Enclave? In Mojave? Where?

A week passed, and the doctor took off the breathing and nose feeding tubes. Still, an IV was still attached to my hand, and I was still under observation by the doctor. It felt good to be able to walk again, though. The bandages were something, but they didn't bother me too much.

"So, how's the feeling of being able to talk again, what's your name?"

"Enzo, just call me Enzo," I said.

"Enzo. Yeah, Enzo. So, Enzo, you have been in this hospital for quite a while, so, you must have a lot of questions, feel free to ask," the doctor said.

"First of all, what's the Enclave doing in Mojave? Aren't you like… gone?" I said. "Sorry for my words, but I just find it impossible to believe that you guys still exist." I toned down my words a little. Couldn't really act impolite to my rescuer.

"Good question. Most wastelanders would call us a genocidal maniac bastard, and we'll have President Richardson and President Eden to thank for it. So, to answer your question, not really, we're not gone," the doctor said, he sipped on his coffee. "We're still here, to rebuild the U.S.A from scratch. However, in a less radical way than our predecessor."

Less radical way? So, this was some sort of detachment from the regular Enclave? Or was this the only remnant of the Enclave? I didn't really know. However, I'd been led to believe that this place was more of a place where the Enclave was stationed.

I wasn't exactly a supporter of a genocidal movement either, but I did see a little bit of merit to reuniting America under its old world flag, especially since the NCR and the Legion weren't able to replicate some of the technological advancements that the Enclave had made in the past.

They were resourceful, at least for themselves, but some of their decisions weren't exactly justifiable at the end of the day. And this detachment of Enclave seemed to be different from the Enclave that I knew from some previous games.

And this place? The construction was really similar to the construction of a regular vault made by vault-tec, but instead of a number on the door, there was only the Enclave insignia. E with a star surrounding it. The vault didn't exactly reinforce the usage of blue and yellow like a regular vault but instead switched between white, grey, and multiple other colors that fitted their color palette. Light gray seemed to be the most dominant color here.

"What's this place? Can I know?"

"Vault E, a vault located on the south of Mojave Wasteland. You know searchlight airport, a little bit south of that place," the doctor smiled.

No wonder they managed to retrieve me. The place where they placed the children as decoys were indeed near Camp Searchlight, the place where the NCR maintained a somehow thin footing. Still, there were people stationed there, so there was that.

No matter what the NCR did, they were simply stretched too far into the Mojave, wasting manpower and getting logistical issues thanks to the hit-and-run tactic that the Legion used against them. Still, this Enclave, how did they go unnoticed?

"Vault E? What's the purpose of this vault?" I asked the doctor.

"We're not with Vault-Tec, young boy, we don't follow Dr. Braun's sadistic experiment or whatever. However, the main goal of this vault is to develop electronics, and military prototypes," the doctor explained.

"Hmm?"

"The ventilators? The ECG machine next to you? That's the result of this Vault's development for over one hundred years," the doctor said.

"Wow, that's cool to hear. Still, why did you rescue me?"

"A hero that rescued children from Legion slavers, what's not to like?" The doctor shrugged.

"I don't understand."

"We need you. America needs you. Listen, this branch of Enclave has a severe personnel issue, and recruiting anyone we could without alerting the NCR do the trick just fine."

Personnel issue? So, they were not after me, they were after the children that the Legion slavers kidnapped to be indoctrinated by Enclave doctrine. Well, for long-term manpower, that was a good solution. Nothing was better than indoctrinating people from a young age. After all, they would believe in Enclave's cause since they were little.

"Hmm, so you want me to join the Enclave, why?" I asked.

"Because you are resourceful. From the looks of it, you seem not to believe the NCR cause nor the Legion cause," the doctor said.

"I am not exactly a supporter of the NCR, but it just happened that our goals are oftentimes the same. However, I don't know what'd happen after the NCR took control of the Mojave, would they make it their own colony or something?" I commented on my view about the NCR.

"And here, we are concerned about bigger threats. Bigger than even the Legion or the NCR, do you want to know what it is?"

"What?"

"Communism. That's right, my boy, that's the bigger threat. NCR and Legion wouldn't be bothered to even notice that there might be something else on the other side of the ocean. What if they decide to invade the USA? They'd not stand a chance," he said.

"Good point. But still not convincing enough," I said, retaliating the offer. I still had my doubts about the Enclave. They were the United States government, the government of the old world, and my government, but their ideals were questionable.

Not to mention that pre-war America and the real-world America that I knew were far different. America in this era was more autocratic, probably because of the continuous conflicts and the internal risk of civil war. I wasn't sure how I needed to react to that.

"Look, we care about our people, America's people. I'm honest about it, we have research teams here who genuinely care about the fate of their country. Call me idealistic, but you need to watch the television," the doctor said.

"TV? Why should I? There's no TV that worked in the whole wasteland," the doctor said.

"Well, there are TVs here, watch this," the doctor said as he led me to another room.

He led me to some sort of waiting room, probably for patients. Of course, I had to drag my IV stand to that place. He let me sit down on one of the couches and he turned on the TV. It was not like the TV of our world, but it was colored at the very least, something that I found to be surprising.

The image was clear, similar to our world's television, but still boxed inside of a wooden frame. Was it an old TV or something? Still, it was rather thin, similar to an LCD television, but hey, I really didn't know. The show was "Back in Wasteland."

It was airing on television. The person might be carrying a hidden camera and it was clear that the person was giving something to the locals. I saw that it was a box filled with food and drugs. The person was accompanied by two other people, all of them looked nothing like Enclave personnel. They looked just like an ordinary civilian. There were people lining up to retrieve the food.

"This is a place called Freeside," a person explained as the person using the hidden camera began to walk. Decrepit buildings were scattered and multiple poor people were shown in the camera. "As you all can see, this is what Wasteland looks like. Without these foods, people from this place would eat rats. Imagine it, rats living in the sewer entering your stomach."

How to say it? It was like a Humanitarian mission to Freeside. If that was the case, no wonder why this branch of Enclave was so idealistic. The idea that they were the only people that could restore the wasteland was embedded in their brains with internal propaganda. After looking at the tech here, I was convinced as well.

"Ma'am," a Freeside child put her hand on one of the women. "Can I get some candies?"

The woman kneeled down and gave the child two pieces of candy, "Here you go, sweetie. Where are the rest of your friends, they might also want some." The woman smiled and the child walked away from the camera.

Yeah, it was a humanitarian mission, and with the lack of obvious Enclave presence in Mojave Wasteland, it might be likely that they were focused on humanitarian, scout, and propaganda missions. I didn't see any patrol whatsoever.

"Convinced, yet?" he asked.

"Kinda, but it doesn't mean I trust you, though."

"We don't expect trust from you, but we do expect a little bit of belief in our cause. Please, we have not always been the bad guys. So, do you want to join the Enclave?" he asked.

"Sorry, let me think about it first."