Pulowski Preservation shelter

Pulowski Preservation shelters were a series of inexpensive shelters created before the Great War by Pulowski Preservation Services. Each was designed for a single occupant and were marketed as a budget nuclear shelter and a "sensible", "affordable" alternative to Vaults. The player can loot them for supplies or use them as temporary shelter from hostile wildlife and characters (although they provide no protection from indirect damage from radiation or explosions).

Characteristics
The shelter was manufactured in two major variants deployed across the Eastern Seaboard. Both were designed to house a single person, protecting them from environmental factors and providing with a steady supply of filtered, radiation-free air. Although they were marketed as an alternative to Vaults, they were anything but. A Pulowski shelter stood no chance of surviving direct contact with either the blastwave or overpressure effects, while providing only modest protection from radiation. Due to the absence of any sort of supplies, occupants who decided to use one of those had to either bring their own food and water or suffer thirst and hunger while waiting for the radiation to clear.

The two models of Pulowski shelter differed in appearance and minute details, but were otherwise remarkably similar. The first variant was an all-metal, grey container with an air filter mounted below and required exact change to use, providing additional income to the shelter's operators in the course of the many drills before the Great War. The second variant was a little more pleasant, with an internal light, breathing masks, and a advertisements that played for the duration of the stay:


 * Getting hungry? Try a Yawk Brat once this thing blows over.
 * Need a fresh start? Try a fresh suit from Fallon's. Tell 'em Pulowski sent ya!
 * Boy I sure could go for a cup about now. Stop in at Slocum's Joe, the Bostoner's choice.

Both variants include a suction hose to evacuate biological waste.


 * 1st generation

Efficacy
The shelters were hardly adequate for long-term use and many contain the remains of those who chose to gamble and hide inside them from the nuclear holocaust. Although some perished from radiation, starvation, or thirst, others seem to have taken their lives using whatever means they had at their disposal, finding themselves unable to cope with the end of the world. Some would be used in creative ways by various people after the Great War. Although ineffective against radiation or nukes, they can provide a degree of protection against wildlife, as Bryan Wilks of Grayditch found out, hide the inhabitant from prying eyes, or even be used as an isolation cell for punishing unruly slaves. The latter option was favored by the rulers of Paradise Falls. The Box, as it was called, was one of the more terrifying punishments inflicted on the hapless slaves. The lockable shelter was controlled by Forty and around the time the Lone Wanderer found the place, it was used to break Rory Maclaren.

Fallout 3
A total of 20 Pulowski Preservation are located throughout the Capital Wasteland (including "The Box").
 * Arlington Cemetery South: contains a mannequin, two shot glasses, sexy sleepwear, and wine.
 * Arlington Library: Contains a skeleton with 10mm pistol, two magazines of 10mm rounds, and Guns and Bullets.
 * Chevy Chase: Contains one skeleton.
 * Chevy Chase Metro: One frag mine in front of hatch, contains three bottles of purified water, a lead pipe and a teddy bear.
 * Dupont Circle: Contains two skeletons, a stimpak a Vault-Tec lunchbox, and a .32 pistol. It is possible that a parent and child were in this shelter.
 * Falls Church: Contains ammunition box of .32 caliber rounds, ammunition box of 5mm rounds, and two bottles of dirty water.
 * Flooded Metro: Contains one skeleton, a Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual, a pulse grenade and two stimpaks. A Chinese remnant possibly occupied this shelter.
 * Georgetown parking lot: Empty.
 * Georgetown West: Contains five beers, three cherry bombs, a box of Fancy Lads Snack Cakes, a Nuka-Cola Quantum, some railway spikes, and a box of Sugar Bombs.
 * Grayditch: Contains Bryan Wilks during the quest Those!
 * Hubris Comics HQ: Contains a conductor, a Dean's Electronics, a hammer, a motorcycle gas tank, and two wrenches. A mechanic possibly occupied this shelter.
 * L'Enfant West: Contains a skeleton, a Big Book of Science, a bottle of wine, and a pair of eyeglasses.
 * Paradise Falls: Converted into "The Box" for confinement, contains Rory Maclaren.
 * Pennsylvania Avenue, east of Metro: Contains a deactivated protectron and a box of small energy cells
 * South of Rivet City: Empty.
 * Takoma Park: Contains a recently dead wastelander with random chems and bobby pins, ammunition box with random ammunition.
 * The Capitol Building, outside the east exit: Contains a briefcase, a Lying, Congressional Style, and four pre-War money. Due to its location and what is inside, it is likely that a Senator or Representative occupied this one.
 * Vernon Square: Contains a skeleton, a radiation suit, and Rad-X. A scientist, or possibly a well-supplied citizen, may have occupied this shelter.

Point Lookout has a shelter hidden away in the boardwalk area, used to hide a dummy NPC that allows Professor Calvert to speak to the player. The shelter is meant to obscure the brain's presence.

Fallout 4

 * College Square: Off the main square on the xxxxx side, locked xxxxx with a feral ghoul inside.
 * D.B. Technical High School: Behind the structure, inside a deceased feral ghoul, an overdue book, and a pencil.
 * Lexington: Under the highway, surrounded by the skeletons of desperate soles seeking refuge. Inside the skeleton of an American serviceman, cradling a Mini nuke
 * Gunners Plaza: There are two in the eastern parking lot. Although the southern one is empty, the northern of which has a skeleton of a soldier holding Psycho, another psycho rests at his feet.
 * Wilson Atomatoys corporate HQ: Off the southeastern corner of their parking lot exit, next to the stairway. It is empty.