Fallout: Vault 6

Chapter 1

"Hey, you gonna get up or are you just gonna sleep all day? You gotta do chores just like the rest of us."

That day, just like every other day, was another routine. Usually, all of the teenagers would be awoken at around 7:00am in the morning to handle the physical chores of the Vault. Sweeping up any debris from the entrance, sweeping the kitchen, tagging the food storage, you name it. Guess I was the only exception. The jerk that woke me up was my roommate, Brad. He's a good guy, but he's too much of a suck up to really be someone I'd consider a friend. I got up from my bed slowly, brushing the unruly bed-head that I usually have every morning against the metal bars that held our bunk bed together.

"Look you can take however long you want, just don't piss off the Overseer. He'll just take it out on all of us."

And with that, Brad threw an extra broom at me and headed for the door. I clinched it and using it as cane, lifted myself off of the bed. I headed for the door, taking slow, groggy steps as I slid my bare feet against the metal floor that led out of my room and into the halls. The halls had more of an energetic feel to it compared to my room, which lifted my spirits a little. The coloured tone of the long hallway almost seemed sepia in that the lights that led down the path seemed to glow a perfect tan. It was always interesting to me for some reason. It always gave me some sort of hope to know that there was light outside, even if it was false, a crack in the ceiling covered by glass revealing the other world. But as far as I was concerned, this was the only world.

I started making my walk down the hallway. As I walked, I looked into the plexiglass that revealed the interior of all of the public rooms, each room denoted with a gray, neon sign labeling the title of the room facing in my direction. I couldn't help but stare at the other teenagers as they organised lab equipment and placed books on shelves. Have we really been doing this all of our lives? The moment this thought entered my head, I was already to my destination. The Vault entrance. The entrance seems to take on a completely different design than the rest of the Vault. It lies at the very end of the hallway, separated by stairs of only about 10 steps leading into a rock surface. Looking off at the door that leads to the outside, one would see that the handle is actually in the design of a pirate-ship steering wheel. The huge metal door that holds this handle is the only metallic surface surrounding the rock. I took my steps down the stairs and headed over to the door. It was procedure that whenever one made their rounds to the Vault entrance, to check and make sure that there were no cracks or scratches on that door, because according to the adults and the Overseer, any excessive exposure to the outside air would kill us all. After ensuring that there were no deficiencies, I steadily clinched the broom in both hands and began sweeping around the edges of the door. Starting from the right side, I swept the rocks and dust that creeped along the doors bottom into a distant corner of the room. After that, I swept the rest of the room, killing any bugs that might've somehow found their way in. Finally, I swept all of the grime that I put into the corner into a basket and tightly sealed it. With my chores finished for the day, I grabbed the basket, balancing the broom under my left arm, and headed down the hallway again.

There I came across the incendiary room, which is where we burn any trash that was collected for the day. I grabbed the gas mask that hung outside of the door, put it over my head and then let myself into the room. The room was hot, like it always was, and had its usual orange glow to it as well. As one walks into the room, they are immediately greeted with a chute that pushed out of the wall in front of the door a good 2 feet. I opened the lid to the chute slowly as not to catch any unexpected flames and quickly tossed the entire basket into it. After hearing a few seconds of the basket heavily bang against the sides of the tunnel inside of the chute as it made its way to the flames, I finally heard the sound of the flames engulf it in a huge "woof". I exited the that room, removed my mask, and headed back down the hallway. That's when I heard a loud bang.

It was coming from the opposite direction the Vault entrance. So, being the curious person that I am, I headed down the hallway towards what I believed to be the creator of this noise. Having met the other end of the hallway before, I knew that I was heading towards the Recreation Center of the Vault. When I finally came within inches of the door, I heard yelling.

"What the Hell is going on? What do you guys think you're doing!"

"Mr. Gray was obviously out of control, detaining him is the only non-lethal method we could think of."

"Out of control? He merely explained that the Overseer's daily inspections are becoming too tiring."

"Now Ms. Talson, you and I both know that conspiring against the Overseer is a crime inside of the Vault."

"He wasn't conspiring anything!"

Inside of the Vault, there are officers that regulate the laws set before us by the Overseer. They are all equipped with tasers and police batons, each having the right to detain anyone that they feel is breaking the law. And since they possess the only weapons inside of the Vault, it's pretty stupid to challenge their authority. Based off of what I heard, it seemed like Mr. Gray, I scientist of the Vault, had spoken against the Overseer, which is seen as a huge taboo. Of course, this isn't the only time that something like this has happened, but it seemed like the Overseer had been becoming overly paranoid, lowering the tolerance of the officers. A simple slip of the tongue could land you time in the Barrens, similar to "The Hole" in an American prison. I decided that it was probably not a good idea to head in that room, so I decided to head back. But as I turned around I bumped into Brad, who had apparently been running because he and I both fell down pretty hard when we came into contact.

"What the hell man... why're you running." I said.

"There...there's an outsider banging on the entrance... he's forcing himself in!"

With that, my heart stopped. I stood up as quickly as I could and opened the door to the Recreation Center. "Outsiders... there's an outsider coming!" Brad yelled this at the top of his lungs as I opened the door, immediately alerting the guards, seeming to erase any memories that they might've had before hearing this as according to the blank, horrified expressions on their face.

"Dammit, code-155!"

The officer that had been speaking earlier, whom I recognized to be Officer Randle, a 32 year old male that had the reputation of being the most unforgiving officer in the Vault, grabbed his phone and continued to shout "code-155" into it. Within seconds, 6 officers emerged from what seemed to be everywhere, with 2 more flying in behind me.

"I want this place in Lockdown. I want team Alpha securing all inhabitants and Bravo to secure the perimeter of the Vault entrance. Charlie and myself will be protecting the Overseer!"

The officers each split into the three groups, rushing in the directions that they were appointed. The team assigned to the entrance pushed me aside as they made their way out of the room and rushed down the hallway in a frantic sprint. The suspense was almost unbearable, forcing me and my curiosity to follow the the soldiers that headed in the direction of the Vault entrance to face this unknown threat. I followed behind them, attempting to keep up so that I could ensure that I didn't miss anything. The moment I got there, I saw the brightest light I've ever seen in my life. The officers ahead of me immediately burst into flames. Dark figures of what they used to be disintegrating into the gleaming hell that shined out of no where. And then it faded away. Emerging before me, I saw a man.

He stood tall with a dark, rugged face, unshaven and covered in grime. He wore a dark brown trench coat that made its way in length to about his kneecaps. It was unbuttoned, revealing a black wife-beater underneath. His pants were simple blue jeans that fit him loosely, crowded with different sized rips and marks. And his feet were protected by light brown boots. He made his way into the vault, stepping forward amidst the ashes he created of men as if they were merely specs of the dirt around him, disregarding any form of humanity that they once had. He walked up to me, and there his face came into full view. His eyes were blank. White spheres that one only sees when someone roles their eyes into the back of their head, only, there were no veins... Just white. His skin was severely damaged, as if it had been melting and had just somehow decided to stop at where it is now. Although he had no pupils, I could tell that he was staring at me. Every muscle in my body stood still. Even the thought of running couldn't enter my mind. I could feel the heat of the air from the outside world gleaming on my flesh and the foreign stench filling my nose with hot air.

"Hmph, Vault-6 never changed eh'? Hey kid, how old are ye'?"

I took a moment to answer, still feeling as if I were dreaming. But at one point I gathered my senses and said:

"16..."

He looked to his left and then his right. And then back at me.

"Damn, gonna be hard livin' out there isn't it?"

"..."

I was speechless. What could I say, I felt as if I was facing death. And if he could so easily kill 3 officers in seconds, imagining the realness of my death was almost too elementary. He grabbed something out of his bag and handed it to me. It seemed to be a watch of some sort, a rather large one at that. It seemed to weigh a bit more than 5lbs and could cover my entire forearm.

"It's a pip-boy. You're sure as hell gonna need it when you're out there kid. But ey', I ain't a good guy. I got some history with this place I gotta handle, you're just the first kid I saw when I got in here. Same age as I was too."

I didn't really understand what he meant by any "history" he had to handle, but I heard of pip-boys. They're supposed to be navigational GPS maps for the outside world, but I'd never seen one before.

"Alright kid, time to net some frags. But hey, I'll give ye' one extra piece of help before I leave ye'."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a revolver. He placed it against my ribs and stared into my eyes.

"You gotta learn to take care of ye'self."

And he pulled the trigger.

My body exploded in unbearable pain, teeth grinding together, both the top and bottom fighting too see which can break the other. I dropped to the ground and saw him walk away, dropping the revolver by my side as well. I lay on that cold, metal surface, staring into that crack on the ceiling that shined the rays of the outside world onto my face, weakly blinding me. The pain seeming to subside if only for a moment and very minutely, I noticed the feeling in the rest of my body regaining control, no longer focusing on the enormous pain that once engulfed my ribs. I could now feel the blood rushing from my side and covering my back as it spreads its crimson likeliness around me. I placed a hand onto the area of my ribs that viciously seeped blood and attempted to stop the bleeding by pushing as hard as I could against it. Then I turned on my side that was not damaged and tried to balance myself as to prevent myself from losing any more blood.

"Eric! Eric are you alright!"

I heard a girls voice yell out to me. It sounded familiar and I was correct in my mind as to who it was. It was Reine, a girl that happened to live one door down from the accident. I could hear her footsteps grow louder until I felt her shadow cover me. I sensed her kneeling beside me, and felt her hands slide against my torso. She had created a splint out of her shirt and had wrapped it around my body, stopping the bleeding.

"Damn... what the Hell are we gonna do now... The Vault... is destroyed..." She said to me, as she attempted to help me stand.

I took a deep breathe, taking in all of the pain that I could from my ribs and then gave a half-smile, responding with all of the energy I had left.

"Live."