Date: 8.31.2224
Location: I-10 East | Outside Beaumont, Texas

I woke early and got back on I-10.

Beaumont was ahead.

The road was quiet. Almost too quiet.

Nothing but broken pavement, marshland, and the occasional rusted sign giving me directions to places that probably hadn't existed in two centuries.

I kept moving.

All quiet.

That lasted until I got within the bounds of Beaumont's metro area.

The Pip-Boy caught it first.

A faint radio wave.

Weak.

Buried underneath static.

It sounded like hell.

I tried to ignore it.

I couldn't.

I slowed down and listened.

There it was again.

A low, distorted transmission buried somewhere inside the interference. Not music. Not a distress call I could make out. Just something pushing through the dead air hard enough to let me know it was there.

Whatever it was, it wasn't coming from Beaumont.

At least, not from anything I could see.

I kept the radio low and continued down the highway.

Then I saw a sign.

GOOD NIGHT INN

The letters were faded, but the sign was still standing.

And there were lights in that direction.

I stopped.

Lights meant power.

Power meant somebody had either maintained the place or something was still running inside it.

I pulled up the location on the Pip-Boy.

The map loaded.

The route wasn't far.

I followed the route.

— Big Chief