AN: Hi, everyone! This is my first Fallout story. I don't own Fallout or Bethesda, and I'm not making money off of this. This follows the lives of two Wastelanders and how they play out in the Lone Wanderer's adventure.
The tunnel was dark, damp, and smelled of dead animals. The girl kept close to the wall, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention. Still not used to the smell of decay, she crinkled her nose is disgust as she snuck past the corpse of a giant rodent. She came to a door dimly illuminated by an old light bulb, flickering on and off every so often. Behind the door was a small supply closet, with a few boxes stashed on a shelf. The girl opened one of the boxes, as quietly as she could manage, and drew out a small handgun.
"Huh." She said to herself, putting ammo for her small gun in the small backpack around her shoulders. She walked out of the supply closet, wandering the tunnels, hopelessly lost. Apparently the tunnels were empty; she wasted more than enough ammo shooting at an invisible enemy, but nothing came to investigate. She sat down on one of the walkways, putting her feet in the rails a metro ran on several years before, and started to cry. The girl cried for a while, then wiped her tears with the back of her hand, stood up, and kept walking. That way, she figured, she would come to an exit of some kind. After coming to the conclusion that there was no one in the tunnels, she began to half-sing/half-hum a song she had heard several times on the radio. The girl kicked a tin can along, trying to keep despair out of her mind.
"I'm na na na na na na in August, na na na flag on the Fourth of July…" She froze as a large clanking came from a tunnel in front of her. It could have easily been a stray barrel, the trash cans the homeless of old would light for warmth, but it was probably something waiting to kill her. Her song ceased, and she tiptoed quietly to the walkway on the other side of the tunnel, out of sight of the possible assassin. There she waited for the something to come and get her, only a few rounds left in her gun before she had to reload. Her plan was to fire blindly at the thing until she turned up empty. Then…she'd figure out something else. The girl waited for a good thirty minutes, before convincing herself the creature had gone into hiding. So she kept walking, but no more singing. She walked, and walked, and walked for what seemed like an eternity. The girl took a pre-war candy bar out of her backpack, and carefully took off the wrapping. It wasn't the most delicious thing she had ever eaten, nothing was if it was over two hundred years old, but it was certainly not the worst. After her makeshift 'supper' she kept walking. Turning a corner, she came to a fork in the metro tunnels, made a split decision to go left, and continued on. She began to think, instead of dying, she would have to wander the metros for the rest of time. She only wanted to get out, get back to her town, back to her family and friends. She dedicated her time to this one tunnel; hours went by without her taking a break. She was still hungry, rather thirsty, and her legs were sore. After three hours on that tunnel, she saw something in the distance. The girl strained her eyes to see, and the faint illusion of something she once knew, light, was indeed ahead. She started running; doing anything she could to get closer to her savior. When she arrived at the light, it turned out to only be another maintenance closet. She cried out, slamming her fist against the side on the wall, and then cried out again, because the walls were made out of concrete. She opened the door, and janitorial supplies sat sadly alone inside. Sniffling, she took a single sensor module, probably from one of the old subways, and stuck it in her bag. She sat down in the closet, and started to cry again. She didn't know if she would ever stop crying. Somewhere a door opened, and she heard footsteps, but she didn't care. She kept crying and wallowing in self-pity. The footsteps grew closer, and she attempted to stop crying, but it didn't work very well.
"Who…who's there?" She said in a shaky voice. "If you're a raider, I got nothing of value. Except some water, but I'll give it to you!" Still the footsteps grew nearer. For a second she was worried that it was an animal, a mole rat, or worse, but that thought was dismissed as she heard the bottom of boots hitting the pavement in an attempt to be quiet. "You might as well come here. I can hear you and I know you're there." She said, a little bit delusional. Perhaps she was imagining the footsteps. She stood up, and went to investigate the noises. As soon as she stepped foot out of the closet, a gun clicked, and was pointed at her. While any normal person would be concerned, the girl just smiled, happy to not be alone in such a desperate time.
"Hello." She said, happiness in her voice, but it was evident she had been crying.
"Hello…" The person holding the gun said uncertainly. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same." There was an awkward silence for a while, before she finally spoke, wiping her tears off her face. "I got lost. I've been in here since yesterday. I thought I could find my way out, but I couldn't. So I just kept walking. Do you know the way out?" The figure, a young man, nodded. "Oh my god, you're not kidding, are you? I'm not going to die! Thank you so much!" She would have hugged him, she was so happy, but since he had a gun pointed in her direction, so she didn't think that was the best thing to do in her situation.
"Who said I was going to show you the way?"
"Well, I assumed, since I've been wandering around for so long…I'll give you something, whatever you want! Really. I just, need to get out of here." She eyed his gun. "I'm not dangerous." She added quietly. He put the gun down.
"Sorry." He mumbled.
"Who are you?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Can you show me the way out?"
"Maybe. But, I have a condition."
"What?"
"Your name. And, if you want, you can tell me about yourself. These tunnels are probably empty, you survived this far, and I don't care much for silences."
"Ok." He turned and started walking, she followed him, and soon they were walking side by side, she on the walkway, he was trying to balance on the rails. "My, um, name…is Claire. I'm twenty-one. My full name is Dorothy Clara, but I don't care much for Dorothy."
"You don't have a last name?"
"Anders."
"Where do you come from?"
"Well…I've travelled."
"Where did you grow up?"
"Rivet City. Nice little settlement."
"Been there."
"Hmm. Yeah, I lived there until I was twenty. I tried to leave before, when I was sixteen, but then I saw one of the Muties, over by the old Jefferson Memorial. Convinced me to stay for a LONG time. But then, I figured I could just sneak by, so I learned how to swim and just swam away from Rivet City and the Muties. It took a really long time. When I say a really long time, I mean a REALLY long time. I nearly died getting there. Some lady found me just floating out there, got in her leaky boat and fished me out. I was damn lucky she wasn't a cannibal. So, afterwards, I headed up to a place called Megaton. Stayed there for a few weeks. Their water was crap. I got a tip from some creep there about a place called Tenpenny Towers. So, I headed there. That trip was hell too. Nearly got shot several times, and if I hadn't followed some 'Enclave' bots or whatever I'd just be a rotting corpse. It's cool, a wild robot that shoots things that are trying to kill me. Its transmissions were annoying, though. Anyways, when I finally got to the Towers, a good month after I left Megaton, I was let in the gate, but I have no idea why. I guess it was because how strongly I reacted to this…zombie-thing-"
"Ghoul?"
"Yeah, that. I'd never seen one before. So, I was scared. I started banging at the gate. The guards inside laughed. It was traumatic. So, I sat on the steps, and cried for a bit, until one guy finally took pity on me. He cussed out the ghoul, and then opened the gate for me. I paid this one guy, Gustavo, about 300 caps, the most that was left on me, and got him to allow me to stay in a vacant room. I stayed there for about six months, and then decided the whole adventurer thing wasn't for me. I prepared to go back to Rivet City again, get married, whatnot, and decided the metros would be a good idea. Oh boy, I was wrong. So, I've been in here for about two days, and that's where you come in. Wow."
"What?"
"I just told you mostly everything about my history, and I've just met you. You must have some kind of 'lady' charm." He laughed. "What about you? What's your history?"
"That's not a part of our deal."
"But-"
"How are you going to get back to Rivet City?" he asked, changing the subject.
"By walking, I don't know. Now that you pointed out, I don't think I can. One of those bear-things will get me."
"You don't know anyone that could help you out?"
"The wasteland isn't particularly overrunning with people who like to help others." Claire was silent after this realization.
"Well, if you want to know, I'm Jimmy." She had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.
"That's a real badass name, Jimmy."
"All right, Dorothy."
"Touché."