Forum:How did all the people survive the holocost

I was wondering, there are all these people wandering around, how did they survive the great war when they where nuked by China, i understand the ones that survived that were hidden in vaults but what about the other ones that were not in the vaults, how did they survuve like the ones from megaton.
 * Probably in lots of different ways. Vaults weren't the only fallout shelters after all, people survived in subway tunnels, sewers, renting a room in the strangely-untouched Tenpenny Tower, having lead-based paint covered walls, there are heaps of non-Vault options. Also, the entire population of the Capital Wasteland could be descended from a dozen people who had 200 years of breeding time. Ishotamaninnewreno 14:26, February 13, 2010 (UTC)

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Obviously the population decreased from what was probably one million in the metropolitan D.C. area to what is currently a few thousand at best.