This story is based on Fallout 3. Two characters, the twins Danny and Morgan. I have neither the patience nor the inclination to copy down the conversations word for word, but I can get personalities and generalities right.

Ch 1

"Well, this is turning out bad."

Danny sighed. He and his twin were fast friends, and at ten years old they both were quite a team. But he found himself questioning, and not for the first time, whether or not he was actually related to the maniac he was currently standing with in a contracting ring of about seven radroaches. Morgan had brought him down here to this abandoned Vault level to look for old parts to scavenge, so he could use them in some "project" he had been working on.

And now they were in a circle of carnivorous bugs with two kitchen knives as weapons.

"However, I think we can get out of this by resorting to classic military tactics!" Morgan continued.

"Such as?"

"RUN LIKE HELL!"

Morgan ran to the edge of the circle and leapt, none too gracefully, to the other edge of the ring, stumbling as he tried to keep running through the abandoned tunnel.

Danny groaned. "You are not making any friends here!" He leapt with a little more dexterity, rolling as he hit the ground and coming up running.

Morgan ignored him and kept running, rounding a corner with great speed…

Which is when he tripped over something and ended up in a heap near the wall.

"Well, despite that amazing turn of speed, you still have all the grace and charm as a sack of potatoes." Danny smirked, casually strolling around the corner.

"Why aren't you running? There's a swarm of roaches on our asses!" Morgan spat, straightening up.

"Use that brain of yours! They are slower than Butch at math, and they don't exactly have a high attention span either." Danny quipped back, grinning.

"Yeah, well… we should get moving, Dad said he wanted to meet us at the diner in an hour." Morgan was disappointed. There was so little extra scrap in the vault, finding anything he could use was damned-near impossible.

"How'd ya' end up against the wall, anyway?"

"Oh, I tripped over…" Morgan's eyes widened. The object he had tripped over was a fission battery, somehow left behind down here.

"Jackpot! See, I told you we'd find sumthin'cool!"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Morgan, there are tons of those up top. Why didn't you just swipe one of em!"

"Because ever since Officer Gomez found the stash of junk I hid, any tech that goes missing makes me a prime suspect! But this ain't theirs, so I'm clean!"

Danny looked over both of them. They were covered in radroach guts and grime from their little trek. "Clean doesn't really describe us right now… we'd better change before we head to the diner."

Morgan looked himself over. "You may have a point there… I'll stash this under my bed for the time being."

"How fiendishly clever! The first and last place anyone would look for it!"

"Shut up an' get movin'"