Silath's Journal: Day 3 - October 21, 2281

Came across some wierd talismans on the road north this morning. They were made of twigs and branches in the shape of men, with what looked like wings made of sticks. It was a strange site.
A little further on was a town; my pipboy identified it as 'Bonne Springs', I guess it has locations pre-programmed in, but for some reason can't identify them until I get close enough. Who knows with pre-war technology though. In any case the town was swarming with hostile gang members, a dozen or so.
Of course I didn't know this until they started shooting at me, so I dove behind some rocks and started sniping at one of them. As soon as I took him out though, another bastard launched a grenade at me, ripped up my arm and leg pretty good. Thankfully I put enough bullets in him to send him to hell before I got another grenade launched at me.
That left several more of the fuckers, but thankfull they were all in the same direction, so I just hid behind the rock and popped out to take them down one at a time. The town itself was all collapsed and gutted buildings, nothing useful there. But one of the gang members had some combat armor, in decent condition, which I liberated. Also found two plasma grenades, among other random junk I took for trading later.

After that, and enough med-x to let me set up camp, I went through a decent amount of medical supplies fixing myself up. Stimpacks don't cut it for those more sever injuries. I slept for a few hours and then kept moving north; on the way out I noticed more of the wooden talismans; perhaps they're some sort of territorial marker for that gang?
The crazy thing is, I took out a shitload of them. Granted if I had been a little slower that grenadier might've blown me to smithereens, but still. Whats even crazier is that I engaged them instead of just running like I should have. Why did I kill them? I couldn't say. They were there, they were trying to kill me as soon as they saw me... and it pissed me off.
I was scared, yeah, but I was mad. Not just mad, but enraged... at the same time, I felt a sort of calmness when I was aiming down the sights of that rifle and pulled the trigger. I can't explain it.
I do know I don't feel any remorse about it. That might be hard to understand, but if you had seen them... they were more like rabid beasts than human beings. These weren't people. They were the enemy. And every one of them I kill is one less that they can butcher, flay open and pin to a wall with spikes... there's nothing human about those motherfuckers.

I came across more of these gang members a short while later. Dunno if they were part of the same group or not, but they were just as nasty. Put them down to. Maybe they're sick, the wasteland changed them somehow and thats why they are like they are? I dunno...
Anyway, I used a similar tactic on them. As soon as they started shooting I booked it to a boulder, peeked around and started picking them off. For as fierce as they are they're pretty damn stupid.
Nearby though I found something interesting, a radio broadcast building. My pipboy identified it as 'Freetech Broadcasting Station'. Inside were some very well equiped soldiers; friendly, thankfully. Apparently the building lays on top of some place called 'The Underground', a massive series of fallout shelters.
Inside I was able to do some trading with a guy named Hayward and a Dr. Vanderend, picked up some more ammo and medical supplies. Unfortunately they didn't have any water to give me, and by this point it was getting dark outside.
I only had a little water left, so rather than set up camp and wait out the night I decided to use the nightvision module Dr... I already forgot his name. Shit... Doctor Mitchell? I think. Guy saved my life and I can't even remember his name, how sad is that?
Well... anyway, as I left the radio station I ran into even MORE fuckbags, they were trying to assault the building I guess. But they were easy pickings with the soldiers from the station helping me out. This whole area seems infested with them, I'll have to be extra cautious. A little ways up the road a few more of them were gathered around a campfire; once again I just sniped them off.
One of them had another service rifle in decent condition though, and I was able to use some of the parts to repair my own modified rifle. It's really served me well so far.
Down the road were some suburbs, on the outskirts of a massive junk wall that seems to surround the vegas strip. It's wierd, because I can remember that it IS the vegas strip, but I couldn't tell you any details about it... aside from the fact it's a relative safe haven. I think I'll try to get inside tomorrow. Could use a decent nights rest.
Just outside the wall though, was a place my pipboy told me was a cistern. Water! Inside were two NCR soldiers, friendly enough. They let me drink my fill of water and fill up my bottles, and even let me sleep inside.
I'm not a big fan of big governments like the NCR (Again with the selective memories, what the fuck brain?) but all things considered there's worse organizations out there. At least these guys don't shoot me on sight.
I chatted with the NCR soldiers for a little bit before I fell asleep, but they mentioned a war against Ceasers Legion. Ceasers Legion sounded vaguely familiar, but I had no idea there was a war going on. For some reason, whenever I think about it I get the feeling I've forgotten something really important... keeps nagging at me...