HOME | DD

Description
You’re from the capital Wastes!

Was, a group of travelling traders picked me up shortly after my parents were killed by raiders outside of Rivet City, a large ocean liner turned refugee camp. I followed them for what seemed like months when we were confront by Enclave soldiers just short of Ohio.  It seems that they had taken up camp just north of our position and pedestrians weren’t aloud.  They warned us to halt our travels, but our leader Maxwell Grimm laughed at the commanding officer and gave him the finger in a split second that finger was on the ground and next his head.  Ours numbers when from just short of 100 to 55 in on bloody mess.  I can remember hiding in an old home with the remaining survivors.  Every night we could her moans from both raiders and ghouls both picking at the corpses.  It’s a good thing though, if our numbers hadn’t of fallen we would have had to eat the fallen to survive hell for three days and four nights.  The Moring of the four day we got up the courage to leave our cramp heaven.  To our luck the raiders and ghouls killed each other off just after the raiders broke into the Enclave station.  Several of us wanted to stay behind at the base and others feared the rest of the Enclave would come and reclaim the territory.  A couple others, I was the youngest at 16, Henry Gates from West Virginia 52 being the oldest.  We picked up the raiders weapons and searched the Enclave camp.  We found enough food for a good year if not more for triple our number, and medical supplies like I’d never seen.  At that moment I hated the Enclave even more.  For many months we stayed at that base, and I celebrated my 17th birthday.  At that time Henry Gates was our new leader in charge he managed most of the previsions and legal stuff if you get my drift.  One day I decided to tinker with a small radio I’d found just above Ghoul Level, a courted off section of the camp that was built into an old tunnel of sorts which was infested with Ghouls.  I had just got it working and a voice came out with a laugh “Because even two dogs ain’t enough it’s three dog!” I jumped up and down I use to listen to him when I was young.  Someone had fixed his signal amplifier on the Washington monument and I just happened to grab hold of his signal all the way in Ohio.  I felt at home again.  A few months past and I never lost Three Dogs signal, it cracked in and out, and the only problem was the only place I could get any signal was just in a small broom closet, which slowly became my workshop. I fixed everything you could throw at me and I loved it.  One day Henry came down to talk to me, he was my second father.  He said he had met a nice girl he wanted me to meet, and god was she beautiful, and come to find out his granddaughter, her parents, like mine, were killed when she was young, she wasn’t blood related to Henry but it seemed damn close.  She was just about my age, her smile seemed like fire to my heart.  Her name was Ellis, Ellis Grant.  Looking at her you saw a delicate flower just at its blooming point which is rare for a girl her age, she was taller than me by a few inches, her blonde hair ran down her smooth skin and her eyes could pierce your soul.  We got to talking one night and I told her about an idea I had.  I told her I had ridged a transmitter and was going to start my own radio station after my role model Three Dog.  The only problem was that I had no control room to broadcast the signal.  About three weeks later she came running down to me with Henry and he told me about a small room just below the Ghoul Level which housed the control center of the base which contained the Enclaves radio tower controls, and if I could tap into that I could not only over ride their radio station but broadcast my own close to country wide at least Ohio to the East Coast.  I was ecstatic, but then I wondered, how the hell we suppose to get past the Ghouls?  Henry handed me a combat shot gun and Ellis a 10mm pistol.  You two will descend it alone.

Crowd that accumulated over time} what!?

You can’t be serious, he told to love struck children to go into a ghoul infested tunnel.

It shocked me to at first and pleaded he ask the Machine Gun Brother to come with, a group of weapon specialist Aaron and Bucky Brown, both could shoot the wings of a damn fly, they’d gotten the name after I repaired two old turrets to protect the front entrance but Henry said he wanted them hand held. I laughed and ask who’s going to hold them and that’s when Bucky and Aaron walked in.  I thought I just seen giants then I thought super mutant but no they were human all 7’2” inches of them both.
Back to topic, he said no and we both headed down.  Ellen said everything would be fine we could handle them.  I wasn’t so sure.  So we’d made it down into the old tunnel and into the renovated section which the Enclave had reinforced with new steel beams, where in the hell’d they get steel I wondered.  I began hating them even more.  We continued walking.  It reminded me of a story an old man from Rivet City use to tell me as a kid, a room filled with metal everywhere a place grim and dark where they made mutants, and it didn’t make me feel any better.  As I shook of this feeling I caught movement just in front of use.  Suddenly two glowing eyes met mine.  They shined like fire.  I was scared stiff.  Ellen rested her arms on mine and told me softly “Everything is going to be alright Cedric.  Hold firm and don’t so fear.  This….” She lowered my head toward the shotgun “This is a magical invention.  It has the power to grant any wish.  If you want money you’ve got it, if you want fame you’ve got it, you just need to know how to use it” the glowing one jumped to its feet followed by three other Ghouls.  “The one we need is the simplest, death.  Calm yourself.  Tell yourself you want nothing but their demise.  Aim and… fire!” Like a puppet her arms seemed to guide mine.  One shot we managed to kill the Glowing One and cripple two others, and with a second we dropped the others.  When I finally realized what had actually had just happened we were already at the control center room or whatever you’d call it.  As you noticed my retelling, I never forgot a single word she spoke to me that night.  I did some tinkering and finally got the system running.  President Eden’s voice broke through and I laughed, he was nothing compared to the hell I’d just faced so shutting him was going to be easy.  In three week TORO, TakeOveRadiOhio was formed.  I loved myself and streamed all the way out to DC and even heard Three Dog mentioned me on his station and warned me to stop taking his listeners but to keep up the good fight.  I played whatever I could to lift the spirits of my comrades in the camp; supplies were at about 45% that’s even after teams had raided nearby Enclave stores and raider camps.  We were about six months from starvation, which seems like a long time but you’re wrong.  I broadcasted for about three months, and just turned 18.  Henry just passed from old age and Augustus, that’s all he went by no middle or last name, was now head even though everyone thought I was better man to succeed Henry, but the New Council had other plans, ever since they were formed on request of Augustus, they’ve been a pain in not only my side but Henry’s as well.  Every Sunday Henry held a mass of sorts where he preached to the people, mostly the older members.
He promised them good health and that if we believed God would give us all the tools to build upon our fortunes.  He allowed anyone into the camp, travelers, raiders, slavers, slaves, ghouls, and it angered some.  Some felt the Ghoul corrupted society, others thought the slaves were just a beacon to the slavers to take our camp, and others even thought that Henry was planning to put me into his place after, they were right for the last one at least, but it was more than that, just before his death, Ellen and I got married.

{Little Girl} Married!

Yes my darling married.  It was simple and not many people showed, myself Ellen, Henry, Miss Cullen and her two daughters Alex and Allison, Alexander our Mr. Handy, Augustus to Ellen’s dissatisfaction, The Machine Gun Brothers and sister, she’s nothing like her larger foster brothers, she was thirteen then and wasn’t too happy she had a small crush and wouldn’t let it go even after Ellen tried as hard as she could to explain to her the age difference.

{Older Listener} How cute you had a little girlfriend

Hahaha if only haha.

{Listeners} *Crickets chirp* she liked Ellen…

At first it was a mother daughter relationship then it kind of escalated from there.  To this day they are great friends, but Kimmy never took to me that well.  Well after the wedding we planned on have a couple kids but it never panned out as soon as we hoped.

{Listener} Go on
{Little kids} Please mister

Ok hold your horses.  This is where our story takes a little bit of a detour.  Late one night after the New Council was now The Council of Camp Matamoras, I overheard Augustus talking to a member of the council “I know what you mean, she gives me a foreboding feeling my gut as well, and that boy he’s no better, Henry has brainwash a good percent of this Camp but if we intend it to last for generations we need to wash it out of them, and with the climbing number and the dropping rations were going to have to start more wasteland campaigns.” “Sir all of the raider stores and Enclave bases have been picked clean for the last month” “I now, we still haven’t searched the lower levels and if we have to there are several small traveling towns to pick off from.” I almost puked, killing travelers to keep our lives going it was sick, and exploring the lower levels was suicide.  I told what I heard to Ellen and she was pissed.  I told her to keep quiet and I’d find a way to spread the message.  For months I have been contact with Three Dog through an old terminal transmitting a private signal.  I’d sneak off to the lower levels to the control center and we’d talk about trade routes which we helped establish.  He’d tell me activities he heard of and I did the same which helped long distance travelers.  His advice was to keep their influence small and that’s what I did.  I convince many to stay away from Augustus’s memorial services, which he said he continued on behalf of Henry, fuck Henry he did it just to spite the poor old man.  The Camp was never a permanent home; it was to regain our numbers and leave, though I thought about staying behind with TORO, but Ellen wouldn’t have it.  Late one night I noticed a group of Augustus’s men heading out on patrol but they seemed heavily equipped to be a standard patrol team.  I snuck out with the team and followed them to a small settler town up north from the camp.  It had maybe 40 people if not less.  I then knew what they were doing, overwhelm and conquer.  I snuck my way into the village and warned them of the attack and said I knew of a place they’d be safe, and they packed up quietly and we slipped off into a small tunnel I knew that was connected to the tunnels under the camp.  I warned them about the Ghoul possibility and I needed anyone that could spare themselves or a weapon to hold them off.  Several strong men, one named Alfred Wayne came, a stout man of 30 come up to me with an old six shooter and an ammo box.  “She’s a lil old but she’ll serve you well Christopher” “Christopher?” I asked “Patron of us ‘er travelers” it was a long run but we made it out I hope without being noticed and into the tunnels.  There was a Ghoul here and there but it didn’t matter, Alfred was right, she was old and just on the breaking point but she held strong.  Through the entire run the people followed, not me but Alfred he’d chant “Onward, follow Christopher follow our leader!” and it obvious I was their driving force but not their leader.  That only one died.

{Listener} Who!

Ling Ling, Sun Chong’s teddy bear.  A Ghoul ambushed us and grabbed hold of Sun and bit down on her and I thought she was a goner but lucky she was a fighter and fought till she was free, and come to find out she snuck her teddy bear into her jacket even though mommy told her to leave it.  One shot the Ghoul dropped, even so Sun thought it appropriate to kick him in the face and yell “Bad Ghoul!” she wasn’t fazed a bit surprisingly but her mother wasn’t so strong.  She fainted at her daughter’s side.  So we managed to get out of the ninth ring of hell and into fire.  Anne Marie, the nurse took in the injured and old and helped me feed the children.  By the time the “patrol” raiders were back they were all logged in the entrance books and I paid for their stay, and it was safe to say I was broke after that, there never was a fee that is till Augustus took over.  15 caps for one night and half rations, 35 for one night full rations.  It was pure bullshit.  We were a camp of travelers telling travelers to pay for a small meal and a blanket on a metal floor.  I dug up a few old cots from the lower levels which I considered more of a home the upper levels anymore.  I had just enough for the kids and seniors with a couple extra for Anne Marie’s small understaffed and ill equipped hospital.  Stimpaks were one of the resources we had plenty along with Med-x and Rad-x even radaway was high yet we were only to give out the bare minimum for the greater good of the camp and weren’t allowed to sell it to travelers.  It only went downhill from there.  Night after night the patrols continued and I tried to save as many as I could with the help of the Machine Gun Brothers and several other, Ellen included.  We saved three of the nine moving villages, little trader communes, and a couple small scrap camps, small fortified villages, and it wasn’t easy telling people to leave and that’s why many were lost.  It was hard to see them burn, to watch as many as sixty people burn in the flamer started fires of the Moras Liberators as they went by.  They were handpicked by Augustus. Ruthless men many of them I was sure were liberated raiders promised power or wealth to do what they did best.  It took its toll on me.  I was not even 19 and I looked like I was an old man.  After about a month of travel I manage to close off several sections of the Ghoul level and rigged the rest to deal with them.  Aaron decided he liked the sport Ghouls gave him so he bunked down in the lowest level I had uncovered and picked off the Ghouls.  He would sell what he found on them for a hefty price and we used that to pay for more provisions and to pay for the beds for the ones we liberated from the Liberators.  Augusta knew something wasn’t right, I knew he’d noticed hell I wanted him to notice.  Several villages empty then suddenly his perfect haven were over run the next day.  He hiked up the fees to 60 for half and 120 for full it made many mad and other happy he’d explained with the growth of newcomers he needed to increase gain to support them.  He was mad with power and I soon how far he’d go to keep it.  I kept my eyes on the ration levels and they were holding pretty steady at 35% with help of the resources we managed to grab from the villages we saved and stuff me and many others managed to scavenge from the lower levels which were virtually Ghoul free except for Aaron’s Labyrinth.  He managed, with the help of Kimmy and Bucky, to punch into a large nest of those creatures.  He’d be down there for days rigging traps and killing mounds of Ghoul not to mention the new problem Mirelurks.  The lowest tunnels the Enclave or whoever owned the building before dug right into the river bed which was there home.  Their shells sold pretty high along with their meat.  To find come to find out there was another exit, a large down with the number 346 slapped on it.  The once thought Enclave camp was an old Vault well three actually 346, 347, and 358 dug to by accident.   We had more room then we knew what to do with.  346 was the largest being the Enclave base, at least the upper levels were.  At its end we found the source of the Ghouls.  It seemed that somehow radioactive waste has managed to spread into vault 346 and slowly turned the once human population of the vault rouge and further investigation proved that the Enclave soldiers were responsible for the contamination.  In essence the Ghouls were not your ordinary radiation victims they were more closely related to Mutants.  I did start to notice they seemed different, they were faster quicker thinking and much more coordinated then their DC cousins I knew.  You could call them Ghoul Mutants or Mutant Ghouls; we slapped the title Fallen on them.  I wish I could have helped them but it didn’t seem possible.  347 was much smaller and was abandoned completely yet was in good condition.  It seemed like they’d all just left but it didn’t have any supplies just space which was just as good.  We started moving people into there but we could access its main entrance so they had to go through 346 to it which was still a danger even the number of Ghouls were low.  Another worry was the radiation in 346 could still change ourselves and the ones we sent through it, and our fears were realized.  Aaron, how was down in the deepest levels became ill and started coughing up blood.  Anne Marie who was under our wing said it was a mix of the radiation along with some unknown factor.  I ordered that the lower levels to be sealed and we’d use the upper tunnels even if it meant we might me caught.  358 was not much better than 346 but it was infested with ants and spiders small problems, and we knew where it could be accessed, about fourteen miles from the camp was its door which I managed to get working.  It was connected throw a lower wing of 346 which Aaron had dug which was now useless but with its door operational we could use it without his tunnels.  We named the Vault Camp Aaron after he passed away a day before my birthday, July 14, it was late and he passed with his brother and sister at his side.

{Listener} How awful
{Kids} *crying*

Like I said it gets even worse from here on out.  Late August I managed to convince Ellen and a few others to move into Camp Aaron.  I had managed to store up enough food there and the weather made it easy to get everyone there by sending them down the river in a large yacht Bucky and I found wrecked on Lake Eerie.  It was a bitch to fix but we managed.  At 25 miles an hour we could cart 10 people and supplies there and back in just over an hour.  The last she was suppose to contain Ellen and me along with Kimmy and Bucky and the older passengers with Anne Marie to tend for them, but Augustus found out about over trip.  He demanded to know what I was doing carting people off into the waste.  I told him he need not concern himself for I’d be out of his hair once and for all.  This seemed to lighten his mood, but it got grim once he found that his one and only doctor and daughter, yes he’s her father, Anne Marie was leaving with us.  He was outraged and demanded she stayed, but to his disliking she chose to side with us.
I said my goodbyes to many friends that decided to stay behind and gave my goodbyes to my listeners and Three Dog who congratulated me for my year and a half as Toro’s spokesperson disk jockey extraordinaire.  I did plan to try and find a way to keep it going but with 346 closed off it was going to be hard. Luckily I could get Three Dog in 358.  As we’re about to leave I reopened the lower levels of 346 and cleaned out my “office} as I was cleaning I picked up a message from Enclave.  “Station 23 of Ohio, this is station 19.  We have been trying to regain control of your signal for the last year.  Are you all right?  We repeat are you all right?” this was bad.  Our Henry’s fears were realized, Enclave found its lost property.  The message stated that a team was coming to the area to regain control of Station 23.  Needless to say I warned the rest of the residents of the Enclave’s message and Augustus discredited me and said his pure people she shield their ears from my outsider propaganda.  It worked many saw Augustus as their silver lining; he made a once temporary fix a permanent home, though I did manage to convince a few.  I beg him to see reason but he would listen.  Late that night I watched as four Enclave ships landed on the base of the camp.  The screams still haunted my dreams.  I was pissed and I wanted revenge so like any 18 year hero of a story blinded by passion I decked myself out and headed for battle, but like all stories my friends didn’t let me go alone.  Enclave had reached my shit list.

At just before sunrise we entered from the lower levels and into the Ghoul section of 346.  They still hadn’t breached the upper levels or they wouldn’t I’m still not sure which.  Ellen as always carried only a 10mm, Kimmy was decked out in trip wire spring loaded paint filled explosives of all design, while Bucky had a twin stock Turret Style Minigun firing dual boxes holding 1000 rounds with another 4000 strapped to his back, and a handful of others Alfred included.  I had one 10mm and Alfred’s six shooter strapped to my hips and a hunting rifle I recently fixed up to fire .308s.  The plan was to take the lower levels by surprise and leave several people under Alfred stationed there while Ellen and I took out the captain which was most likely held up in Augustus’s office while Kimmy and Bucky with the rest held off the soldiers and rigged the place to blow with her patented Fourth of July Extravaganza, which are several small charges set along the build firing off fireworks to confuse the enemy then several timed explosives go off taking them all out with their own base. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

It was all going smoothly, we knew this area like the back out hands so it was easy overcome our over powered enemy.  Ellen and I were in the upper most levels in no time.  One by one she’d hit with pin point precision.

{Old Man from the beginning}

Sounds like your Ellen was a killer.

That she was and wasn’t, even as I was there to kill in vengeance she was there to protect me.  She crippled all she could and disposed of their weapons and the ones she just couldn’t peacefully lay to rest she disposed of quickly, one head shot.  I loved her with all my heart but after that night I couldn’t help but fear her ferocity.  I knew there was more to my budding flower.  We made it to the office section where Augustus and the Council lived and worked.  We could hear voices in the furthest room, the meeting room.  We kept low and listened in. “You swore that this wouldn’t happen you said if we gave you back the camp we’d all be given homes, food, water, a better life!” “We simply did what we thought was necessary.” “Necessary, they’re all dead, and the ones that aren’t you sold to the Slavers!  You promised peace, you promised redemption, keep up your end at least for me!” the Enclave Captain or Admiral never was good with titles.  “And you think were animals” a loud bang rang through the room, Augustus was dead.  Even though I was more afraid and sick then I had even been before I let out a smile sigh and smiled.  Augustus was finally getting what he wanted, what he deserved.  “It’s no use hiding any longer” his voice stung like a knife.  He knew we were there the whole time.  “Please come out Cedric, I’d like to talk to the man that hacked the Enclaves signal.”
With that I stood up along with Ellen.  “My, are you young, no matter” he swung his gun in my direction and planted a bullet into my left shoulder.  “That’s for the inconveniencing my men” he shot a second time into the other shoulder.  “And that’s for the hell of” a bang entered the room.  Ellen fired a single shot into his left shoulder.  “That’s for shooting my husband, and this” his eyes met hers “Ellen?”  Bang!

{Kids jump!}

“That’s for killer my mother.”

To this day I’ve never had the courage to ask Ellen how he knew her name, but someday I will.  The plan was a failure and a success.  Alfred managed to finish off the Enclave below even after the loss of most of his men, and Kimmy and Bucky managed to clear the middle level and plant the bombs, but unknown to our knowledge Anne Marie had came back just before the raid to apologize to her father and was badly wounded in the attack.  Bucky never forgave himself, for unknown to us Aaron and Anne Marie were going to get married before he died because she was pregnant with his child and the injuries caused complications and she died shortly after giving birth to Aaron Michael Brown the II, JB for short.  He lives with her uncle Bucky now in Camp Aaron.

{Listener} Wait 358 still exists?

Yeah it’s still running to this day.  Down in the cellars we found seed and planted crops in the indoor green houses.  It’s only a small community of maybe 100 or so but it’s nice.

{Little Girl}  Then why did you leave?

Well after I established TOR2 and TORI I decided I needed to find a place to put TORM and Detroit looked like the ideal place.  I have encouraged others to do the same.  Put up other radio stations if they could, I hear that Illinois and Wisconsin have one each and West Virginia has two one is actually named after Henry Gates, HERO is its name but it was originally HGWV but that was back a couple months.

{Guy From Before} How longs it been sense you’ve been home?

A few years but I know they’re all right, Alfred won’t let me down.

{After the crowd disperses}

Ellen: What are you still doing up?
Cedric: Nothing really just telling a story to a couple of people that will listen.
Ellen: Inspiring even more people my little man
Cedric: Little I’m not little by any means unless that what you like then I guess I’m the smallest man ever.
Ellen” Har har har, let’s find a place a little more private.

{Moments Later}

Cedric: One of these days you’re going to have to tell me about that scar.
Ellen: In time my little man…

Description
You’re from the capital Wastes!

Was, a group of travelling traders picked me up shortly after my parents were killed by raiders outside of Rivet City, a large ocean liner turned refugee camp. I followed them for what seemed like months when we were confront by Enclave soldiers just short of Ohio.  It seems that they had taken up camp just north of our position and pedestrians weren’t aloud.  They warned us to halt our travels, but our leader Maxwell Grimm laughed at the commanding officer and gave him the finger in a split second that finger was on the ground and next his head.  Ours numbers when from just short of 100 to 55 in on bloody mess.  I can remember hiding in an old home with the remaining survivors.  Every night we could her moans from both raiders and ghouls both picking at the corpses.  It’s a good thing though, if our numbers hadn’t of fallen we would have had to eat the fallen to survive hell for three days and four nights.  The Moring of the four day we got up the courage to leave our cramp heaven.  To our luck the raiders and ghouls killed each other off just after the raiders broke into the Enclave station.  Several of us wanted to stay behind at the base and others feared the rest of the Enclave would come and reclaim the territory.  A couple others, I was the youngest at 16, Henry Gates from West Virginia 52 being the oldest.  We picked up the raiders weapons and searched the Enclave camp.  We found enough food for a good year if not more for triple our number, and medical supplies like I’d never seen.  At that moment I hated the Enclave even more.  For many months we stayed at that base, and I celebrated my 17th birthday.  At that time Henry Gates was our new leader in charge he managed most of the previsions and legal stuff if you get my drift.  One day I decided to tinker with a small radio I’d found just above Ghoul Level, a courted off section of the camp that was built into an old tunnel of sorts which was infested with Ghouls.  I had just got it working and a voice came out with a laugh “Because even two dogs ain’t enough it’s three dog!” I jumped up and down I use to listen to him when I was young.  Someone had fixed his signal amplifier on the Washington monument and I just happened to grab hold of his signal all the way in Ohio.  I felt at home again.  A few months past and I never lost Three Dogs signal, it cracked in and out, and the only problem was the only place I could get any signal was just in a small broom closet, which slowly became my workshop. I fixed everything you could throw at me and I loved it.  One day Henry came down to talk to me, he was my second father.  He said he had met a nice girl he wanted me to meet, and god was she beautiful, and come to find out his granddaughter, her parents, like mine, were killed when she was young, she wasn’t blood related to Henry but it seemed damn close.  She was just about my age, her smile seemed like fire to my heart.  Her name was Ellis, Ellis Grant.  Looking at her you saw a delicate flower just at its blooming point which is rare for a girl her age, she was taller than me by a few inches, her blonde hair ran down her smooth skin and her eyes could pierce your soul.  We got to talking one night and I told her about an idea I had.  I told her I had ridged a transmitter and was going to start my own radio station after my role model Three Dog.  The only problem was that I had no control room to broadcast the signal.  About three weeks later she came running down to me with Henry and he told me about a small room just below the Ghoul Level which housed the control center of the base which contained the Enclaves radio tower controls, and if I could tap into that I could not only over ride their radio station but broadcast my own close to country wide at least Ohio to the East Coast.  I was ecstatic, but then I wondered, how the hell we suppose to get past the Ghouls?  Henry handed me a combat shot gun and Ellis a 10mm pistol.  You two will descend it alone.

Crowd that accumulated over time} what!?

You can’t be serious, he told to love struck children to go into a ghoul infested tunnel.

It shocked me to at first and pleaded he ask the Machine Gun Brother to come with, a group of weapon specialist Aaron and Bucky Brown, both could shoot the wings of a damn fly, they’d gotten the name after I repaired two old turrets to protect the front entrance but Henry said he wanted them hand held. I laughed and ask who’s going to hold them and that’s when Bucky and Aaron walked in.  I thought I just seen giants then I thought super mutant but no they were human all 7’2” inches of them both.
Back to topic, he said no and we both headed down.  Ellen said everything would be fine we could handle them.  I wasn’t so sure.  So we’d made it down into the old tunnel and into the renovated section which the Enclave had reinforced with new steel beams, where in the hell’d they get steel I wondered.  I began hating them even more.  We continued walking.  It reminded me of a story an old man from Rivet City use to tell me as a kid, a room filled with metal everywhere a place grim and dark where they made mutants, and it didn’t make me feel any better.  As I shook of this feeling I caught movement just in front of use.  Suddenly two glowing eyes met mine.  They shined like fire.  I was scared stiff.  Ellen rested her arms on mine and told me softly “Everything is going to be alright Cedric.  Hold firm and don’t so fear.  This….” She lowered my head toward the shotgun “This is a magical invention.  It has the power to grant any wish.  If you want money you’ve got it, if you want fame you’ve got it, you just need to know how to use it” the glowing one jumped to its feet followed by three other Ghouls.  “The one we need is the simplest, death.  Calm yourself.  Tell yourself you want nothing but their demise.  Aim and… fire!” Like a puppet her arms seemed to guide mine.  One shot we managed to kill the Glowing One and cripple two others, and with a second we dropped the others.  When I finally realized what had actually had just happened we were already at the control center room or whatever you’d call it.  As you noticed my retelling, I never forgot a single word she spoke to me that night.  I did some tinkering and finally got the system running.  President Eden’s voice broke through and I laughed, he was nothing compared to the hell I’d just faced so shutting him was going to be easy.  In three week TORO, TakeOveRadiOhio was formed.  I loved myself and streamed all the way out to DC and even heard Three Dog mentioned me on his station and warned me to stop taking his listeners but to keep up the good fight.  I played whatever I could to lift the spirits of my comrades in the camp; supplies were at about 45% that’s even after teams had raided nearby Enclave stores and raider camps.  We were about six months from starvation, which seems like a long time but you’re wrong.  I broadcasted for about three months, and just turned 18.  Henry just passed from old age and Augustus, that’s all he went by no middle or last name, was now head even though everyone thought I was better man to succeed Henry, but the New Council had other plans, ever since they were formed on request of Augustus, they’ve been a pain in not only my side but Henry’s as well.  Every Sunday Henry held a mass of sorts where he preached to the people, mostly the older members.
He promised them good health and that if we believed God would give us all the tools to build upon our fortunes.  He allowed anyone into the camp, travelers, raiders, slavers, slaves, ghouls, and it angered some.  Some felt the Ghoul corrupted society, others thought the slaves were just a beacon to the slavers to take our camp, and others even thought that Henry was planning to put me into his place after, they were right for the last one at least, but it was more than that, just before his death, Ellen and I got married.

{Little Girl} Married!

Yes my darling married.  It was simple and not many people showed, myself Ellen, Henry, Miss Cullen and her two daughters Alex and Allison, Alexander our Mr. Handy, Augustus to Ellen’s dissatisfaction, The Machine Gun Brothers and sister, she’s nothing like her larger foster brothers, she was thirteen then and wasn’t too happy she had a small crush and wouldn’t let it go even after Ellen tried as hard as she could to explain to her the age difference.

{Older Listener} How cute you had a little girlfriend

Hahaha if only haha.

{Listeners} *Crickets chirp* she liked Ellen…

At first it was a mother daughter relationship then it kind of escalated from there.  To this day they are great friends, but Kimmy never took to me that well.  Well after the wedding we planned on have a couple kids but it never panned out as soon as we hoped.

{Listener} Go on
{Little kids} Please mister

Ok hold your horses.  This is where our story takes a little bit of a detour.  Late one night after the New Council was now The Council of Camp Matamoras, I overheard Augustus talking to a member of the council “I know what you mean, she gives me a foreboding feeling my gut as well, and that boy he’s no better, Henry has brainwash a good percent of this Camp but if we intend it to last for generations we need to wash it out of them, and with the climbing number and the dropping rations were going to have to start more wasteland campaigns.” “Sir all of the raider stores and Enclave bases have been picked clean for the last month” “I now, we still haven’t searched the lower levels and if we have to there are several small traveling towns to pick off from.” I almost puked, killing travelers to keep our lives going it was sick, and exploring the lower levels was suicide.  I told what I heard to Ellen and she was pissed.  I told her to keep quiet and I’d find a way to spread the message.  For months I have been contact with Three Dog through an old terminal transmitting a private signal.  I’d sneak off to the lower levels to the control center and we’d talk about trade routes which we helped establish.  He’d tell me activities he heard of and I did the same which helped long distance travelers.  His advice was to keep their influence small and that’s what I did.  I convince many to stay away from Augustus’s memorial services, which he said he continued on behalf of Henry, fuck Henry he did it just to spite the poor old man.  The Camp was never a permanent home; it was to regain our numbers and leave, though I thought about staying behind with TORO, but Ellen wouldn’t have it.  Late one night I noticed a group of Augustus’s men heading out on patrol but they seemed heavily equipped to be a standard patrol team.  I snuck out with the team and followed them to a small settler town up north from the camp.  It had maybe 40 people if not less.  I then knew what they were doing, overwhelm and conquer.  I snuck my way into the village and warned them of the attack and said I knew of a place they’d be safe, and they packed up quietly and we slipped off into a small tunnel I knew that was connected to the tunnels under the camp.  I warned them about the Ghoul possibility and I needed anyone that could spare themselves or a weapon to hold them off.  Several strong men, one named Alfred Wayne came, a stout man of 30 come up to me with an old six shooter and an ammo box.  “She’s a lil old but she’ll serve you well Christopher” “Christopher?” I asked “Patron of us ‘er travelers” it was a long run but we made it out I hope without being noticed and into the tunnels.  There was a Ghoul here and there but it didn’t matter, Alfred was right, she was old and just on the breaking point but she held strong.  Through the entire run the people followed, not me but Alfred he’d chant “Onward, follow Christopher follow our leader!” and it obvious I was their driving force but not their leader.  That only one died.

{Listener} Who!

Ling Ling, Sun Chong’s teddy bear.  A Ghoul ambushed us and grabbed hold of Sun and bit down on her and I thought she was a goner but lucky she was a fighter and fought till she was free, and come to find out she snuck her teddy bear into her jacket even though mommy told her to leave it.  One shot the Ghoul dropped, even so Sun thought it appropriate to kick him in the face and yell “Bad Ghoul!” she wasn’t fazed a bit surprisingly but her mother wasn’t so strong.  She fainted at her daughter’s side.  So we managed to get out of the ninth ring of hell and into fire.  Anne Marie, the nurse took in the injured and old and helped me feed the children.  By the time the “patrol” raiders were back they were all logged in the entrance books and I paid for their stay, and it was safe to say I was broke after that, there never was a fee that is till Augustus took over.  15 caps for one night and half rations, 35 for one night full rations.  It was pure bullshit.  We were a camp of travelers telling travelers to pay for a small meal and a blanket on a metal floor.  I dug up a few old cots from the lower levels which I considered more of a home the upper levels anymore.  I had just enough for the kids and seniors with a couple extra for Anne Marie’s small understaffed and ill equipped hospital.  Stimpaks were one of the resources we had plenty along with Med-x and Rad-x even radaway was high yet we were only to give out the bare minimum for the greater good of the camp and weren’t allowed to sell it to travelers.  It only went downhill from there.  Night after night the patrols continued and I tried to save as many as I could with the help of the Machine Gun Brothers and several other, Ellen included.  We saved three of the nine moving villages, little trader communes, and a couple small scrap camps, small fortified villages, and it wasn’t easy telling people to leave and that’s why many were lost.  It was hard to see them burn, to watch as many as sixty people burn in the flamer started fires of the Moras Liberators as they went by.  They were handpicked by Augustus. Ruthless men many of them I was sure were liberated raiders promised power or wealth to do what they did best.  It took its toll on me.  I was not even 19 and I looked like I was an old man.  After about a month of travel I manage to close off several sections of the Ghoul level and rigged the rest to deal with them.  Aaron decided he liked the sport Ghouls gave him so he bunked down in the lowest level I had uncovered and picked off the Ghouls.  He would sell what he found on them for a hefty price and we used that to pay for more provisions and to pay for the beds for the ones we liberated from the Liberators.  Augusta knew something wasn’t right, I knew he’d noticed hell I wanted him to notice.  Several villages empty then suddenly his perfect haven were over run the next day.  He hiked up the fees to 60 for half and 120 for full it made many mad and other happy he’d explained with the growth of newcomers he needed to increase gain to support them.  He was mad with power and I soon how far he’d go to keep it.  I kept my eyes on the ration levels and they were holding pretty steady at 35% with help of the resources we managed to grab from the villages we saved and stuff me and many others managed to scavenge from the lower levels which were virtually Ghoul free except for Aaron’s Labyrinth.  He managed, with the help of Kimmy and Bucky, to punch into a large nest of those creatures.  He’d be down there for days rigging traps and killing mounds of Ghoul not to mention the new problem Mirelurks.  The lowest tunnels the Enclave or whoever owned the building before dug right into the river bed which was there home.  Their shells sold pretty high along with their meat.  To find come to find out there was another exit, a large down with the number 346 slapped on it.  The once thought Enclave camp was an old Vault well three actually 346, 347, and 358 dug to by accident.   We had more room then we knew what to do with.  346 was the largest being the Enclave base, at least the upper levels were.  At its end we found the source of the Ghouls.  It seemed that somehow radioactive waste has managed to spread into vault 346 and slowly turned the once human population of the vault rouge and further investigation proved that the Enclave soldiers were responsible for the contamination.  In essence the Ghouls were not your ordinary radiation victims they were more closely related to Mutants.  I did start to notice they seemed different, they were faster quicker thinking and much more coordinated then their DC cousins I knew.  You could call them Ghoul Mutants or Mutant Ghouls; we slapped the title Fallen on them.  I wish I could have helped them but it didn’t seem possible.  347 was much smaller and was abandoned completely yet was in good condition.  It seemed like they’d all just left but it didn’t have any supplies just space which was just as good.  We started moving people into there but we could access its main entrance so they had to go through 346 to it which was still a danger even the number of Ghouls were low.  Another worry was the radiation in 346 could still change ourselves and the ones we sent through it, and our fears were realized.  Aaron, how was down in the deepest levels became ill and started coughing up blood.  Anne Marie who was under our wing said it was a mix of the radiation along with some unknown factor.  I ordered that the lower levels to be sealed and we’d use the upper tunnels even if it meant we might me caught.  358 was not much better than 346 but it was infested with ants and spiders small problems, and we knew where it could be accessed, about fourteen miles from the camp was its door which I managed to get working.  It was connected throw a lower wing of 346 which Aaron had dug which was now useless but with its door operational we could use it without his tunnels.  We named the Vault Camp Aaron after he passed away a day before my birthday, July 14, it was late and he passed with his brother and sister at his side.

{Listener} How awful
{Kids} *crying*

Like I said it gets even worse from here on out.  Late August I managed to convince Ellen and a few others to move into Camp Aaron.  I had managed to store up enough food there and the weather made it easy to get everyone there by sending them down the river in a large yacht Bucky and I found wrecked on Lake Eerie.  It was a bitch to fix but we managed.  At 25 miles an hour we could cart 10 people and supplies there and back in just over an hour.  The last she was suppose to contain Ellen and me along with Kimmy and Bucky and the older passengers with Anne Marie to tend for them, but Augustus found out about over trip.  He demanded to know what I was doing carting people off into the waste.  I told him he need not concern himself for I’d be out of his hair once and for all.  This seemed to lighten his mood, but it got grim once he found that his one and only doctor and daughter, yes he’s her father, Anne Marie was leaving with us.  He was outraged and demanded she stayed, but to his disliking she chose to side with us.
I said my goodbyes to many friends that decided to stay behind and gave my goodbyes to my listeners and Three Dog who congratulated me for my year and a half as Toro’s spokesperson disk jockey extraordinaire.  I did plan to try and find a way to keep it going but with 346 closed off it was going to be hard. Luckily I could get Three Dog in 358.  As we’re about to leave I reopened the lower levels of 346 and cleaned out my “office} as I was cleaning I picked up a message from Enclave.  “Station 23 of Ohio, this is station 19.  We have been trying to regain control of your signal for the last year.  Are you all right?  We repeat are you all right?” this was bad.  Our Henry’s fears were realized, Enclave found its lost property.  The message stated that a team was coming to the area to regain control of Station 23.  Needless to say I warned the rest of the residents of the Enclave’s message and Augustus discredited me and said his pure people she shield their ears from my outsider propaganda.  It worked many saw Augustus as their silver lining; he made a once temporary fix a permanent home, though I did manage to convince a few.  I beg him to see reason but he would listen.  Late that night I watched as four Enclave ships landed on the base of the camp.  The screams still haunted my dreams.  I was pissed and I wanted revenge so like any 18 year hero of a story blinded by passion I decked myself out and headed for battle, but like all stories my friends didn’t let me go alone.  Enclave had reached my shit list.

At just before sunrise we entered from the lower levels and into the Ghoul section of 346.  They still hadn’t breached the upper levels or they wouldn’t I’m still not sure which.  Ellen as always carried only a 10mm, Kimmy was decked out in trip wire spring loaded paint filled explosives of all design, while Bucky had a twin stock Turret Style Minigun firing dual boxes holding 1000 rounds with another 4000 strapped to his back, and a handful of others Alfred included.  I had one 10mm and Alfred’s six shooter strapped to my hips and a hunting rifle I recently fixed up to fire .308s.  The plan was to take the lower levels by surprise and leave several people under Alfred stationed there while Ellen and I took out the captain which was most likely held up in Augustus’s office while Kimmy and Bucky with the rest held off the soldiers and rigged the place to blow with her patented Fourth of July Extravaganza, which are several small charges set along the build firing off fireworks to confuse the enemy then several timed explosives go off taking them all out with their own base. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

It was all going smoothly, we knew this area like the back out hands so it was easy overcome our over powered enemy.  Ellen and I were in the upper most levels in no time.  One by one she’d hit with pin point precision.

{Old Man from the beginning}

Sounds like your Ellen was a killer.

That she was and wasn’t, even as I was there to kill in vengeance she was there to protect me.  She crippled all she could and disposed of their weapons and the ones she just couldn’t peacefully lay to rest she disposed of quickly, one head shot.  I loved her with all my heart but after that night I couldn’t help but fear her ferocity.  I knew there was more to my budding flower.  We made it to the office section where Augustus and the Council lived and worked.  We could hear voices in the furthest room, the meeting room.  We kept low and listened in. “You swore that this wouldn’t happen you said if we gave you back the camp we’d all be given homes, food, water, a better life!” “We simply did what we thought was necessary.” “Necessary, they’re all dead, and the ones that aren’t you sold to the Slavers!  You promised peace, you promised redemption, keep up your end at least for me!” the Enclave Captain or Admiral never was good with titles.  “And you think were animals” a loud bang rang through the room, Augustus was dead.  Even though I was more afraid and sick then I had even been before I let out a smile sigh and smiled.  Augustus was finally getting what he wanted, what he deserved.  “It’s no use hiding any longer” his voice stung like a knife.  He knew we were there the whole time.  “Please come out Cedric, I’d like to talk to the man that hacked the Enclaves signal.”
With that I stood up along with Ellen.  “My, are you young, no matter” he swung his gun in my direction and planted a bullet into my left shoulder.  “That’s for the inconveniencing my men” he shot a second time into the other shoulder.  “And that’s for the hell of” a bang entered the room.  Ellen fired a single shot into his left shoulder.  “That’s for shooting my husband, and this” his eyes met hers “Ellen?”  Bang!

{Kids jump!}

“That’s for killer my mother.”

To this day I’ve never had the courage to ask Ellen how he knew her name, but someday I will.  The plan was a failure and a success.  Alfred managed to finish off the Enclave below even after the loss of most of his men, and Kimmy and Bucky managed to clear the middle level and plant the bombs, but unknown to our knowledge Anne Marie had came back just before the raid to apologize to her father and was badly wounded in the attack.  Bucky never forgave himself, for unknown to us Aaron and Anne Marie were going to get married before he died because she was pregnant with his child and the injuries caused complications and she died shortly after giving birth to Aaron Michael Brown the II, JB for short.  He lives with her uncle Bucky now in Camp Aaron.

{Listener} Wait 358 still exists?

Yeah it’s still running to this day.  Down in the cellars we found seed and planted crops in the indoor green houses.  It’s only a small community of maybe 100 or so but it’s nice.

{Little Girl}  Then why did you leave?

Well after I established TOR2 and TORI I decided I needed to find a place to put TORM and Detroit looked like the ideal place.  I have encouraged others to do the same.  Put up other radio stations if they could, I hear that Illinois and Wisconsin have one each and West Virginia has two one is actually named after Henry Gates, HERO is its name but it was originally HGWV but that was back a couple months.

{Guy From Before} How longs it been sense you’ve been home?

A few years but I know they’re all right, Alfred won’t let me down.

{After the crowd disperses}

Ellen: What are you still doing up?
Cedric: Nothing really just telling a story to a couple of people that will listen.
Ellen: Inspiring even more people my little man
Cedric: Little I’m not little by any means unless that what you like then I guess I’m the smallest man ever.
Ellen” Har har har, let’s find a place a little more private.

{Moments Later}

Cedric: One of these days you’re going to have to tell me about that scar.
Ellen: In time my little man…