Dogmeat and The roach king?

My first adventure in fallout 3 is to reach the utopia that is the republic of Dave.  From what I hear, it's a small village inhabited by a few people led by someone named Dave.  It sounds amazing.  I'm in the middle of the map and the republic of Dave is in the top right corner.  It's quite a trek.  Additionally, I have to visit a town called minefield (Take the name literally) which is nearby, so I figure i'll stop there on my way.

When I near minefield, I see a gated settlement perched on a hill.  I decide to check it out.  When I get close to it, a notification comes up on the top left of the screen.  It reads:  You have discovered scrapyard.  Memories of the name pop up in my head instantly.  A few years ago, on my very first playthrough of fallout 3, I learnt that  one could acquire a canine companion, and to find him, you have to go to scrapyard.  I tried to find this place, but it had basically disappeared.  I checked it in the strategy guide, went to the place it told me to, but it wasn't there.  So you could imagine how happy I was that I had stumbled upon it perchance.  As soon as I got close to the gates a vicious looking dog runs out to me.  His name is dogmeat.  Suddenly, I hear a female voice calling out.  "Come on, meat!" She says.  I look up to see two raiders charging towards the dog.  Dogmeat valiantly counterattacks, biting and scratching the raiders, while I pull out my assault rifle and execute them in V.A.T.S.  I grab a strapping arclight helmet (Looks like a welding mask) from the dead raider and fit it on my head, discarding my hockey mask as I do.  I then initiate a conversation with the dog.  He barks at me twice while I talk to him.  After a few lines of dialogue, I tell him he should come with me.  When I begin to walk off, he follows me.  My first companion!

Ahh, my brave companion.

Me and dogmeat head into minefield, possibly the most dangerous town in fallout.  If you hadn't guessed it, it's full of mines.  So you can see how that's a problem.  I cautiously walk up the road, disarming and taking mines as I go.  Suddenly, a nearby car explodes and my character groans in pain.  What was that? I didn't step on a mine or anything.  It happens again later on.

When I get further up the village I notice a sniper perched on a derelict building ahead.  He must have been the one who blew up the cars.  I cut off from the main road and flank the building he's in.  Dogmeat charges over a mound of debris, mines exploding as he walks over them, and instantly kills the sniper.  His name was Arkansas.  I take his sniper rifle and ammo and use the parts from it to repair my own sniper.  I find a pistol next to his bed that I can sell, and there's a sawn off shotgun and a hefty amount of sniper rifle ammo.  Before I leave I check a house at the edge of the town.  It's the most depressing place i've ever been in.  A misty old house filled with junk and a few old skeletons.  I salvage some darts and some rubbish I can sell later.

I continue my journey to find the republic of Dave after that.  We traipse across the wasteland in the dead of night, fending off molerats and other mutated beasts.  Then, I see about four enemies ahead of me.  I hit V and V.A.T.S mode activates.  It tells me that radroaches are ahead.  Radroaches are the game's weakest enemies.  They're oversized bugs that take about ten minutes to put a dent in your health.  I stroll up an incline, shooting the roaches with my pesky 10mm pistol.  But suddenly, when I reach the top of the hit, I'm struck by bullets.  Blood splatters on my screen.  I switch into V.A.T.S mode and see that, in front of me is a man wearing rags and wielding a minigun.  His name is... The roach king?  Well, that explains the radroaches around...

He's totally not crazy.

I quickly take care of the roach king while dogmeat dispatches the radroaches around us.  I take his minigun from his hands.  It'll fetch a good price on the market later.  On the hill is a toy rocket ship, like you would find in a children's park, with a mini nuke and some dirty water inside.  Sitting at the foot of the rocket is a tiny chair with two tires surrounding it.  I guess that was the roach king's throne....


And so, the journey to the republic of Dave continues....