Roland Owins's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Roland Owins adjusted his glasses and studied the faded map spread across the wooden table. The tabby cat's paw traced a route from Fort Orynth through the mountains. Somewhere out there, buried deep in the wasteland, sat a legendary pre-war supply cache. He'd spent five years collecting clues, following dead ends, and piecing together fragments of old military records. Now he finally had a real lead. The old SuperMart stood three blocks from his current position. Its faded white and blue concrete walls had been fortified with scrap metal and reinforced doors. Roland had claimed it two weeks ago, clearing out the debris and setting up his command center on the second floor. The building would serve as his base while he searched the surrounding territory. From the roof, he could see the entire valley and the mountains beyond. He pulled the Vault-Tec military map from its red Battleboard Swift carrier. The sixty-year-old document crinkled in his paws. Numbered coordinates marked the edges, and Fort Orynth sat prominently in the center. Three locations were circled in faded pencil. Roland compared them to his collection of surveyor posts he'd cataloged over the past month. One post, planted near the old highway, had numbered rings etched into its metal surface. The rings matched coordinates on the map. Roland folded the map carefully and slipped it back into the carrier. He packed his bag with supplies and headed for the door. The surveyor post would be his starting point. If he could find two more posts and triangulate their positions, he'd finally pinpoint the cache. Five years of searching was about to pay off.