Life in a vault wasn't AWFUL. At least not in her opinion. She had a loving family, food on the table, enough books and movies to keep her entertained for a good while, and good friends.
Everyone got along in her vault. Sort of. There were disputes.
It was inevitable. Sometimes, people just didn't get along.

But that was alright, because all everyone ever did was talk trash behind each other's backs when it came down to it. As people will do. It's a little much to ask everyone to like everyone, or even get along. Asking them to be decently civil with each other was hard enough as it is. To ask, or even demand, they NOT talk bad about the other vault dwellers would be … nearly impossible.

Thankfully, the Vault armory was a well hidden secret. Only the overseer, and the head vault guards knew where the armory was. And a lot of people were OK with that. Not knowing where the vault armory was was a nice, it kept people from getting ideas about how to handle their anger.
In fact, their vault, vault 136, was always pretty peaceful and to keep things fresh, every 15 years they opened the vault to invite people in.
It was a special day.

Everyone in the vault always dressed their best for that day, to put on the best impression they could for the new vault inhabitants. Unfortunately, The Overseer, as of recently, decided only a select few should go up to greet the new vault inhabitants. This happened, in part, because of an... incident... that happened 15 years prior. They lost a lot of people, and almost lost the vault, due to most of vault security having to wade through a crowd of terrified people to get to the raiders.
But Vault 136 had a ton of heavy weapons that easily destroyed and pushed back the would-be invaders.

For a few years after that, There was talk of the vault closing its doors forever. And when the 15 years were drawing to a close, the Overseer decided to put it to a vote. To keep the vault open or not.

Apparently, it was pretty evenly split. But there was JUST enough people wanting to keep the door OPEN. Those that opposed to vault reopening had their input weighed in fairly and thus the lottery came around.

Three lucky people got to help. A year in advance.
From the radio signals to tallying up who was leaving and even answering the responses to their Open vault messaging.
Samantha had been chosen.
First time in the 18 years of her life.
Technically she was 17, and at 17 you were officially added to the list of names to draw from. She didn't think that, not too long after her 17th birthday, she'd be granted one of the highest honors in the vault.
And so began the preparations. She, along with Tanya, and elderly black woman, and George, a middle aged man that was one of their engineers, spent the rest of that year prepping for the inevitable. The vault door opening.

Now Samantha had never been a social butterfly. She was an awkward, clumsy person. Always had been. Preferred books to people and studying to gossiping. It wasn't like she was entirely DIFFERENT from the kids. She wasn't. There were dozens of kids like her that fit nice and snug into their little niche area. Samantha sort of... never had one. She found it actually kind of easy to drift from one clique to another.
It wasn't like it was hard to learn the difference between "jocks" and "nerds".

But Samantha was an orphan... More or less, the vault people raised her for the most part.
She lost her dad at 3 to one of the raiders and, at 10, her mother became ill with an inoperable brain tumor. The older people of the vault took it upon themselves to help raise her. But as the old saying goes, kids are cruel.

It's not that they DIDN'T give her sympathy. They did... in short bursts. Between them was the crude remarks about her mother being an alcoholic and her dad being a cheating bastard. Her mother did drink. She could recall quite well how fast her mother could drink down a bottle of scotch and whiskey within an hour. But it wasn't until later that she found out that it was mixed with med-x to numb the excruciating pain the headaches were giving her. As for her dad being a cheater... she never really did find out. Her father was a private man. He gave his affections in bits and pieces. But there was never a shadow of a doubt in her mind about how much he loved her and her mother.

But that also could've been the naïve mind of a child trying to cover up the angry glares between to frustrated, disappointed adults. She certainly didn't know. And most of her just didn't care to find out.

Since Samantha's initial announcement as one of the chosen three, she had suddenly become the most popular girl in their class. People actually TALKED to her. Or attempted to. Her social skills, or lack thereof, hindered her ability to hold a conversation. Except with Connie. Her perpetually confused, tomboy of a best friend. If there were two words Samantha could pick to describe Connie, it would be short and fierce. Connie stood at around 5'2 and the word "no" did not exist to her. Nor did the words impossible, rational, and common sense. She was... different, to say the least. She had short, straight, brown hair and bright grey eyes. Connie was often off in her own little world so her being confused about anything and everything was NOT uncommon. Connie took the announcement about her best friend being chosen as well as anyone would. She was ecstatic for her. She was giddy and squealing and giggling and hugging the rest of the day. Although she did later admit to hating how everyone was NOW deciding to be all buddy, buddy with her. It didn't bother Samantha any so she didn't pay it any mind.

Today was the day. The day the vault door opened. She'd spent the entire day prepping herself. She found the nicest dress she could find (which happened to be a light blue dress that belonged to her mother), washed herself twice, making sure to do her long, thick black hair carefully so it didn't come out looking ratty or greasy, and even put on some makeup. Connie had been with her through the morning, helping her pick out the clothes and do her makeup.

"Oh boy! I cannot BELIEVE I am friends with one of the lottery winners." Connie began excitedly, her short, plump frame all but vibrating with the sheer amount of glee she was putting off.
Samantha looked away from the mirror and laughed gently. "Easy does it."
Connie scoffed. "Damn girl. You've got such a nice build though. That dress perfectly accents those nice curves of yours. I mean damn... I'm surprised you're still single with breasts as big as yours."
Oh yeah... Connie had NO filter whatsoever. She said WHATEVER was on her mind. No beating around the bush at all.
If she didn't like you, she'd flat out tell you.
IF she DID like you, she'd also flat out tell you.
On top of her habit of either complimenting, or attacking verbally, the "Assets" of a person. Connie was pretty …. ambiguously taken with the community. Her whole family was like that though, so people learn to take it in stride. Still didn't make it any less weird to hear your best friend tell you about how much they like your breasts in a completely casual tone.

Samantha came from a long line of bigger women. Hell, her mother was even bigger than she was. She wasn't the only larger female in the vault. That much was certain. But it didn't change the fact that Connie has sort of singled her out in terms of complimenting her on her looks. She couldn't complain. She kinda liked it to be honest.
Connie was a sweetheart.

The door to her apartment slid open and in walked Connie's dad.
Ironically enough, Connie's dad was one of the biggest and tallest men in the vault, standing at 6'8 and weighing 280 lbs. He was a gargantuan mountain of a man but he was a total sweetheart so it was cool. He was an absolute teddy bear, in Connie's own words.
He had thick, brown curly hair and bright, excited grey eyes.
"Hey kiddo. We're having a little family meeting before the big event. Y'mind coming back home?"
Connie got up off the toilet. "Sure dad," she gave Samantha a casual wave. "See ya later, friend."
Samantha waved good bye. "Bye Connie. See you after the event."
"you bet'cha." she gave her a wink and a grin before heading out of the apartment with her dad.
Samantha turned back to the mirror, inspecting her makeup. She didn't put much on, mainly because she didn't know how. She was never one for wearing make up. But Connie liked to so she gave her the ins and outs of putting on foundation and blush.
It was a little bizarre. Connie being as tomboyish as she was being so incredibly talented in doing make up. Connie was full of surprises. Even after knowing her most of her life and coming to consider their family to be hers, Connie always had something new to show her.

There came a banging on her door, causing her to jump back and release a shortened yelp of surprise before whipping her head around to see who it was.
The door slid open. It was Tanya and George.
Tanya was wearing a lovely, crème colored gown with her long, silvery-white hair pulled back into a tight bun. She looked so wonderful. George had his short, thinning, orange hair greased back and out of his bright hazel eyes. He was wearing a black, pinstripe suit with a rather lovely looking powder blue tie. It looked a little odd with the rest of his ensemble, but it fit well with George's kind of outlandish personality.
"You look absolutely wonderful, honey." Tanya began, her voice taking on a dreamy, airy tone.
Samantha lost the fight against the blush and the awkward smile. "Thank you Tanya. You both look really great."
George's grin nearly took up half his face. "You two lovely ladies ready?"
Tanya chuckled gently, hooking arms with the slightly taller male. "Yes, of course. Do try and keep up, Samantha."
The two backed out of the doorway and headed off down the hall. Samantha made sure to keep up with the two.
They chattered excitedly among themselves as they headed towards the main entrance.
People were lining the halls to cheer them on. Although there was still a bit of anxiety coursing through her veins, Samantha felt relieved and energized from the constant cheering of her vault mates.

The King Overseer was there to meet them at the bottom of the stairs. He was wearing his usual clean, charcoal black 3-piece suit. A unique item that was apparently a very fashionable article of clothing back before the war. He had a stern look, but he failed to fight back the excited grin.
"You three ready? You are going to set the standard for our vaults. You are going to be the prime example these newcomers will compare everyone else too. Are you three prepared?"
"We've been ready for the better part of a year." George replied confidently.
The King Overseer smiled brightly. "That's what I like to hear! Now up you three go. Watch your step."
The three said their goodbyes to their King Overseer and headed up the stairs.

It didn't really come as a shock, but almost every part inch of the main entrance was teeming with heavily armed guards, wearing thick, black, foreboding armor.
One of the guards mumbled something to another and they nodded.
"We're opening the door!" they stated loudly.
Samantha wasn't sure if it was for the people downstairs or outside the vault. But she was almost positive that if it were meant for the people outside, they most certainly didn't hear them.

Another guard walked over to a panel of buttons and levers and messed around with it for a little bit, then pulled the big lever in the middle of the panel. The machinery hummed and whirred to life. With a loud groan, the vault door slid back and rolled to the side, releasing a low, irritating scraping noise all the while.
Samantha's breathe caught in her throat as thick, humid, borderline suffocating air blasted its way into the vault.
Oh holy shit that was a LOT of people.