64Chapter One
To You, 200 Years From Now
"War never changes."
I pretended not to notice that my husband was talking to himself again. I knew that he was nervous and spent every moment he had on rehearsing his speech.
"You're gonna knock them dead at the Veterans' Hall tonight." I smiled, standing by his side in front of the bathroom mirror.
"You think?" Nate raised his eyebrows, clearly not convinced.
"Absolutely." I pushed him on the shoulder playfully. "You look fine, honey."
"Mhm." He nodded, stroking his chin. "I'll just be a minute."
I shook my head with a smile and walked out of the bathroom. I had to start making breakfast anyway... Hold on, I didn't — Codsworth would take care of it. I shook my head at my own forgetfulness. You'd think that after a month of owning the robot, I would have gotten used to the thought of not having to do everything on my own.
I reminded myself that I wouldn't feel as useless anymore soon and I would return to work soon enough. My maternity leave was almost over, anyway — I had decided to only take one year in the end.
I would go back to the court where I belonged, Nate would retire from the army... Just a few weeks more and life was going to calm down. I was going to be able to come home from work at the end of every day to my husband and son. We would live like a normal family, we wouldn't have to worry about the war anymore.
"Ah, good morning, ma'am!" Codsworth greeted as soon as I entered the living room. "Your coffee. 173.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Brewed to perfection!"
"Mechanical precision," I muttered to myself as I took the cup into my hand. "Cheater."
I took a sip. Of course, it was perfect. "Thanks, Codsworth," I added aloud.
"Of course, ma'am!"
Nate walked into the room with a newspaper in his hands.
"Today's paper," he explained. I nodded.
"Anything interesting?"
"War, war... War..." He flipped through the pages. "War... RobCo ad... War..."
"I get the image."
Just then, a baby's crying filled the whole house. Codsworth immediately headed to Shaun's room, saying something about tending to the baby. I snickered.
"You know," I shook my head, still smiling, "I was nervous at first, but Codsworth's really good with Shaun."
Nate nodded over his newspaper — I could see he was only half-listening.
I drank the rest of my coffee and walked to the kitchen to put the empty cup in the sink. I opened the fridge, but, save for a few milk bottles and a half-empty Nuka-Cola, it was empty. I should probably go shopping today...
The doorbell rang and I closed the fridge door, confused. I glanced at the clock. Who could it be this early?
"Can you get that?" Nate asked. "It's probably that salesman. I don't know why he keeps asking for you."
What salesman? I didn't know anything about it... Then again, I had been engaged in a complicated case lately and only now I was enjoying a bit of freedom, so after second thoughts, it made sense that I wouldn't.
I went to the door and opened it.
"Good morning!" It was a middle-aged man dressed in a brown trench coat. "Vault-Tec calling!"
If he asks me to buy a fallout shelter, I'm slamming that door in his face, I promised myself.
"You can't begin to know how happy I am to finally speak with you. I've been trying for days!" I didn't doubt it. Vendors like that could be really persistent. "It's a matter of utmost urgency, I assure you."
"I'm sure it is," I muttered.
"It, um, really is." He laughed nervously. "Now, I know you're a busy woman, so I won't take much of your time. Time being a, um..." I kind of enjoyed seeing him stumble upon his words. Something about the man was off-putting to me, though I wasn't sure what. "A... precious... commodity. I'm here to tell you that because of your family's service to our country, you have been pre-selected for entrance into the local Vault — Vault 111!" He pronounced it as if it were the most amazing thing to happen to humanity since Jesus resurrected.
"Look, you got the wrong person," I said.
"No, no, no!" The salesman shook his head vigorously. "I have got it all black on white here: Nora McLean, army officer—"
"That would be my husband," I said. "I'm a defense attorney. I save people's lives, but in a bit of a different way." I turned back towards the living room. "Nate, honey, this man wants to speak with you!" I called.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Ah, you must be Nathaniel McLean, sir!" The salesman turned all of his irritating attention to my husband, while I tactfully walked away. Which meant that I escaped before he would get the chance to begin talking with me again. I really didn't trust people that cheerful.
Codsworth caught me in the hall.
"Shaun has been changed, but he absolutely refuses to calm down. I think he requires some of that 'maternal affection' you seem to be so good at."
"Uh... Sure." I nodded. I walked to our son's room. Shaun was only one year old, but I couldn't imagine life without him. He was our little angel, that boy. "Hey... What's wrong, sweet pea?" I leaned over the crib and tickled his belly. He giggled immediately. "There we go. That's a smile you should keep on your face."
"Aaand how is my wonderful family doing?" I heard Nate's voice behind me. I looked at him — he was leaning on the doorframe with a small smirk on his face. He nodded at Shaun's bed. "I fixed up that mobile yesterday. Go on, give it a spin. He loves that."
I did so, and was rewarded with a most beautiful giggle from Shaun. He was overjoyed.
"Hey, how's my little guy?" Nate leaned in over the crib. "Much better now, huh?" He looked up from our son at me. "Listen, after breakfast, we could get to the park for a bit. Weather should hold up."
I smiled.
"Seems like a good idea. We could—"
"Sir?! Ma'am?!" Codsworth called from the living room. His mechanical voice had a note of urgency in it. "You should come see this!"
"Codsworth?" I called out. "What's wrong?"
I picked Shaun up from his crib and quickly followed Nate to the living room.
"What is it?" my husband asked. He was as calm as only he could be, but I caught a shiver in his voice.
"Sir, the television" was the only answer we received. I turned my attention to the TV.
"We do have..." the speaker was saying. "We do have coming in... Confirmed reports. That's, uh... I repeat, confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. That's..." He buried his head in his hands, apparently forgetting that he was on live. "Oh, God..." In a burst of static, the image of the studio was replaced with a 'please stand by' sign.
I didn't need to look anymore: the situation was obvious. So terrifying, so impossible, yet at the same time so clear.
China had dropped nuclear missiles on the US.
We were in the middle of an atomic war.
"We need to get to the Vault," Nate said — sternly but urgently. He grabbed my arm, which made snap out of it. "Now!"
He threw the door open.
"You take Shaun," I exclaimed as I pushed the baby into his arms. He would have a better chance of survival if he was held by a trained soldier than me, I thought. That's what mattered.
We ran. I tried not to look at our neighbors, at people who were gathering their belongings instead of running for dear life. Was this really happening? Was it about to happen?! ...Were we going to die?!
I looked up at the sky in time to see a vertibird heading towards Boston. Good that the army was mobilized... But, against a nuclear strike, how much good would that do?
The nearer to the Vault we got, the more people were around. Soldiers in uniform. Soldiers in power armor. Vault-Tec workers, trying to get panicking civilians like us in order.
We reached a gate guarded by two soldiers in power armor.
"We need to get in! We're on the list!" Nate demanded.
One of the soldiers looked through the papers he held in his hands.
"Infant, adult male, adult female... Okay, go ahead."
"Thank you!" I cried out, my emotions getting the better of me. This felt unreal. This couldn't be happening. So many people were refused entrance... How had we made it?
"Good luck, ma'am..." The soldier's words were like a prayer. "And God help us all."
"There, there!" A Vault-Tec worker ushered us to a metal circle on the ground. "Step on the elevator!"
Shaun was crying. Nate and I exchanged desperate looks as we were pushed onto the platform along with ten or so other people.
The elevator began descending soon, but not soon enough. I froze still, my body feeling faraway and alien. I was clearly able to see it: the nuclear explosion after an atomic bomb had been dropped on Boston.
It'd... happened.
It had really happened. First the explosion, then the shockwave. I could see the mass of irradiated air heading in our direction and suddenly, it all became real to me and I regained control of my body. In heat of the moment, I instinctively crouched on the elevator's floor, desperate to get as low as possible. Several other people followed my example. I looked up just in time to see heavy metal doors cover the view of the sky, for good.
The world had just ended. And we were locked inside. Trapped underground.
But at least we were alive.
Everyone was shocked, most of our neighbors whispering "Oh my God" or some variation over and over again, but I just looked to my husband for consolation. He would know what to say. Nate always knew how to stay calm.
"Nate—" I began, but he shushed me — me or the crying Shaun, I wasn't sure.
"We did it," Nate said, but he didn't look at me, instead nervously inspecting our surroundings. "We made it, we're okay. It's going to be okay."
The elevator gate rose and showed us the view of what, I began to realize, would be our new home. It didn't look very homey. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of metal, and the air was significantly colder than on the surface. But it seemed solid. And this deep under the ground, it had to be safe. It just had to be.
"Oh God... Everyone— Everyone is just... dead..." Mr Russel, our next-door neighbor, had his head in his hands. I gave him a brief glance before my attention was turned to an important-looking man in a Vault-Tec lab coat thrown over a blue'n'yellow jumpsuit like I'd seen in Vault-Tec ads.
"No need to worry, folks!" he claimed with a smile that seemed extremely out of place, considering that the nuclear apocalypse had just happened. How could he smile like that when millions of people had just been obliterated? Oh my god... So many dead... "We'll get everyone situated in our new home, Vault 111 — a better future, underground!" Something was off with his tone, like he was forcing himself to remain enthusiastic.
"I can't believe it..." Mrs Able whispered. "If we had— Just a minute later... We would all be..."
"No, no." The man, who had to be the— how did they call them — Overseer, quickly stopped that monologue. "Don't get caught up thinking about all that. You're safe now."
I reluctantly walked up the metal stairs that led into the Vault, hoping that if I did that, I would at least set an example for the others. The Overseer was right. Pondering about what had just happened, about what might have happened — it wasn't healthy. We could mourn later, right? This...
Dear God... The world had just ended, hadn't it? I sent a prayer for all those who hadn't made it. My heart ached. Was Kate alright? Had she been in Boston? Was she... I almost broke down when I thought about my sister burning alive in the nuclear fire.
"Hey." Nate put a hand on my shoulder. "Nora. Come on."
"Vault-Tec is here for you," another cheerful voice came from some speakers I couldn't see. "All new residents please proceed in an orderly fashion." There was a second of silence before the voice added a depressingly cheerful "Welcome home!"
Because this would be our home. We would live in this place, this metal underground base, and... And we would survive. That was it. Even if it wouldn't be a perfect life, it would be a life.
And that was more than most people got.
I looked around as I walked on the catwalk across... whatever was underneath. Probably just dirt and rocks.
"Step over to the table," a Vault-Tec staff member told me, as I was the first person to get there. "Take a suit."
I noticed that, security guards aside, the Vault's entire personnel were wearing those ridiculous blue jumpsuits.
"What size are you?" A kind-looking woman asked when I got to the table upon which the said suits were laying.
"An M," I said. "Thirty-eight." Ever since the war had begun, most things like clothing size, currency or even alphabet hadn't seemed clear, so you had to know a few different ways to put the same thing — I wasn't sure which system Vault-Tec used.
"There you go, ma'am." She handed me a blue jumpsuit identical to the one she was wearing. I noticed that it had a yellow 111 on the back. Cute.
"Where can I...?" I asked and she nodded to a folding screen behind the table. Well, this wasn't as much privacy as I would be comfortable with, but at least it was something. I quickly took off my shirt and skirt and replaced with the brand new Vault jumpsuit. Surprisingly enough, it was actually... quite comfortable. The material was thick yet flexible, and I was pretty sure that the inside was padded with something softer than the outside. Probably to protect from the cold.
"Could you take Shaun while I change?" Nate asked, as always calm — even in situations like this. Military training does its thing. After Anchorage... Well, not much had been able to shake him since.
"Sure." I took the baby into my arms. At least now he was asleep. I hugged him close to my chest, as if that gesture would help me feel that everything was going to be alright from then on. It was alright. We were alive, we were going to be fine.
"How do I look?" Nate asked jokingly. I looked at him. Somehow, the ridiculous Vault jumpsuit looked good on him.
"Like you've lived here your whole life," I replied. I frowned at that thought. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case. "Here. Take Shaun."
"Ah, nothing more comforting than the sight of such a happy family at a time like this," someone said. I immediately turned in that direction, only to see a Vault-Tec doctor smiling at us. "But, we've got things to do. You need to settle in your new home, after all. If you would follow me."
"Sure thing." Nate nodded. He gave me an encouraging smile, which must have cost him an enormous amount willpower, the kinds of which I didn't have. "See? This is where we'll live." I wasn't sure whether he was talking to me or Shaun.
"Oh, you're going to love it here," the doctor said as we walked through a metal hallway. "This is one of our most advanced facilities. Not that the others aren't great, mind you."
We walked in silence for a longer while.
"How long do you think we'll stay here?" I asked.
"I don't know, honey." Nate seemed troubled as he looked around. "But this doesn't seem like a safe place for a child. I don't want Shaun to grow up somewhere he can't enjoy." He sighed. "Have you seen other kids? He's going to grow up alone."
"Hey," I tried to ease his nerves. "At least he's going to grow up at all. We were given a chance that most people didn't get."
"I know." He shook his head. "I know. Sorry, it's just... all I can think about. For all we know, there's a children's area down here."
"Don't worry, sir." The doctor smiled kindly. "The Vault was specially designed for its citizens' highest comfort, I'm sure you'll love it. But. We'll be going over all of that in orientation. There's just a few medical items we have to get through first."
We entered a larger room with several metal containers the size of a man. Each one of them had a comfortable-looking seat and some machinery inside.
I shivered. The air temperature was significantly lower here, although — I had to give credit where it was due — the Vault suit offered a good protection from cold.
"Just step in here," the doctor pointed me to one of the containers. "This will just take a minute. Simple decontamination, everyone's got to get through it."
I nodded; it seemed reasonable. Well. As reasonable as anything could be in this nightmare situation, at least.
"Although I will have to confiscate your spectacles," he said with a friendly smile.
"Huh?" I was confused for a second before laughing out loud and taking off my eyeglasses. "Oh! There you go."
"Thank you. All personal possessions will be returned right after you leave the pod."
I nodded in understanding.
"Can you come over here? Shaun's being fussy," Nate said. I walked to his decontamination pod, right in front of mine.
"Hey, hey," I shushed the crying baby. "It's fine."
"See? Mommy's right here." Nate smiled as he gently rocked Shaun in his arms.
"I won't be going far," I promised my son. And, to some extent, also myself.
Nate took Shaun and stepped into the pod, which closed only a moment afterwards. He smiled at me, probably just to let me know that it was fine. I took the place in mine and watched as the metal door swung closed, trapping me inside. I wasn't normally claustrophobic, but At least there was a window through which we could look out.
The Vault-Tec doctor looked at me through the glass.
"The pod will decontaminate and depressurize you before we head deeper into the Vault. Just relax." He then walked away. I let out a breath.
"Time for a whole new life," I said, quietly, to myself. I looked across the room to see Nate waving at me from inside his pod.
I looked at him as the air grew colder and promised myself that the life we would get was going to be a good one. For both of them.
Then, the air turned so cold that I couldn't look out or even concentrate anymore. I let out one last breath before closing my eyes.
Only blackness followed.
oooOOO***OOOooo
"Manual override initiated. Cryogenic stasis suspended" were the words that, slowly, began to wake me up. I felt dizzy, cold and stiff. My vision was blurred and my body weak. My own breathing seemed loud and heavy as I tried to move and realized I was closed in a small space. The claustrophobia returned, ten times as strong.
I looked out the window to see two people walk to Nate's pod.
"This is the one. Here," one of them said.
"Open it."
The door began to rise slowly and I used nearly all of my strength to bang my fist against the thick glass. Why wouldn't they let me out, too? Oh dear God, I was trapped.
Shaun began crying and Nate coughing as they were released.
"Is it over? Are we okay?" he asked.
"Almost," replied the second stranger. He wasn't wearing a Vault suit or a lab coat like the rest of the staff. What he was dressed in looked more like... armor than anything else. "Everything's going to be fine.
"Come here," the woman reached for Shaun, but Nate held the boy close.
"No, no, I've got him!" He protested when she tried to pry the baby out of his hands. They began to struggle, and all I could do was bang my fist on the window, desperate to be let out. I could help! I could help deescalate this, I could—
The man who I was sure wasn't a Vault-Tec employee pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Nate. I stopped moving, petrified from fear.
"Let the boy go," the stranger growled. "I'm only gonna ask once."
"I'm not giving you Shaun!"
They struggled a bit more and all I could do was watch in terror as the man fired his revolver and Nate went limp.
They... killed him.
"Goddammit!" the man swore, as if it wasn't his fault that he just fired the gun. "Get the kid out of here and let's go!"
He walked over to my pod and looked straight at me. I got a good look at his face, too. He was bald, had thick eyebrows and a long scar over his eye. I angrily banged my fist against the glass, but he just smirked.
"At least we still have the backup." Then, he walked away and, much to my terror, the Vault computer announced:
"Cryogenic sequence reinitialized."
And once again, I was forced to drift off into sleep.
oooOOO***OOOooo
The next time I woke up, I was able to breathe completely freely. I coughed.
"Critical failure in Cryogenic Array," the computer announced. "All Vault residents must evacuate immediately."
The metal door that had been holding me inside the pod swung open and I fell to the floor, my body too weak to support itself. I gasped at the air outside the pod — it was chilly, but still much warmer than the freezing of inside.
Then, I remembered the most recent events and my heart sank. I forced myself to get up and walk over to the pod that held Nate inside. My husband looked not only dead, but frozen. He had frost all over his body, like ice cream you'd refreezed after it had melted. This was... wrong. I felt bile in my throat. This was wrong. This was some fucked-up dream, it had to be, it was...
"No," I growled. I tried pushing numerous buttons, banging on the door, but nothing worked. "Come on!" I growled, angry at the machine for the lack of cooperation.
The door finally opened and I immediately was at my husband's side, checking his cold hands for pulse. But, of course, I felt none.
"No..." I whispered. I put a hand over my mouth as tears found their way into my eyes. "No."
I let myself weep as I rocked back and forth, holding his lifeless body in my arms. It was so terrible, so impossible...
I didn't know how long I had spent like that, sitting on the floor and hugging him close to my chest. My hands went completely numb from the cold — my eyes, from crying. This couldn't be real. This was some kind of nightmare.
Maybe it was minutes. Maybe hours. All I knew was that once the sadness passed, I felt but one thing: rage. The burning desire for revenge.
"I'll find who did this and I'll get Shaun back," I whispered as I finally parted with the corpse I had been cradling.
I stood up, painfully aware of my helplessness. Nate... I couldn't even bury him properly — Vault-Tec had taken away even that.
But that was something my aching heart couldn't agree to.
"I'm coming back here," I promised. "I don't know if it will take hours, days or even weeks, but I will come back. I promise."
What I needed was help. I couldn't understand what was going on, I needed someone to help me. I walked to the nearest decontamination pod— no, cryogenic pod — and looked inside, but Mr Russell looked just as dead as Nate. I checked the next one, and the next, the bile in my throat threatening to cause me to throw up. Much to my terror, every single person who had entered the Vault with me just yesterday was now dead. How was it that I had survived?
"...What happened here?" I whispered. No, I couldn't wait here anymore. Everyone was dead. Because there was at least one person I knew was still alive — Shaun. He had been taken, kidnapped, but I hadn't seen him die.
I would get him back. And I would make the bastards who took him and Nate from me suffer.
I made my way to the sliding door that separated this room from the corridor we had entered the Vault through. It opened as soon as I approached it, but, much to my despair, the door on the other end of the hallway was jammed. I would have to find some other way out.
I shivered — the Vault suit provided extended protection from cold, but I suspected that what I was feeling was the thermal shock that followed the long period of time I had spent frozen in the cryogenic pod. They fucking... froze me. Like some kind of pre-cooked meal or... I don't know, some fucking lab subject, or...
...How long had it been, exactly?
If the bodies I found later were any indicator, very long.
I found them not much long after. I took the hall to the left which, as I suspected, would lead to the Vault's main quarters. Instead, I only found another room full of cryogenic pods, identical to the one we had been placed in.
Then, there were the bodies. And I'm not talking about the well-preserved, frozen people in the pods, but the ones on the floor. Two Vault-Tec scientists, if I were to judge by their lab coats. But their bodies... Their bodies had long since decayed. All I was looking at were bones.
Was that really all that was left? I couldn't be the only one alive. I just couldn't.
I looked around the nearest cryo pod in search of a release button of any sort, but once again, I found nothing. I quickly ran to the medical terminal on the wall, angry at myself for not having thought of that earlier. Surely there would be a way to remotely open the pods using it. There was thankfully no password required to access it, but my frown only deepened when I saw that the only option available was displaying the residents' vital signs. Resigned, I pressed enter on the keyboard and soon enough, the monitor displayed a long list of names. I had to squint my eyes to read them, and I despaired over the loss of my glasses. Upon deciding that I don't know most of these people, I chose the first name on the list.
Mr Abernathy.
Status: deceased.
Cause of death: system failure
I quickly shut it off and displayed the next one.
Mrs Burton
Status: deceased
Cause of death: system failure
I desperately checked each and every name on the list, but my suspicions were proved true: I was the sole survivor. The only living person in an underground grave.
Everyone else was dead.
I left the room in a haste. I really needed to get out of that Vault. This time, I chose the hallway that led to the right.
"Malfunction in emergency exit door override. Please contact your Vault-Tec maintenance representative for service," the Vault computer suggested through the omnipresent speakers I still couldn't see.
I entered another hallway, this one with a glass window that separated it from the Tesla generators on the other side. For a moment, I thought I saw something move on the window's surface. I really didn't see well without my glasses, but it looked like an insect or...
Trusting my instinct, I quickly grabbed the security baton which lay on a table by the window. I had a sick feeling I might need a weapon if I were to get out of this place alive.
I took a peek into the open room on the right, but the only thing that caught my eye was a Stimpak on the table. I grabbed it and hid in the pocket of my Vault jumpsuit. Other than this small thing, I couldn't see anything of interest there.
I proceeded down the same hallway as before, tightly holding onto my security baton. There were some suspicious sounds coming from practically all sides, and I was worried not all of them were of mechanical origin. I rounded the corner, my heart practically in my throat, but thankfully, the rest of the corridor was empty as well. There was another sliding door at the end, and I opened it by pressing the button on the wall.
I screamed when an unnaturally large insect jumped onto me and bit into my forearm. Instinctively, without as much as thinking, I swung the security baton and it immediately fell to the floor, dead.
I took a step back, panting. My heart was beating like crazy. There was blood on my weapon and the floor, as well as all over the creature's body. Once my arms stopped shaking, I swallowed my fear and took a step in its direction to get a better look at the corpse. Not much different from a cockroach, the insect was the size of a small dog. I poked it with the tip of my shoe, but it seemed that it was dead.
What the fuck. What the actual fuck.
Taking the door on the left, I found myself in the power supply room I had seen through the window earlier. There was another unnaturally large cockroach there, standing between the two large generators that powered the entire Vault. I decided to avoid it by going around the left generator. I could see the door from my position and debated whether I should make a run for it or try to sneak my way along those several meters. I tightened my grip on the security baton and decided to run.
I grabbed the rail along the stairs in order to support myself further and took another step forward when my foot stepped on something that definitely wasn't the metal floor of the Vault. A loud crunch filled the whole room. As if on cue, a roach I hadn't seen before jumped on me. I hit it with my baton, but not strongly enough to kill. The one I had noticed before attacked me too, and I had to take a step back. I kicked the one that had jumped onto me earlier and it went limp. A well-aimed swing of my baton brought the other one down.
Again, I had to take a while to catch my breath.
I looked down to see what I had stepped into and I felt sick. It was a skeleton in a Vault 111 suit, just like the one I was wearing. It was... a person. I had just stepped onto someone.
"Is this really all that's left?" I whispered. At this point talking to myself didn't seem like a bad idea anymore — it was keeping me sane.
I pressed the door release button on the wall and waited for it to open. It revealed yet another hallway — and two of those giant insects in it. They noticed me nearly as soon as I noticed them, but this time I was prepared. The first one died under my shoe, while the second got hit by the security baton.
I continued to the door at the end of the corridor and opened it warily. Nothing jumped on me this time. I entered the room which had to be some kind of an office, with a large desk in the middle. I looked around the room, but it seemed secure.
I walked to the desk and decided that I was definitely going to need the four Stimpaks that lay on it. I had never really trusted that technology, but it seemed there wouldn't be much of an alternative.
Stimpaks were 'health injections' — each syringe filled with something, a mix of nanotechnology and chemicals, that was said to almost immediately heal most injuries, even broken or crippled limbs. But most importantly of all, it was also a painkiller — one strong enough to make you feel as if the wound was gone even if it wasn't.
All in all, I didn't entirely trust that technology — maybe because, in the end, it was technology and not only a drug — but I could see that taking these with me might be a sensible solution.
The next thing that caught my eye was a pistol which lay next to a terminal on the desk. I quickly grabbed it and checked the clip — there were four bullets left. I was shit at shooting a gun, but assuming that it was better than nothing, I took it and attached to the belt of my jumpsuit. I noticed that there was something akin to a holster on my right thigh, a set of straps which very conveniently allowed me to keep the gun in place while also be able to draw it without trouble. Apparently, Vault-Tec had thought of everything, I thought bitterly. Prepared for the future.
I took the chair which was laying on the floor next to a skeleton, placed it upright and sat down. I pressed enter on the keyboard of the terminal and the screen came to life, displaying a long string of numbers. I was confused, but the numbers disappeared, replaced by a simple message:
Welcome to ROBCO Industries™ Termlink
Clearance: Overseer Eyes Only
Then, the terminal displayed a list of various links, most of which seemed like simple security instructions. Not sure what I was looking for, I was ready to read them all, but the title of the last link caught my attention. It was called, simply and clearly, 'Open Evacuation Tunnel'. Which seemed like my best chance.
I clicked on it.
The personnel evacuation tunnel is now open. Remind all staff to be orderly and follow shutdown protocols before exiting and re-sealing Vault 111.
I looked up from the screen and was surprised to realize that the once-closed door at the end of the room was now open.
I grabbed my pistol and headed in that direction, but before I left the room, I noticed something peculiar in the corner. There was a small display case on the wall, next to a metal cabinet. My curiosity took the better of me and I lowered my weapon to take a better look. Inside the case was... I wasn't sure how to describe it. It had to be the prototype of some weapon, because I had never seen anything like it. The fact that most of the window was covered in frost and the name 'Cryolator' told me more than enough. A gun that could freeze people. Maybe I wasn't as much of a gun nut as Nate had been, but I had to admit that it sounded... cool. In all meanings of the word.
Regrettably, the case was locked with what seemed like a fairly complicated mechanism. Smashing the window with the handle of my pistol didn't seem to work — it was hardened, bulletproof glass. I even tried to search the Overseer's terminal for a way to remotely access it, but there was nothing. I had to accept that this gun was going to lie there until some skilled lockpicker would come and get it.
Inside the cabinet, I found some more ammunition that seemed to fit my new pistol, but after the discovery of the cryolator it seemed like a small victory.
I left the room through the hallway I had opened and eventually reached the same room I had entered the Vault through. The main difference, aside from the skeletons I was nearly getting used to seeing, was that the giant steel door which separated the Vault from the rest of the world was now closed.
But that wouldn't last long.
I walked over to the door's control panel. There was a giant cockroach feasting on a disgusting pile of goo, but it died under my shoe even before it noticed I was there.
The controls didn't leave much to thinking: just a big red button labeled 'release'. No complicated mathematics there.
The only problem was that the button was sealed in a case of hardened glass, and the only way to open it was attaching a cable from another authorized device. I fell down to my knees, resigned. Where was I going to find something like that?
I looked down at the skeleton next to me. It... The person it had been was wearing a blue Vault 111 jumpsuit, identical to mine, and a white lab coat. On its bony arm was a portable computer — I recognized a RobCo device nearly immediately. Curious, I took a better look. It had to be one of those Pip-Boys there had been such a commotion about in the news — miniature portable computers which were said to have a ridiculously enormous functionality: from flashlight through calculator to monitoring the owner's vital signs. And, most important of all, this particular unit had a cable with a universal jack attached to it.
There was nearly no chance it would still work. It had been... years. But, I thought to myself, when RobCo built something, they built it to last. In that aspect, they weren't much different from Vault-Tec.
I unclipped the device from the skeleton's arm, careful not to damage either, and placed it on my own forearm. I tried pressing various buttons, but the screen remained dark.
How were you supposed to launch those again? I wondered. I regretted not having had more interest in technology earlier.
Hold on, these were supposed to be integrated with the owner's vitality. And if it was still measuring the pulse of that dead man, no wonder it didn't work. I quickly clipped it closed on my arm, allowing the system to get a scan of my life signs.
Finally, the screen lit up in a dull green color. It was working.
Pip-Boy 3000, it introduced itself. Then, it went on to display some things, but I didn't pay attention to the screen anymore and simply connected the cable to the door control panel. Surprisingly enough, that was all I'd needed to do, because the glass case which had been covering the door release button before now opened with a click.
I pressed the button and the industrial lights on the ceiling began flashing red. A siren sound came from the invisible speakers, too. And finally, the gear-shaped door rolled to the side and granted me access to the exit. I quickly crossed the catwalk and boarded the elevator.
I took a look back at what I was leaving: the Vault, full of frozen dead bodies and skeletal remains of people I had once known. My neighbors, my friends. My husband. Could I leave them all, just like that?
Then, I remembered what I was going after. My son. His kidnappers. The murderer of my husband.
Without hesitation, I pressed the elevator control button.
Level up.
New Perk: Black Widow - You're charming... and dangerous. Men now suffer +5% damage in combat and are easier to persuade in dialogue.