The_WitchDoctor
It Wandered In From the Wastes
The name isn't settled on yet... though I've got a few ideas going. A possible candidate for said name is "Path I Walk", but really, it's not awfully creative.
A man goes camping with five of his friends, one of them whom is his brother. His wife stays at home on leave, taking care of their newborn infant child. During the camping trip, and worldwide nuclear war sparks, destroying every major city. Luckily, the protagonist isn't in the radiation-wind direction. Unluckily - his child and wife were in one of the cities that had been bombed. They survive in the woods for as long as they can (a few months) off the local flora and fauna, and what scavenging they can do. This eventually lasts so long however before the radiation stats killing off anything edible, and nearby General Stores are picked clean after time. With no other choice; the man and his five friends turn to raiding other survivalists and scavengers to survive (and may or may not possibly partake in cannibalism once before they decide that raiding will be the only way they can survive). The protagonist eventually makes a trip back to the city where he formerly lived with his now deceased wife and child, nearly seven years later after the radiation drops from lethal levels. He takes said journey to finally close that chapter in his life and come to peace with the fact that his family is gone. There, he finds the shadow of his wife on a broken wall where his house once stood. After searching thoroughly, he discovers that there is a chance his child might be alive through his wife's luckily preserved (but badly scorched) journal. The journal explains his child had indeed actually been picked up by his wife's brother and sister-in-law two days after he had left so his wife could get "peace and rest". They had lived in a small, somewhat isolated town which most likely had not been hit, nor subjected to heavy concentrations of radiation. He then embarks on a journey to find said child. His brother and once best friend, turned leader of the band of raiders that was once nothing more than a camping trip, doesn't like this - and asks (or orders, will be up to reader to decide) to stay put in camp. As our story protagonist contemplates leaving, he watches his brother, and once good man with a wife and child, just like the protagonist descend further and further into insanity, doing terrible things to people, even when nothing is to be gained. When he brings home a "slave" whom he plans to turn into a sex slave for himself and the members of his raiding party, the protagonist finally decides to leave. At night, he retrieves and frees said "slave" without being noticed, and together they leave the camp in search of our protagonists lost child. At first, the "slave" doesn't trust said protagonist, whom was a former member of the very raiding group that took her hostage. Over time however, their bond grows and they eventually kindle a romantic (it is not fully in motion and still stays somewhat platonic, but the general feeling of love and deep care for the other form obviously in front of the readers eyes) companionship in each other as they make the journey to search for his lost child. When his former brother awakens to find both him and said slave gone, he finishes his descent into insanity. He takes the entire raiding camp (which has slightly grown in size, since it was just a camping trip) to find them. As they search together for his possibly alive child, they must not only avoid his former comrades, but other dangers of the wasteland - cannibals, mutated (of sub-par "realistic" variety) animals, and other groups of survivors.
For the quarter of the novel, it will focus solely on scavenging and surviving, and how the members of his camping trip deal with their losses (suicide will make a few appearances in this novel). The second quarter will focus on how even good, moral men can be turned to do terrible things in desperation. The second half focuses on our protagonist, who becomes sort of the "story antagonist" in the second quarter, reverting back to a protagonist role once he finds out his child may be alive, and embarks on a journey to find his child with a new companion. The antagonist role then switches from himself to his brother; if not the world around them itself. The themes will be, as follows "idle happiness with life, foolish in the way that it could never change", "desperation turns the moral into the immoral, and vice versa", and finally "seeking redemption and hope in a world where there seems to be none".
I still plan to continue and finish the Fallout novel, also. The novel will have a Alice In Wonderland phrase or quote before each chapter is begun.
Keep in mind this is the just a basic rough draft for concept ideas.
Ignore the typo in the name of this thread.
A man goes camping with five of his friends, one of them whom is his brother. His wife stays at home on leave, taking care of their newborn infant child. During the camping trip, and worldwide nuclear war sparks, destroying every major city. Luckily, the protagonist isn't in the radiation-wind direction. Unluckily - his child and wife were in one of the cities that had been bombed. They survive in the woods for as long as they can (a few months) off the local flora and fauna, and what scavenging they can do. This eventually lasts so long however before the radiation stats killing off anything edible, and nearby General Stores are picked clean after time. With no other choice; the man and his five friends turn to raiding other survivalists and scavengers to survive (and may or may not possibly partake in cannibalism once before they decide that raiding will be the only way they can survive). The protagonist eventually makes a trip back to the city where he formerly lived with his now deceased wife and child, nearly seven years later after the radiation drops from lethal levels. He takes said journey to finally close that chapter in his life and come to peace with the fact that his family is gone. There, he finds the shadow of his wife on a broken wall where his house once stood. After searching thoroughly, he discovers that there is a chance his child might be alive through his wife's luckily preserved (but badly scorched) journal. The journal explains his child had indeed actually been picked up by his wife's brother and sister-in-law two days after he had left so his wife could get "peace and rest". They had lived in a small, somewhat isolated town which most likely had not been hit, nor subjected to heavy concentrations of radiation. He then embarks on a journey to find said child. His brother and once best friend, turned leader of the band of raiders that was once nothing more than a camping trip, doesn't like this - and asks (or orders, will be up to reader to decide) to stay put in camp. As our story protagonist contemplates leaving, he watches his brother, and once good man with a wife and child, just like the protagonist descend further and further into insanity, doing terrible things to people, even when nothing is to be gained. When he brings home a "slave" whom he plans to turn into a sex slave for himself and the members of his raiding party, the protagonist finally decides to leave. At night, he retrieves and frees said "slave" without being noticed, and together they leave the camp in search of our protagonists lost child. At first, the "slave" doesn't trust said protagonist, whom was a former member of the very raiding group that took her hostage. Over time however, their bond grows and they eventually kindle a romantic (it is not fully in motion and still stays somewhat platonic, but the general feeling of love and deep care for the other form obviously in front of the readers eyes) companionship in each other as they make the journey to search for his lost child. When his former brother awakens to find both him and said slave gone, he finishes his descent into insanity. He takes the entire raiding camp (which has slightly grown in size, since it was just a camping trip) to find them. As they search together for his possibly alive child, they must not only avoid his former comrades, but other dangers of the wasteland - cannibals, mutated (of sub-par "realistic" variety) animals, and other groups of survivors.
For the quarter of the novel, it will focus solely on scavenging and surviving, and how the members of his camping trip deal with their losses (suicide will make a few appearances in this novel). The second quarter will focus on how even good, moral men can be turned to do terrible things in desperation. The second half focuses on our protagonist, who becomes sort of the "story antagonist" in the second quarter, reverting back to a protagonist role once he finds out his child may be alive, and embarks on a journey to find his child with a new companion. The antagonist role then switches from himself to his brother; if not the world around them itself. The themes will be, as follows "idle happiness with life, foolish in the way that it could never change", "desperation turns the moral into the immoral, and vice versa", and finally "seeking redemption and hope in a world where there seems to be none".
I still plan to continue and finish the Fallout novel, also. The novel will have a Alice In Wonderland phrase or quote before each chapter is begun.
Keep in mind this is the just a basic rough draft for concept ideas.
Ignore the typo in the name of this thread.
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