As a boy, I often dreamt about New York City before the bombs fell. I'd close my eyes and imagine tall skyscrapers with bright lights shining up on them as though they were pedestals; showcases of what the American empire had to offer. I'd imagine the lively hustle and bustle of the cars and the people as they moved quickly on the streets below. I'd imagine that beautiful green colossus on the bay looking out to the sea with her torch alight to guide the weak and weary to the empire's shores. New York wasn't just a city, it was a symbol of American power. A testament to the prosperity, ingenuity, and diversity that defined the late great nation. As a boy, I thought of the city as someone would think of their far away home. I yearned to return to it, and rebuild what was destroyed in atomic hellfire, to sweep away the ash and rubble, to let those lights shine forevermore, and in restoring that symbol of the American empire, the empire itself.
That was the destiny ingrained into our vault's founding. We all knew that our bastion of old world ideals and society would not die out underground; someday we would sprout from the ground and bud into a new America. But some things change, and our vault certainly wasn't exempt from that fact. Long before I was born, an incident occurred that shook the confidence of the elders, and at the time of my childhood, the vault would open its doors for no one. Nobody could enter, and nobody could leave.
My early childhood in the vault was pleasant. My parents were loving, my neighbors were friendly, and my friends were like my family. I lived a simple life: going to school, eating in the diner, running around the vault playing games with all the other kids. Growing up in the vault before you turned ten was paradise. You had everything you could want and no responsibilities. We'd receive an old world education and then be let loose to have our way with our underground bunker. In my young mind, the small community we had was a utopia. Everyone knew each other and got along, everyone was willing to help each other out, everyone was well versed in old world knowledge, and everyone believed in their civic duty to the vault. Little did my young mind know, that beneath the surface, divides were opening, and in time they would swallow our peaceful vault.