The Rebuilder's Guide

Well shoot Child! You come by the junkyard and I'll talk yer ear off about all sorts of stuff!

Course I got some child! Whatya wanna know? You hungry? I'll have babygirl make us some spam!

"Well now Charles Montgomery Fontleroy was the name my mama gave me, God rest her soul. 'Junkyard Charlie' was what folks started calling me on account that I live in a junkyard and my income is based off of all sorts of scrap. When folks hear the word scrap they usually just associate it with items of the metal persuasion. I deal in more than sheet metal and car parts! Medical supplies, scrap electronics, broken appliances that just need some lovin care, you can find them all in my shop!

Where was I? Oh yes! My mama and my daddy lived here in these parts afore the Day of the Clouds. Daddy said I blessed them with my presence twenty-some years later. Mama was fixin to have another chitlen but both her and my sister died during the birth. A little later on my daddy died from some nasty infection on account that there wasn't many folks round this part that were good at mending folks. I reckon that woulda been roundabouts thirty or so years ago.

I got to doing well fer myself as a wandering junk trader and met the most wonderful woman ever. Fer some damn fool reason she decided to marry me and we settled back at my parent's homestead and opened up shop. Course it aint what most folk would consider a shop, you just come knock on my door and say you're gonna look around, once you find what you're needing just come on back with yer caps. A nice glass of tea always gets you a discount mind you!

So anyway, Martha Ann gave me four chitlens before she passed, my wonderful babygirl Ann Marie and my three idiot sons.

Hope that answered yer question! Anything else you wanna know? How bout some iced tea?

"Well if I told you my secret to survival I'd have to kill ya! HAHAHA! No I'm just playing with ya. The fact is my shotgun has saved my life more times than once. You gotta find a group of folks that you know you can trust to have yer back. Sure there's plenty of monsters, and bandits and ghouls out there, but the really dangerous individuals are the ones that will drink tea with you and then put a knife in yer back.
However ya gotta be cautious but not too cautious. People who stick their necks out every once in a while tend to reap the benefits.

It's a good idea to make yerself useful by picking up some sort of trade or needed skill. That way folks would rather keep ya around instead of putting a pillow over yer face and popping off a few rounds in yer sleep.

Say, you got some tools with ya there? I got this here contraption that could use a fixin."

"Well shoot child yer the only one that's come round these parts for a while. You might as well give it a shot, don't reckon you can break it any more than it is.

What else ya need ta know fer yer readin book?"

"Hmm... Well that's a pretty good question. Ya see out here in the wastes there aint much of anything. Settlements get created and afore ya know it everyone's dead or gone missing. There is the town of Ashland up North, take a person the better part of a day to walk there. They got lawmen up there but I reckon slavers are the real ones in charge. There's some folks called the Freetraders that do business there, they deal in higher quality items. If you ever come across one of them don't get any ideas about jacking them for their wares, I hear word that they're all synced up or somethin and know when one goes offline.

Down South a bit there's a network of tunnels that'll lead ya to the springs. Over the years folks have tried setting up pipes to get the water up and running for easier access but they usually give up. Sure would be nice to not have to walk so far to get a drink of good water.
Then over East aways ya got a handful of farms. Nice folk who come in every so often fer supplies.
Little ways past those farms is an outpost for the Republic of Carolina, gotta say they're a lot nicer than those Northern Enclave jerks.
Then waaay out West ya got them Lakota, bunch of folk who decided to get back to the grass roots of things and really live off the land. Fella calling himself Chief Roaring Bear calls the shots round those parts.

Course ya got Tassy who just sat up a shop down the way. She's a bit of an odd one but if yer lookin for a lice-free bed and some grub I'd look her up.
Bunch of the locals gather round there fer drinks and a game of cards. Til Tassy can figure out how to make decent tea though I aint got much reason to go."

"That weird lookin feller has a point! Keep yer eye protection on. Dunno what caused it but the sun shines brighter these days and it's best you keep yer eyes covered!"