TRANSMITTING...

Date: 8.23.2224
Time: 10:07 AM

Covered more ground than I expected.

Didn't stay downtown long. Long enough to learn what I needed. Short enough to avoid becoming part of the scenery.

The boulevard treated me well.

Open sightlines.

Few places for surprises to hide.

In a world like this, that's worth more than comfort.

Crossed near a bayou.

The water is dark.

Not muddy.

Not exactly.

Just...old.

Like it's been collecting secrets longer than anyone has been alive to tell them.

The air changed, too.

Caught the smell of old gasoline.

Fuel.

Oil.

The kind that settles into docks, steel, and earth until the place breathes it back at you.

Off in the distance I spotted old warships resting near what used to be a shipyard.

They're still standing.

Or at least enough of them are.

I'm not going that way.

Curiosity has buried plenty of people before me.

The road east is still the assignment.

The Pip-Boy map marks me HERE.

That's enough.

Anyone listening doesn't need my exact position.

Only proof that somebody is still walking.

One more thing...

I started pressing buttons on this Pip-Boy and found something I wasn't expecting.

Music.

Whoever loaded this thing had good taste.

Now I've got "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells playing while I walk.

Didn't expect my first soundtrack after waking up a century and a half later to be an old Houston classic.

Some things survive in ways you never predict.

Signal ending.

Still moving.

— Big Chief Mike Marcel