A Ghost in the Commonwealth

In-game diary for Fallout 4

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry Six - Crashed plane near Ten Pines Bluff

Taking a break for the first time in about 72 hours to lie on a heap of comfy airline pillows, drink whisky and eat sugar bombs while reading Astoundingly Awesome Tales. Ah, this sweet post apocalyptic life. You can fucking keep it.

The Abernathys told me about some travelling traders. Managed to find one of them, woman named Carla, and persuaded her to add Sanctuary to her route. Figure they can trade water for whatever they need. Should help a bit. Plus I got myself another knife. Can never have too many knives, right? Specially if Preston's going to keep asking me for favours.

He wanted me to go help out another small farm, place called Ten Pines Bluff. Not a bad set up, they've got views for miles around. Anyway, they wanted me to go to the Corvega factory in Lexington. To pick up a new muffler, you ask? Oh, no. They wanted me to kill fifty raiders in a holed up, well defended location. Some fucking favour. Place was all rigged up with spotlights which made my job fucking difficult. ONE minute I'm in the shadows, next moment I'm lit up like Times Square, there's a turret shooting at me, six guys running towards me with tyre irons, oh yes and I'm fucking on fire because some bastard's thrown a Molotov cocktail. But guess what, you dead assholes? I'm still here.

The asshole-in-charge kept a diary on a terminal. Seems he was looking for Mama Murphy. Seems he believed she could see the future. I mean, he's dead so I don't know how much I can trust his opinion....I've been trying not to think about Mama Murphy.

When I got back to Ten Pines Bluff they agreed to join the Minute Men - nice - gave me some money - in the form of bottlecaps which remains fucking weird, but, you know, great - asked me to fix their defences up - whatever - and asked me to go find their lost dog - what the fuck? It was a shiba inu looking thing. In a graveyard. Next to a box of frag grenades. What the hell?

Mama Murphy says Shaun's alive. There, I said it. Says she 'senses his energy' or some shit. It's not that I'd accepted he was dead, it's just....do I follow a fucking junkie psychic who dresses like an offensive stereotype? Is that really the lead I'm following here? Fuck.

There were some supposedly psychic kids in the program. Maybe she's for real. Diamond City is a ways south, a city, or whatever passes for one these days, in the heart of Boston. Fuck it, even if Mama Murphy's completely full of shit a city seems the best place to go. I'd say someone must have heard something about Shaun, but let's be real. There's no reason to think anyone's heard anything. Almost everyone's dead, or an asshole. Or both.

Yesterday I saved a woman who was being swarmed by molerats. She gave me 50 caps. I headed to this plane crash from the graveyard because I heard gunfire, and found a man being attacked by a military grade Mr Gutsy. I saved him....and he shot me in the chest. The Wasteland, people.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry 5 - October 31st - Sanctuary (a-fucking-gain)

Haven't had a chance to update this the last few days, been too busy helping Preston's crew get settled. They're good people, which is annoying as fuck. Makes me want to help them. Still, anything to avoid thinking about my life, right?

So, I've spent the last few days cobbling together some houses and working on a water purifier with Sturges. If I can get the parts I might build them a few more. They're going to get established here they're going to need something to trade. They've got the river, best make use of it.

The Longs were working on establishing a farm while we were getting the purifier and generator built. Marcy asked me to go buy some more seeds for planting from a nearby settlement, Abernathy Farm. Well, by asked, I mean "angrily demanded". I like her - I gave her that minigun from the vertibied, and as I left she was already mowing down two headed deer while screaming at them furiously. Least they won't suffer from a lack of protein.

Finding the Abernathy's was easy enough - they've got a large farm beneath a power pylon, lit up like Times Square. No defences either, and apparently raiders have noticed. They agreed to give me some seeds if I got their dead daughter's locket back from the raider bastards who murdered. Let's be fucking honest here - I would have done that for free.

Jun and Marcy lost their son. This new world is full of dead children. Why the fuck are any of us still here?

How many kids died when the bombs fell? Oh, G-d.

Anyway, the raiders were holed up in that old satellite station, and I tore through there like their own personal monster in the shadows. Found the locket. Found another minigun too, and a bunch more ammo for Marcy....not counting the bullets that I had to dig out of my torso that is. Thank fuck for stimpacks and superhuman abilities.

On my way back to the Abernathy's I came across a guy trying to drain Thickett Quarry and helped him out fixing up the pump. He seemed kinda sketchy but if he starts the place working again then maybe we could get a wall up round Sanctuary and the Abernathy place. Also, I thought insects had got big? Crabs are worse. Much, much worse. Can't even stab them in the back because of the fucking shell. I hate crabs. Mirelurks. Need to start using the new words.

Got the locket back to the Abernathy's and got the seeds. Blake also told me I could use their workshop, so I did. Fixed up a few automatic gun turrets for them. Yeah, yeah, I'm going soft, what-fucking-ever.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry 4 - Oct 27th 2287 - Sanctuary (?!)

Quick question, what's the worst place in Concord for a stealth infiltration mission at night? Answer - the fucking Museum of Freedom. I slit three mannequins throats before I caught on. I'm pretty sure one of them was Paul Revere so that's a thing that fucking happened.

If it had happened on any other mission this was exactly the sort of shit I'd want to tell Nate about. He'd be howling with laughter, I can almost hear it.

I'll never hear him laugh again. Fuck.

Anyway, I needed some copper to fix up a switch for my security system (Traps. Lots of traps.) so I was heading for the hardware store in Concord when I got caught up with another group of bastards trying to take on a group of folk who'd somehow got themselves trapped on the top floor. They're led by a guy named Preston who calls himself a minuteman. Hat might be historically accurate, but the laser musket certainly isn't- but what the fuck do I know.

After I'd silently taken out the bastards - Preston called them 'raiders' - in the museum turned out their big plan was to stick me in a suit of power armour with a minigun.

"Minigun is loud. I am quiet."

Preston grimaced, clutching his ribs, "Sorry. I'd do it myself, but I'm not doing so great."

He gave this apologetic, self-depreciating smile and in that moment he reminded me of Nate, and I hated him.

So I headed up, put on that stupid fucking armour, picked up that stupid fucking minigun, jumped off the roof, killed as many raiders as I could see and finished off my night by getting into a knife fight with a twelve foot tall fucking lizard-demon.

So I rescued a group of civilians, and as we all know that makes them my responsibility forever. They wanted to go to 'Sanctuary'. They wanted me to take them home. My life is a fucking joke.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Red Rocket Base

Storm lasted a while so I've been fixing up the garage some. Making it defensible and liveable. Dragged a mattress back from Concord to sleep on, and even found some books to keep me entertained on radioactive days. Wouldn't call it home exactly, but it's a lot fucking better than being in the old neighbourhood, remembering everything I've lost.

Of course, soon as I got those defences up three asshole with shotguns showed up and tried to take over. Least they helped me figure out where the gaps in the wall were.... Plus I got some new leather armour out of the whole deal.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry 3 - 25th Oct 2287 - Red Rocket

So these days bad weather comes with a generous helping of radiation. That would have been good to know before I went out exploring the derelict houses on the outside of Concord without so much as glancing at the sky. Barely an hour in and the rain came on and my Geiger counter started going crazy. I popped a rad x and took shelter as best I could, but by the time I accepted the storm wasn't letting up and booked it back to the garage I was almost fucking glowing. Fortunately some radaway and six hours sleep later and I was just peachy. Benefits of being the monstrous creation of mad science, I guess. What's the point if it doesn't come with a little rad tolerance?

Trip wasn't a complete waste though. Picked up some tools, a few cans of food, and three knives! One of them has good enough balance that it's made the itching stop. And it did just fine taking care of the fucker who lurched out of the storm and bit me in the neck. There was something wrong with him, his skin was all messed up. And he was hanging out in a storm biting people, so I guess there were a couple of things wrong with him. Anyway. My knife works. Yay.

Got some clothes too, a set of leathers I can patch up. Anything to get out of this fucking blue suit. I don't want anything around that makes me think of VaultTec. I tried to set fire to it but it wouldn't burn. Think I'll bury it in the rat hole under the garage instead. Bastards. If it wasn't for them I could have died with my family. Died clean.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry 2 - October 24th 2287, Red Rocket

Oh brave new world, what a shithole you are. So. On the bright side, air's still breathable, there's plant and animal life even if it's pretty fucked up, radiation is mostly within tolerable limits and not much is on fire. On the down side of the four people I've encountered three started shooting before I'd managed to say "Don't shoot", and my poor Codsworth has clearly been alone far too long. I found him back home, trimming some dead shrubs. He was so happy to see me, but at first he acted like everything was normal. Like the world hadn't ended. For a moment I thought about embracing the delusion. Just....walking inside, sitting at the kitchen counter, letting him pour me whatever passes for a coffee in this new existence. It would be pretty fucking hilarious, wouldn't it? The two of us obliviously pantomiming that good ol' American dream of suburbia while the world crumbles around us. But then he mentioned Shaun and I couldn't...just, couldn't.

I was frozen for 210 years. From the logs the vault staff lasted about 6 months before they staged their revolt. Even if some of them maybe hung around for a while after, there's got to be at least 200 years that the vault was unattended, and we could have been woken up - Nate could have been murdered, Shaun kidnapped - at any point in that time. I have no way of knowing if it happened last week or 180 years ago, but I guess the odds are good Shaun is long dead.

Codsworth told me not to give up. But I don't know how to go on. I couldn't even persuade him to come with me, he kept saying he was going to stay there and "secure the home front". Poor Codsworth - home is long gone, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to go back there. It was all I could do to duck into the house long enough to check my stash - not surprisingly, someone found it. All my gear is gone, couldn't even find so much as a kitchen knife. Bastards. All I've got is a security baton and a couple of shitty pistols, and I hate guns. Far too loud. My fingers are itching for something sharp.

I've found my way to the Red Rocket outside town. It's still pretty intact - and I found a dog there, a German shepherd. Someone's still breeding purebreds, I guess. He's a good dog too. The garage was overrun with rodents of unusual size and he helped me clear them off.

It's still daylight out. I'm going to hole up here until it gets dark then head into Concord, like Codsworth suggested, and scout it out. I don't think I'll find any clues, but fuck it, maybe I'll find some knives.

[fo4ghost-diary]

Entry 1

Oct 23rd 2287 - Vault 111

I've been sitting on these metal stairs for hours, just looking at that fucking elevator. There's a world out there - probably. Maybe. Last time I saw it I'd been looking up at that scorching light, feeling the blastwave rush overhead, motes of dust and shit scouring my skin. Nate pulled Shaun close against his chest, as if he thought he could protect him from the fucking apocalypse with love alone. And I don't know, maybe he could. Because we should have died. We should all have died right then, but we didn't so Nate got to die like a fucking frozen turkey with a bullet in his brain, Shaun got carried off by monsters and I'm sitting on this fucking staircase looking at the elevator I'm too scared to step on.

Because if this piece-of-shit pipboy - which I took off a skeleton's wrist, by the way, just picked it up and watched the bones fall out - if it isn't completely malfunctioning then it's October 23rd 2287. Two hundred fucking years in the future. And I want to say it's just a computer glitch...but those wrist bones were dry as bone. (ha.) That takes decades. And those cockroaches were enormous. Even if the old horror stories about radiation mutations were true that would still take generation upon generation.

Two hundred fucking years. And I'm just staring at the elevator wondering what the fuck is out there.