Welcome to the Advent Calendar Story Train, where you can read through 24 stories under this year’s theme, Lost.

In the fall of 2008, I found myself hypnotized by the glow of my computer monitor. On it was a videogame called Fallout 3. For those of you unfamiliar with the game or the show, the premise is about living in a post apocalyptic world where technology never developed past 1950s Sci-Fi.  Raiders, slavers, mutants, plague the world and you are a naïve vault dweller experiencing this world for the first time.

During my adventure to find a missing plot device, I stumbled upon a little dog buddy by the name of Dogmeat. Dogmeat is one of the few companions you could have accompany you in the wasteland. He helps you fight monsters, find objects, and keeps you company throughout the vast wasteland of post atomic explosion Washington D.C.

While making my way through Fort Bannister heading to Paradise Falls, I noticed Dogmeat had the ability to find ammo for me. I was stocked up on supplies, so I didn’t really need more ammo, but I was curious what Dogmeat would find for me. Since we were in a relatively quiet area, I sent him out to find some ammo.

Dogmeat happily ran off, excited to find something for me. While he searched for a random box of ammo, I hung around the area and explored the dilapidated ruins of old townhouses and raider hideouts. After about an hour sifting through junk, I started wondering why my dog hadn’t come back. It should have only taken him a few minutes to come back with an item. Since this was a video game, I decided to use some video game tricks to bring my dog back.

I used the wait command to fast forward the passage of time and speed up my dog’s search. After waiting, I looked around and still couldn’t find my dog. My next trick was to find a bed and rest for a full day to force Dogmeat’s search to end. He still didn’t come back. Then I pulled out the last trick in my arsenal, fast travel. Fast travel was a tool used to instantly teleport you from point A to point B. One of the benefits of fast travel is that your companies teleport with you.

I’ve used fast travel several times to get stuck companions out of whatever geometry they get themselves trapped in. As I confidently fast traveled to a new location, I turned around expecting to see Dogmeat panting with excitement. But he wasn’t there. I figured, maybe my dog went home. So I went back to my shack in Megaton thinking he’d be waiting by the door or inside, but he wasn’t. That’s when I realized something awful. My dog must have died.

There was no other logical explanation. Companions always, ALWAYS appear when you fast travel. It’s a rule of the game, a logic in the programming. If player fast travels to location, force teleport companion to player. The only time a companion didn’t teleport is if they were dead. I had lost my best little buddy, all because I sent him out to get ammo that I didn’t need.

I was heartbroken. I also couldn’t cheat and load an earlier save because my last save would have me replay some of the longest and most frustrating levels. None of my cheats and tricks were able to bring back my dog. So, I continued journeying throughout the wasteland, alone, fighting monsters and raiders without my little buddy. How did he die? Did he have an encounter with a Deathclaw or a Super Mutant? It was my fault he got lost and I had to live with that decision the further I got into the game.

One day, as I was exploring the ruins of a Nuka Cola office, I went out into a fenced in plaza and heard a dog bark for my attention. I turned around, and wouldn’t you effing believe it, it was Dogmeat! He wasn’t hurt, wasn’t bleeding, he was just excited to see me. As my dog approached me, a prompt appeared notifying me that Dogmeat had found something. Twelve shotgun shells.

All that grief and misery for twelve shotgun shells? I was just happy to see my dog again, but I swore from that point forward, no more asking my dog to find items for me. The fear of losing my dog was traumatic and not worth twelve measly shotgun shells. Thankfully what was lost, was found.

Thank you for reading today’s story. The next story will be available to read sometime on the 12th December, titled “Undead Penance“. This link will be active tomorrow when the post goes live.

If you missed yesterday’s you can go and read it here.