Author's Note: This is going to be a long one guys. Slow burn ;)
The setup of the Vault is different, amoungst many other things that will be altered to fit the story. Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I only take credit for my LW's name
Chapter One: Deviate
"You'll have to learn to deal with bullies, the world is full people much worse than Butch."
"But I thought we were the only people left in the world?"
James smiled down at his ten year old daughter, "Don't you have a party to be enjoying? Besides, I think someone has a very special present for you. Come on Sweetie."
The little girl trailed after her father into the hallway, but only one thing he had said was on her mind, "...the world is full of people..."
Sena Rose woke to the sound of a blaring alarm and her best friend shaking her violently.
"Wake up! You have to get up!"
Grumbling, Sena shoved her attacker away and groggily stood up out of bed, "Whatever it is, it's too early." She moved past the Hispanic girl and to her dresser for a change of clothes. "Hmm...what should I wear today?" Her tone was laced with mockery as she pretended to contemplate over the numerous, identical vault suits in front of her.
"This is serious! Your father...he's gone..."
The young woman paused in the middle of getting dressed and her piercing green eyes found hazel ones, "Care to elaborate, Amata?"
Amata was clearly flustered as she kept glancing back through the doorway and her hands were trembling as she pulled something from behind her back. A 10mm pistol was in her outstretched hand and she moved forward to hand it to Sena.
"He left! Your father left the vault! A-And now my father has gone crazy. The guards are looking for you...t-they, oh god they killed Jonas, Sena!"
Green eyes widened as the young woman absorbed her friends words and she tried to grasp the situation. "They killed Jonas..."
Amata was nearly in tears as she placed the pistol in her friend's hand. "I'm so sorry, but you have to leave now. I'm lucky I got to you first. Please, we have to get you out of here."
The room was silent for a moment as the two stared at each other. Finally, Sena sighed and held the 10mm back out in Amata's direction. "I don't need this. You keep yourself safe."
"Thank you, but you'll need something. There are Radroaches everywhere!"
"Radroaches?" A grin spread across Sena's face as she fixed her hair into a long braid that fell down her back. The shorter pieces that couldn't reach the braid, framed her face nicely. "I've got just the thing for that." She nodded to the BB gun leaning against the side of her dresser.
Bending down, she opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulled an old, faded-black backpack from it.
Amata was watching her carefully and her eyebrows rose, "What's that?"
"Um, a backpack?"
The dark-haired woman glared at the blonde, "Obviously, but why do you have it?"
Sena shrugged in reply, "Just had a feeling I might need it one day. So I packed it with some essentials: toothbrushes, paste, some simpacks, a few radaway, a change of clothes, and some other stuff that I've found throughout the years."
"Did you know your father was going to leave?"
"No."
Amata nodded at the blonde and Sena could see the pity in her eyes. Ignoring her, she slung the backpack on and picked up her BB gun. She quickly walked over to her bed and reached between it and the wall.
Amata was looking at the BB gun in her friend's hand, "That's not going to do much if you run into one of the guards..." A laugh left Sena at Amata's words as she pulled the baseball bat out from where it was hiding.
"How about this, huh?" She twirled the bat in her left hand and gave it a test swing one-handed, while her right hand held the BB gun. The perks of being ambidextrous. "Let's just hope they don't have guns, cause then I'm screwed."
Amata didn't indulge in her dark humor and instead turned to walk out of the room. "You have to get to my father's office and get the password to his terminal. There's a secret tunnel from there that leads to the the vault entrance. I'll try and meet you there. Please be careful...and promise me you won't hurt my father."
Sena clenched her teeth, but then slowly let out a breath, "She's already lost one parent, the other one doesn't need to be taken from her too, no matter how much he deserves it."
"I promise."
A soft smile graced Amata's face before she pulled Sena into a quick hug, to which the latter tried to shrink away from. "Be safe, I'll see you at the entrance." With those words, her best friend turned and headed off in the opposite direction.
Left by herself, the young blonde woman glanced around at the medical bay. She made her way to her father's desk and picked up the Vault-Tex bobblehead, dressed like a doctor, that sat in the corner. Tears filled her eyes as she stared at the trinket in her hand, "Why did you leave me behind?..."
The bobblehead smashed into the medbay wall and shattered into pieces.
As soon as Sena stepped out of the medical wing, she heard shouting coming from down the hall to her right. Officer Kendall came around one of the corners fighting four Radroaches with his security baton. He made eye contact with her and lifted his arm to point in her direction, "You! Stay right-"
A Radroach cut off his sentence when it jumped and dug it's pincers into the officer's neck. Blood gushed from the wound and he fell to his knees before falling forward into a puddle of his own blood. The roaches immediately began to tear at his clothes, trying to find flesh.
"Daddy..."
A mutilated corpse laid in the darkness of the Reactor room. Radroaches were fighting over pieces of flesh and burrowing their way into the corpse. Lifeless, blue eyes stared across the room at the two children.
A heart wrenching scream came from her right.
Sena stumbled slightly at the sudden onslaught of the gruesome memory.
Shaking her head of the thoughts, three pellets left the BB gun, each finding their target. The final Radroach scurried down the hallway toward the blonde and leapt up to try and get at her neck. The butt of the gun met its mutated face and it fell back to the floor. A firm stomp from the woman's boot finished it off.
She passed by Officer Kendall's body and snatched the baton off the floor, securing it to her hop through one of the loops on her suit. She kept her gaze averted from the dead man and began trekking further down the hallway.
A short way down, the corridor opened into a larger area that seemed to be pretty quiet, besides the blaring of the alarm and the Overseer's message playing on repeat.
She quickly bound across the room and headed to the corner that would lead to the common area. Abruptly she stopped right before the turn when she heard the sound of rushing footsteps coming from that direction. She leaned the BB gun against the wall next to her. A crank for behind her, made her spin around and reach for the nightstick at her hip, but a body slammed into her so hard from behind that she found herself falling forward.
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!"
A voice mimicked hers as she closed her eyes and waited to face plant the floor. Instead, she felt a hand grab her left wrist, while the other one roughly grabbed the back collar of her vault suit. The action made the material choke her and she grunted as her arm was yanked painfully backwards.
Her feet finally found purchase beneath her and she sucked in A breath when the person behind her released the neck of her suit. With a glare she turned to acknowledge the individual that was still gripping her wrist.
"Nice save, Deloria." The blonde's voice was laced with sarcasm. "Do you mind letting go of me?"
The Tunnel Snake smirked and instead of letting her go, he pulled her closer. "Ah, come on, you know you love when I touch you."
A sultry smile graced Sena's lips as she pushed herself up against the dark-haired man. She watched as he swallowed nervously and saw his cheeks pink. "Only in your dreams, Butch."
Butch scoffed at Sena's words and released his grip on her wrist. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. So what's going on and why are you loaded to the nine?" He glanced down at the weapons at her waist.
The blonde stepped away from him and reached over to reclaim the BB gun leaning on the wall. A laugh from Butch made her glance at him.
"How the hell did you get that back? I thought security confiscated it after you shot me." Butch lifted his hand and pointed a finger at the left-side of his forehead, just above his eyebrow, where a faint scare could be seen.
"Look at that, you marred my good looks."
Sena smiled at him, "I think it makes you look handsome."
Butch smirked and leaned toward her, "Oh yeah, Dimples?"
The young woman's cheeks brightened at the pet name and she shoved past the young man. "No, and don't call me that."
"But they're so cute and sexy!" Butch reached forward and poked Sena in the lower back, where he knew the two identical Dimples of Venus were under her clothes.
Sena jumped at the his touch and placed her hand on the bat at her side, "You wanna find out how hard I can swing this?"
Butch held his hands up in surrender and smiled, "Okay, okay, relax. I'm doing messing with you."
"Yeah, sure." The two of them turned to make their way down the hallway that led through more of the living area and toward the commons. "To answer your earlier questions; Radroaches are everywhere, my dad left the vault, the Overseer had Jonas killed for aiding him, and now he's trying to kill me."
Butch gave a whistle in response, "Damn, I need to stop hanging out with you, you're a bad influence."
Sena lightly bumped into the side of him and smiled, "Are you trying to make me feel better?"
"Never." Butch said, slinging an arm around her shoulder and leaning against her as they walked.
A scream brought their moment to an end and they both came to a stop in the corridor. Butch's arm fell away from her shoulders and he stared down the hall, "That's..."
"Your mom."
The duo took off sprinting at the same moment and made their way toward the screams. Coming up to the Deloria's quarters they could see Ellen Deloria, through the window, taking refuge on the couch and swinging a bottle of vodka wildly at the three Radroaches attacking her. She caught sight of the two standing outside the window and began to scream for them.
"Butchie! Help me!
Please!"
Sena looked over at Butch only to find him shaking and donning a look of horror on his face. She shoved the BB gun in his hands and grabbed his forearm. "We have to help." When he didn't move she looked at him. "Butch."
He turned to her with terrified eyes and looked close to passing out, "I-I can't...I..."
She stared at him for a moment longer before giving him a look of understanding and releasing his arm.
"It's okay. I'll protect her."
Sena moved to the door and pressed the button to gain entrance. She quickly made her way into the living area and pulled her baseball bat from her side. The first Radroach turned to meet her and was sent sailing into the wall with a crack of her bat.
Flashback:
"You two come back here right now!" A striking woman, in her mid-twenties came rushing down one of the many corridors in Vault 101.
Two giggles erupted from further down the hall, followed by the sound of small feet running away.
A chuckle came from beside the woman and she glanced over at the dark-haired man and rolled her eyes. "They sure are trouble when they're together, Ellen."
"And unfortunately, James, they're always together." Ellen began her march down the hall again, after the two mischievous children.
"Did you see how angry my mommy was?" Butch snickered as they made their way to the lower levels of the vault. No one came down to this section, except for Stanley and some of the guards.
Sena laughed and then looked around at where they were. A glowing sign above the door in front of them read 'Reactor'. Sounds of metal clanking and gushes of air made this section of the vault eerie. "H-Hey Butch, we're not suppose to be down here..."
"Awe, what's the matter scaredy cat?" Butch teased as he tried in vain to push the massive steel door open.
A frown came to the little blonde girls face and her eyes narrowed. She quickly stomped her way up to him and gave him a shove from behind. "Who're you calling scared you big sissy?" Putting all her might into the door, she pushed it open and stumbled into the room.
The little boy behind her grumbles and folded his arms across his chest. "Y-Yeah, whatever. I almost had it open when you pushed me!" He took a step into the dimly lit room and glanced around.
A steel contraption stood in the center of the room, making quite the racket every now and then. "What the heck is that big thing?" Sena moved up toward it and climbed up into the stool sitting in front of it to look at all the buttons on a console connected to it. "Hey Butchie! Which one should I press?" Laughing she swiveled around in the stool, but the gel-haired boy was gone.
"Butch?" Sena hopped back down to the floor and moved to go around the other side of the Reactor. "You better not have left me by myself! I'll tell on you!"
Hurrying around the side she crashed into the back of someone and fell back on to her rear, "Hey!" Pushing off the floor, she stood back up and rubbed her bottom. "What are yo-" Her words were cut short as she came around the side of Butch and saw the scene in front of her.
Unconsciously she reached her hand over and found Butch's.
Radroaches covered the body of a young man. His vault suit was torn to shreds and huge chunks of his skin were mangled and scattered about. Some of the Radroaches were attempting to burrow into lifeless body from the many holes they had made. The face that was visible was so mutilated that it was unrecognizable, except for two, blue eyes staring blanking at the children.
"Daddy..."
Butch's quiet voice came from Sena's right, followed by a heart wrenching scream.
The little girl squeezed her friend's hand as the screams drew the attention of the mutated bugs. They began to scurry across the floor toward the younglings, hissing and clacking. Sena pushed the trembling Butch behind her and raised her tiny fists up toward the roaches.
"It's okay, Butchie. I'll protect you."
A yell from behind could be heard over the roaches hissing.
"O-Oh my god, James! Oh god, it's-"
"The children, grab the children Ellen!"
The last roach died witch a swift stomp from Sena's boot. The only sound left in the room was Ellen's sobs as she hugged her legs to herself and grabbed a bottle of booze on the table.
The young woman blinked away tears that had formed in her eyes from the flashback of a memory she had hoped to forget.
Clearing her throat she looked at the aged woman on the couch. She could see that she had some scraps from the bugs, but nothing that looked serious. "Ms. Deloria, are you alright?"
"Do I look alright to you?!" Ellen snapped as she took another swig from the bottle in her hand. Sena clenched her teeth and held back a retort.
A shuffle of feet came from the doorway as Butch made his way into and stared stoically at the roaches and his mother.
Ellen caught her son's eyes and the look on her face turned nasty. "Can't you do anything, other than be worthless?" Her speech was already slurred and she fell back into her drunken stupor.
Butch glared at his mother and then turned around to walk back out the door.
"You're welcome, by the way." Sena spat, before she followed Butch out the door.
The two walked in silence for awhile after the incident with Ellen Deloria.
They came to the common areas and Sena got a shock when they walked by the diner.
"Dammit." She took out the two Radroaches with the BB gun and hurried over to the figure on the ground.
She rolled the elderly woman over and stared down at her peaceful face. It looked like she had suffered a heart attack before the Radroaches got to her.
"At least she didn't suffer." Sena said quietly as they made their way back out of the diner.
Butch looked over at the young woman and saw her solemn expression.
"Hey, thanks for helping my mom." Butch stopped her as they came to the door that led out to the Atrium.
"It was nothing." Sena replied as she looked nervously at the door. "You can head back if you want, I don't want you to get involved in all this."
Butch laughed and smiled at her, the atmosphere shifting back to normalcy. "Awe, are you worried about me?" He cooed.
She rolled her eyes in response, "No, I just don't want to have to babysit you."
"I'll have you know, I'm an expert with a switchblade." He pulled his signature blade from his jacket pocket, switched it open and slashed it through the air.
Sena reached over and slapped his hand and the blade clattered to the ground.
"Hey!"
"Expert, huh?"