Palm Tree Stephens

"An eyewitness to man's imperfection. An observer of the very human trait of greed. "

**Fred Stephens** (known as "Palm Tree Stephens" by the Veji tribe) was a veteran inhabiting Ark Canyon after the Apocalypse War. He catalogued his experiences there through a series of terminal entries.

## Background

Fred Stephens was born on February 5, 2053. He served in the armed forces, commenting on the criminality of what he experienced in Canada. After his service, he lived in Salt Lake City, frequently leaving home to spend time in the wild for days on end, much to the dismay of his wife Charlotte and son Alex. He was returning from one of these trips when the Great War occurred. About an hour away from his home on the 77, his truck stopped without warning, as did the carsin the next lane. The first warheads descended upon the city shortly thereafter. The bombardment lasted seven minutes, and Stephens counted 13 separate detonations.

He collected his belongings and started walking back to Zion. After five days, he reached the canyon, taking shelter inside Fallen Rock cave, finding a water source and USGS equipment. A black rain came on October 31 and on November 2, the radiation levels spiked, so much so that Stephens couldn't move within 15 feet of the cave entrance without his Geiger counter detecting lethal levels of radiation.

The situation continued into 2078. After two months of surviving inside the cave, the radiation levels were still lethal. With his water supplies running low, Stephens took to mopping condensation off cave walls and wringing it into bottles but there was food in the cave, stockpiled by the USGS team.

On January 8, a windstorm ripped through the canyons, lasted two days, and cleared out the radioactive fallout, dropping the exposure level by 500 rads by January 10. Five days later, Stephens risked emerging from the cave and found that glowing snow was falling. By January 28 radiation levels dropped, allowing him to drink from a nearby stream as long as he took radiation drugs.

### Two Skies Cave

He set out and established a second location at Two Skies caves. By 2083, Clark stayed at both locations. By May 5, he had identified a list of surviving plants and began to eat the fruit. By May 7, he witnessed clouds of stinging flies in one part of the canyon, with a mutated dragonfly-sized creature feasting on them. On May 19, he spied a bighorner family, which was the first time he had seen larger creatures since the war.

Shortly thereafter, Clark decided to return to his home in Salt Lake City. He prepared for the expedition for a year, departing the canyon on April 10. He reached the city after 15 days of dodging radiation pockets and foraging. He hoped to find his family's home and bury them properly but the area was completely destroyed. He turned back, avoiding areas of human presence along the way.

### Spanish speakers

Over a decade later in September 2095, a group of 28 Spanish-speaking individuals arrived in Zion. Clark watched them closely, without revealing himself and keeping his distance. Not understanding their language, he attempted to discern who they were and what they were doing. In November, one of them broke his leg while hunting bighorners. Clark intervened, first drawing the other survivors to his position with noise and then leaving behind a bottle of antibiotics. By November 15, the man had recovered, and the group considered the event divine intervention.

In February, from his new camp in Stone Bones cave, Clark described a new group that arrived in the canyon, having attacked and killed many of the Spanish speakers. Two women and five children survived and were captured by the new group, placed in a pen.

### Coughers

He described the new arrivals as wearing suits with a 22 on the back, over 100 strong, armed with submachine guns and pistols. He also noted that although they were well organized, with patrols and sentries set up along most approaches into the camp, they exhibited coughing fits, nicknaming them "Coughers." Prior to February 14, Clark planned to infiltrate the camp to attempt a rescue.

However, he was not able to do so, as before he could free the captives, the group killed and ate them. Clark retaliated, ambushing the dwellers where he could and booby-trapped bodies and weapons he could not take. By the end of February, he had killed 24 dwellers and in the ten days it took to accomplish this, he only suffered one wound, a 10mm steel jacket round through the thigh, which missed the femoral artery. Though he remained unseen by survivors, he was forced to move camp when on March 2, a small patrol nearly uncovered his camp when one of the men was caught in a deadfall trap. After he disposed of the intruders, he moved his camp to Cueva Guarache.

After losing more than 80 members of the group to Clark and sickness, the dwellers gave up and fled the canyon, after eating their dead for nourishment. Four days after they left, Clark found one of the group's members left behind, a woman named Sylvie. She was caught in a bear trap, having ran away from the main group, calling them "children of the devil." Clark released her and nursed her back to health. Sylvie confirmed Randall's suspicions that the group had some sort of sickness, but she was healthy and wanted to learn more about life outside of the vault.

### Sylvie

The two began a relationship, and in September 2100, Sylvie discovered she was pregnant. Becoming a father again at 47 scared Clark, but he had not told Sylvie about his family before the war. Anticipating the child's birth, he traveled to Toquerville, to gather what medical gear, medicine and books he could find to assist in the delivery. Despite preparations, Michael, his son, was a breech birth. Clark was unable to turn him and performed a Caesarean section, but it was too late to save him or Sylvie, who never woke up from anesthesia. He buried his second family south of the Narrows, and took some consolation that he was able to say goodbye to them unlike his previous family. He went back to his cave and on March 5 contemplated suicide, but ultimately decided against it and moved to Morning Glory cave. It was here that Clark discovered ghouls, which perplexed him. The ghouls were hostile, so he put them all out of their misery.

### School children

After his 70th birthday, a group of 24 children made their way into Zion, setting up camp at the old site used by the Mexican survivors 30 years earlier. Clark watched them from the shadows, listening to them. They spoke a variant of English, taught each other stories, learned that they escaped from the School, fearing the Principal. Clark wanted to protect them and thought of ways he could use his skills to do so. Unseen as before, he left them gifts such as storybooks, weapon manuals, medical books, and other practical items. He also left them notes, telling them to be kind, that the canyon was their reward, a gift to make up for all the sorrows people visit upon their lives and each other. He told them to be modest, but defend themselves, signing each note "the Father."

In January 2124, Clark knew he was dying. He had a hacking cough tinged with blood and shortness of breath. He gave away most of what he owned to the children, leaving them one final note to reassure them that while the Father would be silent from here on out, he would always be out there to watch over and protect them. Not wanting to die in a place where his body could be found by the children, made his way to the Red Gate. He reflected on his life, what he had accomplished, failed at, strove for, and succeeded in. He ultimately decided that he was satisfied with preparing the group of children for the years beyond, mentioning that it had been, "a gift to me, at the end of it all, to behold innocence."