Summary: What does the lone wanderer, Lucas, think of the outside during his childhood in the vault? What does the other in the vault think of Lucas' thoughts?
10 years after Lucas' birth
James' pov
James and Lucas sit at the table and eats breakfast. The boy asks a lot of questions of varying things, as most ten-year-olds do. James gives answers to the best of his abilities on the sometimes hard questions, and thinks that he does a great job. But then the questions start to take a odd turn.
"Dad, do the outside have any roof?"
The innocent question from James' son should be easy to answer, as he have been outside, but as that is currently a secret of his he should have no clue. So to answer the question becomes quite problematic, as he must make up one from the top of his head.
"Wouldn't know, maybe it does," he replies after a few seconds.
"Are there corridors and rooms, too, or is it just one endless lobby?"
That's a tricky question, especially when you are speaking to someone who has lived in an underground vault all his life. "I guess it must have a few rooms and corridors here and there."
"How far up is the roof?"
To be frank, James starts to get a bit tired of all the questions of the outside. It can be a dangerous topic in the wrong company. "Why the sudden interest in the outside?"
Lucas is a bit unsure if he should answer honestly, that James can see on him, but after a few seconds he answers with truthfulness in his eyes. "Because I like to get out one day to see it for myself."
This isn't good. James remembers when Lucas has been younger, how he have explored every corner of the vault before the age of seven. James has been forced to run around several times to try to find his son when Lucas has gotten out of sight. And now he wants to explore the outside, too? No, no, no, this won't do, that's far too dangerous. Lucas must stay put, or else James' have thrown away project purity all in vain. Or else Lucas' mother has died for nothing.
James gets serious and tries to sound as strict as he can. "No such talk, Lucas. To go outside of the vault is out of the question. What have I told you again and again?"
Lucas groans at those last words, as he think he have heard the answer to that far to often. But in the end he answers. "We're born in the vault, we'll die in the vault."
"Good. Now, stop with these questions of the outside, or you will get in trouble."
Amata's pov
Amata and his best friend Lucas sits on her bed in Amata's room. They usually do after school, to talk and to share secrets.
"There is a roof outside of the vault, and there are even rooms and corridors out there, too," says Lucas, as if he speaks of something only he knows.
"How do you know?" Amata is truly curious; surely he hasn't been outside the vault to see it himself. It is strictly forbidden.
"My dad told me."
"Hm." Amata is confused, as that is not what she has been told. "My dad says there's nothing outside."
At that Lucas gets surprised. "How can there be nothing? Surely it must be something out there."
"Again, how do you know?" Amata gets on a joking mood. "Don't tell me you been out there." Then she gets serious again. "Seriously, have you?"
At this Lucas looks puzzled for a moment, then he looks surer of himself. "I just know, 'kay."
"Why do you want to get out so much?"
Lucas thinks on it for a moment before he answers. "Because I want to see things. I want to move around. And besides, isn't it a bit cramped down here?"
"Cramped?! There are parts of the vault where no-one even lives! There is plenty of room."
"That's not what I mean. I mean... like... it's hard to explain. It's just... cramped. Sometimes it feels like the walls just fall in on themselves, y'know."
Amata thinks for a moment on what he has said. "I don't think I know what you mean."
Lucas' pov
Lucas don't know why it is forbidden to go outside, and why it is so taboo to even talk about it, or why it is such a big no-no to open the entrance door. He likes to explore, he wants to find new places, and he wants to be free.
But now, he has seen everything there is to see in the vault, and now the mysterious outside is in his sights. His whole body just tingles from the thought; a place that no-one in the entire vault have been. He can't help but wonder what might be out there, just waiting to be found.
He only wishes to explore. It isn't such a bad thing.
15 year after Lucas' birth
Lucas' pov
Lucas knows the entire vault by heart. He knows every wall, every corridor and every hiding place. Sometime he can hide for hour at an end to be alone with his thoughts of the outside, as he knows that his wish to get out will get strange looks and stranger comments.
He have talked a little about it to others in his younger years, until his father have to step in and stop him. "Don't talk like that around other people," his father has nagged a thousand times since then. "Especially around the overseer."
And Lucas hasn't, in a long time, spoken about the outside since then. And the Overseer hasn't heard one word of it, as far as Lucas knows.
He can't still understand why they shouldn't even talk about it. He knows now, when he's older, that opening the door might not be such a good idea; it might let in radiation into the vault that can harm them. But still, to discuss what's might be out there should only be a good thing, right?
However the case, he likes his hiding places. He can be whoever he wants there. He can dream up small childish make-believes where he can get out of the vault and do whatever he wants. And no-one can bother him.
James' pov
"Where's that boy?" James asks out for himself. Lucas has been gone for hours, as he has been on several occasions these last years. James have no idea where he is going, neither what he is doing.
He's really an odd boy, compared to the other children of the vault. Always wondering what might be outside, hiding away god-knows-where and fantasies, always fantasies.
Hopefully Lucas will get to be something useful, James ponders as he thinks on the G.O.A.T test that will come next year. And that he takes it seriously.
James wonders from where this interest of the outside comes from. Surely it doesn't come from him. Maybe it is something that he has inherited from his mother, but James find it hard to believe; she wasn't so much for fantasizing up things. Or it might just be an oddity of Lucas' own creation, a part of him that has no beginning in either parent. A section of his personality that is unique.