Portal to the Past
Husband shot dead, son kidnapped by strange people.
It was enough to send Charlotte Carter's hot blood throbbing through her veins, pushing her to get off the ground and pursue her son's kidnappers. Instead she lay against the cold steel of an empty hallway miles beneath the earth. Despite her blood pressure slowly rising her muscles felt like jelly. She could barely manage to hold her head up. Her eyelids threatened to close but Charlotte forced them open, afraid that if she lulled off to sleep she wouldn't awaken. If she died now then her son was doomed.
Next to her was a pile of vomit that she had released upon collapsing on the ground. The smell had started to sour and she realised she must have been laying against the wall for hours.
Get Up! Shaun needs you! Just get up!
Her own thoughts felt alien to her. How long had it been since she was conscience?
Charlotte pushed back against the wall. Gritting her teeth as she pulled herself up. Her legs wobbled as she stood on them. Her stomach churned and threatened to release again but she swallowed hard to control it.
Not like there's anything left to vomit anyway.
Looking down the hallway lit only by the dim emergency lights Charlotte felt a sense of nausea wash over her. She couldn't tell if it was the shock of waking up, her loss, or fear of seeing what was above ground. She took a second hard swallow and stepped forward down the hallway. With every shaky step she felt her memories flooding back. She recognised the hallways even though she only saw them once. She could practically feel the anxiety that was in the air that day. They had all made it down to the vault but not before seeing one of the explosions in the distance. She remembered how scared she was. She worried about what that meant for the world. She wondered if she'd ever see the blue sky again or feel sunlight on her face, or was that world gone forever?
Now though she didn't care. That Charlotte that cared about the sunlight, blue skies and butterflies died with the world. She didn't feel like that Charlotte anymore. Perhaps it was the cyro-sleep, or perhaps it was witnessing her husband killed in cold blood. All she was now was a shell. A husk wandering through dimly lit corridors looking for either a gun or an exit. Her future depended on which one she found first.
It was a strange device. It was even stranger seeing it hanging limply to a skeletal hand. Charlotte kneeled down slowly, her knees cracking as she went down, and scooped up the device. She shook the skeleton from it and turned it around in her hand. She'd seen it before on T.V. A Pip-Boy, the latest one to hit the market. Heralded as the greatest piece of technology to hit modern American homes. On T.V they looked shiny and almost like a sci-fi prop from a movie. Charlotte recalled Saturday nights curled up in front of the T.V watching late night soap opera's and being bombarded with ads about the Pip-Boy. She, like every other American, couldn't help but marvel at the technology.
Now holding it in her hand it looked like an old artefact from the stone age. Rust consumed most of it, no longer shiny. The screen had collected so much dust she couldn't even see it. She smeared away the dirt with her palm and examined it for an on button. She flicked a switch on the top and heard it whirring and buzzing. Then green text appeared on the screen. It continued booting up until it came to the main screen. A little cartoon man looked up at her. He had a big grin on his face and black round eyes. Suddenly he animated to life and held out a thumb towards her. Charlotte suddenly felt mocked by it. She imagined the boy in the screen smiling at her and saying
"You're fine Charlotte, now get out there and save your son"
She wasn't fine. Moments ago she broke down crying because the pistol she found was empty and the ammunition was locked up. If there was a God he was teasing her.
Or maybe God want's me to get the hell out of this fucking tomb.
Charlotte slipped the Pip-Boy on her wrist and tightened the buckles. She felt it grip around her skin but it wasn't uncomfortable. Suddenly the screen changed to show her stats. It illuminated her blood pressure, her heartbeat, temperature, radiation level, and a slew of other stats she didn't understand. She switched the screen to the GPS. It showed Boston and the surrounding area. Nothing was noted except a Vault Icon where she was situated. Someone had logged in Vault 111.
She could acknowledge that it was a miracle she was even alive. Despite her situation the odds should be stacked against her, but here she was. At the Vault 111 exit. Except to escape, the door control panel needed a Pip-Boy, more bad luck. Except the man who controlled the door died years before and the Pip-Boy clung to his bones patiently waiting for Charlotte to wake up and find it so that she could escape. To her that was a true miracle. Waking up and being trapped in the Vault with only corpses and roaches would have sent her starving mad.
She gulped in the stale air and plugged the Pip-Boy into the control panel. She expected a mess of options to appear and for her to spend hours tweaking with them until she figured out how to open the door. Instead a simple message appeared.
VAULT DOOR REMOTE ACCESS READY
She wasn't sure what to do next. The big red button beside the remote access portal didn't do anything when she'd pressed it earlier. But perhaps now that she'd plugged in the Pip-Boy it would work. It made sense that the Vault would allow only the guy wearing the Pip-Boy to open the door. They wouldn't want just any Joe Blow messing with the panel. Charlotte slammed her palm on it.
"Vault door cycling sequence initiated. Please stand back" a monotonous voiced echoed through the chamber. Alarms rang out above her and red lights spun around the room lighting up the skeletons that laid forgotten against the walls. Heavy machinery lowered, it looked like a giant drill. It creaked and screeched as metal rubbed against metal. Charlotte blocked her ears, her head throbbing from the noise. Then came another even louder noise as the drill locked into place and spun. The door unlatched as metal released from the sides. Sparks flew and the drill forced the door open. For a second Charlotte panicked that it would jam. If it did she'd have to go digging for manuals and possibly spend months trying to fix it. The thought of spending another minute in the cold metal tomb filled her with dread.
Her chest tingled as she struggled to breath. Watching the gears turn and force against each other made her heart beat sluggish. Looking at the Pip-Boy indicated that.
Suddenly a gush of air flew through, throwing dust around Charlotte as she coughed it out of her throat, Her ears popped from the pressure change and when she looked back at the vault door it was open. The drill lifted up to its resting place and the bridge extended towards the exit. Suddenly her heartbeat spiked again. She almost tripped over the skeleton as she clambered to the bridge. She had to hold herself on the railings as her muscles were still tender. She crossed over and went down the steps. A memory of the people that were gathered here as the bomb fell flashed in her mind, a reminder of what was outside. A yellow gate to the platform they'd come down on lifted slowly.
Then there was silence.
No alarms or metal grinding. Just the dead silence with only her raspy breath and throbbing blood. All the threats outside bombarded her at once. Radiation, people, Chinese, starvation, poisoning, dehydration, wild animals, fire, sickness, loneliness.
The thoughts forced themselves to be acknowledge. Her mind showing her the many ways she could die. Then flash of the gunshot that killed her husband James. Then the thoughts disappeared. Except one.
The scar-faced man that took her baby.
Shaun.
He was out there amongst all those threats. With that scar-faced man. No one else was gong to save Shaun. She was only one left to do it. Charlotte realised that if it had been James that lived and she died then he would have been out there by now. He wouldn't let the fear hold him back. He'd seen war. He'd seen fear and conquered it. James Carter the American Soldier wouldn't be standing here right now gripped with fear.
It should have been me James. I'm so sorry.
Charlotte stepped onto the platform. Suddenly the dark, cold vault didn't seem so bad of a place to die.
The gears started grinding and the platform slowly raised. Charlotte gulped for air as her chest tightened and her stomach flopped. Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked up towards the ceiling parting open. Sunlight piercing her eyes.
Blinded by light and deafened by the machinery, Charlotte's legs wobbled beneath her. In that moment she wished she'd stayed frozen. Everything overwhelmed her. Her heart skipped and jumped in her chest. Her body broke into uncontrollable shakes.
Until the grinding stopped. Her ears were still ringing but the noise had stopped. Light shone behind her eyelids. Her breathing slowed down. The air smelt... fresh. It wasn't like a Spring day with a breeze carrying the smell of laundry, BBQ's, and pollen. It was dry and crisp. She could smell the dirt. More importantly she could feel the sun ebbing against her skin.
Charlotte opened her eyes, the light forcing its way in. She blinked away the spots in her eyes and gazed out over the landscape.
It was a dry, grey husk of its former glory. The brilliant blue of the sky contrasted with the dirt brown land. Charred black trees dotted the horizon. Ruins of the neighbourhood's old houses crumbling. A great fire had consumed the world and left it behind in ashes.
Yet somehow Charlotte felt calm. She'd already imagined every possible scenario. What she didn't consider is that after a bloody war the world could be so quiet. She needed quiet. She needed to think. Her thoughts were running away and she needed them now more than ever. So she headed down the desolate path through the charred forest and past the broken down equipment. Passing the people that didn't make it to the vault that day. Her neighbours that could have easily been her, James, and Shaun. But it wasn't. They'd made it to the Vault.
She wanted to sit and think. Give her muscles time to heal. She headed to the only place she knew she could think. Her office in her home. She didn't know what to expect but at that moment all she wanted was to be home.