Damn machine quit again damn coffee maker I remember thinking right before darkness took over and I found myself suddenly standing very naked in what was definitely not my house which was obvious by the entire lack of roof and the majority of the walls and then the fact that it was hot I'd gone from a cool 25c in my kitchen to what felt like a dry 39c in the blink of an eye. I looked around at my new surroundings and spotted a dresser that looked like it had been left outside for ages and as I was naked I quickly walked over and tried to open the drawers but they had swollen in the weather so I had to put a bit more force into opening it than I expected. Whatever warped wood holding the drawer closed gave with a moan and the top drawer opened and revealed a pile of neatly folded business suits which I eyed carefully before putting on one, gray suit pants gray suit jacket but no under shirt or shoes or even a tie so I tried the next drawer and again the wood groaned before giving way. By the time I'd opened all three drawers of the dresser I had a full business suit jacket, vest, undershirt, pants, socks, and underwear and then the last drawer revealed a set of polished leather dress shoes and socks so i quickly put on socks and put on the first pair of shoes I found a pair of black leather shoes that felt like they were made for my feet.
Dressed in perhaps the oddest outfit I'd ever worn mostly because I'd never worn a full suit just a rented tux for my sister's wedding once, I set out the heat hadn't abated yet and I'd need water at the very least and I wasn't going to find any sitting in this destroyed house, I walked for a few miles without seeing much at all though I could have sworn I heard gunshots in the distance I just shrugged them off figuring i was just imagining it. I found an old truckstop with a few odd vehicles parked out front unlike any modern vehicle I'd ever seen everything looked like it had come right out of the 50s all rounded sides and durable construction. I explored the truckstop and realized that the place had been raided pretty extensively as in there was very little left but a few obviously worthless things like that cash register that had clearly been broken into and several empty bottles and food wrappers laying around but I did spot a couple spots where someone might have overlooked something so I carefully examined them.
Wedged between the counters I spotted an old magazine that had fallen into the crack and after fishing it out i read the cover and was shocked it was titled Milsurp Review and was about firearms and after reading it I realized that it was quite good so I placed it on the counter for now and continued my explorations. As I carefully examined the truckstop I found a few other spots one was behind a vending machine and I found a loaded 357 magnum pistol there which i added to the pile, then i found a hidden drawer which was a pain to open but inside i found a satchel made from what appeared to be Kevlar or some fabric similar to it whatever it was the stuff was tough so I checked inside it and found a box of 38 special rounds and a firearm cleaning kit and small bottle of oil as well as a book titled 'The big book of Science' which I quickly skimmed before returning to the satchel and placing the entire satchel on the counter with the other things.
The truckstop ended up yielding a decent haul between the pistol and ammunition the magazine and book and the cleaning kit and satchel i was starting to build a kit sort of anyway and as I tucked my finds into the satchel I wondered if I was technically stealing this stuff and if anyone would care but I pushed that thought out of my mind for now. I left the truckstop and only as I was leaving did I realize that there were no fuel pumps just an odd coolant pump assembly and a faded sign that read grade B coolant though the price was missing. I walked for a few hours and saw the occasional house which was clearly ruined in the distance before I finally came to a highway patrol station that was also clearly abandoned but I figured I'd better check it out.
I pulled the 357 magnum revolver from the satchel and checked the ammunition and saw it had six rounds ready so I carefully approached the station and checked for anything as i really didn't know what was going on this place was too uncanny. I entered the highway patrol station and honestly I was shocked it was almost untouched but obviously long abandoned which made me wonder what the heck was going on and as i explored the station I realized that whatever had happened it was quick and if I had to guess it was terrible. I found an old ballistic vest in honestly great shape and an old cowboy style duster jacket so i swapped the suit jacket for the ballistic vest and put the duster over the top and tucked the suit jacket in the satchel I'd finally realized that i was not mistaken and those had been real gunshots outside so finding the vest gave me a sense of safety probably a false one but hey beggars can't be choosers right. During my scavenging of tge highway patrol station I found a holster for the 357 magnum which I gladly put on and I also found a police issue 308 sniper rifle with a scope and a sling made from the same material as my satchel so I slung it over my back then I found the ammunition for it. With the 308 sniper rifle and 20 rounds for it and the 357 with the 6 rounds of 357 and 25 of 38 special I was feeling pretty good about myself so obviously that was when things went wrong.
I had just finished packing up the last of my loot when six people came into the building and I could hear them talking about their most recent raid and laughing about shooting some farmers and the loot they got which was both informative and terrifying so in self preservation I aimed my revolver at the entrance to the room I was in and prayed that they wouldn't find me. Luck was not with me as a raider walked into the room and in my panic I shot him in the face then froze a split second only to get shot in the chest and as i fell back i shot the second raider in the neck. The sound of shouting and the rapid approach of the Raiders flung all conscious thought from my mind and I shot the next raider in the chest which like the other two dropped him meanwhile the adrenaline was buzzing through my veins so hard I didn't feel the pain of getting shot thankfully the ballistic vest had held up and I'd only have a bruise. The last three raiders decided to rush me and by that point I had moved somewhat rolling to my left before raising the pistol and shooting the next raider to enter the room in the head. The last two raiders rushed in and I unloaded the remaining two rounds in my 357 into the first one and one bullet caught the guy behind him in the gut but as the first fell the last guy ignoring his wounds rushed in tire iron held high so I kicked out hitting him in the shin and rolled out of the way. The raider fell but immediately tried to get back up and since I didn't want to stay laying on the floor so did I but I also swapped to my sniper rifle dropping the pistol in the process and as I stood up and brought the sniper rifle around the raider had gained his feet and made a single step before the ear splitting report of the sniper dropped him in his tracks.
I reloaded my guns then looted the raiders which amounted to a few rounds of 357 a set of motocross shin guards a surprisingly well kept katana and a 357 caliber lever gun as well as a couple improvised weapons like the tire iron and a military style folding shovel i packed what i could into my satchel sadly the lever action 357 magnum rifle just wouldn't fit so i had to carry it in my hand as it didn't have a sling but I did empty it checked it out cleaned it oiled it then loaded all of the 357 magnum shells into it. I had a pack overflowing with stuff and a rifle in my hands when I left the highway patrol station i had even put the motocross shin guards on as they had knee protection so if i needed to I could drop to my knees without getting hurt. I continued walking aimlessly through the desert until I spotted some green in the distance and before I knew it i was walking that direction.
It was after the adrenaline faded that I felt the pain of my bruised chest and thanked the stars that the vest had held though I had made quite a bit of distance towards the greenery I was thirsty hungry and tired as I finally reached it and thats when I heard it a bullet zipped past my head with that hair raising snap hiss of something small caliber and fast. I ran quickly to the nearest cover a small boulder that barely provided any cover as i tried to work out where the shot had come from as a second bullet struck my chest causing me to wince as another bruise started forming. I tucked myself behind the boulder and watched the surroundings carefully I had no idea who was shooting at me or why but I wasn't about to take any chances sticking anything out to get it shot off. I heard a faint shout from the distance then heard someone approaching carefully so I lay still the lever gun laying next to where I had fallen but my 357 magnum pistol in my hand ready to shoot whoever had just shot me.
As whoever it was approached I noticed that they hesitated when I figured they could see my lever action about twenty feet out if I had to guess then the walked closer maybe ten feet away and then I sprung my trap I threw the dust i had in my left hand as i rolled over a couple times and aimed my pistol at where I thought it was the person would be i was off slightly and again I was thankful for the ballistic vest as i took a shot to my gut as I rolled over but then she was stuck i had my revolver pointed at her and her bolt action varmint rifle had just fired. With my pistol pointed at her face the young woman who i had just realized was one froze and I decided that I'd give her another chance because I was already sick of killing so i said "drop it or I ventilate you" she looked me in the eyes a long time assessing me before she complied then she spoke asking "what now?" I stood up keeping the pistol trained on her and said "that depends on you, if your not going to try shooting me again you can apologize and I might forgive the rude introduction though you better be damn sincere because last I checked shooting people is rude at best".
The young woman looked like she had eaten something sour but then started taking off her gear which caused my brain to short circuit then I shouted "what the hell woman what are you doing?" She looked confused then said "isn't this how all raiders take apologies?" I stared at her in shock and said "who in the hell are you calling a raider?". The anger that had crept into my voice caused the young woman to flinch and then I saw the surprise in her eyes as realization finally hit and she spluttered " you aren't a raider?" Which i replied "hell fecking no what the hell gives you that impression" which she then pointed to the motocross shin guards and said "your wearing their colors and gear". I shook my head and said "put your damn gear back on I'm assuming theres a town nearby or something I need a damn drink" the young lady put her gear back on and reached for her rifle but i told her "empty it first I don't enjoy getting shot by over eager children" she got a look on her face but complied emptying the shells from the gun then leading the way towards the town of good springs.
We arrived in town and the young woman lead me to the saloon and I made my way to the counter and ordered a whiskey and I even had enough of the odd bottle caps I'd found on the raiders and as I nursed my whiskey i noticed the young woman slink off obviously done with the interaction which was fine by me honestly I wasn't exactly happy to get shot in the first place thankfully the ballistic vest had done its job. I had just finished drinking my whiskey when I heard a click behind my head so I slowly turned my head to see what was going on and found a old man with a pistol pointed at my face and he looked pissed. I raised my hands and said "I see that you folks just shoot and rob anyone who you don't like first the raiders and now you fine take it all but you better make sure im dead" this seemed to surprise the man but then he snarled "raider trash i don't want to hear your lies my daughter told me all about you scum" I turned around fully and looked the man in the eyes and said "did she tell you that she shot me twice and missed once all before she said a word then acted like I was some kind of drug addled fool who only wanted her body and did she mention that by every right i should have put a slug through her hateful head by rights and it would have been perfectly reasonable, did she mention that i never fired a shot and simply had her lead me to town after making her empty her gun? I doubt it so go ahead and shoot but God as my witness you better kill me because I will absolutely kill you on the spot if you don't" the man froze the anger on his face melting into something else then the bartender a middle aged lady behind the bar spoke "Roy the man paid for his drink and came alone, raiders never pay leave the man alone".
The older man's face slowly turned to acceptance then he dropped the pistol and said "maybe I was a tad hasty stranger, my name's Roy Mclintock my daughter who you've already met is Marsha and I suppose you haven't received the best of introductions to pur little town let me remedy that some" he turned to the bartender "Laura bring the boy here another on me". I had noticed that I felt stronger and more energetic than I had before I'd arrived here but I hadn't thought much about it until now but it struck me when the older guy who was around my own age said the boy, I wasn't old anymore for him to say that I must at least be in my twenties again maybe less it was a weird feeling. I drank the second whiskey then made my way to the general store next door and sold a few things mostly the magazine and suit jacket but also the tire iron and the shin guards which i replaced with a set of steel covered knee pads i also bought a few more rounds of 357 mag ammunition then I took hard look at what was available and ended up trading the lever action for some trail rations and water. With my new supplies and apparently looking less like a raider in decided that it was perhaps time i decided what I was going to do so I started thinking about my options first i could stay in good springs settle down and live pretty well in a community or i could try exploring but that was risky lastly I could settle down in some place I built myself which I honestly liked that option the best though I'd have to locate a place that was unoccupied and claim it but I liked that option the most so using the last of my rapidly dwindling caps i bought a pickaxe and seed and then set out on my own.
I walked for days finding destroyed buildings and I'd stop loot building materials and any tools before continuing on then repeat it at the next building I came to I had gathered a decent haul of sheet metal nails and a few boards by the time i found a spot up a narrow pass. The place I found was once a camp of some kind there was a camper pulled up next to a long burned out fire pit and a picnic table and all of it was up a narrower section of trail and mostly impassable by anything large enough to be a danger. Once i had the spot i left my travois of building materials and looked around the area for anything else I could use and found a smaller camper and after some thinking and careful crafting I made a set of wheels for it then painstakingly dragged it up to where I was going to set up my homestead then I headed back down the trail and repeated that with the second camper i had found. When I finished hauling campers I had five of them all total and with some careful modifications I turned the collection into a single decent sized house, I'd left the large camper as the core then positioned each of the smaller campers around the bigger one in such a way that each small camper became a bedroom and while i had to cut holes in the walls I was able to mate each of the smaller campers well enough that even rain couldn't get inside then I had to craft shutters for all of the windows else things could get in like dust or rain. It took months for me to finish the house to my liking but when it was done the place had an internal well hidden in one camper that would let me draw water even if I couldn't go outside something i felt was entirely possible and I had a proper bed in one of the rooms sadly it was not a beautiful one but it was good enough. I installed a door into the end of the main camper and the house was mostly done so I used the remaining sheet metal to armor the outside of my new house and began planting what seeds I could find which amounted to jalapeños, prickly pear, corn, Brock flower, Zander root, banana yucca, barrel cactus, mutfruit, and pinto beans though corn and pinto beans took the majority of what I set aside for food plots.
I had planted triple what I expected to eat in a season but honestly for those first few months I survived off gecko steaks and whatever vegetables I could find growing wild it wasn't exactly easy but I managed fairly well i even smoked some gecko steaks to try to preserve them which ended up in some fairly heavily smoke flavored meat which was edible but not great. I started building cabinets and storage crates which I started filling with dried meat and any food that wouldn't spoil in the heat as well as in one container I started putting bullets, packets of healing powder, and tools it wasn't exactly a treasure trove but it was sufficient for me. I began collecting fission batteries and through some careful wiring I created Electric lighting for my little outpost granted Christmas light strings don't exactly scream cultured but I didn't exactly have allot of choice. I returned to good springs about once a month to sell gecko hides and buy supplies and ammunition and i was doing slightly better than breaking even. I spent allot of time digging rock and carving the walls a bit more vertical to the point where my little place had grown by about ten foot if I had to guess as far as flat ground went and all the stone I carved out went into building a wall to block off the side entrances of my outpost.
Things had been quiet for almost 6 months and then the raiders struck, I had just gone inside my home when I heard them coming so I prepared myself the first raider ripped the door open and took a 308 to the head for his efforts and while i dropped the sniper rifle another raider stepped into the doorway and he took a shot to the face dropping on the spot. I took out the first five raiders then retreated to one of the side rooms while i quickly reloaded then took out another two as they rushed the room before I came out of my room and shot another of the Raiders in the chest and by whatever misfortune this one was wearing decent armor so I had to unload the other three rounds into him before he dropped then quickly reloaded as i once more backed to cover. I was glad I'd taken to wearing the ballistic vest even though I'd have been more comfortable without it on because I ended up taking several hits to the chest before I had cleared out the raiders and there were fourteen of them which was a damn hell of allot of raiders but they also contributed to my stock of supplies mostly with a couple cans of baked beans and assorted bits of junk armor and some decent quality stuff as well as an assortment of weapons from a baseball bat to a 44 magnum trail carbine which was in excellent shape and even a 44 magnum revolver to go with it so I swapped to the carbine and 44 magnum revolver. I hauled the bodies a good distance away and dumped them then headed to good springs to trade for a good collection of 44 magnum ammunition and reloading equipment which included bullet molds extra lead gunpowder and primers as well as 200 shell casings in 44 magnum in assorted conditions.
Setting up a reloading room in my house took a few hours but once it was done it was easy enough to start crafting shells for my pistols but it wasn't quite good enough for me I wanted a proper semiautomatic 44 magnum pistol so I ended up buying a 20kg block of steel and carefully carved out the parts I remembered from my dad's guns. I can't count the number of times I had to buy new blocks of steel before I had the pistol finally finished it was a long slow project made faster when I was finally able to get ahold of a drill press and lathe but finally I had something that worked though i had changed the ammunition halfway through the project and had been forced to triple the recoil springs but it was completed even the bullets were custom made and I'd recorded every step of the process so if i wanted to i could craft another. I had named my new pistol the Hammer it fired a custom 60 caliber round I made by cutting a 50 caliber shell off where it started to narrow then I'd crafted the bullet which amounted to a steel jacketed and steel penetrator cored lead bullet that came in around 650 grains very slightly less than a typical 50 caliberround but larger and my test targets proved tgat it was effective as it put a large hole through the combat armor plate i used as a target and i made quite a few of them even making my own steel cases. I figured that the Hammer would do wonders against anyone or anything I came across though it was heavy and recoiled like a kick from a mule and it was loud but despite that it was actually fairly accurate and my first live targets some particularly tough geckos went down in sprays of gore it was glorious need less to say i swapped entirely to the new caliber when I crafted plenty of bullets for it.
I had swapped the old ballistic vest for a combat armor after the raider raid and it was definitely an improvement but the Hammer was also a huge improvement on it's own and it only took me a year and a half to get it right but damn was it a good feeling to have so powerful a gun especially when I heard about creatures everyone called death claws and then there were the rad scorpions
Who shrugged off bullets neither of which sounded like a good time to run into when people told me that the only reliable way to take them down was with a antimaterial rifle. I had taken down several groups of raiders and honestly I was tired of them coming and the piles of corpses were too damned high already. I started coming up with nonlethal traps and placing them everywhere from simple bear traps to rigged up capacitors that would knock someone out if they stepped on them then I build a few jail cells to hold them in.
It didn't take long after my latest upgrades to my homes defenses before a new group of raiders tried to attack and obviously they avoided some of my traps but in the end I caught most of them and then I got to work. Rehabilitating raiders is not an easy process most of them are on all kinds of chems and they aren't exactly friendly but after a few months and a few more raids which ended the same way I had filled all of my cells and then I had to make a choice so I put down the hardest cases and those too strung out on chems to survive. I ended up with twelve young kids who were just trying to survive and got caught up in the wrong crowd so I put them to work sort of i brought each one to a grave plot gave them a choice either repent their sins and commit to becoming better or get digging and I ended up having several dig their own grave unfortunately but most chose to repent so I upgraded them to a makeshift house and while I did lock them inside they at least weren't in basically individual closets and got better food than I'd given them in my homemade cells.
The average meal on my homestead consisted of a any egg omelet seasoned with jalapeños a slice of corn bread and either a banana yucca or mutfruit and gecko or ant meat fire roasted not exactly a gourmet experience but definitely not starvation either. My nine newly upgraded captives i put to work in my fields and as more raiders came and tested my defenses i added more to my cells weeding out those beyond repentance and eventually allowing those who truly did repent to join the others working my farm. For two years my life consisted of capturing raiders weeding out the degenerates and putting the ones who actually were willing to improve to work i had also been crafting my new Hammer pistols and ammunition in my free time I had even been forced to set some of my recruits to digging into the cliffs to build barracks for the seemingly endless tide of raiders and the occasional recruits i got from them.
After two years I had thirty recruits to my compound as i had started calling it and sure there had been a few who slipped through the screening process but they quickly were put down and then the raids stopped coming so I figured they had been running from something raiders are smart if also scum so i figured a big fight was coming. Knowing that a fight was coming i decided that it was time to turn my recruits into a militia and I pondered my choices for that process before I ended up just walking out to the mess hall during lunch and asking them to vote for their leader unfortunately none of them knew how to read or write so it was by show of hands. After the vote I ended up with a woman known as Wasp she had a sharp mind and a sharp tongue but she was smart which was perfect so I took Wasp aside and told her that starting tomorrow we would be officially forming an army and she would be the second in command then she asked what we would be doing with this army and I replied "well are taking back the wasteland".
I put the recruits through a harsh regiment of training from forced marches with packs filled with stones on their backs to melee fighting stances though mostly just teaching them how to stand so they couldn't get pushed over and how to throw a punch then I pulled out my stock of varmint rifles handed each a few rounds and had them practice marksmanship which felt like a lost cause as they couldn't hit anything but slowly between me correcting their posture and teaching them trigger discipline they slowly improved. While the recruits were training i was busy turning out weapons basically i settled on something like a broadsword with a wickedly sharp point as their standard weapon basically a bigger gladius and when I wasn't doing that I was teaching them to read and write and on my days off from that i bought more steel and weapons which meant my caps ran dry quickly but it was for a good purpose so I persisted.
Crafting the gear my army required was an absolute nightmare but I wanted it perfect so I did it myself and once the swords were finished I worked on the armor which I decided would be a modified version of lorica segmentata with steel plates backed with a double layer of leather which made the armor heavier but also more durable. As i crafted the armor i also set up a goal for my new army to sew knit and weave fabric at the end of the day while they received their evening lessons which gave them good practice in multitasking and it seemed to help the lessons stick. Once the fabric was finished I showed them how to bleach it then how to turn it into capes then I put them through how to properly build walls often pushing their attempts at walls over to demonstrate how terrible their walls were. By the time a year had passed my small army had added new fortifications and built a new outpost outside of my own and were actively recruiting more people to their army which I had now named the Templars and when their armor was finished I presented them their new gear modified lorica segmentata and the broadswords i had crafted as well i gave each of the captains a Hammer pistol and forty rounds which considering that the pistol only held 5 rounds was more than plenty enough and to each i also gave them a hunting rifle in 308 caliber and a large square shield made from the toughest leather i could get my hands on.
The combination of gear i equipped them with gave off a roman empire sort of vibe if the empire had guns and my army of Templars had grown to 100 men and women now with 40 more who had failed the training working as auxiliaries. The diet around my homestead had changed though corn bread was still a staple it was now sweetened and spicy the Templars had upgraded the base recipe to add jalapeños and mutfruit but otherwise the meals consisted of stew filled with potatoes someone had started growing jalapeños for spice some meat either any or gecko and a bit of whatever else someone decided to experiment with that day and while eggs were a staple they were harder to source for an army. I was honestly astounded by how quickly my 30 recruits had turned into a proper army two years after I decided that I'd need to form some kind of defensive militia here i had an army over 100 strong.