it on over)

Drag it on over (move it on over)

Move over old dog cause a new dog's moving in

Maybe he could find a cure for his vault out there and fix it all.

She told me not to play around

But I done let the deal go down

So pack it on over (move it on over)

Tote it on over (move it on over)

Move over nice dog cause a mad dog's moving in

He had to try. He didn't know what awaited him out there, but he had to try.

She warned me once, she warned me twice

But I don't take no one's advice

So scratch it on over (move it on over)

Shake it on over (move it on over)

Move over short dog cause tall dog's moving in

He got up on his feet and dusted himself off.

She'll crawl to me on her knees

I'll be busy scratching fleas

So slide it on over (move it on over)

Sneak it on over (move it on over)

Move over good dog cause a mad dog's moving in

He traversed through the caverns and reached the end of the tunnel. He was blinded by the sunlight. When he could see again, he saw the future, the beginning and the end. There he saw the new challenge that awaited. There he saw the most beautiful and ugliest thing he's ever seen:

Remember pup, before you whine

That side's yours and this side's mine

So shove it on over (move it on over)

Sweep it on over (move it on over)

Move over cold dog cause a hot dog's moving in

The Wasteland